Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/86

 that masters of this stamp were little in sympathy with the most striking features of the new method. “Of what use is a complete nomenclature of objects to us? we are not going to be philosophers,” they said, when the Janua was placed in their hands. “Of what use is style to us? we are not going to be Ciceros,” they remarked, when they saw the Atrium. With such unpromising material it needed a stronger man than Comenius to achieve success.

He was probably at a loss to know how to treat their opposition. The publication at this time of the De Ratione Studii of Joachim Fortius, and of the similarly named treatise of Erasmus, seems due to his desire to avoid odium by sheltering himself behind the authority of former writers. These treatises, however, produced no effect, so he followed them up by a pamphlet of his own, entitled Fortius redivivus, sive de pellenda Scholis ignavia, and, that he might enlist the sympathy of the boys on his side, began to sketch out the work that he called the Vestibuli et Janue Lucidarium or the Ocular demonstration of the nomenclature of Objects, afterwards famous as the Orbis Pictus or World in pictures, and to write his dramatic arrangement of the Janua, published later as the Schola Ludus.

But this brings us back to the text-books. Count Rakoczy had provided a printing-press and other requisites. Their publication was thus rendered a matter of comparative ease, and some of the masters in the school fitted a Hungarian version to the Latin text. They appear in Part III. of the Amsterdam Folio, arranged in order of usage.

First comes the Vestibulum, remodelled as already described. This is followed by a very simple and practical child’s grammar, occupying only thirteen folio columns, after which comes a complete index to the Vestibulum, referring each word to the number of the section in which it occurs. A few hints to the teacher express Comenius’ views as to the method to be adopted. The boy is first