2IO OCCASIONAL HAPPY THOUGHTS. 



ing a course of lectures, I chose the latter, having lost con- 

 fidence in myself from experience in the former method. I 

 had nearly completed the appointed number, when I made 

 a mistake in the day. This I explained to the lecturer, and 

 it was overlooked. But in the following week for the first 

 time I mistook the hour, and arrived when the door was 

 shut, the last lecture given, aijd the Professor gone into the 

 country for his vacation. 



A friend said " Oh, go in for the Exam. Easy as possible." 



I suggested that there were legal difficulties which would 

 pose me. His answer was confidently, " Not a bit. All 

 law is founded upon the principles of common sense. 

 Reduce any apparent legal difficulty to first principles, and 

 there you are." (I subsequently tried this; and certainly 

 there I was, but didn't get any further.) " But technical 

 terms one must get up," I objected. He was quite in- 

 dignant. 



" Technical terms," he replied, " can be mastered in a 

 week's reading." 



His theory was that hardly any lawyers know anything 

 of law : that the men who get on best know the least ; which 

 is, to the beginner, encouraging as a theory, but fails when 

 reduced to practice, or, more strictly speaking, when you, as 

 a barrister, are reduced to no practice. However, what man 

 dared I dared, and in I went. I read my paper through 

 carefully: it didn't seem to contain much law that I was 

 acquainted with ; but remembering my friend's advice about 

 " first principles " and " common sense," I settled down to 

 one question. It was this: — 



