and regularity, it possesses an interest of a higher description. Its history is the history of the manners and opinions of a people advancing from barbarity, through many modes of thinking, under the impulse of many circumstances, some of a temporary and particular, and others of a more general and durable influence, to a high degree of civil and political liberty, of physical and intellectual improvement. In all the grand revolutions of the law is to be discovered, not the variations arising from accident, or the contradiction of individual opinion in its makers and interpreters, but the gradual expansion of men's minds on the subjects most allied to their felicity as men, and their freedom as citizens. In the authors who have delineated these changes, (some of whom will be found enumerated under the second title of our Course,) the reader will discover how these revolutions of opinion, as regarded the relations of monarch and subject, the ends of society, the pursuits and avocations of life, have changed also the law in the points of tenures, the alienation of property, the succession to inheritances, &c. and in his investigation of the origin of the various modes of conveyance, besides detecting the science of these seemingly awkward and irrational formulas, will have occasion to observe that even the superstitions of mankind have sometimes conduced to their benefit, and how ineffectual are the provisions of legislatures when popular prejudice and ingenuity once combine to elude them. This is strikingly illustrated in the origin and history of Uses; of Estates in Tail; of the alienation of lands; and the growth of the jurisdiction in Chancery. Thus viewed in reference to the principles

which caused them, the progressive alterations of the law become subjects of entertaining contemplation: from the dry detail of legal rules and maxims, their exceptions and modifications; from that multifarious mass, which would seem only calculated to distract attention, and overburden memory, may be elicited an interest to accompany and animate us in every path of laborious inquiry.

In this kind of investigation, the study of the English historians, and especially those who have treated the Constitutional history of that country, will prove an important assistance, as well as an agreeable relaxation. We would here briefly remark, that a professed and detailed history of the English constitution remained a desideratum, until the recent work of Mr. Hallam. Much excellent matter may also be found in the pages of Turner's History of the Anglo Saxons; Dr. Lingard's History of England; Reeves' History of English Law; M. Guizot's Histoire de la Revolution d'Angleterre, depuis l'Avenement de Charles I. jusqu'à la Chute de Jacques II.; Mr. Brodie's History of the British Empire from the accession of Charles I. to the Restoration; and a recent anonymous work, entitled Conversations on the English Constitution; some notice of all of which will be found in their proper place in the ensuing Course. In the Appendixes of Hume, also, are some of the most valuable, and, to our apprehension, after all the cavils and controversies of party, some of the most just and impartial disquisitions, on the rise and progress of the English constitution and liberties, and of the revolutions of opinion conducing thereto; which, as we have noticed before, have ex

erted also, in many important particulars, a material influence on the law. Indeed, the whole of that elegant and philosophical production deserves to be the manual of every scientific student of English jurisprudence. Still, we should not repose on Hume, or on any other historian. They are all without exception, in some degree prejudiced, and are occasionally superficial. An accurate knowledge of the spirit of any age can be gained from no one author.

But with all the aids which the student may derive from his adherence to method, he will nevertheless sometimes encounter a principle, a rule, a distinction, a form, or a term, which his previous reading may not have enabled him to understand, and which no legal friend is at hand to explain. In this case, whatever a Law Dictionary is insufficient to elucidate, should be carefully and orderly noted down in the manner hereafter explained.* The student who abandons a subject without understanding it, is like a commander who leaves an enemy in his rear: he advances without the cheering certainty of being fully master of the road over which he has travelled, and most generally finds the difficulty which he has left without overcoming, start up in the course of his progress in a hundred different shapes and a hundred different subjects, to harass and perplex him. But as he cannot always remove every obstacle in his course, he may at least know his weak points, and a faithful chronicle. of them will prove useful perhaps for years after he has completed his prescribed studies. Lord Coke has encouraged his reader by saying, 'That although

* Vide Observations on Note Books, at the end of the work.

he may not at any one time reach the meaning of his author; yet at some other time, and in some other place, his doubts will be cleared;' a remark which most of his students have found not a little consolatory, and which they are often happy to take for granted. But however it may be true, that most of the student's doubts and perplexities vanish on a further acquaintance with his subject, it is not improbable that some of them may remain; in which case it would be well, had he some regular memorial or record of them, by refering to which he might either be assured of his advancement, or reminded of his deficiencies. Another method which we have found of service both for the distinct understanding, and faithful retention of any long and various work, (as for example, Rutherforth's Institutes, or Blackstone's Commentaries,) is for the student to make a written analysis of it, or a careful index; the advantage of which is, not merely the readiness with which any topic may be referred to, or the general idea it affords of the scope and arrangement of the work, but the call which it makes on the analytical and synthetical powers, and the vivid impressions left on the mind from this joint operation of reason and memory. Bacon, in his terse manner, observes that 'reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man; and, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory.'* There can be no doubt that many have written able and learned essays, and even books, not because they were previously able and learned on the topics which

Essays, 157. 'On Studies.'

they treated, but because they became so by writing. How much the full comprehension of an intricate subject, and the faculty of retaining it in all of its aspects, is assisted by composition, can be known to those only who have been in the habit of examining topics through this medium. It is said of M. Pothier that 'his method of investigating a subject was to write a dissertation upon it, as he was persuaded that this was the best, if not the only, method of completely mastering intricate questions.' We therefore strongly recommend the student occasionally to write legal essays, on such moot questions, as he is desirous thoroughly to investigate.

*

Such as are destined for any of the liberal professions, and particularly for the law, should previously treasure up the elements of general and diversified knowledge; thus acquiring information on subjects which the study of their profession will seldom permit to be extensively and minutely inquired into, and at the same time framing their minds to habits of research and diligence. This is not, however, designed to exclude altogether the study of other sciences, or of polite literature, contemporaneously with that of law. The most indefatigable student has, either from external circumstances, or from mental exhaustion, many intervals of time in which he revolts from his immediate pursuit, though he would gladly fill them with less laborious avocations. The mind is unwilling to be for ever contending with difficulty, or exerted to the

* Vide Mr. Cushing's Biographical Sketch of M. Pothier, appended to his valuable Translation of Pothier's Traité des Contrats de Louage Maritimes.