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Having seen how little credit is due to the spirit of the pamphlet before us, let us inquire what credit is due to the authorities produced against the Jesuits, and take a view of those in favour of them; and afterwards briefly notice some of the crimes imputed to them.

From what has been already said, and from the neglect shown by Robertson to the multitude of other writers adopted as authorities in the pamphlet before me, it is but too evident that there long existed a conspiracy against a society, whose principles and energy awed infidelity and rebellion, and whose superior talents excited jealousy and hatred. Let us, however, see what kind of men they are to whom the new accuser of the society refers us for proofs of their being such demons as he has represented them. We will afterwards take a view of those, who think and write differently, and we shall be able to determine on which side authority lies.

Of the fairness of their trials in still later times, those of Charles II, we have specimens in Hume's History. Why was not Hume quoted by the writer of the pamphlet? We find more of Jesuits in his pages than in Rapin's, and something against them too; but Hume, like Robertson, was guided by principle on this subject; that is, he stated the character of the order from the pictures which he had received of it; but, at the same time, he exposed the injustice of the trials in which the Jesuits were involved, and the invalidity of the evidence produced against them. The whole of his sixty-seventh chapter is, in fact, however unintended, a memorial in favour of the Jesuits, and a philippic on their enemies. As these pages may fall into the hands of some persons who may not have the opportunity or the leisure to read this portion of his history, I shall make the following extract, as a testimony of the horrid injustice practised in former times; and I am very much mistaken if any man of feeling and sound intellect will read it without indignation against the Oateses and Bedloes of the present day.--"But even during the recess of parliament there was no interruption to the prosecution of the catholics accused: the king found himself obliged to give way to this popular fury. Whitebread, provincial of the Jesuits, Fenwic, Gavan, Turner, and Harcourt, all of them of the same order, were first brought to their trial. Besides Oates and Bedloe, Dugdale, a new witness, appeared against the prisoners. This man had been steward to lord Aston, and, though poor, possessed a character somewhat more reputable than the other two; but his account of the intended massacres and assassinations was equally monstrous and incredible. He even asserted, that two hundred thousand papists in England were ready to take up arms. The prisoners proved, by sixteen witnesses from St. Omers, students, and most of them young men of family, that Oates was in that seminary at the time when he swore that he was in London: but, as they were catholics, and disciples of the Jesuits, their testimony, both with the judges and jury, was totally disregarded. Even the reception, which they met with in court, was full of outrage and mockery. One of them saying, that Oates always continued at St. Omers, if he could believe his senses; 'you papists,' said the chief justice, 'are taught not to believe your senses.' It must be confessed, that Oates, in opposition to the students of St. Omers, found means to bring evidence of his having been at that time in London: but this evidence, though it had, at that time, the appearance of some solidity, was afterwards discovered, when Oates himself was tried for perjury, to be altogether deceitful. In order farther to discredit that witness, the Jesuits proved, by undoubted testimony, that he had perjured himself in father Ireland's trial, whom they showed to have been in Staffordshire at the very time when Oates swore that he was committing treason in London. But all these pleas availed them nothing against the general prejudices. They received sentence of death; and were executed, persisting to their last breath, in the most solemn, earnest, and deliberate, though disregarded, protestations of their innocence."

Is it not the zeal for proselytism, that daily thins the established church of England, and increases the congregations of the innumerable denominations of sectaries, which are tolerated in this country, and of which each, if it could, would make its own universal? Even in private and temperate characters, a conformity of soul is one of the bases of friendship. The desire of impressing our sentiments and opinions upon the minds of those we love is the source of intercourse; we should be dumb without it. It is not wonderful, that this spring of the social system should extend to the principles of religion; and to say, that a Christian is zealous to make a Pagan a Christian is to bestow the highest praise upon him. If the reformed missionaries deserve this praise, it cannot be refused to the Jesuits. Nothing, in fact, can be more laudable than such a zeal, and all that can be objected to it is foreign to its real nature. The treasons and crimes, which have been imputed to the Jesuits, Hume himself has shown were falsely charged to them. Vice is not inherent in any profession of faith; it is inherent in the corrupted nature of man. Compare a Knox with a Bordaloue, a Prynne with a Beauregard or a Bossuet, and we shall be blind if we do not perceive the difference between the zeal which actuates the Christian, and that which leads to treason and to crime.

