A Charge on Education 



fountain whose portrait by the great Velasquez hangs in 

 the royal gallery of Madrid. 



"When a man enters upon any profession, he is always 

 met in the vestibule of it by a troublesome crowd of atten- 

 dant difficulties and disadvantages. And this is well ; for 

 the incompetent may as well be disheartened at once, while 

 the able master must familiarise himself with adverse 

 influences which he has in the sequel to correct and 

 overcome. 



"Let us consider these difficulties and disadvantages in 

 the case of the teacher. There is a daily trial of patience 

 with refractory little imps ; a daily pounding over the 

 same short road of juvenile study. There is the temptation 

 to neglect — the temptation to tyranny — the temptation to 

 favouritism. A short-sighted, ambitious man might slur 

 over the education of his boys, to cultivate his own mind. 

 A hasty man might easily slip into the habit of using his 

 almost despotic power without due conscientious consider- 

 ation. An enthusiastic man would naturally be led to 

 expend all his attention on promising and congenial pupils, 

 to the prejudice of others. 



" You may say such a profession is a death-blow to ambi- 

 tious prospects. I answer, that a calling in which a young 

 man acquires scrupulous care, discrimination, and justice, 

 cannot be throwing time away ; and that learning to rule 

 boys is the first step towards ruling men. You will say, 

 ' There is no instance ! A man gets lazy, and loses his 

 mettle like a horse in a mill. A pedagogue never becomes 

 anything more.' 



" Great men are rare, I answer, and still rarer are those 

 who have grown great in comfortable situations. 



"But say that the profession of a teacher leads to nothing 

 but a very improbable bishopric, which is of no service to a 



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