COMENIUS 



1509 



COMET 



frame of mind and has a happy ending. It is 

 to be distinguished on the one hand from 

 tragedy, with its serious manner and unhappy 

 ending, and on the other from farce and bur- 

 lesque, which depend on a broader, more exag- 

 gerated humor for their appeal. In its broad 

 sense, however, comedy includes farce and 

 burlesque. See DRAMA. 



The word comedy means a revel or a festival, 

 and this particular type of the drama grew out 

 of the old festivals in honor of Bacchus (which 

 see). In these a witty, sharp-tongued fellow, 

 drawn about in a cart, would stop at intervals 

 and make sport of the spectators, of the man- 

 ners of the times, even of the men in power; 

 and gradually this species of ridicule became 

 more formal and shaped itself about a central 

 plot. In modern times comedy does not rank 

 so high, perhaps, as tragedy, but some of the 

 greatest writers have turned their genius to 

 it and have produced works that will live. 

 There are Shakespeare's Much Ado About 

 Nothing, As You Like It, Twelfth Night and 

 Comedy of Errors, for instance, and Moliere's 

 Miser, Misanthrope and Imaginary Invalid. 

 These two authors are the greatest masters of 

 comedy, but Goldsmith produced one comedy 

 of note, She Stoops to Conquer, and Sheridan 

 two, The Rivals and The School for Scandal. 

 All of these continue deservedly popular. 



Among the comedies of recent times have 

 been Shaw's Man and Superman, Arms and the 

 Man, Candida, Androcles and the Lion and 

 Pygmalion, Barrie's What Every Woman 

 Knows, Quality Street and The Little Minister 

 and Pinero's The Mind-the-Paint Girl. Amer- 

 ica has produced few if any playwrights whose 

 works have the qualities which make for per- 

 manence, but the names of Denman Thomp- 

 son, James A. Herne, Bronson Howard, Clyde 

 Fitch, David Belasco, Percy Mackaye, Augustus 

 Thomas, George M. Cohan and others are well 

 known to the theater-going public. The pref- 

 erence of the theater-going public has been 

 strongly for comedy in recent years, or for 

 that sort of tragedy which resembles comedy 

 in that nobody dies, the tragic element being 

 all spiritual, and in that manner is light, 

 almost flippant. C.W.K. 



COMENIUS, koma'neoos, or kome'nius, 

 JOHN AMOS (1592-1671), the man who published 

 the first illustrated text-book in the world, 

 and the pioneer in modern educational meth- 

 ods. His parents died when he was a young 

 child, and he was brought up by guardians and 

 educated in the faith of the Moravian Church. 



He completed his education in the universities 

 of Amsterdam and Heidelberg. Comenius be- 

 gan teaching at the age of twenty-two, and 

 at once determined to reform the methods of 

 instruction then employed. He characterized 

 the schools as "slaughter houses of the mind" 

 and "places where minds are fed on words." 

 Two years after he began teaching Comenius 

 was ordained a preacher in the Moravian 

 Church, and although he rose to the rank 

 of bishop in the Church of his adoption, he 

 is nevertheless remembered chiefly by his 

 work in education. 



Comenius was a voluminous writer, but of 

 his many works only twoexerted a lasting in- 

 fluence on education. These are the Gate of 

 Tongues Unlocked and The World Illustrated; 

 the latter was the first illustrated text-book, a 



Flying Vermin. 



XXV 



Insecta volantia. 



maketh honey 

 which the Drones devour- 

 eth. The Wasp, 3 

 and the ffprnet, 4. 

 molest with a sting; 

 and the Gad-Bee 

 (or Breese), 5. 

 especially Cattel; 



Apis, i facit mel 

 quod Fucus, 2, depascit 



Vcfpa, 3. 

 & Crabro. 4. 

 infestant oculeo ; 

 & Oestrum 

 (Asilus), 5. 

 imprimis pecus. 



A PAGE FROM THE -WORLD ILLUSTRATED 

 Reproduced one-half the size of the original. 



page of which is reproduced on this page on 

 a scale one-half its original size. The first 

 book completely changed the method of teach- 

 ing languages, and within a few years it was 

 translated into nearly all the languages of 

 Europe and several of those of Asia. "For 

 many generations the school boys of three con- 

 tinents thumbed this book as their primer to 

 the languages." The other work was written 

 to emphasize Comenius' principle that in teach- 

 ing the idea should precede the word. Upon 

 these works the fame of this great educator 

 rests. 



COMET, kom'et, a heavenly body, popularly 

 regarded as a star with a tail, occasionally seen 

 in the sky. It moves with tremendous veloc- 



