Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/260

 such fineness that the mind of man finds it easier to marvel at than to imitate it? Nothing but their natural talent for harmoniously combining order, number, and mass in their constructions.

5. What is it that constitutes the human body such a marvellous instrument that it can perform almost countless functions, even though it have very few resources at its disposal? I mean, that with the few limbs it possesses, it can produce works whose complexity is so wondrous that nothing remains to be desired? It is without question the harmonious disposition of the limbs, and of their constituent parts, that brings this about.

6. What is it that makes it possible for a single mind to rule the whole body in which it dwells, and to direct so many operations at the same time? Nothing but the harmonious order in which the limbs are connected, and which enables them to obey the slightest hint given by the mind, and to set themselves in motion immediately.

7. How is it that a single man, a king or an emperor, can rule whole nations; that, although there are as many wills as there are individuals, all subordinate themselves to the service of that one man, and that, if his affairs go well, the affairs of each subject also must prosper? Again it is order that brings this about. Through its agency all are held together by the connecting bands of law and of obedience, so that some subjects are directly subordinate to and in immediate contact with the supreme ruler, while others in their turn are subordinate to these, and so on down to the meanest serf. The arrangement thus resembles a chain in which each link is intimately connected so that if the first be moved or remain at rest all the others will follow suit.

8. How was it that Hiero, unaided, could move a weight which hundreds of men had in vain tried to stir? Assuredly it was by means of a cleverly-devised machine, in which the cylinders, wheels, and other parts were arranged in such a way that when one worked on the other the force applied was much increased.