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The vast range of subjects which is likely to be brought before our notice, is calculated, in itself, to enlarge and improve our capacities for reading, reflection, and speaking. In treating of jurisprudence, it will be our object, not less to fix firmly in our minds general principles of justice, than to ascertain what laws, in different states and under different circumstances, have been found to be the most effectual in securing this invaluable privilege, alike to the rich and to the poor: this will lead us to consider, (and, I hope, to understand,) the influence of religion, climate, and various other circumstances, in forming the character, and guiding the opinions of a nation. To ascertain whether laws, which appear harsh and severe, were wise and just when they were enacted, will render it necessary for us to study the history of nations, to inform ourselves of the circumstances under which they were passed, the degree of influence which the people had in their formation, and who were their propounders and supporters. Thus moral and political philosophy, history, chronology, biography, will present themselves to our view, and we shall find some knowledge of each necessary, in order completely to understand our own profession: this will enable us at once to observe that intimate connection, which subsists, not less in the natural and moral, than in the scientific world, between one science and another: and will teach us two lessons,-that subordination is necessary to hold human society together, and that all things, whether the revolutions of empires or the fall of a sparrow, are under the guidance of one infinite, all-pervading, and limitless intelligence.

It is by means like these, that we hope to raise and improve the character of the profession to which we belong, to remove the foul stain which has been cast upon it by the ignorant and the sordid,-men who never understood what law is in its true signification; and whose minds, science and learning never softened or humanized.

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Lord Bolingbroke, treating of the necessity for studying history, in his admirable letters on that subject, says, "I might instance, in other professions, the obligations men lie under of applying themselves to certain parts of history, and I can hardly forbear doing it in that of law; in its nature, the noblest and most beneficial to mankind, in its abuse and abasement, the most sordid and the most pernicious. A lawyer, now, is nothing more, (I speak of ninety-nine in one hundred at least,) to use some of Tully's words Nisi leguleius quidam cautus, et acutus, præco actionem, cautor formularum, auceps syllabarum.' But there have been lawyers that were orators, philosophers, historians: there have been Bacons, and Clarendons. There will be none such any more, till, in some better age, true ambition, or the love of fame, prevails over avarice,―till men find leisure and encouragement to prepare themselves for the exercise of this profession, by climbing up to the 'vantage ground' of science, instead of grovelling all their lives below, in a mean, but gainful application to all the little arts of chicane. Till this happens, the profession of the law will scarce deserve to be ranked among the learned professions, and whenever it happens, one of the vantage gounds to which men must climb, is metaphysical and the other historical knowledge. They must pry into the secret recesses of the human heart, and become well acquainted with the whole moral world, that they may discover the abstract reason of all laws; and they must trace the laws of particular states, especially of their own, from the first rough

sketches, to the more perfect drafts; from the first causes, or occasions that produced them, through all the effects, good and bad, that they produced.” No one, acquainted with the history of his profession, will deny, that the observations of Lord Bolingbroke, are just, although severe. Yet, though late, an attempt has been made to improve the character of the profession, and if no other good had resulted from the University of London, than the institution of a professorship of English Law, the gratitude of the present, and the admiration of succeeding ages would be its due.

Let us, however, by our conduct, show that we have profited by the advantages it holds out, and prove that, although a Bacon, or a Clarendon, may not issue from its walls; yet that an institution, founded by a Brougham, and encouraged by a Mackintosh, has fostered men who will not yield to any in a general knowledge of their profession, and in the uprightness and integrity which mark their conduct. And recollect, that "the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong;" but he, who is slow but sure, weak but decisive, will often outstrip the ardent and impetuous in the career of fame. Great abilities, splendid acquirements, and rapid acquisitions of honour and renown, are reserved only for a few extraordinary individuals, and are exhibited only on extraordinary occasions. You must not, therefore, despair, when you look around and behold the mighty elevations to which genius has attained,―you must not blench at the view of the formidable difficulties which will appear to bar your progress. I do not mean to flatter you, by exciting undue hopes, or warming your imaginations, when I should rather lead your judgment; but let me press upon your attention, the necessity of forming high hopes, and fixing upon a high standard of excellence, as the model and the guide of your life; you may not realize those splendid expectations, you may not reach that excellence which you desire to imitate; but what of that? you will rise higher, be more excellent, more useful, than you would have been, had you been content to have remained ignorant, or fixed your desires upon a less magnificent object. Some of the greatest revolutions, which have shook kingdoms and prostrated thrones into the dust, and some of the most magnificent plans for extending and improving human happiness, have arisen from insignificant causes, and been produced by obscure individuals: witness the continual struggles of the republics of Greece, the dissensions at Rome, the wars of the Guelphs and Ghibelines, the contentions between the factions of York and Lancaster, the discovery of printing, the revival of letters, the reformation, the education of the poor, and the attempt to diffuse, universally, the influence of knowledge over the world. All these events, arose from comparatively insignificant causes, and all those discoveries, which now benefit and improve the whole civilized globe, are the result of individual application and perseverance.

