Comenius has still other credentials to
permanent
fame.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v07 - Cic to Cuv
a private lodging?
Oakly-Yes; but that-
Russet — Has not this affair been carried on a long time, in
spite of my teeth?
Oakly Sir, I never troubled myself-
Mrs. Oakly - Never troubled yourself! Did not you insist on
her staying in the house, whether I would or no?
-
## p. 3907 (#273) ###########################################
GEORGE COLMAN THE ELDER
3907
Oakly - No.
Russet - Did not you send to meet her when she came to
town?
Oakly - No.
Mrs. Oakly - Did not you deceive me about the letter this
morning?
Oakly-No, no, no. I tell you, no!
Mrs. Oakly-Yes, yes, yes. I tell you, yes!
Russet Shan't I believe my own eyes?
-
Mrs. Oakly - Shan't I believe my own ears?
Oakly I tell you, you are both deceived.
Russet-Zounds, sir, I'll have satisfaction.
-
―――――
Mrs. Oakly-I'll stop these fine doings, I warrant you.
Oakly 'Sdeath, you will not let me speak! And you are
both alike, I think. I wish you were married to one another,
with all my heart.
Mrs. Oakly Mighty well! mighty well!
Russet -I shall soon find a time to talk with you.
➖➖
Oakly - Find a time to talk! you have talked enough now for
all your lives.
Mrs. Oakly-Very fine! Come along, sir! leave that lady
with her father. Now she is in the properest hands.
Oakly-I wish I could leave you in his hands. [Going,
returns. ] I shall follow you, madam! One word with you, sir!
The height of your passion, and Mrs. Oakly's strange misappre-
hension of this whole affair, makes it impossible to explain mat-
ters to you at present. I will do it when you please, and how
you please.
[Exit.
Russet - Yes, yes; I'll have satisfaction. -So, madam! I have
found you at last. You have made a fine confusion here.
Harriot I have indeed been the innocent cause of a great
Ideal of confusion.
Russet Innocent! what business had you to be running
hither after
Harriot - My dear sir, you misunderstand the whole affair. I
have not been in this house half an hour.
Russet-Zounds, girl, don't put me in a passion! You know
I love you; but a lie puts me in a passion! But come along;
we'll leave this house directly. [Charles singing without. ] Hey-
day! what now?
## p. 3908 (#274) ###########################################
3908
GEORGE COLMAN THE ELDER
After a noise without, enter Charles, drunk and singing:
But my wine neither nurses nor babies can bring,
And a big-bellied bottle's a mighty good thing.
What's here—a woman? a woman? Harriot! - Impossible! —
My dearest, sweetest Harriot! I have been looking all over the
town for you, and at last, when I was tired and weary and
disappointed,-why then the honest Major and I sat down
together to drink your health in pint bumpers.
[Running up to her.
my daughter before me? Zounds, sir,
Charles-Ha, 'Squire Russet, too!
do you? But Harriot! my dear girl!
life, my soul, my
Russet-Stand off!
Stand off! How dare you take any
ny liberties with
I'll be the death of you!
You jolly old cock, how
[Taking hold of her. ] My
Russet-Let her go, sir! Come away, Harriot! Leave him
this instant, or I'll tear you asunder.
[Pulling her.
Harriot-There needs no violence to tear me from a man
who could disguise himself in such a gross manner, at a time
when he knew I was in the utmost distress.
[Disengages herself, and exit with Russet.
Charles [alone]-Only hear me, sir! Madam! My dear
Harriot! Mr. Russet! Gone! She's gone; and egad, in a very
ill humor and in very bad company! I'll go after her. But
hold! I shall only make it worse, as I did, now I recollect,
once before. How the devil came they here? Who would have
thought of finding her in my own house? My head turns round
with conjectures. I believe I am drunk, very drunk; so egad,
I'll e'en go and sleep myself sober, and then inquire the mean-
ing of all this-
"For I love Sue, and Sue loves me," etc.
[Exit singing.
## p. 3909 (#275) ###########################################
3909
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
(1592-1671)
BY BURKE A. HINSDALE
OHANN AMOS COMENIUS, the Slavic educational reformer, was
born March 28th, 1592, at Nivnitz, a village of Moravia.
His family belonged to the small but well-known body that
takes its name from the country,-"the Moravian Brethren," or sim-
ply "the Moravians," whose origin goes back to Huss, the Bohemian
reformer. The Brethren are known for their simple evangelical
faith, their humble fraternal lives, their interest in education, and
particularly their devotion to the cause of missions. Comenius was
a Moravian, a minister, and a bishop, and
he illustrated the best ideas and inspira-
tions of the Brotherhood in his teachings
and life.
COMENIUS
The parents of Comenius died when he
was still a child, and he fell into the hands
of guardians, who allowed his education to
be neglected. He received his elementary
education in one of the people's schools
that sprang out of the Hussite movement.
When sixteen years of age he attended a
Latin school, and at twenty he was study-
ing theology at Hebron College, in the
duchy of Nassau. Next he spent some
time in travel and in study at Heidelberg.
and returned to Moravia in 1614, being twenty-two years of age.
Too young to be ordained to the ministry, he was made rector of
a Moravian school at Prerau, near Olmütz, where his career as a
teacher and educator began. His attention had already been turned
to the teaching art as practiced in the schools, both by observation
and by reading the schemes of educational reform that had been
propounded. In 1616 he was ordained to the pastorate, and two
years later he was set over the flourishing church of Fulneck, where
he also had the supervision of a school. Here he married, and "for
two or three years," says Professor Laurie, "spent a happy and active
life, enjoying the only period of tranquillity in his native country
which it was ever his fortune to experience. For the restoration
## p. 3910 (#276) ###########################################
3910
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
of a time so happy he never ceased to pine during all his future
wanderings. "
Soon the Thirty Years' War broke out, and in 1621 Fulneck fell
into the hands of the Spaniards, who dealt with it according to their
usual habit in such cases. Comenius lost all his property, including
his library and manuscripts, and became for the rest of his life an
exile. His wife and child he lost soon after. He had been so un-
fortunate as to incur the enmity of the Jesuits. We cannot follow
him closely in his wanderings. For some time he lived in secrecy
in Moravia and Bohemia. Then he found a resting-place at Lissa, in
Poland, where in 1621 he published a little work that at once made
him famous. This was the 'Janua Linguarum Reserata,' (the Gate
of Tongues Unlocked), which was translated into the principal lan-
guages of Europe and several languages of Asia. The next year he
was elected chief bishop of the Brethren, and henceforth there came
upon him daily, as upon the great Apostle, the care of all the
churches. Still he never ceased reading, thinking, and writing on
educational matters, and was often engaged in the practical work of
teaching. He visited England, called there to confer with the Long
Parliament in reference to the reform of education. He visited
Sweden, where he discussed education and learning with the great
Oxenstierna. Then he lived for a time at Elbing in East Russia.
Next he was called to Transylvania and Hungary on an educational
errand, and then returned to Lissa.
In the course of the war this town was destroyed, and Comenius
again lost all of his possessions. The great Pansophic dictionary
that had engaged him for many years went with the rest,—a loss,
he said, that he should cease to lament only when he should cease
to breathe. His next home was Amsterdam, where he set himself to
collect, revise, and supplement his writings on didactics, and where
they were published in four folio volumes in 1657. At some time, ac-
cording to Cotton Mather, he was offered the presidency of Harvard
College. After the publication of his works he lived thirteen years,
employed in teaching, in writing, and in pastoral labors. He died.
November 15th, 1671, in his eightieth year, having fully merited Von
Raumer's characterization:-"Comenius is a grand and venerable
figure of sorrow. Wandering, persecuted, and homeless during the
terrible and desolating Thirty Years' War, he yet never despaired; but
with enduring truth, and strong in faith, he labored unweariedly to
prepare youth by a better education for a better future. " In 1892,
on the three-hundredth anniversary of his birth, the educators of the
world united to honor his memory, and at that time a monument
was erected at Naärden, Holland, the little village where he died
and was buried. At Leipzig there is a pedagogical library founded
## p. 3911 (#277) ###########################################
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
3911
in his honor on the two-hundredth anniversary of his birth, which
numbers more than 66,000 volumes.
Comenius wrote one hundred and thirty-five books and treatises,
most of which were translated during his lifetime into all the lan-
guages of Europe and several languages of Asia. Not all of them
related to education; he wrote voluminously on religious subjects
also. To name and characterize his didactic works would far tran-
scend the limits of this notice; we can do no more than draw an
outline of his pedagogical system.
-
Early in the Renaissance the ancient literatures took complete
possession of the minds of scholars and teachers. As these litera-
tures were nowhere the vernacular, the schools were made machines
for teaching the Latin and Greek languages. Sometimes the results
were better, sometimes worse. We may hope that Comenius spoke
of the schools at their worst estate when he said that they were
"the terror of boys and the slaughter-houses of minds," — " places
where hatred of literature and books was contracted, "_" where what
ought to be poured in gently was forced in violently," and "where
what ought to be put clearly was presented in a confused and intri-
cate manner, as if it were a collection of puzzles. " "Ten years,” he
said, "are given to the study of the Latin tongue, and after all the
result is disappointing. Boyhood is distracted for years with pre-
cepts of grammar, infinitely prolix, perplexed, and obscure, and for
the most part useless. Boys are stuffed with vocabularies without
associating the words with things, or indeed with one another. " For
the time it was impossible, even if desirable, to overturn the estab-
lished system; and Comenius, while still at Prerau, addressed himself
to the problem of simplifying the teaching of Latin. His first book,
'Grammaticæ Facilioris Præcepta,' written for his own pupils, was
published at Prague in 1616. The great impression that the 'Janua'
produced, shows how ready men were to welcome anything that
promised to mitigate the evils of the prevailing methods of teaching.
