tic, Grammar, or Geography are to be taught with
unexampled rapidity, and his own purse to be filled, in a much more easy
way, than by waiting for the rewards of patient industry. Another has
the plan of a school, bringing into operation new principles of
management or instruction, which he is to establish on some favored
spot, and which is to become in a few years a second Hofwyl. Another has
some royal road to learning, and though he is trammeled and held down by
what he calls the ignorance and stupidity of his Trustees or his School
Committee, yet if he could fairly put his principles and methods to the
test, he is certain of advancing the science of Education half a century
at least, at a single leap.

Ingenuity in devising new ways, and enterprise in following them, are
among the happiest characteristics of a new country rapidly filling with
a thriving population. Without these qualities there could be no
advance; society must be stationary; and from a stationary to a
retrograde condition, the progress is inevitable. The disposition to
make improvements and changes may however be too great. If so, it must
he checked. On the other hand a slavish attachment to old established
practices may prevail. Then the spirit of enterprise and experiment must
be awakened and encouraged. Which of these two is to be the duty of a
writer at any time, will of course depend upon the situation of the
community at the time he writes, and of the class of readers for which
he takes his pen. Now at the present time, it is undoubtedly true, that,
while among the great mass of teachers there may be too little
originality and enterprise, there is still among many a spirit of
innovation and change, to which a caution ought to be addressed. But
before I proceed, let me protect myself from misconception by one or two
remarks.

1. There are a few individuals in various parts of our country, who by
ingenuity and enterprise, have made real and important improvements in
many departments of our science, and are still making them. The science
is to be carried forward by such men. Let them not therefore understand
that any thing which I shall say, applies at all to those real
improvements which are from time to time, brought before the public. As
examples of this there might easily be mentioned, were it necessary,
several new modes of study, and new text books, and literary
institutions on new plans, which have been brought forward within a few
year