I have thus endeavoured to set before you, the objects and advantages OF THE LAW SOCIETY, and, I trust, the observations which have been made, will retain some hold on your memory, and that you will reflect, when you retire from this room, upon the great and important advantages which knowledge confers, and if you are slow in acquiring it, do not, therefore, be weary; for the sinews of wisdom are slowness of belief. And again, South very eloquently observes, "the advances of nature are gradual; they are scarcely discernible in their motions, but only visible in their issue: nobody

310 Note on the conclusion of the Third Volume of Gibbon's Rome.

perceives the grass grow, or the shadow move upon the dial, till, after some time has passed, we reflect upon their progress: and while I remind you that knowledge is power, let me also say, in the eloquent language of Mr. Brougham, "it is power to do good, for the treasures of law and literature are celestial, imperishable, beyond all price; with her is the shrine of our best hopes, the palladuim of pure manhood: to be among the guardians and servants of these, is the noblest function that can be entrusted to a mortal: but there is a solemn mandate to its owner to go forth and labour in his sphere,―to keep alive the sacred fire among his brethren, which the heavy and polluted atmosphere of this world is for ever threatening to extinguish. Woe to him if he neglect this mandate,—if he hear not its 'small still voice ;' woe to him, if he turn this inspired gift into the servant of his ignoble passions,-if he offer it on the altar of vanity,—if he sell it for a piece of money."

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NOTE ON THE CONCLUSION OF THE THIRD VOLUME OF
GIBBON'S ROMAN EMPIRE.

I have just now concluded the 21st chapter of Gibbon's History, which closes the third volume, and is chiefly taken up with an account of the schism of the Donatists, the Arian Controversy, and the distractions and persecutions which disgraced and tormented the church and the empire under the reign of Constantine and his sons. When I ask myself what I have learned from the perusal, I am obliged to answer, that it has taught me nothing more than the necessity of assenting to the observations quoted by Gibbon himself from Ammianus, a pagan historian, and Gregory Nazianzen, a Christian bishop, "That the deadly enmity of the Christians towards each other, surpassed the fury of savage beasts," and "that the kingdom of heaven had been converted, by the horrible discords of theological rancour, into an image of chaos, of a nocturnal tempest, or of hell itself." From such a confused aggregation of murders, burnings, violations, robberies, perjuries, and treacheries, what wisdom can be derived? Can we view without the deepest abhorrence, the greatest portion of civilized mankind inflicting upon each other the anticipated (I had almost said aggravated) horrors of hell itself, about a controversy to which Gibbon has done too much honour in assigning a dipthong as its object.*

As happens in all such cases, the narrative occasionally exhibits some features, which are at the same time terrible and ludicrous. Cecilian and Donatus had both been elected by different parties, and under different circumstances, to fill the vacant episcopal throne of Carthage. It was proposed to refer the disputes of the contending factions to a council, to be convened at Numidia; and which was, of course, to decide upon which of the candidates the genuine call of the Holy Ghost had been conferred. Purpurius, a ferocious divine, who had embraced the party of the Donatists, hearing that Cecilian had been invited to the Council, said, “Let him

* The difference between ὁμοούσιον and ὁμοιούσιον. The respective symbols of the orthodox and heterodox combatants, is only an iota-a typographical i.

Note on the conclusion of the Third Volume of Gibbon's Rome. 311 come, and we'll confer imposition of hands upon him, by breaking his head."

