therefore, of asking the witness whether he might
not be mistaken, you should proceed at once to
discover the probabilities of mistake, by tracing the
sources of his knowledge, and by ehciting all the
circumstances, internal and external, under which
it was formed. It is in this operation that the
faculties of the great Advocate are displayed; this
it is that calls into play his acquaintance with
mental physiology, his experience of men and
things, and in which he exhibits his infinite supe-
riority over the imperfectly-educated and the inex-
perienced.
By what process do you perform this difficult
duty, and achieve this triumph of your art? Let
us endeavour to describe it.
The witness has detailed an occttrrence at a
certain time and place, and it is your purpose to
show that he was mistaken in some of the particu-
lars, and that the inferences he drew from them
were incorrect, or not justified by the facts. Your
first proceeding, to this end, is to realise the scene in
your own mind. Your fancy must paint for you a
picture of the place, the persons, the accessories.
You then ask the witness to repeat his story — you
note its congruity or otherwise with the circTma--
stances that accompanied it; you detect improba-
bilities or impossibilities. You see as he saw, and
you learn in what particulars he saw imperfectly,
and how he formed too hasty conclusions; how
prejudice may have influenced him; how things
dimly seen were by the imagination transformed into
other things in his memory.
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CROSS-EXAMINATION. 399

How erring the senses are, and how much, their
impressions are afterwards moulded by the mind;
how very fallible is information, seemingly the most
assured, it needs no extensive observation to teach.
