only a few of the elder ones being taught to write. If little Hermann ever learnt anything there, it was soon forgotten, for at twelve years of age he was going about the district for his father from village to village, entirely ignorant of the things generally taught in school.

But the child was sharp and observant, and passionately fond of study; and though he had to work hard for a living, he still found time for self-improvement. As his father sent him to make sales or purchases in the different villages, he often found himself the bearer of considerable sums of money; and as he had to keep a strict account of this money, he gradually taught himself to count. He learned at the same time to distinguish the various qualities of different sorts of goods. He was in the habit, too, of botanizing as he went along, and so became familiar with the names and characters of the most useful plants. He had, besides, that deep appreciation of Nature which is so rare amongst those whose daily struggles for a living leave them little or no real leisure. To his admiration for the beauties of his country was joined a fervent inborn piety, which, even amid his mercantile pursuits, always held the first place in his simple, pure, and loving heart.

1

Hermann Krusi was eighteen years old when a chance encounter resulted in his taking up teaching, work for which he was eminently fitted, but of which he would probably never have thought had not the idea been suggested to him. Here, for a moment, we must let him speak for himself, for it was from his own lips that we first heard the story:

1 A very good general view of the country is to be had from the top of the Gäbris, which lies to the north of the village of Gais, and can be reached in rather less than an hour. At this height, hills and woods lie stretched out below, and between them the numerous villages, with their large painted houses of carved wood, and their high, red church steeples. To the south the view extends to the mountains of the Catholic canton of Inner Appenzell, no longer connected with Outer Appenzell, which, on embracing the reform, was made into a separate half-canton. The glaciers of the Sentis crown this side of the picture. To the east lies the Rhine valley, with the river winding like a silver ribbon; beyond are the Austrian Alps of the Vorarlberg. To the north is the plain of Thurgau, so thickly covered with fine trees as to be like an immense orchard. On this side the view is bounded by the lake of Constance, and beyond the lake, as ar as the eye can reach, by the mountains of the Black Forest.

"One hot summer's day I was crossing the Gäbris on my way back from Trogen with a heavy load of thread. It was just at the top of the mountain where the path changes its direction that my thoughts and my life also changed theirs. I had set down my pack to wipe my forehead, when I was met by Mr. Gruber, at that time State Treasurer, who recognized me.

"It's very hot, Hermann,' he said.

"Yes, very hot.'

"As Hoerlen, the schoolmaster, is leaving Gais, you might perhaps earn your living without working quite so hard. Wouldn't you like to try for his place?'

"It isn't merely a question of what I should like. A schoolmaster must know things of which I am entirely ignorant.'

666 At your age you could easily learn all that we expect a village schoolmaster to know.'

"But where and how? I see no possibility of such a thing.'

"A way will easily be found if you would like to do it. Think about it, and lose no time.'

"Whereupon he left me.

"I thought and thought, but could not see how it was to be done. However, I rapidly descended the mountain, hardly conscious of my load.

"My friend Sonderegger procured me a specimen of writing from a clever caligraphist, of Altstätten, which I copied more than a hundred times. This was my only preparation. Nevertheless, I sent in my name, though with little hope of succeeding.

"There was only one other candidate. The chief test was to write the Lord's Prayer, which I did with the greatest

care.

I had noticed that capital letters were used here and there, but I knew nothing of the rules,1 and took them for an ornament. I accordingly arranged mine symmetrically, so that some of them came even in the middle of a word. The fact is that we neither of us knew anything.

"Soon after the examination was over I was sent for, and told that the examiners thought us both very weak; that my

1 In German all nouns are written with a capital letter.

rival read better than I did, but that my writing was better than his; that as I was only eighteen, whereas he was forty, I could more easily acquire the necessary knowledge; that, moreover, my room, being bigger than his, was more suitable for a schoolroom; and, lastly, that I was appointed to the vacant post."

Krusi's room was therefore cleared of some old furniture to make room for the hundred children who formed the school. This was in 1793.

There he was, then, with a hundred children in his room, much perplexed as to how to keep them in order, how to occupy them, and how to teach them. Another man, in his place, would have bethought himself of what was done in the school where he had been taught, and would have imitated his former master. But not so Krusi; he had been attracted to this new career not so much by the insignificant salary as by the opportunity it afforded him of satisfying his passion for study; he knew that he had much to learn, and now, instead of trying to show his scholars what he already knew, he set himself to learn with them.

