These conditions of age, and sufficient preparation for entering the classical course, illustrate very distinctly several features of the policy which the Society pursued. Father Joseph Calasanzio, a priest of great zeal, petitioned the Rector of the Roman College, which was flourishing with more than two thousand students, to open some schools for the unprovided children of Rome. There is a Latin word coined from the first four letters of the alphabet, for designating this elementary class of scholars, who are not yet qualified for literature. The word is _abecedarii_. The term is employed both in the Constitution of Loyola and in the _Ratio_. The Rector declined. Father Joseph applied to the General Claudius Aquaviva. He too declined; he referred to the Constitution of the Society, which had been distinctly and in all its parts approved by the Popes. Unable to have his idea carried out by the Jesuits, Father Joseph opened his first "Pious School" in Rome, which was soon frequented by 1200 little boys, _abecedarii_. After the founder's death in 1648, his work spread into the vast system of _Scuole Pie_. In our times, the revised _Ratio_ of 1832 recognizes the element of Preparatory Departments. It merely requires that they be entirely under the same jurisdiction as the College proper.[328] Another feature of the policy which these conditions illustrate and which they also further, is that of their tending to discriminate between the right kind of scholars and others, whose circumstances will debar them from ever reaching the ultimate end of higher culture. Where circumstances are not propitious, neither is the culture altogether desirable. For what is more injurious to society at large than to have young people hurt in two ways, positively and negatively; positively, by placing them in a false environment of culture, which cannot be theirs in future life; negatively, by taking up with such culture all the time and labor which might usefully be spent in receiving a plainer education, and reach its term in any commonest walk of life? Besides, the liberal education itself suffers prejudice; for it is misinterpreted; since it comes to be estimated then by results and by circumstances which do not appertain to it. Every system should be set on its own basis, and be built up subject to its own conditions. The absoluteness of Loyola's Constitution throughout, and of the _Ratio Studiorum_ in particular, throws this policy into relief at every turn.