APPENDIX. ss 



dies which are properly termed literary. This was the more LoTaTrcikLt 

 remarkable in him, that, in the early period of his life, he had c^das. 

 profecuted himfelf thofe ftudies with advantage and fuccefs. 

 In his youth, he had made great proficiency in claflical learn- 

 ing : and his memory retaining faithfully whatever he had 

 once acquired, it was not unufual with him, even in his fpeeches 

 on the Bench, to cite, and to apply with much propriety 

 the moft finking paflages of the ancient authors. But for 

 thefe ftudies, though qualified to fucceed in them, it does not 

 appear that he ever pofTefTed a ftrong bent or inclination. If he 

 ever felt it, the weightier duties of active life, which he was 

 early called to exercife, precluded the opportunity of frequently 

 indulging it ; and perhaps even a knowledge of the fafcinating 

 power of thofe purfuits, in alienating the mind from thefeverer, 

 but more necefTary occupations, might have inclined him at 

 laft to difrelifh from habit, what it had taught him at firft to 

 refill from principle. 



That this principle was erroneous, it is unnecefTary to con- 

 fume time in proving. It is fufficient to fay, that as jurifpru- 

 dence can never hope for any material advancement as a fcience, 

 if feparated from the fpirit of philofophy, fo that fpirit cannot 

 exift, independent of the cultivation of literature. 



That the ftudies of polite literature, and an acquaintance 

 with the principles of general erudition, while they improve the 

 fcience, add luftre and dignity to the profejjion of the law, cannot 

 be denied. So thought all the greateft lawyers of antiquity. 

 So thought, among the moderns, that able Judge and moft ac- 

 complifhed man, of whofe character we, have traced fome im- 

 perfect features, Lord Arnifton, the Father of the late Lord Pre- 

 fident ; of which his inaugural oration, as it ftands upon the 

 records of the Faculty of Advocates, bears ample teftimony *. 



His 



* " From his firft entry into the Faculty, he could lay he knew, and obferved it with 

 " pleafure, as it tended greatly to their honour, that there was no fcience, or part of po- 



" lite 



