Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/365

 characters may be printed very faintly on a white page, so that the pupil may go over them with pen and ink, and in this way may easily acquire the habit of shaping them. The same thing holds good in style, if any construction or sentence extracted from a classic writer have to be imitated. If the original phrase be “Rich in possessions,” the boy should be made to imitate it by saying, “Rich in coins,” “Rich in moneys,” “Rich in flocks,” “Rich in vineyards.” When Cicero says, “In the opinion of the most learned men, Eudemus easily holds the first place in astrology,” this may be copied with very little alteration as “In the opinion of the greatest orators, Cicero easily holds the first place in eloquence,” “In the opinion of the whole Church, St. Paul easily holds the first place in Apostleship.” So too in logic, if the well-known dilemma be given: It is either day or night. But it is night; therefore it is not day; the boy may learn to imitate it by similarly opposing contradictory conceptions to one another. As, “He is either unlearned or learned. But he is unlearned; therefore he is not learned”; “Cain was either pious or impious, but he was not pious”; and so on.

11. (vii) The models of the objects that have to be produced must be as perfect as is possible, so that if any one exercise himself sufficiently in imitating them it will be possible for him to become perfect in his art.

It is impossible to draw straight lines with a curved ruler, and in the same way a good copy cannot be made from a bad model. Great care should therefore be taken that models be prepared of everything that is to be done in school, or indeed in life, and that these be exact, simple, and easy to imitate. They may be either models, pictures and drawings, or precepts and rules; but all must be very short, very clear, self-evident, and absolutely correct.

12. (viii) The first attempt at imitation should be as accurate as possible, that not the smallest deviation from the model be made.

That is to say, as far as is possible. For whatever comes first is, as it were, the foundation of that which follows. If