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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	read_v	see_v	time_n	3,254	5	3.4751	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32719	The character of an honest lawyer by H.C. ...	H. C.	1676 (1676)	Wing C37; ESTC R35821	3,374	9

THE CHARACTER OF AN HONEST LAWYER By H. C. Φιλόνομιον Justitiae cultor rigidi servator Honesti in commune bonus LICENSED Aug 29th 1676. Roger L' Estrange LONDON Printed for Jonathan Edwin at the three Roses in Ludgate Street 1676. THE CHARACTER OF An Honest Lavvyer AN honest Lawyer is the Life-guard of our Fortunes the best Collateral security for an Estate A trusty Pilot to steer one safe through the dangerous and oft-times Inevitable Ocean of Contention A true Priest of Justice that neither sacrifices to Fraud nor Covetousness and in this out-does those of a higher Function that he can make people Honest that are Sermon Proof He is an infallable Anatomist of Meum and Tuum that will presently search a Cause to the quick and find out the Peccant humour he little lurking-cheat though mask'd in never so fair Pretences One that practises Law so as not to forget the Gospel but always wears a Conscience as well as a Gown he weighs the Cause more than the Gold and if That will not bear the Touch in a generous scorn puts back the Fee Though he knows all the Criticisms of his Faculty and the nice Snapperado's of Practice yet the never uses them unless in a Defensive way to Countermine the plots of Knavery for he affects not the Devilish skill outbaffling Right nor aims at the shameful Glory of making a Bad Cause good but with equal contempt hates the Wolves study and the Dogs eloquence and disdains to grow great by Crimes or build himself a Fortune on the spoil of the Oppressed or the ruines of Widows and Orphans he has more Reverence for his Profession than to debauch it to unrighteous purposes and had rather be dumb than suffer his tongue to Pimp for Injustice or club his Parts to bolster up a Cheat with the Legerdemain of Law-craft He is not fac'd like Janus to take a Reteyning Fee from the Plantiff and afterwards a Backhanded bribe from the Defendant nor so double tongu'd that one may purchase his Pleading and the other at the same or a larger price his silence But when he undertakes a business he espouses it in earnest and does not Follow a Cause but manage it A mollifying letter from the adversaries Potent Friend a noble Treat or the remora of a lusty Present to his Wife have no influence to make him slacken his proceedings for he is so zealous for his Clients interest that you may sooner Divorce the Sun from the Ecliptick than warp him from his integrity yet still is his Patron only usque ad Aras as far as is just for if once found he finds the business smell rank St. Marks treasure or the Mines of Potosi are two small a Fee to engage him one step further As his profession is Honourable so his Education has been Liberal and Ingenious far different from that of some Jilting Pettyfoggers and Purse-milking Law-drivers whose breeding like a Cuckowes is in the Nest of another Trade where they learn Wrangling and Knavery enough in their own Causes to spoil those of other Men and sweetned ingredients of mechanick Fraud compound themselves though simple enough fit Instruments for any Villany Bu his greener years were season'd with Literature and can give better proofs of his Vniversity-learning than reckoning up the Colledges and boasting his Name in the Buttery Book he understands Logick the methods of right reasoning and Rhetorick the Art of perswasion is well seen in History the Free-school of Prudence and no Stranger to the Ethicks and Politicks of the Ancients he is skill'd in other Languages besides Declaration-Latine and Norman Gibberish He read Plato and Tully before he saw either Littleton or the Statute Book and grounded in the Principles of nature and Customes of Nations came lotis manibus to the study of our Common Municipal Law which he found to be multorum annorum opus a task that requires all the Nerves of Industry and therefore imployd his Time better at the Inns of Court than in hunting after New fashions starting fresh Mistresses haunting the Play-houses or acquiring the other little Town accomplishments which render their admirers fine Men in the opinion of Fools but egregious Fops in the judgment of the wise In his Studies he Traffiques not only with the Infantry of Epitome's Abridgements and Diminutive Collectors in Decimo sexto but draws his knowledge from the Original Springs digesting the whole Body of the Law in a Laborions and regular Method but especially aims to be well vers't in the Practice of every Court and rightly to understand the Art of Good pleadings as knowing them to be most useful to unravel the knotty intrigues of the Cause and reduce it to an Issue yet hates to pester the Court with Circuities