1857.] Gonvention of Ohio College Offi.<'ers. 309 



ofiFense has been committed, withliolds testimony, oi* suborns wit- 

 nesses to shiekl the culprit from the consequences of his crime ; — 

 so in a College or in a School, he is a good student and a true friend 

 of all other students, who, by any personal influence which he can 

 exert, or by any information which he can impart, prevents the com- 

 mission of oflenses that are meditated, or helps to redress the wrongs 

 already committed; and that he is a bad student, who, by withhold- 

 ing evidence, or by false and evasive testimony, protects oiFenders 

 and thereby encourages the repetition of offenses; and further, that, 

 as civil society can not attain those ends of peace and prosperity, 

 for which it was constituted, if it should suffer accomplices in crime, 

 or accessories, either before or after the fact, to remain or go at large 

 among its members ; so, no College or School can ever reach the 

 noble purposes of its institution, should it permit confederates, or 

 accessories in vice or crime, to remain enrolled among its members. 



And, whereas one great object of penal discipline is the reforma- 

 tion of the offender therefore 



Resolved, That, just in proportion as the students of any Institu- 

 tion will co-operate with its government in maintaining order and 

 good morals, just in the same proportion should the government of 

 such Institution become more lenient and parental, substituting pri- 

 vate expostulation for public censure, and healing counsel for wound- 

 ing punishments. 



Unhappily, no person needs to be informed that a feeling of an- 

 tagonism towards Teachers often exists among Students. The hos- 

 tile relation of distrust and disobedience supplants the filial one of 

 trust and obedience. Such a relation necessitates more or less of 

 coercive discipline ; and discipline, unless when administered in the 

 highest spirit of wisdom and love, alienates rather than attaches. — 

 Though it may subdue opposition, it fails to conciliate the affec- 

 tions. 



A moment's consideration must convince the most simple-minded 

 that the idea of a natural hostility between teachers and pupils is 

 not merely wrong, but ruinous. Without sympathy, without mutu- 

 al affection, between instructors and instructed, many of the noblest 

 purposes of education are wholly baffled and lost. No student can 

 ever learn even the most abstract science from a teacher whom he 

 dislikes as well as from one whom he loves. Affection is an element 

 in which all the faculties of the mind, as well as all the virtues of 

 the heart, flourish. 



