The spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1840-1844, 1840-12-04
OCCUPATIONS.

There is not more foolish notion aflOat in the
world, than the one that it is the occupation that
gives character to the man. One occupation las the
means Of getting living, as the phrase goes, is
precisely as high and creditable as another, pro-
vided that it be honorable, and in accordance with
the laws of God and man. The man who holds
the plough, hammers his iron, or drives his peg to
support himself and his family with the necessares
and comforts Of life, is not whit below the one
who measures tape behind the counter, mystifes
the law at the bar presidcs at the councils of
nation. There is vulgar and most pernicous
feeling abroad in the community on this subject
Fathers must educate their sons for one of what is
called Nhe learned professions Mothers, must
marry their daughters, to lawyer, doctor, a
clergyman, or merchant. Horror the good Ia
dy would as soon think of marrying her beautiful
daughter to Winnebago, as TO homey ,industri-
Gus and honorable mechanic. Why, the family
would be disgraced, the name dshonored.-No
no The business of a carpenter, a blacksmith or
farmer is not so respectable as that of shaving
notes, drawing s'olidity from the DESK. peddling
rotten wood for pills, or selling snuff and tobacco
And yet, the duties of all the learned professions,
as well us those of mercantile life, are performed
for the same reason that the shoemaker wakes his
thread, and the farmer plants his potatoes, viz. to
obtain Hring! Still, set Of miserable, upstart
fools, who are almost universally low-bred people
themselves, people who have begun life in the
ditch endeavor to establish in society artificial dis
tnctions, distinctions which they vainly hope will
elevate them above the common mass from which
they were taken, and give to them an importance
which innate worth and honesty could not COM
mand for them Labor is labor Honest labor is
same whether performed by the king or the bcggar,
and is Just as honorable in one as the other II is
true, that all mcn,by habit and by taste are not fitted
TO pursue the same vacations, and that there are
natural divisions, not distinctions, as the word is
commonly used, created by habit and taste This
is as it should be, and fits for discharge of all
the peculiar duties that devolve upon us as members
of society. But TO say, that because a man per-
IOrms any gwen unty, however humble, though
necessary that duty may be, necessarily degrades
him, or renders him less meritorious, than his
neighbor, who performs another duty, yet not more
faithfully; is to say that we still adhere to the mo-
narchial principles of the old world.
Let the father educate his son to some honorable
calling and if he have prediction for any par
tcular business, as is often the case, let him follow
it, il it be possibe-it is the man that ennobes the
business, not the business that ennobles the man
and not spend thought upon the distinctions in
occupations honorable and honest, that fools have
attempted to build up Let children be taught to
be honorable, honest and upright, to set proper
value upon the riches of world that is only, at
best, bubble, blown into existence to-day. to
burst Tomorrow, and to understand that the only
tue and real distinctions in society are those of
virtue and vice, and that the only true and endur-
ing riches are IAN intellect duly cultivated, afIcc-
tons schooled, and heart that knows no guile