travel as a journeyman. The patriarch had had no education at all;
Jonas had snatched at his just as opportunities permitted; but Veit
went regularly through the brief and practical curriculum fitted for a
tradesman's son. He was, consequently, better informed and more
refined than either his father or grandfather; and spent so much time
in gaining a thorough insight into the branches connected with his own
business, that honest Jonas was quite puzzled. 'Where did the boy get
all these notions?' said he. 'He did not get them from me, I'm sure.'
Veit had a bad opinion of the travelling custom, and for these
reasons: 'How should these men, most of them badly brought up, attain
to any greater perfection in their business, if they have left home
and school without any preparation for it? No one can understand, if
his understanding has not been developed. From one publican they go to
another, and from one workshop to another; everywhere they find the
old common track--the mechanical, mindless life of labour, just as in
the very first place to which they were sent to learn their trade. At
most, they acquire dexterity by practice. Now and then they learn a
trick from a master, or get a receipt, which had been cautiously kept
secret; when possessed of this, they think something of themselves.
Even the character of these ramblers is not seldom destroyed by
intercourse with their fellows. They learn drinking and rioting,
gambling and licentiousness, caballing and debating. Many are ruined
before they return to their native place. Believe me, dearest father,
the time of travel is to very few a true school for life; one in
which, through frequent change of good and evil days, the head
acquires experience, the thoughts strength and clearness, the heart
courage, and reliance on God. Very few, even of those who bring a
scientific education with them, can gain much of value for their
calling in life; extend their views, transfer and apply to their own
line of business the inventions and discoveries that have been made in