fame as an author mainly rests-" Leonard and Gertrude "-a work extorted from him, as he says, by sympathy with the sufferings of the people. In this simple tale-which "flowed from his pen, he knew not how, and developed itself of its own accord”—we have an admirable picture of village life in Switzerland. No wonder that the Berne Agricultural Society sent the author a gold medal, with a letter of thanks; and that the book excited vast interest, both in its native country and throughout Germany. It is only strange that "Leonard and Gertrude" has not become a favorite, by means of translations, in other countries. There was, indeed, an English translation, in two volumes, published more than fifty years ago; but this forerunner of the tales of Gotthelf is now hardly known in this country, even by name. In the works of a great artist, we see natural objects represented with perfect fidelity, and yet with a life breathed into them by genius which is wanting, or at least is not visible to common eyes, in the originals. Just so do we find Swiss peasant life depicted by Pestalozzi. The delineation is evidently true to nature; and, at the same time, shows Nature as she reveals herself to genius. But for this work something more than genius was necessary, viz., sympathy and love. In the preface to the first edition, he says, "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 taken care not once to add my own opinion to what I saw and heard the people themselves saying, feeling, believing, judging, and attempting." In a later edition (1800) he says, "I desired nothing then,

and I desire nothing else now, as the object of my life, but the welfare of the people, whom I love, and whom I feel to be miserable as few feel them to be miserable, because I have with them borne their sufferings as few have borne them."

Pestalozzi's friends now came to the conclusion that he had found his vocation at last, and that it was novelwriting; but, throughout Europe, he met with many more discriminating readers.

During his residence at Neuhof, where he continued to drag on a weary and depressed existence till he had been there, altogether, thirty years, he published several works, none of which had the success of "Leonard and Gertrude." In 1782 appeared "Christopher and Alice," and in 1795 some fables, which he called " Figures to my A B C Book." But the work which gave its author most trouble to compose, on which, he says, he labored. for three long years with incred.ble toil, and which, when it did appear, was doomed to the most complete neglect, was his "Researches into the Course of Nature in the Development of the Human Race."

The consequences of the French Revolution called Pestalozzi from his philosophical speculations. French troops poured into Switzerland. Everything was remodeled after the French pattern. The government was placed in the hands of five Directors, according to the phase which the supreme power had then (1798) taken in the model country. Pestalozzi avowed himself the champion of the new order of things, and his pen was at once employed by the Directors. These men had not, however, the discernment of Lavater, who once told Madame Pestalozzi, "I would

66

AS A SCHOOLMASTER.

169

consult your husband in everything connected with the condition of the people, though I would never intrust him with a farthing of money." By the Directors, Pestalozzi was not consulted at all. 6. I wished for nothing," he said, "but that the sources of the savage and degraded state of the people might be stopped, and the evils flowing from them arrested. The Novi Homines of Helvetia, whose wishes went further, and who had no knowledge of the condition of the people, found, of course, that I was not the man for them. They took every straw for a mast, by which they might sail the Republic to a safe shore; but me, me alone, they took for a straw not fit for a fly to cling to. They did me good, however

-more good than any men have ever done me—they restored me to myself." It was thought that he had espoused their cause to secure for himself some Government appointment, and the Directors asked him what he would be. His answer was, "I will be a schoolmaster". an answer which probably confirmed his friends in the opinion they had before expressed, that he would end his days either in the poor-house or the mad-house.

Among the directors was Le Grand, who entered into Pestalozzi's views, and at once placed at his disposal the means of opening a school in Aargau: but events occurred which led him to another sphere of labor, and caused him to undertake a much more difficult task. The Catholic and democratic canton of Unterwalden did not accept the changes which the French introduced. It was consequently invaded by a French army, many of the inhabitants were killed, and Stanz, the capital, was pillaged and burnt. These

strong measures of their allies were in secret disapproved of by the Swiss Directors, who were, therefore, anxious to do what they could to relieve the sufferings of their fellow-countrymen. Le Grand proposed to Pestalozzi to give up his other plans for the present, and to go to Stanz and take charge of the orphan and destitute children there. Pestalozzi was not the man to refuse such a task as this. "I went," he writes. "I would have gone into the remotest clefts of the mountains to come nearer my aim, and now I really did come nearer."

He established himself with no assistants, and with only one servant, in a convent which was building for the Ursulines. There was but one room fit for occupation when he arrived. Children came flocking in, many of whom were orphans, and could not be otherwise provided for. The one room became a schoolroom and a dormitory for Pestalozzi and as many children as it would hold. There were soon eighty under Pestalozzi's charge during the day, some of the neighbors taking in children to sleep. Of the eighty, many were beggar children, not accustomed to any control, vicious in their habits, and afflicted with loathsome diseases. Those who had been better off were helpless and exacting. And for all these Pestalozzi, then over fifty years of age, undertook the management, the clothing, feeding, teaching, and even the performance of the most menial offices. The parents, who looked upon him as the paid official of a hated Government, and, moreover, distrusted him as a Protestant, annoyed him in every way they could, and encouraged the children in disorder and discontent. And yet the Protestant was giving an example of love

and self-sacrifice worthy of the noblest saint in the Calendar. This love did not lose its reward. By degrees it gained him the affection of the children, and introduced harmony and order into the chaos which at first surrounded him.

The very disadvantages in which he was placed drove him to discoveries he would never otherwise have made. His whole school apparatus consisted of himself and his pupils; so he studied the children themselves, their wants and capacities. "I stood in the midst of them," he says, "pronouncing various sounds, and asking the children to imitate them. Whoever saw it was struck with the effect. It is true it was like a meteor which vanishes in the air as soon as it appears. No one understood its nature. I did not understand it myself. It was the result of a simple idea, or rather, of a fact of human nature, which was revealed to my feelings, but of which I was far from having a clear consciousness." Again he says, "Being obliged to instruct the children by myself, without any assistance, I learnt the art of teaching a great number together; and as I had no other means of bringing the instruction before them than that of pronouncing everything to them loudly and distinctly, I was naturally led to the idea of making them draw, write, or work all at the same time.

"The confusion of so many voices repeating my words suggested the necessity of keeping time in our exercises, and I soon found that this contributed materially to make their impressions stronger and more distinct. Their total ignorance forced me to dwell a long time on the simplest elements, and I was thus led to perceive how much higher a degree