cussion of the nature of language, the differences and resemblances that exist between various languages, and their respective defects and advantages.
II. cc. v.–viii.Historical.—Especial attention should be paid to one language in particular. Why this language should be Latin. The method of teaching it hitherto in vogue. Brief account of the efforts that have been made to improve upon that method.
III. cc. ix., x.Didactic.—A new method, based upon true didactic principles, is needed. Thorough exposition and analysis of these principles.
IV. cc. xi.-xiii.General description of the Methodus Novissima, with special reference to the principle of gradation involved.
V. cc. xiv.–xvii.This principle as applied to Latin. Description of the Vestibulum, Janua, Atrium, and Thesaurus.
VI. cc. xviii.–xxviii.Universal application of the method, not only to the teaching of Latin, but to the vernaculars as well; to polyglotty, to scientific ends, to the better understanding of the Scriptures, to the improvement of schools, and to the education of rude peoples.
VII. cc. xxix., xxx.Appeal to learned men, theologians, and rulers, to further the principles involved.
With a large portion of the detail in this work the reader has already been made familiar, and about one-sixth (chap. x.) is an abstract of the Great Didactic; but scattered through the earlier chapters there are a number of suggestive remarks that illustrate the author's versatility and breadth of mind, and these we will briefly indicate.
It must be confessed that some of Comenius’ philosophising on the nature of language is sorry stuff. The remark that language is derived from thought and thought from objects (rebus), has a plausible air, but is not developed. Of far greater interest is his description of a perfect language. For this, four things are necessary: (1) a complete nomenclature of objects, (2) no ambiguity in the meaning of words, (3) explicit laws for the proper construction of sentences, (4) the nomenclature
