Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1867-12-12
CHOOSING A PROFESSION.

y
not mine, nor that of any Of your
II you take to trade or
profession, don't be persuaded out
Of it until you are perfectly salts
fed that you are not adapted to it.
You will receive all sorts of the
most excellent advice, but you must |
remember that if you follow it, and
il leads you into a profession that
staryes you, those who gave the
advice, never feel bound to give you
any money. You have got to take |
care of yourself in this world, and |
you may as well choose your own
way of doing it, always remember
ing that it is not your trade nor
your profession that makes you
This leads me TO a
matter that / may as well dispose
of here as anywhere.
purpose to explain what I meant
in previous letter by the counsel
to slet no man know by your dress
what your business is. You dress
your person, not your trade" As
the proper explanation of this IN
wolves very important principle, l
will devote the rest of this letter to
its development and illustration.
The fault found with this council
is that it has always been considered
best to dress according to ones
business and position.
Manhood, and profession or han
dicraft, are entirely different things;
and l wish particularly that every
young man engaged in reading
these letters should understand the
reason why. God makes men, and
men make blacksmiths, tailors, farm
ers, horse jockeys, tradesmen of all
sorts, governors, judges, DC. The
offices of men may be more or less
important, and of higher or lower
quality, but manhood is a higher
possession than office. An occu-
patton is never an end of life. II
is an instrumentput into your hands,
or taken into your hands, by which
to gain for the body the means of
living until sickness or. old age robs
it of life, and we pass on to the
world for which this is a prepara-
ton. However thoroughly acquired
and assiduously followed, a trade is
something to be held at arms
length. I can illustrate what |
mean by placing, side by side, two
lhorses,-one fresh from the stall,
with every hair in its right place,
| his head up and name flying,
and another that has been worked
! in the same harness every day for
three years, until the skin is bare
on each hip and thigh, an infamed
abrasion grows on each side OF the
back where the hard saddle
pad rests, a severe gall-mark spreads
its brown patch under the breast
collar, and all the other marks o.
an abused horse abound. Now,
trade or a profession will wear into
a man as a harness does into
horse. One can see the +" trade
mark" on every soul and body me
ON the street. A trade has taker
some men by the shoulders anC
shaken their humanity out of them
1t has so warped the natures o
Others, that they might be we
down and set in the sun to dry
thousand times without being warp
ed back,
Thus, / say, a mans trade or pro
fession should be kept at arms
length. 1t should not be allowed
to tyrannize over him, to moul(
him, to crush him. 1t should no
occupy the whole of his attention
So far from this, it should be re
garded, in its material aspect, a
least, only as a means for the de
velopment of manhood. The grea
object of living is the attainment o
true manhood-the cultivation o
! every power of the soul and Of ev
cry high spiritual quality, natural,
inherent or graciously superadded
The trade is beneath the man, AM
should be kept there. With thi
idea in your minds-and you ma,
! be very sure that it is the correc
: idea-iust look around you, an
+ see how almost everybody has miss
d ed it. You and l both know ply
: sicians whose mental possessions
S beyond their knowledge of drug
e and diseases, are not worth any
J thing. We are acquainted with law
= yels who are never seen out OF thel
y offices, who live among plgeoI
: holes and red tape, and busy the
minds with quirks and quarrels S
II unremittingly, that they have not
n thought for other subjects. The
e are not men at all they are nothln
d but lawyers. Often we find nc
= more than five whole men in tow
= of five thousand Inhabitants. Thot
d who pass for men, and who real
t, do get married and have familie
5, are a hundred to one fraction
@ men, or exclusively machines.
t, Elihu Burritt cultivated the ma
II that was in him until his trade an
l. his blacksmith s shop wouldnots st'
o with him. They ceased to be tbs
" full to him. He could get livlr
l. in a way that was better for hir
/ BENJAMIN Franklin was an exeelle'
h printer, but he used his trade on
If as a means. The development
L. i .AN n