Page:Home Education by Isaac Taylor (1838).djvu/18

 exceeding the bounds of a numerous family. In fact it is only the personal ability of the teacher, his tact, his intelligence, and his assiduity, that can fix the limits within which the principle of adaptation may be made to take effect. There are those who could bestow individual culture upon twelve, or ffteen, or twenty minds, more effectively than is done by others, charged only with two or three; and far more so in fact than is often attempted by a perfunctory tutor of a solitary pupil. At home, not only are there few to be thought of, but these few are brought under a well-digested system of treatment, that is extended through the entire period of education; and a teacher or parent who may have erred at first, in his estimate of a child's powers, has the opportunity to amend his judgment, and to modify his methods of treatment. But at school, even if a regard to what is due to all, did not prevent the teacher from thinking much. of the capacities of individuals, the frequent changes that are taking place, and the short time, ordinarily, during which he has to do with any one of his pupils, must forbid, or greatly discourage his endearours to suit himself, in any consistent manner, to the peculiar temperament of individuals. The teacher's good will towards his pupils must be, and it ought to be, of a very moveable or transferable sort; and any feeling, or any effort of a more special kind, even if it did not imply positive injustice to some, would involve the prejudicial consequences of favouritism. But home education, and especially when conducted by parents themselves, or under their immediate superintendence, may, in its successive parts, be specially adapted to the minds that are to receive it; and may have the advantage of the most intimate knowledge of the ability, and the tendency of each. Alow it is obvious that the principle of adaptation, skilfully made use of, cannot but save much time and loss of labour; and that it may moreover prevent