< I / \ V /\ LIFE, EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES, AND METHODS, OP JOHN HENRY PESTALOZZI; WITH BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES OF SEVERAL OF HIS ASSISTANTS AND DISCIPLES. Reprinted from, the American Journal of Education. EDITED BY HENRY BARNARD, LL.D, Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin. IN TWO PARTS NEW YOEK: PUBLISHED BY F. C. BROWNELL, NO. 12 APPLETON'S BUILDING, 1859. ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, BY HENRY BARNARD, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut. eoucATior SECOND EDITION. THE following Memoirs and Papers were originally prepared by the editor, or at his request, for " The American Journal of Education" as part of the History and Discussion of the great subject to which that periodical is devoted. They are col- lected in the present volume, as a Tribute to the Character and Services of one of the great Champions of Popular En- lightenment, and as a valuable contribution to the department of Educational Literature in the English language. 54 -i PART I. MEMOIR OF PESTALOZZI, AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF SEVERAL OF HIS ASSISTANTS AND DISCIPLES. PART II. SELECTIONS FROM THE PUBLICATIONS OF PESTALOZZI. CONTENTS. PART I. LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. Portrait of Pestalozzi, 1 Preface, INTRODUCTION. Influence of Pestalozzi on the aims, principles, and methods of popular education. Influence on Reformatory Education. By Dr. Blochmann, ...'.- Influence on the Sch'ls and Educational Methods of Germany. By Dr. Diesterweg, 16 Summary of Pestalozzi's Principles of Education. By William C. Woodbridge, Influence on the Infant School System of England, 32 LIFE OF PESTALOZZI. By Karl von Raumer, 37 Preface, 41 I. Childhood and Youth, 1746-1767, 49 II. Agricultural and Educational Experiments at Neuhof, 1767, .... - 56 III. The Evening Hour of a Hermit, 1780, 59 IV. Leonard and Gertrude, 1781. 62 V. Life and Writings between 1781 and 1798, 65 VI. Experience at Sfanz. 1798, 68 VII. " Burgdorf, 1799-1804, 71 VIII. '« Buchsee, 1804, 87 IX. " Yverdun, 1805, 87 X. Last Years, 1815-1827, 115 XI. Relations to Christianity, 116 XII. Retrospect, 123 APPENDIX. By the American Editor, 1^7 Celebration of Pestalozzi's Centennial Birth-day in Germany and Switzerland, • 129 List of Publications by Pestalozzi, 139 List of Publications in different languages on Pestalozzi and his Educational Prin- ciples and Methods, 142 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES of several of the assistants and disciples of Pestalozzi. - - 145 Preface, 149 I. Johannes Niederer, 151 II. Hermann Kriisi, 161 III. Johannes Buss, 193 IV. Joseph Schmid, 202 V. John George Tobler. 205 VI. John Ramsauer, ' 213 VII. John Ernst Plamann, 217 IX. Hans George Nageli. 220 X. Johannes Harnisch. 221 XI. Karl Augustus Zeller. 223 XII. Charles Christian Wilhelm von Turk, 155 yill. Hern hard Gottlieb Denzel, 227 XIV. Friedrich Adolf Wilhelm Diesterweg, 229 Gustavus Frederick Dinter, 232 PART II. SELECTIONS FROM THE PUBLICATIONS OF PESTALOZZI. Preface, 1 I. LEONARD AND GERTRUDE; or a Book for the People, As tirst published in German in 1781, - 9 Notice of subsequent additions, .......... 135 The School in Bonnal, 137 II CHRISTOPHER AND ALICE, - - - 151 School and Home Education compared, 151 III. THE EVENIN ; HOUR OF A HERMIT. The Programme or Key to Pestalozzi's Edu- cational Labors. First published in German in 1780, 154 IV. A CHRISTMAS EVE. DISCOURSE. Delivered by Pestalozzi to his Family School on the 24th of December, J8jO, 166 V. NEW YEARS ADDRESS, 180^, 175 VI. SEVENTY-SECOND BIRTHDAY ADDRESS. 178 VII. How GERTRUDE TEACHES HER CHILDREN, - - • « 171 Notice, 183 Pestalozzi. account of his educational experience, 185 Methods of Elementary Instruction, 189 Modifications of. bv Bnttsh Home and Colonial Infant and Juvenile Sch'l Society, 217 VIII. PATEUNAL INSTRUCTIONS. A Ikijut.-t <>f Fatlp r Ptstalozzi to his Pupils. Edited by Kriisi. Extracts, 228 PART I. MEMOIR OF PESTALOZZ1. Slsststnnts ttttfo Bisriphs nf | 1. The School-room. — Influence of the appearance of the school-room on the chil- dren's character — Its effect on visitors — Desks and their arrangement — Cleaning — Yen tilation— Temperature — Order and decoration — Apparatus — What it is — Its right appre ciation — Care to be taken of it. 2. The Opening of a New School, 6fC. — Preliminary steps to be taken — Difficulties — Spirit in which to commence — Plans to be adopted — Admission of children — Register and other books — Payments, 3. The Organization of a School. — What it means — Importance of good organization — Plans to be adopted — Treatment of new scholars — Points requiring attention, as time- tables, programmes, distribution of work, &c. 4. Division or Classification of the Children. — Importance of classification of the chil- dren of an Infant School — Too much neglected hitherto — The advantage seen in the Model Schools of the Institution — Arrangement in galleries and classes — Principle upon which this is made, of proficiency, not age or size — The difficulties of Infant Schools, when Teachers have no assistance. 5. Regular and punctual Attendance, and the means of insuring it. — Importance of the subject — Different causes of irregular attendance — Method of dealing with each — Means for securing attendance, supplying a good education, having well defined and positive rules — Quarterly pre-payment — Punctual attendance — How much depending on the Teacher's own habits — Closing the door at a fixed hour — Visiting the parents, &c. 6. The Dinner hour and arrangements for it. — The Teacher's presence necessary — Its inconvenience considered — The social and moral effects of superintending children at dinner. 7. The Physical State of the Children. — Teacher's duties with respect to health, cleanliness, and neatness — Duties of parents not to be too much interferred with — Means of cultivating cleanliness, neatness, &c. — The effects. 8. The Play-ground. — Physical education — Its importance — Provision to be made for its connection with a school — Advantages of the play-ground in reference to moral instruction and moral training — Its bearing on the health and comfort of the Teacher — Their objections answered — Tact required in the superintendence of the play-ground — Apparatus, games, &c. — Time to be allotted to exercise — Objections of parents met. 9. Monitors, Pupil- Teachers, and Paid-Assistants. — Monitors, these " necessary evils," as they have been called, fast disappearing — Still often found useful — Relative value of Monitors and Pupil-Teachers, and principle on which to be ascertained — The de- partments of labor for which each best fitted — Pestalozzi's method of preparing Moni- tors, and the work allotted them — Instruction of Pupil-Teachers, general and special — Their management— Special cases examined — Pupil-Teachers almost essential to a good school, and amply repay labors of first year or two — to be early trained to " self- education" — When so trained a great relief to the Teacher — Always to be had where practicable. 10. Examinations, for the satisfaction of the public — The parents — The Teacher — The design and special advantages of each — Manner of conducting them — Abuses — Addresses to parents a most desirable adjunct — Suitable topics for such addresses. 11. Holidays, their use and number — Never to be given at fairs, wakes, &c. — Not generally desired by children in a well-conducted school. 12. Dealing with Parents. — Position of the parent — Its relation to the Teacher — Con- clusions— The double duty of a Teacher to the parent and the school — Course to be taken — Necessity of a conciliatory manner in dealing with parents who will not submit to rules — On punishing children at the request of parents. 13. Visitors, special and casual — Connection of the former with the school — Attention and courtesy due to them — How far the usual arrangement of a school may be changed for visitors — Their suggestions — Spirit in which to be taken — Use to be made of them. 14. Inspectors. — The peculiar character of their office — Inspection always to be ob- tained when practicable — Its value to a good Teacher — Their view of a school con- trasted with that of the Teacher — Their relation as well to the Teacher as to the Pat- ron— The Teacher's best friend — Inspection anticipated — Preparation to be made — Lessons to be given before Inspector, as at other times. 15. Patrons and Committees. — Relation to the school — Claims — The blessing of a good Patron — Difficulties with Patrons or Committees — The self-will and pride of a Teacher not to be mistaken for conscience, or the love of doing good — Principles and ends to be kept in view rather than plans — Not to thwart or oppose even when not con vinced — to give way in minor matters if vital points are untouched — Circumstances which appear to justify giving up a school. IV. — THE GOVERNMENT OF A SCHOOL. 1. The Nature and Object of this Government. — All plans of government, if good, must be adapted to the uniform tendencies of human nature — Qualifications required in order to govern well — Importance of government in a school, as often giving to the 36 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT AND THE ART OF TEACHING. child first ideas of subordination — Essential also to the comfort of the Teacher — To the progress and happiness of the children — Disorder the master defect of many schools — Dislike to Teachers often caused by misgovernment. 2. A knowledge of the Principles of Action in Childhood required in order to Govern well. — The principles enumerated — Their importance — Scripture references on the in- fluence of habits — Wisdom and beneficence of the Creator seen in the early formation and power of habits — Difficulty of ascertaining motives — Importance of knowing them — The use to be made of them in governing a school. 3. Parental Government. — Different kind of rule as to their spirit — The political — The military — The family — Characteristics of each — Reasonableness of requiring the parental spirit in Teachers — In what it consists — Effects of possessing the spirit — The parental spirit manifested by God — Seen in Christ — The parental spirit should govern our schools — Our debt to Pestalozzi for advocating it so powerfully — His fundamental principle in all moral development and training. 4. Authority — Meaning of the term — Abuses of authority — Modern mistakes — Import- ance of authority in the school-room — How to be used — Adaptation to the nature of the child — Mistakes as to governing by love alone — Rules to be adopted in establishing and maintaining authority. 5. Kindness. — Distinguished from other affections — Love essential to a Teacher — Shock often received by children when transferred from a mother to an unkind Teacher — Influence of Kindness— Principles on which based — Manner of carrying them out — Caution against extremes. 6. Justice. — Definition — Temptations to partiality — Children's appreciation of jus tice — Written rules often useful. 7. Fear. — Its abuses as a principle of government shown in the conduct of parents, teachers, and nurses — The use of fear in the moral economy of the child, and conse- quently its use by the Teacher — Cautions. 8. Influence. — What it is to govern with the will of a child — Means of obtaining in- flence— its true value both in the Infant and Juvenile School. 9. Appeal to Principle. — Nature of principle, or sense of right and wrong — Relative position among motives of action — Advantages — The result, self-government, &c. — Perfection of a school as to government, when good conduct proceeds from principle. 10. Prevention. — Importance of this principle as applied to the government of a school — Children to have full occupation — To associate pleasure with learning — Teacher to call in aid the public opinion of the school — To obtain the co-operation of parents. 11. Rewards. — What they are — How they act — Injurious as being an artificial ex- citement— As giving wrong views both of justice and merit — As rousing a mercenary spirit — As exciting vanity arid pride— Means to be used to make promised rewards un- necessary— Example of Hofwyl — From our Infant Schools — The highest motives to be cultivated — Animal motives to be properly directed — Different ways of rewarding merit — Value of a reward consists not in the actual value of what is bestowed, but in the association created — Reward occasional and not expected — When it is not an in- centive to exertion, but a proof that merit is recognized, it gives the idea of justice. 12. Punishments. — Nature, design, and spirit — Difference between punishment, cor- rection, and discipline — The true end of punishment — Mistakes of the passionate Teacher — Effects of these on the child — Punishment should arise out of the fault — God's dealings with us our example — Natural punishments enumerated — Children to be shown the connection between sin and punishment — An unrarying punishment im- possible— Should differ according to character and disposition, and the nature of faults, &c. — Evils of severe punishments — Importance of discrimination — Public exposure as a punishment — Spirit that leads a teacher to expose her pupils for her own gratifica- tion— Effects of exposure on different dispositions, and on spectators — Corporal pun- ishment— Former and present practice contrasted — Opinion of Dr. Arnold and Dr. Bryce — Pestalozzi's rules for using it — Its absence in a good school — Expulsion when to be resorted to — Circumstances to attend it. 13. Emulation. — Nature of the principle— Usual application — Meaning of the word- Natural emulation, distinguished from Scripture emulation— " Generous rivalry," and " rivalry a means of self-knowledge," false ideas — Natural emulation not to be stimu- lated— Difficulties of a Teacher not using emulation — Substitutes for it, as — Desire to overcome difficulties— To gain knowledge — To please a much-loved Teacher, &c. MEMOIR OF PESTALOZZI. $2 Jiarl ban CONTENTS. PAGE. LIPB OF PBSTALOZZI. By Karl von Raumer, 37 Preface, 41 I. Childhood and Youth, 1746-1767, 49 II. Agricultural and Educational Experiments at Neuhof, 1767, ? • - - 56 III. The Evening Hour of a Hermit, 1780, 59 IV. Leonard and Gertrude, 1781, 62 V. Life and Writings between 1781 and 1798, 65 VI. Experience at Stanz, 1798, 68 VII. " Burgdorf, 1799-1804, ...» 71 VIII. " Buchsee, 1804, 87 IX. " Yverdun, 1805, 87 X. Last Years, 1815-1827, 115 XI. Relations to Christianity, 116 XII. Retrospect, 123 INTRODUCTION. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF KARL VON RAUilER, OUT of the numerous memoirs, brief and extended, which have ap- peared in Switzerland and Germany, of the'great Swiss educator, we select that by Prof. Karl von Raumer, in the second volume of his elaborate "History of Pedagogy"* It is at once condensed and sufficiently full and minute to give a correct, vivid picture of Pesta- lozzi's own diversified and troubled career as a man and an educator, and of his numerous contributions to the literature of education. Beyond any other of his biographers, Prof. Raumer has not only a rich and varied scholarship, but full and accurate knowledge of the past his- tory of education and of schools, and a disposition to do justice to Pestalozzi's large-hearted as well as original contributions to this de- partment of human progress. KARL VON RAUMER, was born at Worlitz, in the duchy of Anhalt-Dessau, on the 9th of April, 1783. Until his fourteenth year, he was under private instruction at home ; was then, with his brother, (Frederic, the present Minister of Public Instruction in Prussia,) placed at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium at Berlin ; in 1801, went thence to the university of Gottingen to study law; in 1803, to Halle, to attend the lectures of Wolf and Steffens, and in 1805, to Freiberg, where he devoted himself to mineralogy and geol- ogy under Werner. After exploring the mountain chains in Germany and France, he went to Paris, in the autumn of 1808 to prosecute his geological studies, where a change in his plans of life occurred, which he thus describes in a chapter of his published lectures on education : " At Paris my views and intentions in regard to the future occupation of my life underwent a great change, which was brought about by two different causes. For one thing, I had learnt by my own experience how little a single individual is able to accomplish for the science of mineralogy, even if he goes to work with the best will and the most toilsome industry ; that it required, much more, the united, intelligent and persevering labors of many, in order to pass from a mere belief in the laws of mineralogy to an actual perception of their operation in mountain chains. I thus became convinced that we ought not to work for science as individuals, but that we should, after passing through our own apprenticeship, instruct others and train them for the pursuit of science. How much more useful is it, thought I, to produce one new workman than one *Geschichte der Pddagogik vom Wicderaiifblvkcn klassischer studicn bis aus unaeie zeit Stuttgart, 1847: 3 vols. 42 RAUMER'S HISTORY OF PEDAGOGIC S. single new work, seeing that the former can execute many works, and even train other workmen. This conviction caused me to turn my attention to the question of education. But a second cause operated in a still higher degree to produce the same result. The sad time that had passed since 1806 had alfected me with horror and dismay; it had made me wish to shun the society of my fellow-men, and had quite disposed me to give myself up to the most solitary re- searches among the mountains. This disposition was strengthened at Paris, in the midst of the haughty despisers of our German fatherland. But it was here, too, where hope first dawned within me, where a solitary light beamed toward me through the darkness of night. I read Pestalozzi, and what Fichte says, in his 'Addresses to the German Nation,' about Pestalozzi and education. The thought, that a new and better Germany must rise from the ruins of the old one, that youthful blossoms must spring from the mouldering soil, took strong hold of me. In this manner, there awoke within me a determination to visit Pesta- lozzi at Yverdun. Fichte's Addresses had great influence on me. Surrounded by Frenchmen, the brave man pointed out to his Berlin hearers in what way they might cast Dff the French yoke, and renew and strengthen their nationality. He promised deliverance especially through a national education of the Germans, which he indicated as the commencement of an entire reformation of the human race, by which the spirit should gain a complete ascendency over .he flesh. To the question, to which of the existing institutions of the actual world he would annex the duty of carrying out the new education, Fichte an- swered, ' To the course of instruction which has been invented and brought forward by Henry Pestalozzi, and which is now being successfully carried out under his direction.' He then gives an account of Pestalozzi, and compares him with Luther, es- pecially in regard to his love for the poor and destitute. His immediate object, says Fichte, was to help these by means of education, but he had produced something higher than a scheme of popular education, — he had produced a plan of national education which should embrace all classes of society. Further on he expresses himself in his peculiar manner on the subject of Pestalozzi's method, which he criticises. He takes exception to Pestalozzi's view of language, namely, ' as a means of raising mankind from dim perceptions to clear ideas,' and to the Book for Mothers. On the other hand, he strongly recommends the development of bodily skill and dexterity proposed by Pesta- lozzi, for this, among other reasons, that it would make the whole nation tit for military service, and thus remove the necessity for a standing army. Like Pes- talozzi, he attaches a high value to the skill necessary for gaining a livelihood, as a condition of an honorable political existence. He especially insists that it is the duty of the State to charge itself with edu- cation. He spoke in the year 1808, in the capital of Prussia, which had been deeply humiliated by the unhappy war of the preceding years, and in the most hopeless period of Germany's history. ' Would that the state,' he said to a Prussian audience, among whom were several high officers of state, ' would look its present peculiar condition steadily in the face, and acknowledge to itself what that condition really is ; would that it could clearly perceive that there remains for it no other sphere in which it can act and resolve as an independent State, except the education of the rising generation ; that, unless it is absolutely determined to do nothing, this is now all it can do ; but that the merit of doing this would be conceded to it undiminished and unenvied. That we are no longer able to offer an active resistance, was before presupposed as obvious, and as acknowledged by every one. How then can we defend our continued existence, obtained by submission, against the re- proach of cowardice and an unworthy love of life ? In no other way than by resolving not to live for ourselves, and by acting up to this resolution; by raising up a worthy posterity, and by preserving our own existence solely in order that we may accomplish this object. If we had not this first object of life, what else were there for us to do ? Our constitutions will be made for us, the alliances which we are to form, and the direction in which our military re- sources shall be applied, will be indicated to us, a statute-book will be lent to us, even the administration of justice will sometimes be taken out of our hands; we shall be relieved of all these cares for the next years to coine. Education RAUMER'S HISTORY OF PEDAGOGICS. 43 alone has not been thought of; if we are seeking for an occupation, let us seize this ! We may expect that in this occupation we shall be left undisturbed. I hope, (perhaps I deceive myself, but as I have only this hope still to live for, I can not cease to hope,) that I convince some Germans, and that I shall bring them to see that it is education alone which can save us from all the evils by which we are oppressed. I count especially on this, as a favorable circumstance, that our need will have rendered us more disposed to attentive observation and serious reflection than we were in the day of our prosperity. Foreign lands have other consolations and other remedies ; it is not to be expected that they would pay any attention, or give any credit to this idea, should it ever reach them ; I will much rather hope that it will be a rich source of amusement to the readers of their journals, if they ever learn that any one promises himself so great things from education.' It may easily be imagined how deep an impression such words made on me, as I read them ha Paris, the imperial seat of tyranny, at a time when I was in a state of profound melancholy, caused by the ignominious slavery of my poor beloved country. There also I was absorbed in the perusal of Pestalozzi'a work, ' How Gertrude teaches her children.' The passages of deep pathos in the book took powerful hold of my mind, the new and great ideas excited strong hopes in me ; at that time I was carried away on the wings of those hopes over Pestalozzi's errors and failures, and I had not the experience which would have enabled me to detect these easily, and to examine them critically. About the same time I read the ' Report to the Parents on the state of the Pestalozzian Institution;' it removed every doubt in my mind as to the possi- bility of seeing my boldest hopes realized. Hereupon, I immediately resolved to go to Yverdun, which appeared to me a green oasis, full of fresh and living springs, in the midst of the great desert of my native land, on which rested the curse of Napoleon." At an age when most men, of his acknowledged ability and schol- arship, are only thinking of securing a civil employment, which shall bring both riches and honor, Von Raumer hastened to Pestalozzi at Yverdun, where he devoted himself, for nearly two years, to a study of the principles and methods of elementary instruction, as illustrated by the great Swiss educator. Returning from Switzerland, in May, 1810, Von Raumer accepted an appointment of regular professor at Halle, with a handsome salary ; but, not finding the pleasure he anticipated in his professorial lectures, he soon after gave up the post, and proceeded to establish a private school at Nuremberg, where he strove to realize his own ideal of an educational institution. In this enterprise he was not so imme- diately successful as he hoped to be. In 1822 he married a daughter of Kappellmeister Reichardt, and, by the advice of his friends, he re- turned to academic life by accepting the appointment of professor of natural history, at Erlangen. In addition to his regular duties, he found time to prepare and deliver occasional lectures on the " History of Pedagogy from the revival of classical learning to our own time.'* These lectures were subsequently published in three parts — the first of which was issued in ] 843. Of the origin and plan of the work the author thus speaks in the preface to the complete edition in 1846. " This work has grown out of a series of lectures, upon the history of education, 44 RAUMER'S HISTORY OF PEDAGOGICS. which I delivered, in 1822, at Halle, and several years later, from 1838 to 1842, at Erlangen. The reader may inquire, how it was that my attention was directed to this subject ? If he should, it will perhaps be sufficient to say in reply, that during the thirty-one years of my professorship, I have not merely interested myself in the science to which my time was devoted, but also in its corresponding art, and this the more, because much of the instruction which I gave was additional to my regular lectures, and imparted in the way of dialogue. This method stimu- .ated my own thoughts too, to that degree, that I was induced as early as the year 1819 to publish many didactical essays, and subsequently, a manual for in- struction in Natural History. But were I called upon for a more particular ex- planation, it would be necessary for me to relate the many experiences of my somewhat eventful life, both from my passive years of training and instruction, and from my active years of educating and instructing others. This, however, is a theme, to which I can not do justice within the brief, compass of a preface ; S hereafter an opportunity shall offer, I may treat it in another place. And yet after all, the book itself must bear testimony to the fitness of the author for his task. Of what avail is it to me, to say that I have been taught by Meierotto, Buttman, Frederick Augustus, Wolfj Steffens, Werner, Pestalozzi, and other distinguished men? When I have said all this, have I done any more than to show that the author of this book has had the very best oppor- tunity to learn what is just and true ? My book begins with the revival of classical learning. And Germany I aave had preeminently in view. Why, by way of introduction, I have given a orief history of the growth of learning in Italy from Dante to the age of Leo X., the reader will ascertain from the book itself. He will be convinced, if not at the outset, yet as he reads further, that this introduction is absolutely necessary to a correct understanding of German didactics. A history of didactics must present the various standards of mental culture, which a nation proposes to itself during its successive eras of intellectual devel- opment, and then the modes of instruction which are adopted in each era, in order to realize its peculiar standard in the rising generation. In distinguished men that standard of culture manifests itself to us in person, so to speak, and hence they exert a controlling influence upon didactics, though they may not themselves be teachers. 'A lofty example stirs up a spirit of emulation, and discloses deeper principles to guide the judgment.' But their action upon the intellectual culture of their countrymen has a re- doubled power, when at the same time they labor directly at the work of teach- ing, as both Luther and Melancthon did for years. This consideration haa induced me to select my characters for this history among distinguished teachers, those who were held in the highest respect by their contemporaries, and whose example was a pattern for multitudes. Such an one was John Sturm at Stras- burg, a rector, who with steady gaze pursued a definite educational aim, organ- izing his gymnasium with the utmost skill and discernment, and carrying out what he had conceived to be the true method, with the most scrupulous care. An accurate sketch of the educational efficiency of this pattern rector, based upon original authorities, in my opinion conveys far more insight and instruction than I could hope to afford, were I to entangle myself amid fragmentary sketches of numberless ordinary schools, framed upon Sturm's plan. Thus much in explanation of the fact that this history has taken the form of a series of biographies. And in view of the surprising differences among the characters treated of, it can not appear singular, if my sketches should be widely different in their form. There was one thought, which I will own occasioned me abundant perplexi- ty during my labors. If I was about to describe a man, who, I had reason to suppose, was more or less unknown to most of my readers, I went about the task with a light heart, and depicted his life and labors in their full proportions, communicating every thing which could, by any possibility, render his image clearer and more lifelike to the reader. But how different the case, when the educational efficiency of Luther is to be set forth. 'My readers,' I say to my- self, ' have long been acquainted with the man, and they will not thank me for the information that he was born at Eisleben, on the 10th of November, 1483 ; as if they had not known this from their youth up.' I am, therefore, compelled RAUMER'S HISTORY OF PEDAGOGICS. 45 to omit all such particulars, and to confine myself exclusively to his educational efficiency. And yet this did not stand alone ; but was for the most part united, with its entire influence, both to the church and the state. As with Luther, so also was it with Melancthon and others. Considerate readers will, hence, pardon me, I hope, when, in cases of this kind, they are not fully satisfied with.my sketches. In another respect, too, I ought perhaps to solicit pardon, though I am reluct- ant to do so. "We demand of historians an objective portraiture, especially such as shall reveal none of the personal sympathies or antipathies of the writer. Now it is proper to insist upon that truth and justice which will recognize the good qualities of an enemy, and acknowledge the faults of a friend. But free from likes aiid dislikes I neither am, nor do I desire to be, but, according to the dictates of my conscience and the best of my knowledge, I will signify my ab- horrence of evil and my delight in good, nor will I ever put bitter for sweet or Bweet for bitter. It may be, too, that a strict objectivity requires the historian never to come forward himself upon the stage, and never to express his own opinion in respect to the facts which he is called upon to chronicle. Herein he is not allowed so much freedom of action as the dramatist, who, by means either of the prologue and epilogue, or of the chorus between each of the acts, cornea forward and converses with the public upon the merits of his play. Such an ob- je~ :ivity, likewise, I can not boast myself of; for I record my own sentiments freely where I deem it necessary. And surely will not the objectivity of history gain more by an unrestricted personal interview with the historian, at proper intervals, than by compelling him to a perpetual masquerade behind the facts and the nar- rative ? Certainly it will, for in that case the reader discovers the character of the writer in his opinions, and knows what he himself is to expect from the nar- ration. He likewise observes with the more readiness, where the writer, though conscientiously aiming at truth and impartiality, nevertheless betrays symptoms of human infirmity and party zeal. From a church historian, for instance, who should express his puritanical views without reserve, no intelligent reader would expect an impartial estimate of the middle ages. Another motive also urges me to a free expression of my opinions, and that is, in order thereby to allure my readers to that close familiarity with many im- portant educational subjects which the bare recital of facts seldom creates. If, in this history, the ideal and the methods of such different teachers are depicted, these diverse views can not but have the effect, especially those practically en- gaged in training the young, to induce a comparison of their own aims and pro- cedure therewith. Sentiments that harmonize with our own give us joy, and inspire us with the pleasant consciousness that our course is the right one ; differing or opposing opinions lead us to scrutinize our own course, even as were it another's; and from such scrutiny there results either perseverance based upon deeper conviction, or a change of course. I am happy to acknowl- edge, that this practical aim has been my chief motive in undertaking the present work, and has been uppermost in my thoughts during its prosecution. As far as possible, I have depended on contemporaneous sources, and in part from exceedingly rare works, and such, as, for aught that I know to the contrary, in the present age, have fallen into almost total oblivion. And, for this reason, I was the more influenced to render a service to the reader, by bringing widely to his view the men and the manners of earlier centuries, through the medium of contemporaneous and characteristic quotations." We give on the next page the Table of Contents of the three volumes of Raumer's great work. 46 RAUMER'S HISTORY OF PEDAGOGICS. GESCHICHTE DER PADAGOGIK vom wiederaufbliihen klassischer studien bis unsere zeit. [History of Pedagogics, or of the Science and Art of Education, from the revival of classical studies down to our time.'] By Karl von Raumer. 3 vols. Stuttgard, 2d edition, 1847. VOLUME I. PREFACE. 1. Middle Ages. 2. Italy, from birth of Dante to death of Petrarca and Boccaccio. 1. Dante. 2. Boccaccio. 3. Petrarca. Review of the period. 3. Development of classical studies in Italy, from death of Petrarca and Boccaccio until Leo X. 1. John of Ravenna and Emanuel Chrysoloras. 2. The educators, Guarino and Vittorino de Feltre. 3. Collection of MSS. Cosmo de Medici. Nicho- las V. First printing. 4. Platonic Academy. Greek philologists. S.Italians. Phila- jelphus. Poggius. Laurentius. 6. Lorenzo de Medici. Ficinus. Argyropulus. Landinus. Politianus. Picus de Mirandola. 4. Leo X. and his time ; its lights and shadows. 5. Retrospect of Italy. Transition to Germany. 6. Germans and Dutch, from Gerhardus Magnus to Luther, 1340-1483. 1. The Hieronymians. 2. John Wessel. 3. Rudolf Agricola. 4. Alexander Flegius. 5, 6. Rudolf von Lange and Herman von den Busch 7. Erasmus. 8. School at Schlett- stadt. Ludwig Dringenberg. Wimpheling. Crato. Lapidus. Platter. 9. John Reuchlin. 10. Retrospect. Reformation. Jesuits. Realism. From Luther to the death of Bacon, 1483-1626. 1. Luther. 2. Melancthon. .3. Valentin Friedland. Trotzendorf. 4. Michael Neander. 5. John Sturm. 6. Wur- temberg. 1. Saxony. 8. Jesuits. 9. Universities. 10. Verbal Realism. 11. Fran- cis Bacon. 12. Montaigne. Appendix. — I. Thomas Platter. II. Melancthon's Latin grammar. III. John Sturm. VOLUME II. New ideas and methods of education. Struggle, mutual influence, and gradual con- nection and exchange between the old and the new. From Bacon's death to that of Pestalozzi. 1. The Renovators. 2. Wolfgang Ratich. 3. The Thirty Years' War. 4. Comenius. 5. The Century after the Thirty Years' War. 6. Locke. 7. A. H. Franke. 8. Real Schools. 9. Reformatory Philologists. J. M. Gesner. J. A. Ernesti. 10. J. J. Rousseau. 11. Philanthropists. 12. Ha- mann. 13. Herder. 14. F. A. Wolf. 15. Pestalozzi. Appendix. — 1. Wolfgang Ratich and his literature. II. Pedagogical works of Come- nius. III. Interior of the Philanthropinum. IV. Pestalozzi and his literature. V. Pes- tiilozzi's Evening Hour of a Hermit. VI. Pestalozzi on Niederer and Schmid. VII. Stniniiers who remained some time at Pestalozzi's institution. VIII. Rousseau and Pestalozzi. VOLUME III. Early childhood. Schools for small children. School and home. Educational in- stitutions. Tutors in families. Instruction. 1. Religion. 2 Latin. Preface. I. History of Latin in Christian times. Speaking Latin. Writing Latin. II. Methods of reading Latin. 1. These methods changed within the last three centuries. 2. Adversaries of the old grammatical method. 3. New methods. A. Learning Latin like the mother tongue. B. Latin and real instruction in connection. Comenius. C. Combination of A and B. D. Ratich and similar teachers, a. Ratich. b. Locke, c. Hamilton, d. Jacotot. e. Ruthardt. f. Meierotto. g, Jacobs. Con- cluding remarks. Aphorisms on the teaching of history. Natural history and philosophy. Preface. 1. Difficulties. 2. Objections against this instruction in gymnasia answered. 3. Grades of natural knowledge. 4. Begin- nings. 5. Science and art. 6. Mathematical instruction and elementary instruction in the knowledge of nature. 7. Instruction in mineralogy. 8. Characteristics of scholars. 9. Instruction in botany. 10. Unavoidable inconsistency. 11. "Mysteri- ously clear," (Goethe.) 12. Law and liberty. Concluding remarks. Geometry. Arithmetic. Physical training. 1. Hygiene. 2. Hardening the body to toil and want. 3. Gymnastics. 4. Cultivation of the senses. Concluding observations. Appendix. — I. Ruthardt's new Loci Memoriales. II. Teachers of mineralogy. Til. Use of counters in the elementary instruction in arithmetic. IV. Exp'anation of fjte^|^ which the noble flight of true and patriotic sentiment had led the more dis- tinguished of the young Swiss. "They had run," he says, "into^ne- sid£d, r_asjh, and confused notions, into which Voltaire's seductive infidelity, being opposed to the pure holiness of religion, and to its simplicity and innocence, had helped to lead them. Out of all this," he tells us, " a ne-wJ^ndaiicyLJ!iuis_-pixiduced, which was totally_incojQ- Sistent wjfh tJ^rfta.]_yp1fajyi nf\ onr native f.rmaa; constituted as it Was according to the old-fashioned style of the imperial free cities, which 1 was neither calculated to preserve what was good in the old institu- ^tions, nor to introduce any that were substantially better." At this time, Pestalozzi's contemporary, Lavater, founded a league v which Pestalozzi joined, being then a lad of fifteen^ The young men who formed this league, with Lavater at their head, brought a public charge of jinj_usji£e against Grebel, the governor of the canton, im- peached the ch aracterjof_ Bmnn er, the mayor of Zurich, and declared war against uji^^iilh^uiUJlisiej^j}^^ " The moment Rousseau's Etnile appeared," says Pestalozzi, " my visionary and highly speculative mind was enthusiastically seized by this visionary and highly speculative book. I compared the educa- tion which I enjoyed in the corner of my mother's parlor, and also in the school which I frequented, with what Rousseau demanded for the education of his Emilus. The home as well as the public education of the whole world, and of all ranks of society, appeared to me alto- gether as a crippled thing, which was to find a universal remedy for """^ /¥- its present pitiful condition in Rousseau's lofty ideas. 'k The ideal system of liberty, also, to which Rousseau imparted fresh animation, increased in me the visionary desire for a more ex- tended sphere of activity, in which I might promote the welfare and happiness of the people. Juvenile ideas as to what it was necessary and possible to do in this respect in my native town, induced me to abandon the clerical profession, to which I had formerly leaned, and for which I had been destined, and caused the thought to spring up within me, that it might be possible, by the study of the law, to find ;a career that would be likely to procure for me, sooner or later, the LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. 53 opportunity and means of exercising an active influence on tlie civil condition of my native town, and even of my native land." There was at this time a great controversy in the canton of Zurich, particularly between the town and the country. Pestalozzi had already when living with his grandfather, the village pastor, won and might early have heard the complaint of the country clergy, omne malum ex urbe, — " all harm comes from the town." A fierce hatred toward the aris- tocracy who oppressed the country people was kindled in his young heart, and eyejijn_ojii--ag^ it was not altogether extinguished. This warmth of anger coexisted in him with great warmth of love for the people ; Gothe's saying — " Youth's wings should trim themselves for flight Ere youthful strength be gone, Throi hatjM)£wroji£ anj Jo\rej^f jjgjit To bear him bravely on — " ^characterizes not only the v_oung. Pestalozzi, but also the old-man ; it Lli^^ He was seconded at this time by a friend of the name of Blunt- schli, but a pulmonary complaint laid this young man upon his death- bed. He sent for Pestalozzi, and said to him, " I die, and when you are left to yourself, you must not plunge into any career which from your good natured and confiding disposition, might become danger- ous to you. Seek for a otmgtjji^ji^nl_-c^:reer ; and unless you have at your side a man who will faithfully assist you with a calm, dispas- sionate knowledge of men and things, by no means embark in any extensive undertaking whose failure would in any way be perilous to you." An ^opinion of. Pestaloy./iy ^chaiaf.ter which was strikingly confirmed by almost every subsequent event of his life. Soon after his friend's death, Pestalozzi himself became danger- ously ill, probably in consequence of his overstrained exertion in the pursuit of his JegaJjyiilJiisicj^^ His physicians advised him. to give up scientific pursuits for a time, and to recreate Jiiins.elf in the country. This advice, which was strengthened by Rousseau's anti- scientific diatribes, Pestalozzi fol|o\ved_^too faithfully. lie renounced the study of books, !)Uj^tJns_jn^misciMpJs, went to his maternal rela- tion, Dr. Ilotze at Richterswyl, and from thence to Kirchberg, in the canton of Bern, to Tschiffeli, a farmer of considerable reputation. From him Pestalozzi sought advice as to how he might best realize his plans for the country people. "I had come to him," says Pestal- ozzi, " a political visionary, though with many profound and correct attainments, views, and prospects in political matters ; and I went 54 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. away from him just as great an agricultural visionary, though with many enlarged and correct ideas and intentions in regard to agricul- ture. My stay with him only had this effect — that the gigantic views in relation to my exertions were awakened within me afresh by his agricultural plans, which, though difficult of execution, and in part impracticable, were bold and extensive ; and that, at the same time, they caused me, in my thoughtlessness as to the means of car- rying them out, to fall into a callousness, the consequences of which contributed in a decisive mariner to the pecuniary embarrassment into which I was plunged in the very first years of my rural life." Tschiffeli's plantations of madder were exciting great attention at that time, and induced Pestalozzi to make a similar experiment. He learnt that near the village of Birr there was a large tract of barren chalky heath-land to be sold, which was only used for a sheep-walk. He joined a rich mercantile firm in Zurich, and bought about 100 acres of this land, at the nominal price of ten florins. A builder erected for him, on the land he had purchased, a dwelling house in the Italian. style; Pestalozzi himself calls this an in|udieious and im- prudent step. To the whole estate he gave the name of Neuhof. Among the friends of Pestalozzi's youth, was Schulthess, (the son of a wealthy merchant in Zurich,) for whose beauti|uL sister, Anna Schulthess, Pestalozzi entertained an affection. A letter which he wrote to the beautiful maiden, gives us a profound insight into the workings of his heart, and even into his future life. In this letter he lays before her his hop£S and resolutions, and also, with the utmost Qari4oj* and with great self-knowledge, his faults. He thus writes : — " MY DEAR, MY ONLY FRIEND. *' Our whole future life, our whole happiness, our duties toward our country and our posterity, and the security of virtue, call upon us to follow the only correct guide in our actions — Truth. I will, with all candor, made known to you the serious reflection I have had in these solemn days upon the relation subsisting between us ; I am happy that I know before-hand, that my friend will find more true love in the calm truth of this contemplation, which so intimately concerns our happiness, than in the ardor of pleasant, but often not too wise, outpourings of a feeling heart, which I now with difficulty restrain. " Dear friend, first of all I must tell you that in future I shall but seldom dare to approach you. I have already come too frequently and too imprudently to your brother's house; I see that it becomes my duty to limit my visits to you ; I have not the slightest ability to conceal my feelings. My sole art in this respect consists in fleeing from those who observe them ; I should not be able to be in company LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. 55 with you for even half an evening, without its being possible for a moderately acute observer to perceive that I was in a disturbed state of mind. We know each other sufficiently, dear, to be able to rely upon mutual straightforward honesty and sincerity. I propose to you a correspondence in which we shall make our undisguised thoughts known to each other with all the freedom of oral conversation. Yes, I will open myself fully and freely to you ; I will even now with the greatest candor, let you look as deep into my heart as I am myself able to penetrate ; I will show you my views in the light of my pres- ent and future condition, as clearly as I see them myself. " Dearest Schulthess, those of my faults which appear to me the most important in relation to the situation in which I may be placed in after-life, are improvidence, incautiousness, and a want of presence of mind to meet unexpected changes in my future prospects, when- ever they may occur. I know not how far they may be diminished by my efforts to counteract them, by calm judgment and experience. At present, I have them still in such a degree, that I dare not conceal them from the maiden whom I love ; they are faults, my dear, which deserve your fullest consideration. I have other faults, arising from my irritability and sensitiveness, which oftentimes will not submit to my judgment. I very frequently allow myself to run into excesses in praising and blaming, in my likings and dislikings ; I cleave so strongly to many things which I possess, that the force with which I feel myself bound to them often exceeds the limits which reason assigns ; whenever my country or my friend is unhappy, I am myself unhappy. Direct your whole attention to this weakness ; there will be times when the cheerfulness and tranquillity of my soul will suffer under it. If even it, does not hinder me in the discharge of my duties, yet I shall scarcely ever be great enough to fulfill them, in such adverse circumstances, with the cheerfulness and tranquillity of a wise man, who is ever true to himself. Of my great, and indeed very reprehensible negligence in all matters of etiquette, and gene- rally in all matters which are not in themselves of importance, I need not speak ; any one may see them at first sight of me. I also owe you the open confession, my dear, that I shall always consider my duties toward my beloved partner subordinate to my duties toward my country ; and that, although I shall be the tenderest husband, nevertheless I hold it to be my duty to be inexorable to the tears of my wife, if she should ever attempt to restrain me by them from the direct performance of my duties as a citizen, whatever this might lead to. My wife shall be the confident of my heart, the partner of all my most secret counsels. A great and honest simplicity 56 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. shall reign in my house. And one thing more. My life will not pass without important and very critical undertakings. I shall not forget the precepts of Menalk, and my first resolutions to devote my- self wholly to my country ; I shall never from fear of man, refrain from speaking, when I see that the good of my country calls upon me to speak : my whole heart is my country's ; I will risk all to alle- viate the need and misery of my fellow countrymen. What conse- quences may the undertakings to which I feel myself urged on, draw after them ; how unequal to them am I ; and how imperative is my duty to show you the possibility of the great dangers which they may bring upon me ! "My dear, my beloved friend, I have now spoken candidly of my character and my aspirations. Reflect upon every thing. If the traits which it was my duty to mention, diminish your respect for me, you will still esteem my sincerity, and you will not think less highly of me, that I did not take advantage of your want of acquaintance with my character, for the attainment of my inmost wishes. Decide now whether you can give your heart to a man with these faults and in such a condition, and be happy. " My dear friend, I love you so truly from my heart, and with such fervor, that this step has cost me much ; I fear to lose you, dear, when you see me as I am ; I had often determined to be silent; at last I have conquered myself. My conscience called loudly to me, that I should be a seducer and not a lover, if I were to hide from my be- loved a trait of my heart, or a circumstance, which might one day disgust her and render her unhappy ; I now rejoice at what I have done. If the circumstances into which duty and country shall call me, set a limit to my efforts and my hopes, still I shall not have been base-minded, not vicious ; I have not sought to please you in a mask, \ * — I have not deceived you with chimerical hopes of a happiness that * is not to be looked for ; I have concealed from you no clanger and no sorrow of the future ; I have nothing to reproach myself with." It was in the year 1767 that Pestalozzi removed to Neuhof. On the 24th of January, 1769, two years later, he married Anna Schul- thess, being then only tw^n^yj^ir^ajsjold. It was not long before troubles came upon the young married couple. The madder planta- tion did not prosper; an assistant whom Pestalozzi had engaged, j the Zurich firm, which had advanced money to Pestalozzi, sent two competent judges to examine into the condition of the estate — both of them reported so unfavorably upon it, especially upon the buildings, that the firm preferred taking back their capital with loss, to trusting it any longer in Pestalozzi's LIFE AN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. 