CHAPTER XXII.

OTHER PROFESSIONS.

The notion that the "three black Graces," Law, Physic, and Divinity, must be worshiped by the candidate for respectability and honor, has done incalculable damage to society. It has spoiled many a good carpenter, done injustice to the sledge and the anvil, cheated the goose and the shears out of their rights, and committed fraud on the corn and potato-field. Thousands have died of broken hearts in these professions, thousands who might have been happy at the plow or opulent behind the counter; thousands, dispirited and hopeless, look upon the healthful and independent calling of the farmer with envy and chagrin; and thousands more, by a worse fate still, are reduced to necessities which degrade them in their own estimation, rendering the most brilliant success but a wretched compensation for the humiliation with which it is accompanied, and compelling them to grind out of the miseries of their fellow-men the livelihood which is denied to their legitimate vocation. The result of all this is that the world is full of men who, disgusted with their Vocations, getting their living by their weakness instead of their strength, are doomed to hopeless inferiority.

PROFESSOR MATHEWS.

The professions, any of them, are not to be sought for by the young man entering life without a determination to exercise the most indomitable industry, as well as the most exalted principles and the most disinterested motives. With these, and a good measure of ability, you can advance; without all these, it is an impossibility.

JAMES D. MILLS.

Literature is a good staff, but a sorry crutch.

LORD BACON.

ROFESSIONAL persons, especially the salaried, form a large class of the most intelligent, learned, and useful people in our communities. Yet, for what they con

tribute to the public good in so many and diverse ways, they are on the whole the least rewarded in mere pecuniary returns. This, however, is not all for which they strive, nor indeed the main thing with large and influential classes of them. It is generally but the means of securing and continuing a livelihood for ulterior, and higher and nobler, objects- the welfare of their fellow-beings. Commonly, indeed, they are quite too indifferent about money and what it will bring, further than as it helps them to reach their special aims and ends. From the enumeration of cases in which devotion to learning absorbs all thought, to the extinction of mere material matters, criticism will hold good in feeling and expressing a regret for idiosyncrasies carried so far. Whatever the careless professional may think of or for himself, he has none the less a high duty to perform as a citizen, which nothing should be permitted to crowd from its legitimate place. Health and mental soundness, intellectual and moral vigor, may not always remain for the production of what life and domestic necessities demand. Keeping this fact in mind, no man can assure himself of the future by simply providing for the needs of the hour, and letting the day of adversity or the uncertainties of the future be sufficient unto themselves. And though life and health may be spared, yet opportunities and employment are not always to be found open to those who desire and seek them, however ardently.

There seems to be no class whose duty is evidently more imperative than this, to struggle for an independence for themselves and all dependent upon them; for there is in general no other class so helpless away from their special sphere of action. By necessity they know comparatively little concerning the more active affairs of life, from the fact that the whole course of their own work is in seclusion from the world, except as their specialties of labor bring them into contact with some small portion of it. But if accident, loss of health or of employment come, they are at once "at sea;" they are seldom competent to turn their hands to collateral employments, as others can usually do who have been trained to other lines of business. Therefore this duty of providing an independence, as early in life as possible, certainly extends further with this class than mere moral and political duties.

We suppose, then, the direct question to be put by the professional salaried man, "How can I make money?" The reason why this query is so often made is that the best salary such receive, much more the average pay, seems but a bagatelle, the merest trifle, when compared with the much-vaunted incomes. of the millionaires, the railway kings, the larger merchants and manufacturers, or even the high-grade mechanic. The only method by which one class can measure itself with another on the scale of financial

success, is by the comparison of results. It is easy to talk, to plan big things, to boast, and believe all the time just what you are saying; but in money matters none of this, by itself, makes dollars, much less fortunes. The only safe criterion of the positive or relative profitableness of a vocation or profession is results; and to these the professional must look to see whether he too has a chance in the great scale of such equalities-whether the monetary products of his calling fall below or rise above the general average of others.

Upon one point there can be no dispute: that the salaried person, if he obtain fair remuneration, can accomplish more in the final accumulation of money than the average of merchants actually do. To satisfy himself under that head, he has only to inspect the statistics of mercantile life given in a previous chapter, when he will see at once that at least results of this kind can be avoided. Nor is it to be presumed that any other of the main branches of trade, making, or undertaking to make, money through the extensive grant of credit, have risen much higher in the scale of ultimate pecuniary success than the mercantile business. But in the class of business now under consideration, there need be no credits given to obtain what is received; and thus it more nearly approaches the certainty of success assured to the retail merchant.

In this class, as in all other departments of labor, the services of the laborers are valuable, and command

price, just in proportion to the amount of knowledge and skill possessed and reputation gained, provided only that no offsetting qualities detract from the opportunities of the toiler for obtaining it. In order to obtain it, however, even under such circumstances, it is necessary, as a general rule, to have the personal aid of some social and professional standing, influence, and that of friends, in securing and retaining positions. As a general thing, too, this depends more upon the professional himself than upon others. Permanence of intention, as against a roving, changeful disposition, together with industry, fidelity, and close attention to business, will insure the largest sum in income and the most satisfactory results in the end.

Professional men, rather more than others, are confined and limited as to their expenditures, especially if they decide upon a course of retrenchment for the creation of a sinking fund. Their positions and business require a certain style of living, of dress, etc., which is consistent with the repute and respectability of their calling; and cases are by no means unfrequent in which this absorbs nearly or quite their entire income. Yet there are certain principles regulating salaries, as they do the price of manual labor or any other kind of business. The price may be too low in some particular instance; and in that case it must be raised, so that an average to correspond with others may be obtained. No one wishes to work for just enough to minister to his absolute necessities; there