Part 2 (2/2)
HOW TO BECOME RICH.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
Every young man and woman of reasonable intelligence is, or ought to be, possessed of a laudable ambition to be self-sustaining. To win a competency, to secure the necessities, to have even the luxuries of life, is perfectly praiseworthy, provided they are obtained in a legitimate manner. Every rational man seeks the occupation, trade or profession which ensures the profitable employment of his best talents, and the science which discloses to the youth at the beginning of his education what those talents are and how they may be developed to perfection in early manhood, and in what profession, trade or occupation he will display the greatest ability, confers upon him the greatest favor within the gift of knowledge, from a financial standpoint. That Phrenology does this, and more, it is the purpose of this lecture to show.
The world is apt to measure a man's success by the amount of money he acc.u.mulates. That is properly one element of success, but it is not all.
The real criteria of a man's success in business are, 1st, the volume and quality of his work; 2d, the compensation he receives for it; and 3d, the pleasure he derives from it.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Pugilist. Illegitimate.]
Business is legitimate or illegitimate. A legitimate business contributes to the welfare of society, as well as to the support of the individual who follows it. The cobbler who mends shoes and the genius who builds a steams.h.i.+p are equally legitimate, though one contributes only to the comfort of a country neighborhood and the other promotes the welfare of a continent. Both may be successful within the limits of widely different capacities. An illegitimate business promotes temporarily the financial interests of the individual at the expense of the health, morals and wealth of the public. In my public and private examinations I have directed thousands of young men and women into channels of legitimate business. The fact is, there is such a tremendous demand for skilled labor in all departments of legitimate employment that it is difficult to find material to fill it. We hear much of the warfare between capital and labor, and strikes frequently paralyze the channels of legitimate trade, but the cause of the difficulty lies not in any real or imaginary conflict between capital and labor. The solution lies in the fact that every branch of legitimate labor is burdened with incompetent workmen, men who are in wrong occupations, who were never intended by nature for such work as the branches of trade they infest, and the skilled workmen are obliged to carry the load; while capital is often in the hands of those unfit to be trusted with its use, who manipulate it merely as the instrument of oppression and wrong, until the social discord is produced. If men were all graded to their proper vocations, if capital were entrusted only to those of financial skill, and labor, in its various departments, a.s.signed to those of proper qualifications, every man would be employed at a fair remuneration, and the burden of pauperism would fall from the backs of our skilled workmen. There are too many men in the learned professions who would do better at the forge and on the farm. There are preachers who ought to be blacksmiths, and lawyers who would look better and feel better hoeing potatoes. There are those at the anvil and the plow who can succeed better in literature and art.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Lawyer.]
Young man, it is infinitely more to your credit to be a successful blacksmith, if that is in accordance with your endowment, respected by everybody within a radius of twenty miles because you can shoe a horse better than anybody else, than it is to be starving in an attic as a briefless lawyer, or lounging about the country as a minister of the gospel, eating yellow-legged chicken at the expense of the sisters, when you have no ability to preach.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Minister.]
Whether a man will be able to do good work, to receive lucrative compensation and to derive pleasure from any occupation, will depend on the amount and kind of sense that he possesses. Phrenology measures the amount of sense displayed by each man's brain, determines the kind and quality of his intelligence, and thus estimates his ability in any given trade or profession.
If the brain were a single organ, every man would have the same kind of sense, and men would differ only in the quality and amount of intelligence. But Phrenology proves that the brain consists of a number of organs, each one representing a different variety of intelligence, a different sense, so that we find men varying in volume of brain and amount of intelligence, in the quality of brain and consequent quality of intelligence; and also in the relative development of the different organs of the brain, showing diversity of character in the kind of intelligence or sense, displayed by different individuals. Thus two men may have the same relative volume of brain, similar in quality, and supported by good const.i.tutions, but widely different in development of the organs of the brain. One may be a gifted orator and astute lawyer, but utterly unable to comprehend colors or use the pencil and brush. The other is a talented artist but so deficient in language that he cannot describe his own pictures. Both are successful in their proper vocations, reverse their positions and ignominious failure is the result in both cases.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Capable.]
To const.i.tute a success in any business a man must have _capacity_, that is, he must have enough of intelligence to meet the demands of the business, and he must have physical strength to support it. A man may have apparently the kind of sense required by a branch of business, and for a time display ability in it, but as the business increases, and its demands become more in volume and intensity, he fails because he has not enough of comprehensive intellect to take it all in. There are also those who have comprehensive greatness of intellect, who are fully capable of understanding all the requirements of a business, but who fail because the body beneath the brain is not sufficient in endurance and nourishment. Dismal failures result, and many useful lives are shortened, because men make the mistake of entering vocations for which they have insufficient mental or physical capacity. A phrenological examination determines beforehand the capacity of the individual and establishes a proper limit, within which he finds success, health, happiness, and the gratification of proper ambition. On the other hand there are many who do not realize how much their capacity is, and consequently remain inert to the great deterioration of body and mind.
Nature demands that every man should use his full capacity, and the phrenological examination which reveals to an individual the extent of his usefulness is a magnificent acquisition to him who acts upon it.
Action is the natural condition of every part of man. Action develops character, strength and health. Inaction results in paralysis and disease. It is vitally essential that every man should find out his capacity and use it all--no more, no less. This, Phrenology enables him to do.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Incapable.]
The question of capacity being thus understood, the next is the quality of organization.
Quality is the inherent grain or texture of the substance. Men differ in quality as much as do the trees of the forest. You do not use the hickory or the oak for the same purposes that you do the pine or the poplar. There are differences also in the grain of metals, in the texture of fabrics. Gold differs essentially from iron as silk does from flax. Men display an infinite variety of quality, from the strong lumberman of the pine forests, with his corded muscles and angular frame, to the delicate young man who presides gracefully over the ribbon counter in the dry goods store.
To ill.u.s.trate this topic of quality: Riding on the cars one day I noticed a gentleman sitting near me and asked him the rather impertinent question, whether he had not been engaged for many years in handling _delicate_ machinery.
”Ah,” said he, smiling, ”you are a Phrenologist.”
”Yes, sir,” I replied, ”we have evidently sized each other up.”
”Now, before I answer your question,” said the gentleman, ”tell me why you asked about _delicate_ machinery. Several men of your profession have approached me with similar questions about machinery. There is evidently something in my head which betrays that; but tell me why you drew the distinction in favor of delicate machinery?”
”Why, my dear sir,” I replied, ”you are a delicate piece of machinery yourself. You would not harmonize with anything else. Your bones are small, your eyesight microscopic, your fingers tapering, your touch as delicate as a woman's, your _quality_ is delicate. You are not the man to handle heavy bars of iron, to repair locomotives, or to build thres.h.i.+ng machines. I should say, sir, that watches would be about right for you, certainly nothing heavier than sewing machines and type-writers.”
”You are quite right, sir,” said he, ”I have been a watchmaker for twenty years.”
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