72 EDUCATION, AS IT IS AND AS IT SHOULD BE. 



I shall conclude my sketch of the manner of teaching by the fol- 

 lowing excellent passage from Pestalozzi, which should be committed 

 to memory by every teacher, though if he does not know it intuitively 

 it may be questioned whether he is fit for his situation. " Of all ty- 

 rants it is well known that little tyrants are the most cruel ; and of 

 all little tyrants the most cruel are school-room tyrants. Now, in 

 all civilized countries cruelty of every description is forbidden ; even 

 cruelty to animals is very properly punished, in some, by the law of 

 the land, and in all stigmatized by public opinion. How, then, comes 

 cruelty to children to be so generally overlooked, or rather thought 

 a matter of course ? Some, forsooth, will tell us that their own 

 measures are wonderfully humane, that their punishments are less 

 severe, or that they have done away with corporal punishments. But 

 it is not to the severity of them that I object, nor would I venture to 

 assert, in an unqualified manner, that corporal punishments are inad- 

 missible, under any circumstances, in education. But I do object to 

 their application, I do object to the principle that the children are to 

 he punished when the master or the system is to blame. As long as 

 this shall continue, as long as teachers will not take the trouble, or 

 will not be found qualified, to inspire their pupils with a living inte- 

 rest in their studies, they must not complain of the want of atten- 

 tion, nor even of the aversion, which some of them may manifest. 

 Could we witness the indescribable tedium which must oppress the 

 Juvenile mind, while the iveary hours are sloivly passing away, one 

 by one, in an occupation which they can neither relish nor understand 

 the use of — could we remember the same scenes which our own child- 

 hood has undergone — we would then be no longer surprised at the 

 remissness of the school-boy, creeping, like a snail, imwillingly to 

 school." This, and a great deal more that I might quote, is admi- 

 rable, but it will be entirely thrown away on a certain class of 

 teachers, 



" With eyes which scarcely serve, at most, 

 To guard their master 'gainst a post." 



This class will almost always be found to possess low heads, and with 

 scarcely sufficient Causality to shed even a feeble glimmer in the in- 

 tricate paths of education. Yet they have generally a very comfort- 

 able opinion of themselves, owing to a large development of Self- 

 esteem. 



We shall now turn our attention to the matter of education. This 



