258 REMARKS ON THE NECESSITY, &C. 



their school." It is firmness, joined with good-humour, that is so 

 essential a requisite for a teacher. He who is perpetually with a 

 fierce countenance, angry tone, and harsh words, will soon fall into 

 contempt, and he will, at last, cease even to be a scare-crow. Mas- 

 ters of this unfortunate disposition always seem to forget that, by 

 roughly speaking to the pupil, they set an example of the same to 

 the objects of their pernicious passion. " Passionate chiding," says 

 Locke, " usually carries rough and ill language with it, which has 

 this further ill effect, that it teaches ajid justifies it in children. 

 And the names that parents and preceptors give them, they will not 

 be ashamed to bestow on others, having so good an authority for the 

 use of them." As long as teachers adopt this system, they will ex- 

 cite the contempt of their pupils, who will make little or no pro- 

 gress, except in the development of their animal organs. 



It is often said that peculiar and careful methods of teaching may 

 be necessary with infants, but when a pupil has '^ arrived at a cer- 

 tain age," he should work independent of the teacher, from whom 

 he would only require occasional hints. This might be the case if 

 a right method of instruction was adopted when young. But, as 

 Locke truly remarks, '' having made them ill children, we foolishly 

 expect them to be good men." And this expectation, like every 

 other founded on wrong grounds, always has been, and always will 

 be, disappointed. 



I have only been able to touch on a few of the more prominent 

 topics relating to education in this paper, owing to my limited 

 space ; but as it is a subject which involves the well-being and hap- 

 piness of all classes, I trust these remarks will induce an investiga- 

 tion into the defective system which at present exists in this country. 



S. D. W. 



