LIBRARY—LEGAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The Law Library is accommodated by its own library room, separate
from the general University library, and is located with special
reference to the convenience of the law students. While the student
is not encouraged to venture for himself into either cases or textbooks,
save for the purpose of verifying or clearing up some proposition
of the lecture, or for the preparation of opinions or briefs, he is
incited to familiarize himself not only with the leading cases to which
his attention is called, but especially with the bibliography of the law
and the use of the books. To the latter subject, in addition to the
instruction incidentally given, several lectures are specially devoted.
The student is taught that books are the working tools of the lawyer,
and that facility in handling them, in the office and in the court-room,
is an indispensable professional acquirement. He is instructed how to
consult authorities, and to run down cases; to distinguish doctrine
from dicta; to analyze, criticise and compare cases; to distinguish
imperative authority from that which is persuasive only; to prepare
briefs; and, generally, so to accustom himself to law books and their
use as to enable him to investigate, with intelligence and skill, any
question that may come within the scope of his duty at the bar.
