To The Presentment Of Truth, Or Sophism, As The
Cause Might Require, He Gave His Entire Mind With As Perfect Oblivion
Of Self As The Most Heroic Sufferer For Principle.
The faculty which
in Gladstone, the statesman, applied to realities and inspired only by
the desire to discover the
Truth and to clothe it in language,
assumes, in the minds of superficial observers, the air of casuistry
from the nicety of its distinctions and the earnest desire of the
speaker to present truth in its finest shades in Follett, the
advocate, applied indiscriminately to the development of the specious
shows of things as of their essences, wore all the semblance of
sincerity; and, in one sense, deserved it. No fears, no doubts, no
scruples shook him. Of the license which advocacy draws from sympathy
with the feelings of those it represents, he made full use, with
unhesitating power; for his reason, of 'large discourse,' was as
pliable as the affections of the most sensitive nature. Nor was he
diverted from his aim by any figure or fancy: if he neither exalted
his subject by imagination, nor illustrated it by wit, nor softened
its details by pathos, he never made it the subject of vain attempts
at the exhibition of either. He went into the arena, stripped of all
encumbrance, to win, and contended studious only and always of
victory. His presence of mind was not merely the absence of external
distraction, nor the capacity of calling up all energies on an
emergency, but the continued application of them equally to the duty
of each moment. There are few speakers, even of fervid sincerity and
zeal, whose thoughts do not frequently run before or beside the
moment's purpose; whose wits do not sometimes wander on to some other
part of the case than that they are instantly discussing; who do not
anticipate some future effect, or dally with some apprehension of
future peril, while they should consider only the next word or
sentence. This momentary desertion of the exact purpose never occurred
to Follett; he fitted the thought to its place; the word to the
thought; and allowed the action only to take care of itself, as it
always will with an earnest speaker. His, therefore, was rather the
artlessness than the art of advocacy its second nature justly
appreciated by those to whose interests it was devoted; but not fully
understood even by the spectator of its exertion; dying with the
causes in which it was engaged, and leaving no vestiges except in
their success. Hence the blank which is substituted for the space he
filled in human affairs. The modest assurance, the happy boldness, the
extemporaneous logic, all that 'led but to the grave,' exist, like the
images of departed actors, only in the recollection of those who
witnessed them, till memory shall fade into tradition, and tradition
dwindle down to a name." (Supplement to Vacation Rambles, p. 115.) The
eagerness with which the talents of Sir William Follett were sought,
forcibly illustrates the truth of a remark, made to me in the course
of some friendly advice, by one who may be ranked among the most
brilliant advocates who have adorned the American Bar (now in the
highest office in the nation), that to attain the highest rank in the
legal profession, a lawyer must have such abilities and character as
will "compel" patronage.
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