The learning, the wisdom, the philosophy
of the present is discarded, and the spirits of a lower civilization
are conjured from the darkness of vanished centuries, to settle rules
for the government of commerce, personal conduct, and the social
relations of the times in which we live. There seems to be something
paradoxical in the idea that the older the decision the better the
law--the more ancient the commentator, the profounder the wisdom of
his axioms. This might be well, were it true that civilization is
'progressing backwards,' the science of government retrograding. In
that case, it would of course be true, that the nearer you approach
the fountain, the purer the stream would be. But such is not the fact.
In all these attributes the world is on the advance, the science of
government progressive; and to make the wisdom of centuries ago
override the wisdom, or overshadow the light of the present, is a
paradox peculiar to our system of jurisprudence. There are lawyers and
judges, who enjoy a high reputation, whose fame rests upon their
profound research among the worm-eaten tomes of black-letter law, and
whose glory consists in their familiarity with the opinions and axioms
of men who lived and died so long ago that their very tombs are
forgotten. This class of lawyers and jurists hold in contempt all the
learning, the philosophy, the practical wisdom of the present
--rejecting everything that is not bearded and hoary with age.
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