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Rh point, a striking antithesis. This is no wholesome food for boys." Jouvancy seems to say the same, when he speaks of the "abruptness and ruggedness of Seneca's style."

wrote several books of fables, partly translations, partly imitations of the famous fables of Aesop. The gracefulness, precision, elegance, and simplicity of style, make the fables of Phaedrus excellent reading to start with in lower classes. Besides, his sound moral precepts afford other pedagogical advantages.

is the most gifted of Roman poets, more brilliant than Virgil, unsurpassed in his power of describing and "painting," and in his ease and fluency of versification. Father Jouvancy, in a few words, expresses the best judgment that can be passed on this writer: "Would that he were as chaste and pure as he is elegant and pleasing." This is only too true. Therefore, his works must be read with great caution. There are some of his productions of whose existence young students should be ignorant. The Amores, Ars Amandi, Remedia Amoris, cannot be condemned in too strong terms. The poet himself confesses: "Nil nisi lascivi per me discuntur amores." Critics, who cannot be suspected of squeamishness or religious prejudice, have severely censured the erotic poems of Ovid, as "gems of frivolousness, handbooks of lasciviousness, which on young readers must produce the effects of sweet poison that enters into the

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386 very marrow." In some parts of the second and third book of the Ars Amandi, the poet burns a firework, the stench of which leaves no doubt as to where we are. The poison is all the more dangerous as it is offered sweetened with the virgin honey of genuine poetic diction. But even the Metamorphoses contain many seductive passages, for which reason only selections should be in the hands of the pupils.

The Metamorphoses are the most important work for class reading. There is, on the whole, not very much depth of feeling or thought, but myth after myth is related, in a marvellous variety of detailed description, in a most fascinating style, and in a truly Homeric naiveté. Indeed Ovid has little of the stern Roman character; he has more of the gay, imaginative Greek. As regards his style, the elegance and unlabored ease of his versification is unrivalled. He says himself of his facility in writing verses: Et quod temptabam dicere, versus erat. The brilliancy of his imagination, the liveliness of his wit, the wonderful art of bringing every scene distinctly before the eye, whether he describes the palace of the Sun-God or the cottage of Philemon, have been universally admired. If properly treated, Ovid will please and delight boys. Above all, the account of the primeval chaos and creation should be read. It is, as Father Baumgartner says, "clear and grand and forms the noblest and most beautiful cosmogony which classical antiquity and the pagan Orient have handed down."

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387 Then should be read the four ages of the world, the war with the giants, the deluge, Phaeton (perhaps the most splendid and highly poetical of his efforts), Niobe, and the lovely idyl Philemon and Baucis.

The translation of Ovid should be easy and fluent. The students should be encouraged to translate Ovid into English verse. The study of Greek and Oriental mythology can easily be connected with the study of the Metamorphoses. Father Jouvancy, in an appendix to his edition of select stories from the Metamorphoses, gives a short, but useful account of the various deities.

Nagelsbach thinks it foolish to torment boys of fourteen or fifteen years with the Tristia or Epistolae ex Ponto; as a youthful mind could not take interest in those perpetual lamentations. A few pieces, however, may be read with advantage, v. g. the departure from Rome, or the poet's autobiography (Ep. ex Ponto IV, 10), etc.

is the Prince of Latin poets" (Jouvancy), the greatest poet of the Augustan age, the most celebrated imitator of Homer, the master and model of Dante, the favorite of Augustus and Maecenas, the friend, whom Horace calls 'the half of my soul', and the anima candida, the stainless soul, the 'Virgin poet', as he was styled in Naples." His language is not as easy and as fluent as that of Ovid, but is grand, noble and stately; but in his ideas and lofty sentiments, Virgil is infinitely superior to Ovid.

In modern times Virgil has been severely censured

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388 – for not being Homer. Indeed, he is inferior to Homer in many, in very many points. But let it not be forgotten that his epic is an entirely different species of poetry, it belongs to the artistic or literary epic, whereas Homer's is primitive epic. Hence it would be unfair to judge both according to the same standard. Virgil is an imitator of Homer, and did not come up to his master. For this the critics censure him, but they should remember the words of Voltaire: "Homer has made Virgil, they say; if this be true, it is undoubtedly his finest work."

In his Eclogues or Pastorals Virgil imitates the Greek idyls of Theocritus. But he is not as varied, lively and natural – at the same time not as coarse – as his Greek model. Theocritus' Idyls are genuine Pastorals, full of rural simplicity of thought and unadorned style, whereas Virgil's Pastorals are rather political allegories. For a full appreciation they require much learning, and hence they are less fitted for younger boys. The first, however, and above all the celebrated fourth Eclogue, should be read. On account of this fourth Eclogue, the poet was considered as a prophet during the Middle Ages. The mysterious prediction of the son, with whose birth – as the Sybils foretold, – the golden age was to return, naturally reminds us of the prophetic passages of Isaias. Virgil evidently refers to the son of a noble Roman, most probably of Asinius Pollio; but it is highly probable that he borrowed the idea and some details from Old Testament writings, whose contents, especially the expectation of a Redeemer, had become

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Rh known through the Jews in the dispersion. Pope's Messiah, a Sacred Eclogue, should be read in connection with this fourth Eclogue of Virgil.

The four books of the Georgics are the best didactic production in Roman literature. They have been styled poetical essays on the dignity of labor, as set against the warlike glory, that was the popular theme of the day. This is Virgil's most characteristic work, which breathes the genuine air of Italy. The language is magnificent, superior to that of the Aeneid. The work abounds in beautiful descriptions and contains charming episodes. It is not advisable to read the whole work, as the student will not be satisfied with such a topic. Select passages, however, may be studied in class, especially from book II, and book IV (the life of the bees: their little state, character, pursuits, and wars).

Virgil's greatest work, the Aeneid, is in many points an imitation of both Iliad and Odyssey; but in its spirit it is a national poem in the best sense of the word, "a reflection and an echo of all the grandeur of the history of Rome," a prophetia post factum. By a most ingenious device, the poet succeeded in exhibiting, and, as it were, foreshadowing the greatness of historical Rome in its legendary history. How bold and successful, for instance, is it to connect the legendary ancestor of the Roman rulers with Dido,

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390 the foundress of Carthage. Her imprecation: "Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor," is the most clever and most poetical conception of the Punic wars. Then take the sixth book, where Aeneas, in a grand vision, sees all the future splendor and glory of Rome, and show in Homer's poems, or in any other work, a passage of nobler, more majestic and more poetical character. It is true, the hero of the poem, Aeneas, does not inspire the reader. He lacks the fiery passion and impetuous vigor of Achilles, the chivalrous spirit of Hector, the inventiveness and cunning of Odysseus. But he is more than all that: he is the chosen instrument of Divine Providence for bringing about the greatest achievement in human history: "the settlement of that race in Italy, from which were to spring the founders of Rome." Only narrow prejudice, therefore, can depreciate Virgil's immortal work. Rightly has a Jesuit said: "This grand picture warmed with strong national and religious enthusiasm, elevated by the consciousness of Roman majesty and dignity, illumined by the light of a higher world, outweighs many a beautiful passage of the Iliad. This is not merely frosty imitation, not studied artifice, this is poetry, as it can well forth only from the inspired heart of a true poet. This noble idealism and genuine enthusiasm is the soul and the life-inspiring principle of the whole poem."

I think it is Nagelsbach who says, that every classical scholar should study carefully all the works of Virgil. For the pupils, of course, selections must suffice. But, as far as possible, these selections should give a view of the whole poem. The I. book, the II.

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391 (compare Lessing's Laokoon), the V., and above all the VI. , should not be omitted. In reading the sixth book, references to Dante's Inferno should be given throughout. The translation of Virgil is no easy task; it ought to be noble and dignified.

is the great lyric poet of Rome. His Epistles and Satires, carefully selected, make good reading for Freshman Class, his Odes for Sophomore. There is a great variety in his poems. All show good sense, clear judgment, extraordinary taste and elegance. His descriptions of nature are true, portrait-like, vivid and very effective. With the greatest candor he opens his heart to his friends, without disguising his weaknesses. His shorter poems are light, graceful and tender. The patriotic Odes are very different. They show the poet's aim at effecting some large social or political purpose and consequently rise to a grander and more dignified tone. Although reckoning himself among the followers of Epicurus (Epicuri de grege porcum), he rises above the coarser tenets of that school, and many of his sayings contain much practical wisdom. He is, as Lord Lytton says, the most "quotable" of authors. He is not easy of translation.

The comedies of and, as Jouvancy says, are written in pure Latin, but contain many impure things, for which reason they should be studied in expurgated editions. This point is strongly insisted on by the Ratio Studiorum.

