n is, to show by
a familiar illustration, how the teacher is to endeavor to enlist the
interest, and to excite the curiosity of his pupils, in his plans for
the improvement of his school, by presenting them as moral experiments,
which they are to assist him in trying,--experiments, whose progress
they are to watch, and whose results they are to predict. If the precise
steps which I have described, should actually be taken, although it
would occupy but a few minutes, and would cause no thought, and no
perplexing care, yet it would undoubtedly be the means of awakening a
very general interest in the subject of order, throughout the school.
All would be interested in the work of arrangement.

All would watch, too, with interest, the progress and the result of the
experiment; and if, a few days after, the teacher should accidentally,
in recess, see a disorderly desk, a pleasant remark, made with a smile,
to the bystanders, "I suspect my prediction will turn out the correct
one," would have far more effect, than the most severe reproaches, or
the tingling of a rap over the knuckles with a rattan.

I know, from experience, that scholars of every kind, can be led, by
such measures as these, or rather by such a spirit as this, to take an
active interest, and to exert a most powerful influence, in regard to
the whole condition of the institution. I have seen the experiment
successful in boys' schools, and in girls' schools; among very little
children, and among the seniors and juniors at college.

In one of the colleges of New England, a new and beautiful edifice was
erected. The lecture rooms were fitted up in handsome style, and the
officers, when the time for the occupation of the building approached,
were anticipating with regret, what seemed to be the unavoidable
defacing, and cutting, and marking of the seats and walls. It was
however thought, that if the subject was properly presented to the
students, they would take an interest in preserving the property from
injury. They were accordingly addressed somewhat as follows:

"It seems, young gentlemen, to be generally the custom in colleges, for
the students to ornament the walls and benches of their recitation
rooms, with various inscriptions and carricatures, so that after the
premises have been for a short time in the possession of a class, every
thing within reach, which will take an impression from a penknife, or a
trace from a pencil, is covered with names, and dates