The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-01-26

desire or energy to get anything better. The argument against novel reading which we used to hear forty years ago has almost entirely died out. but 1t had some sense In 1t on this ground If no other, The consumption of vast masses of diluted literary food destroys the tone of the intellect and the moral sta- nina also.
 Such observations and reflections as these force us back again to our re- sources of moral strength. Where do they lie? Without disparaging the value of homiletical instruction and ex- hortation, it will be admitted by every body that 1t takes character above ev- erything else to make character Here IS Where the personality of the teacher mas tranSoendent function in connec- lloh Wlth imparting book learning The school educates the teacher quite as much as 1t educates the scholars The lie and work together under forms Whlch involve discipline and orderly CO., operation cannot go on without frlc- tloh when tells upon both parties. The lhclaents or the school room easily provoke the temper or the vanity, the Jealousy or the rancour of the teacher. Who does not know what pitiless crit lcs scholars are, how sharply they de- tect evidences of human weakness and what severe standards they employ l? hVen parents are exposed to no such criticism. They are shielded and pre- sulnptlons are created in their favor, which teachers do not enjoy. When it comes to demands upon character there is no profession and no relation in life which makes such heavy de- mands as teaching.
 It would, of course, be absurd to make superhuman demands on teach CTS and exaggerated demands could nave no other effect than to discour- age. such is not the point to which my thoughts tend. On the contrary, l have in mind, what I say, the en- ' fcouraging fact that faithful teacher who is always trying to do the best possible is sure to enjoy a large meas ure of success, of which he or she is not conscious. When I look back to my school days I know that two or three of my teachers had decisive ef- fects upon my character and career
 
 | any one of them knew that it was so or that it was to be so. We had one teacher whom I never saw put in a difficult position but what he eXtricated himself from it in such a way that we all felt that that was just the right way to act in an emergency of that kind. That Is the way character is ed ucated by character. Its fruits are abundant and the crop of them is pro- duced over and over again for many a year afterwards, and it is planted and gathered by many workers over many | fiedls.
 I was led into this line of thought by my recollections of our honored guest. I think that the recollections I 1 have suggested may be welcome to him in the retrospect of a long career dur 1 ing which, no doubt, he has had many failures and disappointments to la ment Like all the rest of us he has, no doubt, felt that the results of his 1 labors were not what he hoped for and had fair right to expect. Let me assure him that there has been fruiti- | ton than he has been aware of. It is one chief purpose of this meeting to assure him of it and to give him that explicit proof of it to which he Is en- | titled.