Joh. Amos Commenii Orbis sensualium pictus, hoc est, Omnium fundamentalium in mundo rerum, & in vita actionum, pictura & nomenclatura Joh. Amos Commenius's Visible world, or, A picture and nomenclature of all the chief things that are in the world, and of mens employments therein / a work newly written by the author in Latine and High-Dutch ... ; & translated into English by Charles Hoole ... for the use of young Latine-scholars.

THE Authors PREFACE TO THE READER.

INstruction is the means to expell Rudeness; with which young Wits ought to be wel-furbished 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 are 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 ones life, to be wise, to act, to speak.

3. 4. It will be elear, & 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 ob∣jects

be rîghtly 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: be∣cause we can neither act nor speak wisely, unlesse 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 neg∣lected in Schooles, and the things that are to be learned are offered to Scholars, without being un∣derstood, or being rightly presented to the senses, it cometh to pass, that the work of teaching and learning goeth heavtily onward, and affordeth little benefit.

See here then a new help for Schooles, A Pi∣cture and Nomenclature of all the chief things in the World, and of mens Actions in their way of liv∣ing! Which, that you, good Masters, may not be loth 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 lan∣guage: full of Pictures, Nomenclatures, and De∣scriptions of things.

I. The Pictures are the Representations of all visible things, (to which also things invisible are reduced after their fashion) of the whole world. And that in that very order of things, in which

they are described in the Ianua Latinae Linguae and with that fulness, that nothing very necessary or of great concernment is omitted.

II. The Nomenclatures are the Inscriptions, or Titles set every one over their own Pictures, ex∣pressing the whole thing by its own general Term.

III. The Descriptions are the Explications of the Parts of the Picture, so expressed by their own proper terms, as that same Figure which is added to every piece of the Picture, and the term of it, alwayes sheweth what things belongeth one to a∣nother.

Which such Book, and in such a dress may (I hope) serve,

I. To entice witty Children to it, that they may not conceit a torment to be in the School, but dainty-fare. For it is apparent, that Children (even from their Infancy almost) are delighted with Pictures, and willingly please their eyes with these sights, And it will be very well worth the pains to have once brought it to pass, that scar∣crows may be taken away out of wisdomes Gar∣dens.

II. This same little Book will serve to stir up the Attention, which is to be fastened upon things, and ever to be sharpened more and more; which is also a great matter. For the senses (being the main guides of Child-hood, because therein the Mind doth not as yet raise up it self to an abstracted con∣templation of things) evermore seek their own objects, and if they be away, they grow dull, and

wry themselves hither and thither, out of a weari∣ness of themselves: but when their objects are present, they grow merry, wax lively, and wil∣lingly suffer themselves to be fastened upon them, till the thing be sufficiently discerned. This Book then will do a good piece of service in taking (especially flickering) Wits, and preparing them for deeper studies.

III. Whence a third good will follow; that Children being won hereunto, and drawn over with this way of heeding, may he furnished with the know∣ledge of the Prime things that are in the world, by sport, and merry pastime. In a word, this Book will serve for the more pleasing using of the Vesti∣bulum, and Ianua Linguarum, for which end it was even at the first chiefly intended. Yet if it like any that it be bound up in their native tongues also, it promiseth three other good things of it self.

I. First it will afford a Devise for learning to read, more easily than hitherto; especially having a Symbolical Alphabet set before it, to wit, the Characters of the several Letters, with the Image of that creature, whose voyce that letter goeth a∣bout to imitate, pictured by it. For the yong A b c Scholar will easily remember the force of e∣very Character by the very looking upon the Creature, till the imagination being strengthened by use can readily afford all things. And then, having looked over a Table of the chief Syllables also (which yet was not thought necessary to be added to this Book) he may proceed to the view∣ing of the Pictures, and the Inscriptions set over

them. Where again the very looking upon the thing Pictured, suggesting the name of the thing, will tell him how the Title of the Picture is to be read. And thus the whole Book being gone over by the bare Titles of the Pictures, Reading can∣not but be learned; and indeed too, which thing is to be noted, without using any ordinary tedious spelling, that most troublesome torture of wits, which may wholly be avoyded by this Method. For the often reading over the Book, by those lar∣ger Descriptions of things, and which are set after the Pictures, will be able perfectly to beget a ha∣bit of reading.

II. The same Book being used in English in English Schooles will serve for the perfect learning of the whole English tongue, and that from the bot∣tome; because by the aforesaid Descriptions of things, the words and Phrases of the whole lan∣guage are found set orderly in their own places. And a short English Grammar might be added at the end, clearly resolving the Speech already understood into its parts, shewing the declining of the several words, and reducing those that are joyned together undercertain Rules.

III. Thence a new benefit cometh, that that ve∣ry English translation, may serve for the more ready and pleasant learning of the Latine tongue: as one may see in this Edition, the whole Book being so translated, that every where one word answereth to the word over against it, and the Book is in all things the same, only in two idiomes, as a man clad in a double garment. And there might be al∣so

some Observations and Advertisements added in the end, touching those things only, wherein the Use of the Latine tongue differeth from the English. For, where there is no difference, there needeth no advertisement to be given. But, be∣cause the first tasks of Learners ought to be little, and single, we have filled this first Book of train∣ing one up to see a thing of himself with nothing but rudiments, that is, with the chief of things and words, or with the grounds of the whole world, and the whole language, and of all our Under∣standing about things. If a more perfect descrip∣tion of things, and a fuller knowledge of a lan∣guage, and a clearer light of the understanding be sought after (as they ought to be) they are to be found some where ese, whither there will now be an easie passage by this our little Encyclopadia of things subject to the senses, Something remaineth to be said, touching the more cheerful use of this Book.

I. Let it be given to children into their hands to delight themselves withall as they please, with the sight of the Pictures, and making them as familiar to themselves as may be, and that even at home, before they be put to School.

II. Then let them be examined ever and anon (especially now in the School) what this thing or that thing is, and is called, so that they may see nothing, which they know not how to name, and that they can name nothing, which they can∣not shew.

III. And let the things named them be shewed,

not only in the Picture, but also in themselves; for example, the parts of the Body, Clothes, Books, the House, Utensils, & e.

IV. Let them be suffered also to imitate the Pictures by hand, if they will, nay rather, let them be encouraged, that they may be willing: first, thus to quicken the attention also towards the things; and to observe the proportion of the parts one towards another; and lastly, to practise the nimbleness of the hand, which is good for many things.

V. If any things here mentioned, cannot be presented to the eye, it will be to no purpose at all, to offer them by themselves to the Scholars, as, colours, relishes, &c. which cannot here be pi∣ctured out with ink. For which reason it were to be wished, that things rare and not easie to be met withall at home, might be kept ready in every great School, that they may be shewed also, as of∣ten as any words are to be made of them, to the Scholars.

Thus at the last this School would indeed be∣come a School of things obvious to the senses, and an Entrance to the School Intellectual. But enough: let us come to the thing it self.