University of Nebraska College of Law - Yearbook (Lincoln, NE)

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70 THE DIGEST But whatever 1nay be said of the isolated few, the geniuses of the race, there can be no doubt that a fair general education is every year becoming more and more essential to success at the bar. And even those who have attained distinction without it, have done so not because of their lack of preliminary training, but only by overcoming disadvantages arising from it. That a genius succeeds at the bar, without general education, by no means proves that the average young man can safely neglect the advantages it confers. The mere possession of a college diploma should not be taken to qualify one to study law, nor should the lack of it necessarily ex- clude him. It is preliminary training and mental development that should be demanded, not a college degree. It may not be essential' that pronciency in any particular branch of knowledge should be shown. It is not accumulated knowledge, the posses- sion of a mass of undigested facts, that qualifies one for the study of law, but rather mental development and intellectual acumen, which are, indeed, the distinguishing characteristics of true edu- cation. The well equipped lawyer is an intellectual athlete. He cannot delay entering upon his profession until he has acquired all the general knowledge he will need in practice, but he should delay until he has acquired something of that mental development and intellectual strength that gives him the power of concentrated mental effort. There is no profession in which the power to master a subject thoroughly and qui.ckly is so essential to success as in that of the law. Cases are often won or lost by the ability of the lawyer, or his want of it, to master in a short space of time, the particular branch of knowledge involved in the controversy. The successful lawyer must possess the power to acquire this knowledge after he linds that it is necessary for him to use it. No one will ever reach the higher walks of the profession who plods through its fields thinking only of the loaves and fishes its practice will bring him. The empyreal atmosphere on the heights is breathed only by those who see in the law something more than the means of mak- ing a living-who can see in it a great system of principles, the growth of centuries, by which the social fabric is held together.

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PREPARATION Fon THE STUDY or LAXV 69 raise the general educational level of the legal profession. If, however, a young man of limited general education is to be ad- mitted to the bar, it were much better that he prosecute his study of the law in a law college, surrounded by a scholarly atmosphere, than in a law office where the educational level is perhaps no higher than his own. It will avail nothing to close the law col- lege to those whose general education has not prepared them for the study of the law, if they can come to the bar through oiiice reading, with no preliminary training and much less knowledge of the law itself than the law college would have given them. Unless the higher standard of preliminary preparation be also demanded as a prerequisite of oflice reading, then such a demand on the part of the law schools is likely to lower rather than raise the general educational level of the profession. The remedy, therefore, lies in the higher standard of preliminary preparation for the study of law in the law oiiice, as well as admission to the law schools. It is often urged that severe requirements of preliminary gen- eral education would exclude from the profession many who are destined to become its brightest ornaments. It may be said that the names of Clay, Calhoun, and Lincoln, would never have adorned the roll of honor in the legal profession if a high standard of general education had been, in their day, required as a necessary qualiiieation for admission to the bar. It must, however, be re- membered that we new live in aiday when higher education forms a part of the great system of public schools. It may well be doubted whether any young man of our time, who has not the energy and determination to obtain a good general education, will ever attain distinction at the bar either with or without its ad- vantages. One can hardly conceive of a Clay, a Calhoun, or a Lincoln, surrounded by our present educational advantages, en- tering upon the study of the law without having laid a good foundation for it in general education. Neither will we believe that men like these would even in their day have been deter1'ed from entering their chosen profession because of any reasonable requirement of preliminary preparation. It is more than doubt- ful whether even these great men could have entered the law titty years later and with no better preliminary preparation achieved the same lll0IlSll1'C of success.

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Segal Ethics BY HON. J. R. WVEBSTER. It is with regret one leaves his students where the relation has been so pleasant. In parting I will say some words of counsel. You are like a battalion of recruits, I like one of an exhausted command being relieved. The retiring veteran would tell some advantage or peril of the field. The recruit is impatient to listen, anxious only for action. I venture some remarks on ethics that, remembered, will avail you in the active life you enter. Young men, as you enter life, remember that as there are three cardinal feminine virtues, cleanliness, Edelity, and tenderness, so there are four cardinal manly virtues, courage, truth, loyalty, and kindness. If you have these, whatever be lacking of full manly character, you will have other's respect. Without any one of these you will not. VVith these you will be respected because others will know they can depend on and trust you. ' Society is as truly an organism as is an animal or plant. No part is independent of any other. So in society, the Welfare of every-member affects the welfare and advancement of all. Soci- ety is an aggregation of individuals, none independent of many others. None can live to himself, none die merely to himself. Many must be affected. It ought to be the aim of each that others may be affected for good, made better, happier. You can not avoid affecting for good or ill those among whom you live. Twelve centuries before complete organization of the high court of chancery there lived the Great Chancellor who defined in one sentence the principles of equity, All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to themf' lVhen asked by lawyers the first duty, 4'The great command- mentfl as altruist, philosopher, and chancellor he recognized no first commandment. In his View two were equally great. I-Ie said the lirst law is 'cThou shalt love the Lord thy God with all