piety of the devout; to avail himself of it as a means to attract the thoughtless to imitation; and, by a special rule, he was charged to instruct his scholars in all duties of religion by weekly catechisms, carefully adapted to their capacity. The ecclesiastical historian, Fleury, remarks, in the preface to his historical catechism, that, if the youth of his age was incomparably better instructed than the youth of past ages, the obligation was owing principally to the catechisms of the Jesuits' school. He had heard them during the six years of his education in Clermont college.
Ignatius places herein the capital point of education: and he well knew, that where the grand motives of religion are not employed, an assembly of men will commonly be a collection of vice, especially in unexperienced youth, when growing passions always seek communication, in order to authorise themselves by example. To this point, then, he directs the rules of his subjects employed in education; to
this he calls the attention of every professor, the vigilance of every prefect of studies, of every master, the solicitude of every rector, the inspection of every provincial. The wise framers of the Ratio Studiorum, which is adopted into the institute, explaining his ideas still farther, require every master to study the temper and character of his pupils; to distract their passions by application; to fire their little hearts with laudable emulation. For this, they must encourage the diffident and modest, curb the forward and presumptuous: for this they must assign to merit alone those scholastic appellations of dignity, those titles of emperor and prætor, puerile indeed in themselves, but not less important to boys than are the sounds of titles, and colours of ribbands to men. On the same principle, in much frequented colleges, each class was divided into two rival classes, usually distinguished by the opposite banners of Rome and Carthage, which mutually dreaded, provoked, and defied each other, in classical duels, or in general trials of skill, each whetting his
memory on the edge of that of his rival; and then would often flow those precious tears of emulation, which watered rising genius, expanding it to fertility. Hence, again, are prescribed those public and solemn annual rewards, distributed with pomp and show, which reduced the self-love of youth to the love of virtue; which enamoured them of study by the prospect of success, and, by raising a desire of pleasing, really taught them how to please.
The institute proceeds to remove from youth every species of bad example. It directs the prefect and the master how to dissolve growing friendships, that might be dangerous; it forbids the public explanation of books, or of single passages, which might mislead active imaginations; it ordains a scrutiny of all books, that come into the pupil's use; it charges the master to watch every trespass against the rules of civility and good manners. Falsehood and detraction, swearing, and foul words, are to be quickly corrected, or not tolerated within the
college. It is, again, the master's particular duty to form the manners of his pupils to decency, modesty, and politeness; to correct their errors in language, their faults in pronunciation, their awkwardness in gestures, their coarseness in behaviour, not less than to cultivate their memory and regulate their imagination. For this purpose the institute, without neglecting modern languages, prescribes, for the justest reasons, the study of Latin and Greek, in the purest models of Athens and ancient Rome. It joins to these the study of history, and its concomitants, geography, chronology, and mythology; and all this must precede the introduction of youth into the regions of eloquence and poetry, where sportive imagination may amuse and feed itself for a while with brilliant images and expressive language: but the institute teaches how to reduce all this to the standard of reason and sound judgment, by the succeeding study of philosophy and mathematics; and these, in their turn, are the preparation for the deeper discussions of theology, which lifts the
soul out of the narrow sphere of human science, and enables the mind, and, still more, the heart, to make excursions into the immensity of God.
The short sketch, which is here presented, of education among the Jesuits, is enough to convince us, that no system was ever more solid, more calculated to produce eminent men, in every department of civil and ecclesiastical life. Undoubtedly it did produce a succession of them during two hundred years; and it thus verified the decisive sentence of Bacon, Ad pædagogicam quod attinet, brevissimum foret dictu. Consule scholas Jesuitarum[[68]]. Perhaps the real value of the system is still better proved by the miserable state of degradation, into which public education and public morals have sunk in catholic countries, since its utter suppression.
But the founder of the Jesuits is not satisfied with suggesting what is right; he provides, what is still more necessary, proper masters to enforce it. He gives them two years of only spiritual, and five others of spiritual and literary education, to train them to their important task. With this he trusts, that their conduct will be irreproachable, that they will be worthy to be trusted with the grand interests of letters and of morals. He expects them to be docile, modest, and willing to be guided by their elders, who have successfully completed their course. They must be young enough to gain the confidence of children, and firm enough to command respect. To animate them to assiduity in duty, they must be provided with all necessary books; they must be stimulated to zeal by the prospect of God's greater glory; they must, therefore, be perfectly weaned from self-interest; they are required to yield continual service to persons, from whom they must receive none; they must impart virtue and knowledge, but never sell