216 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



countries has fallen into decay political and religious 

 causes have worked more to that end. He who would 

 prove that it is difficult or impossible to gain ideas or 

 knowledge in Carolina, must also prove that it is 

 equally difficult or impossible to exercise there knowl- 

 edge acquired elsewhere. But nobody in Carolina, 

 even on the hottest summer day, hesitates to ask advice 

 of his physician or to expect a just verdict from the 

 Judge. Even if, what I willingly admit, the enervating 

 heat of the summer months proper is unfavorable to 

 protracted and deep reflection, it does not follow that 

 the hindrances of one or several months should form 

 an excuse for the whole year. The establishment of a 

 college at Williamsburg has not been found unfit 

 owing to the summer-heat, which can be little less 

 than that of Carolina. 



However, to contribute somewhat to the encourage- 

 ment of the young, the Judges and the Superintendent 

 of Charleston have undertaken the instruction of a 

 few young persons, who under the eyes of these 

 meritorious men exercise themselves once in the week 

 in extempore speaking and in disputations upon all 

 manner of questions of law. Young men who wish to 

 be admitted to the bar have no other recourse but to 

 follow for several years the teachings of some lawyer, 

 and then they must occupy most of their time with 

 useless copying, and learn little more than the forms; 

 and so they become passable attorneys perhaps, but not 

 genuine lawyers. A reading-library here, which was 

 scattered during the war, has lately been re-established 

 with a gratifying enthusiasm. 



The people of Charleston live rapidly, not willingly 

 letting go untasted any of the pleasures of this life. 



