Government not the business of the teacher.-Mr. Howard's remark.

willingness to record and publish the faults of a pupil. He should, on the contrary, show a tender regard for his reputation. Besides, the child is less likely to be mindful of his duty, when his reputation is already blackened by his teacher. If Registers are to be kept at all, they should record the successes and virtues of the child rather than his failures and faults. And if, at the end of a week or a month, he is furnished with an abstract for the inspection of his parents, let it be so much of good character as he has earned for himself during the specified time.

I confess I am less sanguine than many others as to the utility of the register, either as an incentive to obedience or diligence; but if used at all, I think the above restriction is highly important.

VIII. AVOID GOVERNING TOO MUCH. By this I would be understood to urge upon the teacher the fact that his main business in school is instruction and not government. Government is a means and not the end of school-keeping. A very judicious and practical teacher --Mr. R. S. Howard-has well remarked: "The real object to be accomplished, the real end to be obtained in school, is to assist the pupil in acquiring knowledge, -to educate the mind and heart. To effect this, good order is very necessary. But when order is made to take the place of industry, and discipline the place of instruction, where the time of both teacher and pupils is mostly spent in watching each other, very little good will be accomplished."

It is a mistake that many teachers fall into, that they

An official visit.-" Order, there!"-A scene.

seem to regard government as their chief occupation; and, as we should naturally expect in such cases, it is often very poorly exercised. That is not the best government which is maintained as a matter of formal business. The noiseless under-current is far more efficient. I have always noticed that men govern best when they do not seem to govern; and those who make most effort and bustle about it themselves, are pretty sure to have the most boisterous schools.

I once in company with a friend officially visited a school where the teacher, a man of strong frame-six feet high, and with lungs in proportion, was laboring to keep order. Every word he uttered was in a stentorian voice which would have been painful to the pupils in a quiet room; hence, they took care to keep up a constant clattering of books, slates, and rulers, mingled with the constant hum of their own voices, as if for self-defense. It seemed to be a mighty effort of each party to rise if possible above the noise of the other. "Silence! Order! I say," was constantly ejaculated in a voice that was almost sufficient, as Shakspeare's Hamlet would say, to "split the ears of the groundlings."

One of the most ludicrous scenes I ever witnessed, occurred in this school during an exercise in English grammar. The class occupied the back seats, while the teacher stood by the desk in front of the school. The children between the teacher and his class were variously employed,—some manufacturing paper flyboxes, some whittling the benches-(it was in New

Parsing!-A dialogue.-" The Rule, sir."

England); some were trying their skill at a warfare; others were making voyages of exp beneath the seats. The school, consisting o seventy pupils, were as busy as the occupant ant-hill. The sentence to be parsed was, "A g loves study." No written description can pres scene as it was acted in real life.

It should be borne in mind that every word by the teacher, whether to the class or to the s was in a tone of voice which might have been he least an eighth of a mile, and that every exclan was accompanied by several energetic thumps large oaken 'rule' upon the lid of his desk. The guage of the teacher is in italics. "Mary, pars "A is an indefinite"-" Silence! Order there!"ticle. and is prefixed to"-" John!"-"No sir, prefixed to"-" Martha, Martha! sit up"-"it is fixed to-boy."-" Right."-" Good, next."-"C is an adjective,"-" Order, Order, Order !"-thu thump, thump!" Go on, go on, I hear you thump, thump!" and belongs to"-" Speak loud Sit up there! What are you doing? And belo to?"-" boy."-"The Rule. The RULE! I say." Here several children looked earnestly at the pie of timber he held in his hand.-" The Rule, sir, t Rule!"-thump, thump!" You've got it in you hand," vociferated a little harmless-looking fellow the front seat, while the scholar proceeded to recite th rule." Adjectives belong to"-" Lazy, lazy fellow sit up there."-Here the class smiled, and the schola

A Babel.-Who made it?-Another visit.

completed his rule, asserting however that "adjectives belong to nouns," and not to "lazy fellows," as the class seemed to understand the master to teach. Word after word was parsed in this way, (a way of teaching our language, which, if we could know it had been practised at the erection of Babel, would sufficiently account for that memorable confusion of tongues without the intervention of a miracle,) till the teacher, nearly exhausted by this strange combination of mental, oral, and manual labor, very much to the relief of all, vociferated" That'll do !" and the scene was changed.

At the close of the afternoon, we were told that “it was a very hard school, that it was almost impossible to keep order, and that he should be discouraged were it not that he saw a manifest improvement within a few days past!"

Now this teacher made the school what it was, by his own manner. He would have done the same in any school. He taught in the most effectual way the science and art of confusion; and notwithstanding the hard name he gave his school, he was emphatically the most disorderly and noisy member of it.

There was a change. On another day, accompanied by the same friend, we presented ourselves at the door of this same room for admittance. We heard no sound as we approached the entrance, and almost began to suspect we should find there was no school within. We knocked; and presently, without our hearing the footstep of the person who approached, the door opened, and we passed in. The children looked up a moment

A new teacher.-Good order.-The secret.

as we entered, and then bent their eyes upon their lessons. The teacher softly handed us seats, and then proceeded with the recitation. His manner was quiet and deliberate, and the school was orderly and busy. He had no rule in his hand, no heavy boots on his feet, (he had exchanged them for slippers on entering the school,) and no other means of giving emphasis to his words. He kindly requested,-never commanded,and every thing seemed to present the strongest contrast with the former scene. The hour of dismission arrived, and the scholars quietly laid by their books, and as quietly walked out of the house, and all was still.

"How have you secured this good order?" said we to the teacher. "I really do not know," said he with a smile, “I have said nothing about order." "But have you had no difficulty from noisy scholars ?" "A little at first; but in a day or two they seemed to become quiet, and we have not been troubled since."

Now the secret was, that this latter teacher had learned to govern himself. His own manner gave character to the school. So it will ever be. A man will govern more by his manner than in any other

way.

There is, too, such a thing as keeping a school too still by over-government. A man of firm nerve can, by keeping up a constant constraint both in himself and pupils, force a deathlike silence upon his school. You may hear a pin drop at any time, and the figure of every child is as if moulded in cast iron. But, be it