Jesuit Education/Chapter 7

by Robert Schwickerath

 

Chapter VII.

The Educational Work of the Jesuits in the Nineteenth Century.

It cannot be denied that the Jesuits have not had the same brilliant success as educators in the nineteenth century, as during the centuries preceding the suppression of the Order. How is this to be explained? The opponents of the Order are ready with an answer: 'It 1s because the Jesuits have not kept up with the progress of the age. Their whole system is not suited to modern times." Even such as are not hostile to the Society, have said that the Old Society took with it into its grave the secret of its educational success. However, a short reflection will give us the true explanation.

The time of the suppression, a period of forty years, forms a gap in the educational history of the Society. These blank pages, as Father Hughes says, signify the total loss of property and position, with a severance in many places of the educational traditions for almost sixty years, and the entire destruction of them in many other parts.^[1] Restored, the Society had to struggle into existence under altered and unfavorable conditions. The schools in about seven hundred cities and towns, which the Order had possessed before its suppression, were now largely in the hands of State authorities. And besides, the nineteenth century was not a time of undisturbed peace for the Jesuits. There was a persecution going on against them nearly all the time in one country or other. They were expelled from Spain in 1821, readmitted, but driven out again in 1835 and 1868; expelled from Belgium 1818, from Russia 1820, from Naples 1820, from France 1830 and 1880, from Portugal 1834, from the Argentine Republic 1848, from Switzerland 1847, from Austria 1848, from Italy 1848 and 1859, from New Granada 1850 and 1859, from Guatemala 1871, from Germany 1872, from Nicaragua 1881, from Costa Rica 1884, harassed in Spain and Portugal during the last years, and driven out of France owing to the "Laws of Associations."

All these persecutions seriously hampered the educational work of the Jesuits. They frequently lost a number of flourishing colleges forever, others had to be commenced anew, when they were allowed to return. Besides, in many cases, expulsion meant the loss of libraries, observatories, and laboratories. Still, in spite of these difficulties, at the end of the nineteenth century, they possess a respectable number of colleges, scattered all over the world, from Zi-ka-wei in China to Beirut in Syria, from Australia to England and Ireland, from Argentina and Chili to Canada.

The development of the colleges of the Society in the United States deserves a brief sketch. The first Jesuit school in this country was opened in New York. A Jesuit was the first priest, so far as records go, who ever visited (1644) the island of Manhattan, now a part of the city of New York.^[2] He was the saintly French missionary, Father Isaac Jogues, who was put to death in 1646 by the Mohawks at Auriesville. Forty years after the martyrdom of Father Jogues, three other Jesuits, Thomas Harvey, Henry Harrison, and Charles Gage, were invited to New York by Governor Dongan. These Fathers, true to the spirit of the Society, soon established a classical school in New York. It was situated apparently in what then was called "King's Farm;" the site was subsequently leased to Trinity Church. Governor Dongan, himself an Irish Catholic, heartily patronized this school, which was frequented by the sons of the best families on Manhattan Island; the bell of the Dutch church in the fort was rung to summon the pupils.^[3] But the clergy and the people of the Church of England, not as friendly to the Jesuits as the Dutch Protestants, attacked the school, and penal laws were passed expelling the Jesuits and other Catholic priests from the island. It was enacted that priests "be deemed and accounted incendiaries, disturbers of the peace and safety, and enemies to the true Christian religion, and shall be adjudged to suffer perpetual imprisonment."^[4] This law put an end to the Latin school of the Jesuits. The second attempt made by the Jesuits to found a classical school in New York occurred about the year 1808. The learned Father Kohlmann opened a little school in Mulberry Street, but in 1817 the Jesuits were recalled from New York to Washington, and it was only in 1847, that the College of St. Francis Xavier in New York was founded.

It is, however, not New York, but Maryland where the first Jesuit school in the colonies and the first Jesuit college in the United States was founded. In 1634 two Jesuit Fathers landed in the province which George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, had obtained from the English crown. It was this province, Maryland, "the asylum of the Papists," as Bancroft says, "where Protestants were sheltered against Protestant intolerance."^[5] But not long after, ungrateful men who had fled from other colonies, and who had been welcomed in this province, turned on those who showed hospitality to them, and a relentless war of persecution was waged against the Catholic settlers of Maryland. This hampered the development of Catholic education greatly. Still, zeal for higher studies was never lacking. In 1638, Father Poulton had been sent from England as Superior of the Maryland Mission. One of his first acts was the project of a seat of learning in the colony. This was about the same time when the initial movement was made to establish Harvard College. But how different were the circumstances in which Harvard and the Jesuit school developed! The one protected by the government, the other persecuted. And yet, amidst all the trials and annoyances, the Jesuits never ceased to labor for the intellectual training of the Catholics as well as for the religious. In 1651 we find their academy near Calvert Manor, in 1677 in or about Newtown Manor; for the trials of the times did not permit the school to be stationary. In 1746 the Jesuits were driven out of Southern Maryland; they crossed the Chesapeake Bay and immedlately opened their academy on the Eastern shore, at Bohemia Manor.

In this school two men studied who became famous in the history of America: Charles Carroll of Carrollton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and his cousin John Carroll, the first Archbishop of Baltimore. As the institutions of learning in the colonies and the great universities of England were in those days closed to Catholic pupils, those who could afford it, went to the European Continent. Thus John and Charles Carroll went to the famous Jesuit college at St. Omer in Flanders, where they won a high reputation for their brilliant scholarship. After six years study in that school, John entered the Society of Jesus. Later on he spent a series of years as professor in the colleges of St. Omer, Liège and Bruges. The suppression of the Society filled his heart with the deepest grief. He went to England, where he was received most heartily by Lord Arundell and other English noblemen. But when he saw that measures were adopted by the English government, which more and more alienated the American colonies from the sovereign and parliament of Great Britain, Father Carroll patriotically resolved to return to his native country and share its trials and fortunes. The services which he rendered to the nascent republic during the war of the Revolution, especially his mission to Canada with Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase and Charles Carroll, need not be dwelled on here.^[6]

In 1784 Carroll was appointed Prefect Apostolic for the Catholics in the United States. He immediately planned the establishment of an academy for higher studies. The outcome of this plan was the foundation of the College of Georgetown, near Washington, in 1789. In 1791 the doors of the college were opened to students. The first pupil to enter was William Gaston of North Carolina, who became a profound scholar and a great orator. He entered the House of Representatives in 1813, was a distinguished member of the Federal party, and for many years adorned the judicial bench of his native state.^[7] Among others of the pioneer pupils of Georgetown were Philemon Charles Wederstrandt (later on commandant of the "Argus"), Robert Walsh, an eminent writer who ably defended American affairs against the misrepresentations of English writers, and founder of the first American Quarterly: The American Review of History and Politics.^[8] When Washington honored Georgetown College by a formal visit, Robert Walsh was chosen to address him.

