almost to stop his studies; and Quincy's soul is afraid to aim at great acquisition. Paine (to me.) "You don't intend to be a sage, I suppose?" Oh, Paine has not penetration to reach the bottom of my mind. He don't know me; next time I will answer him, and say, "No. Knowledge enough to keep out of fire and water is all that I aim at." 19. Thursday. I borrowed yesterday of Quincy the first volume of Batista Angeloni's Letters, and a "General Treatise of naval trade and commerce as founded on the laws and statutes of this realm, in which those" (laws and statutes, I suppose) "relating to his majesty's customs, merchants, masters of ships, mariners, letters of marque, privateers, prizes, convoys, cruisers, &c. are particularly considered and treated with due care under all the necessary heads, from the earliest time down to the present,” second edition, in two volumes. Read Angeloni through, I believe, and studied carefully about a dozen pages in mercantile law. Angeloni's Letters are all of a piece. He has an odd system of faith, namely, that utility is truth,2 and therefore that transubstantiation is true, and auricular confession is true, because they are useful, and promote the happiness of mankind. Therefore rain is true, because it is useful in promoting the growth of herbs and fruit and flowers, and consequently of animals, for man's use. This is very different from mathematical truth, and this explanation of his meaning gives room to suspect that he disbelieves a revelation himself, though he thinks it useful for the world to believe it. He reasons, Who can conceive that a being of infinite wisdom, justice, and goodness, would suffer the world to be governed two thousand years by a religion that was false? But may not this question be asked of the Mahomedans, the Chinese, in short, of every religion under heaven; and will not the argument equally prove these all to be true? 3 What passion is most active and prevalent in―'s mind? The desire of money. He retails sugar by the pound, by the bunch, pins, penknives, to save these articles in his family, and net a few shillings profit. He makes poor people who are 1 This work, now deservedly forgotten, was the means of procuring for its author, Dr. Shebbeare, the distinction of the pillory in England. 3 Illegible. 2 Vol. i. p. 91. in his debt pay him in labor He bargains with his debtors in the two other parishes for wood which he sends to the landing place and to Dr. Marsh's; thus by practice of physic, trading, and bargaining, and scheming, he picks up a subsistence for his family and gathers very gradually additions to his stock; but this is low. The same application and scheming in his profession would raise up and spread him a character, preserve him profitable business, and make him his fortune. But by this contemptible dissipation of mind among pins, needles, tea, snuffboxes, vendues, loads of wood, day labor, &c. he is negligent of the theory of his profession, and will live and die unknown. These drivelling souls, oh! He aims not at fame, only at a living and a fortune. 21. Saturday. Rose with the sun. I am now set down to the laws relating to naval trade and commerce. Let me inquire of the next master of a ship that I see, what is a bill of lading; what the log-book; what invoices they keep; what accounts they keep of goods received on board and of goods delivered out; what in other ports? &c. 22. Sunday. Conversed with Captain Thacher about commercial affairs.1 24. Tuesday. Rode to Boston; arrived about half after ten; went into the court house and sat down by Mr. Paine, at the lawyers' table. I felt shy, under awe and concern; for Mr Gridley, Mr. Pratt, Mr. Otis, Mr. Kent, and Mr. Thacher, were all present, and looked sour. I had no acquaintance with anybody but Paine and Quincy, and they took but little notice. However, I attended court steadily all day, and at night went to consort with Samuel Quincy and Dr. Gardiner. There I saw the most spacious and elegau room, the gayest company of gentlemen, and the finest row of la lies that ever I saw; but the weather was so dull, and I so disordered, that I could not make one half the observations that I wanted to make. 25. Wednesday. Went in the morning to Mr. Gridley's* and asked the favor of his advice, what steps to take for an introduction to the practice of law in this county. He answered, 1 Here follows a minute abstract of the conversation; of bills of lading, invoices, accounts, &c. [Jeremiah Gridley, the father of the bar in Boston, and the preceptor of Pratt, Otis, Thacher, Cushing, and many others.] "Get sworn." Ego. "But in order to that, sir, as I have no patron in this county"— G. "I will recommend you to the court; mark the day the court adjourns to, in order to make up judgments; come to town that day, and, in the mean time, I will speak to the bar; for the bar must be consulted, because the court always inquires if it be with consent of the bar." Then Mr. Gridley inquired what method of study I had pursued, what Latin books I read, what Greek, what French? what I had read upon rhetoric? Then he took his common-place book and gave me Lord Hale's advice to a student of the common law; and when I had read that, he gave me Lord C. J. Reeve's advice to his nephew, in the study of the common law. Then he gave me a letter from Dr. Dickins, Regius Professor of Law at the University of Cambridge, to him, pointing out a method of studying the civil law; then he turned to a letter he wrote to Judge Lightfoot, Judge of the Admiralty in Rhode Island, directing to a method of studying the admiralty law. Then Mr. Gridley run a comparison between the business and studies of a lawyer, a gentleman of the bar in England and those of one here: A lawyer in this country must study common law, and civil law, and natural law, and admiralty law; and must do the duty of a counsellor, a lawyer, an attorney, a solicitor, and even of a scrivener; so that the difficulties of the profession are much greater here than in England. "The difficulties that attend the study may discourage