mens too

handsome prices for their herds. Then | cases as that of the Rev. Amos Barton, capable and trustworthy managers are who starved, with his wife and six chil always difficult to procure; and in such dren, on a pittance of £80 per annum. cases everything must depend on the The curate nowadays can calculate on management. It is easy enough for a £150, and, choosing his rector, may inyoung man to get a place as employé on dulge his particular sectarian prepossesa ranche- or in other words, to be arti- sions, and range from Roman Catholic cled to an apprenticeship as cowboy. We ritualism to the lowest of the Low Church. have conversed with more than one of There is the danger that preferment may those young fellows - favorable speci- be indefinitely postponed; but then as when home for a short holi- compensation he enjoys extraordinary adday, and we cannot think theirs is a suit- vantages in the way of matrimony. A able life for a gentleman. Most of them young divine of personable appearance seem content to revel in the enjoyment of and mildly dignified manners and it is magnificent health, in a climate that un- all the better if he be something of an doubtedly is delightfully invigorating. athlete, with a weakness for lawn tennisThey rise early, and go early to bed; they should have half his fair female parishionpass long days in the saddle, tiring outers at his feet. We say nothing of his havtwo or three of their sturdy horses, and ing the persuasive gifts of an orator, and varying the monotony of the cattle-driving of his lips dropping honey and launching with a little shooting. Their digestions thunderbolts from the pulpit; because, in are perfect, as they ought to be, for the fare is as rough as the fellowship. But they have no leisure to think, they don't think, and the mind lies fallow. They learn to live in the present, in forgetfulness of the future; they become indifferent to ambition even in their particular line, and so are seldom ready to rise to such rare opportunities as may offer themselves. A man who has influence with the board or the manager, as well as brains, aptitude, and energy, may rise from the rnks to a situation of greater trust, in which his services are more liberally remunerated. Otherwise the apprenticeship leads on to little, except an occasion for investing any money of your own; and then you are a minnow sent afloat among leviathans.

that case, he should certainly make his way by other roads than that of marriage. Then the pleasant-mannered clerk in holy orders may secure a lucrative appoint. ment as travelling tutor, where the pupil, or the pupil's grateful friends, may have family livings in their gift. The tutor is pretty sure to hold good trumps in his hand, and he must be a fool if he does not play them to some purpose. And still more magnificent prizes are to be found in a career which, in former days, was one of the humblest. In Goldsmith's days, as we know from "The Vicar of Wakefield," an usher was supposed to be ready" to lie three in a bed," to have had the smallpox, and a capacity for digesting any. thing. There are ushers and ushers now; and the lot of many of these gentleIn short, it cannot be denied that, in men must be trying enough. But highthe present day, the prospect of a parent class schools have been multiplying, and with several boys to send out into the steadily growing in reputation. An asworld is a gloomy one. Were he to sit sistant master of cultivation, who unites down deliberately to forecast the chances the fortiter to the suaviter - who can of success or failure in each case, he "command the respect and secure the atwould be almost tempted to despair. And tachment of his pupils" is very sure to the end of the whole matter seems to be rise to distinction. Head-masterships are that, barring any singular stroke of good enviable berths; and unless a head-masluck, some money is indispensable, sooner ter deliberately run his head against some or later. The recognized professions are stone wall, he should look forward to dy so much overstocked, that the inclination ing on the bench of bishops - unless he of the man with straitened means is natu- dislikes the labor of the episcopacy and rally to avoid them. Indeed law, physic, despises the emoluments. Then if a clerand divinity, would be almost debarred, gyman and tutor have the special talent, were it not for a certain number of side- and desires to become a wealthy man with paths that diverge from the beaten high-little personal trouble, he has only to di roads. There is one pull in holy orders rect a staff of capable but underpaid nowadays - that curates are far better paid than they used to be; and the supply seems generally to fall short of the demand. There are no such lamentable

assistants, and drive a manufacturing es. tablishment for the competitive examinations as an advertising crammer.

