labours attached to them without reward?  Who would accept the office, the weighty office of being Her Majesty’s ministers without reward?  I might go on in this strain of reasoning and prove that rewards are founded in knowledge of human nature; but I am content to skew we have some ground for them, they are useful, if not essential, in the right management of the young, but, like every thing else, require to be managed judiciously.  It appears to me that the argument to the contrary would be untenable.  I should like to see the man who would invest his capital in railways—­electric telegraphs, steam ships, and in business of any kind, without hope of reward, pooh! it is the mainspring of human action, the incentive to public service, it rests not in this world but follows us to the next, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord.”  Ah! but this refers to men, not to children.  What are children but men in embryo?  Why be unjust to them, and just to man.  I say rewards are necessary in a sound system of education to little children; if judiciously selected and properly applied, they will be found incentives to action, and add greatly to the pleasure of learning.  In my other work for the education of older children, this subject is treated of more at length as applicable to them.

With regard to punishments, they are various, and must be adapted to the disposition of the child.  The only corporal punishment that we inflict is a pat on the hand, which is very of great service in flagrant cases of misconduct.  For instance, I have seen one child bite another’s arm, until it has almost made its teeth meet.  I should suppose few persons are prepared to say, such a child should not be punished for it.  I have seen others who, when they first came to school, would begin to scream as if they were being punished, as soon as their mother brought them to the door, while the mother continued to threaten the child without ever putting one threat into execution.  The origin of all this noise, has been, perhaps, because the child has demanded a half-penny, as the condition of coming to school, and the mother probably has not had one to give him, but has actually been obliged to borrow one in order to induce him to come in at the school door.  Thus the child has come off conqueror, and set it down as a maxim, that, for the future, he may do just as he pleases with his mother.  I have sometimes made my appearance at this time, to know what all the noise was about, when the mother has entered into a lamentable tale, telling me what trouble she has had with the child, and that he would not come to school without having a half-penny each time.  But the moment the child has seen me, all has been as quiet as possible.  I have desired him to give me the half-penny, which he has done directly, I have returned it to the mother, and the child has gone into school, as quietly as any child could do.  I have had others who would throw their victuals into