and
simplifying the steps, and make thorough work as you go on. These
principles, carried steadily into practice, will be effectual in leading
any mind through any difficulties which may occur. And though they can
not, perhaps, be fully applied to every mind in a large school, yet they
can be so far acted upon in reference to the whole mass as to accomplish
the object for a very large majority.

3. _General cautions_. A few miscellaneous suggestions, which we shall
include under this head, will conclude this chapter.

(1.) Never do any thing _for_ a scholar, but teach him to do it for
himself. How many cases occur in the schools of our country where the
boy brings his slate to the teacher, saying he can not do a certain sum.
The teacher takes the slate and pencil, performs the work in silence,
brings the result, and returns the slate to the hands of his pupil, who
walks off to his seat, and goes to work on the next example, perfectly
satisfied with the manner in which he is passing on. A man who has not
done this a hundred times himself will hardly believe it possible that
such a practice can prevail, it is so evidently a mere waste of time
both for master and scholar.

(2.) Never get out of patience with dullness. Perhaps I ought to say,
never get out of patience with any thing. That would, perhaps, be the
wisest rule. But, above all things, remember that dullness and
stupidity--and you will certainly find them in every school--are the
very last things to get out of patience with. If the Creator has so
formed the mind of a boy that he must go through life slowly and with
difficulty, impeded by obstructions which others do not feel, and
depressed by discouragements which others never know, his lot is surely
hard enough without having you to add to it the trials and suffering
which sarcasm and reproach from you can heap upon him. Look over your
school-room, therefore, and wherever you find one whom you perceive the
Creator to have endued with less intellectual power than others, fix
your eye upon him with an expression of kindness and sympathy. Such a
boy will have suffering enough from the selfish tyranny of his
companions; he ought to find in you a protector and friend. One of the
greatest enjoyments which a teacher's life affords is the interest of
seeking out such a one, bowed down with burdens of depression and
discouragement, unaccustomed to sympathy and kindness, and expecting
nothing for the future but a wear