After a busy and practical experience of many years the writer can now
in all earnestness—as during the days of studentship he did in all
distrust and doubtfulness—emulate the writer of old who said—
“Cognitio legis est copulata et complicata.”
Our greatest writers of more recent years have also recognised the
intricate and ever-changing study of the Law. The late Lord Tennyson, in
that most beautiful poem, “Aylmer’s Field,” tells us—
“So Leolin went; and as we task ourselves
To learn a language known but smatteringly
In phrases here and there at random—toiled
Mastering the lawless science of our law,
That codeless myriad of precedent,
That wilderness of single instances,
Thro’ which a few, by wit or fortune led,
May beat a pathway out to wealth and fame.”
Those who wish to follow successfully the law as a profession must
remain students to the last, and the leading truths and time-honoured
legal principles, as defined by the maxims hereafter contained, will
ever serve alike as safe landmarks, and sheet anchors, in times of doubt
and uncertainty.
Since the publication of the First Edition, the number of maxims (very
properly defined as the condensed good sense of nations) has been
considerably enlarged, but the student will find the more important ones
prefixed by an asterisk, and these may with advantage be memorized.