Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/181

 are sent to learn our lessons from you! You are set over us as masters, you are to be our models and examples. If any one should wish to deliberate why God prizes children so highly, he will find no weightier reason than this, that children are simpler and more susceptible to the remedy which the mercy of God grants to the lamentable condition of men. For this reason it is that Christ commands us elders to become as little children, that is, to throw off the evil that we have gained from a bad education and from the evil examples of the world, and to return to our former condition of simplicity, gentleness, modesty, purity, and obedience. But, because nothing is harder than to lay aside our habits, it comes to pass that there is no more difficult task than for a badly-trained man to return to his former state. The tree remains as it grows, high or low, with straight or with crooked branches, and when it is full grown cannot be altered. The felloe, the piece of wood which has been bent to the shape of the wheel and has become hard in this position, breaks rather than be straightened, as experience teaches us. God also says the same of men who are accustomed to evil dealing: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil” (Jeremiah xiii. 23). From this it necessarily follows, that, if the corruption of the human race is to be remedied, this must be done by means of the careful education of the young.

But in order to educate the young carefully it is necessary to take timely precautions that their characters be guarded from the corruptions of the world, that the seed of honour sown in them be brought to a happy growth by pure and continuous teaching and examples, and, lastly, that their minds be given over to the true knowledge of God, of man, and of nature, that they may grow accustomed to see in this light the light of God, and to love and to honour the Father of Light above all things.

If this take place, the truth of the Psalmist’s words will be evident, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast