JIB IIPPtH B BB j §|| liilllliilt Book -_.- COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT JOHN AMOS COMENIUS BISHOP OF THE MORAVIANS HIS LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL WORKS S. S. LAURIE, A.M., F.R.S.E. PROFESSOR OF THE INSTITUTES AND HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH READING-CIRCLE EDITION WITH FIVE AUTHENTIC PORTRAITS AND A NEW BIBLIOGRAPHY WITH FIFTEEN PHOTOGRAPHIC REPRODUCTIONS FROM EARLY EDITIONS OF HIS WORKS SYRACUSE, N. Y. ^f&S^^JK C. W. BARDEEN, PUBLISHER 1892 COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY C. W. BARDEEN SCHOOL BULLETIN PRESS, C. W. BARDEEN, SYRACUSE, tegOQ, PREFACE TO READING CIRCEE EDITION. This edition differs from those hitherto published mainly (i) in being indexed by head-lines, (2) in the insertion of five portraits, and (3) in the addition of a Bibliography of some length, with photographic repro- ductions of pages from early editions of the works of Comenius. It has seemed to me that Prof. Eaurie's book has not hitherto been accorded the prominence it deserves as an educational text-book. I have found that read- ers are often repelled by the somewhat abstract account of the Renascence given in the Introduction, and have not reached the core of the book, which is, the account of The Great Didactic, pages 73-153. What Prof.^/^ Eaurie says on pages 222, 223 of the practical value ofComenius's views on Method, he thus reaffirms in his article in the Educational Review for March, 1892 : In spite of many defects we have from him the only thorough- going treatise on educational method that has yet appeared. * * * Comenius remains for us the most learned and simple- hearted worker for the education of the people, and the most eminent writer on Method, whom the world has ever seen — in fact, the founder of Method. This judgment will be confirmed, lam sure, by any- one who will really master the pages I have referred to. I do not believe a more practically helpful treatise on Method was ever published : certainly there is no other at once so broad and sound and suggestive. (iii) IV PREFACE TO READING CIRCLE EDITION A word as to the portraits of Comenius. The little reproduction here given is from a portrait hang- ing in the Council -chamber of the Moravian church in Bohe- mia, and is a favorite picture among members of that church. The commonest portrait in text- books is that on page 7 2 , which is copied from the English edi- tion, 1652, of the Janua. The same picture, but steel-engraved and with a different date, is given in Benham's Life of Comenius, with this note: This Portrait is from an engraving by the justly celebrated Wenceslaus Hollar, a Bohemian exile, who most probably took it from life. It was preferred before that of Glover, which was done ten years earlier. The frontispiece is from a photograph of a bust in possession of one of the Moravian communities in this country. The portrait on page viii . , is from an engraving by Chr . Hagensa from the painting by Crispina de Passa. That, on page 228 is from the frontispiece of his Opera Omnia. Two excellent portraits for framing have been re- cently published , and may be had of the publisher of this volume. A fine picture in oils by V. Brozig, '76, 24x31, representing Comenius with his Didactica Magna in his hands, may be had for five dollars. A lithographic portrait by Emanuel Nadherrnj, 1885, 20 x 24, may be had for one dollar. C. W. BARDEEN. Syracuse, Nov. 8, 1892. . PREFACE. This book is the most complete — so far as I know the only complete — account of Comenius and his works that exists in any language. I have gone care- fully through the four volumes of his didactic writings, containing 2271. pages of Latin, good, bad, and in- different. The German translation of one of the treatises has also been before me. The life is written, like the rest of the book, entirely from original sources; but I do not endeavor to give an account of Comenius's ecclesiastical relations. It is not always easy to determine how much of a voluminous and prolix writer should be given. My object has been to omit nothing essential. There is much in Comenius that is fanciful, and even fantastic, and of this I have endeavored, in suitable places, to give enough to exhibit the author's manner of thought. There is much, again, that is now universally accepted in education, which I have yet preserved, because the statement of it is essential to a proper exposition of Comenius's system. My aim has been to omit nothing that is characteristic or useful, or historically important. (v) VI PREFACE The scholastic habit of division and subdivision was inherited by Comenius, and along with this he had in great force the systematizing impulse of the German mind, though not himself a German. He can leave nothing to be understood, but will- sometimes imperil his whole theory by insisting on the small as well as the great. While following closely the argument of Comenius I have dropped superfluous divisions and distinctions, but wholly to avoid repetition was impracticable. 1 S. S. LAURIE. University of Edinburgh. 1 A pleasing and lucid sketch of Comenius and his work will be found in Quick's Educational Reformers. CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTION 9 LIFE OF COMBNIUS . . ' » . 25 AN ACCOUNT OF COMENIUS'S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM AND WORKS :— PART I. THE GREAT DIDACTIC : First Section : Pansophy and the Aim of Edu- cation 73 Second Section : Method of Education . . 83 Third Section : Art of Education . . . 102 Fourth Section : General Organization of a School System 137 PART II. THE METHOD OF LANGUAGES . 154 PART III. THE TEXT-BOOKS AND THE WAY OF USING THEM 173 Vestibuijjm ...■'.. 173 JANUA l8o Atrium 188 Subsidiary Text-Books . . ~ . . . 190 Or bis Pictus 190 Schola Ludus • 192 Text- Book of Greek 194 PART IV. INNER ORGANIZATION OF A PAN- SOPHIC SCHOOL, AND THE INSTRUCTION PLAN 196 BRIEF CRITICISM OF COMENIUS'S SYSTEM . 215 BIBLIOGRAPHY 227 INDEX . 261 (vii) m INTRODUCTION. THB RKNASCBNCK. It is usual to date the revival of letters from the time of Petrarch in Italy (1304-74) and Chaucer in England (132 8 -1400), and to find the chief impulse which the movement received from without, in the dispersal of Greek scholars over Europe at the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. The new birth of the mind of Western and Northern Europe was a process similar to that which is repeated in the intel- lectual history of every man who rises above those forms and conventionalities of life and opinion in the midst of which he has grown up. The intelligence of men was overlaid with a burden of dogmatism and pedantry of form in theology, ritual philosophy, gram- mar, and rhetoric. Looking straight at things — things of sense and of thought, — contemplating those ques- tions which every thoughtful man has ultimately to answer for himself, in an immediate way, and no longer through the medium of mere phrases and forms, constituted the essence of the revival. The regenera- tion of the human spirit was felt in almost every de- partment of intellectual and moral activity. This return of the soul of man to Reality was, it seems to me, the true characteristic of the revival. For (9) 10 THE RENASCENCE the dry bones of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, was substituted the living substance of thought, and the gymnastic of the schools gave place to the free play of mind once more in contact with nature. The revival was thus a return to realism — the realism of a poetic observation of nature, and of the thought of man on the things that pertain to humanity. The classical writers of Greece and Rome were, in those days, almost the sole exponents of the new life, and the alliance in them of truth and felicity of percep- tion with beauty of expression so captivated the minds of the Humanists that they surrendered to them their own individuality. Beauty of expression was regarded as inseparable from truth and elevation of thought. The movement soon shared the fate of of all enthusi- asms. The new form was worshipped, and to it the spirit and substance were subordinated. Style became the supreme object of the educated class, and success- ful imitation, and thereafter laborious criticism, became the marks of the highest culture. The relation of ancient Rome to Greece was somewhat similar, but with this difference, that the Roman, being himself cast in an antique mould, brought into literature the contribution of his own freshness and originality. When style and a wide and various knowledge of stylists became the ambition of the cultivated man, it can readily "be understood that the education of boys suffered. The object of schoolmasters being to pre- pare boys to admire and imitate perfection of form in an ancient tongue, they had to fall back on the old grammatical drill. The chief permanent benefit to THE HUMANISTIC MOVEMENT 11 youtli was an improvement in the text-books, the works of the classical writers themselves now taking the place of epitomes and of barbarous Latinity. It would have been strange if man's relations to the unseen and eternal had escaped the criticism of the re- awakened soul : accordingly, we find the names of Wycliffe and Huss conspicuous in the period of Pe- trarch and Chaucer. When, later, subjects of spirit- ual interest came fully within the scope of the modern movement, they took precedence of all others, for they concerned the business and touched the heart of the humblest as well as of the highest. Reform in religion introduced the element of passion into the revival, and supplied the motive force necessary to sustained and persistent activity. In the earlier half of the sixteenth century the Hu- manistic movement was represented by such men as L/udovicus Vives, Erasmus, Budseus, and Sir Thomas More, and the parallel religious activity by the great names of Luther and Calvin. In Melanchthon the literary and theological streams met. Luther was un- questionably a Humanist, but it was inevitable that the deeper spiritual interests of which he was the guardian should obscure the less urgent and less vital claims of learning and culture. In his followers this result was conspicuous. Men's minds became engrossed with a reconstruction of faith and a reorganization of the Church, an enterprise which shook Kurope and dis- turbed the old order to its foundations. The political and ecclesiastical wars may be said to have lasted nearly one hundred and thirty years. 12 THE RENASCENCE In the History of Education it is important to recog- nize the existence of the two parallel streams of intel- lectual and spiritual regeneration. The leaders of both, like the leaders of all great social changes, at once be- thought themselves of the schools. Their hope was in the young, and hence the reform of Education early engaged their attention. The pure Humanists, on the one hand, were intent on the substitution of literary culture for grammatical and logical forms, and cared only for the education of the few ; but their sympathy with the religious re- formation was notorious ; and they shared the suspicion with which the Protestant reformers were regarded by the mediaeval Church. To know Greek was to be ex- posed to insinuations of heresy. An attitude of hos- tility towards the independent activity of the human mind was not, however, peculiar to the mediaeval Church ; it is to be easily detected in certain forms of Protestantism . Both alike are obscurantists , and regard reason with suspicion, if not aversion. They have a profound distrust for Humanity . The Church Reformers, on the other hand, had an interest in the progress of culture scarcely less sincere than that of the Humanists, but to this they added compassion for the dense ignorance of the masses of the people. The human soul, wherever found, was to them an object of infinite concern, and, unlike the Humanists, they aimed at universal instruction. The new form of the old faith, it was felt, could sustain itself only on the basis of popular education. The Reformers were educated philanthropists in the truest TH3 SCHOOL AND THE CHURCH 13 sense, and hence the people's school is rightly called the child of the Reformation. It would be out of place here, in illustration of what has been said, to do more than advert to Luther's impassioned appeals, and to Melanchthon's universal activity which earned for him the honorable designation of Prseceptor Germanise . To the same union of the theological with the philan- thropic spirit was due the noble scheme of popular education embodied in the Book of Polity of the Re- formed Church of Scotland, written so early as 1560. The educational aims of the leaders of the Humanis- tic and theological revival respectively, while they did not conflict, were thus different both in their spirit and scope ; and it is important to note this, if we are to understand the history of Schools from the sixteenth century down to our own time : for motive causes in operation 350 years ago are still active. While the literary Humanists, such as Erasmus, had for their aim culture, and this almost exclusively through the literatures of Greece and Rome, the theo- logical Humanists, though recognizing culture, yet desired to subordinate it at every stage to a religious purpose. The latter had consequently on their side popular sentiment, because they most truly represented the popular need. *■ Above all things,' said Luther, ' let the Scriptures be the chief and the most frequently used reading-book, both in primary and in high schools. . . . Where the Holy Scriptures do not bear sway, there I would counsel none to send his child ; for every institution will degenerate where God's Word is not in daily exercise. . . . The High 1-1- THE RENASCENCE Schools ought to send forth men thoroughly versed in the Scriptures to become bishops and pastors, and to stand in the van against heretics, the devil, and if need be, the whole world.' With all this, Luther's views of education were large and liberal, including music, gymnastic, and history, as well as the languages and mathematics. Melanchthon also, while urging the pursuit of ancient philosophy in its original sources, and of the literatures of Greece and Rome, yet held by Christian teaching as the main end of the school. So with Valentine Trotzendorf and the eminent John Sturm of Strasburg, whose great classical school was a model for all countries : ( a wise and persuasive piety, knowledge and purity and elegance of diction,' were his aim. The Humanistic Protestant schools thus em- braced Christian teaching as a vital part of their cur- riculum, the desire of the Reformers being always to unite true learning with sound theology . It was this theological humanism (so to speak) thac ultimately gained the day among the Reformed Churches. The Roman Catholic Church meanwhile was not in- sensible to the scholastic changes which the modern spirit had made inevitable. The new order of the Jesuits was authorized in 1540. Their special function as a Church Society was preaching, confession, and education, but the last-named chiefly. 'To this,' says Ranke, c they thought of binding themselves by a special clause in their vows ; and although that was not done, they made the practice of this duty impera- tive by the most cogent rules. Their most earnest desire was to gain the rising generation.' In 1626 METHOD OF THE JESUITS 15 they had already 467 Colleges and thirty-six Semin- aries, and to their zealous and self-denying labors the reaction from Protestantism was mainly due. While subordinating all learning, nay, every act of life, to the Catholic idea, they yet had open minds for educa- tional improvements. The best parts of the methods pursued in the schools of Trotzendorf and Sturm were embodied in their system. ■ Familiarity with Latin as a common language, however, rather than with the literature of Latin, was their school aim. At the same time, they were sufficiently influenced by the Human- istic revival to discard scholastic barbarism and to cultivate style. Where rhetoric and style are culti- vated for themselves, the result is a certain discipline of the faculties certainly, but an absence of the genu- ine substance of education . Expression , not thought, becomes the prime consideration ; and it is only thought about the realities of sense or about the products of thought that calls forth original power. The Jesuit course included Latin and a moderate amount of Greek, with logic and rhetoric for the more advanced classes. They could show as good a cur- riculum as the public grammar schools of their time. The superiority of the Protestant schools lay in the greater freedom of spirit which characterized them, and the greater regard paid to the substance of literature. The Jesuits, however, were far in advance of their con- temporaries in laying down for their teachers a definite educational method — stiff and inelastic certainly, but yet a method. Little by little, little at a time, culti- vation of the memory, thoroughness in a few things, 16 THE RENASCENCE easy work, and a mild but persistent discipline, were merits belonging to the Jesuit schools two hundred years before they were practiced to any large extent elsewhere. It is not our business here to enter more largely into the Jesuit system : our object is simply to show that this religious Order accepted the Humanistic movement, under narrow restrictions certainly, but these not of a kind to render their Humanism a mere name. Thus it was that on both sides of the great contro- versy which began 350 years ago, and still continues, religion furnished the motive of education ; and so it will ever be, although it is possible that the form which the religious spirit takes may be so veiled as to be in- visible even to itself. On one side, it was recognized that the way to faith was through obedience, and that obedience, the first of virtues in a true Catholic, can be secured in two ways — by the careful shaping of the minds of those who demand education, and by the equally careful neglect of the intelligence of those who can be safely passed by. On the other side, the Humanistic revival was early lost in the more pressing claims of the Theological revival, and the genuine human spirit permanently survived only in the move- ment to instruct the masses. The theological spirit it was that gave the impulse necessary to carry education down into the lower strata of society, and so to raise the humanity of the people. The improvements made in the grammar schools under the influence of Melanchthon and Sturm, and,, in England, of Colet and Ascham, did not endure, save in a very limited sense. Pure classical literature SCOTLAND AND SAXONY IN ADVANCE 17 was now read, — a great gain certainly, but this was all. There was no tradition of method, as was the case in the Jesuit order. During the latter half of the sixteenth century, the complaints made of the state of the schools, the waste of time, the barbarous and intricate grammar rules, the cruel discipline, were loud and long, and proceeded from men of the highest in- tellectual standing. It has to be remembered, how- ever, that all Europe had been embroiled in civil and ecclesiastical contentions, and that the seeds of popular education and oLan improved secondary system could not possibly have developed themselves in an atmos- phere so ungenial . Indeed , until the remodelled school code of Saxony appeared in 1773 tne dawn so full of promise was clouded. Two hundred years were lost. Scotland alone was during this period busily carrying out, in a truly national sense, the programme of the Reformation and the Humanists, but this, in accord- ance with the genius of Protestantism, mainly on the popular side. But the complaints and demands of men of learning" and piety were not relaxed. To unity in the Reformed Churches they looked, but looked in vain, for a settle- ment of opinion, and to the school they looked as the sole hope of the future. The School, as it actually existed, might have well filled them with despair. Even in the Universities, Aristotelian Physics and Metaphysics, and with them the scholastic philosophy, still held their own. The reforms initiated mainly by Melanchthon had not, indeed, contemplated the over- throw of Aristotelianism . He and the other Human- 18 THK RKNASCKNCK ists merely desired to substitute Aristotle himself in the orignal for the Latin translation from the Arabic (necessarily misleading), and the Greek and Latin classics for barbarous epitomes. These very reforms, however, perpetuated the reign of Aristotle, when the spirit that actuated the Reformers was dead and there had been a relapse into the old scholasticism. The Jesuit reaction, also, which recovered France and South Germany for the Papal See, w T as powerful enough to preserve a footing for the metaphysical theology of St. Thomas Aquinas and the schoolmen. In England, Milton was of opinion that the youth of the Universities were, even so late as his time, still presented with an 'asinine feast of sow-thistles.' These retrogressions in School and University serve to show how exceed- ingly difficult it is to contrive any system of education, middle or upper, which will work of itself when the contrivers pass from the scene. Hence the importance, it seems to us, of having in every University, as part of the philosophical faculty, a department for the ex- position of this very question of Education — surely a very important subject in itself as an academic study, and in its practical relations transcending perhaps all others. How are the best traditions of educational theory and practice to be preserved and handed down, if those who are to instruct the youth of the country .are to be sent forth to their work from our Universities with minds absolutely vacant as to the principles and history of their profession — if they have never been taught to ask themselves the questions, ' What*am I going to do?' 'Why?' and 'How?' This subject is, bacon's "advancement of learning " 19 one worthy of consideration both by the Universities and the State. It was the want of Method that led to the decline of Schools after the Reformation period ; it was the stndy of Method which gave the Jesuits the superiority that on many parts of the Continent they still retain. In 1605 there appeared a book which was destined to place educational method on a scientific foundation, although its mission is not yet, it is true, accomplished. This was Francis Bacon's Advancement of Lear?ii?ig, which was followed, some years later, by the Org anon. For some time the thoughts of men had been turning to the study of Nature. Bacon represented this move- ment, and gave it the necessary impulse by his masterly survey of the domain of human knowledge, his preg- nant suggestions, and his formulation of scientific method. Bacon was not aware of his relations to the science and art of Education ; he praises the Jesuit schools, not knowing that he was subverting their very foundations. We know inductively : that was the sum of Bacon's teaching. In the sphere of outer Nature, the scholastic saying, Nihil est i7i intellectu quod non prius fuerit in se?isu, was accepted, but with this ad- dition, that the impressions on our senses were not themselves to be trusted. The mode of verifying , sense-impressions, and the grounds of valid and neces- sary inference, had to be investigated and applied. It is manifest that if we can tell hoiv it is we know, it follows that the method of intellectual instruction is scieiitificallv settled. 20 THK RKNASCKNCE But Bacon not only represnted the urgent longing for a co-ordination of the sciences and for a new method; he also represented the weariness of words, phrases, and vain subtleties which had been gradually growing in strength since the time of Montaigne, Ludo- vicus Vives, and Erasmus. The poets, also, had been placing Nature before the minds of men in a new aspect. The Humanists, as we have said, while unquestionably improving the aims and procedure of education, had been powerless to prevent the tendency to fall once more under the dominion of words, and to revert to mere form. The realism of human life and thought, which constituted their raison d'etre, had been unable to sustain itself as a priniciple of action, because there was no school of method. It was the study of the realities of sense that was finally to place eduation on a scientific basis, and make reaction, as to method at least, impossible. The thought of any age determines the education of the age which is to succeed it. Education follows, it does not lead. The School and the Church alike march in the wake of science, philosophy, and political ideas. We see this illustrated in every epoch of human history, and in none so conspicuously as in the changes which occurred in the philosophy and edu- cation of ancient Rome during the lifetime of the elder Cato, and in modern times during the revival of letters and the subsequent rise of the Baconian induction. It is impossible, indeed for any great movement of thought to find acceptance without its telling to some extent on every department of the body politic. Its BACON THF FATHER OF RE}AUSM 21 influence on the ideas entertained as to the education of the rising generation must be, above all, distinct and emphatic. Every philosophical writer on political science has recognized this, and has felt the vast signi- ficance of the educational system of a country both as an effect — the consequence of a revolution in thought — and as a cause, a moving force of incalculable power in the future life of a commonwealth. Thus it was that the Humanistic movement which preceded and ac- companied the Reformation of religion shook to its center the mediaeval school-system of Europe; and that subsequently the silent rise of the inductive spirit subverted its foundations. Bacon, though not himself a Realist in the modern and abused sense of that term, was the father of Realism. It was this side of his teaching which was greedily seized upon, and even exaggerated. Edu- cational zeal now ran in this channel. The conviction of the Churches of the time, that one can make men what one pleases (by fair means or foul), was shared by the innovators. By education, rightly conceived and rightly applied, the enthusiasts dreamed that they could manufacture men, and, in truth, the Jesuits had shown that a good deal could be done in this direction. The new enthusiasts failed to see that the genius of Protestantism is the genius of freedom, and that man refuses to be manufactured except on suicidal terms. He must first sacrifice that which is his distinctive title to manhood — his individuality and will. That the prophets of educational Realism should have failed to see this is not to be laid to their door as a fault ; it 22 TH£ RENASCENCE merely shows that they belonged to their own time and not to ours. They failed then, as some fail now, to understand man and his education, because they break wdth the past. The record of the past is with them merely a record of blunders. The modern Humanist more wisely accepts it as the storehouse of the thoughts and life of human reason. In the life of Man each in- dividual of the race best finds his own true life. This is modern Humanism — the Realism of thought. Yet it is to the Sense-realists of the earlier half of the seventeenth century that we owe the scientific founda- tions of educational method, and the only indication of the true line of answer to the complaints of the time. In their hands sense-realism became allied with Prote- stant Theology, and pure Humanism disappeared. They were represented first by Wolfgang von Ratich, a native ofHolstein, born in 1 571. Ratich was a man of con- siderable learning. The distractions of Europe, and the want of harmony, especially among the Churchs of the Reformation, led him to consider how a remedy might be found for many existing evils. He thought that the remed3> r was to be found in an improved school- system— improved in respect both of the substance and method of teaching. In 161 2, accordingly, he laid before the Diet of the German Empire at Frankfort a Memorial in which he promised, 'with the help of God, to give instructions for the service and welfare of all Christendom : ' and to show— '1. How the Hebrew, Greek, L,atin, and other tongues many easily be taught and learned both by young and old, more thoroughly and in a shorter time. '2. How, not only in High Dutch, but also in other tongues a RATICH AND THE SENSE-REALISTS 23 school may be established in which the thorough knowledge of all Arts and Sciences may be lcarne 1 and propagated. '3. How, in the whole kingdom, and the same speech, one and the same goverment, and, finally, one and the same religion, may be comtn odiously and peacefully maintained.' We speak of Ratich here, not with a view to the ex- position of his system, but merely as the pioneer of the modern inductive school, and as the predecessor of Comenius : and it will suffice, therefore, to sum up his leading principles as these are to be found stated by Schmidt and Von Raumer in their Histories : 1. Everything according to the order and course of Nature. * 2. Only one thing of a kind at a time. 2 3. One thing often repeated (i. e. keep at the same thing, repeating it often.) 4. Everything in the mother-tongue first : for in the mother- tongue resides this advantage, that the pupil has to think only of the thing he has to learn, and need not trouble himself with the language over and above. Out of the mother-tongue pass to other tongues. 5. Everything without violence. For by compulsion and blows one disgusts 3-outh with studies, and causes them to assume an attitude of hostility to them. The pupil must not be afraid of the teacher, but love him, and hold him in honor, a result which will be found if the teacher rightly discharges his function. 6. Nothing must be learned by rote, for intelligence and acuteness are absent from the pupil who gives himself much to rote-learning. 1 The American translation should always be compared with the German ; e. g. the German of Von Raumer is ' Alles nach Ordnung oder Lauff der Natur,' which is translated 'Everything in its order, or the course of Nature. ' Schmidt says und not oder. 2 The American translation says ' Only one thing at a time,* and it equally misses the point elsewhere. 24 THK RENASCENCE 7. Uniformity in all things, as well in the method of teach- ing as in the books, rules, etc. , so that the grammar of the vari- ous languages taught may be as much as possible harmonized. 8. First a thing in itself, and \hen the way of it. Matter before form. Rules without matter confuse the understanding. 9. Everything through experience and the investigation of particulars. The motto of the Ratichians was ' Per inductionem et experi- mentum omnia.'! Ratich's life was practically a failure. He did not succeed in his scholastic work, and this is to be ascribed to the following causes — (1) His character ; (2) the too purely theoretical groundwork of his scheme ; (3) the jealousy and opposition of others ; (4) his wrong ap- plication of his own principles ; (s)his want of that instinctive feeling for the art of teaching, which was conspicuous in his greater successor Comenius. He died in 1635, at the age of sixty-four. His scheme had meanwhile been most favorably received by many learned men, and had attracted the attention of the Princes of Central Europe. The University of Giessen reported favorably on his pretensions, and the Ratich- ians were by no means a small or uninfluential party in the schools and Universities of Europe. In those days some Universities seemed to take an interest in Education. The torch that fell from Ratich's hand was seized ere it touched the ground, by John Amos Comenius, who became the head, and still continues the head, of the Sense-realistic school. His works have a present and practical, and not merely an historical and specu- lative, signifiance. 1 Raumer is a prejudiced writer, especially when dealing with Ratich and the ' moderns ' (as he calls them) generally. LIFE AND WORKS OF COMKNIUS. John Amos Comknius (Komenski) was born at Nivnitz, a village of Moravia, 1 on the 28th of March, 1592. His father was a miller. The family belonged to the sect of Reformed Christians known sometimes as the Bohemian, more generally as the Moravian, Brethren. This sect of Christians has never attained to great di- mensions, but it has been distinguished by an activity and zeal which have given it, notwithstanding the fewness of its members, a conspicuous place among religious communions . Although generally recognized as Lutherans, they connect themselves by direct ecclesastical descent with the Bohemian Reformer Huss, and have always preserved a distinct organiza- tion of their own. At the present day they number, it is believed, only about 5,000 communicants in Europe, and 7,000 in America They acknowledge an episco- pate, but their bishops have little power. Their chief characteristic seems always to have been a certain simplicity of faith, combined with an earnest personal 1 Some say at Comna or Comnia (near Briinn, whence the surname Commenius or Comenius. The family name was in German T'opfer i. e. Potter. Comnia is in long, about 18 deg. B. from Greenwich, lat. 49 deg. Gindely simply says in the vicinity of Ungarisch-Brod. At the University of Heidelberg he was entered as a native of Nivnitz, a little village about a league from Ungarisch-Brod. (25) 26 BIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS piety and a practical realization of the "brotherly rela- tion in which all the members of a common Christian Confession ought to stand to one another. Comenius is usually called an Austro-Sclav ; that is to say, a Sclav born within the the sovereignty of Aus- tria. His family, and he himself consequently, spoke the Bohemian or Czech tongue, which is a West-Sclav dialect, and is considered to be the best of all the Sclavonic forms. Huss may be said to have done for this dialect what Luther afterwards did for German. The young Comenius was born in troublous times. The European disturbances and complications arising out of the advance which the thought of man had made in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries — generally denoted by the terms ' Revival of Letters ' and the 'Reformation of Religion,' or more generally' the Renascence,' — had already been in active operation for seventy years, and Comenius was growing old when the close of the Thirty Years' War gave Europe peace, after having made a great part of it a desert. Austria was at that time the great German power. Prussia, had no political existence, while Poland was a large and influential kingdom, including much of what is now Russia. Comenius 's parents died while he was still a child, and he was accordingly handed over to guardians. There appears to have been a little money left by the father — enough to help in the education and mainten- ance of the son . He received , however , only the limited amount of instruction obtainable in one of these elementary people's schools which were the fruit of HIS SIMPLE EARLY LIFE 27 the Reformation — the school of Strassnick. This amounted to reading, writing, a knowledge of the Catechism, and of the smallest beginnings of arithmetic. He had reached his sixteenth year without having en- tered on the study of Latin — at that time still the indispensable instrument of all literature, and of inter- national communication among the learned. We are not to conclude from this that his guardians neglected his education. The community of which he was an orphan child had to raise up pastors for their own in- struction, and this necessity, independently of other considerations, would have led to the fostering of any boyish promise shown by young Comenius. It is probable that he was a child of slow growth. It was certainly not till his sixteenth }^ear that he began to feel and to show a desire for the life of a scholar. There was probably an advantage in this. Unvisited by ambitions which could carry him beyond the narrow limits of his own quiet community, his mind must have had time slowly and surely to imbibe the teachings of the simple Brotherhood to which he belonged, and to be thoroughly imbued with their earnest spirit. We see the effects of this upbringing conspicuous through- out his whole life. Simplicity, zeal, piety, self-sacri- fice, humility, are always present. The whole tenor of his life confirms his own confession that he was by nature of a retiring disposition, had more of fear than of hope in his constitution, that the part of innovator was one alien to him, and that he was keenly alive to the fact that those who think they have got some new light are often merely pursuing ignesfatui. ■ Nor yet, ' 28 BIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS he adds, ' do I desire to belong to that class of men who cling to the old and the customary, spite of the indications of God Himself, Reason, and Common Sense,' 1 , Out of the Moravian evangelical soil he grew, and a Moravian in heart and soul he remained to the end. It is important to note this. We have already pointed out in the Introduction that the educational motive was in the first Reformation age partly literary or Human- istic, but chiefly religious or theological : in the second Reformation age, to which Comenius belonged, the intense conflict of opinion between the new and the old faith — made keener by the reaction to Catholicism under the influence mainly of the Jesuits — had driven the Humanistic element to the wall, and the theological aim now almost wholly obscured the literary. The torch of reason, lighted in the schools half a century previously, was now darkened by the smoke of theo- logical contentions and disastrous wars. Comenius was, above all things, a genuine representative of the evangelical spirit; he was not afraid of science — far from it : he endeavored to unite science and theology, — but he did not fairly appreciate Humanism, and accepted the products of the genius of past ages only in a half-hearted way. His eyes were turned to the present and the future. At sixteen Comenius went, or was sent, to a I^atin school, and in 1612, when he was twenty years of age, we find him at the College of Herborn in the dukedom 1 Lectoribus, vol. i. SCHOOLS TH£ TERROR OF BOYS 29 of Nassati, pursuing his theological studies under Professor Alsted, afterwards Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Weissenburg. To the lateness of the age at which he began Latin we probably partly owe Comenius's early insight into the defects of educational methods. He was old enough to criticise, while sub- mitting to, the scholastic discipline and defective modes of procedure, of which he was, with others, the victim. . There is no reason to believe that his school was worse than schools elsewhere at that time, and of these he says that 'they are the terror of boys, and the slaughter- houses of minds, — places where a hatred of literature and books is contracted , where ten or more years are spent in learning what might be acquired in one, where what ought to be poured in gently is violently forced in and beaten in, where what ought to be put clearly and perspicuously is presented in a confused and intricate way, as if it were a collection of puzzles, — places where minds are fed on words. ' Well might Professor Iyubinus of Rostock say that the instruction and dis- cipline of schools seemed to have been the invention of some wicked spirit, the enemy of the human race. ' Millibus e muftis, ' he exclaims, 'ego quoque sum unus, miser homuncio, cui amcenissimum vitse ver, florentes juventutis anni, nugis scholastcis transmissi, misere perierunt. Ah, quo ties mihi postquam melius pros- picere datum, perditae aetatis recordatio, pectore sus- piria, oculis lachrymas, corde dolorem excussit. Ah, quoties me dolor ille exclamare coegit — 'O mihi praeteritos referat si Jupiter annos.' Before Comenius left school, Ratich, of whom we 30 BIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS have already spoken, was at work ; and it was in 1612, when Comenius was still at Herborn ? that the public document issued by the Universities of Jena and Gies- sen, commenting on Ratich's proposed innovations, first came under his notice. 