his work and his ideas. His How Gertrude Teaches her Children is perhaps the best exponent of his work.

In 1800 Pestalozzi made a Report in writing to a Society of Friends of Education, which had been formed to support his efforts at the time of his return from Stanz to Burgdorf. In this he gave a systematic statement of his conceptions as to method in education. The Report remained unprinted until 1828, when it was edited and published. The opening pages state the general outline of his method, and are reproduced below; the remainder of the Report goes into detail as to the application.

I am trying to psychologize the instruction of mankind; I am trying to bring it into harmony with the nature of my mind, with that of my circumstances and my relations to others. I start from no positive form of teaching, as such, but simply ask myself:

"What would you do, if you wished to give a single child all the knowledge and practical skill he needs, so that by wise care of his best opportunities he might reach inner content?"

I think to gain this end the human race needs exactly the same thing as the single child.

I think, further, the poor man's child needs a greater refinement in the methods of instruction than the rich man's child.

Nature, indeed, does much for the human race, but we have strayed away from her path. The poor man is thrust away from her bosom, and the rich destroy themselves both by rioting and by lounging on her overflowing breast.

The picture is severe. But ever since I have been able to see I have seen it so; and it is from this view that the impulse arises within me, not merely to plaster over the evils in schools which are enervating the people of Europe, but to cure them at their root.

But this can never be done without subordinating all forms of instruction to those eternal laws by which the human mind is raised from physical impressions on the senses to clear ideas.

I have tried to simplify the elements of all human knowledge according to these laws, and to put them into a series of typical examples that shall result in spreading a wide knowledge of Nature, general clearness of the most important ideas in the mind, and vigorous exercises of the chief bodily powers, even among the lowest classes.

I know what I am undertaking; but neither the difficulties in the way, nor my own limitations in skill and insight, shall hinder me from giving my mite for a purpose which Europe needs so much. And, gentlemen, in laying before you the results of those labors on which my life has been spent, I beg of you but one thing. It is this: Separate those of my assertions that may be doubtful from those that are indis

putable. I wish to found my conclusions entirely upon complete convictions, or at least upon perfectly recognized premises.

The most essential point from which I start is this: Sense-impression of Nature is the only true foundation of human instruction, because it is the only true foundation of human knowledge All that follows is the result of this sense-impression, and the process of abstraction from it. Hence in every case where this is imperfect, the result also will be neither certain, safe, nor positive; and in any case, where the sense-impression is inaccurate, deception and error follow. I start from this point and ask:- "What does Nature itself do in order to present the world truly to me, so far as it affects me? That is, By what means does she bring the sense-impressions of the most important things around me to a perfection that contents me?" And L find- She does this through my surroundings, my wants and my re lations to others.

Through my surroundings she determines the kinds of sense-impressions I receive. Through my wants she stimulates my activities. Through my relations to others she widens my observation and raises it to insight and forethought. Through my surroundings, my wants, my relations to others, she lays the foundations of my knowledge, my work, and my right-doing.

And now I ask myself:-"What general method of the Art of Teaching has the experience of ages put into the hands of humanity to strengthen this influence of Nature in developing intelligence, energy, and virtue in our race?” And I find these methods are speech, the arts of drawing, writing, reckoning, and measuring

And when I trace back all these elements of the human Art to their origin, I find it in the common basis of our mind, by means of which our understanding combines those impressions which the senses have received from Nature, and represents them as wholes, that is, as concepts.

And when I ask again: What are the unmistakable consequences of thus rudely despising these laws, I cannot conceal from myself the physical atrophy, one-sidedness, warped judgment, superficiality, and presumptuous vanity that characterize the masses in this generation, are the necessary consequences of despising these laws, and of the isolated, unpsychological, baseless, unorganized, unconnected teaching, which our poor race has received in our lower schools.

Then the problem I have to solve is this:- How to bring the elements of every art into harmony with the very nature of my mind, by following the psychological mechanical laws by which my mind rises from physical sense-impressions to clear ideas.

Nature has two principal and general means of directing human activity towards the cultivation of the arts, and these should be employed,

if not before, at least side by side with any particular means. They are singing, and the sense of the beautiful.

With song the mother lulls her babe to sleep; but here, as in every thing else, we do not follow the law of Nature. Before the child is a year old, the mother's song ceases; by that time she is, as a rule, no longer a mother to the weaned child. For him, as for all others, she is only a distracted, over-burdened woman. Alas! that it is so. Why has not the art of ages taught us to join the nursery lullabies to a series of national songs, that should rise in the cottages of the people from the gentle cradle song to the sublime hymn of praise? But I cannot fill this gap. I can only point it out.

It is the same with the sense of the beautiful. All Nature is full of grand and lively sights, but Europe has done nothing to awaken in the poor a sense for these beauties, or to arrange them in such a way as to produce a series of impressions, capable of developing this sense. The sun rises for us in vain; in vain for us he sets. In vain for us do wood and meadow, mountain and valley spread forth their innumerable charms. They are nothing to us.

Here, again, I can do nothing; but if ever popular education should cease to be the barbarous absurdity it now is, and put itself into harmony with the real needs of our nature, this want will be supplied.

I leave these means of directing the Art generally, and turn to the forms by which special means of education, speaking, reading, drawing, and writing should be taught.