MOYA seems to have been a very virtuous man, though, perhaps, rather indiscreet in his zeal for the credit of his society. The facts are these: a book had been published by one Gregory Esclapey, reproaching the Jesuits with teaching many erroneous doctrines. To this work Moya published an answer, under the name of Guimenius, in which he professedly abstains from all inquiry into the merits of the doctrines; but, being imputed to the Jesuits by their adversary, he undertakes to show, that they were not responsible for them, as they did not originate with them, having been taught by the older divines, previous to the existence of the order. The doctrines were condemned at Rome in 1666, and Moya, in the third edition of his work, proves the justice of the condemnation, by entering into a refutation of them.

BAUNY lived at the same time. He was the intimate friend and confidant of the famous cardinal de la Rochefoucault, archbishop of Sens, and reformer of the Benedictines. He was afterwards a zealous missionary in Bretagne, under the bishop of St. Pol de Leon. He died of his missionary labours. If he treated other with lenity, it is certain he did not spare himself. His "Somme des Pech?s" was written, as he informs us, by the positive order of a bishop, probably the bishop of St. Pol, and it was published by order of the bishop, unaccompanied by the sanction or approbation of any Jesuit; nor was it used in their schools, consequently, its doctrines are nowise attributable to the society. It contains several relaxed propositions, deservedly censured by the French clergy in 1642.

CASNEDI was of a noble and ancient Milanese family; a man of great learning, zeal, and piety. He maintained, that the moral merit or demerit of an action depended upon the belief and intention of the agent. A very simple and incontrovertible proposition; but, being expressed in ardent terms, not unlike those used by the fanatical orators of the present day, it makes a flaming show among the articles of impeachment now instituted against the whole society of Jesus.

With such a speech in existence, is it not a disgrace to any man to cite against the society the remonstrance that gave occasion to it? I have done, then, with this writer's impure and disgraceful authorities; and I should here proceed immediately to the respectable, the noble, the brilliant list of authorities in favour of the Jesuits, but that I feel it proper previously to notice another attack upon them, from a very unexpected quarter, from one whom we are almost compelled to consider as an unbiassed assailant, since he does, in the very act of aiming the blow which he gives, profess the highest admiration, respect, and regard for them. "I am ready to admit," says sir John Hippisley, "the merit of that body of catholics, as far as they are exercised in the secular walk of philosophical and classical instruction; their schools and seminaries have been the most celebrated," &c. Again; "It pains me to speak, in these terms, of a community, comprehending many highly respected ecclesiastics, and, in the bosom of which, many of my valuable friends have received their education," &c. But sir John's "sense of duty overcomes his individual partialities."

Such is the analysis of the luminous brief of destruction, so triumphantly referred to by sir John Hippisley; such the sanction of peace and amity with the philosophical ministers, Pombal, Choiseul, Aranda, &c. The pontifical domain was to be saved; the portions of it already seized, Avignon, Benevento, Ponte-Corvo, &c., to be restored; the turbulent Jesuits extinct, harmony and concord were to bless the earth! How were these glorious prospects realized? Every succeeding year involved the Roman see in fresh troubles: new invasions of its spiritual and temporal rights continued to distress the succeeding pontiff, Pius VI, and, at last, conducted him to death in a dungeon, although, to save his domain from the grasp of violence, he had consented, that Ganganelli's brief should subsist unaltered.

It will perhaps be thought necessary, that I should give something more than the illustrious names I have cited; I shall therefore proceed to prove, that I have not pressed them into the cause of the Jesuits, but enrolled them on their voluntary appearance. I shall omit those, whom I have already incidentally quoted, and arrange the others in the order in which I have mentioned them.

