The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius/The Great Didactic/Chapter 31
CHAPTER XXXI
OF THE UNIVERSITY
1. Our method does not really concern itself with University studies, but there is no reason why we should not state our views and our wishes with regard to them. We have already expressed our opinion that the complete training in any of the sciences or faculties should be reserved for the University.
2. Our ideal scheme is as follows:
(i) The curriculum should be really universal, and provision should be made for the study of every branch of human knowledge.
(ii) The methods adopted should be easy and thorough, that all may receive a sound education.
(iii) Positions of honour should be given only to those who have completed their University course with success, and have shown themselves fit to be entrusted with the management of affairs.
We will briefly give some details on each of these points.
3. If its curriculum is to be universal, the University must possess (1) learned and able professors of all the sciences, arts, faculties, and languages, who can thus impart information to all the students on any subject; (2) a library of well-selected books for the common use of all.
4. The studies will progress with ease and success if, firstly, only select intellects, the flower of mankind, attempt them. The rest had better turn their attention to more suitable occupations, such as agriculture, mechanics, or trade.
5. Secondly, if each student devote his undivided energies to that subject for which he is evidently suited by nature. For some men are more suited than others to be theologians, doctors, or lawyers, just as others have a natural aptitude for and excel in music, poetry, or oratory. This is a matter in which we are apt to make frequent mistakes, trying to carve statues out of every piece of wood, and disregarding the intention of nature. The result is that many enter on branches of study for which they have no vocation, produce no good results in them, and attain to greater success in their subsidiary pursuits than in those that they have chosen.
A public examination, therefore, should be held for the students who leave the Latin-School, and from its results the masters may decide which of them should be sent to the University, and which should enter on the other occupations of life. Those who are selected will pursue their studies, some choosing theology, some politics, and some medicine, in accordance with their natural inclination and with the needs of the Church and of the state.
6. Thirdly, those of quite exceptional talent should be urged to pursue all the branches of study, that there may always be some men whose knowledge is encyclopædic.
7. Care should be taken to admit to the University only those who are diligent and of moral character. False students, who waste their patrimony and their time in ease and luxury, and thus set a bad example to others, should not be tolerated. Thus, if there is no disease, there can be no infection, and all will be intent upon their work.
8. We said that every class of author should be read in the University. Now this would be a laborious task, but its use is great, and it is therefore to be hoped that men of learning, philologers, philosophers, theologians, physicians, etc., will render the same service to students as has been rendered to those who study geography by geographers. For these latter make maps of the provinces, kingdoms, and divisions of the world, and thus present to the eye huge tracts of sea and land on a small scale, so that they can be taken in at a glance. Painters, also, produce accurate and life-like representations of countries, cities, houses, and men, no matter of what size the originals may be. Why, therefore, should not Cicero, Livy, Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Tacitus, Gellius, Hippocrates, Galen, Celsus, Augustine, Jerome, etc., be treated in the same way and epitomised? By this we do not allude to the collections of extracts and flowers of rhetoric, that are often met with. These epitomes should contain the whole author, only somewhat reduced in bulk.
9. Epitomes of this kind will be of great use. In the first place it will be possible to obtain a general notion of an author when there is no time to read his works at length. Secondly, those who (following Seneca’s advice) wish to confine themselves to the works of one writer (for different writers suit different dispositions), will be able to take a rapid survey of all and to make their choice in accordance with their tastes. Thirdly, those who are going to read the authors in their entirety will find that these epitomes enable them to read with greater profit, just as a traveller is able to take in the details of his journey with greater ease, if he have first studied them on a map. Finally, these abstracts will be of great use to those who wish to make a rapid revision of the authors that they have read, as it will help them to remember the chief points, and to master them thoroughly.
10. Summaries of this kind may be issued both separately (for the use of poor students and those who are not in the position to read the complete works) and bound up with the complete works, that those who wish to read them may get an idea of the subject-matter before they begin.
11. As regards academic exercises, I imagine that public debates, on the model of a Gellian society, should be of great assistance. Whenever a professor delivers lectures on any subject, works which treat of that subject, and these the best that exist, should be given to the students for their private reading. Then the morning lecture of the professor should serve as the subject for an afternoon debate, in which the whole class may join. One student may ask a question about some point that he does not understand, and may point out that in the author which he has been studying he has found an opinion, backed by reasonable arguments and opposed to that of the professor. Any other student may then rise (some forms of order being observed), and may answer the question raised; while others may then decide if the point has been properly argued. Finally the professor, as president, may terminate the discussion. In this way, the private reading of each student will be of use to the whole class, and the subject will be so impressed on their minds that they will make real progress in the theory and practice of the sciences.
12. This practice of dissertation may be the means of fulfilling my third wish, that public posts of honour be given to none but the worthy. This result will be obtained if the appointment to these posts depend not on the decision of one man, but on the unanimous opinion of all. Once a year, therefore, the University should be visited by commissioners appointed by the king or by the state, just as the Latin-School is examined by its masters. The industry of the professors and students can thus be tested, and the most diligent of the latter should receive a public recognition of merit by having the degree of doctor or of master conferred upon them.
13. It is most important that everything be conducted with perfect fairness, and therefore, instead of allowing the academic degree to be won by a disputation, the following plan should be adopted. The candidate (or several at once) should be placed in the midst. Then men of the greatest knowledge and experience should question him and do all they can to find out what progress he has made, both in theory and in practice. For example, they may examine him on the text of the Scriptures, of Hippocrates, of the Corpus Juris, etc.; asking him where such and such a passage occurs, and how it agrees with some other passage? if he knows of any writer who holds a different opinion, and who that writer is? What arguments he brings to bear, and how the contradictory views may be reconciled? with other similar questions. A practical examination should then follow. Various cases of conscience, of disease, and of law should be submitted to the candidate, and he should be asked what course of action he would pursue, and why? He should thus be examined with regard to a number of cases, until it is evident that he has an intelligent and thorough grasp of his subject. Surely, students who knew that they were to be publicly examined with such severity, would be stimulated to great industry.
14. There is no need to say anything about travel (to which we assigned a place in this last period of six years, or at its conclusion), except to remark that we are at one with Plato, who forbade the young to travel until the hot-headedness of youth had passed away, and they were sufficiently versed in the ways of the world to do so with advantage.
15. It is scarcely necessary to point out how useful a School of Schools or Didactic College would be, in whatever part of the world it were founded. Even if it be vain to hope for the actual foundation of such a college, the desired result might still be brought about, existing institutions being left as they are, if learned men would work together, and in this way seek to promote the glory of God. These men should make it the object of their associated labours to thoroughly establish the foundations of the sciences, to spread the light of wisdom throughout the human race with greater success than has hitherto been attained, and to benefit humanity by new and useful inventions; for, unless we wish to remain stationary or to lose ground, we must take care that our successful beginnings lead to further advances. For this no single man and no single generation is sufficient, and it is therefore essential that the work be carried on by many, working together and employing the researches of their predecessors as a starting-point. This Universal College, therefore, will bear the same relation to other schools that the belly bears to the other members of the body; since it will be a kind of workshop, supplying blood, life, and strength to all.
16. But we must return to our subject and say what remains to be said about our schools.