Nevertheless, I am almost of opinion that Horace Mann was
right. It is certain that in his beginnings the young lawyer ought to
lean to that view.
If you consider it your duty to take any side of any case that offers,
right or wrong, it is no far cry to considering it your duty to make
the cause you have espoused a good one before the court. And when that
conception has shot its cancerous roots and filaments through your
brain and conscience, the suggestion to your unscrupulous client of
facts that do not exist, and all the alluring infamies of sharp
practise, are possible.
It is said that burglary exercises such a fascination that, once the
delirium of its danger is tasted, a man can never put that fatal wine
away. An old and distinguished lawyer once told me that one of the
most brilliant young lawyers he ever knew said to him, at the
conclusion of a legal duel in which he had resorted to the sharpest
practise and won, "That was the most delicious experience of my life."
Yes, and it was the most fatal. He became, and is, an attorney of
uncommon resource, ability, and success, with many cases and heavy
fees; nevertheless his life is a failure, for his profession and even
his clients know him for a dealer in tricks.
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