"I HAVE NO TALENT FOR TEACHING."

WE hear a great deal of what is called a peculiar talent for teaching a happy facility for interesting and instructing children, which it is supposed some favoured individuals possess. For instance, a teacher reads a work on education, satisfies himself with admiring it, and says--"Ah, I wish I could carry out these principles, and teach in this way; but then, I have not the talent." Or, we have sometimes heard addresses delivered to children, who, young, ignorant, and depraved as they may be, have listened with breathless interest to the simple, earnest words so fitly spoken. And what did we Teachers think of it? Were we stirred up with resolve to " go and do likewise?" or did we go home and lazily say “Ah, if I had only Mr. So and So's talent! What a beautiful address! but then it is of no use for us plain teachers to expect to teach in that way; it is plain Mr. ———— has a peculiar talent for teaching.

And there it ends.

Ministers of the Gospel are sometimes heard, too, to talk of this " peculiar talent." We have heard them confess, that they find it the most difficult thing in the world to address children well, and wish they possessed the knack of it-and there it ends. Now, has it ever occurred to those who talk of this same natural talent, to ask if there really be any such thing? or rather, whether it is a gift of nature, or an art to be acquired by any one of ordinary mental capacity? It will readily be acknowledged, that those who are themselves the most successful Teachers can best decide the question. Ask them, and they will one and all tell you, We have learned how to teach."

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What then!" exclaims one, "do you mean to tell us that there is no such thing as genius-no natural ability to excel in one particular thing? Are not some men born poets, others painters, others philosophers?" True enough they are; but must not the painter study his art before he can transfer to the canvass the image of beauty that exists in his mind? The world would never have seen the glorious creations of Raffaelle and

his fellows, had they not untiringly watched every varying expression of human beauty-every changing hue of nature's colouring. These men studied beauty, hence they pictured it so marvellously well. Ask the mighty Newton how he made such astonishing discoveries in nature and science-he answers, "By ever thinking of it." True, these were men of glorious natural genius; but who would have known it had they not also been men of study? Their wondrous height of excellence was attained by no heaven-borne flight, but by struggling, painful earnest toil; many a step in that upward path watered by labour-drops, and many a one by tears. 'In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread," is God's unchanged price of human success. The pearl may gleam in meek beauty in its ocean bed, but who knows of it unless the diver struggle through the wave to obtain it ?-the diamond may be one of rare value, but the labour of the lapidary must be expended on it before it will delight our eyes with its beaming radiance. And we would fain hope that many a Sabbath-school Teacher may "shine as the stars in the kingdom of their Father," by having been "wise to win souls." Only let them give to the art of teaching a tithe of the study and labour that these men of genius gave to their beloved pursuits, and who can tell the results?

Is this too much? Have our teachers no time for all this study? Will they say they can do without it—it is not absolutely necessary? Alas, that the children of this world should be wiser in their generation than the children of light! Alas, that a stammering Demosthenes should be found, year after year, in his solitary sea-side cave, patiently, resolutely conquering his natural defects, that he might at length come forth to startle the world with the thunders of his eloquence,-that a Napoleon should spend his nights in mathematical study, that he may be the more skilful general by day-that an opera singer should not grudge years of privation and painful training, that she may one day be the admiration of the gaping multitude! Alas, that people will study, and toil, and be enthusiastic for anything and everything, and that Christian men and women should be found who

will take the charge of eight or ten immortal souls, to lead them to Jesus, and never study the best way of doing it! never ask, "How shall I get these deaf souls to hear my voice?"

Are there not teachers who will sit down to teach, lazily supposing that if they have a talent for teaching, it will come naturally, and if not, why it is of no use trying? Ah! and is that the way in which you would try to save a drowning child? When you stand on the rock and throw out the rope which will save him—if he sees it not, if he hears not your voice, how earnestly would you call! You would bethink yourself that the mariner knows how to pitch his voice in a different key from the roar of the storm, that it may be heard above its din; and you would shout again and again, and tax your powers of invention to devise a plan for saving the child. But, what if it be your professed avocation to suc cour the drowning-will you not acquaint yourself with the best methods of using the life-boat, the rope, the buoys? Will you not learn how to pitch your voice to make them hear you-how best to use your strength of limb to win them from destruction ? Ah! you would not be so indifferent about that! And shall we feel less agonizing earnestness to save our children from the ever-rolling waves of God's wrath? Surely a whole life of study would be well repaid, by learning how to speak so that but one dear child should listen to us, and be led to Jesus.

But we shall be met with "Paul may plant, and Apollos water, but it is God who giveth the increase." True, the planting needs the watering of earnest prayer, and the blessing of an increase-giving God; but, how if Paul had not planted so wisely, or Apollos watered so unceasingly, would they have had a right to expect so large an increase? Paul sometimes lets us a little into his secret of planting. He tells us once: "To the Jews, I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."

