hension of his wrong-doing and to a positive alteration in his
behavior, and, hence, has for its aim to improve him. At the same time
it is a sad testimony of the insufficiency of the means which have
been previously tried. We should on no account aim to terrify the
youth by physical force, so that to avoid that he will refrain from
doing the wrong or from repeating a wrong act already done. This would
lead only to terrorism, and his growing strength would soon put him
beyond its power and leave him without motive for refraining from
evil. Punishment may have this effect in some degree, but it should,
above all, be made to impress deeply upon his mind the eternal truth
that the evil deed is never allowed in God's universe to act
unrestrained and according to its own will, but that the good and true
is the only absolute power in the world, and that it is never at a
loss to avenge any contradiction of its will and design.

It may be questioned whether the moral teaching in our schools be not
too negative in its measures; whether it do not confine itself too much
to forbidding the commission of the wrong deed, and spend too little
force in securing the performance of the right deed. Not a simple
refraining from the wrong, but an active doing of the right would be the
better lesson to inculcate.

In the laws of the state the office of punishment is first to satisfy
justice,[12] and only after this is done can the improvement of the
criminal be considered. If government should proceed on the same basis
as the educator, it would make a grave mistake, for it has to deal, not
with children, but with adults, to whom it concedes the dignity of full
responsibility for all their acts. It has not to consider the reasons,
either psychological or ethical, which prompted the deed. The actual
deed is what it has first of all to deal with, and only after that is
considered and settled can it take into view any mitigating
circumstances connected therewith, or any peculiarity of the individual.
The educator, on the other hand, has to deal with those who are immature
and only growing toward responsibility. As long as they are under the
care of a teacher, he is at any rate partially accountable for what they
do. We must never confound the nature of punishment in the State with
that of punishment as an educational means.

Sec. 40. As to punishment, as with all other work in education, it can
never be abstractly determined beforehand, but it