ame. This is Comenius, the last
bishop of the Bohemian Brethren. Although he belongs partly to the
former period, and, in respect to his style, decidedly to the golden
age of the Bohemian. literature, the time of his principal activity
falls within this melancholy interval. A few words may be devoted to
the life of this remarkable individual. He was born A.D. 1592, in the
village of Komna in Moravia. His baptismal names were John Amos; his
father had probably no family name, as was frequently the case at that
time among the lower classes throughout all Europe. According to the
custom of the time, he was called Komnensky from his native place, the
Latin form of which is Comnenius, or more commonly Comenius. His
parents, who belonged to the community of the Brethren, sent him to
school at Herborn. He distinguished himself so much as to be made
rector at Prerow, when only twenty-two years old; and two years later
was transferred to Fulnck. In 1618 this latter city was plundered by
the Spaniards, and Comenius lost all his books and other property.
When the great persecution of the Protestants broke out, he fled to
Poland. Here he found many of his countrymen, of the sect of the
Brethren, whom the persecutions of the former century had already
driven hither, and who had here gathered themselves into communities
essentially of the same constitution; although in some measure they
were amalgamated with the dissenters in Poland. In 1632 they elected
him their bishop. In 1631 he published his _Janua linguarum
reserrata_, a work which spread his fame over all the world, and which
was translated into twelve European languages, and also into Persian,
Arabic, and Mongolian. His object in this work was to point out a new
method of teaching languages, by which they were to be used as keys
for acquiring other useful knowledge. In 1641 he was invited to
England to prepare a new arrangement of the schools; but the civil war
having prevented the execution of this project, he went from England
to Sweden, whither the chancellor Oxenstiern had invited him for a
similar purpose. After protracted journeys through half Europe, he
returned to Lissa, the principal seat of his activity. In 1659 be
published his _Orbis pictus_, the first picture-book for children
which ever appeared, and which acquired the same reputation as the
work above-mentioned. The war and the destruction of Lissa compelled
him some years later to leave Poland; he sought anothe