But deeply interested as he was in teaching languages, Comenius
still saw that this was by no means the great educational question of
the time. Early in life he had become a disciple of the new induct-
ive philosophy; and of all the titles that have been conferred upon
him, that of "the Bacon of education" is the most significant. The
impression that he received from Bacon was most profound. Several
of his titles, as Didactica Magna,' 'Pansophiæ Prodromus,' and
'Silva,' suggest titles before used by his master. Looking at edu-
cation from the Baconian point of view, Comenius proposed to make
it an inductive science. He found in nature the great storehouse of
education material. "Do we not dwell in the Garden of Eden,” he
demanded, « as well as our predecessors? Why should not we use
## p. 3912 (#278) ###########################################
3912
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
our eyes and ears and noses as well as they? and why need we other
teachers than these in learning to know the works of nature? Why
should we not, instead of these dead books, open to the children the
living book of nature? Why not open their understandings to the
things themselves, so that from them, as from living springs, many
streamlets may flow? " Holding these views and putting them effect-
ively before the world, he became the founder of the pedagogical
school known as the Sense-Realists. But much more than this, he
had the rare merit of seeing that modern education must be built
on the basis of the modern languages; and so he proposed to call
the elementary school the "vernacular school," things before words,
and vernacular words before foreign words.
<<
Comenius's best known books are the Didactica Magna' and the
'Orbis Sensualium Pictus. ' The first was written in Czech, the
author's vernacular, one of the best of the Slavonic dialects, during
his first residence in Lissa; but was not published until a later day,
and then in Latin. It is a general treatise on method.
« After many
workings and tossings of my thoughts," he says, "by setting every-
thing to the immovable laws of nature," he lighted upon this trea-
tise, which shows the art of readily and solidly teaching all things. "
The Orbis Pictus,' which was only a modification of the Janua,'
first appeared in 1657. Hoole, the English translator, renders the
Latin title thus: Visible World; or a Nomenclature and Pictures of
all the Chief Things that are in the World, and of Men's Employ-
ments Therein. ' The Orbis Pictus' has been called Children's
First Picture-Book,' and it obtained much the widest circulation and
use of all the reformer's works. It was written to illustrate his ideas
of teaching things and words together. Its keynote is struck by
the legend, "There is nothing in the intellect that is not first in the
sense. »
The lessons, of which there are one hundred and ninety-
four words, are given in Latin and German, and are each illustrated
with a copper cut. While the book is wholly unsuited to our use, it
is still an interesting pedagogical memorial, archaic and quaint.
But Bacon's influence on Comenius was far greater than has yet
appeared. The philosopher had large conceptions of the kingdom of
knowledge, and the disciple accepted these conceptions in their most
exaggerated form. He became the founder of 'Pansophia': men could
attain to universal knowledge if they were rightly taught and guided.
When his eye had once caught this vision, it never wandered from it
to the day of his death. He projected a Pansophic school, and spent
half a lifetime in seeking a patron who would help him to realize
his dream. Save some of the first ones, his didactic treatises were
written as means to a Pansophic end. The books that have made
him immortal he counted but as dust in the balance, compared with
## p. 3913 (#279) ###########################################
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
3913
the piles of manuscripts that he produced devoted to all knowledge.
In fact, he almost despised himself because, partly persuaded by his
patrons and advisers and partly compelled by the necessities of
livelihood, he gave so much time to things didactic. Thus Comenius
was like Bacon, in that his real service to the world was something
quite different from what he proposed for its benefit. He was like
Bacon also in this, that he put forth the same work - practically
so in more than one form.
-
The mistakes of Comenius lie upon the surface. He entertained
exaggerated views of the results to flow to mankind from the en-
largement of knowledge, he greatly overestimated the value of
method, and so, very naturally, greatly magnified what the human
mind is able to accomplish in the field of learning. He carried much
too far his sensational principles, and seriously underestimated the
ancient learning and letters. But these mistakes, and even Pan-
sophism itself, may be not only excused but welcomed; since they
undoubtedly contributed at the time, and since, to educational pro-
gress.
It must not be supposed that Comenius had no precursors. Bacon
had disclosed to men his vision of the kingdom of knowledge. Rabelais
had published his realistic views of education and his vast scheme
of studies. Montaigne had delivered his criticisms on current teach-
ing and submitted his suggestions for reform. Mulcaster had given to
the world his far-reaching anticipations of the future. Ratich, the
John the Baptist of the new movement, to whom Comenius was
probably most indebted next to Bacon, had gone far in revolt from
the existing régime. But it was left to Comenius to give the new
pedagogy a shaping and an impulse that well entitle him to be
called its founder.
Comenius has still other credentials to permanent fame. He
advocated popular education, contended for the union of knowledge
with morals and piety, proposed the higher education of women,
propounded the existing tripartite division of education, and devised
a system of graded instruction for schools of a decidedly modern
character. His place in the educational pantheon is secure; but not
so much by reason of his didactics, which are now largely antiquated,
as by reason of his spirit. As Mr. Quick has said:-"He saw that
every human creature should be trained up to become a reasonable
being, and that the training should be such as to draw out the God-
given faculties. Thus he struck the keynote of the science of
education. "
B. Altinsdale
## p. 3914 (#280) ###########################################
3914
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE ORBIS PICTUS›
I
NSTRUCTION is the means to expel rudeness, with which young
wits ought to be well furnished in Schools: but so as that
the teaching be-1, True; 2, Full; 3, Clear; and 4, Solid.
I. It will be true, if nothing be taught but such as is bene-
ficial to one's life; lest there be a cause of complaining after-
wards. We know not necessary things, because we have not
learned things necessary.
2. It will be full, if the mind be polished for wisdom, the
tongue for eloquence, and the hands for a neat way of living.
This will be that grace of one's life: to be wise, to act, to
speak.
3, 4. It will be clear, and by that, firm and solid, if what-
ever is taught and learned be not obscure or confused, but
apparent, distinct, and articulate as the fingers on the hands.
The ground of this business is, that sensual objects may be
rightly presented to the senses, for fear they may not be re-
ceived. I say, and say it again aloud, that this last is the
foundation of all the rest: because we can neither act nor speak
wisely, unless we first rightly understand all the things which
are to be done, and whereof we are to speak. Now there is
nothing in the understanding which was not before in the sense.
And therefore to exercise the senses well about the right per-
ceiving the differences of things, will be to lay the grounds for
all wisdom, and all wise discourse, and all discreet actions in
one's course of life. Which, because it is commonly neglected
in our schools, and the things which are to be learned are
offered to scholars without being understood or being rightly
presented to the senses, it cometh to pass that the work of
teaching and learning goeth heavily onward, and affordeth little
benefit.
See here then a new help for schools, a Picture and Nomen-
clature of all the chief things in the world, and of men's actions
in their way of living: which that you, good masters, may not
be loath to run over with your scholars, I tell you, in short,
what good you may expect from it.
It is a little book, as you see, of no great bulk, yet a brief
of the whole world, and a whole language; full of Pictures,
Nomenclatures, and Descriptions of things.
## p. 3915 (#281) ###########################################
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
3915
I. The Pictures are the representations of all visible things
(to which also things invisible are reduced after their fashion) of
the whole world. And that in that very order of things in
which they are described in the 'Janua Latinæ Linguæ'; and
with that fullness, that nothing very necessary or of great con-
cernment is omitted.
II. The Nomenclatures are the Inscriptions, or Titles, set
every one over their own Pictures, expressing the whole thing
by its own general term.
III. The Descriptions are the explications of the parts of the
Picture, so expressed by their own proper terms; as the same
figure which is added to every piece of the Picture, and the term
of it, always showeth what things belongeth one to another.
Which such book, and in such a dress, may (I hope) serve.
I. To entice witty children to it, that they may not conceit
it a torment to be in school, but dainty fare. For it is apparent
that children (even from their infancy almost) are delighted with
pictures, and willingly please their eyes with these lights; and it
will be very well worth the pains to have once brought it to
pass, that scarecrows may be taken away out of wisdom's gar-
dens.
II. This same little book will serve to stir up the attention,
which is to be fastened upon things, and even to be sharpened
more and more; which is also a great matter. For the senses
(being the main guides of childhood, because therein the mind
doth not as yet raise up itself to an abstracted contemplation of
things) evermore seek their own objects, and if they may be
away, they grow dull, and wry themselves hither and thither out
of a weariness of themselves; but when their objects are present,
they grow merry, wax lively, and willingly suffer themselves to
be fastened upon them, till the thing be sufficiently discerned.
This book then will do a good piece of service in taking espe
cially flickering wits, and preparing them for deeper studies.
III. Whence a third good will follow: that children being
won thereunto, and drawn over with this way of heeding, may be
furnished with the knowledge of the prime things that are in
the world, by sport and merry pastime. In a word, this Book
will serve for the more pleasing using of the 'Vestibulum' and
'Janua Linguarum,' for which end it was even at the first chiefly
intended. Yet if it like any that it be bound up in their native
tongues also, it promiseth three good things of itself.
## p. 3916 (#282) ###########################################
3916
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
I. First, it will afford a device for learning to read more
easily than hitherto, especially having a symbolical alphabet set
before it; to wit, the characters of the several letters, with the
image of that creature whose voice that letter goeth about to
imitate, pictured by it. For the young A B C scholar will easily
remember the force of every character by the very looking upon
the creature, till the imagination, being strengthened by use, can
readily afford all things; and then having looked over a table of
the chief syllables also (which yet was not thought necessary to
be added to this book), he may proceed to the viewing of the
pictures and the inscriptions set over them. Where again, the
very looking upon the thing pictured suggesting the name of the
thing, will tell him how the title of the picture is to be read.
And thus the whole book being gone over by the bare titles of
the pictures, reading cannot but be learned; and indeed too,
which thing is to be noted, without using any ordinary tedious
spelling, that most troublesome torture of wits, which may wholly
be avoided by this method. For the often reading over the book,
by those larger descriptions of things, and which are set after the
pictures, will be able perfectly to beget a habit of reading.
II. The same book being used in English, in English schools,
will serve for the perfect learning of the whole English tongue,
and that from the bottom; because by the aforesaid descriptions
of things, the words and phrases of the whole language are
found set orderly in their proper places. And a short English
Grammar might be added at the end, clearly resolving the speech
already understood into its parts; showing the declining of the
several words, and reducing those that are joined together under
certain rules.
