The Rewards of the Professions

The probability that any person should ever be qualified for the employment to which he is educated， is very different in different occupations. In the greater part of mechanic trades， success is almost certain； but very uncertain in the liberal professions. Put your son apprentice to a shoemaker，there is little doubt of his learning to make a pair of shoes， but send him to study the law， it is at least twenty to one if ever he makes such a proficiency as it will enable him to live by the business. In a perfectly fair lottery，those who draw the prizes ought to gain all that is lost by those who draw the blanks. In a profession where twenty fail for one that succeeds， that one ought to gain all that should have been gained by the unsuccessful nineteen. The counsellor at law， who， perhaps， at near forty years of age， begins to make something by his profession， ought to receive the retribution， not only of his own so tedious and expensive education， but of that of more than ten others who are never likely to make anything by it. How extravagant soever the fees of counsellors at law may sometimes appear， their real retribution is never equal to this.

　　Those professions keep their level， however， with other occupations， and notwithstanding these discouragements， all the most generous and liberal spirits are eager to crowd into them. Two different causes contribute to recommend them.First， the desire of the reputation which attends upon superior excellence in any of them； and， secondly， the natural confidence which every man has， more or less， not only in his own abilities， but in his own good fortune.

　　To excel in any profession， in which but few arrive at mediocrity， is the most decisive mark of what is called genius or superior talents. The public admiration which attends upon such distinguished abilities， makes always a part of their reward；a greater or smaller in proportion as it is higher or lower in degree. It makes a considerable part of it in the profession of physic；a still greater perhaps in that of law； in poetry and philosophy it makes almost the whole.