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and let him study to make the wisest use of it. Emulation awakens and develops all the powers of man. In order to maintain emulation, it will be necessary that each pupil have a rival to control his conduct and criticise him; also magistrates, quæstors, censors, and decurions should be appointed among the students. Nothing will be held more honorable than to outstrip a fellowstudent, and nothing more dishonorable than to be outstripped. Prizes will be distributed to the best pupils with the greatest possible solemnity. Out of school the place of honor will everywhere be given to the most

distinguished pupils."

The higher course of instruction usually extended through six years. Two years were devoted to philosophy, including psychology, logic, ethics, and mathematics. Aristotle furnished the leading text-books. Four years were given to theology, including holy Scripture, Hebrew, and the writings of the scholastics.

It only remains to sum up in a word the results of this investigation. The Jesuit system of education, based not upon a study of man, but upon the interests of the order, was necessarily narrow. It sought showy results with which to dazzle the world. A well-rounded development was nothing. The principle of authority, suppressing all freedom and independence of thought, prevailed from beginning to end. Religious pride and intolerance were fostered. While our baser feelings were highly stimulated, the nobler side of our nature was wholly neglected. Love of country, fidelity to friends, nobleness of character, enthusiasm for beautiful ideals, were insidiously suppressed. For the rest, we adopt the language of Quick: "The Jesuits did not aim at developing

all the faculties of their pupils, but merely the receptive and reproductive faculties. When the young man had acquired a thorough mastery of the Latin language for all purposes; when he was well versed in the theological and philosophical opinions of his preceptors; when he was skillful in dispute, and could make a brilliant display from the resources of a well-stored memory, he had reached the highest points to which the Jesuits sought to lead him. Originality and independence of mind, love of truth for its own sake, the power of reflecting, and of forming correct judgments, were not merely neglected, they were suppressed in the Jesuits' system. But in what they attempted they were eminently successful, and their success went a long way toward securing their popularity."

5. REACTION AGAINST ABSTRACT THEOLOGICAL

EDUCATION.

Hitherto we have considered the darker aspects of the seventeenth century, but there is a brighter side which is now to claim our attention. By the side of narrow theological and humanistic tendencies, there was developed a liberal progressive spirit, in which lay the hope of the future. It freed itself from traditional opinions, and pushed its investigations everywhere in search of new truth. In England Bacon set forth his inductive method, by which he gave an immense impulse to the study of Nature; in France Descartes laid a solid foundation for intellectual science; and in Germany Leibnitz "quickly reached the bound and farthest limit of human wisdom, to overleap that line and push

onward into regions hitherto unexplored, and dwell among yet undiscovered truths." Great progress was made in the natural sciences. Galileo invented the telescope, and discovered the moons of Jupiter. Newton discovered the law of gravitation, and explained the theory of colors. Harvey found out the circulation of the blood. Torricelli invented the barometer, Guericke the air-pump, Napier logarithms. Pascal ascertained that the air has weight, and Roemer measured the ve locity of light. Kepler announced the laws of planetary motion. Louis XIV. established the French Academy of Sciences, and Charles II. the Royal Society of Eng land.

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The progress in literature was no less marked. Upon two European nations the golden age of letters shed its luster. In England, Bacon, Shakespeare, and Milton wrote; in France, Corneille, Molière, and Racine. "No other country," says Macaulay, "could produce a tragic poet equal to Racine, a comic poet equal to Molière, a " trifler so agreeable as La Fontaine, a rhetorician so skillful as Bossuet. Besides these, who were easily first, there were Pascal, whose Provincial Letters' created a standard for French prose; Fénelon, whose "Telemachus' still retains its wonderful popularity; Boileau, who has been styled the Horace of France; Madame de Sévigné, whose graceful letters are models of epistolary style; and Massillon, who pronounced over the grave of Louis XIV. a eulogy ending with the sublime words, 'God alone is great!""

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All over Europe the human mind, gradually coming to a sense of its native dignity and power, was emancipating itself from traditional and ecclesiastical authority.

Reason was asserting its rights. In the presence of this independent and investigating spirit, the imperfections of the existing education-its one-sidedness, its narrow and unpractical course of study, its unworthy aims, its mechanical methods and cruel discipline-could not escape attention. Prophetic voices were raised against it, its leading defects were noted, and many of the principles and methods now employed in our best schools were given to the world. Says Karl Schmidt: "Books, words, had been the subjects of instruction during the period of abstract theological education. The knowledge of things was wanting. Instead of the things themselves, words about the things were taught—and these, taken from the books of the ancients' about stars, the forces of Nature, stones, plants, animals—astronomy without observations, anatomy without dissection of the human body, physics without experiments, etc. Then appeared in the most different countries of Europe an intellectual league of men who made it their work to turn away from dead words to living nature, and from mechanical to organic instruction. They were indeed only preachers in the wilderness, but they were the pioneers of a new age." These now come before us.

(A.) MONTAIGNE.

Montaigne, a celebrated writer of France, was born in 1533. Great care was taken with his education. At an early age he was intrusted to a German tutor who did not understand French, and who employed Latin in communicating with his pupil. As a result, he was able at the age of six years to speak Latin. At thirteen he completed his studies at the College of Guienne, at Bor

deaux, and subsequently studied law. At twenty he was elected a member of the Parliament of Bordeaux, and was afterward chosen mayor of the city. But possessed of ample means, and having no political ambition, he withdrew to his estate to live in philosophic retirement. It was here that he produced his celebrated "Essays". tracts on all sorts of subjects caught up apparently by chance, and written in an easy colloquial style.

In his essays, which abound in unpretentious wisdom, Montaigne repeatedly touches on education. His views, which are far in advance of his age, exhibit a strong reactionary tendency. He points out with singular clearness and force many of the defects of the prevailing education. He grasped the true idea of education. "It is not a soul," he says, "it is not a body that we are training up, but a man, and we ought not to divide him."

In reference to the study of languages, he says: "Fine speaking is a very good and commendable quality, but not so excellent or so necessary as some would make it; and I am scandalized that our whole life should be spent in nothing else. I would first understand my own language, and that of my neighbor with whom most of my business and conversation lies. No doubt Greek and Latin are very great ornaments, and of very great use; but we may buy them too dear.”

Ile does not set a high estimate upon the knowledge which the student acquires under the humanistic scheme. "Do but observe him," he says, "when he comes back from school, after fifteen or sixteen years that he has been there, there is nothing so awkward and maladroit, so unfit for company or employment; and all that you

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