CHAPTER III.
EDUCATION OF JESUS.
This aspect of Nature, at once smiling and grand, was the whole education of Jesus.

He learned to read and to write,[1] doubtless, according to the Eastern method, which consisted in putting in the hands of the child a book, which he repeated in cadence with his little comrades, until he knew it by heart.[2] It is doubtful, however, if he understood the Hebrew writings in their original tongue.

His biographers make him quote them according to the translations in the Aramean tongue;[3] his principles of exegesis, as far as we can judge of them by those of his disciples, much resembled those which were then in vogue, and which form the spirit of the _Targums_ and the _Midrashim_.[4] [Footnote 1: John viii.

6.] [Footnote 2: _Testam.

of the Twelve Patriarchs_, Levi.