OUTLINES FROM THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION. 213 



attempt to preach. After a pastorate even shorter than those of mod- 

 ern times he applied himself to the study of law. Over-work com- 

 pelled him to seek rest in the country. Here he soon entertained the 

 purpose of becoming a farmer, because he believed that in this way he 

 could best work for the culture of the farmers. The aim of his life 

 seems justly set forth in these words : " To bring about a better destiny 

 for the poor in the country, by a firm establishment and simplification 

 of their means of education and instruction." His agricultural under- 

 taking at Neuhof was a failure from the beginning. Meanwhile he 

 opened an orphan asylum, and undertook the care of fifty parentless 

 children. The time came when there was neither bread nor wood. 

 Then eighteen years of waiting — of worse than waiting, of reproach 

 and increasing self-distrust, verging close upon despair. In 1780 Pes- 

 talozzi published " The Evening Hours of a Hermit," setting forth his 

 educational doctrine in most suggestive phrase. A year later came 

 " Lienhard and Gertrude " — a book for the people. This was written 

 in a few weeks, and, as Pestalozzi says, " without my knowing how I 

 came to it. I felt its worth, but only as a man in a dream feels the 

 value of a blessing. I saw the degradation of the people, and 'Lienhard 

 and Gertrude' was a sigh over this degradation." It was fundamental 

 with Pestalozzi that the education of the child should commence, as it 

 were, at the first instant of life. " By the cradle must we begin to 

 wrest from the hands of blind Nature the guidance of our race, that 

 we may place it in the hands of that better power which has taught 

 us by the experience of centuries to reflect upon the nature of her 

 eternal laws." 



During the winter of 1793-'94 Fichte gave lectures or discussions 

 in Lavater's house. Pestalozzi was led by these interviews to write 

 his second great work, entitled " Inquiries concerning the Course of 

 Nature in the Development of the Race." Events soon called the re- 

 former from writing to practical work. War, with its orphans, came 

 into the valleys of Switzerland. An orphan asylum was opened near 

 Stanz. Pestalozzi, already fifty-one years of age, took charge of this 

 asylum. Very touching are his words : "I had gone to the most secret 

 clefts of the mountains to find my work, and truly I found it. But 

 think of my condition ! I, alone — deprived of all appliances for edu- 

 cation — I alone overseer, keeper of accounts, house-servant, in an un- 

 finished house, among evils of all kinds. The children numbered about 

 eighty, all of different ages, some in open beggary, all entirely igno- 

 rant. I stood in their midst. I repeated sounds to them, made them 

 give the sounds after me. All who saw it were astonished at the result. 

 It was really the pulse-beat of the art which I sought. I did not know 

 what I was doing. I knew upon what I had resolved — death, or the 

 accomplishment of my purpose." 



Pestalozzi found a more permanent resting-place at Yverdun. The 

 institution which was established here continued from 1805 to 1825, 



