Page:An introduction to ethics.djvu/204

 education, with the institution of suitable bursaries and scholarships, and the gradual breaking-down of class-distinctions, have done much to open a way for the energetic and capable boy. In quite recent times in our own country the boy naturally and almost necessarily followed the trade or profession in which his father or some other member of the family was engaged. Each occupation was chiefly recruited from the children of those already employed in it. It was almost impossible, at least in England and Ireland, for the son of the labourer to rise to any position better than his father's. But education is more and more making it possible for the boy who begins on the lowest rung of the ladder to attain the vocation for which he is best fitted.

But we should avoid thinking that there is any merit in the life of the climber as such. Many a man has fulfilled his vocation very indifferently as a minister or doctor, who might have done more for the world had he been content to be a good artisan. Every calling, however humble, offers the possibility of realising a good character and fulfilling a noble vocation; and when once a man has chosen an occupation, it is generally his duty to "make the best of it" in the truest sense. The possibility of forming a strong character depends, in general, on identifying oneself with some one worthy occupation.

The question immediately arises, How is the boy or young man to know what is his vocation, and in what particular occupation he will be best able to fulfil it? This is the most difficult practical problem that the youth is ever called upon to face. Of course, there are some boys who do not need to consider the