logistic form is kept, and in case the defender is unable to solve the difficulties, has to give the final decision. At the same time it forces the professor to be most careful and accurate in the opinion he holds, and especially in the arguments which he proposes, as fullest liberty is given in attacking every point, and as the students, frequently mature men and highly gifted, try their very best to show any weak point in the argumentation of the text book, or in the professor's propositions. Professor Paulsen observes on the disputations of the medieval schoolmen, of which the disputations of the Jesuit schools are a modification: "As regards the disputations, it may be said that the Middle Ages were hardly mistaken. They were undoubtedly fitted to produce a great readiness of knowledge and a marvellous skill in grasping arguments."[1]
It has frequently been asserted that this uniform training of the Jesuits crushes out all individuality. Professor Paulsen says: "Great individualities do not appear in the history of the Order," and Cardinal Newman writes: "What a great idea, to use Guizot's expression, is the Society of Jesus! what a creation of genius in its organization; but so well adapted is the institution to its object that for that very reason it can afford to crush individualities, however gifted; so much so, that, in spite of the rare talents of its members, it has even become an objection to it in the mouth of its enemies, that it has not produced a thinker like Scotus or Malebranche!"[2]
Does uniform training necessarily result in uniformity of character? Certainly not. If all those
