ments, either at the bar or on the bench;"(f) having given it more at large(g) in the words of a noble person, whom he styles one of the greatest men of the profession of the law (h) "he would never be brought to discourse of public matters in private conversation; but in questions of law, when any young lawyer put a case to him, he was very communicative, especially while he was at the bar: but when he came to the bench, he grew more reserved, and would never suffer his opinion in any case to be known, till he was obliged to declare it judicially; and he concealed his opinion in great cases so carefully, that the rest of the judges in the same court could never perceive it: his reason was, because every judge ought to give sentence according to his own persuasion and conscience, and not to be swayed by any respect or deference to another man's opinion: and by this means it happened sometimes, that when all the barons of the Exchequer had delivered their opinions, and agreed in their reasons and arguments, yet he coming to speak last, and differing in judgment from them, hath expressed himself with so much weight and solidity, that the barons have immediately retracted their votes, and concurred with him. He hath sat as a judge in all the courts of law, and in two of them as chief; but still wherever he sat, all business of consequence followed him, and no man was content to sit down by the judgment of any court, till the case was brought before him, to see whether he were of the same mind; and his opinion being once known, men did readily acquiesce in it; and it was very rarely seen, that any man attempted to bring it about again; and he that did so, did it upon great disadvantages, and was always looked upon as a very contentious person; so that what Cicero says of Brutus, did very often happen to him, Etiam quos contra statuit, æquos placatosque dimisit.

"Nor did men reverence his judgment and opinion in courts of law only; but his authority was as great in courts of equity, and the same respect and submission was paid him there too; and this appeared not only in his own court of equity in the Exchequer chamber, but in the Chancery too, for thither he was often called to advise and assist the lord chancellor, or lord keeper for the time being; and if the

(f) p. 218.

(h) Supposed to be the then earl of Nottingham.

(g) p. 172.

cause were of difficult examination, or intricated and entangled with variety of settlements, no man ever shewed a more clear and discerning judgment; if it were of great value, and great persons interested in it, no man shewed. greater courage and integrity in laying aside all respect of persons. When he came to deliver his opinion, he always put his discourse into such a method, that one part of it gave light to the other; and where the proceedings of Chancery might prove inconvenient to the subject, he never spared to observe and reprove them: And from his observations and discourses, the Chancery hath taken occasion to establish many of those rules by which it governs itself at this day.

"He did look upon equity as a part of the common law, and one of the grounds of it; and therefore, as near as he could; he did always reduce it to certain rules and principles, that men might study it as a science, and not think the administration of it had any thing arbitrary in it. Thus eminent was this man in every station, and into what course soever he was called, he quickly made it appear, that he deserved the chief seat there.

"As great a lawyer as he was, he would never suffer the strictness of law to prevail against conscience; as great a chancellor as he was, he would make use of all the niceties and subtilties in law, when it tended to support right and equity. But nothing was more admirable in him, than his patience: he did not affect the reputation of quickness and dispatch, by a hasty and captious hearing of the counsel: he would bear with the meanest, and gave every man his full scope, thinking it much better to lose time than patience: in summing up of an evidence to a jury, he would always require the bar to interrupt him if he did mistake, and to put him in mind of it, if he did forget the least circumstance: some judges have been disturbed at this as a rudeness, which he always looked upon as a service and respect done to him.

"His whole life was nothing else but a continual course of labour and industry, and when he could borrow any time from the public service, it was wholly employed either in philosophical or divine meditations: and even that was a public service too, as it hath proved; for they have occasioned his writing of such treatises as are become the choicest entertainment of wise and good men; and the world hath

reason to wish that more of them were printed. He that considers the active part of his life, and with what unwearied diligence and application of mind he dispatched all mens business which came under his care, will wonder how he could find any time for contemplation: he that considers again the various studies he past thro, and the many collections and observations he hath made, may as justly wonder how he could find any time for action: but no man can wonder at the exemplary piety and innocence of such a life so spent as this was, wherein as he was careful to avoid every idle word, so it was manifest he never spent an idle day. They who came far short of this great man, will be apt enough to think that this is a panegyric, which indeed is a history, and but a little part of that history which was with great truth to be related of him. Men who despair of attaining such perfection, are not willing to believe that any man else did ever arrive at such a height.

"He was the greatest lawyer of the age, and might have had what practice he pleased; but tho he did most conscientiously affect the labours of his profession, yet at the same time he despised the gain of it; and of those profits which he would allow himself to receive, he always set apart a tenth penny for the poor, which he ever dispensed with that secresy, that they who were relieved, seldom or never knew their benefactor. He took more pains to avoid the honours' and preferments of the gown, than others do to compass them. His modesty was beyond all example; for where some men who never attained to half his knowledge, have been puffed up with a high conceit of themselves, and have affected all occasions of raising their own esteem by depreciating other men, he on the contrary was the most obliging man that ever practised. If a young gentleman happened to be retained to argue a point in law, where he was on the contrary side, he would very often mend the objections when he came to repeat them, and always commend the gentleman, if there were room for it; and one good word of his was of more advantage to a young man, than all the favour of the court could be.[2]

[2] Williams, in his life of Hale, gives the following account of his introduction to a student of law, taken from a manuscript formerly in the possession of Bennet Langton, the friend of Dr. Johnson, and found in the handwriting of Mr. Langton's great grandfather, who studied law with Lord Hale: "Dec. 13, 1672.-I was sent to by. Mr. Barker, to come to him to my Lord Chief Justice Hale's lodgings, at Sergeant's Inn. I was informed by

Upon the promotion of lord chief justice Rainsford, who succeeded him in that office, the then lord chancellor exprest himself thus:(i) "The vacancy of the seat of the chief jus

(i) Burnet, p. 213, 217.

