Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/422

 that this slow rate of increase has been accorded to man by the forethought of God (for the larger bodies of animals attain their full growth in a few months, or in a couple of years at most) that he may have the more time to prepare himself for the duties of life.

3. The whole period, therefore, must be divided into four distinct grades: infancy, childhood, boyhood, and youth, and to each grade six years and a special school should be assigned.

A Mother-School should exist in every house, a Vernacular-School in every hamlet and village, a Gymnasium in every city, and a University in every kingdom or in every province.

4. These different schools are not to deal with different subjects, but should treat the same subjects in different ways, giving instruction in all that can produce true men, true Christians, and true scholars; throughout graduating the instruction to the age of the pupil and the knowledge that he already possesses. For, according to the laws of this natural method, the various branches of study should not be separated, but should be taught simultaneously, just as the various parts of a tree increase together at every period of its growth.

5. The difference between these schools is threefold. Firstly, in the earlier schools everything is taught in a general and undefined manner, while in those that follow the information is particularised and exact; just as a tree puts forth more branches and shoots each successive year, and grows stronger and more fruitful.

6. Secondly, in the Mother-School the external senses should be exercised and taught to distinguish the objects that surround them. In the Vernacular-School, the internal senses, the imagination and the memory, in combination