ruth, but cannot tell how
much of to-day's beliefs to-morrow will retain or reject. It may be
observed, however, that the regular performance of priestly functions is
in itself a great help to permanence in belief by connecting it closely
with practical habit, so that the clergy do really and honestly often
retain through life their hold on early beliefs which as laymen they
might have lost.

The profession of the law provides ample opportunities for a critical
intellect with a strong love of accuracy and a robust capacity for hard
work, besides which it is the best of worldly educations. Some lawyers
love their work as passionately as artists do theirs, others dislike it
very heartily, most of them seem to take it as a simple business to be
done for daily bread. Lawyers whose heart is in their work are
invariably men of superior ability, which proves that there is something
in it that affords gratification to the intellectual powers. However, in
speaking of lawyers, I feel ignorant and on the outside, because their
profession is one of which the interior feelings can be known to no one
who has not practised. One thing seems clear, they get the habit of
employing the whole strength and energy of their minds for especial and
temporary ends, the purpose being the service of the client, certainly
not the revelation of pure truth. Hence, although they become very
acute, and keen judges of that side of human nature which they
habitually see (not the best side), they are not more disinterested than
clergymen.[12] Sometimes they take up some study outside of their
profession and follow it disinterestedly, but this is rare. A busy
lawyer is much more likely than a clergyman to become entirely absorbed
in his professional life, because it requires so much more intellectual
exertion. I remember asking a very clever lawyer who lived in London,
whether he ever visited an exhibition of pictures, and he answered me by
the counter-inquiry whether I had read Chitty on Contracts, Collier on
Partnerships, Taylor on Evidence, Cruse's Digest, or Smith's Mercantile
Law? This seemed to me at the time a good instance of the way a
professional habit may narrow one's views of things, for these law-books
were written for lawyers alone, whilst the picture exhibitions were
intended for the public generally. My friend's answer would have been
more to the point if I had inquired whether he had read Linton on
Colors, and Burnet on Chiaroscuro.

The