wisdom by their manners, and seniors the gravity of their reverend learning. In other words, if the admission to a given grade were made dependent on actual desert rather than a matter in course, the reward would be in kind, open to all, free from envious competition, and worthy the exertion to secure it. The reward will be the more acceptable and more desired, if the recipient really feels it will add to his happiness to secure it; otherwise it is merely a name. A parent can easily gratify his child while he stimulates his exertions, because he knows just what the youngster is longing for; but a teacher is limited in this direction, and is often forced to magnify the honorable nature of the prize before he can awaken the least desire for it. A starving man will not work for the gaudy decoration of a feather, unless the feather means competence and a full stomach; so the pupil frequently finds that rewards are empty nothings, and tires of them because they do not satisfy his cravings.

There is one error made in granting rewards which should be carefully guarded against, viz: that of granting a pupil certain authority in discipline over his classmates; for such distinctions are seldom unattended by petty jealousies and contemptible spite. The sixth-form boys of Rugby were good enough monitors for the first form, but not for each other. The monitors of the Hamiltonian system were simply necessities to meet an evil state of things. The "elder brothers in reform schools are the only counterparts in our modern institutions, and, under judicious management, the position seems to be a profitable inducement for exertion to duty among the pupils as well as a decided advantage to the institutions; but we do not know the extent of their authority as regards equals, nor how free it is from the evils we have mentioned. In some schools monitors are appointed, either through favor, or as a sort of reward for subserviency, to act as a kind of spy on the actions of their fellows. We do not think that this practice can be sufficiently condemned, or that those who persist in it, can be aware of its pernicious effects. The monitors themselves are sufficiently obnoxious, without any odium attaching to the mode of appointment; and if the teacher has not stamina enough to govern his school independent of their aid, they should either be taken in order or chosen by their fellows.

On the whole, we advocate the custom of granting rewards under proper restrictions. The principal conditions may be thus summed up: Not too easily earned, not too many bestowed, open

to all, attainable by all, desirable in themselves, guarded from envious feelings, and bestowed as far as possible in kind.

As the teacher is limited in the choice of rewards, so (but to a much greater degree) is he limited in the choice of penalties. He may not, like a parent, refuse to permit his refractory charge a place at the table, or in the family circle, or send him to his chamber, or deprive him of anticipated pleasure parties, or deny him any of the thousand home comforts dear to the young; on the contrary, his authority is bounded by his school walls, beyond which he can not go except at his peril. He is further restricted by so many jealously conflicting interests, and hampered by so many tender sympathies of injudicious parents, that the least deviation from an impartial administration exposes him to a storm of complaint and bitter censure. "Uneasy rests the head that wears the crown," no matter how small the kingdom.

The maxim, "Those are the best governed that are the least governed," is applicable even to schools, but with a difference. Riot and revolt demand the fullest exercise of power, and if external circumstances continually excite discord, the hand of authority must be recognized, if not always stretched out to punish. A herd of deer, quivering at every whisper of alarm, requires a far different government than a drove of insensible swine. Some pupils are timid, shy, and self-distrustful; others manly and full of noble purposes; and others are of the earth, earthy. To apply the same regimen to all these would certainly be no evidence of executive ability, and yet all may be gathered within the same walls and demand an impartial treatment. We will suppose that certain rules are framed by which this motley assemblage is to be governed. No doubt some rule will be violated, and as no king should bear his sceptre in vain, the natural consequences must follow and punishment visit the offender. It must be inflicted in school hours, with the appliances of the schoolroom, and by the schoolmaster. But justice requires that it visit only those who merit it. He who fails in duty through timidity, is less deserving of punishment than he who errs through sudden impulse, and he, in turn, less than the one who willfully breaks through restraint; and for this reason the penalty must be graded not merely with reference to the offense, but to motives that guided the offender. As a parent would treat children of different temperaments, so must teachers bear in mind the peculiarities of their pupils, and at the risk of the charge of favoritism meet out equal justice to all. For this reason, he is unwise who threat

ens a specific punishment to each several offense. A word spoken in love, pointing out the nature of the transgression, will often. suffice for a sensitive pupil. A quiet rebuke will better direct the impulsive than any thing that will excite his impulsive nature to further opposition. But with regard to the willfully disobedient, where love and the sentiment of honor fail to arrest his steps, we hold that the Elixir Salmonis is the final specific.

The means by which a teacher may inflict punishment are punishments in kind, the utterings of his mouth, and the inflictions of his hand-the second being, in general, the most severe and common.

