in producing callousness.

Again, when children, with more than usual carelessness, break or lose
the things given to them, the natural penalty--the penalty which makes
grown-up persons more careful--is the consequent inconvenience. The lack
of the lost or damaged article, and the cost of replacing it, are the
experiences by which men and women are disciplined in these matters; and
the experiences of children should be as much as possible assimilated to
theirs. We do not refer to that early period at which toys are pulled to
pieces in the process of learning their physical properties, and at
which the results of carelessness cannot be understood; but to a later
period, when the meaning and advantages of property are perceived. When
a boy, old enough to possess a penknife, uses it so roughly as to snap
the blade, or leaves it in the grass by some hedge-side where he was
cutting a stick, a thoughtless parent, or some indulgent relative, will
commonly forthwith buy him another, not seeing that, by doing this, a
valuable lesson is prevented. In such a case, a father may properly
explain that penknives cost money, and that to get money requires
labour; that he cannot afford to purchase new penknives for one who
loses or breaks them; and that until he sees evidence of greater
carefulness he must decline to make good the loss. A parallel discipline
will serve to check extravagance.

These few familiar instances, here chosen because of the simplicity with
which they illustrate our point, will make clear to every one the
distinction between those natural penalties which we contend are the
truly efficient ones, and those artificial penalties commonly
substituted for them. Before going on to exhibit the higher and subtler
applications of the principle exemplified, let us note its many and
great superiorities over the principle, or rather the empirical
practice, which prevails in most families.

One superiority is that the pursuance of it generates right conceptions
of cause and effect; which by frequent and consistent experience are
eventually rendered definite and complete. Proper conduct in life is
much better guaranteed when the good and evil consequences of actions
are understood, than when they are merely believed on authority. A child
who finds that disorderliness entails the trouble of putting things in
order, or who misses a gratification from dilatoriness, or whose
carelessness is followed by the want of some much-priz