1 The Ratichian scheme, on which specially the University laudation was pro- nounced, was printed/under the following title: Wolph- gangi Ratichii de Studiorum rectificanda metJiodo Con- silium. Comenius was profoundly attracted by the new edu- cational movement. After a year or more spent in travel, during which he resided at Amsterdam and studied at Heidelberg, he returned to his native Moravia in 1614. Being now twenty -two years of age, and being still too young for the ministry, he was appointed Rector of the Moravian school at Prserovium (Prerau), near Olmutz, where he at once endeavored to introduce improved methods of instruction and a more humane discipline. 'Ten years,' he says, 2 are given to the study of the Latin tongue, and after all the result is disappointing. Erasmus, Vives, Luther, Sturm, Frisch, Sanctius, Domavius, have all complained of this. Boyhood is distracted,' he goes on to say, 'for years with precepts of grammar, infinitely prolix,, perplexed, and obscure, and for the most part useless. Boys are stuffed with vocabularies without associating words with things, or indeed with one another syntactically. ' It had been hoped that the substitution for barbarous Latinity of 1 Preface to vol. i. - Preface to first edition ofth.eJamia Linguarmru HIS WORK AS TEACHER AND CLERGYMAN 31 good authors, such as Terence, Cicero, Virgil, and Horace — the work of the Humanists, — would cure the universal evil by teaching boys the Latin tongue by means of its purest writers . But this had failed , partly because of the unpropitiousness of the time, but chiefly because the secret of education lies in method, and in the master who wields it. No attempt had been made to secure either sound method or good masters. What else but failure' could be expected? At Prerau Comenius began by simplifying the Latin Grammar, and wrote an elementary book for his pupils, which was afterwards published at Prague in 1616 ( Grammaticae facilioris praecepta) . In this year he was ordained to the pastorate, but whether this caused him to give up the school does not appear. 1 He was not appointed to any special charge till 1 618, when he was set over 'the most flourishing of -I all the churches of the Moravian Brethren, that of Fulneck,' near Troppau. Along with his ministerial charge, he had the superintendence of a school recently erected ; and he now began to consider more fully the subject of instruction, and to put his thoughts on pa- per. 2 Here too he married, and for two or three years spent a happy and active life, enjoying the only period of tranquillity in his native country which it was ever his fortune to experience. For the restoration of a time so happy he never ceased to pine during all his future wanderings . 1 Dedication to Schola Ludus, vol. iii., p. 831. 2 Preface to vol. i. 32 BIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS The Thirity Years' War broke out, and in 1621 Fuineck was taken by the Spaniards, and all the pro- perty of Comenius destroyed, including his library and manuscripts. 1 For the next three years Comenius seems to have resided, along with several other Mora- vian pastors, under the protection of Karl von Zerotin, a wealthy Moravian, and while there wrote a book entitled The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Hearty an allegorical writing on the vanity of earthly things 2 . In 1622 he lost his wife and only child. In 1624 he and his fellow-pastors were com- pelled to leave the protection of Zerotin, and thereafter, evading as best they could the persecutions of the Jesuits, they wandered through various parts of Moravia and Bohemia, occasionally visiting their communities secretly, and preaching the Word and administering the Sacraments. In July 1627 the evangelical pastors in Moravia and Bohemia were formally proscribed by the Austrian Government, acting under the instigation of the Jes- uits . Some took refuge among the Bohemian moun- tains with Baron Sadouski von Slaupna. To one of the pastors who took refuge there — John Stadius by name — the Baron intrusted his three sons for their education. For the benefit of the tutor, and at his 1 Seyffart says that on this occasion he also lost his wife and two children, but Comenius himself does not mention this in his Preface to vol. i. Seyffart has doubtless other authority for what he says. I confine myself solely to what can be ascertained by collating Comenius 's own writings. ^Printed at Ijssa in 1631. KABXY ASPIRATIONS AS AN AUTHOR 33 request, Comenius wrote some rules of method. In the autumn of that year he paid a visit to Wilcitz, not far off, to look at the library there. Among the books he unexpectedly met with the treatise of Blias Bodinus, recently imported from Germany, and was fired with the ambition to produce a like work in his own Bohemian tongue. In this ambition he was sus- tained by the approval, and indeed solicitations, of his fellow-refugees, who were convinced that he had much to say that would be of value to schools and school- masters. While engaged in this didactic work, he was disturbed by a new edict requiring all the evangelical pastors to renounce their faith, or finally leave the country. Churches and schools were ruthlessly de- stroyed. Comenius from his retreat was a witness j from time to time of the acts of the persecutors, and was overwhelmed with grief. He still, however, de- sired to live within reach of the brethren of his com- munity, and did not leave the mountains, where he thought he might possibly escape observation. His active and practical mind began at once to consider how he should proceed to restore religion and piety should he ever be free again to work for his native country. His didactic studies suggested to him thak- the great agency for a future renovation lay in schools, and he consoled himself with this reflection, and with forming sanguine schemes for the future. His sole de- sire now was to devote his life entirely to the young, should it please God to restore him to his country, and by the institution of schools, by supplying them with good books, and with a simple and lucid method, to 34 BIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS build up, more surely than before, learning, virtue and piety. Meanwhile by secret communications with his brethren he tried to sustain their sinking spirits. The persecution, however, waxed hotter, and finding it im- possible longer to continue in his concealment, he and his companions fled, dispersing in different directions. Comenius made for Poland, which he had once before visited on a secret mission, having been sent thither by the Moravian Brethren — probably in order to as- certain if they could find an asylum in that country. He betook himself to the town of Les?ia (I^issa, L,eszno), in Posnania, and obtained employment as a teacher in the Moravian Gymnasium there — appar- ently as Rector of it. 1 The Count of Lissa (Rafael) afforded protection to the persecuted brethren. His scholastic engagements, and the desire to do his duty in an efficient way, gave a fresh impulse to his didactic studies. He began to reconstruct his methods from /the foundation, and to give them a philosophic basis and a logical coherence. Not only had the general question of Education en- gaged many minds for a century and more before Comenius arose, but the apparently subsidiary, yet all- important question of Method, in special relation to the teaching of the I^athi tongue, had occupied the. thoughts and pens of many of the leading scholars of Europe. The whole field of what we now call Secondary In- 1 In the Dictionnaire de Pedagogie his scholastic function is described as being that of organizer of the education of the Moravian Colony only. That his duties were of a more general kind is clear from his own writings. HIS SEARCH FOR A MKTHOD 35 straction was occupied with the one subject of Latin ; Greek, and occasionally Hebrew, having been admitted only in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and then only to a subordinate place. This of necessity. Latin was the onejkey to universal learning. To give to boys the possession of this key was all that teachers aimed at until their pupils were old enough to study Rhetoric and Logic. Of these writers on the teaching of Latin, the -most eminent were Sturm, Erasmus, Melanchthon, Lubinus, Vossius, Sanctius (the author of \h& Minerva), Ritter, Helvicus, Bodinus, Valentinus Andreae,and, among Frenchmen, Ccecilius Frey. 1 Nor were Ascham and Mulcaster in England the least sig- nificant of the critics of Method. Comenius was ac- quainted with almost all previous writers on education, except probably Ascham and Mulcaster, to whom he never alludes. He read everything that he could hear of with a view to find a method, and he does not appear ever to have been desirous to supersede the work of others. If he had found what he wanted, he would, we believe, have promulgated it, and advocated it as a loyal pupil. That he owed much to previous writers is certain; but the prime characteristic of his work on Latin was his own. Especially does he introduce a new epoch in education, by constructing a general methodology which should go beyond mere Latin, and be equally applicable to all subjects of instruction. Before bringing his thoughts into definite shape, he 1 Frey published at Paris in 1629 an educational treatise entitled Ad divas scientias, artesque, etlinguas sermonesque ex- temporaneas nova et expeditissima [via]. 36 BIOGRAPHY OF COM^NIUS wrote to all the distinguished men to whom he could obtain access. He addressed Ratich, among others, but received no answer; many of his letters also were returned, because tlie persons addressed could not be found. x Valentinus Andrese wrote to him in encourag- ing terms, saying that he gladly passed on the torch to him. His mind became now much agitated by the importance of the question and by the excitement of discovery. He saw his whole scheme assuming shape under his pen and was filled, like other zealous men, before and since, with the highest hopes of the benefits which he would confer on the whole human race by his discoveries. He resolved to call his treatise Di- dactica Magna, or Om?ies omnia docendi Artificium. He found a consolation for his misfortunes in the work of invention, and even saw the hand of Providence in the coincidence of the overthrow of schools through persecutions and wars, and those ideas of a new method which had been vouchsafed to him, and which he was elaborating. Everything might now be begun anew, and untrammelled by the errors and prejudices of the past. Some scruples as to a theologian and pastor being so entirely preoccupied with educational questions, he had however to overcome. 2 'Suffer, I pray, Christian friends, that I speak confidentially with you for a moment. Those who know me intimately, know that I am a man of moderate ability, and of al- 1 Among his correspondents were Sigmund Evenius, Abra- ham Mencel, Paliurus, Jonston, Mochinger, Docem, Georgp Winkler, Martin Moser, and Niclassius. edoribus, vol. i. p. 7. " DID ACTA MAGNA " 37 most no learning, but one who, bewailing the evils of his time, is eager to remedy them, if this in any way be granted me to do, either by my own discoveries or by those of another — none of which things can come save from a gracious God. If, then, anything be here found well done, it is not mine, but His, who from the mouths of babes and sucklings hath perfected praise, and who, that He may in verity show Himself faithful, true, and gracious, gives to those who ask, opens to those who knock, and offers to those who seek. Christ my Lord knows that my heart is so simple that it matters not to me whether I teach or be taught, act the part of teacher of teachers, or disciple of disciples. What the Lord has given me I send forth for the common good,' His deepest conviction was that the sole hope of healing the dissensions of both Church and State lay in the proper education of youth. The tex v v rexvoov avQpGortov ayeivof Gregory Nazianzen was with him a favorite quotation. At the same time, he did not profess, as we have said, to supersede all others ; on the contrary, he truly and wisely says, 'Artem artium tradere operosae molis res est, exquisi- toque eget judicio ; nee unius hominis sed multorum, quum unus nemo tarn sit oculatus cujus aciem non subterfugiant plurima.' When he had completed his Great Didactic, he did not publish it, for he was still hoping to be restored to his native Moravia, where he proposed to execute all his philanthropic schemes ; indeed, the treatise was first written in his native Sclav or Czech tongue. x 1 Found in the archives of L,issa in 1841 , and republished in its Czech form in 1849 by a Bohemian Society. 38 BIOGRAPHY OF COM^NIUS While thus engaged in working out his theory and method of education, Comenius had been searching for some elementary Latin reading-book, which might introduce boys easily to the use of the Latin tongue. In addition to the 'defects already universally recog- nized in the teaching of Latin, Comenius pointed out that, even supposing the usual classical authors were read and mastered, a boy would not then know the Latin words expressing the things and ideas of his own time. 'Finally, if so much time is to be spent on the language alone,' he says, 'when is the boy to know about things — when will he learn philosophy, when religion, and so forth? He will consume his life in preparing for life.' Some epitome of the language is. wanted, in which the v/ords and phrases will be reduced to one body, as it were, and in this way much time saved in acquiring them. For, as Isaac Habrecht truly said, one would learn to know all the animals of the world more quickly by visiting Noah's ark than by traversing the world and picking up knowledge as we went. To meet this want, a member of the Irish College of Salamanca (Bateus by name) had written a Janzia Linguarum, comprising in one lesson-book all the more usual words, and these connected into sentences so constructed that no vocable occurred more than once, except such indispensable words as sum, et, in, etc. This book was in Latin-Spanish, and was shortly after, in 1615, published in Latin-English in London. Two years after Isaac Habrecht of Strasburg published a Latin-Spanish-English- French edition, and so made it " JANUA LINGUARUM " 4 39 quadrilingual, and on his return to Germany added a German version, strongly commending it as an excellent means of learning a language. The work was frequently republished in many parts of Germany, was introduced into many schools, and ultimately, in 1629, appeared in eight languages. At first Comenius hailed this book with pleasure but after carefully studying it, came to the conclusion that it did not justify its title ; and this, Jirst, because 'it contained many words beyond the capacity of the young, while omitting many in daily use ; secondly, because the words, which were used only once, were used in one signification only, whereas they constantly, in native authors, have more than one meaning, and thus pupils are misled ; and thirdly, because, where one signification is alone given, it ought always to be the primary one, which in the book in question was not the case. There were other objections to the book: the sentences did not contribute to the moral instruction of youth, and were clumsy; and, indeed, even often, destitute of meaning. ' My fundamental principle — an irrefragable law of didactics — is,' he says, in speaking of his own Janua y 1 that the understanding and the tongue should advance in parallel lines always. The human being tends to utter what he apprehends. If he does not apprehend the words he uses, he is a parrot; K he apprehends without words, he is a dumb statue. Accordingly, under 100 heads, I have classified the whole universe of things in a manner suited to the capacity of boys, and I have given the corresponding language. I have 40 BIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS selected from Lexicons the words that had to be intro- duced, and I include 8,000 vocables in 1,000 sentences, which are at first simple, and thereafter gradually become complex. I have used words, as far as practi- cable, in their primary signification, according to the comprehension of the young, but have had to seek for modern Latin words where pure Latin was not to be had. I have used the same word only once, except where it had two meanings. Synonyms and contraries I have placed together, so that they may throw light on one another. I have arranged the words so as to bring into view concords and governments and declension. The vernacular text (Czech or Bohemian) I have printed separately on this occasion, as it would be useless to many whose judgments on my efforts I desire to have. An index of the words (not however absolutely neces- sary) will be afterward added; also a brief treatise on homonyms, synonyms, etc., and a short, compendious, simple, and easy grammar — all of which, comprised in one volume, will be a little treasure-house of school- learning. ' Three years were spent on. the Janua alone, and yet Comenius was far from thinking the work perfect; he considered he had only led the way for others. He hoped also himself, from time to time, to improve the book. He called this little book a 'Seminary of tongues and all Sciences, ' because equal care had been given to things and words. He desired to introduce some be- ginnings and clear perception of things, and at the HIS ELECTION AS BISHOP 41 same time to lay the foundations of learning, morals and piety. Speaking generally, we may say that Comenius's aim was— -first, to simplify and graduate; secondly, to teach words through things; thirdly, to teach things through words. The book was a very remarkable innovation on the then existing school text-books; but notwith- standing this, or because of it, when he published it in 1 63 1, at the urgent solicitation of his friends, and be- fore, in his opinion, it was perfected, it achieved an immediate and enormous success. 'People, ' he says, * 'seemed to vie with one another in producing editions of it. ' It was translated into Greek, Bohemian, Polish, German, Swedish, Belgian, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Turkish, Arabic, and into a lan- guage -which he calls Mogolic, 'and which,' he says, 'was familiar to the population of India. ' He next, in 1633, published his Vestibulum, which was intended to serve as an easy introduction to the Ja?iua. In 1632 there was convened a synod of the Moravian Brethren at Lissa, at which Comenius (now forty years of age) was elected to succeed his father-in-law Cyril- lus as Bishop of the scattered brethren — a position which enabled him to be of great service, by means of correspondence, to the members of the community, who were dispersed in various parts of Europe. Through- out the whole of his long life he continued his fatherly charge, and seemed never quite to abandon the hope of being restored, along with his fellow-exiles, to his native land — a hope doomed to disappointment. In dedication of Schola Ludus, vol. iii. 42 BIOGRAPHY OF COM^NIUS his capacity of Pastor- Bishop he wrote several treatises,, such as a History of the Persecutions of the Brotherhood ', an account of the Moravian Church- discipline and Order, and polemical tracts against a contemporary Socinian. Meanwhile his great Didactic treatise, which had. been written in his native Czech tongue, was yet un- published. He was, it would appear, stimulated to the publication of it by an invitation he received in 1638, from the authorities in Sweden, to visit their country and undertake the reformation of their schools. 1 He replied that he was unwilling to undertake a task at once so onerous and so invidious, but that he would gladly give the benefit of his advice to any one of their own nation whom they might select for the duty. These communications led him to resume his labor on the great Didactic, and to translate it into Latin, in which form it finally appeared. 2 ^j In education Comenius was a Sense-Realist — the first great and thoroughly consistent Realist. Von Raumer says: ' He received his first impulse in this direction, as he himself relates, from the well-known Spanish pedagogue, Iyudovic Vives, who declared him- self against Aristotle, and demanded a Christian instead of a heathen mode of philosophizing. ' ' It is not dis- putation which leads to any result,' said Vives, 'but 1 Preface to vol. i. 2 1 cannot find the precise date. In the Dictionnaire de Peda- gogic it is stated that the work, though completed at the time stated in the above, was not published till 1657. I think this is. a mistake. PUBLICATION OF ' ' TH3 GREAT DIDACTIC ' ' 43 the silent observation of Nature. It is better for the scholars to ask questions and to investigate than to be disputing with each other.' 'Yet,' says Comenius, 'Vives understood better where the fault lay than what was the remedy.' Comenius received a second impulse from Thomas Campanella, who, however, did not satisfy him. ' But when,' he says, ' Bacon's Instauratio Magna came into my hands — a wonderful work, which I consider the most instructive philosophical work of the century now beginning — I saw in it that Campanella 's demon- strations are wanting in that thoroughness which is demanded by the truth of things. Yet again I was troubled because the noble Verulam, while giving the true key of Nature, did not unlock her secrets, but only showed, by a few examples, how they should be unlocked, and left the rest to future observations to be extended through centuries.' He goes on, in the pre- face to the Physics, from which these utterances are taken , to say that he is convinced that it is not Aris- totle who must be master of philosophy for Christians, but that philosophy must be studied fully according to the leading of sense, reason, and books. 'For,' he continues, 'do we not dwell in the garden of Nature as well as ths ancients ? Why should we not use our eyes, ears, and noses as well as they ? And why should we need other teachers than these our senses to learn to know the works of Nature? Why, say I, should we not, instead of these dead books, lay open the living book of Nature, in which there is much more to contemplate than any one person can ever relate,, 44 BIOGRAPHY OF COMKNIUS and the contemplation of which brings much more of pleasure, as well as of profit ?' It is this realism which explains his school-books and also his method. It was natural that the strong realistic impulse should travel beyond the sphere of schools, and cause men to dream of great things. The Advancement of Learning had filled Comenius, as well as other con- temporary men, with hopes of a rapid and unparalleled progress in all the sciences, and a consequent improve- ment of the conditions of human life. With a view to a thorough co-ordination and universal diffusion of scientific knowledge, he contemplated the issuing of a complete body of science as then understood. To effect this, the combination of many minds, each in its own department, and all under the guidance of some controlling intellect, was necessary. Men were working in various parts of Europe independently of each other, and, the younger men especially, in ignorance of what had been actually accomplished in the sciences to which they devoted themselves. An exhaustive but concise and authoritative statement of all that was known in each department could not fail to be of immense service, and, as Comenius thought, for his mind was always practical, of great influence on the progress and well- being of society. This complete statement of the circle of knowledge he called Pansophia, and it was in this direction that his real life-work lay, in his own opinion; his scholastic undertakings being strictly subordinate to the greater task. Although not prepared to give effect to his views in proper form, he had been working at the Pansophy in ASSOCIATION WITH SAMUKI, HARTUB 45 the retirement of his study during the years which saw the completion of the first edition of his Janua and of his Great Didactic. In the department of Science he had already given to the world a treatise on Astron- omy and on the reforming of Physics (1633). He had also, by correspondence, interested various learned men in his encyclopaedic or pansophic scheme ; among others, Samuel Hartlib, the friend of Milton, who was .then resident in London, and to whom Milton addressed his Tractate on Education. 'Everybody knew Hartlib,'* says Professor Masson in his Life of Milton (vol. iii, p. 193). 'He was a foreigner by birth, being the son of a Polish merchant of German extraction, who had left Poland when that country fell under Jesuit rule, and had settled in Elbing in Prussia in very good circumstances. Twice married before to Polish ladies, this merchant had married in Prussia, for his third wife, the daughter of a wealthy English merchant of Dantzic ; and thus our Hartlib, their son, though Prussian born, and with Polish con- nections, could reckon himself half- English. The date of his birth was probably about the beginning of the century, i. e. he may have been eight or ten years older than Milton. He appears to have first visited England in or about 1628, and from that time, though he made frequent journeys to the Continent, London had been his headquarters. Here, with a residence in * The Memoir of Hartlib by M. Dircks should be read by those wishing to know more of the English experience of Com- enius. It is a scarce book, but a few copies may still be purchased of the publisher of this volume. 43 BIOGRAPHY OF COMKNIUS the City, he had carried on business as a " merchant,'* with extensive foreign correspondences and very re- spectable family connections. But it did not require such family connections to make Hartlib at home in English society. The character of the man would have made him at home anywhere. He was one of those persons now styled "philanthropists," or "friends of progress," who take an interest in every question or project of their time promising social im- provement, have always some iron in the fire, are con- stantly forming committees or writing letters to per- sons of influence, and altogether live for the public. By the common consent of all who have explored the intellectual and social history of England in the seven- teenth century, he is one of the most interesting and memorable figures of that whole period. He is inter- esting both for what he did himself, and also on ac- count of the number and intimacy of his contacts with other interesting people.' Hartlib was not slow to be interested in the educational ideas of Comenius, but he was especially inspired by the two leading projects of the time — the Union of Protestant Christendom, and, by help of this, the settlement of nations ; and the union of the sciences in a complete enclycopaedic form. Comenius, at his request, had sent him a long epistle, setting forth in full his Pansophic project, and this epistle was printed at Oxford in 1637, without Co- menius 's consent, and widely circulated. The treatise was called by Hartlib Porta Sapientiae reserata. It is entitled by Comenius in the List of Contents (vide Col- lected Works) Prodromus Pansophiae (Precursor of 47 Pansophy) and in the body of his works, Pansophiae Praeludium, quo Sapientiae universalis necessitas, possi- bilitas facilitasque (si ratione certa ineatur) breviter ac dilucide demonstratur. The running head-title of the treatise again is Pansopkici Lib?d Delineatio. To meet the objection of critics, Comenius shortly after wrote a brief treatise further expounding his views, entitled Conatuum pansophicorum dilucidatio in gratiam Censo- rum facte (1638). These treatises excited much interest throughout Europe. Adolph Tassius, Professor of Mathematics at Hamburg, wrote to HartlhV saying : 'A philosophic ardor flames in every corner of Europe, and with it zeal for a better Didactic. If Comenius had done nothing more than scatter such fruitful seeds in the minds of all, he would have done enough.' The reception accorded to the Pansophic ideas of Comenius was encouraging enough, but it was apparent to all, and to none more than Comenius, that they could be carried out only by a community or college of learned men, and that this college would have to be a permanent institution for the furtherance of science, and for the authoritative promulgation from time to time of the scientific status quo. A Collegium Didac- ticum or Pansophicum was accordingly projected. It might have been urged that the Universities existed for these very purposes, but it is (it appears to me) a mistake to suppose that these institutions had as yet thought of the prosecution of science as the main end of their institution . Except in so far as they were sem- ( x Vol. i.,p. 455.) 48 BIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS inaries of 'Disputations,' they were to a large extent merely higher academies for giving instruction to qual- ify for the various faculties and professions: and to convert them intoacenters of scientific research and il- lumination would not have been in those days possible, although it would have been quite in harmony with their original design. It is only in recent times that the purely scientific idea has found its way into the heart of the University system, and that Professors are expected to represent and advance their subject as well as to afford instruction in it to all comers. The com- bination of the scientific with the teaching function constitutes, indeed, the ideal of a University system. There was, in the beginning of the Seventeenth century, no way open to Comenius and his friends save by the foundation of an entirely new institution. For this, money was wanted, and also influential support. At the urgent solicitation of the sanguine Hartlib, who had been busying himself among members of the Long Parliament, Comenius repaired to London, which he reached on the 226. September, 1641. There he found that he had been invited by Parliament itself; but as it was prorogued for a few months owing to King Charles's absence in Scotland, he had to wait. Heem- plo3 r ed his time well in expounding his views to various people of influence, and on the re-assembling of Parliament he was asked to wait a little longer, until a commission of learned men could be appointed to inquire into his proposals. Parliament even went so far as to propose to set apart the revenues and buildings of a college in London, or Winchester, or Chelsea, to LUDOVIC DK GKER -.J which men might be called from various parts of the world, and maintained in residence while prosecuting their learned researches, and giving effect to Comenius's great Pansophic scheme. A statement of the revenues of Chelsea College was even placed in Comenius's hands, and he now began to entertain lively expecta- tions that ere long the ideas of the great Verulam would be realized, and a 'universal college opened, solely de- voted to the advancement of the sciences.' The gen- eral unsettlement of affairs, aggravated by the Irish rebellion and the massacre of the Protestants, did not admit, however, of the carrying out of any peaceful project. The country was on the eve of a rebellion, and the leaders in Parliament could scarcely be expected to find time for any save the greatest national and politi- cal affairs. Everything was in confusion, and Comen- ius, deeply disappointed, prepared to return to the Continent. It was precisely at this moment that he received, from a correspendent and admirer in Sweden, a letter which led him to change his plans. The name of this friend, who plays an important part in Comenius's future life, was I/udovic de Geer, a man of noble family, of considerable wealth, and, happily , also of an enlightened and progressive mind. He was a Dutch- man settled in Sweden. He assured Comenius that his personal influence would enable him to promote his views in Sweden (at that time ruled by Christina and the famous Chancellor Oxenstiern) , and that he could secure the co-operation of others. In accepting this invitation, Comenius had the approval of his English 50 BIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS friends, but as De Geer had evidently in view the Didactic rather than the Pansophic innovations of Comenius, they protested by anticipation against his being drawn aside from what they considered to be the larger aim to the more restricted subject of school- books. Comenius left London for Sweden in August, 1642, and was kindly received by De Geer at Nordkoping, * After a few days spent with his host, he was sent on to Stockholm with introductions to Oxenstiern and to John Skyte, Chancellor of the University of Upsala. By both he was treated with respect, and his plans, Pansophic and Didactic, fully discussed. Of his inter- views Comenius himself gives an account in the Pre- face to the second volume of his works. ' For four days,' he says, ' these two men held me in debate, but chiefly Oxenstiern, that eagle of the North (Aquilona- ris Aquila), who questioned me as to my principles, both Pansophic and Didactic, with a greater pene- tration and closeness than had been exhibited by any of the learned with whom I had come in contact. For the first three days Didactic was the subject of his examination, and he brought the interviews to an end with the following remarks: " From youth up I have perceived a certain violence in the customary method of school studies, but I could never put my finger on the place where the shoe pinched. When sent by my King, of glorious memory, 2 as an ambassador to Germany, I conferred with many learned men on the subject; and 1 On the Baltic, eighty-five miles south-west of Stockholm. -^Gustavus Adolphus. DEBATE WITH OXENSTIERN 51 when I was informed that Wolfgang Ratich had at- tempted a reform of Method, I had no peace in my mind till I had the man before me; but he, instead of a conversation, presented me with a huge book in quarto. I swallowed that annoyance, and having run through the whole volume, I saw that he had exposed the diseases of schools not badly, but as for the remedies, they did not seem to me to be adequate. Your remedies rest on firmer foundations; go on with your work," etc. To which I replied that in these matters I had done what I could, and that now I wished to pass to other matters. His answer was: " I know that you are undertaking greater things, for I have read the Prodromus of your Pansophia, and on this point we shall talk to-morrow, for public duties now call me elsewhere. ' ' On the following day, when about to examine my Pansophic labors, but with a greater aspect of severity, he prefaced his examination with this question: c 'Can you bear contradiction?" ' ' I can, ' ' I replied. ' ' The Prodromus was published not by me but by my friends, for the very purpose of receiving opinions and criticisms: and if we admit these from any and every quarter, of whatsoever kind, why not from men of matured wisdom and of eminent judgment?" He then began to speak against the hopes I had conceived of a better state of things as likely to arise from a rightly instituted Pansophic study, first making political objections of profound im- port, and then bringing forward the testimony of Holy Writ, which seems to predict that darkness and de- eeneracy rather than light and an improved state of 52 BIOGRAPHY OF COMKNIUS society would prevail towards the end of the world. My replies he received in the spirit indicated by his concluding remarks : "To no one yet, I think, have such things occurred. Stand on these foundations, for either we shall reach a consensus of opinion in the way you propose, or it will be made clear that there is no way. Nevertheless my advice is that you devote your- self first to benefit schools and to make the study of Latin easier, and by that means to prepare a smoother way for the greater things." The Chancellor of the University added the weight of his advice to the same effect, suggesting that Come- nius should move to a locality near Sweden, such as Klbing, on the Baltic coast of Prussia. Finding that his friend De Geer was of the same mind, he yielded, in the hope of bringing these troublesome and vexatious toils to a close in a year or two. When he communi- cated his resolution to his friends in England, he re- ceived a strong protest. They complained of his too great facility in 3^ielding to his Swedish advisers, and of his unfaithfulness to the great Pansophic scheme. 