In the chapter on “Opportunities,” we show that these professions are within the reach of any one who possesses an aptitude and has the brains to acquire proficiency.
As to brains, let it be understood that everybody possesses sufficient brains for any avocation in life, but they must be properly fed or trained to be of use. Most men’s brains are of the same weight and measurement. But some very learned men have possessed very small brains, while men of the most magnificent proportions, but as ignorant as men can be and feed themselves, have been known to possess brains of double the weight of the learned.
We give the manner of training brain in another place, but assume here that the young man who desires to enter either one of the three professions we are treating of, must have the aptitude and the brains.
The same general remarks may be applied to the lawyer and the clergyman.
The aptitude is the trend of the mind in the direction of the profession chosen. It must be a “first and only love,” so to speak, for the brain is an exacting master or mistress and easily changes if not cuddled and humored.
Back of and aiding aptitude, is the humanity demanded of every man of either of these professions. When life hangs in the balance the doctor is called upon to display the tenderest humanity. If a man is to be sent to poverty through loss of his liberty or property the lawyer must exhibit all the refinements of skill and humanity without regard to his fees. The human soul striving to reach the eternal goal of rest, peace, and happiness, appeals to the highest heart throbs of the clergyman. If you can not enter into this spirit, then do not choose either of these learned professions for you will prove a failure.
The learning required to master either of these professions can be acquired only after the most painstaking and arduous study. To learn the essence of things, the meaning of life and death, the movements that produce life and death, and the symptoms that proclaim disease, come within the purview of the doctor. How can he tell what will be the effect of his medicine unless he knows what the disease is and what effect upon the human body will be his medicines? He must know intimately the thousand and one essential parts of the human body, how they operate and their effects. If in aiming at one part he affect another, death may ensue.
Have you a steady hand, controllable nerves, and a cool brain? You need them all to perfection to be a surgeon and apply the knife in order to cure suffering humanity. The surgeon must stand in the presence of a mortal enemy with his finger pressed to the trigger of his weapon and watch for the exact instant when he shall press it to save life.
The lawyer must possess not only an intimate acquaintance with the laws of the land, but must have delved deep into the underlying principles that form the foundation of all law and government. Logic, tact, patience, and verbal skill with ready wit on all occasions, are to him what the electric spark is to a motor. It was said by a learned judge that many cases were lost where justice should have prevailed to win, because of a failure to properly present the matter to the court.
It is not a loud voice, a browbeating disposition, or a pompous bearing that bring success, it is the careful close reasoner, the quiet mole that undermines the solid earth foundation of his opponent, and topples it down.