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acts perversely. We cannot desire eternal happiness too much nor fear eternal misery too much nor hate sin too much. It is, therefore, truly said by Gellius that there are some things of which the range is not to be bounded by any limits, such that the larger and fuller they are the more praiseworthy are they. So Lactantius, after discoursing much concerning the affections, says, "The procedure of wisdom is not shown in moderating them, but their causes, since they arise from external incitements; nor are we to make it our business to restrain such affections, since they may be feeble in the greatest crimes and vehement without any crime." It is our purpose to place Aristotle very high, but with the same liberty which he allowed himself, with reference to his own master, actuated by his love of truth.

46. Passages of history are of twofold use to us. They supply both examples of our arguments and judgment upon them with regard to examples. In proportion as they belong to better times and better nations, they have the more authority; and, therefore, we have preferred those taken from the Greeks and the Romans. Nor are the judgments delivered in such histories to be despised, especially when many of them agree. For natural law, as we have said, is, in a certain measure, to be proved by such consent; and, as to the law of nations, there is no other way of proving it.

47. The opinions of poets and orators have not so much weight; and these we often use, not so much in order to claim assent to what they say as that we may give to what we say something of ornament from their modes of expression.

48. The books written by men inspired by God, or approved by them, I often use as authority, with a distinction between the Old and the New Law. There are writers who allege the Old Law as a proof of the law of nature, but, undoubtedly, without sufficient reason; for many parts of that law proceed from the free will of God, which, however, is never at variance with the true law of nature. And, so far, an argument may rightly be drawn from it, provided we distinguish accurately the command and will of God, which God sometimes executes by means of men, and the rights of men toward one another. We have therefore shunned, as far as we could, both that error and the error contrary to that, of those who think that after the promulgation of the New Covenant there is no longer any use for the old one. We hold the contrary both for the

reasons which we have now alleged and because the nature of the New Covenant is such that with relation to the precepts which are given in the Old Testament pertaining to the moral virtues the New Testament commands the same or greater virtues of the same kind; and we see that the ancient Christian writers have used the testimony of the Old Covenant in this

manner.

49. But, in books of the

that I may

order to see what is the knowledge which the Old Testament contain, the Hebrew writers may help us no little, and especially those who were best acquainted with the discourses and manners of their countrymen. 50. I use the New Testament for this purpose,show, what cannot be shown in any other way, what is lawful for Christians, which, however, contrary to what most writers have done, I have distinguished from the law of nature, holding it for certain that in that more holy law a greater holiness is enjoined upon us than the law of nature of itself requires. Nor have I omitted to note, where there are matters which are rather recommended to us than commanded, that we may understand that to deviate from the commands is wicked and makes us liable to punishment. To aim at the highest excellence is the work of a nobler and more generous spirit, which will not want its reward.

51. The Synodical Canons, which are authentic, are collections from the general precepts of the divine law, adapted to special occurrences. And these either show what the divine law commands or exhort us to that which God enjoins. And this is the office of a truly Christian Church,— to deliver to Christians the precepts which God has delivered to it, and in the manner in which God has delivered them.

Also, the customs which were received or commanded among those ancient Christians who were truly worthy of that great name may, with reason, have the force of canons.

Next to these is the authority of those who, each in his own time, flourished among the Christians, with the reputation of piety and learning, and who were never charged with gross error. What these assert with great positiveness, as matters of which they are convinced, must be allowed to have no small weight in the interpretation of what is obscure in the sacred writings; and this the more in proportion as we have the assent of a greater number, and as they approach nearer to the times of original purity, when neither the domination of

one nor the combination of several had operated to adulterate primitive truth.

52. The Schoolmen, who succeeded them, often show no ordinary powers of intellect; but they fell upon evil times, ignorant of good literature, and, therefore, it is the less wonderful if, among many things which merit praise, there are some which need excuse. Yet, when they agree in points of morals, they are not likely to be wrong, since they are very clear-sighted in discerning what may be found fault with in the doctrines of others; while in their mode of maintaining opposite sides of a question they afford a laudable example of moderation, contending against each other with arguments, and not, as the custom has been of late, to the dishonor of learning, with railing and abuse, the foul offspring of illregulated minds.

