examination should be held for the students who leave the Latin school, and from its results the masters may decide which of them should be sent to the university and which should enter the other occupations of life. Those who are selected will pursue their studies, some choosing theology, some politics, and some medicine, in accordance with their natural inclination, and with the needs of the Church and of the State."

system of

Such an organization of schools as that suggested by Comenius would tend to bring about the custom of educating according to ability, rather than social status, and would thus enable any people to secure the benefit of all their genius. It was a genuine 'ladder' system of A 'ladder' education, open to all, and leading from the kindergarten education. through the university, such as has been commended by Huxley in speaking of the American schools. At the day that Comenius proposed it, this organization was some three centuries in advance of the times. Such an idea of equal opportunities for all could have been possible in the seventeenth century only as the educational outgrowth of a religious attitude like that of Comenius, and may well have been promoted in his case by the simple, democratic spirit of the little band of Christians whose leader he was.1

1 In the old cemeteries of the Moravian communities of the United States, the departed lie side by side without distinction in regard to position, wealth, or color. The tombstones are laid flat upon the graves,

A coöperative college of

known as a

'Schola Scholarum.'

The Pansophic College and the Encyclopædic Courses of Study

But beyond the university, which, like the lower schools, investigation was to make teaching its chief function, Comenius held it to be important that somewhere in the world there should be a Schola Scholarum or Collegium Didacticum, which should be devoted to scientific investigation. Through this pansophic college, learned men from all nations might coöperate, and, he holds,

This pansophic college

was to form a logical climax

to the system of schools.

"These men should . . . spread the light of wisdom throughout the human race with greater success than has hitherto been attained, and benefit humanity by new and useful inventions. For this no single man and no single generation is sufficient, and it is therefore essential that the work be carried on by many, working together and employing the researches of their predecessors as a starting-point."

This plan of a 'Universal College' for research would seem to be a natural product of the pansophic ideal, which has been seen 1 to dominate all of the educational theory of Comenius. Such an institution would form a logical climax to his system of schools, bearing, as he says, the same relation to them that the stomach does to the other members of the body by "supplying blood, life, and

and are exactly alike, except for size, so that none in this Christian family
may appear more prominent than the other. A similar interpretation
of the Master's 'brotherhood of man' is evidenced in all the Moravian
social life.
1 See pp. 35 f.

strength to all," for he holds that a training in all subjects should be given at every stage of education. Such universal knowledge, however, Comenius believes, should be given only in outline at first, and then more and more elaborately and thoroughly as education proceeds. The Didactica, accordingly, states: —

"These different schools are not to deal with different subjects, but should treat the same subjects in different ways, giving instruction in all that can produce true men, true Christians, and true scholars; throughout graduating the instruction to the age of the pupil and the knowledge that he already possesses. In the earlier schools everything is taught in a general and undefined manner, while in those that follow the information is particularized and exact; just as a tree puts forth more branches and shoots each successive year, and grows stronger and more fruitful." 1

In later chapters of the Didactica and in his works for the special stages, Comenius gives the details of the pansophic training in each period of education. Even in the mother school, it is expected that the infant shall be taught geography, history, and various sciences; grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic; music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy; and the rudiments of economics, politics, ethics, metaphysics, and religion; as well as encouraged in sports and the construction of buildings. The attainment at this stage is, of course, not expected

1 Chap. XXVII, 4-5. This is practically the modern German method of teaching, known as that of 'concentric circles.'

Even the mother school is to be

course in the

pansophic.

So the ver

nacular school is to afford instruction in

to be as formidable as the names of the subjects sound. It is to consist merely in understanding simple causal, temporal, spatial, and numerical relations; in distinguishing sun, moon, and stars, hills, valleys, lakes, and rivers, and animals and plants; in learning to express oneself, and in acquiring proper habits. It is, in fact, very much like the training of the modern kindergarten. Similarly, the vernacular school is to afford more advanced instruction in all literature, morals, and reliall subjects, gion that will be of value throughout life, in case the pupil can go no further. The course is to include, beside the elements, morals, religion, and music, everyday civil government and economics, history and geography, with especial reference to the pupil's own country, and a general knowledge of the mechanic arts. All these studies are to be given in the native tongue, since it would take too long to acquire the Latin, and those who are to go on will learn Latin more readily for having a wide knowledge of things to which they have simply to apply new names instead of those of the vernacular.

in case the pupil can go no further.

The Latin school offers four lan

guages, but continues

The Latin school, while including four languages, — the vernacular, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, is also to continue this encyclopædic training. The seven liberal this encyclo- arts are to be taught in more formal fashion, and considerable work is to be given in physics, geography, chronology,

pædic training.

history, ethics, and theology. In his description of the pansophic school that he undertook to establish at Patak,

Comenius gives an even more specific account of the range
of knowledge that should be gained in secondary education.
He maps out seven classes, of which the first three are
to be called 'philological,' and the other four to be known
as 'philosophical,' 'logical,' 'political,' and 'theological,'
respectively. In the philological grades, he indicates
that Latin is to be taught; arithmetic, plane and solid
geometry, and music are to be gradually acquired; and
instruction is to be afforded in morality, the catechism,
the Scriptures, and psalms, hymns, and prayers.
gives exactly the amount of training in mathematics,
the arts and sciences, and religion that is to appear in
the next three classes, and arranges that Greek shall be
studied and Hebrew begun. In the last class, the wide
range of secular knowledge is to be continued, and such
theological matters as the relation of souls to God are to
be discussed.

So he

In the unistudent

versity each

should de

vote himself to a specialty,

but a few

should pur

sue all

Finally, in the case of the university, Comenius maintains that "the curriculum should be really universal, and provision should be made for the study of every branch of human knowledge," but "each student should devote his undivided energies to that subject for which he is evidently suited by nature," theology, medicine, branches. law, music, poetry, or oratory. However, "those of quite exceptional talent should be urged to pursue all the branches of study, that there may always be some men whose knowledge is encyclopædic."