(2.) Never get out of patience with dullness.  Perhaps I ought to say, never get out of patience with any thing.  That would, perhaps, be the wisest rule.  But, above all things, remember that dullness and stupidity—­and you will certainly find them in every school—­are the very last things to get out of patience with.  If the Creator has so formed the mind of a boy that he must go through life slowly and with difficulty, impeded by obstructions which others do not feel, and depressed by discouragements which others never know, his lot is surely hard enough without having you to add to it the trials and suffering which sarcasm and reproach from you can heap upon him.  Look over your school-room, therefore, and wherever you find one whom you perceive the Creator to have endued with less intellectual power than others, fix your eye upon him with an expression of kindness and sympathy.  Such a boy will have suffering enough from the selfish tyranny of his companions; he ought to find in you a protector and friend.  One of the greatest enjoyments which a teacher’s life affords is the interest of seeking out such a one, bowed down with burdens of depression and discouragement, unaccustomed to sympathy and kindness, and expecting nothing for the future but a weary continuation of the cheerless toils which have imbittered the past; and the pleasure of taking off the burden, of surprising the timid, disheartened sufferer by kind words and cheering looks, and of seeing in his countenance the expression of ease and even of happiness gradually returning.

(3.) The teacher should be interested in all his scholars, and aim equally to secure the progress of all.  Let there be no neglected ones in the school-room.  We should always remember that, however unpleasant in countenance and manners that bashful boy in the corner may be, or however repulsive in appearance, or unhappy in disposition, that girl, seeming to be interested in nobody, and nobody appearing interested in her, they still have, each of them, a mother, who loves her own child, and takes a deep and constant interest in its history.  Those mothers have a right, too, that their children should receive their full share of attention in a school which has been established for the common and equal benefit of all.

(4.) Do not hope or attempt to make all your pupils alike.  Providence has determined that human minds should differ from each other for the very purpose of giving variety and interest to this busy scene of life.  Now if it were possible for a teacher so to plan his operations as to send his pupils forth upon the community formed on the same model, as if they were made by machinery, he would do so much toward spoiling one of the wisest of the plans which the Almighty has formed for making this world a happy scene.  Let it be the teacher’s aim to co-operate with, not vainly to attempt to thwart, the designs of Providence.  We should bring out those powers with which the Creator has endued the minds placed