Comenius arose, but the apparently subsidiary,
yet all-important, question of method, in special relation to the
teaching of the Latin tongue, had occupied the thoughts and pens of many
of the leading scholars of Europe. The whole field of what we now call
secondary instruction was occupied with the one subject of Latin; Greek,
and occasionally Hebrew, having been admitted only in the beginning of
the sixteenth century, and then only to a subordinate place. This of
necessity. Latin was the one key to universal learning. To give to boys
the possession of this key was all that teachers aimed at until their
pupils were old enough to study rhetoric and logic. Of these writers on
the teaching of Latin, the most eminent were Sturm, Erasmus,
Melanchthon, Lubinus, Vossius, Sanctius (the author of the _Minerva_),
Ritter, Helvicus, Bodinus, Valentinus Andreae, and, among Frenchmen,
Coecilius Frey. Nor were Ascham and Mulcaster in England the least
significant of the critics of method. Comenius was acquainted with
almost all previous writers on education, except probably Ascham and
Mulcaster, to whom he never alludes. He read everything that he could
hear of with a view to find a method, and he does not appear ever to
have been desirous to supersede the work of others. If he had found what
he wanted, he would, we believe, have promulgated it, and advocated it
as a loyal pupil. That he owed much to the previous writers is certain;
but the prime characteristic of his work on Latin was his own.
Especially does he introduce a new epoch in education, by constructing a
general methodology which should go beyond mere Latin, and be equally
applicable to all subjects of instruction.

Before bringing his thoughts into definite shape, he wrote to all the
distinguished men to whom he could obtain access. He addressed Ratich,
among others, but received no answer; many of his letters also were
returned, because the persons addressed could not be found. Valentinus
Andreae wrote to him in encouraging terms, saying that he gladly passed
on the torch to him. His mind became now much agitated by the importance
of the question and by the excitement of discovery. He saw his whole
scheme assuming shape under his pen, and was filled, like other zealous
men, before and since, with the highest hopes of the benefits which he
would confer on the whole human race by his discoveries. He resolved to
call his treatise _Didactica Magna_, or _Omnes omnia docendi