has perhaps been in this manner exerted to fix
the rules of life than in any other science; and it is certainly the
most honourable occupation of the understanding, because it is the most
immediately subservient to general safety and comfort. There is not, in
my opinion, in the whole compass of human affairs, so noble a spectacle
as that which is displayed in the progress of jurisprudence; where we
may contemplate the cautious and unwearied exertions of a succession of
wise men through a long course of ages; withdrawing every case as it
arises from the dangerous power of discretion, and subjecting it to
inflexible rules; extending the dominion of justice and reason, and
gradually contracting, within the narrowest possible limits, the domain
of brutal force and of arbitrary will. This subject has been treated
with such dignity by a writer who is admired by all mankind for his
eloquence, but who is, if possible, still more admired by all competent
judges for his philosophy; a writer, of whom I may justly say, that he
was "_gravissimus et dicendi et intelligendi auctor et magister_;" that
I cannot refuse myself the gratification of quoting his words:--"The
science of jurisprudence, the pride of the human intellect, which, with
all its defects, redundancies, and errors, is the collected reason of
ages combining the principles of original justice with the infinite
variety of human concerns."[31]

I shall exemplify the progress of law, and illustrate those principles
of universal justice on which it is founded, by a comparative review of
the two greatest civil codes that have been hitherto formed--those of
Rome and of England;[32] of their agreements and disagreements, both in
general provisions, and in some of the most important parts of their
minute practice. In this part of the course, which I mean to pursue with
such detail as to give a view of both codes, that may perhaps be
sufficient for the purposes of the general student, I hope to convince
him that the laws of civilised nations, particularly those of his own,
are a subject most worthy of scientific curiosity; that principle and
system run through them even to the minutest particular, as really,
though not so apparently, as in other sciences, and applied to purposes
more important than in any other science. Will it be presumptuous to
express a hope, that such an inquiry may not be altogether an useless
introduction to that larger and more detailed study of the law of