_Proverbs_, ix, 10. In the use of Scriptural quotations the author is seldom accurate.
_Son._ This is indeed loving counsel, such as one might expect from you; besides, it is good and easily learned by every one whom fortune follows. Still, if one is to be reputed a wise man, it will surely be necessary to take up many things that pertain to the various crafts.
_Father._ This is the beginning and the alphabet of every good thing. But through the alphabet one learns to read books, and in the same way it is always better the more crafts are added to this art. For through the crafts a man gains wisdom whatever the calling that he intends to follow, whether that of kingsman,[164] yeoman, or merchant.
A “kingsman” (_konungsmaðr_) was any one who had formally entered into the king’s personal service, whether he was actually employed at court or not. See below, cc. xxiv ff.
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_Son._ I am now in my most vigorous years and have a desire to travel abroad; for I would not venture to seek employment at court before I had observed the customs of other men. Such is my intention at present, unless you should give me other advice.
_Father._ Although I have been a kingsman rather than a merchant, I have no fault to find with that calling, for often the best of men are chosen for it. But much depends on whether the man is more like those who are true merchants, or those who take the merchant’s name but are mere frauds and foisterers, buying and selling wrongfully.
_Son._ It would be more seemly for me to be like the rightful ones; for it would be worse than one might think likely, if your son were to imitate those who are not as they ought. But whatever my fate is to be, I desire to have you inform me as to the practices of such men as seem to be capable in that business.
_Father._ The man who is to be a trader will have to brave many perils, sometimes at sea and sometimes in heathen lands,[165] but nearly always among alien peoples; and it must be his constant purpose to act discreetly wherever he happens to be. On the sea he must be alert and fearless.
These “heathen lands” were probably the regions along the Arctic inhabited by the Finns; it is also possible that the author alludes to trading voyages to lands occupied by Esquimaux, though he makes no mention of these people anywhere in his work.
