SUNDAY LECTURES
The Modern School did not confine itself to the instruction of
children. Without for a moment sacrificing its predominant character
and its chief object, it also undertook the instruction of the people.
We arranged a series of public lectures on Sundays, and they were
attended by the pupils and other members of their families, and a large
number of workers who were anxious to learn.
The earlier lectures were wanting in method and continuity, as we had
to employ lecturers who were quite competent in regard to their own
subjects, but gave each lecture without regard to what preceded or
followed. On other occasions, when we had no lecturer, we substituted
useful readings. The general public attended assiduously, and our
advertisements in the Liberal press of the district were eagerly
scanned.
In view of these results, and in order to encourage the disposition of
the general public, I held a consultation with Dr. Andrés Martínez
Vargas and Dr. Odón de Buen, Professors at the Barcelona University, on
the subject of creating a popular university in the Modern School. In
this the science which is given—or, rather, sold—by the State to a
privileged few in the universities should be given gratuitously to the
general public, by way of restitution, as every human being has a right
to know, and science, which is produced by observers and workers of all
ages and countries, ought not to be restricted to a class.
From that time the lectures became continuous and regular, having
regard to the different branches of knowledge of the two lecturers. Dr.
Martínez Vargas expounded physiology and hygiene, and Dr. Odón de Buen
geography and natural science, on alternate Sundays, until we began to
be persecuted. Their teaching was eagerly welcomed by the pupils of the
Modern School, and the large audiences of mixed children and adults.
One of the Liberal journals of Barcelona, in giving an account of the
work, spoke of the function as “the scientific Mass.”
The eternal light-haters, who maintain their privileges on the
ignorance of the people, were greatly exasperated to see this centre of
enlightenment shining so vigorously, and did not delay long to urge the
authorities, who were at their disposal, to extinguish it brutally. For
my part, I resolved to put the work on the firmest foundation I could
conceive.
I recall with the greatest pleasure that hour we devoted once a week to
the confraternity of culture. I inaugurated the lectures on December
15, 1901, when Don Ernesto Vendrell spoke of Hypatia as a martyr to the
ideals of science and beauty, the victim of the fanatical Bishop Cyril
of Alexandria. Other lectures were given on subsequent Sundays, as I
said, until, on October 5, 1902, the lectures were organised in regular
courses of science. On that day Dr. Andrés Martínez Vargas, Professor
of the Faculty of Medicine (child diseases) at Barcelona University,
gave his first lecture. He dealt with the hygiene of the school, and
expounded its principles in plain terms adapted to the minds of his
hearers. Dr. Odón de Buen, Professor of the Faculty of Science, dealt
with the usefulness of the study of natural history.
The press was generally in sympathy with the Modern School, but when
the programme of the third scholastic year appeared some of the local
journals, the Noticiero Universal and the Diario de Barcelona, broke
out. Here is a passage that deserves recording as an illustration of
the way in which conservative journals dealt with progressive
subjects:—
We have seen the prospectus of an educational centre established in
this city, which professes to have nothing to do with “dogmas and
systems.” It proposes to liberate everybody from “authoritarian
dogmas, venerable sophisms, and ridiculous conventions.” It seems
to us that this means that the first thing to do is to tell the
boys and girls—it is a mixed school—that there is no God, an
admirable way of forming good children, especially young women who
are destined to be wives and mothers.
The writer continues in this ironical manner for some time, and ends as
follows:—
This school has the support of a professor of Natural Science (Dr.
Odón de Buen) and another of the Faculty of Medicine. We do not
name the latter, as there may be some mistake in including him
among the men who lend their support to such a work.
These insidious clerical attacks were answered by the anti-clerical
journals of Barcelona at the time.