Page:The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart.pdf/46

42 It is not my intention to refer here in more detail to the Bohemian philosopher's stay in London, where he and his friends wished to found a pansophic academy. Public events in England rendered such an undertaking an impossibility.

Komensky therefore decided to leave London, and started, in June, 1642, only a few weeks before civil war broke out in England. Through Holland and Germany, he proceeded to Sweden. He had been invited to that country by the Chancellor Oxenstierna, who had heard of his fame as an educator from Louis de Geer, a rich Dutch merchant, who had business connection with Sweden. Oxenstierna wished Komensky to undertake the task of writing a series of school-books for use in the Swedish schools. Komensky consented to do so, but refused to take up his residence in Sweden. He settled for some time (1642-1648) at Elbing, a small—now Prussian—town on the Baltic, not very distant from the Swedish coast. Conscientious as he always was, he worked hard there at the school-books he had undertaken to write, while he also laboured hard at his pansophic works, encouraged by his English friends, who urged him not to devote all his time to "mere school-books."