136 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE OfE. Doc. 



ture's plan. In the words of Sydney iSmitli, "Be what nature in- 

 tended you for and you will succeed; be anything else, and you 

 will be ten thousand times worse than nothing/' Ralph Waldo 

 Emerson says, "The crowning fortune of a man is to be born with 

 a bias to some pursuit which finds us in employment and happi- 

 ness." 



It matters not what the occupation is, save that it be an honor- 

 able one. "The notion that the three black graces, Law, Physic, and 

 Divinity must be worshipped by a candidate for respectability and 

 honor has done incalculable damage to society. Better be the 

 Napoleon of bootblacks or the xilexander of chimney sweeps than 

 a friendless and shallow-pated attorney who, like necessity, knows 

 no law, w^atching vainly for victims in an unswept chamber where 

 cobwebs in dusty magnificence hang, with no companions but the 

 gaunt spider, a few dog-eared, bilious-looking volumes, and a stale, 

 political newspaper." — Matthews. 



We may change our occupation for one that we deem more con- 

 genial, but like 



"Tompkins, who forsakes his last and awl 



For literary squabbles. 

 Styles himself poet, but his trade 



Remains the same — he cobbles." 



So, we, if born farmers, will remain farmers until doomsday. "It 

 is not the calling or station in life," says Matthew," that gives dig- 

 nity or nobility to the man, but the man that dignifies the calling." 

 Exemplary men in the contemplated profession should be consulted, 

 who can give us information which were we to obtain through 

 our own efforts, would cost us a large amount of money and time. 



We are often hindered from making a proper choice by those 

 who love us most dearly. It is the duty of parents and friends 

 to aid us in making a proper choice. In no case, however, should 

 their desires be changed to mandates, as no one can succeed in a 

 profession for which he does not have a natural taste. Michael 

 Angelo, the great artist, neglected school to copy drawings which 

 he dared not bring home. What a great loss to the world it would 

 have been had he not had the courage to follow out nature's sug- 

 gestion. 



When once the choice is made, there should be no delay in the nec- 

 essary preparation for the chosen work. "The greatest weakness 

 of our young men is fickleness, and where one of them perseveres 

 in a calling which he ought to abandon, a dozen abandon their call- 

 ings who ought to stick to them." Some young men, especially of the 

 wealthier class, think that the choosing of a profession which com- 

 pels them to be on duty in all seasons of the year compels thiem to 



