The Relative Influence of the Lawyer in Modern Life the great source of power. Might was right, and the rule of society was that of a Rob Roy. Let him take that hath the power And let him keep that can. Slowly, however, there emerged from ruder times a class whose strength con sisted, not in their physical strength, but in intellectual cunning—"cunning" then meaning, not craftiness, but knowl edge. The very deterioration in the meaning of "cunning" illustrates the truth of which I speak. It was not un natural that the man of physical prowess should look with contempt, envy and fear upon the physically weaker man who triumphed through the subtle but potent power of thought. The mythologies of prehistoric times clearly represent the views of life entertained by primitive human nature, and it is significant that the two systems of mythology with which our race is most directly con nected both manifested this feeling of depreciation. In Greek mythology the gods symbolized various phases of physi cal power or beauty, but among them, although occupying a lesser station, was Mercury, the symbol of swift intelli gence. He was the patron god of subtle men, of poets, lawyers, orators, and the depreciation of intellectual ability is shown by the fact that he was also accounted the god of liars and thieves. For him was reserved no high place on Olympus. He was lower in the scale of precedence than Vulcan, the symbol of brute strength, of Mars, the god of war, or of Venus, the goddess of beauty. An even more striking illustration of this primitive estimate was the concep tion of the Norse analogue of Mercury. He was Loki, the god of fire, and, there fore, of intellect, argument and reason. His was not the thunder hammer of Dormer, nor the burning sunshine of Balder, but whenever the gods were con
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fronted with circumstances over which mere physical might could not triumph it was to Loki that they turned to sug gest a way of escape. You remember the Norse myth of "The Ring," as glori fied by both the literary and musical genius of Richard Wagner. Wotan, the supreme god, desired to build the castle of Valhalla. He turns to Loki for guid ance, and is advised to employ the giants Fafner and Fasolt under a promise that to them shall be given as their wage Freia, the goddess of immortal youth. Loki promises when the work is com pleted to find some method of avoiding performance of the contract, and when Valhalla is built, the giants claim Freia. It is to Loki that the gods turn to save them from the eternal loss of youth. Loki tells them that he has searched the world in vain for any worthy sub stitute for the goddess of immortal youth, but that he might persuade the giants to take, in lieu of Freia, the gold ring, giving immeasurable power, which Alberich, the spirit of evil, had wrested from the Rhine maidens. By intellec tual cunning Loki overcomes the dwarf, obtains the ring and persuades the giants to accept it in lieu of Freia, but when the gods, thus rescued from fatal disaster by Loki's cunning, proceed over the rainbow bridge into Valhalla they leave Loki behind, who, looking down into the waters of the Rhine, whence the gold was ravished, and then upward to the rainbow bridge to the stately procession of the gods, sarcastically ex claims of those whom he had rescued and by whom he was ignored:— To their end they fleetly are led Who believe themselves founded forever; Almost I shame To mix in their matters. How often lawyers have thus ex pressed themselves after saving clients from their own folly!
