CHAPTER X.

PESTALOZZI.

JOHN HENRY PESTALOZZI was born on January 12, 1746. His father died when he was five years old. 'I grew up,' he said, 'by the side of the best of mothers—as a mother's child. Year after year I never came out from behind the stove. In short all means and stimulus for the development of manly strength, manly experience, manly ways of thinking, and manly practice were wanting to me just in proportion as I needed them by the peculiarity and weakness of my individual character. I saw the world only in the narrow confinement of my mother's chamber, and in the equally great confinement of my life in the schoolroom; the real life of men was as strange to me as if I did not live in the world in which I dwelt. In all games I was the most awkward and most helpless of all my schoolmates, and yet I wished to excel in them above the rest. That often gave them occasion to laugh at me. One of them gave me the nickname "Wonderful Harry from fools' town." Most of them were pleased with my good temper and serviceableness, but they knew my one-sidedness and want of skill, and my thoughtlessness in everything which did not interest me much.' He complains that his teaching was too much occupied with words and fancies. That went

so far,' he says, 'that we imagined in our boyish days that we could prepare ourselves by the superficial school knowledge of the life of Greek and Roman citizens for the restricted life of citizens in a Swiss canton. When Rousseau's "Émile" appeared, my very unpractical imagination was seized by this very unpractical book. I compared the education which I received in the corner of my mother's chamber and in the school with that which Rousseau demanded for the education of his Émile. Home education and the public education of all classes seemed to me to be a crippled existence, which could be cured of the misery of its real position by the lofty ideas of Rousseau. Rousseau's ideas of freedom awakened in me a desire to serve the people with greater earnestness. I determined to give up the career of a clergyman and to study law, which might open to me a sphere of greater usefulness to my country.' A friend of Pestalozzi's, by name Bluntschli, dying at this time, sent for him on his deathbed, and said to him, 'I am dying and you will be left alone. Take care to throw yourself into no line of life which may be dangerous to you from your good nature and over-confidence. Look out for a quiet way of life, and undertake no adventure unless you have by your side a cool-headed man who knows men and things, and on whom you may depend.'

Never was advice more urgently needed. Shortly after this Pestalozzi fell ill; on his recovery he put away his books and determined to devote himself to an agricultural life. In the north of Switzerland, not far from the town of Brugg and the castle of Hapsburg, he purchased some acres of barren land which he called Neuhof. He built a house in the Italian style better than he could afford. Here he married in 1769. The money necessary for the farm was advanced by a Zürich house of business.

But the plan entirely failed. In Pestalozzi's words, the dream of his life, the hope of an important and beneficent sphere of labour, which was centred in a quiet, peaceful, domestic circle, had entirely disappeared; but his spirit was in no way broken. Assisted by his noble-hearted wife he established an institute for the poor, to which children were sent from Zürich, Berne, and Bâle. He soon had fifty children to look after, chiefly homeless wastrels. His idea was to employ them in summer with field work, in winter with spinning and other handicrafts. He also attempted to teach them, and laid great stress on their practice in speaking; but this plan also failed. The children were unaccustomed to discipline, and came to no good, and sometimes ran away as soon as they had received new clothes. Pestalozzi preferred to share his last crust with his children rather than give the institute up. He lived like a beggar to teach beggars how men live.' At last money, bread, wood, and everything failed, and the scheme had to be surrendered. His friends believed that it was all over with him, and that they could not help him any more. With his beggar's staff in his hand, and with no human assistance left for him in the world, he determined in himself, ‘I will be a schoolmaster.' He devoted himself to raising others from the abyss into which he had himself fallen. His wife stood by him in his trouble. He sought refuge with Iselin, a Swiss writer of some reputation. He came to his house without shoes, having given the silver buckles to a beggar on the way.

Pestalozzi's first work was published in Iselin's 'Ephemerides.' It was called 'Die Abendstünden eines Einsiedlers' ('The Evening Hours of a Recluse'). It consists of a series of detached thoughts on the principles of education. It is the first sketch of the edifice to the

erection of which Pestalozzi devoted his life. Education in the family, love as the sun of the house, are the necessary conditions of all success in education. Knowledge of things and complete serviceableness in the affairs of life, the absence of mere swallowing of words, childish innocence and belief in God as the most penetrating influence in the life of men and as the Alpha and Omega of education-such are the main principles on which he insists. A year later Pestalozzi wrote another work, which speedily became known through the whole of Europe. The Economical Society of Bern gave him their gold medal, Bonstetten invited him to come and work as a minister, Count Zinzendorf the Moravian asked him to Vienna, Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, begged him to come and stay with him in Florence. Such in those days was the enthusiasm for new ideas among the rulers of the world. The name of this new work was 'Leonard and Gertrude—a book for the people.' Pestalozzi wrote it in a few weeks, without knowing, as he says, what he was doing. 'I felt its value, but only like a man who feels the worth of happiness in sleep.' The object of the book was to bring about a better education for the people, arising out of their true position. and their natural circumstances. This book,' he says, was my first word to the heart of the poor and forsaken in the land. It was my first word to the mothers of the country, and to the heart that God gave them to be to their families what no man on earth can be in their place.' Education begins, as in the scheme of Rousseau, with the cradle. Gertrude, the wife of the good-natured but weak-minded Leonard, is the pattern of all mothers. Pestalozzi describes how she manages her home, brings up and educates her children. He wishes above everything to instil necessary knowledge

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'Leonard and Gertrude'

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into children by good elementary education. If this could only begin properly and go on properly, an en-√ tirely new race would grow up, independent in character, full of insight and cleverness. A people thus educated would be able to hold its own against oppressors. But elementary teachers were wanting who both could and would educate in this way. There were no seminaries or normal schools where such children could be educated. Therefore, Pestalozzi said, 'I will put the education of the people into the hands of the mothers. I will transplant it from the school to the house.' But how can a mother teach what she does not understand? Pestalozzi tried to supply this want of knowledge and experience. A mother who follows exactly the principles of his book could educate her children as well as if she were the possessor of all the sciences.

After the appearance of 'Leonard and Gertrude,' Pestalozzi spent seventeen more years in Neuhof, making thirty years in all. He wrote several books and founded a weekly paper called the 'Schweizer Blatt.' At one time he joined the order of the Illuminati, but soon left them, because he found that they could not be trusted to fulfil their promises. But these were troubled times in Europe. By the year 1798 the French Revolution had produced serious results in Switzerland. An Helvetic Republic had been formed, governed by five directors, one of whom was Legrand, a friend of Pestalozzi's. He was an old man of eighty, full of enthusiasm for the improvement of the people, and he had been at one time a friend and a co-operator of Oberlin. Pestalozzi attached himself with eagerness to the new doctrines. He determined to be a schoolmaster, and was on the point of setting up an establishment in Aargau; but on September 9, 1798, Stanz, a town on the Lake of Lucerne, was burnt