A more excellent way.-Higher motives first.

sleep,-rolled not the shining orbs in heaven's high arch above them as much in duty to His will, as when they sang together to usher in creation's morning? So it will ever be. Men may declare, and resolve as they please; but truth is eternal and unchangeable; and they are the wisest men who modestly seek to find her as she is, and not as their perverted imaginations would presume to paint her.

Yet after all, in the government of schools, there is a more excellent way. There are usually easier avenues to the heart, than that which is found through the in teguments of the body. Happy is that teacher who is so skillful as to find them; and gladly would I welcome the day when the number of such skillful and devoted teachers should render any further defence of the rod superfluous. Although I believe that day has not yet arrived, still, in the mean time, I most earnestly urge all teachers to strive to reach the higher motives and the finer feelings of the young, and to rely mainly for success, not upon appeals to fear and force, but upon the power of conscience and the law of reciprocal affection.

As I have placed the higher motives and the more desirable means first in order in these remarks on government, so I would always have them first, and perseveringly employed by the teacher; and if by earnestness in his work, by unfeigned love for the young, by diligence in the study of their natures, and the adaptation of means to ends which true benevolence is sure

Minimum the maximum!

to suggest, he can govern successfully without corporal punishment-as in a large proportion of cases I believe it can be done—none will rejoice more than I at such a desirable result; and I most cordially subscribe to the principle so happily stated by another, that in the government of schools, if thorough obed'ence be but secured and order maintained, other things being equal,

A plan.-Forethought.-An eventful moment.

CHAPTER X.

SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS.

EVERY teacher before opening a school should have some general plan in his mind, of what he intends to accomplish. In every enterprise there is great advantage to be derived from forethought,—and perhaps nowhere is the advantage greater than in the business of teaching. The day of opening a school is an eventfu day to the young teacher. A thousand things crowd upon him at the same time, and each demands a prompt and judicious action on his part. The children to the number of half a hundred all turn their inquiring eyes to him for occupation and direction. They have come full of interest in the prospects of the new school, ready to engage cheerfully in whatever plans the teacher may have to propose; and, I was about to say, just as ready to arrange and carry into effect their own plans of disorder and misrule, if they, unhappily for him and for themselves, find he has no system to introduce.

What a critical-what an eventful moment is this first day of the term to all concerned! The teacher's success and usefulness,―nay, his reputation as an efficient instructor,-now "hang upon the decision of an hour." An hour, too, may almost foretell whether

Angelic solicitude.-Low qualifications.

the precious season of childhood and youth now before these immortals, is to be a season of profit and health ful culture under a judicious hand, or a season of wasted-perhaps worse than wasted-existence, under the imbecility or misguidance of one who "knows not what he does or what he deals with."

If angels ever visit our earth and hover unseen around the gatherings of mortals to survey their actions and contemplate their destiny as affected by human instrumentality, it seems to me there can be no spectacle so calculated to awaken their interest and enkindle their sympathy as when they see the young gathering together from their scattered homes in some rural district, to receive an impress, for weal or wo, from the hand of him who has undertaken to guide them. And, supposing them to have the power to appreciate to the full extent the consequences of human agency, how must they be touched with emotions of joy and gratitude, or shudder with those of horror and dread, as they witness the alternations of wisdom and folly, seriousness and indifference, sincerity and duplicity, purity and defilement, exhibited by him who has assumed to be at once the director and exemplar in the formation of human character, at such an important period. How deplorable is the thought that all the fond hopes of the parents, all the worthy aspirings of the children, and all the thrilling interests of higher beings, are so often to be answered by qualifications so scanty, and by a spirit so indifferent in the teacher of the young. How sad the thought that up to this very moment so

The first day.-A suggestion.-Its advantages.

pregnant with consequences to all concerned, there has been too often so little of preparation for the responsibility.

I fain would impress the young teacher with the importance of having a plan for even the first day of the school. It will raise him surprisingly in the estimation of the pupils and also of the parents, if he can make an expeditious and efficient beginning of the school. While the dull teacher is slowly devising the plans he will be and by present for the employment and improvement of his school, the children taking advantage of their own exemption from labor, very promptly introduce their own plans for amusing themselves or for annoying him ; whereas if he could but have his own plans already made, and could promptly and efficiently carry them into execution, he would forestall their mischievous designs, and make co-operators out of his opposers.

In order to be sure of a successful commencement, I would recommend that the teacher should go into the district a few days before the school is to begin. By careful inquiry of the trustees or the school committee, he can ascertain what is the character of the district and the wants of the school. This will afford him considerable aid. But he should do more than this. He would do well to call on several of the families of the district whose children are to become members of his school. This he can do without any ceremony, simply saying to them that, as he has been appointed their teacher he is desirous as far as he may. to ascertain