Probably, however, not a few will contend that already most parents do this—­that the punishments they inflict are, in the majority of cases, the true consequences of ill-conduct—­that parental anger, venting itself in harsh words and deeds, is the result of a child’s transgression—­and that, in the suffering, physical or moral, which the child is subject to, it experiences the natural reaction of its misbehaviour.  Along with much error this assertion contains some truth.  It is unquestionable that the displeasure of fathers and mothers is a true consequence of juvenile delinquency; and that the manifestation of it is a normal check upon such delinquency.  The scoldings, and threats, and blows, which a passionate parent visits on offending little ones, are doubtless effects actually drawn from such a parent by their offences; and so are, in some sort, to be considered as among the natural reactions of their wrong actions.  Nor are we prepared to say that these modes of treatment are not relatively right—­right, that is, in relation to the uncontrollable children of ill-controlled adults; and right in relation to a state of society in which such ill-controlled adults make up the mass of the people.  As already suggested, educational systems, like political and other institutions, are generally as good as the state of human nature permits.  The barbarous children of barbarous parents are probably only to be restrained by the barbarous methods which such parents spontaneously employ; while submission to these barbarous methods is perhaps the best preparation such children can have for the barbarous society in which they are presently to play a part.  Conversely, the civilised members of a civilised society will spontaneously manifest their displeasure in less violent ways—­will spontaneously use milder measures—­measures strong enough for their better-natured children.  Thus it is true that, in so far as the expression of parental feeling is concerned, the principle of the natural reaction is always more or less followed.  The system of domestic government ever gravitates towards its right form.

But now observe two important facts.  The first fact is that, in states of rapid transition like ours, which witness a continuous battle between old and new theories and old and new practices, the educational methods in use are apt to be considerably out of harmony with the times.  In deference to dogmas fit only for the ages that uttered them, many parents inflict punishments that do violence to their own feelings, and so visit on their children unnatural reactions; while other parents, enthusiastic in their hopes of immediate perfection, rush to the opposite extreme.  The second fact is, that the discipline of chief value is not the experience of parental approbation or disapprobation; but it is the experience of those results which would ultimately flow from the conduct in the absence of parental opinion or interference.  The truly instructive and salutary consequences are not those inflicted by parents when they take upon themselves to be Nature’s proxies; but they are those inflicted by Nature herself.  We will endeavour to make this distinction clear by a few illustrations, which, while they show what we mean by natural reactions as contrasted with artificial ones, will afford some practical suggestions.