should be," said I; "those boys will not make worse priests from a
little early devotion to trap-ball and cudgel playing. I dislike a
staid, serious, puritanic education, as I firmly believe that it
encourages vice and hypocrisy."

We then went into the Rector's room, where, above a crucifix, was
hanging a small portrait.

Myself.--That was a great and portentous man, honest withal. I
believe the body of which he was the founder, and which has been so
much decried, has effected infinitely more good than it has caused
harm.

Rector.--What do I hear? You an Englishman, and a Protestant, and
yet an admirer of Ignatius Loyola?

Myself.--I will say nothing with respect to the doctrine of the
Jesuits, for, as you have observed, I am a Protestant: but I am
ready to assert that there are no people in the world better
qualified, upon the whole, to be intrusted with the education of
youth. Their moral system and discipline are truly admirable.
Their pupils, in after life, are seldom vicious and licentious
characters, and are in general men of learning, science, and
possessed of every elegant accomplishment. I execrate the conduct
of the liberals of Madrid in murdering last year the helpless
fathers, by whose care and instruction two of the finest minds of
Spain have been evolved--the two ornaments of the liberal cause and
modern literature of Spain, for such are Toreno and Martinez de la
Rosa. . . .