to contend; but, as I shall endeavor to show in succeeding chapters,
though they can not be entirely removed, they can be so far mitigated by
the appropriate means as to render the employment a happy one. I have
thought it best, however, as this work will doubtless be read by many
who, when they read it, are yet to begin their labors, to describe
frankly and fully to them the difficulties which beset the path they are
about to enter. "The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way." It
is often wisdom to understand it beforehand.




CHAPTER II.

GENERAL ARRANGEMENTS.


The distraction and perplexity of the teacher's life are, as was
explained in the last chapter, almost proverbial. There are other
pressing and exhausting pursuits, which wear away the spirit by the
ceaseless care which they impose, or perplex and bewilder the intellect
by the multiplicity and intricacy of their details; but the business of
teaching, by a pre-eminence not very enviable, stands, almost by common
consent, at the head of the catalogue.

I have already alluded to this subject in the preceding chapter, and
probably the majority of actual teachers will admit the truth of the
view there presented. Some will, however, doubtless say that they do not
find the business of teaching so perplexing and exhausting an
employment. They take things calmly. They do one thing at a time, and