Stillg.] "''* I May 6, 



thoroughly and conscientiously, and his well-trained mind, and habits 

 of industry, made hira a master of the great principles of the science- 

 But he was never intended for a professional athlete. He had none 

 of the abundant self-assertion, the eager watching of opportunity 

 for advancement, or the disposition to regard litigation as a game, 

 the chief interest of which lies in the chances of success of those who 

 conduct it, which are so characteristic of one class of Lawyers, 

 while he had not those extraordinary gifts which make the fame of 

 the truly great Lawyer, like that of the great Historian, one of the 

 rarest of intellectual distinctions. He was however without doubt, 

 one of those who do most to secure for the Profession the confidence 

 of the Public. His nature abhorred all the arts of low cunning and 

 chicanery, or rather with a certain noble simplicity, he seemed scarce- 

 ly aware of their existence, and he lived in a moral atmosphere so 

 pure, that it inspired every one who approached him with implicit 

 trust and confidence. Hence in that large class of cases (much lar- 

 ger than is commonly supposed), in which the moral qualities of the 

 man are quite as important to the interests of the client as the pro- 

 fessional skill of the lawyer, he found abundant occupation. He was 

 eminently a safe counsellor, accurate and thorough, and perfect mas- 

 ter of any case which had been confided to him. I have been assured 

 by one of the most eminent living Jurists, that there are at least two 

 cases in our Keports in which Mr. Binney's printed arguments have 

 always seemed to him models of Professional skill, showing on his 

 part perfect familiarity with some of the most intricate and difficult 

 questions of the Law. 



Mr. Binney's extreme modesty, and his utter aversion to display 

 or ostentation of any kind, confined his reputation as a scholar chief- 

 ly within the limits of those who knew him well. To his friends he 

 seemed always a man of genuine scholarly instincts, loving the famil- 

 iar intercourse of the wise, the true, and the good of all ages, as a 

 means of enriching and invigorating his own nature. His memory 

 abounded with passages from his favorite Latin authors, and he 

 studied Greek literature, and especially the Greek Scriptures in a 

 thoroughly critical spirit. I have often heard him refer to certain 

 expressions in the original, the peculiar significance of which he 

 thought had been lost in the translation. He talked often of St. 

 Paul as one of the finest specimens of Greek culture, and nothing 

 could be more instructive than to listen to his analysis of the speech 

 before Agrippa, and of its points of resemblance to the most cele- 

 brated productions of the Greek orators. He referred frequently to 

 the connexion between Greek culture, and the spread of Christianity, 

 and to the providential combination for that purpose at the time of 

 its Advent, of the Jewish or Monotheistic idea of the Deity, of the 

 Greek conception of the dignity of man, and of the universal Roman 



