ows the
first, by its fruits, to be the most effectual way of making a great
lawyer."[29]

Such a course of study as is here recommended, is not the work of a day
or a year. In the meantime let business seek the young attorney; and
though it may come in slowly, and at intervals, and promise in its
character neither fame nor profit, still, if he bears in mind that it is
an important part of his training, that he should understand the
business he does thoroughly, that he should especially cultivate, in
transacting it, habits of neatness, accuracy, punctuality, and despatch,
candor towards his client, and strict honor towards his adversary, it
may be safely prophesied that his business will grow as fast as it is
good for him that it should grow; while he gradually becomes able to
sustain the largest practice, without being bewildered and overwhelmed.

Let him be careful, however, not to settle down into a mere lawyer. To
reach the highest walks of the profession, something more is needed. Let
polite literature be cultivated in hours of relaxation. Let him lose not
his acquaintance with the models of ancient taste and eloquence. He
should study languages, as well from their practical utility in a
country so full of foreigners, as from the mental discipline, and the
rich stores they furnish. He should cultivate a pleasing style, and an
easy and graceful address. It may be true, that in a "court of justice,
the veriest dolt that ever stammered a sentence, would be more attended
to, with a case in point, than Cicero with all his eloquence,
unsupported by authorities,"[30] yet even an argument on a dry point of
law, produces a better impression, secures a more attentive auditor in
the judge, when it is constructed and put together with attention to the
rules of the rhetorical art; when it is delivered, not stammeringly, but
fluently; when facts and principles, drawn from other fields of
knowledge, are invoked to support and adorn it; when voice, and gesture,
and animation, give it all that attraction which earnestness always and
alone imparts. There is great danger that law reading, pursued to the
exclusion of everything else, will cramp and dwarf the mind, shackle it
by the technicalities with which it has become so familiar, and disable
it from taking enlarged and comprehensive views even of topics falling
within its compass as well as of those lying beyond its legitimate
domain. An amusing instance of this is said to have o