good principles, and a humble mind, is a figure which is mercifully
becoming less and less common. It is still necessary, however, to
insist on the fact that brains and education and training are not
by themselves sufficient to produce a successful teacher. Quite
literally, teaching is a "calling" as well as a profession: the true
candidate must have a vocation; she must mount her rostrum or enter
her class-room with a full conviction of the importance of her
mission, and of her desire to undertake it. This earnest purpose
should not, however, destroy her sense of humour and of proportion;
it is possible to take oneself and one's daily routine of work too
seriously, a fault which does not tend to impress their importance on
a scoffing world. No girl should become a teacher because she does
not know how else to gain her living. The profession is lamentably
overstocked with mediocrities, lacking enthusiasm and vigour, drifting
more and more hopelessly from one post to another. But there is plenty
of room for keen and competent women, eager to learn and to teach, and
this is true of all branches of the profession. No work can well be
more thankless, more full of drudgery and of disappointment than that
of a teacher who has missed her vocation. Few lives can be more full
of happy work and wide interests than those of teachers who rejoice in
their calling.

Yet there is need to call attention to certain drawbacks which are
common to all branches of the profession. As a class, teachers are
badly paid, and many are overworked. The physical and mental strain
is inevitably severe: in many cases this is unnecessarily increased
by red-tape regulations that involve loss of time and temper and an
amount of clerical work, which serves no useful purpose. Teachers
need to concentrate their energies on essentials: of these the life
intellectual is the most important, and this, however elementary the