ource of gratification to you to know that you were helping to build up
the civilized world, then you should enter the engineering profession.
Because men differ in their ideas as to what constitutes a full
life--some placing ideal homes above all things, some seeking
continuously diversified sources of pleasure, some wanting nothing
better than a fine library or freedom to cultivate taste in pictures,
some wishing only to surround themselves with interesting people, some
wanting nothing but an accumulation of dollars, some wishing but for
power of control over others--all men would not find the full life in
engineering. Yet the majority of men would, because the profession holds
that which would appeal to a great many different ideas as to what a
complete life consists of. Engineering as a profession is scientific,
idealistic, constructive, profitable. It is combative--in the sense
that it shapes nature's forces--and it calls for a sense of artistry in
its practitioners. Added to these, it embraces a certain kind of
profound knowledge the possession of which is always a source of pride
to the owner.

Let me explain this last. The engineer, being as he is a man who views
things objectively, notes details in everything that comes under his
eye, be it dwelling or automobile, or bookbinding or highway. The layman
does not. The layman, outside his work, sees only the thing itself, when
looking at it--the general outline. But the engineer, trained to note
details in construction, observes detail at a glance, and does it almost
subconsciously, if not immediately after leaving school, then assuredly
later, after he has been practicing his profession for a time. His
outlook is objectively critical. Entering a house for the first time,
and trained as a mechanical engineer, he will note the character of the
woodwork, the decorations, the atmosphere, the arrangement of the
furnishings, all with the same facility that he will note details upon
entering for the first time a power-station or a manufacturing
plant--things within his own province.

Nor is this faculty confined to the concrete. Engineers are of that
deeply instinctive race of folk who perceive cause in effect with the
lightning swiftness of a wild animal. If they are not this when entering
upon the profession, assuredly they become so after a period spent in
the work. Something about the practice of engineering breeds it--breeds
this objective seeing and abstract reaso