A PROFESSION FOR OUR SONS. 59 



It is to be regretted that gentlemen's sons deem certain trades beneath 

 their notice. For all labour is honourable, and all can not succeed as 

 lawvrrs, doctors, clergymen, or merchants. There is great need of the 

 handicraft so honourably considered in the middle ages. Every gift 

 1 ii] >on us by Providence, whether of mind or body, is a talent to 

 be grateful for. Arthur can write verses; Jack can cut down a tree ; 8am 

 can reason ; Edmund can do a sum ; Peter can measure and saw boards ; 

 Henry can tame animals and make all nature his tributary; James likes 

 it and work at some thoughtful, sedentary task ; Horatio is speculative, 

 active, courageous he aims to be a broker. Alas ! they all aim at being 

 bank clerks or finding employment in some money-making employment. 



In the forming of character, the father and mother should try to make 

 headway against this mistake, that to rush headlong into money-making 

 is the end of life. A boy should be taught to respect the day of small 

 things ; to work honestly for every dollar he gets ; and to let that dollar 

 represent something given back for the worth of it. It would be a very 

 good thing for all young Canadians if there were a law that they should 

 enter no profession or business until they had proved that they could earn 

 their living by their hands. 



Casimir Pdrier said, when accused of being an aristocrat : " My only 

 aristocracy is the superiority which industry, frugality, perseverance, and 

 intelligence will insura to every man in a free state of society; and I 

 >ng to those privileged classes of society to which you may all belong 

 in your turn. Our wealth is our own ; we have gained it by the sweat of 

 our brows or by the labour of our minds. Our position in society is not 

 -onferred upon us, but purchased by ourselves with our own intellect, 

 application, /al and knowledge, patience and industry. If you ivmain 

 inferior to us, it is because you have not tin- talent, the industry, the /--al 

 or the sobriety, the patience or the application, necessary t.> \ our advane.-- 

 ; wish to become rich as some do to become wise, but thei-.- i- 



1 to wealth any more than there is to kno\\ ! 

 These an which should be engraved on the walls of . 



nd school-house. Yoiinij men should learn to look to the patient 

 their l<t in life. The feveri-h and sudden success of a lew. 



1 yearly. 



Charley, who has mad.- his pile," as Canadian- Bay, " in six 

 ,ths. Why should 1 work all my life for v. tins in half a yea 



1, not counting the thousand failures in busi 

 i ilu res to be h'Mi 



