Transcriber's Note:
A number of typographical errors have been corrected. They areshown in the text with mouse-hover popups.
The additional chapter on "The First Day in School" mentioned on the title page was notincluded in the Table of Contents. A link to this chapter has been added for ease of navigation.
NEW STEREOTYPE EDITION;
WITH AN
ADDITIONAL CHAPTER ON "THE FIRST DAY IN SCHOOL."
By JACOB ABBOTT,
Late Principal of the Mt. Vernon Female School, Boston, Mass.
BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY WHIPPLE AND DAMRELL,
No. 9 CORNHILL.
1839.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, by
Jacob Abbott,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
POWER PRESS OF WILLIAM S. DAMRELL.
TO THE
TRUSTEES AND PATRONS
OF THE
MT. VERNON FEMALE SCHOOL, BOSTON.
GENTLEMEN:
It is to efforts which you have made in the cause of education, withspecial regard to its moral and religious aspects, that I have beenindebted for the opportunity to test by experiment, under the mostpleasant and favorable circumstances, the principles which form thebasis of this work. To you, therefore, it is respectfully inscribed, asone of the indirect results of your own exertions to promote the bestinterests of the Young.
I am very sincerely and respectfully yours,
THE AUTHOR.
This book is intended to detail, in a familiar and practical manner, asystem of arrangements for the organization and management of a school,based on the employment, so far as is practicable, of MoralInfluences, as a means of effecting the objects in view. Its design is,not to bring forward new theories or new plans, but to develope andexplain, and to carry out to their practical applications, suchprinciples as, among all skilful and experienced teachers, are generallyadmitted and acted upon. Of course it is not designed for the skilfuland the experienced themselves; but it is intended to embody what theyalready know, and to present it in a practical form, for the use ofthose who are beginning the work and who wish to avail themselves of theexperience which others have acquired.
Although moral influences, are the chief foundations on which the powerof the teacher over the minds and hearts of his pupils is, according tothis treatise, to rest, still it must not be imagined that the systemhere recommended is one of persuasion. It is a system ofauthority,—supreme and unlimited authority, a point essential in allplans for the supervision of the young. But it is authority secured andmaintained as far as possible by moral measures. There will be nodispute about the propriety of making the most of this class of means.Whatever difference of opinion there may be, on the question whetherphysical force, is necessary at all, every one will agree that, if everemployed, it must be only as a last resort, and that no teacher ought tomake war upon the body, unless it is proved that he cannot conquerthrough the medium of the mind.[Pg vi]
In regard to the anecdotes and narratives which are very freelyintroduced to illustrate principles in this