"The foundation of all learning consists in representing clearly to the senses sensible objects, so that they can be apprehended easily. I maintain that this is the basis of all other actions, inasmuch as we could neither act nor speak wisely unless we comprehended clearly what we wished to say or do. For it is certain that there is nothing in the understanding which has not been previously in the sense; and consequently, to exercise the senses carefully in discriminating the differences of natural objects, is to lay the foundation of all wisdom, all eloquence, and all good and prudent action." The "World Illustrated" had an enormous circulation, and remained for a long time the most popular text-book in Europe.

In 1654 Comenius returned to his former home at Lissa. Here one more misfortune awaited him before the close of his eventful career. When that town was plundered by the Poles, in 1656, Comenius lost his house, books, and, above all, his manuscripts, which embodied the labors of many years. "This loss," he said, "I shall cease to lament only when I cease to breathe." After several months' wandering in Germany, he was offered an asylum in Amsterdam by Laurence de Geer, the son of his former patron. Here, in comparative ease, he spent the remaining years of his life, devoting himself to teaching as a means of support, and to the promulgation and defense of his educational views. Through the liberality of friends, he was enabled to publish a complete edition of his works. His last days. were somewhat imbittered by envious attacks upon his character and methods, but in all his trials he exhibited a meek, forbearing, Christian spirit. He died in 1671, at the advanced age of eighty years.

"Comenius," says Raumer, "is a grand and venerable figure of sorrow. Wandering, persecuted, and homeless, during the terrible and desolating Thirty Years' War, he yet never despaired, but with enduring truth, and strong in faith, he labored unweariedly to prepare youth by a better education for a better future. Suspended from the ministry, as he himself tells us, and an exile, he had become an apostle to the Christian youth; and certainly he labored for them with a zeal and love worthy of the chief of the apostles."

Such, in imperfect outline, was the life of this great man. But, in order to appreciate him fully, we must turn for a moment to the consideration of his educational principles. Unlike many of his predecessors, he did not confine himself to the enunciation of isolated principles. He sought first of all an immovable foundation, and on this he erected his system with close logical sequence. His reforms were as thorough as they were comprehensive. He conceived of education as a development of man in all his faculties; he based all his methods on the order of nature; he regarded the perfect man as the end of all culture. "The right instruction of youth," he says, "does not consist in cramming them with a mass of words, phrases, sentences, and opinions collected from authors, but in unfolding the understanding that many little streams may flow therefrom as from a living fountain. Hitherto the schools have not labored that the children might unfold like the young tree from the impulse of its own roots, but have been contented when they covered themselves with foreign branches. Thus they have taught the youth, after the manner of Æsop's crow, to adorn themselves with strange feathers. Why

shall we not, instead of dead books, open the living book of Nature? Not the shadows of things, but the things themselves, which make an impression on the senses and the imagination, are to be brought before youth. By actual observation, not by a verbal description of things, must instruction begin. From such observation develops a certain knowledge. Men must be led as far as possible to draw their wisdom not from books, but from a consideration of heaven and earth, oaks and beeches; that is, they must know and examine things themselves, and not simply be contented with the observations and testimony of others." This brief extract contains the two fundamental truths upon which all correct education must rest.

The following principles, gleaned from the works of Comenius, will exhibit his greatness as an educational reformer, and also the extent to which the improved education of the present is indebted to him:

1. Education is a development of the whole

man.

2. Educational methods should follow the order of Nature.

3. Both sexes should receive equal instruction, since the end of education is individual development.

4. Learning should be made agreeable. Teachers should always have something interesting and profitable to communicate to their classes. School-houses should

be made comfortable and attractive.

5. If the superstructure is not to totter, the foundation must be laid well.

6. Many studies are to be avoided as dissipating the mental strength.

7. There should be an easy gradation in studies, the one leading naturally to the other.

8. Things naturally connected in themselves should be joined together in teaching.

9. Nothing should be taught that is not of solid utility.

10. Studies should be adapted to the capacity of the pupil.

11. Nothing is to be learned by heart that is not first thoroughly understood.

12. Let nothing that admits of sensible or rational demonstration be taught by authority.

13. Let no task be assigned until the method of doing it has been explained.

14. In the sciences the student should have the objects studied before him.

15. In languages the mother-tongue is to come first, next the languages of neighboring nations, then Latin as the language of the learned world. Theologians and physicians should study Greek.

16. Languages are to be learned by practice rather than by rule. Rules should follow and confirm practice.

17. Words should be learned in connection with things. The object first, then the expression.

18. The concrete should precede the abstract; the simple, the complex; the nearer, the more remote.

19. Things to be done should be learned by doing them. "Mechanics," Comenius says, "understand this well; they do not give the apprentice a lecture upon their trade, but they let him see how they as masters do; then they place the tool in his hands, teach him to

use it, and imitate them. Doing can be learned only by doing, writing by writing, painting by painting, and

so on."

20. Religion is of supreme importance; and, in ad-" dition to religious instruction, the young should be accustomed to the exercise of Christian virtues, such as temperance, justice, compassion, patience, and so on.

21. Discipline should aim at improving the char

acter.

22. The teacher should be an example, in person and conduct, of what he requires of his pupils.

Of these principles, the first two are fundamental. Nearly all of them were directly opposed to the practice of the seventeenth century; many of them are now regarded as axiomatic truths, and are rapidly reforming and elevating the schools of Christendom. They entitle Comenius to rank among the world's greatest educational reformers.

The school system proposed by Comenius is not un. worthy of mention. It embraced four grades of schools. The first was the domestic school, in which the child was to learn the use of its senses, acquire its native language, and gain a rudimentary knowledge of things in general. The next was the vernacular, or popular school. This the child attended from the age of six to twelve, and studied reading, writing, arithmetic, singing, the catechism, history, and geography. Then followed the Latin school, in which the young student devoted six years to grammar, physics, mathematics, ethics, logic, and rhetoric. Lastly, the university, as the home of all branches of learning, formed the natural completion of the system.