In the ministerial class this is not so marked in our day, because leaders in that great function permit themselves a wider range of subjects than ever before, and are dealing less with creeds and formulas and more and more with the practical evils and shortcomings of human life in its various phases. This naturally broadens the mind. It has been held that the legal profession must tend to make clear, but narrow, intellects, and it is pointed out that great lawyers have seldom arisen to commanding position and power over their fellows. This does not mean that men who study law become unsatisfactory legislators or statesmen and rulers. If it did, our country, of all others, should be in a bad way, because we are governed by lawyers. But the most famous Americans who have been great men, were not great lawyers; that is, they have seldom attained the foremost rank in the profession, but have availed themselves of the inestimable advantage which the study of law confers upon a statesman, and developed beyond the bounds of the profession. We are reminded that the great lawyer and the great judge must deal with rules and precedents already established; the lawyer follows precedents, but the ruler of men makes precedents.