Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/60

 nature that we have already noticed in Comenius’ Pansophic writings, contains some points that are both new and interesting. The term “light” is taken to signify the millennium of learning to be attained by Pansophic methods, though at the same time the physical phenomenon of light is dealt with and its nature declared to consist of waves or motion (chap. ix.) This “light” is to be obtained by means of four things—universal books, universal schools, a universal college, and a universal language (chap. xv.) The universal college is to consist of men chosen from the whole world. These must be gifted, industrious, and pious, and their task is to further the welfare of mankind and extend the limits of knowledge in every way. England is a suitable place in which to found this college, partly because its position renders communication easy with the whole world, partly in memory of Bacon, and partly because it has offered to found the college and supply it with funds.

More important than all is the foundation of a universal language. Vives had suggested Latin, but Comenius thinks otherwise. Latin is too difficult, and is at the same time a poor language. A new tongue must be devised, at the same time easier and more complete than other languages. With this end in view, it is important to investigate the relation of sounds to objects and to harmony.

A new language can be formed in two ways, from the languages that exist or from things themselves. The latter is the method approved by Comenius. This universal language is not to abolish others. Learned men may still use Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and nations their vernaculars (chap. xix.) A golden age is then to set in, in which the conversion is to take place, first of the Mohammedans, then of the heathen, and finally of the Jews (chap. xxi.)

In the conception of a new language, on which he lays so much stress, he was not alone. Dalgarno, a Scotsman, published a sketch of a Lingua Philosophica in 1661, and