Loyola College - Review Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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LOYOLA COLLEGE REVIEW — ек regrettable that the intellect, with which man is endowed, should be devoted to the pernicious task of attempting to overthrow Christ’s own institution! How many are the modern pseudo-scientific and so-called intellectual theories whose sole pur- ose is to confound the pure and precious doctrines of the Church! When these ‘theories’ are exhausted, since men must contrive to militate against the Church, they stoop to slander. One such slanderous statement is that the Church is opposed to learning. If we look over the 2,000 years of her existence, we find a very patent confuta- tion of this statement. In the 13th century, for instance, there were some twenty Cathedrals throughout England, and each had a preparatory school attached to it. The Lateran Council of 1215 decreed that in every Cathedral in the Christian world a Chair of Grammar be established. It was during this thirteenth century also that the Church was very active in the establishment of that great instrument for the training of the human mind, which has subsisted for seven centuries—the Uni- versity. The importance of the university is mentioned іп one of the works of Dr. J.J. Walsh: “Та man wants knowledge for its own sake or for some practical pur- pose in life, then here are the faculties which will enable him to make a good be- ginning on the path he wishes to travel. — What of the men who brought such glory to their universities, and indirectly to the Church? If the University of Paris earned the reputation of a great institution of learning, it is due to Louis the Monarch; had he prevented the spread of educa- tion, Paris would not have become the educational centre of the world. To this holy king also is attributed the patronage of Vincent de Beauvais' Encyclopedia of Mediæval Knowledge’’, that has proven itself so useful to subsequent generations. In speaking of great men in a great century, we cannot overlook St. Francis, of whom Gorres wrote: Without St. Francis at the beginning of the century there would have been no Dante at the end of it. Probably the greatest religious poem since the Hebrew Psalms was the “‘Canticle of the Sun.”’ Of course it is quite true that others of other creeds may have been connected with the success obtained. But it is also true, according to the most reliable his- torians, that men outside the Church who accomplished anything were in the min- ority. We might add that what has been said of the 13th century can be said with equal veracity of any era. 7 7 7 There can be no doubt that in the past few years the art of novel-writing has im- proved at a rapid rate. The main cause of this is the greater demand for fiction by a The Power of the Noyel public which is too romantic and резе too lazy intellectu- ally to read the ordinary essay. The essayist, finding that his endeavours are practically disregarded by the public, turns to the more remunerative and more attractive novel. He does not change his views or his ideas, but merely his style of writing. He imparts his views through the medium of a hero or heroine, and so makes them more forceful than they would be were they written as the opinion of an essayist. For invariably the hero in the novel is admired by the reader and, consequently, the author’s views are more apt to be received favourably. This is why the novel is such a powerful weapon. Place it in the hands of a free-thinker and the results will be disastrous to numerous readers who have no balanced and basic principles of their own, and so are exposed to accept any new and revolutionary ideas suggested by the novelist. On the other hand, entrust this power to an author of moral integrity and the good done will be far more widespread than the bad results of the bad novelist. 44r

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LOYOLA COLLEGE REVIEW ЕМЕ es — future citizens of Canada. Let us always be unselfish. One other important thing to be cultivated—never holding our personal pleasure above altruistic duty. If we are not willing to fulfil an obligation, and in refusing to fulfil it we involve the utter waste of time and energy of others, we are manifesting a selfish spirit. Dis- cipline and altruistic duty: these two traits that may make or unmake a nation, can and must be cultivated by us in this, the training-place for our game in life. f 7 7 With the talking pictures making such advances towards perfection, it is not difficult to imagine the benefit they will ultimately confer on education. Indeed Education by Talkie they have already been exploited to no small degree, and while the medium of the talking cinema has not as yet been put to any extensive use, still it is attracting widespread attention among prominent edu- cationalists. If, for example, we were to have G. K. Chesterton lecture to us through the medium of the talkies, on “Тһе Art of Writing, or suppose that we were to see and hear Professor Albert Einstein explain the difficulties of friction and at the same time give demonstrations on inclined planes with falling bodies and sliding weights, we would undoubtedly be able to climb the 'rocky hill' with greater ease. The students of the future may hear Mackenzie King discourse on Political Economy, Stephen Leacock address them оп “Тһе Evils of Prohibition. We can best realize the possibilities of this new development if we stretch our imagination, and try to visualize how it would affect our modern system of education, if we were to listen to Alexander the Great telling us how to conquer the world, or were we to hear an account of his own exploits from the lips of Julius Cæsar. William Shakespeare would be able to settle many difficulties, to explain the character of Hamlet, and to determine the age of MacBeth, had he been able to leave his talkie version to posterity. Sir Oliver Lodge has already delivered a lecture on the Action of Forces in Space. How interesting this would prove to Sophomores were they permitted to screen it in the classroom! In addition to this, Dr. Irving Langmuir, Sir Ernest Rutherford and Sir William Bragg, have lectured on various subjects rang- ing from mathematics to astrology. It is claimed that the talking pictures аге every bit as graphic as the present type of addresses. Add to this the compelling force of the speaker's personality, and we тау draw for ourselves a picture of future educational methods. It has been pointed out that the teachers of the next era will be almost idle, but with screen tests and the task of preparing lectures for the next talkie, a good percentage of them will be kept busy. The others, not so apt at speaking, would be made useful citizens, we hope, and they could easily find another field for their talents. y Y LÀ There was a time in its history when the Church шоо ши морь . ехгегіогіу spelt its ruin. I refer particularly to the cruelt whine ai capil cq а т: Kaman pulus. who, аа el a OK bigotry, dl Of Learning not hesitate to torture and execute those noble men, women and children, who would not renounce their God for a pagan idol. | | Even in this twentieth century the Church is suffering persecutions in various countries that are as severe as those of old, with the specific difference that where the latter involved purely physical means of attacking the Church's loyal members, the persecutors of our day resort to intellectual means to carry on this attack. It is 4 4 |

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CANADIAN MARTYRS ОЕ THE SOCIETY OF JESUS CANONIZED JUNE 29TH, 1930