III. Thence a new benefit cometh, that that very English
Translation may serve for the more ready and pleasant learning
of the Latin tongue: as one may see in this edition, the whole
book being so translated that everywhere one word answereth to
the word over against it, and the book is in all things the same,
only in two idioms, as a man clad in a double garment. And
there might be also some observations and advertisements added
at the end, touching those things only wherein the use of the
Latin tongue differeth from the English. For where there is no
difference, there needeth no advertisements to be given. But
because the first tasks of the learner ought to be little and
single, we have filled this first book of training one up to see a
## p. 3917 (#283) ###########################################
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
3917
thing of himself, with nothing but rudiments; that is, with the
chief of things and words, or with the grounds of the whole
world, and the whole language, and of all our understanding
about things. If a more perfect description of things, and a
fuller knowledge of a language, and a clearer light of the under-
standing, be sought after (as they ought to be), they are to be
found somewhere whither there will now be an easy passage by
this our little Encyclopædia of things subject to the senses.
Something remaineth to be said touching the more cheerful use
of this book.
I. Let it be given to children into their hands to delight
themselves withal as they please with the sight of the pictures,
and making them as familiar to themselves as may be, and that
even at home before they are put to school.
II. Then let them be examined ever and anon (especially
now in the school) what this thing or that thing is, and is
called, so that they may see nothing which they know not how
to name, and that they can name nothing which they cannot
show.
III. And let the things named them be showed, not only in
the picture, but also in themselves; for example, the parts of
the body, clothes, books, the house, utensils, etc.
IV. Let them be suffered also to imitate the pictures by
hand, if they will; nay, rather let them be encouraged that they
may be willing: first, thus to quicken the attention also towards
the things, and to observe the proportion of the parts one
towards the other; and lastly, to practice the nimbleness of the
hand, which is good for many things.
V. If anything here mentioned cannot be presented to the
eye, it will be to no purpose at all to offer them by themselves
to the scholars; as colors, relishes, etc. , which cannot here be
pictured out with ink. For which reason it were to be wished
that things rare and not easy to be met withal at home might
be kept ready in every great school, that they may be showed
also, as often as any words are to be made by them, to the
scholars.
## p. 3918 (#284) ###########################################
3918
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
SCHOOL OF INFANCY
CLAIMS OF CHILDHOOD
HAT children are an inestimable treasure, the Spirit of God
David testifies, saying,
are the heritages of the Lord; the fruit of the womb his
reward; as arrows in the hand, so are children. Blessed is the
man who has filled his quiver with them; he shall not be con-
founded. " David declares those to be happy on whom God
confers children.
The same is also evident from this: that God, purposing to
testify his love towards us, calls us children, as if there were no
more excellent name by which to commend us.
Moreover, he is very greatly incensed against those who
deliver their children to Moloch. It is also worthy our most
serious consideration that God, in respect of the children of even
idolatrous parents, calls them children born to him; thus indi-
cating that they are born not for ourselves but for God, and
as God's offspring they claim our most profound respect.
Hence in Malachi children are called the seed of God, whence
arises the offspring of God.
For this reason the eternal Son of God, when manifested in
the flesh, not only willed to become the participator of the flesh
of children, but likewise deemed children a pleasure and a
delight. Taking them in his arms, as little brothers and sisters,
he carried them about, and kissed them and blessed them.
Not only this: he likewise uttered a severe threat against any
one who should offend them even in the least degree, command-
ing them to be respected as himself, and condemning even
with severe penalties any who offend even the smallest of them.
Should any one wish to inquire why he so delighted in little
children, and so strictly enjoined upon us such respectful atten-
tion to them, many reasons may be ascertained. And first, if
the little ones seem unimportant to you, regard them not as
they now are, but as in accordance with the intention of God
they may and ought to be. You will see them not only as the
future inhabitants of the world and possessors of the earth, and
God's vicars amongst his creatures when we depart from this
life, but also equally participators with us in the heritage of
## p. 3919 (#285) ###########################################
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
3919
Christ, a royal priesthood, a chosen people, associates of angels,
judges of devils, the delight of heaven, the terror of hell-heirs
of the most excellent dignities throughout all the ages of eter-
nity. What can be imagined more excellent than this?
Philip Melanchthon of pious memory, having upon one occa-
sion entered a common school, looked upon the pupils therein
assembled, and began his address to them in these words: -
"Hail, reverend pastors, doctors, licentiates, superintendents!
Hail! most noble, most prudent, most learned lords, consuls,
prætors, judges, prefects, chancellors, secretaries, magistrates,
professors, etc. " When some of the bystanders received these
words with a smile, he replied: "I am not jesting; my speech
is serious; for I look on these little boys, not as they are now,
but with a view to the purpose of the Divine mind, on account
of which they are delivered to us for instruction. For assuredly
some such will come forth from among the number, although
there may be an intermixture of chaff among them as there is
among wheat. " Such was the animated address of this most
prudent man. But why should not we with equal confidence
declare, in respect of all children of Christian parents, those
glorious things which have been mentioned above? since Christ,
the promulgator of the eternal secrets of God, has pronounced
that "of such is the kingdom of Heaven. "
But if we consider only their present state, it will at once be
obvious why children are of inestimable value in the sight of
God, and ought to be so to their parents.
In the first place, they are valuable to God because, being
innocent with the sole exception of original sin, they are not yet
the defaced image of God by having polluted themselves with
actual guilt, and are "unable to discern between good and evil,
between the right hand and the left. " That God has respect to
this is abundantly manifest from the above words addressed to
John, and from other passages of the Sacred Writ.
Secondly, they are the pure and dearly purchased possession
of Christ; since Christ, who came to seek the lost, is said to be
the Savior of all, except those who by incredulity and impeni-
tence shut themselves out from being participators in his
merits. These are the purchased from among men, that they
may be the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb; having not yet
defiled themselves with the allurements of sin; but they follow
the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. And that they may continue
## p. 3920 (#286) ###########################################
3920
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
so to follow, they ought to be led as it were with the hand by
a pious education.
Finally, God so embraces children with abounding love that
they are a peculiar instrument of divine glory; as the Scriptures
testify, "From the lips of infants and sucklings thou hast per-
fected praise, because of mine enemies; that thou mayest destroy
the enemy and avenger. " How it comes to pass that God's
glory should receive increase from children, is certainly not at
once obvious to our understanding; but God, the discerner of all
things, knows and understands, and declares it to be so.
That children ought to be dearer and more precious to parents
than gold and silver, than pearls and gems, may be discovered
from a comparison between both of these gifts from God: for
first, gold, silver, and such other things, are inanimate, being
only somewhat harder and purer than the clay which we tread
beneath our feet; whereas children are the lively image of the
living God.
Secondly, gold and silver are rudimentary objects produced
by the command of God; whereas children are creatures in the
production of which the all-sacred Trinity instituted special coun-
cil, and formed them with his own fingers.
Thirdly, gold and silver are fleeting and transitory things;
children are an immortal inheritance. For although they yield
to death, yet they neither return to nothing, nor become extinct;
they only pass out of a mortal tabernacle into immortal regions.
Hence, when God restored to Job all his riches and possessions,
even to the double of what he had previously taken away, he
gave him no more children than he had before; namely, seven
sons and three daughters. This, however, was the precise double;
inasmuch as the former sons and daughters had not perished, but
had gone before to God.
Fourthly, gold and silver come forth from the earth, children
come from our own substance; being a part of ourselves, they
consequently deserve to be loved by us, certainly not less than
we love ourselves: therefore God has implanted in the nature of
all living things so strong an affection towards their young that
they occasionally prefer the safety of their offspring to their own.
If any one transfer such affections to gold or silver, he is, in
the judgment of God, condemned as guilty of idolatry.
Fifthly, gold and silver pass away from one to another as
though they were the property of none, but common to all:
## p. 3921 (#287) ###########################################
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
3921
whereas children are a peculiar possession, divinely assigned to
their parents; so that there is not a man in the orld who can
deprive them of this right or dispossess them of this inheritance,
because it is a portion descended from heaven and not a trans-
ferable possession.
Sixthly, although gold and silver are gifts of God, yet they
are not such gifts as those to which he has promised an angelic
guardianship from heaven; nay, Satan mostly intermingles him-
self with gold and silver so as to use them as nets and snares to
entangle the unwary, drawing them as it were with thongs, to
avarice, haughtiness, and prodigality: whereas the care of little
children is always committed to angelic guardianship, as the
Lord himself testifies. Hence he who has children within his
house may be certain that he has therein the presence of angels;
he who takes little children in his arms may be assured that he
takes angels; whosoever, surrounded with midnight darkness,
rests beside an infant, may enjoy the certain consolation that
with it he is so protected that the spirit of darkness cannot have
access. How great the importance of these things!
Seventhly, gold, silver, and other external things do not pro-
cure for us the love of God, nor as children do, defend us from
his anger; for God so loved children that for their sake he
occasionally pardons parents; Nineveh affords an example: inas-
much as there were many children therein, God spared the
parents from being swallowed up by the threatened judgment.
Eighthly, human life does not consist in abundance of wealth,
as our Lord says, since without God's blessings neither food
nourishes, nor plaster heals, nor clothing warms; but his blessing
is always present with us for the sake of children, in order that
they may be sustained. For if God liberally bestows food on
the young ravens calling on him, how much more should he not
care for children, his own image? Therefore Luther has wisely.
said: "We do not nourish our children, but they nourish us;
for because of these innocents God supplies necessaries, and we
aged sinners partake of them. "
Finally, silver, gold, and gems afford us no further instruction
than other created things do, namely, in the wisdom, power, and
beneficence of God; whereas children are given to us as a mirror,
in which we may behold modesty, courteousness, benignity,
harmony, and other Christian virtues, the Lord himself declaring,
"Unless ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall
VII-246
## p. 3922 (#288) ###########################################
3922
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
not enter into the kingdom of Heaven. " Since then God has
willed that children should be unto us in the place of preceptors,
we judge that we owe to them the most diligent attention.
Thus at last this school would become a school of things
obvious to the senses, and an entrance to the school intellectual.
But enough. Let us come to the thing itself.
By permission of D. C. Heath & Co.
