mind, which is imperceptibly, and too often irretrievably, incapacitating them from any future intellectual exertion of importance! Sound an alarm, supine parent, in the ears of your son, whom you are preparing for inevitable failure,—for the humiliation of your family pride,—the disappointment of all your fond, but idle, hopes and expectations! Say to him in the language of the stern Persius— Tibi luditur! Effluis, amens! Contemnêre !-Sonat vitium percussa, malignè Respondet viridi non cocta, fidelia, limo. Udum et molle lutum es nunc nunc ! properandus, et acri 66 Enlist early his own feelings in your behalf-convince his own judgment—and be YOURSELF, if fortunately capable of it, the happy instrument of conferring so precious a boon -one for which he will thank you to the latest moment of his life!" The pains and application," says Roger North, I must be in the YOUTH; and that gone, the opportunity is lost. A man has but one youth, and considering the consequence of employing that well, he has reason to think himself very rich; for that gone, all the wealth in the world will not purchase another. It would seem strange, if experience did not confirm it, that a man's age should be like the seasons of the year: for if you sow in harvest, when are you to reap? The spring is the time to commit seeds to increase; and if a man get not his skill when young, he is like never to have any at all; for the soil becomes arid as age advances, and whatsoever is scattered upon it, takes no thrift, but perishes and starves." † Consider for a moment for what a profession-in that of + Disc. Stu. Laws, pp. 5, 6. * Persius, Sat. iii. 20-24. the Bar-you are destining your son-one in which, as already intimated, the remainder of his life is to be occupied in downright hard reasoning: and in that, how much is implied! "Legal studies," says an acute writer, already quoted (Mr. Ritso), "eminently invigorate and fortify the mind's noblest faculty-the power of attention: they discipline the understanding, excite discrimination, give activity and acuteness to the apprehension, and correct and mature the judgment." This is indisputably a just panegyric: but how very long may it not be before these effects become apparent in the student? What a disposition-what a capacity, for energetic and persevering application is presupposed, and how comparatively few possess it! There are some undoubtedly blessed with a clear strong head, an indomitable will, and a natural aptitude for practical thinking: but there are others who possess high mental endowments, a rich imagination, and great powers of memory, and of eloquence, but whose understanding is either not so strongly developed, or has so long lain uncultivated and undisciplined, as now to oppose a very serious barrier to their actual progress-to fetter the exercise, and obscure the lustre, of their other faculties and qualifications. When we say that the remainder of such persons' lives is to be devoted to reasoning-to reasoning publicly on the most important transactions of human life-often on the spur of the moment-on questions of great difficulty-against skilful and experienced opponents (not school-boys, be it observed-not fellow collegians-but against MEN, and men of superior and long-practised powers)-and before experienced and sagacious judges-we say that only which Ante, pp. 174-5. + Ritso's Introd. p 7. is obvious to even a cursory observer of the profession. Of the peculiar nature of legal reasonings, it occurs to us to present to the student the very striking account of them given by Dr. Paley; from which may be formed a lively and accurate notion of the species of mental exertion for which they are desirous of preparing themselves. "After all the certainty and rest which can be given to points of law, either by the interposition of the legislature or the authority of precedents, one principal source of disputation, and into which, indeed, the greater part of legal controversies may be resolved, will remain still, namely, the COMPETITION OF OPPOSITE ANALOGIES. When a point of law has been once adjudged, neither that question, nor any which completely, and in all its circumstances, corresponds with that, can be brought a second time into dispute; but questions arise which resemble this, only indirectly and in part, in certain views and circumstances, and which may seem to bear an equal or greater affinity to other adjudged cases; questions which can be brought within any fixed rule, only by analogy, and which hold a relation, by analogy, to different rules. It is by the urging of these different analogies that the contention of THE BAR is carried on: and it is in the comparison, adjustment, and reconciliation of them with one another; in the discerning of such distinctions; and in the framing of such a determination as may either save the various rules alleged in the cause, or, if that be impossible, may give up the weaker analogy to the stronger; that the sagacity and wisdom of THE COURT, are seen and exercised. *** Whoever takes up a volume of reports will find most of the arguments it contains capable of the same analogies" [as the instance which he had given]; "although the analogies, it must be confessed, are sometimes so entangled, as not to be easily unravelled, or even perceived!"* Let us now, however, proceed to the task undertaken in this section, viz., that of offering some helps towards supplying that early negligence, and those deficiencies, which have resulted in the sad spectacle of a volatile and undisciplined mind, incapable of attention and close. thought. We will set out with the cheering assurance of the most illustrious of philosophers :- "There is no stond, or impediment in the wit," says Lord Bacon, "but may be wrought out by fit studies: like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises; bowling is good for the stone and reins, shootingt for the lungs and breast, gentle walking for the stomach, riding for the head, and the like. So if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again; if his wit be not apt to distinguish, or find differences, let him study the schoolmen, for they are 'Cymini sectores ;' if he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call upon one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers' cases: so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt." ‡ Lord Bacon's encomiums on the study of MATHEMATICS, as affording the best discipline for an ill-regulated mind, are numerous and emphatic. In addition to the one contained in the foregoing paragraph, he has said, in another of his works, "Pure mathematics do remedy and cure many defects in the wit and faculties intel * Moral and Political Philosophy. Book VI. c. viii. + By "shooting"-here, is obviously meant, the use of the bow and arrow. Essays-Of Studies. lectual; for if the wit be dull, they sharpen it; if too wandering, they fix it; if too inherent in the sense, they abstract it." And again, elsewhere-"If a child be birdwitted, that is, hath not the faculty of attention, mathematics give a remedy thereto; for in them, if the wit be caught away but a moment, one is to begin anew." And yet again :-" As tennis is a game of no use in itself, but of great use, in respect it maketh a quick eye, and a body ready to put itself into all postures; so in the mathematics, that use which is collateral and intervenient, is no less worthy than that which is principal and intended."* Professor Leslie, also, a distinguished philosopher, lately deceased, has borne decisive testimony to the value of the study of geometry, if regarded even as a means of mental exercise only. "The demonstrations left by the Greek geometers, are models of accuracy, clearness, and elegance—admirably calculated for training the minds of youth to habits of close reasoning and luminous arrangement." It were, however, superfluous to accumulate testimonies to the same effect; yet one more we will cite, because it is brief, and proceeded from a very great ornament of our own profession, the late Lord Ashburton (formerly Mr. Dunning) :-" GEOMETRY will afford to the young lawyer the most apposite examples of close and pointed reasoning." A very striking illustration of the truth of this observation was communicated a few years ago, by the party concerned, to the author. A gentleman Advancement of Learning. Works, vol. ii. p. 145. + Fourth Preliminary Dissertation on the Progress of Mathematical and Physical Science during the 18th Century. § 1.-Speculative Mathematics.-Encyc. Britann. vol. i. p. 580. "Letter to a Young Gentleman," &c. &c. |