The college had been founded by Ex-Jesuits. Many of the professors had joined the Society of Jesus, which had been revived in Russia, and, at last, in 1814, Archbishop Carroll and the Fathers in Georgetown received with joy and exultation the news of the complete restoration of the Society. After this event, Jesuit colleges began to multiply. In the year 1900 the Jesuits conducted twenty-six colleges, the principal ones, besides Georgetown, being in Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Fordham (New York), New Orleans, New York, Omaha, St. Louis, St. Mary's (Kansas), San Francisco, Santa Clara (California), Spokane, Spring Hill (Mobile), Washington, Worcester (Massachusetts). In that same year over fifty-two thousand boys were educated in Jesuit high schools and colleges all over the world, that is nearly twice as many as in Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, the Universities of Chicago, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, combined.

Some of the Jesuit institutions rank very high, both for the number of pupils and for the excellent results which they exhibit. The German Jesuits, expelled from the "land of science and Lehrfreiheit," impart a higher education to more than five thousand students in foreign countries. Their Francis-Xavier College at Bombay, in 1897, numbered fifteen hundred and twenty-six students; ten hundred and two Christians; two hundred and ninety Parsis; one hundred and seventy-one Hindoos; fifty-four Mahometans; nine Jews. French Jesuits have two colleges in Trichinopoli, East India. The one is frequented by eighteen hundred students, among them five hundred and fifty of the Brahmin caste. The English government in India shows the Jesuits many favors for their educational work. Not unfrequently the Viceroy, or the Governor, visits the colleges and praises the work of the teachers, and not a few Jesuits have been appointed University examiners.

In Syria, the Jesuits conduct St. Joseph's University, Beirut. They have a printing establishment there which probably holds the first rank among those of the Orient. A French' admiral calls it "a creation which is the symbol of the union of the two greatest forces in the world, religion and science; an establishment which is the pride of France, as well as of the Catholic Church."^[9] A Protestant Review in Germany writes: "The progress which, owing to this establishment, the Arabic literature has made, cannot be ignored."^[10] The latest catalogue has four hundred and four numbers, of all sorts of Arabic and Syriac works, grammars, dictionaries, etc. Some of the works edited by these Jesuits, are at present used in the lectures in the University of Berlin.^[11]

Another great Jesuit school in the East is Zi-ka-wei, near Shanghai, China. The educational labors of the Jesuits in this institution have been acknowledged by distinguished Protestant visitors. In 1898 Prince Henry of Prussia, on his first landing in Shanghai, paid a visit to this establishment. He spent nearly a whole day with the Fathers, and frankly expressed his admiration at the splendid work they were doing. In fact, he was so impressed by what he had seen, that again and again after his visit, he would return to the subject and talk about the work of "those excellent French Jesuits." It soured a few German fanatics somewhat against him, when reports began to be printed in the German papers, to the effect that Prince Henry had spoken kindly of the hated Jesuits. But this bigotry did not influence Prince Henry. Princess Irene, his wife, having the next year rejoined her husband in China, they paid a second visit to Zi-ka-wei, which is briefly related in the following terms: "On the 12th of March, 1899, Prince Henry of Prussia, and the Princess, his wife, arrived at Shanghai; the next morning they hastened to pay a visit to Zi-ka-wei. The Prince told us that he had said such nice things to the Princess about the establishments at Zi-ka-wei that she wished to visit them at once."^[12]

The following comparison, made by an English Protestant, Laurence Oliphant, speaks well for the educational labors of the Jesuits: "I was struck with the intelligent expression of the youths' countenances in the Jesuit school at Shanghai, and at the evident affection they had for their teachers. Instead of cramming nothing but texts down their throats, they teach them the Chinese classics, Confucius, etc., so as to enable them to compete in the public examinations. The result is, that even if these native youths do not all become Christians, they have always gratitude enough to protect and love those to whom they owed their education, and perhaps consequent rise in life. A few days later I went over the school of the Protestant Bishop. The contrast was most striking. The small boys gabbled over the Creed in what was supposed to be English, but which Lord Elgin, who was with me, was firmly persuaded was Chinese. They understood probably about as clearly as they pronounced. Then instead of the missionaries living among them, and really identifying themselves with the lads, as the Jesuits do, they have gorgeous houses, wives and families. A Protestant missionary here, with a wife and four children, gets a house as big as Spring Grove, rent free, and £500 a year. And that is what they call 'giving up all for the sake of the heathen'."^[13]

This is clearly another proof for what was said in a previous chapter,^[14] that the religious state affords many advantages for educational work, at least in missionary countries. Here we must add that the educational labors of the Jesuits in those countries are not confined to higher instruction. Many lay-brothers give elementary instructions in the schools,^[15] and the priests give catechetical instruction in hundreds of such schools, which in many other ways are directed by them. In February 1901, fifteen scholars of Paris, Professors in the University or members of the Institut de France, among them the celebrated Paul Sabatier, Dean of the Protestant Theological Faculty, issued a declaration in favor of the religious associations. A list is added about the educational work in foreign countries under the direction of French Jesuits. The total given there is 3,923 schools, or orphan asylums, with 156,256 children, and all this is done by the French Jesuits alone. Of their 193 schools in Syria in particular, the Protestant Literarische Centralblatt of Leipsic says, "that they are now the best in Syria."^[16] Therefore, that the Order is doing very great work for civilization, is evident. Of the 15,160 members of the Order (in 1900) about 4000 were laboring in foreign missions; and this work, in most cases, means also work directed toward the education of the native people.

In this connection we may quote the striking tribute, paid by an American politician to the educational work of the Jesuits among the Indians. On April 7, 1900, Senator Vest of Missouri, during the discussion of the Indian Appropriation Bill before the United States Senate, made the following remarkable statements: "I was raised a Protestant; I expect to die one; I was never in a Catholic church in my life, and I have not the slightest sympathy with many of its dogmas; but, above all, I have no respect for this insane fear that the Catholic church is about to overturn this Government. I should be ashamed to call myself an American, if I indulged in any such ignorant belief. I said that I was a Protestant. I was reared in the old Scotch Presbyterian Church; my father was an elder in it, and my earliest impressions were that the Jesuits had horns and hoofs and tails, and that there was a faint tinge of sulphur in the circumambient air whenever one crossed your path. Some years ago I was assigned by the Senate to examine the Indian schools in Wyoming and Montana. I visited every one of them. I wish to say now what I have said before in the Senate, and it is not the popular side of the question by any means, that I did not see in all my journey a single school that was doing any educational work worthy the name of educational work, unless it was under the control of the Jesuits. I did not see a single Government school, especially these day schools, where there was any work done at all. ... The Jesuits have elevated the Indian wherever they have been allowed to do so without interference of bigotry, and fanaticism, and the cowardice of insectivorous politicians who are afraid of the A. P. A. and the votes that can be cast against them in their district and States. They have made him a Christian and, above even that, have made him a workman able to support himself and those dependent upon him. Go to the Flathead Reservation in Montana. ... and look at the work of the Jesuits, and what is seen? You find comfortable dwellings, herds of cattle and horses, intelligent, self-respecting Indians. ... I am not afraid to say this, because I speak from personal observation, and no man ever went among these Indians with more intense prejudice against the Jesuits than I had when I left the city of Washington to perform that duty. ... Every dollar you give to these [Government] day schools might as well be thrown into the Potomac River under a ton of lead."^[17]

