\
LIBRARY
OOl
JUL 5 19T4
THt ONTARIO INSTITUTE
StUOIf S IN tDUCAflON
HOW GERTRUDE
TEACHES HER CHILDREN
UNIFORM WITH THIS WORK.
Epilogue to Pestalozzi's
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children:
AN ATTEMPT TO READ IT.
BY E. COOKE.
IN PREPARATION.
HOW GERTRUDE
TEACHES HER CHILDREN
to f
AN ACCOUNT OF THE METHOD
A Report to the Society of the Friends of Education, Burgdorf
BY
JOHANN HEINRICH PESTALOZZI
TRANSLATED BY
LUCY E. HOLLAND AND FRANCES C. TURNER
AND EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES,
BY
EBENEZER COOKE
JT o n b o it
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. : C. W. BARDEEN
1894
b
& TANNER,
THE SELWOOD PKINTING WOKKS,
FEOME, AND LONDON.
CONTENTS.
PAG*
EDITOR'S PREFACE . . vii
INTRODUCTION xiii
PREFACE 1
LETTER 1 9
LETTER II 42
LETTER III 61
LETTER IV 72
LETTER V 80
^LETTER VI 83
VTTER VII 90
L ;TTER VIII 132
L STTER IX I . . 139
3TTER X 144
LETTER XI 163
LETTER XII 170
LETTER XIII 181
BETTER XIV 190
APPENDIX : —
AN ACCOUNT OF THE METHOD. A EEPORT . . . 199
NOTES TO PREFACE AND LETTERS .... 212
SUPPLEMENTS AND NOTE TO THE METHOD . . . 248
INDEX . 252
ERRATA.
Page 53,
» 84,
» 84,
„ 85,
85,
„ 126,
„ 138,
» 139,
» 139,
line 9, for " elements " read " principles."
„ 30, for " perfecting " read " cultivating."
" 3f' }for " intellect " read " understanding."
„ 8, for "typical form of human" read "first form of
human mental."
lines 16, 18, 24, 26, for " elements " read " elementary points."
line 11 ; page 139, lines 9 and 12 ; page 140, line 32 ; page 144,
line 22 ; page 147, line 22 ; page 148, line 6, for
" elements " reetd " elementary means."
„ 17, for " sense impression " read " form."
„ 6 ; page 121, line 30 ; page 144, lines 20 and 25 ; page
148, lines 3 and 10; page 149, line 23, for " observa
tion " read " Anschauung."
„ 14, omit " natural."
„ 12,/or " origin" read " basis."
„ 17, /or "by "read "in."
„ 22, for " according to " read " in " or " within," and for
" education " read " instruction."
„ 32, for " elements " read " elementary divisions."
18")
17' \for "element" read "primary means."
^ add after " nature," [" in respect to this subject "].
'
„ 146,
„ 148,
„ 149,
» 149,
„ 150, „ 24,
„ 150, „ 25,
„ 150, „ 26, „
„ 17(5, „ 22,/or
„ 199, last line, for " at end " read pp. 207, 208.
was," "to the race.'
„ " making " " many fold."
„ " clear," u by the power of sound."
skill " read " abilities."
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
THE METHOD in time and thought precedes How Ger
trude Teaches. It may be read after Letter I., for in
this letter Pestalozzi gives the history and circum
stances which led him to those principles he first
definitely stated in The Method. The First Letter from
Stanz also belongs to this period. It will be found in
De Guimps' Life and in Quick's Essays on Educational
Reformers. These works form a complete group, and
are his most important educational works. They are
undoubtedly his own ; of later works this cannot be
said until we come to the Swan's Song and My Ex
periences.
The portions of How Gertrude Teaches in Biber's
Life of Pestalozzi are all that have been translated. Its
peculiar terms, such as " Anschauung," may partly
account for this neglect. These terms are difficult, for
apparently we do not grasp Pestalozzi's thought. We
neither read nor follow him. If we walk in his ways,
we may see what he saw ; if we repeat his experi
ments, we may in some measure share his thought.
, Doing leads to knowing. He has been blamed for not
defining his terms. He gives instead the history of
Ihis conception, the circumstances which led to it, its
[development, and his schemes founded on it. " There
viii Editor's Preface.
are two ways of instructing," he said ; " either we go
from words to things, or from things to words. Mine
is the second method." His meaning may become
clearer if the reader will substitute " Anschauung " for
" sense impression " and for all other equivalents
throughout the work. It has, and can have, no equi
valent in English. We may partly learn its meaning,
as we have learned that of some other words, from its
use. If definitions are desired, the most helpful will
be found at the beginning of Kant's Critique of Pure
Reason. Kant's method is to begin with definitions.
"We have tried to translate this work literally, with
out paraphrase and without omissions : no difficult
passage has been left out. Much might be improved.
The more we learn from him the more evident this is.
Any help which will make his thought still clearer
will be gladly and thankfully received.
For my part, I heartily wish it had been in abler
hands, but the work seems to me as much needed here
and now as ever. This is in part my apology for rush
ing in where more competent beings have feared to
tread. It has not been done without much help, and in
recording my obligations for this other circumstances
will intrude.
To one, first and foremost, my gratitude is due. Of
him I have known nothing for more than forty years.
Between 1845-1850 the transition from the old school
of our forefathers — very similar to that of Samuel
Dysli, of Burgdorf — to the new school of trained
teachers took place in our retired parish. The old
dame and the severe schoolmaster passed away, and
among the new teachers came one from Bristol — Mr.
Editors Preface. ix
Wm. B. Morgan — with a new method — Pestalozzi's.
He stayed only one year, and returned. We heard of
him no more. In a small way we had our Stanz. The
school was transformed, its tediousness vanished, and
unknown powers awoke. He joined us at play, and so
extended his master's principles naturally, at a time
when Froebel was doing the same. — The first kinder
garten had been established but seven or eight years,
and this was six or seven years before it was introduced
into England. — He gave too a memorable lecture on
the new method, illustrated by a grammar and a
"moral" lesson. By " Socratising " he obtained the
material from us. and taught us to think and to learn
from our own thought. It was a revelation, and the
impression of it lives still an example of what a teacher
may do who enters into the thought of the child, and
sets what Buss calls the " fly-wheel in motion, that
needs only to be set going to go on by itself." Many
years later I was driven back on this teaching, needed
help, but found none ; hence this attempt.
Pestalozzi foresaw, on its first morning, when he
began How Gertrude Teaches, the nature of the coming
century : u The whole earth the beauty wore of pro
mise." We have entered into it. From Wordsworth's
Prelude, " dedicate to Nature's self and things that
teach as Nature teaches," written at exactly the same
time, and in the same spirit, as How Gertrude Teaches,
to our latest schemes of technical education, we have
been thinking and working in the same ways, with
but little of his direct influence. Education gene
rally ; the doctrine of development ; the culture and
knowledge of the body, practically by exercise, theo-
x Editors Preface.
retically by physiology ; science and art, both, included
in his elementary means — form, both founded on
Anschauung; the training of teachers, based on psy
chology ; our social schemes for the welfare of the
people — are all and more to be found in this work.
In other minds similar ideas germinated indepen
dently. Portions of the truth Pestalozzi perceived
were seen by many. Soon after the middle of the
century much of it was re-embodied by the Rev. F. D.
Maurice in the Working Men's College. His faith in
both " learning and working " are in the name. In
his deep religious feeling and human sympathy, his per
ception of principles in the common facts of every-day
life, the unity of all studies, their relation to work, in
his desire to educate, exercise, and develop the whole
being, and in many other ways he resembled Pestalozzi.
At a time when the "mutual instruction" of Stanz
had been twisted here to support the monitorial sys
tem, the reality itself reappeared in the conversational
teaching — allied to socratising — which was generally
adopted at the College. Men taught men in a non-
professional way, for the social and human elements
were considered as important as learning. In this
direct action of mind on mind was to be found some
thing of the " mutual self-vification " of Stanz. — The
unselfish devotion of Mr. Maurice's fellow- workers to a
common purpose is a significant contrast to the divisions
at Yverdun.
Among his associates, Mr. Ruskin, who may have
been influenced by Rousseau, maintained the supre
macy of Nature, and insisted as strongly as Pestalozzi
himself on learning to " see " and on " seeing " as the
Editor's Preface. xi
beginning of art and thought. He claimed for form
sense-impression and doing, a place in education.
"Every youth should learn to do something thoroughly
with his hands to know what touch means," he said.
In many other ways he continued Pestalozzi's thought.
Another associate, Rossetti, restored to form its old
power of expressing thought, and unconsciously illus
trated — as did all the Pre-Raphaelities — the Pesta-
lozzian principle ; — the development of the individual
follows that of the race. The College was perhaps at
its best nearly twenty years before Payne's lecture on
Pestalozzi.
The privilege and duty of continuing Mr. E/uskin's
teaching in one class fell to me, and after several years
this attempt to teach from nature naturally led me to
Mr. C. H. Lake. He watched with much sympathy
my attempts to teach drawing and natural science. Of
these things he professed to know nothing, but his
profound knowledge of psychology, educational prin
ciples, and of Pestalozzi's spirit —he had been friend and
fellow-worker with Payne for many years — made him
the best guide and critic possible, perhaps the only one.
He entered into the work with great interest, for he de
lighted in experiments, and to bring actual school work
to the test of principles. He was a master of socratis-
ing, believed in inductive teaching, and, with Pestalozzi
and Maurice, in that " mutual instruction " which
brings minds into direct contact by conversation. To
him I am much indebted. I was compelled to fall
back on the unforgotten lessons of my boyhood, and
I expected to find the methods and principles of
Pestalozzi established, well known, even extended,
xii Editor's Preface.
and his own work easily accessible ; but only Biber's
fragments were available. Blind to its difficulties, I
long failed to induce friends to translate How Gertrude
Teaches, until, trying for myself, help was for the first
time offered ; Miss L. E. Holland not only translated
this work, but several others which threw light on it.
There were difficulties, and the late F. C. Turner
revised the whole work, and reduced the number.
He sought in both French and German literature to
verify passages and for help generally, even during
his long and painful illness. The amount and kind of
help of these friends could only have been given by
those who fully sympathised in the work.
Some doubtful passages remained ; for these several
friends were consulted, and the various readings com
pared. In this way we had help from Mme. Michaelis,
Miss F. Franks, Fraulein H. Seidel, Mr. A. Sonnen-
schein, and others. "We have added the index.
April, 1894.
INTBODUCTION.
JOHANN HEINRICH PESTALOZZI was born January 12th,
1746. He gives in this book some account of his life
in relation to his work ; a few other facts of a similar
nature may be useful. " In the years of my childhood,"
he says, "I lived out of touch with the world, at least,
so far as this gives one power, skilfulness, and a good
bearing in the intercourse and business of life. I lost
my father early ; this caused defects in my education
which have been a disadvantage to me throughout my
life; but it was mixed with good. I cannot say, I would
it had been otherwise. My father, on his death-bed,
said to a poor maidservant who had been hardly six
months with us, ' Do not forsake my wife if I die, or
my poor children will be lost.' She gave him her hand
and her word, and remained more than thirty years in
my mother's _ service, and did not forsake her till she
herself quitted this earth. If she had not stayed, we
should have lost both mother and home. My mother
instilled into us respect and gratitude to her which
will never be extinguished. She sacrificed herself for
us completely. From the roughest work of the
meanest servant to the highest, she did everything the
whole time of her service. While economising every
xiv Introduction.
penny, she watched over our honour with incredible
tenderness ; nothing escaped her. But she put no
value on this. If any one said, ' You do a great deal
for the household,' her answer was, 'I promised it,
and I must keep my promise.' She rejected any
offer of a better place with these words, ' What do you
think of me ? ' every offer of marriage with ' I must
not.' Gressner, such fidelity is rare in this world ; for
anything like it you must go back to the noblest days
of our country, to the noble deeds of our forefathers.
The spirit of their high power of sacrificing self for
Fatherland, religion, freedom, truth, and right, with
which they saved their country, was in no wise
different from the power of self-sacrifice of our maid
servant, by which she saved and raised our household.
Just as I was sensible of this fidelity throughout my
life, just as it influenced me with a real life-giving
satisfaction from early morn to latest eve, just as I felt
cared for by her every hour while I was growing, so
the people in the good old days were ever sensible
of the fidelity of their noble forefathers, during the
whole of their lives it influenced them with a life-
giving satisfaction, and they felt they were cared for.
This sacred fidelity exercised its influence especially
on widows and orphans and on the poor and lowly^ in
the land. Sacrifices for fidelity and faith, paternal
feeling and love for the people, heartfelt pity for the
wants of the oppressed and courageous deeds to protect
them against injustice, came naturally to our ancestors,
and was part of the morality of their time."1 This
1 Pestalozzi-Blatter, Dec., 1889, Zurich. For another account
of her in a letter to Prof. Ith, 1802, see De Guimps, pp. 3, 4.
Introduction. xv
abbreviated extract from what he intended for a new
version of How Gertrude Teaches will help to answer
a question often asked, What has the book to do with
Gertrude ? as well as give some idea of one of the
deepest influences of his childhood. The title does not
perhaps clearly express the contents. Some critics
say that the contradiction in the title-page is charac
teristic of the book.
In 1760 Pestalozzi became a student at the Univer
sity of Zurich. He entered fully into the movements
and thoughts of his time. " Living in a time and coun
try in which well educated young men eagerly enquired
into the causes of the evils in the land, and were
zealous to oppose them, wherever they were, I too, like
all the students of Bodmer and Breitinger, sought the
sources of those evils which crushed the people of our
Fatherland " (Ein Blick, etc.).
In 1762, when he had been at Zurich two years, he
was very deeply impressed by one of the most powerful
influences of the pre-revolutionary period — Rousseau.
The Government of Geneva condemned Rousseau. The
people supported him, and asked that the decree might
be repealed, as unjust and ill-advised. These doings
caused a great stir in Zurich. (See De Guimps, page
13.)
The Revolution began a new epoch, and with it
a new education. The Renascence revived ancient
literature, and set up the book as the regenerator of the
world, and exalted book-learning. Instruction meant
the study of Latin and Greek, words and dead lan
guages. The Revolution in many ways opposed this,
and the conditions and institutions that had been
xvi Introduction.
brought about by it, in conjunction with the mediaeval
religious system. " Do the opposite of what is usually
done, and you will be right," is Rousseau's maxim in
education. " All is artificial ; we must return to
nature. Man is bad by institutions, not by nature."
The old religious system had insisted on blind faith,
on authority, and tradition. The Revolution demanded
free investigation of facts, free thought, and free
speech, culture of reason and intelligence, and the
natural claims of all to justice and education. The
mediseval religious system had taught that the
natural instincts of the body were to be suppressed,
that human nature was utterly depraved, and all
nature was gross and impure. The Revolution again
set the little child in the midst, a study for mankind,
and pronounced nature itself very good.
" Directly Rousseau's Emile appeared," Pestalozzi
says, " my visionary and highly speculative mind was
enthusiastically seized by this visionary and highly
speculative book." Rousseau's influence also increased
in him the desire for a more extended sphere of activity
for the happiness of the people, and induced him to
give up the idea of the clerical profession for that of
law. In 1762, when the Government of Geneva, follow
ing the example of the Paris Parliament, condemned
the author of Emile and The Social Contract,1 the people
of Geneva warmly remonstrated. The patriotic stu
dents at Zurich sympathised with Rousseau and also
protested against the action of the government of
Geneva. Pestalczzi was one of the most enthusiastic.
1 See Rousseau. Note 1, Letter IV.
Introduction. xvii
His sympathies brought him into conflict with the
authorities and injured his prospects for life. He too
was condemned, fined, and confined several times ; he
was considered a dangerous revolutionist. The people
he earnestly wished to serve misunderstood him. They
even threatened him with death more than once. The
effect of this was deeply wrought into his life.
Of his powers at this time he says : "I was far
behind my fellow-students in some things, in others I
often surpassed them in an unusual degree. This is
so true that once when my professor, who had a good
knowledge of Greek but not the least eloquence of
style, translated and published some of the orations of
Demosthenes, I had the boldness to translate one my
self and give it at the examination." This was pub
lished, and excited universal admiration.
His first serious experiment in life was an attempt
to work out his naturalistic principles. He abandoned
first the Church and then Law, for which he had
studied, and became a farmer (1768) of uncultivated
land, — barren, chalky heath, and sheep walk ; which
was to him unprofitable, although in 1869 the very
same land was rich and produced several crops in the
year.
The next year, 1769, he married, and in 1771 settled
at Neuhof, in Letten, near Birr, in Argau. Farming
failed, and for some time before the actual crisis Neuhof
became a home for neglected children, orphans and
beggars, who were taught to work and learn at the same
time. The following memorable passage referring to
this period is left out of the second edition of How
Gertrude Teaches : u Long years I lived surrounded by
xviii Introduction.
more than fifty beggar children. In poverty I shared
my bread with them, I lived like a beggar in order to
learn how to make beggars live like men. My ideal
training included work on the farm, in the factory, and
the workshop," — and he never abandoned this ideal.
At last when all was spent, both strength and fortune,
the farm was closed (1780), leaving him " more than
ever convinced of the reality and truth of his principles
at the very moment of their apparently entire de
struction."
. In 1781 he wrote Leonard and Gertrude, his greatest
success. It was a novel intended to show that the
world might be regenerated through education, the
mother, Gertrude,1 being the chief teacher. This
work brought him many friends of every class, among
them Fichte, who apparently influenced him much.
Fichte lived two years at Zurich, 1788 to 1790, and
was intimate with Pestalozzi's circle of friends. He
married a niece of Lavater's there, 1793, and stayed
some months afterwards. Pestalozzi's psychology and
philosophy after this time slowly develop ; but in
^Leonard and Gertrude — published the same year as
Kant's Critique of Pure Reason — Fichte found that
already " experience had led him to many of the same
results as Kant." Fichte's friendship strengthened this
tendency, and from it originated his later thought and
principles. These remained in a germ-like state in his
mind until his experience at Stanz developed them and
made them real and living. But if Fichte was able
to influence his psychology and philosophy, he was
1 A character probably inspired by his recollections of the
devoted maidservant mentioned above. See note 8, p. 214.
Introduction. xix
probably less familiar with the subject of development.
The union of these is one of Pestalozzi's special cha
racteristics. Evidently Fichte saw the importance
of his doctrines, for it was by his advice that he wrote
a philosophical treatise, Inquiries into the Course of
Nature in the Development of the Human Race, which
was produced in 1797. His educational works brought
him friends in the Swiss Government, and he was
working out an. official scheme of education when
Stanz was burnt down.
The new French Republic wished to improve its
neighbour the old Swiss Republic by centralization.
Unterwalden, one of the three cantons which founded
the Republic, proud of its own self-government,
objected, and refused to take the oath of allegiance
to the new Unitary Constitution imposed by France.
The French army marched on Stanz, its chief town.
It was resisted and repelled, but eventually it reached
Stanz, and, exasperated by the vigorous and unex
pected resistance, massacred the inhabitants and burnt
the town, September 9th, 1798. There were 169
orphans, excluding 77 provided for by private charity
and 237 other children practically homeless. The cen
tral Swiss Government, November 18th, determined to
found an Orphans' Home at Stanz, and Pestalozzi was
appointed manager, December 5th. He arrived two
days later and opened the orphanage January 14th,
1799. u It is a great trouble to all of us," wrote Mrs.
Pestalozzi. " If I am worth what I think I am," replied
Pestalozzi, " you will soon find me a comfort and sup
port. You have waited thirty years ; will you not wait
another three months ? " He alone can tell the story of
xx Introduction.
Stanz, and he has told it twice, first in a letter to
Gressner directly after he left, and again here.1 In five
months there was war again. The convent was wanted
for a military hospital, and on June 8th, 1799, sixty
children were sent away, and Pestalozzi, almost dead,
went to Gurnigel for a little rest.
The Government, influenced possibly by an unfavour
able report from Zschokke, one of the secretaries of the
Minister of Education, and Businger, priest at Stanz,
did not wish Pestalozzi to return. Stapfer, the minister,
alone supported him, and tried to find another field for
his experiments. Ever since he had been a minister
Stapfer had made attempts to establish a Teachers'
Institute. His secretary, Fischer, had submitted plans
for such an institute, which he approved. Burgdorf
was considered a suitable place for their trial, and in
July, 1799, Fischer went there, was lodged in the
castle, and superintended the schools which he had
organized, but the Normal School was not opened.
To Burgdorf, then, Stapfer directed Pestalozzi, and
on July 23rd, 1799, a dwelling in the castle was ap
pointed him near Fischer, and he was sent to the
house of Samuel Dysli, shoemaker and schoolmaster,
who worked at his trade even during school-time. But
Pestalozzi would not object to this. He approved of
working and learning together. It was one of -his first
and last wishes to unite them ; but these two men soon
found that they could not exist together. His im
provements had already transformed the school, and
here old and new came into strong contrast and con-
1 The First Letter from Stanz is given entire in De Guimps'
Life, pp. 147-171.
Introduction. xxi
flict. The practice of the old schoolmaster had come
down from the middle ages, and here was the reforming
spirit of the new education overturning all. There
were no books, no copying, no learning by rote, no
hearing of lessons, no tasks, worst of all, no catechism
and no psalter. He spoke aloud, the children repeated,
and at the same time drew figures on their slates, just
as at Sfcanz. But not even there, where he was con
sidered a heretic-enemy incapable of teaching, was
prejudice stronger than here. The acknowledged fact
that he was making experiments showed plainly that
he did not know what he was doing, and therefore was
not to be trusted. The shocking neglect of catechism
and psalter proved that he was quite unfit to teach or
to have charge of the young. This first hand-to-hand
fight between old and new is a type of many a later
struggle. Honest prejudice, with its second-hand and
worn-out systems, still opposes the new revelation and
drives it from the door. Pestalozzi was soon removed
to Miss Stahli's l school.
He had gone to Burgdorf at the end of July, 1799,
and on March 31st, 1800, a report of the examination
of his pupils at Miss Stahli's begins by stating that he
had been "teaching the children there for the past
eight months," therefore he could not have been many
days with Dysli, the shoemaker.
Meanwhile another school arose in Burgdorf. At the
end of 1799, war in Eastern Switzerland caused distress
in the cantons of Sentis and Linth. Fischer at Burg
dorf sent for thirty children, and nearly that number
1 For condition of old schools see Note 20, Letter I., p. 219; and
Diesterweg, Old Schools ; H. Barnard's Pestalozzi, p. 18.
c
xxii Introduction.
arrived on the 27th July, 1800, and with them their
teacher, Hermann Kriisi. At the beginning of February
forty-four more came from Appenzel. Kriisi lived with
Fischer and Pestalozzi in the castle. The children
were placed in different families, but went to the castle
to school.
Three days after the favourable report of Pestalozzi 's
teaching was presented, Fischer left Burgdorf (April
3rd, 1800), and soon after died. "With his death begins
for me a new epoch." says Pestalozzi. The teachers'
Institute became his charge. In May, 1800, he was
appointed to a higher class, but was not so successful.
" These young people thought themselves already
tolerably well educated, and such simple childish exer
cises, far from interesting them, only served to wound
their vanity. The same thing happened again after
wards," and continues to happen even now if his
methods are used. The teacher should use observation
while it is still natural to the child that it may never
be dropped, but be strengthened and made permanent.
Stapfer had founded the Society of the Friends of
Education, and Pestalozzi wrote for it a Report of the
Method, a work of such importance we have translated
and added it here ; it is the foundation of his teaching,
and quite distinct from flow Gertrude Teaches. It is
dated June 27th, 1800.
To unite the children under Kriisi with his own
scholars more room was wanted, and on July 23rd, 1800,
the Council, through Stapfer, granted the necessary
room. The commissioners reported,1 October 1, and
1 For Eeport, De Guimps, pp. 204-6.
Introduction. xxiii
on October 25th Pestalozzi announced the opening of
his Institute for Training Teachers. The Society seeing
that State help was insufficient, appealed for subscrip
tions. The newspapers still considered Pestalozzi more
revolutionist than educationalist. The Institute was
opened January, 1801, and is the best embodiment in
this direction of his idea. He was really the head, and
his newly-discovered principles were dominant ; it only
lasted three and a half years, but it carried his fame far
and wide.
In October, 1801, How Gertrude Teaches her Cnildren
was published.
Federalism was re-established in Switzerland February
19th, 1803. The restored government of Canton Bern
again took possession of the castle. Although Pesta
lozzi had favoured the unitary government and was
considered revolutionary, he could not now be neglected,
and another residence was provided, an old convent at
Miiochen-Buchsee, near to Fellen burg's agricultural
establishment. He went there on June, 1804, but left
October 18th for Yverdun.
For twenty years he carried on the Institute at
Yverdun under varying fortunes; troubles arose chiefly
from differences among his fellow- workers, especially
Niederer and Schmidt. Niederer was a Doctor of
Philosophy and minister who joined Pestalozzi here,
and regarded himself as the philosophical interpreter
of PestaLozzi's ideas. Schmidt gained great reputation
by his mathematical teaching and business capacity.
Here " each disciple interpreted the master's doctrine
in his own way," and later each, u after claiming to
be the only one who had understood Pestalozzi, ended
xxiv Introduction.
by declaring that Pestalozzi had not understood him
self " (Prof. Vulliemin, De G., p. 256). These disciples
had never been at Stanz. While the Institute was
in distracted disorder consider Pestalozzi. It had never
satisfied him. It was never what he wanted. At
Burgdorf as early as 1803 he longed to leave it and
follow his own way. He wanted to found another
school for poor children, where they might work as
well as learn. Again and again he repeated this wish,
and made attempts to realize it. At the end of his life
he declared that in founding the Burgdorf Institute he
had made a mistake. " I was already lost at Burgdorf
through my attempts to do what was utterly foolish
and absurd " (My Experiences}.
When the Institute at Yverdun was at its worst, he
returned to his favourite scheme, just as he had done
when Neuhof was in the same condition. He founded
at Clendy in 1818 a school for poor children, and at
seventy-two worked with the same energy, love, and
complete success as at Neuhof, Stanz, and Burgdorf.
Why was he always successful with these schools ?
With the idea of founding similar schools in which
handicraft might be taught, he caused Ramsauer to
learn several handicrafts (1807-1816). Does he fail
and succeed at the same time ? Of his failures much
has been said. What of his successes ?
