unnatural separation between parents and children; among others, the tendency which it has to weaken the ties of their mutual affection.

Many parents are apt to think they have no duty to discharge respecting the intellectual education of their children, from the moment they have consigned them to masters; they forget that their moral influence over them is much more powerful than can be that of a teacher. If they take an interest in their studies, and see that they earnestly attend to them, they will give efficiency to the training of the school. At the same time that they should refrain from any teazing interference with the peculiar province and business of the instructor, they ought to make inquiries about the behaviour and progress of their children; they ought occasionally to question them on the subjects of instruction in which they are engaged, and even examine them, whenever they are capable; they ought especially to sympathise with them when they come home elated with the pleasure of success at school. These marks of interest on the part of the parents will contribute to convince their children of the utility of the things which they are taught; it will secure to the father the continuance of his authority, and will facilitate the office of the instructor.

Parents, or the persons who supply their place, must take these observations into serious consideration. They should not only seize every opportunity to render the children better and wiser by religious, moral, and mental training; but they should also promote their physical development and innocent enjoyment by healthful exercises. Thus will they secure for them that normal state, the foundation of their future happiness and usefulness- A sound mind in a sound body," acting under the influence of sound morality (9).

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CHAPTER II.

TEACHERS.

SECT. I. THEIR DUTIES AND QUALIFICATIONS.

GREAT as is the influence of parents over the moral education of the child, that of instructors over his intellectual improvement is equally great. Success in instruction depends as much on the competency of the teacher as on the excellence of the method; it may even be said that his influence over the learners is more powerful. A zealous, kind, skilful, and well-informed instructor will forward his pupils with any method, because he will know how to fix their attention, how to stimulate their exertion; whereas an indolent, irritable, or ill-informed teacher, will never make good scholars, even with the best of methods.

It devolves on the instructor to inspire learners with a love of study, to direct their attention towards useful pursuits, to create in them the desire to learn what he wishes to teach, to proportion difficulties to their capacities, to keep up and gradually gratify their natural curiosity, to assist them in discovering rather than to impart to them what he knows himself. It is his duty to moderate the over-ardent, to stimulate the indolent, to encourage the timid, to direct the wayward, and to overcome the obstinate.

The instructor who is anxious to discharge the noble duties of his office and to respond to the high trust placed in him, will identify himself with his pupils; he will enter with delight, even with enthusiasm, into their pursuits; he will make every moment during which they are in his presence conducive to the improvement of their minds and hearts.

In order to carry on efficiently the work of education, the preceptor should blend cheerfulness of disposition with firmness of character; he should have great command of temper and inexhaustible patience; he should possess all the feelings of a parent and the indulgence of a Christian; he should excel other

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men by the correctness of his conduct and the polish of his manners; for his example will have more force than his precepts. His address, deportment, and language, ought, at all times, to be such as to inspire his pupils with confidence, love, and respect. On the threshold of life, children unconsciously assimilate themselves to the persons in whose society they live. If it is desirable that they be honourable in their conduct and refined in their manners, their educator must be an accomplished gentleman.

Among the moral qualities which the professor in a public school should possess, may be particularly mentioned Justice; for he must distribute rewards and punishments as they are deserved; he must avoid injurious preferences among his pupils, and refrain from attending exclusively to boys of promising ability, to the prejudice of those who are less favoured by nature, in order to gain the dazzling honours of university prizes, thus resting the reputation of his school on a narrow, unjust, and dishonest foundation.

It is by his impartiality, and his love for the children committed to his care, that he will be entitled to govern them; it is by gaining their affection, that he will exercise over their minds that moral influence, which will enable him to direct them at his will and excite them to the noblest exertions. A taste for literary and scientific studies may be very effectively imparted by a kind and amiable instructor. It is only when personal influence does not exist, that recourse must be had to other stimulants. He who cannot rule by love must rule by fear. But, of all instruments of action, the most dangerous, undoubtedly, are emulation and corporal punishments. Without the greatest precaution, the first is but too apt to foster, in the bosoms of the young competitors, feelings of vanity, pride, ambition, envy, and jealousy; the second may sometimes debase a noble spirited youth, and inure him to perverseness.

