as rapidly as the shapes we sometimes observe in the evening
clouds, and are governed by whim or fantasy, and not by any of
those indications which are parcel of his individual
constitution. He desires in many instances to be devoted to a
particular occupation, because his playfellow has been assigned
to it before him.

The parent is not qualified to judge in this fundamental
question, because he is under the dominion of partiality, and
wishes that his child may become a lord chancellor, an
archbishop, or any thing else, the possessor of which condition
shall be enabled to make a splendid figure in the world. He is
not qualified, because he is an interested party, and, either
from an exaggerated estimate of his child's merits, or from a
selfish shrinking from the cost it might require to mature them,
is anxious to arrive at a conclusion not founded upon the
intrinsic claims of the case to be considered.

Even supposing it to be sufficiently ascertained in what calling
it is that the child will be most beneficially engaged, a
thousand extrinsical circumstances will often prevent that from
being the calling chosen. Nature distributes her gifts without
any reference to the distinctions of artificial society. The
genius that demanded the most careful and assiduous cultivation,
that it might hereafter form the boast and ornament of the world,
will be reared amidst the chill blasts of poverty; while he who
was best adapted to make an exemplary carpenter or artisan, by
being the son of a nobleman is thrown a thousand fathoms wide of
his true destination.