He pursued his occupation diligently, and attended the circuit in that part of the kingdom where his early connections were formed; and before a great length of time had elapsed, married again.—As far as secular matters are concerned, he was still more fortunate than before.—He now was able to contemplate and enjoy the _otium cum dignitate_, and, from local circumstances and connections, was elevated to a high official situation, where he had formerly spent his youth. In the exercise of his professional talents, he was occasionally apt to forget (a very venial transgression) his origin and former occupation; but there were generally some good natured friends at hand, to give a stimulus to his memory. He was one day examining a witness who either did not, or was not inclined to remember things so circumstantially as the cause in hand required, when our Barrister became a little angry, and exclaimed, “Why, Friend, you do not seem to remember any thing;” “Yes, I do,” replied the witness, “I very well remember your being a Presbyterian Parson.” This occasioned so much laughter, that the Barrister was greatly disconcerted. One talent this gentleman possessed to an extraordinary degree of perfection: he could retain the longest sermon from the pulpit, or speech in the senate, or at the bar, with the most circumstantial minuteness, and transcribe it almost verbatim. Noscenda est mensura sui, spectandaque rebus In summis minimisque; etiam cum piscis emetur Ne mullum cupias, cum sit tibi gobio tantum In loculis. CHAPTER XXVI. Far more singular and eventful was the history of a brother Barrister, a cotemporary of the former, and of the writer. His parents were of the very humblest situation and circumstances; his education of the most confined limits; his views not extended beyond that of a writer in an attorney’s office. With this prospect, he was articled to a very respectable practitioner in a country town. After a certain period of residence, he conciliated the good opinion of his employer, by extraordinary diligence and attention to his duty, and discovered progressively, evident marks of superior abilities. Here also he contracted an insatiable thirst for reading, which he indulged to such excess, that he would sit up the greater part of the night for this purpose, to the neglect and injury of his health.