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
Andreæ 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
Artificium_. He found a consolation for his misfortunes in the work of
invention, and even saw the hand of Providence in the coincidence of the
overthrow of schools, through persecutions and wars, and those ideas of
a new method which had been vouchsafed to him, and which he was
elaborating. Everything might now be begun anew, and untrammelled by the
errors and prejudices of the past.
Some scruples as to a theologian and pastor being so entirely
preoccupied with educational questions he had, however, to overcome.
"Suffer, I pray, Christian friends, that I speak confidentially with you
for a moment. Those who know me intimately know that I am a man of
moderate ability and of almost no learning, but one who, bewailing the
evils of his time, is eager to remedy them, if this in any be granted me
to do, either by my own discoveries or by those of another--none of
which things can come save from a gracious God. If, then, anything be
here found well done, it is not mine, but his, who from the mouths of
babes and sucklings hath perfected praise, and who, that he may in
verity show himself faithful, true, and gracious, gives to those who
ask, opens to those who knock, and offers to those who seek. Christ my
Lord knows that my heart is so simple that it matters not to me whether
I teach or be taught, act the part of teacher of teachers or disciple of
disciples. What the Lord has given me I send forth for the common good."
His deepest conviction was that the sole hope of healing the dissensions
of both church and state lay in the proper education of youth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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