On the Annual Reports of the Gymnasiums in Merano and Bozen

Austria.

From the Adige, 5 July. Others have already reported to you with enthusiasm on the outstanding achievements of both the teachers and the pupils at the Meran gymnasium, while also touching upon other chords that might more suitably have remained untouched, in that they hinted at possible rather than actual events, thus producing a hopefully too hasty and offensive effect instead of a conciliatory one in the expectation of better things. Instead, I wish to report to you something of the impression made by the two annual programs of Meran and Bozen. The Meran program, with its masterful overview of earlier youth education, its characteristic obstacles during its founding, and the historical records of the local gymnasium's work, met with the most rightful acclaim; the only thing universally and painfully missed was the well-deserved praise of Fr. Placidus Degeser, who worked so beneficially over such a long series of years as teacher and gymnasium prefect, and who was distinguished by the government itself with the award of the great golden medal of merit. Such a man could worthily have stood alongside Fr. Langes and formed an equally brilliant ornament in the history of the gymnasium.

Incomparably less satisfactory was the program from Bozen. Before we could declare our agreement with it, a reassuring explanation would have to be provided regarding a sentence concerning natural science that was surely far too poetic: "Priestly gem of the Church, holy land of Tyrol, dedicate right soon many native sons as priests of nature; the Lord also rewards this ordained ministry of his primal religion - upon the holy mountains of Tyrol." Let us leave aside the "priestly gem of the Church" and the "priests of nature"; - but in what sense does the author call "natural-historical research and collections" the "ordained ministry of the primal religion?" - Truth be told, we would have preferred more prose!