ЈАН АМОС КОМЕНСКИ: Велика Дидактика

  

THE GREAT DIDACTIC

Setting forth

The whole Art of teaching all Things to all Men

Or

Certain Inducement to found such Schools in all the Parishes, Towns and Villages of every Christian Kingdom, that entire Youth of both Sexes, none being excepted, shall

QUICKLY, PLEASENTLY, & THROUGHLY

Become learned in the Sciences, pure in Morals, trained to Piety, and in this manner instructed in all things necessary for the present and for the future life

 

Chapter XXV

IF WE WISH TO REFORM SCHOOLS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF TRUE CHRISTIANITY, WE MUST REMOVE FROM THEM BOOKS WRITTEN BY PAGANS OR, AT ANY RATE, MUST USE THEM ITN MORE CAUTION THAN HITERTO

 

1. Resistless necessity compels us to treat at length a subject which we have touched on in the previous chapter. If we wish our schools to be truly Christian schools, the crowd of Pagan writers must be removed from them. First, therefore, we will set forth the reasons which underlie our views, and then the method of treating these ancient writers so that, in spite of our caution, their beautiful thoughts, sayings, and deeds may not be lost to us.

2. Our zeal in this matter is caused by our love of God and of man; for we see that the chief schools profess Christ in name only, but hold in highest esteem writers like Terence, Plautus, Cicero, Ovid, Cattulus, and Tibullus. The result of this is that we know the world better than we know Christ, and that, though in a Christian country, Christians are hard to find. For with the most learned men, even with theologians, the upholders of divine wisdom, the external mask only is supplied by Christ, while the spirit that pervades them us drawn from Aristotle, and the host of heathen writers. Now this is a terrible abuse of Christian liberty, a shameless profanation, and a course of replete and a danger.

3. Firstly, our children are born for heaven and are reborn through the Holy Ghost. They must therefore be educated as citizens of heaven, and their chief instruction should be of heavenly things, of God, of Christ, of the angels, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. This instruction should take place before any other, and all other knowledge should be shielded from the pupil; firstly, because of the uncertainty of life, that no one may be snatched away unprepared, and secondly, because first impressions are the strongest, and (if they are religious impressions) lay a safe foundation for all that follows in life.

4. Secondly, God – though He made provisions of every kind for His chosen people – gave them no school other than His own Temple, where He Himself was the Master, we were the pupils, and His oracles were the subject thought. For thus He speaks by Moses: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, is one God; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day, shall be upon thine heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by tehe way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up”(Deut. VI. 4). And by Isaiah: “I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldst go” …; and again, “Should not a people seek unto their God?” Christ also says: “Search ye the Scriptures” (John V. 39).

5. God has shown by the following words that his voice is the brightest light for our understanding, the most perfect law for our actions, and the surest support for our weakness. “Behold, I have thought you statutes and judgments! Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, which shall hear all these statutes and say: Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people” (Deut. IV. 5, 6). To Joshua also, He speaks thus: “This book of law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and thou shalt have good success” (Josh. I. 8). By David also He says: “The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandments of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Psalm XIX. 8). Finally, the Apostle bears witness “that every scripture inspired of God is profitable for teaching, etc., that the man of God may be complete” (2 Tim. III. 16, 17). The wisest of men (by this I mean truly enlightened Christians) have made them the same assertion. Chrysostom has said: “What is needful to know, and what is not needful to know, that we can learn from the Scriptures”. And Cassiodorus says: “The Scriptures are heavenly school, a guide through life, the only true source of information. To search the true meaning of them, should occupy the student’s whole time, and leave him no leisure to be led astray by philology”.

6. God expressly forbade His chosen people to have anything to do with the learning or the customs of the heathen: “Learn not the way of the nations” (Jer. X. 2); and again: “Is it because there is no God in Israel the ye go to inquire of Baalzebub – the God of Ekron?” (2 Kings I. 3). “Should not a people seek unto their God? On behalf of the living, should they seek unto the dead? To the law and to the Testimony! If they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them” (Isaiah VIII. 19, 20). And why? Surely because “all wisdom cometh from the Lord, and is with him for ever. To whom else hath the root of wisdom been revealed?” (Ecclesiasticus i. I, 6); “Although they have seen light and dwelt on earth, the way of knowledge have they not known. Nor understood the paths thereof, etc. It hath not been heard of in Canaan, neither hath it been seen in Theman. The Agarenes that seek wisdom upon earth, the authors of fables and searchers out of understanding, have not known the way of wisdom. But he that knoweth all things knoweth it and hath found out all the way of knowledge and hath given it unto Jacob his servant and Israel his beloved” (Baruch VIII. 20, 21, 22, 23, 32, 36, 37); “He hath not dealt so with any nation, and as for his judgments, they have not known them” (Psalm CXLVII. 20).

