nation; which by this way is not at all altered, but on the contrary Beating. heightened and increased in him; and after fuch restraint, breaks out ufually with the more violence. Or,

§ 51. 4. IF severity carried to the highest pitch does prevail, and works a cure upon the prefent unruly distemper, it is often bringing in the room of it a worfe and more dangerous disease, by breaking the mind; and then, in the place of a diforderly young fellow, you have a low-fpirited moped creature: who, however with his unnatural fobriety he may please filly people, who commend tame inactive children, because they make no noife, nor give them any trouble; yet, at laft, will probably prove as uncomfortable a thing to his friends, as he will be, all his life, an useless thing to himself and others.

very

$52. BEATING then, and all other forts of flavish and corporal Rewards. punifliments, are not the difcipline fit to be ufed in the education of those who would have wife, good, and ingenuous men; and therefore rarely to be applied, and that only on great occafions, and cafes of extremity. On the other fide, to flatter children by rewards of things that are pleasant to them, is as carefully to be avoided. He that will give to his fon apples, or fugar-plums, or what elfe of this kind he is most delighted with, to make him learn his book, does but authorise his love of pleafure, and cocker up that dangerous propenfity, which he ought by all means to fubdue and stifle in him. You can never hope to teach him to mafter it, whilft you compound for the check you give his inclination in one place, by the fatisfaction you propofe to it in another. To make a good, a wife, and a virtuous man, it is fit he should learn to cross his appetite, and deny his inclination to riches, finery, or pleafing his palate, &c. whenever his reafon advises the contrary, and his duty requires it. But when you draw him to do any thing that is fit, by the offer of money; or reward the pains of learning his book, by the pleasure of a luscious morfel; when you promife him a lace-cravat, or a fine new fuit, upon performance of fome of his little tasks; what do you, by proposing these as rewards, but allow them to be the good things he Thould aim at, and thereby encourage his longing for them, and accustom him to place his happiness in them? Thus people, to prevail with children to be induftrious about their grammar, dancing, or fome other fuch matter, of no great moment to the happiness or ufefulness of their lives, by mifapplied rewards and punishments, facrifice their virtue, invert the order of their education, and teach them luxury, pride, or covetousness, Bʊe. For in this way, flattering thofe wrong inclinations, which they Thould reftrain and fupprefs, they lay the foundations of those future vices, which cannot be avoided, but by curbing our defires, and accustoming them early to fubmit to reafon.

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$53. I SAY not this, that I would have children kept from the conveniencies or pleasures of life, that are not injurious to their health or virtue: on the contrary, I would have their lives made as pleasant, and as agreeable to them as may be, in a plentiful enjoyment of whatsoever might

innocently

Rewards.

Reputation.

innocently delight them: provided it be with this caution, that they have thofe enjoyments, only as the confequences of the state of esteem and acceptation they are in with their parents and governors; but they should never be offered or bestowed on them, as the reward of this or that particular performance, that they fhew an averfion to, or to which they would not have applied themselves without that temptation.

$ 54. BUT if you take away the rod on one hand, and thefe little encouragements, which they are taken with, on the other; how then (will you fay) fhall children be governed? Remove hope and fear, and there is an end of all difcipline. I grant, that good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature; thefe are the spur and reins, whereby all mankind are fet on work and guided, and therefore they are to be made ufe of to children too. For I advise their parents and governors always to carry this in their minds, that children are to be treated as rational creatures.

§ 55. REWARDS, I grant, and punishments must be proposed to children, if we intend to work upon them. The mistake, I imagine, is, that those that are generally made ufe of, are ill chofen. The pains and pleasures of the body are, I think, of ill confequence, when made the rewards and punishments whereby men would prevail on their children: for, as I faid before, they ferve but to increase and strengthen those inclinations, which it is our bufinefs to fubdue and mafter. What principle of virtue do you lay in a child, if you will redeem his defires of one pleasure by the propofal of another? This is but to enlarge his appetite, and instruct it to wander. If a child cries for an unwholfome and dangerous fruit, you purchase his quiet by giving him a lefs hurtful fweet-meat. This perhaps may preserve his health, but fpoils his mind, and fets that farther out of order. For here you only change the object; but flatter still his appetite, and allow that must be fatisfied, wherein, as I have fhewed, lies the root of the mischief: and till you bring him to be able to bear a denial of that fatisfaction, the child may at prefent be quiet and orderly, but the disease is not cured. By this way of proceeding you foment and cherish in him that which is the fpring, from whence all the evil flows; which will be fure on the next occafion to break out again with more violence, give him stronger longings, and you more trouble.

