"Occidit miseros crambe repetita magistros."--JUVENAL.
"Et qui parlant beaucoup ne disent jamais rien."--BOILEAU.
Visitors to Rome are ofttimes puzzled and surprised at hearing the
very unusual affix, _della Minerva_, applied to one of the Christian
churches of that city; more especially when they find it also
familiarly known to the common people, not so well read as their
priests in the calendar of the saints, as LA STA. MINERVA; but the
apparent misnomer originates in an ellipsis of the full title, which
runs thus, _Sta. Maria sopra Minerva_--the church in question having
supplanted a temple formerly dedicated to Pallas, upon the ruins of
which it has been reared. But though the goddess of wisdom still
retains a _nominal_ interest in the edifice, certainly, to judge from
the catechetical exercises of which we are about to give a specimen,
her reign is past, and there remains but the _nominis umbra_ in lieu
of it. Exorcised the church, she has been fain to accept such a
humiliating asylum in the library adjoining, as inquisitorial
Dominicans would be likely to afford a heathen goddess, whose
proceedings they must narrowly watch. There she has the mortification
of hearing, from year to year, some new relay of "gray-hair'd synods
damning books unread," and, club-fashion, blackballing all _her_
friends in order to make way for their own; just as old Pope Gregory
is said to have burned a whole library of Pagan literature, that the
Christian Fathers and Roman Catholic Saints might have more
elbow-room; and also that, in the absence of rivals, their authority
might not be disputed. "_Fertur beatus Gregorius bibliothecam
combussisse gentilum, quo divinæ paginæ gratior esset locus et major
auctoritas et diligentia studiosior._"[A]
[A] _Vide_ Notes to Pope's _Dunciad_, book iii.
At Easter-tide, those who have any curiosity on the subject may hear
Bellarmine's Catechism, as it is squealed, bawled, or otherwise
intonated by the young children of the different _Riones_, and
commented on and explained for their edification by the pedagogue
priest of the district. He is generally surrounded at such times by a
bevy of from forty to fifty scholars, _gamins_ or _gamines_ as the
case may be; and to work they set with such earnestness of
vociferation that all Bedlam and Parnassus, raving and reciting
together, could not well surpass the discord: the shrill diapason,
peeling through nave and aisle, shakes the floating _Baldaquino_, and
makes the trembling walls bellow again, furnishing an apt and lively
illustration of the "_convulsaque marmora clamant_" of the poet.
Though we had often frequented the churches at this season, and had
scores of times heard questions both asked and answered therein, yet,
generally intent on the marbles or monuments of the edifice, we had
not hitherto given ear to the proceedings of these obstreperous young
bull-calves: but, before leaving Rome definitely, it seemed fair to
give them an hour's attention on some convenient opportunity, in order
to form an unbiassed judgment of how their early religious education
was carried on. One soon presented itself in the above-named church of
the Minerva; for, chancing to be there at the right hour on an
examination-day, in crossing in front of the black-columned chapel of
St Dominick, we came suddenly upon a covey of little girls nestling in
one of its corners, under the sumptuous tomb of the thirteenth
Benedict, and waiting, all primed, for their instructor. Some,
absorbed in the contemplation of the silver crown and faded finery of
St Philomel--we trust, at so tender an age, without infringement of
the tenth commandment--were delighting themselves in anticipating the
day when they too might become saints, and wear similar decorations;
others, too young for such speculations, were staring with intense
vacancy at the flickering of a tiny lamp, in front of a very
dingy-looking madonna, to which one or two, in baby simplicity, were
repeating _Latin_ creeds, paternosters, and aves. Not knowing exactly
how long the preceptor of these small folk might keep them waiting, we
left them, and proceeded to the body of the building, where a
detachment of boys was already drawn up for action, with their _padre_
in the midst. Approaching as softly as might be, we stood against a
neighbouring pilaster to hear what might be required of such young
pupils, and how they were prepared to acquit themselves. Their
incessant movements did not promise a very sustained attention,
whatever might be the business in hand: many of them were evidently
plagued with fleas--all with fidgets; some shrugged up their
shoulders, others swung themselves by their hands on the form; these
were buttoning, those unbuttoning their dress; and not a few warmed
their feet by kicking the sounding pavement, and then listening to the
echoes from the vaults. Every boy carried a book in his hand; but on
these no wandering eye ever looked, not even for an instant, in its
numerous glancings round. As soon as the additional commotion,
occasioned by the approach of a stranger, had subsided, the priest,
harking back to what he had just been saying, and not quite sure of
his whereabouts, asks his class touching the last question. "You asked
that boy," said one, pointing to a comrade near him, "how he supposed
he ought to come to church." "Well," said the priest, resuming his
cue, and reverting to the last examinee; "and how did you tell me you
were to come?" "_Colle mani giunte così_," said the boy, locking his
hands, and standing up as he did so. "_Niente avanti?_" said the
priest, glancing at two very dirty paws. "Oh yes! I was to wash them."
