ach, in a way corresponding to its
own nature. It is impossible, if it were wise, and it would be foolish,
if it were possible, to stimulate, by artificial means, the rose, in
hope of its reaching the size and magnitude of the apple-tree, or to
try to cultivate the fig and the orange, where wheat only will grow. No;
it should be the teacher's main design, to shelter his pupils from every
deleterious influence, and to bring every thing to bear upon the
community of minds before him, which will encourage, in each one, the
developement of its own native powers. For the rest, he must remember
that his province is to cultivate, not to create.

Error on this point, is very common. Many teachers, even among those who
have taken high rank, through the success with which they have labored
in this field, have wasted much time, in attempting to do what can never
be done; to form the character of those brought under their influence,
after a certain uniform model, which they have conceived as the standard
of excellence. Their pupils must write just such a hand, they must
compose in just such a style, they must be similar in sentiment and
feeling, and their manners must be formed according to a fixed and
uniform model; and when, in such a case, a pupil comes under their
charge whom Providence has designed to be entirely different from the
beau ideal adopted as the standard, more time and pains, and anxious
solicitude is wasted in vain attempts to produce the desired conformity,
than half the school require beside.

(5.) Do not allow the faults or obliquities of character, or the
intellectual or moral wants, of any individual, of your pupils, to
engross a disproportionate share of your time. I have already said, that
those who are peculiarly in need of sympathy or help, should receive the
special attention they seem to require; what I mean to say now, is, do
not carry this to an extreme. When a parent sends you a pupil, who, in
consequence of neglect or mismanagement, at home, has become wild and
ungovernable, and full of all sorts of wickedness, he has no right to
expect, that you shall turn your attention away from the wide field,
which, in your whole school-room, lies before you, to spend your time,
and exhaust your spirits and strength, in endeavoring to repair the
injuries which his own neglect has occasioned. When you open a school,
you do not engage, either openly or tacitly, to make every pupil who
may be sent to you, a learn