Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/213

 fold argument: (1) every man delights in harmony; (2) man himself, externally and internally, is nothing but a harmony.

14. That man delights in harmony and pursues it greedily, is obvious. For who does not take pleasure in a well-made man, an elegant horse, a beautiful portrait, or a charming picture? And what is the reason of this if not that the proportion of the parts and of the colours is a source of enjoyment? This pleasure of the eye is very natural. Again, who is not affected by music? and why? Because a harmony of voices makes a pleasing consonance. To whom does well-flavoured food not taste good? For the proper mixing of the flavours tickles the palate. Every man rejoices in moderate heat, in moderate cold, in the moderate inactivity or motion of the limbs. Why? if not because everything that is harmonised is congenial and lifegiving to nature, while everything that lacks moderation is hostile and harmful to her.

Even the virtues of others are a source of admiration to some people (for those devoid of them like them in others; though they may not imitate them, thinking good habits impossible to acquire when once vice has got the upper hand). Why then should not each man like them in himself? Surely we are blind if we do not recognise that we all have within us the roots of harmony.

15. Indeed, man is nothing but a harmony, both in respect of his body and of his mind. For, just as the great world itself is like an immense piece of clockwork put together with many wheels and bells, and arranged with such art that throughout the whole structure one part depends on the other, and the movements are perpetuated and harmonised; thus it is with man. The body is indeed constructed with wonderful skill. First of all comes the heart, the source of all life and action, from which the other members receive motion and the measurement of motion. The weight, the efficient cause of motion, is the brain, which by the help of the nerves, as of ropes, attracts and repels the other wheels or limbs, while the