He was much helped by the pastor Schiess, who, struck by the vices of the old routine-system of the primary school, was endeavouring to find something better to replace it. This worthy man gave Krusi his personal assistance for the first eight weeks. The children were divided into three classes, and every effort was made to keep them constantly occupied. A new reading-book had just been introduced into the school, containing Bible stories and a few facts of geography and natural history. The children were questioned on what they read to make sure that they had thoroughly understood.

Krusi worked very hard; he was very happy in his new position, partly because he was gaining knowledge, but chiefly because he really loved his children. He cared not only for their future welfare, but for their present contentment. He knew how necessary activity was for them, and he did all he could not to cause them a moment's weariness. Amongst the varied exercises of his class, he was not afraid to introduce the personal experiences by which he had gained, sometimes indeed to his cost, useful knowledge of things connected with the everyday life of the country, and so he often talked of weaving and cattle, plants and merchandise, to the great

delight of the children, who were not a little surprised to hear in school about the very things in which they were most interested.

It was impossible that such a change in school methods should be understood and approved by everybody. It excited, indeed, considerable opposition in the district, an opposition which became stronger after the Revolution of 1798.~ Krusi was in favour of the new order of things, because he thought it more likely than the old to encourage work amongst the people, and the development of public instruction. He thus lost the goodwill of many who remained faithful to the old system.

It was then that, thanks to a combination of circumstances which we must briefly explain, a new career was thrown open to him.

Towards the end of last century, the famous pedagogical establishment conducted by Salzmann at Schnepfenthal had excited in the minds of several of its best students an ardent desire for the reform and progress of public instruction. Amongst them was a young Swiss, called Fischer, who, after completing his theological studies, had obtained a post of deputy-minister. But in the Revolution of 1798 he gave up this post for the secretaryship of the Science and Art Department under the new Swiss Government.

Fischer's views, like those of Pestalozzi, were lofty, generous, and patriotic; like him, he felt the need of raising the schools of Switzerland; but it was by the foundation of a normal school that he sought to reach his end, whereas Pestalozzi was anxious, first of all, to apply his method to the education of poor children.

Fischer's views were shared by the minister Stapfer, who induced the Government to adopt them. The state of the finances, however, did not admit of any practical steps being taken, and the Government merely promised to support Fischer should he succeed in founding a normal school, and held out the hope that it might perhaps later on become a State institution.

For the carrying out of his plans, Fischer had chosen the Castle of Burgdorf, and the Government had granted him the use of a certain part of it. The future director accordingly went and settled there. He was well received by the inhabitants of the town, who entrusted him with the reorganization

and direction of their schools, a work into which he threw himself with zeal, whilst waiting for an opportunity of founding his own school.

This was in the autumn of 1799. Disasters like that of the year before at Stanz had just overtaken eastern Switzerland, where the war that the French were carrying on against the Austrians and Prussians had entirely destroyed the resources of the country, which was in consequence a prey to the most horrible famine. In the districts of the Linth and Sentis especially there were hundreds of mothers with absolutely nothing to give their children. The inhabitants of those parts of Switzerland which had escaped this terrible Scourge were moved with compassion, and took the children of their ruined countrymen into their homes to care for them, and bring them up as their own.

The chief mover in this generous action at Burgdorf was Fischer. He heard so much sympathy expressed on every side that in the month of December he wrote to his friend Steinmüller, of Glarus, then pastor of Gais, asking him to send to Burgdorf thirty poor children, for whom he undertook to find comfortable homes. He asked further that they should be accompanied by a young man capable of looking after them and fond of teaching, whom he promised to train himself and turn into a good schoolmaster.

Steinmüller accordingly set off as soon as possible for Glarus, his native place, which was the district that had suffered most. But eighty poor children of this canton had already been sent away, and, by the kindness of the Literary Society of Berne, placed in homes in the province of Vaud, then the canton of Leman, not, it must be confessed, with the entire approval of many of the inhabitants of Glarus, who traced all their misfortunes to the action of the people of Vaud in calling in the French.

On his return to Gais, Steinmüller announced to his parishioners that he could place a certain number of children in comfortable homes in the canton of Berne, and such was the state of distress in the country that the very first day he had no less than forty applications.

He proposed to Krusi that he should accompany the emigrant children, pointing out to him the advantage it would be to be instructed by Fischer, perhaps even by Pestalozzi. Although the latter was already very famous, the young