"_Poi?_" "I was to cross myself as I came out of my room, and to cast
down my eyes, like the _Mater Indolorata_ yonder." "And then?" "As I
came to church, besides looking grave, I was to walk, not _così_"--and
he walked a few paces as he ought _not_ to walk,--"but _così_"--changing
the rhythm of his march--"as if I were following my brother's funeral.
_E poi finalmente_," (as he resumed his place with a jerk,) "I was to
be seated _so_, and hold my tongue till the _padre_ should address
me." "Well, my little man," (to another of the motley class,) "were we
not talking about the sacrament?" "Oh yes! no one may receive _that_
who has been guilty of any mortal sin." "_Bene_, that's quite right;
but _why_ not?" The following gabble, to which it was quite obvious
that none were of an age to attach _any_ meaning, served for a reply,
and was received as perfectly satisfactory by the priest:--"_Siccome
il pane naturale non può dare vita ad un corpo morto; così il pane
della Santissima, Eucaristia non può dare vita ad un anima morta._"
"And what may mortal sins be?" turning to the next scholar. "_Eh! chi
lo sa_; who is to tell you that?" said a young butcher's boy, turning
off the question, and freely offering it to any one who would take it
up. Upon this the boys made much noise, and laughed out lustily, not
encountering any reprimand from the _padre_, or so gentle a one as to
prove no check to their mirth. At length, quiet being partially
restored, he resumed his task, and asked a child of _six_ years old to
give him an example of mortal sin! Not receiving an answer, this
question travelled nearly to the end of the first line before any one
would take upon himself to venture even a random response; then, at
last, by dint of prompting, one boy suggested, that the tasting food
before receiving the sacrament was of such a kind; and having been
first much commended for his erudition, was next subjected to a long
list of _suppositions_ from the examiner; such as, "Suppose I were to
drink a little water merely?" "_Niente!_ no, you mus'nt." "Well; but
suppose I only took a small piece of consecrated wafer?" "_Ne anchè_;
not that neither." "What! would even these small indulgences be
infringing the rule?" But as the boy had received an approving
"_bene_" for his first negative, he had no difficulty in keeping to
his text; and at last the whole class, enjoying the joke of punishing
their _padre_ by cutting him off from all supplies at every fresh
demand, roared out _in chorus_, "_Niente, niente_--you mus'nt touch a
bit;" till, tired of the shouting, the good man proceeded to the next
interrogatory. We were tiring too; but being really desirous of
hearing, if possible, something more to the purpose, remained,
notwithstanding, yet another half hour at our post--indeed quite long
enough to be sure that "_niente_" was all we were likely to get for
our pains. Some of the questions were simply frivolous, many
jesuitical, others deeply profound; and whatever their character, all
were answered in the same careless and irreverent tone; _à tort et à
travers_, according to the fancy of the young respondent. In a word, a
more complete waste of time for both teacher and taught could not have
been easily devised. The instruction of this and similar classes--for
we have no reason to suppose that others differ from it--seems about
as intellectual and useful (and no more so) than that of an aviary of
parrots in the town of Havre, where the young French _psittaci_
chiefly learn their χαιρης, and their "_petits dejeuners_."
Alike in quality, it is not very dissimilar neither in the mode of its
administration. The shopman proposes the first word of a sentence to
the whole community, and the greater or less accuracy with which it is
taken up and completed, evinces the relative aptitudes of his tyros;
and though great allowance is always made, in the case of both boy and
bird, for transpositions or leavings out, yet the priest, like the
parrot-merchant, keeps an eye on the pupil who promises to do most
credit to his training, and brings him forward on every public
occasion. "In all labour," says Solomon, "there is profit, but the
_talk of the lips_ tendeth only to poverty." It requires no Solomon to
see how completely this is the case here; but there is one particular
in which the _padre_ really deserves praise, and we cheerfully accord
it. The forbearance, the patience, meekness, and _bonhomie_ which he
exercises in proposing the dull routine of questions, and in listening
while the pupils "ring round the same unvaried chimes" in reply,
cannot be too much admired. Like the patient schoolmaster in Juvenal,
he puts up with all their idleness and inattention--in the very
doubtful proficiency of many of his scholars, gives them the favour of
the doubt--and, above all, never loses his temper! This drilling and
preparation of the district classes has for ulterior object a general
field-day,[B] which occurs once a-year; when the congregated schools,
in the presence of the canons and other dignitaries of the church,
being now supposed fully supplied
"With stores of spiritual provision,
And magazines of ammunition,"
for the warfare, are expected
"To rise and start the ready wherefore,
To all that sceptic may inquire for;
Then raise their scruples dark and nice,
And solve them after in a trice;
As if divinity had catch'd,
The itch, on purpose to be scratch'd!"
