Such were the ideas that were current amongst the students of Zurich when Pestalozzi gave up the study of law and turned his attention to agriculture. His hope was that by setting an example of an improved method to the Swiss peasants, he would enable them not only to live in comfort, but provide for their children that intellectual and moral training which is so necessary for the citizens of a republic.

Already in the manufacturing districts, the peasants, tempted by the prospect of larger wages, were flocking to the towns and joining that large class of workers who have no direct interest in the land of the country, who have nothing to fall back upon when work is slack, and who from their rapid increase have been called the proletariat.

CHAPTER III.

PESTALOZZI THE AGRICULTURIST.

Engaged to Anna Schulthess; after studying agriculture with Tschiffeli, he buys land near Birr; during the building of his house at Birr he lives at Muligen; his marriage; birth of his son; he settles in his new house: Neuhof. Failure of his enterprise.

AT the time that Pestalozzi turned his attention to agriculture, he was engaged to be married; and it is in his correspondence with his future wife that we find the most valuable information as to the thoughts and plans that now occupied him. The reader will not have forgotten the young Anna Schulthess, who gave such good advice to Pestalozzi, when, as a child, he wanted to buy sweetmeats in the shop adjoining his mother's house. The girl had great natural intelligence, and had received an unusually good education.

When her father, J. J. Schulthess, started in business at the sign of The Plough, he had already travelled much and observed much, and had everywhere sought the society of educated people. In spite of his commercial pursuits, his devotion to art and literature remained unchanged, and his house became one of the favourite resorts of men of taste and learning. The poet Klopstock himself was his guest during his visit to Zurich.

Though Anna was only a child, all this made a lasting impression on her, for at a very early age she had understood and enjoyed both the intellectual and emotional pleasure of the study of literature and the fine arts. Her diary, from which we shall often have occasion to quote, and which, like her father, she kept all her life, is a proof of the nobleness of her nature. She was both musician and poet, and even in her old age retained her freshness of imagination. Some verses that she wrote when quite an old woman in imitation of Wordsworth's "We are seven "have been preserved. Among the men of taste and education who frequented

Schulthess's house, there was an intimate friend of Pestalozzi's called Bluntschly, a young man of remarkable intelligence and high character. Only four years older than Pestalozzi, he was in the last stage of consumption, and knew, as everybody else knew, that he must soon die. This circumstance lent a strange seriousness and sadness to the literary friendship which had sprung up between him and the young Anna. She afterwards spoke of him as follows:

"Before I can forget him I must forget myself; I can indeed never forget the charm and energy of his conversation; I did nothing without consulting him; he was gay, gentle and kind. We were in the habit of talking over the best ways of helping the poor. One day I asked his opinion of some ribbons I had to choose from. 'They are beautiful,' he said, 'but so long as your poor neighbour has more need of a few shillings than you of those ribbons And at once I decided to do without the ribbons and everything that was not really necessary."

Pestalozzi and Bluntschly had the same ideas and feelings and the same projects. But Bluntschly had a better knowledge of men and things; he was more prudent, his mind was more matured, and he saw how little his friend was suited for practical life. When he felt his end drawing near, he called Pestalozzi to him and said:

"I am going and you will be left alone. Avoid any career in which you might become the victim of your own goodness and trust, and choose some quiet life in which you will run no risk. Above all, do not take part in any important undertaking without having at your side a man who, by his cool judgment, knowledge of men and things, and unshakable fidelity, may be able to protect you from the dangers to which you will be exposed."

Bluntschly died on the 24th of May, 1767, leaving Pestalozzi and Anna in deep grief. The friend they had just lost had already taught these two young people to appreciate each other, and now their common grief brought them nearer. A warm-hearted eulogy of Bluntschly that Pestalozzi wrote and offered to Anna touched her deeply and filled her with gratitude. It was by meeting every day and comparing

sorrowful memories, that they at last came to love each other, so that it was in a certain sense to Bluntschly that Pestalozzi owed the admirable and devoted wife who was his support for forty-six years.

Pestalozzi was small and ugly. His health, never good, had been broken by work and study, and the doctors had advised him to take a long rest in the country. He was entirely careless of his appearance and was, indeed, incapable of dressing properly; he was clumsy and awkward in everything he did, and in his absent-mindedness often forgot part of his dress. He was, in short, without any of those qualities which are supposed to inspire a woman with liking for a man. But Anna saw deeper. "Such nobleness," she said, "such elevation of character, reach my very soul." hearts were one then, and they exchanged vows.

Their

As soon as they were formally affianced, they began a correspondence, and from the end of the summer of 1767 to the autumn of 1769, when they were married, exchanged frequent letters. Of these letters nearly three hundred of Pestalozzi's and two hundred of Anna's have been preserved.

The celebrated letter that has been quoted in so many biographies is missing from this collection, but the young girl's answer is there, and this answer seems to prove that the letter as quoted does not exactly agree with the original. At any rate, it was not in this letter that he asked her to marry him.

The most striking and authentic part of this letter, which was published for the first time in 1828, in a German newspaper, runs as follows:

"I will not speak to you of my carelessness in dress and manner; it is indeed great, and is but too well known. I am reproached with having too many subjects of distraction. I have friends everywhere, it is true, and subjects which interest me, but I have only given attention to them in the hope of making myself useful. I also know and appreciate the sweets of solitude, the peace of the domestic fireside; it will be my happiness to enjoy it more in the future. I no longer want a large circle of friends, but I do not regret the years I have given to social intercourse. I have learned to know my countrymen, and this knowledge will be useful to me by and by. As my health is not very good, I think it

more than probable you will survive me, though my doctor assures me there is at present no cause for anxiety; but I do not think my life will pass without important and dangerous undertakings."

In one of Anna's letters we read:

"You might perhaps say that Nature had done little for you, if she had not given you those large dark eyes, which tell of all the goodness of your heart and breadth of your mind."

There was indeed an inexpressible tenderness in Pestalozzi's look, which was sometimes flashing with intelligence and energy, sometimes meditative almost to sadness.

The following letter shows that Anna approved of Pestalozzi's plans for a country life, and also that he was anxious to make this life a basis for some scheme of patriotic philanthropy.

"I am glad to find that you too think life in a town unsuited to the sort of education we think best. My cottage must certainly be far from such a centre of vice and misery. I shall be able to do more for my country in a solitary hut than in the tumult of the city. When I am in the country and see that one of my neighbours who is in want has a child of great promise, I shall take this child by the hand and make a good citizen of him; he will work, he will have enough to eat, and will be happy. And should this young man do a noble action and incur the scorn of those who fear men only, he will find food in my house as long as I have any. I shall take pleasure in drinking nothing but water to give him the milk I prefer, that he may see how much I esteem the nobleness of his character. And then, my beloved, you will be content to see me drinking water only. Is it not true that to help our neighbours we are willing to limit our needs so far as is reasonably possible? How much more I could say about this happy outlook, the joy of having children, the unexpected visits of friends! But I must stop and will only say one thing more: circumstances may some day take me from our fireside; I shall never fail in what a loyal citizen owes to his country. But I know, my beloved, that the fulfilment of any duty is a delight to you.'

Anna's parents did not approve of this union; her mother