man for the ages. John Adams, philosopher of the Revolution and early America, and participant in many of the major events of that period, strove to fi nd universal patterns in the lives of all men. His life and ideas are as pertinent to our time as they were to his own. We still ponder the nature of the unbreakable bond between liberty and law. As did Adams, we question how to relate the goal of freedom to the authority necessary in political society.