ntly
strict; but, as before remarked, not intensified by any special
austerities. The general order prescribed is, however, strengthened by
injunctions against unnecessary communications with persons outside the
Brotherhood, unnecessary possessions, unnecessary exercise of the will:
the devotion to the rule is absolute, the poverty complete, the
submission of the will unbounded. Very wonderful all this, but quite
true.

In connection with the rule, it may be well to say a few words
concerning the manuals which De la Salle composed for the guidance of
the Brothers. The principal was a book entitled, 'Conduite a l'usage des
Ecoles Chretiennes;' this was circulated in manuscript, and a copy given
to each Brother in charge of a school, but was not printed during the
author's lifetime. He revised it in 1717, when he had retired from his
post as Superior, and it was printed in 1720, a year after his death. It
has been the guide of the Brothers ever since, and is read through twice
a year in every one of their houses. The book shows great insight and
good sense. Here is an instruction for a lesson in arithemetic:--

'After the children have done their sums on the paper,
instead of correcting them himself the master will make the
children find out their mistakes for themselves, by rational
explanation of the processes. He will ask them, for
instance, why in addition of money they begin with the
lowest coin, and other questions of the same sort, so as to
make sure that they have an intelligent understanding of
what they do.'

When the subject is religious teaching, the tone of the book rises to
the occasion:--

'The masters will take such great care in the instruction of
all their scholars, that not one shall be left in ignorance,
at least of the things which a Christian ought to believe
and do. And to the end they may not neglect a thing of such
great importance, they will often meditate earnestly on the
account which they will have to give to God, and that they
will be guilty in his sight of the ignorance of the children
who shall have been under their care, and also of the sins
into which their ignorance may have caused them to fall.'

The faults which De la Salle regards as worthy of being treated with
most severity are these: untruthfulness, quarrelling, theft, impurity,
misbehaviour in church. It is notable that idleness and inatten