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Development of Personality 
 
 A Phase of the 
 Philosophy of Education 
 
 BY 
 
 BROTHER CHRYSOSTOM, F.S.C. 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 THOMAS W. CHURCHILL, LL.D. 
 
 Former President of Board of Education 
 New York City 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 JOHN JOSEPH McVEY 
 

 N. F. FISHER, S.T.L., 
 
 Censor Librorum. 
 October 26, 1916. 
 
 * EDMUNDUS FRANCISCUS, 
 
 Archiepiscopus Philadelphierms. 
 October 27, 1916. 
 
 COPTRIOHT, 1916, BY JOHK JoSEPH McVeY. 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 
 
TO THE 
 
 Religious Teachers of America 
 whose sublime privilege it is to conserve and to 
 
 DEVELOP THE GoD-GIVEN FaITH 
 
 OF THEIR Pupils. 
 
 38,1014 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The following pages present some of the pedagog- 
 ical aspects of an institution which, for twenty cen- 
 turies, has devoted itself to the highest aims of teach- 
 ing. The task of that institution has ever been to bring 
 to fruition the noblest powers and capacities of human 
 personality, to hold in check those tendencies which 
 militate against this purpose. 
 
 Not hedged in by national boundaries nor restricted 
 by considerations of race or class, this service has not 
 been confined to children of from five to fourteen years, 
 nor have its purposes been restricted to the earthly 
 career of human kind. 
 
 At a period when educational foundations disclose 
 an attack upon the religious belief of teachers and pay 
 a premium to colleges and universities which will con- 
 sent to make open profession that they have no re- 
 ligious creed but confine themselves to the exposition of 
 ethical principles, the present treatise possesses, in ad- 
 dition to the cogency and clarity of a careful thinker, 
 a certain timeliness in its call to the consideration of 
 current tendencies. 
 
 Parallel with a marvelous expansion of educational 
 service has come a widespread anxiety within and with- 
 out the church regarding the dangers of a gross ma- 
 terialism in the work of schools. The eyes of a single 
 generation see little enough. In every age minds which 
 possess the inclination and ability to look backward 
 
VI iniroduction. 
 
 and forward beyond the limits of a narrow present, 
 realize the growing errors and sound a note of warning. 
 
 At the very beginning of modern education, Com- 
 enius founds his system upon the assertion that "the 
 chief aim of education is to live in the happiness of 
 God and in harmony with His teachings." Pestalozzi 
 would not have elevation of the intellect to be the chief 
 end of education. Its first influence is moral and re- 
 ligious, which to him were identical. "Reformer" he 
 was, protesting against mere systems and routine from 
 which the spirit had been driven. "Everywhere," he 
 said, "flesh predominates over spirit. Everywhere the 
 divine element is cast into the shade. Everywhere self- 
 ishness and passions are the motives of action. Every- 
 where mechanical actions usurp the place of intelligent 
 initiative. Man does not live by bread alone; every 
 child must have religious growth, every child must 
 learn to pray to God in simplicity, with faith and 
 love." "If religion," he says, "does not permeate the 
 whole of education, religion will have little influence 
 on life. It will remain isolated, remote, formal, me- 
 chanical." His summary of the essentials of modern 
 education is contained in these words: "The child ac- 
 customed from the earliest years to think, to work and 
 to pray is more than half educated already." 
 
 The protests of the earnest pioneers of modern edu- 
 cation were against the narrowness of teachers who 
 were making the religious element, as they were making 
 the intellectual aspect, of teaching a thing of words 
 without the pulse of the spirit. There was not until a 
 near yesterday any protest listened to against the utter 
 
Introduction. vii 
 
 absence of religion from schools. In America, where 
 popular education was growing in influence and ex- 
 tent beyond any degree ever attempted in any other 
 part of the world, religion was, in the early days, an 
 accepted part and aim of schooling. For our first 
 colonial schools the Bible was the only book; the 
 teacher had taken holy orders. The very grading of 
 the children into the beginners' or psalter class, the 
 testament class, and the Bible class, shows the essen- 
 tial religious basis of the service. For recruiting the 
 ministry, for converting the Indians, for the promotion 
 of religion and morality, under a sanction profoundly 
 religious, every old American college was founded. 
 The West India Company, to which was entrusted the 
 settlement of New Amsterdam, was bound by the 
 mother nation to maintain in the western wilderness 
 "good and fit preachers who are schoolmasters, com- 
 forters of the sick." The laws of Pennsylvania re- 
 quired all children to be instructed "so that they may 
 be able to read the Scriptures." In the programs of ^ 
 the school exercises, in the regulations for the govern- 
 ance of schoolmasters, in the contracts of teachers, in 
 every aspect of this early education, the religious ele- 
 ment appears. 
 
 In 168S, Johannes Van Eckkelen, accepted school- 
 master and church chorister of Flatbush, now a part 
 of New York City, signs articles of agreement by which 
 he engages that "when the school begins, one of the 
 children shall read the morning prayer. The school 
 shall close with prayer before dinner. The evening 
 school shall begin with prayer and close by singing 
 
viii Introduction, 
 
 a psalm. The schoolmaster shall instruct the children 
 on every Wednesday and Saturday in the common 
 prayers and the questions and answers in the cate- 
 chism, to enable them to repeat them the better on Sun- 
 day before the afternoon service, or on Monday when 
 they shall say them before the congregation." A hun- 
 dred years later, in 1773, the Town of Flatbush makes 
 the same agreement with Anthony Welp, schoolmaster. 
 The English colonists knew no other kind of edu- 
 cation than religious. The school had been of, by, and 
 for the church. Hoole's treatise on the Art of Teach- 
 ing (1637), opens with the declaration that the "school 
 is the place where, indeed, the first principles of re- 
 ligion and learning ought to be taught." The sub- 
 stitution of English authority for that of the Dutch 
 relinquished no conviction as to the religious basis of 
 instruction. Governor Dongan, a Catliolic, received 
 in 1686, directions that "noe schoolmaster bee hence- 
 forth permitted to keep school" without approval of 
 the church at home. "You shall take especial care 
 that God Almighty be devoutly and duly served." To 
 Governor Sloughter, 1689, to Governor Fletcher, 1691, 
 to Governor Bellemont, 1697, to Governor Hunter, 
 1709, similar injunctions regarding the religious duties 
 of the school are given by the King.^ When the Mayor, 
 Alderman and Commonalty petitioned Governor Corn- 
 bury for a new free school in the City of New York, they 
 specified that the master be a holy man of good learn- 
 
 ^ Cf . A. J. Hall, Religious Education in the Public Schools of 
 the State and City of New York — A Historical Study; A. E. 
 Palmer, New York Public Schools. 
 
Introduction. ix 
 
 ing, mild temper, virtuous conversation and pious life. 
 The influence of free school societies unconnected with 
 the churches, the agitation of educational promoters 
 for independent public schools, brought the country 
 into bitter controversy over the disposition of school 
 monies. The famous contest between the Bethel Bap- 
 tist Church and the New York Free School Society, 
 a strife culminating in 18^5, resulted in the isolation 
 of the churches from governmental financial aid for 
 education conducted under ecclesiastical auspices. By 
 1831 this bitter controversy resulted in a pronounce- 
 ment upon the function of education in amazing con- 
 trast with the prevailing tenets of the community a 
 generation before. The law committee of the New 
 York Board of Aldermen reported that a public school 
 "ought to teach only those branches of education which 
 tended to prepare a child for the ordinary business of 
 life. If religion be taught in a school, it strips it of 
 one of the characteristics of a common school, as all 
 religious studies have a direct reference to a future 
 state and are not necessary to prepare a child for the 
 mechanical or any other business." The controversy 
 being carried to the state legislature, the committee 
 on schools reported that religious instruction is foreign 
 to the intentions of the school system. "Religion," it 
 said, "is no part of the common school education." 
 By 1858 the swing of the pendulum reaches a point in- 
 dicated by a decision of the State Superintendent of 
 Schools of New York, Randall, saying, "The position 
 was early, distinctly and universally taken by our 
 statesmen, legislators and prominent friends of edu- 
 
X Introduction, 
 
 cation that religious education must be banished from 
 the common schools.'^ In line with this decision all 
 subsequent state superintendents have ruled. Origin- 
 ally religious institutions, the American schools in the 
 course of a century have become completely de-religion- 
 ized. No teacher of a public school may point out re- 
 ligious responsibilities to his pupils, may show the re- 
 ligious bearing of events, may emphasize the exhorta- 
 tions of religious masters, without violation of legal 
 prohibition. 
 
 This survey, illustrative of an absolute change in 
 the attitude of the people of New York regarding pub- 
 lic instruction, is an example of a uniform trend 
 throughout the colonies and the early states of the 
 Union, culminating about the middle of the last cen- 
 tury in the total exclusion of religious education from 
 the public schools. The states thereafter admitted, en- 
 acted laws based upon the result of such ultimate de- 
 velopment. Indeed, beyond a few ancient legal pro- 
 visions, obsolete in practice, there exists no vestige of 
 the expressed religious spirit pervading the colonies at 
 the time of the republic's birth. So thoroughly has 
 the excision been done, that even to Boston, at one time 
 the centre of religious fervor and conviction, all that 
 remains is the beautiful old motto of the city, 
 
 "Sicut patribus, sic nobis Deus." (As God was with our 
 fathers, so may He be with us.) 
 
 But the present century, young as it is, has been 
 marked by a notable growth of conviction of the griev- 
 ous loss the education of youth has sustained. It is 
 
Introduction. xi 
 
 remarkable that, though it was the Free School So- 
 cieties, public education officials, common school men, 
 and educators, who pronounced so decidedly against 
 religious instruction as an essential of education, it is 
 from the same order of men that there comes the ex- 
 pression of loss and the desire for restoration. 
 
 Before the century is three years old, Robert Herbert 
 Quick, than whom probably no educational writer is bet- 
 ter known, raises the question, '^Can we afford to neg- 
 lect religious instruction?" His answer is a plea for 
 worship, for prayers, for study of the Scriptures, for 
 the singing of psalms and hymns, that boys may in- 
 crease in wisdom and reverence. President Butler, of 
 Columbia University, editor of an educational magazine 
 which purports to administer authoritative correction 
 to the educational world, admonished teachers that re- 
 ligion is one of the inheritances of mankind which it is 
 the function of teachers to make real to the child. He 
 calls it the preponderant influence in shaping civiliza- 
 tion, an influence due in part to the universality of re- 
 ligion itself and in part to the fact that it was beyond 
 dispute the chief human interest at the time when the 
 foundations of our present superstructure were laid. 
 It is hard now to dignify, he says, "with the names, 
 influence or instruction, the wretchedly formal relig- 
 ious exercises which are gone through in the American 
 Public Schools. The result is that religious teaching 
 in schools is a thing of the past. Two solutions are 
 proposed. That the state shall permit all existing 
 forms of religious instruction in its own schools, or 
 that it shall aid by money grants schools maintained 
 
xii Introduction, 
 
 by religious corporations. Bitterness of controversy 
 has made both propositions difficult. Yet the religious 
 element may not be permitted to pass wholly out of 
 education unless we are to cripple education and to 
 render it hopelessly incomplete. For the religious ele- 
 ment of human nature is essential. By some effective 
 agency, it must be presented to every child whose edu- 
 cation aims at completeness or proportion." 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt, in an address ''On Reading the 
 Bible," speaks as follows: 
 
 "In this country we rightly pride ourselves upon our system 
 of widespread popular education. We most emphatically do 
 right to pride ourselves upon it. It is not merely of inestimable 
 advantage to us, it lies at the root of our power of self-govern- 
 ment But it is not sufficient in itself. We must cultivate the 
 mind; but it is not enough only to cultivate the mind. With edu- 
 cation of the mind must go the spiritual teaching which will make 
 us turn the trained intellect to good account. A man whose in- 
 tellect has been educated, while at the same time his moral edu- 
 cation has been neglected, is only the more dangerous to the com- 
 munity because of the exceptional additional power he has ac- 
 quired. Surely what I am saying needs no proof; surely the 
 ^mere statement of it is enough, that education must be education 
 of the heart and conscience no less than of the mind." 
 
 From still another angle, Muensterberg sees the lack. 
 In 1910, in his ''Psychology and the Teacher," he finds 
 not only that there is a pressing need for school in- 
 spiration, but also that religion realizes for the human 
 soul the highest desire in which truth, happiness, mo- 
 rality, progress and beauty are blended, while all con- 
 tradictions and struggles are removed. He thinks no 
 teacher can afford to teach without implanting in 
 young souls a religious longing. 
 
 In 1914 Paul Monroe declares the greatest danger 
 
Introduction. xiii 
 
 in the secular school to be the failure to learn to think 
 of the world religiously, — that is, profoundly and hu- 
 manly. In that he finds "justification of the para- 
 mount place given to religion in education by educators 
 like Arnold of Rugby and the Roman Catholics in all 
 periods." 
 
 In the same year, Joseph Swain, President of the 
 National Education Association, addressing the Con- 
 vention of the Nation's Public School Teachers, argues 
 that if we are to have the proper type of citizens we 
 must have teachers of the highest training. If we are 
 to have exalted character, we must have teachers of 
 faith and religion. "It is the chief business of men 
 and women in the school to perform religious acts and 
 to lead others to perform them." 
 
 In the speeches preserved in the records of the pro- 
 ceedings of teachers' associations and conventions, we 
 also find this decided tendency to deplore the loss of 
 religion and to plan for its return. The stone which 
 the builders rejected may yet be the head of the cor- 
 ner. 
 
 Whatever may be the merits of any discussion con- 
 cerning practical religious teaching, there are few to- 
 day who will not question the completeness of a system 
 of education that has no religious element. Every 
 person, though he may be unaware of the fact, pos- 
 sesses a religious feeling and follows some sort of re- 
 ligion. To many it may seem a curious religion, but, 
 whatever it may seem to be, it is yet an attempt to ex- 
 press the religious spirit. It is, therefore, one of the 
 curiosities of an education which aims to train the whole 
 
xiv Introduction, 
 
 child, which at every stage emphasizes the necessity of 
 complete development, that it should deliberately ex- 
 clude any provision for this great, fundamental char- 
 acteristic. Scientists recognize that the religious in- 
 stinct is as real and as "natural" as the desire for food 
 or for survival. Man is religious by nature. Even the 
 savage expresses himself most finelj^ in his religious 
 impulses when he attributes a spiritual agency to the 
 trees, to the winds, and to the weapons he uses. Hav- 
 ing no organized conception of deity, he creates for 
 the satisfaction of his own inner being, one god or 
 many. 
 
 When man comes into the larger possession of those 
 beliefs and conditions we say he has become civilized. 
 It seems strange indeed that we should leave to chance 
 the development of one of the qualities through which 
 our civilization has become possible. 
 
 It must be recognized that no system of public edu- 
 cation can teach a religion. The same liberty of con- 
 science that secures for each citizen the practice of 
 his own belief, forbids that those who follow a different 
 religion should have the privilege of interpreting a 
 creed or of giving religious instruction to his own 
 children. Nor will any American permit public schools 
 to establish through their own agents a system of 
 sectarian instruction. Yet, equally, is it the truth 
 that no child is well taught who in some wise is not re- 
 ligiously taught. This is the great truth which after 
 a few decades is emerging from the confusion of ideas. 
 This plea for adequate religious training is no longer 
 a preachment of the pulpit alone. Tf^^cl^^rs of all 
 
Introduction, xv 
 
 creeds recognize the necessity. The lack of this train- 
 ing has produced its own evil results. 
 
 It is true now, and always will be true, that a com- 
 munity without religious life will itself evolve various 
 individual creeds to express some form of emotional 
 life and desire. These creeds will not always preach 
 worship of God, service to the state, or sacrifice of 
 the individual to society, but they will preach, notwith- 
 standing. It may be a preachment of individualism in 
 terms of our brief material existence; of the glorifi- 
 cation of the lower appetites and the baser instincts. 
 There are people who call this sort of thinking intel- 
 lectual freedom. If it may be called a religion, it is a 
 religion of selfishness. 
 
 The reconciliation of religious education in terms of 
 precise beliefs with the development of religious emotion 
 must prove a very difficult thing to realize in any sys- 
 tem of public education. There is no question but that 
 some type of reconciliation or adjustment should be 
 made. Whether the ultimate solution will be a method 
 of organization that will permit the absence from 
 school of children for religious instruction at stated 
 intervals; whether it will involve separate hours and 
 separate teachers and places set apart; or whether it 
 will be something entirely different from this, will be 
 determined by the intelligence and reciprocal toler- 
 ance of those who dedicate themselves to the solution 
 of the problem. The method is a secondary thing. 
 
 The important thing is that all of us are beginning 
 to realize — whatever our particular creeds or faiths — 
 that whether in the school, in the church, or in the 
 
xvi Introduction. 
 
 home, whether through teachers or parents, some form 
 of religious training in education is essential to any 
 enduring civilization and most of all to a civilization 
 based on ideals of democracy. The wonderful concep- 
 tion that religion gives us — that men are brothers, that 
 God is the father of us all — a conception of reciprocal 
 duty and common responsibility, must become a con- 
 scious motive in living if we are to succeed and pro- 
 gress. It was true in ancient times ; it was true in me- 
 dieval times ; it is true in modern times. It will always 
 be true — because the need of religious motive is as con- 
 stant and permanent as is civilization itself. Civili- 
 zation touches its highest level as it most fully ex- 
 presses the religious conception; religion finds its finest 
 expression in the existence of the highest civilization. 
 
 The author of the following pages has a sublime 
 philosophy of life — service and sacrifice and self-efface- 
 ment. He has grasped the large view that the end of 
 education is the actualization of the capacities of the 
 human soul; that teaching is no mere conformity to 
 system, no mere covering of courses of study. He ac- 
 cepts no smaller duty than that of perfecting man- 
 hood. To him each child is a complexity of possibili- 
 ties, an organization of developing faculties of which 
 reason and conscience are the controlling force and the 
 crowning glory. 
 
 He would teach not only by methods, but with the 
 sense of a sacred mission. The solemn fact is never 
 absent that the regeneration of spiritual and national 
 life depends in a superlative degree upon the ideals 
 fostered in the classroom. 
 
Introduction, xvii 
 
 From him might have come, as an expression of what 
 he thinks and believes, the noble words of Emerson, 
 "For the spirit only can teach. Not any profane man, 
 nor any sensual, not any slave, not any liar can teach, 
 but only he can give who has. The one through whom 
 the soul speaks, alone can teach. Courage, piety, love, 
 wisdom, can teach. But he who aims to speak as books 
 enable, as systems use, as the fashions guide, and as 
 interest commands, merely babbles. Let him hush." 
 
 "The undevout astronomer is mad." Faith is indis- 
 pensable to all true teaching. Without faith, educa- 
 tion is dross. Without faith, the poetry of life is 
 transformed into satire. With faith, teaching is the 
 continuous baptism of the world. 
 
 In this book. Brother Chrysostom demonstrates that 
 the character, spirit and faith of the teacher should 
 be deemed the vital force in education and that all 
 other considerations are subordinate. Through the 
 progression of logical steps he unfolds the comprehen- 
 sive means by which schools may realize their spiritual 
 function and teachers their exalted mission. 
 
 It is the work of a teacher of long experience who 
 has tested the theories of philosophy and pedagogy in 
 the living laboratory of the classroom and whose mind, 
 accustomed to a daily business of making matters clear, 
 finds expression in a medium of language marked with 
 lucidity, precision and charm. 
 
 Thomas W. Churchill. 
 New York City, 
 
 October H, 1916. 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 This book is dedicated to religious teachers. It 
 treats of a subject which, by deliberate choice, they 
 have made their life-work. But it makes a direct ap- 
 peal also to all teachers who, respecting the dignity 
 of their profession, live and labor for the propaga- 
 tion, the consecration, and the development of the 
 highest ethical ideals. Even for such as do not make 
 profession of the Christian religion, but who sincerely 
 love their fellow-man, this book should possess some 
 interest, since it emphasizes certain methods of educa- 
 tion which have been put to the test and which, on 
 trial, have been found not utterly wanting. There is, 
 then, presumptive evidence that the principles here set 
 forth are possessed of an inherent fitness to produce 
 and to develop in the teacher qualities which are to-day 
 universally admitted to be among the most highly 
 prized of the fruits of education. It is on this ground 
 that the book puts forth a claim for an attentive read- 
 ing and a careful consideration of the facts involved. 
 
 With a view to extending the utility of the following 
 chapters to a wider circle of readers and through them 
 to larger groups of pupils, the general plan has been 
 adopted of rather citing the exact words of the authors 
 referred to, than of presenting merely the substance of 
 their thought. Such a method has also the advantage 
 of affording occasions to the reader for deeper reflec- 
 
XX Preface. 
 
 tion on the really vital issues in education without 
 unduly taxing his time and his opportunities. Should 
 he desire to pursue further the line of thought followed 
 by the author cited, he will iSnd the necessary reference 
 indicated in the proper place. 
 
 To keep the book within due limits, it became neces- 
 sary to give a very summary treatment of the Socio- 
 logical Section. By way of compensation, the reader's 
 attention is repeatedly called, in the successive chapters 
 to social values and social points of view. In conse- 
 quence, he will find that the social aim of education, 
 in the best meaning of that phrase, is emphasized 
 throughout.^ 
 
 In the preparation of these pages the author has in- 
 curred many debts : first of all, to the members of his 
 own Order, the Brothers of the Christian Schools ; then, 
 in a special manner, to Dr. Thomas Edward Shields, 
 dean of the department of pedagogy at the Catholic 
 University of America, who proposed the subject for 
 investigation, examined the general plan of treatment, 
 and directed the preparation of Book I. This section 
 was submitted to the University, in partial fulfillment 
 of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philos- 
 ophy, under the title, ''The Pedagogical Value of the 
 Virtue of Faith as Developed in the Religious Noviti- 
 ate." Valuable suggestions were received from Rev. 
 Drs. Edward A. Pace, Edmund T. Shanahan, William 
 J. Kerby, George M. Sauvage, C. S. C, Thomas Vernon 
 Moore, C. S. P., and from Rev. Leo L. McVay, of the 
 
 ^See "Social," "Social Value," and "Sociological Aspects" in 
 the Index of Subjects. 
 
Preface. xxi 
 
 University; also from Rev. Drs. John J. Mitty and 
 Joseph C. Herrick, of St. Joseph's Seminary, Dun- 
 woodie. Special thanks are due to Rev. Francis P. 
 Siegfried, of St. Charles' Seminary, Overbrook, for 
 careful reading of the manuscript and for giving gen- 
 erously of his time and experience. 
 
 The book does not advocate the substitution of the 
 novitiate for the normal school. It does maintain that 
 teachers' ideals can not be adequately developed and 
 cherished without some method similar to that used in 
 the novitiate. For the religious teacher, the period of 
 the novitiate in general precedes that of the normal 
 school training and lays a broad and secure foundation 
 for the latter. 
 
 If the perusal of these pages should awaken in 
 religious teachers, and more particularly in novices, a 
 deeper appreciation of the resources which they pos- 
 sess, the author's labor will not have been in vain. 
 
 Ammendale, Md., 
 
 July 16, 1916. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Introduction v 
 
 Author's PRErACE xix 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 The Noemal School and the Religious Novitiate. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Normal School. 
 
 Article I. — ^The Normal School in General 3 
 
 Article II.— The Aim of the Normal School 6 
 
 Article III. — The Curriculum of the Normal School 11 
 
 Article IV. — Method in the Normal School 16 
 
 Article V.—The Spirit of the Normal School 18 
 
 Article VI. — Limitations of the Normal School 21 
 
 Article VII. — Summary 28 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 The Religious Novitiate. 
 
 Article I. — ^The Religious Life in General 30 
 
 Article II.— The Nature and Aim of the Novitiate 36 
 
 Article III. — ^The Curriculum of the Novitiate 43 
 
 Article IV.— Method in the Novitiate 50 
 
 Article V.—The Spirit of the Novitiate 69 
 
 Article VI. — Limitations of the Novitiate 66 
 
 Article VII.— Summary 75 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Personality op the Teacher. 
 
 Aj-ticle I.-T^What is Personality? 76 
 
 xxiW 
 
xxiv Contents. 
 
 Article II.— What Society Expects 79 
 
 Article III.— What the Catholic Church Demands 82 
 
 Article IV.— What the Novitiate Offers 87 
 
 Article V. — The Teacher's Ideals of Personality 92 
 
 General Summary. — The Necessity of Faith 100 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Faith. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Faith and Its Exercise. 
 
 Article I.— The Nature and Kinds of Faith 105 
 
 Article II.— The Exercise of Faith 119 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Pedagogical Implications of Faith. 
 
 Article I. — ^The Pedagogical Value of Faith Viewed Ob- 
 jectively 133 
 
 Article II. — The Pedagogical Value of Faith Viewed Sub- 
 jectively 137 
 
 Article III. — Summary 146 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 Pedagogical Value of Faith. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Biological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 Article I. — Fundamental Concepts 149 
 
 Article II.— Heredity 158 
 
 Article III. — Environment 168 
 
 Article IV. — Plasticity and Adjustment 187 
 
 Article V.^rrSummary 200 
 
Contents. 
 
 XXV 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Psychological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 Article I. — General Survey 204 
 
 Article II. — The Physiological Basis of Learning 221 
 
 Article III.— Reflex Action as a Type 230 
 
 Article IV.— Habit 248 
 
 Article V. — Summary 275 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 Meditation. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Psychology of Meditation. 
 
 Article I. — The Nature and Matter of Meditation 281 
 
 Article II. — Constituent Elements of Meditation 291 
 
 Article III.— The Pedagogical Value of Meditation 300 
 
 Article IV. — Summary 309 
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 SocioLOGicAi. Aspects of Faith. 
 
 Article 
 Article 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Faith as a Social Force. 
 
 I. — Faith as a Social Force in the Novitiate 315 
 
 II.— Faith as a Social Force in the School 327 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 General Summary. 
 
 General Summary 340 
 
 L^Envoi 343 
 
 Bibliography 346 
 
 Index of Names 365 
 
 Index of Subjects , 869 
 
BOOK I. 
 THE NORMAL SCHOOL AND THE NOVITIATE. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Normal School. 
 
 Article L — The Normal School m General, 
 
 It is the function of the normal school to train 
 teachers for service in the public schools. In order to 
 form an estimate of the Pedagogical Value of the Virtue 
 of Faith as developed in the Religious Novitiate, we 
 will take the normal school as a term of comparison. 
 
 For the year ending June, 1913, 284 normal schools 
 in the United States, if we include in that number both 
 public and private schools, reported to the Bureau of 
 Education in W^ashington.^ In the regular training 
 courses for teachers these schools had a total enrollment 
 of 94,455 students. If to this number we add 21,425 
 students pursuing like courses in 931 high schools, and 
 5,626 students similarly engaged in 265 private high 
 schools and academies, we have a grand total of 121,- 
 506 students preparing to fix the ideals and form the 
 conduct of the nation as far as the public schools are 
 concerned. It is true that many of our colleges and 
 universities have departments of education. It is also 
 true that, while they are particularly well equipped to 
 train teachers for high school work, yet they often 
 
 ^See Bulletin, 1914, No. 16, U. S. Bureau of Education, The 
 Tangible Rewards of Teaching, compiled by James C. Boykin and 
 Roberta King, pp. 416 ff. 
 
 8 
 
4 ' The Normal School, 
 
 extend their courses both above and below this domain. 
 They train some students for college teaching, and 
 others for teaching in the grade schools. However, 
 even when they give courses for the teaching of subjects 
 in the grammar schools, these courses are patronized 
 largely by men and women who are already actively 
 engaged in the work of teaching. As a result it fre- 
 quently happens that such courses in pedagogy given 
 in universities as are suited to grade-school teachers 
 are either extension courses conducted in the late 
 afternoon or the evening or on Saturdays, or summer 
 courses when the general facilities and resources of the 
 universities are opened to the ambitious teacher. We 
 are, then, justified in taking the normal school as a 
 term of comparison.^ 
 
 From another viewpoint it likewise appears that the 
 normal school is a proper term of comparison. We 
 quote from Professor Thorndike's Elimination of Pupils 
 from School,^ 
 
 "I estimate that the general tendency of American cities of 
 25,000 and over is, or was at about 1900, to keep in school out 
 of 100 entering pupils 90 till grade 4, 81 till grade 5, 68 till grade 
 6, 64 till grade 7, 40 till the last grammar grade (usually the 
 eighth, but sometimes the ninth, and rarely the seventh), 27 till 
 the first high school grade, 17 till the second, 12 till the third, and 
 8 till the fourth. ... It will be remembered that figures for 
 the public schools in the country as a whole are probably much 
 lower than this." 
 
 ^ On the new Normal School movement, see Educational Review, 
 Vol. XLV, pp. 195, 198, 304, 409, 609. 
 
 ^Thorndike, U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. 4j 1907, 
 Whole No. 379, p. 11. — Add this passage from Moral Training in 
 the Public Schools (The California Prize Essays): "Now at least 
 
The Normal School in General, ^ 
 
 From this it follows that the destinies of the nation 
 are largely shaped by the normal school graduates. Is 
 there justification for placing so much responsibility in 
 their hands? For the present let us content ourselves 
 with applying the principle of selection to the case. 
 
 "All environmental agencies, and especially our educational 
 agencies, are a great system of means, not only of making men 
 good and intelligent and efficient, but also of picking out those 
 who for any reason are good and intelligent and efficient. In the 
 latter sense they may be said to improve not the production, but 
 the distribution of mental and moral wealth. They help to put 
 the right men in the right places. ... To have gone to school 
 at all means not only that you have perhaps learned to read and 
 write, but also that you were not an invalid, idiot, or runaway. 
 To have progressed halfway through the grade schools means not 
 only that you have learned somewhat, but also that you were not 
 one of the ten or twenty per cent, who, by lack of means or 
 ambition or health or mental ability, have been eliminated from 
 the school system. To have graduated from a high school means 
 that you are one of a very small percentage of the group who 
 entered school with you, a percentage picked for survival not by 
 chance, surely. And so on with the college and professional 
 schools." ^ 
 
 nine-tenths of our children leave school at the dawn of ado- 
 lescence, the most critical period of their lives, when moral guid- 
 ance is more necessary to them than at any other time between 
 birth and death; when the methods of childhood are becoming ob- 
 solete; when responsibility begins, but judgment is immature; 
 when moral storms tear up the moral growths of childhood and 
 dreams float in the air; when children seem strange to them- 
 selves; when they are morally more lonely than ever before or 
 afterwards; when they must not only face the great tempta- 
 tions of life, but make its great decisions without experience; 
 when they least desire others to penetrate their thoughts or mold 
 their judgments. The greatest need of this period is a moral 
 one. What provision do the schools make for it?" "Fourth 
 Essay," pp. 135, 136, by Frank Cramer. 
 * Thorndike, Educational Psychology , pp. 94 f. 
 
6 The NoTTnal School 
 
 This passage shows that the student who enters the 
 normal school may have at least the negative require- 
 ments of a teacher. It remains then for the normal 
 school to develop the positive qualities. This task 
 becomes more difficult as the years go on. There are 
 many forces at work tending to the disintegration of 
 family ties, to the transfer of home activities from the 
 fireside to the factory, and to the transfer of home 
 sympathies from the children to social acquaintances, 
 to business friends, and to club policies. All these 
 factors react in turn upon the plastic minds of the 
 young. Hence it is that many of our school problems 
 of to-day were undreamed of fifty years ago. In this 
 crisis what agency shall save our public schools ? What, 
 indeed, if not our normal schools? To them therefore 
 does the nation look for the imparting to the young 
 of loyalty to high ideals and unswerving devotion to 
 duty. Can the normal schools discharge this high 
 office? To answer this question it is necessary to con- 
 sider the aim of the normal school. 
 
 Article 11. — The Aim of the Normal School. 
 
 The fifth resolution at the Cleveland Meeting of the 
 National Education Association in 1908 (Normal 
 School Department) reads: 
 
 ^^Resolved, That while the normal school is not the only agent 
 for the training of teachers, it is the State's chief agent, and as 
 such it should set up the standards of teaching, determine the 
 ideals, and train the men and women whose call is to educationsil 
 leadership." ^ 
 
 ^Proceedings of National Education Association, 1909, p. 651. 
 
The Aim of the Normal School. 7 
 
 The normal school aims, therefore, to give the teacher 
 his professional preparation. This view is confirmed 
 by Professor Gordy in The Rise and Growth of the 
 Normal School Idea:^ 
 
 "I hold, with the Massachusetts Board of Education, that the 
 design of the normal school is strictly professional; that is, to 
 prepare in the best possible manner the pupils for the work of 
 organizing, governing, and teaching the public schools, and that 
 this professional preparation includes the most thorough knowl- 
 edge, first, of the branches of learning required to be taught in 
 the schools; second, of the best methods of teaching these 
 branches; third, of right mental training; and I hold that in our 
 system of schools the normal school is not only the proper agency 
 for undertaking the whole of the professional training of intend- 
 ing teachers of a certain grade, but that it is the only institution 
 which really professes to supply any of his professional needs. 
 The theory that normal schools ha^ no business to give instruc- 
 tion in the subjects their pupils are preparing to teach, I regard 
 as a survival of the fallacy of the monitorial system (of Bell and 
 Lancaster), which held that the bare knowledge of a fact qualifies 
 its possessor to teach it."' 
 
 In the realization of its aim of training for profes- 
 sional service, the normal school must depend chiefly 
 upon its faculty; for "the faculty is the soul of the 
 institution." ^ There are four qualifications which every 
 member should possess: character, teaching-ability, 
 
 * Published as Bulletin No. 8, 1891, Bureau of Education. 
 
 * P. 130. It is well to bear in mind that this study was pub- 
 lished in 1891. In more recent years not a few universities have 
 divided the field with the normal schools, among them New York 
 University where Professor J. P. Gordy taught for several years 
 before his death. 
 
 'See "Function of Normal School," Report of Special Com- 
 mittee on Normal Schools, Proceedings of National Education 
 Association, 1899, p. 838. 
 
8 The Normal School. 
 
 scholarship, and culture;^ and of these character 
 stands first. "Nothing can take its place." A like 
 judgment is pronounced by James E. Russell, Dean of 
 Teachers' College, Columbia University, as a result of 
 many years of practical experience in preparing teach- 
 ers for the proper discharge of their office. 
 
 "The first qualification for professional service, therefore, is 
 good character, the conscious striving for high ideals. The pro- 
 fessional worker looks to the future and is pledged by his vocation 
 to make the future better than the present. Such an aim implies 
 in these days the possession of two other qualifications, each 
 potent and indispensable. One of these is specialized knowledge, 
 and the other is skill. These three — an ethical aim, specialized 
 knowledge, and technical skill — are the trinity upon which pro- 
 fessional service rests. The stone-cutter may have superior skill, 
 but with only a modicum of specialized knowledge and lacking 
 an ethical aim, he remains the artisan; the physician who is 
 ignorant of his subject, however high his aim or however skillful 
 in practice, is still a quack; if he is learned in high degree but 
 lacks professional skill, he is a confirmed bungler; the lawyer 
 who is versed in the subtleties of the law and adroit in legal 
 procedure, but who disregards the ethics of his profession, is a 
 charlatan despised of men. 
 
 "The teacher may be a professional worker. But he who puts 
 himself in the professional class must know accurately what he 
 is to do, have the requisite skill for doing it, and do his work 
 under the guidance of high ethical principles. The teacher who 
 is ignorant of his subject is a quack; the teacher who lacks pro- 
 fessional skill is a bungler; the teacher who is not inspired by 
 high ideals is a charlatan." ' 
 
 What, then, is this ethical aim which every teacher 
 should possess and which therefore should pre-eminently 
 
 ' Ibid. 
 
 ^ "Professional Factors in the Training of the High School 
 Teacher," Educational Review, Vol. XLV (March, 1913), pp. 218, 
 219. 
 
The Aim of the Normal School. 9 
 
 direct the actions of every member of the normal school 
 faculty? According to Dean Russell, it is "intelligent 
 self-direction." ^ In this art the normal school pro- 
 fessor is presumed to be expert when he is placed over 
 normal students ; for must he not train them to follow 
 high ideals? In this difficult yet inspiring work he 
 must so impart moral principles that they will become 
 dynamic factors not only in shaping the conduct of 
 each and every one of the normal students with whom 
 he comes into personal relations, but likewise and es- 
 pecially in molding through them the lives of all their 
 future pupils. In his endeavor to reach this result, 
 what resources can the professor command? 
 
 Fundamentally these are the same as the resources 
 available for the teacher of the grade school or the 
 high school. 
 
 "What we need in education is a genuine faith in the existence 
 of moral principles which are capable of effective application. 
 . . . The teacher who operates in this faith will find every 
 subject, every method of instruction, every incident of school life 
 pregnant with moral possibility."^ 
 
 From this it follows that moral principles should 
 dominate every moment of school life. This they can- 
 not do unless they be knit into every fiber of the teach- 
 er's conscious life. It is only through the teacher's 
 personality that they can (1) pervade the curriculum, 
 (2) shape the methods, (3) determine and enrich the 
 spirit of the school, as Professor Dewey so earnestly 
 
 ' Op. cit., p. 229. 
 
 * Prof. Dewey, Moral Principles in Education, pp. 67, 68. 
 
10 The Normal School 
 
 recommends. It is by seeing moral principles exem- 
 plified in the daily conduct of his teacher that the 
 pupil's "faith" in these principles is to be fostered and 
 developed. This was fully appreciated by the Inter- 
 national Committee on Moral Training, when its Ex- 
 ecutive Chairman, Clifford W. Barnes, presented this 
 statement to the National Education Association, in 
 1911: 
 
 "The teacher, through his personality, should bring religion to 
 the aid of morality. Considering my words very carefully, I have 
 no hesitation in affirming that an irreligious person has no right 
 to teach in a public school. ... I mean by ^irreligious' a 
 person who fails to perceive any relation between the finite and 
 the infinite, who recognizes no supreme good in the universe, who 
 has no consciousness *of a power not himself that makes for 
 righteousness.' Such men are often caught by the tide of whole- 
 some life which surrounds them on every side, and are carried 
 on to the achievement of a noble career. But as teachers of the 
 young they lack in the spirit of reverence, in the discernment of 
 true values, in the power to quicken high ideals, and in that love 
 for self-sacrifice which the Great Teacher taught his disciples." * 
 
 Furthermore, "the most dangerous man to-day, 
 socially, is the religionless man, because he is the rud- 
 derless man, a derelict upon life's sea." ^ Religion 
 "shifts the individual's attention from self to society, 
 and in so doing makes him a better citizen." ^ The 
 
 ^Proceedings of National Education Association, 1911, pp. 399, 
 400. 
 
 'Wm. W. Elwang, University of Missouri Studies, Social Sci- 
 ence Series, Vol. II, "The Social Function of Religious Belief," 
 p. 96. 
 
 • Ibid, p. 93. 
 
The Curriculum of the Normal School. 11 
 
 State relies on the school to train the young for loyal 
 and upright service in society/ The common school in 
 turn appeals to the normal school for deeply religious 
 teachers of forceful personality. By what means can 
 the normal school supply this demand other than 
 through the personality of its teaching staff? We 
 have quoted above the words of Professor John Dewey. 
 In his judgment there are three sources of moral train- 
 ing: (1) the curriculum, (^) methods of teaching, 
 (3) the atmosphere of the school, its social spirit. 
 Let us consider the curriculum. 
 
 Article III, — The Curriculum of the Normal School. 
 
 Historically, the first classes for the training of 
 teachers in the United States made no attempt to give 
 any professional preparation, in the proper meaning 
 of that term.^ They were concerned simply with im- 
 parting to the candidates a knowledge of the subjects 
 which they would have to teach.^ So meager a program 
 
 ' Cf . Dewey : "The moral responsibility of the school, and of 
 those who conduct it, is to society." Moral Principles in Educor- 
 tion, p. 7. See also his "Course of Study, Theory of," and C. A. 
 Perry's "School as a Social Center," in Monroe's Cyclopedia of 
 Education. 
 
 'Concerning the first normal schools in Europe, see Gordy, 
 op. cit. pp. 17, 18. Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education, in the 
 articles, "Training of Teachers" and "Normal School," makes no 
 mention of the work of St. John Baptist de la Salle in establish- 
 ing normal schools in 1681 and 1684. 
 
 • See Gordy, op. cit. Chaps. I, II. 
 
1^ The Normal School, 
 
 was soon found to be inadequate; and to it were added 
 mental philosophy, psychology, and moral philosophy.^ 
 In 1899 the Committee on Normal Schools recom- 
 mended the following course as the ideal at which the 
 normal school should aim:^ 
 
 I. — Man in himself^ embracing: physiology, psychology, ethics, 
 religion. II. — Man in the race, embracing: history, anthropology, 
 literature, general psychology. III. — Man in nature, embracing: 
 physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, physiography, astron- 
 omy. IV. — Man in society, embracing: sociology, government, 
 home economics. V. — Man in expression, embracing: language, 
 drawing, construction, physical culture, music, art. VI. — Man in 
 school, embracing: philosophy of education, science and art of 
 teaching, history of education, school economics. 
 
 It is significant that this committee looked upon 
 religious teaching not only as necessary for "man in 
 himself," but also as the most important of the four 
 subjects grouped under that heading: this is indicated 
 by the order in which they named it.^ In the estimation 
 of the members, ethics without religion would not be 
 sufficient for the future teacher. This phase of the 
 matter under consideration at once raises the question : 
 What is the criterion that should determine the selection 
 of subjects for the curriculum? An answer has been 
 given by Professor Dewey in discussing this topic with 
 reference to the common school. With slight modifica- 
 tion it may be applied to the normal school also. 
 
 ^Ibid., chap. IV. 
 
 ^National Education Association Proceedings, 1899, p. 841. 
 ' See also The Modern High School^ by Johnston and others, 
 pp. 763, 754.. 
 
The Curriculum of the Normal School, 13 
 
 "A study is to be considered as a means of bringing the child 
 to realize the social scene of action. Thus considered, it gives a 
 criterion for selection of material and for judgment of values. 
 We have at present three independent values set up" [viz., cul- 
 ture, information, discipline].* 
 
 If, in this statement, the phrase "social scene of 
 action" be interpreted broadly, the "ideal" course men- 
 tioned above will be found to measure up to this require- 
 ment. However, the general lines of the curriculum 
 w'hich every school should aim to include have been 
 sketched more briefly and indicated more clearly under 
 these five topics : literature, science, art, religion, and 
 institutions.^ Collectively they constitute what is some- 
 times spoken of as man's "five-fold spiritual inherit- 
 ance." We conclude, therefore, that the normal school 
 as a school must either presuppose or provide training 
 in these five subjects; that is, in the first five divisions 
 of the "ideal" scheme outlined above. As a normal, or 
 professional school it must likewise include the theory 
 and the practice of teaching.^ The theory is provided 
 for in the sixth division of the "ideal" plan, and the 
 practice is realized in classes for the observation of 
 model lessons and methods, and for the teaching given 
 by normal students under direction and subject to 
 criticism. 
 
 In concluding this section we again call attention to 
 
 ' Op. cit., p. 21. 
 
 'Butler, Meaning of Education, p. 17; Shields, Psychology of 
 Education, Lesson IX, pp. 111-114. 
 
 " Cf . Ruediger, Principles of Education, pp. 5, 10; Gordy, op. 
 cit., pp. 129, 130; Elmer E. Brown, Education, Vol. XXIX, pp. 1-6. 
 
14 The Normal School. 
 
 the fact that the special committee appointed in 1898 
 by the National Education Association to prepare a 
 report on the Function of the Normal School regarded 
 religion as an essential study in the curriculum. The 
 quotation which we have given from Professor Dewey 
 suggests the value of the moral viewpoint as a de- 
 terminant of the method of teaching. It is unequivo- 
 cally asserted by Prof. F. W. Foerster: 
 
 "It is not what we know, but for what purpose we know it, and 
 in what relation it stands to the Most High and Almighty, that 
 is of importance in genuine education. It is not the fact that 
 we can read and write that really matters, but what we read and 
 write." ^ 
 
 Yet in spite of this, we find the following "Summary of 
 Inferences and Conclusions" given by Prof. W. C. Bag- 
 ley, in 1911, on "The Present Status of Moral Educa- 
 tion in Institutions for the Training of Teachers" : ^ 
 
 "1. Explicit instruction in the principles of moral education 
 is provided for by separate courses in relatively few universities, 
 colleges, and normal schools. Such courses are found much less 
 frequently in the normal schools than in the colleges and univer- 
 sities. 
 
 ^ Jugendlehre (p. 7) : "Nicht dass man etwas weiss, sondern 
 wozu man es weiss und in welchem Zuzammenhang mit dem 
 Allerhochsten und Allerwichtigsten — das macht echte Bildung 
 aus. Und nicht dass man lesen und schreiben kann, sondern was 
 man liest und was man schreibt, darauf kommt es an." 
 
 Although not a Catholic, Dr. Foerster, formerly of the Uni- 
 versity of Zurich, now of the University of Vienna, has been 
 brought, by his studies and his experience in the training of 
 youth, from the tenets of Ethical Culture "to the verv doors of 
 Rome." 
 
 *See Religious Ed/ucation, February, 1911, "Training Public 
 School Teachers," pp. 639 f.; also pp. 633, 634. 
 
The Curriculum of the Normal School. 15 
 
 "2. Courses in ethics are offered in seventy per cent, of the 
 colleges and universities, and in twenty-two per cent, of the 
 normal schools. In neither type of institution are the courses in 
 ethics frequently required of intending teachers. 
 
 "3. Instruction in the principles and methods of moral educa- 
 tion seems to be chiefly provided for by the courses in the history 
 and theory of education, and in school management. Although 
 more than a majority of the instructors in these institutions 
 believes that, in the lower schools, indirect moral instruction 
 through literature, history, and science has a very important 
 place, there seems to be little explicit effort to emphasize, in 
 presenting these subjects to intending teachers, the methods 
 through which their moral values may be realized. It is to be 
 inferred that this is done mainly in the instruction which is pro- 
 vided in the history and theory of education, and possibly also in 
 connection with observation and practice teaching. 
 
 "4. A majority of those engaged in the teaching of teachers 
 for the elementary and secondary schools place the greatest 
 emphasis upon school life as a source of moral education, although 
 indirect but systematic instruction through literature, history, and 
 science is also deemed to be of very great importance. A strong 
 minority favors explicit instruction through principle and precept 
 illustrated by concrete cases. The prevailing opinion is that 
 religious instruction in any form has no place in the elementary 
 and secondary schools. 
 
 "6. There is noticeable among many of those engaged in the 
 training of teachers a feeling that the problems of moral educa- 
 tion are particularly intangible and elusive, and that a concerted 
 effort to untangle at least some of the strands in this web is 
 essential to the next step in educational progress." 
 
 From these citations we seem to be justified in con- 
 cluding that, in the discharge of its function of training 
 intending teachers for the work of developing the social 
 efficiency of their future pupils, the normal school 
 relies chiefly (1) upon forming the normal students to 
 right methods of teaching, and (2) upon subjecting 
 the personality of the normal students to the inspiring 
 
16 The Normal School 
 
 personality of the normal staff. Let us now briefly 
 consider the question of method. 
 
 Article IV, — Method m the Normal School, 
 
 Method in general signifies a way of doing something. 
 In both its etymology and its application the term 
 implies at least a possible choice of ways. It is also 
 inseparably and essentially bound up with the idea of 
 a goal to be reached, a purpose to be attained. The 
 value of a method of education must therefore be de- 
 termined first of all by its intrinsic connection with the 
 end and aim of education. Its actual efficiency must 
 depend upon the knowledge and the skill of the teacher 
 who applies it. What method is most highly recom- 
 mended to-day by educators of repute and influence? 
 
 It is the genetic method. Its vogue is due to the 
 doctrine of evolution, whose principles and methods 
 have seeped through every stratum of the educational 
 system. We may sum up its functions in three words : 
 Study present conditions, trace their origin in the past, 
 make a forecast of the effects which they are likely to 
 produce in the future. In the words of Professor 
 Dewey :^ 
 
 "The method, as well as the material, is genetic when the effort 
 is made to see just why and how the fact shows itself, what is 
 the state out of which it naturally proceeds, what the conditions 
 of its manifestation, how it came to be there anyway, and what 
 
 ^ Introduction, pp. xiii, xv, to Irving King's Psychology of 
 Child Development. Cf. also Dr. Pace, "Survey of the Prob- 
 lems," Lesson III, iii Dr. Shields' Psychology of Education. 
 
Method in the Normal School, 17 
 
 other changes it arouses or checks after it comes to be there. 
 . . . In a truly genetic method, the idea of genesis looks both 
 ways; this fact is itself generated out of certain conditions, and 
 in turn tends to generate something else." 
 
 The graduate of the normal school must be equipped 
 to grasp the significant relations of the various school 
 studies to the realities of life, to trace their connections 
 with the activities in which the pupils of the grade 
 schools are interested; in a word, to make the knowl- 
 edge that is of most worth function in building up in 
 the pupils, both as individuals and as members of a 
 group, the habits that make for honorable citizenship. 
 In the words of Dr. Foerster: ^ 
 
 "The training of the educator and teacher must follow two 
 lines: on the one hand, it must observe and study in detail the 
 actual world as the child experiences it; and on the other, it must 
 examine what moral action is to be required of the child — 
 for this purpose not only investigating in a general way the 
 philosophical or religious basis of such action, but also and 
 especially thoroughly grasping its concrete meaning and content, 
 its bearings on all other spheres of life, and its sociological and 
 biological aspects." 
 
 The school, therefore, must function as a social in- 
 
 ^ Jugendlehre (p. 21): "Die Schulung des Erziehers und 
 Lehrers muss dementsprechend nach zwei Richtungen gehen/ 
 Einmal jene wirkliche Welt des Kindes eingehend zu beobachten 
 und zu studieren — und andererseits die geforderte sittliche 
 I.eistung nicht etwa nur in ihrer philosophischen oder religiosen 
 Begriindung zu erforschen, sondern sie vor allem in ihrem kon- 
 kreten Sinn und Gehalt, ihren Bedingungen zu alien andern 
 Lebensgebieten, ihrer soziologischen und biologischen Seite 
 erschopfend aufzufassen." See also E. J. Swift, Learning and 
 Doing, Chap. 11, "Efficient Teaching;" Joseph K. Hart, A Crit- 
 ical Study of Current Theories of Moral Education, pp. 27, 28; 
 G. H. Betts, Social Principles of Education, p. 91, 
 
18 The Normal School. 
 
 stitution. To be able to co-operate in making this 
 phase of school life effective, the intending teacher 
 must receive preparation in the normal school. What, 
 then, is the atmosphere of the normal school? Does it 
 favor the development, by the teacher, of a genuine 
 social spirit in the schoolroom in which he begins to 
 teach? 
 
 Article V, — The Spirit of the Normal School. 
 
 We again quote from what has been termed the 
 "Normal School Bible," ^ viz., the Report of the Special 
 Committee on the "Function of the Normal School." 
 In the section on the "Inner Life of the Normal School" 
 we read: 
 
 "In the school life of normal schools there is probably collected 
 a larger percentage of serious-minded, thoughtful, earnest people 
 than in any other kind of an educational institution. The 
 majority of these have a definite purpose and are prepared to 
 do very much for each other socially, morally, religiously. 
 Wherever the student organizations known as the Young Men's 
 Christian Association and the Young Women's Association are 
 encouraged and authorized to exist, there great benefit has always 
 come to the moral and religious life of the general student 
 body." ^ 
 
 The worth of a right spirit in the school is clearly 
 indicated in the following lines: 
 
 "The first requisite in the discharge of its function is that the 
 normal school shall inspire the student with the spirit of the true 
 teacher. Its atmosphere must be such that he will be continually 
 
 ^National Education Association Proceedings, 1909, p. 561. 
 * Rational Education Association Proceedings, 1899, p. 862. 
 
The Spirit of the Normal School. 19 
 
 breathing in this spirit. He is to consider the acquisition and 
 use of knowledge, the exercises of the school, his own purpose, 
 manners, and conduct from the point of view of the teacher. It 
 is vitally important to awaken in the normal student a just 
 appreciation of the work of the teacher, that he must have the 
 spirit of service, must love his work, love his pupils, feel that he 
 has a mission which he must accomplish, and come to his pupils, 
 as the Great Teacher comes to men, that they may have life 
 abundantly. This end can be accomplished only by a school 
 whose sole purpose is the education of teachers, and whose 
 faculty is consecrated to this service." ^ 
 
 These are noble words. Their acceptance makes it 
 obHgatory on the faculty of the normal school (1) to 
 cherish a high ideal of their profession, (2) persistently 
 to endeavor to live up to it with a view to inspire and 
 to train the normal students under their guidance. In 
 other words, the spirit of the normal school depends 
 chiefly on the personality of the teachers.^ And so 
 we are brought back to our first topic, the aim of the 
 normal school, which we saw depends for its realization 
 on the personality of the teaching staff. The words of 
 Archbishop J. L. Spalding are true: "As the heart 
 makes the home, the teacher makes the school." ^ Now 
 personality spells character. In the words of Col. 
 Francis W. Parker: "No matter how much educators 
 may differ in regard to the means and methods of teach- 
 ing, upon one point there is substantial agreement; 
 
 ' Ibid., pp. 884, 886. 
 
 »Cf. Rt. Rev. T. J. Conaty, D. D., "The Personality of the 
 Teacher," in National Education Association Proceedings, 1907, 
 pp. 77-87; also Moral Training in the Public Schools. Essay by 
 Charles E. Rugh, p. 20. 
 
 ^ Means and Ends of Education, p. 136. 
 
W The Norrnal School 
 
 viz., that the end and aim of all education is the de- 
 velopment of character." ^ 
 
 What is character? This unmistakable stamp 
 upon the moral fiber of the individual has two distinc- 
 tive marks: unity and stability of purpose. They are 
 acquired through self-knowledge and self-dominion.^ 
 They are the product of intellectual and moral habits. 
 Character therefore implies a comprehension of the 
 meaning of life, a clear vision of end and means and 
 values. Does the present tendency to secure moral 
 training by organizing the child's experiences give due 
 recognition to the elements of character? May edu- 
 cation be adequately defined as "the progressive recon- 
 struction of experience, with a growing consciousness 
 of social values and an increasing control over the 
 processes of experience?" ^ Does not this view suggest 
 Herbert Spencer's definition of the moral sense; viz., 
 "the experiences of utility organized and consolidated 
 through all past generations of the human race?" * Is 
 the experience of the race to be the sole guide of the 
 teacher in the discharge of his apostolic functions? 
 Who or what shall interpret this experience? More- 
 
 ^ Talks on Teaching^ p. 164, ed. 1893. 
 
 "See Gillet, The Education of Character, pp. 16 ff., 30 ff. 
 Arthur Holmes somewhat inadequately defines character as "the 
 total customary reaction of an individual to his environment." 
 Principles of Character Making, p. 28. His fundamental prin- 
 ciples are opposed to Catholic teaching. Cf. Catholic Educational 
 Review, Jan., 1915. 
 
 " Betts, Social Principles of Education, p. 164. 
 ^ Letter to John Stuart Mill, quoted in Bain's Mental and 
 Moral Science, p. 722, ed. 1868. 
 
Limitations of the Normal School, ^1 
 
 over, if the interpreter of experience lack the confidence 
 that springs from the assured possession of the truth, 
 how can he stir the deeper emotions that direct the 
 current of one's Hfe? In the words of St. Paul: ^'If 
 the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare 
 himself to the battle?" ^ Whoever accepts Spencer's 
 appraisal of the moral sense, logically admits also his 
 definition of life as "the continuous adjustment of in- 
 ternal relations to external relations." ^ Yet, by 1898, 
 Spencer had come to the conchision that "in its ultimate 
 nature Life is incomprehensible." ^ We are here face to 
 face with difficulties. 
 
 Article VL — Limitations of the Normal School, 
 
 We have considered the aim, the curriculum, the 
 method, and the spirit of the normal school. We have 
 found that in all these respects the absolutely indis- 
 pensable factor is the personality of the teacher 
 — of the teacher that is, forming and developing 
 the personality of the teacher that is to be. Modem 
 pedagogy refers this fact to the principle of "ex- 
 pression through action" ; that is, the teacher's 
 mental attitude is expressed in his conduct.* The 
 formation of a noble character is dependent on the de- 
 velopment of right mental and moral habits. But habit- 
 
 ^I Cor. xiv, 8. 
 
 * Principles of Biology, Vol. I, p. 30. 
 
 »See his letter in Nature (London), October 12, 1898, Vol. 
 LVIII, pp. 592, 593. 
 
 * Cf . Thorndike, Education, p. 186. 
 
^2 The Normal School, 
 
 building demands more than frequent and regular repe- 
 tition of acts. These acts must be performed under the 
 stress of deep emotion if they are to contribute their 
 share to the life, the higher life, of either intending 
 teacher or prospective pupil. Professor Starbuck says 
 it "seems to be one of the great streams of religious 
 development, to give those deeper racial instincts which 
 are consistent with self -development and the develop- 
 ment of society the fullest possible expression, and 
 gradually to transform and enlarge them into spiritual 
 forces." ^ Supplementing this is the statement of Frank 
 Cramer in the fourth of the California Prize Essays : 
 
 "Without either insisting or desiring that the religious sanctions 
 of morality be directly taught in the schools, we may here admit 
 the secret of the perennial power of the religious sanctions of 
 morality as it is generally understood in our country. It is based 
 not on the power to command and the duty to obey, but on a 
 personal, spiritual relation between the individual and his God — 
 a relation that is immediate, constant, and worthy, and that no 
 changes in life or environment can modify. History has proved 
 this Hebrew-Christian view to be the only one that can hold 
 common men intellectually and spiritually true to the best ideals 
 of the race."'' 
 
 The reflections of Archbishop J. L. Spalding are 
 here pertinent : 
 
 "If education is a training for completeness of life, its primary 
 element is the religious, for complete life is life in God. Hence 
 we may not assume an attitude toward the child, whether in the 
 home, in the church, or in the school, which might imply that life 
 apart from God could be anything else than broken and frag- 
 
 ^ Psychology of Religion, p. 847. 
 
 ^ Moral Training in the Public Schools, p. 139. 
 
Limitations of the Normal School, 23 
 
 mentary. A complete man is not one whose mind only is active 
 and enlightened; but he is a complete man who is alive in all his 
 faculties. The truly human is found not in knowledge alone, 
 but also in faith, in hope, in love, in pure-mindedness, in rever- 
 ence, in the sense of beauty, in devoutness, in the thrill of awe 
 which Goethe says is the highest thing in man. If the teacher is 
 forbidden to touch upon religion, the source of these noble virtues 
 and ideal moods is sealed. His work and influence become 
 mechanical, and he will form but commonplace and vulgar men. 
 And if an educational system is established on this narrow and 
 material basis, the result will be deterioration of the national 
 type, and the loss of the finer qualities which make men many- 
 sided and interesting, which are the safeguards of personal purity 
 and of unselfish conduct." ^ 
 
 How does this restriction affect the normal school? 
 
 1. In the first place, it lowers the aim. The teacher 
 may not officially look upon the Great Teacher of man- 
 kind as the divine Exemplar of his office. Indeed many 
 of the books written by prominent educators of our age 
 place the Founder of Christianity in the same rank with 
 Socrates, Plato, Locke, and Milton. This very attitude 
 narrows the vision of the intending teacher and lessens 
 the nobility of his profession, whose worth, on the other 
 hand, the Christian projects into a world beyond time. 
 The development of both his own and his pupils' char- 
 acter is no longer fraught with such teeming interest, 
 for the results are virtually limited to the brief span of 
 a human life. Yet the Christian believes firmly that 
 these effects are everlasting. Even though the. teacher 
 profess as an individual the faith established by Jesus 
 Christ, yet as teacher he continually finds his religious 
 freedom circumscribed in its natural exercise and ex- 
 
 ^ Means and Ends of Education, pp. 168, 169. 
 
M The Normal School. 
 
 pression by the formal prohibition against the teaching 
 of rehgion. 
 
 2. This restriction affects the curriculum. It is 
 indeed true that Christianity, for example, is not a mere 
 body of doctrine to be learned; it is pre-eminently a 
 code of perfection to be lived. Yet the very omission 
 of a subject from the curriculum is in itself a judgment 
 against the relative value of that subject. Neither 
 teacher nor pupil in the normal school is completely 
 immune against such a deadly innuendo.^ This prohi- 
 bition likewise extends to the positively religious as- 
 pects of other subjects in the curriculum, and it falls 
 with a special severity upon one field of English litera- 
 ture. 
 
 "Knowledge of the English Bible is passing out of the life of 
 the rising generation, and . . . with this knowledge of the 
 Bible there is fast disappearing any acquaintance with the 
 religious element which has shaped our civilization from the begin- 
 ning. . . . Teachers all over this land are trying to teach 
 Chaucer and Spenser, Shakespeare, Tennyson, and Browning. 
 How are they to understand men who refer to the Bible, that 
 veritable treasure-house of literature, on every page, if they 
 cannot take the children to the source from which the supply is 
 drawn? How are they to discuss and interpret the style of 
 Ruskin, of Carlyle, of Emerson? How are they to teach the 
 history of the heroes of our own independence, many of whom 
 were religious in every fiber of their being, and whose work will 
 continue to bear the stamp put upon it in the beginning, utterly 
 regardless of what has become of religious faith in the interval? 
 How is one to teach the truth as history reveals it, unless he 
 teaches the whole truth?"* 
 
 ^ Cf. E. A. Ross, Social Psychology, pp. 18, 19. . 
 ^ N. M. Butler, "Some Pressing Problems," p. 74, in National 
 Education Association Proceedings, 1902. 
 
Limitations of the Normal School. 25 
 
 3. This prohibition against the teaching of a definite 
 faith in the State normal schools has its effect upon 
 method also. "The fact that religious instruction is 
 excluded makes it all the more necessary," says Arch- 
 bishop Spalding, "that humanizing and ethical aims 
 should be kept constantly in view." ^ In every subject, 
 in every lesson, the teacher must strive to keep the 
 ethical content and viewpoint well to the fore. Not, 
 indeed, that this is sufficient for a thoroughly Christian 
 scheme of education, but it is all that the law allows. 
 And yet book after book, review after review that 
 touches upon this theme, tells of how inadequate are the 
 means at hand to fit the young generation for life's 
 trials and temptations. The "self-realization" of the 
 play-ground, the school-city, and vocational training 
 must be crowned by "self-mastery." Of old it was 
 termed self-denial, by Christian writers.^ That it is not 
 less necessary to-day than when it was fed by living 
 faith, may appear from the statement of the Head 
 Master of Eton, that "the most certain result" of sep- 
 arating a child's morality from his religious belief, is 
 "the perishing of the latter and the weakening of the 
 former." ^ He adds : "If, on the other hand, there have 
 been no religious beliefs implanted, I should say that, 
 with a normal child, good moral instruction would very 
 often secure chastity during boyhood, but would be an 
 
 ^ Means and Ends of Education, p. 141. 
 "Cf. Matt, xvi, 24. 
 
 " Edward Lyttleton, Educational Review, Vol. XL VI (Sept., 
 1913), p. 137. See also p. 138, 
 
26 The Normal School. 
 
 insufficient protection during adolescence and early 
 manhood, when deeply laid principles are required to 
 take the place of simple obedience to parents." 
 
 The method that meets with greatest favor to-day is 
 the genetic method already described; but its scope is 
 greatly circumscribed by the exclusion of religion and 
 the religious viewpoint. The value of the exact sciences 
 is not comparable to the worth of an exact knowledge 
 of man's origin, nature, and destiny ; and this knowledge 
 is given by dogmatic Christianity. Yet it is not easy 
 to overestimate the value of such living moral methods 
 as are sketched by Professor Foerster in his Jugend- 
 lehre (Instruction of Youth). Could they be applied 
 by thoroughly Christian teachers full of intelligent zeal 
 for their calling and free to follow the inspirations of 
 their faith, these methods would prove to be beyond 
 price. Just as Cardinal Newman has paid high tribute 
 to the value of natural religion,^ so, since "Grace com- 
 pletes nature," every Christian should desire to have 
 the best natural conditions obtain as affording a richer 
 opportunity for the action of grace. We therefore com- 
 mend three other books of Dr. Foerster: Schule wnd 
 Charakter (School and Character), which he calls a 
 "contribution to the pedagogy of obedience and to the 
 reform of school discipline"; Lehensfuhrwng (The 
 Conduct of Life), "a book for young people"; and 
 Sexualethih und SexualpddagogiJc, the English transla- 
 
 ^ Grammar of Assent, pp. 389-408. Baudin, "I.a Philosophic de 
 la Foi chez Newman" (June, July, Sept., Oct., 1906), in Revue de 
 Philosophies thinks that Newman magnifies the scope of natural 
 religion. 
 
Limitations of the Normal School, 37 
 
 tion of which bears the title "Marriage and the Sex- 
 Problem." Yet, great as is the favor with which these 
 books have been received, and however dynamic their 
 methods, the author has confessed that they are very 
 inadequate for present needs. "He has no doubt that 
 the more pedagogy is really concerned with the con- 
 crete problem of character-formation, with the dark 
 enigma of man's self-seeking, with his tragic dissension 
 of will, with the psychology of experimentation, and 
 with the dynamics of self-conquest, the safer will it be 
 to recognize again the pedagogically indispensable 
 character of religious inspiration and the insufficiency 
 of the modern substitute." These words are taken from 
 his address at the Second International Congress of 
 Moral Education, held at The Hague in 1912.^ 
 
 The method which Dr. Foerster and others have 
 advocated is at best a help. It is not a substitute for 
 religion. 
 
 4. The spirit of the school also suffers from this 
 restriction. It is a fact of experience, which the psy- 
 chologist has endeavored to explain, that the average 
 man will express his religious feelings and convictions 
 freely only in the presence of those who share his faith 
 or at least regard it with no unfriendly eye.^ Such an 
 attitude tends to dim the luster of faith and to lower 
 the pulse of charity. The supernatural ceases to be the 
 great motive power in life, and the longing for the 
 
 ^ M^moires sur VEducation Morale 'pr4sent4s au deuandme 
 Congrds, August, 1912, p. 6. 
 
 * Cf. Father Faber, Notes on Doctrinal and Spiritual Subjects, 
 Vol. II, "English Catholicism," pp. 97-116. 
 
28 The Normal School, 
 
 better and nobler activities dies down to contentment 
 with an ordinary existence. This in turn reacts on our 
 associates and through them also upon others.^ And 
 so it is that the illumination of supernatural faith is 
 wanting to the teaching staff and to the students in 
 their mutual relations, to the subjects of study, and 
 even to the profession of teaching. Hence it is that 
 the best fuel for life-long consecration to the work of 
 education is often wanting and the professional spirit 
 may wane.^ 
 
 Article VII , — Summary, 
 
 Fortunately we have received from the past a rich 
 heritage of Christian doctrine. Christian ideals, and 
 Christian standards. Even non-Christians cannot es- 
 cape their influence. But if we would be true to our 
 trust, we must accept this faith, cherish these ideals, 
 and square our lives by these standards. The public 
 school system of this country is an act of faith in the 
 efficacy of universal education. It is an act of faith in 
 the loyalty of the public school teachers. It is an act 
 
 *The reverse of this picture is well described by Foerster: 
 "Eine Ahnung von der Heiligkeit dieser Kunst bekommt man 
 manchmal, wenn man einmal so einem begiiadeten Menschen 
 begegnet, dessen blosse Nahe so wirkt, dass wir das Beste sagen 
 was in uns ist und uns besser ftihlen in seiner Gegenwart — ein 
 Mensch, der alles von uns erreichen kann, was er will, well sein 
 Ton es bewirkt, dass wir alles vergessen, was hart und wild in 
 uns ist, und nur noch atmen und leben mogen mit dem was ihm 
 ahnlich ist." Jugendlehre, p. 52. Cf. Cardinal Newman on the 
 "Idea of a Saint," Discourses Addressed to Mixed Congregations, 
 pp. 94, 95. 
 
 ^Cf. G. H. Betts, Social Principles of Education, p. 111. 
 
Summary. 29 
 
 of faith in the possibility of equal opportunity to all. It 
 is faith, for it is "the evidence of things that appear 
 not." ^ But the faith is human ; it does not rise to the 
 fatherhood of God; it does not grasp the deeper mean- 
 ing of the brotherhood of man. May not divine faith 
 be incorporated in the work of education? This ques- 
 tion we will consider in the next chapter. 
 
 ^ Heb. xi, 2. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Religious Novitiate. 
 
 Article L — The Religious Life in General, 
 
 Since the Religious Novitiate is the period of prep- 
 aration for entrance into a religious order, its value is 
 to be estimated in terms of the religious life for which 
 it prepares. It is therefore necessary to consider 
 briefly the nature and the purpose of the religious life 
 as developed in and by the orders and congregations 
 of the Catholic Church. However much these societies 
 may difl*er in the aim peculiar to each, they all agree in 
 their endeavor to procure the glory of God by labori "" 
 for the salvation of the souls of the individual mt ^' 
 Moreover, since they possess a unity analogous in kind, 
 but superior in eflicacy, to that of the living organism, 
 the welfare of the whole society redounds tv: the benefit 
 of each individual member, and vice versa. Further- 
 more since each order or congregation seeks to apply 
 in a special way the principles of Christian teaching 
 and practice promulgated by the Catholic Church, it 
 follows that the excellence which it attains or the good 
 which it works, becomes part of the common treasury 
 of the whole Catholic Church. Hence it is that each 
 such religious society is a genuinely social institution, 
 contributing generously to the welfare not only of the 
 
 80 
 
The Religious Life in General. 31 
 
 Catholic Church, but also of mankind at large. This 
 point will be developed more fully later. Let us in pass- 
 ing note this fact of history, to which Balmes invites 
 our attention,^ that wherever the Church thrives and 
 the spirit of her message to the race takes deep root, 
 there also springs up a crop of generous souls who long 
 for the more perfect realization of the life exemplified 
 in the person of our Saviour. This very longing, if 
 persistent, becomes, for its possessor, a kind of tangible 
 proof of his latent ability to pursue this higher life. 
 Among Catholics such a person is said to possess a 
 "vocation" to either the priesthood or the religious 
 life.^' ' 
 
 ^ European Civilization^ p. 221. 
 
 * That the religious life does not necessarily include the priest- 
 hood follows from: (1) its history (Cf. Montalembert, Monks of 
 the West, Vol. I, pp. 166, 298, 398) ; (2) the fact that it is open to 
 women; (3) the approbation which the Holy See has given to lay 
 
 is orders and congregations agree in these respects: 
 1. i:ia,j^ are associations of persons of the same sex who live 
 under a common rule; 2. The members have bound themselves 
 by the three vows of voluntary poverty, perfect chastity, and 
 entire obedienc^ oto strive for the attainment of Christian per- 
 fection as outlined in the Gospels; 3. Their association has been 
 sanctioned by papal, or at least by episcopal, approbation. They 
 differ, however, especially in this, that the members of a re- 
 ligious order are bound for life by solemn vows with their de- 
 rivative obligations; whereas the members of a religious con- 
 gregation are bound by simple vows, which at first may be tem- 
 porary only, i. e., for one year or for three years, but which 
 eventually must become perpetual, i. e., they must cover the re- 
 maining span of mortal life. Cf. Heimbucher, Die Orden umd 
 Kongregationen der Katholischen Kirche, Vol. I, pp. 1 ff., 23 ff. 
 For our present purpose it is not necessary to dwell upon the 
 distinction between an order and a congregation. Accordingly 
 we will use the two terms interchangeably. 
 
32 The Reliffious Nomtiate. 
 
 Since those persons who followed the call to this 
 higher life, took upon themselves the special obligation 
 of tending to the perfection of Christianity (that is, of 
 striving not merely to keep the commandments of God, 
 but also to practise the Gospel counsels), they became 
 'bound' to the service of God in a special way, and hence 
 they were known as 'religious.' So early even as A. D. 
 450, we find the term religio used by the Second Coun- 
 cil of Aries to designate what would now be called a 
 religious order. Later the term ordo (order) was sub- 
 stituted, suggesting more particularly the idea of social 
 organization.^ To it was sometimes added the quali- 
 fying adjective religiosus (religious) or regvZaris (ac- 
 cording to rule). The fundamental idea embodied in 
 the word 'congregation' is that of flock; viz., one fold 
 with one shepherd, the superior. 
 
 From these considerations certain ideas stand out 
 prominently: 1. The religious life as expressed in the 
 religious orders and congregations of the Catholic 
 Church is a state,^ constituted such by the vows ; it is 
 therefore a permanent institution, and as such includes : 
 (a) a system of fundamental principles guiding the judg- 
 ments and correcting the conclusions of those who share 
 its life; (b) an ethical code, determining their outward 
 conduct and in this way influencing to some extent the 
 feelings and emotions that give color to their daily life ; 
 (c) an educational agency illustrating in a notable way 
 
 ^Id., p. 19. 
 
 «St. Thomas (tr. Proctor), The Religious State, Chaps. XV, 
 XVI. 
 
The Religious Life in General. S8 
 
 the principle that solidarity promotes individuality — 
 L e., that the highest development of the individual is 
 attained by sincere and active co-operation in the* work 
 special to the society/ S. The religious state imposes 
 the obligation of "tending to perfection" by the practice 
 of the Evangelical counsels. It implies continual growth 
 and development. "Not to advance is to recede" is a 
 maxim of spiritual writers. 3. In other words, as a 
 state tending toward Christian perfection, it imposes on 
 its members the obligation of striving for the Christian 
 ideal. "I have given you a new commandment," said 
 our Lord; "that you love one another as I have loved 
 you." ^ The religious life is, therefore, characterized 
 by genuine social service.^ 
 
 For comprehensive knowledge of these principles, for 
 adequate control over their application, for habitual 
 regulation of one's conduct by the great end to which 
 these principles should lead, careful, consistent, and 
 persistent preparation is not only advisable but im- 
 perative. The religious life is more than a craft de- 
 manding a period of diligent apprenticeship ; it is, even 
 in the language of the Catholic Church, a profession* 
 as well as a vocation, and therefore, like the so-called 
 "learned professions," it calls for a period of earnest 
 preparation. 
 
 ^ Baldwin, The Individual and Society, Chap. I. 
 
 'John xiii, 34. 
 
 ' Heimbucher, op. cit., pp. 109-111. 
 
 * Id., p. 20. 
 
84 The Religious Novitiate. 
 
 A religious profession is obviously a public assump- 
 tion of the duties of the religious life. According to the 
 laws of the Church now in force, it "denotes the act of 
 embracing the religious state by the three vows of pov- 
 erty, chastity, and obedience according to the rule of 
 an order canonically approved." ^ Such an act sup- 
 poses in the one who makes it, ( 1 ) a trained will, other- 
 wise he would be incapable of the self-mastery revealed 
 in his act of "self-donation"; (^) a trained judgment, 
 extending not only to the rights and privileges accruing 
 to him as member of an order, but also and in a par- 
 ticular manner to the obligations which he freely takes 
 upon himself for life; (3) a practical spirit of sincere 
 co-operation with his fellow-religious in those channels 
 of social service through which the order justifies before 
 men both its claim to existence and its appeal for in- 
 creased membership. Engagements of this kind are not 
 lightly to be assumed. Hence from the very character 
 of the religious profession, as well as from the nature 
 of the religious life, it follows that a period of prepara- 
 tion is indispensable. If years of careful training at 
 West Point are held to be a necessary equipment for 
 military service, if a special and comprehensive educa- 
 tion is considered requisite at Annapolis for candidates 
 for the Navy, some preparation is evidently desirable 
 in one who is to devote his life not only to acquiring the 
 science of sanctity but also to becoming proficient in 
 the art of holy living. For the religious life, although 
 a state, is, in the mind of the Church, not a static con- 
 
 'Vermeersch, Catholic Encyclopedia, "Profession, Religious." 
 
The Religious Life in General, 86 
 
 dition, but a dynamic factor in both individual develop- 
 ment and social betterment. 
 
 According to Professor Ruediger,^ "Education as a 
 professional study and practice has, (1) a theory of 
 aims, values, and content; (2) a theory of instruction 
 and training; (3) a history; (4) a theory of manage- 
 ment and control; and (5) a technic of practice." The 
 religious orders hold a prominent place among the 
 great educational agencies controlled by the Catholic 
 Church. They too have: (1) a theory of aims and 
 values that comes from the very Founder of Christian- 
 ity; (2) a content or curriculum embodying the best 
 traditions of this mode of life from the days of the first 
 hermits down to our own age; (3) a method of instruc- 
 tion and training that has grown up out of the experi- 
 ence of the great founders of orders; (4) a history 
 that is intimately connected not only with the history 
 of the Catholic Church, but also with that of Christian 
 civilization; (5) a theory of management and control 
 embodied in the rules and constitutions as approved 
 by ecclesiastical authority; (6) a technic of practice 
 which is begun in the novitiate. The novitiate is there- 
 fore the "normal school" of the religious life. It is a 
 school that prepares for the profession of religion. St. 
 Benedict, the great lawgiver of the Monks of the West, 
 speaks of it as "the school of the Lord's service." ^ 
 
 * Principles of Education, p. 10. 
 
 * Prologue of the Rule, tr. by a monk of St. Benedict's Abbey, 
 Fort Augustus, p. 11, cited by T. W. Allies, in The Monastic 
 Life, p. 176. 
 