CATHERINE II, OF RUSSIA.

In addition to the proofs of his good opinion of the society already given, I will here insert a passage to be found in the twelfth volume of the Annual Register. In addressing the courts of Paris, Madrid, and Naples, after his elevation to the pontificate, he states, that, "in regard to the Jesuits, he could neither blame nor annihilate an institute, which had been applauded and confirmed by nineteen of his predecessors; that he could the less do it, because it had been authentically confirmed by the council of Trent; and that, by the French maxims, the general council was above the pope: that, if it was desired, he would call a council, in which every thing should be discussed with justice and equity, and the Jesuits heard in their own defence; that he owed to the Jesuits, as to all the religious orders, justice and protection; that, besides, the states of Germany, the king of Sardinia, and the king of Prussia, had written to him in their behalf; and that he could not, by their destruction, content some princes, without displeasing others." Nevertheless, without calling a council, without hearing their defence, he destroyed them; and, certainly, it will ever be a matter of astonishment, that, in a cause of such magnitude, a Roman pontiff, whatever motives may have impelled him to pronounce the suppression, could so far assimilate himself with the ministers of Portugal, Spain, Naples, and France, as to overlook that primary maxim, which Rome, whether Pagan or Christian, had in all ages respected: "It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he, which is accused, have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him."

THE PRESIDENT D'EGUILLES.

ABBE PROYART.

VOLTAIRE.

I have already cited Voltaire, but I place him in the list here, for the purpose of inserting some farther extracts from his Letters. When he was solicited by the Jansenistical magistrates to join with them in accusing the Jesuits of the crime of regicide, he gave this remarkable answer, in his Letter to the Atheist Damilaville: "I should rouse posterity in their behalf, if I accused them of a crime, of which Europe, and Damiens himself, have acknowledged them innocent." Writing, in 1765, three years after the suppression of the Jesuits, to the same Damilaville, he thus exults in the realized expectations of D'Alembert: "Victory declares for us on every side. I can assure you, that, in a short time, the rabble alone will remain under the standard of our enemies." In subsequent letters he declares, that "a general revolution was making its appearance in every quarter; that philosophy was gaining strength in the north of Germany; that similar revolutions were taking place in Poland, Italy, and Spain." Such was the rapid effect of the substitution of philosophical to religious education! However borne away by the charms of philosophy, Voltaire was greatly attached to the Jesuits, and had the highest opinion of them: this he fully expresses in a letter to father de la Tour, principal of the college of Louis le Grand, where he was himself educated, which has been already cited.

MONTESQUIEU.

BUFFON.

"The missions," says this celebrated natural philosopher, "have formed more men, in the barbarous nations, than the victorious armies of the princes, who subjugated them. It is only in this way, that Paraguay has been conquered: the gentleness, the good example, the charity, and the exercise of virtue constantly maintained by the missionaries, made their way to the hearts of the savages, and conquered their distrust and their ferocity. They would frequently come, of their own accord, and beg to be made acquainted with the law, which rendered men so perfect; to that law they submitted and entered into society. Nothing can do more honour to religion than to have civilized those nations and laid the foundations of an empire, with no other arms than those of virtue."

HALLER.

"The enemies of the society," says Haller, "disparage their best institutions: they accuse them of inordinate ambition, on seeing a kind of empire formed by them in distant regions; but what plan can be more delightful, or more advantageous to humanity, than to assemble human beings scattered widely among the gloomy forests of America, to win them from the savage state, a state of wretchedness, to put an end to their cruel and destructive wars, to enlighten their minds with the truths of religion, and to form them into a society like the state of mankind in the golden age? Is this not taking up the character of legislator for the happiness of men? The ambition, that produces so much good, cannot but be a laudable passion. No virtue ever attains that purity, which men are apt to exact; but neither is any virtue disfigured by the passions, while these serve to promote the general happiness."

GROTIUS, LEIBNITZ, BACON.

