DIE GARTENMETAPHER BEI COMENIUS

In the work of Comenius, the garden metaphor appears to concur with a technological metaphor (clock, printing etc.). The history of the understanding of Comenius's didactics led mostly to a romantic interpretation: The educator is the gardener, who has to ensure by careful nursing, that the pupils grow by themselves (spontaneously) to their individual perfection.

The Vignette reprinted in this paper seems to correspond to this interpretation. It is encircled by the verse “Omnia sponte fluant, absit violentia rebus”–Everything should flow by itself, force should be absent.

But the subject of this verse is not education, but creation as a whole. The verse defines man's God‐given task to support everything on its own way to perfection. Then mankind will be “A Garden of Joy” for God. The perfection of the world lies in the hands of mankind. Education has to prepare children for this task. And this cannot be done by just Ietting them grow but by careful pruning and nourishing of the young people. They have to learn to subordinate themselves to the “rationes rerum” that are disclosed in the true wisdom ("pansophia") in order to bring peace and order to the world. The technical metaphor aims at the same goal: not imperial despotism and govemment, but improvement of the human environment is the task set for human skill.