poor pitiful fellow Richard," said he, "what has become of him? How could he be such a blockhead as to reap no greater benefit from all his father's crimes and successes ?" There is danger in talking with those whom you do not know; there is danger in talking with those whom you know intimately. You trust, you are off your guard, you betray yourself, till you come to feel that in conversing you have more need to beware of a friend than an enemy. It is a portable rule for all times and for all companies; speak kindly and speak sincerely, and you will succeed in conversation. Do not traffic merely with smiles and honeyed words. These come from art as well as love, but when they come from art men scorn their heartlessness. Have thou thy heart brimful of love to God and men, then shall thy cheeks have smiles more natural than the finished courtier's, and kind and loving words come tripping on thy tongue. CHAPTER XX. BUSINESS OR PROFESSION. WHETHER a man calls his business a trade or a profession, it is essentially his work; and one ought to choose that work for which he has most taste and most natural aptitude. To constrain children into employments, for which they have no inclination, or even an aversion, is as unwise as the custom of those barbarians, who make trades hereditary, and compel the son to follow the same occupation as the father. If ever human beings could be bred as horses, then men could propagate hereditary tastes, but not till then. It is of importance to impress the young mind with the truth that no honest trade is dishonourable in itself; but that a tradesman may, and often does, surpass a professional man by his diligence, his conscientiousness and his courtesy. God gives one of his best blessings to men when he gives them a love of their calling. Then they go to work regularly and punctually, then they engage in it pleasantly, and come home with the agreeable sense of duty done. Without this love of our work, duty is a drudgery, work is a weight, and business is a burden. Thorough integrity should be the groundwork of every business or profession. This secures confidence, and confidence secures success. Many a man fancies that religious feelings would unfit him for his trade; and so they would, if his trade is foul and criminal. Then he puts off faith, truth and conscience, as inconvenient and cumbersome. So, too, the vulture's head and neck are destitute of covering, that he may revel amid decomposing carrion without the incumbrance of soiled and matted feathers. No honest-hearted man, however, will find conscience an incumbrance, but, on the contrary, an exceeding great ally. No doubt a mean sphere is discouraging, yet it is not without its advantages. There is so much victorious feeling in rising above it, and in demonstrating that it is not so much the office that adorns the man as the man that adorns the office. If one earnestly strives to utilise and adorn a sphere, however mean, he will certainly diminish its meanness, and invest it with respectability and usefulness. A proud man need not despise, and a humble man should not forget the fact that the bee sometimes converts an empty snail-shell into a hive for honey. Business is often blamed, when the man himself should be blamed. A man cannot expect to succeed, if he is taking his pleasure when he ought to be keeping his books; if he is on the race-stand when he ought to be in his counting-house; if he is at a shooting-match when he ought to be behind his counter; if he is living extravagantly when he ought to be living economically. Such a man injures himself and injures his business, and contributes to his own ruin.* Business or profession is a large subject, it demands many qualities, and is full of variety. Yet in all kinds the principles are the same: all from the highest to the lowest require deliberation, industry, and perseverance; all are subject to competition; and all which are conducted prudently, politely, and energetically, do, as a general rule, issue in prosperity. Now, taking these in order : I.-Deliberation. Foresight was given to man, as tentacula to fishes, by which they might feel their way in that which is before and beyond them. Some have this foresight naturally, just as some have excellent eyesight. Themistocles was one of these; for by his own talent and without learning anything towards it before, or in addition to it, he was both the best judge of things present with the least deliberation, and the best conjecturer of the future, to the most remote point of what was likely to happen. He had too the greatest foresight of what was the better course or the worse in what was as yet unseen. In a word, by strength of natural talent, and shortness of study, he was the best of all men to do off-hand what was necessary.† * πρὸς τοῦ τύραννα σκῆπτρα συληθήσεται; †Thucyd., i. 138. Prom. Vinct. 762. It would be dangerous for any one to suppose that this was merely happy conjecture, and could be easily imitated. For in one man there may be great knowledge, great experience, and rapid combination, and accurate inference, and in another almost none of these things, so that the conjecture of the one would be a rapid logical process, and that of the other a random guess. Now whether a man has natural foresight in a high or low degree, he will be benefited by deliberation, by earnestly thinking out the subject, anticipating events, and providing for even opposite occurrences. This is very different from merely brooding over a subject. In revery the ship is becalmed, and both sails and helm are useless. In deliberation there is both progress and steerage. The image of a ship is a very suggestive one on this subject, for winds, tides, and currents are apt to throw her out of her reckoning. It is the same in deliberation. Passions, impulses, and illusions vitiate our calculation; and yet there is as much need for correctness in deliberation as there is in navigation. If, therefore, your intellectual vision be apt to magnify or to lessen, to exaggerate or to depreciate, make allowance in your calculations for that tendency. Some act without any deliberation: they are sure to be checkmated. Some act not without deliberation, but without sufficient deliberation: the same fate, though de * ὡς τοῖσιν ἐμπείροισι καὶ τὰς ξυμφορὰς d. Tyr., 44. |