In many cases ridicule might be used in the place of severe
chastisement, and sometimes with a more lasting effect, especially among
young people. One scheme of this kind was tried with great success by
the elder Dr. Newcome, who governed a school at Hackney about forty
years ago. When a pupil mistook in the pronunciation of a Latin word, he
used to make the faulty lad repeat after him, before the whole school,
“Nos Germăni, non curămus, quantītătem, syllābărum.” The penalty of
uttering, in false quantity, this absurd assertion, supposed to be made
by a German, importing that “His countrymen minded not how they
pronounced Latin,” was more dreaded by the boys than the ferula or the
rod.
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