The Teacher

here is a most singular contrariety of opinion prevailing in the commu-

nity, in regard to the pleasantness of the business of teaching. Some

teachers go to their daily task, merely upon compulsion: they regard it as

intolerable drudgery. Others love the work: they hover around the school-

room as long as they can, and never cease to think, and seldom to talk, of

their delightful labors.

Unfortunately there are too many of the former class, and the first object,

which, in this work, I shall attempt to accomplish, is to show my readers,

especially those who have been accustomed to look upon the business of

teaching as a weary and heartless toil, how it happens, that it is, in any case,

so pleasant. The human mind is always, essentially, the same. That which is

tedious and joyless to one, will be so to another, if pursued in the same way,

and under the same circumstances. And teaching, if it is pleasant, animating,

and exciting to one, may be so to all.

I am met, however, at the outset, in my effort to show why it is that teaching

is ever a pleasant work, by the want of a name for a certain faculty or capacity

3 JACOB ABBOTT

of the human mind, through which most of the enjoyment of teaching finds

its avenue. Every mind is so constituted as to take a positive pleasure in the

exercise of ingenuity in adapting means to an end, and in watching their

operation;-in accomplishing by the intervention of instruments, what we

could not accomplish without;-in devising, (when we see an object to be

effected, which is too great for our direct and immediate power) and setting

at work, some instrumentality, which may be sufficient to accomplish it.

It is said, that, when the steam engine was first put into operation, such was

the imperfection of the machinery, that a boy was necessarily stationed at it,

to open and shut alternately the cock, by which the steam was now admitted,

and now shut out, from the cylinder. One such boy, after patiently doing his

work for many days, contrived to connect this stop-cock with some of the

moving parts of the engine, by a wire, in such a manner, that the engine

itself did the work which had been entrusted to him; and after seeing that

the whole business would go regularly forward, he left the wire in charge,

and went away to play.

Such is the story. Now if it is true, how much pleasure the boy must have ex-

perienced, in devising and witnessing the successful operation of his scheme;

I do not mean the pleasure of relieving himself from a dull and wearisome

duty; I do not mean the pleasure of anticipated play; but I mean the strong

interest he must have taken in contriving and executing his plan. When, wea-

ried out with his dull, monotonous work, he first noticed those movements

of the machinery which he thought adapted to his purpose, and the plan

flashed into his mind, how must his eye have brightened, and how quick

must the weary listlessness of his employment have vanished. While he was

maturing his plan, and carrying it into execution;-while adjusting his wires,

fitting them to the exact length, and to the exact position,-and especially,

when, at last, he watches the first successful operation of his contrivance,-

he must have enjoyed a pleasure, which very few, even of the joyous sports