at he ought to do; and this
certainty of result is exactly what prompts many otherwise just and
thoughtful persons to the use of corporal punishment. But these good
results are obtained at the expense of the future. The effect of each
spanking is a little less than the effect of the preceding one. The
child's sensibilities blunt. As in the case of a man with the drug
habit, it requires a larger and larger dose to produce the required
effect. That is, if he is a strong child capable of enduring and
resisting much. If, on the contrary, he is a weak child, whose slow
budding will come only timidly into existence, one or two whippings
followed by threats, may suffice to keep him in a permanently cowed
condition, incapable of initiative, incapable of spontaneity.

The method of discipline here indicated, while it is more searching
than any corporal punishment, does not have any of its disadvantages.
It is more searching, because it never blunts the child's
sensibilities, but rather tends to refine them, and to make them more
responsive.

[Sidenote: Educative Discipline]

[Sidenote: Permanent Results]

The child thus trained should become more susceptible, day by day,
to gentle and elevating influences. This discipline is educative,
explaining to the child why what he does is wrong, showing him the
painful effects as inherent in the deed itself. He cannot, therefore,
conceive of himself as being ever set free from the obligation to do
right; for that obligation within his experience does not rest upon
his mother's will or ability to inflict punishment, but upon the very
nature of the universe of which he is a part. The effects of such
discipline are therefore permanent. That which happens to the child
in the nursery, also happens to him in the great world when he reaches
manhood. His nursery training interprets and orders the world for him.
He comes, therefore, into the world not desiring to experiment with
evil, but clear-eyed to detect it, and strong-armed to overcome it.

We are now ready to consider our subject in some of its larger
aspects.

TEST QUESTIONS

The following questions constitute the "written recitation" which the
regular members of the A.S.H.E. answer in writing and send in for
the correction and comment of the instructor. They are intended to
emphasize and fix in the memory the most important points in the
lesson.

[Illustration: "CARITAS"

From a Painting in the Boston Public Library,