CHAPTER VII.

THE "DEATH-SONG".

AFTER the storm and stress of, perhaps, the sternest fight that ever man fought to uplift his fellows by means of education, Pestalozzi returned to his starting place once more. Though he had in fact won a great world victory for progress, he thought he was defeated, if not disgraced. Even so his noble soul and ardent mind would not be stilled. Once more he takes up his pen to tell the truth, as he sees it, of his life and work; and to deliver yet again the message he bears. Now, as ever, he does not spare himself, but freely and frankly admits his many faults and failures: all he asks is that the truth that is in him and his work shall be properly recognised and appreciated.

No sooner did he arrive again at Neuhof than he began to write his Swan's Song (or Death-Song). In this he gives a final statement of his views on education. He also wrote My Fortunes as Superintendent of my Educational Establishments at Burgdorf and Yverdon; wherein he gives his own account of the happenings at these places, and tries to show that Schmid was his true friend and saviour. Whilst these writings are, as would be expected, full of sadness and despondency,

they are by no means the morbid meanderings of age and decay. De Guimps speaks of the Swan's Song as "one of his most remarkable works"; and Raumer, who was well qualified to judge, says: "These last writings of Pestalozzi have been regarded by many as the melancholy and languid outpourings of the heart of a dying old man. As far as concerns the old man's judgments on the institution, as it was at the time of my stay at Yverdon, I consider them for the most part highly truthful, and as affording evidence that he was not deficient in manly clearness and penetration even in his old age."

But these two works are but a fraction of his undertakings in his last days. Being short of means, he proposed to raise money by publishing editions of his work in English and in French. So Schmid was sent to Paris and London to get subscribers and arrange, if possible, for the publication of his works; and even for a new periodical in French. All this with a view to carrying out his ever-cherished plan of a Poor School at Neuhof. After fifty years' absence from Neuhof, one of the first things he did on his return to it was to give orders for the buildings for a Poor School. Whilst these orders were being carried out, much too slowly for his burning zeal, he constantly went and taught in the village school at Birr; and once more interested himself in the affairs of his old friends amongst the peasants.

Of his personal appearance at this time we have an account by Henning-one of his "old boys "-who visited him at Neuhof, in August, 1825. He says: "I had not seen him for thirteen years, and found him

looking older certainly, but on the whole very little changed. He was still active and strong, simple and open; his face still wore the same kindly, plaintive expression; his zeal for human happiness, and especially for the education of poor and little children, was as keen as thirteen years before. . . . In spite of the heat he accompanied me to Lenzburg, and valiantly mounted the two or three hundred steps leading to the castle. . . . The vivacity of his speech and the vigour of all his movements inspired me with the hope that the term of his earthly existence was still far off. My heart was full when I took leave of the kind old man. I shall never forget the time that it was my good fortune to spend with him."

For a meeting of the Helvetian Society-of which he had been enthusiastically elected president the previous year-in April, 1826, at Schinznach, he wrote an address On Fatherland and Education. In November of the same year he was present at a meeting of the Society for the Promotion of Education, of Brugg, for which he had written a paper entitled Attempt at a Sketch on the Essence of the Idea of Elementary Education, and dealing with the simplest means of educating children from the cradle to the sixth year, in the domestic circle. The paper was read for him by the pastor of Birr; but afterwards Pestalozzi spoke with all his old vigour and passionate zeal for the education of the little

ones.

In July, 1826, Pestalozzi and Schmid visited Zeller's school for orphans, at Beuggen, where a touching festival was arranged in his honour. The children received him with singing; and he was then offered an

116

PESTALOZZI.

WANDERER'S EVENING PRAYER.

GOETHE (1749-1832).

Very slowly.

Thou that art in high-est skies, Ev'ry pain and sor - row

0:3

still-ing; Those whom dou - ble an guish tries,

Doubly

oak wreath, which, however, he would not accept, saying, while tears were in his eyes: "Not to me, but to innocence, belongs this wreath". Most appropriately— for it appeared in his first book, Leonard and Gertrudeand most pathetically so-for it spoke of peace and rest after storm and strife-one hymn sung by the children was Goethe's "Wanderer's Evening Prayer ". This deeply affected Pestalozzi.

Beside all these activities he was working at an additional volume (the fifth) of Leonard and Gertrude; a new Manual for Mothers, in which he gave them instructions for educating a child up to its seventh year-a supplement to his Book for Mothers; and a book of elementary exercises designed to teach children Latin in the same way as they learn their mother-tongue.

Soon, and in strife, the end was to come: and terribly sad was the closing scene. Pestalozzi's My Fortunes, etc., gave rise to much newspaper correspondence; and it contained statements which, in defending Schmid, caused great pain to Niederer. A friend of Niederer published a pamphlet in defence of him. Pestalozzi had taken no notice of the newspaper correspondence, but when he saw in a Zurich paper a notice of the pamphlet, with the remark: "It seems that Pestalozzi is like certain animals who hide at sight of the stick; otherwise he would reply to these attacks," he was seized with a most violent outburst of indignation, and exclaimed: "I can bear this no longer". He became quite ill, and said to his doctor: "I feel that I am going to die; but I must live six weeks longer to answer these terrible calumnies". In spite of his condition-he suffered also from an organic com