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The Circumcellians, who, according to the general rule, attempted to thrash their adversaries into orthodoxy, made use in battle or in argument, (which was all the same,) of an enormous club, which they comically called an 'Israelite," and in proceeding to the destruction of God's creatures, they charged to a tune called, "Praise be to God," which has doubtless constituted an amiable and authoritative precedent for those Te Deum laudamuses, with which modern Christian monarchs claim credit at the hands of the Almighty, for having slaughtered several thousands of their fellow-men. The following passage very curiously indicates the temper and tactics of some of the bodies who took a part in the Arian Controversy. Talking of the members of the Western or Latin Church, he says, "But as they had the good fortune to derive their religion from a source that was orthodox, they preserved with steadiness the doctrine which they had accepted with docility; and when the Arian Pestilence approached their frontiers, they were supplied with the seasonable preservative of the Homoousion! by the paternal care of the Roman Pontiff. Their sentiments and their temper were displayed in the memorable Synod of Rimini, which surpassed in number the Council of Nice, as it was composed of above four hundred bishops of Italy, Africa, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Illyricum. From the first debates it appeared that only fourscore prelates adhered to the party of Arius. But this inferiority of number was compensated by the advantages of skill, of experience, and of discipline; and the minority was conducted by Valens and Ursæius, two bishops of Illyricum, who had spent their lives in the intrigues of courts and councils, and who had been trained under the Eusebian banner, in the religious wars of the East. By their arguments and negociations they embarrassed, they confounded, they at least deceived the honest simplicity of the Latin Bishops; who suffered the palladium of their faith to be extorted from their hands by fraud and importunity, rather than by open violence. The council of Rimini was not allowed to separate till the members had imprudently subscribed a captious creed, in which some expressions, susceptible of a heretical sense, were inserted in the room of the Homoousion. It was on this occasion that, according to Jerome, the world was surprised to find itself Arian! But the Bishops of the Latin Churches had no sooner reached their respective Dioceses, than they discovered their mistake, and repented of their weakness. The ignominious capitulation was rejected with disdain and abhorrence, and the Homoousian Standard, which had been shaken, but not overthrown, was more firmly replanted in all the churches of the West." The sneering solemnity of this passage, partly concealed and partly adorned, by the thin veil of a perspicuous and elegant narration, exhibits a fair, or at least an adequate specimen, of the spirit and manner in which subjects of a similar nature are treated of throughout the work.

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"Ingemuit orbis, et Arianum se esse miratus est."

This fact trenches rather largely upon the doctrine of the infallibility of all proceedings which take place IN Councils duly assembled.

AUTUMNAL MUSINGS.

'Twas one of Autumn's melancholy eves
That forth I went amid the waning year,
Through wood-paths thick bestrewn with yellow leaves,
Which Time, methought, despitefully did sear,
And much I griev'd they should his livery wear :—
The spider's films lay glistening on the grass,
And clung around my feet as I did pass.

Upsprung the rushing partridge from the brake,
The rous'd hare started from the dewy blades
Whereto she nightly came her thirst to slake;
And circling far above the op'ning glades

Rose cawing rooks; while from the thickest shades
I heard the murmur of the forest dove,
Breathe to his mate a good-night lay of love.

I sat alone beneath an aged tree,

And felt the very spirit of the time

Chase from my soul all thoughts that mirthful be;
So that it would have seemed to me a crime,
When the ripe year was losing all its prime,
Had I not mused on storms, and blight, and gloom,
And beauteous things fast speeding to the tomb.

And thus I sat me there, and 'gan to think

How green leaves bud to fall-young flowers to fade; How summer trees that in their beauty drink The dews of heav'n, yet give their leafy shade To nurse the unfledg'd bird :-ere his full trade Of song the nestling learns, his home is shorn Of all its garniture and left forlorn.

How like to things of Autumn, do our hope,

Our trust, and young affections perish all-
Till the worn heart is left alone to cope

With apathy, which chill and dark doth fall,
Shrouding the heart as with a fun'ral pall,
A barrier 'tween the living and the dead,-
For life is death, when its best hopes are fled.

And what is there beyond?-For SOME return
To the fresh springs of life-but oft❜ner far
To bear the thoughts that in the bosom burn,
Yet show no outward trace of the dark war
That mines within the heart, and so, doth jar
The senses from their poise-and then, to fall
In scatter'd ruins like a mould'ring wall.

Yet of such ruin takes the world small note,-
Little, as when along the sunny tide,

All daintily the shining bubbles float

With tinting of the changeful opal dy'd,

When he who view'd them in their hour of pride,

Yet will he not, or pause, or turn his head

To mark where the frail things have perished.

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