§ 56. THE rewards and punishments then, whereby we fhould keep children in order, are quite of another kind; and of that force, that when we can get them once to work, the business, I think, is done, and the difficulty is over. Efteem and disgrace are, of all others, the most powerful incentives to the mind, when once it is brought to relish them. you can once get into children a love of credit, and an apprehension of fhame and difgrace, you have put into them the true principle, which will conftantly work, and incline them to the right. But it will be afked, How fhall this be done?

If

I CONFESS, it does not, at first appearance, want fome difficulty; but yet I think it worth our while to feek the ways (and practise them

when found) to attain this, which I look on as the great fecret of Reputation.

education.

$57. FISRT, children (earlier perhaps than we think) are very fenfible of praise and commendation. They find a pleasure in being esteemed and valued, especially by their parents, and those whom they depend on. If therefore the father carefs and commend them, when they do well; fhew a cold and neglectful countenance to them upon doing ill; and this accompanied by a like carriage of the mother, and all others that are about them; it will in a little time make them fenfible of the difference: and this, if conftantly obferved, I doubt not but will of itself work more than threats or blows, which lofe their force, when once grown common, and are of no ufe when fhame does not attend them; and therefore are to be forborn, and never to be used, but in the cafe hereafter-mentioned, when it is brought to extremity.

§ 58. BUT, fecondly, to make the fenfe of efteem or difgrace fink the deeper, and be of the more weight, other agreeable or difagreeable things fhould conftantly accompany these different states; not as particular rewards and punishments of this or that particular action, but as neceffarily belonging to, and conftantly attending one, who by his carriage has brought himself into a state of difgrace or commendation. By which way of treating them, children may as much as poffible be brought to conceive, that thofe that are commended and in efteem for doing well, will neceffarily be beloved and cherished by every body, and have all other good things as a confequence of it; and, on the other fide, when any one by mifcarriage falls into dif-esteem, and cares not to preserve his credit, he will unavoidably fall under neglect and contempt: and, in that state, the want of whatever might fatisfy or delight him, will follow. In this way the objects of their defires are made aflifting to virtue; when a fettled experience from the beginning teaches children, that the things they delight in, belong to, and are to be enjoyed by those only, who are in a state of reputation. If by these means you can come once to fhame them out of their faults, (for befides that, I would willingly have no punishment) and make them in love with the pleasure of being well thought on, you may turn them as you pleafe, and they will be in love with all the ways of

virtue.

$59. THE great difficulty here is, I imagine, from the folly and perverfeness of fervants, who are hardly to be hindered from croffing herein the defign of the father and mother. Children, discountenanced by their parents for any fault, find ufually a refuge and relief in the careffes of those foolish flatterers, who thereby undo whatever the parents endeavour to establish. When the father or mother looks four on the children, every body elfe fhould put on the fame coldness to him, and no-body give him countenance, till forgiveness afked, and a reformation of his fault, has fet him right again, and restored him to his former credit. If this were conftantly obferved, I guess there would be little need of blows or chideing: their own ease and fatisfaction would quickly teach children to court VOL. IV

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Reputation commendation, and avoid doing that, which they found every body condemned, and they were fure to fuffer for, without being chid or beaten. This would teach them modefty and fhame; and they would quickly come to have a natural abhorrence for that, which they found made them flighted and neglected by every body. But how this inconvenience from fervants is to be remedied, I muft leave to parents care and consideration. Only I think it of great importance; and that they are very happy, who can get difcreet people about their children.

Shame..

Reputation..

