MODE OF TEACHING.

7

number of pupils was too great for five masters. The names given to the several divisions were as follow:

Jesuits and Protestants alike in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries thought of no other instruction than in Latin and Greek, or rather in literature based on those languages. The subject-matter of the teaching in the Jesuit schools was to be 'præter Grammaticam, quod ad Rhetoricam, Poësim et Historiam pertinet.' Reading and writing the mother-tongue might not be taught without special leave from the Provincial. Latin was as much as possible to supersede all other languages, even in speaking; and nothing else might be used by the pupils in the higher forms on any day but a holiday.*

Although many good schoolbooks were written by the Jesuits, a great part of their teaching was given orally. The master was, in fact, a lecturer, who expounded sometimes a piece of a Latin or Greek author, sometimes the rules of grammar. The pupils were required to get up the substance of these lectures, and to learn the grammar-rules and parts of the classical authors by heart. The master for his part had

* Even masters were not to be much addicted to their own language: 'Illud cavendum imprimis juniori magistro ne vernaculis nimium libris indulgeat, præsertim poetis, in quibus maximam temporis ac fortasse morum jacturam faceret.'-Jouvency.

to bestow great pains on the preparation of his lectures.*

Written exercises, translations, &c., were given on every day, except Saturday; and the master had, if possible, to go over each one with its writer and his appointed rival or æmulus.

The method of hearing the rules, &c., committed to memory was this:-Certain boys in each class, who were called Decurions, repeated their tasks to the master, and then in his presence heard the other boys repeat theirs. The master meanwhile corrected the written exercises.†

One of the leading peculiarities in the Jesuits' system was the pains they took to foster emulation-cotem ingenii puerilis, calcar industriæ.' For this purpose, all the boys in the lower part of the school were arranged in pairs, each pair being rivals (æmuli) 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

* Multum proderit si magister non tumultuario ac subito dicat, sed quæ domi cogitate scripserit.'-Ratio Studd. quoted by Schmid. And Sacchini says: Ante omnia, quæ quisque docturus est, egregie calleat. Tum enim bene docet, et facile docet, et libenter docet; bene, quia sine errore; facile, quia sine labore; libenter, quia ex pleno . . . Memoriæ minimum fidat: instauret eam refricetque iterata lectione antequam quicquam doceat, etiamsi idem sæpe docuerit. Occurret non raro quod addat vel commodius proponat.'

In a school (not belonging to the Jesuits) where this plan was adopted, the boys, by an ingenious contrivance, managed to make it work very smoothly. The boy who was hearing' the lesson held the book upside down in such a way that the others read instead of repeating by heart. The masters finally interfered with this arrangement.

EMULATION.

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. 297). 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 some one deserved to change places with him.

In the higher classes a better kind of rivalry was 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.

There was a vast number of other expedients by

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

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. It appears that in each class a kind of magistracy was formed, who, as prætors, censors, &c., had in some cases to try delinquents. 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.'

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. The last half-hour of the morning was spent in explaining grammar. This was done very slowly and carefully in the words of the Ratio Studd.: Pluribus diebus fere singula præcepta inculcanda sunt.' 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.

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 some amount of instruction in other subjects, especially in history and geography, was given in explaining, or rather lecturing on, the classical authors. Jouvency says that this lecture must consist of the following parts:-1st, 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 vulpes, a substantive of the third declension, &c., like proles, clades, &c. (here the master is always to give among