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mortals, let us hasten without circuit, toward our object. If our eyes are fast and clearly fixed upon this, why do we not together steer toward it? why should we prefer to see with others' eyes, rather than with our own? Almost no one teaches physics by actual observation and experiment: all instruct by the oral explanation of the works of Aristotle or some body else. In short, men must be led as much as possible, to gather their learning, not from books, but from the observations of the heavens and the earth, oak trees and books; that is, he must know and investigate things themselves, not merely the observations and explanations of others about them. And thus we shall be again following in the footsteps of the ancients." Comenius' meaning is too clear to need an explanation. Further on,* he goes more fully into the method of instruction. The object must be a real, true, useful thing, capable of making an impression upon the senses and the apprehension. This is necessary, that it may be brought into communication with the senses; if visible, with the eyes, if audible, with the ears, if odorous, with the nose, if sapid, with the taste, if tangible, with the touch. The beginning of knowledge must be with the senses. "Must not, therefore," he asks, "the beginning of teaching be, not at all with the verbal explanation of the things, but with the real intuition of them? and then first, after the presentation of the thing itself, may the oral explanation be added, for the further elucidation of it." What has thus been perceived by the senses, sinks deep into the memory, and can not be forgotten; an event is better remembered, if one has lived through it, than if he has heard it related a hundred times. Thus says Plautus, "One showing to the eye is more than ten showings to the ear." One who has, with his own eyes, seen a corpse dissected, better understands the anatomy of the human body, and gets more insight into it, than if he had read the greatest quantity of anatomical books, without having seen it. Hence the old proverb, "Demonstration must make up for intuition."

If here and there a thing is wanting, one or another thing may make up for it. So, for example, pictures, such as are to be found in botanical, zoological, geographical, and other books. Such should be in every school; for although they cost much, they are of much use. IV. COMENIUS' three school books, the Vestibulum, the revised Janua RESERATA, AND THE ATRIUM.

A. Vestibulum.

Soon after publishing the Janua reserata, Comenius wrote a small

Didactica Magna, p. 115, etc.

† Comenius repeatedly refers to his maxim, Nihil est in intellectu, quod non prius in sensu. + Comenius also quotes Horace's "Segnius irritant animos," etc.

school book called Januae reseratae Vestibulum,* of only 427 short sentences.

About 1648 he published a revisal of it, and a second in 1650, while at Patak, employed in re-organizing the schools there. He intended this second revisal as a manual for the lower classes of this. school; I will briefly describe its form and contents.

It begins with an Invitatio; the teacher promising to the scholar an introduction to wisdom, to the knowledge of all things, to the ability to do right always, and to speak correctly of every thing, especially in Latin, which, as a language common to all nations, is indispensable to a learned education. In the Vestibulum the foundations of language are laid, in the Janua the materials for building are furnished; and in the Atrium, the decoration of the edifice is begun. After this the scholar may enter the palace of authors; that is, their wise books; by the perusal of which he may become learned, wise and eloquent.

The second part treats of the classification of things; that is, of substantives only, E. g.: Sidera sunt, sol, luna, stella. In sole sunt, lux, radius, lumen. Sine lumine est; umbra, caligo, tenebrae.

Apld uanionem; farcimen, perna, lardum, arvina, adeps, sebum, etc. In the third part, the modifications of things are brought forward, adjectives being the most prominent words, E. g.; Sol est clarus vel obscurus. Luna plena vel dimidia. Stella fixa, vel vaga.

The fourth part is headed mentiones rerum. E. g.; Quis ibi est? Is quem vides. Quid fert? Id quod vides. It explains especially the pronouns.

In the fifth section, headed motus rerum, verbs are introduced. E. g.; Quaeque res potest aliquid esse, agere, pati. Dei actio est creare, sustentare, beare. Sentire est, videre, audire, etc. After this. comes the varieties of human action, e. g., per membra corporis, per animam, etc.