When men who have been able to achieve the almost impossible, the education and civilization of the Indian, undertake the task of secondary education among civilized nations with the same zeal and energy, must we not expect that they will perform this successfully? If we add that, owing to their studies, special training and natural inclinations, they are even better fitted for the work of higher education, than for that of civilizing the Indian, is it then likely that they are so inefficient as some represent them?

Let us, then, see the results of a number of Jesuit colleges. I wish to remark, however, that the account in no respect can be called complete, or even satisfactory. What is given on the next pages, was found, sometimes accidentally, in various publications. More material was available about the schools of the British Empire, where the relative efficiency of a school can be fairly tested by the University Examinations.^[18]

The Tablet (London), April 26, 1902, prints the following:

"The following Catholic names appear on the Classical Honours list issued in April by the Moderators at Oxford. The names appear in alphabetical order.

Class I. – J. W. Glassson, Corpus Christi; C. C. Lattey, Pope's Hall; I. C. Scoles, Pope's Hall.

Class II. – H. E. Tulford, Balliol; E. J. Kylie, Balliol; C. D. Plater, Pope's Hall.

From this it will be seen that the Jesuit students from Pope's Hall, formerly Clarke's Hall, achieved a success which, considering the size of the Hall, is probably a record in the history of the University. The Hall which has room for only a dozen students, distributed over the whole four years' course, was represented by three candidates at the recent examination, and all these were successful. Indeed, the Hall, which was opened by the late Father Richard Clarke, S. J., only six years ago, has had a history during that time of which very large colleges in the University might be justly proud. Starting with four students in 1896, of whom two broke down in health, the first examination at which the Hall presented candidates was Moderations in 1898, when one of the two obtained 1st class honours, and the other 2nd class honours in Classics. In 1899 the Hall secured one 1st class honours in Mathematical Moderations, one 2nd class honours and one 3rd class honours in Classics. In 1900 the score was one 1st class and one 2nd class honours in Classical "Greats" – the final degree examination; one 1st class in Mathematical Moderations, and one 2nd class in Classical Moderations. In 1901, one 1st in Mathematical Greats, and one 1st and one 2nd in Classical Moderations. As nearly all these young Jesuits have been educated either at Stonyhurst, at Beaumont, or at Mount St. Mary's, such excellent results, as soon as they are brought into open competition with the picked students of all the leading public schools, who are the holders of the innumerable scholarships in the University, go to show that after all our Catholic colleges are, to say the least, not so very far behind the best Protestant schools in the country, either in the soundness of their general education, or in the special culture of the classics."

In Ireland there are several richly endowed Protestant foundations: the Queen's Colleges of Cork, Galway, and Belfast, the last, one of the best equipped institutions of learning in the British Empire; the three Colleges draw an annual revenue of about $125,000 to support a score of distinguished Professors in each. The Jesuits conduct the University College of Stephens Green, Dublin. For many years University College routed from the field the Queen's Colleges of Cork and Galway, and was surpassing gradually that of Belfast, although this one made a noble fight. In the two examinations of the Royal University of 1895, the Jesuit college won 67 distinctions, while the Queen's College of Belfast gained a total of 57. University College bore off all the first places in mathematics, the first two places in English, and the first honors in mathematical physics and chemistry, in classics the first place in First Arts, and the first and second places in Second Arts. Of the sixteen medical honors awarded, University College secured nine, the remaining seven were divided between her Majesty's privileged institutions. This despite the many disadvantages of University College through the lack of laboratories and museums, which the Government at lavish expense has provided for the Protestant rivals.^[19] The success of the following year was equally brilliant. In the first and second Arts Examination of 1897 University College gained 51 distinctions, Belfast 46, Galway 18, Cork 6. Of the 51 distinctions 32 are in the first class (only 16 of Belfast's), and among them first place in no fewer than 9 subjects. In the M. A. Examination three out of the four studentships awarded, five out of the six first class honors awarded, the only two special prizes awarded, two out of the three gold medals, all went to University College. It bore away 13 out of the 18 distinctions conferred.

In the B. A. Examinations:

	1st Honors.	2nd Honors.	Total.
University College	4	13	17
Queen's College, Belfast	3	13	16
""Cork	nil.	nil.	nil.
""Galway	nil.	4	4

Taking the whole of the arts examination for the Academic year, we find University College first on the list with 82 distinctions, as compared with 63 for Belfast, 25 for Galway, and 7 for Cork. And University College has a comparatively small number of students, many of whom can attend only the night classes.

In Autumn 1898 once again the little unendowed University College of the Jesuits outdistanced the endowed rivals, and this time more than ever. But it is not merely in the number of distinctions, though that exceeds the combined results of all its three rivals, but in their quality that University College stands pre-eminent. The College got first and second places over all competitors in classics and mathematics, first place in history and political economy, and in modern literature. This last distinction is enhanced by the fact that the standard has been growing higher year after year, and this year the papers exceeded in difficulty any hitherto set.

The following list tells best the result:

In 1896 the Jesuit college of Clongowes, in the Intermediate Examination, where 8877 students presented themselves, held the foremost place of all the schools and colleges of Ireland with a total of 45 distinctions. Also in 1897 it outdistanced all competitors in the highest grade, winning the "Blue Ribbon" of the examination, the highest honor in the senior grade.

From India similar results are reported from various Jesuit colleges, for instance from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta, the College of Darjeeling, St. Francis Xavier's College, Bombay. Last year (1901), the number of candidates for "matriculation examination" in the whole Presidency of Bombay was 3806; of these only 1217 passed (32 per ct.). The Jesuits of St. Francis Xavier's, Bombay, had sent for the examination 43; of these 34 passed (79 per ct.). In 1899 St. Joseph's College, North Point, Darjeeling, secured the only vacancy, at the "Opium Examination," and the first place at the "Accounts Examination," with these two ten first places at the Public Examinations, which is all the more creditable as the College is but seven or eight years old. Most gratifying successes are reported also from the Jesuit colleges in Australia.

