selves, to each other, and to their God. While oppression reigns in the land, we must not cease to recommend Christian forbearance and brotherly love. While war and bloodshed desolate the nations, we must not disregard the cries of the widow and the orphan, but we must stay the hand of violence, and hold up to admiration the blessings of universal peace and harmony. When riot and disorder are rife, we must maintain the supremacy of the law. When robbery and murder are perpetrated in open day, we may not refrain from teaching self-control, the government of the temper, and the curbing of the fierce passions. While iniquity abounds, we must constantly urge the necessity of Christian humility, and a strict obedience to all the laws of God.

All these evils must be nipped in the bud. Purify the fountains, and the springs will send forth the streams of life for the healing of the nations. Regulate every thought, and every action, in perfect accordance with the Divine law; and mankind will then be prepared to join the angelic song

"Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, and good will to man!"

LECTURE IV.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRUE TEACHER.

BY JOHN D. PHILBRICK.

OF BOSTON.

THE principal thing in a school is the Teacher. He is its vital principle, its heart and soul, the fountain of its life and spirit. Other educational means and agents, I would not undervalue. School houses, apparatus, books, examinations, and superintending officers, are doubtless important in their places, and they have their effect, in a greater or less degree, upon the character of schools.

But without the Teacher these subsidiaries are inert and powerless. The Teacher's influence goes farther towards determining the character of his school, than all other influences combined. The Teacher is indeed the architect of his school, and he has but to look around him to see his monument.

The maxim, "As is the teacher so is the school," may seem to some more pointed and epigrammatic than true. But it is worthy of note, that the wisest educa

tors have always most strongly insisted upon its substantial truth. They have, therefore, centred their efforts for the promotion of the interests of education, mainly upon the teacher. We find them penetrated with the conviction, that the object of their wishes and labors can be accomplished only by bringing true teachers to the work of instruction. This is the weighty matter to which they bend their energies, leaving the mint and cummin to take care of themselves. Their great work, their paramount object, is to furnish every school with a true teacher. Hic labor, hoc opus est.

Let this be accomplished, let this consummation be reached, and education is safe. And it will be done when the people demand it. When they call in good earnest for competent teachers, they will not call in vain. The demand will be supplied. But it is to be regretted, that the call for teachers of high merit has not been sufficiently general nor sufficiently loud, either for the interest of education, or for the interest of our profession. Not but that the people are, in most cases, ready to accept the purchase, but they are not always equally ready to pay the price, and fulfil all the conditions necessary for the secure possession of such a

treasure.

While this is the state of things, what does it behoove us as teachers to do? Shall we fold our arms, and wait, in dignified composure, for the good time to come? Is there nothing that we can or ought to do or say ? The members of this association will agree with me, I am sure, that there is much for teachers both to do and to say, in relation to this matter - especially to do. You will agree with me that it is incumbent upon us to

exert ourselves to create a demand for accomplished teachers where it is wanting, and to increase it where it already exists.

And I think it will be conceded that there is no one means by which, as teachers, we can more effectually further this design, than by showing what glorious results the true teacher is capable of achieving.

In accordance with these sentiments, I have thought it might not be altogether unprofitable to make a few observations upon some of the CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRUE Teacher.

And I beg leave to premise, that I would not be thought so presumptuous, as to attempt a complete and finished portraiture of the perfect teacher. To draw a rough sketch of some of the most prominent and comprehensive traits is all that I propose to do.

The first characteristic I shall notice is, Devotion to the Profession.

Every one, says Lord Bacon, owes a debt to his profession. This debt the true teacher is ready to acknowledge, and to discharge according to the measure of his ability.

To be a teacher in the highest and best sense of the word, is to stand in the highest and best place that God has ordained for man. To form a human soul to virtue, and enrich it with knowledge, is an office inferior only to the creating power. In this view, education is the noblest work of man. But the world does not so estimate it. While by the one half it is looked upon as a pitiful mill-horse drudgery, by the other it is regarded as an inglorious sinecure, a refuge for the idle and

indolent. Now one great thing to be done for education is, to rescue the profession of teaching from this degrading estimation which the world puts upon it, and to place it upon the eminence where it belongs. There is evidently no reason in the nature of things, why it should stand in the social scale below what are styled the learned professions. Humanity is progressing. Different professions and pursuits of men have, in turn, at different periods, challenged the homage of mankind, and then retired for others to come forward in their room. Chivalry has had its day, but the age of Chivalry is gone. Military heroism has in all past ages attracted the admiration of the world, but the glory of the conqueror is growing dim before the brighter halo that encircles the brow of the champion of peace. The day of education has dawned. In the language of Lord Brougham, "the schoolmaster is abroad." It is important that he should be recognized, and the sooner the better. To become an accomplished instructor should be considered an honorable achievement, and one worthy of any man's ambition. And so it will be esteemed when it is well understood what a rare combination of virtues and talents such an undertaking demands, a combination of qualities as rare perhaps as that required for a respectable chief magistrate of this Commonwealth.

Now the true teacher holds himself ready for every word and work which tends to bring his profession into esteem, and to place it in its true light before the world. He magnifies his office and honors it, and so makes it honorable. Diogenes made Alexander confess that if he were not Alexander he should wish to be Diogenes.