“You are a very warm advocate of speech,” I interposed. “Do you think it a lost art, or an improving one?” “The ancients were the best teachers. Aristotle’s _Rhetoric_ (the best of all), Cicero’s _De Oratore_, Quintilian’s _Institutes of Oratory_, are the books of study; Blair and Campbell should be read, but are of no great merit, while of Whately I have already spoken. But the study of good models—and when I speak of study I do not mean simply reading a speech, but the examination and analysis of it, applying the rules of the art which these treatises contain: the attentive hearing of great speeches in Parliament or the courts, or of great sermons, is the only way by which the capacity for really good speaking can be acquired. “Then every man who wishes to speak well should study elocution as an art. He should practise singing to give variety of tone to the voice. He should habitually see and study the best actors of his time, and so learn the ease and yet the moderation of gesture which helps so much even the best-constructed and most clearly delivered speech. If any one of these studies and exercises is neglected, the man who fails at the Bar must put some part of the blame upon himself.” Sir Edward Clarke has fulfilled his own theories, even to witnessing the drama. He is a well-known first-nighter, and is often to be seen in the stalls of a theatre. He sat in Parliament and listened to great speeches. He has himself built a church at Staines, wherein he has heard many sermons. And he has climbed to the very top of his profession. It would be doing him an injustice to suggest that he places speech as the first and most essential quality in the lawyer’s training. The most brilliant speaker must have something to say. A capacity for logical and scientific reasoning and knowledge of the principles and rules of the law come before all. “All success in every calling comes from hard work; there is no better secret,” he said decisively. For years Sir Edward Clarke journeyed up to town from his charming home at Staines every morning, during the legal terms. His companion in the nine o’clock train was invariably the famous Orientalist and brilliant scholar, Dr. Ginsburg, who had made a home for himself and his unique collection of Bibles, and marvellous assortment of prints and etchings, at Virginia Water. Many and interesting were the conversations which these two celebrated men enjoyed during their little railway journey together. The one went off to the British Museum to work among the dead languages, and the completion of his life-work, the _Massorah_, and the other to the Law Courts, where, in wig and gown, he soon appeared from out his private room in the building, to the consolation of his own clients and the anxiety of his opponents.