The social position of the child should also be considered. If possible,
the character of his pursuits should not conflict with those social
elements in which he has been reared up. It should not detract from his
standing in society, nor disrupt his associations in life. Many parents,
for the sake of money, will refuse to educate and fit their children for
sustaining the position they hold in society. They bring them up in
ignorance, and devote them exclusively to Mammon; and then when thrown
upon their own resources they are qualified neither in manners nor in
pursuit for a continuance in those peculiar relations to society which they
at first sustained.
The exigencies of the child should also be considered. If his home can
afford him no patrimony, it is then more important to consider the
lucrative character of the pursuit chosen, and also the demands of that
social position he is to maintain in life. Its profits should then be fully
adequate to these demands, and suited to the emergencies which are peculiar
to his circumstances. The capital required to engage in it, and its bearing
upon the health of body and mind, should also be regarded. This is an
important consideration, and not sufficiently attended to by parents. How
many children are forced into employments which they have not the means of
carrying on, and for which their state of health altogether unfits them! A
pursuit involving sedentary habits does not suit a child whose state of
health demands exercise.
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