n on which that advancement appeared
entirely to depend, was smit with compassion and some remorse. These last
two manuscripts he rescued himself from the flames, and restored to his
disconsolate son, with the repeated admonition, however, to indulge less
in their perusal, nor to allow them to take the place due to the science
of jurisprudence.

"Science!" said the young enthusiast, who had recovered something of his
self-possession: "Can conclusions wrested often with perverted ingenuity
from artificial principles and arbitrary axioms, be honoured with the name
of science? And the law, to obtain this fictitious resemblance to a
science, leaves justice behind and unthought of. I will study it, my
father, as I would practise any mechanical art, if you should prescribe it
as a means of being serviceable to my family; but you--who are a
scholar--ah! place not a tissue of technicalities, however skilfully
interwoven, on a level with truth, which has its basis in the nature of
things. I would help my fellow-men to justice; but must I spend my life,
and dry up and impoverish my very soul, in regulating his disputes
according to rules that are something very different from justice?--often
mere logical deductions from certain legal abstractions, in which all
moral right and wrong,--all substantial justice between man and man, is
utterly forgotten?"

"My son," said the father, "you are young, and therefore rash. You think
it, perhaps, an easy thing to do justice between man and man. _We cannot
do justice between man and man._ No combination of honesty and
intelligence can effect it; the whole compass of society affords no means
for its accomplishment. To administer moral justice, each case must be
decided on its own peculiar merits, and those merits are to be found in
the motives of the human heart. We cannot promise men justice. But we must
terminate their disputes. Therefore it is we have a system of law--our
only substitute for justice--by which men are contented to be governed
because it _is_ a system, and applicable to all alike. Believe me, that
wise and able men of all countries are well occupied in rendering more
symmetrical, more imposing, and as little immoral and unjust as possible,
their several systems of jurisprudence."

Petrarch was silent; it was neither his wish nor his policy to prolong the
discussion. Besides, his heart was too full. Had he dared, he would have
pleaded for his own liberty; for choice of pove