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he would say, 66 we have not yet attended to the attic, dress," &c. Not seldom, one passage, or even a single word has detained us a whole hour.". His disciple adds, and gives the reasons for it, "I did not regret the delay then nor afterwards." The published labors of both these men are a perpetual memorial to their praise.

He who has studied language thus, will not have a mere memoriter, precarious knowledge of a vocabulary of words, but his power of analysis, arrangement, comparison, his judgment, his taste, will all be made better. A habit of tracing relations will be effectually formed, which will be readily carried into other subjects.

Geometry serves well to fix attention, and form the mind to habits of close, continued application. I have not time to dwell upon it. He who studies it, as it should be studied, will soon learn not to say therefore, till there is something to make therefore out of. It may be studied too by multitudes, whose situation precludes the study of Greek and Latin.

My fellow-teachers, I have now, very imperfectly, I am certain, invited your attention to a single department of our great work. Although the principle, reflect and arrange, must pervade the whole field of our labors, yet it constitutes but a part, a small part of the responsible work assigned us to do. What employment tasks all the mental powers more severely than ours? what one makes higher demands, by the variety of its labors,—by its grave responsibilities, and by its lofty aim?—an aim no less than to train the immortal beings committed to our instruction, for the duties and enjoyments of the life that now is, and for the purity and bliss of that which is to come. The impressions we make on each intellec

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tual and moral being are never to be effaced. to be felt for good or for evil through the lifetime of the soul, the soul on which it is our special commission and business to act. Reject, then, with pity, if not with scorn, the very kind commiserations of those who talk to us of our "dogged life," our "mill-horse labors." They have never entered into our life and labors. They cannot, or if they can, they do not appreciate them justly. Our inner temple their eyes have never seen.

A truer sympathy and a juster appreciation we are beginning to have, as the magnitude and difficulty of our labor become better understood, and we become better prepared to execute it.

Let us then gird ourselves up manfully to our arduous work. The whole field of liberal studies invites our attention. There is no acquisition we can make, which we cannot turn to good account. We cannot teach what we have not ourselves learned. Let us then be ever adding knowledge to knowledge, and virtue to virtue, that we may go forth armed in panoply complete for the conquest of every mind to true wisdom, and of every heart to exalted goodness. Let us ever be ready, out of what our own eyes have seen, our own hands have handled, and our own hearts have felt, to communicate good learning and sage counsels. The results will, perhaps, convince others that our labors are neither few nor small, and leave to ourselves a sustaining consciousness that we are laboring to do good. Let us, guided by wisdom from above, and purified by the spirit of divine truth, engrave on our own minds and our own hearts an image and superscription worthy to last forever, and fix its indelible impression on the mind and heart of our pupil.

LECTURE III.

ON THE

MORAL DIGNITY

OF THE

TEACHER'S OFFICE.

BY PROF. J. H. AGNEW.

It is pleasant to withdraw from the busy scenes of the humming city into the more sober and quiet retreats of a New England village,-here to breathe the pure atmosphere and look upon the reviving beauties of your mountain scenery; to break loose from the environs of art, and walk free amid the graces and majesties of nature.

And, then, to come on such an errand; to come to mingle, not with multitudes mustered in the panoply of war, not with the partizans of a political aspirant, assembled to laud his claims to public favor; not with a convention of statesmen, to discuss questions of free trade or restricted commerce, but with those, whose time, talents and energies are devoted to the better work of edu

cation; and that, too, in a Republican government, whose basis is the popular will.

Some might presume, that, fond as I am of classical learning, I would choose here to urge its claims. It would have been grateful, indeed, to my feelings and accordant with my taste, to portray the beauties of the ancient classics, to transport you to some of the scenes described by Homer, Eschylus, Sophocles, Virgil; to awaken your admiration for a Socrates, a Plato, a Demosthenes, a Cicero,—but I forego this pleasure for that which may be more useful. Others would lay out for me the subject of Eclecticism, not so much in philosophy as in reading; and had I selected this theme, whilst I declaimed with truth, on its importance in this day of cheap and trashy reading, I might, at the same time, very gracefully and modestly, have recommended the Eclectic Museum as peculiarly meriting public patronage. But I abandon all selfish considerations, and choose, rather, a subject bearing directly on the cause in which we are engaged, and one of practical importance to those here convened, as well to the members of this Institute, as to all educators in this land. What more appropriate than the MORAL DIGNITY OF THE TEACHER'S OFFICE? This, then, shall be my theme.

Dignity is worthiness-worthiness of honor. In this respect the teacher is possessed of dignity. He is worthy of honor. Who more worthy? Shall we erect triumphal arches to those who have led our armies victorious over the slaughtered hosts of our enemies? Shall we enwreath with laurels the brow of the statesman, who has stood up firmly in defence of righteous principles amid obloquy and even threats of assassination, and praise him

for his noble independence? It is well. Shall the scholar, who retires from the strifes and conflicts of life, and spends the strength of his days and nights in studies for the public weal, win from us his meed of praise ? He richly deserves it. But, in applauding these, shall we forget the worth and pass by the labor of the man, who, foregoing the high places of power, consecrates himself to the cultivation of immortal minds, which are not only to fix the character of the world, but to live on through countless ages of accumulating glory, in higher and holier spheres of action than earth can possibly offer? "To educate a child perfectly, requires profounder thought, greater wisdom, than to govern a State; and for this plain reason, that the interests and wants of the latter are more superficial, coarser, and more obvious, than the spiritual capacities, the growth of thought and feeling, the subtile laws of the mind, which must all be studied and comprehended, before the work of education can be thoroughly performed."

The man, who shall take a rude block of marble, cold from the quarry, and by his genius and skill convert it into an almost breathing statue, secures the admiration of all who behold the workmanship of his hand. Ages venerate him. Time pays his tribute of respect. Poesy seems to think herself honored in rearing a tablet to his memory; and history loves to adorn her scroll with some eulogy of his genius. He, who shall represent on canvass, the beautiful creations of his own mind or those of others, or the striking events of story, erects a monument to his fame which even Time's gnawing tooth shall scarcely erode, and which shall often seem to rise in

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