318 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
force provokes opposition, and is hateful to us. Civilization is 
the substitution of mental force for physical force in the govern- 
ment of mankind. "Why should principles be applicable to chil- 
dren that are inapplicable and detestable in our own case? Is 
there all this great difference between children and adults ? 
The case of boys considered. Boys peculiarly the objects of these 
punishments. Domestic animals better protected by the law than 
boys are. The law will not allow a man to flog a horse as he may 
flog his boy. Flogging of boys in the navy, and by order of 
magistrates at Petty Sessions. The effect of flogging in the case 
of lying and thieving. 
As an aid to the organization of knowledge, how can flogging 
improve the memory? Our faculties are improved by exercise. 
Flogging not an exercise of the memory. Memory the result of 
the association of ideas. If the memory is cultivated, and industry 
and attention acquired, the difficulties of education are overcome. 
Can these punishments be of any use to drive a child to its work 
as horses are driven ? They are more likely to induce a distaste for 
work, and engender a spirit of defiance. Practically they are use- 
less in making children industrious and attentive. They are the 
relics of a barbarous age, handed down to us from savage ancestors. 
The process of civilization has continually diminished their use, 
and will continue to diminish it, until they are shortly abandoned 
as useless and cruel. Why not take the final step at once, and 
abolish them in the case of our children as we have already 
abolished them in the case of our adult selves, and thus escape the 
reproach of barbarism from future generations ? 
A DIFFICULTY FOR DARWINISTS. 
ABSTRACT OF MR. F. H. BALKWILL's PAPER. 
(Read October 31st, 1872.) 
Reasons given for the interest excited by Mr. Darwin's theory of 
the Origin of Organic Species by natural selection in the struggle 
for existence. Tendency of the human mind to form a theory in 
advance of the facts known, but in the direction towards which 
they seem to tend: this tendency unsound and unscientific. A 
debt of gratitude due to Mr. Darwin for renewing the interest in 
studies of natural history. Difficulty stated. Animals are capable 
