and to awaken the
conscience to the approval of good, and the dislike and detestation
of evil. Another grand object of the master or mistress of an infant
school, is, therefore, to win their love, by banishing all slavish
fear. They are to be invited to regard their teacher, as one who
is desirous of promoting their happiness, by the most affectionate
means--not only by kind words, but by kind actions; one of which
influences a child more than a volume of words. Words appeal only to
the understanding, and frequently pass away as empty sounds; but kind
actions operate on the heart, and, like the genial light and warmth of
spring, that dispels the gloom which has covered the face of nature
during the chilly season of winter, they disperse the mists which
cold and severe treatment has engendered in the moral atmosphere.
The fundamental principle of the infant school system is _love_;
nor should any other be substituted for it, except when absolutely
necessary. Let the children see that you love them, and _love_ will
beget love, both toward their teacher and each other. Without the aid
of example nothing can be done; it is by this magnetic power alone
that sympathetic feelings can be awakened. It acts as a talisman on
the inmost feelings of the soul, and excites them to activity; which
should be the constant aim of all persons engaged in the important
work of education. As we find that vicious principles are strengthened
by habit, and good principles proportionally weakened, so, on the
contrary, immoral dispositions are weakened by the better feelings
being brought into action.

The great defect in the human character is _selfishness_, and to
remove or lessen this is the great desideratum of moral culture. How
happy were mankind, if, instead of each one living for himself, they
lived really for one another! The perfection of moral excellence
cannot be better described than as the attainment of that state in
which we should "love our neighbour as ourselves." The prevalence of
self-love will be very obvious to the observant master or mistress, in
the conduct of the children under their care, and it is this feeling
that they must be ever striving to check or eradicate. Nor need they
despair of meeting with some degree of success. The children may be
brought to feel, that to impart happiness is to receive it,--that
being kind to their little schoolfellows, they not only secure a
return of kindness, but actually receive a pers