FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. l8l 



XXXIV. 



IT is said that every man should be the 

 architect of his own fortunes, and I think 

 that each should be, at least in a degree, 

 the architect of his own house. It is not a 

 bad plan for him to be to some extent its 

 builder also. It should represent his ideas, 

 if he has any, in its arrangement and con 

 struction ; he should watch it grow under 

 his eyes, look after the setting of the roots, 

 follow it up into the air, place a loving hand 

 on its stones and timbers, know intimately 

 what is contained in its walls and partitions 

 as well as what is contained between them, 

 and do something himself toward putting 

 them together. 



I know that it is said that a shoemaker 

 should stick to his last, and that when a 

 man is his own lawyer, he has a fool for a 

 client. And there is much truth in both of 

 these statements. The professional is, or 

 should be, indispensable ; but he cannot 

 replace the client in his knowledge of the 

 thing which is most appropriate to him. 



