Page:Jesuit Education.djvu/338

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JESUIT EDUCATION

intact and spotless. Divine revelation, the world's history, daily experience and our innermost conscience tell us that there are disorders and derangements, that there are not only holy and divine, but also animal desires, not only upward, but also downward tendencies in our nature. The great Apostle testifies to this truth, when he exclaims: "For I know that there dwelleth not in me, that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good. For to will is present with me; but to accomplish that which is good, I find not. For the good which I will, I do not; but the evil which I will not, that I do."[1] Now this "law of sin which fights against the spirit" manifests itself differently according to the different dispositions and the age of the individual. In youth, it assumes generally the shape of love of pleasure and enjoyment together with a tendency to idleness, and "idleness is the fruitful mother of many vices." The old educational systems believed in Allopathy, and thought that these moral diseases could be cured effectively only by means which directly attack the root of the evil. So they tried seriously to occupy a boy's mind, to accustom him to hard, steady work, to fight against his dislikes, to do his duty and to break his will. But, we are told, that was all wrong, it was only the outcropping of the severe and gloomy asceticism of former ages. Our modern pedagogues have discovered that Homoeopathy alone will do in education. "The poor children are overburdened, make it easy for them. Give, full vent to the pupil's inclinations and do not force him to anything he dislikes. For this would be interfering with the sanctity of the individual!"

  1. Romans 7, 18.