;

mathematical reasoning will be useful discipline for his mind. Which of the two kinds of ratiocination should be most followed, depends on the character and habits of the student. If his attention cannot easily follow a long chain of argument, if he be of a quick impatient temper, one who is apt, as Locke says, to see a little, imagine a great deal, and so jump to a conclusion, mathematics will be salutary to medicine his mind they will teach him to be slow and patient, and to keep awake his attention through a whole series of proofs; for if he miss one step, he must go over the whole road again, or his labour is lost. On the contrary, if the student be of slow exact habits, patient of labour, and capable of long continued attention, he need not employ himself so much in mathematical studies: he should rather quicken his intellects by logical disputations, and by reasoning on various and dissimilar subjects. The art of reasoning is not confined to books in which it is professed to be taught; for it is often practised where it is not professed, it may be learned sometimes better from example than precept, and the understanding may be as effectually improved by reading entertaining as by perusing dull argumentation, for the powers of reasoning are similar on whatever subject they may be exercised.

"Les causes célébres" detail many pleadings which are not the less instructive for being amusing. Voltaire in a fit of spleen called this book, the work of a lawyer without practice; and he hints, that the trials are manufactured. But at present the accuracy of the facts is of little consequence; the style and the reasoning are our objects. On this principle many curious discussions upon any subject may be read

with advantage. For instance, in Sully's Memoirs there is a disquisition on the causes of the assassination of Henry the Fourth, which might exercise the judgment of any lawyer, and which may at the same time interest him as an important point of history. There is a short essay by Gibbon on the Iron Mask, in which the probabilities and arguments concerning the birth of that mysterious prisoner are stated with perfect clearness, and commented upon with much ingenuity. There is also a letter of Hume's summing up the evidence and arguments in the Ossian and Macpherson cause, which would have done honour to the most distinguished advocate at the bar.

On questions of pure philosophy, similar talents are sometimes displayed. Bayle, for example, in his inquiry whether prudence or fortune have most influence in the affairs of men, states and balances the arguments with truly judicial precision; in short, it is of little importance what the subject is, if it be well argued, as the student may exercise himself advantageously in following the course of the reasoning. And the range of his exercises should be as extensive as possible, that he may have opportunities of amusing while he invigorates his understanding. Even if he set no value on the game, he will be strengthened by the chase, and subjects the most foreign to his profession may incidentally afford him profitable entertainment, and useful exertion of his judgment. For instance, no subjects can apparently be more remote from a lawyer's province than antiquities; yet he might look over with advantage the case of Wedgwood versus Boze, Darwin, and others, concerning the interpretation of the

figures on the Barberini vase; and he might apply similar ingenuity afterwards in explaining the glosses or guessing at the meaning of an act of parliament. And though law seems to have little connexion with chemistry and mineralogy, yet a young lawyer would not misapply his attention, or waste a few hours of his time, by reading Sir James Hall's arguments on the effects of compression in producing crystallization. He who could invent or follow a chain of reasoning so ably constructed, relating to physical probabilities, would assuredly be able to exert similar invention and judgment upon cases of moral or legal probabilities. Perhaps some perverse reader may from this suppose the study of chemistry, mineralogy, and antiquities are recommended to young barristers; but the more candid and more attentive will perceive, that these subjects are mentioned only to illustrate the means of improving a lawyer's judgment, and of extending his powers of reasoning to as many dissimilar subjects as possible.

Upon this principle, students should not neglect at college those branches of science and literature, which do not appear immediately connected with the study of the law, because they will enlarge and exercise his mind. As Berkely observes, "There are some studies to be pursued, not so much "for the knowledge actually obtained by them, as for the

discipline they give the mind; as there are some crops "which the farmer sows, not for the sake of the profit they afford, but for the benefit they are of to the soil."

It does not come within the scope of this essay, to examine the various courses of study pursued in different universities ;

may be proper

to repeat

but with respect to public lecturés, it in this place, that in general people learn much less than they might from public lectures, because they go to hear them before they have any of that previous knowledge of the subjects treated of, which is requisite for understanding the lecture without straining the attention. When the auditors have been well prepared, and when the terms and general ideas of the subject are familiar to them, and when they have been somewhat accustomed to exert their attention in the midst of a public assembly, they may profit much by listening to lec

tures.

Taking notes of the minute parts of what is spoken, does not appear to be advantageous: the writing of such notes necessarily engrosses the attention; and while detached hints are perhaps thus secured, the proportion of the parts is not seized, and the whole is not fully comprehended. The auditor should give his undivided attention to the speaker, should follow the course of reasoning without distracting himself by the fear that he shall not remember every part of the lecture, and without the vain ambition to retain the words in which it is delivered. A few notes of the principal points of the reasoning, of dates and calculations, and of reference to books may be allowed; but the custom of scribbling the whole time a lecturer speaks is absurd and pernicious, unless indeed it be practised for the express purpose of becoming a reporter. The object of the student is not merely to exercise the agility of his fingers, or to turn himself into a copying machine, but to improve his understanding, and store his mind with useful knowledge to effect which, he must now continue to cul

tivate his memory, and all his intellectual faculties, upon the same principles on which their early education was conducted. In acquiring new knowledge, he must endeavour to store it up in just order in his mind. He must try to remember it by the connexion of ideas, not of words, or rather of sounds. Following these principles when he listens to public instruction, he will give his calm attention to all he hears, and seizing the general connexion of the whole, the subordinate parts will fall into their proper places; or if some be omitted, it is comparatively of little consequence. After a lecture is ended it may be a useful exercise to endeavour to recollect the outlines of it; but let not the philosophical student be mortified, if he find that he remembers less than others may possibly have secured in note books: let him be assured, that he is improving his memory and judgment, while they are injuring theirs to make only a vain and momentary show. Neither the wealth of the mind, nor the riches of the state, can be estimated

by the quantity of species amassed at any time. "I see no "root to this treasure," said the judicious embassador, to whom the Venetian minister ostentatiously displayed a table in the treasury loaded with gold.

Whenever students have opportunities of conversing with well-informed people on the subjects of their reading, they should seize this great advantage; it will fix their knowledge in their minds, make their ideas clear, and give them the power of expressing readily what they distinctly comprehend. A student never should forget that celebrated maxim, " Read"ing makes a full man, writing an exact, and conversation a "ready man." Now it is necessary, that a lawyer should be