Chauncey stands out a shining light of Christian patience and forbearance
at a time when every other New England minister, from John Cotton down,
preached and practised the stern repression and sharp correction of all
children, and chanted together in solemn chorus, "Foolishness is bound up
in the heart of a child."
One vicious tithingman invented, and was allowed to exercise on the boys,
a punishment which was the refinement of cruelty. He walked up to the
laughing, sporting, or whittling boy, took him by the collar or the arm,
led him ostentatiously across the meeting-house, and seated him by his
shamefaced mother on the women's side. It was as if one grandly proud in
kneebreeches should be forced to walk abroad in petticoats. Far rather
would the disgraced boy have been whacked soundly with the heavy knob of
the tithingman's staff; for bodily pain is soon forgotten, while mortifying
abasement lingers long.
The tithingman could also take any older youth who misbehaved or "acted
unsivill" in meeting from his manly seat with the grown men, and force him
to sit again with the boys; "if any over sixteen are disorderly, they shall
be ordered to said seats." Not only could these men of authority keep the
boys in order during meeting, but they also had full control during the
nooning, and repressed and restrained and vigorously corrected the luckless
boys during the midday hours.
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