they endured, with the confideration, that the remembrance of their fufferings would, one day, give them fatisfaction. That these fentiments are juft, is well known to those who have enjoyed the conversation of the foldier. Battles, fkirmishes, and fieges, at which, perhaps, he trembled during the action, furnish him with topics of converfation, and sources of pleasure, for the remainder of his life.

Reflection is the propereft employment, and the fweeteft fatisfaction, in a rational old age. Deftitute of ftrength and vigour, neceffary for bodily exertions, and furnished with obfervations by experience, the old man finds his greatest pleasure to confift in wandering in imagination over paft fcenes of delight, in recounting the adventures of his youth, the viciffitudes of human life, and the public events to which he is proud of having been an eye-witnefs. Of fo exalted a nature are these enjoyments, that theologists have not helitated to affert, that to recollect a well-spent life, is to anticipate the blifs of a future existence.

The profeffors of philofophy, who will be acknowledged to have understood the nature of true and fubftantial pleasure better than the bufy, the gay, and the diffipated, have ever fhewn a predilection for privacy and folitude. No other caufe have they affigned for their conduct in forfaking fociety, than that the noife and hurry of the world is incompatible with the exertion of calm reafon, and difpaffionate reflection.

The

apophthegm of that antient, who faid, "he was never "lefs alone than when by himself," is not to be confidered merely as an epigrammatic turn. In vain was it to purfue philofophy in the Suburra; fhe was only to be courted, with fuccefs, in the sequestered shade of rural retirement.

Were the powers of reflection cultivated by habit, mankind would at all times be able to derive a pleasure from their own breafts, as rational as it is exalted. To the attainment of this happiness, a strict adherence to the rules of virtue is neceffary; for let it be remembered, that none can feel the pleasures of reflection, who do not enjoy the peace of innocence.

No.

No. CXII.

HINTS TO THOSE WHO ARE

DESIGNED FOR THE PROFESSION OF THE
LAW.

T

HERE is no order in the community more contemptible than that of those practitioners in the law, who, without one liberal principle of justice or equity, poffefs a skill in little elfe but quibbles, and in thofe points by which villainy is taught to proceed with impunity, cunning enabled to elude the fpirit by mifreprefenting the letter, and truth perplexed, obfcured, and loft, in the mazes of chicanery. It is indeed furprifing, that many, who call themfelves men of honour, and who profefs to have had a liberal education, fhould allow themfelves, in the practice of their profeffion, to affert palpable falfehood to confound the cleareft evidence; and defend, with all the appearance of fincere conviction, what they know to be indefenfible. It is not an admiffible apology to affert, that their profeffion requires fuch an abafement; for a fimilar juftification might be offered by the fharper or the highwayman. There are, undoubtedly, certain laws of honour and truth established in the heart of every honeft man, of which no regard for lucre, and no jefuitical pretence of profeffional neceffity can juftify the infringement.

There feems, indeed, to be a very unfortunate error in many among the ftudents of the law, who value abilities and technical knowledge at a high rate, but entertain no great efteem for goodness of heart, and integrity of conduct. While the world allows them abilities and knowledge, they depend with fecurity on fuccefs, though they fhould be notoriously mercenary in public, and debauched in private life. Indeed, they have had living examples to prove, that however bad the morals of the inan, if the impudence and eloquence of the lawyer are approved, he may have what briefs he pleases, and even be advanced to the dignity of a VOL. II. Lord

G

Lord Chancellor. An infamous character, blafted with imputations of the most atrocious kind in the walks of private and domeftic life, may be introduced, by his known effrontery, and his supposed abilities, to that dignified feat, where law is to be corrected by equity, and where the confcience of the judge is the chief controul.

Whatever be the abilities of a man, yet if he be notoriously irregular and intemperate in the violation of those laws which are prior to all human laws, he ought not to be promoted to any office of truft and honour, particularly in the law. If the governing part of a nation were fincere in its profeffion of a belief in the national religion, men who are remarkable for breaking the laws of that religion, would be at least neglected, if not difgraced. The advancement of bad men to the higheft offices in the law, is a difgrace to the government, and an injury to the people, whom it greatly corrupts; not only by the example, but by leading them to fuppofe, that the governors of the nation, whom they naturally fuppofe wiser than themfelves, confider religion and morality merely as engines of state.

