was all the more praiseworthy from the fact that this poor girl had, without any previous instruction, come from a humble village cottage to the town. "Her great fidelity," said Pestalozzi, was the fruit of her

lofty, simple, and pious faith."

When the

She required the strictest economy. children wanted to run about in the street, Babeli would keep them back with the words: "Why will you uselessly spoil your clothes and wear out your shoes? Look how your mother is denying herself for you, never spending a farthing, but sparing all for your education." This kind of bringing up had an injurious effect on Pestalozzi; he was kept too much at home, too much tied to his mother's apron-strings. "Year after year, I scarcely ever left the chimney corner," he says, "and all the means and attractions for the development of manly vigour, of manly experiences, and manly exercises, entirely failed me."

Notwithstanding all this pinching and thrift, Pestalozzi's mother was very liberal in giving away Christmas and New Year's presents. The children were always provided with very neat Sunday clothes, which, however, they usually had to take off when they came. home, that they might last all the longer.

Strange and foreign as the world and real human life remained to the boy, yet that deep inward love, ,that uncommon devotion to his mother, that earnest taste for quiet family life, which formed so prominent a feature in Pestalozzi's character, developed themselves all the more strongly in his nature. That conquest over

self, which stood out so grandly in all his subsequent actions, and guided all his endeavours, was kindled in him by the self-denying fidelity of Babeli, the poor maid-servant.

Naturally enough, when such a boy as this went to school, he was the butt and laughing-stock of all his comrades. He was the most awkward and helpless in all games, and yet he was ambitious, and always over-estimating his powers and talents. In his studies he was wonderfully quick in some things; he one day translated from the Greek some of Demosthenes' orations with so much fire and taste that, at the examination, they met with general approval, and were afterwards printed in a newspaper. In this instance his feelings were touched, but he often neglected to master those fundamental principles, by which alone a science can really be put in practice; he found, for example, the rules of writing and spelling so difficult, that he never thoroughly learned them during his whole life.

Most of his school-fellows loved him for his good nature and obliging disposition. On 19th December 1755, Switzerland was visited by a severe earthquake. The scholars of the Latin school in Zurich, among whom was Heinrich Pestalozzi, fled in terror from their classes down the steps into the courtyard. When they began to recover from their fright, they consulted on the least dangerous way of recovering possession of their books and caps. To enter the schoolhouse, whose walls were cracked and tottering,

appeared to them extremely dangerous. Only one of the scholars ventured to do so, and he was Heinrich Pestalozzi. The others knew that he never could refuse a request, so he was entreated on all sides to fetch their property, which he accomplished safely, and to the satisfaction of all.

About a mile from Zurich, on the beautiful vine-clad slopes which border the lake, lies the village of Höngg, of which Pestalozzi's maternal grandfather Hotze was the excellent pastor.

With him, after his ninth year, Heinrich annually spent several months, which he always looked back upon, as the happiest times of his youth, and which left many indelible impressions on his mind. Never could he forget his venerable grandfather, so faithful to his Master, so devoted to his church and his school. Daily would he visit with him the village school and the cottages of his parishioners. Pestalozzi often remarked that to bring up a child in the fear of God, it was specially necessary that he should see and hear a really pious Christian, and doubtless the beloved image of his grandfather, was then before his mind.

In Höngg he received impressions which had a decisive effect on his future. He learned to know the peasantry, their virtues and vices. He heard bitter complaints at the injustice, treachery, and harshness which they had to endure from the authorities in the town. But at the same time he could not conceal from himself the immorality and degraded condition of the poor peasants themselves.

Pestalozzi was especially an eye-witness of the sad influence which factory life had on the poorer youth of that district. When he saw the children, up to their sixth year, playing about in the churchyard, and before the schoolhouse, happy and blooming, though clothed in rags, while innocence and mirth beamed from their eyes, and their full rosy cheeks seemed to foretell a life of untroubled happiness, and then, when a couple of years later, he saw how, by this factory life, all cheerfulness, all strength seemed to have vanished, how the brightness of their eyes and the ruddiness of their cheeks had alike departed, and their whole being had received the unmistakable impression of sorrow and grief, he was filled with deep melancholy and distress. His heart, tender and benevolent from childhood, sympathised so acutely with the troubles of others, that he suffered as keenly when he witnessed them, as if he were enduring them himself.

It was during these visits to Höngg that the future school reformer received those impressions which had so powerful an influence over his subsequent life. Here, for the first time, he saw the defects of the usual system of education. The instruction was generally given in the schoolmaster's only living room, while his family were carrying on their household avocations. In places where there were schoolrooms, they were never large enough to provide sufficient space for all the children to sit down. The rooms were low and dark, and when the door was opened,

the oppressive fumes of a hot and vitiated atmosphere met the visitor; closely crammed together sat the children, to the ruin of their health, breathing in the foul and heated vapours. The stoves, too, were generally overheated, and the closed windows were darkened by the steam from the breath of so many human beings; so crowded together were they, that if one wished to leave or return to his place, he must climb over chairs, benches, and tables to do so, The noise was deafening; the schoolmaster had little authority over his pupils; there was no fixed age at which children were either sent or withdrawn; parents would frequently send them at four or five, and take them away as soon as they could earn any money, generally in their eighth or ninth year. The instruction given was bad and irregular. A child who could say the whole catechism through, was considered clever, but one who could repeat the 119th Psalm and a few chapters of the Bible by heart, was looked upon as a real marvel. The more that could be said by rote, the greater pleased were the parents.

During the first half of the last century, the severest despotism reigned throughout continental Europe. All sovereigns-however insignificant they might betook Louis XIV. of France as their model, the man who had expressed his ideal of government, by the words, L'état c'est moi. The same state of things existed in Switzerland. Single families had obtained the supremacy in the various cantons, and the formerly so free Swiss citizens were now almost as greatly