dvocate in serious
blunders; and I do not think that he ever lost a client whom he had once
gained.' But the first step was not easy. His solitary ways, his
indifference to the lighter pursuits of his companions, and his frequent
absorption in other studies, made him slow to form connections and
prevented him from acquiring early, if he ever fully acquired, the
practical instinct which qualifies a man for the ordinary walk of law
courts. When, says Mr. Justice Wills, 'he got you by yourself in a
corner--with no opportunity of dancing round him--in a single combat of
stroke for stroke, real business, conditions defined and mastered, he
was a most formidable antagonist, mercilessly logical, severely
powerful, with the hand of a giant.' But he was, says the same critic,
rather too logical for the common tricks of the trade, which are learnt
by a long and persistent handling of ordinary business. He did not
understand what would 'go down,' and what was of 'such a character that
people would drive a coach and six through precedents and everything
else in order to get rid of it.' He was irritated by an appeal to
practical consequences from what he considered to be established
principles. Then, too, his massive intellect made him wanting in
pliability. 'He could not change front in presence of the enemy'; and
rather despised the adaptations by which clever lawyers succeed in
introducing new law under a pretence of applying old precedents. As I
have already said, he was disgusted with the mere technicalities of the
law, and the conversion of what ought to be a logical apparatus for the
discovery of truth into an artificial system of elaborate and
superfluous formalities. His great ambition was (in his favourite
expression) to 'boil down' the law into a few broad common-sense
principles. He was, therefore, not well qualified for some branches of
legal practice, and inclined to regard skill of the technical kind with
suspicion, if not with actual dislike. Upon this, however, I shall have
to dwell hereafter.

Meanwhile, he was deeply interested in the criminal cases, which were
constantly presenting ethical problems, and affording strange glimpses
into the dark side of human nature. Such crimes showed the crude, brutal
passions, which lie beneath the decent surface of modern society, and
are fascinating to the student of human nature. He often speaks of the
strangely romantic interest of the incidents brought to light in the
'Sta