Rising in the world

by T. S. Arthur

"Eminent for usefulness," said Hudson, calmly.

"Usefulness!" Dunbar uttered this word with manifest contempt. "My ambition does not lie in that direction. I am neither a St. Paul nor a Howard."

"To be eminently useful, is the highest distinction attainable. What are great wealth or brilliant talents, if not applied to a good purpose?" replied Hudson. "I will read you a passage in the last letter I received from my father on this very subject, to show you how he thinks, and I must own that I think with him." And the young man drew a letter from his pocket, and read—

"Having completed your collegiate course, your next step, my son, is to decide upon the calling you mean to pursue. In coming to this decision, let me admonish you to look well to the motives that prompt your choice. If you feel a selfish regard to your own advancement in the world, struggle against and repress it; for, though by this you may attain wealth and a name, it will never bring you happiness, and that highest of all honors, the reputation of having accomplished some good for your fellow men. Have, therefore, in choosing a profession, regard to the good you may be able to do, as well as the good to yourself that you wish to obtain. You have spoken of medicine. There are ways in life that lead more certainly to wealth; and there are avenues to distinction more easily trodden But if your mind turns towards the medical profession, with anything like a desire to enter into it, I will not speak a word against your choice. You will find it an arduous calling, but one in which you can do much good; and one in which your own character may be purified and elevated. You will rise into eminence—true eminence—here, as well as in any other pursuit; for I know you have the required ability, and I believe you are not under the dominion of merely selfish purposes."

"All that is very good in the abstract," returned Dunbar; "but few, if any, can carry out in life the unselfish purposes from which your father expects you to act. It is not in us. Now, I think that my father understands human nature, and the springs of human impulses better than your father does, and as you have given me the benefit of your parental suggestions, I will give you the benefit of mine;" and the young man drew a letter from his pocket and read—

"I have been weighing with great deliberation what you say about the choice of a profession, and, like you, am not yet able to decide which is best. At the bar, you will rise in the world, and gain distinction as a man of talents; while in mercantile pursuits, you will attain wealth and the elevation in society that its possession always gives. In either profession, if you are patient, sagacious, and persevering, your talents and education will carry you up to a high place. Now which of the two conditions is most desirable I am hardly able to determine. Wealth gives great advantages and great power; while eminence, in a profession like the law opens a wide field to ambition, at the same time that it ensures ample means, if not extensive wealth. When we meet, we will consider these matters together, and arrive at some certain conclusion. There is no time to be lost."

"Now, all that I can understand," said young Dunbar. "But I must own that what your father says finds no response in my bosom. I suppose a doctor may be very useful to his fellows, but who thanks him for it, or even pays his bills, moderate as they may be, without grumbling? As for me, I don't see any particular pleasure that I should derive from devoting myself to the good of others, and especially in so slavish a calling as that of the physician. And it's my opinion that you will be sick of it before you are ten years older."

"As to that," replied Hudson, "I do not expect to find all plain sailing, let me adopt what pursuit I may. Medicine I incline to as a profession, though not because I can be more useful in it than I can be in any other; for every regular calling in life regards the common good, and in each and all of them men may engage with unselfish motives; but because it suits my temper of mind, and I can see clearly how in the practice of it I can attain the requisite external things I need, at the same time that I can be of great use to my fellows. As for the ambition to rise in the world to a distinguished position, of which you speak, I must own that I do not feel as strongly as you do its impulses. That I shall rise just as high as I deserve, there is not the least doubt, and with this conviction I am content to enter upon the life-toil that is before me, with patient confidence that all will come out right in the future."

"Too quiet a philosophy for me, Lloyd," returned Dunbar. "I feel the spurs of ambition already piercing my sides. I am resolved to rise in the world: I know that I possess the ability, and I mean to tax it to the utmost. As for other men's good, let them take care of that themselves. I shall seek my own, well convinced that if I do not, there will be no one to seek it for me."

"To regard the good of others, while we seek our own, is by no means a difficult thing," replied Hudson. "This is a truth which I have been taught by my father from the first. Indeed, he has ever sought most earnestly to impress it upon my mind."