educated, not whether he shall be educated in the law, but what studies he shall pursue before taking up the law. Comparing the classics with (a) mathematics, (b) the modern languages, (c) the natural sciences, (d) the applied sciences, (e) historical studies, (f) philosophical studies, I hold that the study of the classics yields superior training in the faculties of judgment and of language, and that these are what he most needs.

We could easily take up the comparison of the classical studies with those in each of the other groups of studies above noted, and find that, while each of the other groups has some point of excellence in which it surpasses all others, yet, in the discipline of the faculties which measure, and weigh and compare, and contrast and balance the different elements, and exercise selection and make decision among them, the study of the classics surpasses them all.

(a) In mathematics, broadly speaking, each problem admits of but one answer, obtained in one way. The faculties of precise definition and accurate operation and statement are greatly disciplined, but the faculties of judgment, less so.

(b) In the modern languages (1) there is a royal road to each one of them, viz., taking a vacation in its motherland; and (2) the modern forms of speech are corrupted in use and aided by object-lessons to such an extent as distinctly to lessen their value as discipline for the judgment.

(c, d) The natural and applied sciences pre-eminently discipline the powers of observation.

(e, f) The historical and philosophical studies (after their initial stages, as information studies) are higher forms of cultivation of the judgment. They need a pre

liminary training of the judgment to build on, just as do the study and practice of the law. If we consider the training of the linguistic and dialectic faculties, we shall find that (after a thorough training in the use of the mother-tongue) the classics come first and the philosophical studies next. The lawyer then should study the classics and the philosophical studies.

It should be realized that the chief business of the lawyer has become that of business adviser; that the writing and interpreting of contracts, charters, ordinances, statutes, wills, by-laws, and business regulations, and advising with reference thereto, constitute his chief occupation. In all this he is constantly required to distinguish closely between the thought and the words in which the thought is expressed. Merely to illustrate, in these instruments, such forms of thought as express alternative future possibilities are in constant use. In the discussion of adverse interests and claims the "supposition contrary to fact" is continually involved. Other things being equal, the mind trained by the rules and exceptions of classic syntax and their noble examples in classic literature has a familiarity with the forms of thought, as distinguished from the words in which they are expressed, which nowhere else, as I believe, can be acquired so well.

The objection that the classics are uninteresting, hard, and dry, is put forth by the boy himself. And from every point of view we give this objection too much importance. But to the active practicing lawyer I beg to say that this is an important element in their value.

A lawyer must needs study uninteresting old statutes, dry and ancient blue books, stupid, antiquated ordinances, early black-letter precedents, to find out what the law is and what his client's rights are. Unless he can study

alertly, patiently, and discriminatingly all these uninteresting, hard, and dry sources of the law and bases of rights, he will never reach the higher walk of his profession. Many men have natural aptitude for this. Many men have such superior ambition and industry that they will learn how to do this work when the necessity for it overtakes them. Of them we do not speak. But for the average youth who aims to become a lawyer there is great need that he be given special training in the interpretation of documents which are uninteresting, hard, and dry. He will have no end of it to do in his profession. He should conquer this preliminary difficulty before he enters upon his work. And while hard work for hard work's sake is a solecism, hard work in something worth while, for the strength and skill to be gained thereby, is the essence of all disciplinary education. And this applies to the study of the classics by the would-be lawyer.

I have said nothing of the fact that there are thousands of legal terms adopted bodily from the Latin; that the terminology of the law is largely a Latin terminology; that our law itself is built upon the Roman law as a foundation, to a degree that only our best lawyers realize; that most of the legal conceptions which are daily employed in the profession are largely Roman in their origin; that the full-blown judicial statements with which the early common law abounds were many of them taken almost bodily from the Roman law; that, in the language of Sir Matthew Hale, a man could never well understand law as a science without first resorting to the Roman law for information"; and he lamented that it was so little studied in England (I Kent, 546).

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In all this the person who appreciates the value of the

scientific treatment of law will find powerful additional arguments for the study of the classics. The Latin of the Institutes is mainly post-classical in the technical sense, but may be treated as classical for present purposes. I have often regretted that the colleges in their offerings of Latin do not more often include the Institutes of Gaius and Justinian, which would familiarize the student, not only with classical forms of thought and expression, but with legal conceptions also.

We know, of course, that the slang of the street, the jargon of the market-place, and the vogue of the moment pervade the current use of English. This is true of every other language in current use. We know again that among the thousand books put forth each year, but one or two survive and are worth our study. And we are ofttimes perplexed to select those two, and avoid loss of time and effort upon the unworthy. But among the classics the winnowing hand of Time has made the selection for us. The slang, the jargon, and the vogue have passed. The clamorous utterances of the ephemeral and the unworthy have perished. The fittest, however, survive.

One accent of the Holy Ghost

The heedless world hath never lost.

And these are our classics; these, the testings and selections which the ages have pronounced worthy. It is the absorption of these, the mastery of their spirit, and the equipment that they yield, which give to the educated. lawyer his special strength; which give the educated man in every field his sense of kinship with the great minds of all ages; which store his mind with the resources of the world; which give the spirit of light and leading which he needs.

The man who knows his classics goes through the work of life saying:

I hear the lofty paeans

Of the masters of the shell,

Who heard the starry music

And recount the numbers well;

Olympian bards who sung

Divine Ideas below,

Which always find us young

And always keep us so.

And he has within him the sense of largeness and of power that gives him in some degree, however small, a fellowship with the greatest and noblest-with

Caesar's hand, and Plato's brain,

The Lord Christ's heart, and Shakespeare's strain.

II. THE STUDY OF GREEK AND LATIN AS A PREPARATION FOR THE STUDY OF LAW

LYNDEN EVANS

Of the Chicago Bar

If one were to select a single word to express the aims and ambitions of the present day in substantially every field of human effort, that word would be "efficiency." The result is everywhere the principal thing sought after, and, with regret it must be said, the method of reaching the result is considered with more or less indifference. This applies even to the training of lawyers. There is a widespread indifference upon the subject, in general, as well as a tendency away from the study of the classics as a preliminary professional training.

That the study of Latin and Greek has tradition on its side is no longer an effective argument. We should, therefore, abandon that argument, and we may abandon it without regret; for, in the first place, it is a waste of