Preface to the second edition

• Author: Christopher C. Nicholls
• Profession: Faculty of Law, Western University
• Pages: 27-30

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PR EFACE

to the Second Edition

There is a story told of a university professor whose lecture was inter-

rupted by a f‌ire alar m. Students, faculty, and sta calmly gathered up

their belongings and dutif ully f‌iled out of the building, all as suming

that this wa s simply the latest in a serie s of annoying fals e alarms. But

on this occasion, they were sad ly mistaken. The building housi ng the

entire university department burned to the ground. Thank fully, there

was no loss of life, but owing to a trag ic administr ative oversight, it was

discovered that the build ing was uninsured. Temporary arrangements

were made for some personnel to be housed elsewhere in the un iversity,

but so signif‌icant was the damage that much of the department simply

had to be shut down while a capital campaign was conducted to raise

funds for a new building. The process drag ged on for more than f‌ifteen

years. At last, the fund ing targets were achieved. Constr uction work

began apace and, happily, a beautiful new building eventually arose on

the site of the devastating f‌ire. When the university depart ment was

ready to be re-opened in its new home, that same professor was invited

to deliver an inaugural lectu re as part of the ribbon-cutting ceremonies.

The lecture would mark the f‌irst time he had spoken publicly since the

day of the terrible f‌ire.

The lecture hall fell silent as the professor entered. Ignor ing the

hushed audience, he walked directly to the podium at the front of the

room, unfolded the very speaki ng notes he had been using those f‌ifteen

years earlier, raised h is eyes to the crowd and began: “As I was saying . . . .”