But we are not on this account to infer the existence in Attica of anything like the Hindù system of castes, which has itself never been rigidly observed.[412] What happens everywhere took place at Athens: fathers generally found it more convenient to bring up their sons to their own calling,[413] while the latter, observing constantly certain mechanical operations take place under their eye, were led first to admire and then to imitate. Thus the Potter’s boy, as Plato[414] remarks, long ministers to his father before he takes the clay into his own hands and begins to model a vase or tureen. ----- Footnote 412: See the Hindoos, vol. i. p. 111, seq. Footnote 413: When, however, they were put out to other masters an agreement, corresponding to our indentures, was drawn up, in which it was stated what they were to be taught. Xenoph. De Vectig. ii. 2. A further resemblance to our own manners is discoverable in the practice of giving premiums with apprentices, even in the case of the medical profession. Plat. Menon. t. iii. p. 369. Footnote 414: De Repub. v. c. 14. Stallb. ----- At Sparta, the heralds, cooks, and flute-players, constituted so many small castes, in which the profession passed down regularly from father to son. Of the absurdity of this practice Herodotus was fully sensible, for he observes, that a man was chosen to be a herald not for the loudness of his voice, but because he was a herald’s son.[415] Upon the whole, however, the practice was no more general among the Greeks than it is in England. When it became fashionable to ape gentility, rustic hinds, like Strepsiades in the “Clouds,” found their sons ashamed of the humble callings by which their childhood had been supported; a passion for aristocratic distinction infested the bosom of the vulgar; all desired to appear what they were not; and, despite the wise institutions of Solon, handicraftsmen and artificers sunk into hopeless contempt.[416] For this reason most trades by degrees were exercised by foreigners, who frequently acquired wealth and independence. ----- Footnote 415: Herod. vi. 60. Footnote 416: Muret, in Arist. Ethic. i. p. 63. Plutarch, generally judicious and wise in his remarks, exhibits unequivocal tokens of his Bœotian soul by endeavouring in one part of his writings to class even poetry and sculpture among things disreputable to those who practised them: Ἡ δ᾽ αὐτουργία τῶν ταπεινῶν, τῆς εἰς τὰ καλὰ ῥαθυμὶας μάρτυρα τὸν ἐν τοῖς ἀχρήστοις πόνον παρέχεται καθ᾽ αὑτῆς· καὶ οὐδεὶς εὐφυὴς νέος, ἢ τὸν ἐν Πίσῃ θεασάμενος Δία, γενέσθαι φειδίας ἐπεθύμησεν, ἢ τὴν Ἣραν τὴν ἐν Ἄργει, Πολύκλειτος, οὐδ᾽ Ἀνακρέων, ἢ Φιλήμων, ἢ Ἀρχίλοχος, ἡσθεὶς αὐτῶν τοῖς ποιήμασιν. Οὐ γὰρ ἀναγκαῖον, εἰ τέρπει τὸ ἔργον ὡς χάριεν, ἄξιον σπουδῆς εἶναι τὸν εἰργασμένον. Vit. Pericl. § 2. -----