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8. Remember always that it is the best interest of the children and school-not your own that you are to work for.

9. Be sure that you carry out exactly all the directions you give. Think well before giving them: but then carry them out.

10. You must be entirely and wholly and always just. If not, you will not command respect—and not to have that, means failure.

11. Be very careful in your dealings with other teachers in the Never give them occasion to think that you set yourselves above them. Be always pleasant and friendly, you can learn from them. If you are working for the schools, there can be no jealousymake them welcome in your rooms. Seek to know them. You can both give and get help, if you work in the right spirit.

12. Dress perfectly-simply. Celluloid collars and cuffs will save washing, and be always neat and clean. Dress should be plain, without much trimming. If it were not for washing, I would say, wear white aprons in school.

13. For arithmetic classes. Do all the examples yourselves at home before the time; then you will know what you are about, and can tell where the error is. Keep ahead of your class.

14. Talk over all your difficulties together.

15. Don't take any part in any village gossip. Don't allow yourself to talk about any one in the village, unless you have something good to say.

16. Try to make the children polite to each other in school.

17. Try the plan of having a school house-keeper for each day. Try to get the children to feel interested themselves in keeping everything neat and in order.

18. Don't be afraid to say, "Idon't know,”—if you don't.

19

If you have made a false statement about anything in a lessondon't be afraid to acknowledge it.

20. Correct all errors in English speaking that you notice.—Anna C. Brackett, in American Journal of Education.

Normal Institutes.

The institutes that have been held all over the country are about closed after an unusually successful experience. Successful not alone in point of numbers but in matters of management and instruction. A retrospective glance over the work of this season and that of

former years will show many new features and improvements in old ones. Perhaps no more important change is to be noted than in the character of the work performed nowadays. Our institutes have outgrown their infancy and are in the vigor of growing and promising youth.

Following this development of our institute work has been the development of a better quality and system of work on the part of the great mass of teachers, and it requires no very close scrutiny to see the intimate connection and mutual dependency of the two. As the teachers have improved in work it has been possible to do a higher class of work in the institute, which in its turn has reacted upon the profession to the advantage of all its members. We are ceasing to be elementary, and we are rapidly falling away from the crudity of much of our early work. Instead of going to the institute solely to obtain a knowledge of the subjects taught in its curriculum the teachers go to obtain by study and discussion the best methods of presenting the various branches to their classes. They no longer go to learn geography or square root, but rather the best ways to teach geography and square root. To be sure this new order of affairs implies a higher grade of intelligence-it presupposes good previous training in the subjects as a foundation, and calls for the very best teachers in the ranks as instructors. What an advance, and what a hopeful sign of the healthy progressive development that is constantly at work among our teachers. More and more we believe that our institutes will become what they should be-schools of method. We can name half a dozen institutes in as many States where the work is so superior that the very best teachers are glad to enroll themselves-where the work is normal in the true sense of the word. The great benefit that accrues to the public school system from this improved work is too well-known to need any mention. Suffice it to say that a large per cent. of the improvements made in teaching during the past six years has been due to the work done in these associations of teachers. Institutes are no longer either ignored or sneered at by those who are out of sympathy with any form of pro gress. They have fairly won their way by their own merit, and demand and receive recognition as a most important and vital element in the system of education. They have a definite position and a high work.

Every year this work embraces a wider field. Every year the quality of this work improves, and every year they raise a higher standard for the teacher to attain.-Central School Journal.

Mind Your Business.

BY WOLSTAN DIXEY,

Nine-tenths of all that goes wrong in this world is because some one doesn't mind his business. When a terrible accident occurs, the first cry is that the means of prevention were not sufficient. Everybody declares we must have a new patent fire-escape, an automatic engine switch, or a high-proof non-combustible sort of lamp oil. But a little investigation will usually show that all the contrivances were on hand, and in good order; the real trouble was that somebody didn't mind his business; he didn't obey orders; he thought he knew a better way than the way he was told; he said, “Just this once I'll take the risk," and in doing so, he made other people take the risk too; and the risk was too great. At Toronto, Canada, not long ago, a conductor, against orders, ran his train on a certain siding, which resulted in the death of thirty or forty people. The engineer of a mill, at Rochester, N. Y., thought the engine would stand a higher pressure than the safety-valve indicated, so he tied a few bricks to the valve to hold it down; result: four workmen killed, a number wounded, and mill blown to pieces. The City of Columbus, an iron vessel fitted out with all the means of preservation and escape in use on shipboard, was wrecked on the best known portion of the Atlantic coast, on a moonlit night, at the cost of one hundred lives, because the officer in command took it into his head to save a few ship-lengths in distance by hugging the shore, in direct disobedience of the captain's parting orders. The best ventilated mine in Colorado was turned into a death trap for half a hundred miners, because one of the number entered with a lighted lamp the gallery he had been warned against. Nobody survives to explain the explosion of the dynamite cartridge factory in Pennsylvania, but as that type of disaster is almost always due to heedlessness, it is probable that this instance is not an exception to the rule.

