ay appear like digressing from our subject, to speak of such
qualities as attention, accuracy, and punctuality, but like the minor
morals of common life, they are little rills which at times unite and
form great rivers. A life of dishonor and obscurity, if not ignominy,
has often taken its rise from the fountain of a little habit of
inattention and procrastination. System is everything. It can accomplish
wonders. By this alone, as by a magic talisman, may time be so
economized that business can be attended to and opportunities saved for
study, general reading, exercise, recreation, and society. "A man that
is young in years," says Lord Bacon, "may be old in hours, if he has
lost no time." Hurry and confusion result from the want of system; and
the mind can never be clear when a man's papers and business are in
disorder. It is recorded of the pensionary De Witt, of the United
Provinces, who fell a victim to the fury of the populace in the year
1672, that he did the whole business of the republic, and yet had time
left for relaxation and study in the evenings. When he was asked how he
could possibly bring this to pass, his answer was, that "nothing was so
easy; for that it was only doing one thing at a time, and never putting
off anything till to-morrow that could he done to-day." "This steady and
undissipated attention to one object," remarks Lord Chesterfield, in
relating this anecdote, "is a sure mark of a superior genius." It is of
the highest importance, also, that a lawyer should in early professional
life, cultivate the habit of accuracy. It is a great advantage over
opposing counsel,--a great recommendation in the eyes of intelligent
mercantile and business men. A professional note to a merchant
carelessly written will often of itself produce an unfavorable
impression on his mind; and that impression he may communicate to many
others. The importance of a good handwriting cannot be overrated. A
plain legible hand every man can write who chooses to take the pains. A
good handwriting is a passport to the favor of clients, and to the good
graces of judges, when papers come to be submitted to them. It would be
a good rule for a young lawyer, though at first perhaps irksome and
inconvenient, never to suffer a letter or paper to pass from his hands
with an erasure or interlineation. The time and trouble it may cost at
the outset will be repaid in the end by the habit he will thereby
acquire of transacting his business with