Independent Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1842-1844, 1842-11-26

uiu biih5
and your hbits to the study of the law,
which yousay is to be your protess!on;--
and when YOU come to this study, come
resolved to master it-not to play IN Its
shadows, but to sound its depths. There
is no knowing what mind greatly and
firmly resolved may achieve in this de-
partment of science, as well as every 9th
err. Resolve to be the first lawyer OF your
age, in The depth, extent, variety, and ac-
curacy of YOUR legal learninn- -. Moci0G
upon LlIlletOn--and C0ke's and Plow-
den's Reports--master Fearne on Contin-
gent Remaindels and Eyecutory Devises,
TIL you can sport and play famiiarly with
its most subtle distinctions. Lay your
foundation deep, and broad, and strong,
and you will find the superstructure com
para;ively light work. 1t is not by
shrinking from the difficult parts of the
science, but by counting them, graphing
with them, and overcoming them, that a
man rises to professional greatness
There is a deal OF learning that is diy,
dark, cold, revoling---but it is an old feu-
dal castle, in perfect preservation, which
the legal architect, who aspires to the first
honors of his profession, will delight to
explore, and learn all the uses to which
its various parts used to be put: and he
will the better understand, en- oy and rel
ish the progressive improvements of the
science in modern times. You must be a
master in every branch of the science that
belongs TO your profession; the law of ma
ture and OF nations, the civil law, the law
merchant, the maritime law, &c, the chart
and outline of all which you will see IN
Backstone's Commentaries. Thus cover
ed with the panoply of professional learn
ing, master of the pleadings, practice
and cases, and at the same time a great
constitutional and philosophic larger,
you must keep way also, with the march
of general science. DO you think this re-
qurng too much? Look at Brougham,
and see what man can do if we'll armed
and well resolved. With a load of pro-
fessona duties that would of themselves,
have been appalling TO the most of orr
countrymen, he stood nevertheless, at the
head of his party in the House of Com
mons, and, at the same time, set in motion
and superintendent various primary schools
and various periodical works, the most in
and useful that ever issued from
the British press, TO which he furnished,
with his own peu, some of the most mas
tery contributions, and yet found time not
only 10 keep pace with the progress Of the
arts anC sciences, but to keep at the head
of those whose peculiar and exclusive &C.
equations those arts and sciences were.-
There is model of industry and useful
ness worthy of all your emulation. You
must, indeed, be a great lawyer, but it
will not do to be a mere lawyer--more es.
peclally as you are very properly turning
your mind, also, to the political service Of
your country, and 10 the study and prac-
tice of eloquence. You must, therefore,
be a political lawyer and historian; tho
roughly versed in the constitution, and
laws Of your country, and fully acquainted
with all is statistics, and the history of all
the leading measures which have distin-
gulshed the several administrations. You
must study the deb ties in Congress, and
observe what have been the actual effects
upon the country of the various measures
that have been the most strenuously con-
tested in their origin. You must be mas
ter of the science of political economy, and
of financiering, of which so few
OF our young countrymen know any thing.
The habit of observing all that is passing,
and thinking closely and deeply upon them,
demands pre-eminently an attention to the
political course Of your country. But it
is time to close this letter. You ask for
instructions adapted TO improvement in ell
oquence. This is a subject for a treatise,
not for letter. Cicero, however, has
summed up the whole art in few words;
1t is "dpte -diStincte-orndte -dicerc"-
to speak to the purpose-to speak clearly
and dlstinctly-to speak gracefully--to be
abe to speak to the purpose, you must I'M
derstand your subject and all that belongs
TO lt:-and then your thoughts and method
must be clear in themselves and clearly and
enuncated:-aud lastly, your
voice, style, delivery and sture, must be
graceful and delightfully."- impressive. In
relation to this subject, would strenuous
ly advise you TO Two things: Compose
much, and often, and carefully with refer
ence to this same rule of "dpte, distincte,
ornate" and let your conversation have
reference to the same objects. do not
mean that you should lie elaborate and
formal in your ordinary conversation
Let it be perfectly simple and natural, but
always in good time, Ito speak as the mu.
slclan,) and well enunciated.
With regard to the style of eloquence
that you shall adopt, that must depend very
much on your own taste and genius. You
a e not disposed, | presume, to be an hum
bic imitator of any mani If you are, you
NAV hid larewell 10 the hnna of eminence