with tears when thinking of his wasted childhood, often did he vainly wish that he might live those years over again and employ them more profitably.
Viewed differently, the defects in his early education were the seeds from which sprang the whole of his didactic efforts. Considerably older than his schoolfellows, he was able to criticise the methods in use, and speedily arrived at the conclusion that the lack of progress was due more to the inefficiency of the teachers than to the idleness of their pupils. From this time onwards, full of pity for the sufferings of his fellows, he began to devise new methods of class instruction and better schemes of study. From the vivid memory of the horrors through which he had passed, of the thousand-and-one rules that had to be learned by rote before they were understood, of the monotonous study of grammar, only diversified by the maddening effort to translate Latin authors without the assistance of suitable dictionaries or commentaries, sprang that intense sympathy with beginners which characterises his whole life and gives practical worth to every precept that he enunciated.
In the Latin school he only remained for two years. He had definitely made up his mind to seek ordination as a minister of the Moravian Brethren, and needed a more advanced education than could be obtained in Bohemia. Not that the University of Prague was in any way below the standard of the age, but it was in the hands of the Utraquists, whose attitude towards the “Brethren” was by no means friendly. It was therefore to Herborn in Nassau that Comenius, then eighteen years old, turned his steps. A university had been founded in this town in 1584, and enjoyed a very high. reputation. The range of subjects taught was wide, as, though great prominence was given to Theology, ample provision was made for the “Humanities” as well; and in addition it was possible to learn music and the French and Italian languages.
amœnissimum vitæ totius ver, florentes juventutis anni, nugis scholasticis transmissi , misere perierunt .—Did. Mag. xi . 13.
