CHAPTER VIII.

EFFECTS OF KINDLY ENCOURAGEMENT AND WORDS IN SEASON -REV. DR MACKENZIE OF KINGUSSIE AND EDUCATION IN THE NORTH-SYMPATHETIC PATIENCE OF TEACHERS OF THE BLIND AND DUMB-ABNORMAL DEVELOPMENT OF SPECIAL FACULTIES,

No reminiscences in an inspector's life are so pleasant as those in which he is reminded of some kindly remark he had made at or after an inspection to a boy or girl of superior ability— a remark made casually and long forgotten by himself, but which, unknown to him, had acted as a living and permanent force in moulding character, awakening healthy ambition, and giving direction to a life. I have had many such experiences, and could name not a few men and women who have been stimulated to exertion by a passing word of commendation little thought of by me at the time, and long since forgotten, but which had, as results, brilliant careers at both Scottish and English universities. A lady re

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minded me lately that I had said to her brother, a boy in an Aberdeen country school, who had made a very good appearance in Latin, “My boy, you ought to go to College, you are sure to do well there." The remark took root. He persuaded his mother to let him go to college, and he is now a very eminent scholar, and fellow and tutor of his college in Cambridge. Another pupil in an Aberdeen parish school to whom I awarded a school bursary was thought to be qualified for the learned professions from my directing the attention of his teacher to the excellence

of his examination papers. He too went to the university, and is now fellow of his college in Cambridge. I often regret that I did not more frequently utilise the vital force that lies hid in a word of kindly encouragement, and I venture to advise the younger inspectors, who have probably many years of work before them, to bear in mind and turn to account a power of influencing for good the lives of pupils who pass under their review, which is, I am convinced, much greater than they probably imagine.

In this connection I am tempted to refer to another of these half-forgotten but easily recalled incidents. I was lately reminded by an old and

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valued friend, the Rev. Dr Mackenzie of Kingussie, of a conversation I had with him nearly forty years ago, to which at the time I attached no such importance as to think it should ever be recalled. In the autumn of last year we were discussing school topics, and in contrasting the educational condition of the Highlands early in the 'Sixties with its present position, I remarked that education in the north owed immeasurably more to him than to any man I knew. While with characteristic modesty he disclaimed the well-merited compliment, he said that all he had done had its origin in the conversation referred to. On my asking for an explanation, he said that soon after he had been elected minister of Lochcarron, he found education at a very low ebb in that parish; his congregation, as usual in the Highlands, very much reduced by the Disruption of 1843; his whole environment so unpromising, and affording so little opportunity for any one who wished to do a man's useful work, that he had thought of resigning his charge, and seeking a wider field of usefulness in Australia or elsewhere. He said that I strongly dissuaded him from this, and advised him to look around and consider in what direction, ministerial or secular, he could promote the interests of the

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people among whom his lot was cast; that education was a subject to the stimulation of which he could profitably devote all the energy at his command; and that he would soon find, in this and other lines, such abundant occupation as would satisfy him that he was honourably earning his stipend of £150, although but few attended his church services. This advice he said took permanent hold of him, and he at once turned his attention to Slumby and Janetown, two hamlets in his parish inhabited by a very wretched class of crofters, many of whose children did not attend school at all, and none with useful regularity, mainly from want of suitable clothing. He set about raising funds to supply this want, and succeeded so well that, before his removal from Lochcarron, the parish school became a flourishing institution. He has been thirty-four years minister of Kingussie, where, under his fostering care, the public school is, if not the best, certainly one of the very best schools in the north of Scotland. It is attended by pupils from a wide circuit all round, and from Skye, Uist, and other islands of the Outer Hebrides. But his efforts have not been confined to his own parish. In every educational movement within his reach he has taken a prominent, judicious,

and effective part. His untiring and wholehearted energy in founding bursaries leading from the ordinary to the secondary schools, his influence on the County or Secondary Education Committee, as well as on the Trust for Education in the Highlands and Islands, and the number of students who, thanks to him, have gone to the university and earned distinction, furnish a record which has, I believe, no parallel in Scotland. Of Dr Mackenzie, as appropriately as of any man I know, it may be said, "Si monumentum quæris circumspice."

I have made the acquaintance of almost every variety of teacher, some brimming over with enthusiasm about special methods as the only good ones, others insisting on special subjects as the only important ones. Enthusiasts generally are successful in giving an impulse, often, no doubt, a lopsided one, but still an impulse in an amiable if not entirely practical direction; but there are two classes of teachers with whom I have often come into contact, and for whom I have great respect and even admiration, the teachers of blind and deaf-mute children. They have in quite an exceptional degree (what all teachers who are to produce the best results must have) untiring patience and sympathy with