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Rh turies of oppression, is still in a large measure the Czech of the old. He is kind and with a stock of native humor. He is musical, loves songs, poetry, art, nature, fellowship, the other sex. He is an intent thinker and restlessseeker of truth, of learning, but no apt schemer. He is ambitious, and covetous of freedom in the broadest sense, but tendencies to domineering, oppression, power by force over others, are foreign to his nature. He ardently searches for God and is inclined to be deeply religious, but is impatient of dogma, as of all other undue restraint.

He may be opinionated, stubborn, but is happy to accept facts and recognize true superiority. He is easily hurt and does not forget the injury; will fight, but is not lastingly revengeful or vicious. He is not cold, calculating, thin-lipped, nor again as inflammable as the Pole or the southern Slav, but is sympathetic and full of trust, and through this often open to imposition.

His endurance and bravery in war for a cause which he approved were proverbial, as was also his hospitality in peace.

He is often highly capable in languages, science, literary and technical education, and is inventive, as well as industrial, but not commercial. Imaginative, artistic, creative, rather than frigidly practical. Inclined at times to melancholy, brooding, pessimism, he is yet deep at heart for ever buoyant, optimistic, hopeful—hopeful not of possessions or power, but of human happiness, and of the freedom and future golden age of not merely his own, but all people.

Every nation has its local heroes, local geniuses, but these mean little for the rest of the world. Bohemia had a due share of such among its kings, reformers, generals, and especially writers; but it also gave the world many a son whose work was of importance for humanity in general and whose fame is international. Not a few of these were exiles or emigrants from the country of their birth, who, having settled permanently abroad, are only too readily credited to the country that gave them asylum. Germany and Austria, as the nearest geographically and with a language that the Czech youth were forced to learn, received most of such accessions; but some reached Holland, France, England, and even America.

One of the most honored names in the universal history of pedagogy is that of the Czech patriot and exile, Jan Amos Komensky, or Comenius (1592–1671), the last bishop of the Bohemian Brethren.

Driven away, in 1624, after all his books and manuscripts were taken and burnt, he settles for a time in Poland, then in Holland. His pedagogical writings constitute the foundations of modern education. His best-known works in this connection are Janua linguarum reserata (1631), Labyrinth of the World (1631), Opera didactica magna (1657), and Orbis pictus (1658). This latter work is the first children's picture-book. He condemns the system of mere memorizing in school, then in use, and urges that the scholar be taught to think. Teaching should be, as far as possible, demonstrative, directed to nature, and develop habits of individual observation.

All children, without exception—rich or poor, noble or common—should receive schooling, and all should learn to the limits of their possibilities. "They should learn to observe all things of importance, to reflect on the cause of their being as they are, and on their interrelations and utility; for the children are destined to be not merely spectators in this world, but active participants."

"Languages should be taught, like the mother tongue, by conversation on ordinary topics; pictures, object lessons, should be used; teaching should go hand in hand with a happy life. In his course he included singing, economy, politics, world history, geography, and the arts and handicrafts. He was one of the first to advocate teaching science in schools."

The child should "learn to do by doing." Education should be made pleasant; the parents should be friends of the teachers; the school-room should be spacious, and each school should have a good place for play and recreation.