5*7 Lands. " The c^usfi^Qfjheji^ihii^ of my undertaking," says he, " lay and in my pronounced incapacity for every kind o£ undertaking which requires eminent ability." Notwithstanding the great distress into which he fell, he resolved not only to go on with farming, but to combine with it a school for poor children. " I wished," says he, " to make my estate a centre for wi^^ediic^tiojial and agricultural labors. In spite of all difficulties, I wanted, like a visionary, to reach the highest point in every respect, at the same time that I Iacj^e4jih^j^ from which alone can proceed a proper attention to the first and humblest beginnings and preparatory steps to the great things which I sought after. So great, so unspeakably great, in consequence of the peculiarity of my mind, was the contrast between what I wished to do and what I did and was able to do, which arose from the disproportion between my good natured zeal, on the one side, and my mental impotency and unskillful ness in the affairs of life on the other." By mental impotency, we must understand only a want of school- ing or intellectual disciplining of the mind, for just at this time Pes- talozzi's literary talent made itself known. He came forward with a plan for the establishment of the Poor School. His views and prin- ciples met with so much approbation in an economical point of veiw, in spite of the want of confidence, in his practical ability, that he received offers of assistance from Zurich, Bern, and Basel, and many poor children were sent to him. Thus began the Neuhof Poor School in the year 1775 ; it had soon fifty pupils. In the summer, the children were to be chiefly em- ployed in field-work, — in winter, with spinning and other handicrafts. During the time that they were engaged in the handicrafts, Pesta- lozzi gave them instruction ; exercises in speaking were predominant. But no long time elapsed before the establishment declined ; to which result many things contributed. The children, who were to earn their support by their work, were, although beggar children, spoilt and full of demands. Their parents, who every Sunday be- sieged Neuhof, confirmed them in this, and also ran off with them as soon as they had got new clothes. None of the authorities protected Pestalozzi against this misconduct, from which the forming suffered a great deal. " But these difficulties," says Pestalozzi, " might gradually have been more or less overcome, if I had not sought to carry out my experiment on a scale that was quite disproportioned to my strength, and had not, with almost incredible thoughtlessness, wanted to convert it, in the very beginning, into an undertaking which pre- 58 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. supposed a thorough knowledge of manufactures, men, and business, in which I was deficient in the same proportion as they were rendered necessary to me by the direction which I now gave my undertaking. I, who so much disapproved of the hurrying to the higher stages of instruction, before a thorough foundation had been laid in the elemen- tary steps of the lower stages, and looked upon it as the fundamental error in the education of the day, and who also believed that I was myself endeavoring with all my might to counteract it in my plan of education, allowed myself to be carried away by illusions of the greater remunerativeness of the higher branches of industry, without knowing even remotely either them or the means of learning and introducing them, and to commit the very faults in teaching my school children spinning and weaving which, as I have just said, I so strongly repro- bated and denounced in the whole of my views on education, and which I considered dangerous to the domestic happiness of all classes. I wanted to have the finest thread spun, before my children had gained any steadiness or sureness of hand in spinning even the coarser kinds, and, in like manner to, make muslin fabrics, before my weavers had acquired sufficient steadiness and readiness in the weaving of common cotton goods. Practiced and skillful manufacturers ruin themselves by such preposterous conduct, — how much more certain to be ruined by such conduct was I, who was so -blind in the discernment of what was necessary to success, that I must distinctly say, that who- ever took but a thread of mine into his hand was at once in a posi- tion to cause half of its value to vanish for me ! Before I was aware of it, too, I was deeply involved in debt, and the greater part of my dear wife's property and expectations had in an instant, as it were, gone up in smoke. Our misfortune was decided. I was now poor. The extent and rapidity of my misfortune was owing to this among other causes — that, in this undertaking, as in the first, I readily, very readily, received an unquestioning confidence. My plan soon met with a degree of confidence which an attentive consideration of my former conduct would have shown that which I did not merit in the present undertaking. After all the experience they had had of my errors in this respect, people still did not think the extent of my inca- pacity for everything practical was so great as it really was. I even yet enjoyed for a while, to all appearance, an extensive confidence. But when my experiment went rapidly to wreck, as it necessarily did, this feeling changed, in my neighborhood, into just as inconsiderate a degree of the contrary, into a totally blind abandonment of even the last shadow of respect for my endeavors, and of belief in my fitness for the accomplishment of any part of them. It is the course LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. 59 of the world, and it happened to me as it happens to every one who thus becomes poor through his own fault. Such a man generally loses, together with his money, the belief and the confidence in what he really is and is able to do. The belief in the qualifications which I really had for attaining my objects was now lost, along with the belief in those which, erring in my self-deception, I gave myself credit for, but which I really had not." Thus it happened, that in the year 1780, Pestalozzi was obliged to break up the establishment at Neuhof, after it had been five years in operation. His situation was frightful. Frequently in his only too elegant country house he wanted money, bread, fuel, in order to pro- tect himself against hunger and cold. His faithful wife, who had pledged nearly the whole of her property for him, fell into a severe and tedious illness. "My friends," relates Pestalozzi, "now only loved rne without hope ; in the whole circuit of the surrounding dis- trict it was every where said that I was a lost man, that nothing more could be done for me." The breaking up of the establishment at Neuhof was a fortunate thing for Pestalozzi — and for the world. He was no longer to fritter away his strength in efforts to which he was not equal. And, never- theless, his severe mental and physical labor was not to have been in vain, but was to bear precious fruits. As the first of these fruits, there appeared in 1*780 a paper of his, brief but full of meaning, in Iselin's Ephemerides, under the title, The Evening Hour of a Hermit. It contains a series of aphorisms, which nevertheless are cast in one mould, and stand among one another in the closest connection. Fruits of the past years of Pestalozzi's life, they are at the same time seeds of the following years, programme and key to his educa- tional labors. "Iselin's Ephemerides," he writes in 1801, alluding to this Evening Hour, " bear witness, that the dream of my wishes is not more comprehensive now, than it was when at that time I sought to icalize it. It is scarcely possible to make a selection from these concise and thought-teeming aphorisms, the more so because they form, as I have said, a beautiful and ingenious whole, which 'suffers in the selection. Nevertheless, I will run the risk of selecting- some of the principal thoughts. The paper begins with melancholy seriousness. "Pastors and teachers of the nations, know you man ; is it with you a matter of conscience to understand his nature and destiny? "All mankind are in their nature alike, they have but one path to contentment. The natural faculties of each one are to be perfected 60 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. into pure human wisdom. This general education of man must serve as the foundation to every education of a particular rank. " The faculties grow by exercise. " The intellectual powers of children must not be urged on to re- mote distances before they have acquired strength by exercise in things near them. " The circle of knowledge commences close around a man, and from thence stretches out concentrically. " Real knowledge must take precedence of word-teaching and mere talk. "All human wisdom is based upon the strength of a good heart, obedient to truth. Knowledge and ambition must be subordinated to inward peace and calm enjoyment. "As the education for the closest relations precedes the education for more remote ones, so must education in the duties of members of families precede education in the duties of citizens. But nearer than father or mother is God, ' the closest relation of mankind is their relation to Him.' "Faith in God is 'the confiding, childlike feeling of mankind to- ward the paternal mind of the Supreme Being.' This faith is not the result and consequence of cultivated wisdom, but is purely an instinct of simplicity ; a childlike and obedient mind is not the consequence of a finished education, but the early and first foundation of human culture. Out of the faith in God springs the hope of eternal life. * Children of God are immortal.' " Belief in God sanctifies and strengthens the tie between parents and children, between subjects and rulers ; unbelief loosens all ties, annihilates all blessings. " Sin is the source and consequence of unbelief, it is acting con- trary to the inward witness of right and wrong, the loss of the child- like mind toward God. " Freedom is based upon justice, justice upon love, therefore free- dom also is based upon love. "Justice in families,^ the purest, most productive of blessings, has love for its source. " Pure childlike feeling is the true source of the freedom that is based upon justice, and pure paternal feeling is the source of all power of governing, that is noble enough to do justice and to love freedom. And the source of justice and of all worldly blessings, the source of the love and brotherly feeling of mankind toward one an- other, this is based upon the great thought of religion, that we are children of God, and that the belief in this truth is the sure ground LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. gj of all worldly blessings. In this great thought of religion lies ever the spirit of all true state policy that seeks only the blessing of the people, for all inward power of morality, enlightenment and worldly wisdom, is based upon this ground of the belief of mankind in God ; and ungodliness, misapprehension of the relation of mankind as chil- dren to the Supreme Being, is the source which dissolves all the power with which morals, enlightenment, and wisdom, are capable of blessing mankind. Therefore the loss of this childlike feeling of mankind toward God is the greatest misfortune of the world, as it renders impossible all paternal education on the part of God, and the restoration of this lost childlike feeling is the redemption of the lost children of God on earth. * . " The Son of God, who with suffering and death has restored to mankind the universally lost feeling of filial love toward God, is the Re- deemer of the world, He is the sacrificed Priest of the Lord, He is Mediator between God and sinful mankind. His doctrine is pure jus- tice, educative national philosophy ; it is the revelation of God the Father to the lost race of his children." Much might be said upon these aphorisms ; each is a text for a discourse ; indeed, Pestalozzi's life is a paraphrase in facts of these texts. We must accuse human weakness, if the realization of his great anticipations henceforward also turns out but miserably, nay, only too often stands in the most glaring contradiction with them. The plan of an inventive builder, however, retains its value, if even the builder himself lack the skill to carry out the building according to the plan. Rousseau's Entile appeared eighteen years before Pestalozzi's Eve- ning Hour ; in what relation does Rousseau stand to Pestalozzi ? In particular points they frequently agree. Like Pestalozzi, Rousseau requires real knowledge and trained skill in the business of life, not an empty display of words, without an insight into the things them- selves, and a ready power of acting. Like Pestalozzi, Rousseau also ridicules the plan of giving children a discursive knowledge about things remote, and leaving them in ignorance of the things in their immediate vicinity ; he requires, like Pestalozzi, that they should first be at home in this vicinity. In this manner many other things might be pointed out in which both men agree, arising principally from their common aversion to a baseless, dead talkativeness, without any real intelligence, activity of mind, or readiness of action. But when viewed more closely, how immensely different are the two men in all that is most essential. Rousseau will not have God named before children ; he is of opinion 62 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. that long physical and metaphysical study is necessary to enable us to think of God. With Pestalozzi, God is the nearest, the most inti- mate being to man, the Alpha and Omega of his whole life. Rous- seau's God is no paternal God of love, his Emile no child of God. The man who put his children into a foundling hospital, knew nothing of paternal and filial love ; still less of rulers as the fathers of the nations, and of the childlike obedience of subjects ; his ideal was a cold, heartless freedom, which was not based upon love, but was de- fensive, isolating, and altogether selfish. While, therefore, according to Pestalozzi, the belief in God pene- trates, strengthens, attunes, sanctifies all the relations of men ; while the relations between ruler and subjects, between fathers and children, and the paternal love of God to his children, men, are every where reflected in his paper — with Rousseau there is never any mention of such bonds of love. A year after the publication of the Evening Hour, namely, in 1*781, appeared the first part of that work of Pestalozzi's which established his reputation, which exercised an extensive and wholesome influence at the time, and which will continue to exercise an influence in future. That work is " Leonard and Gertrude : A Book for the People." It was undertaken at a time, when, as he relates, " my old friends looked upon it as almost settled that I should end my days in a workhouse, or in a lunatic asylum." The form was suggested by Marmontel's Conies moraux\ and he was stimulated to effort, by a few words of encouragement from the bookseller Fiissli, of Zurich, or rather of the brother better known as J^useli, the painter. After a few attempts at composition with which he was not satisfied, "the history of Leonard and Gertrude flowed from my pen, I know not how, and developed itself of its own accord, without my having the slightest plan in my head, and even without my thinking of one. In a few weeks, the book stood there, without my knowing exactly how I had done it. I felt its value, but only as a man in his sleep feels the value of some piece of good fortune of which he is just dreaming. " The book appeared, and excited quite a remarkable degree of interest in my own country and throughout the whole of Germany. Nearly all the journals spoke in its praise, and, what is perhaps still more, nearly all the almanacs became full of it; but the most unex- pected thing to me was that, immediately after its appearance, the Agricultural Society of Bern awarded me their great gold medal, with a letter of thanks.'7 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. Qg Pestalozzi himself has repeatedly spoken of the character and ob- ject of Leonard and Gertrude. In the preface to the first edition of the work, he says : " In that which I here relate, and which I have for the most part seen and heard myself in the course of an active life, I have even taken care not once to add my own opinion to what I saw and heard the people themselves feeling, judging, believing, speaking, and attempting. And now this will show itself: — If the results of my observation are true, and if I gave them as I received them, and as it is my aim to do, they will find acceptance with all those who themselves have daily before their eyes the things which I relate. If, however, they are incorrect, if they are the work of my imagination and the preaching of my own opinions, they will, like other Sunday sermons, vanish on the Monday." In the preface to the second edition, Pestalozzi gives as the object of the book, " To bring about a better popular education, based upon the true condition of the people and their natural relations." "It was," he says, "my first word to the heart of the poor and destitute in the land. It was my first word to the heart of those who stand in God's stead to the poor and destitute in the land. It was ray first word to the mothers in the land, and to the heart which God gave them, to be to theirs what no one on earth can be in their stead.'' "I desired nothing, and to-day, (1800,) I desire nothing else, as the object of my life, but the welfare of the people, whom I love, and whom I feel to be miserable as few feel them to be miserable, having with them borne their sufferings as few have borne them." The remarks which I have cited characterize the soul of Leonard and Gertrude. In the severe years of suffering at Neuhof, Pestalozzi appeared to have wrought and suffered in vain. " To the accomplish- ment of my purpose," he says, " there stood opposed my entire want of trained practical skill, and a vast disproportion between the extent of my will and the limits of my ability." ) He did not work in vain, however ; what was denied him on the one side turned out to his advantage on the other. If he lacked all skill in carrying out his ideas, he possessed on the other hand, in the highest degree, the faculty of observing, comprehending, and por- traying character. If he was not able to exhibit to the world his ideal realized, it was given to him to infuse the loving desires of his heart into the hearts of others, by means of his talent of poetical delineation. He might hope that men of practical ability would be among the readers of his book, and would be incited by it to realize what he only knew how to picture. He has found such readers. Leonard and Gertrude is in so many hands, that it is almost superflu- ous to give a selection from the work. Only this. The principal (J4 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. person in it is Gertrude, the wife of Leonard, a good-natured but rather weak man, whose stay and guardian she is. The manner in which she keeps house and instructs and trains her children, is Pesta- lozzi's ideal. Such house-keeping, such a manner of instructing and training, he desires for all people. Gertrude is consulted even in the management of the village school. Her house-keeping is the bright side of the circumstances depicted ; in contrast with her is a terribly dark side, a peasant community in the deepest depravity. It is re- lated of what Ar-ner, the equally benevolent and intelligent lord of the village, does to check the depravity. Pestalozzi wished to give the people the knowledge and skill need- ful for them chiefly by means of a good elementary instruction. If this instruction began at the right place, and proceeded properly, what an entirely different race would arise out of the children so instructed, a race made independent by intelligence and skill ! In vain, however, did Pestalozzi look around him for elementary teachers who could and would instruct after his manner and in his spirit. Seminaries, too, were wanting in which such teachers could be trained. Then the thought occurred to him who had grown up in his mother's parlor : " I will place the education of the people in the hands of the mothers; I will transplant it out of the school-room into the parlor." Gertrude was to be the model of mothers. But how are the mothers in the lower classes to be qualified for instructing? — We shall see how Pestalozzi's Compendiums are meant to be an an- swer to this question, to supply the place of knowledge and teaching talent. The mothers have only to keep strictly to these books in the instruction of their children ; if they do this, the mother of the most limited capacity will instruct just as well as the most talented ; com- pendiums and method are to equalize their minds: such was Pesta- lozzi's ideal, to which I shall afterward come back. With extreme short-sightedness, the persons in immediate inter- course with Pestalozzi saw in this book of his dearly-bought expe- rience nothing more than a proof that its author was born for novel- writing, and would in future be able to earn his bread by it. Others understood better the value of the book. Karl von Bon- stetten entreated Pestalozzi to come and live with him on his estate in Italian Switzerland ; the Austrian Minister of Finance, Count Zin- zendorf, wished to have him in his neighborhood. Subsequently, he became known, through Count Hohenwart, in Florence, to the Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany, who was about to give him an appoint- ment, when he was called by the death of Joseph II., to the imperial throne of Germany, and the appointment, was therefore not made. LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. 55 If it be asked whether he would have been of any use in a post of importance, a word of Lavater's upon this subject may contain the answer. Pestalozzi tells us — " He once said to his wife, * If I were a prince, I would consult Pestalozzi in every thing that concerns the people and the improvement of their condition ; but I would never trust him with a farthing of money.' At another time, he said to my- self, * When I only once see a line of yours without a mistake, I will believe you capable of much, very much, that you would like to do and to be.' " FOR seventeen years after the publication of Leonard and Gertrude, Pestalozzi continued to drag on his needy and depressed existence at Neuhof, where he spent altogether thirty years. Of his outward life during those seventeen years, we learn little else, besides the general fact just stated. It is worthy of mention, that in this period he en- tered the order of Illuminati, an order which was characterized by infidelity, exaggerated ideas of enlightenment, and destructive but not reconstructive principles, and that he even became eventually the head of the order in Switzerland. He soon discovered his mistake, how- ever, and withdrew from it. "That which is undertaken by associa- tions," he says, " usually falls into the hands of intriguers." In this period he wrote several books. In the year 1782, he published "Christopher and Alice." He himself relates the origin of this work. People had imbibed from Leonard and Gertrude the idea, that all the depravity among the common people proceeded from the subordinate functionaries in the villages. " In Christopher and Alice," says Pestalozzi, " I wished to make apparent to the educated public the connection of those causes of popular depravity which are to be found higher in the social scale, but which on this account are also more disguised and concealed, with the naked, undisguised, and unconcealed causes of it, as they are manifested in the villages in the persons of the unworthy function- aries. For this purpose, I made a peasant family read together Leon- ard and Gertrude, and say things about the story of that work, and the persons introduced in it, which I thought might not occur of themselves to everybody's mind." So says Pestalozzi in the year 1826; but he spoke otherwise in the preface to the book when it first appeared, in 1782. "Reader! " he says, " this book which thou takest into thy hand is an attempt to produce a manual of instruction for the use of the universal school of humanity, the parlor. I wish it to be read in every cottage." 5 QQ LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. This wish was not accomplished, as we learn from the preface to the second edition, (1824,) which commences thus, "This book has not found its way at all into the hands of the people. In my native land, even in the canton of my native town, and in the very village in which I once lived, it has remained as strange and unknown, as if it ha-d not been in existence." In the same year, 1782, and the one following, Pestalozzi edited " A Swiss Journal," of which a number appeared every week. In this Journal, he communicated, among other things, memoirs of de- ceased friends. Thus he wrote the memoirs of Frolich, the pastor of Birr, who had died young. Pestalozzi says of him, " he dedicated himself to the work of the great divine calling, but eternal love dedi- cated him to the liberty of eternal life." The way in which he speaks of the excellent Iselin, who had died in 1782, is particularly affecting. " I should have perished in the depths into which I had fallen," he says, " if Iselin had not raised me up. Iselin made me feel that I had done something, even in the poor school." The discourse " on Legislation and Infanticide " also appeared in 1782. About 1783, Pestalozzi contemplated the establishment of a lunatic asylum and a reformatory institution, and wrote upon the subject ; the manuscript, however, was lost. In the years between 1780 and 1790, in the days of the approach- ing French revolution, and in the first symptoms of the dangers which its influence on Switzerland might entail," * he wrote "The Figures to my ABC-Book; they were not published, however, till 1795: a new edition, under the title of "Fables," came out in 1805. They relate principally to the condition of Switzerland at that time. In the summer of 1792, he went to Germany, at the invitation of his sister in Leipzig, and became acquainted with Gothe, Herder, "Wieland, Klopstock, and Jacobi ; he also visited several normal schools. In 1798 appeared Pestalozzi's "Researches into the Course of Na- ture in the Development of the Human Race." He says himself, speaking of this book, " I wrought at it for three long years with in- credible toil, chiefly with the view of clearing up my own mind upon the tendency of my favorite notions, and of bringing my natural feelings into harmony with my ideas of civil rights and morality. But this work too is, to me, only another evidence of my inward helplessness, the mere play of my powers of research ; my views were 'Pestalozzi 's words in the preface to the " Figures." LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. 57 altogether one-sided, while I was without a proportionate degree of control over myself in regard to them, and the work was left void of any adequate effort after practical excellence, which was so necessary for my purpose. The disproportion between my ability and my views only increased the more. The effect of my book upon those by whom I was surrounded was like the effect of all that I did ; scarcely any one understood me, and I did not find in my vicinity two men who did not half give me to understand that they looked upon the entire book as so much balderdash/' Pestalozzi here assumes three states of man : an original, instinct- like, innocent, animal state of nature, out of which he passes into the social state, (this reminds us of Rosseau ;) he works himself out of the social state and raises himself to the moral. The social man is in an unhappy middle condition between animal propensities and moral elevation. The original animal state of nature can not be pointed to in any one individual man ; the innocence of that state ceases with the first cry of the new-born child, and " animal depra\7ity arises from whatever stands opposed to the normal condition of our animal existence." Against this depravity, man seeks for aid in the social state, but finds it not ; it is only the moral will that can save him, " the force of which he opposes to the force of his nature. He will fear a God, in order that the animal instincts of his nature shall not degrade him in liis inmost soul. He feels what he can do in this respect, and then he makes what he can do the law to himself of what he ought to do. Subjected to this law, which he imposes upon himself, he is distin- guished from all other creatures with which we are acquainted." Where and when, for example, did Pestalozzi's man of nature ever exist — an innocent animal man, endowed with instinct ? * This character does not apply to Adam in Paradise, who was not an animal, but a lord of the animals, and still less does it apply to any child of Adam. In how simple and sublime a manner, on the * Voltaire wrote the following characteristic letter to Rosseau about his discourse, pre- pared and offered for the prize proposed by the Academy of Dixon, on the origin of the inequality among men, and published in 1775: — "I have received your new book against the human race, and thank you for it. You will please men, to whom you speak the truth, but not make them better. No one could paint in stronger colors the horrors of human society, from which our ignorance and weakness promise themselves so many delights. Never has any one employed so much genius to make us into beasts ; when one reads your book, one is seized with a desire to go down on all fours. Nevertheless, as I have left off this habit already more than sixty years, I feel, unfortunately, that it is impossible for me to take to it again, and I leave this natural mode of walking to others who are more worthy of it than you and I. Neither can I take ship, in order to visit the savages of Canada, firstly, because the maladiesto which I am condemned, render a European physician necessary to me ; then again, because there is at present war in that country, and the examples of our nations lias made the savages almost as bad as we are ourselves. I am content to live as a peaceful savage in the lonely district adjoining your native land, &c." (53 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. contrary, do the Holy Scriptures comprehend and characterize the whole human race. Thus we see Pestalozzi but little or not at all engaged in educa- tional undertakings during the eighteen years from 1780 to 1798; his writings too, during this time are mainly of a philosophical and political character, and relate only indirectly to education. But the French revolution introduced a new epoch, for Pestalozzi, as well as for Switzerland. The revolutionary armies of France pressed into the country, old forms were destroyed, the whole of Switzerland was consolidated into an "inseparable republic," at the head of which stood five directors, after the model of the French directional government of that time. Among these was Legrand, a man of a class that is always becoming more rare. I visited the amiable octogenarian in Steinthal, where formerly, with his friend Oberlin, he had labored for the welfare of the communes. When the conversation turned on the happiness or the education of the people, or on the education of youth generally, the old man became animated with youthful enthusiasm, and tears started to his eyes. Legrand was a friend of Pestalozzi's ; no wonder, seeing that the two men very nearly resembled each other in their way of thinking, as well as in their enthusiastic activity and their unbounded hopeful- ness. Pestalozzi joined the new republic, while, at the same time, he did all in his power to subdue the Jacobinical element in it. lie wrote a paper " On the Present Condition and Disposition of Man- kind." In this paper, as also in the " Swiss People's Journal," which he edited at the instigation of the government, he pressed upon the attention of the people the necessity of a return to the integrity and piety of their ancestors ; the instruction and education of youth, he represented, were the means for attaining this object. Although, in pointing to an ennobling education of youth, and especially the youth of the people and the poor, as the securest guar- antee of a lawfully ordered political condition, he only did that which he could not leave undone ; still most people believed that he was speaking and writing thus industriously, merely with the view of pro- curing for himself an office under the new government, when an op- portunity should arise. The government on whom he urged with far too much vehemence the importance of order, justice, and law, actu» ally offered him an appointment, in the hope that he would then be quiet. But what was their astonishment, when, in reply to their in- quiry as to what office he would be willing to accept, he said, " I WILL BE A SCHOOLMASTER." But few understood him, only those who, LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. gg like himself, were earnestly desirous for the foundation of a truly equitable political condition. Legrand entered into the idea ; and Pestalozzi was already about to open an educational institution in the canton of Argovia, when one of the misfortunes of war intervened. On the 9th of September, 1798, Stanz in Unterwalden was burnt by the French, the entire can- ton was laid waste, and a multitude of fatherless and motherless children were wandering about destitute and without a shelter. Le- grand now called upon Pestalozzi to go to Stanz and undertake the care of the destitute children. Pestalozzi went ; what he experienced he has himself told us. The convent of the Ursulines there was given up to him ; he took up his abode in it, accompanied only by a housekeeper, before it was even put into a fit condition for the reception of children. Gradually he gathered around him as many as eighty poor children, from four to ten years old, some of them orphans, horribly neglected, infected with the itch and scurvy, and covered with vermin. Among ten of them, scarcely one could say the alphabet. He describes the educa- tional experiments which he made with such children, and speaks of these experiments as " a sort of feeler of the pulse of the science which he sought to improve, a venturesome effort." "A person with the use of his eyes," he adds, " would certainly not have ventured it ; fortunately, I was blind." For example, under the most difficult circumstances, he wanted to prove, by actual experiment, that those things in which domestic edu- cation possesses advantages must be imitated in public education. He gave the children no set lessons on religion ; being suspected by the Roman Catholic parents, as a Protestant, and at the same time as an adherent of the new government, he did not dare; but when- ever the occurrence of daily life presented an opportunity, he would make them the groundwork of inculcating some religious or moral lesson. As he had formerly done at Neuhof, he sought to combine intellectual instruction with manual labor, the establishment for in- struction with that for industrial occupations, and to fuse the two into each other. But it became clear to him, that the first stages of in- tellectual training must be separated from those of industrial training and precede the fusion of the two. It was here in Stanz also that Pestalozzi, for want of other assistants, set children to instruct chil- dren, a plan which Lancaster was similarly led to adopt in conse- quence of the inability of the teacher to instruct the large numbers of children who were placed under his charge.* Pestalozzi remarks, * Lancaster's monitors, i. e children, set to teach and superintend other children. "At that time, (1798,)" says Pestalozzi, " nobody had begun to speak of mutual instruction." 70 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. •without disapprobation, that a feeling of honor was by this means, awakened in the children ; a remark which directly contradicts his opinion, that the performance of the duties of the monitor proceeded from a disposition similar to brotherly love. Another plan, which is now imitated in countless elementary schools, was likewise tried by Pestalozzi at Stanz, namely, that of making a number of children pronounce the same sentences simultaneously, syllable for syllable.* "The confusion arising from a number of children repeating after me at once," he says, " led me to see the ne- cessity of a measured pace in speaking, and this measured pace heightened the effect of the lesson." Pestalozzi repeats, in his account of the Stanz institution, what he had brought forward in Leonard and Gertrude. " My aim," he says, *' was to carry the simplification of the means of teaching so far, that all the common people might easily be brought to teach their chil- dren, and gradually to render the schools almost superfluous for the first elements of instruction. As the mother is the first to nourish her child physically, so also, by the appointment of God, she must be the first to give it spiritual nourishment; I reckon that very great evils have been engendered by sending children too early to school, and by all the artificial means of educating them away from home. The time will come, so soon as we shall have simplified instruction, when every mother will be able to teach, without the help of others, and thereby, at the same time, to go on herself always learning." I refer the reader to Pestalozzi's own description of his singularly active labors in Stanz, where he was not only the teacher and trainer of eighty children, but, as he says, paymaster, manservant, and al- most housemaid, at the same time. In addition to this, sickness broke out among the children, and the parents showed themselves shamelessly ungrateful. Pestalozzi would have sunk under these efforts had he not been liberated on the 8th of June, 1799, by the French, who, being hard pressed by the Austrians, came to Stanz, and converted one wing of the convent into a military hospital. This induced him to let the children return to their friends, and he went himself up the Gurnigel mountains, to a medicinal spring. Only twenty-two children re- mained ; these, says Mr. Heussler, " were attended to, taught, and trained, if not in Pestalozzi's spirit, still with care and with more order and cleanliness, under the guidance of the reverend Mr. Businger." * The plan of simultaneous reading and speaking had been introduced into the Austrian schools at an earlier period. LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI/ 7} " On the Gurnigel," says Pestalozzi, " I enjoyed days of recreation. I required them ; it is a wonder that I am still alive. I shall not for- get those days, as long as I live : they saved me, but I could not live without my work." Pestalozzi was much blamed for giving up the Stanz institution, although necessity had compelled him to do so. " People said to my face," he says, "that it was a piece of folly, to believe that, because a man had written something sensible in his thirtieth year, he would therefore be capable of doing something sensible in his fiftieth year. I was said to be brooding over a beautiful dream." Pestalozzi came down from the Gurnigel ; at the advice of Chief Justice Schnell, he went to Burgdorf, the second town in the canton of Bern, where through the influence of well-wishers, Pestalozzi ob- tained leave to give instruction in the primary schools. * He had many enemies. The head master of the schools imagined that Pes- talozzi wanted to supplant him in his appointment : the report spread that the Heidelberg catechism was in danger : " it was whispered," says Pestalozzi, " that I myself could not write, nor work accounts, nor even read properly. Popular reports are not always entirely des- titute of truth," he adds ; " it is true that I could not write, nor read, nor work accounts well. As far as the regulations of the school would allow, Pestalozzi pro- secuted here the experiments in elementary instruction which he had begun at Stanz. M. Glayre, a member of the executive council of the canton, to whom he endeavored to explain the tendency of these experiments, made the ominous remark, " You want to render educa- tion mechanical." " He hit the nail on the head," says Pestalozzi, " and supplied me with the very expression that indicated the object of my endeavors, and of the means which I employed for attaining it." Pestalozzi had not been schoolmaster at Burgdorf, quite a year, when he had a pulmonary attack ; in consequence of this he gave up the appointment, and a new epoch of his life commenced. M. Fis- cher, secretary to the Helvetian minister of public instruction, had entertained the idea of founding a normal school in the castle of Burgdorf, but had died before carrying it into execution. With this end in view, he had induced M. Kriisi to come to Burgdorf. Krusi was a native of Gaiss, in the canton of Appenzell, was schoolmaster there at the early age of eighteen, and had migrated thence in the year 1799, taking with him 28 children. Pestalozzi now proposed * In a school in which children from four to eight years old received instructions in reading and writing, under the general superintendence of a female teacher. 72 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. to Kriisi to join him in establishing an educational institution : Krusi willingly agreed, and through him the cooperation of M. Tobler, who had been for the last five years tutor in a family in Basel, was obtained; through Tobler, that of M. Buss, of Tubingen. With these three assistants, Pestalozzi opened the institution in the winter of 1800. It was in Burgdorf that Pestalozzi commenced a work which, with the " Evening Hour," and " Leonard and Gertrude," stands out con- spicuously amongst his writings. It was commenced on the 1st of January, 1801. It bears the queer title, " How Gertrude teaches her children : an attempt to give Directions to Mothers how to instruct their own Chil- dren." The reader must not be misled by the title; the book contains any thing but directions for mothers." There are numerous contradictions throughout the book, as well as on the title page ; and it is therefore a most difficult task to give a condensed view of it. Almost the only way to accomplish this will be to resolve it into its elements. Nothing can be more touching than the passage in which the author speaks of the desire of his whole life to alleviate the condition of the suffering people — of his inability to satisfy this desire — of his many blunders — and of his despair of himself; and then humbly thanks God, who had preserved him, when he had cast himself away, and who graciously permitted him, even in old age, to look forward to a brighter future. It is impossible to read any thing more affecting. The second element of this book is a fierce and fulminating battle against the sins and faults of his time. He advances to the assault at storm-pace, and clears every thing before him with the irresistible force of truth. He directs his attack principally against the hollow education of our time, particularly in the higher ranks of society. He calls the members of the aristocracy " miserable creatures of mere words, who by the artificialities of their mode of life are rendered incapable of feeling that they themselves stand on stilts, and that they must come down off their wretched wooden legs, in order to stand on God's earth with even the same amount of firmness as the people." In another part of the book, Pestalozzi declaims warmly against all the education of the present age. " It sacrifices, (he says,) the sub- stance of all instruction to the nonsense about particular isolated sys- tem of instruction, and by filling the mind with fragments of truth, it quenches the spirit of truth itself, and deprives mankind of the power of independence which is based thereon. I have found, what LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. 73 was very obvious, that this system of instruction, does not base the use of particular means either on elementary principles or elementary forms. The state of popular instruction rendered it inevitable that Europe should sink into error, or rather madness, and into this it really did sink. On the one hand, it raised itself into a gigantic height in particular arts ; on the other, it lost for the whole of its people all the stability and support which are to be obtained by rest- ing on the guidance of nature. On the one side, no quarter of the globe ever stood so high ; but on the other, no quarter of the globe has ever sunk so low. With the golden head of its particular arts, it touches the clouds, like the image of the prophet ; but popular instruction, which ought to be the basis and support of this golden head, is every where, on the contrary, the most wretched, fragile, good-for-nothing clay, like the feet of that gigantic image." For this incongruity in our intellectual culture, he blames chiefly the art of printing, through which, he says, the eyes have become book-eyes — men have become book-men. Throughout the work, he speaks against the senseless use of the tongue — against the habit of talking without any real purpose. " The babbling disposition of our time, (he says,) is so much bound up with the struggle of tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands for their daily bread, and with their slavish adherence to custom, that it will be long, very long, before this temporizing race shall gladly receive into their hearts truths so much opposed to their sensual de- pravity. Wherever the fundamental faculties of the human mind are allowed to lie dormant, and on those dormant faculties empty words are propt up, there you are making dreamers, whose visions are all the more visionary because the words that were propt up on their miserable yawning existence, were high-sounding, and full of preten- sions. As a matter of course, such pupils will dream any and every thing before they will dream that they are sleeping and dreaming ; but all those about them who are awake, perceive their presumption, and, (when it suits,) put them down as somnambulists. "The meaningless declamation of this superficial knowledge pro- duces men who fancy that they have reached the goal in all branches of study, just because their whole life is a belabored prating about that goal; but they never accomplish so much as to make an effort to reach it, because through their life it never had that alluring charm in their eyes which any object must possess to induce a man to make an effort to attain it. The present age abounds in men of this class, and is diseased by a kind of wisdom which carries us forward pro forma, as cripples are borne along a race-course, to the goal of knowl- 74 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. edge, when, at the same time, it could never enable us to advance toward this gaol by our own efforts, before our feet had been healed." In other parts of the book he attacks governments as indifferent to the welfare of the people. " The lower classes of Europe, (he says,) are neglected and wretched : most of those who stand sufficiently near to be able to help them, have no time for thinking what may be for their welfare — they have always something to do quite different from this." From this, the second and polemical element of the book, I pass to the third and positive one, namely, the kind of education by which Pestalozzi proposes to replace the false education of our time. This might in some measure be anticipated from the polemical passages which have been cited. He thus enunciates the problem which he proposed to himself to solve : " In the empirical researches which I made in reference to my subject, I did not start from any positive system ; I was not ac- quainted with any one ; I simply put to myself the question, What would you do, if you wanted to give a single child all the theoretical knowledge and practical skill which he requires in order to be able to attend properly to the great concerns of life, and so attain to inward contentment ?" Theoretical knowledge and practical skill constitute, accordingly, the most important subjects of the work. They are treated with a special relation to the two questions, — What knowledge and skill do children require ? and, How are these best imparted to them ? The aim is to point out the proper object of education, and the way to attain that object. Of practical skill, however, there is comparatively very little said, notwithstanding that Pestalozzi sets so high a value upon it. " Knowl- edge without skill, (he says,) is perhaps the most fatal gift which an evil genius has bestowed upon the present age." But Pestalozzi's ideas in relation to practical skill, and the method of attaining it, seem to have been still indistinct. On the other hand, he is quite at home in the region of theoretical knowledge : to show the starting-point, the road, and the destination, in the journey through this region, is the main design of his work. His polemic against senseless talking shows that he had sought and found the real root of the tree of which words are the spiritual blossoms. The beginning of all knowledge, according to Pestalozzi, is observa- tion ; the last point to be attained, a clear notion. He says : " If I look back and ask myself what I really have done toward the LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. ^5 improvement of the methods of elementary instruction, I find that, in recognizing observation as the absolute basis of all knowledge, I have established the first and most important principle of instruction, and that, setting aside all particular systems of instructions, I have endeav- ored to discover what ought to be the character of the instruction itself, and what are the fundamental laws according to which the edu- cation of the human race must be determined by nature." In another place, he requires it to be acknowledged, "that observation is the ab- solute basis of all knowledge, in other words, that all knowledge must proceed from observation and must admit of being retraced to that source." But what does Pestalozzi understand by observation ? " It is, (he says,) simply directing the senses to outward objects, and exciting con- sciousness of the impression produced on them by those objects." He refers, of course, principally to the sense of sight. But the ear is not to be neglected. " When sounds are produced so as to be heard by the child, and its consciousness of the impression which these sounds make on its mind through the sense of hearing is aroused, this, to the child, is just as much observation, as when objects are placed before its eyes, and consciousness is awakened by the impres- sion which the objects make on the sense of sight. By the aid of his spelling book, therefore, the child's ear is to be familiarized with the series of elementary sounds which constitutes the foundation of a knowledge of language, just as it is to be made acquainted with visible objects by the aid of his Book for Mothers. According to this, observation would mean every impression which the mind receives through the eye and the ear. Does Pestalozzi exclude the remaining senses ? No ; for he fre- quently speaks of the impressions of the jive senses, and he says that the understanding collects the impressions which the senses receive from external nature into a whole, or into a notion, and then develops this idea until it attains clearness. And elsewhere he says that the mechanical form of all instruction should be regulated by the eternal laws according to which the human mind rises from the perceptions of sense to clear notions. Pestalozzi repeatedly dwells upon this process of intellectual development. Above every thing, he will have attention given to the first step in the process, namely observation. Care is to be taken that the objects are seen separately by the children, not dimly at a distance, but close at hand and distinctly ; then also that there shall be placed before the children, not abnormal, but characteristic specimens of any class 70 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. of objects — such as will convey a correct idea of the thing and of its most important properties. Thus, for example, a lame, one-eyed, or six-fingered man, he says, would not be proper to convey the idea of the human form. Out of the observation of an object, the first thing that arises, he says, is the necessity of naming it ; from naming it, we pass on to determining its properties, that is to description ; out of a clear des- cription is finally developed the definition — the distinct idea of the object. The full maturity of this, the last fruit of all instruction, de- pends materially on the vigorous germination of the seed sown in the first instance — on the amount of wisdom exercised in guiding the children to habits of observation. Definitions not founded on obser- vations, he says, produce a superficial and unprofitable kind of knowledge. Just when we begin to think that we understand Pestalozzi's views, he again leads us into uncertainty as to the idea which he attaches to observation. He says the idea had only lately struck him, " that all our knowl- edge arises out of number, form, and words." On this triple basis, he says, education must proceed ; and — " 1. It must teach the children to look attentively at every object which they are made to perceive as unity, that is, as separated from those other objects with which it appears in connection. 