systems. The need of a religion of the heart and life was felt.

(G.) JANSENISM.

This was a movement in the Roman Catholic Church in favor of more evangelical doctrine and greater practical piety. It is named from its originator, Jansenius, a bishop in the Netherlands, who was an ardent admirer of Augustine, and reproduced the doctrinal views of that ecclesiastical father in a work published posthumously in 1640. The opinions thus set forth stood in sharp contrast with the prevailing practice of the Jesuits, and found a wide acceptance and vigorous promulgation. "In the view of the Jansenists," says Mosheim, "there is nothing entirely sound and uncorrupted in the practice and institutions of the Romish Church. In the first place, they complain that the whole body of the clergy have forsaken altogether the duties of their office. They, moreover, assert that the monks are really apostates, and they would have them be brought back to their pristine sanctity, and to that strict course of life which the founders of the several orders prescribed. They would also have the people well instructed in the knowledge of religion and Christian piety. They contend that the sacred volume, and the books containing the forms of public worship, should be put into the hands of the people in the vernacular tongue of each nation, and should be diligently read and studied by all. And, lastly, they assert that all the people should be carefully taught that true piety toward God does not consist in external acts and rites, but in purity of heart and divine love." In practice the Jansenists were harshly ascetic. Their doctrines were bit

terly attacked by the Jesuits, and in the prolonged controversy that followed Jansenism was finally suppressed.

In France Jansenism had several distinguished adherents, among whom were Pascal and Fénelon. The center of the movement in that country was Port-Royal, an ancient convent, a few miles from Paris, where a number of pious and learned men devoted themselves to study, teaching, and the practice of piety. They gave much attention to the instruction of youth, and by the use of wise methods they achieved excellent results. They prepared neat and excellent text-books on grammar, philosophy, and other branches of knowledge; they translated many of the classic authors; they produced a large number of devotional and practical works, in which they exhibited a pure, chaste, and agreeable style. In connection with their primary schools, they invented and employed the phonic system of spelling. The study of language began with the mother-tongue, and not, as had hitherto been the case in France, with Latin. The doctrine of natural depravity was strongly emphasized in the Jansenistic system, and hence a somewhat rigorous discipline was maintained. A careful and unceasing surveillance was exercised over the pupil. But the hope of a moral reformation was placed, not in rigid discipline, but in divine grace; and the method of dealing with children was reduced by a teacher of Port-Royal to these three precepts: "Speak little, endure a great deal, and pray still more."

The method of conducting the Port-Royal schools has been thus described by an old French writer: "Up to the age of twelve the pupils were occupied with the elements of sacred history, geography, and arithmetic,

under the form of amusements, in a manner to develop their intelligence without wearying it. At twelve years the regular course of study began. The hours of study and recitation were fixed, but not in an absolute way. If study sometimes intrenched upon recreation, recreation also had its turn, for circumstances were taken into account. In winter, when the weather permitted, the teacher gave his lesson while taking a walk with his pupils. Sometimes they left him to climb a hill or run in the plain, but they came back to listen to him. In summer the class met under the shade of trees by the side of brooks. The teacher explained Virgil and Homer; he commented upon Cicero, Aristotle, Plato, and the fathers of the Church. The example of the teachers, their conversation and familiar instruction, all that the pupil saw, all that he heard, inspired him with a love for the beautiful and the good."

We are now prepared to form some idea of the PortRoyal education, and to see its direct opposition to the Jesuit system. It ranges the teachers of Port-Royal by the side of the illustrious educational reformers considered in the preceding section. It simplified studies, and made them pleasant to the pupil; it gave a worthy prominence to the mother-tongue; it developed the understanding along with the memory; it imparted substantial knowledge in connection with words; it developed the faculties, paid attention to the body, and watched over the formation of character. For the rest, the language of Paroz is adopted: "In persecuting the Protestants, and in suppressing Jansenism, Louis XIV. deprived Christianity in France of its power and freedom, and prepared the way for the mocking and frivolous

unbelief of the eighteenth century. During the past few years distinguished savants, like Cousin, Faugère, Vinet, and especially Sainte-Beuve, have called the attention of the French people to the work, too long forgotten, of Port-Royal; they have drawn from that source subjects of study that have had a high literary, philosophical, religious, and educational significance. If France had developed the pedagogical work commenced by Port-Royal, it would be further advanced by almost two centuries. The whole of the eighteenth century and the first third of the nineteenth dragged themselves along in sterile philosophical and political theories; it is only within the past few years that good educational works are beginning to appear again in France, taking up the thread broken by Louis XIV."

After these remarks in general upon the educational system of Port-Royal, it is necessary to speak of two distinguished educators who held, more or less fully, its religious and educational views. These are Fénelon and Rollin.

(H.) FÉNELON.

This celebrated author and teacher was born in the province of Périgord, in 1651. From an early age he was remarkable for industry, for his amiable disposition, and thirst for knowledge. Up to the age of twelve his education was conducted at home; he was then sent to Cahors, and two years later to Paris, where his course of instruction was completed. Destined to the clerical office by his family, and inclined toward it by natural gifts and disposition, he entered the theological seminary of Saint-Sulpice, and won general esteem by his

application, ability, and exemplary character. He was ordained priest at the age of twenty-four, and was shortly afterward placed over an institution in Paris designed for the instruction of young women who had renounced the Protestant faith. "No person," says Roche, "was more capable than he of rendering virtue attractive by that touching and effective language which addresses itself to the heart and inspires confidence. To this precious gift he joined the merit of giving his instructions that simple, clear, and agreeable form that placed them within reach of all minds." He spent ten years of his life as director of this institution, and it was while in charge of it that he wrote his excellent work on the "Education of Girls," presently to be noticed at some length.

After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Fénelon was placed at the head of a mission that was sent to Poitou to labor for the conversion to Romanism of the Protestant portion of the population. He fulfilled the trying duties of this office with gentleness and toleration; and such was the affability of his manners and the charm of his discourse that his labors were not unattended with success.

In 1689 he was appointed tutor to the young Duke of Burgundy, grandson of Louis XIV. This young prince was endowed with fine natural abilities, but possessed of an inordinate pride and a furious temper. This rendered Fénelon's task exceedingly difficult, but he discharged its duties with rare wisdom and surprising success. "In a short time," says a writer quoted by Roche, "affection and kindness made a different person of the prince, and changed many and serious faults into