The Satire of the Trades

The Satire of the Trades

[An Egyptian father’s instruction to his son, praising the scribe’s calling above every other trade.]

I have seen many beatings; set your heart on books. I have watched those freed from forced labor: there is nothing better than books. Be a scribe! It saves you from toil and protects you from every labor. The scribe, whatever his place at the court, will never be wretched in it.

Consider the trades. The metalworker’s fingers are like crocodile hide, and he stinks worse than fish roe. The carpenter wears himself out, for he must labor beyond his strength; at night, when he should rest, he still works by lamplight. The stonemason seeks work in every hard stone; when he has finished, his arms are worn out, and he sits exhausted at dusk, his knees and back broken.

The barber shaves until evening, going from street to street seeking custom, wearing out his arms to fill his belly, like the bee that eats only as it works. The reed-cutter goes to the marsh, and the gnats and mosquitoes slay him; he is worn out. The potter is covered with earth, though still among the living; he grubs in the mud more than a pig, to fire his pots, and his clothes are stiff with clay.

The field-hand groans forever; his voice is rougher than a raven’s; his fingers are sores, and he stinks. He is weary; he is well if well only among the lions. The washerman launders on the riverbank, a neighbor to the crocodile. None of these callings is free of an overseer — except the scribe; he is the overseer himself.

So set your heart on writing; it is greater than any trade. The scribe is not taxed; he has no dues to pay. Take note of this. Behold, there is no calling without a master, except that of the scribe: he is the master. If you know writing, it will be better for you than all the trades I have set before you.