magining himself aggrieved or insulted by his
fellows, he burns for revenge. Overtaken in a fault and threatened with
punishment, he is tempted to lie. Misled by the opinion of others, or
esteeming some rule of his teachers harsh and unnecessary, he is
inclined to disobey. These and a hundred other instances which might be
named, will suggest to the thoughtful parent or teacher so many
opportunities for giving incidentally the most important practical
instruction in morals.

In these and the manifold other illustrations which might be given, the
essential point is to quicken and keep alive the attention. Whatever be
the subject of study, and whether the instructions be direct or
incidental, let children be preserved from attending to it in a
sluggish, listless, indifferent manner. The subject of study, in the
case of young persons, is often of less importance than the manner of
study. I have been led sometimes to doubt the value of many of the
inventions for facilitating the acquisition of knowledge by children.
That knowledge the acquisition of which costs no labor, will not be
likely to make a deep impression, or to remain long upon the memory. It
is by labor that the mind strengthens and grows: and while care should
be taken not to overtask it by exertions beyond its strength, yet let it
never be forgotten that mere occupation of the mind, even with useful
and proper objects, is not the precise aim of education. The educator
aims, not to make learned boys, but able men. To do this, he must tax
their powers. He must rouse them to manly exertion. He must teach them
to think, to discriminate, to digest what they have received, to work.
Every day there must be the glow of hard work,--not the exhaustion and
languor which arise from too protracted confinement to study,--which
have the same debilitating effect upon the mind that a similar process
has upon the body,--but vigorous and hardy labor, such as wakens the
mind from its lethargy, summons up the resolution and the will, and puts
the whole internal man into a state of determined and positive activity.
The boy in such a case feels that he is at work. He feels, too, that he
is gaining something more than knowledge. He is gaining power. He is
growing in strength. He grapples successfully to-day with a difficulty
that would have staggered him yesterday. There is no mistaking this
process; and no matter what the subject of study, the intellectual
development what it gives,