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nudge here and there; but when they’re faced with cases that
are especially difficult they’re as lost as they often are with
ones that are very simple; they’re forced to spend all their
time, day and night, with their laws, and so they don’t have
the right feel for human relationships, and that’s a serious
shortcoming in cases like this. That’s when they come for
advice to the lawyer, with a servant behind them carrying
the documents which normally are kept so secret. You could
have seen many gentlemen at this window, gentlemen of
whom you would least expect it, staring out this window in
despair on the street below while the lawyer is at his desk
studying the documents so that he can give them good ad-
vice. And at times like that it’s also possible to see how
exceptionally seriously these gentlemen take their profes-
sions and how they are thrown into great confusion by
difficulties which it’s just not in their natures to overcome.
But they’re not in an easy position, to regard their positions
as easy would be to do them an injustice. The different ranks
and hierarchies of the court are endless, and even someone
who knows his way around them cannot always tell what’s
going to happen. But even for the junior officials, the pro-
ceedings in the courtrooms are usually kept secret, so they
are hardly able to see how the cases they work with proceed,
court affairs appear in their range of vision often without
their knowing where they come from and they move on
further without their learning where they go. So civil ser-
vants like this are not able to learn the things you can learn
from studying the successive stages that individual trials go
through, the final verdict or the reasons for it. They’re only

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