On the other hand, it is undesirable to postpone the apprenticeship of the bar till old age: for the fear of appearing in public grows daily and the magnitude of the task on which we must venture continually increases and we waste time deliberating when we should begin, till we find it is too late to begin at all. Consequently it is desirable that the fruit of our studies should be brought before the public eye while it is still fresh and sweet, while it may hope for indulgence and be secure of a kindly disposition in the audience, while boldness is not unbecoming and youth compensates for all defects and boyish extravagance is regarded as a sign of natural vigour.

Take for example the whole of the well-known passage from Cicero's defence of Sextus Roscius: pro Rose. Amer. xxvi. 72. For what is more common than the air to the living, than the earth to the dead, than the sea to mariners or the shore to shipwrecked men? etc. This passage was delivered at the age of twenty-six amid loud applause from the audience, but in later years Orat. xxx. 107. he acknowledges that the ferment of youth has died down and his style been clarified with age. And, indeed, however much private study may contribute to success, there is still a peculiar proficiency that the courts alone can give: for there the atmosphere is changed and the reality of the peril puts a different complexion on things, while, if it is impossible to combine the two, practice without theory is more useful than theory without practice. Consequently,