The Institute was closed, and he left Yverdun, March,
1825. He went home to his grandson at Neuhof, and
on the same spot where his farming had failed fifty
years before he again ordered buildings for an in
dustrial school. Here he wrote his last works, the
Swan's Song, and My Experiences. In the latter book
Introduction. xxv
he spoke strongly, perhaps with exaggeration, of his
old friends who had forsaken him. Niederer was
hurt. " His grievances were eagerly taken up by a
man named Edward Biber. This man had arrived at
Yverdun after Pestalozzi's departure, and stayed but
one year there." He then left .and wrote a pamphlet
in Niederer 's justification, which was " little more than
a long insult to the venerable philanthropist ending
his days in misfortune. ... No one was more genu
inely indignant with this infamous production " than
Niederer1 himself. To Pestalozzi it was a death
blow. He died February 17th, 1827.
UMstoricaL
Pestalozzi's work generally is unknown in this
country. At times, efforts and enquiry have been
made, but he has never been understood or natural
ized. He is the follower of Bacon and of Locke ;
he embodies their principles ; and yet their country
men neither understand nor receive him. At the be
ginning of the century. Englishmen seem to have
believed Bell. " My system includes all this," he said
at Yverdun. The common opinion about Pestalozzi
now was expressed by the late Mr. E. Coghlan, when
he lectured on him at the Education Society in 1880.
u We have learned what he had to teach, and we are
far beyond him." Erroneous, even false statements
1 So says De Guimps ; but Morf quotes letters from Niederer
identifying himself with Biber, and speaking of his pamphlet as
" Our Defence."
x x vi Introduction.
of his principles and methods are frequently found
where we might expect accuracy, and there is no work
of his to witness against them. To know what he
thought, and how he worked, we must go to the
originals, and the foreign biographies, for there is no
thing satisfactory in English. Quite recently Roger de
Guimps' Life has been translated. We have no trans
lation of such works as those of Morf and Gruillaume, and
we have but little literature of value on the subject.1
If the new movement in education which has had
world- wide influence, and which he practically began,
is the most important of modern times, if it is still
growing and developing, this book, the greatest of his
educational works, should certainly be known; the
selected passages and paraphrased fragments, we have
may give a little help, but they are inadequate ; they
never give his whole thought, but often obscure and
misrepresent it. He wants to show how the germ of
the idea of popular education was developed in him.
To throw light on that is the purpose of this book ;
not merely to state theories and give details of his
teaching. He wants to show how the principle grew
in him, how we can follow him in spirit. It is the
history of the growth of an Educator's mind, of the
conditions under which he worked, the experiments he
made, their failure or success, and the method he
learned through direct study of nature. He does not
—he cannot — separate the events of his life from his
1 Barnard's volume on Pestalozzi contains part of Raumer's
life, and nearly all that has been translated of his works; 'but
the account given in it of Wie Gertrud is very defective, almost
useless ; the principles on which the system is founded are not
included.
Introduction. xxvii
experiments and theories. He has no life, no thought,
apart from his one aim. He thinks of nothing else,
works for nothing else. From out of his work comes
his methods, his theories, and his sympathy. He is re
presented to us as the most visionary and impractical of
men : in some ways he might be, but he is essentially
the man of observation and experiment, his knowledge
comes from his seeing and doing. He made a founda
tion for a science of education.
At the beginning of this century, when central
Europe was attending to his teaching, and influenced
by it, we in England were entirely pre-occupied with
Bell and his Madras system. This has kept us back more
than half a century. In 1815, or more probably 1816,
Bell visited Festal ozzi, but saw nothing in him or his
method.1 Parting from Ackermann, who had acted as
his interpreter, he said, "Now I understand the method
of your Pestalozzi. Believe me, sir, in twelve years
it will not be mentioned, while mine will be spread
over the whole world " (Pest.-Blatt., 1886, p. 55). In
1818, when Pestalozzi, returning to his own idea,
opened the school at Clendy, several Englishmen were
attracted to him, and were very enthusiastic. This gave
him great hopes of help from this country, and an
1 This visit was possibly occasioned by the account of an Irish
gentleman, Mr. Mills, who visited Yverdun for two hours, and
stayed three months in 1815. He wrote A Biographical Sketch
of the struggles of Pestalozzi to establish his System, by an Irish
traveller, Dublin, 1815 ; and A Sketch of Pestalozzi's Intuitive
System of Calculation, Dublin, 1815. He introduced the " Tables
of the Relations of Numbers" into Model Schools, Dublin, and so
influenced the teaching in Irish schools. The same tables were
introduced into this country by Sir J. K. Shuttleworth, under
the Council of Education later.
x x vi i i In troduction.
appeal was made by him in English.1 His influence
on England is said to have led to the establishment
of infant schools everywhere. Prof. Vulliemin says in
his Reminiscences : " As for infant schools, which now
exist everywhere, it was he who originated them, in a
manner I myself saw, and will now describe . . .
Clendy fell, but there was a man there who had taken
part in the short-lived enterprize, a man of Christian
spirit and enlightened understanding. This man, who
was an Englishman, by name Greaves, carried the
ideas he had gathered at Clendy back to England,
where they took root, and became the origin of infant
schools. From England these schools returned to us,
first to Geneva, then to Nyon, then everywhere. We
had not understood Pestalozzi, but when his methods
came back from England, though they had lost some
thing of their original spirit, their meaning and appli
cation were clear."
Mr. J. S. Reynolds and Dr. Mayo were also chief
movers here. " Some of his fondest expectations are
kindled by our infant schools," says Dr. Mayo.
" Pestalozzi was peculiarly solicitous that the idea of
his method of education should not be confounded with
the form it might assume. He felt strongly the value
of the idea, and highly disposed as he was to appreciate
the application of it by his disciples, he saw they were
at best imperfect, incomplete embodiments of his pro
found conception " (Dr. Mayo, Introduction to "Lessons
on Objects").
In 1831 came the first original and important work,
1 A copy of this Appeal is in the library of the Froebel
Society, London.
Introduction. xxix
An Account of PestalozzVs Life and Writings, by
Edward Biber, whose intemperate and abusive pamph
let against Pestalozzi, on behalf of and supported by
Niederer,1 satisfied none. Soon after its publication
Biber disappeared from Switzerland and came to this
country, first as a schoolmaster, then Vicar of Roe-
hampton till 1872. He was editor of John Bull from
1848 to 1856, but we hear no more of Pestalozzi from
him. He says, " It would be an endless task to recount,
and a hopeless one to refute, all the erroneous and
absurd notions which are afloat on the subject " (i.e.
Pestalozzi's principles and method). Some to gain
attention had modified the ideas they had to set
forth, so as to render them palatable to intended
readers ; and had so distorted the original. The regret
with which he had for several years past (he was at
Yverdun in 1826) witnessed these mistakes induced
him to translate How Gertrude Teaches her Little Ones,
but perceiving that in the confused state of public
opinion a mere translation could not clear up the matter,
he resolved to embody the most interesting and practi
cal parts in a larger work, which should give an authen
tic history of Pestalozzi's life, establishments, works,
and method. But he fell into the error he wished
to correct : like many others, he thought he knew far
better than Pestalozzi, so he paraphrased and polished
his expressions, but failed to reproduce his thought ; if
he did not in some cases wilfully misrepresent it, he
certainly often missed the main principles. He had
never been with Pestalozzi ; he was at Yverdun for a
1 A copy of this is in the British Museum : Beitrag zur Bio-
graphiz Heinrich Pestalozzi's, etc.
xxx Introduction.
year, but it was after Pestalozzi had gone. In Eng
land he has been credited with being an eye-witness,1
and he did not correct the mistake. At that time
nothing was known of his unenviable reputation in
connection with Pestalozzi's death. He was not the
missionary Pestalozzi would have sent us. His frag
ments have hitherto been the only portions of How
Gertrude Teaches open to those who do not read
German. They show clearly that he did not under
stand Pestalozzi, and that a literal and full translation
of that work was necessary. Biber's influence unfor
tunately has not yet passed away.
Later a truer conception of him arose. Parliament
in 1839 was discussing national education, and con
tinued to do so for over thirty years. About the
middle of the century a wave of social and political
disturbance — like that at its beginning, only less
violent — directed attention to education. Brougham
said in the House of Lords, 1839, " All parties confess
we are far less educated than the people of Central
Europe." Pestalozzi's influence there had evidently
been divined, for Sir Jas. Kay Shuttle worth, on
behalf of the Government, endeavoured to diffuse a
knowledge of his method among London teachers
without success. He introduced the " Tables of the
Relations of Numbers." From the same source origi
nated, I believe, a translation, in 1855, 'by J. Tilleard3
of Raumer's Life of Pestalozzi — an article in his
Geschichte der Padagogik. This was not likely to
1 "Biber, writing as an eye-witness, says" . . . Pestalozzi
and his Principles, p. 141. (Published by Home and Colonial
Society, 3rd Edn., 1873.)
Introduction. xxxi
promote his teaching ; it presents his weakest side
strongly, and in some ways entirely misrepresents him.
Later it produced more than could have been expected,
and fruit after its own kind also.
The translator of Karl von E/aumer's l work believes
it to be most accurate, unbiassed, and truthful ; others,
carried away by admiration, have too implicitly ac
cepted Pestalozzi's applications ; but Raumer's great
merit is that he shows how Pestalozzi's principles and
practice are diametrically opposed. — Who are these
"others"? — Then, Raumer himself says, contradiction
is especially characteristic of How Gertrude Teaches,
and begins on its title-page ; this work " contains
fundamental principles of the highest importance, side
by side with the most glaring blunders and absurd
ities." It is a difficult work ; he will analyse it. In it
are three elements — (1) " It is the desire of his (Pesta
lozzi's) whole life. (2) The second element is a fierce
fulminating battle against the sins and education of
his time. (3) The education he proposes." This divides
into practical skill, of which little is said, and theo
retical knowledge ; which is based on " observation.
What does Pestalozzi mean by observation ? Simply
directing the senses to outward objects, and exciting
consciousness of the impressions produced on them by
these objects." This is Raumer's view of Anschau-
ung. Pestalozzi never limits it to objects, nor to the
first simple stage ; he includes sound (p. 114). u But
just as we begin to think we understand Pestalozzi,"
1 Von Raumer was, I believe, the Minister of Education who
prohibited the Kindergarten in Prussia in 1851.
xxxii Introduction.
says Raumer, " he leads us again into uncertainty as
to the idea he attaches to observation." Then, of
course, he will follow Pestalozzi and learn his mean
ing ; not so ; Raumer goes no farther. Pestalozzi's
conception is not Raumer's, but his own. He asks him
self, when he examines the elements of his system,
What is the basis of Anschauung ? What are its ele
ments ? But this " deep psychology " is a thicket of
impenetrable thorns, and Raumer turns aside. He
brings, as others have done, limited preconceptions to
the study, and, instead of learning Pestalozzi's mean
ing, censures him for offering conceptions different
from his own. " Many men glanced at me, but found
little of themselves in me," are Pestalozzi's own words.
And Raumer sees not the first principles of this work
he so severely handles ; he puts his " simple " notion of
Anschauung for the masters, and all else he knows not.
», How Gertrude Teaches rests on development and
psychology. All Raumer says of the first is " Pesta
lozzi repeatedly dwells on intellectual development " ;
to him it is of no importance, while his psychology
shrinks away from the first difficulty. What prospect
is there of accurate, unbiassed judgment, if its funda
mental principles are not even recognised or known ?
Having himself shown that he cannot satisfactorily
deal with the principles, he proceeds to their applica
tion with the same result. It is in this work the con
tradictions, blunders, and absurdities exist ; they are
concentrated about Language. Raumer notices very
little else, so that on these errors in language-teaching
his whole strength is put forth ; these are the materials
on which he forms his estimate.
Introduction. xxxiii
The origin of language Pestalozzi connects with ex
pression, and that with impression and thought, and
all with development and psychology. His system is
a connected whole from his point of view. His Ian- ^7
guage-teaching consists of lessons in (1) sound ; (2)
words ; (3) language. Raumer selects the extreme
errors only, under each division, in support of his posi
tion, and says nothing on the other side. He does not
indicate how they arose, naturally, out of the thought
at that time. In his first attempts to apply the
principles he perceived Pestalozzi stumbles and errs ;
but he learned from his errors. He says at the outset
he must lead us through the labyrinth of confusions
he had himself to pass through to get light — that is
one purpose of the book. There is another great
omission. Nothing is said of Pestalozzi's own criticism
and revision. He had abandoned all these glaring
blunders and contradictions, — the essential portions of
Raumer's case against him, — long before Raumer wrote.
It is strange Raumer did not know this. This criti-
cism has had such pernicious influence here, and is
so often seriously quoted as if it were true, we will
sketch its main details.
(1) Sound. Raumer quotes what is said about
spelling sounds to the child in the cradle (pp. 90, 91),
but not the note on the same page. " These attempts
were abandoned, owing to deeper knowledge. They
were but vague aspirations towards methods of which
I was far from clear." (2) Words. Here Raumer
founds his objections on the Mother's Book. This,
Pestalozzi says, never existed ; it was abandoned for
the same reasons — " erroneous views I then held " (p.
xxxiv Introduction.
102). To " lists of names " there is reasonable objec
tion, but they are included in the above note. We
shall see under " Language " the value of his state
ment — "it is not even remotely hinted that the chil
dren ought to know the things named." (3) Language.
" Names, mere names," says E/aumer, and ignores all
Pestalozzi insists on again and again, e.g. " this purpose
. . . to express ourselves clearly about objects ".(p.
98). " I try in no way to lessen the free play of the
child's own thought." " I try to make the child, who
is in many ways acquainted with objects, still clearer
about them so far as they are known to him " (p. 101).
It is necessary to exercise thought as well as the
senses ; to appeal to memory and knowledge as well as
to the object. The specimen may be in the hand, and
yet ideas about it may be obscure. Pestalozzi is here
dealing with " means, to clear ideas." " Socratising "
is often better without objects. These " means " are
another scheme, but it is still founded on Anschauung.
He concludes Letter VII. with, " It must be understood
throughout the whole teaching, the result is attained
not by isolated exercises, but by connecting the whole
sequence, by which the mind rises from sense-impres
sion (observation) to clear ideas " (p. 132). In face
of this Baumer complains that of observation nothing
is said ; and he concludes — after referring to the teach
ing of geography, which had also been abandoned as
erroneous — by repeating, "Pestalozzi does not begin
with observation, but with words." From Haunter's
conception of Anschauung, sound seems excluded. He
often puts " words " for " sounds." It was the " sound "
teaching at Stanz which led Pestalozzi to sense-
Introduction. x x x v
impression. So the child and the race begin lan
guage. " Sound, however simple, if it expresses an
impression, is more than sound." The whole sequence
is connected, language and thought are inseparable ;
thought originates from impression, and so too does
language.
Raumer's criticism comes to nothing ; every item of
importance is already abandoned, and every application
might be withdrawn, and the principles of How Ger
trude Teaches will remain intact. He patched these
cast-off rags into a lifeless scarecrow ; at a crisis in
the history of education in this country, it frightened
our teachers away from Pestalozzi. What else could
it do ? To parade these rejected errors is not accurate.
Contradictions there may be, for his theory comes from
his practice, and his practice from his theory ; so there
is constant growth and change. Tke true system, like
true education, is drawn out of the teacher ; it is the
expression of himself, and grows and changes with
his growth.
In direct contrast to E/aumer appeared the most im
portant original work which this country has produced
in connection with Pestalozzi — Education, by Mr. Her
bert Spencer, 1861. By this time another Royal Com
mission had finished its work, and the discussion of
Education had extended and included higher teaching.
The old fundamental question, words or things, in the
modern form, classics or science, had become foremost.
The question of real as opposed to book knowledge,
which Pestalozzi had worked out half a century earlier,
reappeared in our midst ; and science, strengthened
by its recent and many victories, demanded recogni-
xxxvi Introduction.
tion. Among its distinguished champions was Mr.
Herbert Spencer. He had his own scheme, but he had
no doubt where help was to be found for teaching
science. " He would defend in its fullest extent the
doctrine which Pestalozzi inaugurated." Of which
Fichte also had said, " I find in this man's system of
education the true remedy for the ills of humanity, if
not the only 'means of fitting the mind for scientific
teaching." Philosopher, psychologist, biologist, the ex
ponent of evolution, Mr. Herbert Spencer was able to
see Pestalozzi from all these sides ; he had another
great advantage — experience, real not book know
ledge of Pestalozzi's method. The internal evidence
of this was lost on educators at that time. Prof. J.
Payne, in his first published lecture, The Curriculum of
Modern Education" 1866, says of Mr. H. Spencer's
work : " It is evolved, apparently, out of the depths of
his own consciousness, for he does not profess to have
any practical experience either as teacher or school
master." He did not see that if Mr. Spencer had not
taught others, he had learned to teach himself, and
self-education is a kind of practical experience which
includes the problems of teacher and pupil. That self-
education is " practicable," he says, " we can ourselves
testify, having been in youth thus led to solve the com
paratively complex problems of perspective." That
was Pestalozzi's, or rather Kriisi's method. "We know
now that his father, "W. Gr. Spencer, was a distin
guished teacher, possibly a disciple of Pestalozzi also,
for his Inventional Geometry stands alone, our most
Pestalozzian school-book : Huxley's Biology is similar.
Payne says nothing in this lecture of the Pestalozzian
Introduction. xxxvii
basis of Mr. Spencer's work — lie had hardly begun to
study Pestalozzi then; but he does say that at this time
— five years after its publication — " he had not a clear
idea how science should be taught. Mr. Spencer had."
It is not his primary business to expound Pestalozzi,
but he does so incidentally as none beside have done.
Unlike Raumer, he insists on principles — on the spirit,
not the form. Although he defends his whole doctrine,
much evil is likely to arise from uncritical application
of his method and from confounding form with spirit.
There is but little disproportionate criticism of tenta
tive and rejected experiments. There is some, for
he relies on Biber, and adopts his mistakes. How
Gertrude Teaches seems unknown to him, for he quotes^,
against Pestalozzi the usual passage from the Spell
ing Book, Biber 's version. If he had seen the work
itself he would have known it was abandoned. Biber,
like Eaumer, ignores the notes and revision. There
is another proof — he attributes to Comte, with some
doubt, the doctrine that the child's development follows
that of the race. — Comte's Positive Philosophy was pub
lished 1830. — If he had read this work of Pestalozzi's,
he must have seen the statement at pp. 149-151. Mr.
Spencer alone among our exponents perceives any
value in this doctrine. Other of his special principles
—purely psychological — as the "prototype," are not
mentioned. Biber wishes to save his readers the trouble
of thinking " they had no predilection for the transcen
dental," so Mr. Spencer is saved this incomprehensible
jargon or deep psychology; he could have shown its
relation and value. This has yet to be done; "every
thing depends on it," so Pestalozzi thought.
d
xxxviii Introduction.
. But Mr. Herbert Spencer adopts Biber's opinions of
-Pestalozzi as a thinker. He says, " As described even
by his admirers, Pestalozzi was a man of impartial in
tuitions — a man who had occasional flashes of insight,
rather than a man of S}Tstematic thought.
His admirers — who first said, " If ever he throws out
a spark that might lead us to think him capable of
something, the next moment it is dark," — were the
people of Stanz, who hated him as enemy and heretic.
He reports this (p. 21), and Biber polishes it into " His
genius was like the dark summer cloud, pregnant with
light, but incapable of emitting it except in sudden
flashes " (Biber's Life, p. 51). These are the admirers
Mr. Spencer supports. He continues, "Much of his
power was due not to calmly reasoned-out plans,"
but to profound sympathy and quick perceptions of
childish needs. Was nob this sympathy and power
due to knowledge gained from observation of the chil
dren and experiments in teaching ? — to his own first
principles, in fact ? He says it was, and at the same
time he anticipated Mr. Spencer's and Biber's next point
against him, which is, " He lacked the ability logically
to co-ordinate and develop the truths he thus from time
to time laid hold of ; and had in a great measure to
leave this to his assistants." Mr. Spencer has appar
ently the above passage of Biber still in view. It
praises Niederer, the bright and shining light, to whom
Pestalozzi is but a lamp glimmering in forest gloom.
In the Preface of this work Pestalozzi anticipates this.
Niederer's deductive, and his own inductive methods
are different ways to one end. His way, that of obser
vation and experiment — the only way possible to him
Introduction. xxxix
— is one way to truth : " by it lam what I am, and know
what I Jcnow " (p. 6). Is not this the secret of his sym
pathy and power ? Those who doubt his ability, but
cannot deny his sympathy, power, and insight, are
driven to attribute them to " inspiration." His own
reasonable and sufficient explanation is that they are
results of his first principle ; but this is rejected as in
credible. Of our exponents, none have such powers of
judging him from " many sides " ; that Mr. H. Spencer
sees him through the medium of Biber is unfortunate,
but even with this disadvantage none have pro
nounced more strongly for him and his system. " The
Pestalozzian ideal remains to be achieved," he says ;
and also u True education is possible only to a true
philosopher."
On science and its teaching, there was abundant
material awaiting the teacher who could correlate and
apply it. Besides Mr. Herbert Spencer, our greatest
scientific authorities — Faraday, Forbes, Huxley, Tyndal,
and others had contributed to the discussion largely —
there was also the evidence given by the Commission
on Public Schools. From the discussion, educationalists
evolved. Prof. Joseph Payne, " who had always been
fond of science," had been thinking of the question
for twenty years before his first lecture was pub
lished, in 1866, which deals with the claims of classics
and science. Liberal, enlightened, and learning all
his life, — at twenty- three he published his Expo
sition of Jacotot's Method ; — after years of practical
teaching, he retired in 1863, and devoted himself to
the study of its principles, just as this question is
foremost. His first search is for a method of science
xl Introduction.
teaching. He studies all scientific men have said. "It
is very valuable," he says, " but it left the real diffi
culties of teaching science untouched ; but I confess
I have not a clear idea of the manner in which science
should be taught, never having been enlightened on
that point" (p. 275, vol. i., Payne's Works).
Pestalozzi seems unknown to him. Four years
later, dealing with " Educational Methods," he is first
mentioned, s Payne is evidently studying him, and
Tilleard's translation of B,aumer is his text-book. He
had at this time no definite opinions of his own. He
quotes E-amsauer's account from Raumer, only making
a few comments on it, and accepts without ques
tion or surprise Raumer's estimate and decision.
But there was one word which arrested him. The
translator had used " observation " as an equivalent for
" Anschauung." Forbes had said, " The great defect
of our education is neglect of the educating of the
observing powers — a very different matter, be it noted,
from scientific or industrial instruction"] and all our
best authorities said the same thing. Payne knew
this well ; he quotes it, he is correlating the ideas of
scientific men on science teaching. His Essay on the
Culture of the Observing Powers of Children, 1872,
and his True Foundation of Science Teaching, 1873,
showed he had found what he wanted. He had
learned how science should be taught; and in 1875,
when he lectured on Pestalozzi, we at once see the
difference. He has opinions and knowledge of his
own ; now Pestalozzi " stands forth among educational
reformers as the man whose influence 011 education
is wider, deeper, more penetrating than that of all
In troduction. x 1 i
the rest — the prophet and the sovereign of the domain
in which he lived and laboured " (p. 98, vol. ii., Payne's
Works). x
But by the side of this enthusiastic recognition,
founded on his own knowledge of the Method — for
he now used it — he yet repeats Raumer's mistakes,
and is led by him into confusion. He mixes what
he knows with inferences from what he is told by
one who understands not, with this result: he attri
butes to Pestalozzi exactly the opposite of what he says
and means, and is surprised.
Here is one example. Pestalozzi applied his doctrines
of development and psychology to language — a diffi
cult subject. He may be right or wrong ; but before
we can understand or judge, we must get some idea,
however vague, of his meaning. We must at least try
to read his thought, not put ours in its place, and then
condemn him. He says, " Every word is evolved, as
ideas are, from sense-impression, or by observation.
* Man first observed the characteristics of objects, and
then named them.' In language is reflected all im
pressions man received from nature." To this Raumer
replies, " Language has nothing to do with observation.
Why should I not be able to form a perfectly correct
notion of an object that has no name — for instance, a
newly-discovered plant ? Language only gives us the
expression for the impression of the senses." 1 Here
1 Raumer continues : "In it is reflected the whole world of
our perceptions. It is, as Pestalozzi rightly observes, the reflex
of all the impressions which nature's entire domain has made on
the human race. But what does he go on to say ? Therefore
I make use of it, and endeavour by the guidance of its uttered
sounds to reproduce in the child the self-same impressions which,
xlii Introduction.
Raumer does not understand Pestalozzi. The whole
passage is given below for comparison. He changes
the thought entirely into his own, and puts it in place
of Pestalozzi's, and then easily convicts him of contra
diction and incapacity. Later in the same passage he
changes " sound " to " word, "and gets into deeper con
fusion. Then Payne follows him — " Raumer shows," he
says, " that Pestalozzi erred against his own principles.
. . . No doubt he is continually tending to put (words)
into the place of things. In one passage he says, 'Great
is the gift of language ; it gives the child in one
moment what nature required thousands of years to
give to man.' The only meaning of which is, that
if you give the words you give the knowledge. A
wonderful principle, certainly, to come from the pen
of one who maintains that observation — personal
exercise of the senses — is the true and essential basis
of knowledge " (Works of J. Payne, vol. ii., p. 106).
But it is still more wonderful that Payne did not
consult Pestalozzi himself. He insists from his first
in the human race, have occasioned and formed these sounds.
Great is the gift of language. It gives in one moment what
nature required thousands of years to give to men.
In that case every child will be a rich heir of antiquity
without the trouble of acquisition. Words (Pestalozzi says
sounds), would be current notes for the things they designate.
But both Nature and History protest against payment of such
currency, and give only to him that hath.
Pestalozzi's further treatment of language clearly proves that,
contrary to his own principles, he really ascribed a magical
power to words, that he put them more or less in the place of
observation, that lie made the reflected image of a thing equal
to the thing itself" (Raumer's Life, translated by J. Tilleard,
p. 30). Compare pp. Ill, 112; also pp. 149-151, How Gertrude
Teaches.
Introduction. xliii
lecture on the difference between knowing a thing and
knowing something about it, between knowledge and
information.
" If you want to know a thing, go to it and learn,"
he says ; and yet he goes to Raumer, not to Pestalozzi,
and that, too, after he has by his own experience
and knowledge come to a clearer, more accurate con
ception of him than Raumer's book about him presents.
