especially whether it is advisable to see this boy or that in private, to correct him, to warn him against a danger, or whether it is well to communicate with his parents.[1] What should be treated of in these private conversations is plain from Jouvancy and Sacchini. And the 47th rule of the teachers says briefly, they should treat only of serious matters.[2] Speaking of conversation with the students, the Father General Vitelleschi, in 1639, gave characteristic directions: "It will be very useful if from time to time the professors treat with their auditors, and converse with them, not about vain rumors and other affairs that are not to the purpose, but about those that appertain to their well-being and education; going into the particulars that seem most to meet their wants; and showing them how they ought to conduct themselves in studies and piety. Let the professors be persuaded that a single talk in private, animated with true zeal and prudence on their part, will penetrate the heart deeper and work more powerfully, than many lectures and sermons given to all in common."[3] This keeping in touch with the individual pupil has always been considered as one of the sources of the success of the Jesuits in their educational labor. Protestant educators have not failed to recognize this and to speak of it with approval. Thus Sir Joshua Fitch writes of Arnold: "Much of the influence he gained over his scholars – influence which enabled him to dispense in an increasing degree with corporal punishment – was attributed to his knowledge of the individual char-
