Judges, as a rule, must approach political problems inter-stitially, for they do not choose the subjects upon which they are to pronounce. The authors can hazard a view about the way in which Chief Justice Marshall or Lord Eldon, Sir Edward Coke or Mansfield would have approached the political scheme of things entire; for the circumstances of their period bound them to diverse exposition in varied fields of effort. The political philosophy of judges is a series of half-articulate hints which men like Montesquieu or Bentham or Savigny must mould into a system. In fairly rigorous outline, the manner of his approach to political problems is known; but fate has made the connection between philosophic background and detailed principle inevitably fragmentary in character. The keynote of Mr. Justice Holmes' political outlook is a rejection of absolutist concepts. The inherent power of the State to meet its problems as they may arise is the unassailable and primordial postulate of political science.