ment utterly disgraceful came to be resorted to. I can tell of a hapless boy who had the misfortune to be seized on the occasion of a general outbreak, who was ordered (on a summer day) to thrust his head up the chimney, and stand in the grate. To add to this ignominy, his companions, who had been participators in the offense, many of them ringleaders in it, were invited by the teacher to laugh at the victim stuck up 'in durance vile,' and to meet with a derisive shout his reappearance among them with blackened face. One can not think of the infliction of such penalties, or of the moral consequences of their endurance, without a shudder.

However good the teaching was under the flogging régime, and every one who knows any thing of the history of our country knows it was careful and thorough, the infliction of punishment was often strangely separated from reflection and justice. Even though such cases as that described were only of occasional occurrence, it is beyond doubt that the continual resort to the 'the tawse' led many teachers to chastise their pupils more as the expression of their own irritation with the condition of things under their government than as a reasonable penalty for the offense of the sufferer.

There is a theory adverse to all corporal punishment, which is popular in our day, and advocated by those whose experience and judgment entitle their opinion to great weight. I must, however, confess myself unable to acquiesce in that theory. Its advocates have the advantage of decided support from the States in the American Union, which have reached the highest position in educational arrangements. Thus the Department of Public Instruction for the City of New York instructs its teachers that they should never resort to violent means, as pushing, pulling, or shaking the children, in order to obtain their attention.' The reason given is this: All such practices constitute a kind of corporal punishment, and are not only wrong in themselves, but specially prohibited by the Board.' The Directory for the City of Baltimore, Maryland, is not so decidedly adverse to corporal punishment, though it indicates the same aversion to it which appears in the New York Manual. There is but one sentence under the head of Discipline, and it is this: The schools shall be governed, as far as possible, without corporal punishment; and when such punishment shall be necessary, it shall in no case be inflicted by an Assistant, except when in charge of the school in the absence of the Principal.' Turning from America to Prussia, we find the same spirit pervading that part of German legislation bearing on this subject. In the General Law of 1819, on the organization of Public Instruction in Prussia, which

was minutely analyzed by M. Victor Cousin in his Report to the French Government (1831) on the state of Public Instruction in Prussia, there is a distinct deliverance on punishments. It is in these words: No kind of punishment which has a tendency to weaken the sentiment of honor, shall, on any pretense, be inflicted: corporal punishments, in case they be necessary, shall be devoid of cruelty, and on no account injurious either to modesty or to health.'

INSTRUCTION.

Whatever the age and attainment of the pupils under charge, the first requisite for communicating instruction is to gain and keep their attention. Teaching, to be successful, must therefore be adapted to win attention. At the earlier stages of school life this is the one pressing requirement. Somehow, attention must be made possible even to the most restless little ones, to whom the first restraints of school life are irksome. Accustomed to have every new object attract their interest just as long as they recognized any thing attractive in it-permitted to change from one engagement to another as caprice dictated-they must be made familiar with restriction. They must begin to be regulated by the will of another. Taking this as self-evident, we are prone to say that they must do so, whether they will or not. This is one of our superficial current phrases which cover over many points needing careful consideration. Attention is not to be secured by mere exercise of authority. Authority has a great deal to do through the whole course of school life, but we can not 'command' attention, as we say, by merely demanding that it be given. A radical mistake is made if a teacher lean on his authority in the school as the guarantee for attention by the scholars. He must consider the requirements of the undisciplined mind, and adapt himself to them. Children attend to what interests them. This must determine the kind of assistance to be given them in acquiring habits of attention. To help them in this is an obvious part of a teacher's work. It devolves upon him to put his instructions in such a way as to awaken interest in the subject taught. This duty, indeed, falls on every one who attempts to instruct others. The literary man, the special pleader, the lecturer, the orator, must all of them bestow much thought on the laws which determine the mind's interest in any subject set before it. The master of a school in this respect shares a task which is common to all who essay to teach others. In this appears the true place and power of the profession. Still more important does the work of the schoolmaster appear when it is considered that he lays the foundation for all later and more advanced teaching. He initi

ates into the process of learning, which is to be continued in all after life. The educator of youth does not merely communicate so much instruction from year to year; he develops the receptive and acquisitive tendencies of mind, which are afterward to play their part in the intellectual activity of the nation. He trains the intelligence of those who are afterward to be the teachers of others, as well as of those who are only to be interested inquirers after truth.

Natural Curiosity.