2. It must make them acquainted with the form of every object, that is, its size and proportion. 3. It must teach them as early as possible the names and words applicable to all the objects with which they are acquainted." Pestalozzi found it difficult, however, to answer the question, " Why are not all the other properties which the five senses enable us to per- ceive in objects, just as much elements of our knowledge, as number, form, and name ?" His answer is, "All possible objects have neces- sarily number, form, and name ; but the remaining properties which the senses enable us to perceive are not possessed by any object in common with all others, but this property is shared with one object, and that with another." When Pestalozzi made form a category to embrace all and every thing, he only thought of the visible, as is evidenced by the further development of his instruction in form, which deals chiefly with the measuring of visible objects. But there are innumerable observations which have nothing what- ever to do with form and number ; for example, tasting honey, smelling roses, &c. LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. ^ The prominence which Pestalozzi gave to form and number caused him to undertake a new treatment of the subjects of geometry and arithmetic. Subsequently he divided geometry into instruction in form and instruction in spaces, for the reason that we perceive shape and size, (mathematical quality and quantity,) independently of each other ; drawing he made a part of the instruction in form — writing a part of drawing. But what became of Pestalozzi's principle, that observation is the foundation of all intelligence, when he thus gave an undue prominence to form and number, and neglected all other properties? Suppose that we put a glass cube into the hands of a child and he observes in respect to it nothing else, but that it has the cubic form, and, over and above this, that it is one cube, — so far this glass cube is in no way distinguished from a wooden one. But if I require to take notice of other properties, such as color, transparency, weight. &c., in order that I may form a correct idea of the glass cube, as a separate object, and so describe it that it shall be distinguished with certainty from every other cube, — then I must fix my attention, not only on form and number, but on all apparent properties, as elements in a complete observation. Lastly, language itself has nothing to do with observation. Why should I not be able to form a perfectly correct notion of an object that has no name — for instance a newly-discovered plant ? Language only gives us the expression for the impressions of the senses ; in it is reflected the whole world of our perceptions. " It is," as Pestalozzi rightly observes, " the reflex of all the impressions which nature's entire domain has made on the human race." But what does he go on to say ? " Therefore I make use of it, and endeavor, by the guidance of its uttered sounds, to reproduce in the child the self-same impressions which, in the human race, have occasioned and formed these sounds. Great is the gift of language. It gives to the child in one moment what nature required thousands of years to give man." In that case, every child would be a rich heir of antiquity, without the trouble of acquisition; words would be current notes for the things which they designate. But both nature and history protest against payment in such currency, and give only to him that hath. Does not Pestalozzi himself repeatedly protest against this very thing ? " The Christian people of our quarter of the world, (he says,) have sunk into these depths, because in their lower school establishments the mind has been loaded with a burden of empty words, which has not only effaced the impressions of nature, but has even destroyed the inward susceptibility for such impressions." 78 1-alt out boxes «n the ears right and left. But most of the scholars rendered hi.s life very unhappy, so much so that 1 felt a real sym- pathy for him, and kept myself all tin; nioiv quiot. This he soon obsem-d. and many a time lie took me for a walk at el.-ven o'clock, for in fine wear went every day to the banks of the river Krnrne, and for recreation and Bl merit looked for different kinds of stones. I had to take part in this occupatioa 36 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. myself, although it appeared to me a strange one, seeing that millions of stones lay there, and I did not know which to search for. He himself was acquainted with only a few kinds, but nevertheless he dragged along home from this place every day with his pocket and his pocket handkerchief full of stones, though after they were deposited at home, they were never looked at again. He re- tained this fancy throughout his life. It was not an easy thing to lind a single entire pocket handkerchief in the whole of the institution at Burgdorf, for all of them had been torn with carrying stones. There is one thing which, though indeed unimportant, I must not forget to mention. The first time that I was taken in to Pestalozzi's school he cordially welcomed and kissed me, then he quickly assigned me a place, and the whole morning did not speak another word to me, but kept on reading out sentences without halting for a moment. As I did not understand a bit of what was going on, when I heard the word " monkey, monkey," come every time at the end of a sentence, and as Pestalozzi, who was very ugly, ran about the room as though he was wild, without a coat and without a neck-cloth, his long shirt- sleeves hanging down over his arms and hands, which swung negligently about, I was seized with real terror, and might soon have believed that he himself was a monkey. During the first few days too, I was all the more afraid of him, as he had, on my arrival, given me a kiss with his strong, prickly beard, the first kiss which I remembered having received in my life. Ramsauer does not relate so much about the instruction given by the other teachers. Among the fruits of their instruction were two of the three elementary works which appeared in 1803, under Pesta- lozzi's name: (1.) "The ABC of Observation, or Lessons on the Relations of Size," (2.) "Lessons on the Relations of Number." (3.) The third elementary work alone was written by Pestalozzi himself; it is the one already mentioned, the "Book for Mothers, or Guide for Mothers in teaching their children to observe and speak." The institution at Burgdorf attracted more and more notice ; people came from a distance to visit it, induced particularly by Pestalozzi's work, " How Gertrude teaches her children." M. Decan Ith, who was sent by the Helvetian government in 1802, to examine the institution, made a very favorable report on it, in consequence of which the government recognized it as a public institution, and granted small salaries to the teachers out of the public funds. But that government was dissolved by Napoleon the very next year, and the constitution of the cantoris restored. The Bernese government now fixed on the castle of Burgdorf, as the seat of one of the chief magistrates of the canton ; arid Pestalozzi had to clear out of it, on the 22d of August, 1804. In 1802, during Pestalozzi's stay at Burgdorf, Napoleon required the Swiss people to send a deputation to him at Paris. Two districts chose Pestalozzi as a deputy. Before his departure, he published a pamphlet, entitled " Views on the Objects to which the Legislature of Helvetia has to direct its attention." He put a memorandum on the wants of Switzerland into the hands of the First Consul, who paid as little attention to it as he did to Pestalozzi's educational efforts, declaring that he could not mix himself up with the teaching of the ABC. LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. gf The Bernese government gave up the monastery of Buchsee to Pestalozzi for his institution, and had the building properly arranged for him. Close by Buchsee lies the estate of Hofwyl, where Fellen- berg resided, and to whom the teachers gave the principal direction of the institution, " not without my consent," says Pestalozzi, " but to my profound mortification." Notwithstanding, Pestalozzi allows Fellenberg to have possessed in a high degree the talent of governing. In Fellenberg the intellect predominated, as in Pestalozzi the feelings ; in the institution at Buchsee, therefore, " that love and warmth was missing which, inspir- ing all who came within its influence, rendered every one at Burg- dorf so happy and cheerful : at Buchsee every thing was, in this respect, totally different. Still Buchsee had this advantage, that in it more order prevailed, and more was learned than at Burgdorf." Pestalozzi perceived that his institution would not become inde- pendent of Fellenberg, so long as it should remain at Buchsee, and he gladly accepted, therefore, a highly advantageous proposal on the part of the inhabitants of Yverdun, that he should remove his insti- tution to their town. He repaired thither, with some of his teachers and eight pupils ; half a year later, the remaining teachers followed, having, as Pestalozzi remarks, soon found the government of Fellen- berg far more distasteful than the want of government, under him, had ever been to them. We now enter on a period when Pestalozzi and his institution ac- quired a European reputation, when Pestalozzian teachers had schools in Madrid, Naples, and St. Petersburg, when the emperor of Russia gave the venerable old man a personal proof of his favor and esteem, and when Fichte saw in Pestalozzi and his labors the commencement of a renovation, of humanity. But to write the history of this period is a task of unusual difficul- ty. On one side stand extravagant admirers of Pestalozzi, on the oth- er bitter censurers; a closer examination shows us that both are right, and both wrong. A fearful dissension arises, in the institution itself, among the teachers; at the head of the two parties stand Niederer and Schmid, who abuse each other in a manner unheard of. With which party shall we side ; or shall we side with neither, or with both ? If we ask to which party Pestalozzi inclined, or whether he held himself above the parties, and then go entirely according to his judg- ment, our embarrassment will only be increased. He pronounced a very different opinion on the same man at different times : at one time he saw in him a helping angel, before whom he humbled himself 88 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. more than was seemly, and from whom he expected every benefit to his institution ; at another time, he saw in him an almost fiendish being, who was only bent on ruining the institution. If any fancy that they have a- sure source of information in the account drawn up by Pestalozzi and Nieder, and published in 1807, namely, the " Report on the State of the Pestalozzian Institution, ad- dressed to the Parents of the Pupils and to the Public ;" they will be undeceived by some remarks which Pestalozzi himself added to that report at a later period, in the collected edition of his works, but still more so in, " The Fortunes of my Life." This work is altogether at variance with those which give a high degree of praise to the Pesta- lozzian Institution, in its former condition. From the year in which the dispute between Niederer and Schmid, broke out, (1810,) most of those who give any information on the subject range themselves on Niederer's side ; while Pestalozzi himself, from the year 1815 till his death, holds unchangeably with Schmid. I should despair of ever being able to thread my way in this laby- rinth with any degree of certainty, were it not for the fact that I re- sided some time in the institution, namely, from October, 1809, till May? 1810, and there became more intimately acquainted with persons and circumstances than I could otherwise have been. A friend, (Rudolph von Przystanowski,) accompanied me to Yver- dun, where we arrived toward the end of October. It was in the evening of a cold rainy day that we alighted at the hotel called the Red House. The next morning we went to the old castle, built by Charles the Bold, which with its four great round towers incloses a courtyard. Here we met a multitude of boys ; we were conducted to Pestalozzi. He was dressed in the most negligent manner: he had on an old grey overcoat, no waistcoat, a pair of breeches, and stockings hanging down over his slippers ; his coarse bushy black hair uncombed and frightful. His brow was deeply furrowed, his dark brown eyes were now soft and mild, now full of fire. You hardly noticed that the old man, so full of geniality, was ugly ; you read in his singular features long continued suffering and great hopes. Soon after, we saw Niederer,* who gave me the impression of a young Roman Catholic priest ; Kriisi,* who was somewhat corpu- lent, fair, blue-eyed, mild and benevolent ; and Schmid,* who was, if possible, more cynical in his dress than Pestalozzi, with sharp features and eyes like those of a bird of prey. At that time 137 pupils, of ages varying from six to seventeen * A biographical sketch of Niederer, Kriisi, and Schmid, will be given at the close of the life of Pestalozzi.— ED. LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. gg years, lived in the institution ; 28 lodged in the town, but dined in the institution. There were in all, therefore, 165 pupils. Among them there were 78 Swiss ; the rest were Germans, French, Russians, Italians, Spaniards, and Americans. Fifteen teachers resided in the institution, nine of whom were Swiss teachers, who had been educated there. Besides these, there were 32 persons who were studying the method : seven of them were natives of Switzerland. The interior of the building made a mournful impression on me ; but the situation was extremely beautiful. An extensive meadow separates it from the southern end of the glorious lake of Neufchatel, on the west side of which rises the Jura range of mountains, covered with vineyards. From the heights of the Jura, above the village of Granson, rendered famous by the defeat of Charles the Bold, you survey on the one side the entire chain of the Alps, from Mount Pilatus, near Lucerne, to Mount Blanc ; on the other side you see far away into France. A short time after my arrival, I went to live in the institution, where I took my meals, and slept along with the children. If I wanted to do any work for myself, I had to do it while standing at a writing desk in the midst of the tumult of one of the classes. None of the teachers had a sitting-room to himself. I was fully determined to devote all my energies thenceforth to the institution, and accord- ingly I had brought with me Freddy Reichardt, the brother of my future wife, a boy of eight years, and now placed him among the other' scholars. My position was well suited to enable me to compare the reports on the institution with what I daily saw and experienced. The higher my expectations had been raised by that report, the deep- er was my pain, as I was gradually undeceived ; I even thought I saw the last hopes of my native land disappear. It is scarcely necessary for me to particularize the respects in which I was undeceived ; they may be learnt from Pestalozzi's notes to the latter copy of his report, but especially from his work, "The Fortunes of my Life." Nevertheless I will advert to one or two principal points. I will particularly advert to what is said in the report about the spirit of the institution, which is represented as being similar to that which pervades a family. " Wo may with a good conscience, declare publicly, that the children in our institution are happy and cheerful ; that their innocence is preserved, their reli- gious disposition cherished, their mind formed, ther knowledge increased, their hearts elevated. The arrangements which have been adopted for attaining these objects possess a quiet inward power. They are based principally on the benev- olent and amiable character which distinguishes the teachers of our house, and which is supported by a vigorous activity. There reigns throughout the entire institution the spirit of a great domestic union, in which, according to the re- quirements of such a union, a pure paternal and fraternal feeling every whero 90 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZL shines forth. The children feel themselves free, their activity finds even a pow- erful charm in their employments ; the confidence reposed in them, and the af- fection shown toward them, elevate their sentiments." " The life in the house is, to a rare extent, a school for cultivating domestic affection and domestic un- ity." "All the teachers in common, acting as an organized whole, do for all the children what a careful mother does for the few children of her own family." The body of teachers " attains the most perfect unity of thought and action, and appears to the children as only one person." "In general, it is to be remarked that we seek throughout to awaken and to foster the spirit of peace, of love, and of mutual brotherly fellowship. The dis- position of the great body of our inmates is good. A spirit of strength, of re- pose, and of endeavor rests on the whole. There is much in our midst that is eminently good. Some pupils evince an angelic disposition, full of love and of a presentiment of higher thoughts and a higher existence. The bad ones do not feel themselves comfortable in the midst of our life and labor ; on the other hand, every spark of good and noble feeling which still glimmers even in the bad ones encouraged and developed. The children are in general neither har- dened by punishment, nor rendered vain and superficial by rewards. The mild forbearance of the most amiable household has the most undisturbed play in our midst. The children's feelings are not lightly wounded. The weak are not made to compare themselves with the strong, but with themselves. We never ask a pupil if he can do what another does. We only ask him if he can do a thing. But we always ask him if he can doit perfectly. As little of the strug- gle of competition takes place between one pupil and another, as between affectionate brothers and sisters who live with a loving mother in a happy condition." " We live together united in brotherly love, free and cheerful, and are, in re- spect to that which we acknowledge as the one thing needful, one heart and one soul. We may also say that our pupils are one heart and one soul with us. They feel that we treat them in a fatherly manner ; they feel that we serve them, and that we are glad to serve them ; they feel that we do not merely instruct them ; they feel that for their education we give life and motion to every thing in them that belongs to the character of man. They also hang with their whole hearts on our actions. They live in the constant consciousness of their own strength." Must not even a sober reader of these passages be led to believe that a spirit of the most cordial love and concord reigned in a rare manner in the Pestalozzian institution. How much more did I believe so, who, deeply distressed by the calamities of those days, and inspired with hope by the eloquence of Fichte, perceived in Yverdun the commencement of a better time, and ardently longed to hasten its approach. Those who did not themselves live through those years of anguish, in which injustice increased and love waxed cold in the hearts of many, may perhaps smile at the enthusiasm of despair. Pestalozzi himself says of the institution that, as early as the time when it was removed from Buchsee to Yverdun, it bare within itself " the seeds of its own internal decay, (these are his own words,) in the unequal and contradictory character of the abilities, opinions, inclina- tions, and claims of its members ; although as yet this dissension had done any thing but declare itself general, unrestrained, and fierce." He says, that nevertheless many of the members were still desirous for peace, and that others were moderate in their views and feelings. " But the seeds of our decay had been sown, and though they were Btill invisible in many places, had taken deep root. Led aside by LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. gj worldly temptations and apparent good fortune from the purity, sim- plicity, and innocence of our first endeavors, divided among ourselves in our inmost feelings, and from the first made incapable, by the heterogeneous nature of our peculiarities of ever becoming of one mind and one heart in spirit and in truth for the attainment of our objects, we stood there outwardly united, even deceiving ourselves with respect to the real truth of our inclination to this union, and unfortunately we advanced, each one in his own manner, with firm and at one time with rapid steps along a path which, without our being really conscious of it, separated us every day further from the possibility of our ever being united. What Ramsauer says entirely agrees with this. In Burgdorf, he says, there reigned a kindly spirit. " This ceased when the family life was transformed in the institution into a constitutional state existence. Now the individual was more easily lost in the crowd : thus there arose a desire on his part to make himself felt and noticed. Egotism made its appearance every day in more offensive forms. Envy and jealousy rankled in the breasts of many." " Much indeed was said about * a domestic life,' which ought to prevail in an educa- tional establishment, just as a very great deal was said and written about an ' harmonious development of all the faculties of the pupil ;' but both existed more in theory than in practice. It is true, that a good deal of common interest was evinced in the general working of the institution, but the details were allowed to go on or stand still very much as they might, and the tone of the whole house was more a tone of pushing and driving than one of domestic quietude." In the report is thjs passage : " In respect to the execution of the design, we may say decidedly, that the institution has stood the fiery ordeal of eight severe years." On this passage Pestalozzi remarks as follows in 1823 : " What is here said in confirmation of this view is altogether a consequence of the great delusion under which we lay at that period, namely, that all those things in regard to which we had strong intentions and some clear ideas, were really as they ought to have been, and as we should have liked to make them. But the consequences of the partial truth which in this instance had hold of our minds were, from want of suf- ficient knowledge, ability, and skill for carrying it out, fixed in our midst, confused, and made the seed of countless weeds, by which the good seed that lay in the ground was on all sides crowded, and here and there choked. Neither did we perceive the weeds at that time ; indeed, as we then lived, thought, acted, and dreamt, it was impossi- ble that we should perceive them." 92 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. I am fully aware that by some these later observations of Pestalozzi have been attributed partly to the weakness of old age, partly to the influence of Schmid. To this I can not assent. As early as new- year's day, 1808, at the same time as the report appeared, Pestalozzi said to his teachers : " My work was founded in love ; love vanished from our midst ; it could not but vanish. We deceived ourselves as to the strength which this love de- mands ; it could not but vanish. I am no longer in a position to provide any help for it. The poison which eats into the heart of our work is accumulating in our midst. Worldly honor will increase this poison. 0 God, grant that we may no longer be overcome by our delusion. I look upon the laurels which are strewn in our path as laurels set up over a skeleton. 1 see before my eyes the skeleton of my work, in so far as it is my work. I desire to place it before your eyes. I saw the skeleton which is in my house appear crowned with laurels be- fore my eyes, and the laurels suddenly go up in flames. They can not bear the lire of affliction which must and will come upon my house ; they will disap- pear ; they must disappear. My work will stand. But the consequences of my faults will not pass away. I shall be vanquished by them. My deliverance is the grave. I go away, but you remain, Would that these words now stood before your eyes in flames of fire ! — Friends, make yourselves better than I was, that God may finish his work through you, as he does not finish it through me. Make yourselves better than I was. Do not by your faults lay those same hin- drances in your way that I have lain in mine. Do not let the appearance of success deceive you, as it deceived me. You are called to higher, to general sacrifice, or you too will fail to save my work. Enjoy the passing hour, enjoy the full- ness of worldly honor, the measure of which has risen for us to its greatest height ; but remember that it vanishes like the flower of the field, which blooms for a little while, but soon passes away." What contradictions ! Does then the same fountain send forth both sweet and bitter ? Was the report actually intended to deceive the world ? Never; but Pestalozzi was not entirely free from an unfortunate spirit of worldly calculation, although his calculations in most cases turned out incorrect. Ever full of the idea of spreading happiness over many lands, in a short time, by means of his methods of instruc- tion and education, he naturally considered it all-important that peo- ple should have a good opinion of his institution. By the bulk of the public, indeed, the institution was taken as substantial evidence for or against the excellence and practicability of his educational ideas : with it they stood or fell. The concern which Pestalozzi felt about the reputation of his establishment became especially apparent when foreigners, particularly persons of distinction, visited Yverdun. " As many hundred times in the course of the year," says Ramsauer, " as foreigners visited the Pestalozzian Institution, so many hundred times did Pesta- lozzi allow himself, in his enthusiasm, to be deceived by them. On the arrival of every fresh visitor, he would go to the teachers in whom he placed most con- fidence and say to them : ' This is an important personage, who wants to become acquainted with all we are doing. Take your best pupils and their analysis-books, (copy-books in which the lessons wore written out,) and show him what we can do and what we wish to do.' Hundreds and hundreds of times there came to the institution, silly, curious, and often totally uneducated pereons, who came because it was the 'the fashion.' On their account, we LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. 93 usually had to interrupt the class instruction and hold a kind of examination. In 1814, the aged Prince Elsterhazy came. Pestalozzi rail all over the house, calling out : ' Rarnsauer, Ramsauer, where are you ? Come directly with your best pupils to the Red House, (the hotel at which the Prince had alighted.) He is a person of the highest importance and of infinite wealth ; he has thou- sands of bond-slaves in Hungary and Austria. He is certain to build schools and set free his slaves, if he is made to take an interest in the matter.' I took about fifteen pupils to the hotel. Pestalozzi presented me to the Prince with these words : ' This is the teacher of these scholars, a young man who fifteen years ago migrated with other poor children from the canton of Appenzell and came to me. But he received an elementary education, according to his individ- ual aptitudes, without let or hindrance. Now he is himself a teacher. Thus you see that there is as much ability in the poor as in the richest, frequently more ; but in the former it is seldom developed, and even then, not methodically. It is for this reason that the improvement of the popular schools is so highly im- portant. But he will show you every thing that we do better than I could. I will, therefore, leave him with you for the present.' I now examined the pupils, taught, explained, and bawled, in my zeal, till I was quite hoarse, believing that the Prince was thoroughly convinced about every thing. At the end of an hour, Pestalozzi returned. The Prince expressed his pleasure at what he had seen. He then took leave, and Pestalozzi, standing on the steps of the hotel, said : ' He is quite convinced, quite convinced, and will certainly establish schools on his Hungarian estates.' When we had descended the stairs, Pesta- lozzi said : ' Whatever ails my arm ? It is so painful. Why, see, it is quite swollen, I can't bend it.' And in truth his wide sleeve was now too small for his arm. I looked at the key of the house-door of the maison rouge and said to Pestalozzi ; ' Look here, you struck yourself against this key when we were going to the Prince an hour ago.' On closer observation it appeared that Pesta- lozzi had actually bent the key by hitting his elbow against it. In the first hour afterward he had not noticed the pain, for the excess of his zeal and his joy. So ardent and zealous was the good old man, already numbering seventy years, when he thought he had an opportunity of doing good. I could adduce many such instances. It was nothing rare in summer for strangers to come to the castle four or five times in the same day, and for us to have to interrupt the instruction on their account two, three or four times." After this highly characteristic account, I ask the reader whether he will cast a stone at the amiable and enthusiastic old man? I cer- tainly will not, though I could heartily have wished that, faithful in small things and mindful of the grain of mustard seed, he had plant- ed his work in stillness, and that it had been slow and sound in its growth, even if it had been observed by only a few. The source of the internal contradiction which runs through the life of Pestalozzi, was, as we saw from his own confessions, the fact that, in spite of his grand ideal, which comprehended the whole human race, he did not possess the ability and skill requisite for conducting even the smallest village school. His highly active imagination led him to consider and describe as actually existing in the institution whatever he hoped sooner or later to see realized. His hopeful spir- it foresaw future development in what was already accomplished, and expected that others would benevolently do the same. This bold as- sumption has an effect on many, especially on the teachers of the institution. This appears to explain how, in the report on the institu- tion, so much could be said bond fide which a sober spectator was forced to pronounce untrue. 94 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZ1. But this self-delusion is never of long duration ; the period of over- strung enthusiasm is followed by one of hopelessness and dejection. The heart of man is indeed an alternately proud and dejected thing ! Such an ebb and flow of lofty enthusiasm and utter despair pervades the entire life of Pestalozzi. The address which he delivered to his teachers in 1808 appears almost as the caput mortuumof the report: the truth at last makes itself heard in tones of bitter remorse. Pes- talozzi makes a more tranquil confession concerning the early times of Yverdun, at a later period of his life, in his autobiography. More than sixteen years had elapsed, and passion had cooled down. He states soberly what he had enthusiastically wished to accomplish in those earlier days ; he acknowledges that he had deceived himself and he can now therefore relate the history of the institution clearly and truthfully. But the times less removed from him are still too present to his feelings, too near to his impassioned gaze, for him to be able to delineate them with the same historical clearness in that work. The report speaks of the instruction imparted in the institution in a way which can not have failed to give offense to persons who were not enthusiastically prejudiced in favor of Pestalozzi. Listen to these remarks : — " With regard to the subjects of the instruction generally, the following is what may be stated. The child learns to know and exercise himself) that is, his physical, intellectual, moral, and religious faculties. With this instruction to the child about himself, instruction about nature keeps pace. Commencing with the child in his domestic relations, the latter instruction gradually embraces hu- man nature in all the above mentioned aspects. And in the same way, com- mencing with the circle of the child's observation, it gradually embraces the whole of external nature. From the first starting point, the child is led to an insight into the essential relations of mankind and society ; from the second to an insight into the relations in which the human race stands to external nature, and external nature to the human race. Man and nature, and their mutual re- lation, constitute, therefore, the primary matter of the instruction ; and from these subjects the knowledge of all separate branches of study is developed. It must here be remarked, however, that the aim of the instruction is not to make the pupils comprehend man and nature merely externally, that is, merely in so far as they present isolated imperical characteristics, capable of being arranged either in a logical sequence of separate units, or in any other order that may be convenient. The aim is rather to make the pupils observe things as a living and organic whole, harmoniously bound together by necessary and eternal laws, and developing itself from something simple and original, so that we may thus bring them to see how one thing is linked in another. The instruction, as a whole, does not proceed from any theory, but from the very life and substance of na- ture ; and every theory appears only as the expression and representation of this observed life and substance." I am relieved from the necessity of offering any criticism on this passage by a note which Pestalozzi added to it fifteen years later. " In this and several other passages," says the venerable old man, " I express, not so much my own peculiar views on education in their original simplicity, as certain immature philosophical views, with LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SVSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. 95 which, at that time, notwithstanding all our good intentions, most of the inmates of our house, myself among the rest, must needs perplex our heads, and which brought me personally to a standstill in my en- deavors. These views caused the house and the institution, both of which attained at this period a seeming flourishing condition, to go rotten at the roots ; and they are to be looked upon as the hidden source of all the misfortunes which have since come upon me." It would take too long to follow the report in the accounts which it gives of the instruction in the separate branches of knowledge. In every thing Pestalozzi wants to be entirely novel, and just for this rea- son he falls into mistakes. Take, as a specimen, the following on the instruction in geography : — " The instruction in this subject begins with the observation of the district in which we live, as a type of what the surface of the earth presents. It is then separated into elementary instruction, which includes physical, mathematical, and political geography, and (2,) the topographical part, in which each of the de- partments of the subject suggested by the observation of the surrounding dis- trict is prosecuted in a graduated course, and their reciprocal bearings brought out. By this foundation, the pupils are prepared .for forming a clear and com- prehensive view of the earth and man, and their mutual influence on each oth- er, of the condition of states and peoples, of the progress of the human race in intellectual culture, and lastly of physical science in its broader outlines and more general relations. The children are made acquainted with the statistical portion of the subject, that is, the natural productions, the number of inhabit- ants, form of government, &c., by means of tabular views." After this, need we wonder when we find Pestalozzi, in his me- moirs, speaking of the earlier days of Yverdun in the following manner ? " The desire of governing, in itself unnatural, was called forth among us at this period, on the one hand, by the reputation of our modes of instruction, which continued to increase after our return to Yverdun, and the intoxicating good fortune that streamed to near- ly every fool who hung out the sign-board of an elementary method which, in reality, did not as yet exist ; on the other, by the audacity of our behavior toward the whole world, and toward every thing that was done in education and was not cast in our mould. The thing is melancholy ; but it is true. We poor weak birds presumed to take our little nestlings, ere they were fairly out of their shells, on flights which even the strongest birds do not attempt until their young ones have gained strength in many previous trials. We announced pub- licly things which we had neither the strength nor the means to accomplish. There are hundreds and hundreds of these vain boastings of which I do not like to speak." No wonder that, in this state of things, there arose a determined opposition to the institution. In Switzerland especially, Pestalozzi says, the public journals began "to speak decidedly against our pretensions, asserting that what we did was by no means what we yg LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. considered and represented ourselves to be doing. But, (be contin- ues,) instead of penitently returning to modesty, we sturdily resisted this opposition. Wbile participating in this temerity, which is now incomprehensible to me, I began to be sensible that we were treading in paths which might lead us astray, and that, in truth, many things in the midst of us were not as they should have been, and as we endeavored to make them appear in the eyes of the world." Other members of the institution thought quite differently ; full of self-confidence, they pressed for a formal examination ; and in the month of May, 1809, an application to that effect was made to the Swiss Diet, then assembled at Freiburg. The request was granted, and Merian, member of the executive council of Basel ; Trechsel, professor of mathematics, at Bern ; and Pere Girard, of Freiburg, were commissioned by Governor D'Affry to examine the institution. In November, 1809, just after I had arrived in Yverdun, this com- mission of inquiry came down and remained five days. They were five sultry days for Pestalozzi and his teachers ; it was felt that the commission, which confined itself strictly to actual results, would make no very enthusiastic report. Pere Gerard wrote the report in French, Professor Trechsel translated it into German ; on the 12th of May, 1810, it was presented to the Diet, then assembled at Solothurn. In the following year, the thanks of the country were accorded to Pestalozzi, by the Diet ; and there the matter was allowed to rest. I believe that the commission pronounced an impartial judgment ; the conclusion of the report speaks for the whole. " The educational methods of the institution, (say the commissioners,) stand only in very imperfect connection with our establishments for public instruc- tion. The institution has in no way aimed at coming into harmony with these public schools. Determined at any price to interest all the faculties of children, in order to guide their development according to its own principles, it has taken counsel of its own views only, and be- trays an irresistible desire to open for itself new paths, even at the cost of never treading in those which usage has now established. This was perhaps the right means for arriving at useful discoveries, but it was also a design which rendered harmony impossible. The institution pursues its own way ; the public institutions pursue theirs ; and there is no probability that both ways will very soon meet. It is a pity that the force of circumstances has always driven Mr. Pesta- lozzi beyond the career which his pure zeal and his fervent charity had marked out for him. A good intention, noble endeavors, indefatiga- ble perseverance, should and will always meet with justice. Let us profit by the excellent ideas which lie at the foundation of the whole LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. 97 undertaking ; let us follow its instructive examples ; but let us also lament that an adverse fate must hang over a man, who, by the force of circumstances, is constantly hindered from doing what he would wish to do." After the publication of the report, there arose a long and violent literary warfare, which did any thing but add to the credit of the in- stitution.* With this war against external foes, was unfortunately associated an internal feud, which ended in the departure of Schmid and others of the teachers. One of Pestalozzi's biographers states, that Schmid's pride and pre- tensions had grown to such an extent, that he had acted with the greatest harshness toward Pestalozzi, Niederer, and Kriisi. "This was caused," continues the biographer, " by some ideas which he had partially caught up from two scientific men who were then stopping with Pestalozzi, (one of them is now a man of note in Silesia.) Per- haps at that time these ideas were not very clearly defined in the minds of those men themselves."! The biographer means me and my friend ; I shall therefore not be misunderstood, if I relate briefly the matter to which he refers. I had come to learn and to render service. On this account, I took up my quarters entirely in the old building of the institution, slept in one of the large dormitories, took my meals with the chil- dren, attended the lessons, morning and evening prayers, and the con- ferences of the teachers. I listened and observed attentively in silence ; but I was far from thinking of commencing myself to teach. My opinion upon all the things that I saw and heard was formed very much with reference to the boy of eight years intrusted to my care, accordingly as they contributed to his comfort or otherwise. Several weeks had passed on in this way, when I was one evening with Pes- talozzi and the rest of the teachers at the hotel of the Wild Man, where they used to meet I. think once a fortnight. After supper, Pestalozzi called me into an adjoining room ; we were quite alone. " My teachers are afraid of you," he said, " because you only listen and look on in silence ; why do you not teach ?" I answered that before teaching, I wished to learn — to learn in silence. After the * The well-known K. L. von Haller noticed the report of the commission in terms of high praise, in the GVttirtgen Literary Advertiser^ of the 13th of April, 1811, and at the same time accused the Pestalozzian Institution of inspiring its pupils with an aversion from religion, the constituted authorities, and the aristocracy. In reply to this, Niederer wrote "The Pesta- lozzian Institution to the Public." This pamphlet appeared in anew form in 1812. under the title, " Pestalozzi's Educational Undertaking in relation to the Civilization of the Present Time." Bremi, of Zurich, wrote in reply to the former pamphlet ; Pestalozzi and Niederer wrote again in reply to Bremi. Niederer professes to have convicted Bremi of ninety-two lies, thirty-six falsifications, and twenty calumnies. t Henning, in the Schulrath, (an educational periodical ) 7 98 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. conversation had touched on one thing and another, he frankly told me things about several of his teachers which put me into a state of astonishment, and which stood in direct contradiction with what I had read in the report, but not with what I had myself already observed or expected. Pestalozzi followed up these disclosures with the pro- posal, that I and my friend, in company with Schmid, whom he highly praised, especially for his practical ability and his activity, should set to work to renovate the institution. The proposal came upon me so unexpectedly, that I begged for time to think of it, and discussed the matter with my friend, who was just as much surprised as I was. We were both naturally brought by this means into a closer relation with Schmid, became in a- short time acquainted with the arcana imperil, and honestly considered what obstacles stood in the way of the prosperity of the institution, and what could be done to remove them. Foremost of these was the intermixture of German and French boys, which doubly pained me, as I had come from Paris. The pa- rents thought otherwise : they perceived in this very intermixture a fortunate means of training their children in the easiest way to speak both languages : whereas the result was, that the children could speak neither. With such a medley of children, the institution was devoid of a predominant mother-tongue, and assumed the mongrel character of border-provinces. Pestalozzi read the prayers every morning and evening, first in German, then in French ! At the lessons in the Ger- man language, intended for German children, I found French children who did not understand the most common German word. This, and much more that was to be said against this intermixture, was now discussed with Pestalozzi, and the proposal was made to him, to sep- arate the institution into two departments, one for German, the other for French children. Only in this way, it was represented to him, could the education of each class of children be successfully conducted. The proposal was not accepted, chiefly on account of external ob- stacles, which might however have been overcome. A passage in Pestalozzi's " Fortunes " shows that he afterward thoroughly agreed with us. In this passage he calls it an unnatural circumstance, that the institution was transplanted from Burgdorf to Yverdun, " from German to French soil." " When we first come here," he continues, " our pupils were nearly all Germans ; but there was very soon added to them an almost equal number of French children. Most of the German children were now intrusted to us, not with any particular reference to any elementary or other education, but simply in order LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. 