if physically excited, it will excite physically. In the one case it will be a sure guide; in the other a blind guide. Thus it may be brought into legitimate action even in committing a lesson to memory. Only present a sufficiently powerful moral inducement to get a task, and the fear of failure will be abundantly strong to urge on the learner. Nor will the fear of displeasing a kind parent or master be an inconsiderable stimulus, and this exercise of the feeling is, perhaps, the most healthy of all: not even the rod can inflict so keen a wound upon a sensitive child as the pain caused by a breach of duty towards one whom he loves and respects. Fear, then, is a perfectly legitimate motive in school discipline, but it has also proper objects to be exercised upon, and a moral, not a physical, influence should be applied to it.

How many, how very many, indeed, of the causes of those little faults at school, that are punishable by the rod, have their origin in the castigator himself! How often does one see, in the streets, the driver of a cab, by his own stupidity, getting entangled among a crowd of other vehicles. He loses temper at the delay and trouble, and wreaks his fury upon the unoffending animal in hard blows and cuts. If the animal had been properly guided beforehand, it would never have got into the difficulty. It was the driver's fault entirely, but for which the poor beast had to suffer. So is it at school, where blind force is resorted to in urging forwards boys in their studies. The reasons of failure are seldom taken into account in awarding the penalty, otherwise it would often be found as much the master's fault as the pupils. The former does not bestow sufficient pains in guiding his pupils into a right path, or does not show them the way properly out of a wrong one, but summarily flogs them through it.

Perhaps, in no instance is this better exemplified than

in studying Latin under the still popular plan. In translating a difficult passage, it is no exaggeration to say, that out of a class of six boys, on an average, four of them never can make out the sense unassisted. But where is the assistance to come from? Perhaps no help can be got at home, and the casual explanation of a comrade at school is not sufficient; his own judgment is bewildered in attempting to solve the enigma, and he finds himself in a labyrinth of perplexity, from which there is no escape. But the lesson must be got under pain of a beating, and to this alternative he at last submits in moody despair. And wise he is to do so, for few corporal punishments are worse than the mental torture arising from a vain attempt at unravelling an involved passage of Latin or Greek unassisted, and aggravated by the thought that an undeserved punishment is all that is likely to be the result. No one but those conversant in the customs of many grammar-schools, would believe the amount of misery thus inflicted upon innocent children. The prejudice against an interlinear translation, or any other improved mode of teaching Latin and Greek, prevents their being adopted in such places, and the almost unaided powers of children are set to cope with difficulties that masters themselves seldom voluntarily attempt. It is well known that the latter often resort to English translations to assist in reading an author. But then they do it hypocritically, decry the use of them, and prohibit their scholars from doing so. Professors in colleges do the same,—at least the writer once remembers having a stolen glance at the manual of one of his professors, and found it interlined every word, and this, too, a gentleman who had gained the highest prizes both at Cambridge and Oxford. Why not offer then, to boys, the same assistance that is found so convenient to masters;

or, at all events, why flog children for not surmounting difficulties that masters often feel troublesome to themselves? The simple substitute for thousands upon thousands of bodily punishments, in such cases, for groans and tears and broken hearts without number, for depraved moral habits and stunted mental powers, would be the simplest of all possible expedients-an interlined copy of the Latin or Greek author read.

It would be needless, and indeed impossible, to enumerate all the cases that occur at school, punishable by the rod; and I shall only, therefore, mention one or two other instances by way of illustration of the whole erroneous system.

Perhaps the most besetting sin of school-boys, and the source of many other evils, is a general want of attention to their lessons. The causes of this are obvious at a glance the lessons are not sufficiently attractive; indeed, it is a truism to say so. That they can be made entirely so, indeed, to every capacity, and to the vastly diversified dispositions and minds of pupils, is, perhaps, impossible; but to imagine that anything like uniformity of attention will be gained by physical compulsion, is extremely absurd. It is a mistake similar to that which induced religious bigots of the dark ages to institute the inquisition, and the rack, to compel a uniformity of faith in matters of religion. Such a process might, of course, gain a hypocritical assent to any set of doctrines by the unthinking, but could only inspire disgust in those who reflected upon the matter; and the terrors of the rod in school, may also compel a stupid and sullen stare at the book, or the instructor's face, but the willing mind, by such a method, will be far away.

If a lesson is not attentively received, it is either not attractive in itself, not made so, or the bent of the boy's

mind and disposition is at variance with that particular branch of study. The second of these is most frequently the case. What is here alluded to principally is, in what may be called explanatory or descriptive teaching. In speaking to children, even upon a subject naturally interesting to them, the prevailing error in untrained teachers is a want of simplification, or what has been aptly styled a "pulverising" process. They describe a thing to children as they would to grown people. Abstract ideas, a Latin style, and learned words are employed, and the pupils soon lose themselves in a vain attempt to make out what it can be all about. The announcement of the subject perhaps may arrest their attention, and, expecting to be entertained, they prepare themselves to listen. Byand-by, however, some terms are introduced beyond their capacity, and their minds get bewildered. The picture they expected to see turns out a mere confusion of colours, on looking at which they can perceive no beauty, nothing attractive. But, in the whispered information of a companion regarding some incident naturally arising out of the lesson, a very striking and interesting picture is presented, and the listener's mind seizes upon it with avidity. It naturally calls up a kindred association in his own mind, which is also detailed sotto voce. Of course the master's elaborate description falls upon heedless ears; his vanity, perhaps, is mortified that all his fine speeches should go for nought, and his indignation aroused against the whispering and, to him, inattentive boys. This feeling calls forth a threat, or a scold, or as a more convenient and summary mode to those who have the rod constantly in hand, it may be a cut across the shoulders. Strange mode of recalling attention! Yet it will do so, though in a very different way from that anticipated. Attention will be fixed upon the master, in an

instantaneous and concentrated feeling of resentment. The boy was not to blame, however, he was merely attracted by what he found attractive, and tired of listening to what he could not understand.

How imperative is it upon a teacher, even for his own comfort, to study the bias of the young mind, in giving such a lesson! If a little liberty be given, the children themselves will often point out the proper course of the lesson by their own suggestions and remarks. In the case mentioned, the master could easily have perceived, that what the two boys had been talking about had reference to the subject. They should have been encouraged to express themselves audibly and without restraint. Perhaps in a lesson on the natural history of an animal, a boy will recall some incident or circumstance that came under his own notice connected with the animal's habits. This he should have an opportunity of relating aloud, instead of secretly to his companion. The incident should be taken up by the master, with whatever additions or improvements his own mind may suggest. The boy's attention would thus be taken captive as it were, drawn out, and guided into that very channel best adapted for its development. And not only would this boy's mind and attention be secured from wandering, but it would prove the means of fixing the attention of all, for such, in all probability, would be the very course the lesson ought naturally to have taken. But, like an obstruction to the natural current of a river, turning it aside, and throwing its surplus waters over a fertile plain, to inundate it, and mar its fertility, the rod represses every such natural outgoing of the young mind, and throws it back upon itself, to stagnate upon the feelings and demoralise them.

Confessedly the most difficult cases to be dealt with, are those of a really immoral and wicked character, such