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 family he met with opposition. We learn from letters of Figulus to Arnold, that his son-in-law had disapproved of the publication of Lux in Tenebris in 1657.

It is difficult to understand how Comenius found it possible to do much more work at his Pansophia during these years, since to edit the prophecies and fight their battles with the sceptical must have taken up nearly as much time as to write school-books at Elbing. De Geer, however, seems to have made every arrangement in his power to ensure that the Universal Knowledge should be carried to a successful issue. “I still more and more admire the zeal and piety of that admirable man,” wrote Rulice to Hartlib in 1658. “I must tell you in aurem, if Comen do not mention it, he hath called also Figulus, with his family, hither, and will maintain him only to assist his father-in-law and to know all concerning Pansophia, that if Comen should die or be carried away, he may finish it.”

De Geer, in fact, was willing to spend his money on any object that commended itself to his evangelical friends. The Rakoczy family had refused to finance the translation of the Bible into Turkish, but he came to the rescue with his inexhaustible purse. The work was undertaken by a certain Warner, who had travelled in Turkey, and was to be revised by Golius, the well-known orientalist. Hartlib announces this in triumph to Boyle and Worthington. At last the Deus ex machina, destined to interpose and strike the final blow at Catholicism, would be instructed in the part that he was called upon play.

With the publication of the Opera Omnia Didactica, Comenius had not entirely ceased to take an interest in matters educational. In 1658 we find him giving practical instruction in his method to Jacob Redinger, master of the Latin School at Frankenthal. Redinger had heard of him from afar, and was not satisfied till he came to Amsterdam to consult the great oracle of school-craft. Comenius’ magic influence, that enthralled every schoolmaster with a disinterested love for the profession of education, made a deep impression on him. He became