Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/389

 first object, to train his pupils to habits of order and subordination, not by means of terror, but by a firmness which is not incompatible with kindness and affection."

"But how," said Morison, "without punishment, can order and subordination be enforced? and will not punishment beget terror, and terror beget aversion? I should think that a severe schoolmaster never could be beloved, and I fear a lenient one would never be obeyed. This is my great difficulty."

"Did you ever know of a child complain of being punished, when sensible that the punishment was just?" replied Mr Gourlay. "No; there is a sense of justice implanted in the human mind, which shews itself even in the first dawn of reason, and would always operate, were it not stifled by the injudicious management of parents, who do not punish according to justice, but according to caprice. Of this the schoolmaster who follows a well-digested plan, will never be