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taming educational and religious aphorisms ; and “ Leonard and 
Gertrude,” a story to illustrate what might be done by a particular 
method of teaching children. These and other writings of his 
excited great attention. lie had successively different schools 
under his management, in which he developed his system by prac- 
tical experiment. Finally, at Yverdun, in the year 1805, he had 
obtained care of an institution which has now become a classical 
name in the history of pedagogy. 
Pestalozzi’s fundamental idea was that the children of the poor, 
in a public school, should be taught as if by an affectionate mother, 
who entered into all their feelings, and anticipated their difficulties. 
His conception was that primary instruction should not consist in 
giving knowledge verbally, mechanically, or by rote, but in drawing 
out the powers of the child. He laid it down that no child should 
be taught anything which it could not understand. The first 
development of this idea resulted in lessons upon form, number, 
and language. At Yverdun, Pestalozzi would carry his class 
through a lesson of the following kind : — Pointing to the wall, he 
would say, — 
“ Boys, what do you see V* 
(Answer) u A hole in the wainscot.” 
“ Very good ; now repeat after me — 
u I see a hole in the wainscot. 
“ I see a long hole in the wainscot. 
“ Through the hole I see the wall. 
“ Through the long narrow hole I see the wall. 
“ I see figures on the paperhangings. 
■ “ I see black figures on the paperhangings. 
“ I see round black figures on the paperhangings. 
“ I see a square yellow figure on the paperhangings. 
“ Beside the square yellow figure, I see a black round figure. 
“ The square figure is joined to the round one by a thick black 
stroke.” And so on. 
It was said that Pestalozzi used to shout out sentences of this 
kind without any explanation, and was echoed in chorus by the 
class. It is true that words in this way became associated with 
impressions of the sense. But if this were all, we should say that 
Pestalozzi was incapable of developing his own theoretical idea. 
