VI

PUNISHMENT AND REWARD

LONG before the child's will has developed sufficiently to wisely direct and sustain him in good conduct, it is necessary that he should conform to some authority, as obedience and right doing cannot wait on the full growth of the will. If the child, however, rebels or disregards this authority as well as his sense of right, and can by no appeal to his reason or sympathy be urged to comply, how shall the parental authority be exercised?

Obedience may be urged by four different motives: First, Affection. Second, Insight,— the recognition of right, moral respect. Third, The Habit of Submission. Fourth, Fear. Af fection and recognition of right are the highest motives.

It must now be ascertained to what extent it is right to let the elements of hope and fear enter into the child's discipline. Much of the mismanagement of children is due to a misapprehension of the aim of punishment. Punishment is not only an atonement for transgression, but should be so directly a consequence of it, as to fix in the child's mind the

relation between them-the act and its consequence, and thereby aid him in avoiding a repetition of both. He must first know definitely what is right and what is wrong, and have the power of choosing between the two. It is very difficult to ascertain in a young child how far his consciousness is developed; childhood is so very unconscious. His attitude after the commission of a deed may reveal the degree of his conscious guilt. In doubtful cases he should be given the benefit of the doubt; in cases that show conclusively both consciousness and deliberate evil, or wilfulness, he should learn that "the way of the transgressor is hard." The very best punishments are those which can be linked with the misdeed-the retributive punishments. They appeal to his sense of justice, are more impersonal in that they do not afford special indulgence to parental displeasure, and appear to him as the direct consequence of his deed. For instance: if the child has been given a distinct task and has shirked it, and afterward an opportunity for pleasure arises, he should not be allowed to take part, because the enforced task still awaits his attention. He must recognize that the omission of his duty brought the unpleasant result. It is the law of cause and effect, as a man sows, so will he reap.

A series of such disagreeable consequences will impress him with the inevitableness of the

relation, unless the weak parent intervenes and, by permitting him to forego the after effects, spoils the lesson, or punishes him by some means unrelated to the act. The consequences are often as unpleasant for the parent as for the child, and the temptation to weaken is very great; but if one cannot be consistent and firm, it is impossible to train the child as he should be trained, and the consequences that are defeated now are only retarded, for every wrong is punished or atoned for sooner or later.

In the Divine Comedy, Dante inflicts on the lost souls of the Inferno the punishments that fit their sins. The soul which had been arrogant in life is there in filth and mire disguised. The man who had been remarkable for the extreme irascibility of his temper turns on himself his avenging fangs. The heretics are punished in the city of Dis in tombs burning with intense fire. The souls of tyrants, who were given to blood and rapine, in the seventh circle rail aloud their merciless wrongs. The hypocrites are punished by being compelled to pace around the gulf under the pressure of caps and hoods that are gilt on the outside but leaden within. The selfish, they who have betrayed their benefactors, are wholly covered with ice in the lower stratum of the Inferno, for selfishness is the most ineradicable of sins.

In training the child to orderly habits this

method is also most efficacious; if the disorder he creates is left for another to restore, he is encouraged to continue it, whereas if the restoration falls on him, he will soon discontinue the habit; the greater the inconvenience he suffers in consequence of his neglect, the more it will impress him, and his sense of justice will suffer no violation by such treatment. If the Ichild who leaves his clothes on the floor at night on retiring is awakened and compelled to arise and arrange them properly, the neglect will not occur often. In this method of punishment, however, regularity and perseverance are imperative.

Cases occur in which it is impossible to mete out the after effects of the deed, and some form of punishment is in demand. The child might be deprived of some pleasure or indulgence, or indeed, almost any form of punishment may then be resorted to, except such as the child may feel to be a pure gratification of the parent's displeasure, which induces a sense of injustice.

Corporal punishment is never inflicted except in cases where one has some physical advantage, and it seems cowardly to use one's superior strength on a weaker body. “Do you know why I whip you?" asked a father of his little boy. "Yes, sir, because you are the biggest,' replied the latter; and too often in such pun

ishments there is an excitement of the animal nature, insensible alike to the claims of right and reason. One is apt to act impulsively in such administrations of justice, whereas a little delay, a little more thorough examination of the child's defence, or of the circumstances, might render the chastisement unnecessary, and grant a juster decision.

As to the proper treatment of specific cases there can be no rigid, unvarying rule suited to all, or even to the same child at all times; children differ so in their sensibilities and in the degree of their amenability to punishment. Some there are, who in childhood were victims of frequent whippings, yet who seem to recall them with relish and a feeling that they were well deserved and most beneficial; while in others the remembrance arouses almost as great indignation and rebellion as the actual administration aroused. The inference is, that for the former a milder punishment would not have sufficed, whereas for the latter the severity was unnecessary. Very good effects seem to have resulted from both modes, so one can formulate no data therefrom. The sentiment of fear can only be effective by making a coward of the child. He follows the right only because he has not the courage to bear the pain that would follow the course he wishes to follow, and if he submits he still harbors a rebel