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392

Before speaking of the Greek authors, it may be well to make a few observations of fundamental import. There is a difference between the study of Greek and of Latin, which seems to be well expressed in the "Prussian School Order" of 1892 and 1901. There we find as the object of studying Latin: "The understanding of the principal authors and logical training;" as the object of the study of Greek: "The understanding of the principal classical authors." A similar distinction was made centuries ago by the Jesuits. As early as 1669 Father Fabri wrote: "To write and to speak Greek is not necessary. An educated man must, according to the adage, speak Latin, understand Greek, and read Hebrew. Latine loquatur, Graece intelligent, Hebraice legat." It is evident that the study of Greek contributes also to the logical training of the mind, but it ought not to be sought so directly as in Latin. The Latin language with its rigorous syntax seems to be better fitted for that purpose. It is different with Greek. In a former chapter, we mentioned that Latin grammar was eminently logic, and its study a course of applied logic. "Greek on the other hand, might almost be called a course of aesthetics, by means of which we learn to distinguish a thousand gradations of meaning which our barbarous languages will not allow us to accentuate." However, the principal object of the study of Greek is the

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Rh reading of the Greek classics. "The Greeks are for us not one of the civilized nations of antiquity, but the civilized nation (das Kulturvolk), which has given us the models for all kinds of literary productions." And Father Baumgartner observes: "The intellectual culture of the Greeks became a power which not only survived their political decadence, but for all coming centuries exercised a decisive influence on the development of the world's culture."

In order to attain this object of the study of Greek, the reading of authors should be begun as soon as possible. Etymology should be limited to the essentials occurring in "the authors which form the staple reading in colleges. The old grammars contain many forms which never or quite exceptionally are met with in the course of reading. To this class belong many rare forms of declension, comparison, exceptional augments and reduplications, and, above all, numerous irregular verbs. They should be left out, as has been done in the best modern grammars. The Jesuits always favored brief textbooks, "perquam breves," says a document in 1829. This was in accordance with their fundamental principle: Pauca praecepta, multa exempla, exercitatio plurima.

Greek syntax may at first not be taught systematically but inductively, incidentally, as the rules are

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394 met with in reading. Then the various rules are to be put together systematically. Important rules (the use of Subjunctive and Optative, the position of the article, and the like) should be learned with the practice of the forms. The various conditional clauses, the meaning of tenses (especially of the Aorist), and the use of the participles must be well explained. These points are the whole Greek Syntax in mice. The study of vocables should be a direct preparation for the future reading of authors. Many vocables, found in exercise-books in vogue during the last century, are altogether useless to this end. This evil arose from the system of confining Greek reading for two years to translating unconnected sentences. According to the spirit of the Ratio, the reading of connected pieces, easy narratives and easy authors, should be begun as soon as possible.

The best author to begin with is. For the sweetness and graceful simplicity of his language he was styled the "Attic Bee." In former times his Cyropaedia was the favorite book, also in Jesuit colleges. But this work is not as easy, nor as interesting as the Anabasis. The Anabasis, or The Retreat of the Ten Thousand, is a book most fit for youth, and a good preparation for Herodotus. The speeches which are interwoven with the narrative prepare for the reading of Demosthenes. The geographical and ethnographical details about Asia Minor will prove use-

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Rh ful for the study of the Acts of the Apostles (Travels of St. Paul) and of the Crusades. Books I-IV should be read with maps, and with the plans of battles drawn on paper or on the blackboard. If this is done, and the reading is not too slow, the boys will take a real interest in the clear and simple narrative of battles and marches through the countries of hostile tribes. Boys delight in warfare and travels. – Whether the Memorabilia should be read is questionable, as a better picture of Socrates will afterwards be given in Plato's works. After the Anabasis selections may be read from the Cyropaedia and the Hellenica.

, the "Father of History", as Cicero styles him, is a most attractive author. He seems not to have been read in the colleges of the Old Society. In modern times, in many plans of study, he receives more attention; some selections may well be read, especially such stories as have been taken into the literatures of all civilized nations. In their original garb they will exercise a special charm on account of their naive character.

, the "Father of Pragmatic and Political History," wrote the history of the first part of the Peloponnesian War. He ranks very high as historian, being distinguished for critical spirit, accurate research, and severe impartiality. His style is concise, often so concise as to degenerate into obscurity. This conciseness and the depth of thought make him a difficult author for young students. In the highest class, choice passages may be read: v. g. the plague in Athens, the funeral oration of Pericles. Demosthenes was an ardent admirer of the harangues of Thucydides, and the two great Roman historians, Sallust and Tacitus, have taken him for their model.

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396 Plato is recommended in the Ratio as one of the authors for Rhetoric class; in modern Jesuit colleges Plato is mostly read in Freshman class, for which he is an excellent author. In the words of a Jesuit critic, "Greek philosophy is one of the choicest fruits of Greek culture which, together with Greek poetry, history and oratory, was destined to form the basis of the culture of the Western nations." Plato, one of the greatest thinkers of all ages, vaguely felt and presaged some of the grand religious and moral truths which were to be clearly revealed by Christ. Thus he became the παιςαγωγὀς είς Χριστόν. No philosopher, in fact no writer of antiquity, exerted a greater influence on the early Christian writers. His many errors, mixed with some Christian truth, gave rise to numerous heresies in the earlier centuries, and misled even gigantic intellects like that of Origen. On the other hand, as Father Baumgartner observes, "numerous minds, searching after truth, have through his writings been raised out of the depths of materialism to the purer heights of idealistic speculations."

In Plato, there is, in the words of his disciple Aristotle, "a middle species of diction, between prose and verse," and Cicero said: "If Jupiter were to speak in the Greek tongue, he would use the language of Plato." Some of his dialogues are so sublime, so harmonious, so rhythmical, that they may truly be

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Rh styled poetical. There are not many which, both for contents and style, can be read in colleges. Best suited for this purpose are the Apology and Crito. The Apology, or Defense of Socrates, the only work of Plato which is not in the form of a dialogue, probably contains the substance of the answer Socrates made to the insidious charges of his accusers. The tone is throughout fearless, at times even defiant, the accused merely pleading that, whatever he did, was done at the bidding of the divinity, who spoke to him through a mysterious inner voice, and that all his doings were directed towards improving the minds and morals of his fellow-citizens. It is, on the whole, grand and elevating reading. A Jesuit professor and distinguished critic, Father Stiglmayr, wrote recently: "What a pity, if youths should no longer drink inspiration from such a source!"

In the Crito we find Socrates in prison, during the interval between his condemnation and death. Crito advises him to fly, Socrates refuses, "as it was not allowed a good citizen to withdraw from proper authority and violate the laws of the state." The dialogue contains very fine passages.

The Phaedo is one of the most remarkable of Plato's dialogues. It relates a conversation held shortly before the death of Socrates, in which the great Athenian undertakes to prove the immortality of the soul. The last chapters narrate in a touching manner, how, when

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398 the summons came, Socrates with much composure and tranquillity of mind, drank the fatal cup, in the midst of his weeping friends. This dialogue may be read, as Nägelsbach says, with a good class of students. It is always advisable to read the Apology, then the Crito, and finally the last chapters of the Phaedo. Thus the students will get a clear picture of the whole life and the heroic death of the most remarkable man of antiquity.

Rhetorical talent was a gift common to all Greeks. The splendid speeches in Homer's poems are not accidental fictions, but the expressions of old traditions, of national manners and peculiarities. The diplomatic Agamemnon, the subtle Odysseus, the passionate Achilles, the conciliatory Nestor are oratorical types which were renewed in the life of the Greeks from generation to generation. Greek oratory reached its zenith in Demosthenes, the "prince of orators". The Ratio Studiorum assigns his masterly orations to the highest class of the literary curriculum, which is, indeed, the proper place for this author. One or other of the Olynthiacs or Philippics should be studied, as was done early in Jesuit colleges. It may be questioned whether it is possible to do justice to the oration On the Crown, except with a very good class of pupils. This speech is not only the masterpiece of Demosthenes, but is regarded as the most perfect specimen that eloquence has ever produced.

A word must here be said on the reading of the. Professor Bristol says that the present ignorance of the Greek New Testament on

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399 the part of the people who have had a classical education is little short of disgrace, and he wishes that it should be read an hour a week. This is exactly what was done in many colleges of the Old Society, as may be seen from Father Kropf's programme of 1736, in which the reading of the Greek Gospel (chiefly that of St. Luke), is prescribed for every Saturday in the fourth and fifth classes, and the Acts of the Apostles for Rhetoric (Sophomore).

