h reference to ascertaining whether they had
spoken most in the former or latter part of the forenoon. The number who
had spoken inadvertently, and the number who had done it by design,
might be ascertained. These inquiries accustom the pupils to render
honest and faithful accounts themselves. They become, by such means,
familiarized to the practice, and by means of it the teacher can many
times receive most important assistance.

In all this, however, the teacher should speak in a pleasant tone, and
maintain a pleasant and cheerful air. The acknowledgments should be
considered by the pupils not as confessions of guilt for which they are
to be rebuked or punished, but as voluntary and free reports of the
result of _an experiment_ in which all were interested.

Some will have been dishonest in their reports: to diminish the number
of these, the teacher may say, after the report is concluded,

"We will drop the subject here to-day. To-morrow we will make another
effort, when we shall be more successful. I have taken your reports as
you have offered them without any inquiry, because I had no doubt that a
great majority of this school would be honest at all hazards. They would
not, I am confident, make a false report even if, by a true one, they
were to bring upon themselves punishment; so that I think I may have
confidence that nearly all these reports have been faithful. Still it is
very probable that among so large a number some may have made a report
which, they are now aware, was not perfectly fair and honest. I do not
wish to know who they are; if there are any such cases, I only wish to
say to the rest how much pleasanter it is for you that you have been
honest and open. The business is now all ended; you have done your duty;
and, though you reported a little larger number than you would if you
had been disposed to conceal your faults, yet you go away from school
with a quiet conscience. On the other hand, how miserable must any boy
feel, if he has any nobleness of mind whatever, to go away from school
to-day thinking that he has not been honest; that he has been trying to
conceal his faults, and thus to obtain a credit which he did not justly
deserve. Always be honest, let the consequence be what it may."

The reader will understand that the object of such measures is simply
_to secure as large a majority as possible_ to make _voluntary_ efforts
to observe the rule. I do not expect that by such measures _universal