as by some great net-work of iron, and in his power of obedience rest both his safety and success. It is by conforming to the laws of vegetable growth that he raises and reaps his harvests. Let him disobey and he fails. Observing the laws of mechanic forces, he wins the triumphs of his mighty machinery. Let him refuse submission, or carelessly transgress, and the power he has invoked may become his ruin. By patient following of the laws of truth, he enters the domains of knowledge, and is permitted to gaze on the unveiled wonders of her presence. Thus everywhere, when he obeys he conquers, when he sins he falls.

Nor have we yet reached the end of that world of law that surrounds and governs us. In the social nature lies another realm of laws, binding every soul by their mandates and limitations; and high over all arise the great religious laws of God, the statutes of that spiritual realm which counts both worlds as its own. And as if this were not enough, society makes laws in the customs it imposes upon all its members, and the State adds its ponderous statute books, to define the rights and duties of man as a citizen.

In the face of all this,-and this enumeration is but the merest glimpse of the great and ponderous truth it seeks to reveal -what lesson so important-so immensely important-for man to learn, as that of the art of obeying? What educational acquisition is so vital and essential as the power to render cheerful and happy obedience to rightful authority and established law? As the caged bird frets and beats its wings against the bars of its prison, so must the untamed and unsubmissive soul chafe against the great frame-work of natural and revealed laws which forever inclose it. As the locomotive runs along its iron path, and finds safety and swift progress in the friendly tracks that guide its course, so will the obedient and law.abiding soul find its surest element of power and advancement in that great established order of things which it has learned to obey. Thus is law, an element of strength or an instrument of sorrow- -a pathway or a cage-as the child is taught obedience, or is left

to be the victim of its own native lawlessness. To what a grandeur of importance does the good government of schools arise, under the light of this demonstration! How foolish the conclusion of those who count that the study of text books is the great central work of the school, and that any government is good enough, if the lessons are only properly learned and recited! What acquisitions of knowledge or art can compensate a man for having failed to learn that noblest of all knowledge -the knowledge of duty-and to acquire that best of all arts, the art of submitting the soul, with all its powers, passions and aspirations, in the grand and eternal service of law! How sad and terrible the comment which the unhappy and discontented lives of men,-the crimes committed in passion,-the constant rebellions against society and government,-the wearying unrest of so many lives.—pronounce upon the failure so common to teach children how to govern themselves.

In the aims of school government lie involved all its main principles and laws. Its very secret and philosophy are wrapped up in them, and in vain will any one seek to understand, or intelligently administer a wise and wholesome government of children without a careful consideration of these high aims.

The governing forces of the school room may be divided into two great classes; the personal forces, or those which lie in the person and character of the teacher, and the systematic forces, or those which reside in the order and arrangements of the school. The mistakes and failures in school government have often arisen from the disregard of this latter class of forces, and from a too exclusive reliance upon the personal power and influence of the teacher.

I. The personal forces are the following, viz: mind force, will force, and physical force.

1st. The mind or thought force mainly exerts itself through the plans and material contrivances it calls to its aid, and which belong properly to the systematic forces; but there is a power in mind itself to inspire respect and command obedience. The teacher that exhibits high learning and talent will win

from his pupils a veneration, which will add weight to his authority, especially if coupled with a becoming dignity and kindness. The keen-witted teacher, who is quick to detect and expose mischief, has a still further power in the belief he excites in his pupils that it is impossible to deceive him. But mind force unsupported can accomplish but little. Splendid scholars and men of great talents often utterly fail as governors of schools.