Coming nearer home, we have to speak of little St. Boniface College, Manitoba. In 1897 it could insert the following advertisement in the "North-West Review," which is carefully read by the Protestants of Winnipeg, who could not challenge the advertisement:

"St. Boniface College. The only Catholic College in America that competes annually with half a dozen Protestant Colleges and Collegiate Institutions. In proportion to the number of its pupils, St. Boniface College has won more scholarships than any of its Protestant competitors."

The Governor's Bronze Medal has been awarded twenty-two times from 1879 to 1900. Seven out of these twenty-two times it has been won by a student from St. Boniface College. Considering that, during all these years, the candidates from St. Boniface College were in an extremely small minority—about one in twenty-two, or four and one-half per cent on an average,—this proportion of seven out of twenty-two, almost a third, struck every one, especially the opponent, as very extraordinary. Had St. Boniface won that medal, the most highly valued of all the University distinctions, once in twenty-two years, the Catholic college would have been doing well, would have had its fair share of success. Manitoba College (Presbyterian), the largest of all the colleges, which sometimes boasts of as many students as all the other colleges put together, has won the medal only three times. Then the proportionate value of Latin and Greek was lowered; the classics were a strong point at St. Boniface. But St. Boniface nevertheless secured the medal two years in succession. Then Greek, hitherto obligatory on all, was made optional after a long fight, in which St. John's College (Anglican) sided with St. Boniface against this innovation. The result of this move, coupled with the preponderance of mathematics and chemistry over Latin alone, prevented St. Boniface from winning the medal for seven years, although its students often headed the list in special subjects. But 1899 and 1900 the St. Boniface students forged ahead again, and won the medal two years running.

During the vacation of 1900, a change has occurred in the statute that concerns the University scholarships. Hitherto the winners of scholarships had been listed in the order of merit, with the mention of the college or school to which they belonged. Now all the winners were to be arranged alphabetically, with no mention of the institutions to which they belong. Several reasons were given for this change, but the suspicion has been expressed that the real motive was to prevent the Jesuit college from occupying so large a place in the public eye.^[20] It may appear unfair to make such a charge; however, such suspicions have been expressed by men who are not Jesuits, nor biased towards the Society. Thus, about twenty years ago, Albert Duruy said of the movement against religious orders in France and the Jesuits in particular: "Without proofs, without thorough inspection, they slander and accuse the congregations... They do not try to compete with them, they find it simpler to suppress them."^[21] In fact, the recent movement in France against religious orders has been ascribed, undoubtedly with good reasons, to the same motive.

A few years ago there was an attempt made in France to introduce a Bill to suppress the religious schools, which (at the expense of the State schools) were gaining more and more in public favor. A Parliamentary commission was then appointed which was presided over by M. Ribot, and which took a quantity of very valuable evidence from various witnesses. Nothing, however, as may be seen from M. Ribot's report,^[22] was established against the Jesuits or any other religious schools; on the contrary, they were in several respects held up as an example to the State schools, even by distinguished adherents of the latter. Such results were naturally deemed highly unsatisfactory by the anti-religious party, and accordingly for the time being the contemplated legislation was shelved. When M. Waldeck-Rousseau undertook it and enlarged it, he was careful to avoid anything so dangerous to his designs as another judicial inquiry into the facts.^[23] Now, if any proofs could have been found showing the inefficiency of the Jesuit schools, it is certain that M. Waldeck-Rousseau would have made the best of such evidence.

The fact that he says nothing of it, is a sure sign that no such proofs are procurable even by the minutest examinations. Hence it follows that the Jesuit schools were, at the very least, as efficient as the State schools.

Instead of proofs, such hollow and absurd declarations were made: "Religious possess an independence which gradually will lead to the usurpation of all authority. They dare even the dignitaries of the Church. The education which they give separates a part of youth from the rest, and thus the moral unity of the country is rent."^[24] The question ought to have been: "Are the youths, educated by religious, by Jesuits, less instructed, less moral, less patriotic?" To this question the answer has been given decidedly in the negative. We shall have occasion to speak of the patriotism of French Jesuit pupils; their morality has been most favorably compared to that of pupils of other schools – whereas in M. Ribot's report a distinguished adherent of the State school system declares that in these State schools the pupils are "moralement abandonnés". As regards the intellectual ability shown by Jesuit pupils, it will suffice to see the lists of the successes obtained by them in the École Centrale, the Polytechnique, the Military Academy of Saint-Cyr, and the École Navale.^[25]

The following statement will illustrate how the anti-clerical press fabricated proofs of the inefficiency of Jesuit colleges; it shows also that Jesuit pupils are not behind others in branches other than classics, mathematics and sciences. In 1875 a student in the law school at Poitiers published these facts: "A short time ago the journal of M. Gambetta, the République française, had taken the trouble to occupy itself with the Law Faculty at Poitiers and its students. According to M. Gambetta the said school comprises two clearly distinct classes of students: those from the Lycées, and those from the Jesuit colleges. The latter are good for nothing and obtain no prizes, whereas the former carry off all the laurels. Now in point of fact, at the distribution of prizes in the law school for 1874-75, which took place last Thursday, the reports show the following results: In the 3rd year, the 2nd prize for French Law and the 2nd prize for Roman Law were awarded to a Jesuit pupil. In the 2nd year, of the four distinctions two were given to Jesuit pupils. In the 1st year, all five distinctions, two medals and three honorable mentions, were awarded to Jesuit pupils."^[26]

Within the last two or three decades, neither the Jesuit colleges nor the schools of the other Congregations in France were inferior to the State schools. The very contrary is true, as may be seen from the remarkable testimony of an anti-clerical writer in the Contemporary Review.^[27] The article, "Monastic Orders up to Date," is filled with virulence against the religious orders, the Roman Congregations, and the Catholic Church in general. Yet the superiority of the schools of the religious over the State schools is candidly admitted. Speaking of the charges brought against the religious orders in France, the writer says: "The members of these communities have, it is said, taken elementary, intermediate, and technical education into their own hands, are successfully preparing youths for schools, professions, and university degrees, and supply both army and navy with officers. The official report on the Budget of Instruction for 1899, querulously affirms that they and their schools act as a sort of drain upon the natural clients of the University. But why should they not? They are more successful than their lay competitors, and more deserving of success. If the education which they give be very imperfect, and it is sometimes this and more, it is on the whole the best that is to be had in the country. Lay instruction in France is purely mechanical, that given by the Congregations is living and human. Both aim at cramming, but the religious teachers do their work efficiently and successfully, their rivals with a degree of slovenliness which is in- credible... Under such conditions one is not surprised to learn that the Congregations supply one-fourth of the pupils of the famous École Polytechnique, one-third of the students of Saint-Cyr, and one-half of the graduates of the Naval School. The religious communities have fairly won these triumphs by dint of hard work under conditions laid down by their enemies and applied by their opponents."

