Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/143

 The boy is now fifteen years old, and enters the first class. Here he reads Aristotle’s De Interpretatione, and should learn some arithmetic, geography, history, and the elements of astrology. In the classics he should continue to read Demosthenes, Homer, and Cicero.

Religious instruction is to be left for Saints’ days and Church festivals. Before a boy leaves the school he should be well acquainted with the history of Christ and the Apostles, and with the most important events in the Old Testament. In the first class the Catechism, and in the first two the elements of Hebrew grammar should be taught. The afternoon of the last day in each week should ‘be devoted to music, since this is an essential part of a liberal education.

Such was Sturm’s scheme, the model for most of the post-Reformation schools on the continent. Humanist to the back-bone he yet sees the need of real studies, of mathematics, of history, of music. But it is not for these that the school exists. Latin, either written or spoken, is the dish served up for each form. The tardy recommendation of “modern subjects” for the first class, barely saves Sturm from falling into the category of “gerundgrinders.”

Of equal celebrity with Sturm’s establishment, though even less “modern,” was the Latin school reorganised by Calvin at Geneva in 1559. Calvin took the Strasburg school as his model, and the differences to be found in the copy are typical of the man. Great stress is laid on discipline. The boys are to be conducted home from their classes by the masters of the four lowest forms. Each lesson, no matter what the subject be, must commence with prayer, and at every turn we are confronted with the