Johan Amos Comenius

“ I said, and I marvel how rapidly we move on, not indeed without pleasure, but also not without fear; for when I went above to look around me, giddiness overcame me; when I crawled below, the terror of the waves that rushed violently against the planks of the ship encircled me. And then I thought in my mind whether it was not grave foolhardiness to entrust a man's life to such furious elements as water and wind, and thus purposely to encounter death, from which we are separated by the breadth of two fingers; for no thicker is the plank which is between us and the terrible abyss. ”

“ He says: “The highest religion, that of pure Christianity, sees in the world infinite meditations, all for the purpose of deyeloping independent individuality; the perfection of human souls not only in one kind of piety,—namely, that of the heart,—but in the piety of the intellect, that beholds truth, the piety of the will, that does good deeds wisely, the piety of the senses, that sees the beautiful and realizes it in works of art.” ”

“ You will reflect, inasmuch as you cannot go beyond the world, that you will find the world everywhere, that is, vain and profane men, and a mixture of good and bad; therefore, you must fortify your breast against the poisoned weapon of enticements to evil and of corruptions, by assuming the shield of a firm resolve to attend to nothing, to admire nothing, to love nothing, and to bring nothing home but what may become some accession of virtue and of felicity to yourself and to your friends, to your country and to the church of God. ”

“ Be tender in thy feeling for the suffering of others, but hardy against the wrong that may befall thee. Serve with thy soul me alone, with thy body him whom thou canst or must. What I order thee thou must do; the burden I lay on thee thou must bear. Be to the world unbending, and cling ever to me. Let thy body be in the world, thy heart with me. If thou wilt but act thus, thou wilt be blessed, and wilt fare well. ”

“ Most loving friends farewell, God give unto you the comfort of his Spirit, parience and courage, that what formerly with your heart, your mouth, and your hands, ye have affirmed, ye may do the like by your glorious death, behold I goe before, that I may see the glory of my Lord Jesus Christ, ye will follow me, that we may together behold the face of our Father, even in this hour all sorrow departs from me, and joyful eternity shall enter in. ”

“ But among the holy men I found everything otherwise; for every man strove as bravely and as diligently to avert unhappiness and discomfort from his neighbours as from himself. Could he not avert it, he grieved not otherwise than if the misfortune had befallen himself, and he grieved because all were one heart, one soul. As the iron needles of a compass, when once they have been touched by the magnet-stone, all point to one and the same direction of the world, so the souls of all these men, touched by the spirit of love, all turn to one and the same direction ”

“ Only by the union of manly energy and decision with womanly gentleness does the child rest and sail at the conflux of two streams. The sun raises the tide, and so does the moon; but he raises it only one foot, she three, and both united four. ”

“ Thou hast seen also what the men in that castle of feigned fortune seek, and in what they glory: riches, pleasure, fame. Heed thou none of these things. They give not peace but disquietude, and they are but the path that leadeth to sorrow. Wherefore shouldst thou value a multitude of goods; why desire it? Life requires but little, and it is my business to provide for those who serve me. Strive, therefore, to collect inward treasures, illumination and piety, and I will grant thee everything else. Heaven and earth will belong to thee by inheritance ”

“ Why do you prefer the child’s being detained in its natural foolishness, rather than to rescue it from its folly, by the aid of well-timed, holy, and salutary discipline? Do not persuade yourselves that the child does not understand; for it understands how to exercise frowardness, to be angry, to rage, to grin, to puff out its cheeks, to be rude to others; assuredly it will also know what is a rod and its use. [6] Right reason does not fail the reason, but imprudent parents neither know nor care to know what will contribute to the comfort of themselves and their children. ”

“ Your carefulness is distrust, your foresight cunning, your affability flattery, your truth self-deceit; your zeal is fury, your valour foolhardiness, your love lust, your work slavery, your sagacity mere conjecture, your religion hypocrisy, and so forth. Is it, then, your task to rule the world instead of the Almighty God? God will bring to judgment all deeds and all secret things, be they good or bad. But I will go forth and announce this to the whole world, that it may no longer permit itself to be misguided and misled."
(Solomon proclaims the Vanity of the World to the whole World.) ”

“ It will also be beneficial to tell them how excellent a thing it is to attend schools and acquire learning, for only such become great men, lawyers, professors, doctors, preachers of the Divine word, senators, etc., all of them excellent men, celebrated, rich, and wise, whom the rest of mankind are necessarily bound to honor; likewise, that it is better and more becoming to attend school than to drone away in idleness at home, or run about the streets, or learn bad habits; that learning is not labor, but that amusement with books and a pen is sweeter than honey ”