Oh, that we had more of such wise planters- such zealous waterers-in our Sabbath-schools as Paul and Apollos! We should not then have to mourn, and say, "Where is the increase?"-Scottish S. S. Teachers' Mag.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

A Voice from the Dumb: a Memoir of John William Lashford, late a Pupil in the Brighton and Sussex Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. By WILLIAM SLEIGHT, Master of the Institution. London: Hamilton and Co.

A very interesting memoir of a poor deaf and dumb boy, who came to the Brighton Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, apparently without any sense of religion whatever; but who, through the grace of God, profited largely by his opportunities, and was enabled to witness a good confession on his early death-bed. We have perused the memoir with deep interest.

The Origin and Progress of Language. The Religious Tract Society. (Monthly Series.)

A somewhat abstruse, although well-written, disquisition on a very difficult subject.

The writer's conclusions as to the origin of language may be gathered from the following extract, in which, speaking of the confusion of tongues at Babel, he says—

"This grand Scripture event accounts for all the peculiarities which belong to language. Before the social disruption at Babel, one primitive language was universal, and this accounts for all the identities and resemblances now found amongst scattered and widely-separated nations. The confounding of the original speech of mankind fully explains the origin of the variety of languages, whose separate peculiarities would become more decided and indelible by the lapse of forty centuries. As this primitive language was subjected to a violent disruption, fragments only of it could be carried away by each diverging tribe, who would gradually build up new languages, while all retained some elements of their former speech.

"Such a state of things as that which might be supposed to result from the confusion of Babel is actually realized in the present state of the languages of the world. They all display such affinities as suggest the idea of a common origin, and yet exhibit such disparities as preclude the notion of regular descent and tranquil formation. If the primitive language had not been suddenly broken up, but many languages had been gradually formed from it, each one might be supposed to exhibit that general similarity to the rest which exists in the Spanish and Italian to the Latin; and not the corre spondence of fragments of identity, amidst far more abundant diversity of materials. Identity without structural diversity would prove only a common derivation; diversity without identity would disprove a sameness of origin; but so much resemblance, and so much disparity, exactly coincide with the statement of an anterior unity, and of a subsequent confusion and dispersion."

VOL. X.

Several of the questions proposed at the last general examination of schoolmasters by the government inspectors, referred to the structure and history of the English language. The following extract, although somewhat lengthy, will be found helpful in answering such questions.

"By slow degrees, our language has arrived at its present state. A people of Celtic origin laid its foundation. The Celtic element in it is, however, now very small, having no part in its grammatical structure, while the words it supplies are almost exclusively used to denote some of the great physical objects of land and water. The Roman conquest engrafted on the original stock a variety of Latin branches, which disappeared as readily as they sprang up, when the more enduring conquest, effected by the Saxons, began to be felt. These conquerors introduced their language into Britain, and, from the fragments of their laws, history, and poetry, yet extant, we know that it was capable of expressing, with much copiousness and energy, the sentiments of a people in the state of civilization which prevailed at that period, even in the more refined parts of Europe.

"Of all the languages from which the English is derived, the Anglo-Saxon holds by far the most important place, whether we regard the number of its contributions, or the sort of words with which it has furnished us. The English language consists of about thirty-eight thousand words: of these, about twenty-three thousand, or nearly five-eighths, are of Anglo-Saxon origin. Of this language, as written in the time of Alfred, only a fifth part has become obsolete to us.

"But the importance of its contributions to our language is seen even more in their quality than in their quantity. Our grammar is almost exclusively occupied with what is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Our chief peculiarities of structure and of idiom belong to it; while most of the classes of words, which it is the office of grammar to investigate, are derived from that language. Thus our few inflexions are all Anglo-Saxon. Our genitive, the general mode of forming the plural of nouns, the terminations of adjectives in er and est, and of adverbs in ly, are all from the same source. Our more important parts of speech-such as articles and definitives generally, adjectives, pronouns, irregular verbs, and adverbs-are of AngloSaxon origin.

And not only is the skeleton of our language thus derived from the Anglo-Saxon, but a considerable part of its body and clothing may boast of the same origin. From this language we derive the words which occur most frequently in discourse. It has given names to the heavenly bodies, as sun, moon, and stars. It has fixed the names of three out of the four elements, namely, earth, fire, and water. Out of the four seasons of the year it supplies the names of three-spring, summer, and winter. Other words which note divisions of time are derived from it, and some of them are amongst the most poetical terms we have, as day, twilight, sunrise, and sunset. To this language we are indebted for words which describe the component parts of the beautiful in external scenery, and most of the productions of the vegetable and animal kingdoms.