Mask of Comus.

Character of youth easily moulded.

conduct which has not first been made to appear desirable. Virtuous action ever carries with it its own great reward, and he who in youth becomes enamored of it, is likely to enter upon that bright shining way that shines more and more unto the perfect day, and is surely fortified against the allurements to vice and folly. The invitation of the attendant spirit in the Mask of Comus is seasonable, and happy is he who accepts it:

"Mortals that would follow me,

Love virtue; she alone is free.
She can teach ye how to climb

Higher than the sphery chime;
Or if virtue feeble were,

Heaven itself would stoop to her."

The moral sensibilities comprehended in love to God, love to country, and love to man, are the leading ones that pertain to our conduct in the affairs of life. From the manner in which these are trained and developed results that character which we are to sustain. During our school days, our thoughts and dispositions are pliant and peculiarly susceptible. The character is then easily moulded. It is especially desirable that wholesome instruction should then be given. A neglect of proper training or a wrong impression may be the source of incalculable evils. Scratch the rind of a sapling, and the crooked and

Requisites for a teacher.

Correct habits.

disfigured tree will bear testimony for ages to the work of your ruthless hand. It is important that the teacher should have a thorough acquaintance with the branches he is to teach, be able to explain what is difficult in an interesting and intelligible manner, and have the desire and the ability to excite in his pupils a zealous ardor in the preparation and recitation of their lessons; but it is even more important that he should be capable and intent upon giving the highest and best instruction to the moral sensibilities.

To this end it is absolutely essential that he be a man of irreproachable character, nay, that his life be a noble exemplification of the moral virtues. He should be a pattern after which his pupils may profitably copy. The child is naturally imitative, and the teacher is placed in a position in which he is constantly the noticed and the observed, and if his character be not exemplary, evil consequences may result to his precious charge. It is desirable that the pupil should be instructed and encouraged in the adoption of correct habits. Neatness, cleanliness, proper care of property, order, respect to superiors and to the aged, politeness in personal intercourse, kind and respectful salutations and adieus, courtesy to strangers, a becoming modesty and reserve at all times-to inculcate and enforce these upon his pupils should be the object of his constant care. But alas! for the

A cracked bell.

Aaron Burr.

Byron.

pupils and the best interests of the school, if the teacher be not himself instructed in these habits.

We hear much said about the importance of an education, and we talk about the inestimable treasures of knowledge; but learning and knowledge, and all the fruits of study and discipline, are of little worth if not under the guidance of correct moral principles.

"Talents angel-bright,

If wanting worth, are shining instruments

In false ambition's hand to finish faults
Illustrious, and give infamy renown."

A cracked bell gives forth discordant sounds, and the more it clatters the more we are disgusted. Knowledge without virtue gives to its possessor the ability to perpetrate untold evil upon society and upon himself, and is immeasurably a worse condition than ignorance. Aaron Burr was a scholar of eminence and one of the most accomplished lawyers of his age, but he used his great abilities and his fine learning for the overthrow of the most cherished institutions of his country, and died despised and abhorred as a traitor and a villain. Byron, with all his talents and fine poetic sentiment, was a shameless rake, and with the might and power of his genius, which every one of judgment and taste must admire, he inflicted a wound upon society that ages of pious teaching

Records of crime.

The passions.

and example will not cure. That education may be important, and possess the value of inestimable treasures, it must be under the control of goodness. The records of vice and crime which every week's paper brings to us, and the disgusting and heartsickening details of the execution of miserable wretches even in boyhood, declare with commanding emphasis that our systems of education are deficient in the culture of the moral sensibilities.

Every person who has been eminent in a career of crime, has, upon reflection, been constrained to attribute his unfortunate course to the guidance of his own evil passions. Indeed, the passions when fired with sinful purposes make a man a very devil. But there are no passions of which we are possessed that are in themselves evil or unholy. They are merely the instruments which we may use for a good or a bad purpose. Our Saviour was possessed of all the passions which fire the bosom of the most weak and sinful, but under the control of fervent piety they served to make his life sublime. The passions are necessary to the highest attainment of virtue. Without them to inspire us with fervor, our mental faculties would be powerless. There would be no high purpose and firm resolve, no heroic valor and noble daring, no martyrdom for truth, no self-sacrificing philanthropy. Our passions are our best having

Weakness to falter.

Responsibility of the teacher's position. Needs.

when under proper control, and are the means of that high life which commands respect and love.

The teacher occupies a position of great responsibility. The importance of the trust must be apparent to every reflecting mind. It is a profession requiring qualifications the most varied, demanding a combination of rare talents and elaborate culture. The demands which an enlightened discharge of his duty will make upon him, require that he should go forth to his labor fully panoplied with knowledge and virtue. He needs liberal mental culture, but he needs most of all a double portion of God's Holy Spirit to enlighten his understanding and warm his heart, to support and strengthen him in times of trouble, to make him firm and resolute in the correction of the wrong and the vindication of the right, to guard him in the hour of temptation, and to refine and purify every holy enjoyment. The teacher, in view of the responsibleness of his position and the qualifications needed, may despond, and say, these requirements are too great for a station commanding so small remuneration and so little esteem and honor. But you are the one to make the profession honorable, to inspire people with respect for it and you, and thus merit better remuneration. It is weakness for you to falter in this cause and fall back in presence of such weak foes. He who would win victories in a field like