Had any one at that time told me that the expression “centrifugal force” is entirely misleading, that in reality there is no such force, that what goes by this name is not a force at all, nothing but a resistance, the resistance which a body revolving around an exterior point opposes to being continually deflected from a straight line of motion, and which ceases the instant the deflecting force ceases, when the body merely moves on in a straight line tangent to the circle, and in bodies revolving around their own axes or centers of gravity is the same resistance of their atoms, he would probably have had about the same success in making me see it that I long afterwards had with some engineering friends. It is difficult at the present day to conceive the confusion of thought which then prevailed on this subject. The language of text-books was vague in the extreme. The coincidence is not without interest, that my first mechanical experience, though in this ridiculous fashion, should have been with what was to become so prominent a feature of the high speed governors and engine. I had for some time felt a growing disgust with the profession of the law. The contrast between the glorious science of human rights and the art of its practical application was very forcibly presented to my mind. I realized the fitness of the protest of Bryant, who described himself as being “forced to drudge for the dregs of men.” I was a regular reader of the _Evening Post_, in which an article appeared one day, written by John Bigelow, then the editor of the _Post_, laudatory of a certain judge whose term on the bench had lately closed, and who then retired from the profession. On this act Mr. Bigelow warmly congratulated him. Among a number of pungent expressions in the article I was particularly struck by this one: “The association of lawyers is mostly with knaves and fools.” My own experience bore witness to the truth of this statement. A few legal successes, which cost me incredible labor, interspersed of course with disappointments, weighed nothing compared with the daily association which I seemed compelled to endure. I formed a scheme for establishing a conciliation office for the amicable settlement of disputes, but found every man prepared to compromise on the extreme verge of his own position. So I gave that up.