is in danger of losing who is in daily contact with the hard, unfeeling world, which mistrusts his motives, questions his honesty, and is ever ready to take advantage of his mistakes and inefficiency. When your work is done, there will be those who remember with true affection happy schooldays spent under your instruction, and there will be some to cherish the memory of the old teacher and be grateful for his influence over them when he has passed to the world beyond. Is there any earthly reward greater than this?

room.

In considering teaching as a profession, it is proper to remember the special opportunities offered for private study and writing, as well as for the conservation of health, by the limited requirements of the classThe number of hours per day with one's classes is small, when compared with the number given to business, and the teacher has time for daily exercise and recreation which a man in business cannot afford. In the schools the classroom work is limited to five days in the week, and in nearly all schools and colleges, as the year is at present divided, not less than onefourth of it is allowed for vacations. It is not to be inferred from this that the teacher's life is an easy one, for a considerable part of these vacation periods ought to be spent in planning and preparing for the studies of the coming term or year, or devoted to some kind of intellectual work which will make one a more efficient teacher; but they give opportunity for a pleasant change of occupation and for a relief from the wearing duties of the classroom.

The exercise of power is pleasing to many. The teacher, though under the control of the authorities that appoint him, is allowed great latitude in the management of his room, or of his school if he be the headmaster, and is a real ruler, for the most part with willing and obedient subjects. In case he is the owner as well as headmaster of a private school, he is absolute ruler of it. The responsibility of management is a great factor in self-development. The exercise of power not only begets self-confidence and self-respect, but the man who exercises it wisely, wins the confidence and respect of other men.

The systematic life of the teacher is conducive to health and happiness. Most professional men do not know in the morning what demands will be made upon them during the day, nor when their day will end. But for the teacher each day's duties are marked out in advance. He goes to his various tasks at times appointed, and one task does not interfere with another. He has a time for everything; a time to begin and a time to end. Nothing need disturb his peace to-day, and he need not dread the morrow.

To be a good teacher, one must devote to the service his mind, his heart, his strength. The large demands of the vocation make it inviting. The young man who wishes to live a life that will count is not looking for an easy position, but for one where he can accomplish something that only a few can do well. There is great satisfaction in working in a field in which there is so much opportunity for new ideas. Since Ezekiel

Cheever began his remarkable career of seventy years as the first great New England schoolmaster, there have been many good American teachers and a few that are rightly called great, but there has been no teacher of long experience who would claim that he knew all that ought to be known about the best way to train children and youth. There have been those who thought they knew it all before they began, but they have learned better by practice. This generation is showing greater interest than any before it in the study of all kinds of educational problems, and the result is better teachers and better schools. The interest is destined to continue, with increasing advantage to teachers and schools, and this will be a good movement in which to have a share. The day is past when schools and colleges treated all boys as if they had the same characteristics and ability, and must all be taught the same things in the same way. Time, character, health, life itself are involved in the process of education. What we want to know is how boys unlike in temperament, in character, and in ability may be trained so that, without risk of health, with the least waste of time, and with the least danger of moral failure, they may be best fitted to take up the responsibilities of mature manhood.

To one who selects teaching as his vocation, there are open a great number of special lines. He may prepare himself to teach the subject which he likes best, or the one which he thinks he can make most interesting, or the one that seems to be most in demand, and may

feel pretty sure of being able to limit his instruction to his specialty. A half century or so ago a teacher in an academy or a tutor in college might be required to teach any subject or any combination of subjects taken in the academy or by a college class. The same instructor at Andover taught my division in Greek, Latin, algebra, and geometry. In Freshman year in college my class was taught algebra by a tutor who became a professor of Latin, geometry by one who became a professor of American history, and Latin by one who became a professor of chemistry. While the instruction in each of these courses was good, owing to the personality of the man who gave it, the instructors did not have the satisfaction of teaching the subjects in which they were especially interested and which they were, at that time, preparing themselves to teach in later years. Now, in all the best schools, each teacher's work is limited to one subject or to allied subjects. In a well-equipped school of forty pupils, the faculty will probably include one instructor in the classics, one in modern languages, one in science, one in mathematics, one in English, one in history. If the school is quite large, the subjects may be still further divided, one teacher taking Greek and another Latin, one French and another German, one physics and another chemistry, while other teachers are appointed, each of them giving all his time to a single subject, as, for example, music or physical education. This limitation of a teacher's energies to one somewhat narrow field

has resulted in the development of very expert teachers in the modern fitting schools.

Many have been influenced to become teachers from the desire for an immediate income. Teaching enables one to become self-supporting much earlier than any ordinary calling open to a college graduate, because his studies in school and college and his experience as a student seem to him to furnish the preparation which he needs. Therefore one already mature, or one who wishes to establish a home with little delay, has a strong motive for becoming a teacher. I would not advise a young man, however, to be influenced by either of these considerations, unless he is sure that he has the natural qualifications of a teacher. To make the most of one's self, one must sacrifice the present to the future and be willing to practice for a time much selfdenial, that he may better fill the place for which nature designed him.

If one is in debt for his education, a position in a good school will give him the opportunity to cancel the obligation. A debt of this kind ought to be paid at the earliest possible date after graduation. I assume, of course, that the college man who owes his degree to one who has befriended him in time of need is a man of honor, and expects to pay the debt sometime. If allowed to run on, it will be a depressing burden when he is ready to establish himself in his profession, and can hardly earn enough to keep soul and body together.