whose life is most populous of thought or action, and on every retrospect makes the vastest picture. The man who does not meditate has no real consciousness of being. Such an one goes to death as to a drunken sleep; he parts with existence wantonly, because he knows nothing of its value.

Hazlitt observes in his Table Talk :"

d fluctuaother, the another; y, and the grasp of

"The length or agreeableness of a journey does not depend on the few last steps of it, nor is the size of a building to be judged of from the last stone that is added to it. It is neither the first nor the last hour of our existence, but the space that parts these two-nor our exit, nor our entrance upon the stage, but what we do, feel, and think while there--that we are to attend to in pronouncing sentence upon it. Indeed, it would be easy to show that it is the very extent of human life, the infinite number of things contained in it, its contradictory ting interests, the transition from one situation to hours, months, years, spent in one fond pursuit aft that it is, in a word, the length of our common jour: quantity of events crowded into it, that, baffling our actual perception, make it slide from our memory, and dwindle into nothing in its own perspective. It is too mighty for us, and we say it is nothing! It is a speck in our fancy, and yet what canvass would be big enough to hold its striking groups, its endless objects! It is light as vanity; and yet, if all its weary moments, if all its head and heart-aches were compressed into oue, what fortitude would not be overwhelmed with the blow! What a huge heap, a 'huge dumb heap,' of wishes, thoughts, feelings, anxious cares, soothing hopes, loves, joys, friendships, it is composed of !"

With what accelerated speed the years
Seem to fit by us, sowing hopes and fears
As they pursue their never-ceasing march!
But is our wisdom equal to the speed

Which brings us nearer to the shadowy bourn
Whence we must never, never more return?

t

Alas! the wish is wiser than the deed!
"We take no note of time but from its loss,"
Sang one who reasoned solemnly and well.
And so it is; we make that dowry dross

Which would be treasure, did we learn to quell
Vain dreams and passions. Wisdom's alchemy
Transmutes to priceless gold the moments as they fly,

"Laws are like spiders' webs, that will catch flies, but not wasps and hornets." ANACHARSIS.

LAW is law-and, as in such, and so forth, and hereby, and aforesaid, provided always, nevertheless, notwithstanding. Law is like a blistering plaster-it is a great irritator and only to be used in cases of great extremity. Law, again, is compared to a country-dance; people are led up and down in it 'till they are thoroughly tired. Law is like a book of surgery; there are a great many terrible cases in it. It is also like physic; they that take the least of it are best off. It is like a scolding wife; very bad when it follows us. It is like bad weather; people are glad when they get out of it.

Take, again, the following lucid definition of legal science:

"Law always expresses itself with true grammatical precision, never confounding moods, tenses, cases, or genders, except, indeed, when a woman happens accidentally to be slain, then the verdict brought in, is manslaughter. The essence of law is altercation, for the law can altercate, fulminate, deprecate, irritate, and go on at any rate. Now the quintessence of the law has, according to its name, five points-the first is the beginning or incipiendum, the second its uncertainty, or dubitandum, the third delay, or puzzliendum, the fourth replication without endum, and fifth monstrum et horrendum."*

"I hope," says the lawyer in Steele's comedy, "to see the day when the indenture shall be the exact measure of the land that passes by it; for it is a discouragement to the gown that every ignorant rogue of an heir should in a word or two understand his father's meaning, and hold ten acres of land by half an acre of parchment. Let others think of logic, rhetoric, and I know not what impertinence, but mind thou tautology. What's the first excellence in a lawyer? tautology. What's the second? tautology. What's the third? tautology; as an old pleader said of action."

Another facetious writert fortunately comes to our aid in defining our mysterious subject. "Law," he affirms, "is like fire; since those who meddle with it may chance to burn their fingers. It is like a pocket with a hole in it; and those who risk their money therein are liable to lose it. It is a lancet; dangerous in the hands of the ignorant, doubtful even in the hands of an adept. Law is like a sieve; you may see through it but you will be considerably reduced before you get through it.

It is to the litigant what the poulterer is to the goose; it plucks and it draws him; but here the simile ends, for the litigant, unlike the goose, never gets trust, although he may be roasted and dished.

* Stevens' lecture on Head.

+ Southey's Common-place book.

The author of the "Tin Trumpet."

It is like an ignis fatuus; those who follow the delusive guide too often find themselves inextricably involved in a bog.

It is like an eel-trap; very easy to get into, but very difficult to get out of.

It is like a razor; which requires "a strong back," keenness, and an excellent temper.

N. B.-Many of those who get once shaved seldom risk a second operation.

It is like a flight of rockets; there is a great expense of powder, the cases are usually well "got up," the reports are excellent, but after all, the sticks (the clients) are sure to come to the ground."

Ray sets the matter to music in the following stanza:

Law is like longitude, about,
Never completely yet found out;

Though practised notwithstanding.
'Tis like the fatalist's strange creed,
Which justifies a wicked deed,

While sternly reprimanding!

If a man would, according to law, give to another an orange, instead of saying, "I give you that orange," which one would think would be what is called in legal phraseology, "an absolute conveyance of all right and title therein," the phrase would run thus: "I give you, all and singular, my estate and interest, right, title, and claim, and advantage of and in that orange, with all its rind, skin, juice, pulps, and all right and advantages therein, with full power to bite, cut, suck, or otherwise eat the same orange, or give the same away, with or without all its rind, skin, juice, pulp and pips, anything heretofore or hereinafter, or in any other deed or deeds, instruments, of what nature or kind soever, to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding;" and much more to the same effect. Such is the language of lawyers; and it is gravely held by the most learned men among them, that by the omission of any of those words the right to the same orange