essive stage of his operations, he is awake to the slightest
appearance of defect; and he hesitates not a moment in abandoning a
lesser good for a greater, whenever he perceives it. He husbands
time;--he husbands expense;--he husbands supervision and risk. Every
step with him is a step in advance;--every operation has a
design;--every movement has a meaning;--and he makes all unite for the
attainment of one common object. Can we doubt that, in like manner, the
most rigid economy of time and labour ought to be adopted in the art of
teaching? When the end has once been distinctly defined, it ought
steadily to be kept in view; and no exercise should be prescribed which
does not contribute to its attainment. There should be no bustling about
nothing; no busy idleness; no fighting against time; no unnecessary
labour, nor useless exhaustion of the pupil's energies. The time of
youth is so precious, and there is so much to be done during it, that
economy here is perhaps of more importance than in any thing else. Every
book or exercise, therefore, which has not a palpable tendency to
forward the great object designed by education, should by the teacher be
at once given up.

3. Another law which experience has established as necessary for the
perfecting of any of the arts is, _a fair and honest application of the
successive discoveries of science to its improvement_.--This has been
the uniform practice in those arts which have of late been making such
rapid progress. The artist and mechanic are never indifferent to the
various improvements which are taking place around them; nor do they
ever stand apart, till they are forced upon their notice by third
parties, or public notoriety. There is, in the case of the manufacturer,
no nervous timidity about innovation; nor does he ever attempt to
deceive himself by ignorantly supposing that the change can be no
improvement.--Nor will he suffer himself to be deceived by others. His
workmen are not allowed, to save themselves future trouble, to be
careless or sinister in their trials of the improvement; for he knows,
that however it may be with them, yet if his neighbour succeeds, and he
fails, it may prove his ruin.

Such also should be the conduct of the teacher. The time has now gone by
when parents were ignorant, either of what was communicated at school,
or the manner in which it was taught. The improvement of their children
by education, has become a primary object with all sensible