Page:Jesuit Education.djvu/256

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JESUIT EDUCATION.

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