"Out-door work."-Its result.

the profession, should be carefully avoided; and while the teacher should ever endeavor to make his conversation instructive, he should assume no airs of superior learning or infallible authority. He should remember the truth in human nature, that men are best pleased to learn without being reminded that they are learners.

I have known some teachers who have sneered at what they have termed the "out-door work" here recommended. They have thrown themselves upon their dignity, and have declared that when they had done their duty within the schoolroom, they had done all that could be expected, and that parents were bound to co-operate with them and sustain them. But, after all, we must take the world as we find it; and since parents do not always feel interested as they should, I hold it to be a part of the teacher's duty to excite their interest, and to win them to his aid by all the proper means in his power. In doing this he will, in the most effectual way, secure the progress of his school, and at the same time advance his own personal improvement.

CHAPTER XIII.

TEACHER'S CARE OF HIS HEALTH.

N°

O employment is more wearing to the constitution than the business of teaching. So many men falter in this employment from ill health, so many are deterred from entering it, because they have witnessed the early decay and premature old age of those who have before pursued it, and so many are still engaged in it, who almost literally "drag their slow length along," groaning under complicated forms of disease and loss of spirits, which they know not how to tolerate or cure,-that it has become a serious inquiry among the more intelligent of the profession, "Can not something be known and practiced on this subject, which shall remove the evils complained of?" Is it absolutely necessary that teachers shall be dyspeptics and invalids? Must devotion to a calling so useful be attended with a penalty so dreadful?

A careful survey of the facts, by more than one philanthropist, has led to the conclusion that the loss of health is not necessarily attendant upon the teacher of the young. It is believed, indeed, that the confinement from the air and sunlight, and the engrossing nature of his pur

Laws of health should be studied.-Effect of a change of employment.

suits, have a strong tendency to bring on an irritability of the nervous system, a depression of spirits, and a prostration of the digestive functions; but it is also believed that, by following strictly and systematically, the known laws of health, this tendency may be successfully resisted, and the teacher's life and usefulness very much prolonged. The importance of the subject, and a desire to render this volume as useful as possible, has induced me to ask leave to transfer to its pages, with slight abbreviation, the very judicious and carefully written chapter on "Health— Exercise-Diet," contained in the "School and School-master," from the gifted pen of George. B. Emerson, Esq., of Boston,-one of the most enlightened educators of the present age.

HEALTH-EXERCISE-DIET.

"The teacher should have perfect health. It may seem almost superfluous to dwell here upon what is admitted to be so essential to all persons; but it becomes necessary, from the fact that nearly all those who engage in teaching, leave other and more active employments to enter upon their new calling. By this change, and by the substitution of a more sedentary life within-doors, for a life of activity abroad, the whole habit of the body is changed, and the health will inevitably suffer, unless precautions be taken which have never before been neces

Exercise.-Teacher specially needs it.-Walking.-How?

sary. To all such persons-to all, especially, who are entering upon the work of teaching, with a view of making it their occupation through life, a knowledge of the laws of health is of the utmost importance, and to such this chapter is addressed. I shall speak of these laws briefly, under the heads of Exercise, Air, Sleep, Food, and Dress.

"EXERCISE. So intimate is the connection between the various parts of our compound nature, that the faculties of the mind can not be naturally, fully, and effectually exercised, without the health of the body. And the first law of health is, that which imposes the necessity of exercise.

"The teacher can not be well without exercise, and usually a great deal of it. No other pursuit requires so much,-no other is so exhausting to the nerves; and exercise, air, cheerfulness, and sunshine, are necessary to keep them in health. Most other pursuits give exercise of body, sunshine, and air, in the very performance of the duties that belong to them. This shuts us up from all.

แ

"One of the best, as one of the most natural modes of exercise, is walking. To give all the good effects of which it is susceptible, a walk must be taken either in pleasant company, or, if alone, with pleasant thoughts; or, still better, with some agreeable end in view, such as gathering plants, or minerals, or observing other natural objects. Many a broken constitution has

President Hitchcock.-Riding on horseback.-Garden.

been built up, and many a valuable life saved and prolonged, by such a love of some branch of natural history as has led to snatch every opportunity for a walk, with the interest of a delightful study,

'Where living things, and things inanimate

Do speak, at Heaven's command, to eye and ear.'

The distinguished geologist of Massachusetts, President Hitchcock, was once, when teacher of a school, reduced to so low a state by disease of the nerves, which took the ugly shape of dyspepsia, that he seemed to be hurrying rapidly toward the grave. Fortunately, he became interested in mineralogy, and this gave him a strong motive to spend all his leisure time in the open air, and to take long circuits in every direction. He forgot that he was pursuing health, in thẹ deeper interest of science; and thus, aided by some other changes in his habits, but not in his pursuits, he gradually recovered the perfect health which has enabled him to do so much for science, and for the honor of his native State.

"Riding on horseback is one of the best modes of exercise possible for a sedentary person. It leads to an erect posture, throws open the chest, gives a fuller breathing, and exercises the muscles of the arm and upper part of the frame. * * * In weakness of the digestive organs its efficacy is remarkable.

* * *

"A garden furnishes many excellent forms of