Swaddling the neck. fashionable with the clergy, usually are, during the exercise of speaking, an unnatural flow of blood to the parts will be induced, which, after the exercise ceases, will be followed by debility and prostration. A cold is then very readily taken, and disease follows. I am confident, from my own experience and immediate observation, that this unnatural swaddling of the neck is one of the most fruitful causes of disease of the lungs and throat that can be mentioned. TEACHER'S CHAPTER XIV. RELATION то HIS PROFESSION. T has long been the opinion of the best minds IT in our country, as well as in the most enlightened countries of Europe, that teaching should be a profession. It has been alleged, and with much justice, that this calling, which demands for its successful exercise the best of talents, the most persevering energy, and the largest share of self-denial, has never attained an appreciation in the public mind at all commensurate with its importance. It has by no means received the emolument, either of money or honor, which strict justice would award, in any other department, to the talents and exertions required for this. This having been so long the condition of things, much of the best talent has been attracted at once to the other professions; or, if exercised awhile in this, the temptation of more lucrative reward, or of more speedy, if not more lasting honor, has soon diverted it from teaching, where so little of either can be realized, to engage in some other department of higher promise. So true is this, that scarcely a man can be found, having attained to any considerable eminence as a teacher, who has not been several times solic Some noble souls.-Some small men.-Two evils. ited-and perhaps strongly tempted to engage in some more lucrative employment; and while there have always been some strong men, who have preferred teaching to any other calling,— men who would do honor to any profession, and who, while exercising this, have found that highest of all rewards, the consciousness of being useful to others, still it must be confessed that teachers have too often been of just that class which a knowledge of the circumstances might lead us to predict would engage in teaching; men of capacity too limited for the other professions, of a temperament too sluggish to engage in the labors of active employment, of manners too rude to be tolerated except in the society of children (!), and sometimes of a morality so pernicious, as to make them the unfailing contaminators of the young whenever permitted-not to teach—but to "keep school." Thus, two great evils have been mutually strengthening each other. The indifference of the employers to the importance of good teachers, and their parsimony in meting out the rewards of teaching, have called into the field large numbers, in the strictest sense, unworthy of all reward; while this very unworthiness of the teachers has been made the excuse for further indifference, and, if possible, for greater meanness on the part of employers. Such has been the state of the case for many years past, and such is, to a great extent, the fact at present. Educational millennium.-How ushered in?-Different views. It has been the ardent wish of many philanthropists that this deplorable state of affairs should be exchanged for a better. Hence, they have urged that teaching should be constituted a profession; that none should enter this profession but those who are thoroughly qualified to discharge the high trust; and, as a consequence, that the people should more liberally reward and honor those who are thus qualified and employed. This would, indeed, be a very desirable change; it would be the educational millennium of the world. For such a period, we all may well devoutly pray. But how shall this glorious age-not yet arrived -be ushered in? By whose agency, and by what happy instrumentality must its approach be hastened? Here, as in all great enterprises, there is some difference of opinion. Some have urged that the establishment of normal schools and other seminaries for the better education of teachers, and the institution of a more vigilant system of supervision, by which our schools should be effectually guarded against the intrusion of the ignorant and inefficient teacher, is all that is necessary to bring in this brighter day. Others have zealously urged that such preparation and such supervision are entirely superfluous and premature in the present state of the public mind. They say that the public must first become more liberal in its appropriations for schools; it must at once double the amount it has been Truth between the extremes.-A mutual evil, and a mutual remedy. accustomed to pay to teachers, and thus secure to this vocation the best talent without further trouble. To this the former class reply, that the public has seldom been known to raise its price, so long as its wants could be supplied at the present rates. They say that the last century has afforded ample opportunity for the exhibition of this voluntary generosity of the public, and yet we still wait to see this anomaly in human prudence, of offering in advance to pay double the price for the same thing; for until better teachers are raised up, it must be an advance upon the present stock. So there is a division. among them, "for some cry one thing, and some another." Now, I believe, in this case as in most others, the truth lies between the extremes. As the evil complained of is a mutual one, as has already been shown, that is, an illiberal public has tolerated incompetent teachers, and the incompetence of teachers has enhanced in turn the parsimony of the public,-so the remedy must be a mutual one; the public must be enlightened and teachers must be improved; the pay of teachers must be raised, but there must be also something to warrant the higher rate. Nor is it easy to determine which shall begin first. We can hardly expect the people to pay more, till they find an article worth more; nor, on the other hand, can we expect the teachers to incur any considerable outlay to improve themselves, until better encour |