Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/440



1. this school the pupils should learn four languages and acquire an encyclopædic knowledge of the arts. Those youths who have completed its whole curriculum should have had a training as:

(i) Grammarians, who are well versed in Latin and in their mother-tongue, and have a sufficient acquaintance with Greek and Hebrew.

(ii) Dialecticians, who are well skilled in making definitions, in drawing distinctions, in arguing a point, and in solving hard questions.

(iii) Rhetoricians or orators, who can talk well on any given subject.

(iv) Arithmeticians, and (v) geometricians; both on account of the use of these sciences in daily life, and because they sharpen the intellect more than anything else.

(vi) Musicians, both practical and theoretical.

(vii) Astronomers, who have, at any rate, mastered the rudiments, such as the knowledge of the heavenly bodies, and the calculation of their movements, since without this science it is impossible to understand not only physics but also geography and a great part of history.

2. The above are commonly known as the seven liberal arts, a knowledge of which is demanded from a doctor of philosophy. But our pupils must aim higher than this, and in addition must be: