The teacher may enforce employment.-Few rules.

the teacher is placed in the school to give direction to such minds, he can hardly complain of their going upon forbidden objects unless he seasonably provides something better for them to do.

Very early, then, the teacher should endeavor to classify his school and furnish constant and full employment—either of study, recitation, or relaxation— for every hour in the day. The teacher should have a plan when he opens the school, and the sooner it is carried into full operation the better.* Besides, when a teacher has given employment, he has a right to insist upon the pupil's being engaged in study. Nobody will question this right; and it is far more profitable to require a positive duty than to enjoin a negative,— such as abstinence from whispering or from mischief in general.

IV. MAKE BUT FEW RULes. It is a very common thing for teachers to embarrass themselves by a long code of requirements and prohibitions. Some go so far as to write out a system of laws, and, annexing to each the penalty for its infringement, post them up in a conspicuous place in the schoolroom. Others content themselves with a verbal announcement of them, and rely upon the memories of the pupils to retain the details of them and to govern themselves accordingly. This, it seems to me, is a great mistake. The multi plicity of specific rules for the government of a school, will naturally lead to a multiplicity of offenses. Chil

* See Chap. x of this work.

The world has been governed too much.-Do right.

dren will be confused by the varying and sometimes conflicting demands of a formidable code of regulations, and in endeavoring to avoid Scylla will be likely to fall into Charybdis. It is believed by some honest statesmen that "the world has been governed too much;" and it is often alleged in support of this belief that successful compliance with the laws requires far more wisdom than was displayed in making them; that is, the science of obedience is far more abstruse than the science of legislation! Whether this be true in the civil world or not, I shall not attempt to decide; I will only say that such has too often been the fact in the schoolroom.

It is in my opinion the part of wisdom, and I think also the teaching of experience, that it is best to make but few rules. The great rule of duty, quoted once before, "Do unto others as you would that they should do to you," comprises quite enough to begin with. The direction-Do RIGHT, is a very comprehensive one. There is in children an ability to distinguish between right and wrong, upon which the teacher may ever rely; and by insisting upon this as the standard, he daily brings into exercise the conscience of the child, who is called upon to decide, is this right? Besides, if a school is to be governed by a code of laws, the pupils will act upon the principle that whatever is not proscribed is admissible. Consequently without inquiring whether an act is right, their only inquiry will be, is it forbidden? Now no teacher was ever yet so wise as to make laws for every case; the consequence

Embarrassment in executing laws.-No discretion.

is, he is daily perplexed with unforeseen troubles, or with some ingenious evasions of his inflexible code. In all this matter the worst feature is the fact, that the child judges of his acts by the law of the teacher rather than by the law of his conscience, and is thus in danger of perverting and blunting the moral sense.

To this it may be added that the teacher will often find himself very much perplexed in attempting to judge the acts of his pupils by fixed laws, and in awarding to all violations of them a prescribed penalty. Cases will frequently occur in which two scholars will offend against a given prohibition, with altogether different intentions,-the one having a good motive and forgetting the law; the other with the law in his mind and having a wicked design to violate it. Now the written code with its prescribed penalty allows the teacher no discretion. He must maintain his law and punish both offenders, and thus violate his own sense of justice; or he must pass both by, and thus violate his word. He cannot excuse the one and punish the other, as justice would evidently demand, without set ting at naught his own laws.

An example will illustrate this point. A teacher has made a rule that "any child who whispers without leave shall be feruled." Now two little boys sit side by side. William is an amiable, obedient, and diligent little boy, who has never violated intentionally any wish of his teacher; while Charles is a sour-tempered, vicious, unprincipled fellow, who a dozen times within a week has sought to make his teacher trouble. Little

Illustration.-A dilemma.

John, who sits near to William, drops his pencil, and it

John looks for his pencil seat, grows anxious and

falls under William's desk. on the right and left of his perplexed. William has noticed him, and he carefully picks up the pencil, while he perhaps is looking for it in another direction, and with the kind intention of relieving his neighbor's anxiety, and restoring his property, he touches his elbow, and softly whispers, "Here is your pencil, John," then immediately resumes his own studies, and is probably entirely unconscious that he has violated any law. At the same instant the artful Charles, half concealing his face with his hand, with his wary eye turned to the teacher, wilfully addresses another pupil on some point in no way connected with study or duty. The teacher sees both these cases, and calls the offenders to his desk. The one trembles, and wonders what he has done amiss, while the other perhaps prepares himself to deny his offense, and thus to add falsehood to his other sins. The rule awards to both the ferule. It is applied to Charles with energy, and with the conviction that he deserves it; but I ask, can a man with any sense of justice raise his hand to punish William? If so, I see not how he can ever again hold converse with his own conscience. Yet the rule allows him no discretion. He must violate either the rule or his conscience; and tou often in such cases he chooses the latter alternative.

Now my advice is, make but few rules, and never multiply them till circumstances demand it. The rule of right will usually be sufficient without any special

Hint for young teachers.-Threatening.-Wake up mind.

legislation; and it has this advantage, that it leaves the teacher the largest discretion.

I have been thus full on this point, because so many fail here, and especially young teachers. It has cost many a young teacher much bitter experience to make this discovery for himself, and I have desired to save others who may hereafter engage in teaching, the pain and perplexity which they may so easily and so safely avoid.

For similar reasons, I should also urge that the teacher should avoid the too common practice of threatening in his school. Threatening is usually resorted to as a means of frightening children into their duty,— and, too often, threats are made without any expectation of a speedy necessity either to execute or disregard them. The consequence is, they are usually more ex travagant than the reality, and the teacher's word soon passes at a discount; his threats are viewed as very much like the barking of a dog who has no intention to bite. As threatening is moreover the language of impatience, it almost always leads to a loss of respect.

V. WAKE UP MIND IN THE SCHOOL, AND IN THE DIS TRICT. There is usually but very little trouble in government where the scholars are deeply engaged in their studies or school exercises, and especially if at the same time the feelings of the parents are enlisted. To this end I would recommend that early attention should be given to some efforts to wake up mind, such as have been described in a former section of this work. It will be found, when skilfully conducted, one of the