Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/211

 modelled and remodelled in any desired way, so the brain, receiving the images of all things, takes into itself whatever is contained in the whole universe. This comparison throws a remarkable light on the true nature of thought and of knowledge. Whatever makes an impression on my organ of sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch, stands to me in the relation of a seal by which the image of the object is impressed upon my brain. So true is this simile that when the object is removed from my eyes, my ears, my nostrils, or my hand, its image still remains before me; nor is it possible that it should not remain, unless my attention has wandered and the impression has been a weak one. For example, if I have seen or spoken to any one; if, when taking a journey, I have seen a mountain, a river, a field, a wood, or a town, or if I have read anything attentively in some author, all these things are imprinted on the brain, so that, as often as the recollection of them comes into my mind, the effect is the same as if I were actually seeing them with my eyes, hearing them with my ears, tasting them, or feeling them. And although of these impressions the brain places one before the other or receives some more distinctly and vividly than others, it still, in some way or other, receives, represents, and retains them all.

11. Here we have mirrored before us the marvellous wisdom of God, who was able to arrange that the small mass of our brains should be sufficient to receive so many thousands of images. For, if the particulars can be remembered of anything that any of us (and this applies particularly to men of learning) have, many years before, seen, heard, tasted, read, or collected by experience or by reasoning, it is evident that these details must be carried in the brain. Yet it is a fact that images of objects formerly seen, heard, or read of, of which thousands of thousands and many more exist, and which are daily multiplied as we daily see, hear, read, or experience something new, are all carefully stored up. What inscrutable wisdom and power of God lies here? Solomon wonders that all rivers