As for the
philosophers, they make imaginary laws for imaginary commonwealths,
and their discourses are as the stars, which give little light
because they are so high. For the lawyers, they write according to
the states where they live what is received law, and not what ought
to be law; for the wisdom of a law-maker is one, and of a lawyer is
another. For there are in nature certain fountains of justice
whence all civil laws are derived but as streams; and like as waters
do take tinctures and tastes from the soils through which they run,
so do civil laws vary according to the regions and governments where
they are planted, though they proceed from the same fountains.
Again, the wisdom of a law-maker consisteth not only in a platform
of justice, but in the application thereof; taking into
consideration by what means laws may be made certain, and what are
the causes and remedies of the doubtfulness and uncertainty of law;
by what means laws may be made apt and easy to be executed, and what
are the impediments and remedies in the execution of laws; what
influence laws touching private right of meum and tuum have into the
public state, and how they may be made apt and agreeable; how laws
are to be penned and delivered, whether in texts or in Acts, brief
or large, with preambles or without; how they are to be pruned and
reformed from time to time, and what is the best means to keep them
from being too vast in volume, or too full of multiplicity and
crossness; how they are to be expounded, when upon causes emergent
and judicially discussed, and when upon responses and conferences
touching general points or questions; how they are to be pressed,
rigorously or tenderly; how they are to be mitigated by equity and
good conscience, and whether discretion and strict law are to be
mingled in the same courts, or kept apart in several courts; again,
how the practice, profession, and erudition of law is to be censured
and governed; and many other points touching the administration and
(as I may term it) animation of laws.
Pages:
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379