What is most wanted in this world is people that will mind their business; all the devices, inventions, contrivances you can shake a stick at, won't insure safety; the real need is, automatic obedience, patent honesty, non-combustible brains, high-proof character. Men that can furnish these are in demand. Be sure, whatever your disadvantages, however humble your present position, your services will not long go a'begging if you have that one faculty of minding your business.- Treasure- Trove.

What Energy has Done.

BY AMY B. CLARKE.

Twenty-five years ago a few young men in London resolved to meet every evening to exchange ideas. The number gradually increased till it was necessary to hire a room. Growing ambitious, they hired lecturers and many people were brought together. Many of them now trace back their success to this effort at gaining knowledge.

Indefatigable industry coupled with the desire for knowledge produced great results. Walter Scott, when he was in a lawyer's office, spent his evenings in study. John Britten, the author of architectural works, said: "I studied my books in bed on winter evenings, because too poor to afford a fire." He used every opportunity to read; the books he picked up for a few moments at the book-stalls helped him, he says. Napoleon had indomitable perseverance and energy. Dr. Livingston at the age of ten years, working in a factory, bought with his first wages a Latin grammar, and studied it until twelve at night. He studied Virgil and Horace the same way, and finally entered college, and was graduated.

Many will ask how they can advance themselves in knowledge. The first thing is determination; the next perseverance.

Walter Scott gave this advice to a young man : “Do instantly whatever is to be done, and take the hours of recreation after busi

ness; never before it." Business men often say "Time is money." But it is more than that to the young man. If used rightly, it is selfimprovement, culture, strengtn and growth of character. The habit of idleness is a hard one to get rid of Time spent in reading anything and everything is weakening to the mind. Books chosen and read with care cultivate the mind and character. The books you read should raise your thoughts and aspirations, strengthen your energy and help you in your work.

Thackeray says: "Try to frequent the company of your betters. In books and in life frequent that which is the most wholesome society; learn to admire rightly. Note what great men have admired; they admire great things; narrow spirits admire basely, and worship meanly."-Treasure- Trove.

-Dore's Works and other books suitable for acceptable Christmas presents can be found at 417 Broad street.

NAMES OF MULTITUDE.-A little girl was near the picture of a number of ships, when she exclaimed: "See what a flock of ships!" We corrected her by saying that a flock of ships was called a fleet, and a fleet of sheep was called a flock. And here we may add, for the benefit of the foreigner who is mastering the intricacies of our language in respect of names of multitude, that a flock of girls is called a bevy, and a bevy of wolves is called a pack, and a pack of thieves is called a gang, and a gang of angels is called a host, and a host of porpoises is called a shoal, and a shoal of buffaloes is called a troop, and a troop of partridges is called a covey, and a covey of beauties is called a galaxy, and a galaxy of ruffians is called a horde, and a horde of rubbish is called a heap, and a heap of oxen is called a drove, and a drove of blackguards is called a mob, and a mob of whales is called a school, and a school of worshippers is called a congregation, and a congregation of engineers is called a corps, and a corps of robbers is called a band, and a band of locusts is called a swarm, and a swarm of people is called a crowd, and a crowd of gentlefolks is called eiite, and the élite of the city's thieves and rascals are called roughs, and a miscellaneous crowd of city folks is called the community or public, accordingly as they are spoken of by the religious community or the secular public.-Exchange.

TO HAVE a good school one must have good discipline. There never yet was a family trained up that amounted to anything without a constant course of discipline. We hear so much talk about "no rules," and leaving the government largely to the pupils, that we think an objection timely. The child learns nothing in school of more importance than the habit of obedience. The school that has no rules, whose pupils are left to their own guidance, is a poor institution. The teacher who is a good disciplinarian is always a success. When pupils understand that there are rules for their conduct, and that they must live up to them or suffer the penalty, they will cease to give trouble. In order to do effective work-in order that they may make progress, it is necessary that there should be certain limitations placed upon them in school. No army ever was victorious whose soldiers did as they pleased, and no school will amount to anything whose discipline is lax and feeble, and the man or woman who does not make his pupils understand that order is not only the first law of heaven but of the school-room, is not fitted to teach.- Central School Journal.

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