THE VENERABLE DON BOSCO
"Ecclesiastical History," just referred to, a voluminous work of research, full of charm and interest, in twenty volumes from one hundred to two hundred and fifty pages each; and his "History of Italy," comprising upwards of five hundred pages, "a clear, concise, judicious statement of events." He assures the reader that he has not written one phrase without collating it with accredited historians. This book was highly praised by the renowned Tommaseo. The Minister of Public Instruction found it so estimable that he adopted it in the public schools and rewarded the author with a thousand francs. "The Catholic Church and the Hierarchy," "The Catholic in the World," and many other volumes of a similar nature, are replete with instruction, convincing by their clear, conclusive logic, and practical in the extreme.
Don Bosco's system in education was preventive rather than repressive, or it would not have attained to such phenomenal success. Here is his secret, laid down in his rule: "Frequent confession, frequent Communion, daily Mass; these are the pillars which must support the whole edifice of education." The confessional was an educative
power with Don Bosco which can hardly be conceived; he spent long hours of day and night in the church or at the end of the homely Valdocco corridor, one arm generally around the boy penitent to encourage him. Daily Communion was with him the open door to every heavenly virtue,
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