Next, the teacher will turn his earnest attention to that most fruitful branch of Scripture science which has to do with interpretation. Therein is imparted the method of using the word of God for the promotion of religion and of piety. We are well aware that neither the extent of the matter nor the time at disposal allows every single Book of the Bible to be separately studied in the schools. The teaching, however, should result in a definite and ascertained method of interpretation. Hence the professor should at once avoid giving a mere taste of every Book, and the equal mistake of dwelling at too great length on merely a part of some one Book. If most schools cannot do what is done in the larger institutions--that is, take the students through the whole of one or two Books continuously, and with some considerable development--yet at least those parts which are selected for interpretation should be treated with some fulness. In this way the students may be attracted, and learn from the sample that is set before them to love and read the rest in the course of their after lives. The professor, following the tradition of antiquity, will use the Vulgate as his text. The Council of Trent has decreed that "in public lectures, disputations, preaching, and exposition," the Vulgate is the "authentic" version; and this is the existing custom of the Church. At the same time, the other versions which Christian antiquity has approved and used should not be neglected, more especially the more ancient MSS. Although the meaning of the Hebrew and the Greek is substantially rendered by the Vulgate, nevertheless, wherever there may be ambiguity or want of clearness, the "examination of older tongues," to quote St. Augustine, will be of service. In this matter we need hardly say that the greatest prudence is required, for the "office of a commentator," as St. Jerome says, "is to set forth not that which he himself would prefer, but that which his author says." The question of "readings" having been, when necessary, carefully discussed, the next thing is to investigate and expound the meaning. The first counsel to be here given is this: that the more our adversaries strive in the contrary direction, so much the more solicitously should we adhere to the received and approved canons of interpretation. Hence, while weighing the meanings of words, the connection of ideas, the parallelism of passages, and the like, we should by all means make use of external illustrations drawn from other cognate learning. This should, however, be done with caution, so as not to bestow on such questions more labor and time than that which is spent on the Sacred Books themselves, and not to overload the minds of the students with a mass of information which will be rather a hindrance than a help.