the function of the college and its relation to the high school and university, and the problem of moral and religious training. It has been the author’s intention to view the Jesuit system chiefly in the light of these modern problems. These important educational questions have been treated at some length, and it is hoped that on this account the work may engage the attention of all who are interested in education.
I feel almost obliged to apologize for one feature of the book, viz., the numerous quotations and references. Though aware that there is among American and English readers a sort of antipathy against many references, I have yet deemed it necessary to quote freely from various sources. This course I am forced to adopt, as I do not wish to lay before the reader my own opinions about the educational system of the Jesuits, but I want to show what this system is according to the original sources. These are, above all, the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, and the Ratio Studiorum, which, however, must be supplemented by other documents. For, many points of the Ratio Studiorum are intelligible only in the light of the decrees of the Legislative Assemblies of the Order, the regulations of the General and Provincial Superiors, and the commentaries of prominent Jesuit educators. A great deal of this material has been published by Father Pachtler, in four volumes of the great collection Monumenta Germaniae Paedagogica (Berlin 1887—1894); other valuable information has been published within the last few years, in the Monumenta Historica Societatis Jesu, especially in, the part entitled Monumenta Paedagogica, which appeared in 1901 and 1902. An account of these works is given in the Biblio-
