stures, 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 {203} 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
paedagogicam 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.

{204}

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 pros