THE LAWYER
451
THE LAWYER By SHEARON BONNER OF all the men by whom mankind are blest, Methinks an honest lawyer is the best. Whether he's counsel, or as judge he sit, He's man's best friend all men of sense admit; He's bulwark of our glorious government, And for humanity's good makes argument. Whenever quarrels come, with tale of woe You straightway to some lawyer's office go, Knowing that he can make of foe a friend, And by his counsel ancient difference end. Even the criminal who makes for strife Looks to his attorney for his life : The lawyer sees the motive in men's deeds, And holds a heart throb higher than all creeds. Does he do wrong to plead the criminal's cause? Which are the higher, man's or Heaven's laws? The lawyer's brain is a land of dreams on earth Wherein great enterprises have their birth; And when his schemes at last are brought to light Prosperity begins and sloth takes flight. In politics he is conservative, And more offence will take than he will give. But still a nation or an empire stands Or falls upon the lawyers it commands. The lawyer is in kind a social fellow : With jest and rare experience he is mellow; Laughs at a quip, and likewise loves to tell Some funny story that to him befell. But when he is in love he's near a fool: He speaks by precedent and courts by rule; And when he's married to a maid for life, May Heaven pity him — I mean his wife. He has indeed a many mooded mind; Is smiling one and grave another time; To him to grant the talent none refuse, To amuse the court and, also court the muse. The most love music, biographers aver: Both Moore and Bacon good musicians were; And he who in sweet sounds doth most de light, Is of all men most apt to do the right. The lawyer's dress is measured by his purse, Though oft 'tis hard to tell which is the worse;
Yet if he sometimes wear a rough outside, Beneath do sincere sympathies abide: His enemy his last cent he will lend, Or spend before he makes to help a friend. An d yet of men the lawyer' s most maligned; A butt he is for jokes of every kind. Two fine young wits together walked one day; Their ambles by a cemetery lay; And on a grave this line they chanced to scan: "Here lies a lawyer and an honest man." "Yes, still he lies, even after he is dead," With jesting merriment the first wit said; Replied his friend, likewise to puns a slave, "Strange! Here are two men buried in one grave." True, all that poets and cynics say of him Appears to the well informed the merest whim; . But ignorant persons these few fragments catch, And think all lawyers liars by the watch. Instead, the lawyer sets the moral tone Of each community where he has a home : You'll find it true, though go you near or far, A town's no better than its lawyers are. Unless you chance to know him at close range, A lawyer's conduct seems at times most strange: In trials at court his opponent need beware (His reputation hangs but by a hair); But when the suit is ended and decreed, The two clasp hands again like friends agreed. His client his highest skill always receives; And shrewd he is as any man who breathes : With book and paper slow to court he goes, And never tells a jury all he knows. The lawyer's and doctor's work stand side by side; Both to divinity's are close allied : 'Tis by men's sins that preachers earn their bread, •' And their disease by which the doctor's fed; The lawyer, likewise, lives upon their strife; — And thus the three together go through life. But here the analogy ceases to exist — Their methods of quite different ways consist:
