He was taking a lesson in human nature--human nature as it exhibits itself in boys--and was preparing to operate more and more powerfully by future plans.
The lesson which he learned by the experiment was this, that one or two prizes will not influence the majority of a large school.

A few of the boys seemed to think that the pencils were possibly within their reach, and _they_ made vigorous efforts to secure them; but the rest wrote on as before.

Thinking it certain that they should be surpassed by the others, they gave up the contest at once in despair.
The obvious remedy was to _multiply_ his prizes, so as to bring one of them within the reach of all.

He reflected, too, that the real prize, in such a case, is not the value of the pencil, but the _honor of the victory_; and as the honor of the victory might as well be coupled with an object of less, as well as with one of greater value, the next week he divided his two pencils into quarters, and offered to his pupils eight prizes instead of two.

He offered one to every five scholars, as they sat on their benches, and every boy then saw that a reward would certainly come within five of him.