The sixth section, headed Modi actionum et passionum, includes the adverbs. E. g., Ubi est? hic, illic, ibi, etc.

The seventh, headed Circumstantiae rerum et actionum, brings in the prepositions. E. g., Quod movetur, movetur ab aliquo praeter aliquid, ad aliquid.

The eighth, headed Cohaerentiae rerum et actionum, contains conjunctions. E. g., Ego et tu, illeque sumus homines, etc.

Opp. did., 1, 302. Preface dated 4th January, 1633.

↑ Opp. did., 2, 293. Preface undated. This Vestibulum immediately followed the Methodus Novissima, in which, (p. 163, 173,) it is described. Only a fragment of it is in the Opp. did. Opp. did., 3, 141.

No. 13,-[Vol. V. No. I,]—18.

The ninth, Compendia rerum et verborum, contains interjections. E. g., Heus tu! Ecce me! etc.

The tenth is entitled Multiplicatio rerum et verborum; and contains some examples of the derivation and relation of words. E. g.; Doctus, doctor, docet, dociles, doctrinam, etc.

The Janua and the Atrium contain each 1,000 sentences, but the Vestibulum only half as many, 500.

To the Vestibulum are subjoined the rudiments of grammar. Chap. 1 treats of the letters; chaps. 2-10 correspond with the same of the Vestibulum, e. g.; chap. 2 treats of nouns, and gives briefly the declensions; chap. 5 of verbs, conjugation, etc.; chap. 10 explains the ideas of primitives, derivatives, compounds, etc., and chap. 11 gives fifteen simple rules of syntax.

This grammar is followed by a Repertorium vestibulare sive lexici Latini rudimentum, containing all the words in the Vestibulum, alphabetically arranged, with the number of that sentence of the five hundred where it is found. E. g.: Cano, (cecini, cantum,) 457. And sentence 457 is, Cantoris est canere.

In a letter to Tolnai, teacher of the first (lowest) class at Patak, Comenius writes of his duties as a teacher, and especially of the use of the Vestibulum, etc. He (Tolnai) receives scholars who can read and write their mother tongue; and he is to teach them the grounds of Latin and the rudiments of grammar and arithmetic.

The arrangement of the Vestibulum might seem to be exclusively grammatical, as it begins with substantives, and proceeds to adjectives, etc. It is in fact, however, in the profoundest sense, an arrangein the order of things; for it began with the enumeration of the things themselves, and goes on to their principal qualities, (primaria rerum accidentia,) and so on.

Comenius would have been glad to illustrate the Vestibulum with such cuts as the text requires, to amuse the boys and to enable them better to remember, but was prevented for want of competent artists. The want of such cuts must be supplied by the teacher, by explanations of the things, showing them, or by such delineations of them as may be accessible. If there be not some such reference to them, the instruction will be entirely lifeless. "This parallelism of the knowledge of words and things is the deepest secret of the method." In order that this may be more easily done, this nomenclature (of the Vestibulum) is to be translated into the mother tongue, and with this translation the scholars are to be first taken over the ground before any study of Latin. Thus their whole attention will be confined to

This latter reminds us strongly of Sturm's Epistolae classicae.

the things; they will not be required at the same time to attend to unknown things and unknown languages, but only to the first.

B. Janua.

I have already described the Janua reserata of 1631, the first edition. But the Janua which Comenius describes in the Methodus Novissima, is different from this. The latter consists of a text, similar to that of the original Janua, but to which is added a lexicon, and to this a grammar; there being thus three parts, as in the Vestibulum.*

Comenius brought out the third edition of the Janua, at the same time with the third of the Vestibulum, for the schools at Patak. It does not, however, like the latter, begin with the text and go on to the grammar and lexicon, but in a reversed order, with lexicon, grammar and text. The lexicon is entitled, Sylva Latinae linguae vocum derivatarum copiam explicans, sive lexicon januale. It is etymological, showing the derivation of each word. E. g.: Fin-is-it omnia, et ostendit rei-em, h. e. - alem causam. De-ibus agrorum saepe sunt lites, quas-itor de-it distinguens agrum tam ab agris - itimis (seu af-et con-ibus) quam a con-iis inde-itis. Si vero inter af-es (af-itate junctos) jurgia exoriuntur, judex prae-it diem prae-itum, quo ea-aliter deitat; nam-ita esse convenit; non in-ita; in-itas Dei est.

