unning. We have advised, that children, before their habits are
formed, should never be exposed to temptations to deceive; that no
questions should be asked them which hazard their young integrity;
that as they grow older, they should gradually be trusted; and that
they should be placed in situations where they may feel the advantages
both of speaking truth, and of obtaining a character for integrity.
The perception of the utility of this virtue to the individual, and to
society, will confirm the habitual reverence in which our pupils have
been taught to hold it. As young people become reasonable, the nature
of their habits and of their education should be explained to them,
and their virtues, from being virtues of custom, should be rendered
virtues of choice and reason. It is easier to confirm good habits by
the conviction of the understanding, than to induce habits in
consequence of that conviction. This principle we have pursued in the
chapter on Rewards and Punishments; we have not considered punishment
as vengeance or retaliation, but as _pain inflicted with the
reasonable hope of procuring some future advantage to the delinquent,
or to society_. The smallest possible quantity of pain that can effect
this purpose, we suppose, must, with all just and humane persons, be
the measure of punishment. This notion of punishment, both for the
sake of the preceptor and the pupil, should be clearly explained as
early as it can be made intelligible. As to rewards, we do not wish
that they should be bribes; they should stimulate, without weakening
the mind. The consequences which naturally follow every species of
good conduct, are the proper and best rewards that we can devise;
children whose understandings are cultivated, and whose tempers are
not spoiled, will be easily made happy without the petty bribes which
are administered daily to ill educated, ignorant, over stimulated,
and, consequently, wretched and ill humoured children. Far from making
childhood a state of continual penance, restraint, and misery, we wish
that it should be made a state of uniform happiness; that parents and
preceptors should treat their pupils with as much equality and
kindness as the improving reason of children justifies. The views of
children should be extended to their future advantage,[111] and they
should consider childhood as a part of their existence, not as a
certain number of years which must be passed over before they can
enjoy any of the