Page:Rules of Life, Johan Amos Comenius.djvu/22

18, new plains, forests, rivers, or seas, or men, or beasts, for you can see such things at home. In this sense it has been rightly said by a certain writer: "Whosoever hath seen one man, one ox, one mountain, one forest, one city, &c. has seen the world, for the world is composed of such;" but that you may see, and hear, and converse with men learned and wise, from whose conversation you may obtain augmentatious of wisdom and virtue:

2. Therefore, when you go to strangers, you will not go, as it were, into another world—the whole world is the father-land of a wise man—but, as to a school which God has willed to be common—so that we, as spectators and bearers by mutual sight and intercourse, may exercise and improve each other.

3. You will reﬂect, inasmuch as you cannot go beyond the world, that you will ﬁnd the world everywhere, that is, vain and profane men, and a mixture of good and bad; therefore, you must fortify your breast against the poisoned weapon of enticements to evil and of corruptions, by assuming the shield of a ﬁrm resolve to attend to nothing, to admire nothing, to love nothing, and to bring nothing home but what may become some accession of virtue and of felicity to yourself and to your friends, to your country and to the church of God.

4. You will depart from the sight of your parents and your country, not, however, like Cain, a deserter from the face of God, to seek a ﬁeld for impiety and licentiousness. For wherever you go, the Eyes of God will accompany you, and along with these, blessings or curses will overtake you. But as the younger Tobias travelled to gratify the will of his parents and to seek among strangers everywhere treasures of wisdom and of good examples; you, therefore go, with a pure intention, with a mind, and heart, and all your senses chaste, and so the angel of the Lord will accompany you, and conduct you, and lead you back.