From one imperfect medium to another Pestalozzi's
ideas are transmitted, until they are distorted beyond
recognition or are quite reversed. In the whole his
tory of his teaching here, now extending over nearly
a century — while his doctrine of real knowledge
is preached, and readers are advised to go to his
works — no one goes. There is not one, so far as I see,
even of our best expositors, who have read, in Herbart's
sense, How Gertrude Teaches, his greatest educational
work, or The Method.
Pestalozzi himself, as a whole, is unknown. By his
own work he should be judged, not by the street gossip
of Stanz, however much improved ; nor by authority
and opinion which led even Payne to conclude that he
was " incapable of controlling his conceptions." His
powers and his thought may not be extraordinary, but
let us see him as he is. He is obscured by all kinds of
obstructions. Those who might know him, who read
his own language, avoid fairly facing his thought.
We have shut our eyes to it so long that now we
maintain it does not exist. Petty details, unimportant
by-matters, and tentative experiments which he had
abandoned, are overloaded with criticism and com
ment, while fundamental principles on which he says
xliv Introduction.
" everything depends," such as the " prototype," first
form, or "pure intuition," are passed by literally with
out a word. This is wonderful. We have not learned
that first lesson of Sfcanz — the value of real knowledge
as opposed to book-knowledge and hearsay.
Payne relies on Eaumer, an eyewitness, Minister of
Instruction, author of a History of Education. If he is
not to be relied on, who is ? Payne follows wonder
ing; he never suspects his leader. Eaumer is not
surprised ; for Pestalozzi often contradicts himself.
But time has its revenges, Eaumer dismisses de
velopment with one sentence. Fifty years before
Darwin, Pestalozzi applied the doctriDe of develop
ment to language. Eaumer's inability to comprehend
it led to misrepresentation, which has been freely
transmitted to us ; and yet just as Pestalozzi's
doctrine of development is supported by Darwin,,
his application of it to language is stated again
in almost his own words, and supported by the pro
found knowledge of Professor Max Mtiller. He was
a psychologist, and that alone to common-sense people
was enough proof that he was impracticable. We
are all psychologists now ; but his psychology is as
incomprehensible to us as it was to Eaumer. We
have not penetrated the mist of his confused thought,
and yet if Fichte and Herbart are to be trusted, the
mist and confusion are in us, not in the psychology of
Kant as conceived and modified by him.
It is natural to ask, Is this the kind of evidence and
authority on which the ignorance and incapacity of
Pestalcrzzi rest? Other misrepresentations can be
traced back, till they become inverted. We want
Introduction. xlv
just judgment. Let us have all evidence the Raumers
and Ramsauers can give, but why exclude Pesta-
lozzi himself? In working out his scheme contra
dictions necessarily appear. But if he was so ignorant,
how did he improve his Professor's Greek translation
of Demosthenes ? Is it possible that he can forget his
studies at the university, and those also for Church
and Law? It is strange he can not only write
Leonard and Gertrude, but revise his reviser. Stranger
still, that Fichte and Herbart did not discover his
ignorance. They study and follow him. Of this
work How Gertrude Teaches, Herbart says it is not
easy enough to read. — Herbart's own books are not
light reading ; he has read and understood this, he
says nothing of the absence of logical ability to co
ordinate and develop truths, nor the want of systematic
thought, but the reverse.1 — Impractical he was, beside
being a psychologist. He gave his silver shoebuckles
to a beggar when his pocket was empty ; but when
searching into the nature of teaching, he is practical
and even scientific. It will be objected that he is
always going wrong. But what science was ever
gained without thousands of faulty and fruitless ex
periments? The real worker knows this, especially if
his method is by observation and experiment.
He is honest and open ; we see his work in the rough
1 Herbart says, " It was the discovery of this sequence, of the
arrangement and co-ordination of what was to be learned con
temporaneously and what consecutively, which formed, as I
understood it, Pestalozzi's chief aim. Granted he had found it,
or at least was on the road to it. ... There was no deviation
from the true course." (Quoted in Introduction to Herbart's
Science of Education, H. M. and E. Flelkin, pp. 11, 12.)
xlvi Introduction.
state, the vague thought growing clear. If we are
accustomed to observe the course of thought, and have
travelled this same road, we shall need no directions
to follow him. Authors usually hide their errors and
ignorance ; we see only their knowledge, not the
materials nor the mental action by which they form
it ; we may see the finished statue, but are not allowed
into the studio. He reveals all, and for some that is
too much.
Another proof of his lack of practical ability con
stantly urged is Yverdun, but compare it with Stanz.
There the facts are simple, no one disputes them ; this
cannot be said of Yverdun. By his own power alone,
absolutely without means or materials, under the
most difficult circumstances, with most troublesome
children, out of chaos, in a few weeks he evolved
order. " If ever there was a miracle, it was here."
This success was repeated wherever he alone had free
play. We want more equally balanced accounts of
him i we may get nearer than any eye-witness, but we
rely on one who rests on another. "We prefer to read
the book about him rather than his own thought in
this book, which is " not easy enough to read."
In his " Essays on Educational Reformers," the Rev.
R. H. Quick, one of the many friends and fellow- workers
with Payne, takes us into other regions, and gives
later views. Pestalozzi, he says, " proved great both
as thinker and doer. He not only thought out what
should be done, but made splendid efforts to do it."
Payne's estimate rests partly on his own knowledge.
He verified by experiment ; his sympathy is with
science. Quick verifies his quotations ; his sympathy
Introduction. xlvii
is literary rather than scientific. With less know
ledge of the fundamental principle than Payne, he
is not led so far astray, for he has a better guide.
His estimate and criticism are, as a whole, more
equal. He sought carefully and long to answer a
question which, shortly before the second edition of
his " Essays " appeared, he proposed for discussion at
the Education Society, " Why is Pestalozzi so highly
esteemed on the Continent and so little valued here ? "
He never quite answered this to his own satisfaction,
although he acquiesced in the decision. Pestalozzi is
many sided. The well-defined stages in his develop
ment have each representatives and corresponding
expression in his works. The Method and Letter 1 of
How Gertrude Teaches contain his account of An-
schauung, and of this first stage Payne is represen
tative. Thought follows observation, he analyzes the
first principle into its elements ; this results in " means
of making ideas clear." How Gertrude Teaches is
chiefly concerned with this second phase : with it Quick
is more directly associated. " The art of teaching in
Pestalozzi's system consists in analyzing the knowledge
the children should acquire about their surroundings,
arranging it in a regular sequence, and bringing it to
the child's consciousness gradually, . and in a way in
which their minds will act upon it." But generally
he too rests on another, Roger de Guimps, whose Life
of Pestalozzi, recently published, is the best we have,
De Guimps' criticism and conclusions are of a kind
quite different from that of Raumer and Biber. For
the first time we have copies of original documents,
not coloured and partial hearsay. We have the
xlviii Introduction.
materials to form our own opinions. There is, too, a
rational principle for educational basis.
Quick's essay is very appreciative, but his treatment
of fundamental principles — like that of Anschauung,
— is characteristic. " We English," he says, " have
troubled ourselves so little about Pestalozzi, or rather
about the theory of education, we have not cared to
get equivalent words for Anschauung. l Intuition,'
which some borrow from the French, was taken (first,
I believe, by Kant) from the Latin ; " — but intuition
is used by South and Dryden. This one reference to
Kant indicates association, but it does not occur to
him that Kant uses it to express a new conception.
No; he thinks we shall be wise in following those
writers who borrow from the French. " If the Ger
mans find the French can express their own thoughts
more clearly than they can themselves, we may think
ourselves fortunate that we have French interpreters."
" I therefore gladly turn to M. Buisson, and translate
what he says about intuition " (p. 361, E.R.). Then he
goes to Jullien. Again our guides turn aside and go
not to Pestalozzi himself, from whom alone we can
learn, not even to his contemporaries and allies in
thought. " No Englishman," Quick says, " may have
found a good word to indicate Anschauung, but one
Englishman at least had the idea of it long before
Pestalozzi — Locke." " Thus in theory Pestalozzi was,
however unconsciously, a follower of Locke." Quick
had not read the principles on which this scheme rests,
pp. 84, 85. What is there in Locke of " the prototype on
which all depends " ? Of " the form in which the culture
of mankind is determined " ? or " every word is a result
Introduction. xlix
of the understanding evolved from ripened sensuous
impressions " ?
The difficulty is not in the word, but in the
thought. Pestalozzi's conception will not be found in
the dictionary ; we may seek it in vain in Buisson
and Jullien. His psychology is not that of Locke.
Fichte, the most competent authority, says that even
in Leonard and Gertrude, which was published the
same year as the Critique of Pure Reason, "Pesta-
lozzi had been led to many of the same results as
Kant. Kant analyzed experience ; Pestalozzi, in this
work, seeks the elements of Anschauung, the basis
of all education. When his ideas become clear about
it, when he has found its elements, other difficult
terms are used, of which this is the parent, such as
"form" and "prototype" (Urform), which might be
translated "pure form," or "pure intuition," and this,
again, is Kant's term. These terms, the nature of the
inquiry, its psychological basis, his intimacy with
Fichte, all indicate the direction in which we might
search, if we go beyond Pestalozzi himself.
His deep psychology has been the source of much
error. Biber, our authority, not Pestalozzi, following
the fashion of his time, ridicules Kant's philosophy.
He represents these principles of Pestalozzi as " incom
prehensible jargon ; " but when we remember that it
was against this same Biber's misrepresentations that
Pestalozzi died protesting — to answer them he longed
for a few more weeks of life — to this attack on him
we may owe Biber's refuge here — we may be allowed
to think for ourselves, and if we know nothing of these
depths, we may at least weigh against Biber the testi-
1 Introduction.
mony of Fichte and Herbart. Pestalozzi believes that
this deep psychology connects his whole scheme, and
it is only fair we should see it from his position. If
we do not agree with him then, we shall talk less of
disconnected thought and incapacity. Let us at least
follow Pestalozzi, not Biber. The " deep " psychology
may be put aside, and much of his work remains. Mr.
H. Spencer, who is of another school of thought, never
recognises it, and yet defends the system to its fullest
extent. Neither Quick nor De Guimps mention it. How
far it is essential, what imperfection there may be on
his part, how far it differs from Kant, Fichte and
Herbart, its relation to his system and teaching,
authority greater than Biber must determine. Unfortu
nately, he is the man who obscures the view of Mr.
Herbert Spencer, who might have done him justice.
Another doctrine of Pestalozzi Quick dismisses very
curtly the parallel development of child and race. He
does not even attribute it to Pestalozzi, but to Mr.
Herbert Spencer, and his only comment on it is, " This
is the thesis on which I have no opinion to offer."
We see that our ablest exponents of Pestalozzi do
not study him directly ; they are each supported by an
attendant spirit, who in turn is supported by them.
Mr. Herbert Spencer has Biber, Payne relies on R,au-
mer, and Quick has De Guimps. When Mr. Herbert
Spencer says Pestalozzi was a man who had occasional
flashes of insight rather than a man of systematic
thought, and that he lacked logical ability to develop
his thought, he is following Biber. We cannot accept
this as his own final judgment on the subject, for he had
evidently not the facts before him. When Payne says,
" If he means anything," implying that Pestalozzi^
Introduction. li
even when most definitely stating his principles, uses
words that mean nothing, he is following Raumer.
Payne's own teaching is often nearer Pestalozzi's than
the erroneous teaching he attributes to him. He has
not the facts, either. Quick has a more genial and truer
guide, and this is reflected in his work. De Guimps
is free from the grave defects of Raumer and Biber.
The authority of Mr. H. Spencer and Payne is
strengthened by their undoubted knowledge. This
gives weight to the information and opinions they trans
mit ; but those who rely on them, and repeat truth and
error without real knowledge, confuse, degrade and
sometimes reverse the words, thought and teaching
of Pestalozzi. His influence and power are destroyed
by unduly insisting on what he calls his " tentative
and erring means," and his incapacity. Common-
sense people will have nothing to do with him. In
vain did Raumer's book appeal to London teachers.
" Separate my doubtful statements from those that
are indisputable," he said, but he never expected the
doubtful statements would be collected and selected,
while the indisputable were excluded or neglected.
It seems clear, that it is most difficult for the best of
us to follow always that simple principle of observation,
or sense-impression which we hold so easy. We say
we have learned all he had to teach, and are far be
yond him; we have not begun our A B C of An-
schauung ; even those of us who know it and hold to it
most firmly are liable to fall. Personal observation, per
sonal thought, and the expression of our own ideas, are
still chiefly matters of theory. We have not learned
enough of his first principles to apply them to himself.
Truly, u the ideal of Pestalozzi remains to be achieved."
ota (Serimbje Crn^ea §er Cjjiforwr,
PREFACE.1
IF these letters may be considered in some respects, as already
answered and partly refuted, by time, and thus appear to
belong to the past rather than to the present, yet if my idea
of elementary education has any value in itself and is fitted
to survive in the future, then these letters, so far as they
throw light on the way in which the germ of the idea was
developed in me, may have a living value for every man who
considers the psychological development of educational
methods worthy of his attention. Besides this general view
of the matter, it is certainly remarkable that this idea, in the
midst of the simplicity and artlessness of my nature and life,
came forth from the darkness within me as from the night.
In its first germ it burnt within me like a fire that showed a
power of seizing on the human mind ; but afterwards, when
men looked upon it and spoke of it as a matter of reason in
its deeper meaning, it did not maintain its first vitality,
and even seemed for a time, to be quenched. Even in this
early stage Ith, Johannsen, Niederer,2 and others gave a
significance to my own expression of my views, which went
far beyond that which I gave them myself, but which there
fore stimulated public attention in a way that could not be
sustained. Gruner, von Turk, and Chavannes 3 about the same
time took up the actual results of our experiments in just
as marked a way, and brought them before the public in a
B
2 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
manner which went far beyond my original view of the sub
ject and the power that lay at the basis of my efforts. It
is true there lay deep in my soul's consciousness a prevision
of the highest that might and should be aimed at, through a
deeper insight into the very nature of education ; and it is
indisputable that the idea of elementary education was im
plied in the view I took in its full significance, and shimmered
forth in every word that I spoke. -^But the impulse within
, me to seek and find for the people simple methods of instruc
tion, intelligible to every one, did not originate in the pre
vision that lay in me of the highest that could come from
the results of these methods when found ; but on the con
trary this prevision resulted from the reality of the impulse
that led me to seek these methods. This soon led me natu
rally and simply to see that intelligible methods of instruc
tion must, as a general principle, start from simple beginning
Vpoints ; and that if they are carried on in a continuous gradu
ated series the results must be psychologically certain. But
this view of mine was far from being philosophically and
clearly defined and scientifically connected. As I was unable
by abstract deductions to arrive at a satisfactory result, I
wanted to prove my views practically, and tried originally by
experiments to make clear to myself what I really wished
and was capable of doing, in order by this path to find the
means of accomplishing my purpose. All that I strove for
then, and strive for now, is closely connected in my mind
with that which twenty years before I had tried on my
estate.
But the higher significance that was given to my views, so
.loudly, so variously, and I must say, so carelessly and hastily,
gave a direction to the form and method of carrying them
out in my Institute, that was not really the outcome of my
own soul, nor that of the people round me, nor that of my
helpers, and I was in this way, led away from myself, into
Preface. 3
a region strange to me, which I never trod before. Cer
tainly this visionary world, into which we fell as from the
clouds, was .not only quite new ground to me, but with my
eccentricity, with my want of scientific culture, in the singu
larity of my whole being, as well as my age at that time, — in
these things there were reasons why I could scarcely expect
even a half-lucky star to shine upon this course. Insur
mountable difficulties seemed to obstruct the hope of being
able to advance in this region to happy results. These lay
in the peculiarities of my assistants, who, though they were
in part quite helpless themselves, should have stretched out
helping hands to me in my efforts on this new ground.
Meanwhile a lively impulse to tread this region was roused
in our midst. But the cry " We can do it " before we could,
" We are doing it " before we did it, was too loud, too dis
tinct, too often repeated, partly by men whose testimony had
a real value in itself, and deserved attention. But it had too
much charm for us ; we made more of it than it really said
or meant. Briefly, the time as it was, dazzled us ; yet we
still worked activel}^ in order practically to approach our
end. We succeeded in many respects in the way of bring
ing a few beginning subjects of instruction into better order
and to a better psychological foundation ; and our efforts on
this side might have had really important results ; but the
practical activity, which alone could secure the success of our
purpose, was gradually lost in our midst in a lamentable
manner. Matters strange and far removed from our duty
soon absorbed our time and powers, and gave a mortal blow
to the simplicity, the progress, the concentration, and even
the humanity of our original efforts. Great ideas for improv
ing the world, which arose out of elevated views of our
subject, and which soon became exaggerated, filled our
heads, confused our hearts, and made our hands careless of
the needs of the Institute that lay before our eyes. In this
4 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
state of things the loss of the lofty spirit of our first union
was inevitable ; our old love could be the same no more.
We saw more or less all the evils under which we suffered,
but no one sought for them enough and saw them where he
ought, — in himself. Every one blamed the other more or
less ; every one required of the other what he himself
neither did, nor could do ; and our greatest misfortune in
this condition was that our very efforts, special and one
sided, led us to seek help against the evils of our house in
deep philosophical researches. We were, in general, unfit
to find in this way what we sought. Niederer alone felt his
own strength in this region in which we now ventured, and
since in this power he had for many years stood alone in our
midst, he gained such an overwhelming influence, not only
over those around me, but also over me, that I actually lost
myself in myself; and against my nature, and against all
possibility of success, I tried to make myself and my house
that which we ought to have been, in order to make any
progress in this region. This preponderance that Niederer
gained in our midst, and the views he laid down on this
subject, so caught hold of me and led me on to such a
resigned subjection and complete sacrifice and forgetfulness
of myself, that I, as I know myself, can and must now say
clearly, it is quite certain if he had been with us when I
wrote these letters, I should have considered their whole
contents, and consequently the idea of elementary education
as it then lay before me, like a vision glimmering in the
clouds, as coming from him and carried from his soul into
mine. In order to believe this statement and look upon it
as naturally and innocently as it conies from me you must
really know me more ; you must distinctly know how I am,
on the one side, animated by the conviction of how much I
was and still am wanting in clear, philosophical, definite
ideas on this subject ; and on the other side, the degree of my
Preface. 5
trust in the lofty views of my friend, and the weight which
he would necessarily have upon those ideas lying dim within
me, vague and limited. That Herr Niederer was not with
us when I wrote these letters, is the only circumstance that
makes it possible for me to see clearly what was Herr
Niederer 's service in our efforts in elementary instruction,
and what I may consider as coming from myself. I know
how little this is, and how much and what it still requires
if it is not to be a mere nothing, or at least if something is
to come out of it. In the last respect my reward is greater
than my merit. In any case it is quite clear to me that
the deductive view of our efforts, advancing in front of
the practical performance, far surpassing it, and leaving it
behind, was Herr Niederer's view ; and that my view of the
subject came out of a personal striving after methods, the
execution of which forced me actively and experimentally to
seek, to gain, and to work out what was not there and what
as 3Tet I really knew not. These two efforts opened the ways
on which each of us must go to reach the common end, and
for which each of us felt in himself a special power. But
we did not do this, and hindered one another, because we
forced ourselves long, too long, to go with him hand in hand,
I might say in the same shoes, and at the same pace with
him. Our end was the same, but the road, which We should
take to get to it, was marked out for each of us differently by
Nature, and we ought to have recognised sooner, that each of
us would reach his end with more ease and certainty, if he
would step and go along it in perfect freedom and indepen
dence. We were too different. The crumb lying on the
road arrested me if I thought it would afford the least bit of
nourishment to my effort and further it. I must pick it up.
I must stop at it and examine it, and before I know it enough
in this way I cannot possibly consider it critically and look
upon it as instructive for me, in universal connection and
6 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
combination with all the relations, which as a single thing, it
bears to our efforts. My whole manner of life has given me
no power, and no inclination, to strive hastily after bright
and clear ideas on any subject, before, supported by facts,
it has a background in me that has awakened some self-
confidence. Therefore to my grave I shall remain in a
kind of fog about most of my views. But I must say, if
this fog has a background of various and sufficiently vivid
sense-impressions, it is a holy fog for me. It is the only
light in which I live, or can live. And in this peculiar
twilight of mine I go on towards my goal in peace and con
tent so long as I go in -peace and freedom, and at the point
I have reached, in striving after my ideal, I stand firm to my
conviction, that while I have done very little in my life to
reach ideas that can be defined with philosophical certainty
by words, yet in my own way I have found a few means to
my end, which I should not have found by such philosophical
inquiries after clear ideas of my subject, as I was capable
of making. Therefore I do not entirely regret my back
wardness. I ought not. I ought to pursue my way of experi
ments, which is the way of my life, willingly and gladly,
without desiring the fruit of a tree of knowledge that for
me and for the idiosyncrasy of my nature, is forbidden fruit.
If I pursue the road of my experiments, however limited,
honestly, faithfully, and energetically, I think by doing so I
am what I am, and know what I know, and my life and action,
though imperfect, is not merely a blind groping after experi
ments not really understood — I hope it is more. I hope in my
way to make some few points of my subject philosophically
clear, that could not so easily be made equally clear in any
other way. The idiosyncrasies of individuals are, in my
opinion, the greatest blessing of human nature, and the one
basis of its highest and most essential blessing^ ; therefore they
should be respected in the highest degree. v They cannot be
Preface. 7
where we do not see them, and we do not see them when every
thing stands in the way of their showing themselves, and every
selfishness strives to make its own peculiarity rule, and to
make the peculiarities of others subservient to its own. If we
would respect them it is necessary that we should not sunder
that which God hath joined together, and also that we should
not join together that which God hath put asunder. Every
artificial and forced joining together of heterogeneous things
has according to its nature, the result of checking individual
powers and qualities; and such unsuitably joined, and there
fore checked and confused, individual powers and qualities
express themselves then in every case as unnatural, forcibly
brought forward, and work upon the whole mass, in whose
interest they were thus brought together, in a destructive,
confusing, and distorting manner. I know what I am not,
and therefore may honestly say I would not be more than
I am. But in order to use the powers that may fall into my
hands as I am, I must use my powers freely and indepen
dently, however little they may be, that the words " To
him that hath, shall be given," may be true for me, and the
others, "He that hath not, from him shall be taken away
even that which he hath," may not be too depressingly ful
filled in me.
As I now look in this way upon the value that this book
may have for me and the . world, I must let it appear
exactly in the shape in which it had the courage to step
forward twenty years ago. Meantime I have given the
necessary account of our pedagogic progress in educational
practice and methods, since then, in some of my new works-.
I will go on doing this, and especially in the fifth* part of
* The fifth part of Leonard and Gertrude never appeared, for
the manuscript was lost with other works left behind by Pesta-
lozzi, when it was sent to Paris to Josef Schmid, in the beginning of
1840, to be published.
8 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
Leonard and Gertrude I will throw more light on this point
than I have yet been able to do. But whatever historical
and personal concerns I touched upon in these letters, I shall
now enter on no more. I cannot well do so. I smile over
much and look on it with quite different eyes than I did
when I wrote it. But over much I would rather weep than
smile. But I do not this either. Now I can speak neither
weeping nor smiling. My conscience tells me the hour of my
silence is not yet past; the wheel of my fate also is not
yet turned. Smiling and weeping would alike be premature,
if not with locked doors, harmful. Many of the subjects and
views touched upon in this book may perhaps soon be
changed. Perhaps I shall soon smile over much whereat
now I should weep ; and perhaps I shall shortly think very
earnestly about things which I now pass with a smile. In
this state I have left the book almost unaltered. Time will
explain the contrast between what is said there and my
present opinions about the things said, and will also explain
those which appear incomprehensible and inexplicable, if it
is necessary. I hardly think it will be. But if it is neces
sary beyond my grave, may it be in mild, not glaring
colours.
PESTALOZZL
YVERDUN, June 1st, 1820.
BURGDORF,
New Year's Day, 1801.
MY DEAR GESSNER*—
You say it is time that I published my ideas on the
instruction of the people.
Now I will do it ; and as Lavater 5 gave his views on
Eternity to Zimmermann in a series of letters, so will I give
you my views, or rather, make them as clear to you as I
possibly can.
I saw popular instruction like a bottomless swamp before
my eyes; and waded round and round, with difficulty, in its
mire, until at last I learned to know the sources of its waters,
the causes of its obstructions, and the places from which
there might be a possibility of diverting its foul waters.
I wil] now lead you about for a while in this maze of
error, out of which I extricated myself, after a long time, more
by accident than by sense and skill.
Ah ! long enough ! ever since my youth, has my heart
moved on like a mighty stream, alone and lonely, towards my
one sole end — to stop the sources of the misery in which I
saw the people around me sunk.
It is more than thirty years since I put my hand to this
work, which I am now doing. " Iselin's Ephemerides " 6 bear
witness that my dreams and wishes, which I was then trying
to work out, are not less comprehensive now than they were
then.
But I was young ; I knew neither the needs of my
io How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
scheme, nor the attention that its preparation required, nor
the skill that its realization called for and presupposed. My
ideal scheme included work in the fields, the factory, and the
workshop. I had a deep but vague feeling of the value of
all three departments; I looked upon them as safe clear paths
towards the realization of my plan ; and verily, I have come
back after all the experiences of my life to nearly my early
views on the essential foundations of my plan. Yet my
confidence in their essential truth, founded upon the apparent
certainty of my instinct was my ruin.
The truths of my opinions were truths in the air ; and my
confidence in my instinct, in the foundations of my work,
was the confidence of a sleeper in the reality of hia dream.
I was in all three departments, in which my experiments
should have been made, an inexperienced child. I wanted
facility in details, that careful, persevering and accustomed
handling from which the blessed result, towards which I
strove, alone could come. The consequence of this positive
unfitness for my task was soon felt. The pecuniary means
to my end went quickly off in smoke, all the sooner because
I neglected to furnish myself in the beginning with a satis
factory staff of assistants in my task. When I began to
feel keenly the need of such persons as could properly supply
that in which I was wanting, I had already lost the money
and credit which would have made the organization of this
staff possible to me. Such a confusion in my circumstances
soon arose that the wreck of my scheme was inevitable.
