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neighbour into their hearts, and happiness and blessing into their homes, that, I fancy, is beyond dispute, and is accepted by all."

He then points out that his educational work is independent of the opinions by which men are divided, and that his method is therefore beneficial for all nations, no matter what their religious faith or form of government. This explains why he henceforth avoids all dogmatism in speaking of religion. And yet, in all he does he relies on God's providence, often even, though with less definiteness, on redemption through Jesus Christ. He knew that, in the minds of that portion of humanity to which he was addressing himself, these two points were "beyond dispute," but to-day, when such an illusion would no longer be possible, what would he do? Would he think it possible to do without God in education? We cannot believe it. So far as instruction in the proper sense of the word is concerned, his method is, it is true, independent of religion, but in the school, as in the home, it is impossible to give even instruction without the help of the child's will, and the will depends upon the moral development. Moral education, therefore, is intimately connected with the rest of the master's work; it is an integral, necessary part of an indivisible organism. "And this moral development," says Pestalozzi, "results from the influence of a pious mother who prays with her child.”

Further on, Pestalozzi declares that he is far from having settled the whole question of education; that in his endeavour to help the people he has only discovered a few leading principles, and that he deplores his incapacity to formulate and apply them more thoroughly.

"And so when I affirm positively that all a man's powers are part of an organic whole, I by no means wish to imply that I am thoroughly acquainted either with this organism or its laws; and when I say that, in teaching, a rational method must be followed, I do not pretend either to have always pursued this method, or to have worked out all its details.'

Pestalozzi then goes on to say that though he has devoted

his life to efforts to help the people, he has never yet succeeded. He recognizes that the fault is his own, and, deeply repentant, concludes sorrowfully thus:

"I have lost everything and lost myself; and yet, O God, Thou hast kept my life's desire alive within me. Thou hast not blotted out before me the aim which has caused my sorrows, as Thou dost before so many thousands who ruin their own lives, but Thou hast preserved my work in spite of my errors. I was drawing near to my tomb in hopelessness, but Thou hast filled my evening with brightness and softened the sorrows of my life. I am not worthy, Lord, of Thy compassion and trust. Thou alone hast had pity on the crushed worm; Thou hast not broken the bruised reed, nor quenched the smoking flax, nor hast Thou ever averted Thy face from the offering which, from my childhood, I have striven, but striven in vain, to bring to the outcasts of the world."

The thirteenth letter begins with a digression upon the abuse of language. When from the outset language is the spontaneous and faithful expression of thought, it is at the same time its principal means of development, and gives it force and precision; but when from childhood it is but the repetition or imitation of other people's language, when the words it employs express ideas which are still unfamiliar to him who pronounces them, then language does little to develop thought, nay, it paralyzes and destroys it. Hence the empty, idle babbling that fills the world.

Pestalozzi then comes back to the reform of elementary education, and points out yet another need which it must satisfy.

Knowledge is not everything; judgment and readiness in action are also necessary. The practical powers also require that the senses and limbs should be subjected to a graduated series of exercises, beginning with what is simplest and easiest. The power of applying what we know depends for its development upon the same organic laws as regulate the acquisition of knowledge.

The organism of Nature is the same in man as in plants and animals; it regulates alike his physical nature, his moral nature, and the development of his practical powers.

Humanity in its deepest degradation never loses the sense of the need there is for developing its practical side for the purpose of obtaining the necessaries of life.

Just as an ABC of intellectual development is necessary, so must we have an A B C of practical development; for as a child's knowledge and intelligence are confused by putting definitions before actual experience, so his heart and conscience are confused by talking to him of faith and virtue before he has had any actual experience of what faith and virtue really are.

The fourteenth and fifteenth letters, which end the work, are devoted to the question of moral and religious developHere we must let Pestalozzi speak for himself:

ment.

"I am unwilling to bring these letters to an end without touching on what I may call the key-stone of my whole system. Is the love of God encouraged by these principles which I hold to be the only sound basis for the development of humanity?

"Once again I look into my own heart for an answer to my question, and ask myself: 'How does the idea of God take root in my soul? Whence comes it that I believe in God, that I abandon myself to Him, and feel happy when I love Him and trust Him, thank Him and obey Him?'

