I hope the reader will keep in mind the object of the above illustration, which is to show that it is the true policy of the teacher not to waste his time and strength in contending against such accidental instances of transgression as may chance to fall under his notice, but to take an enlarged and extended view of the whole ground, endeavoring to remove whole classes of faults—­to elevate and improve multitudes together.

By these means, his labors will not only be more effectual, but far more pleasant.  You can not come into collision with an individual scholar, to punish him for a mischievous spirit, or even to rebuke him for some single act by which he has given you trouble, without an uncomfortable and uneasy feeling, which makes, in ordinary cases, the discipline of a school the most unpleasant part of a teacher’s duty.  But you can plan a campaign against a whole class of faults, and put into operation a system of measures to correct them, and watch from day to day the operation of that system with all the spirit and interest of a game.  It is, in fact, a game where your ingenuity and moral power are brought into the field, in opposition to the evil tendencies of the hearts which are under your influence.  You will notice the success or the failure of the means you may put into operation with all the interest with which the experimental philosopher observes the curious processes he guides, though your interest may be much purer and higher, for he works upon matter, but you are experimenting upon mind.

Remember, then, as for the first time you take your new station at the head of your school, that it is not your duty simply to watch with an eagle eye for those accidental instances of transgression which may chance to fall under your notice.  You are to look over the whole ground.  You are to make yourself acquainted, as soon as possible, with the classes of character and classes of faults which may prevail in your dominions, and to form deliberate and well-digested plans for improving the one and correcting the other.

And this is to be the course pursued not only with great delinquencies, such as those to which I have already alluded, but to every little transgression against the rules of order and propriety.  You can correct them far more easily and pleasantly in the mass than in detail.

To illustrate this principle by another case.  A teacher, who takes the course I am condemning, approaches the seat of one of his pupils, and asks to see one of his books.  As the boy opens his desk, the teacher observes that it is in complete disorder.  Books, maps, papers, play-things, are there in promiscuous confusion, and, from the impulse of the moment, the displeased teacher pours out upon the poor boy a torrent of reproach.

“What a looking desk!  Why, John, I am really ashamed of you!  Look!” continues he, holding up the lid, so that the boys in the neighborhood can look in; “see what a mass of disorder and confusion.  If ever I see your desk in such a state again, I shall most certainly punish you.”