SECRETS OF SUCCESS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 653, 3 May 1929, Page 11

SECRETS OF SUCCESS

WALK—WORK—READ! LEARNED JUDGES MAXIMS Lord Halsbury once advised youthful members of his profession that the requisites to success at the Bar were; First, health; second, health; third, health; adding that if they knew a little law it would do them no harm. Such was the text of an interesting address recently by Lord Alness, the great Scottish Judge, to members of the Glasgow Judicial Society. “Some men.’’ said the learned Judge, “inherited good constitutions. If so. they were thrice blessed. Others might not be so fortunate. Even so, he was there to say to them that they could do much to counteract, and even to overcome, any disability of that kind from which they suffered. *‘He, at any rate, could lay claim to have found a simple and inexpensive prescription, by means of which illness and he had remained aloof from one another for many years. What was it? It might be expressed in one word—walking! If he might be pardoned a personal allusion, he walked several miles each morning before taking his seat on the Bench and, in summer, at any rate, he walked several miles in the afternoon as well. He had no doubt at all that the time was well spent. When they were next tempted to take a car or a bus, keep their penny in their pocket, and not only their purse but their health as well would benefit by the choice they had made. Work and Three Vices “The next part of his prescription was equally simple and easily remembered —work! Professional success was impossible—apart from adventitious circumstances—without hard work. Work, said Voltaire, was a protection against three enemies—vice, want and tedium. But industry was not an agreeable doctrine. Most of them were by nature indolent. It would be mere affectation to deny it. Lord Balfour recently emphasised the fact. While that was so, he made bold to say that, if they eliminated work from life, they eliminated one of its chief interests. “The men who possessed the most agile and alert minds—the men, therefore, who had the most excuse for slacking—were, in point of fact, the hardest workers. He had in mind an eminent Judge who answered the description which he had given, and who, after a long day spent in Court would be found at his desk for several hours every afternoon, and again for several hours every evening. “He had in mind an eminent exLord Chancellor, Lord Birkenhead, who told him that on one occasion he wrote* eight drafts of his judgment—‘speech’—before it was finally delivered in the Housje of Lords. He had in mind several Cabinet colleagues of his—e.g., Mr. Bonar Law and Mr. Winston Churchill —whose brilliancy was a by-word, and who nevertheless toiled terribly. Discriminating Reading “The next part of his prescription was equally brief—read! General readiug must not be neglected. But let their general reading be discriminating. Again, in their reading, choose a subject, and master it. He knew a Judge who made it his business, in his leisure hours, to master the science of chemistry, and he had avowed that in practice, and in particular in the cross-examination of witnesses in certain types of case, the study proved to him of inestimable value. Read also around the art of advocacy. “Few were aware of how much had been written on that subject which repaid perusal. The library of one of the most brilliant and successful pleaders in London to-day was stuffed with books on the topic, ranging from Quintilian onwards. Next, endeavour to gain useful experience of life, as opportunity offered. That experience could be gained in many ways. “One of these was travel. Travel would lift them out of the ordinary rut of their environment. It would inform their mind, and broaden their outlook. It would give them much that they might turn to professional advantage. He would add —take a part in public life. He cared not whether they served on a town council or a parish council, or, best of all, in the House of Commons itself, if they could compass it.”