318 MORALS OF THE DIFFERENT PROFESSIONS. [Part V.

also that they are crowded by men, who, whatever may be theiropinions in other respects, possess the soundest principles ofmoral truth.” *

There is said to be a striking difference between the educa-tion and course of life of an American and an English lawyer,which would, it is affirmed, disqualify the latter from maintainingin our courts a successful contest with the former. In England,the complexity of the system, its antiquated, mysterious, andperplexing rules, with their endless exceptions ; its forced con-structions, and almost invisible distinctions, have a tendency toimprove the lawyer at the expense of the man ; whilst, in thiscountry, other and more exalting circumstances improve the man,though, perhaps, somewhat at the expense of the more technicalpractitioner. As soon as the American lawyer attains to highreputation, he is enticed into public life, when the contentions ofpolitics, and the interests of States become the objects of hisattention, to the enlargement of his intellectual powers. Insteadof sinking down into the little lawyer, whose ideas are imprisonedwithin the bounds of a single branch of jurisprudence, and whosecontracted intellect can, after a time, comprehend nothing thatis not embraced in his digests, he looks abroad, he perceivessomething which he regards as better than mere technical learn-ing, and resolves to attain it; he soars aloft; and, though he mayfall short of his high aim, he seldom fails to reach an elevationfar beyond the fondest aspirations of any professional attendantin Westminster Hall. He, who, in Great Britain, devotes him-self to the profession, becomes acute, subtile, and learned in thatdepartment of the science which he may have selected, whilst inevery thing else he is, with few exceptions, decidedly ignorant;here, on the contrary, he becomes a man of business, an acutedebater, a respectable legislator, as well as a general lawyer. InEngland, they complain that the law is a jealous mistress, de-priving of her favors all who remit their attentions, or who ad-dress them even incidentally to other objects. Polite letters areproscribed, the pernicious influence of poetry would blast their

Study and Practice of the Law, p. 245.