

iv.] CHOICE OF A PROFESSION, 1830. 59 



Again, on February llth, 1830, Brewster writes : 



* I cannot entirely approve of the line of life which your 

 frit nds have chalked out for you, though their advice 

 conveys great good sense and great knowledge of the 

 world. 



' I would object to your giving up law as a profession, 

 nise by a moderate study of it, perfectly compatible 

 with the most ardent prosecution of science, you might 

 qualify yourself for a sheriflship, which you have infiu- 

 to obtain, and the duties of which in a small county 

 w< >uld be an agreeable variation of your pursuits. I cannot 

 toll-rate the idea of a Professorship being an object of your 

 ambition, if you mean a Scotch one. There is no profes- 

 sion so incompatible with original inquiry as a Scotch 

 Professorship, where one's income depends on the number 

 of pupils. To young men at College the Professor appears 

 to have a reputation, when he is not known beyond 

 the walls of the University. The Professor can obtain no 

 fame from his teaching powers, and it is only what he 

 does by original investigation that gives him any cele- 

 brity ; but all this can be attained without teaching boys 

 and half- men the elements of Euclid, or the principles of 

 chemistry, or natural philosophy, which are often all but 

 the functions of a schoolmaster, and much less useful to 

 society. 



' 1 disapprove also of the idea in your first letter, of 



making up your income by your pen. I do not object to 



i making money by your writings, but I am sure that 



ouhl le injurious to your happiness to rely on such a 



source for a permanent portion of your income. The 



i lent you do that you become a professional author, 



following the worst of all professions. 



You threw out an idea in your first of wishing to remain 

 a bachelor. This I cannot approve of. The married life is 

 more appropriate to a man of science than to any other 

 person ; and though its unavoidable evils may sometimes 

 rrupt the even tenor of a philosophical life, yd th < 

 evils, even in their worst form, an- u-eful impediments in 

 our lot, and an incalculably overbalanced, when con- 



