The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-06-04
Traits Of Character.


The calling in which man is trained
necessarily exercises considerable infiu
ence in the development of his character
1t affects his gait, his manner, and hi
speech, as well as his mental and moral
characteristics.
1t is impossible to mistake the military
man. He is an illustration of the power
Of discipline. The new recruit--the clod-
hopper from the plough--is soon licked
into shape-becomes smart, well-set-up
fellow, and never afterward relapses into
the lOut.
How different is the sailor! He rolls
about on his sea legs--his feet always
seem as if they were grasping for foot
ing. His manner is free and easy, with
nothing of the precision and formality OF
the military man. His feelings, manners
and ideas are of piece with his outer
man. There is no installing Jack Tar
for Corporal Trim.
1t is the same with other trades and
professions. Take lawyer, for instance.
Habit and discipline have made him
precise and systematic in the transaction
of business. He is a martinez i'm all
things. His mind is made up of pigeon
holes, in which his facts and ideas are
filed and dOcketed i'm regular alphabetical
order. He is a red-tapist even at heart.
He keeps old letters and lays them up as
evidence. His whole character becomes
fixed and determined by his profession.
There is no installing the lawyer.
The divine is the very opposite. He
has no knowledge whatever of business or
ruinous habits. He is the most inno-
cent of mortals. OF all professional men,
he knows the least of practical life. He
is always making blunders if he NEEDLES
with business. His business is speech
He is student, reader of books, a
writer of sermons. And students are
generally men of little practical wisdom
A man who is great in the dead Ian
guages is rarely great at anything else
He may know all about Greece and
Rome, but next to nothing about his own
age and country. He may even be
ignorant of its literature. Hugh Miller
says, in his autobiography, that call the
great readers of my acquaintance---the
men most extensively acquainted with
English literature--were not the men
who had received the classical education.
In that common sense which reasons but
does not argue, and which enables men
to pick their stepping prudently through
the journey of life, found that classical
education gave no superiority whatever;
nor did it appear to form so fitting an
introduction to the realities of business
as that course of dealing with things
tangible and actual in which the work
ing man has to exercise his faculties, and
from which he derives his experience"
The medical man, again, is something
quite different from either the lawyer or
the divine. He is very much of a gladys
man." He possesses no marked individu-
atty of character. By habituating him
self to humor the foibles of people of all
kinds, he merges his own individuality,
but becomes very accommodating,
agreeable, chatty, gossiping, kindly
person. His success in business depends
mainly on this, and so his character is
influenced and formed. Such men as
Abernethy, who preserve their strong
individuality throughout their profess
sional career, are the exceptions which
go to prove the rule.