Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/463

 time to it, or who may be imperfectly acquainted with some of the subjects that must be included in the comprehensive scheme. Moreover, if absolute perfection be desired, one lifetime is not sufficient for the completion of the work, which must therefore be entrusted to a collegiate body of learned men.

10. But it is impossible to call such a body into existence unless it be supported and financed by some king or state, while to ensure success a quiet and secluded spot and a library are necessary. In addition, it is essential that no one offer any opposition to such a goodly plan for glorifying the Creator and benefiting the human race, but rather that all prepare to work in harmony with the grace of God, which will be communicated to us more liberally through these new channels.

11. Therefore let your zeal blaze forth when ye hear this wholesome counsel. O dearest parents of children, into whose charge God has entrusted His most precious treasures, those made in His own image, may ye never cease to entreat the God of Gods that these efforts may have a successful issue, and by your prayers and solicitations to work upon the minds of powerful and learned men. In the meantime, bring up your children piously in the fear of God, and thus prepare the way for that more universal education of which we have spoken.

12. Do you also, O instructors of the young, whose task it is to plant and water the tender grafts of paradise, pray with all earnestness that these aids to your labours may be perfected and brought into daily use as soon as possible. For since ye have been called that “ye may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth” (Isaiah li. 16), what can be more pleasing to you than to reap as rich a harvest as possible from your labour? Therefore, let your heavenly calling, and the confidence of the parents who entrust their offspring to you, be as a fire within you, and give you and those who come under your influence no rest until the whole of your native land is lit up by this flaming torch.