Human life is a gradual, successive, and eternal development. “Whatever we are, do, think, speak, contrive, acquire, or possess, contains a principle of gradation, and, though we mount perpetually and attain higher grades, we still continue to advance and never reach the highest” (2: p. 180). The earth, therefore, must not be the end of our life, the final goal for which we strive, but only the beginning, the preparation, for an everlasting heaven where we find the fullness of all. The world is nothing but “our nursery,” “our school,” and “our workshop.” Accordingly, a purely secular education falls far short of its true function. We ought to prepare a child not only for this life, but for the life beyond. The inculcation of piety is thus the most important thing in education. The perfection of all the faculties we have in us, which is the ultimate goal of man, and in which lies his highest felicity, can be viewed from three aspects: the perfection of knowledge, of power, of heart, which “are so joined together that they cannot be separated.” Perfection of knowledge consists in being acquainted with the properties of all things in the world, including the knowledge of man himself. By the perfection of power is meant the ability to have control over all things and over himself. The man of power directs everything to its legitimate end, and subjects it to man’s own use; he conducts himself royally--that is, “gravely and righteously among creatures.” The perfection of heart is piety; it aims to embody the perfection of Christ, the archetype of man. Comenius believes that man’s original nature is good. There is, in every man, a tendency toward every perfection--an infinite possibility or a possibility of the infinite. However, man is born only with the potentiality, thus he has the possibility of degeneration as well as of perfection. Hence the necessity of human striving, of education. “The seeds of knowledge, of virtue, and of piety are naturally implanted in us; but the actual knowledge, virtue, and piety are not given. These must be acquired by prayer, by education, and by action” (2: p. 204). Every individual has the possibility, the right, and the duty to be a man, to realize his final destiny, as a rational creature, the lord of other creatures, the image of his creator; and “it is only by a proper education that he can become a man” (2: p. 204). From this it naturally follows that education, in its essentials, should be universal and equal for all, without regard to the difference between rich and poor, boys and girls, noble and humble, dull and intelligent.