Law: The Law

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"Why should a clot of mustard lodged in the digestive apparatus of one splenetic old gentleman affect the well-being of millions?"

"The . . . income tax law changes every hour on the hour . . . might more accurately be called an outgo law."

"The law, like justice, is blind . . . but, the lady has been known to wink."

"The physician makes a grievous mistake in his diagnosis, the patient dies, and . . . the undertaker comes into his own. When [the lawyer] makes a mistake he asks for ... [his fee], demands a new trial, and so proceeds ad infinitum."

"There are three main divisions of the law: common or garden law, which seems to be made rather by the sun and shade than by the reasoning of man; equity, which the learned John Selden said depended upon the length of the Lord Chancellor's foot; and international law, which is a device made of sand, painted to look like iron. . . ."

With such pleasantries Philadelphia's famed book collector and rich electrical equipment manufacturer, Alfred Edward Newton, 73, filled a thin little book called Newton on Blackstone which last week reached reviewers from the University of Pennsylvania Press. Purpose of the book: to perpetuate for his friends the remarks made by witty Mr. Newton when the University of Pennsylvania made him an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1935.