AMST 3822 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Jonathan Swift, Satan, Deconsecration
19 Feb 2019
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Document Summary
Some sorts of lawyer jokes do not detail specific items of nastiness; instead they summarize the lawyers shortcomings in a judgement of general moral deficiency. The oldest and most widespread of these jokes about lawyers association with the devil sin hell and irreligion. The lawyer-devil equation became conventional by shakespeare"s time. Dean swift who chided lawyers for pleading wrongful causes, called them the devil"s children. The legend of st. ives involves an inadvertent embrace with a representation of satan, not a deliberate alliance with him. Law practice was a stage in the downward journey, not its consummation. The sign of the lawyer"s moral standing is his postmortem destination. A long series of jokes establish that many lawyers are to be found in hell and few if any in heaven. If hell is not foreordained, the lawyer is certainly in danger of ending up there.
