OUTLINES FROM THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION. 759 



will educate him a distinction that requires full emphasis. In illus- 

 tration of what has here been said, I translate a few passages from 

 the works of Comenius : 



" The order of instruction must be learned from Nature. Hence it 

 follows that education has, first of all, to set forth and keep firm hold 

 of the fundamental principles for the preservation of life, that the 

 necessary time may be given to a course of instruction. We must 

 guard the body from disease and deadly accident, because it is the 

 only temporal residence of the soul, and because it is the instrument 

 of the rational spirit. (Italics are the present writer's.) 



"Nature waits, in all her undertakings, for the suitable time. So 

 must we seize the right time for the discipline of the mind, and must 

 carry out this discipline progressively. Training should begin in child- 

 hood, the spring-time of life ; it should be prosecuted in the morning 

 hours, the spring-time of the day ; and that only should be learned 

 which is adapted to the capacity of apprehension." This simple sen- 

 tence, had it been able to prevail from the time at which it was writ- 

 ten, would have prevented the blank horror on many a youthful coun- 

 tenance as it faced the statement that "a noun and participle are put 

 into the ablative called absolute to denote the time, cause, manner, 

 means, the concomitant of an action, or the condition on which it de- 

 pends." 



To return to Comenius : " Nature first prepares the material, then 

 gives it a form. The architect follows the same principle : he brings 

 together all that is necessary for the building, and then works his 

 material. Corresponding to this, we must have at hand in the schools 

 all needful books and every appliance. We must cultivate the under- 

 standing before the languages. We must teach no language from 

 grammar but from its writers, and we must alloio the experimental 

 sciences to precede the organic. 



" Nature begins every one of her works from within. The bird pro- 

 ceeds from within outward. The tree draws its nourishment through 

 the pores of the inner part ; it grows from within. Likewise in edu- 

 cation this requirement stands fast : first help to gain an insight into 

 the things, then cultivate the memory. 



" Nature begins all her works with the most universal and ends 

 with the particular. When she builds a bird, she draws through the 

 warmed mass a film, that an outline of the entire bird may arise. 

 Then and for the first time she shapes each particular portion. The 

 architect imitates this method. First he makes the tracing, then lays 

 the foundation. The painter does the same. He does not at first 

 paint a complete ear, but makes an outline of the countenance and 

 then paints it in. Accordingly, the youth who give themselves to 

 study must, in the very first part of their training, lay the ground- 

 work of a universal culture. The objects of pursuit must be so ordered 

 that the later studies will not appear to bring anything new, but sim- 