'Quo moriture ruis?' wrote Hartlib. 'Minoraque viribus audes?' He was much shaken by these representations — the more that they supported his" own real inclina- tions. A Swedish remonstrance, however, reached him at Lesna, which finally determined him to go to Klbing and prosecute his Didactic labors. To these he now devoted himself, after first putting to press, in 1643, a * Danzig, a treatise on Pansophia, entitled Pansophiae Diaiyposis, Ichnographica et Orthographica, a work afterwards republished at Amsterdam and Paris. NEWEST METHOD OF LANGUAGES ' ' 53 When, in his retirement at Elbing, where he was supported by De Geer, he had labored at his Didactic treatises for nearly four years — 'rolling his Sisyphsean stone/ as he calls it — he again visited Sweden (1646) with his manuscripts, and having submitted them to a commission of three judges, was directed to publish them as soon as he had given them his last touches. Two years, however, of hard labor on the Lexicons and Grammars which were to accompany his books still awaited him, and it was only in 1648 that he was in a position to publish. At this time he returned to his Polish home at Lesna, the proper centre of his episcopal work, and at the Lesna press the fruits of his labors were printed. A complete list of the works which were the fruit of those six years' labors will be found at the end of this memoir, under their proper titles. They included the most elaborate of all his treatises on Method, except his great Didactic, viz., The Newest Method of Lan- guages solidly based on Didactic Foundations, and a specimen of a Vestibulum, for the final shape of which he refers his readers to the Vestibulum afterwards re- vised at Patak in Hungary : also a new edition of the Janua, for which also his readers are referred to its final and completed form as revised at Patak; 1 a Latin- vernacular Grammar for the Janua, with appended annotations for the use of teachers — a very clear, complete, and yet brief work compared with the Gram- 1 Both Vestibulum and Janua were, however, printed at Lesna before he went to Patak, as appears from vol. iii, in the Dedi- catory Epistle prefixed to the Schola Ludus. 54 BIOGRAPHY OF COM^NIUS mars of the time; and a Latin-German Lexicon, pub- lished later, in 1656, at Frankfort, and not included in the collected works, as being too cumbrous. A more advanced school-book , entitled Atrium Linguae Latinae> he had just begun when he was called into Hungary, where it was completed. The imperfections of these books, as indeed of all his writings, he is always ready to admit, pleading that no one man could all at once correct the mistakes of the past, place education on a. right basis, and furnish the school with proper instru- ments of teaching. While still engaged in the completion of the works which belong to this Elbing period, when he was sub- sidized by De Geer, he received many testimonials from men high in position as to the value of his labors. An interesting correspondence with the Palatine of Pos?iania, "Christoph. Opalinski de Buin,' himself an author and a vigorous promoter of education in his own country, was lost in the destruction of Lesna by the Swedish army, in 1655, under Charles X. — an in- vasion which destroyed also the gymnasium at Sirak- ovia, which Opalinski had founded and supplied with translations of Comenius's school-books,' 1 The products of the six years of Kbling industry he dedicated to De Geer. Having discharged his obligations to his Swedish friends in the department of Didactics, he was about now, at last, to apply himself exclusively to the greater Pansophic schemes, and was contemplating future la- bors in this direction with much complacency, when ( x Judicia y novaeque disquisitiones. — Vol. ii. of Works, p. 458.) REMOVAL TO PATAK 55 he received a letter from the Prince Sigismund Ra- cocus, 1 and his widowed mother, the Princess of Tran- sylvania, urging him to advise in the reformation of the schools in their country. The requests of mother and son were enforced by communications from theologians, and were favorably entertained by him because of the kindness shown in Transylvania to exiled Moravians. Accordingly, in May 1650, he betook himself to Saros- Patak, a market-town of Hungary, on the Bodrogh, and thence, along with their Highnesses, to Tokay, twenty miles to the north-east. It was in this year that he published his Lux in Tenebris, a book on the fulfillment of modern prophecy, and became entangled with one Dabricius, 2 who gave himself out as a prophet and gained a certain following. This weakness in Co- menius may be touched with a gentle hand. His theo- logical writings show that he had strong mystical lean- ings, and in later life he was a devoted admirer of Madame Bourignon, to whom, indeed, he stood in personal relations. ^ The form which his scholastic labors now took com- bined the Didactic with the Pansophic more fully than hitherto. Being asked to put his idea of a Pansophic 1 George I., Ragotzski, Prince of Transylvania. This coun- try was not incorporated in the Austrian dominions till 1699. Hungary accrued to Austria in 1526, and became heriditary in 1687. 2 For an account of Dabricius and Kotterus, see Bayle'S Dictionary. Their productions were largely embodied in Co- menius's book. The date of the publication of Lux in Tenebris is given variously. This is doubtless due to the confounding of the Czech and Latin editions. 56 BIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS school in writing, he printed his Illustris Scholae Paia- kinae Idea, and thereafter in full detail his Scholae Pansophicae classibus septem adornandae Delineatio. During his residence at Patak, which lasted till 1654, he produced fifteen works, among which were the new editions of the Vestibulum and Janua, the first edition of the Atrium, the famous Or bis Pictus (World Illus- trated), 1 and the Schola Ludus. These text books are described in the account of Comenius's educational views which follows this sketch of his life and labors. The most characteristic and important of the works of this period was the Schola Pansophica, or Universalis Sapientiae Officina, an ac- count of which will also be found in its proper place. He desired to make the new Patak seminary not mere- ly a Pansophic school, but also to give it the character of a Latin state, nay, even of Latium itself. Nothing but Latin was to be spoken. 2 This was practicable, because he contemplated a college in which all the pupils should dwell together. His patrons did all they could to fulfill their prom- ises of support. They gave him a collegiate building, and, in addition to this, they purchased the fourth house from the college for the school. Comenius's plan was to buy up the intervening houses, with their gardens, and as many on the other side, so as to provide resi- dences for seven masters, and also seven class-rooms. The whole was to be surrounded by a continuous wall, so that a little Latin state (Latina civitatuld) might be 1 Printed at Nuremberg in 1658. % Deliberatio deLatio a Tiberi ad Brodrocum transferendo. HIS PANSOPHIC SCHOOL 57 planted, with its own open areas and gardens— all en- closed from the outer world. This was to be a little republic, having its own customs, laws, judges, and* senate, and its own chapel and services. The masters were to preside over a large family like fathers, and there in the course of seven years, beginning at the age of twelve, boys were to be instructed in 'all things that perfect human nature,' and trained to be pious Christians, and wise and cultivated men. The three-class school which formed the lower divi- * sion of this Pansophic seminary was organized with a view to instruction in Latin along with Real things. The higher classes, up to the seventh, are described elsewhere. They do not seem ever to have been or- ganized. The Precepts of Manners, collected for the use of youth in 1653, are amusing, and at the same time af- ford evidence of the exaggerated conceptions which Comenius entertained of the possibilities of education. He believed, in truth, that he could manufacture a man. These also were written for the Patak school. The Schola Ludus, which is a kind of dramatic Janua Linguarum et Rerum, was likewise written and printed for the Patak school. An elaborate Latino-Latin Lexicon was also composed during the four years' residence at Patak. Comenius left it behind him in MSS., and it was afterwards printed at Amsterdam in 1657- The Prince Sigismund, unfortunately, died prema- turely, and those in authority after his death resolved to limit the new institution to the three-class Latin, or 58 BIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS philological school, and for the use of this school the Vestibuliim, Janua and Atrium were printed in L,atin- Hungarian. The Patak school was auspiciously opened under three carefully selected masters, and Comenius believed it to be nourishing in 1657, when, at Amster- dam, he was writing his dedicatory epistle prefixed to the Schola Ludus. It had, however, suffered from the plague of 1 65 5 , which temporarily broke it up . Havin g accomplished his work of organization and book- writing, Comenius left Hungary in 1654, pronouncing his valedictory address on June 2d of that year, in presence of a distinguished assembly. 1 In that address he informs his audience that his. objects in school reform were — to give compendiums for learning theL,atin tongue, which would make the acquisition of it pleasant; to introduce a higher and better philosophy into school work, so as to fit youth for the investigation of the causes of things; and ta create a higher tone of morals and manners. To cany out these objects, he had constructed, he tells them, a Vestibulum and a Janua of the Latin tongue for the first two classes, with their accompanying lexicons and grammars, and an Atrium for the third stage, with a more extended grammar, including idioms, phrases, and elegancies, and a Latino-latin lexicon. As to science, arts, philosophy, morals, and theology, he had so constructed the above-named books that they con- tained the foundations of all departments of knowl- edge; in brief, Pansophia in its elements. He thanks x Laborum Scholasticorum Patakini obitorum Coroniso, vide vol. iii. p. 1041. RETURN TO IvKSNA 59 all for their co-operation, and impresses on them, in eloquent language, the duty of maintaining the school, and prosecuting the methods which he had taught them, which he elsewhere sums up in the words, Noscenda noscendo, facienda faciendo, or Autopsy, looking at things for oneself, and Autopraxy, doing or constant practice. " Vale Patakina schola! " he concludes. " Vale ec- clesia! Vale Patakum ipsum! Valete omnes amici, Comeniique vestri amicam apudvos retinete memoriam, amicis prosequimini votis, etc. . . . Imprimis valete vos dilecti collegae, atque si me Kliam vestrum fuisse credebatis, et ob meum a vobis discessum lugetis, ego vos ut meos Elisaeos iutueor et vobis de spiritu meo portionem duplam coelitus dari opto; ut publici boni amore et pro illo promovendo laborum tolerantia et ad innrmiores condescentia progressibus denique bonis ita me superetis quomodo miraculis patrandis BHam super- avit Klisaeus: ad scholam hanc vestram et alias tarn sancte sapienterque regendum quam sancte sapien- terque scholas Prophetarum rexit Elisaeus ! ' ' It must have been about 1652-53, while still in the midst of his Patak labors, that he lost his best friend and patron, Ludovic de Geer. A long letter of condo- lence addressed to the son, Laurence, then settled at Amsterdam as Swedish ambassador, concludes the third volume of the Works. In this he recalls the virtues and lauds the character of the father, who was, without doubt, a man of high public spirit, and of a generous and liberal nature. For eight years he had supported Comenius and his amanuenses, and was prepared, 60 BIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS when the opportunity offered, to contribute largely to- wards the institution of a Pansophic College. From Patak Comenius went, in 1654, to his former home at I+esna. The war which almost immediately after broke out (1655) involved the whole of Poland, and caused, among other calamities, the destruction of Lesna (1656). 3 He was thus forced to seek for some safer asylum. In the overthrow of the town, Comenius lost all his property, including his library and manuscripts, which contained the results of the studies which he had un- dertaken with a view to the great Pansophic book which was the chief aim of his life. Among the MSS. was one which, he tells us, he considered the most pre- cious of his possessions ; it was his Silva or 'forest' (to use his own peculiar expression) of Pansophic materials, a treasury of definitions of all things, and of axioms, scientific and philosophic, which he had spent tweniy years in gathering together. He had not, even then, been prepared with a complete system, but he had in contemplation, and nearly ready, a much more com- plete treatise than any he had j^et issued. After the ruin of Iyesna, he was invited by Laurence de Geer, the son of his former patron, to join him in Amsterdam, there to take counsel as to his future. From the temporary refuge which he had found for his family he was driven by pestilence, and other friends joining De Geer in urging him to make Amsterdam 1 The fate of Iyesna was said to have been partly due to a panegyric on Charles Gustavus, King of Sweden, which Come- nius indiscreetly published. LOSS OF MANUSCRIPTS 61 his future home, he yielded, because, he himself says, 'I have all my life long been accustomed to yield to what seemed to be the guidance of Providence.' 1 Comenius was now sixty-three years of age. . To the loss of his Pansophic MSS. were now added fresh demands on his time of a strictly scholastic kind, and he had to return 'ad puerilia ilia utut mini toties nauseata Latinitatis studia.' An edition of his Schola Ludus, was demanded in Holland, and he found so many errors and defects in the version printed at Patak after his departure, that he had to devote a considerable time to amending and printing. Then, it was im- possible to escape from the supposed necessity of constructing another elementary book, a sequel to the Vestibulum— -to be entitled the Auctarium. He was also requested by the Senate of Amsterdam to try his method on two youths. His I,atinity also was attacked, and this caused him to write Pro Latinitate Ja?iuae Come?iia?iae Apologia. These labors, but especially this last treatise, revived an interest in his method in the minds of many public men, and he was asked to put his educational views in the form of an epitome, so that busy men might read them. This g#ave rise to his Synopsis Novissimae Methodi, which, however, he did not think it worth his while to republish in his Works, probably because it is substantially repeated in other treatises. The publication of his complete didactic works, to which he now addressed himself at the instance of De Geer, and under the patronage of the highest authori- * The last Dedicatory Epistle. 62 BIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS ties in Amsterdam, led him to take a critical survey of all he had written, that he might confirm, retract, or modify the opinions which he had from time to time given forth. This treatise of retrospect and revision he entitled Ventilabrum Sapie?itiae sive sapienter sua retractandi Ars — 'The Banner of Wisdom, or the Art of retracting one's own opinions.' This farmer was to winnow away the chaff and leave the solid grain. He quotes Philo in support of this self-criticism ; i Scientiae finis non contingit hominibus. Nemo enim absolutus est in ulla scientia. Revera perfectiones et vestigia tmius sunt (nempe Dei) . ' He also quotes Aris- totle as saying: 'It behooves a philosopher to forswear even his own dogmas,' and a Roman Pontiff as re- marking, 'Wretched is that man who is the slave of his own dogmas.' In the Didactica Magna, which contains the system- atic development of his principles and methods, he finds that he has nothing to retract, but confines him- self to a defence of the Syncretic Method, which is there followed. Comenius recognizes three methods of ascertaining and 1 expounding truth, — the Analytic and the Synthetic (which words he uses in our modern acceptation), and the Syncretic. By this last he means arguing by a method of parallels in nature, — the method of Analogy. He holds that the true character and process of anything in the created world furnishes a line of explanation for other things, which is of the most convincing kind. The stricter view of Analogy which is now accepted was not known to Comenius, although he must have had before him the dictum of PANSOPHIC VS. DIDACTIC WORK 63 the schoolmen : ' Similia illustrant quidem, non autem probant. ' When, in the course of his retrospect, he re-peruses his Praeludium Pansophicum , a sense of wasted years oppresses him, and he is again afflicted with grief, because he had, at the urgent entreaty of friends, too readily deserted this the main line of his studies, sacri- ficing the great ambition of his life to occupy himself exclusively with matters didactic. ' How badly have I imitated,' he exclaims, 'that merchant seeking for good pearls, who, when he had found a pearl of great price, went away and sold all he had, and bought it ! O wretched sons of light, who know not to imitate the wisdom of the children of the world ! Would that I, having once struck the Pansophic vein, had followed it up, neglecting all else ! But so it happens when we lend an ear to the solicitations clamoring outside us rather than to the light shining within us.' The corrections he has to make in his various di- dactic writings are certainly very unimportant. They all point in the direction of greater simplification, and for this he looks to the labors of his successors rather than to any revision of his own. About the year 1657 Comenius wrote and published (in the fourth volume of his Works) four treatises, which however constitute one. He desired to present his principles in a brief and condensed, yet systematic way, so that they might be accessible to men occupied with public affairs. The first of these treatises is en- titled E Scholasticis Labyrinthls Exitus in Planum, sive Machina Didactica mechanice constructed ; ad non hae- 64 BIOGRAPHY OF C0M3NIUS rendun amplius (in Docendi et Discendi muniis) sea progrediendum, 'An Issue out of School-labyrinths into the Open, or a Didactic Machine mechanically constructed with a view to no longer sticking fast in the work of Teaching and Learning, but of advancing in them.' Schools, he tells us, are to be compared to labyrinths, infinitely distracting the minds of youth ; the thread which is to guide us through the labyrinths is a true and simple method. The sciences and arts and tongues are to be taught, but the precise quantity and goal of teaching are not accurately laid down. The thread of Ariadne — Method, is all important, because it leads to distinct issues by a proper way. Augustine says, Praestet pauca, scire quam infinita opinari, Pliny says, Saiius sit minus severe et melius arare; and again Seneca, Melius est scire pauca et Us recteutiquam scire multa quorum ignores usum. 'Our method,' says Comenius, offers few things, but these necessary to life here and hereafter; few things, but these well consolidated by continued exercises; few things, but these having a. direct utility.' As he grew older, and looked back on his past work, he became more and more convinced that he was right in his aims and methods. He was now sixty-five years of age. His views assumed to his mind a definite and clear shape, and became almost axiomatic. He admits certain errors in the details of working out his views; for example, that his text-books are too condensed,, and attempt too much, and that it would be hardly possible to accomplish in three years (the Three- CI ass philological, or Latin school) all that he once thought HIS IDEAL LATIN SCHOOL G5 might be accomplished within that period; but these faults he considers to be faults of detail, and due to his own culpable neglect of the principles he had himself laid down. Admitting so much, he yet regards his method as so absolute in its character that it may be likened to a machine— a clock, or a ship, or a mill. Set it going, and keep it going, and you will find the result certain. It is really of the nature of a mechan- ical construction, mechanically constructed. He is never weary of advocating his system. He sums up his principles, and then, with all the ardor of his youth, he afresh proceeds to consider the means by which his great end is to be attained. The Latin school is to be a college in which noth- ing but Latin is to be spoken. Longuvi et difficile iter per praecepta, usu et consuetudine iter breve etefficax. He calls the brief treatise in which he advocates the insti- . tution of such a college Latinum Redivivum, and urges the authorities of Amsterdam to institute one. With such a college he sees his way so to carry out his methods as to justify him in recurring to one of his old ideas, and comparing his method to a printing- press, which makes the impression of the type on the paper without fail. So will the impression on minds by his method be equally certain. Hence the name of his next paper, Typographeum Vivum, or the Living Printing Press. He here compares his method with clocks, ships, agriculture {Ingenmm errim vivus ager est; Disciplinae aratro sementi praeparandus , Doctrin- arum seminibus obserendus, Exercitiorum pluvia, sole, vento animandus), with the pictorial and sculptural 66 BIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS arts, and with architecture, but prefers to dwell on its likeness to the typographic art, not only as to the mode of procedure, but also the result; for whereas in the one case you have books, in the other, every capable pupil properly trained, will be a walking library- — oba?nbulans Bibliotheca. But the final aim of all this training is moral and religious. Comenius never lost sight of this. As the restoration of man to the Paradise which he forfeited and to the image of God which he lost, is the aim of the Providence of God in Christ, so the aim of the school is a restoration — a bringing of its work and methods into a harmony with moral and religious aims, and subordinating the school to the Church as a spir- itual society. Hence the title of the next treatise, Paradisus Juveyituti Christianae reducendus. In this treatise he mixes up the spiritual aim of the school with that of a Paradise in the sense of a place that may be made a happy one for boys, and indulges also in many forced analogies between the school and the first Paradise. Finally, in his Traditio Lampadis he solemnly hands over the didactic work of his life to be carried on by others, and commends his labors to God, who had so favored him as to make him the instrument of sowing the seed of a better time for schools, and to whose blessing he looks for a rich harvest in the future. Comenius was now sixty -six years of age, and had just revised and completed the issue of his collected Didactic works, extending to four folio volumes. He had now said his last word. We can well believe the HIS OWN REVIEW OF HIS LIFE 67 simple-hearted and single-minded old Bishop, when he tells us that he had been led by no personal ambition to publish his works, and that he was very far from desiring to derogate from the claims of those writers who preceded him, and to whom he acknowledges his obligations. Nor had his motive been the desire of wealth, for he had sought nothing and gained nothing. He had labored and written, he sa} T s. influenced by the love of God, and stimulated by the exhortations of learned men, solely in the hope of improving the education of youth, and preparing a better future for humanity. It is not to be supposed that Comenius's relations to his original patron, Iyudovic de Geer, were always pleasant; such relations seldom are. De Geer com- plained of unnecessary delay, and Comenius had many personal vexations to contend with arising out of his pecuniary dependence. We learn also, from the last Dedicatory Epistle written by Comenius, and addressed to some of the leading men in Amsterdam, that he had not, even in his old age, escaped the general fate of reformers. While his views on Education had been ardently supported by some of the best men in Europe, that obstructive of all education known as the ' prac- tical teacher,' had been at work. Detraction was bus} 7 , and he was accused by the teachers ot Amster- dam of ' attacking schools.' To all this his reply was brief. ' I can affirm ,' he writes , 'from the bottom of my heart, that these fort) 7 years my aim has been simple and unpretending, indifferent whether I teach or be taught, admonish or be admonished, willing to 68 BIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS act the part of a teacher of teachers, if in anything it may be permitted me to do so, and a disciple of dis- ciples where progress may be possible. They say that I write against schools: nay, it is for schools that I speak, and have spoken. I presume our common ends are the same; it is as to methods and ways we differ.' Malignity even touched the character and motives of the old Bishop. ' I have not, by the grace of God, ' he says, ' so spent my life that now in my old age I must avoid the light; nor are the things I have done till now of so little account that I am to keep silence when I am asked to speak. As to the allegation that I have pre- ferred private to public schools, this is incorrect ; my writings show this. I have desired to give trouble to none, but rather to lessen trouble. Why then should any delight to molest me ? I^et me live in tranquillity as long as God wills me to be here ! With Thomas a Kempis I can from my heart and the bitter lessons of experience say, "I have tried all things, nor anywhere have I found peace, save in a little corner and a little book' ' (angidido et libellulld) . ' x Of Comenius's domestic life and history not very much is known. He married, as his second wife, the daughter of Joh. Cyrillus, a priest of the Brotherhood and a Senior, apparently about the year 1629. She died in 1648, or the beginning of 1649, after having borne five children — a son, Daniel by name, and four 1 The attack on Cornenius by Nicolas Arnoldus, in his Dis- cursus Theologicus contra Comenium, is personal and spiteful. Eayle's treatment of Comenius shows a complete misapprehen- sion of his character. HIS DOMESTIC LIFE 69 daughters. The eldest daughter, Dorothea, Seems to have married Johann Mohtor, a man of good Slovack family, who had been under Comenius's educational supervision at Lissa. The second daughter, Elizabeth, married Figulus, one of her father's collaborateurs, and a Moravian pastor. Comenius continued to reside in Amsterdam, after the publication of his collected Didactic works (com- pleted in the end of 1657), maintaining himself and his family by teaching, and partly, it would seem, sup- ported by the private liberality of the admirers of his life and labors — especially the De Geer family, at whose expense his books were printed. He dedicated his works to the city of Amsterdam, in gratitude for the hospitality its people had shown to him. He lived for nearly thirteen years after this, dying on the 15th of November, 1671, in his eightieth year, and was buried at Naarden. During these concluding years he does not seem to have added to his Didactic writings, but he printed several treatises of a religious character intended to further the promotion of the unity of Protestant Christendom, and continued to maintain by correspondence his connection with the Moravian Brethren, and the superintendence of their affairs. His last publication was a confession, entitled Oiie Thing Needful, 1 in which the piety of his heart and 1 Unum necessarium in vita et morte et post mortem quod nonnecessari mundi fatigatus et ad unum necessarium sese re- cipiens senesj. A. Comenius anno aetatis suae 77, niundo ex- pendendum offert. Terent. Ad omnia aetate sapimus rede. Edit. Amsteldami 1668. Afterwards republished in Leipzig in 1734. 70 BIOORAPHY OF COM3NIUS the simplicity of his faith are alike conspicuous. In this he thanks God that he had been a man of aspira tions. Bven in the declining years of his laborious life he never for a moment lost sight of his great Pansophic work, which was to place before the world of science and letters the sum of human knowledge in all depart- ments. He set himself diligently to replace the mate- rials and MSS. which were destroyed at the sacking of Lesna, and left a large number of papers behind him, enjoining his son Daniel and his old friend and fellow- worker Nigrinus to prepare them for publication. The son seems to have troubled himself very little about the matter, but Nigrinus worked for eight or nine years at the revision and preparation of the MS., being supported during the task by the liberality of Gerard de Geer. But it does not appear that any Pansophic publication ever saw the light. 'Comenius,' says Von Raumer truly, 'is a grand and venerable figure of sorrow. Wandering, persecuted, and homeless during the terrible and desolating Thirty Years' War, he yet never despaired ; but with enduring truth, and strong in faith, he labored unweariedly to prepare youth by a better education for a better future. Suspended from the ministry, as he himself tells us, and an exile, he had become an Apostle adge?ites minu- tulas — Christianam juventutem ; and certainly he la- bored for them with a zeal and love worthy of the chief of the Apostles . ' A translation of the Bible into Turkish also occupied mudi of his thoughts and time. PART I. THE GREAT DIDACTIC. First Section. PANSOPHY AND THE AIM OF EDUCATION. There can be no doubt that it was chiefly the spec- ulations of Lord Verulam that fired the imagination of Comenius, and led him to conceive hopes of reducing all existing learning to a systematic form, and provid- ing for all the more ambitious youth of Europe, in a great Pansophic College, opportunities for the univer- sal study of the whole body of science. To this uni- versal and systematized learning he gave the name of Pansophia or Encyclopaedia. He was filled with high hopes of the benefits which would arise from a revision and arrangement of human knowledge — hopes which he shared with many men of his time, and which would be rash for us to say were without sufficient foundation. The title of one of his treatises is, 'A Prelude of Pansophy, in which the necessity of universal wisdom, its possibility and its practicability (if it be approached according to a certain method) is briefly and clearly demonstrated.' He draws a picture of the confusion of existing knowledge, and the inadequacy of the (73) 74 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS treatment of its various departments. He attributes, this to the ignorance of those in one place of what had been done elsewhere, and to the too great specializa- tion of inquirers. The writer on jurisprudence was ig- norant, it might be, of philosophy and physics; the writer on physics was ignorant of metaphysics; the writer on metaphysics and ethics ignored physics; and so forth. Hence inadequacy of treatment; hence, too, the fragmentary presentation of all knowledge. To cure this it was necessary that there should be an au- thorized and systematized view of all learning, ar- ranged in a philosophic order. Men, who, in the higher departments of education, had been disciplined in this encyclopaedia, would have an universal culture that would enable them to prosecute special branches with greater firmness and accuracy. He called on learned men, to enable him by their contributions to construct such a book, or series of books. As to method; while the spirit of the Baconian induction was in him, in so far as he based knowledge on obser- vation, and on advancing from particulars to generals, he had not grasped induction in its true significance. For, as Bacon himself points out, the senses by them- selves are not to be trusted, and the processes of a true investigation are to supplement, correct and verify them. As all knowledge was to lead to God, and to God as revealed through Christ, Comenius spoke of his ency- clopaedism as a Christian Pansophy, and gave the < special titles of the seven parts of the temple oi Christian Pansophy. ' The first part was to show the HIS IDEAI, PANSOPHIC UNIVERSITY 75 necessity and possibility of the temple, and to give its external structure or outline — to be called the Templi Sapientiae Propylaeum. The second part was to give the first approach to a knowledge of all knowable things — a general apparatus of wisdom — in which the highest genera and fundamental principles and axioms were to be exhibited, from which, as the primal sources of truth, the streams of all sciences flow and diverge,— to be called the Porta. The third part (the primum Atrium) was to exhaust visible nature. The fourth (the Atrium medium) was to treat of man and reason; the fifth part {Atrium internum), of man's essential nature — free-will and responsibility, and the repair of man's will in Christ as the beginning of the spiritual life. The sixth part {Sanctum sanctorum) was to be theological, and here man was to be admitted to the study and worship of God and his revelation, that thereby he might be led to embrace God as the center of eternal life. The seventh part {Fons aquarum viventium) was to expound the use of true wisdom and its dissemination, so that the whole world might be filled with a knowledge of God. This is a sketch of a Pansophic University. The same ideas worked out as applicable to a Secondary or Latin School will be found in the sequel under the designation, ' The Inner Organization of a Pansophic School.' Comenius was a thoroughgoing realist in education, but he combined with this a fervent evangelicalism ; indeed, his whole purpose was to lead youth to God 76 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS through things — to God as the source of all, and as the crown of knowledge and the end of life. I have chosen to introduce the educational reader to Comenius in connection with his Pansophic schemes, because they are the key to his intellectual life and his educational aims. For it will be seen in the sequel that the idea of a Christian Pansophy never deserts him, and that, from his 'mother-school' upwards, his purpose is to give to children and boys the elements ol universal knowledge adapted to the various stages of school life. It is as the representative of enclyclo- paadism in education (in his case a Christian enclyclo- psedism), and as the first exhaustive writer on general method, that Comenius claims our attention. As a type of the realistic and enclyclopaedic school of Edu- cationalists, he will probably never be superseded. I shall now give an account of those works of Comenius in which he endeavored to give effect to his educational views. The 'Great Didactic' {Magna Didactica 1 ) first arrests our attention, because it was 1 The word is of singular number, and Ars is understood. The full title of the book is as follows : — DIDACTICA MAGNA : UNIVERSAL OMNES OMNIA DOCENDI ARTIEICIUM EXHIBENS : Sive certus et exquisitus modus, per omnes alicujus Christiani Regni communitates; Oppida et Vicos, tales erigendi Scholas, ut Omnis utriusque sexus Juventus, nemine usquam neglecto, Iviteris informari, Moribus expoliri, Pietate impui, leaque ratione intra pubertatis annos ad omnia quae praesentis et futurae vitae sunt instrui possit, Compendiose, Jucunde, Solide : Ubi omnium quae suadentur, HIS " GRKAT DIDACTIC' ' 77 put forth as a systematic treatment of the whole ques- tion of Education. Here our object will be to make Comenius speak as much as possible for himself. In his prefatory remarks to the Great Didactic, Comenius tells us that the Didactic Art has to be studied in the interests of Parents, Teachers, Pupils, the Commonwealth, the Church, and Heaven. 