98 MY LIFE 



1814 for £114,100. This great increase of value was due in 

 part to the large profits made by cotton mills generally at this 

 period, and partly to Owen's skilful management and judicious 

 expenditure. 



He was now at last able to carry out his plans for the edu- 

 cation of the children, none of whom he would allow to enter 

 the mills as workers till they were ten years old. He built 

 handsome and roomy schools, playrooms and lecturerooms for 

 infants from two to six, and for the older children from six to 

 ten years old ; and he obtained the best masters for the latter. 

 The infant schools were superintended by himself, and 

 managed by teachers he himself selected for their manifest 

 love of children. His instructions to them were " that they 

 were on no account ever to beat any one of the children, or 

 to threaten them in any manner in word or action, or to 

 use abusive terms, but were always to speak to them with a 

 pleasant countenance, and in a kind manner and tone of voice ; 

 that they should tell the infants and children that they must on 

 all occasions do all they could to make their playfellows happy ; 

 and that the older ones, from five to six years of age, should 

 take especial care of the younger ones, and should assist to 

 teach them to make each other happy." And these instructions, 

 he assures us, were strictly followed by the man and woman 

 he chose as infant-school master and mistress. 



No books were to be used ; but the children " were to be 

 taught the uses and nature or qualities of the common things 

 around them, by familiar conversation when the children's 

 curiosity was excited so as to induce them to ask questions 

 respecting them." The schoolrooms were furnished with 

 paintings of natural objects, and the children were also taught 

 dancing, singing, and military evolutions, which they greatly 

 enjoyed. The children were never kept at any one occupa- 

 tion or amusement till they were fatigued, and were taken 

 much into the open air and into the surrounding country, 

 where they were taught something about every natural object. 

 Here we see all the essential features of the educational sys- 

 tems of Pestalozzi and Froebel, worked out by his own ob- 

 servations of child-nature from his own childhood onward, and 



