Page:A history of Bohemian literature.pdf/285

268 little favour in England, Komenský yet remained in London up to June 1642. He here wrote, for the benefit of Hartlib and his other English friends, his Via Lucis, in which millennarian views are very noticeable.

Soon after his arrival in London, Komenský had received a letter from Louis de Geers, a rich Dutch merchant, who had important business connections with Sweden. He had already entered into correspondence before, and the letter of De Geers was forwarded to Komenský from Lissa. De Geers in his letter suggested that Komenský should proceed to Sweden for the purpose of reorganising the schools of that country according to his new educational theories. It is a proof how soon he had lost his hope in English aid for his pansophic plans that in November 1641 Komenský already conditionally accepted the offer of De Geers. The latter had really thought of Komenský only as a man who was already an authority on matters of education; but Komenský himself, sanguine as ever, saw in a visit to Sweden an opportunity of expounding his pansophic views to the Chancellor Oxenstiern, and also—a more sensible object—of enlisting the sympathies of the Swedish statesman for the Bohemian exiles.

In June 1642 Komenský left England, and first proceeded to Holland. It is a proof of the great celebrity that he had already attained that he here received yet another invitation. While travelling in Holland, Komenský met Richard Charles Winthrop, formerly Governor of Massachusetts, who suggested to him that he should proceed to America and become rector of Harvard College, that had been founded six years before. Komenský, who was bound by his agreement with the Swedish Government, in the name of which De Geers had