e_. On the whole, as to
confinement, it seems to me that the teacher has but little ground of
complaint.

There are however some real and serious difficulties which always have,
and it is to be feared, always will, cluster around this employment; and
which must, for a long time, at least, lead most men to desire some
other employment for the business of life. There may perhaps be some,
who by their peculiar skill, can overcome, or avoid them, and perhaps
the science may, at some future day, be so far improved, that all may
avoid them. As I describe them however now, most of the teachers into
whose hands this treatise may fall, will probably find that their own
experience corresponds, in this respect, with mine.

1. The first great difficulty which the teacher feels, is a sort of
_moral responsibility for the conduct of others_. If his pupils do
wrong, he feels almost personal responsibility for it. As he walks out,
some afternoon, weary with his labors, and endeavoring to forget, for a
little time, all his cares, he comes upon a group of boys, in rude and
noisy quarrels, or engaged in mischief of some sort, and his heart sinks
within him. It is hard enough for any one to witness their bad conduct,
with a spirit unruffled and undisturbed, but for their teacher, it is
perhaps impossible. He feels _responsible_; in fact he is responsible.
If his scholars are disorderly, or negligent, or idle, or quarrelsome,
he feels _condemned himself_, almost as if he were, himself, the actual
transgressor.

This difficulty is in a great degree, peculiar to a teacher. A physician
is called upon to prescribe for a patient; he examines the case, and
writes his prescription. When this is done, his duty is ended, and
whether the patient obeys the prescription and lives, or neglects it and
dies, the physician feels exonerated from all responsibility. He may,
and in some cases does feel _anxious concern_, and may regret the
infatuation by which, in some unhappy case, a valuable life may be
hazarded or destroyed. But he feels no _moral responsibility_ for
another's guilt.

It is so with all the other employments in life. They do indeed often
bring men into collision with other men. But though sometimes vexed, and
irritated by the conduct of a neighbor, a client, or a patient, they
feel not half the bitterness of the solicitude and anxiety which come to
the teacher through the criminality of his pupil. In ordinary cases he
not only feels re