Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by JOEL PRENTISS BISHOP, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: ALLEN AND FARNHAM, PRINTERS. „MU ΤΟ 243 THE YOUNG MEN OF THE UNITED STATES. GENTLEMEN: For I DEDICATE to you this first volume of my work on the Criminal Law. It aims to introduce you to legal studies, while it instructs you concerning its particular topic. I see no reason why all the young men of our country should not know something of the laws of the country. All have to choose their several callings of life; all have to cultivate their minds; all owe duties to themselves, to one another, to the government under which they live. None of these things can be done wisely by him who never opens a book of the law. In the first place, the calling of life leads to prosperity or adversity, to happiness or unhappiness, as it is chosen well or ill; and it is the one or the other to the exact extent of its harmony or want of harmony with the mental and physical capabilities, and inherent nature, of the particular person by whom the calling is undertaken. But the errors of the people concerning legal studies and pursuits are such, that, whenever a young man consults them instead of books of the law, he almost necessarily is led to think himself adapted to the profession, if he is unadapted; |