contained in them, and of which, generally speaking, they were little
else than digests or epitomes. He was a very keen and acute logician,
and felt great satisfaction in balancing the _pros_ and _cons_ of the
reported cases, and testing the soundness of the judges' decisions, and
the relevancy and force of the arguments of council which had led to
them. Among the books which he read about this time, he enumerated to me
"Sanders on Uses and Trusts," (which, he said, he found to be a
difficult book to master practically;) "Fearne on Contingent
Remainders," which he represented as likely to prove interesting to
_any_ educated man of intellect, fond of exercising it, who would take
the trouble to read it; Sir Edward Sugden's Treatises on "Vendors and
Purchasers of Real Estates," and on "Powers," and Williams' "Saunders;"
while "Comyn's Digest" was ever lying before him, the subject of
continual reference, and with which he soon acquired an invaluable
familiarity. He also read several books on Equity with great attention,
and often said, that no one, who really knew law, could fail to feel a
deep interest in Equity, and the mode of its operating upon law. The
"Code Napoleon," too, he read very carefully, and for many years. He had
a copy of Justinian's Code, and Institutes, always lying on his
mantel-piece, and which he was very fond of reading. We have frequently
conversed together on the subject of the extensive obligations of our
Common Law to the Roman Law; to which he used to refer, in the absence
of the books, with great facility and accuracy. He was very fond of
Plautus, and would quote almost an entire scene, as accurately, and with
as natural a fluency and zest, as another would have shown in reading
off any of the scenes in a popular English play; often accompanying his
quotations with shrewd and ingenious critical comments. He was also very
fond of the French Dramatists, particularly Moliere, from whom I have
heard him quote entire scenes with wonderful accuracy. You might have
imagined him reading from the book, as I have several times myself