Gertrude teaches her children," and in this are given the original plan of the founder and the results of his initial experiments.

His biographer, Krusi, states respecting the work: "Learned scholars, who were at first disposed to question the ability and reprove the boldness of a partially educated man who dared to enter upon abstruse philosophical discussions, were disarmed and partly converted by the nobility of the, thoughts uttered and the real humility of the man who expressed them. The magnitude of the work to be done and the terrible need of the suffering poor were the motives which urged him to write. Though often crude in expression, his writings all contain precious germs of thought."

"What I desire," said Pestalozzi, "is not to teach the world any new art or science, but to make it easier for the people to master the beginnings of all sciences; to develop the powers of the poor and weak, who are neglected and given up to desolation; to open the avenues of learning which are the approaches to humanity. Notwithstanding our empty boasting of universal enlightenment, nine men in ten are deprived of the right of all men the right of instruction, or at least the possibility of using it.

"The highest attainments can only be reached by means of a finished art of teaching and the most perfect psychology; thus securing the utmost perfection in the mechanism of the natural progression from confused impressions to intelligent ideas: this is, in truth, beyond my power.

"It is my effort to remove the imperfections from common school instruction; to knit it to the power of nature, to the light which God kindles and maintains in the hearts of parents, and in their desires that their children may serve God and be respected by men. In their early childhood the little ones are left to the full enjoyment of nature. They are allowed to imbibe its cheerful influence through every pore. After having tasted the bliss of sensuous life, the scene of their pleasures at once vanishes from their eyes. They are thrown into badly ventilated rooms; they are doomed for hours, days and years to the contemplation of dry, monotonous letters. Can the blow of the executioner, which transfers the criminal from life to death, have a greater influence on the body than such a transition from the pleasant teachings of nature to the miserable discipline of our schools? Will men remain blind forever? Will they never look to those primitive sources from which the confusion of minds, the

destruction of innocence, the ruin of health and all the consequences arise, drawing many to an unsatisfactory existence or a premature death?"

"My experiments," continues Pestalozzi, "led me to trace the various branches of instruction to their very elements. I endeavored to find out the time of life when instruction should begin. The first tutor is nature, and her teaching begins when the child's senses are opened to the impressions of the surrounding world. The feeling of novelty with which life surprises the infant is in itself the unfolding of the capacity of receiving these impressions. It is the starting of the germs of mental power. Whatever therefore man may attempt to do by his tuition, he can do no more than assist in the effort the child makes for its own development. To do this, so that the impressions made may always be commensurate to the growth and character of the faculties already unfolded, and also in harmony with them, is the great secret of education.

"The knowledge to which the child should be led, must be subjected to an order of succession, beginning with the first unfolding of his powers, and the progress kept parallel to that of his development. I saw clearly that the child may be brought to a high degree of knowledge, both of things and language, before it would be rational to teach him reading or spelling. Seeing this, I felt the necessity of presenting things to children from early childhood in a manner calculated to draw forth into action the several faculties."

Pestalozzi rejected as an empty mockery the superficial bookknowledge, which, up to that time, the most enlightened had made the basis of education. He says: "A man who has only wordwisdom, is less susceptible to truth than a savage. This use of mere words produces men who believe they have reached the goal, because their whole life has been spent in talking about it, but who never ran toward it, because no motive impelled them to make the effort; hence I came to the conviction that the fundamental error_the blind use of words in matters of instruction-must be extirpated before it is possible to resuscitate life and truth."

"It is frequently alleged," says Krusi, "that the Pestalozzian method discards the use of books; and the maxim, 'A child should never be told what he can find out for himself,' is quoted in proof of the charge. It is evident that the first lessons of childhood, upon every subject, must be presented through the senses. Children

should examine things rather than read about them; and should express the results of their investigations in their own language, rather than adopt that which they find in books. This is especially true in regard to the natural sciences, which can never be thoroughly understood without illustrations or experiments. Even the elements of mental and moral philosophy are better taught by referring to the consciousness and experience of the pupil than by examining any system of philosophy. The attitude of the Pestalozzian toward books may be summed up in a single sentence. They are to be used to supplement experience, and to supply those facts that are not readily accessible by direct investigation."

Pestalozzi says: "The moral, intellectual, and executive powers of man must be nurtured within himself, and not from artificial substitutes. Thus faith must be cultivated by our own act of believing, not by reasoning about faith; love, by our own act of loving, not by fine words about love; and thought by our own thinking, not merely by appropriating the thoughts of other men; and knowledge by our own investigation, not by endless talk about the results of arts and sciences."

