It is not right to call it a prejudice, for, although a single individual may conceive a prejudice, whole communities very seldom do, unless in some case which is presented at once to the whole, so that, looking at it through a common medium, all judge wrong together.

But the general opinion in regard to teaching is composed of a vast number of _separate_ and _independent_ judgments, and there must be some good ground for the universal result.
It is best, therefore, if there are any real and peculiar sources of trial and difficulty in this pursuit, that they should be distinctly known and acknowledged at the outset.

Count the cost before going to war.

It is even better policy to overrate than to underrate it.

Let us see, then, what the real difficulties of teaching are.
It is not, however, as is generally supposed, _the confinement._ A teacher is confined, it is true, but not more than men of other professions and employments; not more than a merchant, and probably not as much.