of of energy and ability.
He wished to be a lawyer; and the law, he was forced to admit, is a
profession which is almost beyond the reach of penniless young men. But
there are no insurmountable obstacles for those whose hearts are really
set on an object. On the very day that Pascal inscribed his name as a
student at the law school, he entered an advocate's office as a clerk.
His duties, which were extremely tiresome at first, had the two-fold
advantage of familiarizing him with the forms of legal procedure, and of
furnishing him with the means of prosecuting his studies. After he had
been in the office six months, his employer agreed to pay him eight
hundred francs a year, which were increased to fifteen hundred at the
end of the second twelvemonth. In three years, when he had passed his
final examination qualifying him to practise, his patron raised him
to the position of head-clerk, with a salary of three thousand francs,
which Pascal was moreover able to increase considerably by drawing up
documents for busy attorneys, and assisting them in the preparation of
their least important cases.

It was certainly something wonderful to have achieved such a result in
so short a time; but the most difficult part of his task had still to
be accomplished. It was a perilous undertaking to abandon an assured
position, to cast a certainty aside for the chances of life at the bar.
It was a grave step--so grave, indeed, that Pascal hesitated for a
long time. He was threatened with the danger that always threatens
subordinates who are useful to their superiors. He felt that his
employer, who was in the habit of relieving himself of his heaviest
duties by intrusting them to him, would not be likely to forgive him
for leaving. And on starting on his own account, he could ill afford to
dispense with this lawyer's good-will. The patronage that could scarcely
fail to follow him from an office where he had served for four years
was the most substantial basis of his calculations for the future.
Eventually he succeeded to his satisfaction, though not without some
difficulty, and only by employing that supreme finesse which consists in
absolute frankness.

Before his office had been open a fortnight, he had seven or eight
briefs waiting their turn upon his desk, and his first efforts were
such as win the approving smile of old judges, and draw from them the
prediction: "That young man will rise in his profession." He had not
desired to make