ll do their duty, candidates for admission will be so
well qualified in the branches required, that the art of teaching will
be the only art taught here. When this is the case, the time of
attendance will be diminished, and a much larger number of persons may
be annually qualified for the station of teachers.

Next, let the committees and others interested in education make
special efforts to fill the chairs of your hall with young women of
promise, who are likely to devote themselves to the profession. It is,
however, impossible for human wisdom to guard against one fate that
happens to all, or nearly all, the young women who are graduated at our
Normal Schools. But this remark is not made publicly, lest some anxious
ones avail themselves of your bounty as a means to an end not
contemplated by the state.

The house you have erected is not so much dedicated to the school as to
the public; the institution here set up is not so much for the benefit
of the young women who may become pupils, as for the benefit of the
public which they represent. The appeal is, therefore, to the public to
furnish such pupils, in number and character, that this institution may
soon and successfully enter upon the work for which it is properly
designed.

But the character and value of this school depend on the quality of its
teachers more than on all things else. They should be thoroughly
instructed, not only in the branches taught, but in the art of teaching
them.

The teacher ought to have attained much that the pupil is yet to learn;
if he has not, he cannot utter words of encouragement, nor estimate the
chances of success. It is not enough to know what is contained in the
text-book; the pupil should know that, at least; the teacher should know
a great deal more. A person is not qualified for the office of teacher
when he has mastered a book; and has, in fact, no right to instruct
others until he has mastered the subject.

Text-books help us a little on the road of learning; but, by and by,
whatever our pursuit or profession, we leave them behind, or else
content ourselves with a subordinate position. Practical men have made
book-farmers the subject of ridicule; and there is some propriety in
this; for he is not a master in his profession who has not got, as a
general thing, out of and beyond the books which treat of it.

Books are necessary in the school-room; but the good teacher has little
use for them in his own hands, or as aids