Page:Jesuit Education.djvu/227

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
JESUIT EDUCATION IN THE 19TH CENTURY.
207

ment which is the pride of France, as well as of the Catholic Church."[1] A Protestant Review in Germany writes: "The progress which, owing to this establishment, the Arabic literature has made, cannot be ignored."[2] 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.[3]

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;

  1. A terre et à bord, par l'amiral Aube, 1894, p. 45.
  2. Literarisches Centralblatt, 1890, No. 42.
  3. Braunsberger, S. J., Rückblick auf das katholische Ordenswesen im 19. Jahrhundert, (Herder, 1901) p. 150.