The Study of Law.
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THE STUDY OF LAW FROM THE STANDPOINTS OF MENTAL DISCI PLINE AND GOOD CITIZENSHIP. BY W. E. GLANVILLE, PH.D., LL.B. ALL study worthy the name is advan tageous and disciplinary in its char acter. Not less than the body, the mind requires cultivation and discipline. If it be conceded that the study of Latin and Greek is no longer advisable because of its lack of practical utility, still it cannot be denied that the mental exercise inseparable from the study of these languages is most salutary. It is this mental exercise, this drilling of mental powers, that constitutes not the least important feature of rational education. The pernicious idea that education consists simply in cramming a stock of information into the mind, as you would provisions into a larder, cannot be too earnestly combated. Human minds are not to be stuffed as turkeys are for Thanksgiving; nor packed as trunks are for a vacation. To abuse the mind by subjecting it to ab normal strains produced by overloading it with undigested mental nutriment too fre quently results in arresting its development and impairing its vigor and versatility for the remainder of life. Study is the process by which we incorporate into the mind the thought or mental production of another and make it part and parcel of our own mental being. It includes not simply a cursory acquaintance with books or objects. It embraces patient and thoughtful assimila tion of the knowledge contained in those books or objects, and results in enlargement or enlightenment of mind. This is particu larly true of the study of law, which is coex tensive "with the boundless variety of human concerns." It reveals to the student the fundamental principles upon which civil
ized society is reared and regulated; it opens up for his investigation otherwise hidden springs of history; it narrates the origin and progress of civil and judicial institutions; it indicates the sound functions and boundaries of good government. It pertains to the most sacred and solemn transactions in which human beings can en gage in this life, and affords opportunities for exploring the domains in which private, municipal, national and international rights severally move. Affording a field of inquiry so vast and extending over a period of time which dates from the remotest antiquity, the study of law is calculated to furnish an expansive and profitable course of mental discipline. The following are among the chief fea tures of mental discipline such a course of study presents : — I. Concentration of attention. Legal study offers no inducement to the sleepy, slovenly, careless or frivolous stu dent. A law text-book can have no attrac tion for the person who is not prepared for hard work. Charles Lamb, in his appre ciative essay entitled, " The Old Benchers of the Inner Temple," informs his readers that one of the celebrities he describes, while enjoying a high reputation for legal acumen, actually possessed very little knowl edge of law. The essayist adds : " When a case of difficult disposition of money, testa mentary or otherwise, came before him, he ordinarily handed it over to his man Lovel, who was a quick-witted little fellow, and would dispatch it out of hand by the light of his natural understanding, of which he