§ 60. FREQUENT beating or chiding is therefore carefully to be avoided; because this fort of correction never produces any good, farther than it ferves to raise fhame and abhorrence of the miscarriage that brought it on them. And if the greatest part of the trouble be not the sense that they have done amifs, and the apprehenfion that they have drawn on themselves the juft difpleasure of their best friends, the pain of whipping will work but an imperfect cure. It only patches up for the prefent, and skins it over, but reaches not to the bottom of the fore. Ingenuous shame, and the apprehenfion of displeasure, are the only true reftraints: these alone ought to hold the reins, and keep the child in order. But corporal punishments muft neceffarily lofe that effect, and wear out the fense of fhame, where they frequently return. Shame in children has the fame place that modefty has in women; which cannot be kept, and often tranfgreffed against. And as to the apprehenfion of difpleasure in the parents, that will come to be very infignificant, if the marks of that dif pleasure quickly ceafe, and a few blows fully expiate. Parents fhould well confider, what faults in their children are weighty enough to deferve the declaration of their anger: but when their displeasure is once declared to a degree that carries any punishment with it, they ought not presently to lay by the feverity of their brows, but to restore their children to their former grace with fome difficulty; and delay a full reconciliation, till their conformity, and more than ordinary merit, make good their amendment. If this be not fo ordered, punishment will by familiarity become a mere thing of course, and lofe all its influence: offending, being chastised, and then forgiven, will be thought as natural and neceffary as noon, night, and morning, following one another.

$61. CONCERNING reputation, I fhall only remark this one thing more of it: that, though it be not the true principle and measure of virtue, (for that is the knowledge of a man's duty, and the fatisfaction it is to obey his. Maker, in following the dictates of that light God has given him, with the hopes of acceptation and reward) yet it is that which comes nearest to it: and being the teftimony and applause that other people's reafon, as it were, by a common confent, gives to virtuous and well-ordered actions, it is the proper guide and encouragement of children, till they grow able to judge for themselves, and to find what is right by their own reafon.

$ 62. THIS Confideration may direct parents, how to manage them-felves in reproving and commending their children. The rebukes and chiding, which their faults will fometimes make hardly to be avoided, fhould

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fhould not only be in fober, grave, and unpaffionate words, but also alone Reputation. and in private but the commendations children deserve they should receive before others. This doubles the reward, by fpreading their praife; but the backwardness parents fhew in divulging their faults, will make them fet a greater value on their credit themselves, and teach them to be the more careful to preferve the good opinion of others, whilft they think they have it but when, being expofed to fhame, by publishing their mifcarriages, they give it up for loft, that check upon them is taken off; and they will be the lefs careful to preferve others good thoughts of them, the more they fufpect that their reputation with them is already blemished.

§ 63. BUT if a right course be taken with children, there will not be fo Childishness. much need of the application of the common rewards and punishments, as we imagined, and as the general practice has established. For all their innocent folly, playing, and childish actions, are to be left perfectly free and unrestrained, as far as they can confift. with the respect due to those that are prefent; and that with the greatest allowance. If these faults of their age, rather than of the children themselves, were, as they should be, left only to time, and imitation, and riper years to cure, children would efcape a great deal of mifapplied and ufelefs correction; which either fails to overpower the natural difpofition of their childhood, and fo, by an ineffectual familiarity, makes correction in other neceffary cases of less use; or else if it be of force to reftrain the natural gaiety of that age, it serves only to spoil the temper both of body and mind. If the noife and. buftle of their play prove at any time inconvenient, or unfuitable to the place or company they are in, (which can only be where their parents are) a look or a word from the father or mother, if they have established the authority they fhould, will be enough either to remove, or quiet them for that time. But this gamefome humour, which is wifely adapted by nature to their age and temper, fhould rather be encouraged, to keep up their fpirits, and improve their ftrength and health, than curbed or reftrained and the chief art is to make all that they have to do, sport and play too.

§ 64. AND here give me leave to take notice of one thing I think a Rules. fault in the ordinary method of education; and that is, the charging of children's memories, upon all occafions, with rules and precepts, which they often do not understand, and are constantly as foon forgot as given. If it be some action you would have done, or done otherwife; whenever they forget, or do it aukwardly, make them do it over and over again, till they are perfect: whereby you will get these two advantages: first, to fee whether it be an action they can do, or is fit to be expected of them. For fometimes children are bid to do things, which, upon trial, they are found not able to do; and had need be taught and exercised in, before they are required to do them. But it is much easier for a tutor to command, than to teach. Secondly, another thing got by it will be this,

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