Safety-valve.-Martin Luther.-Remarks.

pering,—and thus it often proves a safety-valve, through which a love of vociferation and activity may pass off in a more harmless and a more pleasing way. "The school-master that can not sing," says Martin Luther, "I would not look upon." Perhaps this language is too strong; but it is usually more pleasant to look upon a school where the school-master can sing.

I have thus gone through with a list of studies. which, it seems to me, every one who means to be a good teacher, even of a common school, should make himself acquainted with. I would not condemn a teacher who, having other good qualities, and a thorough scholarship as far as he has gone, might lack several of the branches above named. There have been many good teachers without all this attainment; but how much better they might have been with it!

I have made this course of study as limited as I possibly could, taking into view the present condition and wants of our schools. No doubt even more will be demanded in a few years. I would have the present race of teachers so good, that they shall be looked upon by those who succeed them, as their "worthy and efficient predecessors."

I ought in this place to add that the teacher increases his influence and, consequently, his use

General knowledge desirable.-A suggestion.

fulness, in proportion as he makes himself conversant with general knowledge. This is too much neglected. The teacher, by the fatigue of his employment and the circumstances of his life, is strongly tempted to content himself with what he already knows, or, at best, to confine himself to the study of those branches which he is called upon to teach. He should stoutly resist this temptation. He should always have some course of study marked out, which he will systematically pursue. He should, as soon as possible, make himself acquainted generally with the subject of astronomy, the principles of geology, in short, the various branches of natural history. He will find one field after another open before him; and if he will but have the perseverance to press forward, even in the laborious occupation of teaching, he may make himself a well-informed man.

I will venture one other suggestion. I have found it a most profitable thing in the promotion of my own improvement, to take up annually, or oftener, some particular subject to be pursued with reference to writing an extended lecture upon it. This gives point to the course of reading, and keeps the interest fixed. When the thorough investigation has been made, let the lecture be written from memory, embodying all the prominent points, and presenting them in the most striking and systematic manner. It should be done, too, with reference to accuracy and even elegance of style, so that the composition may be

A point gained.-Self-improvement.

yearly improved. In this way, certain subjects are forever fixed in the mind. One who carefully reads for a definite object, and afterward writes the results from memory, never loses his hold upon the facts thus appropriated.

No matter what a teacher's opportunities for professional training may have been, he should ever feel himself under obligations to work in the line of self-improvement. As education is a matter of life, activity, and growth, these qualities should manifest themselves in the teacher in a pre-eminent degree. A teacher who has ceased to be an active student, has lost the secret of his greatest power.* In the presence of a cultured man or woman who is animated by the zeal of a scholar, the young imbibe the scholarly spirit by a sort of induction. Taking the teaching class as it is, it must be confessed that active scholarship is not one of its marks. There is more than one cause for this. In most cases, teaching is an avocation, and so professional improvement is not a matter of self-interest; in many cases, an imperfect academic training has left behind it the bane of complacent self-satisfaction; and in all cases, generally speaking, there is lacking the stimulus to progress which comes from an exacting auditory. As our pupils are satisfied with less than we have, we do not feel obliged to strive after more than we have.

* "How shall he give kindling in whose inward man there is no live coal, but all is burnt out to a dead grammatical cinder?"— Carlyle.

Public opinion.-Reading Circles.

Public opinion, acting through school officers, is now stimulating the teaching class to higher literary and professional qualifications, and there is every-where manifest a sincere desire on the part of teachers to meet these reasonable requirements. The difficulty consists in not knowing what definite things to do, or how to do them, and in not having the hope of a tangible reward. In response to these needs, State organizations, known as "Reading Circles", are now in process of formation.* The general plan is to prescribe a course of reading in two main lines,-PROFESSIONAL, including the art, the science, and the history of education, and in GENERAL LITERATURE, comprising History and Belles-lettres. Examinations and certificates of proficiency are provided for, and it is expected that examining boards will credit candidates with the work done in these Circles. This is a movement in the right line, and deserves hearty encouragement.

* Such organizations have now been made in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and New York.

E

CHAPTER VI.

RIGHT VIEWS OF EDUCATION.

VERY teacher, before he begins the work of

instruction, should have some definite idea of what constitutes an education; otherwise, he may work to very little purpose. The painter, who would execute a beautiful picture, must have beforehand a true and clear conception of beauty in his own mind. The same may be said of the sculptor. That rude block of marble, unsightly to the eyes of other men, contains the godlike form, the symmetrical proportion, the life-like attitude of the finished and polished statue; and the whole is as clear to his mental eye before the chisel is applied, as it is to his bodily vision when the work is completed. With this perfect ideal in the mind at the outset, every stroke of the chisel has its object. Not a blow is struck, but it is guided by consummate skill; not a chip is removed, but to develop the ideal of the artist. And when the late unsightly marble, as if by miraculous power, stands out before the astonished spectator in all the perfection of beauty, when it almost breathes and speaks, it is to the artist but the realization of his own conception. Now let the same astonished and delighted spec