THE YOUTH’S CABINET.

379

 

but they had no notion of the general
business. They understood parts; but
the whole was too complex for their com-
prehension, or had never fallen under
their view.

The young mender of earthenware,
however, soon thought himself so wise,
and became so much a slave to the opin-
ions of his masters, that he despised all
the mysteries he had learned from his
father, and fancied himself the first genius
in the craft.

He returned to the country, full of
himself and his acquirements ; he vaunted
of the difficult jobs he had performed,
and the wonders he had seen; ridiculed
the modes of operation he had originally
been taught, and nearly staggered the
faith of some who had grown veterans
in the trade. His father, too, thought
him more sapient than himself; and often
stood in mute astonishment to hear him
talk of cementing cups which had been
broken into an hundred pieces, of adding
a handle to one utensil, and a spout to
another.

Talking, however, was all that he had
yet performed ; but his vanity and conceit
were immense, and he longed to exhibit
his skill. Some friends of his father were
willing to trust him with a job: the old
women in particular thought him a prodi-

gy; and it is even said, that cooks and.

housemaids made some slips to let him
try his abilities.

In attempting, however, to mend a
slight crack in a cream-pot by a new dis-
covery, he let it slip through his fingers,
and spoiled a whole set of tea-table equi-
page. In scouring out a jar that had be-
come crusted with mince-pies and sweet-
meats, he unfortunately made a hole in
the side; the spout of a vessel that want-

ed only some little repairs, he quite broke
off by his bungling, and sent it home
with a tin tube. Other accidents hap-
pened in his hands; but he was still
equally conceited, and proud of the secrets
he had. learned. His failings he always
ascribed to causes not in his power to pre-
vent; they might have happened to the
most knowing of the craft; the materials
he had to work upon were bad, or the
common tools were improper. ,

At last his father saw through his shal-
low pretensions, and found that business
was failing from his presumption.

“Bobby,” says he, “I thought as how
you might have gained some improve-
ment in town, and therefore I was at the
expense of putting you under the best
masters in the trade; but I find you have
only gained conceit, which teaches you to
despise, and infallibly will make you de-
spised. My customers will not submit to
your new-fangled experiments. If you
really know any valuable discoveries in
the craft, show them by your practice, but
never boast of them. Believe me, one
ounce of practice is worth a pound of
theory. It is not what you think you
know, but what you can actually perform,
that will make you a good mender of
earthenware, or a wise man. Mind me,
Bobby; leave vanity and conceit, and
stick to experience; or you will lose the
business of the old established shop, and
at the same time be reckoned an empty
fellow.”

We are not told what effect this judi-
cious advice had upon him; but we wish
every youngster who feels himself puffed
up with vanity and conceit, to think of
Bobby, the mender of the cracked earth-
enware, and to endeavor to profit by his
mistake.—Selected,