M. J. KENDALL, ESQ., M.A., ON THE TEACHER's VOCATION. 87 



takes precedence of their own," must forego many things if he is 

 prepared to be in his own way a Pastor Agnorum. I could teli 

 you of at least one such shepherd (he was not in Holy Orders), a 

 man of high literary distinction and strong physique, whose 

 mind and body were prematurely shattered by devotion to his 

 charge. 



It is natural enough that many of us should not triumph 

 over our drudgery. We become dull dogs, and as such often stand 

 in the pillory of the novelist. When Mr. Hardy, in his gloomiest 

 novel, wanted an unfortunate on whom to empty the vials of his 

 cynicism and contempt, he chose a village schoolmaster for his 

 victim. We teachers cannot quite live the life of other men. I, for 

 one, do not desire that we should. T dread the arrival of an 

 epoch of fashionable schoolmasters. We are members of a 

 separate order — a high order, I verily believe — who have their 

 own rewards in abundance, but whose lives, whose hours, whose 

 routine are, for good or evil, inalienably mixed up with the 

 standards and discipHnes of immaturity. If we are wise, we 

 shall accept the limitations of our caste : we shall not seek to 

 escape from our bondage ; we shall remember our Master's 

 words : " For their sakes I sanctify myself." On this third 

 heading I would say to all intending schoolmasters : count the 

 cost, and if you are not prepared to put your boys first and 

 yourself second, this vocation is not for you. It offers few prizes 

 or distinctions : it is an avenue which leads nowhere, neither 

 to politics nor (for laymen) to other preferment. You are asked 

 to live not your own life but the life of others. It is no path 

 for ambition or self-seeking. 



I demand then enthusiasm for boyhood, readiness for responsi- 

 bility, acceptance of sacrifice as the spiritual equipment of a 

 teacher, and I am inchned to think with Mr. Mansbridge that 

 there will always be men enough in our Society who bear these 

 tokens and are " ordained " for this vocation. I put this 

 spiritual equipment first because I accord it absolute primacy : 

 it is the unum necessarium. I believe that there are men of 

 mediocre capacity with these spiritual tokens who can fill a 

 useful niche in the temple of Education ; on the other hand, 

 there is no proper niche for smartness, levity and selfishness, 

 though accompanied by intellectual brilliance. 



Before passing from these considerations I would interpose 

 one remark. We must remember that youth catches the 

 infection," as Dean Inge calls it, not only of rehgion, but also 



