The Lawyer; His Character and Rule of Holy Life after the Manner of George Herbert's Country Parson
London: William Pickering, 1842. First edition. Small octavo (6 5/8 inches tall), contemporary rose-colored pebble-grain morocco, gilt spine, raised bands, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Two pages with offsetting from laid-in item, contents otherwise clean; joints and extremities slightly rubbed, spine toned. Near-fine. Item #1806
"HAVING ADDED TO PROBITY WISDOM, AND TO WISDOM COURAGE, AND TO COURAGE PATIENCE, HE SUMS UP ALL WITH A HOLY ZEAL AND LOVE FOR TRUTH AND JUSTICE"
First edition of Edward O'Brien's Holy Rule for Catholic lawyers seeking to cultivate Justice, "the Queen of all virtues." A small handbook in a handsome Victorian binding by Birdsall & Son. A handsome copy and a thoughtful gift for a
Catholic lawyer.
In the early universities of medieval Christendom, the Law formed one leg of the Four Faculties: "Only three branches of knowledge were regarded as worthy of advanced study: Medicine, Law, and Theology. These, together with the prepatory liberal arts, formed the four faculties" (Thomas Bokenkotter).
Decorated with a fine architectural title page, The Lawyer is written in the style of George Herbert's Country Parson and was "extravagantly well reviewed." The author "took the position that a lawyer's goal was the attainment of justice for the good of his fellow men. Through a series of scenes illustrating the moral dilemmas of a lawyer's life, it showed the various temptations he was prey to, such as avarice, dishonesty, and cunning, and how these could be overcome by cultivating a strong, inflexible conscience. The book's graceful style was much admired by Sir Aubrey de Vere and the Dublin University Magazine. The idealised lawyer depicted was supposed by his friends to be a self-portrait. O'Brien was everywhere eulogised as conscientious, cautious, Christian, and charitable" (Dictionary of Irish Biography). With an epigraph from Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity: "So natural is the union of Law with Justice."
Aubrey de Vere, in a lengthy Introduction, recommends "this noble and religious book to the careful attention of those who, like its Author, desire to follow the pursuits of this life in such a manner as will favor their growth in the interior and eternal: especially I commend it to the younger members of the Bar." Supplemented with a lengthy appendix of notes to the text, the book concludes with a final chapter, The Lawyer's Prayer ("strengthen in us the love of truth, justice, and mercy"). Thomas Bokenkotter. A Concise History of the Catholic Church; Allibone 1446; HLC II: 247; NYU, 223.
Price: $400.00