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THE GREAT DIDACTIC

the machine that is already sufficiently well constructed, or at any rate can be constructed on the foundations which exist, if the obstacles and hindrances that have hitherto been present be wisely and firmly removed.

4. Let us isolate and examine these obstacles.

(i) There is a great lack of methodical teachers who could take charge of public schools and produce the results that we have in view (indeed, with regard to my Janua which is already used in schools, a man of great judgment has written to me complaining that in most places one thing is lacking, namely, suitable men to use it).

5. (ii) But even if teachers of this kind existed, or if they could all perform their task with ease by using time-tables and forms all ready prepared for them, how would it be possible to support them in each village and town, and in every place where men are born and brought up in Christ?

6. (iii) Again, how can it be arranged that the children of the poor shall have time to go to school?

7. (iv) The opposition of pedants, who cling to old ways and despise everything that is new, is greatly to be dreaded, but for this some remedy can easily be found.

8. (v) There is one factor which by its absence or its presence can render the whole organisation of a school of no avail or can aid it in the highest degree, and that is a proper supply of comprehensive and methodical class-books. Since the invention of printing, it has been an easy matter to find men who are able and willing to make use of it, who will supply the funds necessary for the printing of good and useful books, and who will purchase books of this kind. Similarly, if the subsidiary apparatus necessary for comprehensive teaching were provided, it would be easy to find men to employ it.

9. It is evident, therefore, that the success of my scheme depends entirely upon a suitable supply of encyclopædic class-books, and these can be provided only by the collaboration of several original-minded, energetic, and learned men. For such a task transcends the strength of one man, and especially of one who is unable to devote his whole