"Then I soon see that the sentiments of love, trust, gratitude and obedience must first exist in my heart before I can feel them for God. I must love men, trust them, thank them and obey them, before I can rise to loving, thanking, trusting and obeying God. 'For he who loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how shall he love his Father in heaven whom he hath not seen?'

"I next ask myself, 'How is it that I come to love men, to trust them, to thank them and obey them? How do these sentiments take root in my heart?' And I find that it is principally through the relations which exist between a mother and her infant child.

"The mother must care for her child, feed it, protect it, amuse it. She cannot do otherwise; her strongest instincts impel her to this course. And so she provides for its needs, and in every possible way makes up for its powerlessness. Thus the child is cared for and made happy, and the first seed of love is sown within him.

"Presently the child's eyes fall on something he has never yet seen; seized with wonder and fear, he utters a cry; his mother presses him to her bosom, plays with him, diverts his attention, and his tears cease, though his eyes long remain wet. Should the unfamiliar object be seen again, the mother shelters the child in her arms, and smiles at h.m as before. This time, instead of crying, he answers his mother's smile by smiling himself, and the first seed of trust is sown.

"His mother runs to his cradle at his least sign; if he is hungry, she is there; if thirsty, she satisfies him; when he hears her step, he is content; when he sees her, he stretches out his hand and fastens his eyes upon her bosom; to him, his mother and the satisfaction of his hunger are one and the same thing; he is grateful.

"These germs of love, trust and gratitude soon develop. The child knows his mother's step; he smiles at her shadow; he loves whatever is like her; a creature of the same appearance as his mother is, in his eyes, a good creature. Those whom his mother loves, he loves; those whom she kisses, he kisses. This smile at the likeness of his mother is a smile at humanity, and the seed of brotherly love, the love of his fellow-men, is sown.

"Obedience, in its origin, is opposed to the child's first instincts, and would never result from them naturally; and yet it is upon these instincts that the educator must base his efforts to teach it.

"The child cries before he has learnt patience; he is impatient before he has learnt to obey. Patience comes before obedience, and is necessary to the child before he can obey. The first manifestations of obedience are of a purely passive character, and result chiefly from the sense of necessity. But this sense may be developed by the mother's influence. The child must wait to be fed, to be taken to her arms. It is not till much later that he is capable of active obedience, and even then it is some time before he feels that it is good to obey his mother.

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"Nature cares nothing for the child's anger; strike wood or stone as he pleases, but Nature will pay no heed, and he will soon cease to strike. Similarly, the mother must pay no heed to his unreasonable desires; though he may storm and cry, she must remain unmoved,

and presently his crying will stop. He thus learns to subordinate his will to hers, and the first seeds of patience and obedience are sown.

"Obedience, gratitude, trust, and love combined, are the beginnings of conscience; that is, of a first vague feeling in the child's mind that it is not well for him to be angry with his mother, who loves him; that his mother is not in the world solely for him; that everything is not in the world for him; that even he is not in the world for himself alone. A first ray of duty and justice has reached his heart.

"Such are the first elements of moral development awakened by a mother's relations with her infant. They are also the elements of religious development, and it is by faith in its mother that the child rises to faith in God.

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"The moment will soon come when these first powerful springs of faith and action will disappear. The child's own strength already allows him to leave his mother's hand, a feeling of independence grows from day to day, and slowly the thought rises in his inmost heart, 'I no longer need my mother.' But she reads this thought in his eyes, presses her dear one still more closely to her breast, and says, in a tone which he has never heard before: 'My dear child, there is a God whom you need when you no longer need me, who will take you in His arms when I can no longer protect you, who will prepare joy and happiness for you when I can give you neither any more.' Then in the child's heart rises an inexpressible feeling of comfort, a readiness to believe which lifts him out of himself. He no sooner hears God's name from his mother's lips than he glows with gladness. The sentiments of love, gratitude and trust, first felt on his mother's bosom, are felt now still more deeply for God, whom he loves and trusts as a father or mother. His faculty of obeying grows too; the child now feels God's eye upon him as he formerly felt his mother's, and does good in God's sight as he used to do it in hers.

"This first attempt of a loving, simple-minded mother to subordinate the child's growing feeling of independence to faith in God, by connecting faith with certain moral tendencies that are already more or less developed, furnishes education with the fundamental principles from which it must start, if it is to succeed in ennobling men.

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