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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.
职业的回报
任何人在接受相关教育后能否胜任工作，由于行业的不同而千差万别。就大多数技工行业而言，成功几乎十拿九稳；但文科性职业则很难预测。假设你让儿子跟鞋匠做学徒，他学会做鞋当然毫无疑问。但若送他去学法律，让他对这一行业驾轻就熟并借此谋生，成功率只有二十分之一。在一次非常公正的摇奖中，中彩者所赢份额应当等同于摸白票者所输之全部。某种职业，只有二十分之一的成功率，那惟一成功者所获得的应当是十九位失败者本可获得的全部。律师或许年届四十时开始在事业上小有所成，他理应得到回报，这不仅是他本人繁重昂贵的教育投入的回报，也包括另外十几位可能一事无成的同行的投入。律师的收费似乎过高，但他们真正应得的报酬却远非如此区区之数。
然而，有些职业同其他各行保持一致，尽管有诸多不尽如人意之处，仍有许多慷慨大度、胸襟开阔之士渴望跻身其中。可能有两个原因促成这种取向：首先是对杰出才干及随之而来的名誉的强烈渴望；其次是每个人与生俱来或多或少的自信心，不仅相信自身的能力，也坚信自己能走好运。
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