school the children should learn-1st, to read and write the mother-tongue well, both with writing and printing letters; 2nd, to compose grammatically; 3rd, to cipher; 4th, to measure and weigh; 5th, to sing, at first popular airs, then from music; 6th, to say by heart sacred psalms and hymns; 7th, Catechism, Bible History, and texts; 8th, moral rules, with examples; 9th, economy and politics, as far as they could be understood; 10th, general history of the world; 11th, figure of the earth and motion of stars, &c., physics and geography, especially of native land; 12th, general knowledge of arts and handicrafts.

Each school was to be divided into six classes, corresponding to the six years the pupil should spend in it. The hours of work were to be, in school, two hours in the morning and two in the afternoon, with nearly the same amount of private study. In the morning the mind and memory were to be exercised, in the afternoon the hands and voice. Each class was to have its proper lesson-book written expressly for it, so as to contain everything that class had to learn. When a lesson was to be got by heart from the book, the teacher was first to read it to the class, explain it, and re-read it; the boys then to read it aloud by turns till one of them offered to repeat it without book; the others were to do the same as soon as they were able, till all had repeated it. This lesson was then to be worked over again as a writing lesson, &c. In the higher forms of the vernacular school a modern language was to be taught and duly practised.

From this specimen of the Didactica Magna' the

THE 'JANUA LINGUARUM.'

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reader will see the kind of reforms at which Comenius aimed. Before his time the Jesuits alone had had a complete educational course planned out, and had pursued a uniform method in carrying this plan through. They too, already were distinguished for their endeavours to make learning pleasant to their pupils, to lead, not drive them. But Comenius, advancing so far with the Jesuits, entirely differed from them as to the subjects to be taught. The Jesuits' was as purely a literary training as that in our public schools. Comenius was among the first who laid stress on the teaching about things, and called in the senses to do their part in the work of early education. Thus he was the forerunner of Pestalozzi, and of the champions of science as Tyndall and H. Spencer among ourselves.

It was not his principles, however, that first attracted the notice of Comenius's contemporaries, but his book, 'Janua Linguarum Reserata,' in which, with very imperfect success, he endeavoured to carry out those principles.

6

For the idea of the work Comenius was beholden to a Jesuit, as he candidly confesses. It seems that one Batty, a Jesuit of Irish birth, engaged in the Jesuit college of Salamanca, had endeavoured to construct a Noah's Ark for words;' i.e. a work treating shortly of all kinds of subjects, in such a way as to introduce in a natural connection every word in the Latin language.* The idea,' says Comenius,' was better than the execution. Nevertheless, inasmuch

* This book attracted some notice in this country. An edition, with English instead of Spanish, was published in London about 1515.

as they (the Jesuits) were the prime inventors, we thankfully acknowledge it, nor will we upbraid them with those errors they have committed."* The plan commended itself to Comenius on various grounds. First, he had a notion of giving an outline of all knowledge before anything was taught in detail. Next, he could by such a book connect the teaching about simple things with instruction in the Latin words which applied to them. And thirdly, he hoped by this means to give such a complete Latin vocabulary as to render the use of Latin easy for all requirements of modern society. He accordingly wrote a short account of things in general, which he put in the form of a dialogue, and this he published in Latin and German at Leszno about 1531. The success of this work, as we have already seen, was prodigious. No doubt the spirit which animated Bacon was largely diffused among educated men in all countries, and they hailed the appearance of a book which called the youth from the study of old philosophical ideas to observe the facts around them.

6

The countrymen of Bacon were not backward in adopting the new work, as the following, from the title-page of a volume in the British Museum, will show: The Gate of Tongues Unlocked and Opened; or else, a Seminary or Seed-plot of all Tongues and Sciences. That is, a short way of teaching and thoroughly learning, within a yeare and a half at the furthest, the Latine, English, French and any other tongue, with the ground and foundation of arts and sciences, comprised under a hundred

*Preface to Anchoran's trans. of Janua.

THE JANUA LINGUARUM.'

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titles and 1058 periods. In Latin first, and now, as a token of thankfulness, brought to light in Latine, English, and French, in the behalfe of the most illustrious Prince Charles, and of British, French, and Irish youth. The 4th edition, much enlarged, by the labour and industry of John Anchoran, Licentiate in Divinity, London. Printed by Edward Griffin for Michael Sparke, dwelling at the Blew Bible in Green Arbor, 1639.'

In the preface to this volume we have the complaint which has reproduced itself in various forms up to the present time, that the youth was delayed with grammar precepts infinitely tedious, perplexed, obscure, and (for the most part) unprofitable, and that for many years.' From this barren region the pupil was to escape to become acquainted with things. 'Come on,' says the teacher in the opening dialogue : 6 let us go forth into the open air. There you shall view whatsoever God produced from the beginning, and doth yet effect by nature. Afterwards we will go into towns, shops, schools, where you shall see how men do both apply those Divine works to their uses, and also instruct themselves in arts, manners, tongues. Then we will enter into houses, courts, and palaces of princes, to see in what manner communities of men are governed. At last we will visit temples, where you shall observe how diversely mortals seek to worship their Creator and to be spiritually united unto Him, and how He by His Almightiness disposeth all things.' (This is from the 1656 edition, by 'W.D.') The book is still amusing, but only from the quaint manner in which the mode of life two hundred years.

F

ago is described.

will find a specimen.

In appendix (p. 308) the reader

But though parts of the book may on first reading have gratified the youth of the seventeenth century, a great deal of it gave scanty information about difficult subjects, such as physiology, geometry, logic, rhetoric, and that too in the driest and dullest way. Moreover, Comenius boasts that no important word occurs twice; so that the book, to attain the end of giving a perfect stock of Latin words, would have to be read and re-read till it was almost known by heart; and however amusing boys might find an account of their toys written in Latin the first time of reading, the interest would somewhat wear away by the fifth or sixth time. We cannot then feel much surprised on reading this 'general verdict,' written some thirty years later, touching those earlier works of Comenius: They are of singular use, and very advantageous to those of more discretion (especially to such as have already got a smattering in Latin), to help their memories to retain what they have scatteringly gotten here and there, and to furnish them with many words which perhaps they had not formerly read or so well observed; but to young children, as those that are ignorant altogether of most things and words, they prove rather a mere toil and burden than a delight and furtherance.*

The 'Janua' would, therefore, have had but a shortlived popularity with teachers, and a still shorter with learners, if Comenius had not carried out his principle of appealing to the senses, and called in the artist. The result was the 'Orbis Pictus,' a book which proved * Hoole's preface to his trans. of Orbis Pictus.