is needless to say that this remark has an application for America and England.
The study of this system cannot be without interest to those who devote themselves to educating youth. During the two centuries preceding the suppression of the Order, this system exerted a world-wide influence on hundreds of thousands of pupils, and, although in a lesser degree, does so at present.[1] In 1901 the Jesuits imparted a higher education to more than fifty-two thousand youths, of which number seven thousand two hundred belong to this country. The educational work of the Jesuits produced most brilliant results in former centuries and received most flattering commendations from Protestant scholars and rulers, and from atheistic philosophers.
However, the study of the Ratio Studiorum is not only of historical interest. Protestant writers admit that a close examination of the Jesuit system may teach the educators of our age many valuable lessons. According to Quick "it is a system, a system built up by the united efforts of many astute intellects and showing marvellous skill in selecting means to attain a clearly conceived end. There is then in the history of education little that should be more interesting or might be more instructive to the master of an English public school than the chapter about the Jesuits."[2] Davidson, in spite of some severe strictures, is not less convinced of the advantages which may be derived