Though, therefore, the ftudent may fee men of infamous characters advanced and encouraged, let him not be deluded. If he is wife, he will ftill pay his greatest attention to the cultivation of a pure and honeft heart; this will furnish him with more fatisfaction than was ever derived to a bad man from the infignia and emoluments of office, and the fees beftowed by popular. favour. Whatever practice or preferment can be acquired confiftently with this, accept with gratitude. But if the public, or the rulers of the nation, ftill prefer the bold pretender, whofe appearance and abilities arife from that audacity which accompanies a bad and an unfeeling heart, defpife all that they can beftow, and remember that this life is fhort, and that there is another; that this world is the place of probation, and the next of reward. Remember that a pure heart, a clear confcience, an independent fpirit, and a foul that fpurns the lucre which is to be gained by unmanly fervility, are infinitely fuperior (confidered only as they tend to promote happiness) to the poffeffion of the

feals,

feals, with their ufual appendages, a peerage and a penfion.

With respect to the modes of preparation for this profeffion, I fee, with regret, that an illiberal method prevails, which confifts in confining the future advocate, like a clerk in a merchant's counting-houfe, to the defk of fome practifing lawyer, and teaching him the ordinary bufinefs almoft mechanically. There he fits, and copies a great number of dry formalities, fuch as, if he attended to them, could not enlarge his mind; fuch, indeed, as, without a remarkable dulnefs of difpofition, he cannot attend to. After labouring for feveral years in a manual employment, as fedentary, and fcarcely more liberal than that of the weaver or the watchinaker, he comes forth a formidable barrifter; formidable, indeed, in fome refpects, as he has probably acquired a good deal of that low and dirty practice, and that narrow and confined mode of thinking, which a liberal mind would defpife too much to be able to acquire. He is, as it were, a fpider, and can fpin cobwebs in the dark and foul receffes of the heart, to catch those diminutive objects, which a more generous animal would not deign to enfnare.

The true method of arriving at an eligible fpecies of eminence in the ftudy of the law is, to enlarge the capacity of the mind by a moft comprehenfive and claffical education; and then to furnish it with fome portion of every fpecies of human knowledge. A general and enlarged philofophy, moral, natural, and theological, ought to form the firm bafis of the future fuperftructure. On this fhould be added history, antient and modern; general jurifprudence, and a particular acquaintance with the fpirit of laws in all the civilized nations of antiquity. Long and accurate observation of men and manners ought to be added; and the virtues of exemplary benevolence and humanity fhould complete the fabric. Such fhould be the preparation;-what it is, we have already feen. But fometimes even the toil of the writing-defk, as well as every other ferious preparation, is omitted, and the ftudent called to the bar, puts a large wig over his powdered hair and pig-tail, and

G 2

ftarts

ftarts up a pleader; ready to undertake any cause either of property, or of life.

Whoever has read the works of Cicero, will remember how great a fhare of learning he requires in his orator, who was, indeed, a pleader, or advocate; but not fuch a pleader, or fuch an advocate, as many of thofe who have difgraced the modern courts of judicature. The great ftatefinen of Rome fupported the character of lawyers with a peculiar dignity, unknown to modern inftitutions. Adorned with philofophy, as well as law, they defcended to the courts to defend their clients; not with the hope of a paltry fee, but induced by the pure motives of friendship and humanity; by a defire of doing good, and a regard for juftice. Men, it is true, muft live by their profeffions; and, therefore, the difinterestedness of the antients, who had other resources, cannot be univerfally imitated. But, furely, in an age that pretends to peculiar illumination and philanthropy, and in a people who have long profeffed a moft humane religion, it is wonderful to find men, who affume fo important a profeffion, ready to defend any fide for pay; and debafing their characters by an affectation of extreme libertinifm, of infidelity, and of every kind of profligacy, which tends to harden the heart, and to deaden the feelings of humanity, no less than to ftifle the fentiments of true honour.

No. CXIII. ON

SOME

INCONVENIENCES

WHICH UNAVOIDABLY ATTEND LIVING
WRITERS.

TH

THE compofition of a book has often been compared to the furnishing of a feaft, in which, whatever art may have been exerted, and variety produced, it feldom happens that every palate is equally pleafed. Sometimes the dishes are not dreffed and cafoned as they ought to be; and fometimes the organs of fenfation in the guefts are languid and indifpofed.

No