case, made a great mess of it, for he had not sufficiently prepared
himself. Then the President gave him some free advice. "What you need
is to be thorough," and he brought his hand down on the table with the
crash of a maul,--"to be thorough." It was his own method. After a
successful practise of twenty years he advised a young law student:
"Work, work, work is the main thing." He spoke out of his own
experience.

There is one remarkable passage in his life which is worth repeating
here, since it gives an insight into the thoroughness of this man. The
following is quoted from the Rev. J. P. Gulliver, then pastor of the
Congregational church in Norwich, Conn. It was a part of a conversation
which took place shortly after the Cooper Institute speech in 1860, and
was printed in _The Independent_ for September 1, 1864.

"Oh, yes! 'I read law,' as the phrase is; that is, I became a lawyer's
clerk in Springfield, and copied tedious documents, and picked up what
I could of law in the intervals of other work. But your question
reminds me of a bit of education I had, which I am bound in honesty to
mention."

"In the course of my law reading I constantly came upon the word
_demonstrate_. I thought, at first, that I understood its meaning, but
soon became satisfied that I did not. I said to myself, What do I do
when I _demonstrate_ more than when I _reason_ or _prove_? How does
_demonstration_ differ from any other proof? I consulted Webster's
Dictionary. They told of 'certain proof,' 'proof beyond the possibility
of doubt'; but I could form no idea of what sort of proof that was. I
thought a great many things were proved beyond the possibility of
doubt, without recourse to any such extraordinary process of reasoning