OUTLINES FROM THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION. 757 



undertaking, as far as respects any established instruction. The 

 school, which was opened June 21, 1619, received the censure of the 

 school inspectors on July 28th of the same year, and in October the 

 reformer was cast into prison. Among the ideas generally accredited 

 to Ratich as his own, the following are significant : " Education is a 

 common, thorough-going work, and no one is to be shut out from it ; 

 every one must, at least, be capable of reading and writing. The 

 young may be instructed in only one language or study at the same 

 time ; before this has been learned, they may not take up another. 

 Everything must proceed according to the order of Nature, who, in 

 all her arrangements, is wont to advance from the simpler and lower 

 to the larger and higher. All subjects must be proceeded with in a 

 twofold manner : first, they must be seized in outline or abbreviation ; 

 afterward, they should be comprehended and taught with more com- 

 plete instruction." This brief account of Ratich furnishes clear evi- 

 dence that attention was now given to education in remarkable degree. 

 It shows the presence of new and true principles in the educational 

 question, as witness the last quotations. Further, this account strik- 

 ingly confirms our statements in the first paper, where the distinction 

 was drawn between a scientific treatment of education and an enuncia- 

 tion of educational principles. 



We now, and for the first time, meet an avowed attempt to treat 

 education philosophically that is, to apply ideas concerning man's 

 nature to his education. This attempt was made by John Amos Co- 

 menius, born at Comnia, in Moravia, 1592. Comenius was every way 

 great-minded, and had it thoroughly in him to teach. All philosophy 

 has been and will continue to be distinguished by two fundamentally 

 opposed methods. For our present purpose, we may characterize these 

 methods by the terms intuitive and experimental. According to the 

 first method, man, in his spiritual nature, contains the truth is the 

 truth. The idea, the reason, is alone permanent and real. According 

 to the second method, man is dependent on an external world for the 

 origin, continuance, and verification of all his knowledge. As related 

 through the senses to nature, man is capable of reasoning and of cor- 

 recting his conclusions. He brings no knowledge with him into the 

 world. He is a power, or series of powers, to be awakened through 

 the senses. It was the mission of Comenius to apply this inductive, 

 experimental method to education. 



For him, therefore, there was but one procedure in education, viz., 

 development of the natural capacities. Education was an unfolding, 

 not of original knoicledge but of original p> owers > anc l tms by such 

 means as the senses furnished. A moment's reflection shows that his 

 method directly antagonizes middle - age, Lutheran, and Calvinistic 

 orthodoxy. The point of antagonism is the doctrine of man's con- 

 dition as produced by the fall. Original sin had made man through 

 and through bad, good for nothing; how, then, could any educa- 



