A second consequence of the literary cast, marking the whole Order, is the vantage-ground on which it placed the Jesuits, with regard to all the learning and the learned men of Europe. The fluent and elegant command of the Latin language gave at once a mastery over the vehicle of intercourse, in which all learning was conveyed. Our critics of 1586 sum up the bearings of this particular advantage under several heads: The members of the Order deal with so many nations; scholastic disputations, whether in Philosophy or Theology, are always conducted in Latin; the members write so many books; they can do justice to the ancient Fathers of the Church; they have to deal constantly with learned men.[203] A last consequence, which I shall present, is suggested by an observation of the same writers, in the same place. It throws no little light upon the history of the Society, and it shows the practical adjustment of the educational system to the times. They say then, it is by the studies of Belles-Lettres, more than by the higher faculties, that the Society has, in a short time, been propagated through all the principal parts of Christendom. Nor can it be preserved better or more solidly, than by the same means through which it was first introduced. Unless they endeavor to maintain this honorable distinction, with which God has been pleased to grace the Society, there is reason to fear that they themselves may yet lapse into the barbarism, which they are far from admiring in others. "As to the other faculties, which are brilliant enough of themselves, there is no trouble in cultivating them. But, natural inclinations feeling a repugnance for less conspicuous pursuits, people have, as it were, to drag themselves to these lower faculties. They should take lesson, therefore, by good husbandmen, who bestow more care on transplanted and exotic growths than on native shoots."[204] And they proceed to quote the rule, formulated in the words of Ignatius, by the General Everard Mercurian, who required the institution and preservation of the literary seminary.[205] So that we end here this discussion on the lower faculties, at the point where we began. In all well-assorted plans each element has a reference to every other. Men must match the work, and the work be suited to the men. Were the men not formed, the best system would settle into an inert state; and, the more consistency and vitality of its own it offered to contribute, the more inept and inert would it look, a memorial of what it might do, dead to what it can. In itself, and in its effects, it might appear to be out of date, as not being understood. Only the practical working of a thing, by the man who understands it, shows it off for what it is worth. This is a rule quite universal, wherever practical insight is needed for the working of a mechanism. It must be worked intelligently to be understood. Once it is understood, the practical intelligence grows. CHAPTER XIII.