Twenty years ago the London Times had made a statement to the same effect, when Ferry tried to suppress the Jesuit schools in France. "We should have liked to see a frank admission on the part of prominent members of the Left, of the real causes of the success of the ecclesiastical schools. It is no use of putting it down to wiles and artifices of any kind. The perversity, or bad taste, or stupidity of the multitude will not explain it. The simple truth seems to be that the schools of the Jesuits and other religious bodies are better in many respects than their competitors. They satisfy parents and boys more than the Lycées do. The traditional skill in teaching of the Jesuits is not extinct. They are, as a rule, at more pains than lay professors, with many interests to occupy them, to know and study the nature of their pupils. It is their habit to pay attention to the morals as well as the intellectual training of the lads committed to their charge."^[28] Such admissions, coming from such sources, speak volumes for the schools of the religious and of the Jesuits in particular.

These are a few facts about the results obtained by Jesuit colleges in recent years. As they concern colleges in various countries over the globe, directed by Jesuits of different provinces of the Order, they bespeak certainly no inefficiency of the Jesuits' teaching. Can we not conclude that, were there a similar system of public examination in this country, the Jesuit colleges in the United States would exhibit similar success?

On December 12, 1900, the Juniors of a Jesuit Institution, of Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachusetts, defeated in a debate the Juniors of Harvard. The victory of Holy Cross was all the more remarkable as Harvard a week before had won the debate from Yale on the very same question, "On the permanent retention of the Philippine Islands." On April 8, 1901, the Freshmen and Sophomores of the same College again came off victorious in a debate with a Freshman-Sophomore team of Brown University.^[29] – Although we do not want to draw from such debates any conclusions for the superiority of the Jesuit college, still they deserve to be recorded, because the Jesuit college was victorious over Harvard, shortly after the President of Harvard University had charged the Jesuit colleges with inefficiency.^[30]

The American Ecclesiastical Review, August 1900, gave an account of the controversy between President Eliot and the Jesuit colleges, in which it was proved that the President's charges were not based on any facts which could justify his measures against the Jesuit institutions. Professor Eliot had declared, "we have had experience at the Law School of a considerable number of graduates of Holy Cross and Boston, and these graduates have not, as a rule, made good records at the School." Now the truth is that in the ten years preceding the time of the final decision of the Law School regarding Boston College (March, 1898), there were only three graduates of Boston College in the Law School, of whom one left after two years, one left with an excellent record after one year on account of ill-health, and one completed the course and received his diploma. In all the time before these ten years, only two or three graduates of Boston College entered the Law School. The facts in the case, therefore, do not bear out President Eliot's statement that "a considerable number of Boston College graduates have been at the L,aw School and have made poor records." President Eliot has at several times given as his reason for the rejection of Boston College and Holy Cross, that their students were inferior. This charge has been answered by Father Brosnahan in his paper on The Relative Merits of Courses in Catholic and non-Catholic Colleges for the Baccalaureate, read before the conference of Catholic Colleges April 1901 at Chicago.^[31] From the preceding data we may certainly conclude that so far the "inferiority" of Jesuit schools has not yet been proved, and that the facts do not warrant the assertions about the "inefficiency of the Jesuit system for modern times."

In connection with the educational labors of the Jesuits in the nineteenth century, we must not fail to mention briefly their literary and scientific work during that period. There are several reasons for treating of this in a work on Jesuit education. First, because the Jesuit scholars are a product of the Jesuit system; secondly, because some of them were teachers in colleges during the greater part of their lives, and all for at least five or six years; thirdly, because their case proves how highly the Society values, and how freely it cultivates the various departments of science. It is easy to understand that the frequent persecutions and expulsions from many countries are most injurious and unfavorable to the cultivation of science, which requires above all what the Romans called otium. Moreover, as the Jesuits lost in several expulsions even their libraries, museums, and observatories, v. g. the famous Museo Kircheriano in Rome, and the observatory where Secchi had served the cause of science for so many years, they were greatly hampered in their researches. It is all the more remarkable to see that the Jesuits achieved so much in the various fields of science, in spite of these difficulties. It betokens almost a heroic enthusiasm for science that these men patiently continue their investigations and start new enterprises, even in countries where the hostile attitude of legislative assemblies is like the sword of Damocles hanging over them.

In this brief sketch of Jesuit scholars we mention only such as were distinguished for productive scholarship within the last twenty-five or thirty years. Among the scientists of this period we mention first Father Angelo Secchi, who was one of the foremost astronomical observers of the nineteenth century. Educated and trained from early youth by the Jesuits, he soon became known by his publications on solar physics and meteorology.^[32] He wrote several important works, among them Le Soleil, a standard work on the sun, Les Étoiles, L'Unité des Forces physiques, and more than eight hundred articles in scientific periodicals of Italy, France, England and Germany.^[33] He has been called "the Father of Astro-physics", on account of his spectro-scopical observations of the sun and the fixed stars. The ingenious meteorographic apparatus, a self-recording instrument for meteorological observations, which Father Secchi constructed, caused a sensation in the Paris exposition of 1867, and received the first prize (100,000 francs). The interesting instrument is now in St. Ignatius College, Cleveland, Ohio, where it is used by Father Odenbach, S. J., for meteorological observations. When the Piedmontese took Rome in 1870, the Roman College and its observatory were taken from the Jesuits. The new government did all in its power to separate Father Secchi from the cause of the Pope and from his Order. He was offered the position of Director-General of all astronomical observatories in Italy, the dignity of senator, etc. But all these flattering offers could not estrange the noble priest from his benefactor Pius IX., and his persecuted Order. He preferred to remain loyal to them, although he had to suffer mean and paltry annoyances. For the rest, the indignation roused in Italy and all over Europe, prevented the government from expelling Father Secchi from his beloved observatory. During an earlier expulsion of the Jesuits from Italy 1848-9, Father Secchi had been Professor of physics and astronomy in Georgetown College, Washington, D. C. This College possesses at present in Father Hagen a scholar who is highly esteemed in mathematical and astronomical circles. His great works, the Atlas Stellarum Variabilium and his Synopsis der höheren Mathematik, are most favorably spoken of by scientists.^[34]

Another prominent astronomer was Father Perry, Professor of higher mathematics and Director of the observatory of Stonyhurst College, England. He is especially known, as was Father Secchi, for his labors in the domain of solar physics. The English Government and learned societies sent him frequently on scientific journeys, and at the time of his death it was stated that he had been employed on more scientific expeditions than any living astronomer. He was sent – as Father Hell in 1769 – to observe the Transit of Venus (in 1874 and 1882), further, to observe the total eclipses in 1870, 1886, 1887, and 1889. It was on the expedition of 1889, on H. M. S. Comus, that Father Perry died, a martyr for the cause of science. Scientific men spoke with admiration of the painstaking preparations of his expeditions, his accuracy and skill in observations, and his enthusiastic love for science.^[35] Among the living astronomers in England Fathers Sidegreaves and Cortie deserve to be mentioned.

