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 BLA of this description, like an experienced actor he accommodated himself to the temper and character of his audience, rather for effect than with a view to demonstrate. Like the gnomon upon the sun dial, he takes no account of any hours but the serene. A man may read Blackstone's Commentaries from one end to the other, and yet have no notion that a proposition in law is as capable of being resolved and demonstrated as a proposition in mathematics. In the rank of elementary composition they might for ever have reposed beneath undisturbed laurels ; but he who would make them the institute of his professional education, improvi- dently forces them into an element which is not their own, and lays the foundation for those perilous misunderstandings — that unlawyer-like jejune smattering which informs without enlightening, and leaves its deluded votary at once profoundly ignorant and contented." Ritso's Legal Education, 30, 7G; see also Jones on Bailments, 4; Hargrave's Law Tracts, 45. Blackstone's Commentaries are, however, a wonderful w^ork, and the more a lawyer reads and studies the more he will appreciate them ; it is not with him we find fault, but with those who blindly copy him even in his errors, who seem to think nothing in him can be wrong, nothing improved upon. 2 M. L. M. 62. I recommend the commentaries of Blackstone as a general book. The intention of that ingenious writer was to give a comprehensive outline; and when "we consider the multiplicity of doctrine which he embraced, the civil, the criminal, the theoretical and practical branches of the law, we must confess the hand of a master. But in the minutiae he is fre- quenth^, very frequently, inaccurate. He should, therefore, be read with caution. The student, in reading him, will often require explanation from him whose duty it is to instruct. Watkins' Princ. of Conveyanc- ing Int. 28. Blackstone's manner is clear and methodical; his sentiments, I speak of them generally, are judicious and solid; his language is elegant and pure. In public law, however, he should be consulted with a cautious prudence. But even in public law, his principles, when they are not proper objects of imitation, will furnish excellent materials of contrast. On every account, therefore, he should be read and studied. He deserves to be much admired; but he ought not to be implicitly followed. Wil- son's works, 22. " Till of late I could never, with any satisfaction to myself, point out a book proper for the perusal of a student; but since the publication of Mr. Blackstone's Commentaries, I can never be at a loss." Lord Mans- field, Holliday's life of, 89. '' He it was who, first of all institutional writers, has taught jurispni- dence to speak the language of the scholar and the gentleman, put a polish upon that rugged science, and cleansed her from the dust and cob- webs of the office; and if he has not enriched her with that precision 125