§ 65. Corresponding to “a brief of the whole world,” Comenius offers “a brief of a whole language.” The two mistakes were well matched. In “the whole world” there are a vast number of things of which we must, and a good number of which we very advantageously _may_ be ignorant. In a language there are many words which we cannot know and many more which we do not want to know. The language lives for us in a small vocabulary of essential words, and our hold upon the language depends upon the power we have in receiving and expressing thought by means of those words. But the Jesuit Bath, and after him Comenius, made the tremendous mistake of treating all Latin words as of equal value, and took credit for using each word once and once only! Moreover, Comenius wrote not simply to teach the Latin language, but also to stretch the Latin language till it covered the whole area of modern life. He aimed at two things and missed them both.
§ 66. We see then that Comenius was not what Hallam calls him, “a man who invented a new way of learning Latin.” He did not do this, but he did much more than this. He saw that every human creature should be trained up to become a reasonable being, and that the training should be such as to draw out God-given faculties. Thus he struck the key-note of the science of education.
The quantity and the diffuseness of the writings of Comenius are truly bewildering. In these days eminent men, Carlyle, _e.g._, sometimes find it difficult to get into print; but printing-presses all over Europe seemed to be at the service of Comenius. An account of the various editions of the _Janua_ would be an interesting piece of bibliography, but the task of making it would not be a light one. The earliest copy of which I can find a trace is entered in the catalogue of the Bodleian: “Comenius J. A. _Janua Linguarum_, 8vo, Lips (Leipzig) 1632.” I also find there another copy entered “per Anchoranum, cum clave per W. Saltonstall, London, 1633.”
The fame of Comenius is increasing and many interesting works have now been written about him. I have already mentioned the English books of Benham and Laurie. In German I have the following books, but not the time to read them all:—