of the fact that they have been whipped in their youth, but it is in
spite of, and not because of it. In their homes other good qualities
must have counteracted the pernicious effect of this mistaken
procedure.

[Sidenote: Sensibilities Blunted]

_Third_: Corporal punishment may, indeed, achieve immediate results
such as seem at the moment to be eminently desirable. The child, if he
be young enough, weak enough, and helpless enough, may be made to do
almost anything by fear of the rod; and some of the things he may thus
be made to do may be exactly the things that he ought to do; and this
certainty of result is exactly what prompts many otherwise just and
thoughtful persons to the use of corporal punishment. But these good
results are obtained at the expense of the future. The effect of each
spanking is a little less than the effect of the preceding one. The
child's sensibilities blunt. As in the case of a man with the drug
habit, it requires a larger and larger dose to produce the required
effect. That is, if he is a strong child capable of enduring and
resisting much. If, on the contrary, he is a weak child, whose slow
budding will come only timidly into existence, one or two whippings
followed by threats, may suffice to keep him in a permanently cowed
condition, incapable of initiative, incapable of spontaneity.

The method of discipline here indicated, while it is more searching
than any corporal punishment, does not have any of its disadvantages.
It is more searching, because it never blunts the child's
sensibilities, but rather tends to refine them, and to make them more
responsive.