My ruin was complete ; and the fight against fate was
the fight of underlying weakness against an enemy of ever-
increasing strength. Struggles against disaster led to
nothing. Meanwhile I had learnt in the immeasurable
struggle immeasurable truth, and had gained immeasurable
experience ; and my conviction of the truth of the principles
of my views and efforts was never greater than at the
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 1 1
moment when they were, to the outward eye, entirely de
stroyed. My heart still moved on unshaken towards the
same object, and I now found myself in misery, in a condition,
in which I perceived on the one hand the essential needs
of my work, and on the other the ways and means by which
the surrounding world of all sorts and conditions, really
thinks and acts about the object of my endeavours. So that
I perceived and comprehended the truth of these opinions,
as I never should have done in an apparently happy issue
from my premature attempts. I say it now, with inward
exaltation and gratitude towards an over-ruling Providence,
that even in my misery I learned to know the misery of
the people and its causes deeper and deeper, and as no
happier man knows them.7 I suffered as the people suffered ;
and the people showed themselves to me as they were, and
as they showed themselves to no one else. I sat long years
among them, like an owl among birds. But in the midst of
the scornful laughter, in the midst of the loudest taunts of
the men who rejected me — u You poor wretch, you are less
able than the meanest day labourer to help yourself, and do
you fancy you can help the people ? " — In the midst of these
jeering taunts, which I read on all lips, the mighty stream
of my heart ceased not, alone and lonely, to struggle towards
the purpose of my life — to stop the springs of the misery in
which I saw the people around me sunk. In one way my
strength became ever greater. My misfortunes taught me
always more and more truth for my purpose. That which
deluded no one else deluded me ; but that which deluded
every one else deluded me no more.
I knew the people as no one about me knew them. Their
pleasure in the prospect of profit from the newly-introduced
cotton manufacture ; their increasing wealth, their bright
ened houses, their abundant harvest, even the " Socratizing "
of some of their teachers, and the reading circles among the
12 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
uiider-bailiffs' sons and the barbers, deceived me not. I
saw their misery ; but I lost myself in the vast prospect of
its scattered and isolated sources ; and while my insight into
their real condition became ever more wide, I did not move
a step forward in the practical power of remedying the
evil. Even the book that my sense of this condition forced
from me, even " Leonard and Gertrude " 8 was a proof of this
my inner helplessness. I stood there among my contempo
raries, like a stone that tells of life, and is dead. Many
men glanced at it, but understood as little of me and my
aims, as I understood the details of skilled labour and know
ledge that were necessary to accomplish them.
( I was careless of myself, and lost myself in the whirl of
{ powerful impulses towards outward operations of which I
had not worked out the foundations deeply enough.
Had I done this, to what an inner height should I have
been able to raise myself for my purpose, and how soon
should I have reached my end ! This I never found because
I was unworthy, for I only sought it from without, and
allowed my love of truth and justice to become a passion
which tossed me about like an uprooted reed upon the waves
of life. I myself, day by day, hindered my torn-up roots
from fastening again into firm ground and finding that
nourishment which they so essentially needed for my end.
Vain was the hope that another might rescue this uprooted
reed from the waves, and set it in the earth in which I had
delayed to plant it.
Dear friend ! Whoever has a drop of my blood in him
now knows how low I had to sink; and you, my G-essner,
before you read further, dedicate a tear to my fall.
Deep dissatisfaction devoured me now ; things eternally
true and right seemed to me, in my condition mere castles
in the air. I clung with obstinacy to words and phrases
which had lost within me their basis of eternal truth. So
Hoiv Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 13
I sank day by day more towards the worship of common
places and the trumpet blare of quacks, with which this
modern age pretends to help the human race.
Yet, it was not that I did not feel this sinking, and
struggle against it. For three years I wrote, with incredible
fatigue, my " Inquiries into the Course of Nature in the
Development of Mankind," 9 particularly with the view of
agreeing with myself as to the progress of my pet ideas,
and of bringing my innate feelings into harmony with my
conceptions of civil rights and of morality. But this work,
too, is to me only an evidence of my inner helplessness, a
mere play of my power of questioning, one-sided, without
proportionate skill against myself, and void of sufficient
effort towards that practical power which was so necessary
for my purpose. The disproportion between my practice andj
my theories only increased ; and that deficiency in myself,
which I was bound to supply for the accomplishment of
my purpose, became greater, and I less able to supply it.
Besides, I did not reap more than I sowed. The effect of
my book was like the effect of all my doings on those around
me ; nobody understood it. I did not find two men who did
not half give me to understand that they looked upon the
whole book as a " gallimaufry." 10 And only lately, a man
of importance, who rather likes me, said with " Swiss "
familiarity : " But really, Pestalozzi, do you not feel yourself,
that when you wrote that book, you did not exactly know
what you wanted?" Yes, that was my fate, to be mis-)
understood and to suffer injustice. I ought to have been
used to it, but I was not. I met my misfortune with inward
scorn and contempt of mankind, and thereby injured my
cause at those inmost foundations, which it should have had
in me. I did it more harm than all those by whom I was ^ ,
misunderstood and despised could have done it. Yet I
swerved not from my purpose ; but it was now sensibly
14 How Gertmde Teaches Her Children.
atrophied, and lived on in an unsettled imagination and a
disordered heart. I became more and more confirmed in
the wish to nourish the sacred plant of human happiness on
unconsecrated ground.
Glessner ! In my " Inquiries " I lately defined the claims
of all civil rights as mere claims of my animal nature, and,
in so far as they are a real hindrance to the only thing
that has any worth for human nature, looked upon them as
hindrances to moral purity. But I now lowered myself,
under the provocation of external force and internal passion,
to expect a good issue from the tinkling cymbals of civil
truth, to expect ideas of right from the men of my time,
who, with few exceptions, live only to make themselves
comfortable and hanker after well-spread tables.
I was grey haired, yet still a child, but a child deeply dis
turbed within myself. Still in all this stormy time I moved
on towards the purpose of my life ; but my way was more
one-sided and erring than ever. I now sought a way to my
end generally in the discovery of all the old sources of public
ills ; in passionate statements of civil rights and their foun
dations ; in the employment of the spirit of violence, that
had risen up in revolt against the individual suffering of the
people. But the purer doctrine of my early days was only
noise and words to the men around me : — how much more
must my present view of things be foolishness to them !
As usual, they steeped this kind of truth also in the mire,
remained as they were, and behaved towards me as I ought
to have expected, but did not expect, because I hovered
in the air in the dream of my wishes, and no selfishness
opened my eyes to the men about me. I was deceived, not
only in every knave, but in every fool. I trusted every one
who came and spoke fair words. Yet I knew the people,
perhaps as no one else knew them and their bewilderment
and degradation. But I cared for nothing but damming up
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 15
these springs and stopping their mischief ; and Helvetia's new
men (novl homines}, who did not want so little, and who knew
not the people, of course found that I was not made for them.
These men, who in their new place, like shipwrecked women,
took every straw for a mast, by which the republic might be
carried to a safe shore, despised me as a straw at which no
cat would clutch. They knew it not and intended it not,
but they did me good, more good than ever men had done me.
They restored me to myself and left me (silently wondering
at the sudden transformation of their ship's repair into ship
wreck) nothing but the word which I spoke in the first
days of that overthrow, " / will turn schoolmaster.''' For
this I found confidence. I became one ; and ever since I
have been engaged in a mighty struggle (forced upon me in
spite of myself) to fill up those internal deficiencies by which
niy ultimate purposes were formerly hindered.
Friend ! I will openly reveal to you the whole of my being
and doing since that moment. I had, during the first Direc
tory, won confidence through Legrand in my" object, the cul
tivation of the people, and was on the point of bringing out
an extensive plan of education in Argau when Stanz n was
burnt down, and Legrand at once offered me that unfortunate
place for my residence. I went. I would have gene to the
hindmost cavern of the mountains to come nearer my end,
and now I really did come nearer it ; but imagine my position
— I alone — deprived of all the means of education ; I alone,
overseer, paymaster, handy man, and almost servant maid, in
an unfinished house, surrounded by ignorance, disease, and
novelty of all kinds. The number of children increased
gradually to eighty, all of different ages ; some full of pre
tensions, others wayside beggars ; all, except a few, wholly
ignorant. What a task ! to form and develop these children !
What a task !
I dared to attempt it, and stood in their midst pronouncing
1 6 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
sounds,12 and making them imitate them. Whoever saw it
was astonished at the result. It was like a meteor that is
seen in the air, and vanishes again. No one knew its nature.
I understood^ .it "not myself It was the result of a simple
psychological idea which I felt, but of which I was not
clearly aware.
It was exactly the pulse of the art that I was seeking, I
seized it, a monstrous grip. A seeing man would never have
dared ; I was. luckily blind, or I too had not ventured. I
knew not clearly what I did, but I knew what I wanted,
that was — Death, or the carrying through of my pur
pose.
But the means of attaining it were absolutely nothing but
the direct result of the necessity with which I had to work
through the extreme difficulties of my situation.
I know not and can hardly understand how I came
through. In a manner I played with necessity, defied her
difficulties, which stood like mountains before me. Against
the apparent physical impossibility I opposed the force of a
will which saw and regarded nothing but what was im
mediately before it ; but which grappled with the difficulty
at hand, as if it were alone, and life and death depended on
it.
So I worked in Stanz, until the approach of the Austrians
took the heart out of my work, and the feelings that now
oppressed me brought my physical powers to the state in
which they were when I left Stanz.13 Up to 'this point I was
not yet certain of the foundations of my procedure.14 But as
I was attempting the impossible, I found that possible which
I had not expected ; and as I pushed through the pathless
thicket that no one had trodden for ages, I found footprints
in it leading to the high road, which for ages had been un
trodden.
I will go a little into details. As I was obliged to give
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 17
the children instruction, alone, and without help, I learned
the artj)f_teaching many together ; and since I had no other
means but loud speaking, the idea of making the learners
draw, write, and work at the same time, was naturally de
veloped. The confusion of the repeating crowd led me kr
feel the need of keeping time, and beating time increased the
impression made by the lesson. The utter ignorance of all
made me stay long over the beginnings ; and this led me
fto realize the high degree of inner power to be obtained by
perfecting the first beginnings, and the result of a feeling
of completeness and perfection in the lowest stage. I
learned, as never before, the relation of the first steps in
every kind of knowledge to its complete outline ; and I felt,
as never before, the immeasurable gaps, that would bear wit
ness in every succeeding stage of knowledge, to confusion and
want of perfection on these points. The result of attending
to this perfecting of the early stages far outran my expecta
tions. It quickly developed in the children a consciousness
of hitherto unknown power, and particularly a general sense
of beauty and order. They felt their own power, and the
tediousness of the ordinary school- tone vanished like a ghost
from my rooms. They wished, — tried, — persevered, — suc
ceeded, and they laughed. Their tone was not that of
learners, it was the tone of unknown powers awakened
from sleep ; of a heart and mind exalted with the feeling of
what these powers could and would lead them to do.
Children taught children. They tried [to put into practice]
what I told them to do, [and often came themselves on the
track of the means of its execution, from many sides. This
sjeji-activity, which had developed itself in many ways in
the beginning of learning, worked with great force on the
birth and growth of the conviction in me, that all true, all
educative instruction must be drawn out of the children them-
; selves, and be born within them].15 To this I was led chiefly
c
1 8 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
by necessity. Since I had no fellow-helpers, I put a capable
child between two less capable ones ; he embraced them
with both arms, he told them what he knew, and they learned
to repeat after him what they knew not. [They sat lovingly
by each other. Joy and sympathy animated their souls, and
their mutually awakened inner life led them both forward
as they could only be led by this mutual self-vivification.]
Dear Friend! You have heard this crowd of collective
learners and seen its courage and joy. Say yourself how
you felt when you saw it. I saw your tears, and in my
heart arose wrath towards men who could still say, " The
improvement of the people is a dream."
No ; it is no dream. I will put skill into the hand of the
mother, into the hand of the child, and into the hand of the
innocent ; and the scorner shall be silenced and shall say no
more — " It is a dream."
God, I thank Thee for my necessity ! Without it I should
never have spoken these words, and I should not have silenced
the scorner.
I am now thoroughly convinced ; it was a long time before
I was: but I had children in Stanz whose powers, not
deadened by the weariness of unpsychological home and
school discipline, developed more quickly. It was another
race. Even the paupers were different from the town
paupers and the weaklings of our corn and vine lands.. I
saw the capacity of human nature, and its peculiarities in
many ways and in most open play. Its defects were the
defects of healthy nature, immeasurably different to the
defects caused by bad and artificial teaching — hopeless nag
ging and complete crippling of the mind.
I saw in this combination of unschooled ignorance a power
of seeing (Anschauung}™ and a firm conception of the known
and the seen of which our ABC puppets have no notion.
I learned from them— I must have been blind if I had not
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 19
learned— to know the natural relation in which real know
ledge stands to book-knowledge. I learnt from them what
a disadvantage this one-sided letter-knowledge and entire
reliance on words (which are only sound and noise when
there is nothing behind them) must be. I saw what a
hindrance this may be to the real power of observation
(Anschauung), and the firm conception of the objects that
surround us.
^ So far I got in Stanz. I felt my experiment had de
cided that it was possible to found popular instruction on
psychological grounds, to lay true knowledge, gained by
sense-impression at its foundation, and to tear away the
mask of its superficial bombast. I felt I could solve the
problem to men of penetration and unprejudiced mind ; but
the prejudiced crowd, like geese which, ever since they
cracked the shell, have been shut up in the coop and shed,
and so have lost all power of flying and swimming, I could
never make wise, as I well knew.
It was reserved for Burgdorf to teach me more.1?
But imagine,— you know me,— imagine with what feelings I
left Stanz. As a shipwrecked man, after weary, restless nights,
sees land at last, breathes in hope of life, and then is swung
back into the boundless ocean by an unlucky wind, says a
thousand times in his trembling soul, " Why can I not die ? "
and yet does not plunge into the abyss, but still forces his
tired eyes open, looks around, and seeks the shore again, and
when he sees it, strains every limb to numbness.— Even so
was I.
Gessner ! imagine all this ; think of my heart and my will,
my work and my wreck,— my disaster, the trembling of my
shattered nerves, and my bewilderment.— Such, friend, was
my condition when I left Stanz and went to Bern.
Fischer got me an introduction to Zehender of Gurnigel,18
[through whose kindness] I enjoyed some restful days at that
2O How Genmae Teaches Her Children.
place. I needed them. It is a wonder that I still live. But,
it was not my haven. It was a rock in the ocean upon which
I rested in order to swim again. I shall never forget those
days, Zehender, as long as I live. They saved me. But I
could not live without my work. At the very moment when
I looked down from Grurnigel's height upon the beautiful,
boundless valley at my feet (I had never seen so wide a view
before), even with that view before me I thought more of
the badly taught people than of the beauty of the scene. I
. could not, and would not, live without my purpose.
My departure from Stanz, although I was near death, was
not a consequence of my free will, but it was a consequence
of military measures which rendered the continuance of my
plans temporarily impossible. It renewed the old nonsense
about my uselessness and utter inability to persevere in any
business. Even my friends said, " Yes, for five months it is
possible for him to pose as a worker, but in the sixth * it is
no go.' We might have known it before. He can do nothing
thoroughly, and is at bottom no more fit for actual life than
an old hero of romance. In this, too, he has but outlived
himself."
They told me to my face, " It would be ridiculous to expect,
because a man wrote something sensible in his thirtieth
year, that he should do something reasonable in his fiftieth."
They said aloud that the very most that could be said
for me was : — That I brooded over a beautiful dream, and
like all brooding fools might now and then have a bright
idea about my dream and hobby. It was obvious that no
one listened to me. Meanwhile every one agreed in the
opinion that things had gone wrong in Stanz, and that every
thing always would go wrong with me. F. . . . reported
a friendly conversation in support of this view. It happened
in a public assembly, but I will not describe it more par
ticularly.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 21
The first said : — " Do you see how ugly he is ? "
The other : " Yes, I am sorry for the poor fool."
The first : " And so am I ; but he cannot be helped. If ever
he throws out a spark one moment, so that one might think
he really is capable of something, the next moment it is again
dark around him ; and when one comes near him, he has only
burnt himself."
The other : " What a pity he did not burn himself to
death ! He cannot be helped till he is ashes."
The first : " God knows, we must soon wish that for him."
That was the reward of my work in Stanz ; a work that
perhaps no mortal ever attempted on such a scale and under
such circumstances, and of which the inner result brought
me practically to the point at which I now stand.
They were astonished that I came down again from Grur-
nigel with my old will and former purpose, wishing and
seeking for nothing but to take up the thread where I had
dropped it, and to knot it together again in any corner,
without regarding anything else.
K-engger and Stapfer rejoiced. Judge Schnell advised me
to go to Burgdorf ; and in a couple of days I was there, and
found in Statthalter Schnell and in Doctor Grimm,19 men who
knew the shifting sand on whfch our old rotten schools now
stand, and thought it not impossible that firm ground might
yet be found under these quicksands. I am grateful to them.
They gave attention to my purpose, and helped me with
energy and good-will to make the path which I was seeking.
But here, too, it was not without difficulties. Luckily they
looked on me at first as casually as on any other schoolmaster
who runs about seeking his bread. A few rich people greeted
me in a friendly way ; a few parsons courteously wished me,
— [though I must say evidently without any confidence,] —
God's blessing on my undertaking ; a few prudent men believed
that something useful might come out of it for their children.
22 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
Everybody seemed to be content enough ; to be willing to
wait till whatever was to peep out of it showed itself.
But the " Hintersassen " 20 schoolmaster of the brisk little
town, to whose schoolroom I was sent, laid hold of the busi
ness a little closer. I believe he suspected the final end of
my A B C crowing was to cram his situation, neck and crop,
into my sack. The rumour once spread through the neigh
bouring street that the " Heidelberg " 21 was in danger. This
is still the food on which the youth of the lower class of
the townspeople is kept, as long as the most neglected
peasantry of the villages ; and you know they are kept at it
till their betrothal day.
Yet the "Heidelberg" was not the only thing. Men still
whispered in each other's ears in the streets that I could not
even write, nor count, nor read correctly.
Now, my friend, that street gossip is not always entirely
X untrue ; I could neither write, count, nor read perfectly.
But people always shut out too much of such street truths.
You have seen it in Stanz. I could teach writing without
, being able to write perfectly myself ; and really my igno-
( ranee of all these things was essentially necessary, in order
f to bring me to the highest simplicity of methods of teaching,
and to find means whereby" the most inexperienced and
\ ignorant man might also do the same with his children.
Meanwhile it was not to be expected of the lower classes
of Burgdorf that they should accept everything beforehand,
still less that they should believe in it. They did not. They
decided at a meeting that they did not wish experiments
made on their children with the new teaching : the burghers
might try on their own. But as it happened, patrons and
friends brought all the influence that was needed there for
that purpose. So that at last I was admitted into the lowest
school in the upper town.22
I considered myself happy, yet I was in the beginning
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 23
very shy. Every moment I feared they would turn me out
of my schoolroom. This made me more awkward than usual;
and when I think of the fire and the life with which in the
first hours at Stanz I, as it were, built myself a magic
temple, and then of the nervousness with which at Burgdorf
I bowed myself under the yoke as a matter of business, I can
hardly understand how the same man could do both.
Here was school discipline, apparently reasonable, but not
free from pedantry and pretension. All this was new to me.
I had never borne such a thing in my life ; but now for the
sake of my purpose I bore it. I crowed my ABC daily from
morn till night, and I went on without plan in the empirical
way which I had had to break off in Stanz.13 I put unweariedly
rows of syllables together. I wrote whole books with these
rows, and with rows of figures. I sought in all ways to
bring the beginnings of spelling and counting to the greatest
simplicity and into form. So that the child with the strictest
psychological order might pass from the first step gradually
to the second ; and then without break, upon the foundation
of the perfectly understood second step, might go on quickly
and safely to the third and fourth. But instead of the
letters that I made the children draw with their slate pencil,
I now led them to draw angles, squares, lines, and curves.
With this work the idea gradually developed of the possi
bility of an "ABC of Anschauung," 23 that is now import
ant to me ; and while working this out, the whole scheme of a
general method of instruction in all its scope appeared, though
still dimly, before my eyes. It was long before that was clear
to me. To you it is still incomprehensible ; but it is certainly
true. I [had for long months been working out all the
beginning points of a path-breaking attempt at reducing the
means of instruction to their elements, and] had done every
thing to bring them to the highest simplicity. Yet I knew
not their connection, or at least, I was not clearly conscious
24 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
of it ; but I felt every hour that I was moving on, and moving
steadily too.
While I was still in boy's shoes they preached to me that
it is a holy thing to serve from below upwards ; but I have
learned now, that in order to work miracles one must, with
grey hair, serve from below upwards. I shall work none,
and am in no way born or made for that 2* — I shall neither
reach such heights in reality nor in any way pretend to
imitate them by tricks. [If I would, I could not. I know
how weak my capabilities are now] ; but if men at my age,
who have their whole head and unshattered nerves, would
or should in a cause like mine serve from below upwards
they would succeed. But no ; at my age such men seek,
as is fair and right, their arm-chairs. This is not my
condition ; 'I must still in my old days be glad that I am
allowed to serve from below upwards. I do it willingly, but
in my own way. In all I do and attempt I seek the high
roads. The advantage of these is, that their straight way
and open course destroy the charm of those crooked paths by
which men are otherwise accustomed to reach honour and ad
miration. If I could do fully what I try to do, I only need to
explain it, and the simplest man could do it afterwards. But
— ->n spite of my clear conviction that I shall bring it neither to
admiration nor honour, I still regard it as the crown of my
life ; all the more since I have served this object for long years,
and in my old age from below upwards. The advantages of
it strike me more every day. While I thus took in hand all
the dusty school duties, not merely superficially, and while I
always went on and on from eight in the morning till seven n
in the evening, a few hours excepted, I naturally pounced
every moment upon matters of fact that might throw light
on the existence of physico-mechanical laws, according to
which our minds pick up and keep outer impressions easily
or with difficulty. I adapted my teaching daily more to
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 25
my sense of such laws ; but I was not really aware of their
principles, until the Executive Councillor Grlayre, to whom
I had tried to explain the essence of my works last
summer, said to me, " Vous voulez mechaniser 1'educa-
tion."25 [I understood very little French. I thought by
these words, he meant to say I was seeking means of
bringing education and instruction into psychologically
ordered sequence ; and, taking the words in this sense] he
really hit the nail on the head, and according to my view,
put the word in my mouth, which showed me the essentials
of my purpose and all the means thereto. Perhaps it would ,
have been long before I had found it out, because I did not
examine myself as I went along, but surrendered myself
wholly to vague though vivid feelings, that indeed made
my course certain, but did not teach me to know it. I could
not do otherwise. I have read no book for thirty years. I
could and can read none. I had nothing more to say to
abstract ideas. I lived solely upon convictions, that were
the result of countless, though, for the most part, forgotten
intuitions.
So, without knowing the principles on which I was
working, I began to dwell upon the nearness with which the
objects I explained to the children were wont to touch their
senses, and so, as I followed out the teaching from its
beginning to its utmost end, I tried to investigate the early
history of the child who is to be taught, back to its very
beginning, and was soon convinced that the first hour of\
its teaching is the hour of its birth. From the moment in
which his mind can receive impressions from Nature, Kature
teaches him. The new life itself is nothing but the just-
awakened readiness to receive these impressions ; it is
only the awakening of the perfect physical buds that
now aspire with all their power and all their impulses
towards the development of their individuality. It is only
26 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
the awakening of the now perfect animal ; that will and
must become a man.
All instruction of man is then only the Art26 of help
ing Nature to develop in her own way ; and this Art rests
essentially on the relation and harmony between the im-ji
pressions received by the child and the exact degree of his|
developed powers. It is also necessary, in the impressions'
that are brought to the child by instruction, that there should
be a sequence, so that beginning and progress should keep
pace with the beginning and progress of the powers to be
developed in the child. I soon saw that an inquiry into this
sequence throughout the whole range of human knowledge,
particularly those fundamental points from which the develop
ment of the human mind originates, must be the simple and
only way ever to attain and to keep satisfactory school and
instruction books, of every grade, suitable for our nature and
our wants. I saw just as soon, that in making these books,
the constituents of instruction must be separated according to
the degree of the growing power of the child ; and that in all
matters of instruction,27 it is necessary to determine, with
the greatest accuracy, which of these constituents is fit for
each age of the child, in order, on the one hand, not to hold
him back if he is ready, and on the other, not to load him
and confuse him with anything for which he is not quite
ready.
This was clear to me. The child must be brought to a
high degree of knowledge, both of things seen and words,
before it is reasonable to teach him to spell or read. I was
quite convinced, that at their earliest age, children need psy
chological training in gaming intelligent sense-impressions of
• all things. But since such training, without the help of art,
is not to be thought of or expected of men, as they are, the
need of picture-books struck me perforce. These should
precede the ABC books, in order to make those ideas, that
How Gertrude Teaches Htr Children. 29
men express by words, clear to the children jr6 neck, and
well-chosen real objects,28 that either in reality, c£ect upon
form of well-made models and drawings, can be broug*?*
before their minds.]
A happy experiment confirmed my then unripe opinion in
a striking way, [in spite of all the limitations of my means,
and the error and one-sidedness in my experiments]. An
anxious mother entrusted her hardly three-year-old child
to my private teaching. I saw him for a time, every day
for an hour; and for a time, felt the pulse of a method
with him. I tried to teach him by letters, figures, and
anything handy ; that is, I aimed at giving him clear
ideas and expressions by these means. I made him name
correctly what he knew of anything — colour, limbs, place,
form, and number. I was obliged to put aside that first
plague of youth, the miserable letters ; he would have
nothing but pictures and things. He soon expressed himself
clearly about the objects that lay within the limits of his
knowledge. He found common illustrations in the street,
the garden, and the room, and soon learned to pronounce the
hardest names of plants and animals, and to compare objects
quite unknown to him with those known, and to produce a
clear sense-impression of them in himself. Although this
experiment led to byeways, and worked for the strange and
distant, to the disadvantage of the present, it threw many-
sided light on the means of quickening the child to his sur
roundings, and showing him the charm of self-activity in the
extension of his powers. But yet the experiment was not
satisfactory for that which I was particularly seeking, be
cause the boy had already three unused years behind him.29
I am convinced that nature brings the children, even at this
age, to a very definite consciousness of innumerable objects.
It only needs that we should, with psychological art, unite
speech with this knowledge, in order to bring it to a high
26 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
the awakenijjtrness ; and so enable us to connect the founda-
must beqftany-sided arts and truths to that which nature her-
,wif teaches, and also to use what nature teaches as a means
of explaining all the fundamentals of art and truth that can
be connected with them. Their power and their experience
both are great at this age ; but our unpsychological schools
are essentially only artificial stifling-machines for destroying
all the results of the power and experience that nature herself
brings to life in them.
