In the next place, parents should constantly render to.the.teacher of their children the tokens of a friendly and polite regard. A good teacher deserves such treatment for his own sake; and it is of moment to his usefulness that he receive it, as it will greatly promote his influence with his pupils. Children are commonly very keen observers of whatever passes around them in which they feel themselves concerned. As soon as you have set a man over them, they mark your own behaviour towards him with a scrutinizing eye. If they see you place him on the footing of an inferior, a poor, servile drudge; they may indeed still call him the master, because they know they must submit to him; but his authority over their feelings will be small; his precepts, admonitions, and example will lose much of their desirable effect, for want of that weight of character which he might derive from your better countenance. By giving him proofs of your cordial esteem, you may likewise afford him a powerful incitement to aim at increasing excellence in his business.

Let us pause, and enlarge our views of this matter; though it be at the expense of something like a digression. I will suppose that your neighbourhood needs a teacher; and that a stranger comes to offer himself to you in that capacity. Do not require him to go from house to house to crave employment; it exhibits him in something of the light of a beggar, and intrenches upon the dignity of his office. Let him apply to some individual, or an appointed committee, who shall call a meeting of the heads of all the families that are interested. As the applicant is a stranger, you ought to exercise caution; but let your caution be perfectly unmingled with a haughty, browbeating carriage. You are to investigate his claims as a man of moral worth by such information as he may produce to you, and as a scholar by your own examination. When you think of your risk in covenanting with him, remember that he also has a risk in undertaking

the labour of teaching for you. Probably a short engagement at first will be most advisable for both parties. Do not indulge the foolish pride of keeping things in unnecessary suspense; but consult among yourselves, in the spirit of neighbourly good will and mutual concession, and decide as promptly as may be practicable what you will do. The language and the parade sometimes used on these occasions, by a knot of purseproud, conceited people, are highly disgusting. While they should be making a fair bargain to promote the welfare of their own families, they seem to fancy that they are consulting how to dispose of a hapless pauper who has fallen upon their hands. the man of letters possess one particle of sensibility, he must turn his back upon such proceedings with indignation. He does not present himself as an object of your charity, but offers you his services on the ground of reciprocal benefit.

If

The school being in operation, treat your teacher, as before stated, with uniform friendliness and respect. Take the utmost care not to lead or encourage your children to look slightingly upon the man who is to form their minds and hearts, on account of his humble circumstances. Rather assist him in inspiring the sentiment that riches have nothing to do in a just estimation of character. If you see imperfections in him, (and who among mortals is wholly without them?) never introduce the mention of them in the presence of his pupils. Direct their attention to his good qualities, as things which they are bound to love and to imitate. Cover his faults from their view; or if they are already observed, extenuate and excuse them so far as you uprightly can. It is certainly a matter of deep importance that children think highly of their teacher's principles and conduct. If he provè, on the whole, unworthy of this, the only proper course will be to break up the school without delay; it being manifest that a school in such hands is a nuisance not to be tolerated.

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Be not hasty to entertain anger or prejudice against your teacher. Your child comes home, it may be, with some bitter complaint of partiality or severity in the master. The tears and lamentations of your datling distress you, no doubt. But remember that this darling has his share of the pride and perverseness of our depraved nature, and that in matters of this kind there are always two sides to a story. If you deem it right to remonstrate on the case to your teacher, do it with a calm and gentle temper; not taking the part of your child in spite of reason, nor coneluding that the man to whom you have transferred a portion of your own authority must be of course an unfeeling tyrant. You may perhaps find that he has been discharging a duty as necessary as it was disagreeable. Without discipline in a school, nothing can prosper there. Or if you demonstrate the teacher to have acted improperly, your cool expostulations, as we suppose him to be a man of sense, will have the effect of preventing the repetition of such things, and will attach him to you with strong bonds of gratitude and esteem. I will add, that though I know teachers are but men, and therefore fallible; yet I also know so much of the business of instructing and governing children, that whenever I hear tales of the sort here mentioned, I think it right, in the first instance, to presume in favour of the teacher's rectitude and wisdom.

It is a great inconvenience to a neighbourhood to be often changing the teachers of their children, even though all who come in succession may be good ones. Some time is inevitably lost, and some confusion induced, by the variety of books and methods which different men bring forward, If, then, you are blessed by providence with a truly able and faithful teacher, I beg you to hold him with a vigorous grasp; and not to suffer yourselves to be deprived of so valuable a treasure, either through your own caprice, or on account of those little infirmities in him to which the best of men are subject in this imperfect world.

No. 48. MARCH 21, 1816.

Distresses of an Old Bachelor.

MR. MOUNTAINEER,

WITH no small degree of pleasure I have read your useful numbers as they appeared in the Farmer. But while you have touched upon many subjects, and addressed your reproofs and advice to a great multiplicity of characters, your lucubrations contain nothing as yet suited to my case. I will present it, therefore, to your consideration.

now

It has pleased Heaven to prosper me largely in. worldly matters. My industry has issued in the aggregation of unusual wealth. But I have lived without a bosom partner of the other sex, and consequently have no children to inherit my estate. I am in my sixty second year. In the journey of life, I have passed through many diversified scenes; I have risen early, sat up late, and "eaten the bread of carefulness." While others have been reposing on beds of down, enjoying that rest which nature requires, my midnight hours have been spent too often in planning those schemes, (not unrighteous ones, I thank God,) by which my fortune has been increased. So long as the full tide of health and strength continued to flow, I was not without satisfaction in seeing my exertions crowned with success. But now that tide is ebbing fast away; my joints are enfeebled with age and incessant toils; and to me "the grasshopper has become a burden." I know that I must soon go to my long home, and "give an account of my stewardship." In these circumstances I feel much disconsolation of mind. I have no near and tender relatives, bound to me by the ties of nature and kindness, to cheer my drooping spirits in the close of my days. My fatiguing pilgrimage is to be finished in solitude. My splendid houses, my highly cultivated farms, my useful machinery, my many well trained and trusty servants, are shortly about to pass into the hands of

strangers. Perhaps when my body is laid in the dust, even my name may be ungratefully forgotten by those who succeed me. People who have never felt affection for me may turn my labour and frugality into derision, while they dissipate in wild luxury that abundance which it has cost me so much care to collect and to preserve. These reflections, almost perpetually recurring, have caused a gloomy cloud to settle upon my heart. Figure to yourself a weary traveller, who, after passing through many fertile regions, and enjoying the view of many a delightful landscape, at length arrives at the summit of a hill beneath which all is darkness. He descends, but with reluctant and trembling steps; and prays, as he goes forward, for some benign ray to dispel the gloom, and enlighten his path. Into such a vale, Mr. Mountaineer, I am painfully descending; and my prospects are already lost in the darkness which lies below. Deeply am I convinced that I have been too eager in heaping up riches, and too negligent in providing the desirable supports for age and its infirmities. Give me your counsel, I entreat you. Tell me what I may yet do to repair the imprudence of my past life, and promote my present peace of mind. How shall I dispose of my property, so that my conscience may be at rest, and that my riches may best minister to the honour of my Creator, and the good of my fellow men? Hoping to hear from you, or some of your correspondents, in answer to these inquiries, I subscribe myself your anxious but sincere friend,

C.

AN OLD BACHELOR.

TO THE MOUNTAINEER.

Pray, sir, what has become of your enthusiasm about pronunciation? You must have observed that the English of the valley is very defective in this particular; and I was in hopes that you would specify the errors which are the most glaring and the most common amongst us. Let me bring under your notice a few instances, by way of sample.