Improved taste.-Order, system.-Courtesy of language. tainly worth while to ask whether there is not some moral de.inquency in teaching this practice to the young, while it is admitted, by nearly all who have fallen into the habit, to be an evil, and one from which they would desire to be delivered. At any rate, I hope the time is coming, when the good taste of teachers, and a regard for personal neatness and the comfort of others, shall present motives sufficiently strong to induce them to break away from a practice at once so unreasonable and so disgusting. 2. ORDER. In this place I refer to that system and regularity so desirable in every teacher. He should practise it in his room at his boarding-house. Every thing should have its place. His books, his clothing, should all be arranged with regard to this principle. The same habit should go with him to the schoolroom. His desk there should be a pattern of orderly arrangement. Practising this himself, he may with propriety insist upon it in his pupils. It is of great moment to the teacher, that, when he demands order and arrangement among his pupils, they cannot appeal to any breach of it in his own practice. Cour 3. COURTESY. The teacher should ever be courteous, both in his language and in his manners. tesy of language may imply a freedom from all coarseness. There is a kind of communication, used among boatmen and hangers-on at bar-rooms, which should find no place in the teacher's vocabulary. All vulgar jesting, all double-entendres, all low allusions, should be forever excluded from his mouth. And profanity Profanity.-Purity.-Accuracy.-Courtesy of manner. -can it be necessary that I should speak of this as among the habits of the teacher? Yes, it is even so. Such is the want of moral sense in the community, that men are still employed in some districts, whose ordinary conversation is poisoned with the breath of blasphemy; ay, and even the walls of the schoolroom resound to undisguised oaths! I cannot find words to express my astonishment at the indifference of parents, or at the recklessness of teachers, wherever J know such cases to exist. Speaking of the language of the teacher, I might urge also that it should be both pure and accurate. Pure as distinguished from all those cant phrases and provincialisms which amuse the vulgar in certain localities; and accurate as to the terms used to express his meaning. As the teacher teaches in this, as in every thing, by example as well as by precept, he should be very careful to acquire an unexceptionable use of our language, and never deviate from it in the hearing of his pupils or elsewhere. There is a courtesy of manner also, which should characterize the teacher. This is not that ridiculous obsequiousness which some persons assume, when they would gain the good opinion of others. It is true politeness. By politeness I do not mean any particular form of words, nor any prescribed or prescribable mode of action. It does not consist in bowing according to any approved plan, nor in a compliance simply with the formulas of etiquette in the fashionable world. True politeness is founded in benevo Politeness, in the teacher.-Anecdote.-The secret. lence. Its law is embodied in the golden rule of the Savior to you, : do 66 Whatsoever ye Iwould that men should do ye even so unto them." It is the exercise of real kindness. It entertains a just regard for the feelings of others, and seeks to do for them what would make them really happy. The teacher should possess this quality. Whenever he meets a child, it should be with the looks and words of kindness. Whenever he receives any token of regard from a pupil, he should acknowledge it in the true spirit of politeness. Whenever he meets a pupil in the street, or in a public place, he should cordially recognise him. In this way and a thousand others, which, if he have the right spirit, will cost him nothing, he will cultivate true courtesy in his pupils. He can do it in this way more effectually than he car by formally lecturing upon the subject. True politeness will always win its true reciprocation. Two teachers were once walking together in the streets of a large town in New-England. Several lads whom they met on the side-walk, raised their caps as they exchanged the common salutations with one of the teachers. 'What boys are these that pay you such attention as they pass?" inquired the other. "They are my scholars," answered his friend. "Your scholars! Why how do you teach them to be so very polite? Mine are pretty sure never to look at me; and generally they take care to be on the other side of the street." am unable to tell," said his friend; "I never say any thing about it. I usually bow to them, and they are as "I Manners neglected.-Punctuality a cardinal virtue. ready to bow to me." The whole secret consisted in this teacher's meeting his pupils in the spirit of kindness. I would not, however, discourage a teacher from aɩ tually inculcating good manners by precept. It should indeed be done. The manners of pupils are too much neglected in most of our schools, and, I am sorry to say, in most of our families. Our youth are growing up with all the independence of sturdy young republicans, —and, in their pride of freedom from governmental restraint, they sometimes show a want of respect for their seniors and superiors, which is quite mortifying to all lovers of propriety. It is the teacher's province to counteract this; and in order to do it well; he should possess the virtue of true courtesy, both in theory and practice. 4. PUNCTUALITY. This, as a habit, is essential to the teacher. He should be punctual in every thing. He should always be present at or before the time for opening the school. A teacher who goes late to school once a week, or even once a month, cannot very well enforce the punctual attendance of his pupils. I once knew a man who for seven long years was never late at school a single minute, and seldom did he fail to reach his place more, than five minutes before the time. I never knew but one such. I have known scores who were frequently tardy, and sometimes by the space of a whole hour! A teacher should be as punctual in dismissing as in opening his school. I know that some make a virtue of keeping their schools beyond the regular hours Dismiss punctually.-Regular study.-Time for it. I have always considered this a very questionable virtue. If a teacher wishes to stay beyond his time, it should be either with delinquents, who have some lessons to make up, or with those who voluntarily remain. But, after all, if he has been strictly punctual to the hours assigned for his various duties in school, there will scarcely be the necessity for him, or any of his pupils to remain beyond the time for dismission; and, as a general rule, a regard both for his own health and theirs should forbid this. It is better to work diligently while one does work, and not to protract the time of labor, so as to destroy one's energy for to-morrow. This habit of punctuality should run through every thing. He should be punctual at all engagements; he should be studiously so in all the detail of school exercises; he should be so at his meals, at his private studies, at his hour of retiring at night and of rising in the morning, and also at his exercise and recreation. This is necessary to a truly exemplary character, and it is equally as necessary to good health. 5. HABITS OF STUDY. Unless the teacher takes care to furnish his own mind, he will soon find his present stock of knowledge, however liberal that may be, fading from his memory and becoming unavailable. To prevent this, and to keep along with every improvement, he should regularly pursue a course of study. I say regularly; for in crder to accomplish any thing really desirable, he must do something every day. By strict system in all his arrangements, he may find time to do it; and whenever I am told by a teacher that he |