Legal Idealism life is "out" something more is needed than an accurate chart of the rocks. The practical question is not whether professional conduct shall be dominated by ideals, but rather what these ideals shall be. Ideals of some kind, lawyers, like other men, necessarily must have. The low standards of the profession are the ideals of a trade, a business, a money-getting, power-procuring, suc cess-securing occupation. To men who have once adopted these standards a code of ethics may, indeed, be of a cer tain value; it is the "Thou shalt not" of the Hebrew lawgiver; it fixes a minimum below which no practitioner may safely fall. He may, therefore, see in its prohibitions the threat of disbar ment. He may find himself surrounded by a professional opinion which may steady his steps. But with it all, it may well be doubted whether it will ever be in the power of such a prac titioner to exhibit the highest usefulness to his profession and through it to society. For the successful attainment of this supreme end, something deeper, more radical, is needed and that can only, as a rule to which there are but few excep tions, be supplied to the man in his youth. In that plastic period nature furnishes the ideal which is usually to go through life. It is part of the soul-world from which the spirit has come; the heaven which "lies about us in our infancy." It is the lure and call of the Beyond, part of the dreamy, uncrystallized longings of youth, parcel of its "splendid vision." And then the plaster sets, the gristle becomes bone, the twig is bent, the blessed vision of youth fades, and the intellective attitude of manhood has taken its place. A false ideal, there fore, is exceedingly hard to change. It would, in general, be folly to attempt the task. The wise course would seem
437
to be for those who seek the moral elevation of the profession to endeavor, having done what may be accomplished for those already in it by means of a code, unswervingly and unstintedly to give to those who are to become its future members early and adequate in struction in the ideals of the legal pro fession. What these are, one well may hesi tate to declare in any formal and deter minative way. An ideal which may justly be regarded as fixed is no longer really an ideal. Nor is the subject one for dogmatism. Each soul follows its own, not easily shared or communicated. It is sacred ground: the voice is one which comes, alone, in the silence, when the heart is uplifted in prayer, when the higher mandate is given. Expres sion here is limitation; the truest ideal must always remain undefined, perhaps undefinable. Still, that which is to be taught must first be formulated,—so briefly stated as can be easily remembered, so simple as to be readily understood. Possibly with such an object, the negative pro visions of the admirable Canons of Ethics of the American Bar Association as adopted by it at Seattle, August, 1908, might be affirmatively stated to an applicant for membership in the bar, in one primary and six dependent pro positions :— 1. Social service, not personal profit, is the aim of your profession. Therefore:— 2. Exalt and loyally magnify the prestige and power of the court; that thus the admin istration of law may be made efficient for the attainment of justice. 3. Regard every practitioner as a fellowsoldier in the common cause of justice; and his honor as sacred to you as your own. 4. Value your services justly; yourself as above all price. Service is the right of the client. Self is sold to none.
