of his biographers, Dr. Biber, remarks: "The influence which he enjoyed at home operated powerfully upon the growth of his feelings and, in the absence of an equally efficacious cultivation of his intellect, gave to his character that intense energy, uncontrolled by clearness of judgment, which, while it prepared for him many a grievous disappointment in the long course of his philanthropic career, gave also to his soul that unabated elasticity to rise, after every downfall, with renovated strength ".

He was first sent to a day-school, then to a grammarschool, where he was kept under the bondage of rigorous discipline and uninteresting tasks, and finally he passed to a college where youths received due preparation for the learned professions. It is not surprising, in view of what we are told of his home training, to find him writing of his early school-days thus: "In all boys' games I was the most clumsy and helpless among all my fellow scholars, and nevertheless, in a certain way, I always wanted to excel the others. This caused some of them very frequently to pass their jokes upon me. One of them gave me the nickname 'Harry Oddity of Foolstown'. Most of them, however, liked my goodnatured and obliging disposition, though they knew my general clumsiness and awkwardness, as well as my carelessness and thoughtlessness, in everything that did not particularly interest me.

"Accordingly, although one of the best pupils, I nevertheless committed with incomprehensible thoughtlessness faults of which not even the worst of them was ever guilty. While, I generally seized with quickness and accuracy upon the essential matter of the subjects of instruction, I was very generally indifferent and

thoughtless as to the forms in which it was given. At the same time that I was far behind my fellow scholars in some parts of a subject, in other parts of the same subject I often surpassed them in an unusual degree.. The wish to be acquainted with some branches of knowledge that took hold on my heart and my imagination, even though I neglected the means of acquiring them, was nevertheless enthusiastically alive within me; and, unfortunately, the tone of public instruction in my native town at this period was in a high degree calculated to foster this visionary fancy of taking an active interest in, and believing oneself capable of the practice of things in which one had by no means had sufficient exercise, and this fancy was very prevalent among the youth of my native town generally."

Though he seldom, because of a want of inclination and physical capacity, joined in the games and pursuits of his fellows, yet he did not withdraw himself from his schoolmates in any morose or selfish spirit. He was always frank, kind-hearted and willing to be helpful, though he was the butt for boyish jokes. Indeed, on one occasion at least his courage and comradeship proved superior to that of the others. In the severe earthquake of 1755 the school-house in which he was taught was severely shaken. A panic was caused and the teachers and scholars rushed out of the school, the former "almost over the heads of their boys". After they had recovered from their first terror they wished to obtain the books, hats and other property which they had left behind; but being unwilling to venture into the building they persuaded "Harry Oddity" to undertake the task.

When he was nine years old he began to pay an

annual holiday visit to his grandfather, who was pastor of Höngg, in the canton of Zurich. These visits lasted for several months each year, and doubtless had some influence in moulding the lad's character and determining his views, for his grandfather was an excellent type of village pastor. He took the closest interest in everything that concerned the welfare of his flock, and more especially in the village school. Pestalozzi would, during his visits, see a good deal of the sufferings of the poor, and of the good which a benevolent and zealous helper could do amongst them. Of his grandfather's school he writes, in his last years: "His school, bowever defective it might be in point of method, was in living connection with the moral He and the home education of the people, and this combined education cultivated successfully and thoroughly the practice of habits of attention, obedience, industry and effort; in short, laid the fundamental foundations of education” (Swan's Song).

Doubtless he would see many other schools in his early years; and they must have influenced his mind very much. One writer thus describes the ordinary Swiss school of those days: "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 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 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" (F. E. Cooke, Guiding Lights).

Morf, a biographer of Pestalozzi, collected information about the teachers and schools of Pestalozzi's times. The teachers were very ignorant, often poor working men who kept school to increase their small earnings in other occupations. Of the schools Morf says: "We find hardly any trace of a proper schoolroom. The choice of a teacher often depended, not on his ability, but on his having a room-his family remained in it and carried on their domestic duties during school hours. Often neighbours brought their spinning wheels, finding more warmth and entertainment than at home.

""

Reading and learning by heart were the pupils' only tasks. The big ones were learning aloud, so there was a constant hubbub in the school. Class teaching was not thought of."

Of the way in which schoolmasters were appointed, Krüsi, Pestalozzi's first assistant, gives a very interesting