COME NIUS, Join Antos, the most distinguished educational reformer of the early part of the 17th c., was b. on the 28th of Mar., 1592, according to some, at Conlin, near Briinn; according to others, at Niwnitz, in Moravia. His parents belonged to the community of the Moravian Brethren. C. studied at Herborn, and then at Heidelberg, after which he traveled through Holland and England, and at last settled at Lissa, in Poland, where he was chosen bishop of the Moravian Brethren, In 1631, lie published his Janua Linguarum Reserata, which was translated into many European, and even into some Oriental languages. In this work, he points out a method of learning lan guages new at that time, which may be called the intuitive or perceptive system, in which the pupils were taught by a series of lessons on subjects easily understood or ap preciable by the senses—such as natural history, the sciences, different trades and professions, etc. C. also published about the same time the Ratio Disciplines Ordinis gee Ecclesics in Unitate Fratrum Bohernorum (1632), republished with remarks by Buddmus (Halle, 1702); and his Pansophia3 Prodronzus (1639). In 1641, C. was invited to England, to assist in reforming the system of public instruction; but as the break ing out of the civil war prevented the execution of this design, lie went to Sweden, where he was patronized by Oxenstiern, who gave him a commission to draw up a plan for the organization of schools in Sweden, which he completed at Elbing, four years afterwards. He next went to Hungary for a similar purpose. Here he com
posed his celebrated Orbis Sensualium Pictus, or The Visible World (Nfirn. 1658), the first picture-book for children, which has been often reprinted and imitated. Finally, he settled in Amsterdam, where he published several other works. C. died at Naarden, on the 15th Oct., 1071. In the latter years of his life, C. gave way to fanaticism, misinterpreted the Revelation of St. John to suit his fancies of the existing state of Europe, and expected the millennium in 1672. An interesting account of -the wander ings and sufferings of C., and of his great services in the cause of popular education, is given in K. G. von ilaumer's Geschichte der Padagogik.
colds, an ancient officer, with territorial jurisdiction. See EARL.