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sume that you have become teachers because your desire is to
fit yourselves thoroughly for this profession, so that your la-
bors may result in the advancement" of those placed under
your charge, and in the attainment of distinguished success
for yourselves. If this presumption he correct, you will anx-
iously long to avail yourselves of all improvements in the
science and art of instruction, and you will shun, with hor-
ror, anything like stagnation or adherence to traditionary
methods long since rejected by experienced educators. Those
who have charge of youth should he active, energetic, alive
with enthusiasm. Keep it always in mind that all the knowl-
edge you can acquire, on every subject possible, may be made
useful in your daily work. The day is past, when the teach-
er was merely expected to know what wns contained in the
text-books used by his scholars,— when he, that could read,
was considered sufficiently well prepared to bean instructor
of primary classes. The youngest minds are all alive with
a ctirious thirst for knowledge, and are endowed with mar-
vellous powers of receptivity. It is the teacher's duty to
gratify the former, and to furnish constant employment for
the latter, en that every hour spent in the acquirement of
knowledge shall be made pleasant and profitable.

No one can teach well who is not at the same time a stu-
dent,—by which in meant something more than a mere inem-
orizer of the contents of Text-books. '-The very essence of
teaching," says Prof. S. S. Greene, in his Report on Object
Teaching, "lies in a living apprehension on the subject it-
self—such an apprehension as will enable the teacher to adapt
his instruction to the chilli's real w.ints—just what a Text-
book, if good cannot do. 'Teach realities,' is the true teach-
er's motto. To this he commits himself;—nay, crosses the
river and burns the bridge. He is ashamed of his teaching1
if it is anything short of this. Hence his ingenuity, his apt-
ness, his versatility, his varied resorts in an emergency. He
can teach with at Text-Book, or without it. A Text-Book in
his bulid becomes alive. It must he understood."

The School Law gives the President of the Board of Com-
missioners the general superintendence of the Schools of his
County, and the By-laws make it his duty to re-commend im-
proved modes of instruction. With the view of aiding the
teacher to perform his duties in the best manner possible,
these "Hints to Teachers" have been prepared.

The Law requires that "there shall be a uniform series of
Text-Books used in all the Schools of the State." Teachers
will confine themselves, hereafter, strictly to these books, al-
lowing no others to be employed in their Schools. A good
teacher can teach with any Text-Book. For the present, the
following books, selected from the series adopted by the State
Board of Education, will be employed in our Schools :