Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/151

 appear. Helwig’s Didactica, however, is mentioned, and it was doubtless through this work that Alsted was brought into contact with the educational scheme that was causing so much stir at Giessen. A few quotations from his maxims will suffice to show how great must have been the influence of this thinker, an influence that was personal as well as intellectual, as he made a point of maintaining the closest intercourse with his pupils.

1. Not more than one thing should be taught at a time.

2. Not more than one book should be used on one subject, and not more than one subject should be taught on one day.

3. Everything should be taught through the medium of what is more familiar.

4. All superfluity should be avoided.

5. All study should be mapped out in fixed periods.

6. All rules should be as short as possible.

7. Everything should be taught without severity, though discipline must be maintained.

8. Corporal punishment should be reserved for moral offences, and never inflicted for lack of industry.

9. Authority should not be allowed to prejudice the mind against the facts gleaned from experience; nor should custom or preconceived opinion prevail.

10. The constructions of a new language should first be explained in the vernacular.

11. No language should be taught by means of grammar.

12. Grammatical terms should be the same in all languages. In restricting the use of the vernacular school to girls, and to boys destined for manual labour, Alsted was less thorough than his disciple; but in duly valuing the personal influence of the individual teacher, he shows, on this point at least, the sounder judgment. “The teacher,” he says, “should be a skilled reader of character, that he may be