36 The Religious Novitiate. 
 
 Article II. — The Nature and Aim of the Novitiate, 
 
 The period of preparation for that formal entrance 
 into the religious life which is effected by the act of 
 religious profession, is known as the novitiate. The 
 term is also applied to the house in which this prepara- 
 tion is made. He who wishes to become a member of 
 the order is known as a 'postulant' from the time when 
 he has been received into the house of the novitiate to 
 the date of his reception of the religious habit. After 
 his request for admission has been duly accepted by the 
 proper authorities in the order, he is clothed in the 
 religious habit and is henceforth a 'novice.' The term 
 itself reminds us of how the Catholic Church takes the 
 mean and lowly things of this world and, appropriating 
 them to the purposes of her mission, lifts them up to the 
 plane of her spiritual life. In the ancient Roman days 
 of the elder Cato, a 'novice' was a newly acquired slave, 
 in contrast to a veterator, a slave worn out by years of 
 labor and suffering in the service of a master. Now the 
 "word novice ... is the canonical Latin name of 
 those, who, having been regularly admitted into a re- 
 ligious order and ordinarily confirmed in their high 
 vocation by a certain period of probation as postulants, 
 are prepared by a series of exercises and tests for the 
 religious profession." ^ 
 
 ^ A. Vermeersch, Catholic Encyclopedia, "Novice." Cf. 
 Heimbucher, op. cit. Vol. I, pp. 7 ff. Allies, Formation of 
 Christendom^ Vol. I, p. 71. When Newman was made Rector of 
 the Catholic University of Ireland, he asked Mr. Allies to take 
 the chair of history. 
 
The Nature mid Aim of the Novitiate. 37 
 
 The novitiate is, therefore, (1) a period of prepara- 
 tion. As such it should interest: (a) the genetic psy- 
 chologist who sees in the present the promise and po- 
 tency of the future; (b) the teacher, whose life is spent 
 in preparing the young for citizenship and social 
 service. (2) It is a period of preparation for the 
 religious 'life;' and therefore it has analogies to those 
 features of adjustment that may be attractive to the 
 biologist in his study of organic life. (3) It is a prep- 
 aration for the 'religious' life. As such it is of interest : 
 (a) to the theologian, who makes a careful study of the 
 virtues that characterize the religious orders; (b) to 
 the Christian who looks upon the religious orders as a 
 special manifestation of the vitality of Christian prin- 
 ciples; (c) to the philosopher, who sees in Christianity 
 the realization of a new form of universality; viz., the 
 brotherhood of all men, as a corollary of the father- 
 hood of God, the great truth taught by both the Old 
 and the New Testament. 
 
 To the novice himself the order proposes a new ideal 
 for his personal realization ; viz., the example set by the 
 Saviour of mankind in His every word and deed. This 
 ideal is constructive: "Do not think that I am come to 
 destroy the law or the prophets," said the Founder of 
 Christianity ; "I am not come to destroy but to fulfill." ^ 
 It is prophylactic: "He that shall scandalize one of 
 these little ones that believe in Me, it were better for 
 him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, 
 and that he should be drowned in the depth of the 
 
 'Matt. V, 17. 
 
38 The ReligioTis Novitiate. 
 
 sea." ^ It IS remedial. This is shown by the parables 
 of the good Samaritan,^ the lost sheep, and the prodigal 
 son.^ It is inspiring: "Come to Me, all you that labor 
 and are burdened, and I will refresh you." * It is su- 
 preme: "Be you therefore perfect, as also your heav- 
 enly Father is perfect." ^ "Seek ye therefore first the 
 kingdom of God and His justice." ^ 
 
 Looking at the novitiate in another way, we may say 
 that it purposes to make a perfect novice of each can- 
 didate who is received ; that is, it aims to develop in him 
 both persistent longings and consistent efforts to repro- 
 duce in himself the life of Christ. With this end in 
 view, it supplies him with special means to broaden, 
 deepen, and strengthen his Christian faith, that he may 
 the better appreciate, (1) his position as a creature 
 and the duties that bind him in consequence; and (S) 
 his privileges and responsibilities as a human being, as 
 a Christian, as a religious. We shall briefly consider 
 these topics. 
 
 1. Both reason and experience tell man that he is 
 dependent. It is indeed in virtue of this state that his 
 education is at once possible and necessary. But Chris- 
 tian faith assures him in no uncertain voice that his 
 dependency has a mark of nobility : 
 
 * Matt, xviii, 6. 
 «Luke X, 30-37. 
 ' Luke XV. 
 *Matt. xi, 28. 
 
 • Matt. V, 48. 
 
 « Matt, vi, 33. 
 
The Nature and Aim of the Novitiate. 39 
 
 "we come 
 From God, who is our home." 
 
 Although man must rely upon his fellow-creatures of 
 the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal kingdom, 
 which minister in a thousand ways to his many wants ; 
 yet, as embodying in himself all their perfections, but 
 in a more excellent way, and as possessing the attribute 
 of reason, he becomes their representative and there- 
 fore, in their name as well as in his own, he owes their 
 common Lord and Master the tribute of service. The 
 novitiate, therefore, seeks first of all to revive in the 
 mind of the novice a keen sense of his position as crea- 
 ture. It reminds him that he must have "the conduct 
 and the virtues befitting a creature. . . . He must 
 be made up of fear, of obedience, of submission, of hu- 
 mility, of prayer, of repentance, and, above all, of love." 
 It endeavors to impress upon him the great truth that 
 "the only knowledge worth much of his time and trouble, 
 the only science which will last with him and stand him 
 in good stead, consists in his study of the character of 
 God. He received everything from God. He belongs to 
 him." It labors to produce in him a living conviction 
 that "God must be equally the object of his moral con- 
 duct. God must have his whole heart as well as his 
 whole mind." Day by day therefore the novice draws 
 nearer to this conclusion: 
 
 "A creature means *A11 for God.' Holiness is an unselfing [of] 
 ourselves. To be a creature is to have an intensified sonship, 
 whose life and breath and being are nothing but the fervors of 
 his filial love taking fire on his Father's bosom in the pressure 
 of his Father's arms. The Sacred Humanity of the Eternal Son, 
 beaming in the very central heart of the Ever-blessed Trinity — 
 
40 The Religions Novitiate. 
 
 that is the type, the meaning, the accomplishment of the 
 creature." ^ 
 
 The endeavor to live up to his obligations as creature 
 ihakes the novice a better man. 
 
 %, (a) The novitiate recalls to him the lessons of 
 his early days. It reminds him that he is possessed of 
 intelligence and that he should direct his conduct ac- 
 cording to right reason. Even the pagan philosopher 
 Aristotle had taught as much.^ If all men are bound 
 to practice the moral virtues — prudence, justice, tem- 
 perance and fortitude — the novice ought to cultivate 
 them in an eminent degree. If Professor Thomdike's 
 principle of selection operates in favor of the normal 
 school student, it operates also for the novice. The 
 novitiate tells him that, by God's merciful providence, 
 he has been called not merely into existence as a crea- 
 ture, but also into rational being as a man. Both 
 justice and gratitude therefore impose on him the duty 
 of aiming to develop in his life what is characteristic 
 of man at his best. 
 
 (b) The novice is not merely a human being; he is 
 also a Christian guided by the light of divine faith and 
 upheld by divine grace. He might indeed have been 
 created in the state of pure nature, endowed with all 
 the qualities belonging to his nature as man and with 
 nothing more. He could then be subject to sickness 
 
 ^ Faber, The Creator and the Creature, pp. 67-69. 
 
 ^ Nicomachean Ethics, I, 6. Cicero, whom Allies (Formation of 
 Christendom, Vol. I, pp. 144-155, especially pp. 152, 153) selects 
 as the representative of what was best in paganism, repeats these 
 principles in De Officiis and De Finihus, 
 
The Nature and Aim of the Novitiate, 41 
 
 and suffering, since he has a body; to darkness of in- 
 tellect and weakness of will, for he has a soul ; and also 
 to death, since though he is a unitary being, he is yet 
 compounded of spirit and matter. Nor in this state 
 could he claim integrity of nature as a right. The body 
 might still rebel against the soul, and passion rise up 
 against reason.^ 
 
 But in the very beginning man was constituted in the 
 supernatural order, in the state of innocence, or orig- 
 inal justice. He was thereby raised to the dignity of 
 adopted son of God Himself, dowered in consequence 
 with the theological virtues of faith and hope and char- 
 ity, enriched with the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and pre- 
 destined not to the natural happiness of which Aristotle 
 has written,^ but to the supernatural felicity of seeing 
 his God face to face and possessing Him forever. In 
 this way was his dignity as man incomparably broad- 
 ened and deepened. It is therefore a principal duty of 
 the novitiate to instil into the future religious the 
 spirit of faith, educating him to take God's viewpoint 
 of the things of life, feeding his hope on motives of 
 faith, and making the principles of faith the very soul 
 of his charity. As creature, the novice is servant of 
 the Most High; as Christian, he is adopted son. 
 
 (c) The principle of selection^ has worked to a much 
 higher degree than this in the novice. He is chosen 
 even from among Christians. He has hearkened to the 
 
 * Faber, op. cit., pp. 43-46. 
 ' Nicomachean Ethics, X, 7, 8. 
 " See p. 5, above. 
 
42 The Religious Novitiate. 
 
 Master's call: "If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what 
 thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have 
 treasure in heaven : and come, follow Me." ^ To insure 
 the development of the three theological virtues, faith, 
 hope and charity, and the keeping of the ten command- 
 ments, he is preparing to surround them with the triple 
 guard of the three Gospel counsels: poverty, chastity 
 and obedience. 
 
 The religious novitiate, therefore, after laying be- 
 fore the novice his state and his duties as creature, in- 
 spires him so to act as to merit the triple crown of vir- 
 tuous deeds befitting the man, the Christian, and the 
 religious. In laboring to make him a better man, it 
 proposes to him for imitation the great Christian ideal 
 not merely as a great Teacher, — this even the normal 
 school does^ — but as a divine Model who gives special 
 helps to those who strive to walk in His footsteps. 
 Furthermore, to guarantee in him the attainment of the 
 Christian ideal, the novitiate bids the novice walk in 
 the more excellent way of religious perfection. Thus is 
 the novice doubly guarded against the moral dangers 
 to which even the normal school student may be ex- 
 posed, for in the stress and strain of temptation he must 
 withdraw from the practice not only of the Gospel coun- 
 sels but also of the Christian law, before he runs counter 
 to the dictates that emanate solely from right reason. 
 
 To sum up, we may say: the novitiate aims to make 
 of the novice not only a creature imbued with loyalty 
 
 ^Matt. xix, 21. 
 *See p. 10, above. 
 
The Curriculum of the Novitiate. 43 
 
 to his Creator, but also an honorable man, an exemplary 
 Christian, an intelligent and zealous religious. By what 
 means can this be effected? The answer entails a con- 
 sideration of both the curriculum and the method of 
 the novitiate. 
 
 Article III, — The Curriculum of the Novitiate. 
 
 What we here designate as the curriculum is better 
 known under the title of "spiritual exercises." The 
 latter term is happy in both its parts, and suggests 
 kinship with the supposedly modem theory that all the 
 information imparted in school should become func- 
 tional in the pupil's life. From the earliest days in the 
 history of the religious orders the novice has learned 
 by doing.^ The novitiate has consistently endeavored 
 to make the "learning process" significant and valuable 
 for him by having him incorporate its lessons into his 
 conduct. In the language of modem psychology, the 
 acquisition of the learning process determines his "be- 
 havior." ^ 
 
 The daily exercises of the novitiate may be divided 
 into two great classes: work and prayer; the one em- 
 ploying chiefly the activities of the body; the other, 
 those of the soul. Both are to be performed in com- 
 mon; both exert a socializing influence. 
 
 1. Although bodily labor was not unknown to the 
 early hermits and the cenobites of the East, yet St. 
 Benedict seems to have been the first great religious 
 
 ' Montalembert, Monks of the West, Vol. I, pp. 331, 332. 
 ' Cf . Colvin and Bagley, Human Behavior, Chaps. I, II. 
 
44 The Religious Novitiate. 
 
 legislator to make manual or literary labor of strict 
 obligation. He even "regulated minutely every hour 
 of the day according to the seasons, and ordained that, 
 after having celebrated the praises of God seven times 
 a day, seven hours a day should be given to manual 
 labor, and two hours to reading." ^ The tradition of 
 manual labor thus early formed in the history of the 
 religious life has been handed down to our own day. It 
 is the remote progenitor of modern sensori-motor train- 
 ing in school ; and notably in the case of the Benedictine 
 Order, it has been productive of results from which both 
 the agricultural schools and the schools of vocational 
 training of our own day may well take lesson.^ The 
 legislation of St. Benedict on external labor served a 
 great economic as well as Christian purpose. Long 
 before the decline of the Roman empire,^ not merely 
 cultivation of the soil, but all the industries, in fact 
 everything connected with manual labor, had been con- 
 signed to slaves. In consequence of this association, 
 both manual labor and industrial efficiency were marked 
 with the stigma of degradation.* The rule of St. Bene- 
 dict making labor by hand obligatory on all members 
 of the order, whether they were of patrician birth or 
 not, was the first organized movement to restore the 
 Christian ideal after the barbarian invasion and to make 
 
 * Montalembert, loc. cit. 
 = Id., pp. 33-37. 
 
 » Allies, Formation of Christendom, Vol. I, pp. 66-75 ; Dolllnger, 
 Heidenthum und Judenthum, pp. 704-710. 
 
 * The expression, servile works, used to designate works for- 
 bidden on Sunday, is inherited from those days. 
 
The Cwrricvlum of the Novitiate, 45 
 
 the material civilization of Europe possible. St. Augus- 
 tine over a century earlier had reminded Christians that 
 the law of labor rests on man as man, and therefore was 
 binding on Adam even before the Fall. A penalty of the 
 Fall was not labor, but the irksomeness of labor, "the 
 sweat of the biow." ^ Manual labor remains an integral 
 part of novitiate life. 
 
 2. There is another tradition which the novice in- 
 herits from St. Benedict, if not from St. Augustine. 
 This is study. If the rule of manual labor brought ma- 
 terial prosperity to Europe, that of study spread 
 spiritual enh'ghtenment.^ Both labor and study the 
 novice is taught to dignify and sanctify by the spirit 
 of prayer in which he undertakes them. But while he is 
 to study even truths of the natural order ultimately 
 from the viewpoint of divine faith, it is especially to the 
 mastery of the truths of Christian revelation that he is 
 to devote his time and energy. To him and to his fel- 
 lows does Scripture say: "By grace you are saved 
 through faith." ^ Although revealed truth cannot be 
 confined within the limits of time and space, yet prac- 
 tically its tenets may be grouped under two heads : God 
 and the human soul. For this we have the warrant of 
 St. Augustine: "It is God and my soul that I long to 
 know. Nothing more.? Absolutely nothing." * Hence 
 it is that Rudolf Eucken writes of him : 
 
 ^ De Genesi contra Manicliaeos, lib, ii, 15. 
 ^ Montalembert, op. cit., pp. 33, 34, 331, 344. 
 «Eph. ii, 8. 
 
 * "Deum et animam scire cupio. Nihilne plus? Nihil omnino." 
 — SoUloquia, I, 2. 
 
46 The Religious Novitiate. 
 
 "He is interested not so much in the world as in the action of 
 God in the world, and particularly upon ourselves. God and the 
 soul: these are the only objects of which knowledge is needful; 
 all knowledge becomes ethico-religious knowledge, or rather 
 ethico-religious conviction, an eager faith of the whole man." * 
 
 Although "the whole Church, both teachers and 
 taught, is permeated by his sentiments," ^ yet it may 
 be well to cite also an authority nearer our own day in 
 the person of Cardinal Newman. Even at the early age 
 of fifteen, he too was absorbed in the "thought of two 
 and two only absolute and luminously self-evident be- 
 ings, myself and my Creator." ^ Therefore, with the 
 example before him of two such great minds, differing 
 so widely in race, heredity, environment, experience, 
 and education, and yet agreeing on the studies that so 
 intimately concern his own life, the novice need enter- 
 tain no fear that his curriculum is narrow and narrow- 
 ing. 
 
 Even the old Greek philosophers acknowledged the 
 contrary to be the case; for although their knowl- 
 edge of God was vague, halting, and blended with error, 
 yet the study of man they held to be liberalizing. 
 Wherefore they called man the microcosm — the world 
 in miniature — an epitome of the macrocosm — the world 
 writ large. If man would fully understand himself, he 
 must study the world about him, since the mineral, vege- 
 
 ^ The Problem of Human Life as Viewed by the Great Thinkers 
 from Plato to the Present Time (Die Lebensanschauungen der 
 grossen Denker) tr. W.. W. S. Hough and W. R. Boyce Gibson, 
 p. 224. 
 
 "Eugene Portali6, Catholic Encyclopedia, "St. Augustine." 
 
 ' Apologia pro Vita sua, p. 4. 
 
The Curricidum of the Novitiate. 4*7 
 
 *able, and animal kingdoms are all summarized in him. 
 Then from a consideration of the created world both 
 within him and outside him, he can ascend to a knowl- 
 edge of the Creator of all. 
 
 3. Besides labor and study, and far more important 
 than either, is the duty of prayer. Even when viewed 
 in its merely human aspect, its cultural and socializing 
 influence on the novice is undeniable. Rooted as it is in 
 the principles of divine faith, it bears rich fruitage of 
 courage, confidence, generosity, and perseverance. It 
 transforms the life of the novice. Of its scope, the 
 Saviour Himself has said: "Whatsoever you shall ask 
 the Father in My name, that will I do ; that the Father 
 may be glorified in the Son." ^ 
 
 Prayer may be of two kinds : public and private. Pri- 
 vate prayer as exemplified in individual meditation, will 
 be considered under the topic of method. Of public 
 prayer two great acts are required daily in the novi- 
 tiate. One is the conventual or community Mass, at 
 which all the members are bound to assist. It is the 
 supreme act of homage offered by the novitiate to the 
 Lord of hosts. At this Mass the novices receive holy 
 communion, for the decree of Pope Pius X concerning 
 Daily Communion,^ applies in a special way to religious 
 houses. The other great act of divine praise is the 
 public recital, in the name of the Church, of the Divine 
 Office, or, as is the case in many congregations, of the 
 Office of the Most Blessed Virgin. Both the Mass and 
 
 *John xiv, 13. 
 
 * 20 December, 1905, 
 
48 The Religious Novitiate. 
 
 the OfGce are acts of genuine social service. Montalem- 
 bert writes pertinently: 
 
 "The first of all the services which the monks have conferred 
 upon Christian society was that of praying — of praying much, of 
 praying always for those whose prayers were evil or who prayed 
 not at all." 
 
 And these prayers were highly esteemed by the faith- 
 ful at large: 
 
 "Like its chiefs, the entire mass of Christian society, during 
 the whole period of the middle age, showed a profound confidence 
 in the superior and invincible power of monastic prayer; and for 
 this reason endowed with its best gifts those who interceded the 
 best for it." ^ 
 
 If the flame of piety is to burn brightly, it must be 
 fed assiduously. According to the mind of St. Thomas, 
 "study especially of Holy Scripture, peculiarly befits 
 men consecrated to a life of contemplation." ^ It re- 
 veals to them, particularly in the pages of the New 
 Testament, the perfection for which they should strive. 
 Hence they should bring to it an attitude of mind and a 
 disposition of heart appropriate to their state of life. 
 
 "If thou didst know the whole Bible outwardly, and the sayings 
 of all the philosophers, what could it all profit thee without 
 charity and the grace of God?" . . . 
 
 "He that would fully and feelingly understand the words of 
 Christ must study to conform his whole life to that of Christ."' 
 
 Two books are, therefore, specially commended to the 
 devout and attentive perusal of the novice. The first 
 
 *0p. cit, pp. 24, 27. 
 
 ^ The Religious State (tr. Proctor), p. 160. 
 
 » Imitation^ Bk. I, Chap. I, 3, 2. 
 
The Curriculum of the Novitiate. 49 
 
 is Holy Scripture, particulariy the New Testament, as 
 containing his great rule of life. The second is the Imi- 
 tation of Christ as helping him to acquire the spirit in 
 which Scripture should be studied. 
 
 "The philosophy of *The Imitation' may be summed up in two 
 words. It is a philosophy of Light and a philosophy of Life: 
 the Light of Truth and the Life of Grace. Both the one and the 
 other a Kempis seeks in their source and fountain-head. He does 
 not separate them. It is only in the union of both that man 
 attains his philosophic ideal. . . . It is not only the Light of 
 Truth; it is also the Life of Grace. This life consists in the 
 practice of the Christian virtues; the practice of the Christian 
 virtues leads up to union with Christ, and union with Christ is 
 consummated in the Holy Eucharist." ^ 
 
 And so we are led back to the greatest of all acts of 
 worship, the holy sacrifice of the Mass, the novice's 
 great model of immolation, the perennial source of his 
 self-denial and devotedness. 
 
 Although the nature and the duties of the religious 
 life in general and of his own order in particular must 
 always constitute the chief study of the novice, yet, by 
 a decree of 27 August, 1910, he was ordered by Pope 
 Pius X to give several hours a week to such studies as 
 the mother-tongue, Latin and Greek, the reading of the 
 Fathers of the Church, and in general to such branches 
 as conformed to the purpose for which the order con- 
 tinued to exist. ^ In this way he not only relieves the 
 
 * Brother Azarias, Phases of Thought and Criticism, pp. 107, 
 112. 
 
 *The decree prescribes private study for an hour a day ex- 
 cept on feast days, and lessons of one hour each not more than 
 three times a week. 
 
50 The Religioiis Novitiate. 
 
 mental strain incident to exclusively spiritual exercises, 
 but he also enables his superiors to judge more accu- 
 rately of his talents and fitness for the work of the 
 order. ^ 
 
 Article IV, — Method in the Novitiate, 
 
 As both curriculum and methods agree in being 
 means for the attainment of the educational ideal, it is 
 difficult to draw a hard and fast line between them. Nor 
 is this necessary. In its relation to the novice the 
 method employed in the novitiate bears two aspects: 
 it is individual and it is social. In its individual char- 
 acter it is exemplified in two of the daily exercises : self- 
 examination and meditation. 
 
 I. — 1. Self-examination may be general or particu- 
 lar ; when general, it may, in turn, look forward or back- 
 ward. When it looks forward, it is called the examen 
 of forethought, and is made at the beginning of the 
 day. It forecasts, in the light of experience, the diffi- 
 culties which the novice is likely to meet during the 
 day and the opportunities which he may have of doing 
 good. The exercise concludes with intelligent and prac- 
 tical resolutions as to the means to be used that very 
 day both in order to guard against relapsing into 
 habitual faults and to derive greater merit from the 
 opportunities for practising virtue. When the exam- 
 ination looks backward, it is directed upon the actions 
 of the day that is closing, and is followed by sincere 
 
 ^By a decree of 19 March, 1603, provision was made for suit- 
 able recreation in all novitiates. 
 
Method m the Novitiate, 61 
 
 sorrow for what has been amiss in conduct and by a 
 
 firm resolution of amendment. How profitable these 
 
 examinations are when practised rightly and persever- 
 
 ingly, appears from these words of Thomas a Kempis : 
 
 "If only thy heart were right, then every created thing would 
 be to thee a mirror of life and a book of holy teaching. There 
 is no creature so little and so vile that it showeth not forth the 
 goodness of God."^ 
 
 In other words, these searchings of the soul are well 
 adapted to develop that spiritual sense in the exercise 
 of which the religious should excel. 
 
 "Only when truth and goodness walk hand in hand, and the 
 heart grows apace with the intellect, does the soul develop into 
 strong, healthy action. . . . Now, the Spiritual Sense takes 
 in all the truth, goodness, and beauty of both the natural and 
 revealed orders and views them in the light of Faith."* 
 
 Different from these general examinations in its im- 
 mediate purpose is the particular examen. By means 
 of this exercise the novice seeks to acquire: (a) sys- 
 tematic knowledge of his ruling passion and of the 
 means to combat it effectually; (b) the necessary grace 
 to apply these means courageously and perseveringly. 
 He keeps before him the admonition of Thomas a 
 Kempis : 
 
 "As our purpose is, so will our progress be; and there is need 
 of much diligence for him that wisheth to advance much. 
 . . . The resolutions of the just depend rather on the grace of 
 God than on their own wisdom; and they always, whatever they 
 take in hand, put their trust in Him."' 
 
 ^Imitation, Bk. II, Chap. IV, 1. 
 
 'Brother Azarias, op. cit., p. 4. 
 
 Imitation, Bk. I, Chap. XIX, 2. 
 
62 The Religions Novitiate. 
 
 Even when the task is tedious and the progress slow, 
 he does not despond. He recalls these other words: 
 
 "If every year we rooted out one fault, we should soon become 
 perfect men." ^ 
 
 But the function of the particular examen is not 
 purely destructive; it is also constructive. Were the 
 novice merely to refrain from evil, he would fulfil but 
 a small portion of his duty. He must learn more com- 
 pletely the lesson conveyed by the parable of the talents. 
 He must take to heart these words from the homily of 
 St. John Chrysostom:^ 
 
 "He that hath a gift of word and teaching to profit thereby, 
 and useth it not, will lose the gift also; but he that giveth 
 diligence will gain to himself the gift in more abundance, even 
 as the other loseth what he hath received. But not to this is the 
 penalty limited for him that is slothful, but even intolerable is 
 the punishment, and with the punishment the sentence, which is 
 full of a heavy accusation. For *cast j^e,' saith He, *the unprofit- 
 able servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and 
 gnashing of teeth.' Seest thou how not only the spoiler and the 
 covetous, nor only the doer of the evil things, but also he that 
 doeth not good things, is punished with extreme punishment? 
 . . . The talents here are each person's ability. . . . For 
 this purpose God gave us speech, and hands and feet and 
 strength of body, and mind, and understanding, that we might 
 use all these things, both for our own salvation and our neigh- 
 bor's advantage."^ 
 
 Self-examination, therefore, whether general or par- 
 ticular, is prescribed for the novice as a condition of 
 self-mastery. In virtue of our common human nature. 
 
 ' Id., Chap. XI, 6. 
 2 Matt. XXV, 24-30. 
 
 ' Homily 78, Vol. X, Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene 
 Fathers, pp. 470-472. 
 
Method m the Novitiate, 53 
 
 however, it becomes, as an exercise of introspection, a 
 key to the understanding of others and thereby to their 
 direction in the way of virtue. In his o^vn measure and 
 degree, as he is faithful to the lessons of the Imitation 
 will the novice verify in his own person^ this estimate 
 pronounced on its author: 
 
 "He probed the human heart to its lowest depths and its inmost 
 folds; he searched intentions and motives and found self lurking 
 in the purest; he explored the windings of human folly and human 
 misery and discovered them to proceed from self-love and self- 
 gratification. But this author does not simply lay bare the sores 
 and wounds of poor bleeding human nature. He also prescribes 
 the remedy. And none need go away unhelped. For the footsore 
 who are weary with treading the sharp stones and piercing thorns 
 on the highways and by-ways of life; for the heart aching with 
 pain and disappointment and crushed with a weight of tribula- 
 tions; for the intellect parched with thirsting after the fountain 
 of true knowledge; for the soul living in aridity and dryness of 
 spirit; for the sinner immersed in the mire of sin and iniquity, 
 and the saint earnestly toiling up the hill of perfection — for all 
 he prescribes a balm that heals, and to all does he show the road 
 that leads to the Life and the Light." ^ 
 
 2, There is another daily exercise of the novice that 
 emphasizes the individual aspect of the method used in 
 the novitiate. This is meditation, or mental prayer — 
 Si sustained interior exercise in which the soul applies 
 itself to God. Its subject-matter includes all the truths 
 of divine faith; all the virtues becoming the man, the 
 Christian, and the religious; all the maxims taught by 
 our Lord in the Gospel. This is, so to say, the curric- 
 ulum of meditation. Its aim is first the sincere amend- 
 
 ^ Cf . Baldwin, The Individual and Society, pp. 14-18; 23-26, 
 ^Brother Azarias, op. cit., pp. 123, 124?. 
 
64 The Religiows Novitiate. 
 
 ment of the life of the novice, and then the complete re- 
 formation of his character after the model set by Jesus 
 Christ. Its spirit is therefore the spirit of the Saviour, 
 the spirit of faith; for Scripture assures us that *'the 
 just man liveth by faith." ^ In its method it either 
 directly or indirectly utilizes all the powers of the mind. 
 We should then a priori be inclined to look upon it as a 
 great means of mental and spiritual development. And 
 such it really is when entered upon with due preparation 
 and prosecuted with unwearying diligence. Prepara- 
 tion for it is both proximate and remote. The remote 
 preparation consists in living the life of faith, in guid- 
 ing one's conduct by the principles of the Gospel; the 
 proximate preparation consists in acts of faith in God's 
 presence. For this purpose "spiritual reading" is most 
 effective. Besides the Bible and the Imitation, which we 
 have already mentioned,^ the lives of the saints both of 
 the Church in general and his order in particular, and 
 treatises on the virtues of the Christian and the religious 
 life, are especially recommended to the novice. But he 
 is to read these books in the spirit in which he reads the 
 Office — reverently, attentively, piously ('digne, attente, 
 devote'). Here is a practical exercise in apperception 
 which he is called upon to perform daily. Lest his in- 
 terest should wane or his affection grow slack, he is to 
 place himself in a sympathetic attitude when he begins 
 to read. Every teacher will appreciate the sound psy- 
 chology of this advice. 
 
 ^ Rom. i, 17. 
 
 'See Art. Ill, "Curriculum of Novitiate." 
 
Method m the Novitiate. SB 
 
 "Before reading, place yourself in the presence of God; say 
 some short prayer to obtain light to understand, and grace to 
 practise what you will read. Never read through curiosity, and 
 do not read hurriedly; stop occasionally to relish your reading; 
 examine what prevents you from practising what you read. Read 
 your spiritual book as you would a letter sent by our divine Lord 
 to make known His holy will." 
 
 It IS in these terms that St. John Baptist de la Salle ^ 
 gives counsel to each of his religious. Again he asks : 
 
 "What fruit do you derive therefrom? What difficulties do 
 you experience? What obstacles do you put in the way? . . . 
 Carefully distinguish between reading for purposes of study and 
 spiritual reading, and see whether you observe the distinction."* 
 
 Why this insistence on the method of spiritual read- 
 ing? Why this effort to awaken interest.? Because it 
 is through its strong appeal to the emotions that 
 spiritual reading becomes an effective aid to mental 
 prayer. The whole purpose of meditation is to pro- 
 mote the ampler development of the spiritual life. Mere 
 knowledge of revealed truth is not sufficient to attain 
 this end. It must be reinforced by strong motives. Pro- 
 fessor Wundt writes :^ 
 
 "Those combinations of ideas and feelings, which in our sub- 
 jective apprehension of the volition are the immediate antecedents 
 of the act, are called motives of volition. Every motive may be 
 divided into an ideational and an affective component. The first 
 we may call the moving reason, the second the impelling force 
 of action. When a beast of prey seizes his victim, the moving 
 reason is the sight of the same, the impelling force may be either 
 
 * Collection of Short Treatises, p. 136. 
 
 'Id., pp. 202, 203. 
 
 " Orundriss der Psychologie (Outlines of Psychology), tr. C. H. 
 Judd, pp. 186, 186. 
 
56 The Religious Novitiate. 
 
 the unpleasurable feeling of hunger or the race-hate aroused by 
 the sight. The reason for a criminal murder may be theft, 
 removal of an enemy, or some such idea; the impelling force the 
 feeling of want, hate, revenge, or envy." 
 
 With him Cardinal Newman agrees in the following 
 passage, which further suggests how meditation can be 
 an "interior occupation": 
 
 "Assent, however strong, and accorded to images however vivid, 
 is not therefore necessarily practical. Strictly speaking, it is not 
 imagination that causes action, but hope and fear, likes and dis- 
 likes, appetite, passion, affection, the stirrings of selfishness and 
 self-love. What imagination does for us is to find a means of 
 stimulating those motive powers, and it does so by providing a 
 supply of objects strong enough to stimulate them. The thought 
 of honor, glory, duty, self-aggrandizement, gain, or on the other 
 hand of Divine Goodness, future reward, eternal life, per- 
 severingly dwelt upon, leads us along a course of action corres- 
 ponding to itself, but only in case there be that in our minds 
 which is congenial to it." ^ 
 
 Spiritual reading helps to furnish thoughts that are 
 "congenial" to the divine attributes. Imagination pic- 
 tures their concrete setting in the life and conduct of 
 our Lord while on earth. We thrill with gratitude for 
 His loving mercy, with sympathy for His suffering, 
 with horror for sin that hounded Him to death. Medi- 
 tation is an exercise of living faith. Such faith is, ac- 
 cording to Cardinal Newman, a twofold experience.^ 
 
 "It is an imaginative experience, realizing religious truths and 
 picturing them with precise details. It is an affective experience, 
 vivifying these images and their interior perceptions with all the 
 sap of religious sentiment. Such reasoning as there is, is almost 
 
 ^ Orcmmar of Assent, pp. 79, 80. 
 « Id., Chap. IX. 
 
Method in the Novitiate. 67 
 
 wholly implicit . . . and belongs to the illative sense, , . . 
 Note how this analysis is verified exactly in the spirit of faith 
 and in the active piety which are the special source of our 
 religious experiences. Here in particular we discover the pro- 
 found psychology of the classic procedures of Christian mysticism 
 as also of its exercises, whether individual or collective. We may 
 regard the Manresan, the Sulpician and other methods of medita- 
 tion and mental prayer as methods of detailed *realization' of 
 general dogmas.^ This reveals to view the whole mechanism and 
 finality of the *preludes/ the 'application of the senses,' and of 
 the *afPections and resolutions.' Nothing is easier than to sketch 
 here appropriate illustrations from the 'Grammar of Assent.' 
 Take the celebrated meditation on the 'Two Standards.' Express 
 it in Newman's terms. First 'realize' the two camps with their 
 respective captains, their activity, etc. This is an imaginative 
 experience. After this, or even at the same time, try to 'realize' 
 the anti-Christian sentiments of anger and hatred, the Christian 
 sentiments of love, devotedness, etc. Apply these reflections to 
 yourself; excite yourself to charity, self-denial, etc. This gives 
 affective experience. Personal arguments drawn from your needs 
 and tendencies, from your inmost desires of salvation and sanc- 
 tification, strengthen and orientate these 'realizations.' The con- 
 clusion [resolution of the meditation] should spring from this 
 interior activity: it cannot fail to be a deeper realization of the 
 supernatural life, marked at present by acts of faith and love, 
 and by protestations of fidelity, in which all your powers 
 co-operate; and guaranteed for the future by strong resolutions. 
 From beginning to end you are occupied with the dynamic force 
 of 'real' assents."^ 
 
 As the examens are daily exercises for the develop- 
 ment of self-mastery, so meditation is (a) a learning 
 process of an excellent kind : it unfolds the inner mean- 
 
 * See also St. John Baptist de la Salle's Explanation of the 
 Method of Mental Prayer. 
 
 ^E. Baudin, "La philosophic de la Foi chez Newman," Bevtie 
 de Philosophie (Sept., 1906), pp. 262, 263. "Real" and "realiza- 
 tion" are to be understood in the sense defined by Cardinal New- 
 man in "Grammar of Assent." 
 
58 The Religions Novitiate. 
 
 ing of the truths of faith. It is (b) a lesson in motiva- 
 tion, since it prompts the novice to follow the example 
 of the Great Teacher. It is (c) a habit-builder, since 
 it trains to ways of righteousness and sanctity. It is 
 (d) a valuable exercise in thinking. Professor Dewey^ 
 and others maintain that we really think only when we 
 have a definite problem to solve, for which our ordinary 
 habits of thinking and acting prove or seem inadequate. 
 Now, the novice finds this problem set him in medita- 
 tion : "Why is it that I have not acted, do not act, as 
 my Saviour and the saints have done in like circum- 
 stances ? What are the obstacles ? How shall I remove 
 them ? What are my present resources ?" 
 
 Viewed in its individual aspect, the method of the 
 novitiate is a dynamic factor in forming the personality 
 of the novice. 
 
 II. — But the method has likewise its social value. 
 
 This also bears a two-fold character. The novice 
 comes into intimate personal relations with (1) his su- 
 periors, and (S) his fellow-novices. 
 
 1. The novice master gives him instruction, counsel, 
 and commands. On his part the novice is bound to obey. 
 By his entrance into the novitiate he has proclaimed his 
 desire and his intention to renounce material goods by 
 the vow of poverty, to perfect his control over his body 
 by the vow of chastity. Throughout all the period of 
 his probation he must be exercised in obedience ; for 
 obedience is the characteristic vow and virtue of the 
 
 ^ Cf . How We Think, p. 205; also Colvin and Bagley, op. cit 
 Chap. II; and "Thought" in Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education, 
 
The Spirit of the Novitiate. 69 
 
 religious. Without obedience no solidarity is possible. 
 Obedience is the perfection of self-mastery. It is the 
 attribute of a strong man, a man of character. Holy 
 Writ assures us that its practice brings victory.^ 
 
 2. The social life of the novice is also developed by 
 the action of his fellow- religious. They warn him char- 
 itably of his defects; this is the exercise of "fraternal 
 correction." They share together their meals, their 
 recreations, and their studies. From day to day he 
 finds his personal views and desires taking on the color 
 of the group of which he has become a member. He 
 becomes more closely identified with the order in spirit 
 and aim and method. The very change of name which 
 is customary in many orders and congregations when 
 the novice is first clothed with the religious habit ^ is 
 but one expression of this community of sentiment. 
 Like the first Christians, the members of a religious in- 
 stitute should have but one heart and one soul.^ 
 
 Article V, — The Spirit of the Novitiate, 
 
 Detachment from worldly goods, subjection of the 
 flesh to the spirit, submission of the will to lawful au- 
 thority, and all for God's sake — these must characterize 
 the true novice. What is the principle that shall give 
 life and sustenance to these virtues? It is the spirit of 
 faith, as revealed in the New Testament. It includes 
 an attitude and a habit. As an attitude it inspires the 
 
 ' Prov. xxi, 28. 
 
 'Cf. Heimbucher, op. cit. p. 21. 
 
 •Acts iv, 82. 
 
60 Th£ Religious Novitiate. 
 
 novice to look at all things from God's point of view 
 as clearly expressed in the Gospel maxims. As a habit 
 it has an active and a passive reference. In its active 
 aspect it prompts the novice to do all his actions to 
 promote God's glory, to fulfill the divine will.^ Taken 
 in its passive sense it inclines him to accept all the bless- 
 ings and the ills of his life and state as coming directly 
 or indirectly from his Creator. Sustained by the word 
 of Scripture : "To them that love God, all things work 
 together unto good," ^ he endeavors to advance in ways 
 of inward peace and spiritual joy.^ 
 
 The immediate effect of this spirit of faith operating 
 in the novice is a quickening of his desire to prepare 
 worthily for his profession as a religious. If, as Her- 
 bert Spencer maintained,* education is "preparation for 
 complete living," the novitiate must train the novice 
 for complete living as a religious, for the proper fulfill- 
 ment of the duties imposed by the "state of perfec- 
 tion." ^ Self-examination and self-mastery must be com- 
 pleted by self-realization. This can be accomplished 
 only through sacrifice; and the sacrifice must be com- 
 plete ; it must be a holocaust. To this end three means 
 
 ' 1 Cor. X, 31. 
 
 ^Rom. viii, 28. 
 
 ' St. John Baptist de la Salle gives his Brothers three reasons 
 for acting from motives of faith: 1. Because actions otherwise 
 of little worth are thus made Christian; 2. Because this is the 
 chief means of sanctifying them; 3. Because we thus participate 
 in the dispositions in which our divine Lord performed His 
 actions. — Collection of Short Treatises, p. 117. 
 
 ^Education, p. 30. 
 
 »Cf. St. Thomas (tr. Procter), The Religious State, p. 3. 
 
The Spirit of the Novitiaie. 61 
 
 are indispensable, according to St. Thomas, who but ex- 
 presses in this matter the mind of the Church. 
 
 "The things to be first given up are those least closely united 
 to ourselves. Therefore, the renunciation of material possessions, 
 which are extrinsic to our nature, must be our first step on the 
 road to perfection. The next objects to be sacrificed will be those 
 which are united to our nature by a certain communion and 
 necessary affinity. . . . Now, amongst all relationships the 
 conjugal tie does, more than any other, engross men's hearts. 
 . . . Hence, they who are aiming at perfection must, above 
 all things, avoid the bond of marriage, which, in a pre-eminent 
 degree, entangles men in earthly concerns. . . . Therefore, 
 the second means whereby a man may be more free to devote 
 himself to God, and to cleave more perfectly to Him, is by the 
 observance of perpetual chastity. But continence possesses the 
 further advantage of affording a peculiar facility to the acquire- 
 ment of perfection. For the soul is hindered in its free access 
 to God not only by the love of exterior things, but much more 
 by force of interior passions." ^ 
 
 "It is not only necessary for the perfection of charity that a 
 man should sacrifice his exterior possessions; he must also, in a 
 certain sense, relinquish himself. . . . This practice of salu- 
 tary self-abnegation and charitable self-hatred is, in part, neces- 
 sary for all men in order to salvation, and is partly a point of 
 perfection. . . . It is in the nature of divine love that he who 
 loves should belong, not to himself, but to the one beloved. It is 
 necessary, therefore, that self-abnegation and self-hatred be pro- 
 portionate to the degree of divine love existing in an individual 
 soul. It is essential to salvation that a man should love God to 
 such a degree as to make Him his end, and to do nothing which 
 he believes to be opposed to the Divine love. Consequently, self- 
 hatred and self-denial are necessary for salvation. . . . But 
 in order to attain perfection, we must further, for the love of 
 God, sacrifice what we might lawfully use, in order thus to be 
 more free to devote ourselves to Him. It follows, therefore, that 
 self-hatred and self-denial pertain to perfection. . . . Now, 
 the more dearly a thing is loved according to nature, the more 
 
 'Op. cit., pp. 26-28. 
 
62 Th£ Religious Novitiate. 
 
 perfect it is to despise it for the sake of Christ. Nothing is 
 dearer to any man than the freedom of his will. . . . Just, 
 therefore, as a person who relinquishes his wealth and leaves 
 those to whom he is bound by natural ties, denies these things 
 and persons; so, he who renounces his own will, which makes him 
 master, does truly deny himself. . . . [Religious] make a 
 complete sacrifice of their own will for the love of God, submit- 
 ting themselves to another by the vow of obedience, of which 
 virtue Christ has given as a sublime example." ^ 
 
 Since the religious life is, according to St. Thomas, 
 "the state of perfection," those who profess it are bound 
 to take the most perfect means of reaching perfection. 
 Hence he adds : 
 
 "The vow which, of all the three religious vows, belongs most 
 peculiarly to the religious life, is that of obedience. . . . Now, 
 since the body is worth more than material goods, the vow of 
 chastity is superior in merit to that of poverty, but the vow of 
 obedience is of more value than either of the other two. . . . 
 Again, the vow of obedience is more universal than that of either 
 poverty or chastity, and hence it includes them both."* 
 
 Such, then, is the character of the holocaust which 
 the novice is preparing to offer. And just as the work 
 of educating the child joins two factors, viz., his native 
 instincts, on the one hand, and proper intellectual and 
 moral development on the other, so too the training of 
 the novice is a work in which his native endowments are 
 corrected and refined and fructified by the action of 
 divine grace. In proportion as he freely and fully re- 
 sponds to his vocation does he advance in the "way of 
 perfection." 
 
 ^Id., pp. 41-46. 
 * Id., pp. 51, 52. 
 
The Spirit of the Novitiate. . 68 
 
 "Just as in genius one part must be ascribed to the 
 faculties of the man and another to a superior element 
 which the pagans called destiny, but Christians would 
 designate by the name of vocation ; so sanctity also is 
 made up of two elements which, although they compene- 
 trate, may yet be distinguished ; viz., the call of God and 
 the effort of man." ^ 
 
 To strengthen his spirit of faith together with its 
 expression in the spirit of sacrifice, therefore, the novice 
 makes use of both natural and supernatural means. He 
 may take courage from the words of the great Fara- 
 day: 
 
 "I will Hmply express my strong belief that that point of self- 
 education which consists in teaching the mind to resist its desires 
 and inclinations, until they are proved to be right, is the most 
 important of all, not only in things of natural philosophy, but in 
 every department of daily life/*' 
 
 A like thought is expressed in a recent work of peda- 
 gogy- 
 
 "No conception of modern [?] pedagogy is truer to fact or 
 safer in principle than this, that the vital function of public 
 schooling is to raise the level of society in conduct and ideals. 
 This is done, primarily, by improving the individual and for his 
 individual need; but for the common good also.'" 
 
 The novice, therefore, holds fast to divine faith, 
 the root of perfection. He gives real practical assent 
 
 ^ P. Chauvin, O. S. B., Qu'est-ce qu'un Saint? p. 23. 
 
 * Lecture delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 
 "Observations on the Education of the Judgment," p. 205; in 
 The Culture Demanded by Modern Life (ed. E. L. Youmans). 
 
 " Boone, Science of Education, p. 342. 
 
64 The Religious Novitiate. 
 
 to the words of Cardinal Newman: "He who begins 
 with faith will end in unspotted and entire holiness." ^ 
 Because his faith is living, he is faithful to his spiritual 
 exercises, especially to mental prayer. When he finds 
 sacrifice difficult, he recalls the Saviour's promise: "Be 
 thou faithful until death, and I will give thee the crown 
 of life." ^ He becomes daily more adept in the great 
 process of education; viz., the substitution of remote 
 and spiritual ends, for those which are present and 
 sensile. He thus attains to a fuller perception of the 
 real values of life. He appreciates these words uttered 
 by the President of Bowdoin College, and realizes their 
 truth by service of others for God's sake: 
 
 "You can never be placed in circumstances so unfavorable, you 
 can never be brought in contact with a person so mean and 
 hateful, that this devotion to the loving will of God as applied 
 to those circumstances and that person will not give you strength 
 to do the right, true, noble, loving act, and so to overcome evil 
 with good." ^ 
 
 We may sum up this article in the following conclu- 
 sion: The spirit of the novitiate is the spirit of faith. 
 Its effect is to produce a spirit of diligent preparation 
 for the three religious vows, poverty, chastity, and 
 obedience. Though all three demand sacrifice, obedi- 
 ence requires complete immolation of self. It is there- 
 fore the crowning act of devotion to God's service. It 
 
 ^ Plain and Parochial Sermons, Vol. V, p. 159. 
 ^Apoc. ii, 10. 
 
 •W. DeWitt Hyde, The College Man and the College Woman, 
 p. 147. 
 
The Spirit of the Novitiate. 65 
 
 is also, according to the teaching of the Saviour Him- 
 self, the indispensable condition of a fruitful life. 
 
 "Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself 
 remaineth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." ^ 
 
 Moreover the novice is constantly profiting by the 
 good example of his associates. The natural value of 
 such a stimulus has been a subject of study for many 
 psychologists and sociologists in recent years. Thus 
 Camille Bos writes : 
 
 "A man's belief is not merely his work; it is also in part deter- 
 mined by social influence. In return, when once this belief has 
 been established, it will not be limited in its effects to the indi- 
 vidual who affirms it; it will also react upon others. . . . This 
 reinforcement will be all the greater, the more uniformity of belief 
 there is among the individuals."^ 
 
 With increased certitude as well as with fresh delight 
 does the novice turn from such passages to the pane- 
 gyric of divine faith which he reads in the eleventh 
 chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. As the one God 
 is the author of both nature and grace, and "grace pre- 
 supposes nature," so the novice entertains no doubt 
 that loyalty to the principles of divine faith will mul- 
 tiply and enrich the efficacy of even human faith. With 
 the Apostles he prays to the "Author and Finisher of 
 faith" '? O Lord, "increase our faith." * 
 
 ^John xii, 24, 25. 
 
 ^ "I/a Port6e Sociale de la Croyanc6," Revue Philosophique, Vol. 
 XLVI, p. 293. 
 « Heb. xii, 2. 
 *Luke xvii, 6. 
 
66 The Religiows Novitiate, 
 
 Article VI. — Limitations of the Novitiate, 
 
 These limitations may be grouped under two heads, 
 although, by a kind of spiritual osmosis, they tend to 
 compenetrate ; viz., such as are predominantly indi- 
 vidual and such as are predominantly social. 
 
 1. Such limitations as concern the individual novice 
 may affect him (a) as Christian, (b) as candidate for a 
 given order. 
 
 (a) Only Catholics may be novices. As we have al- 
 ready seen, this restriction is, according to the admis- 
 sion of Camille Bos,^ a decided advantage, since uni- 
 formity of faith in the members of a group tends nat- 
 urally to increase the efficiency of the group. More- 
 over, if a postulant were to be notably lacking in the 
 Christian spirit or in an earnest will to acquire it, he 
 would be manifestly unfit for the novitiate, since it is 
 the function of the novitiate to train for the state of 
 "religious perfection." The principle of development, 
 which plays so vital a part in the educational psy- 
 chology of our age, demands now as ever that the less 
 perfect precede the more perfect. The postulant must 
 therefore have given proof of his firm will to keep the 
 commandments before he can be allowed to bind himself 
 to the observance of the Gospel counsels. Our Lord 
 Himself has sanctioned this course. It was only after 
 the young man had assured Him that he had kept all 
 the commandments from his early years, that the 
 Saviour said to him: "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell 
 
 ^ See p. 65, above. 
 
Limitations of the Novitiate. 67 
 
 what thou hast and give to the poor . . . ; and come, 
 follow Me." ' 
 
 (b) Besides these general conditions, there may be 
 others arising from the special mission of the order 
 into which the candidate seeks admission. St. Benedict 
 Joseph Labre possessed not only the ordinary virtues 
 of a good Christian, but many of the traits which dis- 
 tinguish the saint when he sought entrance into the re- 
 ligious life. But though his holiness was beyond ques- 
 tion, the superiors deemed him an unsuitable subject. 
 The novice must be capable of adjusting himself to 
 the life and the work of the order. 
 
 2. In its social aspect the novitiate calls for the 
 "common life," which, says Heimbucher, "is strictly 
 prescribed in all congregations." ^ If the candidate 
 shows lack of adaptability to this requirement, he is 
 assumed not to possess a religious vocation. By the 
 Normae (regulations) of 1901 the Holy See reserves to 
 itself the right of dispensing from the disability of age, 
 a candidate under fifteen years or over thirty, who 
 seeks admission to the novitiate of a religious 'congre- 
 gation.' This restriction has bearings that are both 
 psychological and sociological. Candidates who have 
 not attained their fifteenth year belong to the early 
 adolescent period and often lack the maturity of judg- 
 ment requisite in a novice; while those who are over 
 
 ^Matt. xix, 21. 
 
 ^ "Streng ist in alien Kongregationen das gemeinsame Leben 
 vorgeschrieben." Op. cit., p. 37. On the eremitical life, see Heim- 
 bucher, op. cit., pp. 41 ff. 
 
68 The Religious Novitiate. 
 
 thirty are wanting in mental plasticity and have be- 
 come "set" in their ways. They have passed the limit 
 that Professor James ^ fixed for "old fogeyism." The 
 average novice must break old habits and form new 
 ones. He is counselled to make a general confession of 
 the sins of his whole life soon after his entrance into 
 the novitiate. Seeing his own many faults and failings 
 as contrasted with God's generous favors to liim, he is 
 moved to profound sorrow for all that is evil in his 
 past life, and to firm resolutions of amendment. This 
 is the phenomenon known as "conversion," ^ the begin- 
 ning of the novice's "first fervor." Under the impulse 
 of deep emotion like this, together with the remark- 
 able change in his environment, old habits may be in- 
 hibited with relative ease by the substitution of the 
 newer and nobler activities subserved by regular ob- 
 servance. 
 
 On its sociological side this restriction as to age is a 
 natural precaution to secure peace, good-will, and 
 hearty co-operation among the novices — all these dis- 
 positions being correlative in the order of nature to 
 the operation of divine charity in the realm of grace. 
 
 But the social aspect of the novitiate is expressed 
 also in the formal acceptance of the candidate by the 
 order; for this act is a contract drawn between the 
 
 ^ Principles of Psychology, Vol. II, p. 110. See also Halleck, 
 Education of the Central Nervous System, Chaps. II, III. 
 
 ^ Cf. Starbuck, Psychology of Religious Experience, Chaps. 
 II-XIII. Cf. H. Bremond (tr. H. C. Corrance), The Mystery of 
 Newman, pp. 177-195. The "Confessions" of St. Augustine is 
 classic. 
 
Limitations of the Novitiate. 6& 
 
 novice and his religious superiors as representing the 
 order. It entails on the novice the subordination of 
 his ideals and purposes to those for which his society 
 lives and labors. Hence it is that he is now limited, or 
 his activity is defined, by the aim, the curriculum, the 
 method, and the spirit of the order whose novitiate 
 he has entered. According to a decree of the Council 
 of Trent, the novitiate must last for a minimum period 
 of one year, which may, however, be extended to two 
 or three years. By fixing the minimum age of religious 
 profession at sixteen, the same Council virtually placed 
 the age requirement for the admission of a novice to 
 an 'order' at fifteen or at fourteen years. 
 
 3. (a) The limitations of the novitiate may be con- 
 sidered also with reference to some of the great aims 
 proposed for the educative process. Prominent among 
 these is knowledge. The knowledge required for ad- 
 mission to the novitiate is first, all that is required by 
 the profession of the Christian faith or is in consonance 
 with that profession. In the next place, it is deter- 
 mined by the special works of charity for one's neigh- 
 bor which constitute the peculiar function of the order. 
 Aptness to acquire the necessary knowledge is a quali- 
 fication which every candidate must possess. 
 
 (b) Moral development, or good character, we have 
 seen to be a fundamental requirement in every teacher, 
 in every normal school student. It is doubly requisite 
 in the novice, since he is preparing to embrace a life 
 of perfection. Were he to lack this qualification he 
 could not be even a good Christian. Herbart went so 
 
70 The Religious Novitiate, 
 
 far as to maintain that the "term virtue expressed the 
 whole function of education." ^ 
 
 (c) To be equipped to labor with great effectiveness 
 for souls, the novice needs that social grace which we 
 call "culture." For entrance into the novitiate this 
 is not indeed indispensable. By cherishing fidelity to 
 the religious exercises and by developing that spirit of 
 faith which reveals to him in every neighbor a member 
 of Christ's mystical body, the novice will acquire a 
 real vital culture. For true culture is not merely "ac- 
 quaintance with the best that has been known and said," 
 as Matthew Arnold thought, nor even "the disinter- 
 ested endeavor after man's perfection," as he also sur- 
 mised.^ It includes also that special charm which comes 
 from possessing the spirit of Him who drew all things 
 to Himself.^ 
 
 4. To certain minds the most serious limitations of 
 the novitiate, arise from the vows of religion for which 
 the novitiate prepares. Rosenkranz * goes so far as to 
 charge those who make such vows with going directly 
 counter to the religion which they profess : 
 
 "Christian monachism ... in merely renouncing the world 
 by the three religious vows instead of conquering it and gaining 
 
 ^ Lange and De Garmo, Herhart's Outlines of Educational 
 Doctrine, p. 17. 
 
 ^Culture and Anarchy, Preface, p. xxxiv. 
 
 'John xii, 32. See also Newman's "Idea of a Saint" in Dis- 
 courses Addressed to Mixed Congregations, pp. 94, 95; Dr. Shields, 
 Psychology of Education, Lesson XXIV. 
 
 * Philosophy of Education (tr. A. C. Brackett), p. 264; Inter- 
 national Science Series. 
 
Limitations of the Novitiate. 71 
 
 possession of it, . . . contradicts the very principle of Chris- 
 tianity." 
 
 Is this indictment true? Let us weigh the testimony 
 of an acknowledged authority: 
 
 "The full and permanent resignation of that which for the 
 majority of men makes life desirable, has a power of attraction 
 only for the rarest natures, and for this very reason the ascetic 
 type will never lose its honorable position among the people, but 
 will be newly produced and newly honored in every age; and it 
 is not the most enlightened but the darkest ages of history in 
 which men so forget their own deeply hidden yearning for 
 spiritual freedom that they fail to recognize those who overcome 
 the world as social assets of the first rank. . . . The radicalism 
 and individualism of our age has not the faintest idea how deeply 
 all the victories of personal freedom over the omnipotence of the 
 State, or the so-called rights of men, are linked up with this much 
 scorned retirement from the world, which has brought personality 
 to its highest concentration and raised spiritual life above all 
 other aims. It was doubtless the fervor and intensity with which 
 whole groups of individuals left domestic and social life in order 
 to come entirely to themselves, which first made men conscious, in 
 the most impressive manner, that man has a right to himself — 
 that there is a holiness of inner life and effort, in which society 
 and the State have no right to interfere. . . . Thus these 
 ascetic institutions, on closer study, reveal themselves as a most 
 powerful support for everything which one may call character, 
 and a pillar of that great and true resistance to all that is merely 
 tangible and useful, upon which, ultimately, everything depends 
 which makes life worth living and lends men real power over 
 material things." ^ 
 
 There is the great law of charity formulated by our 
 Saviour: "I give you a new commandment that you 
 love one another as I have loved you," ^ illustrated in 
 
 * Foerster, Marriage and the Sex Problem, pp. 142-145. 
 ^John xiii, 34. 
 
72 The Religious Novitiate, 
 
 the parable of the Good Samaritan,^ confirmed by 
 divine example,^ and sanctioned by the sentence which 
 the great Judge is to pronounce on the last day.^ 
 
 A more violent attack than that of Professor Rosen- 
 kranz comes from Sir Francis Galton.* It is directed 
 against a doctrine taught explicitly and emphatically 
 by Christ Himself, a doctrine that is fundamental in 
 the religious life: 
 
 "The long period of the dark ages under which Europe has 
 lain is due, I believe in a very considerable degree," to the 
 celibacy enjoined by religious orders on their votaries [sic]. 
 Whenever a man or a woman was possessed of a gentle nature 
 that fitted him or her to deeds of charity, to meditation, to litera- 
 ture, or to art, the social condition of the time was such that they 
 had no refuge elsewhere than in the bosom of the Church. But 
 the Church chose [sic] to preach and exact celibacy. The conse- 
 quence was that these gentle natures had no continuance, and 
 thus, by a policy so singularly unwise and suicidal that I am 
 
 ^ Luke X, 25-27. 
 
 ^John xiii, 15. 
 
 ' Matt. XXV, 31-46. 
 
 * Hereditary Genius, pp. 357, 358. Sir Francis Galton is the 
 "father of modern eugenics." It is pertinent to recall the words 
 of the late T. J. Gerrard, S. J. ("Eugenics," Vol. XVI, Catholic 
 Encyclopedia) : "The root difference between Catholic teaching 
 and that of modern eugenics is that the one places the final end 
 of man in eternal life, whilst the other places it in civic worth. 
 The effectual difference is that the Church makes bodily and 
 mental culture subservient to morality, whilst modern eugenics 
 makes morality subservient to bodily and mental culture. . . . 
 Moreover, since the most necessary and most difficult eugenic 
 reforms consist in the control of the sex appetite, the practice 
 of celibacy is an important factor in race culture. It is the stand- 
 ing example of a Divinely aided will holding the sensual passion 
 in check." 
 
 " One may be pardoned for dissenting f roin the author's punc- 
 tuation here. 
 
Limitations of the Novitiate. 73 
 
 hardly able to speak of it without impatience, the Church brutal- 
 ized the breed of our forefathers. She acted precisely as if she 
 had aimed at selecting the rudest portion of the community to be, 
 alone, the parents of future generations. She practised the arts 
 which breeders would use, who aimed at creating ferocious, cur- 
 rish, and stupid natures. No wonder Ihat club-law prevailed over 
 Europe; the wonder rather is that enough good remained in the 
 veins of Europeans to enable their race to rise ^ to its present 
 very moderate level of natural [sic] morality." 
 
 Were these words to be taken at their face value, edu- 
 cation as a real institution of society would be impos- 
 sible. It would exist only as the idle dream of a phi- 
 losopher, if indeed a philosopher could be found under 
 such conditions. But there is another side to be con- 
 sidered. 
 
 "Now, the noblest works for the good of others in which man 
 can be engaged fall under these three classes: that of maintain- 
 ing and propagating religion; that of forming the human char- 
 acter by education; that of administering to human infirmities by 
 acts of mercy. And the evidence of history, by induction from 
 many times and countries, is this, that wherever the Virginal 
 Life does not exist as an institution, these works, if pursued, are 
 only pursued as a profession. They may be followed with much 
 zeal and ability, and even with considerable success; but still it 
 will be as a means of livelihood, not for the sake of others, but 
 for the sake of self. Remuneration in some shape will be their 
 motive power. And no less does it follow, from the evidence of 
 history, that where the Virginal Life is cultivated, and exhibits 
 itself in various institutions, it will throw itself especially upon 
 these three classes of works. The dedication and sacrifice which 
 •lie at the root of it will communicate themselves to these works, 
 as conducted by it, will give to them a high and superhuman 
 character, a power of attraction over the hearts of men, which 
 
 ^ The student of logic may find it difficult to conceive how, in 
 view of Galton's premises, they could rise at all. The author is 
 covertly admitting the influence of another factor than heredity. 
 
74 The Religious Novitiate, 
 
 come from that divine Original of sacrifice, whose signet is the 
 Virginal Life. And in this case no human remuneration will be 
 the spring of these works; neither praise, nor power, nor wealth, 
 nor pleasure will call them forth or reward them. Rather they 
 will flourish amid poverty, self-denial, and humility, in those who 
 exercise them, and be the fruit not of political economy, but of 
 charity." ^ 
 
 Even Sir Francis Galton seems to have had a glimpse 
 
 of the natural aspect of this truth, for he confesses : 
 
 "A man who has no children is likely to do more for his profes- 
 sion and to devote himself more thoroughly to the good of the 
 public than if he had them. A very gifted man will almost always 
 rise, as I believe, to eminence; but if he is handicapped with the 
 weight of a wife and children in the race of life, he cannot be 
 expected to keep as much in the front as if he were single."^ 
 
 Another quotation may be given in answer to the 
 objection raised by Rosenkranz: 
 
 "A great Christian writer, who stood between the old pagan 
 world and the new society which was taking its place, and who 
 was equally familiar with both, made, near the end of the fourth 
 century, the following observation:' 'The Greeks have had some 
 men, though it was but few, among them, who, by force of phi- 
 losophy, came to despise riches; and some too who could control 
 the irascible part of man; but the flower of Virginity was nowhere 
 to be found among them. Here they always gave precedence to 
 us, confessing that to succeed in such a thing was to be superior 
 to nature and more than man. Hence their profound admiration 
 for the whole Christian people. The Christian host derived its 
 chief luster from this portion of its ranks.' " * 
 
 ^ T. W. Allies, op. cit, pp. 380, 381. 
 
 2 Op. cit., p. 330. 
 
 ^ St. John Chrysostom, Vol. XL VIII, p. 533, "De Virginitate," 
 Patrologia Graeca. The translation of De Virginitate is omitted 
 from "Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers." See 
 comment in American Ecclesiastical Review, Vol. XXIV, p. 210 
 (Feb., 1901). Cf. T. S. Dolan, The See of Peter and the Voice of 
 Antiquity. 
 
 * T. W. Allies, op. cit., pp. 381, 382. 
 
* . Summary, 75 
 
 As to obedience, it will suffice to note that the realiza- 
 tion of the highest ideal officially proposed to the public 
 school, viz., social service, is impossible without respect 
 for lawfully constituted authority. This is the natural 
 value of obedience. Father Faber sketches its super- 
 natural significance in the following words : 
 
 "Monks and nuns have given up their liberty by the heroism of 
 the vows. . . . Theirs is a glorious captivity, in which super- 
 natural charity has bound them hand and foot, and handed them 
 over to the arms of their Creator. They have used the original 
 liberty He gave them in the grandest of ways, by voluntarily sur- 
 rendering it." * 
 
 Article VII. — Summari/, 
 
 The novitiate is a period (1) of preparation, (2) 
 for the "religious life," which, in the words of St. 
 Thomas, is (3) a "state of perfection." The novice, 
 by appropriate spiritual exercises of prayer and self- 
 denial, as also by acts of Christian charity, must de- 
 velop the habits that become him as (1) creature, (2) 
 man, (3) Christian, and (4) religious. To prepare for 
 his "profession" as religious he practices self-examina- 
 tion and seeks by mental prayer to model his life after 
 that of his divine Exemplar. In proportion as he be- 
 comes more thoroughly imbued with the principles of 
 the religious life in general and -with the aims of his 
 own order in particular does he surrender private in- 
 terests under the great socializing influence of Chris- 
 tian charity, the flower of Christian faith. 
 
 ^ The Creator and the Creature^ p. 38. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Personality of the Teacher. 
 
 Article I, — What is Personality? 
 
 The thought and the culture of the modern world 
 are deeply indebted to the Catholic Church for pre- 
 senting to her members the idea of personality and for 
 demanding of them conduct befitting their dignity. Of 
 both these moral elements — the idea and its expression 
 in behavior — had the pagan world lost its sense long 
 before the coming of Christianity. The result was in- 
 evitably a depolarization of man's spiritual life.^ 
 
 "And so the ignorance which divested God of His creative 
 power, by the same stroke divested man of his personality. In 
 Greek and Roman philosophy man had not only ceased to be a 
 creature, being conceived either as an emanation of the world-soul 
 eternally transfused through material forms from generation to 
 generation, or as a product of the earth's slime warmed into life 
 by the sun's heat; but likewise, emanation or production as he 
 was accounted like all other living things, he could hardly in his 
 short transit through the world be held to have a personal sub- 
 sistence: or if this be allowed him, it must be allowed to all other 
 livings things, and at the same time was deprived of all moral 
 value, being utterly extinguished at death by resumption into the 
 world-soul. 
 
 "It is but a part of the same error as to the divine nature, that 
 the notion of a divine providence observing and directing the 
 course of the world, rewarding or punishing the actions of men, 
 had likewise been lost."* 
 
 ^ See also above, p. 44. 
 
 »T. W. Allies, op. cit., pp. 87, 88. 
 
 76 
 
What is Personality? 77 
 
 With the concept of God's personality perished also 
 the consciousness of man as a person ; for man is made 
 in the image and likeness of God/ When paganism, to 
 use the words of Scripture, "had corrupted its way 
 upon the earth," ^ it proceeded to conceive its gods in 
 the image and likeness of man. With such a lowering 
 of ideals and perversion of fundamental relationships, 
 true progress became impossible. Whenever and wher- 
 ever, in the last twenty centuries, like conditions have 
 been reproduced, like results have followed. When the 
 mental vision of God's unity and personality becomes 
 darkened, then man's worth depreciates in the estimate 
 of the community. So it comes to pass that in the 
 world of labor he is no longer a moral agent ; he is 
 merely an economic factor. Even in the school the 
 child ceases to be a concrete intelligence dowered with 
 the promise and potency of undying life; he is rele- 
 gated to the ranks of the social group and, in so far, 
 is only one of many. We might say, then, that the 
 history, not of religion only, but of philosophy also, 
 has "personality" for its central theme. Consequently-^ 
 no system of education can be right in its conception 
 or genuinely beneficial in its application unless it in- 
 cludes a correct interpretation of personality. 
 
 As is suggested by its derivation, the term 'person' ^ 
 
 ' Gen. i, 26. 
 
 2 Ibid, vi, 12. 
 
 ' From the Latin per and sonOj sonare, signifying to "sound" or 
 "utter through," i. e., through the opening for the mouth. It was 
 at first thought that these masks were intended simply to remind 
 those attending the play that the actors were representing other 
 
78 The Personality of the Teacher, 
 
 primarily designated the mask worn by the actors in 
 the old Greek and Roman plays. Then it came to sig- 
 nify the player who wore the mask. Finally, since "all 
 the world's a stage," it attained its present meaning. 
 It is a matter of some cultural interest to note that in 
 Chaucer's day the priest was the most important per- 
 son in the community, whence he was called the "par- 
 son." ^ From the Christian viewpoint it is still true 
 that only religion as the guiding principle of man's 
 theory and practice, can develop in him the real dig- 
 nity of personality. The nature of personality St. 
 Thomas Aquinas has attempted to explain,^ and to his 
 definition we now turn. 
 
 Taking Boethius' description of person as "an indi- 
 vidual substance of a rational," or intelligent, "na- 
 ture," he expands it into this form: A "person" is "a 
 complete substance having an intellectual nature, sub- 
 sisting by itself and apart from other substances." He 
 designates person as "substance" to distinguish it from 
 "real accident" ; that is, from a mere quality, modifi- 
 cation, or process. It is "complete," and is therefore 
 different from either man's body or his soul, since it is 
 superior to both. In the case of man it is actually 
 "constituted" by the "union of body and soul." Be- 
 cause it "subsists by itself," it is ultimate master of its 
 
 characters than their own, that they were impersonating the 
 dramatis personw. Subsequently it was found that the funnel- 
 shaped opening for the mouth helped the actor's voice to carry 
 to a greater distance. 
 
 ^ "Parson" is only a variant, in pronunciation as in spelling, of 
 the original "person." See also Canterbury Tales. 
 
 ^ SvmiTYia Theologica, III, q. 16, a. 2. 
 
What Society Expects. 79 
 
 acts, and therefore cannot become a mere component 
 of something else. The phrase "apart from other 
 things" is used especially to distinguish the real con- 
 crete person from the 'idea of person,' which applies 
 not to a determinant individual, but to each and every 
 person as such. 
 
 According to the mind of St. Thomas, therefore, 
 personality includes at least relative completeness of 
 existence, perfection of activity, and distinction from 
 others even of the same kind. It is a significant truth 
 for the teacher that this completeness and this distinc- 
 tion — this development and this individuality — can be 
 and should be, to a great extent, the work of education. 
 Fortunately, when used without qualifying epithets, 
 the term still possesses an honorable connotation. 
 
 Article IL — What Society Expects. 
 
 We have already seen^ that "an ethical aim, spe- 
 cialized knowledge, and technical skill," together with 
 "culture," are qualifications which every teacher should 
 possess. But the greatest of all these is character. It 
 is only the teacher of "character" that can develop 
 "character" in his pupils. Now, genuine social service 
 is impossible without the basic equipment of good char- 
 acter. 
 
 "To live according to nature, to follow one's own inclinations 
 and interests, ... no great effort is needed. ... To over- 
 come nature and instead to prepare for a life of ideals, to inhibit 
 the personal desires and instead to learn to serve the higher pur- 
 poses, indeed demands most serious and most systematic efforts. 
 
 * See p. 8, above. 
 
80 The Personality of the Teacher, 
 
 "It is the teacher's task to make these efforts with all his best 
 knowledge of mind and body, of social and of cultural values. 
 Psychology and physiology, sociology and the subjects taught 
 have to furnish him with the equipment for his great calling, but 
 they all represent only the means, which are of no use until ethics 
 has shown us the aims. Those means the teacher must master by 
 study and knowledge, but those aims he must hold in his heart." ^ 
 
 Hence Prof. H. H. Schroeder says bluntly: 
 
 "What education must aim at, therefore, is the building up of 
 moral character; for it is only when those with whom we come in 
 contact are possessed of such character that our interests are 
 assured, as far as concerns our social environment."^ 
 
 What society particularly asks of both teacher and 
 pupil, what it demands as a result of the educative 
 process, is social efficiency. This has been defined as 
 "the ability to enter into a progressive social process 
 and do one's part toward advancing the interests of 
 the whole, while at the same time attaining the highest 
 degree of realization of the self." ^ 
 
 "Efficient participation requires knowledge and technique. To 
 be a good citizen of the state, one must have a knowledge of the 
 purpose of government, of the machinery of his own government, 
 and the nature of the social problems confronting the state. If one 
 is to stand in right relations to the school and do his part as 
 patron, taxpayer, or official, he requires a comprehension of the 
 nature and aim of education and a knowledge of the organization 
 
 * Muensterberg, Psychology and the Teacher, pp. 76, 77. Cf. 
 Dr. Adolf Matthias, Praktische Pddagogik filr hohere Lehran- 
 stalten, Bd. II, p. 11: "Die Personlichkeit nur gewinnen kann, 
 wenn sie ttichtig in der Teknik und Methodik des Berufs sich 
 schult." 
 
 * The Psychology of Conduct Applied to the Problem of Moral 
 Education in the Public Schools, p. 21. 
 
 » Betts, op. cit., p. 245, 
 
What Society Expects, 81 
 
 and functions of the school as the instrument of education. To 
 enter successfully into a vocation, whether industrial, professional, 
 or any other, the individual must have a concept of the place of 
 work in human progress, and a particular knowledge of and 
 technique in the vocation selected. Or, if one is to make fruitful 
 use of the avocations, he must see the relation of avocations to 
 development and efficiency, and learn the technique of the avoca- 
 tions chosen." ^ 
 
 Yet although efficiency demands both knowledge and 
 technical skill, what it really accomplishes will depend 
 chiefly on "character," for character shares its own 
 force with the other factors.^ 
 
 "The power of an intense purpose to heighten the intellectual 
 insight not only operates on the teacher, but also on those taught. 
 . . . The first requisite is a supervisor whose soul is inspired 
 with the sacredness of life. ... In the replies of fifty-five col- 
 lege presidents and representative men to the question: 'What is 
 the Best Thing College Does for a Man?' influence of personality 
 everywhere predominates." ' 
 
 One who has done great service for mankind, Karl 
 von Baer, can therefore say with authority: 
 
 "What a man accomplishes in the course of his life depends 
 mainly upon his character — more upon what he is than what he 
 does." *• 
 
 The reason is given by Professor Swift: 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 246. 
 
 ^ Cf . the Scholastic axiom, "Bonum est diffusivum sui;" also the 
 Catechism of the Council of Trent (Art. I, of the Creed) : "God 
 was impelled to create from no other motive than a desire to 
 impart to creatures the riches of His bounty." 
 
 " D. E. Phillips, "The Teaching Interest," in Pedagogical Semi- 
 nary, Vol. VI, p. 242. 
 
 * Quoted in Miall's Thirty Years of Teaching, p. 182. 
 
83 The Personality of the Teacher, 
 
 "Character, which is only another name for the established will, 
 is formed through ideals which have been consciously or uncon- 
 sciously accepted as governing principles of action. And these 
 ideals can become fixed only so far as they are acted upon." ^ 
 
 Since society expects to find in its citizens good 
 moral character, it therefore asks (1) that they be 
 equipped with true and noble ideas; (S) that they 
 make these ideas the principles of their conduct; (3) 
 that they cultivate the emotions best adapted to trans- 
 form these ideas into motives. For: 
 
 "Beyond heredity, and beyond environment, are those factors 
 that determine motives: the things that prod us to capacity effort, 
 that set us against the current of mere circumstances. These 
 things are ideas, the stuff and substance of our knowledge, the 
 results of our educational process. To realize the foolishness of 
 evil, to understand the method of its avoidance, to know how to 
 substitute for its indulgence a vigorous habit of healthful activity 
 is, for all robust natures, already to will, and to achieve, good 
 behavior." ^ 
 
 Article III, — What the Catholic Chair ch Demands, 
 
 The connection between this article and the preceding 
 one is clearly pointed out by Mgr. J. Guibert when he 
 compares the demands made upon the teacher by God 
 and by the State :^ 
 
 ^ Youth and the Race, p. 126. 
 
 ^Eliott Park Frost, "Habit Formation and Reformation," Yale 
 Review, Oct., 1914, p. 147. 
 
 ' "La Soci^te lui demande des hommes sains de corps et d'ame, 
 des citoyens honnetes et devoues a la patrie: Dieu lui demande, 
 en plus, des Chretiens fideles a leur foi et des apotres z^l6s pour 
 la defense et I'extension de PEglise." — Les Qualit^s de I'Educa- 
 teur, p. 5. The author was Superior of the Seminary of the 
 Catholic Institute (i. e., the Catholic University) of Paris. 
 
What the Catholic Church Demands, 83 
 
 "Society asks of him men sound of body and soul, citizens that 
 are honest and patriotic. God asks, beside this, Christians that 
 are true to their faith and apostles that are zealous for the de- 
 fense and the expansion of the Church." 
 
 From this statement it would appear that the requi- 
 sites sought by the CathoHc Church, far from destroy- 
 ing or supplanting those insisted upon by the State, 
 rather (1) complete them by adding other qualifica- 
 tions, and (2) transform them by animating them with 
 a new spirit. We may therefore consider briefly the 
 requirements that are special to the Catholic teacher. 
 According to the authority just cited, they are two in 
 number; for the teacher must "nourish his soul, and 
 give his soul"; because, "in the measure in which he 
 gives out his life, must he renew its vigor." ^ 
 
 All teachers should be firmly convinced of three 
 things : 
 
 (1) *The scope of their apostolate will be determined by their 
 own personal worth; (2) their personal worth will be quickly 
 drained unless it is fed and strengthened by personal culture; (3) 
 personal culture is of obligation for all, and it is possible for all 
 who have sufficient good will to economize their time and possess 
 their souls in peace.' 
 
 "What culture should the teacher acquire? All that may be for 
 him a principle of life and a principle of action: his faith, his 
 virtue, his knowledge." ^ 
 
 ^ "Tous ses devoirs se ram^nent k deux : nourrir son dme, 
 donner son ame, car, a mesure qu'il donne sa vie, il doit en 
 renouveler la vigeur." — Id., p. 8. 
 
 ^ "Je voudrais que tous les maitres fussent persuades de trois 
 choses: que la port^e de leur apostolat sera en proportion de leur 
 valeur; que cette valeur, fut-elle tr^s grande aux debuts, sera vite 
 ^puisee si elle n'est entretenue et d6velopp6e par la culture per- 
 sonnelle; que cette culture, obligatoire pour tous, est possible k 
 
84 The Personality of the Teacher, 
 
 Faith is placed first. It directs the teacher in the 
 choice of virtues to be cultivated ; it determines his aim 
 both in acquiring and in imparting knowledge, it vital- 
 izes his method. It gives a broader outlook and a deeper 
 inspiration. 
 
