Yet, however, high be the mission of the Teacher, the honour is not indeed a worldly one, as the world is accustomed to award its honours. The moment he sacrifices his personal humility, he loses power as a teacher. True and solid information, however, has of itself no tendency to breed conceit. It is no less morally true than etymologically, that the empty head is the proper reservoir of vanity, and, if we mistake not, the history of our Normal Institutions, will testify that the most distinguished for real intellectual advancement are highest in the scale of personal humility. The next great essential element of success to a teacher is the most scrupulous truthfulness. And truthfulness of action is equally indispensable with truthfulness of words. Want of truthfulness, however anomalous the assertion, springs from want of courage, and at the same time from want of humility. 'Weaklings," says the German Richter, "must lie, hate it as much as they may," and Anton tells us that lying is derived from to lie, for a liar lies prostrate, both in body and mind. Cowardice is one parent of untruthfulness, and the other is Pride. The man who palms what is not his own upon the world, and the woman who dresses above her station, attempt a deceit upon society, and act the character of a liar. But what of him who, in the garb of a Teacher, shall be the living expositor of God's truths in revelation and nature, and who all the while is to the children, so proverbially sharp-sighted in moral things, a very type and illustratration in his dress, manner, or deeds, of habitual untruthfulness!

Such is the mission, and such the perils of the Schoolmaster. At this opening year we insist upon the deep consideration of his position (on which more will be said in another article), and his prospects. We earnestly exhort the large body who have assembled at the December examinations to be men of faith and men of prayer. Let them show themselves men of faith-not simply the faith in revelation - but faith in the efficacy of the great mission in which they are engaged. So that as the warrior feels faith and confidence in his battle-axe and his bow; and as the mariner trusts in faith to his rudder and his compass, so they also may have faith in the great engine which God has placed in their hands. And they must be men of prayer. They must not only seek the Divine blessing upon their every day labour, but they must learn to carry trustfully all the

care and troubles to Him whose ears, while man may be unable or unwilling to help them, will ever be open to their wants. Then with the word of God in their hands and the love of Christ and his children in their hearts,-making His spirit the guide,-His word the rule, and His glory the end and aim of all they doand we venture to assert, fearless of contradiction, that there cannot possibly be conceived an Institution of greater value to the country than our Normal Colleges, and a section of any community more full of promise, than the present race of England's Elementary Schoolmasters.

Position of the Teacher.

The question of a Teacher's Position is one as weighty and interesting to the friends of education as to the Teacher himself. It is one moreover which occupies considerable attention, just now, especially on the part of the former. Mainly through their exertions, great efforts have been made, and no inconsiderable amount of expenditure incurred to secure teachers of a higher grade than heretofore. The Normal Schools or Colleges have increased the facilities for higher intellectual training than could have been hoped for a few years since; while they have not been remiss in seeking to raise the character of the students in a higher point of view. It becomes a matter of rather serious enquiry how far these advantages have been turned to account. The Christmas Examinations abundantly testify to intellectual progress, but the friends of education wait to witness still riper fruit. They desire that all who have been thus carefully prepared, should show an amount of earnestness of character, purity of morals, and devotedness to their work, in advance of their predecessors. They feel strongly that any education which shall permanently benefit this country, must not only be intellectual but moral and religious, and entrusted for this end, to the hands of teachers who go forth to their work in the spirit of self-denial, and are sustained by a deep inward sense of duty. That many such teachers have begun well, and are now doing good service to the cause of education, we are far from doubting, but we are equally persuaded that there are others, who are not marked with this stamp.

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It is mainly in respect to these, that we would devote a paragraph or two in our Papers." In the discharge of any sacred mission It is melancholy to contemplate no higher aim than-a maximum of pay with a minimum of work. We object not to the wish for a competency-for a fair remuneration in return for services rendered. What we object to is, the motive that rises no higher than 'pence and ease'. No doubt the improbability of gaining much of either by teaching is in the end discovered. Till, however, this discovery is made, the interests of education are much damaged by the perplexities and discouragements which thus are given to school patrons, and by the inefficient manner in which duties are performed. By such means many a school Committee has been made all but bankrupt, and many a good school all but ruined, to say nothing of the discredit which is brought on the whole class of elementary Teachers.

