and,
mingling with the atmosphere of the room, proportionately deteriorate
the whole mass_. Thus are abundantly sown in early life the fruitful
seeds of disease and premature death.

This detail shows conclusively sufficient cause for that uneasy,
listless state of feeling which is so prevalent in crowded school-rooms.
It explains why children that are amiable at home are mischievous in
school, and why those that are troublesome at home are frequently
well-nigh uncontrollable in school. It discloses the true cause why so
many teachers who are justly considered both pleasant and amiable in the
ordinary domestic and social relations, are obnoxious in the
school-room, being there habitually sour and fretful. The ever-active
children are disqualified for study, and engage in mischief as their
only alternative. On the other hand, the irritable teacher, who can
hardly look with complaisance upon good behavior, is disposed to magnify
the most trifling departure from the rules of propriety. The scholars
are continually becoming more ungovernable, and the teacher more unfit
to govern them. Week after week they become less and less attached to
him, and he, in turn, becomes less interested in them.

This detail explains, also, why so many children are unable to attend
school at all, or become unwell so soon after commencing to attend, when
their health is sufficient to engage in other pursuits. The number of
scholars answering this description is greater than most persons are
aware of. In one district that I visited a few years ago in the State of
New York, it was acknowledged by competent judges to be emphatically
true in the case of not less than _twenty-five scholars_. Indeed, in
that same district, the health of more than _one hundred_ scholars was
materially injured every year in consequence of occupying an old and
partially-decayed house, of too narrow dimensions, with very limited
facilities for ventilation. The evil, even after the cause was made
known, was suffered to exist for years, although the district was worth
more than three hundred thousand dollars. And what _was_ true[13] of
this school, is now, with a few variations, true in the case of scores,
if not hundreds of schools with which I am acquainted, from far-famed
New England to the Valley of the Mississippi.

[13] In the district referred to there has since been erected a large
and commodious union school house, which constitutes at once the pride
an