THE HESPERIAN
grateful shade. A lawyer, more than the
member of any other profession, is a public
servant in name or fact, and there is nothing
so incongruous in calling upon him to speak
to his profession at any time or place, or
upon any'occasion. The reason of this is
the universality of the law ; it touches not
all the transactions and affairs, but all only
the issues of lifo. Tho laws of God, inscrutable
and past finding out ; tho laws of nature, un
bending and inflexible, holding countless
worlds in their firm embrace ; tho laws of
man, changeable and capricious, and yet so
admirable as to command tho veneration of
centuries, are so closely related and inter
woven, that tho student of tho law is the
observer of the universe.
Hooker's apostrophe to the law has been
the subject of deserved admiration; uOf law
there can be no less acknowledged than
that her seat is tho bosom of God, her voice
is tho harmony of the world. All thing in
Heaven and earth do her homage ; tho very
least as feeling her care, tho greatest as not
exempted from her power ; both angels and
men, and creatures of what condition soever,
though each in different sort and manner,
yet all with uniform consent, admiring her
as the mother of their peace and joy."
When we eliminate from our consideration
natural and supernatural laws, and shut-up
our minds to human laws in their applica
tion to nations, persons and things, then we
begin to realize the ubiquity of law, and per
ceive that it touches every point in the hor
izon of lifo. It affects our health, security
and comfort, and protects life, liberty and
property. It environs man at every point ;
it sits by the cradle, and follows the hearse ;
it meets us at coming, and protects our
nakodness and helpless infancy in its mother
ly arms ; it leads us forward until the first
duty is laid upon our shoulders, with a gen
tle hand and duo regard for our weakness ;
it follows us through all tho stages of lifo
until we journey toward our home beyond
the sun, and at tho last hour, tho minister of
the law and of tho gospel stand by the same
bedside, tho one inditing tho last bequest,
and tho otherjirvoking tho last bonediction.
Tho eloquent testimony of Sir John Davy
is worthy of romberanco : "Why may wo
not proceed and afiirni confidently that tho
profession of tho law is to bo preferred
before all other human professions and sci
ences, as being most noblo for the matter
and subject thereof, most necessary for tho
common and continued use thereof, and
most meritiorius for the good effects it doth
produce in the commonwealth ? For what
is tho matter and subject of our profession
but justice, tho lady and queen of all moral
virtues, and what are our professors of tho
law but her counsellors, her secretaries, her
interpreters?"
The character of our profession depends
upon ourselves. If wo dignify our calling
our calling will enoble us. If we, however,
bemoan, belittle and degrade our profession,
then wo can expect that others will take us
at our valuation , The bar in some measure
is accountable for tho mean estimate in
which it is held, not because of its truth, but
because it often fails to uphold a brother
when assailed. If trickery, artifice and man
ipulation were always unsparingly condem
med, instead of laughed at, if the bar al
ways defended its members, from insinua
tion and innuendo in tho absence of exact
information to the contrary, if instead of
countenancing the covert slanderer, "willing
to wound, yet afraid to strike," it chal
lenged the libeller to the proof, and was as
sensitive to a brother's reputation as its own
honor, then would the standing of the bar
be elevated in the eyes of the people. The
lawyer has always been the object of more or
less dislike. The ancient Egyptians ex
pressly forbade advocates to plead in their
courts on the ground that they darkened the
adminstration of the laws. Milton mentions
that the Muscovites had no lawyers, but
every man pleads his own cause. Sir Thomas
Moore makes the absence of lawyers a char
acteristic of his Utopia for they wore con
sidered a class of people whose profession is
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