n, and the means which he may reasonably
expect to have at his command. If he underrates his difficulties, or
overrates the power of his means of overcoming them, it is his mistake;
a mistake for which _he_ is fully responsible. Whatever may be the
nature of the effect which he aims at accomplishing, he ought fully to
understand it, and to appreciate justly the difficulties which lie in
the way.

Teachers however very often overlook this. A man comes home from his
school at night, perplexed and irritated by the petty misconduct which
he has witnessed, and been trying to check. He does not however, look
forward and try to prevent the occasions of it, adapting his measures to
the nature of the material upon which he has to operate; but he stands
like the carpenter at his columns, making himself miserable in looking
at it, after it occurs, and wondering what to do.

"Sir," we might say to him, "what is the matter?"

"Why, I have such boys, I can do nothing with them. Were it not for
_their misconduct_, I might have a very good school."

"Were it not for the boys? Why, is there any peculiar depravity in them
which you could not have foreseen?"

"No; I suppose they are pretty much like all other boys," he replies
despairingly; "they are all hair-brained and unmanageable. The plans I
have formed for my school, would be excellent if my boys would only
behave properly."

"Excellent plans," might we not reply, "and yet not adapted to the
materials upon which they are to operate! No. It is your business to
know what sort of beings boys are, and to make your calculations
accordingly."

* * * * *

Two teachers may therefore manage their schools in totally different
ways: so that one of them, may necessarily find the business a dull,
mechanical routine, except as it is occasionally varied by perplexity
and irritation; and the other, a prosperous and happy employment. The
one goes on mechanically the same, and depends for his power on
violence, or on threats and demonstrations of violence. The other brings
all his ingenuity and enterprise into the field, to accomplish a steady
purpose, by means ever varying, and depends for his power, on his
knowledge of human nature, and on the adroit adaptation of plans to her
fixed and uniform tendencies.

I am very sorry however to be obliged to say, that probably the latter
class of teachers are decidedly in the minority. To practice the art in
such a w