Re: 19th century England

The order "By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread" seems to have 
an early origin. 


Some of the upper classes of England may have used inherited wealth to 
ignore that inditement, but even among the upper crust it seems there 
has always been a sense of a need to do something.  The idea that the 
younger sons, who would not inherit in fee tail (presuming the land was 
entailed) would have to seek professional careers goes far back and the 
traditional first choices were the army or navy (the officer ranks were 
reserved for gentlemen long before the days of Wellington) or the 
ministry.  [Viz., in, France, the dichotomy of the title of Stendhal's 
"Le Rouge et Le Noir".  The same dichotomy of choices applied in 
England.]  Obviously, there were other choices as some went into law 
and/or the House of Lords, other government service, university 
teaching, literature, etc.   In Stevenson's "Treasure Island", for 
instance, there seems to be no censure associated with a squire going 
off to see to search for gold.  


Francis A. Miniter


[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> Going by period literature, when exactly did it become socially
> acceptable to work for a living and make your own fortune, as opposed
> to inheriting land and living on rent/annuities ?
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