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UNIVERSITY COURIER.
a growing confidence on the part of parents and pupils." From the same source we find that out of 137 students of Cornell, only thirteen reported themselves as showing preference among the different religious denominations, and the small number of four were found who expressed themselves as attending no form of worship. For years ministers of the Gospel as well as others have used the argument of skepticism at K. S. U. to further the interests of their respective sectarian institutions throughout the State. True, like all State institutions, it is unsectarian; but nevertheless, it has at its helm a Faculty who are as alive to the religious wants of its students as the Faculties of any of our sectarian schools. Many students there are who came here expecting to find our University a school of skeptics, in which to express religious sentiments, meant social ostracism. Hundreds have been kept away by the prevalence of such an opinion scattered by men whose selfishness was greater than their sense of honor and truth. Such is not the state of affairs. We verily believe that the number of skeptics from over five hundred students here, can be counted on the ten fingers. The Y. M. C. A. started and maintained by the students of K. S. U. shows that religious sentiment has a firm hold on K. S. U. Nor has the Association a weak and sickly existence, but on the contrary, its meetings are largely attended. We are ready at any time to compare statistics with any sectarian school in the State.
Volume I., No.1, of the Wesleyan Bee is before us. Its intentions are doubtless good, but its make-up is decidedly below the average. After reading the first paragraph of the editorial, which was noticeable for the rather promiscuous use of such words as "Bee," "honey," "cell," "sweet," etc., we finally arrived at the following: "The company is composed of ten members five from the Phi Delta Theta fraternity and five from the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. However, it is not under the control of those fraternities, nor any society at all." Certainly not. No one will be so uncharitable as to charge you ten stockholders with monopolizing Bee affairs even though four of you are editors and four business managers, Pardon our inquisitiveness, but are the other two of you President and Secretary of the company. In another column the Wesleyan Hamlet soliloquizes thusly: "To Bee or not to Bee—that was the question, after careful considation, we concluded to Bee." Well, Brother Bee "'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. To die—ay, there's the rub."
THE TEACHER'S LOVE FOR HIS WORK.
NORMAL.
It is a proposition as creal as an axiom, that no person should be entrusted with the responsibility of forming and molding the character of youth who does not comprehend the value of the material in his care, and does not realize the far-reaching results for good or evil which must follow his labors. Now, these being the facts, is it not a sad desecration of his office if the teacher bestow anything less than his best efforts, springing out of a high appreciation and ardent love for his work; such a heart devotion as can only spring from the consideration that he is the most responsible of all human agents, intrusted with the highest and dearest interests known in human relations—the well-being of so many
in their most plastic period, the acting and reacting for good or bad on themselves, on each other, and on society.
How unworthy an object is a teacher who sees no further than his school room, or the standing of the scholars required in his system, and confine his efforts to his daily success in bringing up the daily tasks, in grinding out his daily round of repressing disorders, of detecting and punishing the offenders. There is a lighthouse for the teacher which none sufficiently consider or fully appreciate. From the standpoint of an adequate love of his work I do not believe, taking all classes, that there is one teacher out of five that has not a positive aversion for it, which many are not ashamed to admit. Look at that young man, compelled to earn his bread and cigars, looking around to find the easiest way of doing it. "Too lazy for honest muscular toil," he thinks that he can have an easy time of it "keeping" school, if he can only get a certificate. What love of work excites him or ever will? He abominates all work. Again, see that village Miss whose inordinate demands for something to wear overreach the wherewithal of her father's purse. She resolves to do something herself. Too proud to go out to work, and thinking it unnecessary for a girl of her fine appearance to learn a trade she, too, determines to try for a certificate and "keep" school. What love of work does this girl carry into the school room? I do not intend to imply anything censurable in using teaching to aid myself in preparing for another profession, for if we take the time to read the early history of some of our most prominent men, we will find that they have been teachers, and successful ones at that. Success in teaching gives almost certain success in any other calling.
The true teacher is a person that needs envy no mortal his position, his emoluments, or his fame. Consider the value of the material the teacher works upon. Look at the man pounding rock upon the streets. Dou you suppose the value of the material has much influence in stimulating him to his work? But look into a tombstone establishment, you see a dozen workmen sawing, chiseling, carving, or polishing sandstone, limestone, granite, or marble. Now, other things being equal, these artisans will be interested in proportion to the value of the blocks on which they are engaged. Look at that sculptor who has been entrusted with a piece of the choicest Parian marble, notice the zeal with which he plies his chisel. Who can fail to sympathize with his earnestness, partake of his anxiety lest by some mischance he may defeat himself and ruin the costly block on which he has bestowed his time and best efforts. Does the idea of toil ever enter his head? He may get weary, but he returns to his work with increased eagerness to the fuller development of his mental conception. What common mechanic would dare to work on such material? If such ardor can be, and often has been, aroused in the elaboration of inanimate material, how much more must the true teacher, as the highest conceivable style of an artist, glory in the development of that priceless material which is committed to his care and workmanship.
No amount of Parian marble nor brilliant and costly metals, whether rough or wrought, can ever compare in value or responsible results with one human mind, endowed as it is with measurless capacity for intellectual progress and power for good or evil. But the develop-