Page:Jesuit Education.djvu/636

616 general: the fewer punishments the teacher inflicts, the greater will be his success, always supposing that he keeps order without punishing. Any just reasons for pardoning, or lessening, the penance are to be welcomed.

There seems to be abroad a sentiment about corporal punishments which is evidently beyond the bounds of reason. Some contend that corporal punishment is merely a "relic of the barbarism of former ages," and that it should no longer be employed, but that the young should be governed solely by moral suasion, by an appeal to reason and the pupil's sense of right. The inspired writers thought differently. Thus we read: "He that spareth the rod hateth his son; but he that loveth him correcteth him betimes." "Folly is bound up in the heart of the child, but the rod of correction shall drive it away." There are some faults: flagrant violations of modesty and decency, defiance of authority, impudent insults offered to elderly persons, continued laziness, which in a younger boy are best punished by the rod, especially after exhortations have proved unsuccessful. This was the principle and practice of Jesuit educators, and the best educators are again at one with the Jesuits.