to keep for mother while she lives; if you
will not cultivate it, it will rent for enough to support her--at least,
it will rent for something. Her dower in the other two forties she can
let you have, and no thanks to me. Now, do not misunderstand this
letter; I do not write it in any unkindness. I write it in order, if
possible, to get you to face the truth, which truth is, you are
destitute because you have idled away all your time. Your thousand
pretences for not getting along better are all nonsense; they deceive
nobody but yourself. Go to work is the only cure for your case.

A word to mother. Chapman tells me he wants you to go and live with him.
If I were you I would try it awhile. If you get tired of it (as I think
you will not), you can return to your own home. Chapman feels very
kindly to you, and I have no doubt he will make your situation very
pleasant.

_Note for Law Lecture. Written about July 1, 1850_

I am not an accomplished lawyer. I find quite as much material for a
lecture in those points wherein I have failed, as in those wherein I
have been moderately successful. The leading rule for a lawyer, as for
the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for
to-morrow which can be done to-day. Never let your correspondence fall
behind. Whatever piece of business you have in hand, before stopping, do
all the labour pertaining to it which can then be done. When you bring a
common law-suit, if you have the facts for doing so, write the
declaration at once. If a law point be involved, examine the books, and
note the authority you rely on upon the declaration itself, where you
are sure to find it when wanted. The same of defences and pleas. In
business not likely to be litigated,--ordinary collection cases,
foreclosures, partitions, and the like,--make all examinations of
titles, and note them and even draft orders and decrees in advance. The
course has a triple advantage; it avoids omissions and neglect, saves
your labour when once done, performs the labour out of court when you
have leisure, rather than in court when you have not.

Extemporaneous speaking should be practised and cultivated. It is the
lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in
other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make
a speech. And yet there is not a more fatal error to young lawyers than
relying too much on speech-making. If any one, upon his rare powers of
spe