Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/31

 For the fourth year’s work the Labyrinth of Wisdom was provided. This consisted largely of questions and answers of a subtle description, and was intended to sharpen the intellect. Next followed the Spiritual Balsam-bed of the Christian Youth, in which the use of all sciences and arts is demonstrated, while the series is terminated by the Paradise of the Soul, which comprised an abstract of Scripture History, together with the principal Church hymns and prayers.

It is much to be regretted that this series of books has not been preserved, but the titles enable us to gather an adequate idea of their contents. The scholar enters the vernacular school, having received a grounding in the elements of knowledge. This groundwork is developed in a definite manner by means of regular class instruction, and thus, by the time he reaches his twelfth year, the boy possesses a fair acquaintance with the realities of the world in which he lives. This acquaintance is the more extensive, because his attention has been exclusively devoted to “real studies,” and Latin has been completely deferred to the next stage.

In particular should be noticed the way in which the principle of gradation is applied. Each class-book is suited to the age of the pupils. The very name of the first, The Violet-bed, is intended to attract the child who comes to school for the first time, and is apprehensive that the process of learning will be dull and distasteful, while the course of instruction for the fifth year is but a more! advanced edition of that for the third.

In spite of the practical tendency of the age, a tendency strongly exemplified by Comenius himself, the study of Latin still remained the chief factor in the school curriculum. Nor was this altogether without reason. Apart from its philological value, Latin was the gate through which alone the world of letters could be entered, and the student who could talk and write in the tongue of Cicero possessed a means of communication with kindred spirits throughout the world, unequalled in universality by any