Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/442

 (iv) The Ethics class.

The Dialectic class.

(vi) The Rhetoric class.

5. I presume that no one can raise any objection to my placing grammar first, since it is the key of all knowledge; but to those who are always guided by custom it may seem strange that I have placed real studies before dialectic and ethics. No other arrangement, however, is possible. It has already been shown that the study of facts must precede that of their combinations, that matter logically precedes its form, that this is the only method by which sure and rapid progress can be made, and that we must therefore learn our facts by observation before we can either pass a sound judgment on them, or enunciate them in well-turned phrases. A man may have the whole apparatus of logic and of eloquence at his fingers’ ends, but of what value can his investigation or his proof be, if he be ignorant of the objects with which he is dealing? It is as impossible to talk sensibly about matters with which we are not acquainted as it is for a virgin to bring forth a child. Things exist in themselves, and are quite independent of their relation to thought and to speech. But thought and speech have no meaning apart from things, and depend entirely upon them. Unless it refers to definite objects, speech is nothing but sound without sense, and it is therefore absolutely necessary to give our pupils a thorough preliminary training in real studies.

6. Though many have held the contrary opinion, it has been conclusively shown by learned writers that the study of natural philosophy should precede that of ethics.

Lipsius, in his Physiology, bk. i. chap. i., writes as follows:—

“I am distinctly in agreement with the distinguished authorities who hold that natural philosophy should come first. Its study is productive of great pleasure, stimulates and retains the attention, and forms a suitable introduction to ethics.”

7. It is open to argument whether the Mathematical