53. Of the teachers of the Roman law there are three kinds. The first, those whose works appear in the Pandects, the Codex of Theodosius and that of Justinian, and the laws called Novells. The second class contains those who succeeded Irnerius; namely, Accursius, Bartolus, and so many others who have long borne supreme sway in the courts of law. The third class includes those who have combined the study of elegant literature with the study of the law. For the first I have great deference; for they often supply the best reasons to prove what belongs to the nature of jus and give their testimony both to natural law and to the law of nations, yet in such a way that they, no less than others, often confound these provinces. Indeed, they often call that jus gentium, the law of nations, which is only the law of certain peoples, and that not even by consent, but what one nation has received by imitation of another or by accident. Also, what truly belongs to jus gentium they often treat promiscuously and indiscriminately with points which belong to the Roman law, as appears in the titles concerning Captives and Postliminium. We have endeavored to keep these subjects distinct.

54. The second of these classes, regardless of divine law and of ancient history, attempted to define all the controversies of kings and peoples on the grounds of the Roman law, sometimes taking into account the canons. But these writers, too, were prevented, by the unhappiness of their times, from understanding those laws rightly, being, in other respects, sufficiently intelligent in investigating the nature of right and

equity: whence it comes to pass that they, while they are good authorities for making new iaws, are bad interpreters of laws already made. They are to be listened to with most attention when they give their testimony to such customs as make the law of nations in our time.

55. The masters of the third class, who include themselves within the limits of the Roman law and either never or in a very slight degree travel into that common or natural law, have scarcely any use in reference to our argument. They join the subtilty of the Schoolmen with a knowledge of the laws and canons, so that two of them, Spaniards, Covarruvias and Vasquius, did not abstain from the controversies even of peoples and of kings, the latter very freely, the former more modestly, and not without showing some exactness of judgment. The French have introduced the practice of connecting history more with the study of the law, among whom Bodin and Hotoman have a great name, the former in the general scheme of his work, the latter in questions scattered through the progress of his. Both the opinions and the arguments of these writers will often require our consideration, and will supply us with materials for truths.

56. In the whole course of my work I have had in view these things especially, to make my definitions and reasons as clear as I could, to arrange in due order the matters I had to treat of, and to distinguish clearly things which were really different, though they seemed identical.

57. I have refrained from discussing points which belong to another subject, as the utility of this or that course; for these belong to a special art,— namely, the art political, which Aristotle rightly treats as a separate subject, mixing with it nothing of any other kind, thus differing from Bodinus, in whom this art is confounded with jus in our sense. In some cases, however, I have made mention of the utility of acts, but collaterally only, and in order to distinguish that question the more plainly from the question of right.

58. The reader will do me injustice if he judges me to have written with a regard to any controversies of our own time, either such as already exist or such as can be foreseen as likely to arise. I profess, in all sincerity, that, as mathematicians consider their figures as abstracted from body, so did I, in treating of rights, abstract my mind from every particular fact. 59. As to the style, I was unwilling, by adding prolixity of

language to the multitude of the matters treated of, to weary the reader whom I wished to benefit. I, therefore, have followed a concise and didactic mode of treatment, that they who have to manage public affairs may see, at one view, the kinds of controversies which are wont to arise and the principles by which they are to be decided. This being known, it will be easy to accommodate their own discourses to the subject and to expand the discussion as much as they please.

60. I have adduced the words of the authors themselves, when they were such as either carried with them authority or exhibited especial elegance, and this I have sometimes done in Greek authors; but mostly, when either the quotation was short or one of which I despaired of imitating the grace in a Latin translation, such a translation I have, however, added in every instance for the benefit of those who find the Greek difficult.

61. I beg all readers into whose hands my work may come to take the same liberty in judging of my opinions and expressions which I have taken with regard to those of others. They cannot be more ready to admonish me when I am in error than I shall be to attend to their admonition.

And now, if I have said anything which is at variance with sound piety, with good morals, with holy Scripture, with the unity of the Christian Church, with truth in any form, let that be as unsaid.

THE DEBT DUE TO HUGO GROTIUS.

Extracts from the address by Hon. Andrew D. White, delivered on the Fourth of July, 1899, at Delft, Holland, at the celebration given by the American Commission in honor of Grotius, at which, in presence of the members of the Peace Conference, he laid a silver wreath upon the tomb of Grotius, in accordance with instructions from the President, and in behalf of the people of the United States.

The Commission of the United States comes here this day to acknowledge, in behalf of our country, one of its many great debts to the Netherlands. This debt is that which, in common with the whole world, we owe to one of whom all civilized lands are justly proud,― the poet, the scholar, the historian, the statesman, the diplomatist, the jurist, the author of the treatise De Jure Belli ac Pacis. Of all works not claiming divine inspiration, that book, by a man proscribed and hated both for his politics and his religion, has proved the greatest blessing to humanity. More than any other it has prevented unmerited suffering, misery, and sorrow. More than any other it has promoted the blessings of peace and diminished the hor

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