音频下载[点击右键另存为][00:00.98]Passage 53. Choosing an Occupation

[00:06.23]Dear sir,

[00:12.47]I am very sorry that the pressure of other occupations has prevented me from sending an earlier reply to your letter.

[00:19.57]In my opinion a man’s first duty is to find a way of supporting himself,

[00:25.05]thereby relieving other people of the necessity of supporting him.

[00:29.53]Moreover, the learning to do work of practical value in the world,

[00:34.67]in an exact and careful manner, is of itself a very important education,

[00:39.60]the effects of which make themselves felt in all other pursuits.

[00:43.76]The habit of doing that which you do not care about when you would much rather be doing something else, is invaluable.

[00:51.75]It would have saved me a frightful waste of time if I had ever had it drilled into me in youth.

[00:57.76]Success in any scientific career requires an unusual equipment of capacity, industry, and energy.

[01:06.95]If you possess that equipment, you will find leisure enough after your daily commercial work is over,

[01:13.51]to make an opening in the scientific ranks for yourself.

[01:17.13]If you don't, you had better stick to commerce.

[01:21.39]Nothing is less to be desired than the fate of a young man who,

[01:26.10]as the Scotch proverb says, in “trying to make a spoon spoils a horn,”

[01:32.45]and becomes a mere hanger-on in literature or in science,

[01:36.93]when he might have been a useful and a valuable member of Society in other occupations.

[01:42.73]I think that your father ought to see this letter.

[01:46.45]Yours faithfully, T. H. Huxley