§ 5. Greek Poets.

is "the Father of Poetry." He was truly the "educator of Greece" and influenced the literature of all coming ages as no other writer ever has done. To dwell on his excellence, would merely be, as the Greek adage has it,. The Odyssey and Iliad should be read so as to give the pupil a perfect view of the whole. There are but few passages which cannot be read with boys. Homer is very naive and outspoken, as, in general, ancient literature is more honest, direct, and straightforward than modern literature, which often merely suggests what is offensive. But this very suggestiveness makes modern writings more insidious, as the mind is set thinking to find out what is meant. Homer is never licentious; the song in the Odyssey which is most objectionable is put into the mouth of another bard, and even in this song there is no glorification of sin, no mistake as to what is right or wrong. This straightforwardness in delicate matters must not offend the mature reader, or he must also

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400 object to Holy Scripture. It is evident that not all passages of Scripture are to be read by the young, no more than many of the profane writers. As to Homer, Jouvancy says very appositely: "A few comparisons which are somewhat low, and other traces of primeval simplicity and of a naiveté no longer known, must not shock any one. Every sensible reader will also make allowances for the lies and other crimes which the pagan writer imputes to his gods." If single lines with rather objectionable contents occur, the only way is to translate them correctly, but in careful and decent expressions, which have to be thought out beforehand; to omit them would almost surely lead some pupils to study them out at home. To give a wrong translation is dishonest, and "the end does not justify the means." Besides, as all sorts of translations may be had from our public libraries, and actually are in the hands of the students, such a fraud would be detected and would surely undermine the confidence of the pupils in their teacher. When the first passage is met with, the teacher may call attention to the above mentioned characteristics of ancient literature, sacred as well as profane. If a few prudent and grave remarks of this kind are made, the pupils will not suffer any harm from such reading.

We have said above that the epic dialect is to be studied inductively. When the first difficulties are overcome, the pupils will begin to like Homer, provided the teacher is what he ought to be. The introductions of the Odyssey and Iliad, as also other passages from Greek and Latin poetry, should be learned

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Rh by heart. As of Virgil's Aeneid, so also of the Odyssey and Iliad, the whole cannot be studied. But care should be taken that the selections are such as to give the pupils a clear view of the whole work. The translation of Homer must be simple and natural. Anglo-Saxon words ought to prevail. It has been previously stated, and it is self-evident, that the teaching of antiquities, descriptions of the life and manners of the heroic age, should accompany the reading of Homer.

It is not necessary to dwell on the, and their importance for the higher classes of the literary curriculum. The Ratio does not mention them in particular: but Sophocles and Euripides are recommended by Jouvancy, and they were read in the colleges, as appears from the catalogues given on previous pages. – The amount of the world's best literature, with which the student in the Jesuit Colleges was made acquainted, is certainly not insignificant.

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Rh in a high school who has not worked, after his college course, at least two years in the graduate school of a good university; no one ought to teach in a college who has not taken his doctor's degree in one of the best universities; and no one ought to teach in a graduate school who has not shown his mastery of method by powerful scientific publications. We have instead a misery which can be characterized by one statistical fact: only two per cent of the school teachers possess any degree whatever."

It would certainly be an ideal state, if all teachers came up to the Professor's requirements, as laid down in this proposition; but one may justly object to the importance assigned to the doctor's degree and the scientific publications, as necessary requisites for teaching. Although this degree and productive scholarship are very desirable, still we must consider it a mistake to expect from them alone or even chiefly the men needed in our educational institutions. The present writer, in his own school days, had some teachers who neither possessed the doctor's degree – of course they all had undergone the "State examinations" – nor had published any books, and yet as teachers were far superior to others who possessed the doctor's degree and had published books. Scholarship and capability for teaching are by no means identical. Too much weight has been given of late to scholarship in preference to practical experience, combined, as is understood, with a sufficient knowledge of the matter to be taught. The documents of the Society insist strongly that the teacher should thoroughly master the subject which he is to teach. Father Ledesma wrote

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404 three hundred years ago: "In all classes the teachers should be such that they could teach a much higher class" [than that which is actually assigned to them], and Father Nadal said: "All the professors should be distinguished in their respective branches, and no one can teach in the classes of Humanities and Rhetoric (Freshman and Sophomore) who is not a Master of Arts." In these words Father Nadal virtually lays down as a postulate what Professor Münsterberg wants, namely, that the professors in the college course should have the doctor's degree. But the Society attached still greater weight to skill in teaching than scholarship, and we think rightly so.

Within the last two years this question of the relation of scholarship to teaching has received more attention than before, and some articles in leading reviews and periodicals found one of the reasons of the decline of teaching exactly in the excess of scholarship. It was especially the New York Nation which in the spring of 1900 brought the topic before the eyes of the public. On March 8, 1900, the Nation had an editorial on The Decline of Teaching, in which we find this statement: "It is at least a curious coincidence that the development of the modern science of pedagogy, with its array of physiological and psychological data, should have been accompanied by a distinct decline in the prominence of the teacher. No one, we suppose, will question that the number of great teachers is less now than it once was, and that the depleted ranks are not being adequately filled up. While this dearth of teaching power, notwithstanding the persis-

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Rh tent efforts to overcome it, is characteristic of all departments of education, it is especially noticeable in the colleges and universities; perhaps in no single respect, indeed, does the average college of the present day contrast more sharply with the college of a generation or two ago." On March 22, the Nation published the following correspondence. "Your editorial upon the Decline of Teaching ought to arouse very general solicitude throughout the profession: it gives notable emphasis to the condition which some of us have perceived for several years, although, so far as I am aware, stress has not hitherto been laid upon it in any public way. Your statement of the facts implies, without directly asserting, both the magnitude of the evil and its causes. Possibly both of these should receive, at the proper time and place, more extended and more exhaustive consideration. ... In the upper schools – high schools and colleges – the evil which has brought about the decline of teaching is an entirely different one. There is no evidence that the pseudo-pedagogy has won any hold on these men, except as subjects for wise admonitions to elementary teachers. The evil here is that original research has been confounded with true teaching. Original research is an independent profession, worthy of all honor and respect, but its processes are not in any essential or fundamental way those of education. We can never bring back to our colleges the nobler ideals of character and culture until we separate them from an ideal which is purely that of a trade or profession. We should have a very analogous confusion if our lawyers were to contend that education consisted in mastering the process and methods of the law. In so far as our

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406 colleges are converted into workshops where 'the bounds of knowledge' are widened, their real and greater function becomes restricted, if not forgotten." Dean Briggs of Harvard College shortly after wrote as follows: "Another doubt about the new-fashioned education concerns the abnormal value set on the higher degrees. That a teacher should know his subject is obvious; but the man of intelligence and self-sacrifice who bends his energy to teaching boys will soon get enough scholarship for the purpose; whereas no amount of scholarship can make up for the want of intelligence and self-sacrifice."

Many years ago Arnold had expressed the same opinion. In a letter of inquiry for a master he wrote: "What I want is a Christian and a gentleman – an active man, and one who has common sense and understands boys. I do not so much care about scholarship, as he will have immediately under him the lowest forms [classes] in the school; but yet, on second thoughts, I do care about it very much, because his pupils may be in the highest forms; and besides, I think that even the elements are best taught by a man who has a thorough knowledge of the matter. However, if one must give way, I prefer activity of mind and an interest in his work to high scholarship, for the one can be acquired more easily than the other."

The views of prominent German educators are not less pronounced on this subject – and yet, no nation insists more on scholarship than the German. Says

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Rh one: "We have no more educators in the true sense of the word." The opinion of Professor Paulsen is especially worthy of notice. We summarize what he says on this subject in his History of Higher Education. It cannot be doubted that scholarship of the teacher, as a rule, tends towards raising teaching. But it should not be overlooked that the success of a teacher depends not only upon the amount of his scientific knowledge, but as much on his inclination and practical skill for teaching. Do the latter qualities increase in proportion with the teacher's scholarship? This is not always the case. It should be expected that, the richer, the clearer and the deeper the knowledge is, the stronger the inclination, and the facility of imparting it to others. But between philological scholarship proper and elementary instruction in Latin grammar and style, we find rather the reverse proportion. Scholarship can become an obstacle to teaching. First, it weakens the liking for it, or rather it strengthens the aversion to it. For the "drilling" in the elements of a language is undoubtedly one of the least attractive tasks to a man who feels in himself an inclination to educate the souls of the young. – Secondly, scholarship easily leads to introducing into class-instruction things that are important for the teacher's own scientific grasp of the subject. Hence the common complaint: the more grammar and the study of antiquities increase, and the more deeply the teachers enter into these sciences, the less the pupils learn; or rather the more the pupils learn of these things, the less thoroughness and facility they acquire

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408 in reading and writing; but this last is exactly what they need. From this it appears that it was in part disadvantageous to replace theologians in the gymnasia by philologians and mathematicians, a change which for a long time was wished for, undoubtedly not without good reasons. The theologian, owing to his whole training, had a tendency towards caring for the souls; an interest in the whole man was the centre of his calling, – if indeed he was an honest theologian, – not an interest in science, nor an interest in the student as student. Everything leads the theologian and the true philosopher to be an educator; the scholar, the learned specialist, may content himself with being an instructor. Add to this that the theologian through his studies was everywhere led to view things philosophically. And, after all, it is philosophy and religion alone that impel a man to communicate what he knows. He who has no philosophic views of life and of the world, has nothing to communicate; it is only the relation to some such ultimate object which gives learning pedagogical power and motives. Be it remembered that the man who says this is no ecclesiastic, but a layman, one of the foremost professors of the University of Berlin.

