No intelligent teacher would ever attempt to carry out to the strict letter any of our existing rules and systems. The following may be taken as a well-established rule in teaching children some of the simplest elements of knowledge: "Begin from the beginning of the subject, and never take a second step till you are sure that the first is perfectly acquired." Now this rule, though true in its spirit and intention, is very far from being strictly true as applied to some subjects. In teaching the alphabet, for example, who would ever think of making a child perfectly learn one letter before it is taken to another; or, in teaching arithmetic, of making the child perfectly learn the rule of addition before it is taught anything of subtraction?

It will be instructive to consider, more in detail, some of the evils resulting from a slavish attachment to systems.

I. Evils of attaching undue importance to the nonessential features of a system.

II. Evils arising from not giving due attention to the limits of certain modes of instruction.

III. Evils arising from the neglect of auxiliary aids. IV. No system can be efficient without intelligence and industry on the part of the master, and without he is religiously imbued with a high sense of the dignity and importance of his work.

I. One teacher cannot give Bible lessons without a gallery, another cannot teach arithmetic without the Pestalozzian boards, another defers the teaching of drawing_until his committee can afford to purchase Messrs. Parker and Co.'s models, and so on. To such teachers we would say, beware of an undue attachment to the mere mechanical forms of individual systems. Imbue your minds with the spirit of these systems, and, above all, study the philosophy of their method. If you want a plant to grow you water the root, not the leaves and branches; so in like manner, the teacher should go to the root-the fundamental principles of education.

II. Some modes of instruction, very good as regards

their legitimate sphere of application, may become useless if not ridiculous, when pushed beyond their proper limits. It is desirable that these limits should be duly ascertained and defined, by a strict induction of facts. On the other hand, a method of instruction should not be despised because it is not of universal application. Because the writing system of Mulhauser, for example, should not be found efficient in making finished writers, is no reason why it should not be one of the most eligible modes for teaching the first elements of form to children. In this case, the business of the philosophical inquirer is to determine the extent to which the system should be carried.

Again, a mode of instruction may be subsidiary to some more general method, with which it is necessarily associated, and to which it may give a higher efficiency. In this case we should determine the relative importance of the subordinate method, and the most favourable conditions for its application. On the other hand, the modes of instruction which are employed together should be in harmony with each other, and also in keeping with the other recognised principles of method.

The methods of instruction adapted to the young, may not always be best calculated for the instruction of adults. In this case we should determine the period at which this change of method should be made. An able teacher, who had been successful in teaching arithmetic to boys by the Pestalozzian boards, attempted to teach adults on the same plan; but he failed, and thereby brought himself and his system into unmerited contempt.

III. The teacher should watchfully guard against any undue confidence, not only in his own teaching powers, but also in the system by which he teaches. He should be ever ready to avail himself of all the means within his reach, for giving increased efficiency to his system. Without, for example, in the least undervaluing his system of collective teaching, he should not overlook the aid which he may occasionally receive from individual instruction; nor should he despise the use of Text Books,

especially when associated with home instruction.

The apparent discrepancies in the results of some of our existing systems are doubtless, to a great extent, due to the want of a proper appreciation of certain subsidiary aids to class instruction.

IV. Much remains to be effected by the individual merits of the teacher. Methods of teaching are little better than dead letters in the hands of stupid and indolent pedagogues, but they become living efficient principles in the minds of thinking and active teachers. Systems should be tested by the teacher and modified by him, if found necessary, to suit the various tastes, habits, and future pursuits of the children placed under his care. He must become a moral philosopher, always reflecting and experimenting upon matters of education. The schoolroom is his laboratory and his studio; the little boys by whom he is surrounded are the subjects of his reflections and experiments, and the great end is their intellectual and moral amelioration. The teacher is a much more elevated being than the mere mechanic. The results of machinery are splendid and overpowering; but then all that is truly great in these results is due to the creative mind that gave the method, the law, physical or mathematical, or perhaps both physical and mathematical, by which these results are produced. The machine makers, according to our systems in the division of labour, are little better than machines making machines; one forges a bolt, another files it, and another puts it in its place; one casts a wheel, another turns it on the lathe, and another superintends the machine that cuts teeth upon its rim; thus each man toils from morning till night, and the labour of one day is the type of the labour of that which succeeds. It is not so with the teacher: creative minds cannot so cut out and divide the labour of instruction, or so lay out the principles and methods of teaching, as to supersede the exercise of his reasoning and reflective powers. His work is professional, it is akin to the medical man's. The teacher is no machine,- his mind is above all rules and superior to all authority in relation to his work,

Boards of education and visiting committees should not interfere too much with the immediate duties and peculiar functions of the schoolmaster. Elevate his social, intellectual, and moral condition, but do not legislate for him with respect to methods of instruction.

In order that a teacher should be thoroughly devoted to his work, he should be duly sensible of its importance; - he should believe, that the future character of a country depends upon the education of its children; he should be fully aware, that, in the soft and virgin soil of their souls, he may plant the shoots of poison or sow the seeds of sweet-scented flowers or of life-giving fruit ; — he should realise the momentous thought, that the little prattling thoughtless children, by whom he is surrounded, are to become the men of the approaching age. As a necessary consequence of all this, he should carefully look to the predilections of children; - that child who is amusing himself with drawing triangles and circles may, under proper training, hereafter become another Pascal; - that little dirty urchin, who is plucking flowers by the wayside, may become the poet or the orator of his age; that thoughtful, feeble boy, who is watching the effect of the steam, as it blows and puffs from the tea-kettle, may become another Watt, destined to multiply the resources of our national wealth and power; that ruthless little savage, who is leading the mimic battles of the snow storm, may become (unless his evil tendencies are counteracted by education) another Napoleon, who may seize with a giant's grasp the iron thunderbolt of death, and on the wreck of a people's hopes and happiness build himself up a terrible monument of guilt and greatness.

The work of the soul-devoted teacher should not cease with the school hours; the predilections and spontaneous ebullitions of feeling in children, in their moments of leisure and play, should be carefully watched by him, in order that he may encourage and aid the development of what may be good or useful, and be able to suppress, or direct into a legitimate channel, what may be evil or dangerous.

Under a new and better order of things, an efficient soul-devoted teacher will become one of the great thinkers of his age. His leisure hours will be given to the study of the philosophy of mind and the principles of method, and his daily labour will consist in the practice of that philosophy and those principles. Child of hope! despair not in the discharge of your arduous duties, and doubt not but that public opinion will award to you that social position to which your talents and usefulness entitle you; toil on in all faith and humility! the hour of your emancipation is not distant,- injustice is always followed by a reaction, and the dark, cheerless period of debasement and uncalled-for self-sacrifice will be followed by light and gladness, when under the blessing of God you shall possess the means as well as the capabilities for adding to our knowledge of the science of method as applied to education.

Experiments required to test Systems of Education.

A system of instruction may be formed with a due regard to the abstract nature of the being to be educated, but it may not be practicable under the conditions and circumstances of a given school, where perhaps large masses of children have to be taught under the supervision of one master, with limited material aids ; hence it is necessary that all systems should be brought to the test of experiment.

Whilst sound principles of education gain new force by every fresh confirmation of their truth, false theories lose some portion of their hold on the prejudices of men by every new exposure of their fallacy. Some thoroughly digested systems of experiment are yet desiderated in education. The form and object of experiments are directly under our control, and in this respect the results of experiment are more valuable than facts derived from observation and ordinary experience. For this purpose we should like to see some experimental school established under our Government Inspectors, where, for example, any two rival systems of