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J. ALFRED NOVELLO, PRINTER, DEAN STREET, SOHO, LONDON.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

THE following account of the life and system of Pestalozzi is translated from M. de Raumer's large work, "Geschichte der Pädagogik," of which it forms a section. That work is generally regarded as the best history of educational science which exists in the German language. The author is a man distinguished for his literary and scientific attainments, for the interest which he has always taken in the subject of education, and for the great amount of attention which he has given to the theory and practice of teaching. His merits in these respects appear to have recently raised him to the honorable office of Minister of Public Worship and Instruction in Prussia. He possessed a special qualification for writing the life of Pestalozzi, having resided for a considerable time in the Pestalozzian institution at Yverdun. He had thus ample opportunities for forming an independent opinion respecting Pestalozzi's management of the institution, the methods of instruction and discipline which were adopted by his assistants under his direction, the character and ability of these several assistants, and the merits of the unhappy disputes which arose among them, imbittering the days of the great educator and good man, and finally breaking up the institution.

M. de Raumer's detail of the events of Pestalozzi's life is believed to be the most accurate and faithful, his estimate of the genius and character of Pestalozzi the most unbiassed and truthful, that has appeared. In one very important respect, this biography differs from most of the others, both German and English, which have been written : Pestalozzi's other biographers, carried away by their admiration for him, have perhaps somewhat too implicitly accepted the practical parts of his method as applications of his principles; M. de Raumer has succeeded in showing that, in some cases, the actual method adopted was diametrically opposed to these principles, and has recommended educators to obtain their knowledge of Pestalozzi's great principles direct from his leading educational writings, as the fountain-head, and to seek to develop and apply them by their own methods, independently of those adopted by Pestalozzi himself.

iv.

Pestalozzi's leading educational writings M. de Raumer takes to be the "Evening Hour of a Hermit," "Leonard and Gertrude," and "How Gertrude teaches her Children."

It is to be regretted that, in this country, we do not possess complete translations of all these works. The Translator is not aware that a complete English translation of any one of them is at present procurable. He has ascertained that a translation of "Leonard and Gertrude" was published in this country some twenty or thirty years ago; but this seems to have suddenly disappeared in all probability it fell dead on the market. A translation of the book, "How Gertrude teaches her Children," was announced by a certain publishing firm some years ago; but it does not seem to have made its appearance. We possess fragments of both these books in our language. Of the "Evening Hour of a Hermit," the Translator believes, the portions given in the following biography are the only ones that have ever been rendered into English, although the whole is but small. The Translator has already proceeded some way in translating "Leonard and Gertrude," which is perhaps Pestalozzi's greatest work, and certainly the one that has had the widest circulation and influence in Germany and Switzerland; and he is prepared to complete and publish the translation, whenever he believes that there exists an adequate demand for such a work.

It is proper to state that the following translation has already appeared in the Educational Expositor.

June 16, 1855.

CONTENTS.

1. Pestalozzi's Childhood and Youth.

1746-1767

2. Agricultural and Educational Experiments at Neuhof 3. The Evening Hour of a Hermit. 1780

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9.

Pestalozzi at Yverdun

From 1805 to the departure of Schmid, in 1810

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THE LIFE AND SYSTEM

OF

PESTALOZZI.

1. PESTALOZZI'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

1746-1767.

JOHN HENRY PESTALOZZI was born at Zurich on the 12th of January, 1746. His father was a medical practitioner; his mother, whose maiden name was Hotze, was a native of Wädenschwyl on the Lake of Zurich, and first cousin to the Austrian general Hotze, who fell at Schännis in 1799.*

The father died prematurely, when Pestalozzi was only six years old; from this time forward, therefore, "everything was wanting, in the influences around him, which a manly education of the faculties so urgently requires at that age." "I was brought up," he relates, "by the hand of the best of mothers like a spoilt darling, such that you will not easily find a greater. From one year to another I never left the domestic hearth; in short, all the essential means and inducements to the development of manly vigor, manly experience, manly ways of thinking, and manly exercises, were just as much wanting to me, as, from the peculiarity and weakness of my temperament, I especially needed them."

This peculiarity, according to Pestalozzi's own statement, was, that with the most sensitive feelings and the liveliest imagination, he was deficient in the power of sustained attention, in reflection, circumspection, and foresight.

His mother devoted herself wholly to the education of her three children, in which she was assisted by a faithful servant-girl from the country, of the name of Babeli. Pestalozzi's father, on his death-bed, sent for this girl. "Babeli," said he, "for the sake of God and mercy, do not leave my wife; when I am dead, she will be forlorn, and my children will fall into strange and cruel hands." "I will not leave your wife when you die," replied Babeli; "I will remain with her till death, if she has need of me." Her words pacified the dying father; she kept her promise, and remained till her death with the mother. "Her great fidelity," Pestalozzi says, "was the result of her strong, simple, and pious faith." As the mother was in very straitened circumstances, Babeli economized wherever she could; she even restrained the children when they wanted to go into the street, *Pestalozzi had a brother and a sister, who was married to Gross, a merchant of

Leipzig.

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