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of its truth, especially as regards facts, definitions, or
principles. 19. To make frequent use of the system
of question and answer" (Chap. V, art. ii, pp. 31-33).
It is true that de la Salle, in establishing his insti- tute, had in mind principally the primary and ele- mentary school, which was the real raison d'iire for the existence of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. He was the organizer of the public instruction of his time, and no master of pedagogical science will deny him that distinction. But, if the primary and ele- mentary school was the principal master-work of de la Salle, there was yet another field of labour which like- wise reveals his creative genius. At the opening of the eighteenth century, he was confronted with singu- larly perplexing conditions. The rising generation was weary of past glories, disgusted with the present and was ambitious to achieve renown in hitherto un- explored fields of activity. As education was grad- ually extending to the masses, with the light of instruction came now ideas, new occupations, new ventures, and a breaking away from the old civiliza- tion, with the desire to wrestle with the problems born of the new conditions. Even those who were trained in traditional methods became aware of a mighty change in men and things. They felt that there was a desid- eratum in the actual educational system. With their sons, they experienced the world-spirit breathing upon the moribund civilization of Louis XIV. The politi- cal horizon had changed, society became more degen- erate, the intellectual world was awakened and cast off its lethargy, assuming a bolder attitude and aspir- ing to greater freedom in the realm of thought and research. De la Salle had been struck with the serious hiatus in the instruction reserved for the wealthy children, who were destined for the liberal professions. So, while organizing the primary and elementary school, he also created, in 1705, a special establish- ment until then unknown in the educational world. This new creation was the boarding college at Saint- Yon, wherein he inaugurated the system of modern secondary instruction. Saint- Yon became the type of all such colleges, and that of Passy, Paris, became the modern exemplar of similar institutions in France and elsewhere. M. Drury, in his report upon techni- cal education, states that France is indebted to de la Salle for the practical installation and popularization of that form of instruction.
Hence, from the origin of the institute, there was a constant adaptation of programmes to the needs cre- ated by the social transformations which were taking place. This flexibility, which contrasted with the fixedness of the university programmes, excited sur- prise and no little opposition among the representa- tives of academic authority in those days. The instruction given in the colleges founded by de la Salle and his successors was peculiarly adapted to the needs of a very interesting class of young men. The educa- tional reforms thus planned and carried out by him give unmistakable evidence that Providence had raised him up to be the lawgiver of primary and ele- mentary teaching, as well as the creator of a new system of intellectual training, combining the pre- cision of the traditional method with the wider scope of the new one. It was but natural that de la Salle, who had assimilated the best that the seventeenth century could give, and who had become cognizant of the inetficienoy of the old system to meet the require- ments of the new conditions, should create schools which were then, and have been since, the admiration of educators. The boarding colleges founded by de la Salle for the modern secondary instruction are, therefore, a distinct creation. The date of the Saint- Yon College is 1705. He later added a technical school to develop the mechanical skill of the students, and also a special garden for botany.
There were Sunday schools prior to the seventeenth century. But the Christian Academy, founded l)yde
la Salle for adults in the parish of Saint-Sulpice, in
1699, was of a different character, the first of its kind
in the history of education. The programme of this
academy, or Sunday school, included not only the
ordinary branches taught in the other Sunday schools,
but it added geometry, architecture, and drawing.
Alain claims that the first normal schools were the novitiates of the teaching orders. But there were no normal schools for lay teachers. De la Salle had been frequently asked by clergy to send a Brother to take charge of their school. This request was refused, for he ha<l established the rule that not less than two Brothers teach in any school. Accordingly, he offered to open a seminary for teachers, an institution in which young men would be trained in the principles and practices of the new method of teaching. The normal school was opened at Reims in 16X4. Indeed, thirteen years before Francke organized his teachers' class at Halle, and fifty years before Hecker founded the Prussian normal college at Stettin, ile la Salle had given a programme which is even to-day deemed ex- cellent. In the same year he established for youths who were destined to enter the brotherhood, a Chris- tian academy, or preparatory novitiate, in which they were taught the sciences, literature, and the principles of scientific pedagogy.
De la Salle is entitled to be ranked among the ad- vanced educators of the eighteenth century and among the greatest thinkers and educational reformers of all time. His system embraces the best in the modern educational methods. He gave an impetus to the higher educational progress which is the distinctive mark of modern tunes, and bequeathed to his own disciples, and to educators in general, a system of teaching which is adaptable to the wants of school-going youth in every country. But it was especially as a priest that John Baptist de la Salle loved his vocation as an educator. Like St. Ignatius Loyola, he taught letters that he might have the right to teach Christian doctrine. In claiming this privi- lege de la Salle was actuated by the highest and purest motives. There was nothing narrow in his educa- tional plans. He was too wise not to realize the necessity that the truest and best children of the Church should be among the most skilled in human affairs. His view was from the summit, therefore, broad and comprehensive. Intellectual training was supplemented by a complete course of Christian morals. Man had a destiny, and the teacher was to inculcate this truth by cultivating and developing the theological virtues in the soids of the children.
This thought seemed to be uppermost in the mind and to haunt the soul of de la Salle, when he drew up those excellent programmes for his schools, colleges, and technical institutions. His pedagogic principle was that nothing human should be foreign to the students, and the teaching of science and letters appeared to him to take nothing from the teacher in his ministry as an apostle. In September, 1713, Clement XI issued the Bull " Unigenitus ", condemn- ing the errors of Quesnel, culled from his "Moral Re- flections". M. de Montmartin, Bishop of Grenoble, promulgated the Bull in a circular letter, in February, 1714. De la Salle was then making a retreat at Par- m(5nie. When he left this place, he entered the arena, to defend the Church against Jansenism. He assem-- blcd the Brothers of Grenoble and explained the mean-, ing of the Bull, in order to safog\iard the purity of" their faith. Not satisfied with tliis manifestation of" loyalty, he published several articles in defence of the^ true doctrine. This irritated the Jansenists, but their- opposition only served to give greater lustre to the purity of his faith and zeal. He was a fearless and uncomjiromising champion, and he seemed to forget his habitual calm and reserve when there w'as question of the integrity and purity of the Faith. To sriow his. inviolable attachment to the Church and to the Soy--