99 that they might learn to speak French in a German house, and this was the very thing that we were least able to teach "them ; so also most of the French parents intrusted their children to us, in order that they might learn German in our German house : and here we stood between these two claims, equally unable to satisfy either the one or the other. At the same time, the persons on either side, who committed their children to our care, saw with as little distinctness what they really wished of us, as we did the extent of our inability to satisfy their real wishes. But it had now become the fashion to send us children from all sides ; and so, in respect to pecuniary resources and eulogistic prattle, things went on for a considerable time in thejr old glittering but deceptive path." The second evil was this. Much as is said in the report about the life in the institution having quite the character of that in a family, and even excelling it in many respects, still nothing could be less do- mestic than this life was. Leaving out of consideration Pestalozzi's residence, there were indeed in the old castle class rooms, dining rooms, and bed rooms, but the parlor, so justly esteemed by Pesta- lozzi, was altogether wanting. Older boys who, as the expression is, had arrived at years of indiscretion, may have felt this want less ; but so much the more was it felt by the youngest — by children of six to ten years. I felt deeply on this account for my little Freddy, who, until he came to the institution, had grown up under the care of a tender mother in a lovely family circle. His present uncomfortable and even desolate existence grieved me much, and troubled my con- science. For his sake, and at the same time, for the sake of the rest of the little boys, we begged Pestalozzi to rent a beautiful dwelling house in the vicinity of Yverdun, where the children might find a friendly compensation for the life of the family circle which they had lost. We offered to take up our abode with them. This proposal also was declined. It may easily be supposed that in the consultation upon it, the weak side of the institution, the want of a parlor, and the impossibility even of supplying the place of the family life, was very fully discussed.* Many of the conversations I had with Pestalozzi I shall never for- get. One of them concerned the teachers of the institution, in par- ticular the under-teachers. I saw that many of them labored with the greatest fidelity and conscientiousness, even sacrificing themselves * We made a third proposal, because it appeared to us to be impossible that Pestalozzi's ideas could be realized in Yverdun under the then existing circumstances. We asked him to establish in the canton of Argovia the long promised poor school, and offered to engage in the work ourselves to the best of our ability. As he declined this proposal also, I thought it my duty, especially on account of the boy confided to me, to leave the institution. 100 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. for the good of the institution. I need only refer the reader to the autobiography of honest, manful Ramsauer, for evidence of this fact. But still there was something wanting in most of the teachers ; this Pestalozzi himself could not help feeling. In his new year's address of 1811, he said to them: "Do not attach a higher value to the ability to teach well, than that which it really has in relation to edu- cation as a whole. You have, perhaps, too early in your lives had to bear burdens which may have diminished somewhat the lovely bloom of your youth ; but to you as educators, that bloom is indispensable. You must seek to restore it. I am not ignorant of your ability, your worth ; but just because I know them, I would wish to set upon them the crown of an amiable disposition, which will increase your worth and make even your ability a blessing." In what then were the teachers deficient ? Pestalozzi points out one thing : many who had grown up in the institution had too early borne burdens, and had been kept in uninterrupted exertion. " Those teachers who had been pupils of Pestalozzi," says Ramsauer, " were particularly hard worked, for he at all times required much more from them, than he did from the other teachers ; he expected them to live entirely for the house, — to be day and night concerned for the wel- fare of the house and the pupils. They were to help to bear every burden, every unpleasantness, every domestic care, and to be respon- sible for every thing. Thus, for example, in their leisure hours, (that is when they had no lessons to give,) they were required at one time to work some hours every day in the garden, at another to chop wood for the fires, and, for some time, even to light them early in the morning, or transcribe, j Rarasauer. lie entered the institution at Burgdorf in 1800, as LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. ng a boy of ten years ; he left it at the age of twenty-six, as head teach- er, when he went from Yverdun to Wiirzburg. Thus he had, both as a learner and as a teacher, become acquainted with the religious ten- dency of the institution. When, in later years, the deep truth and solemn sanctity of Christianity dawned upon his awakened conscience, which impelled him to self-knowledge, then first did he learn to form a just estimate of that religious tendency. He narrates as follows : — " In Burgdorf, an active and entirely new mode of life opened to me ; there reigned so much love and simplicity in the institution, the life was so genial — I could almost say patriarchal ; not much was learned, it is true, but Pestalozzi was the father, and the teachers were the friends of the pupils ; Pestalozzi's morning and evening prayers had such a fervor and simplicity, that they carried away every one who took part in them ; he prayed fervently, read and ex- plained G-ellert's hymns impressively, exhorted each of the pupils individually to private prayer, and saw that some pupils said aloud in the bedrooms, every evening, the prayers which they had learned at home, while he explained, at the same time, that the mere repeating of prayers by rote was worthless, and that every one should rather pray from his own heart. Such exhortations became more and more rare at Yverdun, and the praying aloud ceased altogeth- er, like so much else that had a genial character. "We all felt that more must be learned than at Burgdorf; but we all fell, in consequence, into a restless pushing and driving, and the individual teachers into a scramble after distinction. Pestalozzi, indeed, remained the same noble-hearted old man, wholly forgetting himself, and living only for the welfare of others, and* infusing his own spirit into the entire household ; but, as it arose not so much from the religious ar- rangements and from Pestalozzi's principles, as from his personal character, that so genial a life had prevailed at Burgdorf, that spirit could not last long, it could not gain strength and elevate itself into a Christian spirit. On the other hand, so long as the institution was small, Pestalozzi could, by his thoroughly amiable personal character, adjust at once every slight discordance ; he stood in much closer relation with every individual member of the circle, and could thus observe every peculiarity of disposition, and influence it according to necessity. This ceased when the family life was transformed in the institution into a con- stitutional state existence. Now the individual was more easily lost in the crowd ; thus there arose a desire, on the part of each, to make himself felt and noticed. Egotism made its appearance every day in more pointed forms. Envy and jealousy rankled in the breasts of many. The instruction, calculated only for the development of the mind, nourished feelings of selfishness and pride ; and the counterpoise, which only the fear of God could have given, was not known. Instead of being told that only that teacher could labor with God's blessing who had attained to the knowledge and the belief of the highest truths, and had thus come to see that he was nothing of himself, but that he had to thank God for whatever he was enabled to be or to do, and that every Christian, but especially the educator, had daily cause to pray to God for pa- tience, love, and humility, and for wisdom in doing and avoiding; instead of this, we heard day after day that man could do every thing that he wished, that he could do everything of himself, and that he alone could help himself. Had the otherwise so noble Pestalozzi made the Bible the foundation of all moral and religious education, I verily believe that the institution would still have been in existence, even as those institutions are still in existence and working with suc- cess which were founded by Franke, upward of one hundred years ago, with small means, but in full reliance on God. But, instead of making the pupils fa- miliar with the Bible, Pestalozzi, and those of his assistants who gave the so-called religious instruction, or conducted the so-called morning and evening prayers, fell more and more in each succeeding year into a mere empty moral- izing ; and hence it may be understood how it could happen that I grew up in this institution, was confirmed there, and for sixteen years led a very active and morally good life, without acquiring even the slightest acquaintance with the word of God. I did, indeed, many a time hear the Bible named, and even heard 120 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. Pestalozzi complain that nobody read it, and say that in his youth things had been better in this respect ; at the domestic worship on Sundays, and during my confirmation instruction, I also frequently heard individual texts read and arbi- trarily explained ; but neither I nor any other of the young men obtained any idea of the sacredness and connection of God's word. Just as Pestalozzi, by the force of his personal character, attached most of his assistants to himself for years, so that they forgot themselves as he forgot himself, when good was to be done, so also, and much more, might he have inspired them for the Gospel, and the blessing of God would then have rested on him and them, and the institution would have become a Christian seminary. It would not have been necessary on this account to hang out a sign-board with the words " Christian Educational Institution," displayed upon it; on the contrary, the more quietly and modestly Pestalozzi and his assistants had conducted themselves, the more effectively would they have worked, and even the most noisy blusterer would soon have come to perceive how very little he could be and do of himself, and thus would have become capable of learning something from strangers. Perhaps some per- son or other may be disposed to reproach me with one-sidedness, injustice, or even ingratitude, toward Pestalozzi, and to oppose to my testimony the fact that at Yverdun Pestalozzi employed every Friday morning principally in represent- ing Jesus to us as the great exemplar of love and self sacrifice ; or I may be asked whether I have quite forgotten the zeal with which Niederer often gave the confirmation instruction. But, in reply to this, I can only refer to the fkcta which I have just detailed." I could add but little to this statement of Ramsauer. When I was in the institution, the religious instruction was given by Niederer, but no stranger was allowed to be present at it. We may form a tolera- bly correct notion, however, of the manner in which he gave it, from what is said on the subject in the " Report to the Parents."* " All the elder pupils, (says the report,) receive positive religious instruction twice a week. The guiding thread that is used for this purpose is the course of the religious development of the human race, as described in the Holy Scrip- tures, from the Mosaic records downward, and, based on this, the pure doc- trines of Jesus Christ, as he announced them in his Gospel. We base the teaching of moral duties chiefly on Christ's sermon on the mount, and the teach- ing of doctrines chiefly on St. John's Gospel. The latter is read connectedly and explained from itself and from Christ's eternal fundamental view of God and of himself as the visible image and representative of the god-head and the god- like, of the relation of mankind to God, and of the life in God. We seek, by the example of Christ, and by the manner in which he viewed and treated men and things and their relations, to awaken in the children an intuitive leaning toward the life and conduct, the belief and hope, which are founded in the un- changeable nature of religion, and to render these things habitual to them, and by the development of those graces through which the Father shone in Him, to raise them to such a mind and mode of life, that God may shine in them also. We do not combat religious error, but endeavor to impart only religious truth. We seek the ground of all dogmas and the source of all religious views in the nature of religion, in the nature of man, and in his propensities, powers, wants, and relations, in order that the child may learn to distinguish the truth in every garb and the substance in every form. The course pursued for the at- tainment of the last-named object, or the elementary religious instruction, pre- paratory to the positive doctrines of revelation, is based specially on the solution of the following questions: 1. What is the original religious capability in human nature, or what are the elements of all religious development and education, in so far as they exist in man himself, and proceed from him as something implanted in him by God ? These elements are perceptions and feelings. 2. By what means and in what manner must these primitive religious perceptions and feel- ings necessarily be excited and brought to consciousness in him ? Here it ia especially the relation to father and mother, to nature, and to society, that ia * There is no doubt that this passage is from Niederer's pen. LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. ]21 regarded as a means of religious excitation and education. 3. By what means and in what manner does man originally and necessarily express the religious perceptions and feelings excited in him ? And to what does all this lead man ? We find here principally the expression of the religious disposition as a gesture ; the expression of the religious notion as a word ; the expression of the religious contemplation as an image. The first develops itself as ceremony, the second as instruction and doctrine, the last as symbol and image-worship. With the course of this development is connected the development of what utters itself unchangeably in human nature as veritable and eternal religion, every where operative, and of what, as sensual degeneracy, errors of the passions, and person- al depravity, leads to superstition and infidelity, to idolatry and image- worship, to hypocritical self-delusion and deception of others, and lastly, to the contempt- uous rejection of all that is divine and sacred. The pupil finds the key to the clear comprehension of this in the intuitive consciousness of the awaking and course of his own feelings, in the impressions which things make on his own mind, and in the religious arrangements by which he is surrounded. As matter of fact, the whole is exemplified in the history of the religious culture of man- kind. The indication thereof, or the thread to which the explanation must be attached, in giving the instruction, exists in the language of every nation. The most important results to be accomplished by the instruction are : That the pu- pil shall lay hold of the true and the eternal in their origin ; that he shall look upon the human race as essentially religious, and as an organic whole, develop- ing itself according to necessary and divine laws ; that, understanding also in its origin and in its consequences the fall from God and the god-like, he shah1 all the more earnestly and faithfully follow the way of return to God and to the life in Him, so that, being thus prepared, he may comprehend the worship of God in spirit and in truth, the significance of the eternal Gospel ; so that he may attain to an inward godly existence, as he lives outwardly in an intelligent existence." I have quoted the whole of this passage, because it shows how far the religious instruction was removed from all believing fervor and childlike simplicity, from Christian simplicity, as we meet with it in Luther's small catechism. But this passage characterizes only the religious instruction in the institution, and by no means Pestalozzi's religious views and practice. Still it is clear that at Yverdun he also had in view much less mor- al education than intellectual. He wished, by means of the latter, to lay before the world striking results of the method ; but how shall he show passing strangers the results of moral education, a humble mind and a loving heart, or shall he even expose them rudely to public gaze by an examination ? To which was added, that in the multitude of boys he despaired of being able to take each one individually to his heart as a father would do, who never loves his children only en masse. I now return to Pestalozzi's writings, and come to those which he wrote in his old age. In several of his addresses to the inmates of his house, there are passages which bear witness that even during the years which he passed at Yverdun, Christianity still lived in his inmost soul ; peaceful Sabbath and festival tones soar above the restless and noisy week-day work. So in his Christmas address of 1810. " I have been told by old people, (lie said,) and I have partly seen myself, 122 LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. that Christmas Eve used to be a night like no other. The day of the highest earthly joy was not its shadow. The anniversary of the deliverance of the country from slavery, the anniversary of freedom, was not to be compared to it. It was quite a heavenly night, a night of heavenly joy. In its still service ded- icated to God, resounded the words : ' Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.' "When the angels still assembled, as it were, over the heads of men, at this hour, and praised God that the Saviour of the world was born, — what a night was Christmas Eve ! Who can describe its joy ? "Who can tell its bliss ? The earth was, on that night, transformed into a heaven. On that night, God was celebrated on high, peace was on earth, and men showed a cheerful good will. Brothers, friends, children, could I but carry you back into the old Christian world, and show you the celebration of this hour in the days of innocence and faith, when hah1" the world still accounted it a small thing to die for the faith in Christ Jesus 1 Could I but show you the joy of Christmas Eve in the picture of those days I The heart full of the Holy Ghost, and the hand full of human gifts — thus stood the Christian at this hour in the circle of his brethren. Thus stood the mother in the circle of her chil- dren. Thus stood the master in the circle of his workmen — the gentleman in the circle of his own people. Thus stood the commune before their pastor — thus went the rich man into the chamber of the poor. At this hour, enemy held out to enemy the hand of reconciliation. The sinner knelt down and wept over his transgressions, and rejoiced in the Saviour, who forgave him his sins. The hour of heavenly joy was the hour of heavenly sanctification. The earth was a heavenly earth, and the abode of mortal men emitted odors of immortal life. May the joys of this hour, may the joy at the birth of our Redeemer, so elevate us, that Jesus Christ may now appear to us as the visible divine love, as he sacrificed himself and gave himself up to death for us. May we rejoice in the hour in which he became man, because he brought into the world for us the great gift of his life, and laid it upon the altar of divine love. From this hour, he was the priest of the Lord, sacrificed for us. Friends, brothers, sisters, let us pray ; 0 God, give us them again, those fair days of the world, in which the hu- man race truly rejoiced in the birth of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer. Give us again tlie times in which the hearts of men were at this hour, full of the Holy Ghost, and their hands full of human gifts for their brethren. Father in heaven, thou wilt give us them again, if we but truly desire them/" In the address already mentioned, which Pestalozzi delivered in 1818, when he was seventy-two years old, occur passages which make a profound impression on the mind. He there declares that happi- ness is to be expected from Christianity alone. " The artificial spirit of our times, (he says.) has also annihilated the influence which the religious feeling of our fathers exercised upon this centre of human happiness. This religious spirit which caused the happiness of the quiet and circumscribed domestic relations, has sunk down amongst us into an insolent spirit of reasoning upon ah1 that is sacred and divine ; still we must also acknowledge that the prime source of the real poison of our artificiality, namely, the irreligious feeling of the present age, seems to be shaken in the very depths of its destructive powers; the blessed spirit of the true Christian doctrine appears to strike deeper root again in the midst of the corruption of our race, and to preserve inward purity of life in thousands and thousands of men, and, indeed, with regard to popular education, it is from this quarter alone that we can derive the expectation, that we shall ever attain to measures really calcula- ted to reach with sufficient efficacy the views, dispositions, appetites, and habits of our present mode of life, which we must look upon as the original source of our popular depravity and the misfortunes of our times." The conclusion of the address is particularly important : — Friends, brothers, become renovators of my house, restorers of its old spirit, and witnesses that the spirit of my youth, which is seen blossoming in ' Leon- ard and Gertrude,' and nearer maturity in ' How Gertrude teaches her children,' Etill lives in me. In that spirit, become joint founders of the present result of LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. J23 the old original, philanthropic and beneficent purpose of my institution. In that spirit, and in no other, I call you all, who are members of my institution, to a sacred union in and through love. Love one another, as Jesus Christ loved us. ' Love suffereth long, and is kind ; love envieth not ; love vaunteth not it- self, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil ; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.' Friends, brothers, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you. Heap coals of fire on the heads of your enemies. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. If thou bring thy gift to the altar, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. All unrelenting severity, even toward those who do us wrong, be far from our house. Let all human severity be lost in the gentleness of our faith. Let no one among you attempt to excuse his severity toward those who are in the wrong. Let no one say that Jesus Christ did not love those who did wrong. He did love them. He loved them with divine love. He died for them. He came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. He did not find sinners faithful, but made them faithful. He did not find them humble, but made them humble, by his own humility. Verily, verily, it was with the high and holy service of his humility that he conquered the pride of sinners, and chained them by faith to the heart of his divine love. Friends, brothers, if we do this, if we love one another, as Jesus Christ loved us, we shall overcome all the obstacles which stand in the way of our life's purpose, and be able to ground the welfare of our institution upon the everlasting rock, on which God himself has built the welfare of the human race, through Jesus Christ. Amen." At the grave, I have asked after Pestalozzi's confession of faith ; I have sought it in his writings, as well as in his life, and communicated to the reader what he himself confessed in 1793 about his Christianity at that period of his life, when, perhaps, he had separated himself furthest from Christ, and lived only in a speculative and political ele- ment. " Wavering, (so went the confession,) between feelings which drew me toward religion, and opinions which led me away from it, I went the dead way of my time." This confession we have found con- firmed in his writings, as in his life ; but in his earliest, and again in his latest writings, religious feeling has been seen soaring above a sceptical intellect. And throughout his long life how high soars a love which would not despair under any suffering, any ingratitude ; how high it soars above all doubts, in the pure air of heaven ! Men are seduced into infidelity by superficial reflection, which, misap- prehending and over-estimating the measure of insight possible to man, fails to judge aright where a clear self-knowledge believes with intelligent resignation. But Christ, who takes the strong for his spoil, reigns ever in the inmost heart of Christians as episcopus in partibus infidelium ; even in times, when their faith wavers, he remains faithful to them. This we see in Pestalozzi, both in his words and in his works. Who shall dare cast a stone at him, who shall dare condemn him ? To him shall much be forgiven, for he loved much. Aye, the whole of his toilsome life is pervaded by love — by a yearning desire to alle- viate the condition of the poor suffering people. That love was the 124 L1FE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. passion of his heart ; it kindled in him a burning anger against all who stood in the way of the attainment of its object. It is true, that the chief obstacle in his way was himself. With God, counsel and action go together ; with men, they are only too often separated. Thus we have seen that Pestalozzi, with the clearest knowledge of men, was incapable of managing and governing them ; with the most amiable ideals, he was blind when he had to show the way to those ideals. Nay, in endeavoring to realize his great concep- tions, he frequently took the course most opposed to them. No one was further than he was from a cleanly domestic existence ; yet no one desired such an existence more earnestly, or understood its value better, than he did. The delineations of Gertrude's housekeep- ing prove that a poet can truthfully depict not only what he possesses in full degree, but what he longs for with his whole heart because he lacks it altogether. He passed the greater part of his life in pressing want : thus he could scarcely fail to feel a true and spontaneous sympathy with the poor and abandoned. If he was cynical in evil days from necessity ; in better days, he was so on principle. Corresponding to the bodily cynicism, there was in the character of his mind, something which I would call, not spiritual poverty, but intellectual cynicism : an aversion to the aristoc- racy of education. And yet, as one of the contradictions of which his character is full, he felt himself called to lay new foundations un- der the lofty structure of this education, instead of the old pernicious ones. He wanted to support the upper story of the building, with- out troubling himself about that story itself. On one occasion, he even made it the subject of a boast, that he had not read a book for thirty years. Hence it came, as I have already said, that he committed so many mistakes usual with self-taught men. He wants the historical basis ; things which others had discovered long before appear to him to be quite new when thought of by himself or any one of his teachers. He also torments himself to invent things which had been invented and brought to perfection long before, and might have been used by him, if he had only known of them. For example, how useful an acquaintance with the excellent Werner's treatment of the mineralog- ical characters of rocks would have been to him, especially in the def- inition of the ideas, observations, naming, description, &c. As a self- taught man, he every day collected heaps of stones in his walks. If he had been under the discipline of the Freiberg school, the observa- tion of a single stone would have profited him more, than large heaps LIFE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. }25 of stones, laboriously brought together, could do, in the absence of any such division. Self-taught men, I say, want the discipline of the school. It is not simply that, in the province of the intellectual, they often find only after long wanderings what they might easily have attained by a direct and beaten path ; they want also the ethical discipline, which restrains us from running according to caprice after intellectual enjoyments, and wholesomely compels us to deny ourselves and follow the path indicated to us by the teacher. Many, it is true, fear that the oracular instinct of the self-taught might suffer from the school. But, if the school is of the right sort, this instinct, if genuine, will be strengthened by it ; deep-felt, dreamy, and passive presentiments are transfigured into sound, waking, and active observation. This self-taught character of Pestalozzi's mind showed itself in his treatment of several branches of instruction. What are his names of towns, which he takes in alphabetical order from the index of a geography book, without possessing any knowledge of the subject ; what are the heaps of words transcribed from Scheller's Lexicon : what else are they but the trials of an undisciplined mind, to find out new ways of writing schoolbooks ? But when the self-taught man forsakes the old highways, he finds, in spite of much going astray, many short by-ways, the knowledge of which is welcome to the students of the subject, and induces them to make new experiments themselves. In this manner, Pestalozzi exercised an influence even upon his adversaries. Generally, Pestalozzi's personal influence on the methods of teach- ing particular subjects was small ; but, on the other hand, he com- pelled the scholastic world to revise the whole of their task, to reflect on the nature and destiny of man, as also on the proper way of leading him from his youth toward that destiny. And this was done, not in the superficial rationalistic manner of Basedow* and his school, but so profoundly, that even a man like Fichte anticipated very great things from it. But it is to be lamented, that the actual attempts made by Pesta- Basedow founded an educational institution called the " Philanthropin," at Dessua, in 1774. In this institution, the educational views of Rousseau, as expounded in his " Emile," were exclusively followed, and every effort made to realize them. Rousseau was at that time the pharos of many educationists in Germany and Switzerland, as he was the pharos of the men of the revolution in France. The Philanthropin excited a good deal of attention at the time. The name of the Philanthropin still survives, but it has almost become a term of reproach to signify any shallow educational enterprise. It appears, however, that, together with much that was whimsical and even foolish, the institution presented many honest and unselfish efforts on the part of faithful workers, and produced many wholesome fruits. — Sec Returner's account of the Philanthropin. 126 L1FE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF PESTALOZZI. lozzi and his fellow-laborers to set up new methods of teaching vari- ous subjects, have met with such especial approbation and imitation. An examination of Pestalozzi's profound principles, and an insight into the contradiction between these principles and his practice, would have conduced much more to the discovery of new methods, really answering to the principles. This is appplicable, for instance, to what I have said upon the exercises in observation, falsely so called. Most of the imitators of the great man have fallen in love with his dark side, the endeavor to mechanise education. When those purely ex- ternal appliances and artifices which he employed for mechanising ed- ucation shall have been so modified as to be no longer recognizable, or shall have been entirely laid aside and forgotten — then Pestalozzi's "Leonard and Gertrude," the "Evening Hour of a Hermit," and "How Gertrude teaches her Children," will still live on and exercise an influence, though even these works, like every thing else that is hu- man, are not altogether free from spot or blemish. Profound thoughts, born of a holy love under severe pains, they are thoughts of eternal life, and, like love, shall never cease. APPENDIX PESTALOZZI'S HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY. LET a graduate of any good public school imagine a system of schools permitting indeed, though after a most laborious and imperfect fashion, for the wealthy and noble, large acquirements ; but, for all those likely to attend what answer to our common or public schools, teaching only reading, and that alone, or at most with church singing, and memoriz- ing of texts and hymns ; reading all day, by one pupil at a time, from the droning A, B, C, up to whatever rhetoric was highest in grade ; in that even shrill yell which was the elocutionary rule fifty years ago, without any possible regard to the meaning of what was read, or indeed of what was committed to memory ; no arithmetic, no geogra- phy, no grammar, no writing, even. Let him imagine this single study taught in dens almost like prisons ; by men absolutely ferocious in man- ners and feelings : who whipped a single scholar — as Martin Luther's master did him — fifteen times in one forenoon; who feruled, caned, boxed, slapped, rapped, and punched, right and left ; made children kneel on peas and sharp edges of wood ; in short, ransacked their own dull brains for ingenious tortures, and a language twice as copious as Eng- lish, besides Latin and Greek, for nicknames and reproaches, to inflict upon the youth of their charge ; schools to which parents threatened to send contumacious children, as if to the " Black Man." or any other hideous, unknown torment ; schools almost precisely as destitute of any kindly feeling, of any humanizing tendency, of any moral or religious influence, as any old-fashioned Newgate or Bridewell. Let our gradu- ate imagine, if he can, all this. Then let him further imagine a state of society stiffened, by ages of social fixity, into immovable grades, and where "the lower classes" were to be permitted this, reckoned their appropriate education, but no more. Let him still further imagine great and far-reaching political, social, and intellectual disturbances, working in powerful conjunction, upsetting all manner of laws, systems, distinc- tions, and doctrines, preparing all minds to hope for, and to admit, better beliefs, and better opportunities, for themselves and for others. And, lastly, let him imagine a man possessed of the vastest capacity for la- bor, a mind fruitful of expedients and experiments to the very highest degree, and no less clear and firm in finding and adhering to funda- mental generalizations, an absolutely unbounded and tireless benevo- lence, a love for humanity and a faith in his principles little less perfect and self-sustaining than that of an apostle ; who steps forth just in that period of intense receptive mental activity, and in the place of that di- abolical ancient school system, proceeds not only to propose, but to demonstrate, and in spite of sufferings, obstacles, and failures enough to 130 PESTALOZZrS HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY. have discouraged an army of martyrs, effectually to establish a system, which not only, in the words of its official investigators in 1802, was " that true elementary method which has long been desired, but hith- erto vainly sought ; which prepares the child for every situation, for all arts and sciences ; which is appropriate to all classes and condi- tions, and is the first indispensable foundation for human cultivation ; which not only was thus intellectually the absolute ideal of education, but whose very atmosphere was one of kindness and encouragement, whose perfection was to depend upon its identity with the affectionate discipline of a mother: which expressly included, and even preferred, the poor, the orphan, and the helpless ; and which, last and best of all, was fundamentally inwrought with such hygienic, ethical, and relig- ious principles that its legitimate result would be to make a strong, and wise, and just man, upright among his fellows, mutually respecting and respected, and a trusting worshiper of God." Let our graduate imagine this, and he may comprehend what the Germans think of Pestalozzi. The reverence and gratitude which they, in common indeed with all Europe, though in somewhat higher degree, entertain toward him, were well exemplified in the festival observed in Germany, Switzerland, and Holland, on the 12th of January, 1846, the hundredth anniversary of his birthday, and in the consequent proceed- ings ; of which a brief account follows. The conception of this celebration originated with that veteran and most useful educator, Dr. Adolph Diesterweg, then director of a sem- inary at Berlin. A mistake of a year, founded on dates given by good authorities, occasioned a partial celebration on the 12th of January, 1845. This, however, was made a means of wider notification and effort for the following year, and we translate the most characteristic portion of the call, which was signed by forty-eight eminent teachers and educators, including Diesterweg himself. " His (Pestalozzi's) life and labors testify that no object lay nearer his heart than to secure for neglected children an education simple, natural, pure in morals, re-enforced by the influence of home and school, and ade- quate to the needs of their future life. A concurrence of untoward circum- stances prevented the permanent success of such an orphan asylum, or poor school, though proposed and often attempted by him. For this rea- son the idea has occurred to various of his admirers and friends, in vari- ous places, of establishing such institutions, and one first to be called ' Pestalozzi Foundation.' The undersigned, having the permission of the authorities, have associated for the establishment of such an insti- tution, to be a monument of the gratitude of the whole German father- land toward that noble man. This call is intended to inform the public of this design, and to request active co-operation, and contributions in money. " The Pestalozzi Foundation is intended to afford to poor children and orphans an education suitable to their circumstances, and in accordance with Pestalozzi's views for this purpose. PESTALOZZl'S HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY. 131 " 1. The institutions founded will be situated in the country, where only, as the undersigned believe, can the education of orphans succeed. " 2. The pupils will, from the beginning, besides intellectual, moral, and religious education, be trained to domestic, agricultural, or indus- trial knowledge and capacities!. " 3. The managers and matrons to whom the family education of the pupils will be confided, are to labor in the spirit of 'Leonard and Ger- trude? and ' How Gertrude Teaches her Children? and the supervisors and officers of instruction will endeavor not only to put in practice the principles of the ''Idea of Elementary Training? but to develop and propagate them. K * * * \ye thus appeal with confidence to all who feel themselves bound to gratitude toward Heinrich Pestalozzi ; to all who feel for the children of the poor and for orphans; to all who expect beneficial con- sequences to home and school education from the revival and develop- ment of the spirit of Pestalozzi, which the undersigned believe to be the true spirit of education ; we appeal, in short, to all friends of the people and of the fatherland, for efficient, aid to this undertaking — at once a monument of gratitude to a great man, and an attempt to sup- ply an urgent want of the present age. " BERLIN, January 12, 1845." A second appeal was put forth, July 3d of the same year, by Diester- weg, " to the teachers of Germany," eloquently setting forth their pro- fessional obligations to Pestalozzi. calling upon them for corresponding efforts in aid of the enterprise, and proceeded to refer again, in very pointed terms, to the characteristically charitable and thoroughly prac- tical aspirations of Pestalozzi for the education of neglected children, and to the similar character of the proposed institution. u It was his chiefest wish to dry the tears from the cheeks of orphans, and to educate them ; he longed to be the father, the friend, the teacher of the unfortunate and the neglected. " Do you, therefore, teacher of the common school, friend of the people, prove your gratitude to Heinrich Pestalozzi. by doing your part for the Pestalozzi Foundation — no monument of bronze or of stone ; for none but a living monument is worthy of him — which shall stand, within the territory of Germany, a proof of the thankfulness of posterity, an ever- lasting blessing to children, to the cause of education, and human de- velopment." The institution spoken of in these documents was intended to be a single central one, to be endowed by the contributions of all donors, and to be a model and parent for others throughout Germany ; the sum requisite being computed at 30,000 thalers, about $22.500. But although sympathy with the general purpose thus brought into notice was universal and lively, difficulties, apparently chiefly sectarian, eoon arose, in regard to the special feature of a first central institution ; and these resulted in the holding of many local festivals instead of one great one, and the organization of many local Pestaloz/i Foundations, 132 PESTALOZZrS HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY. or Pestalozzi Societies, instead of one general one. Such festivals wert observed, and institutions or societies established, at Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Frankfort, Erfurt, Basle, and many other places. We proceed to give some account of some of them, with extracts from the more sig- nificant portions of the numerous addresses, and other documents con- nected with them. Dr. Diesterweg delivered, at Berlin, a characteristic and interesting discourse. In describing the revolution caused by Pestalozzi in the estimation of different studies, he said : — " After the Reformation, that is, after the establishment of German common schools, studies were divided into two classes: one including ,the Bible, catechism, and hymn-book, the other including the so-called trivial studies. The former were for heaven — that is, to prepare for eternal happiness; the latter for earth, and its ordinary employments. The consequence of this universally-received distinction was, that the religious teachers asserted a dignity far higher than that of the "trivial" teachers. This notion is theoretically denied by Pestalozzi — at least by immediate logical conclusion, though I do not think he discussed the subject specially — and by his school. We have learned to comprehend the moral influence of instruction in itself, aside from any peculiar char- acter in the subject taught; and, still further, the direct influence of all true instruction upon the development of the pupil's character. This influence does not depend upon the thing taught, but in the manner of teaching. As in Hegel's system of philosophy, so it is in elementary instruction — and should be in all instruction — its strength is in its method. This principle will naturally not be understood by eloquent word-teachers and lecturers from chairs of instruction ; and last of all by those dicta- ting machines and note-readers, who, to the disgrace of pedagogy and the shame of the whole age, exist even at the present day. But we, Pestalozzi's scholars and followers, comprehend it, have mastered it, and can demonstrate its results in our schools. What would Adam Ries, that pattern of all blind guides, say, if he could come to life again after three hundred years, and taking up an arithmetic* — which has become capable of use, as an intelligently arranged elementary study, only since Pestalozzi's time — should find in it a chapter " On the moral iji/luence of instruction in arithmetic ? " He sums up the changes brought about by Pestalozzi, thus: — " Instead of brutal, staring stupidity, close and tense attention ; for dull and blockish eyes, cheerful and pleased looks ; for crooked backs, the natural erectness of the figure ; for dumbness or silence, joyous pleas- ure in speaking, and promptitude that even takes the word out of anoth- er's mouth ; for excessive verbosity in the teacher, and consequent stupidity in the scholar, a dialogic or, at least, a dialogic-conversational method ; for government by the stick, a reasonable and therefore a seri- ous and strict discipline ; for mere external doctrines and external disci- pline, a mental training, in which every doctrine is a discipline also; * Grubb's Arithmetic. PESTALOZZl'S HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY. 133 instead of a government by force, and a consequent fear of the school and its pedant, love of school and respect for the teacher." He proceeds to suggest how far-reaching was the influence of Pesta- lozzi's labors in mere school-rooms : — " But is the spirit of Pestalozzi not entitled to some part of the credit of the elevation of the German people? Did this remarkable change spring up in a night, and from nothing? It is, rather, to be wondered at, that the Pestalozzian method should have brought about such vast results without foreseeing them. It would be unreasonable to claim that this alone accomplished the wonder; but it was certainly not one of the least of its causes. Lord Brougham said that the twenty-six letters of the present schoolmaster — those ' black hussars ' — were mightier than the bayonet of the soldier. Consider what a child must become, who is taught as we have described, for six or eight years or more. Consider what a nation must become, all the youth of which have enjoyed the influence of such an education. What a project does this idea open in the future ! The Jesuits of Freiburg had a glimpse of it, though no more, when they said that they wanted no schools which should educate ' Apostles of Radicalism ;' an expression shame- ful, not to Pestalozzi, but to the utterer of it." Further on, he forcibly portrays the need and the requisites of such an institution as the intended Pestalozzi Foundation. " The help we would afford is radical, is the only help. We consider all institutions worthy of praise and of assistance, which contribute to the amelioration of human suffering, the advancement of morals and good training. Therefore we speak well of other institutions having the same general design with ours: institutions for the care of children; orphan houses ; rescue institutions for neglected children ; associations for changing prisons into institutions of reform, and for the care of dismissed criminals and prisoners. But none of these go to the root of the matter; they do not correspond with the precise want; they do not go deep enough. Many of them almost seem to be organized to make sport of the laws of human nature and reason. What, for instance, ac- cording to those laws, can a child be expected to become, who has grown up with ignorant parents, from whom it can learn nothing but vices ; who has learned from them to lie and to steal, to wander about and be a vag- abond ? In general, we answer, only a man who will misuse his physical and mental powers; that is, a criminal, a wild beast, dangerous to the welfare of society. That society, for self-preservation, shuts up such men, like wild beasts, in a cage ; or punishes, or kills him ; although, nine times out of ten, he became such because he must; as probably any one of us would have done ! Is this proceeding reasonable ? Do we suc- ceed when we try to reform an old rogue ? Or do you suppose that children, if they only attend the infant school, are under school discipline, and are confirmed, can be otherwise left in charge of abandoned parents, and not be contaminated by the pestilent atmosphere around them? Experience teaches, and it can not be otherwise, that the influence of 134 PESTALOZZrS HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY. father and mother, whether good or bad, is infinitely greater than that of infant schools, or any schools. Those who have managed reform institutions understand this best. The reason of the ill-success of such is, that they first begin too late ; for they take the children after they have shown ineradicable marks of debasement. It is easy to protect an uncontaminated child from vice ; but to restore to a contaminated one its pristine health and purity, is infinitely difficult, if not impossible. " Our intention therefore is, to receive into the Pestalozzi Foundation children who can not be expected to be educated in their own homes; and those will naturally be preferred, who are destitute of a father or mother, and are without means. The existing orphan houses do not ful- fill their purposes ; and their organization does not usually answer the requirements of the Pestalozzian principles. We would establish mod- el institutions for the education of neglected children, which shall observe natural laws, in which the child shall receive a family education. An education together with hundreds is — it must be said — barrack instruc- tion. A child who is to become an adult, with human feelings, must have enjoyed the thorough and kindly care of the feminine nature and of an affectionate father. All true education is individual. Where the letter of the law prevails, where each child is managed by general rules, where it is only a number or a figure, which it must be in a school of hundreds, there is no human education, in any higher sense. A girl even, brought up among hundreds, is, so to speak, even when a child, a public girl." Adverting afterward to the financial economy of such institutions, he observes that Adam Smith remarks, that " The support of the poor and of criminals costs £8,000.000 a year in England and Wales. If £2,000,000 of this were invested in education and good bringing up, at least one-half of the whole amount would be saved." He then adverts, with some feeling, but conciliatingly, to the unex- pected breaking up of the original plan of one central society and insti- tution, by means of denominational jealousies ; and gives a brief sum- mary of the finances, &c., of the undertaking, as follows: — " Twelve thousand copies of our call were sent throughout all parts of Germany. The sympathy exhibited is altogether encouraging and delightful. Some hundreds over 2,000 thalers ($1,500) are already col- lected ;* the beginning of the harvest. The ministries of the interior and of religion have recognized and approved the labors of the society ; his excellency Postmaster-General Von Nagler has granted the frank- ing privilege for sending copies of the call, and for remittances ; the school councilors of the various governments, and those authorities themselves, have assisted earnestly in sending the call ; and the school inspectors have assisted in collecting. Many of them also, as, for in- stance, at Potsdam and Frankfort-on-the-Oder, have sent us orders for the pamphlets published by us on account of the Foundation. Princes .have kindly aided the purposes of the society by contributions, and * January 12. In March, the sum reachtd about 7.000 thalers. PESTALOZZI'S HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY 135 many private persons also have given, some in one amount, and some in subscriptions during five years. But what has encouraged us most, is the universal sympathy of the body of teachers ; both of common schools, and upward, even to the universities. What has a poor com- mon school teacher, or a seminary pupil, to give ? But they do give. I have received with warm thankfulness their gifts, from one silbergro- schen upward. They give with poor hands, but warm hearts. " From five or six different places we have received offers of land for a location, sometimes for nothing; from the Mark of Brandenburg, Silesia, Saxony, &c. ; we hear favorable accounts from Dessau and Saxe-Mein- ingen ; in short, we have good hopes that the plan of the Pestalozzi Foundation will succeed. The festivals, held almost every where to- day, will assist us ; and we count with certainty on the aid of our own fellow-citizens. The undertaking is spoken well of by every one. Even noble ladies are enthusiastic for the good cause. Three sisters, whom the Genius of Poetry overshadows, (I am proud of being their fellow countryman.) propose to publish their compositions together for for the benefit of the Foundation. Some gentlemen have already done the like. From almost every locality in Germany, from Tilsit to Basle, from Pesth to Bremen, I have received encouraging and sympathizing letters. In Pesth, a society of teachers is collecting for the German Pestalozzi Foundation; contributions have come in from the Saxons in Transylvania ; in Amsterdam and Groningen, committees have been formed for the same purpose ; we are expecting money from across the ocean. In Kb'nigsberg, delegates of the magistracy and city authorities have joined with the committee of teachers, the more worthily to cele- brate the day." Several pastors, teachers, and officials in the Canton of Aargau put forth a call for a Pestalozzi festival at Brugg, in that canton. To this there soon afterward appeared a reply, signed by a number of Reformed clergymen of the same canton, which may illustrate the character of the difficulties to which Diesterweg alludes. This reply states, in sub- stance, that the signers of it had, several years before, set on foot, a subscription for a similar purpose, (it may be remarked that the call it- self recited that the government of Aargau resolved, as early as 1833, to erect an institution for the education of neglected poor children, as a memorial of Pestalozzi ; which, however, financial considerations ren- dered it necessary to postpone;) that the proposed plan of operations was unfortunate, inasmuch as 1. The estate of Neuhof, formerly Pestalozzi's, intended to be bought as a site for the Foundation, was unsuitable and ill-placed for such a purpose, too large, and too expensive. 