 "The Gospel did not create a new system of culture in opposi- 
 tion to that which it found in possession, but it introduced into 
 the latter an essentially new circle of ideas, equally foreign to 
 abstract indefiniteness and poetic exaggeration on the one hand, 
 and to mere empty knowledge of the letter on the other. The 
 former bore the baleful mark of antiquity ; the latter, that of 
 Jewish devotion to the letter of the law: while Christianity pos- 
 sesses a definite personal unity in Jesus Christ, the Alpha and 
 Omega of the Gospel. Hence it is that Christianity exercised not 
 a destructive but a constructive, influence on the culture with 
 which, at its birth, it was brought face to face. By it the content 
 of man's religious and moral conscience was corrected, broadened, 
 completed, and elevated." ^ 
 
 This estimate is confirmed by Dr. Pace, who inter- 
 
 tous pourvu qu'on ait assez de volont^ pour economiser du temps 
 et pour posseder son ame. Mais que devra cultiver le maitre? 
 Tout ce qui est en lui principe de vie et principe d'action; sa foi, 
 sa vertu, son savoir." — Id., pp. 13, 14. 
 
 ^ "Das Evangelium schuf nicht ein neues Bildungssystem in 
 Opposition zu dem welches es als ein historisch gegebenes antraf, 
 sondern es trat an dasselbe mit einem wesentlich neuen Ideen- 
 kreise heran, der ebenso fern war vom abstrakter Unbestimmt- 
 heit and poetischer Gestalteniiberfulle wie leerer Buchstaben- 
 kramerei; das eine die unheilvolle Signatur der Antike, das 
 andere die der judischen Schriftgelehrsamkeit, vielmehr eine ganz 
 bestimmt personliche Einheit besass, die das Alpha und Omega 
 seines Evangeliums ist, Jesus Christus. Damit hat das Chris- 
 tentum eine nicht umsttirzende, sondern eine gestaltende Macht 
 auf die Bildung, welche es bei seinem Eintritt in die Welt antraf, 
 gelibt, dass es den Inhalt des religios-sittlichen Bewusstseins 
 berichtigte, erweiterte, erganzte und erhohte." — J. N. Brunner, 
 Katholische Religionslehre, II, pp. 6, 6. 
 
What the Catholic Church Demands. 85 
 
 prets in a Cliristian sense Spencer's definition of edu- 
 cation as "preparation for complete living:"^ 
 
 "It is just this completeness — in teaching all men, in harmonizing 
 all truth, in elevating all relationships, and in leading the indi- 
 vidual soul back to the Creator — that forms the essential charac- 
 teristic of Christianity as an educational influence." * 
 
 Just as the exercise of faith presupposes reason, 
 which examines and approves the grounds of faith, so 
 the development of virtue implies a co-operation be- 
 tween grace and nature. As the teacher must have 
 human faith,^ so must he cultivate human, or natural, 
 virtues. Of these, besides the four cardinal virtues, 
 which every man should possess, Mgr. Guibert would 
 have the teacher excel in four:^ (1) sincerity, winning 
 the confidence of others; (2) probity, respecting their 
 rights; (S) delicacy, displaying the courtesy of the 
 true gentleman;^ (4) strength of character, for the 
 teacher must "be a man." ^ 
 
 Now, the Catholic Church teaches that our existence 
 does not terminate with death, but that this earthly 
 life is only a period of probation and training for life 
 everlasting, just as the school prepares for social 
 service here on earth. Consequently the Catholic 
 
 ' See p. 60, above. 
 
 ^ Catholic Encyclopedia, "Education." 
 
 ' See above, pp. 28, 29. 
 
 *Op. cit, pp. 31-34. 
 
 °Cf. Cardinal Newman's "Idea of a Gentleman" in Idea of a 
 University, p. 208, together with Rev. Charles L. O'Donnell's ex- 
 planation in the Ave Maria, Jan. 16, 1915, p. 73 f. 
 
 ° This list is in great accord with the "characteristics of the 
 best teachers," Pedagogical Semvnary, Vol. Ill, p. 413. 
 
86 The Personality of the Teacher, 
 
 teacher must supplement his natural virtues with vir- 
 tues that are supernatural. He must even develop his 
 natural virtues from supernatural motives ; in other 
 words, he is to raise them to the plane of the super- 
 natural. This gives a deeper significance to the words 
 of Professor Miall:^ 
 
 "Everything falls into its right place as soon as we focus our 
 minds upon the thing which really signifies — that is, upon life." 
 
 It also guards against the attitude which Professor 
 McKenny deprecates :^ 
 
 "Nine-tenths of the failures of life are due to a lack of devotion 
 to the work in hand, to a vacillating, indifferent, flippant attitude, 
 toward life. Such an attitude saps manhood." 
 
 The three theological virtues raise the Christian into 
 intimate relationship with God: (1) faith does homage 
 to His intelligence by accepting the revelations made 
 by infinite Truth; (2) hope honors the divine good- 
 ness by trusting to secure the personal everlasting pos- 
 session of the reward promised to man; (3) charity 
 seeks intimate union with Him who has given us the 
 law of love. But in addition to these spiritual habits, 
 the Christian teacher must possess the supernatural 
 virtues of humility, self-denial, and detachment;^ for 
 these inhibit the three great obstacles to his complete 
 success, viz., pride, self-gratification, and the craving 
 for wealth. These virtues bring us to the very door of 
 
 ' Op. cit., p. 217. 
 
 " The Personality of the Teacher, p. 74. 
 
 ' Guibert, op. cit, pp. 35-41. 
 
What the Novitiate Offers, 87 
 
 the novitiate. The spirit of the typical Christian 
 teacher is at one with the spirit of the typical novice. 
 
 Article IV, — What the Novitiate Offers, 
 
 1. The novitiate offers its members a practical 
 course in the philosophy of life. It unfolds to the 
 novice the significance of his existence and action (a) 
 as creature, (b) as human being, (c) as Christian, (d) 
 as religious. Each of these planes represents a stage 
 of ascent; whence we may argue a certain measure of 
 propriety in St. Thomas' designation of the religious 
 life as a "state of perfection." ^ 
 
 2. The novitiate gives training in (a) self-exam- 
 ination, (b) self-mastery (self-denial), and (c) self- 
 realization. The first is a condition of understanding 
 other minds. How wide may be its scope and how far- 
 reaching its influence, is to be inferred from its splendid 
 expression in Cardinal Newman's "Grammar of As- 
 sent." ^ The second qualification is a condition of 
 directing and controlling others. The third is a con- 
 dition of developing an effective personality. 
 
 3. The novitiate socializes its members. Together 
 the novices partake of bodily food; together do they 
 feast on the Bread from heaven that daily awaits them 
 
 ^ See above, pp. 32, 60. 
 
 ^The student will find the Indexed Synopsis of the Gram/mar 
 of Assent, by J. Toohey, S. J., a great help. Rev. Joseph 
 Rickaby's Index to the Works of Cardinal Newman (Longmans, 
 1914) is even more valuable, since it extends to all the Cardinal's 
 writings. 
 
88 The Personality of the Teacher. 
 
 in tlie tabernacle. Together they share their joys and 
 their labors. Together they recite the office in the 
 name of the Church. Together do they day by day 
 seek by meditation to assimilate the great truths of 
 that faith whose tenets they may later strive to trans- 
 late into the living deeds of their pupils. 
 
 4. The novitiate opens an excellent laboratory for 
 experiments in habit-formation. The silence of the 
 house, its seclusion from worldly concerns, but most of 
 all, the retreat and general confession prescribed for 
 the novice or recommended to him at the beginning of 
 his career, break or weaken the chains of the past. His 
 soul is borne onward by the tide of noble but controlled 
 emotions. Regular observance brings with it endless op- 
 portunity of practising the acts whose repetition helps 
 to build habit. The spirit of faith guards the novice's 
 fervor against that routine which would either render 
 the formation of habit impossible or weaken its efficacy 
 or mar its purpose. 
 
 5. Since, according to the principles of sound 
 method, the study of the philosophy of education 
 should precede that of the psychology of education,^ 
 the novitiate is justified in making its curriculum con- 
 sist chiefly of the meaning and value of life. It thus 
 sets a standard of values. That standard places re- 
 ligious and ethical aims above the theories and esti- 
 mates offered by physiology, psychology, and sociol- 
 ogy.^ Does the history of religious orders ratify the 
 
 ^ Cf. Ruediger, op. cit., p. 11. 
 ^Cf. Muensterberg, ibid. 
 
What the Novitiate Offers, 89 
 
 appraisal made by the novitiate? Let us ponder the 
 words of Dr. Heimbucher: 
 
 "The monks carried the banner of culture and civilization to the 
 distant regions of the earth. They were the apostles of Christian- 
 ity, not only in the West, but also in Asia and in the newly dis- 
 covered regions of the globe. Their foundations opened the way 
 for the cultivation of the soil, for the laying out of colonies, vil- 
 lages, and towns. The monks cleared forests, drained swamps and 
 planted them, controlled rivers, recovered fruitful land by the 
 building of dams, gave an impetus to cattle-raising, to agriculture 
 and industry, and trained in these pursuits the colonists whom they 
 habituated to a fixed dwelling-place and to regulated labor. They 
 introduced the cultivation of fruits and vegetables, they built mills 
 and forges, made streets and bridges, promoted trade and com- 
 merce. They prepared the way for the class of free handworkers, 
 and in so doing favored the development of city government. 
 They united the handworkers [craftsmen] in fraternal societies 
 and guilds and made a point of favoring their material advance 
 through appropriate means. The cloisters practised hospitality, 
 care of the sick, and works of charity, wherever the opportunity 
 was offered, erected schools and colleges [Erziehungsanstalten], 
 hospitals and inns, and took in travelers who had lost their way. 
 Great have been their services to the arts and sciences. Without 
 the cloisters many cities and countries would be without those 
 buildings and art treasures which to-day call forth the admiration 
 of all the cultured. The monks formed valuable libraries, and 
 through their unceasing industry in the scriptoria (writing-rooms) 
 in making copies, which they often illuminated with beautiful 
 miniatures, they preserved the priceless literary monuments which 
 to-day link us with the culture of the distant past. They were 
 the historians of their time. They left many valuable sources of 
 the Old High German tongue; they cultivated poetry and song, 
 won for themselves a good name by their knowledge of lands, 
 peoples, and languages, mathematics and astronomy, and the 
 science of diplomacy (study of records, titles, etc.). They even 
 attempted natural philosophy and medicine. But it was espe- 
 cially theology that, through the orders, experienced beneficial 
 attention and progress. Brotherhoods copied and distributed a 
 superior kind of popular literature, and, after the invention of 
 
90 The Personality of the Teacher, 
 
 printing, applied themselves to the printing of books. The care 
 of souls formed another branch of the comprehensive activity of 
 the orders. Attention was also given to prisoners, and especially 
 to slaves, for whose redemption from captivity special orders 
 arose. From the orders also came many martyrs, and many of 
 the members have been beatified or canonized." ^ 
 
 Let us not forget (1) that the one common, indis- 
 pensable, fundamental preparation for all these varied 
 forms of service was the novitiate; (2) that the motives 
 which brought so many noble ideas and ideals into re- 
 ality sprang from Christian faith; (S) that the works 
 which would have been impossible for isolated individ- 
 uals became facts through individuals who had learned 
 in the novitiate to lead a "community life" and to ani- 
 mate it with the spirit of faith. And these remarks hold 
 true even in the case of orders that do not specially 
 devote themselves to formal education. "By their 
 fruits ye shall know them" is a test that is accepted by 
 both God and man.^ 
 
 We may now better appreciate the worth of the tes- 
 timony given by an historian whom no one will accuse 
 of prejudice in favor of the Catholic Church: 
 
 "Its [Latin Christianity's] most important peculiarity lay in 
 this — that a slow but sure and unbroken progress of intellectual 
 culture had been going on within its bosom for a series of ages. 
 . . . Hence all the vital and productive elements of human 
 culture were here united and mingled: the development of society 
 had gone on naturally and gradually; the innate passion and 
 genius for science and for art constantly received fresh food 
 
 ^ Op. cit., pp. 60, 61. On pp. 65, 66, the author cites non- 
 Catholic testimony to the benefits accruing to the world from 
 religious orders. 
 
 *Matt. vii, 16, 
 
What the Novitiate Ojfers. 91 
 
 and fresh inspiration, and were in their fullest bloom and vigor; 
 . . . in Europe were found united the most intelligent, the 
 bravest, and the most civilized nations still in the freshness of 
 youth." ' 
 
 There is also the prestige of example: 
 
 "The greatest teachers and bishops of the fourth century, St. 
 Athanasius, St. Basil, his friend St. Gregory, in the East; St. 
 Ambrose, St. Martin, and St. Augustine, in the West, themselves 
 introduced this life by their example as well as by their precepts. 
 No sooner had St. Augustine, upon his conversion, renounced the 
 intention of marriage, than he drew together a number of like- 
 minded friends, who with him also gave up the possession of 
 private goods, and the pursuit of every object of temporal 
 ambition. St. Basil and his friend St. Gregory had a generation 
 before done this, with an earlier and more perfect choice, inas- 
 much as they had not first tasted the pleasures of the world. 
 St. Athanasius, driven by persecution to Treves and to Rome, 
 publishes a life of St. Anthony, and spreads throughout the West 
 an admiration of the marvelous virtues which he had witnessed 
 in the Fathers of the desert. By and by the great legislator of 
 the monastic life in the West, St. Benedict, arises, who system- 
 atizes for all succeeding ages the religious institute, as based 
 upon the three vows of continence, poverty, and obedience."^ 
 
 Would it not then be passing strange, if, since "with 
 
 ^ "Die wichtigste Eigenthtimlichkeit derselben lag darin, dass 
 hier eine Reihe von Jahrhunderten hindurch ein nicht unter- 
 brochener, langsamer, aber sicherer Fortschritt der Cultur statt 
 gefunden hatte. . . . Daher hatten sich hier alle lebens- 
 fahigen Elemente der menschlichen Cultur vereinigt, durch- 
 drungen; die Dinge hatten sich naturgemass Schritt fur Schritt, 
 entwickeln konnen; . . . das Vorkommene verfiel, die Keime 
 des frischen Lebens wuchsen in jedem Moment empor; hier waren 
 die geistreichsten, tapfersten, gebildetsten Volker, noch immer 
 jugendlich, mit einander vereinigt." — Von Ranke, Deutsche 
 Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformfiation, Band I, Buch I, cap. 
 i, p. 155. — English tr. by Sarah Austin, History of the Eeformor- 
 tion in Germany, Vol. I, Bk. I, Chap. I, pp. 251, 252. 
 
 * Allies, op. cit., pp. 359, 360. 
 
9S The Personality of the Teacher, 
 
 one mouth all the ancient Christian writers proclaim 
 the Virginal Life to be the condition of all perfect fol- 
 lowing of our Lord," ^ and our Lord is the great 
 Teacher of mankind, the religious novitiate should be 
 lacking in fundamental pedagogical value? 
 
 Article V, — The Teacher's Ideals of Personality, 
 
 The teacher's personality is said to constitute nine- 
 tenths of the capital that he needs to fulfill his mission 
 worthily and successfully. Is personality a gift be- 
 stowed from on high, implying no preparatory dis- 
 positions or efforts on the part of the recipient? Or 
 may one develop a personality and in so doing produce 
 the finest of masterpieces — a model man? Among those 
 who take the latter view is William De Witt Hyde, 
 President of Bowdoin College. 
 
 From the history of philosophy Dr. Hyde selects 
 five great ideals of education, and presents them to the 
 teacher.^ The first is the Epicurean ideal, viz., that 
 pleasure is the great aim of life, and therefore that pain 
 is the great bane of existence, to be avoided at any 
 cost. Epicurus himself ^ did not go the length of some 
 
 ^ Id., p. 345. 
 
 2 The complete title of this book is The Teacher's Philosophy 
 in and out of School. The same principles will be found also in 
 his From Epictetus to Christ, his Five Great Philosophies of Life, 
 and in Section XIII of his The College Man and the College 
 Woman. 
 
 ' Cf. Alfred W. Benn, The Greek Philosophers, for these four 
 Greek ideals; also Rev. W. Turner, History of Philosophy, 
 
The Teacher^s Ideals of Fersonality, 93 
 
 of his disciples in adopting the maxim: "Eat, drink, 
 and be merry; for to-morrow we shall die." But such 
 a principle is valuable as illustrating the inherent weak- 
 ness of his system and its narrowing and debasing tend- 
 ency. What, then, is the teacher to do with this ideal 
 of pleasure if not reject it entirely? He should make 
 rational use of it, says Dr. Hyde. Just as man con- 
 tains in himself not only reason, but the qualities of the 
 lower orders of creation, so in virtue of these humbler 
 elements of his nature must he satisfy their tendencies 
 and demands — all in accordance with the laws of mo- 
 rality. Now, there are times when recreation and re- 
 laxation become imperative. Ordinarily one's fidelity 
 to duty and one's degree of efficiency will be conditioned 
 on the possession of health and vigor. Although these 
 are not the highest of perfections, since they belong 
 to man merely because he is an organism, they are yet 
 gifts of God, and as such should be treasured. More- 
 over, Scripture nowhere records that the Saviour en- 
 dured sickness. Hunger, thirst, fatigue, lassitude even 
 — all these indeed He suffered — but of illness there is 
 no mention except when He is pictured as miraculously 
 banishing it from the bodies of those so affiicted. The 
 lesson to be drawn from this ideal is therefore one of 
 reasonable care for one's health and strength. It in- 
 cludes provision for sufficient rest and recreation to be 
 taken preferably in "God's own out-of-doors," in the 
 society of congenial friends. 
 
 The second great ideal comes from the Stoics, and 
 stands in sharp contrast to the Epicurean. According 
 
94 The Personality of the Teacher. 
 
 to this school of philosophy, the great goal of hu- 
 man endeavor is apathy, a state of indifference to pleas- 
 ure and pain, and indeed to feeling in general. It vir- 
 tually asserts that man is not an animal, but a think- 
 ing machine. Its practice is therefore to ignore the 
 joys and sorrows of life. The Stoic even tries to per- 
 suade himself that they do not exist. If it be true that 
 most of the worries of life concern things that never 
 happen at all, the Stoic's attitude may not be utterly 
 unwise. The lesson for the teacher is obvious. His 
 calling bristles with trials and disappointments, and the 
 success of his mission depends on his ability to rise 
 above these annoyances and, by his dignified conduct, 
 justify the confidence which his pupils place in him. 
 This disposition Dr. Hyde names "Stoic self-control 
 by law." 
 
 The third great ideal is Plato's. For him, man's 
 body and the material universe were but accidents, or 
 at most incidents. Both his Republic and his Laws 
 were consistent, though not successful, plans for the 
 establishment of an ideal — or Utopian — State. Yet if 
 one is to live his own life, to see above and beyond the 
 petty details of his trade or profession, he must be ideal- 
 istic in the sense of having true ideas of the value and 
 the purpose of life; and from time to time he must 
 climb the mountain of idealism to breathe a purer at- 
 mosphere and to draw new courage for the battle in 
 and with the world. But if they are to be of real 
 service, these short periods of withdrawal from his daily 
 occupations should but fit him the better for the daily 
 
The Teacher^s Ideals of Personality, 95 
 
 demands made upon him. It is in this spirit that "hob- 
 bies" and avocations may have a genuine uplifting in- 
 fluence on character. The lesson is therefore that of 
 being larger than one's calling, of refusing to be ab- 
 sorbed by it, since it is a means, not an end. In other 
 words, the teacher must cultivate a "Platonic subor- 
 dination of lower to higher." 
 
 The fourth great ideal is that of Aristotle. Unlike 
 Plato, Aristotle lays a secure foundation on facts per- 
 ceived by sense and examined by intellect. His attitude 
 is not poetic, like that of his great teacher, but scien- 
 tific. He seeks to ascertain the true relations of things 
 and thereby to develop a sense of proportion. In this 
 respect he has been a safe guide for subsequent ages. 
 Every real educator, says Dr. Hyde, is called upon to 
 do twenty times as much as he can do with any justice 
 to himself and to the work in question. He must there- 
 fore cultivate a sense of proportion and discriminate 
 between the things that are important and those that 
 only seem so. In order to do well the one-twentieth 
 that is possible, he must learn to say "No !" kindly yet 
 firmly when occasion calls for refusal. Only in this 
 way will he keep that peace of mind which is essential 
 to him as man and as teacher. Only in this way will he 
 practise the "Aristotelian sense of proportion." 
 
 Lastly, there is the ideal set before man by the In- 
 carnate Wisdom of God when He came down upon 
 earth to teach by word and example. Its character- 
 istic is a spirit of love, proclaimed, like a clarion call, 
 from the great pulpit of the cross. The teacher who 
 
96 The Personality of the Teacher. 
 
 would walk in the footsteps of the Greatest of all 
 Teachers must early learn the lesson of sacrifice. It is 
 the means of redemption for himself and his pupils. 
 The Christian ideal includes and exalts all that is good 
 in the other four.^ 
 
 These ideals of personality, based as they are on 
 fundamental views of life, deserve a prominent place in 
 the philosophy of education. Of the benefit which the 
 teacher may derive from their careful study, let Dr. 
 Hyde himself speak : 
 
 "Show me any teacher of sufficient mental training and quali- 
 fications who is unpopular, ineffective, unhappy, and I will guar- 
 antee that this teacher has violated one or more of these prin- 
 ciples of personality. . . . On the other hand, I will guarantee 
 perfect personal success to any well-trained teacher who will 
 faithfully incorporate these principles into his personal life. 
 . . . This teacher can no more help being a personal success 
 as a teacher than the sunlight and rain can help making the 
 earth the fruitful and beautiful place that it is."^ 
 
 The first four of these ideals have long been held in 
 honor in the normal school. The difficulty arises in 
 recognizing and following the fifth, which is the great- 
 est of all. How serious may be the consequences of 
 ignoring it, we have noted in Chapter I.^ After years 
 of careful study given to the question. Dr. F. W. 
 Foerster has arrived at this conclusion:* 
 
 ^Dr. Hyde calls attention to this fact, pp. 78-81. 
 
 2 Op. cit, pp. 81, 82, 83. 
 
 « See Chap. I, Arts. VI, VII. 
 
 * "Gegeniiber der religiosen Ethik ist die blosse Moral immer 
 nur ein Kreuz ohne Auferstehung — die Religion erst bezieht alle 
 Ueberwindung auf ein hochstes Gut des personlichen Lebens. 
 Die Moral religios begrunden, das heisst eben diese ganz person- 
 
The Teacher^s Ideals of Personality. 97 
 
 "In contrast with religious ethics, mere morality is at best 
 only a cross without a resurrection — for it is religion that turns 
 every conquest to the highest good of our personal life. To 
 give morality a religious foundation is to perceive this personal 
 significance of the moral, to concentrate our attention upon it, to 
 draw inspiration from it. To-day it is regarded as a mark of 
 developed personality to strip the moral of its religious basis; 
 whereas in reality this religious basis is the true foundation of 
 personality, since this alone can represent the sacrificing of life as 
 
 liche Bedeutung des Sittlichen herausempfinden, sich darauf kon- 
 centrieren, daraus die Inspiration entnehmen. Es gilt ja heute 
 als Zeichen der entwickelten Personlichkeit, dass man die 
 religiose Begriindung des Sittlichen abstreift — in Wirklichkeit 
 aber ist die religiose Begriindung die wahrhaft personliche 
 Begriindung, well sie allein die Hingehwng des Lebens als den 
 Gewinn des wahren Lebens darzustellen — und nicht bloss darzu- 
 stellen, sondern in einem ergreifenden Leben und Sterben zu 
 verkorpern vermag. Der blosse dumpfe Lebenstrieb rebelliert 
 seinem Wesen nach gegen das Sittengesetz — die christliche Re- 
 ligion klart den Menschen am tiefsten und tiberzeugendsten iiber 
 das Wesen des wahren Lebens und der wahren Freiheit auf — ^in 
 diesem aufgeklarten Zustande erfasst der Mensch dann alle 
 Ueberwindung als hochste personliche Lebenserfiillung. So 
 versteht allein die christliche Religion die dussere gesellschaft- 
 liche Forderung mit dem tiefsten personliche Freiheitsdrange, die 
 Beschrankung des Lebens mit dem Lebensdurste zu versohnen; 
 sie allein ubersetzt wirklich und lebendig den Gehorsam in die 
 Sprache der Freiheit, sie ist der Ort, in dem Individuum und 
 Gesellschaft sich innerlich vermahlen. Und eben diese Leistung 
 des Christentums hat Paulus in Auge, wenn er sagt, das Chris- 
 tentum beendige die Knechtschaft des Gesetzes. Alle blosse 
 Ethik bleibt in der Knechtschaft des Gesetzes; auch die wissen- 
 schaftliche Ethik ist ja nur eine wissenschaftliche Darstellung 
 dieser Knechtschaft. Die Ethik erzahlt dem Menschen von 
 gesellschaftlichen Notwendigkeiten — die Religion erzahlt ihm von 
 sich selbst, seiner hoheren Herkunft, von der tiefverborgenen 
 Kraften seiner geistigen Natur, weckt seine Sehnsucht nach 
 vollkommener Freiheit, stellt diese Freiheit in strahlender VoU- 
 endung: das ist religiose Begriindung der moral." — "Religion und 
 Charakterbindung," Mbmoires sur VEducation Morale pr4sent^$ au 
 deuzidme Congr^s international d'Education Morale a la Have, 
 1912, p. 7. 
 
98 The Personality of the Teacher. 
 
 the gaining of true life. And not only this, it may even incor- 
 porate it so thoroughly as to embrace both life and death. The 
 mere animal impulse of self-preservation, by its very nature, 
 rebels against the moral law. The Christian religion enlightens 
 man in the most thorough and convincing way as to the nature of 
 genuine life and real freedom; and so enlightened, man perceives 
 that self-mastery is the realization of the highest personal life. 
 Thus it comes to pass that only the Christian religion knows how 
 to reconcile external social demands with the most intimate crav- 
 ing for personal freedom; the restraints of life, with the craving 
 for life. Only the Christian religion really and vitally translates 
 obedience into the language of freedom; only within her pale is 
 the individual truly wedded to society. And it is just this func- 
 tion of Christianity that St. Paul has in mind when he says that 
 Christianity puts an end to the bondage of the law. All pure 
 ethics remains in bondage to the law; even ethics as a science 
 is only a scientific presentation of just this bondage. Ethics 
 speaks to man of social needs; but religion tells him of himself, 
 his noble origin, of the hidden powers of his spiritual nature, 
 stimulates his craving for entire freedom, represents this free- 
 dom in its dazzling perfection, and then points out morality to 
 him as the way to this perfection. Such is the religious basis 
 of morality." 
 
 What use does the novitiate make of these five ideals ? 
 
 1. It teaches the lesson of necessary rest and recre- 
 ation, (a) by making provision for them in the rules 
 and constitutions of the order; (b) by obeying the 
 decree of the Holy See dated 19 March, 1603. 
 
 S. It teaches the lesson of Stoic fortitude, but tem- 
 pers it with reliance on Divine Providence. It bids the 
 novices heed the words of St. Peter: "Cast all your 
 care upon the Lord, for He hath care of you";^ and 
 take to heart the Saviour's message at the Last Supper: 
 
 ^ 1 Pet. V, 7. 
 
The Teacher's Ideals of Personality, 99 
 
 "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God; 
 believe also in Me." ^ 
 
 3. The Platonic ideal in its best form is cherished 
 day after day by spiritual reading and devout medita- 
 tion. It is kept pure by silence in the community and 
 by withdrawal from the world of affairs. 
 
 4. A typical illustration of the Aristotelian sense of 
 proportion is implied in St. John Baptist de la Salle's 
 advice to his Brothers: 
 
 "If we desire to perform our actions with the perfection that 
 God requires of us, we must be particularly careful not to per- 
 form any thoughtlessly or with precipitation. Hence, before 
 undertaking what is proposed, we should wait some time to con- 
 sider and examine four things: (1) Whether the action we are 
 about to perform be contrary to the law of God, or will offend 
 Him in any way; (2) whether this action will not withdraw us 
 from our duty and the obligations of our state, which we should 
 perform perfectly and in preference to all other good that we 
 might accomplish; (3) whether it be contrary to the rules of 
 the community or to the resolutions we have taken to regulate 
 our conduct; (4) whether it be opposed to some greater good, 
 either for ourselves or for our neighbor."^ 
 
 5. As to the realization of the Christian ideal, it is 
 the very purpose for which the order exists. When the 
 novice shows no disposition to labor for this end, he is 
 summarily dismissed. We may, therefore, conclude 
 that, although the religious novitiate directly pre- 
 pares only for the religious life, yet, by its insistence 
 on the spirit of faith and its frequent daily exercise 
 of the virtue of faith, it tends to develop good strong 
 
 John xiv, I. 
 
 Collection of Short Treatises, pp. 121, 122. 
 
100 The Personality of the Teacher. 
 
 character. It supplies as a by-product the most im- 
 portant factor in the personality of the teacher. 
 
 "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice, 
 and all these things shall be added unto you." ^ 
 
 General Summary/, — The Necessity of Faith, 
 
 We have seen in Chapter I that the work of educa- 
 tion is impossible without genuine human faith — (1) 
 faith of the teacher in the pupil, (S) faith of the pupil 
 in his teacher, (3) faith of the pupil in his fellow-pupils. 
 Moreover, education as a process and a system is im- 
 possible without faith on the part of society — (1) faith 
 in an educational ideal, (2) faith in the efficacy of edu- 
 cation not merely for the select few, but also for the 
 democratic many, (8) faith in the value of right meth- 
 ods when properly employed. 
 
 This human faith imposes (1) on the teacher the 
 duty of developing a noble character, a fine personality 
 — (a) in himself, (b) in his pupils; (2) on the pupils 
 the duty of responding promptly and fully by due serv- 
 ice, to these efforts to fit them for their social heritage. 
 
 Yet the public normal school has some limitations. It 
 is not permitted to teach directly either as moral train- 
 ing or in connection with any other subject of the cur- 
 riculum the highest form of religion revealed to man. 
 It is not permitted to teach definite Christian doctrines 
 as divine in origin and therefore binding on man. It 
 is not permitted to trace their development in history 
 
 » Matt, vi, 33. 
 
The Necessity of Faith. 101 
 
 nor to show how the hearty and full acceptance of 
 Christian principles leads to the development of that 
 type of character which we speak of as personal holi- 
 ness. It is therefore denied the use of the most effica- 
 cious means to form character. 
 
 In Chapter II we saw that the religious novitiate 
 proposes to the novice as his chief studies God and 
 the human soul; as his special method, "spiritual 
 exercises." Self-examination was found to be a means 
 to self-mastery, and self-mastery was to be won largely 
 through assiduous "meditation." Meditation includes 
 not only a learning process, but also practice in moti- 
 vation and habit-building as well as in thinking and 
 willing. Besides these forms of training which develop 
 him in his individual capacity — so to say, "from the 
 foundation up," viz., as creature, human being. Chris- 
 tian, and religious — the novice as a social being is 
 trained to obedience and "fraternal charity." He is 
 taught also to look beyond the immediate present and 
 to forecast the effects of his actions on himself and on 
 others not only in the near future, but even beyond the 
 limits of time. To appreciate so great a responsi- 
 bility and to prepare for its fulfillment, he must de- 
 velop the "spirit of faith," which endeavors to appraise 
 things at their eternal values. The limitations im- 
 posed by the novitiate help to secure the higher per- 
 sonal development of the novice and to guarantee for 
 him a larger measure of social efficiency. 
 
 Of the five ideals of personality considered in Chapter 
 III, the Christian ideal, with its essential note of sacri- 
 
iO^ I'he Personality of the Teacher, 
 
 fice, IS, from the nature of the case, only incidental in 
 the normal school. In the novitiate, it is not only 
 integral, but essential. Without it even the profes- 
 sional spirit suffers. The Religious Novitiate, there- 
 fore, since it develops a fine type of personality and 
 directly fosters the professional spirit, renders a vital 
 pedagogical service to society. 
 
BOOK II. 
 FAITH. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Faith and Its Exercise. 
 
 Article L — The Nature and Kinds of Faith. 
 
 We have instituted a comparison between the normal 
 school and the religious novitiate in aim, curriculum, 
 method, spirit, and limitations. We have seen that in 
 both normal school and novitiate it is the person, the 
 individual, that counts. We have found that the 
 teacher's greatest asset is character or "personality," 
 in the best meaning of that term. The development of 
 personality, precisely because it is a work of educa- 
 tion, — it is, indeed, the great work of education, — is 
 impossible without faith. This faith must be not theo- 
 retical only ; it is essential that it be practical also. It 
 must be regularly and intelligently exercised by both 
 teacher and pupil: by the teacher that is, and the 
 teacher that is to be. In the State normal school, as 
 at present constituted, only human faith can receive 
 official recognition; whereas the novitiate is unthink- 
 able without the daily exercise of divine faith. It is, 
 therefore, important to consider more closely the na- 
 ture of divine faith, and the character of its influence 
 on the conduct of the teacher. To this end we shall 
 first examine the nature of faith in general. 
 
 The fundamental element in the concept of faith in 
 
 105 
 
106 Faith and Its Ewer else, 
 
 general, as suggested by its etymology, is "loyal 
 fidelity." ^ It is, therefore, kindred in meaning, as 
 well as in derivation, to "confidence." Closely allied to 
 faith is belief, for to believe a thing is literally to 
 "hold it dear." St. Thomas Aquinas ^ and Immanuel 
 Kant ^ agree in placing faith, or belief, between "opin- 
 ion" and "science" ; but faith, as such, always excludes 
 doubt. 
 
 Viewed as an act, it is always a judgment, since it is 
 
 ' Cf . Middle English feith; Old French feid; Latin fides, allied 
 to fidere, to trust. The prefix he- in believe is a substitute for 
 the older ge- (cf. Anglo-Saxon geliefan). According to Cardinal 
 Newman, belief refers more to the material objects of faith; that 
 is, the truths to be believed: whereas, "faith, in its theological 
 sense, includes a belief not only in the thing believed, but also 
 in the ground of believing; that is, not only in certain doctrines, 
 but belief in them expressly because God has revealed them." — 
 Oramrrmr of Assent, p. 95. 
 
 When the two terms are distinguished, "faith" is often used 
 when the object is personal; "belief," when it is impersonal. "A 
 man has faith in his father, his physician, his fellow-student, his 
 God; he believes the necessity of tariff reform, the doctrine that 
 acquired characters are inherited, the dogma of the inspiration of 
 the Bible" (M. W. Calkins, A First Book in Psychology, p. 245). 
 
 Dr. Dubray writes: "Knowledge is based on immediate or medi- 
 ate evidence and is essentially rational. Belief refers to that which 
 is not evident, or at least not clearly so: thus it is partly rational, 
 partly emotional, and partly volitional in its causes. In the ac- 
 ceptance of a statement, the proportion of objective and sub- 
 jective influences may vary; a truth is more or less impersonal 
 and more or less personal." {Introductory Philosophy, p. 20.) 
 He does not discuss faith. 
 
 It is not the province of this chapter to go into the theological 
 aspects of faith; for these, see "Faith" — Hugh Pope, Catholic En- 
 cyclopedia; J. V. Bainvel, La Foi et I'Acte de Foi; F. Mallet, 
 Qu'est-ce que la Foi? 
 
 ^ Sumrrm Theologica, Ila-IIae, q. 1. a. 4. Cf. Ila-IIae, q. 2. a. 1. 
 
 ' "Vom Meinen, Wissen und Glauben," Kritik der reinen Ver- 
 nunft, Bd. Ill, 6, 531, Simmtliche Werke (Berlin, 1904). 
 
The Nature and Kinds of Faith. 107 
 
 an assent. As a "habit," it becomes an "apperceptive 
 state," or an "attitude." Viewed simply as a judg- 
 ment, it does not differ intrinsically from "intelligence" 
 or "science," from doubt or opinion; for all these 
 mental states are either explicit or implicit acts of as- 
 sent. But it differs from all of them in its motive. In 
 the case of intelligence, or understanding, the motive 
 is the proposition as known intuitively, i, e., directly. 
 "Science," on the other hand, is motived by conclusions 
 accepted as certain, because correctly deduced from 
 first principles known to be true. Doubt, however, is a 
 negative state; it excludes assent, properly so-called. 
 Opinion, though not excluding assent altogether, yet 
 implies the possibility of error, and is therefore incom- 
 patible with that certainty which is an element of gen- 
 uine belief and faith. The true characteristic, then, of 
 faith and belief is authority. In other words, we as- 
 sent, not because the fact or proposition is intrinsic- 
 ally evident to us, but because it is extrinsically evi- 
 dent. But we have or can have intrinsic evidence of 
 the competence of the authority whose word we accept. 
 
 Yet there is a pronounced tendency at the present 
 day to use the term "belief" more loosely than this, 
 especially when it signifies human belief and is applied 
 to matters that do not directly concern religion. How- 
 ever, both ancient and modern philosophers are practi- 
 cally in agreement on these two points: (1) the object 
 of faith; that is, the fact or principle believed, is less 
 clearly perceived than is the object of science; (2) 
 faith is therefore subject in some way to the influence 
 
108 Faith and Its Exercise, 
 
 of the will and the emotions.^ Although faith is thus 
 influenced by the "heart" of man, nevertheless it begins 
 and terminates in an act of the intellect,^ and this is 
 of its very essence. It is important to bear this fact 
 in mind when one is forming an estimate of the educa- 
 tional value of faith. 
 
 Since to "believe a thing" is primarily to "hold it 
 dear," we may attend, on the one hand, to the fact or 
 principle itself, or, on the other, to our attitude toward 
 its acceptance. The object of faith consists of the 
 fact or facts, the principle or body of principles, held 
 to be true. On the part of the believing subject, the 
 essence of faith is deliberate and cordial acceptance of 
 these facts or principles as true and therefore as stand- 
 ards of judgment and conduct. When used in the strict 
 sense of the term, faith includes the concept of "testi- 
 mony"; that is, we believe a thing because its truth is 
 vouched for by a competent witness. 
 
 Faith, whether considered with reference to the 
 truths believed, or to the person who believes them, is 
 either human or divine, according as it rests on the 
 
 ^ Cf. S. Harent, "Croyance" Dictiormaire de tMologie catho- 
 
 2 Thus Harent, loc. cit (coll. 2365, 2366): "Ainsi la croyance doit 
 partir d'un acte initial de Pintelligence [ml volitn/m quin prcecog- 
 nitwrn], et a travers I'influence de la partie affectif elle aboutit k 
 un nouvel acte de Pintelligence plus ferme que le premier. 
 Si nous ne tenons pas compte de ce dernier terme qui la specifie, si 
 pour nous la croyance n'etait qu'un objet, si elle ne s'achevait pas 
 dans une certitude de I'esprit, ce ne serait plus en definitive qu'un 
 acte purement affectif, contre le sens plus intellectuel que tout le 
 monde attache au mot croire; et meme le probl^me de la croyance 
 serait arbitrairement supprim6, et trop ais^ment remplace par le 
 plus simple de ph^nomfenes." 
 
The Nature and Kinds of Faith. 109 
 
 authority of man or of God. Viewed objectively, divine 
 faith consists of the whole organic body of truth re- 
 vealed by God to enable man to reach his everlasting 
 destiny. Viewed subjectively, divine faith is primarily 
 an act of divine faith, and as such is defined by St. 
 Thomas to be "the act of the intellect assenting to a 
 divine truth under the impulse of the will, which is itself 
 moved by the grace of God." ^ Yet such acts of faith 
 even when repeated at frequent and regular intervals 
 and with that cordial assent which is characteristic of 
 ''loyal fidelity," cannot of themselves produce the 
 "habit" of divine faith. This must be infused by God; 
 it is not acquired. But once infused, it can be devel- 
 oped and intensified by repeated "acts" of divine faith. 
 This habit in turn connotes an "attitude" of mind with 
 respect to revealed truth and the "behavior" which its 
 acceptance makes obligatory. This "attitude" ^ can 
 
 '^ Summa Theologica, Ila-IIae, q. 4, a. 2. 
 
 ^ "By an attitude is meant an organization of various mental 
 capacities in a definite way about certain situations, or problems 
 of life. Attitudes are correlated with the situations, not in the 
 sense that they are results, but simply in that a reaction to a sit- 
 uation necessitates such an organization of mental elements on the 
 part of the individual." — Irving King, Development of Religion, 
 p. 30. (We are far, however, from accepting the author's expla- 
 nation of the origin of religion.) 
 
 Professor Baldwin {Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology, 
 s. V.) writes of Attitude: "Mentally, it is a state of attention pri- 
 marily, and secondarily an expression for habitual tendencies and 
 interests. A physical A. is primarily a state of partial stimulation 
 to action of a definite kind, and secondarily an expression of 
 habit." . . . Attitudes toward action may be "revivals of earlier 
 actions brought about by the perception or thought of the object 
 to which they are appropriate." [It is this aspect of attitude that 
 is important for religious faith.] "In genetic psychology the view 
 has been worked out that the organizing and the conserving of 
 
110 Faith and Its Exercise. 
 
 best be pictured as that of a dutiful son toward a 
 worthy father. The term is, however, unsatisfactory 
 to the consistent Catholic. It seems to him too 
 "passive" in its implication. He, therefore, prefers the 
 more vital expression of "spirit of faith"; for the 
 spirit of faith connotes not merely willing submis- 
 sion to the action of Divine Providence, but also the 
 active squaring of one's conduct with the truths re- 
 vealed by God. The spirit of faith joins "behavior" ^ 
 to "attitude." To develop it is to develop spiritual 
 life. It socializes the individual, training him to take 
 over God's viewpoint, to appreciate the eternal values 
 of things, and, in all that is right and best, to give 
 cordial support to his neighbor as an "heir apparent" 
 of the Almighty Father of us all.^ 
 
 In recent years not a little attention has been given 
 to the genesis of faith in the individual. The topic is 
 one of the most interesting in the whole field of genetic 
 psychology. From the Catholic viewpoint it is also 
 one of supreme importance, since it intimately affects 
 man's life here and his destiny hereafter. A view that 
 has obtained wide currency is a corollary from that 
 form of evolutionism which holds that man is descended 
 
 the experience on which mental development proceeds, are due to 
 two typical attitudes, under which all those of attention and ac- 
 tion may be subsumed, the attitudes of Habit and Accommoda- 
 tion." — These two attitudes will be considered at some length in 
 Chap. VII, Psychological Aspects of Faith, (See below, pp. 
 267 if.) 
 
 ^ Cf . W. James, Talks to Teachers, Chap. I ; Colvin and Bagley, 
 Human Behavior, passim. 
 
 'See below, pp. 316 ff. 
 
The Nature and Kinds of Faith, 111 
 
 from brute ancestors and that consequently he diifers 
 from the rest of the animal kingdom in degree only, not 
 in kind. Whoever accepts such a principle is compelled 
 to trace faith back to some element or combination of 
 elements which man, as we know him to-day, holds in 
 common with the brute kind. Instinct, and more par- 
 ticularly instinctive feeling, has therefore been re- 
 garded by many psychologists as the necessary and 
 adequate source of human belief. Starting from the 
 fact, which any one can verify for himself,^ that the 
 content of consciousness at any given moment includes 
 a "center" or "focus," to which we directly attend, 
 and a "margin" or "fringe," of which we are only 
 vaguely aware. Professor J. B. Pratt ^ ascribes this 
 "fringe" to what he calls the "feeling background." 
 The "definite, describable, communicable elements of 
 consciousness," such as cognitions — "the material 
 which may be made public property by means of scien- 
 tific and exact description" — all this occupies the center 
 of consciousness; but the "indefinite, the indescribable, 
 the peculiarly private mass of subjective experiences, 
 which, by their very nature, are not susceptible of com- 
 munication," such as feelings and emotions — these are 
 
 * Professor James was probably the first to emphasize this dis- 
 tinction (cf. Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, pp. 240-264). 
 
 * The Psychology of Religious Belief, pp. 6-8. He thinks that 
 this "dual classification" is in line with Aristotle's division of the 
 mind into "thought" and "desire." His interpretation of the 
 Stagyrite is, however, open to criticism. For Aristotle divides 
 mental processes not into thoughts and desires, but into cognition£| 
 (including two species, viz., sensations and intellections) and appe- 
 titions (^so of two species, viz., sensuous and r^tipnal). 
 
11^ Faith and Its Exercise, 
 
 distributed over the margin of consciousness. Further- 
 more, it is "through this non-rational, vital feeling 
 mass that we are united to our own past, to our an- 
 cestors, and to the race — in fact, in a sense, to all liv- 
 ing things." ^ This "feeling background" in us thus 
 becomes a "compendium of history." Such views are, 
 of course, evolutionistic in the extreme. It is but a 
 natural consequence of their acceptance to identify 
 "our nature as a whole" with "the organism" and to 
 make the "feeling background" the "expression" of 
 both. Man's priceless possessions of intellect and will 
 fare rather badly at the professor's hands; for he af- 
 firms that "the organism — our nature as a whole — 
 ... is essentially right ; it is fitted to the universe in 
 which it finds itself." ^ Yet he would not absolutely ex- 
 clude intellect. He therefore defines belief as "the men- 
 tal assent to the reality of a given object. This assent 
 may be either articulate or inarticulate, — it may be the 
 mere immediate feeling [sic] of reality not as yet ques- 
 tioned, or it may be the more self-conscious acceptance 
 of the object as real after doubt [sic] has made the 
 possibility of its non-reality conceivable." ^ 
 
 These are, he thinks, the general features of belief. 
 Professor Pratt, however, distinguished three types. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 22. 
 *P. 23. 
 
 ' P. 33. "Inarticulate belief" he identifies with Professor Bald- 
 win's "reality-feeling" {Feeling and Will, pp. 149 ff.), accepting 
 Bain's view that, in such cases, "we believe without knowing it." 
 Professor Pratt acknowledges in the Preface his indebtedness to 
 Professor James. In the pages from which we are quoting he 
 follows also the lead of Hume, Bain, and Baldwin. 
 
The Nature and Kinds of Faith, 113 
 
 The first is that of "primitive credulity." It accepts 
 as "real" whatever is presented to the mind. It is 
 characteristic of the period of childhood, but is more 
 or less pronounced throughout the whole life of most 
 men.^ 
 
 Its determining motive is authority. This "author- 
 ity" is not necessarily an attribute of persons. Like 
 Professor Baldwin, he extends it to things. Hence 
 what is directly presented to us through the senses we 
 "believe ;" we do not "know" it. We believe it because 
 it is the only thing presented. It has no rival claimant. 
 Hence no doubt of it can arise in the mind. In criti- 
 cism we may say that such a view must consistently 
 lead to skepticism. It would limit the sphere of cer- 
 tainty to conscious phenomena. As to the cause of 
 these facts and processes, as to our own individuality, 
 as to the reality of objects other than our own impres- 
 sions, we could have only a "feeling." Professor Bald- 
 win even applies the term "reality-feeling" ^ to this 
 "inarticulate belief." Tenets such as these are utterly 
 inconsistent with Catholic doctrine. St. Paul teaches 
 that "faith cometh by hearing." ^ We must be able, 
 therefore, under fixed conditions, to attain certainty 
 through our senses. Nor is this all. For the message 
 of the preacher must be interpreted by us. This kind 
 of "private interpretation" is indispensable. Hence 
 our intellect must likewise be a source of certainty both 
 
 ^Pp. 34 ff. 
 ^Loc. cit. 
 • Rom. X, 17, 
 
114 Faith and Its Exercise. 
 
 in its direct perception of first principles and in the 
 necessary inferences that it draws from them. Hence 
 it is that Christian faith is a "reasonable service" ^ 
 which we pay to God. 
 
 The solution of the difficulty is found, at least in 
 part, by lessening the emphasis placed on the "feeling" 
 aspect of consciousness and by including the cognitive 
 phase which is present at the very same moment. How 
 much we know is not here the question. What is really 
 significant is the fact that from the very beginning of 
 our conscious existence we know anything at all. 
 Through the senses we become directly aware of ex- 
 ternal reality, whether that reality be person or thing. 
 
 Authority, in its usual and more restricted sense, 
 connotes a person. When "some one's authority is 
 consciously used as a definite reason for belief," ^ then 
 we have Professor Pratt's second type. "The reliabil- 
 ity of any reasoned belief will depend," he thinks, "on 
 the nature of the individual reasoner." Its strength 
 will vary with the degree and extent to which it is "in- 
 terconnected and entwined with our total ^real' world," 
 i, e,, with the reality-feeling.^ — Such an interpretation 
 makes "reasoned belief" also individual and subjective. 
 It differs from the first type only in being based on 
 some form of argument. The argument is occasioned 
 by doubt, by the possibility that the belief be not true. 
 It is not easy to see how such a "religion of thought" * 
 
 * Rom. xii, 1. 
 
 2 Op. cit., p. 37. 
 •P. 40. 
 
 * Pp. 43, 44. 
 
The Nature and Kinds of Faith, 115 
 
 can produce allegiance to a church or creed. More- 
 over, the importance attached to the stage of doubt 
 seems like an echo of the Cartesian methodic doubt,^ 
 and would seem to be equally futile with Descartes' 
 method, as a means of attaining certainty. 
 
 The third type considered is "emotional belief." It 
 draws its strength from the "field of vital feeling." ^ 
 It is an "instinctive conviction of the existence of a 
 satisfaction for the various organic desires. 
 Nor is this use of the term 'belief in any way an ex- 
 tension of its strict meaning. It is literally 'the mental 
 attitude of assent to the reality of a given object.' 
 The object in these cases is the thing which will satisfy 
 the need or impulse." ^ What the organism demands 
 must be real, must exist somewhere, because the organ- 
 ism needs it. The appropriateness that marks the in- 
 stinctive reactions of the organism has a parallel in 
 the "wisdom" which belongs to instinctive beliefs, — 
 those beliefs in which "the feeling background voices 
 the demands of the organism." Such beliefs are 
 "hardly to be eradicated by argument," for they go 
 deep down into the "organic and biologic part of us." * 
 — ^This third type is, therefore, also subjective and 
 
 ^ Cf . John Rickaby, S. J., First Principles of Knowledge; J. 
 Balmes, Fundamental Philosophy, Vol. I, Chaps. XVII, XVIII, 
 XIX. 
 
 ^ Op. cit., p. 40. Professor Pratt adds (p. 41): "Emotion often 
 so increases the vividness of an idea and adds to it so much 
 reality-feeling as to give it almost the overpowering force of an 
 immediate sense-presentation." — This statement is quite Hume-an I 
 
 ' Pp. 41, 42. 
 
 *Pp. 42, 48. 
 
116 Faith and Its Exercise, 
 
 variable. As such it is lacking in a prime essential for 
 genuine social co-operation; viz., an objective standard 
 of truth, an ideal that is not dependent on instinctive 
 cravings, a law that is binding on man as a '^rational" 
 animal — a law, therefore, that claims the submission 
 of his whole being, not of his feelings and emotions 
 only, but likewise of his intellect and will. Is it neces- 
 sary to add that all three of Professor Pratt's types 
 of belief refer explicitly to the order of nature only, 
 making no clear distinction between human faith and 
 divine faith? Practically also they assume that man, 
 not God, is the author and finisher of religious belief.^ 
 Moreover, not all instinctive tendencies are to-day 
 beneficial to the individual or the race. If, then, it is 
 necessary to "inhibit" or to modify any of them in their 
 functions, how are we to know that "religious belief" 
 is not of that number.? ^ Some there are to-day who 
 look upon religion simply as a necessary restraint for 
 the uncultured, the rude and ignorant. In their eyes it 
 is a "negative" force. For the cultured it must give 
 way to philosophy, as in Cicero's time ; ^ or, if you wish 
 to pay deference to the time-spirit, it must yield to 
 
 ^Contrast with St. Paul's text (Heb. xii, 2): "Looking on Jesus, 
 the author and finisher of faith." 
 
 ^ "The time is coming and is, I believe, not far distant, when this 
 inner experience, this spiritual [?] insight, will be recognized as 
 the only sure basis [sic] of religious belief." Pratt, op. cit., p. 303. 
 
 ' On the difference between the Catholic Church and a School of 
 Philosophy, see Brother Azarias, "Aristotle and the Christian 
 Church," pp. 15-20, in Essays Philosophical On the inadequacy 
 of Philosophy as a substitute for Religion, see T. W. Allies, 
 Formation of Christendom, Vol. I, passim, who also gives a good 
 sketch of Cicero's mental attitude, ibid., pp. 175-180. 
 
The Nature and Kinds of Faith, 117 
 
 science. In either case, the result is a reversion to 
 pagan ideals and a pagan attitude of mind. Hence as 
 Christians, nay, even as men, it is our duty to reject 
 the principles on which such religious belief is based. 
 Belief must be something more than "a lively idea re- 
 lated to or associated with a present impression." ^ It 
 must be objective as well as subjective. To be divine, 
 it must refer explicitly to the God from whom it comes. ^ 
 The view of religious belief which we have been ex- 
 amining, is implicitly accepted by many educators to- 
 day. It is for this reason that we have devoted so much 
 space to its consideration. Moreover, it has social 
 consequences which are matter for grave concern to the 
 individual. They affect the tone of the school which 
 he attends as child or youth; they leave their impress 
 on the society of which as man he is a citizen. Sooner 
 or later they influence the time-spirit, whose atmos- 
 phere he is compelled to breathe. Were our concern 
 chiefly philosophical, it would be necessary to take ac- 
 count of Pascal, Maine de Biran, and the Traditional- 
 ists, who, in their zeal for religious faith, restricted the 
 lawful exercise of reason within its own domain ; of Sir 
 William Hamilton, who asserted that we could not 
 "know" the Infinite, although it was a necessity and a 
 duty to "believe" in it ; of Immanuel Kant, who, divorc- 
 ing "pure reason" from "practical reason," affirmed 
 that we could not attain to "knowledge" of God by the 
 
 ^ Hume, Treatise on Hwman Nature, p. 96. 
 
 2 Olle-Laprune {De la Certitude Morale, p. 182) describes Fichte 
 as "fired with the passion of Pascal and inspired with the poesy 
 of Plato" in his Bestirrmmng des Menschen (Destination of Man). 
 
118 Faith and Its Exercise, 
 
 former, yet had the duty of faith in Him imposed on 
 us by the latter, operating through the voice of con- 
 science; of Fichte, who accentuated and exaggerated 
 the same subjective attitude; of Herbert Spencer, who 
 limited the object of faith to the Unknowable, and thus, 
 by a stroke of the pen, lopped off all religious duties; 
 of John Stuart Mill, who, rejecting religious dogma as 
 an illusion, would substitute an ideal social service; of 
 Alexander Bain, who, deriving faith from the "foun- 
 tains of human feeling" alone, looked upon it merely as 
 "a mode of consoling, cheering and elating emotion"; 
 or finally, of William James, who has warned us that 
 it is "only when they forget that they are hypotheses 
 [sic] and put on rationalistic and authoritative pre- 
 tensions, that our faiths do harm." ^ 
 
 ^The following may be given as references: 1. Blaise Pascal, 
 Pensees; C. Kegan Paul, The Thoughts of Blaise Pascal. 2. F. 
 Maine de Biran, Journal intvme; N. E. Truman, Maine de Biran's 
 Philosophy of Will. 3. "Traditionalism," G. M. Sauvage, C. S. C. 
 Catholic Encyclopedia; John Rickaby, First Principles of Knowl- 
 edge. 4. W. Hamilton, Lectures on Metaphysic and Logic; Dis- 
 cussions on Philosophy. 5. Immanuel Kant, Kritik der Reinen 
 Vernunft; Kritik der Praktischen Vernunft; J. M. Meiklejohn 
 (tr.), KanVs Critique of Pure Reason; T. K. Abbott (tr.), 
 Kant's Critique of Practical Reason, and Other Works on 
 the Theory of Ethics. Edw. Caird, Critical Philosophy of Kant. 
 6. J. G. Fichte, Die Bestvrwmmig des Menschen; Mrs. Percy Sin- 
 nett (tr.). The Destination of Man. 7. Herbert Spencer, First 
 Principles. 8. J. S. Mill, System of Logic; Three Essays^ on Re- 
 ligion. 9. A. Bain, Emotions and Will; Logic, Deductive and In- 
 ductive. 10. W. James, The Will to Believe; Varieties of Religious 
 Experience. 
 
 On Belief in general, see Francis Aveling, "Belief," Catholic 
 Encyclopedia, and bibliography; M. Maher, S. J., Psychology, 
 Chap. XV, "Judgment and Reasoning," under which caption he 
 treats Belief. — On Faith, see Hugh Pope, O. P., Catholic Encyclo- 
 pedia, s. v., and bibliography; E. T. Shanahan, "Agnosticism," 
 
The Exercise of Faith. 119 
 
 Article II, — The Exercise of Faith, 
 
 A psychological analysis of the attitude of faith, or 
 spirit of faith, will help us to form an appreciation of 
 its pedagogical value. It is a state of mind in the pro- 
 duction of which many factors must have concurred. 
 As it is in part social in origin, so it is also social in 
 effect. Like other mental states it originates in sensa- 
 tion; for here as elsewhere Aristotle's dictum is valid: 
 There is nothing in the intellect which did not in some 
 way first exist in the senses (Nihil est in intellectu quod 
 non prius fuerit in sensu). As in art, so in faith, it is 
 the senses of sight and hearing, the so-called "intel- 
 lectual senses," that contribute most freely to the mat- 
 ter of faith. When the words of the witness have been 
 heard or his written statement has been read, the intel- 
 lect proceeds to interpret the message in the light of 
 its previous experience.^ This aspect of faith reaches 
 out into the domain of criticism, both higher and 
 lower. The process of interpretation is necessarily 
 affected by the present disposition of the individual be- 
 liever, his "personal equation." ^ This, in turn, is a 
 product of many subtle influences streaming in from 
 
 Catholic Encyclopedia and bibliography; L. 0116-Laprune, De la 
 Certitude Morale. Though mentioned by neither Father Aveling, 
 nor Father Maher, 0116-Laprune gives a thorough and philosophic 
 study of the nature and conditions of "belief" as well as of 
 "faith." His book deserves to be better known. He refers to 
 Cardinal Newman's Orammmr of Assent, which he values highly. 
 For a systematic and sympathetic treatment of Newman's atti- 
 tude, see Henri Br6mond, S. J., Newman: Psychologie de la Foi. 
 
 * See below, pp. 294 if. 
 
 ' See below, pp. 216 fP. 
 
120 Faith and Its Exercise, 
 
 the past, registered not only in plastic brain cells, but 
 also in definitely formed association tracts, — in a word, 
 in all those cerebral states, conditions, and connections 
 by which the influence of environment on organism and 
 mind, and the conscious adaptation of both body and 
 mind to environment, have been gradually made over 
 into the physiological basis of what we call "habit." 
 
 Prominent among these activities are the multiple 
 associations of imagination and memory and instinct. 
 The very complexity of the act of faith, therefore, re- 
 garded even as a mere exercise of interpretation, should, 
 on purely psychological grounds, be a warning against 
 all hasty conclusions as to the pedagogical value of 
 faith, be these conclusions favorable or unfavorable. 
 Here,^ too, we first catch a glimpse of the amazing 
 tangle of psychological difficulties which the process of 
 "religious conversion," considered merely as a natural 
 phenomenon, must, in some way, involve. So many 
 habits of mind and lines of conduct must be done away 
 with; so many threads of association, the warp and 
 woof of years, must be separated ere conversion is af- 
 fected, that it is not surprising if hesitation, regret, 
 reluctance, timidity, even dismay, should long precede 
 that last step which has been called the "final plunge." 
 Cardinal Newman's experience as recorded in his 
 Apologia is an apt illustration. 
 
 Coincident with the act of interpretation is the act 
 of confidence or trust in another which, as we have al- 
 ready seen,^ is contained in the root-meaning of faith. 
 
 ^P. 106. 
 
The Exercise of Faith. 121 
 
 An act of faith is an act of trust in the witness on 
 whose authority we rely. As such it is an act of re- 
 spect and courtesy, and by its very essence tends to 
 strengthen the natural bonds by which men are held 
 together in society. From the viewpoint of psychology 
 and pedagogy it is also of great significance; for it is 
 a fact of daily experience as well as of psychological 
 experiment that sympathy with another is an indis- 
 pensable condition for penetrating and understanding 
 his mind. All this, it is true, is contained in the very 
 meaning of sympathy. Yet the principle in question 
 is in accordance with sound psychology, and, like all 
 such principles, reacts on sociology, particularly in its 
 educational phase. Thus Bainvel notes: "Faith, which 
 has already done me so many services, is ready to serve 
 still more. By it I am enabled to unite my mind to 
 the minds of those who know, and thereby appropriate 
 what they know." ^ Here we reach a truth that not 
 only touches the rudiments of education, but likewise 
 includes the mental attitude of every specialist, when, 
 for instance, at a meeting of scientists, he listens with 
 critical attention to the report presented by the great- 
 est "authority'^ among his confreres. Here, too, we 
 enter the field of "interest," which occupies so large a 
 place in recent pedagogical literature, whether from 
 the viewpoint of mental development or of motivation 
 and discipline. Its scope is extensive — reaching from 
 
 ^ "La foi, qui m'a rendu d6jk tant de services, est prete k m'en 
 rendre davantage encore. Par elle, je puis unir mon esprit k 
 I'esprit de ceux qui savent, et ainsi m'approprier ce qu'ils savent." 
 La Foi et Vacte de Foi, p. 24. 
 
122 Faith and Its Exercise, 
 
 the content and arrangement of the curriculum, the 
 value of method, and the principles of vocational guid- 
 ance, to the most efficient social service for which the 
 school can train a child. In other words, the scope of 
 the interest aroused by faith is, at least potentially, 
 universal ; for it springs from man's social nature, and 
 that is essential to man as man. 
 
 The acceptance of a thing as true also stirs our feel- 
 ings, affections, and emotions. These psychical states 
 may arise from two sources: viz., from our attitude 
 toward the fact or principle accepted as true, and from 
 our attitude toward the person on whose word we ac- 
 cept the fact or principle. Sometimes these two 
 streams converge, and then, especially when they favor 
 the fact or principle and person, the tide of emotion 
 may break down all the barriers of restraint or inhibi- 
 tion and issue in epoch-making action. Such an in- 
 stance was Christ's triumphal entry into the city of 
 Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday; such also, to take 
 a purely human example, the enthusiasm aroused by 
 St. Bernard when preaching the Second Crusade. On 
 the other hand, the fire of pas ion may be fanned into 
 flame by the wild breath of emotion, and then death and 
 devastation mark the course of the conflagration. Such 
 scenes were witnessed during the French Revolution. 
 Both cordial acceptance and indignant rejection of a 
 principle lie within the compass of genuine faith. The 
 excesses that mark the overthrow of reason in either 
 man or group are phenomena that belong to the realm 
 of social psychology. 
 
The Exercise of Paith. 1^3 
 
 The deeper the emotion entering into any specific 
 act of faith, the greater the eifect wrought on the mind 
 and heart of the believer. This consideration intro- 
 duces a new aspect of association, for by subsequent 
 like acts, or by subsequent repetitions of the same act, 
 the intellect gains a deeper insight into the truth ac- 
 cepted, while the emotions, although not proportion- 
 ately intensified, are nevertheless appreciably rein- 
 forced. These factors are of great significance in the 
 building up of habit ; for deep and appropriate emotion 
 must be joined to frequent and regular repetition of acts 
 if habit is to yield its best results.^ Furthermore, habit 
 is a natural bridge between the theoretical and the 
 practical. However much ideas may tend to express 
 themselves in action,^ it is still true that a purely spec- 
 ulative attitude of mind results eventually in what we 
 may designate "atrophy" of the power of expression.^ 
 Hence it is that educators accept the maxim: "We 
 learn to do by doing." But they do not give sufficient 
 conscious recognition to the parallel principle: "We 
 learn to know by doing." Yet the principle is at least 
 as old as Christianity,* and has its psychological basis 
 in the unitary character of the human mind. On the 
 one hand, it is implied in every consistent theory of 
 
 ^ See below, pp. 248-275. 
 
 ' The Ideo-motor Theory emphasizes this tendency. 
 
 ' An excellent illustration of this truth is found in Henry James' 
 "The Madonna of the Future," Reverberator and Other Tales; 
 also included in the Passionate Pilgrim and Other Tales, 
 
 *Matt. vii, 24. 
 
1^4 Faith and Its Exercise, 
 
 emotions;^ for our mental states are produced, or at 
 least accompanied, by appropriate organic states. On 
 the other hand, it is a fact that the expression of a 
 thought not only develops the mind, it also perfects 
 our comprehension of the thought. Hence it follows 
 that a life spent in "the living" of noble thoughts must 
 yield an abundant harvest of whatever is best in man. 
 The Apostle might well say : "Be ye doers of the word, 
 and not hearers only, deceiving your ownselves." ^ 
 
 This cumulative attribute of thought, when expressed 
 in deeds, is not confined to the individual; it affects his 
 associates also.^ In this respect it becomes in the nat- 
 ural order a kind of adumbration of that mysterious 
 and inspiriting source of spiritual helps which Cath- 
 olics speak of as the communion of saints. The be- 
 lieve'r^s behavior affects others, even if they be not of 
 the household of faith; while the influence of others 
 who make profession of his own creed, whether brought 
 home to him by direct physical contact in frequent in- 
 tercourse, or indirectly through the pages of history 
 and literature, through works of Christian art or even 
 through the instrumentality of scientific monographs. 
 
 ^ The James-Lange theory of emotion holds that "the bodily 
 changes follow directly the 'perception of the exciting fact, and 
 that our feeling of the same changes as they occur is the emotion" 
 (James, Principles of Psychology, Vol. II, p. 449). Professor 
 Titchener argues that evidence is against the theory, and con- 
 cludes that "we cannot regard this organic commotion either as 
 constitutive, as the one thing necessary to emotion, or as differ- 
 ential, the one thing that marks off any particular emotion from 
 all the rest" (Beginner's Psychology, pp. 221, 222). 
 
 2 James i, 22. 
 
 'See below, p. 274. 
 
The Exercise of Faith. 125 
 
 reacts on his own conduct and strengthens the ties that 
 bind him to his faith. This phase of the question brings 
 us into the very thick of imitation, — a fascinating 
 study of the psychologist and sociologist, it is true ; but 
 long known to those outside the pale of science under 
 the more prosaic name of "example." These "express- 
 ive" values of faith would be impossible without the 
 co-operation of the will. As we have already seen,^ 
 faith affords a less complete and less direct knowledge 
 of its object than does science. This very defect, how- 
 ever, gives the opportunity for the will and the emo- 
 tions, when directed by enlightened reason, to offer 
 their homage to the truth attested and to the authority 
 of the witness. It is this aspect that is so important 
 an element in divine faith, and gives to the act of assent 
 its quality of merit, making it pre-eminently a human 
 act {actus humanus), Man's need of faith is proof 
 that he is a social being, just as his social nature makes 
 imperative the preservation of his faith. This is a 
 phase of the question not to be lost sight of in discuss- 
 ing social efficiency as the great aim of education. 
 
 So far we have considered the elements that enter 
 into an act of faith, whether human or divine; viz., 
 sensation, imagination and memory, judgment and rea- 
 soning, apperception and habit, feeling, sentiment and 
 emotion, volition and its outward expression affecting 
 both the individual and the group of which he is a 
 member. (While this is true of both human faith and 
 divine, it applies in a more eminent way to the exer- 
 
 ^ P. 107. 
 
126 Faith and Its Exercise, 
 
 cise of divine faith. Therefore we shall henceforth limit 
 ourselves to the consideration of divine faith. This far 
 surpasses human faith in its origin, God himself ; in its 
 motive, God's veracity; in its object, truths pertaining 
 to the salvation of man ; in its end and aim, the ever- 
 lasting happiness of man; and, we may add, in its 
 faculty, viz., the intellect perfected by infused virtue.^ 
 It therefore follows that in a much fuller sense than 
 that expressed by Paul Janet, divine faith is really and 
 indeed an act of "the whole man." 
 
 .From the very comprehensiveness of the "act" of 
 faith, it follows that the "habit" of faith, abiding, vital- 
 izing faith, must permeate man's whole existence, — not 
 his mental and moral life only, but his organic life as 
 well. It is the whole man that believes ; it is the whole 
 man that aims to make his conduct consistent with his 
 belief. This marks a high stage in the process of char- 
 acter-building. But since faith involves the exercise of 
 
 ^Cf. Cardinal Newman {Grammar of Assent, pp. 186, 187), who 
 after noting the "intrinsic integrity and indivisibility" of the as- 
 sent included in the act of faith, goes on to say that these at- 
 tributes do not "interfere with the teaching of Catholic theology 
 as to the pre-eminence of strength in divine faith, which has a 
 supernatural origin, when compared with all belief which is 
 merely human and natural. For first, that pre-eminence consists, 
 not in its differing from human faith, merely in degree of assent, 
 but in its being superior in nature and kind, so that the one does 
 not admit of a comparison with the other; and next, its intrinsic 
 superiority is not a matter of experience, but above experience. 
 Assent is ever assent; but in the assent which follows on a divine 
 announcement, and is vivified by a divine grace, there is, from 
 the nature of the case, a transcendent adhesion of mind, intel- 
 lectual and moral, and a special self -protection, beyond this opera- 
 tion of those ordinary laws of thought, which alone have a place in 
 my discussion." 
 
The Exercise of Faith. 127 
 
 the will, it includes also the exercise of choice and there- 
 fore the rejection of alternatives after the choice has 
 been made. This rejection necessarily entails also the 
 exclusion of the natural corollaries or consequences of 
 the alternatives ruled out; and so the "practice" of faith 
 comes to include also a prevision of future conditions, 
 an attitude of expectancy, a state of readiness. More 
 obviously, however, the action of the will in rejecting 
 alternative measures and forbidding their execution 
 brings us face to face with "inhibition." ^ Some form 
 of inhibition is indispensable in all connected thinking 
 and particularly in all close reasoning.^ In the realm 
 of divine faith, it means the rejection of facts or prin- 
 ciples contrary to the revealed truth contained in the 
 dogmas of the Catholic Church. When it is dynamic, 
 and therefore expressed in deeds, it inhibits or seeks to 
 inhibit all conduct opposed to the principles of faith. 
 It is true that this aspect of faith is sometimes made 
 the ground of bitter attack. It is looked upon as in- 
 compatible with openness of mind, with the spirit of 
 research, with zeal for enlightenment and progress. 
 The objection, however, rests on a false assumption. 
 Just as the mathematician accepts the axioms and 
 would reject with scorn all doubt of their truth and 
 validity, if such a doubt were to occur to him; as the 
 psychologist by his hours of patient experiment in the 
 laboratory increases and confirms his knowledge of 
 
 ^ See below, pp. 229, 247, 264, 262 f ., 287. 
 
 *Cf. Brother Azarias, "Aristotle and the Christian Church" 
 (pp. 83-86), in Essays Philosophical. 
 
1S8 Faith and Its Exercise, 
 
 mental phenomena; so the typical Catholic being cer- 
 tain of the truths taught him by his Church, feels no 
 more hampered by them in his mental development than 
 does the mathematician admit being cramped by the 
 axioms ; or the psychologist by the laws of conscious 
 processes. As Donat has well said, faith being a cer- 
 tainty for the believer, cannot produce conflict in his 
 mind/ The objection is a proof of bad psychology. 
 The one who raises it virtually imputes to the believer 
 his own unbelieving attitude of mind together with and 
 in union with the believer's attitude toward science. As 
 a matter of fact, the two states do not coexist in the 
 same mind. The believing attitude is found in the 
 Catholic together with the acceptance of the estab- 
 lished data and principles of the science which he is 
 pursuing. The unbelieving attitude exists in another 
 mind, and, it must be confessed, sometimes perverts or 
 distorts issues and principles that should be kept rigidly 
 within the proper domain of science. 
 
 The function of inhibition as contained in the habit 
 of faith is to perfect the spiritual life of the individual 
 and, through the individual, of the group. Under cir- 
 cumstances of stress and grievous trial, its value in this 
 direction may be manifested in the heroism of martyrs, 
 who become for all subsequent ages models of fidelity 
 to principle, of loyalty to duty.^ Apostasy, even in 
 
 * "Faith does not restrain the mental freedom of one who is 
 convinced of the truth of his faith." The Freedom of Science, 
 p. 112. 
 
 ^This suggests an important social aspect of inhibition. Cf. 
 Matt. V, 21-48. 
 
The Exercise of Faith. 129 
 
 such times, is not an exercise of inhibition ; it is rather 
 proof of its absence, an indication of extreme moral 
 weakness. In the milder times of peace, the inhibitive 
 function of faith may be daily exercised in preventing 
 the habit of faith from degenerating to the level of 
 mere routine performance of spiritual duties. In this 
 way it happens that faith, even on its inhibitive side 
 reaches out to the co-ordination of activities, to asceti- 
 cism and discipline. For faith is growth, and there is 
 no vigorous growth without pruning. 
 
 It is necessary to bear in mind this comprehensive- 
 ness of the activities involved in the exercise of divine 
 faith, because this seems to be just the attribute of 
 .faith which is commonly overlooked by those persons 
 who object to making faith a dynamic factor in school 
 life. In view of their pedagogical significance, we may 
 classify the aspects or activities of faith under the two 
 general heads of scientific and aesthetic, or cultural, 
 values. The scientific aspect of faith appears not only 
 in the demonstration of principles by which the Cath- 
 olic Church as witness to divine faith establishes her 
 claim to a divine mission to teach men the way of salva- 
 tion, but also in the setting up of standards on the plane 
 of the supernatural by which we may measure the ac- 
 curacy and confirm the truth of the cognate funda- 
 mental principles that belong to the natural order. 
 For the Catholic Church consistently teaches that 
 "grace supposes nature" and is its complement. It is a 
 mistake to say that such standards embarrass the in- 
 tellect and impede the progress of learning. As well 
 
130 Faith and Its Exercise. 
 
 might we say that standard units in physics, or uniform 
 standards in like psychological experiments, bar the 
 advance of physical or mental science. In science it is 
 conceded that uniformity of standard is an aid to prog- 
 ress, if not indeed its condition. In this respect at 
 least, the present generation profits by the hard-won 
 victories of preceding ages. Figuratively speaking, it 
 stands on the shoulders of the past and peers into the 
 future. Must the very spirit of the method in which 
 science takes so much pride be imputed to faith for a 
 sin when it helps to confirm the claims of faith.'' 
 
 Since faith as a habit ^ must be expressed in action, 
 for otherwise the habit would perish; faith as a body 
 of dogmatic truth has its complement in faith as a 
 moral code. In this relation, too, faith sets a stand- 
 ard of values, for each of "the faithful" is exhorted to 
 approximate the model set by his divine Redeemer. 
 Being a wise teacher, deeply versed in human nature, 
 the Church sets before her children the various copies 
 of the perfect Model made by men of all ages and na- 
 tions, whom she calls "saints," and who, because 
 weighted with human weakness, may more quickly elicit 
 from mortal man the indispensable condition of all hu- 
 man development and therefore of all education, — 
 interest. 
 
 But interest may wane. The acts that were per- 
 formed with such deliberation and enthusiasm in build- 
 ing up the habit of faith may fall to the level of mere 
 routine phenomena. What resources has faith for 
 
 ' On Habit, see below, pp. 248-276. 
 
The Exercise of Faith. 131 
 
 averting such disaster? It is a principle accepted by 
 scholastic philosophers, that things are conserved by 
 the causes that produced them. This principle is im- 
 plied in all the genetic psychology of our day ; for it is 
 the philosopher's way of expressing a law of growth 
 and development. As far as the individual alone is con- 
 cerned, the chief means at his disposal is meditation,^ 
 as we have already seen. When, however, he is con- 
 sidered as a member of the Church, he has not merely 
 the help afforded by authorized teachers, but also the 
 immense benefits to mind and heart resulting from the 
 rites and ceremonies that attend the administration of 
 the sacraments. The fundamental Christian truths ' 
 whose commemoration is noted in the yearly calendar, 
 constitute a system whose perfection science might well 
 envy and can only remotely copy; v/hile in the variety 
 of aspect which they present, these truths afford an 
 excellent model to the teacher. It is in this latter re- 
 spect that they become a means whereby the earnest 
 Christian may keep his faith strong and active. "The 
 old in the new," the discovery of the old principle in the 
 new manifestation, is, according to Professor James,^ 
 the secret of vital teaching. For this reason, too, it is 
 a sure means of quickening one's faith. 
 
 On its culture side, faith is also stimulated by the 
 influence of good example, and by the natural expres- 
 sion of faith revealed in Christian architecture, paint- 
 ing, sculpture, music, and literature. To all men, in- 
 
 ' See above, pp. 53, 57, 58. Cf . below, pp. 281-309. 
 * Talks to Teachers, p. 108. 
 
132 Faith and Its Exercise. 
 
 deed, such works of art make their appeal, but it is only 
 to the eye of faith that they disclose the richness and 
 the perfection of their symbolism. Psychology gives a 
 reason for this in its doctrine of apperception. 
 
 We may now summarize this article. Faith as an 
 act, but most of all as a conscious habit, exercises all 
 our psychical activities upon noble truths and lofty 
 ideals. It therefore exerts a comprehensive pedagogi- 
 cal influence of a high order. This ihfluence possesses 
 both scientific and cultural values. Objections against 
 faith, when sifted, are generally found to arise from 
 overlooking or ignoring this comprehensive character 
 of faith. As a corollary to these principles it would 
 seem to follow that any institution fitted by its very 
 nature to develop such faith, deserves well of society. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Pedagogicai. Implications of Faith. 
 
 Article I, — The Pedagogical Value of Faith Viewed 
 Objectively. 
 
