you lose, by strengthening the hands and encouraging the hearts of those placed in offices of trust and responsibility. Teachers, to do their work effectively and well, must be trusted by parents, committees, and the community generally. All may not be worthy of trust, we know; let those that are not be at once removed, and competent ones put in their places. Personal vigilance by parents, as well as committees, over our schools, will do vastly more good than standing aloof and unjustly criticizing them from the basis of transient rumors or isolated facts. An ounce of knowledge will be found to be worth a pound of opinion.

Employment is one of the best methods of disciplining a school. That teacher who can keep the minds of children constantly employed, will succeed as a disciplinarian with but little physical coërcion, There never was a truer maxim for the school-room than this, "An idle brain is the devil's workshop."

Let me urge upon teachers, if they would succeed as disciplinarians, a few ideas. No two schools can be governed in exactly the same manner; no two scholars exactly alike. To succeed, you must study the characteristics of the locality in which you labor; study the individual characters of your pupils, their home and out-door habits, their mental and moral peculiarities, in short, their idiosyncrasies of every name and nature. Avoid fixed arbitrary rules.

Even at the risk of being unjustly called partial, you must not treat all pupils alike, even for the same offence. Some are not benefited by physical punishment; others are. Children should be governed according to their nature and temperament. Some

can be subdued one way, some another. This matter of school discipline requires not only innate power and inborn adaptedness for the work, but patient and persevering study.

Time will not permit me to discuss the remedies for physical coërcion. I will simply mention three of the most prominent.

1st. Judicious home government.

2d. Expulsion of refractory pupils.

3d. The establishment of Botany-Bay schools for the insubordinates.

Some year and a half ago, at the dedication of the Prescott School-house, a thought occurred to me, as the keys of that beautiful structure were presented to the master thought to which I will now, for the first time, give utterance. It will form, I think, a fitting close to the theme we have been considering. As I witnessed the ceremony of presentation, my mind ran forward to the time when thousands of youthful immortals would throng the spacious hall and commodious rooms of this magnificent edifice; and I said to myself, How little can city officials and school-committees really do! They present us

with splendid buildings, and keys to unlock the various apartments. But who will give us the keys to unlock the chambers of these youthful intellects, and furnish them with rich thoughts and noble aspirations? Who will give us entrance into the various apartments of these young hearts, and aid us in their right development? Who will give us the keys to unlock the beautiful temple of these children's souls, and make them fit for His indwelling? No city authorities can give us these. No committees or government officials can give us more than the outward. We must go to the great Teacher for these spiritual keys. We must sit humbly and reverently at the feet of Him who took little children in his arms and blessed them, if we would unlock the inner chambers of their being, and develop their natures through their affections. While believing, therefore, that compulsory obedience is far better than no obedience, let us educators ever remember that we have not saved our pupils until we have firmly established in them habits of obedience to principle; until we have taught them to love knowledge, truth, virtue, and goodness, for their own sakes; in fine, until we have so governed them that they shall have learned that best of all discipline self-discipline.

We teachers, especially of Boston and vicinity, are living in trying times. In the present excited state of public sentiment upon the subject of school

discipline, we are frequently misunderstood and misrepresented; but let us do our duty fearlessly and conscientiously, feeling far more our accountability to God than to man, and remembering that but a few short years, at most, will pass away, ere we shall reach that better land where all unjust human judgments will be reversed, and righteous verdicts alone rendered.

LECTURE II.

HINTS TOWARDS A PROFESSION OF

TEACHING.

BY C. O. THOMPSON.

WHEN a man has the privilege of discussing an educational topic, he must choose, with stern resolution, between the allurements of inclination and the dictates of duty. Circumstances, on this occasion, favor the syren. Colleges and schools have closed their doors, and the tired inmates-vestigia nulla retrorsum-hurry to their chosen scenes of relaxation. Teachers and pupils break the bonds of school-law, and enter, with exulting voices, that broader school, where nature teaches and blesses as well. We, who teach, anxiously help every effort of our struggling spirits to be free from the stifling embrace of routine and form, and to regain by a quick rebound the elasticity of thought and feeling which has slowly lost its force. The huge mill casts longer shadows. The great wheel has made its last heavy revolution. The gate is shut, and the glad water begins to fall