152 Extracts from the Journals. [July, 



of midnight, and revive it in the solitude of a desert? Every pupil 

 should be made to see that to transfer or to copy an answer or a 

 process from a text book to his own slate or paper, or to take it 

 from another's dictation, is valueless in the way of acquisition, of 

 improvement; that it is in its nature the veriest task-work or 

 tread-mill service ever performed. He should be made to see that 

 he might as well learn the art of swimming, by getting another 

 boy to swim for him; that he might as well increase his stature 

 and stiength, by employing another to eat his meals; or that he 

 might as well expect to gain wealth by forfeiting all his daily 

 earnings to the more industrious. Perhaps the most appropriate 

 punishment for stealing the solution of a sum from a book, or for 

 transferring it from another's slate, or for borrowing another's 

 composition instead of writing one, would be to make the offender 

 copy off figures in logarithms, or the letters of some algebraic 

 process, about which he knows nothing; or to transcribe passages 

 in the French or Latin language. This would be a parallel to 

 his own " vain knowledge," and would show him how pleasant 

 it is to feed upon the east wind. 



But the forfeiture of privileges and of knowledge which the 

 pupil incurs by such a course as is above described, is not the 

 principal evil. It is not a loss of utility merely, but it is a de- 

 parture from honor and honesty. Why should not the scholar 

 who now cheats his teacher in the recitation-room, cheat his mas- 

 ter in his work when he becomes an apprentice or a clerk; and 

 his customers in their utensils or their goods when he becomes a 

 mechanic or a merchant? All great robbers began by stealing 

 small things; and the foulest assassins and murderers commenced 

 their career by inflicting petty injuries. 



I fear the little departures from rectitude and truth which some- 

 times pervade a school, or are practised by particular members 

 of it, are not regarded in their true light, — as seminal princi- 

 ples or germs, which, if not eradicated, will grow up to maturity, 

 and bear the fatal fruit of falsehoods, perjuries and frauds. How 

 narrow the range of a school child's thoughts, compared with the 

 vast compass and combinations of an adult mind; how slow the 

 mental operations of the former, compared with the celerity with 

 which the latter passes from premises to conclusions, and from 

 means to ends! The child is obliged to commence his calculations 

 with visible and tangible units, and for a long time he moves 

 feebly and totteringly forward, constantly seeking the support of 

 another's hand; yet what vast and complicated schemes the same 

 mind, in its maturity, will project I When we thus witness the 

 capacity of growth and expansion, with which the intellect is 

 endowed, why should we doubt that the appetites and propensi- 

 ties have at least an equal power of expansion and activity? 