 To FORM a working estimate of the pedagogical value 
 of faith viewed objectively it is well for us to examine 
 the question from the various, though related, view- 
 points taken in Chapters I and II of Book I ; viz., aim, 
 curriculum and method. We have already indicated 
 what is meant by the "spirit of faith." The topic of 
 curriculum has already been discussed sufficiently for 
 our purpose.^ 
 
 From the standpoint of aim, the significance to the 
 teacher of the doctrines of divine faith is this : he knows 
 with certainty, on the authority of God's own word, 
 that all men, and therefore both he and his pupils, are 
 destined, on condition of their free and full co-opera- 
 tion, to attain everlasting happiness. It is therefore 
 his duty and his privilege as an educator to select such 
 subjects, to employ such methods, and to follow such 
 gradations as will best secure the attainment of this 
 ultimate end of man. By this standard also he is en- 
 abled to judge the worth of systems of education, 
 
 ' See above, pp. 11-16, 43-50. 
 
 133 
 
134 The Pedagogical Implications of Faith. 
 
 whether ancient or modern. In the light of this prin- 
 ciple, moreover, he can appraise so-called educational 
 "fads" and "reforms." In this age of ours when we 
 profess to obey a Pure-Foods Commission and to re- 
 spect a Standard-Weight Commission, can we reason- 
 ably object to any teacher or body of teachers for con- 
 sistently striving to follow a standard of absolute 
 values for the life of man as man? To the Catholic, 
 our whole earthly existence is but a training school for 
 heaven. 
 
 In the inevitable reaction against the excesses of 
 purely elective courses of study in school and college, 
 there has arisen a more insistent demand for the con- 
 sideration and correlation of the studies pursued by the 
 individual pupil. Educators realize that, from the 
 pedagogical viewpoint, he is only. a potential unit. It 
 is their high privilege to help weld the processes of 
 thought, the purposes of the will, and the pulses of the 
 emotions into an actual unit stamped with the deepest 
 traits of an honorable personality. In his endeavor to 
 accomplish this result, the Christian teacher, and more 
 particularly the religious teacher, seeks to bring home 
 to himself and to his pupils the conviction that the un- 
 remitting performance of daily duties is the matter out 
 of which man's eternal weal is fashioned.^ He rejects, 
 therefore, as false the conclusion sometimes drawn, that 
 attention to one's higher spiritual interests is incom- 
 patible with complete loyalty to one's temporal duties 
 as member of the family and citizen of the state. He 
 
 'Cf. "Accommodation," p. 267, below. 
 
Faith Viewed Objectively. 136 
 
 maintains, on the contrary, that the highest and most 
 enduring motives for the practice of the domestic and 
 the civic virtues are to be found precisely in the sanc- 
 tions of religion. 
 
 Moreover, he insists that, even from a scientific view- 
 point, this conscious striving for a supernatural destiny 
 exerts a most valuable educational influence on his 
 secular studies and pursuits. It is admitted by all 
 teachers, whether religious or laymen, that in the early 
 years of childhood the senses and the play of the 
 muscles are the chief feeders of the growing mind. But 
 with each succeeding year the child is, largely, nay 
 chiefly, through the processes of human, if not divine 
 faith, trained to interpret these various sense impres- 
 sions. In this way is he initiated into the scientific 
 value of phenomena, which in maturer life he may refer 
 to basic principles of philosophy. But the religious 
 teacher does not stop here. Holding fast to the doc- 
 trine of a supreme Creator, he looks upon the phe- 
 nomena and the laws of nature as expressions of the 
 Creator's mind. The things of sense, their interrela- 
 tions as perceived by the trained intellect, the deduc- 
 tions of thorough-going science, the Weltanschauung 
 or cosmic philosophy which harmonizes all these — each 
 and all are welcome to the religious teacher, who finds 
 in them successively a fuller revelation of the mind of 
 God as expressed in the Book of Nature. He is certain 
 that there can be no real "warfare" between genuine 
 science and the truths of revealed religion. The seem- 
 ing conflict he knows will end when due allowance is 
 
136 The Pedagogical Implications of Faith, 
 
 made for the ^'personal equation," for hasty generaliza- 
 tions, and unverified hypotheses/ 
 
 His attitude may be explained by a comparison. 
 Just as the physical and chemical forces which the 
 scientist has studied in the inorganic world, acquire a 
 deeper significance for him when he investigates their 
 action in organic life; as the processes of metabolism 
 "mean" more for him when he has considered their in- 
 fluence on the sensations and the behavior of the ani- 
 mal ; as even the bodily functions which are the concern 
 of the physiologist, affect deeply the mental and moral 
 life of man; so the Christian and religious teacher is 
 justified in combining all these into one vast synthesis 
 with the order of grace. As divine grace completes 
 nature, so the natural order is for him but the symbol, 
 the vesture, the body, as it were, of the supernatural. 
 He seeks to develop the apperceptions befitting his po- 
 sition as a Catholic educator. Has he warrant for 
 this? Most assuredly; the incarnate Wisdom of God 
 taught him this lesson in the sermon on the Mount. ^ 
 On that occasion the lilies of the field and the sparrows 
 of the air were made object-lessons of this great prin- 
 ciple. This very association of the highest of spiritual 
 truths with the commonest of natural objects is a most 
 efficacious means of making divine truth fecund.^ 
 
 ^ See A. J. Balfour, The Foundations of Belief, pp. 313 fF. 
 ^ Matt, vi, 26-31. 
 
 ' Cf. E. A. Pace, "How Christ Taught Religion," Catholic Uni- 
 versity Bulletin, Vol. XIV, 1908, p. 8, 
 
Faith Viewed Subjectively. 137 
 
 Article 11, — The Pedagogical Value of Faith Viewed 
 Subjectively, 
 
 Since methods when used effectively by the teacher, 
 become permeated as it were with his personality, we 
 may best inquire into the pedagogical value of faith 
 viewed subjectively by examining what, for want of a 
 better name, we may call the "method" of faith. If we 
 look for an illustration of our meaning, we may find 
 one to serve our purpose in "Evolution." Evolution as 
 a system, that is, as an organic body of scientific 
 truths, is not to-day accepted by all men without chal- 
 lenge or reservation. Evolution as a method of investi- 
 gation is employed extensively and profitably. In a 
 somewhat analogous manner we may speak of a 
 "method" determined by the attitude or spirit of divine 
 faith. To make our meaning clearer it is necessary to 
 remove a current misunderstanding and to correct the 
 error which this misunderstanding implies. It was 
 pointedly expressed by the late William Torrey Harris, 
 then Commissioner of Education, at the meeting of the 
 National Education Association held in Boston in 
 1903: 
 
 "The principle of religious instruction is authority; that of secu- 
 lar instruction is demonstration and verification. It is obvious 
 that the two principles should not be brought into the same school, 
 but separated as widely as possible." ^ 
 
 Dr. Harris' zeal here carried him too far. The prin- 
 ciple of all instruction, whether secular or religious, 
 implies, in the beginning, authority on the part of the 
 
 ^Proceedings, 1903, p. 363. 
 
138 The Pedagogical Implications of Faith. 
 
 teacher and faith on the part of the pupil. Even the 
 divine Teacher of mankind, engaged in imparting to 
 them truths of the gravest import for both time and 
 eternity, and making use of methods that even His in- 
 finite wisdom saw to be best suited to the mental and 
 moral capacity of His auditors, did not hesitate to 
 make use of the principle of authority. The evangelist 
 assures us that "He taught as one having authority, 
 and not as their Scribes and Pharisees." ^ Further- 
 more, the principle of authority, with its correlate of 
 faith, continues to exercise some sway over the whole 
 period of man's mental and moral development, whether 
 the man be unlettered or learned, whether he be dullard 
 or genius. Even the greatest geniuses in the most exact 
 of sciences must take much on faith in the very depart- 
 ment in which their originality is most strikingly mani- 
 fested. As for the experimental scientist, every time 
 he performs a satisfactory experiment, he makes an act 
 of faith in the reliability of the apparatus which he 
 uses, the external conditions under which he operates, 
 and the constancy of the laws which control the func- 
 tions of his body and mind while he is experimenting. 
 It is impossible for man to do without faith. If he be 
 deprived of the true faith, he will adopt or invent a 
 false one.^ 
 
 But authority is not the only principle of instruc- 
 tion, much less of education, in either religion or secular 
 
 ^Matt. vii, 29. 
 
 2 This thought has been well developed by F. Bruneti^re in "Le 
 Besoin de Croire," Discours de Combat, I, pp. 302, 308, 310. 
 
Faith Viewed Subjectively. 139 
 
 branches. Religion calls for demonstration also. When 
 divine faith seeks entrance into the human soul, she 
 comes with all due credentials. It is by these creden- 
 tials that she establishes her claim to our hospitality. 
 Once admitted as guest within our interior, she speed- 
 ily becomes a member of the family, if we are loyal to 
 our duty, and rewards us by imparting greater pene- 
 tration to the intellect, greater strength to the will, and 
 greater purity to the emotions of the heart. We have 
 already seen that the initial act of the intellect involved 
 in faith becomes under the impulse of the heart and will 
 a higher and more penetrating act of the intellect. 
 Paul Janet even speaks of faith as "a complex result 
 into which enter instinct, education, envil*onment, re- 
 flection, sensibility, imagination, — in a word, the entire 
 man." ^ The validity of the credentials of faith is a 
 matter of investigation and verification. 
 
 In the address from which we have quoted, Dr, 
 Harris emphasizes the part played by sense and imagi- 
 nation in developing the child's religion. He includes 
 even the symbolic aspect of religion. He does not, how- 
 ever, seem to realize that the understanding of re- 
 ligious symbols, rites, and ceremonies, as such, entails 
 comparison, abstraction, judgment, and reasoning — 
 all acts of intellect. But the most serious misappre- 
 hension, the special occasion of the antithesis between 
 religion and the secular branches — and this is almost 
 
 * "Elle est im result at complexe, dans lequel entrent I'instinct, 
 r^ducation, le milieu, la reflexion, la sensibility, Pimagination, en 
 un mat I'homme tout entier." Principes de mMaphysique et de 
 psychologie, t. I, p. 72, cited by S. Harent, S. J., loc. cit. 
 
140 The Pedagogical Implications of Faith, 
 
 equivalent to saying between religion and science — is 
 the implied restriction of religion in school to mere in- 
 struction; that is, to a body of doctrine to be taught. 
 As we have already seen, faith itself is an act of the 
 whole man. What we have called the ''method" of 
 faith is not merely training in a doctrinal system to be 
 learned; it is also discipline in a code of morals to be 
 kept, initiation into a life to be lived. The "method" 
 of faith, the method of Catholic education which the 
 religious novitiate applies, is fundamental in the devel- 
 opment of the Christian life. The words of Thomas a 
 Kempis leave no room for doubt or equivocation on this 
 point : 
 
 "He that would fully and feelingly understand the words of 
 Christ must study to conform his whole life to the life of Christ." ^ 
 
 Within the last ten years a pronounced reaction has 
 set in against the dominance of a purely intellectual- 
 istic concept of education. This reaction is manifest 
 in the increasing demand for supervised playgrounds, 
 for motor and manual training, for greater laboratory 
 facilities, and for vocational preparation. The Cath- 
 olic Church maintains that our life here on earth is a 
 great training school for life everlasting; that each of 
 us has delicate and daily experiments to perform in the 
 laboratory of his own nature; that each experiment 
 brought to successful issue equips us to meet the greater 
 problems of the morrow; and that in this laboratory 
 of the Christian life our great teachers are the saints 
 of God. This is admitted by Dr. F. W. Foerster : 
 
 ^Imitation, Bk. I, Chap. I, 2. 
 
Faith Viewed Subjectively, 141 
 
 "From this point of view the saints are of imperishable im- 
 portance in the world of education. They illuminate and demon- 
 strate the teaching of Christ in many and varied directions, at the 
 same time linking it up with human life." ^ 
 
 In this broader and truer concept of the Catholic 
 faith, self-denial, mortification and asceticism are seen 
 to exercise an important function and to be undeserv- 
 ing of the obloquy that has often attached to them. To 
 quote again from Dr. Foerster: 
 
 ''^Asceticism should he regarded, not as a negation of nature nor 
 as an attempt to extirpate natural forces, but a>s practice in the 
 art of self -discipline. Its object should be to show humanity what 
 the human will is capable of performing, to serve as an encourag- 
 ing example of the conquest of the spirit over the animal self. 
 The contempt which has been poured upon the idea of asceticism 
 in recent times has contributed more than anything else toward 
 effeminacy. Nothing could be more effective in bringing humanity 
 back to the best traditions of manhood than a respect for the 
 spiritual strength and conquest which is symbolized in ascetic 
 lives." » 
 
 The "method" of faith, therefore, consists in (1) 
 the hearty acceptance of revealed truth, (S) the shap- 
 ing of our daily conduct so as to agree with these prin- 
 ciples, (3) the assimilating of our feelings and emo- 
 tions, — those great motive forces of our deeds, — to the 
 inner spirit of divine truth.^ This is the method by 
 which the novice is trained. The Catholic Church holds 
 that, in due measure, this method is to be applied in all 
 Catholic schools and to all subjects. The author 
 
 ^Marriage and the Sex Problem (tr. Meyrick Booth), p. 133. 
 
 'Op. cit, p. 128. 
 
 " See below, pp. 260-271. 
 
142 The Pedagogical Implications of Faith, 
 
 whom we have just quoted expresses the idea in these 
 terms : 
 
 "As is well known, it was the Franciscan movement which gave 
 rise to the so-called Third Order: the members of this order were 
 permitted to live in the world, to carry on business and to marry; 
 but they were required at the same time, through specific vows, to 
 honour the saints to whom their order was dedicated, and they 
 were enjoined throughout their economic and family life never to 
 lose sight of the spiritual destiny of man. This Third Order sym- 
 bolises the influence of the ascetic ideal upon real life; it shows 
 the manner in which this ideal provides our earthly existence with 
 an access of power — not the least of its services being the strength- 
 ening of the individual spirit against the confused world of human 
 instincts and feelings." ^ 
 
 There is another aspect of this "method" of faith 
 which should appeal to such educators as endeavor to 
 secure equal opportunities for all. Abraham Lincoln is 
 credited with saying: "The Lord must have loved the 
 common people very much : He made so many of them." 
 Any method in education that tends of its own nature 
 and by its own merits to ennoble the life of the com- 
 mon people, is deserving of consideration. There is 
 matter for pertinent thought in these lines from Dr. 
 Foerster, although he is directly applying them to the 
 "nursing profession" : 
 
 "There are, of course, numbers of self-sacrificing characters out- 
 side the Orders. But the Orders understand how to inspire 
 mediocre characters, and to educate them in a magnificent fashion 
 to an almost superhuman degree of self-sacrifice. And the main 
 reason for this superiority on the part of the Catholic sisters is 
 the vow of voluntary celibacy: in the first place, it puts the nurses 
 in quite a different position with regard to the patients and doc- 
 
 ^Id., op. cit, p. 133. 
 
Faith Viewed Subjectively, 14}3 
 
 tors; they cease, indeed, to be women, and become sisters; and, 
 moreover, they have put away the idea of leading lives of their 
 own outside the hospital. This gives them a wholeness, dignity, 
 and sacredness which they would not otherwise be able to acquire. 
 Here, again, we perceive the deep relationship between social serv- 
 ice and the ascetic ideal — the close connection between the capacity 
 for the greatest sacrifice, and a form of retirement from the 
 world; we see that only those who have left the 'natural man' 
 entirely behind are able to do the best work in many spheres of 
 life." ' 
 
 It has been said that to-day science claims the right 
 to enter every domain of thought and action and there 
 impose its laws and methods.^ May we not make a like 
 claim, and with at least equal justice, for religion and 
 its method, the "method of faith" ? But this is not all ; 
 for science owes faith a tardy act of acknowledgment 
 and gratitude. Were it not for the manly discipline 
 imposed on self by the Christian religion, progress in 
 science would have been impossible, and the scientific 
 attitude unattainable.^ The scientific spirit, as we un- 
 derstand the term to-day, was unknown to the nations 
 of pagan antiquity. It was by his diligent considera- 
 tion and due acknowledgment of the rights of others 
 that the Christian student was held in restraint ; it was 
 his sense of duty to God that helped to curb his bursts 
 of passion; it was his conviction that mineral, plant, 
 and animal are all creatures of God that developed in 
 him an unselfish interest in their nature and functions; 
 
 * Op. cit., footnote, pp. 142, 143. 
 
 *Yet see Balfour, op. cit, pp. 92, 93. 
 
 ' Du Bois Reymond, Die Kulturgeschichte und Naturwissen^ 
 schaft (Leipzig, 1378), quoted by Foerster, Schule und Charakter, 
 p. 12. 
 
144 The Pedagogical Implications of Faith. 
 
 it was his apperception of them as ''souvenirs" of the 
 Creator and traces of His presence, that sustained his 
 patience and fed his perseverance. In a word, it was 
 Christianity that made possible that loyalty to truth, 
 that patient elimination of all disturbing factors which 
 is essential to the success of either investigation or ex- 
 periment. Let us amend Dr. Harris' statement. Let 
 us proclaim a treaty of peace between religion and 
 secular studies, between faith and science. The Chris- 
 tian faith has made modern science possible. 
 
 In virtue of its "method" the Christian faith is also 
 the basis of modern culture. The movement takes its 
 origin in the example and the authority of the Saviour 
 Himself : 
 
 "I give you a new commandment : That you love one another as 
 I have loved you : . . . By this shall all men know that you are 
 My disciples, if you have love one for another." ^ 
 
 Commenting on the text, "Liberty, Equality, Fra- 
 ternity," Brunetiere shows ^ that wherever the realities 
 flourish they are the flower of Christian teaching and 
 practice. Sociologists call attention to the fact that 
 culture seems more effective than religion in forming 
 "groups" at the present day. The tendency is in har- 
 mony with the disposition, which is rather widely mani- 
 fested, to take the ethical fruits of Christian teaching, 
 but to reject the dogmatic tree on which they grew.^ 
 
 ^ John xiii, 34, 36. 
 
 * "Raisons actuelles de croire," Disconrs de combat, nouvelle 
 s6rie. 
 
 • Cf. F. Brunetiere, Discours de combat, I, p. 300, note I. 
 
Summary, 145 
 
 So, too, men delight in the fruits of Catholic culture, 
 but refuse to appreciate the Catholic lives, the Catholic 
 atmosphere, of which that culture is so fitting an ex- 
 pression. 
 
 Article III, — Summary, 
 
 We have briefly considered the nature of human and 
 of divine faith, the psychological aspect of faith, and 
 the difference between the objective and the subjective 
 aspects of faith. The pedagogical value of the 
 objective aspect of divine faith is found in the 
 comprehensive and fundamental character of the 
 truths which it contains. These afford standards of 
 value, rules of conduct, and principles of motivation 
 that avail for the leading of an honorable life here on 
 earth and for the attainment of undying happiness 
 beyond the grave. They are great principles of cor- 
 relation and co-ordination. 
 
 The pedagogical value of the subjective aspect of 
 divine faith is seen in the attitude of mind which it de- 
 velops, the spirit which it fosters. This spirit is marked 
 by a detachment from the material things of life, by a 
 refusal to be subservient to instinct and passion. This 
 self-control is a valuable asset in the prosecution of 
 scientific research, which is also furthered by the habit 
 of regarding creatures as images or traces of the Cre- 
 ator. It is inconsistent to demand the fruits of thor- 
 oughly Catholic training, viz., the scientific "temper'' 
 and the quality of "culture," and withhold recognition 
 from the very principles of Christian faith and conduct 
 by which they are produced and conserved. 
 
146 The Pedagogical Implications of Faith. 
 
 The most valuable asset of the efficient teacher is 
 character or "personality." Character connotes self- 
 mastery, and a spirit of sacrifice which is more than 
 mere altruism. The most fruitful source of both these 
 qualities is a life that is the outgrowth, the unfolding, 
 of Christian principles. Such a life the Religious No- 
 vitiate aims to foster, and in so far as it succeeds, it 
 imparts to the novice a training of great pedagogical 
 significance. 
 
 A clear view of the nature of faith and more particu- 
 larly of the "spirit of faith" which the Catholic Church 
 seeks to diffuse in all her schools, helps to destroy the 
 illusion that religious training is effected by the prin- 
 ciple of authority only and therefore promotes an atti- 
 tude that is hostile to the scientific temper. Rather is 
 the reverse true, that religion fosters an attitude that 
 favors impartial scientific investigation. Whoever ap- 
 preciates the value of the scientific temper and of gen- 
 uine culture ought therefore in justice to concede the 
 pedagogical value of that virtue of faith from which 
 they both have sprung. Since it deliberately and effi- 
 ciently fosters the virtue of Faith, the Religious No- 
 vitiate exercises a genuine pedagogical mission. 
 
BOOK III. 
 PEDAGOGICAL VALUES OF FAITH. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Biological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 Article I, — Fundamental Concepts, 
 
 For a score of years biological concepts have domi- 
 nated educational theory. So pronounced has been 
 their sway that within this period not a few educators 
 would seem to have forgotten that man is something 
 more than a mere organism. As a natural consequence, 
 a reaction has set in, and to-day there is manifest a 
 marked tendency to emphasize man's social relations.^ 
 Since, however, every society is composed of individ- 
 uals, social values and social efficiency must depend at 
 least remotely, on individual worth, and proximately 
 
 * Cf. J. M. Baldwin, The Individual and Society, pp. 115-117 
 and passim. A fuller exposition of his fundamental principles is 
 to be found in his Mental DevelopTnent of the Child anrvd the Race 
 and Social and Ethical Interpretations. This tendency, in turn, 
 may also become extreme, as when Bagley (The Educative 
 Process, p. 65) writes that the social aim of education includes the 
 "moral," because, "generally speaking, the moral standard is the 
 social standard." The acceptance of such a principle would give 
 one a standard of morality changing with time and place, a stand- 
 ard as variable indeed as fashions in dress. Morality must be 
 based on man's essential nature and therefore on the unchanging 
 source of that nature, viz., the divine Creator. See also J. M. 
 Baldwin (Social and Ethical Interpretations, p. 83), "Morality is 
 in its origin and practical bearing a social thing." This is very 
 true, provided that the society include essentially not only men 
 but their Maker. 
 
 149 
 
150 Biological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 on the co-operation of individuals. In order, then, to 
 form a right estimate of social efficiency as an end of 
 the educative process,^ it is necessary to begin with a 
 study of the capacity of the individual.^ But to form 
 an adequate idea of the individual, it is essential to con- 
 sider him from the successive viewpoints afforded by the 
 various planes of his existence and activity. These, in 
 the purely natural order, are chiefly the biological, the 
 psychological, and the sociological. Since the prin- 
 ciples of biology are presupposed by both psychology 
 and sociology, it is in accordance with sound method 
 to begin with the biological aspects of education. 
 Biology is the science which studies living organisms, 
 
 ' See above, pp. 79, 82. 
 
 *A further justification of this procedure is found in the ac- 
 ceptance of the so-called "Recapitulation Theory" not only by 
 biologists at large, but also by many educators. According to 
 this principle, the individual in the course of his development from 
 the simplest and earliest stages of his existence up to complete 
 manhood passes through the chief epochs which, according to the 
 theory of evolution, have marked the progress of the human race. 
 As the development of the individual is the concern of the science 
 of ontogeny, while the development of the race is the subject-mat- 
 ter of phylogeny, the principle is conveniently expressed in the 
 formula of Haeckel: "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny." It is 
 to be noted that the individual is conceived of as merely "re- 
 capitulating"; that is, as repeating only the chief phases in the 
 supposed development of the race. Moreover the recapitulation is 
 structural only, not functional. St. Thomas Aquinas admits onto- 
 genetic development (Summa Theologica, I, q. 76, a. 4, PotentuF, 
 q. 3, a. 9). Yet cf. J. L. Perrier, Revival of Scholastic Philosophy 
 in the Nineteenth Century, pp. 98, 99; T. Harper, Metaphysics 
 of the School, Vol. II, pp. 553, 561; H. Muckermann, Catholic En- 
 cyclopedia, "Biology," II, 572; J. M. Baldwin, Mental Development 
 in the Child and the Race, Chaps. I, VII. In the field of educa- 
 tion, the recapitulation theory has culminated in the Culture 
 Epoch theory, which is now discredited by the best educators. 
 
Fundamental Concepts. 151 
 
 whether plant or animal. It investigates their origin, 
 their structure, their functional activity, and their de- 
 velopment. The study of their origin, which Professor 
 E. G. Conklin considers the "greatest biological sub- 
 ject" of the present century,^ leads directly to the topic 
 of heredity, with its recent oifshoot, the so-called sci- 
 ence of eugenics. In its study of organic structures, 
 biology builds up the science of morphology; in its 
 study of the functions of living bodies, it develops the 
 science of physiology. Since it is the structure that 
 functions, morphology and physiology are intimately 
 related. In fact, "function and structure are merely 
 different aspects of one and the same thing, namely, 
 organization." ^ Function ^ is determined by two great 
 
 ^Heredity and Environment in the Development of Men, 
 Preface. 
 
 ^Conklin, op. cit., p. 37. 
 
 ' A process is "a complex series of changes tending toward a 
 single effective result." A function, on the other hand, is a spe- 
 cies of process. It is a "process sufficiently complex to involve an 
 arrangement or co-ordination of minor processes, which fulfills 
 a specific end in such a way as to conserve itself." (J. Dewey, 
 Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education, s. v.) Thus we speak of the 
 digestive function, the function of the nervous system, of 
 the senses in general, of sight in particular; or again, the 
 function of intellect or will. (Cf. Brother Azarias, Philoso- 
 phy of Literature, Chap. II, "The Function of Literature.") 
 J. M. Baldwin {Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology) is too 
 vague. He states that a "function" in biology is "any normal 
 activity, process, or performance accomplished by an organism 
 or an organ." A "mental" function, he adds, is "any conscious 
 process considered as taking part in a larger system of proc- 
 esses." E. B. Titchener (Primer of Psychology, pp. 6, 7, 9) con- 
 trasts "processes" with "things"; the latter are relatively fixed 
 and permanent, the former are transient and changing. So, too, 
 in his Beginners^ Psychology, just published (1916), replacing his 
 Primer, he writes: "Nothing could well be more misleading as a 
 
152 Biological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 influences: one intrinsic, viz., heredity; the other ex- 
 trinsic, viz., environment, the collective name for all 
 those influences and stimulations from without which 
 modify the organism in structure or function. Both 
 the qualities inherited by the organism and the func- 
 
 name for mental phenomena, than the familiar phrase 'states of 
 consciousness'; for a mental state is something relatively stable 
 and permanent. Mental experiences are moving, proceeding, on- 
 going experiences" (p. 21). According to Professor Dewey 
 ("Function," Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education) "the transfer of 
 the conception of functions from biology to philosophy is a mark 
 of a general tendency (1) to substitute a dynamic theory for a 
 static one; (2) to place ends and purposes within the process of 
 life-experience instead of outside and beyond; and (3) to empha- 
 size the continuity of the process of development through bio- 
 logical, psychological, and social activities." As to the first phase 
 of ihcr tendency noted by Professor Dewey there can be no doubt. 
 The second phase is more insidious, for it may include the dispo- 
 sition to look upon the creature as self-sufficient and therefore 
 upon God Himself as unnecessary and inconvenient. As of old 
 in Bethlehem, so to-day but too many men find no room for Him 
 in the inn of this planet of ours. Since man is a creature, it must 
 always and everywhere be true that the full meaning of his nature 
 can never be found in himself alone. (Cf. Bishop UUathorne, The 
 Endowments of Man, Chap. I.) That can be grasped only when 
 man is studied in his relation to God. His dependence on his 
 Maker is his greatest glory. The third aspect emphasized by 
 Professor Dewey lends itself too easily to the error of extreme 
 evolutionism. We may agree with Mark Twain that cauliflower is 
 "cabbage with a college education," but we cannot assent to John 
 Locke's doctrine that a sense representation (he calls it an "idea," 
 while W. Wundt uses the term "Vorstellung" to cover both sensile 
 and intellectual representations) may be developed into a true in- 
 tellectual (and, therefore, spiritual) concept. The essential, in- 
 eradicable distinction between the two is well brought out in 
 Father Clarke's Logic (Stonyhurst Series), pp. 97-139. At the 
 same time he indicates clearly how the sense representation is 
 associated with the concept in the formation of the latter. By way 
 of summary it may be said that the acceptance of Professor 
 Dewey's third aspect as given above leads logically to the rejec- 
 tion of the spirituality of the human soul and therefore to the 
 denial of an essential part of Christian revelation. 
 
Fundamental Concepts, 153 
 
 tions which give it its distinctive character are revealed 
 and expressed in its growth and development. When 
 the latter terms are used with precision, ^'growth" sig- 
 nifies increase in the number and size of the living cells, 
 each organism coming originally from a single cell. 
 "Development," on the other hand, connotes essentially 
 a higher degree of perfection in the cells themselves and 
 an increase in the number and strength of the connec- 
 tions between the cells. Growth, then, is primaril}^ 
 quantitative increase, whereas development implies 
 greater excellence in quality and more perfect organiza- 
 tion. Growth adds to the bulk of the organism; devel- 
 opment augments its power. For the biologist develop- 
 ment is invested with special importance, since from it 
 alone can he learn both the inherited traits of the or- 
 ganism and the results wrought in it by environment.^ 
 Inherited traits remain mere aptitudes until they are 
 acted upon by suitable environment. Hence it is that 
 functional activity has been described as "response to 
 stimuli," whether these stimuli be external or internal. 
 From this viewpoint, "the entire process of develop- 
 ment may be regarded as a series of such responses on 
 the part of the organism," the kind of response in each 
 case being determined by "the nature and state of the 
 organism at the time and by the character of the 
 stimulus." ^ 
 
 ^ "Just as the character of any function is determined by the 
 organism, though it may be modified by environment, so the char- 
 acter of development is determined by heredity, . . . though 
 the course and results of development may be modified by envi-» 
 ronmental conditions." Conklin, op. cit., p. 86, 
 
 »ia., p. 327. 
 
154 Biological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 Heredity, growth, and development characterize the 
 organism and distinguish it from inorganic substances ; 
 they mark the dividing line between bodies that are liv- 
 ing and those that are destitute of life. Furthermore, 
 these characteristics of the entire organism are found 
 also in its structural unit, the cell/ That nucleated 
 mass of protoplasm which we call a cell must, therefore, 
 hold the secret of organic life. 
 
 Man's knowledge of the intrinsic nature of life has 
 advanced but little since Aristotle defined the life prin- 
 ciple as "the first act (or prime perfection) of a physi- 
 cal organic body suitably disposed for life." ^ From 
 this definition three attributes have been deduced as 
 proper to life, whether in the organism as a whole or 
 in each of its cells, viz., spontaneity, immanence, and 
 plasticity.^ 
 
 Biologists of our day prefer and use the terms irri- 
 tability, conductivity, and adaptation. Irritability is 
 the power of receiving impressions from without, such 
 as those of light and heat. It is, of course, a biological 
 
 ^ It is worthy of note that Rev. John Baptist Carnoy, founder 
 of the School of Cytology at the University of Louvain, con- 
 tributed so largely to the study of cell life that he may almost be 
 regarded as one of the founders of cytology. The very term 
 "cell" has monastic associations, since the term was first used by 
 Thomas Hooke, an Englishman, in 1665. He had been greatly im- 
 pressed by the regular arrangement of "cells" in a piece of cork, 
 which reminded him of the cells used by monks in their monastery. 
 
 ^ De Anima, II, i. §6. Cf. William Hammond, Aristotle's Psy- 
 chology, pp. 44, 45: Soul is "the first entelechy of a natural body 
 endowed with the capacity of life;" Brother Azarias, "Aristotle 
 and the Christian Church" in Essays Philosophical, pp. 106 ff. 
 
 ^ Cf. A. Farges, S. S., La Vie et V Evolution des Espdces, pp. 
 30-35. 
 
Fundamental Concepts. 155 
 
 basis of the educative process, an essential requisite in 
 pupil or disciple, if he is to learn anything from nature 
 or from his fellows. In animal life the cell, or group of 
 cells, possessing this requisite is called a "receptor." 
 The impression so received is not confined to the point 
 at which it initiated — its influence is felt throughout 
 the cell, which, therefore, must have the power of con- 
 ducting or transmitting the original impulse and thus 
 producing a change that is really internal. From this 
 viewpoint the cell is a "conductor." The educator 
 finds in this process another biological element of the 
 learning process, and therefore a factor in any genuine 
 study on the part of the pupil. ^ Lastly, the cell, or 
 organism, has the power of so reacting to the external 
 stimulus as to adjust itself to its environment. This 
 process is essential in order to secure to the organism 
 fitness for survival in its struggle for existence. In 
 virtue of this exercise of activity the cell is termed an 
 "adjuster." Here is found the biological basis of be- 
 havior and conduct — a phase of activity emphasized by 
 the school of psychologists known to-day as behavior- 
 ists.^ 
 
 ^Cf. J. M. Baldwin, Handbook of Psychology, Vol. II, pp. 7-17; 
 Ladd and Woodworth, Elements of Physiological Psychology, pp. 
 16 ff. Conklin's statement stands in essential agreement with what 
 is written above: "All the general functions of living things are 
 present in the germ cells, viz., (1) constructive and destructive 
 metabolism, (2) reproduction as shown in the division of cells and 
 cell constituents, (3) irritability, or the capacity of receiving and 
 responding to stimuli." Op. cit., p. 37. 
 
 ^ For a temperate statement of the aims of Behaviorism and its 
 significance to the teacher, see Colvin and Bagley, Human Be- 
 havior. For more sweeping claims, see Prof. J. B. Watson, 
 Behavior, Introduction and Chap. I. 
 
156 Biological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 The higher forms of animal life are all characterized 
 by ^ marvelously developed nervous system. It is the 
 special business of biology to investigate this system, 
 yet because the nervous system is an instrument of even 
 the noblest acts of intellect and will of which man is 
 capable, it comes also within the domain of psychology. 
 The three characteristics of the cell in general are thus 
 verified and raised to a higher plane in the three 
 general functions of the nervous system in "receiving, 
 registering, and reacting upon stimuli." These func- 
 tions minister directly to the educative process. For 
 it is the "sensory" system that receives impressions ; it 
 is the "motor" system that reacts upon them, — both 
 being largely "peripheral" ; that is, having organs that 
 terminate upon the outer surface of the animal body. 
 Registration, on the other hand, is effected in and by 
 the "central" system ; that is, the cerebro-spinal divi- 
 sion of the nervous system. Since the whole organism 
 is developed from the cell, it is to the cell that biologists 
 look not only for an explanation of "development," a 
 topic of surpassing interest in education, but also for 
 the solution of the vexed and intricate question of 
 "heredity." ^ 
 
 The fundamental topics in biology that concern the 
 educator may therefore be reduced to two: heredity 
 and development. But the second of these always pre- 
 supposes the first and the limitations placed by the first. 
 
 ^So Conklin, op. cit., p. 104: "In the last analysis, the causes 
 of heredity and development are problems of cell structures and 
 functions." 
 
Fundamental Concepts, 157 
 
 What we are to understand by these terms may now be 
 stated in the words of a biologist whom we have already 
 quoted: Heredity is "the appearance in the offspring 
 of characters whose differential causes are found in the 
 germ cells. Heritage is the sum of all those qualities 
 which are determined or caused by this germinal organ- 
 ization. Development is progressive and co-ordinated 
 differentiation of this germinal organization, by which 
 it is transformed into the adult organization." Al- 
 though the possibilities of man's development in the 
 natural order are determined by heredity, "they rarely 
 come to full epiphany." ^ Moreover, the developmental 
 series is irreversible. Whether it be determined by en- 
 vironment or by personal choice, or both, the state or 
 act that now prevails excludes forever the other alter- 
 native and therefore its essential consequences. In 
 biology, as in faith and morals, "What things a man 
 shall sow, those also shall he reap." ^ 
 
 According to certain biologists, the greatest social 
 need of our day is to improve the physical human stock 
 and purify the hereditary strain.^ Hence the vogue of 
 the eugenic movement. It is well, however, to pause 
 here and ask whether the Christian, and, with greater 
 reason, the religious, life have anything at all in 
 
 ^ Id., p. 475. 
 
 ^Gal. vi, 8. 
 
 ^ "No other scheme of social betterment and race improvement 
 can compare for thoroughness, permanence of effect, and cer- 
 tainty of results, with that which attempts to change the natures 
 of men and to establish in the blood the qualities which are de- 
 sired." Conklin, op. cit., pp. 5, 6. 
 
158 Biological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 common with the principles of heredity and develop- 
 ment. 
 
 Article 11, — Heredity, 
 
 At first glance it would seem that the teachings of 
 the Catholic Church have little connection with the sci- 
 ence of biology. Yet we should be far from justified 
 were we to draw such an inference. Did not the Sa- 
 viour Himself tell Nicodemus: "Unless a man be born 
 again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter 
 into the kingdom of God".'^ ^ He announced the pur- 
 pose of His mission to men on earth in the words : 
 "I am come that they may have life, and may have it 
 more abundantly." ^ In like manner. He said of 
 the Father: "God so loved the world as to give His 
 only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, 
 may not perish, but may have life everlasting." ^ And 
 at the most solemn period of His mortal life He estab- 
 
 ^John iii, 6. — Since the societies formed by men are modeled 
 more or less perfectly on the pattern of the great society of 
 mankind to which we belong by nature, admission to these socie- 
 ties came in the figurative language of the Orient to be expressed 
 in terms of birth. Whoever was duly admitted was said to be 
 "born again." So Cardinal Wiseman, who adds: "But when we 
 discover that this was the ordinary figure by which the Pharisees 
 themselves expressed, in their mystic language, the act of becom- 
 ing a proselyte, and that the phrase belongs to that philosophy and 
 is used by the Brahmins of such as joined their religion; we at 
 once perceive how such an, obscure phrase should have been well 
 understood by the person to whom it was addressed." Lectures 
 on Science and Revealed Religion, Vol. II, Lecture II, p. 227. 
 
 *John X, 10. 
 
 " John iii, 16. 
 
Heredity. 159 
 
 lished the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist that these 
 words of His might be verified by means of this living 
 and life-giving Bread/ The Christian and the religious 
 may well agree with Professor Conklin that "life proc- 
 esses are everywhere the same in principle, though vary- 
 ing greatly in detail" ; ^ and yet read into the statement 
 a deeper meaning than is suspected by the author of 
 "Heredity and Environment." For the Christian 
 knows that when a child is to be received into the 
 Church by baptism, the priest puts to him or to his 
 sponsors the question: "What dost thou ask of the 
 Church of God?" "Faith," replies the child. "What 
 doth faith bring thee to?" continues the priest. 
 To which the child makes answer, "Life everlast- 
 ing." ' 
 
 The religious can recall likewise the words of St. 
 John Baptist de la Salle, addressed to the Brothers of 
 the Christian Schools, in the meditation which he wrote 
 for December 15th, the octave of the feast of the Im- 
 maculate Conception and celebrated in the Brothers' 
 Institute as the patronal feast of their novitiates : 
 "The holy vocation to which God has been pleased to 
 call us, is our mother. The novitiate is the salutary 
 and mystic womb of the religious life, in which her 
 novices, who are her children, are spiritually conceived. 
 
 ^ "Panis vivus et vitalis" is the expression used by St. Thomas 
 in his "Lauda Sion," the "Prose" for the Mass of Corpus Christi. 
 Cf. John vi, 27-59; Imitation, Bk. IV, Chap. XI. 
 
 ^P. 4. 
 
 " Cf. Abb6 Gaume, Catechism of Per severance. Vol. II, p. 401. 
 
160 Biological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 She then begets them to Jesus Christ, as St. Paul ex- 
 presses it, by forming them to a truly Christian and 
 religious life." ^ 
 
 We must, however, beware of assuming that the 
 Christian life, the life of grace, the life, therefore, of 
 which the religious makes special profession, is essen- 
 tially one with physical life, the life of the human body.^ 
 Man is so constituted that all his knowledge takes its 
 beginning in the senses, and even his most sublime 
 thoughts bear traces of this humble origin. His re- 
 flections on the "supernatural," as the word itself be- 
 trays, must be expressed in terms of the natural. Yet, 
 by means of certain reservations, restrictions, and mod- 
 ifications, he both respects his own limitations and safe- 
 guards the interests of truth. When, therefore, he 
 
 ^Meditations for Sundays and Festivals, Vol. II, p. 736. In the 
 French one-volume edition, reprint of 1882, the passage is found 
 on p. 240. — This is but an application of the idea common to all 
 Catholics when they speak of the Church as their Mother, "our 
 holy Mother Church." The concept is further emphasized by the 
 words of St. Augustine: "He cannot have God for his Father, who 
 will not have the Church for his Mother." 
 
 ^ The following warning is not out of place : 
 
 "The avenue by which the problems of life, education, and re- 
 ligion are now approached is the biological. The *germ-theory' is 
 made to cover everything under the sun. . . . The result is that 
 we find ourselves more frequently investigating the origin and 
 growth of things, than inquiring into their nature and value. 
 What things grew out of, rather than what they have grown into, 
 if grow they ever did to the extent imagined, preoccupies and 
 monopolizes attention. . . . When extended to society, religion, 
 and the world at large in a literal biological sense, the concept of 
 organism is employed beyond its legitimate sphere, and fills the 
 mind with much ambiguity and false suggestiveness." — Rev. E. T. 
 Shanahan, "The Unconsidered Remainder," Catholic World, Feb- 
 ruary, 1914, pp. 686-588. 
 
Heredity. 161 
 
 forms an idea of the life of grace which is received in 
 baptism, he denies to it the imperfections that arise 
 from essential dependence on matter. This mode of 
 reasoning is the via negationis et remotionis of the 
 Schoolmen. It "removes" from the concept of the 
 higher order of life the defects that belong by essence 
 to the lower. But this method of attaining knowledge 
 does not stop here. It superadds to these two ele- 
 ments a third (^via eminentice) , which ascribes to the 
 higher order of life the excellence which is its peculiar 
 property, because of its more perfect nature. There 
 are, therefore, three stages in forming a concept of the 
 spiritual life, i. e., the life of grace. To these must be 
 added a fourth, in order to frame the idea of "life ever- 
 lasting;" for the concept of life everlasting includes 
 that of all the happiness of which the individual, ac- 
 cording to his state, is capable, and that of its enduring 
 and imperishable character. In other words, the idea 
 expressed by the term "life" as applied to physical life, 
 the life of grace, and life everlasting, is an "analogous" 
 idea. If it be asked. Of what use is such an idea.^^ we 
 reply, in the words of Dr. Sauvage,^ that, after a reve- 
 lation of divine truth has been made to man, "analogy 
 is useful to give us certain knowledge of the mysteries, 
 either by comparison with natural things and truths, 
 or by consideration of the mysteries in relation with 
 one another and with the destiny of man." Analogy 
 
 ^G. M. Sauvage, C. S. C, "Analogy," Catholic Encyclopedia. 
 Cf. Oll^-Laprune, op. cit., pp. 101-106. — It is only by "analogy" 
 that unaided reason can rise from the creature to certain, albeit 
 inadequate, knowledge of the Creator. 
 
162 Biological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 is our way of going from the lower to the higher order 
 of truth and reality. 
 
 Not only is the notion of life, as so understood, 
 fundamental in the doctrines of the Catholic Church, 
 and therefore included in the articles of the Apostles' 
 Creed; but the idea of heredity is equally emphasized. 
 The perfervid statements of the most ardent eugenists 
 do not equal in gravity and significance what the Cath- 
 olic religion teaches concerning the nature and extent 
 of heredity when the topic is viewed from the Christian 
 standpoint. Heredity lies back of the doctrine of orig- 
 inal sin and the fall of man, and therefore also back of 
 the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Redemption. 
 
 According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, 
 our first parents were, at the moment of their creation, 
 constituted in the supernatural order and the state of 
 "original justice." They were thereby raised to the 
 dignity of adopted children of God Himself and made 
 heirs of the everlasting kingdom of heaven. They were 
 at the same time endowed with certain extraordinary 
 gifts not at all demanded by their nature as human 
 beings ; such as great penetration of intellect and 
 strength of will, — gifts perfecting the soul; exemption 
 from sickness and suffering, which perfected the body; 
 and control of the passions by reason, as also exemp- 
 tion from death — privileges which directly affected the 
 intimate union between soul and body. By his sin of 
 unbelief, pride and disobedience, Adam forfeited not 
 only the great supernatural gift of sanctifying grace, 
 but also those extraordinary privileges which, though 
 
Heredity, 163 
 
 not requisite for the integrit}'' of his nature as man, yet 
 added immeasurably to its perfection, and so made it a 
 fitter receptacle for divine grace. Henceforth, as every 
 Catholic child is taught, man's intellect was darkened, 
 his will weakened, his body liable to sickness and suffer- 
 ing; the "flesh," the passions, might rise against the 
 "spirit," the reason ;^ and the warfare of life would 
 terminate only with death.^ And the sad plight of 
 Adam passed also to his children, for they were born 
 to him after his sin.^ And yet the infliction of this 
 grievous penalty left no taint upon the perfect justice 
 of God, who but took away the gifts of supererogation 
 which He had freely but conditionally bestowed, nor 
 upon His infinite mercy, for the sentence of condemna- 
 tion and punishment was followed immediately by the 
 promise of a Redeemer to come. Here then is the orig- 
 inal question of heredity ; here is the primal taint, from 
 which, by a special divine intervention, only one human 
 being has ever been exempt. And what remedy does the 
 wisdom of God offer to fallen man, what means does He 
 
 ^ Cf . Rom. vii. 
 
 •Job vii, 1. 
 
 •According to the Council of Orange (529), Adam transmitted 
 to the whole human race both death of the soul, L e., sin, and death 
 of the body, the punishment of sin (Cf. S. Harent, S. J., "Original 
 Sin," Catholic Encyclopedia). Since original sin is essentially neg- 
 ative, consisting, as it does, in the privation of sanctifying grace 
 and consequently of the extraordinary perfections granted on the 
 condition of corresponding to this grace, the question of the "trans- 
 mission, by generation, of acquired characters" does not enter 
 into our discussion. For the views of Weismann, see Thomson's 
 Heredity; for those of the Augustinian abbot, Gregor Mendel, see 
 W. Bateson's Mendel's Principles of Heredity. 
 
164 Biological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 design to "improve the human stock," now so disas- 
 trously affected by the fruit 
 
 "Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste 
 Brought death into the world and all our woe?" * 
 
 The first is faith in the promised Redeemer, who is to 
 restore to man the supernatural spiritual heritage 
 which he had forfeited by sin. For the Lord, in cursing 
 the serpent, said: "I will put enmities between thee and 
 the woman, between thy seed and her seed." ^ Accord- 
 ingly, "when the fulness of time was come, God sent his 
 Son, made of a woman, made under the law: that He 
 might redeem them who were under the law; that we 
 might receive the adoption of sons." ^ Thus it came to 
 pass that through Mary's full co-operation with the 
 designs of God in the redemption of mankind, the hered- 
 itary graces and privileges essential for salvation, 
 which had been forfeited through the original sin of 
 Adam and Eve, were now in some measure restored to 
 the human race.* 
 
 From these teachings of the Catholic Church we must 
 
 ^Paradise Lost. On the Semi-Arian tenets of Milton, revealed 
 in the "Ode to the Nativity," as well as in his epics, see Faber's 
 Life and Letters, pp. 206, 207. 
 
 *Gen. iii, 16. 
 
 'Gal. iv, 4, 5. 
 
 *St. Paul's statements are explicit (Rom. v) : "Being justified 
 therefore by faith, let us have peace with God through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ: ... by one man sin entered into this world, and 
 by sin death: and so death passed upon all men in whom all have 
 sinned. . , . But not as the offence, so also the gift. For if 
 by the offence of one many died: much more the grace of God and 
 the gift, by the grace of one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded 
 unto many." 
 
Merediiyi 165 
 
 conclude: 1. That once the nature of man has been im- 
 paired by sin, there is no earthly power, there is no 
 created agency, to restore his original dignity. 2. That 
 the mystery of the Incarnation with its complement, 
 the mystery of the Redemption, was wrought to effect 
 in man a complete regeneration — not so much to purify 
 and enrich his blood, although it does this indirectly^ 
 as to enlighten his mind with revealed truth, to 
 strengthen his will with sacramental helps, to give him 
 mastery over his passions, and to make suffering and 
 death meritorious for life everlasting. 3. That man is 
 more than a mere organism. Hence it is that the re- 
 pairing of inherited defects can never be effected solely 
 by means adequate for the improvement of the stock 
 in either plant or animal. Man is intelligent; the 
 means employed must therefore be spiritual and not 
 solely corporal. He is endowed with free will ; he must 
 therefore make use of adequate means and use them 
 with full deliberation.^ But all men are called to be 
 
 ^ The words of F. W. Foerster are pertinent {Marriage and the 
 Sex Problem) : "It is true that these artificial methods [of eugen- 
 ists] may momentarily relieve much suffering. In the long run, 
 however, according to their own inner nature, they must increase 
 the sum total of human suffering in every sphere of life — for their 
 effect is immeasurably to increase the subjection of man to pas- 
 sion and artificial sensuousness" (p. 95). And again: "The almost 
 miraculous regenerative power with which Christianity can re- 
 pair the errors of human weakness, is illustrated with peculiar 
 clearness by the effect of Christian faith upon sexual regeneration: 
 leaving outward symptoms on one side, it touches primary control 
 causes; it arrives not at counteracting the symptoms of degenera- 
 tion, but at building up a new center of the whole personality. It 
 is just this depth and simplicity which is absent from the reform- 
 ing efforts of those who do not base their suggestions on genuine 
 Christianity. . . . Religion overcomes the danger of a one- 
 
166 Biological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 followers of Christ and members of the Church which 
 He founded. Therefore lasting race improvement, 
 while coming from a source extrinsic to man, — that is, 
 from God Himself, — with which man freely co-operg.tes, 
 will be realized only by the actual acceptance, on the 
 part of the individual, of the truths taught by the 
 Saviour, and the daily endeavor, with the help of divine 
 grace, to make them the rule of his conduct. Now, 
 divine grace is obtained by prayer, and prayer pre- 
 supposes some degree of faith in God. 
 
 In sum, therefore, the Catholic Church includes and 
 has always included what is best in the movement to 
 improve heredity ; but this she applies on the plane and 
 in the sphere of the supernatural both in content of 
 doctrine and method of application, securing thereby 
 results of far greater extent and permanence than 
 would be possible in the purely natural order. In proof 
 thereof she can point to the first Christians, many of 
 whom in spite not only of unfavorable environment but 
 of degenerate ancestry, climbed to lofty heights of holi- 
 ness. "The Son of God came to seek and to save that 
 which was lost," ^ and in every age since His coming, 
 the Church, in repeating the marvelous conversion of 
 
 sided domination of the individual by intellect; thus making it 
 possible for the unconscious element in personality again to as- 
 sume its proper place; it makes it psychologically possible for 
 men to free themselves from egotism; and it serves the general 
 purpose of distracting the soul from a too close consciousness of 
 the animal functions, which is a much better way of preserving 
 these functions from any kind of degeneration than the most 
 elaborate hygienic information." Pp. 164, 166. 
 
 *Luke xix, 10. 
 
Heredity. 167 
 
 the Good Thief and the Magdalen, has borne witness 
 to the efficacy of His mission. 
 
 Professor Home admits/ as do most educators, that 
 "biological problems underlie educational problems. 
 They deal with life in its adjustment to its environ- 
 ment." He selects three facts as "significant for edu- 
 cation": "(1) the increasing size of the cerebrum, or 
 hemispheres of the brain, both absolutely and rela- 
 tively to the size of the body, in the ascending scale of 
 mammals ; ( 2 ) the prolonged period of human infancy 
 in comparison with lower animals; and (S) the brain 
 as the organ of mind." ^ In place of his first fact we 
 have taken one of deeper significance, viz., heredity, 
 interpreting the term in its broad sense of transmission 
 from generation to generation. The importance of his 
 first fact, he maintains, lies in this, that it signifies 
 "educability." We have asserted that the Catholic 
 Church in presenting to men the only effectual remedy 
 for original sin, educates them not only for their duties 
 in this life, but also for their functions in the life to 
 come.^ This very circumstance renders our interpreta- 
 tion of his second fact, the "prolonged period of hu- 
 man infancy," more fundamental and far reaching. 
 From the Catholic viewpoint, man^s whole life on earth 
 is a preparation for heaven, and, in so far, it is there- 
 fore a kind of prolonged infancy. Moreover, the sacra- 
 ments which he receives render him not only more sensi- 
 
 ^ Philosophy of Education, p. 18. 
 
 ''P. 19. 
 
 • See above, pp. 41, 42. 
 
168 Biological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 tive to truths of the supernatural order, but also more 
 adept in interpreting in a supernatural way the phe- 
 nomena, the occurrences, of his earthly environment. 
 In other words, to use the language of the pedagogues 
 who to-day "sit in the chair of Moses," they conserve 
 and utilize what is best in his "plasticity." As to Pro- 
 fessor Home's third fact, no Catholic will admit that 
 the "brain" is the "organ" of "mind," unless the term 
 "mind" be so interpreted as to leave the spirituality of 
 the soul intact. The brain is the central "organ" of 
 the mind's sense-operations only. Its intellectual and 
 volitional functions are intrinsically independent of the 
 brain.^ 
 
 Article III. — Environment, 
 
 We have considered, from the Christian standpoint, 
 some aspects of heredity as a factor of education. But 
 heredity is valuable only as it makes for development, 
 or, as some biologists prefer to express it, for "organ- 
 ization." Of the two factors that cause development, 
 one, heredity, is intrinsic to the organism. The other, 
 viz., environment, operates as an external stimulus. In 
 the educative process there are two important phases of 
 environment. The one takes cognizance of the passive 
 or receptive state of the individual. In this stage the 
 aim of the educator is to place the pupil in such an en- 
 vironment as will strengthen his weak tendencies toward 
 the good, and avert the conditions that would thwart 
 the strengthening of these tendencies. The other phase 
 
 * On this point, see Rev. J. T. DriscoU, Christian Philosophy, 
 The Soul, Chap. IX, "Brain and Thought." 
 
Environment. 169 
 
 appeals to the individual's activity and seeks to train 
 him to master his environment and make it contribute 
 to the great purpose of his life. The first, or relatively 
 passive, phase of the individual's attitude toward his 
 environment is primarily the concern of biology. The 
 second, or, b}^ contrast, the active, phase belongs rather 
 to psychology. Although it is the first aspect of en- 
 vironment that should principally engage our attention, 
 yet it is futile to attempt an absolute separation of the 
 two aspects. This is well presented by William Arthur 
 Clark in the following passage: 
 
 "Man has two environments, or rather his environment is 
 double in its character. From the physical universe about him he 
 appropriates the materials of his bodily structure; and this same 
 physical universe impinging upon his nervous mechanism stimu- 
 lates him into conscious life activities — *rubs him into conscious 
 life.' But his experiencing of the environment, his interpretation 
 of its irritating contact, is mediated by his social environment. 
 He sees the ^greenness' of the grass through the eyes of his race 
 fellows. His life is saturated with the content of common con- 
 sciousness, the accumulated race experiences, so that he cannot 
 reach the physical world except [?] through the medium of the so- 
 cial atmosphere in which he lives. In addition to mediating the 
 physical environment for man, this social atmosphere is itself a 
 true environment. Man acknowledges his fellows as subjects with 
 whom he agrees or disagrees, to whom he takes attitudes. His 
 relations to them nourish and condition his individual life. En- 
 vironment is only so much of circumstances as is related actively 
 to the life of the individual; it is circumstances as they are 
 grasped by the individual and made a part of his own structure." * 
 
 In the first place, it may be well to note that only 
 God has no environment, since He alone is absolutely 
 independent; He alone, to use the language of scholas- 
 
 * Suggestion m Education, p. 14. 
 
170 Biological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 tic philosophy, is "pure act." ^ Dependence on environ- 
 ment signifies, therefore, in scholastic terminology, a 
 "potency," an imperfection, which is characteristic of 
 all created nature, from which not even the angels are 
 exempt. Consequently it is of wider extent than hered- 
 ity, which, in its proper meaning, is limited to living 
 organisms, to plants and animals. Environment may 
 be designated as the sum total of the influences from 
 without that act upon a thing. With each ascending 
 level in the perfection of the substance itself, there is 
 an advance not only in the extent and the character of 
 the environmental influences, but likewise in the degree 
 to which the substance controls the environment and 
 utilizes it to the furtherance of its own perfection. If, 
 then, we were to keep strictly within the domain of 
 biology, we should have to consider environment as a 
 factor in the development of the organism when viewed 
 simply as an organism. This is "physical" environ- 
 ment. Its value as a factor in education is twofold : 
 (1) "it leads to the development of inherited qualities 
 through use;" (2) it "represses certain functions 
 through giving them no opportunity to act." ^ Yet 
 because each higher stage of development in the living 
 substance includes and refines the perfections of the 
 next lower stage, it follov/s that the biological aspect 
 
 ^Cf. St. Thomas, Srnnma Theologica, I. qq. 2, 3, 4; A. Farges, 
 Acte et Puissance, p. 75; T. Harper, Metaphysics of the School, 
 Vol. II, pp. 390 ff.; J. L. Perrier, The Revival of Scholastic Phi- 
 losophy in the Nineteenth Century, p. 132; 0116-Laprune, op. cit., 
 pp. 223 f. 
 
 ^H. H. Home, Idealism in Education, p. 68. 
 
Environment, 171 
 
 of environment, which is so prominently in the fore- 
 ground during human infancy and childhood, is also 
 coextensive with the whole life of the man/ As he 
 passes through the years of childhood, however, the 
 3^outh normally becomes less and less a mere creature 
 of environment and gradually attains fuller control 
 over his surroundings. It is, indeed, the business of 
 education to direct and to foster this power. Hence it 
 is that, from the viewpoint of biology, "education re- 
 duced to its lowest terms is adaptation to environ- 
 ment." ^ How the individual acquires any control of 
 his environment is the concern of psychology, and more 
 particularly, of genetic psychology.^ Since, however, 
 in acquiring this control, he needs the help of others 
 not only as instructors but also as furnishing him 
 models for imitation, it follows that the social aspect 
 of even physical environment extends into the domain of 
 sociology. In practice, however, it is impossible to 
 separate by hard and fast lines these various aspects of 
 physical environment, just as it is impossible to draw a 
 sharp line of distinction between physical and social 
 environment, or between the different grades of organ- 
 ization or levels of perfection that mark the various 
 functions of the individual himself. The extent and 
 the variety of the influences that come from environ- 
 
 ' See above, pp. 38-43, 46, 47. 
 
 ^ E. J. Swift, Learning and Doing, p. 202. 
 
 ' This is the problem which J. M. Baldwin has set himself in the 
 volumes. Mental Development in the Child and in the Race and 
 Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental Development. The 
 principles are set forth more briefly in his 8tory of the Mind, 
 
172 Biological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 ment will depend both upon the complexity and upon 
 the development of the organism. Hence it is that any 
 satisfactory treatment of environment must entail not 
 only biological, but also psychological and sociological 
 considerations. 
 
 As we have already seen, a novice is a unity compris- 
 ing a hierarchy of lesser unities.^ On each of these 
 levels he is subject to environment, and from each 
 should he derive nutriment for the perfect life which he 
 is called to live. Although environment acts simul- 
 taneously on these different planes, it is necessary for 
 purposes of analysis to consider each separately. 
 Viewed merely as an organism, the novice possesses 
 physical life. Whatever food he uses to sustain this 
 life, the very air that he breathes, he takes from his 
 environment. This is a condition of his physical 
 growth and development. He is bound by the law of 
 God and by the rules of his order to take reasonable 
 care of his health. Yet the contrary view is so widely 
 current that it is opportune to cite the objection of a 
 non-Catholic educator to "a continually recurring mod- 
 ern allegation against Christianity, namely, that it 
 aims at suppressing and extirpating nature in the in- 
 terests of spiritual culture. . . . Now in reality it 
 was not Christianity at all, but the decadent period of 
 heathen civilization which preached an exaggerated an- 
 tagonism between spirit and body (the Neo-Platonists, 
 Plotinus and the Manicheans, for example). The great 
 classical protagonists of Christianity, such as Augus- 
 
 ^ Pp. 46, 47. 
 
Environment. l73 
 
 tine, were the very people who made a stand against 
 this excessive dualism and never despised the natural 
 works of God. Their endeavor was merely to secure 
 strict control over nature.^^ ^ Since, however, the nov- 
 ice is more than plant, his perfection lies in higher ac- 
 tivities than the preservation of health and the attain- 
 ment of due physical growth and development. These 
 are but means to an end. 
 
 It is as an animal that he first comes into "conscious" 
 contact with his environment. It is on this plane that 
 he begins to make adjustment to his surroundings a 
 factor in his existence and, at least in many cases, to 
 bring it under his conscious control.^ But the multi- 
 colored beauties of creation, the harmony of sweet 
 sounds, the lusciousness of fruit, the fragrance of flow- 
 ers, the resistance of the ground on which he treads, the 
 soft summer breeze — all these "mean" nothing to him 
 without the help of reason. And so the rational stage 
 follows, wherein he studies the meaning of the various 
 aspects of his environment, being guided more or less 
 consciously in the process, by the character of his total 
 
 * F. W. Foerster, Marriage and the Sex Problem, pp. 214, 216. 
 For a strange perversion of the truth, see W. D. Howell's "Saints 
 and their Bodies," Atlantic Monthly, I, p. 582. A recent presenta- 
 tion of the Catholic attitude is given by W. J. Lockington, S. J., 
 in Bodily Health and Spiritual Vigor. Cf. Francis Thompson, 
 Health and Holiness. 
 
 ^ "Biological struggle is the means of selection for purposes of 
 life in a physical and vital environment. . . . Social rivalry, on 
 the other hand, is the means of selection for mental and moral 
 purposes in the envirorvment of a social order." Baldwin, The In- 
 dividual and Society, p. 115. See also his Story of the Mind, pp. 
 40-43. 
 
174* Biological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 experience/ How exceedingly valuable this exercise 
 may prove in furthering mental development is excel- 
 lently presented by Reuben Post Halleck in his study of 
 "How Shakespeare's Senses Were Trained." ^ Accord- 
 ing to modern science, all the subtle apparently un- 
 noticed influences that stream in through the senses in 
 all man's waking hours inevitably leave upon his mind 
 the impress of his environment. Moreovor, recent 
 studies in psychology serve to show that our ideas tend 
 to act themselves out, to express themselves in deeds. ^ 
 And so it comes to pass that to-day science unwittingly 
 endorses the Church's teaching on proximate occasions 
 of sin, viz., that one cannot freel}^ remain in them with- 
 out contracting some moral taint. This, therefore, 
 may be regarded as a negative, or inhibitive, aspect of 
 environment. But the positive phase is of even greater 
 moment. The loving care of priest and people ex- 
 pended in the rearing of majestic Gothic cathedrals to 
 the honor of God, the hallowed devotion of sculptor and 
 painter in adorning the sacred fane, the inspiration of 
 the musician consecrated to the production of har- 
 monies befitting religious services — all these are but 
 agencies for the framing of an environment suitable for 
 the place of divine worship. 
 
 ^ For a simple presentation of the aspect, see Teachers' College 
 Record, Vol. II, No. 4 (Sept., 1901), pp. 26-29. See also M. F. 
 Washburn, The Ammal Mind, Chaps. X, XI, "The Modification of 
 Conscious Processes by Individual Experience." 
 
 ^EdAication of the Central Nervous System, Chap. X. 
 
 ''J. B. Watson, Behavior, an Introduction to Comparative Psy- 
 chology (pp. 16 ff.) presents the opposite view of the Behaviorists. 
 
Environment, 175 
 
 In the history of religious orders also environment 
 has played a prominent part. The very principle em- 
 phasized by Halleck was not unknown to them; for, as 
 Montalembert reminds us/ even the most austere monks 
 of old did not deny themselves the beauties of nature. 
 Moreover, the preference shown by many of the orders, 
 especially by the Benedictines, for vast tracts of 
 land remote from cities and possessed of diversified nat- 
 ural features is eminently justified on psychological and 
 pedagogical grounds. It is a noteworthy fact that 
 those who are considered by the world at large the 
 greatest authorities of our day in matters of education, 
 have, though unintentionally, done tardy justice to the 
 much maligned Fathers of the Desert. What is the 
 meaning of the vigorous insistence on the superiority of 
 the country over the city as an educative factor during 
 the plastic years of childhood and youth, but that the 
 hermits of the early ages of the Church chose both 
 wisely and well? The vast sweep of their environment 
 was congenial to the nurture of great and noble 
 thoughts far more enduring than the sentiments of 
 Henry D. Thoreau, and of greater constructive value, 
 from the viewpoint of faith, than the dramas of Shakes- 
 peare.^ Many of the greatest Fathers of the Church 
 
 ^ Cf. Mabillon, Ann. Benedict , t. v., lib. 68 ad finem, cited by 
 Montalembert in Monks of the West, Vol. I, pp. 71, 72. 
 
 ^Chap. V, "Environment and Training," in R. P. Halleck's 
 Education of the Central Nervous System, is good reading. The 
 following passage is suggestive not only to a tenement house com- 
 mission, but also to every whole-souled teacher: "The city has 
 many drawbacks for bringing up children. In the first place, it is 
 cramped. Only those rooms into which the sunlight can pour. 
 
176 Biological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 were trained in such solitudes. Steeped, as they were, 
 in the traditions of sanctity handed down from patri- 
 arch to patriarch, these master minds of Christendom 
 verified in both theory and practice what psychologists 
 call the principle of association. In their own minds 
 forever after, the laws of holy living were closely knit 
 to these scenes of silence and solitude, so that even sim- 
 ilarity in environment tended to recall the impressive 
 lessons which they had received amid such fitting sur- 
 roundings. The practical result was of even greater 
 moment; for unnumbered multitudes in every age since 
 then, hearkening to their words, have withdrawn, if not 
 into physical retreat, at least into spiritual solitude, to 
 ponder the great eternal truths. Men were thus taught 
 
 ought ever to be used for sitting or sleeping rooms. The sun, 
 however, has small chance at the majority of city apartments. 
 Space is also so precious that the most of the rooms are small. 
 Some suggestive experiments have been made [unfortunately no 
 references are given] which emphasize the baneful effect of 
 cramped quarters on growing animal life. A row of vessels, regu- 
 larly increasing in size, has been set on the same shelf in a room. 
 These have been filled with water, and a growing tadpole or a pond 
 snail placed in each vessel. Although all were treated alike, so 
 far as the capacity of the vessel would allow, at the end of a cer- 
 tain period it was found' that each tadpole or snail had developed 
 proportionately to the size of the vessel; that is, the smallest 
 tadpoles or snails were found in the smallest vessels; the next 
 larger, in the next larger vessel. In connection with this, one can 
 scarcely help thinking of the thousands of children, whose play- 
 ground is the little back yard, frequently not so large as a good- 
 sized room. It would be unfair to expect their development to 
 be more than commensurate with their surroundings." P. 78. 
 (These experiments were made by Professor Yung, and are re- 
 ported by H. H. Donaldson, The Growth of the Brain, pp. 38, 39.) 
 And we ask. What are we to think of the value for develop- 
 ment of both soul and body, of noble ideas that are fondly cher- 
 ished and high resolves that influence conduct? 
 
Environment. 177 
 
 to look upon the world of sense experience as a reflec- 
 tion of God's power and goodness. This point of view 
 reveals a higher plane of environment than that of mere 
 sense and reason ; for it reveals a plane of the supernat- 
 ural order. From this level the Christian regards the 
 things of time as feeders of the activities of eternity, 
 for the God after whose image he is made is not an idle 
 God.^ 
 
 Furthermore, man's senses give access to no more 
 than fragments of the material universe. It is the 
 business of the intellect to piece these fragments to- 
 gether and fashion them into a mosaic having a definite 
 meaning, as being a genuine transcript of the world 
 round about us. In accomplishing this task, the in- 
 tellect must be guided by knowledge of the end of man 
 and by consideration of the various ideals and means 
 that are held to be values with reference to that end. 
 It is in this way that it makes a selective use of environ- 
 ment, emphasizing certain aspects, minimizing others, 
 and, as far as may be, ignoring still others. Hence it 
 is that the work of education consists largely in train- 
 ing the young to make the best possible "selective" use 
 of their environment. Such a concept of education 
 supposes, on the part of the teacher, a clear vision of 
 the great aim of the educative process, a definite curric- 
 ulum of studies to impart, and a scientific, yet plastic, 
 method of imparting these subjects. Hence it is that, 
 in the opinion of Professor H. H. Horne,^ "the environ- 
 
 ' "The Father worketh until now, and I work." John v, 17. 
 ^Philosophy of Education, pp. 97, 98. 
 
178 Biological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 ment of the pupil is the achievement of the race, to 
 which he potentially belongs, in the conquest of nature, 
 in the movement of affairs, and in the knowledge of 
 itself. It is a spiritual environment. The adjustment 
 to this environment, which is the racers life, discovers 
 to the pupil his own social capacities ; he finds his own 
 life in his racers life." 
 
 It is incumbent on all men, in virtue of their power 
 of reason, to make such selective use of their environ- 
 ment,^ individual and social, as will enable them to at- 
 tain the purpose of their existence. But since the 
 Christian possesses a special revelation of his divinely 
 purchased destiny, of the means to attain it, and the 
 obstacles to overcome in striving for it, he is doubly 
 bound, namely, as man and as Christian, to use his en- 
 vironment in accordance with the teaching of our Lord 
 as contained in the Gospel. And what of the novice? 
 He is to go one step higher and study his environment 
 in the light, not merely of the Gospel precepts, but also 
 of the Gospel counsels. The great question for him is : 
 How can my environment help me to attain that more 
 perfect life to which I believe myself called? To dis- 
 covei: the answer to this question he studies the Scrip- 
 tures and meditates in detail on the life of our Lord. 
 He ponders the limitations and the successes of the 
 chosen twelve, who were commissioned to "preach the 
 Gospel to every creature." ^ He becomes familiar with 
 
 ^ "A man's real environment is the things of which he is con- 
 scious, over which he has some power through his selective atten- 
 tion and interests." — H, H. Home, Idealism in Education, p. 133. 
 
 'Mark xvi, 15. 
 
Environment. 179 
 
 the great religious leaders honored yearly in the 
 Church's calendar. And especially does he devote him- 
 self to a mastery of the principles that shaped the con- 
 duct of the founder of his own order; for it is in their 
 light that he must interpret the rules and constitutions 
 by which he is to be guided. 
 
 For the novice, then, there are two great orders of en- 
 vironment: the natural and the supernatural. The 
 former comprises the mineral, the vegetable, and the 
 animal kingdom, besides the great body of men with 
 whom he comes in contact directly or indirectly, and 
 who form his social environment. But within the sphere 
 of the natural is also included a spiritual environment 
 which appeals to the intellect and will, stimulating the 
 former to fuller knowledge of the achievements of the 
 race, and the latter to a noble emulation of the 
 worthy deeds recorded in history. Above the natural 
 environment and yet, for the Christian, compenetrating 
 it also, is the order of supernatural values, which rates 
 everything after its relation to man's everlasting des- 
 tiny. As far as the novice is concerned, this order is 
 twofold, consisting first of a basic plane of Christian 
 doctrine; and secondly, resting in turn on this, the 
 whole scheme of his religious life. Hence his training 
 in the novitiate is specially fitted to enable him to "ap- 
 perceive" nature in the light of divine faith. Even this 
 supernatural environment is but preparatory to the 
 undying splendors of heaven which the Beloved Disciple 
 attempted to sketch in the Apocalypse.^ Prescinding 
 
 ^ Apoc. iv, xxi. 
 
180 Biological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 from the question of mere material environment in 
 heaven, the novice yet believes that there he shall enjoy 
 the most perfect of social environments. There, too, in 
 the Sacred Humanity of Christ, in the glorified body of 
 His Virgin Mother assumed into heaven, and in the per- 
 sons of all the blessed, especially after the last day, 
 shall the kingdoms — mineral, vegetable, and animal — 
 that here below formed the natural environment of the 
 novice, contribute forever to the praise of the Creator 
 of all/ 
 
 The pedagogical value of environment, as its ever 
 widening vista stands revealed to faith, is this, that it 
 
 ^ Apoc. xiv. — In the Dublin Review, 3d Series, Vol. XXIV 
 (1890), pp. 21 ff., under the title of the "Final Destiny of the 
 Earth," Rt. Rev. J. S. Vaughan suggested a possible final use for 
 man's earthly environment. Interpreting the passage of Scripture 
 where the Prince of the Apostles speaks of this world as being 
 purified by fire on the last great day ("And the earth and the 
 works which are in it shall be burnt up" — 2 Pet. iii, 10), he bor- 
 rows from chemistry the principle of combustion. Taking as a 
 guide the text of St. Paul (Eph. iv. 13): "Until we all meet into 
 the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a 
 perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ" 
 (which is generally taken to mean that all human beings shall on 
 the last day arise with fully developed bodies), he proceeds to cal- 
 culate the demands that would then be made upon this planet from 
 whose "dust" the body of man has been fashioned. After a careful 
 consideration of facts and probabilities, he concludes that, on 
 such a theory, the whole earth would be utilized in supplying a 
 fully developed body for every human being that ever lived. In 
 the case, then, of such human beings as attain to the bliss of 
 heaven, man's physical environment here on earth, would, in and 
 through the blessed, contribute to the glory of God and in a cer- 
 tain sense share in his reward for its passive concurrence in ef- 
 fecting his salvation. The article has since been republished in 
 the author's volume of essays entitled Faith and Folly, London, 
 1901. 
 
Environment, 181 
 
 is a genuine principle of mental and moral development 
 for the individual not merely as individual, but also as 
 member of society. The mere sensile environment be- 
 comes the ground for selective use on the part of 
 trained reason, and then faith revises, refines, readjusts 
 and ennobles these interpretations in the light of re- 
 vealed truth. Hence it is that the action of faith sup- 
 plies a unifying principle of the highest value, possess- 
 ing, in the best sense of that term, all the allurement 
 which for so many minds invests the theory of evolu- 
 tion, and yet resting on a more secure foundation than 
 scientific hypothesis, utility, or consistency; for its 
 basis is the revealed word of God. For every Christian 
 divine revelation is the secure foundation-stone of all 
 theory and practice of life that has any permanent 
 value. 
 
 Furthermore, environment extends its influence also 
 into the domain of prayer. In proof thereof let 
 this practice of Father Peter Faber (Le Fevre), one 
 of the first companions of St. Ignatius Loyola, be 
 cited : 
 
 "When he came near any city or town he used to pour out 
 prayers for the inhabitants, and beg of God's mercy that the angel 
 of the place, and the guardian angels of the inhabitants, might 
 guard it with a special protection. He invoked also the patron 
 saints of the place, and implored them to return thanks, or to beg 
 pardon, or to impetrate grace for the inhabitants, and to supply 
 for all their negligence and omission in these respects, that God 
 might not be defrauded of any of His glory. In hiring a house 
 or changing his lodgings, it was his custom, when he first entered 
 the house, to go and kneel in all the rooms, corners and cupboards 
 that he could, and pray God to drive away the evil spirits, and all 
 dangers and sorrows from the place; and in his prayer he remem- 
 
18^ Biological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 bered all those who had ever lived or ever should live there, and 
 entreated that no injury might happen there to their souls." ^ 
 
 Such use of environment tends to perfect the highest 
 attitude of social service and to strengthen that re- 
 flective habit of mind which is directly opposed to a 
 blind yielding to the impulse of the crowd. ^ It puts in 
 concrete form something of the ideal which the Catholic 
 Church proposes to all her children and which the mem- 
 bers of religious orders seek to incorporate into their 
 lives. Furthermore, such Christian apperception of 
 environment, when habitually expressing itself in con- 
 gruous acts, helps to neutralize one of the effects of 
 original sin foretold in the words addressed by God 
 Himself to Adam: "Cursed is the earth in thy work, 
 . Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to 
 thee." ^ 
 
 A detailed consideration of social environment be- 
 longs under the caption of the sociological function of 
 faith. Yet it is pertinent to refer here to the views by 
 which Professor Home is led to conclude that "the 
 environment of man is God." ^ To understand them it 
 
 ' Faber, All for Jems, pp. 211, 212. 
 
 * E. A. Ross, Social Psychology, Chap. III. 
 
 ' Gen. iii, 17, 18. No one can read the interesting stories in the 
 late Monsignor Benson's Mirror of Shalott without getting a 
 keener realization of the effects of that curse. Whether they be 
 true or not, the stories are in harmony with what is known con- 
 cerning the effect of the rites of exorcism. See especially "Father 
 Meuron's Tale," "Father Rector's Tale," and "Father Girdle- 
 stone's Tale." — Of far greater significance, however, is v. g., the 
 ritual for baptism, and the blessing which the Church imparts 
 before using any material object in the divine service. 
 
 *• Philosophy of Education, p. 271. 
 
Environment. 183 
 
 is necessary to go back to his concept of religion. He 
 writes : 
 
 "Religion and art spring from the same fount of the personal 
 being, viz., the feelings. Art is the expression of the feelings in 
 the presence of the beautiful or sublime; religion is the expression 
 of the feelings in the presence of the divine. . . . Religion is 
 not primarily what a man thinks; this is dogma, creed, or philoso- 
 phy. Nor is religion primarily what a man does, for the deeds 
 of man may be done under necessity or from motives of prudence 
 or convention. But religion is primarily what the man is, what he 
 feels in the presence of the Supreme Person, and then, and then, 
 what he thinks and does in consequence of such feeling." ^ 
 
 Such a theory postulates for religion a purely hu- 
 man standard, and assigns to it a*purely human origin. 
 This the author subsequently admits: 
 
 "This conception of God is not that of the transcendent Jehovah 
 of the ancient Hebrews. . . . Our conception is neither a 
 transcendent dualism,^ nor an immanent pantheism, but an ideal- 
 istic theism. God is the self-conscious unity of all reality. . . . 
 Matter is ... a process of thought in the consciousness of 
 God. This is the doctrine of idealistic theism to which education 
 brings us as the only adequate [sic] interpretation of its own im- 
 plications concerning the origin of man. A great new light is thus 
 thrown upon the final nature of the environment of man, hitherto 
 [in his Philosophy of Education] described as intellectual, emo- 
 tional, and volitional, in adjustment to which consists the educa- 
 tion of man. The environment of man is God."' 
 
