Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/363

 same way the beginner in grammar should learn, first how to inflect single words, then how to join two together. Then he may advance to simple and compound sentences, and so on till he reach continuous prose. So too in dialectic. The student should first learn to distinguish things and the concepts of things by means of their genera and species; then to classify them afresh, with respect to some other common quality (for such links exist between all things); then to define and distribute them; then to estimate the value of the things and their concepts in combination, seeking out the what? the whence? and the why? and whether it be necessary or contingent. When he has had sufficient practice in this, he may proceed to ratiocination and seek how to draw conclusions from given premises, and finally he may essay discursive reasoning or the complete conduct of disputations. The same course may with advantage be followed in rhetoric. The student should first devote some time to the collection of synonyms, and may then learn to add epithets to nouns, verbs, and adverbs. He may then proceed to the use of antithesis, and later on to that of periphrasis. Then he may substitute figurative words for the originals, alter the order of the words for the sake of euphony, and adorn a simple sentence with all the figures of speech. Finally, when thoroughly versed in all these several points, and not sooner, he may proceed to the composition of a complete discourse. If any one advance step by step in any art, as here indicated, it is impossible that he should not make progress.

The basis of the foregoing was discussed in Principle 4.

9. (v) Beginners should at first practise on a material that is familiar to them.

This rule we obtain from the 9th Principle of the, and from the 6th Corollary of the 4th Principle. Its meaning is that students should not be overburdened with matters that are unsuitable to their age, comprehension, and present condition, since otherwise they will spend their time in wrestling with shadows. For example,