o frequently to be traced as to a mistaken calling." We can often
find out by hard knocks and repeated failures what we can not do before
what we can do. This negative process of eliminating the doubtful
chances is often the only way of attaining to the positive conclusion.

How many men have been made ridiculous for life by choosing law or
medicine or theology, simply because they are "honorable professions"!
These men might have been respectable farmers or merchants, but are
"nobodies" in such vocations. The very glory of the profession which
they thought would make them shining lights simply renders more
conspicuous their incapacity.

Thousands of youths receive an education that fits them for a
profession which they have not the means or inclination to follow, and
that unfits them for the conditions of life to which they were born.
Unsuccessful students with a smattering of everything are raised as
much above their original condition as if they were successful. A
large portion of Paris cabmen are unsuccessful students in theology and
other professions and also unfrocked priests. They are very bad cabmen.

"Tompkins forsakes his last and awl
For literary squabbles;
Styles himself poet; but his trade
Remains the same,--he cobbles."

Don't choose a profession or occupation because your father, or uncle,
or brother is in it. Don't choose a business because you inherit it,
or because parents or friends want you to follow it. Don't choose it
because others have made fortunes in it. Don't choose it because it is
considered the "proper thing" and a "genteel" business. The mania for
a "genteel" occupation, for a "soft job" which eliminates drudgery,
thorns, hardships, and all disagreeable things, and one which can be
learned with very little effort, ruins many a youth.

When we try to do that for which we are unfitted we are not working
along the line of our strength, but of our weakness; our will power and
enthusiasm become demoralized; we do half work, botched work, lose
confidence in ourselves, and conclude that we are dunces because we
cannot accomplish what others do; the whole tone of life is demoralized
and lowered because we are out of place.

How it shortens the road to success to make a wise choice of one's
occupation early, to be started on the road of a proper career while
young, full of hope, while the animal spirits are high, and enthusiasm
is vigorous; to feel that every step we take,