In this manner are arranged some twenty-five hundred roots and their derivations and compounds, with the rules of derivation and composition.

The teacher is to occupy some four months, in the beginning, in taking his scholars through this lexicon; for they must first become acquainted with words, which are the simple elements of language. He calls the lexicon the forest, in which the radical words, with their derivations and compounds, are the trees and their branches. These form the material in which the second book, the Grammatica janualis continens residuum grammaticae vestibularis, is to be used and prepared for the construction of speech.

In the introduction to the grammar, Comenius laments the faults of the earlier teachers of language, quoting especially the valuable teacher Gerard Vossius. "Our grammars," says Vossius, "contain a

* According to Opp. did., 2, 299, this second edition contained only the Januae linguarum grammatica. Comp. Meth. nov.; Opp. did., 2, 181.

† Opp. did., 3, 219.

1 I. e., Finis finit omnia, et ostendit rei finem, h. e. finalem causam, etc. For the sake of greater clearness, Comenius afterward, (Opp. 4, 60,) required the German equivalent to be added, as

Am-are-or-ator,

Lieb-en-e-haber.

(Lov-e-e-er.)

mass of rules and exceptions which overwhelm the boys, who are obliged to learn much that is superfluous, only soon to forget it; and besides, how many false rules do these grammars contain!" "Lipsius," continues Comenius, " calls them silly; and Caselius, more than silly, and they agree that it would be better to learn Latin only from authors." Comenius, however, does not coincide with them in this; mere practice, he says, is blind; it is only by rules that they attain to the sure comprehension. He says further, in speaking of the Grammatica Janualis, subjoined to the Vestibulum, that it follows especially G. Vossius.

The succession of chapters in this grammar is:* De Litera, Syllaba, Voce, Phrasi, Sententia, Periodo, Oratione. It proceeds from the simple beginnings of the Grammatica Vestibularis, leaving, however, the subtilities and delicacies of the language for a higher class. From this grammar the scholar goes on to a third part, a Janualis rerum et verborum contextus, historiolam rerum continens. This is a revision of the earlier Janua reserata, but more extensive and complete, although, like it, containing a thousand paragraphs, in a hundred sections. In the first Janua each paragraph usually consisted of one short period; but in the second the paragraphs are often much longer.

C. Atrium.

Comenius describes the Atrium in his Methodus novissima; but he first published it for the school at Patak.§ Like its predecessor, it is divided into three parts; but its arrangement, like that of the Janua, varies from that of the Vestibulum; a grammar coming first, then the text, and then the lexicon: Comenius calls the grammar of the Atrium, Ars ornatoria, cive grammatica elegans. He defines it, "The art of speaking elegantly. To speak with elegance is, to express the thoughts otherwise than the laws of the mother tongue require, and yet to be understood with more pleasure than if we had spoken according to those laws." From this definition it follows, that Comenius was not speaking of what they called fine Latin, free from barbarisms, but of such Latin as was then used in rhetorical exercises.

After the grammar follows the Atrium itself; which, also, is an encyclopædia of one thousand paragraphs, in one hundred sections, but more extensive and advanced than that in the preceding Janua.

Opp. did., 3, 428.

t Ib., 474.

Ib., 451. There is here a great error in the paging; p. 451 following 592.

$ Opp. did., 2, 163, 197, 458. David Bechner published before Comenius, in 1636, a fragment entitled Proplasma templi Latinitatis, (Opr. did., 1, 318,) which, like the Atrium, was to follow the Janua

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