Page:Jesuit Education.djvu/263

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OPPOSITION TO JESUIT EDUCATION.
243

this fact. The open calumnies and malicious insinuations against that work of the Society, which is especially dear to every Jesuit, viz. the education of youth, are simply appalling.

It is impossible for us to mention all the charges made against the educational system of the Jesuits; nor do we think it necessary. For, some accusations are so ridiculous that to hear them stated, should be enough for any thoughtful man to disbelieve them. Further, they are so clearly opposed to the fundamental principles of the Order, and so emphatically contradicted by its official documents, that it is difficult to see how men can, for a moment, consider them even probable. Lastly, they are so varied and so contradictory that they easily elude us. What one says, is directly or indirectly denied by another. It will be very instructive to put a few statements in parallel columns.


"They [the Jesuits] completely revolutionized education by fearless innovations." – Rev. W. M. Sloane (Princeton), The French Revolution and Religious Reform, p. 11.


"They were indeed far too much bent on being popular to be innovators." – Quick, Educ. Reformers, p. 506.

The curriculum of Jesuit colleges "has remained almost unchanged for four hundred years, disregarding some trifling concessions made to natural sciences." – President Eliot, Atlantic Monthly, October 1899.

"The shrewd disciples of Loyola adapt themselves to the times, and are full of compassion for human weakness." – Compayré, Hist. of Ped., p. 140.

Since 1832 "in mathematics and natural sciences proper attention is to