dness which in the future man may become fearful
depression and degradation.--

[Sidenote: _Reproof and Punishment._]

Sec. 37. If the censure is accompanied with a threat of punishment, then we
have the same kind of reproof which in daily life we call "scolding;"
but if reproof is given, the pupil must be made to feel that it is in
earnest.

Sec. 38. Only when all other efforts have failed, is punishment, which is
the real negation of the error, the transgression, or the vice,
justifiable. Punishment inflicts intentionally pain on the pupil, and
its object is, by means of this sensation, to bring him to reason, a
result which neither our simple prohibition, our explanation, nor our
threat of punishment, has been able to reach. But the punishment, as
such, must not refer to the subjective totality of the youth, or his
disposition in general, but only to the act which, as result, is a
manifestation of the disposition. It acts mediately on the disposition,
but leaves the inner being untouched directly; and this is not only
demanded by justice, but on account of the sophistry that is inherent in
human nature, which desires to assign to a deed many motives, it is even
necessary.

[Sidenote: _Correction_ VERSUS _Satisfaction of Justice._]

Sec. 39. Punishment as an educational means is nevertheless essentially
corrective, since, by leading the youth to a proper estimation of his
fault and a positive change in his behavior, it seeks to improve him. At
the same time it stands as a sad indication of the insufficiency of the
means previously used. On no account should the youth be frightened from
the commission of a misdemeanor, or from the repetition of his negative
deed through fear of punishment--a system which leads always to
terrorism: but, although it may have this effect, it should, before all
things, impress upon him the recognition of the fact that the negative
is not allowed to act as it will without limitation, but rather that the
Good and the True have the absolute power in the world, and that they
are never without the means of overcoming anything that contradicts
them.

--In the statute-laws, punishment has the opposite office. It must first
of all satisfy justice, and only after this is done can it attempt to
improve the guilty. If a government should proceed on the same basis as
the educator it would mistake its task, because it has to deal with
adults, whom it elevates to the honorable position of respons