poets of the ages-it surely can not be that all this is devoid of meaning for the moralist. We sometimes tire of listening to the dangers of intellectual without moral education. The performing horse and trained dog may, perhaps, feel no special stirring of their moral nature, but we are not made up of two so distinct natures, that, farther apart than the Siamese twins, the one can be wrought upon, and the other feel no sympathetic throb. The child may, indeed, be taught to lie and steal, but that is not what we mean by mental discipline and in tellectual culture. It is rather a maiming and torturing of the spirit. As well might we call the foot-bandaging of the Chinese an athletic exercise, and Simeon Stylites a gymnast; yes, and the warped and shrunken starveling, or the phenomenal and gormandizing Tanner, a professor of gastronomy.

No; the order, the industry, and the culture of our schools, though indirect, and often unconscious, are yet efficient and ever-present moral influences, which we can not well overestimate.

Nor is the school wanting in that more direct and positive teaching and guidance that promote and establish a well-ordered life and character; not always or most frequently given in the set phrase of formal discourse and threadbare homily. It was not by permission, but by an undoubted inspiration, that Paul spoke of the "foolishness of preaching." Though made the means of "saving those that believe," the trouble is that the school-boy does not believe-in preaching, or in the teacher that preaches.

Well do I recall one such in my school life, who set apart his regular half-hour for so-called moral instruction; and if there was a half-hour in the day in which he wasted words, squandered the esteem, forfeited the respect, and lost the control of his pupils, it was that same

moral half-hour. It was the appointed time for restlessness, inattention, and disorder, when the exhausted patience of his hearers found relief in whispered if not in muttered complaint, from which a wiser man might have learned that it is not all of morals to moralize.

Noble as are the unquestioned motives of those who would introduce a text-book of morals for a half-hour of each day, we can but feel that, beneath the tender memories of their young days, a closer search would somewhere reveal an hour made irksome and unprofitable by that bane of a bright boy's life-a moral lecture.

The good old days of our fathers and mothers, when the pastor appropriated the last half-day of each week to instruction in the catechism, was not far back of the time of Deacon Giles's famous distillery; and when the practice passed away, it was no exception to the law of the survival of the fittest. And even in the reading of the Scripture it is by no means certain that within the solemn covers may not lie concealed a leaf of Cæsar or Legendre.

The trouble with the dishonest and the vicious is not so often their ignorance of the true and the right, as their failure, through neglect or evil example, to have formed those habits of thought and action which constitute a well-ordered, a self-controlled, a moral character and life.

That we have attained the limit of moral excellence, or are doing all that can be expected, we do not believe, and certainly do not hope. It has been said that, when any work is completed, all real interest begins to abate. It is only in the progress, the pursuit, that the earnest zeal, the ardor, or the deep interest is aroused and held fast.

But it is not to the stated lecture, or the carefully devised manual, that we would most securely trust for im

provement. Our memory and experience point rather to the quiet suggestion, the fitly chosen word, the interested inquiry, the look, the unfeigned sympathy, the favored opportunity, the firm but calm decision of the loved and loving teacher.

First, and best of all, would we look to the personal character and example of the true, the large-hearted, right-minded man or woman.

Perhaps I can not better express my thought than as I have elsewhere written, of this personal influence, which is the test and the crowning excellence of the true teacher —an influence unseen, perhaps, and unobtrusive, but allpervading; free from the slightest taint of distrust or suspicion, but checking insubordination before the thought of it has taken form; exacting a faithful performance of duties, yet encouraging by its inspiration before despondency has attained a conscious existence; soft and gentle as a mother's hand on the brow of a sick child, yet holding the reins of authority, and controlling the very motives of action, like the hand of Fate.

For the due and full exertion of this influence we need to realize that, as teachers, we are engaged in the formation and development of character, into the warp or woof of which all the habits thoughtlessly formed, the modes of feeling, the pupils' deportment toward their teachers or toward each other, the kindly way or the uncouth manner, the listlessness or attention, the polite address or the unseemly reply, are all daily and hourly inwrought in permanent outline and unfading colors.

As compared with the life-giving, soul-saving influence of such a teacher, what were the dull routine of a daily half-hour of blundering monotony over the cold and dismal abstractions of some closet-conned and primerplanned system of morals?

Bishop Huntington, in 1880, spoke, with eloquent words of censure, of parents consulting the wishes of their children, whose wishes and choice they should themselves control; but such a personal influence as I have indicated, like the breath of heaven, penetrates the soft texture of the child's nature, quickening and shaping the very promptings of desire.

We can conceive no more sacred duty, or one which, with an eye to the public weal, should be performed with more wisdom and care, free from bias or prejudice, than that of choosing the teachers of our public schools. Suitable means and appliances are desirable; books for study and reference, worthy of our most intelligent regard; but we may safely leave all this to chance, or the whim of the hour, if sure in the choice of the intelligent, cultivated, and worthy teacher, of generous, sympathizing character, as essential to the mental and moral growth of his pupils as are good light and pure air to their bodily health. What a parody on the highest of callings, the reasons daily urged for engaging in it!—a sick husband, brother, or child; my mother a widow; my wages insufficient; have been unfortunate in business; I should be benefited by a change; want an opportunity to review my studies; need rest before engaging in my profession; think I should like Chicago-in all the endless variety into which these types may be developed.

Thankful may we be that from the ranks of the weary, the needy, the changeling, the improvident, the unfortunate, so few of the unworthy have found a refuge in our school-rooms.

In the management and discipline of the school, notwithstanding the doubts and forebodings of individuals, and notwithstanding the example and protests of our wise Eastern brethren, we believe that the prohibition of cor

his little son.

poral punishment is a real forward step in the moral training of our schools. It may be questioned whether such chastisement is ever inflicted by the thoughtful teacher, or parent, without an after-sentiment of regret or shame, from the feeling that, after all, it was but a victory of brute force, simply because he was the stronger, and must have ended in the same way even if the child had been in the right. "Do you know why I whip you ?" asked a fond father of "Yes, sir, because you are the biggest. And not unfrequently there is a rude awakening, on one or both sides, of the mere animal nature, insensible alike to the claims of right or reason. But cut off from this ready resort, the difficulty of the situation often necessitates a timely delay and a more careful examination, a study of the child's character and needs, resulting in a calmer and juster decision and treatment, and certainly leaves the teacher less open to the suspicion of angry or revengeful motives. A suggestion need not always be given in the form of a reproof, and in cases of deserved censure it will be found, in most instances, more wholesome if administered in private. A spirited boy of ten or fifteen, called up for rebuke in the presence of his mates, all watching with eager interest, and to whose opinion of his brave and manly bearing he is keenly alive, and the same boy listening to the quiet, earnest, and kindly words of his teacher, with none of his companions near, or knowing of the interview, are two very different characters, in whose judgment the rôle of the teacher, too, is greatly changed. What in the one case was the harsh, unfeeling censor, to whom concession savored of cowardice, is, in the other, the feeling and judicious friend.

Nor is it always the pupil most familiar with the rules of kindness and courtesy at home who most readily re