 Although the author has already expressly rejected 
 pantheism, yet he emphatically affirms it when he 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 123. 
 
 ' The Catholic Church teaches such dualism in affirming that man, 
 though dependent on God, is yet distinct from Him. Cf. E. 
 Thamiry, "Immanence," Catholic Encyclopedia. 
 
 »0p. cit., pp. 269-291. 
 
184* Biological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 writes:^ "The Word [of God] became the world and 
 dwelt about us, before it became the flesh and dwelt 
 among us." Moreover that part of his own "contribu- 
 tion to the definition of the conception of education" 
 which he describes as the "induction of the Kantian 
 ideas of God, Freedom, and Immortality from educa- 
 tional, rather than ethical, facts," ^ accounts for the 
 modernism ^ which is so conspicuous in the following 
 passage :* 
 
 "God is the self-conscious unity of all reality. ... In this 
 complete unity of self-consciousness, one can make abstractions of 
 thought that do not exist in reality. There is the infinite subject, 
 the thinker, the I, the Father, who does not exist apart from the 
 infinite object, the thought, the Me, the Son, a portion of which 
 [sic] is the temporal order, rising into clear consciousness of 
 itself in Jesus, and there is the concrete unity of both aspects in 
 one Being, the Spirit. God is Spirit. And the whole is one Per- 
 son, as any self-conscious individual [sic], himself a subject- 
 object, is one." 
 
 This is not the God of the Christian, and therefore 
 is not, and cannot be the environment [ ?] of the novice. 
 For the Christian in general and the novice in par- 
 ticular the mystery of the Incarnation is a special reve- 
 lation of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. It is the 
 crowning glory of man's spiritual environment. This 
 is manifest from the words of St. Thomas Aquinas : 
 
 "It would seem most fitting that by visible things the invisible 
 things of God should be made known; for to this end was the 
 
 ^P. 269. 
 
 ' Preface, pp. xi, xii. 
 
 » On "Modernism," cf. A. Vermeersch, Catholic Encyclopedia, 
 
 *Horne, op. cit., p. 272. 
 
Environment, 185 
 
 whole world made. But, as the Damascene says, by the mystery 
 of the Incarnation are made known at once the goodness, the wis- 
 dom, the justice, the power, or the might of God. But the very 
 nature of God is goodness, and it belongs to the essence of good- 
 ness to communicate itself to others. Hence it belongs to the 
 essence of the highest good to communicate itself in the highest 
 manner to the creature; and this is brought about chiefly by his so 
 joining created nature to Himself that One Person is made up of 
 these three — the Word, a soul, and flesh, as Augustine says. Hence 
 it is manifest that it was fitting that God should become in- 
 carnate." * 
 
 The Son of God made man is the perfect model for 
 the novice in two respects : ( 1 ) in His individual use of 
 environment to develop His human life; (2) in His use 
 of environment to symbolize to others the great truths 
 of the religion which He came on earth to teach.^ From 
 the Christian viewpoint, man's environment is not God 
 Himself 5 for God never changes ; it is but a means of 
 lifting the soul up to God and the things of God. It is 
 by devout meditation on the life of our Lord, practised 
 assiduously throughout the whole period of his no- 
 vitiate, that the novice gradually learns the meaning 
 and the use of environment. He comes to realize that 
 his divine Model is master of both heredity and environ- 
 ment. Although the "Son of man" did not disdain tt) 
 include even great sinners in His human ancestry ^ and 
 to be called the "Son of David," yet He exempted His 
 
 ^Smmna Theologica, III, q. 1, a. 1. 
 
 *See above, pp. 43-65. 
 
 ' The genealogy of Christ on the male side is given by St. Mat- 
 thew (i, 1-16); on the female side by St. Luke (iii, 23-38). St. 
 Joseph conformed to the Mosaic law, and consequently we infer 
 that he was a relative of the Most Blessed Virgin. 
 
186 Biological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 Blessed Mother from even the stain of original sin in 
 her conception, and He removed its taint from St. John 
 Baptist even before the Precursor was born. One of the 
 many marvels associated with Bethlehem is the utter 
 destitution in which the Lord of heaven and earth came 
 among men.^ With all the authority of the Godhead 
 as well as with the charms of infancy, does He there 
 teach men the great truth proclaimed on Sinai: "I am 
 the Lord thy God. . . . Thou shalt not have strange 
 gods before me." ^ Not by the adventitious aid of en- 
 vironment, but by His own inner worth would He draw 
 all men to Himself.^ Later, in His public life. He was 
 to proclaim the doctrine: "If thou wilt be perfect, go 
 sell what thou hast, . . . and come follow Me." * 
 His example had gone before His words, for He could 
 testify of Himself : "The foxes have holes, and the birds 
 of the air nests : but the Son of man hath not where to 
 lay His head." ^ The poverty and renunciation of His 
 mortal life He accentuated by the utter destitution of 
 His death. By word and by deed, therefore, does the 
 divine Teacher impress upon the novice the great truth 
 that environment is to be used only as a help to go to 
 God, and even then it is to be used in a spirit of detach- 
 ment. When it hinders union with God it must be 
 renounced. For environment is only a creature. 
 
 ^ Cf. F. W. Faber, Bethlehem, pp. 116-128. 
 ^ Exod. XX, 2, 3. 
 '^John xii, 32. 
 * Matt, xix, 21. 
 •^Matt. viii, 20. 
 
Plasticity and Adjustment. 187 
 
 Whence also it appears how erroneous is the statement 
 of Professor Home: "The environment of man is 
 God." 
 
 Article IV. — Plasticity and Adjustment. 
 
 Environment is primarily objective in character. Its 
 efficacy is dependent on a correlative quality in man, 
 viz., on his susceptibility to environmental influences. 
 This quality is known as plasticity. It has been defined 
 as "that property of living substance or of an organ- 
 ism whereby it alters its form under changed conditions 
 of life." ^ The Greek etymology of the word insinuates 
 that environment molds the organism, and, if considered 
 as a factor in education, shapes the life of the pupil. 
 A hint of its meaning in Christian pedagogy is found 
 in a passage from Job, which the Church chants in the 
 Office of the Dead, and which is addressed by him to his 
 Maker: "Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me 
 wholly round about." ^ Since plasticity is correlative 
 with environment, it must include in man as many de- 
 grees of susceptibility as there are planes upon which 
 environment operates. In the lower forms of organic 
 .life plasticity is a factor in the functions of irritability, 
 conductivity and adaptation.^ Irritability makes it 
 possible for the organism to receive environmental in- 
 fluence; conductivity diffuses this influence through the 
 organism ; and, through both constructive and destruc- 
 
 * Baldwin's Dictiovoary of Philosophy and Psychology, 
 
 * Job X, 8, included in Lesson III of OflSce for the Dead. 
 ' See above, pp. 154, 166. 
 
iS8 Biological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 tive metabolism, adaptation applies this influence to th^ 
 benefit of the organism. When we pass beyond the 
 plant world into the sphere of sentient life, we gener- 
 ally find the animal capable not only of appropriating 
 what is helpful from its environment and fleeing from 
 what is hurtful, but also of seeking a new environment, 
 and of changing its habitat for a longer or shorter time. 
 This marks a distinct advance in the development of 
 plasticity, and brings out prominently its active phase 
 as a determinant of behavior. For we must not forget 
 that plasticity is a characteristic of such bodies as are 
 endowed with life. Hence it must include the activity 
 proper to life.^ 
 
 The plasticity manifested by animals is based on 
 automatic and reflex activities ; sometimes also on in- 
 stinctive activities.^ All these are inherited by gen- 
 eration after generation of animal life, and tend to be- 
 
 * We have already seen (p. 154 above) that A. Farges makes it 
 one of the true attributes of living bodies. Dr. Shields, in notes on 
 the Psychology of Education^ calls attention to the fact that to 
 the popular mind "plasticity" has a passive connotation; whereas 
 in biology it signifies an active power. 
 
 •Cf. J. B. Watson, op. cit.. Chaps. VIII, IX; M. F. Washburn, 
 op. cit., Chap. X, pp. 210 ff. Automatic activities are inherited 
 internal adjustments of the organism and are evoked by internal 
 stimuli. Reflex activities are adjustments to environment. As 
 contrasted with automatic and reflex acts, instincts are less rigid 
 and more complex. They have three attributes: (1) they are in- 
 herited, not learned; (2) they are complex, made up of a series 
 of acts; (3) they are purposeful, they help to attain an end, even 
 if that end be unknown to the possessor of the instinct. Cf. J. B. 
 Watson, op. cit., Chap. IV; Dr. Shields, Psychology of Education, 
 Lessons X, XIII-XV, and Catholic Encyclopedia, "Instinct"; Col- 
 vin and Bagley, Hvman Behavior, Part II. 
 
Plasticity and Adjustment, 189 
 
 come rigid if the environment remains unchanged/ In 
 order, then, that plasticity may really contribute to the 
 development of the organism, it must be stimulated by 
 a slowly changing environment.^ To such uniform sur- 
 roundings the individual animal soon adapts itself, and 
 this adaptation it manifests in the increasing facility, 
 rapidity and perfection with which it responds to these 
 regularly recurring stimuli. Plasticity is, therefore, 
 the biological basis of the "learning process" — a phrase 
 which it is well to interpret in its broadest sense.^ So 
 interpreted, "learning signifies the modification of the 
 behavior of an organism in the light of experience."* 
 This modification is commonly effected in one of three 
 ways: (1) through "trial and error" (the "persever- 
 ance method" of Professor Watson) ;^ (2) through 
 "imitation"; (3) through forming "free ideas." ^ Of 
 these methods the first two are common to man and the 
 brute creation ; the last, however, is proper to man. If 
 the efficacy of the methods be considered, the first 
 method is found to be wasteful of both time and energy 
 unless it be controlled by human intelligence. This 
 control may be exercised on the one hand through vari- 
 ous forms of experiment performed upon animals with 
 
 ^ H. S. Jennings, Behavior of the Lower Organisms, passim. 
 
 *Cf. Dr. Shields, op. cit., Lesson X. 
 
 ' Cf. S. S. Colvin, The Learning Process. J. B. Watson, op. cit., 
 pp. 46 flF. 
 
 * Colvin and Bagley, Human Behavior, p. 25. 
 
 "Op. cit, p. 46. 
 
 *Cf. Colvin and Bagley, op. cit, pp. 26-36; also E. A. Kirk- 
 Patrick, Genetic Psychology, pp. 126-139. 
 
190 Biological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 a view to ascertain how they "learn" to do things.^ On 
 the other hand, it may take the form of one or more of 
 the various agencies through which human society ful- 
 fills toward children its responsible office of "teaching." 
 The method of imitation is twofold: it may reproduce 
 the movements of other beings or, through the aid of 
 memory, it may seek to repeat such movements of its 
 own as have been successful in the past.^ The method 
 of "free ideas" is possible only when the individual has 
 some idea both of the end and aim to be realized and of 
 the means for attaining that end. This supposes a 
 grasp of the causal relationship existing between means 
 and end. As a necessary consequence this method de- 
 mands the presence of abstract or "general" concepts, 
 in the strictest meaning of that term, and therefore the 
 possession of intelligence ; that is, of an immaterial and 
 spiritual power of "mind." 
 
 The application of these methods is dependent on 
 certain qualities of the nervous system, and more par- 
 ticularly of the nerve-centers, that are directly condi- 
 tioned by the "plasticity" of the nerve elements. The 
 first of these qualities has been called the "integrating 
 function," and consists in "the building up of a center 
 
 ^ Such experiments are described and analyzed by R. M. Yerkes, 
 The Dancing Mouse. J. B. Watson's Behavior has references at 
 the end of each chapter. M. F. Washburn's Animal Mind has a 
 good bibliography. 
 
 ' This theme is well developed by J. M. Baldwin (Mental Devel- 
 opment in the Child and the Race and Social and Ethical Inter- 
 pretations). A briefer presentation is given in his Story of the 
 Mind, But see also J. B. Watson, op. cit.. Chap. VIII. 
 
Plasticity and Adjustment, 191 
 
 to greater complexity of structure through new stimu- 
 lations." These stimulations, or incoming influences, 
 often conflict. The outlet through which they actually 
 "discharge" in any given case becomes thereafter a 
 favorable pathway, a channel of "least resistance." 
 Eventually this mode of procedure nets two gains for 
 the nerve-center : "first, its habitual reactions become a 
 rockbed ... of fixed function issuing in established 
 paths of least resistance ; and second, the center grows, 
 gaining new and more mobile elements, and responding 
 to more complex and difficult motor intuitions [impres- 
 sions], . . . Not only has the center become fixed 
 and automatic for movements at first painfully learned, 
 but it has become educated [ !] by learning, so that it 
 acquires new combinations more easily." ^ In other 
 words, integration affects plasticity in two ways: first, 
 it narrows its scope, since it leaves the nerve-center no 
 longer indifferent to all stimulations, but rather favor- 
 ing such as are like those to which it has already re- 
 sponded. In this respect, it is evident that integration 
 is an essential factor in the formation of "habit." In 
 the second place, integration produces greater plastic- 
 ity for the forming of new combinations that are at all 
 like in kind to the combinations already effected. This 
 is a biological basis for the psychological phenomena 
 of "apperception." Furthermore, according as the 
 likeness of successive stimulations to past experi- 
 ences is more or less pronounced, will there be a 
 less or a greater need of "adaptation" or "accom- 
 
 ^ J. M. Baldwin, Handbook of Psychology, Vol. II, p. 28. 
 
192 Biological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 modation" to what is new in the present experience.^ 
 The integrating function calls for another quality in 
 the nerve-centers, and that is "retention." Unless some 
 change, however minute, be wrought in the nerve struc- 
 ture by each response that is given to a stimulus, it is 
 difficult to conceive how "resistance" should gradually 
 be lessened and a "habit" of response should be devel- 
 oped. "Retention as a physiological principle may, 
 therefore, be called growth in functional complexity; 
 while the term integration refers rather to growth in 
 structural complexity." A third quality, which, like 
 retention, is involved in the process of integration, has 
 been called "selection." ^ Its effect is to produce a re- 
 sult analogous to what would have followed from pref- 
 erence or conscious choice in man; but in lower organ- 
 isms it is probably to be accounted for as a corollary 
 of retention or an expression of organic memory. Both 
 retention and selection modify the plasticity of the 
 nerve-centers and thus enter as elements into the learn- 
 ing process; in other words, they are factors in the 
 series of processes by which the organism — animal or 
 man — becomes "adjusted" to its environment.^ 
 
 From the viewpoint of Catholic faith, the element of 
 "plasticity" is intimately bound up with the very con- 
 cept of man's nature. Man is a creature of God.* 
 
 'W. James, Talks to Teachers, pp. 108 ff. 
 
 2 Baldwin, ibid., pp. 25-27. 
 
 " Cf. Dr. Shields, Psychology of Education, Lesson X. 
 
 * Scholastic philosophy conveys the idea of man's essential im- 
 perfection and dependence by designating him an acttis vmpurus; 
 that is to say, a nature good in itself yet possessed of essential 
 inalienable limitations. 
 
Plasticity and Adjustment, 193 
 
 From God he has received his whole being: his body, 
 indirectly ; his soul, directly. The very power to which 
 he owes his existence continually renews that gift by 
 the act of preservation, or, more properly, of conserva- 
 tion,^ of which man is the recipient during the term of 
 his mortal life and which is extended to his soul even 
 beyond the grave. Furthermore, since activity is both 
 the condition and the evidence of life, God concurs in 
 every act that man performs, and He concurs accord- 
 ing to the specific degree of perfection requisite in the 
 act when regarded as a real physical act.^ Without 
 the sustaining hand of God, man would fall back into 
 his original nothingness. Man, therefore, regarded 
 merely as a created nature and without reference to 
 his specific perfection as a human being, is by the very 
 necessity of his created nature inherently "plastic" in 
 the hand of God. In other words, he is plastic in the 
 primary, or passive, sense of that term. When, however, 
 we consider him not merely as a creature, not even 
 merely as an organism, but rather as endowed with in- 
 
 ^-"Since the word creation in its passive sense expresses the term 
 or object of the creative act, or, more strictly, the object in its 
 entitative dependence on the Creator, it follows that, as this de- 
 pendence is essential, and hence inamissible, the creative act once 
 placed is co-extensive in duration with the creature's existence. 
 However, as thus continuous, it is called conservation, an act, 
 therefore, which is nothing else than the unceasing influx of the 
 creative cause upon the existence of the creature. Inasmuch as 
 that influx is felt immediately on the creature's activity, it is called 
 concurrence. Creation, conservation, and concurrence are, there- 
 fore, really identical and only notionally distinguished." Rev. F. 
 P. Siegfried, "Creation," Catholic Encyclopedia, Cf. B. Boedder, 
 S. J., Natural Theology, pp. 348 ff. 
 
 *We are not here concerned with the moral aspect of the act. 
 
194 Biological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 telligence, and therefore capable of appreciating his 
 state of essential dependence, then we perceive that he 
 is bound by the dictates of right reason to endeavor to 
 make his conduct square with this relation of intrinsic 
 dependence. In his efforts to "adjust" himself to the 
 requirements of this higher law, he shows "plasticity" 
 in the second, or active, sense. 
 
 Now, the Catholic Church teaches that God "will 
 have all men to be saved" ; ^ that, although without Him 
 they can do nothing,^ yet with Him they can, like St. 
 Paul, do all things ^ in virtue of the "plentiful redemp- 
 tion" * wrought for them by the Saviour, the merits of 
 which they may secure for themselves through prayer 
 and the reception of the sacraments. There can be no 
 question, therefore, that the revelation made by Christ 
 confirms the conclusion already drawn by natural rea- 
 son, viz., that with reference to the action of their Cre- 
 ator all men have a sufficient store of potential plas- 
 ticity for concurring in the divine plan of their ever- 
 lasting salvation. How else are we to explain the 
 Saviour's words: "I lay down My life for My sheep. 
 And other sheep I have that are not of this fold: them 
 also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and 
 there shall be one fold and one shepherd" ? ^ Further- 
 more, that all men are, with the divine assistance, cap- 
 
 ^ 1 Tim. ii, 4. 
 
 ' John XV, 6. This truth is further emphasized by other words in 
 the same verse: "I am the vine, you are the branches." 
 » Phil, iv, 13. 
 *Ps. cxxix, 7. 
 » John X, 16, 16. 
 
Plasticity and Adjustment, 195 
 
 able of assimilating what is necessary for the suste- 
 nance of their spiritual life is implied, on the one hand, 
 in the Saviour's injunction to His apostles to "teach 
 all nations" ^ and, on the other, in the warning to their 
 hearers not to harden their hearts.^ Hardness of heart 
 is, in the spiritual order, the analogue of that "rigidity" 
 in organic life which, the biologist asserts, precludes 
 all possibility of adjustment to even an improved en- 
 vironment and which, therefore, spells degeneration and 
 destruction for the organism. For all men this day of 
 mortal life is an "acceptable time," a time for the work- 
 ing out of salvation,^ if so be that men be "humbled" 
 (plastic) under the mighty hand of God, that He may 
 exalt them in the time of His final visitation.* 
 
 The whole plan of the sacramental system sets forth 
 in the clearest light the fundamental truth that the 
 Church looks upon the "plasticity" of her children as 
 axiomatic. That quality is indeed an indispensable con- 
 dition in her mission as guardian of souls. For the 
 proper reception of the sacraments certain dispositions 
 are requisite on the part of the subject who receives 
 the sacraments, some of these dispositions being remote 
 and in so far a preparation for the proximate disposi- 
 tions. When the subject is thus duly disposed, he is 
 better "adapted" or "adjusted," to receive the special 
 benefit — the sacramental grace — ^which the sacrament 
 
 ^ Matt, xxviii, 19. 
 ^ Ps. xciv, 8. 
 ^2 Cor. vi, 2. 
 * 1 Pet. V, 6. 
 
196 Biological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 is fitted to confer. This is strikingly illustrated in the 
 case of baptism and penance, the "sacraments of the 
 dead." While for the reception of baptism by such per- 
 sons as have attained the use of reason, certain dispo- 
 sitions are requisite, yet it is the peculiar privilege of 
 the sacrament to bestow on the recipient a special gift 
 of "plasticity" or "sensitivity" to the further influx of 
 divine grace. This plasticity, therefore, becomes an 
 important factor in conserving the gains, or graces, de- 
 rived from the sacraments of the living. What is true 
 of the sacraments in general is true in particular of 
 many sacraments that may be repeated, notably of the 
 holy eucharist: for each communion when made with 
 becoming preparation and devotion not only sets a seal 
 on the spiritual development already attained by the 
 individual; it also disposes him to derive greater benefit 
 from succeeding communions. In the sacramental sys- 
 tem as applied by the Catholic Church we thus find a 
 notable illustration of the genetic idea, or, in biological 
 terminology, of the principle of development. The sac- 
 raments tend to conserve to the individual what is good 
 in his past, much as habit might do (Do they not 
 strengthen and increase "habitual," or sanctifying, 
 grace.?), and to prepare him for gaining greater profit 
 henceforth by increasing his capacity for future good. 
 
 Nor is this realized in the case of the sacraments 
 only, the food for sustaining the spiritual life of the 
 Christian. It is true also of the truths which the 
 Church proposes for his belief: they are the soil from 
 which the sacraments spring. Indeed, the very epitome 
 
Plasticity and Adjustment. 197 
 
 of Christian faith which we call the Apostles' Creed 
 exemplifies the principle of development in the succes- 
 sion of its twelve articles. Another instance of the same 
 principle is evinced by the Church in her liturgy; for 
 example, in the distribution of the great feasts over 
 the ecclesiastical year from the first Sunday of Advent 
 to the last Sunday after Pentecost/ Now sacraments 
 and creed and ritual supply the spiritual energy to be 
 expended in the observance of the commandments and 
 the fulfillment of the duties special to one's state or 
 calling. The Christian must therefore be "plastic" 
 with reference to the sacraments, in order to assimilate 
 to his spiritual life their general and special graces ; he 
 must be plastic in intellect in order to accept the re- 
 vealed truths taught by the Church ; he must be plastic 
 in his emotions, especially in the more complex and 
 more spiritual emotions, in order to respond fittingly to 
 the appeal made him through the rites and ceremonies 
 of the liturgy ; he must be plastic in will in order to 
 co-operate with both actual and habitual grace by 
 keeping the commandments and thereby adjust him- 
 
 * Father Faber calls attention to this in The Blessed Sacrcmient: 
 "The feast of Corpus Christi does not come after the Ascension in 
 unbroken order, as one feast of our Lord following another, nor 
 even at once after Pentecost, when the descent of the Holy Ghost 
 had been as it were the fruit of the Ascension and the sweet token 
 of the strange truth that it could ever be expedient for us that 
 our Lord should go away. But it waits until the Church has led up 
 all her mysteries into the secret fountain, the mother mystery, of 
 the Most Holy Trinity, as if the whole collective devotion of the 
 year rose up into the unapproachable light, and fell back again 
 in showers of glory and in streams of celestial power and beauty 
 upon men in the grand and consummating mystery of the Tran- 
 substantiation." (P. 23.) 
 
1^8 Biological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 self to the standard set by Christ Himself : "If you love 
 Me, keep My commandments." ^ 
 
 What we have said thus far concerns the plasticity 
 of the novice when considered merely as a Christian. 
 But he is called to rise above the level of mere observ- 
 ance of the commandments, and, by daily meditation on 
 the revealed truths, by frequent confession and com- 
 munion and b}'^ deeper appreciation of the liturgical 
 service, to strive for the higher plane of fidelity to the 
 Gospel counsels. With him the Christian life must be 
 a habit, and on this solid basis he must construct grad- 
 ually his adaptations to the greater demands of the 
 religious life. He is thus called upon to illustrate in 
 his own life as novice the two principles of organic de- 
 velopment emphasized by Professor Baldwin and termed 
 by him "habit" and "accommodation." ^ The former 
 secures "repetition of what is worth repeating with the 
 conservation of this worth"; the latter produces^ 
 "adaptation of the organism to new conditions so that 
 
 ^John xiv, 15. 
 
 ^Mental Development in the Child and the Race, p. 170. He 
 subsequently shows the application of the principles to the mental, 
 social, and ethical development of the individual. Thus (p. 217) 
 he makes the statement: "The law of habit is simply a generaliza- 
 tion all the way through the facts of biology and psychology, from 
 the various applications of this principle of imitation." On the 
 very same page he asserts that "accommodation" is in psychology 
 the equivalent of what is termed "adaptation" in biology. Or 
 again (pp. 225, 226) where we read that the genetic theory of 
 emotion should be brought under three principles: (1) habit, (2) 
 accommodation, (3) dynamogenesis (a term used to designate the 
 "regular connection between the sensory and the motor sides of 
 all living reactions"). — On "dynamogenesis," see Titcheners re- 
 marks {Text-hook of Psychology, pp. 488 f.). 
 
Flasticity and Adjustment. 199 
 
 it secures, progressively, further useful reactions, which 
 at an earlier stage would have been impossible." Al- 
 though habit and accommodation are primarily biologi- 
 cal concepts and are used in that sense in the passage 
 just quoted, yet each of these principles must daily be 
 utilized by the novice if he would make progress in the 
 spiritual life, and each is thus brought under his con- 
 scious control. It is therefore advisable to postpone 
 their special consideration to the next chapter, in which 
 the psychological aspects of faith as a pedagogical 
 asset for the novice are to form the subject of discus- 
 sion. 
 
 To sum up, we may say that in the three depart- 
 ments of dogma, or truths to believe; moral, or com- 
 mandments to keep ; and worship, or liturgical service 
 appealing to the emotions as well as to the intellect in 
 order to interpret it, and to the will in order to adjust 
 one's self to its spirit, the plasticity of the novice re- 
 garded merely as a Christian is called into daily if not 
 hourly exercise, to the end that the Christian point of 
 view and that type of reaction which we call Christian 
 conduct may become habitual with him. On this 
 habitual basis of practical Christian life he is to 
 adapt himself to the additional requirements im- 
 posed by the religious life, which, in turn, are also to 
 be made habitual and later to be sanctioned and 
 confirmed by the vows of poverty, chastity, and 
 obedience.^ By the faithful observance of the Gospel 
 counsels he will be enabled to adjust himself to 
 
 ' See above, pp. 69-65, "The Spirit of the Novitiate," 
 
200 Biological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 still higher levels of perfection according, on the 
 one hand, to the nature of God's special call, and, on 
 the other, to the strength and duration of his fervor 
 and to the constancy of his correspondence to divine 
 grace. All this, when translated into biological terms, 
 means that the novice receives constantly the stimula- 
 tion of divine grace. To this he must respond uni- 
 formly with appropriate reactions according to the 
 measure of his ability if he is to attain the normal de- 
 velopment proper to members of a religious order. Ac- 
 cordingly as he reacts, will he be "adjusted" for the 
 reception of still greater graces, which in turn will 
 become the stimuli calling for more perfect reactions 
 on his part. Each level of virtue, like each new inte- 
 gration of the biologist — which the novice attains after 
 the stress and strain of spiritual combat, the analogue 
 of the biologist's "struggle for existence" — is but a 
 stage in the entire process of "development" to which 
 his whole life as religious must be devoted. 
 
 Article V, — Summary. 
 
 I. Heredity, in contradistinction to environment 
 and training, is the dominant principle of the eugenists. 
 They insist that "nature" is superior to "nurture," 
 that "blood" counts more than "breeding," that degen- 
 eracy in the organism can be remedied only by extrinsic 
 influence, if indeed it can be remedied at all. Now, 
 heredity has its analogue in the teaching of the Cath- 
 olic Church concerning both original sin and its great 
 complement, the mystery of the Redemption, By 
 
Summary. 201 
 
 Adam's transgression the human race forfeited its 
 supernatural life, a far greater evil, from the Christian 
 standpoint, for the individual and for the social organ- 
 ism than physical degeneracy is or can become. It like- 
 wise forfeited its right to final and everlasting associa- 
 tion with the angels confirmed in glory. But for the 
 coming of the Redeemer, it had been therefore con- 
 demned to a social isolation far more terrible and far 
 more enduring than that devised by the eugenist for the 
 physical degenerate whom he would also reduce to the 
 condition of a social outcast. Although, even at his 
 best estate, man will ever retain, like scars of wounds 
 that have healed, unmistakable traces of his fallen state, 
 yet he has a healing remedy for his wounds ready to 
 hand in the boundless merits of the Saviour's passion 
 and death. When applied, these merits become an in- 
 trinsic element of man's soul. They constitute the very 
 "life" of his soul. The opportunities afforded the 
 novice for applying these merits are beyond human 
 calculation. 
 
 II. Just as the qualities inherited by an organism 
 will not develop except under favorable conditions and 
 surroundings, so for the development by the novice of 
 the heritage purchased for him by Christ's precious 
 blood a suitable environment, physical, mental, and 
 moral, must be provided. To secure the first of these 
 conditions, it is not unusual for religious orders to 
 choose for their novitiates sites remote from the bustle 
 of large towns, on the one hand, and, on the other, pos- 
 sessed of various scenic attractions. In the former 
 
202 Biological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 respect they take lesson from the early "Fathers of the 
 Desert ;" in the latter, from the pioneer "Monks of the 
 West." The construction of the desired "mental" en- 
 vironment is gradually wrought by selective attention 
 to the Christian aspect, or meaning, or application of 
 the material environment. This, in turn, leads inevi- 
 tably to the utilization of one's surroundings for moral 
 ends, especially for individual progress in the religious 
 life and for the promotion of the spiritual welfare of 
 others. 
 
 III. The "plasticity" of her children the Catholic 
 Church assumes to be axiomatic. She could else have 
 no mission here on earth. This plastic or receptive at- 
 titude must have a threefold application: to the truths 
 proposed for belief ; to the sacraments to be received as 
 well as to the liturgic rites attending their administra- 
 tion; and to the commandments to be observed. The 
 "habit" of Christian living adapts one to a higher 
 standard than that of the mere observance of the deca- 
 logue ; it "accommodates" the novice to the demands of 
 the Gospel counsels. In proportion as he is faithful in 
 living up to their requirements does he find opening 
 before him ever widening vistas of greater spiritual 
 heights to be climbed. As his plasticity is to end only 
 with his death, so his religious development is to be the 
 work of his whole life. 
 
 In the Religious Novitiate, therefore, in addition to 
 that "heredity" which is involved in the transmission of 
 original sin and is therefore connected with the mys- 
 teries of the Incarnation and the Redemption, the 
 
Summary, 203 
 
 principles of environment, plasticity, and adjustment, 
 have a deeper meaning and a wider application than in 
 the domain of plant or animal biology. They apply to 
 higher planes of life than is possible for the mere or- 
 ganism or even for mere man; for they apply to a life 
 established and constituted by the Saviour of mankind ; 
 a life into which He initiated His disciples, and to 
 whom, as is insinuated by their very name of "dis- 
 ciples," He imparted the method of that all important 
 "learning process" which transforms the mere natural 
 man into the devoted follower of Christ. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PSYCHOLOGICAI. AsPECTS OF FaITH. 
 
 Article L — -General Survey, 
 
 Psychology is very generally said to be "the science 
 of mind." ^ From a pedagogical point of view, such 
 a definition is unfortunate. We may indeed admit 
 that science is concerned with "facts," and that its 
 method of procedure is "observation." ^ But, in prac- 
 tice, the term "mind" puts the emphasis upon the proc- 
 esses of cognition and, in so far, relegates to a sub- 
 ordinate position the equally important processes of 
 volition.^ Under such circumstances it helps matters 
 little to say that "the psychologist . . . describes 
 and measures — so far as he is able to measure — the phe- 
 
 'Cf. E. B. Titchener, A Begirmer's Psychology (1916), p. 6. — 
 Father Maher {Psychology, p. 1) tells us that "in strict language 
 the word mind designates the animating principle as the subject 
 of consciousness, while soul refers to it as the root of all forms 
 of vital activity" 
 
 ^ Ibid., pp. 1, 19. The same principles will be found in §§ 1-9 
 of his Text-hook of Psychology (1915) for more advanced pupils. 
 
 'This appears in Titchener's description of attention {Be- 
 ginner's Psychology, Chap. IV, pp. 91, 92; Text-hook, pp. 265-267) ; 
 and in his account of the will {Beginner's Psychology, p. 225; 
 Text-hook, pp. 466 ff.). However, in the history of philosophic 
 thought, we find the Scotist school decidedly voluntaristic in atti- 
 tude as contrasted with the Thomistic or intellectualistic school. 
 Cf. W. Turner, History of Philosophy, pp. 386, 390, 391. 
 
 204 
 
General Survey. ^05 
 
 nomena of his world, without assuming any active or 
 perduring mind in the background; for him, mind is 
 simply the inclusive name of all these phenomena,'' ^ 
 Such a statement, however, suggests, if it does not dis- 
 close the fact, that one reason for the preference shown 
 to the term ''mind" is really opposition, more or less 
 covert, to the use of "soul." It further confirms a 
 fundamental contention of Dr. F. W. Foerster, that 
 one of the cardinal defects in our modern systems of 
 education, outside of the Catholic Church, is just this 
 insistence on the intellectual side, in the training of 
 youth, to the serious detriment of the work of shaping 
 character and conduct.^ The Schoolmen followed the 
 lead of Aristotle. Both admitted that "science deals 
 not with values, but with facts," and "is on that ac- 
 count impersonal and disinterested." ^ The neo-scho- 
 
 ^ Beginner's Psychology, p. 9. 
 
 ^'Cf. footnotes, pp. 17, 96-98, above. 
 
 'Titchener, Beginner's Psychology, pp. 1, 2, 3. Narrowness of 
 vision in certain psychologists has now led to the opposite ex- 
 treme, lake other historic reactions, this one is "human," and 
 consequently not an affair of mere intellect or "mind." It will be 
 found tinged now and again with emotion. It has assumed two 
 leading forms: Pragmatism, an offshoot of "Humean" Psychology, 
 and Behaviorism, which must be examined in the light of Com- 
 parative Psychology. In both of these movements there are ele- 
 ments to commend, even if there are principles and applications 
 to condemn. In one respect Pragmatism is a corollary of the law 
 of adaptation and consequently, within due limits, has some 
 correlations with the law of Christian charity. Behaviorism, too, 
 has points of vital contact with that religion which teaches that 
 "faith without works is dead" (James ii, 17). Cf. Matt, vii, 21; 
 XXV, 31-46 ; 1 John iii, 2, 3 ; iv, 20. On pragmatism see Rev. J. T. 
 Driscoll, Pragmatism and the Problem of the Idea, 
 
206 Psychological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 lastic philosophers of our own day define psychology 
 in its most general sense as "the science of the soul 
 and its operations," ^ including under the latter term 
 what many leaders in this science call "conscious proc- 
 esses." They are careful to note that "soul" is here 
 to be interpreted as synonymous with "life principle." 
 For the existence of such a principle, really distinct 
 and separable in man from the material organism, 
 though constituting essentially or metaphysically one 
 unitary being or nature with the living bod}^, they 
 give adequate arguments based upon careful observa- 
 tion of vital processes. Accordingly, following Aris- 
 totle, they distinguish three kinds of "soul": in plants, 
 a vegetative principle, whose operations are always un- 
 conscious ; in animals, a sentient principle, the source 
 of conscious life and motion as also of the vegetal func- 
 tions ; and in man, above these and often controlling 
 and always utilizing their functions, an intellectual or 
 super-material principle by which he reasons and de- 
 liberates, decides and chooses. 
 
 Life, as we know it, is, for the most part, manifested 
 in and through matter. It is a principle permeating 
 the entire organism, and not a separate existence.^ It 
 is through the organism that it is influenced by environ- 
 ment; it is the source whence the organism derives its 
 plasticity. Being in its very essence an immaterial and 
 
 ^ Cf . M. Maher, S. J., "Psychology," OathoUc Encyclopedia. See 
 also his bibliography. 
 
 ^ In the case of man, however, it is separable and actually sep- 
 arated at death, remaining separate until the general resurrection. 
 
General Survey. 207 
 
 therefore a simple principle,^ it gives unity to the nature 
 and the operations of the organism. However, during 
 the last quarter century or more it has become an estab- 
 lished custom to refer questions concerning the nature, 
 origin, duration, and destiny of the human soul to the 
 "philosophy of mind'^ ^ and to limit the term "psy- 
 chology" to the science that describes and explains the 
 mental processes of the individual primarily, and then 
 of the community, society, or race of which he is a 
 member. This is the sense of Wundt's definition: "the 
 science which investigates the whole content of Experi- 
 ence in its relations to the Subject." ^ The differentia- 
 
 ^ St. Thomas, Qucpstiones Disputatce: De Anima, 1; Card. Zig- 
 liara, Summa Philosophica, Vol. II, pp. 106-214; J. T. DriscoU, 
 Christian Philosophy: The Soul, Chaps. I, III, V, VI, VIII; J. L. 
 Perrier, Revival of Scholastic Philosophy in the Nineteenth Cen- 
 tury, pp. 115 fF. 
 
 ^Cf. G. T. Ladd, Philosophy of Mind. Catholic philosophers 
 often treat such questions under the general head of Rational 
 Psychology: e. g,, M. Maher, Psychology, Empirical and Rational, 
 
 ' Grundriss (Outlines), p. 3. By "experience" both Wundt and 
 Titchener, who studied under him, mean sense-experience. They 
 deny any radical or essential distinction between sense and intellect 
 (Cf. Titchener, Text-hook, p. 8) ; as also between internal experi- 
 ence, i. e., knowledge of our mental states, and external experi- 
 ence, i. e., knowledge of a reality other than the experiencing sub- 
 ject. "If it is true," says Titchener (op. cit., p. 6), "that all the 
 sciences have the same sort of subject-matter [an unwarranted 
 assumption], there can be no essential difference between the raw 
 materials of physics and the raw materials of psychology. Matter 
 and mind, as we call them, must be fundamentally the same 
 thing." Such tenets are diametrically opposed to the fundamental 
 principles of Christianity. The same errors abound in the recent 
 pragmatic movement in philosophy and psychology, which has 
 extended into the field of education (Cf. J. T. Driscoll, Pragma- 
 tism and the Problem of the Idea, pp. 18, 19, 24, 25, 76, 130 and 
 Chap. XII.) Among the educators who are typical exponents of 
 these views aye John Dewey, of Columbia University, and most 
 
208 Psychological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 tion between these two methods of investigating "mind" 
 is a natural consequence of the development both of 
 modern science in general and more particularly of the 
 application of experimental methods to the study of 
 mental processes and mental growth/ Although ped- 
 agogy has received much help from various lines of 
 investigation prosecuted in psychological laboratories, 
 yet the results attained are as yet too detached and 
 fragmentary to constitute a system of scientific knowl- 
 edge for the actual or prospective teacher/ Accord- 
 followers of the late William James. Many of the articles in 
 Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education are infected with the same 
 taint. — It is to be noted that Father DriscoU uses the term "idea" 
 in the strict sense of the scholastic philosophers, viz., that of in- 
 tellectual concept, of immaterial and spiritual representation of 
 the nature or meaning of an object. 
 
 * Thai: experimental psychology as such is not at all in conflict 
 with Catholic tenets and the Catholic spirit follows from the 
 establishment at Louvain, in 1891, of the "Institut de Philosophic" 
 under the direction of Mgr. (now Cardinal) Mercier, and from 
 work done, for example, at the Catholic University of America 
 by Drs. Pace, Shields, Moore and Ulrich; and at St. Joseph's 
 Seminary, Dunwoodie, N. Y., by Dr. Herrick. Among non-Cath- 
 olics in the United States to-day the most prominent exponent 
 of experimental methods is Professor E. B. Titchener. 
 
 ^ Cf. W. James, Talks to Teachers (p. 7) : "In my humble 
 opinion there is no *new psychology' worthy of the name. There 
 is nothing but the old psychology which began in Locke's time 
 [sic], plus a little psychology of the brain and senses and theory 
 of evolution, and a few refinements of introspective detail, for the 
 most part without adaptation to the teacher's use. It is only 
 the fundamental conceptions of psychology which are of real 
 value to the teacher; and they, apart from the aforesaid theory 
 of evolution, are very far from being new." Yet Titchener, in the 
 two works already cited, presents a fine array of facts. His in- 
 terpretations, however, are at times vitiated by the "double-aspect" 
 theory, which he confuses with "psychophysical parallelism" 
 {Text-hook, pp. 13-15). His "ideas" are all Locke-ian. He 
 admits no immaterial, no spiritual concepts. 
 
General Survey, 209 
 
 ingly, in our consideration of psychological aspects of 
 faith, we shall have to draw largely, although by no 
 means exclusively, from the domain of "descriptive and 
 explanatory" psychology. 
 
 "Science seeks always to answer three questions in 
 regard to its subject-matter, the questions of what, 
 how, and why. What precisely, stripped of all compli- 
 cations and reduced to its lowest terms, is this subject- 
 matter ? How, then, does it come to appear as it does ; 
 how are its elements combined and arranged? And, 
 finally, why does it appear now in just this particular 
 combination and arrangement? . . . To answer 
 the question Vhat' is the task of analysis. . . . To 
 answer the question 'how' is the task of synthesis. 
 But science . . . answers the question 
 Vhy' by laying bare the cause of which the observed 
 phenomena are the effect." So speaks Professor Titch- 
 ener.^ Admitting his premises, we are justified in 
 drawing these conclusions: (1) The psychologist who 
 devotes himself especially to answering the question 
 "what," takes "analytical" or "structural" psychol- 
 ogy for his peculiar field of labor. Professors E. C. 
 Sanford and E. B. Titchener are examples in point. 
 (2) The psychologist who is busied with answering the 
 question "how," has chosen the realm of "functional" 
 psychology for the exercise of his activity.^ Most of 
 
 ' Text-hook, pp. 36, 37. 
 
 ^The line of distinction drawn between "structural" and "func- 
 tional" psychology was suggested by that already drawn between 
 anatomy and physiology; "structural" psychology being regarded 
 as the analogue of anatomy, and "functional" psychology as the 
 
210 Psychological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 the work of Professors William James and J. R. Angell 
 takes this point of view. (3) The psychologist who 
 attempts to answer the question "why," applies the 
 principle of development to a most interesting sphere of 
 research, one rich in promise, and withal of vital con- 
 cern to the teacher. This is the sphere of "genetic" 
 psychology,^ a sphere in which Professor J. M. Bald- 
 win worked assiduously for many years. ^ 
 
 analogue of physiology. The student who is familiar with the his- 
 tory of scholastic philosophy will go a step farther and find in 
 the idea of "first act" as defined by the Schoolmen, viz., the entire, 
 or, if you will, integrated, essence or nature of a thing, — ^the re- 
 sult of careful "analysis." He will therefore recognize in their 
 attitude the same general viewpoint that characterizes the struc- 
 tural psychologist of to-day. In like manner, in the "second act" 
 of the Schoolmen — the collective name for all the operations of the 
 thing — ^he will perceive the philosophical ancestor of the organic 
 "functions" which are so conspicuous in the psychological litera- 
 ture of our day. Moreover, since "second act" invariably gives 
 expression in created nature (of which alone it is rightly predi- 
 cate ) to the inner nature of the thing, to which, consequently, it 
 bears the relation of effect to cause, it is really the precursor of 
 modern laboratory investigations made with a view, v. g., to de- 
 termine the nature of "perception" or "attention," or "memory," 
 or "volition," etc. "The contrast (between structural and func- 
 tional psychology) is really between two aspects, in which all 
 mental facts without exception may be taken; their structural 
 aspect, as being subjective, and their functional aspect as being 
 cognitive [Cf. the distinction between sensation and perception}. 
 . . . From the cognitive point of view, all mental facts are 
 intellections. [Not accurate. This confuses intellections and sen- 
 sations.] From the subjective point of view, all are feelings 
 [sic]." Titchener, "Psychology, Structural," Monroe's Cyclopedia 
 of Education. 
 
 ^Titchener says rightly (loc. cit.) that genetic psychology "may 
 be either structural or functional, and should rightly be both. 
 Functional psychology stands to structural as physiology to mor- 
 phology: there is no reason for antagonism between the two." 
 
 = See above, p. 149, footnote 1. — G. Stanley Hall, president of 
 Clark University, is ajso an exponent of genetic psychology. His 
 
General Survey. 211 
 
 With a view to grasping the pedagogical significance 
 of faith, it is well for us to rehearse briefly the prin- 
 cipal topics that form the subject-matter of psychol- 
 ogy as presented in courses given to normal students. 
 Many of them are paralleled in Professor James' Talks 
 to Teachers, a series of lectures addressed to those who 
 are already engaged in the schoolroom. A typical an- 
 notated list of subjects was published by Professor E. 
 L. Thorndike in Teachers^ College Record, Vol. 11, 
 No. 4 (Sept., 1901). It consists of twenty-two topics 
 for lectures and research in the "elements of psychol- 
 ogy," occupying, when taken in conjunction with the 
 "applications of psychology in teaching," three periods 
 a week for one year.^ The following are the main heads 
 of the syllabus: 
 
 1. The aim of psychology and the nature of its subject-matter; 
 2. common technical terms; 3. the physiological basis of life; 4. 
 characteristics of mental life in general; 6. the function of mental 
 life; 6. unlearned reactions or instincts; 7. learned reactions — ^ways 
 of learning; 8. sensations; 9. percepts; 10. apperception; 11. atten- 
 tion; 12. imagery and memories; 13. the order of our thoughts; 
 14. discrimination; 16. reasoning; 16. induction and deduction; 17. 
 the emotions; 18. purposive action; 19. automatic action and habit; 
 
 writings must be read with caution. He draws conclusions that 
 are too wide for the premises on which they stand. Some of his 
 theories are opposed to Christian principles. See below, p. 227, 
 note 3. 
 
 * Both these courses are required of "candidates for all diplomas" 
 in Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. Candidates 
 for "the elementary and kindergarten diplomas" must also follow 
 a course in "child study" of two periods a week for one year. 
 
 See also Report of the Committee on the Academic Status of 
 Psychology. The Academic Status of Psychology in the Normal 
 School (American Psychological Association, 1916). 
 
2 IS Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 20. suggestion; 21. the general laws of mental action; 22. mental 
 training. 
 
 The syllabus of the course in "applications of psy- 
 chology in teaching" is outlined under these heads: 
 
 1. General introduction; 2. plan of work; 3. means of receiving 
 stimuli and of reaction to them; 4. general mental functions; 5. 
 apperception; 6. attention; 7. the association of ideas; 8. compre- 
 hension, reasoning, logical and abstract thinking; 9. memory; 10. 
 imagery; 11. the emotions; 12. the active side of mental life; 13. 
 habits; 14. suggestion; 15. interests; 16. mental training; 17. in- 
 centives and deterrents [motivation] ; 18. the application of the 
 fundamental law of mind.^ 
 
 From these two syllabi we seemed to be justified in 
 drawing up this tentative outline of our own: 
 
 The immediate aim of psychology is knowledge of 
 our mental processes. Herein both experimental and 
 descriptive psychology come to our aid. Such knowl- 
 edge implies some examination into the origin of these 
 processes, the influences by which they are modified, 
 and the results to which they lead. These topics be- 
 long to functional and to genetic psychology,^ it is 
 
 ^On the "transfer of training," the general law of mental ac- 
 tion, see Human Nature Club, p. 180; W. C. Ruediger, Principles 
 of Education, "Formal Discipline," pp. 112-117; E. L. Thorndike, 
 Principles of Teaching, p. 243. Cf. below, pp. 300-309. 
 
 ^ Professor Titchener objects to the expression "genetic method." 
 He says: "In strictness, however, there is no such thing as a 
 genetic method. There is a genetic point of view, as there is a 
 static point of view. We may be interested in the sequence of 
 mental processes, in unraveling the tangle of a special sort of con- 
 sciousness. But the difference of interest does not mean a differ- 
 ence of method." Text-hook, p. 34. — Yet see quotation from Pro- 
 fessor Dewey, p. 16, above. 
 
General Survey, 213 
 
 true, but they likewise presuppose a careful analysis of 
 mental states performed under experimental control. 
 
 All psychologists agree that sensation is an ele- 
 mentary mental process. From the scholastic view- 
 point, with which, in this connection, modern research 
 is in harmony, it is, in its original form, the subjective 
 term of the series of processes which, when looked at 
 in its primary objective reference, may be called prim- 
 itive perception. It is by perception that we are made 
 subject to the influence of environment; and conse- 
 quently both sensation and perception are phases of 
 that general plasticity which we have already seen to 
 be a condition of learning.^ 
 
 The study of apperception by modern psycholo- 
 gists ^ has shown that every perception leaves a "trace" 
 
 ^ See above, p. 188. This is emphasized by Professor James: 
 "Plasticity, then, in the wide sense of the word, means the posses- 
 sion of a structure weak enough to yield to an influence, but strong 
 enough not to yield all at once. Each relatively stable phase of 
 equilibrium in such a structure is marked by what we may call a 
 new set of habits. Organic matter, especially nervous tissue, 
 seems endowed with a very extraordinary degree of plasticity of 
 this sort; so that we may without hesitation lay down as our first 
 proposition the following, that the phenomena of habit in living 
 beings are due to the plasticity (in the sense explained) of the 
 organic materials of which their bodies are composed/' Principles 
 of Psychology, Vol. I, p. 105. 
 
 ^ James, Talks to Teachers, p. 157, defines apperception as "the 
 act of taking a thing into the mind." It follows the law of 
 economy. "We instinctively seek to disturb as little as possible 
 our pre-existing stock of ideas" (p. 159). The notion of apper- 
 ception is, however, far from modern. It is embodied in the 
 principle which St. Thomas borrowed from Plotinus, the neo-Pla- 
 tonic philosopher of the third century, viz., "Whatever is received 
 is received according to the nature (or state) of the recipient." 
 See p. 236, below. 
 
214 Psychological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 or effect in the organism/ which not only modifies sub- 
 sequent perceptions of the same or a related kind, but 
 also affects the resultant motion. In the former re- 
 spect it illustrates the biological aspect of learning; 
 in the latter, it exemplifies a cardinal principle of be- 
 haviorism, viz., that "consciousness operates primarily 
 in directing our movements and controlling our be- 
 havior." ^ "The selective grouping of the sensory con- 
 stituents of perception, and the supplementing of the 
 sense group by images are the cardinal points of the 
 doctrine of apperception in the system of Wundt and 
 Herbart." ^ Apperception, therefore, presupposes 
 sensation and perception, memory and imagination, 
 as well as the exercise of selective attention, whether 
 that attention be primary or secondary; whether, 
 in other words, we are compelled to give it or we 
 give it only with deliberate effort.* Perception, in turn, 
 is a complex process, its complexity beginning very 
 early in the child's life. From that time on in the 
 life of the individual, "perceptions are selected groups 
 of sensations, in which images (themselves resulting 
 from previous sensations) are incorporated as an in- 
 tegral part of the whole process. But . . . the essen- 
 
 ^ Cf. Titchener, Text-hook, pp. 396 f . 
 
 ^Colvin and Bagley, Human Behavior, p. 3. 
 
 ^ E. B. Titchener, Text-hook, p. 366, who cites references to 
 Wundt's Outlines and Herbart's Lehrhuch zur Psychologie. His 
 statement on p. 48 is open to criticism: "Images are the char- 
 acteristic elements of ideas [in Locke's meaning of the term], of 
 the mental pictures that memory furnishes of past and imagination 
 of future experience." Man has also spiritual concepts. These 
 Professor Titchener seems to ignore. 
 
 *Cf. Titchener, op. cit., pp. 268, 276. 
 
General Survey, 215 
 
 tial thing about them ... is this — that perceptions 
 have meaning. Now, it takes at least two sensations 
 [i. e., cognitions] to make a meaning," ^ since there can 
 be no meaning without a "context." Much less, let us 
 add, can there be "meaning" without an intellect to ap- 
 prehend it. Our feelings, interests and emotions modify 
 our perceptions in both intensity and clearness, shift- 
 ing now this detail, now that detail from the margin 
 to the focus of attention, and vice versa. Moreover, 
 while perceptions are integral factors in the building 
 up of habit, yet in the apperceptive "set" or "bent" 
 which they slowly but surely give to the mind, they 
 illustrate on the cognitive side the same propensity 
 which on the appetitive side — that is, on the side of ex- 
 pression — is worked out in motor habits of mind or 
 body. It would appear, therefore, that the one topic 
 of perception ramifies into nearly every department of 
 psychology. Indeed, this is what we should expect; 
 for perception is an act of man, as man, and its exer- 
 cise must therefore involve the whole man.^ 
 
 Apperceptions of a given kind when often repeated 
 tend to assume the characteristics of habit and eventu- 
 ally to result in what is known as one's "personal equa- 
 tion," ^ that is to say, one's customary point of view 
 
 ^ Ibid., pp. 367, 368. Cf. Dr. Shields, Psychology of Education, 
 Lesson XVIII, "Perception and Apperception." 
 
 * St. Thomas (De Principio Individuationis, 2) in discussing the 
 nature and functions of the "ratio particularis," considers what 
 we to-day call perception; but he is there concerned with only its 
 cognitive aspect. 
 
 'See E. C. Sanford, "The Personal Equation," American Jour- 
 nal of Psychology, Vol. II (1888), pp. 3, 89, 271, 403. 
 
SI 6 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 toward the matter in question and one's customary 
 behavior in its regard. Both these aspects, the cogni- 
 tive and the appetitive, or conative, are included by 
 psychologists under the general head of reactions to a 
 situation,^ and it is these reactions, especially selective 
 reactions, that determine character, "the essential part 
 of a man." ^ For "character is that expression of a 
 man which is most constant, habitual, and, in conse- 
 quence, most unconscious, unpremeditated, genuine." ^ 
 
 ^ "A reaction ... is a movement made in response to an 
 external stimulus." (Titchener, Text-hook , p. 428.) "The physical 
 or external situation is the whole external world as an organism, at 
 any given moment, takes it; it consists of those stimuli to which 
 the organism, by virtue of its inherited organization and its pres- 
 ent disposition, is responsive, — which it selects, unifies, focalizes, 
 supplements, and, if need be, acts upon. The mental or internal 
 situation is, in like manner, some imagination or memorial [or 
 intellectual] complex which is fitted, under the conditions obtain- 
 ing in the nervous system, to dominate consciousness, to maintain 
 itself in the focus of attention, to serve as the starting point for 
 further ideas [in the broad meaning of that term] or for action. 
 To put the definition in a word, a situation is the meaningful ex- 
 perience of a conscious present". (Ibid., p. 369.) 
 
 ^ This thought is admirably developed by Mgr. Guibert in his 
 little book, Le CaracUre. He distinguishes and develops three 
 meanings of the term: as the distinctive sign in a man's exterior; 
 as his inner moral constitution; as his moral energy (p. 3). 
 
 « J. M. Baldwin, Handbook of Psychology, Vol. II, p. 363. He 
 draws his definition from the principle that "action is the only 
 and the adequate expression of a man." As to action itself, hear 
 Titchener: "In its most general meaning, an action is an organized 
 movement, less generally it is a movement of a locomotor organism ; 
 for psychological purposes, it is primarily a human movement with 
 some sort and degree of representation in consciousness." Text- 
 hook, p. 448. The scholastic concept of action is both more exact 
 and more illuminating, for it represents the action as here and now 
 proceeding froim the agent, the efficient cause. When regarded as 
 modifying the agent, it is called "quality" rather than action. 
 When viewed as a connecting link between cause and effect, it is 
 termed "relation." As "action," it essentially connotes an agent. 
 
General Survey. 217 
 
 When the situation is complex and the appropriate re- 
 action is therefore problematic, then, and then onl}'', 
 according to many psychologists of our day do we 
 really "think." ' 
 
 We have now taken a brief survey of the subject- 
 matter of psychology. It is the wont of recent psy- 
 chologists to reduce all mental phenomena to three 
 great classes. In the words of Professor Baldwin: 
 "These three classes express the result of three distinct 
 functions of the mind: Intellect, Feeling, and Will, 
 They may be called: 1st, Representative, or intellec- 
 tual states; Sd, Affective, or states of feeling; and 3d, 
 Volitional, or states of will." ^ While the general plan 
 of this division is good, provided psychology be limited 
 to mental "processes" and the nature of "mind" or soul 
 be relegated to philosophy, yet the nomenclature is 
 singularly unhappy and betrays much confusion of 
 thought. This confusion may be remedied by chang- 
 ing the names of the "three distinct functions" to cog- 
 nition, feeling, and appetency.^ Although this tri- 
 partite division is not to be found among most Catholic 
 psychologists of an earlier age, yet it presents no in- 
 
 ' Cf . Bk. I, p. 59, above; also Colvin and Bagley, Himian Be- 
 havior, Chap. XVIII; Dewey, How We Think, p. 205. Titchener, 
 Beginner's Psychology, Chap. X; Brother Azarias, Phases of 
 Thought, Chap. II. — For criticism of this view, see J. T. Driscoll, 
 Pragmatism, pp. 30-38. 
 
 * Handbook, Vol. I, pp. 35, 36. Cf . E. W. Scripture, Thinking, 
 Feeling and Doing. 
 
 ' Thus Dr. C. A. Dubray (Introductory Philosophy, p. 28) di- 
 vides mental processes from the psychological point of view into 
 three groups: cognition, feeling, and con^-tion. Cf. F. J., F, S. C, 
 Cours de Philosophie, p. 47, 
 
^18 Fsychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 trinsic ground of objection and indeed has much to 
 commend it when psychology is considered solely from 
 the standpoint of natural science. But in that event 
 "cognition" must be interpreted as a generic term in- 
 cluding under it two distinct, though related, orders or 
 species of knowledge, viz., sensation and intellection. 
 What is known by sense is the material and individual 
 and concrete as such; viz., this color, this tone. What 
 is known by the intellect, on the other hand, is the 
 general or universal, the abstract, and likewise the im- 
 material and spiritual, such as justice and truth; or it 
 is something that does not connote, does not include in 
 its very concept, any direct reference to matter, such 
 as being, nature, or substance. Similarly appetency 
 includes two species, a material order, that of the 
 sensitive or sensuous appetites, whose acts are "the pas- 
 sions," and the intellectual or rational order comprising 
 the acts of the will. As to feeling with its direct refer- 
 ence to pleasure and pain, and to emotion, — the name 
 for our complex affective states, — these likewise must 
 be twofold,^ viz., sensitive and spiritual. The sensitive 
 
 ^ This has been well illustrated and correlated to the older dual 
 division of the Schoolmen by St. George Mivart, American Catholic 
 Quarterly Beview, Vol. Ill, p. 301, "Emotion." This article is too 
 little known. — Titchener, in his latest work for advanced students, 
 the Text-hook, discards the usual tripartite division and substi- 
 tutes one of his own. "The three classes of elementary processes 
 are known as sensations, images, and affections. Sensations are, 
 of course, the characteristic elements of perceptions, of the sights 
 and sounds and similar experiences due to our present surround- 
 ings. Images are, in just the same way, the characteristic elements 
 of ideas, of the mental pictures that memory furnishes of past 
 and imagination of future experience. . . . Lastly, affections 
 are the characteristic elements of emotions, of love and hate, joy 
 
General Survey. ^19 
 
 emotions are deeply rooted in the body and are com- 
 mon to man and the brute animal/ The spiritual emo- 
 tions, on the other hand, are not dominated by matter, 
 but utilize it under the guidance of intellect for the 
 furtherance of spiritual aims. Many of them are com- 
 mon to saint and sage; all of them enter largely into 
 the motives that shape behavior. 
 
 It must be admitted, however, that Catholic psy- 
 chologists see no crying need for an absolute divorce 
 between psychology and philosophy. They readily ac- 
 knowledge their indebtedness to biology in general and 
 to the physiology of the nervous system in particular 
 for much progress in their chosen domain. Yet they 
 emphatically deny that man is a mere biological speci- 
 men, a mere bundle of nerves. They find in him activi- 
 ties which, though dependent on matter and aided by 
 matter, are nevertheless irreducible to mere organized 
 matter. For further light on the nature of these activi- 
 ties they appeal to philosophy. This appeal they con- 
 sider no more discreditable, no more unscientific, than 
 is the acceptance, on the part of Wundt and his dis- 
 
 and sorrow" (p. 48). Titchener's experiments and arguments 
 (pp. 198, 199) fail to prove that the "image," as he defines it, is 
 an elementary process. He even admits (p. 199) that it might 
 be "better to consider sensation and image as subclasses of a par- 
 ticular type of mental element [sic] than to include them outright 
 in a single class." This would bring his classification into closer 
 harmony with the "cognitions" of the Schoolmen. He "smuggles" 
 in the will in his discussion of "secondary attention" {Beginner's 
 Psychology, p. 95). He implies it in his "acquired" tendencies 
 (p. 255), where he does define it so loosely as to make it equiva- 
 lent in a way to the appetencies (appetitus) of the Schoolmen. 
 
 ^ Cf. the James-Lange theory of emotions, p. 124. For critical 
 exposition of it, see Titchener, Text-book, pp. 474-489. 
 
220 Psychological Aspects of faith. 
 
 ciples, of aid from physiological investigations. Many 
 of them, in consequence, reduce all mental phenomena 
 to the two great classes of cognitions and appetencies, 
 viz., to knowledge of facts and principles, on the one 
 hand, and to tendencies to real or apparent good, on 
 the other.^ This division has the advantage also of 
 agreeing with the present status of biological research ; 
 for our nervous mechanism has two great classes of 
 nerves : sensory, or afferent, nerves to receive impres- 
 sions from our surroundings ; and motor, or efferent, 
 nerves to control the reactions to these impressions.^ 
 What we do with the impressions which we receive will 
 depend on the state of our whole being, body and soul, 
 at the moment of receiving them;^ in other words, to 
 use the terminology affected by some pedagogues, it 
 will be determined by our "apperceptive mass." 
 
 In order, therefore, to estimate the pedagogical value 
 of faith as the novice is trained to exercise it, it is well 
 for us to consider his practice of faith from the view- 
 points of (1) perception, (2) apperception, and (S) 
 will, with its complement of reaction. These topics will 
 at least serve to point the way and to suggest the rich 
 harvest to be reaped from adjoining fields of psycho- 
 
 ^ Feeling is then described as "the affective tone" of cognition. 
 It is not amiss to refer here to Professor James' tribute to 
 "scholastic orthodoxy, to which one must always go when one 
 wishes to find perfectly clear statement." {The Will to Believe^ 
 p. 13.) 
 
 ^The association tracts are often classed with the sensory 
 nerves as extensions of the latter. 
 
 ' See above, p. 213, note 3, and p. 215. 
 
The Physiological Basis of Learning. 221 
 
 logical investigations, fields, however, which lie outside 
 the limitations of this book. We have already consid- 
 ered the "environment" which the novice perceives, and 
 the "plasticity" which he must possess if that environ- 
 ment is to be a genuine factor in his training. But he 
 must, as novice, learn to assume a Christian and re- 
 ligious attitude toward his surroundings, and to ad- 
 just his actions accordingly. It is only when such an 
 attitude and such behavior are so fully his as to be ex- 
 pressed easily, uniformly and with a high degree of per- 
 fection that he has really mastered this "learning 
 process" and transformed it into a habit. It is there- 
 fore incumbent on us to consider the stages of the learn- 
 ing process and their bearing on the development of 
 faith by the novice. 
 
 Article IL — The Physiological Basis of Learning.^ 
 
 The topic of learning is one of the most compre- 
 hensive that can engage the mind of man. It involves 
 heredity and environment, plasticity and adjustment — 
 all of which have their basis in biology. In psychology, 
 it includes the various processes of association: and 
 therefore it implies, on the cognitive side, both percep- 
 tion and apperception, as factors in shaping the bent 
 
 * Practically, the process of learning entails a consideration from 
 the functional viewpoint — often also from the genetic — of all the 
 leading topics that fall within the scope of descriptive psychology. 
 It shows how mental states or elements combine to promote mental 
 development. There is a good brief presentation of the topic in 
 Colvin and Bagley^s Hvmian Behavior; a fuller treatment in S. S. 
 Colvin's Learning Process, 
 
SS2 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 of the mind; and, on the appetitive or motor side, ex- 
 pression of this bent in those words and deeds which 
 eventually fix and reinforce habit and behavior. In 
 pedagogy it is intimately connected with attention and 
 interest and inhibition as factors in motivation. In 
 sociology, too, it appears as a vital element, for even 
 the genius must learn from his fellows as they in turn 
 must learn from him. The schoolhouse is but a con- 
 crete embodiment of the social aspect of learning. All 
 this holds in the purely natural order. In the super- 
 natural order, the Catholic recognizes and respects in 
 his Church the divinely appointed source whence he is 
 to learn what he must know and what he must value, 
 what he must love and what he must hate, what he must 
 do and what he must rigidly shun, if he would be fitted 
 for life everlasting in the kingdom of heaven. The 
 novice must learn from his religious superiors how he is 
 to prepare for the special field of Christian labor in 
 which his order is engaged. So important, indeed, is 
 the learning process that the infinite Wisdom of God 
 came down upon earth and assumed our nature in order 
 to train His disciples in its practice. For even super- 
 natural truth cannot exercise its rightful sway over 
 man until it be incorporated in his very nature: only 
 then and thus does it become "faith like to a grain of 
 mustard-seed.'^ ^ From every viewpoint, therefore, are 
 we compelled to assent to the statement that learning, 
 whether in man or in mere animal, is "a very complex 
 affair, depending upon impression, upon associative 
 
 ^Luke xvii, 6. 
 
The Physiological Basis of Learning, 
 
 tendency, upon the retentiveness of nerve-substance, 
 and upon cortical act";^ and likewise, in man, upon 
 the disposition of the "heart," that is, upon the will 
 and the affections. 
 
 The biological factor in organic plasticity we have 
 already considered in its general features.^ In the 
 learning process it appears more particularly both in 
 the nerves themselves and in their connections with 
 nerve-centers. There is, then, a good measure of truth 
 in the statement that "education consists in the modifi- 
 cations of the central nervous system" (i. ^., of the 
 brain and spinal cord).^ The neural basis of learning, 
 in the broad sense of the term, is found both in the char- 
 acter of the nervous tissue itself and in the number and 
 strength of the connections effected between the various 
 nerve-centers. It appears in the character of nervous 
 tissue; for "the most elementary and essential function 
 of nervous tissue is to provide lines of conduction be- 
 
 ^ Titchener, Text-hook, p. 384. Cf. note 3, p. 48, above; and 
 Rona. X, 13-15. 
 
 2 See pp. 187 ff., above. 
 
 " H. H. Donaldson, The Growth of the Brain, p. 336. He adds: 
 "In its size and development the central system is precocious" as 
 compared with the rest of the human body. "Long before birth all 
 the cells destined to compose it are already formed, though by no 
 means are all developed in the sense that they have acquired the 
 form and connections characteristic for those at maturity. At 
 the close of embryonic life the sensory nerves rapidly extend, and 
 the connection of the central cells with limiting surfaces of the 
 body being thus established, all experiences become those of edu- 
 cation. The act of living is thus the most important natural edu- 
 cational [sic] process with which the human body has to do." 
 
2^4 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 tween receptors and effectors." ^ It is likewise manifest 
 in the pathways opened not only between different areas 
 of the cerebral cortex, not only between "receptors" 
 and "effectors," but also between the various cells that 
 go to make up each and every nerve; for these physio- 
 logical connections are an indispensable condition of 
 the psychical associations in which true learning con- 
 sists, whether such learning be viewed in its cognitive 
 aspect or in its motor influence. 
 
 One of the widely accepted explanations of the physi- 
 ological aspect of the "learning process" is known as 
 the "neurone theory." Its cardinal principle is that 
 the "unit" in the nervous system is the cell-body to- 
 gether with its opposite "processes" or branches (tech- 
 nically known as axons and dendrites).^ No two cell- 
 
 ^ Ladd and Woodworth, op. cit., p. 35, who add that "conduction, 
 co-ordination, integration and 'learning' (this word in a figurative 
 sense) may be assigned as the functions of the nervous system" 
 (i. e., of the whole system). See also above, pp. 154 f. 
 
 * Cf. Ladd and Woodworth, op. cit., pp. 108-114. It must not be 
 forgotten that the neurone theory is an attempt to explain only 
 the physiological correlate of the learning process; it does not 
 apply directly to the psychic aspect. We must be on our guard, 
 too, against accepting the telegraph or the telephone system as an 
 explanation of even the nerve current. A. Farges, S. S. {Le 
 Cerveau, I'Ame et les Facultes, pp. 29-31) notes various kinds of 
 difference between the nerve current and the electric current. The 
 former is living, the latter has no life. The intensity of the former 
 increases with the length of the nerve which it traverses; whereas 
 the electric grows weaker the longer the wire is. We must there- 
 fore relegate to the region of fairy-tales such statements as these 
 from Reuben Post Halleck {Psychology and Psychic Culture, pp. 
 12, 13, 40, 41): "A sensory nerve conducts a message at the aver- 
 age rate of 111 feet a second. . . . If a man had an arm suf- 
 ficiently long to plunge into the sun's vaporous metal, 140 years 
 would roll by before he felt any pain." This is an unwarranted 
 
The Physiological Basis of Learning, S25 
 
 bodies are continuous ; but the axons and dendrites of 
 one cell-body touch, but never fuse with, those of an- 
 other. The point of contact is technically known as a 
 "synapse," that is to say, a fitting together/ To 
 establish a connection between adjoining cell-bodies it is 
 therefore necessary to have a nerve current of high 
 tension which shall overleap the interstices between 
 "axons" and "dendrites" and thereby break down the 
 resistance offered by the "synapse," — the nerve-current 
 always following the lines of least resistance.^ The de- 
 gree of resistance encountered at any synapse will de- 
 pend upon several factors and conditions. If the nerv- 
 ous impulse is seeking an outlet for the first time and 
 therefore has no contrary connection to break down, 
 the problem is reduced to the mere overcoming of in- 
 ertia. If, on the other hand, the nervous impulse has 
 
 inference from the reaction experiment, on which see Titchener, 
 Text-hook, pp. 432-437. 
 
 ^ "By synapse is meant the point of junction between ingoing 
 and outgoing nerve-fibers. . . . The synapse is the telephone 
 central, and upon its action depends the fate of the impulse: 
 whether it shall be allowed to pass out to muscle A or muscle B. 
 . . . In this minute mechanism, then, the very issues of con- 
 scious life, and so of character, are determined." E. P. Frost, 
 "Habit Formation and Reformation," Yale Review, Vol. IV (Oct., 
 1914), p. 137. This article presents forcibly the mechanical side 
 of habit formation, but in the latter part the author covertly in- 
 vokes and applies that very action of "will" which he professes 
 to treat as a purely imaginary factor in the building up of habit. 
 
 ^ While the nerve-fibres conduct the nerve-impulse in both direc- 
 tions, yet the impulse itself is conducted "from the terminations 
 of the sensory axons to the dendrites of the motor-cells, but will 
 not pass in the reverse direction." The synapse, therefore, acts 
 as "a sort of valve," allowing the impulse "to pass in only one 
 direction" (Ladd and Woodworth, op. cit, pp. 133, 111). 
 
226 Psycliological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 hitherto been discharged through another channel, the 
 difficulty of forming a new outlet is multiplied in pro- 
 portion to the frequency and to the persistency with 
 which it has discharged through the older pathway. 
 The problem then becomes one not only of bridging 
 over the gap presented by the synapse, but also of rais- 
 ing an effective resistance to the use of the older outlet. 
 As a natural consequence, the area of the synapse is, 
 in this theory, regarded as the seat of fatigue and the 
 center wherein are exhibited to a noted degree the ef- 
 fects of the toxic poisons carried in the blood.^ 
 
 Another factor to consider is the relative complexity 
 of the action to be done. If the action be of a simple 
 automatic or reflex type, it is a "predictable, unchange- 
 able^ mechanical process" ; ^ for, in this case, both 
 structure and function are inherited. If, however, it 
 be instinctive, the response is likely to be less fixed, more 
 plastic, and, to some extent, subject to conscious con- 
 trol. These conditions are realized in the higher ani- 
 mals and in man; for through consciousness both man 
 and brute "sense a wider horizon and are capable of 
 adjusting their actions more perfectly to their complex 
 
 ^The nerves themselves seem to be incapable of fatigue. (Cf. 
 Ladd and Woodworth, op. cit., pp. 136, 137.) On the "fibrillar 
 theory," see pp. 113, 114. "As between the neurone theory and 
 the fibrillar theory, it is at present impossible to decide with cer- 
 tainty; but there is no doubt that the neurone theory still com- 
 mands the support of the majority of authorities; and that it 
 serves, for the present, the useful purpose of summing up a large 
 proportion of the known facts that have a bearing on the connec- 
 tions within the gray matter of the nervous system" (p. 114). 
 Many of its terms (v. g., channel) are metaphorical. 
 
 * E. P. Frost, loc. cit. See also p. 188, note 2, above. 
 
The Physiological Basis of Learning. 2^7 
 
 environment." ^ Finally, beyond instinct, which it may 
 modify and by which in turn it may also be modified, 
 lies the realm of reason and deliberation, the province 
 within which the chief work of formal education is pros- 
 ecuted. Instinct, it is true, is more than a series of 
 reflexes, for it is ordinarily attended by consciousness 
 and even by desire; ^ but, since its exercise is often con- 
 ditioned on the co-operation of the higher nerve cen- 
 ters, it depends on relatively complex and unstable 
 nerve connections. Even reason itself, as man is now 
 constituted, is powerless to operate unless various 
 cortical areas are in some way united to contribute the 
 matter or content of thought on which the reasoning 
 process must be based.^ 
 
 ^ According to Professor Conklin (op. cit., p. 78), "all living 
 things [bodies], including germ cells and embryos," exhibit (1) a 
 differential sensitivity, responding differently to stimuli that 
 differ in kind or quantity; (2) reflex motions, t. e,, relatively 
 simple, automatic responses; (3) organic memory, by which the 
 results of previous experiences are registered in the general pro- 
 toplasm; (4) adaptive responses, resulting from the elimination 
 of useless responses through trial and error; and (5) varied re- 
 sponses depending upon conflicting stimuli and conflicting physio- 
 logical states. The last two groups or processes demand the in- 
 tervention of consciousness as well as of organic memory, while 
 the last of all includes what is known as inhibition (see p. 229, 
 below). 
 
 ^Cf. Ladd and Woodworth, op. cit., p. 146; Titchener, Text- 
 hook, p. 462. 
 
 ' Cf . G. E. Partridge, Genetic Philosophy of Education (p. 14): 
 "The ideal of the new psychology based upon the dictum. No psy- 
 chosis without neurosis, has been to discover for each mental 
 state and process an equivalent or correlate in the body or in 
 nature." This book has as its sub-title: "An Epitome of the Pub- 
 lished Educational Writings of G. Stanley Hall, President of Clark 
 University." 
 
228 Psychological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 We are, therefore, justified in assuming that a cer- 
 tain intensity in the nerve current is requisite in order 
 to form a new channel or deepen one already formed, 
 and likewise to supply sufficient energy for the corre- 
 lated physiological processes. The greater the intens- 
 ity of the "nerve impulse," the deeper and the more un- 
 obstructed becomes the pathway which it makes for 
 subsequent nervous discharges and the more thoroughly 
 does it subserve the dependent mental processes. When 
 the nerve currents are so great and so impetuous as 
 to overflow their accustomed channels and seek new 
 outlets for their discharge, they may register these 
 changed conditions in the discomfort, or even pain, 
 which the organism then experiences. It is in the light 
 of this phase of the neurone theory that we are to 
 interpret such conclusions as the following: "It is in 
 the action of the synapse only that the chief modifica- 
 tions attributed to the nervous system, and so attrib- 
 uted to consciousness, find expression. . . . Modify 
 the synapse, and consciousness is changed. Vary syn- 
 aptic resistance, and one modifies, and may even re- 
 verse, behavior." ^ 
 
 Even when the nervous excitation is weak, it still 
 registers an effect. Thus when two stimuli of the same 
 kind, each of which is by itself just too weak to arouse 
 any noticeable reflex action, are applied at the same 
 time, they produce the customary response. The same 
 phenomenon occurs when the stimuli follow each other 
 in quick succession. In other words, these stimuli "fa- 
 
 ^ E. P. Frost, loc. cit., pp. 139, 140. Cf. footnote 1, p. 225, above. 
 
The Physiological Basis of Learning, 229 
 
 cilitate" or "reinforce" each other. On the other hand, 
 if the stimuli taken singly lead not to allied but to op- 
 posed, or inconsistent, reactions, then each blocks or 
 inhibits the other, and there is no responsive action at 
 all so long as these opposing forces remain balanced. 
 Eventually, however, one force breaks through the op- 
 position, and then ensues a reaction made up of har- 
 monious reflexes from which all antagonistic elements 
 are excluded. Moreover, the inhibition itself is at- 
 tended with a "rebound effect" ; for "a reflex which had 
 just been inhibited is for some time afterward much 
 more readily excited" — it is "specially sensitive to a 
 new stimulus." ^ 
 
 On its physiological side, therefore, the "learning 
 process" entails the forming of continuous and free 
 pathways for the discharge of nervous impulses, pref- 
 erably of high tension, and consequently the blocking 
 or inhibition of divergent or opposite channels. How 
 often the nerve-current must traverse this pathway be- 
 fore the requisite connections are thoroughly secured, 
 must depend primarily on the relative strength of the 
 current itself. When it flows easily and freely through 
 the channel, the nervous connection has been "learned" 
 and the physiological basis of habit is established. 
 
