90 M. J. KENDALL^ ESQ._, M.A., ON THE TEACHER^S VOCATION. 



a responsibility which he cannot throw off and an inspiration 

 which need never fail. 



Can you teach patriotism ? Milton would say yes, you can 

 if you possess it. Others will catch it from you. It is not a 

 knowledge of facts of history, but a personal attitude. Socrates 

 would not have convinced Laches if he had not proved himself 

 a true man at Delium. All our masters who rushed to join the 

 Colours at the outbreak of War, and many who did their duty at 

 home, are and will always be professors of patriotism. They 

 have the essence of the matter in them ; such men respond and 

 make others respond to the hving words of Shakespeare or 

 Burke, Pericles or Demosthenes. They have won the right 

 to be their mouthpieces, their prophets. The spirit in them, 

 their enthusiasm, will often triumph over imperfect utteranc 

 and mediocre understanding. 



We shall be told, fifty thousand German schoolmasters did 

 quite as well. Let us give them their due : most of them 

 possessed and taught, only too well, a patriotism which was 

 ardent but not enhghtened. In the Prussian sense they were 

 indeed successful. Their pupils caught a vehement attack 

 of Prussian patriotism. In any high sense they were failures, 

 because their eyes were closed to the great visions of all philo- 

 sophers, Liberty and Justice, on which the highest patriotism 

 must ultimately rest. 



Take another subject much in controversy at the moment, 

 which may be regarded as a branch of patriotism, the study of 

 Civics. It is wise and useful to pick out the threads of ci\ac 

 development, especially as a part of historical study. Anyone 

 with a clear head and sane grasp of history may perform the task ; 

 but in sowing civic seed the best teacher will be one who has 

 himself some personal contact with municipal government, 

 who knows something from experience of the machinery of the 

 State. If President Wilson could return to his Pre fessor's 

 Chair at Princeton, he could give a series of illumii ating 

 and convincing lectures on the whole duty of the citizen. 



Perhaps these two instances to which Milton has led us, both 

 of which extend the teacher's scope and show how the class- 

 room can influence action, may serve to explain hoAV example 

 may be of use in things moral and intellectual, in leading the 

 pupil to perform some of the offices, both public and private, 

 of peace and war. I need not labour the point that every 

 moral quahty of the teacher, consciously or subconsciously^ 

 reacts upon the character of the pupil. 



