'Lawyers,' says Martial, 'are, with fees in view,
Men that hire out their words and anger too,'[1]
And they, by Martin Luther were declared
'To be bad Christians,'—an opinion shared
By many other persons in his day.
And in our own—I need perhaps scarcely say:
Their province is to deal with truth and lies;
With precedents, and technicalities;
With quibbles, and objections, and reports;
With codes, and statutes in the various Courts;
And many other things in litigation,
Essential to complete their education.[2]
NOTES
- ↑ Men that hire out their words and anger too;]
Two lawyers when a knotty case was o'er,
Shook hands, and were as good friends as before.
'Say,' cries the losing client, 'how came you
To be such friends who were such foes just now'?
'Thou fool,' one answers, 'lawyers, though so keen.
Like shears, ne'er cut themselves, but what's between.'
—Book of Epigrams.
'Lawyers,' said Douglas Jerrold, 'are a class of men whose consciences are as tender as the bellies of alligators.'
- ↑ 1Essential to complete their education.] It is not generally know perhaps, that one of the best of England's Poets was destined for the Bar. I allude to William Cowper, the author of 'God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform,' and of some other well-known hymns and poems.