 ^ Ladd and Waodworth, op. cit., p. 173. For a discussion of the 
 experiments of Exner and Sherrington see pp. 170-174. Titchener 
 {Text-hook, p. 300) applies the phenomena of "facilitation" and 
 "inhibition" to the psychical phases of attention. See also Colvin 
 and Bagley, op. cit., Chap. VII, "The Nervous System as the 
 Organ of Behavior." 
 
^30 Psychological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 Article III, — Reflex Action as a Type,^ 
 
 The general idea underlying this article may be in- 
 troduced in the words of Professor James : 
 
 "The doctrine of reflex action, especially as extended to the 
 brain, . , . means that the acts we perform are always the re- 
 sult of outward discharges from the nervous centers, and that 
 these outward discharges are themselves the result of impressions 
 from the external world, carried in along one or another of our 
 sensory nerves. Applied at first to only a portion of our acts, 
 this conception has ended by being generalized more and more, so 
 that now most physiologists tell us that every action whatever, even 
 the most deliberately weighed and calculated, does, so far as its 
 organic conditions go, follow the reflex type. There is not one 
 which cannot be remotely, if not immediately, traced to an origin 
 in some incoming impression of sense. There is no impression of 
 sense which, unless inhibited by some other stronger one, does not 
 immediately or remotely express itself in action of some kind. 
 There is no one of those complicated performances in the convolu- 
 tions of the brain to which our trains of thought correspond, 
 which is not a mere middle term interposed between an incoming 
 sensation that arouses it and an outgoing discharge of some sort, 
 inhibitory if not exciting, to which itself gives rise. The structural 
 unit of the nervous system^ is in fact a triad, neither of whose 
 elements has any independent existence. The sensory impression 
 exists only [?] for the sake of awaking the central process of re- 
 flection, and the central process of reflection exists only [?] for 
 the sake of calling forth the final act. All action is thus r«-action ' 
 upon the outer world; and the middle stage of consideration 
 or contemplation or thinking is only [?] a place of transit, the 
 bottom of a loop, both of whose ends have their point of appli- 
 
 ^Cf. Ladd and Woodworth, op. cit.. Chap. VII, "Reflex Func- 
 tions of the Nervous System"; also C. S. Sherrington, The Integra- 
 tive Action of the Nervous System. 
 
 ^ On the other hand, the structural unit of the nerve itself, ac- 
 cording to the "neurone theory" is the "neurone;" that is, the 
 cell-body with its outgrowing processes, viz., axons and dendrites. 
 See pp. 224 ff. 
 
 « Cf . Titchener, Text-hook, p. 447. 
 
Reflex Action as a Type, 231 
 
 cation in the outer world. . . . The willing department of 
 our nature, in short, dominates [sic] both the conceiving depart- 
 ment and the feeling department; or, in plainer English, percep- 
 tion and thinking are only [?] there for behavior's, sake."* 
 
 These viev/s have obtained very wide currency. In 
 the domain of human and animal physiology, especially 
 the physiology of the nervous system, they are believed 
 to throw light upon the nature not only of automatic 
 activities, which have their stimulus and origin within 
 the organism,^ but also of instinctive actions, which 
 are always complex and purposive in character. They 
 have entered the field of education, through the writ- 
 ings of Professor Dewey ^ and his disciples,^ where 
 their application has been extended to the mind, at 
 times in defiance of sound philosophical principles and 
 in opposition to fundamental Christian tenets.^ These 
 views and tendencies have developed into a kind of phi- 
 losophical system, viz., pragmatism, which has an ex- 
 
 * "Reflex Action and Theism," an address delivered in 1881, re- 
 printed in The Will to Believe, pp. 113, 114. In the last sentence 
 which we have quoted above. Professor James gives unequivocal 
 expression to a doctrine which was subsequently to characterize 
 the system known as Pragmatism. This is equally evident in the 
 three sentences which precede the last and which we have 
 omitted. On p. 124 he refers in a footnote to C. S. Pierce's paper, 
 "How to Make Our Thoughts Clear," in the Popular Science 
 Monthly, Jan., 1878, which is generally held to be the first definite 
 presentation of pragmatic principles. 
 
 ' See footnote 2, p. 188. 
 
 ^ Cf. "The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology," Psychological 
 Review, Vol. Ill (July, 1896), pp. 357 ff. 
 
 *Cf. Irving E. Miller, Psychology of Thinking, pp, 48-52, 55-58; 
 J. Dewey, Studies in Logical Theory, passim. 
 
 " Cf. J. T. DriscoU, op. cit., pp. 29-39, 
 
232 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 tensive following in England, France and America. 
 That the movement has a theological bearing is mani- 
 fest from the very title of the essay from which we have 
 quoted. In the very same address,^ Professor James 
 makes this statement: 
 
 "Theism, whatever its objective warrant, would thus be seen to 
 have a subjective anchorage in its congruity with our nature as 
 thinkers; and, however it may fare with its truth, to derive from 
 this subjective adequacy the strongest possible [?] guaranty of 
 its permanence." 
 
 In all these relations man is regarded primarily as 
 an individual. But he is at the same time a social be- 
 ing. It is not surprising, then, that the "reflex arc 
 concept" should have invaded the domain of sociology 
 from the adjoining realm of psychology. Here, too, 
 the third stage, viz., that of production or successful 
 external action, has been at times unduly emphasized. 
 In testimony thereof let us cite one passage: 
 
 "Hitherto psychologists have been more concerned with analyz- 
 ing the structure of human consciousness than with developing a 
 psychology of human action. The latest developments in psychol- 
 ogy are, however, developments toward such a psychology of 
 human activities or behavior; and it cannot be doubted that when 
 such a psychology has been fully developed, it will supply the 
 missing key [sic] for the interpretation of social phenomena."'' 
 
 If there be any truth in these views, and undoubtedly 
 
 ^P. 116. 
 
 ^ C. A. Ellwood, Sociology in its Psychological Aspects (2d ed.), 
 p. 95. In a footnote the author quotes from Professor Max Meyer, 
 also of the University of Missouri: "Mind is a subject fit to be 
 studied only [?] because it is, and to the extent [?] to which it 
 13, significant for social intercourse." 
 
Reflex Action as a Type, 2S3 
 
 there is some truth in every system or school of thought 
 that has disciples,^ it is incumbent on us to look more 
 closely into the "reflex arc concept" and to study its 
 real implications and to trace the consequences that 
 follow when it is assumed to be the typical learning 
 process in its simplest form.^ We may take for our 
 text the following passage from Professor James' ad- 
 dress : "Any mind constructed on the triadic reflex pat- 
 tern, must first get its impression from the object which 
 it confronts; then define what that object is, and de- 
 cide what active measures its presence demands; and 
 finally react." ^ 
 
 I. The first element in the triad, then, is getting 
 an impression from the object. This opens up the 
 problem of knowledge. Can we really know any thing.? 
 Can we know the relations between things ? Has man an 
 environment? Can he be influenced by this environ- 
 ment.'^ Are there other men with whom he can hold 
 intercourse.? Can he commune with his God.? Each 
 and every science, by the very fact of its existence bears 
 
 ^ An excellent illustration of this fact, highly suggestive at the 
 same time of the catholicity of the Church's doctrines in the realm 
 of philosophic thought, is found in an article by A. de G., The 
 Correlation of Agnosticism and Positiznsm in the American Cath- 
 olic Quarterly Review, Vol. X (1885), pp. 65 flP. 
 
 ^ There is, of course, another aspect of reflex action, since it 
 "may take place without consciousness in brain intervention. . . . 
 Reflex action is the deputy of the brain, and directs myriad move- 
 ments, thus leaving the higher powers free to attend to weightier 
 things." R. P. Halleck, Education of the Central Nervous Sys- 
 tem,, pp. 6, 7. See also Chap. II, "Fatalistic Aspects." 
 
 'Pp. 122, 123. 
 
234 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 witness to the truth that at least some things and some 
 relations between things are not only knowable but 
 known/ In psychology, in particular, this principle 
 is a postulate that underlies every discussion of both 
 perception and apperception; for apperception is but 
 a development of perception, and stands or falls with 
 the latter.^ In pedagogy, the ''learning process" is only 
 an empty phrase if there be nothing real to learn. 
 Finally, to all these questions both Christian philosophy 
 and Christian faith give an unequivocal answer in the 
 affirmative. 
 
 ^The possibility of certitude, the representative value of knowl- 
 edge, and the criteria of valid knowledge, are all topics of epistem- 
 ology. For a brief exposition of the principles of epistemology, see 
 Dr. Dubray, Catholic Encyclopedia (s. v.), and Introductory Phi- 
 losophy, pp. 362-421. For a more extended discussion, see John 
 Rickaby, S. J., First Principles of Knowledge. For the historical 
 aspect, see Rev. W. Turner's History of Philosophy (Index). For 
 a more detailed treatment of the topics in the scholastic period, 
 see M. de Wulf (tr. P. Coffey), History of Medieval Philosophy 
 (Index). For a critical presentation of St. Thomas' teaching 
 concerning the acquisition of knowledge, see Brother Barbas, 
 "St. Thomas' Latest Critic," American Catholic Quarterly Re- 
 view , Vol. X (1885), pp. 36-51, especially pp. 46-51. In psy- 
 chology, the question is treated under the rubric of "perception." 
 (Cf. Maher, Psychology, Chap. VI, "Perception of the Material 
 World. Critical Sketch of the Leading Theories of External Per- 
 ception.") 
 
 ^ Much of the interpretation to be found in recent psychological 
 literature is based on the assumption that the principle of psycho- 
 physical parallelism is, if not a demonstrated fact, at least a good 
 working hypothesis. This is particularly noticeable in the follow- 
 ers of Professor Wilhelm Wundt. Titchener, as already noted 
 (p. 2O85 note 2), confuses this theory with the "double aspect 
 theory," which has a distinctly English origin (Cf. Maher, op. cit., 
 Chap. XXII). For historical and critical discussion of these 
 two theories, see Dr. Dubray's excellent monograph, The Theory 
 of Psychical Dispositions, pp. 144-148. 
 
Reflex Action as a Type, 236 
 
 As we have already seen, the nerve center has 
 "learned its lesson" when a free pathway has been 
 opened for the transmission of the nerve impulse from 
 sense to muscle.^ This is the reflex arc in its primitive 
 simplicity. Its investigation belongs to physiology. 
 But, according to the teaching of scholastic philosophy, 
 man, though constituted of body and soul, of "matter" 
 and "mind," is nevertheless a unitary being: the human 
 soul is the "substantial form," the "determining prin- 
 ciple" of the body.^ This is the conclusion drawn from 
 a careful analysis of man^s activities in general, and 
 of the process of perception in particular. If then the 
 reflex arc is really typical, it must help us to a better 
 understanding of the act of cognition proper to man 
 as man, viz., perception. 
 
 Aristotle was the first philosopher to teach that per- 
 ception through the senses is a kind of motion/ St. 
 Thomas reiterated the doctrine, but with the warning 
 
 ' See above, p. 229. 
 
 *St. Thomas, Surmna Theologica, T, q. 76; Thomas Harper, 
 Metaphysics of the School, Vol. II, Bk. V, Chaps. II, III; J. L. 
 Perrier, Revival of Scholastic Philosophy in the Nineteenth Cen- 
 tury, pp. 96-100. That the human soul is the unique and substan- 
 tial form of the body, is of faith. It was so defined at the gen- 
 eral council of Vienne, 1311; the Fifth Council of Lateran, 
 1512-17; and in a brief of Pius IX, June 15, 1857. In direct op- 
 position to this is the theory of psychophysical parallelism, that 
 mental processes and neural, especially cerebral, processes run 
 parallel courses, but never interact. 
 
 The principal topics of this article have already been consid- 
 ered in the general survey given in the preceding chapter. They 
 are now taken up with special reference to the reflex arc concept. 
 
 "De Physica, III, 1; De Anvma, III, 2. 
 
236 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 that such perception is something more than mere mo- 
 tion/ Now, in every motion we may distinguish three 
 stages : the first, before the impact of the moving body 
 with the body to be moved; the second, during the im- 
 pact, when the moving body is imparting its own mo- 
 tion to the mobile subject; the third, after the impact, 
 when the second body has received the motion. This 
 theory is manifestly an application of the principle of 
 causality. The motion imparted is an effect. It must 
 therefore be as like the motion of the first moving body 
 as its own nature and its condition at the time of im- 
 pact will allow ; for another principle also applies here, 
 viz., "Whatever is received is received according to the 
 nature of the recipient." ^ It is this theory of motion 
 and this application of the principle of causality that 
 will enable us to grasp the twofold truth that every act 
 of sense-perception is a direct cognition of reality, and 
 that the acts of perception performed by one and the 
 same sense may yet differ among themselves owing to 
 the diverse conditions of the sense itself at the moment 
 of functioning. However incomplete such knowledge 
 may be, it brings us into direct contact with a reality 
 other than ourselves. It is the indispensable condition 
 of intercourse with our fellow-man as well as of the 
 pursuit of natural science. 
 
 Like all other motions, this motion which lies at the 
 basis of sense-perception may be read in two ways : viz., 
 toward the starting-point, the terminus a quo^ — in this 
 
 ^ In Ilium de Anvma, Lect. 2. 
 
 *A. Farges, Acte et Pmssance, pp. 121 ff. 
 
Reflex Action as a Type, 237 
 
 case, the first moving body; and toward the point of 
 arrival, the terminus ad quern, the body which receives 
 the motion. Considered in the first way, L e,, in its 
 objective reference to the "thing known," the act of 
 cognition is called "perception" ; ^ viewed, on the other 
 hand, in its subjective reference as a modification of 
 the "knower," the very same act is called "sensation." ^ 
 The first act of perception performed by the human 
 individual in his life must include a minimal reference 
 to external reality, owing to the inchoate condition of 
 the organism and the dependence of the mind on bodily 
 conditions. It is the subjective factor' that dominates, 
 and it dominates rather as "feeling" than as "cogni- 
 tion." ^ But each subsequent perception, since it calls 
 for like nerve reactions, tends to bring about a corre- 
 sponding permanent modification of the nervous sys- 
 tem.* This is the physiological basis for the phenome- 
 
 ^ On the development of sense perception, see Maher, Psy- 
 chology, Chap. VII. 
 
 * Motion, the generic term, and movement, i. e., regulated mo- 
 tion, are the common elements to be found in the two Aristotelian 
 categories of "action," i, e., motion from an agent, and "passion," 
 i. e., motion as received into a subject. See n. 3, p. 216 above. Cf. 
 Harper, Metaphysics of the School, Vol. Ill, pp. 275-280, 310-313. 
 
 ^ "We may assume as practically beyond controversy that the 
 simplest and the earliest manifestations of consciousness, whether 
 considered philogenetically or ontogenetically, are at least pre- 
 dominantly affective states, which are probably best described as 
 pleasure-pain feelings." T. E. Shields, Psychology of Education, 
 pp. 197, 198. So also J. M. Baldwin, Handbook of Psychology, 
 Vol. II, "Feeling and Will," pp. 149, 150, and William James, 
 Principles of Psychology, Vol. II, pp. 7, 8. 
 
 * Cf . Titchener, Text-book, pp. 396 f . 
 
238 Psychological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 non of apperception.^ It is a mistake, however, to 
 regard perceptions in the adult man, or even in the 
 little child, as mere "groupings of sensations under the 
 laws of attention." ^ The human soul has from the 
 first moment of its existence the power of perceiving 
 something of the nature or "meaning" of the material 
 object which impresses sense. This power, however, 
 cannot operate, much less give external evidence of its 
 activity, until the requisite conditions are given. It is 
 usually through articulate speech that such evidence is 
 given, and the exercise of speech demands a high de- 
 gree of development in the human organism.^ Early 
 in the life of the child the so-called act of perception 
 becomes a synthesis not merely of present sensations 
 from the same external object, but even of present with 
 past sensations through imagination and memory. 
 Moreover, wherever the perception has "meaning," it 
 includes a true intellectual act, that of conception, by 
 
 ^ For experimental proof that after the earliest years each act of 
 perception is influenced by previous experience, see L. Witmer, 
 Analytical Psychology, pp. 3, 8, 11, 12; also M. W. Calkins, A 
 First Book in Psychology, Chap. IV and pp. 336-343. Titchener, 
 quite without warrant from his principles, since he is a partisan 
 of the "double-aspect theory" (pp. 39, 40), uses these modifica- 
 tions of the nervous system to explain attention, especially sec- 
 ondary (voluntary) attention. {Text-hook, pp. 39, 272, 274; cf. 
 Beginner's Psychology, pp. 95, 115.) 
 
 ^Titchener, Text-hook, p. 364. On p. 367 he says: "Perceptions 
 are selected groups of sensations, in which images are incorpo- 
 rated as an integral part of the whole process." He admits (p. 
 129) that it may be better to regard both sensation and image as 
 "sub-classes of a particular type of mental element." 
 
 ^ Cf. J. M. Baldwin, Mental Development in the Child and the 
 Racet pp. 69-74. 
 
Reflex Action as a Type, 239 
 
 means of which the mind apprehends more or less per- 
 fectly the nature of the object. The beginnings of this 
 process are already effected when the child asks What? 
 and Why? ^ It is the business of education to direct 
 and to develop this native curiosity and to train the 
 young to sustain the highest flights of science, phi- 
 losophy, or religious faith. No matter how lofty be the 
 idea, how sublime the inspiration, the matter of even 
 man's most attenuated abstractions of thought comes 
 to him from without, from his environment. Further- 
 more, if he could not attain to direct knowledge of a 
 reality external to himself, it would be utterly impos- 
 sible for him to have Christian faith. For this we have 
 the warrant of St. Paul: 
 
 "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be 
 saved. How, then, shall they call on Him in whom they have not 
 believed? Or how shall they believe Him of whom they have not 
 heard? . . . Faith then cometh by hearing." ^ 
 
 The first element, therefore, in the reflex arc con- 
 cept, may be regarded as typical in its most general 
 character, of all man's responses to stimuli,^ even of 
 
 * "Individual existence; comprises a nature that is of itself uni- 
 versal, and only the intellect can show this; yet it also comprises 
 the circumstances that individualize that nature, and these can 
 be perceived by sense. The union of these two (formal) objects, 
 different in nature but joined like a thing and its mode, is per- 
 ceived [note this] by the concurrence of two faculties, by a kind 
 of composite of sense and intellect, i. e,, by the particular reason 
 (ratio particularis)." St. Thomas, T>e Principio Individuationis, 
 2. Cf. Domet de Vorges, La psychologie et la perception thomiste. 
 
 2 Rom. X, 13-17. 
 
 " From this we are not to conclude that the formation of a con- 
 cept is a "development" of sense perception. Its efficient cause 
 is a distinctly spiritual principle, viz., the human soul, not the com- 
 posite of body and soul. The unit is the man. His operations 
 
240 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 such as take the form of sense-perception or intellectual 
 conception. 
 
 II. We must now consider the second element in the 
 reflex arc concept. In its biological aspect it corre- 
 sponds to the essential function of organic life, viz., to 
 the changing of food into the very substance of the 
 organism by which that food is appropriated. This is 
 known as the process of assimilation or metabolism or 
 integration. It is true that, according to the scholastic 
 doctrine of cognition, assimilation is also a vital stage 
 in every process of cognition. For, to a certain extent, 
 the object known assimilates to itself the knowing sub- 
 ject in the very act of knowing, so that the knower 
 becomes for the time being like to the known ; ^ inas- 
 much as every effect must be like to its cause at the 
 time to which it is subject to that cause and to the 
 degree and after the measure in which it is so subject. 
 But the mental integration that constitutes the second 
 element of the ^'triadic" concept, is more comprehensive 
 than this. It begins with apperception ^ and continues 
 
 are manifold and spring proximately from specifically different 
 principles. It is incorrect to hold with J. M. Baldwin that 
 percept and concept are "simply different aspects of one things — 
 a synthesis of elements." {Mental Development, p. 329.) 
 
 ^ On the other hand, the subject, by foUowing^ its appetencies, 
 becomes like thei object to which it tends; man, for instance, be- 
 comes like the object of his love. As by his intellect he becomes, 
 for the time being assimilated to the object of his thought, so by 
 his will he is assimilated to the object beloved. For spiritual ap- 
 plications of this principle, see Imitation, Bk. Ill, Chaps. V, VI. 
 
 ^ Professor Baldwin (Story of the Mind, pp. 12, 13) uses the 
 term in a very comprehensive sense: "The mind, we say, *apper- 
 ceives' the orange when it is able to treat all the separate sensa- 
 tioiis together as standing for one thing. An4 the various cir- 
 
Reflex Action as a Type. 241 
 
 under the laws of association/ The process of associa- 
 tion ^ itself is affected by many conditions. Among 
 the first of these is our inherited organism with its 
 native reflexes and instincts and its acquired habits of 
 enforcement and inhibition, together with all the influ- 
 
 cumstances' under which the mind does this give the occasion for 
 the different names which the earlier psychology used for marking 
 off different 'faculties.' [The last sentence evades the real issue. 
 'Occasions' are external to the individual. Both the 'faculties' of 
 Professor Baldwin and the 'tendencies' of Professor Titchener 
 are internal. As well might one say, Environment is everything; 
 plasticity and adjustment on the part of the individual having the 
 environment, are superfluous]. . . . Apperception, then, is the 
 one [sic] principle of mental activity on the side of its reception 
 [the first element in the reflex arc concept] and treatment of the 
 materials of experience" [the second element in the reflex arc 
 concept]. 
 
 ^Professor Baldwin (op. cit, pp. 15, 16) writes: "General psy- 
 chology has reached three great principles in its investigation of 
 knowledge. First, we have the combining tendency of the mind, 
 the grouping together and relating of mental states and of things, 
 called Apperception. Then, second, there are the particular rela- 
 tions established among the various states, etc., which are com- 
 bined; these are called Associations of Ideas. And, third, there 
 is the tendency of the mind to use its old experiences and habits 
 as general patterns or nets for the sorting out and distributing of 
 all the new details of daily life; this is called Assimilation" 
 
 ^The laws of association which we owe to Aristotle are re- 
 jected by Professor Titchener as being inconsistent with scien- 
 tifi.c psychology. For associations he substitutes "associative ten- 
 dencies." "When a number of psychoneural processes [i. e., 
 'brain processes that are correlated with mental processes'], all 
 of which are reinforced [by attention] and all of which stand alike 
 under the directive influence of a nervous disposition, occur to- 
 gether under certain favorable conditions, then associative tend- 
 encies are established among them, such that the recurrence of 
 any one tends to involve, according to circumstances, the recur- 
 rence of the others." {Beginner's Psychology, pp. 148, 164, 165.) 
 He then draws up an analogous formula for the recurrence of 
 perceptions and ideas (pp. 166, 168), and sums up both in the 
 statement; "The brain agsociates and meanings are associated." 
 
24i2 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 ences that unite to form our individual training and 
 education. Besides our habitual interests there are the 
 temporary variations due to passing interests and 
 phases of attention, both of which may be changed not 
 only by direct exercise of will-power, but even by the 
 rate of blood-flow. "Association" is distinguished from 
 that fusion of sensations which occurs in perception ; ^ 
 for the elements that "fuse" in perception are "periph- 
 erally excited" by stimulation of the external senses, 
 whereas in "association" one or both of the terms that 
 fuse is "centrally excited"; that is, is supplied by the 
 imagination. While associations are often classed as 
 simultaneous and successive, yet an attempt has been 
 made to reduce the former to the latter, on the ground 
 that "a simultaneous association consists essentially in 
 the persistence of the first term of a successive asso- 
 ciation." ^ 
 
 Be the explanation what it may, the association of 
 "ideas" is something more than a mere condition of 
 mental organization or integration; for association is 
 a fact.^ We have seen that very early in his life the 
 
 ^ See note 3, p. 239. 
 
 *M. W. Calkins, A First Book in Psychology, p. 359. Cf. pp. 
 63 ff., 116-126. 
 
 ' We do not object to Professor Titchener's "associative tend- 
 encies." Much might be said in their favor. We do insist 
 that they cannot be reconciled with either psychophysical paral- 
 lelism or the "double-aspect theory." Again we see no sufficient 
 warrant for his antipathy to consciousness {Beginner's Psy- 
 chology, pp. 324 ff.), nor for his definition of will (p. 255) as "the 
 general name for the sum total of tendencies, inherited and ac- 
 quired, that determine our actions." These tendencies are not 
 "will" properly so called; they are appetencieSj as we have 
 
Reflex Action as a Type, S,4i3 
 
 human individual not only associates sense-perceptions 
 of one and the same object, by which he is made aware 
 of its various sensile, concrete and individual qualities ; 
 but also associates such perceptions with some appre- 
 hension of the nature or "meaning" of the object hav- 
 ing these qualities. In other words, the term "percep- 
 tion" comes to signify a complex process by which the 
 object is known not only as individual, but also at least 
 implicitly as member of a class. It is this class con- 
 cept that is essential for purposes of definition ; for the 
 definition of a thing states, as far as possible, its proxi- 
 mate genus and specific difference.^ From the very 
 nature of the case, definition is ordinarily the crowning 
 result of prolonged and careful analysis. Hence it is 
 not a matter for surprise that Catholic philosophers, 
 following the lead of that Church of which they are 
 loyal members, should look upon "definition," and the 
 intellectual concept of which it is the expression, as 
 crucial tests in every system of philosophy. It is pre- 
 cisely here, too, that the weakness of not a little of 
 modern philosophy and of the "new" psychology be- 
 comes apparent.^ It is through the concept, the in- 
 
 learned from Aristotle and his lawful successors. Characteristics 
 of "will" appear repeatedly in Titchener's treatment of attention 
 (pp. 94-97). He seems to be actuated by a "bias," unwitting 
 perhaps, to reduce every mental process to sensation or a deriva- 
 tive thereof. 
 
 * Professor James' pragmatism does not allow him to define 
 any thing. To be consistent, he must limit himself to the "hit-and- 
 miss" (the "trial-and-error") method. Cf. J. T. DriscoU, Praff- 
 matism, pp. 18-39. 
 
 *This Father DriscoU (op. cit., passim) repeatedly points out 
 with reference to pragmatism. See also Richard Clarke, S. J., 
 
S44 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 tellectual idea, taken in its strict scholastic meanings 
 that we attain to certain knowledge of reality. It is an 
 intellectual conformity to the nature of the object b}^ 
 which it has been impressed or stimulated, and which, 
 in virtue of such conformity, it now knows. It there- 
 fore possesses what St. Thomas holds to be the char- 
 acteristic element in truth, viz., the squaring of thought 
 or intellect with object (adcequatio rei et intellectus).^ 
 Whereas, then, the presentation of the matter of 
 thought through the senses belongs to the first stage 
 of the "reflex arc," the conforming of the intellect to 
 the object exemplifies the second stage. It is the indis- 
 pensable condition of "definition," whether the term be 
 taken in its logical or in its optical signification. 
 
 IIL But the value of the intellectual idea does not 
 end even here. It extends to the third phase of the 
 "reflex arc concept." It is the response of the intellect 
 to the stimulus of the object. Wherefore the School- 
 men named it the verhum mentis, the interior spiritual 
 "word" whereby the intellect expresses to itself its 
 knowledge of the nature, the "quiddity," the "what- 
 
 "The Central Error of Modern Philosophy," American Catholic 
 Quarterly Review, Vol. XIII (1888), pp. 52-71, reprinted in his 
 Logic, pp. 97-139. A like confusion as to the real nature of per- 
 ception and of conception is seen in Dexter and Garlick's Psy- 
 chology in the Schoolroom (pp. 60 ff., 150-156). Even Professor 
 S. S. Colvin (The Learmng Process, p. 307) mistakes what the 
 Schoolmen call the "phantasm," ordinarily a product of the con- 
 structive imagination, for the concept properly so called, which is 
 the work of the intellect, a spiritual power. Hence the point of 
 his criticism of Dr. Moore, in the footnote, is really lost. 
 
 ^ Summa Theologica, I, q. 21, a. 2. 
 
Reflex Action as a Type, 245 
 
 ness" of the object/ The concept, or intellectual 
 idea, is indeed a "speaking likeness" — a species ex- 
 pressa — of its object.^ We conclude, therefore, that, 
 like Aristotle, the Schoolmen had their "reflex arc con- 
 cept" realized in the process of cognition in general and 
 therefore in its two great classes, viz., sense-perception 
 and intellection. Furthermore, they were careful to 
 teach that the third phase of the arc concept, viz., the 
 the reaction, is a vital element in every act of cognition. 
 Desire, volition, muscular movement may or may not 
 follow. The cognition is a complete act, a triadic 
 process, without that sequel, for it includes (1) the 
 action of the object on the cognitive power, which is a 
 true "receptor"; (2) a true union of the object with 
 the cognitive power whether the latter be sense or in- 
 tellect — and in effecting this union the power becomes 
 a true "conductor"; (3) the response of the power to 
 the stimulus in its own proper act of knowing, wherein 
 and whereby it becomes a true "adjuster." ^ 
 
 It becomes necessary here to insert a word of protest 
 
 ^ Intellectual ideas all vary in the clearness and fulness with 
 which they represent their object. Cf. Cardinal Zigliara's classifi- 
 cation {Summa Philosophica, t. i., Logica, §2). 
 
 ^ This is the real meaning of the species expressa. For the 
 scholastic theory of sense-perception and of intellection, see any of 
 the standard authors like Zigliara; also Brother Barbas, loc. cit., 
 Maher, Psychology, Chap. XV; Cardinal Mercier, La notion de 
 la Verite; Mivart, On Truth. In its broad lines the peripatetic, 
 or scholastic, theory of intellection is like that of sense-percep- 
 tion with the exception of the power of abstraction (intellectus 
 agens), which is, of course, unnecessary for the process of sensa- 
 tion. See also Brother Azarias, "Aristotle and the Christian 
 Church" (pp. 108-110) in Essays Philosophical. 
 
 ' See above, p. 155. 
 
246 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 against a prevalent doctrine which has been appropri- 
 ated by the system of pragmatism and the school of 
 "behaviorists." This is the principle that we think 
 only when we face a crisis, that our thought springs 
 from doubt as to how we may or should solve the prob- 
 lem presented by a difficult situation.^ This is almost 
 equivalent to saying that mental development is the 
 product of hesitation. Such was not the conviction of 
 the most constructive century of the medieval period. 
 Its attitude has been voiced by Tennyson : 
 
 Doubt not, go forward; if thou doubt, the beasts 
 Will tear thee piecemeal.^ 
 
 It is also expressed in no uncertain terms by Card- 
 inal Newman: 
 
 "Of 4;he two, I would rather have to maintain that we ought to 
 begin with believing everything that is offered to our acceptance, 
 than that it is our duty to doubt of everything. The former in- 
 deed seems the true way of learning. In that case, we soon dis- 
 cover and discard what is contradictory to itself; and error 
 having always some portion of truth in it, and the truth having a 
 
 ^ Cf. J. Dewey, Studies in Logical Theory, also various articles 
 in Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education; I. E. Miller, Psychology of 
 Thinking, pp. 1-3; Colvin and Bagley, Human Behavior, pp. 17, 
 18; S. S. Colvin, The Learning Process, p. 8. (Colvin and Bagley 
 are moderate in their views.) Cf. Titchener (Beginner's Psy- 
 chology, pp. 262, 263) : ''Most of our thought is either borrowed 
 thought or routine thought; that is, is not (in the psychological 
 sense) thought at all; independent, sustained, original thinking 
 is as rare as creative imagination or as sagacious and foresighted 
 action." It is, however, particularly in the following section on 
 "Imaginal [sic] Processes in Thought: The Abstract Idea" that 
 Professor Titchener is inaccurate (pp. 265-267). Yet, on the 
 other hand, see Brother Azarias, Phages of Thought and Criti- 
 cism, Chap. II, "On Thinking"; also Balmes' method of study 
 (Cf. p. vii, "Notice of the Author," in European Civilization). 
 
 'The Holy Grail 
 
Reflex Action as a Type. 9,Vl 
 
 reality which error has not, we may expect, that when there is an 
 honest purpose and fair talents, we shall somehow make our way 
 forward, the error falling off from the mind, and the truth de- 
 veloping and occupying it." ^ 
 
 Doubt is not a source of certainty. Such a view 
 could obtain only where the principles of extreme evo- 
 lutionism run riot. It is, of course, not more difBcult 
 to evolve mental certitude from doubt than it is to de- 
 velop organized matter from mere dead inorganic mat- 
 ter or to produce the most refined of human reasonings 
 from pure brute instinct. Yet all proof is absolutely 
 wanting that either phenomenon has ever been an actu- 
 ality. Psychological analysis attests, on the contrary, 
 that the presence of doubt inhibits action. This one 
 fact affords ground for an illuminating commentary on 
 the blindness of pragmatism ^ to the interests of its own 
 "idea" as a "plan of action." 
 
 The serried ranks of Catholic philosophy, therefore, 
 stand firm for the intellectual idea as radically different 
 from the sense-percept, on the one hand, and as a direct 
 medium of knowing "reality" on the other. Without 
 the true concept, the intellectual idea, man is isolated 
 from the external world and therefore from all the nat- 
 ural science of which it is the subject-matter. He be- 
 comes kin to the brute, and is therefore debarred from 
 mental science. For him there is no self-conciousness,^ 
 
 ^Orammar of Assent, p. 377 (ed. 1901). 
 
 2 For trenchant criticism of this aspect of pragmatism, see J. T. 
 Driscoll, op. cit., pp. 36-39. 
 
 ^ How are we to explain the strange antipathy to consciousness 
 shown by some psychologists and some behaviorists ? Cf. E. B. 
 Titchener (Begirmer's Psychology, pp. 324 ff.) ; J. B. Watson, 
 Behavior, Chap. I. 
 
S48 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 no responsibility, no God. The intellectual idea is, 
 therefore, an outpost of civilization, a condition of sci- 
 entific progress, a basic principle of all true art,^ an 
 element of all social service, the avenue of approach to 
 God.^ It is not without reason that He who is truth 
 itself, in His last prayer to the Father for His dis- 
 ciples, said: "This is everlasting life: that they may 
 know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom 
 Thou hast sent." ^ Not without reason did He prom- 
 ise to send them the Spirit of truth. 
 
 Article IV. — Habit. 
 
 We have said that the act of perception as elicited 
 by the human individual after he has come to the use 
 of reason is a very complex process. It includes not 
 only the sense-perception of which the mere animal is 
 capable and which is itself a synthesis of sensations, 
 but also at least one act of intellection, viz., that of 
 conception, the formation of a true idea. This would 
 seem to give sufficient ground for calling such a process 
 an act proper to man as man. There are, however. 
 
 ^ Cf. St. Thomas (Stmnna Theologica, la-IIae, q. 27, a. I, ad 3) : 
 "The beautiful adds to the notion of the good a peculiar relation 
 to the cognitive powers." Art seeks to represent the spiritual 
 under appropriate material symbols. It is "the expression of 
 ideal beauty under a sensile form" (Cours de Philosophie, par 
 F. J., F. S. C, p. 320). See also John Rickaby, S. J., General 
 Metaphysics, pp. 147-157. 
 
 ^ "God is a spirit, and they that adore Him must adore Him in 
 spirit and in truth" (John iv, 24). 
 
 'John xvii, 3. 
 
Habit. 249 
 
 other reasons of weight. Just as the act of sense- 
 perception comes to be influenced by past sense-percep- 
 tions which have in some way left their trace in the 
 nervous system giving it a special ^'set" or "bent" or 
 "disposition" ^ that modifies all subsequent acts hav- 
 ing even any element in common with the earlier proc- 
 esses, so too our judgments of to-day are influenced 
 by those of yesterday and by our hopes, desires or ex- 
 pectations for the morrow. If it be true, as indeed it 
 is, that our passing moods affect our attitude toward 
 persons and things, much greater must be the effect 
 wrought by that complex of emotions growing out of 
 heredity and experience, which we call temperament.^ 
 Moreover, "what one really desires is the best pos- 
 sible index of the sort of character one really pos- 
 sesses." ^ Now, the chief determinant of character is 
 habit. 
 
 The physiological basis of habit has in part been con- 
 sidered in connection with the beginning of the learning 
 process, in part also in connection with perception and 
 apperception.* On its psychological side, habit, in its 
 cognitive aspect, is intimately bound up with memory; 
 in its motor aspect, it is, outside of reflex and instinct- 
 
 ^Dr. Dubray, in the monograph already cited, shows how con- 
 sistent this statement is with the fundamental truths of Catholic 
 philosophy (pp. 28-32; 77-111; 151-167). 
 
 ^ "Whereas mood indicates a relatively transitory disposition 
 toward a certain emotional tone, temperament refers to a per- 
 manent tendency, contributing to the very warp and woof of 
 character." J. R. Angell, Psychology, p. 391. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 433. 
 
 * See pp. 213-216, 221,229, 235 ff., abov^. 
 
250 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 ive action, tHe chief determinant of behavior. It is the 
 psychological phases of habit that must now engage 
 our attention. The relations between habit and in- 
 stinct are close and persistent. The tendency to in- 
 stinctive action, however, is inherited; it is a race pos- 
 session. Habit, on the other hand, must be acquired 
 by the individual. When it has become a "second na- 
 ture," it may sink to the level of instinctive action 
 inasmuch as it no longer demands that control by con- 
 sciousness which was indispensable during its forma- 
 tion. Yet like many an instinctive act, an habitual act 
 may be accompanied by consciousness. Both psy- 
 chology and daily experience tell us that "habit is, in 
 general, the outcome of practice." ^ But to attain the 
 perfection requisite for habit, the practice must follow 
 certain well-defined laws.^ These have been reduced to 
 three heads: "(1) focalization of consciousness upon 
 the combination of movements to be made automatic; 
 (2) attentive repetition of this behavior; (3) permit- 
 ting no exceptions to occur until the habit has been 
 established." ' 
 
 The first law aims to assure a maximum degree of 
 efficiency with a minimum expenditure of time and 
 energy. To attain the purpose of the law it is neces- 
 sary to give attention not only to the movements ^ to 
 
 ^Titchener, Beginner's Psychology, p. 170. 
 
 ^ Professor James' Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, Chap. XIV, 
 is still a classic on "Habit." See also C. A. Dubray, Catholic Eur- 
 cyclopedia (s. v.). 
 
 ^ Colvin and Bagley, op. cit., p. 168. 
 
 ^ This term must be taken in its broad sense as regulated ac- 
 tion, and not limited to muscular movement. 
 
Habit. 251 
 
 be made, but also to their serial sequence, and their 
 mutual connection. The importance of this law is en- 
 hanced by the fact that to-day psychologists look upon 
 the "idea of movement" as the beginning of the move- 
 ment itself/ To get the best return from the first ef- 
 forts at forming a habit, it is, however, necessary like- 
 wise to heed Professor James' first maxim, that "in 
 the acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of an 
 old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as 
 strong and decided an initiative as possible.^' ^ 
 
 The second law guards against mere repetition, and 
 is designed to promote economy of effort. It therefore 
 implies due consideration of the intervals between repe- 
 titions and of the relative frequency of the repetitions. 
 As in beginning the habit, so in repeating the various 
 steps, it is important to keep attention and interest at 
 high tension. They are the mental correlates of that 
 strong nerve impulse which, according to the neurone 
 theory, overflows its wonted channel and opens up a 
 new outlet for the discharge of this nerve energy. 
 
 Hence the wisdom and the necessity of the third law. 
 The needed interest is best sustained when the first de- 
 mands made for the building of habit are so adjusted 
 as to fall easily within the capacity of the individual. 
 
 ^ The Catholic Church has through the centuries, after the ex- 
 ample of her Founder, emphasized this doctrine. She still teaches 
 that not merely bad deeds, but even evil thoughts and desires, are 
 sinful. The overt act only consummates the sinful attitude. Does 
 not psychology endorse this doctrine when it teaches that the 
 "idea" of movement is the beginning of the movement itself? (Cf. 
 J. M. Baldwin, Mental Development, p. 167.) 
 
 *Loc. cit. 
 
S5^ Psychological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 The initial successes thereby attained encourage him to 
 renewed and to greater efforts, and so feeling and emo- 
 tion are enlisted in the service of the will. There is a 
 world of sound psychology and of profound spiritual 
 truth in Professor James' two remaining maxims: 
 "Seize the very first opportunity to act on every reso- 
 lution you make, and on every emotional prompting 
 you may experience in the direction of the habits you 
 aspire to gain. . . . Keep the faculty of effort 
 alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day." 
 — Such are the general laws of habit. To them may be 
 added a special rule which has application even beyond 
 the school room: "Never begin the mastery of two con- 
 flicting types of behavior [such as the learning of two 
 foreign languages at the same period of time] unless 
 both can be continued long enough to become perma- 
 nently established habits." ^ 
 
 From the laws of habit-formation we can deduce the 
 factors that enter into the process. The first of these 
 is repetition. This is a comprehensive topic and em- 
 braces such subdivisions as (1) the number of repeti- 
 tions that prove most effective, (2) the intervals be- 
 tween the repetitions, (3) their frequency, (4) their 
 uniformity.^ A second factor is environment, which 
 
 * Colvin and Bagley, op. cit., p. 175. 
 
 ^ With reference to experiments on the development of memory 
 as a habit, see H. Ebbinghaus (tr. H. A. Ruger and C. E. Bus- 
 senius), Memory, and E. Meumann (tr. J. W. Baird), The Psy- 
 chology of Learning, Chaps. V-VII; for briefer statements, cf. 
 S. S. Colvin, op. cit., pp. 42 ff., 64 if.; E. J. Swift, Learning and 
 Doing, pp. 128-131. On the integration of habit in animals, cf. 
 J. B. Watson, Behavior, Chaps. VI, VII. 
 
Habit. 253 
 
 must remain constant throughout the period required 
 for building up the habit, or at least must be character- 
 ized by only few and gradual changes. Otherwise repe- 
 tition properly so-called becomes impossible. This is 
 true of both physical and social environment, of both 
 material and spiritual environment. The third great 
 factor in the forming of habit is motivation. While, in 
 the strictest meaning of the term, motivation can refer 
 only to man, yet by analogy it may be extended even to 
 the brute creation. So understood, it is virtually one 
 with Professor Baldwin's principle of "imitation," 
 which purports to give a "motive" for repetition. He 
 writes : 
 
 "If one of such creatures is to be fitter than another to survive, 
 it must be the creature which by its movements secures more nutri- 
 tive processes and avoids more dangerous contacts. . . . This, 
 too, is consonant with what we know of growth. Increased vital- 
 ity tends to enlargement, range of movement, activity, while 
 lessened vitality and organic decay tend to the opposite series of 
 effects, shrinking, contraction of range, torpidity. . . . Crea- 
 tures which have, in their own method of reaction, a way of reach- 
 ing after the stimulations which they need — a way of retaining 
 contact with the source of supply, say of food, or oxygen, or sun- 
 light, or heat, or of increasing their forces by actually moving 
 toward it, these creatures can, in a measure, find or make for 
 themselves! the regularities which the environment may not guar- 
 antee. . . . This expansion gives, by reason of the new stimu- 
 lations which it brings within range, a heightened central process 
 which is the organic basis of the hedonic consciousness; and this 
 issues in the varied excess movements from which the ontogenetic 
 adaptations of the organism are selected by association, as fitted 
 in turn to perpetuate the stimulations which give pleasure, and 
 so again to arouse the excess process, and so on." ^ 
 
 ^Mental Development, pp. 201, 204. "The existence of habits 
 implies an environment sufficiently constant to repeatedly present 
 
254 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 In other words, this theory attempts to account for 
 constantly recurrent repetitions of acts by the organ- 
 ism under relatively uniform conditions of environment. 
 While, then, it is true that "in the life of the higher 
 organisms, such as pre-eminently human life, the mind 
 has superseded all other agencies and processes in aid- 
 ing and securing adjustments to environment." ^ — in- 
 cluding such adjustments as are necessary for habit- 
 building, — yet man is still an organism, although not 
 merely an organism, and is, therefore, subject to such 
 conditions of organic life as are essential to that life. 
 This theory has the further advantage of giving a suf- 
 ficient reason for that strong and decided "initiative" 
 which Professor James thinks so necessary when we 
 attempt to inaugurate a habit. The element of the 
 "synapse" in the neurone theory specifies the kind of 
 inertia to be overcome. In habit-building, then, we may 
 find that "well begun is half done." These reflections 
 likewise suggest reasons why the forming of certain 
 habits should be apprehended as vital issues, appealing 
 to our deeper interests, in whose acquisition we must 
 guard against waste of time and energy. What has 
 been said of positive habits is equally true of the break- 
 ing of habits. In this case, the repetition is negative; 
 that is, the act is allowed to fall into disuse, or it is 
 inhibited by contrary acts which are themselves sub- 
 ject to the laws of habit formation. 
 
 to the organism the same or closely similar conditions." Joseph 
 Jastrow, Popular Science Monthly, Vol. XLII (Nov., 1892), pp. 
 36-48. 
 
 ilbid., pp. 233, 234. 
 
Habit. 9>55 
 
 These laws and these factors of habit help to eluci- 
 date the scholastic definition of habit as "a quality 
 difficult to change, whereby an agent whose nature it 
 is to work one way or another indeterminately, is dis- 
 posed easily and readily at will to follow this or that 
 particular line of action." ^ According, therefore, to 
 the view of St. Thomas, only such spiritual powers as 
 intellect and will are, properly speaking, capable of 
 habit. By extension, however, and in the measure of 
 their control by intellect and will, the term may also 
 be applied to acquired sensory and motor qualities. It 
 is in this sense that we are to understand Professor 
 Baldwin: "Habit is the tendency of an organism to 
 continue more and more readily processes which are 
 vitally beneficial." ^ 
 
 The effects of habit are commonly separated into two 
 classes ; such as are advantageous to the individual, and 
 such as are injurious. Of the former class many sug- 
 gestions liave already been given in treating of the laws 
 and of the factors of habit. On its physiological side, 
 habit means readiness to act, owing to the definite set 
 given to the nervous system by previous energetic repe- 
 titions, and the strong associations established. On its 
 psychological side, it therefore means a lessening of 
 effort, attended often with a corresponding increase of 
 pleasure at the facility with which the act is done and 
 the skill that marks its execution. It is only when the 
 attitude developed by habit is primarily passive that 
 
 * Jos. Rickaby, S. J., Moral Philosophy ^ p. 64. 
 ^Mental Development, p. 476. 
 
S56 Psychological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 the habitual act moves from the "focus" to the "mar- 
 gin" of consciousness. When, on the other hand, the 
 habit has an active connotation, although the feeling 
 of effort no longer appears, the attention which the 
 act receives is that of a master, a connoisseur ^ and 
 expert. This absence of effort leaves the mind free to 
 devote its energy to other pursuits, and hence it 
 is a condition of individual education and of social 
 progress. 
 
 The most serious of the dangers that may flow from 
 an acquired habit is said to be automatism, whereb}'' 
 the individual is held firmly in the grip of the habit. ^ 
 When the acquisition is a gain for man in his quest for 
 the realization of high ideals of intellect, morals, and 
 culture, this quality of habit is to be regarded as a 
 natural reward for his expenditure of time, energy, and 
 ability. It means that henceforth, in this particular 
 field of endeavor, he may not only have a wider out- 
 look together with broader and deeper interests, but 
 also may command greater skill ; for the laborious ef- 
 forts of an earlier stage have now become quasi-in- 
 stinctive reactions.^ But when such a habit is a pos- 
 
 ' Titchener {Beginner's Psychology, p. 102) calls this derived 
 primary attention. In his earlier Primer, he had called it sec- 
 ondary passive attention, a name that still obtains in many texts. 
 Baldwin (Feeling and Will, p. 49) presents only one side of the 
 case when he says: "Psychologically, it [habit] means loss of 
 oversight, diffusion of attention, subsiding consciousness." 
 
 2 "One can never say at what precise moment it may become 
 literally impossible to shake off a bad habit." J. R. Angell, op. 
 cit., p. 78. 
 
 ^ Cf . J. M. Baldwin: "Every new thing is an adaptation, and 
 every adaptation arises right out of the bosom of old processes 
 
Habit. 257 
 
 session that is injurious to man as man, then is he a 
 slave indeed. His lot is more pitiable than that of the 
 most wretched serf that ever lived. For his captivity is 
 from within. It is bred in bone and blood, in nerve and 
 sinew. Then, indeed, must he place his trust in the 
 power of the Most High if he would be free from this 
 thralldom. If he be a Catholic he will find in the sacra- 
 ment of penance a channel of divine grace, which, al- 
 though it does not take away all the effects of evil 
 habit, yet lessens the malignity of their influence and 
 gives the penitent special help to fight against his bonds 
 and to acquire the opposite virtue. Merely from a ped- 
 agogical point of view the penitent saints whom the 
 Catholic Church honors every year are a splendid stim- 
 ulus to all who read the lesson aright. They encourage 
 him who has gone astray, to return to God "with his 
 whole heart"; and they support the steps of the faint- 
 hearted. Hence the memory of their example is a social 
 asset of the highest value. 
 
 It is the external aspects of habit that engage the 
 popular mind. This, indeed, is to be expected; but it 
 is not an unmixed blessing that the same phase should 
 be emphasized by behaviorists like Professor J. B. 
 
 and is filled with old matter" (Mental Developmnent, p. 218). 
 "Apperception" limits this principle to the field of knowledge di- 
 rectly; indirectly, however, even here, it extends to attitudes and 
 behavior so far as these are affected by one's knowledge, convic- 
 tions, and point of view. For this there is a neural basis: "Each 
 new accommodation secured by central nervous development is 
 not new at all in principle, but rests directly upon imitation [in 
 its broader meaning] and association. Its characteristic feature, 
 however, is its complexity" (p. 287). 
 
S58 Fsychologlcal Aspects of Faith, 
 
 Watson and pragmatlsts who follow the lead of Pro- 
 fessor James. Such an attitude, in fact, must eventu- 
 ally run counter to the very tendency of mind which 
 behaviorist and pragmatist seek to propagate/ It has 
 long been known, it is even demonstrated by experiment, 
 that the ''idea" exercises a controlling influence over the 
 external action. The principle lies at the root of 
 Christian teaching: the decalogue is the corollary of 
 the creed. But the sole purpose of the idea is not the 
 mere control of our outward actions. Not even when 
 the idea is interpreted in the sense of John Locke is this 
 true. The cognitive activity of the animal — rational 
 or irrational — always tends at least to emphasize its 
 motor activity. Were this not true of man, he could 
 not be influenced by ideals. How profoundly the in- 
 dividual, through slight initial cognitive "variations" 
 or points of view, may eventually come to differ from 
 his fellows, is a study that falls under the heads of ap- 
 perception and the personal equation.^ It is aptly 
 illustrated in the divergent mental "set" of the typical 
 literary man and the scientist,^ a difference that is man- 
 ifested, but in a lesser degree, by many children very 
 
 ^ Cf. J. T. DriscoU, op. cit., pp. 26 f ., 38 f ., 93 f . 
 
 ^See above, pp. 36-38, 56, note 2. A good Scriptural illustra- 
 tion is found in the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke x, 
 30-37) ; another, in the conduct of Christ's hearers when the mys- 
 tery of the holy eucharist was first broached {John vi, 60-72). 
 
 ' Cf. Brother Azarias, "Literary and Scientific Habits of 
 Thought," Chap. V, in Phases of Thought and Criticism. A like 
 difference is drawn by Cardinal Newman {Grammar of Assent, 
 passim) between the Christian believer as such and the theologian 
 as such; v. g., "Credence," pp. 63-68 (ed. 1901). 
 
Habit. 259 
 
 early in the schoolroom in their antipathy for arith- 
 metic (often an indication of literary bent) with a cor- 
 responding liking for language study, and vice versa} 
 Moreover, since right habits are ordinarily the result 
 of enlightened practice, the following observations of 
 Professor Titchener are here timely, since they empha- 
 size the intellectual aspects of practice: 
 
 "In psychological experiments, the practiced observer has a 
 threefold superiority over the unpracticed: his attitude to the 
 stimuli, in successive observations, is more nearly uniform; his 
 attention is sustained at a higher level, and his discrimination is 
 more refined. This means that the focal mental processes are few 
 in number; that they are extremely vivid; and that they are pro- 
 tected by strong inhibitory forces, against intrusion from the 
 outside." * 
 
 Finally, the importance of right intellectual habits 
 is insisted upon by scholastic philosophers, notably by 
 St. Thomas Aquinas, and by the Catholic Church her- 
 self. The doctrine of the Angelic Doctor on the sub- 
 ject has been presented with discriminating comment 
 under three heads by Father Joseph Rickaby, from 
 whom we quote : ^ 
 
 "An intellectual virtue [habit] gives one a facility in doing a 
 good act; but a moral virtue not only gives facility, but makes 
 one put the facility in use [i. e., disposes one to exercise the fa- 
 cility]. . . . The special intellectual habit called art disposes 
 a man to act correctly toward some particular end, but a moral 
 habit toward the common end, scope and purpose of all human 
 
 ^ For this reason it is often wise to have a "double standard" 
 of classification in the lower grades in order to secure symmetry of 
 mental development for the child. 
 
 ^Beginner's Psychology, p. 170. 
 
 ^ Moral Philosophy, pp. 73-77. 
 
^60 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 life. . . . The grand distinction . . . seems to be this, that 
 moral habits reside in powers which may act against the dictate of 
 the understanding, . . . whereas the power which is the seat 
 of the intellectual habits, the understanding, cannot possibly act 
 against itself. . . . Absolutely speaking, intellectual virtue is 
 the greater perfection of a man. But moral virtue is the greater 
 safeguard. . . . Sin is worse than ignorance, and more against 
 reason, because it is against the doer's own reason." 
 
 Whence he concludes : "The moral virtues are the 
 virtues of this world, intellectual virtue is the virtue of 
 the life to come." 
 
 The attitude of the Catholic Church may be shown 
 from two viewpoints: 1. She teaches that there are 
 truths which we are bound to know either as means of 
 salvation or because of positive precept; 2. She con- 
 demns heresy as a most grievous sin against Him who 
 said, "I am the truth." And it was the Redeemer Him- 
 self who declared: "You shall know the truth, and the 
 truth shall make you free." ^ 
 
 Just as grace takes nature and transforms man into 
 the Christian, so the function of habit is to control, 
 co-ordinate, and ennoble instinctive behavior and thus 
 develop the human animal into the cultured and up- 
 right man. In both cases, the basis is the same ; but, 
 under favorable conditions the operation of grace be- 
 gins on a higher level than that of mere sentient life. 
 Of the ways of modifying instinctive behavior, three 
 may here be specially noted.^ Each of them illustrates 
 very clearly the motive power of feeling and emotion. 
 
 I. The first of these has to do with an undesirable 
 
 * John xiv, 6 ; viii, 32. 
 
 'Cf. Colvin and Bagley, op. cit., Chap. X. 
 
Habit. 261 
 
 instinct for the individual and for society; as, for ex- 
 ample, the impulse to appropriate to one's self what 
 rightfully belongs to another, whether the thing cov- 
 eted is material or spiritual, whether it be money or 
 honor. Here the problem is to associate a feeling of 
 deeply rooted aversion for the object which now ex- 
 cites cupidity and thereby to inhibit the tendency to 
 appropriate it/ The process must be continued until 
 the desired modification of the instinct has been estab- 
 lished as a habit. The doctrine of "moral training by 
 natural consequence" may sometimes be applied here 
 with good effect.^ In general, this method of modify- 
 ing instinct in children, and even in mere animals, is 
 regarded as belonging to the process of learning by 
 trial and error, the motive for getting the new habit 
 being chiefly the pleasure that is made to attend every 
 approach to its acquisition and the penalty with which 
 failure is visited. While the method applies especially 
 to children,^ it has its place throughout life in the work 
 
 ^ Cf . W. James, Talks to Teachers, pp. 40-43, who there repre- 
 sents the problem as the attempt to change the middle stage of a 
 reflex action, sensorimotor action in the case that he chooses, to 
 the level of conscious deliberation, and thereby delay the response 
 to the stimulus. A good illustration in the spiritual order is 
 found in the means which St. J. B. de la Salle recommends to his 
 Brothers {Collection, pp. 121, 122) to enable them to perform 
 their actions well. See p. 99, above. 
 
 * Paul Monroe {Text-book in the History of Education, p. 659) 
 formulates the doctrine thus: "Allow the child to suffer the 
 natural results of his own acts without the intervention of human 
 beings to protect or to punish." It is associated with the names of 
 Rosseau and Spencer, who, however, do not agree in their inter- 
 pretation of it. 
 
 ^ The tendency to sensorimotor and ideomotor actions, i. e., the 
 tendency to react upon impression without due reflection, is char- 
 
26^ Psychologic at Aspects of Faith. 
 
 of perfecting one's character. Here, too, success must 
 prompt to more earnest endeavor, and failure must be 
 met with a penalty which is not easily forgotten, and 
 which will prove to be an adequate safeguard against 
 future relapses. Pleasure and pain exercise the simplest 
 and the most direct influence in modifying instinctive 
 reactions. They are also the most general means, both 
 in space and in time, for they apply to both man and 
 the brute creation; and they lie at the root of all edu- 
 cation, whether primary or advanced. Indeed, the 
 great problem of education, as it is the great question 
 of life, is simply this : How may the appropriate feel- 
 ing be permanently attached to each of the great ob- 
 jects of human endeavor? It is not enough to link 
 pleasure so inseparably with an object that we no 
 longer perceive the reality except as tinged with 
 the associations arising from agreeable experiences. 
 Fear, too, must ever be held in reserve as an essen- 
 tial motive. For there are moments in life when man 
 tends to fall to the level of his so-called "primi- 
 tive" state. Then whether one be adult or child, he 
 
 acteristic not only of children in years, but also of many who have 
 become children through the infirmities consequent on old age, 
 who are in their "second childhood." One of the great evils attend- 
 ing the patronage of moving-picture shows is precisely the pro- 
 longing of this period of sensorimotor reaction — a period when ani- 
 mal instinct dominates and reason remains inactive. This is con- 
 firmed by the testimony of the State Board of Censors in many 
 parts of our land. See editorial. Catholic Standard and Times, 
 Feb. 26, 1916. A like statement might be made of not a few 
 vaudeville performances. — The action is called sensorimotor "if 
 the object is still perceived, as it is in the impulsive action proper, 
 and ideomotor, if the perception is replaced with an idea of ob- 
 ject." Titchener, Beginner's Psychology, p. 243. 
 
Habit. 2Q3 
 
 needs the restraint of a great and salutary fear.^ 
 While, then, the Christian dispensation teaches the 
 law of love, it also proclaims far and wide the doctrine 
 of everlasting punishment for the grievous sin in which 
 one dies ; for that sin persists as a state, it endures as 
 a habit of rebellion against man^s Creator. It was a 
 profoundly Catholic spirit that moved Dante to write 
 on the gates of hell the words which that abode of the 
 lost may be conceived as addressing now to man: 
 
 "To rear me was the task of power divine, 
 Supremest wisdom, and primeval love."^ 
 
 For the power of the Father, the wisdom of the Son, 
 and the love of the Holy Ghost have conspired to make 
 hell a strong buttress for man's tottering will. In the 
 Catholic Church also from the very beginning of her 
 existence penalties have been inflicted upon such of her 
 children as refused to conform to the law and to cul- 
 tivate the habit of upright living. The character of 
 these punitive measures has naturally varied with place 
 and time, since disciplinary rules are enacted and en- 
 forced for the benefit of the governed. Moreover, the 
 example of the Church in this respect has been followed 
 by all the religious orders in their efforts to approach 
 their respective ideals. 
 
 We have said that this method of modifying instinct 
 is exercised chiefly through pleasurable and painful re- 
 action; and this is true. But such a statement ex- 
 
 ' Rom. vii, 23-26. 
 
 ^Inferno, Canto III (Gary's trans. J. 
 
264 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 presses but a part of the truth. The method really 
 consists in 'Hhe attachment of another feeling with its 
 appropriate response to an object that naturally 
 arouses an undesirable instinct," ^ This suggests a 
 broader outlook, one, indeed, that is perfectly recon- 
 cilable with ripe scholarship, genuine culture, and ster- 
 ling spirituality.^ For in this method there are three 
 factors: (1) the object which is retained; (2) the feel- 
 ing toward it which is to be changed permanently and 
 is to prompt the opposite reaction to that which 
 springs from nature; (3) the point of view, which is to 
 transform the feeling. When so presented the method 
 is seen to be fundamentally one with the work of the 
 Christian Church from the very beginning.^ The first 
 duty of the Christian is to look upon his environment, 
 material and spiritual, physical and social, natural and 
 supernatural, with "the eyes of faith," as the Saviour 
 Himself would look upon it. Then he is to "enlarge his 
 heart," loving what Christ would have him love, and 
 hating what his divine Teacher would have him hate. 
 These emotions then release the "heightened discharge" 
 of energy which makes the reaction a decisive gain. 
 Have we not here reduced the scheme of the whole 
 Christian life, when dominated by living faith, to 
 
 ^Colvin and Bagley, op. cit., p. 150. 
 
 2Cf. The Imitation (Bk. I, Chap. XXV, 4): "Two things espe- 
 cially conduce to great improvement; namely, forcibly to with- 
 draw oneself from what nature is viciously inclined to, and fer- 
 vently to follow up the good one is most in need of." 
 
 ' This has been described by T. W. Allies with great philosophic 
 insight and historic evidence in The Formation of Christendom, 
 VoL I. 
 
Habit. 266 
 
 the elements suggested by the "reflex arc concept"? 
 II. A second method may be used to modify in- 
 stinct. Whereas the essence of the first method lies 
 in changing the feeling which the object naturally ex- 
 cites, the efficacy of the second consists in bringing 
 about a change of response, although the object and 
 the feeling remain unchanged. To a certain extent, 
 this plan of action presupposes the fruitful use of the 
 first method. It assumes that the child, for example, 
 knows something of the real worth of the object, that 
 it is attracted toward what is good and feels aversion 
 for what is evil, and that it is gradually giving to this 
 attitude of mind the stability that is characteristic of 
 habit. There remains, then, the response to the ob- 
 ject. Hence the problem is one of better or worse. It 
 opens up the discussion of a second great function of 
 education, viz., substitution : ^ the substitution of what 
 is better for what is merely good, of the higher mode 
 of action for the lower, of the rational and deliberate, 
 for the sensorimotor and reflex, of what is also social 
 for what is purely individual, of the supernatural and 
 Christian for the natural and merely human; finally, 
 of the viewpoint, the sentiments, the conduct of the 
 typical religious for the thoughts, the emotions, and 
 the behavior of the ordinary believer in Christ. It is a 
 region where every solid gain that is made means for 
 its possessor a wider outlook, a higher ideal, a more 
 
 ^ "Educationally, this method is important in connection with 
 most of the individualistic instincts, with some of the adaptive 
 instincts, and especially with the sex instincts." Colvin and Bag- 
 ley, op. cit, p. 157. 
 
^66 Psychological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 thoroughgoing sense of duty. Just as the first method 
 may, as we have seen, be used with great effect by the 
 Christian as such, so this second method seems to 
 have a special value for the novice in the religious life. 
 Dr. F. W. Foerster ^ draws a suggestive lesson from 
 decerebrate frogs. When acid is applied to the toes, 
 the frog immediately reacts, contracting its leg. So, 
 too, the average hot-tempered boy is prone to "hit 
 back" under supposed provocation. Is he not also 
 "decerebrate" when he yields to this impulse? Should 
 he not rather act according to the moral law, act as 
 becomes a human being? Better still, should he not 
 hearken to the divine voice that said: "But I say to 
 you, love your enemies, do good to them that hate 
 you"? ^ The novice professes to be seeking the higher 
 way. This method will leadliim thereto. At its lower 
 levels and in the natural order it is made the subject 
 of an urgent plea by all educators who have the wel- 
 fare of the country at heart. But it is only in Cath- 
 olic schools, especially when taught by religious, that 
 the principle can receive its normal development. How 
 important it is to favor and further such unimpeded 
 growth may appear more convincingly when we have 
 traced its relation to what Professor Baldwin calls the 
 principle of "accommodation," and which is intimately 
 
 ^ Jugendlehre, pp. 261 ff. About one-third of this book, con- 
 sisting of selected portions, has been translated into English and 
 published under the title. The Art of Living. It is a subject of 
 sincere regret that the whole book has not been done into our 
 tongue. 
 
 »Matt. V, 44. 
 
Habit, 267 
 
 bound up with habit in the work of education and of 
 life. 
 
 "Accommodation ... is opposed to habit in two ways: first, 
 it has reference to new movements, — a prospective reference, — 
 while habit has reference always to movements more or less old, a 
 retrospective reference, and so it runs ahead of habit; and second, 
 it tends, by the selection of new movements, to come into direct 
 conflict with old habitual movements, and so to disintegrate habits. 
 . . . But continued accommodation is possible only because 
 . . . habit all the time conserves the past and gives points 
 d'appui in solidified structure [i. e., in the nervous system] for 
 new accommodations. Inasmuch, further, as the copy [for imita- 
 tion] becomes, by transference from the world to the mind, capable 
 of internal revival in memory, accommodation takes on a new 
 character — a conscious, subjective character — in volition." ^ 
 
 If we now connect "accommodation" and "habit" 
 with the "neurone theory," which has many points of 
 resemblance to Professor Baldwin's "law of dynamo- 
 genesis," ^ we find that "accommodation" arises where 
 habitual actions take place under conditions of high 
 nerve-tension on their physiological side and interested 
 attention on their psychological side. Under such con- 
 ditions of "heightened discharge" of the nerve-currents 
 and of either voluntary attention or the attention due 
 to long practice and resultant skill,^ it is possible for 
 one to improve on his previous record; that is, to make 
 new "accommodations." These may bear primarily 
 an intellectual aspect, conferring deeper insight into 
 
 ^Mental Development, pp. 478, 479; cf. pp. 384, 387. 
 
 =» Ibid, p. 167. 
 
 ' Titchener calls these phases of attention respectively "sec- 
 ondary" and "derived primary" (Beginner's Psychology, pp. 95, 
 97; Text-book, pp. 268-276). 
 
S68 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 the nature of things, or they may chiefly affect con- 
 duct. In other words, they may be classed as illustra- 
 tions of the two great types of reaction — the sensory 
 and the motor/ When the environment remains con- 
 stant and the subjective conditions are practically un- 
 changed, then this new "accommodation'^ may in turn 
 become fixed as a "habit." Paraphrasing Tennyson's 
 lines, we insist, therefore. 
 
 That men may rise on stepping stones 
 Of their set habits to higher things. 
 
 This is the method of which the artist makes use 
 in developing his talent. This is also the method em- 
 ployed by the scientist for attaining skill in the tech- 
 nique of observation and experiment. This is the way 
 which the saints took in climbing to heights of sanctity. 
 "iWe think little of little things," says Father Faber. 
 "Yet this is the only road to solid virtue. It 
 is not what we read of in the saints that made them 
 saints: it was what we do not read of them that en- 
 abled them to be what we wonder at while we read ;" ^ 
 and again: "The saints were men who did less than 
 other people, but who did what they had to do a thou- 
 
 ^ See "Reaction," Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosojjhy and Psy- 
 . chology; also Titchener (Text-book, pp. 433 ff., Beginner'^ Psy- 
 chology, pp. 239 ff.), who adds a third, or mixed, type. It would 
 seem that Mary as presented to us in Scripture by St. Luke 
 (x, 38-42) belonged to the sensory type, while her sister Martha 
 was distinctly motor in tendency. The former is a model for the 
 contemplative religious orders; the latter, for those that follow 
 the active life. The third type would thus concern the great 
 majority of the orders. See also Baldwin, op. cit., pp. 460-466, 
 Social and Ethical Interpretations, p. 26. 
 
 2 Growth in Holiness, p. 297. 
 
Habit. 269 
 
 sand times better." ^ This therefore is the way which 
 the novice must regularly pursue if he would be true to 
 his calling.^ 
 
 III. The first two methods of modifying instinctive 
 behavior agree in this, that the object remains the 
 same. Yet they differ in important respects. The first 
 method seeks to modify response by changing the feel- 
 ing toward the object, the motive for the change be- 
 ing pleasure or pain, i, e., feelings that man possesses in 
 common with the mere animal order. The second method, 
 however, retains both the object and the feeling which 
 it excites, but seeks to elevate the tone of the response. 
 It is, therefore, a more difficult method, and presup- 
 poses some progress already gained in the control of 
 instinctive reactions. The third method retains only 
 the feeling, but detaches it both from the object by 
 which it is naturally aroused and from the response 
 to which it is naturally allied as being the motive for 
 that response, and attempts to graft it upon another 
 trunk; that is, upon a totally different object and a 
 widely different response. "This process is sometimes 
 called the sublimation of the instinct, and its importance 
 lies in the possibility of thus enlisting in the service of 
 an important social [and religious] ideal the powerful 
 force that the native feeling represents and the energy 
 that it may set free." ^ Holy Writ presents us with 
 
 ^ Spiritual Conferences, p. 280. 
 
 ^ Later, in the sociological section of this book, we shall see an- 
 other aspect of this principle. See pp. 323 f., below. 
 
 ^ Colvin and Bagley, op. cit., p. 159. As examples of eifective 
 attempts to "sublimate" primitive instincts they cite the Salvation 
 
270 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 an admirable illustration in the person of St. Paul. 
 All that intensity of feeling which, as member of the 
 "most strict sect of the Pharisees," he discharged in 
 unwearied labor for the cause of Judaism, he trans- 
 ferred, after his conversion (the word is most apt in 
 this case), to the defence of the Christian Church and 
 the propagation of Christian teaching. Even more 
 striking is the instance of Mary Magdalen. By the 
 influence of divine grace her love was lifted up from 
 earthly degradation and so purified and transfigured 
 as to be, according to the Saviour's promise, a sub- 
 ject of reverent wonder for all ages to come. Passing 
 beyond the apostolic age,^ we find another great ex- 
 ample of this third method in St. Augustine. Accord- 
 ing to his own testimony, as given in his Confessions, 
 motivation here operated very slowly. Finally grace 
 triumphed over nature and enabled him to transfer all 
 the ardor of his carnal love to an object worthy of 
 the highest and noblest offering the heart of man can 
 give. It was then that Augustine exclaimed: "0 
 Beauty ever ancient, O Beauty ever new! Too late 
 
 Army and the Boy Scout movement. These examples are good so 
 far as they go; but to the Christian spirit they are very pathetic, 
 because they are not so much better. They illustrate, too, the sad 
 limitations to which the religious spirit is subjected in a "public 
 school" atmosphere, and the weakness in the motivation of con- 
 duct which is therefore inevitable. 
 
 *The Imitation gives this pertinent suggestion (Bk. I, Chap. 
 XXV, 5) : "Turn all occasions to thy spiritual profit, so that if 
 thou seest or hearest any good examples, thou mayest be spurred 
 on to imitate them. But if thou observe anything that is blame- 
 worthy, take heed thou commit not the same: or if thou at any 
 time hast done it, labor to amend it out of hand." 
 
Habit. 271 
 
 have I known Thee ; too late have I loved Thee !" ^ 
 Then, too, he gave expression to his characteristic "in- 
 tegration" of the law of charity: "Love God, and do 
 what you please." ^ 
 
 These, then, are the three ways in which instinct may 
 be yoked to habit and made to carry man to the higher 
 levels of human life: (1) change the instinctive feeling, 
 (2) change the instinctive response; (8) change the ob- 
 ject — provide another and better object for both feel- 
 ing and response. When studied from these three 
 viewpoints, the great characters of Scripture and the 
 saints honored by the Catholic Church become subjects 
 of absorbing interest to the novice. Therein he will 
 find abundant food for the sentiments and emotions 
 that should sway his own conduct and draw him nearer 
 to their likeness. In the measure to which he assimi- 
 lates the spirit by which these great heroes of the 
 higher life were animated will he express in his own 
 personality an excellent type of the reflex arc concept. 
 With an eye to perceive what is worthy of imitation in 
 the leaders of men, he will labor calmly and persistently 
 to make it his own in thought and affection. Then 
 when the occasion calls, he will not be remiss in con- 
 firming the inner disposition with those outward deeds 
 which not only express one's mind but impart to it new 
 insight and power.^ 
 
 ^Bk. VIII, Chap. V, Bk. X, Chap. XXVII. 
 
 ' T. W. Allies, Formation of Christendom, Vol. I, pp. 175-216, 
 makes an interesting contrast between the pagan and the Chris- 
 tian spirit and ideals as typified respectively by Cicero and St. 
 Augustine. 
 
 ' Cf. G. H. Betts, Mind and Its Education, p. 250. 
 
272 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 It is in this connection that Professor J. M. Bald- 
 win's principle of "imitation" may be used with great 
 profit/ He maintains that to perform any action, to 
 make any movement, we must have a mental picture, no 
 matter how crude it may be, of the action to be done, 
 of the movement to be made ; otherwise, "we cannot suc- 
 ceed in making it." In the language of scholastic phi- 
 losophy, we need an exemplar cause, an ideal model. It 
 is chiefly by imitation that young animals and young 
 children learn. They have, indeed, an instinctive gen- 
 eral tendency to imitate, which, in the case of children, 
 replaces or supplements many special instincts. Be- 
 cause of its general character, this tendency demands 
 of them a corresponding degree of plasticity, in virtue 
 of which they can respond suitably to changes in their 
 environment. But it is only by "persistent imitation," 
 by the application of the "try-try-again" method, that 
 they gradually eliminate useless, wasteful, and uncouth 
 movements.^ Moreover, persistent imitation has a 
 much deeper significance than Professor Baldwin seems 
 to imply. This is the value of expression as an agency 
 in mental, moral, and religious development. As we 
 have already implied in speaking of perception, it 
 affects even our way of looking at things. "In the act 
 of expression the cognition itself is lifted into the life 
 
 ^ Cf. Story of the Mind, pp. 20, 28, 29, 39. 
 
 ^ Even these uncouth movements, when "massive and diffused" 
 are of direct use; for "They increase remarkably the chances that 
 among them all there will be some movements which will hit the 
 mark, and so contribute to his stock of correct equivalents." 
 (P. 39.) 
 
Habit. 273 
 
 of the mind and rendered functional in the subsequent 
 mental development.'^ ^ It is because of just this fact 
 that persistent imitation under conscious control does 
 produce skill, does excite interest, and does fix habit. 
 Even in the supernatural order it is true that faith is 
 dead unless it be given expression in works. ^ 
 
 Two other aspects of habit deserve notice, both of 
 which illustrate the general meaning of Weber's law 
 that "equal increments of sensation result from rela- 
 tively equal increments of the stimulus." ^ Hence we 
 must not expect to be aware constantly of the progress 
 that we are really making in the formation of a habit. 
 It is only the more notable stages of advance that we 
 can perceive. The moral is obvious. Far from being 
 discouraged when we fail to note any progress, we must 
 persevere in the regular performance of the acts by 
 which the habit is formed. Each act is a true stimulus 
 and each, taken with the acts that precede it and those 
 that follow it, contributes its influence to produce the 
 total effect. Each is a factor in the summation of 
 the stimuli. The converse is also true, viz., that negli- 
 gence as to the necessary acts, whether in their regu- 
 
 ^ Dr. Shields, Psychology of Education, Less. XX, "Expression," 
 p. 266. 
 
 ^Cf. James ii, 17. 
 
 ' G. T. Fechner sought to give this law further definition in the 
 form: "As sensation increases in arithmetical ratio, the stimulus 
 increases in geometrical ratio." For the limitations of both laws, 
 see Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology. For 
 other illustrations of E. H. Weber's law, see Titchener, Begin- 
 ner's Psychology, pp. 68, 69; Text-hook, pp. 219-223; W. Wundt 
 (tr. J. E. Creighton and E. B. Titchener), Lectures on Human and 
 Animal Psychology, Lecture II. 
 
274 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 larity, their frequency, or their intensity, has already 
 been undermining the habit for some time before we 
 notice the deterioration. Hence Professor Titchener 
 formulates the principle in this wise: "The less you 
 have of anything, the less need be added, and the more 
 you have, the more must be added, to make an appre- 
 ciable difference; or, on the negative side, . . . you 
 are not likely to notice any difference in your surround- 
 ings, so long as the relations of the stimuli remain 
 unchanged." ^ 
 
 The summation of stimuli may also have a social 
 bearing. It is a matter of common knowledge that 
 one's character is influenced by the company which one 
 keeps. When his associates are numerous and upright, 
 one's own nature responds through its nobler traits to 
 the cumulus of stimuli coming from the whole gather- 
 ing. The same principle explains in part why, on the 
 other hand, it is the baser elements of one's person- 
 ality that reveal themselves when one is but a unit in 
 a crowd or a mob. 
 
 What has been said of habit in general applies also 
 to the infused virtues which are received at baptism 
 and which are called supernatural habits by the Church. 
 They differ from other habits in that they are merely 
 powers and, of themselves, do not connote any facility 
 for the function for which they are bestowed. This 
 facility is, however, developed by systematic repetition 
 of the necessary acts ; that is, by correspondence to 
 divine grace. 
 
 ^ Begvimer'8 Psychology, p. 69. 
 
Summary. 275 
 
 There can be no doubt that the reflex arc concept 
 applies to the whole region of habit. For the matter 
 of the habit comes directlj'^ or indirectly as a sugges- 
 tion from either one's physical or one's social environ- 
 ment. This is the sensory or cognitive element. The 
 building of the habit represents the central stage, that 
 of integration. The motor element is found not so 
 much in the act that flows from the habit, as in the 
 facility to perform the act, the attitude, or "set" of 
 both mind and organism. 
 