## p. 3923 (#289) ###########################################
3923
PHILIPPE DE COMINES
(1445-1510)
HE last in date among the great French chroniclers of the
Middle Ages was Philippe de Comines (also written Com-
mines or Comynes). He was the scion of an old and
wealthy family that attained to nobility by marrying into the house
of the barons of Comines, the privilege being a reward for faithful
allegiance in the times of trouble and warfare. The approximate
date of his birth is the year 1445; his birthplace is not known with
certainty, though it may be assumed to have been either on the
estate of Comines, near Lille in northern France, or at the Château de
Renescure, near Saint-Omer. He lost his mother in 1447, and his
father died in 1453, leaving an entangled inheritance that netted a
sum of about two thousand five hundred livres, which in those days
sufficed to defray the child's current expenses and provide for his
education. Under the guardianship of one of his relatives, Jean de
Comines, the young orphan was brought up in the true spirit of the
feudal times to which he belonged, and was taught the profession of
arms. Reading and writing he also acquired, but whatever intellect-
ual training he received beyond this point was owing altogether to
his own efforts and exertions.
It was a matter of sincere regret to him that his education never
included the study of Latin. He became skilled with the pen, but
used it for his own amusement, not with a thought of leaving any-
thing more than notes that might serve others as a basis for fuller
historical descriptions. His style is terse, and not devoid of charm;
for he was not lacking in imagination, and by quaint simile or other
rhetorical effect enlivened many a page of his Chronicles. His
vocabulary, without being very rich, is carefully selected, but his
syntactical constructions are often abstruse and obscure. On the
whole, however, this justice must be done to Philippe de Comines:
that what he may lose for want of natural ease of expression is
compensated for by his virility of speech and true eloquence. His
chief merit lies in his pithy remarks, replete with suggestion. But
literary pursuits were not his proper field. In his days such occupa-
tions were left almost exclusively to the clergy, in whom alone was
supposed to be vested the need and uses of book learning.
He sought, as he grew up, to remedy the shortcomings of his
training, and acquired through contact with the numerous foreigners
## p. 3924 (#290) ###########################################
PHILIPPE DE COMINES
3924
he was in a position to meet, a fair knowledge of Italian, Spanish,
and German.
"On coming forth from childhood," he writes, "and being old
enough to ride horseback, I was led to Lille before Duke Charles of
Burgundy, then Count of Charolais, who took me in his service; and
this was in the year 1464. " Philippe de Comines was then in his
twentieth year, a youth polished in manners, refined in tastes, and
above all, a most acute observer,- and these qualities stamped him
as a coming diplomat of rare natural ability, in touch with his time,
and understanding himself and others sufficiently well to moralize
and philosophize about men and things, to reach many a sound con-
clusion, and to utter many a true and wise saying. He is among
the first thinking men of France who committed to paper the results
of his labors as a moral philosopher, as a statesman, and as a trusted
adviser to royalty.
For eight full years Philippe de Comines remained in the confi-
dential service of the Duke of Burgundy, by whom he was sent,
young as he was, on various diplomatic missions of the greatest im-
portance, first to London, then to Brittany, finally to Orange and
Castile. In the course of these expeditions he came in contact with
Louis XI. , King of France, and knew how to ingratiate himself into
his favor. Whatever the reasons for his rupture with the Duke of
Burgundy, whatever the special inducements offered by Louis XI. ,
the fact remains that he suddenly left his former master; and pos-
sessed of knowledge of the utmost political importance to the King
of France, he entered the royal service and remained there until the
King's death in August, 1483. His work was generously recognized
by Louis XI. , and even after his noble patron's death Comines
retained his court position for a time. He gradually fell away, how-
ever, from his allegiance to the royal cause, and threw himself heart
and soul into a movement, set on foot by a number of the feudal
lords and directed by the Duke of Orleans himself, against the person
of the young King Charles VIII. Arrested on a charge of conspiracy,
he spent over two years in various prisons (1486-1489), with ample
time to think over the vicissitudes of human happiness. A light
sentence was finally passed upon him, and having regained his lib-
erty he was so far restored to favor as to be sent on diplomatic
missions, first to Venice and then to Milan.
Though he lived in honor under Louis XII. , he retired shortly to
private life on his estate of Argenton, where he died in 1510.
It was in the solitude of his prison that Philippe de Comines be-
gan to write his reminiscences. The 'Chronique et Hystoire Faicte
et Composée par Messire Philippe de Comines' (Paris, 1524) was
written between the years 1488 and 1493. It deals with the history
## p. 3925 (#291) ###########################################
PHILIPPE DE COMINES
3925
of France from 1464 (when Comines went to the court of Charles the
Bold) to the death of Louis XI. in 1483. The sequel, 'Chroniques
du Roy Charles Huytiesme' (Paris, 1528), written subsequently to
1497, relates the story of the famous expedition to Italy undertaken
by Charles VIII. In the pages of Quentin Durward,' where Walter
Scott has given a graphic portrayal of the great men of that turbu-
lent time, Philippe de Comines stands out beside the crafty and
superstitious Louis XI. and the martial Charles of Burgundy as one
of the most striking figures of a picturesque age.
THE VIRTUES AND VICES OF KING LOUIS XI.
From the Memoirs of Philippe de Comines'
HE chief reason that has induced me to enter upon this sub-
is because I have seen many deceptions in this world,
especially in servants toward their masters; and I have
always found that proud and stately princes who will hear but
few, are more liable to be imposed upon than those who are
open and accessible: but of all the princes that I ever knew, the
wisest and most dexterous to extricate himself out of any dan-
ger or difficulty in time of adversity was our master King
Louis XI. He was the humblest in his conversation and habit,
and the most painful and indefatigable to win over any man to
his side that he thought capable of doing him either mischief or
service: though he was often refused, he would never give over
a man that he wished to gain, but still pressed and continued
his insinuations, promising him largely, and presenting him with
such sums and honors as he knew would gratify his ambition;
and for such as he had discarded in time of peace and pros-
perity, he paid dear (when he had occasion for them) to recover
them again; but when he had once reconciled them, he retained
no enmity towards them for what had passed, but employed
them freely for the future. He was naturally kind and indul-
gent to persons of mean estate, and hostile to all great men
who had no need of him. Never prince was so conversable nor
so inquisitive as he, for his desire was to know everybody he
could; and indeed he knew all persons of any authority or
worth in England, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, in the territories
of the Dukes of Burgundy and Bretagne, and among his own.
subjects: and by those qualities he preserved the crown upon his
## p. 3926 (#292) ###########################################
3926
PHILIPPE DE COMINES
head, which was in much danger by the enemies he had created
to himself upon his accession to the throne.
But above all, his great bounty and liberality did him the
greatest service: and yet, as he behaved himself wisely in time
of distress, so when he thought himself a little out of danger,
though it were but by a truce, he would disoblige the servants
and officers of his court by mean and petty ways which were
little to his advantage; and as for peace, he could hardly endure
the thoughts of it. He spoke slightingly of most people, and
rather before their faces than behind their backs; unless he was
afraid of them, and of that sort there were a great many, for he
was naturally somewhat timorous. When he had done himself
any prejudice by his talk, or was apprehensive he should do so,
and wished to make amends, he would say to the person whom
he had disobliged, "I am sensible my tongue has done me a
good deal of mischief; but on the other hand, it has sometimes.
done me much good: however, it is but reason I should make
some reparation for the injury. " And he never used this kind
of apologies to any person but he granted some favor to the
person to whom he made it, and it was always of considerable
amount.
It is certainly a great blessing from God upon any prince to
have experienced adversity as well as prosperity, good as well as
evil, and especially if the good outweighs the evil, as it did in
the King our master. I am of opinion that the troubles he was
involved in in his youth, when he fled from his father and re-
sided six years together with Philip, Duke of Burgundy, were of
great service to him; for there he learned to be complaisant to
such as he had occasion to use, which was no slight advantage
of adversity. As soon as he found himself a powerful and
crowned king, his mind was wholly bent upon revenge; but he
quickly found the inconvenience of this, repented by degrees of
his indiscretion, and made sufficient reparation for his folly and
error by regaining those he had injured. Besides, I am very
confident that if his education had not been different from the
usual education of such nobles as I have seen in France, he
could not so easily have worked himself out of his troubles: for
they are brought up to nothing but to make themselves ridicu-
lous, both in their clothes and discourse; they have no knowl-
edge of letters; no wise man is suffered to come near them, to
improve their understandings; they have governors who manage
## p. 3927 (#293) ###########################################
PHILIPPE DE COMINES
3927
their business, but they do nothing themselves: nay, there are
some nobles who though they have an income of thirteen livres,
will take pride to bid you "Go to my servants and let them
answer you, thinking by such speeches to imitate the state and
grandeur of a prince; and I have seen their servants take great
advantage of them, giving them to understand they were fools;
and if afterwards they came to apply their minds to business
and attempted to manage their own affairs, they began so late
they could make nothing of it. And it is certain that all those
who have performed any great or memorable action worthy to
be recorded in history, began always in their youth; and this is
to be attributed to the method of their education, or some par-
ticular blessing of God.
THE VIRTUES OF THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY AND THE
TIME OF HIS HOUSE'S PROSPERITY
I
SAW a seal-ring of his after his death at Milan, with his arms
cut curiously upon a sardonyx, that I have often seen him
wear in a riband at his breast; which was sold at Milan for
two ducats, and had been stolen from him by a varlet that waited
on him in his chamber. I have often seen the duke dressed and
undressed in great state and formality, and by very great per-
sons; but at his last hour all this pomp and magnificence ceased,
and both he and his family perished on the very spot where he
had delivered up the Constable not long before, out of a base and
avaricious motive. But may God forgive him! I have known
him a powerful and honorable prince, in as great esteem and as
much courted by his neighbors (when his affairs were in a pros-
perous condition) as any prince in Europe, and perhaps more
so; and I cannot conceive what should have provoked God
Almighty's displeasure so highly against him unless it was his
self-love and arrogance, in attributing all the success of his en-
terprises and all the renown he ever acquired to his own wis-
dom and conduct, without ascribing anything to God: yet, to
speak truth, he was endowed with many good qualities. No
prince ever had a greater desire to entertain young noblemen
than he, or was more careful of their education. His presents
and bounty were never profuse and extravagant, because he gave
to many, and wished everybody should taste of his generosity.
## p. 3928 (#294) ###########################################
3928
PHILIPPE DE COMINES
No prince was ever more easy of access to his servants and
subjects. Whilst I was in his service he was never cruel, but
a little before his death he became so, which was an infallible
sign of the shortness of his life.
