This is shown by an essay on the constitution of Sparta and a translation of some of Demosthenes' orations, which he published at the time; and which also show his thoroughness in research and his proficiency in classical learning.

The more he got to know of the highest ideals of those principles of freedom and justice which should control individual and national life, the more clearly he saw the shortcomings and evils of the life around him. He saw that the education and training, both at school and in practical life, of those who filled the highest offices-judges, ministers and public officials of all kinds were quite unsuited to fit them for their work; and that the corruption and fraud which arose chiefly from their incompetence degraded and despoiled the common people. He expressed his views in an essay on the relation which education ought to bear to the various professions and callings. This was published

while he was still a student at law.

He appears to have written a good deal on various subjects dealing with law and politics; and he also collected extensive materials for a book on the history of law and politics in Switzerland. Hard and unremitting study, and the mental stress of his intellectual struggles proved too much for his constitution, already impaired by the excessive demands he had made upon it by reason of the zeal and intensity with which he took up and carried out his ideas. Among other things he had thrown himself whole-heartedly into the general enthusiasm of the reformers for the revival of agriculture as a means for the salvation of the poor, and the remedy for all evils. Stirred by the teachings of Bodmer and the writings of Rousseau, many of the best students in

31 the college learnt farming and practised the simple life. Writing to a friend, in the autumn of 1765, Bodmer says of them: "they have already learned to mow, and to bear heat, perspiration and rain with the peasants”.

Pestalozzi is said to have practised vegetarianism; to have slept, unclothed, on the floor of his room; and even to have whipped himself till he bled, to fit himself to undergo any suffering that might be necessary. Little wonder that he became seriously ill, and exhausted in body and mind.

CHAPTER III.

THE BEGINNING OF HIS LIFE-WORK.

ADVISED by his doctor to give up study for a time and to recuperate in the country; and inspired by Rousseau to return to the life of nature; Pestalozzi renounced the study of books for ever, committed all his manuscripts to the flames, and took to farming. He went to Kirchberg, in the canton of Bern, and apprenticed himself to a farmer named Tschiffeli, a man who had a great reputation for his knowledge and skill in farming, and for his keen interest in the welfare of the farm workers. An out-door life, healthy and regular work, the quiet and calm of country life, peaceful meditation, and intercourse with nature and men of simple habits, soon restored him to sound health and to that childlike simplicity of thought and conduct which had distinguished him as a boy. From Tschiffeli he learnt much. "I had come to him," he says, "a political visionary, though with many profound and correct attainments, views and prospects in political matters; and I went away from him just as great an agricultural visionary, though with many enlarged and correct ideas and intentions in regard to agriculture. My stay with him only had this effect: that the gigantic views in relation to my exertions were awakened within me afresh by his agricultural plans, which, though difficult of execution,

and in part impracticable, were bold and extensive; and that at the same time they caused me, in my thoughtlessness as to the means of carrying them out, to fall into a callousness the consequences of which contributed in a decisive manner to the pecuniary embarrassment into which I was plunged the very first years of my rural life."

In 1767, at the age of twenty-two, he resolved to start a farm for himself. With a small legacy from his father and some capital advanced by a banker in Zurich, he bought about 100 acres of waste land near Birrfeld, in the canton of Argovie, not far from Zurich, and began to cultivate vegetables and madder. He called his place Neuhof, i.e., new farm. Two years later he married Anna Schulthess, a woman beautiful alike in character and person, and one who for fifty years adorned his triumphs as worthily as she bore his misfortunes heroically.

During the year 1770 a son was born to them. This they esteemed the highest possible blessing, and the greatest possible responsibility. Pestalozzi appears to have tried to follow out Rousseau's ideas in the educa tion of his boy, Jacobli; and he kept a diary of his and the child's progress. Herein we see the first definite beginnings and developments of Pestalozzi's theories of education. A few extracts will show the general character and tendency of his efforts:

"Jan. 27, 1774.-I drew his attention to some water which ran swiftly down a decline. He was de lighted. I walked a little lower down, and be followed me, saying to the water: Wait a minute: I shall come back soon'. Shortly afterwards I took him to the bank of the same stream again; and he exclaimed i

'Look, the water comes down, too; it runs from up there and goes down and down'. As we followed the course of the stream, I repeated several times to him: 'Water flows from the top to the bottom of the hill'.

"I told him the names of several animals, saying: 'The dog, the cat, etc., are animals; but your uncle, John, and Nicholas, are men.' I then asked him: 'What is a cow, a sheep, the minister, a goat, your cousin?' etc. He answered rightly nearly every time, his wrong answers being accompanied by a sort of smile which suggested that he did not intend to answer properly. I think that behind this fun there must be a wish to show his independence of will.

"Feb. 1.-I taught him the Latin names for the various exterior parts of the head. By figures and examples I taught him the meaning of words like inside, outside, below, above, amidst, beside, etc. I showed him how snow turned into water when brought indoors.

"I found that teaching was made easier by changes of the voices, i.e., by speaking now loud, now soft, now on one note and then on another. But to what might this not lead?

“Feb. 2.—I tried to get him to understand the meaning of numbers. At present he knows their names, which he says by heart without attaching any exact meaning to them. To have a knowledge of words with no distinct ideas of the things they stand for immensely increases the difficulty of getting to know the truth. The most ignorant man would have been struck by this fact if he had been present at our lesson. The child had been so used to not associating any difference of meaning with the different names of numbers, that this had produced in him a habit of inattention which