Imagine yourself as one of the courtier and write a letter to your friend about the humorus incident happened in your village.
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Answer:
Dear Sir,
_YOU pay me a Compliment, tho' a very obliging one, when in the last Letter you favoured me with, you desire my Advice, with respect to the Disposition of your Son William; whom you are inclin'd to bring up to the Bar. If, in complying with your Request, I should say any thing you may not intirely approve, you will not have so much room to
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blame me, as your own wrong Choice of a Counsellor.
I need not now tell you, I have a good Opi|nion of Will; and think him a modest, grave, sober, Youth: But, for this very Reason, I hardly think him qualified for the Profession you would chuse for him; for, I doubt, he has neither Talents for the Law, nor ever will have the Presence of Mind necessary to make a Figure at the Bar. In any smooth, easy Business, he will probably succeed, and be a useful Member of the Commonwealth. And as he is not your eldest Son, I should, were it to me, put him to a Merchant; or, as we live in an Island, and Trade and Navigation are both our Riches and our Glory, I should not even scruple to put a second Son to a creditable wholesale Dealer, rather than fail; if he himself is not averse to such a Calling. For I know not (you'll excuse me, I'm sure) whether Will's Genius is equal to that of an universal Merchant: For, the various Springs of Com|merce, the Seasons for chusing proper Commo|dities, and numberless Incidents that make a necessary Return of Gain precarious, are full Im|ployment for the strongest Judgment; as a Man, by one ill-chosen Venture, often loses more than he gains by several successful ones.
But this Opinion of Will, should you think it just, will be no Obstacle to his succeeding in the World in some creditable easy Business. Tho' I think him unequal to the Part you seem inclinable to allot him; yet he is no Fool: And Experience teaches us, that, in some sorts of Business, ample Advantage, may be made by very moderate Ta|lents, with much Reputation. These are princi|pally such Employments as merely consist in Buy|ng with Prudence, and in Selling at a Market-profit:
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Hence we see several Wholesale Dealers gain large Fortunes with Ease and Credit, and without any other Secret than the plain Practice of Buying at the best Hand, paying for their Goods punctually, and vending them always for what they are. In Dealings of this Kind, the Fatigues are few, and clear well-kept Books are sufficient to shew, at any time, a Man's Loss or Gain; for which, generally speaking, less than One Forenoon in a Week is sufficient: And yet, by a constant Attention, in this easy manner, as good a Character, and, very often, more Money is to be gained than in Professions that require an extraordinary Genius, a perpetual Attention, and a close and intense Study; which very seldom suc|ceeds neither: For see you not of Hundreds of Lawyers, how very few of them make a Figure, or get genteel Bread? And how many, for want of Courage to appear at the Bar (who yet have good Parts and Knowledge in the Laws) are forced to confine themselves to Chamber-practice, in which it is a long time before they grow noted enough to make a tolerable Livelihood.
As to what you hint, of placing him in the Physick Tribe; I like this no better than the other. Consider only this one Thing, how long it is be|fore he will be capable of entering into Business, or Reputation, as a Physician, if he ever does it at all: For who chuses to trust his Health to a raw and unexperienced young Man? The Law requires a sprightly Impudence, if I may so say, the Physick Line a solemn one, in the Person who would make a Figure in either. And do you think, tho' Will is grave enough of Conscience, that he ever can come up to that important Deportment, that unblushing Parade, which is the very Essence of an English Physician? So he may, in either of the Pro|sessions,
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live over all his Days, and be quite un|known; for, as Practice in both Faculties is the best Teacher, and Theory a most uncertain Guide, he may live to be Forty of Fifty Years of Age, and not come into any Business that shall improve himself, or benefit his Consulters.
Whereas in the Way I propose, no sooner is he come of Age, and fit to be trusted with the Management of any Affairs at all, but his Seven Years will be expired; and if he has not been wanting to himself in it (and if he be, he would have been much more so in an abstruser Business) he will be enabled, with the Fortune you can bestow upon him, to enter upon the Stage of the World with great Advantage, and become directly, a necessary and an useful Member of the Commu|nity. And, my good Friend, when you and I recollect, that most of the noble Families in the Kingdom, as well as the genteel ones, had the Foundations of their Grandeur laid in Trade, I expect not, in such a Country as ours especially, that any Objection to my Advice will be form'd, either by you or your good Lady, on this Score, if you have not more