[Page 113]

  September 1, 1843.--I have now finished my first week in the
Law School. I have studied hard and am confident that my real
gain is as great as I should have had in two weeks in an office.
Our lectures have all the advantages of recitations and lectures
combined, without their disadvantages. We have no formal lec-
tures. Professors Story and Greenleaf illustrate and explain as
they proceed. Mr. Greenleaf is very searching and logical in
examination. It is impossible for one who has not faithfully
studied the text to escape exposing his ignorance; he keeps the
subject constantly in view, never stepping out of his way for the
purpose of introducing his own experience.
  Judge Story, on the other hand, is very general in his ques-
tions so that a person well skilled in words affirmative and neg-
ative shakings of the head need never more than glance at the
text to be able to answer his interrogatories. He is very fond of
digressions to introduce amusing anecdotes, high-wrought eulo-
gies of the sages of the law, and fragments of his own expe-
rience. He is generally very interesting, often quite eloquent.
His manner of speaking is almost precisely like that of Corwin.
In short, as a lecturer he is a very different man from what you
would expect of an old and eminent judge; not but that he is
great, but he is so interesting and fond of good stories. His
amount of knowledge is prodigious. Talk of "many irons in the
fire," why, he keeps up with the news of the day of all sorts from
political to Wellerisms; and new works of all sorts he reads at
least enough to form an opinion of, and all the while enjoys him-
self with a flow of spirits equal to a schoolboy in the holidays.
So, ho! the pleasures of literature are not so small after all.