Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/289

252 application of principles as well as the expression of conclusions in words; and further, it enlists in his service the pride of the naturally careless student who would dream through the exercise if there were no danger of being caught napping. The Faculty of this school have excellent opportunities for a comparison of results, and their experience has dictated the present system as the most efficient.

In preparation for the recitations, the study of text-books or treatises is required, regular portions being assigned by the professors. The reading of many cases in the reports is not encouraged in the first part of the course, but later is required in connection with the other reading. Each professor is of course free to conduct his department according to his own judgment and the demands of the subject-matter; and cases are more freely used by one than by another. But it is the general policy of the school to postpone their study until a groundwork has been laid for their proper comprehension. Some of the more excellent text-books, prepared by instructors of experience, in their arrangement and argument, represent years of constant effort to overcome effectually the difficulties encountered by every student. They are the forms through which we make other generations contribute to our advancement.

The work of the graduate courses, in both general plan and detail, is arranged and conducted upon these same principles, modified only in their application by the higher character of the studies and by the further consideration that they are pursued from choice, and not because their study is a prerequisite to admission to the bar.

A few students are compelled by their circumstances to serve in offices while studying law. Others do so from preference. But the best time for acquiring a familiarity with office-practice is after the close of a Law School course. A knowledge of a science, it would seem, should precede an inquiry into the art of its application. There is ample work in the prescribed course of a professional school properly organized, to keep the student fully occupied; and if he has any spare time it might to advantage be devoted to the study of kindred liberal branches, as has already been suggested. Yet, although New Haven does not afford the same opportunities for office-practice that are offered by its neighbors, New York and Boston, it has now grown to be a city of over eighty thousand inhabitants, and there are many good law offices where the students of the school can and do find places if they so desire.

One of the distinctive features of the school has always been the wide range of territory from which its students come. Every State and Territory is represented in its catalogues except Idaho, Nebraska, Utah, and Wyoming. The list also includes graduates of seventy-nine different collegiate institutions, as follows: Amherst, Athens, Bates, Bethany, Bowdoin, Blackburn, Brown, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Drake, Eminence, Emmetsburg, Emory and Henry, Fisk, Georgetown, Hampden Siding, Harvard, Haverford, Hamilton, Illinois, Illinois Wesleyan, Iowa Wesleyan, Jefferson, Kansas College, Kings (Nova Scotia), Knox, Kenyon, Jolliet, Lafayette, Lebanon Valley, Lewisburg, Lincoln, Louisville, Marietta, Mass. Agricultural, Mercer, Middlebury, Mount Union, Mount St. Mary's, Nashville, National Normal University, College of City of New York, Penn. Military Academy, Princeton, Pritchell School Institute, Rochester, Rutgers, Santa Clara, St. Charles, St. Francis, St. Ignatius, St. James, St. John's, St. Joseph, Syracuse, Tokio, Trinity, Tuscumbia, Union, University of Alabama, University of Georgia, University of Michigan, University of New York, University of North Carolina, University of Ohio, University of Oregon, University of Pennsylvania, University of South Carolina, University of Vermont, Vanderbilt, Washburn, Washington (Md.), Washington (Penn.), Western Reserve Wesleyan, Williams, Wooster, and Wurtzburg. Alumni of fifteen Law Schools have also studied either in the undergraduate