commerce, agriculture, and manufactures, and other efforts of human ingenuity and enterprise. * We are, therefore, called upon at this moment to encounter, ay, and to master the juridical learning of the three last centuries, during which the talents of the bar, and the researches of the bench are embodied in solid and enduring volumes. Fortescue has told us, that in his age the judges did not sit in Court but three hours in the day; and that when they had taken their refreshments, they spent the rest of the day in the study of the law, reading of the holy Scriptures, and other innocent amusements at their pleasure; so that it seemed rather a life of contemplation than of much action; and that their time was spent in this manner free from care and worldly avocations. The case was greatly changed in the succeeding century; and we need but examine the ample reports and commentaries of Lord Coke, to perceive what a prodigious influx of learning bore down the profession in his day. At the distance of another century Lord Hale was compelled to admit the heavy and almost overwhelming burthens of the law. And we in the nineteenth century may well look with some apprehension upon the accumulations of our own times. It is not an over-statement to declare, that the labours of the profession now are ten times as great, as they were in the days of Lord Coke; and that they have been quadrupled within the last century. The whole series of English Reports down to the Revolution of 1688, scarcely exceeds one hundred volumes; while those since that * Fortescue, De Laud. Legum Angliæ, ch. 51. period fall little short of three hundred. To this goodly mass America has added within the short space of twenty years more than two hundred volumes. If to these we add the excellent elementary treatises, which have filled our libraries during these latter periods, we shall find, that not merely the lucubrations of twenty years, but a long life will scarcely suffice to attain the requisite learning. In truth, the common law, as a science, must be for ever in progress; and no limits can be assigned to its principles or improvements. In this respect it resembles the natural sciences, where new discoveries continually lead the way to new, and sometimes to astonishing results. To say, therefore, that the common law is never learned, is almost to utter a truism. It is no more than a declaration, that the human mind cannot compass all human transactions. It is its true glory, that it is flexible, and constantly expanding with the exigencies of society; that it daily presents new motives for new and loftier efforts; that it holds out for ever an unapproached degree of excellence; that it moves onward in the path towards perfection, but never arrives at the ultimate point. But the student should not imagine, that enough is done, if he has so far mastered the general doctrines of the common law, that he may enter with some confidence into practice. There are other studies, which demand his attention. He should addict himself to the study of philosophy, of rhetoric, of history, and of human nature. It is from the want of this enlarged view of duty, that the profession has sometimes been reproached with a sordid narrowness, with a low chicane, with a cunning avarice, and with a deficiency in liberal and enlightened policy. Mr. Burke has somewhat reluctantly admitted the fact, that the practice of the law is not apt, except in persons very happily born, to open and liberalize the mind exactly in the same proportion, as it invigorates the understanding; and that men too much conversant in office are rarely minds of remarkable enlargement.* And Lord Bacon complains, that lawyers have never written as statesmen.† The reproach is in some measure deserved. It is, however, far less true in our age, than in former times; and far less true in America, than in England. Many of our most illustrious statesmen have been lawyers; but they have been lawyers liberalized by philosophy, and a large intercourse with the wisdom of ancient and modern times. The perfect lawyer, like the perfect orator, must accomplish himself for his duties. by familiarity with every study. It may be truly said, that to him nothing, that concerns human nature or human art, is indifferent or useless. He should search the human heart, and explore to their sources the passions, and appetites, and feelings of mankind. He should watch the emotions of the dark and malignant passions, as they silently approach the chambers of the soul in its first slumbers. He should catch the first warm rays of sympathy and benevolence, as they play round the character, and are * See Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution, and Speech on American Taxation. + Lord Bacon on the Advancement of Learning, 1 Bacon's Works, 218. reflected back from its varying lines. He should learn to detect the cunning arts of the hypocrite, who pours into the credulous and unwary ear his leperous distilment. He should for this purpose make the master-spirits of all ages pay contribution to his labours. He should walk abroad through nature, and elevate his thoughts, and warm his virtues by a contemplation of her beauty, and magnificence, and harmony. He should examine well the precepts of religion, as the only solid basis of civil society, and gather from them not only his duty, but his hopes; not merely his consolations, but his discipline and his glory. He should unlock all the treasures of history for illustration, and instruction, and admonition. He will thus see man, as he has been, and thereby best know, what he is. He will thus be taught to distrust theory, and cling to practical good; to rely more upon experience, than reasoning; more upon institutions, than laws; more upon checks to vice, than upon motives to virtue. He will become more indulgent to human errors; more scrupulous in means, as well as in ends; more wise, more candid, more forgiving, more disinterested. If the melancholy infirmities of his race shall make him trust men less, he may yet learn to love man more. Nor should he stop here. He must drink in the lessons and the spirit of philosophy. I do not mean that philosophy described by Milton, as "a perpetual feast of nectared sweets, Where no crude surfeit reigns;" but that philosophy, which is conversant with men's business and interests, with the policy and the wel fare of nations; that philosophy, which dwells not in vain imaginations, and Platonic dreams; but which stoops to life, and enlarges the boundaries of human happiness; that philosophy, which sits by us in the closet, cheers us by the fireside, walks with us in the fields and highways, kneels with us at the altars, and lights up the enduring flame of patriotism. What has been already said, rather presupposes than insists upon the importance of a full possession of the general literature of ancient and modern times. It is this classical learning alone, which can impart a solid and lasting polish to the mind, and give to diction, that subtile elegance and grace, which colour the thoughts with almost transparent hues. It should be studied, not merely in its grave disquisitions, but in its glorious fictions, and in those graphical displays of the human heart, in the midst of which we wander as in the presence of familiar, but disembodied spirits. It is by such studies, and such accomplishments, that the means are to be prepared for excellence in the highest order of the profession. The student, whose ambition has measured them, if he can but add to them the power of eloquence, (that gift, which owes so much to nature, and so much to art,) may indeed aspire to be a perfect lawyer. It cannot be denied, indeed, that there have been great lawyers, who were not orators; as there have been great orators, who were not lawyers. But it must be admitted at the same time, that when both characters are united in the same person, human genius has approached as near perfection, as it may. They |