In recent years the Society has extensively gone into the field of meteorology. Seventeen stations are devoted exclusively to meteorology, or at least making it a prominent feature. They are: Stonyhurst (England), Jersey (Channel Islands), Rome, Kalocsa (Hungary), Malta, Burgos, Manila, Zi-ka-wei (China), Calcutta, Ambohidempona (near Tananarive, Madagascar), Bulawayo, Boroma, La Granada, Havana, Cleveland (Ohio), Saltillo, Puebla (Mexico). Some of them have a name. A few details about the observatory of Manila will interest American readers. It consists of four departments: astronomical, meteorological, seismical, and magnetic. The scientific publications of this observatory have been praised in scientific journals (v. g. American Meteorological Journal, vol. X, June 1893, p. 100; id., vol. XII, Febr. 1896, p. 326. – Meteorologische Zeitschrift, Nov. 1887, p. 366; Oct. 1898, p. 64, etc.). The commercial world in Eastern Asia appreciates its typhoon warnings. During the Spanish-American War, Dr. Doberck, Director of the Observatory at Hongkong, addressed the Weather Bureau of the United States Government, saying that "the Observatory of Manila is in the hands of men who possess very little scientific education and cause scandal by communicating sensational typhoon warnings to the newspapers in Hongkong." The effect of this accusation was that the Jesuits were forbidden to send out any such warnings. When matters were investigated, it turned out that the Manila warnings had indeed very often contradicted those of Mr. Doberck, but that the events invariably proved the correctness of the Manila observations. The Eastern newspapers: The Hongkong Telegraph, China Mail, Manila Times, Daily Press, strongly denounced Dr. Doberck, and rendered a brilliant testimony to the labors of the Jesuits, and especially their invaluable typhoon warnings. On November 2, 1898, the Rev. Jos. Algué, Director of the Observatory, received the following notice: "Rear-Admiral Dewey desires me to thank you for your courtesy in giving him such complete information concerning your typhoon predictions, which he has found in every case to be correct. (Signed) Flag Secretary." On February 2, 1899, a letter was sent to the Director of the Observatory, from the Flag-ship Olympia, which concludes: "I trust that the United States Government will make the necessary provisions for the continuance of the institution which you conduct in such an able manner, and which has proved itself to be so great a benefit to maritime interests in this part of the world. Very truly yours, George Dewey, Rear-Admiral U. S. N."^[36]

The work done by the Jesuits at the Manila Observatory and all over the islands, may be seen from two volumes with accompanying atlas of thirty maps.^[37] The work treats of the geography of the islands, climatology, seismology, and terrestrial magnetism. Professor Henry S. Pritchett, the Superintendent of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, tells us that "to the admirable work of the Jesuits is due practically all of our present knowledge of the interior of Mindanao." Father Algué's work on the cyclones of the Philippine Archipelago is the standard work on that subject.^[38]

In 1891 the French Academy of Sciences awarded prizes to the Jesuits in Madagascar, in recognition of their great service rendered by their astronomical and meteorological observations. Two years previous another Jesuit had received a prize of ten thousand francs for his geographical maps of the interior of the island; and last year, 1901, the very year which witnessed the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Republic, another Jesuit, Father Stanislaus Chevalier, by unanimous vote of the commission of the French Academy, received the prize of 3000 francs for his meteorological and astronomical publications.^[39] In a recent work, "Kiautschou", published with the co-operation of the German Emperor, a high tribute is paid to the scientific labors, especially the astronomical and meteorological observations, of the Jesuits in Zi-ka-wei, and the German official who bestows this eulogy on them, declares that he is not a friend of the Jesuits.

In other fields of natural sciences, the Jesuits are working most diligently, and their labors are appreciated by the scientific world. "The best book on mechanics is that of the Jesuit Jullien," so says a Protestant scholar.^[40] Another writes of an Austrian Jesuit: "Father Braun, the distinguished Director of the Observatory of Kalocsa in Hungary, furnished some of the most ingenious experiments for establishing the density of the earth. His works are a remarkable proof for the scientific energy of the man, and the spirit of sacrifice for the sake of science. "^[41] In June 1900, Father Hillig of Canisius College, Buffalo (New York), published a catalogue of the most prominent Jesuit museums. He enumerates about sixty, scattered all over the world.

Several Jesuits are distinguished biologists, among them the German Father Erich Wasmann, one of the foremost entomologists of modern times. His numerous publications on the beetles living commensally with ants and termites, have been styled "classic" by the leading English, German and French scientific reviews.^[42] Of his work on "Arthropoda" the Canadian Entomologist says: "Dr. Wasmann has given us the greatest contribution on this interesting subject ever made, and one that must become a classic in Entomology."^[43] Other prominent biologists are the French Father Panthel who received the prix de Thore from the Institut de France for an anatomical work published in 1898; the Dutch Father Bolsius, an authority in microscopic anatomy; the Belgian Father Dierkx, whose important researches on morphology are published in La Celulle (Louvain, 1890-1900). These names suffice to prove that the Jesuits are by no means "enemies of progress and intolerant of everything new," as M. Compayré represents them.

Other departments of modern science are successfully cultivated by Jesuits. We mention only Father Strassmaier, who by experts is called one of the first Assyriologists.^[44] Recently Father Dahlmann is becoming very prominent by publications on Indian and Chinese philosophy. His works have been greatly praised by Professor Max Müller of Oxford and other Orientalists. On the field of literature we call attention to a recent production of the German Jesuit Baumgartner: History of Universal Literature.^[45] Seldom has a work been praised so highly by men of the different creeds and nationalities. Protestant reviews have been, we may say, as enthusiastic as those of Catholics, on this "opera gigantesca", as an Italian reviewer has styled it. One Protestant Review (Westermann's Monatshefte) says: "No similar work can be compared to Baumgartner's in thoroughness, variety, and above all in directness. "^[46] The same author has published some splendid volumes on Goethe (3 vols.), Lessing, Calderon, Jost van den Vondel, and Longfellow. Father Longhaye's Histoire de la littérature française au XVIIe siècle (2 volumes) was awarded a prize by the French Academy in 1901.