2. Ostentatious commemorations of donors were promised, by votive tablets, &c. 3. The intended scheme of training the pupils of the Foundation into teachers for similar institutions is not practicable, because it can not be determined whether they are capable or inclined to that employment, 136 PESTALOZZI'S HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY. which requires rare and lofty qualifications ; and because experience shows that such teachers are to be trained, not in such schools for them, but in a course of actual employment under proper conditions. 4. Experience shows that such institutions should not be commenced on a large and expensive scale, but by means of single individuals, properly trained, to supply the place, to the pupils, of fathers, and to begin quietly, with a small number. 5. The proposed institution is to receive both Reformed and Catho- lic children ; a plan which experience shows to be unlikely to succeed. And, if the principal be decidedly either Catholic or Reforjned, children of the other communion will not be intrusted to him ; and if he is not decidedly of either, then those of neither will. These reasons are clearly and strongly stated, and seem to have much force. At the festival at Basle, Rector Heussler gave some odd details of Pestalozzi's early life ; among others, " He was so careless and absent- minded at school, that his teacher once remarked, shrugging his shoul- ders. ' Heinrich will never come to any thing ; ' and it is well-known that, afterward, when he was at the summit of his fame, his assistant, Kriisi, confessed that he (Pestalozzi,) could not either write or compute de- cently ; and that a moderately difficult problem in multiplication, or di- vision, was an impossibility to him at the age of fifty, and when the most eminent Swiss teacher ! As little promising, at the first view, was his exterior ; and on this account he declared, very na'i'vely, to his bride, that he, her bridegroom, was outwardly a most dirty man, as all the world knew ; and that he presumed that this was not the first time she had heard so." Longer or shorter accounts are given in the Allgemeine Schul-Zei- tung, and other periodicals, of many other celebrations. They usually consisted of a meeting, at which addresses were delivered, poems recited, hymns or songs sung ; sometimes followed by a dinner, with toasts, short speeches, and convivial enjoyment. There was also a practical part of the ceremony, viz., either a collection for the central society, or the organization of a local one. We subjoin, (from the Allg. Sch.-Zeitung,} parts of a quaint article, entitled " Considerations on the character most suitable for a memorial to Pestalozzi" and signed " Frankf. O. — P. — A. — Z.," which contains much humor and good sense. " But by what means is it proposed to fulfill this obligation (to Pesta- lozzi ?) Many persons are preparing a banquet of the usual character, at so many silbergroschen a head, including half a quart of wine. Pro- vision is made, also, for toasts, solemn and not solemn, long and short ; and, if the landlords do their duty, the consequent sickness will have been slept off by next morning. These good folks do not obstruct the progress of enlightenment, but they are not par excellence strict disci- ples of Pestalozzi. hi other places, the teachers, especially, are to be assembled, inasmuch as they claim Pestalozzi as exclusively one of PESTALOZZI'S HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY. 137 themselves, though he was also a theologian and jurist. These gentlemen take no particular measures for overloading their stomachs — for reasons best known to themselves. ' On the other hand, they are laboring upon poems and orations, and will, perhaps, produce some which will possess much unction. But in order that their lights may not put each other out, and that the imperium in imperio may not perish, they assemble parish-wise, renewing the idea of the Holy Roman Empire, which was neither holy. Roman, nor an empire, and in which there were so many principalities that the State was invisible. Naturally, where there is a festival to every ten schoolmasters, the 12th of January will be long enough for a speech and toast from every one. On this occasion the speakers will rather look away from the present, and consider the future. Very right : this was with Pestalozzi's custom. But Pestalozzi kicked down with his feet what he built with his hands ; beware that you do not do so. Pestalozzi often used his heart instead of his head, and reckoned without his host; see that you do not imitate him in this. Pestalozzi understood children's hearts, but not men's; and did not avoid the appearance of evil, if only it did not appear so to him ; beware of following in his footsteps in this. A great Foundation is to be erected, worthy of the German nation ; all German heads are to be brought together under one German hat, for the sake of founding, some- where— perhaps on the Blocksberg — a rescue institution for morally endangered children. These certainly need to be protected, and Pes- talozzi drew attention to the fact fifty years ago, and sacrificed his health and his means in the cause. But will one such institution serve, how- ever large — or ten, or twenty, or a hundred — for the forty millions of German population? There are already thirty such institutions in Wirtemberg ; and there are still many children there in urgent need of education and aid. But what will this rescue institution do ? Even if it does not remain without a roof, like the Teutoburger Hermann with- out a sword ; even if the builders finish up windows, cellars, and stairs properly ; the chief requisite of a model institution is wanting — the father of the family. Shall he be found in Diesterweg's seminary at Berlin, or among Harnisch's pupils at Weisserifels ? Is pietism, or illuminism, to be taught in it ? The question is important to Germany, and Pes- talozzis and Oberlins are scarce. One Louise Schepler would be worth abundantly more than a council of ten seminary directors. This seems not to have been considered ; the building, and always the building, of the institution, is urged. There is no lack of model institutions. Nut to cite Wirtemberg, there is the Rauhe Haus, at Hamburg — is a better one wanted ? '; Again ; are neglected children to be sent fifty miles, or more, by mail- route, with a policeman, to the model institution? Or, are distant do- nors to have nothing but a distant view of it? Must they make along journey merely to get a sight of it ? ' But,' it is said, ' all this will do no harm, if the occasion shall succeed in causing a union of the German teachers.' A union— a significant word ! Where did as many as three 138 PESTALOZZI'S HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY. Germans ever unite, unless it were over a bottle? And still more, three German schoolmasters, each quite right in his own school ! Unite ? With whom ? Against whom ? Does not ' unite ' mean ' exclude ? ' For if the teachers are to unite, they will separate from the clergy. Are all the teachers in Germany to dissolve their present relations, arid array themselves under a pedagogical general, as if to make an attack on the ministers?" The writer then attacks the plan of selecting teachers' orphans, in particular, and concludes with a forcible suggestion of the necessity of individual sacrifice and effort, as the only true mode of reforming or protecting unfortunate children. " Spend no more time in building and in choosing heating apparatus, but take vigorous hold of the work itself. Let each one take a child, and say, ' He shall be mine. I will win him to myself with love, so that he shall prefer to follow me rather than his thievish father and godless mother. He shall stop cursing, because he loves me; and stealing, be- cause I will teach him better. He shall enjoy learning, because he shall find in the school a retreat from his parents. I will not be deterred by dirt or ignorance, if I can only save a soul, and spare the world one criminal. I would rather make my house a rescue house for him, than to send him to a Rauhe Haus, among the morally neglected.' il If the admirers of Pestalozzi — and I do not mean teachers alone — would adopt this method on the 12th of January, 1846, and form an as- sociation, then the day would be and remain a blessing to Germany. God grant it ! " PUBLICATIONS BY AND RELATING TO PESTALOZZL I. WORKS BY PESTALOZZL* PESTALOZZI'S WORKS, (Werke,) Tubingen, 1819-26. Cotta. 15 vols. These include: — a. Leonard and Gertrude, (Lienhard und Gertrud,) vols. 1 — 4. b. How Gertrude teaches her children, (Wie Gertrud ihr Kinder lehrt,)vol. 5. c. To the innocence, earnestness, and nobility of my fatherland, (An die Unschuld, den Ernst und den Edelmuth meines Vaterlandes,) vol. 6. d. My researches upon the course of nature in the development of the human race, (Heine Nachforschungen uber den Gang der Natur in der Entwick- lung des Menschengeschlechts,) vol. 7. e. On legislation and 'child-murder, (Ueber Gesetzgebung und Kindermord,) vols. 7 and 8. f. On the idea of elementary education. An address delivered at Lenzburg, 1809, (Ueber die Idee der Elementarbildung. Eine Rede, gehalten in Lenzburg,) vol. 8. (" In great part the work of Niederer."— - Biber. It first appeared in the " Weekly for Human Development," [ Wochenschrift for Menschenbil- dung.]) g. Pestalozzi's letter to a friend upon his residence at Stanz, (Pestalozzi's Brief an einen Freund uber seinen Aufenthalt in Stanz,} vol. 9. (This first appeared in the " Weekly.") h. Vieivs on industry, education, and politics, (Ansichten uber Industrie, Erzie- hung und Politik,) vol. 9. i. Address to my household, delivered Jan. 12, 1818, (Rede an mein Haus, gehalten den 12 Jdnner, 1818,) vol. 9. k. Figures to my A B C-Book, (Figuren zu meinem A B C-Buch,) vol. 10. 1. Views and experiences relative to the idea of elementary education, (Ansichten und Erfahrungen, die Idee der Elementarbildung betreffend,) vol. 11. (This had before appeared under the name of "H. Pestalozzi's views, experiences, and means to secure a mode of education adapted to hu- man nature." Leipzig, 1807.) m. On the principles and plan of a periodical, announced in the year 1807, (Ueber die Grundsatze und den Plan einer im Jahre 1807 angekundigten Zeitschrift,)vo\. 11. n. Report to parents and the public on the condition and organization of Pestalozzi's institution in the year 1807, (Bericht an die Eltern und on das Publicum uber den Zustand und die Einrichtungen der Pestalozzischen Anstalt im Jahre 1807,) vol. 11. (This had already appeared in the " Weekly^ for Human Development^ but in the collective edition it was materially enlarged.) o. A word on the condition of my pedagogical enterprises, and on the organ- ization of my institution during the year 1820, (Ein Wort uber den Zustand meiner pddagogischen Bestrebungen und uber die Organisation meiner AnstalV'im Jahr 1820,) vol. 11. p. A few discourses in my house in the years 1808, 1809, 1810, 1811, and 1812, (Einige Reden an mein Haus in den Jahren 1808, &c.,) vol. 11. q. Christoph and Else, vol. 12. r. Swan-song, (Pestalozzi's Schwanengesang,) vol. 13. s. Theory of Number and Form, (Zahl und Formlhre,) vol. 14. * This li&t is taken from Raumer's " History 76 HERMANN KRUSI. the following notices in his diary, which it is true contain no very im- portant facts, but which nevertheless, are the clear marks of a man inspired by the holiness of his calling : " I often pray at evening when T go to bed, that the dear God will let me fimf something new in nature," said W. M. , a boy of ten years old, who had found in one of his walks, a stone which he had not before known. This holy habit, (continues Kriisi,) of referring every thing immediately to the Almighty hand, is a sure sign of a pure soul ; every expression of it was therefore of •infinite value to me. I thanked God that by means of it I had been able to see further into the heart of this good child. " It is hard for me to write a letter," said S , when he was set to write to his parents, and found it difficult. Why ? said I • adding, you are now a year older, and ought to be better able to do it. " Yes," said he, "but a year ago 1 could say every thing I knew; but now I know more than I can say." This answer astonished me. It came from deep within the being of the child. Every child, in his liking and capacity for writing letters, must pass through periods, which it is necessary for his parents or teachers to know, lest without knowing or wishing it, they should do the children some harm. E , nine years old, said yesterday, " One who is clever should not be told wrhat ' clever ' means. But one wlio is stupid will not understand it, and he may be told as much as you like." Th. T- , six years old, sees God everywhere as an omnipresent man before him. God gives the birds their food ; God has a thousand hands ; God sits upon all the trees and flowers. J. T , on the contrary, has an entirely different view of God. To him he is a being far off, but who from afar sees, hears, and controls every thing. Are you also dear to God? I asked him. " I do not know," he answered ; "but I know that you are dear to him. All good men are dear to him." I was so as- tonished to hear the child thus express his views of God, and of myself, and his childlike respect and dependence upon his teacher, that I dared question him no longer, lest I should not treat with sufficient tenderness and wisdom, this spark of the divine. These extracts will sufficiently show that Krusi considered the hearts of his pupils as holy things, which it was his business to keep in the right path. He was never ashamed, even in his old age, to learn from children ; and the traits and efforts of earliest childhood often afforded him help in the construction of a natural system of instruction. Every child that I have ever observed, writes Krusi, in his "Efforts and Experiences," (Destrebungen und ErfahrungenJ during all my life, has passed through certain remarkable questioning periods, which seem to originate from his inner being. After each had passed through the early time of lisping and stam- mering, into that of speaking, and had come to the questioning period, he re- peated at every new phenomenon, the question, "What is that?" If for answer he received a name of the thing, it completely satisfied him ; he wished to know no more. After a number of months, a second state made its appearance, in which the child followed its first question with a second : " What is there in it ?" After some more months, there came of itself the third question : " Who made it?" and lastly, the fourth, "What do they do with it?" These questions had much interest for me, and I spent much reflection upon them. In the end it became clear to me, that the child had struck out the right method for developing its thinking faculties. In the first question. "What is that?" he was trying to get a consciousness of the thing lying before him. By the second, " What is there in it?" he was trying to perceive and understand its interior, and its general and special marks. The third, "Who made it?" pointed towards the origin and creation of the thing ; and the fourth, " What do they do with it ?" evidently points at the use, and design of the thing. Thus this series of questions seemed to me HERMANN KRUSI. 1*7 to include in itself the complete system of mental training. That this originated with the child is not only no objection to it, but is strong indication that the laws of thought are within the nature of the child in their simplest and most ennobling form. That Kriisi was now writing his experiences with a view to others, and was continually occupying his mind with reflections upon all the appearances of nature and of life, the following words show : Thus I have again gained a whole hour of instruction. I had four divisions in mental arithmetic. Each of them, as soon as it had found the clue, taught itself; all that I had to do was to oversee, and to assist. It is a pleasure to teach in that way, and a sweet consciousness rewards the labor. But still, arithmetic is not the chief subject which occupies my mind. For had I the opportunity, I could do something in the investigation of language. For if matters turn out as I am in hopes they may, I shall give some proof that I have not lived in vain. The study of language leads me on the one hand to nature and on the other to the Bible. To study the phenomena of the former, and to become familiar with the contents of the latter, are the two great objects which now demand from me much time, much industry, and a pure and natural observation of childish character. The little work alluded to in the above lines, bears the title, " Bib- lical views upon the works and ways of God." (Biblische Ansichten uber die werke und wege Gottes ;) and in it the exposition of God's operations in nature, stated in Biblical language, was carried through upon a regular plan. Kriisi would perhaps have undertaken the work in a different manner at a later period ; but the Bible was always to him a valued volume, in which he studied not only the divine teach- ings and similitudes of the New Testament, but also the lofty natural descriptions of Moses, Job, David, &c. The charge of deficiency in biblical religious feeling has often been brought against the Pestaloz- zians. For my part I can testify that even the first of them had studied the Bible through and through, and placed uncommon value upon it. Their child-like faith and love for everything good and true, fitted them especially for doing so ; moreover, they were inspired by Pestalozzi's energetic Christianity. The fact that they always endeav- ored to bring a religious spirit into every study, and especially into that of language, by awakening a love of truth, and an active prepara- tion for every thing good and beautiful, is a clear proof that a high and Christian ideal was always before their eyes. Kriisi's heart was, so to speak, in love with the beauties of nature all his life. In his seventieth year, every flower, tree, sunrise and sunset, spoke to him as distinctly as the first time he saw them. He perceived in nature that plain impression of the divine energy which is often dim to adult men, and is most plainly seen by children. And he always returned to nature to learn from her. How she awakened his sensibilities will appear from the following extract which he wrote in his diary and afterward sent to his betrothed : It is Sunday, and a divinely beautiful morning. More than an hour before tta rising of the sun, the brightness of the morning light could be seen upon the 12 178 HERMANN KRtSI. summits of the great Alpine chain, from Mont. Blanc, to the TitlisinTJnterwalclen. Now the majestic sun himself in heavenly splendor, arises and lights up everything before me. Why does he begin his course so quietly that we must watch like a sparrow hawk, lest he escape our attention and stand there before us unawares ? If the roll of the thunder were to accompany his rising, how exceedingly seldom would the dwellers in cities and villages keep themselves away from this divine spectacle, which no other earthly show even approaches ? And yet none will be away when the roll of the drum announces the coming of an earthly prince. So I thought for a moment ; but soon saw the silliness of my meditations. It is the very nature of light to distribute its blessings in silence. In the moral world it is the same. The nearer one approaches to the fountain of life, the more silent are his endeavors to spread around him light and blessings. At the breaking of such a day it is as if a world were being created again. Light, air, water, land, plants, beasts, and men, appear to our eyes almost in the same order in which they were created. How quickly is everything done which our Lord God creates ! and how fright- fully slow are we in understanding even the smallest of them ! And besides all this quickness in creating, and slowness in comprehending, how infinite is the number of things which God places before our eyes ! No wonder that our knowl- edge always remains mere patchwork, and that we have to postpone so many tilings to the other side of the grave, in the hope that there, free from the bonds of the earthly body, we shall progress with an ever increasing speed from knowl- edge to knowledge, and shall clearly understand how everything exists, in God, which was dim and perplexed to us here. A strong and encouraging indication of our own inward worth appears in the expression, " The spirit explaineth all things, even the deep things of God." But it is a trouble to most men, that they cannot approach God by some other means than by the spirit ; by their perceptions, or by their knowledge. He only can approach God by the spirit, to whom nature opens her mysteries $ to whom her operations and her purposes are known. But how few are there who attain even to an A B C of knowledge of the world, from which, as from a living spring, they may gain a pure and worthy conception of their creator. How often must even he who has made the study of nature the business of his life, whose knowledge surpasses that of millions of his fellow beings, stand still before the most common physical, mental, or moral phenomenon, and exclaim : such mystery is too won- derful for me, and too high ; I can not understand it. Then hail to thee, human heart ! Through thy feelings is it, that we can ap- proach more nearly to God than through our intellectual powers. The fundamental human relation is that of childhood. It is based entirely upon love. Without our own consent we enter into it. And this same condition is a^'.-iin the highest aim which man can propose to himself, as his best preparative for heaven. The mind loses nothing by this preeminence of the heart ; on the contrary, it is this very preeminence in the growth of feeling, and in purity, which gives a higher character to the power and exercise of the mind. The effort of men to know things here, as God knows them, to display the order of the heavens, the powers of the earth, and the relation of the mind, in the light of earthly truth, are a holy trait of humanity ; but men in general can not find rest by these efforts. Everything elevating in the idea of the creator and ruler of the world must appear to them under the mild aspect of a father, -if it is to be beneficial and elevating to them. Without this appearance, his omnipotence would be fearful to the weak mortal, his presence painful, his wisdom indifferent, and his justice a two edged sword, which hangs continually over his head and threatens to destroy him. Only by childlike faith in the fatherhood of God can our race feel itself cared for, elevated, supported and guided ; or cultivate confi- dence, gratitude, love and hope, without a destructive conflict with opposing feel ings. The roestablishment of this child-like condition and the revivification of the holiness which proceeds from it, are the things by which Christ has opened a way to God, and become the saviour of the world. Through him is it that the pure in heart may see God. The simplest man has the powers necessary for this purpose. They are only the powers that the child exerts when he recognizes the love of his parents, in the care which they bestow upon him. HERMANN KRUSI. 179 Truly, it is wonderful how both termini of the development of our nature— the being a child, and the becoming a child of God, should be so nearly connected with each other. A holy confidence in God is shown in the letters in which he speaks of his prospects for a certain support in the future. His be- trothed, who like him had been left destitute by the storm of the revolution, had wandered away from Glarus, her native land, with a troop of poor children, and had been received and supported by some respectable and benevolent people in Zurich, had of course no prop- erty : and Kriisi's new place with Pestalozzi, had much more attract- ion for the friend and follower, than for one prudent in pecuniary matters. Although Kriisi's approaching marriage must have made a certain income more desirable to him, he still felt no solicitude about it, like a true believer in the words of Jesus, " Take ye no thought," &c., but expressed himself as follows : God will provide. Whoever is conscious of strong IOTO and honest aims in life, should act with freedom, and believe in the prophecy that all things will be for the best. Has not the being who guides all things, thus far watched wonder- fully and benevolently over us and our connection ? Many are troubled lest they shall not receive what is their own. Is it carelessness in me that I have no such feelings ? I thank God for the powers which he has given you and me for our duties ; I feel much more solicitude that we may use these powers worthily of the benevo- lent God. At every rising of uneasiness I seem to hear God saying to me as Christ did to his disciples on the sea, " Oh ye of little faith !" Kriisi at last managed to complete the indispensable arrangements for bringing his wife from Muhlhausen ; and he was married at Lenz- burg, in 1812. His wife entered with confidence upon her new sphere of life, with a man who was not only her lover, but her teacher and her paternal friend. He was not an inexperienced youth, but a man thirty-seven years old, in the prime of his strength, and with a ripeness of experience and thought, seldom found even at his years. His wife too, although considerably younger, had also seen the rougher side of life, and had also felt the inspiring influence of a right method of education. After his marriage, Kriisi occupied a private house near the castle, where he had charge of the deaf and dumb children of his friend Kaf, as long as his connection as teacher with the Pestalozzian institution continued. This now soon came to an end, and under cir- cumstances so unpleasant that we should prefer to be silent upon them, were it not for removing from one of Pestalozzi's oldest teach- ers the charge of ingratitude, which many well informed readers have believed in consequence of this separation. There has seldom been a man who has had so many friends and so few enemies, among so great a variety of men, as Kriisi ; thanks to his mild and peace loving disposition. It was his principle always 180 HERMANN KRUSI. rather to with draw himself, than to make the evil greater by obstinacy or violence in maintaining his views. This habit stood him in good stead in the quarrel which at this time threatened to destroy Pesta- lozzi's institution. But how was it possible, it may be asked, that men engaged in such a noble enterprise, could not go on in harmony with each other ? It was the work of one man, a graduate of the Pesta- lozzian institution, endowed with uncommon mathematical talents, who sacrificed the peace of the institution to his unbounded ambition. This man, Schmid by name, had contrived, under the name of a guardian, to gain the entire control of the aged Pestalozzi, and little by little to alienate him from all his old friends. As early as 1808, Kriisi had concluded that he could not with honor remain longer in the institution, and had accordingly written an affecting letter of farewell to Pestalozzi, from which we make the following extracts : Dear llerr Postal ozzi : God knows that I have always sought with an honest heart, the accomplish- ment of your holy plans. Whenever I nave thought it necessary to differ from you, it has been without any ulterior views, from love for you and for the good of humanity. For eight years the undisturbed possession of your paternal love has made me the happiest of men. Your present expressions upon the sequel of this relation, pierce so much the more deeply, the less I feel that they are deserved. (Here follow some reasons for his withdrawal.) If it shall be permitted to me to live for the darlings of your heart, the poor, and to prepare their children to receive the benefits which your efforts have se- cured for them, there will again awaken in your soul some faith in my gratitude, my love, and my earnest endeavor not to have lived by your side, in vain. Still further, dearest Pestalozzi ;,if I have been to blame toward you, it was only by error. Forgive the child who with sorrow and grief tears himself away from his father and his friend. Whether this letter was delivered to Pestalozzi, is not known. Kriisi did not leave at that time, although Tobler did, dissatisfied for various reasons, and sought another field of labor at Basle. Schmid was at last, in 1810, removed from the institution, and for a few years the old good understanding prevailed there again. But \vhen he returned and took charge of the financial department, (Pes- talozzi, who was well known for a bad housekeeper, not being compe- tent for it,) the quarrel came up again, directed this time chiefly against Niederer and his noble wife, but also against all the other faith- ful laborers in the institution. Thus, by a departure of many of the best teachers, especially the German ones, it lost many of its brightest ornaments; and in the year 1816, Kriisi also, with a bleeding heart, sent his resignation to Pestalozzi, whom even in his error he loved and respected ; but for whom at that time another person spoke, in terms of the bitterest contempt, and most irritating coldness. There is, however, some trace of the old affection, in Pestalozzi's answer to Kriisi's letter : HERMANN KRUSI. 1Q1 With sorrow I see a connection dissolved, which I would willingly have contin- ued unto my death, had it been possible. It was not, however, and I receive your explanation with the affection which I have always felt for you, praying God to better my pecuniary condition, so that I may be enabled before my death to show th;it I respect the relation in which I have so long stood to you. Greet your wife and embrace your child for me, and believe me ever your true friend, Yverdun, 17th Feb., 1816. PESTALOZZI. In the letter of Kriisi, just quoted, he expresses his earnest wish to labor for the education of the poor. The same is found in the fol- lowing to his betrothed ; " My inmost wish is to be able to labor in some way, according to the idea of our father, for the education of poor children. We both know what poverty is, and how sorely the children of the poor need help, that they may live worthy and satis- factory lives. It is for us to afford this help. I feel it my vocation, and feel that I have the ability, to do for the poor whatever God has rendered me capable of doing. You must help me. Female instinct must join with manly strength for the accomplishment of this object." The wish thus expressed was never gratified. It was to be Kriisi's chief occupation to instruct the children of parents in good circum- stances, until at a later period his situation in a seminary whose pupils were then, and have been since, mostly from the poorer classes, and who thus have influence both upon the poor and the rich, at least per- mitted it partial gratification. After his separation from Pestalozzi, Kriisi set about the establish- ment of an institution of his own, which he did in fact afterward open, with very little other help than his confidence in God. lie purchased a small house, pleasantly situated on the Orbe, by the assistance of a benevolent friend, who lent him a considerable sum, without security, and had the pleasure of seeing an increasing number of parents send their children to him. It was especially gratifying to his patriotism that his first pupils were from his native place of Gais, where they yet live as respectable citizens. In his institution he pro- ceeded upon the Pestalozzian plans ; and the happiness of his labors was only troubled by the knowledge that his paternal friend was con- tinually more closely entangled in the snares of the intriguing Schmid, so that even Niederer was forced to leave the institution in 1817. Although Kriisi was now happily established as father of a family, his first child was born in 1814, and teacher of a prosperous school, yet another destiny was before him, and as previously, without his own cooperation. In his own little native territory, the public-spirited Hans Caspar Zellweger and others, had conceived the useful idea of seeing a canto- nal school for the higher education of native youth, who were then 182 HERMANN KRU3I. able to command no other means of instruction in their own country than the ordinary village school. Ilerr Zuberbuhler was appointed to the charge of the institution. He had been in the troop of poor children who went with Kriisi to Burgdorf ; and was peculiarly fitted for his place, by his acquirements and by the mildness of his charac- ter. But man proposes and God disposes. Zuberbuhler was soon seized by an illness, which brought him to the edge of the grave, and which profoundly impressed him with the idea of his own helplessness and the danger from it to his institution. It being necessary to employ another teacher, he invited Kriisi, who was now well known in that neighborhood since his abode near it, and who had besides during the journey into Appenzell, in 1819, made himself acquainted with various influential men there. Soon after this journey he made another to Karlsruhe, Frankfort, Wiesbaden and Schnepfeuthal, near Gotha, where he visited the excellent Gutsmuths, who has done so much for the art of gymnastics. It was in 1822 that the news of Zuberbiihler's illness reached him, and of his own invitation to the place of director. The prospect of being useful to his fatherland was irresistible to him ; and he was also influenced by the promises of an assured income and of entire freedom in modes of instruction. The reputation of his own institution was already great, as will be under- stood from Kriisi's own mention of the fact as a rare one, that even while he was at Yverdun, pupils were sent to him from three-quarters of the world ; some by French merchants from Alexandria, in Egypt, and one from the capital of Persia, Teheran, 800 leagues distant. This may, however, be in some measure ascribed to the fame of the Pestalozzian institution. A very respectable lady from Memel had besides taken lodgings in Kriisi's house with her two daughters, in' order to learn under his guidance how to instruct them ; and the same thing happened afterwards with an English family at Gais. Kriisi, however, did not hesitate long, but accepted Zellweger's offer in a respectful letter. He himself went first alone to Trogen, and pro- ceeded to his sick friend, Zuberbuhler. He says, " When I entered the room Zuberbuhler put his hands before his eyes and burst into tears. It relieved his heart to know that I had come to continue the work which he had so well begun." In fact, he grew better from that very day, and was soon completely well. In his native place of Gais, Kriisi attached himself, especially to his early friend Kern, who had traveled to Yverdun to see him. He also had the great pleasure of finding his old friend, the good-natured Tobler, at the head of an institution in St. Gall ; where afterwards he often visited him. Having after a time removed thither his effects and his family, Kriisi HERMANN KRUS1. 183 with his two assistants, pastor Banziger from Wolfhalden, and Egli from Hittnem, commenced operations in his new place, in the cantonal school at Trogen. Want of space will oblige me to be brief in our account of Kriisi's stay at Trogen and Gais. Most readers are however better acquainted with this part of his life than with the earlier. This earlier period is especially valuable for teachers, as being that of the Pestalozzian discoveries, and of the enthusiasm which attended them. The later period is occupied more particularly with the further development of it. The institution at Trogen soon gained reputation. At first, most of the pupils were from Appenzell ; but afterwards quite a number came from the canton and city of Zurich, and a less number from the cantons of Biindten, Thurgan, St. Gall and Basle, and several from Milan. There was an annual exhibition, which was always interest- ing, both as showing the progress of the pupils, and the spirit of the institution, and from the addresses made by the director, and Herren Kasper Zellweger, and Dean Frei ; most of which have also appeared in print. The situation of the institution, in a somewhat retired place, had the advantage of withdrawing the pupils from material pleasures and the attractions of the world ; in the stead of which were offered many enjoyments of a nobler kind in the pleasure of nature, and in the use of an excellent play-ground and garden. Although none of the studies, (which included the ancient and modern langua- ges,) were carried so far as in many institutions of a higher grade, its results were very favorable, from the harmonious labors of the three teachers, and from the efficient character of the method by which Kriisi aimed always at increasing the capabilities of his scholars, and the industry of most of the pupils. There were, it is true, sad excep- tions ; and if the teachers did not succeed with any such pupils, there were often put under their charge a number of ill-taught or orphan children. Many were by Kriisi's friendly and earnest admonitions, caused to reflect, and brought into the path of virtue, no more to leave it. Kriisi, who always himself took charge of the instruction and management of such pupils, tried mild methods at first, as long as he had any hopes of succeeding with them ; at lessons he was cheerful, pursuing every study with love and pleasantly encouraging every smile from his scholars which proceeded from honest animation. He became severe however upon the appearance of any falsehood, rudeness or immorality, and at such times everyone feared the wrath of the angry and troubled father. In 1832, one of the places of assistant, teacher became vacant by the death of Herr pastor Biinziger, in whose stead he placed Heir 184 HERMANN KRUSI. Siegfried of Zurich, an active and learned man. Meanwhile anothei change was at hand in Kriisi's lot. His earnest wish to devote him- self to the training of teachers was to be gratified ; although even in the cantonal school he had done something in this direction. Since the year 1830 the cause of popular education had been gain- ing new life in many cantons of Switzerland. Funds were raised in many places for the establishment of new schools which were to be assisted by the State ; the position of teacher began to be considered more respectable, and to be better paid ; although neither a fair price nor this respect were paid in more than a few places. Clear- minded men however saw .that in order to the improvement of popu- lar education, the teacher must first be educated ; that for this purpose teachers' seminaries must be established. The question of the choice of a director for the seminary at Zurich, being under con- sideration, Kriisi was mentioned by various persons, and particularly by the celebrated composer and firm admirer of Pestalozzi, Nageli. Although this place, as the sequel showed, was not the right one for Kriisi, he still considered it his duty to think over the matter, and to communicate his views upon it, which he did in a letter to his friend Bodmer, at Zurich, from which we extract the following : The higher education was always the field in which I hoped to labor, if it were the will of God, and to plant in it some good seed for the common schools of my native land. Thirty years ago, I hoped that I had found such a field, in the Swiss seminary, established in 1802, by the Helvetian government, under Pestalozzi as teacher. The act of mediation broke up the plan by disuniting the cantons, and the schools for the common people with them ; but the investigation of the laws of education had always been since that a favorite pursuit with me. During a rich experience at Pestalozzi's side, and during researches up to this time uninter- rupted, for the purpose of establishing a system of natural education, it has been my hope to be able to labor efficiently for the school system of my native land. The canton of Zurich is one which rather than any other I would glady see the first in Switzerland in furthering this most high and noble object. But I ought not to hide from you my fears, whether : 1. I can count upon being able to carry out Pestalozzi's system of elementary education, freely and without hindrance. In that I recognize the only means of awakening the intellectual life of the teacher, or of bringing the same into the school. 2. The strict necessity of cooperating labor would be regarded in the choice of a second teacher. They should each supplement the work of the other ; and this can only happen when their efforts are put forth in the same spirit and for the same object. 3. There should be a model school, which I consider an indisputable necessity for the seminary. It is not as a place of probation for new scholars that I desire this, but as affording an example of the correct bodily, material, moral and religious training of the children. 4. Sufficient care should be taken in the selection of a place for the seminary, that the supervision of its morals should be as much facilitated as possible. The pupils of such a seminary are usually of an age most difficult to manage • and their own moral character subsequently lias a strong influence upon that of their scholars. When Kriisi at last entered upon his long desired field of labor, in 1833, being appointed director of the teachers' seminary, erected in HERMANN KRUSI. 