expounder of law, he probably surpassed any of the dis-
tinguished professors of Transylvania. It was said of him
by the late Senator Beck that he had the finest legal mind
of any man he had ever met, and tbat as a lawyer he was
even superior to Blackstone. He was richly endowed with
a clear, analytical mind, which reasoned to a legal con-
clusion with the accuracy of a geometrical demonstration,
and in the art of imparting knowledge excelled all others.
As a judge, both in dignity and ability, he was a fit asso-
ciate with any that ever graced a Kentucky bench. In
conversation he charmed and delighted, with irresistible
power, all who came under the spell of his voice and pres-
ence, possessing to a rare degree those indefinable gifts
of nature which enabled him to pass from the didactic to
the playful, from the humorous to the sublime, with an
ease and grace equaled only by the movement of the mind
itself. At the time of his death, the Cincinnati Chronicle,
one of the leading papers of the west, thus referred to his
untimely taking off:
  "Judge Woolley was a distinguished ornament of the
bench and bar of Kentucky. As a lawyer he had few
equals, if any superiors, possessing an intellect of ex-
traordinary clearness, comprehensiveness and practical
power. He served with distinction in both branches of
the Legislature, as a judge of the circuit court and as a
professor of law in the Kentucky University. In his
social character he was one of the most fascinating and
popular men of his time-his colloquial powers being
equally brilliant and solid, and his bon hommie man-
ners irresistibly charming."

                 R. A. BUCKNER.
  One of the very ablest of the old constitutional
judges was the late R. A. Buckner. Judge Buckner was
a son of the Hon. Richard A. Buckner, of Green County,
who was appointed associate justice of the Supreme
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