7. Whenever His people went aside from his laws to the snares of mans imagination, God used to blame not only their folly in forsaking the fountain of his wisdom (Baruch III. 12), but the twofold evil that they had committed in forsaking Him, the fountain of living waters, and hewing them out of broken cisterns that could hold no water (Jer. II. 13). Through the agency of Hosea He complained also that His people held too much intercourse with other nations, saying: “Though I write for him my law in ten thousand precepts, they are counted as a strange thing” (Hos. VIII. 12). But I ask, is not this what those Christians are doing who hold heathen books in their hands night and day, while of the sacred Word of God they take no account, as if it did not concern them? And yet, as God bears witness, it is no vain thing, but our very life (Deut. XXXII. 47).

Therefore the true Church and the true worshippers of God have sought for no teaching other than the Word of God, from which they have drown the true and heavenly wisdom that is superior to all earthly knowledge. Thus David says on himself: “Thy commandments make me wiser than mine enemies” and “I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are mine meditation” (Psalm CXIX. 98, 99). Similarly Solomon, the wisest of mortals, confesses: “The Lord giveth wisdom; out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding” (Prov. II. 6). The son of Sirach also testifies (in the prologue of his book) that his wisdom is drawn from the law and the prophets. Hence the exultation of the righteous when they see light in the light of God (Psalm XXXVI. 9): “O Israel, happy we are: for things that are pleasing to God are made unto us” (Baruch VI. 4). “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life” (John VI. 68).

9. The examples of all ages show us that it has been an occasion for stumbling whenever the Church has turned aside from the fountain of Israel. Of the Jewish Church, sufficient is known from the lamentations of the Prophets. As regards the Christian Church, we learn from history that a pure faith lasted as long as the Gospel, and nothing else, was preached by Apostles and their successors. But as soon as the heathen entered in Church in numbers, and the ardor that existed at first grew cold, pagan books were read, at first in private and then in public, and the result was a great confusion in doctrine. The key of knowledge was lost by the very men who boasted that they alone possessed it, and from that time opinions without number were substituted for the articles of faith. Then did strife arise, whose end is not yet visible; charity grew cold, and piety disappeared. And thus, under the name of Christendom, paganism came into existence again, and still reigns supreme. For the treat of the Lord Jehovah had to be fulfilled: “If they speak not according to the Word of God, surely there is no morning for them” (Isaiah VIII. 20). “Therefore the Lord hath poured out upon them the spirit of sleep, and hath closed their eyes, that all vision might become unto them as the word of a book that is sealed”, because they worshipped God in accordance with the teaching of men (Isaiah XXIX. 10, 11, 13, 14).

O, how truly in their case is fulfilled what the Holy Spirit says of the heathen philosophers: “They became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless hearth was darkened” (Rom. I. 21). In short, if the Church is to be purified from uncleanness, there is only one way, and that is to put aside all the seductive teachings of men and return to the pure springs of Israel, and thus to give over ourselves and our children to the teaching and guidance of God and of His word” (Isaiah IV. 13).

10. Indeed our dignity as Christians (who have been made sons of God and heirs of the kingdom of heaven through Christ) does not permit us to degrade ourselves and our children by allowing them to have an intimate acquaintance with pagan writers, and to read them with such approval. We do not choose parasites, fools, or buffoons, but serious, wise, and pious men as tutors for the sons of our kings and princes. Should we not blush therefore, when we confide the education of the sons of the King of kings, of the brothers of Christ and heirs of eternity, to the jesting Plautus, the lascivious Catullus, the impure Ovid, that impious mocker at God Lucian, the obscene Martial, and the rest of the writers who are ignorant of the true God? Those who, like them, live without the hope of a better life, and wallow in the mire of earthy existence, are certain to drag down to their own level whoever consorts with them. Christians, we have carried out folly enough!

Let us pause here.

…

 

(“Adam and Charles Black”, London 1907; Cornel University Library)