1801; attracted much attention; made many converts; and led several enthusiasts to go to Burgdorf to see Pestalozzi and study his work.

Besides this, perhaps the most profound and important of his writings, the following books were issued from the institution at Burgdorf: (1) Help for Teaching Spelling and Reading (1801); (2) Pestalozzi's Elementary Books (1803), in six parts, viz., (a) The A B C of Intuition, or Intuitive-instruction in the Relations of Number (three parts); (b) Intuitive-instruction in the Relations of Dimensions (two parts); and (c) The Mothers' Manual, or Guide to Mothers in Teaching their Children how to Observe and Think (one part). The last three (a, b and c) are teachers' handbooks on the elements of arithmetic, geometry and language. It has been said of them that those who really needed such books would, by the aid of the books themselves, neither understand the principles nor use the exercises properly; whilst those who understood the principles and exercises would not need the books.

The whole work of teaching, and writing the textbooks, was carried on by Pestalozzi and three assistants, viz., Krüsi, of whom we have already spoken; Tobler, who was invited by Pestalozzi, at Krüsi's suggestion, to help him in the teaching of writing; and Buss, who was asked by Tobler, at the suggestion of Krüsi, to assist Pestalozzi in the teaching of drawing.

Their school-work was inspected by a commission appointed by the "Society of the Friends of Education" -which financed Pestalozzi-in whose report are these remarks: "The first thing we noticed was that Pestalozzi's pupils learn to spell, read, write and calculate quickly and well, achieving in six months results which

an ordinary village schoolmaster's pupils would hardly attain in three years. It is true that schoolmasters are

not usually men like Pestalozzi, nor do they discover assistants like those of our friend. But it appears to us that this extraordinary progress depends less upon the teachers than the method of teaching..

"Who does not know how ready the youngest children are to give everything a name; to put things together, and then to take them to pieces again, for the sake of fresh re-arrangements? Who does not remember that he preferred drawing to writing? Who does not know that the most unlearned men are often the quickest at mental reckonings? Who does not know that children, both boys and girls, delight—almost as soon as they can walk-in playing at soldiers, and in other forms of exercise?

"It is on these simple and well-known facts that Pestalozzi bases his method of instruction. Were it not for the fact that teachers are daily making the same mistakes as others made before them, we should feel inclined to inquire how it is that such an idea never occurred to any one before."

An independent witness, a visitor to the institutionCharles Victor von Bonstetten-says: "His children have learned, in from six to ten months, writing, reading, drawing, and a little geography and French, and have also made astonishing progress in arithmetic. They do everything cheerfully; and their health seems perfect. . . . I look upon Pestalozzi's method as a precious seed, still young and undeveloped, but full of promise. The success the method has already obtained should suffice to convince any impartial thinker of its excellence,...

"The children know little, but what they know they know well. In my opinion, there could be nothing better than the Burgdorf school for children of eight or nine. . . . The children are very happy, and obviously take great pleasure in their lessons: which says a great deal for the method."

A Nuremberg merchant, though at first prejudiced against the work, is compelled to testify thus: “I was amazed when I saw children treating the most complex calculations of fractions as the simplest matter in the world. Problems which I myself could not solve without careful work on paper, they did easily in their heads, giving the correct answer in a few moments, and explaining the method of working with ease and facility. They seemed quite unconscious of having done anything extraordinary."

The school was inspected by a public commission, appointed by the local Council, in June, 1802. Their report was drawn up by Ith, the President of the Bern Council of Public Education. This report first deals with Pestalozzi's principles, and declares that he "has discovered the real and universal laws of all elementary teaching". The moral and religious life of the establishment receives special praise; as does the discipline, which, it is remarked, is entirely based upon affection.

M. Soyaux, of Berlin, who visited the institution in August, 1802, thus speaks of certain points about it, in a pamphlet which he wrote: "His discipline is based upon the principle that children must be allowed the greatest possible liberty, and that only when they take advantage of this liberty must they be interfered with. They are taught by ten masters, There are also

a certain number of foreigners at the castle, who are there to study the method.

"The institute is young, and Pestalozzi's principles are still undergoing development. As they are not yet mature, it causes the organisation of the establishment to be still incomplete. Director and assistants are working with all their power to perfect the undertaking. One tries to improve certain appliances; another strives to find a natural way of teaching reading, number, etc. Would that all educational institutions presented such a picture of concord and harmony, and showed the same zeal in advancing from progress to progress."

At Burgdorf Pestalozzi reached the highest point of his success as a teacher and educationist, though not of his fame. His popularity amongst his own people also was at its greatest. On this popularity Dr. Biber remarks: "It is a fact, of which the life of almost every distinguished man affords evidence, that the great mass of the public, dull of comprehension and slow to acknowledge merit, is in the same proportion unintelligently lavish of its admiration, as soon as a man has safely crossed the line of public opinion, and gone through the ordeal of the critical 'sailor's dip'. This proved to be the case with Pestalozzi. He who had been an object of commiseration among philanthropic wiseacres, and the butt of every bad joke from the lips of the thoughtless and the unfeeling, was now extolled to the skies as the man of the age; and so high ran the tide of popularity in his favour, that he was chosen to be one of the deputies sent to Paris in 1802, pursuant to a proclamation of the French Consul, in order to frame a new constitution which should unite the con

flicting interests of Switzerland, and put a stop to its internal dissensions." As a matter of fact he was elected by one canton and one town.

Before his departure for Paris he published a political pamphlet entitled Views on the Objects to which the Legislature of Helvetia has chiefly to direct its attention, in which he put forward some wise and moderate views for reform and the remedy of existing evils. At Paris he tried to interest Napoleon and his chief ministers in his educational work, but the First Consul declined to see him, and declared that he could not be bothered about questions of A B C. On his return to Burgdorf, Pestalozzi is said to have remarked on being asked, "Did you see Bonaparte?"—" No, I did not see Bonaparte; and Bonaparte did not see me".

The outcome of the visit of the Swiss deputies to Paris was that the form of government of their country was changed; the "Executive Directory" of five members was dissolved; an annual assembly of deputies (with limited powers) substituted; and large powers of selfgovernment restored to the cantons-the Act of Mediation. Two results of the new order of things were that Pestalozzi was turned out, on 22nd August, 1804, of the castle at Burgdorf, which was required for the canton Government offices; and there was no longer any central national authority to assist him in his work. However, several towns made generous offers to him if he would go to them with his school. The canton De Vaud gave him the choice of several castles, which had previously been the residences of deputy governors. The Government of the canton of Bern offered Pestalozzi the use of the old Johanniter monas