possesses a garden in which celestial plantlets are sown, watered, bloom, and flourish; a studio, as it were, of the Holy Spirit in which he elaborates and polishes these vessels of mercy, these instruments of glory, so that in them, as living images of God, the rays of his eternal and infinite power, wisdom, and bounty may shine more and more. How inexpressibly blessed are such parents!”
The School of Infancy was written between 1628 and 1630, during the time that Comenius was pastor of the Moravian church and teacher in the Brethren’s school at Lissa, Poland. It was written in the Bohemian language, translated into German, and first printed in 1633 at Lissa. The year following an edition appeared in Leipzig, and two years later a third German edition was printed at Nuremburg. Subsequently Polish, Bohemian, and Latin translations appeared; and Joseph Müller of Herrnhut, Germany, in a very accurate and complete bibliography (61)[1] of the writings of Comenius, mentions an English edition of 1641. I have found no other reference to an English translation so early. Comenius was well known in England to Milton, Hartlib, and others high in authority; and the fact that most of his other writings were early translated into English, gives credence to Mr. Müller’s statement. In 1858, Daniel Benham published in London an English translation (23) of the School of Infancy, to which was prefixed an extended and well written account of the life of Comenius. Benham’s translation has long been out of print, and this excellent book, in consequence, inaccessible to the English reader.
In America, where teachers are beginning to study the literature of their calling, the book has been in demand for several years; and the present edition has been prepared with the hope that it may, in some measure, meet this grow-
- ↑ The numerals in the Introduction refer to the bibliography at the close of the volume.
