"Though Cicero call Law the sum of Reason,

And that Law's best which thence proceeds in season:

Few Lawyers are Logicians; use Example,

The Laws and Statutes are of either Temple."

The Four Terms at Law:

"The first Term's from St. Michael declar'd,
For now the Arch-Angel1 doth the Lawyer guard:
The next is Hilary; this Term doth cause
The Lawyers hilarity by the Laws.

The third from Easter feast its title took:

The Lawyer's Dockets are like the Easter Book.2
The fourth Term's called Trinity; but why?
Because each cause hath a Triplicity." 3

"Wert not cause-maker, thou, thy need to serve, Thou, no cause-pleader, might'st for hunger starve."

"Kings, Shepherds; People, Sheep; Laws, Fodder, are: For sick Sheep, Doctors, Kings, Law's cure prepare."

“I many Penal statutes, Fronto, saw, But not one Premial in all your Law: Laws Penal, Premial, support a state;

This age hath lost the last: the first's in date."

"Hast care to cure, and to secure thy cause? Incline then, Client, to thy Lawyer's Laws.”

“God ť Adam gave a Law before his Sin:
Ill manners, therefore, all Laws brought not in."

"A Judge, who to be just, on bribes doth look, Is like a Fish, which, while it takes, is took."

I The gold coin. 2 The parson's Easter Book. 3 Client, lawyer, judge.

"We have one Advocate in Heav'n, saith Paul: Are no more Advocates within that Hall?"

"We many Laws have made, almost not any;
For if not any kept, what's good so many?
That Laws be kept, this one more Law ordain,
Which, if soon marr'd, will soon be made again."

"Wonder'st the Judges' Ears are shut to thee, When unto them thine hands not open be?"

"If Judge to thee be deaf, thy cause is lost;
Thy gain is vain Experience with cost:
'Tis better Judges please than plead the Laws;
Those before them indulge unto thy Cause."

"If mortals would as nature dictates live,
They need not Fees to the Physicians give:
If men were wise, they need not have their Cause
Pleaded, prolong'd by th' ambiguous Laws.

So Bartolus might (Feeless) go to bed,
And mice corrode Hippocrates unread.”

"The way to Law than Justice more we trace, Though this the shorter, that's the longer, Race."

"To take a thing without the Lord's consent

Is theft. What if the lady be content?"

This is from Thomas Pecke's "Heroick Epigrams," London, 1659:

"The study of the Laws did Galba please

Better than other charming Sciences.

When Princes want the Knowledge of the Law,

'Tis Tyranny, not Reason, keeps in Awe."

By the same:

"Law is a well.

Men are the thirsty buckets, which receive
More or less Water, as Reason gives Leave.
There's an Eternal Spring."

"Certain set forms, fixt in the Memory,
Almost accomplish for the chancery."

From Sir Walter Raleigh's "Pilgrimage :

"From thence to Heaven's bribeless Hall,
Where no corrupted voices brawl,
No Conscience molten into Gold,
No forg'd Accuser bought or sold,
No cause deferr'd, no vain-spent journey;
For there Christ is the King's attorney,
Who pleads for all without degrees;
And he hath Angels, but no Fees:
And when the grand twelve million Jury
Of our sins, with direfull fury,

'Gainst our Souls black verdicts give,
Christ pleads his Death, and then we live.
Be thou my Speaker, taintless Pleader,
Unblotted Lawyer, true Proceeder!

Thou giv❜st Salvation even for Alms, -
Not with a bribed Lawyer's Palms."

On seeing a law-book, bound in uncolored calf, and white edges:

"With unstain'd edges and in spotless calf,

A Law book bound must make a stoic laugh;

For in that striking emblem you may see

Not what the law is, but what the Law should be:

A Law book thus in the Law Livery drest,

Is like a Jesuit in a Layman's vest;

'Tis like a strumpet cloath'd in spotless white;
'Tis like a bitter apple, fair to sight;

'Tis like a simple Quaker, plain and neat,
That with his yeas and noes is sure to cheat;
'Tis like a pirate that false colours shows,
Or Hecla's flames concealed in virgin snows;
'Tis like, in short, 'tis like Dan Milton's sin,
All fair without, but monstrous foul within."

"A Justice, walking o'er the frozen Thames,
The ice about him round began to crack:
He said to's man, 'Here is some danger, James;
I pr'ythee, help me over on thy back.'"

On a counsellor having his hat stolen in Westminster Hall:

"Should'st thou to Justice, honest thief, be led,

Swear that you stole his hat who had no head:
That plea alone all danger shall remove,

Nor judge nor jury can the damage prove."

By Mrs. Madan, in her brother's "Coke upon Lyttle

ton:

"O thou, who labour'st in this rugged mine,
May'st thou to gold th' unpolished ore refine!
May each dark page unfold its haggard brow!
Doubt not to reap, if thou canst bear to plough.
To tempt thy care, may each revolving night
Maces and purses swim before thy sight!
From hence, in times to come, adventurous deed!
May'st thou essay to look and speak like Mead!
When the black bag and rose no more shall shade
With martial air the honours of thy head;

When the full wig thy visage shall enclose,
And only leave to view thy learned nose, –

Safely may'st thou defy wits, beaux, and scoffers,
While tenants, in fee simple, stuff thy coffers!"

Epitaph on a magistrate who had formerly been a barber:

"Here lies Justice: be this his truest praise;

He wore the wig which once he made,
And learnt to shave both ways."

From Herrick :

"Dead falls the cause, if once the hand be mute;
But let that speak, the client gets the suit.”

"For that is made a righteous law by time,

Which law at first did judge the highest crime."

"Tua Cæsar Etas" was Justice Aston's motto on the rings which he distributed on being made a judge of the king's bench; this epigram was thereupon made:

"All, all, is Cæsar's, new-rob'd Aston cries:
All, all, is Cæsar's, the King's Bench replies.
Poor people, you have nothing left, we see,
Since all is Cæsar's which belong'd to me."

Epitaph from the Latin of Theodore Beza:
“O fickle Fortune, cruel, heartless jade!

This brawler who his voice his fortune made,
Summoned to plead in Rhadamanthus' court,
Finds what he sold before must now be bought."

By Swift:

"Here lies Judge Boate within a coffin:

Pray, gentlefolks, forbear your scoffing.