758 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 



Thus there will be formed a group of elements habitually entenng into 

 every deliberation — a group which will always be favourable to 

 right conduct. Hence it is of paramount importance that we should 

 give the young correct reasons for their conduct, instead of the 

 arbitrary and irrational reasons too often given. It is essential to 

 teach them to explain their actions, and to show in what respect 

 they conform to general ethical principles. The knowledge of rational 

 choice and coherent action gives satisfaction, and a sense of stability 

 of character, which strengthens the feeling of personal dignity in the 

 individual. 



In weak and simple minds actions follow almost immediately 

 upon impulses. The mental processes do not reach much beyond 

 proximate desires. Our object will be to produce minds imbued with 

 the widest possible range of sj^mpathetic emotions, so that the 

 conception of any desirable end will call up such a complexity of 

 motives, that the choice of action will be delayed; and the process 

 of deliberation will take in so wide a range of data, that calm judg- 

 ment will become the normal mental condition — a condition wliich is 

 universally regarded as the best guide to right action ; a condition, 

 moreover, which supplies the individual with a very definite pleasur- 

 able satisfaction in the attainment of moral ends. 



A psychological system of ethical training requires that some 

 attention should be given to the subject of rewards and punishment. 

 In this paper we can only scan briefly the merest outlines of these 

 important factors in ethical training. 



Let us glance at rewards. They exist in various forms and 

 degrees. We will take the simplest and most popular form, that 

 of indiscriminate praise. In a Birmingham State school an inspector 

 was holding an examination in arithmetic. Before him was a group 

 of seven year old children. After time had been given for the work- 

 ing of their sums, he called for a show of slates and went round the 

 class drawing a chalk line through every error. Children whO' 

 received no chalk mark on their slates knew that they had passed, 

 and all were anxious to succeed. On finishing his round, the inspector 

 ordered all marked slates to be held up, and all unmarked slates 

 to be placed on the floor. In one corner of the group four unmarked 

 slates were held up. " You have passed,"' said the inspector, "" put 

 your slates down." 



" We have failed, sir,"' came the answei". " One sum is wrong." 

 On further examination this was found to be correct. In going round 

 the class the inspector had, accidentally, omitted to look at these 

 sums. During the sho^t of slates the children had been able to 

 compare their answers with those of the others, and, without any 

 hesitation, had o\Mied up to their failure. The inspector began 

 praising them for their honesty. The teacher asked him to desist. 

 "Honesty," she said, "is the normal condition of the class. We are 

 shocked when it fails to be acted upon. To praise these four 

 children would be a tacit insult to the character of all the others.". 

 This incident took place in a slum school. The majority of the 

 children who attended it were surrounded by some of the worst 

 results accruing from the overcrowded, underpaid, sweated conditions 

 prevailing in the industrial centres of the Old Land. Two of those 



