The refined punishments of the spiritual mode are usually much more indecent and dangerous than a good smack.
The pained but resigned disapprobation of a mother is usually a very bad thing, much worse than the father's shouts of rage.

And sendings to bed, and no dessert for a week, and so on, are crueller and meaner than a bang on the head.

When a parent gives his boy a beating, there is a living passionate interchange.

But in these refined punishments, the parent suffers nothing and the child is deadened.

The bullying of the refined, benevolent spiritual will is simply vitriol to the soul.
Yet parents administer it with all the righteousness of virtue and good intention, sparing themselves perfectly.
The point is here.