[B] _Italian Sketches_, No. V., August 1843.
In short, these living _fantoccini_ are taught to expose heresies, and
expound the dogmas of their faith, in words found for them by their
priests; and he who best retains the lesson, and proves himself most
loud and overbearing in the exercise, receives, for reward, a crown
and royal robe, and is metamorphosed out of the _imp_, which he was an
hour before, into the _imperator_; more fortunate by half, in the
undisputed tenure of his title for a twelvemonth, than many of his
Roman predecessors in the laurel. The little girls have an exhibition
somewhat similar, but still more theatric in its character. At
Christmas they assemble in the churches, dressed out by their parents
(who delight in making them as fine as possible) very much, it must be
admitted, like ballet-dancers; but supposed to represent, in their
habiliments, youthful Christian virgins and martyrs. Thus apparelled,
they hold forth on a platform in front of some favourite _Præsepe_,
and sustain, with Pagan rivals, long dialogues on the Nativity,
syllogising, in the shrill thin voice of childhood, upon all the
sublime mysteries of our faith, till the Pagans abandon the scornful
air with which they are taught to commence the discussion, and
confess themselves vanquished by the arguments brought against them.
The chief spokeswoman is then rewarded, like the head-boy, with robe
and crown, and retains her regal dignity for the same period. Of all
such education, what shall we say? Why, truly, in Hudibrastic
plainness of speech, that it is
"More fitted for the cloudy night
Of Popery, than Gospel light."
Are our British _infant_ schools quite free from participation in the
defects just noticed? By no means; and though the subject is far too
important to be dismissed with a few words at the end of a slight
sketch like the present, (especially since we hope to return to it
later,) yet, even here, we must glance at one or two blemishes, that
lie so immediately on the surface as to strike even the most casual
observer, when once his attention is called to them. In such
seminaries, it is known, the ages of the children usually vary from
eighteen months to six years, at which tender period of life it is
almost impossible to exercise too much discretion not to over-burden
the memory, or to obscure the dawning reason; but alas! in the always
well-meant, but certainly not always judicious, zeal for beginning
education betimes, how often is it begun too early and pushed too far!
In an over-anxiety to prevent, by pre-occupation of the ground, the
arch-enemy of mankind from sowing his tares, how often is the good
seed thrown in before it can have a chance of quickening! _Festinare
lente_ should be the motto, in moral and religious, as it is in all
other branches of education; since neither in religion nor morals can
we hope to arrive at the full stature of perfection, but by slow
degrees and long training. The Bible, to be sure, (the only true
source of either,) is _the_ Book for all mankind; but as it contains
"strong meat for men," as well as "milk for babes," great judgment is
necessary, in separating these diets, to give to each age the food
particularly adapted for it. We have the apostolic injunction for such
discrimination,--"Every one that uses milk is unskilful in the word of
righteousness: for he is a babe. But _strong meat_ belongeth to them
that are _of full age_; even those who _by reason of use have their
senses exercised_ to discern both good and evil."[C] It is further
obvious, from St Paul's catalogue of the armour which is to resist
_all_ the attacks of the world, the flesh, and the devil, that it
comprises many pieces of which young children can neither be made to
comprehend the design, nor, at their time of life, to require the use.
How unskilful, then, and abortive must be the attempt to put into the
hands of _instinct_ the weapons of mature _reason_; to seek to explain
the "beauty of holiness" to a child who does not "know his right hand
from his left," and to invest an unbreeched urchin in the whole
Christian panoply at once! With all due respect, too, to the
pains-taking compilers of some of the _manuals_ used in these classes,
we cannot help thinking that their labour has been at times worse than
thrown away; and it has excited our surprise to hear really
judicious[D] persons speak of these lesson-books as "perfectly suited"
to the purpose of infant education, and as requiring no amendment.
