a case for which the ancient law made no direct provision. Keen
intellects from the bench, aided perhaps by keener ones from the
bar in forty-five different jurisdictions, are discussing the
problems of the day as they appear mirrored in litigated causes.
What is a new question in one State was set at rest ten years or
ten days ago by a judicial decision in another. If the decision
was a just and logical deduction from accepted principles of the
older law it will probably be followed everywhere. If unjust and
illogical, its very faults will serve to guard other courts to
better conclusions.

How far judges advance along these paths depends greatly on the
character of the bar. A judge rarely initiates anything. He is
apt to fall into a mistake if he does. The business which he has
to do is brought before him by others. It is brought before him
in the best way to throw all possible light upon it, because it
is set before him from two opposite points of view by two
antagonists, each strenuously endeavoring to detect a flaw in the
reasoning of the other. These two men have previously given the
subject in controversy much careful thought. What views neither
presents are generally not worth presenting. As was said in the
preceding chapter, it is only in the plainest case that a judge
can properly or safely base his decision on a position not
suggested at the bar or as to the soundness of which he has not
asked the opinion of the counsel at the hearing.

The development of law, therefore, whether unwritten or written,
is primarily the work of the lawyer. It is the adoption by the
judge of what is proposed at the bar.[Footnote: See Chap. VI, X.]