cised perhaps in some little help extended to the poor, or in any of those personal services which it is possible for a child to render,-let it experience what it is, even in the slightest degree, to impart pleasure or to alleviate pain, and the sensations thus produced, -the emotions thus called into existence, - will be like seed cast into the ground and beginning to germinate, — liable, no doubt, to perish for want of favourable culture, —liable also to grow up distorted and unproductive of the fruit desired for want of constant and appropriate care,-yet capable of rendering the richest reward in their progressive development and maturity.

It is not one impression, however strong, which can possibly produce any very satisfactory results. The teacher knows this, and again and again the impression is repeated. Descanting upon falsehood or cruelty does very little for the child, unless it has been made to feel the force and to see the beauty of truth and kindness. We begin, therefore, at the wrong place in education when we let all these things alone until a falsehood has been told, or an act of cruelty committed, and then suppose that we discharge our whole duty by punishing the child who has thus violated the moral law.

Those who are satisfied to go on with education in the accustomed way, generally meet suggestions of this kind with the extreme difficulty which they suppose to lie in the way of producing impressions of a moral nature upon the character of a child. To me it appears not at all more difficult to impress the young mind with an idea of truth, than with an idea of grammar or geography, or any other branch of learning. An idea of

truth, however, is an abstract matter. A feeling of the rightness of truth I believe to be much more easily impressed upon the nature of a child than that of truth as an abstract idea. A feeling of this kind may also be introduced into the process of training at a much earlier age,-long before the time when either grammar or geography could appropriately be commenced; and here it is that many persons making the attempt have failed. They have endeavoured to make the child understand what truth is, instead of bringing it to feel the operation of truth upon circumstance and conduct. In this respect there are many experiments in the way of science which might be made at once exceedingly instructive and amusing, by exhibiting the difference betwixt that which really is, and that which only seems to be. Indeed, through the whole range of ordinary instruction,-if we would only keep continually before us the moral which might be attached to what is taught, I believe we should find opportunities. every hour for producing impressions upon the moral sense, without going out of our way to invent occasions or to strain circumstances, so as to render both unnatural and irksome.

It is the fact of not keeping the moral continually in view which most effectually prevents the work being done, the fact of not seeing its necessity, which prevents its being earnestly begun. And yet it must be an earnest work. Trifling will effect nothing here. Even theory will do but little; though it is well to look at the subject from all points of view, and to study carefully its many intricacies, and its various bearings upon human happiness and misery. Earnest workers in this branch of labour will be

those by whom the greatest discoveries are made; and to such, whether they labour publicly or in the private circle, society will owe more than to the conqueror of territory, or the bearer home of gold from a thousand mines.

CHAP. XIII.

CONDUCTORS OF SCHOOLS.

IN venturing upon this subject, the first and the deepest feeling which takes possession of the mind is one of respect, not unmixed with tenderness, for that noble band of earnest workers who day by day pursue their unhonoured, and often ill-requited task, devoting themselves to an occupation requiring more than any other the freshness of an elastic mind and vigorous body, yet taxing the energies of both to an extent beyond what is experienced in any other department of human effort.

When we consider the actual situation of those who undertake the management and the work of schools; when we take into account all the claims upon their attention from every quarter-all the requirements of parents, and pupils, of teachers and servants, of the family within, and the world without-all their positive calls to instant and practical duty, and all the intervening accidents and emergencies continually occurring when the inmates of a household are numerous; and when we add to these, and innumerable other untold cares and perplexities, all the cheerfulness, the self-possession, the tact, the affability, and the thousand other recommendations which are expected from those who undertake the management of schools, in connection with that deep learning, or that completeness of intellectual culture,

which is usually placed first on the list of qualifications, we do not wonder so much where the individual whose character embraces all these capabilities is to be found, as, being found, how any one discharging all these duties faithfully can sustain the burden of life for more than a very few years, and those in the prime and vigour of healthy existence.

The process of education necessarily pursued in schools where numbers come and go, those who depart being followed by fresh numbers, is not, and cannot be conducted according to the order of nature; and hence, no doubt, may be traced much of the weariness, and the excessive strain upon the constitution both of body and mind, with which it is attended. In the order of nature education belongs to parental duty. Of every parent, according to this order, might be expected just as much power, and as much patience, as would serve for the bringing up of one set of children. Gradually, from childhood to mature age, the parents could lead them on, up to the highest perfection of which their characters might be capable; love-natural love, being all along the stimulating and sustaining power, upon which these efforts would be based. Having faithfully completed this task, and performed this duty with one set of children, the parents' work would be done. Nature would bid them rest, and their reward would be abundant in being permitted to behold the fruit of their labours, and to receive no small portion of it, according to the law of nature, back again into their own hearts.

The position of those who are engaged in schools is widely different from this. In the first place, how are they to command the necessary amount of love in order that their task may not be one of positive repulsiveness?