have been taught in famous schools. Yet he had no teacher, but that Great Stone Face became one to him. When the toil of the day was over, he would gaze at it for hours, until he began to imagine that those vast features recognized him and gave him a smile of kindness and encouragement, responsive to his own look of veneration. It is the story of an ideal and its influence on the life of a boy. The boy's tender and confiding simplicity discerned what other people could not see; and thus the love which was meant for all, became his peculiar portion.

So also is it with human ideals. The poet tells us:

"Lives of great men all remind us,

We can make our lives sublime."

Thus, with all the world of example to draw on, we need never be at a loss for an ideal. But, there is one to which the religious teacher alone is privileged to turn-Christ, our Blessed Lord, whose imitation, as exemplified in the lives of His saints from "all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues", shows forth the many-sided nature and practical imitability of this most perfect of all ideals. In the imitation of Christ, then, shall we find our best aid in the formation of character. Like unto Him can we teach the child "to increase in wisdom and age and grace." Formed on this model he will be reverential, respectful, obedient to all lawful authority; just, charitable, honorable in his dealings with his companions; in his duties to God, ever faithful and true -a lovable, good-tempered, high-minded youth, the making of one of the noblest works of God, of whom the poet sings

"His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles,
His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate.

His tears, pure messengers sent from his heart,
His heart as far from fraud as Heaven from earth"-

the exemplary man of character,

DISCUSSION.

REV. WILLIAM D. HICKEY, Dayton, Ohio: The basic principles of this great question-for it is the heart of education, even of life itself—have been well summarized by Father Lyons. The aim to be always held in view is to know the child, to recognize its individuality and to teach it to form its own character.

Teachers should recognize the varieties of temperament and not expect that all can be mechanically moulded in the same form. It is idle to say, "Johnny Smith, why can't you be like Tommy Brown?" He cannot be, for he has a different temperament and must be taken accordingly. Some fundamental knowledge of psychology is required, but a note of warning should be uttered against some of the text-books, which are to be found in the hands of even our teachers, which are based upon false philosophical principles and lead to dangerous conclusions. Some of these books are painstaking in research and scientific in method, but they regard the child as a mere animal and ignore the spiritual element of his nature—a onesided and, therefore, pernicious theory.

If the proper study of mankind be man, the deepest problem is the study of the child. To sound the depths of the child mind, to enter reverently into its world requires intelligence, but, above all, unfailing love and symathy. Character is best formed by the personal touch. Which of us does not cherish the memory of some teacher, now dead and gone, whose influence moulded our character, who read us like a book and revealed our whole nature to our inner consciousness, pointed out our faults so that they looked startling in their reality, encouraged our faltering steps, cheered our victories over self and sustained our drooping spirits in defeat? It must ever be kept in mind that Divine Providence is the author of the diversities both in nature and grace. All of the saints are modeled upon the one ideal, Jesus Christ, yet what a wonderful variety in their characters! God is wonderful in His saints. Stress should be laid upon the necessity of cultivating the natural virtues, docility, truthfulness, honesty, selfrespect, and then build the structure of supernatural virtues upon this foundation. Yet all this requires patience. What difficulties are not presented to the teacher by lying on the part of children? Yet it would be a mistake to set it all down to malice, for allowance must be made for weakness, fear of punishment, excessive imagination, distorted impressions or what might be called mental astigmatism. Individual work must count for much, and this is the decided evil of overcrowding the lower grades in the school. Special sermons for the children at their Masses are not as easily prepared as those for adults, yet they can accomplish much, and much good will be done by the retreats for children, lately coming into vogue.

But when all is said and done, one must come back to the personal life of the teacher, and in this our children are signally blessed; for in the person of their teachers they have the concrete examples of consecrated

religious lives, reflecting and diffusing the holiness of the Divine Teacher, Jesus Christ.

REV. TIMOTHY BROSNAHAN, S. J., Loyola College, Baltimore, Md.: I am not quite sure that I should attempt to say anything on this subject, because I have a hesitancy and dislike to say anything on any subject unless I can say something better than what has already been said. However, as I have been called to this platform to make a few remarks I presume I must try to do so, even at the risk of being stale and unprofitable. In the first place, permit me. to offer my personal thanks to Father Lyons and Father Hickey for their very pleasing and clear presentation of the subject under discussion.

