Chapter XIII.
Syllabus of School Authors.
§ I. General Remarks.
The Ratio Studiorum divides the literary curriculum into five classes. Father Jouvancy speaks of six,[1] adding that the sixth is sometimes combined with the fifth. Father Kropf in 1736, in his programme, has six. Most Jesuit colleges in this country have six classes in the literary course, to which are added two years of philosophy with higher mathematics, natural sciences and economics. These eight classes correspond to the high school and the college course. The four lower or grammar classes are equivalent to the high school, whereas the four higher classes: Humanities (Freshman), Rhetoric (Sophomore), Junior and Senior Philosophy, correspond to the American college, with one essential difference, '"that the work of the Jesuit college is not professional study, but general culture and preparation for professional study."[2]
When in the following pages we speak of the study of the authors, it is understood that a systematic study of grammar has preceded and partly accompanies the reading of the authors. Of late there is a tendency to begin reading too early, almost from the beginning,
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