This triumvirate of religion and genuine philosophy were friends and admirers of the Jesuits; they are cited or referred to in the following Letters, I shall therefore be satisfied with naming them here.

FREDERIC THE GREAT.

"Frederic," says the elegant scholar already twice quoted, "in spite of his sceptical vanity, appeared sometimes to be convinced of the dangerous principles of all those false philosophers, whose adulatory attentions he was weak enough to be pleased with. In one of these moments, in which his good sense retained the ascendency over his self-love, when the news reached him of the proscription of the Jesuits in France, by the confidential agents of supreme authority: 'Poor souls,' said he, 'they have destroyed the foxes, which defended them from the jaws of the wolves, and they do not perceive that they are about to be devoured.'" Whomever the king of Prussia meant by the wolves, it is well known, that the same parliament that devoured the Jesuits in 1764, were equally disposed to devour the episcopal body in 1765.

DR. JOHNSON. DEAN KIRWAN.

It is very common to speak of superstition as a shade in the character of Johnson; and, no doubt, a modern philosopher will object to the authority of one so bigoted as to declare, "that monasteries have something congenial to the mind of man." Such objections, however, shall not divert me from enrolling him here; for, the opinion he expressed relative to the destruction of the Jesuits was the result, not of any superstitious motive, but of that penetration, which was not to be blunted by the opposition of prejudices. Mrs. Piozzi tells us, that, when he was at Rouen, "he conversed with the abb? Rofette about the destruction of the Jesuits, and condemned it loudly, as a blow to the general power of the church, and likely to be followed with many and dangerous innovations, which might, at length, become fatal to religion itself, and shake even the foundations of Christianity." With Dr. Johnson let me place Dean Kirwan, who often declared, that he imbibed the noble ambition of benefiting mankind in the college of the English Jesuits, at St. Omer's.

BAUSSET.

Bausset, bishop of Meth, in a Life of Fenelon, published so lately as the year 1809, passes a comprehensive and eloquent eulogium on the society, of which the following sentences form but a part: "Wherever the Jesuits were heard of they preserved all classes of society in a spirit of order, wisdom, and consistency. Called, at the commencement of the society, to the education of the principal families of the state, they extended their cares to the inferior classes, and kept them in the happy habits of religious and moral virtue."--"They had the merit of attracting honour to their religious character, by a severity of manners, a temperance, a nobility, and a personal disinterestedness, which even their enemies could not deny them. This is the fairest answer they can make to satires, which accuse them of relaxed morality."--"These men, who were described as so dangerous, so powerful, so vindictive, bowed, without a murmur, under the terrible hand that crushed them."

JUAN AND ULLOA.

The very names of these travellers suggest the virtues and the praises of the Jesuits. It was from their volumes that Robertson took his account of the settlement of Paraguay, and I do not think it necessary here to extend their testimony.

RICHELIEU.

ABBE RAYNAL.

THE BISHOPS OF FRANCE.

The first is: "Of what use the Jesuits may be in France; the advantages or inconveniences that may attend the various functions, which they exercise under our authority."

The second: "How the Jesuits behave, in their instructions, and in their own conduct, with regard to certain opinions, which strike at the safety of the king's person; as, likewise, with regard to the received doctrine of the clergy of France, contained in the declaration of the year 1682; and, in general, with regard to their opinions on the other side of the Alps."

The third: "The conduct of the Jesuits, with regard to their subordination to bishops; and whether, in the exercise of their functions, they do not encroach on the pastoral rights and privileges."

The fourth: "Whether it may not be convenient to moderate and set bounds to the authority, which the general of the Jesuits exercises in France."

The replies fully substantiate the utility of the society, the purity of their doctrine, the regularity of their conduct, and the consistency of their government with their duty to their king and country.

Such, then, is the nature of the authorities, that rank in favour of the Jesuits; and the reader, by comparing them with the inveterate and corrupt spirits, which have been dragged from obscurity to destroy them a second time, will be able to estimate their respective value, and the motives of the new conspirators against them.