'Quidnam,' says Diogenes, the Pythagorean, 'est fundamentum totius reipublicae ? Adolescentium edu- catio. Hand enim unquam vites utilem fructum pro- tulerintquae non bene sunt excultae. ' ' It is our boun- den duty, he adds, 'to consider the means whereby the whole body of Christian youth may be stirred to vigor of mind and the love of Heavenly things.' General Statement of Aim. I. Man is the las£, the most complete, and the most excellent of living creatures. II. The final end of man lies beyond this life. This life is threefold, viz., Vegetative, Animal, and Intel- lectual or Spiritual. The first nowhere manifests itself outside the body; the second stretches forth to objects through the operations of the senses; the third is able to exist separately as well as in the body, as in the case of Angels. 'Jam quia evidens est, supremum Fundamenta, ex ipsissima rerum natura eruuntur : Veritas, artium Mechanicarum, parallelis exemplis demon- stratur ; Series, per Annos, Menses, Dies, Horas, disponitur ; Via denique in effectum haec feliciter deducendi, facilis et certa ostenditur. 78 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS hunc vitae gradum a prioribus valide in nobis obum- brari et praepediri, necessario sequitur futurum esse ubi in a/cjuyv deducatur.' III. This life is only a preparation for an eternal life. The visible world is a seed-plot, a boarding- house and training-school for man. 'As certainly as the period spent in the mother's womb is a preparation for the life in the body, so certainly is the dwelling in the body a preparation for- that life which will take up the present and endure for ever. Happy he who has brought forth from his mother's womb well formed limbs: happier a thousand times he who carries hence a well-formed soul.' IV. There are three steps of preparation for Eternity. 'Se, et secum omnia, Nosse; Regere; et ad Deum Dirigere.' It is accordingly required of man that — (i.) He should know all things. (2.) He should have power over all things and over himself. (3.) He should refer himself and all things to God, the Source of All. These requirements are summed up in the words Eruditio, Virtus sen Mores Honestas, Religio seu Pietas , — Knowledge, Virtue, and Piety. All else is merely accidental and extrinsic. V. The seeds of these three (Knowledge, Virtue, and Religion) are in us by Nature, i. e. our first original and fundamental nature, to which we are to be recalled by God in Christ. It is as certain that Man has been born fit for the GENERAL AIM OF EDUCATION 79 understanding of things, the harmony of morals, and the love of God, as that there are roots to a tree. Knowledge, or Eruditio. — God has placed the Toots of eternal wisdom in man. He is fit to acquire all knowledge because he is the image of God. God is omniscient, and the mind of man is like a polished .globular mirror hung up in a chamber, which receives the forms (species) of all things. The body, the voice, the vision of man are limited, but the mind is unlimited in its sweep — it is capable of all things. Again, Man is a microcosm, in which are enfolded the seeds of all things, as well as of all knowledge. To him, as inhabiting a natural body, are attached emissaries and scouts, viz., his senses of seeing, hear- ing, smelling, taste, and touch. There is implanted in man a desire to know, and not merely a tolerance of labor, but an appetite for labor. The senses, e. g., seek about for objects. The mind may be compared to the earth, for does it riot receive all kinds of seeds ? or, as Aristotle said, to a tabula rasa, on which nothing is inscribed, but on which everything may be inscribed ; or the brain may be compared to wax, on which every form may be im- printed ; for which the wisdom of God is to be admired, who has made it, though small, capable of receiving innumerable impressions. Most fitly, perhaps, is the mind to be compared to a mirror, which reflects accurately all that is placed before it. Virtue, or Mores Honesti. — The seeds of moral life 80 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS are connate with man. He is adapted for a harmoma, morum. In the motions of the soul the principal wheel is the will. The weights which drive this wheel are the affections and appetites, but the reason is as a movable bolt which opens and shuts the entrance of these, and suspends or directs. Piety, or Religio. — So also are the roots of religion in man, for is he not the image of God? The soul of man longs after its likeness. God is the end of its striving, and this is the summum bonum — -a longing not wholly extinguished by the Fall. We are not to forget our restoration in the new Adam. Everything returns willingly to its own true nature, and it is easier for man, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, to be wise, good, and holy, than it is for his adventitious depravity to stop his progress. Nature gives the seeds of knowledge, morality, and religion, but it does not give knowledge, virtue, and religion themselves. These have to be striven for. Hence man is truly called animal disciplinabile , since he cannot truly become a man except through disci- pline. Men, then, has to be educated to become a man. Even to use his limbs aright, he has to be edu- cated. The mind, if weak or stupid, we all admit, needs discipline ; but this is true even of the capable understanding ; for as rich soil, if not rightly tilled, grows weeds and thistles in more than usual abundance > so it is with the man of natural talent. Education is to be carried out while the mind is yet tender and the brain soft. And in order that the human being may be educated to full humanity, God GENERAL AIM OF EDUCATION 81 has given him certain years of childhood during which he is not fit for active life ; and that only is firm and stable which has been imbibed during the earliest years. The care of children belongs properly to their par- ents, but they need the help of these specially set apart for education — precep tores, ludimagistri, profes- sores — and there is, consequently, a need for schools and colleges. Schools should be instituted in every part of the empire, and the whole of the youth of both sexes should be sent to these. Schools have been truly called humanitatis qfficinae (workshops or manufacto- ries of Humanity) , where man may be trained to be — i. A rational creature; 2. A creature lord of other creatures and of himself; 3 . A creature which shall be the joy of his Creator. That only I call a school, Comenius says, which is truly officina hominum, where minds are instructed in wisdom to penetrate all things, where souls and their affections are guided to the universal harmony of the virtues, and hearts are allured to divine love, — 'ubi omnes omnia omnino doceantur.' Luther, in 1525, in his exhortation to the States of the Empire to erect schools, desires, inter alia, these two things — '(1) That in all cities, towns and villages schools be instituted to teach all the youth of both sexes; so that those engaged in agriculture and trades might receive two hours' daily instruction in letters, morals, and religion. (2) That they should be in- structed according to some easier method, which would not only not deter from study, but allure to it, so that 82 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS they should derive no less pleasure from their studies than from their games.' But even now, 'ubi univer- sales illae scholae? ubi blanda ilia methodus?' Even those that exist for the wealthier classes are a terror to boys and torture-chambers of minds. As to moral training and manners, even the Universities are bad. And why all this? Because 'de bene vivendo in Scho- lis quaestio nulla mo vetur.' They have sought only knowledge. And how have they sought this? In such a way that they spend five, ten, or even more years over what could be done in one year. What is capable of being instilled and poured into the mind in the gentlest way, is violently stuffed in and stamped in. What might be placed perspicuously and clearly before the eyes is pre- sented in an obscure, perplexed, and intricate way. The mind is nowhere nourished with the true kernel of things, but with the mere husk of words. As to the study of the Latin tongue — good Heavens! how laborious, how intricate, how prolix! Mere scul- lions, cooks, and soldiers will learn one, two, or three foreign tongues more quickly than the pupils of our schools will learn Latin only; and these know little of it, and are dependent on their lexicons. This must arise from a bad method. Well may the distinguished Lubinus say, that, when he thinks of the immense labor, tedium, and loss in the teaching of Latin, he is disposed to think that the method must have been in- vented by some evil genius — an enemy of the human race. But why multiply testimony? I myself am an unhappy instance of wasted boyhood and youth — HIS METHOD OF EDUCATION 83 years misspent, the memory of which I recall with tears and sighs. But the past is irrevocable. Let us do better for our posterity. So much for the general Aim of Education, accord- ing to Comenius. He now proceeds to treat of method, taking the operations of external nature as his guide. The parallelism is throughout forced, and often fanci- ful. Second Section. THE METHOD OE EDUCATION. Reformation is possible. I undertake an organiza- tion of schools, whereby — (i.) All the youth may be instructed save those to whom God has denied intelligence. (2.) And instructed in all those things which make a man wise, good, and holy. (3.) And that, as a preparation for life, in such a time as will set him free before he is adult. (4.) And that, without blows, severity, or com- pulsion, but most lightly, gently, and, so to speak, spontaneously. (5.) And that, in such a way that they shall be trained, not to specious and superficial, but to true and solid learning, and to the use of their own faculties, — not to dependence on others or on mere memory. With like solidity will they be instructed in morality and religion. (6.) And that, so that the course of instruction shall not be laborious, but very easy; four hours a day being sufficient. 84 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS Order it is that is the soul of the world; order sus- tains nature in all its parts. Order too is the eye of the school, and we must take from nature the order of the school. Our business is to discover from the indications of nature the principles which underlie the answers to the following queries: — (i.) How life may be so prolonged as to enable us to learn all things. (2.) How arts may be shortened with a view to rapid learning. (3.) How we may seize the right occasions for learning so as to learn Surely. (4.) How we may unlock the mind so as to learn Easily. (5.) How we may sharpen the understanding so as to learn Solidly. Omitting other points, let us consider the three problems contained in the words surely, easily, solidly — certo , facile , solide. I. Certo, or Surely. How are we to teach and learn surely, i. e. so as to be sure of our result f This is to be done by finding the modus operandi of Nature, and accommodating ourselves to that, as follows : — x First Principle : — Nature attends to a fit time. Birds do not begin the work of multiplying their 1 It will be noticed that successive principles yield the same or similar rules. Hence considerable repetition. HIS METHOD OF EDUCATION 85 species in winter. So with other natural operations, such as the growth in a garden ; the season determines all. Right in the teeth of this, schools do not choose a fit time for exercising the minds of pupils ; and they do not so accurately arrange the exercises as to insure that all things advance infallibly through their own successive steps. Just as Nature chooses spring as the time of prepa- ration for future products, so the right time is boy- hood — the spring of life. The right time of the day is the morning hours, which is the spring of the day ; and as to arrangement of studies, it may be said, gen- erally, that nothing should be taught except when it can be comprehended. Second Principle. — Nature prepares material for itself before it gives it form In the school-books, matter does not precede form. In schools also they teach words before things — the mere clothing or husk of words before the reality itself. Then in the study of a language they teach form be- fore things, because they teach rules before words and sentences. They give rules and then examples, where- as the light ought to precede that which it is intended to light up. In all instruction it is necessary that, having got ready the necessary books and materials : (i.) The understanding be instructed before speech is demand- ed : (2.) That no language should be learned from a Grammar, but from suitable authors, that real studies should precede organic (formal) , and that examples should come before rules. 86 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS Third Principle. — Nature takes a fit subject for its operation, or at least takes care that it be made fit. Wherefore — (i.) Let him who goes to school remain steadily there. (2.) Whatever study is taken up for treatment, let the minds of the pupils be predisposed towards it (and prepared for it) , (3.) Let all obstacles be removed out of the path of the pupils. Fourth Principle. — Nature does not confuse itself in its works, but advances distinctly to one thing after another. Wherefore let pupils be occupied with only one study at a time ; that is to say, teach only one thing at a time. Fifth Principle. — Nature begins all its operations from within outwards, e. g. a tree grows from within, etc. Teachers err herein, that instead of diligently ex- plaining and articulating everything, they would acquit themselves of their task of instructing youth, by speak- ing, dictating, and exercising memory. Wherefore — (1 .) Let the understanding of things be first formed, then the memory exercised on what is understood, and only in the third place, speech and hand (i. e. writing). (2.) The teacher should attend to every way of openingtheintellegence, and must apply them fitly. HIS METHOD OF EDUCATION 87 Sixth Principle — Nature begins all its formation from ge?ierals , and thence proceeds to specialize — e. g., it warms and nourishes the whole mass of the egg, and does not form first the head, then the wings, then the feet, but, having warmed the whole, it sends its crea- tive force into the special parts, and there specializes. So, a painter in painting a portrait does not draw first the nose, then the ears, etc., but outlines the whole man on the canvas roughly with chalk, and then pro- ceeds to fill in . So with instruction , the outline should first be given. Wherefore — (i.) From the very beginning of their instruction, the (principles or) essential groundwork of all learning should be given. (2.) Every language, science, or art should first be learned in its simplest rudiments. Thus the idea of the whole, as a whole, will be grasped; then, more fully, rules and examples should be given; thereafter, peculiarities and anomalies; and finally, if necessary, commentaries, etc. Seventh Principle. — Nature does not proceed per saltum, but step by step. The hatching goes on by in- sensible degrees. So, a man building a house does not begin from the top but from the foundation, and step by step he rears his structure. Wherefore — (1.) The whole sphere of studies should be dis- tributed carefully among the successive classes of the school in such a manner that the earlier study always 88 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS prepares the way for what is to follow, and, as it were, lights the path to it. (2.) The time at the teacher's disposal should he carefully distributed, so that its own peculiar task may await every year, month, day, hour. (3.) This distribution of the time should be most closely attended to, so that nothing may be passed over, and nothing put in its wrong order. Eighth Principle. — Nature, when it once begins, does 710 1 stop till it has completed its task. Wherefore — (1.) He who is handed over to the school should be retained there until he is ready to come forth an in- structed, moral, and religious man. (2 .) The school should be in an undisturbed locality. 1 (3.) What has been laid down to be done should be strictly carried on on the lines laid down, and no gap permitted. (4.) No one should be allowed to absent himself on any pretext. Ninth Principle. — Nature carefully avoids whatever is contrary to its operations or hurtful. Wherefore — (1.) Permit a scholar the use of no books save those which have to do with his own class. (2.) The books should be so constructed that they may with truth be called channels of Wisdom, Morality, and Piety. 1 This belongs rather to the Third Principle. HIS MKTHOD OF EDUCATION 89 (3.) Dissolute associates in or out of school are not to be. tolerated. II. Facile, or Easily. We have exhibited the principles in accordance with which the work can be done with certainty. Now we proceed to show that it can also be done easily and pleasantly. This will be the case if we attend to the following ten principles (many of which repeat what has been already laid down). I. Let the education begin early, before the mind is corrupted. II. Let it be done with due preparation of the mind. III. Let it proceed from the more general to the special. IV. And from the easy to the more difficult. V. Let no one be weighted with too much to learn. VI. Let progress be slow everywhere. VII. Let the intellect be forced to nothing save what it spontaneously desires in accordance with its age and with right method. VIII. Let everything be communicated through the senses. IX. And turned to present use. X. Let all things be taught according to one and the same method. Let us follow the steps of Nature as illustrative of the above principles. First Principle. — Nature begins from pure eleme?its. 90 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS The egg which is to be hatched is pure. The tender minds we seek to train should be free from distractions, and uncorrupted. Wherefore — (i.) Let the education of the young begin early. (2.) Let there be only one preceptor in each subject for each pupil (i. e. do not send the child from one master to another in the same subject.) (3.) Before all, let the morals be reduced to harmony under the influence of the preceptor. Second Principle. — Nature predisposes matter so that it shall seek form. The bird hatched desires to walk and to peck, and. finally desires to fly. Wherefore — (1.) The desire of knowing and learning is to be stirred up in boys in every way kdv r/i .) The pre valence of individual teaching and the want of classification. (j.j [ncrease in the number of masters to meet the above objection only increases the confusion. (H .) hoys are often allowed by their masters to take up what books they please, both in school and out of school, instead of being kept in definite lines with pre- scribed books. Jioys thus get into a state of mental confusion, from which only the more vigorous spirits ever extricate themselves. In seeking for remedies, Comenius seeks an analogy in nature, which, though destitute of intrinsic merit, is yet so characteristic of his fanciful mode of procedure that I may give it here. Take the Sun in the heavens. By the diffusion of 104 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS his rays lie discharges a laborious and infinite function sufficing for all. And how does he work ? (i.) He does not occupy himself with objects one by one — a tree or an animal, — but illumines and warms the whole earth. (2 .) By the same rays he lights up all, and discharges himself of all his functions. (3.) At the same time through all regions he gives rise to spring and summer, autumn and winter. (4.) He preserves the same order of operation ; as he is to-day, so to-morrow, — as he is this year, so next. (5.) He produces everything out of its own germ, and not from any other quarter. (6.) He produces all things together which ought to be together. (7.) He produces all things by their own steps of gradation, so that one thing makes way for another. (8.) Finally, he does not produce useless things. In imitation of the Sun in its operation: — (1.) Let there be only one teacher for a school, or at least for a class. (2.) In one subject, let there be but one author. (3.) Let one and the same labor be expended on the whole of the pupils present. (4.) Let all disciplines and tongues be taught ac- cording to one and the same method. (5.) Let all things be taught from the foundation, briefly and nervously. (6.) Let all things be joined together in teaching which are in themselves connected. (7.) Let all things advance by indissoluble steps, so THE ART OF EDUCATION 105 that everything taught to-day may give firmness and stability to what was taught yesterday, and point the way to the work of the morrow. (8.) Let everything that is useless be eliminated from the teaching. There is a curious parallelism here attempted between the operations of the sun and of the schoolmaster, but always fanciful and frequently strained. I have no doubt that the analogies of Nature frequently suggested methods to the mind of Comenius, and on the other hand, that good school-methods suggested to him the modes of operations of Nature as they presented them- selves to the non-scientific apprehension of the time. Comenius now proceeds to apply the above eight principles or rules to school-management, and throws what he has to say into the form of problems to be solved. First Problem. — How can one teacher suffice for a?zy number of pupils whatsoever? A large number of pupils is in itself an advantage to both teacher and taught, stimulating the former and exciting sympathy in work and emulation in studies. To facilitate the teaching of a large class by one instructor, certain rules, however, must be attended to. (i.) The whole class should be divided into certain -tribes or decuriae, and over each of these an inspector or decurio should be appointed. (2.) The teacher should teach all at once, and none separately, .either in the school or privately — all together and at once {simul et semel) . For this it is necessary that he possess the art of fixing the attention of all on himself, and of 106 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS never saying anything except to listeners, and never teaching anything save when all are attending. The decuriones will be a great aid in securing the attention of their various divisions, but the master himself should — Endeavor always to present some teaching which will please and profit the pupils. At the beginning of every fresh task, he should pre- pare the minds of his pupils, by commending to them the new matter, either by showing its coherence with what has already been put before, or by starting such questions regarding it as will show their ignorance, and make them more eager to know. He should take up such a position, somewhat raised, as will enable him to control the eyes and fix the atten- tion of all on himself. He should always assist attention by representing what he teaches to the eyes of the class. He should every now and then interrupt his teaching by sudden questions as to what he has just said, or as to the steps by which he has reached what he is telling them. If he fails to get an answer from the boy of whom he has asked a question, he should leap to the second, third, tenth, thirtieth, for an answer, without repeating the question . Sometimes, if one or two fail, he should ask the whole class, praising the boy who first answers. When the lesson is finished an opportunity should be given to the pupils to ask public questions of the: THE ART OF EDUCATION 107 master, either regarding the lesson then given, or any previous one. By following these expedients in teaching, the habit of attention is formed in the pupils, not only for the passing occasion, but for their whole lives. The objection may be made that this class-teaching is not sufficient ; that there must be examination of the individual exercises written, and of the lessons committed to memory ; and that for this many pupils demand much time. To this Comenius replies that it is not necessary that all be always heard, nor that all the exercise-books be always examined. The de- curiones will examine each the work of his own division. The master himself, as supreme inspector, will pick out an exercise to examine here and there, especially di- recting himself to those whom he distrusts. As to memory-tasks, one, or two, or three should be called upon, all the rest listening, to repeat what has been prescribed. Each need say a portion only. In this way, by the examination of a few in no set order, the master will cause all to prepare their work. So in dic- tation, call on one or two to read out what they have written in a distinct voice, while the rest look on their own books and correct their own exercises, the master pouncing down on one here and there to see that the corrections are being honestly made. In the correction of written exercises more labor seems to be demanded; but here too, following the same line, a plan is found of abbreviating work. In translation exercises, for example, one boy should rise up and challenge an antagonist. When he has risen 108 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS the challenger should read his translation, clause by clause, all the rest attentively listening, the teacher, or if not, a decurion, standing by to inspect the spelling. When he has read a sentence, let him pause, and let the antagonist then point out any error he may have noted. Then let the other members of that decuria make their criticisms, and thereafter the whole class, and finally the teacher himself. Meanwhile let all the pupils look at their translations and make corrections, with the exception of the antagonist, who preserves his own exercise unaltered, to be in its turn subjected to criticism. That sentence being thoroughly cor- rected, go to the next, and so to the end. Then let the antagonist read off his own exercise in like man- ner, under the inspection of his challenger, who will see that he has made no corrections. Then call out another couple, and so on according to the time avail- able, the decuriones taking care that those in their own decurise correct their exercises. In this way it will happen that the labor of the master will be saved ; that all will be instructed, and none neglected ; the attention of all will be sharpened ; all will share in whatever is said to one ; the variety of phrases iiiapplicadle will form and strengthen the judgment as to the matter of the exercise, and promote facility in the language. A few pairs having had their errors corrected, it will be seen that there are now no more errors remaining. The rest of the time may be given to the class as a whole, for the answering of questions put hy the pupils, and for allowing any one to bring forward any turn THE ART OF EDUCATION 109 of expression which he may think better than that adopted. The above remarks are made with special reference to the version, but they are equally applicable to exer- cises in Rhetoric, Logic, etc. Thus Comenius solves the problem how one teacher can suffice for one hundred pupils. Second Problem. — The second rule of procedure yields this question, How can all be taught from the same books ? By requiring the pupils to have the same editions, the same lexicons, grammar, etc. It is desir- able to publish school-books which will contain, simply and popularly put, all that is necessary to teach in school. Comenius advocates the dialogue form for school-books, because it excites the. interest and re- tains the attention better than the didactic form, sup- porting his preference by the fact that our lives are spent in conversation, and dialogues are easily re- peated. He would further paint on the school-room walls the skeleton or outline of the contents of the books in use. Third Problem. — The third rule of procedure yields this question : How is it possible that all the scholars may be made to do the same thi?ig at the same time? By beginning school-work only once a year, and arranging it in such a way that every month, week, day, and even hour, shall have its own proper task. Fourth Problem. — The fourth rule yields the fol- lowing question : Hozv can all things be taught according to one and the same method? There is only one natural 110 EDUCATION AL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS method for all studies — sciences, arts, and languages, — and this will be shown in the sequel, and has already been laid down in its principles. Fifth Problem. — The fifth rule yields the question : How can the understanding of many things be set forth in few words f Fundamental things are to be taught, and this not by means of large books or much talk, but by means of well selected words and principles, and rules easy to be understood, and fruitful in their character. A gold coin is of more value than a hun- dred leaden ones. As Seneca says, 'Precepts are to be sown in the mind as seed is sown in the soil, and it is not necessary that they be numerous, but efficacious.' Sixth Problem. — The sixth rule yields the question: How can i?istruction be given so as to do two or three things at the same time f A tree grows in every part at once ; so with an animal. In school we must imitate Nature, guided by the following general canon: — 'Always and everywhere let the related be taught in conjunction with its correlate' — e.g. , words with things, reading with writing, etc. Above all, never teach words without things, even in the vernacular, and whatever the pupils see, hear, taste, or touch, let them name. The tongue and the intelligence should advance on parallel lines. And from this it follows that a boy should never read or re- cite anything which he does not understand ; and it further follows that all authors are to be banished from THE ART OF EDUCATION 111 school except those who give a knowledge of useful things. So with reading and writing : let boys be taught not merely to read, but to express themselves in writing at the same time — an exercise which is pleasing to them , and very valuable. But the exercises should not be exercises of style merely, but should have reference to the department of knowledge they are studying — e. g. y histories of the inventors of arts, and the places and times in which arts nourished, or it may be, exercises of imitation. Comenius holds also that boys should teacn as well as learn, and that sportive imitations of the serious work of life might advantageously be introduced into the school side by side with serious employments — e. g. , the boys should be encouraged to form themselves into a semblance of political and social order, with the titles of King, Councillors, Chancellor, Marshal, Sec- retaries, Ambassadors, and so forth. Seventh Problem. — The seventh rule yields the question : How can all things be prosecuted step by step f Comenius here refers the reader to those parts of the methodology which deal specially with gradual step-by- step progress. Eighth Problem. — The eighth rule yields the ques- tion : How shall we avoid a?id remove causes of retarda- tion in our progress ? The answer to this is, 'By a wise neglect.' It is not the quantity of things known, but the real utility of them, that is of importance. Therefore, the school 112 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMSNIU3 should neglect whatever is unnecessary, whatever is alien to the pupil or subject of study, and whatever is too detailed. Unnecessary knowledge is all that knowledge which is unnecessary to virtue and religion, and all without^which learning is attainable — e.g., the names of heathen idols and accounts of pagan rites, and all comic and other writings which are immoral in their character. Alien things are such as are foreign to the natural tendency of the scholar. One boy has a. turn for theoretic and another for practical study, one for music, another for grammar and logic, and so on. It is a waste of time to employ a boy in music who is naturally incapacitated for that subject, while he has strong aptitude for another. Too much detail is also condemned. It is absurd, for example, to occupy classes which are studying natural history or botany with all the differences of plants and animals; or when aits are the subjects of study, with the names of all the tools. The school has to do with the generic, at most with the leading differ- ences; if these are fully and solidly given, the rest will be acquired through the occasions of life. Among things too detailed are such school-books as full lexi- cons, which only serve to confuse and overload a boy. Comenius having dealt thus generally with the Art of School-teaching, next proceeds to apply Method in detail to the teaching of the three branches of all sound education, viz., Knowledge, i. e., Sciences and Arts, including Language {Erudition) , Morality ( Virtus) , and Piety {Religio). HOW TO IMPART KNOWLEDGE 113 I. Method as applied to Knowledge. O.) The Sciences. Science is the knowledge of things — the things of external sight and of internal sight. As for the former are needed the eye, the object, and light, which are the conditions of vision, so for the latter are needed the eye of the mind, an object, viz. , all things, and the light of attention. It is essential to a knowledge of the sciences, viz.: — i . That the eye of the mind be pure. This is a gift of God, speaking generally; but we have in our own power not to suffer the looking-glass of our mind to be dulled with dust, and its brightness obscured. The dust referred to is idle, useless, and vain mental occupations. Unless Reason also preside over observation, we shall pick up dust and chaff in- stead of grain. 2 . // is necessary that objects be presented to the eye of the mind. Everything should be presented to as many senses as possible, namely, visible things to sight, audible things to hearing, odorous things to the smelling sense, sapid things to the taste, tangible to the touch, and when things have reference to more senses than one, they should be presented to all those senses. For the beginning of knowledge is from pure sense, not from words ; and truth and certitude are testified to by the evidence of the senses. The senses are the most faith- ful stewards of the memory. Horace truly says (JDe Art. Poet. i. 180):— 114 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem, Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et quae Ipse sibi tradit spectator.' Failing the objects themselves, diagrams and pictures should be resorted to. 3. There must also be the light of attention . Without this objects would be in vain presented ; by means of it the learner receives all things with an intelligence alive, and as it were gaping, to receive in- struction. 4. There must be a method of so presenting things that a firm impressio?i shall be made. Objects must be placed before the eyes, not far off, but at a fit distance, directly in front, and not obliquely, in such a way that the whole object will be seen all round, then part by part, and from the beginning to the end, in order. Bach individual character should be fixed upon till everything has been seized correctly by its differences. These considerations as to the teaching of the sciences yield nine very useful rules : — 1 . Whatever is to be k?ww?i must be taught. Perfunc- tory or negligent treatment of subjects will not suffice. 2. Whatever is taught should le taught as a thing present to the pupil and of a certai?i and defi?iite use. The things around us and their relations to life are to be taught. 3. Whatever is taught should be taught directly, and not in a roundabout way — i. e., the thing itself, and not elaborate and confused language about a thing. HOW TO IMPART KNOWLEDGE) 115 4. Everything should be so taught as to show HOW it is and becomes — i. e.,per causas. To know a thing in its causes is true science. 5. Priora should come first, and posteriora next; and, therefore, whatever is presented as an object of knowledge should be presented 5rst generally, and thereafter in its parts. 6. All the parts of a thing should be known, even the more minute, none being omitted: also; its order, situa- tion, and connection with other things. 7. All things should be taught successively, but only one at a time. 8. Each point should be insisted on until it is compre- he?ided. 9 . The difference of things should be carefully taught, so that there may be a distinct knowledge. Qui bene distinguit, bene docet. The variety and the truth of things depends on their differences. It is true that not all preceptors are equally expert in applying method, and to assist them, therefore, the sciences to be taught should be expounded in text- books, according to the true method of teaching. (b.) The Arts {exclusive of Foreign Languages) . By the A rts Comenius means Reading the vernacular, Writing, Singing, Composition and Rhetoric, Logic or Reasoning. His remarks are, however, applicable to teaching in Technical Schools in the strict and proper sense of the term technical. [By ' Technical ' instruc- tion is, in these days, very generally meant instruction merely in the elements of physical science generally ; 116 KDUCATIONAI, SYSTEM OF COM^NIUS at other times, in the elements of science in specific reference to certain arts or trades; at other times, but this rarely, training to specific arts in workshop- schools.] How are youths to be trained to the. praxis of things ? The answer to this is given in eleven canons: — i . Let things that have to be done be learned by doing them. Mechanics and artists do not teach their apprentices by disquisitions, but by giving them something to do. They are taught to make anything by making it, to paint by painting, to dance by dancing, etc. So we should teach to write by writing, to read by reading, to sing by singing, to reason by reasoning, etc. 2 . Let there always be prese?it to the pupil a definite form and norm of things to be done. The pupil can, as yet, do nothing of himself, and must have something to imitate. To ask a boy to make straight lines, squares, circles, drawings, etc., without setting examples before him, and without giving him the requisite tools, is cruelty. 