Year: 1859

| you shake him of. you tell him to &c
to-the most unpleasant place you car
think Of. But WREN this patient, gen
tie teacher asks you to do this. or to
go there, and with fond solicitude,
studies your humors. anticipates your
wants, smiles your welcome. and lives
in the light of your countenance-why,
this is very different thing.


Under the gentle treatment of this
patient teacher. the better traits of your
nature come out: not all at once, in
gushing floods and commissions Of
goodness, frightening every body with
the apprehension that you arc going
to die right of. since You have become
too good for this world. and the an
gels will want you. No, not exactly
SO, but steadily, perhaps imperceptibly
to yourself, yet really and permanent
ly.


By aud by, there comes along an
other teacher to set you some lessons
"A wee. tiny thing. that makes You
laugh as you take it in your arms. and
it learns to nestle on your breast, and
pull your whiskers, and rumple your
shirt collar, or lie across your knees
and kick up its heels and crow obstre-
perously. After awhile it.toddles about
witk you, holding on to your finger,
or your pants. And still farther on,
it runs to meet you, and get the first
kiss. and feel in your pockets to find
what you have brought home. 1t is
but fair too tell you. there will be some
additional fees to pay, when you thus
enter the second class in this high
school. The new teacher your wife
has brought to help educate you. and
herself, also--though, as | said before,
she may not be thinking much about
that--this new teacher can not live
on kisses and caresses. which are well
enough in their place.


Is it boy? lie will soon be clam
oring for his top, and hoops, and mar
hlcs and kite. He will want school
books, slate, paper and pencils. He
will dun you for boots. cap, coats,
trousers, and thousand things besides
thus reminding you of your own for
gotten youth. and bringing back in all
their freshness the purest and best
days of your lie.


Is it girl? She will, by compari-
son with the mother, show you what
your wife once was, and what the
daughter may one day become. In the
meantime, you will be expected to
supply all her wants. 1t you some
times thought the senior teacher exact
ing. what will you do, now there are
two of them, and the younger more
winning and importunate than the
other. / think it likely they will give
you good schooling.


If in the long years you remain III
this school. there should be added
half a dozen assistant teachers, like
the Junior | have mentioned, and each
in turn, should take you in hand, as
they probably will, to rub down the
rough corners and polish You up. it is
to be hoped they will carry forward
your civilization to a very good de-
gree. Among other things. you will
have learned that your interests and
duties are not all at home. You have
given the State. perhaps the church
pledges for your good behavior. and
You will feel bound in honor and in
clination to redeem them.


The old Romans were right when
they refused the honors and emolu-
ments of office to incorrigible bache-
lors, for what security. like wife and
children. could they give the common
wealth for the faithful performance of
their duties as citizens or rulers? 1t
was most astonishing thoughtlessness,
to say the least. in married men to
vote for such dry old stick as James
Buchanan for President, when the
charming Jessie stood ready to give
her aid in the management of unruly
cabinets. put the politics aside. and
found my objection on the natural and
necessary disqualification of inveterate
bachelorhood. The melancholy result
is well expressed by a writer, who de-
scribes what he has seen. Speaking of
our venerable Chief Magistrate, he says
1--WE can not call him splendid ru-
in.' for he is more suggestive in all re-
spects, of an original chaos, in which
the elements of strength and weakness,
of good and evil. have never been al
justed under domestic discipline and
that confidence, which is the most pre-
cious fruit OF our family relations. -
So much for party drill in opposition
to the dictates of nature!


'But are there no failures, no block
heads, no miserable creatures, who
pass through this course of sprouts.
and come out no better, perhaps worse
than they went in?" Alas! my friend;
it is too true; but what wonld You
have? There are some fools that will
not learn even in the school of expert
ence. I'VE must turn them over as in
corrigible, or if that be too severe a
sentence, we may await the possibility
of some better training in better cir
cumstances. in some other world. In
our Fathers house are many mansions.


The reader must see by this time.
that when speaking Of education. do
not here adopt the popular notion of
that subject. A mans education does
not consist solely, or even mainly, of
school learning. by books, maps, SCI
enttic apparatus, and the explanations
of the living teacher. Ii education
means. as l am here supposing, the
process by which the capacities and
mowers of man are most healthfully