is at once afforded for reproving and correcting him with decision.

If we have grounds for supposing a child guilty of some common offence, although, as has before been remarked with regard to falsehood, it is better to ascertain the truth by evidence, rather than by the forced confession of the suspected party: yet, sometimes it may be necessary to question the child himself. This must be done with great caution, not with the vehemence and hurry so commonly employed on such occasions; but with calmness and affection. We should forbid him to answer in haste, or without consideration; reminding him of the extreme importance and happy consequences of truth: of our tenderness towards him, and willingness to forgive, if he freely confess his fault, and show himself upright and honorable in his conduct; for truth being the corner-stone of practical goodness, we must be ready, when necessary, to sacrifice to it less important points: and, for the sake of this leading object, to pass over many smaller offences.

I cannot close the subject before us without a warning against a severe, repulsive, disheartening, or satirical system in the management of children. Nothing is so likely to produce in them, especially in those of timid dispositions, reserve, pusillanimity, and duplicity of character. On the other hand, good discipline will greatly promote habits of integrity and openness. But it is to be remembered, that the best discipline is always combined with freedom, mildness, sympathy, and affection.

AUTHORITY AND OBEDIENCE.

ALL who are engaged in bringing up children must, necessarily, possess a certain share of power or authority over them. This power, being the chief instrument in education, it is to the injudicious use which is made of it, that many of the prevalent defects among children are to be ascribed. On the one hand, we may observe self-indulgence, insubordination, and disobedience; on the other, a broken and depressed spirit, one of the most serious and least curable evils which ill-management, on the part of those who govern, can occasion. The former, arising from a weak, indecisive, and irregular exercise of authority; the latter, from coldness and severity..

It is our business to steer as clear as possible between these opposite evils-bearing in mind that it is essential to the welfare of children to know how to obey, to submit their wills, and to bear a denial; while at the same time, their minds should be left

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free and vigorous, open to every innocent enjoyment, and unfettered by the thraldom of fear. We shall best unite these important advantages by an authority, firm but affectionate, equally free from peevishness or ill temper, and an excess of indulgence, regular and consistent, never unnecessarily called into action, but, always, with effect; exercised with a simple view to the good of those under our care, according to the dictates of judgment, and from the principle of love; for the reproofs, corrections, and restraints, which are necessarily imposed upon children, should spring from love, as well as the encouragements and indulgencies which we bestow upon them:

"Such authority, in shew,

When most severe, and must'ring all its force,
Is but the graver countenance of love;
Whose favor, like the clouds of spring, may lower,
And utter, now and then, an awful voice,

But has a blessing in its darkest frown,
Treat'ning, at once, and nourishing the plant."

Authority thus guarded, combining in right proportion decision and mildness, will

produce in the subjects of it, an invariable union of happy freedom and ready obedi

ence.

Decision of character is essential to success in the business of education. "Weak. ness in every form tempts arrogance ; when a firm decisive spirit is recognised it is curious to see how the space clears round a man, and leaves him room and freedom. I have known several parents, both fathers and mothers, whose management of their families has answered this description, and has displayed a striking example of the facile complacency with which a number of persons, of different ages and dispositions, will yield to the decisions of a firm mind acting on an equitable and enlightened system."*

But while we do justice to this great and most effectual quality, it must never be forgotten that decision, when untempered by affection, and unpoised by a wise, considerate, generous estimate of the rights of others, too quickly degenerates into sternness and severity.

* Foster's Essay on Decision of Character.