of their material substance, rather than the worth of their intellectual contents. This remark applies with great force to a number of essays, which the extraordinary and anomalous situation of the moral and political world for the last twenty-five years has occasioned, and which, for the sake of philosophy, should be rescued from that oblivion which so universally attaches to this species of productions. But in winnowing in so ample a field, the greatest caution should be observed; for scarce one in a hundred of these is entitled to outlive the hour which gave it birth. In these pamphlets, however, we sometimes find much learning perspicuously arranged, and unfolded in a pure and classical style: they occasionally contain the substance of more extensive treatises, and also new and valuable ideas, which are forgotten, or leave but faint impressions, because given to the world under the modest appellation of "Essays, "or "Thoughts." We have no doubt but that opinions worthy of Newton, Kepler, Bacon, and Boyle; Grotius, Wolfius, or Montesquieu; such as have eternized their names, and enrolled them on the imperishable scroll of fame; may have been previously advanced by humble, unknown, or forgotten essayists; and first attracted observation when illumined by the splendour of a philosopher's name, or perhaps urged into notice by the magnitude of the volume containing them. We would not be understood, by these remarks, as we have just hinted, to encourage the habit of indiscriminately perusing the pamphlets almost daily issuing from the press, and only distinguished by noisy verbiage, and passionate vituperation, or vain and speculative notions. Students may be permitted to be so economical of their time, as seldom to read a pamphlet until the voice of general approbation presses it upon their no tice. To the pamphlets which we have recommended in this Course we advise some attention; such as "War in Disguise," "Answer to War in Disguise," "Examination of the British doctrine," &c. "Address of the Minority," &c. "On the constituent's right to instruct his representative," "Review of the Federa list," the pamphlets of Dr. Bollman, "Johnson's Inquiry;" &c. which are productions of great merit, and will be found worth perusal, long after the time and circumstances to which they were indebted for their birth.† * Vid. ante Title VIII. p. 256, and Title XIII. p. 287, 288. Vid. Note 13 on Title III. AUXILIARY SUBJECTS. "The sparks of all sciences in the world, are raked up in the ashes of the law."...... FINCH, "Ipsa multarum artium scientia etiam aliud agentes nos ernat, atque, ubi minime credas, eminet et excellit." DIALOG. DE ORAT. CAP. XXXII. TITLE I. THE GEOGRAPHHY, AND POLITICAL, CIVIL, AND NATURAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 1. Marshall's Life of Washington. 2. Williams's History of the state of Vermont, E. 3. Sullivan's History of the District of Maine. 4. Belknap's History of New-Hampshire. 5. Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, from the first settlement in 1628 to 1750. 6. Minot's Continuation of the History of Massachusetts. 7. Trumbull's Civil and Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut. 8. Smith's History of the Province of New York. 9. Smith's History of New-Jersey. 10. Proud's History of Pennsylvania. 11. Bozman's Sketch of the History of Maryland. 12. Stith's History of Virginia. 13. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia. 14. Ramsay's History of South Carolina from 1670 to 1808. 15. McCall's History of Georgia. E. 16. Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana. (Note.) The motto which we have affixed to this division will receive forcible demonstration from every scholar's experience, who has bestowed the slightest attention on the operations and progress of his own mind. Perhaps the acquisition of the widest and most diversified knowledge is less grateful, even to the most inquisitive understanding, than the intellectual activity, acuteness, and energy which are generated under the discipline, which every seeker of knowledge necessarily acquires. Thus the greatest learning may be deemed most valuable, because it augments proportionally the capacity to learn. The moral sciences, besides, are so closely allied, that it is difficult to se lect one on which illustration cannot be reflected from others. A liberal mind, however zealously devoted to a particular profession or pursuit, discovers its zeal, not by confining its view to that alone, but by collecting from all the range of science and art whatever may perfect and embellish it; as a true lover of his country exhibits his attachment, not by wedding himself to its soil, but by exploring and importing the improvements of others. To every professional character it is desirable, moreover, to be as little infected, as possible, with the pedantry of his science; to mingle the ideas constantly forced and engraved on his mind by his particular pursuits, with those derived from intercourse with other men and other books, The lawyer, whose vocation brings him more frequently into the current of the world, than any of the other liberal professions, it particularly behoves to be uninfected with those prejudices and peculiarities of mind, those eccentricities of manner and expression, which arise from men's particular avocations, which colour, and too often circumscribe the operations of their talents, and which lord Bacon quaintly, but forcibly denominates the "idola tribus." This consideration, which will seem trivial only to those who have not duly appreciated the repulsion produced by peculiarity either of thinking or manner, is still more important in America, where the lawyer possesses, perhaps, a more than ordinary share of consideration, and influence. And as it is from the students of this profession, at least, if not from its practitioners, that the nation draws the largest portion of its legislators and statesmen, there is an obvious reason for somewhat enlarging the circuit of the law-stu |