A very distinguished historian is Father Ehrle, Prefect of the Vatican Library, author of the great Historia Bibliothecae Pontificum and co-editor of the Archiv für mittelalterliche Geschichte und Litteratur. Father Grisar is a leading author on Christian Archaeology. His latest work on the History of Rome is a worthy rival of Gregorovius's famous work.^[47] The Belgian Jesuits continue the colossal work of the Old Society, the "Bollandists", or Acta Sanctorum, a work of prime importance for the history of the whole Christian Era. Of the sixty-two folio volumes of this gigantic collection, nine were published since 1845.^[48]

As writers on Ethics we mention Father Castelein and Father Cathrein^[49]; on philosophy the English Jesuits Clarke, Rickaby, Maher (Stonyhurst Series). Father Maher's Psychology recently received the note "Special Excellence" by the University of London, and the author, the degree of "Doctor of Literature". And this in spite of the fact that the book contains a very energetic criticism of the works most favored by the University, including, indeed, the writings of both the examiners themselves. We could add scores of distinguished writers on theology, but we wish to confine ourselves to publications which have favorably appealed to Protestants. In 1900 the Society conducted more than one hundred periodicals. Although a great number of them are chiefly religious magazines (as the ably written Messenger, New York), there are also several scientific periodicals. Some reviews, as the Month in England, the Études religieuses in France, the Civiltà Cattolica in Italy, the Stimmen aus Maria-Laach (with valuable scientific supplements), the Theologische Zeitschrift (Innsbruck), the Razón y Fe in Spain, the Analecta Bollandiana in Belgium, are representative literary and scientific periodicals.

A splendid tribute was paid, in January 1902, to the scientific activity of the German Jesuits. Deputy Spahn, Judge of the Supreme Court of the Empire, and a prominent member of the German Parliament, pleaded in the Reichstag for the re-admission of the Jesuits into Germany. In the course of his brilliant speech he spoke thus of the literary and scientific work of the German Jesuits: "In whatever branch scientific progress has been made during the nineteenth century, the German Jesuits are distinguished contributors. In history we have Father Ehrle, Prefect of the Vatican Library, one of the editors of the Archives for Medieval History and Literature, and author of the great Historia Bibliothecae Pontificum; Father Braunsberger, whose Epistulae et Acta Canisii have been called by Protestant historians a most valuable contribution to the history of the Reformation. Then we have Father Beissel's numerous publications on Christian art; Father Baumgartner's magnificent History of Universal Literature, and many other literary productions by the same author. Father Kreiten's critical essays; the many volumes of the Analecta Hyninica Medii Aevi by Fathers Dreves and Blume; the five volumes on Aesthetics by Fathers Gietmann and Sörensen; the philological writings of Father Fox on Demosthenes. Father Strassmaier, the Assyriologist, deciphered over three thousand Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions, more than any German Academy has ever done in that line. Father Epping found the key to the astronomical computations and observations of the Babylonians, and his work is successfully continued by Father Kugler. Father Dahlmann is one of the very first authorities in the field of antiquities of India. In natural sciences we have the famous Father Wasmann, the entomologist. In physics Father Dressel is eminent, and in pure mathematics and astronomy Father Hagen, director of the Georgetown Observatory, author of the Synopsis of Mathematics and of the Atlas Stellarum Variabilium. We find among these Jesuits several prominent writers on geography, and it is only a few months ago that Father Fischer, Professor of geography at Feldkirch, discovered the map on which the New World bears for the first time the title 'America'. The well-known moralist Father Lehmkuhl has written an excellent commentary on the new code of Germany, and was one of the first to advocate this new code. The various publications of the German Jesuits on the social question are continually working for the maintenance of the existing social and political order."

Many other names deserve to be added to these mentioned by Deputy Spahn. Father Meyer, by his German writings, has exerted a great influence on Catholic writers in Bthics. Father Cathrein has published various important works on the same subject, and one of the very best works extant on the social question. On the latter subject we possess several excellent works from the pen of Father Henry Pesch. Father Stiglmayr's critical studies of the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita (he assigns these works to the fifth century), have recently been called "brilliant researches which have definitely settled this long discussed question.^[50]

Between 1881 and 1900 the German Jesuits alone published six hundred and seven books, some of which are, as we heard before, classics in their respective fields. Three of these writers have, within the last few years, been elected members by celebrated Academies of Science: Father Wasmann by the Russian Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg; Father Baumgartner by the Belgian Royal Academy of Ghent; and Father Ehrle, in November 1901, by the Prussian Royal Academy of Göttingen.

The favorable criticisms on Jesuit publications, quoted on the preceding pages, are almost exclusively by Protestant scholars of highest repute. Are these facts unknown, or are they studiously ignored, by certain writers who are so loud in belittling Jesuit education and scholarship? We readily confess that Jesuit scholarship has not yet regained that brilliant position which it enjoyed in the first centuries of the existence of the Order; the reasons for this have been mentioned. We also admit that the eulogies bestowed on the literary and scientific success of the older Jesuit institutions are not a sufficient guarantee that the Jesuit system is equally efficient in modern times. But we think this last point is proved by what has been said in this present chapter. It certainly proves that the Jesuits do not rest satisfied with the laurels of their predecessors, but that they strenuously struggle to keep abreast with the scientific progress of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The testimonies adduced are all the more remarkable, if we keep in mind the most discouraging circumstances under which the Jesuits had to labor, and the coldness and antipathy with which the works of the Jesuits are ordinarily viewed by non-Catholic writers. This leads us to a rather sad chapter in the history of Jesuit education, in which we have to speak of the opposition which the educational work of the Society had to encounter in all centuries.

 