You know it, my friend. But for a moment picture to your
self the horror of this murder. We leave children, up to
their fifth year, in the full enjoyment of nature ; we let every
impression of nature work upon them ; they feel their power ;
they already know full well the joy of unrestrained liberty
and all its charms. The free natural bent which the sensuous
happy wild thing takes in his development, has in them
already taken its most decided direction. And after they
have enjoyed this happiness of sensuous life for five whole
years, we make all nature round them vanish from before
their eyes; tyrannically stop the delightful course of their
unrestrained freedom, pen them up like sheep, whole flocks
huddled together, in stinking rooms ; pitilessly chain them for
hours, days, weeks, months, years, to the contemplation of
unattractive and monotonous letters (and, contrasted with
their former condition), to a maddening course of life.
I cease describing ; else I shall come to the picture of the
greater number of schoolmasters, thousands of whom in our
days, merely on account of their unfitness for any means of
finding a respectable livelihood, have subjected themselves
to the toilsomeness of this position, which they, in accord
ance with their unfitness for anything better, look upon as a
way that leads little further than to keep them from starva
tion. How infinitely must the children suffer under these
circumstances, or, at least, be spoiled ! 30
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 29
Friend, tell me, can the sword that severs the neck, and
sends the criminal from life to death, have more effect upon
his body than this change, from the beautiful guidance of
nature, which they have enjoyed so long, to the mean and
miserable school course, has upon the souls of children ?
Will men always be blind? Will they never reach
the first springs, from which our mental distraction, the
destruction of our innocence, the ruin of our capacities, and
all their consequences, flow, which lead all to unsatisfactory
lives, thousands to death in hospitals, and to madness.
Dear Gessner, how happy shall I be in my grave, if I have
contributed something towards making these springs known.
How happy shall I be in my grave, if I can unite Nature and
the Art in popular education, as closely as they are now
violently separated. Ah! how my inmost soul is stirred
Nature and art are not only separated, they are insanely
forced asunder by wicked men !
It is as if an evil spirit had reserved for our quarter
of the world and our century an infernal gift of malicious
disunion, in order to make us more weak and miserable
this philosophical age, than ever yet self-deception, pre
sumption, and self-conceit have made mankind in any part
of the world, in any age.
How gladly would I forget such a world ! How happy I
am in this state of things, by the side of my dear little
Ludwig, whose whims force me to penetrate, ever more
deeply, into the spirit of beginning-books for infants Yes
my friend, in these the fittest blow against the foolish in
struction of our time, must and shall be given. Their spirit
grows ever clearer to me. They must start from the simplest
elements of human knowledge, they must deeply impress the
children with the most essential forms of all things they
must early and clearly develop the first consciousness of the
•elations of number [and measure] in them, they must give
3O How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
them words and sentences about the whole range of their
knowledge and experience, and, above all, completely fill up
the first steps of the ladder of knowledge by which nature
herself leads us to all arts and crafts.
^ What a gap the want of these books makes. We want
not only what we could gain by our own skill, we want also
what we could never gain. We want above all that spirit,
with whose life Nature herself surrounds us, without our
help. This spirit is wanting in us also, and we do violence
to ourselves, while we, through our miserable popular schools
and their monotonous letter- teaching, extinguish within us
the last trace of the burning style with which Nature would
brand us.
But I return to my path. While I was thus on one side
on the track of the first beginning-points of the practical
means of psychologically unfolding human capacities and
talents, which might be practicable and applicable for the
development of children from the cradle upwards, I had on
the other side, at the same time, to teach children who up to
this time had been formed and brought up quite out of the
sphere of such views and means. I naturally came while
so doing in many ways in opposition to myself, and availed
myself, and was forced to avail myself, of measures which
seemed in direct opposition to my principles ; 31 especially to
the psychological sequence of knowledge of things and lan
guage, on the lines of which, the ideas of children should be
developed. I could not do otherwise. I was obliged, as it
were in the dark, to seek out the degree of capacity which I
could not fathom in them. I set to work in every possible
way, and found everywhere, that much further progress had
intensively been made, even amidst the greatest rubbish,
than seemed possible to me, considering the incompre
hensible want of all knowledge of the Art. As far as men
had influence I found unspeakable sleepiness; but behind
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 31
this sleepiness Nature was not dead. I have now learned
and can say : It is long, inconceivably long, before human
error and unreason can wholly stifle our nature in a
child's [mind and] heart. There is a God, who has put in
our bosom a counterpoise to madness against ourselves.
The life and truth of all Nature that surround us
support this counterpoise, to the eternal pleasure of the
Creator, who willeth not that the holiness of our nature
should be lost in the time of our weakness and innocence,
but that all children of men should, with certainty, advance
to the knowledge of truth and right; until, forfeiting the
worth of their inner nature, through themselves, by their
own fault, and with full consciousness of it, they stray into
the labyrinth of error and the abyss of vice. But [the
majority of] the men [of this time] hardly know what Grod
did for them, and allow no weight to the infinite influence of
Nature on our development. On the contrary, they make
a great fuss about any poor invention, crooked and stupid
enough compared to her work, as if their skill did every
thing, and Nature nothing for the human race; and yet
Nature only does us good ; she alone leads us un corrupted
and unshaken to truth and wisdom. The more I followed
her track, the more I sought to unite my deeds to hers and
strained my powers to keep pace with her footsteps, the
more infinite this step appeared to me. But the power of
children to follow her is just as infinite. I found weakness
nowhere, except in myself, and in the art of using what is
there. I tried to drive where no driving was possible ;
where it was only possible to invite into a vehicle, which had
its own power of going in itself ; [or rather, I tried to force ,
in, where it is only possible to bring out from within the
child, that which lies in him, and is only to be stimulated
within him, and cannot be put in him]. I now considered
three times before I thought of anything: "The children
V.
32 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
cannot do it" — and ten times before I said: " It is impossi
ble for them." They did what seemed to me impossible
at their age. I let children of three years old spell the
wildest nonsense merely because it was nonsensically hard.32
V Friend., you have heard children under four spell out the
longest and hardest sentences. Would you have believed
it possible if you had not seen it ? Even so I taught them
to read whole geographical sheets that were written in
extremely abbreviated forms, and the least known words
indicated only by a couple of letters, at an age when they
could hardly spell the printed words. You have seen the
perfect accuracy with which they read these sheets, and
the unconstrained ease, with which they could learn them
by heart.
I even tried to make gradually clear to a few older
children complicated and, to them, wholly incomprehensible
propositions in natural science. They learned the proposi
tions thoroughly by heart, by reading and repetition, and
also the questions explaining these propositions. It was
at first, like all catechisms, a mere parrot-like repetition of
dull uncomprehended words. But the sharp separation of
single ideas, the definite arrangement in this separation, and
the consciousness deeply and indelibly impressed of these
dull words, glowing in the midst of their dulness with a
gleam of light and elucidation, brought them gradually to a
feeling of truth and insight into the subject lying before
them, that bit by bit cleared itself like sunlight from
densest mist.
By these tentative and erring measures, blending their
course with the clearest views of my purpose, these first
trials gradually developed in me clear principles about my
actions ; and while every day it became clearer to me that in
the youngest years we must not reason wdth children, but
must limit ourselves to the means of developing their minds,
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 33
1. By ever widening more and -more the sphere of their
sense-impressions.
2. By firmly, and without confusion, impressing upon
them those sense-impressions that have been brought
to their consciousness.
3. By giving them sufficient knowledge of language for
all that Nature and the Art have brought or may, in
part, bring to their consciousness.
While, as I say, these three points of view became clearer"
to me every day, just as firm a conviction gradually de
veloped within me :
1. Of the need of picture books for early childhood.
2. Of the necessity of a sure and definite means of
explaining these books.
3. Of the need of a guide to names, and knowledge
of words founded upon these books and their ex
planations, with which the children should be
thoroughly familiar before the time of spellings ,
The advantage of a fluent and early nomenclature is in- v
valuable to children. The firm impression of names makes
the things unforgetable, as soon as they are brought to
their knowledge ; and the stringing together of names in an
order based upon reality and truth, develops and maintains
in them, a consciousness of the real relation of things to
each other. The advantages of this are progressive, only
we must never think, because a child does not understand
anything fully, that therefore it is of no use to him.
Certain it is that when, with and by A, B, C, learning, he
has himself made the sound and tone of the greater part of
a scientific nomenclature his own, he enjoys through it at
least the advantage that a child enjoys who in his home, a
great house of business, daily becomes acquainted from his
cradle upwards with the names of countless objects.
The philanthropic Fischer,33 who had a similar purpc e to
D
34 How Gertrude Teaches He* Children.
mine, saw my course from the beginning, and said it was
wrong, so far was it removed from his own manner and
views. The letter that he wrote about my experiments to
Steinmtiller 34 is remarkable for the view he takes of this
subject at this time. I will add it here with a few obser
vations.
" In judging Pestalozzi's pedagogic undertaking, every
thing depends on our knowing the psychological basis on
which his structure rests. This may prove secure even
though the outside of the building presents some ruggedness
and disproportion. Many of these deficiencies are explained
by the empirical psychological course of the author and by
his external circumstances, accidents, trials, and experiments.
It is almost incredible how indefatigably he makes experi
ments • and since he philosophizes more after these experi
ments than before — a few leading ideas excepted — he 'must
certainly multiply them / but the results gain in certainty.
To bring these last into common life, that is, to adapt them
to the preconceived ideas, the circumstances and claims of
men, he needs liberal and sympathetic helpers to assist him
to make the forms, or else a very long time to discover them
gradually by himself, and through them as it were to give a
body to the spirit that animates him. The principles on which
his method rests, are the following."
(These five special points of view, which he calls the
principles of my method, are only isolated views of my
attempts for my purpose. As principles they are subordi
nate to the fundamental views which produced them in me.
But here the first view of the purpose with which I
started is wanting; that is to say, I wish to remedy the
deficiencies of common school instruction, particularly in
lower schools, and to seek forms of instruction that have
not these deficiencies.)
1. "-He wishes to raise the capacity of the mind inten-
Hoiv Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 35
sively, and not merely to enrich it extensively ivith con
ceptions.
" He hopes to attain this in many ways. While he recites
words, explanations, phrases, and long sentences loudly.and
often to the children, and lets them repeat them, he wishes
thereby (according to the distinct individual aim that each
step has) to form their organs and to exercise their observa
tion and thought. For the same reason, he allows them,
during the repetition exercise, to draw on their slates freely,
or to draw letters with coloured chalk."
(I allowed them even then to draw, especially lines, angles,
and curves, and to learn their definitions by heart. •! pro
ceeded in the measures that I had tried in teaching to write,
from the principle founded upon experience ; that the chil
dren are ready at an earlier age for knowledge of proportion
and the guidance of the slate pencil, than for guiding the
pen, and making tiny letters.)
" For this purpose he deals out thin little leaves of trans
parent horn to his scholars ; upon these little tablets are
engraved strokes and letters, and the pupils use them as
models, so much the more easily, since they can lay them
upon the figures they have drawn, and the transparency
enables them to make the necessary comparison. A double
occupation at the same time, is a preparation for a thousand
incidents and works in life, in which observation must share,
without dissipating itself. Industrial schools, for example,
are founded entirely upon this readiness."
(I had in my experiments of thirty years ago found the
most decisive results. I had already at that time brought
3hildren to a readiness of reckoning while spinning, that I
myself could not follow without paper. All depends, how
ever, on the psychology of the form of teaching. The child
must have the handicraft, which he carries on with his learn
ing, perfectly in his power; and the task which he thus
36 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
learns with the work must in every case be only an easy
addition to that which he can do already.)
2. " He makes Ms teaching depend entirely on language"
(This should be exactly, He holds, after the real sense-
impression of Nature, language to be the first means of
gaming knowledge of our race. I arrived at this from the
principle, that the child must learn to talk before he can be
reasonably taught to read. But I connected the art of teach
ing children to talk with the intuitive ideas given to them
by nature, and with those given to them by art.)
"In language the results of all human progress are re
corded. It is only necessary therefore to follow its course
psychologically . ' '
"~ (The clue to this psychological pursuit must be sought in
the very nature of the development of language itself. The
savage first names his object, then draivs it, then combines
it very simply, after learning its qualities, variable accord
ing to time and circumstance, with words, by terminations
and combinations, in order to distinguish it more nearly. I
will further unfold this view, and by so doing I will try to
satisfy Fischer's demand for a psychological investigation
of the course of language, under the title of Language.}
" He will not reason with the children until he has fur
nished them with a stock of words and expressions, which
they bring to their places, and learn to compose and decom
pose. Thereby he enriches their thought with simple ex
planations of objects of sense, and so teaches the child to
describe what surrounds him, to give an account of his ideas,
and so master them, since he now, for the first time, becomes
clearly conscious of those already existing in him.
(My opinion on this point is : In order to make children
reasonable, and put them in the way of a power of indepen
dent thought, we must guard, as much as possible, against
allowing them to speak at haphazard, or to pronounce opinions
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 3(/>
about things that they only know superficially. I believe
the time for learning is not the time for judgment ; the time
for judgment comes with the completion of learning ; it
comes with the ripening of reason, for the sake of which we
judge and should judge. I believe every judgment that is
supposed to have inner truth for the individual who expresses
it, for this reason, must of itself, out of a comprehensive
knowledge, fall ripe and perfect, as the perfectly ripened
grain falls, unforced and free, from the husk or shell.)
" Mechanical readiness, and a certain tact in speaking, he
produces by doing exercises in inflections before them."
(These inflections were limited to descriptions of well-
known objects.)
"Their mental freedom gains exceedingly by this, and
when they have learned, and learned to use certain forms of
description by 'many examples, they will, in future, redi/ce
thousands of objects to the same formula, and impress upon
their definitions and descriptions the stamp of clear vision." •>
(I am now trying to find in number, measurement, and
language, the primary and universal foundations for this
purpose.)
3. "He seeks to provide all operations of the mind icith
cither data, or headings, or leading ideas"
(That is, he seeks the fundamental points in the whole
compass of art and nature, the kinds of sense-impressions,
the realities, which can be used, through their distinctness
and their universality, as fruitful means for making know
ledge and judgment easy upon many objects subordinate to
and connected with them. So he gives the children data
that will make them observe similar objects ; he gives head
ings to sequences of analogous ideas, by defining which he
separates for them the whole sequence of objects, and makes
their essential characteristics clear to them.)
" The data, however disjointed they be when given, depend
3 3 How Gertrude TeacJies Her Children.
one upon the other. There are ideas, one suggesting the
other, which for that very reason inspire the desire for
inquiry through the mental necessity of completion and
facility in putting together separate objects."
The headings lead to the classification of the ideas to be
upgathered ; they bring order into the chaotic mass, and the
set-up framework causes the child to fill up the separate
shelves assiduously. That is the value of headings of Geo
graphy, Natural History, Technology, etc. Above this comes
the analogy which rules in the choice of subjects for thought.
The leading ideas lie in certain problems, which in them
selves are or may be the subject of whole sciences.
When these problems, analysed to their elements, are in
telligibly put before the child, connected with data which
he already has or can easily find, and are used as exercises
for the observing powers, the child's mind will be led to
work incessantly at their solution. The simple question,
" What can man use as clothing out of the three kingdoms
of nature ? " is an example of this process. The child will
examine and prove much from this point of view, from which
he anticipates he can contribute to the solution of a technical
problem. In this way he builds up his knowledge. Truly
the materials must in every case be given him. To the
leading ideas belong also propositions which at first can be
trusted to the memory only as practical maxims, but gradu
ally receive force, application, and signification, and become
more deeply impressed and confirmed.
4. " He wishes to simplify the mechanism of teaching
and learning*
* It is indisputable that the human mind is not equally suscept
ible to impressions aimed at in education in every form in which
they may be presented. The art of finding out the methods that most
readily stimulate this susceptibility is the mechanism of teaching,
which every teacher should seek out in free nature, and should learn
from her on behalf of his art.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 39
" Whatever he picks up from his text-books, and wishes to
teach the children, should be so simple that every mother, /
and later every teacher, even with the least capacity for
instruction, can grasp, repeat, explain, and connect together.
He particularly wishes mothers to make the earliest educa-'
tion of their children pleasant and important by easy instruc
tion in speech and reading, and so, as he expresses it, gradually
to cancel the need of elementary schools, and to supplement
them by an improved home education. He wishes in this
way to prepare experiments with mothers as soon as his
text-books are printed ; and it is to be hoped that the Govern
ment will help by little premiums."
(I know the difficulties of this question. People all cry
that mothers will not be persuaded to undertake a new work
in addition to their scrubbing and rubbing, their knitting
and sewing, and all their [tiresome duties, and the distrac
tions of their life] ; and I may answer as I like : " It is no
work ; it is play ; it takes no time, rather it fills up the
emptiness of a thousand moments of depression." People
have no mind for it, and answer back, " They won't do it."
But Pope Boniface, in the year 1519, said to the good
Zwingli, " It won't do ; mothers will through all eternity
never read the Bible with their children, never through all
eternity pray daily with them morning and evening," yet
he found in the year 1522 that they did it, and said, " I
never should have believed it.11 I am sure of my means [and
I know and hope, at leastj before I am buried],35 that a new
Pope Boniface will speak of this matter as the old one in
1522. I may indeed wait ; it will come to the Pope.)
The fifth principle is connected with this, " He would make
knoivledge popular."
(That is, he aims in all cases at that degree of insight and
power of thought that all men need for an independent and
wise life. Not indeed to make the sciences as such, the
4O How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
fallacious plaything of bread-needing poverty ; but on the
contrary, to free bread-needing poverty by the first princi
ples of truth and wisdom, from the danger of being the
unhappy toy of its own ignorance, as well as of the cunning
of others.)
" This is to be gained through the stock of text-books,,
which already contain the principal elements of knowledge
in well-chosen words and propositions, and, as it were, furnish
the unhewn stones which later shall be easily combined to
form the arch."
(I should rather have expressed myself in this way : " This
should be especially aimed at through the simplification of the
first steps of human instruction, and the uninterrupted progress
to all that enriches the individual knowledge of every man.
The text-books themselves should only be a skilful combina
tion of instruction in all "branches with that which Nature
herself does for the development of men, under all circum
stances and conditions. They should be nothing but a skil
ful preparation of the power that man needs, for the safe
use of that which nature does, in all ways, for his develop
ment.)
" This shall reach further through the division and cheap
sale of the text-books. Short and intelligible, they shall be
issued in a series, and supplement each other, and yet be
able to stand alone, and be dispersed in single numbers. For
the same end he would multiply maps, geometrical figures,
etc., by woodcuts, at the very lowest prices. He dedicates
the profit of these works, after deducting the cost, to the
improvement of his method, viz. to practically use it in an
established school, institute, or orphan's home."
(This is too much to say. I am not able to offer to the
public the whole profit, merely deducting the cost of print
ing, of works that are the result of my whole life, and of
pecuniary sacrifices that I made with this in view. But
Hoiv Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 41
notwithstanding all the manifold sacrifices, that I have
already made for the sake of my aim, yet, if the Government,
or an individual, will make it possible for me to carry on an
orphan's home according to my principles, I will sacrifice my
time and all my powers, with the greater part of the profit of
my school books, till I die, for this end.)
" The gain for school instruction, is that the teacher with
a certain minimum of skill, not only does no harm, but is
able to make suitable progress."
(This is essential. I believe it is not possible for common
popular instruction to advance a step, so long as formulas of
instruction are not found which make the teacher, at least
in the elementary stages of knowledge, merely the mechanical
tool of a method, the result of which springs from the nature
of the formulas and not from the skill of the man who uses
^ it. I assert definitely, that a school-book is only good when an
uninstructed schoolmaster can use it at need, [almost as well
as an instructed and talented one.] It must essentially be
so arranged that uninstructed men, and even mothers, may
find in its clues sufficient help to bring them always one
step nearer than the child, to that progressive development of
skill to which they are leading him. More is not wanted ;
and more, at least for centuries, the mass of schoolmasters
could not give. But we build castles in the air, and are
proud of ideas of reason and independence which exist only
on paper, and are more wanting in schoolrooms than even in
tailors' and weavers' rooms. For there is no other profession
that relies so entirely on mere words, and if we consider how
very long we have been relying on these, then the connection
of this error with the cause from which it arises startles us.)
More could be gained in the following way. If many
children are taught together, the emulation aroused and the
reciprocal imparting to one another of what has been gained
becomes more easy among the children themselves, and
42 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
the hitherto roundabout ways of enriching the memory may
be avoided or shortened by other arts, e.g. by analogy of
subjects, discipline, increased attention, loud repetition, and
other exercises."
So far Fischer. His whole letter shows the noble man
who honours truth even in a nightgown, and when she seems
to be surrounded by real shadows. He was transported by
the sight of my children in Stanz, and since the impression
that this sight made upon him, has given sincere attention
to all my doings.
But he died, before my experiments had reached a ripe
ness in which he could see more than he really saw in them.
With his death a new epoch began for me.
II.
Friend, I soon wearied in Burghof as in Stanz. If you
know you can never lift a stone without help, do not go on try
ing for a quarter of an hour without this help. I did incom
parably more than I was obliged, and they believed I was
obliged to do more than I did. My breast was so torn from
morning to night with school aifairs, that I was again in
danger of the worst.
I was in this condition when Fischer's death brought me
into contact with the schoolmaster Kriisi, through whom I
learnt to know Tobler and Buss,1 who a few weeks later
joined me. Their union with me saved my life and preserved
my undertaking from an untimely death, before it was well
alive. Meanwhile the latter danger was so great that there
was nothing left for me to do but to risk everything, not
only financially, but, I might almost say morally. I was
driven to the point at which I despaired of the fulfilment of
a dream to which my life had been devoted. This produced
a state of mind and mode of acting that almost bore the
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 43
stamp of madness on them ; while, owing to the force of cir
cumstances and the continuous duration of my misfortunes
and undeserved sufferings, that disturbed the centre of my
efforts, I sank down into the depths of inward confusion,
just at the moment in which I apparently began really to
approach my aim.
The help that I received from these men in the whole
cope of my purpose, restored me financially and morally to
The impression that my condition as well as my
work made upon them, and the consequences of their union
with me, are so important in relation to my method, and
hrow so much light on the spirit of its psychological basis,
that I cannot pass over the whole course of their union
with me in silence.
Kriisi, whom I first learnt to know, spent his youth in
Carious occupations, through which he had learned much
1 varied manual skill, which in the lower ranks so often
levelop the basis of the higher mental culture, and raise men,
who have enjoyed it from childhood, to general and com
prehensive usefulness.
When only in his twelfth or thirteenth year, his father,
had a little business, used to send him several miles
six or eight dollars to buy goods; to this he added some
usages and commissions. Afterwards he undertook weav
ing and day-labourer's work. In his eighteenth year he
was employed, without any preparation, in school work in
native place, Gaiss. At that time, as lie now says, he
i not know even the names of the first grammatical dis
tinctions. Anything more was not to be thought of, since
( never had any instruction, except at an ordinary Swiss
illage school, which was limited to reading, writing copies,
and learning the catechism by rote, etc. But he liked the
ntercourse with children, and he hoped that this post might
e a means of gaining culture and knowledge, the want of
44 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
which he felt keenly as a messenger. For since they dis
tilled there, he was soon commissioned to buy prepared
things, sal ammoniac, borax, and a hundred other things, the
names of which he had never heard in his life, while at the
same time he dared not forget the most insignificant com
mission, and was answerable for every farthing. It was
borne in upon him how advantageous it must be for every
child to be brought forward in reading, writing, counting,
and all mental exercises, even in learning to speak, as far as
he now felt he wished to have been brought for the sake of
his poor calling.
In the first few weeks he had already a hundred pupils.
But the task of occupying all these children properly, teaching
them and keeping them in order, was beyond his power. He
knew no art of school-keeping, except setting tasks of spel
ling, reading, and learning by heart ; repeating lessons by
turns, warning, and chastising with the rod when the tasks
were not learnt. But he knew from his own youthful
experience, that under this method of school-keeping the
majority of children sit idle for the greater part of school
time, and even fall into all kinds of foolish and naughty
ways ; that in this way the precious time for culture passes
useless away, and the advantages of learning are not
balanced by the harmful consequences that such a school-
keeping must necessarily have.
Pastor Schiess, who worked energetically against the old
slow course of instruction, helped him to keep school for the
first eight weeks. They immediately divided the children
into three classes. These divisions, and the use of new read
ing books that were shortly afterwards introduced into the
school, made it possible to exercise several children together
in spelling and reading, and thus to occupy all, more than
had been possible before.
He also lent him books necessary for his own culture, and
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 45
a good copy-book, which he copied a hundred times in order
to form his handwriting ; and he was soon in a position to
satisfy the highest demands of the parents. But this did
not satisfy him. He wished not only to teach his scholars to
read and write, but also to train their understanding.
The new reading book [that the pastor introduced into his
parish] contained religious instruction in proverbs and Bible
stories ; passages of nature-teaching and natural history,
geography, politics, and so on. At every reading lesson,
Kriisi saw that his pastor asked the children questions on
every paragraph, to see if they understood what they had
read. Kriisi tried to do likewise, and made most of his
scholars perfectly conversant with the contents of the read
ing books. But he only succeeded in doing this, because,
like the good Hubner,2 he fitted his questions to the
answers already standing in the books ; and asked for
and expected no answers, except exactly those which stood
in the book, before the questions that should have preceded
them were discovered. He was especially successful, be-,
cause he did not introduce into this catechism any kind
of real exercise for the understanding whatsoever. We
must here notice that the original method of instruction
that we call catechizing, was far from being a real exer
cise of the intellect. It was a simple verbal analysis of
confused sentences lying before the child, and has this merit^
in so far as it is a preparatory exercise for the gradual clear
ing up of ideas, that it presents separate words and sentences
clearly, one by one, to the sense-impression of the child.
" Socratizing " is now for the first time blended with this
catechizing; which was originally confined to religious
matters.
The pastor put Kriisi's thus catechized children as an
example before his older pupils. But afterwards Krtisi,
[according to the fashion of the time] tried to combine the
46 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
[limited verbal analysis that we call] catechizing, with Socra-
tizing. This latter implies a higher treatment of the subject ;
but the combination, by its very nature, leads no further
than the squaring of the circle, that a wood cutter with
the axe in his hand tries upon a wooden board; it will not
do.3 The uncultured superficial man cannot fathom the
depths out of which Socrates drew spirit and truth ; there
fore it is natural that it should not succeed. He wanted
a foundation for his questions, and the children needed a
background for their answers. Further, they had no language
for that which they knew, and no books that could put a
definite answer in their mouths for questions understood,
or not understood.
