Anecdote.-Drawing.-Vocal Music.

to take an active part in public measures as soon as they arrive at the age of twenty-one, should before that time be made acquainted with some of their duties and relations as citizens. This subject has been introduced successfully into many of our common schools; but whether it is to be matter of formal teaching or not, it is a disgrace to a teacher and to his profession, to be ignorant of the provisions of the constitution for the mode of choosing our rulers.

20. DRAWING. The good teacher should understand the principles of drawing. He should also be able to practise this art. It is of great consequence to him. Without neglect of other things, children can be very profitably taught this art in the common schools. In the absence of apparatus, it is the teacher's only way of addressing the eye of his pupils, in illustrating his teaching. Every teacher should take pains, not only to draw, but to draw well.

21. VOCAL MUSIC. It is not absolutely essential, though very desirable, to the good teacher, that he should understand music, theoretically and practically. Music is becoming an exercise in our best schools; and wherever introduced and judiciously conducted, it has been attended with pleasing results. It promotes

*Not long since a teacher of a public school afforded lasting amusement for the hangers-on at a country grocery. He was jeered for belonging to the whig party by which Mr. Tyler was brought into power. "No, no," said he, "I voted for Gen. Harrison, but I never voted for John Tyler." "How did you do that?" inquired a by-stander. "Why I cut Tyler's name off of the ticket, to be sure!"

Safety valve.--Martin Luther.-Remarks.

good reading and speaking, by disciplining the ear to distinguish sounds; and it also facilitates the cultivation of the finer feelings of our nature. It aids very much in the government of the school, as its exercise. gives vent to that restlessness which otherwise would find an escapement in boisterous noise and whispering, -and thus it often proves a safety valve, through which a love of vociferation and activity may pass off in a more harmless and a more pleasing way. "The schoolmaster that cannot sing," says Martin Luther, "I would not look upon." Perhaps this language is too strong; but it is usually more pleasant to look upon a school where the schoolmaster can sing.

I have thus gone through with a list of studies which, it seems to me, every one who means to be a good teacher, even of a common school, should make himself acquainted with. I would not condemn a teacher who, having other good qualities, and a thorough scholarship as far as he has gone, might lack several of the branches above named. There have been many good teachers without all this attainment; but how much better they might have been with it!

I have made this course of study as limited as I possibly could, taking into view the present condition and wants of our schools. No doubt even more will be demanded in a few years. I would have the present race of teachers so good, that they shall be looked

General knowledge desirable.-A suggestion.

upon by those who succeed them as their "worthy and efficient predecessors."

I ought in this place to add that the teacher increases his influence, and consequently his usefulness, in pro portion as he makes himself conversant with general knowledge. This is too much neglected. The teacher, by the fatigue of his employment and the circumstances of his life, is strongly tempted to content himself with what he already knows, or at best to confine himself to the study of those branches which he is called upon to teach. He should stoutly resist this temptation. He should always have some course of study marked out, which he will systematically pursue. He should, as soon as possible, make himself acquainted generally with the subject of astronomy, the principles of geology, in short, the various branches of natural history. He will find one field after another open before him, and if he will but have the perseverance to press forward, even in the laborious occupation of teaching, he may make himself a well-informed man.

I will venture one other suggestion. I have found it a most profitable thing in the promotion of my own improvement, to take up annually, or oftener, some particular subject to be pursued with reference to writing an extended lecture upon it. This gives point to the course of reading, and keeps the interest fixed. When the thorough investigation has been made, let the lecture be written from memory, embodying all the prominent points, and presenting them in the most striking and systematic manner. It should be done,

A point gained.

too, with reference to accuracy and even elegance of style, so that the composition may be yearly improved. In this way certain subjects are forever fixed in the mind. One who carefully reads for a definite object, and afterwards writes the results from memory, never loses his hold upon the facts thus appropriated.

The true ideal.-Illustration.

CHAPTER V.

RIGHT VIEWS OF EDUCATION.

EVERY teacher, before he begins the work of instruction, should have some definite idea of what constitutes an education; otherwise he may work to very little purpose. The painter, who would execute a beautiful picture, must have beforehand a true and clear conception of beauty in his own mind. The same may be said of the sculptor. That rude block of marble, unsightly to the eyes of other men, contains the godlike form, the symmetrical proportion, the life-like attitude of the finished and polished statue; and the whole is as clear to his mental eye before the chisel is applied as it is to his bodily vision when the work is completed. With this perfect ideal in the mind at the outset, every stroke of the chisel has its object. Not a blow is struck, but it is guided by consummate skill; not a chip is removed, but to develop the ideal of the artist. And when the late unsightly marble, as if by miraculous power, stands out before the astonished spectator in all the perfection of beauty,-when it almost breathes and speaks,-it is to the artist but the realization of his own conception.

Now let the same astonished and delighted spectator,