In his latest important work, he speaks still more emphatically on the drawbacks and dangers that menace teaching, even in the university, from scholarship. The professor, he says, considers himself in the first place not so much a teacher as a scholar, as the man

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Rh of science, and so scientific research appears to him nobler and more important than instruction. Consequently, it happens very easily that he becomes indifferent about perfecting himself as teacher, he devotes scarcely the necessary time to preparing his lectures, he loses interest in teaching, which is an unwelcome interruption of his researches. It is evident that no great success is to be expected from such teaching or lecturing. There are also dangers on the part of the students. Not unfrequently they are introduced too early to the specialized treatment of the sciences, before they have acquired general information about their subject. This danger is the greatest for the most talented and zealous students. If afterwards they are teachers in a gymnasium, they feel altogether out of place; nearly all they had to study in the university is inapplicable in this present position, and it takes very long before the mental equilibrium is found again. The author then points out the dangers for science. If manifestation of scholarship is required for obtaining a position as teacher, the unavoidable consequence will be a kind of "pseudo-productivity" and other evils.

Of recent utterances from England the following of the Hon. George C. Brodrick (Warden of Merton) will suffice. In an article, "Amateur Nation," he says: "Strange to say, the higher branches of the great educational profession in England are strongholds of amateurism. The masters and mistresses of elementary schools are now well trained, and even when they teach mechanically, they teach as persons who have grasped the difficulties of teaching, and mean business, as most professionals do. But what of masters at the great public schools, grammar schools,

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410 and private academies, or of the great multitude of private tutors who keep boarding houses or 'coach' pupils in their own houses? Not a twentieth of them have received any training whatever, or have the smallest idea that anything beyond a certain amount of scholarship and a certain power of commanding attention is required for teaching young people." The writer then states what he thinks is needed: "It is teachers of average ability instructing pupils of average industry, not individually, but in classes, who specially need training – not of necessity in training colleges, but through close attention at lessons given by masters of tried experience."

This is exactly the idea of the Ratio Studiorum. The aim is to provide teachers, who are "men of intelligence and self-sacrifice, who possess, besides an excellent general culture, a good knowledge of their subject, and who are trained through close attendance, by masters of tried experience." Before attempting to prove this from the Constitutions of the Society and the Ratio Studiorum, we beg to make one remark. The Society does not undervalue scholarship, but, on the contrary, appreciates it highly and wishes always a considerable number of her members to possess it to an eminent degree. This is proved beyond doubt by the list of distinguished Jesuit writers given in two preceding chapters (V and VII). The Society recognizes also the value of university studies. We have quoted previously the decree of the 23rd General Congregation of the Order (1883, Decretum XXI): "It is

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Rh expedient to send select members to the universities to obtain the degrees which empower them to teach in the public [i. e. Government] schools." We learn that the English Jesuits in late years have opened a Hall at Oxford (Pope's Hall), to afford young members an opportunity of attending the university lectures and of taking the degrees. We learn further that a number of Jesuits from other countries are there pursuing linguistic and scientific studies. The same is done in Ireland, Belgium, Holland, Austria, France and other countries. In some places, as in Austria, several Jesuit colleges are wholly under the supervision of the government, and all the teachers have made the prescribed studies at the universities and passed the rigid "state examinations". One of the professors of the Jesuit college at Feldkirch, Austria, has been chosen as "one of the seven prominent Latinists who are working at the great Historical Grammar of the Latin Language." It is evident that in all professional schools conducted by Jesuits, as in the Medical and Law Departments of Georgetown University, Washington, D. C., the instructors and professors are able professional teachers.

As far as America is concerned there existed peculiar handicaps to the cultivation of scholarship especially in Catholic institutions. Throughout the nineteenth century missions had to be established, chapels and churches built, and missionaries found to care for the spiritual wants of a rapidly increasing population.

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412 This work claimed the greatest part of the interest of the Catholic Church in general, and a comparatively large share of the time and energy of the members of the Society. But a teacher overburdened with work cannot devote himself to original research. Add to this the general poverty of the Catholic population, who had to support not only their churches, but also their schools, and it will be easy to understand that Catholic colleges had serious difficulties in acquiring the libraries, museums and laboratories which are essential for higher studies, and much more so for scholarly work. How much better situated are the secular institutions of learning in this country! "The National Government has, from the very beginning, made enormous grants of land and money in aid of education in the several states. The portion of public domain hitherto set apart by Congress for the endowment of public education amounts to 86,138,473 acres or 134,591 English square miles. This is an area larger than the New England States, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware added together, as great as the kingdom of Prussia. The aggregate value of lands and money given for education by the National Government is nearly $300,000,000. Besides, of the three hundred and fifteen million dollars given by private individuals within the last nine years for educational purposes, very little has gone to Catholic institutions.

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Rh In spite of the liberal national and private assistance granted, the public institutions have, until a short time ago, not been overconspicuous for scholarship, as is openly declared in a number of recent articles on this subject, by Professor Münsterberg of Harvard,   Mr. Carl Snyder, and Professor Simon Newcomb of the Naval Observatory, Washington. These writers repeat the complaints which Professor Rowland of Johns Hopkins had uttered more than twenty-five years ago. Professor Münsterberg, in the said article of the Atlantic Monthly, repudiates the charge that America has no scholarship at all; he affirms that the situation is infinitely better than Europeans suppose it to be – in certain branches of knowledge excellent work has been done. Nevertheless the author is compelled to continue: "And yet I am convinced that the result stands in no proper relation to the achievements of American culture in all the other aspects of national life, and the best American scholars everywhere frankly acknowledge and seriously deplore it. ... American publications cross the ocean in a ridiculously small number; in the world of letters no Columbus has yet discovered the other side of the globe." Years ago, Dr. McCosh had passed a similar verdict: "The scholarship of the great body of the students is as high in America as in Europe; but they rear in Great Britain and Germany a body of ripe scholars to whom we have nothing equal in the New World."

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414 Can we, then, be surprised to find that the Catholic institutions could not yet develop productive scholarship? However, as was said by many distinguished writers, productive scholarship is by no means the first requisite for an efficient teacher, much more essential are "intelligence, self-sacrifice, and close attention to lessons given by masters of tried experience." In the next chapter we shall show that the training prescribed by the Ratio Studiorum for the young Jesuit is excellently suited to furnish him with these requisites, and thus to make of him a good teacher.

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416 to its discipline. The Constitutions of the Society

are quite explicit on this point. They say that the person having the power of admission "should not be turned by any consideration from that which he shall judge most conducive in the Lord to the service of God in the Society; to promote which he should not be too eager to grant admission." The Provincial Superior is further exhorted "to watch that his subjects are not too anxious (ne nimii sint) to attract people to the Society, but by their virtues they should endeavor to lead all to Christ." The teachers in particular are told "even in private conversations to inculcate piety, but without attracting any one to the Order." Now what qualities does the Society require of those applying for admission? The Constitutions want men endowed with the highest gifts of nature. In order that they may be able to benefit their fellow creatures, the candidates of the Society should be endowed with the following gifts: as regards their intellect, they should possess good judgment, sound doctrine, or the talent to acquire it. As to character, they must be studious of all virtue and spiritual perfection, calm, steadfast and strenuous in what they undertake for God's service, and burning with zeal for the salvation of souls. In externals, facility of language, so needful for the intercourse with fellow men; besides, the applicant should possess good health and strength to undergo the labors of the Institute.

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Rh Such is the material of the future Jesuit; no mean material indeed. How does the Society carry out the modelling of the young members? How does she – to confine ourselves to the question of training teachers – train them to become efficient instructors and educators? To understand this better, it will be good to follow a young Jesuit through the course of his training. Take a young man, a student of a college, perhaps of a university. May be, he has been educated in a Jesuit college, he has seen the Jesuits working for education, has heard them preaching and lecturing, he feels attracted by their work: he wants to become one of them. Perhaps he has never seen a Jesuit, but he has heard of them, has read of the great achievements of the famous missionaries of the Order, beginning from St. Francis Xavier down to our days; he has come across a book written by a Jesuit, he hears how much they have done in the defense of Christianity, above all how they are hated and persecuted by the enemies of the Church: the ideal inspirations of his heart grow stronger, and he inquires where he can find these men so much spoken of. It is a fact that during the Kulturkampf in Germany, the German Province of the Society almost doubled its numbers. Many students, who had never seen a Jesuit, left the gymnasium or university to join the exiles, just because of the singular hatred of which the outlawed Order was the object. They concluded that a body of men thus singled out, must possess something extraordinary, something especially praiseworthy, as they could not believe that the calumnies spread by the enemies of the Jesuits could have any foundation. The student, frequently the brightest of

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418 his class, travels to the nearest place, perhaps to a foreign country, where he finds a house or a college of the Order. He is introduced to the Superior, to whom he expresses his desire of joining the ranks of the sons of St. Ignatius. He is strictly examined as to his studies, his character, the motives which led him to apply for admission to the Society, and above all, whether any one, especially a Jesuit, has influenced him to take this step, which latter fact would be considered an impediment to his admission. The hardships of the religious life, the long course of studies prescribed by the Society, the sacrifices to be undergone, the obedience to be rendered, all this is explained to him. But suppose these representations do not deter him, then after a careful examination conducted by several Jesuits, if the student is thought to possess sufficient talent, and a good moral disposition, he is received as a novice of the Society.