185 that year, lie felt the liveliest pleasure. The object of his life seemed to him now to stand in a clear light before him, and to open to him the prospect that his countrymen would reap the harvest, whose seed he had sown in the spring of youth, and watched over in the sum- mer. Honor to our Grand Council, and to those who were the cause of the resolution, to spread such manifold blessings among our people and blooming youth. Honor to them, that they gave to poor but upright and study-loving youth, the means of training themselves for teachers in their own country, and of learning its necessities, that they might be able to labor for their relief. With gratitude to God, the wise disposer of his fate, Kriisi left the cantonal school, and proceeded to Gais ; recalling with emotion the time forty years before, when as an ignorant youth he had there taken up the profession of teaching, himself afterward to become a teacher of teachers. He considered the years of his labor in Gais, among the happiest of his life. To pass the evening of his days in his native country and his native town, to communicate the accumulated treasures of his teachings and experience to intelligent youth, to labor surrounded by his own family and with their aid, and to benefit so many pupils, all this was the utmost that he had ever dared wish for. This wish was however to be entirely realized. He conducted five courses, attended by sixty-four pupils, and with the assistance of his valued friend, pas- tor Weishaupt, of his own eldest son, and of Gahler, a graduate of the seminary itself. During the latter course death overtook him. A boys' school, and a girls' school conducted by his second daughter, soon arose near the seminary, forming a complete whole, over which Kriisi's kind feeling and paternal supervision exercised a beneficial influence. Hardly ever did three institutions proceed in happier unity. Many pleasant reminiscences of this period present themselves ; but the space is wanting for them. Kriisi's skill as educator and teacher were the same here as elsewhere. He used the same method, showed the same mild disposition, love of nature and enthusiasm for every thing beautiful and good. He occupied a posi- tion even higher in respect of insight and experience, in the comple- tion of his system of education, as adapted to nature ; and a more honorable one by reason of his old age and the gray hairs which began to ornament his temples. But despite of his age, whose weak- nesses his always vigorous health permitted him to feel but little, he ever preserved the same freshness of spirit. His method of instruction did not grow effete, as is often the case with old teachers. He was always seeking to approach his subject from a new side ; and felt the same animation as of old, at finding any new fruits from his method 186 HERMANN KRUSI. or his labors. His kind and friendly manners won all his pupils, •whether boys and girls, or older youth. Nor is it strange that all the other members of the establishment also looked upon him as a father. An expression of their love and respect appeared on the occasion of Ir's birthday, which they made a day of festival, with a simple ceremonial speeches and songs. Upon such occasions he was wont to recall the time of his abode with Pestalozzi ; and his affectionate heart always impelled him to speak in beautifully grateful language of his never- to-be-forgotten father and friend, the originator of his own useful labors, and all his happiness. The crowning event of his happiness was the presentation on his sixty-ninth birthday, in 1843, the fiftieth year of his labors as a teacher, by all the teachers who had been instructed by him, of a beautiful silver pitcher, as an expression of their gratitnde. He looked hopefully upon so large a number of his pupils, and gave them his paternal blessing. Two of his birthday addresses have appeared in print. Until April of that year, Kriisi continued to teach in the seminary and connected schools. After the completion of his fifth course, he had hoped to be able to completely work out his system of instruction, and more fully to write his biography ; but this was not to be per- mitted him. • He was able at leisure times to write and publish much matter ; the last of these was a collection of his poems. These are valuable, not as artistic productions, but as true pictures of his pure and vivid feeling for every thing good and beautiful. The fact that he wrote many of his songs to the airs of his friend, pastor Weishaupt, shows that he valued high-toned musical instruction. This love of singing remained with him to the end of his life; and his face always grew animated if he saw men, youth and maidens, or young children, enjoying either alone or in pleasant companionship, that elevating pleasure. At the annual parish festival of 1844, the old man now seventy, was present in Trogen, entering heartily into the exercises of the occasion, and particularly, the powerful chotal, " Alles Lelen stromt aus Dir" which was sung by a thousand men's voices, and an elo- quent discourse on common education, by Landarman Nagel. The fatigue, excitement, and exposure to the weather, which was damp and cold, were too much for his strength, and in the evening he was ill, and on the following day he was visited by a paralytic attack, from which he never recovered, but closed his earthly career on the 25th of July, 1844. His funeral was attended by a multitude of mourners from far and near, and his body was borne to its last resting place in the churchyard of Gais, by the pupils of the seminary. XL THE GENERAL MEANS OF EDUCATION, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF A NEW INSTITUTION FOR BOYS. BY HERMANN KRUSI. THE following " Coup d'ceil" of the General Means of Education, with the Plan of the new Institution which Kriisi afterward organ- ized and managed, was published at Yverdun, in 1818, and presents the ideas and methods of Pestalozzi, as held by one of his early assistants and avowed disciples. The principal means for the education of man are three, viz., 1. Domestic Life. 2. Intellectual Education, or the Culture of the Mind. 3. Religious Training. I. DOMESTIC LIFE. The object of domestic life is the preservation of the body and the development of its powers. It may therefore be considered the basis of physical life. The body is a seed, enveloping the germ of intellectual, moral and religious ac- tivity. Domestic life is the fertile soil in which this seed is deposited, and in which this germ is to expand and prosper. There are three principal relations of domestic life 5 of parents to children, of children to parents, and of children to each other. In domestic life, love is the center of all the sentiments and actions. It is man- ifested in the parents by unremitting care and unbounded self-sacrifice ; m the children, in return, by perfect confidence and obedience; and among brothers and sisters, by endeavors to promote each other's happiness. Every event, almost every moment, of domestic life, stimulates the entire being, body, mind and soul, into activity. Beyond the domestic circle, and the further we move from it, the more remarkable does the particular tendency and the isolated action of each faculty become. A seminary should exemplify domestic life in all its purity. The teachers should regard the pupils as their children ; the children should regard the teach- ers as parents, and each other as brothers and sisters. The purest love should inspire all these relations; and the result should be cares, sacrifices, confidence, obedience, and reciprocal endeavors to aid in attaining the objects desired. Such a domestic life prepares the child for mental improvement and religious development and habits. Without it, religion will gain no access to the heart, and intellectual cultivation will only be a means for satisfying the selfish demands of the animal nature. But with it, the child is prepared for the successful exer- cise of the same good qualities and the maintenance of the like relations in a wider sphere as a man, a citizen, and a Christian. II. INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. The aim of this should be, on one hand, to develop the faculties, and on the other to develop executive power. The faculties must all be developed together; an end only to be attained by the exercises of the active and productive faculties. In order to real development, the mind must act of itself; and moreover, the active and productive faculties can not be exercised without at the same time ex- ercising those which are passive and receptive, (namely, those of comprehension and retention,) and preparing them for future service with increased advantage. That alone can be considered the elementary means of developing the mental 138 KRUSI, VIEWS AND PLAN OF EDUCATION. faculties, which is essentially the product of the human mind ; which the mind of each individual can, and does in fact, to a certain degree produce, independent of all instruction ; that which spontaneously exhibits itself in each department, and is, as it were the germ of attainment in it. These essential productions of the human mind are three; number, form, and language. The ultimate element of number is unity; of form, a line; of language, ideas, which are interior, and sound, which is exterior. Each of these three means may be employed in two different directions; to develop, on one hand, the power of discerning truth, and on the other, that of discerning beauty. The faculties of the individual can not be developed without his acquiring, at the same time, a certain amount of knowledge, and a certain bodily skill in the execution of what the mind has conceived ; and it is an important truth that an enlightened mind will succeed much better than an unenlightened one in the ac- quirement of knowledge as well as of every kind of executive ability. Exercises intended to develop the faculties, like those intended to communicate knowledge, should succeed one another in a logical (natural or necessary) order ; so that each shall contain the germ of that which is to follow, should lead to it, and prepare for it. The development of the principal faculties, and the acquirement of a certain amount of information, are necessary to qualify every individual for his duties as a man, a citizen, and a Christian. This degree of development, and this amount of information, constitute the province of elementary education, properly so c;i1!ed, which would be the same for all. But beyond these limits, the character and ex- tent of studies should vary, on one hand, according to the indications of nature, which destines individuals by different capacities for different callings; and on the other hand, according to his situation in life. In the acquisition of knowledge, an elementary path should be followed, intro- ductory and preparatory to a scientific method of study. This is suited to the child, because it leads from a series of particular facts, it leads upward to the dis- covery of general truths. The scientific method is suitable only to mature and enlarged minds, proceeding from general principles, displaying them in their whole extent, and thus arriving at particular truths. We shall now point out the proper means of development, and the principal ob- jects to be attained by them ; afterward considering the different ages of child- hood, and the successive steps in development and order of studies. First means of development. Number* SECTION 1. Exercises in number, with reference to truth. A. Mental calculation; to give intuitive knowledge of numbers, and their rela- tions : including a. exercises on units. b. simple fractions. c. compound fractions or complex fractions. In each of these three series there are different degrees, namely, First, (Preparatory,) Numeration, or learning to count. Second, Composition of Numbers; e. g., all numbers are composed of units. All even numbers are composed of twos ; all triple ones of threes, &c. Also, decomposition of numbers, e. g. ; all numbers may be decomposed into units; all even numbers into twos ; all triple ones into threes, j ct, and the invariable laws of its nature. The faculty of believing divine reve- lation, which unites the most elevated powers of the soul and heart. Faculties firmed in each of the preceding degrees, are : — The faculty of devoting the thoughts to one object, excluding every other • (attention.} The faculty of creating any image : (imagination.} 192 KRtiSI, VIEWS AND PLAN OF EDUCATION. The faculty of receiving and preserving every effort of the understanding . (memory.) The faculty of discovering beauty : (taste.) The study of the intellectual faculties leads to the study of intellectual pro- ductions. a. For satisfying intellectual wants, that is to say, the essential means for the expansion of the mind : (Language, number, form.) These three productions of the human mind have been already represented as essential means for intel- lectual cultivation. b. For satisfying corporal wants or to aid the bodily organs to serve the mind. General knowledge of arts and trades, of the materials they employ, of their mode of action : (technology.) C. Moral man. The germ of morality is in the sentiments of love, confidence, gratitude. Fruit of these sentiments : (obedience.) Faculties whose action springs from intelligence and sentiment : will, liberty. The governing and representative faculty of the will, is with the child the will of his parents ; among men grown, the will of God: (conscience.) Man as a moral, intellectual and physical being is in affinity with his superiors, his equals, and his inferiors. Our relation with superior beings commences at our birth : those then above us are our father and mother. Those with whom we begin to be in connection when we enter into civil society are persons in authority. The \ highest points to which we can ascend in our relation to beings above us is as 1 children of God. The fundamental relation of all those with beings on a level w.'th us, is that of brothers and sisters in the interior of our family. These rela- tiohs exist in full extent, and perfection, when we regard all mankind as brethren, and "ijs forming with us a single family. The fundamental relations of all those with beings beneath us are those of a father and mother toward their children. These relations exist in all their perfection and true dignity when we are the rep- resentatives of the Deity, with those committed to our care. The knowledge of the relationships of which we have just spoken, existing in domestic life, in civil society, and in religion, the same conducts to that of our rights and duties as men, as citizens and as Christians. By exercising a child in the study of himself and of the men around him, his faculties, the productions of his intellectual activity, the principles and the conse- quences of his actions, his relative situation to all beyond himself, the rights and duties resulting from this situation, he is prepared to study the same objects in a wider sphere, namely, in the human race, where appears in full, all that the in- dividual offers in miniature ; and this study is the main object of history. The study of history includes three successive degrees. 1st DEGREE. From the time a child begins to study human nature and as a confirmation of the truths this study will discover to him, he will be shown par- ticular and well chosen facts, taken from the history of individuals or nations, facts, the circumstances of which compose a whole, and form in his imagination, as it were, a picture after nature. When the child shall have arrived at a certain de- gree of development, he will be made to bring home all these isolated events to the men, or to the people, as well as to the time and place, to which they belong. In this degree the study of history serves principally to feed the imagination, and the memory. 2d DEGREE. When the young man shall be more advanced in the knowledge of human nature, he may ascend to the origin of the actual state of the nations that surround him, beginning with the people of his own country. We may conduct him to the epoch which has been the germ of this actual state, and seek with him the successive degrees by which the nation has progressed, as well as the principles and consequences of each particular event. He will thus learn to know the current order of history, of the principal nations in existence. He will then pass on to the history of those now no more. In this degree, the study of history serves principally as food to the judgment, inasmuch as it connects actions, causes, and their consequences. 3d DEGREE. Only when the young man shall have become more matured, acquired a deep knowledge of human nature, and the consequences of the de- velopment of the individual, is it, that he can with advantage collect the particular KRUSI, VIEWS AND PLAN OF EDUCATION. ^93 facts, ai)d the series of events which he has learned to know, in order to form one entire whole, and to study in mass, the consequences of the development of the human species and of each historical personage, which is the essential end of his- tory, and the highest point to which it can lead. In this degree the study of his- tory serves as food to the mind in its most noble state of action. Auxiliary means for the development of the faculties and the acquisition of knowledge. The study of what men have produced, as true, beautiful and good. 1st. Progressive lessons according to the degree of development the child has attained and the branches of study to which he applies. 2d. Exercises for the memory. To learn by heart beautiful pieces of poetry, eloquence or music. 3d. Exercise of judgment and of taste: an examination of the productions of art, to trace therein the principles of truth and beauty. 4th. Imitation and reproduction : declamation of pieces of eloquence, or of poetry ; execution of musical composition ; copying drawings and paintings. General means for rendering the body of man able to serve his soul and to ex- ecute its conceptions. (Gymnastics.) In domestic life the child's body is the object of most tender care. As the child expands, he constantly exercises the organs of his senses and of all his mem- bers. Care on the part of the parents and exercises on that of the child are the double means of his preservation and his first development. Bodily exercise for a child comes in the form of plays destined to amuse and divert him. At first they vary at almost every instant. Gradually they become more steady, and more serious. The art of education extends and perfects what life itself begins and prepares. Thus what in its birth was but play and amusement becomes the object of a com- plete development, of which the very organization of our body points out the aim and the laws. Gymnastics present three different degrees. a. Children's plays ; free exercises produced by unconscious strength and ac- tivity, and determined by the impulse of the mind and the accidental circum- stances of life. b. Progressive and regulated exercises of the limbs. Gymnastics properly so called. c. Exercises preparatory to occupations in active life, and to the employment the pupil is to embrace : Gymnastics of Industry. By the gymnastic exercises, directed toward the essential object of developing the physical faculties in harmony with the intellectual and moral, and by care to preserve the strength and purity of the organs, the body may attain its true des- tination, namely to serve the rnind by executing its conceptions. Different ages of pi/pils. These ages are fixed from a general view of children. In different individuals nature accelerates or retards the progress of development, so that some enter ear- lier, some later into each period. There are also individuals who develop more rapidly in some directions than in others. We must therefore, take care that tJ/e backward faculties are not neglected, which would destroy in the individual, the harmony of human nature. A. First age ; until five years old. During this first age, the child is exclusively the object of maternal and pa- ternal care. He only receives instruction occasionally ; each moment, each cir- cu instance may furnish a means to fix his attention upon the objects which sur- round him, and to teach him to observe them, to express his observations and to act upon them as far as his age will allow. The development which the child may acquire in this first period is of the greatest future importance. Every teacher will find a wide difference between the child whose parents have trained him with tenderness and judgment and him who has been in the first stage aban- doned to himself, or what is worse, ill-directed or ill-associated. B. Second age •, from five to ten years. It is at this period only that a regular course of instruction should begin. At first this should be but a" recapitulation of all the child has learned by the habits of life, with the simple difference that the objects of the exercises should no longer be determined by accident, but fixed in one plan, adapted to the intellectual wants 13 1 94 KRtfSI, VIEWS AND PLAN OF EDUCATION. of the child. Domestic life thus furnishes, during the first period, the germ* which a course of instruction ought to develop, and in a great measure decides ita success. The following exercises properly belong to this age. 1 . Maternal and domestic language. 2. Exterior of language : composition of words, reading, writing, spelling. We must always take care that the knowledge of the interior of language keeps a little before the exterior. 3. Elementary exercises in singing. 4. Mental arithmetic with units. 5. Construction of figures according to given conditions, and linear drawing. 6. Application of language and the acquisition of knowledge ; knowledge of the human body. There are other exercises which may be begun at this period, but which do not properly belong to it ; for which reason we put off the mention of them to the following period. C. Third age • from ten to fifteen. 1 . Interior of language : social language. 2. Exterior of language : composition of phrases and of periods, orthography, punctuation. 3. Continuation of singing exercises. 4. Mental arithmetic with simple and with compound fractions. Written arithmetic to the rule of three, in its full extent, inclusively. 5. Geometry properly so called : relation of forms, as far as, and including stereometry. Drawing : perspective, shades, drawing from nature. 6. Application of language to the acquisition of knowledge. a. Continuation of the study of the physical man : senses, sensations, inclina- tions, passions. b. Intellectual man. c. Moral man. d. Knowledge of such natural objects in the three kingdoms as by a complete system of positive features, may serve as a representative of a series of other ob- jects of like character. e. Knowledge of the elements as far as it can be acquired by observation, with- out the aid of physical and chemical apparatus. f. Geography. f. Technology and notices of the principal inventions. . History, 1st degree. 7. Application of arithmetic to bulk : to duration, to weight, and to the con- ventional value of objects. D. Fourth age ; from fifteen to eighteen or twenty. Language. Continuation of language. Rules for the construction of lan- guage. Logic. Compositions on given subjects. Rhetoric. Continuation of singing exer- cises. Arithmetic, mental and written ; evolution of powers ; extraction of roots. Algebra, geometry, trigonometry and conic sections. Drawing. Continuation of perspective, shades, and drawing from nature. Application of language to the acquirement of knowledge. Continuation of the study of the intellectual and moral man. Relations of the physical, intellectual and moral man to other beings. Continuation of the study of the three kingdoms of nature. Elementary course of physic and chemistry. Geography, mathematics and histoiy. History. 2d degree. Application of arithmetic and geometry united, to agriculture, drafting, etc. Observations on the study of foreign languages. In each stage of development it is important that the mother tongue should always keep a little before all foreign languages, that the child should learn noth- ing in these he does not already know in that, so as to leave no deficiency in the mother tongue. If any study were pursued by the child in a foreign language only, such language would in this department take the lead ; the child would find KRUSI, VIEWS AND PLAN OF EDUCATION. }Q5 it difficult to express himself in his own tongue on subjects learned by means of a strange one. On the contrary, the study of all foreign languages should serve to make the mother tongue better known. In a seminary where 'different pupils speak different languages, these must go hand in hand, and every branch of instruction must be cultivated in them both. Hence results this advantage, that the pupil learns by intuition the meaning of the words of the language which is foreign to him, that is to say he every in- stant sees this meaning/and does not learn it solely from translation and memory. This mode of employijjtg two languages singularly facilitates the communication of ideas in them both.; It also gives the advantage of comparing them, and thereby teaches their actual relations and difference both as to ground and form. A knowledge of the genius, the peculiarities and the shades of meaning of each are the fruits of this cdrnpafison. Dead languages are More foreign to the mind of a child, and more difficult for him. The study of th$m. should be based upon a sufficient development of the living languages, and afrove all of the native language ; without which they re- main dead in the mind,^vwthout real fruit. This study should not therefore be- gin before the third pentkL;; and should not occupy all the pupils, but only those destined to walk in the paths of science. Those otherwise to be disposed of, may employ their time and tfteir endeavors to much greater advantage. III. RELIGION. THE SOUL AND THE FINAL END OF ALL EDUCATION. Third means for the cultivation of man. As the body is vivified by the soul, so domestic, social and intellectual life are animated and ennobled by religion. Without it the activity of man in each of these three spheres, b?(s;;ouly a terrestrial object and falls short of its true dignity and destiny. Thus the relations of Father and mother are ennobled and sanctified when the father and the mother consider themselves, in respect to their children, as the representatives of Goethe common father of all. The state of the child is ennobled and sanctified, when we not only feel our- selves children of mortal parents, but at the same time children of God, destined to rise to perfection evi&n as our heavenly father is perfect. The state of brothep:£nd sisters is also ennobled and sanctified when we re- cognise all mankind a& brothers and sisters and members of one same family. The endeavors we make to develop our intellectual faculties and to gain a knowledge of truth, are sanctified when we acknowledge God as the fountain of all wisdom and the eternal source of all virtue and goodness. All earthly life is sanctified when made a^preparation for one heavenly and immortal. The specific means which education may adopt to promote in the child a reli- gious life are : 1. Pious exercises, the principal of which is prayer. 2. Religious conversations, in which we take advantage of the circumstances and events of life to raise the soul of the child from what is earthly and fugitive, to what is heavenly andreverlasting. 3. The study of sacr-ed history and important passages of Holy Writ, chosen with care, according to;Jthe degree of development the child may have attained, and which, committed to memory, are germs which religious instruction and the events of life will hereafter develop. 4. Religious instruction properly so called ; or the regular explanation of the doctrine of our SaviourVv This instruction should only take place in the 4th period of development 5 and the chief aim of every preceding period should be to pre- pare for it. Jt should .close the child's career and become his support in the hour of trial, his guide to direct his steps to the highest point of perfection of which his nature is susceptible. .. All education should: proceed from man and lead to God. Man should en- deavor to live in God'and for God, and to devote to HIM all his terrestrial and intellectual existence..;, To this, domestic and social life, exterior nature, and ; 11 the circumstances through which he passes here below, should conduct him. But it is only through the influence of God, that all these can produce this effect; the sublime truths of the gospel can alone lead us into that way which leads to that heavenly life which is our true destination. 196 KRUSI, VIEWS AND PLAN OF EDUCATION. PROSPECTUS OF AN ESTABLISHMENT FOR THE EDUCATION OF BOYS. From the earliest age at which they can receive regular instruction, to that in which they should enter into a scientific pur suit, a profession, or business. This establishment was commenced three years ago. While I was yet with Mr. Pestalozzi, working with him in his undertaking and teaching in his institution, two pupils were unexpectedly committed to my particular care and direction. These were shortly followed by a third, their relation. From that time a combination of circum- stances independent of my will induced me to leave the institution 1 had assisted to form and direct during sixteen years. I should above all things have preferred, aftei this separation, to have labored to form teachers for the people, taking poor children equal to the office. Seeing the accomplishment of this desire beyond my reach, 1 ap- plied myself to measures more within my ability, and such as appeared appointed by Providence. I extended my sphere of activity, receiving such new pupils as were intrusted to my care unsought by me. This train of circumstances on the one hand, and on the other rny desire to remain attached to Messrs. Niederer and Naef, (during many years my friends and companions in labor,) and with them to devote my life to education, induced me again to choose Yverdun for the place of my intended labor, and for the gradual growth of my rising institution. Our union enables us to find means and men competent in every respect to insure the prosperity of our three institutions, (that of Mr. Naef for the deaf and dumb, that of Mr. Niederer for youth of either sex, and mine.) Mr. Nabholz, whose sentiments and purposes resemble our own, will enter my institution as assistant. Mr. Steiner, a pupil of Pestalozzi, will teach mathematics, in which his talents and success afford the brightest hopes. Keeping up friendly intercourse with Mr. Brousson, principal of the College of Yverdun and with other respectable men, I receive from them, in the different branches of instruction, assistance of importance to me, and on the continu- ance of which 1 can depend. In my former situation the frequent changes which oc- curred among my companions in labor often pained me on account of its influence on the success of that undertaking to which I devoted my life. To avoid a like inconvenience, which must inevitably produce every kind of discord, and expose an institution subject to it, to great dangers, we shall choose our assistants and fellow-laborers with the greatest circumspection. The views which serve as the foundation of my enterprise are the same with those I have helped to develop under the paternal direction of Pestalozzi. All that I have found in many years' observation, both by my own experience and that with my pupils, to be true and conducive to the entire culture of man, I shall strive by unremitting efforts to develop more and more in myself and to apply in a natural manner for the advantage of rny pupils.* My first object is, to establish in my institution a true domestic life ; that all the pu- pils may be considered as members of one family, and that thus all those sentiments and all those virtues which are necessary to a happy existence, and which render the connections of life pure and sweet, may be developed. Without this foundation, I believe that the blessing of God is wanting on every means of education whatever. The extent of knowledge and executive ability which the pupils will acquire is in part the same for all, and in part influenced by individual dispositions and destinations, it is the same for all inasmuch as it embraces the development of the faculties and powers most essential to human nature. Thus far, the method has acquired an inva- riable basis, inasmuch as it has established language, number and form, as produc- tions of the human mind and as the universal means by which the mind should be developed. The acquisition of knowledge and executive skill as a result of this development are secured either by means of exercises in language, number and form, or connect them- selves with these in a very simple manner. Thus, with the study of numbers is con- nected mercantile and scientific calculation. The study of form and size leads to the art of drawing and writing. The exercises in the mother tongue as a means of de- veloping the mind of the child, conduct to the study of foreign languages and to the knowledge of objects, which the tongue serves to sejze and to define. Music as a combined production of two elements is allied to language by tone, and to number by measure. In the circle of human knowledge, man as a compound being is the center of a double world : of an exterior and physical world to which the three kingdoms of nature * I have endeavored in the Coup d'oeil which precedes this announcement, to state the means of education such as 1 conceive them to be. This exposition will be the model and the basis of my vvork. It is evident that these views and these means can not all be devel- oped by a single man or a single institution. It is a task in which all the friends of education mutit cooperate. KRUSI, VIEWS AND PLAN OF EDUCATION. |Q^ belong, and also the earth which contains them and all exterior nature ; and of an interior world, intellectual "and moral, which, proceeding from the faculties and the powers or our nature, contains all the whole sphere of the connections of man, and of his du- ties toward himself, toward his fellow creatures, and toward God. The child should be as familiar with this interior world as with the exterior and physical world. Intellectual cultivation should be accompanied by cultivation of the heart. The physical powers should also be developed, in order that the body may be able to per- form what the mind has conceived and the will has resolved. Bodily exercise in this respect possesses an essential and incontestible value. The mind and the heart stand in need of the body in all the actions of life. The operations of the soul are hamm- ered in proportion as the body is neglected, or unequal to execute its orders. In regard to the admission and residence of pupils in my school, I desire -parents who propose to intrust their children to my care, to fully weigh the following consid- erations. The two most decisive epochs in education are that of early infancy under the mother's care, and that where the youth enters into manhood. If these two periods are successfully passed, it may be considered that the education has succeeded. If either has been neglected or ill-directed, the man feels it during his whole life. The age of boyhood being the intermediate period between early infancy and youth, is of unmis- takable importance, as the development of the first period, and the germ of the third ; but in no case does this age influence either dccisivp.li/, by repairing previous defects or neg- lects, or by insuring what shallfollow. In the first age the child belongs by preference to its mother, to be taken care of by her; in the second age it belongs by preference to its father, to be directed by him. As a young man, a new existence opens to him, he ceases to be the child of his parents ; and becomes their friend. The son, at maturity, becomes the tender, intimate and faithful friend of his parents, as he was, in his mi- nority, their amiable, docile, and faithful child. With regard to exterior life, the child must sooner or later become an orphan, and when this misfortune befalls him in his minority, society provides that a guardian shall supply the place of parents until he comes of age. For the interior life, no one can sup- ply this place for him. Nothing but intellectual and moral strength in the child himself, and strengthened by that wisdom and that love which proceed from God, can bring us near to HIM and supply the place of the wisdom and the love of our father and mother. When the young man has attained this point, it is only as a friend that he remains the child of his parents. If he is not brought up in these noble dispositions, an unhappy consequence follows; the bonds of nature are broken on his coming of age. because these bonds were only of force with respect to physical life ; and the child, who, in this Jirst friendship — in this friendship whose objects are nearest to him — has not supported the trial of fidelity, will never bear the test for any being upon earth. Therefore it is that this period in education is so important, so decisive, and so ex- acting more than any other. On the one hand it requires the purity and tender affec- tion of domestic life, and on the other side, solid and wholesome food for the mind. In this exigency a means presents itself which ought to be the keystone in the edu- cation of the child, the resting place for the passage from minority to majority, the foundation of a new life ; a means raised above every other, namely, Religion — the revelation of all that is divine in man manifested by Jesus Christ. The young man, who in body, as a mortal, ceases to be a child, should become a new child in soul, and as an immortal being. After entering this new state, he ought in general to cease to be the pupil of men, to raise himself above their direction, and to become the pupil of himself, that is to say, of that wisdom and that love which comes to us from God and raises -us to him. So long as a man has not attained this point, his education is incomplete. The aim of education is to enable him to reach it. To strive incessantly toward this object, is the task of the institution here announced. YVERDUN, Pestalozzi's birthday, 1818. JOHANNES BUSS. JOHANNES Buss, an assistant teacher of Pestalozzi, especially in teaching drawing, was born at Tubingen, in Wurteniburg, in 1776. His father held a subordinate place about the theological school, and thus secured for the son better opportunities of early instruction than are usually enjoyed by persons in his condition. In the' gram- mar school he acquired, before he was twelve years old, considerable knowledge in Greek and Hebrew, logic and rhetoric.1 His father ap- plied for his gratuitous reception in an institution recently established by the reigning Duke Charles, at Stuttgardt^ -but this was refused; and about the same time an edict was promulgated, prohibiting chil- dren of the middle and lower class from embracing a literary career. The youth, although disappointed, did not despair, but applied him- self to the study of drawing. This he was obliged to give up from the want of means, and at the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a bookbinder — an art by which he hoped yet tg-Vget the means for a literary career. We continue the narrative, in Buss's own language, down to his connection with Pestalozzi. Having served my apprenticeship, I began to travel-} but growing melan- choly and sickly, I was obliged to return home; and -Here I made a new at- tempt to get rid of my trade, hoping that the little knowledge of music I had retained would enable me to earn my bread in Switzerland;' With this hope I went to Basel ; but my circumstances, and the events of my past life, had given me . a degree of shyness, which foiled me in all my at- tempts at money-getting. I had not the courage to ,|ell the people all that a man must say to obtain from them what I wanted. A+friend of mine, who met me by accident at that moment of embarrassment, reconciled me for a short time to the bookbinding business; I entered once more : -in to a workshop; but the very first day I sat down in it, I began again 1J&'- indulge myself in my dreams, thinking it still possible that a better chance might turn up for me in time, although I was quite aware that I had lost too much of my skill in music and drawing to rely upon those two attainments for an independent subsist- ence. 1 consequently changed my place, in order to gain time for practice in both, and I was lucky enough to get two spare hours a day, and to form ac- quaintances, which assisted me in my progress. Among others I was introduced to Tobler, who soon perceived the gloom by which I was oppressed; and having ascertained the cause, was desirous of as- sisting me in gaining a more favorable position. "When, therefore, Kriisi in- formed him that Pestalozzi stood in need of a drawing and music-master for the full organization of his new method, his thoughts immediately turned toward me. I was, as I have before stated, fully aware of my deficiencies; and the hope that I should meet with an opportunity of improving myself, had no small share in my determination to go to Burgdorf, in spite of the warnings which I JOHANNES BUSS. 199 received from several quarters against forming any connection with Pestalozzi, who, they told me, was half mad, and knew not himself what he was about. In proof of this assertion they related various stories ; as, for instance, that he once came to 13asel, having his shoes tied with straw, because he had given his silver buckles to a "beggar on the road. I had read "Leonard and Ger- trude" and had, therefore, little doubt about the buckles; but that he was mad, that I questioned. In short, I was determined to try. I went to Burgclorf. I can not describe the feelings I had at our first interview. He came down from an upper room with Ziemssen, who was just then on a visit with him, his stock- ings hanging down about his heels, and his coat covered with dust. His whole appearance was so miserable that I was inclined to pity him, and yet there was in his expression something so great, that I viewed him with astonishment and veneration. This, then, was Pestalozzi? His benevolence, the cordial recep- tion he gave to me, a perfect stranger, his unpretending simplicity, and the di- lapidated condition in which he stood before me ; the whole man, taken together, impressed me most powerfully. I was his in one instant. No man had ever so sought my heart ; but none, likewise, has ever so fully won my confidence. The following morning I entered his school : and, at first, I confess I saw in it nothing but apparent disorder, and an uncomfortable bustle. But I had heard Ziemssen express himself, the day before, with great warmth concerning Pestalozzi's plan 5 my attention was excited, and, conquering in myself the first impression, I endeavored to watch the thing more closely. It was not long before I discovered some of the advantages of the new method. At first I thought the children were detained too long at one point ; but I was soon reconciled to this, when I saw the perfection which they attained in their first exercises, and the advantages which it insured to them in their further progress. I now perceived, for the first time, the disadvantages under which I myself had labored, in consequence of the incoher- ent and desultory manner in which I had been taught in my boyhood 5 and I be- gan to think that, if I had been kept to the first elements with similar persever- ance, I should have been able afterward to help myself, and thus to escape all the sufferings and melancholy which I had endured. This notion of mine perfectly agrees with Pestalozzi's principle, that by his method men are to be enabled to help themselves, since there is no one, as he says, in God's wide world, that is willing or able to help them. I shuddered when I read this passage for the first time in " Leonard and Gertrude." But, alas, the experience of my life has taught me that, unless a man be able to help him- self, there is actually no one, in God's wide world, able or willing to help him. I now saw quite clearly that my inability to pursue the plan of rny younger years in an independent manner, arose from the superficiality with which I had been taught, and which had prevented me from attaining that degree of intrinsic pow- er of which I stood in need. I had learned an art, but I was ignorant of the basis on which it rested ; and now that I was called on to apply it, in a manner consistent with its nature, I found myself utterly at a loss to know what that na- ture was. With all the attention and zeal I brought to the subject, I could not understand the peculiar view which Pestalozzi took of drawing, and I could not at all make out his meaning, when he told me that lines, angles, and curves were the basis of drawing. By way of explanation, he added, that in this, as in all other matters, the human mind must be led from indistinct intuitions to clear ideas. But I had no idea, whatever, how this was to be done by drawing. He said it must be done by dividing the square and the curve, by distinguishing their simple elements, and comparing them with each other. I now tried to find out what these simple elements were, but I knew not how to get at simple elements 5 and, in endeavoring to reach them, I drew an endless variety of figures, which, it is true, might be called simple, in a certain sense, but which were utterly unfit, nevertheless, to illustrate the elementary laws which Pestalozzi was in search of. Unfortunately he was himself no proficient either in writing or drawing ; though, in a manner to me inconceivable, he had carried his children pretty fnr in both these attainments. In short, months passed away before I understood what was to be done with the elementary lines which he put down for me. At last I began to suspect that I ought to know less than I did know ; or that, at least. T must throw my knowledge, as it were, overboard, in order to descend to those simple elements by which I saw him produce such powerful, and, to me, unattainable 200 JOHANNES BUSS. effects. My difficulties were immense. But the constant observation of the progress which his children made in dwelling perseveringly on his " elements," brought my mind, at last, to maturity on that point ; I did violence to myself, and, abandoning my preconceived notions of the subject, I endeavored to view all things in the light of those same elements ; till, at last, having reached the point of simplicity, I found it easy, in the course of a few days, to draw up my sketch of an alphabet of forms. Whatever my eyes glanced upon from that moment, I saw between lines which determined its outline. Hitherto I had never separated the outline from the ob- ject, in my imagination ; now I perceived the outline invariably as distinct from the object, as a measurable form, the slightest deviation from which I could easily ascertain. But I now fell into another extreme. Before I had seen nothing but objects; now I saw nothing but lines; and I imagined that children must be ex- ercised on these lines exclusively, in every branch of drawing, before real objects were to be placed before them for imitation, or even for comparison. But Pesta- lozzi viewed his drawing-lessons in connection with the whole of his method, and with nature, who will not allow any branch of art to remain isolated in the hu- man mind. His intention was, from the first beginning, to lay before the child two distinct series of figures, of which one should be contained in his book for the earliest infancy, and the other should furnish practical illustrations for a course of lessons on abstract forms. The first were intended to form, as it were, a supple- ment to nature, in giving children an intuitive knowledge of things and their names. The second was calculated to combine the practical application of art with the theoretical knowledge of its laws, by connecting the perception of ab- stract forms with an intuitive examination of the objects that fitted into those forms. In this manner, he meant to bring nature and art to bear upon each other ; so that, as soon as the children were able to draw a line, or a figure, real objects should be presented to them, so exactly corresponding as to render their imitation a mere repetition of the same exercise which they had before performed in the abstract. I was afraid lest, by giving the child real objects, his perception of the outline should be disturbed ; but Pestalozzi did not wish to cultivate any power against nature, and he said, concerning this subject : " Nature gives no lines, but only ob- jects to the child ; the lines must be given to the child, that he may view the objects correctly; but to take the objects from him, in order to make him see lines only, would be exceedingly wrong." But there was another difficulty in which I had entangled myself. Pestalozzi told me that children must learn to read those outlines like so many words, by denominating the different parts, the lines, angles, and curves, with different let- ters, so that their combinations may be as easily expressed in language, arid put down in writing, as any other word by the composition of its letters. In this man- ner an alphabet of forms was to be established and a technical language created, by means of which the nicest distinctions of the different forms might be clearly brought before the mind, and appropriately expressed in words calculated to illus- trate them by the difference of the formation. Pestalozzi persevered until I understood him. I saw that I gave him a great deal of trouble, and I was sorry for it. It was, however, unavoidable ; and but for his patience we should never have made an alphabet of forms. At last I succeeded. I began by the letter A. I showed him what I had done ; he approved of it, and now one thing followed from the other without any difficulty. In fact, the figures being once completed, the whole was done ; but I was unable to see all that I had done ; T had neither the power of expressing myself clearly on the subject, nor the capability of understanding the expression of others. To remedy the defect under which I labored is, however, one of the most es- sential objects of Pestalozzi's method, which connects language throughout with the knowledge gained from nature by the assistance of art, and supplies the pupil at every stage of instruction with appropriate expressions for what he has learned. It was an observation which we all of us made upon ourselves, that we were unable to give a distinct and accurate account, even of those things of which we had a clear and comprehensive idea. Pestaloz/i himself, when explaining his views on education, had great difficulties in finding always the precise term which would convey his meaning. JOHANNES BUSS. 201 It was this want of precise language, in fact, which caused me to remain so long in the dark concerning the nature of my task, and prevented me from per- ceiving what Pestalozzi's views were on that subject. After I had overcome all these difficulties, my progress was rapid, and I felt every day more the advantages of his method. 