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That was a trifle in his estimation, compared with the bigger speculations of his Didactica Magna, and still more with his Pansophiae Prodromus or Porta Sapientiae Reserata. A word or two on this last little book: Comenius appears in it as a would-be Lord Bacon, an Austro-Slavic Lord Bacon, a very Austro-Slavic Lord Bacon.
The beautiful poem of Ovid de Consolatione ad Liviam, written after the ashes of Augustus and his nephew Marcellus, of Germanicus, Agrippa, and Drusus, were deposited in this mausoleum, concludes with these lines, which are extremely tender: Claudite jam Parcae nimium reserata sepulchra; Claudite, plus justo, jam domus ista patet! Ah! shut these yawning Tombs, ye sister Fates!
The story is told very minutely by Comenius himself. The Janua Linguarum Reserata was only a proposed improvement in the art of teaching Language or Words; and ought not a true system of education to range beyond that, and provide for a knowledge of Things?
Comenius himself actually wrote a Vestibulum for Latin, consisting of 427 short sentences, and directions for their use; and, as we know, his Janua Linguarum Reserata, which appeared in 1631, was the publication which made him famous. It is an application of his system to Latin.
This work, which was published at Copenhagen in 1800, is the only accurate account of these islands since the Feroe Reserata of Debes in 1673; but it is too minute and long for the subjects it describes. Coxes's Travels in Poland, Russia, Sweden and Denmark. 5 vols. 8vo. The substantial merits of this work are well known.
Swedish, Dutch, English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hungarian; but it was translated, as we have learnt, into such Asiatic tongues as the Arabic, the Turkish, the Persian, and even the Mongolian." The process which Comenius thus describes must have extended over several years. There are traces of knowledge of him, and of his Janua Linguarum Reserata, in England as early as 1633.
Again Comenius introduced a new way of learning languages. His great work on this subject was entitled "Janua Linguarum Reserata" i.e., The Gate of Languages Unlocked. Of all his works this was the most popular. It spread his fame all over Europe. It was translated into fifteen different languages. It became, next to the Bible, the most widely known book on the Continent.
This was a so-called "Janua Linguarum Reserata," or "Gate of Languages Opened," propounding a method which he had devised, and had employed at Leszno, for rapidly teaching Latin, or any other tongue, and at the same time communicating the rudiments of useful knowledge. The little book, though he thought it a trifle, made him famous.
This was what Comenius was thinking: he was meditating a sequel to his popular little book, to be called "Janua Rerum Reserata" or "Gate of Things Opened," and to contain an epitome or encyclopaedia of all essential knowledge, under the three heads of Nature, Scripture, and the Mind of Man.
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