Oakly-Yes; but that-
Russet — Has not this affair been carried on a long time, in
spite of my teeth?
Oakly Sir, I never troubled myself-
Mrs. Oakly - Never troubled yourself! Did not you insist on
her staying in the house, whether I would or no?
-
## p. 3907 (#273) ###########################################
GEORGE COLMAN THE ELDER
3907
Oakly - No.
Russet - Did not you send to meet her when she came to
town?
Oakly - No.
Mrs. Oakly - Did not you deceive me about the letter this
morning?
Oakly-No, no, no. I tell you, no!
Mrs. Oakly-Yes, yes, yes. I tell you, yes!
Russet Shan't I believe my own eyes?
-
Mrs. Oakly - Shan't I believe my own ears?
Oakly I tell you, you are both deceived.
Russet-Zounds, sir, I'll have satisfaction.
-
―――――
Mrs. Oakly-I'll stop these fine doings, I warrant you.
Oakly 'Sdeath, you will not let me speak! And you are
both alike, I think. I wish you were married to one another,
with all my heart.
Mrs. Oakly Mighty well! mighty well!
Russet -I shall soon find a time to talk with you.
➖➖
Oakly - Find a time to talk! you have talked enough now for
all your lives.
Mrs. Oakly-Very fine! Come along, sir! leave that lady
with her father. Now she is in the properest hands.
Oakly-I wish I could leave you in his hands. [Going,
returns. ] I shall follow you, madam! One word with you, sir!
The height of your passion, and Mrs. Oakly's strange misappre-
hension of this whole affair, makes it impossible to explain mat-
ters to you at present. I will do it when you please, and how
you please.
[Exit.
Russet - Yes, yes; I'll have satisfaction. -So, madam! I have
found you at last. You have made a fine confusion here.
Harriot I have indeed been the innocent cause of a great
Ideal of confusion.
Russet Innocent! what business had you to be running
hither after
Harriot - My dear sir, you misunderstand the whole affair. I
have not been in this house half an hour.
Russet-Zounds, girl, don't put me in a passion! You know
I love you; but a lie puts me in a passion! But come along;
we'll leave this house directly. [Charles singing without. ] Hey-
day! what now?
## p. 3908 (#274) ###########################################
3908
GEORGE COLMAN THE ELDER
After a noise without, enter Charles, drunk and singing:
But my wine neither nurses nor babies can bring,
And a big-bellied bottle's a mighty good thing.
What's here—a woman? a woman? Harriot! - Impossible! —
My dearest, sweetest Harriot! I have been looking all over the
town for you, and at last, when I was tired and weary and
disappointed,-why then the honest Major and I sat down
together to drink your health in pint bumpers.
[Running up to her.
my daughter before me? Zounds, sir,
Charles-Ha, 'Squire Russet, too!
do you? But Harriot! my dear girl!
life, my soul, my
Russet-Stand off!
Stand off! How dare you take any
ny liberties with
I'll be the death of you!
You jolly old cock, how
[Taking hold of her. ] My
Russet-Let her go, sir! Come away, Harriot! Leave him
this instant, or I'll tear you asunder.
[Pulling her.
Harriot-There needs no violence to tear me from a man
who could disguise himself in such a gross manner, at a time
when he knew I was in the utmost distress.
[Disengages herself, and exit with Russet.
Charles [alone]-Only hear me, sir! Madam! My dear
Harriot! Mr. Russet! Gone! She's gone; and egad, in a very
ill humor and in very bad company! I'll go after her. But
hold! I shall only make it worse, as I did, now I recollect,
once before. How the devil came they here? Who would have
thought of finding her in my own house? My head turns round
with conjectures. I believe I am drunk, very drunk; so egad,
I'll e'en go and sleep myself sober, and then inquire the mean-
ing of all this-
"For I love Sue, and Sue loves me," etc.
[Exit singing.
## p. 3909 (#275) ###########################################
3909
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
(1592-1671)
BY BURKE A. HINSDALE
OHANN AMOS COMENIUS, the Slavic educational reformer, was
born March 28th, 1592, at Nivnitz, a village of Moravia.
His family belonged to the small but well-known body that
takes its name from the country,-"the Moravian Brethren," or sim-
ply "the Moravians," whose origin goes back to Huss, the Bohemian
reformer. The Brethren are known for their simple evangelical
faith, their humble fraternal lives, their interest in education, and
particularly their devotion to the cause of missions. Comenius was
a Moravian, a minister, and a bishop, and
he illustrated the best ideas and inspira-
tions of the Brotherhood in his teachings
and life.
COMENIUS
The parents of Comenius died when he
was still a child, and he fell into the hands
of guardians, who allowed his education to
be neglected. He received his elementary
education in one of the people's schools
that sprang out of the Hussite movement.
When sixteen years of age he attended a
Latin school, and at twenty he was study-
ing theology at Hebron College, in the
duchy of Nassau. Next he spent some
time in travel and in study at Heidelberg.
and returned to Moravia in 1614, being twenty-two years of age.
Too young to be ordained to the ministry, he was made rector of
a Moravian school at Prerau, near Olmütz, where his career as a
teacher and educator began. His attention had already been turned
to the teaching art as practiced in the schools, both by observation
and by reading the schemes of educational reform that had been
propounded. In 1616 he was ordained to the pastorate, and two
years later he was set over the flourishing church of Fulneck, where
he also had the supervision of a school. Here he married, and "for
two or three years," says Professor Laurie, "spent a happy and active
life, enjoying the only period of tranquillity in his native country
which it was ever his fortune to experience. For the restoration
## p. 3910 (#276) ###########################################
3910
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
of a time so happy he never ceased to pine during all his future
wanderings. "
Soon the Thirty Years' War broke out, and in 1621 Fulneck fell
into the hands of the Spaniards, who dealt with it according to their
usual habit in such cases. Comenius lost all his property, including
his library and manuscripts, and became for the rest of his life an
exile. His wife and child he lost soon after. He had been so un-
fortunate as to incur the enmity of the Jesuits. We cannot follow
him closely in his wanderings. For some time he lived in secrecy
in Moravia and Bohemia. Then he found a resting-place at Lissa, in
Poland, where in 1621 he published a little work that at once made
him famous. This was the 'Janua Linguarum Reserata,' (the Gate
of Tongues Unlocked), which was translated into the principal lan-
guages of Europe and several languages of Asia. The next year he
was elected chief bishop of the Brethren, and henceforth there came
upon him daily, as upon the great Apostle, the care of all the
churches. Still he never ceased reading, thinking, and writing on
educational matters, and was often engaged in the practical work of
teaching. He visited England, called there to confer with the Long
Parliament in reference to the reform of education. He visited
Sweden, where he discussed education and learning with the great
Oxenstierna. Then he lived for a time at Elbing in East Russia.
Next he was called to Transylvania and Hungary on an educational
errand, and then returned to Lissa.
In the course of the war this town was destroyed, and Comenius
again lost all of his possessions. The great Pansophic dictionary
that had engaged him for many years went with the rest,—a loss,
he said, that he should cease to lament only when he should cease
to breathe. His next home was Amsterdam, where he set himself to
collect, revise, and supplement his writings on didactics, and where
they were published in four folio volumes in 1657. At some time, ac-
cording to Cotton Mather, he was offered the presidency of Harvard
College. After the publication of his works he lived thirteen years,
employed in teaching, in writing, and in pastoral labors. He died.
November 15th, 1671, in his eightieth year, having fully merited Von
Raumer's characterization:-"Comenius is a grand and venerable
figure of sorrow. Wandering, persecuted, and homeless during the
terrible and desolating Thirty Years' War, he yet never despaired; but
with enduring truth, and strong in faith, he labored unweariedly to
prepare youth by a better education for a better future. " In 1892,
on the three-hundredth anniversary of his birth, the educators of the
world united to honor his memory, and at that time a monument
was erected at Naärden, Holland, the little village where he died
and was buried. At Leipzig there is a pedagogical library founded
## p. 3911 (#277) ###########################################
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
3911
in his honor on the two-hundredth anniversary of his birth, which
numbers more than 66,000 volumes.
Comenius wrote one hundred and thirty-five books and treatises,
most of which were translated during his lifetime into all the lan-
guages of Europe and several languages of Asia. Not all of them
related to education; he wrote voluminously on religious subjects
also. To name and characterize his didactic works would far tran-
scend the limits of this notice; we can do no more than draw an
outline of his pedagogical system.
-
Early in the Renaissance the ancient literatures took complete
possession of the minds of scholars and teachers. As these litera-
tures were nowhere the vernacular, the schools were made machines
for teaching the Latin and Greek languages. Sometimes the results
were better, sometimes worse. We may hope that Comenius spoke
of the schools at their worst estate when he said that they were
"the terror of boys and the slaughter-houses of minds," — " places
where hatred of literature and books was contracted, "_" where what
ought to be poured in gently was forced in violently," and "where
what ought to be put clearly was presented in a confused and intri-
cate manner, as if it were a collection of puzzles. " "Ten years,” he
said, "are given to the study of the Latin tongue, and after all the
result is disappointing. Boyhood is distracted for years with pre-
cepts of grammar, infinitely prolix, perplexed, and obscure, and for
the most part useless. Boys are stuffed with vocabularies without
associating the words with things, or indeed with one another. " For
the time it was impossible, even if desirable, to overturn the estab-
lished system; and Comenius, while still at Prerau, addressed himself
to the problem of simplifying the teaching of Latin. His first book,
'Grammaticæ Facilioris Præcepta,' written for his own pupils, was
published at Prague in 1616. The great impression that the 'Janua'
produced, shows how ready men were to welcome anything that
promised to mitigate the evils of the prevailing methods of teaching.
