Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/840

* OBJECT TEACHING. Tl-l Comenius, therefore, is to be found the first clear presentation of the principles of abject teaching. To Pestalozzi (q.v.), however, may with justice be given the crailit of introducing the iiiethud as a special feature of primary education. Since Pestalozzi all educators have agreed that the cliiUl's activity, manifested through the senses, .should be directed to the things about him. In tliis way. (1) the child's senses are trained. (2) his judgment is aroused, and (3) he .acquires a language. The three must go together. Pes- talozzi saw that in order to reach clear knowl- edge of anything the mind must pass through a necessary spipicnce of processes. From sense- perception it must rise Ihrougli ideation to clear concepts. !Mere presentation of objects is not suHicient. There must be tlie inner reaction of the learner. There must be, tlierefore, (1) the sense-material, (-2) the inner reaction of mind, (3) the word. Consult: Barnard. Object Teach- ing (Xew York, 1800) : Calkins, Manual of Object Tcachhig (ib., ISOO). See Ivi.xdebgakten ; X.TrRE-STVUY ; Pedauogy. DELATES, ub'lats (ML. oblaliis, oblate, from l.at. ijljliitiis. olTered, p.p. assigned to offerre, to ollVn. The name of a class of religious com- munities in the Roman Catholic Church, which <lilVcr from the religious Orders strictly so called in not being bound by regular vows, instead of which they make an olTering (oblation) of them- selves to the superior or bishop, with a promise of constancy. The princijial associations of this class are: "(1) The Oblates of Saint Ambrose, or of Saint Charles, whose foundation in_ 1.578 was one of the many works undertaken in his diocese bv Saint Carlo Borromeo (q.v.). Arch- bishop of Milan. The members were secular priests who lived in comnuinity. and were merely biiunil by a promise to the .-Vrcldiisliop to devote thcmsi-lves to any service which he should con- sidei- <lesirable for the interest of religion. Saint Carlo made use of them chielly in the wild and inaccessible Alpine districts of his diocese. In the suppression of small conununities under Urban VIII. and Innocent X.. the institution be- came e.tinct. but was revived by Archbishop Roniilli of Milan in 1848. In IS.iO a community on the same model was established in England by the future Cardinal ibiiming and his suc- cessor as Archbishop, Cardinal Vaughan. for aggressive work in London. The Knglish oblates, wOiiise statutes were conlirmeil by the Pope in IS.IT .and 1877. have now several houses. (2) The Dlilates of Mary Immaculate was founded in laifi bv Charles Eiig&nc de Mazenod. Bishop of Marseilles (18.17-01). to repair the losses to religion caused by the French Revolution. Their rule" was confirmed by Leo XII. in 1820. They were introduced into Canada in 1841 and the I'nited States in 1848. The congregation, which has about 70 houses in all i)arts of the world, now nunilwrs over a thousand members, the majority of them priests. The mother house is in Paris, in which city the great basilica of the Sacred Heart on Montmartre is prineijially their work. The general is elected for life; a general chapter is held every six years. They eondiet n large number of educational and charitable institutions, amoni; them the Catholic I'niversity of Ottawa. For the life of the founder, consult Ricard. Moimrifiueiir <le Mnzeiind (Paris. 1892). (3) The Oblates of Saint Frhnccs of Ron«", OBLIGATION. ])opularly known as Domie di Tor di Specehi. This association grew out of the charitable work of the pious woman whose name it bears, and took up its community life in 1433 iu the house in Rome which it still occupies. To this house, still the only one possessed by the institute, Saint Frances went on her husband's death, and here she died as superior in 1440. The oblates are mostly ladies of noble birth, and have done much good in educational and charitable works. They, with the .Jesuits, were expressly excepted froiii the reforming decrees of the Council of Trent all'ecting tlie regular Orders; and their statutes gave Saint Francis de Sales the idea of his Order of the Visitation. For the original foundation, consult Lady Georgiana FuUerton, Life uf Saint Frances of Rome (London, ISoo). OBLIGATE PLANTS (from Lat. obliciare, to bind, from oh. bcfure. toward -f liyare, to bind). Plants which can grow in but one life conilition. This term, which is contrasted with facultative plants, is applied particularly to ])arasitcs and saprophytes. For example, dodder is an obligate parasite, because it has not the power to grow indei)endently. Obligate is also used in a still more restricted sense; certain fflrnis of dodder can grow upon only one host • plant, and are, therefore, regarded as oldigate in that sense. OBLIGATION (Lat. obligatio. bond, from oblifiini-. to bind). AT CmL I.AW. In the widest sense legal obligation is equivalent to legal duty, but the" technical meaning of the expression is much narrower. Continental jurists confine the term, in the first place, to duties toward a iiartieu- lar person or group of ])ersons. excluding duties toward the State or commiinity; in the second place, to duties assuuu'd by or imposed upon a particular person or group of jiersons, excluding duties which rest upon all members of the com- munitv. Further, not all duties of particular persons to particular jiersons are designated as obligations: they are not so described when the duties result from some preexisting legal rela- tion between the parties, like marriage. Such duties have indeed been called obligations e.r re, but this use of the word is not approved by moilern writers. Finally, the term oliligation is ordinarily restricted to cases where the right which corresponds to the duty imposed upon or assumed bv the i)erson obligated has economic value. Technically, then, obligations are special legal relations in which one or more persons, usually described as creditons, are entitleil to claim "from one or more persons, usually described as debtors, acts or forbearances which are in the economic interest of the creditors. In Roman law, and in the law of Latin countries at the present time, the word obligation is used to describe the leiral relation, the dutv of the debtor, and the right of the eree satisfied by seizure of goods, and ran against the person only in second instance; and execution upon the person was transfornicd into imprisonment for debt. Since, the abolition of imprisonment for debt the creditor's claim