Milton’s Tractate of Education

A study serving as an introduction to the Czech translation of Milton ’s Tractate of Education, outlines first of all the biography of John Milton and evaluates his whole work. This work proceeded from the more general interests and fought for the political aims of the bourgeoisie, on whose side the Puritan Milton always stood.
Also his Tractate of Education (1644) is an organic part of his public activities in which Milton was then engaged, and is closely connected with the political struggle of the Parliament side in the English bourgeois revolution. When analysing this pamphlet the author of the study sees its main significance in the fact that Milton created in it a deeply reasoned, harmonious system of an all-around education corresponding to the requirements of his tim es and his class. By this system Milton got far ahead of the scholastic education then prevailing. Milton derives his ideal of education from the political-historical situation and applies in it his whole-hearted attitude towards antiquity as well as his real educational experiences; he subordinates the objectives of his education to the objectives of his nation represented by the rising bourgeoisie. And, of course, he does not deny his allegiance to Puritanism.
The study goes on to refer to the similarity between the views of Milton and those o f J. A. Comenius. Even though its author absolutely rejects the possibility of Milton having been personally acquainted with Comenius (in this respect he also criticizes some older scholars), he is nevertheless convinced that Milton must have known some of Comenius’ writings at least from Hartlib. Therefore he sees in the study of the relationship betw een the tw o pedagogical thinkers further tasks of scientific research.