sons, and, at Stadius's request, Comenius wrote some canons of a better method,' for his use. We find him, too, endeavouring to enrich the literature of his mother-tongue, making a metrical translation of the Psalms of David, and even writing imitations of Virgil, Ovid, and Cato's Distichs.

In 1627, however, the persecution waxed so hot, that Comenius, with most of the Brethren, had to flee their country, never to return. On crossing the border, Comenius and the exiles who accompanied him knelt down, and prayed that God would not suffer His truth to fail out of their native land.

Many of the banished, and Comenius among them, settled at the Polish town of Leszno, or, as the Germans call it, Lissa, near the Silesian frontier. Here there was an old established school of the Brethren, in which Comenius found employment. Once more engaged in education, he earnestly set about improving the traditional methods. As he himself says,*Being by God's permission banished my country with divers others, and forced for my sustenance to apply myself to the instruction of youth, I gave my mind to the perusal of divers authors, and lighted upon many which in this age have made a beginning in reforming the method of studies, as Ratichius, Helvicus, Rhenius, Ritterus, Glaumius, Cæcilius, and who indeed should have had the first place, Joannes Valentinus Andreæ, a man of a nimble and clear brain; as also Campanella and the Lord Verulam, those famous restorers of philosophy; --by reading of whom I was raised in good hope, that

*Preface to the Prodromus

at last those so many various sparks would conspire into a flame; yet observing here and there some defects and gaps as it were, I could not contain myself from attempting something that might rest upon an immovable foundation, and which, if it could be once found out, should not be subject to any ruin. Therefore, after many workings and tossings of my thoughts, by reducing everything to the immovable laws of nature, I lighted upon my Didactica Magna, which shows the art of readily and solidly teaching all men all things.'

This work did not immediately see the light, but in 1631, Comenius published a book which made him and the little Polish town where he lived, known throughout Europe and beyond it. This was the Janua Linguarum Reserata, or Gate of Tongues unlocked.' Writing about it many years afterwards he says that he never could have imagined that that little work, fitted only for children (puerile istud opusculum), would have been received with applause by all the learned world. Letters of congratulation came to him from every quarter; and the work was translated not only into Greek, Bohemian, Polish, Swedish, Belgian, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, but also into Turkish, Arabic, Persian, and even 'Mogolic, which is familiar to all the East Indies' (Dedication of Schola Ludus in Vol. I. of collected works).*

Incited by the applause of the learned, Comenius

*Bayle, speaking of the Janua in his article on Comenius (Dict. sub. v.), says, 'Quand Coménius n'aurait publié que ce livre là, il se serait immortalisé.' He published a more celebrated book than this (viz. the Orbis Pictus), and yet his 'immortality' seems already of the feeblest.

now planned a scheme of universal knowledge, to impart which a series of works would have to be written, far exceeding what the resources and industry of one man, however great a scholar, could produce. He therefore looked about for a patron to supply money for his support, and that of his assistants, whilst these works were in progress. The vastness of the labours I contemplate,' he writes to a Polish nobleman, ' demands that I should have a wealthy patron, whether we look at their extent, or at the necessity of securing assistants, or at the expenses generally.'

At Leszno there seemed no prospect of his obtaining the aid he required; but his fame now procured him invitations from distant countries. First he received a call to improve the schools of Sweden. After declining this, he was induced by his English friends to undertake a journey to London, where Parliament had shown its interest in the matter of education, and had employed Hartlib, an enthusiastic admirer of Comenius, to attempt some reforms. Hartlib procured an order summoning Comenius, who gives the following account of his journey :-

'When seriously proposing to abandon the thorny studies of Didactics, and pass on to the pleasing studies of philosophical truth, I find myself again among the same thorns. After the Pansophiæ Prodromus had been published and dispersed through various kingdoms of Europe, many of the learned approved of the object and plan of the work, but despaired of its ever being accomplished by one man alone, and therefore advised that a college of learned

men should be instituted to carry it into effect. Mr. S. Hartlib, who had forwarded the publication of the Pansophia Prodromus in England, laboured earnestly in this matter, and endeavoured, by every possible means, to bring together for this purpose a number of men of intellectual activity. And at length, having found one or two, he invited me also, with many very strong entreaties. As my friends. consented to my departure, I proceeded to London, and arrived there on the day of the autumnal equinox, 1641, and I then learned that I had been called thither by an order of Parliament. But in consequence of the King's having gone to Scotland, the Parliament had been dismissed for three months, and consequently I had to winter in London, my friends in the meantime examining the "Apparatus Philosophicus," small though it was at that time. At length Parliament having assembled, and my presence being known, I was commanded to wait. until after some important business having been transacted, a Commission should be issued to certain wise and learned men, from amongst themselves, to hear me, and be informed of my plan. As an earnest, moreover, of their intentions, they communicated to me their purpose to assign to us a college with revenues, whence some men of learning and industry, selected from any nation, might be honourably sustained, either for a certain number of years, or in perpetuity. The Savoy in London, and beyond London, Winchester, and again near the city, Chelsea, were severally mentioned, and inventories of the latter, and of its revenues,

were communicated to me. So that nothing seemed more certain than that the design of the great Verulam to open a Universal College of all nations, devoted solely to the advancement of the sciences was now in the way of being carried into effect. But a rumour that Ireland was in a state of commotion, and that more than 200,000 of the English there had been slaughtered in one night, the sudden departure of the King from London, and the clear indications that a most cruel war was on the point of breaking out, threw all these plans into confusion, and compelled me and my friends to hasten our return.'

While Comenius was in England, where he stayed till August 1642, he received an invitation to France. This invitation, which he did not accept, came perhaps through his correspondent Mersenne, a man of great learning, who is said to have been highly esteemed and often consulted by Descartes. It is characteristic of the state of opinion in such matters in those days, that Mersenne tells Comenius of a certain Le Maire, by whose method a boy of six years old, might, with nine months' instruction, acquire a perfect knowledge of three languages. Mersenne also had dreams of a universal alphabet, and even of a universal language.

Comenius' hopes of assistance in England being at an end, he thought of returning to Leszno, but a letter now reached him from a rich Dutch merchant, Lewis de Geer, who offered him a home and means for carrying out his plans. This Lewis de Geer, the Grand Almoner of Europe,' as Comenius calls him, displayed a princely munificence in the assistance he

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