Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Brien, Edward
O'BRIEN, EDWARD (1808–1840), author, third son of Sir Edward O'Brien, bart., of Dromoland, co. Clare, and younger brother of William Smith O'Brien [q. v.], was born in 1808. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, whence he graduated B.A. in 1829, and M.A. in 1832; and he was subsequently called to the Irish bar. He died at Whitkirk vicarage, Yorkshire, the residence of his brother-in-law, the Rev. A. Martineau, on 19 May 1840, his early death being due to a fever caught in consequence of exertions on behalf of various Dublin charities. His posthumous work, described by those who knew O'Brien as a portrait of himself, depicts a lawyer of ideal holiness. It was entitled ‘The Lawyer: his Character and Rule of Holy Life, after the manner of George Herbert's Country Parson’ (London, Pickering, 1842, 8vo; Philadelphia, 1843). The author writes without effort in the language of Herbert and of Hooker, and with a simplicity of purpose no less characteristic of a bygone age. Ignoring to a large extent any notion of a conflict between the worldly practice of a modern lawyer and the altruistic sentiments of the New Testament, the writer lingers over his conception of the lawyer frequenting the temple of God, meditating, ‘like Isaac of old, upon divine things, or communing with a friend as he walks, after the manner of the disciples journeying to Emmaus, seeking out the poor and assisting the minister in catechising the poor children of his parish.’ The treatise concludes with a beautifully written ‘Lawyer's Prayer.’ The text, no less than the notes, evidences wide reading and a pure taste. The book was highly eulogised by Sir Aubrey de Vere, and there is an able appreciation of it in the ‘Dublin University Magazine’ (xxi. 42–54).
[Gent. Mag. 1840, pt. ii. p. 222; Graduati Cantabr.; Allibone's Dict. of English Literature; introduction to The Lawyer.]