2d. The will force is of much larger power. A strong and steady will is the very quality of a true governor. The pupils of a school soon learn whether they have over them a person of weak will, whose purposes waver, and whose commands are not likely to be enforced, or one that never turns aside from his plans, and never stops short of their accomplishment. To the strong will they yield as to an irresistible force. The main qualities of a true governing will are these: steadiness, calmness, energy and endurance. The steady will does not act by sudden impulses, caught by some fancy, or stirred by a burst of passion. It pursues its resolutions with even tenor and unvarying strength. Calmness, another prime quality, stands opposed to the loud, boisterous energy with which some strong wills manifest themselves, and by their rough and rasping manner, arouse the very opposition they seek to overcome. But the quality of energy must not be wanting. However kind or calm in manner, the will should urge forward its purposes not only with a steady determination but with an energetic power born of the double sense of right and duty. Finally, the will that endures, that never relinquishes its purposes when deliberately and wisely taken-that does not tire with difficulties, nor cool with delays-this is especially the will that governs children. Once convinced that they are dealing with a will stronger and more enduring than their own, they soon learn that resistance is useless, and cease to contend.

How strongly these qualities stand in contrast with those of the weak and poor governor. Moved by sudden impulses of reform, or fired by some hasty outburst of passion, he makes

a rule to-day which he forgets to-morrow; threatens what he has not the patience or the power to execute, and coaxes for an obedience which he has not the firmness to command. Weak and wavering, he is alternately strict to severity and lax to indifference. His pupils neglect to obey, because they count confidently on his forgetting what he commanded, or on some change in his purpose, or weariness in executing it. He punishes in a passion, or compromises with disobedience to avoid a too wearisome conflict; his well laid plans of instruction are 'never carried out, and the order of his school finally goes down under the burden of its accumulated weakness and failures.

It is not to be understood that the strong and true will, governs by mere dint of willing, and without the aid of wise laws and systematic plans.

3d. The love force in governing is the attractive power which good will and kindness in a teacher exerts over his pupils. Its two main elements are kindness in intention and kindness in manner. Genuine good will, seeking earnestly the wellbeing of the pupils, and exerting itself in a manner at once kind and unaffected, has an almost magic power to tame rude and rebellious spirits, and to win obedience to the requirements of the teacher. But he who attempts to rely on this power alone for tho government of a school, will soon find that youthful appetite and passion are often stronger than gratitude, and that kindness degenerates into weakness when not supported by authority. The will force and love force should never be disunited in government. The one is the iron hand and the other the velvet glove,—or better still, the one is the impelling centrifugal power, and the other the attracting centripetal force, which hold the school to its daily round of duty and order.

4th. The physical force of the teacher is the war power of the school room. It is the dread dernier resort, and will be rarely if ever used by the wise and humane teacher. The knowledge of the existence of this power gives to the teacher's words weight and authority, but it is questionable whether its actual

use does not always work more injury than good. It tends to brutalize the feelings both of teachers and pupils.

Such then,,are the personal forces belonging to the teacher, and available in the government of a school. They may be improved by use and culture, but even when they exist in the higher degree they are rarely adequate to the constant strain and heavy burden of the daily government of a large school. He who relies wholly upon his personal powers in the government of his school, will often fail. The task returns too incessantly, and wearies by its perpetual strain the sternest powers of endurance. In this, as in its other great works, a true wisdom will seek to ally itself to the great mechanic forces lying in nature.

II. The systematic forces in government bear the same relation to the personal forces that machinery does to the hand that builds and controls it. The vast and unwearying forces of na ture submit to be made the slaves of the thinker so soon as he has contrived the harness of machinery in which they can be thralled. A child's hand may do the work of a hundred men if you will but give him steam for his servant and a machine fitted to his task. So in school government, system, which is but another machine, lends a new power to the teacher, and brings the silent forces of mental nature to the service and assistance of his will.

The systematic forces in government are these, viz:

1st. The neatness, order and arrangement of the school-room and furniture. Neatness in external things begets a sense of order and propriety. The orderly and convenient arrangement of the room and furniture not only helps this effect, but lelps to prevent the noise and confusion incident to the movement of the classes in an ill regulated room. A school-room kept persistently neat and in order,-every bench, and cap, and book, broom, and chalk, and chair, in place, will be found a powerful adjunct in the government.

2d. Another of these systematic forces is the careful and wise