50 LIFE OF 



*< of these laws, but hath drawn from that divine 

 <^ knowledge, gravity, and integrity.'^ He pronounces 

 this knowledge to be irreconcilable with a loose and 

 lawless life, and gives the result of his large experi- 

 ence, that he had never seen any man of excellent 

 judgment in the Common Law of England, <^^ but was 

 withal, being taught by such a master, honest, faith- 

 ful, and virtuous.'' The Chief Justice was not only 

 thoroughly taught by this master, but he came into 

 the school accomplished inelegant learning ; and long 

 before he left it, there was associated the training of 

 another school, worthier far than the Common Law, 

 of the exalted eulogy of Sir Edward Coke. 



His early education, it has been remarked, was 

 excellent. He was an accomplished Latin scholar, 

 but, to his own regret, had suffered his Greek to fall 

 away by desuetude. The literature of the former 

 language, lie kept constantly fresh in his mind. His 

 memory was stored with beautiful Latin, which he has 

 been heard to repeat as it were to himself, when the 

 occasion recalled it, and his modesty did not care to 

 pronounce it aloud. On all his Circuits and journies 

 into the districts of the Supreme Court, his compan- 

 ions were the Bible, a Latin author, and some recent 

 treatise of distinction in the law. L^pon the last that 

 he ever made, he refreshed his recollections of the 

 Pharsalia. It is perhaps no itllc fancy to suppose 

 that he may have then read, with almost a person- 

 al application, the prophetic appeal of the Spectre to 

 the race of Pompey : 