But deeply interested as he was in teaching languages, Comenius
still saw that this was by no means the great educational question of
the time. Early in life he had become a disciple of the new induct-
ive philosophy; and of all the titles that have been conferred upon
him, that of "the Bacon of education" is the most significant. The
impression that he received from Bacon was most profound. Several
of his titles, as Didactica Magna,' 'Pansophiæ Prodromus,' and
'Silva,' suggest titles before used by his master. Looking at edu-
cation from the Baconian point of view, Comenius proposed to make
it an inductive science. He found in nature the great storehouse of
education material. "Do we not dwell in the Garden of Eden,” he
demanded, « as well as our predecessors? Why should not we use
## p. 3912 (#278) ###########################################
3912
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
our eyes and ears and noses as well as they? and why need we other
teachers than these in learning to know the works of nature? Why
should we not, instead of these dead books, open to the children the
living book of nature? Why not open their understandings to the
things themselves, so that from them, as from living springs, many
streamlets may flow? " Holding these views and putting them effect-
ively before the world, he became the founder of the pedagogical
school known as the Sense-Realists. But much more than this, he
had the rare merit of seeing that modern education must be built
on the basis of the modern languages; and so he proposed to call
the elementary school the "vernacular school," things before words,
and vernacular words before foreign words.
<<
Comenius's best known books are the Didactica Magna' and the
'Orbis Sensualium Pictus. ' The first was written in Czech, the
author's vernacular, one of the best of the Slavonic dialects, during
his first residence in Lissa; but was not published until a later day,
and then in Latin. It is a general treatise on method.
« After many
workings and tossings of my thoughts," he says, "by setting every-
thing to the immovable laws of nature," he lighted upon this trea-
tise, which shows the art of readily and solidly teaching all things. "
The Orbis Pictus,' which was only a modification of the Janua,'
first appeared in 1657. Hoole, the English translator, renders the
Latin title thus: Visible World; or a Nomenclature and Pictures of
all the Chief Things that are in the World, and of Men's Employ-
ments Therein. ' The Orbis Pictus' has been called Children's
First Picture-Book,' and it obtained much the widest circulation and
use of all the reformer's works. It was written to illustrate his ideas
of teaching things and words together. Its keynote is struck by
the legend, "There is nothing in the intellect that is not first in the
sense. »
The lessons, of which there are one hundred and ninety-
four words, are given in Latin and German, and are each illustrated
with a copper cut. While the book is wholly unsuited to our use, it
is still an interesting pedagogical memorial, archaic and quaint.
But Bacon's influence on Comenius was far greater than has yet
appeared. The philosopher had large conceptions of the kingdom of
knowledge, and the disciple accepted these conceptions in their most
exaggerated form. He became the founder of 'Pansophia': men could
attain to universal knowledge if they were rightly taught and guided.
When his eye had once caught this vision, it never wandered from it
to the day of his death. He projected a Pansophic school, and spent
half a lifetime in seeking a patron who would help him to realize
his dream. Save some of the first ones, his didactic treatises were
written as means to a Pansophic end. The books that have made
him immortal he counted but as dust in the balance, compared with
## p. 3913 (#279) ###########################################
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
3913
the piles of manuscripts that he produced devoted to all knowledge.
In fact, he almost despised himself because, partly persuaded by his
patrons and advisers and partly compelled by the necessities of
livelihood, he gave so much time to things didactic. Thus Comenius
was like Bacon, in that his real service to the world was something
quite different from what he proposed for its benefit. He was like
Bacon also in this, that he put forth the same work - practically
so in more than one form.
-
The mistakes of Comenius lie upon the surface. He entertained
exaggerated views of the results to flow to mankind from the en-
largement of knowledge, he greatly overestimated the value of
method, and so, very naturally, greatly magnified what the human
mind is able to accomplish in the field of learning. He carried much
too far his sensational principles, and seriously underestimated the
ancient learning and letters. But these mistakes, and even Pan-
sophism itself, may be not only excused but welcomed; since they
undoubtedly contributed at the time, and since, to educational pro-
gress.
It must not be supposed that Comenius had no precursors. Bacon
had disclosed to men his vision of the kingdom of knowledge. Rabelais
had published his realistic views of education and his vast scheme
of studies. Montaigne had delivered his criticisms on current teach-
ing and submitted his suggestions for reform. Mulcaster had given to
the world his far-reaching anticipations of the future. Ratich, the
John the Baptist of the new movement, to whom Comenius was
probably most indebted next to Bacon, had gone far in revolt from
the existing régime. But it was left to Comenius to give the new
pedagogy a shaping and an impulse that well entitle him to be
called its founder.
Comenius has still other credentials to permanent fame. He
advocated popular education, contended for the union of knowledge
with morals and piety, proposed the higher education of women,
propounded the existing tripartite division of education, and devised
a system of graded instruction for schools of a decidedly modern
character. His place in the educational pantheon is secure; but not
so much by reason of his didactics, which are now largely antiquated,
as by reason of his spirit. As Mr. Quick has said:-"He saw that
every human creature should be trained up to become a reasonable
being, and that the training should be such as to draw out the God-
given faculties. Thus he struck the keynote of the science of
education. "
B. Altinsdale
## p. 3914 (#280) ###########################################
3914
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE ORBIS PICTUS›
I
NSTRUCTION is the means to expel rudeness, with which young
wits ought to be well furnished in Schools: but so as that
the teaching be-1, True; 2, Full; 3, Clear; and 4, Solid.
I. It will be true, if nothing be taught but such as is bene-
ficial to one's life; lest there be a cause of complaining after-
wards. We know not necessary things, because we have not
learned things necessary.
2. It will be full, if the mind be polished for wisdom, the
tongue for eloquence, and the hands for a neat way of living.
This will be that grace of one's life: to be wise, to act, to
speak.
3, 4. It will be clear, and by that, firm and solid, if what-
ever is taught and learned be not obscure or confused, but
apparent, distinct, and articulate as the fingers on the hands.
The ground of this business is, that sensual objects may be
rightly presented to the senses, for fear they may not be re-
ceived. I say, and say it again aloud, that this last is the
foundation of all the rest: because we can neither act nor speak
wisely, unless we first rightly understand all the things which
are to be done, and whereof we are to speak. Now there is
nothing in the understanding which was not before in the sense.
And therefore to exercise the senses well about the right per-
ceiving the differences of things, will be to lay the grounds for
all wisdom, and all wise discourse, and all discreet actions in
one's course of life. Which, because it is commonly neglected
in our schools, and the things which are to be learned are
offered to scholars without being understood or being rightly
presented to the senses, it cometh to pass that the work of
teaching and learning goeth heavily onward, and affordeth little
benefit.
See here then a new help for schools, a Picture and Nomen-
clature of all the chief things in the world, and of men's actions
in their way of living: which that you, good masters, may not
be loath to run over with your scholars, I tell you, in short,
what good you may expect from it.
It is a little book, as you see, of no great bulk, yet a brief
of the whole world, and a whole language; full of Pictures,
Nomenclatures, and Descriptions of things.
## p. 3915 (#281) ###########################################
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
3915
I. The Pictures are the representations of all visible things
(to which also things invisible are reduced after their fashion) of
the whole world. And that in that very order of things in
which they are described in the 'Janua Latinæ Linguæ'; and
with that fullness, that nothing very necessary or of great con-
cernment is omitted.
II. The Nomenclatures are the Inscriptions, or Titles, set
every one over their own Pictures, expressing the whole thing
by its own general term.
III. The Descriptions are the explications of the parts of the
Picture, so expressed by their own proper terms; as the same
figure which is added to every piece of the Picture, and the term
of it, always showeth what things belongeth one to another.
Which such book, and in such a dress, may (I hope) serve.
I. To entice witty children to it, that they may not conceit
it a torment to be in school, but dainty fare. For it is apparent
that children (even from their infancy almost) are delighted with
pictures, and willingly please their eyes with these lights; and it
will be very well worth the pains to have once brought it to
pass, that scarecrows may be taken away out of wisdom's gar-
dens.
II. This same little book will serve to stir up the attention,
which is to be fastened upon things, and even to be sharpened
more and more; which is also a great matter. For the senses
(being the main guides of childhood, because therein the mind
doth not as yet raise up itself to an abstracted contemplation of
things) evermore seek their own objects, and if they may be
away, they grow dull, and wry themselves hither and thither out
of a weariness of themselves; but when their objects are present,
they grow merry, wax lively, and willingly suffer themselves to
be fastened upon them, till the thing be sufficiently discerned.
This book then will do a good piece of service in taking espe
cially flickering wits, and preparing them for deeper studies.
III. Whence a third good will follow: that children being
won thereunto, and drawn over with this way of heeding, may be
furnished with the knowledge of the prime things that are in
the world, by sport and merry pastime. In a word, this Book
will serve for the more pleasing using of the 'Vestibulum' and
'Janua Linguarum,' for which end it was even at the first chiefly
intended. Yet if it like any that it be bound up in their native
tongues also, it promiseth three good things of itself.
## p. 3916 (#282) ###########################################
3916
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
I. First, it will afford a device for learning to read more
easily than hitherto, especially having a symbolical alphabet set
before it; to wit, the characters of the several letters, with the
image of that creature whose voice that letter goeth about to
imitate, pictured by it. For the young A B C scholar will easily
remember the force of every character by the very looking upon
the creature, till the imagination, being strengthened by use, can
readily afford all things; and then having looked over a table of
the chief syllables also (which yet was not thought necessary to
be added to this book), he may proceed to the viewing of the
pictures and the inscriptions set over them. Where again, the
very looking upon the thing pictured suggesting the name of the
thing, will tell him how the title of the picture is to be read.
And thus the whole book being gone over by the bare titles of
the pictures, reading cannot but be learned; and indeed too,
which thing is to be noted, without using any ordinary tedious
spelling, that most troublesome torture of wits, which may wholly
be avoided by this method. For the often reading over the book,
by those larger descriptions of things, and which are set after the
pictures, will be able perfectly to beget a habit of reading.
II. The same book being used in English, in English schools,
will serve for the perfect learning of the whole English tongue,
and that from the bottom; because by the aforesaid descriptions
of things, the words and phrases of the whole language are
found set orderly in their proper places. And a short English
Grammar might be added at the end, clearly resolving the speech
already understood into its parts; showing the declining of the
several words, and reducing those that are joined together under
certain rules.
