inspired the warmest eulogy of the departed, and whose character as a
jurist furnishes the fittest parallel to his own in the annals of our
law.
It seems idle to weave further these vain comparisons, particularly
to invoke the living. But busy fancy revives the past, and persons
and scenes renew themselves in my memory. I call to mind the recent
Chancellor of England, the model of a clear, grave, learned, and
conscientious magistrate,--Lord Cottenham. I see again the ornaments of
Westminster Hall, on the bench and at the bar, where sits Denman, in
manner, conduct, and character "every inch" the judge,--where pleaded
the consummate lawyer, Follett, whose voice is now hushed in the grave;
their judgments, their arguments, their conversation I cannot forget;
but thinking of these, I feel new pride in the great Magistrate, the
just Judge, the consummate Lawyer whom we lament.
It has been my fortune to know the chief jurists of our time, in the
classical countries of jurisprudence, France and Germany. I remember
well the pointed and effective style of Dupin, in one of his masterly
arguments before the highest court of France; I recall the pleasant
converse of Pardessus--to whom commercial and maritime law is under a
larger debt, perhaps, than to any other mind--while he descanted on
his favorite theme; I wander in fancy to the gentle presence of him
with flowing silver locks who was so dear to Germany,--Thibaut, the
expounder of Roman law, and the earnest and successful advocate of a
just scheme for the reduction of the unwritten law to the certainty
of a written text; from Heidelberg I pass to Berlin, where I listen
to the grave lecture and mingle in the social circle of Savigny, so
stately in person and peculiar in countenance, whom all the continent
of Europe delights to honor; but my heart and my judgment, untravelled,
fondly turn with new love and admiration to my Cambridge teacher and
friend. Jurisprudence has many arrows in her quiver, but where is one
to compare with that which is now spent in the earth?
The fame of the Jurist is enhanced by various attainments superinduced
upon learning in the law. His "Miscellaneous Writings" show a
thoughtful mind, imbued with elegant literature, warm with kindly
sentiments, commanding a style of rich and varied eloquence. Many
passages from these have become commonplaces of our schools. In early
life he yielded to the fascinations of the poetic muse; and here the
great lawyer may find companionship with Selden, who is introduced by
Suckling into the "Session of the Poets" as "hard by the chair,"--with
Blackstone, whose "Farewell to his Muse" shows his fondness for poetic
pastures, even while his eye was directed to the heights of the
law,--and also with Mansfield, whom Pope has lamented in familiar words,
"How sweet an Ovid Murray! was our boast."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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