EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 153 



where it is in full operation, nothing else is needed. Its defects are 

 (1) it is an anti-social principle, (2) it is apt to be too energetic, (3) it 

 is limited to a small number, (4) it makes a merit of superior natural 



gifts. 



It is a fact that the human intellect has at all times been spurred to 

 its highest exertions by rivalry, contest, and the ambition of being 

 first. The question is, whether a more moderate pitch of excellence, 

 such as befits average faculties, could not be attained without that 

 stimulant. If so, there would be a clear moral gain. Be tliis as it 

 may, there is no need to bring it forward prematurely, or to press its 

 application at the beginning. In the infant stage, where the endeavor 

 is to draw out the amicable sentiments, it is better kept back. For 

 tasks that are easy and interesting, it is unnecessary. The pupils that 

 possess unusual aptitude should be incited to modesty rather than to 

 assumption. 



The greater prizes and distinctions affect only a very small number. 

 Place-capturing, as Bentham phrases it, afl"ects all more or less, al- 

 though in the lower end of a class position is of small consequence. 

 Too often the attainments near the bottom are nil. A few contesting 

 eagerly for being first, and the mass phlegmatic, is not a healthy class. 



Prizes may be valuable in themselves, and also a token of superior- 

 ity. Small gifts by parents are useful incitements to lessons; the 

 school contains prizes for distinction that only a small number can 

 reach. The schoolmaster's means of reward is chiefly confined to ap- 

 probation, or praise, a great and flexible instrument, yet needing deli- 

 cate manipulation. Some kinds of merit are so palpable as to be de- 

 scribed by numerical marks. Next, in point of distinctness, is the fact 

 that a thing is right or wrong, in part or in whole ; it is sufficient ap- 

 probation to pronounce that a question is correctly answered, a passage 

 properly explained. This is the praise that envy cannot assail. Most 

 unsafe are phrases of commendation ; much pains is needed to make 

 them both discriminating and just. They need to have a palpable basis 

 in facts. Distinguished merit should not always be attended with 

 piBans ; silent recognition is the rule, the exceptions must be such as 

 to extort admiration from the most jealous. The controlling circum- 

 • stance is the presence of the collective body ; the teacher is not speak- 

 ing for himself alone, but directing the sentiments of a multitude, with 

 which he should never be at variance ; his strictly private judgments 

 should be privately conveyed. Bentham's "scholar-jury principle," 

 although not formally recognized in modern methods, is always tacitly 

 at work. The opinion of the school, when at its utmost efficiency, is 

 the united judgment of the head and the members, the master and the 

 mass. Any other state of things is war : although this, too, may be 

 unavoidable. 



Punishment. — The first and readiest, and ever the best, form of 

 punishment, is censure, reprobation, dispraise, to which are applicable 



