At Auxerre, complaint is made that pupils study in their schools only a few Latin authors, and that they leave them without ever receiving into their hands a single French author.
At Moulins, a request is made that at least one hour a week be devoted to the history of France, which proves that the Society of Jesus, always enslaved to its immobile formalism, did not grant even this little concession to the teaching of history.
At Orleans, the necessity of teaching children the French language is insisted on.
At Montbrison, the wish is expressed that pupils be taught a smattering of geography, especially of their own country.
At Auxerre, it is proved that in the teaching of philosophy the time is employed “in copying and learning note-books filled with vain distinctions and frivolous questions.”
At Montbrison, the request is made “that the rules of reasoning be explained in French, and that there be a disuse of debates which train only disputants and not philosophers.”
It would be interesting to pursue this study, and to collect from these reports of 1762,—real memorials of a scholastic revolution,—all the complaints of public opinion against the Jesuits. Even in religion, the Company of Jesus is charged with substituting for the sacred texts, books of devotion composed by the Fathers. At Poitiers, a demand is made in favor of the Old and the New Testaments, the study of which was wholly neglected. From time to time the Jesuits were accused of continually mixing religious questions with classical studies and of catechising at every turn. “The masters of the fifth and sixth forms in the College of Auxerre dogmatize in the themes which they dictate to the children.” Finally, the Company of Jesus maintained in the schools the teaching of moral casuistry; it encouraged bigotry and superstition; it relaxed nothing from the severity of its discipline, and provoked violent recriminations among some of its former pupils who had preserved a painful recollection of corrections received in its colleges.[194]
377. Efforts made to displace the Jesuits.—The Parliaments, then, did nothing more, so to speak, than register the verdict of public opinion everywhere excited against the Jesuits. But while they heartily joined in the general reprobation, they undertook to determine the laws of the new education. “It is of little use to destroy,” they said, “if we do not intend to build. The public good and the honor of the nation require that we should establish a civil education which shall prepare each new generation for filling with success the different employments of the State.” It is not just to say with Michel Bréal, that “once delivered from the Jesuits, the University installed itself in their establishments and continued their instruction.” Earnest attempts were made to reform programmes and methods. La Chalotais, Guyton de Morveau, Rolland, and still others attempted by their writings, and, when they could, by their acts, to establish a system of education which, while inspired by Rollin and the Jansenists, attempted to do still better.
378. La Chalotais (1701-1785).—Of all the parliamentarians who distinguished themselves in the campaign undertaken towards the middle of the eighteenth century against the pedagogy of the Jesuits, the most celebrated, and the most worthy of being such, is undoubtedly the solicitor-general of the Parliament of Bretagne, René de la Chalotais. A man of courage and character, he was arrested and imprisoned in the citadel of Saint Malo for having upheld the franchise of the province of Bretagne; and it was in his prison, in 1765, that he drew up for his defence an eloquent and impassioned memorial, of which Voltaire said, “Woe to every sensitive soul that does not feel the quivering of a fever in reading it!”
379. His Essay on National Education.—The Essai of La Chalotais appeared in 1763, one year after the Émile. Coming after the ambitious theories of a philosopher who, scorning polemics and the dissensions of his time, had written only for humanity and the future, this was a modest and opportune work, the effort of a practical man who attempted to respond to the aspirations and the needs of his time. Translated into several languages, the Essai d’éducation nationale obtained the enthusiastic approval of Diderot, and also of Voltaire, who said, “It is a terrible book against the Jesuits, all the more so because it is written with moderation.” Grimm carried his admiration so far as to write, “It would be difficult to present in a hundred and fifty pages more reflections that are wise, profound, useful, and truly worthy of a magistrate, of a philosopher, of a statesman.” Too completely forgotten to-day, this little composition of La Chalotais deserves to be republished. Notwithstanding some prejudices that mar it, it is already wholly penetrated with the spirit of the Revolution.