tled to the most honourable of all dismissions, an
enlightened self-approbation. And nothing can more powerfully tend to
place this beyond our acquisition, even our contemplation, than the
perpetual and hourly rebuffs which ingenuous youth is so often doomed
to sustain from the supercilious pedant, and the rigid decision of his
unfeeling elders.

Self-respect to be nourished in the mind of the pupil, is one of the
most valuable results of a well conducted education. To accomplish this,
it is most necessary that it should never be inculcated into him,
that he is dull. Upon the principles of this Essay, any unfavourable
appearances that may present themselves, do not arise from the dulness
of the pupil, but from the error of those upon whose superintendence he
is cast, who require of him the things for which he is not adapted, and
neglect those in which he is qualified to excel.

It is further necessary, if self-respect is one of the most desirable
results of a well-conducted education, that, as we should not humble
the pupil in his own eyes by disgraceful and humiliating language, so
we should abstain, as much as possible, from personal ill-treatment, and
the employing towards him the measures of an owner towards his purchased
or indentured slave. Indignity is of all things the most hostile to the
best purposes of a liberal education. It may be necessary occasionally
to employ, towards a human creature in his years of nonage, the
stimulants of exhortation and remonstrance even in the pursuits to which
he is best adapted, for the purpose of overcoming the instability and
fits of idleness to which all men, and most of all in their early
years, are subject: though in such pursuits a necessity of this sort can
scarcely be supposed. The bow must not always be bent; and it is good
for us that we should occasionally relax and play the fool. It may more
readily be imagined, that some incitement may be called for in those
things which, as has been mentioned above, it may be fit he should learn
though with but half a will. All freaks must not be indulged; admonition
is salutary, and that the pupil should be awakened by his instructor to
sober reflection and to masculine exertion. Every Telemachus should have
his Mentor.--But through the whole it is necessary that the spirit of
the pupil should not be broken, and that he should not be treated with
contumely. Stripes should in all instances be regarded as the last
resort, and as a