Page:Comenius' School of Infancy.pdf/34



1. It must not be supposed that youth can, without the application of assiduous labor, be trained up in the manner described. For if a young shoot designed to become a tree requires to be planted, watered, hedged around for protection, and to be propped up; if a piece of wood designed for a particular form requires to be submitted to the hatchet, to be split, to be planed, to be carved, to be polished, and to be stained with diverse colors; if a horse, an ox, an ass, or a mule must be trained to perform their services to man; nay, if man himself stands in need of instruction as to his bodily actions, so that he may be daily trained as to eating, drinking, running, speaking, seizing with the hand, and laboring; how, I pray, can those duties, higher and more remote from the senses, such as faith, virtue, wisdom, and knowledge, spontaneously come to any one? It is altogether impossible.

2. God therefore has enjoined this duty on parents, that they should wisely convey, and with all due diligence instil