the contrary, a spirit of
contempt on the one side and of open hostility on the other placed those
obstacles in his way which a less original and energetic mind than his
would not have been able to surmount. The usual methods of punishment
could not be applied with any success; accordingly, he discarded them
all. He made no attempt to frighten his refractory troop into order and
obedience, but used only the instrument of an all-forbearing kindness.
Even when obliged to apply coercive measures, he employed them with such
a spirit as showed the children that he did not have recourse to them
through anger, but that their use occasioned no less distress to him
than to themselves.

His mode of instruction partook of the character of his discipline. Both
were marked with the simplicity of nature. He had none of the ordinary
apparatus of teaching, not even books. Himself and his pupils were all.
The result was that he abandoned the common artificial systems of
instruction and gave his whole attention to the original elements of
knowledge which exist in every mind. He taught numbers instead of
ciphers, living sounds instead of dead characters, deeds of faith and
love instead of abstruse creeds, substances instead of shadows,
realities instead of signs. He led the intellect of his children to the
discovery of truths which, in the nature of things, they could never
understand.

In the midst of his children he forgot that there was any world beside
his asylum. And as their circle was a universe to him, so was he to them
all in all. From morning till night he was the centre of their
existence. To him they owed every comfort and every enjoyment; and,
whatever hardships they had to endure, he was their fellow-sufferer. He
partook of their meals and slept among them. In the evening he prayed
with them before they went to bed; and from his conversation they
dropped into the arms of slumber. At the first dawn of day it was his
voice that called them to the light of the rising sun and to the praise
of their heavenly Father. All day he stood among them, teaching the
ignorant and assisting the helpless; encouraging the weak and
admonishing the transgressor. His hand was daily with them, joined in
theirs; his eye, beaming with benevolence, rested on theirs. He wept
when they wept, and rejoiced when they rejoiced. He was to them a
father, and they were to him as children. Seventy or eighty children,
whose dispositions were of the most unp