departure from the school. He is to be hospitable, and should give testimonials of good conduct to deserving boys who leave the school. If other schools or cities send to him for masters, he may send them some of his best pupils.[1]
It may seem surprising that Comenius remained for any length of time in Hungary. With his colleagues he was not a persona grata. His patron, Sigismund Rakoczy, died in 1652, and there was no prospect that the Gymnasium would be increased beyond the three classes already in existence. The Protestants in Lissa were continually urging him to return to them, and enemies whispered that his only object in staying at Saros-Patak was to line his own purse.
The Countess Susanna herself, a lady of a thrifty disposition and not particularly enthusiastic about Comenius, was the best refutation of this latter charge, and any disinclination to return to Poland must probably be ascribed to the influence of his evil genius Drabik.
Drabik, though living at Lednic, was in constant correspondence with Comenius and paid several visits to Saros-Patak, with the object of inducing the Rakoczy family to take some interest in his prophecies. In this he was not very successful, although Comenius did his best to impress on George Rakoczy that the revelations deserved careful attention, if not credence.
Were it not that Sludge is still with us and that scientific men of our own day still fall victims to the spirit-rapper, it would be difficult to understand how a man of Comenius' practical gifts, and not Comenius only but a host of Protestants throughout Europe, could for one minute have given any credence to this wretched impostor. Kotter may possibly have believed in his own revelations; Christina Poniatowska was a weak-minded and weak-bodied girl, subject to genuine fits of hysteria; but Drabik was a cunning calculator, who took stock of the material with which he had to deal and saw that, in
- ↑ Op. Did. Omn. iii. 784.
