tion of this principle.

There is no imminent danger of children's becoming either coiners or
fraudulent distillers; but an ingenious preceptor will not be much
puzzled in applying the remarks that have been made, to the subject of
education. For the anticlimax, in descending from the legislation of
men to the government of children, no apology is attempted.

The fewer the laws we make for children, the better. Whatever they may
be, they should be distinctly expressed; the letter and spirit should
both agree, and the words should bear but one signification, clear to
all the parties concerned. They should never be subject to the ex post
facto interpretation of an angry preceptor, or a cunning pupil; no
loose general terms should permit tyranny, or encourage quibbling.
There is said[68] to be a Chinese law, which decrees, that whoever
does not show _proper respect_ to the sovereign, is to be punished
with death. What is meant by the words _proper respect_, is not
defined. Two persons made a mistake in some account of an
insignificant affair, in one of their court gazettes. It was declared,
that _to lie_ in a court gazette, is to be wanting in _proper respect_
to the court. Both the careless scribes were put to death. One of the
princes of the blood inadvertently put some mark upon a memorial,
which had been signed by the emperor Bogdo Chan. This was construed to
be a want of _proper respect_ to Bogdo Chan the emperor, and a
horrible persecution hence arose against the scrawling prince and his
whole family. May no schoolmasters, ushers, or others, ever (even as
far as they are able) imitate Bogdo Chan, and may they always define
to their subjects, what they mean by _proper respect_!

There is a sort of mistaken mercy sometimes shown to children, which
is, in reality, the greatest cruelty. People, who are too angry to
refrain from threats, are often too indolent, or too compassionate, to
put their threats in execution. Between their words and actions there
is hence a manifest contradiction; their pupils learn from experience,
either totally to disregard these threats, or else to calculate, from
the various degrees of anger which appear in the threatener's
countenance, what real probability there is of his being as good or as
bad as his word. Far from perceiving that punishment, in this case, is
_pain given with the reasonable hope of making him wiser or happier_,
the pupil is convinced, that his master punishes him only t