This just serves to illustrate my point, that boys have no real
discernment for what is courageous. What they admire is a certain
grace and spirit, and the hero is not one who constrains himself to
do an unpopular thing from a sense of duty, not even the boy who,
being unpopular like P--, does a satanically brave thing. Boys
have no admiration for the boy who defies them; what they like to
see is the defiance of a common foe. They admire gallant, modest,
spirited, picturesque behaviour, not the dull and faithful
obedience to the sense of right.
Of course things have altered for the better. Masters are no longer
stern, severe, abrupt, formidable, unreasonable. They know that
many a boy, who would be inclined on the whole to tell the truth,
can easily be frightened into telling a lie; but they have not yet
contrived to put the sense of honour among boys in the right
proportion. Such stories as that of George Washington--when the
children were asked who had cut down the apple-tree, and he rose
and said, "Sir, I cannot tell a lie; it was I who did it with my
little hatchet"--do not really take the imagination of boys
captive.
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