MARCH 22 Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. Acts 18:24. Extemporaneous Speaking. (Notes from a law lecture, 1850.) Extemporaneous speaking should be practiced and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech. And yet there is not a more fatal error to young lawyers than relying too much on speechmaking. If any one, upon his rare powers of speaking, shall claim exemption from the drudgery of the law, his case is a failure in advance. No haughty gesture marks his gait, No pompous tone his word, No studied attitude is seen, No palling nonsense heard; He'll suit his bearing to the hour- With joyous freedom in his mirth, And candor in his speech. -Eliza Cook. A Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser-in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peace-maker, the lawyer has a superiority of being a good man. There will still be business enough. Never stir up litigation. worse man can hardly be found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the registry of deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife and put money in his pocket? A moral tone ought to be infused into the profession which would drive such men out of it. Learn to dissemble wrongs, to smile at injuries, And suffer crimes that thou want'st the power to punish: Be easy, affable, familiar, friendly; Search, and know all mankind's mysterious ways, But trust the secret of thy soul to none: This is the way, This only, to be safe in such a world as this is. -Rowe. MARCH 24 Bring Zenas the lawyer. Titus 3:13. Vague Popular Belief. (Notes from a law lecture, 1850.) There is a vague popular belief that the lawyers are necessarily dishonest. I say vague, because when we consider to what extent confidence and honors are reposed in and conferred upon lawyers by the people, it appears improbable that their impression of dishonesty is very distinct and vivid. Yet the impression is common-almost universal. Let no young man choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular belief. Resolve to be honest at all events; and if, in your own judgment, you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer. Choose some other occupation rather than one in the choosing of which you do, in advance, consent to be a knave. An honest man is still an unmov'd rock, MARCH 25 We all do fade as a leaf. Isaiah 64: 6. The Last Leaf. (To F. B. Carpenter, March 25, 1864.) There are some quaint, queer verses written, I think, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, entitled "The Last Leaf," one of which is to me inexpressibly touching: "The mossy marbles rest On the lips that he has pressed In their bloom; And the names he loved to hear Have been carved for many a year On the tomb." For pure pathos, in my judgment, there is nothing finer than those six lines in the English language! They are falling, sadly falling, J. H. Kurzenknabe, MARCH 26 The hand of the diligent maketh rich. Proverbs 10: 4. The True System. (From a speech at New Haven, Connecticut, March 6, 1860.) I don't believe in a law to prevent a man from getting rich; it would do more harm than good. So while we do not propose any war upon capital, we do wish to allow the humblest man an equal chance to get rich with everybody else. When one starts poor, as most do in the race of life, free society is such that when he knows he can better his condition, he knows that there is no fixed condition of labor for his whole life. I am not ashamed to confess that twenty-five years ago I was a hired laborer, mauling rails, at work on a flat-boat-just what might happen to any poor man's son. I want every man to have the chance-and I believe a black man is entitled to it-in which he can better his condition; when he may look forward and hope to be a hired laborer this year, and then next work for himself afterward, and finally to hire men to work for him. That is the true system. The uncleared forest, the unbroken soil, The iron bark that turns the lumberer's ax; The rapid that o'erbears the boatman's toil, The prairies hiding the mazed wanderer's tracks; The ambushed Indian and the prowling bear, Such were the deeds that helped his youth to train— -Tom Taylor. |