There are a great many
arrangements and plans relating to the _instruction_ of the pupils, but
no other specific _rules_ relating to _their conduct._ You are, of
course, while in the school, under the same moral obligations which rest
upon you elsewhere. You must be kind to one another, respectful to
superiors, and quiet and orderly in your deportment. You must do nothing
to encroach upon another's rights, or to interrupt and disturb your
companions in their pursuits. You must not produce disorder, or be
wasteful of the public property, or do any thing else which you might
know is in itself wrong. But you are to avoid these things, not because
there are any rules in this school against them, for there are none, but
because they are in _themselves wrong_--in all places and under all
circumstances, wrong. The universal and unchangeable principles of duty
are the same here as elsewhere. I do not make rules pointing them out,
but expect that you will, through your own conscience and moral
principle, discover and obey them.
It is wrong, for instance, for you to speak harshly or unkindly to your
companions, or to do any thing to wound their feelings unnecessarily, in
any way. But this is a universal principle of duty, not a rule of
school.
So it is wrong for you to be rude and noisy, and thus disturb others who
are studying, or to brush by them carelessly, so as to jostle them at
their writing or derange their books.
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