them, they are irresistible:--but all this you know, Aubrey, as well as, or better than I do.... Certainly, law is difficult; but its difficulty is often greatly overrated, especially by imperfectly educated, and ill-disciplined, _quick_, _sharp_ men. _You_ will find it a very different matter. What is wanted is a clear head; a good memory; strong common sense; fixity of purpose; an aptitude for analysis and arrangement: before these combined, the difficulties of law fly like the morning mist before the sun.--_Tact_ with the court, and a jury, is acquired by practice, to a considerable extent, in the absence even of natural endowments. And as for _you_, Aubrey--upon my honor, I've often listened with great satisfaction to you in the House; few ever made clearer statements of facts, or reasoned more closely and cogently than you did; with practice, you would have become--and you soon will become--a formidable debater. In your new profession you will find _facts_ become quite different things from what they have ever hitherto appeared; flexible, elastic, accommodating--you may do anything with them--twist, and turn, and combine; ha! ha! Aubrey!" [Here the Attorney-General laughed in the plenitude of his own conscious power.] "In a word, Aubrey, if you _determine_ to get on at the bar, you _will_: and if you can but get a bit of a _start_ at the beginning; now, for instance, there's Runningtons' house--one of the very first in London--why if _they_ would push you--your fortune's made. But you must make up your mind to wait a little: you can't get into a great business by a hop, step, and a jump, believe me. Certainly _I_ have no cause to be dissatisfied; I've done pretty well; but I can tell you that eight years passed over me before I earned enough a-year to pay my laundress! With me, accident supplied the place of _connection_: but only suppose how I must have worked in the mean time to be able to do business when it came to me! I know it's said that I was always an idle man; but people were a good deal mistaken about that matter, I can promise them! What _idiots_, indeed, to suppose such a thing! Why, my very first start lifted me into a business of a thousand a-year; and, in the name of common sense, how could I have got through it, if I hadn't worked beforehand? Bah!--Now, if Runningtons'--one of the first firms in the profession--will stand by you, I'll guarantee your making £300 your first year! and if they _won't_, why, don't despair, you'll have to wait a little longer; but it will come at last, depend on it, if you continue on the look-out! Besides, you can help _me_ a little bit, eh? It will be a sort of introduction, you know; but we've time enough to see about that.--I recommend you to get at once into the chambers of some hard-working man, with a good deal of general business, particularly Pleading--let me see"--Here the Attorney-General paused, and stroked his chin for a moment or two in a musing manner, "Ah, yes, there's WEASEL,