Perhaps enough has incidentally appeared, in the preceding pages, to inform the reader of the chief crimes imputed to the society of the Jesuits, and to satisfy his mind of the falsehood of the imputations, as well as of the baseness and wickedness of the means contrived for attaching them upon those devoted victims. Many of the imputations are also removed in the following Letters. And when I consider, that the judgment of the bishops of France affords, on these points, a complete refutation of the slanders which have been lavished upon the society, I feel, that I should be wasting time, and abusing the attention of my reader, with unnecessary repetition. A brief notice, however, of some of the principal charges against the society, may not be unacceptable here. Let us inquire into those of ambition, commerce, and sedition.

Having shown the pious nature of the ambition, which inflamed the zeal of the Jesuits; the paternal nature of the commerce, which consisted in necessary commodities, taken in barter for the provision of their establishments, and not in rich products, of various countries, freighted on wealthy speculations; and having shown also that their conduct, in excluding Europeans from the Paraguay settlements, was not the effect of a seditious disposition, I should now conclude this chapter, did I not, as I proceed, feel more and more a desire to remove the prejudices, which an extraordinary combination of passions and talents, operating on the progress of human affairs, has spread over the character of men, who appear to me to have been actuated by the sublimest motives, such as might be attributed to angels; the glory of God, and the benefit of mankind. The picture drawn by the abb? Barruel of one of the ex-Jesuits, who was murdered at Avignon, in one of the revolutionary massacres, is a genuine and convincing representation of a celestial spirit, which never could have been nourished in a corrupt society, which must have owed its qualities to an exalted one. This portrait cannot but be viewed with love and admiration, and the reader would think an apology for placing it before him superfluous.

"M. Nolhac, whom the banditti themselves had hitherto held sacred, was sent prisoner to the castle the very day before that on which the six hundred victims were to be put to death. His appearance among those unhappy persons, who all knew and revered him, was that of a consoling angel; his first words were those of an apostle of souls, sent in order to prepare them for appearing before the judge of the quick and the dead: 'I come to die with you, my children: we are all going together to appear before God. How I thank him for having sent me to prepare your souls to appear at his tribunal! Come, my children, the moments are precious; to-morrow, perhaps to-day, we shall be no longer in this world; let us, by a sincere repentance, qualify ourselves to be happy in the other. Let me not lose a single soul among you. Add to the hope, that God will receive myself into his bosom, the happiness of being able to present you to him, as children all of whom he charges me to save, and to render worthy of his mercy.' They throw themselves at his knees, embrace, and cling to them. With tears and sobs they confess their faults: he listens to them, he absolves them, he embraces them with that tenderness, which he always manifested to sinners. He had the satisfaction of finding them all impressed by his paternal exhortations. Already had that unspeakable pleasure, that peace which only God can give, as in Heaven he ratifies the absolution of his minister on Earth, taken place of fear on their countenances, when the voices of the banditti were heard calling out those, who were to be the first victims, for whom they waited at the gate of the fort. There, on the right and on the left, stood two assassins, each having an iron bar in his hands, with which they struck their victims, as they came out, with all their force and killed them. The bodies were then delivered to other executioners, who mangled the limbs and disfigured them with sabres, to render it impossible for the children and friends of the persons to distinguish them. After this, the remains were thrown into the infernal pit, called the ice-house. Meanwhile, M. Nolhac, within the prison, continued exhorting and embracing the unhappy prisoners, and encouraging them to go as they were called. He was fortunate enough to be the last, and to follow into the presence of his God the six hundred souls, who had carried to Heaven the tidings of his heroic zeal and unshaken fortitude."--Nolhac was a Jesuit!