Surely they cannot have read them; or they must have forgotten, when
doing so, the _age_ and _condition_ of those for whom they are
intended. Not to be thought captious for nothing, we will let that
"_farrago libelli_"--that sausage of all the sciences--that "Teacher's
Assistant," speak for itself. It has gone through we know not how many
editions, and continues to perpetuate in each succeeding one all the
blunders of its predecessors. To begin at the beginning,--The scholars
have to learn therefrom as many alphabets as there are letters; a
historical, a geographical, a profane, and a biblical alphabet, &c.,
&c., not to attempt an enumeration of the whole. In the biblical, each
letter is put opposite to some proper or _improper_ person mentioned
in Scripture, for whom it is said to stand representative--(leaving it
to be supposed that it has been called into existence for no other
purpose.) By this means the _written_ character of course becomes
associated in the child's mind with the _moral_ character of the
individual whose initial it is; and thus a certain prejudice is apt to
arise against certain letters. For instance, the letter _H_ is
rendered fearfully significant,--
"_H_ stands for Herod, who spilt _infants'_ blood!"
[C] Epistle to the Hebrews, v. 13, 14.
[D] In an otherwise admirable lecture on schools, which was lately
delivered by Professor Blount, at Cambridge, we were surprised to hear
a general commendation passed on these books. We feel persuaded, that
neither the gravity of the class nor the approval of the Professor
would have held out long against the recital of a few extracts.
A theorist might, perhaps, trace the absence of the aspirate in the
speech of maturer years to the awe created by that dread tetrarch's
name in infancy, when it is first feebly articulated, then dropped,
and not recovered afterwards.[E] But we are not theatrical; in proof
whereof, we observe that a child's natural aspirations are for tarts,
dolls, or marbles; while, to counteract such propensities, these
little hypocrites, before their time, are taught to sing out, among
other _Scripture wishes_, the following formulary, which must, of
course, act as a specific:--
"May Isaiah's _hallow'd_ fire,
_All_ my _fervent_ heart inspire;
Joseph's _purity_ impart!
Isaac's _meditative_ heart!!!"
A rhythmical dispute between two children, entitled a "Sabbath
Dialogue," brings to our mind a similar farce at Ferrara, which we
have formerly described. In this lively piece of absurdity, the
naughty boy invites the good one to play instead of going to church,
and, waxing warm as the other proves intractable, at length becomes
absolutely abusive on finding he is not to prevail.
Once again. Behold a class of children with the picture of a sheep
before them--to be taught, one would have supposed, the natural
history of that animal, and to learn something about the material of
which their little flannel petticoats and worsted stockings are made;
when lo! in place of this, they are informed that "though their sins
are red as crimson, they shall be as _wool_!!" If it were necessary to
use any interjection here, surely a loud ovine _bah!_ would be the
most appropriate and natural. But _revenons à nos moutons_, for
presently afterwards occurs this question--"What does the Bible tell
us about wool?" Answer: "Gideon wrung a fleece!" Bah! again, for what
other _commentary_ can be made on such _instruction_ as this? Why,
Jason filched one; and the Lord Chancellor sits upon a woolsack; and
either of these answers would convey as much useful knowledge to a
child's mind, though they are not to be met with in the Bible.
[E] Notwithstanding their number, we would suggest one more, the
"corrective alphabet," in which all the symbols should stand
representative for objects agreeable to babes, and, _ex._ _gr._, after
their innocent lips have been made to falter out Herod's formidable
name, we would point to ours, where--
_H_ stands for honey, so sweet and so good.
These unfortunate babes are to know a little of every thing: so, after
going through _versified_ weights and measures--arithmetic, including
the higher branches--geometry--we hardly know what is _omitted_ in
this most comprehensive miscellany--they arrive at philosophy, and
learn a great deal to the tune of "Miss Bailley." We give one stanza
out of many, as an example:--
"The wondrous globe on which we live,
Is close surrounded every where
By something quite invisible,
And callèd _atmospheric air_!
This air is fluid, light and thin,
And formed of _gases_ well _combined_!
It carries sound and odour well,
But put in motion it is _wind_!"
At the end of each verse, the infant chorus repeats with enthusiasm,
not "Poor Miss Bailley! unfortunate Miss Bailley!" &c., but--
"Oh how curious,--wonderfully curious,
The _laws of nature_ are indeed
Most wonderfully curious!"