CHAPTER FOURTEENTH. ADVANCEMENT. "Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one's horse as he is leaping." MR. WIRT, very soon after his removal to Norfolk, was in a full practice at the bar, and was rapidly rising to emiIn a letter to one of his earliest and best friends, William Pope, dated August 6th, 1803, he says: nence. 'I am already engaged in very productive business in five courts. I am very sanguine that, with the blessing of Providence, I shall be able to retire from business in ten or fifteen years, with such a fortune as will place my family at least above want. * * * * "And how do you prosper, my good friend? Does fortune flow in upon you in a golden deluge? I hope it does. Good men, only, deserve to be rich, because they, only, are disposed to employ their wealth for the good of the world. But things in general take a different turn, and none grow rich but the selfish and the sordid. Our friend B, however, is an illustrious exception to this remark. A more feeling, A more feeling, a more benevolent, a more philanthropic heart, never palpitated in the bosom of a man." Within a few weeks after the date of the foregoing letter, the eldest child of Mr. Wirt, Laura Henrietta, was born. New and holy resolutions for his future life were now made by the grateful father. He writes to his beloved companion," I am convinced, thoroughly and permanently convinced, that the very highest earthly success, the crowning of every wish of the heart, would still leave even the earthly happiness of man incomplete. The soul has more enlarged demands, which nothing but a communion with Heaven can satisfy. The soul requires a broader and more solemn basis, a stronger anchor, a safer port in which to moor her happiness, than can be found on the surface of this world." In another letter to his wife he says, "The man who knows and feels his own foibles, and can draw off from himself so far as to make a proper estimate of his own imperfections, will be hurt by the flattery of others." About this time Mr. Wirt wrote the British Spy. The book was published anonymously, and was eagerly read throughout the Union. His popularity was well deserved -for as Mr. Kennedy remarks,-"It was written in a polished and elegant style, and the distinctive traits of Virginia society, manners, opinions, and popular institutions, are glanced at with a happy facility of observation." Who does not remember with pleasure "The Blind Preacher," an extract from the British Spy, as one of the choicest specimens in his reading-book at school? But this was but an "aside" in the drama of Wirt's life. He devoted himself with great zeal and application to his professional duties, and made himself a firm standing-place among able competitors for the topmost round of the ladder of forensic eminence. "Forensic life," says Mr. Kennedy, "is, in great part, life in the noon-day, in presence of sharpsighted observers, and not the most indulgent of critics. It has always two sides, whereof one is sentinel upon the other; and a blunder, a slip, or a slovenly neglect of the matter in hand, never escapes without its proper comment. The public opinion of the merits of a lawyer is but the winnowed and sifted judgment of the bar, and is, therefore, made up after severe ordeal, and upon standard proof." Mr. Wirt had not been long in Norfolk before he wrote to a friend," Here I am abreast with the van of the profession in this quarter, with the brightest hopes and prospects-puffed by the newspapers as an orator, to which I have no pretensions, and honored and applauded far beyond my deserts, I have formed, in my imagination, a model of professional greatness which I am far, very far below, but to which I will never cease to aspire. It is to this model that I compare myself, whenever the world applauds, and the comparison humbles me to the dust. But I must not despair, since it is only by aiming at perfection that a man can attain his highest practicable point."1 The correct principles of Wirt revolted against the position in which he found himself, when his talents had made him extensively known as one of the most eloquent advocates in the State. He writes to Mrs. Wirt: "I look to you as a refuge from care and toil. It is this anticipation only which enables me to sustain the pressure of employments so uncongenial to my spirits-this indiscriminate defence of right and wrong-this zealous advocation of causes at which my soul revolts. But the time will come when I hope it will be unnecessary." "He began to long," says Mr. Kennedy, "for the privilege of an extensive devotion of his time to that higher range of practice which gives occasion for the employment of the subtlest powers of intellect, in the study and development of the great principles of right."1 15 "Law was designed to keep a State in peace; To be impregnable, a constant fort, To which the weak and injured might resort."-Crabbe. 16"We are not sent into this world to do anything into which we cannot put our hearts. We have certain work to do for our bread, and that must be done strenuously; other work to do for our delight, and that is to be done heartily; neither is to be done by halves or shifts, but with a will; and what is not worth this effort, is not to be done at all."-Ruskin. In this sphere of forensic life, as distinguished from that which is properly assigned to the advocate, is only to be achieved that best renown which has followed the names of the greatest lawyers." The aspirations after a noble name to leave as a rich inheritance, which were frequently expressed by Wirt, will, no doubt, find a ready response in the heart of many a young man, who is now pressing onward in life's career. "The idea has always been very dismal to me," says Wirt, "of dropping into the grave, like a stone into the water, and letting the waves of Time close over me, so as to leave no trace of the spot on which I fall. For this reason, at a very early period of my youth, I resolved to profit by the words of Sallust, who advises that if a man wishes his memory to live forever on the earth, he must either write something worthy of being always. read, or do something worthy of being written and immortalized by history. Perhaps it is no small degree of vanity to think myself capable of either; but I have always been taught to consider the passion for fame as not only innocent, but laudable, and even noble. I mean that kind of fame which follows virtuous and useful actions." 17 "The lawyer must be able to reason from the noblest principles of human duty, and must comprehend, at a glance, the mighty maze of human relations."-Everett. |