THE TEACHER'S VOCATION 



365 



helps them from near by, is called upon for duties which to the 

 inexperienced appear simple and easily performed, but are in- 

 deed of a perplexing and exhausting nature. All sympathetic 

 action is taxing to the strength of men. When we go forth to 

 another, making his life our own, we attain our end by ways of 

 exceeding difficulty, by paths which are not beaten, which can 

 only be travelled by patient ingenuity. The teacher must clearly 

 understand the nature of his pupil. He attains his end, if he 

 wins it at all, by vigilant and unceasing attention to every sign 

 which may guide his endeavors. No guide who seeks to bring 

 his charge up the most difficult mountain need be so watchful 

 of his actions as the teacher. He gives away his life to perform 

 his task if he be born to his calling. None but those who have 

 done the teacher's work know the cost of this free giving of the 

 spirit. It has fallen to me to do many things, but none seem 

 to take away so much from my share of vitality as the struggle 

 to gain a hold on the mind of some youth who, by nature re- 

 mote from human ways, must be firmly grasped before he can 

 be helped." 



Mr. Shaler's lecture-notes, of which there are hundreds ex- 

 tant, although the merest outlines of subjects, are illuminating 

 as to the variety of topics and the philosophical and universal 

 way in which they are treated. He seems never to have been 

 satisfied with the mere statement of a fact, he must also make 

 the interpretation. By way of illustrating his general trend of 

 thought, a few extracts from his notes are here given. The first 

 at hand have the following headings : " Importance of Historic 

 Sense," "Importance of Conception of Energy in Operation," 

 " Importance of Understanding the Relation of Earth to Man," 

 " Importance of the Sense of Beauty." Others read as follows : 



Lecture on the Growth of the Study of Natural History: Importance of a 

 study of the growth of a science. Dependence of the growth of a science upon 

 the way the phenomena are exhibited. Dependence upon the mental char- 

 acters of the races. Close likeness of the Greek scientific spirit to our own, 

 utter diversity of Hebrew. Supernatural spirit opposed essentially to the 