Meanwhile, Kriisi did not feel clearly yet the difference
between these similar methods. He knew not yet that cate
chism proper, and particularly the catechism about abstract
ideas, excepting the advantage of separating words and
subjects into analytical forms, is nothing in itself but a
parrot-like repetition of unintelligible sounds. Socratizing
is essentially impossible for children, since they want both a
background of preliminary knowledge and the outward means
of expression — language. He was unjust to himself about
this failure ; he believed the cause of failure lay entirely in
himself, and thought any good schoolmaster would be able
to draw right and clear answers from children by questions,
about all sorts of religious and moral ideas.
He had fallen upon the fashionable period of Socratizing,
or rather upon an epoch in which this sublime art was
[generally absorbed by an inferior art, and] spoiled and de
graded by a combination of monkish and teachers' formulas
of catechism. At that period they dreamt of drawing out
the intellect in this way, and out of veritable nothing to call
forth wonders ; but I think they are now waking from that
dream.
Hoiv Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 47
Kriisi, however, was still fast asleep ; he was locked in
it, else I should wonder if even the Appenzeller had not
observed, when half awake, that the hawk and the eagle
could take no eggs from the nest if none had been laid. He
was determined to learn an art that seemed so essential to his
calling. And as he found in the departure of the emigrating
Appenzellers an opportunity of coming to Fischer, his hopes
were renewed on this subject. Fischer did everything to
make him a cultivated teacher, according to his views. But
in my opinion, he has let the attempt to raise him into the
clouds of a superficial art of catechizing, take precedence of
the work, that should make the foundations of things, about
which he should catechize, clearer to him.
Kriisi honours his memory, and speaks only with affection
and gratitude of his benefactor and friend. But love of
truth, which bound me also to Fischer's heart, demands that
I leave no view and no circumstance of this subject in doubt,
that, more or less contributed to develop views and opinions
in me and my helpers, that now unite us on this subject.
Therefore I cannot conceal that, while Kriisi admired the
ease with which Fischer held a great number of questions in
readiness about a crowd of subjects, and hoped with time
and industry to gather together a sufficient number of ques
tions for the elucidation of all the principal subjects of human
knowledge,4 he could ever less and less conceal it from himself,
that if a teachers' seminary be a thing that must raise every
village schoolmaster to this height in the art of questioning,
such a seminary might still be a doubtful advantage.
The more he worked with Fischer, the greater seemed the
mountain that stood before him, and the less he felt in
himself the power that he saw was necessary to climb its
summit. Since, however, he heard me talk with Fischer of
education and the culture of the people, on the first days of
his visit, and heard me distinctly declare against the Socra-
48 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
tizing of our candidates, with the expression, that I was
wholly against making the judgment of children *upon any
subject, apparently ripe before the time, but rather would
hold it back as long as possible, until they really had seen
with their own eyes, the object on which they should express
themselves, from all sides, and under several conditions, and
had become quite familiar with words, by which they could
describe its essential characteristics. Kriisi felt that he
decidedly wanted this himself, and that he needed just this
training that I intended to give my children.
While Fischer, on his side, did everything to lead him
into several departments of knowledge, in order to prepare
him for giving instruction, Kriisi felt daily more and more
that his way was not among books, so long as he was wanting
in the fundamental knowledge of things and of words, which
these books presupposed more or less. Fortunately he became
more confirmed in this self-knowledge, by seeing before his
eyes, the effect produced on the children by being taken back
to the beginning points of human knowledge, and by my
patient dwelling upon these points. This changed his whole
view of instruction, and all the fundamental ideas he had
formed thereon. He now saw that in all that I did, I tried
more to develop the inner capacity of the child, than to
produce isolated results by my actions; and he was convinced,
through the effect of this principle in the whole range of my
method of development, that in this way the foundations of
intelligence and further progress were laid in the children
as could never be attained in any other way.
Meanwhile Fischer's plan of founding a schoolmaster's
seminary • was hindered. He was elected again into the
Bureau of Ministers of Education. He promised himself to
wait for better times for his seminary, and meanwhile to
direct the schools in Burgdorf even in his absence. They
should be remodelled, and they needed it ; but, owing to his
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 49
absence and the diverting of all his time and strength, he
had not even been able to begin; and certainly would not
have been able in his absence, and in the midst of varied
occupations, to set it working. Kriisi's condition was
aggravated by Fischer's absence. He felt less and less
capable of what Fischer expected of him, without his personal
presence and sympathy. Soon after Fischer's departure, he
expressed to him, and to me, his wish to join himself and his
children to my school. But though I sorely needed help, I
rejected it then, because I would not annoy Fischer, who
showed continual zeal for his seminary, and who depended
upon Kriisi. But he was ill soon after, and Kriisi told him
of the need of this union, in the last hours that he spoke with
him. An affectionate nod of the head was the dying man's
answer. His memory will be always dear to me. He worked
towards a like purpose to mine, energetically and nobly.
Had he lived and been able to wait for the ripening of my
experiment, we should certainly have entirely agreed.
After Fischer's death I myself proposed to join Krusi's
school to mine, and we now both saw our work much light
ened ; but the difficulties of my plan much increased. I
had already, from Burgdorf, children unequal in age, culti
vation and manners. The arrival of children from the little
cantons increased the difficulties, for beside similar in
equalities, they brought into my schoolroom a natural in
dependence of thought, feeling, and speech, that, combined
with insinuations against my method, and the want of a firm
organization in my teaching, which might still be looked on as
a mere experiment, made every day more depressing. In my
condition I needed free play for my experiments, and yet at
every moment, private people sent particular orders as to
how I should set to work to teach the children who were
sent to me. In one place, where they had been accustomed
for ages, to be content with very little in the way of in-
E
5O How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
struction and teaching, they now demanded from me, that a
method of teaching, embracing all the elements of human
knowledge, and one that was compiled for the early use of
little children, should also have a great, universal, and abso
lute effect upon children, who up to their twelfth or four
teenth year, had remained in the most thoughtless mountain
freedom, and had therefore become distrustful of all teach
ing. It was certainly not such a method ; and they said,
as it had not this effect, it was no use. They confused it
with an ordinary modification of the method of teaching A, B,
C, and writing. My aim of seeking firm and sure foundations
in all branches of human art and human knowledge ; my
efforts to strengthen the capacities of children simply and
generally for every art ; and my calm and apparently indif
ferent way of waiting for the results of principles that should
gradually develop out of themselves — these were castles in
the air. They anticipated nothing from, and saw nothing
in them ; on the contrary, where I built up capacity, they
found emptiness. They said : " The children do not learn
to read," just because I taught them reading properly ; they
said : " They are not learning to write," because I taught
writing properly, and at last : " They do not learn to be good,"
just because I did all I could, to remove out of the way the
first hindrances to goodness, that were in the school, and
especially opposed the idea, that the parrot-like learning by
heart of the u Heidelberg," can be the only method of teaching,
by which the Saviour of the world sought to raise the human
race to reverence God and to worship Him in Spirit and in
Truth. It is true, I have said fearlessly, God is not a God
to whom stupidity and error, hypocrisy and lip-service are
pleasing.5 I have said fearlessly : Take care to teach children
to think, feel, and act rightly, to quicken and make use of
the blessings of faith and love in themselves, before we drill
the subjects of positive theology and their never-ending
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 5 I
controversies into their memories, as a means of cultivating
their intellect, and a spiritual exercise. This cannot be
opposed to Grod and religion. But I cannot be offended at
being misunderstood ; they meant well ; and I perfectly com
prehend that, owing to the quackery of our educational
methods, my rough attempts at a new way must disappoint
people, who, like many others, would rather see one fish in
their pond, than a lake full of carp the other side of the
mountains.
Meantime I took my own way, and Kriisi stood more and
more firmly by me.
The principal points of which he was quickly convinced,
[not however as ripe educational truths, but only as pre
liminary views that gradually unfolded themselves as clearly
developed principles of education,] are especially these:
1. That through a well-arranged nomenclature, indelibly
impressed, a general foundation for all kinds of know
ledge can be laid, by which children and teacher,
together, as well as separately, may rise gradually,
but with safe steps, to clear ideas in all branches of
knowledge.
2. That by exercises in lines, angles, and curves, which
I began to use at this time, a readiness in gaining
sense-impressions of all things is produced in the
children, as well as skill of hand, of which the
effect will be to make everything, that comes within
the sphere of their observation, gradually clear and
plain,
3. That by exercising children beginning to count, with
real objects, or at least with dots representing them,
we lay the foundations of the whole of the science
of arithmetic, and secure their future progress from
error and confusion.
4. The descriptions that the children learnt by heart of
52 Hoiv Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
going, seeing, standing, lying, etc., showed him the
connection of the first principles, with the end that I
was aiming at through them, the gradual clearing up
of all ideas. He soon felt, that while we make children
describe things that are so plain to them that no
experiment can make them clearer, they are checked
in the presumption of wishing to describe that which
they do not know, and gain the power of describing
what they do know, and what comes within the sphere
of their observation, with brevity, clearness, and under
standing.
5. A few words that I spoke about the influence of my
methods in counteracting prejudice, made the deepest
impression upon him. I said : Truth that springs
from sense-impression may make tiresome talk and
tedious ^arguments superfluous (these have almost
as much effect against error and prejudice as bell-
ringing against a storm), because^ truth SJ5 -acquired
generates a power in the man that makes his soul
proof against prejudice and error ; and even when
through the continual chatter of our race they come
to his ears, they become so isolated in him, that
they cannot have the same effect, as upon the common
place men of our time, on whom truth and error
alike, without sense-impression, with mere cabalistic
words, are thrown, as through a magic lantern, upon
the imagination.
These expressions convinced him that it might be
possible to do more against error and prejudice by
the still silence of my method, than has yet been done
through the endless talk that we have permitted
against it, or rather have been guilty of.
6. The plant-collecting that we pursued last summer,
and the conversations to which it gave rise, particularly
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 53
developed in him the Conviction that the whole circle
of knowledge generated through our senses rests upon
attention to Nature and on industry in collecting and
holding firm everything that she brings to our con
sciousness.
All these views, joined with his growing need of bringing
all means and subjects of instruction into harmony with
each other, convinced him of the possibilityof^founding a
method of instruction in which the el^meStfTofall action and
knowledge should be so united^ that a teacher need only
learn Jiow to use them, in order, by their help, to raise him
self and the children to any standard that can be aimed at
by teaching.6 By this plan, not erudition, but only healthy
human understanding and practice in the method was
wanted, to lay solid foundations of all knowledge in the
children, and to raise a satisfactory inner self-activity in
both parents and teachers, by simply using these means of
gaining knowledge.
As has been said, he was six years village-schoolmaster,
over a very large number of children of all ages ; but with
all the pains he took, he had never so developed the capacities
of children, and had never seen the firmness, security, com
prehension and freedom reached, to which we had risen.
He sought the causes, and found many.
He saw firstly, that the principle of beginning with the
easiest and making this complete before going further, then
gradually adding, little by little, to that already perfectly
learnt, does not actually, in the first moments of learning,
produce a feeling and a self-consciousness of power, but
it keeps alive in the children, this high witness of their un-
weakened natural power.
"We must JL -Said-he,.- --aever drive fcha childrefiy-but only
lead them by this method." Before, when he began to teach,
he used to say : " Consider that. Do you not remember ? "
54 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
It was inevitable for instance, when he asked, in arith
metic, How many times is seven contained in sixty-three ?
The child had no real background for his answer, and must,
with great trouble, dig it out of his memory. Now, by the
plan of putting nine times seven objects before his eyes, and
letting him count them as nine sevens standing together,
he has not to think any more about this question ; he knows
from what he has already learnt, although he is asked for
the first time, that seven is contained nine times in sixty-
three. So is it in other departments of the method.
For example. If he wanted them to write nouns with
capital letters, they always forgot the rule ; but when he
took a few pages of the methodical dictionary as a simple
exercise in reading with them, they began of their own ac
cord to set down these sequences of nouns that were known
to them alphabetically. This experiment presupposed an in
telligent consciousness of the difference between these kinds
of words and others. It is perfectly true that the method
is incomplete [for the child] on any point where it needs in
any way a spur to the thought ; it is incomplete wherever a
distinct exercise does not come by itself, and without a strain,
from that which the child already knows.
He remarked further, that, lite words and pictures that I
laid before the children singly at the reading lesson, had
quite a different effect upon the mind than the collective
phrases that were served up in ordinary instruction. And
while he now fixed his eye upon these phrases he found
them of such a quality that the children could have no sen
sible image of the nature of the separate words ; and when
put together looked, not at simple well-known parts, but at
a confusion of incomprehensible combinations of unknown
objects, with which we lead them, against their nature, above
their strength, and with many delusions, to get ho."fd of
sequences of thought which are not only wholly strange to
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 55
them, but need an art of speaking, the beginning of which
they have not even tried to learn. Kriisi saw that I threw
away the rubbish of our school wisdom, and, like Nature with
the savage, always put a picture before the eye, and then
sought for a word for the picture. He saw that this sim
plicity of procedure created in them no judgment and no
inference, while it was put before them, not as a dogma, nor
in any way connected either with truth or error, but only
as material for observation, and as a background for future
criticism and inference, and as a guide — on whose track
they might go further by themselves, by uniting their earty
and future experiences.
As he learnt more, and saw deeper into the spirit of the
method of reducing all branches of knowledge to the first i-
begmnmg-points, and the gradual joining on of a/.ttle addi- 1
tion to the first step, in every branch, and found that the i
consequence of that is a steady progress to new and further j
additions, he became daily more ready to work with me in
the spirit of these principles ; and he helped me to bring
out a spelling book and an arithmetic book, in which these
principles are essentially followed.
In the first days of his union with me he wished to go to
Basle, in order to tell Tobler, to whom he was much at
tached, of Fischer's death, and about his present situation.
I took this opportunity of saying to him that I was in
dispensably in need of help in my writing work, and that I
should be very glad if it were possible for Tobler to join me.
I already knew him from his correspondence with Fischer.
I told him, at the same time, that I needed just as much for
my purpose, a man who could draw and sing. He went to
Basle, talked with Tobler, who decided almost directly to
accede to my wish, and came in a few weeks to Burgdorf ;
and since Kriisi told him that I also wanted a draughtsman,
he fell in with Buss, who undertook the task directly. Both
56 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
have been here eight months ; and I think it would interest
you to read a precise account of their experience on this
subject. Tobler was five years tutor in an important house
in Basle.
His opinion of the nature of my undertaking, comparing
it with his own course in his own words is the following : —
"After the efforts of six years, I found the results of my
instruction did not correspond to my expectations. The in
tensive powers of my children did not increase in proportion
to my efforts ; they did not even increase as they should have
done according to the degree of their real knowledge. They
did not seem to perceive the inner connection of the isolated
bits of information I gave them, nor to give them the strict
long-continued reflection that they needed. I used the best in
struction-books of our time, But these were partly expressed
in words that the children could hardly understand, and partly
so filled with ideas that went beyond their experience, and
were so opposed to their own way of looking at things, at their
age, that it demanded infinite time and trouble to explain the
incomprehensible. These explanations were themselves a
continual worry, which had no more effect on their real inner
development, than a single beam of light in a dark room, or
in a thick fog. This was more the case since many of these
books, with their pictures and representations, descended to
the deepest depths of human knowledge, or ascended above
the clouds, right up to the heaven of eternal glory, before
they allowed the children to set foot on the firm ground, on
which men must stand before they learn to fly, or grow
wings wherewith to rise.
" The gloomy consciousness of all this impelled me to try
to entertain my younger pupils with pictures of objects ; but
to raise my elder ones to clear ideas by Socratizing. The
first result was, that the little ones made themselves masters
of much knowledge that other children of their age do not
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 57
possess. I wished to combine this kind of instruction with
the formulas of teaching that I found in the best books ; but
all the books that I wanted to use, were written in a manner
that presupposed all which must first be given to the chil
dren — namely Language. Therefore my Socratizing with
tHe elder scholars had the result, that all word-explanations
are certain to have, that are not based upon a knowledge of
things, and are expressed in a language which conveys no
clear ideas to the children. That which they grasped to-day,
vanished from their minds, in an incomprehensible manner,
in a few days ; and the more pains I took to make things clear
to them, the more they seemed to lose the power of seeking it
themselves, out of the mist in which Nature had placed it.
" So, on the whole, I felt insurmountable hindrances to my
progress in my purpose. My conversations with teachers
and educators in society strengthened my conviction, that
in spite of the immense educational libraries that our age
produces, they were in the same perplexity in their daily
work with their pupils. I felt that these difficulties were
doubled, and must weigh ten times heavier upon the under
teachers, if a miserable kind of dabbling work did not make
them wholly incapable of such a feeling. I Hved in ardent,
though misty consciousness of the gaps which I saw in the
whole compass of education, and I tried by all means in my
power to fill them up ; and undertook to collect, partly from
experience, partly from educational books, all means and ad
vantages by which it might be possible to obviate the educa
tional difficulties that struck me in all children of all ages.
But I soon felt my life would not be long enough to reach
this end. I had already written whole books on this subject,
when Fischer drew my attention in several letters, to Pesta-
lozzi's method, and made me suspect that perhaps, in other
ways than mine, he might reach the end I sought. I thought :
My systematic scientific course perhaps creates the difficulties
58 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
that do not stand in his way ; and the art of our time may
itself produce the gaps that he need not fill up, because he
neither knows nor uses this art. Many of his means, e.g.
drawing on slates,7 etc., seemed to me so simple, that I could
not understand why I had not thought of them long ago. It
struck me, that what already lay near to hand was used by
him. This principle of his method particularly attracted me
— educating mothers for that to which they are so remark
ably designed by nature ; — because all my experiments were
founded upon it.
" These opinions were confirmed by Kriisi's arrival in
Basle, who practically showed Pestalozzi's methods of teach
ing reading and arithmetic in the Grirl's Institute. " Pastor
Fasch and Von Brunn, who had organized the instruction
and part of the direction of this Institute according to
the first indications of Pestalozzi's method, which as yet
we hardly knew, saw at once the firm impression that the
drill in simultaneous reading and spelling made upon the
children. The few materials that Kriisi brought with him
for teaching writing and arithmetic after this fashion, as
well as a few copies of a dictionary that Pestalozzi had
designed as the first reading book for children, showed us
that these methods had a deep psychological basis. All this
made me quickly decide to accede to Pestalozzi's wish and
join him.
" I came to Burgdorf, and found my expectations fulfilled
at the first glance at this growing undertaking. The re
markable and general self-expressing capacity of his chil
dren, as well as the simplicity and multiplicity of means
of development by which this capacity was created, filled me
with astonishment. His complete disregard of all former
school routine, the simplicity of the pictures he impressed,
the sharp separation of the inner parts of his subject of
instruction into portions that must be learnt progressively
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 59
at odd times, his rejection of everything involved or con
fused, his 'silent influence upon all the inherent powers,
his firm hold upon words whenever they were needed, and par
ticularly the force with which his few means of instruction
seemed to spring, like a new creation, out of the elements of
art and human nature — all this stretched my attention to
the utmost.
" Certainly there seemed to me a few very unpsychological
things in his experiment, e.g. the repetition of difficult, con
fused propositions, of which the first impression must be
quite vague to the child. But as I saw with what power he
prepared for the gradual clearing of ideas, and how, as he
told me, Nature herself wraps all sense-impressions at first in
confused mistiness, but gradually clears them up, I found I
had nothing more to say ; and certainly less, as I saw that
he set little value on the individual portions of his under
taking, but tried much, only to reject it. By many of these
experiments he was only seeking to raise the inner capacity
of the children, and to find the explanation of the grounds and
principles which occasioned the use of these various methods.
I did not let myself be misled, when a few of his means
came upon me, in the trembling weakness of isolated first
experiments; the less so, as I soon convinced myself that
progressive advance lay in their very nature. Certainly
I saw this in arithmetic, drawing, and in the fundamental
methods of language-teaching.
" Now it became clearer to me every day, that his special
methods, through the connection of the whole with each,
depended especially on the susceptibility of the children to
each ; and so I saw, that these methods grew ripe through his
daily work, before they were spoken of as principles, which
must necessarily forward the end he was seeking. In his
attempts and experiments he relied upon none of these
means, until he held it almost physically impossible to
60 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
simplify their essence any further, or to penetrate deeper
to their foundations. These steps towards simplifying the
whole, and completing the single parts, confirmed the convic
tion that I before held vaguely, that all means which seek
the development of the human mind through a complicated
terminology, carry the hindrance to their result in them
selves ; and that all means of education and development
must be reduced to extreme simplicity of their inner being,
as well as to an organization of language teaching, psycho
logical and harmonious, if we would help Nature in that self-
activity, that she shows in the development of our race. So
gradually his object in breaking up the study of language
became clear to me, and also why he reduced arithmetic to
the principle always to be kept in mind, that all arithmetic
is only a short method of counting, and counting only a short
method, instead of the tiresome expression one, and one, and
one, etc. makes so much ; and why he built all power of
doing, — even the power of clear representation of all real
objects, — upon the early development of the ability to draw
lines, angles, rectangles, and curves.
" It followed of course that my conviction of the advan
tages of the method should be daily strengthened, as I
daily saw the effect produced on measurement, arithmetic,
writing, and drawing, by the powet universally awakened
and used according to these principles. I raised myself daily
more to the conviction, that it might be possible to reach the
end which I mentioned above, as having animated my own
actions, namely, to educate mothers for that to which they are
eminently designed by nature ; and through it, even the lowest
material of ordinary school-instruction might be founded
upon the results of companionable motherly instruction. I
saw a universal psychological method formed, by which
every father and mother who found the motive in them
selves, might be put in a position to instruct their own
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 61
children, and thereby to obviate the imaginary necessity of
cultivating teachers by costly seminaries and educational
libraries for a long period.
"In a word, through the impression of the whole, and
through the constant similarity of my experiences, I am
restored to the faith that I cherished so warmly in the be
ginning of my pedagogic course, but which I nearly lost as
I went on under the burden of such art and help as is
provided by the age — the faith, namely, in the possibility
of improving the human race"
III.
You have now read Tobler's and Kriisi's opinion of my
object. I will now send that of Buss. You know my
opinion of the latent capacities of the lower classes. What
a proof Buss is of this ! How this man has developed in
six months ! Show Wieland his attempt at an A, B, C,
of Anschauung.1 I know how interested he is in all that
can throw light on the course of development of the human
race ; he will certainly, in this attempt, find a proof of how
many apparently wasted and neglected powers can be used
and increased by gentle help and stimulus.
Dear friend, — The world is full of useful men, but empty
of people who can put these useful men into their places.
In our time every one limits his idea of human usefulness
within his own skin [or at most extends it to men who lie
as near as his shirt].
Dear friend, — Seriously imagine these three men and what
I do with them. I wish you knew them and their way of
life more exactly. Buss tells you at my request, something
about it himself.
Tobler's first education was sheer neglect. In his two-and-
twentieth year he found himself, as by a miracle, thrown
into the midst of scientific systems, and particularly in the
62 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
department of education. He thought to master them ; but
now he sees they mastered him, and caused him, ID spite
of a presentiment of the insufficiency of his own education,
to trustfully follow the way of books, without following
Nature herself by the way of sense-impression, of which
he dimly felt the need. He sees tlie danger in which he
stood, of losing himself in a sea of thousands upon thousands
of details separately rational, without at that time finding
principles of education and school-culture whose result
would be, not rational words and rational books, but [through
the cultivated power of reason], rational men. He lamented
that in his two-and -twentieth year, when book-study had
not yet begun to lessen his native capacity, he had not
already found the path that he now trod in his thirtieth
year.
He felt deeply how this intervening epoch had injured
him ; and it does his heart and the method equal honour
that he says himself, that ignorant and uninstructed men
could find the beginning points, more easily and certainly^
than he, and could then go on. Meanwhile he is true to his
conviction. His talents make his progress sure. When he
has worked through the difficulties of the simple beginnings,
these, and former knowledge which he combines with them,
will make it easj7" for him to connect the method with the
higher points of school-instruction, to which we have not
yet come.
You know Krtisi, and have seen the power he shows in
his vocation. It is extraordinary. Whoever sees him work
ing is astonished. He possesses an independence in his
vocation, that is only displeasing to the man who has none
himself; and yet, before he knew the method he was, except
in mechanical school-teacher's routine, far behind Buss in all
branches. He now says himself, without knowledge of the
method, all his efforts towards independence would not have
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 63
enabled him to stand on his own feet, but he should have
remained always dependent upon others' guidance ; and that
is entirely opposed to his Appenzel spirit. He has given
up a post of 500 florins, and has remained in the most
straitened circumstances of his present situation, just
because he felt and saw that here he now might indeed
become a schoolmaster, but there he could be nothing else,
and even that not satisfactorily. You will not wonder how
he came to this decision ; his simplicity led him to it ; he
entirely lost himself in the method. The result is natural ;
as Tobler truly said,-" it was easy enough for him, because
he had no art, and he gained it precisely because he knew
nothing, but had ability."
Friend, have I not reason to be proud of the first-fruits of
my method ? Shall men always, as you said to me two years
ago, have no mind for the simple psychological ideas on
which it is founded ? May all its fruits be like these three
firstlings. Bead Buss's opinion too, and then hear me again.
u My father," said Buss, " held an office in a Theological
College at Tubingen, and had free lodging there. He
sent me from my third to my thirteenth year to the Latin
school, where I learnt whatever was taught at that age. At
that time I lived mostly, when out of school, with students,
who were pleased to play with a very lively boy. In my
eighth year one of them taught me piano-playing, but as he
left Tubingen in half a year my lessons were broken off, and
I was left to teach myself. Steady perseverance and prac
tice brought me so forward, that I was able in my twelfth
year to give lessons in this subject to a lady and a boy, with
the best results.
" In my eleven thy ear, I enjoyed also instruction in drawing,
and continued perseveringly the study of Greek and Hebrew,
Logic and Rhetoric. The aim of my parents was to devote
me to study, and for this end to send me either to the
64 Hoiv Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
newly built Academy of Arts and Sciences at Stuttgart, or
to the direction of the professors of the University at
Tubingen.
