It was interesting to read Miss Crawford's low opinion of the office of clergyman in chapter 11. I have often wondered whether the Church of England was a racket in the 18th and 19th Century. Not every clergyman earned a lot of money, but quite a number did, comparative to the general population. It was a sort of parachute profession for younger sons of rich landowners. It struck me while re-reading Bleak House when Richard Carstone cannot decide what he wants to do, that there were not actually very many professions a man of that class could do. The only options were the navy, the army, law, the clergy and medicine. I am not sure whether medicine was an acceptable profession in Jane Austen's time for a gentleman. I think commerce was also acceptable, but you couldn't be a shopkeeper or a tradesman. Except for the army, all those other professions took a lot of study. I am not sure how much study it took to get into the navy, but I think they had to know quite a bit of trigonometry in order to know how to navigate, and I think they had to join up as boys, so Edmund might already be too old. I think all Jane Austen's brothers were either in the navy or the clergy, and her father was a clergyman. So why is Miss Crawford so surprised that Edmund plans to become a clergyman? I was also slightly surprised that Miss Crawford thinks that all clergymen have to do is read out a sermon on Sundays. Presumably, she also thinks they perform christenings, weddings and funerals. I am not sure what the clergy's duties were, but I get the impression many were widely involved in society.