ABSTRACT
The influence of fathers in the present day is much less than it used to be. This is owing partly to schools and partly to the fact that men are busier than they were in former times. It has happened repeatedly in history that a man who had achieved a certain eminence in his line brought up his son to follow in his footsteps and was far surpassed by his son. Nowadays, distinguished men often have no sons, and when they have, their sons hate them, because, wherever the young men go, people say ‘Oh, are you the son of the distinguished so-and-so?’ with the result that personality seems lost in filial attributes. The one desire of the son, therefore, is not to follow in his father’s footsteps but to be as different from his father as possible.