some, but they never discouraged me." (Here is conscious superiority.) "I have a few pieces of advice to give you, Mr. Adams. One is, to pursue the study of the law, rather than the gain of it; pursue the gain of it enough to keep out of the briers,* but give your main attention to the study of it. The next is, not to marry early; for an early marriage will obstruct your improvement; and, in the next place, it will involve you in expense. Another thing is, not to keep much company, for the application of a man who aims to be a lawyer must be incessant; his attention to his books must be constant, which is inconsistent with keeping much company. In the study of law, the common law, be sure, deserves your first and last attention; and he has conquered all the difficulties of this law, who is * [His advice made so deep an impression on my mind, that I believe no lawyer in America ever did so much business as I did afterwards, in the seventeen years that I passed in the practice at the bar, for so little profit.] master of the Institutes. You must conquer the Institutes. The road of science is much easier now than it was when I set out; I began with Coke-Littleton, and broke through." I asked his advice about studying Greek. He answered, "It is a matter of mere curiosity." After this long and familiar conversation, we went to court, attended all day, and in the evening I went to ask Mr. Thacher's1 concurrence with the bar; drank tea and spent the whole evening- upon original sin, origin of evil, the plan of the universe, and at last upon law. He says he is sorry that he neglected to keep a common-place book when he began to study law, and he is of half a mind to begin now. Thacher thinks this county is full. "No." "No." 26. Thursday. Went in the morning to wait on Mr. Pratt.2 He inquired "if I had been sworn at Worcester?" "Have you a letter from Mr. Putnam to the court?" "It would have been most proper to have done one of these things first. When a young gentleman goes from me into another county, I always write in his favor to the court in that county; or, if you had been sworn there, you would have been entitled to be sworn here. But now, nobody in this county knows any thing about you, so nobody can say any thing in your favor but by hearsay. I believe you have made a proper proficiency in science, and that you will do very well, from what I have heard, but that is only hearsay." (How different is this from Gridley's treatment! Besides, it is weak; for neither the court nor the bar will question the veracity of Mr. Gridley and Mr. Pratt. So that the only uncertainty that can remain is, whether Mr. Putnam was in earnest in the account he gave of my morals and studies to those gentlemen; which cannot be removed by a line from him, or by my being sworn at Worcester, or any other way than by getting Mr. Putnam sworn.) After this, he asked me a few short questions about the course 1 Oxenbridge Thacher. There was not a citizen of Boston more universally beloved for his learning, ingenuity, every domestic and social virtue, and conscientious conduct in every relation of life.-J. A. Mr. Tudor, who, in his Life of James Otis, has done much to embody the memory of these times, has given a happy sketch of his character. p. 57. A more particular account of him may be found in Dr. Eliot's Dictionary. 2 Benjamin Pratt is mentioned by Hutchinson as "of the first character in his profession." He was at this time a representative for Boston, the second instance of an election of a lawyer to that place. A few years after this he was made Chief Justice of New York. of my studies, which I answered, and then came off as full of wrath as I was full of gratitude when I left Gridley the morning before. Pratt is infinitely harder of access than Gridley; he is ill-natured, and Gridley is good-natured. Attended court all day, and at night waited on Otis,1 at his office, where I conversed with him; and he with great ease and familiarity promised me to join the bar in recommending me to the court.* Mr. Gridley lent me Van Muyden's Compendiosa Institutionum Justiniani Tractatio in Usum Collegiorum, Editio tertia prioribus auctior et emendatior. Pax Artium Altrix. After I have mastered this, I must read Hoppius's Commentary on Justinian. The design of this book is to explain the technical terms, and to settle the divisions and distributions of the civil law. By the way, this is the first thing a student ought to aim at, namely, distinct ideas under the terms, and a clear apprehension of the divisions and distributions of the science. This is one of the principal excellencies of Hawkins's Pleas of the Crown, and it is the very end of this book of Van Muyden. Let me remark here one important neglect of the last week: I omitted minuting the names of the cases at trial in my ivory book; and I omitted to keep pen, ink and paper, at my lodgings, in order to commit to writing, at night, the cases and points of law that were argued and adjudged in the day. Let me remember to mark in my memorandum book the names of the cases, and the terms and points of law that occur in each case; to look these terms and points in the books at Otis's, Pratt's, or any other office, and to digest and write down the whole, in the evening, at my lodgings. This will be reaping some real advantage by my attendance on the courts; and without this, the observations which I may make will lie in total confusion in my mind. 27-30. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. All spent in absolute idleness, or, which is worse, gallanting the girls. 31. Tuesday. Sat down and recollected myself, and read a little in Van Muyden, a little in Naval Trade and Commerce. November 2. Thursday. Rode as far as Smelt Brook, break 1 James Otis the younger. ["There were so many lawyers in Boston," he said, "that it was not worth while to call upon more than three or four of them. I listened too willingly to this opinion; for I afterwards found there were several others well entitled to this respect from me, and some little offence was taken.] |