"The usual lazy and short way by chastisement and the rod," says Locke, "which is the only instrument of government that tutors generally know, or ever think of, is the most unfit of any to be used in education. This sort of correction naturally breeds an aversion to that which it is the tutor's business to create a liking to. How obvious is it to observe, that children come to hate things which were at first acceptable to them, when they find themselves whipped, and chid, and teazed about them? Such a sort of slavish discipline makes a slavish temper. The

child submits and dissembles obedience, whilst the fear of the rod hangs over him; but when that is removed, and, by being out of sight, he can promise himself impunity, he gives the greater scope to his natural inclination which, by this way, is not at all altered; but, on the contrary, heightened and increased in him, and, after such restraints, breaks out usually with the more violence."* Another celebrated philosopher observes, "I condemn all violence in the education of a young mind brought up for honour and liberty. There is I know not what of servility in rigour and constraint; and I maintain that what cannot be effected by reason, prudence, and skill, will never be effected by force. I never saw the rod produce any other effect but to render the soul more cowardly and maliciously obstinate."+

Corporal punishment is nearly as degrading to him who inflicts, as it is to him who receives it. No gentleman would wish to be a flogger. In the English army, in which the flogging system holds its disgusting sway, and levels British subjects to the brutal condition of Cossacks or Negro slaves, no officer would ever think of claiming for himself the functions of the executioner. Let the teacher recollect that he, too, is a gentleman; let him respect himself if he wishes to be respected; let him also treat his pupils as gentlemen, and they will, in most cases, behave as such.

What has tended more than anything to throw ridicule on the teacher and lower his character in public estimation, is the ludicrous association of the whipping-rod and ferula with his office. The severity which parents formerly exercised over their children, justified a corresponding severity on the part of schoolmasters; and these instruments of torture became the indispensable appendage of their functions. So general was the barbarous practice of beating children, even to a late period, that most men of the present generation cannot think of their school-days without a feeling of ill-will and disrespect towards their old teachers.

It is consistent with despotic governments that the ferula of school tyrants should prepare children for the iron rod of their future political tyrants; but, in constitutional countries where every individual enjoys the noble privilege of a free man, the child must not be early taught that brute force is a principle of government; he must not acquire notions and habits incom† Montaigne, Essais, Liv. ii. c. 3.

*Thoughts on Education.

patible with the dignity and duty of a freeman. Let, then, corporal punishment be banished from public instruction in Great Britain and Ireland, as it is in France. He who cannot conduct a school without the rod is unworthy of presiding over the education of youth.

The work of education will be successfully carried on without resorting to disgraceful blows, if the master know how to excite in his pupils a taste for order and study; if he render instruction interesting by his manner of imparting it; if he enforce discipline by firmness and justice; if, finally, he inspire love and respect by an affectionate and dignified deportment in all his dealings with them. But if, on the contrary, the master be hated, his teaching will be despised, his advice received with suspicion, his remonstrances and punishments will have no effect.

SECT. II.-PREPARATORY STUDIES OF THE TEACHER.

The teacher who is fully impressed with the high responsibility attached to his profession, who does not wish to make dangerous experiments on the first young minds which are confided to his care, will prepare for the difficult office of educating, by mental as well as by moral discipline. As the authority of his words derives its weight from the soundness of his understanding and the depth of his learning, he should not neglect any opportunity to improve and enrich his mind: there is no time at which he should cease to learn. He should particularly direct his attention towards perfecting himself in the department of knowledge which is more immediately the object of his teaching, without, however, neglecting general useful information. An instructor can always find the opportunity to turn to account every thing with which he is acquainted. In fact, he cannot properly fulfil his task, no matter how limited his sphere of action, if he does not know more than he professes to teach.

An instructor should possess great powers of language; for he must be able, not only to convey in the clearest and most forcible way the information he wishes to impart to his pupils, but also to encourage and admonish those who do not bring from home natural dispositions to learning :-just praise and reproof, dealt out in appropriate and impressive words, are more effective than corporal punishment. He must be able to adapt his language to their different ages and capacities, to explain the reasons of