“I was talking to you yesterday about the motives of action.  How many had I made?”

Some say “Four,” some “Five,” some “Six.”

“Can you name any of them?”

The boys attempt to recollect them, and they give the names in the order in which they accidentally occur to the various individuals.  Of course the words Fear, Emulation, Honor, Friendship, and others, come in confused and irregular sounds from every part of the school-room.

“You do not recollect the order,” says the teacher, “and it is of no consequence, for the order I named was only accidental.  Now to go on with my account:  suppose all these boys to sit down and go to writing, each one acting under the impulse of the motive which had been presented to him individually.  But, in order to make the supposition answer my purpose, I must add two other cases.  I will imagine that one of these boys is called away a few minutes, and leaves his paper on his desk, and that another boy, of an ill-natured and morose disposition, happening to pass by and see his paper, thinks he will sit down and write upon it a few lines, just to tease and vex the one who was called away.  We will also suppose that I call another boy to me, who I have reason to believe is a sincere Christian, and say to him, ’Here is a new duty for you to perform this afternoon.  This piece of poetry is to be copied; now do it carefully and faithfully.  You know that this morning you committed yourself to God’s care during the day; now remember that he has been watching you all the time thus far, and that he will be noticing you all the time you are doing this; he will be pleased if you do your duty faithfully.’

“The boys thus all go to writing.  Now suppose a stranger should come in, and, seeing them all busy, should say to me,

“‘What are all these boys doing?’

“‘They are writing.’

“‘What are they writing?’

“‘They are writing a piece of poetry.’

“‘They seem to be very busy; they are very industrious, good boys.’

“‘Oh no! it is not by any means certain that they are good boys.’

“’I mean that they are good boys now; that they are doing right at this time.”

’That is not certain; some of them are doing right and some are doing very wrong, though they are all writing the same piece of poetry.’

The stranger would perhaps look surprised while I said this, and would ask an explanation, and I might properly reply as follows: 

’Whether the boys are at this moment doing right or wrong depends not so much upon what they are doing as upon the feelings of the heart with which they are doing it.  I acknowledge that they are all doing the same thing outwardly; they are all writing the same extract, and they are all doing it attentively and carefully, but they are thinking of very different things.’

‘What are they thinking of?’