cane, but all the forms of
coercion that make hypocrites instead of honourable and manly youths.
The teacher must embody the ideal, and the boy be drawn, by admiration
and love, to copy it. Those who know how swiftly the unspoiled child
responds to a noble ideal will realise how potent may be the influence
of a teacher, who stimulates by a high example and rules by the sceptre
of love instead of by the rod of fear. Besides, the One Life is in
teacher and taught, as Alcyone reminds us, and to that Life, which is
Divine, all things are possible.

Education must be shaped to meet the individual needs of the child, and
not by a Government Procrustes' bed, to fit which some are dragged
well-nigh asunder and others are chopped down. The capacities of the
child, the line they fit him to pursue, these must guide his education.
In all, the child's interest must be paramount; the true teacher exists
to serve.

The school must be a centre of good and joyous influences, radiating
from it to the neighbourhood. Studies and games must all be turned to
the building of character, to the making of the good citizen, the lover
of his country.

Thus dreams the boy, who is to become a teacher, of the possibilities
the future may unfold. May he realise, in the strength of a noble
Manhood, the pure visions of his youth, and embody a Power which shall
make earth's deserts rejoice and blossom as the rose.

ANNIE BESANT.

TO THE SUPREME TEACHER

AND TO THOSE WHO FOLLOW HIM

FOREWORD

Many of the suggestions made in this little book come from my own
memories of early school life; and my own experience since of the
methods used in Occult training has shown me how much happier boys'
lives might be made than they usually are. I have myself experienced
both the right way of teaching and the wrong way, and therefore I want
to help others towards the right way. I write upon the subject because
it is one which is very near to the heart of my Master, and much of what
I say is but an imperfect echo of what I have heard from Him. Then
again, during the last two years, I have seen much of the work done in
the Central Hindu College at Benares by Mr. G.S. Arundale and his
devoted band of helpers. I have seen teachers glad to spend their time
and energies in continual service of those whom they regard as their
younger brothers. I have also watched the boys, in their turn, showing a
reverence and an affectionate gratitude to their teacher