less children. He soon resigned his post; and was succeeded by Campe, who had been one of the visitors at the public examination. Campe did not remain long at the Philanthropin; but left it to set up a school, on like principles, at Hamburg. His fame now rests on his writings for the young; one of which-Robinson Crusoe the Younger-is still a general favourite.

Other distinguished men became connected with the Philanthropin-among them Salzmann, and Matthison the poet-and the number of pupils rose to over fifty; gathered, we are told, from all parts of Europe between Riga and Lisbon. But this number is by no means a fair measure of the interest, nay, enthusiasm which the experiment excited. We find Pastor Oberlin raising money on his wife's earrings to send a donation. We find the philosopher Kant prophesying that quite another race of men would grow up, now that education according to Nature had been introduced.

These hopes were disappointed. Kant confesses as much in the following passage in his treatise 'On Pædagogy':

'One fancies, indeed, that experiments in education would not be necessary; and that we might judge by the understanding whether any plan would turn out well or ill. But this is a great mistake. Experience shows that often in our experiments we get quite opposite results from what we had anticipated. We see, too, that since experiments are necessary, it is not in the power of one generation to form a complete plan of education. The only ex

perimental school which, to some extent, made a beginning in clearing the road, was the Institute at Dessau. This praise at least must be allowed it, notwithstanding the many faults which could be brought up against it-faults which are sure to show themselves when we come to the results of our experiments, and which merely prove that fresh experiments are necessary. It was the only school in which the teachers had liberty to work according to their own methods and schemes, and where they were in free communication both among themselves and with all learned men throughout Germany.'

6

We observe here, that Kant speaks of the Philanthropin as a thing of the past. It was finally closed in 1793. But even from Kant we learn that the experiment had been by no means a useless one. The conservatives, of course, did not neglect to point out that young Philanthropinists, when they left school, were not in all respects the superiors of their fellowcreatures. But, although no one could pretend that the Philanthropin had effected a tithe of what Basedow promised, and the friends of humanity' throughout Europe expected, it had introduced many new ideas, which in time had their influence, even in the schools of the opposite party. Moreover, teachers who had been connected with the Philanthropin, founded schools on similar principles in different parts of Germany and Switzerland, some of which long outlived the parent institution. Their doctrines, too, made converts among other masters, the most celebrated of whom was Meierotto of Berlin.

BASEDOW'S LAST WORDS.

157

He lived

Little remains to be said of Basedow. chiefly at Dessau, earning his subsistence by private tuition, and giving great offence by his irregularities, especially by drinking. In 1790, when visiting Magdeburg, he died, after a short illness, in his sixtyseventh year. His last words were, 'I wish my body to be dissected for the good of my fellow-creatures.'

158

VII.

PESTALOZZI.

JOHN HENRY PESTALOZZI, the most celebrated of educational reformers, was born at Zurich in 1746. At six years old he lost his father, who, leaving his family in needy circumstances, implored their servant, ‘the faithful Bäbeli,' never to desert his wife and children. Bäbeli kept sacredly the promise she gave to the dying man, and she had an equal share with the mother in bringing up the great educator.

With no companions of his own age, Pestalozzi became so completely a mother's child, that, as he himself tells us, he grew up a stranger to the world he lived in. This lonely childhood had its influence in making him, what he remained through life, a man of excitable feelings and lively imagination, which so entirely had the mastery over him as to prevent anything like due circumspection and forethought.*

* This will be best understood from the following anecdote. When, in after years, he was in great pecuniary distress, and his family were without the necessaries of life, he went to a friend's house and borrowed a sum of money. On his way home, he fell in with a peasant who was lamenting the loss of a cow. Carried away as usual by his feelings, Pestalozzi gave the man all the money he had borrowed, and ran away to escape his thanks.

From his grandfather, a country clergyman, with whom he often stayed, he received another important influence, strong religious impressions.

When at length he was sent to a day-school, he proved the awkwardest and most helpless of the scholars, and nevertheless showed signs of rare abilities. Among his playmates he was exposed to a good deal of ridicule, and was dubbed by them Harry Oddity of Foolborough, but his good nature and obliging disposition gained him many friends. No doubt his friends profited from his willingness to do anything for them. We find that when, on the shock of an earthquake, teachers and scholars alike rushed out of the school-house, Harry Oddity was the boy sent back to fetch out caps and books. In schoolwork, he says that though one of the best boys in the school, he often made mistakes which even the worst boys were not guilty of. He could understand the sense of what he was taught, and content with this, he neglected the form and the exercises necessary to give him a practical acquaintance with the subject.

As he grew up, the unpractical side of his character was more and more strongly developed. To use his own words, 'Unfortunately, the tone of public instruction in my native town at this period was in a high degree calculated to foster this visionary fancy of taking an active interest in, and believing oneself capable of, the practice of things in which one had by no means sufficient exercise. While we were yet boys, we fancied that by a superficial school-acquaintance with the great civil life of Greece and Rome, we could eminently prepare