§ 44. The first man who demanded training for every human being _because he or she was a human being_ must always be thought of with respect and gratitude by all who care either for science or religion. It has taken us 250 years to reach the standpoint of Comenius; but we have reached it, or almost reached it at last, and when we have once got hold of the idea we are not likely to lose it again. The only question is whether we shall not go on and in the end agree with Comenius that the primary school shall be for rich and poor alike. At present the practical men, in England especially, have things all their own way; but their horizon is and must be very limited. They have already had to adjust themselves to many things which their predecessors declared to be “quite impracticable—indeed impossible.” May not their successors in like manner get accustomed to other “impossible” things, this scheme of Comenius among them? § 45. The champions of realism have always recognised Comenius as one of their earliest leaders. Bacon had just given voice to the scientific spirit which had at length rebelled against the literary spirit dominant at the Renascence, and had begun to turn from all that had been thought and said about Nature, straight to Nature herself. Comenius was the professed disciple of “the noble Verulam, who,” said he, “has given us the true key of Nature.” Furnished with this key, Comenius would unlock the door of the treasure-house for himself. “It grieved me,” he says, “that I saw most noble Verulam present us indeed with a true key of Nature, but not to open the secrets of Nature, only shewing us by a few examples how they were to be opened, and leave [_i.e._, leaving] the rest to depend on observations and inductions continued for several ages.” Comenius thought that by the light of the senses, of reason, and of the Bible, he might advance faster. “For what? Are not we as well as the old philosophers placed in Nature’s garden? Why then do we not cast about our eyes, nostrils, and ears as well as they? Why should we learn the works of Nature of any other master rather than of these our senses? Why do we not, I say, turn over the living book of the world instead of dead papers? In it we may contemplate more things and with greater delight and profit than any one can tell us. If we have anywhere need of an interpreter, the Maker of Nature is the best interpreter Himself.” (Preface to _Naturall Philosophie reformed_. English trans., 1651.) § 46. Several things are involved in this so-called “realism.” First, Comenius would fix the mind of learners on material objects. Secondly, he would have them acquire their notions of these for themselves through the senses. From these two principles he drew the corollary that the vast accumulation of traditional learning and literature must be thrown overboard.