"On what ground do the volitions of the human species, and its opinions, rest, and must rest, under the circumstances in which it is placed?"

To find an answer to these questions he reviews the "march of civilisation," and finds that :

"By the helplessness of his animal condition man is brought to knowledge.

"Knowledge leads to acquisition, acquisition to possession. Possession leads to the formation of society. Society leads to powers and honours. Powers and honours lead to the relations of rulers and subjects, i.e., relations of nobles and commons to the crown.

"All these relations call for a state of law. The state of law calls for civil liberty. The want of law entails tyranny and slavery.

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Following the course of nature in another direction, I find in myself a certain benevolence, by which acquisition, honour, property and power ennoble my mind, whilst without it all these privileges of my social condition only tend to degrade me more deeply."

In other words, the race has developed through three great stages, viz., (1) an original, instinctive, innocent, animal state of nature. In this condition man is the creature and the victim of circumstances; "his hands are ever stained with the blood of his brother; like a tiger he defends his den, and roars against his own species; he claims the ends of the earth as his own; and perpetrates whatever he chooses under the sun," i.e., there are no laws except those of self-preservation and no morals save his own satisfactions. But the hardships of such a life lead him to desire, and then to seek, better conditions. Hence conflict with his fellows is changed for co-operation with them.

Now arises (2) the social state. Co-operation leads to greater achievements and more enjoyments. Speech and knowledge are greatly developed, and thus man the brute becomes man the human. But with this come rights and duties, for we can only get much by giving much. Now, therefore, come powers and honours, for "when hundreds and thousands are gathered together [man] is compelled, in spite of himself, to say to the strong, 'Be thou my shield'; and to the cunning, 'Be thou my guide'; and to the rich, 'Be thou my preserver'". Such honours and powers are in themselves indispensably connected with the development of our species; and only when abused by unfaithful and criminal persons do they corrupt and degrade the race. After all, however, "the relation of man to man in the social state is merely animal . . . there is nothing he contemplates less than the service of God and the love due to his neighbour. He enters society with a view to gratify himself, and to enjoy all those things which, to a sensual and animal being, are the indispensable conditions of satisfaction and happiness. The social law is, therefore, not in any wise a moral law, but a mere modification of the animal law."

Man must, therefore, raise himself out of the social state or he will ever be liable to, and suffer from, the dangers of it-into (3) the moral state. It is only the moral will-" the force of which he opposes to the force of his nature"-that can save man. He finds within himself an element called benevolence, and a power called love, which will ennoble the very root of benevolence—even though this is essentially animal in its origin. "But there is a danger still of love being lost in my longing for self-gratification; I feel desolate

as an orphan, and I seek to rise beyond the power of imagination, beyond the limits of all research and knowledge that is possible here below, to the fountainhead of my existence, to derive from thence help against the desolation of my being, against all the ills and weaknesses of my nature."

Therefore a man "will fear God in order that the animal instincts of his nature shall not degrade him in his inmost soul. He feels what he can do in this respect, and then he makes what he can do the law of what he ought to do. Subjected to this law, which he imposes upon himself, he is distinguished above all other creatures with which we are acquainted." This is the moral man: the man who desires to be higher, nobler and better than he is, and makes every endeavour to raise himself by working upon his own character. Only when a society is composed of such men can it be a really beneficent, prosperous and happy one.

The animal man is as nature makes him; the social man is the product of the social organisation in which he happens to be; but the moral man is the outcome of his own efforts he is, in a sense, his own creator.

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Morality is quite an individual matter. . . . No man can feel for me that I am. No man can feel for me that I am moral." The religion of the animal man is idolatry, because he is a slave to his senses and the creature of his fears. The religion of social man is deceit, because society fosters ambition, pride and inequality; and man strives, by every means, for place and power-endeavours to get all he can for himself at the expense of others. The religion of the moral man is truth, for this is the foundation of his

man does

life and the only means by which he can carry out the self-improvement for which he lives. A man must possess himself—and this the truly moral before he can really possess anything else. Then is he of real worth to himself, his family and the community, for he is no longer subject to his animal instincts or the prejudices of society.

It is only fair to the reader to point out that the above summary is an attempt to make clear what Pestalozzi seems to have meant. All his critics are agreed that there is much that is wordy and obscure in the work; but none the less, there is much that is fine in substance and in form. From the rational point of view it suffers seriously from the fact that it is-like Rousseau's works-speculative and fanciful rather than scientific and exact, but this does not make it either valueless or entirely wrong. That the views set forth in the book really underlaid and influenced Pestalozzi's methods, is clear from his other writings, and is, perhaps, best shown in his Letters on Infants' Education-one of the simplest, clearest and most interesting of his writings on education, and the last and most neglected of them. His own criticism on the Investigations is: "This book is to me only another proof of my lack of ability; it is simply a diversion of my imaginative faculty, a work relatively weak. . . No one understands me, and it has been hinted that the whole work has been taken for nonsense.”

But to Pestalozzi all this meant much-he found himself, both intellectually and practically. He says: "I was grey haired, yet still a child, but a child deeply disturbed within himself. Still in all these troublous times I moved forwards to the purpose of my life; but

my way was more unbalanced and erring than ever. I now sought a path to my end. . . . They [those who despised him] restored me to myself and left me . . . nothing but the word which I spoke in the first days of that overthrow, I will turn schoolmaster"."

After the publication of the Investigations follow ten? years of silence so far as concerns Pestalozzi's pen. But meantime great events were happening in Switzerland. The political teaching of Rousseau and others was finding expression in revolutionary reform. Pestalozzi was a democrat of the democrats and used his pen on the side of the people. The national government had been put into the hands of five men, who formed the "Executive Directory". These were only too glad to make use of the services of the author of Leonard and Gertrude, and they made him editor of a journal designed to spread the knowledge of revolutionary principles.

The title of the paper was to be the Popular Swiss News it was to be issued once a week; and to be sent free to schoolmasters, clergymen and all Government officials, who received orders to read it and to explain its contents to others. It was an entirely official paper, published by the Directory at the request of the Great Council; and its programme was to inform the people as to the changes of Government : spread general enlightenment: and rally the people to the support of the united Government. The first number appeared on 8th September, 1798.

But Pestalozzi had already offered his services for other work, nearer and dearer to his heart. On 21st May, 1798, he sent this letter to the Minister of Justice :