uing from the press, take their origin. Far be it from
me to discourage the preparation of good school-books. This department
of our literature offers a fine field for the efforts of learning and
genius. What I contend against, is the endless multiplicity of useless
works, hastily conceived and carelessly executed, and which serve no
purpose, but to employ uselessly, talents, which if properly applied,
might greatly benefit both the community and the possessor.

8. If, however, after mature deliberation you conclude that you have the
plan of a school-book which you ought to try to mature and execute, be
slow and cautious about it. Remember that so great is now the
competition in this branch, nothing but superior excellences will
secure the favorable reception of a work. Examine all that your
predecessors have done before you. Obtain, whatever may be the trouble
and expense, all other text books on the subject, and examine them
thoroughly. If you see that you can make a very decided advance on all
that has been done, and that the public will probably submit to the
inconvenience and expense of a change, to secure the result of your
labors, go forward slowly and thoroughly in your work. No matter how
much investigation, how much time and labor it may require. The more
difficulty you may find, in gaining the eminence, the less likely will
you be to be followed by successful competitors.

9. Consider in forming your text-book, not merely the whole subject on
which you are to write, but also look extensively and thoroughly at the
institutions throughout the country, and consider carefully the
character of the teachers by whom you expect it to be used. Sometimes a
man publishes a text-book, and when it fails on trial, he says, "It is
because they did not know how to use it. The book in itself was good.
The whole fault was in the awkwardness and ignorance of the teacher."
How absurd! As if to make a good text-book, it was not as necessary to
adapt it to teachers as to scholars. _A good text-book which the
teachers for whom it was intended did not know how to use!!_ i. e. A
good contrivance but entirely unfit for the purpose for which it was
intended.

10. Lastly, in every new plan, consider carefully whether its success in
your hands, after you have tried it, and found it successful, be owing
to its novelty and to your own special interest, or to its own innate
and intrinsic superiority. If the former, use it so long as it wi