ure in intellectual effort, and to inspire a love of knowledge for its own sake.

2. The teacher should be a good reader, able to make the hearer feel and perceive all that the author intended. This, however, is so rare a talent, that, until teachers' seminaries have been some time in operation, it will be nearly in vain to look for it.

3. He should be able to illustrate and simplify every thing he teaches, and, therefore, should have the power of communicating his ideas with clearness and precision. He should know how to make children think, by means of appropriate questions. He should, also, be apt at finding means of rousing sluggishness, and correcting waywardness; of inciting the idle to diligence; of strengthening good principles where they exist, implanting them where they are deficient, and, in all, forming habits of order, industry, patience, and obedience.

4. He should possess decision and firmness; patience and perseverance; uniformity of temper, and complete self-command.

5. He should be pleasant and affectionate, and well qualified to sympathize with children. Empty professions of interest and attachment will not succeed; children, in this respect, cannot be deceived. There is nothing that so invariably begets its like, as love. If the teacher desires his pupils to love him,—and this is what every teacher should desire,—it is only necessary for him to love them. He should also show, that he takes an interest in their sports, and sometimes unbend, so far as to take a share in them. He should appear gratified at their simple efforts to please, by presenting a flower, an apple, a cake, or any other token of regard; be willing to comply with every request, and to grant every indulgence, not incompatible with duty, or their own good; but firm in refusal, when compliance would be

wrong.

6. The moral character of the teacher should be unimpeachable, in every respect. He should be a pattern of neatness, and order; and, to crown all, and which, in

fact, embraces the whole matter, he should be a lover and steadfast follower of TRUTH.

Duties of the Prudential Committee, as to choice of Teacher.

When the primary school shall be conducted by permanent teachers, the importance of a judicious selection. will be much enhanced; and it is to be hoped, that the affair of wages will then form but a minor consideration. The committee, to whom the choice is intrusted, should well consider the responsibility he assumes; that it is not, as heretofore, a mere temporary arrangement, but one, on which may depend the weal or woe of the whole rising generation of the district. The inquiry into the moral character, and other qualifications of the candidate, can never be too close and strict; for it now assumes a tenfold importance. When a good teacher has been secured, it would seem proper, that she should not be subject to dismissal from the caprice of every new committee. It is, at least, worthy of consideration, whether it should not require the vote of the district to bring the contract to a close.

Conventions of Teachers.

Having thus shown how teachers are to be instructed, by means of institutions for that purpose; the qualifications they ought to possess, before they enter on their profession; and the duties of committees, in making a selection; it will now be proper to inquire into the best means for teachers to adopt, in order to continue and extend the course of improvement on which they have entered. It is one of the laws of man's nature, that he is to move always, to stop never. His career must either be forward or backward. And more particularly is this the case at the commencement of any course, before his knowledge has become fixed by habit. From this principle arises the importance of teachers' establishing societies among themselves, for mutual advice, encouragement, and improvement.

It is highly probable that great differences will exist, in respect to the capacity and talents of the pupils in the

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Teachers' Seminary. Some will quickly understand and appropriate all that is brought before them. Every little hint will lead to careful examination and reflection, and frequently bring out much good, which was never in the contemplation of the teacher. Others, of a more slow and mechanical disposition, will originate nothing of themselves, and, in many cases, will but partially catch the views of the teacher. Some will carry improvements into effect in their true spirit, and meet with complete success in carrying them into practice; others will act on the dead letter, only, and will fail. It becomes, then, a matter of the first importance, that a free interchange of thought and sentiment should exist between them, that the weak may be encouraged by the strong, and that the timid may be strengthened by the success of the more bold. In this manner, also, any false hypotheses that may have been advanced by their teacher may at once be quashed, after its unfitness has been demonstrated by so extensive an experiment as could be carried on by such a society.

As soon, then, as the schools are generally in operation, a meeting of all the teachers in town should be called, through the medium of the pulpit, or in any other convenient mode. At this first meeting, the plan of operations might be determined on. These might be: 1. A recital of the experience of teachers, particularly as to improvements, or new modes recommended in the Teachers' Seminary, or in education periodicals. 2. Recitals of the modes of discipline practised in the several schools, and remarks on their advantages and disadvantages. 3. Discussions on both these subjects. Reading, from works on education, or periodicals. 5. Lectures. Such meetings could either be held weekly, once a fortnight, or once a month, according to circumstances, at some central schoolhouse, or other convenient place. The officers of the society might be a president, vice-president, and secretary, which last should keep a regular journal of proceedings, to be copied into a bound book. At the last meeting, previous to each vacation, every member should be required to furnish returns of

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the state of his school for the past season; specifying the number of children under seven years of age, between seven and ten, and above ten, discriminating the boys and girls of each class; also, the average attendance, and what measures, if any, had been adopted, to produce regularity, and their success. The various studies attended to should also be specified; the books used, with remarks on their comparative value; the size and nature of school libraries, where they existed; the measures adopted to induce careful usage of books, and their success; and remarks on the mode of discipline and system of tuition, noticing failures as well as successful experiments. An explanatory lecture on the arrangement and value of such returns, at a previous meeting, would be highly salutary. Or this might be prepared by some gentleman of intelligence and zeal, and circulated through the districts, through the means of some education periodical. The returns might be filed by the secretary, and embodied by him, at leisure, into one report; or, if there were a central school, this last duty might be performed by the principal of that institution.

In each county, there ought to be a convention of teachers, annually, or semi-annually; those counties that are inconveniently large being divided into two districts. Such conventions might either be attended by all the teachers, or by a delegation from each town. Similar offices to those of the town conventions would probably be found convenient. If so, it might be made the duty of the secretary, besides keeping the records, to receive and digest into one the reports from the town societies, which it should be the business of the principal of the central school, or of the deputations from the respective towns, to present to the convention. At these meetings, resolutions on the subject of education, and, especially, respecting proposed improvements, or such as have been already tried, might be proposed for discussion. As a

large majority of the members, both of the town and county societies, would probably be females, the discussions should assume as much of a conversational style as possible, in order to prevent the ladies from withholding

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their valuable experience and suggestions. In the towns where the county conventions are held, it is very desirable, that some of the influential inhabitants should assume the care of providing accommodations for the teachers during the sitting of these conventions. Their object being public good, and not the individual advantage of the members, it would be a great oversight to discourage attendance, by making them a source of expense. the town where the writer resides, with a scattered population not exceeding two thousand, accommodations were provided, a few years ago, for two hundred teachers, without charge, during a convention which lasted for four successive days. The same spirit would, no doubt, be shown by any town in New England, where individuals. were found willing to step forward, and propose the arrangement. If the subject were properly presented to the Legislature, the State would undoubtedly make a small appropriation, to cover the expense of printed forms of returns, &c., and receive, in return, a copy for the use of the government.

School Libraries.

There is one difficulty attending the improved modes of education, which, in some places, has proved rather annoying. But this, like most of the evils of life, will be found, on a full and fair examination, to be rather imaginary than real; or rather, if not actually a good in itself, capable, by proper management, of resulting in a good. The difficulty alluded to is the expense, arising from the great number of books required in all our improved schools. For not only is the course of education very much extended, but a much greater variety of reading books becomes absolutely necessary for the younger classes. Where the old, mechanical mode of teaching reading is practised, one, or at most, two, kinds of reading books are all that are requisite. For, in this mode of reading, if reading it may be called, which scarcely differs from the inane chatter of a parrot, a book may be conned over nineteen times, and, on the twentieth, be still as new as ever. But, when a book has