“ I am the interpreter of Wisdom, the queen of the world, and I have the duty to teach all how they can understand the things of the world. Therefore I place in the minds of all, old and young, noble and of mean birth, ignorant and learned, all that belongs to true, worldly wisdom, and I lead them to joy and merriment, for without me even kings, princes, and the proudest men would be in strange anxiety, and would spend their time on earth mournfully. ”

“ Who, then, unless he be blind, does not observe that infants, with the milk of the foster mother, imbibe morals other than those of their parents? If married people do not permit their gardens to be sown with foreign seed, why do they allow their human plants to be irrigated with foreign water? If the father has communicated his nature to the offspring, why should the mother deny to it her nature? [4] Why admit a third person to perform that? God, moreover, has united only two persons, as sufficient for producing offspring, and why should we not acquiesce in His will? ”

“ Seeing this from the entrance, I now went farther beyond the screen and viewed all things—first those that were common to all, then those that belonged to the divers callings—with unspeakable delight. I see here that everything was contrary to the ways of the world. In the world I beheld everywhere blindness and darkness, here clear light; in the world deceit, here truth; in the world everything was full of disorders, here there was the purest order; in the world I had seen struggling; in the world care and grief, here joy; in the world want, here abundance ”

“ May but Thy good spirit direct me and lead me through the snares of the world as through an even country, and may Thy mercy guide me on my way, and lead me through the—alas!—doleful darkness of the world to eternal light! ”

“ THE PILGRIM BEHOLDS THE PALACE OF WISDOM, THE QUEEN OF THE WORLD
Then they take me and lead me on; and behold, the outer walls of this palace gleamed everywhere with divers beautiful paintings; and it had a gate at which guards stood; thus no one except those who had some power or office in the world could enter. To these only, as being servants of the queen and executors of her orders, liberty to go in and out was granted. Others, if they wished to behold the palace, had to gape at it from the outside only. ”

“ But when I saw that none would understand the uncertainty of life, and take it to heart—indeed, that though standing close to the abyss of death they behaved as if they were certain of immortality (and it is marvellous that my heart did not burst from grief) —then I desired to raise my voice to exhort and beg them to open their eyes, and to behold Death preparing her arrows, and in some fashion to strive to escape them. ”

“ If worldly things obscure Thee to me, I die. May I but behold Thee, be with Thee, never lose Thee again! Uphold me, O Lord, guide me, support me, that I may not stray from Thee and slip! Grant that I may love Thee with an eternal love, and that I may love besides Thee no other things, except for Thy sake, and in Thee, O Infinitive Love! ”

“ Firstly, I saw that all these worldly traffics are but labour and vain striving, and that each has its discomfort and danger. I saw, indeed, that those who dealt with fire were sunburnt and sooty like Moors; the clattering of hammers ever hummed in their ears and half hindered their hearing; the gleam of the fires ever sparkled in their eyes, and their skins were blistered and cracked. Those who carried on their trade in the earth had darkness and horror for companions, and not rarely did it happen that they were buried in the earth. ”

“ I saw, I saw, I saw and understood that to have within you God, with His celestial treasures, is so glorious a thing that all the glory, splendour, glitter of the world cannot be compared to it. It is a thing so joyful that the whole world could neither take anything from it nor add anything to it, so great and high that the whole world can neither conceive it nor contain it. ”

“ To have so many good things that you need not heed anything; to put your hand to no labour; to have a plenitude of all things for which the mind craves; and to be not even touched by a breath of cold or evil air, is not that a blessed state?" I answered: "There is indeed more merriness here than in those torture-chambers below; but here, also, not everything pleaseth me." "Of what dost thou again complain?" quoth he. I said: "I see these idlers with prominent eyes bloated faces, swollen bellies and limbs, that cannot be touched, and seem full of sores. ”

“ These are people who—whence they themselves know not—have newly arrived in the world; neither do they as yet know that they are human beings; therefore darkness is around them, and naught but moaning and crying. But while they go along this street, grey light and dawn slowly come to them, till they come to that gate beneath us. ”

“ Then twenty-four elders fell on their knees before the throne, laid down their crowns at the feet of Him who lives in all eternity, and sang with a loud voice: "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power, for according to Thy will do they abide, and have they been created." ”

“ For there were there people from the whole world, of every language and nation, of every age, growth, sex, estate, class, and profession. When first gazing at them, I see how strangely they sway to and fro, like the swarming of bees, and, indeed, far more wondrous. ”

“ Thus yearning and turning the matter in solitude in my mind, I came to this decision that I should first behold all earthly things that are under the sun, and then only, having wisely compared one thing with another, choose a course of life, and obtain in some fashion the things necessary for leading a quiet life in the world. The more I thought the matter over, the more this matter pleased me. ”