Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 59.djvu/538

528 more evenly balanced the force in the field, the more creditable we consider a choice of the right. When we feel personally responsible for the conduct of the individual concerned, we recognize the degree of credit he has earned as a moral claim upon us for payment in coin of some sort. The payment may consist in expressions of approval, in evidences of confidence or of affection, in marks of respect; or it may consist in a large portion of jam at the next distribution, a visit to the circus or a trip to the country. This payment, which parents and teachers do not fail to make if they properly realize their responsibilities, is not made because the child is good, for good actions performed easily and without a struggle are not singled out for reward in this way. It is made because the child needs to he made good, and we roughly proportion the reward to the amount of encouragement needed to keep the child moving along the path of moral development.

In the larger world beyond the nursery and the school, rewards for creditable behavior are not always distributed in the same unmistakable way. A good deal of creditable behavior appears to be unrewarded. The reason is not far to seek. Men generally are not occupied in educating each other just as parents and teachers educate those under their charge. They have not the same sense of responsibility; and, further, they have not, in many cases, the power to grant rewards. But it is easy to see that, where men are at all sensitive, as civilized human beings surely ought to be, to the moral or immoral character of the actions of their fellows, they are quick to judge of actions as creditable or discreditable, and they have the disposition to mete out to the doer some sort of reward or some sort of penalty. The reward may be no more than a look of admiration or a word of appreciation, and the penalty no more than a slight coldness of manner; but love of approbation is a strong motive to action, and just such rewards and penalties as these may have an enormous influence in determining to right conduct. And where certain men exercise over others a control at all analogous to that exercised by the parent or teacher, we find that they are very apt to reward creditable behavior much as these do. The unusual devotion of this or that employee, the conspicuous bravery of the soldier, are not commonly passed over as matters that deserve no substantial recognition. The good behavior of the convict is accounted as sufficient reason for shortening the term of his imprisonment. Look where we will, we find that there is a general tendency among men to regard the creditable actions of their fellows as having some sort of a claim to reward, and when we look into the nature of this claim, we find that its force rests upon the fact that we instinctively regard ourselves as in some way responsible for the behavior of others, and, consciously or unconsciously, take it upon ourselves to encourage them to act as they should act.