3. Let the use of instruments be pointed out in reality rather than in words; that is to say, by example rather tha?i by precept. Our grammars consist of precepts and rules, and exceptions to rules, and limitations of exceptions, so that boys are overwhelmed and stupefied. Mechanics do not proceed in this way with their apprentices ; but let them look at the products of the workshop, and put tools in their hands, and train them to imitate their masters, admonishing them more by example than by HOW TO IMPART KNOWLEDGE 117 Words if they see them go wrong. So it is also that children learn to walk, speak, run, and play, viz., by imitation. Precepts require application and vigor of mind, whereas the feeblest are assisted by examples. As Quintilian says, * Longum et difficile iter est per praecepta, breve et efficax per exempla.' 4. Let practice begin from the elements, and not from completed works. A carpenter does not start his pupil with the build- ing of turrets or citadels, but requires him to hold an axe, cut wood, bore holes, drive nails, etc. So acts a painter with his pupil . Nor do we teach to read by placing a book before a child, but by giving him first the letters, then syllables, then words. In grammar, accordingly, we should give the tyro first single words, then two together to be declined, then simple sentences, then sentences with two and three clauses, till we bring him to the full period and the complete oration. In rhetoric, we should exercise in synonyms, in attaching appropriate epithets, in varying sentences by peri- phrasis, and so gradually bring the pupil to the more ornamental parts of style. 5. Let the first exercises of tyros be in a known subject. This has been, in a former part of this treatise, laid down. Pupils should not be burdened with things remote from their age, powers of comprehension, and present condition : this is to cause them to struggle with shadows. That the boy may understand things, take examples, not from Cicero, or Virgil, or theo- logians, etc., but from things familiar, — his book, clothes, trees, house, school, etc. We in this way 118 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS connect what has to be learned with what is already known, and make remembrance and the further exten- sion of knowledge in the same direction easy. In rules, the application of a rule being shown from a first, second, or third known example, the boy will find it easy to imitate it in all others. 6. Let imitation be always for a time the direct and close imitation of a prescribed rule; at a later stage the imitation may be freer. y. Let the things which are given as patterns be as per- fect as possible, so that we may be able to pronounce him perfect in his art who adequately imitates them. This applies, not merely to the perfection of lines, drawings, etc., to be imitated, but also to instruction in rules, which should be very brief, very lucid and intelligible. 8 . Let the strictest accuracy in imitation be insisted on in the first attempt, so that there may not be the slightest departure from the norm. This is necessary, because the beginnings are the foundations of all that follows, and any looseness in the foundations will tell throughout. There should be no haste ; he gets on fast enough who does not wander from the road. 9. Let any deviatio?i from accuracy be corrected by the master there and then; but let him add observations by way of rules or directions. Arts are to be taught by examples rather than by rules ; but very brief and lucid rules, exhibiting what is implicit in the examples, should be given — e. g. HOW TO IMPART KNOWLEDGE 119 from what point to start the task, at what point to aim, in what way to advance. 10. A perfect discipline in an art consists in synthesis and analysis. That is to say, a pupil must first, beginning with the most simple forms, be taught to construct in accord- ance with a perfect pattern. This synthetic exercise, with the help of such rules as have been formerly ad- verted to as requisite, having been sufficiently practised, the pupils should be introduced to the analysis of the work of others, that they may see the art in full opera- tion, and discuss the principles which underlie success- ful work. 1 1 . Exercises should be continued till the habit of the art has been formed. (V.) Languages. Languages are taught, not as themselves a part of learning or wisdom, but as the instrument of acquiring learning and wisdom, and communicating them to others . All tongues are not to be learned . This would be as impossible as it would be useless, and interfere with the time due to acquiring a knowledge of things. Necessary languages, accordingly, are alone to be learned, —first, the vernacular ; seco?idly, the languages of neighboring nations; thirdly, Latin, as the common tongue of the learned. Theologians will study Greek and Hebrew, and physicians Greek and Arabic. Nor should the whole of any language be learned, but only what is necessary. It is not necessary to learn to speak Greek and Hebrew as if we had to converse 120 KDUCATlONAIv SYSTEM OF COMKNIUS in them, but only to learn them so far as is needful for the understanding of what is written in these tongues. The study of languages should run parallel with the study of things, especially in youth, for we desire to form men, not parrots. From which it follows that words that denote things are not to be learned separately and individually, because things do not exist separately, but are seen as being here or there, as doing this or that, as con- joined with other things. This is the key to the Ja?zua Linguarum} In this book, only necessary words are employed, contrary to the practice of some amplifiers of the book, who stuff it with unusual words, and words, too, away from the ordinary apprehension of the young. And those make a similar mistake who occupy the minds of the young with great authors such as Cicero, instead of with language that treats of boyish things, reserving adult things for the adult. Knowl- edge of language advances, like the intellect, step by step ; Nature does not proceed per sallum, nor does art when it imitates Nature. A boy must be taught to walk before he can be taught to dance. He must prattle before he speaks, and he must speak before he can make an oration. The following eight rules will make the acquisition of languages short and easy : — i . Let every language be learned separately. First, the vernacular is to be learned, and then a neighboring modern tongue, then Latin, and there- after Greek, Hebrew, etc.: and, to prevent confusion, 1 See the chapter under this heading in the sequel. HOW TO IMPART KNOWLEDGE} 121 let them be learned always one after the other, and not together. When a firm hold has been got of each, they may, with great benefit, be compared. 2 . Let every language have a definite space of time assigned to it. As we must have respect to things, and as the ver- nacular is more closely and naturally allied with things which present themselves gradually to the intellect, it demands more time than any other tongue, — probably eight or ten years ; that is to say, the whole of infancy, and part of boyhood. Then should follow a modern tongue, which can be sufficiently acquired in one year; then I^atin, which may be despatched in two years; Greek in one, and Hebrew in half a year. 3. Let every language be learned by practice rather than by precept. That is to say, by reading, re-reading, transcribing, attempting imitations by hand and tongue — all as often as possible. . 4. Let precepts, however, aid and strengthen practice. This has been adverted to in the last chapter, and is specially necessary in the acquisition of the learned tongues, though applicable also to spoken languages. 5 . Let the precepts of language be grammatical, not philosophical. That is to say, let them state the what and the how ef a usage, and not enter with subtlety into the why of phrases and forms of syntax . This kind of speculation is philosophical, not philological. 6. Let the precepts of a new language be first known as differences from languages already known. 122- EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS It is not only useless to teach what is common to a new language with one already acquired, but it is con- fusing and overwhelming. In Greek grammar there is a very great deal which is common to it with Latin, and only those things are to be taught in which Greek differs from Latin, the rest being assumed. A very few leaves will suffice to hold all that is new in Greek syntax, and everything will be thus more distinct to the pupil, easier, and more firmly got hold of. 7. Let the first exercises i?i a new tongue be about sub- jects already known to the pupil. Not with a view to things, but with a view to the more rapid command of words. The Catechism or Bible History, for example, where the matter is known and the same words frequently recur, would be good, books for the purpose ; or the Vestibulum and Ja?iua. 8. Let all tongues be learned by one and the same method. Comenius next sets forth the different steps in learning a language, and divides the time into four ages : — The prattling age of Infancy , with its corresponding book — the Vestibulum. The Boy age — the age of speaking correctly, with its corresponding book — the fanua. The fuvenile age — when elegant speech may be ac- quired, with its corresponding book — the Atrium, [here called the Palatium] . The Virile age — the age of nervous speech, with its corresponding book, being extracts from good HOW TO IMPART KNOWLEDGE 123 authors — the Thesaurus [afterwards called, the Pa- latium] . The Vestibulum should consist of little sentences, in which several hundreds of the more common words should be conveyed, with an appendix of the declen- sions and conjugations. The Janua should contain all the usual words in a language ; about 8000 should be i given in short sentences naturally expressed, with an iappendix of short and clear grammar rules. The Palatium should contain treatises on all sorts of things, in every kind of phraseology, with attention to elegance of diction, accompanied with marginal notes on authors from whom passages have been taken, and rules for varying words and phrases in a thousand ways. The Thesaurus will be composed of the classical authors themselves, with rules for observing and collecting nervous phraseology and varying idioms. A list of authors not read, but who may be afterwards useful, should be added. Comenius would not put a dictionary of a language into the hands of a beginner, but would have certain subsidiary books constructed for each stage in Latin — a Latin-vernacular and vernacular-Latin vocabulary for those using the Vestibulum; an etymological lexicon for those using the Janua; a lexicon of phrases, synonyms, etc. (Latino-Latin, Gr sec o- Greek), forthose using the Palatium; and finally, a Promptuarizim Ca- tholicon (vernacular and Latin) for those using the Thesaurus, and in which everything may be found which will exhibit the resources of the language. 124 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS II. Method applied to Morality. As yet Method has been thought of in relation only to knowledge — to science, arts, including language — to which we may apply the remark of Seneca, 'Noil discere ista deb emus sed didicisse.' They are in truth only preparatory to the true end, the pursuit of phil- osophy, whereby we may become elevated, strong, high-minded. We, as Christians, designate this end of education, morality and piety, or virtue and religion, instruction in which has to be introduced into all schools. Sixteen rules for the instilling of morality may be given: — i. All the virtues, without exception, are to be im- pla?ited in youth. This is essential to a harmony of the moral nature— harmonia morum. 2. But, first of all, the primary or cardinal virtues have io be implanted, viz.. Prudence, Temperance, For- titude, a?id Justice. Firm foundations must be laid for a building, that all the various parts may cohere well with the basis. 3. Byleami?ig the true differences of things, and their values, pupils will be instructed in Prudence. Sound judgment is the foundation of all virtue. We must know the precise nature of each thing if we are to discern the good from the bad, the desirable from the undesirable. 4. Duri?ig the whole period of instruction let the young be taught Temperance in eating and dri?iking , sleep and waking, labor and play , speaking and keeping silence. The golden rule is Ne quid nimis. HOW TO INSTII, MORALITY 125 5. Let boys learn Fortitude by overcoming them- selves ; to wit, by checking their desire to run about and play beyond the proper time, or at the wrong time; by restraining their impatience, their grumbling , their anger. Man is a rational animal, and must be guided by reason if he is to be truly king over his own actions. But inasmuch as not all the boys are fully capable of reasoning, they will be taught self-command by being accustomed to do the will of another rather than their own, by promptly obeying, in all things, those above them. U?ider Fortitude we include an honorable frankness of speech and tolera?ice of labor. Ingenuous frankness is acquired by frequent conver- sation with honorable men, and by doing in their si°-ht what has been ordered . Aristotle so educated Alexan- der that in his twelfth year he conversed with all sorts of men intelligently, kings and ambassadors, learned and unlearned, townspeople and rustics, and could contribute something apposite to the conversation, either in the way of question or answer. Conversation with their elders, becomingly and modestly conducted, should be encouraged in the young, and their faults of manner thus corrected. The young will acquire tolerance of labor if they are always doing something or other— either work or play. Perpetual but moderate occupation of mind and body give rise to industrious and active habits. ' Ge- nerosos animos labor nutrit,' says Seneca. 6. Justice will be learned by doing harm to no one, 126 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS by giving to each his own, by avoiding lying and deceit, by bei?ig generally serviceable and amiable. Under Justice is included promptitude and alacrity in servi?ig others. The inherent vice of selfishness is thereby counter- acted, and regard for the public good engendered. The boy has to be taught the scope of our life, — that we are born not for ourselves alone, but for God and our fellow-men. 7. The formation of the virtues should begin from te?ider years , before vices take possession of the soul. If good seed be not sown, the field will still produce, but the produce will, in that case, be weeds and tares. Begin from the earliest years to plough and sow, if you would reap a harvest. 8. The virtues are learned by co7ista7itly doing honor- able things. Things to be known are learned by knowing, things to be done by doing; therefore, obedience is to be learned by obeying, abstinence by abstaining, truth- fulness by speaking the truth, constancy by being con- stant, and so forth. 9. Let the examples of a well-constituted life always shine as a lamp before children — the examples of parents, nurses, teachers, school-fellows. Boys are as imitative as apes, and learn to imitate long before they learn to know. Historical examples are good, but living examples are better. 10. Nevertheless, precepts and rules of life are to be added to examples. HOW TO INCULCATE PIETY 127 The precepts of Scripture and the sayings of wise men should be taught. 1 1 . Children are to be most diligently guarded against intercourse with bad companions , lest they be infected. Vicious example is a poison to the mind, whether it enter by the eye or ear. In consequence of our de- praved nature, evil things cling with wonderful facility and tenacity. Idleness leads to evil, and hence the importance of constant occupation, be it work or play. 1 2 . Discipline is necessary for the purpose of with- standing immoral habits. By discipline is meant reproof by words and chastise- ment by stripes. Punishment by stripes should be reserved for moral offences. This subject in further treated of below. III. Method as appued to Piety. Though piety is the gift of God through the Holy Spirit, yet as the Spirit commonly acts through or- dinary means — parents, teachers, and ministers of the Church, — it is right to consider the method of the duties of these instruments. Comenius gives great prominence to this part of his Didactic, and treats of it at considerable length ; but it cannot be said that Method in any strict application of that term is successfully exhibited in its relation to religious instruction. The chapter on this subject is in reality a series of propositions in which the order of Christian doctrinal teaching is laid down, and to some extent the manner of it. The following para- graphs contain the substance of his instructions : — 128 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS After laying down three sources of piety, viz., the Holy Scriptures, the world or nature, and ourselves (i. e. , the natural instincts and intuitions which give a knowledge of God, and our dependence on Him), he says that there are three ways of cherishing piety, viz., meditation on the words, works, and goodness of God ; prayer, which he defines to be perpetua ad Dewn suspiratio ; and self-examination. ' Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith : prove your own selves.' (2 Cor. xiii. 5). In educating children in religion we should attend to the following rules : — Begin in infancy ; we must sow good seed. From the very first accustom the child to express devotion bodily with, his eyes, hands, feet, and tongue; by gazing towards heaven, spreading out his palms, bending his knees, and invoking God and Christ, reverencing and adoring the invisible Majesty. Let' them be taught that we are here not for this life alone, but that eternity is our goal ; that our chief aim is to be so prepared as worthily to enter eternal habitations ; and that all we do must have the future life in view, and that we must constantly bear in mind the twofold destiny that awaits man hereafter. I^et them be taught that thrice happy are they who so regulate their lives as to be worthy of dwelling with God ; that whosoever walk with God here, will dwell with him everlastingly, and that by walking with God is meant having Him constantly before our eyes, fear- ing Him, and keeping His commandments. Let them be taught to refer all things — whatsoeve HOW TO INCUIvCATB PIETY 129 they hear or see, do Or suffer — to God, mediately or immediately. Let them learn to occupy themselves from the earliest years with those things that lead to God — the reading of the Holy Scriptures, the exercises of divine worship, and good works. Let the Holy Scriptures be the Alpha and Omega of Christian schools. Let whatever is learned from Scripture be referred to the three graces of Faith, Hope, and Charity; and let these graces be taught with reference to practice . These will be taught in relation to practice if the young be taught to believe all that God has revealed, to do what He commands, and to hope for what he promises. Let boys be accustomed to the doing of those works commanded by Heaven, that by those works they may show forth their faith — the works, namely, of temper- ance, justice, compassion, patience, etc. Let them be taught to see clearly the purposes of the benefits God confers, and of the chastisements He inflicts. Let them be exhorted to keep the way of the Cross as the most secure way, and let care be taken that no vicious examples obstruct them in their path. Finally, let them be taught that, since, because of the imperfection of their nature, they can do no good thing, they must rely on the perfection of Christ, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. The mode of dexterously doing all this in the different classes of the school has to be carefully con- sidered. 130 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS Comenius maintains at considerable length, and with occasional eloquence, the necessity of either banishing Pagan authors from schools, or at least of using them with caution . Realists like Comenius discouraged purely classical studies, not merely because they usurped the place which ought to be assigned to the study of sub- jects having a practical bearing on this life, but also because they obstructed or at least did not promote, the true ends of a Christian school. All now accept the opinion that the classical authors are to be read by boys with due caution ; but I imagine that none will be found to take the restricted view that they should be excluded altogether from schools, even on religious grounds. Strict logical reasonings from a fundamental principle are justly suspected when they land us in such conclusions, and the majority of teachers are content to sacrifice logic rather than part with their common sense. IV. On School Discipline. The Bohemians say that ' A school without discipline is a mill without water. ' For take the water away and the mill stops; take discipline away and the school lags. It does not follow from this that a school is to be a place of cries, blows, and weals ; but there must be vigilance and attention, both in the teacher and taught. What is discipline save a certain way whereby scholars (discipuli) are made to be truly scholars ? Let us consider, then, discipline in its end, its matter, and its form — its cur, quando, quomodo. ON SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 131 i . The end of discipline. — This is not the punishment of a transgressor for a fault he has committed (the done cannot be undone), but the prevention of the recurrence of the fault. Accordingly, the master must execute punishment without passion , anger, or hatred, but in such a way that the boy under discipline will recognize that is done for his good, and on that account will accept it as he would accept a disagreeable draught from a physician. 2. — The matter of discipline . — A severe discipline is not to be exercised in the matter of studies, but only in that of morals. If subjects of study are rightly arranged and taught, they themselves attract and allure all save very exceptional natures ; and if they are not rightty taught, the fault is in the teacher, not the pupil. Moreover, if we do not know how to allure to study by skill, we shall certainly not succeed by the application of mere force. There is no power in stripes and blows to excite a love of literature, but a great power, on the contrary, of generating weariness and disgust. A musician does not dash his instrument against a wall, or give it blows and cuffs, because he cannot araw music from it, but continues to apply his skill till he extracts a melody. So by our skill we have to bring the minds of the young into harmony, and to the love of studies, if we are not to make the careless unwilling and the torpid stolid. A spur and stimulus are often needed, but a sharp word or a public reproof, or the praise of others who are doing well, will generally suffice. Those who transgress in moral matters are to be 132 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMKNIUS more seriously dealt with. Impiety, for example, such as blasphemy and obscenity, and all that is done against the lav/ of God, constitute serious offences, and can be expiated only by a severe chastisement. Contumacy and deliberate perversity, wilful non-doing of what the pupil knows ought to be done — are to be punished. Also, pride, envy, and sloth. 3. The how of discipline. — The sun (regarded by Comenius as the cause of atmospheric changes) always gives forth light and warmth, often rain and wind, rarely thunder and lightning. So (1.) the teacher should always shine as an example, in his own person and conduct, of all he requires- from others. (2.) By words of instruction, exhortation, and occasionally re- proof, he should labor to sustain discipline, being most careful that all he says verily comes from a parental interest in and affection for his pupils; for if the pupils do not see this they harden their hearts against discipline. (3.) If any pupil is of so unhappy a dis- position that these gentler methods fail, more violent remedies should be applied, lest anything should be left undone before utterly despairing of a boy; but great care has to be exercised that we do not resort to extreme remedies except in extreme cases. Extrema in extremis. The whole object of discipline, we must never forget, is to form in those committed to our charge a disposition worthy of the children of God. 1 1 Speaking of the improvement of schools, Protessor Eil- hardus Lubinus says: — ' Prorsus sentio virgas et verbera ser- vilia ilia instrumenta ac ingeniis minime convenientia minime in scholis adhibenda sed procul removenda esse et adtnovenda mancipiis et servilis animi nequam servis.' PRACTICAL HINTS 133 This is the end of Method as applied to Knowledge, Virtue, and Religion, and it seems to be a fit place to introduce some precepts of Comenms which are given in the Dissertatio de sermonis Latini studio. Practical Hints to the Teachkr of a Class. i . Let the teacher not teach as much as he is able to teach, but only as much as the learner is able to learn. 2 . Whatever difficulty and trouble scholastic labors bring, let these be borne by the teacher, nothing being left to the pupil except the desire to imitate, and the acquisition of facility in imitating. 3. Whatever teachers wish their pupils to know, let them set forth that thing with the greatest possible perspicuity. 4. Whatever teachers wish their pupils to do, let lot them point out the way by themselves doing it. 5 . Let nothing ever seem so easy as to relieve the teach -r of the duty of striving, in various ways, to make it more perspicuous and more easy of imitation. 6. Never let the pupils be overburdened with a mass of things to be learned. 7. Three things always are to be formed in the pupil, viz., mind, hand, and tongue. 8. And these three come one after the other. It is the easiest of the three to understand anything ; the next is to imitate it in writing; the most difficult, and that which is nearest perfection, is to be able to express it with the tongue. This is applicable to arts and sciences as well as language. Let the teachers there- fore give heed that, whatever they desire their pupils 134 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS to learn easily and successfully, shall advance by these gradations without confusion. 9. Always let examples precede, as being the matter of instruction ; let precepts and rules follow, as the form. 10. Never dismiss any subject which has been begun, until it is thoroughly finished. Let the teacher never take more matter for a lesson than can be both set forth and expounded within the same hour, and impressed on the intellect and memory of the pupils during that same hour by fit examples. 11. Let the first foundations of all things be thoroughly laid, unless you wish the whole super- structure to totter. 12. Accordingly, whatever the teacher begins to teach, let him give pains to see that it is accurate, and so firmly learnt that those things which follow can be safely built on the top of it. 13. If anything has been wrongly apprehended, take care that it do not drive roots into the mind, but that it be immediately torn up. 14. Whatever is taught, let it be taught accurately, that it may not cause misconception. 15. Let similar diligence be applied in giving exer- cises in style (composition) . 16. To insure this, let the example, which is given for imitation, be unexceptionable, and let the imitation of it be attempted only in the master's presence, and under his inspection. 17. By far the greatest abridgment of labor is foi PRACTICAL HINTS 135 the teacher not to teach one boy alone, but many together. 18. In order that this may be done, two things are necessary : — (a.) That those pupils only be admitted into the same class who are of equal advancement, and that they be admitted at the same time. (£.) That skill be used, with a view to secure that none of the pupils shall be ignorant of that which is taught to all. 19. To secure this, the following things must be attended to — (a.) Let the teacher take care that he always brings to his class something in the way of instruction likely to please and to profit. (3.) At the beginning of every task the minds of the pupils should be prepared for the instruction, either by commending to their attention the subject to be taught ; or by putting questions on what has been al- ready taught, which lead up to the new by showing its coherence with the old; or by bringing out their ignorance of the subject, so that they may receive the explanation of it with greater avidity. (V.) Let the master stand in a somewhat elevated position, where he can see all round him and so prevent any one from doing anything else but looking at him. (d.) Let him always assist the attention of the pupils by presenting everything, in so far as possible, to the senses (hearing, seeing, etc.). (e Uesttbulart Jtvaxts. etc. 178 TKXT BOOKS OF COMENIUS perfect familiarity with the regular declensions and conjugations. The vernacular of the Latin is to be prefixed to the school editions of the book, and this is to be first read and learned, and thereafter the Latin. In this way the words which introduce to the elements of encyclopaedic knowledge will be first known in their relation to things, and then the Latin words in relation to the vernacular, the pupil thus going from the known to the unknown. Two months should be spent in thoroughly understanding and acquiring the vernacular text, in fact in learning it by heart, before entering on the Latin equivalent. The Latin text is then to occupy four months . The teacher is always to read and explain beforehand what his pupils are afterwards to read and explain, and to be careful that no lesson is passed from till it is thoroughly acquired. The pupils are then to write the exercise in a book and to conclude with saying it by heart. The outlines of Latin grammar are given in Latin, but they are to be carefully translated and understood before being learned. Three months are presumed to suffice for learning the grammar. The directions given have simply reference to the thorough acquisition of the forms. They are to be learned by heart, but above all, questions are to be asked in every possible way, and these questions are to be put in Latin. Little sentences are to be constructed, illustrating the cases, tenses, etc., etc., and after all this is done the text of the Vestibulum is to be again gone over and parsed. The Lexicon, which is simply a list of words with number-references to the part of the text in which they may be found , is finally to be read over — chiefly VESTIBULUM 179 to test the pupil's knowledge of the meaning of all the words he is presumed now to have acquired. In his Ventilabrum Sapientiae he expresses a desire that the Vestibulum should be thrown into a dialogue form, that the vernacular of the Latin rules should be printed in parallel columns, and that pictures of the things named should be introduced. In 1657 Comenius published an addition to the last edition of the Vesiibuliim , in which the primitive words already used, and many others, were worked up into short simple sentences. This book (called the Auc- tarium) was intended to serve as a revision of the work done in the Vestibulum, to initiate into the construction of sentences, and to serve as a bridge to the Janua. But it was distinguished from the Vestibulum in this respect, that whereas the latter was an arrangement of words under the head of Things (classified) , the former was alphabetically arranged — was in fact a lexicon thrown into simple sentences — e. g., under B we have such sentences as these : Baccas fert laurus, non betula, vel butus. Bellua maxima, in sylvis est barrus, in aquis balaena ; and so forth. The title of the book was Parvulis parvulus, omnibus omnia. Hoc est, Vestibuli Latinae linguae Auctarium; voces Latinas primitivas construi coeptas etin sententiolas breves redactas exhibens. In praeludium Sylvam Latinam ingressgris datam, i. e. 'A little book for little ones, all things for all : that is to say, a Supplement to the Vestibule of the Latin tongue, exhibiting Latin primitive words in construc- tion, and thrown into brief little sentences, given as a prelude to those about to enter the Latin Forest' — the 180 TEXT BOOKS OF COMENIUS ' Forest ' being the collection of 1+atin words which formed the introduction to the last edition of the Janua. An accident led him to construct the Auctarium. When in Amsterdam in 1656 he had his attention directed to an edition of the Janua , published in England with additions — those additions professing to give the roots of the Latin tongue woven into sen- tences. He found that this addition departed in almost every respect from the principles of his books, and was of a kind to disgust rather than to attract boys. The idea, however, pleased him, and he set himself to construct the supplement to the Vestibulum under the title above given. It is to be used as a revisal of the Vestibulum and a bridge to the Janua . It was published in 1657. The Janua Lingua Latins reserata. First Edition. The full title of this famous book is The Gate oj Languages Unlocked, or the Seminary oj all Languages a?id Sciences : that is, a compendious method of learn- ing L,atin or any other tongue, along with the elements of all the Sciences and Arts, comprehended under a hundred chapter-headings and in a thousand sentences ; first published in the year 1 63 1 . The one thousand sentences again comprehend eight thousand different words in all. The sentences are at first simple, and thereafter compound and complex. After an introduction he begins, according to his pan- Sophie or encyclopaedic plan, with the origin of the JANUA UNGUARUM 181 world, and in the course of his lessons takes a survey of all nature, and even includes morals and religion. It frequently happens, however, that a chapter is introduced for the sake of the words, not of the things taught: for example, the chapter on Ulcers and Wounds. The easiest sentences are of this fashion, ' Deus omnia creavit ex nihilo . ' The more difficult are exemplified by the following, ' Incendium ex quavis scintilla, si permittis, oritur. Nam quidquid ignem concipit, id primum gliscit, dein ardet, turn flagrat et flammat; postremo, crematum redigitur in favillas et cineres.' Carrying out his expressed aim, Comenius en- deavors throughout to give equal attention to both things and words, but it is things that give the cue. The headings of some of his chapters will convey some idea of the scope of his writing: — Concerning the Origin of the World. Concerning the Elements. Con- cerning the Firmament, Fire, Meteors, Waters, Earths, Stones, Metals, Trees and Fruits, Herbs, Shrubs. These things are treated of in thirteen chapters and one hundred and forty-one sentences. Then we have ' Concerning Animals,' which, under different subdivi- sions, occupies the book to the nineteenth chapter inclusive. Then, Concerning Man : his Body; External Members; Internal Members; the qualities or acci- dents of the Body ; Diseases ; Ulcers and Wounds ; the External Senses ; the Internal Senses : Mind ; the Will and the Affections : these occupy the book to the twenty -ninth chapter inclusive. All the mechanic arts now follow, and are concluded in the forty-eighth 182 TKXT BOOKS OF COMBNIUS chapter and 539th sentence. The rest of the book treats of the House and its parts : Marriage and the Family, in which occur statements which are very curious as showing the freedom with which things were spoken about to the young of 250 years ago. Nex: follow Civic and State Economy, including a descrip- tion of officers and institutions. The seventieth chap- ter begins with Grammar, and goes on to Dialectic, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geometry, and all branches of knowledge, briefly describing what these are. In the eighty-second chapter Kthics is introduced, and twelve chapters are assigned to twelve virtues. Games, Death, Burial, the Providence of God and Angels, form the subjects of the concluding chapters. This is encyclo- psedism. The German equivalent ran in parallel columns, and was to be read first. Comenius thus, with great labor and no small ingenuity, gives effect to his own conceptions of the substance of school-instruction and the method of teaching languages at one and the same time. The reader will at once see that the lines on which the Janua are constructed are precisely the same as those on which the Vestibulum is laid down, and the follow- ing higher-class text-book {Atrium) again repeats (as will shortly be seen) the substance of the Janua in a still more developed and extended form. A brief grammatical Appendix and Lexicon was to be added to the/anua, but I have not met with these except in connection with the new edition, of which I will now speak. JANUA UNGUARUM 183 Second Edition. The improved form of the Janua was published be- tween 1650-54, during his school experience in Hun- gary, though substantially written at Elbing before 1650. It is on the same lines as the first edition, but much more elaborate and more difficult. In the fifteenth chapter of the Novissima Linguarum Methodus he partly explains the change made. He has discarded the re- striction he had previously imposed on himself, of not repeating words: this he calls a superstition. The greater latitude thus allowed enables him to write about * things ' more fully and freely . The Lexicon , or Forest of Words (Sylva Verbornni), strange to say (and con- trary to his original plan), 1 comes first, and aims at being etymological throughout. Moreover, it is Latin- Latin and not Latin-vernacular . He intends this Lexicon to be first gone over, then the Grammar which follows, and finally the Janua itself. As to a vernacular- Latin Lexicon, he thinks that boys should construct that for themselves. Again, whereas it was thought desirable that the vernacular should accompany, nay, precede, the Latin in the original Janua, the former is now dis- carded. The reasons for beginning with the Lexicon, and then proceeding to the Grammar and thereafter to the text of the Janua, curiously illustrate the fanciful - ness of the author's mind. ' When we want to build a [wooden] house we first go to the wood and cut down trees (this is the Lexicon of words); then we shape and fit the wood cut down (this is the Grammar); and 1 But in accordance with the plan of the second edition of the Vestibulum. 