went." If the child's motive be not attended to, reward may serve to ruin, instead of to improve, and to mould the character upon the best models.

Care must be taken that reward should only be justly given, and that it should not be equally and indiscriminately lavished on the deserving and the undeserving, or it will soon lose its effect; for if it do not lead to confounding the distinctions between virtue and vice, it will yet cease to be a stimulus to exertion, if it be equally attainable by the indolent and careless, as by the prudent and active. Parents often commit a mistake on this subject; anxious not to excite a feeling of disappointment in the bosom of their offspring; perhaps also dreading the self-denial necessary to withhold a promised boon; or fearful lest they may excite envy and jealousy in the mind of the unsuccessful, they are too frequently disposed to overlook the want of desert; and while they confer reward on the industrious, not to withhold it from the idle, in the hope they will be better next time. A most ungrounded hope; for indolence is natural to man; and if he can be filled with good without exertion, he will never strive after success. Besides, the feeling of disappointment should be produced, or how will the child reflect on its own voluntary loss? And neither envy nor jealousy will be excited, if it be clearly shewn that the one is rewarded for merit, and that the other suffers by an act of its own choice. If, however, this principle be not invariably acted

VOL. II.

K K

upon, but if, on the contrary, capricious deviations be made from it; then indeed there will be room for anger and jealousy, and envy and hatred; but this is the fault of the parent, and not of the system.

Again, the reward itself should consist of some little testimony of parental approbation, enough to gladden the heart of infancy, while at the same time it should not be any abiding, and prominent, or galling mark of distinction, which may by its obtrusive perpetuity excite the envy of others; and then the effect of reward is altogether lost, and indolence is supplanted by a baser passion. The object with children, should be to make an adequate impression upon their hearts; but not permanently to wound their feelings; to kindle the glow of exertion, but not to fan the flame of passion, or to feed the feverish irritability of vice.

Reward should also be accessible to all upon their industriously seeking it; it should not be promised so much to a certain degree of success, as to the sincere effort to obtain it; for the powers of children are so dissimilar, that their success would be a very unsafe criterion of their merit; since while emulation is a powerful incentive to action, envy is the bane of the young mind; and it must ever be recollected, that in the simple unprepared heart of the child, the highest degree of emulation (though in its nature perfectly distinct) is very nearly allied to the lowest grade of envy, and will be easily converted into that ma

lignant passion by the consciousness of having been outstripped by a more powerful competitor, and of not reaping the reward which was really due to the intensity and sincerity of its exertion. And since it is necessary to keep the two principles perfectly distinct, and to avoid all that may excite envious feeling in that bosom which should be keenly alive to the impression of the mildest benevolence, the more trifling the reward is, the better, so that it be just sufficient to become an object of desire. This too will be right on another principle, viz. that in dispensing rewards, it will be necessary to separate immeasurably the ideas of action, and of a natural, consequent, and adequate recompense; since the child may erroneously connect them, and the expectation of this connexion may become a principle of action very difficult to eradicate, and embarrassing to the parent when attempting to lay the foundation of religious instruction. This is to be accomplished by not holding out to the young a certain reward as the necessary consequence of particular observances. When some valuable consideration of a defined nature may have been held up as the result of, and as a reward for specific actions, the amount of effort will be governed by this stimulus, and the two ideas will be inseparably linked together but if action be first established on proper principles, then indeed it may be rewarded with advantage, and the idea of merit attached to it will be preserved entirely distinct; for there is none good but one, that is God. And lastly, the

mark of approbation should be conferred on conduct, not because it is pleasing to the parent, which is far too low a standard of right, but because the action is consistent with the commands of God; not because the parent is gratified, but the law of God obeyed; not because the feelings are interested, but the judgment approves; not because the passions are excited, but reason assents, and reflection confirms, and conscience dictates, and the word of God commands, and the Spirit of God reveals the truth, and teaches all things, and leads the sincere Christian in the narrow way, which conducts to eternal life.

501

CHAP. XIX.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED-ON PUNISHMENT.

IN apportioning punishment to misdemeanour and crime, it must be recollected that the child is not a mere domestic animal, to which the expression of displeasure may be conveyed by external signs; but the mind should be addressed, and the spirit softened, and the heart led to contrition, or very little will be gained towards realizing the object of all punishment, viz. reformation. Some expression of displeasure, some mark of dissatisfaction may be required, but much less frequently than is generally believed. In common, the child may be made really sorry for its fault by reasoning with it, and by explaining its nature and tendency, its offensiveness to God, its origin in disaffection to parental authority and legislation. This method of reasoning will make a lasting impression upon the mind, because principles of action will be incorporated with it; while another mode of direct punishment will perpetuate its influence only so long as the mark of disgrace caused by its infliction attaches to the character and it should not attach long, or the subject of it learns to undervalue and despise