Negative Pregnants Departures and multiplyed Impertinences he peruses the Year Books and Responsa prudentium with an heedy and Reverent Eye delights to tread in the steps of the Ancient Sages and thinks 't is best sailing by known and Experienced Land marks And therefore uses Presidents not as Refuges of Ignorance But as the safe-guards of Wisedome and yet rather than not keep pace with Justice will Dispense with a Formality considering that what he does grounded on Reason if it want a President in past Ages will be a Laudable one to those to come He never goes about with faigned Allegations to cast a Mist before the Eyes of Justice that she may mistake her road and assign the Child to the wrong Mother endeavours not to Pack a Jury by his interest in he Vndersheriffe not to Baulke an evidence with a multitude of sudden insnaring Interrogatories nor maintains any correspondence with the Knights of Alsatia or Ram-ally-Vouchers he can prosecute a suit in Equity without seeking to create a Whirl-pool where one Order shall beget another and the poor Client be swung round like a Cat before execution from Decree to rehearing from report to exceptions and Vice versâ till his Forunes are Shipwrack'd and himself drown'd for want of white or yellow earth to wade through on he never studies delayes to the ruine of a Family for the Lucre of Ten Groats nor by drilling Quirks spins out a suit more lasting than Buff depending a whole revolution of Saturn and Intail'd on the third and fourth generation he does not play the Emperick with his Client and put him upon the rack to make him Bleed the more freely casting him into a swoon with frights of a Judgment and then reviving him again with a Cordial write of errour or the dear Elixer of an Injunction to keep the Brangle alive as long as ever there are any vital spirits in the Pouch he can suffer his neighbours to live quietly about him without perpetual alarms of actions and Indictments or Conjuring up dormant Titles to every commodious seat and making Land fall five years Purchase meerly for Lying within ten Miles of Him He delights to be an Arbitrator not an Incendiary and has Beati pacifici oftner in his mouth than Currat Lex he never wheadles any into endless suits for triffles nor animates them to undo themselves and others for damage Feasant or insignificant trespases pedibus ambulado but as Telephus's sword was the best cure for the wounds it made advises people to compose their assaults and slanders over the same Ale that begot them nor does he in weightier cases extort unreasonable Fees for whatever the foul chapp'd rabble may suggest a Lawyers Profession is not Mercenary the Money given him is onely an Honorary gratuity for his advice and trouble or a grateful acknowledgment of our Obligations for his well intended endeavours and the old Emblem of the Brambles tearing oft the sheeps fleece that run to it for shelter in a storm can have no reflection upon him whose Brain is as active and his Tongue as voluble for a penniless Pauper as when Oyl'd with the aurum potabile of a Dozen Guinnies In a word whilst he lives he is the delight of the Court the Ornament of the Bar the Glory of his Profession the Patron of Innoceney the Vpholder of right the Scourge of oppression the Terrour of deceit and the Oracle of his Country and when death calls him to the Bar of Heaven by a Habeas corpus cum Causis he finds his Judge his Advocate nonsuits the Devil obtains a liberate from all his infirmities and continues still One of the long robe in Glory FINIS The Authors Apology THere are a sort of Spider-pated-Animals that can suck Venome out of the most Medicinal Flowers mischeivous Drones that have not onely left off Laudando Facere sed etiam Laudare so far from doing any thing praise worthy themselves that they cannot endure the deserv'd Encomiums of others if any such Vermine should light upon these Innocent sheets and endeavour to turn Panegyrick into a Satyr by a left-handed comment the Author thinks fit to anticipate their malice by letting the World truely know that there lives not a person whose breast is fraight with a greater Veneration for the Profession of the Law than himself who had the Honour of some mean education therein and therefore deserves to be Out-law'd by common sense if he should go about to asperse it But as he knowes no true Gamaliel's will wrong him with such a Groundless suspition so he esteems the displeasure of Gripping Cause Jobbers and green bag Dablers below his regards 't is their interest to be offended at the Character of An Honest Lawyer for the very same reason that hard favour'd Ladies hate Handsome Chamber-maids and may well imitate that Dawbers Policy who having drawn a most miserable Picture of a Cock hired a Boy to pelt away all live Ones from coming near lest people by Comparing should discern the horrid ugliness of his own Handy Work FINIS