self from all connection with Sweden. Comenius, who saw in Sweden the future protector of the Evangelic Faith, had made his engagement with open eyes, so that it is difficult to see why these overtures on the part of Nigrin should have caused him so much annoyance. At any rate, Nigrin soon went over to the Roman Catholic faith, and from that time gave Comenius little trouble.
Resolutions notwithstanding, philological works were very far from getting Comenius’ undivided attention. His Pansophiæ Diatyposis[1] had been commenced in England, and, in his anxiety to get it into print and thus give his friends in England some earnest that his Pansophic activity was only dormant, he devoted a great part of his time to its completion. In the summer of 1643 we find him in Dantzig making arrangements for its publication, which followed shortly after.
He now made a vigorous effort to devote himself wholly to the revision of the Janua. Latin authors had to be gone through with minute care to ensure that no important word was being omitted, and, the more labour Comenius and his assistants bestowed on their task, the farther it seemed to be from completion. It was impossible to say how many months would pass before the end was reached, and more than once, while suffering from the irritation induced by his somewhat pettifogging occupation, he was on the point of throwing up his engagement and returning to his Universal Knowledge. But the Brethren had to be considered, and de Geer was helping them liberally. In June a fresh subsidy was sent, and Comenius, by way of showing some sign of life, sent letters to his patron, to Bishop Matthiae of Sweden,
- ↑ ‘J. A. Comenii, Pansophiæ Diatyposis Ichnographia et Orthographia delineatione Totius futuri Operis amplitudinem, dimensionem, usus adumbrans.’ This work was translated into English in 1651 by Jeremy Collier, Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge (father of the non-juror), under the title ‘A Patterne of Universall Knowledge in a plaine and true draught or a diatyposis or model of the eminently learned and pious promoter of science in generall, Mr. J. A. Comenius, shadowing forth the largeness and use of the intended work in an ichnographicall and orthographicall delineation.’
