Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.
RISING IN THE WORLD;
A Tale for the Rich and Poor.
BY T. S. ARTHUR,
AUTHOR OF "KEEPING UP APPEARANCES,"
"RICHES HAVE WINGS," ETC., ETC.
NEW EDITION.
NEW YORK:
HUBBARD & BURGESS,
133 WILLIAM STREET.
1859.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847,
BY BAKER & SCRIBNER,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
for the Southern District of New York.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. THE TWO FRIENDS
CHAPTER II. BEGINNING TO RISE
CHAPTER III. MORAL DECLENSION
CHAPTER IV. THE FIRST GREAT ERROR
CHAPTER V. RIGHT AND WRONG PRINCIPLES
CHAPTER VI. GENEROUS SELF-DEVOTION
CHAPTER VII. ACTING FROM PRINCIPLE
CHAPTER VIII. AN INIQUITOUS SCHEME
CHAPTER IX. A MATRIMONIAL SPECULATION
CHAPTER X. PERFECTLY LEGAL
CHAPTER XI. A BIT OF RETALIATION
CHAPTER XII. BASENESS OF CHARACTER
CHAPTER XIII. AN UNEXPECTED MEETING
CHAPTER XIV. RISING TO A TRUE LEVEL
CHAPTER XV. PREJUDICES REMOVED
CHAPTER XVI. AN UPWARD MOVEMENT
CHAPTER XVII. BITTER FRUITS
CHAPTER XVIII. A NEW ASPECT OF AFFAIRS
CHAPTER XIX. CONTRASTS
CHAPTER XX. CONCLUSION
RISING IN THE WORLD.
CHAPTER I.
THE TWO FRIENDS.
Two young men of nearly equal abilities, left college at the same
time. Their names were Lawrence Dunbar and Lloyd Hudson. Mr. Dunbar,
the father of Lawrence, was a retail grocer in Philadelphia. He
had, in early life, received but few educational advantages; and,
in consequence thereof, saw many opportunities for rising above his
condition, pass unimproved. Fully sensible of the advanced position
which a liberal education gives to every man, he determined that no
expense, in his power to meet, should be spared, in order to have his
son thoroughly furnished in everything required to place him side by
side in the race for wealth and distinction with the best in the land.
To this end, he used the utmost economy in his family, in order that he
might be able to send his son to college. In doing this, he was unjust
to the sisters of Lawrence; who were neither taught music nor dancing,
nor, in fact, anything for which the father had to pay a single dollar.
The advantages afforded by the public schools were deemed ample for
them. Upon the son, Mr. Dunbar lavished all that he could spare, as an
investment that would pay well at some future day.
Near neighbor to Mr. Dunbar, lived an industrious, intelligent
watchmaker, named Hudson, whose family consisted of a son and two
daughters. Mr. Hudson saw quite as clearly as did Mr. Dunbar, the
great advantage which every young man possesses, who is blessed with a
liberal education: and it had been his intention, from the first, to
give his son every opportunity in his power for acquiring information.
But, in considering the son, he did not disregard his daughters. Lloyd
Hudson and Lawrence Dunbar were entered at college, for a four years'
course, at the same time. They had grown up together as boys, and were
pleased at the prospect of going through their higher studies together.
At college, the characters of the young men began to harden into more
permanent forms than they had before assumed, and to show distinctive
features. Home influences and precepts, uniting with hereditary
tendencies, gave to each its peculiar modification.
During the whole time that they remained at college, the young
men, though unlike in disposition, were particular friends, and
often conversed together of their future prospects. One of these
conversations, held only the day previous to their starting for home,
after having completed their course, will give some idea of the
difference that existed between them.
"There is no time to be lost now," remarked young Dunbar. "Here we are,
twenty years of age, and the study of a profession yet to be entered
upon. You, strangely enough, talk of medicine."
"Why do you say, strangely?" asked Hudson. "There must be physicians,
as well as lawyers and merchants."
"And so there must be cobblers and tinkers. You have talents and
education, Lloyd, and if you properly apply, them, will rise in the
world. Every man should look to this."
"What do you mean by rising in the world?"
"Becoming rich and distinguished. At the bar, a man of talents and
force of character may rise to eminence in a few years. Eminence in
the legal profession brings wealth as a necessary consequence. In
mercantile pursuits, the same road to wealth and honor is open. But to
what can a physician look forward?"
"There are many eminent physicians."
"Eminent for what? For making pills and plasters?"
"Eminent for usefulness," said Hudson, calmly.
"Usefulness!" Dunbar uttered this word with manifest contempt. "My
ambition does not lie in that direction. I am neither a St. Paul nor a
Howard."
"To be eminently useful, is the highest distinction attainable. What
are great wealth or brilliant talents, if not applied to a good
purpose?" replied Hudson. "I will read you a passage in the last letter
I received from my father on this very subject, to show you how he
thinks, and I must own that I think with him." And the young man drew a
letter from his pocket, and read—
"Having completed your collegiate course, your next step, my son,
is to decide upon the calling you mean to pursue. In coming to this
decision, let me admonish you to look well to the motives that prompt
your choice. If you feel a selfish regard to your own advancement in
the world, struggle against and repress it; for, though by this you may
attain wealth and a name, it will never bring you happiness, and that
highest of all honors, the reputation of having accomplished some good
for your fellow men. Have, therefore, in choosing a profession, regard
to the good you may be able to do, as well as the good to yourself
that you wish to obtain. You have spoken of medicine. There are ways
in life that lead more certainly to wealth; and there are avenues to
distinction more easily trodden But if your mind turns towards the
medical profession, with anything like a desire to enter into it, I
will not speak a word against your choice. You will find it an arduous
calling, but one in which you can do much good; and one in which
your own character may be purified and elevated. You will rise into
eminence—true eminence—here, as well as in any other pursuit; for I
know you have the required ability, and I believe you are not under the
dominion of merely selfish purposes."
