_The Man of Law_ (Vol. iv., p. 153.).--The lines so felicitously quoted
by Mr. Serjeant Byles at a recent trial were thus given in _The Times_:
"The man of law who never saw
The way to buy and sell,
Wishing to rise by merchandise,
Shall never speed him well."
This version is rather nearer the original than that of your
correspondent MR. KING, who avowedly writes from memory. The author of
the lines was Sir Thomas More. They are thus given in "_A Mery Jest how
a Sergeant would learn to play the Freere_. Written by Maister Thomas
More in hys youth:"
"A man of lawe that never sawe
The wayes to bye and sell,
Wenyng to ryse by marchaundyse,
I praye God spede hym well!"
My quotation is at second-hand from Warton's _History of English
Poetry_, sect. xliii.