The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-06-26
SCHOLARLY MANUALS NEEDED
FOR CATHOLIC SCHOOLS.
written for The Catholic Bulletin
by Thomas o'Hagan, M. Al


l am not sure that Catholic scholar
ship here in America has as yet pro
vided our Catholic Schools, Academies
and Colleges with adequate anC
satisfactory Catholic text books
This because up to the present we
have been so engrossed with the ma
terial things of life that we have haC
little time to bestow on the higher
things and needs of the mind.
Often, indeed, more time and atten
ton are devoted to the organizing OF
school picnic or Church bazaar, than
to the drawing up and shaping of a
school curriculum or the selection of
text books in the various subjects
We speak of grades and courses and
hours with little thought of the end
and aim of all study. We forget that
the sum of all study should lead to
efficiency and that this efficiency we
cannot secure unless We subject our
minds to the most rigid discipline of
study and make thoroughness through
out our school and college course the
mark of all our work.
This superficial aspect of school
work strikes every visitor to our
shores and to it largely may be cred
tied also the fact that our standard
in all intellectual work is low and
this gives us inferior results in al
most every sphere of intellectual
activity.
Hear what Archbishop Lancaster
Spalding has to say of this in his
essay Love of Excellence" 'We
have" says the Archbishop, "a thou,
sand poets and no poetry, thousand
orators and no eloquence, thousand
philosophers and no philosophy.
men who have made millions but are
themselves poor and unintelligent; to
its writer's who, having sold their
talents to newspapers and magazines,
sink to the level of those they address,
dealing only with what is of momen.
tary interest or if the question be deep
they move on the surface lest the
many-eyed crowd lose sight of them. y
Is it any wonder then that we
e Catholics suffer to some y.leeitt rom
this malady in the air-that its bane-
ful influence is seen too in many of
the Catholic text books upon which
our Schools, Academies and Colleges
lean for the requirements of scholar
ship and the rounding out of their
courses in their rapid steps towards
graduation.
No doubt our weakness is in the
past, and the future will give us a
more virile intellectual Catholicity, for
within the past ten years there has
been a great awakening and much
progress made in the Catholic intel
lectual circles of America. But there
is indeed yet much to do in that di
rection.
Nor is the least of this work to be
accomplished the preparation of good
scholarly Catholic text books for oul
Schools, Academies and Colleges. In
novation is not always mark OF
progress but progress implies growth
and growth implies the bourgeoning
of new thought and this is equally
true in all domains of the mine
whether it be history, science, art OF
letters. Let me say here that l dc
not know of any greater mark oi
broad, accurate scholarship and
judicial mind than the preparation O
a school text book. If it be tex
book in grammar, simplicity ant
clearness should mark it's pages, if i
deal with history it must contain
something more than statement
should cite the original document a.
witness to the fact. In my opinion
much of the Catholic history writer
during the controversial past must b.
rewritten. The pendulum swung botl
ways. The Catholic Church wa
misrepresented- -slandered on the on
hand, and too zealOusly defended b.
superficial partisans on the other. s.
we have as a result of this mucl
that is not history at all. 1t is sim
ply historical apologetics gone mad.
Then when we come to literature
a strange condition confronts us. w,
have text books of English and Amer
ican literature prepared by non-Catf
lie scholars in which Catholic author
of note and genius, if not who'll
ignored, are given but scant recogn
tion. Take for instance the great d.
Brownson, perhaps one of the ables
thinkers that America has produced
Mention is sometimes made of him a
a member of the Brook Farm coteri'
but little is ever said of him as
philosopher and thinker. Then TAX
Cardinal Newman, perhaps the grea
est master of English in our Language
You will generally find that Ruski
is given much more prominence
manuals of English literature than
Newman. Yet aside for Ruskin
artistic perception Newman's is d
cidedly the greater mind. Frequent
no notice is taken of his subtle an
soul-searching poem, 'The Dream
Gerontius," at ALL w. ]. Dawson,
his Makers of English" consider
this the most subtle spiritual poe
written since the days of Dante.
Catholics, however, err on the oth'
hand in sometimes attempting to ga
vanize Catholic literary mediocrit
into greatness. You will see in Ma
mails of English and American Liter
ture prepared by Catholic autho
very minor Catholic writer's given