III. Thence a new benefit cometh, that that very English
Translation may serve for the more ready and pleasant learning
of the Latin tongue: as one may see in this edition, the whole
book being so translated that everywhere one word answereth to
the word over against it, and the book is in all things the same,
only in two idioms, as a man clad in a double garment. And
there might be also some observations and advertisements added
at the end, touching those things only wherein the use of the
Latin tongue differeth from the English. For where there is no
difference, there needeth no advertisements to be given. But
because the first tasks of the learner ought to be little and
single, we have filled this first book of training one up to see a
## p. 3917 (#283) ###########################################
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
3917
thing of himself, with nothing but rudiments; that is, with the
chief of things and words, or with the grounds of the whole
world, and the whole language, and of all our understanding
about things. If a more perfect description of things, and a
fuller knowledge of a language, and a clearer light of the under-
standing, be sought after (as they ought to be), they are to be
found somewhere whither there will now be an easy passage by
this our little Encyclopædia of things subject to the senses.
Something remaineth to be said touching the more cheerful use
of this book.
I. Let it be given to children into their hands to delight
themselves withal as they please with the sight of the pictures,
and making them as familiar to themselves as may be, and that
even at home before they are put to school.
II. Then let them be examined ever and anon (especially
now in the school) what this thing or that thing is, and is
called, so that they may see nothing which they know not how
to name, and that they can name nothing which they cannot
show.
III. And let the things named them be showed, not only in
the picture, but also in themselves; for example, the parts of
the body, clothes, books, the house, utensils, etc.
IV. Let them be suffered also to imitate the pictures by
hand, if they will; nay, rather let them be encouraged that they
may be willing: first, thus to quicken the attention also towards
the things, and to observe the proportion of the parts one
towards the other; and lastly, to practice the nimbleness of the
hand, which is good for many things.
V. If anything here mentioned cannot be presented to the
eye, it will be to no purpose at all to offer them by themselves
to the scholars; as colors, relishes, etc. , which cannot here be
pictured out with ink. For which reason it were to be wished
that things rare and not easy to be met withal at home might
be kept ready in every great school, that they may be showed
also, as often as any words are to be made by them, to the
scholars.
## p. 3918 (#284) ###########################################
3918
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
SCHOOL OF INFANCY
CLAIMS OF CHILDHOOD
HAT children are an inestimable treasure, the Spirit of God
David testifies, saying,
are the heritages of the Lord; the fruit of the womb his
reward; as arrows in the hand, so are children. Blessed is the
man who has filled his quiver with them; he shall not be con-
founded. " David declares those to be happy on whom God
confers children.
The same is also evident from this: that God, purposing to
testify his love towards us, calls us children, as if there were no
more excellent name by which to commend us.
Moreover, he is very greatly incensed against those who
deliver their children to Moloch. It is also worthy our most
serious consideration that God, in respect of the children of even
idolatrous parents, calls them children born to him; thus indi-
cating that they are born not for ourselves but for God, and
as God's offspring they claim our most profound respect.
Hence in Malachi children are called the seed of God, whence
arises the offspring of God.
For this reason the eternal Son of God, when manifested in
the flesh, not only willed to become the participator of the flesh
of children, but likewise deemed children a pleasure and a
delight. Taking them in his arms, as little brothers and sisters,
he carried them about, and kissed them and blessed them.
Not only this: he likewise uttered a severe threat against any
one who should offend them even in the least degree, command-
ing them to be respected as himself, and condemning even
with severe penalties any who offend even the smallest of them.
Should any one wish to inquire why he so delighted in little
children, and so strictly enjoined upon us such respectful atten-
tion to them, many reasons may be ascertained. And first, if
the little ones seem unimportant to you, regard them not as
they now are, but as in accordance with the intention of God
they may and ought to be. You will see them not only as the
future inhabitants of the world and possessors of the earth, and
God's vicars amongst his creatures when we depart from this
life, but also equally participators with us in the heritage of
## p. 3919 (#285) ###########################################
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
3919
Christ, a royal priesthood, a chosen people, associates of angels,
judges of devils, the delight of heaven, the terror of hell-heirs
of the most excellent dignities throughout all the ages of eter-
nity. What can be imagined more excellent than this?
Philip Melanchthon of pious memory, having upon one occa-
sion entered a common school, looked upon the pupils therein
assembled, and began his address to them in these words: -
"Hail, reverend pastors, doctors, licentiates, superintendents!
Hail! most noble, most prudent, most learned lords, consuls,
prætors, judges, prefects, chancellors, secretaries, magistrates,
professors, etc. " When some of the bystanders received these
words with a smile, he replied: "I am not jesting; my speech
is serious; for I look on these little boys, not as they are now,
but with a view to the purpose of the Divine mind, on account
of which they are delivered to us for instruction. For assuredly
some such will come forth from among the number, although
there may be an intermixture of chaff among them as there is
among wheat. " Such was the animated address of this most
prudent man. But why should not we with equal confidence
declare, in respect of all children of Christian parents, those
glorious things which have been mentioned above? since Christ,
the promulgator of the eternal secrets of God, has pronounced
that "of such is the kingdom of Heaven. "
But if we consider only their present state, it will at once be
obvious why children are of inestimable value in the sight of
God, and ought to be so to their parents.
In the first place, they are valuable to God because, being
innocent with the sole exception of original sin, they are not yet
the defaced image of God by having polluted themselves with
actual guilt, and are "unable to discern between good and evil,
between the right hand and the left. " That God has respect to
this is abundantly manifest from the above words addressed to
John, and from other passages of the Sacred Writ.
Secondly, they are the pure and dearly purchased possession
of Christ; since Christ, who came to seek the lost, is said to be
the Savior of all, except those who by incredulity and impeni-
tence shut themselves out from being participators in his
merits. These are the purchased from among men, that they
may be the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb; having not yet
defiled themselves with the allurements of sin; but they follow
the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. And that they may continue
## p. 3920 (#286) ###########################################
3920
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
so to follow, they ought to be led as it were with the hand by
a pious education.
Finally, God so embraces children with abounding love that
they are a peculiar instrument of divine glory; as the Scriptures
testify, "From the lips of infants and sucklings thou hast per-
fected praise, because of mine enemies; that thou mayest destroy
the enemy and avenger. " How it comes to pass that God's
glory should receive increase from children, is certainly not at
once obvious to our understanding; but God, the discerner of all
things, knows and understands, and declares it to be so.
That children ought to be dearer and more precious to parents
than gold and silver, than pearls and gems, may be discovered
from a comparison between both of these gifts from God: for
first, gold, silver, and such other things, are inanimate, being
only somewhat harder and purer than the clay which we tread
beneath our feet; whereas children are the lively image of the
living God.
Secondly, gold and silver are rudimentary objects produced
by the command of God; whereas children are creatures in the
production of which the all-sacred Trinity instituted special coun-
cil, and formed them with his own fingers.
Thirdly, gold and silver are fleeting and transitory things;
children are an immortal inheritance. For although they yield
to death, yet they neither return to nothing, nor become extinct;
they only pass out of a mortal tabernacle into immortal regions.
Hence, when God restored to Job all his riches and possessions,
even to the double of what he had previously taken away, he
gave him no more children than he had before; namely, seven
sons and three daughters. This, however, was the precise double;
inasmuch as the former sons and daughters had not perished, but
had gone before to God.
Fourthly, gold and silver come forth from the earth, children
come from our own substance; being a part of ourselves, they
consequently deserve to be loved by us, certainly not less than
we love ourselves: therefore God has implanted in the nature of
all living things so strong an affection towards their young that
they occasionally prefer the safety of their offspring to their own.
If any one transfer such affections to gold or silver, he is, in
the judgment of God, condemned as guilty of idolatry.
Fifthly, gold and silver pass away from one to another as
though they were the property of none, but common to all:
## p. 3921 (#287) ###########################################
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
3921
whereas children are a peculiar possession, divinely assigned to
their parents; so that there is not a man in the orld who can
deprive them of this right or dispossess them of this inheritance,
because it is a portion descended from heaven and not a trans-
ferable possession.
Sixthly, although gold and silver are gifts of God, yet they
are not such gifts as those to which he has promised an angelic
guardianship from heaven; nay, Satan mostly intermingles him-
self with gold and silver so as to use them as nets and snares to
entangle the unwary, drawing them as it were with thongs, to
avarice, haughtiness, and prodigality: whereas the care of little
children is always committed to angelic guardianship, as the
Lord himself testifies. Hence he who has children within his
house may be certain that he has therein the presence of angels;
he who takes little children in his arms may be assured that he
takes angels; whosoever, surrounded with midnight darkness,
rests beside an infant, may enjoy the certain consolation that
with it he is so protected that the spirit of darkness cannot have
access. How great the importance of these things!
Seventhly, gold, silver, and other external things do not pro-
cure for us the love of God, nor as children do, defend us from
his anger; for God so loved children that for their sake he
occasionally pardons parents; Nineveh affords an example: inas-
much as there were many children therein, God spared the
parents from being swallowed up by the threatened judgment.
Eighthly, human life does not consist in abundance of wealth,
as our Lord says, since without God's blessings neither food
nourishes, nor plaster heals, nor clothing warms; but his blessing
is always present with us for the sake of children, in order that
they may be sustained. For if God liberally bestows food on
the young ravens calling on him, how much more should he not
care for children, his own image? Therefore Luther has wisely.
said: "We do not nourish our children, but they nourish us;
for because of these innocents God supplies necessaries, and we
aged sinners partake of them. "
Finally, silver, gold, and gems afford us no further instruction
than other created things do, namely, in the wisdom, power, and
beneficence of God; whereas children are given to us as a mirror,
in which we may behold modesty, courteousness, benignity,
harmony, and other Christian virtues, the Lord himself declaring,
"Unless ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall
VII-246
## p. 3922 (#288) ###########################################
3922
JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS
not enter into the kingdom of Heaven. " Since then God has
willed that children should be unto us in the place of preceptors,
we judge that we owe to them the most diligent attention.
Thus at last this school would become a school of things
obvious to the senses, and an entrance to the school intellectual.
But enough. Let us come to the thing itself.
By permission of D. C. Heath & Co.
