Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/33

 follows: seventeen hundred of the most useful words were to be skilfully arranged in sentences of a kind calculated to impress themselves indelibly on the memory of the student, and by a careful perusal of these a comprehensive knowledge of the language was to be obtained before any classic author was attempted. Such a book, says Bodinus, would be of great use, and he expresses a wish that some competent scholar may undertake the task.

Of the existence of the other work Comenius only became aware after the plan of his own Janua had taken a definite shape in his mind. On acquainting his friends with the scheme, one of them told him that such a book, under the title Janua Linguarum, had already been written by some Jesuit priests in Spain. He lost no time in procuring the work, but found that while it proceeded much on the lines proposed by him, its execution was so imperfect as to minimise its educational value. Of this contribution made by Spain towards the scholastic needs of the day, Comenius gives a full account, and the book itself is worthy of notice. Originally conceived by William Bateus, it had been written by him in conjunction with his brother, John Bateus, and an Irishman named Stephen. William Bateus died at Madrid in 1614, but his work survived him. A Prussian nobleman, when travelling in Spain in 1605 in the company of some Englishmen of good birth, had made the acquaintance of Stephen, who displayed to him his new and infallible method of teaching Latin. Struck by the merit of the book, he took a copy with him, and, on the return of the party to England, had it published in 1615 with a French and an English translation attached. Though imperfect, it supplied a manifest demand, and was shortly afterwards republished at Strasburg by Isaac Habrecht with the addition of a German translation. Still finding favour, it was again brought out by Gaspar Scioppius at Milan in 1627