ABSTRACT
IMPROVEMENT is never secured without labour and trouble. I t has often been asserted that teaching is the hardest work in the world, and every thoughtful man knows that it is much more diffi-- cult to teach men than to teach children. The potter hath power over the clay, but that is before it is burned ; for after the action of the fire of experience, or the hardening process of age with igno-- rance, it is very difficult to secure a change, however obvious the advantage. The working classes are in these days often very severely judged when they oppose obvious improvements, but they are not more than two generations behind their employers in their strongest prejudices.
