mine what shall be the qualifications of teachers, upon which more than upon any thing else the character of the school must depend.

But the greater difficulty is, that it is utterly useless to hope or expect, except occasionally and we may almost say accidentally, to find the office of town superintendent filled by a person, who either can or will make the most of even its meager advantages. It becomes a partisan office of the lowest grade, for the reason that its duties and responsibilities are regarded by the popular sentiment as within the ability and integrity of almost any one who can read and write. Its emoluments are sufficient to gratify the insatiate craving for office, which characterizes the ignorant and weak-minded, and its pecuniary rewards, while no object to men of substantial worth, are still a temptation to those who can devote to the discharge of its duties, only so much time as they can take from other pursuits, without any appreciable loss. Thus does the office, in a great majority of instances, become filled or occupied by the merest pretenders to the first essential qualification for the discharge of its duties. And in the more fortunate cases, where men of sufficient ability, intelligence and character, are elected to the office, not only are they powerless to enforce any reformatory measures, but it is scarcely impossible for them to avoid a deference to the popular will, that has conferred the office upon them, and to license as teachers any whom the trustees of the various districts choose to employ. Besides the applicants for license are not uncommonly their own personal friends, neighbors and acquaintances, or belong to the families of those with whom they have intimate personal, social or political relations, and whom for any or all these reasons they are unwilling to disoblige.

That the character and efficiency of the schools of the state, can never be improved under such a system of supervision, (if it be worthy the name,) as this we have described, must be sufficiently obvious to the commonest understanding, as it is to the observation of all who have been cognizant of the working of this system of exclusive town supervision.

On the other hand, a more comprehensive and general system of supervision, as that by Assembly districts removes the school officer from these incidental but pernicious influences, which more than any other one cause, serve to paralyze the energies of our school system. The school commissioner, comparatively at least, acts independent of those influences of personal favor, which to so great an extent control a local officer. His term of office also gives him an advantage in this respect, so that while he is still held in check from an abuse of his prerogative, such as would be repugnant to the common sentiment of a large community, he is not in fear that the exercise of his best judgment in opposition to individual in terests and preference, will bring his official character into disrepute.

It is further to be noted that the position of a commissioner representing a larger constituency, embracing a wider range of interests and more weighty responsibilities, enables him to exert a greater influence upon

the

popular sentiment of the community, and thus more effectually to labor for the promotion of educational interests, than a subordinate officer can do.

"Yes, you despise the man to books confined,

Who from his study rails at all mankind,

Though what he learns he speaks and may advance

Some general maxims, or be right by chance."-Pope.

My first day's labor is accomplished.

My pupils have dispersed to their homes, and I am left alone. I seat myself at my desk-I muse, and I write my musings. First day in school! A day dreaded by novices in teaching! And I, though much exercised in this worthy profession, have had much anxiety about this very day. Here I commence, a stranger in a strange place. To-morrow it will be a fortnight since I first made acquaintance with one of the trustees. With twenty-eight pupils I have commenced. I think I have made a good beginning; but some things seem ominous. Well, be it so. All in the school-room is not pleasantry. The teacher who expects it will be disappointed. At the commencement of other schools I have seen what I thought were ill omens; but afterward I found that they were only phantoms. A philosophic teacher is not superstitious. It is a part of his business to dispel the delusions of ignorance and superstition. He must not always heed what he hears about his charge. He must take charge of his pupils without prejudice against any one. And with a consciousness of the rectitude of his purpose, he must go forward and do his whole duty. This shall be my aim. Let me be prepared for every emergency.

Those who are now my pupils will in time be men and women. And now they are in a course of preparation for the duties of active life. I am teaching them book-learning. This is useful in its place. But it alone will not render them perfect. Without moral culture, and habits of industry, science and literature are like tools in the hands of the burglar. They may even aid the felon in his schemes of iniquity. Moral training properly belongs to the home department of education. And home discipline is not always what it should be. Too much is there neglected. And the school is one of the means of amending home delinquencies.

I have had a painful day. I was obliged to chastise some of the boys. They will not study, and they are too playful. It is a difficult task for me to punish. I feel for my pupils. I see the tendency of their mischief, and I understand how difficult it is to make any punishment effectual among them. I am more embarrassed, because outside sympathy will be with the culprits, and too many persons outside of my domain do not understand the relative positions of teachers and pupils. I fain would do my pupils good and be their best friend. Duty urges me in one direction, and my feelings in another. And I dread the vengeance of parents, whose affection for their children is stronger than their judgment. I wish they knew all of my anxiety to do my whole duty and benefit their children.

What trifles will sometimes mar the peace of a school, and lead to disastrous consequences! Trifles of a different kind will sometimes aid a school wonderfully. In my former schools the girls have willingly taken their turns in sweeping the house. Here I had an incipient rebellion about this simple act. After nominating one to sweep the house, another said to her: "Don't do it," and two or three more united in declaring it an unreasonable requisition; but they would not tell me by whom it was done when Miss D. was teacher. One girl then took the broom, and without saying any thing, swept the house. That act betokens in her a generous disposition that deserves notice, perhaps it will sometime be exhibited on a more important occasion. I must remember her-Caroline B.

