Year: 1864




There is some danger that teachers
will grow into a kind of narr, wness
which can only repel those of other
pursuits No one likes to hear mu-
sician always talking of music, it's
wonderful delights, and the propriety
or duty of giving special attention to
| II. So, we are somewhat disgusted by
! hearing minister continually talking
about Zion and the Gospel not at
all because we object to those words,
or the ideas they represent in the min
isters mind, but simply because it in
dicates a want of general knowledge
or OF common sympathy. We like to
meet men who can talk outside of their
special circle Of labor, who can take
an interest in those concerns which
affect mankind. 1t reveals n breadth
Of culture which is at once worthy of
respect, and able to win sympathetic
attention. We feel that he have found
one man who is not hidden behind the
tree of knowledge he has been culti-
waiting, but has reared it with such
success that he now eats, and dispenses
the we'll favored fruits


Teachers reason somewha like this:
Education is very important matter,
deserving of more attention than t
has usually received Very few teach
ers are rightly qualified for their
stations, through failure to apply them
selves to those studies which are
r'quisite to their success. Ii they
would only give greater attention to
these, they might be very successful,
and this great cause would gloriously
advance


The reasoning is good, but incom-
plete. Doubtless careful attention to
special studies or topics is needful, but
if the attention be confined to those
studies, there is great lack So,
while teachers should seek very care
fully to gain the special knowledge
which VIII render them successful in
teaching, they would do we'll to en-
brace a wider field of search; to read
works not connected with Education,
to know what the world is doing. 1t
is not half as important to know that
it revolves on its axis once in twenty
four hours, as to know what is being
done on it, VII at kinds of beings live,
and act, and enjoy, and suffyr, and die,
on it's surface. 1t is not nearly as
necessary to understand why the
Tropics are placed go 2S' from the
Equator, as to understand the condi-
tion of humanity from the Equator to
the Poles; to know what men are wish
ing or trying to make out of this ex-
pertinent of life; to learn how they
treat one another, how the rich feel
and act toward the poor, how the pop
ular and self complacent speak OF those
noble ones who bravely toll and hero
icalIy suffer for the good of the de-
splsed 1t is not 80 needful to be able
TO explain why the stars cou forth
by night to glorify the sky, as to un-
derstand, to possess and exhibit the
spirit which would lift all men into a
purer atmosphere of unselfsh love
and generous self-forgetfulness, which
would waken men to desire for wis
dom, tor the purity that fits its posses
sor to go beyond the stars when the
earthly fe ter falls away.


If any, surely the teacher, ought to
be free from narrowness, from repelling
pertinacity in dwelling on his special
pursuit He shoald be the liberal man
in community, interested in whatever
concerns the happiness Of fellow-men,
informed in the acts and needs of man.
kind. Where others are dwarfed or
unsymmetrical trees, the teacher
should be a perfect palm, blessing to
the eyes, and JOY to the hearts of men.