We may now cast a glance at the science of law, and consider what tasks will remain for it after technicalism has been supplanted by free decision'.

First of all, it becomes plain that after this change there can be no further place for the traditional essay on rules of construction. The moment it is recognized that a statute provides only for what it provides, and that what is not so provided simply remains unprovided, there can be no further excuse for using a hairsplitting machine,-or as it were, for squeezing decisions out of a statute with a hydraulic press. Many tears will not be shed over the decease of that misshapen bantling of our "reception" of Roman law.13 Anybody can see that the basis of a decision ought to be that it is just, or that it is equitable, or that it is in accordance with the statute or legal tradition. Let us hope, however, that we may be approaching a time when nobody will be able to understand why a decision should be rendered for no reason than that somebody has written a book in which he construed the law to mean what the

13 "[Rezeption" or "reception" refers to the adoption of the civil law, or Roman law as modified by mediaeval jurists in Germany and other countries of the Continent.-Transl.] decision says it means. To be sure, a great deal of respectable mental power has been expended upon these essays of the traditional kind-but for what purpose? In Macaulay's phrase, one may move one's legs in the treadmill as well as on the high road; but on the road they carry us forward, while in the treadmill we remain in the same place.

It is useless to inquire what roads legal science shall travel after it has turned its back on fruitless labors. The human mind is inexhaustible, and the number of unsolved problems in every field is infinite. It would be arrogance to play the prophet in such matters. But, in view of the amount of energy that is wasted in treadmills of various kinds, one may be permitted to call attention to several attractive landscapes which may be reached by commodious highways.