An Address [pp. 274-278]

ADDRESS.
machinery in constant motion, the evidence of superior mental power, we should have said of marvelous versatility of talent.
While in the mechanic arts, excellence is attained only by a minute acquaintance with all
their dependencies, and from one admitted truth
others are alone deduced, the whole combination
thus becoming applicable to the purposes of life,
on the great subject of education, by many, far too
many, the principle is but partially admitted, if not
utterly reprobated. Should a man, who has not
studied the philosophy of mind, investigated its
whole order, and formed correct views of its capacity for improvement, be intrusted with the intellectual training of the young? It is a reproach
upon the moral sense of any community whenever
such an anomaly exists; and the only expiation
that can be effectually made by those who have tolerated the evil, is to repudiate the practice at once.
We must not forget that literature and the arts
have had their golden age. If we can ever rival,
we cannot hope to surpass the monuments of genius that the painters, the sculptors, the rhetoricians, and the poets of antiquity have left behind
them. Such memorials teach us a lesson of humility. While they stimulate us to imitate the
past, they exhibit a result attained only by patient
labor and the most accurate scientific knowledge.
We are firm believers in the law of progress; but
it is not in the increased measure of the human intellect, but only in our moral ability to be useful,
produced by Christian civilization. So far as mind
onIly is concerned, although its march, as is often
said, is onward, it is only onward as the pillar of
cloud and of fire from heaven directs its energies
and controls its waywardness.
Again: we maintain that the teacher must be
firm in his principles and independent in his
thoughts. his opinions should be his own, formed
upon the best models, and freed, if possible, from
every thing like pedantry and cant: they should
'be in harmony with his conscience, and that
conscience should be regulated by the will of
God. If he attains this proud eminence, he
will necessarily be superior to applause or censure, except so far as error may deserve the one
or integrity of conduct the other. His object
should be to advance the moral condition of his
pupils, not his own fame, for that will follow him,
sooner or later, if he is true to himself. He should
be strictly impartial in his government-just, consistent, magnanimous. No influences should for a
moment, whether directed by fear, or instigated by
favor, be suffered to control him. In the circle of
which he is the centre, there should be the picture
of a well-regulated Christian republic, developing
in all their beauty the reciprocal obligations of protection and obedience. Here the germs of evil are
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to be met, and their growth resisted-the capacity
for good unfolded-the whole nature regulated.
How much of self-sacrifice, how great a measure of
patience is required for the faithful discharge of
duty-how important to suppress all passion, to
subject the rebel feelings to the stern rule of personal discipline, and while teaching the blessed results of self-constraint, to illustrate them in his
own character!
Modes of teaching, in our day, change so often,
and the crude publications of shallow thinkers are
so numerous, that infinite mischief will be the result, unless the instructor is decided in his course
to resist all innovation that is not demanded by
sound experience. The bookseller, the editor, the
hired eulogist of worthless pages that never should
have seen the light, have too often forced upon the
public attention volumes without merit; and in
the effort to prevent their introduction into common use, the conscientious teacher has too often
been injuriously assailed. This he must expect,
for it is the tribute that meanness pays to honest
independence; but he must not yield either to flattery or abuse. His fidelity to truth is the only
safeguard for the soundness of his teachings, the
only assurance to parents that the minds of their
children will not be corrupted by direct impurity, or
their vigor impaired by a meagre discipline of the
moral powers. To his care a precious trust is confided. He alone is to minister in the temple, and
no strange fire should burn on its altars.
But, above all, the teacher must be a believer in
revelation. On the ethics of the New Testament
he must repose for all sound morality, all wholesome restraint. He can only learn there the elements of truth, disconnected from the philosophy
of schoolmen and the expediency of politicians.
He there listens to the great Teacher, and becomes
a learner in that vast school for human disciplinethe world. Its congregated millions are thus embodied-their origin, their duty, their destiny unfolded-their trials, their joys, their triumphs recorded.
He can now appropriate to himself the character he
was born to bear, and casting his admiring eye into infinite space, while his whole heart is dilated with the
glory of the conception, he can feel that he is immortal. Not so with the infidel: he understands not his
own high calling-he has no faith beyond the narrow limits that confine him here-he cannot, therefore, impart to others the communion that intellect holds with the Eternal, or sympathize in the
holy assurance of life beyond the grave. The ties
that bind him to earth are selfish, weak, inconstant. When they are sundered, there is an end
to his purposes-a dark, uncertain future-in sober
verity, the suicide of the soul.
The Bible must not only be the sole arbiter of
duty with the teacher, but the daily exercise of his