1 saw how much may be done by precision and clearness of language on the subject of instruction, whether it be one of nature or of art, to assist the mind in forming a correct notion of forms and their proportions, and in distinguishing them clearly from each other ; and I could not, therefore, but be aware of the paramount importance of enlightened and careful instruction in the signs which language supplies for the designation of things, their properties, relations, and distinctions. Experience confirmed the conjecture which I had formed, that children taught upon this method would make more accurate distinctions, than even men accustomed, from early life, to measuring and drawing ; and the progress which many of our children made was beyond comparison, greater than that which is commonly obtained in schools. It is very true, I saw the whole of Pestalozzi's method only through the me- dium, as it were, of my peculiar branch of instruction, and judged of its value by the effects which it produced in particular application to my art. But my anxiety to enter fully into the spirit of it, led me, in spite of that limitation, by degrees to investigate the bearing which it had upon other branches; and, at last, assisted by the practical illustrations which drawing afforded rne, I succeeded in comprehending Pestalozzi's views on language and arithmetic. I saw that, as it was possible to proceed from lines to angles, from angles to figures, and from fig- ures to real objects, in the art of drawing, so it must likewise be possible, in lan- guage, to proceed by degrees from sounds to words, and from words to sentences, and thereby lead the child to equal clearness on that subject. As regards arith- metic, I was laboring under the same error as before, with reference to the intu- ition of objects. As I looked at these without reference to their outline, so did I view numbers without a clear notion of the real value or contents of each. Now, on the contrary, I acquired a distinct and intuitive idea of the extent of each number, and I perceived, at the same time, the progress which the children made in this branch of instruction. At length, it seemed to me a point of essential importance, that the knowledge and practice of the elements of every art should be founded upon number, form, and language. This led me to understand the difficulties with which I had so long been struggling in my own department. I saw how I had stuck fast from want of clearness of language, and how I was impeded by a confused idea of number. It seemed very obvious that the child can not imagine, with any degree of precision, the division of any figure into its component parts, unless he have a clear idea of the number of those parts; that, for instance, if he is in the dark as to the extent of the number four, he must be equally in the dark on the division of any figure into four parts. I felt my own mind daily clearing up ; I saw that what I had attained had in itself a power, as it were, to carry me further and further ; and applying this experience to the child, I came to the conviction, that -the effect of Pestalozzi's method is, to render every individual intellectually independent, by awakening and strengthening in him the power of advancing by himself in every branch of Knowledge. It seemed like a great wheel, which, if once set going, would con- tinue to turn round of itself. Nor did it appear so to me only. Hundreds came, and saw, and said : '' It can not fail." Poor ignorant men and women said : u Why, that's what I can do myself at home with my child ! " And they were right. The whole of the method is mere play for any one who has laid hold of the first elements, and has followed its progress sufficiently to be secured against the danger of straying into those circuitous paths which lead man away from the foundation of nature, on which alone all his knowledge and art can securely rest, and from which he can not depart without entangling himself in endless and inextricable difficulties. Nature herself demands nothing of us but what is easy, provided we seek it in the right way, and under her guidance. One word more, and 1 have done. My acquaintance with Pestalo/zi's method has in a great measure restored to me the cheerfulness and energy of my younger days, and has rekindled in my bosom those hopes of improvement for myself and my species, which I had for a long time esteemed as vain dreams, and castaway, in opposition to the voice of my own heart. JOSEPH SCHMID. JOSEPH SCHMID, one of the best known of Pestalozzi's assistants, was a native of Tyrol, and, when he entered the institution as a scholar, was a Catholic, and excessively ignorant. He possessed great native talent for mathematics, and this, together with his habits of industry, order, and thoroughness, raised him in time to the rank of the most influential of Pestalozzi's teachers. Although his talents as a mathematician, and still more his great business capacity, rendered him quite indispensable as a member of the institution, yet his con- duct, and his demeanor in his intercourse with his fellow-instructors, became so unsatisfactory to them, that in 1810 he was dismissed from the institution. He soon after established himself as teacher of a school at Bregenz, and vindicated himself by publishing a work en- titled "My Experience and Ideas on Education, Institutions, and Schools." But the absence of his financial guidance brought the institution to such a point of confusion, that, notwithstanding the deep ill-feeling against him on the part of the teachers, he was recalled five years afterward, in 1815. From this time onward, he was in opposition to all the remaining teachers, except Pestalozzi himself, who unflinch- ingly stood his friend to the day of his death. But the dislike of the other teachers against him, although unable to eject him from the institution, resulted, with other causes, in its ruin. Twelve of the teachers, including Blochmann, Kriisi, Stern, Ramsauer, Ackermann, &c., left at one time ; having drawn up and signed a document attrib- uting their departure to the faults and misconduct of Schmicl. Others were appointed in their places, but the day of the institution was over, and it gradually sank into entire decay. Schmid now conceived the idea of an edition of the complete works of Pestalozzi, and himself made the arrangements with the publisher, Cotta, and applied for subscriptions in all quarters, with so much vigor and success that the net profits of the undertaking to Pestalozzi were 50,000 francs. He also appears to have assisted in revising and rewriting portions of the works ; which, however, do not contain a number of important compositions by Pestalozzi, while some of Sclimid's own, embodying them, are published among them. Schmid's personal appearance was somewhat striking. He was JOSEPH SCIIM1D. 203 muscular and strong, of dark complexion, and keen black eyes, with, a harsh voice, and a sharp look. Of his life, subsequent to the year 18l7y we have no precise information. We give below Festal ozzi's own estimate of Schmid, as published in 1825 : — " I must trace from its source the powers which seemed the only ones capable of holding us together in these sad circumstances. While we were at Burgdorf, in the beginning of the evil consequences of our unnatural union there, there came to us, from the mountains of Tyrol, a lad showing not a single trace of the exaggerated refine- ment of our time, but endowed with inward gifts whose depth and subsequent, use were anticipated by none — not even by myself. But some unexplained feeling drew me toward him on the first instant of his appearance in our midst, as I had never been drawn to any other pupil. His characteristics were, from the first, quiet, efficient activity, circumscribed within himself; great religious fervency, after the Cath- olic persuasion, and of a simple but powerful kind ; and eager efforts after every attainment in learning or wisdom which he judged neces- sary. In the exercises in elementary means of education, mental and practical, he soon surpassed all his teachers, and soon even became the instructor of those who a little before had looked upon him as the most uncultivated child they had ever seen in our institution. This son of nature — who even at this day owes nothing to the culture of the time, and, in all that he has accomplished, is as ignorant of the usual outward forms of every intellectual science as he was the day he came from the mountains into our midst, with his Ave Maria in his mouth and his beads in his pocket, but with a powerful intellect, a peaceful heart, and courage ready for every struggle — soon excited, by his whole conduct amongst us, extraordinary expectations ; and, on my part, that close friendship which I felt for him almost as strongly in the first hour of our meeting. Schmid passed the years of his youth in these quiet but active labors; and, recognized at his first appearance as an extraordinary child of nature, his mind, developed in the power of thinking and managing by many experiences of practical life, could not fail soon to recognize the unnaturalness and weakness of our organization, and of all our doings and efforts. As soon as the influence of his preponder- ating powers had insured him a recognized right to do it, he did not delay to declare himself, with Tyrolian open-heartedness, against the presumption of the one-sided and narrow views of the tablet-phan- tasts, and of the equally narrow and one-sided as well as superficial praises of our methods of intellectual instruction ; and, most of all, against the continually-increasing inefficiency, love of mere amuse- ment, disorder, insubordination, and neglect of positive duties there- 204 JOSEPH SCIIMID. with connected. He required, without any exception, of each and all of the members of our association, from morning to evening, the thorough performance of all the duties properly pertaining to the members of a well-ordered household. He was equally clear and distinct in rejecting every boast of the elevation and importance of our principles and efforts, which was not proved amongst us by actual facts, as idle babble ; and was accustomed to ask, when any thing of this kind was said, 'How is this put into practice? What use is made of it? ' And, if the answer did not please him, he would hear no more of the subject. This conduct, however, very soon and very generally gave very great offense." — Fortunes of My Life, pp. 22 to 24, 34, 35. JOHN GEORGE TOBLEB. JOHN GEORGE TOBLER, an educator of the Pestalozzian school, was born at Trbgen, in the canton of Appenzell-Ausserrhoden, in Switzerland, October 17, 1769. He lost his mother in his third year, and his father in his tenth. His education was very inadequate, as was usual in those times. His disposition inclined him to become a preacher. Want of means, however, prevented him until his twenty- third year, when with a very insufficient preparation he entered the University of Basle. With all the other qualifications for becoming a valuable preacher and catechist, his memory for words failed him in respect to the acquisition of foreign languages. This defect decided him entirely to give up entering for the examination as candidate. He was to find a greater sphere of usefulness in another career. He exchanged his theological studies for the practical employment of a tutor and teacher. In 1799, he placed himself at the head of a school for the female children of emigrants at Basle. An invitation from Pestalozzi brought him to Burgdorf in May, 1800. He there became the friend of Buss and Kriisi, and married, and after a short disagreement with Pestalozzi, labored with him for seven years at Munchen Buchsee and Yverdun. Circumstances brought him to Miihlhausen, where, besides other exertions, he founded his labor-school, which quickly increased so as to contain from four to six hundred scholars, but which came to an end in 1 8 1 1, in the midst of a prosperous career. Tobler returned to Basle, and set about collecting his pedagogical views and experiences, and preparing for the press a geography upon Pestalozzi's principles. His pecuniary needs, however, obliging him to seek another situa- tion, he obtained a place as teacher in a private institution in Glarus. On New Year's day of 1817, together with his fellow -teachers, he was dismissed, by reason of the famine. He immediately turned to his profession of tutor, and held a situation for three entire years, in an eminent family of the neighborhood. The children being after- ward sent to a newly erected cantonal school, he went to Arbon on the Lake of Constance, with the design of erecting there, instead of a school, a superior orphan-house ; but the place was too small. A year afterward he went to St. Gall. Here, the real star of his peda 206 JOHN GEORGE TOBLER. gogical career shone out upon him. That place deserves gratitude for having afforded him ten years together, of free and unimpeded room for the display of his talents as teacher and educator. One of the noblest fruits of this time, was the education of a son to follow his father's honorable example. In 1831, this son was able to graduate from school, and in 1836, he left St. Gall, and accompanied Niederer to. Yverdun, and then to Geneva, at both of which places^he was at the head of institutions of his own ; and was also of very great service to Niederer's school for girls. At present he fills the place of director of a cantonal school at Trogen. Tobler passed his latter years at Basle, in part with his second son, the principal of a boys1 school at Nyon ; where he died in his seventy- fourth year, after a short sickness, Aug. 10, 1843. The last months of his life were rendered happy by an elevated self-consciousness, by the pleasant prospect of ending his days at his native place, as he desired, and by incessant and active occupation in setting in order his writings and his domestic affairs. His inner life was as happy and elevated above earthly things as the evening sun, amidst the eternal blue of heaven. After this short sketch of Tobler's life, varied and struggling as it was, although not fateful, we may devote a few words to his intellectual peculiarities, his rank as a teacher, and his services to humanity and human culture. His moral and religious nature was his predominating trait ; the key-tone of his mind. His father, who filled the place of both father and mother to his sensitive nature, inspired these sentiments into him while yet a child. The maxim "Seek first the kingdom of God (or what was with him its equivalent, the sphere of attainments accord- ing to Christ) and its righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you," was his rule of life ; and in his teaching and his example, afforded him constant assistance in answering such questions as arose during his labors for moral improvement. As soon as he could write, he commenced the practice of taking down sermons and catechizings ; and thus acquired great facility in his German style, and a mastery of analytic methods which afterward stood him in good stead by enabling him to deliver extemporaneous sermons and addresses to children, and to compose excellent sketches of sermons. His popular and instructive style occasioned various congregations," after hearing him, to desire him for a pastor. Efis morning and evening prayers with pupils and children were exceedingly simple, pathetic, clear, and impressive. In moments of higher excite- ment, the very spirit of the Apostle John's epistles spoke through JOHN GEORGE TOBLER. g()7 him. His religious instruction and other Sabbath exercises exerted a profound influence upon the neglected children of the manufacturing school at Miihlhausen. While a student at Basle, Tobler exercised a predominating influ- ence over numbers of his fellow students, in inciting them to industry, and inspiring them with the idea of the honorableness of their future calling. He was one of the founders there of a society for intel- lectual improvement; an enterprise which later events rendered pro- phetical. A very remarkable difference was to be observed between the after lives of those who were his friends, and others. While he was teacher and director of the female school at Basle, he followed in general the doctrines of Basedow, Campe, and Salzmann. His method of teaching was substantially that which has since been named the Socratic. By strictly adhering to this method he endeavored to call into life and to develop the minds and hearts of his scholars, not however in the ancient Greek spirit, but in that of Christ; and thus he proceeded until the man appeared upon the stage, who gave an entirely new meaning to the word Education, who completely ap- prehended the entire subjects of education and instruction, who estab- lished them as an independent, art and science, and made an epoch in their history. To Pestalozzi Tobler adhered, and was afterward his steady disciple. Tobler fully comprehended Pestalozzi's idea and method, in their general collective significance for humanity and education. Their individual principle separately was more difficult of comprehension to him. He understood it to be Spontaneous Activity. This, however, he considered only as a receiving and ivorking faculty, to be developed by perception and drilling (i. e. Receptivity and Spontaneity ; Nature and Capacity ; Faculties ;) and in this opinion he was quite correct, as well as in regard to the relation of these faculties to the three sub- jects of instruction, nature, man, and God. But Pestalozzi had deter- mined a third sub-division of this Spontaneous Activity, before un- recognized, and had distinguished within it the elements pertaining to the intellect and to the feelings, viz., that of the productive spon- taneous activity of the moral and intellectual powers, (the talents ?) In this consists the peculiarity and importance of Pestalozzi's dis- coveries in method, and of the discoveries and the revolution thus originated. It is by operating according to this distinction that the progress of the development and general training of human nature is assured, and the real intellectual and moral emancipation of the schools substantially established. During the first period of Pestalozzi's institution, Tobler took part 208 JOHN GEORGE TOBLER. with all in everything as a beloved teacher and pupil. In a general activity of this kind consisted what might be called Pestalozzi's jubilee. Then, all the teachers were pupils, and all the pupils teach- ers ; so far as they brought forward independent matter of their own, and furnished results of their own inner activity. After a time, how- ever, the necessity of the separation and ordering of different depart- ments of instruction and drilling, rendered it necessary for Tobler to select some special department of labor; and he selected the real branches ; and among them, that of elementary geography. He estab- lished the principles of this study by reference to the actual surface of earth, and to the pupil's own sphere of vision, with a success which entitles him to the name of the father of the new method in geography. Ritter, who knew his labors, and proceeded onward from their termination, passed beyond the sphere of education, by a giant stride forward in his science. Tobler's personal relations with Pestalozzi were neither fortunate nor enduring. Pestalozzi had not the faculty of determining the proper place for each of his assistants, and of laying out for each of them his appointed work. He was neither an organizer nor adminis- trator ; and he regarded Tobler's wishes in this respect as mere as- sumption and weakness. Tobler could not bring out the real value of his views, without their complete display in actual operation. Whoever could at once put a matter into a distinctly practical form could in Pestalozzi's eyes do everything ; and whoever fell at all short of this, nothing. Tobler, therefore, wholly absorbed in the business of elementarizing, did nothing to please or satisfy Pestalozzi. The elementarizing of instruction, and of the so-called "real branches," required too much at once ; namely, the investigation and harmonious arrangement of the elements and laws of two spheres, viz., that of children's powers, and that of the proposed subject-matter of them. Pestalozzi required from Tobler, simple, rapid and immediate results from this investigation, even when the indispensable materials for them were wanting. Both Tobler and Pestalozzi, moreover, were in the habit of very plain speaking ; and as husband and father, Tobler could not devote his entire life to Pestalozzi. This false position of Tobler's gradually became that of the teach- ers and pupils of the institution. And Pestalozzi's dispos^'n-i *•< opinions passed more and more under the influence of a single o - of the assistant teachers (Schmid.) At Miinchen Buchsee, Tobler was a promoter of the separation b tween Pestalozzi and von Fellenberg. Cooperation with the latt was possible only on condition of complete submission to his authority; JOHN GEORGE TOBLER. 200 a claim which von Fellenberg made on the ground of his social posi- tion. But the views of the two men were too radically different ; of the world, of men, and of pedagogy. It is true that pedagogical ly, von Fellenberg proceeded on Pestalozzi's principles ; but it was upon those principles as he entertained them when he wrote Leonard and Gertrude; when he considered the common school as a valuable in- strumentality for the training by society of its needed members ; i. e., for education to agriculture, manufacturing, and trades. This view was in harmony with the caste-spirit of society ; " The individual was not considered as a moral person, and society subordinated to him as to a superior being, but he was placed quite below it." Pestalozzi had, while at Stanz and Burgdorf, risen very far above this view. He had turned about, let go his consideration of mere purposes, and had laid hold upon the principle of personal exterior independence ; not merely as a negative, but as a positive fact. This starting point von Fellen- berg did not recognize; and Tobler, therefore, could not agree with him. The true reason why no union between von Fellenberg and Pestalozzi and the Pestalozzians never took place is, therefore, not to be sought amongst any accidental circumstances, but in their radical op- position of views. In Muhlhausen, and afterward in Glarus, Tobler established new schools. His want of adaptedness to the demands of the times upon the teacher and educator here came sharply out. He experienced, by the severe lesson of falling into poverty and want, the truth, that no one, even if possessed of a lofty new truth, strong by nature, and really deserving of confidence and support, can unpunished oppose himself to the tendencies of the age. Every new truth has its martyrs ; and a pedagogical truth as well as others. His real excellence, and his maturest, he showed at St. Gall, while director and center of his school there, as educator and instructor of his pupils, as guide to his assistants, and as unwearied and unsatisfied investigator after new applications of the Pestalozzian method to language, geography and Natural History. He invented a useful alphabetical and reading machine, arranged a simplified mode of map- drawing, and a good though unfinished course of instruction in Na- tural History. Having continual reference to the common schools, lie paid much attention to the subject of obtaining cheap materials for instruction, and took great interest in the training of teachers, for which also he accomplished considerable o^ood. An idea which never left him after his connection with Pestalozzi, was the training of mothers as teachers ; and the establishment of the belief of the destiny and fitness of the female sex for this high 14 210 JOHN GEORGE TOBLER. calling. Even in his latter years be was still enthusiastic upon this subject, and Niederer's female school at Geneva, owes to him much that is valuable. The following account of Tobler's educational experiments and failures, is given in his own words, in Pestalozzi's "Eliza and Christopher" " After having been, for six years, practically engaged in education,! found the result of my labors by no means answering my expectations. The energy of the children, their internal powers, did not increase according to the measure of my exertions, nor even in proportion to the extent of positive information which they had acquired : nor did the knowledge which I imparted to them appear to me to have a sufficiently strong hold upon their minds, or to be so well connected in its various parts, as J felt it ought to.be. I made use of the best juvenile works that were to be had at that time. But these books contained words, of which the greater part were unintelligible to children, and ideas far beyond the sphere of their own experience ; and conse- quently formed, altogether, so strong a contrast with the mode of thinking, feel- ing, and speaking, natural to their age, that it took endless time and trouble to ex- plain all that they could not understand. But this process of explaining was in itself a tedious job, and, after all, it did no more toward advancing their true in- ternal development, than is done toward dispelling darkness by introducing a few detached rays of light in a dark, room, or in the obscurity of a dense, impenetrable mist. The reason of this was, that these books descended to the profoundest depths of human knowledge, or ascended above the clouds, nay, and to the upper- most heavens of eternal glory, before an opportunity was offered to the children of resting their feet on the solid ground of mother earth ; on which, nevertheless, it is absolutely necessary that men should be allowed to stand, if they are to learn walking before flying; and for the latter, moreover, if it is to be flying indeed, their wings must have time to grow. An obscure foreboding of those truths in my mind, induced me, at an early period, to try to entertain my younger pupils with matters of immediate perception, and to clear up the ideas of the elder ones by Socratic conversations. The result of the former plan was, that the little ones acquired a variety of knowledge not generally to be met with at that age. I endeavored to combine this mode of in- struction with the methods I found in the most approved works ; but whichever of those books I took in hand, they were all written in such a manner as to pre- suppose the very thing which the children were in a great measure to acquire by them, viz., the knowledge of language. The consequence was, that my Socratic conversations with the elder pupils led to no better result than all other explana- tions of words by words, to which no real knowledge corresponds in the children's minds, and of which they have, consequently, no clear notion, as regards either each of them taken separately, or the connection in which they arc placed together. This was the case with my pupils, and, therefore, the explanation which they seemed to understand to-day, would a few days after be completely vanished from their minds, in a manner to me incomprehensible ; and the more pains I took to make everything plain to them, the less did they evince energy or desire to rescue things from that obscurity and confusion in which they naturally appear. With such experience daily before me, I felt myseif invincibly impeded in my progress to the end which I had proposed to myself. I began to converse on the fubject with as many schoolmasters, and others engaged or interested in education, as were accessible to me, in whatever direction: but I found, that although their libraries were well furnished with works on education, of which our age has been so productive, yet they saw themselves placed in the same difficulty with myself, and were no more successful with their pupils than I was with mine. Seeing this, I felt with what an increased weight these difficulties must oppress the mas- ters of public schools, unless, indeed, they were rendered too callous for" such a feeling by a professional spirit. I had a strong, but, unfortunately, not a clear im- p'vssinn of tl," defects of education in all its departments, and I exerted myself to the utmost to find a remedy. I made a determination to collect, partly from my JOHN GEORGE TOBLER. 211 own experience, and partly from works on the subject, all the means, methods, and contrivances, by which it seemed to me possible that the difficulties under which I labored, might be removed at every stage of instruction. But I soon found that my life would not suffice for that purpose. Meanwhile I had already completed whole volumes of scraps and extracts, when Fischer, in several of his letters, drew my attention to the method of Pestalozzi. I soon began to suspect that lie was about to reach the end I was aiming at, without my circuitous means ; and that most of my difficulties arose out of the very nature of the plan which I followed, and which was far too scientific and systematic. I then began to see, that in the same manner the artificial methods, invented in our age, were the very sources of ail the defects of modern education. On the contrary, I saw Pestalozzi equally free from my peculiar difficulties, and from tho general failings, and I ac- counted for this by the fact, that he rejected all our ingenious contrivances, all our well-framed systems. Some of the means employed by him, that for instance of making children draw on slates, seemed to me so simple, that my only puzzle was, how I could have gone on so long without hitting upon them. I was struck with the idea that all his discoveries, seemed to be of the kind which might be termed " obvious," they were none of them far -fetched. But what most attached me to his method, was his principle of re-educating mothers for that for which they ar6 originally destined by nature, for this principle I had long cherished and kept in view, in the course of my experiments. I was confirmed in these views by Kriisi, who, at his visit in Basle, gave, in the girls' school, practical specimens of Pestalozzi 's mode of teaching spelling, read- ing, and arithmetic. Pastor Faesch, and Mr. De Brunn, who had in part organiz- ed the instruction and management of that institution, according to the loose hints which had as yet reached us on the Pestalozzian method, perceived immediately what a powerful impression was produced upon the children by their spelling and /reading together in a stated measure of time. Kriisi had also brought with him 'some school materials for the instruction in writing and arithmetic, and some leaves of a vocabulary, which Pestalozzi intended to draw up as a first reading- book for children ; which enabled us to see the bearing which Pestalozzi 's method had upon the development of the different faculties of human nature. All this contributed to mature in me, very rapidly, the determination to join Pestalozzi, according to his wish. I went to Burgdorf, and the first impression of the experiment, in the state in which it then was, fully answered my expectations. I was astonished to see what a striking degree of energy the children generally evinced, and how simple, and yet manifold, were the means of development by which that energy was elicited. Pestalozzi took no notice whatever of all the existing systems and methods; the ideas which he presented to the minds of his pupils were all extremely simple; his moans of instruction were distinctly subdivided, each part being calculated for a precise period in the progress of development ; whatever was complicated and confused, he rejected ; by a few words he conveyed much, and with little apparent exertion produced a powerful effect; he kept always close to the point then under consideration; some of his branches of instruction seemed like a new creation, raised from the elements of art and nature : all this I saw, and my attention was excited to the highest degree. There were some parts of his experiment, it is true, which seemed to me rather unnatural ; of this description was, for instance, the repetition of difficult and com- plicated sentences, which could not, at first, but make a very confused impression upon his pupils. But I saw, on the other hand, what a power he had of leading children into clear ideas ; yet I mentioned my doubts to him. His answer was, that nature herself presented all sorts of perceptions to our senses in confusion and obscurity, and that she brings th<-m to clearness afterward. To this argument I had nothing to reply,* esp ei.-iMy as I saw that he attached no value to the details * The obvious reply was, that the perceptions which nature presents, however confused, or otherwise obscure, they may be. ;ire realities, and Ihereforecontain in themselves the very elements of clearness, and at the sain, time, a strong inducement to search for those elements. But confiiKt-il impressions made U;KI:I us hy words, are not n-alities. but mere shadows : they have in themselves the elements ofennfusiou. and they oltVr neither an inducement, nor thn toeang, for clearing them Up. The. form- r call nut the mind, tin- latter cramp it. The very power which Pt-s'alo/zi pnssessi d <>v.rl>is pupils, what was it owiiiii to. according m the statements b«tli of hiirHelftuid his frlei d*. but tohtu m-ikinira ruteof supplying the child with a clear and diblii.ct notion of the ivaj'.y. before l;e «,ravt him the sign or shadow, the name I 212 JOHN GEORGE TOBLER. cf his experiment, but tried many of them with a view to throw them aside again, as soon as they should have answered their temporary purpose. With many of them he had no other object than to increase the internal power of the children, and to obtain for himself further information concerning the fundamental princi- ples on which all his proceedings rested. I resolved, therefore, not to mind the apparent inadequacy of some of his means, so much the more as I had come to the conviction, that the further pursuit of the experiment necessarily involved the im- provement of the details of the method. This was perfectly evident already in arithmetic, in drawing, and in the rudiments of language. I perceived, likewise, that by the connection which his different means of in- struction had with each other, every one of them, individually, was instrumental in promoting the success of all the others, and, especially, in developing and strengthening the faculties generally. Long before he began to lay down his principles in stated terms, I saw, in the daily observation of their practical effect, the approaching maturity of the whole undertaking, and, as an infallible conse- quence of it, the gradual attainment of the object he had in view. In trying the details of his method, he never leaves any single exercise until he has so far in- vestigated and simplified it, that it seems physically impossible to advance any further. Seeing the indefatigable zeal with which he did this, I was more and more confirmed in a sentiment, of which I had before had some indistinct notion, that all the attempts at fostering the development of human nature, by means of a complicated and artificial language, must necessarily end in a failure ; but that, on the contrary, a method intended to assist nature in the course of human develop- ment, must be characterised by the utmost simplicity in all the means of instruc- tion, and more especially in language, which should be a faithful expression of the simplicity of both the child's own mind, and the objects and ideas which are em- ployed for its cultivation. I now began to understand, by degrees, what he meant by introducing a variety of distinctions in the instruction of language ; by aiming, in his arithmetical instruction, at nothing else but producing in the child's mind a clear and indelible conviction that all arithmetic was nothing else but an abridgment of the simple process of enumeration, and the numbers themselves nothing but an abridgment of the wearisome repetition, one, and one, and one, and one ; and, lastly, by declaring an early development of the faculty of drawing lines, angles, curves, and figures, to be the groundwork of art, and even of the capacity, which so few men possess, of taking a distinct view of visible objects. I could not but feel every day more confirmed in the notions which I had formed of the manifold advantages of his method, by being a constant witness of the ef- fects produced by general development of the mental faculties in the arts of measuring, calculating, writing, arid drawing. I grew more and more convinced that it was possible to accomplish what I have before stated to have been the lead- ing object of my own pursuits at a previous period, viz., to re-educate mothers for the fulfillment of that sacred task assigned to them by nature, the result of which would be, that even the first instruction imparted in schools, would have previous maternal tuition for a foundation to rest on. I saw a practical method discovered, which, admitting of universal application, would enable parents, who have the welfare of their offspring at heart, to become themselves the teachers of their little ones. From that moment, popular improvement ceased to be depend- ent on the circuitous plan of training teachers in expensive seminaries, and with the aid of extensive libraries. In short, the result of the first impression produced upon my mind by the whole of Pestalozzi's experiment, and of the observations I have since been able to make on the details of his method, has been, to re-establish in my heart that faith which I held so dear at the onset of my career, but which I had almost lost under the pressure of systems sanctioned by the fashion of the day, faith in the practicability of popular improvement." In the progress of his narrative he declares himself, that it was one of the characteristic fea- tures of his method of teaching language, lhat lie reduced it to the utmost simplicity, " by ex eluding from it every combination of words which presupposes a knowledge of language." Fie was not. however, at all times, equally clear on this point, although it lies at the very foundation of all his improvements in elementary instruction. JOHANN RAMSAUER. JOHANN RAMSAUER was born in May, 1790, in Herisau, in the Swiss canton cf Appenzell, where his father carried on a small manufac- tory, and a trade in the machines and tools used in spinning and weaving-factories. In his fourth year he lost his father, whose busi- ness was continued by his mother. He was the youngest of her seven remaining children ; and was occupied in the labors of the establish- ment, and in accompanying his older brothers and sisters to market. At home he learned to work, and to be orderly, industrious, and obe- dient. At eight he was sent to a wretched school, where, in two years, he learned, with great difficulty, to write and read ill. During this period of his life he learned much more from the good examples set him at home than from the incompetent schoolmaster. In the " Brief Sketch of My Pedagogical Life," furnished originally for Diesterweg's " Pedagogical Germany" we are told : — "When the French Revolution, during the years 1796 to 1799, caused stagnation of trade, general loss of employment, and even famine and all sorts of misery throughout Switzerland, especially the eastern part, there gradually wandered away, out of the cantons of Uri, Scliwytz, Unterwalden, Zug, Glarus, and Appenzell, five thousand three hundred boys and girls of from seven to fourteen ; partly to Basle and Neuenburg, but chiefly to the great cantons of Zurich and Bern, where they were received humanely, and in most cases treated even with parental kindness and fidelity. Although I did not belong to such a troop of utterly destitute children, my mother yielded to my often-repeated request to be also allowed to emigrate ; and thus, in February, 1800, I left ray home and wandered off with forty-four boys of from ten to fourteen years old." He entered, while a boy, a school at Burgdorf, which Kriisi was teaching; and soon after that of Pestalozzi. " In the public school, where Pestalozzi taught six hours daily, I learned, school-fashion, no more than the rest. / But his holy zeal, his deep and entirely self-forgetting love, and his earn- est manner, impressive even to the children, made the deepest im- pression upon me, and knit my childish, grateful heart to his forever.'^) He continued for several years at Burgdorf, as scholar, table-waiter, and under-under-teacher. Ramsauer became a favorite scholar of Pestalozzi, and accompanied him, often acting as his private secretary, 214 JOIIANN RAMSAUER. during his stay at Burgdorf, Miinchen-Bucbsee, and Yverdun. At the latter place he acquired a knowledge of mechanics, with the view of assisting in a school planned by Pestalozzi for the education of the poor. He left Yverdun in April, 1816, to become a teacher iu a school newly established at Wiirzburg ; departing from Pestal- ozzi with great reluctance, but feeling that the influence and character of Schmid rendered him of little further use there, and in part in- duced by the privilege of free attendance upon lectures at the Univers- ity of Wiirzburg. Here Ramsauer lived happily, making short journeys from time to time, giving private instruction, acquiring new knowledge from the university lectures, of a kind which afforded a useful complement to his previous practical studies, and growing so rapidly in reputation that, in October, 1816, of four invitations to other situations as teacher, two were from Stuttgardt, one inviting him to become instructor of the princes Alexander and Peter of Oldenburg, and another to become head of an important school for the elementary instruction of children of the educated classes. Both these invita- tions he accepted, and went to Stuttgardt in March, 1817. While here, he undertook a third employment as teacher in a new real school ; his own institute being discontinued, and the male pupils entering the real school, while the female ones, whom he continued to teach, attended the Katharinenstift, a female school established by the Queen of Wirtemburg, and opened with an address by the queen herself. The young princes of Oldenburg leaving Stuttgardt in 1820, for the court of their grandfather, the Duke of Oldenburg, Ramsauer attended them thither, to continue their education in mathematics, drawing, and gymnastics. Some months afterward he opened a school for girls of the educated classes, which he was still conducting with success in 1838. In 1826 he was appointed teacher of the duchesses Amalia and Frederiea of Oldenburg, whom he instructed for ten years. After- ward he established in Oldenburg a school for the daughters of per- sons of the educated classes. Here he published his "Instruction in Form, Size, and Substance ; being the elements of Geometry meth- odized. With fifteen lithographic plates. 1826." He had before published his work on " Drawing, " in two volumes, thirty-one litho- graphic plates. Ramsauer sums up his pedagogical experience as follows : — 1. I learned, in my father's house, up to my tenth year, to pray and to obey. 2. In Srhleutnen, to run, climb, and jump. 3. "\Vith Pestalozzi, from my eleventh to my twenty-sixth year, to work, to think, and to observe. JOIIANN RAMSAUER, 215 4. During my various journeys, to be independent, and to help myself. 5. In Wiirzburg and Stuttgardt, to be more modest, and to some extent a knowledge of the world and of family life. 6. In Oldeaburg, ihe word of God; to endure good and evil with equanimi- ty, well-knowing whence and why they come ; and in many ways the knowl- edge that we live upon a beautiful and wonderful earth, but that to care and strive for things connected with it, is a troubled life; that it is well worth while to pay regard to the spirit of the age ; and that it is possible to live very hap- pily here below, and, at the same time, to prepare one's self well for the better future life. We give some further extracts from the " Sketches" which may be interesting to readers connected with the work of education. I have already said that the finer social graces must either be inborn or de- veloped by culture. Even of the simple politeness of a boy's manners this is true. I have found this always to be the case. Those to whom this gift is nat- ural are usually of rather weak or superficial intellects; but, as the saying is, they get well through the world — that is, easily attain eminence in society. This opinion has led me to another and a more important one, namely, that in practical life it is of little moment whether one has "a good head," (ein guttr kopf.) It is of much greater importance, however, what is one's character for truthfulness and perseverance; and much more, that he keep his faith. Through this last, if it be of the right kind, comes the blessing. As to the point of prac- tical efficiency, every one of even moderate experience in the world will agree with me that those men who have filled important places in the world, are in- debted to their truthfulness, perseverance, and uprightness, much more than to their "good head," or their "genius." This is especially true of those of the burgher class. Even in the elementary school, this truthfulness and persever- ance can be cultivated, proved, and established ; but it is home education which must do most of it. It has often troubled me to hear of a "smart boy" (guten kopfe,) in a family or school, and to see those undervalued who lacked such a qualification. Such conduct discourages those reckoned inferior, (who subsequently very probably may excel them.) and only makes those possessed of this apparent talent con- ceited and heartless. Faith and good feeling forbid such doing ; unless we are born merely for the span of present existence! Young teachers, just com- mencing, are especially prone to fix upon such smart boys ; but commonly de- ceive themselves, by setting a high value upon a mere partial quickness of apprehension. There are even teachers, whether from the fear of men or from some other discreditable weakness, who praise every thing they see in their scholars; or who, after they have complained to their colleagues about scholars all the 3- ear, will, at the end of the term, make out for them certificates of unqualified excellence. I have known not only hundreds but thousands of proofs that, however un- pleasanl a strict teacher my be to a bad scholar, such a scholar will, in the end, feel toward him more respect, and gratitude, and love; provided only that the strictness was just — that is, without respect of persons, partiality, or passion- al "ness. l;.ven the most spoiled of children will endure ten times more from such a teacher than from another, provided only that the parents acquiesce in it. There are also teachers who lay great stress upon learning quickly; forget- ting that the most superficial scholars are often the quickest. Such will find, by experiments enough, that these forget just as quickly; while things acquired with more pains remain longer in the memory, and are better understood. The principal thing is thoroughness; it is this only which truly educates — which tells upon character. Merely to know more or less is of little significance; whoever imagines that he knows very much, does, in fact, know pitifully little. This thoroughness should be a characteristic even of the lowest elementary school ; and is a constituent of what I have already referred to as perseverance. A condition preparatory to this thoroughness is, that the scholar be constrained (without any apparent force, however,) into thinking and laboring independ- ently. Thus I have often said to an indolent or compliant scholar, who imitated others rather too easily, ""ijour own eating must make you fat: that you 2 J 6 JOHANN RAMSATJER. know very well. Just so, your own thinking must make you wise ; and your own practice must make you dexterous." A condition of thoroughness is repetition ; constant repetition. This means is, to many teachers, too wearisome, or too slow : the latter, to those who instruct mechanically only; the former, to those who have never perceived and learned for themselves, but only out of books. ;JBut a teacher whose heart is really in liis work will be drilling often and earnestly, and always in new ways ; so that both the scholar and he himself will always be getting at a new and interesting side of the subject. But a teacher who labors in two or three departments of study with vivacity and pleasure, and gives really thorough instruction — such as really educates — will naturally have neither time nor wish to expend several hours daily in a club or in other mere amusements. His greatest happiness will be in his calling ; and in daily progress in whatever is truly useful for time and eternity. Such a teacher will live as much as possible amongst his own children, if he has them ; arid the more he does so, the better wiJl he compre- hend other children, and, therefore, the better will he manage them. ; Among my own children, as well as among those of others, I have repeatedly experienced that there is a school understanding, a conversation understanding, and a life or practical understanding; all three very clearly distinct, especially the first and the third. If the teacher only understands the first of these, he on.ly half-understands even that ; and is in great danger of exacting too much or too little from his scholars. In like manner, parents are liable to do the teacher injustice, if they judge of their children only by their words and actions at home. Girls especially, who in school hardly dare open their mouths, often appear astonishingly quick and intelligent outside ; so that those will be much deceived who overlook the multitude of cases in which children imitate the words and actions of adults, and pass off their sayings for their own coin. The school understanding is the most suitable for scholars ; as their passions are less liable to come into play in connection with it, and all matters which are regu- larly arranged and under rules assist its onward progress. From this differ- ence it often follows that the same scholar who is industrious, efficient, and intelligent in school, and seems there to be far forward for his age, is wholly a child when outside of it, childish and simple (as he should be,) and apparently quite backward in understanding, and this especially where he needs to govern himself and to exhibit character. Such experiences of a hundred others will lead every observing teacher — I do not state this as any thing new, but merely as something of psychological importance, and therefore not susceptible of too frequent repetition — to require from his scholars neither too much nor too little, and to hope from them neither too much nor too little. And I believe that the frequent enforcement of such experiences would materially ease the difficult calling of the teacher, especially at its commencement, and would save beginners our trouble at Pestalozzi's In- stitute ; that is, from spending all the first years of their work in proving and experimenting, without the advantage of being able to learn of their prede- JOHN ERNST PLAMANN. JOHN ERNST PLAMANN, an earnest and influential teacher and apostle of the Pestalozzian system, in Prussia, was born on the 22d of June, 1771, at Repzin, of poor but respectable parents of the burgher class, and received his elementary education at the Royal Real School in Berlin, from which he was removed to the Joachims- thai Gymnasium, then under the charge of the celebrated Meierotto. In 1796 he resorted to Halle to study theology, and at the same time acquire the principles of pedagogy under Niemeyer. After spending a few years as a private tutor in the family of his brother-in-law, and passing his examination for a license to teach, he returned to Berlin, to continue his classical studies, and, at the same time, to give instruc- tion in the Messow Institute and other industrial schools, preparatory to founding one of the same class for himself. At this time the fame of Pestalozzi had spread into Germany, and Plamann resolved to see for himself the great schoolmaster who was so extravagantly praised and beloved. Having read " How Gertrude teaches her Children" he could not rest ; but, borrowing some money to pay his expenses, he set out in May, 1803, for Switzerland ; having announced his intention to Pestalozzi in a letter, from which the following is an extract : Thanks is a powerless word to express the enthusiasm which your letters upon instruction have kindled in me. But you will not despise my utterance ; indeed you will not hear it, amid the loud praises which nations are giving you. Of that your heart assures me, noble man, who have so acutely and truly dis- played the inmost laws of the development of the human soul, and with a wise and strong hand laid out the path and the art of training it. You have so radiated upon me the light of truth, and so inspired my breast, that I also feel the sacred call to labor in my fatherland to the same end, according to my powers. The saying of our great teacher, "Many are called, but few chosen," shall not discourage me if I can enjoy your instructions and wise dii'ection. With that I can escape from the old, lifeless, beaten track, which I have been obliged to follow in my labor as a teacher, and will be able to do something in the necessary work of teaching the neglected to elevate them- selves. 