 Article V, — Summary. 
 
 Psychology, as the science of mental processes, con- 
 notes the subject from which the processes arise^ the 
 agent that produces the actions. The processes may 
 be conveniently reduced to the three classes of cogni- 
 tions, feelings, and appetitions or conations. All three 
 are elements in perception as exercised by the indi- 
 vidual after he has come to the use of reason. Percep- 
 tion may therefore be considered as typical of man as 
 man. By it he attains some direct knowledge of the 
 external world as well as of himself. Christian faith 
 supposes the reliability of both senses and intellect 
 under normal conditions, for "faith cometh by hear- 
 ing," and the message has to be interpreted by a duly 
 authorized teacher. 
 
 The reflex arc concept may be applied in a manner 
 entirely consistent with Catholic philosophy and the 
 tenets of the Church, not only to sense-perception, but 
 also to intellection, to the formation of the intellectual 
 
276 Psychological Aspects of Faith, 
 
 idea. It may be extended beyond the natural order to 
 the supernatural, since it is by the truths of the latter 
 that man is to square his life. It applies to habit as 
 well as to the acts by which the habit is formed ; for all 
 habit has at least a remote sensory basis, it must be- 
 come a second nature, and it must include the attitude 
 of readiness to act. A habit is consequently a state. 
 The Christian character is marked by certain intellec- 
 tual and moral habits; that is, by virtues. These are 
 expressed outwardly in the Christian life. "For, with 
 the heart we believe unto justice; but, with the mouth, 
 confession is made unto salvation." ^ These acts of 
 virtue in turn react upon the mind, defining more 
 clearly its perception of what the habit really means. 
 In this way it happens that impression and expression, 
 becoming by turns cause and effect, set up that "cir- 
 cular process," which, according to Professor Bald- 
 win's view,^ characterizes persistent imitation. The 
 greater the perfection and fervor with which these acts 
 are performed, the more effective is the circular process. 
 
 ^Rom. X, 10. 
 
 *He says (Mental Development^ pp. 24, 25): "The self-repeat- 
 ing or circular type of reaction, to which the name imitation is 
 given, ... is seen to be fundamental and to remain the same, 
 as far as structure is concerned [?], for all motor activity what- 
 ever: the only difference between higher and lower function being, 
 that, in the higher, certain accumulated adaptations have in time 
 so come to overlie the original reaction, that the conscious state 
 which accompanies it seems to differ per se from the crude imi- 
 tative consciousness in which it had its beginning." — This is not 
 quite accurate. Man is a unit, constituted such by his soul. His 
 acts of sensitive consciousness and sense-perception first prepare 
 for and then accompany his intellectual acts, but the latter are 
 not developed out of the former. 
 
Summary, 277 
 
 Moreover, it is constantly adding to its strength by 
 means of the new material which, in the form of sug- 
 gestions,^ the mind is ever gathering from the example 
 of others.^ 
 
 In the development of the Christian character, and 
 therefore in the formation of the typical novice, habit 
 has a role of surpassing importance. It must trans- 
 form instinctive behavior, and make it the servant or 
 the ally not only of right reason and ethical conduct, 
 but of a life conformed to Christian and religious 
 standards. In the accomplishment of this task there 
 are three successive stages of perfection to be attained 
 according as the essence of the new habit is concerned 
 with the substitution of a new feeling for the old in- 
 stinctive attitude, or a new response, or a new object 
 for both feeling and response. After the example of 
 his divine Master, the novice must be ready to say: 
 Behold, I make all things new.^ As in the reflex arc, 
 the first element is the sensory impression, which is also 
 the indispensable condition of the other two elements, 
 so in the acquisition of Christian virtue, the first requi- 
 site is a knowledge of the truths of faith. How the 
 
 * Professor Baldwin, defines "suggestion" {Mental DevelopTnent, 
 pp. 106, 106) as "the tendency of a sensory or an ideal state to 
 be followed by a motor state." Elsewhere (Feeling and Will, p. 
 297) he says it is "typified by the abrupt entrance from without 
 into consciousness of an idea or image, or a vaguely conscious 
 stimulation, which tends to bring about the muscular or volitional 
 effects which ordinarily follow upon its presence." 
 
 ^ See pp. 228 f ., above, on the "facilitation" or "reinforcement" of 
 stimuli. Cf. Titchener, Begirmer's Psychology, pp. 106 ff., 164, 
 249 ff. 
 
 ' Apoc. xxi, 6. 
 
278 Psychological Aspects of Faith. 
 
 novice is trained to change these truths from subjects 
 of mere study into impelling motives of conduct must 
 now engage our attention. We must study the very 
 process by which he develops his personality and be- 
 comes a power for social betterment. Obviously the 
 topic is not without interest to all those who either are 
 or who hope to become worthy teachers of youth. Not 
 so obviously, but none the less truly, does it likewise 
 concern all those to whom the brotherhood of man is 
 not a mere figment of the mind, but a fundamental 
 reality of life. 
 
BOOK IV, 
 MEDITATION. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Psychology of Meditation. 
 
 Article I. — The Nature and Matter of Meditation, 
 
 Meditation is a form of prayer in which the human 
 soul cleaves to God with all its powers, organic and 
 spiritual.^ It is an oblation to God not only of mind 
 and heart and will, but also of the powers by which the 
 matter for cognition, affection, and resolution is sup- 
 plied and conserved. Even the forces that guide and 
 strengthen the necessary functions of mere organic life 
 must contribute their share to make the offering com- 
 plete; since, as Father Faber reminds us, "spiritual 
 strength is very needful for praying well." ^ We have 
 said that perception is a process peculiar to man as 
 man. We must now add that mental prayer in some 
 form is a work proper to man as a rational creature. 
 If he be also a Christian, then he is doubly bound to 
 apply himself to meditation; for he has been taught 
 the great truths of which the Catholic Church is the 
 
 * Cf. St. John Baptist de la Salle, Explanation of the Method 
 of Mental Prayer, pp. 1, 2. Father Faber says: "Mental prayer 
 means the occupation of our faculties upon God, not in the way 
 of thinking or speculating about Him, but stirring up the will to 
 conform itself to Him and the affections to love Him." Growth 
 in Holiness, pp. 245, 246. 
 
 ■ Growth in Holiness, p. 243. 
 
 28X 
 
282 The Psychology of Meditation, 
 
 custodian, and through prayer, which is of divine ordi- 
 nance, and through the sacraments, which are of divine 
 institution, he receives special help from on high not 
 only to know the truth more perfectly, but also to love 
 it more ardently, and practise it more faithfully/ In 
 his life as Christian, therefore, he is daily, nay hourly, 
 called upon to exercise the functions that mark the 
 three great divisions of psychology as the empirical 
 study of the mind.^ If he be not only a Christian, but 
 also a novice preparing to assume the obligations and 
 to practise the virtues of the professed religious, then 
 meditation is absolutely indispensable to him; for he 
 must live in a Christian atmosphere, he must habitually 
 look at the circumstances of his life, the situations in 
 which he is placed, from a Christian viewpoint, he 
 must set his affections upon those things that are dear 
 to the heart of Christ. Only thus will he be disposed 
 to follow the example of his divine Master. Moreover, 
 each generous endeavor to walk in the footsteps of his 
 Saviour will give him new insight into His teachings 
 and move him to greater loyalty ^ in His service. In 
 
 * Cf. Father Faber (op. cit., p. 245) : "The most serious business 
 of the interior life is mental prayer. . . . Spiritual writers, 
 and even saints, have sometimes spoken as if meditation were al- 
 most necessary to salvation. ... It is, however, quite certain 
 that mental prayer is necessary to perfection, and that there can 
 be nothing like a spiritual life without it." 
 
 ^ Cf . C. A. Dubray, S. M., Introductory Philosophy, p. 22. 
 
 ® Cf. Imitation (Bk. I, Chap. I, 2) : "He who would fully and 
 feelingly understand the words of Christ must study to make his 
 whole life conformable to that of Christ." Modern psychology 
 confirms this admonition of St. John Baptist de la Salle {Collec- 
 tioTfi, p. 182) : "Do not be so much concerned about knowing how 
 
The Nature and Matter of Meditation, 283 
 
 other words, constant striving to approach the Chris- 
 tian ideal sets up a process of persistent imitation, and 
 keeps one in the "way of perfection." It is precisely 
 from this point of view that meditation is of such trans- 
 cendant importance. It not only conserves the habitual 
 dispositions that mark the Christian life, but it makes 
 them the basis for new "accommodations." In the 
 words of St. Francis de Sales, one of the doctors of the 
 Church : 
 
 "Reflection on different subjects, for the purpose of discover- 
 ing their nature, their causes, effects, and properties, is called 
 study. Our minds then resemble young bees, which being yet un- 
 able to make honey, rest indiscriminately upon flowers and leaves 
 to feed on them. When we reflect on divine truths, not precisely 
 to acquire a knowledge of them, but to draw holy affections from 
 them, we meditate. In this exercise of meditation our mind . . . 
 imitates the bees which labor in making honey, by reflecting on 
 divine truths and mysteries, to extract the sweetness of divine 
 love from them. . . . We may then define this exercise of mind 
 to be a thought continued and maintained with a voluntary atten- 
 tion for the purpose of exciting the heart to produce holy affections 
 and form salutary resolutions." ^ 
 
 Meditation is therefore an exercise which is of in- 
 terest to the ps3^chologist, since it employs all three of 
 the kinds of process which it is his business to study: 
 viz., cognition, feeling, conation — thought, affection, 
 and deed. It is of interest to the behaviorist also; for 
 the chief purpose of the thought in which the mind is 
 then engaged is to excite the feelings and emotions, 
 
 to do things perfectly as about doing them as perfectly as you 
 know how; for, by doing them as well as you know how, you de- 
 serve to learn and to know that which you do not yet know." 
 ^A Treatise on the Love of Ood (O'Shea's ed.), pp. 260, 261. 
 
^84 The Psychology of Meditation. 
 
 especially an ardent desire to acquire the special good 
 which one needs most and to shun the special evil into 
 which one is most exposed, or disposed, to fall. This 
 desire is the great moving force in effecting the fer- 
 vent amendment of one's life/ In the words of Professor 
 Angell, already quoted: "What we really desire is the 
 best possible index of the sort of character one really 
 possesses." ^ Meditation has at least one line of con- 
 nection with the work of the experimental psycholo- 
 gist; for it is pre-eminently a reaction experiment.^ 
 Finally, it is a practice whose value the sociologist 
 cannot afford to ignore, since it is one of the principal 
 means by which the Christian spirit is fostered and 
 strengthened in the individual. It is therefore one of 
 the chief sources of peaceful social intercourse, one of 
 the strong supports of all co-operation that aims at the 
 highest good of the race.* 
 
 We have just asserted that meditation is a reaction 
 experiment, and such it really is. For it is a series of 
 movements made in response to an external stimulus. "^ 
 The stimulus is divine grace, the intimate touch of the 
 very spirit of God Himself. The movements are the 
 thoughts, the affections, and the resolutions freely and 
 fervently made under the impulse of this grace. Like 
 
 ^The Imitation (Bk. I, Chap. XXV, 6) emphasizes the impor- 
 tance of the resolution taken by the religious. 
 
 ^Psychology, p. 433. 
 
 ' Cf. above, pp. 216, note 3, and 268, note 1. 
 
 * For aspects of meditation that concern the teacher, see above, 
 pp. 56-58 and below, Art. Ill, p. 300. 
 
 « Cf. Titchener, Text-hook, p. 428. 
 
The Nature and Matter of Meditation. 285 
 
 all reaction experiments, it demands careful prepara- 
 tion on the part of the reactor to dispose him to react 
 properly/ This preparation is both external and in- 
 ternal. Externally it consists, first, in the removal of 
 distracting stimuli or in withdrawal from their influ- 
 ence. This is the negative phase. Under this head 
 also belong both silence ^ and solitude, whether actual 
 or virtual. In the practice of both these means the 
 "Fathers of the Desert" have been the great exemplars 
 for all succeeding ages of religious. External prepa- 
 ration likewise includes, as a corollary of silence and 
 solitude, the shunning of all distracting occupations 
 that are not dictated by duty or intelligent charity. 
 On the other hand, external preparation has a positive 
 phase, which consists in attention to the holy presence 
 of God. For in prayer the soul holds converse with its 
 Maker. This attention is voluntary and deliberate.^ 
 
 ^ On the history and technique of the reaction experiment, cf. 
 Titchener, Experimental Psychology, II, i (1905), pp. 141 ff; ii, pp. 
 326 ff., 356 ff.; in briefer outline. Beginner's Psychology, pp. 236- 
 242. 
 
 * It is worthy of note that "silence" retains its Latin significa- 
 tion of refraining from unnecessary noise, as contrasted with 
 taciturnity or the mere refraining from speech. 
 
 'See above, pp. 54, 214, n. 4, 238, 256, n. 1. According to 
 Titchener (Text-book, pp. 271-273), primary or passive or in- 
 voluntary attention is rooted in biological conditions. Stimulated 
 as it is by novelty and suddenness and movement, "these have a 
 special biological meaning, for the new and the sudden and the 
 moving are probable sources of danger, and the creature that 
 failed to attend to them would soon have ceased to exist." On 
 the other hand, "secondary attention is a consequence of a com- 
 plicated nervous organization," capable of being acted on by two 
 or more stimuli at the same time. . . . "There is yet a third 
 stage in the development of attention; and this consists in nothing 
 
286 The Psychology of Meditation, 
 
 When the novice makes regular and frequent and fer- 
 vent acts of attention (all three qualities are requisite)^ 
 he lays the foundations for a habit of attention. The 
 habit may even start from ejaculatory prayer made at 
 short intervals if the words be said slowly and feelingly. 
 From this humble and semi-vocal beginning may be de- 
 veloped that interest and absorption in divine things 
 which marks the third and crowning stage in the de- 
 velopment of attention.^ Thus the "habit" of ejacu- 
 latory prayer becomes the basis for "accommodation" 
 to a higher level of prayer, whose special characteristic 
 is "derived primary" attention to the things of God. 
 When this is supplemented by that form of "selective 
 attention" which habitually seeks out the Christian 
 aspects of environment, both physical and social, it be- 
 comes the "spirit of faith," the distinguishing trait of 
 the deeply Christian life. "The just man liveth by 
 faith." ^ Since this spirit of faith is the very soul of 
 
 else than a relapse into primary attention" (due to increasing 
 interest and absorption in the work). Difficulties gradually dis- 
 appear and distraction dies away. "There could hardly be a 
 stronger proof of the growth of secondary out of primary atten- 
 tion than this fact, of everyday experience, that secondary at- 
 tention is continually reverting to the primary form." Hence he 
 calls the third stage "derived primary" attention. Cf. Beginner's 
 Psychology, Chap. IV. 
 
 ^ See p. 267, above, for a brief statement of Professor Baldwin's 
 principle of "accommodation" as a factor in improvement upon 
 *Tiabit." 
 
 ^ Here too the laws of habit building and the methods of acquir- 
 ing habits that modify instinctive action (in this case, instinctive, 
 or passive, attention) are to be applied. See above, pp. 250-255, 
 260-271. 
 
 » Heb. X, 38. 
 
The Nature and Matter of Meditation. 287 
 
 the religious vocation, it must find expression. This 
 it does, according to St. John Baptist de la Salle, in 
 three distinct ways, the first of which has to do with 
 the environment of the Christian and religious, while 
 the other two have to do with his experience either as 
 an agent, or as affected by the action of other agents — 
 i, e., they apply to his active or to his passive experi- 
 ence." Now the exercise of the spirit of faith indicates 
 a high degree of internal preparation for the making 
 of mental prayer. It thus appears that careful atten- 
 tion to the requisites of external, or objective, prepa- 
 ration will lead insensibly to the realization of the in- 
 ternal, or subjective, conditions of meditation. 
 
 But this result cannot be accomplished without inhi- . 
 bition, without the exercise of that "activity of the 
 higher centers in the nervous system that checks, re- 
 presses, and holds in control some of the activities of 
 the lower centers." ^ In the spiritual life this inhibition 
 is known as mortification, and comprises more particu- 
 larly mortification of the senses and of the intellect. It 
 consists essentially in the cutting off, first, of such 
 gratifications of sense and of intellect as injure the 
 spiritual life and put obstacles in the way of medita- 
 tion ; and then, of such as substitute a lower good, from 
 the viewpoint of faith, for a higher one.^ "If any man 
 
 * There are three "effects which the spirit of faith produces in 
 those possessing it": "first, to regard everything with the eyes of 
 faith; second, to do nothing but with a view to God; third, to at- 
 tribute aU to God." Collection, p. 53, ed. 1890. 
 
 2 Colvin and Bagley, Human Behavior, p. 124. 
 
 ' For analogy, cf. Angell, Psychology, p. 69, "Inhibition of Use- 
 less Movements." 
 
288 The Psychology of Meditation, 
 
 will come after Me," says Christ, "let him deny him- 
 self." ^ 
 
 There is still another requisite which must be in- 
 cluded as part of the remote and habitual preparation 
 for meditation. It is humility. For it is in and 
 through meditation that the soul really "learns" the 
 great truths of religion. In the lower forms of organic 
 life plasticity is a correlate of environmental influence. 
 In the pupil this disposition to be guided and in- 
 structed by the teacher is known as docility, the quality 
 of "teachableness." In the Christian it is the virtue 
 of humility, the great lesson which his divine Teacher 
 formally enjoins upon him as Christian.^ If we ac- 
 cept St. Teresa's definition of humility as "truth," 
 and consider in the light of that truth the absolute de- 
 pendence of the creature on the Creator, then we may 
 see that this attitude is akin to the sincerity, the hon- 
 esty which should actuate every scientist in his observa- 
 tions and experiments. 
 
 Three things, then, are essential constituents of the 
 remote preparation for mental prayer: 1, the removal 
 of distracting stimuli or withdrawal from their influ- 
 ence (this is what ascetic writers call "detachment from 
 creatures") ; 2, application to the presence of God 
 (mortification, or self -discipline, is an indispensable 
 means to attain both these results) ; and 3, humility, 
 the one quality that specially befits the intelligent 
 creature as such when in presence of its Creator — the 
 
 ^Matt. xvi, 24. 
 2 Matt, xi, 29. 
 
The Nature and Matter of Meditation. 289 
 
 virtue ignored and desecrated in their fall by both 
 Lucifer and Adam,^ the correlate in the supernatural 
 order of plasticity in the order of nature. "For God 
 resisteth the proud, but to the humble he giveth 
 grace." ^ 
 
 Besides the remote preparation for meditation, — a 
 preparation that is really a phase of "habit," — there 
 is a proximate preparation by which the novice "ac- 
 commodates" himself to the requirements of this spir- 
 itual exercise. It consists in preparing over-night the 
 principal points of the meditation, in foreseeing the 
 fruit to be gathered from it, the obstacles thereto, 
 especially such as may arise from one's predominant 
 fault or "ruling passion," and finally in exciting in the 
 heart a fervent desire to profit to the full from this 
 prayer on the morrow. This is the first half of the 
 proximate preparation. It has a value for the novice 
 which he is likely to overlook and which, nevertheless, 
 has been conclusively demonstrated by psychological 
 
 * Although the order is different, the substance is the same as 
 that given by St. Teresa {Way of Perfection, tr. J. Dalton, pp. 
 23 fP.): 1. fraternal charity, 2. disengagement from creatures, 3. 
 humility. "More admirably sufficient means from the psycho- 
 logical point of view could hardly have been devised," says Anna 
 Louise Strong {The Psychology of Prayer, pp. 67, 68). "First, 
 create a need for companionship by emphasizing the social nature 
 of self; second, deprive this need of its usual satisfaction, that 
 all the energy of desire may go into the outlet that is allowed. 
 Third, determine the outlet which this companion-seeking shall 
 take by assuming an attitude of mind which could only admit as 
 alter [in the Latin sense of the term] a self great enough to in- 
 spire humility." 
 
 « 1 Pet. V, 6. 
 
290 The Fsychology of Meditation, 
 
 experiments. Professor Titchener reminds us ^ that 
 "schoolboys, with a keen sense for economy of effort, 
 learn their lessons only partway overnight, and find 
 that a hasty review next morning is enough to fix 
 them; the associative tendencies work while their own- 
 ers sleep." But the novice does not limit his prepara- 
 tion to the night before. He renews it in the morning, 
 keeping his mind intent upon it until the time for 
 prayer has come. This is the second half of the proxi- 
 mate preparation. He thereby secures for himself all 
 the associative benefit which the schoolboy derives from 
 his method of study and in addition such an increase 
 in the depth and the number of associations as is guar- 
 anteed to him by his greater interest and higher pur- 
 pose in meditation.^ 
 
 To these two preparations which stimulate so pow- 
 erfully the "habit" of Christian faith, St. de la Salle 
 added for his Brothers a third, or immediate, prepara- 
 tion, which, as its name indicates, so directly precedes 
 the mental prayer as to be virtually an integral part 
 of it. He was moved to do this both from his own ex- 
 perience of the difficulties and distractions that beset 
 the teacher's life, and from his careful study of the 
 
 ^Beginner's Psychology, p. 158; cf. Text-hook, p. 387. Both 
 texts discuss the results of experiments in "association." 
 
 ^Father Faber says that what we have called the "proximate" 
 preparation is "concerned with three times, the time when the sub- 
 ject of prayer is given overnight, the time which elapses between 
 then and the waking in the morning, and the third is from our 
 waking to our beginning of our prayer. The first requires atten- 
 tion; the second a review of the subject and a strict silence; and 
 the third the affections of love and joy wherewith we should ap- 
 proach prayer" (op. cit, p. 267). 
 
Constituent Elements of Meditation, 2591 
 
 results attained by the first Brothers. This prepara- 
 tion he divided into three groups of three acts each: 
 the first group, referring to God and exercising the 
 spirit of faith; the second group, concerning the re- 
 ligious and disposing him to greater humility; the last 
 group, relating to our Lord, and tending to inspire 
 confidence in His merits/ These acts are therefore a 
 kind of intensive epitome of the dispositions that are 
 requisite for the remote preparation. 
 
 Article 11. — Constituent Elements of Meditation, 
 
 Father Faber assures us that,^ "there can be nothing 
 like a spiritual life" without mental prayer. The no- 
 vitiate is the training school for a special form of the 
 spiritual life. The novitiate must therefore aim to 
 make the aspirants for the religious life proficient in 
 mental prayer. In view thereof it teaches the novice 
 that prayer, and in particular, meditation, is a sacra- 
 mental ; that, after the analogy of the sacraments, it 
 consists of matter and form, or ''body" and "soul"; 
 that the remote matter of mental prayer consists in 
 cognitions, feelings, conations, the general subject- 
 matter of psychology; that the proximate matter con- 
 sists of such thoughts, affections and resolutions as 
 refer to a given mystery of religion, or to a Christian 
 and religious virtue, or to a Gospel maxim. These 
 
 ^ The first ^roup includes acts of faith, adoration and thanks- 
 giving; the second, acts of humility, confusion and contrition; the 
 third, acts applying Christ's merits, seeking union with Him and 
 invoking His Spirit. (Collection^ pp. 24-27.) 
 
 ^ Growth in Holiness, p. 246. 
 
^9S The Psychology of Meditation, 
 
 thoughts, affections, and resolutions possess a kind of 
 unity arising in part from the subject of meditation 
 itself around which they cluster ; in part also from their 
 psychological relationship, since the resolution is 
 prompted by the affections,^ and these in turn spring 
 from reflection on the mystery, or virtue, or maxim. 
 The absolutely indispensable unifying principle, how- 
 ever, is the form or "soul" of the meditation, viz., the 
 Spirit of God, who is invoked at the close of the im- 
 mediate preparation.^ 
 
 ^ Motives are ideas that stir us to desire, to resolve, and to act. 
 Their "driving power" is due not only to their objective value, but 
 also, and even to a greater extent, to the dispositions of the agent 
 here and now. The one great purpose of mental prayer is to sug- 
 gest, reinforce, and assure right "motivation." In this lies the 
 whole secret of spiritual progress. The subjective "pull" or 
 "push" of the motive, from the viewpoint of the natural order, 
 will be determined in part by the personal equation of the agent 
 ("habit"), in part by his present disposition — i. e., by appercep- 
 tion ("accommodation"). Cf. pp. 55 f., 82, above. 
 
 ^The method adopted by St. de la Salle with a special eye tc 
 the difficulties and advantages of religious teachers is a modifica- 
 tion of the Sulpician method. Father Faber believes that all 
 other methods may be reduced either to this or to the Ignatian 
 method. {Growth in Holiness, p. 247. On the differences be- 
 tween the two, see pp. 248-262.) He holds that the Sulpician 
 method draws its inspiration and fruitfulness from the older tra- 
 ditions — in other words, from the very traditions that St. Philip 
 Neri, "the apostle of Rome," the founder of the Oratory, looked 
 upon as so vital a factor in developing the Christian life in his 
 own day. If the method of mental prayer helps to form a special 
 religious type, we should expect that in the case of the Jesuits 
 and the Christian Brothers, for example, however closely their 
 pupils might be respectively graded in their studies, however much 
 grades might be duplicated, yet each group would bear the stamp 
 of a different Christian type. Each order makes a different 
 spiritual appeal. "These two methods of prayer are both of them 
 most holy, even though they are so different. There is a different 
 spirit in them, and they tend to form different characters. But 
 
Constituent Elements of Meditation, 293 
 
 Having glanced at the constituent elements of men- 
 tal prayer, we may now look to the integral parts of 
 the "body" of prayer, since it is only the body that is 
 directly within the control of the novice. After the 
 analogy of the human body, which we may divide into 
 head, trunk, and members, we may distinguish the 
 integral parts of the meditation as the considerations, 
 the affections, and the resolutions/ It is in the con- 
 siderations that the novice is especially called upon 
 to exercise attention, usually secondary or voluntary 
 attention. Here also he utilizes the ideas and prin- 
 ciples which he has drawn from his spiritual readings, 
 from the instructions of his superiors, and from the 
 example of his companions. Here, too, shines out con- 
 spicuously the worth of careful preparation, for the 
 special trait of attention is "clearness." ^ The vague, 
 the obscure, the indefinite, cannot excite emotion and 
 urge on to action.^ Hence the novice is counseled to 
 make the particular examen ^ an efficacious means for 
 the carrying out of the resolutions which he makes in 
 meditation. 
 
 they cannot be set one against the other. They are both from one 
 Spirit, even the Holy Ghost, and each will find the hearts to which 
 they are sent. Happy is the man who is a faithful disciple of 
 either!" (Faber, op. cit, p. 262.) Cf. Newman, Sermons on 
 Various Occasions, pp. 224, 227, 242. 
 
 ^ When the subject is a mystery, one is often helped by pictur- 
 ing the scene, and even, after the fashion of the great Catholic 
 painters, by introducing oneself into the scene. A like practice 
 may be followed for the virtues and the maxims, if our Lord be 
 pictured as practising the virtue or teaching the maxim. 
 
 2 Cf. Titchener, Text-book, pp. 278 ff. See also above, p. 56. 
 
 « Cf . 1 Cor. xiv, 7-9. 
 
 * See above, pp. 50-53. 
 
294 The Psychology of Meditation, 
 
 The matter which the novice utilizes in making the 
 "considerations" in his meditation comes from his own 
 experience. As we have already seen, "experience" is, 
 according to Professor Wundt, the subject-matter of 
 psychology ; ^ according to Professor Dewey, the de- 
 terminant of both curriculum and method in the school- 
 room ; ^ according to many pragmatists,^ the basis of 
 truth and the criterion of morality. It is well then to 
 look more closely into the characteristic traits of that 
 "experience" which the novice brings to his meditation. 
 These have been described by the philosopher, Leon 
 Olle-Laprune not only with great "clearness of thought 
 and lucidity of expression," * but also with a penetrat- 
 ing insight into their relations to faith. 
 
 "Everything," he says, "begins with experience, although experi- 
 ence itself neither is everything nor contains in itself the reason of 
 things. Everything begins with experience, because all reality is 
 given to us before we can make it the object of speculative 
 thought,' and all reality is given to us just as it is in its inmost na- 
 ture, viz., active and in action. We are subject to the action of real 
 objects, and, since we are real ourselves, we act upon them. In the 
 
 ' See p. 207. 
 
 ^Cf. Studies in Logical Theory; also "Curriculum," "Method," 
 "Philosophy of Education," in Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education. 
 
 » Cf . W. James, The Meaning of Truth. 
 
 * Father Driscoll (op. cit., pp. 247, 248) insists that owing to 
 his pronounced lack of these two qualities Henri Bergson is not a 
 French philosopher, but only a philosopher who writes in French. 
 — Olle-Laprune, on the other hand, not only had a firm grasp on 
 the subjects on which he lectured, but he was an exemplary 
 Catholic as well. He has been called "the greatest Catholic lay- 
 man who has appeared in France since Ozanam." 
 
 "This is but another form of Aristotle's dictum, "There is 
 nothing in the intellect that has not been in some way in the 
 senses." Cf. p. 119, above. 
 
Constituent Elements of Meditation. 295 
 
 one case as in the other, there is experience. To have experience 
 of anything is to test it, to receive its action, or to feel some of 
 its effects. But we also experience what we do ourselves. More- 
 over, is not the very act of making a trial of anything a kind of 
 experiment in which we put our powers to the test and thereby 
 become intimately acquainted with what we really are? Experi- 
 ence is, therefore, the first condition of every intellectual act, be- 
 cause experience is the point of contact where objects and the 
 soul meet. ... To pretend to certitude and yet take no account 
 of actual experience is equivalent to willing that man be other 
 than he actually is. . . . 
 
 "Imagination is bound up with experience. ... Of the soul 
 as a principle of action, and of action itself taken in its own in- 
 trinsic nature ... no representation is possible; for how can 
 we really imagine what is simple? What we do experience mo- 
 mentarily in ourselves is a multiple and diverse life, a series of 
 spiritual movements, so to say — a ceaseless diversity in the very 
 continuity of existence. Hence it is that imagination is always 
 associated with consciousness and memory. Ever present to our- 
 selves and, in a sense, present also to our past and even to our 
 future, we, on the one hand, recall what we have experienced or 
 done, and, on the other, we feel that we are capable of enduring 
 or of producing a thousand like events. Thus it comes to pass 
 that we continually have in our minds a more or less distinct image 
 of our interior life. We are thus enabled to unite to the concep- 
 tion of truths that are wholly speculative, the living image of our 
 personal experiences.^ On every side, therefore, we meet with 
 that reality without which there can be no certainty for us. . . . 
 
 "Every truth of the moral order is first of all an object of ex- 
 perience, in the sense that it is first received in a fact or event 
 that may properly and expressly be called practice. . . . Every 
 
 *Cf. Chaps. XXI, XXII, Comhattimento Spirituale (the Spir- 
 itual Combat). This excellent little book written by the pious 
 Theatine priest, Lorenzo Scupoli, in the sixteenth century, was 
 for over eighteen years the constant companion of St. Francis de 
 Sales, who drew from its pages the principles by which he was 
 guided in his direction of souls. The book, because of its prac- 
 tical character, forms an admirable complement to Thomas k 
 Kempis' Imitation. Cf. Bp. Camus, Spirit of St. Francis de Sales, 
 p. 92, 
 
^96 The Psychology of Meditation, 
 
 injunction that has the character of obligation moves us and 
 solicits us to act. Our will then either submits to the command 
 or resists it. Were it apparently to remain indifferent, it would 
 even then elicit an act of self-determination, for it would follow 
 a particular mode of resistance. Thus it is that in every practical 
 event there is an influence exercised upon us by the irresistible 
 power of conscience, and that varying degrees of action are al- 
 ways emanating from us in response to the appeal addressed 
 to us." ^ 
 
 In the view of St. de la Salle, the Sulpician method 
 of meditation was specially adapted not only to foster 
 the spirit of prayer in his own Brothers, but also 
 through them to keep it active in the breasts of their 
 pupils. It is, in fact, this general plan that his dis- 
 ciples follow not only in teaching catechism to their 
 classes, but even in making the morning reflections in 
 the schoolroom on the great truths of religion and on 
 the Gospel maxims of conduct, by which they seek to 
 excite their pupils both to say the beads well and to 
 form practical resolutions for their conduct through- 
 out the day.^ ^ It is opportune, then, to cite a page 
 
 ^De la Certitude Morale, pp. 28-34. Cf. H. Joly, Psychologie 
 des Saints, Chaps. IV, V. 
 
 ^ This is, of course, an illustration of the "social" value of medi- 
 tation, but it has a place here. Other illustrations are found in 
 the ever-increasing number of persons who flocked to the great 
 Christian solitaries — some to beg prayers and receive advice, 
 others to be enrolled as disciples. — Should we not look here for 
 the source of that loyalty to the Brothers of the Christian Schools 
 that marks the typical "Brother's boy," and that is summed up in 
 saying, "Once a Brother's boy, always a Brother's boy"? 
 
 ^ That the catechism lesson and the class "reflection" are ex- 
 amples of applied meditation will be evident to any one who 
 reads attentively even the Table of Contents of the Catechist's 
 Manual. In nearly every chapter he will find abundant confirma- 
 tion of this fact. See also the "Model Catechisms," pp. 201-237. 
 
Constituent Elements of Meditation. 397 
 
 from Father Faber ^ on the "body" of this form of 
 prayer, in which the novice utilizes so many psychic 
 "processes," and by which he "learns" the "habit" of 
 prayer. If he is faithful to the practice, his daily 
 meditations become both a cause and an effect of that 
 spirit of faith which is the very heart of his calling. 
 He, therefore, comes to realize in his own daily prac- 
 tice and in the supernatural order that "circular 
 process" of "persistent imitation" which Professor 
 Baldwin considers essential for the mental development 
 of the individual.^ 
 
 "It is in the body of the prayer that its chief characteristics are 
 to be found. It consists, as the Ignatian does, of three points [but 
 they are developed in another way than that followed by the 
 Ignatian method] ; the first is called adoration, the second com- 
 munion, and the third co-operation. In the first we adore, praise, 
 love and thank God. In the second we try to transfer to our own 
 hearts what we have been praising and loving in God, and to par- 
 ticipate in its virtue according to our measure. In the third we co- 
 operate with the grace we are receiving by fervent colloquies and 
 generous resolutions. The ancient fathers have handed down to 
 us this method of prayer as in itself a perfect compendium of 
 Christian perfection. They call it having Jesus before their eyes, 
 which is the adoration; Jesus in their hearts, which is the com- 
 munion; and Jesus in their hands, which is the co-operation: and 
 in these three things all the Christian life consists."^ 
 
 ' Op. cit., p. 258. 
 
 ^ See above, p. 52. Cf. Baldwin (Mental Development, p. 133) : 
 "The essential thing, then, in imitation over and above simple 
 ideomotor suggestion is that the stvmulus starts a motor process 
 which tends to reproduce the stvmulus and, through it, the motor 
 process again. From the physiological side we have a circular 
 activity — sensor, motor; sensor, motor; and from the psychological 
 side we have a similar circle — reality, image, movement; reality, 
 image, movement." 
 
 ^ Since these are the views of the "ancient fathers," the "reflex 
 arc concept" is very old indeed. See also above, pp. 56, 57. 
 
298 The Psychology of Meditation, 
 
 The novice confirms his resolutions by uniting his 
 dispositions with those of his divine Teacher and Model 
 in the performance of the mystery, or the practice of 
 the virtue or the maxim which has been the subject of 
 meditation, begging the special grace or spirit of the 
 mystery or virtue or maxim from God Himself, and 
 asking the intercession both of those saints who ex- 
 celled in this spirit and of those who are specially in- 
 terested in his own religious progress/ These petitions 
 are well adapted to increase the humble confidence 
 which St. Teresa considers an essential condition of 
 advancing in the way of perfection.^ He concludes 
 his meditation by a summary review, followed by three 
 special acts. In the first, he thanks God for the favors 
 received during this time of prayer. He thereby pro- 
 duces in the supernatural order a state of soul analo- 
 gous to that of intensified interest in the subject and 
 increased attention to it on the plane of purely natural 
 psychology, a psychic condition which is often at- 
 tended on the physiological side by a "heightened dis- 
 charge" of nerve currents. The act of thanksgiving 
 may be followed by an entire oblation to God of the 
 meditation and of all one's thoughts, desires, words, 
 and deeds of the day ; for it is the holocaust which the 
 novice owes to his Lord and Master. Just as gratitude 
 disposes the religious to profit more fully by favors 
 
 ^ Here again one of the "social" aspects of faith appears. 
 
 ^'Cf. Faber (op. cit., p. 31): "St. Teresa says humility is the 
 first requisite for those who wish to lead an ordinarily good life; 
 but that courage is the first requisite for those who aim at any 
 degree of perfection." 
 
Constituent Elements of Meditation, 299 
 
 from on high, since it increases, so to say, his spiritual 
 "plasticity," so the act of offering inclines God to be 
 generous to him who gives his whole heart/ Last of 
 all, the meditation is placed in the hands of our Blessed 
 Lady, whom Scripture presents to us as a perfect 
 model of prayer ^ and as an advocate having tran- 
 scendent power over the heart of her divine Son.^ 
 
 Such, then, briefly is in outline one of the oldest 
 forms of meditation in use in the Catholic Church. In 
 its essential features it led to heights of spirituality 
 not only the great hermits of the desert, not only the 
 throngs of cenobites who followed close upon them, but 
 great doctors of the early Church, like Augustine and 
 Jerome, Gregory and Basil, Athanasius and John 
 Chrysostom. It developed that type of Christian 
 heroism which St. Philip Neri, one of the modern 
 saints, engaged in "modern" educational work, longed 
 to emulate.* It is manifest, then, that mental prayer 
 is one of the greatest agencies for spiritual progress 
 which the novice has in his power. But to justify more 
 fully the attention given here to the subject, it is now 
 in order to ask whether it has also any pedagogical 
 value as such. 
 
 ^Thus the psalmist sings (Ps. cvi, 8, 9): "Let the mercies of the 
 Lord give glory to Him: and His wonderful works to the children 
 of men. For He hath satisfied the empty soul, and hath filled the 
 hungry soul with good things." — Cf. Faber, op. cit., pp. 75 ff. 
 
 ' Luke ii, 19. 
 
 'Luke, i, 38; John ii, 1-11. 
 
 * For indications of the characteristic features of other forms 
 of meditation, see Faber, op. cit.. Chap. XV, especially pp. 
 248-265. 
 
300 The Psychology of Meditation, 
 
 Article III, — The Pedagogical Value of Meditation, 
 
 In his instructions to his Brothers, St. John Baptist 
 de la Salle tells ^ them to hold mental prayer in great 
 esteem. For this attitude of mind he assigns two rea- 
 sons: one of which appeals to all Christians as such, 
 since meditation is the '^foundation and support of all 
 virtues ;" the other, to his own disciples, since mental 
 prayer is the source of the light and grace that they 
 need. Lest he be misunderstood, he is careful to specify 
 that meditation is the source of the light and grace 
 needed not only for personal sanctification, but also 
 for the fulfillments of one's duties. On first reading, 
 even on second or third or tenth reading, the statement 
 seems extravagant. Even when grace is interpreted 
 as signifying supernatural help only (and this is man- 
 ifestly his meaning), and as necessarily implying the 
 natural order which it perfects, the words are such as 
 to give one pause. ^ Yet de la Salle had intimate ex- 
 perience, not only of the difficulties of teachers as a 
 class, but also of the trials of the gifted and the 
 mediocre, of the fervent and the lukewarm. He was 
 not a man to make rash statements. With a view then 
 to explain certain principles of education, it is emi- 
 nently proper to take this page not from his life only, 
 but from the history of education, wherein he also oc- 
 cupies a place that is not without importance. 
 
 I. (a) In order to form some appreciation of its 
 
 ^ Recueil de diff events petits traitSs a Vusage des Frdres des 
 E coles ChrMiennes (ed. 1902), pp. 123, 124. (Eng. tr. Collection 
 of Short Treatises (ed. 1890), pp. 96, 97; (ed. 1906), p. 124). 
 
 ^The French text says "toutes les graces." 
 
The Pedagogical Value of Meditation, 301 
 
 pedagogical value, it is well to consider meditation 
 from two points of view: (1) that of method; (^) that 
 of elements. Both may be regarded as aspects of the 
 principle known as the "transfer of training." ^ In its 
 technical sense, transfer of training is ''the ability to 
 use in one act the elements used in another act." ^ As 
 regards the method of mental prayer, we have distin- 
 guished the period of preparation from that occupied 
 by the meditation itself. Furthermore, we have noted 
 three stages in the very process of preparation. In 
 these respects, as well as in its elements, meditation is 
 akin to "study." 
 
 (1) It is admitted by leaders in educational psy- 
 chology that the student who has gained the "con- 
 cept of method" by the right pursuit of one sub- 
 ject will to that extent be benefited when applying 
 himself to another subject where a like method is to be 
 used.^ What, then, is common to the method of medi- 
 tation and the method of study.? Study has been de- 
 fined as "the vigorous application of the mind to a 
 subject for the satisfaction of a felt need." * This, and 
 
 ^Transfer of training is an offshoot of the perennial discussion 
 of "formal discipline." A good examination of the pros and cons 
 of the value of such discipline may be found in W. C. Ruediger's 
 Principles of Education, pp. 76-116, 156, 157, 163. Cf. above, p. 
 212, note 1. 
 
 * Fracker, University of Iowa Studies in Psychology, June, 1908, 
 p. 86. 
 
 «Cf. W. C. Ruediger, op. cit., pp. 113 ff.; E. L. Thorndike, 
 Principles of Teaching, pp. 243 ff., who speaks of this as "identity 
 of procedure." 
 
 * F. McMurry, How to Study and Teaching How to Study, p. 
 
302 The Psychology of Meditation, 
 
 much more is meditation, which, when rightly con- 
 ducted, helps us to "feel" the need and to foresee the 
 means both of supplying the need and overcoming the 
 obstacles that may arise thereto. It includes that 
 "higher meaning" of study, which, according to Miss 
 L. B. Earhart,^ is "mental activity directed toward 
 the assimilation of ideas, the reorganization of experi- 
 ence." As we have already seen, the whole purpose 
 of meditation is to "assimilate" the fundamental ideas 
 of the Christian religion so thoroughly as to make 
 them the directing and controlling factors of one's 
 whole life. There is, therefore, sufficient warrant for 
 assuming, if not "identity of procedure," at least sim- 
 ilarity of method,^ between what is to-day held to be 
 the proper method of study and the formal ways, or 
 "methods," of meditation which the Catholic Church 
 approves.^ A closer relation is found to exist between 
 
 ^Systematic Study in Elementary SchooU, p. 11. 
 
 ^ Cf. W. H. Heck {Mental Discipline and Educational Values, 
 pp. 94-100) : "A general benefit can be derived from specific train- 
 ing in so far as the person trained has consciously wrought out, 
 in connection with the specific training, a general concept of 
 method, based upon the specific method used in that training. 
 The building of such a concept follows the same laws as does 
 the building of other concepts. ... As the general concept of 
 method can be used for guidance in several activities, it can be 
 considered a common, transferable element in them all; but this 
 common element, this connecting link, is one of knowledge of how 
 to do, not of ability to do. . . . Therefore, it is well to urge 
 a careful, systematic procedure both in specific training and in i£e 
 formation of general concepts of method." 
 
 ^ In its strict and proper sense, "studying" is held to be not 
 'psychological merely, as involving the employment of mental proc- 
 esses, but logical also, as involving "a thought-situation or prob- 
 lem, and thinking which is influenced by the nature of such a sit- 
 
The Pedagogical Value of Meditation, 
 
 study and meditation when we examine the "factors of 
 logical study." ^ The first of these is the recognition 
 of a "problem." Every meditation which the novice 
 makes presupposes such a problem. How, he asks, am 
 I to correct what has been amiss in my conduct? how 
 supply what has been lacking? The example of Christ 
 and of His saints supplies an ideal to be reproduced, 
 and therefore presents a problem to be solved; viz.. 
 How, on the one hand, am I to remove the obstacle to 
 the realization of this ideal in m3^self ; and, on the other, 
 how am I to secure and to apply the means requisite 
 to attain my ideal? These very questions show the 
 connection between meditation and the second factor 
 in logical study, viz., the "gathering of data bearing 
 on the problem." They also imply the third factor, 
 viz., the "organization of this material into groups of 
 related ideas." As to the fourth factor, "the exercise 
 of scientific doubt," or judging of the soundness of 
 statements, there would at first seem to be less resem- 
 blance between meditation and study; yet this is not 
 really the case, for the novice has to test his tentative 
 resolutions by the standard of the Gospel precepts, 
 counsels and maxims. In so doing, he proceeds to 
 utilize the fifth factor, the "verifying of conclusions," 
 appealing to the practice of the saints in like circum- 
 stances. The sixth factor, the "fixing of knowledge by 
 thoughtful memorizing" is replaced in meditation by 
 
 uation" (I>. B. Earhart, op. cit, p. 6). Paul Klapper, in PriTi- 
 ciples of Educational Practice (pp. 363-372), presents much use- 
 ful and practical material. Cf. also p. 301, above. 
 » Cf. L. B. Earhart, op. cit., pp. 21, 22. 
 
304 The Psychology of Meditation. 
 
 the gathering of what is called a "spiritual bouquet," 
 viz., a saying of our Lord or one of the saints, or a 
 prayer, which concentrates the essence of the medita- 
 tion, especially on its affective or emotional side, and 
 thus stimulates the novice to live up to the ideal pre- 
 sented in the meditation. What is presented as the 
 seventh and last factor of logical study, viz., the 
 "preservation of one's individuality throughout the 
 process," is rather in meditation an essential condition 
 of mental prayer itself; for, as we have seen, the very 
 purpose of the mental prayer is the spiritual progress 
 of the novice. Hence the processes of meditation tend 
 to be essentially concrete, and the resolutions must be 
 present, particular, and efficacious, — the desiderandum 
 and desideratum of every serious study on the part of 
 the earnest student, and, from the viewpoint of the 
 teacher, of every fruitful recitation. 
 
 (2) As to their elements, there is also much in com- 
 mon between meditation and study. In both, there 
 must be clear apprehension of the leading thoughts, 
 earnest appeal to the nobler and deeper interests of 
 man, and confirmation of both in one's attitude toward 
 life and one's efforts to live up to ideals. 
 
 I. (b) Meditation has also points of contact with 
 the method of recitation made familiar by the disciples 
 of Herbart.^ This method has five steps or stages. 
 The first is preparation.^ Its very name suggests an 
 
 ^ H. Suzzallo, "Steps, Five Formal," in Monroe's Cyclopedia of 
 Education. 
 
 ^ Cf. C. A. McMurry, The Method of the Recitation, pp. 92-117. 
 
The Pedagogical Value of Meditation, 305 
 
 affinity to meditation. The teacher prepares his les- 
 son for his class. The novice prepares to "recite his 
 lesson'' to his divine Master. The second stage consists 
 in the presentation of new matter. Here the skill of 
 the teacher is called into active play, for he can "pre- 
 sent" matter that is new for the pupils only in so far as 
 he associates it intimately with what is already old and 
 familiar to them. He must solve a problem in apper- 
 ception. But the novice must perform a like process. 
 He must study the old truth with new vision, from a 
 higher vantage point, with renewed interest; else he 
 will find his affections dormant and his resolutions 
 weak. The third step is known as comparison and ab- 
 straction. The teacher might, for example, compare 
 the life processes of several plants with those of typical 
 animals and then "abstract" the processes common to 
 all organic life. In like manner, the novice compares 
 his conduct with reference to the virtue of faith with 
 that of the apostles, with that of the doctors of the 
 Church, with that of his own founder, and then de- 
 duces the attitude becoming to him as Christian and re- 
 ligious. The fourth step the Herbartians call "gener- 
 alization." It puts forth explicitly what is given im- 
 plicitly by the very process of abstraction. For the 
 novice it means that when he is placed in circumstances 
 like those wherein our Lord specially commanded the 
 exercise of faith, or like those wherein the saints prac- 
 tised faith so meritoriously, he is thenceforth to heed 
 the divine behest, to emulate the example of his great 
 spiritual predecessors. The last step, "application," 
 
306 The Psychology of Meditation. 
 
 corresponds, in the method of recitation, to the reso- 
 lutions of the meditation. 
 
 Lest these steps be considered too formal by the 
 dynamic teacher, the Herbartians are careful to re- 
 mind us that their order is not fixed, nor is it invari- 
 ably essential to include them all. They are means to 
 an end; that is, to the thorough assimilation of the 
 principle or truth to be taught. In like manner, the 
 novice learns that the sequence of acts or affections in 
 his meditation is a suggestive plan rather than a man- 
 datory order; that the good religious, like the skilled 
 teacher, must have in mind a definite outline of what 
 he is to do, and yet keep it so flexible as to be always 
 free to follow a better suggestion or to "accommodate" 
 himself to the spiritual requirements of the actual 
 situation.^ 
 
 II. We have given indications of the fact that, 
 when sedulously followed, the method of meditation 
 will give the novice an accredited plan of procedure 
 for his own studies ^ and a pattern which he may pre- 
 
 * Besides its connection with the method of study and the 
 method of recitation, the method of meditation is allied to the 
 general methods or "types" of teaching (Cf. L. B. Earhart, 
 Types of Teaching, passim). As we have already hinted medita- 
 tion presents an effective plan for teaching a live catechism les- 
 son, for making class reflections that "count"; in general, for giv- 
 ing such a lesson as is really worth while. 
 
 ^The works on study by Professor C. A. McMurry and Dr. L. 
 B. Earhart, already cited, grew out of their investigations into 
 pupils' method of study. Both discovered that the method was 
 conspicuous by its absence. Further investigation revealed the 
 more astonishing fact that even the pupils' teachers had no defi- 
 nite method of study — another verification of the old saying, 
 "3uch a pupil, such a teacher." 
 
The Pedagogical Value of Meditation, 307 
 
 sent to his future pupils in order to assure to them the 
 priceless boon of a right method of study. It will fur- 
 ther equip him with the broad outlines of a good plan 
 to follow in conducting recitations in class, and, better 
 still, with the contour of a flexible pattern or type of 
 teaching, which is applicable to many subjects. The 
 pedagogical value of the meditation does not end even 
 here. In its three elements, viz., the considerations, the 
 affections, and the resolutions, it is, indeed, one of the 
 higher illustrations of the reflex arc concept. The con- 
 siderations correspond to the "incoming impression"; 
 the affections, to the "middle term"; the resolutions, to 
 the "outgoing discharge." ^ Meditation, therefore, in- 
 cludes the three staples which the pupil should be 
 trained to look for in all his studies ; the three ingredi- 
 ents which the teacher should blend in every lesson 
 which he wishes to make fruitful for his class. 
 
 Systematic preparation for meditation will develop 
 in the novice a habit of logical thinking, which the 
 right use of the considerations will easily strengthen. 
 The sincere and intelligent desire to profit by the med- 
 itation will give him a practical exercise in motivation, 
 extending its efficacy not only to the preparation, but 
 also the actual conduct of the prayer itself. Further- 
 more, he can by attention and diligence cultivate the 
 habit of "associating" considerations, reasonings and 
 even impressions, with the affections, and these in turn 
 with the Christian attitude toward life and with that 
 readiness to give expression to his convictions which are 
 
 ' Cf . p. 230, above. 
 
308 The Psychology of Meditation, 
 
 indispensable for true progress. In a word, then, the 
 diligent and faithful preparation and performance of 
 mental prayer are fraught with precious benefits to the 
 novice from the pedagogical viewpoint and in the 
 merely natural order. By analogy one may argue to 
 the supernatural order. In addition to these values, 
 there is one of social import. The more earnest the 
 novice is in the fulfilment of this duty to God, the bet- 
 ter is he equipped to emphasize spontaneously, effectu- 
 ally, and by the force of his own example, those Chris- 
 tian values to the appreciation of which it is at once 
 his duty and his privilege to train his pupils. Can we 
 doubt, then, that meditation rightly and faithfully pur- 
 sued is a prominent factor in developing some of the 
 special qualities of which the teacher stands in need? 
 Can we not see here also some explanation of the fact 
 to which Dr. Foerster ^ has called attention, that re- 
 ligious orders develop great efficiency in persons of 
 even mediocre talent? 
 
 In respect, then, to both method and content, to 
 both form and matter, meditation is capable of diffus- 
 ing its excellence far beyond its own immediate sphere 
 into that of subjects having either a like method or 
 similar matter, — or, to adopt Professor Thorndike's 
 terminology,^ having "identity of procedure" or 
 "identity of substance." To these two classes of sub- 
 jects affected by transfer of training. Professor Rued- 
 
 *Cf. Marriage and the Sex Problem, footnote pp. 142, 143, 
 quoted above, pp. 142, 143. 
 
 ^Loc. cit. 
 
Summary, 309 
 
 iger adds a third, where the subjects have "identity of 
 aim." ^ From this viewpoint, the utility of meditation 
 may be extended to every occupation of the novice, to 
 every branch which as a religious he may later be 
 called upon to teach. For, as the one great purpose 
 of the Christian life is to grow into more perfect re- 
 semblance to Christ Himself, so the dominant aim of 
 the religious educator whether in studying or in teach- 
 ing is to gain or to impart a clearer vision of the 
 Christian ideal and of the place occupied by creatures 
 in the attainment of that ideal.^ 
 
 Article IV, — Summary, 
 
 After a general survey of the subject-matter of psy- 
 chology, we selected perception as a typical human 
 process. We found that in adult life it includes not 
 only the cognitive elements of sensation, imagination, 
 memory, and even intellect, but also affective elements 
 that cluster round interest. When denominated apper- 
 ception, perception plainly entails an attitude toward 
 things and therefore implies the third division of men- 
 tal processes, viz., conations. The consideration of 
 perception led naturally to that of "learning" with 
 special reference to its physiological basis. Learning 
 itself, when reduced to its simplest terms, implies the 
 "reflex arc," and even in its highest estate presupposes 
 the law of "habit." One of the important functions 
 of habit in any adequate plan of education is to niodify 
 
 ' Op. cit., p. 110. 
 
 2 Cf. E. J. Swift, Youth and the Race, p. 126. 
 
310 The Tsychology of Meditation, 
 
 and control instinctive action. The purpose of the 
 novitiate is to develop in the novice an "apperceptive 
 mass" in and by v/hich he will regard the occurrences 
 and the duties of life from the viewpoint of faith. This 
 is an attitude he must learn to make habitual, and, in 
 the process, he constantly attains to a higher expres- 
 sion of the reflex arc concept. The chief means by 
 which the novice learns to make the viewpoint of faith 
 habitual, is meditation, an exercise which exemplifies 
 in an excellent way the three elements of the reflex arc. 
 By virtue of the principle known as the transfer of 
 training he can extend beyond its own proper limits the 
 benefits accruing from the faithful and habitual prac- 
 tice of mental prayer. He can make the method of 
 mental prayer doubly valuable, viz., from the pupils' 
 viewpoint, as suggesting a plan of study to follow,^ 
 and from the teacher's, as outlining a plan for con- 
 ducting a recitation. The matter, or content, of medi- 
 
 ^Dr. Shields, Lesson II, in his Psychology of Education, enum- 
 erates nine steps in "the Art of Study": 1. Reflect on the title of 
 the lesson; write out a brief forecast of what it should contain. 
 2. Read the text carefully; compare it step by step with your fore- 
 cast. 3. Write out brief index titles to the main thoughts in the 
 lesson, observing the order of the text. 4. Arrange these index 
 titles in the form of a diagram to show their logical connection. 
 6. If there be review questions, write out answers to them. 6. If 
 collateral reading is indicated, take it up in the order suggested. 
 (This will promote general development along the line of the text 
 and restore symmetry of mind). 7. Discuss the subject with 
 others who have studied it. (This is the "seminar" method.) 
 8. Write out answers to any research questions that may be sug- 
 gested. 9. Note down the unsolved problems suggested by the 
 study. If they be numerous, the study has been effectual. — It is 
 easy to see that the first four of these steps are closely related to 
 the "preparation" for meditation. 
 
Summary, 311 
 
 tation contains the three kinds of process implied in 
 the reflex arc concept and is therefore an illustration 
 of the thorough assimilation by the mind of a fact or 
 principle. Lastly, the excellence of the aim of medita- 
 tion suggests to the novice the ideal which he is to keep 
 before him in all his actions and which later he is to 
 propose to his pupils. 
 
 k 
 
BOOK V. 
 SOCIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF FAITH. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Faith as a Social Force.^ 
 
 Article L — Faith as a Social Force in the Novitiate. 
 
 As A working definition of sociology. Professor C. A. 
 Ellwood proposes for our acceptance, "the science of 
 the organization and evolution of society." ^ It should 
 be interpreted so broadly as to include the "origin, de- 
 velopment, structure and functions of the forms of 
 association." ^ The religious order, of which the nov- 
 ice seeks to become a professed member, is a form of 
 social "organization," having a definite origin, devel- 
 opment, and structure, and seeking to perform func- 
 tions useful not alone to its members, but also to larger 
 groups of men. Religious orders, in turn, are but divi- 
 sions of a more comprehensive organization, the Cath- 
 olic Church, from which they derive their rights and 
 privileges, and whose mission they help to extend and to 
 strengthen. The group spirit puts forth its claim to 
 the novice from the beginning of his life. He is born 
 into the family and he is at the same time a potential 
 citizen. Besides the family and the state, which are 
 
 ' Cf . above, pp. 141-145. 
 
 'Sociology in its Psychological Aspects^ p. 7. By "evolution" 
 he means "orderly change of any sort." 
 
 ■ P. 8. The essence of this definition he credits to the biologist, 
 Professor J. Arthur Thomson (Heredity, p. 608). 
 
 316 
 
316 Faith as a Social Force, 
 
 societies in the order of nature, there is the super- 
 natural society into which he is admitted by baptism; 
 for the Catholic Church claims to be supernatural in 
 origin, constitution and mission/ 
 
 Sociological aspects have recurred persistently in 
 the earlier sections of this book. Even the very terms 
 faith,^ religion, novice, and pedagogical value,^ have 
 sociological implications. Environment * is not physi- 
 cal onl}^, but social as well. Plasticity,^ therefore, has 
 likewise a social connotation, and a large part of one's 
 natural success in life must depend on his native or ac- 
 quired power of adjusting himself to the social condi- 
 tions in which he lives. The "learning process" ^ is 
 also social in its implications, since the simplest forms 
 of learning entail imitation of one's fellows. Even the 
 large, confused, and random movements of a child, giv- 
 ing place gradually to attention to the details of the 
 act and showing increased skill in execution, are par- 
 alleled in the life of the religious.^ When the novice 
 seeks for an illustration of the principles of the spir- 
 itual life, when he looks for an interpretation of his 
 rule, it is to the example of his confreres that he turns 
 
 ^ On the Catholic Church, see Apologetique ChrMienne, 3e partie, 
 Brothers of the Christian Schools, and, in general, standard works 
 of Apologetics. F. J. Koch, Manual of Apologetics (A. M. Bu- 
 chanan, tr., C. Bruehl, ed.), presents the case briefly in Chap. VII. 
 
 2 See Bk. II, above, especially pp. 108, 114, 116 f., 120 ff., 129, 
 133 ff. 
 
 « See above. Chap. V, p. 133 ; also, p. 149. 
 
 * Cf . pp. 171, 178-183, above. 
 
 " Cf. pp. 192 ff., above. 
 
 « Cf . pp. 221 ff., above. 
 
 ^J. M. Baldwin, Story of the Mind, pp. 76-80, 167 ff. 
 
Faith as a Social Force in the Novitiate. 317 
 
 for light and for answer. The more perfectly he imi- 
 tates them, the better does he grasp the principles that 
 are fundamental to his order, and the keener becomes 
 his vision for the details of conduct. He, too, acquires 
 the "habit" of regular observance, which is perhaps the 
 most emphatic as well as the most difficult expression, 
 on the part of the novice, of the unchanging verities of 
 the spiritual life. 
 
 In proportion as the novice masters the significance 
 of the novitiate exercises, his relations to the group, 
 to his fellow religious, undergo corresponding changes. 
 He becomes less passive and more active as a member ; 
 the ratio of "give" and "take" becomes more nearly 
 equalized. His growing knowledge of his duties and 
 his greater zeal for their fulfilment lead to their more 
 exact performance, and so he, too, contributes to the 
 community the social asset of good example and helps 
 to strengthen the social solidarity. Apart from the 
 grace received in the sacraments, it is from mental 
 prayer rightly made that he is to draw both the 
 strength and the constancy requisite to produce these 
 results.^ It is well also to note that the community 
 spirit, the group spirit, into the realization of which 
 he grows from day to day, is of the more perfect kind : 
 it is reflective. Three kinds of social groups have, in 
 fact, been distinguished.^ In the first, the social tend- 
 ency on the part of the individuals is inherited, the 
 modes of action are "fixed and unprogressive," the re- 
 
 ' See above, pp. 307 ff. 
 
 ' Cf. J. M. Baldwin, The Individual cmd Society, pp. 36 jQF. 
 
318 Faith as a Social Force. 
 
 actions are instinctive. Here reason has little or no 
 swav, and the group as such is animal, not human. In 
 the second, the tendency to collective action is trans- 
 mitted by social heredity; that is, it is taught. Hence 
 the individuals must be 'Aplastic," learning, so far as 
 they are members of the group, precisely the same 
 things, and therefore tending to show conservative 
 traits,^ yet withal retaining their spontaneity. The 
 third form of group is held together by the bonds of 
 reflective life. The more thoroughly the members un- 
 derstand the principles of the organization, the more 
 heartily do they accept them and the more earnestly 
 do they strive to live up to them. This is the social 
 group proper. The mere statement of its distinctive 
 traits suffices to show that it is into such a group that 
 the novice is admitted.^ 
 
 ^ It is sometimes maintained that this stage of group life is 
 characteristic of religious orders, and therefore that they are in- 
 trinsically, if not essentially, conservative. We have already con- 
 tended that fidelity to the spirit of the religious life, especially 
 by the fervent and regular practice of meditation, is a safeguard 
 against routine and a condition of spiritual progress. Our Lord 
 condemned both the conservatism of the Pharisees, who professed 
 reverence for only the "letter" of the law, and the radicalism of 
 the Sadducees, who, abjuring all respect for the letter, claimed to 
 be guided by the "spirit" of the law. Herein He set for all time 
 and for all religious of all stations and offices the difficult example 
 of holding in honor both the letter and the spirit of their rules 
 and constitutions, by respect for the letter as "informed" or 
 vivified, by the spirit. From the viewpoint of genetic psychology 
 the origin of a prescription will often help to set forth what its 
 real spirit should be. Here, too, the golden mean between "letter" 
 and "spirit" may be difficult to attain and to keep. 
 
 ^ The novice is not allowed to pronounce vows until he has be- 
 come acquainted with the rules and constitution of the order and 
 publicly professed his determination to respect their observance. 
 
Faith as a Social Force in the Novitiate. 319 
 
 The individual and society are complementary forces. 
 Just as the normal growth of the individual tends to 
 solidarity and strengthens the social bond, so the nor- 
 mal exercise of his social duties by the individual tends 
 to develop his own personality. It is by the mental 
 bond of conscious intention and voluntary co-operation 
 that human society is held together.^ There is a com- 
 mon fund of knowledge, which is expressed in "public 
 opinion" ; of feeling, which is revealed in the accepted 
 aesthetic canons ; and of action, which sets a standard 
 for "public morals." It is according to this threefold 
 norm that the individual is trained; it is by his con- 
 formity to its requirements that his social influence 
 will be chiefly determined and gauged. Yet, in the very 
 work of assimilating this common knowledge, feeling, 
 and action, he displays "variations"; in the very 
 process of "imitating" his fellows, he discloses traits 
 of individuality. In the words of Professor Baldwin: 
 
 "He is not a repeating machine. His mental creations are 
 much more vital and transforming. Try as he will, he cannot 
 exactly reproduce; and when he comes near to it, his self-love 
 protests and claims its right to do his own thinking. So the new 
 form, the personal shading, the embodiment of individual interest, 
 the exhibition of a special mode of feeling — all these go to make 
 his result a new thing, which is of possible value for the society 
 in which it arises."* 
 
 These individual differences, so humble in beginning 
 and so slight in character, are the very condition of 
 that social rivalry which has been designated as "the 
 
 ^ Cf. J. M. Baldwin, The Individual and Society, Chap. I. 
 » P. 162. 
 
320 Faith as a Social Force. 
 
 means of selection for mental and moral purposes in 
 the environment of the social order." ^ It is upon the 
 higher and nobler forms of this rivalry, "urged on by 
 motives of advancement, personal and social, and 
 gratified by both personal and social excellence, that 
 the life of society depends." Hence "the most urgent 
 problem of to-day in the world of labor [and beyond 
 it] is that of saving the individual qualities of men, 
 that society may profit by them. By suppressing the 
 free exercise of personality, the group suffers a return 
 to mediocrity in all its activites." ^ 
 
 It will readily be granted that the novice in the no- 
 vitiate is subject to the essential conditions of human 
 society. Even a certain measure of interplay between 
 individual and group may be conceded, since he not 
 only takes example from his fellows, but also in turn 
 sets them patterns to follow, whether for weal or woe, 
 for better or worse. But that he retains his individu- 
 ality, that he even develops it, — this is not so generally 
 admitted. Is he not specially subject to authority.'^ 
 Does he not himself confess that, as a candidate for 
 the religious life, he must regulate all his actions by 
 obedience? Does he not thereby "suppress the free 
 exercise of personality, and contribute his share toward 
 sending his group back to mediocrity in all its activi- 
 ties"?^ The objection is specious; it may even get 
 
 ip. 116. 
 
 2 P. 89. 
 
 ' It does not enter into the scope of this book to consider the 
 case of conflict between the individual religious and the superiors 
 of his order. Such misunderstandings are rare in the novitiate, 
 
Faith as a Social Force in the Novitiate. 3^1 
 
 confirmation from individual instances. On the other 
 hand, we have already quoted testimony to the effect 
 
 for the novice is in a state of religious pupilage. It is later in 
 his career that such a condition may arise. Conflicts of this na- 
 ture are so characteristic of group life and, we may add, of group 
 progress, that it would be passing strange if they did not occur 
 from time to time in religious orders. The individual may be in 
 the right; and the group, in the wrong. To deny that is to deny 
 the beginnings of Christianity. A quotation from Professor Bald- 
 win (Social and Ethical Interpretations, pp. 565-567, 3d ed.) is 
 pertinent: '*The social order represents the generalized ethical 
 sense. The only way for a man to carry out his protest is to 
 persuade other men, until he gets his opinion adopted. Then the 
 conflict ceases, since then the reform which he proposes receives 
 ethical [sic] and social sanction. But in the case of ethical pro- 
 tests of single men against the social order, we have a diflPerent 
 phenomenon. This sort of conflict is more serious and profound, 
 because the sanctions involved are more comprehensive. The 
 ethical in the man represents the essential and highest outcome 
 of his individual nature; this on the one hand. The socially 
 established represents the highest outcome of the collective activ- 
 ities of man; that on the other hand. What then can be done in 
 the case of conflict between these two? Nothing! Nothing can 
 be done. It is the case of the fountain running higher than its 
 source. . . . This is the final and irreducible antinomy of 
 society. It shows at once the law of social growth, its direction 
 and its goal. It shows the dialectic of growth in its concrete 
 social form, as in the child's obedience we see it in its concrete 
 private form. Society must simply listen to such a man, for her 
 weal or woe, as the child listens to his father. . . . But in 
 listening to him, and in doing with him, she is reaching for her 
 own by right. He is of her, she has made him." — Eventually, 
 however, both individual and group undergo modification, and so 
 the period of adjustment is ushered in. 
 
 As for distinctly religious groups that need reformation, we 
 have but to refer to the practice of St. Francis de Sales, who 
 "urged upon them a sedulous exercise of mental prayer, spiritual 
 reading, and a frequent approaching to the sacraments of penance 
 and eucharist" (The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales, p. 220). For 
 the group, then, as for the individual, the quickening of faith is 
 the indispensable condition of Christian progress. And the quick- 
 ening of faith is secured and maintained by the sincere and con- 
 stant practice of meditation (cf. pp. 281-309, above). This is a 
 consideration that does not enter into Professor Baldwin's scheme. 
 
322 Faith as a Social Force. 
 
 that, given the same material, the religious orders ob- 
 tain superior results.^ How are we to explain the 
 discrepancy? 
 
 The psychologist who attempts to trace the develop- 
 ment of the child's mind, notes that its attention is first 
 directed to external moving objects.^ Then there 
 comes a differentiation between objects whose move- 
 ments are regular and those whose movements seem to 
 be exempt from law. In the latter class are persons. 
 All such objects in the environment have been termed 
 "projects." When, however, the child imitates the ac- 
 tions of a given person, he thereby acquires a percep- 
 tion of the meaning of the action — a state of mind 
 unattainable otherwise. Henceforth when he perceives 
 other persons performing similar actions, he ascribes 
 to them mental states like those which he himself ex- 
 perienced in making the motions. Both he and they 
 are now "subjects" ; i, e., they possess, in so far, com- 
 mon mental traits and experiences. From this small 
 beginning grows up the habit of considering other per- 
 sons as the same with himself, not merely in this one 
 experience, but in their whole nature. Such persons 
 are then "ejects." The whole process is the psycholo- 
 gist's accounting for the fact that we do, as in a sense 
 we must, judge others by ourselves. Now, what hap- 
 pens to the child in the family group is also in its 
 
 ^ Cf. second quotation from Dr. Foerster, p. 142, above, espe- 
 cially second sentence. 
 
 *Cf. J. M. Baldwin, Mental Development, pp. 119, 338 ff.; also 
 8tory of the Mind, pp. 80 ff., where he treats it under the topic 
 of '^personality suggestion." 
 
Faith as a Social Force in the Novitiate, 3^3 
 
 larger outlines the experience of the novice in the re- 
 ligious group to which he has been admitted. He, too, 
 learns from the performance of the prescribed acts, 
 as illustrated by his fellow-novices (his "projects"), 
 what it is to be a religious "subject." His own mental 
 experience he may "eject" into his associates and so 
 form a truer estimate of their spiritual helps and 
 hindrances, trials and triumphs. Herein he finds a 
 psychological justification for the Christian command- 
 ment of fraternal charity. But the value of this ex- 
 perience is not limited to his own plane of existence, it 
 extends also to higher and to lower levels. It is to be- 
 come for him, on the one hand, the fruitful means of 
 interpreting, later on, the difficulties which his pupils 
 will meet; and, on the other, the key to an understand- 
 ing of the lives of the saints.^ It is this personal ex- 
 perience, as we have already seen,^ that he brings to 
 his morning meditation. And it is by means of his 
 meditation that he preserves and develops what is best 
 in his individuality. Hence it is that all founders of 
 religious orders are so insistent on fidelity to medita- 
 tion. They, too, exercise in their own sphere the wis- 
 
 ^ Some day, let us hope, a Catholic, gifted with clear vision and 
 eloquent pen, will be inspired to develop this topic in a manner 
 worthy of its social significance. Why is it, for example, that St. 
 Catherine, a virgin of an obscure family in Siena, should become 
 the counsellor of popes? Why should the humble and unlettered 
 member of the Third Order of St. Dominic be chosen a special 
 patron by St. Aloysius, a Jesuit of noble birth? The whole series 
 of Meditations for Sundays and Festivals written by St. John 
 Baptist de la Salle is an excellent presentation of vedues that 
 are at once social and pedagogical. 
 
 ^ See above, pp. 294 fP. 
 
3S4 Faith as a Social Force. 
 
 dom of sociologists ; and, consequently, they maintain 
 that since, outside of sacramental grace, meditation is 
 the chief source of individual ''variation," in the best 
 meaning of that term, so it is also the chief guarantee 
 of progress for the community/ Lest, however, the 
 individual variations should become so pronounced as 
 to interfere with the harmony of the group and em- 
 barrass co-operative work, whether manual or mental, 
 many of the daily spiritual exercises in the novitiate 
 have for their secondary purpose the strengthening of 
 the community spirit.^ Five centuries ago the saintly 
 Thomas a Kempis summed up in a few words the con- 
 centrated wisdom of eleven centuries of community 
 life:^ 
 
 "Observe the good common medium of those with whom thou 
 livest. Thou oughtest not to beget weariness or tedium in others, 
 but keep the common way, according to the institution of supe- 
 riors ; and rather accommodate thyself to the utility of others than 
 follow thine own devotion and affection." 
 
 Just as individuality is fostered and strengthened by 
 faith as developed by the daily meditation, so the com- 
 munity spirit is conserved by the exercise of fraternal 
 
 * Father Faber gives a pertinent passage (Spiritual Conferences, 
 p. 274) : "The lesson is, that holiness depends less upon what we 
 do than upon how we do it. [These words embody the essential 
 distinction between the artist and the copyist — or even the ama- 
 teur.] ... It sounds commonplace enough; but it has suffi- 
 cient matter in it for the study of a life and for the practice of 
 eternity." 
 
 * The Catholic Church, in condemning heresy, exercises a similar 
 office on a higher and more extended plane. — Cf. note 3, pp. 320 ff. 
 
 ^Imitation, Bk. IV, Chap. X, 7. 
 
Faith as a Social Force in the Novitiate, 325 
 
 charity which, in its turn, is based on faith/ The 
 spiritual life of both novice and community, of both 
 individual and group, is nurtured at the fountain of 
 faith. With a view then to appreciate more fully the 
 blessings conferred bj^ Christian and religious faith, it 
 is well to ponder the advantages which flow from nat- 
 ural faith also. Both have been given eloquent expres- 
 sion by Chateaubriand in the following passage: 
 
 "And what were the virtues so highly recommended by the sages 
 of Greece? Fortitude, temperance, and prudence. None but 
 Jesus Christ could teach the world that faith, hope, and charity 
 are virtues alike adapted to the ignorance and the wretchedness 
 of man. It was undoubtedly a stupendous wisdom that pointed out 
 faith to us as the source of all the virtues. There is no power but 
 in conviction. . . . What wonders a small band of troops per- 
 suaded of the abilities of their leader is capable of achieving! 
 Thirty-five thousand Greeks follow Alexander to the conquest of 
 the world; Lacedaemon commits her destiny to the hands of 
 Lycurgus, and Lacedaemon becomes the wisest of cities; Babylon 
 believes that she is formed for greatness, and greatness crowns 
 her confidence; an oracle gives the empire of the universe to the 
 Romans, and the Romans obtain the empire of the universe; 
 Columbus alone, among all his contemporaries, persists in believing 
 in the existence of a new world, and a new world rises from the 
 bosom of the deep. Friendship, patriotism, love, every noble 
 sentiment, is likewise a species of faith. Because they had faith, 
 a Codrus, a Pylades, a Regulus, an Arria, perform prodigies. 
 
 "For the same reason they who believe nothing, who treat all 
 the convictions of the soul as illusions, who consider every noble 
 action as insanity, and look with pity upon the warm imagination 
 and tender sensibility of genius — for the same reason such hearts 
 will never achieve anything great or generous; they have faith 
 only in matter and in death, and they are already insensible as 
 the one and cold and icy as the other. 
 
 "In the language of ancient chivalry, to pledge one's faith was 
 
 •Cf. Matt. XXV, 31-46; Luke x, 29-37. 
 
326 Faith as a Social Force, 
 
 synonymous with all the prodigies of honor. Roland, Duquesclin, 
 Bayard, were faithful knights. . . . Shall we mention the mar- 
 tyrs, 'who,' to use the words of St. Ambrose, 'without armies, with- 
 out legions, vanquished tyrants, assuaged the fury of lions, took 
 from the fire its vehemence, and from the sword its edge'? Con- 
 sidered in this point of view, faith is so formidable a power that, 
 if it were applied to evil purposes, it would convulse the world. 
 There is nothing that a man who is under the influence of a pro- 
 found conviction, and who submits his reason implicitly to the 
 direction of another is not capable of performing. This proves 
 that the most eminent virtues, when separated from God and 
 taken in their merely moral relations, border on the greatest 
 vices. . . . 
 
 "Of this truth we shall be thoroughly convinced if we consider 
 faith in reference to human affairs, but a faith which is the off- 
 spring of religion. From faith proceed all the virtues of society, 
 since it is true, according to the unanimous acknowledgment of 
 men, that the doctrine which commands the belief in a God who 
 will reward and punish is the main pillar both of morals and of 
 civil government." ^ 
 
 Where the Christian spirit has taken deep root and 
 the Church has not been hampered in the exercise of 
 her functions, there religious orders have attained 
 vigorous growth. Although they may not be essential 
 to the Church, they are an index of her vitality.^ 
 Hence it is not surprising that in times of social up- 
 heaval they should be the special objects of bitter per- 
 secution. Their very presence in times of peace teaches 
 an eloquent lesson on the life to come, of which even 
 non-Catholics are not unmindful. Their removal con- 
 fessedly lowers the moral tone of society and obscures 
 its perception of spiritual ideals. It is in the novitiate 
 
 ^Genius of Christianity (tr. C. I. White), pp. 95, 96. 
 ^ This position is clearly demonstrated by Balmes (European 
 Civilization, Chap. XXXVIII). 
 
