The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-05-07
Preparation for
Practice OF Law
Editor of The Tribune.

Sir: The pamphlet compiled by Mr..
John NJ. Harris entitled "Outline of Re
quirements of Students Preparing tor
Admission to the Bar will dash the
cup from the lips of many an asplrant
- the legal profession in this county.
A knowledge of ancient and modern
history may be attained by a student
Of ordinary diligence and capacity, ana
is an accomplishment which the em-
bryO lawyer will find of equal ad-
vantage at his entrance examination
and through the course of his profess
sional career our common law is
mainly founded on Roman law, and
the history of ancient civilization is
largely the history Of the Roman en-
pire i'm it's rise, in its expansion and in
its elimination. No youth or man
preparing for one of the liberal or
learned professions should be ignorant
of modern history, not merely of his
own country, but of the world. 1t is
indeed a first requirement of an edu-
Gated man i'm any work of life.
knowledge Of higher mathematics in
wolves a thorough or superficial train
ing in one of the most exact, abstract
and abstruse of mental sciences. To
obtain even a superficial knowledge of
the higher mathematics pre-supposcs
moro than an elementary training in
it's lower stages. and this much cannot
| be attained without Tong application
and mental receptivity Of a particular
and by no means a common order In
the higher and more complicated de-
| vclopments of pure mathematics the
| devotion Of this lives by it's votaries
to the exclusion of letters and applied
science barely or rarely sutiices for
| mastery. 1t will be asked, what rela-
| ton has mathematics to law? Mr..
| Harris would probably answer that as
| a mental discipline mathematics has
| no rival This explanation involves q
| whole or partial truth. For an engi-
| neer it would be wholly true; for a
| lawyer we doubt if it would be even
| partially So \ law student who has
read and studied the speeches and
! writings of Edmund Burke. who fol-
| lowed the historical events that led up
| To them, that We're involved in them,
| and that grew out of them, will have
| passed through a mental discipline at
| once unique and congenial; discipline
! that mastery of Euclid, trigOnOmetry
| or the difterential calculus, cannot inn
| part in correlation to the work of his
| life.
Most of the lawyers who are at the
| present day pray ticinG at the Lacka-
wanna bar have studied for their pro-
fession after they had reached man
hood. Some of the best of them have
not had the advantages of classical
education in youth; some, of course,
| have had. To acquire a readable
| knowledge Of Latin when man has
reached the age of twenty-five years
or so is possible, but not very prob
able. 4 readable knowledge of Latin
presumes years Of study. To translate
intelligently the First Book of Nirgils
Aenid or the First Book OF Caesars
. commentaries involves a knowledge OF
the Latin grammar, no trihing matter
on PTosOdy, the terror of the schoo
boy. We do not know whether Mr.
Harris means by a knowledge Of Latin
such familiarity with the Latin Ian.
! Euage as would premise the classica
culture requisite for intellectual fami,
liarty with Justinians code in
the original for instance. Nothing
short of this would be of much value
as an educational criterion.
! ! so
The evident aim of the examiners o
the LaCkawanna bar is to raise the in
tcllectual and moral tone of it's mem
bers and to exclude from it undesirable
acquisitions. We sincerely sympathiz'
with this object If the legal profes
I sion is to retain the respect and conf
I dence Of the public the average menta
, capacity Of its members must be high
er than ii is. The bar has sadly de
Perforated in late years. The eClips
of the legal luminaries of other days
days not yet very remote, is complete
g This generalization does not Apply T.
t the Lackawanna bar, but to the lega
1 profession throughout the country.
I knowledge Of chemistry is a poor sub
@ stitute in the young lawyer for
: knowledge of Blackstone, Coke, Bent
4 ham ana Steven; of Henry, Story an
- Field; of the writings of Hamilto
> and of jefferson. The acquisition q
knowledge has its limitations. w
4 cannot, individually, be lawyers, chem
a lists, philosophers and mathematician
d at the same time or at any time. Thi
O is an age of mental specialization.
lawyer cannot know too much Law
4 and we are almost tempted to say, to
=. little of anything else Let there b
SANE anu StltltlHt toIItldllbH Ut
y tween a graduates examination an
l. the work in life he intends to pursu,
= A knowledge of astronomy is not
o prime requisite in the curriculum {
n a medical student. 1t bears the sam
n relation to anatomy as geology doe
IS to dentistry, and chemistry to law.
Lex.
|
IS M'KINLEY COMMENDED.