or. Seventh and Cherry Streets, Philadelphia.

TO

MY HONORED MASTER,

JOSEPH R. INGERSOLL, LL.D.,

INSCRIBED

AS A

TESTIMONY OF

RESPECT AND GRATITUDE.

PREFACE.

The following Essay was originally published under the title of "A
Compend of Lectures on the Aims and Duties of the Profession of the Law,
delivered before the Law Class of the University of Pennsylvania." A
portion of it had been read by the author as an Introductory Lecture at
the opening of the Fifth Session of the Law Department of that
Institution, October 2d, 1854. The young gentlemen, alumni, and students
of the school, who were present on that occasion, requested a copy for
publication, in order that each of them might possess a memento of their
connection with the Institution. The author preferred to publish the
entire Compend than merely a part of it. He hesitated much in doing so,
because the questions discussed are difficult, and opinions upon them
variant, and he could scarcely hope that he had in every case succeeded
in just discrimination. A review of the matter now, when a second
edition has been called for, has suggested, however, no important change
in the principles advanced, though a few additions have been made, some
inaccuracies corrected, and an introduction upon the importance of the
profession, in a public point of view, prefixed.

G. S.

INTRODUCTION.

The dignity and importance of the Profession of the Law, in a public
point of view, can hardly be over-estimated. It is in its relation to
society at large that it is proposed to consider it. This may be done by
showing its influence upon legislation and jurisprudence. These are the
right and left hands of government in carrying out the great purposes of
society. By legislation is meant the making of law--its primary
enactment or subsequent alteration. Jurisprudence is the science of what
the law is or means, and its practical application to cases as they
arise. The province of legislation is _jus dare_--of jurisprudence,
_jus dicere_. The latter is entirely in the hands of lawyers as a
body--the former almost entirely.

Legislation is indeed a nobler work than even jurisprudence. It is