We write with the desire of lessening so grievous an evil, and though teachers may disrelish our plain and unsavory remarks, we are notwithstanding, discharging, as we imagine, the duty of the truest friendship. Few persons know their difficulties so well as we do, and still fewer are prepared to sympathize with them to the extent that we are. But just in proportion to such knowledge and sympathy, is our strong feeling against all those who become teachers from improper and unworthy motives and whose only consideration being financial, are thoroughly indifferent to the advancement of real education, or the improvement of the position of the Educator. We at once assure them, that school-keeping in their hands will disappoint their own views, and also defraud the intentions, and damp the energies of all promoters of real education. The world is wide, and if money is their object, it is to be obtained; though we very much doubt whether money and ease will often be found together. The men and women which education demands, are those who, under the influence of Christian principle, will devote themselves to a work requiring emphatically self-denial and untiring labour. The present race of teachers must be, to a great extent, in the same position as those who labour in the mission-field. The ground must be cultivated, before the fruit is to be expected. The teacher like the missionary has to make his position, and it is the want of a clear conception of this simple fact, that has done more than any other thing to keep that position so low. Forgetting this, it has been the misfortune of some who have secured schools with liberal stipends, to lower, instead of raise, the character of their class, by foolishly imagining their fine clothes and ornamental trinkets were sufficient to put them on the worldly footing of gentleBut outside coverings for pride and conceit, with infallibly lower the position of teachers; and by creating the

men.

natural antipathy to insincerity, alienate from them their best friends.

May we then very earnestly and very strongly, charge the new and promising race of teachers to cultivate a modest bearing, mild and courteous address, neat but not obtrusive clothing, and in a word, those habits of behavionr and good manners, which characterize true respectability. As one of their friends, we would impress on them the futility of trusting only to an influence from without, or to any increase in the amount of their stipends, as an instrument for raising their position. The only influence that can permanently benefit them, must be an in-growth, arising from a just perception on the part of teachers generally of their actual position as it now exists, and a determination to show by propriety of conduct, and general usefulness, their fitness to sustain a higher place in public estimation. We are persuaded that whenever the great body of elementary teachers shall do so, the educational authorities and the public, at any rate the reasonable portion of it, will be at once prepared fully to accord to them, as a class, all the respect to which, as Educators, they will be fairly entitled.

Lotes of a Lecture on Teaching to Read. Lo 1.

Having disposed of that part of the subject which related to the Lower and Middle Sections, we take up now Reading in the Upper Section. The objects to be kept in view in connexion with the reading of this section are-superior correctness, style, and intelligence.

Correctness is to be secured by a slow and clear enunciation, in which the vowel sounds and final consonants shall be bought out with such distinctness, as to form a good pronunciation. When unaccustomed and difficult words are met with, give slowly the pronunciation yourself, and let it be very slowly copied by the class.

Style or Expressiveness superadds to correctness, adaptation of the tone of the voice to the character of the subject, so as to convey sentiments and feeling, and can only be done, when there is an ocular command over words and sentences. You may aid expressive reading by a simultaneous repetition in an under tone, (this is the only good purpose to which simultaneous reading can be

applied) yourself giving the model of a few selected sentences; bring out fully the emphatic words, and by a few apposite questions making it understood why certain words should be emphatic rather than others.

Intelligence is to be obtained by a rigid and large analysis of the lesson. The first step in giving a reading lesson, will be to hear it read, each child taking a period. As in the middle section, you are not to read by rotation, but irregularly, that is, the period to be read only by the one on whom you call, Cultivate an efficient mutual correction, down to the minutest particular.

Having carefully read the lesson, with a question now and then to make any difficulty intelligible, you will next take up the spelling. Let the words in the first period be spelt, omitting none because they are small; when words occur which have others of the same sound, but differently spelt, spell them also, that the differences may be made more apparent. Thus the verb were occurs; after having disposed of it, ask for where, an adverb of place, and so in like cases; in this way gather round the spelling in every lesson those difficulties of orthography which fairly fall in your way.

The period being read and spelt, take up its analysis. This portion of your work will call for your very best efforts, and be in itself a fair index of your capabilities and power as a teacher. Of course you will never attempt the analysis of a lesson wlthout previous preparation, and this will not ouly include a thorough mastery of the text, but also a skilful arrangement of the methods and illustrations, by which you propose to render the whole intelligible to your class.

What you have to accomplish in the analysis, is to "vivify the very words of the text, eliciting in the most familiar terms the ideas not already familiar to the children. You are to open up and illustrate the meaning of each word in a passage, and then show the mutual relation of the words, and the connection of the passage with the subject generally of the whole lesson," You are required to regard with much attention the preceding remarks, as a knowledge of the meaning of the individual words which compose a sentence, however precise and accurate, does not necessarily imply an intelligence of the sentence as a whole, much less of its connexion with the subject of the lesson. Avoid telling anything which may be gathered out of the class, and let the information so gained, be questioned on, till you are certain it has become the property of all. Each period is to be clearly and completely worked out, not a question on the text, another on the sense, followed by one on grammar and etymology; but keeping each in its proper place, perfectly distinct and proportionate. Be careful not to allow the