in
every other career.
A famous Englishman said to his nephew, "Don't choose medicine, for we
have never had a murderer in our family, and the chances are that in
your ignorance you may kill a patient; as to the law, no prudent man is
willing to risk his life or his fortune to a young lawyer, who has not
only no experience, but is generally too conceited to know the risks he
incurs for his client, who alone is the loser; therefore, as the
mistakes of a clergyman in doctrine or advice to his parishioners
cannot be clearly determined in this world, I advise you by all means
to enter the church."
"I felt that I was in the world to do something, and thought I must,"
said Whittier, thus giving the secret of his great power. It is the
man who must enter law, literature, medicine, the ministry, or any
other of the overstocked professions, who will succeed. His certain
call, that is his love for it, and his fidelity to it, are the
imperious factors of his career. If a man enters a profession simply
because his grandfather made a great name in it, or his mother wants
him to, with no love or adaptability for it, it were far better for him
to be a motor-man on an electric car at a dollar and seventy-five cents
a day. In the humbler work his intelligence may make him a leader; in
the other career he might do as much harm as a bowlder rolled from its
place upon a railroad track, a menace to the next express.
Only a few years ago marriage was the only "sphere" open to girls, and
the single woman had to face the disapproval of her friends. Lessing
said: "The woman who thinks is like a man who puts on rouge,
ridiculous." Not many years have elapsed since the ambitious woman who
ventured to study or write would keep a bit of embroidery at hand to
throw over her book or manuscript when callers entered. Dr. Gregory
said to his daughters: "If you happen to have any learning, keep it a
profound secret from the men, who generally look with a jealous and
malignant eye on a woman of great parts and a cultivated
understanding." Women who wrote books in those days would deny the
charge as though a public disgrace.
All this has changed, and what a change it is! As Frances Willard
said, the greatest discovery of the century is the discovery of woman.
We have emancipated her, and are opening countless opportunities for
our girls outside of marriage. Formerly only a boy could choose a
career; now his sister can do the same. This
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