Reflections of a Young Man 最美明星on The Choice of a Profession
Source: MECW Volume 1
Written: between August 10 and 16, 1835发字成语
叶蓉系列First published: in Archiv für die Geschichte des Sozialismus und der Arbeiterbewegung, 1925
Translated from the Latin.
Transcribed: by Sally Ryan.
Nature herlf has determined the sphere of activity in which the animal should move, and it peacefully moves within that sphere, without attempting to go beyond it, without even an inkling of any other. To man, too, the Deity gave a general aim, that of ennobling mankind and himlf, but he left it to man to ek the means by which this aim can be achieved; he left it to him to choo the position in society most suited to him, from which he can best uplift himlf and society.
This choice is a great privilege of man over the rest of creation, but at the same time it is an act which can destroy his whole life, frustrate all his plans, and make him unhappy. Serious consideration of this choice, therefore, is certainly the first duty of a young man who is beginning his career and does not want to leave his most important affairs to chance.孙杨女友
Everyone has an aim in view, which to him at least ems great, and actually is so if the deepest conviction, the innermost voice of the heart declares it so, for the Deity never leaves mortal man wholly without a guide; he speaks softly but with certainty.
But this voice can easily be drowned, and what we took for inspiration can be the product of the moment, which another moment can perhaps also destroy. Our imagination, perhaps, is t on fire, our emotions excited, phantoms flit before our eyes, and we plunge headlong into what impetuous instinct suggests, which we imagine the Deity himlf has pointed out to us. But what we ardently embrace soon repels us and we e our whole existence in ruins.
We must therefore riously examine whether we have really been inspired in our choice of a profession, whether an inner voice approves it, or whether this inspiration is a delusion, and what we took to be a call from the Deity was lf-deception. But how can we recogni this except by tracing the source of the inspiration itlf?
What is great glitters, its glitter arous ambition, and ambition can easily have produced the inspiration, or what we took for inspiration; but reason can no longer restrain the man who is tempted by the demon of ambition, and he plunges headlong into what impetuous instinct suggests: he no longer choos his position in life, instead it is determined by chance and illusion.
Nor are we called upon to adopt the position which offers us the most brilliant opportunities; that is not the one which, in the long ries of years in which we may perhaps hold it, will never tire us, never dampen our zeal, never let our enthusiasm grow cold, but one in which we shall soon e our wishes unfulfilled, our ideas unsatisfied, and we shall inveigh against the Deity and cur mankind.
But it is not only ambition which can arou sudden enthusiasm for a particular profession; we may perhaps have embellished it in our imagination, and embellished it so that it appears the highest that life can offer. We have not analyd it, not considered the whole burden, the great responsibility it impos on us; we have en it only from a distance, and distance is deceptive.
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Our own reason cannot be counllor here; for it is supported neither by experience nor by profound obrvation, being deceived by emotion and blinded by fantasy. To whom then should we turn our eyes? Who should support us where our reason forsakes us?
Our parents, who have already travelled life's road and experienced the verity of fate - our heart tells us.
And if then our enthusiasm still persists, if we still continue to love a profession and believe ourlves called to it after we have examined it in cold blood, after we have perceived its burdens and become acquainted with its difficulties, then we ought to adopt it, then neither does our enthusiasm deceive us nor does overhastiness carry us away.
But we cannot always attain the position to which we believe we are called; our relations in society have to some extent already begun to be established before we are in a position to determine them.
施工放样Our physical constitution itlf is often a threatening obstacle, and let no one scoff at its rights.
荷兰的英文It is true that we can ri above it; but then our downfall is all the more rapid, for then we are venturing to build on crumbling ruins, then our whole life is an unhappy struggle between the mental and the bodily principle. But he who is unable to reconcile the warring elements within himlf, how can he resist life's tempestuous stress, how can he act calmly? And it is from calm alone that great and fine deeds can ari; it is the only soil in which ripe fruits successfully develop.
Although we cannot work for long and ldom happily with a physical constitution which is not suited to our profession, the thought nevertheless continually aris of sacrificing our well-being to duty, of acting vigorously although we are weak. But if we have chon
a profession for which we do not posss the talent, we can never exerci it worthily, we shall soon reali with shame our own incapacity and tell ourlves that we are uless created beings, members of society who are incapable of fulfilling their vocation. Then the most natural conquence is lf-contempt, and what feeling is more painful and less capable of being made up for by all that the outside world has to offer? Self-contempt is a rpent that ever gnaws at one's breast, sucking the life-blood from one's heart and mixing it with the poison of misanthropy and despair.
