374 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of Education founded on an Analysis of the Human Faculties 

 and Natural Reason, Suitable for the Offspring of a Free People, 

 and for all Rational Beings. By Joseph Neef (formerly a Coad- 

 jutor of Pestalozzi, at his School near Berne, in Switzerland). 

 Philadelphia, 1808. 



This work is faultless as to grammatical construction, and was 

 the first strictly pedagogical work published in the English lan- 

 guage in this country. It would interest any modern teacher who 

 has read the numerous pedagogical works of to-day to give this 

 quaint little volume a careful perusal. There are now but half a 

 dozen known copies in existence, one being in the State Library at 

 Indianapolis. Another work. Method of Teaching Children to 

 Read and Write, was published by him in 1813. 



Neef had in the school established at the Falls of the Schuyl- 

 kill about one hundred pupils, most of them boarders, who were 

 taught physiology, botany, geology, natural history, languages, 

 mathematics, and other branches, without the aid of a single text- 

 book, a purely natural method being followed. " Neef 's boys from 

 the Falls," as they were known to Philadelphians, could, without 

 exception, after being in the school for a short time, work mentally 

 the most difficult examples in arithmetic, converse with equal ease 

 in several languages, and many who were his pujjils have said in 

 after years that the amount of scientific information and practical 

 knowledge gained while under Neef's care had always been of 

 incalculable benefit to them. 



In 1813 he removed to Village Green, in Delaware County, 

 Pennsylvania. David Glasgow Farragut was one of his pupils at 

 this place. From here the school was moved to Louisville at the 

 earnest solicitation of several Kentucky patrons. In 1826, when 

 Robert Owen, of New Lanark, Scotland, began his famous social- 

 istic experiment at New Harmony, Indiana, Mr. Neef took charge 

 of the educational department of his community. In 1828 the 

 community ceased to exist, and Mr. Neef removed to Cincinnati, 

 and later to Steuben ville, Ohio, where he engaged in his last 

 school. He died at New Harmony in 1853. 



The following extract is taken from his book published in 

 1808 : " The man of refined morality feels it to be his duty not 

 only to be good, but also to inquire in what situation and through 

 what means he may be able to produce the greatest sum of good 

 to his fellow-creatures. It is my ambition and duty to become a 

 useful member of society. The education of children and the 

 rearing of vegetables are the only occupations for which I feel 

 any aptitude. I have, therefore, seriously inquired in which of 

 these two spheres I should produce the greatest advantage to the 

 society of which I may become a member, whether by clearing 

 and tilling some secluded spot of land, or by cultivating the 



