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tempted in this little volume. The original likenesses were drawn by great masters, and the full-length portraits will, doubtless, be carefully studied, when after years give time and opportunity.

*Webster, Jay, Wheaton, Kennedy.

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CHAPTER FIRST.

· TALENTS.

"Who shall regulate

With truth the scale of intellectual rank?"

"The most important thing in life is the choice of a profession."*-Pascal.

LET no boy think of becoming a lawyer, unless some one, better qualified than himself, discover his talents,— talents peculiarly adapted to that learned profession.

"A use for everything, and everything to its use."

Do not spoil a good merchant or mechanic, by moiling through life a poor lawyer.

Neither should the mistakes of partial friends mislead. "That boy is a famous disputer," says a proud father; "he can always make the wrong appear the better reason; he will make a capital lawyer."

Because he is like a snarling puppy, biting at everybody's heels! No, sir; he is not the boy for a lawyer.

"My son is as cunning as a fox," says the fond mother, whose watchful eye he evades; "he will do right well for a lawyer."

*"La chose la plus importante a la vie, c'est le choix d'un métier."

Low cunning is the mark of a small mind. Wisdom can find no room there.

"That fellow has a glib tongue of his own; he will · make a great noise at the bar," says the schoolmaster, who has been deceived by the ready recitations, which have been merely an effort of memory. The mill may make as much noise when there is no grist in the hopper, as when it is full. The schoolmaster should remember,-vox et preterea nihil.

"But here is an incipient lawyer surely, for he is always setting the other boys by the ears!"

A pitiful mistake! It is the business of the lawyer to get people out of difficulties, not the mean, detestable effort to plunge them into quarrels which this boy's conduct exhibits. As well might you say, that the steamengine was made on purpose to blow people up-sky-high.

Study well your own capabilities. Does your heart thrill at the burning words of eloquence? The noble deeds of great men, do they fill you with enthusiasm? Do they excite in you a fervent determination to act a glorious part in the life-drama? Are you filled with an intense desire to defend the cause of the oppressed, to restore the injured to their rights, to sustain the laws of your country?

Ambition may be a noble, generous passion, or it may be the meanest, and most selfish of all passions,

"That sin by which the rebel angels fell."

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