morning he rose at three and read Bracton, Littleton, and the Year books till eight; that then he went to Westminster and heard cases argued till twelve; after dinner he attended lectures and resumed his private studies till five; that in the evening he attended moots where difficult questions of law were discussed, and thereafter worked at his common-place book inserting all the legal information he had collected during the day, retiring at nine o'clock that he might have an equal portion of sleep before and after midnight.

It is said of Sir Matthew Hale, that model of public and private virtue, that when he determined to study law he abjured all gay company and spent sixteen hours a day in legal study, "undergoing labor," in the language of his biographer," at which, in our degenerate days, the most industrious would tremble."

Lord Eldon, when consulted as to the best modes of study to be pursued by one about to enter on the study of law, replied: "I have no rule to give you, but that you must make up your mind to live like a hermit and work like a horse." He knew whereof he spoke, for he himself rose in the morning at four, and studied at night with a wet towel around his head to prevent drowsiness, thereby raising himself from humble John Scott to the Lord Chancellorship of England.

And so it was through habits of the most intense application that the barber, Charles Abbott, became the Lord Chief Justice of England.

Charles Sumner, while in the Cambridge law school, begrudged every moment of diversion, was at his books early and late, devoting himself to his studies not only during the day and evening, but past midnight until two in the morning his usual hour for retiring.

Charles O'Connor in the early part of his career is said to have devoted himself to his profession to the abnegation of nearly everything else. The ordinary amusements of youth were unknown to him. His old friend, Chief

A

Justice Daly of New York, says that he was never seen at any place of public amusement, or at any social entertainment, but only in the courts, or in his office, or walking alone in the streets at night that he might get the requisite exercise and think over his cases.

So true is it, that

"The heights by great men reached and kept,
Were not attained by sudden flight ;

But they while their companions slept,

Were toiling upwards in the night."

It has been said that without enthusiasm there is no heroism in life and no saintship in religion. It is no less true that without that enthusiasm which inspires one to great and untiring devotion to his work the lawyer can attain no eminence in his profession.

The life of a lawyer is one of constant and unremitting toil-a "toiling upwards in the night." No matter with what diligence he applies himself, he may not hope to see the period when he has learned all that there is to know of the science of law. The profession of the law may be likened unto the vast Gothic halls in the dreams of Piranesi. De Quincey has told us how in his dreams Piranesi saw vast Gothic halls, on the floor of which stood all sorts of engines, and machinery, of wheels, and pulleys, and catapults. Along the sides of the wall was a staircase, and upon it, groping his way upwards was Piranesi. "Follow the stairs a little further and you perceive it to come to a sudden abrupt termination, without any balustrade, and allowing no step upwards to him who had reached the extremity except into the depths below. Whatever is to become of poor Piranesi, you suppose, at least, that his labors must terminate here. But raise your eyes, and behold a second flight of stairs still higher on which again Piranesi is perceived, by this time standing on the very brink of the abyss. Again elevate your eye, and a still more ærial flight of stairs is beheld; and again is poor Piranesi busy on his aspiring labors; and so on, until the

unfinished stairs and Piranesi both are lost in the upper gloom of the hall."

Even so in our profession, as in this vision of the dreamer, no matter how high you may ascend, you may find other heights looming up before you, which in the beginning you knew not of. This fact should not discourage, but rather should inspire you to an ever renewed exertion. "If you would get to the mountain top you must not stand still." But aspirations and imaginings and dreamings can never get you there.

POVERTY.

Whatever may be the conditions of success at the bar the possession of a competency is not one of them. Some of you have received only the heritage of poverty, and you stand on the threshhold of your professional life, looking into the future with fear and trembling. You may find encouragement in the lives of those by whom poverty has been reckoned as a blessing. Believe in the words of the poet who said :

"Never fear a lawyer in lace

The lawyer that sets out in lace, always ends in rags.''

Trust in the wisdom of Lord Mansfield, who declared that the best thing he knew of to make a great lawyer, was great poverty.

Lord Thurlow's advice was: "Spend your own fortune, marry and spend your wife's, and then you will have some chance of succeeding in the law."

Lord Chancellor Eldon thus wrote to a young man about entering upon active life. It was perhaps fortunate for me that I was not situated in my early life as you are now. I had not, like you, a small fortune to look to. I had nothing to depend upon but my own exertions, and so far from considering this a misfortune, I now esteem it a blessing; for if I had possessed the same means which you will enjoy, I should in all probability not be where I now am."

Lord Erskine entered upon practice in very straitened circumstances, and it was by the exercise of the closest economy that he was enabled to struggle on. When he got his first retainer he had scarcely a shilling in his pocket. And when he rose to make his maiden speecha speech that laid the foundation of his subsequent fortune-it seemed to him, so he afterwards said, as though his little children were plucking his robe, and saying to him, "Now, father, is the time to get us bread."

Charles O'Connor, who in many respects is considered to have been without a peer at the American bar, had just twenty-five dollars in his pocket when admitted to practice. He rented a small office, purchased a table, two or three old chairs, "a little tin sign," and without being the owner of a single law book, entered upon a career that was to make him the leader of the American bar.

When Abraham Lincoln came to Springfield to begin the practice of his profession at twenty-six years of age, he rode into town on a borrowed horse, without earthly goods but a pair of saddle bags, two or three law books and a little clothing contained in the saddle bags. He had studied law out of borrowed books, walking from his home in New Salem to Springfield, fourteen miles distant, to exchange one book for another, which was loaned him to enable him to pursue his studies.

Thus do men rise superior to the circumstances that environ them, and find in the poverty that surrounds them the inspiration to success. Accept then as your motto the words of Goethe, "Work and despair not."

It is said that in Asia Minor there was an ancient temple dedicated to Fortune. Over its vestibule were the words Be Bold, and over the entrance to an inner apartment were the same words inscribed. Passing on the worshipper came to another door opening into the chamber of secret mysteries over which were the words Be not Over Bold. And so as you go out into the profession to

seek your fortune, put away your fears and your misgivings, and in Longfellows words

"Write on your doors the saying wise and old,

'Be bold! be bold!' and everywhere-Be Bold."

CONCLUSION.

Members of the Senior Class: The Faculty of the Law School are interested that you may attain a high career of honor in the great vocation you have chosen. We would have you develop a noble ideal of professional duty and manhood. Pro clientibus sœpe; pro lege, pro republica semper. We would have you cultivate those Christian virtues without which you cannot worthily become priests in the great temple of justice. Take heed unto the thing that is right, for that shall bring you honor in this life and peace in that which is to come. I would leave with you in conclusion those words of Sir Edward Coke, addressed to a beginner in the law: "For thy comfort and encouragement, cast thine eyes upon the sages of the law, that have been before thee, and never shalt thou find any that hath excelled in the knowledge of the law but hath sucked from the breasts of that divine knowledge, honesty, gravity, and integrity, and by the goodness of God, hath obtained a greater blessing and ornament than any other profession to their family and posterity. It is an undoubted truth that the just shall flourish as the palm tree, and spread abroad as the cedars of Lebanus. Hitherto I never saw any man of a loose and lawless life attain to any sound and perfect knowledge of the said laws; and on the other side, I never saw any man of excellent judgment in the laws but was withal (being taught by such a master) honest, faithful and virtuous."