in natural gifts or in culture. By natural gifts are meant those perfect qualities of body and mind that Nature is ever ready to bestow upon those who obey her laws. A teacher should have a sound body; for the body is the instrument the mind uses in forming its mental states, and in expressing them to others. Some teachers do their work well in spite of physical weakness, never on account of it. Physical strength is necessary, that the teacher may never grow weary in studying for new knowledge, in practising his art by himself for that facility that never comes to a teacher without practice, and in doing personal work for those who are less able than their companions to help themselves. Physical health and strength are necessary conditions also for that cheerful, hopeful temper which enables its possessor to judge correctly and to treat generously all those under control.

No one is fit to take any part in moulding the characters of the young who is not predisposed to look into their minds for beauty rather than for deformity, and who has not an abiding faith in the good results of proper training.

Poor health is frequently the occasion of those impulsive judgments and irrational acts that require apologies before a feeling of injured innocence can be removed, or a reputation for impartial justice be established. Apologies should be made whenever there is a necessity for them; but the necessity generally destroys all confidence in one's ability to control himself, or to become a reliable guide for others.

To the gift of a good body there should be added that of a good mind. Culture can do much towards perfecting those good mental qualities that are necessary

for a teacher to possess; but the germs of these qualities must exist, if they exist at all, as the products of a direct creation. Common-sense is a gift, not an acquisition; but without it, knowledge seems to increase the tendency to mistakes, and experience only convinces one of the impossibility of success.

Tact, faith, perseverance, natural refinement of spirit, and the enthusiasm that arises from the conscious ability to know beforehand what will take place, are necessary to success; but the germs of these things are born with us, and they develop into strength of themselves, without ever being the direct object of culture.

While this is true, the teacher must abound in acquisitions as well as in gifts. Physical strength may furnish the conditions for endurance, a good mind the power to act, and a good instinct those natural impulses that sometimes take the place of rational motives; but teaching is both a science and an art, to be learned and practised as are any other science and rt. The teacher is not ready to take the first step in the practice of his art until he knows the science upon which the art is founded. A knowledge of teaching, as a science, implies a knowledge of the mind, the object to be trained; of all those objects of thought which are to be presented to the mind, to awaken its activity; and of the true end the teaching should have a tendency to secure. From a knowledge of the science may be derived a knowledge of the art of teaching.

This knowledge relates to the topics to be taught, to their arrangement in courses of studies, and to methods of teaching. It may also include a knowledge of the means to be used as occasions for knowledge.

To the knowledge of the science and art of teaching,

the teacher must add a successful experience in applying the art, and then he will have a right to expect good results from his work.

Good teachers are to be discovered by examination, not an examination in a narrow technical sense, a mere inquiry into their literary qualifications, but one that shall test them in all the qualities named, and even more; and therefore a careful and thorough examination of teachers is included in the superintendence which the schools demand. But who is able to examine so as to discover the good teacher?

It will be at once seen that they only who know the gifts and acquisitions that constitute a good teacher have the power, and only those who have themselves the requisites can know them. What can be more unphilosophical than to put one who does not know what it is to be a good teacher, to examining a candidate to see if he is well fitted by nature and by training to teach? There is no other instance of such conduct in all the affairs of men. The ability to tell the length of a river, or the height of a mountain, or to solve a problem, or to write a sentence, or to repeat a rule, is not satisfactory evidence of ability to teach. I have known a teacher answer all such questions, and then fail utterly in his work. I have known another, who failed somewhat in his answers to technical questions, who was a good teacher, after all. Many are now masters of our schools, who were introduced to them without any examination which presented a fair test of their ability to teach, and many others without any examination at all. As a result, many of our schools are afflicted with incompetent teachers. I do not know of any sure way by which one can show to

another his ability to teach, except by teaching in his presence. That is the only test that will meet the demands of the schools, or will satisfy an expert who has had experience in selecting teachers for his schools. One of the most important results that will follow the securing of competent supervision for all the schools is the introduction into them of such teachers only as have the ability to teach. With poor teachers, nothing but mischief will be produced. An intelligent and vigorous supervision is the only agency that can prevent the mischief, and so control public sentiment as to render the employment of poor teachers impossible.

But after the good teacher has been selected, examined, and installed, he must be kept from falling out of the true way by the friendly guidance and co-operation of one who knows by education and experience what are the ways to the best educational results; and therefore the superintendence required must be intelligent, constant, and sympathetic. No other one but an educator knows what he sees and hears when he enters a school-room. It requires an educator's eye to see a school as it is. To one ignorant of the philosophy of school work, quiet in the school-room may be referred to good government as the cause; while it may be due to the stupidity of the pupils, or to those influences that are crushing out the best life of their minds. What appears to be a wonderful recitation to an uninitiated observer, will to a wise one show how much time has been worse than wasted in committing to memory words that have no ideas attached to them, or in attempting to master what the mind of the learner is not yet prepared to comprehend, or what is useless for him to know.

It requires a trained educator to see what he looks upon as he visits a school-room, and a trained educator to make just criticisms and to show a better way.

We complain of waste in our schools, and of poor results; but we are powerless to prevent either, because we are wanting in those agencies that know enough and have power enough to search out and remove the cause of them.

Again, the teacher must be supplied with the means of teaching before good results are possible. Books abound in most schools, but there are generally wanting natural objects and all means of illustrating the topics that are assigned for study.

There results from this want, a failure on the part of the pupil to acquire knowledge or training or a method of study, such as the presence of objects of study, rather than the signs of them, always produces. An intelligent supervision will put a stop, first of all, to that style of teaching which requires the mind of the learner to violate its own laws of activity.

I have thus considered the first question, What kind of superintendence do the schools demand? and will now turn to the second, How can the right kind be obtained?

The control of the public schools is placed by statute in the hands of the school committees of the several towns of the Commonwealth, and it should never be taken from them. Provision is made for superintendents of schools, but they are to be subject to the school committee. The statute reads, "Any town by legal vote, and any city by an ordinance of the city council, may require the school committee annually to appoint a superintendent of public schools, who under