184 TEXT BOOKS OF COMENIUS it is only then we proceed to build the house (/. , 2. Those which differ very little, e.g., fama, cpTJju??, forma, jucxppy. 3. The more common words not alike, e.g., frater d8eXq)6i. Then a few brief Greek rules should be given, and an outline of Greek accidence appended to the body of the book. As his chief object was to introduce to the Greek Testament, the text-book, he says, ought to consist of 100 select sentences of a moral kind (the Latin and Greek in parallel columns) , to be thoroughly learned, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments. This would constitute a Vestibulum, to be followed by a Janua, consisting of the Greek Testament in Latin and Greek, or it might be a sum- mary of Testament narrative and of the Christian faith. So with Hebrew. In concluding this account of the text-books, it has to be stated that Comenius himself in his old age admitted that he had departed from one of his own leading principles in attempting to teach too much l For the Palatium, see end of next chapter. TEXT BOOK OF GREKK 195 within a limited space and time, and had burdened the mind of boys with what was suitable only for adults. 1 1 A knowledge of the Text-Books is best to be obtained from the books themselves, but in connection with them the prefaces should be read, and the letters addressed to the teachers of the new Patak School, an account of which is contained in the next chapter. PART IV. THE INNKR ORGANIZATION OF A PANSOPHIC SCHOOL AND THE) INSTRUCTION -PL AN. The external organization of a school-system has been exhibited in the Great Didactic. The Mother School, the Vernacular School, the Latin School or Gymnasium, and the University, constituted together Comenius's school-system for a State. The existing school -systems of Modern Europe, and especially that of Germany, are a tribute to Comenius's sound judg- ment. The organization of instruction is certainly not in accordance with Comenius's pansophic or encyclo- paedic aspirations, but the attention which is now given to real studies, and to the cultivation of the senses, substantially gives effect to his views. The inner character and life of a school — a Latin school or Gymnasium being kept specially in view — is to be gathered from the 25th chapter of the Novissima Met/wdus, and from the numerous writings of the period from 1650-54, when Comenius was engaged in organizing a model school at Patak, in the north-east of Hungary, about twenty miles from Tokay. 1 These writings are numerous, prolix, and very tiresome be- cause of their repetitions. The following account is 1 On the Theiss, known as the entrepot of the Tokay wine. (196) A PANSOPHIC SCHOOL 197 based on an examination of all these writings, and ought to be compared with the ideas of the various graded schools expounded in the ' Great Didactic.' Thk School. The word, school, schola or ludus, indicates an in- stitution where many are assembled together to strive for some end, but to strive under the conditions of play; and these conditions are movement, spontaneity, society, rivalry, order, and pleasurable exercise, all of which things are to be attained by following the methods laid down. The school will thus truly become a ludus literarius. The object of the school as a prelude of life is to train pupils to know with a view to wis- dom, to act, to express themselves, — sapere, agere, loqui. The letters of the words themselves yield the aims of the school, thus : — • Sapienter Cogitare : Honeste Operari : IyOqui Argute. The initial letters, it will be observed, make the word Schola, and this quite suits Comenius's fanciful way of looking at things, and evidently yields him a real satisfaction. The foundation of all is Knowledge, be- cause to act wisely or speak well is impossible for an ignorant or foolish person. A school has been called Officina Humanitatis^ a 198 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS manufactory of humanity, and this designation, as appears from the Great Didactic, Comenius adopts. Now, when we say that the school is a manufactory of Humanity, we mean that it has to aim at producing in men that perfection of humanity whereby a man becomes the image of God, the most Wise, most Powerful, most Holy. When we say that the school is an Ojjficina, we mean that it is a place where by the use of certain instruments and a certain art, we accomplish what we desire to accomplish. The instruments are the persons and things employed in teaching and learning, and the art is the method laid down whereby tongue, action, hand and morals become what we desire them to become. These generally are the aims and characteristics of a school when we have passed within its walls. While keeping them carefully in view, we have to lay down our scheme more fully. General Statement. The aim is pansophic or encyclopaedic. We have to teach all things to all, if we would train to knowledge and wisdom. We have to instruct in morality and train to virtue ; we have to instil piety and train to a pious habit; and, finally, we have to form the tongue to expression and eloquence. Only in this way can we train man to true humanity, and make him again the image of God. With this view the school must be organized, and a set amount of work marked out for each grade or A PANSOPHIC SCHOOL 199 class. There should be seven classes (those in the lowest class being about twelve years of age). The three lowest classes should be called Philological ; the fourth, Philosophical ; the fifth, Logical ; the sixth, Political; and the seventh, Theological. The Philological classes would naturally be desig- nated by the text-books they used : the first or lowest, which would use the Vestibulum, being called Classis Vestibularis, the second Classis J anualis , and the third Classis Atrialis. The Philosophical class would give a rational account of things ; the Logical would give discipline in reasoning ; the Political would give in- struction in laws and the social order (including history); and the Theological would instruct in the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. A separate room and a separate master should be provided for each class, and the building should be on an ample scale. There should be a public table for poor scholars, so that the res augusta domi should be an obstacle to none. In a school so organized, and with such aims, the pupils will learn all things necessary for this life and the next, and that thoroughly. It will be a school of Universal Wisdom — in other words, a Schola Pan- sophica} ' There is nothing in Heaven or Earth, or in the Waters, nothing in the Abyss under the earth, nothing in the Human Body, nothing in the Soul, 1 ' Schola Pansophica : Hoc est, Universalis Sapientiae offi- cina ab annis aliquot ubiubigentium erigi optata : nunc autem Auspiciis Illustrissitni Domini D. Sigismundi Racoci de Felseo_ vadas, etc. Saros-Pataki Hungarorum feliciter erigenda. Anno redditae mundi salutis mdcu.' 200 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMKNIUS nothing in Holy Writ, nothing in the Arts, nothing in Economy, nothing in Polity, nothing in the Church, of which the little candidates of Wisdom shall be wholly ignorant. ' They will be trained further in the true and spontaneous use of knowledge, and in pru- dence and morality. In this palaestra they ' will learn, not for school, but for life,' so that the youths shall go forth energetic, ready for everything, apt, industrious, and worthy of being intrusted with any of the duties of life, and" this all the more if they have added to virtue a sweet conversation, and have crowned all with the fear and love of God. They will also go forth capable of expression and eloquence, and that not merely in their own tongue, but in the I+atin, Greek, and Hebrew. For the attainment of these great results three in- struments are necessary: good books, good teachers, and a good method. The seven classes into which the school is to be divided are to consist respectively of those pupils who are at the same stage of progress, and are pursuing the same objects of study. Bach class should be in a separate room, that the attention of the pupils may not be distracted. Bach class, again, should be di- vided into decuriae composed of ten boys each, and presided over by a boy older or more advanced than his fellows, who should be called Moderator, Inspec- tor, Psedagogus, or Decurio. The duty of the decurio will be to see that all the boys of his division are in their places at the right time, that they attend to the ^vork of the moment, to assist backward boys, or report A PANSOPHIC SCHOOL 201 them to the preceptor, and to be an example of conduct to all. The master himself shall not stand in a corner nor shall he walk about, but he will occupy a raised position facing the light, so that he may see and be seen by all, and where drawings and illustrations of lessons may also be easily seen. The school-time must be so ordered that every year, month, week, day, hour, may have its own task. The tasks should be so arranged that they are within the powers of the average mind : in this way the more ordinary natures will be stimulated, while the more precocious and brilliant will be retarded to their ad- vantage. Pupils should be admitted only at the be- ginning of the school year. On no day should boys do more than six hours' work, and those all in public and in school. The rest should be given to relaxation and domestic duties. The school is the proper place for school work ; moreover, home-work is apt to be badly done, and badly done work is more hurtful than no work at all. The hours should not be consecutive ; the morning should be devoted to studies that call into requisition the intellect, the judgment, and thememory; the afternoon to the discipline of hand, voice, style, demeanor (gestus). The occupations of the Pansophic school are not all t)f equal importance. They may be classed as pri- mary, secondary, and tertiary. The primary are those which contain the essence or substance of Wisdom (knowledge), Virtue, Piety, and Eloquence, such as Languages, Philosophy, and Theology ; the secondary are auxiliary to these, such as history; the tertiary 202 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS only indirectly contribute to the primary occupations,.. e.g., all that pertain to vigor of health and mental alac- rity, such as recreation and sports. But all the occu- pations and studies have a place at each successive stage of progress, and are to be presented according to the same method. At the same time, the order of the instruction is subject to certain general laws : for in the younger classes we have to appeal chiefly to the senses, and to cultivate observation; and as the pupils advance, we draw more on the activity of the memory, the intellect proper, and the power of expressing what is, known. In the exercise of these powers there are also degrees: for example, under the head of the Intellect there are three stages ; the first comprehends the statement of fact, the second the why of the fact, and the third the fundamental principles which underlie the fact and. its reason, and enable the student to extend his in- vestigations in the same line : for example, a knowl- edge of the compass and of the use of it is the first stage, a knowledge of its construction and relation to. other things is the second stage, and such a knowl- edge of the principles lying at the foundation of its construction and application as will enable the student to advance further in the same line of investigation is the third stage. So in Language you have three stages : the power to prattle, to speak, and to speak eloquently, and instruction must proceed in this order. The same remarks apply to the graduated order of auxiliary studies, such as History. The word is used A PANSOPHIC SCHOOL 203 in an extended sense : in the third, or Atrial class, it means stories which bear on the daily affairs of life and on morals; in the fourth, or Philosophical class, it deals with Natural History— the study of the works of God ; in the fifth, or Logical class, it deals with the history of human inventions — mechanical history ; in the sixth, or Political class, it deals with the history of the customs of various nations ; and in the seventh, or Theological class, it deals with the universal history of man in the Providence of God. The first or Ves- tibulary, and the second, or Janual class, are here omitted, because they are occupied with the mere nomenclature of things, which stands for history to young children. The same remarks apply (but are not always successfully applied by Comenius) to all the studies and exercises of the school. The senses, he has said, have to be specially ap- pealed to in the earliest classes, since they are the guides to knowledge. We do not speak to our pupils, but the things themselves ; and everything should be taught by means of the things themselves, or where these fail, by accurate representations of them. The walls of the school should be hung with pictures, and the reading books should be full of them. The intel- lect again will be exercised by the explanation of everything that is read or taught, and by requiring the explanation to be given by the scholars, — for we do not form parrots, but men. The memory also has to be cultivated, for, as Quintilian says, Tantum scimus quantum memoria tenemus. But the exercise of the memory does not mean the wearing the pupil out by 204 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COM^NIUS requiring him to learn things off by heart ; but the fre- quent and sufficient presentation of things clearly under- stood, till, of their own accord, they adhere. Weekly memory-contests, at which the pupils challenge each other to state what has been learned, will be of value in stimulating the memory. As regards style : let the pupils be required to write weekly letters to one another on given subjects, and let the decurio look after these, under the supervision of the master. The tongue will be exercised by requiring that the conversation of the boys one with another be in I^atin. The voice will be cultivated by teaching all to sing, and by teaching notation at certain fixed times. The morals and demeanor of the pupils will receive the close attention of the masters, and their reproof of wrong, and their commendation of good conduct will always be prompt. Further, the formation of a school, and even of individual classes, into a re- public, with its senate and proctor, which will hold sessions occasionally, and pronounce judgment on conduct, will do much to prepare for the business of life. Piety will be fostered by taking care that in going to bed and rising, prayers be said and the Holy Scriptures read : also in beginning and ending the studies of the day, and before and after meals. To encourage the more active-minded boys, special reading should by allowed of authors outside the usual school-course, such as the sacred dialogues of Castalio, A PANSOPHIC SCHOOL 205 the Colloquies of Erasmus, the Epistles of Seneca, the Histories of Nepos, Curtius, etc. All sorts of exercises and innocent games are to be not only permitted but encouraged, for giving vigor and health to the body ; and also sedentary games which call for a certain quickness of wit. Scenic representations and the acting of plays are to be encouraged as a relaxation, so long as the subject is not immoral in its character or treatment, as are the Roman plays, but constructed to represent some memorable histories, sacred or profane. These not only afford recreation, but are educationally of good effect in many ways. The times of relaxation should be frequent — half- an-hour after every hour's work. The daily time-table should be arranged somewhat as follows : — Forenoon. 6 to 7 A. m. Hymns, Reading of Scripture, Meditation, and Prayers. 7>£ — 8}4 The primary task of the class — more theoreti- cally given. 9 — io The same practically given. Afternoon. i — 2 p. M. Music, or some other pleasant mathematical exercise. 2:30 — 3:30 History. 4 — 5 Exercises in Style. There should be two half-holidays weekly ; a fort- night at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost ; and a whole month at the harvest-time. More Detailed Statement. A still more detailed statement of the work of the 2Q(> EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS seven classes is to be obtained by reading what we have already said of the Text-books in Part III., and by what follows : — I. The -Vestibulary Class. — On the four walls of the class-room should be painted the Latin characters, models of the regular declensions and conjugations, and brief moral precepts. By means of a thorough study of the Vestibulum in the way already laid down, the class will aquire a knowledge of things in an elementary and' yet funda- mental way, and also of the roots of words, — that is to say, it will be instructed in the foundations of all intelligence; and in addition to this, it will be in- structed in morality in a form suited to boyhood. The rudiments of arithmetic will at this stage be given, a knowledge of weights, measures, and geometrical forms, and music. The teacher will take advantage of the words learned to add to the knowledge of the pupils. II. The Janual Class. — On one wall should be painted illustrations of the most important natural objects mentioned in the text of the Janua, and op- posite these the more important artificial objects should be drawn. The remaining two walls should be occu- pied with grammatical warnings , having reference to the peculiarities of the pupil's mother-tongue. In religion the Catechism should at this stage be thoroughly learned. The knowledge of things and words and grammati- cal construction is to be obtained from the Janua. A PANSOPHIC SCHOOL 207 Addition and Subtraction in Arithmetic ; the plane figures in Geometry, and Music, are to be taught. The Composition exercises will consist of the con- struction of clauses and sentences on the foundation of the words and rules of the /anua. III. The A trial Class . — The walls should be painted over with emblems, and with a selection of warnings regarding the elegancies of writing and speech. ' In religion the work of this class will be to read an epitome of Scripture (in Scripture words), and to learn by heart a collection of psalms, hymns and prayers. The pupils will make acquaintance also with those narratives which are likely to generate virtue and piety. In addition to the proper study of the Atrial Text- book, Division and Multiplication in arithmetic, and instruction in solid figures, should be given. Music will be continued, and select verses from the I^atin poets read. Exercises in style on the basis of the Atrium will be given. At this stage the Schola Ludus is to be introduced. This, as I have elsewhere explained, was simply the Janua thrown into dramatic form in accordance with the author's conviction that all the work of the L,atin school might take a gamesome form. IV. The Philosophical Class. — On the walls of this class-room things are to be represented connected with arithmetic, geometry, statics, anatomy. In religious instruction, hymns and forms of morn- ing and evening prayer, and of prayers before and 208 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS after meals and studies, and a Hie of Christ harmonized from the four Gospels, are to be read. The class-book will be the first Palace of Wisdom, in which there will be a survey and explanation of all ob- jects of nature written in a style higher and more or- nate than the style of the previous books. The Rule of Three in Arithmetic, Geometry, Trigo- nometry, and the 9 elements of Statics, are to be taught ; also Instrumental Music, and Natural History made up out of iElian and Pliny. As to style, which ought now to be on the model of classical authors : this will be suspended so as to admit of the last of the afternoon hours being devoted to Greek, the object being to give sufficient Greek to enable the boys, when they reach the subsequent classes,, to read the New Testament in the original. V. The Logical Class. — The walls of the class-room should be painted over with a selection of Rules of Logic and ingenious emblems representing emanations of mind. 1 The religious instruction shall include tne study of a collection of hymns and prayers and a manual of the whole Bible, to be called the Gate of the Sanctuary, in which the substance of the sacred writ- ings, as much as possible in the words of Holy Writ itself, will be given : also a chapter of the Greek New Testament should be read daily. The afternoon hours should be devoted to Arith- methic, Geometry, Astronomy, Geography, and the elements of Optics, along with the History of Me* chanical Inventions. 1 Whatever this may mean. A PANSOPHIC SCHOOL 209 The class-book belonging to this stage will contain a free treatment of various arts and a strict scientific treatment of one, so as to bring into view the charac- teristics of exact scientific truth as distinguished from opinion. Exercises in style should be given at this stage on the model of the historians — Caesar, Curtius, Nepos, and Justin. The study of Greek is to be carried on by those only who desire to prosecute that language specially : these should read Greek orators, such as Isocrates, and also the Moralia of Plutarch. VI. The Political Class. — The pictures on the class-^ wall should represent the significance of order and connection ; e. g. } there should be pictures of the hu- man body wanting certain limbs, others having a super ^ abundance of limbs, and one complete and well-formed. In religion the full text of scripture will be studied. The class-book (the third book of Universal Wisdom) will treat of human society. Besides, the applications of Arithmetic (ex arithmeticis Logisticaf), applications of Geometry to Architecture, the theory of the planets, and the doctrine of eclipses, will be taught : compendiums of the geography of the world will also be made. For the sake of style, Sallust and Cicero, Virgil and Horace, will be read. The pupils will now discuss questions in Latin prescribed berforehand, and be en- couraged to use greater freedom in their Latin style. Verse-making yields no fruit worthy of the labor, but should not be prohibited in the case of those who have a disposition that way. 210 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS Those desirous of continuing their Greek studies should read Thucydides and the poets. VII. The Theological Class. — Scriptural emblems, shadowing forth the mysteries of Theology, should adorn three sides of the class-room, and one should be devoted to tables of the Hebrew Grammar and to select Hebrew sayings. The class-book, the concluding Palace of Wisdom, should explain the intercourse of souls with God, etc. Mathematics should consist of a study of sacred archi- tecture ; e.g. , the construction of the Mosaic Tabernacle, the Temple of Solomon, etc. The history taught should be universal history, with special reference to the history of the Church and the order of Divine Providence. The exercises in style should be in sacred subjects ; and, in addition to these various studies, Hebrew should be acquired. In the treatise De Latinae linguae studio perfecte instituendo Dissertatio Didactica, published in 1637, he assumes that the upper classes read selections from classical authors, which he proposes to arrange in four books — Epistolary, Historical, Oratorical, and Poeti- cal, 1 and that the relative Lexicon, either in Latin- vernacular or vernacular- Latin, should be a Lexicon of phrases, idioms, and varieties of expression; e. g.> under the word Dubito would come the following words and expressions : Haereo, hesito. Ambigo. Fluctuo. Incertus sum quid agam. Incertum mihi est. In an- cipiti sum ; and so forth. l Palatium Epistolicum^ with a hundred epistles ; Palatium Historicum, P. Oratorium, P. Poeticum. A PANSOPHIC SCHOOL 211 Looking to the exercises in style prescribed in Comenius's latest edition of his educational views, as given above, I think we must assume that the selec- tions from classical authors were to be read along with the special class-book of the year ; if not by all, atleast by all who could overtake them : and this, notwith- standing the fact that extracts from classical authors would doubtless be introduced into the class-books in so far as relevant to their subject-matter. Thus in the space of seven years, beginning at twelve years of age, the human being will be formed to a whole and complete humanity in respect of Things, Tongues, Morality, and Piety ; he will be able to judge of all things, and in no important thing to err ; and, fortified with the elements of universal knowledge, he may now be allowed to study all books, human and divine, and enter on the business of life. CONCLUSION. As Comenius increased in years the religions ele- ment in his educational theories assumed more and more prominence. But he never lost sight of his lead- ing principles. The object of all education was to train children to be sons of God, but the way to this was through knowledge, and knowledge was through method. His disposition to see fanciful parallels in nature increased, and scripture more and more seemed to him to confirm his teachings. A mystical tendency was manifested in his final works written in Amster- dam between 1654-57, especially in his final edu- cational utterance written in Amsterdam, and en- titled, — ' The Idea of Didactic out of the Eternal Arcana. 1 The Son can do nothing of himself, save what he seeeth the Father do ; for what things soever he doeth, these doeth the Son likewise. The Father loveth the Son, andsheweth him all things.' —fohn v. 19, From this flow the following propositions (since the- 1 invisible things of God from the creation of tht world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,' Rom. i. 20) : — 1 . That schools ought to be a kind of imitation of Heaven. 2. That the intercourse of teachers with taught ought to be like that of fathers with sons. - f 212) CONCLUSION 213 3. That sons are able to know and do nothing of themselves. 4. Whatever therefore they ought to know or to do (both here and for eternity), — all should be first shown to them. 5. That the said showing beforehand devolves on fathers, that is, en teachers. 6. And this, not by presenting examples alien to the matter in hand, but proper to it, so that things that have to be done may be taught by doing them. 7. That the imitation of all things be exacted in a paternal spirit. 8 . And that it be be exacted so that sons may do all things in like manner as the example. On the other hand the eternal idea is departed from whenever — 1 . All things are done in any sort of fashion, regard being had to no type, much less the best. 2. The intercourse of teachers with pupils is nothing else save that of hirelings with sheep — for the sake of the fat and the wool. 3. The pupils are left to themselves, and are required to do what they have not yet been taught to do, as if they were able of themselves to know what a teacher knows. 4. And cue not taught all things necessary for this life and the next, but only scraps. 5 . And the eacher does not teach all things him- self, but commits them to another, or presents to the pupil a dumb teacher — a book. 6. And what he teaches he does not teach by ex 214 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS amples, but by precepts, and, when the pupil does not do what he is ordered, by blows. 7. Or, when he does give examples, gives what are alien to the matter in hand, and does not show how they are to be rightly imitated. 8. Or, if he show examples, does not insist on the imitation of them by much and constant practice. 9 . And does not exact that imitation in such a way as to make of every pupil a master capable of doing things equal to what has been pointed out to him as models. This is the sum of all that I wish to have done by those who undertake to rear little sons of God. I have no more to say. And you, gentlemen, with your schools and all the youth of, your city 1 dedicated to Christ, I commend to the grace of God, and myself to your favor ; signing these my last utterances on Education on the day of the conversion of Paul, on which may the hearts of us all turn to the Eord saying, as Saul said, ' Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ? ' And now, O Jesus Christ, Eternal Wisdom, who re- joiceth in the habitable parts of the earth, and whose delight is among the sons of men, who wast well pleased, when dwelling with us in the flesh, to converse with little ones and to think them worthy of thy em- braces as being heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven, count worthy of Thy favor now those who do not disdain to serve Thy little ones ; so that by means of them Thy Blessed Kingdom, here of Grace, there of Glory, may receive a goodly increase, worthy of Thee, the King of the Eternal World. Amen. Amen. Amen. 1 Amsterdam. BRIEF CRITICAL SURVEY. Thk object of this volume is to present Comenius himself to the English reader — not Comenius as I may understand him. The latter would have been a comparatively easy task. His historical position, and his relation to his prececessors, have been brought into view in the Introduction , and his educational aims and labors have been fully set forth in the sketch of his life. We have now only to survey critically the lead- ing characteristics of his system . The Realism of the Humanists had failed to produce the results they had anticipated. It was in England and Scotland, rather than on the continent of Europe, that the genuine Humanistic spirit was most active in schools. But not for long. Schools and schoolmas- ters fell back under the dominion of words, abstract propositions, and barren logicalities. This was inevit- able. The preoccupation of men's minds with theo- logical and political strife caused the true significance of the educational revival to fall out of sight. The indispensable condition, moreover, of the continuance of the methods of Trotzendorf, and Sturm, and Ascham, was a school of Teachers, and a tradition of Method. There was neither the one nor the other. Comenius 's inspiring motive, like that of all leading educationalists, was social regeneration. He believed (215) 216 EDUCATIONAL SYSTKM OF COMENIUS that this could be accomplished through the school. He lived under the hallucination that by a proper ar- rangement of the subject matter of instruction, and by a sound method, a certain community of thought and interests would be established among the young, which would result in social harmony and political settlement. He believed that men could be manufac- tured. Had we Chinese to deal with, the dream of educational enthusiasts might possibly be realized ; but its realization would be a misfortune. We have, happily, not Chinese to deal with, but the strong and vigorous European races, full of character and in- dividuality, — the loss of which would be the loss of manhood. Variety, inequality, and strife seem to be essential to the true life of the higher races. Humanism, which had practically failed in the school, had, apart from this fact, no attractions for Comenius, and still less had the worldly wisdom of Montaigne. He was a leading Protestant theologian, — the pastor and bishop of a small but earnest and devoted sect, — and it was as such that he wrote on Education. The best results of Humanism could, after all, be only culture, and this not necessarily accompanied by moral earnestness or personal piety: on the contrary, prob- ably dissociated from these, and leaning rather to scepticism and intellectual self-indulgence. At the same time, it must be noted that he never fairly faced the Humanistic question ; he rather gave it the cold shoulder from the first. His whole nature pointed in another direction. When he has to speak of the great instruments of Humanistic education, the ancient CRITICAL SURVKY 217 classical writers, — he exhibits great distrust of them, and if he does not banish them from the school alto- gether, it is simply because the higher instruction in the Latin and Greek tongues is seen to be impossible without them. Even in the Universities, as his Pan- sophic scheme shows, he would have had Plato and Aristotle taught chiefly by means of analyses and epi- tomes. It might be urged in opposition to this view of the anti-Humanism of Comenius, that he contem- plated the acquisition of a good style in Latin in the higher stages of instruction : true, but in so far as he did so, it was merely with a practical aim, — the more effective and, if need be, oratorical enforcement of moral and religious truth. The beauties and subleties of artistic expression had little charm for him, nor did he set much store by the graces , The most conspicu- ous illustration of the absence of all idea of Art in Comenius is to be found in his school drama. The unprofitable dreariness of that production would make a reader sick were he not relieved by a feeling of its absurdity. The educational spirit of the Reformers, the convic- tion that all — even the humblest — must be taught to know God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, was inherited by Comenius in its completeness. In this way, and in this way only, could the ills of Europe be remedied, and the progress of humanity assured. While, therefore, he sums up the educational aim un- der the threefold heads of Knowledge, Virtue, and Piety or Godliness, he in truth has mainly in view the last two. Knowledge is of value only in so far as it forms 218 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUF the only sound basis, in the eyes of a Protestant theo- logian, of virtue and godliness. We have to train for a hereafter. In virtue and godliness Comenius did not propose to teach anythiug save what the Reformed religion taught. His characteristic merits in this department of instruc- tion were these : — i . Morality and godliness were to be taught from the first. Parents and teachers were to begin to train at the beginning of the child's conscious life. 2. Parents and teachers were to give milk to babes, and reserve the stronger meat for the adolescent and adult mind. They were to be content to proceed gradually, step by step. 3. The method of procedure was not only to be adapted to the growing mind, but the mode of enforce- ment was to be mild, and the manner of it kind and patient. Had Comenius done nothing more but put forth and press home these truths he would have deserved- our gratitude as an educationalist. But he did more than this. He related virtue and godliness to Knowledge. By knowledge Comenius meant knowledge of nature and of man's relation to nature. It is this important characteristic of Come- nius 's educational system that reveals the direct in- fluence of Bacon and his school. To the great Veru- lam he pays reverence for what he owed him, but he owed him even more than he knew. In this field of Knowledge, the leading characterirtic of the educational system of Comenius is his Realism. CRITICAL SURVEY 219 We have pointed out, 1 in contradiction of the assump- tions of the modern sensationalist school, that the Humanists were in truth Realists, and it may be safely said that there can be no question among competent judges as to the Realism which ought to characterize all rational and sound instruction . The question rather is as to the field in which the Real is to be sought— in the mind of man, or in external nature. As the former may be called Humanistic -Realism, so the latter may be called Sense, or Naturalistic-Realism. Of the latter, Comenius is the true founder, although his in- debtedness to Ratich was great. Mere acquisition of the ordered facts of nature, and man's relation to them, was with him the great aim — if not the sole aim — of all purely intellectual instruction. And here there necessarily entered the governing idea, encyclopaedism, or pansophism. Let all the arts and sciences, he said, be taught in their elements in all schools, and more fully at each successive stage of the pupil's progress. It is by knowledge that we are what we are, and the necessary conclusion from this must be, ' Let all things be taught to all.' It is at this point that many will part company with Comenius. The mind stored with facts, even if these be ordered facts, will not necessarily be much raised in the scale of humanity as an Intelligence. The natural powers may be simply overweighted by the process, and the natural channels of spontaneous Reason choked.. In education, while our main business is to promote the growth of moral purpose and of a strong sense of l See Introduction. 