a blow is the most
natural form of retribution, and that in which all other efforts at
influence at last end. The fully grown man ought, certainly, not to be
flogged, for this kind of punishment places him on a level with the
child; or, where it is barbarously inflicted, reduces him to the level
of the brute, and thus absolutely does degrade him. In English schools
the rod is said to be often used; if a pupil of the first class, who is
never flogged, is put back into the second, he becomes again subject to
flogging. But, even if this be necessary in the schools, it certainly
has no proper place in the army and navy.

Sec. 43. (2) To punish a pupil by isolation is to remove him temporarily
from the society of his fellows. The boy or girl thus cut off from
companionship, and forced to think only of himself, begins to understand
how helpless he is in such a position. Time passes wearily, and he is
soon eager to return to the companionship of parents, brothers and
sisters, teachers and fellow-students.

But to leave a child entirely by himself without any supervision, and
perhaps in a dark room, is as wrong as to leave two or three together
without supervision. It often happens when they are kept after school by
themselves that they give the freest rein to their childish wantonness,
and commit the wildest pranks.

Sec. 44. (3) Shutting children up in this way does not touch their sense
of honor, and the punishment is soon forgotten, because it relates only
to certain particular phases of their behavior. But it is quite
different when the pupil is isolated from his fellows on the ground that
by his conduct he has violated the very principles which make civilized
society possible, and is, therefore, no longer a proper member of it.
This is a punishment which touches his sense of honor, for honor is the
recognition of the individual by others as their equal, and by his
error, or by his crime, he had forfeited his right to be their equal,
their peer, and has thus severed himself from them.

The separation from them is thus only the external form of the real
separation which he himself has brought to pass within his soul, and
which his wrong-doing has only made clearly visible. This kind of
punishment, thus touching the whole character of the youth and not
easily forgotten, should be administered with the greatest caution lest
a permanent loss of self-respect follow. When we think our wrong-doing
to be eternal in its effects