resulting to the science and practice of law from the influence of divine faith.
The beginning of this road cannot be generally inviting. The service-tree which delights in cold places, terrible, as Pliny says, from the rods of magistrates *, grows here on each side, along ⚫ with stunted oaks indigenous in northern regions, though the wasps and hornets of a sultry season buzz in our ears, and threaten greatly to molest the wayfarer. Some however will take this road from choice, though the whole tract through which it leads may deter others; being characterized by a certain frigid aspect, every thing seeming to be dry as withered roots and husks wherein the acorn cradled. The Roman poet and his brother differed in respect to their estimate of this path; for he says,—
"Frater ad eloquium viridi tendebat ab ævo,
Fortia verbosi natus ad arma fori,
At mihi jam puero celestia sacra placebant+."
So it may be with the reader and the stranger, who, as Cicero says, wants all forensic light, and therefore here he should invoke some guide, versed in the special matter for observation, to lead the way; and, indeed, generally as we advance through this forest, we ought to have for companion on each of the roads some one who can interpret the signs found upon it, by referring to his own individual studies and personal experience, and by reasoning on the moral decay or development of the social position in which he is especially placed, according as it is less or more influenced by Catholicity. On this road we should leave it to some man of law to speak, who is better qualified to recognize the signals and detect the openings; for at the commencement, it must be confessed, to inexperienced feet the underwood seems to be impassable, and we might think that not even light can pierce through it. The figures that precede us on this path, gliding into the gloomy wood, are dark too and disagreeable. The character of the legist from the earliest times has never been considered as presenting a soil favourable to the seeds of that divine philosophy which, in Christian ages, is only another term for Catholicism. Its opposition to the people of God can be witnessed in the letter of Artaxerxes, ordaining the destruction of the Jews. "Whereas," says the king, "I reigned over many nations, and had brought all the world under my dominion, I was not willing to abuse the greatness of my power, but to govern my subjects with clemency and lenity, that they might live quietly without any terror, and might enjoy peace, which is desired by all men. But when I asked my counsellors