Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/43

 Janua that the book might serve the better as an introduction to it. He selected about 1000 of the most common Latin words, and out of them constructed 427 sentences. These are very simple throughout, as the following examples will show:—

6. Deus est æternus, mundus temporarius.

7. Angelus immortalis, homo mortalis.

8. Corpus visibile, spiritus invisibilis, anima itidem.

9. Cœlum est supremum, Aer medius, Terra infima.

246. Scholasticus sponte frequentat scholam, quo in artibus erudiatur.

247. Initium est a literis.

248. Ex syllabis voces componuntur, e dictionibus sermo.

249. Ex libro legimus tacite, aut recitamus clare.

250. Involvimus eum membranæ et ponimus in pulpito.

251. Atramentum est in atramentario.

The preface contains instructions for the book’s use. It is first to be read through twice, and then the boy is to commit the sentences to memory, learning two or three in an hour and repeating them to the master. Each sentence is to be translated to the pupil before he reads it, that he may have no difficulty in making it out. The declension of nouns is to be taught as the boy makes his way through the book; nouns and adjectives should be declined together as Deus æternus; Mundus temporarius. As a help to recollecting the case-meanings the following table is given:—