ionate nature was treated in the same way as the cold and
phlegmatic; the boy of genius or talent, as the dullard; the one who
loved, as he who disliked, or had a tendency to dislike, study; the
weakly, as the strong. They were all driven together like a flock of
sheep, with scarcely any regard to individual capabilities, bent of
genius, or physical constitution, which indeed little effort, and that
ill-directed, had been made to discover.

I had observed, also, boys with the germs of great genius, who, for want
of some minor quality, were rejected and perhaps placed in some lower
division, humiliated and discouraged, although with care the deficient
quality could have been supplied. The want of this perhaps would make
the boy a recruit to the ranks of evil, or at least unfit him, when a
man, for the real business of life. It was the small bolt wanting to
enable the machine to do its work properly.

I saw the sad consequences of all this mismanagement.

Many precepts, beautiful indeed in intention, were crammed into the
pupil, the process being repeated until they often became irksome, and
he was expected to become moral and religious. I saw that precepts were
of little use unless those whom they were meant to benefit were
educated, fortified, and disciplined in the practical means of observing
them.

It was at that time painful to see children, with many good natural
tendencies, leave school with bad habits, and vices so marked and
developed, that even the exertions of the most skilful physicians, the
discourses of the most learned of our clergy, failed to effect a cure.

The first thing necessary was to devise effective--it may be said
unerring--means to search out the characters and dispositions of
children.

I created the office of "character-divers," and selected for the
discharge of its duties eminent men of great sagacity and gentleness,
skilled in the knowledge of the mind and heart, their sole occupation
being to discover the qualities, tendencies, and incipient faults of
children, and act accordingly; to dive, as it were, into the secret
imaginings of the child; to detect the early germ of evil, and note the
presence of good; to indicate measures for eradicating the one and
developing the other.

These character--divers, called in our language "Djarke," are distinct
from the masters, called "Zicche," or fathers of knowledge, able men,
who have charge of the boys' studies.

The qualities which ena