The reputation of being a beloved teacher is a blessed privilege. But can a teacher correct the wayward and reckless dispositions of his pupils, and be much beloved when he is at times obliged to use physical discipline? Ah, no! not always. He shall "be persecuted for righteousness sake." And so were the prophets before him. So, too, was the Great Teacher of mankind, who taught as no man ever taught. When my noisy and thoughtless pupils have dispersed in the evening, I often meditate on the beauties of science and literature, and their great benefits. Then I conceive the idea of a model school; one where the whole ambition of the pupils is to learn, to "drink deep of the Pierian spring," and to avoid all of those freaks and misdemeanors that are so annoying to teachers, and more annoying to those that are deeply enamored of books, and of all that refines and ennobles the human mind. How gladly would I lead my pupils onward and upward, and inspire them with a deep love of knowledge and wisdom. I fain would have a set of pupils who love study, and are anxious to become good and worthy citizens of an enlightened nation.

I have had a talk with one of the trustees, and I urged upon him the necessity of visiting my school, but he had plenty of excuses. I fear that he feels more interest in his farm and his live stock than in the education of his children and the welfare of my school. When the officers and patrons of a school are thus indifferent, what is to be expected? I fear the consequence.

Close of the first week! A week is an important period in a common school. It is an exact measure of the time for which I commenced my school. Shall the remainder of the term be comparable to this week? O that it may be better! I have had some trouble with my pupils, and I may have more. I must not yet be discouraged. I must do what I can do. Every succeeding week should be an improvement on the last. But alas for my inefficiency! I can not do all that I know ought to be done. O that I could meet every contingency! and correct every idle and freakish habit that prevails among my pupils! and that I could make them realize the importance of learning, and stimulate them to prepare for future usefulness! To be Continued.

GOVERNMENT OF CHILDREN.

FROM DR. DONNE'S WORK ON "MOTHERS & INFANTS, NURSES & NURSING."

It is by authority that young children must be guided.-What system of education must be adopted for the earliest infancy? Is it by reasoning that we must guide them, appealing, to their judgment from the first wakening of intelligence; or, rather, is it not better to direct them by the altogether simple idea of authority, which little children recognize so naturally in their parents, and which they do not think of contesting? I do not hesitate to say that, till the age of six or seven years, there is every advantage, as regards physical education as well as moral, in preserving undisputed authority over children, and in appealing to no motive but the sentiment of obedience, freed from all which other more complicated notions of duty will add to this at a later period.

Necessity of preserving authority over them, and of accustoming them to obedience, for the good of their health.-For want of ability to preserve this authority, the health of children, and in some instances their life even, may be endangered. How shall an infant be made to submit to medical prescriptions which displease him, but on which his cure depends, if he is not accustomed to obey at an age when he is insensible to every other consideration based on his own interest, the danger he is in, and the anxiety of his parents? I have seen a child come near perishing, or at least become seriously ill, for want of the power to get him-by any means whatever, prayers, threats, or other expedients-to take, even in an agreeable form, the only medicine capable of putting an end to serious indisposition, This child had, for a long time, been accustomed to acknowledge no authority in his parents, and the idea, even, no longer existed with him. Such resistance would certainly never be manifested by

a child carefully brought up in the sentiment of paternal authority and the habit of obedience."

Disadvantages of discussion with children.—The exercise of authority enables one to dispense with all puerile discussion, in which we are never engaged with a being capable of reasoning. These discussions, into which it is wrong to enter with children who are incapable of understanding, have no other result than to excite their resistance, increase their self-love, and embitter their character; and it is leading them by a painful, long, and circuitous path, full of contradictions and caviling, on their part, and fertile in opposition and ill-temper, to the end they would naturally arrive at of themselves, without effort and by their own inclination, if they were led to it by a straight-forward course.

Danger of the premature development of the intellectual faculties. Inutility of teaching children to read too soon.-Here, however, is the place to recommend the greatest caution with regard to the premature development of the intellectual faculties. Too great eagerness in this respect may create disturbances in the child's physical condition, his brain being already over excited by the great number of involuntary acquisitions which he makes, and must make.

I am, also, very decidedly opposed to the present very common custom of teaching children to read at three years of age. There is no advantage in beginning this part of their instruction so early. It is only running the risk of disturbing, for the benefit of a partial development of the intelligence, without any advantage to positive instruction, the equilibrium of the economy and constitution. Let us take full advantage of the very small number of years that we are allowed to consecrate to the care of the physical organization of children, nor lose a moment of this precious time. Let us employ it undivided in strengthening organic action, and in establishing good health, without which there will be no real enjoyment hereafter, nor any complete possession of the intellectual faculties. Let us not try to make one of those imperfect beings, in whom the mind is not freely served by its organs, but suffers from the want of harmony between the different systems of the economy, just as the latter are themselves readily fatigued by the efforts of intellectual labor and the exercise of the thinking faculties. What difference does the loss of one or two years make in the small amount of instruction acquired at the age of four or five years? Children that are in good health, and well trained, will readily make up for this time, so usefully employed for their health in another way.

GOD'S PROTECTION OF YOUNG DEER.-An old Canadian hunter declares that the reason why the wild deer are not all killed when young (as they breed once a year, and are always surrounded by other animals, which prey upon them, as dogs, wolves, bears, panthers, etc.) is that “ no dog or other animal can smell the track of a coe or fawn, while the latter is too young to take care of itself!" He had often seen it demonstrated.