268. A Visit to Pestalozzi at Yverdon

(Griscom, John, A Year in Europe, vol. 1, pp. 415-20. New York, 1823; 2 vols.) In 1818-19 Professor John Griscom (1774-1852), manager of a private school in New York City, and who later became a professor in Queen's (now Rutgers) College in New Jersey, visited Europe and made a study of the schools, colleges, and charitable institutions of Great Britain, France, Sweden, Italy, and Holland, and on his. return published his observations in A Year in Europe (1819). This book had an important influence in the United States on the development of reformatory schools and institutions for the training of defectives. The following extract from the report of his visit to Pestalozzi's school at Yverdon gives an insight into the work and personal side of the school.

Breakfast finished, our first and chief concern here was to visit the celebrated Institute of Pestalozzi. This establishment occupies a large castle the use of which was granted to Pestalozzi by the Canton of Berne, when the town of Yverdon was included in that Canton, and the government of the Pays de Vaud, to which it now belongs, continues

the grant. On entering the castle, we were invited into a private room. I gave my letters to the person in attendance, who took them immediately to the chief. The good old man soon came in, seized me warmly by the hand, and seeing my hat on my head, he pointed to it in a sort of ecstacy, with his eyes almost filled with tears. I hardly knew how to interpret this emotion, and asked him if he wished me to take it off. He answered very earnestly, "No, no, no; keep it on; you are right." He seemed very glad to see us, and as he speaks French very imperfectly, and with an indistinct accent, he said he would call Monsieur Greaves to talk with us. This gentleman soon came and entered immediately into a detail of the institution, its principles, its spirit, its arrangement, etc. He is an Englishman, and as I found upon inquiry, brother to the lady I had seen at Lausanne. He has been some weeks with Pestalozzi, for the purpose of understanding his system thoroughly, in order to aid a sister in England in the education of her children. He enters warmly into its concern, and will be useful in making it better known. He explained to us very clearly the leading ideas and views of human nature which induced Pestalozzi to become an instructor of youth. . . .

His school consists at present of about 90 boys, German, Prussian, French, Swiss, Italian, Spanish, and English. It is divided into four principal classes, according to the attainments of the pupils. These classes are subdivided into others. There are seven schoolrooms in the castle, and twelve teachers or professors. . . .

We spent most of the day in the different schoolrooms witnessing the exercises of the scholars. Very few books are used, as it is expected the children can read well before they come there. But to describe the modes of teaching, so as to render them clearly intelligible, would require much more time and space than I can possibly allot to it, were I ever so competent to make it known. We saw the exercises of arithmetic, writing, drawing, mathematics, lessons in music and gymnastics, something of geography, French, Latin, and German. To teach a school, in the way practiced here, without book, and almost entirely by verbal instruction, is extremely laborious. The teacher must be constantly with the child, always talking, questioning, explaining, and repeating. The pupils, however, by this process, are brought into very close intimacy with the instructor. Their capacities, all their faculties and propensities, become laid open to his observation. This gives him an advantage which can not possibly be gained in the ordinary way in which schools are generally taught. The children look well, appear very contented, and apparently live in great harmony one with another; which, considering the diversity of national character and temper here collected, can be attributed only to the spirit of love and affection which sways the breast of the principal of the institution, and extends its benign influence throughout all the departments.

The success of this mode of instruction greatly depends upon the personal qualifications of those who undertake to conduct it. There is nothing of mechanism in it, as in the Lancastrian plan; no laying down of precise rules for managing classes, etc. It is all mind and feeling. Its arrangements must always depend on the ages, talents, and tempers of the scholars, and require on the part of the teachers the most diligent and faithful attention. Above all, it requires that the teacher should consider himself as the father and bosom friend of his pupils, and to be animated with the most affectionate desires for their good. Pestalozzi himself is all this. His heart glows with such a spirit that the good old man can hardly refrain from bestowing kisses on all with whom he is concerned. He holds out his hands to his pupils on every occasion, and they love him as a child loves its mother. His plan of teaching is just fit for the domestic fireside, with a father or mother in the center, and a circle of happy children around them. He is aware of this, and wishes to extend the knowledge of his plan to every parent. Pestalozzi is 72 years of age. It is quite unfortunate for the progress of his system on the continent, that he pays so little attention to exteriors, regarding dress, furniture, etc., as of no moment whatever, provided the mind and heart be right.

269. An Estimate of Pestalozzi's Work

(Woodbridge, Wm. C., American Annals of Education and Instruction, vol. vii, p. 14. January, 1837)

William C. Woodbridge was a New England educator who spent the year 1820 and the years 1825-29 in Europe. In a series of letters he first really brought the work of Pestalozzi and Fellenberg to the attention of American teachers. In closing an article comparing the work of Basedow and Pestalozzi (271) he offers the following estimate of Pestalozzi's work and influence.

... as one of his admirers observed, it was his province to educate ideas and not children. He combated, with unshrinking boldness and untiring perseverance, through a long life, the prejudices and abuses of the age in reference to education, both by his example and by his numerous publications. He attacked with great vigor, and with no small degree of success, that favorite maxim of bigotry and tyranny that obedience and devotion are the legitimate offspring of ignorance. He denounced that degrading system, which considers it enough to enable man to procure a subsistence for himself and his offspring- and in this manner, merely to place him on a level with the beast of the forest; and which deems every thing lost whose value can not be estimated in money. He urged upon the consciences of parents and rulers, with an energy approaching that of the ancient prophets, the solemn duties