Year: 1862

iuc5tiOI VIC HdNc IIIcSCutSQ. IUey cltCr
the school room because they find the door
open, and continue there in state OF irrc3-
olution and inaction, until some power which
they have not evoked pushe8 them out Of it.
While in it, they are continually haras sed
by the thought that fortune has been unkind
to them in not making them Governors or
Justices of the Peace instead of school mas
ters. Occasionally they are borne away up
on the wings of fancy to daily with some
new aspiration not born of the school room
one of which is that the common school
system has been abolished and their paw Or
dered to run on! Hard is their fate. They
do not follow teaching as profession, 1t fol-
lows them. The pupils Of a teacher of this
class generally have good time, intellectu-
ally and physically. They are not overtasll-
ed with study, nor is the teacher so ill-na-
tured as to prohibit little innocent whis-
pering while he is looking over the village
paper or copy of the New York Ledger.
Happily for the pupils, their good time does
not last long. 1aachers By accident, gene
rally It'll short engagements.


But it is no. only with reference to the
good Of las expected pupi5s that the young
teacher should at once meet and answer the
question under consideration. He should do
so with reference TO his oao1a good. As has
been already intimated, to make teaching
your calling or profession, if duly yimpressed
with the magnitude of lis responsibilities
and inspired with love for the good that it
will enable you to do, is honorable in man
or woman. To teach school merely because
it pays to do so is diS50nora5le and mem.
To teach school because you happen to find
yourself in school room and don't exactly
know how you got there is ridicu50us. AS
it is proposed in this article and in the arti-
cles which may follow it to address only those
who belong TO the first class here named, or
who hesitate about entering it, the gentle
men who belong to the other classes will
henceforth not occupy our attention. And
now, my young friend Of the honorable pur-
pose, few words in your private ear:


take it for granted that you have passed
that age when, in the spirit of the Roman
custom, the gown Of youth is put off and
the gown Of strength and manhood put on.
Every young man should choose a profess
sion or calling when he changes his gown,
and to teach school is to practice one of the
nobest professions. If, then, upon arriving
at the age of manly responsibility, you find
yourself on the threshold of school room
of which you have serious thoughts Of be-
ing chosen ''master,'' it becomes your duty
to ask yourself the question, Do | intend to
make teaching my p1Ytessio'a? In all prob
ability, as is the decision of that moment so
will be your destiny for life. 'Thc most
important thing in life is the choice of a pro-
fession," wrote the good Pascal. Every
man is, under Providence, the builder of his
own fortunes. One false step may dissipate
all the bright prospects of youth; whereas,
a step in the right direction will send the
youthful spirit bounding on the way to hon
or and usefulness. It is for you to deter
mine whether to teach school would be TO
take ri ight step or a wrong one. IF you
are wise you will not venture upon the pro-
fession of school teaching without at least
understanding some of its cardinal require
mcnts and your own qualifications to meet
them.


Every calling in life has its own peculiar
characteristics, and requires in those who
would embrace it the possession Of CORE
spending qualifications. Scientific attain
ments, aptness to teach, genius for command,
industry, patience, and love for the work,
are the living requisites of a good teacher


IF you find that you possess these, and have
at the same time concluded that you can be
contcnted with a teachers honors and teach
er's pay, do not hesitate to enter the profess
sion and devote to it all the talents God has
given you. But if, after a careful study of
the teachers duties and searching look in
to your own heart, you discover that you do
not poss sess the essential qualifications we
have mentioned, and that vou could mt be
contcnted with teachers lot, at once turn
your back upon the school room you had
thought to enter and seek elsewhere for hon
orable employment of your hands, your head
and your heart. DO not, under any consid-
Grafton, do violence to the better impulses of
your nature, and lasting injury to that por-
tion of the rising generation which would
come under your influence, by entering a
profession for which vou possess no special
qualifications and which you do not love for
its own sake. Justice to Yourself, the re-
spect Of community and the appreciation Of
your conscience REQUIRE that you should in
this matter, as in all other circumstances in
Life which are under your control, do that
aohicb IS right. It nav be that vour forte
for every man has his forte---lies in the
law, civil engineering, literature, the fine
arts, agriculture, theology. Or the healing art.
IF not, you certainly poasess the capacity to
make good mechanic; and to be good