Arthur Herriot,
whom the attorneys had not yet loved, brought some very thick boots, a
pair of knickerbockers, together with Stone and Toddy's "Digest of the
Common Law." The best of the legal profession consists in this--that when
you get fairly at work you may give over working. An aspirant must learn
everything; but a man may make his fortune at it, and know almost nothing.
He may examine a witness with judgment, see through a case with precision,
address a jury with eloquence, and yet be altogether ignorant of law. But
he must be believed to be a very pundit before he will get a chance of
exercising his judgment, his precision, or his eloquence. The men whose
names are always in the newspapers never look at their Stone and Toddy--
care for it not at all--have their Stone and Toddy got up for them by
their juniors when cases require that reference shall be made to
precedents. But till that blessed time has come, a barrister who means
success should carry his Stone and Toddy with him everywhere. Greystock
never thought of the law now, unless he had some special case in hand; but
Herriot could not afford to go out on a holiday without two volumes of
Stone and Toddy's Digest in his portmanteau.
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