CHAP. V.

OF THE EXERCISE AND CONFERENCE WHICH THE STUDENT OF THE LAW OUGHT TO USE.

EVERY art and knowledge produceth effects, and like a good weapon is unsheathed and used in time convenient, otherwise it would be quickly overcast and eaten with rust. But there is nothing that with so much brightness and glory illustrateth our knowledge, as the orderly and judicial applying and accommodating of that which we have read. For as a man knoweth by his books, so he is known by his practice, and by that which he is able to perform in the faculty which he professeth, and he which knoweth to him

Where

self is not known of other men. fore I suppose it a thing of exceeding moment for the student, to demean himself well in his conference and exercise, lest the multitude of hours which he hath spent, do slip from him without use, as the sand falleth out of the hour-glass, when no man seeth or mindeth it.

1. The student of the law ought to have great regard of his speech, and that he deliver his opinion or argument in convenient and orderly sort, not after a rude, confused, and impolite manner, and he who is not only wise but eloquent, is without comparison the best in all professions which consist in practice and in the form of speech. Therefore parents and tutors in the university should have principal regard that he who is to address himself to the study of the law, may be fit with a plausible grace to discourse and dispute, and even in the prime of our years this care must be had. For by nature we hold that fast which in our tender years we conceive, and the worse sort of things do stedfastly abide in us, the better is soon

turned to worse, but in this matter it is good to follow the precepts of such as he neither too curious nor too ignorant: for there is nothing more like a may-game than these vain-glorious persons, who have decked themselves with a false persuasion of knowledge. To the student of the law I do therefore think this course necessary, because he must live in great celebrity in the assembly of the people, and in the midst of the common-weal. Let him therefore inure himself, from his youth, to frequent assemblies: let him not be afraid of men, nor appalled or timerous through a shadowed kind of life, lest when he should make use of his study, his eyes dazzle at mid-day, and all things be new unto him, who seeketh that in himself, which is to be done and performed in a multitude: yet I would not have him too curious and dainty in his speech, for we must use words as we use coin, those which be common and current. And it is a great error for a man to estrange himself from the common use of speech, and exceeding preciseness in words, and style, doth quench the heat

of our invention, and bridleth the course of our wits. Yet it is commendable to have in our discourses both good words, and good matter. For Cicero did not fight with armour of proof only, but with bright shining harness, when he did not only gain the admiration of the Romans, but their acclamation also and applause. But let good words contain in them good matter, that the argument or discourse may not shine as it were by oil and ointment, but by blood and complexion. It is a fever-like pain to endure a man's speech, loaded with superfluous words; in all things decorum must be observed, lest that which we say do turn to laughter, or loathing, and purchase the name of folly, a mean must be kept, lest our speech be dry and faint, or else too copious, and full of circumstances: yet it is better for the invention to be abundant and copious, than to be lean and poor. Words if they be not vested with the substance of things, are of no force: rhetoric which is the artificer of persuasion, if it be severed from circumstances, and range without learning by a facile kind of sway,

it is called Atechina. If it be applied to the destruction of good men, it is termed Cacotechina, but if it be bestowed in vain and superfluous matters, it may be termed Mateotechina, a frivolous labour, and a trifling art. There is nothing which more beautifieth a man's speech, than an apt division or partition of the things which be handled, which doth ease the mind of the hearer, prepareth the mind of the understander, and refresheth the memory, and (as Justinian sayeth) the obscurity which doth rise of a confused text, is by separation and division dispersed and removed*. And as the division of fields doth make the tillage more plentiful and sightly, so doth partition in the handling of causes adorn and garnish them. These things may be aptly divided which have a separate reason, and are sorted to divers ends.

2. Students shall not do amiss, if at certain times they meet amongst themselves, and do propose such things as they

*Justin. in §. alio. insti. quid. modis res. infirm & in §. sed ne in primis de leg.