CHAPTER XV. DEATH-AGONY OF THE INSTITUTE. Despair of Pestalozzi on seeing himself forsaken by Niederer and Krusi. He goes away ill to the Jura Mountains. Negotiations with Fellenberg for securing quiet independence for Pestalozzi fall through. Success of the subscription for Pestalozzi's works. His discourse of the 12th of January, 1818. Foundation of a pauper-school at Clendy. Its success. It is soon made part of the institute at the Castle. Gottlieb Pestalozzi returns to Yverdun and marries Schmidt's sister. Pestalozzi quarrels with the Yverdun municipality. He and Schmidt at law with Niederer. The Vaudese Government intervenes, and brings about a settlement. "Views on industry, education, and politics, in connection with the state of our country before and after the Revolution," by Pestalozzi. Fall of the institute. Schmidt expelled from the canton by the Government. Pestalozzi goes with him. WE must give this title to that long period of seven years, during which Pestalozzi's institute still existed at the castle of Yverdun, although little more than the shadow of what it had been. Henceforth Pestalozzi is entirely in Schmidt's hands, whom he regards not merely as a son who has sacrificed all to come to the aid of his father, and to whom he owes eternal gratitude, but as a saviour, who is alone capable of sustaining him, and whose daily support has become indispensable. He thus thinks himself compelled to do everything to please him, espouses all his quarrels, and, at his bidding, repels all his own old friends, and even refuses to take the hands stretched out to save him. These unhappy years were further troubled by disputes and law-suits. Niederer and Schmidt first attacked one another in pamphlets and newspapers, and then brought actions for calumny, in which, unfortunately, since he ac cepted the responsibility of all Schmidt's actions, Pestalozzi himself had to appear. The unfortunate controversy produced an impression on the public mind that was unfavourable even to Niederer, and far more so to Schmidt. Some biographers have even gone so far as to credit certain unproved statements about them, which we, however, believe to be slanders, and will not repeat, preferring to confine ourselves to authenticated facts. These two colleagues of Pestalozzi were associated with his work too long, and rendered the cause of education too many services, for us to remember errors committed under the influence of passion. Whilst Pestalozzi thus seemed to follow Schmidt blindly, and showed himself more than ever incapable of the administration and direction of a large institute, his genius for philosophical investigation, and his enthusiastic devotion to the cause of the poor and weak of this world were as great as ever. In this latter respect his views were not in harmony with Schmidt's, and in this one point he never ceased to struggle with the man who, in other matters, was his absolute master, often, as we shall see, coming off victorious. We shall see him steadily working at the development and improvement of his doctrine, deluding himself with the illusions of a young man, zealously reorganizing and planning new foundations, and, at the very moment when all that remained of his practical work was about to crumble under his feet, opening and successfully conducting a new school for the poor. For the sake of characterizing the period which is the subject of this chapter, we have been obliged to anticipate somewhat; we must now take up the thread of events. After the departure of Blochmann and his German colleagues in 1816, a few good masters still remained with Schmidt, Niederer, and Krusi. Among the number were Boniface, who is already known to us; Stern, who taught Latin and Greek well, and who afterwards became the director of the Gymnasium at Stuttgart; Knusert, who had left the French army in 1814, after the peace, and had resumed his duties in Pestalozzi's establishment, where, amongst other things, he looked after the military drill; and Hagnauer, a talented young Swiss, who was subsequently appointed to the cantonal school of Aarau. We have said that the masters who had left had been replaced by young men who were not always very highly qualified; we must, however, make an exception in favour of one particularly able teacher, who at this critical period proved to be of very great help to Pestalozzi. This was Lange, a man of good education and manners, and though kind and gentle, of great firmness of character. He spoke French well, and conducted morning prayers in that language for pupils ignorant of German. But when in the spring of 1817 Niederer and Krusi decided that they must leave Pestalozzi, the masters just mentioned were not long before they followed their example. The appeal for subscribers to Pestalozzi's works, the appeal, that is, that had brought about the rupture, was published in the last days of March, 1817; but it appears that Niederer and Krusi had made up their minds as early as the 14th of the month, for on that day they had asked the municipality for a certificate of good conduct during their residence at Yverdun, either because they thought such a document