subjects are to be pursued after the regular course of studies has been finished.[1] Finally, it was asked "that some regulations should be made as to special studies in ancient languages, philology, ethnology, archaeology, history, higher mathematics and all natural sciences." It was decreed that no "general prescription could be made in this matter, but the Provincials should confer with the General as to how these studies should be arranged in the different provinces. At the same time the Congregation decrees that, provided the customary studies of the Society, and as far as possible, the preeminence of literary studies remain intact in the classical schools, the progress and increased cultivation of those [special] branches should be earnestly recommended to the Provincials. It is also their duty to select those young men, who have a special talent for these branches, that they may devote themselves to them entirely."[2]
From all that has been said so far, it becomes evident that the Society is continually improving its system, and adapting it to the conditions of the age. It would also seem that it was inadvertence to these more recent legislations which betrayed President Eliot into the statement: "The curriculum of the Jesuit colleges has remained almost unchanged for four hundred years, disregarding some trifling concessions made to natural sciences."[3] As the Ratio of 1832 has not been ratified by a Congregation, and as a further revision has been demanded, we may expect to hear in the future of further development in the Jesuit system.