0, if you will give me power ; if you will make me an example of your methods ; if you will instruct me thoroughly in your system ; then I hope, with confidence and success, to sow the seed which your benevolence shall have entrusted to me, £c. Pestalozzi was then at Burgdorf. There soon sprung up between him and Plamann a friendship based upon mutual appreciation ; for Plamann, with his thorough knowledge of the labor of former schools (217) 218 JOHN ERNST PLAMANN. in pedagogy, his scientific attainments, his philosophical intellect and psychological insight, was a valuable supplementary person to the Swiss reformer, who had only his own experience of the results of his always original mental action. The latter candidly explained to him what he was seeking, both by means of written and oral communica- tion, until he understood him and his system thoroughly. Plamann writes : Pestalozzi received me like a father. No man ever looked so quickly and deeply into my soul as he. At once he comprehended my whole being, and pressed me to his breast with the warmth of a brother. At his side I learned to feel how many were my faults as a man. I was modest, and told him of my discovery with tearful eyes. *' You are a child of nature," he answered ; " an adept in the rules of science and art, which I am not ; and which, never- theless, a man must be in this world." Thus he used to encourage me to have more confidence in myself. A poem which I gave him moved him to tears. He smothered me with kisses, and said, " No one has understood me so well." Plamann remained several months in Burgdorf, laboring zealously at the new method ; and became so dear to Pestalozzi, that he could not endure to have him depart, and even offered him money sufficient to enable him to bring his betrothed to Switzerland. But he was impa- tient to introduce the new method into his fatherland. Immediately after his return to Berlin, Plamann proceeded to put his newly-gotten knowledge into practice in the institution where he was teaching, and to apply the method also to other subjects. He maintained a regular correspondence with Pestalozzi and his assistants, especially with Niederer. The Swiss took the utmost interest in his labors, kept him acquainted with their researches, and awaited with solicitude the _____result of his undertakings. In 1805 Plamann published his work, " Some Principles of the art of Instruction according to Pestalozzi }s Method, applied to Ndtu- ral History, Geography, and Language." (Einzige Grundregel der Unterrichtskunst nach Pestalozzi's Methode, angewandt in der Na- ^^Jurgeschichte, Geographic und Sprache.} In this publication, he showed upon what a deep psychological basis Pestalozzi's system rested, and how it is necessarily derived from the laws of human thought. While, however, they commence with the same principles, follow them out with like results, and in like manner connect them with others, their related ones, Plamann differs from Pestalozzi on the view laid down in the "Book for Mothers" that education should begin with instruction on the human body, on the ground that the similarity of it with the bodies of animals does not much concern the child, and that instruction by a teacher should not be given so early. He thought it more proper for the mother to teach the child about such objects as are within the sphere of the child's knowledge ; — the JOHN ERNST PLAMANN. 219 house, furniture, clothes, &c. He then proceeds to apply the method to the three departments of natural history, to geography, and to the German language. He promised in the second part to continue the course of instructions on language and geography, as well as on tech- nology and history ; but this has never been published. On account of his high standing with Pestalozzi, his zeal in study- ing the method, and in extending it by his writings, he became a centre for the operations of those who were following the new views in Prussia, and were endeavoring to spread them there. All applied to him for directions, school-books, plans for schools, and information as to the spread and results of the new method ; and he was also in communication with persons in foreign countries. Soon after his return to Prussia from Switzerland, Plamann under- took himself to found an institution for the practice of Pestalozzi's methods. For this he obtained the royal permission, Nov. 29, 1803, and opened the institution at Michaelmas, 1805, with his friend Schmidt ; obtaining also, soon after, an assistant from Switzerland, Breissig by name. His undertaking drew much attention, and proved quite suc- cessful. In the following year he published two instructive works : " Course of Instruction for a Pestalozzian School for Boys" (Anordnung des Unterrichts fur ein Pestalozzische Knaben Schule.) " Elementary Methods of Instruction in Language and Science" (Elementarformen, Sprach-u. wissenschaftlichen Unterrichtskunst.} At Easter, 1812, Plamann gave up his school, and visited once more his beloved Pestalozzi, to make himself acquainted with the progress of the method, and to observe what was' going on in the schools of Switzerland. Upon his return he at once commenced again to " Pestalozzianize," as he expressed himself, and bought a house in Berlin, in which to erect an institution. In the same year he com- menced a publication, which he finished in 1815, entitled, " Contribu- tions to Pedagogical Criticism ; in Defence of the Pestalozzian Meth- od" (Beitrage zur P adagogischen Kritik ; zur Vertheidigung der Pestalozzischen Methode. ) A full description of his new Pestalozzian institution will be found in the " Biography of Plamann, by Doctor Franz Bredow" Pla- mann adhered closely to the Pestalozzian principles throughout ; pro- ceeding strictly according to the forms of the Swiss at first, but using more and more independent methods as he went on. His school was resorted to by young men from all quarters, who were ambitious to understand and disseminate the improved methods of teaching, and he was never more popular than when he gave up his school from the pressure of bodily infirmities, against which he had long struggled. He died on the 3d of September, 1834. HANS GEORG NAGELI. HANS GEORG NAGELI, by whose compositions and teaching the Pestalozzian method of instruction was applied to the study of music, was born, May 17, 1773, at Wetzekon, a village in the canton of Zu- rich, of which his father was pastor. After receiving his rudimentary education at home, he went to Zurich in 1786, to continue his studies ; but homesickness soon drew him back to his father's home, where he devoted himself carefully to the study of music, and in 1790 he again resorted to Zurich, when in a few years we find him in a music store and musical circulating library of his own, and at the same time giving lessons in singing. He became a composer and publisher of music, and in 1800 he established a periodical principally, devoted to his favorite art. His song, " Life let us cherish," accompaniments of harp and harpsichord, published in 1794, passed the parlor, and the fireside, and the social gathering of rich and poor, all over Europe ; and the same popularity has marked other productions of his. Nageli was one of the earliest founders, even if he did not originate, the Swiss musical league or union, which set the example of great musical festivals, attended by concourses of people, practically engaged in or lovers of the art. He went out frequently to give instruction to musical societies in the different cantons, to lecture on the subject to conventions of teachers, and, in 1810, published, in connection with M. T. PfeifFer, " The Theory of Instruction in Singing, on Pes- talozzian Principles" (Die Gesangbildunyslehre nach Pcstalozzischen Grundsdtzcn,) by which a new epoch in this department of education was introduced. The treatise was the best realization of the method of Pestalozzi, and soon made singing a regular study in the popular schools of Europe, particularly those of Switzerland and Germany. By the efforts of William C. Woodbridge and Lowell Mason, the method of Nageli was introduced into the United States ; and, in con- sequence, the study of music became much more philosophical and general, and is fast passing into the course of instruction in our com- mon schools. Nageli died at Zurich, on the 26th of December, 1836, from a cold he contracted in discharge of his duties as a member of the council of education. WILH1LM HARNISCH WILHELM HARNISCH was born, August 28th, 1787, at Wilsnach, in the Prussian government of Potsdain — the only son of a prosperous master-tailor, who intended him for the study of theology, and accord- ingly placed him at the gymnasium in Salzvvedel in 1800, and caused him to study from 1806 to 1808 at Halle and Frankfort-on-the-Oder. Here he already began to devote himself particularly to the study of pedagogy, and very soon commenced the practice of it, taking a situ- ation as private tutor in a distinguished family in Mecklenburg, where a well-selected library was at his command, .and Rousseau's " Emile* was the favorite study of the accomplished mistress of the family. In 1810 he had the good fortune to be summoned to Berlin, in order to be made acquainted with the Pestalozzian system in Plamann's insti- tution, at the expense of the State. Here, in the society of Fichte, Schleiermacher, Kopfe, Zeune, Jahn, Kloden, and other eminent liter- ati, statesmen, and educators, he completed his higher scientific edu- cation, and also took an active part in the first establishment of the fencing school, and the gymnastic and swimming institutions. In 1812 he took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, married the daughter of a landed proprietor in Russian Lithuania, and became favorably known by his first work, " The German Common Schools.1* Being appointed teacher in the new Teachers' Seminary at Breslau, established upon Pestalozzi's principles, he introduced, with excellent results, a system of instruction in reading and writing, which he also made known in various publications. While here he also wholly originated or took part in various academical labors ; established a Society of Teachers, took partial charge of the education of Princess Charlotte, afterward Empress of Russia, and lived in friendly inter- course with Professors Schneider, Wachler, Steffens, Passow, Kaysler, &c. In 1822 he was appointed director of the Teachers' Seminary at Weissenfels, to which he gave a reputation second to no other in Germany, and which is well known in this country, through the Re- ports of Stowe, Bache, and Mann. In 1834 he received from the King of Prussia the red order of nobility, fourth class ; has received honorary gifts from the Emperor and Empress of Russia, and other royal personages ; besides pecuni- ary means for various pedagogical journeys. In 1837 he was com- plimented by his colleagues and scholars with the celebration of a 222 WILHELM HAUNISCH. jubilee on occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his labors as a, teacher. He has rendered distinguished services toward the perfec- tion of the common school system of Prussia, by his manifold prac- tical and literary labors. The principal of his numerous writings are the following : — THE GERMAN COMMON SCHOOLS (Die Dtutscher Volksschulen,} Berlin, 1812. COMPLETE INSTRUCTION IN GERMAN (Vollddndiger Untvrricht in der Deuischen Sprache,) Breslau, 1814. COMPLETE EXPOSITION OF THE BELL-LANG A STERI AN SYSTEM (Ausfuhrliche Dar- sttllunij dss BeU- Lancaster schen Schulwesens,) Breslau, 1819. LIFE OF THE TUTOR FELIX KASKORBI (a pedagogical romance,) (Das Leben des Hausldirers Felix Kaskorbi, ein padagogitcher Roman,} Breslau, 1820. HAND-BOOK FOR THE GERMAN SCHOOL SYSTEM (Ilandbuch fur das Deutsche Volksschulivesen,) Breslau, 1820. THE EDUCATION AND SCHOOL COUNCILOR (Die Erziehungs-und Schulrath.) 2-4 parts. Breslau, 1815 to 1820. THE COMMON SCHOOL TEACHER, (five years,) (Die Votisschulkhrer,) (5 jahr- ganrje,} Halle, 1824 to 1828. THE GERMAN BURGHER SCHOOLS (Die Deutsche Burgerschule,) Halle, 1830. THE WEISSENFELS SEMINARY (Das Weissenfelser Seminar,) Berlin, 1838. (Con- taining an autobiograph sketch.) KARL AUGUST ZELLER. KARL AUGUST ZELLER, High School Councillor and Royal Council- lor of the Kingdom of Prussia, was born August 15th, 1774, in Ludwigsburg, Wirtemberg. He was educated in a theological semi- nary, and in 1798 received an appointment as teacher and assistajit^ preacher in the evangelical congregation at Brunn. In 1803, he pro- ceeded to Pestalozzi's establishment at Burgdorf, for the purpose of making himself acquainted with his new system of instruction. An offer, which he accepted, to accompany a young man of the Yon Palm family upon his travels, gave him occasion, while at Tubingen in the winter of 1804, to establish a charity school for the purpose of trying Pestalozzi's plans, and afterwards, at the request of some of his scholars at Brunn, a Sunday-school. Both are described in a work dedicated to that friend of education, the late Pauline, Princess of Detmold, who gave him the appointment of Councillor, and retained a decided interest in his prosperity until her death. Zeller became pastor at St. Gall, and teacher in the gymnasium there, in 1805. In 1806, he became acquainted, in Zurich, with the Senator Rusterholz, who had a scheme for educating all the teachers of the cantons in normal schools, which he was prevented from carry- ing out by sickness. Becoming much interested for the sick man and his designs, he agreed to remain in Zurich and endeavor to assist him ; to which cooperation the authorities of the cantons agreed. The first course of instruction was opened in 1806, with thirty pupils, by a commission of school councillors, under the presidency of Superintendent G^essner. The lectures, here devoted to the principles of correct school discipline, gave Zeller an opportunity of composing his " School for Teachers" After the decisive experiment of this course, seven thousand florins were appropriated to defray the expense of a Normal School, Pestalozzi's arithmetic was introduced, and a plan of teaching drawn up by Zeller was printed and introduced into the pa- rochial schools of the canton. A second and a third part to this treatise soon followed. Being appointed Director of the Normal Institute, he trained, in 1807, among others, a Catholic clergyman, sent to him by the government of Lucerne, and who was followed by three canons from the same canton, who had been studying at Kreutzlingen in the 224 KARL AUGUST ZELLER. Thurgan, under the patronage of Von Wessenberg. Meanwhile, a favorable report was made by a commission of clergymen upon the result of the first three courses of the normal school ; and, whereupon, Zeller published a work on the subject, in the form of letters ad- dressed to the Princess Pauline. Three courses of lectures now fol- lowed, one of which was delivered before the Swiss Diet, and the attention of the Confederation was thus drawn to the subject of them. The year 1808 found Zeller with Pestalozzi, teaching and learn- ing, and enjoying himself amongst the children. In returning, he passed through Hofwyl, where a young Bernese gave him fifty Caro- lines, with the request that he would undertake a school for teachers among his country people in that neighborhood. Upon the invitation of the consistory, who added thirty Carolines, forty teachers assembled, and remained under his instruction ten months. A French teacher, under an assumed name, also attended this course, and afterwards pursued his vocation in his own country. By reason of the open recognition by the Bernese government of his efforts, in spite of mali- cious opposition, and having a little before received a call from Zofin- gen, Zeller had meditated spending the remainder of his life as a Swiss burgher ; but the visit of the King of Wirtemberg to Hofwyl gave another direction to his life. The king had attended five of his lectures, and was so much pleased with what he saw and heard, that he declared that he could not per- mit Zeller to remain in that place. In fact, he shortly after received the appointment of school-inspector at Heilbronn, and, two months later, an appointment at Konigsberg from the Prussian minister of state, Yon Schrotter, whom War-councillor Schiffner had made """acquainted with the "Letters to the Princess Pauline" Not yet actually employed in Heilbronn, Zeller requested permission to accept the latter ; but an order to the teachers of the vicinity to assemble there, and to himself as the proper schoolmaster to instruct them, was the answer. Forty-two teachers assembled, including one minis- ter, and remained, at their own expense, six weeks. The assembly was characterized by the same pleasant activity, good nature and success, which had appeared in Switzerland. In April, 1809, with the office of Councillor in the government of East Prussia, he was authorized to organize the Orphan House at Konigsberg as a model school, in which young clergymen and teachers might be in- structed, with courses of lectures on the administration and instruction of schools, and traverse all the provinces of the kingdom for similar pur- poses. On condition that he should deliver one more course of lectures to clergymen of all three confessions, the King of Wirtemberg at length KARL AUGUST ZELLER. 225 allowed him to accept the appointment. Fifty-two eminent clergy- men and six teachers assembled, and remained under his instruction during four weeks. A commission from the High Consistory of the kingdom and from the Council of Catholic Clergy held an examination upon the result, and Zeller, accompanied by one of Pestalozzi's pupils, now for the first time proceeded to the Baltic. The new organization of the orphan home at Konigsberg in a short time excited so much interest, that a considerable number of official persons were desirous of some report upon Zeller's methods and or- ganization. Further ; the noble and intellectual men who were labor- ing with Scharnhorst to reestablish the warlike fame of Prussia, learned hence to consider the relation between a correct school disci- pline and military discipline. October 7, the king, queen and minis- try, made a personal inspection of the school, and the dignity of High School Councillor, conferred upon the director, showed their gratifica- tion with the visit. In May, 1810, the institution had so grown that the first course of lectures was attended by a hundred and four deans, superintendents and pastors, and the second by seventy clergy- men and teachers. In 1811, he organized a second institution at Braunsberg for province of Ermeland, and a third at Karalene, for Lithuania. He would gladly have remained in the latter pleasant place, but his official duties would not permit. He was intending to go to Stettin also, but the approach of Napoleon's expedition to Russia prevented. An " ex- traordinary compensation " was now decreed him, in consequence of this disappointment, and as a testimony of the satisfaction of the king and the ministry with the results of his exertions in East and West Prussia and Lithuania. This was the gift of the domain of Munster- walde, near Marienwerder, on the condition that he should continue to perform the functions of his appointment. He accordingly pub- lished a manual for the Prussian army-schools, and a work upon his experiments in organizing the school of correction at Graudenz, con- taining a statement of the methods upon which all his labors hitherto had been conducted. For several years Zeller resided at Kreutznach, Wetzlar and Bonn, busily engaged in writing and in the support of his numerous family. His only son devoted himself to the study of theology at Bonn, and at the same place, his wife, the mother of his seven chil- dren, died. He became desirous of revisiting his native country ; and, having been raised by the King of Prussia to the third class of the " red order of nobility," he removed to Stuttgart in 1834. His last labors were devoted to his own country ; the institution at 15 226 KARL AUGUST ZELLER. Lichtenstein owes to him its foundation and progress, a building worth eleven hundred florins, and continued care and advocacy. The requirements of his situation obliged him to remove to Stuttgart again in the autumn of 1837. His very busy and varied life came to an end in the beginning of the year 1847, while he was absent from home on a short journey; a life that knew no rest, and whose quiet pulses often seemed like rest- less wandering ; a life which, without despising an open recognition of its deserts, yet often forgot itself in true sacrifices for the sake of doing good ; that willingly bestowed its strength wherever any benefi- cial purpose was to be served, and especially if any alleviations in the condition of the children of the poor common people were in prospect. His mission was, not to maintain and carry on an enterprise already commenced, with long-suffering and victorious patience and constancy, but rather to erect edifices upon waste and desert ground for others to furnish. Especially valuable for young theologians are the many stirring thoughts contained in his "Thomas, or John and Paul?" published in 1833. The desire and labor of his life was to improve the common schools. The study of singing in that class of Prussian schools began with him. He was energetic, not only in introducing new discoveries in pedagogical science, but also in independently sift- ing and ingeniously improving its principles already accepted. Zeller's best known educational works, as given in Hergang's " Manual of Pedagogical Literature," are : The Schoolmaster School ; or, instructions in school education on the plan of the institutions for saving children (Kinder-Rettungsan- Btalt). Leipzig, 1839. Elementary Schools; their personal, local and administrative organi- zation. Konigsberg, 1815. The Evangel of Jesus Christ ; or his character as such ; not de- veloped chronologically, but in its various elements and relations ; as exhibited in a harmony of the four gospels. Stuttgart, 1839. Methods of Learning, for use of common schools on the mutual system. Elementary Geometry for Common Schools. Three parts. Stutt- gart, 1839. Elementary Singing-Book for Common Schools. Three parts. Stuttgart, 1839. BEBNHARD GOTTLIEB DENZEL, BERNHARD GOTTLIEB DENZEL, an influential promoter of Pestaloz- zianism in the Kingdom of Wirtemberg and the Duchy of Nassau, was born at Stuttgardt, on the 29th of December, 1773. His father was a merchant and associate-judge, and secured for his son the best education which the gymnasia and university of the kingdom could give. After studying theology at Tubingen, under the profound Dr. Storr, he commenced his pedagogical career as private tutor in Frank- fort-on-the-Maine. After two years' experience in that capacity, he served five years as curate and preacher in Pleidelsheim, where he exhibited an enthusiastic interest in the schools, and took the lead in introducing the new Pestalozzian system into Wirtemberg. His de- cided and influential labors in this work involved him, for a time, in bitter controversy with many old-fashioned schoolmasters, and munic- ipalties ; but he was sustained by the higher authorities. He made himself perfectly familiar with the publications of Pestalozzi, and vis- ited both Burgdorf and Yverdun, to observe the practical operations of the system. Deeply in earnest himself, with a thorough practical knowledge of existing wants, and desirable remedies, with a concil- iatory manner, and the confidence of all religious men, Denzel made more rapid progress than is usual with school reformers ; but, as has been already remarked, he did not entirely escape the opposition of parties whose craft was interfered with. ^ In 1811, Denzel was appointed director of the Seminary for Teach- ers in Esslingen, and of the public schools in that circle. Under his oversight, the seminary and the schools made great progress, and were resorted to by teachers and educators as good working-models of the new system of instruction. In 1817, having obtained leave of ab- sence for this purpose, he assisted in reorganizing the school system of the Duchy of Nassau, and establishing the Teachers' Seminary at Idstein, and received, for his service, the appointment of Ducal^ high school councilor, and the title and rank of prelate. After performing good service to the cause of popular education throughout Germany, not only through the improvements introduced into the schools of Nassau and Wirtemberg, but by his writings on the science and art of teaching, he died, in the autumn of 1838, universally respected and beloved. 228 BERNHARD GOTTLIEB DENZEL. As a teacLer, Director Denzel was distinguished by great quickness and clearness of understanding and expression, and by mildness, firm- ness, and justness in discipline. One who was for nineteen years as- sociated with him in the Seminary at Esslingen says : — " Universally learned and completely master of every subject of instruction in the schools with which he was connected as teacher or inspector, his rare knowledge of the best method of communicating what he knew, en- abled him to carry forward the best as well as the weakest minds in his classes, with great satisfaction to all, and at the same time to in- spire a love of study, and impart to others the secret of his own suc- cess as a teacher." His principal pedagogical works are " Experiences and Opinions on the Professional Training of Common School Teach- ers ; " " Tke Common School — a course of lectures on Methodology at Idstein, in 1816 ;" " Introduction to the Science and Art of Educa- tion and Instruction of Masters of Primary Schools? The last named is a great work, and holds a high place in the pedagogical literature of Germany. FRIEDRICH ADOLF WILHELM DIESTERWEG. FRIEDRICH ADOLF WILHELM DIESTERWEG, an eminent educator, and efficient promoter of the general principles of Pestalozzi, was born in the then Rhine provinces of Prussia, at Seigen, in Nassau, October 29th, 1790. His first education was received at the Latin school of his native place. Thence he went to the univers- ity of Herborn, intending to devote himself to the study of theol- ogy ; but his academic course was finished at Tubingen. At first a private tutor in Manheim, he was afterward second teacher in the secondary school at Worms ; and in 1811 entered the model school at Frankfort-on-the-Mayne, where his holy zeal accomplished much good. Having become known as a scientifically-trained and well- practiced educator, he was chosen second rector of the Latin school at Elberfeld. From this place he was called, in 1820, to be director of the teachers' seminary at Meurs. In this place he labored with intelligence, energy, and singleness of purpose, during a series of years, for the cause of elementary instruction, which, under the French domination, had been entirely neglected on the Rhine. He was, moreover, very useful as a writer— discussing more particularly mathematics and the German language. In 1827, he commenced publishing (by Schwerz, in Schwelin,) the " Rhenish Gazette of Education and Instruction " (Rheinische Blatter fur Erziebung und Unterricht,) with especial reference to the common schools. The first volume contained much valuable matter, much condensed ; and the succeeding volumes (to 1859,) have not fallen beneath it in excel- lence. Through this periodical, the educationists of the Rhine prov- inces were afforded a good opportunity for discussing pedagogical subjects ; upon which much interest was then beginning to appear. In 1833, Diesterweg was appointed director of the royal seminar; for city teachers, at Berlin. Here he labored for eighteen years ; his eyes fixed fast and unvarying upon his object — exposing all sorts of pedagogical faults and weaknesses, seeking in every way to raise the position of teachers, and pursuing his work without any fear of men. The meetings of the Pedagogical Society of Berlin were set on foot by him. In 1849, his connection with the seminary was terminated by the government, in consequence of his popular sympathies in 230 FRIEDRICH ADOLF WILIIELM DIESTERWEG. 1848. During this period, Diesterweg published " A utoliogrcqihies of Distinguished Educators" " Education of the Lower Classes" " Degeneracy of our Universities" " Education for Patriotism, d'c." " Controversial Inquiries on Educational Subjects." In these writ- ings, Diesterweg appears as a man of progress ; as one who seeks to reconcile the existing discrepancy between actual life and learning ; between living practice and dead scholastic knowledge ; between civilization and learning. The works contain true and striking thoughts. In his zeal for good objects, the author sometimes over- passed the bounds of moderation, and assailed the objects of his opposition with too much severity. His " Pedagogical Travels through the Danish Territories" (Piid- agogische Reise Nachden Ddnischen Staaten,) 1836, involved him in an active controversy with several Danish literati, and especially with Zerrenner, of Magdeburg. Diesterweg's objections to the monitorial system of instruction, which prevails in the schools of Denmark, —That it modifies, decreases, or destroys the teacher's influence upon his scholars ; that it is disadvantageous to their outward and inward intercourse ; reduces to a minimum the precious period of close intercourse between the ripe man and the future men ; and sinks the school, in by far the majority of cases, into a mere mindless mechanism, by which the children, it is true, acquire facility in reading and writing, and in a manner outwardly vivid and active, but in reality altogether unintelligent; but become intellectually active not at all. That Diesterweg is in the right in this matter, is daily more extensively believed. In ] 846, Dr. Diesterweg took an early and influential part in the celebration by German teachers of the centennial birthday of Pes- talozzi, and in founding an institution for orphans, as a living and appropriate monument to the great regenerator of modern popular education. His " Year Book" or " Almanac" (Jahrbach^) which commenced in 1851, is a valuable contribution to the current discussion of educa- tional topics, and to the history of the literature and biography of education. Diesterweg's " Guide for German Teachers" ( Wegweiser fur Deutschcr Schrcr,} of which a third enlarged and improved edition appeared in 1854, in two large volumes, is one of the best existing manuals for teachers, of both elementary and high schools, and has been made a text-book in several teachers' seminaries. We give the contents of this valuable " Guide" DIESTERWEG'S WEGWEISER. 231 DIESTERWEG, F. A. "W., " Guide for German Teachers," Wegweiser fur Deuischer Schrtr. 2 vols. pp. 675 and 700. CONTENTS. VOL. I. PAGE. INTRODUCTION I. 1. Dedication to F. Frobel HI. 2. Preface to Third and Fourth editions VII. 3. From the address to Denzel, in the Second edition XIV. 4. From Preface to First, edition XIX. 5. From Preface to Second edition XXIV. 6. Conclusion XXXII. PART I. GENERAL VIEWS. I. Purpose and problem of human life, and the teacher's life 3 II. What are the conditions of success in endeavoring to secure, by means of books, intellect- ual culture, insight, and knowledge 19 III. Introduction to the study of elements of pedagogy, didactics and methodology 49 1. To whom these studies are especially recommended, and to whom not 49 2. What has hitherto been accomplished in such books as have been devoted to peda- gogy, didactics, and methodology in general, or with special reference to the element- ary schools 52 3. The chief constituents of the ideas of pedagogy, didactics, and methodology 58 4. The best works on the elements of pedagogy, didactics, and methodology 60 (1.) On education (and instruction,) generally '. 62 (2.) On the whole subject of school education and instruction i-'2 (3.) On school discipline 99 (4.) Psychology and logic 104 (5.) Training of teachers (seminaries) 10*7 (6.) Education of girls Ill (7.) Relations of school to state and church 119 (80 School inspection 000 (9.) Social pedagogy, (social reforms, temperance, &c.) 124 (10.) Infant schools 129 (11.) Mutual system of school organization 135 (12.) Higher burgher schools 138 (13.) Bibliography 143 (14.) Works which include biographies 145 (15.) Popular writings 151 (16.) School laws 150 (17.) School reform 157 (18.) School organization in 1848 162 (19.) Periodicals 168 IV. Human faculties, and didactics 172 1. Rules for instruction, ns to the scholar (the subject) 204 2. Rules as to what is taught (the object) 254 3. Rules as to external relations 268 4. Rules as to the teacher 278 PART II. SPECIAL DEPARTMENTS. I. Intuitional instruction; exercises in language 302 II. Religious instruction ; by K. Bormann, of Berlin 332 HI. Reading ." 381 IV. German language 456 V. Writing; by Prof. Dr. Madler, and C. Reinbott, of Berlin 532 VI. Singing; by Hentschel, of Weissenfels 559 VII. Drawing ; by Heutschel 672 VOL. II. VIII. Geography; by K. Bormann 3 IX. History : by W. Prange, of Bunzlau 40 X. Natural History ; by A. Liiben, of Merseburg 251 XI. XiiMirnl Science, mathematical geography, astronomy 306 XII. Arithmetic ". 3-13 XIII. Geometry 395 XIV. French ;"by Dr. Knebel, of (Koln) Cologne 436 XV. English ; by Dr. Schmitz, of Berlin 477 XVI. Genetic method in foreign languages; by Dr. Mnger, of Eisenach 492 XVII. Instruction of the blind \ by .1. G. Knie, of Breslau 567 XVIII. Instruction of the deaf-mutes ; by Hill, of Weissenfels 601 XIX. Love of country, patriotism, and connected subjects 675 XX. External situation of the German common school teachers 727 XXI. School discipline— plan of teaching and of work 770 APPENDIX ; by G. Hentschel 791 List of authors mentioned 795 GUSTAV FRIEDRICH DINTEE, GUST A v FRIEDRICH DINTER, whose life was a beautiful illustration of his noble declaration in a letter to Baron Von Altenstein — " I promised God that I would look upon every Prussian peasant child as a being who could complain of me before God, if I did not pro- vide for him the best education, as a man and a Christian, which it was possible for me to provide" — was born, Feb. 29, 1760, at Borna, in Saxony, where his father was a lawyer, with the title of Chamber- Commissary. Dinter describes him in his autobiography as a cheer- ful and lively man, whose most prominent trait was always to look upon the bright side of things, and to oppose all moroseness. In accordance with this character was the bringing up which he gave his five sons ; and particularly he would not endure any timidity in them, for which Dinter was always grateful to him. He also obliged them to strict obedience. His mother was a woman of strict religious character, careful foresight, and some vanity, which made her particular about appearances. His father employed a private tutor for him ; but this instructor knew little or nothing of pedagogy or di- dactics, and his teaching looked to nothing except the good appearance of his scholar at examinations. This was very well for the memory ;• but his head and heart would have received little benefit, had it not been for the assistance of his intelligent mother. For example, Dinter had, when twelve years old, to read, translate, and commit to mem- ory, flutter's " Compendium Theologies? and then recite it ; and to lea rn the texts quoted from the New Testament, in the original Greek. April 27, 1773, he was examined for the national school at Grim- ma, where he found valuable teachers in Rector Krebs, Conrector Mucke, and Cantor Reich ard. Miicke cultivated carefully the relig- ious feelings which the boy's mother had implanted within him ; and It ei chard was not only his teacher, but his loving friend. While yet at school, his excellent mother died ; whose loss he mourned even when grown up. In April, 1779, Dinter left the school at Grimma, and passed the interval of time, before entering the university at Leipzig, partly with his brother, and partly with his godfather, Super- intendent Rickfels. In Leipzig, he almost overburdened himself with hearing lectures, during his first two years : attending, especially, Dathe, Ernesti, Moms, and Platner. For want of a competent guide, GUSTAV FIUEDRICII DINTER. 233 he fell into wrong directions in many studies, as is often the case. His sentiments, at a later day, upon the studies of the university, were thus expressed : — " It is not necessary that the scholar should learn, in special lessons, all that he is to know. Let him only have the ability, and take pleasure in his studies, and let the sources of assist- ance be pointed out to him, and he will accomplish more for himself than all the lessons and lectures will do for him." Even in his student years, the study of men was a favorite pursuit with him. He had a great love for the theater ; and says, regarding it : — " For young theologians, the drama is very useful. It furnishes them declamatory knowledge. Not that they are to theatricalize in the pulpit ; but at the play they may acquire a feeling for modulations of voice, for strength and feebleness of accent, and an animated style of delivery. Young theologians, attend the theater industri- ously, if it is convenient. You will get much more good there than at the card-table. But the plays may be judiciously selected." He laments much over his incapacity for music. " I unwillingly find my- self deprived of a pleasure which would have added to the enjoyments of my life, and would have rendered cheerful my troubled days, which, thank God, have been few." After leaving Leipzig, he passed his examination for the ministry, receiving a first-class certificate, and became the private tutor in the family of Chamberlain von Pollnitz. The years of his candidateship Dinter passed in studying clergy, schoolmasters, and people ; a pur- suit which has often cheered, taught, animated, and warned him. The common people liked him, and had confidence in him, listening to his preaching with pleasure, and he spoke kindly to every child whom he met. Thus Dinter entered upon the duties of the pastorate, not ill prepared by his experience as a private tutor ; and he considers this intermediate training as far from useless. In such a place, the young man weans himself from his student-habits, and learns to ac- commodate himself to the ways of the people amongst whom he is probably to live ; studies the pastors and the gentry ; and collects a thousand experiences which will be of the greatest use to him, and which can not be learned out of books. He must, however, be careful not to be warped by the influences of the great house, to become accustomed to indulgences which his future scanty income will not allow him, nor to a style so lofty that his farmers will not understand it. To this end he must devote his leisure to the pastors, the school- masters, and the people. Dinter became a pastor in 1787, at Kit- scher, a village in the government of Borna, with three hundred inhabitants ; to the entire satisfaction of his wishes. lie was now a 234 GUSTAV FRIEDRICH PINTER. village pastor, as he had so often desired to be. The village be- longed to lieutenant-colonel Baron von Niebeker, a very benevolent man, who sympathized with all in misfortune ; and Dinter came into most friendly relations with him. As a preacher, his pastoral influence accomplished much, and so did his truly and eminently practical character. In preaching, this thought was continually before him ; the handicraftsman and the farmer have, usually, but this one day to devote to the cultivation of head and heart, and the country pastor should shape his efforts accordingly. While a tutor, he had adopted, as his models in preaching, Christ's sermon on the mount, and Paul's discourse at Athens ; not merely in the sense of becoming an extem- poraneous speaker, but in the spirit of his discourse. He never preached "without careful preparation. He usually began to consider on the Sunday, his next Sunday's subject ; and he reflected upon it from time to time, during his walks, for example ; and on Friday he first wrote down the connected substance of the discourse, in one whole, as it were at one gush. During the ten years of his first pastorate, he thought out almost all his sermons word by word, and learned them so. He never read a sermon. At a later period, when the increase of his occupations disenabled him from using the time necessary for this purpose, he often had to content himself with deter- mining the divisions of his subject; which made him sometimes preach too long. ( He relates that he learned to preach popularly from his maid-servant, who had a strong common-sense understanding, without much knowledge ; and he often read large portions of his discourse to her, on Friday evenings, to see whether it were clear to her mind. In his first pastorate, he confined his choice of subjects mostly to the evangelists ; but afterward, especially after his acquaint- ance with Reinhard,he alternated from them to the epistles, and other scriptures. During this period, his labors as school-overseer were also very useful ; instruction having been his favorite pursuit since his fourteenth year. School conferences were then neither established in Saxony, nor usual. Of his own three school-teachers, each was too old for improvement. Dinter accordingly spent, at first, only two half- days per week in the school. He himself took charge of religious instruction and arithmetic ; leaving to the teachers only the repetition of the lessons in the former, and the necessary drilling in the latter. His farmers' children became a credit and a pleasure to him ; they learned to take notes of his sermons, to understand their contents, and to take pleasure in them. The confirmation he made the great festival of the year. As to his other relations with his congregation, GUSTAV FRIEDRICH DINTER. 035 he did not live in a haughty seclusion from them, but followed them, like a father, into their own habitations. He entered no house where the family was in bad repute, but visited all others without distinction of rich or poor. Thus he gradually acquired an intimate knowledge of their every-day life, and was enabled to say many things to them which would not have been suitable for the pulpit. He gained an influence upon their modes of disciplining their children, and corrected many defects in it. Thus also he came to be considered an intimate family friend of all, and was frequently called upon to act as umpire in family quarrels ; so that he was enabled to bring peace into many families. He was no less assiduous toward the sick, whom he visited without being summoned ; making it his rule to visit any whose illness was serious, daily if near at hand, and thrice a week if more distant ; but, for obvious reasons, he was not able to continue this practice. Thus, by words and deeds, he accomplished much good. But Providence had marked out for him another and wider sphere of action, which estranged him, for a time, from the duties of the minis- try. Instruction, as we have remarked, being his favorite pursuit, he had established in Kitscher a sort of seminary, for the training of young people as teachers. This institution soon gained a reputation, and was the occasion of an invitation from first court-chaplain Rein- hard, to become director of the teachers' seminary at Friedrichstadt, near Dresden. Dinter accepted, although the duties of the place were greater and the salary less than at Kitscher, from mere love for education ; although there was mutual grief at his parting with his congregation. About this time, some sorrows came upon him : the death of a brother, and of his excellent father, who left the world with as much calmness as he had shown in enjoying it. He refused to admit his confessor, saying, "One who has not learned to die in sev- entv-five years, can not learn it from him now." Reinhard, with satisfaction, introduced Dinter into his new place of labor, Oct. 21, 1797. The latter remained true to his principle, "Not the multiplicity of knowledge makes the skillful teacher, but the clearness and thoroughness of it, and skill in communicating it." As to his intercourse with the pupils of the seminary, his rule was this : "The seminarist is no longer a boy ; he is a youth, who will in a few years be a teacher. It is by a distinct set of means, therefore, that he must be taught. These are Freedom, Work, Love, and Religion." In the first of these particulars he may have been sometimes too late ; but he can not be charged with neglect. He expended much labor and time in Bible lessons ; professing that religious knowledge should be gained, not from the catechism, but from the original sources. 236 GUSTAV FRIEDRICH D1NTER. In arithmetic, liis rule was, "Where the scholar can help himself, the teacher must not help him ;" for fear of making lazy scholars. In reading, he did not use Olivier's method, then in high repute, but a simplification of that of Stephan. He somewhat erred, at first, in his 'practice of Pestalozzian principles, adhering too exclusively to mere forms ; but he soon perceived the mistake, and proceeded in the gen- uine spirit of that distinguished teacher, without his diffuseness. He believed that " Pestalozzi was king of the lower classes, and Socrates of the higher." Under Dinter's direction, the seminary became very prosperous. But Dinter was not to remain always in this sphere of labor. Providence had destined him for another and a higher, although by a road which at first seemed retrograde. He fell very sick with a violent jaundice, which endangered his life; and, at his recovery, feeling still unable to perform the duties of his office without an as- sistant, whom the salary would not permit him to employ, he accept- ed again, in 1807, a situation as country clergyman at Gornitz, a vil- lage with a hundred and twenty inhabitants, also in the government of Borna. He was received at Gornitz with pleasure, as the son of the former justiciary of Lobstadt, whose jurisdiction had included Gornitz ; and here again he established an educational institution — a sort of progymnasium, in which he appointed one of his former semi- nary pupils, assistant. Besides these manifold labors, Dinter's productions as a writer gained a large circle of readers. His works made him well known abroad ; and thus the humble village pastor unexpectedly received an invitation to Konigsberg, in Prussia, to the place of school and con- sistorial counselor, which he accepted, in his fifty-seventh year. His official duty there was a singular union of the most different employ- ments. He was obliged to consult with superintendents, to examine candidates for the ministry and for schools, to read Sophocles and Euripides with gymnasium graduates, to adjust a general literary -course with the royal assessors, as member of the commission for mili- tary examinations, to determine whether one person and another was entitled to claim for one year's service, and to be ready to explain to the teachers of the lowest schools whether and why the alphabetical or the sound-method was preferable. His thoroughly practical mind, however, enabled him to fulfill these many duties with efficiency and •usefulness. His chief object was the improvement of the common school system ; which he found not in the best condition in East Prussia. His first effort was to accomplish as much as possible through the medium of the ignorant and inefficient teachers already QUSTAV FRIEDRICII DINTER. 237 employed. He made distinctions between country schools, city schools, seminaries, gymnasia, &c., and adapted his management to the peculiar needs of each. In the country schools he found much to blame ; but was careful not to find fault with the. teachers in the presence of their scholars, or of the municipal authorities. His only exceptions to this rule were two ; where the teacher attempted to de- ceive him, and where the school was in so bad a condition that to retain the teacher would be an injury to the next generation. He was able to judge of the spirit of a school by a single recitation ; and was accustomed to jildge, from the prayer and the singing, wheth- er the teacher possessed, and was able to communicate, a3sthetical ' training, or not. Prayer in school he valued highly ; and attached much importance to tone and accent in reading, as an indication of cultivated understanding and feeling. Intuitions for higher and lower classes were suitably kept distinct ; and special attention was paid to orphan homes and teachers' seminaries. He also improved and ex- tended the instruction of the deaf and dumb. He declined a call to Kiel as regular professor ; and, in consider- ation of this, received from the Prussian government an extraordinary professorship of theology, with a salary of two hundred thalers (about $150,) and the assurance that in a future emeritus appointment, not the years, but the quality, of his labor, should be considered. The German Society, and the society for maintaining poor scholars at gym- nasia, elected him member. As an academical teacher, Dinter lec- tured upon the pastoral charge and upon homiletics, as well as upon popular dogmatics and catechetics ; in which his own practical expe- rience as pastor and seminary director assisted him materially. He also conducted disputations and exercises in exegesis. He selected such subjects as required careful preparation on his own part ; e. g., the Revelation of St. John, some subject connected with the Hebrew language, aBsthetics,