"IN THE MATTER OF REST. Bv Granville I. Chittenden. PROFESSOR MAX MULLER very aptly described dictionaries as "the grave of language." The lifeless, concise, and seriated state ments of legal digests in like manner remind one of a dreary highway leading through a desert whose many guide posts point usually with exact, but often with ambiguous fingers to by-ways, equally cheerless. Whatever literary beauties the decisions of the courts may possess are obliterated by the merciless blue pencil of the compiler. It is, therefore, a novel experience to find among the multitude of compilers one who for a moment pauses in his spiritless routine and in due form inserts in his digest a bit of poetry as delightfully refreshing to the in tellect of the weary searcher after legal prin ciples as is a beautiful oasis to the eyes of the followers of a caravan. The State of Georgia enjoys the unique honor of possess ing this able compiler. In 1879 the Honorable Logan E. Bleckley after years of eminent service as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of that State resigned, and at the conclusion of his last opinion rendered this exquisite poetic gem : "IN THE MATTER OF REST." I "Rest for hand and brow and breast, For fingers, heart and brain 1 Rest and peace! a long release From labor and from pain : Pain of doubt, fatigue, despair — Pain of darkness everywhere. And seeking light in vain!
2 Peace and rest! Are they the best For mortals here below? Is soft repose from work and woes A bliss for men to know? Bliss of time is bliss of toil : No bliss but this, from sun and soil, Does God permit to grow." By the order of the Court these verses were then entered upon its record. The sentiments there expressed brought comfort to the heart of the Honorable Dawson A. Walker, also a member of that court, who carefully transcribed the poem from the court records and embodied it with great praise in a paper prepared by him while in failing health a short time before his death. This incident was touchingly referred to in the memorial on the life of Judge Walker, and the poem for a second time thus found its way into the archives of that tribunal. After enjoying eight years of rest Judge Bleckley was appointed in 1887 by the Gov ernor of Georgia, Chief Justice of the Su preme Court to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the Honorable James Jackson. The appointment was ratified at the ensuing election and Judge Bleckley filled the posi tion to the highest satisfaction of the people until 1894, when he again resigned, and finally ended a term of public service dis tinguished alike for its probity, profound legal knowledge and accomplished scholarship. Howard Van Epps in his digest of the Georgia Reports has published this poem under its title and in its proper alphabetical order.
