_Adduxit Dominus Deus ad _Adam_ cuncta Animantia Terræ, & universa volatilia Cœli, ut videret quomodo vocaret illa. Appellavitque _Adam_ Nominibus suis cuncta Animantia, & universa volatilia Cœli, & omnes Bestias Agri._ I. A. Comenii opera Didactica par. 1. p. 6, Amst. 1657. fol. Didacticæ nostræ prora & puppis esto: Investigare, & invenire modum, quo Docentes minus doceant, Discentes vero plus discant: Scholæ minus habeant Strepitus, nauseæ, vani laboris; plus autem otii, deliciarum, solidique profectus: Respublica Christiana minus tenebrarum confusionis dissidiorum; plus lucis, ordinis, pacis & tranquilitatis. THE AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE READER. _Instruction is the means to expel Rudeness_, with which young wits ought to be well furnished in Schools: But so, as that the teaching be 1. _True_, 2. _Full_, 3. _Clear_, and 4. _Solid_. 1. It will be _true_, if nothing be taught but such as is beneficial to ones life; lest there be a cause of complaining afterwards. We know not necessary things, because we have not learned things necessary. 2. It will be _full_, if the mind be polished for wisdom, the tongue for eloquence, and the hands for a neat way of living. This will be that _grace_ of one’s life, _to be wise, to act, to speak_. 3, 4. It will be _clear_, and by that, firm and _solid_, if whatever is taught and learned, be not obscure, or confused, but apparent, distinct, and articulate, as the fingers on the hands. The ground of this business, is, that sensual objects may be rightly presented to the senses, for fear they may not be received. I say, and say it again aloud, that this last is the foundation of all the rest: because we can neither act nor speak wisely, unless we first rightly understand all the things which are to be done, and whereof we are to speak. Now there is nothing in the understanding, which was not before in the sense. And therefore to exercise the senses well about the right perceiving the differences of things, will be to lay the grounds for all wisdom, and all wise discourse, and all discreet actions in ones course of life. Which, because it is commonly neglected in schools, and the things which are to be learned are offered to scholars, without being understood or being rightly presented to the senses, it cometh to pass, that the work of teaching and learning goeth heavily onward, and affordeth little benefit. See here then a new help for schools, A Picture and Nomenclature of all the chief things in the world, and of men’s actions in their way of living: Which, that you, good Masters, may not be loath to run over with your scholars, I will tell you, in short, what good you may expect from it. It is _a little Book_, as you see, of no great bulk, yet a brief of the whole world, and a whole language: full of Pictures, Nomenclatures, and Descriptions of things.