How many men are there, who never knew more of Jesuits than their name, that have, from the hideous caricatures, which have been drawn of them, imbibed such prejudices, and admitted such horrible impressions against the society, as to render it a wonder, and with some a scandal, that any person should dare to make the slightest attempt towards their vindication. On the perusal of this volume, I trust, that the wonder and the scandal will appear to be, that men should have so suffered their reason to be imposed upon, and their feelings betrayed, as to be tamely led into the views of the destroyers, not only of this religious order, but of religion itself, and of social order. I will endeavour here to give a faithful miniature of the noble original, which, under distorted features, we have been invited to ridicule and to detest. I do not, however, pretend to offer to the reader a deep-reasoned discussion, but only a slight sketch of the much traduced institute of the Jesuits, and of the pursuits and past successes of the men, who devoted themselves to it.

It would be an extravagant exaggeration to assert, that all the followers of Ignatius emulated such high gifts: but it has been allowed, in general, by the best judges in the catholic church, and, in great measure, by persons of other communions, that a large portion of the founder's original spirit was infused into the society, which he formed; and that Jesuits, cultivated by the mode of government and rules of life which he established, achieved feats in every country, which religion must revere, and sound policy commend. Their institute does not stop short of any perfection, which the author of it thought attainable by human weakness. He prescribes in it a variety of means, which his followers must employ, to yield service to all, who surround them; and, though all could not be performed by each, he strongly confided, that his order would never be destitute of men qualified to execute every thing that he prescribed. Some things are exacted of all and each, others are to be suited to the different talents of the men employed; and the common education, which he gives to all, qualifies each to succeed in his respective department. Every person, conversant in the affairs of the catholic church, will allow, that, by the constant attention of the superiors, not any means of helping the public, which the founder had prescribed, was neglected by the body of Jesuits; and the general utility resulting from all this was precisely the thing, that distinguished this body in the catholic church, and won for it the protection of popes and bishops, the countenance of kings and princes, the respect and esteem of nations.

As St. Ignatius, in his pursuit of absolute perfection, thought no virtue foreign to his institute, so he judged no service, which churchmen could yield to the public, foreign to his society. Without pretending to enumerate the various duties and occupations, which he recommends to its members, I select only a few, upon which he enters into more detailed instructions, and to which he specially calls the attention of all superiors, the zeal of all their subjects. They are, good example; prayer; works of charity to the poor, the imprisoned, the diseased; the writing of books of piety and religious instruction; the use of the sacrament of penance; preaching; pious congregations; spiritual retreats; national and foreign missions; and education of youth in public and gratuitous schools. In the catholic scheme of religion, each of these things is deemed important; and the united voice of all, who knew Jesuits, gives them the full credit of having, during their existence in a body, cultivated, with success, each of these several branches. Their preachers were heard and admired in every country; their tribunals of penance were crouded; the sick and dying were always secure of their attendance, when demanded; their books of devotion were everywhere read with confidence; the good example, resulting from the purity of their morals, secured them, even in the last fatal persecution, from inculpation, it disabled the malice of calumny. In the impossibility of criminating living Jesuits, their worst enemies could only revile the dead. Hospitals, workhouses, and lazarets, were the constant scenes of their zeal; their attendance on them was reckoned an appropriate duty of their society. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the plague successively ravaged every country in Europe, many hundreds of Jesuits are recorded to have lost their lives in the service of the infected. Several perished, in the same exercise of charity, in the last century, at Marseilles and Messina; and, during the late retreat of the French army from Moscow, not less than ten Jesuits died of fatigue and sickness, contracted in the hospitals crouded with those French prisoners, who, a little before, had ejected them from their principal college, at Polosk, after having plundered it of every valuable. It would be tedious to insist upon every point; but something I must say on the articles of missions and public schools, the two principal scenes of their zeal.

With respect to missions, the Jesuits might truly apply to themselves the verse,

Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris? AEN. lib. i.

