The Beacon Lights of the Law The opinions on the merit of the work differ widely. One writer tells us that "like a bee among the flowers, Blackstone has extracted the sweet essence of all former writers, and left their grosser matter. We find in the Com mentaries the copious learning of Coke, the methodical arrangement of Hale, Gilbert and Foster, combined with the smooth and pleasing style of Addison and Pope. The publication of them formed an era in legal literature."10 Another states that as long as he con fined himself to the accurate statement of what had been buried in the cum brous language of lawyers like Little ton, he was unsurpassed, but was not qualified to explain the reasons for the law, its merits and defects. The method was unscientific, and not original. "Notwithstanding its defects, the posi tive merits of the work—its systematic character, its comprehensiveness, the accuracy of its exposition, and the dignity and charm of its style—have made it the best known, and in many respects the most influential, treatise in English law." The publication of the Commentaries certainly did mark an era in law litera ture. Even now it cannot be said that their purpose has been served, because of the alterations necessary to adapt them to the present state of the law. The underlying principles of the law have not changed since Blackstone wrote. The change has been in the application of those principles to modern conditions. There is probably no better means of learning about this gradual development than in the study of the various editions of the Commentaries from the first to the last, and continuing through the Commentaries, founded on Blackstone, by Stephen, the first edition of which was published from 1841 to 1845, and 10Welsby, Lives of Eminent English Judges, 341.
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the last, the 15th, in 1908. With this idea in view, the Harvard Law Library and the Yale Law Library have made practically complete collections, not only of the authorized and pirated editions, but also of the abridgments, and works founded on Blackstone. Most of the other law schools have collections more or less complete. In 1882, Professor Ewell made an abridgment by eliminating nearly every thing but the bare principles, adding no original matter. It has been necessary to run off nineteen impressions of this little book, and it is selling today more readily than when it was first published. Thus it will be seen that the student of today is building his knowledge of the law on the foundation of Blackstone.
In giving the highest places to Bracton and Blackstone, we have not forgotten Glanville, Fleta, Littleton, Fearne or Hale. The greatest name to pass over was Coke. John Marshall Gest, under the title of the "Writings of Sir Edward Coke," in the Yale Law Journal, for May, 1909, tells of the merits of this great master of the English law. We agree with him when he says that Coke was "a judge of perfect purity, a patriotic and independent statesman and a man of upright life." He did more than any one before him to place the common law on its firm foundation, but he based his conclusions on Bracton's statement of the law, and followed his methods. We doubt if Coke had "more influence on the law than any other law writer—certainly in England—who ever lived"! His influence was not as perma nent or far reaching as that of our leaders, but he must be considered as the greatest of the lesser legal lights. Bracton was the father of the com mon law system, but he was not the
