may not hasten, growth and maturity. Thus far the unfortunate necessity of premature instruction may be fairly defended on rational grounds. No less important than the substance and order of religious teaching is fitness of manner in the teacher when conducting the instruction of a class. What is desiderated in every subject is truth of manner, but this, above all, in handling religious topics. That is to say, the teacher must be seen himself to believe in the value of the lesson he gives. If there be this belief, the outward expression of it in the eye and the unconscious gestures will be true to the character of the subject which is before the class. The hard, dictatorial, and undevotional style in which masters are too often wont to give religious instruction, and their awkward, unjoyous mode of conducting songs and hymns, have led me gradually to the conviction that the education of very young children should be confided solely to mistresses. The man, when entering on the religious lesson (if lesson it ought to be called), seems to be less capable than the woman of feeling the delicacy as well as the greatness of the subject, and of adapting his mind to these conceptions. He more readily forgets that he is dealing with the emotions of his pupils--and these the deepest and purest emotions of which human nature is susceptible--and that his own mental attitude should be that of calm, solemnity, and reverence. It is the manifestation by the teacher himself of these appropriate feelings which can alone excite in the pupils a sympathetic response, and secure a ready ear and heart for the truths which they herald. This emotional response secured, the work of the teacher is more than half done until it be secured, his work is not even begun, however frequent and elaborate his didactic utterances, or however exacting his demands. It is grievous to think how seldom it is secured, when we reflect on the readiness with which the infant mind responds to everything which touches the imagination or the emotions. The golden opportunities of childhood are wasted, and as years advance the heart becomes less accessible. END OF PART FIRST. PART SECOND. HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL. CHAPTER I. ORIGIN AND AMOUNT OF THE BEQUEST. Mr. James Dick-Professor Allan Menzies-Trustees and Office-Bearers--Terms of Bequest from Mr. Dick's Will. He was THE founder of the Dick Bequest was JAMES DICK, Esq., of Finsbury Square, London. born of respectable parents, in the burgh of Forres, Morayshire, upon 14th November 1743. No authentic particulars of his early years have been obtained; but he is said to have received an excellent education. At the age of nineteen he went to the West Indies, and entered a mercantile house at Kingston, Jamaica, where his talents and industry soon gained for him a share in his employer's business. After twenty years he returned to England with a considerable fortune, to which, by judicious speculation, he made large additions. Mr. Dick died on 24th May 1828, bequeathing nearly his whole fortune to the maintenance and assistance of "the Country Parochial Schoolmasters" |