XXVIII.

THE LITERATURE OF THE PROFESSIONS.*

In this cursory sketch, we merely suggest the inquiry (which we shall not attempt to settle) of the comparative literary rank of the three learned professions: the genius exhibited in elegant letters, of professional men. And each may ap

pear, from the statement of a partial advocate, to take the lead. The lawyer may claim, to draw upon English literature alone, Shakspeare, who alone would outweigh all the clever authors among physicians, we can muster, by any diligence of research. The advocate may claim, too, Burke, the finest of political orators, and almost the first of English prose writers, putting out of view his later political principles; the long array of statesmen and able debaters and political essayists (one of the glories of England) are lawyers, almost to a man; and in literature, properly so styled, from the essays of Bacon to the Ion of Talfourd, we conceive no doubts can be raised, no question advanced, that they are not first among the first. Of the great dramatists, from Shakspeare down, excluding the professional poets and actors, which of the faculties compete with the Law? The fame of historical skill is pretty equally divided. The Bar boast

* From an article on Literary Physicians: Democratic Review, Dec. 1843.

ing its More and Bacon and Clarendon and Hallam; and the Church its Fuller and Burnet and Lingard and Arnold. We recollect no classical history by a physician. In the field of fiction, or the page of the manners-painting novelist, the lawyers can point to their Fielding, the prose Homer of human nature, and the Ariosto of the North-Scott himself: the divines may boast of their Swift and Sterne, (though they are a little shy of both,) and the doctors have among them four capital humorous painters, Arbuthnot, and Goldsmith, and Smollett, and Moore. The divines bear away the palm in serious eloquence and in moral reasoning, as might be naturally expected: almost the single exception to this criticism occurs in Sir Thomas Browne. The minor forms of literature, from biography down, are better represented by briefless barristers than by well beneficed divines or physicians in full practice. The poets are of every class and condition, though we think the best, in general, have followed literature alone. Neat, agreeable verses have been written by doctors, as by Garth, Armstrong, Grainger, Wolcot; and at home by Drake and Holmes, who, as genuine poets, rank above any of these; but the best poet among them, Goldsmith, was, essentially, an author by profession, as also were Akenside, and Smollett, and Darwin. Mere learning, as distinct from elegant literature, may at one period have been confined to the profession of physic: natural science, always the most popular species of knowledge, falls naturally within the scope of their studies, and certainly they have been great discoverers in natural philosophy: but in a higher philosophy, that of the government of men and the advancement of the race, the legal and political inquirer has greatly distanced these; whilst in the highest philosophy, that of

the moral nature, aims, capacity, and sympathies of man, the individual, as contrasted with and distinct from man, the citizen, or political unit, the first class of divines, from Jeremy Taylor to our own Channing, deserve the highest place.

Lawyers have at all times done their full share in advancing the interests of society, and their memory should be preserved with reverence. The profession of the law. has produced the greatest statesmen and most brilliant orators of modern times; some of the ablest divines have been originally lawyers, and have brought to the high topics of theology, an acute, logical head, as well as an ardent imagination and a pure heart. The greatest writers of the present century, for instance, from Sir Walter Scott down to a lively newspaper critic, as those of the London Examiner, and the best monthly and quarterly journals, have been lawyers. From the law has the world received the blessings of that profound and admirable philosophy, so conducive to public interest, and so well adapted to private happiness, which we read in the pages of Bacon, of Burke, and of Bentham. The sharpness and transparency of intellect that legal studies and legal practice afford, go far toward the general improvement of the faculties of observation and comparison. Hence, we find lawyers such masters of real life, and the best society (intellectually considered) of any place you may enter. In the country, the judge is the first man, and the principal advocate stands next highest. In the city, even in this commercial mart, the profession of the law, as a profession, stands unquestionably the highest. At least six out of ten of our most distinguished public characters and persons of eminent private worth, have come out from the law. The most sagacious

foreign critic of our government and its working, has most justly demonstrated the bar to be the bulwark of our political liberties, the intelligent and fearless defender of our rights. Though law itself is unromantic enough in its study, let Eunomus and Lord Bolingbroke, Sir James Macintosh and Dr. Warren, say what they may to the contrary, yet it is very far from being a dull pursuit to a successful lawyer.

The most unexpected incidents and turns daily arise, the rarest characters are to be met with, the most open reference to the human heart is often made by the able lawyer, in a free and diversified practice. We are very far from thinking the legal life, as it is, comparable to that of the true man of letters, as it might be; still, where there is much to praise, it is churlish to remain silent. Finally, as a class of men for general intelligence, clearness of mind, temperance of opinion, real force of character, polished. amenity of manner, we can find no class of men superior to the best class of lawyers; the old senatorial band of judges and counsellors of long standing, or the new and fresher army of smart, young attorneys.

Having offered our humble tribute to the profession of the law, we should not omit to pay due respect to genius and virtue, as it is embodied in the Christian Church. As the noblest portion of that noble body, we shall glance merely at the general character of the standard old English divines, the Donnes, Halls, Taylors, Barrows, Souths, Mores, Earles, Fullers, Tillotsons, and Berkeleys. These great old masters form a choice collection in a select library of old English literature. It has been said, that a complete library could be formed from their works, and that, too, a most valuable one. For though divines, they were

manners.

none the less wits, historians, scholars, poets, orators, and moralists. Uunlike the French clergy, the ornaments of which have been, either mere declaimers, or else scholastic controversialists, the English divines wrote books of moral essays, satires, descriptions of characters, works on men and They had wit and humor, as well as fancy and sentiment. They were not merely the spiritual guides, but also the popular writers of their day. As mere scholars, their acquisitions were wonderful as thinkers, the richness of their matter is fully equivalent to its gorgeous setting. As men, where shall we look for a more primitive piety and holiness of character comparable to that of the heavenly George Herbert: what Christian, at once so simple and so learned, so wise and yet so humble as Hooker: whose devotional raptures (in our own day) equal the enthusiastic fancies of Crashaw: whose keen satire rivals that of Hall or Eachard: what later martyr to principle outshines the apostolic Latimer: whose golden eloquence casts the fancy and the imagination of Taylor or South into the shade? We should be glad to learn if ever there existed a more copious, exact, and comprehensive reasoner than Barrow, or a finer model of the true Christian gentleman than Berkeley. Later metaphysicians have not yet obscured the fame of Clarke and Butler. We might run on with these glorious old names, and fill many a page.

With these tributes to the Law and Divinity, sincerely offered, and not introduced merely for the sake of a display of impartiality, we come at last to the Faculty of Medicine. And, in the outset, we may quote the opinion of Johnson, gained from a wide and intimate experience on his part of the skill and benevolence of physicians, the most eminent of whom, in his day, took pleasure in prolonging the life,