source of error when things accommodate themselves to words, instead of words to things. The same classification prevails for words as for things; and whoever understands the relation of words among themselves will, the more easily, study the analogous relations among things.

Vives thought that the most complete language would be that in which the words express the nature of things, and Comenius believed that there could be composed a real language in which each word should be a definition.

To be able to represent a thing by the mind, hand, or tongue is to understand it. The mental process involved consists of representations and images of the pictures of things. If, says Comenius, I perceive a thing by the senses, its image is impressed upon my brain; if I represent a thing, I impress its image upon the material; but if I express in words the thing which I have thought of or represented, I impress it upon the atmosphere, and through it upon the ear, brain, and mind of another.

Things are learned by examples, rules, and practice. Before the understanding, truth must be held up as an example; before the will, the good; before the forming powers, the ideal; and to these must be added practice regulated by suitable rules. But rules should not be given before the examples. This is well understood by artisans; they do not begin by lecturing to their apprentices upon trades, but by showing them how masters work and then by putting tools in their hands and training them to imitate their masters. We learn to do by doing, to write by writing, and to paint by painting.

The second step must never be taken until the first is learned; and the first step should be repeated and assimilated with the second step. We should advance from the easy to the more difficult, from the near to the more distant, and from the simple to the complex. Proceed toward knowledge by the perception and understanding of objects present to the senses, and later to the information of others about the objects.

The attention should be fixed upon one object at a time; first upon the whole, then upon the parts. The understanding should compare the objects being perceived with similar objects previously observed. The memory has three offices: to receive impressions, to retain impressions, and to recall impressions. Retention will be made easier by repetition, and recollection by the association of perceived relations. The youngest children should be instructed by means of visible objects, and pictures impress themselves most firmly upon the memory.

Teachers who are themselves intellectually quick must avoid impatience. The pupils who learn the quickest are not always the best; and the dulness of the pupils must be supplemented by the teacher's industry. Learning will be easy to pupils if teachers manage them in a friendly way and study the disposition of each child. Children must not only be made to look at their lessons, but to enter into the spirit of the subject under consideration.

We should remember that schools are the workshops of humanity; and that they should work their pupils into the right and skilful use of their reason, speech, and talents into wisdom, eloquence, readiness, and shrewdness. Thus will the teachers shape these little

images of God, or, rather, fill up the outlines of goodness, power, and wisdom impressed upon them by divine power. The art of teaching is no shallow affair, but one of the deepest mysteries of nature and salvation.

CHAPTER IX

INFLUENCE OF COMENIUS ON MODERN EDUCATORS

Francke - Early educational undertakings - The institution at Halle-Character of the pædagogium-Impulse given to modern learning. Rousseau-The child the centre of educational schemes-Sense training fundamental - Order and method of nature to be followed. Basedow-Protests against traditional methods-Influenced by the Émile - His educational writings The Philanthropinum. Pestalozzi-Love the key-note of his system-Domestic education - Education for all classes and sexes- -The study of nature-Impulse given to the study of geography. Fröbel - His relations to Comenius and Pestalozzi – Educational value of play and principle of self-activity -Women as factors in education. Herbart Assimilation of senseexperience-Training of character-Doctrine of interest.

It is less easy to trace the influence of Comenius on modern educational reformers than to indicate the traces of his pedagogic development, since he read widely and credited cheerfully the paternity of his educational ideals. He says in this connection: "I gave my mind to the perusal of divers authors, and lighted upon many which at this age have made a beginning in reforming the method of studies, as Ratke, Helwig, Rheinus, Ritter, Glaum, Cæcil, and, who indeed should have the first place, John Valentine Andreæ, a man of noble 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 at last those so many various sparks would conspire into a flame; yet observing here and

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there some defects and gaps, 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 Great didactic, which shows the art of teaching all things to all men."

Such commendable frankness is not always found in the reformers that follow Comenius; but in their writings it is not difficult to discern community of ideas first definitely formulated by Comenius. This holds true in a degree of all reformers since Comenius' day, but in a measure sufficiently large to require passing note in Francke, Rousseau, Basedow Pestalozzi, Fröbel, and Herbart.

Francke1

Of a profoundly religious nature like Comenius, Francke applied himself to the study of theology at the Universities of Kiel and Leipzig, after having studied at Erfurt. The listless and heartless character of the teaching and study at these institutions impressed him profoundly, and directed his attention to the need of educational reform. Four years after taking his degree at Leipzig (1688), he established an infant school at Hamburg, which, though brief, was, as he tells us, the richest and happiest experience of his long and varied

career.

It taught him the lesson which he thought was needed alike by himself and his contemporaries—

1 For a full account of Francke's life and work see A. H. Francke's Pädagogische Schriften. Nebst einer Darstellung seines Lebens und seiner Stiftungen. Herausgeg. von G. Kramer. Langensalza, 1876.