June 10, 1887.J 



SCIEJsrCE. 



563 



tween Milton and Pestalozzi. Milton's educational 

 scheme was derived, on the one hand from his 

 poetical imagination, and on the other from his 

 scorn for the shallowness and frivolity of some of 

 the statesmen with whom he lived. Pestalozzi 

 learned the principles of his art in the care of poor 

 orphans and in the hard experience of his own 

 checkered life. Milton's plan, like that of Plato, 

 was adapted for a select number of rulers. Pesta- 

 lozzi's plan was framed for the benefit of very 

 little children, and has only been gradually seen 

 to be applicable to all departments of education. 

 In the year 1798 the village of Stanz, near the 

 lake of Lucerne in Switzerland, was burned by 

 the French, and a great part of the inhabitants 

 murdered, because they would not receive the 

 constitution offered to them by the directory of 

 Paris. The children who escaped the slaughter 

 were left homeless and orphans, and Pestalozzi 

 was asked to take care of them. He established 

 himself in a large deserted convent, deprived of 

 all means of sustenance. He lived with the chil- 

 dren by day, and slept with them by night, shar- 

 ing the poor food which could be got together for 

 their common support. It was by this close con- 

 tact with the child-mind that Pestalozzi, almost 

 himself a child, learned some of the deepest se- 

 crets of education. No traveller should look down 

 from the Rhigi upon the valley where Stanz lies, 

 without reverencing it as the birthplace of educa- 

 tional ideas which are destined to revolutionize 

 our system of training. Yet when I rang, a few 

 years ago, at the convent-gate, the good sister of 

 charity who opened the door for me had never 

 heard of the name of Pestalozzi, and knew noth- 

 ing of the great Christian work which had been 

 carried on within her walls. The central idea of 

 Pestalozzi was to train the mind through the 

 senses. Humanism, dealing with words alone, 

 had depended mainly upon the memory. Chil- 

 dren learned long lists of Latin and Greek nouns, 

 long rules of Latin and Greek construction. Pes- 

 talozzi had no books. One of his best materials 

 for instruction was an old piece of tapestry em- 

 broidered with animals. The children were taught 

 to see, to touch, to taste, to smell, and to report 

 exactly what their senses had taught them. By 

 ingenious methods the first simple operations of 

 the senses were made to lead insensibly to the 

 higher operations of the mind. Milton had recom- 

 mended that the rudiments of mathematics should 

 be taught playing, as the old manner was. Pesta- 

 lozzi made this plan a reality. Pestalozzi taught 

 us to make the fullest use of a keen observation 

 of young children, of their quick apprehension of 

 what immediately surrounds them, and of their 

 surprising power of retaining what really interests 



them. He also taught us to follow, in the most 

 loving and even servile manner, the growth of 

 each child's mind, and of the child-mind as a 

 whole. Yet it cannot be said that he was very 

 successful as a practical teacher, and many who 

 have posed as his disciples have been great fail- 

 ures. To force children by compulsion to learn 

 many things by heart is the easiest, and it is also 

 the most stupid and the most unfruitful, method 

 of education. To follow the growth of their minds, 

 and to adapt the training at each instant to their 

 needs, require the patience of a saint and the in- 

 sight of a philosopher, and these qualities are sel- 

 dom found. 



Froebel may be regarded as one who has worked 

 out with great minuteness and success a particu- 

 lar part of Pestalozzi's teaching. The kindergar- 

 ten system, as it is called, rests upon the assump- 

 tion that the senses of a child are to be first dealt 

 with, and that it is by their means that the in- 

 telligence can be best aroused Froebel, starting 

 with the care of very young children, was able 

 to reduce their education to something like a sys- 

 tem. They are taught by degrees to see clearly 

 form and color ; to imitate them in various ways ; 

 to distinguish by the touch hard and soft, cold 

 and hot ; to train their ears to delicate sounds, 

 and their mouths to refined and expressive speech. 

 Their restlessness is utilized for social drill and 

 dances. A child is encouraged to imitate just 

 what he understands, and no more It is impos- 

 sible to see a kindergarten class, even when com- 

 posed of the youngest gutter children, without 

 feehng that this must in time be recognized as the 

 only fit education for the infant-mind. 



But it is a mistake to suppose that the princi- 

 ples of Froebel are applicable only to the training 

 of very young children. It is as natural for the 

 brain to grow and to exert itself as it is for the 

 arms and legs to stretch themselves. Our in- 

 herited traditional methods of education are too 

 often the swaddling-clothes of the mind, which 

 impede its growth rather than assist its develop- 

 ment. In schools higher than the kindergarten we 

 have yet to learn that pleasure is a far more 

 potent instrument of training than pain. Many 

 teachers value lessons for their very harshness 

 and repulsiveness, and take no pains that the 

 mind should pass easily from the known to the 

 unknown with ever-growing delight and satisfac- 

 tion. Far too much stress is laid on mere mem- 

 ory. Memory depends on interest. Children will 

 recollect accurately whatever has deeply roused 

 them at any time. If we secure interest, memory 

 will follow of itself. Again : schools spend far 

 too much time on a set course of study. Pesta- 

 lozzi and Froebel learned all they knew by the 



