Page:A history of Bohemian literature.pdf/303

286 tition, has here given us an enormous amount of thought and experience in a very small volume.

The great educational works of Komenský, on which his principal claim to posthumous fame is founded, but which do not perhaps require lengthy mention in a work that deals mainly with literature, were principally written during the author's first prolonged stay at Lissa. Though the order in which Komenský's educational works were written cannot always be ascertained with certainty, there is little doubt that one of the earliest was the Informatorium Školy Mateřské (= instruction for mother-schools). It first appeared in Bohemian in 1628. The little book deals with the earliest instruction which a child receives from its mother. It soon obtained great popularity, and was speedily translated into German, Latin, and English. Anticipating Rousseau, Komenský lays great stress on the duty of mothers to nurse their children. The Instruction for Mother-Schools is still much read in Bohemia, and some of the regulations contained in it have been adopted for the modern "Kindergarten." Many other educational works of Komenský appeared in rapid succession during his stay at Lissa. The most valuable of them is the Didactica Magna, which, like the Informatorium, was originally written and first published in Bohemian. Komenský here establishes four degrees of education the mother-school, the vernacular school, the Latin school or gymnasium, and the academy or university. The earliest education in Germany and