84 M. J. RENDALLj ESQ., M.A., ON THE TEACHER^S VOCATION. 



but it is chastened and expanded by Christian dyaTTTj, The 

 sensitive author of Pastor Agnorum put his point well. Facing 

 his class of twenty boys, he says : " All the metals of humanity are 

 here, since the ages of man all run on together ; and our class 

 will show us gold, perhaps, and silver in thrifty vein, and iron, 

 brass, mercury, with the less precious substances of wood and 

 stone and clay and straw. All the human metals and fibres are 

 here ; but there is one substance in all ahke, the stuff of which 

 God made humanity and the spark He mingled with it. . . . There 

 are a score of faces, and behind each sits a soul, and a destiny is 

 weaving for it." 



If you cannot feel a little of this thrill, mingled with awe and 

 reverence, at the sight of young eyes, which are the gates of 

 the soul, teaching is not your vocation. You had better bestow 

 your qualities of head and heart elsewhere. 



I shall perhaps be charged with exaggerating this quaHty ; 

 but it stands in my view immeasurably above all others in a 

 teacher's work. The old parable of Ion in Plato's dialogue is 

 a true one : the teacher is a Oeto^ avrjp : he catches the inspira- 

 tion which comes to him from God through some human medium, 

 and passes it on to his pupil : he is a ring in the chain. We need 

 not press the parable too closely ; but his personahty must 

 receive and impart magnetic influence. There must be a link of 

 love between teacher and taught. 



The second essential, closely connected with the first, is a 

 readiness to accept moral responsibihty. The modern school- 

 master is rightly anxious to discard pomposity : he wishes to 

 win his way by sympathy and naturalness rather than by law 

 and authority ; if Mr. Lytton Strachey is right in his delineation 

 of Dr. Arnold — though assuredly the portrait is a caricature — 

 most of us would agree with him in deprecating that portentous 

 attitude towards youth. Priggishness and pedantry are the 

 two accusations which provoke us most, perhaps because we are 

 terribly prone to them both. Our disclaimer may, however, 

 go too far. The teacher, especially in a boarding school, is 

 bound to accept, indeed to welcome, moral responsibility : 

 he cannot and should not desire to throw off the gown worn 

 so beautifully by his great prototype of the Early Renaissance, 

 who stood in many ways in advance not only of his own age, 

 but also of ours. " Vittorino," says his biographer, " definitely 



held himself the father of his Scholars His School 



entirely absorbed him. He watched the youngest with affection 



