But here are a few specimens of this pretended elementary ethics:—
“It is not proper to talk when one has retired, the bed being made for rest.”
“One should try to make no noise and not to snore while asleep; nor should one often turn from side to side in bed as if he were restless and did not know on which side to lie.”
“It is not becoming, when one is in company, to take off one’s shoes.”
“It is impolite to play with a stick or a cane, and to use it to strike the ground or pebbles, etc., etc.”
How many mistakes in politeness we should make every day of our lives if the rules of La Salle were infallible!
293. Corporal Chastisements.—The Brethren, within two centuries, have singularly ameliorated their system of correction. “Imperative circumstances,” said the Frère Philip in 1870, “no longer permit us to tolerate corporal punishment in our schools.” Already, in 1811, there was talk of suppressing entirely, or at least modifying, the use of these punishments. The instruments of torture were perfected. “We reduce the heavy ferule, the inconvenience of which has been only too often felt, to a simple piece of leather, about a foot long and an inch wide, and slit in two at one end; still we hope that by divine help and by the mildness of our very dear and dearly beloved colleagues, they will make use of it only in cases of unavoidable necessity, and only to give a stroke with it on the hand, without the permission ever to make any other use of it.”
But at first, and in the original Conduct,[167] corporal punishment is freely permitted and regulated with exactness. La Salle distinguished five sorts of corrections,—reprimand, penances, the ferule, the rod, expulsion from school.
294. Reprimands.—Silence, we have seen, is the fundamental rule of La Salle’s schools: “There must be as little speaking as possible. Consequently, corrections by word of mouth are very rarely to be employed.” It even seems, adds the Conduct, that “it is much better not to use them at all”!