2b

CHAP.

XLIV.

Their phi-losophy.

THE DECLINE AND FALL

tent to repeat the lessons of their more enlight-ened predecessors. From the slow advancesand rapid decay of these legal studies, it maybe inferred, that they require a state of peaceand refinement. From the multitude of voluminous civilians who fill the intermediate space,it is evident, that such studies may be pursued,and such works may be performed, with a com-mon share of judgment, experience, and indus-try. The genius of Cicero and Virgil was moresensibly felt, as each revolving age had beenfound incapable of producing a similar or a se-cond : but the most eminent teachers of the lawwere assured of leaving disciples equal or su-perior to themselves in merit and reputation.

The jurisprudence which had been grosslyadapted to the wants of the first Romans, waspolished and improved in the seventh centuryof the city, by the alliance of Grecian philoso-phy. The Scsevolas had been taught by useand experience; but Servius Sulpicius was thefirst civilian who established his art on a certainand general theory. h For the discernment oftruth and falsehood, he applied, as an infalliblerule, the logic of Aristotle and the stoics, redu-ced particular cases to general principles, anddiffused over the shapeless mass the light oforder and eloquence. Cicero , his contempo-rary and friend, declined the reputation of a

h Crassus , or rather Cicero himself, proposes (de Oratore , i, 41, 42)an idea of the art or science of jurisprudence, which the eloquent, butilliterate Anlonius (i, 58) affects to deride. It was partly executedby Servius Sulpicius (in Bruto, c 41), whose praises are elegantly varied in the classic Latinity of the Roman Gravina (p. GO).