edition necessary, he would pay me the same again. I was unspeakably satisfied. A louis d'or per sheet was to me much, very much, in the circumstances in which I then was. The book appeared, and excited quite a remarkable degree of interest in my own country and throughout the whole of Germany. Nearly all the journals spoke in its praise, and, what is perhaps still more, nearly all the almanacs became full of it; but the most unexpected thing to me was that, immediately after its appearance, the Agricultural Society of Bern awarded me their great gold medal, with a letter of thanks. Pleased as I was with the medal, and glad as I should have been to keep it, I was nevertheless obliged to part with it in my then situation, and sold it some weeks after for its value in money at a goldsmith's.”

In the preface to the first edition he writes: "In that which I here relate, and which I have for the most part seen and heard myself in the course of an active life, I have even taken care not once to add my own opinion to what I saw and heard the people themselves feeling, judging, believing, speaking and attempting”. In the preface to the second edition he says that the object of the book was “to bring about a better popular education, based upon the true condition of the people and their natural relations. It was my first word to the heart of the poor and destitute in the land . . . to the mothers in the land, and to the heart which God gave them, to be to theirs what no one on earth can be in their stead."

Briefly the story, so far as it directly concerns education, is as follows: In the village of Bonnal, of which Arner is lord and which is managed by his unprincipled steward Hummel, live Leonard and his wife Gertrude.

Leonard is a man of weak character, easily led into wrong, and has fallen into the power of Hummel, through borrowing money from him. Gertrude is "the angel in the house": the perfect wife and mother, the Good-Samaritan neighbour, and the complete housewife. To rescue her husband from the clutches of the steward Gertrude goes to the castle to see Arner. The result of her visit is that Leonard is commissioned to build a church, and Hummel becomes suspect. Then follows a conflict between the influences for evil and for good in the village; Arner having become, through Gertrude's influence and the force of events, the champion of the good. Though many good deeds are done by Arner nothing really substantial in reform takes place until a spinner named Cotton Meyer suggests to Arner that "after all we can do very little with the people unless the next generation is to have a different training from that our schools furnish. Our schools ought really to stand in the closest connection with the life of the home, instead of, as now, in strong contradiction to it."

Lieutenant Glülphi, a friend and helper of Arner, warmly supports this view. The question then arises: how is such a school to be set up in Bonnal. Cotton Meyer says: "I know a spinning-woman in the village who understands it far better than I". This is Gertrude who trains her own children in her own house. Arner, Glülphi and the pastor visit Gertrude's cottage and watch Gertrude training her children. The result is that Glülphi resolves, "I will be schoolmaster," and obtains Gertrude's promise to help him; all agreeing that the proper education of the young is the only means of reforming the village. Glülphi becomes the village schoolmaster and, after he has overcome great

opposition from the parents and the children, his work is crowned with success and he becomes a power for good in the village. Thus is opened a new era, and from this time forward things go on so well that Bonnal becomes a model village, and a commission is appointed from the ducal court to report on the possibility of a universal application of the principles of government in the village. This commission was constituted on these lines: "to ensure thoroughness there must be among the examiners men skilled in law and finance, merchants, clergymen, Government officials, schoolmasters and physicians, beside women of different ranks and conditions, who shall view the matter with their woman's eyes, and be sure that there is nothing visionary in the background". The examiners, after six days' searching inspection, unanimously recommended that the principles should be applied universally.

There is also a parallel purpose in the book: the setting forth of ways and means of social and economic reform. The terrible evils wrought upon the persons and characters of poor people by tyrannical and unprincipled officials-influenced by greed of gain and unchecked by proper supervision-are exposed with unflinching truth. It is then shown how an intelligent and right-minded man, with power, can thwart the designs of the corrupter and the corrupted, and encourage those who desire to do well, by personal action and wisely planned arrangements. Indolence, theft, and the abuse of charity can be prevented; whilst the love of ease, pleasure and honour can be rightly directed. A proper use of religious services and festivals, and the exposure of superstitions, can be used for the furthering of enlightenment amongst the people.

One of the most powerful influences for good will be found in the union and harmonious action of all classes. A scheme to realise this in Bonnal is outlined :-(1) A school to be organised, the methods in which are to be in harmony with the developing influence of domestic life. (2) The better part of the people of Bonnal to join with those of the castle and the parsonage in obtaining a real and active influence over the various households in the village. (3) A new method of choosing overseers (bailiffs) to be adopted, so that the evil influence of bad overseers might be avoided. Further, the peasants were to have tithe-free land for those of their children who saved eight or ten florins before their twentieth year. Thus developed through education: a share in their local government: and security of property, the people of Bonnal make their place a model village.

The book has many passages of great eloquence, exquisite pathos, manly moralising, sparkling wit, dramatic intensity, riotous humour, fine character sketches, and charming incidents, in spite of its want of plot and great diffuseness.

Whilst the book was widely and eagerly read it failed to convey to the masses Pestalozzi's own moralthat the proper education of the young is the foundation and corner-stone of true reform. Most of those who read the book desired only to be interested and amused, and seemed to think that it showed that all the poverty and depravity among the common people resulted from the dishonesty and greed of village officials; and that it only needed mothers like Gertrude, schoolmasters like Glülphi, and lords like Arner to put such matters right. Pestalozzi realised that his readers missed his point and,

to remedy this, he wrote another book: Christopher and Eliza, my second book for the people, in 1782. In a later edition of it he says in the preface: "I made a peasant family read together Leonard and Gertrude, and say things about the story of that work, and the persons introduced in it, which I thought might not occur of themselves to everybody's mind". The book consists of thirty dialogues in which Christopher, an intelligent farmer, discusses with his family and head servant the history of Bonnal, chapter by chapter. This also failed of its purpose so far as the poor themselves were concerned. He then continued Leonard and Gertrude, in three more volumes which appeared in 1783, 1785 and 1787 respectively.

But those of great minds and large hearts, those in high places who sought the welfare of the many, understood, appreciated and sympathised with the purpose of the book. Henning says that it was translated into Danish; and that the nobles-amongst others the Countess Schimmelman-were so much impressed and influenced by the reading of it that they took steps to improve the condition of the peasantry on their own estates. Count Zinzendorf, the Austrian Minister of Finance, consulted Pestalozzi as to educational legislation based on the ideas set forth in the book.

Perhaps the greatest individual triumph of this work was its influence on Fellenberg, who says: "The book made a deep impression on me, and each time I read it I was more and more convinced of its truth, and it was in a burst of deep feeling caused by the reading of it that I vowed to my mother that I would devote my life to the poor and forsaken children ". Thus arose another great Swiss reformer,