" Up till now, men of all ranks were admitted into the
Academy, some paying, some free. My parents' means did
not allow them> to spend the least sum upon me. For this
reason a petition was sent for free admission to the
Academy, but it was returned with a negative answer, signed
by Carl himself.2 This, with, as far as I remember, the
simultaneous notice of the closing of studies against the sons
of all the middle and lower classes, had a great effect upon
me. I turned my attention entirely to drawing, but was
again interrupted within the half-year, for my teacher, on
account of bad conduct, was obliged to leave the town, and so
I was left without means or prospects of being able to help
myself, and soon found it necessary to bind myself apprentice
to a bookbinder.
"My frame of mind had sunk almost to indifference. I
took up this trade as I should have taken any other in order
to extinguish all remembrance of my youthful dreams, by
constant manual labour. This I could not do. I worked, but
I was unspeakably discontented, and nourished hasty feelings
against the injustice of a power that against precedent shut
me out, merely because I belonged to the lower classes, from
any means of culture and from my hopes and prospects, to
reach which I had spent a great part of my youth. Yet I
nourished the hope of earning, through my trade, the means
of giving up my unsatisfactory handicraft, and of somehow
retrieving what I had lost.
" I travelled ; but the world was too narrow for me. I
became melancholy, sick, had to go home again, tried anew
to renounce my calling, and hoped to earn my necessary sub
sistence in Switzerland, by means of the little I knew of
music.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 65
" I went to Basle, and hoped to find some opportunity of
giving lessons. But my former position produced a certain
shyness, that prevented me from taking the first steps
towards earning money. I had not the heart to say any
thing of all that must be said, in order to obtain what I
wanted, from people as they are. A friend, who accidentally
met me in this embarrassment, reconciled me for the moment
to my bookbinding. I went into a workshop again, but also
dreamed again, from the first day I sat down in it, of the
possibility of finding something else with time and oppor
tunity, although I was almost convinced that I was too far
behind in music and drawing, to enable me to procure a secure
independence by their means. In order to gain time to
improve myself, I soon changed from my first place, and
gained two hours a day for myself, and found acquaintances
who made my work easier.
"Among others I learned to know Tobler, who soon ob
served the trouble that was gnawing me, and wished to
remove me from my position. He thought of me directly,
when Kriisi told him that Pestalozzi's newly organized
method of instruction required a man, who understood music
and drawing.
"I knew I was backward in general culture and in draw
ing, and my hope of finding opportunity of advancing in
both made me quickly decide to go to Burgdorf, although
I was warned by several people against having any con
nection with Pestalozzi, because he was half an idiot, and
did not know his own mind.* This tale is still repeated .
with variations ; how once he came into Basle with straw-
bound shoes, because he had given his buckles to a beggar
* I naturally feel that the public expression of this part of my
opinion is unseemly. But Pestalozzi wished it, and demanded an
unconstrained candid statement of the impression that he and every
thing else had made upon me.
F
66 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
outside the gate. I had read ' Leonard and Gertrude/ and
believed in the buckles, but that he was a fool I did not
believe.
" In short, I wished to try. I came to Burgdorf. His
first appearance hardly surprised me. He came down from
an upper room with ungartered stockings, very dirty, and
looking thoroughly put out, with Ziemssen, who had just
come to visit him. I cannot describe my feeling at that
moment-; it almost approached pity, mixed with astonish
ment.
" Pestalozzi ! — and what did I see ! His benevolence, his
joy over me, a stranger, his freedom from presumption, his
simplicity, and the disorder in which he stood before me, all
carried me away in a moment. No man had ever so touched
my heart, no man had ever so won my trust.
" The next morning I went into his school, and saw really
nothing at first but apparent disorder, and, to me, unpleasant
confusion. But from the warmth with which Ziemssen had
spoken the day before of Pestalozzi's plans, my attention
was ready to be roused beforehand, so that I soon got over
this impression, and it was not long before I was struck by
some advantages of this method of teaching. I thought at
first that dwelling too long upon a point strained the children
too much ; but when I saw the perfection to which he brought
his children in the beginning-points of their exercises, the
flitting-around and springing-about permitted by the course of
instruction given in my youth, appeared for the first time at
a disadvantage. It made me think that if I had been made
to dwell as long and as steadily on the beginnings, / should
have been in a position to help myself in progressing
towards the higher steps, and so to conquer all the evils of
life and the melancholy in which I was now plunged.
"This reflection agreed with Pestalozzi's principle of
enabling men by his method to help themselves, since, as he
^How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 67
says, on God's earth no one helps them, or can help them. I
shuddered when I read this passage in ' Leonard and Ger
trude ' for the first time. But it is the experience of my
life, that no one on God's earth will or can help him who
cannot help himself. It was now evident to me that the
gaps, which I could not fill up to attain my end, had their
origin in 3 the weakness and superficiality of the instruction
I had received in the branch of art in which I had now to
work, without knowing anything of the principles on which,
that art was founded.
" I certainly now threw all my energy into the department
in which Pestalozzi wanted my help, but for a long time I
could not understand a single one of his opinions on drawing,
and at first knew not what he wanted when he said : —
" ' Lines, angles, and curves are the foundations of the art
of drawing.' In order to explain himself to me, he said,
' Here, too, the human being must be raised from dim sense-
impressions to clear ideas.' But I could not understand
how that could be done by drawing. He said, ' This must
be obtained by the division of squares and curves into parts,
and by analysing their parts to units, that can be seen and
compared.' I tried to find this analysis and simplification,
but I could not find the beginning-point of simplicity, and
with all my trouble found myself in a sea of single figures,
that were certainly simple in themselves, but did not make
Pestalozzi's laws of simplicity clear. He could, unfortunately,
neither write nor draw, though he had brought his children,
by some incomprehensible way, far on in both. In short, for
months I did not understand him, and for months did not
know what to make of the lines that he gave me as a pattern,
until at last I felt, either I ought to know less than I did, or
at least must throw away my knowledge, and stand upon the
simple points, which I saw gave him his power, that I could
not follow. It was hard. At last my ripened insight com-
68 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
'pelled me, seeing how far his children were brought by perse
vering upon his beginning-point, to go down to these points.
Then was my attempt at an A B C of Anschauung complete
in a couple of days.
There it was, and as yet I knew not what it was ; but the
first recognition of its existence had the greatest effect upon
me. I knew not before that this art consisted of lines only.
Now every thing that I saw suddenly stood between
lines that defined its outline. Tn my representations I had
never separated the outlines from the object. Now, in my
imagination, they freed themselves from it, and fell into
measurable forms, from which every deviation was sharply
distinct to me. But as at first I saw only objects, now I saw
only lines, and believed these must be used with the children
absolutely, and to the utmost extent before giving them real
objects to imitate, or even examine. But Pestalozzi thought
of these rules of drawing in connection with his whole pur
pose, and in connection with Nature, which allows no part
of the Art long to stand separate in the human mind. With
this intention he had put a double series of figures before the
children from the cradle upwards, — some in the book for early
childhood, some in preparation for definite forms. With the
first he wished to help Nature, and develop knowledge of
words and things as early as possible in the children, by
means of a series of representations of Nature. With the
second he wished to combine the rules of art with the sense-
impression of art, and to support the consciousness of pure
lorm. and of objects which fit into it, in the minds of the
children by means of juxtaposition; and, lastly, to secure
thereby a gradual psychological progress in art, so that they
can use every line that they can draw perfectly, for objects,
the complete drawing of which is only a repetition of the
measure-form, that is already familiar to them.
" I feared to weaken the power of sense-impression in the
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 69
children by laying down figures, but Pestalo/zi wanted no
unnatural power. He said once, ' Nature gives the child no
lines, she only gives things, and lines must be given him,
only in order that he may perceive things rightly. The
things must not be taken from him in order that he may see
only lines.' And another time he became so angry about the
danger of rejecting Nature for the sake of lines, that he ex
claimed, 'Grod forbid that I should overwhelm the human
mind and harden it against natural sense-impression, for the
sake of these lines and of the Art, as idolatrous priests have
overwhelmed it with superstitious teaching, and hardened it
against natural sense-impressions.
" Lastly, I observed and found in the plans of both books
full agreement with the course of Nature, and only so much
art, as is necessary to make Nature have that effect upon the
human mind, which is essentially wanted for the develop
ment of its talents.
" Before this I had been in a dilemma. Pestalozzi- said to
me, the children must be taught to read these outlines like
words, and to name the separate parts of curves and angles
with letters, so that their combination can be as clearly ex
pressed upon paper, as any word by the combination of
letters. These lines and curves should be an ABC oi
Anschauung, and thereby become the foundation of an art-
language, by which all varieties of forms should not only be
most clearly known, but distinctly expressed in words. He
did not rest till I understood. I saw how much trouble I
gave him ; I was sorry ; but it was of no use ; no A B C of
Anschauung would have been found without his patience.
" At last it was found. I began with the letter A ; that
was what he wanted, and one followed another, so that I had
no more trouble. The thing already existed in the finished
drawing, but the difficulty was that I could not express what
I really knew, nor understand the expressions of others.
70 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
" It is, however, one of the essential results of the method,
that this evil will be remedied. The art of speaking will be
firmly connected with the knowledge given us by Nature and
Art, and the children will learn to express themselves about
every step of knowledge.
" It was commonly remarked among us teachers, that we
could not clearly and fully express ourselves about matters
that we thoroughly knew. It was difficult even to Pestalozzi
always to find words [for stating his views of the aims of
education] that would clearly express his meaning.
" It was owing to this want of [definite] speech, that I
fumbled about so long in doubt about my department, and
did not and could not see Pestalozzi's principles.
" After I had overcome this difficulty, I recognised the ad
vantages of the method every day, and particularly saw how
the A B C of Anschauung through the definite language which
it gives the children about objects and art, even in that
degree,1 must form in them a far more exact feeling of right-
ness and proportion. I felt especially how men 4 who have
been taught to speak with art and care about their surround
ings, become able, merely through knowing rightly the names
of objects, to distinguish them more clearly and be more con
scious of their characteristics, than can be possible to those
who have not been so taught. Experience confirmed my
expectation. Children criticised these different parts more
justly than men accustomed to measurement and drawing
from their youth. Their progress in this art was so rapid
that it could not be compared with the ordinary progress of
children.
" And though I only saw the whole method, through the
medium of my department, and its limited effect, yet from
the energy and care with which I worked within this limit,
I learnt gradually, step by step, not only to guess its effect
upon other branches, but to see and understand it. So I came
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 71
to see, by the limited clue given by my lessons in draw
ing, how it might be possible,5 by the psychology of language,
by the gradual progress of lessons from sound to word, from
word to speech, to attain to the formation of clear ideas, as
well as by the progress from lines to angles, from angles to
figures, and from figures to objects. I understood the same
course in arithmetic. Till now I had looked upon each num
ber without any definite consciousness of its proper value or
contents, merely as an independent entity, just as formerly I
regarded the objects of art, without any discriminating con
sciousness of their definite outlines or proportions, i.e. of their
contents. Now I was sensibly conscious of the definite con
tents of any number, and I recognised the progress made by
children who enjoyed this teaching, and saw at the same time,
how essential it is for every branch of knowledge, that simul
taneous instruction should be given in number, form, and
language. As I had recognised the stoppage in my branch
owing to want of language, so now I recognised the de
ficiencies owing to the want of arithmetic. For example,
I saw that the child cannot represent the separate parts of
any form without being able to count them, just as until he
distinctly knows that the number 4 is composed of four units,
he cannot understand how the single number can be divided
into four parts. Thus, from the clearness to which my
work now brought me daily, as much as through myself,
the conviction developed that the method, by its influence
upon the human mind generally, produces in children the
power of helping themselves further on in every branch, and
is essentially a fly-wheel, that needs only to be set going, in
order to go on by itself. But I was not the only one to find
this out. Hundreds of men came, saw, and said, ' This can
not fail.' Peasant men and women said, * I can do that
with my child at home.' And they were right. V
" The whole method is play for any one, as soon as he grasps
72 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
the clue of the beginnings. This secures him from wan
dering in byways, which alone make the Art difficult to the
human race, because they lead away from Nature herself,
and from the firm ground upon which alone it is possible to
rest its foundations. She requires nothing of us that is not
easy, if we seek it in the right way and from her hands
only.6
" I have but this to add. Knowledge of the method has
in great measure restored the cheerfulness and strength of
my youth, and animated my hopes for myself and the human
race, that I had long before this time regarded as dreams,
and which I threw away, in spite of the yearnings of my
heart."
IV.
Friend, you have now learned to know the men who are still
working with me ; but I did not have them when I first came
here. I did not look for them at first. After I left Stanz I
was so tired and shaken, that even the ideals of my old plans
for popular education began to wither up in me, and I limited
my purpose at that time, only to improvements of detail in
the existing miserable condition of schools. It is owing
simply to my needs and the circumstance that I could not even
do this, and that I was forced back into the only track by
which the spirit of my old purpose was attainable. Mean
while, I worked several months within the limits to which
my own diffidence had confined me. It was a strange state of
things. Ignorant and unpractical as I was, but with my power
of comprehension and of simplifying, I was at the same time
the lowest hedge-schoolmaster and also reformer of instruc
tion — and this in an age, in which, since the epochs of Rous
seau and Basedow,1 half the world had been set in motion for
this purpose. I really knew nothing of what they wanted
and were doing. I saw only this much — the higher points of
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 73
instruction, or rather the higher instruction itself, here and
there brought to a pitch of perfection, the splendour of which
dazzled my ignorance, as sunlight dazzles a bat. I found
the middle stages of instruction raised far above the sphere
of my knowledge ; and I saw even the lowest, worked here
and there with an ant-like industry and fidelity, the use and
result of which I could in no way mistake.
When, then, I looked upon the whole of instruction, or
rather on instruction as a whole, and in connection with the
real true position of the mass of individuals who need to be
instructed, the little that I could do, in spite of my ignor
ance, seemed to me infinitely more than that which I saw
the people really received. The more I looked upon the
people, the more I found that what seems to flow to them
like a mighty stream from books, when one observes it in
village or schoolroom, vanishes in a mist, whose moist dark
ness leaves the people neither wet nor dry, and gives them
the advantages of neither day nor night. I could not hide
from myself that school-instruction, at least as I saw it actu
ally practised, was for the great majority, and for the lowest
classes, of no use at all.-
As far as I knew it, it seemed to me like a great house, of
which the upper story was bright with the highest and best
art, but inhabited by few men. In the middle many more
dwelt, but there were no steps by which, in a human way,
they could mount to the upper story ; and if a few showed
a desire to clamber up to the higher story, animal-fashion,
whenever they were seen, sometimes a finger, here and there
an arm or a leg, by which they were trying to climb, was
cut off. Lastly, below, lived a countless herd of men, who
had an equal right with the highest to sunshine and healthy
air, but they were not only left in nauseous darkness, in star
less dens, but by binding and blinding the eyes, they were
made unable even to look up to the upper storeys.2
74 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
Friend, this view of things led me naturally to the convic
tion that it is essential and urgent, not merely to plaster over
the school-evils, which enervate the great majority of the men
of Europe, but to heal them at the root, — that consequently
half-measures in this matter will easily turn into second
doses of poison, which not only cannot stop the effects of the
first, but must surely double them. I certainly did not want
that. Meanwhile, the consciousness began daily to develop
in me that it must be absolutely impossible to remedy school-
evils as a whole, if one cannot succeed in reducing the
mechanical formulas of instruction to those eternal laws,)
according to which the human mind rises from mere sense-
impressions to clear ideas.
This consciousness, which, as I said, was daily confirmed,
led me also at the same time to a point of view, which com
manded the whole field of education. Then, though in my
innermost state of mind I resembled a mouse in her hole,
frightened by a cat, and hardly daring to peep out, yet I was
forced to see that the faint-hearted half-measures, adopted in
my discouragement, could not only do nothing satisfactory for
the needs of schools as a whole, but, in circumstances that
might easily arise, might here and there even have the effect
of making the poor children take a second dose of that opium,
which they were accustomed to swallow within the school
walls.
But without fearing so much from the lifeless inanity
of my solitary school-keeping, it displeased me more every
day. I seemed in my endeavours like a seafarer, who, having
lost his harpoon, tries to catch a whale with a hook. Of
course it cannot be done. He must, if he wants to reach
shore safe and sound, either take a harpoon in his hand, or
let the whale go. As soon as I began to comprehend what
was wanted to satisfy the urgent needs of my purpose, and
to make the principles of instruction agree with the course
Hoiv Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 75
of nature, I was in a like case. The claims of Nature upon
my work were no longer isolated. They stood together as a
connected whole before my eyes ; and if, like the whale-fisher,
I would reach home safe and sound, I must either give up
the thought of doing anything, even the least, in my pro
fession, or respect the unity of Nature, whithersoever it might
lead me. I did the last. I trusted myself once and for ever
blindly to her guidance, and, after I had been knocking
about a will-less hedge-schoolmaster, driving the empty
ABC wheelbarrow, I tErew myself suddenly into an under
taking that included the founding of an orphan's home, a
teacher's seminary, and a boarding-school, and which needed
in the first year, an advance of money, even the tenth part
of which I could not anticipate getting into my hands.
But it succeeded. Friend, it succeeds and it must succeed.
Deep experience has taught me that the human heart, even
the misled government heart that [under certain circum
stances] is the hardest of all human hearts, cannot resist any
great and pure effort of devotion to humanity, if its fertile
bud has once fully blossomed before its eyes, nor let it pine
and sink helpless away. And, Gessner, a few of my early
experiments have borne ripe fruit.3
Friend, man is good, and desires what is good; at the
same time he desires his own welfare with it. If he is bad,
certainly the way is blocked up along which he would be
good. Oh ! this blocking up is a terrible thing ; and it is
so common, and man is therefore so seldom good. Yet I
believe everywhere and always in the human heart. In this
faith I now go on in my untrodden way, as if it were on a
paved Roman road.
But I wished to lead you into the confusion of ideas,
through which I had to work, to gain light for myself upon
the mechanical formulas of instruction, and their subordina
tion to the eternal laws of human nature.
76 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
Friend, for this purpose I will copy for you a few passages
from the Report on my experiments, which I made to a few
friends of my Institute, six months ago.4 They will throw
much light on the progress of my ideas.
" Man," I said, in this account, u becomes man only through
the Art ; * but however far this guide created by ourselves
goes, it must always be united with the simple course of
Nature. Whatever it does, and however boldly it may lift
us above the condition, and even the privileges of our animal
nature, yet it cannot add a hair's breadth to the spirit of that
form, through which our race is raised from confused sense-
impressions to clear ideas. And it ought, not. It fulfils its
end — our ennobling — essentially in this only, that it develops
us in this and in no other form; and so soon as it tries another
way, throws us back into that inhuman state, out of which it
is destined by the Creator of our nature, to raise us. The
soul of Nature from which springs the form of development
which our race requires, is in itself unshaken and eternal.
It is, and must be, the eternal and unshaken foundation of
the Art. It also appears to the eye of every one who sees
beneath the surface, in its highest splendour, only like a
magnificent house, that by imperceptible additions of single
tiny bits, has been raised upon a great everlasting rock. So
long as it is inherently bound up with the rock, it rests
unshakenly upon it, but falls suddenly asunder into the tiny
bits of which it was composed, if the bond between it and
the rock is broken in the least degree. So immense is the
result of the Art in itself as a whole, so little and impercept
ible is, in every case, the single thing that the Art adds to
the course of Nature, or rather, builds on her foundations.
Its means for the development of our faculties are limited
essentially to this : — what Nature puts before us scattered
over a wide area, and in confusion, the Art puts together in
* The Art, i.e. The art of Instruction or Education.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 77
narrower bounds, and in regular sequence, and brings nearer
to our five senses, by associations which facilitate and
strengthen our susceptibility to all impressions, and so raise
our senses to present to us the objects of the world, daily in
greater numbers, for a longer time, and in a more precise
way. But the power of the Art depends on the harmony of
its results and work, with the essential workings of Nature.
Its whole action is one and the same with that of Nature.
" Man ! imitate this action of high Nature, who out of the
seed of the largest tree first produces a scarcely perceptible
shoot, then, just as imperceptibly, daily and hourly, by
gradual stages, unfolds first the beginnings of the stem, then
the bough, then the branch, then the extreme twig on which
hangs the perishable leaf. Consider carefully this action of
great Nature, — how she tends and perfects every single part as
it is formed, and joins on every new part to the permanent
growth of the old .
" Consider carefully how the bright blossom is unfolded
from the deeply hidden bud. Consider how the bloom of
its first day's splendour is soon lost, while the fruit, at first
weak but perfectly formed, adds something important every
day to all that it is already. So quietly growing for long
months, it hangs on the twig that nourishes it, until fully
ripe and perfect in all its parts, it falls from the tree.
" Consider how mother Nature, with the uprising shoot, also
develops the germ of the root, and buries the noblest part of
the tree deep in the bosom of the earth ; again, how she
forms the immovable stem from the very heart of the root,
and the boughs from the very heart of the stem, and the
branches from the very heart of the boughs. How to all,
even the weakest, outermost twig she gives enough, but to
none useless, disproportionate, superfluous strength."
The mechanism of physical [human] nature is essentially
subject to th6 same laws as those by which physical Nature
\
78 Hoiv Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
generally unfolds her powers. According to these laws, all
instruction should engraft the most essential parts of its sub
ject of knowledge firmly into the very being of the human
mind ; then join on the less essential gradually, but uninterrup
tedly, to the most essential, and maintain all the parts of the
subject, even to the outermost, in one living proportionate
whole. I now sought for laws to which the development of
the human mind must, by its very nature, be subject. I knew
they must be the same as those of physical Nature, and
trusted to find in them a safe clue to a universal psycho
logical method of instruction. " Man," said I to myself,
while dreamily seeking this clue, " as you recognise in every
physical ripening of the complete fruit the result of perfec
tion in all its parts, so consider no human judgment ripe
that does not appear to you to be the result of a complete sense-
impression of all the parts of the object to be judged; but on
the contrary, look upon every judgment that seems ripe before
a complete observation (Ansch.} has been made, as nothing but
a worm-eaten, and therefore apparently ripe fruit, fallen un
timely from the tree.
1. Learn therefore to classify observations and complete
the simple before proceeding to the complex. Try to
make in every art, graduated steps of knowledge, in
which every new idea is only a small, almost imper
ceptible, addition to that which has been known
before, deeply impressed and not to be forgotten.
2. Again, bring all things, essentially related to each
other, to that connection in your mind which they
have in Nature. Subordinate all unessential things to
essential in your idea. Especially subordinate the
impression given by the Art to that given by Nature
and reality ; and give to nothing a greater weight in
your idea, than it has in relation to your race in
Nature.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 79
3. Strengthen and make clear the impressions ot im
portant objects by bringing them nearer to you by
the Art, and letting them affect you through different
senses. Learn for this purpose the first law of
physical mechanism, which makes the relative power
of all influences of physical Nature depend on the
physical nearness or distance of the object in contact
with the senses. Never forget this physical nearness
or distance has an immense effect in determining your
positive opinions, conduct, duties and even virtue.5
4. Regard all the effects of natural law as absolutely
necessary, and recognise in this necessity the result
of her power, by which Nature unites together the
apparently heterogeneous elements of her materials, for
the achievement of her end. Let the Art with which
you work through instruction, upon your race, and
the results you aim at, be founded upon natural law,
so that all your actions may be means to this principal
end, although apparently heterogeneous.
5. But the richness of its charm, and the variety of its
free play cause physical necessity, or natural law, to
bear the impress of freedom and independence.
Let the results of your art and your instruction, while you
try to found them upon natural law, by the richness of their
charm and the variety of their free play, bear the impres
sion of freedom and independence.
All these laws, to which the development of human nature
is subject, converge towards one centre. They converge
towards the centre of our whole being, and we ourselves are
this centre.
Friend, all that I am, all I wish, all I might be, comes
out of myself. Should not my knowledge also come out
of myself ?
8o How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
V
V.
In these several propositions I have given you threads,
from which I believe a general and psychological method of
instruction may be woven.
They do not content me ; I feel I am not in a position to
state the essential laws of Nature on which these propositions
rest, in all their simplicity and completeness. So far as I
see they have, collective^, a threefold source.
The first source is Nature herself, by whose power our
mind rises from misty sense-impressions to clear ideas.
From this source flow the following principles, which must
be recognised as foundations of the laws, whose nature I am
seeking.
1. All things which affect my senses, are means of
helping me to form correct opinions, only so far as
their phenomena present to my senses their immut
able, unchangeable, essential * nature, as distinguished
from their variable appearance or their external
qualities. They are, on the other hand, sources of
error and deception so far as their phenomena pre
sent to my senses their accidental qualities, rather
than their essential characteristics.
2. To every sense-impression, perfectly and indelibly
impressed on the human mind, a whole train of sense-
impressions, more or less closely associated, may be
added easily, as it were involuntarily.
3. Now if the essential nature, rather than the accidental
qualities, of a thing is impressed with a force dispro
portionately strong upon your mind, the organism 2 of
your nature leads you, of itself, in relation to this
subject, daily from truth to truth. If, on the con
trary, the variable quality rather than its essential
nature is impressed with disproportionately stronger
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 8r
force upon your mind, the organism 2 of your nature
leads you, on this subject, daily from error to error.
4. By putting together objects, whose essential nature
is the same, your insight into their inner truth
becomes essentially and universally wider, sharper,
and surer. The one-sided, biassed impression made
by the qualities of individual objects, as opposed to
the impression that their nature should make upon
you, becomes weakened. Your mind is protected
against being swallowed up by the isolated force of
single, separate impressions of qualities, and you are
saved from the danger of thoughtlessly confusing^ the
external qualities, with the essential nature of things,
and from fantastically filling your head with inci
dental matters to the detriment of clearer insight.
It follows, the more a man makes essential, compre
hensive, and general views of things his own, the
less can limited, one-sided views lead him astray
about the nature of his object. Again, the less he
is exercised in comprehensive sense-impressions of
Nature, the easier can single views of an object,
under varying conditions, confuse in him the essential
view, and even blot it out.
5. The most complex sense-impressions rest upon simple
elements. When you are perfectly clear about these,
the most complex will become simple.
6. The more senses you have questioned about the
nature or appearance of a thing, the more accurate
will be your knowledge of it.
These seem to me the principles of the physical mechanism ?
which are themselves derived from the very nature of our
minds. With these are connected the general laws of this
mechanism itself, of which I now only say, " Perfection is the
great law of Nature ; all imperfection is untrue."
G
82 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
^ The second source of these physico-mechanical laws is the
power of sense-impression intimately interwoven with the
emotional side of my nature.
