least special training. By special training we do not necessarily imply a Normal school training, though we do believe that all teachers may be greatly benefited by a course of study and discipline at a good Normal school, and we would advise all who intend to make teaching a profession, to avail themselves of the advantages of such a school. If, however, this may not be, we would insist upon some course of professional study or reading, as of the utmost importance, and truly essential to professional growth and success. While it is true that there is a class of noble men and women engaged in teaching, who devote their time and energies to their work, ever seeking professional advancement, it is equally true that a very large number are wholly indifferent to such matters. They are teachers in name only, doing nothing for the good of the calling, nothing for their own advancement. 3. A lack of professional feeling and interest. All their The work Many enter upon the teacher's work as a temporary employment in which to earn the means for a different work. In many of our district schools such teachers are employed. Some of these are faithful and earnest. They labor conscientiously and with a good degree of success. But with most such there is no professional feeling, none of that esprit de corps so essential to the truest and highest success. aims and their thoughts are in another direction. of teaching has too long been a mere "stepping stone" to some other calling. Sadly has the profession suffered on this account. No man can do all he ought unless he gives to his calling his undivided energies and talents. If the work of the teacher is as important as we contend it is, then it demands the best talent and the entire devotion of purpose on the part of those who engage in it. We have seen many in the teacher's desk who were not capable of performing required duties, but we have never yet seen one there whose entire powers and talents and devotion were too great for the work. We often hear teachers use language like the following:"I like teaching pretty well, but I intend to leave it the first VOL. IX. 7 opportunity. I am giving my leisure hours to the study of law, and shall at sometime engage in its practice. Teaching is too small business for me." Then leave the business at once and engage in a work to which you can give your entire energies. As we can not at the same time "serve God and Mammon," so we can not give our full time and talents to one profession while our thoughts and affections are on a different one. Long enough has the work of teaching suffered from those who have made it a temporary resort, a stepping stone to something else. With the Normal schools now established and in successful operation for the professional training of teachers, we do feel that those who take charge of our permanent schools should do so with a determination to be "professional teachers" and to give to the work of education, both in the schoolroom and out, their undivided energies and their truest devotion. 4. A lack of enthusiasm. No man can be eminently successful in any department, unless he has much of the spirit of enthusiasm. A certain round of formal duties he may perform daily, but they will be lifeless; they may be performed with a fair degree of fidelity and correctness, but if they have not been breathed upon by a spirit of true earnestness, they will prove sadly defective. An earnest teacher, one who throws his whole soul into his work, will accomplish much, though his literary attainments may be moderate and circumscribed; while the most learned and accurate scholars may and will fail of high success, unless they engage in their work with a love for it which shall awaken a true spirit of enthusiasm. BE PERSISTENT. [From an admirable lecture alluded to under Book Notices, we make the following extract, which we most earnestly commend to the attention of young men, and especially to young teachers.-RES. ED.] A point on which young men make a mistake, is in not holding on to the calling or profession which they choose. Of course, one may make so foolish a choice, may err so egregiously in the first step, that to retrace it, and begin anew at something else, is indispensable. In this matter no absolute rule is possible. The tendency however is very strongly in one direction. Where one man perseveres in a calling that he ought to abandon, a dozen men abandon their calling who ought to stick to it. It is not difficult to account for this. All those kinds of business which are surest in the end, which pay best in the long run, are slowest in beginning to yield a return. The young lawyer or physician has to creep along at first at a most discouraging pace. In those early years of professional probation, when the man is hardly earning his salt, some other business opens before him, that promises an immediate income,-something that will bring him. at once two or three times what he is now receiving. The temptation is strong indeed. In the eagerness for immediate results, he is apt to forget one essential point of difference between the two prospects. The one is a little rill, which is destined to flow on with ever increasing volume, till it becomes the brook, the stream, the majestic river. The other is a canal, no bigger or deeper at the end of its course than at the beginning. In determining the question, then, whether to hold on to the profession or business which you have chosen, think not of the present size of the rill, but whether it springs from a living fountain, and whether it is likely to expand as it proceeds. And be not easily disheartened. Let me say for your encouragement, if it be needed, that of the more than four thousand young men who have been under my care as an educator, and whose career in life it has been my privilege more or less to observe, I have very rarely known one to fail, who industriously persevered in the calling which he chose. "Tenax propositi" is the commendation of the Roman moralist. Stick to your purpose. It is a most valuable habit of mind to cultivate. You need not carry it to obstinacy,-though even that error is better. than its opposite. Do not shrink from the reputation of being a plodder. It is a better augury of a young man than to hear of him as being precocious, as being prematurely brilliant,—as starting off in the career of life with a grand dash. * * Look into your own minds now, while just pausing upon the threshold of your career, and see if there is within you this vacillating disposition. See if you are disposed to begin a study or an enterprise of any kind, and after chasing it awhile, butterfly-like, to give it up for some newer fancy. It is a not uncommon habit of mind with the young. It is, however, a habit which at your age may be overcome. I have known hundreds of instances of young men, who from being unsteady and fickle of purpose, have become steadfast, unwavering, tenacious. What is needed to bring about such a change, is an honest deliberate review of one's character in this respect, and a firm resolve to amend what is found amiss. It is with a view to do for you what thirty. years ago was wisely done for me, that I now place this point so distinctly before you. Tenacity of purpose is the indispensable condition of success in whatever you undertake. You must learn to hold on. I do not say, stick to it, right or wrong. But having begun on any course of action, let it not be an even weight of argument against it, which shall lead you to abandon it. Do not give up what you have deliberately chosen, unless the arguments for receding are a great deal stronger than those for going on. To change from one profession or business to another, is in a great measure to throw away all the progress you have made in the one already begun. It is to go back to the beginning of the course for a fresh start. The different professions in this respect are not so much parallel tracks, where you can be switched from one into another, without loss of progress, but rather tracks radiating from a common center. Το pass from one to another, you must in each case go back to the original station. You must begin your career anew. The comparison of course cannot be applied with rigor. In many particulars it is not true. Yet it has substantial truth. The man who is tinkering away, first at one thing and then at another, rarely succeeds. It is not in the nature of things that he should succeed. On the other hand, a man's choice of a profession must be very bad indeed, if patient, persistent, tenacious continuance therein do not in the end crown him with success. A GOOD EXERCISE. SEVERAL months ago in visiting the school of Mr. Marsh, in New London, we witnessed a brief exercise which might very profitably be introduced into all our schools, and that without any interference with the regular lessons. It was a simple lesson intended to train the eye and judgment in estimating distance or length. The plan was something as follows:-A class of ten or twelve boys was called to the blackboard, when directions were given to draw A line 6 inches long. A line 2 feet long. A line 3 feet long. A figure 1 foot long and 8 inches wide. A line one yard long, divided into feet and inches, &c. After each was done, the teacher passed along with a measuring tape or stick and tested each. The pupils had had some practice in such exercises, and they performed them with a surprising degree of promptness and accuracy. They had gained habits of observation and comparison. Not more than five minutes at a time need be taken at the board, but it will be found that the pupils will be induced to spend many minutes, that would otherwise be misimproved, in practicing upon their slates. Teacher, try it. The exercise will afford relief from the severer studies of the school, and give a pleasant variety. BOARDING AROUND. WE rejoice that with each passing year the number of districts in which the "boarding 'round" system prevails is decreasing. We believe there are but very few districts in which there is any apology for continuing the practice, and |