the Prelude to the efforts of Comenius served its purpose admirably. “Every corner of Europe is filled with this pansophic ardour,” wrote John Adolphus Tassius, Professor of Mathematics at Hamburg, in a letter to Hartlib; “if Comenius were to do no more than stimulate the minds of all men in this way he might be considered to have done enough.”[1] On all sides opinions were freely expressed. Some went so far as to say that no greater benefit had been bestowed on the human race since the revelation of God’s Word, and called upon Comenius to finish his work. Others said that the task was too great for one man, that collaborators must be found for him, and that a Pansophic College should be established. In some quarters, on the other hand, the book was openly derided, and in Poland it met with strong disapproval from those who said that it was a dangerous experiment to mix things divine with things human, Theology with Philosophy, Christianity with Paganism.
This conflicting criticism made Comenius a little uncertain, and for the moment he discontinued his work. First, however, he wrote a further Explanation of my Pansophic efforts,[2] to reassure those who saw any impiety in his design.[3]
In the conception of a comprehensive Encyclopædia there was nothing new. As early as 1264 Vincent of Beauvais had collected the entire knowledge of the Middle Ages in three volumes, while Alsted’s great work, published in 1630, performed the ne office for the seventeenth century. Even while Comenius was engaged on his Delineatio, a new Encyclopædia, that of Peter Laurenberg, appeared, under the title Pansophia. Needless to say, he obtained and read it eagerly, but found that it was not the kind of work he had in view, “since it said nothing of Christ, the fount of true wisdom, and nothing of the life to come.”[4]
