Every barrister can "shake his head," and too often, like Sheridan's
Lord Burleigh, it is the only proof he vouchsafes of his wisdom. Curran
used to call these fellows "legal pearl-divers."--"You may observe
them," he would say, "their heads barely under water--their eyes shut,
and an index floating behind them, displaying the precise degree of
their purity and their depth."
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