was necessary before they could live in the town apart from Pestalozzi, or else because they were afraid of Schmidt's attacks.. Naef, director of the institute for deaf mutes, made a similar demand the same day, although his position was already quite independent of Pestalozzi's institute. On the 5th of July, 1817, Pestalozzi obtained a promise from the municipality that the gratuitous enjoyment of the Castle should be continued for five years after his death to such persons as he would appoint to succeed him. Some days after that, he asked to be allowed to rent, for purposes of cultivation, a field of some four or five acres just outside the town, and requested further that the lease might hold good after his death, like that of the Castle. This fresh request was also granted by the municipality. The reader already sees the object of these requests; it will be made still clearer to him as we proceed. Meanwhile Pestalozzi had refused to believe himself really forsaken by Niederer and Krusi, nor were his eyes opened until he received a rather harsh letter from Niederer, telling him that his old coadjutors would keep themselves aloof so long as he chose to retain Schmidt. The old man's grief and anger knew no bounds; at times he was almost beside himself, and it was feared that his reason would give way. Schmidt advised a change of air on the Jura, as a means of restoring his health and helping him to recover from the effects of this cruel blow. Pestalozzi accordingly spent a few weeks in the village of Bullet, which is some three thousand feet above the lake of Neuchâtel, and was at that time almost uninhabitable. He occupied a miserable room in the cottage of an old woman, who could barely supply him with what he required. But he breathed a pure and bracing air, and had a splendid view before his eyes. In the immediate foreground lay the plain of Yverdun, with the lakes of Neuchâtel and Morat; then the Vaudese table-land, with its infinite variety of detail; farther on, the lake of Geneva, and on the horizon the long chain of the Alps, with their rugged, snow-capped peaks. In this elevated solitude the old man at last found the repose he so much needed; and yet it was a troubled repose, and full of grief, grief which he poured out in snatches of poetry that deserve to be preserved, not indeed for their literary merit, but merely as evidence of the sorrows that his own weakness had brought upon him. Pestalozzi, although a poet in heart and imagination, had rarely written poetry, and it would be difficult to understand why he wrote verses at this time, if we did not know that for some time previously he had been working out a series of elementary exercises in language, to which he had often added rhythm and rhyme as a means of facilitating their study for the child. And now the same form presented itself almost naturally to him as he breathed forth his woes at Bullet. We can do no more than give the drift of a few of his verses: Happy the spot where I can pray at rest, Sad is the place where I take refuge in tears, And, wishing to avoid it, I draw near it, And as I draw near it, I am in doubt, And, in my doubt, I throw myself into it.. O! bow of heaven! bow of heaven! Thou shadowest forth the joys of the Creator; O! bow of heaven! bow of heaven! God hath sustained me in the days of storm; Must I die before thou appear To bring me the joys of a happier day? Must I drink to the dregs the cup of enmity and malice? I acknowledge my own faults and weakness, And I forgive others their faults; I forgive them with love and tears. It is in death alone that I shall find peace; The day of my death will be my happiest day; How beautiful wilt thou be when thou proclaimest my happier days, Shining on my forgotten tomb, O bow of heaven! bow of heaven! At the death of my dear companion, Into her open grave. And thus, O bow of heaven! Do thou bring me a friendly testimony On the day of my death. God hath sustained me in the days of trouble; My soul, give praise to the Eternal, For God Himself dwells in thee, In thee is His temple. Praise God, O my soul, Priestess of the temple of thy God! Neither the heights of the earth, nor the heights of the heavens, Neither the sea of stars, nor the army of clouds, Shall pluck from thy being the presence of thy Creator. No human science, no worldly honour Can take away thy God, whom thou seest in thyself, As thou dost in the spider and the worm. Rest and mountain air, however, soon restored the old man's strength and calmness, and he returned to Yverdun. It was then that his friends tried once more to rescue him from Schmidt's domination, and make his last days happy and peaceful. Jullien, Fellenberg, and Charles Ritter endeavoured between them to find some means of saving the old man and his institute. Pestalozzi went several times to Hofwyl, often staying some considerable time. On these occasions he always recovered his courage and cheerfulness, and worked unceasingly at his exercises for the elementary teaching of language. One evening even, after walking from Berne to Hofwyl, a distance of nearly four miles, he asked for a light, that he might write, according |