Note 49 — FOOTNOTES:

Let me recall that I do not personally expect the Society to produce anything but theologians, and of these it has produced many in the nineteenth century. In controversial theology, however, the work of the Jesuits is grossly unscholarly and casuistic; truth seems to be a secondary consideration. But it is so often claimed that the Jesuits are a learned body in the more general sense, that it is necessary to invite reflection on their record. Of the fifteen thousand living Jesuits, and their predecessors for a century, who has won even secondary rank in letters, history, or philosophy? In science there are only Father Secchi, the single distinguished product of their science-schools, and Father Wasmann, whose philosophy (apart from his observations) is the laughing-stock of biology.