Perhaps the young candidate expected soon to be sent to the missions, or to be employed in teaching or writing, but the Society holds to the old principle that he who is to teach, is first to learn. Above all, he has to learn the most necessary science, expressed by the old Nosce teipsum: "Know thyself," and that not in a merely speculative, but in a severely practical manner. By this intense self-knowledge, the young religious is enabled to understand the characters of others and to deal with them successfully. During the first two years, in strict seclusion from the world,

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Rh he learns that self-knowledge, self-control, and "self-sacrifice," which are necessary to the future missionary, and no less so, to the future teacher. It is a religious, a spiritual training which the future educator receives first as the foundation of all other training. Education and reform must begin at home. The teacher is to instruct his pupils in the principles of true and solid morality. If he does not possess and practise these principles himself, he will be a corrupter of youth instead of a father and friend, "a blind leader of the blind, and both shall fall into the pit," as the Divine Teacher expresses it. If without practising these principles he endeavors to teach them, he is a hypocrite; his deeds will belie his words, and the eyes of the young are sharp and their perception is keen; they will soon discover the discord between the teacher's action and his precepts, and the former will have a more powerful influence on them, than the latter, as the Latin adage has it: Verba movent, exempla trahunt. Even the pagan rhetorician Quintilian insists on this point: Ipse (magister) nec habeat vitia, nec ferat: "The teacher should neither have nor tolerate faults." The teacher is daily for hours with his pupils, speaking to them, moving before them, his every word, his every gesture, his every smile is watched by a set of keen critics. All this must imperceptibly exercise a deep influence on the youthful mind. How perfect, therefore, ought the teacher to be, how faultless, how exemplary! But this moral perfection cannot be acquired except by severe self-control, by rigorous self-discipline, the acquirement of which forms the great end of the religious noviceship.

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420 It was St. Ignatius' oft-repeated maxim, not only: Nosce te ipsum, but, Vince te ipsum: "Conquer thyself." This is the way of training men, characters, of whom there is greater need than of scholars.

In frequent meditations on the end of man, on the life of the Divine Master, the young religious beholds the true dignity of man, the true "sanctity of the individual," which consists in his relation to God, his Creator. These truths brought home to the religious by daily reflection will inspire him with that genuine zeal, that pure love of man, which is ready to undergo any hardship, to spend time, talent, health, and life, in order to make his neighbor's soul good and noble on earth and happy throughout eternity. To the practical study of the character, of the life, of the words and actions of the Divine Master, not only the novice, but every Jesuit, devotes an hour every day in his morning meditation. In this school he learns to deal with pupils, seeing with what patience, kindness and love Christ dealt with little ones and with His disciples whose "slowness of grasp and understanding" (Luke 24, 25) would have been too much for any teacher, except him who was so "meek and humble of heart" (Matt. 11, 29). From Christ, the poor, and the friend of the lowly, he learns to "slight no one, to care as much for the progress of the poor pupils as of the rich," as his rule enjoins him. From Christ, who sacrificed the most tender relations on earth to the will and service of God, in order to be "about his father's business" (Luke 2, 49), the future teacher must learn how to control the affections of his heart, so as not to show any partiality, any special

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Rh love to particular pupils. All these qualities and virtues, so necessary for the teacher, the young religious endeavors to acquire during the time of his preparation. The new school of educators may sneer at this "asceticism," still we know that godliness, although not sufficient for everything, is nevertheless profitable for everything, especially so for education.

The first two years of the life of the young Jesuit are principally devoted to this religious and moral training. However, his future life work is not lost sight of even during this time. Many exercises and practices of the novitiate have a direct bearing on his scientific preparation. As a rule, the students are admitted only after they have finished their classical course, in Germany and Austria for instance after completing the gymnasium, which is a classical course of nine years; in this country, after Sophomore class, which amounts to four years academic or high school work and two years of college properly so-called. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, not a few enter after having finished a course of philosophy or after having taken special courses at a university, in addition to their classical studies, while sometimes students are admitted who have not completed the whole college course. During the first two years, novices have frequent oratorical exercises, they receive theoretical instructions on explaining Christian doctrine, and still more frequently – in accordance with the fundamental maxim of the Society, that practice and exercise are most important means of training – they have to give catechetical instructions. This exercise is an excellent preparation for explain-

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422 ing any subject in a simple and intelligent manner, a thing most valuable for instructors in lower classes. Their conversations throughout a great part of the day are to be carried on in Latin. Besides, there are several hours a week devoted to regular schools in Latin, Greek, and the mother tongue; thus the knowledge of languages is at least kept alive, if not perfected.

After the two years novitiate, the young Jesuits have to repeat the classical studies for one, two or three years – the time varies according to the studies made previous to admission to the Society. Special attention is paid to the precepts of aesthetics, poetics, and rhetoric, and to various practical applications of these precepts. Then follows a three years' course of philosophy, mathematics and natural sciences, especially physics, chemistry, biology, physiology, astronomy and geology. The system pursued is entirely different from that followed at our universities, where the student listens to the lectures of the professor, takes down notes and studies them at home, and then goes up for examination at the end of the year. Not so with the Jesuits. The lectures of the professor are not the only, perhaps not even the most important part in the philosophical and scientific training. Characteristic and most essential are again the exercises, foremost among them the disputations, for which three or four times a week a full hour is set apart. In what do they consist? One of the students has to study carefully a thesis previously treated in the lectures, in order to expound and defend it against the objections which are being prepared in the meantime by two other students. On the appointed day the

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Rh defender takes his place at a special desk in front of the class, opposite him the two objectors. The defender states his proposition, explains its meaning, and the opinions of the adversaries, ancient and modern, then gives proofs for it, in strictly syllogistic form, all this in Latin. After a quarter of an hour, the first objector attacks the proposition, or a part of it, or an argument adduced in its proof, all this again in syllogisms. The defender repeats the objection, then answers in a few words to major, minor and conclusion, by conceding, denying, or distinguishing the various parts of the objector's syllogism. The opponent urges his objection, by offering a new subsumptive syllogism to the defender's solution. After a quarter of an hour the second objector does the same for fifteen minutes. During the last quarter, either the professor, or any student present, may offer objections against the defender's proposition.

These disputations are regular intellectual tournaments, the objectors trying to show the weak points of the thesis, the defender striving to maintain his proposition. "This system of testing the soundness of the doctrine taught, continued as it is throughout the theological studies, which come at a later period of the young Jesuit's career, provides those who pass through it with a complete defense against difficulties which otherwise are likely to puzzle the Catholic controversialist. It is a splendid means of sifting truth from falsehood. Many of those who take part in it are men of ability and well versed in the objections that can be urged against the Catholic teaching. Such men conduct their attack not as a mere matter of form, but with vigor and ingenuity. . . . Sometimes the

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424 objector will urge his difficulties with such a semblance of conviction as even to mislead some of those present. ... So far from any check being put on the liberty of the students, they are encouraged to press home every sort of objection, however searching and fundamental, however bold and profane (e. g. against the existence of God, free will, immortality of the soul, Divinity of Christ, the Catholic Church etc.), that can be raised to the Catholic doctrine. In every class are found to be men, who are not to be put off with an evasion, and a professor who was to attempt to substitute authority for reason, would very soon find out his mistake. This perfect liberty of disputation is one of the many happy results of the possession of perfect and unfailing truth."

Every six or eight weeks, all the more important theses discussed during the preceding time, are defended in the monthly disputations, at which all the different classes of the institution and all the professors of the faculty are present. Sometimes more solemn disputations are held, to which frequently professors from other institutions are invited, and any one is free to offer objections which the defender has to solve. There can be no doubt that this method has many great advantages. First of all, it forces the student to study his proposition most thoroughly; for he is not aware what objections shall be made. Therefore, both defenders and objectors have to prepare most carefully, to examine closely the proposition on all sides, to know its exact meaning, to understand the arguments, and to discover its weak points. The professor, of course, is present, sees that strict syl-

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Rh logistic form is kept, and in case the defender is unable to solve the difficulties, has to give the final decision. At the same time it forces the professor to be most careful and accurate in the opinion he holds, and especially in the arguments which he proposes, as fullest liberty is given in attacking every point, and as the students, frequently mature men and highly gifted, try their very best to show any weak point in the argumentation of the text book, or in the professor's propositions. Professor Paulsen observes on the disputations of the medieval schoolmen, of which the disputations of the Jesuit schools are a modification: "As regards the disputations, it may be said that the Middle Ages were hardly mistaken. They were undoubtedly fitted to produce a great readiness of knowledge and a marvellous skill in grasping arguments."