Mr. Godolphin, about a month ago, that my Lord Chief Justice had declared, at supper, at Mr. Justice Twisden's, that if he could meet with a sober young man, that would entirely addict himself to his lordship's directions, he would take delight to communicate to him, and discourse with him at meals, and at leisure times; and, in three year's time, make him perfect in the practice of the law. I discoursed several times with Mr. Godolphin, of the great advantage that a student would make by his lordship's learned communications, and what influence it would have on a practiser, as well as honour, to be regarded as my lord's friend; and persuaded him to use his interest, and the offers of his friends, to procure his lordship's favour. But his inclinations leading him to travel, and his design afterwards, to rely upon his interest at court, he had no thoughts to pursue it, but offered to engage friends on my behalf, which I refused, and told him, I would make use of no other person than my worthy friend, Mr. Barker, whose acquaintance with my lord, I knew, was very particular. After I had often reflected upon the nobleness of my lord's proposition, and the happiness of that person that should be preferred by so learned and pious a man, to whose opinion every court paid such a veneration that he was regarded as the oracle of the law, I made my application to Mr. Barker to intercede with my lord in my behalf, who assented to it with much readiness, as he always had been very obliging to me since I had the honour to be known to him. He made a visit to my lord, and told him that he heard of the declaration my lord made at Mr. Justice Twisden's. My lord said it was true, and he had entertained the same resolution a long time; but, not having met with any body to his purpose, he had discarded those thoughts, which Mr. B. did beg of his lordship to resume, in behalf of a person that he would recommend to him, and would be surety for his industry, and diligent observation of his lordship's directions. My lord then inquired who it was, and he mentioned me. Then he asked how long I had been at the law, of what country I was, and what estate I had; which he told him, and that I was my father's eldest son. To which he replied, that he might talk no farther of it, for there was no likelihood that I would attend to the study of the law as I ought. But Mr. B. gave him assurances that I would; that his lordship might rely upon his word; and that I had not taken this resolution without deliberation; that I had often been at Westminster Hall, where I had heard his lordship speak, and had a very great veneration for his lordship, and did earnestly desire this favour; that my father had lately purchased the seat of the family, which was sold by the elder house, and by that means had run himself into five or six thousand pounds debt. "Well then,' said my lord, 'pray bring him to me.'

"Dec. 13.-I went to my lord and Mr. B. (for till that time my lord was either busy or out of town) about four in the afternoon. My lord prayed us to sit, and after some silence, Mr. B. acquainted my lord, that I was the person on whose behalf he had spoken to his lordship. My lord then said, that he understood I had a fortune, and, therefore, would not so strictly engage myself in the crabbed study of the law, as was necessary for one that must

tice of this court, and that by a way and means so unusual, as the resignation of him, that lately held it, and this too proceeding from so deplorable a cause as the infirmity of that body, which began to forsake the ablest mind that ever

make his dependence on it. I told his lordship, that if he pleased to admit me to that favor I heard he designed to such a person he had inquired after, that I should be very studious. My lord replied quick, that Mr. B. had given him assurances of it; that Mr. B. was his worthy friend, with whom he had been acquainted a long time, and that, for his sake, he should be ready to do me any kindness; for which I humbly gave his lordship thanks, as did, likewise, Mr. B. My lord asked me, how I had passed my time, and what standing I was of. I told him that I was almost six years of the Temple; that I had travelled into France about two years ago, since when I had discontinued my studies of the law, applying myself to the reading French books, and some histories. My lord discoursed of the necessity of a firm, uninterrupted prosecution of that study which any man designed, in the midst of which Mr. Justice Twisden came in, so that his lordship bid us come to him again in two hours after.

"About eight the same evening, we found his lordship alone. After we sat down, my lord bid me tell him, what I read in Oxford, what here, and what in France. I told him I read Smith's Logic, Burgersdicius' Natural Philosophy, Metaphysics, and Moral Philosophy; that in the afternoons I used to read the classic authors; that, at my first coming to the inns of court, I read Lyttleton, and Doctor and Student, Perkins, my Lord Coke's Institutes, and some cases in his Reports; that after I went into France, I applied myself to the learning of the language, and reading some French memoirs, as the Life of Mazarin, Memoirs of the D. of Guise, the History of the Academie Francoise, and others; that since I came away, I continued to read some French books, as the History of the Turkish government by, the account of the last Dutch war, the State of Holland, &c.; that I read a great deal in Heylin's Geography, some of Sir Walter Rawleigh, my Lord Bacon of the Advancement of Learning, Tully's Offices, Rushworth's Collections.

"My lord said, that the study of the law was to one of two ends; first, to fit a man with so much knowledge as will enable him to understand his own estate, and live in some repute among his neighbours in the country; or secondly, to design the practice of it as an employment to be advantaged by it; and asked which of them was my purpose. I acquainted his lordship, that when I first came to the temple I did not design to prosecute the study of the law, so as to make advantage by it; but now, by the advice of my father and my uncle, and Dr. Peirse, in whose college I had my education, and received many instances of his great kindness to me, I had formed resolutions to practise it, and, therefore, made my suit to his lordship, for his directions.

"Well,' said my Lord, 'since I see your intentions, I will give what assistance I can."

"My lord said, that there were two ways of applying one's-self to the study of the law; one was to attain the great learning and knowledge of it, which was to be had in all the old books, but that did require great time, and