Punishments in kind are such as withhold the privileges of the school from those who violate these privileges. An imperfect recitation may be punished by an extra task, but this is often an unwise method, especially so when the current duties require all the powers of the pupil, as the extra work will inevitably entail imperfect recitations on the morrow. If the pupil is excluded from the class until the deficiency is made good, he loses advantages which are necessary to perfect recitations in future. Tardiness may be punished by detention after school, but this often. disarranges the routine of the household, and inflicts an equal punishment on the teacher. Detention from recess is an unhealthy practice, if recess is worth any thing, physiologically speaking. Demerit marks on the class roll will effect little for those who care nothing for their standing. Degradation in class standing is a positive inducement for idlers and lazy bodies to be even more negligent. Suspension from school, to those who can not feel the disgrace, is hailed as a good chance for a vacation. Expulsion, to those who dislike books and hate study, is a grateful relief from the weariness of the flesh. Yet, if the conduct of any pupil is such that the school receives detriment by it, the pupil must be restrained, or that failing to be accomplished, he must be cut off, although his own loss can not be measured.

The tongue is an ever ready weapon, an unruly member, prone to lash rather than soothe. A gentle word may effect wonders with the gentle and sometimes with the froward. A rebuke that shows the offensiveness of the offense and the consequences to the offender, may arouse his better nature to higher aims and nobler deeds. A sarcastic fling may wither its object for the time; but, though it may accomplish its present purpose, it generally rankles until it festers into a chronic sore. A severe scolding, if an unusual thing, not otherwise, may bring lasting repentance,

but may only excite hatred and contempt. The effect of any of these methods depends both on the pupil and the teacher. If the teacher is evidently insincere in his honeyed accents, his words are speedily detected to be the veriest twaddle. If he is honest, wellmeaning, and has sufficient tact to say the right thing at the right time, and shows by his bearing that he means what he says and is determined to enforce his injunctions, his words, however velvet clothed, can not fail to have some effect. If he is irritable and passionate, he stirs up anger in his pupils with every angry ejaculation. The pupil may become either at home or at school impenetrable to scolding, bomb proof, in short-insensible to the reasonableness of reason and unmoved by tokens of esteem and affection.

We have seen pupils in all these conditions, not often all these conditions in the same pupil. One was a marked example of the effect produced by continual betalking into the right course: he had become so impressible at the time when he entered school, that at the merest intimation that he was in fault, he at once confessed his errors to the fullest extent, with all outward marks of contrition and most satisfactory promises of reform, not, however, as it afterward appeared, with any intention of reformation, but simply to avoid the discussion of a disagreeable subject. On him words of any sort, whether gentle, or sarcastic, or angry, were simply wasted.

Now, suppose all these methods, except expulsion, have been faithfully tried, and expulsion not possible or not advisable, what remains? It is useless to say that these methods are in themselves sufficient in all places and under all exigences; any hardscrabble community is a proof to the contrary. It is useless to quote the testimony of Professor Agassiz with his forty years' experience in girls' schools and in Harvard University, or the fact that any other man has successfully taught without striking a blow. For ten years past, our experience has been the same, and not far different in the rest of it; but between the well-mannered pupils of our later years and the uncivilized barbarians of many a hamlet infested by a corner groggery, there is as much difference as between light and darkness. Between the position of a teacher sustained by public opinion and supported by the board of education, and of one who is forced to struggle against external misrule without official support, there is no comparison to be drawn. Suppose the corresponding inducements to good behavior have been offered in a family, and have failed to take

effect, what resource is left the father? If the father ever finds it necessary to use the rod so may the teacher, and, as we have shown, may avail himself of it with equal right.

It may be that some methods of corporal punishment are better than others. The ferule, the strap, the cane, and the rawhide may have their special advocates, but with the instrument we have nothing to do. Dr. Wyman declares that certain modes of punishment are detrimental to the bodily health of girls. If so, such should certainly be abolished; so should they if the punishment is indecent in its mode of application; so should they if the age or the physical condition of the pupil renders expulsion the better method of punishment. Now, as to the manner of corporal punishment, much may be said. If the punishment is inflicted by an angry man, it is likely to be beyond the just deserts of the offender. He who accustoms himself to perambulate the schoolroom distributing thwacks on every side, is not worthy his position; neither is he blameless who visits with severe castigation every slight deviation from his regulations. If the blow is struck upon a vital part, or upon an invalid, the consequences may be fatal; and the teacher forever afterward full of remorse.

Undoubtedly nine out of ten pupils are chastised when a better teacher would find no necessity for it. The whole secret of doing without corporal punishment lies in the firm, resolute eye and voice of the master. If the master is once recognized, the incipient revolt is quelled without a blow.

One argument for corporal punishment remains to be noticed. All government is sustained by the consciousness that it possesses sufficient power to maintain its authority; without this its edicts sink below the level of contempt. So this power to visit with personal retribution the vicious misdemeanors of the school boy, has doubtless deterred many from the outward violation of law, and led them, without the necessity of its exhibition, to become men of stable habits, obeying the law of the state without the need of its penalty.

It must be regretted that there is a growing tendency to hamper the authority of the teacher by uncalled-for legislation, because some have been found incompetent to govern without harsh methods. In some schools little is left to the teacher beyond the privilege of appealing to the superintendent. As well might an officer on a battle-field be forced to await the tardy decree of a court-martial before disgracing the mutinous or the

recreant.

There are occasions in the school which call for prompt