Parsing!-A dialogue.-"The Rule, sir."

England); some were trying their skill at a spit-ball warfare; others were making voyages of exploration beneath the seats. The school, consisting of some seventy pupils, were as busy as the occupants of an ant-hill. The sentence to be parsed was, "A good boy loves study." No written description can present the scene as it was acted in real life.

It should be borne in mind that every word spoken by the teacher, whether to the class or to the school, was in a tone of voice which might have been heard at least an eighth of a mile, and that every exclamation was accompanied by several energetic thumps of a large oaken 'rule' upon the lid of his desk. The language of the teacher is in italics. "Mary, parse A." "A is an indefinite"-" Silence! Order there !"—" article, and is prefixed to"-" John !"-"No sir, it is prefixed to"-" Martha, Martha! sit up"-"it is prefixed to-boy."-"Right."-" Good, next."—" Good is an adjective,"—" Order, Order, Order!"-thump, thump, thump!" Go on, go on, I hear you!"thump, thump!" and belongs to"-" Speak louder! Sit up there! What are you doing? And belongs to?"-" boy."-" The Rule. The RULE! I say."Here several children looked earnestly at the piece of timber he held in his hand." The Rule, sir, the Rule!"-thump, thump!" You've got it in your hand," vociferated a little harmless-looking fellow on the front seat, while the scholar proceeded to recite the rule." Adjectives belong to"-" Lazy, lazy fellow ! sit up there."-Here the class smiled, and the scholar

A Babel.-Who made it?-Another visit.

completed his rule, asserting however that "adjectives belong to nouns," and not to "lazy fellows," as the class seemed to understand the master to teach. Word after word was parsed in this way, (a way of teaching our language, which, if we could know it had been practised at the erection of Babel, would sufficiently account for that memorable confusion of tongues without the intervention of a miracle,) till the teacher, nearly exhausted by this strange combination of mental, oral, and manual labor, very much to the relief of all, vociferated" That'll do !" and the scene was changed.

At the close of the afternoon, we were told that "it was a very hard school, that it was almost impossible to keep order, and that he should be discouraged were it not that he saw a manifest improvement within a few days past!"

Now this teacher made the school what it was, by his own manner. He would have done the same in any school. He taught in the most effectual way the science and art of confusion; and notwithstanding the hard name he gave his school, he was emphatically the most disorderly and noisy member of it.

There was a change. On another day, accompanied by the same friend, we presented ourselves at the door of this same room for admittance. We heard no sound as we approached the entrance, and almost began to suspect we should find there was no school within. We knocked; and presently, without our hearing the footstep of the person who approached, the door opened, and we passed in. The children looked up a moment

A new teacher.-Good order.-The secret.

as we entered, and then bent their eyes upon their lessons. The teacher softly handed us seats, and then proceeded with the recitation. His manner was quiet and deliberate, and the school was orderly and busy. He had no rule in his hand, no heavy boots on his feet, (he had exchanged them for slippers on entering the school,) and no other means of giving emphasis to his words. He kindly requested,-never commanded,— and every thing seemed to present the strongest contrast with the former scene. The hour of dismission arrived, and the scholars quietly laid by their books, and as quietly walked out of the house, and all was still.

"How have you secured this good order?" said we to the teacher. "I really do not know," said he with a smile, "I have said nothing about order." "But have you had no difficulty from noisy scholars?" "A little at first; but in a day or two they seemed to become quiet, and we have not been troubled since."

Now the secret was, that this latter teacher had learned to govern himself. His own manner gave character to the school. So it will ever be. A man will govern more by his manner than in any other

way.

There is, too, such a thing as keeping a school too still by over-government. A man of firm nerve can, by keeping up a constant constraint both in himself and pupils, force a deathlike silence upon his school. You may hear a pin drop at any time, and the figure of every child is as if moulded in cast iron. But, be it

Excessive silence.-Recapitulation.-Force sometimes needful.

remembered, this is the stillness of constraint, not the stillness of activity. It is an unhealthy state both of body and mind, and when attained by the most vigilant care of the teacher, is a condition scarcely to be desired. There should be silence in school, a serene and soothing quiet; but it should if possible be the quiet of cheerfulness and agreeable devotion to study. rather than the "palsy of fear."

Thus far I have confined myself to those qualifications in the teacher, and to those means which, under ordinary circumstances and in most districts, would in my opinion secure good order in our schools. With the qualifications I have described in the mental and moral condition of the teacher, and the means and suggestions above detailed combined, I believe a very large majority of our schools could be most successfully governed without any appeal to fear or force.

But as some schools are yet in a very bad state, requiring more than ordinary talents and skill to control them; and as very many of those who must teach for a long time to come have not, and cannot be expected to have all the qualifications described, and much less the moral power insisted on, it is unreasonable to expect, taking human nature as it is, and our teachers as they are, that all can govern their schools without some appeals to the lower motives of children, and some resort to coercion as an instrumentality. I should

Punishment defined.-Comments on definition.

leave this discussion very incomplete, therefore, were I not to present my views upon the subject of

SECTION III. - PUNISHMENTS.

As a great deal has been written and spoken upon the subject of school punishments, I deem it important that the term, as I intend to use it, should be defined at the outset. I submit the following definition:

PUNISHMENT IS PAIN INFLICTED UPON THE MIND OR

BODY OF AN INDIVIDUAL BY THE AUTHORITY TO WHICH HE IS SUBJECT; WITH A VIEW EITHER TO REFORM HIM, OR TO DETER OTHERS FROM THE COMMISSION OF OFFENSES, OR BOTH.

It is deemed essential to the idea of punishment that the inflictor have legitimate authority over the subject of it, otherwise the act is an act of usurpation. It is also essential that the inflictor should have a legitimate object in view, such as the reformation of the individual or of the community in which his example has exerted an influence,-otherwise the act becomes an abuse of power. Infliction for the purpose of retaliation for an insult or injury, is not punishment; it is revenge. Whenever, therefore, a teacher resorts to such infliction to gratify his temper, or to pay off, as it is expressed in common language, the bad conduct of a pupil, without any regard to his reformation or the prevention of similar offenses in the school, the pain he inflicts is not punishment; it is cruelty. Very great importance is to be attached to the motive in this ma.