ABSTRACT
In truth all attempt to give a philosophical account of some section of recorded human conduct is on a smaller scale very like the attempt of the professional philosopher to make God sit for His portrait. Moreover, if one makes an adequate picture of a stage of legal development, the picture must be taken after the period has definitely come to an end so that they may view its phenomena, as it were, under the aspect of eternity. The purely abstract legal reason of the nineteenth century was set forth satirically by an English judge who, in the old days before the divorce court, was called on to sentence a work-ingman convicted of bigamy. For if one look only at social interests, one might see that the legal order endeavors to give effect to at least six groups of claims or demands involved in the existence of civilized society.
