ression. The criminal is praised by the teacher for the
frankness and honesty of the confession, and his fault is freely
forgiven. He goes away, therefore, well satisfied with himself, when, in
fact, he has been only submitting to a little mortification,
voluntarily, to avoid the danger of a greater; much in the same spirit
with that which leads a man to receive the small-pox by inoculation, to
avoid the danger of taking it in the natural way.

The teacher who accustoms his pupils to confess their faults voluntarily
ought to guard carefully against this danger. When such a case as the
one just described occurs, it will afford a favorable opportunity of
showing distinctly to pupils the difference between an honest and a
hypocritical confession. In this instance the teacher proceeded thus:

"Now there is one more question which I wish you all to answer by your
votes honestly. It is this. Do you think that the real disorder which
has been in this class--that is, the real cases which you referred to
when you stated to me that you thought that the class was not in good
order--have been now really exposed, so that I honestly and fully
understand the case? How many suppose so?"

Not a single hand was raised.

"How many of you think, and are willing to avow your opinion, that I
have _not_ been fully informed of the case?"

A large proportion held up their hands.

"Now it seems the class pretended to be willing that I should know all
the affair. You pretended to be willing to tell me the whole, but when I
call upon you for the information, instead of telling me honestly, you
attempt to amuse me by little trifles, which in reality made no
disturbance, and you omit the things which you know were the real
objects of my inquiries. Am I right in my supposition?"

They were silent. After a moment's pause, one perhaps raised her hand,
and began now to confess something which she had before concealed.

The teacher, however, interrupted her by saying,

"I do not wish to have the confession made now. I gave you all time to
do that, and now I should rather not hear any more about the disorder. I
gave an opportunity to have it acknowledged, but it was not honestly
improved, and now I should rather not hear. I shall probably never know.

"I wished to see whether this class would be honest--really honest, or
whether they would have the insincerity to pretend to be confessing when
they were not doing so honestly, so as to get the cre