Unless he pays great attention to differences of disposition, he will but waste all the efforts he expends in teaching.” Another professor of philosophy at Herborn at the time was Heinrich Gutberleth, who was likewise deeply interested in pedagogy and whose lectures seem to have influenced Comenius, with special reference to his advocacy of the study of the physical sciences. In theology he heard lectures by Piscator, Hermannus, and Pasor. Since 1530 the schools of Nassau had been marked by great improvement, and this improvement was in no small measure due to the intelligent interest of the professors of theology at Herborn in the schools of the province. Hermannus, with whom Comenius studied practical theology, was especially active in school reform. It was during his student life at Herborn that Comenius became acquainted with Ratke’s plan of instruction, then much discussed at university centres, and especially at Jena, Giessen, and Herborn. However much he may have been stimulated to educational reform by his own belated classical training and by the pedagogic character of the work at Herborn, the writings of Ratke, as he himself tells us, played the largest part in making him an educational reformer. While at Herborn he gave special attention to the Bohemian language, and planned a dictionary which was never published. Comenius left Herborn in the spring of 1613; and after a few weeks’ sojourn at Amsterdam he repaired to Heidelberg, where he matriculated as a student of philosophy and theology on the 13th of June. Beyond the fact that he purchased a manuscript of Copernicus, and that at the end of a year, his funds becoming exhausted, he was forced to make the return journey to Prague on foot, nothing is known of his life at Heidelberg. Back in his native country after these years of study and travel in Germany, he was still too young by two years for ordination in the brotherhood. Meanwhile he turned his attention to education, and engaged himself as a teacher in the elementary school at Prerau conducted by the Moravian Brethren. This experience brought him face to face with problems of methodology and discipline, and gave him an opportunity to apply some of the theories he had formulated while a student at Herborn. His attention was at once called to the ineffective methods employed in teaching Latin, for the remedy of which he prepared an easy Latin book for beginners.