on the contrary, they have dearly loved favor. Hence the doctrine of the
Intercession of the Saints, which many devout persons have sincerely
believed could be bought by them for money. The whole development of
civilization may be followed in the oscillation of any given society
between these two extremes, the many always striving to so restrain the
judiciary that it shall be unable to work the will of the favored few.
On the whole, success in attaining to ideal justice has not been quite
commensurate with the time and effort devoted to solving the problem,
but, until our constitutional experiment was tried in America, I think
it had been pretty generally admitted that the first prerequisite to
success was that judges should be removed from political influences.
For the main difficulty has been that every dominant class, as it has
arisen, has done its best to use the machinery of justice for its own
benefit.

No argument ever has convinced like a parable, and a very famous story
in the Bible will illustrate the great truth, which is the first lesson
that a primitive people learns, that unless the judge can be separated
from the sovereign, and be strictly limited in the performance of his
functions by a recognized code of procedure, the public, as against the
dominant class, has, in substance, no civil rights. The kings of Israel
were judges of last resort. Solomon earned his reputation for wisdom in
the cause in which two mothers claimed the same child. They were indeed
both judge and jury. Also they were prosecuting officers. Also they were
sheriffs. In fine they exercised unlimited judicial power, save in so
far as they were checked by the divine interference usually signified
through some prophet.

Now David was, admittedly, one of the best sovereigns and judges who
ever held office in Jerusalem, and, in the days of David, Nathan was the