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has an overwhelming responsibility, which he can never part with or transfer to another while he holds the relation of parent.

But the teacher is responsible in a very high degree. An important interest is committed to his charge whenever a human being is placed under his guidance. By taking the position of the teacher, all the responsibility of the relation is voluntarily assumed; and he is fearfully responsible not only for what he does, but also for what he neglects to do. And it is a responsibility from which he cannot escape. Even though he may have thoughtlessly entered upon the relation of teacher, without a single glance at its obligations; or though, when reminded of them, he may laugh at the thought, and disclaim all idea of being thus seriously held to a fearful account,-yet still the responsibility is on him. Just as true as it is a great thing to guide the mind aright,-just as true as it is a deplorable, nay, fatal thing to lead it astray, so true is it that he who attempts the work, whether ignorant or skillful, whether thoughtless or serious, incurs all the responsibility of success or failure,-a responsibility he can never shake off as long as the human soul is immortal, and men are accountable for such consequences of their acts as are capable of being foreseen.

I. The teacher is in a degree responsible for the BODILY HEALTH of the child. It is well established that the foundation of many serious diseases is laid in the school-room. These diseases come sometimes from a neglect of exercise; sometimes from too long confine

Laws of physical health.-Nervous excitement.

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ment in one position, or upon one study; sometimes from over-excitement and over-study; sometimes from breathing bad air; sometimes from being kept too warm or too cold. Now the teacher should be an intelligent physiologist; and from a knowledge of what the human system can bear and what it cannot, he is bound to be ever watchful to guard against all those abuses from which our children so often suffer. pecially should he be tremblingly alive to avert that excitability of the nervous system, the over-action of which is so fatal to the future happiness of the individual. And should he, by appealing to the most exciting motives, encourage the delicate child to press on to grasp those subjects which are too great for its comprehension, and allow it to neglect exercise in the open air in order to task its feverish brain in the crowded and badly ventilated school-room; and then, in a few days, be called to look upon the languishing sufferer upon a bed of exhaustion and pain—perhaps a bed of premature death, could he say, "I am not responsible?" Parents and teachers often err in this. They are so eager to develop a precocious intellect, that they crush the casket in order to gratify a prurient desire to astonish the world with the brilliancy of the gem. Each is responsible for his share of this sin; and the teacher especially, because by his education he should know better.

II. The teacher is mainly responsible for the INTELLECTUAL GROWTH of the child. This may be referred chiefly to the following heads :

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this. If he presents the subjects out of this order, he is responsible for the injury. In general, the elements should be taught first. Those simple branches which the child first comprehends, should first be presented. Reading, of course, must be one of the first; though I think the day is not distant when an enlightened community will not condemn the teacher, if, while teaching reading, he should call the child's attention by oral instructions to such objects about him as he can comprehend, even though in doing this he should somewhat prolong the time of learning to read. It is indeed of little consequence that the child should read words simply; and that teacher may be viewed as pursuing the order of nature, who so endeavors to develop the powers of observation and comparison, that words when learned shall be the vehicles of ideas. Some further suggestions on this point will be made in the chapter entitled " Waking up Mind."

Next to Reading and its inseparable companionsSpelling and Defining, I am inclined to recommend the study of Mental Arithmetic. The idea of Number is one of the earliest in the mind of the child. He can be early taught to count, and quite early to perform those operations which we call adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. This study at first needs no book. The teacher should be thoroughly versed in "Colburn's Intellectual Arithmetic," or its equivalent, and he can find enough to interest the

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Writing.-Written Arithmetic.-Composition.-Grammar.

Writing may be early commenced with the pencil upon the slate, because it is a very useful exercise to the child in prosecuting many of his other studies. But writing with a pen may well be deferred till the child is ten years of age, when the muscles shall have acquired sufficient strength to grasp and guide it.

Written Arithmetic may succeed the mental; in deed, it may be practised along with it.

Composition—perhaps by another name, as Description-should be early commenced and very frequently practised. The child can be early interested in this, and he probably in this way acquires a better knowledge of practical grammar than in any other.

Grammar, in my opinion, as a study, should be one of the last of the coinmon school branches to be taken up. It requires more maturity of mind to understand its relations and dependencies than any other; and that which is taught of grammar without such an understanding, is a mere smattering of technical terms, by which the pupil is injured rather than improved. It may be said, that unless scholars commence this branch early, they never will have the opportunity to learn it. Then let it go unlearned; for as far as I have seen the world, I am satisfied that this early and superficial teaching of a difficult subject is not only useless but positively injurious. How many there are who study grammar for years, and then are obliged to confess in after life, because "their speech bewrayeth" them, that they never understood it! How many, by the too early study of an intricate branch, make

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