Emulation. "Emuli." Concertations.

17. One of the leading peculiarities in the Jesuits' system was the pains they took to foster emulation-"cotem ingenii puerilis, calcar industriæ-the whetstone of talent, the spur of industry." For this purpose all the boys in the lower part of the school were arranged in pairs, each pair being rivals (amuli) to one another. Every boy was to be constantly on the watch to catch his rival tripping, and was immediately to correct him. Besides this individual rivalry, every class was divided into two hostile camps, called Rome and Carthage, which had frequent pitched battles of questions on set subjects. These were the "Concertations," in which the boys sometimes had to put questions to the opposite camp, sometimes to expose erroneous answers when the questions were asked by the master* (see Appendix: Class Matches, p. 529). Emulation, indeed, was encouraged to a point where, as it seems to me, it must have endangered the good feeling of the boys among themselves. Jouvency mentions a practice of appointing mock defenders of any particularly bad exercise, who should make the author of it ridiculous by their excuses; and any boy whose work was very discreditable, was placed on a form by himself, with a daily punishment, until he could show that soine one deserved to change places with him.

§ 18. In the higher classes a better kind of rivalry was

work very smoothly. The boy who was "hearing" the lessons held the book upside down in such a way that the others read instead of repeating by heart. The masters finally interfered with this arrange

ment.

* Since the above was written, an account of these concertations has appeared in the Rev. G. R. Kingdon's evidence before the Schools Commission, 1867 (vol. v, Answers 12,228 ff.). Mr. Kingdon, the Prefect of Studies at Stonyhurst, mentions that the side which wins in most concertations gets an extra half-holiday.

"Academies." Expedients. School-hours.

cultivated by means of "Academies," i.e., voluntary associations for study, which met together, under the superintendence of a master, to read themes, translations, &c., and to discuss passages from the classics. The new members were elected by the old, and to be thus elected was a much-coveted distinction. In these Academies the cleverer students got practice for the disputations, which formed an important part of the school work of the higher classes.

§ 19. There was a vast number of other expedients by which the Jesuits sought to work on their pupils' amour propre, such as, on the one hand, the weekly publication of offences per præconem, and, on the other, besides prizes (which could be won only by the externs), titles and badges of honour, and the like. "There are," says Jouvency, "hundreds of expedients of this sort, all tending to sharpen the boys' wits, to lighten the labour of the master, and to free him from the invidious and troublesome necessity of punishing."

20. The school-hours were remarkably short: two hours and a half in the morning, and the same in the afternoon; with a whole holiday a week in summer, and a half holiday in winter. The time was spent in the first form after the following manner :-During the first half-hour the master corrected the exercises of the previous day, while the Decurions heard the lesson which had been learnt by heart. Then the master heard the piece of Latin which he had explained on the previous day. With this construing, was connected a great deal of parsing, conjugating, declining, &c. The teacher then explained the piece for the following day, which, in this form, was never to exceed four lines. last half-hour of the morning was spent in explaining grammar. This was done very slowly and carefully in the

:

The

Method of teaching. An example.

words of the Ratio Studd.: "Pluribus diebus fere singula præcepta inculcanda sunt"-"Generally take a single rule and drive it in, several days." For the first hour of the afternoon the master corrected exercises, and the boys learnt grammar. If there was time, the master put questions about the grammar he had explained in the morning. The second hour was taken up with more explanations of grammar, and the school closed with half an hour's concertation, or the master corrected the notes which the pupils had taken during the day. In the other forms, the work was very similar to this, except that Greek was added, and also in the higher classes a little mathematics.

§ 21. It will be observed from the above account, that almost all the strength of the Jesuit teaching was thrown into the study of the Latin language, which was to be used, not only for reading, but also in writing and speaking. But under the name of "erudition some amount of instruction history and geography, was

in other subjects, especially in given in explaining, or rather lecturing on, the classical authors. Jouvency says that this lecture must consist of the following parts :-Ist, the general meaning of the whole passage; 2nd, the explanation of each clause, both as to the meaning and construction; 3rd, any information, such as accounts of historical events, or of ancient manners and customs, which could be connected with the text; 4th, in the higher forms, applications of the rules of rhetoric and poetry; 5th, an examination of the Latinity; 6th, the inculcation of some moral lesson. This treatment of a subject he illustrates by examples. Among these is an account of a lesson for the first (i.e., lowest) class in the Fable of the Fox and the Mask:-1st, comes the argument and the explanation of words; 2nd, the grammar and parsing, as

Attention. Extra work.

Extra work. "Repetitio."

vulpes, a substantive of the third declension, &c., like proles, clades, &c. (here the master is always to give among nis examples some which the boys already know); 3rd, comes the eruditio—something about foxes, about tragedy, about the brain, and hence about other parts of the head; 4th, Latinity, the order of the words, choice of the words, synonyms, &c. Then the sentences may be parodied; other suitable substantives may be found for the adjectives and vice versa; and every method is to be adopted of showing the boys how to use the words they have learnt. Lastly, comes the moral.

§ 22. The practical teacher will be tempted to ask, How is the attention of the class to be kept up whilst all this information is given? This the Jesuits did partly by punishing the inattentive. Every boy was subsequently required to reproduce what the teacher had said, and to show his written notes of it. But no doubt this matter of attention was found a difficulty. Jouvency tells the teachers to break off from time to time in their lectures, and to ask questions; and he adds: "Variæ sunt artes excitandæ attentionis quas docebit usus et sua cuique industria suggeret. Very various are the devices for arousing attention. These will occur with practice and pains.”

For private study, besides written exercises and learning by heart, the pupils were recommended subjects to get up in their own time; and in this, and also as to the length of some of the regular lessons, they were permitted to decide for themselves. Here, as everywhere, the Jesuits trusted to the sense of honour and emulation-those who did extra work were praised and rewarded.

§ 23. One of the maxims of this system was: "Repetitio mater studiorum." Every lesson was connected with two

Repetition. Thoroughness.

repetitions—one before it began, of preceding work, and the other at the close, of the work just done. Besides this, one day a week was devoted entirely to repetition. In the three lowest classes the desire of laying a solid foundation even led to the second six months in the year being given to again going over the work of the first six months.* By this means boys of extraordinary ability could pass through these forms in eighteen months, instead of three years.

823. Thoroughness in work was the one thing insisted on. Sacchini says that much time should be spent in going over the more important things, which are "veluti multorum fontes et capita (as it were the sources and starting points of many others)"; and that the master should prefer to teach a few things perfectly, to giving indistinct impressions of many things. We should remember, however, that the pupils of the Jesuits were not children. Subjects such as grammar cannot, by any expenditure of time and trouble, be perfectly taught to children, because children cannot perfectly understand them; so that the Jesuit thoroughness is not always attainable.

§ 24. The usual duration of the course in the lower schools was six years-i.e., one year in each of the four

* "The grinding over and over of a subject after pupils have attained a fair knowledge of it, is nothing less than stultifying-killing out curiosity and the desire of knowledge, and begetting mechanical habits.” --Supt. J. Hancock, Dayton, Ohio. Every teacher of experience know how true this is.

"Stude potius ut pauciora clare distincteque percipiant, quam obscure atque confuse pluribus imbuantur.-Care rather for their seeing a few things vividly and definitely, than that they should get filled with hazy and confusing notions of many things." (There are few more valuable precepts for the teacher than this.)