Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1849-09-29

ming. | would not wish YOU TO plunge
into an extensive practice at once. 1t vii
break up your reading, and prevent yo'
from preparing properly for that hlghe
theatre which you ought always to keel
in your minds eye.
For two or three years, you must read
r-read-read- d-delve-meditate -s study
and make the whole mine of the law
your own. For two or three years, l hat
much rather that your appearance shoult
be rare and splendid, than frequently llgh
and vapid, like those OF the young country
practitioner about you.
Let me use the privilege of my age and
experience to give you few hints, which
now that you are beginning the practice
you may not find useless:
/. Adopt system of life, as to business
and exercise; and never deviaie from 1t
except so far as YOU may be occasionally
forced by imperious and uncomfortable cir
cumstances.
.. Live in your office, i. @. be alwav:
seen in ii except al the hours of eating oI
exercise.
3. Answer all letters as soon as they are
received; YOU know not how many heart.
aches it NAV save YOU. Then fold neatly
endorse neatly, and file away neatly, al pha-
betica!ly, and by the year, all the letter:
so received. Let your letters on bushes;
be short, and keep copies of them.
4. Put every law paper in its place as
soon as received, and let no scrap of paper
/ be seen lying, for a moment, on your wri-
ting chair or tables. This will strike the
eye of every man Of business who enters.
>. Keep regular accounts Of every cent
of income aud expenditure, and file your
receipts neatly, alphabetically. and by the
month, or at least, by the year.
E. b. patient with your foolish clients,
and hear all their tedious circum!ocution
and repetlions with calm and kind atten-
ton: cross examine and siit them. till you
know all the strength and weakness OF
their cause, and take notes OF it at once
whenever YOU can do 50.
7. File your bills in Chancerv at the
moment of ordering the suit. and while
/ your client is vet with YOU to correct your
statement OF his case; also prepare every
declaration the moment the suit Is ordered,
and have it ready 10 file.
8. Cultivate simple stvle of speaking,
50 as to be able TO inject the strongest
/ thought into the weakest capacity. You
will never be good jury lawyer without
/ this faculty.
/ 9. Never attempt TO be grand and mag
niticent. before common tribunals--and the
most YOU will address are common. The
neglect Of this priucip pie of common sense
has runed--with all men of sense.
20. Keep your Latin and Greek, and
science to yourself, and to that very small
circle which they may suit. The mean
and envious world will never forgive you
your knowledge, if you make it too public.
1t will require the most unceasing urbanity
and habitual gentleness of manners, almost
TO humility, to make your superior attain
ments tolerable to your associates.
IL. Enter with warmth and kindness
into the interesting concerns of others
whether you care much for them or not
not with the condescension of superior,
but with the tenderness and simplicity OF
an equal. 1t is this benevolent trait which
make and - such universal favor
ites-and more than anything else, has
smoo,hed my own path OF life, and strewed
it with flowers.
II. Be never flutried in speaking, but
learn to assume the exterior of composure
and self collectedneSS, whatever riot and
confusion may be within; speak slowly,
firmly, distinctly, and mark your periods
with proper pauses, and steady significant
look ;-'.Trick !" True,-but a good trick,
and sensible trick,
You talk of comPlimenting your adver-
sarleS. Take care of your manner of doirg
this. Let ii be humble and sincere, and
not as if YOU thought It was in your power
to give them importance by your fqt.-
You see how natural it is Tor old men to
preach, and how much easier to preach
than TO practice. Yet you must not slight
my sermons, for / wish YOU to be much
greater than | ever was or can hope to be.
Our friend Carr will tell You that my max
inns are all sound. Practise them, and
will warrant your success, You have more
science and literature than l;--but know
good dea! more of the world and of life,
and II will be much cheaper for you TO
profit by my experience and miscarriages
than by your own. Nothing is so apt to
tincture.the manners of young man with
hauteur, and with cold and disdaiuinl in
difference towards others, as conscious su-
perority; and nothing is so fatal to his
progress through life, as such tincture
witness -. My iriend--himself, is
not without some i'll effect from it, and,
since you must feel this superiority, | can
not be without fear of its usual effects.
You must not suppose because ! give you
precepts On particular subjects, that have
observed you deficient in these respects ;
on the contrary, it is only by way of pre-
vention; and, whether my precepts are
necessary to you or not, you are too well
assured of my affection, TO take them other
wise than in good part. Farewell-my
letters shall not all be lectures.
Yours affectionately,
| "a. WM. WRIT.
| vnrvNy anAxtc mo- xxyNs vurnsr