that he might torment his companions here, and give
me trouble, and anxiety and suffering, when I should come. If I should
tell you his name, the whole school would turn against him for his
ingratitude."

The business ended here, and it put a stop, a final stop to all
malicious tricks in the school. Now it is not very often that so fine an
opportunity occurs, to kill, by a single blow, the disposition to do
wilful, wanton injury, as this circumstance afforded; but the principle
illustrated by it,--bringing forward individual cases of transgression,
in a public manner, only for the sake of the general effect, and so
arranging what is said and done as to produce the desired effect upon
the public mind, in the highest degree, may very frequently be acted
upon. Cases are continually occurring, and if the teacher will keep it
constantly in mind, that when a particular case comes before the whole
school, the object is an influence upon the whole, and not the
punishment or reform of the guilty individual, he will insensibly so
shape his measures, as to produce the desired result.

(4.) There should be a great difference made between the _measures you
take_ to prevent wrong, and the _feelings of displeasure_ against wrong,
when it is done. The former should be strict, authoritative, unbending;
the latter should be mild and gentle. Your measures, if uniform and
systematic will never give offence, however powerfully you may restrain
and control. It is the morose look, the harsh expression, the tone of
irritation and fretfulness which is so unpopular in school. The sins of
childhood are by nine tenths of mankind enormously overrated, and
perhaps none overrate them, more extravagantly, than teachers. We
confound the trouble they give us, with their real moral turpitude, and
measure the one by the other. Now if a fault prevails in school, one
teacher will scold and fret himself about it, day after day, until his
scholars are tired both of school and of him: and yet he will do nothing
effectual to remove it. Another will take efficient and decided
measures, and yet say very little on the subject, and the whole evil
will be removed, without suspending for a moment, the good humor, and
pleasant feeling, which should prevail in school.

The expression of your displeasure on account of any thing that is
wrong, will seldom or never do any good. The scholars consider it
scolding; it is scolding, and though it may, in many cases, contain