OUTLINES FROM THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION. 215 



when education was confounded with fact -knowledge. Pestalozzi 

 found an illustration in the tree. Who can educate a crab-apple tree 

 into a peach-tree ? A crab-apple tree can be made a better crab-apple 

 tree perchance, a peach-tree can be made a better peach-tree by devel- 

 opment, by assisting the natural processes, by warding off destructive 

 forces. Development must take place by assimilation of food. This 

 is true for body, mind, and spirit. Around about man lies his food. 

 Nature furnishes material for man's education. That is his develop- 

 ment. Pestalozzi saw this, and he saw no less plainly that the material 

 might hinder the development. Improperly given food will destroy 

 life. There must, then, be a law for this development process ; assimi- 

 lation must proceed properly, or all will fail. The subject-matter of 

 education must receive its law from the course of the development pro- 

 cess. How does man unfold his powers ? What is the order given 

 here by man himself ? Pestalozzi's answer brings us face to face with 

 the essential characteristic of his method. Man unfolds his powers by 

 beginning with sense-perception, with " Anschauung." This German 

 term is nearly as untranslatable as the word " Gemiithlichkeit." Sense- 

 perception covers perhaps the larger portion of the meaning, yet does 

 not include it all. Anschauung signifies that clear discernment of an 

 object which is given by direct face-to-face acquaintance. Man's de- 

 velopment begins exactly here with such perception. This is the basis 

 of all knowledge. The degree of intensity, the clearness, the compre- 

 hensiveness, the order of this perception, must be decisive respecting 

 each individual's education. Pestalozzi says, " When I look back and 

 ask myself what I have really accomplished for education, I find I have 

 settled it that the fundamental principle of instruction lies in the rec- 

 ognition of perception as the absolute basis of all knowledge." This 

 principle originates and philosophically justifies object-teaching. Per- 

 ception has a law or method ; standing at the bottom of education, 

 perception leads naturally up in orderly gradation to that which is 

 higher. Perception must be reduced by definite and psychologically 

 arranged exercises to a perception science. When giving instruction, 

 we must see to it that the objects are examined by the child one at a 

 time, and not in the dim distance, but close at hand. We must see to 

 it further that characteristic illustrations are brought forward, not any 

 abnormal representations. From the perception of a thing arises its 

 name, from the name we advance to an enumeration of its properties ; 

 from this we finally develop the definition, the clear idea. Here is the 

 philosophy of object-teaching. Let the child see. This seeing must 

 be something far greater than any general vision ; it must be a seeing 

 arranged according to a strict psychology. Pestalozzi worked out a 

 system of object-teaching, or a psychology of perception. We have 

 place for but the briefest statement : " The entire sum of all the 

 external properties of an object is found within the object's circum- 

 ference and in the relation of its number, and is made known by 