"All that is very good in the abstract," returned Dunbar; "but few,
if any, can carry out in life the unselfish purposes from which your
father expects you to act. It is not in us. Now, I think that my father
understands human nature, and the springs of human impulses better than
your father does, and as you have given me the benefit of your parental
suggestions, I will give you the benefit of mine;" and the young man
drew a letter from his pocket and read—
"I have been weighing with great deliberation what you say about the
choice of a profession, and, like you, am not yet able to decide which
is best. At the bar, you will rise in the world, and gain distinction
as a man of talents; while in mercantile pursuits, you will attain
wealth and the elevation in society that its possession always gives.
In either profession, if you are patient, sagacious, and persevering,
your talents and education will carry you up to a high place. Now which
of the two conditions is most desirable I am hardly able to determine.
Wealth gives great advantages and great power; while eminence, in a
profession like the law opens a wide field to ambition, at the same
time that it ensures ample means, if not extensive wealth. When we
meet, we will consider these matters together, and arrive at some
certain conclusion. There is no time to be lost."
"Now, all that I can understand," said young Dunbar. "But I must own
that what your father says finds no response in my bosom. I suppose a
doctor may be very useful to his fellows, but who thanks him for it,
or even pays his bills, moderate as they may be, without grumbling? As
for me, I don't see any particular pleasure that I should derive from
devoting myself to the good of others, and especially in so slavish a
calling as that of the physician. And it's my opinion that you will be
sick of it before you are ten years older."
"As to that," replied Hudson, "I do not expect to find all plain
sailing, let me adopt what pursuit I may. Medicine I incline to as
a profession, though not because I can be more useful in it than I
can be in any other; for every regular calling in life regards the
common good, and in each and all of them men may engage with unselfish
motives; but because it suits my temper of mind, and I can see clearly
how in the practice of it I can attain the requisite external things I
need, at the same time that I can be of great use to my fellows. As for
the ambition to rise in the world to a distinguished position, of which
you speak, I must own that I do not feel as strongly as you do its
impulses. That I shall rise just as high as I deserve, there is not the
least doubt, and with this conviction I am content to enter upon the
life-toil that is before me, with patient confidence that all will come
out right in the future."
"Too quiet a philosophy for me, Lloyd," returned Dunbar. "I feel the
spurs of ambition already piercing my sides. I am resolved to rise in
the world: I know that I possess the ability, and I mean to tax it
to the utmost. As for other men's good, let them take care of that
themselves. I shall seek my own, well convinced that if I do not, there
will be no one to seek it for me."
"To regard the good of others, while we seek our own, is by no means a
difficult thing," replied Hudson. "This is a truth which I have been
taught by my father from the first. Indeed, he has ever sought most
earnestly to impress it upon my mind."
"He is not anxious to see you rise in the world?" said Dunbar.
"Most anxious; for, he says, the higher I rise, the more extended will
be my sphere of usefulness. But he, when he speaks of rising in the
world, means something more than the mere attainment of wealth, or
honorable distinction in the eyes of men."
"What more can he mean?"
"No man truly rises in the world, he says, who does not overcome and
rise above the evil and selfish passions of his nature. There is an
internal as well as an external elevation; and the latter without the
former, is, in his estimation, more of a curse than a blessing. To rise
internally as well as externally, we must regard the good of others as
well as our own good, in all the acts of our lives. Can you not see
this?"
"Dimly; that is all."
"Even that is something."
"But it is altogether impracticable. A kind of Utopian
philosophy—beautiful to look upon, but impossible to introduce into
real life."
"Not at all, Lawrence. I believe that my father strictly regards the
good of others in every business transaction."
"He has that reputation certainly, and, I will believe, justly. I have
heard my father say, that he was the most rigidly honest and unselfish
man he had ever known. But, look at the result. Your father has
attained neither wealth nor eminence, though a man of good mind."
"The reason is plain. Want of education, and early opportunity. But we
have just what he lacked."
"Well, Lloyd," returned Dunbar, "all that I have to say on this subject
is, that if you have any fancy for this looking after other people's
affairs, I have not. I think I shall find just as much as I can well do
in looking after and taking care of my own. My father has set his heart
on seeing me rise in the world, and has sacrificed much to that end: he
shall not be disappointed, unless the Fates are against me. I mean to
rise. If I fail in my purpose, the fault shall not lie at my door."
"And I mean to rise also," said Hudson, in a calm, yet firm voice. "All
these severe and prolonged studies which I have entered into and passed
through, cannot remain unproductive in my mind. They will give me the
power of self-elevation; and that power I intend calling into full
requisition. What the particular result will be, I cannot tell, nor am
I in any concern about it. That all will come out right, both in regard
to myself and others, I do not doubt."