A _regime_ of punishment is not necessarily a _regime_ of cruelty; but punishment can scarcely fail to savour of severity, and when the doctrine of original sin is in the ascendant, and the inborn wilfulness and stubbornness of the child are postulated by his teachers, the indefinable boundary line between severity and cruelty is easily crossed.

Of the tendency of cruelty to demoralise its victims I have already spoken.

But the effect of punishment on the child must be considered in its relation to his mental, as well as to his moral, development.

Scholarships, prizes, high places in class, and other such rewards are for the few, not for the many.

If the many are to be roused to exertion, the fear of punishment (in the hypothetical absence of any other motive) must be ever before them.