wn shadow without falling into the saddest fatalities;
but the shadow of a constant companion, as in the pedagogical system of
the Jesuits, undermines all naturalness. And if one endeavors too
strictly to guard against that which is evil and forbidden, the
intelligence of the pupils reacts in deceit against such efforts, till
the educators are amazed that such crimes as come often to light can
have arisen under such careful control.--

Sec. 35. If there should appear in the youth any decided moral deformity
which is opposed to the ideal of his education, the instructor must at
once make inquiry as to the history of its origin, because the negative
and the positive are very closely connected in his being, so that what
appears to be negligence, rudeness, immorality, foolishness, or oddity,
may arise from some real needs of the youth which in their development
have only taken a wrong direction.

Sec. 36. If it should appear on such examination that the negative action
was only a product of wilful ignorance, of caprice, or of arbitrariness
on the part of the youth, then this calls for a simple prohibition on
the part of the educator, no reason being assigned. His authority must
be sufficient to the pupil without any reason. Only when this has
happened more than once, and the youth is old enough to understand,
should the prohibition, together with the reason therefor, be given.

--This should, however, be brief; the explanation must retain its
disciplinary character, and must not become extended into a doctrinal
essay, for in such a case the youth easily forgets that it was his own
misbehavior which was the occasion of the explanation. The statement of
the reason must be honest, and it must present to the youth the point
most easy for him to seize. False reasons are morally blamable in
themselves, and they tend only to confuse. It is a great mistake to
unfold to the youth the broadening consequences which his act may bring.
These uncertain possibilities seem to him too powerless to affect him
particularly. The severe lecture wearies him, especially if it be
stereotyped, as is apt to be the case with fault-finding and talkative
instructors. But more unfortunate is it if the painting of the gloomy
background to which the consequences of the wrong-doing of the youth may
lead, should fill his feelings and imagination prematurely with gloomy
fancies, because then the representation has led him one step toward a
state of wretche