Professions and Trades.
People live by working for money in order to get food, clothes, houses, and all the other things which they need or would like to have. If they should not work, all the food that has already been produced would soon be eaten up, all the clothes would be worn out, and everything else would decay; so that the inhabitants of towns, and also those of the country, would be starved, and die very miserably.
The necessity for each person’s working at some kind of honest labor, is an obligation laid on us by the Creator; and it is a sin to live in idleness, without a desire to work. We are also far more happy when we are working than when we are idle; and this in itself ought to cause us to follow a course of active industry.
As children are not able to work, they are supported for a number of years by their parents; but when they grow up, they are expected to go and work for themselves. Some young persons are so ignorant, or have such bad dispositions, that they think it would be pleasant for them to live always by their parents’ or others’ working for them, and so remain idle all their days. They do not seem to care how much they take from their fathers or their mothers, who are sometimes so greatly distressed with the conduct of their children, that they die of grief. This is very cruel and sinful conduct on the part of these young persons, which no boy or girl should imitate. It is the duty of all who have health and strength to labor for their own support.
In this large world there is room for all persons to work at some kind of useful employment. Some are strong in body, and are fitted for working in toilsome professions; others are less strong in body, but have active minds, and they are suited for professions in which little bodily labor is required. Thus, every young person chooses the profession for which he is fitted, or which he can conveniently follow. Young persons cannot, in all cases, follow the business they would like; both boys and girls must often do just as their friends advise them, and then trust to their own industry.
As some choose to be of one profession, and some of another, every profession, no matter what it be, has some persons following it as a means of living, and all assisting each other. The tailor makes clothes, the shoemaker makes shoes, the mason builds houses, the cabinet-maker makes furniture, the printer prints books, the butcher kills animals for food, the farmer raises grain from the fields, the miller grinds the grain into flour, and the baker bakes the flour into bread. Although all these persons follow different trades, they still assist each other. The tailor makes clothes for all the others, and gets some of their things in return. The shoemaker makes shoes for all the others, and gets some of their things in return; and, in the same manner, all the rest exchange their articles with each other. The exchange is not made in the articles themselves, for that would not be convenient; it is made by means of money, which is to the same purpose.
Many persons in society are usefully employed in instructing, amusing, or taking care of others. Schoolmasters instruct youth in schools, and tutors and governesses give instruction in private families. Clergymen instruct the people in their religious duties, and endeavor to persuade them to lead a good life. Authors of books, editors of newspapers, musicians, painters of pictures, and others, delight and amuse their fellow-creatures, and keep them from wearying in their hours of leisure.
Unfortunately, some people, both old and young, are lazy or idle, and will not work at regular employments, and others spend improperly the most of the money which they earn. All these fall into a state of wretchedness and poverty. They become poor, and are a burden on society. Other persons are unfortunate in their business, and lose all that they have made, so that they become poor also. Persons who suffer hardships of this kind should be pitied, and treated with kindness by those who are able to help them. Many persons, besides, become poor by old age and infirmity, and it is proper that they should be taken care of and supported. A beggar is a poor person, who does not feel ashamed to seek alms. Any one who is able to labor for a subsistence, should feel ashamed either to beg or to be classed among the poor.
God has taken care that the wants of all persons who labor, and lead a regular life, shall be satisfied. These wants are few in number, and consist chiefly of air, food, water, warmth, and clothing. Some of these we receive freely, but others we receive only by working for them. Some persons are contented if they can work for the bare necessaries of life. If they can get only as much plain food and coarse clothing as will keep them alive, they are contented. If a person cannot, by all his industry, earn more than the bare necessaries of life, it is right to be contented; but if he can easily earn money to buy comfortable food, comfortable clothing, and other means of comfort and rational enjoyment, it is wrong to be contented with the bare necessaries of life.
It is the duty of every one to try to better his condition by skill and industry in any kind of lawful employment. Let him only take care to abstain from indulgence in vicious luxuries. One of the most vicious of luxuries is spirits, or liquors, which some people drink to make themselves intoxicated, or drunk. When a person is in this debased condition, his senses and intellect are gone, and he does not know what he is doing. He cannot walk, but staggers or rolls on the ground, and is a horrid spectacle to all who see him. Drunkenness is an odious vice, which leads to great misery and poverty; and the best way to avoid falling into it, is to abstain from tasting or using any spirits or intoxicating liquors.