1. Hughes, Loyola, p. 266.
2. Rev. Henry A. Brann, D. D., in The College of St. Francis Xavier, p. 1 foll.
3. Shea, The Catholic Church in Colonial Days, p. 91.
4. Brann, l. c., p. 2.
5. History of the United States, vol. I, pp. 244-248 (18th ed., Boston, 1864). – However, on the "toleration" in Maryland see Griffin, Historical Researches, 1902, vol. XIX, No. 4.
6. See Shea, Life and Times of the Most Reverend John Carroll, ch. IV.
7. Shea, History of Georgetown College, p. 15.
8. Shea, l. c.
9. A terre et à bord, par l'amiral Aube, 1894, p. 45.
10. Literarisches Centralblatt, 1890, No. 42.
11. Braunsberger, S. J., Rückblick auf das katholische Ordenswesen im 19. Jahrhundert, (Herder, 1901) p. 150.
12. The Messenger, New York, March 1902, p. 335.
13. Memoir of the Life of Laurence Oliphant (New York, Harper, 1891), vol. I, p. 229.
14. See chapter III, pp. 89-98.
15. See above pp. 104-106.
16. Braunsberger, l. c., p. 115.
17. From the Congressional Record for April 7, 1900, page 4120 (Italics ours).
18. The data, unless stated otherwise, were communicated to the Woodstock Letters.
19. Woodstock Letters, 1895, p. 504.
20. From the North-West Review, August 22, 1900.
21. Revue des Deux Mondes, 1880, I.
22. La réforme de l'enseignement secondaire. Armand Colin, Paris.
23. The Tablet, Nov. 2, 1901, p. 698.
24. Speech of M. Waldeck-Rousseau, quoted by du Lac, Jésuites, pp. 88 sq.
25. Du Lac, Jésuites, p. 250 foll.
26. Univers, Paris, December 2, 1875. For high praise bestowed on Jesuit pupils by University Examiners in France, see Figaro, April 5 and June 2, 1879; De Badts de Cugnac, Les Jésuites et l'éducation, pp. 17, 19 foll.
27. March, 1900, p. 441.
28. London Times, July 8, 1879, p. 9.
29. The judges of the debate were G. Stanley Hall, President of Clark University; Hon. John R. Thayer, member of Congress, and Professor Charles F. Adams of the Massachusetts State Normal School. President Abercombie of Worcester Academy presided. None of these gentlemen is a Catholic.
30. The unqualified slurs of President Eliot against the Jesuit colleges were ably refuted by Rev. Timothy Brosnahan, S. J., Professor of Ethics at Woodstock College, Maryland, in his pamphlet: President Eliot and Jesuit Colleges, Messenger Press, New York, p. 36. The reception given to this booklet was remarkable. We refer the reader to a criticism in the Bookman, April 1900, by Professor Peck of Columbia University, N. Y. We quote only one little passage from Prof. Peck's article: "Altogether we have not in a long time read anything which compacts into so small a compass so much dialectic skill, so much crisp and convincing argument, and so much educational good sense. We hope that President Eliot has been reading this over very carefully himself. He has been so long an autocrat in his own particular microcosm as apparently to make him somewhat careless when he addresses a larger public. In this case he has certainly been evolving argumentative material out of his inner consciousness, in the spirit of the person who first said tant pis pour les faits; and it is just as well that for once in away he should have been brought up with a good round turn. As the information would probably never reach him from Harvard sources, we may gently convey to him the information that throughout the entire country professional educators, and men and women of cultivation generally, are immensely amused at the cleverness with which his alleged facts and his iridescent theories have been turned into a joke."
31. This paper has been published separately with the title The Courses leading to the Baccalaureate in Harvard and Boston Colleges.
32. See Nature, London 1878, vol. XVII, p. 370.
33. Bibliography in Sommervogel's Bibliothèque, vol. VII, columns 993-1031. Biography and criticism of Secchi's greater works, by Moigno, Vie de Père Secchi, Paris, 1879. – Pohle, P. Angelo Secchi, Cologne, 1883.
34. Father Hagen's Synopsis has been called a "splendid contribution to the history and progress of mathematics," Nature, London, June 7, 1894; "a colossal enterprise," Revue Bibliographique Belge, Sept. 30, 1891; "a really grand work," Professor Cantor, in Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik (hist.-lit. Abth.), XXXVII, 4, p. 151. "One must be astonished how one man can master such an amount of learning," Zeitschrift für math, und naturw. Unterricht, XXVII, p. 43. The American Annals of Mathematics (1893, vol. VII, No. 3) call it a "monumental work" and say: "A more useful labor than this in the present condition of mathematical literature can hardly be imagined; moreover, it calls for all but the very highest, that is creative mathematical power; in particular, for immense erudition; an unerring logical instinct ..., but above all for untiring industry, etc." – Father Hagen's Atlas Stellarum Variabilium was also highly praised, v. g. in the Bulletin Astronomique, 1900; in the Vierteljahrsschrift, XXXV; in the Leipzig Litterarische Centralblatt, 1900, No. 4, and 1902, No. 26.
35. See the encomiums bestowed on him by Protestant writers in the English Mechanic (Jan. 25, 1890); Nature, vol. XXXXI, pp. 279-280. The Observatory, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. L, n. 4.
36. From a letter of Father Algué, Woodstock Letters, 1899, pp. 213-225.
37. A Collection of Geographical, Statistical, Chronological, and Scientific Data relating to the Philippine Isles, either collected from former works, or obtained by the personal observation and study of some Fathers of the Society of Jesus. Printed at the Government Press, Washington, D. C., 1900.
38. The best recommendation for this work is the fact that the French Ministry of Marine had it immediately translated into French. In 1900 there appeared an English and a German work (Bremen and Shanghai) on the same subject, "based on that of J. Algué," as the preface has it. But as the name of the author is given that of Professor Bergholz. Now this work – it sounds almost incredible – is nothing but an abridged translation of Father Algué's work. This has quite recently been pointed out by Professor Nippoldt of the Magnetical Observatory of Potsdam, in Petermann's Mittheilungen, September 1902. (Kölnische Volkszeitung, Wochenausgabe, Oct. 23, 1902, p. 3.) This is evidently a proof of what we said above, p. 154, note 2.
39. Kölnische Volkszeitung (Wochen-Ausgabe), January 2, 1902.
40. Budde, Allgemeine Mechanik, vol. II, p. 496. (Berlin, 1892.)
41. Himmel und Erde, Berlin, June 1898.
42. See, v. g., Nature, London 1901, Dec. 12, p. 136; and Professor Wheeler of Texas University in the American Naturalist, 1901, vol. XXXV, 414-418.
43. Canadian Entomologist, January 1895, p. 23.
44. See Oppert in Le Télégraphe, Nov. 27, 1887. – Dr. Bezold in Wiener Zeitschrift für Kunde des Morgenlandes, vol. II, p. 78. – Hugo Winkler in the Berliner philosophische Wochenschrift, 1888, p. 851.
45. Geschichte der Weltliteratur. Up to 1900 four volumes were out: 1) Literature of Western Asia and the Countries of the Nile. 2) Literature of India and Eastern Asia (China and Japan). 3) Greek and Latin Literature of Classical Antiquity. 4) Latin and Greek Literature of Christian Nations. The coming volumes will treat of the Literature of Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Poland, Russia, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, England, Germany.
46. See some other criticisms of leading Protestant papers in The Review, St. Louis, June 6, 1901: "Protestant Criticism of a Recent Catholic Work."
47. Geschichte Roms und der Päpste, "a publication of the very first rank, as indispensable as the work of Gregorovius." (Allgemeine Zeitung, Munich 1899, No. 45.) – Neue Preussische Zeitung, Berlin 1900, No. 608.
48. See above p. 161.
49. Cathrein, Moralphilosophie, 2 vols. – Socialism. The English translation of the latter work is by Father James Conway, S. J. Cathrein's works are highly praised by Cossa-Dyer, Political Economy, London, 1893, where it is said that "they cannot easily be valued too highly."
50. Bardenhewer, Patrologie (1901), p. 474.