SOURCE: "Understanding The Common Law," in Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.—What Manner of Liberal?, edited by David H. Burton, Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company, 1979, pp. 13-20.

In the following essay, Burton outlines Holmes's major points in The Common Law.

In the opening sentence of the great book Holmes spoke his objective: "to present a general view of the Common Law." He proposed a methodology: "We must alternately consult history and existing theories of legislation." And finally he stated his purpose: To understand the law, for while today "there are a great many rules which are quite sufficiently accounted for by their manifest good sense, . . . there are some which can only be understood by reference to the infancy of procedure among the German tribes, or to the social condition of Rome under the Decemvirs." In laying down these general propositions Holmes offered two caveats. "One, is that of supposing...