I have not been able to overcome in the slightest degree.

"Why have I been so foolish as to allow him to pronounce these important words without taking care to connect them, at the same time, with a clear idea of their meaning? Would it not have been more natural never to make him say 'three,' before he thoroughly knew the number two in all possible examples; is it not in this way that he ought to be taught to count? Ah! how much I have departed from the paths of nature in trying to forestall her teaching. O truths so important for wisdom and virtue! teach me to be upon my guard !

"Allow yourself to be guided by the child's propensity for imitation. You have a stove in your room: draw it for him. Even if he should not succeed for a whole year in exactly tracing the four corners, at least he will have learned to sit still and to work. The comparison of mathematical figures and magnitudes is, at the same time, a pleasant matter, and an instruction in judgment.

Again, to have his own garden, and to get together therein all sorts of plants; to collect butterflies and insects, and to make an orderly classification of them, with exactness and perseverance-what a preparation for social life! What a safeguard against idleness and stupidity! And how far all this is from our ordinary teaching which is so little suited to children, who ought to learn first to read the book of nature!

"Feb. 14.-To-day I am satisfied: he learnt willingly. I have played with him : I have been horseman, butcher, everything he wished.

"I drew some straight lines for him to copy. Pisali, the painter, said to me: All that you do should be done

thoroughly; do not pass from a to b, until a is perfectly known, and so with all. Be in no haste to advance, but stay at the first step until that is thoroughly well done; thus you will avoid confusion and waste. That all should be complete, that all should be in order, not the least bit of confusion-think how important!

"Since it is nature that gives us our first language: is she not able to give us ten languages in the same manner? I perceive that I am not following closely enough the course of nature in the teaching of language. It is necessary that I should further accustom myself always to speak Latin.

"Feb. 15.-Lead your child by the hand to the great scenes of nature; teach him on the mountain and in the valley. There he will listen better to your teaching; the liberty will give him greater force to surmount difficulties. But in these hours of liberty it should be nature that teaches rather than you. Do not allow yourself to prevail for the pleasure of success in your teaching; or to desire in the least to proceed when nature diverts him; do not take away in the least the pleasure which she offers him. Let him completely realise that it is nature that teaches, and that you, with your art, do nothing more than walk quietly at her side. When he hears a bird warble, or an insect hum on a leaf, then cease your talk; the bird and the insect are teaching; your business is then to be silent.

"But in the few hours of study when steady work is necessary to acquire necessary knowledge, no interruption should be allowed. These hours ought to be few in number, but nothing should be permitted to interrupt them. In this matter it is absolutely necessary to go contrary to the natural bent for liberty.

"Nothing produces such bitter feeling as the panie. ment of ignorance as a fault In punishing an innocent child we lose our hold on the heart. We most bot suppose that a child knows of himself what is harmful and what in our eyes is serious.

“Plenty of joy and liberty and only a few occasions when the child is obliged to fight against and overcome his natural desires, will give strength and courage to endure. Too much restraint lowers courage, and the times of joy which take its place will fail of their happy influence. The strongest and most frequent impres sions are those which determine character, for they dominate the others. Because of this it is possible to correct defects by education.

“Feb. 16 and 17.—I have taught him to hold the pencil. Though this be but a very small matter, I will not permit him in future to hold it badly, in a single instance."

"Feb. 19. Liberty is a good thing; and obedience is equally so. We should re-unite what Rousseau has separated. Impressed by the evils of an unwise constraint that only tends to degrade humanity he has not remembered the limits of liberty.

"Let us make use of the wisdom of his principles. "Master! be persuaded of the excellence of liberty. Do not allow vanity to lead you astray and cause you to seek to produce, by your efforts, premature fruits; let your child be as free as possible; seek diligently for every means of leaving him free, tranquil and goodhumoured. Teach him everything, absolutely everything, that is possible through the realities of the very nature of things; teach him nothing through words. Leave him to himself to see, to hear, to find out, to

stumble, to recover, and to make mistakes. No words when action, when doing a thing for himself, is possible! What he can do for himself, let him do it; so that he may always be occupied, always active, and that the time during which he is left to himself may be much the greater part of his childhood. You should recognise that nature teaches better than men.

"He must trust you. If he frequently asks for something you do not think good, tell him what the consequences will be, and leave him his liberty; but arrange it so that the consequences shall be impressive. Always show him the right way; if he departs from it, and falls into the mire, pull him out of it. Thus he will find himself in very disagreeable positions through not having profited by your warnings, and through having enjoyed complete liberty. In this way his trust in you will be such that he will not feel hurt when you are obliged to restrain his liberty by a prohibition. It is necessary for him to be obedient to a wise master or the father who gives good advice; but only in cases of necessity ought the master to prescribe things."

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In these reflections we may clearly see the definite beginnings of his ideas on :things before words; following nature observation and nature study; self-activity and thoroughness; language teaching; number teaching; character training; and orderly development.

While he was thus trying to fulfil the duties of the parent-educator, and perhaps in some measure because of this, his worldly affairs were going from bad to worse. Bad soil, a faithless steward, and lack of practical ability brought matters to a crisis. The banker who had advanced capital to Pestalozzi withdrew it. However the relatives of Pestalozzi's wife came to the rescue,

and he was enabled to carry on his farm; and also to try to improve matters by doing a little in the way of weaving and spinning cotton. But in spite of all his endeavours matters continued to go wrong.

But his own troubles only served to make him think more about the sufferings of others. He asked himself what had become of all his thoughts about improving the lot of the poor. How was such work to be done? He had now obtained actual knowledge of the life and habits of the peasantry, and had made up his mind that reform and progress must come, first and foremost, from within an individual rather than from without, and from the young rather than from their elders. He resolved, therefore, to begin with the most destitute and degraded children; to educate them, in the first place, through their feelings, their ordinary work, and domestic life: and to aim at making them self-respecting and selfdependent. His wife entirely agreed with him.

At this period it was a common practice to hand over orphans or foundlings to the care of farmers and peasants, who, ignorant and selfish, cared for nothing except getting all the profit they could out of the arrangement. The children were made to work very hard; received no, or bad, education; and were often forced to become common beggars, for the advantage of their degraded guardians. Here was work meet for him; and he resolved to get together such waifs and castaways and give them an industrial, moral and intellectual education. The children were to do something towards earning their keep by working in his spinning-mill. His aim was "to call forth, and put into action, the power every human being possesses of satisfying his needs and doing his duty in his state of life". His ideas were