Another way in which parents may influence the general attitude to life adopted by their children is through the direct--but for the most part unconscious--identification by the latter of themselves with their parents. We have already referred to the conception frequently entertained by children of their parents as ideals of humanity,--ideals the attainment of which may become a constant source and driving power of effort. We have seen too in the last chapter some of the evidence for the potency of this ideal and the constancy with which it may be cherished. This ideal, however, frequently serves not only as a means of leading the child to embrace some general standard or mode of life, but, more specifically also, as an incentive to the adoption of the particular kind of business, profession, hobby or amusement followed by the parent. Influence of this sort is of course of especial importance in so far as it affects the choice of a calling in life, and there can be little doubt that in a large number of cases a son adopts his particular means of earning his livelihood as the result of an unconscious or semi-conscious identification of himself with his father. Sons may also identify themselves with their mothers as regards their principal pursuits in life; and (especially under present conditions when work of almost every description is open to women) daughters with either their fathers or their mothers. In other cases again the choice is made in order to carry out some wish--expressed or implied--on the part of the parent[44], or from a pious desire to carry on some work begun but not completed by the parent. [Sidenote: Desire to be different from the parent] In still other cases, however, a desire to be different from the parent rather than a desire to resemble him may be decisive. When this is so, the calling chosen will probably be very far removed in character from the parental one, except in so far as it may resemble it through being the exact contrary, where such a thing is possible; as for instance in politics or in opposing schools of social, philosophic or religious thought. The adoption of such a course depends naturally upon hatred and aversion instead of love and admiration, and is due as much to a desire to oppose the parent as to the wish to avoid resembling him. It is especially liable to occur in cases where the occupation or general behaviour of the parent has intruded itself in an irksome and insistent manner into the life of the child; and may lead not only to a dislike of the parent's occupation itself, but to an opposition to the whole point of view engendered by such an occupation, as the proverbial tendency to loose living on the part of the sons of clergymen well illustrates[45].