Christianity. Corporal discipline was turned into a religious
duty, and as late as the seventeenth century there were
intelligent men who flogged their children once a week as a
part of spiritual guardianship. I once asked our great poet,
Victor Rydberg, and he said that he had found no proof that
corporal punishment was usual among the Germans in heathen
times. I asked him whether he did not believe that the fact of
its absence had encouraged the energetic individualism and
manliness in the Northern peoples. He thought so, and agreed
with me. Finally, I might note from our own time, that there
are many families and schools, our girls' schools for example,
and also boys' schools in some countries, where corporal
punishment is never used. I know a family with twelve children
whose activity and capacity are not damaged by bringing them
under the rule of duty alone. Corporal punishment is never used
in this home; a determined but mild mother has taught the
children to obey voluntarily, and has known how to train their
wills to self-control.

By "voluntary obedience," I do not mean that the child is bound
to ask endless questions for reasons, and to dispute them
before he obeys. A good teacher never gives a command without
there being some good reason, but whether the child is
convinced or not, he must always obey, and if he asks "why" the
answer is very simple; every one, adults as well as children,
must obey the right and must submit to what cannot be avoided.
The great necessity in life must be imprinted in childhood.
This can be done without harsh means by training the child,
even previous to his birth, by cultivating one's self-control,
and after his birth by never giving in to a child's caprices.