"The classes were so long that never more than one question came to her, and she could generally contrive to manage' that, somehow or other."

Your school, therefore, must not be very large if you mean to follow my advice, for then, instead of that intimate knowledge of your pupils, indispensable to the proper performance of your duty towards them, you may be ignorant of their names, even, for this is true, I am told, of the heads of some of the great schools of our country, and I can well believe it.

I have found it, as you know, very useful to furnish you all with a written "order of exercises," prescribing the time allotted for the study of each lesson, and not permitting any to be borrowed or stolen for one, which properly belongs to another.

This prevents, or breaks up if it already exists, the habit of lolling lazily over your books, instead of working as if "now" were not, as it always is, or should be, the "accepted time." The time of recitation must also be fixed, of course.

There cannot be a really working school, without an energetic, hard-working person at its head. School-boys and girls know when their guide is a fellow-worker-when he has the spirit he tries to breathe into them. Magnetism is a somewhat vague, unsettled term, but it stands for a very real thing when used to signify the subtle influence, whatever it is, that acts and re-acts between hu

man beings in different relations-invisibly, but as certainly, as the wind upon the weather-cock, or the pole-star upon the needle. Every teacher must be aware that his own state gives its tone to that of the school. If he, from any cause, is languid and listless, the energy of his pupils will droop to some extent at least; whereas, if his spirit is vigorous and active, it will communicate a life-giving influence. Woe, then, to the school which has not at its head an earnest man or woman. No other should assume the functions and duties of a teacher. Every arrangement in connection with the school should be made to assist and enforce the impression of its being a place for real work. An example of strict punctuality must be set by the teachers, and pupils must be required to follow it. They must not, for any light reason, be permitted o lose half a day, or even an hour from it-the idea being constantly held up, that the time and the opportunity are too important to be lost. They must be encouraged to resist a headache, if not severe, or any slight bodily ailment, of which they would fain make an excuse for a holiday.

If you have pupils, out of your own family, and one stays away a day, go immediately to ask the reason, that parents as well as child may see what importance you attach to regular attendance. Listen to no plea for having lessons excused on slight and insufficient grounds; nor because a study

happens to be completed within only one or two days of the end of the week, allow a class to postpone beginning a new one, until the following week. In these "Character-factories," all the operations should be as regularly, habitually, uninterruptedly, and unavoidably carried on as in those for the weaving of cloth; and the same busy hum of industry should pervade them, though not quite so audibly.

When a new scholar comes to you, ten to one, whatever her age, you will find her deficient in spelling, and incapable of writing a half page of a letter grammatically, or of bounding even the New England States; for "the rudiments of education" are a good deal out of fashion. With such, of course, you must begin at the beginning. I shall not attempt, within these limits, to lay out any plan of study, but I would earnestly recommend, that the studies pursued at any one time, should be few in number, and that undue importance should not attach to text-books on various subjects, the contents of which, however well mastered at the time, will either be forgotten altogether, or remain an undigested mass in the memory and which are more valuable as books of reference than for any other purpose.

The studies should have reference, first of all, to the faculties they are to develop; the reasoning powers, those of analysis, language, and ideality

should all have direct cultivation.

The percep

tive powers have also a claim to attention which is not usually properly acknowledged. I have often thought that if I were capable of teaching them, I should like, in the summer season, to have nothing taught but the natural sciences.

A great deal of what is learned at school is necessarily forgotten, as a matter of course; and that is best remembered of which there is something within or without ourselves always to remind us. The study of the human mind, and the human body comes within this category, of course, and that of the latter, in connection with health, I consider indispensable. So also does the study of languages, between which there is such affiliation, that one, alone, is sufficient to keep many others, to a certain degree, in the mind; and although men are said to forget a great deal of their Latin and Greek, these have constituted the foundation of a superstructure, which is always rising higher and higher.

Skeleton histories have their value for the same reason. They may be clothed upon at a later period, for no intelligent, cultivated person will be content to live in ignorance of "the ages" of which he is the "heir," any more than of the present time. But do not assign your pupils too much to do; do not let them attempt too much. If you succeed in training properly their powers of mind,

in forming in them habits of patient careful study, of a concentration of their powers, bearing upon a single point, as the sun's rays are collected in a focus, and in inspiring them with a love of knowledge for its own sake, you have done inexpressibly more for them, than if you had made them passive repositories of the knowledge to be got out of all the school-books that ever were printed.

If you have your pupils in your family, I advise you to read to them a good deal, taking care to secure attention by an animated manner, by occasional questions or remarks, by looking out geographical, historical, biographical, or mythological references that may occur; and to exercise their thinking powers by conversation growing out of the topics treated of, whatever they may be. In the country, there are always six school-hours; and, in my opinion, it is an admirable plan to devote one of these to loud reading, while the listeners carry on various branches of sewing, which, though a beautiful feminine accomplishment, is so fast falling into disuse that it is in danger of becoming one of the lost arts. I have been jealous of the time usually devoted to mere surface geography, if I may so speak, by remembering how much I was made to give to it, in my early years, and how unprofitably. "Latitudes and longitudes, lengths and breadths," etc., I was made to repeat with as much facility as A B C.