Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-01-03
CHOOSING Nv OCCUPaTIO.v' FOR
II 1'OU.vG .N.1.v.

If boy is constantly whiting sticks,
fond parents say that he has "marked con-
structive ability )" or if he can whistle one
or two notes of an air correctly, she will
be great musician )" or if he can draw
with reasonable accuracy "that child is a
born artist" If these presumed or assum-
cd evidences of genius are acted upon, and
those in authority seize arbitrarily on the
young man and force him into trade or
art, on the ground of their being better able
to judge for him than he is for himself, the
possibility, nay, the probability is that he
will turn out Harold Skimpole, of whose
class the world has far to many already.
He sketches little; thinkers little with
tools; drums little on the piano and in
time falls into line with the rank and file
of the noble army ofincompetents and re-
vilers of fate. He may protest with all his
strength in his earlier years that he is not
fitted for the occupation chosen for him;
he may demand to be transferred into some
other calling that his soul hungers after; it
is all in vain if some one in authority, be
the same parent or guardian, says "Your
profession has been chosen for you and
you must follow 1t your elders have had
more experience than you, and can tell
better, by reason of it, what you need -
and so the young man is condemned for
life. He goes mopng all his days and re-
fuses to be comiorted, simply because his
heart Is not in what he is doing. He is out
of his element he disturbs the machinery
of the world; he Is as bad as broken
wheel on train; everything with which
he Is connected goes hating and humping
and jumping because of him. If he does
not reach the highest place in his profess
sion, his elders, with astonishing inconsis-
tency, upbraid him and say that he has no
ambition, no energy, no desire to succeed
when the simple fact is that he has no quail
lfication to command success.
"How can know about a thing dunno
nothing about?" exclaimed an exasperat-
ed and badgered witness in the box. "How
can have inspiration to preach when I am
always thinking about machinery; or
paint, when l am always wishing to preach,
when divine truths fire my heart to go forth
and turn men from the error OF their ways?"
man out of his place says these things at
heart II not in actual words, and his whole
life Is embittered by the blindness of his
elders, who would not see, but claimed the
right, because they had the power, to
squeeze human heart into corner they
thought ii should fill. For it is crushing
the heart out of the man to make the boy
travel in a circuit he is untitled for. All
his energies and ambition reach forward to
all I. T. t., I.
one thing, and because you cannot see as
he sees, oh parent or guardian because
you are not he, and do not love ii as he
loves it, you destroy his future power. 1t
is a serious responsibility to assume to
direct the calling in life young man shall
follow-an action to be taken only upon
great deliberation. Whatever he under
takes he must stick to. In the early years
of his life, when the world expects but lit
tie of him, he must study or work hard to
be qualified for the later ones, when it ex-
acts a great deal. He cannot be always
young he cannot have two youths he
must give his young life his bright hopes,
his aspirations to the work in hand. What
If his heart is far from 1t, and he is longing
with all his strength for that other calling
which you have put out of his reachH You
might as we'll go out into the world when
he Is of age, as some foreign parents do
and select a wife for him. With equal con-
sstency you might say: ~ have had
more experience in the world than you
you can live happier with this woman than
one Of your own choosing" Yet this Is al
action you would shrink from committing
Is not mans profession the same In de-
gree as his wife ? Does no not live by Il