One thought especially was suggested to me and became emphasized in my mind while listening to the paper of Father Lyons and the discussion of Father Hickey. In our schools we make use of various exercises for developing the memory of the child, its reasoning powers, its judgment and taste, its capacity for observation, its habits of attention and industry. We have exercises, too, for developing the physical strength of the child. By athletic sports and gymnastic training we provide for the proper growth of its bodily faculties. But have we any specific exercises for developing will power? Is there any reason why we should not submit the child to special training in this matter, as in others? Father Hickey has insisted that the child should be taught to form its own character. Now this simply means that it should be taught through exercise to acquire will power. To do this it does not suffice that it should be taught to exercise will power merely to resist what is evil. If it does not call its will into play until the problem of evil is presented to it, having had no prior experiences in the use of that will power, the issue may reasonably be feared. The athlete prepares himself for the contest, submits to a great deal of training that seems to have no immediate bearing on the particular contest in which he is going to be engaged. Should he refuse to take the seemingly unnecessary practice prescribed by his trainer, his failure to compete successfully could easily be predicted. The actor who is to impersonate a Hamlet or Macbeth devotes hours in private to practice that nobody is present to see or appreciate. By repeated effort he fixes the emotion that he wishes to depict on his countenance, the expression he wishes to put into his voice and carriage, the very mental mood he wishes to be in during his brief hour before an audience. He undergoes all his labor to acquire for a time the habit of another personality.

So to acquire will power the child must have previous training, that is to say if it is to have self-control, the power to say effectively "I will" or "I will not" in an emergency, it must previously have practiced that will power in circumstances in which the only purpose in view is the effect to be produced by the practice itself.

"Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,
These three alone lead life to sovereign power,"

says Tennyson. Undoubtedly of these three, will power or self-control is one of the most important elements in the formation of character; so much so in fact that those who have false or unsound principles and have strong will power are the most awful agents for evil in the world to-day.

How then should the child be taught to acquire will power? It should be taught the necessity of practice in the use of that faculty, as of others. The need of exercising mastery over itself should be inculcated. It should be taught to control its inclinations, impulses and desires, and for this purpose to deny them satisfaction at times even in matters in which it might lawfully indulge them; to get into the habit of exercising will power as the saints did for the purpose of self-abnegation or mortification. These, of course, are fearsome words to present to a child. Yet though we need not frighten them with the words, the thing signified by the words can be presented in such a way as to make the child realize that if it is to acquire self-mastery through will power it must sometimes deliberately and for the sake of the exercise deny itself even in matters that are harmless. You remember in the book of Genesis that Pharaoh, asserting the supremacy of his power, said: "I am Pharaoh, without my command no man shall move hand or foot in all the land of Egypt." So the man who can say: “I am Pharaoh in the republic of my soul; when I will, every subordinate faculty, impulse, or desire obeys," is one whose character is formed. Given the Catholic principles of thought and morality as a guide, and on this foundation of will power are the natural virtues raised in us which when conjoined harmoniously into a whole form what we call character. The child who has been taught to exercise will power, self-control, self-mastery in accord with what it knows or is taught to be the true, the good and the beautiful, is the child who has been taught to form its own character.

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE IN OUR SCHOOLS. WHO
TEACHES IT? HOW SHOULD
IT BE TAUGHT?

REV. EDMUND F. GIBBONS, SUPERINTENDENT OF PARISH SCHOOLS,

DIOCESE OF BUFFALO.

The announcement of this subject may come as a surprise to many of you. It did to me, and after a few days' consideration, and a careful perusal of the splendid papers on one phase or another of the subject of teaching Christian Doctrine, read at the meetings of this Association in the last five years, I scarcely had

the courage to attempt to treat it. Many of you, no doubt, had the privilege of hearing these papers read and discussed, or perhaps you had the time and interest in the subject, to read them for yourselves in the Secretary's reports. It will not be amiss to recall them.

At the New York meeting five years ago, Dr. Shields and Dr. Duffy in the Seminary Department treated the subject of "Pedagogy in the Seminary," and they dealt exclusively with the pedagogy of Christian Doctrine. In Cleveland the year after, two of the four papers read before the School Department were on "Christian Doctrine," Brother Baldwin's on "Teaching of Catechism," Brother John Waldron's on "Teaching of Bible History." The third by Mons. Lavelle on "The Relation of the Pastor, or Priest, to the Catholic School, Especially as Regards Religious Instruction, Secular Instruction and Discipline," was devoted principally to the same subject; and Father Lafontaine in his paper on "A Model School Curriculum," could not bear to pass it over in utter silence. In 1907 Father Yorke, at the Milwaukee meeting, discoursed at great length on "The Educational Value of Christian Doctrine," and so eloquently that Father Finn began his excellent review of the paper by declaring that he felt in discussing it he was "gilding refined gold and painting the lily." Brother Anthony then gave his own views and those of sundry other authorities on "The Pastor and the School," and in the discussion many important points in regard to Christian Doctrine and the relative share of pastor and teachers in its teaching, were brought

out.

Then came Cincinnati in 1908. While the college men were busy telling one another how to teach Latin, Dr. Shields, his collaborators and commentators, learnedly and exhaustively expounded to you "Methods of Teaching Religion." In the teachers' meeting, the good Sisters, not to be outdone in zeal for a proper understanding of the subject of universal interest, expressed some beautiful and practical ideas on "Ideal Methods of Teaching Christian Doctrine," as well as other branches.

Last year in Boston, Dr. Sauvage applied to the teaching of Christian Doctrine the principles he enunciated in his admirable paper on "The Function of Memory in Education," and the dis