, 1842-06-18
Choice of a5PrOfessiOn.

Choice of asPrOfessiOn.
) The choice OF a pursuit in life, one
of the most important practical ques.
lions upon which 4 young person is
ever called 10 decide. is often deter.
mined by the most triiing circumstan,
ces, and without the slightest aid nom
Judgment or reflection. One youth
becomes a soldier because his great
grandfather was at the taking OF
Cape Breton, or his great-uncle sig
nalized himself in Braddock's fight;
another studies medicine, and hopes
to be almost an infallib!e doctor. be-
cause he is the seventh son OF a
seventh son; while 4 third chooses
the profession of the law, for no bet
ter reason than that his sponsors at
the baptismal font chose to call him
William Writ, or Daniel Webster. or
John Sergeant. Surely this is not
that practical wisdom which adapts
the fittest means 10 the noblest ends.
The choice of 4 pursuit in life is at
least worthy of such a consideration
rs common would dictate in
any other case, where success in an
enterprise depends upon fitness for
undertaking it. Men do not expect
to gather grapes from thorns, nor figs
from thistles; yet they expect their
sens and daughters 10 succeed in pur-
suits for which they are wholly in
capacitated by talents, disposition, or
cducation; ana what is still more un-
reasonable. they expect them to be
happy in situations which are totally
uncongenial to their nature.
One reason why parents and guar
dams fall so Frequently into errors up
on this polnt,-errors, too, which they
lead those under their charge 10 en-
brace. is the vain Imagination that
there is great and essential differ
encc in the responsibility of those
pursuits which are generally admit
ted to be honest. The respectable
ty of a profession, | suppose it will
be admitted, must depend in 4 grca,
measure on the respectable character
Of its members, taken collectively,
or regarded with reference to the
most brilliant examples. If we a
dept this standard, it will be found no
easy matter 10 establish 4 claim TO
superior responsibility in favour OF
any one trade or profession, or OF
any class of trades or professions.
If it should be asserted that the
Learned professions Of law, physic,
and divinity, are respectable
than the pursuits Of commerce, me-
chanics, o r agriculture, it might easily
be shown that, taken collectively, the
members of these latter professions
or trades possess more wealth, ease,
and independence than those of the
learned ones; and moreover, that a.
mong them, as brilliant examples of
mental pre-eminence, patriotism, and
public spirit, may be pointed out as
among those Of the more learned pro-
LESSONS.
In fact, in a country like ours, such
4 claim Of superior responsibility on
behalf of any profession is prcpos-
ferrous; and yet it is constantly as
signed by purse-proud fathers and
silly mothers as a reason for determin-
ing their childreE's pursuit in life
There is a very general impression
that a merchant, clergyman, doctor,
or lawyer, stands higher and should
stand higher in the social scale than
a mechanic or farmer. But such is
not the fact, as a general principle, or
which results in the same thing, if in
a particular instance,-a particular
merchant, for example, stands higher
in social estimation than n particular
mechanic; it is not on account OF
the respective means by which they
earn their livelihood, but because the
merchant, in this instance, has claims
by wealth, family influence, or edu-
cation, which the mechanic has not;
J and by passing into the next street
) and taking another example, you will
find the tables completely turned,
and the mechanic in the enjoyment
of a social position to which the mer-
chant cannot aspire. This fact IS
sufficient to prove that a man OF one
: trade or profession does not take a
lower position in society than anoth-
err Of a different profession, simply
t on account OF the different modes by
which they subsist, but by reassn OF
!, other circumstances which are Who'll,
Ilv independent of this consideration.
t MI. A., who is a merchant, does not.
, for example, decline an intimate &C
quaintance and social intercourse