Examining more in detail this literary formation, we may take up the programme for the seminary of the junior members, as drafted by Jouvancy. He drew it up in pursuance of a decree to that effect, passed a hundred years later, by the general assembly of 1696. This decree required that, "besides the rules, whereby the Masters of Literature are directed in the manner of teaching, they should be provided with an Instruction and Method of learning properly, and so be guided in their private studies even while they are actually teaching."[165] The method in question is outlined in the first part of Jouvancy's little book, entitled Ratio Discendi et Docendi, "The art of Learning and of Teaching." A cursory glance at this part shows that, while addressing Masters on the subject of their own private studies, his directions bear chiefly upon their efficiency as teachers.
Jouvancy divides his subject into three chapters: first, the knowledge and use of languages; secondly, the possession of sciences; thirdly, some aids to study.
As to languages, they are three in number: Greek, Latin, and the native tongue. Laying down some principles on style in general, he says: "If a correct understanding, according to Horace, be the first principle and source of writing well, it follows that style, which is nothing else than a certain manner of writing, has two parts; first, the intelligent thought or sentiment, properly conceived; secondly, the expression of the same; so that, as man himself is made up of soul and body, all style likewise consists of the underlying thought and the manner of its expression." Thought must be true, perspicuous, and adapted to the subject. To think truly or justly of things, there is required mental power and insight, which distinguishes what is really the gist of a subject-matter from what is only a deceptive appearance, or is superficial. Assistance is to be had for all this from the reading of good books, from accurate reflection and protracted thought, which does not merely skim over the subject, or touch it in a desultory way; again, from the analysis of parts, causes, adjuncts; finally, from the prudent judgment of others, or what is called criticism. As to the ways of acquiring proper diction, Jouvancy says: "I would have you avail yourself of books which treat of this matter, not so as to imagine all is done by thumbing them; you will gain much more by the plentiful reading of the best writers"; and again, "'abundance of diction,' copia verborum, will be easily acquired by reading much." It is by reading, writing, and imitating the best authors that a good style is formed; and only the best authors are to be read, "lest the odor of a foreign and vicious style cling to the mind, as to new vases."
Coming to treat of one's native tongue, Jouvancy lays down these points: "The study of the vernacular consists chiefly in three things. First, since the Latin authors are explained to the boys, and are rendered into the mother-tongue, the version so made should be as elegant as possible. Wherefore, let the master elaborate his version for himself, or, if he draws on any writer in the vernacular, let him compare first the Latin text with the version before him; thus he will find it easy to perceive what is peculiar to either tongue, and what is the respective force and beauty of each. The same method is to be observed in explaining and translating histories in the lower classes. Secondly, all the drafts of compositions, which are dictated in the vernacular, must be in accord with the most exact rules of the mother-tongue, free from every defect of style. [Thirdly,] it will be of use to bring up and discuss, from time to time, whatever has been noticed in the course of one's reading, and whatever others have observed regarding the vicious and excellent qualities of speech. The younger Master should be on his guard against indulging too much in the reading of vernacular authors, especially the poets, to the loss of time, and perhaps to the prejudice of virtue."
The interest here manifested in the vicious and excellent qualities of the mother-tongue was a contribution of the schools to the development of modern languages. Nor was the severity, which is here prescribed, with reference to the use of poetry, a barrier to the formation of some good poets among the Jesuits themselves. Friedrich von Spee is considered a distinguished lyric poet of the seventeenth century. Denis, as the translator of Ossian into German, helped to inaugurate the later period of German literature. In Italian prose, Bartoli, Segneri, Pallavicini, have ranked as classics; Tiraboschi, as the historian of literature; Bresciani, in our days, as the popular novelist. As writers of French prose, Bourdaloue and Bouhours appertain to the choicest circle of Louis XIV's golden age; Du Cygne, Brumoy, Tournemine, besides others already mentioned in these pages, took their place as literary critics. And, in their several national literatures, Cahours, Martin, Garucci, have attained their literary eminence as art-critics.
Reverting to solidity of thought as the basis of style, Jouvancy eliminates the false ornaments of a subtle and abrupt style, by reducing the conceptions to a dialectical analysis: "What does the thing mean?" And he gives examples.
In the second chapter of the same part, the Ars Discendi, he comes to the acquisition of those sciences, which are proper to a Master of Literature. He says: "The erudition of a religious master is not confined to mere command of languages, whereof we have spoken heretofore; it must rise higher to the understanding of some sciences, which it is usual to impart to youth. Such are Rhetoric, Poetry, History, Chronology, Geography, and Philology or Polymathy, which last is not so much a single science as a series of erudite attainments, whereof an accomplished person should at least have tasted." History he divides into Sacred, Universal, and Particular. "As to the histories of particular nations, writers of the respective nationalities record them;" "and if you do not add Chronology to History, you take out one of History's eyes." For Geography, he designates the books and maps which were then to be had. And, for all the branches, he indicates standard authors.
Now, in this little rhetorical sketch of Jouvancy's, we may take note of two features, one pedagogical, the other historical. The distinctively pedagogical cast is put upon these private studies, in as much as they are magisterial, being pursued with express reference to the Master's chair. The historical feature, to be noted here, is common to the Jesuit educational literature in general; which, in its many departments, marked several epochs and, as a whole, made an era in education.
Thus, at the time of the Ratio Studiorum, there were indeed several guides of the very first rank, in the path of a literary formation. They were three in number, Cicero, Quintilian, and Aristotle. From these the Professor of Rhetoric had to derive his matter and make clear his method. The Ratio names them as his text-books for the Precepts.[166] From these sources the literary activity and experience of many generations of Professors, in several hundred colleges of the Order, tended to mark out the best line to follow, for the attainment of literary perfection. The literary course, in which they themselves were proximately formed for the duties of teaching, served but to organize the matter, and to digest it. The numberless pedagogical text-books, issued before Jouvancy, and after him, exhibit the progress of the movement during the several centuries. And, at present, the system may be seen in its most developed form, if one consults the newest guides, like Father Kleutgen's Ars Dicendi, or Father Broeckaert's Le Guide du Jeune Littérateur. But, long before our day, the most ordinary systems of literary instruction have embodied the method; and the commonest text-books have it.
A similar epoch was made, as early as 1572, by the Grammar of Father Emmanuel Alvarez, De Institutione Grammatica Libri Tres, a work adopted by the Ratio, then republished in editions so numerous as to baffle all calculation, translated either entire, or in part, into thirteen languages; while one portion, well-known in our times as a "Latin Prosody," is credited to divers authors or publishers.[167] The latest editions of this Grammar, issued in different languages, are of the last twenty-five years. This era of development in grammar superseded the subtleties and metaphysical abstractions of mediæval methods.[168]