220 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OE COMENIUS duty, we have to support these by the discipline of intelligence, and by training to power of work rather than by information. On the other hand, only those who are ignorant of the history and the recognized results of education will wholly abjure Realism in the Comenian sense ; but it has to be assigned its own place, and nothing more than this, in the education of a human being. The sum of the matter seems to be this, that while a due place in all education is to be assigned to sense-realistic studies, especially in the earlier years of family and school life, the Humanistic agencies must always remain the most potent in the making of a man. Comenius and his followers,' again, confound knowl- edge with wisdom. He affirms that ( all authors are to be banished from school except those that give a knowledge of useful things. ' Wisdom is certainly not to be opposed to knowledge, but it depends more on a man's power of discrimination, combination, and imagination, than on the extent of his mental store of facts. Were it not so, our whole secondary education, and all the purely disciplinal part of our University instruction, would be very far astray. If the ancient tongues are to be learned simply with a view to the sum of knowledge they contain , it would be absurd to waste the time of our youth over them. It would be better to impose on our Universities the duty of fur- nishing guaranteed translations for the use of the public. We shall not, however, involve ourselves in controversy here, as our object is merely to point out, generally, the strong and the weak points of our author. CRITICAL SURVEY 221 Next in importance to pansophy or encyclopaedism , and closely connected with it, is the principle that a knowledge of words and of things should go hand in hand. Words are to be learned through things. Properly interpreted, and under due limitations, this principle will , we presume , be now generally accepted . We say , under due limitations, because it is manifest that the converse proposition, that ' things are learned through words,' is easily capable of proof, and is indeed, in our opinion, the stronghold of Humanistic teaching in its earlier or school stages. It is in the department of Method, however, that we recognize the chief contribution of Comenius to educa- tion. The mere attempt to systematize was a great ad- vance. In seeking, however, for foundations on which to erect a coherent system, he had to content himself with first principles which were vague and unscientific. Modern Psychology was in its infancy, and Comenius had little more than the generalizations of Plato and Aristotle, and those not strictly investigated by him, for his guide. In training to virtue, moral truth and the various moralities were assumed as if they emerged full-blown in the consciousness of man. In training to godliness, again, Christian dogma was ready to his hand. In the department of knowledge, that is to say, knowledge of the outer world, Comenius rested his method on the scholastic maxim, Nihil est in intellectu quod non prizes fuerit in sensu. This maxim he en- riched with the Baconian induction, comprehended by him however only in a general way . It was chiefly , how- ever, the imagined harmony of physical and mental 222 EDUCATIONAL SYSTKM OF COMKNIUS processes that yielded his method. He believed that the processes of the growth of external things had a close resemblance to the growth of mind. Had he lived in these days he would doubtless have endeavored to work out the details of his method on a purely psychological basis ; but in the then state of psychology he had to find another thread through the labyrinth. The mode of demonstration which he adopted was thus, as he himself called it, the Syncretic or Ana- logical. Whatever may be said of the harmony that exists between the growth of nature and of mind, there can be no doubt that the observation of the former is capable of suggesting, if it does not furnish, many of the rules of educational method. From the simple to the complex, from the particular to the general, the concrete before the abstract, and all, step by step, and even by insensible degrees, — these were among his leading principles of method. But the most important of all his principles was derived from the scholastic maxim quoted above. As all is from sense, let the thing to be known be itself presented to the senses, and let every sense be engaged in the perception of it. When it is impossible, from the nature of the case, to present the object itself, place a vivid picture of it before the pupil. The mere enumeration of these few principles, even if we drop out of view all his other contributions to method and school -management, will satisfy any man familiar with all the more recent treatises on Education, that Come- nius, even after giving his persecutors their due, is to be regarded as the true founder of modern Method, CRITICAL SURVEY 223 and that he anticipates Pestalozzi and all of the same school . When we come to consider Comenius's method as specially applied to language, we recognize its general truth, and the teachers of Europe and America will now be prepared to pay it the homage of theoretical approval at least. To admire, however, his own at- tempt at working out his linguistic method is impos- sible, unless we first accept his encyclopaedism. The very faults with which he charged the school practices of the time are simply repeated by himself in a new form.. The boy's mind is overloaded with a mass of words — the names and qualities of everything in Heaven, on the earth, and under the earth. It was impossible that all these things, or even pictures of them, could be presented to sense, and hence his books must have inflicted a heavy burden on the merely verbal memory of boys. We want children to grow into knowledge, not to swallow numberless facts made up into boluses. Again, the amount that was to be acquired within a given time was beyond the youthful capacity. Any teacher will satisfy himself of this who will simply count the words and sentences in the/anua and Or bis, and then try to distribute these over the school-time allowed by Comenius. Like all reformers, Comeniuswas over-sanguine. I do not overlook the fact that command over the Latin tongue as a vehicle of expression was the prime necessity of the time for all who meant to devote themselves to professions and to learning, and that Comenius had this justification for introducing a mass of vocables now wholly useless to 224 EDUCAMONAI, SYSTKM OF COMENIUS the student of Latin. But even for his own time, Comenius, under the influence of his encyclopaedic passion, overdid his task. His real merits in language- teaching lie in the introduction of the principle of graduated reading- books, in the simplification of Latin grammar, in his founding instruction in foreign tongues on the vernacular, and in his insisting on method in instruction. But these were great merits, too soon forgotten by the dull race of schoolmasters, if, indeed, they were ever fully recognized by them till quite recent times. Finally, Comenius 's views as to the inner organiza- tion of a school were original, and have proved them- selves in all essential respects correct. The same may be said of his scheme for the organi- zation of a State-system — a scheme which is substan- tially, mutatis mutandis, at this moment embodied in the highly-developed system of Germany. When we consider, then, that Comenius first formally and fully developed educational method, that he intro- duced important reforms into the teaching of langua- ges, that he introduced into schools the study of Nature, that he advocated with intelligence, and not on purely sentimental grounds, a milder discipline, we are justified in assigning to him a high, if not the high- est, place among modern educational writers, The voluminousness of his treatises, their prolixity, their repetitions, and their defects of style, have all operated to prevent men studying him. The substance of all he has written, has been, I believe, faithfully given by me, but it has not been possible to transfer to these CRITICAL SURVEY 225 pages the fervor, the glow, and the pious aspirations of the good old Bishop. If any are disposed to regard with impatience the encyclopaedic proposals of Comenius, I would have them consider that two great Englishmen, Milton and Locke, shared substantially the same views. And when we compare a youth who has been instructed merely in the bare, bald facts of the outer world, and his relation to them, with the youth who has been left to himself, we rightly conclude that there is a certain educational power even in mere information. And yet the summed-up result, in respect of intelligence and character, in the case of youths of encyclopaedic and superficial acquisitions is not satisfactory. On the contrary, it is sadly disappointing when compared with the labor expended by both teacher and taught. On the other hand, we certainly find the supreme edu- cational result — that is to say, wisdom, virtue, and capacity for affairs — to have been attained (as nearly as human imperfection admits of) by a totally differ- ent process. We are thus forced to revise our theories. The way whereby nature makes a mind is not so plain as it first appears. If educators could find that secret way, it would doubtless be their duty to follow it, cost what it might. In seeking to ascertain our duty, let us not wilfully exaggerate differences in modes of procedure where there is essential community of aim. All educational- ists, of whatsoever school, who have endeavored, seri- ously to think on the subject on which they write, agree in proposing to themselves wisdom and virtue as 226 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF COMENIUS their end. ' Culture, ' it is true, is the deity which some worship, but it is difficult to say what culture is. and until we have settled this, we may leave it out of ac- count. This we can safely affirm, that self-culture is possible only by the culture of that which is not self. Were any man to propose himself to himself as the ob- ject of his self-discipline, he would emerge from the educational laboratory a narrow-souled, insufferable prig. I^et us drop culture, then, and confine ourselves to the common ground of wisdom and virtue. All agree so far, and the question at issue these three hun- dred years, and still unsettled, is, by what process can this supreme end be attained ? By moral instruction and training, all alike answer ; but by what further in- struments ? By the study of man and of human life and thought, as these are embodied for us in language and literature, or by the study of external nature and our relations to it ? We do not propose here to attempt to answer the question, but in the debate between Humanists and Sense-Realists a service is rendered if the issue be narrowed and defined. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE EDUCATIONAL WORKS OF COMENIUS. Note. — In this Bibliography I have followed the order and the numbering given by Prof. Laurie in the note appended to the Life, and preceding the Educational System. That gave only the Latin titles, and I have added in parentheses the trans- lated titles given by Benham, pp. 117-121. The notes in brack- ets are of course my own. C. W. BARDEEN. (227) Vol. i.] EDUCATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS 229 Payne, W. H. — Bibliography of Comenius. Pp. 100-104 of his Short History of Education. Syra- cuse, 1881. .50. J. A. Comenii OPERA DIDACTICA OMNIA, variis hucusque occasionibus scrip ta, diversisque locis edita ; nunc autem non tantum in unum, ut simul sint, collecta, sed et ultimo conatu in Systema unum mechanice constructum, redacta. Amsterdam, 1657, folio, pp. 2271. [The paging, 451-591, vol. iii., is repeated by the printer. The portrait on the opposite page is reproduced from the frontispiece of this edition]. VOL. I. — (Poland Period, 1627-164.2). 1. — De primis occasionibus, quibus hue studiorum delatus fuit Author, brevissima relatio. (Brief nar- ration of the circumstances which first led the author to these studies) . 2.— DIDACTICA MAGNA. Omnes omnia do- cendi artificia exhibens. (The Great Didactics, showing the method of teaching all things) . [See pages 37, 42, 45, 50, 62, 76-143, 155, 164, 165, 167, 196. This was its first appearance in L,atin. Vol. III. of the Paedo- gogische Bibliothek of Karl Richter (Leipzig) contains the Didactica, a Life of Comenius, and notes, edited by Julius Beeger and Franz Zoubek. An edition in German (Grosse Unterrichtslehre) edited with introduction, by Dr. G. A. Lindner (12 mo, pp. 311, Wien, 1877), is in print, andmay be had of the publisher of this volume, at $1.50. The reprint at Prague in 1849 (8vo, pp. 268) referred toon page 37, has for its title, Didaktika Tehoz]. 230 EDUCATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS [Op.Om. 3. — Schola Materni Gremii, sive de provida Ju- ventutis primo sexennio Educatione. (The School of the Maternal Bosom, or provident education of children during their first six years) . [See pages 137-143, 148. First printed in German at Leszno in 1633, and reprinted at Leipzig by G. Gross. A new transla- tion into German {Die Mutterschule von Amos Comenius) by H. Schroeter, was published at Weissenfels, in 1864, and again at Halle, in 1874. An English translation (The School of In- fancy), by Daniel Benham, was published in London in 1858 (12 mo, pp. 75, steel frontispiece), preceded by a Life of Comen- ius (pp. 168, steel portrait)]. 4. — Scholae vernaculae delineatio. (Delineation of a vernacular school). [Comenius writes : "Six small books were written, adapted to the six classes of the vernacular school. These, however, were never published , as there were no opportunities of restor- ing the schools of my native land. I therefore give here a translation of the titles only." These are the Violet-Bed, Rose- Bed, Garden, Labyrinth, Balsam, and Paradise of the Soul]. 5.— JANUA LATINAE LINGUAE RESERATA, primum edita. (Gate of the Latin Language opened). [See below, page 235.] 6. — Vestibulum ei Praestructum. (The Vesti- bule before this Gate). [See below, page 235.] 7. — Proplasrna Templi Latinitatis Dav. Vechneri : et cur opus non processerit. (David Vechner's model of a Temple of Latinity, and why this work did not proceed). Vol.n.] EDUCATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS 231 8. — De sermonis Latini studio. (On a quadripartite Study of Latin.) [Addressed to the inhabitants of Breslau, and printed at Leszno, 1637]. 9. — Prodromus Pansophiae. (Harbinger of a Circle of Sciences). [See page 46. Benham (p. 52) thinks this was the work of which the title is reproduced on the following page. He says (p. 118) it was printed at Oxford in 4 to, 1836, at London, 12 mo, and at Paris, &c] - 10. — Variorum de eo Censurae. (Censures on this Harbinger) . 11. — Pansophicorum Conatuum Dilucidatio. (Ex- planation of these Pansophic attempts). [Published at Leszno, in 4 to.] VOL. II. — (Elbing Period, 164.2-1656). 1. — De novis Didactica studia continuandi occasioni- bus. (New reasons for continuing to devote attention to didactic studies). [Contains notice of the Pansophia (Circle of Sciences) : pub- lished at Dantzig in 1643, and reprinted by the Elzevirs at Amsterdam, 1645]. 2. — MethoduS Linguarum Novissim a fundamentis didacticiSy solide superstructa . (New method of study- ing languages, solidly built upon didactic foundations). [See pages 53, 133, 154-165, 175, 185, 196. Printed at Leszno in 8 vo, 1648, and reprinted there in folio. The substance is given on pages 154 to 165 of this volume]. 3. — Latinae linguae Vestibulum, rerum et linguae cardines exhibens. (Vestibule of the Latin language, adapted to the laws of the most recent method of Ian- •fe |£kRE- FORMATION {Kk^* of B^a "SCHOOLES, DESIGNED IN rvvo excellent Treatifes: The firft whereof Summarily fheweth, The great neceffity of a generaU Reformation of Common Learning; \ What grounds. of hope there are for fuch a Reforntatiffl M How it may be brought to paflfe. *^ The fecond anfwers certaine objedions ordioari!^ madeagainft fiich undercakings,and defcribcs the feve^fe : Jj 1 i # ^ Parts and Titles of Workes which are {hortly to follow. Written many yeares agoe in Latine by that"' Reverend , Godly , Learned a and famous Divine '* M r . John Am os Com e n ins, one of the Scniours of the exiled Church of Motevij®.. v^ And now upon thercquejl of many tranflated into Englijh^^ publified by Samuel Hartlibj/or the gemrall good of this Nation. LONDON, Printed fcr Michael Sparke fenior, at tfo;§ Blew Bible in Greene Arbor, i 6 4.2. ^^^l I ■Vol.111] EDUCATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS 233 guages and exhibiting the cardinal points of things and of language) . [See page 235 below. To this in Vol. II., are annexed Rudi- ments of*a Lexicon and Grammar, 1656. Republished at Tubin- gen, 1687. See Balbini, Boh. Docta, p. 318. A "Latin and German Introductory Lexicon or Sylva of the Latin Language," was published at Leszno in 1648, and reprinted at Frankfort by Matthew Gotz.] 4 . — Januae 1 inguarum no vissimae Clavis , Grammatica Iyatino-vernacula. . (Key of a new gate to the L,atin Language, or Grammar in the L,atin and vernacular language, with short commentaries, in which are assigned reasons for all changes and emendations made in the Grammar) . [Published at Leszno, in 1648]. 5. — Judicia novaeque disquisitiones. (Certain opin- ions of the learned respecting these, and new disquisi- tions) . [Benham mentions also in Vol. II. . "Treatise of the Latin Language of the Atrium Court, exhibiting the ornaments of things and of languages. "] VOL,. III.— (Patak Period, 1650-1654). 1. — De vocatione in Hungariam relatio. (Brief ac- count of a call to Hungary). 2. — Scholae pansophicae delineatio. (Delineation of a Pansophic School, or Workshop of Univeral Wisdom, ■consisting of seven classes). [Sec page 56]. 3. — De repertis studii pansophici obicibus. (On the •obstacles found to the study of the Pansophica, with various deliberations as to the means of removing them). 4. — De ingeniorum cultura. (An oration on the culture of innate capacity). The Portal to the Gate oETp&gue QaatuorEvaflgelift3e,quinqac fenfus,fcx profefti dies. Septem petitionesin Oratione Dominica* Ofto dies /one feptimaaa. Ter tria funt novem. Decern precepca Dei# Undecim Apoftoli, ctempto Judl Duodecim fidei articuli. Triginta dies funt menfis. Centum annifunt feculum. Saranas eft miile frandisHi sr- tifex. CAP. 4. 7)erehminfchoU SCholafticus freqentar fcliolam. Quo in arcibus erudiatur. Initiumeftaiiteris. E fyllabis voces componuntur E di&ionibus fermo.' Ex libro legimus tacit£. Autrecicamus claret Involvimus cum membrana Et ponimus in pulpito. Atramentum eft in acramenta rio,in quo tingimus calamum Scribimui eo in charta a in utraque pagina. Si perperam, delemus. Et Ggnamus denuo rede a vel in margine. Dodor docer. Difcipulus difcic non omnia fimul* fed per partes. Przccptor prxcipic factenda. 8 fftor regis Academiam, |5 Four EvMgtliftssJiyefenfes t fix " working dayes. cc N<* &*fc "Seven petitions in tbttora** 1 **^^ Prefer* BlfhopfdF* Zight dayes m a wife. Landaff i& Thrice tb> tem nine. h ?» p cwff Ten Commandttnenti ofGod> ^ment o£ Eleven ApoftksJudAt btihgtx* the Lords cepted. Supper Twelve Ankles of the faith. d < vid « Thirty dayes are a monetb, A hundred years an m tfg?. Satan i^ the forger of * tboitfttM deceits. theaj. GHAP. 4. Oftfringsinafchool* A Scholar ficqusntqb- the fchoole. That be mgfbe inftruUedin tbt arts. The beginingk from letters. words are compefed of (yUth'M. 4 {fetch of words. we nd&fil&ntly out of a hoofa Or recite it afoud. we wrap it up in parchment.- sAnd Uy it m adeslf. Jnl{ is in the m^b/m, in wh.ch we dip the quill. we write with it in paper , on ei- ther page. Jfbad!y f -web\otitoul. And then mar\i it in tbt linear iV the m&jent. tA teacher Macbeth, A fibular k&ntih not altogether, but by parti. TheMafter eommwcf* things tz be dam, (we.. Tbt G&vemsr rnlefb'tht Acade- E TH Vol.ni.] EDUCATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS 235 • 5. — De ingenia colendi primario instrumento Libris. (An oration on Books, considered as a primary iiistru- ment for the cultivation of the innate capacities) . 6. — De reperta ad Authores latinos prompte lcgen- dos et intelligendos facili, brevi et amoena via Schola Triclassi. (A short and pleasant way of learning to read and to understand the Latin authors, in a triple course of instruction — the Vestibule, the Gate, the Court) . [Reprinted at Amsterdam in 8 vo, 1657]. 7. — Eruditionis scholasticae pars I. Vestibulum, rerum et linguae fundamenta ponens. (Scholastic erudition, part first, the Vestibule laying the founda- tions of things and of language). [See pages 53, 56, 58, 123, 163, 169, 172, 173-180, 186, 191, 199, 203, 206. Published in Latin and Hungarian at Patak ; in Latin and German at Tubingen, 16S7 ; in Latin and Belgian, with en- gravings, at Amsterdam, by John Seidel. (Benham, p. 120). I am fortunate enough to own the English edition of the Janua referred to by Laurie on page 180, which led Comenius to pre- pare the Atictarium, or revised Vestibulum. A fac-simile of the title is given on the next page, and on the page following a specimen of the text. The reader will not wonder that Come- nius desired to make a new book, if this was to be sold under his name. Following this " Foundation " comes the Vestibulum in its original form, of which a specimen page is given opposite]. 8. — Eruditionis scholasticae pars II. Janua rerum linguarumque structuram externam exhibens. a. Lexi- con Januale. b. Grammaticajanualis. c. Janualis rerum et verborum contextus, historiolam rerum continens. (Scholastic erudition, part second, the Gate ; exhibit- ing the structure of things and of language, a. The J A H UA LING U ARUM RESERATA.- S I V E, Omnium Scientiarum Sc Linguarum Se M i N A R ixtM : ID EST, Compendiofa Latinam &: AngHcam , aliafque Linguas & Artiam etiam fund omenta addifcendi me- thodu *, una cum januac Latinicaris Veliibulo. Ant&re Cl. Viro J. A. CoMENio, The Gate of Languages UNLOCKED: Or 3 a Seed-Plot of all Arts and Tongues $ containing a ready way to learn the Latine and Englifh Tongue. Formerly tranflated by T h o. Hork: afterwards much corre&ed and amended by J o h. R o b o t h a m : now carefully reviewecf bv W. D. to which is premifeda PORTAL. As alfo , there is now newly added the Foundation to the Jamta^ containing all or the chiefe Primitives of the Latine Tongue,drawn into Sentences, in an Alphabe- Uticall order by G. P. L O K D K, • Printed by Edw. Griffin, and WiL Hunt, for Thorn* Slater, and art to bs fold by the Company of Stationers, i 6 $ a. The Foundation of the Gate of Tongue?: t. Feffbs feftina ^ feftivos fochs qui ni in ocuk feftucam quidtm vi . Fiber in fibris ammum fibras.w?- redit , t9* nm fibula AweA donate ficubus efl cmttnius} fine fidelia Gfpm bskit, nee fidibus g&udens, nte fjdem hminuu qtt&rtns; ip. Figlt filius turn Bkem cum filo \fa famhrija yeJHtj dum fimurn fin- dil in $gri Sne> (frfngii m &nimo % qubdpotefifen fenilu , qa&mvh bonis ed&ribus non fuffiatar j $* fir- matus tfl 'minus fifcina, f/isratiij la yet hetbfidm not frm fib pipe* '■. * n. Tmrofftnces^doe notary o&^fof psrf}&ntfme s hHt (irippi fwyo^hujrn with k%^Qftikm ytt now is. whom is the toil 238 EDUCATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS [Vol.111 Janual Lexicon, b. The Janual Grammar, c. The Janual context of things and of words, giving a brief account of matters) . [Seepages 39-41, 45, 53, 56, 58, 120, 123, 163, 169, 172, 177 179, 180-188, 199, 203, 207, 224. Published in Latin and Hun- garian at Patak ; in Latin only, with engravings, at Schaffhau- sen, 1659 ; in Latin and German at Tubingen ; and shortly after- ward in Latin and Belgian, at Amsterdam, 'by John Seidel ; also at Zullich, in 1734. Balbini, Boh. Docta, p. 318 (Benham, p. 119). The earliest edition I have of the Janua is the English edition of 1633, of which I reproduce the title-page, and a speci- men page, on the two pages following. In the Knglish edition of 1652, just referred to, Mr. Robotham in the preface to his Janua proper, explains so frankly the freedom he has taken with the text that I reproduce the last two pages in fac-simile, following these of the edition of 1633. The page reproduced from the edition of 1633 is thus rendered in this edition of 1652. 589. Coelebs matrimonium 589. A batchelour [single-man] initurus, dispicit sibi quam intending to marry, looks him ambiat [prociat] virginem nu- out a marriageable, handsome, bilem, elegantem, formosam beautifull maid, with a dowry, atque dotatam ; aut viduus to woo ; a widower looks out a viduam. Siquis nobilior cum widow, If one of noble birth plebeia matrimonium contra- joyns in marriage with a hit, conjugio dispari natales woman of the common sort [of suos dehonestare [dededocare] the yeomanry], he is thought putatur. by an unequall match to dis- parage and disgrace his paren- tage [family, stock]. 590. (Dos & forma nonnun- 590. Portion and feature some- quam rivales exciunt ; at indo- times stir up fellow-suters to tatae, etiam grandiores [grand- the same woman ; but women evae] maximam partem man- that have nothing to their por- ent innuptae). tion, for the most part remain unmarried, even when they grow ancient [in years]. THEGATE OF TONGVES VNLOCKEDAND OPENED, Orclfe, A S^minarie or feed-plot of all Tongues and Sciences, TbatiSi A Hiorc way of teadung and thorowty learning wichiri a yeere and a halfe at the farthcft,the Latin^Eftglitfi, French, and any other tongue, together with the £reimd Y .and foundation of Arts and Sciences , comprifed under an hundred Tides, 3nd a 1058. Periods* inlatincfirfi And now as a token of tharikfulneffe bro|ig&tr$ light in Latine, EngUih,andFrench, Inthebei&|feV of the moft Uluftrious Prince CtfAR lb*> and of Brit i(h, French and Iri& Youth. The fecond E dition, mucn enlarged. 3y the labour and induftry of I o hn AtfCHQ a an^ Licentiate m Divinity # LO : HpoH> Printed by T^.CWx, tot'Thems Stetr^yfcX* ling at th« Whisc Swan* in ducfriUne. i$H? : ? - "KjBSERATA ET a&ERTA. l $*r\ e 1 1 % Unfile man* 6n gu'iwfninegafJ ?*b 1 i Mammoniu ini turuj celebs, in- nuptusstiifpicit; fibi 6$ s feac!jelsc& bfgsU o« m jeuwe Homme tma marls§e, iooHf • «4ws mark, voulani quamaaabiat wrg ine ; 5i f » manage, M0M« conmfter m&iage nubifcm* an viduusM^wn^^fj/e^ei a qui Ufa vkbam. 612 Bos &fomu toonnunquamr.valcJ««- amantes q*«qnt ftfeam Sjg sua? fee 8e> a ■ asntag&sbis &&gm,mait&, Sams fell, Gi%S®h%mw t 6i% Wmikm® 6%i Procus cum obtinetuteideipon- deatnr a fit fponfus , & qus mibitgtpGofa: lie •Tuu'm paraaym- phura feu proaabum, ha?c fuas proiuibas liabct. 6( 4 A & ulor poftridie unt. gard&i a quiilftra ceffeou Merge mari- able, ou efiant Vtf, a tins Vefoe. €i% Le 7)Quair € > umtmw* 6i? # t^@g? 8SI& @ite» bit litat sushis^, o?f8 affjbotjfe^featbljis /o/i To the Reader. 0)(b)Src. 4*^)fometims 3 latlm wants a proper word to point out fome thing which our Engtijb doth properly exprefs ; in thefe or the like cafes , be that is (crupnlous of repeating the fame word, mall finde his fuperftition to run him perforce on a rvor(e inconvenience *, to wit, either often- times to fpeak non-fenfe *, or fometimes to omit that which is fit to be inferted. Much it were to be wifhed, that He which could do fo much in {bidding out the firft draught, would h'imklk pohfb it with his own pencil* for although I have attempted fomething this way (as may appear in part in this Edition; yet a little experi- ence taught me, that none is fitter to finim thefeveral rooms i then he that firft contrived the whole model.JLa* fie it is to fpy out fome few defers * but how to fupply them without wronging the Auto*$ intent, or tranfgre^ fing thokrults to which he hath confined his courfe, is a task of more difficulty then at firft it fcerns. Which made me more fparing in tampering with the text, (as being loath f&lcem irnmittere in alienam mejfem^ unlefs I knew the owners minde) and rather bold with marginal annotati- ons;fome whereof tend to \ explain what is obfcore,fome to *mafy eut what is wanting. The Tranflatm drive's not to render the latinc at wet to aecuftome a cS?Hde betimes to the practice of good Mgffii®Q$ godtam > our nmbet-mgut being likely to the Reader,. (in the practice) to be moft nfeful , and being indeed 2s ^apgbleas any fcholar-like impreflions , andaspliabk fo any kinde of elegancies, as any whatfocver. 3. By daismeanstodire&a ftudent to the readier cxpreflion of proper Latine : for he that in confirming an autor go- cth to work onely f vtrb*ttm 9 wd ftrain's his own tongue 4.^ g© fo to jump with the Latine, that his very Engliff is but a Anglo. J. hatinifm in Engiifh wordy *, when after he meet's with ^efame fence in more parable Englilh* and is to turne it into Latine > although he know*s the word that would indeed ferve his turn, yet having never met with it in that Engiifh habit , but iaa balder drtfs , he is as far to feck, as if he had never feen t that word before. Whereas be that obferv's the idioms , peculiar to two languages, takers the right courfcro beeexacl: in the propriety of bstb. Engiifh terms, which found neare the Latine, are of purpofe put by, * that there might be roome for other * £ xe more proper and bom-bred j becaufe the letim it fe!fe,if f « ** once known, will foon prompt a man with fuch (pwioiu *!**f* fsglijbi as (like a Jtfmt) jet's in a new Engiifh habit, Irot-JJJJJJ is for fubftance Romijb. Words inclofcd in two (emi- quadms [] (whether in the original or tranflation ) are fywym to the word precedent , and may be ufed indif* terently in the fame fignification. f hefc rudiments being thus laid, what advantage may hence rife to the furtherance of youth, and prevention of much necdlefs trouble, I leave to the witnefs of thofe that have had experience, and the trial of fuch as wil put in tsre : not doubling but the plot it felfe wil thrive> being thus far advanced , although the prefent undtrta- \ers faile of full performance. Free it is for every man tomiflikewhathepleafeth j provided that hchimfelfc corameth out with feme device .which with as great pro- bability of reafon may more conduce to publick good. JOH. ROBOTHAM* W ft f ANUA Vol.ni.] EDUCATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMKNIUS 243 To show further how many changes were made in the various editions, I will give the same paragraphs from an edition pub- lished in Faris, 1815, by Jean-Fran cois-Bastien. The contras-t in the French translation from that of 1633 is quite interesting. 589. Matrimonium in i t u r u s 589. Le celibitaire qui veut se coelebs seu innuptus, despicit marier, cherche une fille nu- sibi quam ambiat et prociat bile, bien faite, belle, ay ant de virginem nubilem, elegant em, la forLune, a laquelle il puisse formosam, atque dotatam, at s'unir, et en fait la demande ; viduus, viduam. mais le veuf, recherche une veuve. 590. Dos et forma nonnun- 590. La dot et la beaute attir- quam rivales et coamantes ent quelquefois des rivaux. exciunt. Other editions hardly worthy of special mention are the 6th English edition, 12 mo, pp*. 374, London, 1643; an edition in Latin, English, and Greek, 12 mo, with plates, London, 1662 ; and another in Latin, French and Greek, 8vo, Amsterdam, 1665]. 9. — Eruditionis scholasticae pars III. Atrium rerum etlinguarum ornamenta exhibens. (Scholastic erudition, part third, exhibiting the ornaments of things and of the I^atin language) . [See pages 54, 58, 169, 172, 188-190, 199, 207. Also of Pala- tium and Thesaurus, (163, 180), 123, 163, 170. Of Auctarium, 161, 180. Published at Patak in 8 vo, and at Nuremberg by the Endters, 1655]. 10. — Fortius redivivus, sive de pellenda Scholis ig- navia. (Fortius reanimated, or Idleness driven from the Schools). [See quotation from Fortius, page 168. Referring to the well- known treatise of Joachim Fortius Ringelbergius (1500-1536) De Ration e Studii, of which an English translation by G. B. Earp (12 mo, pp. 171) was published in London i 1 1830, and in Philadelphia (16 mo, pp. 103) in 1847]. JOH. AM#$€OMENII Oft BIS SEN- SUALIUM PICTUS QqADRJ[EINGUIS, Omnium hmdanreratahdm fnimmdo rcrum , & its*, vkaa^lionma, GEK.MA'Nl'CA.LATfNA; ITAOCA, CtimTiPHlorum juxta , ^t^A^ukrum Indke^. Cum Gratia & Pri'vil. Sac C&f. Maje/tatts % & SeremfJ. EleHorU Saxcni-ct, NO&LBEKG&,. , Sumtibus Michaelis& Joh. Fride k Yc : jhf£'N dteroru m, Anno Saiuds cl j lb e LXXIX^ Vol.in.] EDUCATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS 245 1 1 . — Praecepta tnorum in usum Juventutis collecta. (Moral precepts for the use of youth) . [Published in 8 vo, at Patak, 1653]. 1 2 . — Leges bene ordinatae scholae. (Laws of a well- regulated school). [Published in 8 vo, at Patak]. 13. — Orbis SKnsuauum pictus. (Pictured World of Sensible Objects ; or Illustration of the Vestibule and Gate of the Latin language). [See pages 56, 190-192, 204. Also Barnard's Journal of Edu- cation, vi. 585 ; xxviii, 859. Only an announcement here. Ben- ham says (p. 119): "This was translated into English by Charles Hoole, who dated his preface " From my school in Iyothbury, London, Jan. 25, 1618,' i. ttihu$ varia MOR$.LIA 4d emend&fkmm & dek&&tionem anim? facientia , adjeSaJknt* Cum INDICE locupletiffimo, tnif isagigjwn exlhttti, u*D bhx®ae§mWwf &8# fargflKJigflt Vtritttttelfi wfcfe*itr jtitfgt« Nearest wf tint m IMtt Sfttimb mit drfrfierSufi/ eine ffiw in Mtaffyumtym Mhnften, Mb £an Werungen tin £>it?g eiQtntlify &u gekn/ mb in bcm ikvflen&bul nifyt m Mmt bewtoafyt miben tan ; ctntn nocfe fewer m flfcbaisisng nn$ ^ErgogiuKt Pes (Bemuts «tel?anD snenlicbe bitten *£c&feK beygefuget n>ort>eii. Sfabf? «Re'm meitlnuffdgfn 0ftgiffttV C«w Gratia (5 Pri-uil. Sacr. Caf. Majeftatis^ 6 Ser sniff. Regi s Poiov, atqtte Eletloris Saxon. " NORISEkGiE,' '" "■"' * Sumtib&s Joh. Andr. Endterj fifiRjeomtf- Anno SaJuas.MDQQaV. Vol.ni.] EDUCATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COM3 XIUS 247 I reproduce on the opposite page the title page of the second volume. For the book is now extended to two volumes of 446 and 512 pages, respectively. The first volume contains the usual 151 lessons, gives the same plate as the 1679 edition for the introduction, but curiously enough, repeats that plate in- stead of giving the other for 151. As in the 1679 edition, the figure is omitted from 4 (Coelum), but the reason appears in a leaf prefixed to the second title, which gives the same plate as in my reproduction, but with the place in the centre for the earth left blank, and the little circle of the earth itself below, with this explanation : "This larger figure belongs to the tenth page, in which the white centre space being cut out, the smaller figure may be fitted into the middle, and so laid on the larger that we can turn the larger around under the smaller figure "—a primi- tive attempt at a planetarium. For 43 (the soul of man) an en- tirely new representative is given, so different from the original that I here reproduce it. This is the change of which Von Raumer complains. Cornix cornicatur, a a The Crow crieth. Agnus balat, Hee The Lamb blaiteth. Cicada stridet, ci ci The Grasshopper chirpeth. Upupa dicit, dudu The Whooppoo saith. Infans ejulat, eee The Jjtfant crieth. Ventus flat,. fi fi The Wind blow eth. Anser gingrit, ga ga The Goose gagleth. Os halat, ha'h ha/h The Mouth breatheth out. Mus mintrit, i i i The Mouse chirpeth. Anas tetrinnit, kha, kha The Duck quaketh. Lupus ululat, lu ulu The Wolf howelth. [mum Ursus murmurat, mum- The Bear grumbleth. Aa B b Cc D d Ee Ff &g Hh Ii Kk L M m Vol.ni.] EDUCATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COM^NIUS 249 The second volume is, of course, entirely new matter, and gives another 150 chapters. We have the Singer, the Organist, the Dancing-Master, the Jeweler, the Sculptor, even the Anchor- Maker, the Cannon-Firer, and the Poet, with early attempts at the Fire-Cracker (101), and a genuine Billiard-table (137). But the interest of this added volume is entirely cyclopaedic. It gives one hundred and fifty entertaining pictures of customs and manners of the time, but it is pedagogically only a weak imita- tion of a sound idea. The English edition of 1777 I reproduced in 1887, and copies may still be had at $3,00 each. I give a specimen page oppo- site. This is the second American edition, for a reprint of the twelfth English edition was published in New York in 1810, "printed and sold by T. & J. Swords, No. 160 Pearl-street." The cuts are all new, evidently engraved here, and in some instances modernized, as for instance 58 (a feast), which might have been given on the Battery in 1810. As a specimen of this edition I re- produce below the picture corresponding with 98 (a school) in my edition. I have an interesting edition of the Orbis, published in St. Petersburg in 1808. The text is in Latin, Russian, and Ger- 250 EDUCATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS [Op.Onu man, and the cuts are all hand-printed on inserted paper. Only- eighty chapters are given, and the cuts show many changes from the originals, as in that of the Heaven, here reproduced. C o-eliuru II Le Ciel 5Def p'tmind Hebo The cuts all give the title in French, as well as in the other three languages. In the preface to my edition of the Or&is, I speak of a Vienna edition, 1779, with only 82 plates, but with a curious additional cut of the Heaven. An edition with the 151 plates was published at Magdeburg in 1723. The eleventh English edition (16 mo, pp. 200) was published in 1728. The fifth edition of a book edited by J. K. Gailer was published at Reutlingen in 1842 with the title : " Neuer Orbis pictus fur die Jugend oder Schauplatz der Natur, der Kunst u. des Menschen- VoLtv.] educational bibliography of comenius 251 lebens in 322 lithograbbldgn. mit genauer Erklar. in deutscher, lat.,franz., engl. u. ital. Sprache nach der fruh. Anlage des Co_ menius bcarbeitet." In England books in imitation of the Orbis finally came to omit the name of Comenius altogether. Thus we have " The London Vocabulary, English and Latin, put into a new Method, proper to acquaint the learner with Things as well as pure Latin Words. Adorned with 26 Pictures for the use of Schools," by James Greenwood, based on the method of Comenius, but criti- cizing it. The 23d edition of this little book (24 mo, pp. 123) was published in London in 1797. Mr. Greenwood also wrote the preface to the first edition of "The London and Paris Vocabulary, English, Latin and French; designed for the use of schools. The English and Latin from the 25th London edition ; the French by N. Faucon, author of Chambaud's French Grammar and Exercises abridged," an edi- tion of which (12 mo, pp. 112) was published in Cambridge, Mass., in 1816. The two volumes last named may be found in the library of Harvard University]. T.