## p. 3923 (#289) ###########################################
3923
PHILIPPE DE COMINES
(1445-1510)
HE last in date among the great French chroniclers of the
Middle Ages was Philippe de Comines (also written Com-
mines or Comynes). He was the scion of an old and
wealthy family that attained to nobility by marrying into the house
of the barons of Comines, the privilege being a reward for faithful
allegiance in the times of trouble and warfare. The approximate
date of his birth is the year 1445; his birthplace is not known with
certainty, though it may be assumed to have been either on the
estate of Comines, near Lille in northern France, or at the Château de
Renescure, near Saint-Omer. He lost his mother in 1447, and his
father died in 1453, leaving an entangled inheritance that netted a
sum of about two thousand five hundred livres, which in those days
sufficed to defray the child's current expenses and provide for his
education. Under the guardianship of one of his relatives, Jean de
Comines, the young orphan was brought up in the true spirit of the
feudal times to which he belonged, and was taught the profession of
arms. Reading and writing he also acquired, but whatever intellect-
ual training he received beyond this point was owing altogether to
his own efforts and exertions.
It was a matter of sincere regret to him that his education never
included the study of Latin. He became skilled with the pen, but
used it for his own amusement, not with a thought of leaving any-
thing more than notes that might serve others as a basis for fuller
historical descriptions. His style is terse, and not devoid of charm;
for he was not lacking in imagination, and by quaint simile or other
rhetorical effect enlivened many a page of his Chronicles. His
vocabulary, without being very rich, is carefully selected, but his
syntactical constructions are often abstruse and obscure. On the
whole, however, this justice must be done to Philippe de Comines:
that what he may lose for want of natural ease of expression is
compensated for by his virility of speech and true eloquence. His
chief merit lies in his pithy remarks, replete with suggestion. But
literary pursuits were not his proper field. In his days such occupa-
tions were left almost exclusively to the clergy, in whom alone was
supposed to be vested the need and uses of book learning.
He sought, as he grew up, to remedy the shortcomings of his
training, and acquired through contact with the numerous foreigners
## p. 3924 (#290) ###########################################
PHILIPPE DE COMINES
3924
he was in a position to meet, a fair knowledge of Italian, Spanish,
and German.
"On coming forth from childhood," he writes, "and being old
enough to ride horseback, I was led to Lille before Duke Charles of
Burgundy, then Count of Charolais, who took me in his service; and
this was in the year 1464. " Philippe de Comines was then in his
twentieth year, a youth polished in manners, refined in tastes, and
above all, a most acute observer,- and these qualities stamped him
as a coming diplomat of rare natural ability, in touch with his time,
and understanding himself and others sufficiently well to moralize
and philosophize about men and things, to reach many a sound con-
clusion, and to utter many a true and wise saying. He is among
the first thinking men of France who committed to paper the results
of his labors as a moral philosopher, as a statesman, and as a trusted
adviser to royalty.
For eight full years Philippe de Comines remained in the confi-
dential service of the Duke of Burgundy, by whom he was sent,
young as he was, on various diplomatic missions of the greatest im-
portance, first to London, then to Brittany, finally to Orange and
Castile. In the course of these expeditions he came in contact with
Louis XI. , King of France, and knew how to ingratiate himself into
his favor. Whatever the reasons for his rupture with the Duke of
Burgundy, whatever the special inducements offered by Louis XI. ,
the fact remains that he suddenly left his former master; and pos-
sessed of knowledge of the utmost political importance to the King
of France, he entered the royal service and remained there until the
King's death in August, 1483. His work was generously recognized
by Louis XI. , and even after his noble patron's death Comines
retained his court position for a time. He gradually fell away, how-
ever, from his allegiance to the royal cause, and threw himself heart
and soul into a movement, set on foot by a number of the feudal
lords and directed by the Duke of Orleans himself, against the person
of the young King Charles VIII. Arrested on a charge of conspiracy,
he spent over two years in various prisons (1486-1489), with ample
time to think over the vicissitudes of human happiness. A light
sentence was finally passed upon him, and having regained his lib-
erty he was so far restored to favor as to be sent on diplomatic
missions, first to Venice and then to Milan.
Though he lived in honor under Louis XII. , he retired shortly to
private life on his estate of Argenton, where he died in 1510.
It was in the solitude of his prison that Philippe de Comines be-
gan to write his reminiscences. The 'Chronique et Hystoire Faicte
et Composée par Messire Philippe de Comines' (Paris, 1524) was
written between the years 1488 and 1493. It deals with the history
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PHILIPPE DE COMINES
3925
of France from 1464 (when Comines went to the court of Charles the
Bold) to the death of Louis XI. in 1483. The sequel, 'Chroniques
du Roy Charles Huytiesme' (Paris, 1528), written subsequently to
1497, relates the story of the famous expedition to Italy undertaken
by Charles VIII. In the pages of Quentin Durward,' where Walter
Scott has given a graphic portrayal of the great men of that turbu-
lent time, Philippe de Comines stands out beside the crafty and
superstitious Louis XI. and the martial Charles of Burgundy as one
of the most striking figures of a picturesque age.
THE VIRTUES AND VICES OF KING LOUIS XI.
From the Memoirs of Philippe de Comines'
HE chief reason that has induced me to enter upon this sub-
is because I have seen many deceptions in this world,
especially in servants toward their masters; and I have
always found that proud and stately princes who will hear but
few, are more liable to be imposed upon than those who are
open and accessible: but of all the princes that I ever knew, the
wisest and most dexterous to extricate himself out of any dan-
ger or difficulty in time of adversity was our master King
Louis XI. He was the humblest in his conversation and habit,
and the most painful and indefatigable to win over any man to
his side that he thought capable of doing him either mischief or
service: though he was often refused, he would never give over
a man that he wished to gain, but still pressed and continued
his insinuations, promising him largely, and presenting him with
such sums and honors as he knew would gratify his ambition;
and for such as he had discarded in time of peace and pros-
perity, he paid dear (when he had occasion for them) to recover
them again; but when he had once reconciled them, he retained
no enmity towards them for what had passed, but employed
them freely for the future. He was naturally kind and indul-
gent to persons of mean estate, and hostile to all great men
who had no need of him. Never prince was so conversable nor
so inquisitive as he, for his desire was to know everybody he
could; and indeed he knew all persons of any authority or
worth in England, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, in the territories
of the Dukes of Burgundy and Bretagne, and among his own.
subjects: and by those qualities he preserved the crown upon his
## p. 3926 (#292) ###########################################
3926
PHILIPPE DE COMINES
head, which was in much danger by the enemies he had created
to himself upon his accession to the throne.
But above all, his great bounty and liberality did him the
greatest service: and yet, as he behaved himself wisely in time
of distress, so when he thought himself a little out of danger,
though it were but by a truce, he would disoblige the servants
and officers of his court by mean and petty ways which were
little to his advantage; and as for peace, he could hardly endure
the thoughts of it. He spoke slightingly of most people, and
rather before their faces than behind their backs; unless he was
afraid of them, and of that sort there were a great many, for he
was naturally somewhat timorous. When he had done himself
any prejudice by his talk, or was apprehensive he should do so,
and wished to make amends, he would say to the person whom
he had disobliged, "I am sensible my tongue has done me a
good deal of mischief; but on the other hand, it has sometimes.
done me much good: however, it is but reason I should make
some reparation for the injury. " And he never used this kind
of apologies to any person but he granted some favor to the
person to whom he made it, and it was always of considerable
amount.
It is certainly a great blessing from God upon any prince to
have experienced adversity as well as prosperity, good as well as
evil, and especially if the good outweighs the evil, as it did in
the King our master. I am of opinion that the troubles he was
involved in in his youth, when he fled from his father and re-
sided six years together with Philip, Duke of Burgundy, were of
great service to him; for there he learned to be complaisant to
such as he had occasion to use, which was no slight advantage
of adversity. As soon as he found himself a powerful and
crowned king, his mind was wholly bent upon revenge; but he
quickly found the inconvenience of this, repented by degrees of
his indiscretion, and made sufficient reparation for his folly and
error by regaining those he had injured. Besides, I am very
confident that if his education had not been different from the
usual education of such nobles as I have seen in France, he
could not so easily have worked himself out of his troubles: for
they are brought up to nothing but to make themselves ridicu-
lous, both in their clothes and discourse; they have no knowl-
edge of letters; no wise man is suffered to come near them, to
improve their understandings; they have governors who manage
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PHILIPPE DE COMINES
3927
their business, but they do nothing themselves: nay, there are
some nobles who though they have an income of thirteen livres,
will take pride to bid you "Go to my servants and let them
answer you, thinking by such speeches to imitate the state and
grandeur of a prince; and I have seen their servants take great
advantage of them, giving them to understand they were fools;
and if afterwards they came to apply their minds to business
and attempted to manage their own affairs, they began so late
they could make nothing of it. And it is certain that all those
who have performed any great or memorable action worthy to
be recorded in history, began always in their youth; and this is
to be attributed to the method of their education, or some par-
ticular blessing of God.
THE VIRTUES OF THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY AND THE
TIME OF HIS HOUSE'S PROSPERITY
I
SAW a seal-ring of his after his death at Milan, with his arms
cut curiously upon a sardonyx, that I have often seen him
wear in a riband at his breast; which was sold at Milan for
two ducats, and had been stolen from him by a varlet that waited
on him in his chamber. I have often seen the duke dressed and
undressed in great state and formality, and by very great per-
sons; but at his last hour all this pomp and magnificence ceased,
and both he and his family perished on the very spot where he
had delivered up the Constable not long before, out of a base and
avaricious motive. But may God forgive him! I have known
him a powerful and honorable prince, in as great esteem and as
much courted by his neighbors (when his affairs were in a pros-
perous condition) as any prince in Europe, and perhaps more
so; and I cannot conceive what should have provoked God
Almighty's displeasure so highly against him unless it was his
self-love and arrogance, in attributing all the success of his en-
terprises and all the renown he ever acquired to his own wis-
dom and conduct, without ascribing anything to God: yet, to
speak truth, he was endowed with many good qualities. No
prince ever had a greater desire to entertain young noblemen
than he, or was more careful of their education. His presents
and bounty were never profuse and extravagant, because he gave
to many, and wished everybody should taste of his generosity.
## p. 3928 (#294) ###########################################
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PHILIPPE DE COMINES
No prince was ever more easy of access to his servants and
subjects. Whilst I was in his service he was never cruel, but
a little before his death he became so, which was an infallible
sign of the shortness of his life.
