for his didactic principles. They found that children liked the pictures and picked up their alphabet, and a few words, easier in that way than in any other. That was sufficient for them, and they paid no attention to pedantic detractors who insisted that pictures should have been given only of those objects that could not be submitted to direct inspection. The Orbis Pictus was the first picture-book ever written for children, and exercised a softening influence on the harshness with which, in an unsympathetic age, the first steps in learning were always associated. For years it remained unequalled. Basedow’s Elementarwerk mit Kupfern (1773) was the first attempt, not altogether successful, to improve upon it. “Apart from the Orbis Pictus of Amos Comenius,” wrote Goethe, “no book of this kind found its way into our hands.”[1]
It is impossible to pass such a favourable criticism on the Schola Ludus, or dramatised form of the Janua. These plays were to be acted at the end of each term, and put the subject-matter of the Janua into the mouths of the dramatis personæ. These were generally about fifty in number, so that the greater part of the school could take part in the performances. The plays were intended to interest the pupils, but, if the boys of Saros-Patak in the seventeenth century were like those of the present day, they must have looked upon them as an unmitigated nuisance, and have objurgated the name of Comenius when they had to get up the dreary screed. In one of them, the mathematical section of the Janua is worked into a dialogue between Mathematicus, Metrito, and Trytanio.
Math. And so you are seized with a desire to learn mathematics?
Num. We are, sir. We seek for information, and promise you our gratitude.
Mathematicus then proceeds, in the most stilted manner, to expound the elements of mathematics, occasionally interrupted by expressions of wonder on the part of his pupils. Were it not wholly contrary to Comenius’ character
- ↑ Aus meinem Leben, pt. i. bk. i.
