No man, nor any woman, should be permitted to teach a school, who is not well taught and educated, and who does not contemplate the office as a permanent one; but such can only be secured by offering sufficient inducement to withdraw them from other spheres of labor.

The community must themselves show a becoming respect for the office. Let them coöperate with the teacher in all his judicious plans for the improvement of his pupils and of the society in which he lives. Let them esteem him very highly for his work's sake, and manifest their confidence on all suitable occasions. Let their children be taught to entertain for him the highest respect, as one who claims a place in their regards and affections, second at least to that of the parish minister. In all their intercourse with him and in all they say of him, let it be manifest, that they deem him worthy of great honor, as occupied in one of the noblest of callings and aiming at some of the highest of ends. Thus will the public do much towards elevating the rank of teachers, imparting dignity to their office, and promoting the best interests of education and the welfare of the world. Then will peace flow in upon us like a river and righteousness as the waves of the sea. "One of the surest signs,' said Dr. Channing, "of the regeneration of society, will be the elevation of the art of teaching to the highest rank in the community. When a people shall learn, that its greatest benefactors and most important members, are men devoted to the liberal instruction of all its classes, to the work of raising to life its buried intellect, it will have opened to itself the path of true glory. Socrates is now regarded as the greatest man in an age of great men. To teach, whether by word or action, is the

greatest function on earth," and he who performs it should secure for himself the public confidence and

esteem.

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But, having found him, be thou duke or earl,

Show thou hast sense to prize the pearl;

And, as thou would'st the advancement of thine heir
In all good faculties, beneath his care,
Respect, as is but rational and just,

A man deemed worthy of so dear a trust.
Despised by thee, what more can he expect

From youthful folly, than the same neglect?

Thus have I endeavored, briefly and feebly, to represent before you somewhat of the teacher's worth, of the obstacles in the way of his higher elevation, and of the means of attaining this desirable end. And what more shall I say ? Or shall I conclude without further remark? I must beg your indulgence, whilst I dwell briefly on the responsibility of your office, and the glorious prospects in vision, when these responsibilities shall be fulfilled and this dignity be secured.

And what is the responsibility of a teacher of childhood and youth? It is a responsibility to society and to God! It is God's workmanship, God's creature he is educating. And he is educating him not only for time, but for eternity-not only for the execution of his part here in the relations of society, but for the fulfilment of a destiny which shall extend through all the interests of an ever-during existence, in the social relations of an immortality of being. Let him look well to it what kind of work he does-in what condition he restores to society the trust she has committed to him, and how he returns again to the Creator the highest workmanship of

his hand. Can he well and rightly perform his part ; can he render up a good account of his stewardship, if he shall, either by precept or example, instil error or impurity into the minds of his youthful charge? if he shall sully the germ-adulterate the coin? Can he expect the welcome, "well done, faithful servant," if he shall aim chiefly to improve the intellect, whilst he neglects the culture of the heart's best affections; if he shall forget that all instruction and all education which rest not on the basis of morals and religion, may only issue in deeper corruption here and darker damnation. hereafter? Oh! whilst we bend our energies to a suitable development of the physical system; whilst we would impart the keenest edge to the intellectual, the highest polish to the aesthetical; whilst it shall be our aim to call forth the amiable, and to suppress the malignant affections of the soul, cherishing all that is lovely and of good report, let us remember that God is the portion of the soul, that each child entrusted to our care has a religious nature that is only met in its wants by fixing itself on him, and that, if this is not a part, and a primary part too, of our teaching, we are not fulfilling our duty, nor are we so adjusting the parts of the instrument sent to us for repair, that it will play well or make melodious music.

But, on the other hand, let us see bands of teachers, all over this happy land, associated for the highest evolution of human powers; let us see them exhibiting in their own lives all that is noble in purpose, all that is elevated in the affections, all that is tenderly sensitive in conscience, all that is energetic in a well-regulated will, all that is amiable and upright in action; let us behold

them respected and honored, well provided for by a generous public, esteemed and loved by the disciples who sit at their feet to imbibe lessons of wisdom and virtue; let us see these young immortals daily led by them to the pure and perennial fountain of God's truth, and then shall we predict, with confidence, the success of our experiment in republican government. Jehovah will be a wall of fire round about us and the glory in the midst of us; Ichabod shall never be inscribed upon our banner, but, as generation after generation goes down to the tomb, the still surviving one shall rise up and call the fathers blessed for leaving them such an inheritance. And then, although the light of other nations may grow dim and even be extinguished in gloom, ours will grow brighter and brighter under the full beams of the Sun of Righteousness; and it shall be said of us, "Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord! whose primary book of instruction is the Bible!"

With such a prospect before us, originated under such influences, we cannot but exclaim, What more honorable, what more dignified, than the office of the teacher, especially in this home of freedom? His is a noble calling an exalted profession. He builds with materials as enduring as the throne of God, and erects monuments which cannot be crumbled into dust nor wasted by all the rolling currents of time. Yea, when old Time himself grows gray and begins to shake his hoary locks over the grave, these monuments shall still live in all their original grace and beauty; yea, even in increased magnificence and glory. Whilst the most finished labors of Phidias and Praxiteles have long since felt the ruinous force of Time's mighty tooth, the minds educated under

the influence of a Socrates and a Plato still exist with all their cultivated powers. Where, indeed, we cannot say ; for we do not certainly know. But somewhere and somehow those polished intellects are exerting their powers; and if submissive to the will, and enraptured with the love of God, they are now enjoying the high delights of holy intellectual exercises amid the scenes of the celestial abodes, and instead of merely admiring the artistical glories of the city of their love on earth, they are now gazing on the brighter glories of the city of God above.

Let the teachers then, of the present day, magnify their office. They possess an element in education, of which the instructers of antiquity knew nothing. They have put into their hands a power for the control of mind, which the ancients might have sighed for, but never attained. Oh let them act worthily of the higher position in which God has placed them; and if "Socrates is now regarded as the greatest man among an age of great men," let it be their ambition to be regarded, in future ages, as the greatest men in an age of greater men than Socrates ever saw. Let them clothe themselves in all the graces of Christianity, and taking their stand on some lofty turret of the temple of science, look abroad over the hills and vales of this wide-spread republic, alive with the children of the land, and resolve that, if their instrumentality can effect it, these little ones, so soon to wield the destinies of this great nation, shall be educated in all that is elevating and refining in science, and all that is beautiful and redeeming in religion!