The principles of St. Ignatius found a practical expression in the Constitutions of the Society,[1] and later in various parts of the Ratio Studiorum.[2] There it is laid down that in the authors given into the hands of the pupils all dangerous passages should be omitted, or if certain authors, as Terence, could hardly be expurgated they ought rather not to be read at all. Many modern educators or writers on education consider this anxiety of the Jesuits mere prudery. Others who have studied the question more thoroughly and conscientiously, admit that many reasons can be given for the practice of the Jesuits. Others again declare themselves unable to speak decisively on this "perplexing" question. Thus a writer in the St. James's Gazette, after having mentioned the "castrated editions of the classics" used in the Jesuit college at Stonyhurst, England, says: "Our public schools go upon another principle; the argument being that the shock of introduction on entering the world, to what has been so zealously excluded would only lead to a sudden and fatal downfall. For my part I find the question a perplexing one."[3]
To those who see in the caution of the Society nothing but prudery, we may reply that even pagan writers, and those of the very highest standing, as Plato, Aristotle, Cicero and Quintilian, denounced emphatically the reading of certain authors of their own language and race. Quintilian well said: "As regards reading, great care is to be taken, above all things, that tender minds, which will imbibe deeply
