Moreover, this custom tends to make business men
too exclusively and rigidly technical and professional; that is, in
plain language, speaking relatively, they know too much of their own
vocation, and too little of everything else. Business life follows so
closely upon home life and school life, that the lessons of the latter
fail to exert an immediate and controlling influence, and it is often
only in maturer years that the fruits of early training are seen. The
connection is such that the boy or youth becomes a devotee of business
before he is developed into complete manhood. This is movement, but not
true progress; activity, but not culture; appropriation and
accumulation, but not natural development. This peculiarity is less
prominent in England, and it is hardly known in the central states of
Europe. It is to some extent a national, and especially is it a New
England characteristic. It is a manifestation of the forward moving
spirit of our people, and it is also at once a promise and the security
for the ultimate supremacy of the American race and nation in the
affairs of the world. In Athens young men attained their majority when
they were sixteen; but they usually prosecuted their studies afterwards,
and Aristotle thought them unfit for marriage until they were
thirty-seven years of age. This rule was observed by Aristotle in his
own case; but we are unable to say whether the rule was made before or
after his marriage, which is a fact of much importance when we consider
the wisdom of the precept, and the real principles and philosophy of its
famous author.
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