Faith as a Social Force in the School, 327 
 
 that religious receive the training which enables them 
 to exercise this elevating influence. Consequently, even 
 if the aim of education were merely "social service," 
 the novitiate would deserve well of society/ 
 
 Article II, — Faith as a Social Force in the School,^ 
 
 Although our treatment of the sociological aspects 
 of faith must be so greatly restricted by the limitations 
 of this book as to be merely suggestive, yet it is neces- 
 sary to give some indications of the meaning of faith 
 for the school. Our whole discussion points to this. 
 There is a threefold sense in which education is a social 
 process.^ First of all, by this means society preserves 
 the culture of the past. In so doing, it makes a two- 
 fold act of faith: (1) an act of faith on the part of 
 the pupil, who believes in his teacher; {%) an act of 
 faith on the part of the teacher, who believes that 
 teaching is a mission or profession. If he be Catholic, 
 he will reckon it an apostolate. The thoroughness with 
 which the work of education is done determines the de- 
 gree of progress made possible for the rising genera- 
 tion. Indeed, this truth is but an extension to society 
 of the principle which we have already found valid for 
 the individual in the order of grace as well as in that 
 of nature; viz., that the regular and perfect fulfilment 
 of daily duties is the indispensable condition of those 
 "variations" which make for advance and improve- 
 
 ^ See above, pp. 79-82. 
 
 ^ Cf. pp. 133 ff., 137 fF., above. 
 
 " Cf. Irving King, Social Aspects of Education, p. 2. 
 
328 Faith as a Social Force, 
 
 ment. From this principle follow certain consequences. 
 The school curriculum should not, indeed, be over- 
 crowded, but it should be comprehensive, — embracing, 
 according to the ability of the pupils, studies repre- 
 sentative of our fivefold spiritual inheritance; viz., re- 
 ligion, literature, sesthetics, science, and social institu- 
 tions/ Besides the content of the curriculum, there is 
 also the method of imparting it. This calls not onl}'^ 
 for correlation of the different branches, but also, from 
 the Christian standpoint, for the vitalizing of all by 
 the spirit of faith.^ 
 
 In the second place, the school is obviously a group, 
 and is subject to the essential conditions of group life. 
 It is therefore to be expected that its work will be more 
 efficient when directed by teachers who have some 
 knowledge of the meaning of social institutions. Ac- 
 cording to Catholic philosophers and theologians, there 
 are three "perfect" societies : two in the natural order, 
 viz., the family and the State; and one in the super- 
 natural order, the Church, for each of these institutions 
 
 ^ Butler, The Meaning of Education, pp. 17 ff. ; Dr. Shields, 
 Psychology of Education, Lesson IX, "Balances in Develop- 
 ment," pp. 111-114. 
 
 2 See above, pp. 64, 65, 84, 85, 130, 131, 140-145.— Cardinal New- 
 man (Sermons Preached on Various Occasions, V, "Dispositions 
 for Faith," especially pp. 69-73) calls attention to the com- 
 mon and fatal error of the "world" in constituting itself judge of 
 religious truth without any preparation of heart for the reception 
 of that truth. We have seen that the religious novitiate does ef- 
 fectually prepare the heart of the novice for the proper reception 
 of divine truth. What the novitiate has done for him, the young 
 religious teacher, in due proportion, seeks to do for his pupils. 
 Only under such or analogous conditions can the truths of divine 
 faith be and continue to be social forces, 
 
Faith as a Social Force in the School, 329 
 
 is complete within its own sphere/ Since without the 
 family there could be neither State nor Church as we 
 know them, it is the duty of the teacher to use the 
 means at his disposal for the strengthening of family 
 ties. He will thereby deserve well of both State and 
 Church. If the teacher be Christian, and especially if 
 he be also a religious, he is bound to prepare his pupils, 
 according to his position and opportunity not only to 
 fulfill worthily their duties as members of the State 
 and of the Church here on earth, but also to become 
 "fellow-citizens with the saints and the domestics of 
 God" in heaven.^ In the third place, since the pupil 
 is by nature a social being, the social viewpoint has to 
 be kept before him if he is to be trained for the fulfill- 
 ment of his social duties as they arise in life. This 
 viewpoint reveals a threefold service which is at once 
 the condition and the cause of genuine development in 
 the pupil. Service at home may be a good preliminary 
 to "social service;" while to her own children as also 
 to the world at large the Catholic Church proposes 
 the example of Him who said: "I am among you as he 
 that serveth." ' 
 
 From what has been said in the preceding pages it 
 is clear that the novice is trained to some appreciation 
 of these three social phases of school life. In a special 
 way also has he been made to realize the value of what 
 we have called the "summation of stimuli," * whereby 
 
 ^ See also pp. 316 f ., above. 
 
 » Eph. ii, 19. 
 
 "Luke xxii, 27. 
 
 * See above, pp. 273 f . 
 
Faith as a Social Force, 
 
 the lessons of faith imparted and practised in one ex- 
 ercise add to the value of those that follow. He sees, 
 therefore, that the Sunday school is not adequate for 
 proper training in Christian faith, nor does he find 
 such a compromise as that implied in the "Gary sys- 
 tem" to be much more satisfactory. He knows that 
 religious belief should be part of the very life of the 
 pupil: it should guide his intellect, strengthen his will, 
 purify and ennoble his affections. He has learned that 
 all vital progress is conditioned by a due restraint of 
 the less perfect or less complex powers and functions. 
 If the tree is to bear abundant fruit, the sap must not 
 be allowed to run waste in the production of foliage 
 only. In the animal, even the vegetal, or purely or- 
 ganic, functions minister to sensation and motion; and 
 these in turn, as found in man, are valuable aids to in- 
 tellect and will. When, however, the novice views man 
 as a being having a supernatural destiny, he is forced, 
 by parity of reasoning, to conclude that all man's nat- 
 ural gifts should subserve the interests of the super- 
 natural life. Hence he maintains that a certain meas- 
 ure of restraint, of self-discipline, of self-denial, — in 
 other words, of "inhibition" — is a necessary factor in 
 the daily life of the pupil in school as well as at home. 
 A "religion of feeling" ^ he adjudges incompetent for 
 such a purpose, and opposed to the true social interests 
 of the young. It is too individual, too subjective, and 
 too variable. It lacks an objective standard of values. 
 While the novice learns from his own experience, as 
 
 ' See above, pp. 111-113. 
 
Faith as a Social Force in the School, 331 
 
 well as from divine revelation, that a religion of feeling 
 will not suffice for any future pupils he may have, he 
 perceives also that a "religion of understanding" is not 
 the natural fruit of genuine doubt. The maxim, "Pre- 
 vention is better than cure," is valid for health of soul 
 as well as health of body. Hence the treatment favored 
 by the religious teacher is a spiritual prophylaxis. 
 Not a few educators who have made investigations into 
 the religious education of children ^ hold that the tenth 
 year marks the turning point from so-called "primitive 
 credulit}^," or belief on authority alone, to the attitude 
 of inquir}^ and even of doubt and distrust. According 
 to the present discipline of the Catholic Church, chil- 
 dren are admitted to the sacraments of confession and 
 communion before they have reached this age, and 
 therefore they have at hand a special divine help to 
 meet this period of disintegration.^ As the pupils ap- 
 proach high school age, the wise and zealous teacher, 
 recalling his own studies in the novitiate, will gradually 
 adopt the plan used with so much success by St. Fran- 
 cis de Sales. This great doctor of the Church disliked 
 
 ^Cf. J. B. Pratt, op. cit., pp. 206 ff., who discusses several of 
 these investigations. So far as we know, the sources are all non- 
 Catholic. That, however, does not destroy their value. 
 
 *A very suggestive plan to strengthen the spirit of faith in 
 pupils from their earliest school years is worked out in Dr. 
 Shields' Catholic Education Series. The First Book appeals to 
 the instincts of the child and draws lessons from Nature. The 
 Second Book develops the idea of law and inculcates obedience. 
 The Third sets forth the work of Redemption and the sacra- 
 mental system of the Church. For the relation of this method to 
 the teaching of catechism, see discussion by Brother Chrysostom, 
 Catholic Education Association Proceedings (Cincinnati Meet- 
 ing), 1908, pp. 227-231. 
 
332 Faith as a Social Force, 
 
 controversy and rated it very low as a means of con- 
 version. Yet he is credited with bringing 72,000 Cal- 
 vinists into the Church/ He preferred a constructive 
 plan (enforced by personal practice of the faith) — 
 viz., the presentation in clear and persuasive language 
 of the true teaching of the Church on the point of real 
 or supposed attack, and of the place of this doctrine in 
 the whole econom}^ of the Church.^ The result was that 
 without realizing the full significance of his method, 
 his hearers found themselves armed against false and 
 dangerous doctrines. If we admit that a "primary 
 wave'^ of doubt may sweep over the youth at fourteen 
 or fifteen, "followed by two or three years of compara- 
 tive calm," and that "for many men the great wave of 
 doubt comes at about eighteen, and for many women 
 about two years earlier," ^ then we must grant that 
 
 ^ Cf . The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales (tr. from the French of 
 Bishop Camus), p. 5. — The following passage contains sound ad- 
 vice for teacher as well as preacher: "It was not enough, in our 
 Saint's opinion, that a preacher should aim at doing good in a 
 general way; but he should always have some particular point in 
 view; as, for* instance, the knowledge of a truth, the clearing up 
 of some doubt, the destruction of a vice, or the practice of a 
 virtue" (p. 87). 
 
 2 Op. cit., p. 279. 
 
 ^ Cf. Pratt, op. cit., pp. 214, 215, who tersely sums up the situa- 
 tion in these words: "More than two-thirds of Starbuck's respond- 
 ents (see his Psychology of Religion) had passed through a period 
 of skepticism, and G. Stanley Hall reports that in over 700 returns 
 from young men religiously reared and in Protestant colleges 
 there were very few who had not wrestled with serious doubts on 
 religious questions." Although Professor Pratt is concerned with 
 Protestant conditions, his words may well give pause to Catholic 
 teachers, whose pupils are human also. — One wonders why the 
 assistant professor of philosophy in Williams College (such was 
 the author's position* when he wrote the book) did not resist the 
 
Faith as a Social Force in the School. 333 
 
 to the religious teacher a really apostolic mission is 
 entrusted. 
 
 Aside from such a consideration of studies as will 
 strengthen the faith of the pupils, the future teacher, 
 who is now in training in the novitiate, will find that 
 a regular recurrence of religious suggestions will prove 
 most fruitful in building up a "habit" of faith. This 
 habit of faith is really the infused theological virtue 
 of faith as developed by regular and frequent acts of 
 faith. The pedagogical significance of its forma- 
 tion early in life appears from the fact that, accord- 
 ing to biologists, our latest acquisitions are the first 
 to disappear from mental life.^ The hourly pray- 
 
 temptation to scoff at mediaeval monks (p. 296) and mediaeval 
 "visionaries" (p. 297). Even capable professors of history may 
 speculate in vain about the premises from which he infers that the 
 religion of mediaeval Christians was a typical phase of "primitive 
 credulity" (pp. 149, 150). By what authority , we ask, does this 
 professor of philosophy justify this statement: "The Middle Ages, 
 as every one knows [sic], were pre-eminently characterized by the 
 dominance of authority in all fields of thought" [sic] ? Moreover, 
 St. Augustine did not belong to even the "early" Middle Ages; 
 much less did he give "quia impossibile" as his motive for belief. 
 Were Professor Pratt to turn back the pages of history to a 
 period three centuries before the time of St. Augustine, he might 
 find in TertuUian of the second century some connection with 
 "quia impossibile"; but the connection is distinctly not mediaeval. 
 Cf. H. Pope, "Faith," Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. V, pp. 753, 754. 
 To correct the professor's defective presentation of the cosmo- 
 logical argument and the argument from design we would suggest 
 such a book as Boedder's Natural Theology (see Bk. I, Chap. V). 
 ^Cf. H. H. Donaldson (The Growth of the Brain, p. 331): 
 "When it is remembered that the last developed cells [of the 
 brain] are the smallest, and have but a small quantity of cyto- 
 plasm, that the very tardiness of their development indicates their 
 environment to have been less favorable, and finally that those 
 conditions which retard growth also favor senescence, the hypoth- 
 esis appears plausible" [viz., that the capabilities of the central 
 
334 Faith as a Social Force, 
 
 ers ^ in the classes conducted by the Brothers of the 
 Christian Schools are a distinct reminiscence of the se- 
 quence of religious exercises in the novitiate; the admo- 
 nition given every half hour to remember the holy pres- 
 ence of God is an adaptation to the pupils' capacity of 
 that remote preparation for mental prayer which is so 
 significant for the development of the novice.^ Even the 
 annual retreat, one of the most efficacious means for 
 the nurture of the spiritual life in the religious, is 
 copied in the retreat made by children when preparing 
 for their first communion, and in the yearly retreat 
 now generally given to students of upper grammar, 
 high school, and college grades.^ 
 
 If, however, we seek to translate into the language 
 of sociology the special purpose both of the Catholic 
 school and of the novitiate — the latter is practically the 
 
 nervous system tend to disappear in an order inverse to that in 
 which they developed]. — This view of biologists seems also to har- 
 monize with the experience of missionary priests, who find that 
 when persons have been well trained in the practice of their faith 
 when young, they are more likely, even after years of neglect, to 
 return to their religious duties. In the words of one such peni- 
 tent, "When one has had a good Catholic mother and has attended 
 the Christian Brothers' school, it is hard for him to keep away 
 from God." 
 
 ^ See Exercises of Piety in use in the Christian Schools. 
 
 ^ It is also an adaptation of the "summation of stimuli" spoken 
 of on pp. 273 f. and 329 f. 
 
 ^ The late Brother Exuperian, assistant superior general of the 
 Brothers of the Christian Schools, inaugurated in 1882 a regular 
 system of retreats for Circles of Catholic Young Men. {Bio- 
 graphical Sketch of Brother Exuperian, pp. 124-129.) In recent 
 years a similar plan has been put into successful operation in this 
 country. The retreats for men have their counterpart in the re- 
 treats and recollections given to women in many convents. 
 
Faith as a Social Force in the School. 335 
 
 chief source whence the former draws its strength — ^we 
 must call it Christian "like-mindedness." The term 
 itself we owe to Professor Giddings/ The qualifying 
 epithet which we use, marks the higher plane on which 
 we study the principle of which he has been so ardent 
 an advocate. The idea is at least as old as Christianity 
 itself. For its realization the Saviour Himself prayed 
 with all the ardor of divine zeal guided by infinite wis- 
 dom, when at the Last Supper He addressed to His 
 eternal Father this touching appeal for His apostles 
 and for all Christian teachers: "And not for them 
 only do I pray, but for them also who through their 
 word shall believe in Me; that they may all be one, as 
 Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee : that they also may 
 be one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou 
 hast sent Me." ^ Whether in heaven or on earth, can 
 there be any "like-mindedness" more sublime or more 
 devoted than this? This is the ideal, the "social" ideal, 
 which the religious novitiate adumbrates. It is rooted 
 and grounded in the first of all mysteries, the mystery 
 of the Blessed Trinty. This is the ideal which religious 
 teachers, individually in their classes and collectively 
 in their school, make the great goal of their endeavors. 
 In so far as they really approach their ideal, they 
 truly help to make the Church militant on earth a 
 genuine preparation for the Church triumphant, where 
 both individuals and groups will possess the most per- 
 fect "like-mindedness" compatible with the spiritual 
 
 ^ Elements of Sociology, Chaps. XI-XV. 
 2 John xvii, 20, 21. 
 
Faith as a Social Force, 
 
 progress which they have made here below in the great 
 school of earthly life/ 
 
 These considerations suggest another phase of the 
 social working of faith which is cultivated in Catholic 
 schools.^ This is the organization of sodalities or as- 
 sociations having a religious or a charitable purpose. 
 Through them it is possible to initiate the pupils into 
 those Christian forms of social service which find ex- 
 pression, for example, in the Society for the Propaga- 
 tion of the Faith and in the Conferences of St. Vincent 
 de Paul. By fidelity to the duties which membership 
 imposes, these young clients of the Church find their 
 faith strengthened and developed. Moreover, by God's 
 mercy, not a few of them receive the germ of a vocation 
 to a higher life. Because they have been faithful over 
 a few things, they are now about to be placed over 
 many things.^ This is a "variation" which gives un- 
 feigned delight to the zealous teacher. It is also a very 
 noble and Christian application of that principle of 
 "persistent imitation" which we have already encoun- 
 tered more than once.* It is likewise an effective an- 
 
 ^ Cf . Eph. iv, 5, 6 : "One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God 
 and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all." 
 Cf. also St. Augustine's maxim: "In necessariis unitas, in dubiis 
 libertas, in omnibus charitas." 
 
 ^ If a plan were organized whereby missionary priests could 
 place at the service of Catholic teachers what their experience tells 
 them are the chief sources of the loss or the weakening of religious 
 faith, on the one hand, and of its growing strength and vigor on 
 the other, the religious training given in the school would be much 
 more efficient. In this work the Catholic press could co-operate 
 to the mutual benefit of press and pupils. 
 
 ^ Matt. XXV, 21. 
 
 ' See above, pp. 272, 276, note 2, 283. 
 
Faith as a Social Force in the School, 337 
 
 swer to the attack made by Sir Francis Galton on the 
 celibacy of religious orders.^ In such cases, Father 
 Gerrard's words are doubly verified: "What the virgin 
 sacrifices in the joy and glory of bodily generation, she 
 gains a hundredfold in the joy and glory of spiritual 
 generation." ^ Is not this another illustration of that 
 principle of development which we have been consider- 
 ing throughout this book, whereby the material and 
 sensile becomes the symbol of the spiritual, nay even 
 of the divine? 
 
 The most important work in which the religious 
 teacher can engage is the work of strengthening and 
 developing the Christian faith of his pupils. It is 
 therefore for the worthy performance of this function 
 that the novice must prepare himself by the exact and 
 fervent discharge of his various duties in the novitiate. 
 If he is later to diffuse an atmosphere of faith about 
 him in the schoolroom, he must now sedulously culti- 
 vate the spirit of faith in his daily life. Let him recall 
 that divine faith is a "social" bond; that to it we owe 
 the true brotherhood of man as well as the fatherhood 
 of God. Let him know that, according to sociologists, 
 the group spirit is stronger in small groups, and that, 
 in consequence, his future work in the Christian educa- 
 tion of youth will be helped rather than hindered by 
 the limitations of the classroom. All the great found- 
 ers of religious orders began their work for the propa- 
 gation or the development of faith by gathering about 
 
 ^ See above, pp. 72, 73. 
 
 ' A Challenge to the Time-Spirit, p. 22, 
 
338 Faith as a Social Force. 
 
 them a small band of devoted followers and imbuing 
 them with the same spirit of zeal and sacrifice. In this 
 thej but followed the example set by the very Founder 
 of Christianity. In his own more modest sphere, the 
 religious teacher strives to imitate the founder of his 
 own order and in so doing to reproduce in himself and 
 in his pupils the spirit of Christ Himself. If in attain- 
 ing this result he secures the earnest co-operation of 
 those of his pupils who have most influence over their 
 comrades, he is doubly blessed. He fosters in the class- 
 room a spirit that is at once Christian and apostolic, 
 and he trains these more promising pupils for the re- 
 sponsible and meritorious office of Catholic leadership 
 if they respond generously to the opportunities afforded 
 by nature and to the solicitations that come from di- 
 vine grace. 
 
 The novice, too, is preparing within his own sphere 
 to be a leader of men. If he remains faithful to his 
 trust, he will throughout life possess the double ad- 
 vantage of being at once leader and follower: leader, 
 for the pupils who will be committed to his care; fol- 
 lower, with respect to the great saints who are gone 
 before him and who intercede for him before the throne 
 of grace. His social group, therefore, whether viewed 
 in the natural or in the supernatural order, is not lim- 
 ited to his companions in the novitiate, nor even to the 
 whole religious body to which he belongs. Neither are 
 its confines bounded by the Church visible on earth; 
 for it includes also the Church triumphant in heaven. 
 As creature, as man, as Christian and as religious, the 
 
Faith as a Social Force in the School, 389 
 
 novice is a member of social groups marked by increas- 
 ing sharpness in the definition of their obligations, and 
 by increasing complexity of organization. AH, how- 
 ever, have their ultimate origin in God, and through 
 all, by the grace of the Author and Finisher of our 
 faith, is he to attain the reward of social service con- 
 ceived in a Christian spirit, embraced with Christian 
 zeal, and executed with Christian fidelity and perse- 
 verance. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 General Summary. 
 
 In Book I a comparison was instituted between the 
 Normal School and the Religious Novitiate in aim, 
 curriculum, method, spirit, and limitations. Person- 
 ality was found to be the most valuable asset for the 
 active or prospective teacher. The religious novitiate 
 professes to develop the personality of its subjects ac- 
 cording to the standards of Christian faith and to 
 strengthen their faith itself by regular systematic ex- 
 ercise — one of the chief means being meditation. 
 
 In Book II we saw the danger lurking beneath a cur- 
 rent theory of religious belief, and then considered the 
 nature, origin, and exercise of divine faith and some 
 of its pedagogical values. 
 
 In Book III we began a more detailed examination of 
 these values. In Chapter VI we studied the chief bio- 
 logical aspects of education, viz., heredity, environ- 
 ment, plasticity, and adjustment; and then considered 
 some of the relations existing between these topics and 
 the truths of divine faith. In Chapter VII, — under the 
 general title of psychological aspects of faith, — per- 
 ception, the learning process, habit, and the reflex arc 
 concept were treated first in themselves, then with refer- 
 ence to their pedagogical significance, and finally in the 
 
 340 
 
General Summary, 341 
 
 light of the special value which they acquire from the 
 practice of Christian faith. 
 
 In Book IV we studied the nature, the matter, and 
 the elements of meditation as a religious exercise, and 
 we discovered that the chief psychological processes 
 which we had already considered, were actually included 
 and utilized in the daily meditation, one of the chief ex- 
 ercises by which the novice cultivates the spirit of faith. 
 Furthermore, in virtue of the principle of the transfer 
 of training, the habit formed by the diligent prepara- 
 tion and faithful practice of meditation, was found to 
 have a genuine pedagogical value which was applicable 
 to other subjects having either a similar method, or 
 similar matter, or a similar aim. 
 
 In Book V a rapid survey was taken of some funda- 
 mental sociological aspects of education. The develop- 
 ment of the novice was found to grow apace with his 
 assimilation of the community spirit, while the spiritual 
 progress of the community itself was seen to depend on 
 the Christian acceptance of his responsibility by the 
 individual novice. The perfection of his individuality, ^ 
 according to Christian ideals, the novice endeavors to 
 effect by the assiduous practice of meditation, the great 
 conserver of religious faith. The group spirit, with 
 its community of knowledge, feeling, and action, is best 
 cherished by the diligent exercise of Christian charity, 
 which also springs from faith. Christian and religious'^ 
 faith, therefore, is at once the safeguard and the 
 strength of both the novice as an individual and the 
 order as a society. In view of the prominence given to- 
 
342 General Summary, 
 
 day to the social aim of education, it is opportune to 
 note this social aspect of the pedagogical value of the 
 virtue of faith as developed in the religious novitiate. 
 It crowns and supplements the values which faith is dis- 
 covered to have when measured by biological and psy- 
 chological standards. 
 
L' ENVOI. 
 
 It may be asked what message the preceding pages 
 have for teachers in the schools of our land. In answer, 
 let the following points be suggested for reflection: 
 
 All educators concede to-day that "social service" 
 is at least an aim (if not the aim) of the educative 
 process. But the highest type of social service is in- 
 spired, sustained, and directed by religious ideals.^ 
 Even where its immediate individual exponent does not 
 profess a creed, yet he is, at times in spite of himself, 
 oftener unknown to himself, deeply influenced by the 
 Christian atmosphere in which he lives ; he shares in the 
 spiritual heritage bequeathed him and his fellows from 
 the ages of faith. Even if Christian dogma be for him 
 like the light still coming to our planet from extinct 
 stars, yet it actually does guide his conduct. Now if, 
 even when supported by this social aid, he often finds 
 it difficult to pay his meed of social service, let him be- 
 ware lest, by depriving the younger generation not 
 merely of religious truth, but also of the religious af- 
 fections that spring from it, he blight the practice of 
 righteous living and destroy the vitality of those ethi- 
 cal ideals by which alone genuine individual and social 
 development is made possible. 
 
 The personality of the pupil may be shaped by the 
 teacher, but the teacher's personality must be doubly 
 
 ^ Cf. Balfour, Foundations of Belief, pp. 331, 332. 
 
 343 
 
344 L' Envoi. 
 
 protected if it is to withstand the insidious attacks of 
 degenerate or debased social ideals. Our teachers are, 
 or should aim to become, "the salt of the earth. But 
 if the salt lose its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?" ^ 
 One means of developing and conserving the person- 
 ality of the teacher is presented in the foregoing pages. 
 It is a means that has stood the crucial test of ages ; 
 but it demands persistent attention and unflagging de- 
 votedness on the part of the teacher. Is it impossible 
 for our day and generation to profit by the salutary 
 lesson? 
 
 Recurring to the reflex art concept,^ let us hope that 
 the ten chapters of this book have supplied the first ele- 
 ment of the triad and even favored the second. But 
 the third element, the reaction, must come from the 
 teacher and from those who are interested in the 
 teacher's work. What will their answer be? 
 
 ^Matt. V, 13. 
 
 2 See pp. 230 ff., above. 
 
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INDEX OF NAMES. 
 
 Abbott, T. K., 118. 
 
 AUies, T. W., 35 f., 40, 44, 74, 
 
 91 f., 116, 264, 271. 
 Aloysius, St., 323. 
 Ambrose, St., 91. 
 Angell, J. R., 210, 249, 266, 284, 
 
 287. 
 Anthony, St., 91. 
 Aristotle, 40 f., 96, 111, 164, 
 
 205 f., 237, 241, 243, 245, 294. 
 Arnold, M., 70. 
 Athanasius, St., 91, 299. 
 Augustine, St., 45, 68, 91, 160, 
 
 172 f., 270 f., 299, 333, 336. 
 Austen, S., 91. 
 Aveling, F., 118 f. 
 Azarias, Brother, 51, 63, 116, 
 
 127, 161, 164, 217, 246 f., 258. 
 
 von Baer, K., 81. 
 
 Bagley, W. C, 43, 58, 110, 149, 
 155, 188, 214, 217, 221, 229, 
 246, 250, 252, 260, 264 f ., 269, 
 287 
 
 Bain, A., 20, 112, 118. 
 
 Bainvel, J. V., 106, 121. 
 
 Baird, J. W., 262. 
 
 Baldwin, J. M., 33, 109 f., 112, 
 149 ff., 156, 170, 173, 187, 
 190 ff., 198, 210, 216 f., 237 f., 
 240 f., 251, 253, 255 ff., 260, 
 266 ff., 272 f ., 276 f ., 286, 297, 
 316 f., 319, 321 f. 
 
 Balfour, A. J., 136, 143, 343. 
 
 Balmes, J., 31, 246, 326. 
 
 Barbas, Brother, 234, 246. 
 
 Barnes, C. W., 10. 
 
 Basil, St., 91, 299. 
 
 Bateson, W., 163. 
 
 Baudin, E., 26, 57. 
 
 Bell, A., 7. 
 
 Benedict, St., 44 f., 91. 
 
 Benedict Joseph Labre, St., 67. 
 
 Benn, A. W., 92. 
 
 Benson, H., 182. 
 
 Bergson, H., 294. 
 
 Bernard, St., 122. 
 
 Betts, G. H., 17, 20, 28, 80, 271. 
 
 Boedder, B., 193, 333. 
 
 Boethius, 78. 
 
 Boone, R. G., 63. 
 
 Booth, Meyrick, 141. 
 
 Bos, C, 63 f. 
 
 Boykin, C, 3. 
 
 Brackett, A. C, 70. 
 
 Bremond, H., 68, 119. 
 
 Brown, E. E., 13. 
 
 Browning, R., 24. 
 
 Bruehl, C, 316. 
 
 Bruneti^re, F., 138, 144. 
 
 B runner, J. N., 84. 
 
 Buchanan, A. M., 316. 
 
 Bussenius, C. E., 252. 
 
 Butler, N. M., 13, 24, 328. 
 
 Caird, E., 118. 
 
 Calkins, M. W., 106, 208, 242. 
 
 Camus de Pont-Carr^, J. P., 
 
 295, 332. 
 Carlyle, T., 24. 
 Carnoy, J. B., 154. 
 Catherine of Siena, St., 323. 
 Cato, 36. 
 
 de Chateaubriand, F. R., 325 f. 
 Chaucer, G., 24, 78. 
 Chauvin, P., 63. 
 Chrysostom, St. John, 62, 74, 
 
 865 
 
see 
 
 Index of Names, 
 
 Cicero, 40, 116, 2T1. 
 
 Clark, W. A., 169. 
 
 Clarke, R. F., 152, 243 f. 
 
 Coffey, P., 234. 
 
 Colvin, S., 43, 58, 110, 155, 189, 
 
 214, 217, 221, 229, 244, 246, 
 
 250, 252, 260, 264 f., 269 f., 
 
 287 
 Conaty, T. J., 19. 
 Conklin, E. G., 151, 153, 156 f., 
 
 227. 
 Corrance, H. C, 68. 
 Cramer, F., 5, 22. 
 Creighton, J. E., 273. 
 
 Dalton, J., 289. 
 
 Damascene, St. John, 185. 
 
 Dante, 263. 
 
 De la Salle, St. John Baptist, 
 
 11, 55, 57, 60, 99, 261, 281 ff., 
 
 287, 292 f., 296, 300, 323. 
 Descartes, R., 115. 
 Dewey, J., 9, 11 f., 16, 58, 151 f., 
 
 207, 212, 217, 231, 246, 294. 
 Dexter, T. F. G., 244. 
 Dollinger, J. J. I., 44. 
 Dolan, T. S., 74. 
 Domet de Vorges, E., 239. 
 Dominic, St., 323. 
 Donaldson, H. H., 176, 223, 
 
 333 f. 
 Donat, J., 128. 
 Driscoll, J. T., 168, 206, 207 f., 
 
 217, 231, 243, 247, 258, 294. 
 Dubois-Reymond, E., 143. 
 Dubray, C. A., 106, 217, 234, 
 
 249 f., 282. 
 
 Earhart, L. B., 302 f., 306. 
 Ebbinghaus, H., 252. 
 Ellwood, C. A., 232, 315. 
 Elwang, W. W., 10. 
 Emerson, R. W., 24. 
 Epictetus, 92. 
 Epicurus, 92. 
 Eucken, R. 45 f. 
 
 Exner S., 229. 
 Exuperian, Brother, 334. 
 
 Faber, F. W., 27, 40 f ., 75, 164, 
 
 181 f., 186, 197, 268 f., 281 f., 
 
 290 ff., 297 ff., 324. 
 Faber, P., 181. 
 Faraday, M., 63. 
 Farges, A., 154, 170, 188, 224, 
 
 236. 
 Fechner, G. T., 273. 
 Fichte, J. G., 117 f. 
 Foerster, F. W., 14, 17, 26, 28, 
 
 71, m ff., 140 ff., 165 f., 172 f., 
 
 205, 266, 308, 322. 
 Fracker, G. C, 301. 
 Francis de Sales, St., 283, 295, 
 
 321 332 
 Frost', E. P., 82, 225 f ., 228. 
 
 Galton, F., 72 ff., 337. 
 Garlick, A. H., 244. 
 Gaume, J., 159. 
 Gerrard, T. J., 72, 337. 
 Gibson, W. R. B., 46. 
 Giddings, F. H., 335. 
 Gillet, M. S., 20. 
 Gordy, J. P., 7, 11, 13. 
 Gregory, Nazianzen, St., 91, 299. 
 Guibert, J., 82 ff., 216. 
 
 Haeckel, E., 150. 
 
 Hall, G. S., 210, 227, 332. 
 
 Halleck, R. P., 68, 174 ff., 224 f., 
 
 233 
 Hamilton, W., 117 f. 
 Hammond, W., 154. 
 Harent, S., 108, 139, 163. 
 Harper, T., 150, 170, 235, 237. 
 Harris, W. T., 137 ff., 144. 
 Hart, J. K., 17. 
 Heck, H. W., 302 . 
 Heimbucher, M. J., 31, 33, 36, 
 
 59, 67, 89 f. 
 Herbart, J. F., 69 f ., 214, 304. 
 Herrick, J. C, 208. 
 
Index of Names, 
 
 367 
 
 Holmes, A., 20. 
 Hooke, T., 154. 
 Home, H. H., 167 f., 170, 177 f., 
 
 182 fP. 
 Hough, W. W. S., 46. 
 Howells, W. D., 173. 
 Hume, D., 112, 115. 
 Hyde, W. D., 64, 92 ff. 
 
 Ignatius Loyola, St., 181. 
 
 James, Henry, 123. 
 
 James, William, 68, 110 ff., 118, 
 124, 131, 192, 208, 210 f., 213, 
 219 f., 231 ff., 237, 243, 250 f., 
 258, 261, 294. 
 
 Janet, P., 126, 139. 
 
 Jastrow, J., 253 f. 
 
 Jennings, H. S., 189. 
 
 Jerome, St., 299. 
 
 Johnson, C. H., 12. 
 
 Joly, H., 296. 
 
 Kant, I., 106, 118. 
 
 Kegan, Paul C, 118. 
 
 a Kempis, T., 48 f., 51 ff., 140 f., 
 
 159, 240, 264, 270, 282, 284, 
 
 295, 324. 
 King, I., 16, 109, 327. 
 King, R., 3. 
 Kirkpatrick, E. A., 189. 
 Klapper, P., 303. 
 Koch, F. J., 316. 
 
 Ladd, G. T., 155, 207, 224 ff., 
 
 229 f. 
 Lancaster, J., 7. 
 Lange, A. F., 70. 
 Lange, C, 124, 219. 
 Lincoln, A., 142. 
 Locke, J., 23, 152, 214, 258. 
 I^ckington, W. J., 173. 
 Lyttleton, E., 26. 
 
 Mabillon, J., 176. 
 McKennjr, C, 86. 
 
 McMurry, C, 301, 306. 
 
 McMurry, F, 304. 
 
 Maher, M., 118 f., 204, 206, 237, 
 
 246. 
 Maine de Biran, F., 117 f. 
 Mallet, F., 106. 
 Martha, St., 268. 
 Martin, St., 91. 
 Mary Magdalen, St., 167, 268, 
 
 270. 
 Matthias, A., 80. 
 Meiklejohn, J., 118. 
 Mendel, G., 163. 
 Mercier, D., 208, 245. 
 Meumann, E., 252. 
 Meyer, M., 232. 
 Miall, L. C, 81, 86. 
 Mill, J. S., 20, 118. 
 Miller, I. E., 231, 246. 
 Milton, J., 23, 164. 
 Mivart, St. G. J., 218, 245. 
 Monroe, P., 11, 58, 151 f., 208, 
 
 210, 246, 261, 294, 304. 
 de Montalembert, C, 31, 35, 
 
 43 ff., 48, 175. 
 Moore, T. V., 208, 244. 
 Muckermann, H., 150. 
 Muensterberg, H., 80, 88. 
 
 Newman, J. H., 26, 28, 36, 46, 
 56 f., 64, 70, 85, 87, 106, 119 f., 
 126, 246 f ., 258, 293, 328. 
 
 O'Donnell, C. L., 85. 
 0116-Laprune, L., 117, 119, 161, 
 
 170, 294 ff. 
 Ozanam, F., 294. 
 
 Pace, E. A., 16, 84 f., 136, 208. 
 
 Parker, F. W., 19. 
 
 Partridge, G. E., 227 
 
 Pascal, B., 117 f. 
 
 Perrier, J. L., 150, 170, 207, 236. 
 
 Perry, C. A., 11. 
 
 Philip Neri, St., 292, 299. 
 
 Phillips, D. E., 81. 
 
368 
 
 Index of Names, 
 
 Pierce, C. S., 231. 
 Plato, 23, 94, 117. 
 Plotinus, 172, 213. 
 Pope, H., 106, 118, 333. 
 Portali^, E., 46 
 Pratt, J. B., Ill ff., 331 ff. 
 Procter, J., 48, 60 ff. 
 
 von Ranke, L., 90 f . 
 
 Rickaby, John, 115, 118, 234, 
 
 248. 
 Rickaby, Joseph, 87, 255, 259 f . 
 Rosenkranz, J. F. K., 70, 72, 74. 
 Ross, E. A., 24, 182. 
 Ruediger, W. C, 13, 35, 88, 212, 
 
 301, 308. 
 Ruger, H. A., 252. 
 Rugh, C. E., 19. 
 Ruskin, J., 24. 
 Russell, J. E., 8 f . 
 
 Sanford, E. C, 209, 215. 
 Sauvage, G. M., 118, 161. 
 Schroeder, H. H., 80. 
 Scripture, E. W., 217. 
 Scupoli, L., 295. 
 Shakespeare, W., 24, 174 f. 
 Shanahan, E. T., 118, 160. 
 Sherrington, C. S., 229 f . 
 Shields, T. E., 13, 16, 70, 188 f., 
 
 192, 208, 215, 237, 273, 310, 
 
 328, 331. 
 Siegfried, F. P., 193. 
 Sinnett, P., 118. 
 Socrates, 23. 
 
 Spalding, J. L., 19, 22, 25. 
 Spencer, H., 20 f., 60, 85, 118. 
 Spenser, E., 24. 
 Starbuck, E. D., 22, 68, 332. 
 Strong, A. L., 289. 
 Suzzallo, H., 304. 
 
 Tennyson, A., 24, 246, 268. 
 Teresa, St., 288 f ., 298. 
 
 TertulHan, 333. 
 
 Thamiry, E., 183. 
 
 Thomas Aquinas, St., 32, 48, 
 60 ff., 78 f., 87, 106, 109, 150, 
 159, 170, 184 f., 204, 213, 215, 
 234 ff., 239, 248, 255, 259. 
 
 Thompson, F., 173. 
 
 Thomson, J. A., 163, 315. 
 
 Thoreau, H. D., 175. 
 
 Thorndike, E. L., 4 f ., 21, 40, 
 174, 211 f., 301, 308. 
 
 Titchener, E. B., 124, 151, 198, 
 204 f ., 207 ff., 212, 214, 216 f., 
 219, 223, 225, 229 f., 234, 
 237 f ., 241 f ., 246 f ., 250, 256, 
 259, 262, 267, 273 f., 277, 
 284 ff., 290, 293. 
 
 Toohey, J., 87. 
 
 Truman, N. E., 118. 
 
 Turner, W., 204, 234. 
 
 UUathorne, W. B., 152. 
 Ulrich, J. L., 208. 
 
 Vaughan, J. S., 180. 
 Vermeersch, A., 36, 184. 
 
 Washburn, M. F., 174, 188, 190. 
 Watson, J. B., 155, 174, 188 ff., 
 
 247, 252, 257 f . 
 Weber, E. H., 273. 
 Weismann, A., 163. 
 Wiseman, N., 158. 
 Witmer, L., 238. 
 Woodworth, R. S., 155, 224 ff., 
 
 229 f 
 de Wuif, M., 234. 
 Wundt, W., 55, 152, 207, 214, 
 
 219, 234, 273, 294, 
 
 Yerkes, R. M., 190. 
 Youmans, E. L„ 63. 
 
 Zlgliara, T., 207, 245. 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 Abstraction, a lesson step, 306. 
 
 Accommodation, 110, 134, 198 f., 
 202, 256 f., 266 ff., 283, 286, 
 289, 292, 306. 
 
 Acquired characters, Transmis- 
 sion of, 164. 
 
 Act, first, 210; human, 125; 
 pure, 169 f; second, 210. 
 
 Actus impurus, 192. 
 
 Action, automatic, 188, 216; 
 ideo-motor, 251, 261 f., 265; 
 morals and, 319; scholastic 
 view of, 216, 237; sensori- 
 motor, 261 f., 265. 
 
 Activity, Functional, 188. 
 
 Adaptation, 165, 191, 195, 198, 
 202, 263, 334; education and, 
 171; of meditation, 334. 
 
 Adjuster, 165, 245. 
 
 Adjustment, 67, 156, 187 ff., 336. 
 
 Affections, 56 ff., 122, 216, 217 f.; 
 in meditation, 283 ff., 293, 
 306 f. 
 
 yVffective states, 217, 237. 
 
 Age limitations, 67 f. 
 
 Aim, of education, 60, 69, 79, 
 149, 177, 239, 277 f.; of nor- 
 mal school, 6 ff., 23 ; of novi- 
 tiate, 36 ff., 69. 
 
 Analogy, 161 ff. 
 
 Apperception, 54, 107, 125, 132, 
 191, 213 ff., 220 f., 234, 237 f., 
 240 f., 305, 309. 
 
 Appetency, 217 ff., 222, 240, 
 242 f. 
 
 Application, a lesson step, 305 f . 
 
 Apostasy, 128 f . 
 
 Apostolate of teacher, 83 ff., 
 327, 332 f „ 338. 
 
 Aristotelian ideal, 95, 99. 
 
 Art, 119, 183, 248, 259. 
 
 Art of study, 310. 
 
 Artist vs. copyist, 324; method 
 
 of, 268. 
 Asceticism, 61 ff., 141 ; social 
 
 value of, 142. 
 Assets, Social, 71. 
 Assimilation, 240, 302; mental, 
 
 236 ff., 240, 271. 
 Association, Mental, 120, 222 f ., 
 
 240 ff., 290; in meditation, 
 
 307; of material and spiritual, 
 
 of natural and supernatural, 
 
 136. 
 Atrophy of powers of expres- 
 sion, 123. 
 Attention, 210, 212, 214, 216, 
 
 219, 256, 267, 283, 285 ff., 293; 
 
 biological aspects of, 285 f . ; 
 
 in meditation, 285 f ., 298, 307. 
 
 — See Consciousness. 
 Attitude, 27, 109 f., 122 f., 169, 
 
 275; Christian, 128, 135 f., 
 
 221, 310; of faith, 59 f., 107, 
 128, 137, 310; pagan, 117; sci- 
 entific, 121 f ., 259 ; sympa- 
 thetic, 56, 121. 
 
 Authority, 113 f., 120 f., 138 f.; 
 
 belief on, 331; divine, 133. 
 Automatic acts, 188, 226. 
 Automatism, 266. 
 Axons, 224 f ., 230. 
 
 Behavior, 43, 82, 109 f ., 126, 155, 
 
 222, 232, 250, 258 f . 
 Behaviorism, 155, 205, 214, 246, 
 
 267 f 283 f 
 Belief, 106 ff., 112, 117 f.; emo- 
 
 369 
 
370 
 
 Index of Subjects. 
 
 tional, 115 f.; inarticulate, 
 113; instinctive, 115 f.; rea- 
 soned, 1141; types of, 112 ff. 
 — See Faith. 
 
 Bible, English, 24; study of, 
 48 f . ; how to read, 54 f . ; 
 spirit of faith and, 59. 
 
 Biology, 150 ff. ; Catholic psy- 
 chologists and, 219. 
 
 Boy Scouts, 270. 
 
 Brain as organ of mind, 167 f. 
 
 Brothers of the Christian 
 Schools, 55, QO, 99, 159, 261, 
 292 f., 296, 300, 316, 333 f. 
 
 California Prize Essays, 4. 
 
 Calvinists, 332. 
 
 Cardinal virtues, 40, 85. 
 
 Cartesian doubt, 115. 
 
 Catechism lesson, 296, 306, 331. 
 
 Causality, Principle of, 236. 
 
 Celibacy, 72 ff., 337. 
 
 Cell, 154 ff., 224 ff. 
 
 Cenobites, 299. 
 
 Central nervous system, 156. 
 
 Certitude, 234. 
 
 Character, 19 ff., 27, 69, 71, 
 
 79, 81 f., 85, 146, 216, 249, 
 
 262, 274, 276 f.; desire and, 
 
 249, 284; formation of, 9 f ., 
 
 126 f. 
 Characters of Scripture, 271. 
 Charity, 101; fraternal, 59, 101, 
 
 324 f.; law of, 71; works of, 
 
 69, 73 f . 
 Christianity, Regenerative 
 
 power of, 165 f. 
 Church and education, 82 ff. 
 Circular process, 276, 297. — See 
 
 Imitatioi^_, Persistent. 
 Civilization, 89 f . 
 Cognition, 111, 210, 218, 237, 
 
 239 f., 245, 258, 281, 291; in 
 
 meditation, 283 ; expression 
 
 and, 271 ff., 275 f. 
 Qommandments, QQ. 
 
 Complete, living, 60, 85; man, 
 23, 67. 
 
 Communion of saints, 124. 
 
 Community-life, 90; spirit, 59, 
 320, 324 f . 
 
 Conation, 216 f., 275; in medi- 
 tation, 283, 291. 
 
 Concept, 63, 190, 243 ff., 247 f.; 
 Home's concept of God, 183 
 ff.; of method, 302; vs. per- 
 cept, 152, 240. 
 
 Conception, Intellectual, 238. 
 
 Conclusions, Verifying, 303. 
 
 Conduct and education, 63. 
 
 Conductivity, 154 f . 
 
 Conductor, 155, 245. 
 
 Conflict between individual and 
 society, 320 f. 
 
 Congregations, Religious, 31. 
 
 Conscience, Examination of, 
 50 ff., 293 
 
 Consciousness, 111, 151 f., 173, 
 204, 206, 214, 216, 225, 227 f., 
 232 f., 237, 242 f., 247 f., 253, 
 256, 261, 273, 276, 295. 
 
 Conservation, creation and, 193; 
 principle of, 131. 
 
 Conservatism of religious, 318. 
 
 Considerations in meditation, 
 293 f. 
 
 Conversion, 68, 120; means of 
 effecting, 284, 331 f. 
 
 Co-operation, 34, 116, 317, 319. 
 
 Correction, Fraternal, 59, 167, 
 223 f ., 324 f . 
 
 Cortex, Cerebral, 120, 156. 
 
 Council, of Orange, 163; of 
 Trent, 69, 81. 
 
 Counsels, Evangelical, 33, 42, QQ, 
 
 Courage in religious, 298. 
 
 Creation, 193. 
 
 Creature, meaning of, 39 f . ; so- 
 cial consequence of being, 40. 
 
 Credence, 258. 
 
 Credulity, Primitive, 113, 331, 
 333. 
 
index of Subjects. 
 
 371 
 
 Creed and "plasticity," 196 f. 
 
 Culture, 70 f., 89 f.; debt of, to 
 church, 76, 89; eugenics and, 
 72; faith and, 131, 145; spir- 
 itual, 172; of teacher, 83 f. 
 
 Culture Epoch Theory, 150. 
 
 Cumulative attribute of thought, 
 124. — See Stimuli, Summation 
 
 OF. 
 
 Curriculum — of normal school, 
 11 ff., 24; of novitiate, 43 ff., 
 69, 133; of school, 228. 
 
 Cytology, 154. 
 
 Dark Ages, 71 f., 332 f. 
 
 Definition, 243 f. 
 
 Degeneration, 165 f., 195, 200 f. 
 
 Dendrites, 224 f., 230. 
 
 Desire and character, 249, 284. 
 
 Deterioration of national type, 
 23. 
 
 Development, 153, 156 f ., 168 if., 
 175 f., 181, 188, 196; moral, 
 27, 54, 62, 69, 176, 181, 261, 
 266; in novitiate, 66, 141, 
 201 f ., 278. 
 
 "Discharge" as function of re- 
 flex arc, 191, 225 f., 229 f., 267, 
 298, 307. 
 
 Discipline— of Church, 263, 331; 
 of faith, 140. 
 
 Disintegration, in individual, 
 331; of family, 6. 
 
 Disposition, 249; for faith, 328. 
 
 Double-aspect Theory, 208, 234, 
 242 f. 
 
 Doubt, 107; faith and, 106 f., 
 115; scientific, 302 f. 
 
 Dynamic vs. static tendency, 
 34 f., 127, 152. 
 
 Dynamo genesis, 198, 267. 
 
 Education, Concept of, 153, 159, 
 163; culture and, 72 f.; func- 
 tion of, 70; ideals and, 63; 
 life and, 22 f.; means and 
 aims of, 80; moral, 27; per- 
 
 sonality and, 76 ff. ; problem 
 of, 262; as profession, 35. 
 
 Educative process, 64, 69. 
 
 Effectors, 223 f. 
 
 Efficiency — in novitiate, 66, 90; 
 social, 79, 82, 117, 125, 133 ff., 
 149. 
 
 "Ejects," 322 f. 
 
 Elimination of pupils, 4. 
 
 Embryos, 227. 
 
 Emotions, 55 ff., 123, 141, 212, 
 215; control of, 260 ff., 265 ff., 
 269 ff.; genetic theory of, 198; 
 James-Lange theory of, 124, 
 219; spiritual, 219. 
 
 Entelechy, 154. 
 
 Environment, 5, 68, 82, 162 f., 
 168 ff., 173 ff., 177 ff.; Christ 
 and, 184 ff.; faith and, 27, 
 119 f.; Fathers of Desert and, 
 175 f.; first Christians and, 
 166 f.; natural and supernat- 
 ural, 179 ff.; of novice, 178 f., 
 184 ff. ; pedagogical value of, 5, 
 119ff., 180ff.; phases of, 168f.; 
 physical, 170, 173, 253; prayer 
 and, 181 f . ; religious orders 
 and, 175, 201 f.; selection and, 
 5, 171, 177 f.; social, 80, 169, 
 171, 173, 180, 182, 253; spir- 
 itual, 177 ff., 184, 253. 
 
 Epicurean ideal, 92 f., 98. 
 
 Eugenics, 151, 157; Catholicity 
 and, 72; culture and, 72. 
 
 Evolution, 16, 110 f., 137, 150, 
 152, 181, 315. 
 
 Example, 42, 65, 91, 124 f., 131; 
 of saints, 140 f ., 298.— See Imi- 
 tation ; Environment, So- 
 cial. 
 
 Exemplar cause, 42, 272. 
 
 Exercises, Spiritual, 43 ff., 105. 
 
 Experience, 20 f ., 56 f ., 169, 189, 
 207 f., 241, 249, 287, 294 ff., 
 322 f ., 330 f . ; moral sense and, 
 20. 
 
dn 
 
 Index of Subjects. 
 
 Expresion as means of develop- 
 ment, 123, 125, 130, 182, 272. 
 
 Facilitation of stimuli, 228 f., 
 273 f ., 277. 
 
 Failures in life, 86. 
 
 Faith, 38, 84flP.; acts of, 106 f., 
 109, 119 ff., 123, 125; attitude 
 of, 59 f . ; biological aspects of, 
 149 ff., 158 ff., 168 ff., 187 ff., 
 200 ff . ; Christian, made science 
 possible, 143 f . ; comprehensive- 
 ness of, 126, 129, 143; concept 
 of, 105 f., 116; culture aspect 
 of, 131, 144 f . ; development 
 of, 122 ff., 128 f., 130, 337 f.; 
 dispositions for, 109, 121, 123, 
 328; divine, 28, 101, 106, 108 f ; 
 elements of, 125; elements of 
 divine, 125; environment and, 
 27, 119 f., 175 f.; exercise of, 
 119 ff.; fostered by medita- 
 tion, 281 ff., 291 ff., 300 ff., 
 309 ff.; genesis of, 110; habit 
 of, 69 f., 126, 130, 333; hered- 
 ity and, 159 ff., 164 f.; human, 
 28 f., 100, 106, 108; inhibition 
 and, 127 ff.; kinds of, 108, 
 112; merit of, 125; method of, 
 137 f., 141 f.; nature of, 106 f.; 
 necessity of, 100 ff. ; object of, 
 107 f . ; objective aspect of, 
 133 ff., 145 ; original sin and, 
 164 ; pedagogical value of, 108, 
 119, 129, 133 ff., 137 ff., 145 f., 
 149 ff., 204 ff., 220 f., 300 ff., 
 309 f ., 315 ff., 327 ff. ; plas- 
 ticity and, 192 ff.; 196, 202, 
 199; practice and, 123, 127, 
 130, 135 f . ; psychological as- 
 pects of, 204 ff., 221 ff., 230 ff., 
 248 ff., 275 ff.; school and, 261, 
 327 ff.; science and, 106 ff., 
 124 f ., 128, 130, 138, 143 f . ; so- 
 cial value of, 40, 121 f ., 
 140 ff., 298, 325 f., 336 f.; So- 
 
 ciety for Propagation of, 336 ; 
 sociological aspects of, 126, 
 137 f., 181 ff., 299, 315 ff., 
 327 ff., 341, 343 f.; spirit of, 
 41, 64, 59 f., 63 ff., 84 f., 88, 
 101, 110, 146, 286 f., 337 f.; 
 subjective aspects of, 137 ff., 
 145; will and, 107 ff., 109, 125, 
 127. 
 
 Fall of Adam, 45, 162 ff. 
 
 Fallen state of man, 164 ff. 
 
 Fathers, of Church, 175 f.; of 
 Desert, 91, 175, 285, 299; Ni- 
 cene and Post-Nicene, 74. 
 
 Fatigue of nerves, 226. 
 
 Feeling, aspect of conscious- 
 ness, 122, 217, 220, 237, 275, 
 291; background. 111 f.; fund 
 of, 319; in meditation, 283; 
 reality, 113 f.; religion of, 
 lllff., 330 f. 
 
 Fervor, First, 68. 
 
 Fibrillar Theory, 226. 
 
 Focalization of consciousness, 
 111, 216, 250, 256, 259. 
 
 Form, Substantial, 235. 
 
 Founders, Religious, 338. 
 
 Free Ideas, Method of, 189 f. 
 
 Function, 151 ff. ; of nervous 
 system, 156; of religious 
 teacher, 337 f . ; sociological, of 
 faith, 182 f., 315 ff., 327 ff. 
 
 Functional activity, 153. 
 
 Gary system. The, 300. 
 
 Generalization, a lesson step, 
 305. 
 
 Genetic, idea, 196; material, 16; 
 method, 16 f., 26, 212; psy- 
 chology, 171, 210, 212; theory 
 of emotion, 198. 
 
 Germ, cells, 157, 227; theory, 
 160. 
 
 Gifted men, 74. 
 
 Good example, 65, 91, 124, 131; 
 of saints, 140 f ., 298. 
 
Index of Subjects. 
 
 378 
 
 Grace, nature and, 260; plas- 
 ticity and, 194 flP., 202 f. 
 
 Groups, Social, 317 flP. ; in novi- 
 tiate, 317, 320, 329 f., 338 f.; 
 in school, 328 f.; small, 337 f. 
 
 Growth, 163. 
 
 Habit, 21, 68, 110, 120, 123, 130, 
 191 f., 198, 202, 215, 221 f., 
 248 ff., 260 ff., 265 ff., 269 ff., 
 273 f., 276, 286 f., 289, 292, 
 309, 341 ; change of, 68, 260 ff., 
 265 ff., 269 ff.; dangers of, 
 256 f.; disintegration of, 267; 
 effects of, 255 ff.; of faith, 
 69 f., 126, 130, 333; instinct 
 and, 260; formation of, 
 260 ff.; laws of, 19,8, 250 ff.; in 
 novitiate, 88, 101; physiologi- 
 cal basis of, 213 ff., 221 ff., 
 235, 249; of prayer, 285 f., 
 297. 
 
 Hell, 263. 
 
 Heredity, 73, 164, 166 f., 168 ff., 
 162 f., 166 ff., 200 ff., 221, 249, 
 340 ; development and, 166 f ., 
 168; meaning of, 157. 
 
 Heresy, 260, 320 f., 324. 
 
 Heritage, 157. 
 
 Hierarchy of unities in novice, 
 172 ff., 187 ff. 
 
 High-school age of pupils, 331 f. 
 
 History, indebted to monks, 89. 
 
 Humility, 86, 288; courage and, 
 298; as plasticity, 288 f. 
 
 Idea, Intellectual, 243 ff., 247 f . ; 
 of movement, 258; vs. sense- 
 representation, 152, 218. 
 
 Ideals in education, 8, 22, 37 ff., 
 42, 49, 92 ff., 336; Aristotelian, 
 96; Christian, 95 ff., 311, 335; 
 Epicurean, 92 f.; of novice, 
 37, 69, 311, 335; Platonic, 94; 
 qualities of, 37; Stoic, 93 f. 
 
 Ideomotor, action, 261 f., 272; 
 suggestion, 297; theory, 123. 
 
 Images, 218 f. 
 
 Imagination, 57, 214; experience 
 and, 296. 
 
 Imitation, 42, 125, 253, 189 f., 
 198, 272, 297, 317, 319; per- 
 sistent, 233, 271 ff., 276, 283, 
 297, 336; saints and, 271 f. 
 
 Imitation of Christ, 49. — See a 
 Kempis. 
 
 Immanence of action, 154. 
 
 Impression as factor in cogni- 
 tion, 230, 307. 
 
 Incarnation, 162, 165, 184 f., 202. 
 
 Individual and Society, 319 ff. 
 
 Individuality of pupil, 134 f . 
 
 Inheritance, Spiritual, 13, 328. 
 
 Inhibition, 68, 79 f., 127, 222; 
 faith and, 127 ff.; function of, 
 128 f., 170, 174, 227, 287; in 
 meditation, 287; of movement, 
 287, 330; novice and, 69 f.; so- 
 cial aspects of, 127, 320 f . ; of 
 tendencies, 116, 222, 229, 264, 
 259, 287, 330. 
 
 Initiative, 251, 254. 
 
 Instinct, 188, 226 f., 231, 249 f.; 
 habit and, 250; modification 
 of, 260 ff., 265 ff., 269 ff.; sub- 
 limation of, 269. 
 
 Integration, 190 ff., 224, 240, 
 242; of habit, 191, 215, 252, 
 276. 
 
 Intellection, Theory of, 243 ff. 
 
 Interest, 54, 121, 130 f., 222; in 
 saints, 130. 
 
 Introspection, 53.— See Consci- 
 ousness. 
 
 Irritability, 164 f. 
 
 James-Lange theory of emotion, 
 
 124. 
 Jesuits, 292 f . 
 Judgment, 34. 
 
 Knowledge, as aim of education, 
 Q9i fund of, 319; reliability 
 of, 234. 
 
374 
 
 Index of Subjects, 
 
 Labor, Manual, of monks, 43 ff., 
 89. 
 
 Law, of dynamo genesis, 198, 
 267; of love, 263, 266; respect 
 for letter and spirit of, 318; 
 Weber's, 273. 
 
 Leadership, Novices' training 
 for, 338 f . 
 
 Learning, 43, 155, 189, 203, 
 221 if., 226 ff., 234, 246, 309, 
 316 ff., 340; cognitive aspect 
 of, 221 f . ; meditation and, 57, 
 222, 297, 306 ; motor aspect of, 
 222; physiological aspect of, 
 221 f ., 224, 309 ; social aspect 
 of, 222. 
 
 Lesson. — See Recitation, 
 Method of; Teaching^ Types 
 
 OF. 
 
 Libraries, Debt of, to monks, 89. 
 
 Life, 21, 150, 154 ff.; education 
 and, 22 f . ; experimental char- 
 acter of, 140 ; religious, 30 ff ., 
 37, 75, 159 f.; spiritual, 158 f., 
 201, 334; virginal, 73 ff., 92. 
 
 Limitations, of normal school, 
 in aim, 21 ff . ; curriculum, 24 ; 
 method, 25 f.; spirit, 27;— of 
 novitiate, general, QQ; spe- 
 cial, 67 ff. ; as to age, 67; cul- 
 ture, 70; educative process, 
 69; moral development, 69; 
 vows, 70 ff. 
 
 Literature, English, 24; popu- 
 lar, spread by monks, 89. 
 
 Litterateur vs. scientist, 258 f . 
 
 Little things. Importance of, 268, 
 319 f., 327.— See Vabiations. 
 
 Macrocosm, 46. 
 
 Man as creature. Christian, and 
 
 religious, 38 ff., 192. 
 Manicheans, 172. 
 Meaning, 215, 243. 
 Medieval Christians, 48, 72, 246, 
 
 333 f. 
 
 Meditation, 55, 57 f., 131, 281 ff., 
 341 ; aim of, 53 ff. ; curriculum 
 of, 53 f.; elements of, 291 ff., 
 301, 304; emotions and, 55 ff.; 
 habit and, 58; Ignatian 
 method of, 57, 292 f., 297; in- 
 hibition in, 287 f . ;. learning 
 process and, 57; matter of, 
 53, 281 ff., 304, 310; method 
 (general), of, 54; motivation 
 in, 65, 58, 292, 307; nature of, 
 281 ff., 300 f., 304 f ; pedagogi- 
 cal value of, 300 ff., 323 f.; 
 preparation for, 54, 285 ff., 
 288 ff.; psychology of, 281 ff.; 
 purpose of, 55; as reaction 
 experiment, 284 f.; recitation 
 method aifd, 304 ff. ; value of, 
 282, 284, 296, 299, 308, 321, 
 323; spirit of, 54; study and, 
 301 ff., 304, 306 f., 310; Sul- 
 pician method of, 57, 292 f., 
 297; teacher and, 56 ff., 278, 
 284, 300. 
 
 Memory, 120, 125, 187, 249, 267; 
 in meditation, 53, 293; or- 
 ganic, 191 f., 223, 227. 
 
 Mental — development, 54, 170 f., 
 173 f., 176 f., 180 ff., 221 f.; 
 processes, 151 f., 204, 206, 208, 
 211 ff., 217 ff., 310 f. 
 
 Metabolism, 136, 155, 240. 
 
 Method, 16; of artist, 268; con- 
 cept of, 302; of conversion, 
 331 f.; efficacy of, 189 f.; of 
 faith, 143 ff.; of free ideas, 
 189 f.; genetic, 16 f., 26, 212; 
 of imitation, 189 f . ; of modi- 
 fying instinct, 260 ff., 265 ff., 
 269 ff. ; in normal school, 16 
 ff . ; in novitiate, 50 ff., 68 f . ; 
 perseverance, 189 f.; "try-try- 
 again," 272. 
 
 Microcosm, 46. 
 
 Mind, 204 f., 233; functions of, 
 217. 
 
Index of Subjects. 
 
 376 
 
 Missionaries and teachers, 336. 
 
 Modernism, 184. 
 
 Monks, Services of, 89 f . 
 
 Mood, 249. 
 
 Moral education, 14 f., 27, 62, 
 
 69, 176, 181; inclusiveness of, 
 
 8ff., 96 f^. 
 Moral sense, Spencer's view of, 
 
 20 f. 
 Morality, 149; normal school 
 
 and, 9, 14 f., 69. 
 Morphology, 151. 
 Mortification as inhibition, 287 f . 
 Motion, 237. 
 Motion pictures, 262. 
 Motivation, 55 f., 222, 253, 292; 
 
 clearness of ideas and, 293; 
 
 meditation and, 55 f ., 58, 
 
 292 f ., 307. 
 Motives, 55 f ., 82, 292. 
 Motor habits, 215; nervous sys- 
 tem and, 156. 
 Movement, Idea of, 251, 258, 
 
 272; Church and, 251. 
 
 Name, Change of, by novices, 
 
 59. 
 National Education Association, 
 
 6f., 10, 12, 14, 18 f., 24. 
 Need, Our greatest, 5. 
 Neo-Platonists, 172, 213. 
 Nerve, centers, 190 ff. ; currents, 
 
 225 f., 267, 298; elements, 
 plasticity of, 190 f.; impulse, 
 
 226 f. 
 
 Nerves, afferent, 220; education 
 and, 223; efferent, 220; func- 
 tion of, 223 f.; motor, 220, 
 230; sensory, 220, 230. 
 
 Neurone Theory, 224 ff., 230, 254. 
 
 Neurosis, 227. 
 
 Normal School, aim of, 6, 23; 
 "Bible" of, 18; curriculum of, 
 11 ff., 24; faculty of, 7; func- 
 tion of, 3, 7, 14; graduates, 
 power of, 6; limitations of, 
 
 21 ff., 100; methods of, 16 ff.; 
 moral education and, 14 f . ; 
 movement, 4; of religious life, 
 35 ; spirit of, 18 ff. ; statistics, 
 3. 
 
 Novice, 36 f . ; as creature, 39 f ., 
 87; ideals of, for self, 69, 87; 
 in teaching, 96 ff., 310 f ., 333 f., 
 336 ff. ; as religious, 42, 87. 
 
 Novitiate, 30, 34; aim and na- 
 ture of, 36 ff., 69 ; curriculum 
 of, 43 ff., 69, 88; efficiency of, 
 90; habit-formation in, 88, 
 101; limitations of, 66 f^.; 
 method in, 50 ff., 58 f., 69; so- 
 cial value of, 67 ff., 87 ff.; 
 spirit of, 59 ff., 69 ; training 
 in, 87. 
 
 Observer, Practised, 259. 
 
 Occasions, 68; of sin, 174. 
 
 Old-fogeyism, 68. 
 
 Ontogeny, 150. 
 
 Orange, Council of, 163. 
 
 Orders, Religious, 30 f . 
 
 Organism, concept of, 160; en- 
 vironment of, 168 ff. ; heredity 
 of, 158 ff. ; man not mere, 165. 
 
 Organization, 151, 168, 242; of 
 material for study, 303; so- 
 cial, 30 ff., 315 ff., 319, 336 f., 
 341 f. 
 
 Original justice, 41, 162 f.; sin, 
 162 ff., 200 ff. 
 
 Parallelism, Psychophysical, 208, 
 234, 242. 
 
 Parson, 78. 
 
 Particular examen, 51 ff. 
 
 Passion, Ruling, 51. 
 
 Passions, 143, 218. 
 
 Pedagogical, aspects of faith, 
 133 ff., 137 ff., 149 ff., 204 ff., 
 315 ff., 317 ff., 334, 337 f.; value 
 of faith, 108, 114, 116 f., 120 ff., 
 129, 133 ff., 316; value of 
 
376 
 
 Index of Subjects, 
 
 meditation, 300 ff., 304 fF., 
 323 ff. 
 
 Pedagogy, Courses in, 3 f ., 12, 
 211 f. 
 
 Perception, 213, 216, 220 f., 
 234 ff., 238 ff., 243, 248 f., 
 276 f ., 309. 
 
 Perfection, State of, 32, 60, 62, 
 87, 98.— See Life and Re- 
 ligious. 
 
 Person, 77 ff. 
 
 Personal equation, 136, 216 f., 
 268, 292, 294. 
 
 Personality, 19, 21, 76 ff.; Chris- 
 tian concept of, 76 f . ; devel- 
 opment of, 42, 58, 76, 98 ff., 
 126 f., 134 f., 141 f., 340; ex- 
 ercise of, 320 ff. ; freedom of, 
 vs. social demands, 98; God 
 and, 76 f . ; man and, 76 f . ; of 
 normal school students, 16 f. ; 
 pagan concept of, 76 ; social 
 aspect of, 77; "suggestion," 
 332; of teacher, 10, 15 f., 21, 
 81, 92 ff., 146. 
 
 Phylogeny, 150. 
 
 Physiology, 161. 
 
 Plasticity, 154, 187 ff., 196, 
 202 f., 213, 221, 288, 316, 340; 
 spiritual, 192, 196, 299; learn- 
 ing and, 189; of novice, 194 ff., 
 198 ff. 
 
 Platonic ideal, 94, 99. 
 
 Postulant, 34. 
 
 Potency, 170. 
 
 Practice, 35, 269, 296; of medi- 
 tation, 341; of righteous liv- 
 ing, 343. 
 
 Pragmatism, 207 f., 231, 247, 
 268 ff. 
 
 Prayer, 47 ff., 166 ; in classroom, 
 333; environment and, 181 f.; 
 mental, 281 ff. ; private and 
 public, 47; psychology of, 
 289; social value of, 43 ff., 47 f. 
 — See Meditation. 
 
 Preparation, a lesson step, 304 f. 
 
 Presentation of matter in les- 
 son, 306. 
 
 Problem, as factor in study, 
 302 f.; most urgent, 320. 
 
 Process, in general, 151; brain, 
 241; circular, 276, 297; psy- 
 choneural, 241. 
 
 Processes, Mental, 151 f., 217, 
 275, 309; in meditation, 304. 
 
 Profession, in general, 8, 81; 
 education as, 35; religious, 
 33 ff., 69. 
 
 Progress, 307 f . ; spiritual, and 
 meditation, 299. 
 
 "Projects," 322 f. 
 
 Propagation of Faith, Society 
 for, 336. 
 
 Protoplasm, 154. 
 
 Psychology, analytical, 209; de- 
 scriptive, 212, 221; experi- 
 mental, 208 ; functional, 209 f ., 
 212; genetic, 171, 210 f., 212, 
 221; social aspect of, 122, 
 204 f.; structural, 209 f.; 
 teaching and, 171, 211 f. 
 
 Psychosis, 227. 
 
 Public, morals, 319; opinion, 
 319. 
 
 Reaction, in concept of educa- 
 tion, 140 f ., 216, 220, 230, 233, 
 237, 246, 249; circular, 276, 
 284 ; meditation as, 284 f . ; 
 moral, 266; social, 317 f. 
 
 Reading, Spiritual, 54 ff. 
 
 Reality-feeling, 112 ff. 
 
 Rebound effect, 229. 
 
 Recapitulation Theory, 160. 
 
 Receptors, 155, 224, 245. 
 
 Recitation, Method of, and 
 meditation, 304 ff. 
 
 Recreation in novitiate, 50. 
 
 Redemption, 162 f., 166, 200, 
 202. 
 
 Reflections for class use, 297. 
 
Index of Subjects, 
 
 377 
 
 Reflex action as type, 230 ff., 
 233 flP., 240 ff., 244 ff.; arc, 
 233 ff., 275, 310. 
 
 Reflexes, 188, 227, 249 f., 261. 
 
 Regenerative power of Christi- 
 anity, 165 ff. 
 
 Reinforcement of stimuli, 228 f ., 
 241, 273 f., 277. 
 
 Religion, emotional, 115 f.; of 
 feeling, 112 f., 330; in normal 
 school, 12, 14 ff. ; science and, 
 107, 125, 127 f., 135 f., 143 f., 
 154; of thought, 114 f. 
 
 Religious, Meaning of, 32; ref- 
 ormation of, 321 f. 
 
 Religious — belief of child, 25; 
 congregations, 31 ; develop- 
 ment, 22 f.; life, 30 ff., 37, 
 61 f ., 159 f . ; novitiate, 30 ; 
 orders, 30 f ., 36 ; profession, 
 33 ff.; sanctions, 22; state, 
 32 f.; teacher's function, 337. 
 — See Life, Monks, Novice, 
 Novitiate. 
 
 Repetition as factor in forming 
 habit, 250 f . 
 
 Resolutions of meditation, 284, 
 293, 296, 298, 304 ff., 307. 
 
 Response to stimuli, 153 f. ; de- 
 layed, 64, 99, 261. 
 
 Retention, 192. 
 
 Retreat, Annual, for religious, 
 334; for pupils, 334. 
 
 Rivalry, 173, 319 f. 
 
 Ruling passion, 51. 
 
 Sacraments and "plasticity," 
 195 f., 202. 
 
 Sacrifice of Mass, 47, 49. 
 
 Saints, 130, 140 f.; how to read 
 lives of, 54 f . ; as leaders, 130, 
 140 f., 271, 323; social value 
 of, 271 ; works of, 268 f . 
 
 Sanctity, 63. 
 
 Scholastic philosophy, 192, 204, 
 213, 328. 
 
 Schoolmen, 205, 210, 218 ff., 
 244 f. 
 
 Science, 209 f.; faith and, 106 f., 
 124 f., 129 f., 135 f., 138 f., 
 143 f ., 146 ; favored by monks, 
 89. 
 
 Scientist, Method of, 268; vs. 
 litterateur, 258 f. 
 
 Selection, principle of, 6, 41, 
 133, 173, 190, 192, 214; Church 
 as principle of, 222; educa- 
 tion and, 167 f ., 171, 181 ; en- 
 vironment and, 177 f.— See 
 Inhibition. 
 
 Self-denial 10, 25, 61, 63 f., 71, 
 73 f., 79 f ., 97 f., 140 f., 142 f ., 
 267. — See Asceticism. 
 
 Self-examination,, 50 ff., 87, 101. 
 
 Self-mastery, 25, 52, 63, 71, 
 79 f., 87, 141. 
 
 Self-realization, 25, 71, 80, 87. 
 
 Sensation, 213 ff., 218. 
 
 Sensorimotor action, 261 f., 265. 
 
 Sensory nervous system, 156. 
 
 Servile works, 44 f . 
 
 Silence, 285. 
 
 Sisters, Catholic, 142 f. 
 
 Situation in psychological sense, 
 216. 
 
 Social, aim of education, 11, 23, 
 102, 125, 149 f.; assets, 69; 
 betterment, 157; demands vs. 
 personal freedom, 98, 320 f ., 
 324 f.; environment, 182 ; 
 groups, 317 f. ; ideal of noviti- 
 ate, 42 f ., 334 f . ; inheritance, 
 13, 328; service, 79, 101, 
 133 ff., 137 ff., 326 f., 329. 
 
 Social Value, of change of name 
 by novice, 59; of faith, 110, 
 119 ff., 125, 130, 141, 298, 
 315 ff., 325 f., 327 ff., 336 f.; 
 of meditation, 296, 298; of 
 method in novitiate, 58 f . ; of 
 novitiate, 68 f., 87 f.; of or- 
 ganization, 315; of religious 
 
,# 
 
 378 
 
 Index of Subjects, 
 
 habit, B9; of summation of 
 stimuli, 274; of work, 43 ff. 
 
 Society, and individual, 317 ff. ; 
 and teacher, 79 f., 83 f . 
 
 Societies, Perfect, 315, 328 f. 
 
 Sociological Aspects — of accom- 
 modation, 268 f . ; of faith, 
 121 f., 124 f., 138 f., 298, 310, 
 316; of inhibition, 68, 128 f.; of 
 learning, 222 ; of novitiate, 67 ff. 
 
 Sociology and religious found- 
 ers, 323 f. 
 
 Solidarity, 317 f. 
 
 Soul, 204. 
 
 Spirit — Christian, 85; of normal 
 school, 18 ff. ; of novitiate, 
 59 ff., 69, 87, 291. 
 
 Spiritual, cares of monks, 90; 
 inheritance, 13, 328; reading, 
 54 ff. ; sense, 51. 
 
 Spontaneity, 154. 
 
 Standards, educational, 133 f . ; 
 religious and ethical, 88. 
 
 State of perfection, 62. 
 
 Static vs. dynamic tendency, 
 34 f., 152. 
 
 Steps in recitation, 304 ff. 
 
 Stimuli, facilitation of, 228 f.; 
 reinforcement of, 228 f . ; sum- 
 mation of, 273 f ., 329, 336. 
 
 Stoic ideal, 93 f ., 98. 
 
 Struggle for existence^ 200. 
 
 Study, 283, 301, 302; art of, 
 310; elective, 134; logical, 302 
 ff. ; meditation and, 301 ff., 304, 
 306 f., 310; in novitiate, 45 f., 
 49; psychological, 302 f.; of 
 Scripture, 48. 
 
 "Subjects," 322 f. 
 
 Sublimation of instinct, 269. 
 
 Suggestion, 277 ; ideo - motor, 
 
 297; religious, 333. 
 Sunday school, 330. 
 
 Supernatural order, 41, 126, 158, 
 160, 162 ff., 166, 179, 194 ff., 
 199, 263 ff., 270, 276, 338, 
 
 Synapse, 225 f., 228, 254. 
 
 Teacher, Apostolate and cul- 
 ture of, 83; faith of, 84; 
 ideals of, 8, 92 ff., 335 f.; as 
 leader, 6; meditation and, 
 56 ff., 278, 284, 300; person- 
 ality of, 10, 92, ff. ; relation of, 
 to Church and State, 83; re- 
 lation of, to God and to so- 
 ciety, 83; training of, 17, 
 211 f. 
 
 Teachers of fourth century, 91. 
 
 Teaching — ethical aim of, 8 f . ; 
 ideals in, 92 ff., 329, 333 f., 
 337 f . ; meditation and, 300 ff ., 
 304 f., 306 ff.; theory and 
 practice of, 13; types of, 306. 
 
 Temperament, 249. 
 
 Tendencies, associative, 241 ; dy- 
 namic vs. static, 34 f ., 152. 
 
 Testament, New, 49. 
 
 Theology, developed by monks, 
 89. 
 
 Things vs. processes, 151. 
 
 Thought, 246 f., 302 ff.; devel- 
 oped by meditation, 307; re- 
 ligion of, 114 f., 331. 
 
 Thought-situation, 217, 246 f., 
 32 f. 
 
 Traditionalists, 117 f. 
 
 Transfer of training, 301, 308 f ., 
 310, 341. 
 
 Trent, Council of, 69, 81. 
 
 Trinity, 185; modernistic view 
 of, 184. 
 
 Understanding, Religion of, 
 
 114 f., 331. 
 Unity in novice, 46 f., 172. 
 
 Variations, 258, 319, 324, 327 f., 
 
 329, 336. 
 Vaudeville, 262. 
 
 Vernacular, aided by monks, 89. 
 Vincent de Paul, St., Confer- 
 
 enceis of, 336, 
 
Index of Subjects. 
 
 ^7& 
 
 Virginity, 73 fP., 92. 
 
 Virtue, acts of, 277 f . ; education 
 and, 70; intellectual vs. moral, 
 259 f. 
 
 Virtues, cardinal, 40, 85; nat- 
 ural, 86; supernatural, 86; 
 theological, 86. 
 
 Vocation, in general, 81; re- 
 ligious, 31, 33, 67, 336. 
 
 Volition, 204, 217, 245, 259 f., 
 267.— See Will. 
 
 "Vorstellung," 152. 
 
 Vows, Religious, 31, 68 f., 61 f., 
 64, 68 ff., 89, 199. 
 
 Warfare between science and 
 
 religion, 135, 139 f. 
 Weber's Law, 273. 
 "Weltanschauung," 135. 
 Will, 34, 82, 217 f., 223, 225, 231, 
 
 242 f., 255, 263; habit, 252.— 
 
 See IxsTixcT, Modification^ of. 
 Work, Socializing aspect of, 
 
 43flP. 
 
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