widely. It is impossible for a man to be a
great lawyer, so far as the learning of his profession is concerned,
who has not saturated himself with the Bible. He may be a great
practitioner, but not a great lawyer. It illuminates all our law--is
the source of much of it. There is no more curious and fascinating
study than a comparison of the ordinances of the Hebrews with what we
think our modern statutes.

Read deeply in science. Read widely the _great_ novelists. They are
scientists of human nature, and you are dealing with human nature in
your profession. Read profoundly in history. A comprehensive knowledge
of history is absolutely indispensable to an understanding of our
Constitution. The _Federalist_, the constitutional debates, and all
the discussions that preceded and accompanied the adoption of our
organic law are bewilderingly full of historical references. If you
were to study every decision on constitutional questions made by every
court in this country, you could not understand the Constitution.

You must go back to the roots of it. Trace out the growth of our
institutions in Holland. Work out the modifications by these upon
institutions adopted from England. Follow the indigenous development
of both of these from the old Crown Charters, and finally up to the
Constitution itself.

Then take Bancroft's "History of the United States"; then that great
monument of intellectual achievement in the realm of historical
criticism, Von Holtz's "Constitutional History of the United States."
Books like Douglass Campbell's remarkable production, Fisher's
convincing yet novel essay, and other like serious and original works,
too numerous to properly mention here, are helpful.

Nothing is more disgusting to an informed court than to hear a surface
argument on constitutional law by an advocate who thinks he has
mastered that tremendous subject by studying all the decisions upon
any given point.

You will say this is a heavy task I am assigning you. It is, indeed.
But have you not chosen the profession of the law? And, if so, do you
dare to be less than a lawyer? How dare you not shoulder your glorious
burden with patience, fortitude, and determination? Do not be as if
you were to enlist as a soldier, and end as a camp-follower.

I am told that the leader of the American bar has a standing order
with his booksellers to send him every new book of approved merit in
all the departments of literature. The result is that