Training for a Vocation 163 



often, there may be found a mistaken farmer who is 

 attempting to force his boy to take up the farm life 

 when as a matter of fact the boy is in no sense fitted 

 for such vocation and should be trained for a dis- 

 tinctly different line of work. Then, on another 

 occasion, you will meet a man who is farming simply 

 because he has to do it, and who is over-anxious that 

 his boy be guided in the direction of something else. 

 The point especially to be emphasized here is that 

 the parent cannot choose arbitrarily a vocation for 

 his child. The native interests of the latter must be 

 consulted again and again, while the child is growing 

 up, and in the end the young person must decide the 

 matter for himself. 



The world is full of wrecks of human character 

 who are such largely because of the single fault of their 

 never having been trained scientifically in a vocational 

 way. So advance as best you can the idea that 

 parents must be most patient in awaiting the devel- 

 opment of the various instincts and desires in their 

 growing children, and for the final decision of the 

 latter in respect to a calling. It should be made 

 clear that many of the best and ablest men in the 

 world floundered about not a little in deciding upon 

 the final choice. 



This very important matter of choosing a vo- 

 cation for the young man and the young woman 

 will be taken up in Chapters XVIII and XIX of 

 this book. 



