A great question.-The interest in study an abiding one.

CHAPTER VIII.

EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY

Ir is ever an interesting question to the teacher, and one which he should consider with great care-" How can I excite an interest among my pupils in their studies?" The intelligent teacher feels that this is the great question; for he foresees that, if he fails here, his difficulty in governing his school will be very much increased. He therefore turns his attention with deep solicitude to the motives he may present, and the methods he may employ to awaken and keep alive the interest of the school.

If he has reflected at all upon the subject, he has already arrived at the conviction, that it is necessary for the good of all concerned that the interest awakened should be an abiding one; that it should not only not abate during the term of school, but continue -nay, grow stronger and stronger-even after schooldays have passed away. There is probably no greater mistake in education, than that of raising in school an artificial excitement, which may aid perhaps in securing better recitations, but which will do nothing toward putting the mind into such a state, that it will press on

A common mistake.-Emulation.-Perplexity.

in the pursuit of knowledge ever after the living teacher has closed his labors.

The higher principles of our nature being aroused with difficulty, are too apt to be neglected by the teacher, and thus they remain in their original feebleness; while he contents himself with appealing to our lower characteristics,-thus doing a lasting injury by unduly cultivating and strengthening them, at the same time that he awakens after all but a temporary

interest.

In view of the importance of the subject, and the difficulty of judging aright upon it, I shall make no apology for devoting a few pages to the consideration of

SECTION 1.-INCENTIVES TO STUDY-EMULATION.

THE teacher will find in a greater or less degree, in the mind of every child, the principle of EMULATION. It is a question very much debated of late, What shall he do with it? Much has been said and written on this question, and the ablest minds, both of past ages and the present, have given us their conclusions respecting it; and it often increases the perplexity of the young teacher to find the widest difference of opinion on this subject among men upon whom in other things he would confidingly rely for guidance. Why, asks he, why is this? Is there no such thing as truth in this matter? or have these men misunderstood each other? When they have written with so much ability and so much earnestness,-some zealously recommending

Experimenting.-Its evil consequences.

emulation as a safe and desirable principle to be encouraged in the young, and others as warmly de nouncing it as altogether unworthy and improper,— have they been thinking of the same thing? Thus perplexed with conflicting opinions, he is thrown back upon his own reflection for a decision; or what is more common, he endeavors to find the truth by experimenting upon his pupils. He tries one course for one term, and a different one the next; repeats both during the third, and still finds himself unsettled as he commences the fourth. Meantime some of his experiments have wrought out a lasting injury upon the minds of his pupils; for, if every teacher must settle every doubt by new experi ments upon his classes, the progress that is made in the science and art of teaching must be at the untold expense of each new set of children;-just as if the young doctor could take nothing as settled by the ex perience of his predecessors, but must try over again for himself the effect of all the various medical agents, in order to decide whether arsenic does corrode the stomach and produce death,-whether cantharides can be best applied inwardly or outwardly,-whether mercury is most salutary when administered in ounces or grains, or whether repletion or abstinence is preferable in a fever! When such is the course of a young pructitioner in a community, who does not confidently expect the churchyard soon to become the most populous district, and the sexton to be the most thrifty personage in the village, unless indeed he too should become the subject of experiment?

Two senses.-Define the terms.-The good sense.

But is there not a good sense and a bad sense, associated with the term Emulation; -and have not these eager disputants fallen into the same error, in this matter, that the two knights committed, when they immolated each other in a contest about the question whether a shield was gold or silver, when each had seen but one side of it? I incline to the opinion that this is the case,-and that those who wax so warm in this contest, would do well to give us at the outset a careful definition of the term EMULATION, as they intend to use it. This would perhaps save themselves a great deal of toil, and their readers a great deal of perplexity.

Now it seems to me the truth on this question lies within a nutshell. 1. If emulation means a desire for improvement, progress, growth,-an ardent wish to rise above one's present condition or attainments,—or even an aspiration to attain to eminence in the school or in the world, it is a laudable motive. This is self-emulation. It presses the individual on to surpass himself. It compares his present condition with what he would be-with what he ought to be; and "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those which are before, he presses towards the mark for the prize." "An ardor kindled by the praiseworthy examples of others, inciting to imitate them, or to equal, or even excel them, without the desire of depressing them,"* is the sense in which

*Dr Webster

the apostle uses the term [Romans xi. 14] when he says: "If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them." If this be the meaning of emulation, it is every way a worthy principle to be appealed to in school. This principle exists to a greater or less extent in the mind of every child, and may very safely be strengthened by being called by the teacher into lively exercise; provided always, that the eminence is sought from a desire to be useful, and not from a desire of self. glorification.

2. But if emulation, on the other hand, means a desire of surpassing others, for the sake of surpassing them, if it be a disposition that will cause an individual to be as well satisfied with the highest place, whether he has risen above his fellows by his intrinsic well-doing, or they have fallen below him by their neglect; if it puts him in such a relation to others that their failures will be as gratifying to him as his own success; if it be a principle that prompts the secret wish in the child that others may miss their lessons, in order to give him an opportunity to gain applause by a contrast with their abasement, then, without doubt it is an unworthy and unholy principle, and should never be encouraged or appealed to by the teacher. It has no similitude to that spirit which prompts a man to "love his neighbor as himself." It has none of that generosity which rejoices in the success of others. Carried out in after-life, it becomes ambition, such as fired the breast of a Napoleon, who sought a throne for him.