Page:Home Education by Isaac Taylor (1838).djvu/69

 sense, clears all difficulties in education, and almost supersedes particular plans or advices. Whatever system may be adopted, in such a case, the routine of culture and instruction moves on with a noiseless and prosperous celerity, and especially so, if, to the warm affection which we are now supposing, and to the steady purpose and the tact which should guide it, there be added a certain natural delight in teaching, such as renders the labours of instruction pleasures, in fact.

On many occasions, our tastes carry us forward with ease in the discharge of difficult duties, where higher principles might leave us flagging; and it is so especially in the business of education. To impart knowledge is, to some, an enjoyment that never tires. But this teaching taste, it must be confessed, is a gift of nature; nor is its place to be supplied, either by habit, or by principle, except in an imperfect degree. Let then those who are conscious of being thus endowed, and whose warmth of heart and energy of understanding are sustained by a zest for tuition—let such be animated to improve and exert a talent that cannot fail to convey the very highest benefits, intellectual and moral, which one human being can receive from another.

An affectionate temperament, especially if it belong to both parents, is usually hereditary; and when so, the reciprocal sentiment supplies all that can be wished for in rendering a family happy, and the processes of culture prosperous. Or even if, in a numerous family, one may be found wanting in natural tenderness or sensibility, the influence of example, and the constant breathing of a kindly atmosphere, is likely, with skilful management of the individual temper, to supply, in good measure, what is lacking: thus the cold nature will grow warm, amid the radiation of love from all sides; and if it never become fervent, will at least never congeal.