Law is a rule for the governing of a civil society, to give every man that which doth belong to him. Our laws are divided into three sorts: common law, which is nothing else but common custom and that which is commonly used through the whole nation; and this is founded especially upon certain principles or maxims made out of the law of God and the law of reason. 2. Statute laws, which are certain acts and constitutions of parliament that have been made in all succeeding generations, to correct, abridge and explain the common law; and all these to give right to every man, and to preserve every man from wrong. 3. The customs of particular places, which are the laws of the places. There is also the civil law, martial law, ecclesiastical law, canon law, law of nations, law merchant, a part of the law of nations, and the law of chivalry, or title of honor. And of all these laws, our law taketh some notice.

My advice to men that go to law is as that to men that make war, to do it with good advice. A fee in the beginning of a suit to a learned lawyer is well bestowed; a fee then saved is ill saved, and oft times causeth the expense of many fees afterwards. The beginning is half the whole; lay the foundation sure, and expect a successful building.