62 Education and Innervation. 



of the deeds which they follow. They are the lessons which 

 Nature teaches, and, to quote the well-known line, " Si naturam 

 ducem sequemur, nunquam aberrabimus." Here, then, is a 

 principle laid down by Nature which should influence us in the 

 moral education of the young. Let us take one or two simple 

 examples. A child is naturally untidy and destructive, and it 

 is sought to correct this bad habit. Its toys are left about the 

 floor, or wantonly destroyed. Some would content themselves 

 with a scolding or a slight punishment, and instruct the servant to 

 gather up the toys or the shreds, but that does not correct the 

 tendency. The proper course is to insist upon the correction 

 of the habit by the opposite treatment. The labour of putting 

 things in order is the true remedy for wilfully leaving them in 

 disorder, and the refusal to supply a new toy in the place of 

 that wantonly destroyed. A lad damages a schoolfellow's book, 

 he should be compelled to replace it by a sacrifice of his pocket- 

 money. A man beats his wife, and so manifests a want of 

 self-control or displays a brutal tendency in his nature ; he 

 should be publicly whipped by the hangman. These methods 

 of moral culture, by the experience of normal reactions, as 

 divinely ordained methods, are equally applicable to the youth 

 or adult ; moreover they have the following advantages : — First, 

 they give the rational knowledge of right and wrong conduct, 

 which arises from personal experience of the good or bad 

 consequences which follow ; secondly, by suffering the painful 

 effects of their own wrong acts they recognise the justice of them. 

 The principles which affect the future life are identically the 

 same as those to which I have drawn attention ; but I must 

 not trench on the province of those whose vocation it is to set 

 before us our duties in respect of that life. I would, however, 

 that they, as well as all of us. should ever consider the important 

 part played in the development of the characteristics of the 

 individual by nervosity — the tendency of our nature which is 

 fostered by external influences of a like character, or checked 

 and altered by a careful attention to those of an opposite nature. 

 By recognising this, we consider the true value of education, and 