From the general spirit and tendency of Pestalozzi's works on education, forming the basis of his system, is the natural, progressive, and symmetrical developement of all the powers and faculties of the human being. Many of these truths have been distinctly enunciated by Socrates, Plato, and others; and some have been given to the world by the profound thinkers of the Christian era. These truths had long existed as intellectual convictions in the minds of philosophers, and had been expressed in proverbs and apothegms; but it was Pestalozzi who first showed, by actual experiments, how they might be made the basis of universal education, and the means by which humanity might be elevated.

In his whole work, Pestalozzi was inspired by the highest morality and the deepest religious convictions. He never claimed to be a religious teacher, yet his work lays the foundation of all spiritual culture. He shows how the germ of conscience in the mind of an infant is quickened into action, and what must be the successive influences which will contribute to its growth. He makes all education culminate in character, and by this standard he measures all educational processes. When he proved that the faculties should be unfolded according to their natural development, he undermined

empiricism; when he pointed out the value of objective teaching, the idolatrous worship of words was condemned by human intelligence; and when he so eloquently and faithfully demonstrated the necessity of observing and respecting the individuality of every child, he showed the evils of arbitrary authority and routine. "No matter how slowly these ideas make their way, no matter how fiercely they may be assailed," says Krusi, "they are the leaven in the measure of meal, and will show the importance of the great educational movement which he inaugurated."

The above testimony from Pestalozzi's own writings, and the com'ments of his biographer, bear evidence to the leading ideas of the philosophy of Pestalozzianism; but the power and individuality of his life-work are most strikingly realized when he stood alone in the midst of his pupils at Stanz, without any intervening agency between them. It was from these untrained, untaught children, that he studied the truths he afterwards revealed. They were drawn to love him, because they felt that he loved them. Conscious that he knew them as they really were, they had no motive for deception.

In his own dear son, Pestalozzi had studed child-nature in its favorable aspect; but the little outcasts who had none to love or care for them, being left from infancy to the evil influence around them, these demanded a deeper study, which brought the anxious inquiry, "what must be done to save them from the injuries of the past?"

It was not the ideal Emile of Rousseau, with his unnatural and baseless theory of education, never tested by experiments upon living subjects, that could give an answer; nor was it the truths enunciated by Socrates, Plato, or by any of the thinkers of a later day, that came to Pestalozzi's assistance. He had no books, for he knew they were of no use in his intercourse with these pupils. The needed light was brought in the process of his own experiments upon their hearts and minds. His own loving words, coming from the depths of his own soul, arrested their earnest attention and left their impress for life. If he had read to them the most eloquent passages from his own works, these would have failed to touch their hearts or to make a place in their memories. The success of his experiments was owing to the power of that loving sympathy and quick perception that enabled him to realize their special need and to minister to their moral deficiencies kindly and wisely.

In the school at Burgdorf, there were assistants who aided in car

rying out the principles of Pestalozzi, and it is said the time spent there was to all the most profitable and pleasant in their lives. But from political changes, the funds for the support were taken out of the hands of the central government, and the building had also to be surrendered to the governor of the district. Pestalozzi had to look for another place. He accepted an invitation from the inhabitants of Yverdon, and joining his assistants who had gone there, the Institution was opened in the castle. At Burgdorf his name had become widely known as an educator, but at Yverdon it after wards gained a world-wide celebrity.

The spirit that prevailed there is thus described: Teachers and pupils were united by the love which Pestalozzi seem ed to impart to all who came within his influence. The children forgot they had another home, and the teachers that there was any other world than the Institution. The morning and evening devotions in which all joined, and above all the spirit of brotherly love which seemed to pervade the members of the whole school, gave evidence that the loving precepts of Christ were received by willing ears and intelligent minds. This was the crowning glory of the whole system.

The popularity of the Institution increased with its celebrity. Pupils came from Germany, England, France and Sweden, and teachers went from it to Madrid, Naples and St. Petersburg. Kings and philosophers visited it and joined in doing it honor.

But it became too large for Pestalozzi to govern. His time was fully occupied in superintending his large and heterogeneous assembly in an extensive correspondence, in literary labors, and in attending to the financial management of the Institution. Of the great number of pupils, scarcely two-thirds paid full board or tuition; some paid nothing at all. Although urged to caution by his early experience, yet he always forgot his worldly interests when the welfare of humanity touched his heart. No pupil was rejected on account of poverty, but every one who showed a desire to improve was always admitted.

The life of the Pestalozzi Institution had been the love which the old man had infused into all the teachers as well as the children; but its enlargement required a greater number of assistants, and among those introduced was one of a selfish, arbitrary character, who took his own course in undermining the authority of Pestalozzi, and producing discord and disaffection where all had been peace and love.