rcial engagements; he makes but scant inquiry
as to the character or qualifications of the MIND-BUILDER upon whose
skill, judgment, and trustworthiness the future of his children will
greatly depend.

The position assigned by our social rules to the teacher accords, not with
the nobility of his functions, but with the insufficient appreciation
entertained of them by the people, and is accompanied by a corresponding
inadequate remuneration. And what is the result? Except a few
single-hearted, noble men and women, by whom the profession of the teacher
is illustrated and adorned; except a few self-sacrificing heroes and
heroines whose love of children and of mankind reconciles them to an
humble lot and ill-requited labors, the class of school-teachers
throughout the whole civilized world barely reaches the level of that
mediocrity which in all other callings suffices to obtain not merely a
comfortable maintenance in the present, but a provision against sickness
and for old age.

What aspiring father, what Cornelia among mothers, select for their
children the profession of a teacher as a field in which the talents and
just ambition of such children may find scope? Nor can we hope for any
improvement until a juster appreciation of the nobility of the teacher's
vocation, and a more generous remuneration of his labors shall generally
prevail.

It is to the desire to aid somewhat in bringing about a juster
appreciation in the minds alike of teachers and of people of the utility
and nobleness of the teacher's labors and vocation that these pages owe
their origin.

When we consider the nature of the Being over whose future the teacher is
to exercise so great an influence, whose mind he is to store with
knowledge, and whom he is to train in the practice of such conduct as
shall lead to his happiness and well-being, we are lost in amazement at
the extent of the knowledge and perfection of the moral attributes which
should have been acquired by the teacher. It is his duty to make his
pupils acquainted with that nature of which they form a part, by which
they are surrounded, and which is "rubbing against them at every step in
life." But he can not teach that of which he himself is ignorant. Every
science then may in turn become necessary or desirable to be employed as
an instructive agent, every art may be made accessory to illustrate some
item of knowledge or to elucidate some moral teaching.

Man is his subject, and with the