The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius/The Great Didactic/Chapter 14
CHAPTER XIV
1. Let us then commence to seek out, in God’s name, the principles on which, as on an immovable rock, the method of teaching and of learning can be grounded. If we wish to find a remedy for the defects of nature, it is in nature herself that we must look for it, since it is certain that art can do nothing unless it imitate nature.
2. A few examples will make this clear. We see a fish swimming in the water; it is its natural mode of progression. If a man wish to imitate it, it is necessary for him to use in a similar manner the limbs that are at his disposal; instead of fins he must employ his arms, and instead of a tail, his feet, moving them as a fish moves its fins. Even ships are constructed on this plan; in the place of fins they must employ oars or sails, and in the place of a tail, the rudder. We see a bird flying through the air; it is its natural mode of progression. When Daedalus wished to imitate it, he had to take wings (large enough to carry such a heavy body) and set them in motion.
3. The organ of sound production in animals is a pipe consisting of muscular rings, provided at the top with the thyroid cartilage, as with a lid, and at the bottom with the lungs, as with a wind-bag.
On this model flutes, whistles, and other wind instruments are made.
4. It has been discovered that the substance that causes thunder in the clouds, and hurls down fire and stones, is saltpetre ignited in combination with sulphur. In imitation of this, gunpowder is now made out of sulphur and saltpetre. When this is ignited and fired from cannon, a mimic storm, with thunder and lightning, is produced.
5. It has been found that water always tends to preserve a level surface, even in vessels that communicate but are at some distance from one another. The experiment has been made of conducting water through pipes, and it has been found that it will rise from any depth to any height, provided that it originally fall from that height. This is an artificial arrangement, but it is also natural; for the exact mode in which the action takes place is artificial, but the law on which the action depends is natural.
6. The vault of heaven, on observation, has been found to revolve continuously, thus, by the various revolutions of the planets, producing the changes of the seasons which are so pleasant. In imitation of this an instrument has been devised, representing the daily revolution of the vault of heaven. It is composed of wheels arranged so that not only can one be driven by the other, but that all can be put into continuous motion. Now it was necessary to construct this instrument out of movable and immovable parts, as the universe itself is constructed, and consequently we find a solid pedestal, pillars, and circular rings, corresponding to the earth, the immovable element in the universe, while in place of the movable orbits in the heaven we have the various wheels. But because it was impossible to command any one wheel to turn round and to carry others with them (as the Creator gave the heavenly lights the power to move themselves, and others with them), the motive power has to be borrowed from nature, and a weight or a spring is used. Either a weight is hung from the axle of the principal wheel, and by its tension causes the axle, the wheel to which it belongs, and the other wheels to turn; or a long strip of steel is forcibly bound round the axle, and by its endeavours to get free and straighten itself, makes the axle and the wheel turn round. In order that the rotation may not be too fast, but slow like that of the vault of heaven, other wheels are added, of which the last, driven by two teeth only, makes a clicking noise and is analogous to the change between the coming and the going light, or to that between day and night. In addition to that part of the mechanism which gives the signal for the hours and the quarters, skilfully-devised triggers are added, which set it in motion at the right time, and then stop it again, just as nature, by the movement of the vault of heaven, allows winter, spring, summer, and autumn to come and to depart again at the right moment.
7. It is now quite clear that that order, which is the dominating principle in the art of teaching all things to all men, should be, and can be, borrowed from no other source but the operations of nature. As soon as this principle is thoroughly secured, the processes of art will proceed as easily and as spontaneously as those of nature. Very aptly does Cicero say: “If we take nature as our guide, she will never lead us astray,” and also: “Under the guidance of nature it is impossible to go astray.” This is our belief, and our advice is to watch the operations of nature carefully and to imitate them.
8. But some one may laugh at our expectations and may cast in our teeth the saying of Hippocrates: “Life is short, and art is long; opportunities are fleeting, experience is deceptive, and judgment is difficult.” Here are five obstacles, the reasons why so few scale the heights of wisdom:—
(i) The shortness of life; through which so many are snatched away in youth before their preparations for life are finished. (ii) The perplexing crowd of objects which the mind has to grasp, and which makes the endeavour to include all things within the limits of our knowledge, very weary work. (iii) The lack of opportunities to acquire the arts, or their rapid departure when they occur (for the years of youth, which are the most suitable for mental culture, are spent in playing, and the succeeding years, in the present condition of mankind, bring far more opportunities for worthless than for serious matters); or if a suitable opportunity present itself, it vanishes before we can grasp it. (iv) The weakness of our intellects and the lack of sound judgment. The result of this is that we get no farther than the outside shell, and never attain to the kernel. (v) Finally, the circumstance that, if any wish to grasp the true nature of things by patient observation and experiments repeated as often as possible, the process is too wearisome, and is at the same time deceptive and uncertain (for instance, in such accurate observations the most careful observer may make an error, and as soon as one error creeps in, the whole observation becomes worthless).
9. If all this be true, how can we dare hope for a universal, sure, easy, and thorough road to learning? I answer: Experience teaches us that this is true, but the same experience teaches us also that the proper remedies can be found. These things have been ordained thus by God, the all-wise arranger of the universe, and are for our good. He has given us a short spa of life because, in our present state of corruption, we should be unable to employ a longer one profitably. For if we, who are born and die, and with whom the end of life is but a few years distant from the beginning, give ourselves up to folly: what would we not do if we had hundreds or thousands of years before us? God, therefore, has only wished to grant as much time as He deemed sufficient preparation for a better life. For this purpose life is long enough, if only we know how to use it.
10. The diversity of objects has been equally ordained by God for our advantage, that there might be no lack of material to occupy, exercise, and educate our minds.
11. God permits opportunities to be fleeting, and only to be grasped by the fore-lock, that we may learn to seize them the very instant they present themselves.
12. Experience is deceptive in order that our attention may be excited, and that we may feel the necessity of penetrating to the essential nature of things.
13. Finally, judgment is difficult, in order that we may be urged on to eagerness and to continual effort, and that the hidden wisdom of God, which permeates all things, may, to our great satisfaction, become ever more apparent. “If everything could be easily understood,” says St. Augustine, “men would neither seek wisdom with keenness, nor find it with exultation.”
14. We must therefore see in what way those obstacles which God’s foresight has placed in our paths to make us keener and more energetic may, with God’s aid, be set aside. This can only be attained—
(i) By lengthening our lives, that they may be sufficiently long for the scheme proposed.
(ii) By curtailing the subjects taught, that they may be proportionate to the duration of life.
(iv) By seizing opportunities, and not letting them slip away unused.
(iv) By unlocking the intellect, that it may grasp things with ease.
(v) By laying a foundation that is not to be shaken, and that will not deceive us, in the place of a tottering fabric of superficial observation.
15. We will therefore proceed, taking nature as our guide, to seek out the principles:—
(i) Of prolonging life.
(ii) Of curtailing the subjects, that knowledge may be acquired faster.
(iii) Of seizing opportunities, that knowledge may be acquired without fail.
(iv) Of unlocking the intellect, that knowledge may be easily acquired.
(v) Of sharpening the judgment, that knowledge may be thoroughly acquired.
To each of these points we shall devote a chapter. The question of curtailing the subjects of instruction will be treated of last.