Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/87

 to learn, in the vernacular, the names of all the objects mentioned; an hour’s instruction being arranged as follows. In the first quarter of an hour, the master reads over a portion of the Vestibulum to his class, and makes the boys read it aloud in turn. In the second, they copy out what he has read to them. In the third, the master explains the meaning of each word and examines the boys to see if they understand. In the fourth they learn the portion off by heart.

Two months should suffice for learning the whole of the Vestibulum in the vernacular, and then the Latin version may be placed in the pupils’ hands. The same method as before may be adopted, and it is estimated that in four months the class should know their task thoroughly. The grammar may then be commenced, care being taken to translate each rule into the vernacular before the boys learn it. For this, three months are allotted, after which the pupils proceed to the lexicon or index. This should be read through in a fortnight, and with a fourfold object: (1) the boys will thus become accustomed to the abbreviations that they will find in the lexicon of the Janua; (2) it will be an excellent opportunity for seeing how well they know the meaning of the words; (3) by referring to the text from the words that they do not know, they will learn the numbers up to 500; (4) an examination in grammar can be instituted by asking them to parse each word as they come to it.

The pupil is now sufficiently advanced to leave the Vestibular and enter the Janual class. In the method that he suggests for this class, Comenius by no means rises to his own level, making the extraordinary proposal that the lexicon (100 folio pages) should be learned first, that then the grammar (twenty-five folio pages) should be mastered, and that then only should the text of the Janua be given to the boys.

Of course he had his reasons for this method, though