Scribedom

“A father taking his son to school: ‘Set your heart on books. It shall make you love scribedom more than your mother. It’s the greatest of all callings. There is none like it in the least. I have seen the metalworker at his furnace with fingers like the claws of a crocodile. He stinks more than fish roe. The barber barbers till nightfall. He moves from street to street, looking for someone to barber. The gardener’s shoulders are bent as with age. He works himself to death. The farmer wails more than guinea fowl. His fingers are swollen and stink to excess. See, there is no profession without a boss, except for the scribe. He is the boss. Hence, if you know writing, it will do better for you than those other professions I’ve set before you, each more wretched than the other.’”

12th Dynasty, Egypt