yielded to occasional fits of authority in parents or guardians,— it must require time to bring them into proper subjection; and though this may be accomplished by the teacher, yet a part of the benefit they might have derived from discipline will be lost. But on so plain a topic, I will not enlarge.

3. A school must be furnished with comfortable accommodations, in order that good government may be established.

Any one in a state of suffering, or rendered uncomfortable, from whatever cause, is not prepared to improve, under the very best government and instruction. Furnish a school-room with uncomfortable seats, let it be cold and filthy, let the scholars be crowded, so as necessarily to jostle and disturb each other, whenever they move, and it must be utterly impossible, that healthful discipline can be fully established, and its blessings enjoyed.

4. Another prerequisite to good discipline is, the observance of local, unfriendly influences.

If the

Local circumstances are often highly injurious. school-house be where "four ways meet," or near a store or grog-shop, or other place of public resort, which is a scene of vice and dissipation, or if any similar cause exist, it is rarely possible to establish and maintain healthful discipline, and to secure from it all the beneficial results it might otherwise furnish.

5. The last prerequisite to good discipline I have time to notice is, a good teacher.

The more essential natural qualifications in him, are, good judgment, benevolence, firmness, virtue, or goodness, and health. To these must be added the requisite amount of knowledge.

Few stations make so large a demand for the exercise of good judgment, or common sense, as that filled by the teacher. But having elsewhere expressed my views on this, I may omit them here.

The teacher must exercise kind and benevolent feelings

towards the young, or the power with which he is entrusted, will be abused. The love the parent must cherish for his offspring makes it comparatively safe, to commit to him their maintenance and government. He is the monarch of his house; and if not controlled by love, might and would be the tyrant, as well as the monarch.

To the teacher are committed those who are not his flesh and blood; those, often, that he has never seen till they are subjected to his authority, and over whom he is to exercise important control. Let him cherish toward them no kind and benevolent feelings,-let him regard nothing but his own convenience and ease, and how is it possible that he should lead them to cherish toward him those sentiments, which will prepare them to submit to and obey him. It is a trite but true remark, "Love is the loan for love;" and the course of nature will sooner change, than that children will love, and love to obey those who have no kind feelings towards them. No guise will answer, no efforts to practise on them will succeed, no pretensions will give credit, if love be not genuine. There are no more eagle-eyed observers of the secret feelings of the hearts of parents or teachers, than young children. Say what you will, they will know whether you cherish kind feelings towards them or not. You must love them, or it is unsafe to trust you with the power of governing them.

The teacher must be virtuous; that is, he must be willing to obey the dictates of an enlightened conscience; he must be willing to do right himself, or he will fail of leading others to do right. This is certainly a principle, the truth of which none can doubt. Example is almost omnipotent. The teacher is under the laws established by his Creator and by society, as much as his pupils. A most important part of his duty, as an educator, is, to lead them to respect and obey those laws. A habit of cheerful and ready submission to these will not be formed, where there is not virtue or goodness. The flimsy guise of pretended obedience to them will be penetrated by

man,

the youngest child in the room. The deception, once discovered, will not soon be forgotten. I must be really willing to do right,must cherish real respect for the laws of God and -or I must fail of convincing the members of my school that I do so. If I cannot lead them to cherish respect for the laws of their Maker, I may expect, of course, that they will cherish little respect for the laws and regulations of the school. But if I bring them under the influence of virtuous example,— if I do right myself, I then have a fulcrum for my lever, which makes it nearly irresistible.

I mentioned firmness, as one other essential natural qualification of the teacher. This, to some extent, can be cultivated; but we can hardly hope to create it, where it is entirely wanting. Without it, government will not be self-consistent nor efficient. The teacher, who can be swerved from his purpose by his own sympathy, or prevented, by apathy or fear, from doing his duty, will always fail of establishing proper discipline. If his government is marked by imbecility or inconsistency, it is impossible that his pupils should respect it and be awed by it. The government of passion, or that characterized by prejudice, will of necessity partake of this character, and will be liable to be both partial and unjust,

Health is so important to the successful government of a school, no illustration can be needed.

A requisite amount of knowledge, both with regard to the end to be obtained by discipline, and the appropriate means of obtaining it, is also indispensably necessary to the teacher. If ignorant of the end to be secured, he cannot, of course, but be ignorant of the means he ought to put in requisition; if ignorant of the latter, his efforts are made at random, and bedlam may be inscribed over the door of his school-room.

Is it asked, what is the particular kind of knowledge which he must possess? I answer, the knowledge of the great principles of both intellectual and moral philosophy,—of human nature in general, of the physical, intellectual and moral

necessities of children. He must know how they view objects, how they think, or reason, and arrive at conclusions. He must also know himself,-know how to govern himself,-and how to make this efficacious in governing them.

Nor is it unimportant, that he have a knowledge of the usual results of different modes of punishment; for to this he must, more or less, frequently resort. He should, at least, know, that the rod, to be most efficacious, must not be put in requisition, in general, with great frequency; and also know, that it CANNOT safely be at all times dispensed with.

With three remarks, I close.

1. Systems of discipline, or plans for the government of a school, require some variation from attending circumstances, the age and sex of the pupils, the influences by which it is surrounded, and often by the character of its numbers. But still the great features may and ought to be the same; mild, firm, just and uniform. Some regulations, which might be highly necessary and useful in one school, must not be enforced in another. Some things may be admitted to pass without censure in one school, which, in another, would excite strong disapprobation.

The children of one denomination of professed Christians may be allowed to sit with their heads covered, because they are so taught, as a part of their religious duties; while, in another, the practice would not be tolerated.

A smaller number of laws will be required in a school of half a score, than in a school of half a hundred; as the government of a family requires a less number of rules than that of an army; the government of a town than that of a city or

state.

So a school in a city may require greater severity in administering discipline, than one in the country, because its number is large, and the temptations to do wrong greater. An academy or select school may require some regulations different from a district school; but in all, order should be maintained,

habits of submission to authority and law should be cultivated, good propensities be cherished, and evil ones eradicated or controlled; in all, habits of self-government should be constantly cultivated.

Attention to all these things must be given by the teacher of every school, of whatever grade, or he will prove recreant to the trust reposed in him by his patrons, his pupils, his country and his God. The influence of his labors will be felt in all the ramifications of society,-will continue long after his pupils have left the nurseries of science. They will be felt in the endless periods of existence beyond the grave. With what justice may he exclaim, whenever entering his school-room, "how solemn is this place!-how weighty the responsibility attached to my office!"

2. With the defects in our systems of school discipline the public is in no inconsiderable degree chargeable, and not the teachers alone. Teachers, unquestionably, often err, but they are not to be charged with all the blame. If they assume the responsibility of teaching, without due qualifications, the public both invite to this and sanction it, by holding out no inducements to a full preparation, and by employing those who are not qualified. Committees for examining candidates, in many instances, scarcely interrogate them on the subject of discipline. If they possess the requisite knowledge of the branches of science they are required to teach, it is very unusual to withhold approbation. But if, on the other hand, they were examined with regard to their views of discipline,—if they are examined with regard to their qualifications for establishing and maintaining healthful discipline,-if told that deficiency here is more to be feared than deficiency in possessing the requisite amount of knowledge, then more of the failures, which are continually occurring, might be justly chargeable to teachers themselves.

3. My last remark is, none can hope to establish and maintain healthful discipline in school, without preparation; and