A Practical Enquiry into the Philosophy of EducationGall, James
Philosophy
A Practical Enquiry into the Philosophy of Education
Gall, James
Education
3. In our enquiry into the practical working of the moral sense, we
found, not only that there were motives of action employed for
encouraging the pupil to virtue, and for deterring him from vice; but we
found also, that these motives referred chiefly to God, to a future
judgment, and to eternity. In our attempts to imitate Nature in this
particular feature of her dealing with the moral sense, we begin more
distinctly to perceive the high value of Religious Instruction to the
young, and are led directly to the conclusion, that the motives to be
employed with children for encouraging and rewarding good conduct, must
be those chiefly of a spiritual kind, referring to God, and to his
favour or disapprobation, rather than to the rod, or to any secular
reward. The importance of imitating Nature in this matter, for giving a
high tone both to the sentiments and to the morals of the young, is very
great. It is now generally admitted, that secular, and especially
corporal punishments, are never required, except in connection with a
very low and degraded state of the moral sentiments; but it is equally
correct with respect to secular rewards for moral actions. They may both
of them at times be necessary, but in that case they are necessary
evils; and, as a class of motives, they should never be the rule, but
invariably the exception.--We must not, however, be misunderstood. We
are no more for abandoning _secular rewards_, than we are for giving up
corporal punishments. We speak not here of their _abandonment_, but of
their _enlightened regulation_;--both of them may be of service. But
what we wish to point out as an important feature in moral training is,
that they are, or should be, but seldom necessary; and that they ought
never to be resorted to except when they really are so. The differences
observable in the results arising from _secular_, and those from _moral_
motives, are very different, both as regards their power in restraining
from vice, and their influence in stimulating to virtue. What, for
example, would we think of the moral condition of a child, or of the
virtue of his actions, if he had to be hired by a comfit, or a piece of
money, to do every act of kindness which he performed; or if he refused
to relieve a sister, or prevent an injury to his companion, unless
similarly rewarded? This secular spirit in morals, when thus exposed in
its deformity, is obnoxious to every sentiment of virtue, and shews
itself to be a mere system of buying and selling. But how very different
does the reward appear, and the feeling which it excites, when that
reward assumes the moral character, and is found to be the desire of
pleasing the parent, and much more when it seeks the approbation of the
Almighty? Every one will see how beneficial and elevating the effects of
cherishing the one must be, and how debasing comparatively is the
influence of the other. That children are capable of being acted upon by
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