^—Schola Ludus: hoc est, Januae linguarum praxis comica. (Scholastic Play, or Comic Praxis of the Gate of languages) . [See pages 56, 57, 61, 192-194, 208. Published at Patak in 1655 ; and at Amsterdam in 1656, by Abraham a Burg]. i 5> — I^aborum scholasticorumin Hungaria obitorum Coronis. (Cornice or conclusion of Scholastic Labors discharged in Hungary. A valedictory Oration). [See pages 58, 59. Benham adds also, " 16. The Blessed Guard, or Army of good deeds of a Holy Soul, entering the Eternal Kingdom with triumph ; being a funeral Oration on the aeath of Lewis de Geer, senior]. VOL,. IV. — {Amsterdam Period, 1654- 165 f). r . — Vita gyrus, sive de occasionibus vitae, et quibus Autorem in Belgium deferri, iterumque ad intermissa 252 EDUCATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS [Op.Om. didactica studia redire contigit. (Life a Gyration ; or an account of circumstances by which it happened that the author was carried to Belgium and then returned to resume his interrupted didactic studies) . 2.— Parvulis parvulus. [See full title and translation, page 179. Published in 8 vo, at Amsterdam] . 3. — Apologia pro Latinitate Januae Comenianae. (Apology for the Latinity of the Gate of Comenius). [See page 61. Published in 8 vo, at Amsterdam]. 4. — Ventilabrum sapientiae, sive sapienter sua ret- tractandi ars. (Wisdom's Winnowing Fan ; or the art of wisely reviewing one's own opinions. To which is annexed a short review of all the author's Didactic writings, with corrections). [See pages 62, 179, 194]. 5. — B labyrinthis scholasticis exitus. [For full title and translation, see p. 63]. 6. — Latium redivivum, hoc est, de forma latinissimi Collegii, sen novae romanae civitatulae; ubi latina lin- gua usu et consuetudine ut olim, melius tamen quam olim, addiscatur. (Latin resuscitated ; or Form of a purely Latin College, or of a new little Roman state ; where the Latin language may be learned by constant use as formerly, yet better than formerly). 7. — Typographeum vivum, hoc est : ars compendiose et tamen copiose ac eleganter sapientiam non chartis, sed ingeniis imprimendi. (The living Printing Press ; or art of impressing Wisdom compendiously, yet Vol.iv.] KDUCATIONAI, BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS 253 copiously and elegantly, not on paper, but in the mind). [See page 65]. 8. — Paradisus ecclesiae reductus ; hoc est optimus scholarum status, ad primaeparadisiacaescholaeideam delineatus. (The Paradise of the Church restored ; or best condition of Schools ; delineated according to the idea of the first paradisaical school). [See page 66]. 9. — Traditio lampadis, hoc est studiorum sapientiae christianaeque juventutis et scholarum, Deoethomini- bus devota commendatio. (Tradition of the Lamp ; or a devout commendation of the study of Wisdom , and of the Christian youth and of schools, to God and man ; thus placing the Cornice, as it were, on the edifice of Didactic study). [See page 66] . 10. — Paralipomena didactica. (Didactic after- ' thoughts.) PaedagogischeSchriften, Uebersetzt und mit Anmer- kungen und des Comenius Biographie versehen von Th. Lion. [Published (i6mo, pp. 543) at Langen- salza] . Ausgewaehlte Schriften. Mutterschule, Pansophie, Pangnosie, etc. Uebersetzt und mit Erlaeuterungen versehen von Ju. Beeger und Johann Leutbecher. [Published (8 vo, pp. 375) at Leipzig]. Porta Sapientiae reserata, seu nova et compendiosa methodus omnes artes ac scientias addiscendi. (The THE True and Readie Way To Learne the L AT I NE TONGUE. A ttcfted by • Three E xeeiiently Learned and Approved Authours of Three Nations: / Eilbardm Lnbitm> a German 3 F j Z \$A r i Richard CareiP, of Anthony in | Cornwall^ ^The French Lord of- zSM ontaigm. Prefented to the Vnpartiailyboth Publick and Private Considerations of thofe that feck the Advancement <*f L E A R N 1 N <3 in thefe ■N A t, I o % s. By 'Samuel Hartlib 3 EJq; LONDON Printcdby E, and W. Leybourn for the Common-wcakh of turnings MDCLIV. Works.] EDUCATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMKNIUS 255 Gate of Wisdom opened ; or a new and compendious method of acquiring the knowledge of all arts and sciences) . [Published at Oxford in 1637, London, 1639. (Benham, p. 52)]. Illustris Scholae Patakinae Idea. [Seepage 56]. Pansophicae classibus septem adornandae Delineatio. [Seepage 56]. Synoposis Novissimae Methodi. [See page 61]. Informatorium Scholae Maternae. [Seepage 142]. De La tinae linguae studio perfecte instituendo Dis-. sertatio Didactica. [See page 211. Published in 1637. We give opposite the title of the work of Lubinus, referred to on pp. 10, 35, 155, 160]. Primitiva Latinae Linguae. [In Latin, German and French, with 71 plates on copper. Small 8 vo, Nuremberg, 1736] Grammaticae facilioris praecepta. [Published at Prague, 1616. See p. 31]. Pansophiae diatopsis, Ichnographica et Orthograph- ica. (Table of contents of the Pansophia.) [See pages 52, 63. Publishedat Dantzig, 1643. Benham says (p. 159) that in 1702, Prof. Buddaeus of Halle, published a work containing a portion of Comenius's Opus Pansophicum, en- titled Panegersia, seu dererum humanorum emendatione. (Uni- versal science, or concerning the Improvement of Human Affairs)]. Letter to Montanus, Dec. 10, 1661. [Published in 24 mo, at Amsterdam, 1662.] 256 EDUCATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS [Biog. Natural philosophy reformed by divine light : or a synopsis ofphysicks : exposed to the censure of those that are lovers of learning, and desire to be taught of God. Being a view of the world in general, and of the the particular creatures therein contained ; grounded upon scripture principles. With a brief appendix touching the diseases of the body, mind, and soul ; with their general remedies. [Published (24 mo, pp. 256) in London, 1651. See page 45, where it is said to have been originally published in 1633]. Comenius's Revelation Revealed by two Apocalypti- cal Treatises, translated out of the High Dutch, with a Dedication to Oliver St. John by Sam. Hartlib, and a long Discourse by John Durie. [Published in 12 mo, London, 165 1]. Biography and Criticism. Pedagogical Biography, No. 2. John Amos Co- menius. By R. H. Quick, (16 mo. pp. 26). Syracuse, 1886. .15. [Chapter III., of his " Educational Reformers."] Bbnham, Daniel. The School of Infancy. An essay on the Education of Youth, during the first Six Years. By John Amos Comenius. To which is pre- fixed a sketch of the Life of the Author. London, 1858. Cloth, 12 mo, pp. 168-75. Portrait. 5.00. Hark, J. M. The Private Life and Personal Char- acteristics of John Amos Comenius. (Pp. 196-204 of Proceedings of the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational Association for 1892). Biog.] EDUCATIONAL BIBEIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS 257 Vrbka, Anton. Leben mit Shicksale des Johann Amos Comenius. Mit Bentmtzung derbesten Qnellen dargestellt. 17 111. Znaim, 1892. 1.00. Seyffarth, L. W. J. A. Comenius, nach seinem Leben und seiner paedagogischen Bedeutung. Leip- zig, 1 87 1. Mencik, Ferdinand. Jan Amos Komensky. Zivo- topisny Nastin k Tristalete Pamatce Jeho Narozeni. 8vo, pp. 47, 8 ill. Prague, 1892. .25. [See also von Raumer's Geschichte der Paedagogik, ii. 48-100; a translation will be found in Barnard's American Journal of Education, v. 257-298. See quotation, page 70. See also pp. 148-166 of Williams's History of Modern Education ; pp. 122- 137 of Compayre's History of Pedagogy (Payne's translation), and pp. 256-264 of Vol. I. , of his Histoire Critique des Doctrines de l'Education. Brief notices will be found on pp. 56-68 (English edition) of Browning's Educational Theories, on pp. 13, 14 of Gill's Systems of Education, and on pp. 203-216 of Paroz's His- toire Universelle de la Pedagogie, See also the following :] Bayee'S Historical and Critical Dictionary. Lon- don, 1735. ["Bayle's treatment of Comenius shows a complete misap- prehension of his character. ' ' Page 68] . MiCHEEET's Nos Fils. Paris, 1887. Carpzov's Religionsuntersuchung der Boehmischen und Maehrischen Brueder. Peitt's Contribution to the History of the Unity ot the Brethren. 1828. PESCHECk's Reformation and Anti-Reformation in Bohemia. London, 1845, (2 vols., 8 vo). Gindeey's Ueber des J. A. Comenius' s Leben und 258 EDUCATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS [Crit. Wirksamkeit in der Fremde. (Proceedings Vienna .Academy of Science, 1855). Revidierter abdruck, Znaim. 1892. 1.00. Cranz's Histories of the Brethren. London, 1780. Piearz and Morairtz's History, political and ec- desiatical, of Moravia. Brunn. 1785-1787. Rkgknvolscius'S Historical and Chronical Con- spectus of the Slavonian Churches. Utrecht, 1652. Buteer, Nicholas Murray The place of Comenius in the History of Education, 16 mo, pp. 20. Syracuse, 1892. .15. Maxwell, W. H. The Text-Books of Comenius. With portrait, and 2 7 cuts from the Orbis Pictuz. 8 vo. pp. 30. Syracuse, 1892. ■ .25. [The two papers named above were read at the meeting in Peb., 1892, of the Department of Superintendence of the Na- tional Educational Association, Brooklyn, N. Y.] Laurie, S. S. The place of Comenius in the His- tory of Education. Bardeen, C. W. The Text-Books of Comenius. Hanus, Paul H. The Permanent Influence of Co- menius. [The three papers named above appeared in the Educational jReview for March, 1892.] Comenius, the Encyclopaedist and Founder of Method. (In London Journal of Education , March 1, 1892). Free, Heinrich. Die Paedagogik des Comenius. Theorie und praxis des Unterrichts nach Comenius' Grit.] EDUCATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS 259 Grundsaetzen, mit besonderer Beruechsichtigung des erstenSchuljahres. 8vo,pp. 83. Bernberg, 1884. 1.00. Leutbecher, J. Joh. Amos Comenius' Lehr- kunst. Nach ihrer Gedankenfolgedargestellt. 8vo, pp. 165. Leipzig. Pappenheim, Bugen. Amos Comenius, der Be- gruender der neuen Paedagogik. Berlin, \:87i. SeyffarTh, L. W. J. A. Comenius, nach seinem Leben und seiner paedagogischen Bedeutung. Leipzig, 1871. Criegern, H. F., von. JohannAmos Comenius als Theolog. Kin Beitrag zur Comeniusliteratur. 8vo, pp. 397. Leipzig, 1 88 1. 2.00 Beitrage zur Paedagogie. Ueber die historische Darstellung der paedagogischen Ideen, mit besonderer Beziehung auf Rousseau und Comenius. Lowenberg, 1875. Hoffmeister, Herm. Comenius und Pestalozzi als Begruender der Volksschule, wissenschaftlich darges- tellt. 8 vo, pp. 96. Berlin, 1877. Boetticher, Wilhelm. Die Brziehung des Kindes in seinen ersten sechs Jahren, nach Pestalozzi, und nach Comenius. Znaim, 1892. .25. Castens, A. Ueber " Eins ist noth (unum neces- sarium)" von Comenius. Znaim, 1892. .25. [See page 70]. Was muss uns veranlassen, im Jahre 1892, das Andenken des Amos Comenius festlich zumachen. 8 vo, pp. 25. Znaim, 1892. .25. Comenius als Kartograph seines Vaterlandes. Mit 260 EDUCATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COMENIUS [Crit einem Neudruck der Karte von Maenren des Comenius in der Ausgabe vom Jahre 1645. Znaim, 1892. 1.00. Monatsheft der Comenius -Gesellschaft. [The first number appeared in March, 1892, at Leipzig. The annual subscription price is ten marks ($2.50)]. INDEX Academia, see University. Aims and motives, Conienius's defence of his own, 67. Alsted, Professor, early teacher of Comenius, 29. Al varus, Latin Grammar of, 159- Amsterdam, city of, 60,. 69; Co- menius expresses his grati- tude to, 68. Analogy, Comenius's use of, in exposition, 62, 105 ; from the carpenter's trade, 116 ; some- times fanciful use of, through- out the Great Didactic, 105 ; see Syncretism, Analysis, as a method of ascer- taining tru'h, 62 ; with syn- thesis, part of a perfect disci- pline in an art, 119 ; how employed in study of Latin, 170. Andreas, Valentinus, on teach- ing of Latin, 35, 36. Apprentices, pupils considered as, to an art, 116. Aquinas, St. Thomas, and the Jesuit reaction, 18. Arabic, a necessary language for physicians, 119. Aristotle, his influence in the Universities, 17 ; Latin trans- lation of, from the Arabic formerly in use, 18 ; quoted on abuse of self-consistency, 62 ; to be taught by an epi- tome, 217. Arithmetic, how to be taught in the Mother School, 140. Arnoldus, Nicholas, 68. 'Arts,' what Comenius ' *eans by the term, 115. the seven liberal, taught in the Gymnasium, 147. Ascham, his influence o n grammar schools, 16; as a critic of Method, 35. Associated words, principle of, 177. Astronomy, Comenius's treat- ise on, 45. Atrium Linguce Latincz, Com- enius's, 54. Atrium, the third Latin Text- book, 188-190. Attention, means of sustaining, in pupils, 100. Auctarium, sequel to the Ves- tibulum, 61, 180. Augustine quoted, 64. Bacon, Lord, his Advance- ment of Learning, 19 ; his Org anon, 19 ; his study of Nature, 19 ; the father of Realism, 21; impression of his Instauratio Magna on Comenius, 43, 44 ; his idea of a ' universal college,' 48 ; his general influence on Com- enius, 73, 218. Bayle, in his Dictionary , mis- apprehends Comenius's character, 68. (261) 262 UtfE AND WORKS OF COMENIUS Bnin, Chr. op, de, 54. Bodinus, his work stirs up Comenius, 33 ; on teaching of Latin, 35. Bohemian Brethren, see Mora- vian, 25. Bibliography, 227-260. Bourignon, Madame, 55. Budaeus, 11. Building, love of, to be fostered in children, 142. Buildings, scale of school, 199. Cai^vin, 11. Campanella, Thomas, his influ- ence on Comenius, 43. Caselius, 161. Celsus, 170. Challenges, from one boy to another, 107. Chaucer, 9, 11. Chastisement, corporal, 165. Chelsea College, 49. Chronology, rudiments of, to be taught in Mother School, 140. Church, the, follows,' and does not lead, in scientific, philo- sophical, and. religious pro- gress, 20. mediseval ; its attitude towards the humanistic movement, 12. Church Reformers, their atti- tude to humanistic move- ment, 12 ; they aim at uni- versal instruction , 12. Class - books, i n vernacular school, 145. Class-room, walls of, to be painted with Latin declen- sions, etc., 206. Colet, his influence over Gram- mar schools, 16. Collegium Didacticum pro- jected, 47, 152. Columella, to be studied for Economics, 170. Comenius (Komenski), John Amos, his birth and family, 25 ; a Sclav by origin and lan- guage, 26 ; early education, 27 ; begins Latin in his six- teenth year, 27 ; Moravian in heart and soul, 28 ; barely appreciated Humanism, 28 ; at College of Herborn in Nas- sau, 28 ; attracted to Ratich's scheme, 30; appointed to school at Prerau (1614) 30; complains of bad method of teaching Latin, 30; simplifies the Latin Grammar, 31 ; pub- lishes Grammaticcefacilioris prczcepta in 1616 ; ordained ' to the church of Fulneck, 1618 ; 31 ; his marriage, 31 ; loses library and MSS., 32; writes Labyrinth of the World, 32 ; loses his wife and only child, 32 ; writes rules of method for John Stadius, 32 ; determines to devote his life to the service of the young, 33 ; takes refuge from fresh troubles in Poland, 34 ; publishes his Seminary of Tongues and all Sciences, 40; his Vestibulum in 1633, 41 ; chosen Bishop of the Scattered Brethren, 41 ; visits London, 48 ; summing up of his life's aim and character, 67 ; his second marriage, 68 ; his family, 68 ; death, 69 ; 'an Apostle ad gentes minutuias' — boys and girls, 70 ; his merit in relating virtue to knowledge, 218. Comna, or Comnia, possible birth-place of Comenius, 25. INDEX 263 Composition, one of the ' Arts ' with Comenius, 115. Conatuum pansophicorum, etc. 47- Conversation, use of, in learn- ing Latin, 160. Cyrillus, Joh., 68. Czech, or Bohemian, language spoken by Comenius, 26 ; his Great Didactic first written in, 37- Dabricius, 55. Day's work, limit of, 146, 201. Decuriones, teaching by means of, 99, 105 ; duty of, in model school, 200. Detail, too much, condemned, 112. Devotion, to be expressed bod- ily from the first, 128, 142. Diagrams and pictures, use of, 114, 143. Dialectic, beginnings of, to be taught in the Mother School, 140 ; in the Gymnasium, 148. Dialogue form of school-books advocated, 109. Dictation, 107. Dictionaries, not to be put into hands of a beginner, 123 ; see Lexicons. Didactica, see Magna Didac- tica. Diet, of young children, should be very simple, 143. Differentiation, use of, in teach- ing, 97, 115. Discipline, both verbal reproof and chastisement are, 127, 130-136 ; severe, to be exer- cised only in offences against morals, 131, 142. Disputations, public, useful- ness of, 151. Docem, correspondent of Co- menius, 36, n. Domavius, on waste of time in learning Latin, 30. Dramatic representations, use of, 191, 192. Economics, beginnings of, may be taught in the Mother School, 141 ; treated in the text-book, 182. Editions of books, same, to be used throughout, 94, 100, 103, 109. Education, two parallel streams in history of, 12 ; as under- stood by the Humanists and Reformers, 12, 13 ; by the Jesuits, 14, 15 ; difficulty in- herent in every system, 17 ; importance of a department of, as part of the philosophi- cal faculty, in our universi- ties, 18 ; want of. method in, led to decline of schools after Reformation, 18; study of method gave their superior- ity to the Jesuits, 19 ; follows, and does not lead, the course of science, philosophy, and politics, 20 ; obligations to the Sense-realists of first half of seventeenth century for the scientific foundations of methodism, 21, 22. Elbing, 45, 53. Encyclopsedism of Comenius, 76, 182-219. Endter, Michael, his share in the production of the Orbis Pictus, 192. Epitomes, Comenius would teach Plato and Aritsotle by, 217. Erasmus, 11, 20; on the bad 264 UFB AND WORKS OF COMKNIUS method of teaching Latin. 30, 35- Europe, school - systems of modern, a tribute to Comen- ius's judgment, 196. Bvenius, Sigmund, correspond- ent of Comenius's, 36, n. Excerpts, use of, in study of Latin, 170. Exercises in Style, not to be that only, 101. examination of written 107, 108. — the first, of tiros, to be in a known subject, 117. Famiuar things, examples to be taken from, 118, 120. Family, the, treated in a text- book, 182. Figulns, 69. Foreign languages, when to be begun, 147. Frey, Csecilius, on teaching of Latin, 35. Frisch, on waste of time in learning Latin, 30. Fulneck, 32. Games, treated in a text-book, 182 ; all school exercises might be turned into, 193. Geer, Gerard de, 70. Lawrence de, Comenius invited by, to make Amster- dam his home, 60. Ludovic de, his friendship with Comenius, 49-54 ; death of, 59- Geography, beginnings of, to be taught in the Mother School, 140. Geometry, rudiments of, to be taught in Mother School, 140. German Empire, Diet of, re- ceives Ratich's memorial, 22. Gesture, as a discipline, 201. Giessen, University of, favor- able to Ratich's pretensions, 24, 30. Goals, advantage of fixed, in teaching, 103. God, all knowledge should lead to, 77 78. Graduation, university, 151. Grammar, as fundamental sub- ject, 10; how to be taught, 116; rudiments of, to be taught in the Mother School, 141 ; to be taught, from the material side, 157 ; ought to be taught in the Vernacular School, 157 ; Latin, of Alva- rus, 159; an instrument of .torture, 159,. Greek, only so much to be taught as is differ- e?it from Latin, 122. Grammars, overloading of, 115. Grammar Schools, improve- ments made in, under Mel- anchthon, Sturm, Colet, and Ascham, not permanent ; causes of this, 16. Greek, knowledge of, exposed a man to suspicion of heresy, 12; moderate knowledge of, included in Jesuits' course, 15 ; a necessary language for theologians and physicians, 119; may be learned in one year, 121 ; text-book of, 194. Gregory Nazianzen, Commen- ius's favorite quotation from, 37- Gymnasium, should be formed in every province, 137 ; or Latin School, the idea of, 147-149. Habrecht, Isaac, 38, 162. INDKX 265 Hartlib, Samuel, correspondent of Comenius, 45, 52. Health, bodily, of children, should be a prime object with the mother, even before birth, 142. Heathen classics, Comenius's attitude towards, 217. Hebrew, a necessary language for theologians, 114; maybe learned in half a year, 121 ; text-book of, 194. Helvicus, on teaching of Latin, 35- Herborn, college of, 28, 29. History, how to be taught in" the Mother School, 140; to be taught in every class of the Gymnasium, 150. Holidays, 205. Honors, university, 151. Horace, quoted, 113. Hours, number of, to be spent in vernacular school, 146. Human knowledge, aims at re- vision and arrangement of, 73. Humanism, theological gained the day among the Reformed Churches, 14 ; Humanism of the Jesuits not a mere name, 16. Humanistic movement, its rep- resentative in earlier half of sixteenth century, 11 ; its at- titude towards Aristotelian- ism, 17. Humanistic revival and Theo- logical revival contrasted, 16. Humanists, literary and theo- logical, their difference of aim, 13, 14 ; educational pro- gramme of the Reformation and the Humanists carried out in Scotland alone, 17 ; comparative failure of their Realism, 216. Huss, 1 1 , 25 ; what he did for the Czech dialect, 26. Illustrations on walls, use of, 206. Illustris Scholce Patakanicu Idea, 56. Imitation, use of, in study of Latin, 170. Induction, knowledge by ; the sum of Bacon's teaching, 19. Infant (or Mother) School should be formed in every house, 137 ; the idea of. 139- 141. Isocrates quoted, 90. JANUA LlNGUARUM, Bateus's, 38 ; Comenius's remarks on, 39, 4o, 53- Janua Linguae Latinae rese- rata, 180-182 ; a Text-book, second edition of, 183-188 ; to be gone through ten times, 186. Bib., 235-243. Jena, university of, favorable to Ratich's scheme, 30. Jesuits, order of, education its special function, 15, 16 ; mer- its and demerits of their sys- tem, 15 ; advantages arising from their making a study of Method, 19; their schools praised by Bacon, 19 ; under their instigation the evangel- ical pastors proscribed, 32 ; their method of teaching lan- guages, 161, 162. Jonston, correspondent of Co- menius, 36. Kempis, A., quoted, 68. Knowledge, confounded with 266 LIFF AND WORKS OF COMENIUS wisdom by Comenius and his followers, 220. Komenski, see Comenius. Kotterus, 55. Labyrinths, schools compared to, in their distracting influ- ences, 63. Language, the whole of a lan- guage not to be learned, 119. Languages, to be learnt sepa- rately, 120 ; order in which to be learned, 120 ; modern, can be learned in a year for each, 120 ; to be learned by practice rather than pre- cept, 120 ; different stages in learning, 122 ; not to be learned from grammars 85 ; method as applied to, 119, 120 ; necessary languages in their order, 119. Latin literature, 13, Latin, familiarity with, as a common language, the school- aim of the Jesuits, 15 ; waste of time in learning, 30 ; noth- ing but, to be spoken in the school at Patak, 56, 65 ; to make compendium for learning, one of the three chief objects of his school re- form, 57 ; tedium and labor of learning, as at present taught, 82 ; disadvantage of, as a medium for teaching Latin, 91 ; a necessary lan- guage, 35, 119; may be learned in two years, 121 ; superstitious attachment to, 144 ; Lubinus on the torture of learning, 155 ; the vehicle of all learning, 156 ; evil of abstract teaching of, 157; grammar should not be writ- ten in Latin, 158 ; conversa- tional method in learning, 159, 185. Latin School, see Gymnasium. Latinity, Comenius defends his, 61. Latino-latin Lexicon, Comen- ius's, 57. Latium Redivivum, 65; see ' Roman Cities. ' Lesna, 34, 41, 60. Lessons, specimen of Comen- ius's, 184. Letters, revival of, its date, 9; characteristics, 10-13, 26. Lexicons, full, condemned, 112 ; etymological, preferred to a dictionary for a young pupil, 123 ; of phrases, syn- onyms, 123. Library, walking, every cap- ' able pupil to become a, 66. Library and MSS., loss of, at Lesna, 60. Lipsius, on grammatical trifles, 161. Literature of Greece and Rome, the almost exclusive channels of culture with the literary Humanists, 13. Logic, included in Jesuits' course, 15, 109 ; one of the ' Arts,' 10, 115. London, 48. Lubinus, Professor, of Rostock, quoted, 29; on teaching of Latin, 35, 155 ; advocates school-books with pictures, 161; see 253. Ludus, Schola, 193. Ludus Literarius, the school a, 196. Luther, a Humanist, 11; his impassioned appeals in be- half of popular education, 13 ; first place in all schools claimed for the Scriptures, INDEX 13 ; his services to the Ger- man language, 26 ; on the waste of time in learning Latin, 30. Lux in Tenebris, Comenius's work entitled, 55. Magna Didactica, 26 ; first written in Czech, 37, 70 ; gen- eral statement of aim, 77 ; method of education there in- culcated, 83-98 ; school man- agement, 99-101 ; the appli- cation of methods to practice, 102-112, see 229. Management, school, 98-101. Marriage, treated in a text- book, 182. Masson, Professor, quoted, 45. Mechanics, rudiments of, to be taught in the Mother School, 140. Melanchthon, 11 ; his universal activity in behalf of educa- tion earns him the title of Praeceptor Germanise, 13 ; holds Christian teaching to be the main end of the school, 14 ; his influence on grammar schools 16 ; his attitude to- wards Aristotelianism in the Universities, 17 ; on teaching of Latin, 35 ; advocates in- struction in grammar, 160. Memory, to be fatigued as little as possible, 92 ; tasks of, 107 ; how to be used, 166 ; weekly contests in, 204. Mencel, Abraham, correspon- dent of Comenius, 36, n. Method, — the secret of educa- tion, 19, 31 ; the Jesuits' ap- preciation of, 18 ; importance of, in relation to teaching of Latin, 34 ; the thread of Ar- iadne, 64 ; difference of Co- jnenius's method from the truly inductive, 74 ; Luther recognizes the necessity for, 81 ; in Education, three great divisions in (1), Certo, 84- 89, (2) Facile, 89-94 ; (3) Solide, 94-98 ; application of, to practice, 102-112 ; ap- plied in detail to the sciences, 112-115 ; to the arts, 115-119; to languages, 1 19-123 ; to marality, 120-127 ; to piety, 127-130. Comenius's, as applied to language, 223. , Comenius's chief con- tribution to education, 221- 223. Method! , Synopsis Novissimse, 61. Methods, three, of ascertaining and expounding truth, 62. Methodus, Novissima Lingu- arum, described, 155, 156, Milton, his estimate of Univer- sity teaching in his own day, 18 ; his friend Samuel Hart- lib, 44. Mochinger, correspondent of Comenius, 36, n. Modern languages, more im- portant than Latin, 144. Mohtor, Johann, 69. Montaigne, 20, 160. Morality, method as applied to, 124 ; all sciences and arts only preparatory to, 124; foundations of, taught in the Mother School, 141. Morals and manners, introduc- tion of higher tone of, one of three chief objects of school- reform, 58. Morals (and religion) , the final aim, of all Comenius's teach- ing, 65. 268 UF£ AND WORKS OF. COMKNIUS Moravian (or Bohemian) Breth- ren, 25. More, Sir Thomas, 11. Moser, Martin, correspondent of Comenius, 36, n. Mulcaster, as a critic of Method, 35- Music, elements of, how may- be taught in the Mother School, 141 ; in the Gym- nasium, 148; teaching of, 205. Mystical leanings, Comenius's, 55, 212. Naturalistic Realism, Com- enius the true founder of, 219. Nature, movement towards the study of, represented by Bacon, 19 ; attitude of the poets towards, 19 ; Iyodovicus Vives on study of, 42 ; Com- enius's view of, 42. Nature, bent of, in each boy to be encouraged, 112. Neglect, uses of a wise, 111. Neighboring nations, languages of, necessary, 119. New Testament, in Greek, 208. Niclassius, correspondent of Comenius, 36, n. Nigrinus, 70. Notation, musical, to be taught, 207. Obstacles and their remedies, 102-105. Optics, beginning of, taught in the Mother School, 139. Orbis Pictus, 56 ; fullest appli- cation of Comenius's princi- ples, 190; use of illustrations in, 191, 192 ; most popular school-book in Europe, 192. E/u. f 245-251. Organization, general, of a school-system, 137-153* inner, of a Pansophic school, 1 96-2 1 1 Oxenstiern, 49, 50. Pagan authors, caution in using, 130. Paliurus, correspondent of Comenius, 36, n. Pansopkia, Comenius's concep- tion of, 44. PansophicE Prtzludium, 47. Pansophic? Diatyposis, 52. Pansophic school, inner organ- ization of, 196-21 1. Pansophy, or universal wisdom, first part of Magna Didac- tica, 74 ; the temple of Chris- tian, 75 ; its seven different divisions, 75. Paradisus Juventuti Chris- tians reducendus, the school as a spiritual society, 66. Parsing, not to be pressed in beginning Latin, 175. Patak, Comenius's voluminous work at, 56 ; Seminary at, to be an imitation of a L,atin state, 56 ; farewell address to school at, 59. People, schools for the, the child of *he Reformation, 12 , Comenius first taught in one of them, 26. Pestalozzi, anticipated by Com- enius, 223. Petrarch, 9, 11. Philo, 62. Philosophy, to introduce a bet- ter, into school work, one of three chief objects of school reform, 58. Physicians, Greek and Arabic, necessary languages for, 119. Physics, Comenius on the re- forming of, 44, 256 ; taught in the Gymnasium, 148; ru- INDEX 269 diments of, taught in the Mother School, 139. Pictures and emblems, walls of school to be hung with, 203 ; reading-books to be full of, do., 207-210; see Diagrams; school books with, advocated, 161. Piety, method as applied to, 127. Plants, advantages of collec- tions of, to the pupils, 101. Plato, to be taught by an epi- tome, 217. Pliny quoted, 64 ; to be studied in highest class for natural science, 170. Pleasantness, how insured in learning, 167. Poetry, taste for, may be laid in the Mother School, 141. Poland, its extent in the time of Comenius, 26. Polity, book of, in Reformed Church of Scotland, exempli- fies union of theological with philanthropic spirit, 13. Polity, something of, may be taught in the Mother School, 141. -Porta Sapienticz reserata, 46. Prayer denned, 128. JPrecepts of manners, written for the Patak school, 57, Primary school, see Vernacular School. Primer, Latin, see Vestibulum. Printing Press, the Living, an- alogy with schools, 65. Prodromus Pansophice, 46. Progress, only those pupils who have made equal, to be ad- mitted to the same class, Promptuarium Catholicon, the Dictionary for Students in the fourth stage, 123. Prophecy, modern, work on fulfilment of, 55. Proportion, necessity of observ- ing, in teaching, 97 ; of teachers to the taught, 99, 105. Pseudo-students, not to be tol- erated in University, 150. Punishment, by stripes, re- served for moral offences, 127. Pupils, much to be learned by the teacher from, 168. Quickness, how insured, in learning, 166-167. Quintilian quoted, 117. Racocus, Prince, 55. Raphael, Count of I4ssa, 34. Ranke, quoted, 14. Ratich, Wolfgang von, Com- enius's predecessor, 22-24 ; his scheme favorably received by Universities of Jena and Giessen, 29, 30, 36, 154 ; on the teaching of grammar, 161, 162. Raumer, von, 23, 42; his char- acter of Comenius, 70. Reading, to be taught with writing, no, in. the vernacular, one of the 'Arts' with Comenius, 115. Realism, true and false, 21, 22; its province in education, 220 ; Comenius's thorough- going, in education, 75. Reformation, the, gave rise to schools for the people, 12, I3» 26. Reformers, educational spirit of, 217. Religion furnished motive of 270 LIFE AND WORKS OF COMENIUS education 350 years ago, 16 ; does so still, 16. (and morals) , the final aim of all Comenius's teaching, 65, 66. Religion, rules for educating children in, 128-130 ; begin- nings of, to be taught in the Mother School, 141 ; exer- cises of, in schools, 204 ; al- ways prominent in Comen- ius's scheme, 212. Renascence, characteristics of the, 9-21, 26. Repetition of lessons, advan- tages of, 146, 166. Republic, ideal Latin school, described, 56, 57. Research, scientific, endowment of, 151, 152. Rhetoric, included in Jesuits' course, 15, 108 ; one of the 'Arts,' 10, 115 ; rudiments of, how acquired in a Mother School, 141 ; in the Gymnas- ium, 147. Ritter, on teaching of Latin, 35- Rivalry, advantages of, 101, 105. Roman Catholic Church, its attitude towards the scho- lastic changes of the revival, 14 ; founds the order of the Jesuits, 15. 'Roman Cities,' schools which should be, 171. Rome, relation of to Greece, 10. Sanctius, on waste of time in learning- Latin, 30, 35. Saxony, remodelled school code of, in 1773, 17. Schmidt, 23. Schola Indus, Co m e n i u s 's* quoted, 30, 31, 56. Schola Pansophica, or Univer- salis Sapienticz Ojficina, 56. Scholcs Pansophiccs classibus septem adornandce Deline- ation 56. Schola Scholarum, for scienti- fic research, desirableness of,, 47, 152, 153. School, vernacular, should be formed in every village, 137. Schools of his own day, criti- cism on, by Comenius, 29. should be workshops of humanity (' officina horni- num '), 81 ; too often torture- chambers, 81. School - instruction identical with language instruction in 15th and 16th centuries, 154. School-reform, three chief ob- jects of, 58. Schoolmasters, the torturers of boys, 158. Scientific research, how to be encouraged, 151, 152. Scioppius, opposed to cum- brous rules of Grammar, 159. Scotland, carries out educa- tional programme of Reform- ation and the Humanists, 17. Seneca quoted, 64, 10 1, 124. Senses, advantages of teaching through the, 94, 100, 101, 113 ; external, will be exercised chiefly in Mother or Infant Schools, 138 ; inner, in ver- nacular school, 138. Seyffarth, ^.,31. Singing, one of the ' Arts ' with Comenius, 115. Skyte, John, of Upsala, 50. Society, regeneration of, Com- enius's inspiring motive, 226„ INDKX 271 ^Solidity, how insured in learn- ing, 167. ■Specialization, danger of too great, 74. ; Sports, all kinds of, approved of, 142. Statics, rudiments of, to be taught in Mother School, 140. Strassnick, school of, 27. •Sturm, John, of Strasburg, 14 ; Jesuits adopt best parts of his methods in their schools, 15 ; his influence on gram- mar schools, 16 ; on waste of time in learning I^atin, 30, 35- ■Style, importance attached to, by the early Humanists, 10 ; faults of cultivating for it- self, 15 ; to improve, weekly letters among the pupils, 204. ^Sweden, 50. Syncretism (the use of Ana- logy), as a method of ascer- taining truth, 62. "Synthesis, as a method of ascer- taining truth, 62. Tabi^, public, for poor schol- ars, 199. Tassius, Adolph, quoted, 47. Technical Schools, properly so- called, 115. Text-books, improvement in, chief benefit to youth from revival of letters, 11 ; those that require to be written, 149 ; good, essential to the teacher, 163 ; Comenius's own, 173-194; Greek, 194; Hebrew, 194. 'Theologians, Greek and He- brew necessary languages for 119. Thirty Years' War, 26, 31. Time-table, 205. Topfer (Potter), the family name of Comenius, 25. Traditio Lampadis, in his work, Comenius passes on his didactic mission to others, 66. Transylvania, reform of schools in, 55- Travel, with a view to educa- tion, 152. Trotzendorf, Valentine, his aim in education, 14; Jesuits adopt best parts of his methods in their schools, 15. Turkish, Comenius's wish to translate the Bible into, 70, Typographeum Vivium, 65. Unity of Protestant Christen- dom, Comenius's desire for, Universities, Aristotelian phy- sics, metaphysics, and the scholastic philosophy in the, 17. University, should be found in every kingdom or large prov- ince, 137. (Academia), the idea of, 150-152. Unum necessarium ( ' the one thing needful '), Comenius's last work, 70. Vacation, Christmas, etc., 205. Varro, to be studied for Econ- omics, 170. Ventilabrum Sapientice, etc., a critical survey of all he had written 62. Vernacular, teacher to use same, as the pupil, 91 ; a necessary language, 119; de- 272 LIFE) AND WORKS OF COMFNIUS mands more time than any other language, 120; more important than Latin, 144. Vernacular-Lat in Lexicon, should be constructed by boys for themselves, 183. Vernacular school, object and scope of, 144-147. Verse-making,not commended, 20Q Vesitduluniy Comenius's, 41, 53, «•> 2 35- Vestibulum (Latin Primer), Comenius's first text-book, 173-176 ; second edition of, 176-180 : to be gone through ten times, 186. Virtues, the four Cardinal, 124. Vitruvius, to be studied for Architecture, 170. Vives, Ludovicus, 11, 20 ; on waste of time in learnings Latin, 30, 42. Vocabularies, preferred to Dic- tionaries for beginners, 122, 123. Vossius, on teaching of Latin, 35 ; opposed to cumbrous rules of" grammar, 159. WEISSENBURG, 29. Wet nurses denounced, 143. Wilcitz, 33. Winkler, George, correspon- dent of Comenius, 36, n. Words versus things, 99, 101. to be taught with things, 109, 158, 162, 221. Writing, one of the ' Arts ' with Comenius, 115. Wycliffe, 11. Zerotin, Karl von, protects. Comenius, 32. THE SCHOOL BULLETIN PUBLICATIONS. Locke (John). Sketch of, by R, H. Quick. Paper, l6mo, pp. 27 15 IiOwrie(R.W.) Hoio to obtain Greatest Benefit from a Book. 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