Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1907-07-20
The DenleanOr of Lawyers
Ry IJusTICE wv. ]. GAYNoR.

ed notions about others and the eX-
amples they are to follow. They are
told that Erskine, Scarlet, Webster,
Rufus Choate, Evarts, o'Conor, and
so on, never lost case, or seldom,
when they probably lost more than
they won; for as a lawyers ability
and fame grow more difficult cases
come to him. Butler prevailed over
Choate right along after he got under
way as a young man. And q false
notion Is conveyed about orators and
oratory. They are pictured as phe-
nomenal. You are told, for instance
Of the Godlike Webster, and his tow
ering presence. But the late Sena-
tor Hoar tells us in his memoirs that
Webster weighed only 167 pounds,
and was only five feet ten inches
high. He was of quiet and ordinary
appearance, and even sluggish, I'M
less aroused. In the trial of a law
suit he was methodical and painstak-
ing to the last degree. He relied on
the facts and the law, and not on the
mere use of words. Without the
facts words a-e useless.
The requisites of oratory are, first,
the matter; second, the man of pro-
bity and character behind the matter,
and last and least, the manner of de-
livery. If the matter and the man
be not there, your orator is not there,
however brilliant his rhetoric. l do
not depreciate good delivery. But
mere rhetorician is not an orator.
There is q vast difference between a
rhetoriclan and an orator. If there
be the matter and the man and a
fair delivery, you have the orator.
But the most brilliant delivery with
out the matter and the man does not
make the orator. Most of the great
orators of the world have not been
brilliant speakers, but only fairly
good speakers. You need to know all
of this so as not to attempt too much
In speaking. Do not try too hard.
Be plain and simple. If your sub
ject naturally leads you to some
warmth and vehemence at certain
points, let 1t be in due proportion.
But do not keep it up all the time.
Remember that the ocean never
lashes itself into tempest merely to
watt feather or drown fly.
Read and memorize Hamlet's
speech to the players. If you I'M
derstand your subject you will make
others understand it, and that is the
all-essential thing. Lawyers who
arc merely glib are a bore. They
talk as though they had been to a
feast Of languages and stolen the
scraps, but they say nothing and do
no good. They weary every one. Do
not try to be overpolished in speech
or manner. 1t pals. If any one
recommend that you practice oratory
before mirror, say to him nay. No
one guilty Of such foolery could have
the genuine heart and nature which
are essential to an orator. The ora
tor is more rugged than polished.
My experience is that able men are,
as a rule, simple in manner and Or
binary in appearance.
Cicero tells you what an ordinary
looking man Caesar was as he sat
adjusting his hair so nicely and
scratching his head with one finger.
No one would suspect the vast de-
signs he was capable Of conceiving
and accomplishing. The Almighty
seldom puts q large mind in an i'm
posing exterior, and never in a POM
pous one. Use simple words, always
of one syllable instead of two if you
can get them. Cultivate condensation
and brevity Of speech. If one word
suffice, do not use two, and courts
and juries will bless you and you will
grow in fame. Nay, more, the power
of silence itself is often beyond that
Of words.
Be natural and courteous to the
court and your opponent, but not
servile or effusively polite, for that
is offensive and the greatest of impo-
likeness. Be natural. Do not try to
be witty. 1t is annoying. If you
have the faculty of wit it will now
and then show itself naturally. And,
of all things, never be pompous. The
able lawyer who goes into his case
simply will grow larger all through
it while his pompous adversary grows
smaller all the while. The contrast
is ludicrous to judge and jury, and
sometimes painful.
Be a man first and a lawyer Sec
ond. Do not become in appearance
and manner a mere parchment law
yer. You can avoid this by devoting
yourself to general literature as we'll
as the law. Read the Bible, Shakes
peare, Bacon, Milton and your
classics, and, when tired, the great
book of Cervantes, which will solace
and amuse as long as the world lasts;
also Gil Bias and the autobiography
of Benvenuto Cellini. Read history,
especially the philosophy of history,
like Diapers intellectual Develop
ment of Europe" Lecky's European
Morals" and Emil Reich's Success
Among Nations" Study political
economy, beginning with Adam
Smiths Wealth of Nations"-that
master of moral and political wis
dom, as Gibbon calls him. Also, If
you have had a taste for mathemat-
les, do not let it die out. Go over
your Euclid, and even your comic
sections, again. In this way you will
broaden your mind and become
strong and cogent as a man and
lawyer, instead of degenerating into
a mere parchment lawyer, in face,
heart and soul.