Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/456

 print a whole work, and the same thing holds good of class-books and teaching apparatus; since it is irritating, tedious, and fatal to good teaching to begin and then to be compelled to leave off through lack of the proper appliances.

11. A well-managed printing-press is supplied with all kinds of type, and is thus equal to every demand that can be made upon it; and, similarly, our class-books must contain everything necessary for a thorough education, that there may be no one who by their aid cannot learn whatever should be learned.

12. The type are not left in confusion, but are neatly arranged in boxes that they may be ready to hand when needed. Similarly, our class-books do not present their subject-matter to the pupil in a confused mass, but split it up into sections, allotting so much to a year, a month, a day, and an hour.

13. Only those type which are needed at the minute are taken from the type-cases; the rest remain undisturbed. Similarly, no books but those intended for his class should be given to a boy; others would only confuse and distract him.

14. Finally, type-setters use a straight edge which helps them to arrange the words in lines, and the lines in columns, and prevents any part from getting out of place. In the same way the instructors of the young should have standard or model to aid them in their work; that is to say, guide-books should be written for their use, and these should tell them what to do on each occasion, and should preclude the possibility of error.

15. There will, therefore, be two kinds of class-books, those that contain the subject-matter and are intended for the pupils, and guide-books to assist the teacher to handle his subject properly.

16. As we have already remarked, it is the voice of the teacher that corresponds to the ink used in printing. If it be attempted to use type when they are dry, nothing but a faint and evanescent mark is made on the paper, in