Feeling the way towards a handsome

and emigrant ships, which must be provided with surgeons. In the one case the doctors are well paid by companies; and it must be the aspirant's own fault if, in his peculiar circumstances, he does not avail himself of serviceable connections. We can hardly conceive a more advantageous opening than soothing the fears of a nervous old woman of either sex, when sea-sickness has brought her to the verge of despair, and the rest of the passengers keep selfishly aloof. The surgeon of an emigrant vessel has no such chances; but being paid so much per head, the profits are considerable, seeing that emigrant ships are almost invariably overcrowded, while the opportunities of extending his experience are unrivalled, as nobody knows or greatly cares what may be the results of empirical treatment. Then agreeable young doctors have other opportunities, now that travelling and ocean yachting are so much the fashion. We are sorry to think that few millionaires carry chaplains in their suite; and knowing the invariable delays of the law, there is no need for them to have consulting lawyers at their elbow. But life is as precious as health is uncertain; and it is well worth paying a trifling insurance against the risks of sudden and severe illness. And as we remarked in reference to passenger steamers, the doctor companion must be worse than a fool, if he does not get more out of such a connec tion than simply his salary and some sightseeing.

income in medicine is perhaps more heart-knocked up at all the hours of the night. breaking work than in the Church. There Then there are the sea-going steamers are,no tolerably paid curacies of the body, to begin with. The hospitals and lecture rooms are far from being schools of the graces, recommending their élèves to the favor of the fair sex. Flirtations with the curacy come as matters of course: the curate even in the bloom of his youth is half a father confessor, and is necessarily in double sympathy with the females of his flock. There is popular prejudice to be overcome in the case of the young doctor. However unjust the suspicion may be, the taint of dissipation and recollections of Bob Sawyer are supposed to cling to him, and the routine of his daily duties is unromantic, or even repulsive. It is one thing to come to a lawn-tennis party from the oratory or ministrations at the altar; quite another to come from some curious anatomical investigation. Yet even more in medicine than in the Church, is the young practitioner bound to marry. A married doctor may make his way, where the bachelor will be brought up at each turn by the convenances and obstacles of delicacy. And poverty is a tradition of the primitive church, which worthy and well-to-do women in all ages have felt it a sacred duty to alleviate; while a poor doctor is popularly though most unfairly presumed to have no skill to recommend him. So that practitioners in the metropolis and in the great towns are bound to set up a brougham as soon as possible; and if they desire to drive on swiftly and smoothly, a jobbed pair of horses is all the better. We do not pretend to be in the secrets of the profes- The law has always cast its nets for sion; but we suspect that advertising at many sorts and conditions of men. "Mad the start must often be a dangerous spec- Shallow" was a member of an Inn of ulation. Solicitors or bankers, if not the Court, when he listened to the chimes at thorough-paced usurers, must surely often midnight; and in the dissipated days of be in the secret of it. Be that as it may, the Stuarts, the Templars were a distinthe regular mediciner needs money, for in guished community, who drank, diced, and any case he must have a respectable house drabbed with the best, and waged civil and a consulting-room, where he may sit wars with the denizens of Alsatia. The in expectation sickening amid the "pleas-law was a favorite education for elder ures of hope." But even in medicine there are side tracks that may be trod with satisfaction, though they may stop short at a competency instead of leading to a position. Certain diseases are perhaps more common than elsewhere in thinly settled countries, where serious ac cidents besides may be irremediable evils. The colonists are said to pay liberally, though the work is hard-harder even than that of the country doctor at home, whose duties may take him about half-adozen parishes, and who is liable to be

sons, who, as their parents fondly hoped, might learn to manage their own properties; while younger sons were sent to study it, as a preliminary to sinecures or profitable appointments. Should any of them take to study seriously, and turn out a Coke or a Bacon, so much the better. But again the Temple was the resort of the plodding and hard-working, who were prepared to make sacrifices, and to go through a great deal, so that they succeeded in the end. An educated student, resident in the great metropolis, could

of boxes and drive so different a pair of teams; so law goes to the wall when journalism engrosses the intellect.