It has frequently been asserted that this uniform training of the Jesuits crushes out all individuality. Professor Paulsen says: "Great individualities do not appear in the history of the Order," and Cardinal Newman writes: "What a great idea, to use Guizot's expression, is the Society of Jesus! what a creation of genius in its organization; but so well adapted is the institution to its object that for that very reason it can afford to crush individualities, however gifted; so much so, that, in spite of the rare talents of its members, it has even become an objection to it in the mouth of its enemies, that it has not produced a thinker like Scotus or Malebranche!"

Does uniform training necessarily result in uniformity of character? Certainly not. If all those

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426 trained had the same disposition, the same nature to be worked upon, perhaps it would. Does the same nourishment given to a number of children produce the same result, the same complexion, the same color of hair, the same seize? Why should mental food? Does the same training in a military academy produce a perfect likeness in all? The military system of the "Great Powers" gives the most uniform training in the world. Does it crush out individuality of the generals and officers in tactics and strategy? Jesuit pupils will be surprised at being told that their teachers have all the same mould of character and are destitute of individuality. But no one smiles more at the above mentioned assertion than Jesuit Superiors, whose hardest task it is to unite all the different characters in one common effort, without interfering too much with their individuality. They know too well that the crushing out of the individuality would mean the crushing of energy and of self-activity so much insisted on by. St. Ignatius in his Spiritual Exercises. It was St. Ignatius who told those who have charge of the spiritual training of the members of the Order: "It is most dangerous to endeavor to force all on the same path to perfection; he who attempts this does not know how different and how manifold the gifts of the Holy Ghost are."

If one studies the works of the great writers of the Society, he will be struck by the variety and difference of opinions held by professors and writers of the same period, v. g. Suarez and Vasquez. It is amusing to read

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Rh how one attacks and refutes the other, speaking of "the opinions of a certain modern author which cannot be maintained at all" etc. Cardinal Newman says in his Historical Sketches: "It is plain that the body is not over-zealous about its theological traditions, or it certainly would not suffer Suarez to controvert with Molina, Viva with Vasquez, Passaglia with Petavius, and Faure with Suarez, de Lugo and Valentia. In this intellectual freedom its members justly glory; inasmuch as they have set their affections, not on the opinions of the Schools, but on the souls of men." Professor Paulsen seems to have forgotten his own statement: "Greatest possible power of the individual is preserved without derangement of the organism of the Order, spontaneous activity and perfect submission of the will, contrasts almost irreconcilable, seem to have been harmoniously united in a higher degree by the Society, than by any other body." A recent English writer, speaking of the "crushing of individuality practised by the Jesuits," seems to trace it to the pernicious influence of the spirit of the Latin races. The Latins "keep men in leading strings;" "liberty to Latins means license;" "true Latins cannot understand the principle of personality." The Spaniards, in particular, are regarded with special horror. The Roman Curia is said to have adopted the system used by the Spaniards, "who could not endure discussion or publicity; centralization

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428 was the ideal; routine the practice," and so on. "The Jesuit system of blind obedience was founded to bring about the absolutism of authority;" this "makes them akin (strange though it may seem) to that Puritan strain so often found in those doing or desirous of doing great things." This is strange indeed, but far stranger are the absurdities and contradictions into which prejudiced men are led. The Jesuits are said to be deprived of personality and individuality, and in the same breath it is sometimes asserted that everywhere they know how to adapt themselves to the most different circumstances: In England, America, Germany, Spain, France, Russia, China, Japan, Paraguay, Abyssinia. It is said the General wants a man for some secret mission. He opens his list and there he finds a man especially fitted to influence the court of St. Petersburg, or the Padisha in Constantinople; then one who knows so well how to ingratiate himself with Cromwell as to become his friend, dine at his table, play chess with him; then one who is fitted for guiding his Celestial Majesty in Pekin; here one to rouse the starving peasants of Ireland to enthusiasm for their 'Romish' faith, then one who by all sorts of devices tames the savages of Paraguay; one who disputes with the bonzes in Japan, or becomes a Brahmin in India, as the famous Robert de Nobili; there is one who is best suited to conquer the refractory Professors at the University in Louvain, and the Doctors of the Sorbonne, then another who wins the confidence of the townspeople and villagers in Switzerland, the Tyrol, and Germany – in short men for

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Rh every possible mission. Such are the opinions of the adversaries of the Society. But is not the greatest variety of characters needed for all these employments? And yet, they are supposed to be deprived of individuality! Or is that unpersonal trait which is infused into every Jesuit so universal that all other individualities are contained in it, as the scholastic philosophers express it, eminenter, in a subtle and mysterious form? Is every Jesuit a sort of Proteus, who could change himself into a lion, a serpent, a pard, a boar, a tree, a fountain? A wonderful system of training, indeed, for which the diplomats of our modern courts might envy the Jesuits. To be serious, that depriving of personality, attributed to the Jesuit system, is nothing but one of the numerous Jesuit myths.

We have left our young Jesuit in his philosophical course. But what becomes in the meantime of the study of the classical languages? It is not neglected during the course of philosophy, at least the Ratio Studiorum provides special means to foster and promote this important branch of study. The lectures in mathematics and natural sciences are given in the mother tongue, but the lectures and disputations in philosophy are all conducted in Latin, so that the young Jesuit is in the habit of speaking Latin and may speak it with ease and fluency. It is true, the Latin of these disputations and lectures in not exactly Ciceronian, still it is by no means as barbarous as the

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430 opponents of this system represent it. Some of the Latin text books on philosophy are written in accurate Latin. It is not, however, this custom of speaking Latin which we wished to adduce as a provision of the Ratio Studiorum, to advance the study of Latin during the course of philosophy. But we find in the Ratio, among the rules for the Prefect of the higher studies, the following clause: "He shall give every student of philosophy a classical author and admonish him not to omit reading it at certain hours."

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Rh In this manner six or seven years of training have been spent in the Society in addition to about the same number of years devoted to higher studies previous to the admission into the Order; thus, before the Jesuit begins his work as teacher, twelve years, on the average, have been spent in studies after the completion of the elementary or public school course. The Jesuit teacher is then employed in the academical or high school department. His training compares favorably to that of the high school teachers in this country, at least as far as the length of time is concerned. In Massachusetts (1897) one per cent of high school teachers were graduates of scientific schools, thirteen per cent of normal schools, sixty-six per cent of colleges, twenty per cent unclassified. – In the State of New York (1898) there were thirty-two per cent college graduates, thirty-nine per cent normal school graduates, nineteen per cent high school graduates, ten per cent had other training. Thus the average of higher studies is certainly not more than eight years, against the twelve years of the Jesuit teacher.

It may be asked how far the Jesuit's studies are preparatory to his work as teacher? The repetition of the classics in the two years "Juniorate" previous to the study of philosophy, is not only considered as part of the general culture, but is especially viewed as a preparation for the Jesuits' work as teachers. Quick has correctly said that the Juvenats or Juniorates were the training schools where the young Jesuit learned the method of teaching. That this was the aim of this course is apparent from what the General Visconti

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432 said: "Immediately after their novitiate they [the young Jesuits] must have the most accomplished professors of Rhetoric [by which word is understood general philological knowledge], men, who not only are altogether eminent in this faculty, but who know how to teach and make everything smooth for the scholars; men of eminent talent and the widest experience in the art; who are not merely to form good scholars, but to train good masters."

But there are other most important regulations concerning the direct training for teaching. Towards the end of the philosophical course, before going to the colleges, there should be an immediate preparation for those who in the near future are to enter on the momentous career of teaching boys. The outline of the Ratio Studiorum of 1586 demands the following course: "It would be most profitable for the schools, if those who are about to be preceptors were privately taken in hand by some one of great experience, and for two months or more were practised by him in the method of reading, teaching, correcting, writing, and managing a class. If teachers have not learned these things beforehand, they are forced to learn them afterwards at the expense of their scholars; and then they will acquire proficiency only when they have already lost in reputation; and perchance they will never unlearn a bad habit. Sometimes such a habit is neither very serious nor incorrigible, if taken at the beginning; but if the habit is not corrected at the outset, it comes to pass that a man, who otherwise would have been most useful, becomes well-nigh useless. There is no describing how much amiss preceptors take it, if they

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Rh are corrected, when they have already adopted a fixed method of teaching; and what continual disagreement ensues on that score with the Prefect of Studies. To obviate this evil, in the case of our professors, let the Prefect in the chief college, whence our professors of Humanities and Grammar are usually taken, remind the Rector and Provincial, about three months before the next scholastic year begins, that, if the Province needs new professors for the following term, they should select some one eminently versed in the art of managing classes, whether he be at the time actually a professor or a student of theology or philosophy; and to him the future masters are to go daily for an hour, to be prepared by him for their new ministry, giving prelections in turn, writing, dictating, correcting, and discharging the other duties of a good teacher." Professor Ziegler, commenting on this regulation, says: "To the Jesuits must be given the credit of first having done something for the pedagogical preparation of the future teachers in higher schools; and of having paved the way for the Probe- und Seminarjahr of our days."

