THE VENERABLE DON BOSCO
his strong words: "Nature in its beauty, life in its reality, history in its immortal pages, supply an ample fund of examples and comparisons, provided the professor takes some personal trouble."
In making humanists or scholars his principle was to make good Christians. He would have the De Officiis of St. Ambrose by the side of Cicero's De Officiis; and St. Cyprian's rhetoric a companion to Pro Archia and Pro Marcello. "All my life," he wrote in his late years, "I have struggled against the error of bringing up young Christians as pagans; with this object I have undertaken double publication; that of some of the profane classics most used in the schools, revised and corrected, and of Christian classics. Among the latter I selected those written in concise, elegant style, with pure, holy doctrine, which corrects and weakens the naturalism freely permeating the first. To restore Christian authors to their place, to make pagan authors as harmless as possible, are the ends I have had in view in all the works I have undertaken."
And Don Bosco encouraged literary talent whereever he found it, so that from his schools emanated celebrities in the various departments of literature: His Eminence, Cardinal Cagliero, the Apostle of Patagonia, Don Rua, Don Cerruti, Don Durando and numbers of other distinguished doctors have written on theological and moral subjects; and the other careers of life are similarly represented by authors of style and erudition.
76
