swer to the last charge; and, come what will, it shall be
my final answer. No envenomed reiteration, no popular delusion, no
importunity of friendship, shall ever draw from me another syllable. I
shall remain in future, as I have been heretofore, _auditor tantum_. You
know well how strenuously and how repeatedly you pressed me to my
vindication, especially after Lord Denman's important conversation with
you, and you know the stern disdain with which I dissented. The _mens
conscia recti_, a thorough contempt for my traducer, the belief that
truth would in the end prevail, and a self-humiliation at stooping to a
defence, amply sustained me amid the almost national outcry which
calumny had created. Relying doubtless upon this, month after month, for
nine successive years, my accuser has iterated and reiterated his libels
in terms so gross, so vulgar, and so disgraceful, that my most valued
friends thought it my duty to them publicly to refute them. To that
consideration, and to that alone, I have yielded; in deference to
theirs, relinquishing my own opinions. If they suppose, however, that
slander, because answered, will be silenced, they will find themselves
mistaken.

Destroy the web of sophistry--in vain--
The creature's at his dirty work again.

No, no, my dear friend, invention is a libeller's exhaustless capital,
and refutation but supplies the food on which he lives. He may, however,
pursue his vocation undisturbed by me. His libels and my answer are now
before the world, and I leave them to the judgment of all honorable men.

C. PHILLIPS.

No. II.

COURSE OF LEGAL STUDY[60]

_Non multa sed multum_, is the cardinal maxim by which the student of law
should be governed in his readings; at the commencement of his studies--in
the office of his legal preceptor, REPETITION--REPETITION--REPETITION.
Blackstone and Kent, should be read--and read again and again. These
elementary works, with some others of an immediately practical
cast--Tidd's Practice, Stephen's Pleading, Greenleaf's Evidence, Leigh's
Nisi Prius, Mitford's Equity Pleading--well conned, make up the best
part of office reading. Of course the Acts of Assembly should be gone
over and over again. I do not say that this is all. The plan of reading,
which I am about to recommend, may be begun in the office. Much will
depend upon, what may be termed, the mental temperament of the student
hi