Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/63

 These negotiations occupied the spring of 1642, during which time Comenius employed himself by composing his Pansophiae Diatyposis, published two years later at Amsterdam.

He now, quite unexpectedly, received an invitation to go to France, but, having already made up his mind to visit Sweden, left London for Holland in June. In August he reached Norköping and had his first interview with de Geer. On the subject of Pansophia the new patron preserved a discreet silence, but after several days’ conversation an understanding appears to have been arrived at, and nothing remained but to fix on a suitable spot in which Comenius might settle down to his labours.

Partly with the object of getting suggestions on this point he went to Stockholm by de Geer’s advice to see Oxenstierna, the Swedish Chancellor, and Skythe the Rector of the University at Upsala. The fact was that what de Geer wanted was not Pansophic works, but school-books for the Swedish schools, and in sending Comenius to call on Oxenstierna he was doubtless carrying out a preconcerted scheme.

Arrived at Stockholm, Comenius had to undergo a running fire of interrogation. Oxenstierna in particular plied him with the most searching questions, and his remarks seem to have made a deep impression on the worthy pedagogue, since, in one of the brief biographical notices that are scattered up and down his works, he devotes more space to this interview than to any other event in his life. For two days the Chancellor discussed the Didactic works. From his youth, he confessed, he had felt that the common methods of instruction were contrary to nature, but had been unable to say exactly what the defect was. At last, when on an embassy to Germany, some learned men with whom he discussed the subject told him that Wolfgang Ratke had devised a new method. He immediately put himself into communication with him; but Ratke absolutely refused to give him a personal interview, and sent him instead a ponderous quarto volume, the contents of which