Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 14.pdf/405

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The Green Bag.

his speeches and the legacy of his name and fame. He died April 1o, 1897, at Washing ton, a little over a month after his term as Senator had expired. " His nature," said one of his close friends, " was too kindly for either good or evil to take deep root." " He was the product of the time when oratory accounted for more than it does now. And surely if nature ever gifted any man in that way she was prodigal of her equipment of him. In the prime and vigor of his young manhood he had everything that went to make the popular orator. Of magnificent presence, with a natural flow of speech, be wildering in its color and strength; with a voice like the. music of the spheres, unham pered by intellectual restraint, a nature that floated on its feelings, giving form and shape to the emotions of the day or the hour or the moment, he could so entirely work his

will as a born mathematician could handle figures." A lawyer friend, who had known him for years, has said : " Of him it can be correctly said he was a lovable man. His nature was so sensitive and emotional, that the pleasures and pains of his fellowmen were, in fact, his pleasures and pains. His great heart had an inexhaustible sympathy for those in joy or those in sorrow. In every phase of his character were plainly exhibited the large generosity of his mind and heart. His in tellect seized upon a question with most re markable quickness, and with a most com prehensive grasp, and a cause once espoused became part and parcel of the man. His fervid and effective oratory was natural and spontaneous. It was the product of a bril liant intellect and a highly sympathetic, emo tional nature."

THE LAW AS TREATED IN FICTION.' By Allan R. Campbell. ANTHONY TROLLOPE, towards the end of his novel, Doctor Thome, inter rupts the narrative to state and solve a prob lem. To bring his story to the proper ending he would like to make use of a cer tain proposition of law; but, doubting the soundness of this proposition, he would avoid the criticism of lawyers. He has re jected, with apparent disdain, the plan of referring the matter to a barrister beforehand, and he now invents a device of his own, by which his accuracy in stating the law is pro tected from any possible impeachment. He writes, simply: "If under such a will as that described as having been made by Sir Roger, Mary 1 Delivered as a Commencement Part at Harvard University, June, 1902.

would not have been the heiress, that will must have been described wrongly." Despite the success achieved by this sen tence, it is believed that the writing of it was a literary fault; as truly such as the follow ing surprising statement found in another of Trollope's books : " Andy Scott came whist ling up the street with a cigar in his mouth." The anomaly described here could hardly be remedied by requesting the reader to im agine Andy Scott physically capable of the feat set down to him; for Trollope is said to be a realist. Now the same literary de fect exists where the anomaly is one of law. The duty of making the fiction complete should not be shirked or shifted to the reader. The only other way suggested of avoiding