th to
the court, client, and adversary--should be indeed the polar star of the
lawyer. The influence of only slight deviations from truth, upon
professional character, is very observable. A man may as well be
detected in a great as a little lie. A single discovery, among
professional brethren, of a failure of truthfulness, makes a man the
object of distrust, subjects him to constant mortification, and soon
this want of confidence extends itself beyond the Bar to those who
employ the Bar. That lawyer's case is truly pitiable, upon the
escutcheon of whose honesty or truth, rests the slightest tarnish.

Let it be remembered and treasured in the heart of every student, that
no man can ever be a truly great lawyer, who is not in every sense of
the word, a good man. A lawyer, without the most sterling integrity, may
shine for a while with meteoric splendor; but his light will soon go out
in blackness of darkness. It is not in every man's power to rise to
eminence by distinguished abilities. It is in every man's power, with
few exceptions, to attain respectability, competence, and usefulness.
The temptations which beset a young man in the outset of his
professional life, especially if he is in absolute dependence upon
business for his subsistence, are very great. The strictest principles
of integrity and honor, are his only safety. Let him begin by swerving
from truth or fairness, in small particulars, he will find his character
gone--whispered away, before he knows it. Such an one may not indeed be
irrecoverably lost; but it will be years before he will be able to
regain a firm foothold. There is no profession, in which moral character
is so soon fixed, as in that of the law; there is none in which it is
subjected to severer scrutiny by the public. It is well, that it is so.
The things we hold dearest on earth,--our fortunes, reputations,
domestic peace, the future of those dearest to us, nay, our liberty and
life itself, we confide to the integrity of our legal counsellors and
advocates. Their character must be not only without a stain, but without
suspicion. From the very commencement of a lawyer's career, let him
cultivate, above all things, truth, simplicity, and candor: they are the
cardinal virtues of a lawyer. Let him always seek to have a clear
understanding of his object: be sure it is honest and right, and then
march directly to it. The covert, indirect, and insidious way of doing
anything, is always the wrong way.