The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius/The Great Didactic/Chapter 21
CHAPTER XXI
THE METHOD OF THE ARTS
1. “Theory,” says Vives, “is easy and short, but has no result other than the gratification that it affords. Practice, on the other hand, is difficult and prolix, but is of immense utility.” Since this is so, we should diligently seek out a method by which the young may be easily led to the practical application of natural forces, which is to be found in the arts.
2. Art primarily requires three things: (1) A model or a conception; that is to say, an external form which the artist may examine and then try to imitate. (2) The material on which the new form is to be impressed. (3) The instruments by the aid of which the work is accomplished.
3. But when the instruments, the materials, and the model have been provided, three more things are necessary before we can learn an art: (1) a proper use of the materials; (2) skilled guidance; (3) frequent practice. That is to say, the pupil should be taught when and how to use his materials; he should be given assistance when using them that he may not make mistakes, or that he may be corrected if he do; and he should not leave off making mistakes and being corrected until he can work correctly and quickly.
4. With respect to these points eleven canons must be observed: six on the use of materials; three on guidance; and two on practice.
5. (i) What has to be done must be learned by practice.
Artisans do not detain their apprentices with theories, but set them to do practical work at an early stage; thus they learn to forge by forging, to carve by carving, to paint by painting, and to dance by dancing. In schools, therefore, let the students learn to write by writing, to talk by talking, to sing by singing, and to reason by reasoning. In this way schools will become work-shops humming with work, and students whose efforts prove successful will experience the truth of the proverb: “We give form to ourselves and to our materials at the same time.”
6. (ii) A definite model of that which has to be made must always be provided.
This the student should first examine, and then imitate, as though he were following in the footsteps of a guide. For he who neither knows what has to be done nor how to do it, is unable to produce anything of himself, but must have a model placed before him. Indeed it is sheer cruelty to force any one to do what you wish, while he is ignorant what your wishes are; to demand, that is to say, that he form straight lines, right angles, or perfect circles, unless you first give him a ruler, a square, and a pair of compasses, and explain their use to him. Further, great care should be taken to provide in the school-room formulæ for or models of everything that has to be made, and these, whether drawings and diagrams, or rules and models, should be correct, definite, and simple; easy both to understand and to imitate. There will then be no absurdity in demanding of a man that he see, when provided with a light; that he walk, when he already stands on his feet; or that he use the tools that are already in his hands.
7. (iii) The use of instruments should be shown in practice and not by words; that is to say, by example rather than by precept.
It is many years since Quintilian said: “Through precepts the way is long and difficult, while through examples it is short and practicable.” But alas, how little heed the ordinary schools pay to this advice. The very beginners in grammar are so overwhelmed by precepts, rules, exceptions to the rules, and exceptions to the exceptions, that for the most part they do not know what they are doing, and are quite stupefied before they begin to understand anything. Mechanics do not begin by drumming rules into their apprentices. They take them into the workshop and bid them look at the work that has been produced, and then, when they wish to imitate this (for man is an imitative animal), they place tools in their hands and show them how they should be held and used. Then, if they make mistakes, they give them advice and correct them, often more by example than by mere words, and, as the facts show, the novices easily succeed in their imitation. For there is great truth in that saying of the Germans, “A good leader finds a good follower.” Very apposite, too, is the remark of Terence, “Do you go before; I will follow.” This is the way, namely, by imitating, and without any laborious rules, that children learn to walk, to run, to talk, and to play. Rules are like thorns to the understanding, and to grasp their meaning needs both attention and ability, while even the dullest students are aided by example. No one has ever mastered any language or art by precept alone; while by practice this is possible, éven without precept.
8. (iv) Practice should commence with the rudiments and not with ambitious works.
