Domestic and Foreign. 



1831.] 



Disappointed as he was, he never des- 

 paired, and successively, at Stantz, 

 Burgdortfj and finally at Yverdun, he 

 was enabled, sometimes by the govern- 

 ment, and sometimes by private friends, 

 to resume his attempts. They all, how- 

 ever, terminated in the same results ; 

 he was incapable of comprehending the 

 relation between receipt and expendi- 

 ture, or at least of being influenced by 

 it. Confusion soon found its waj' into 

 his establishments, and he repeatedly 

 became the dupe and victim of treache- 

 rous assistants, till death finally over- 

 took him in 1!!27, embittered by annoy- 

 ance and mortiiication. 



AfterDr.Biber's sketch of Pestalozzi's 

 life, he reviews his literary works, and 

 attempts to explain the process by which 

 he and his coadjutors endeavoured to 

 realize their purposes in several branches 

 of instruction. But Dr. Biber rarely 

 succeeds in giving distinct views, and 

 the reader wul often find himself, after 

 looking through a very fatiguing book, but 

 little the wiser. Dr. Biber writes Eng- 

 lish very well in a certain style, but he 

 is never eas}"^ or idion.atic — no foreigner 

 can be — and to this must be ascribed 

 much of the mistiness which hangs over 

 tue whole. Then he reasons one to 

 death too. At the same time, too, he 

 has formed far higher notions of the 

 value of education, in all cases, and of 

 Pestalozzi's principles, than we think 

 either deserves. It is clear to us, he, 

 like many others, considers the subject 

 too nan-owly and artificially, or he and 

 they would ascribe more force to the 

 imitative principles of children, and the 

 natural activity and growth of the intel- 

 lect. All need not, and is not, to be 

 done by teaching. We never knew the 

 children of active-minded people— with 

 the means of knowledge at hand — fail of 

 making large acquisitions, though left a 

 good deal to Iheir own caprices. 



We extract a comparison of Fellen- 

 berg and Pestalozzi's views, which we 

 find are often confounded : — 



Fellenberg was endeavouring to trace 

 out the shortest and most efficient way 

 for rendering his pupils fit members of 

 society ; his education was essentially 

 an education for the world ; every child 

 was pUiced in his establishment, exactly 

 in that rank in which he would have to 

 appear hereafter in life (that is, such was 

 the profession, and such might be the 

 aim, but as impracticable manifestly 

 as leaj)ing over the moon) ; his occu])a- 

 tions, his instruction, his mode of living, 

 every thing was calculated to prepare 

 him for his social position. Pestalozzi's 

 object, on the contrary, was by the most 

 direct, an<l the most simple, though it 

 might be the slowest course, to foster 

 the internal growth of the intellectual 

 and moral man— to the claims of tho 

 JNI.Al. New .S'me».— VoL.XII.No.fi7. 



97 



world he turned a deaf ear — he asked not 

 for what society, but for what God had 

 destined the child — his education was 

 essentially an education in reference to 

 the purpose of God, for the accomplish- 

 ment of his will and law in human na- 

 ture — and the position of each pupil in 

 his establishment was accordingly found- 

 ed, not upon the artificial institutions of 

 society, but upon a spirit of freedom and 

 brotherly love. 



Tile TwelveXights. — A dozen tales, most 

 or all of which have appeared in periodi- 

 cals, and are thought, of course, by the 

 author, to deserve something more than a 

 month's immortality. They are mere 

 incidents, but detailed with considerable 

 skill, and some simplicity, and will while 

 away an hour or two agreeably enough 

 with those who have not had the luck 

 to read them before, or, having read, 

 to remember them. It is unfortunate 

 for collections of this kind, that the par- 

 ties into whose hands they usually fall, 

 are precisely those who are most fami- 

 liar with periodicals. One of the stories, 

 it is entitled " Tales of the Dead," has 

 something quite original in its concep- 

 tion. In a party , accidentally collected, 

 one has been hanged and resuscitated — 

 a second, drowned and brought to life 

 again — a third, impaled for breaking into 

 the Grand Seignior's seraglio, and re- 

 leased by the slipping off of the weights 

 attached to his legs, after the torture of 

 a day or two. After the first horrors, 

 these gentlemen represent their sensa- 

 tions to have been quite enviable ; when 

 up rises, as j)romptly and lightly as he 

 was able, a fat Abb^, exclaiming, " Gen- 

 tlemen, you talk this matter well ; but 

 if I were to describe the fate which I 

 once narrowly escaped — if you could only 

 for an hour or two experience the hor- 

 rors of a surfeit, you would speak in 

 more respectful terms of the grim king 

 of terrors. Death has many doors — all 

 of them, in my opinion, disagreeable 

 enough ; but, take my word for it, it is 

 no joke to be despatched into eternity by 

 an indigestible Strasburg pie." 



Reasons fm- the Hope that is in Us, ^c, 

 by Robert AinsUe, W. S., .Author of a 

 "• Father''s Gift to his Children.'''' — -A 

 glance at the evidences of natural and 

 revealed religion, written originally for 

 the benefit of the author's family, and 

 enlarged and published for that of the 

 world. Epitomes of this kind are of use 

 at least to the individual himself, be- 

 cause he must of necessity examine, and 

 define and discuss, as he goes, which is 

 not the case always when a man merely 

 reads ; and useful also occasionally to 

 liis family and friends, because they will 

 often lend attention to what would 

 otherwise be jiassed by with indifl'ercnce, 

 when it comes from cine who is dear to 



G 



