DOUBLE TAP TO ZOOM WITH PHONE OR TABLET John Amos Comenius | 27 would serve all the people of the world was Comenius’s fervent dream to which he devoted all of his energies. Devastated by the failure of the English to provide financial support for his grand educational project, Comenius left London for Sweden, where he broken- heartedly resigned himself to giving up his grand educational scheme. From Swe- den he went back to Lissa. In that city, however, his teaching and writing brought little income, and his poverty made it necessary for him to seek a patron to sup- port his work. The Years at Elbing, East Prussia, 1642–1648 Comenius found such a patron in Louis De Geer, a rich Dutch merchant who was then living in Sweden. But De Geer had little interest in such grand designs as The Great Didactic. He offered to support Comenius if he would undertake writ- ing more effective schoolbooks, provide more rational methods of teaching for the instructors, and introduce a more intelligent grading of the schools. Comenius accepted the offer and moved to the town of Elbing on the Baltic Sea in East Prus- sia, where he and his second family settled in 1642. In order to provide for his family and others of the brotherhood (for whom, as a leader and pastor, he continued to feel responsible), Comenius had to abandon his dream of creating a universal educational system. Perhaps because he did not find writing textbooks particularly challenging, Comenius allowed himself to be diverted by accepting a teaching position in Elbing and by frequent trips to Poland to attend ecclesial conventions and to minister to the needs of the brotherhood. However, De Geer became impatient with him and appointed a commission to review his work. In 1646 Comenius went to Stockholm to report on his educational efforts. The commission reviewed his progress and gave a very favorable report. By that time, Comenius had completed a number of projects: a book on language teaching, which dealt with the nature, function, and laws to be observed in language instruction; a lexicon based on these laws; and a series of graded reading books. De Geer urged him to prepare these materials for publication. The Return to Lissa, 1648–1650 Another detour in Comenius’s career came in 1648 with the death of Justinus, the senior bishop of the Moravian Brotherhood. Comenius was chosen as his successor. COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL