le, which had been
the _sole cause of the difficulty_, was turned to account most
effectually to remove it. Before, they were so eager to return, that
they crowded around the door so as to prevent others going out. But by
this simple plan of ejecting them by one door, and admitting them by
another, that very circumstance made them clear the passage at once, and
hurried every one away into the lobby, the moment the command was given.

The planner of this scheme must have taken great pleasure in seeing its
successful operation; though the officer who should go steadily on,
endeavoring to remove the reluctant throng by dint of mere driving,
might well have found his task unpleasant. But the exercise of ingenuity
in studying the nature of the difficulty with which a man has to
contend, and bringing in some antagonist principle of human nature to
remove it, or if not an antagonist principle, a similar principle,
operating, by a peculiar arrangement of circumstances, in an antagonist
manner, is always pleasant. From this source a large share of the
enjoyment which men find in the active pursuits of life, has its origin.

The teacher has the whole field, which this subject opens, fully before
him. He has human nature to deal with, most directly. His whole work is
experimenting upon mind; and the mind which is before him to be the
subject of his operation, is exactly in the state to be most easily and
pleasantly operated upon. The reason now why some teachers find their
work delightful, and some find it wearisomeness and tedium itself, is
that some do, and some do not take this view of their work. One
instructer is like the engine-boy, turning without cessation or change,
his everlasting stop-cock, in the same ceaseless, mechanical, and
monotonous routine. Another is like the little workman in his brighter
moments, fixing his invention and watching with delight its successful
and easy accomplishment of his wishes. One is like the officer, driving
by vociferations and threats, and demonstrations of violence, the
spectators from the galleries. The other, like the shrewd contriver, who
converts the very cause which was the whole ground of the difficulty, to
a most successful and efficient means of its removal.

These principles show how teaching may, in some cases, be a delightful
employment, while in others, its tasteless dulness is interrupted by
nothing but its perplexities and cares. The school-room is in reality, a
little e