11 April 1805

Evidence

Securities

Ch. Procedure Technical

On the subject of law, as on any other subject The possession of a book or of a part of a book is of little /no/ use to a man, any further than as occasion calls upon to consult it, he is able to lay his hands on it. When the aggregate mass of the matter of law has searched[?] /been [...?]/ to a certain bulb, in such case by pulling it or leaving it or /and/ keeping it in such a state that no man who has not made a trade of the search[?], on a given occasion can be sufficiently assured of finding in it what he wants, things may be so ordered that even were the tenor of the law when discovered fixed and clear the necessity of applying to a professed searcher for the discovery of it, might still continue.

Fourth device of the technical system: - keeping the body of the law in the highest state of disorder possible.