Another regulation laid down in the Ratio of 1599, as a duty of the Provincial, is of the greatest importance: "In order to preserve the knowledge of classical literature, and to keep up a Seminary of teachers, he shall try to have in his Province at least two or

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434 three men distinguished in these branches. This he shall accomplish, if, from time to time, he takes care that some of them who have a special talent and inclination for these studies, and are sufficiently trained in other branches, devote themselves exclusively to this vocation, so that, through their efforts and industry, a stock of good teachers is formed."

In order to give the young teachers, who were to be trained in this Seminary, a reliable guide, the general assembly of the Society, in 1696-97, passed a decree that, "besides the rules whereby the masters of literature are directed in the manner of teaching, they should be provided with an Instruction and proper Method of Learning, and so be guided in their private studies even while they are teaching." Father Joseph de Jouvancy (Latinized Juvencius), one of the greatest authorities on education of his age, was ordered to revise, and adapt to the requirements of this decree, a work which he had published five years previously. This book, after a careful examination by a special commission, appeared in 1703, as the authorized handbook for the teachers of the Society, under the title: Magistris scholarum inferiorum Societatis Jesu de ratione discendi et docendi. The General Visconti in 1752 wished the little book to be in the hands of all Jesuit

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Rh teachers. The little work has been styled a pedagogical gem, and it was highly praised by Rollin and Voltaire. Dr. Ernst von Sallwürk said of it a few years ago that its importance reaches far beyond the Jesuit schools. "We may consider it a reliable source for information of what Jesuit pedagogy at his time aimed at and achieved. Besides, this book is one of the most prominent works on college pedagogy (Gymnasial-Pädagogik)." In the following chapters we shall frequently refer to this excellent work of Father Jouvancy.

The account we have given so far of the training of the Jesuit teacher furnishes an answer to the charge, which is brought forward now and then, that the Jesuit teachers were too young. No matter how things stood in the Old Society, at present, according to the above data, the average age of the Jesuit teacher when he begins teaching cannot be less than twenty-four years. Besides, every college, according to the Ratio Studiorum, ought to possess a number of magistri perpetui, permanent teachers, i. e. of men who spend their whole lives in teaching. This is clearly stated in the rules of the Provincial: "He shall procure as many as possible permanent teachers of grammar and rhetoric. This he shall effect if, at the end of the casuistic or theological studies, some men who are thought to fulfil the duties of the Society better in this ministry than in any other, are resolutely (strenue) destined for it, and admonished to devote themselves wholly to so salutary a work, to the greater glory of

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436 God." Father Sacchini devotes the fourth part of his Protrepticon to encouraging the members of the Society first, to offer themselves to the arduous but noble work of education: "The education of youth for many reasons deserves to be preferred by a zealous Jesuit to all the other ministries of the Order." He quotes the words of Pope Paul III., in the Bull of the confirmation of the Society: "They [the members of the Society] shall have expressly recommended to them the instruction of boys and ignorant people. ... For it is most necessary that the General and his council diligently watch over the management of this business; seeing that the edifice of faith cannot be raised in our neighbors without a foundation, and there may be danger among ourselves lest, as each is more learned, he may endeavor to evade this duty [of instructing the young], as at first sight perhaps less engaging: whilst in fact none is more productive, either of edification to our neighbors or of the practice of the duties of charity and humility to ourselves." Father Sacchini says that this volunteering and application for the work of education, far from being in any way opposed to obedience, on the contrary, is the most beautiful flower and

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Rh perfection of that virtue, which St. Ignatius recommended when saying, one should not wait for the Superior's command, but should anticipate his very suggestions and silent wishes.

In the second place Father Sacchini exhorts the teacher to devote generously his whole life to this great work. Some writers on the history of education have stated that the Jesuits, after having been admitted to Priest's Orders, did not teach the grammar classes, but gave only the higher instruction. Compayré goes so far as to assert that "in their establishments for secondary instruction they entrust the lower classes to teachers who do not belong to their Order, and reserve to themselves the direction of the higher classes." This is utterly false. Lay teachers are only employed when the insufficiency in the number of Jesuits makes it necessary; or for certain branches, as commercial branches, or in professional courses, as in the faculties for Law and Medicine, preparatory schools for Army and Navy, in short, wherever lay experts are needed. The history of Jesuit schools, old and new, refutes the statement of Compayré and other writers. Many priests have taught the lower classes for many years, some for their whole lives. Besides, if priests did not teach these classes, the regulations of the Ratio about "permanent teachers," the earnest appeals of Sacchini and other Jesuit writers, would be altogether meaningless.

Father Sacchini, in order to encourage the Jesuits to devote their whole lives to this noble work, enumerates the various emoluments accruing from this perseverance to the teacher himself, as it gives him

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438 facility, interest, and experience in his work. He further points out the advantages of this stability for the pupils and for the Society. He cites in this connection the words of Ecclesiasticus : "Be steadfast in the covenant, and be conversant therein, and grow old in thy work. Trust in God and stay in thy place." The Greek text has, instead of "place", πόνος, i. e. "hard work, toil, drudgery," a word admirably suited to express the toilsome labor of education. Therefore: "stay in thy place, bear patiently the toil and drudgery necessarily connected with teaching," is the advice given to the teacher of the Society. In fact, numerous Jesuits have heeded this advice, and have spent thirty, forty, fifty, and more years in college work. Not to speak of times long gone by, or of foreign countries, we mention the following fact. In 1888, died at Spring Hill College, near Mobile, Alabama, Father Yenni, author of a Latin and a Greek grammar, who for fifty years had been teaching boys, and, at his special request, always in the lowest classes.

The Ratio speaks more explicitly of the training of the teachers for the literary curriculum; it is understood that those who have to teach mathematics, sciences, etc., receive a special training in their respective branches. Other documents of the Society state this principle in the clearest terms. In the memorandum of Father Clavius, written more than three hundred years ago, it is said: "In order to have always in the Society able teachers of these sciences, some who are especially fitted for this task should be selected and trained, in a private course, in the various

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Rh mathematical branches." In another document we read: "The best way, perhaps, is that those who are chosen for this office [teaching mathematics] should, after the course of philosophy, study for a whole year the branches which they will have to teach." This special course, in addition to the general training in mathematics received in the course of philosophy, was certainly a sufficient preparation for the amount of mathematics which was taught in former centuries.

It is evident, then, that both the general and special training of the Jesuit teacher were well attended to before he was sent out to teach.

Several weeks before the beginning of a new scholastic year, the young Jesuit arrives at the college which is to be the first field of his educational labors. After some time, during which the Rector of the college and the Prefect of Studies have formed acquaintance with the new-comer, a certain class is assigned to him for the next year. It is according to the spirit, not only of the Ratio Studiorum, but of the whole Institute of the Society, that great care be taken that the positions in colleges, as well as elsewhere, are assigned according to the talent, the knowledge and the practical abilities of the individuals. To quote only a few regulations of the Institute, the Constitutions declare: "Every one should be trained according to his age, talent, and inclinations," of course always considering "where the common good can be advanced best." The Provincial is told "to take care that those who have a special inclination for a certain

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440 branch of study, in which they can distinguish themselves, spend more time in this branch," – certainly for no other reason than that they should use this knowledge for teaching, or if circumstances require, writing on this special subject. Specialization is, accordingly, no new invention of modern times, but was recognized as important centuries ago, but a specialization which presupposes the solid foundation of general culture. Unless this be done, the educational structure becomes "top-heavy"; "time, money, and labor are put on the superstructure at the expense of the foundation," as an American writer complains of modern educational systems. The specialties to be provided for by the selection and fostering of special talents, are, in the terms of the second last general assembly of the Order (in 1883), "ancient languages, philosophy, ethnology, history, higher mathematics, and all the natural sciences." The Institute emphasizes the necessity of selecting the teachers according to their abilities: "In universities and colleges learned and able professors are to be appointed," and the Provincial Superior is exhorted "to consider in due time what teachers are to be taken for the single branches, and look out for those that seem best fitted, who are learned, studious, and assiduous (docti, diligentes, assidui), and intent upon the progress of the pupils." Now, there is scarcely any studiousness or

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Rh assiduity possible, unless a man takes a natural interest in the subject which he has to study or teach. True, the Jesuit is told by his Institute to do everything from a supernatural motive; still in the special field of studies "great success is hardly possible if one possesses no natural liking for such work," as a distinguished living Jesuit used to tell the younger members of the Order.

