e to sexual stimulation. But unfortunately we have no
means of ascertaining beforehand what are the cases in which corporal
punishment is likely to do harm. There is no possibility of withholding
the right to inflict corporal punishment from those masters in especial
who might use it to gratify their own sexual passions--if only for the
reason that we have no means of finding out who these persons are. For
it is not the masters with free views about sexual questions who are
especially open to suspicion from the point of view we are now
considering; nor is it the masters who are morally defective or
irreligious. Indeed, I am acquainted with some extremely pious
schoolmasters who, according to their own admissions to me, have
experienced sexual excitement when chastising children; and some of
these have in other respects had admirable characters. Cases recorded,
not merely in erotic literature, but also in historical literature, show
that religion affords no safeguard against such temptations; we learn,
for instance, that in the cloister, monks and nuns have utilised their
right to inflict punishment in order to procure sexual excitement. For
these reasons, it is inadmissible to infer, because a schoolmaster is a
religious man, that therefore he is the one to whom the right to inflict
corporal punishment may safely be entrusted.

The danger of an excessive use of powers of administering corporal
punishment, and more especially the danger of awakening the sexuality of
children prematurely and with perverse associations, may be minimised by
the proper treatment of schoolmasters. We must not treat our
schoolmasters in such a way that behind them they always feel the
presence of the inspector, compelling them to force the pupils through
the prescribed, but excessive tasks. Nor must the schoolmaster's own
work be excessive, for nervous overstrain will very readily lead to
outbreaks of violence. It seems also desirable that the right of
administering corporal punishment should not be entrusted to masters who
are still quite young, for a certain experience is needed to guide them
to a reasonable moderation. What I have said of schoolmasters applies,
_mutatis mutandis_, to schoolmistresses and governesses. There are many
reasons for the belief that the danger that the right to inflict
corporal punishment may be utilised to procure erotic excitement for the
person exercising that right, is considerably greater in women than it
is