Any one who listened to Prof. Hanus' interesting lecture on Comenius last night, must have been struck by the fact that, though speaking of a man who lived three hundred years ago the lecturer introduced ideas and theories of education, which are today the very backbone of the systems advocated by the leading educationalist of the day. Comenius was essentially a man far ahead of his times. He recognized, and this is what Harvard is trying to improve upon the public today, that a system of teaching must be a natural one; that the greatest good cannot be gotten out of a man's mind by forcing him to study what is naturally distasteful to him: and that this highest intellectual power of man is demanded, as the real purpose of education is the advancement of humanity and not personal aggrandizement.

Another striking similarity between Comenius' system and ours is the importance which he places upon the practical side of education. He was not content with simply absorbing learning. He wished to apply this learning in all the fields of knowledge to find out not only what others have known but also what they have not known, in other words to open men's minds to the value and means of original investigation.

Wherever Comenius went, in whatever countries he established his schools, he first tried to bring about the thorough study of the mother tongue. On this he laid the greatest stress and with what foresight and judgement we can best determine by the attitude taken at present by the leading universities, among which we can with pride and justice place Harvard among the first to take up this idea and present it in its modern form.

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