Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/340

 junction. Not without purpose was it that, as the ancients relate, the walls of the temple of Æsculapius were covered with the precepts of the art of medicine, written there by Hippocrates himself. This great theatre of the world, also, God has filled with pictures, statues, and living emblems of His wisdom, that He may instruct us by their means. (Of these pictorial aids we will say more when we treat of the individual classes.)

How is it possible for all the scholars in a school to do the same thing at one time?

37. It is evident that it would be a useful arrangement if all the pupils in a class did the same lesson at one time, for in this way the teacher would have less trouble and the scholars greater advantage. It is only when the attention of all is fixed on the same object, and when each tries in turn to correct the other, that keen rivalry can arise. In every way the teacher must imitate a captain of recruits. This latter does not exercise each of his men separately, but leads out a whole company at once and shows them how to use their arms; and even if he explain anything to one man apart, the remainder have to go through the same exercise in order that their attention may be retained.

The teacher should proceed on precisely similar lines.

38. Before he can do this it is necessary

(i) That the course of instruction commence at one definite time in each year, just as the influence of the sun on the vegetable world commences at one definite time, namely, in spring.

(ii) That the subjects of instruction be so divided that each year, each month, each week, each day, and even each hour may have a definite task appointed for it, since, if this be done, everything that is proposed will be completed with ease. But of this we will say more in the proper place.