turn his talents to a variety of uses. When | his own luck, and possibly succeeds. He he scraped the fees together, and went in makes a certain mark as a political critic, for the course of dinners, he was supposed and is retained as a writer of leading artito be specially eligible for various occu- cles. He is on duty three or four nights pations. The Temple was at no great in the week, till all hours in the morning. distance from Grub Street and Paternos- The pay is good - he may afford to marry ter Row; and many a Templar was in on it but then, so far as the bar is con debted for lodging and board to the inti- cerned, he goes no further. Very few mate relations he established with the men have either the strength or the versa. booksellers. After the debates in Parlia-tility to shift their seats between a couple ment and the proceedings in the law courts came to be regularly reported, a new vocation was opened to him. Not a few lords chancellor, like Lord Campbell, and many of our most eminent judges, climbed to the woolsack or the bench by the stairs of the reporters' gallery. With a practically unlimited capacity for work, the one pursuit did not interfere with the other; though now that reporting is more systematic and infinitely better paid than formerly, we fancy that a fatal facility in shorthand cuts short some tolerably promising careers.

But literature nowadays is the seduction that in one shape or another changes the bent of many a young barrister's ambition. And the cleverer he is, if he have no legal connections, the more likely he is to be tempted aside. Should he be a literary genius, there is nothing to be said against that; but the danger is that he slips down between the two stools. He may miss the professional success that perseverance and study would have as sured him; and never rise in the army of the pen beyond the rank of a carefully drilled subaltern. To be sure the seduction of literary pursuits is very great in many cases. Semi-starvation or rigid economy are disagreeable things at the best; and it is even more trying perhaps to a man of energetic disposition to put himself into indefinite training for the performances that may never come off. He sits in his solitary chamber, buried among his books, listening to the steps up the staircase that never stop at his door. The heart is sickened with hopes deferred, as the banker's account is drawn down to a shadowy balance. He seems to have gathered law enough at the least for all he is likely to make of it in the mean time; it will be time enough to extend his reading when the briefs and fees begin to tumble in. Meanwhile his neighbor Smith, a dull enough fellow in all conscience, has a profitable engagement on the staff of the Morning Star; while Jones, who is shallow if he can sparkle occasionally, has been pushing an extensive connection with the magazines. He decides to try

Literature ranks high now among the irregular professions; nor need one pay entry money at the gloomy gates of the Temple to enter the Elysian Fields on fair terms. Most clever boys - girls too, for that matter-are more or less inclined to scribble; and they are so disposed to think highly of their own performances, that till they are disillusioned, they are buoyed up by delusive hope. And literature is become a profession like another, and a decent and reputable profession for those who are adapted to it. It is not now as in the days of Samuel Johnson, when a steady literary genius might be doomed to take his victuals behind a screen be cause his clothes were disreputable even to indecency. There is no reason now why a brilliant Savage, starving one week, and carousing the next, should be hurried by ill-regulated talents to the devil, and brought to sleep on the benches in the parks, because he cannot hire a bed in a garret. Successful literature depends on fair health, like the law and medicine, and many other callings; but with fair health it offers safe emoluments, on the strength of which the family man may insure his life. Many a leading leader-writer on the metropolitan press has the income of a dean: many a rector or vicar, with glebe lands sinking in value or tithes falling in arrear, might gladly change places with not a few of the minor lights. The provincial press pays liberally likewise; and there are scores of editors of flourishing provincial journals who would not be easily tempted to London. Make a name by a book on some special subject, and the name will sell very indifferent articles at fancy prices. Literature must be treated as well as politics, and there is a steady demand besides for general articles, so that writers of versatility have many strings to their bow. Novels have become so common, the market has been so overstocked by the swarms of facile writers who rush into it, that we cannot speak confidently of profits in that department.

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