Different was the providence of the superiors in the old society, to perpetuate the race and regular succession of those wonderful men. If they had sent out from Europe subjects already formed to every virtue and every science, their virtues and their learning would have been almost useless, without the knowledge and practical use of the barbarous idioms of the Indian tribes. Every young Jesuit in Europe was first trained, during two full years of noviciate, to the exact practice of religious virtues. He was next applied, during five years, still in strict domestic discipline, to the several studies of poetry, rhetoric, logic, physics, metaphysics, natural history, and mathematics. Seven years of preparation qualified these proficients to commence schoolmasters, during five or six succeeding years, in the several colleges of their respective provinces. It was generally at this period of their religious career, that several young Jesuits, instead of being employed to teach schools, were detached from the several European provinces, to the Asiatic colleges of Goa, or Macao, or to the American colleges of Mexico, Buenos Ayres, or Cordova in Tucumaw, where, in expectation of priesthood, they made a close study of the barbarous languages, which they were afterwards to speak in their missions. These were usually selected from the number of those, who had spontaneously solicited such a destination; and the number of these pious volunteers being always considerable, the succession of missionaries in the society of Jesuits could never fail. But it is time to say something of their schools.

The education of youth in schools is one of the prominent features of the Jesuits' institute. Their founder saw, that the disorders of the world, which he wished to correct, spring chiefly from neglect of education. He perceived, that the fruits of the other spiritual functions of his society would be only temporary, unless he could perpetuate them through every rising generation, as it came forward in succession. Every professed Jesuit was bound by a special vow, to attend to the instruction of youth; and this duty was the peculiar function, the first important mission, of the younger members, who were preparing themselves for profession. Even the two years of noviciate mainly contributed to the same purpose. They were not lost to the sciences, since novices were carefully taught the science upon which they all depend. The religious exercises of that first period tended to give them that steadiness of character and virtue, without which no good is achieved in schools. They then acquired a fondness for retirement, a love of regularity, a habit of labour, a disgust of dissipation, a custom of serious reflection, docility to advice, a sentiment of honour and self-respect, with a fixed love of virtue; every thing requisite to support and advance the cultivation of letters and of science in future years. It has been already observed, that the serious studies, which filled five years after the noviciate, were calculated, in conjunction with strict religious discipline, to form them for the serious business of conducting a school of boys during the five or six years, which were to succeed: and, in the discharge of this duty, they were bound to know and to follow, under the direction of a prefect of studies in every college, the excellent documents prescribed in the institute for masters.

It is not possible in a short compass to enumerate these instructions; but the mention of a few may suffice to prove, that nothing was forgotten. The object of Ignatius, in charging his society with the management of boys and youths, as it is announced in various parts of the institute, was to form and perfect their will, their conscience, their morals, their manners, their memory, imagination, and reason. Docility is the first virtue required in a child: and, to subdue stiff tempers, the remedies prescribed in the Jesuits' institute are, impartiality in the master, honourable distinctions, and mortifying humiliations, applied with judgment and discretion: then, steady attention to maintain the established discipline and economy of the school, which is a constant, and therefore a powerful check upon the unruly. To secure it, says the text, hope of reward and fear of disgrace are more powerful than blows; and, if the latter become unavoidable, punishment must never be inflicted with that precipitation, which gives to justice an air of violence. In inquiring into trespasses, too nice and minute investigation must be avoided, because it inspires mistrust. The art of dissembling small faults is often a safe means to prevent great ones. Gentle means must always be first employed; and, if ever fear and repentance must be impressed, the hand of some indifferent person must be called into action; the hand of the master must be used only to impress gratitude and respect. If his hand is never to be the instrument of pain, his voice must never be the organ of invective. He must employ instruction, exhortation, friendly reproach, but never contumelious language, haughtiness, and affronts: he must never utter words to boys, which would degrade them in the eyes of their companions, or demean them in their own. In the distribution of rewards, no distinction must be known, but that of merit. The very suspicion of partiality to character, fortune, or rank, would frustrate the effect of the rewards bestowed, and provoke indocility, jealousy, and disgust, in those who received none. Nothing so quickly overturns authority, and withers the fruit of zealous labours, even in virtuous masters, as the appearance of undue favour. The masters's equal attention is due to all; he must interest himself equally for the progress of all; he must never check the activity of any by indifference, much less irritate their self-love by contempt.

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