A carpenter does not begin by teaching his apprentice to build turrets, but first shows him how to hold the axe, to cut down trees, to shape planks, to bore holes, and to fasten beams together. A painter does not make his pupil commence by painting portraits, but teaches him how to mix colours, to hold the brush, and to make lines; then to attempt rough outlines, and so on. He who teaches a boy how to read explains to him, not the contents of the book, but the names and nature of the letters, and shows him how they can be joined together into syllables; then he proceeds to words, and then to sentences. In the same way the beginner in grammar should learn, first how to inflect single words, then how to join two together. Then he may advance to simple and compound sentences, and so on till he reach continuous prose. So too in dialectic. The student should first learn to distinguish things and the concepts of things by means of their genera and species; then to classify them afresh, with respect to some other common quality (for such links exist between all things); then to define and distribute them; then to estimate the value of the things and their concepts in combination, seeking out the what? the whence? and the why? and whether it be necessary or contingent. When he has had sufficient practice in this, he may proceed to ratiocination and seek how to draw conclusions from given premises, and finally he may essay discursive reasoning or the complete conduct of disputations. The same course may with advantage be followed in rhetoric. The student should first devote some time to the collection of synonyms, and may then learn to add epithets to nouns, verbs, and adverbs. He may then proceed to the use of antithesis, and later on to that of periphrasis. Then he may substitute figurative words for the originals, alter the order of the words for the sake of euphony, and adorn a simple sentence with all the figures of speech. Finally, when thoroughly versed in all these several points, and not sooner, he may proceed to the composition of a complete discourse. If any one advance step by step in any art, as here indicated, it is impossible that he should not make progress.
The basis of the foregoing was discussed in chap. xvii. Principle 4.
9. (v) Beginners should at first practise on a material that is familiar to them.
This rule we obtain from the 9th Principle of the 17th chapter, and from the 6th Corollary of the 4th Principle. Its meaning is that students should not be overburdened with matters that are unsuitable to their age, comprehension, and present condition, since otherwise they will spend their time in wrestling with shadows. For example, when a Polish boy is learning to read or to write his letters he should not be taught to do so from a book written in Latin, Greek, or Arabic, but from one written in his own language, that he may understand what he is doing. Again, if a boy is to understand the use of the rules of rhetoric, the examples on which he is made to practise them should not be taken from Virgil or from Cicero, or from theological, political, or medical writers, but should refer to the objects that surround him, to his books, to his clothes, to trees, houses, and schools. It will also be of use if the examples that are taken to illustrate the first rule be retained, although familiar, to illustrate the remainder. In dialectic, for example, a tree may be taken, and its genus, its species, its relations to other objects, its characteristic peculiarities and the logical definition and distribution of the term may be treated of. We may then proceed to the various ways in which a statement may be made about a tree. Finally, we may show how, by a perfect train of reasoning, and by taking the facts already ascertained as our starting-point, we may discover and demonstrate other properties of a tree. In this way, if, in each case, the use of the rules be illustrated by the same familiar example, the boy will easily master their application to all other subjects.
10. (vi) At first the prescribed form should be imitated with exactness. Later on more freedom may be allowed.
A form will be expressed with more exactness in proportion as care is taken to make it resemble its original. Thus coins that are struck by one die are exactly like the die and one another. So also with books printed from metal type, and with casts made in wax, plaster, or metal. In all other artistic operations, therefore, as far as is possible, any imitation (at any rate the first) should be an exact copy of its original, until the hand, the mind, and the tongue gain more confidence, and can produce good imitations by working freely on their own lines. For instance, those who learn writing take a thin and transparent sheet of paper, place it over the copy that they wish to imitate, and thus can easily form the letters that show through. Or the characters may be printed very faintly on a white page, so that the pupil may go over them with pen and ink, and in this way may easily acquire the habit of shaping them. The same thing holds good in style, if any construction or sentence extracted from a classic writer have to be imitated. If the original phrase be “Rich in possessions,” the boy should be made to imitate it by saying, “Rich in coins,” “Rich in moneys,” “Rich in flocks,” “Rich in vineyards.” When Cicero says, “In the opinion of the most learned men, Eudemus easily holds the first place in astrology,” this may be copied with very little alteration as “In the opinion of the greatest orators, Cicero easily holds the first place in eloquence,” “In the opinion of the whole Church, St. Paul easily holds the first place in Apostleship.” So too in logic, if the well-known dilemma be given: It is either day or night. But it is night; therefore it is not day; the boy may learn to imitate it by similarly opposing contradictory conceptions to one another. As, “He is either unlearned or learned. But he is unlearned; therefore he is not learned”; “Cain was either pious or impious, but he was not pious”; and so on.
