it. I confefs, it is a thing to be managed with great difcretion; and therefore it falls not cut amifs, that it will not be received or relifhed, but by thofe who confider well, and look into the reafon of things. I would not have children much beaten for their faults, because I would not have them think bodily pain the greatest punishment and I would have them, when they do well, be fometimes put in pain, for the fame reafon, that they might be ac customed to bear it, without looking on it as the greatest evil. How much education may reconcile young people to pain and fufferance, the examples of Sparta do fufficiently fhew: and they who have once brought themselves not to think bodily pain the greatest of evils, or that which they ought to ftand moft in fear of, have made no fmall advance towards virtue. But I am not fo foolish to propose the Lacedæmonian difcipline in our age, or confitution. But yet I do fay, that inuring children gently to fuffer fome degrees of pain without fhrinking, is a way to gain firmness to their minds, and lay a foundation for cou rage and refolution in the future part of their lives.

Not to bemoan them, or permit them to bemoan themfelves, on every little pain they fuffer, is the firit ftep to be made. But of this I have fpoken elsewhere.

The next thing is, fometimes defignedly to

put

put them in pain: but care muft be taken that this be done when the child is in good humour, and fatisfied of the good-will and kindnefs of him that hurts him, at the time that he does it. There muft no marks of anger or displeasure on the one fide, nor compaffion or repenting on the other, go along with it; and it must be fure to be no more than the child can bear, without repining, or tak ing it amifs, or for a punishment. Managed by thefe degrees, and with fuch circumftances, I have feen a child run away laughing, with good fmart blows of a wand on his back, who would have cried for an unkind word, and been very fenfible of the chaftifement of a cold look from the fame perfon. Satisfy a child by a canftant courfe of your care and kindness, that you perfectly love him, and he may by degrees be accustomed to bear very painful and rough ufage from you, without flinching or complaining: and this we fee children do every day in play one with ano. ther. The fofter you find your child is, the more you are to feek occafions, at fit times, thus to harden hin. The great art in this is, to begin with what is but very little painful, and to proceed by infenfible degrees, when you are phying, and in good humour with him, and fpeaking well of hin: and when you have once got him to think himself made amends for his fuffering, by the praife that is

given him for his courage; when he can take a pride in giving fuch marks of his manliness, and can prefer the reputation of being brave and ftout, to the avoiding a little pain, or the fhrinking under it; you need not despair in time, and by the affiftance of his growing reafon, to mafter his timoroufnefs, and mend the weakness of his conftitution. As he grows bigger, he is to be fet upon bolder at tempts than his natural temper carries him to, and whenever he is obferved to flinch from what one has reafon to think he would come off well in, if he had but courage to undertake that he should be affifted in at firft, and by degrees fhamed to, till at last practice has given more affurance, and with it a maftery; which must be rewarded with great praife; and the good opinion of others, for his performance. When, by thefe fteps, he has got refolution enough not to be deterred from what he ought to do, by the apprehenfion of danger; when fear does not, in fudden or hazardous occurrences difcompofe his mind, fets his body a trembling, and make him unfit for action, or run away from it, he has then the courage of a rational creature and fuch an hardinefs we fhould endeavour by cuftom and ufe to bring children to, as proper occafions come in our way.

Cruelty.

§ 116. One thing I have frequently obferved in children, that when they have got poffeffion of

any

any poor creature, they are apt to ufe it ill': they often torment, and treat very roughly, young birds, butterflies, and fuch other poor animals which fall into their hands, and that with a feeming kind of pleasure. This I think fhould be watched in them, and if they incline to any fuch cruelty, they fhould be taught the contrary ufage. For the cuftom of tormenting and killing of beafts, will by degrees, harden their minds even towards men; and they who delight in the fuffering and deftruction of inferior creatures, will not be apt to be very compaffionate, or benign to those of their own kind. Our practice takes notice of this in the exclusion of butchers from juries of life and death. Children fhould from the beginning be bred up in an abhorrence in killing, or tormenting any living crea ture; and be taught not to spoil or deftroy any thing, unless it be for the prefervation. or advantage of fome other that is nobler. And truly, if the prefervation of all mankind, as much as in him lies, were every one's perfuafion, as indeed it is every one's duty, and the true principle to regulate our religion, politicks and morality by, the world would be much quieter, and better natured than it is.

But to return to our present business; I cannot but commend both the kindness and prudence of a mother I knew, who was wont always to indulge her daughters, when any of H 6 them

ther defired dogs, fquirrels, birds, or any fuch things, as young girls ufed to be delighted with: but then, when they had them, they must be fure to keep them well, and look diligently after them, that they wanted nothing or were not ill ufed. For it they were negligent, in the care of them, it was counted a great fault, which often forfeited their pos feffion, or at leaft they failed not to be rebuk ed for it; whereby they were early taught diligence and good nature. And indeed, I think people fhould be accuftomed, from their cradles, to be tender to all fenfible creatures, and to fpoil or wafte nothing at

all.

This delight they take in doing of mifchief, whereby I mean fpoiling of any thing to no purpose, but more especially the pleafure they take to put any thing in pain, that is capable of it: I cannot perfuade myself to be any other than a foreign and introduced difpofition, an habit borrowed from cuftom and converfation People tech children to ftrike, and laugh, when they hurt, or fee harm come to others: and they have the examples of moft about them, to confirm them in it. All the entertainment and talk of history is of nothing almoft but fighting and killing: and the honour and renown that is beftowed on conquerors (who for the most part are but the great butchers of mankind) farther

millead