Different documents of the Society state the same principle most emphatically. We have heard that those men were to be appointed as teachers of mathematics, who were especially fitted for this task, and who felt an inclination and a liking for this branch. A second document says: "Those should be chosen who, all other things being equal, are superior to all others in talent, diligence, inclination for these subjects, and in the method of teaching. ... For it happens sometimes that some, proficient enough in other branches, are not mathematicians, be it for want of study or of natural talent for this branch." The same principle was, of course, applied to other subjects. Father Nadal had laid it down as a general rule of the Prefect of Studies, to see that all the younger members of the Society receive a solid general training, and that special talents should be diligently cultivated. "He must take pains to discover what talent our young men have, and endeavor to advance them accordingly. If one is fitted for the study of rhetoric, see that he is

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442 given a longer and more accurate training in the humanistic studies and oratory. The same care must be taken if one is thought to have a talent for poetics, for Greek, for philosophy, theology, Sacred Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, the Councils, and Canon Law. On the other hand, if one seems not to be fitted for a certain branch of study, he should not be detained therein longer than is necessary for acquiring an ordinary knowledge."

Thus it is clear that the Constitutions of the Society and the documents directly concerning the studies, from the very beginning, insisted on the necessity of assigning each teacher's work according to his natural abilities. The General of the Society, Father Visconti, inculcated this principle later on, saying that "special care should be taken to assign the classes to the teachers according to their talent, knowledge and practical skill." This must be emphasized much more in our days. For in the sixteenth century, the subjects taught in colleges were fewer, and it was not so difficult to appoint teachers. But in our times, other branches must be taught. This cannot be done effectively by the same man who teaches languages and literature. There are exceedingly few men who can excel in many branches, or can be good teachers in several of them.

Here, however, there is another danger which must

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Rh be avoided: that of splitting up too much the work of teaching in the same class. This is most injurious to education properly so-called, especially in the lower and middle classes. One teacher should have a prominent position in the class; he should be the teacher, and, in the first place, the educator of his pupils. For this reason he should teach as many subjects as possible in his class – provided he masters them –, all those branches which are more closely connected, as Latin, Greek, also English, in short, languages and literature. With Latin and Greek it is natural to combine also Roman and Greek history. Medieval and modern history may be taught by a special teacher. Mathematics and natural sciences go well together and can easily be taught by the same teacher. In a word, the Society wishes to have class teachers preferably to branch teachers. As is well known, the class system is, to a certain extent, prevalent in Germany. For some time the branch system had been favored, but experience proved that the old class system was unquestionably better. So the "New School Order" for Prussia, 1901, strongly recommends the strengthening of the influence of the class teacher as distinct from the branch teacher, in order to secure, above all, better education. "The splitting up of the teaching in the lower and middle classes among too many teachers, as well as frequent changes of teachers, are considered an obstacle to any enduring educational influence. To put a stop, as far as possible, to these evils, the provincial school authorities are strictly bound to see to it that a professor proposed as a class teacher be suitable for the position, and that he teach in his class as many subjects as possible, so far as his scholastic

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444 attainments and practical experience allow it." The advantages of this system for education need not be demonstrated. It is the only system which gives the teacher a thorough knowledge of the pupil and influence on the formation of his character.

There is another practice of Jesuit colleges which had for its end the strengthening of the educational influence of the teacher. According to the Ratio Studiorum, it was customary that the teacher should not always remain in the same grade, except the professors of the two highest literary classes, of Humanities and Rhetoric, where more erudition is required. But the young teacher should begin with the lowest class, then year after year advance with the better part of his pupils to the next higher grade, at least for three or four years. Thus the students have not to pass so often from one master, and consequently from one kind of management, to the other; master and pupil understand each other, and if the teacher is a good religious and a fairly efficient teacher, he will have won the esteem, the affection, and the confidence of the pupils, all which gives him inestimable advantages for the real and thorough education of his charges. On the other hand, frequent changes interfere considerably with the training of the pupils. As early as 1583, Father Oliver Manare, visiting the colleges of the German provinces by the General's authority, laid it down as a directive that "frequent changes were burdensome to the students, because they were forced to

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Rh accommodate themselves often to new teachers and prefects."

If, for want of a sufficient number of men, some of the regulations laid down for the training of the teacher, were, perhaps, not everywhere and always complied with, the Ratio Studiorum is not to be censured on that account, nor the Society as such, as by wise legislation she endeavored to obviate any such shortcomings. Moreover, the uniformity of the previous training of the Jesuit teachers, as well as the uniform system of teaching in the colleges of the same province, has the effect that, although teachers are changed, there is no change in the method of teaching. Besides, is not every institution, secular or ecclesiastical, however well organized, open to such or similar temporary defects? Exceptional shortcomings must naturally be expected in any system, as there is nothing on earth altogether perfect and ideal. Deficiencies in individual Jesuit teachers, or in single colleges, do not prove anything against the system, no more than the inefficient administration of one Governor or President proves the worthlessness of the constitution of a State or the Republic. Our contention is only that excellent teachers are trained if the regulations of the Jesuit system are followed.

The young teacher has received his appointment, let us say for one of the high school classes, to teach Latin and Greek. He knows his grammar well, he

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446 has in the course of years read many classical authors. Is anything still wanting? Indeed very much: an intimate acquaintance with the authors, facility in handling their languages, skill in explaining the grammar and the authors. All this he has to acquire by a system of continued self-training, under the direction of the Rector or Prefect of Studies. Above all he must study the classic authors themselves. Second-hand knowledge will not suffice for the teacher. Reading over the regulations of the Society in former centuries concerning the preparation of the teachers, one must be surprised to see what an amount of reading was required of the young teacher, in Latin, Greek, and history. Thus the teacher of the second lowest Grammar class (Media Grammatica) had to study, besides the authors he explained in class, all the philosophical writings of Cicero (the epistles he had read the year before), and some of the orations of the same author; the poets Claudian, Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, Martial, the first ten books of Livy, Justin, Valerius Maximus, Velleius Paterculus, and the whole of Caesar. In Greek, Aelian, Aesop, and Xenophon's Cyropaedia. Various books on style, poetry, and rhetoric. The teacher of the third class was to study all the orations of Cicero with a commentary; Horace, Seneca, and other poets; some more books of Livy, Curtius, Sallust; the Philippics of Demosthenes. – Every minute was to be utilized in order to master these authors. Catalogues of books on philology and antiquities were printed from which the young teacher might find assistance in studying and explaining the

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Rh authors. The young teacher has to look not so much for pedagogical theories, as for practical knowledge. He is to read carefully the authors, closely observe peculiarities of their style, accurately translate and intelligently expound their meaning. It is exactly the system, according to which Professor Hermann of Leipsic trained his philologians. This practical method of self-activity and self-training we find explained in the first part of Jouvancy's commentary on the Ratio Studiorum, in The Method of Learning.

As the object of this training is to form practical teachers, not a word is said about higher criticism and the like; but Father Jouvancy urges the teacher to acquire in the first place a thorough mastery of three languages: Greek, Latin, and the vernacular. The means of gaining this mastery are plentiful reading of the best authors, and practising compositions of various kinds: letters, orations, essays.

The second part of the learning proper to the master of literature consists, according to Jouvancy, in the thorough knowledge of certain sciences. "The erudition of a master is not confined to mere command of languages; it must rise higher to the understanding of some sciences which it is usual to impart to youth in the classical schools. Such are rhetoric, poetry, history, chronology, geography, philology."

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448 As regards history, it is superfluous to speak of its usefulness for a higher education. History is, indeed, a magistra vitae, a teacher and mirror of life, a school of practical wisdom. Of particular importance for the teacher is the thorough knowledge of the history of Greece and Rome. A scholarly appreciation of the classics is impossible without an intimate acquaintance with the history: political, social, religious, and literary, of these nations.

Here we must say a few words on the teacher's attitude towards ancient history. The religious teacher's viewpoint of history is radically different from that of the agnostic. To the religious teacher historical events are not merely the products of natural agencies. He sees rather in history, to use the words of the Jesuit Kropf, "the wonderful manifestation of God's power and a revelation of the wisdom of a

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Rh Divine Providence." History, in this sense, is a record of the development of mankind under the providential guidance of God; or, more precisely, a record of the systematic training and improvement of the human race by divinely appointed means as a preparation for the birth of Christ, that God might, through the coming of His Son, secure from man a spontaneous homage, a worship worthy of Himself. The coming of Christ, in this view, gives a definite character to history, and the periods both before and after that event – the greatest in history – constitute its two grand divisions, the one the preparation for the coming of Christ, the other the spread and struggle of Christ's kingdom, to the final triumph on the day of Judgment. Christ, therefore, is the central figure of all history, "the stone which was rejected by the builders, which is become the head of the corner."

From this standpoint, then, the Jesuit masters will study and teach the history of Greece and Rome. Of this viewpoint he will not lose sight when reading and explaining the classic authors. It need not be feared that this view will prevent the teacher from doing full justice to these two great nations. On the contrary. In the Greeks he will acknowledge those brilliant gifts of nature which made them the foremost promoters of human art, human knowledge, and human culture. In the history of Rome he will admire that wonderful talent for ruling the world, and

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