commencing education from the moment the child leaves the cradle. The next stage, the Vernacular School, lays the foundation of all that is to follow, with the exception of Latin, and grounds the boy thoroughly in one or two modern languages. The next stage, the Latin School, introduces the boy to the classics, continues the modern subjects commenced in the Vernacular School, and corresponds to a present-day secondary school with a good modern side. Finally the University gives the scholar the opportunity of thoroughly mastering any one of the branches of knowledge that he has already learned superficially and in outline.
In the Vernacular and in the Latin School the proper gradation and classification of the boys is attained by a division into six classes, in each of which the scholars must remain one year, and which they must not leave until their fitness to proceed to the next class has been tested by an examination. Throughout the twelve classes of these two schools a properly graded series of schoolbooks is supplied, all, from the lowest to the highest, treating of the same subjects, namely, the entire world of phenomena, and leading the scholar from the rudimentary facts and bare nomenclature acquired in the Mother School to the detailed exposition of them in Latin that awaits him in the higher classes of the Latin School.
But it may be asked, Does Comenius supply a graded method? Is there any essential difference in his manner of presenting knowledge to his most elementary and to his most advanced pupils?
While it is evident that his graded classes and graded books ensured that the beginner should have the subjectmatter of his studies presented to him more simply and with less complications than to the advanced pupil, it must be confessed that the same method seems intended to run through all the classes, from the lowest to the highest. Of this method the basis is the presentation of information to the senses first, and then, but not till then, to the understanding. Appeal, that is to say, is to be
