and responsible situation he held." Posterity will do justice to Lord
Brougham in this respect. It will be felt to have been impossible that a
man of such vast acquirements, who had been so successful in his
profession, and who had, in all other branches of knowledge, evinced such
clearness of intellect, could have been the inefficient lawyer his
detractors have represented him to be.

There is another great department in which he has proved his
excellence--that of physical science. With the principles of all the
sciences, his works show him to be familiar. His treatise "on the
Objects, Pleasures, and Advantages of Science" is admirable, as a
bird's-eye view of the subject, while at the same time it is an enticing
stimulant to study. The work on "Natural Theology" necessarily touches
upon the physical sciences, and their connection with the great mechanism
of nature. The geometrical and optical papers, published in the
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, when he was only fifteen
years of age, show at least a firm groundwork of scientific knowledge.
And if it be said that Lord Brougham's attainments are superficial only,
we say that knowledge of detail does not of itself make a man competent.
The _principles_ of all sciences are a _sine qua non_.

Lord Brougham is eminently clear-headed; and he is distinguished for his
argumentative powers. He has peculiarly the faculty of analysis; that of
keeping in his own mind a comprehensive view of the whole bearings of a
question, even while running at large into the minutest details; no man
detects the fallacy of an opponent's argument more easily; nor can any
man be more skillful in concocting a fallacy to suit a temporary purpose.

Lord Brougham's eloquence most distinguishes him from his contemporaries.
Learning may be acquired; the habit of reasoning may be induced by