M. J. KENDALL, ESQ., M.A., ON THE TEACHER's VOCATION. 83 



must choose our men, or rather they must choose themselves, 

 with care and deliberation. It is not a question of selecting a 

 profession, but of discovering the profession which is waiting 

 for us. There is probably no other calling which has suffered 

 so much from haphazard or even topsy-turvy methods of 

 selection. In the past a black or a " blue " coat has covered a 

 multitude of incapacities ; a combination of the two has proved 

 irresistible. So much for the higher ranks of the profession. 

 The lower ranks have been too often recruited from men who 

 discovered no other aptitude — many of whom have spent 

 sorrowful years in neglecting and misunderstanding the children 

 under their charge. 



What then are the characteristics which we should demand 

 in others or seek in ourselves ; what is the " beetle on the tongue " 

 or the " winged eagle on the back " of our Apis ? 



The first, and perhaps the greatest, is a sense of ecstasy and 

 wonder in the presence of youth, an intimate sympathy with 

 and sensibility for childhood, a full appreciation of the divinity 

 that hedges the child about. The thought is Greek, but the 

 feeling is not confined to Greece, it has come unspoilt down the 

 ages. To plant fair seed in a fair soil, to water and foster it, 

 to watch the harvest growing — orient and immortal wheat " 

 Traherne would have termed it — this is sheer joy to those who 

 love boyhood. To those who do not it spells boredom ineffable 

 and much vexation of soul. The enthusiasm of the child-lover 

 IS the Greek epw^ tempered by Christian aydirr). For a real 

 teacher we want the former as well as the latter. I incline to 

 think it is the rarer of the two qualities. Mr. Neville Talbot 

 has a striking passage in his book. Religion behind the Front, 

 in which he speaks of the subaltern's infinite and romantic 

 task of loving his men — not necessarily of liking them, though 

 certainly this will often follow — but of putting their interests 

 first and his own second." 



The teacher must both love and hke his children. All the 

 highest educators have felt a thrill of excitement in their work : 

 the contact of spirit with spirit is like an electric current. Tiie 

 classroom is a house of joy or a house of torment. To take 

 two great names, you cannot picture a Vittorino or a Miss Mason 

 (the " Egeria " of Mr. Holmes' Idyll) otherwise than alive and 

 happy in their work, and the cause of all their excitement and 

 wonder is the budding soul which lies somewhere behind and 

 shines through living eyes. The old Greek epw? is there still ; 



