310 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



the security it furnishes against all those evils Avhich result 

 from luxurious indolence. The poor must have it as a 

 means of supporting existence ; but beyond and far above 

 this, they need it, like their rich neighbors, for its influence 

 on their moral and social natures. But, whether rich or 

 poor, all need to be seasonably educated in some useful 

 and respectable calling ; because fire, flood or fraud may 

 suddenly and radically change the conditions of life, and 

 render a remunerative occupation a matter of practical 

 necessity to the individual existence, as well as a blessing 

 to the moral nature. Under such circumstances, how many 

 men have been saved from poverty and its attendant evils, 

 and even from a suicide's fate, by possessing the knowledge 

 and skill of an artisan, which enabled them to battle success- 

 fully against the financial misfortunes which had overtaken 

 them. 



Recoofnizins;, then, the controlling influence which "the 

 principal business of one's life " must exert upon the charac- 

 ter and destiny, as well as the necessity of its possession, 

 how important it seems that the selection of an occupation 

 should receive the most careful attention. And yet how 

 few young men fully realize what a factor the decision of 

 this question is to be in all that will go to make up the sum 

 of success or failure in life ; in fact, in many cases it may 

 be said with truth to constitute all the diflerence between 

 those conditions. 



Probably not more than one man in ten, on an average, 

 can trulv be said to have chosen his occupation. It may 

 have come to him as if by chance ; or, to speak more 

 correctly, circumstances have changed the course of his 

 life, and led him to adopt a vocation for which he either 

 had no natural inclination, or for which he had never 

 believed he possessed the requisite talents. It has been 

 foisted upon him, and after a time he has, perhaps, dis- 

 covered that he was " building better than he knew," and 

 the result proves satisfactor3\ 



Sometimes a young man is brought up and educated in 

 the i)rofession or vocation of his father, and a noted business 

 house is perpetuated through several generations in the 

 same family. But I think such instances are to be regarded 



