hardly need be mentioned as the first business of the principal; and yet the manner of its doing strikes the key-note, as it were, of the year, indicating to the observant eye of teacher and pupil the character of the year's work-whether it is to be prompt, firm, and harmonious in its action, or weak, dawdling, and discordant.

In truth, the whole scheme of organization should be clearly and definitely wrought out in the mind of the principal before the opening morning, as far as the conditions can be known, with alternatives ready at his command. for possible contingencies.

The plan of the school should be as clearly defined in his thought as that of a coming battle in the mind of the commander; prepared, however, for this or that movement, should the necessity occur, but ready with welldigested devices and ample forces in case of any unforeseen exigencies. With wise and calm decision and prompt action should he put his plans into operation, unruffled by the countless questions and suggestions of pupils and parents; every teacher in her place, every pupil promptly to his seat, ready for the work, so that almost with the morning bell the whole school may start off, like the machinery of a vast factory at the touch of the lever that puts it all in motion, with no jarring, no friction, no undue tension, but quietly, smoothly, strongly, all in perfect accord for the working out of earnest, industrious, well-informed, self-controlled, intelligent, and worthy characters.

Little adjustments may afterward be made from day to day, as characters and attainments may suggest, but by Tuesday morning, at the furthest, the school should. be in good working order, with carefully. prepared programmes on the blackboard, with teachers ready for their

assigned work, and pupils knowing their allotted parts, and eager to engage in them.

With scarce forty weeks in the year, we can not afford to spend all, or most of the first week in getting ready; and to whom shall we look for the realization of this possible ideal but to the well-equipped, the wisely experienced, the alert, vigilant, calm, high-minded principal ?

If it were true that "we learn to do by doing," which it is not, save in a very narrow and limited sense, the principal's work would now be well-nigh complete, and he might sit back in calm composure to observe with silent satisfaction the growing prosperity of his school.

"We learn to do by doing" is one of those aphoristic half-truths well suited to catch the ear and delude the mind of the unthinking. We may acquire a mechanical facility by repeated doings of what we already know how to do, but we learn to do by learning how other people do, and by the aid of this knowledge striving to do something better. The mere continuous doing of what we can do dulls the intellect, deadens the inventive powers, and stifles progress. If it were true, there were no need of principal or normal school or any school. Froebel and Pestalozzi, Mann and Hopkins might be put aside, and our children be left to learn to do by doing, not by instruction; by skillful training, not by study and reading the wisdom and historic records of the past. No, my friends, by the mere doing the generations of men would not attain to the school crayon or the ham sandwich in a thousand years.

The whole past of our race, with its trials and its failures, its sufferings and successes, is ours, and are we to put aside all the teachings of the writhing centuries, and learn to do by doing over again what the ages have con

demned and strive to reach by our unaided efforts what the poorest laborer has as his own?

Some years since, to a suggestion of mine with regard to teaching geography, the teacher replied: "I have taught this subject in this way for fourteen years, and I think I know."

She had learned to do by doing, and was just fourteen years behind the times. But she still had sense; she does not teach in just that way to-day.

Not very much does the best and the brightest of us learn but what we learn from those who have gone before us. The one thing that has placed us in the forefront of our race is, that when we have learned one thing we have made it the stepping-stone to something better, ever toiling onward and upward to the ultimate good of humanity, ever sought and never reached.

With the organization of the school the work of the principal has but just begun. Here is the starting-point from which he is to advance to acknowledged success or fall back into the ranks of the called, but not chosen.

Yes, my fellow-teachers, though yours is the work, as has been my continual theme, and stronger and stronger my belief, as the years go by, the principal is the school; the school is what he makes it. The organization, the plan of the work is his, and his the spirit that shall animate, the methods that shall execute, and the character that shall control.

But what is the power of one over a thousand? What can the principal do for the individual pupils ? And yet just here, I feel, is the field of his usefulness; not in direct, personal influence, but largely through his teachers must he be made known to them; and yet to no pupil, boy or girl, should his entrance into the school-room be an unimportant event.

To the pupils are his best efforts pledged, but by his teachers must his purposes be performed. With his assistants, by his wise conduct, his earnest purpose, his faithful discharge of duty, by his appreciation of excellence and worthy endeavor, his recognition of merit, and kindly charity toward unintentional error, he must be in full and hearty accord. His censures should be without bitterness or humiliation, his suggestions timely and sympathetic, his personal interest undisguised. The strong, successful teacher deserves his approval, and the young and inexperienced his encouragement and advice. His personal sympathy in troubles, his aid in difficulties, and his tender guidance out of the meshes of mistaken efforts will not return to him void of kind respect and unfailing loyalty.

And I have sometimes expressed the thought which has wrought itself into my belief that the principal who can not by his discretion, his nice. discernment, his thorough devotion to his school and its duties, his interest in the success of pupil and teacher, win the approval and thorough respect of his teachers during the year, or at the most the second year, is sadly lacking in some element of a successful principal.

They may doubt the wisdom of some of his measures, but only to put forth the stronger efforts to conquer success; he may meet with unmerited censure, only to unite them the more firmly in his defense. And he who can not command this concurrence of good will and unquestioning support of the better part of his teachers will find his wisest art of little avail.

With the consciousness that the principal is with her in her efforts, feeble though they be, there can be no foundation, no suggestion, for the charge sometimes made, that the teacher has no resource, no redress. She should

feel that he is at hand, and but too willing to render any aid, ever ready with his counsel and full support to sustain her, or rather to enable her to sustain herself.

Not for every little difficulty and annoyance should she fall back upon his authority with paltry complaints and petty questionings, thus stepping down from her true position, forfeiting the confidence of her pupils and soon losing her own self-respect. Few things will sooner deprive a teacher of her power for usefulness before her class than this habit of sending pupils to the office for correction. In truth her highest usefulness is already gone before the frequency has yet become a habit.

Quietly, calmly, and firmly, with faith in herself and in young humanity, unruffled by seeming failure and obvious reverses, hoping still, must she persevere, trustful where trust is found-kindly interest winning respectful love, and mutual regard finding expression in willing obedience, sympathetic effort, and unfailing gratitude.

Never in haste or in anger should a pupil be referred to the office, and, save in the rarest of cases, not till the principal has been seen by the teacher and fully informed of the nature of the fault or failure. Often this conference itself will render it unnecessary to send the pupil at all.

But when the need shall come, as sometimes come it will, the worthy teacher should find ready to her support the full authority of the principal, the board of education, and the entire moral force of the community. With each and every day should the principal be so well acquainted with the character of the teacher's work and her manner of discipline and instruction that no serious difficulty could come upon him by surprise or find him. · unprepared for the crisis.