Curiosity is to be utilized as the corrective of restlessness. To awaken expectation-to keep it alive, and even to add to its strength by that which it feeds upon-is to succeed in teaching. Here arise several considerations deserving notice from the schoolmaster. Children are most susceptible of what comes through the senses. It is therefore a great point gained when the eyes as well as the ears of the pupils can be kept in exercise during the lesson. To reach the mind by double avenues at the same moment is to increase the chance of success. The value of sight as an agency of instruction is generally recognized. However true it may be, in any case, that hearing may suffice to convey the whole truth, there is in every one a natural disposition to resort, nevertheless, to sight as a favorite auxiliary. Every one is conscious of the desire to see a speaker while listening to his statements. Every experienced speaker is aware that he sacrifices much of his power if he does not speak to the eye as well as to the ear. We all know how strong is the desire to watch the performances of the several members of an orchestra while we listen to the piece which they are rendering. In all probability we should more accurately realize the composer's design if we completely closed our eyes and simply listened, but the fascination of sight is too strong for most of us to make it easy to content ourselves with the feast of sound. This keenness of interest in what is seen is experienced by boys and girls perhaps even more intensely than it is by their seniors. Hence the value of the blackboard in all departments of teaching, up to the very highest; hence also the value of object-lessons for beginners; hence the greater interest commonly felt in observational and experimental science than in abstract thought. Every schoolmaster needs to give great weight to this consideration. Children universally desire to see their teacher while he guides the class-work. This desire continues powerful as long as the teacher continues to interest the children by what he says. As long as he succeeds in this respect, the eyes are bright, and fixed on the common center of attraction. So soon as his

teaching becomes slow, monotonous, and wanting in intellectual energy, the eyes lose their luster, and begin to wander off from the common center. Thus it becomes obvious that the teacher must himself be thoroughly interested in order to interest his scholars.

A timely break in the order of lessons may be of great consequence for continued mental activity. I venture to think that Time-Tables, however important in themselves, should never be so rigidly adhered to as to prevent variation. Many disadvantages would be experienced if there were needless deviation from the fixed order of study. But a lesson may be specially difficult, and that must imply that it is more irksome for the scholars. In such a case it is a practical mistake to insist that the children must be kept on the strain quite as long as when the work is comparatively simple. The Code' can hardly be expected to do any thing less than attach supreme importance to the Time-Table.' But to measure school-work for all days of the year by the yard-measure, or by the clock, is to deny to intelligence its fit place in the schoolroom. It is of far more consequence for ultimate results that the teacher should observe and judge for himself as to the wisest distribution of the several parts of work for a day, than that all our schools come under regulation-drill, which would turn any slight deviation from the Time-Table into a serious offense. By all means let us be saved from blind 'rule of thumb.' It is to be hoped that our national schools will not become circumscribed by rule in such a manner as to deter our teachers from exercising their own sagacity as to minor deviations which a regard to efficient teaching may suggest.

Considerable diversity of arrangements should appear in the adaptation of lessons to the capacity of children, in accordance with their age and advancement. Powers of observation are those first in exercise, and these chiefly must be called into play in the case of beginners. Those who devote themselves to infant-school teaching need a specialty of teaching gift. Vivacity of manner, aptness of descriptive power, play of imagination, facility in passing lightly and rapidly from one theme to others somewhat analogous, with strong delight in the simple unrestrained ways of little children, are the qualifications which specially point out the teacher suited in a marked degree for training those who are only in the earliest stages of school-life. Pictorial illustrations and object-lessons must supply attraction to the youngest scholars. The earliest demand upon memory should for the most part involve little more than involuntary recollection. It is enough at such a time if facts

are recalled because the picture illustrating them is attractive, or the story connected with them interesting, or the tune pleasing to which the verses of a hymn or song are sung.

"Those "strong-minded" teachers who object to these modes of "making things pleasant," as an unworthy and undesirable "weakness," are ignorant that in this stage of the child-mind, the Willthat is, the power of self-control-is weak; and that the primary object of Education is to encourage and strengthen, not to repress, that power. Great mistakes are often made by Parents and Teachers, who, being ignorant of this fundamental fact of child-nature, treat as willfulness what is in reality just the contrary of Will-fulness; being the direct result of the want of Volitional control over the automatic activity of the Brain. To punish a child for the want of obedience which it has not the power to render, is to inflict an injury which may almost be said to be irreparable.'

Passing from involuntary observation and recollection, children must make a beginning with voluntary concentration of attention. This brings us to the regular tasks, appropriately so named. The effort of preparation always constitutes a task, and in the early periods of school life a peculiarly wearisome one. Scholars must early begin the work of self-directed effort, success in which must regulate their progress, and determine their influence through subsequent life.

There is force here in what has been said by Mr. Thring: 'It must be borne in mind that with the young memory is strong, and logical perception weak. All teaching should start on this undoubted fact. It sounds very fascinating to talk about understanding every thing, learning every thing thoroughly, and all those broad phrases which plump down on a difficulty and hide it. Put in practice, they are about on a par with exhorting a boy to mind he does not go into the water till he can swim.'

Home Preparation.

As a general rule, it may be taken as beyond dispute that, for educational results, it is undesirable that the whole evening be set apart to lesson-learning. Responsibility for home arrangements devolves on the parents or guardians of the children; but the responsibility of adjusting the task to the recognized capacity and advancement of the scholars rests on their teacher. Many of the perplexities and trials which fall upon both teachers and scholars are the result of want of due consideration as to the amount of work assigned. If in the hurry of closing up for the day, a teacher, without much consideration, specify work more extended than