"BORN TEACHERS."
To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") Sin,—In the Spectator of October 18th, in a review of "Lectures on Language," by Professor Laurie, we read the following :— " He [Professor Laurie] fails to appreciate the full significance of the fact that unless a man has by nature the gift of teaching others well, he cannot be taught how to do so, any more than a man without the gift of poetry can be taught to write good poems." I rather think the Professor may be trusted to appreciate the full significance of facts bearing on education as well as his reviewer. There is a significant fact which has to be considered before we can bracket teaching and poetry-writing. Thousands and thousands of human beings must teach, and no one need write poetry. If the dire necessity were laid upon us of providing so many writers of poetry for every hundred of the juvenile population (one to fifteen, according to the reviewer's figares) we should lose sight of the proverb, Poeta nascitur, non fit, and should con- centrate our energies on endeavouring to increase the number and improve the average excellence of such poets as we have. Happily we do not need an army of poets ; but an army of teachers is indispensable. Shall we, then, trust to Providence to furnish us with an adequate supply of born teachers, or shall we do our best to secure enough teachers, whether born teachers or not, and by training fit them as far as possible for the work they have to do P—I am, Sir, &c.,
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