11. (vii) The models of the objects that have to be produced must be as perfect as is possible, so that if any one exercise himself sufficiently in imitating them it will be possible for him to become perfect in his art.
It is impossible to draw straight lines with a curved ruler, and in the same way a good copy cannot be made from a bad model. Great care should therefore be taken that models be prepared of everything that is to be done in school, or indeed in life, and that these be exact, simple, and easy to imitate. They may be either models, pictures and drawings, or precepts and rules; but all must be very short, very clear, self-evident, and absolutely correct.
12. (viii) The first attempt at imitation should be as accurate as possible, that not the smallest deviation from the model be made.
That is to say, as far as is possible. For whatever comes first is, as it were, the foundation of that which follows. If the foundation be firm, a solid edifice can be constructed upon it, but if it be weak this is impossible. According to the observations of physicians, the initial defects of digestion cannot be repaired later on, and similarly in any operation an error at the beginning vitiates all that follows. For this reason Timotheus the musician used to demand twice as large a fee from those pupils who had learned the rudiments of their art elsewhere, saying that his labour was twofold, as he had first to get them out of the bad habits that they had acquired, and then to teach them correctly. Those, therefore, who are learning any art should take care to make themselves masters of the rudiments by imitating their copies accurately. This difficulty once overcome, the rest follows of itself, just as a city lies at the mercy of foes when its gates are broken in. All haste should be avoided, lest we proceed to advanced work before the elementary stages have been mastered. He goes fast enough who never quits the road, and a delay which is caused by obtaining a thorough grip of first principles is really no delay, but an advance towards mastering what follows with ease, speed, and accuracy.
13. (ix) Errors must be corrected by the master on the spot; but precepts, that is to say the rules, and the exceptions to the rules, must be given at the same time.
Hitherto we have urged that the arts be taught rather by example than by precept: we now add that precepts and rules must be given as well, that they may guide the operations and prevent error. That is to say, the less obvious points of the model should be clearly explained, and it should be made evident how the operation should begin, what it should aim at, and how that aim can be realised. Reasons should also be given for each rule. In this way a thorough knowledge of the art, and confidence and exactness in imitating, will be attained.
But these rules should be as short and as simple as possible, since we do not want to grow gray while acquiring them. When once mastered they should be of perpetual use, even when laid aside, just as knee-bands are of use to a child who is learning to walk, and, though they are afterwards discarded, the advantage derived from them remains.
14. (x) The perfect teaching of art is based on synthesis and analysis.
We have already shown (chap. xviii. Principle 5) by examples taken from nature and the workshop that in this relation synthesis is more important. The following points in addition will show that synthetic exercises should generally come first: (1) We should always commence with what is easy, and our own efforts are easier to understand than those of other people. (2) Writers take pains to conceal the artifices by which their results are obtained, so that at first the student finds difficulty in understanding what he sees, or fails to do so altogether. This difficulty would be removed if he began by practising on his own attempts, which are void of artifice. (3) The chief thing aimed at should be given the chief place in practice, and our real aim is to accustom the student of art to produce original work, and not merely to copy what is placed before him (see chapter xviii. Principle 5).
15. For all this, the accurate analysis of the work of others must not be neglected. It is only by continually traversing it that we get to know a road, its by-paths, and its cross-roads. Besides, the variety that exists in nature is so great that it is impossible for rules to cover it or for one mind to master it. Many processes require many rules to express them, and these we can only learn if we analyse and study, and by imitation and emulation put ourselves in a position to produce similar results.
16. It is our wish then that in each art complete and exact models or examples of everything that can be produced in that art be supplied to the student. Precepts also and rules should be given him to help him to carry out the processes, to guide his efforts at imitation, to show him how to avoid making faults, and to correct them when made. Then other and different models should be given him, and these he should learn to classify and compare with the models that he has already used, and by copying a model that is like one previously used to produce work that resembles the original. After this, the finished works of other artists (who must be well known) may be examined and analysed in accordance with the models and rules that are already familiar. In this way the student will learn to employ the rules with greater ease, and will acquire the art of concealing his art. Only after a course of exercises of this kind will he be in the position to criticise artistic productions, whether his own or those of others.
17. (xi) These exercises must be continued until artistic production becomes second nature.
For it is practice, and nothing else, that produces an artist.