Page:Jesuit Education.djvu/212

192 and kind of work to be done." The speaking of Latin in the lower classes was no longer possible; special care of idiom in translating is recommended, as also correctness of pronunciation of the mother-tongue. In the higher classes the cultivation of style in the vernacular, according to the best models, is insisted on. The rules concerning dramatic performances are left out; exhibitions are neither encouraged nor forbidden. In the report of the commission it is said that, if dramas are given, they should be in the vernacular. For the grammar classes, other authors are introduced; in the highest grammar class, Sallust, Curtius and Livy are read besides Cicero, the elements of mythology and archaeology are to be taught. Xenophon takes the place of Aesop and Agapetus. In the middle grammar class Caesar is added; in the lowest, Cornelius Nepos.

As mathematics and natural sciences, history and geography claimed more attention, the Revised Ratio prescribed accordingly that more time should be devoted to these branches, although they were to be considered rather as "accessories" in the literary curriculum. For the study of more advanced mathematics and of natural sciences was even then thought to belong properly to the course of philosophy. Still the new Ratio left to Provincial Superiors considerable liberty in this matter, and the Jesuit colleges, conforming to the customs of the respective countries, have introduced some of these branches also in the lower classes.