This wavers in all its actions, between the desire of learn
ing, and knowing everything, and that of enjoying everything,
which stops the impulse towards knowing and learning. As
a mere_physical power, the laziness of my race is. stimulated
by curiosity, while curiosity is lulled again by laziness. But
neither the stimulus of the one nor the sedative of the other
has, in itself, more than physical value. But curiosity has
great value as a sense-foundation for my power of inquiry,
and inertia is valuable as a sense-foundation for cool .judg
ment. We reach all our learning, through the infinite charm
that the tree of knowledge has for our nature through our
senses, while, owing to the principle of inertia, that checks
our easy superficial flitting about from one sense-impression
to another, in many ways a man ripens to truth before he
expresses it.
But our truth-amphibia know nothing of this ripening.
They croak truth before they have an inkling of it, let alone
know it. They cannot do otherwise. They have not the
power of quadrupeds to stand firm on the ground ; the fins of
fishes to swim over gulfs ; the wings of birds to soar above
,the clouds. They know as little of unbiassed sense-impressions
of objects as Eve, and when, like Eve, they swallow the un
ripe fruit of truth, they share her fate.
The third source of these physico-mechanical laws lies in
the relation of my outer condition to my power of learning.
Man is bound to his nest, and if he hangs it upon a hundred
threads and describes a hundred circles round it, what does
he more than the spider, who hangs her nest upon a hundred
threads and describes a hundred circles round it? And
what is the difference between a somewhat larger or smaller
spider? The essence of their doing is: they sit in the centre
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 83
oi; the circle they describe ; but man chooses not the centre
in which he spins, and weaves ; he learns all the realities
of the world in their mere physical aspects, absolutely in
proportion as the objects of the world that reach his sense.-
impressions approach the centre in which he spins and
weaves [for the most part, without his help].
VI.
Friend ! You see at least the pains I take to make the
theory of my doings clear to you. Let this painstaking be a
kind of excuse when you feel how little I have succeeded.
Since my twentieth year, I have been incapable of philosophic
thought, in the true sense of the word. Happily for the
practical working out of my plan, I wanted none of that
philosophy that seems to me so tiresome. I lived at the
highest nerve-tension on every point in the circle wherein I
worked. I knew what I wanted, took no thought for the
morrow, and felt at the moment what was really necessary
for the subject that particularly interested me. And if my
imagination drove me to-day a hundred steps farther than I
found firm ground, to-morrow, I retraced these hundred steps.
This happened thousands of times. Thousands and thousands
of times I believed I was approaching my goal, and suddenly
found this apparent end to be only a new mountain against
which I stumbled. So I went on, particularly when the
principles and laws of physical mechanism began to become
clearer to me, I thought directly it needed 110 more than
simply to use them in the branches of instruction, which the
experience of ages has put into the hands of the human race,
for the development of the faculties, and these I looked upon
as the elements of all art and knowledge, i.e. reading, writing,
arithmetic, etc.
But as I tried to do this, increasing experience gradually
84 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
developed the conviction that these branches of instruction
cannot be regarded as the elements of all art and of all
knowledge. On the contrary, they must be subordinate to
far more general views of the subject. But the consciousness
of this truth, so important for instruction, which was
developed by working in these branches, appeared to me,
for a long time, in isolated glimpses only; and then only in
connection with the special branch with which each separate
experience was connected.
\ Thus I found, in teaching to read, the necessity of its sub-
Ordination to the power of talking; and in the endeavour
< to find a means of teaching children to talk, I came on
/ the principle of joining this art to the sequences by which
/ Nature rises from sound to word, and from word, gradually
| to language.
Again, I found in the effort to teach writing, the need of
subordinating this art to that of drawing, and in the efforts
/ to teach drawing the combination with, and subordination
of, this art to that of measurement. Also teaching spelling
developed in me the want of a book for early childhood,
through which I trusted to raise the actual knowledge of
three and four year old children, above the knowledge of
seven and eight year old school-children. These experiences
that I learned practically, led me indeed to isolated helps in
instruction, but at the same time made me feel that I did not
yet know the true scope and inner depth of my subject.
I long sought for a common psychological origin for all
these arts of instruction, because I was convinced, that only
through this, it might be possible to discover the form, *
in which the perfecting of mankind is determined through
the very laws of Nature itself. It is evident this form is
founded on the general organization of the mind, by means
of which our igrtoll^st binds together in imagination, the
impressions which are received by the senses from Nature,
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 85
into a whole, that is into an idea, and gradually unfolds this
idea clearly. ^a^A-^-i
/ "Every line, every measure, every word," said I to myself
\ " is a result of intellect that is produced by ripened sense-
( impressions and must be regarded as a means towards the
progressive clearing up of our ideas." Also, all instruction
is essentially nothing but this. Its principles must there}
fore be derived from the immutable typical form of human , -&j?
.<
Everything depends on the exact knowledge of this
prototype. I therefore, once more began to keep my eye
on these beginning-points, from which it must be derived.
" The world," said I in this reverie, " lies before our eyes
like a sea of confused sense-impressions, flowing one into the
other. If our development, through Nature only, is not
sufficiently rapid and unimpeded, the business of instruction
is to remove the confusion of these sense-impressions ; to
separate the objects one from another; to put together in
imagination those that resemble or are related to each other,
and in this way to make all clear to. us, and by perfect clear
ness in these, to raise in us distinct, ideas. It does this
when it presents these confused and blurred sense-impres
sions to us one by one ; then places these separate sense-
impressions in different changing positions before our eyes ;
and lastly, brings them into connection with the whole cycle
of our previous knowledge.
So our learning grows from confusion to definiteness;
from definiteness to plainness ; and from plainness to perfect
clearness.
But Nature, in her progress towards this development, is
constant to the great law, that makes the Clearness of my
knowledge depend on the nearness or distance of the object
in touch with my senses. All that surrounds you reaches
your senses, ceteris paribus, confused and difficult to make
86 Hoiv Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
clear to yourself in proportion to its distance from your
senses ; on the contrary, everything that reaches your senses
is distinct and easy for you to make clear and plain, in pro
portion as it approaches your five senses.
You are, as a physical living being, nothing but your five
senses ; consequently the clearness or mistiness of your ideas
must absolutely and essentially rest upon the nearness or
distance with which all external objects touch these five
senses, that is, yourself, the centre, because your ideas con
verge in you.
You, yourself, are the centre of all your sense-impres
sions, you are also yourself an object for your sense-impres
sions. It is easier to make all that is within you clear and
plain than all that is without you. All that you feel of your
self is in itself a definite sense-impression : only that which
/ is without can be a confused sense-impression for you. It
| follows that the course of your knowledge, in so far as it
i touches yourself, is a step shorter than when it comes from
something outside yourself. •
All that you know of yourself, you know clearly; all that
you yourself know is in you, and in itself clear through you.
It follows that this road to clear ideas is easier and safer in
this direction than in any other; and among all that is clear
nothing can be clearer than this principle — man's knowledge
of truth comes from his knowledge of himself.
Friend ! Living but vague ideas of the elements of
instruction whirled about in my mind for a long time in
this way. So I depicted them in my Report without at that
time being able to discover the unbroken connection be
tween them and the laws of physical mechanism ; 2 and
without being able to define, with certainty, the beginning-
points from which the sequences of our views of the Art
should proceed, or rather the form by which it might be
possible to determine the improvement of mankind through
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 87
/his own essential nature. At last, suddenly, like a Deus ex
\ machind, came the thought — the means of making clear all
\ knowledge gained by sense-impression comes from number,
/ form and language. It suddenly seemed to throw a new
1 light on what I was trying to do. t
Now after my long struggle, or rather my wandering
reverie, I aimed wholly and simply at finding out how a
cultivated man behaves, and must behave, when he wishes
to distinguish any object which appears misty and confused
to his eyes, and gradually to make it clear to himself.
In this case he will observe three things : —
1. How many, and what kinds of objects are before him.
2. Their appearance, form or outline. — *
3. Their names ; how he may represent each of them by
a sound or word.
The result of this action in such a man manifestly pre
supposes the following ready-formed powers.
1. The power of recognising unlike objects, according to
the outline, and of representing to oneself what is
contained within it.
2. That of stating the number of these objects, and
representing them to himself as one or many.
3. That of representing objects, their number and form,
by speech, and making them unforgetable.
I also thought number, form and language are, together,
the elementary means of instruction, because the whole sum
of the external properties of any object is comprised in its
outline and its number, and is brought home to rny con
sciousness through language. It must then be an immutable
law of the Art to start from and work within this threefold
principle,
1. To teach children to look upon every object that is
brought before them as a unit, that is, as separated
from those with which it seems connected.
88 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
2. To teach them the form of every object, that is, its
size and proportions.
3. As soon as possible to make them acquainted with all
I the words and names descriptive of objects known to
them.
And as the instruction of children should proceed from
these three elementary points, it is evident that the first
efforts of the Art should be directed to the primary faculties
of counting, measuring, and speaking, which lie at the basis
of all accurate knowledge of objects of sense. We should
cultivate them with the strictest psychological Art, endeavour
to strengthen and make them strong, and to bring them, as
a means of development and culture, to the highest pitch
of simplicity, consistency, and harmony.
The only difficulty which struck me in the recognition of
these elements was the question : Why are all qualities of
things that we know through our five senses, not just as
much elements of knowledge as number, form, and names ?
/ But I soon found that all possible objects have absolutely
number, form, and names ; but the other characteristics,
known through our five senses, are not common to all objects.^
I found then, such an essential and definite distinction be
tween the number, form, and names of things and their other
qualities, that I could not regard other qualities as element^
of human knowledge. Again, I found that all other
qualities can be included under these elements; that con
sequently, in instructing children, all other qualities of
objects must be immediately connected with form, number^
and names. I saw now that through knowing the unityJ
form, and name of any object, my knowledge of it becomes
precise ; by gradually learning its other qualities my
knowledge of it becomes clear] through my consciousness
of all its characteristics, my knowledge of it becomes dis
tinct.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 89
Then I found, further, that all our knowledge flows from
three elementary powers.
1. From the power of making sounds, the origin of
language.
2. From the indefinite, simple sensuous-power of form
ing images, out of which arises the consciousness of
all forms.
3. From the definite, no longer merely sensuous-power
of imagination, from which must be derived con
sciousness of unity,' and with it the power of calcu
lation and arithmetic.
I thought, then, that the art of educating our race must be
joined to the first and simplest results of these three primary
powers — sound, form, and number ; and that instruction in
separate parts can never have a satisfactory effect upon our
nature as a whole, if these three simple results of our primary
powers are not recognised as the common starting-point of
all instruction, determined by Nature herself. In conse
quence of this recognition, they must be fitted into forms
which flow universally and harmoniously from the results of
these three elementary powers, and which tend, essentially
and surely, to make all instruction a steady, unbroken de
velopment of these three elementary powers, used together
and considered equally important. In this way only, is it
possible to lead us in all three branches, from vague to pre
cise sense-impressions, from precise sense-impressions to clear
images, and from clear images to distinct ideas.
Here at last, I find the Art in general and essential har
mony with Nature, or rather, with the prototype by which
Nature makes clear to us the objects of the world, in their
essence, and utmost simplicity. The problem is solved : How
to find a common origin of all methods and arts of instruc
tion, and ivith it a form by which the development of our
race might be decided through the essence of our own very
QO How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
nature. The difficulties are removed of applying mechanical
laws, which I recognised as the foundation of all human in
struction, to the form of instruction which the experience
of ages has put into the hands of mankind for the develop
ment of the race ; that is, to apply them to reading, writing,
arithmetic, and so on.
VII.
The first elementary means of instruction is, then,
SOUND.
This leads to the following special means of instruction :—
I. Sound teaching* or training the organs of speech.
II. Word teaching, or teaching about single objects.
III. Language teaching, or the means whereby we ar'
led to express ourselves accurately about well knov
objects, and about all we know of them.
I. SOUND TEACHING
Is divided into teaching sounds spoken, and sounds su^v
hies,
OF_SOUNDS SPOKEN. scts._>
In regard to these, We cannot leave it to chance \Mbe-
they be brought to the child's ear sooner or later, cc-her
or separately. It is important that they reach his com *<s.
ness in their whole compass as early as possible.
This consciousness should be perfect in him before his
power of speech is formed ; and the power of repeating them
easily should be complete before the forms of letters are put
\ before his eyes, or the first reading lessons begun.
The Spelling Book 2 must therefore contain all the sounds
of which speech consists, and these should, in every family,
be brought to the ear of the child in the cradle, be deeply
impressed and made unforgetable by constant repetition.3
even before he is able to utter a single one.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 91
No one can imagine, for it is not seen, how the utterance
of these simple sounds, ba ba ba, da da da, ma ma ma, la
la la, etc., may rouse the observation of infants and please
them ; nor what can be gained for the general power of
learning in children, by the early knowledge of these sounds.
* In consequence of this principle of the importance of
consciousness of sounds and tones before the child can imitate
them, and of the conviction that the kind of objects and pic
tures that lie before the eyes of the infant can be as little a
matter of indifference, as the sounds that are brought to his
ears, I have prepared a book for mothers, in which I have, not
only represented by illuminated woodcuts the beginningS-of
number and form, but also the other most essential charac
teristics in objects, which our five senses make evident to us.
Through a knowledge of many names, thus strengthened and
enlivened by all sorts of observation, I prepare for and make
his future reading easy, just as, by making impressions of
sounds precede letters, I prepare for, and make this work
^easy'for the child, at this same age. By means of this book
make these sounds at home in his head, if I may so express
ivself, before he can utter* a syllable.
I will accompany these tables of sense-impression for
earlier childhood, with a book of methods, in which every
d that the child should use about the object represented,
is expressed so exactly that even the most unpractised mother
can work sufficiently for my purpose, because she need not
add a word to what I say.
Thus, by means of the book prepared for mothers, and
by constantly hearing the sounds in the Spelling Book, the
* These attempts were afterwards found to be superfluous, owing ct
a deeper knowledge of the psychological course of development and
the gradation in the foundation of our knowledge, and were no longer
used. This whole statement must be regarded as only a vague
aspiration towards methods of education, about the nature of which
I was far from clear. — Pestalozzi.
92 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
child, as soon as his organs of speech are formed, must be
accustomed to imitate a few of the sounds of the Spelling
Book, several times a day, with just the same playful ease,
with which he imitates purposeless sounds.
This book differs from all preceding books in this :— Its
form of teaching proceeds generally from the vowels, which
can be apprehended by the pupil himself. Adding consonants
one, by _ojie7 before and after the syllables, evidently makes
the art of reading and pronouncing more easy.
This was our way. After every vowel we added on one
consonant after another, from & to 2, and so first formed the
simple easy syllables, ad ab a/, etc., then put those conso
nants before these simple syllables which actually accom
pany them in ordinary speech.
For example—
a&, b, g, shj s£, b, ab,
gi ab>
sh, ab,
st, ab, etc.
So we formed first easy syllables, by simply adding con
sonants to all the vowels, and afterwards more difficult
words, by the addition of more syllables. This ensures a
constant repetition of simple sounds, and an orderly putting
together of syllables resembling each other, from having a
common basis. This gives an unforgetable impression of
their sound, and makes learning to read very easy.
The special advantages of this book are —
1. The children are kept so long at exercises in spelling
syllables, that their faculties are sufficiently formed
in this direction.
2. That by the use of similar sounds, the repetition of the
same form is made pleasant to the children, and in
this way, the object of making an indelible impres
sion is more easily attained.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 93
3. That it helps the children very quickly to pronounce at
a glance any new word that is formed, by adding
single consonants to others that are well known,
without being obliged to spell it ; and afterwards to
be able to learn to spell these compound words by
heart. This makes writing them correctly afterwards
very easy.
In the short directions for using this book given in the
preface, mothers are asked to pronounce to the children
before they can speak, these sequences of sounds several
times every day, and in different ways, in order to rouse their
observation, and to accustom them to these sounds. This
pronouncing must be carried on with redoubled zeal, and be
begun again from the beginning, as soon as the children be
gin to talk, in order to induce them to imitate, and thereby
teach them to talk quickly.
In order to make the knowledge of letters, which must
precede spelling, easy to the children, I have added large
printed letters to the book, so that the children can better
observe the differences between them.
These letters are, each one separately, glued upon stiff
paper, and given to the child one by one, We begin with
the different vowels, painted red, which they must know
perfectly, and be able to pronounce, before we can go farther.
Afterwards they are shown the consonants one__bv_jQiieT but
alwaysTn connection with a vowel, because they cannot be
pronounced alone.
As soon as the children, partly by means of these special
exercises, partly by means of real spelling (of which I will
bpeak directly) have begun to be tolerably acquainted with
the letters, we can change them for the threefold letters,
also accompanying this book, on which, over the German
printed letters (that may now be smaller) stand German,
v written letters, and under them Roman letters. Then let
94 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
the child spell every syllable with the middle form already
known to him, and repeat it in the other two; so without
losing time he learns to read the threefold alphabet.
The fundamental rule of spelling is that all syllables are
only additions, by means of consonants, to the original sound
of a vowel ; and that the vowel is always the foundation of
the syllable. This vowel also will be first laid down, or put on
the hanging board (which should have a groove on its upper
and lower edge for the letters to stand in, and in which they
can easily be shifted about). This vowel will, according to
the guide, gradually have consonants added before and after
a — ab — b ab — g db, and so on. Then every syllable should
be pronounced by the teacher and repeated by the children,
until they cannot forget it. Then the letters are repeated
in and out of their order (the first, the third, and so on), then
syllables, which are hidden from them, are spelt by heart.
It is particularly necessary, in the first paragraphs of the
book, to proceed very slowly, and never to go on to anything
new, until the old is indelibly impressed upon the children
because this is the foundation of all instruction in reading^
all that follows is built upon it by small and gradual addi
tions.
When the children have reached a certain readiness in
spelling in this manner, we can change it for other methods.
For example, we can put the letters of a word one after the
other until it is complete, and let each of the letters be
spoken alone and together with the next, e.g., G — Ga — Gar
— Gard — Garde — Garden — Gardene — Gardener. Then, by
taking away the letters one by one, go back in the same way,
and repeat these again and again, until the children can
spell the word perfectly by heart. We can, in this way,
spell the word backwards.
At last the word is divided into syllables, and each is pro
nounced in and out of its order according to its number. Onr
How Gertrude TeacJies Her Children. 95
special advantage for school instruction is that the children
may be accustomed from the beginning to pronounce, all to
gether, and at the same moment, every sound that is given
them, or that which they are called upon to pronounce by the
number of the letter or syllable, so that sounds uttered by
all are heard as one sound. This makes the art of teaching
quite mechanical, and works with incredible force upon the
children's senses.
When these spelling exercises on the board are quite
finished, the book can be put into the child's hands as his
first reading book and used till he can read perfectly easily
in it.
So much for teaching sounds spoken. I shall now say a
word about teaching singing sounds. But since song proper
cannot be regarded as a means of rising from vague sense im
pressions to clear ideas, but rather as a faculty that must be
developed at another time, and for another purpose, I will put
off treating it till I take a bird's-eye view of education. I
shall only say here, that, according to the general principle,
the teaching of singing should begin with the simplest ; com
plete this, and only gradually proceed from one complete step
to the beginning of a new exercise ; and it should never tend
through an unfounded belief in the stability of the founda
tion, to check or confuse the faculties.4
II.
The second special means of instruction flowing from the
power of making sounds, or the elementary method of sound,
in
NAME-TgACHTNft.
I have already said, the child must receiyft fri
in this direction, from the Mother's Book.5 This is so
arranged, that "the most important objects of the world,
96 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
especially those which, like race, and kind, include a whole
series of objects, should be all spoken about, and mothers
made able to make the child quite familiar with their right
names, so that the children are prepared, from the earliest
age, for name-teaching • that is, for the second special
method of instruction, founded upon the power of making
sounds.
This name-teaching consists of lists of names of the most
important objects in all divisions of the kingdom of nature,
history, geography, human callings and relations. These
lists of words are given to the child simply as exercises in
reading, immediately after the completion of his Spelling
Book ; and experience has shown me, that it is possible to
bring the children to learn these lists of names perfectly by
heart, in the time which is given to complete their power of
reading. The gain to the children at this time, of so wide
and complete a knowledge of so many and such comprehensive
lists of names, is immense for making later instruction easier,
[and is only to be regarded as the chaotic collection of
materials for a house that will be built later.]
III.
The third special means of instruction, based on the power
of making sounds, is
LANGUAGE-TEACHING PROPER.
And here I arrive at the point at which the special form
begins to disclose itself, according to which the Art, by
using the special characteristic of our race, language, can
keep pace with the course of Nature, in our development.
But what do I say ? The form discloses itself, by which
man, according to the will of the Creator, should take the
instruction of our race out of the hands of blind and senseless
Nature, and put it into the guidance of those better powers,
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 97
which he has developed in himself for ages. The form dis
closes itself, independent, like the human race, by which man
can give a precise and comprehensive direction to, and hasten
the development of, these faculties, for whose development
Nature has given him powers and means, but no guidance.
This she can never give, because he is man. The form
unfolds itself by which man can do all this, without destroy
ing the loftiness and simplicity of the course of physical
nature, or the harmony our physical development always
has, or robbing ourselves, by a single fraction of a hair, of
that uniform care that mother Nature confers upon our
physical development.
All this must be aimed at through the perfect art of
language-teaching, and the highest psychology, in order
to bring the mechanism of nature's march from confused
sense-impressions to clear ideas, to the greatest perfection.
This I am far from being able to do, and T feel verily like
the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
But the Egyptian who first bound the bent shovel to the
horns of the ox, and so taught it the work of the digger,
led the way to the discovery of the plough, though he did
not bring it to perfection.
Let my merit be only the bending the shovel, and binding
it to a new horn. But why do I speak in parables ? I will
say what I want to say straight out, without beating about
the bush.
I would take school instruction out of the hands of the old
order of decrepit, stammering, journey men- tea chersr as well
as from the new weak ones, who are generally no better for
popular instruction, and entrust it to the undivided powers
of Nature herself, to the light that God kindles and ever
keeps alive in the hearts of fathers and mothers, to the
interest of parents who desire that their children should
grow up in favour with God and man,
H
9 8 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
But in order to define the form, or rather, the different
methods of teaching language by which we can attain to this
purpose, that is, by which we must be led, in order to be
able to express ourselves clearly about objects that are
becoming known to us, and all that we can learn about
them, we must ask ourselves : —
1. What is the end of language for man?
2. What are the means, or rather, what is the course of
progress by which nature leads us to this end, by
the gradual development of the art of speaking ?
1. The final end of language is obviously to lead our
race from vague sense-impressions to clear ideas.
2. The means, by which it leads us gradually towards
this end, unquestionably follow in this order : —
a. We recognize every object as a whole, or gener
ally ; name it as a unit — i.e. as one object.
&. We gradually become acquainted with its cha
racteristics and learn to name them.
C. We acquire, through language, the power of
denning the qualities of things by verbs and
adverbs, and to make the changes, caused by
change of condition, clear to ourselves, by
altering the words themselves and their ar
rangement.
I. I have spoken above of the steps to be taken to learn
to name objects.
II. Steps to learn and to name the qualities of objects
divide themselves into —
a. Teaching the child to express himself clearly
about number and form. Number and form,
being the special elementary properties of
all things, are the two comprehensive general
abstractions of physical nature, on which all
other means of making our ideas clear depend.
How Gertrude Teaches ^r Children. 101
b. Teaching the child to expre.
about all the other qualities oi-St
form and number (about those tnau
through our five senses as well as those ti^
we learn, not by simple sense-impression, but
through our powers of imagination and judg
ment).
The primary physical generalizations, number and form,
that we have in accordance with the experience of ages, by
using our five senses, learned to abstract from the qualities
of things, must be early and familiarly brought to the child,
not only as inherent characteristics of special things, but as
physical generalizations. He must not only be able early to
call a round or square thing, round or square, but he must, as
soon as possible, be impressed with the idea of roundness or
squareness as a unity, as a pure abstraction. This will
enable him to connect all that he meets in nature round,
square, simple, or complex, with the exact word that ex
presses this idea. Here also we see the reason why language
must be considered as a means of expressing form and
number, as distinguished from the way in which we may
regard it as a means of expressing all the other qualities of
objects, that Nature teaches us through our five senses.
I therefore begin, in the book for early childhood, to lead
the children to a clear consciousness of these generalizations.
This book contains a comprehensive survey of the ordinary
methods, as well as the simplest way, of making the child
understand the first properties of numbers.
Farther steps towards this end must, like the language-
exercises, be reserved for a later time, and be connected
with the special treatment of number and form. These, as
elements of our knowledge, must be considered after a com
plete survey of the exercises in language.
The illustrations of the first instruction-book, the Mother's
98 How Gertnfa Teaches Her Children.
But in order tare in all their Variety7 So chosen, that
methods of teacsical generalizations that are learnt through
purpose, kensegj are spoken of, and mothers are enabled
$ make the child familiarly acquainted with the most
exact expressions, without any trouble to themselves.
But in whatever relates to those qualities of things that
are learnt not directly through our five senses, but through
the intervention of our powers of comparison, imagination,
and abstraction, I stick to my principle, of making no kind
of human judgment apparently prematurely ripe ; but I use
the unavoidable knowledge of such abstract words, as
children of this age possess, merely as memory work, and
as easy food for their fancy and power of guessing.
On the other hand, in respect to objects that can be learnt
directly through our five senses, I take the following measures
to enable the child to express himself accurately as soon
as possible.
I take substantives distinguished by striking character
istics, known through our five senses, out of the dictionary
and put the adjectives that express these characteristics next
to them. For example : —
Eel, slippery, worm-like, leather-skinned.
Carrion, dead, stinking.
Evening, quiet, bright, cool, rainy.
Axle, strong, weak, greasy.
Field, sandy, loamy, manured, fertile, profitable,
t . unprofitable.
Then I invert the process, and find adjectives that describe
the striking characteristics of objects, learnt through our
senses ; then I put the substantive that has the characteristic
described by the adjective next to it. For example : —
, Round, ball, hat, moon, sun.
Light, feather, down, air.
Heavy, gold, lead, oak-wood.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 101
Warm, stoves, summer days, flame.
High, towers, mountains, trees, giants.
Deep, seas, lakes, cellars, graves.
Soft, flesh, wax, butter.
Elastic, steel springs, whalebone, etc.
I try, however, in no way to lessen the free play of the
child's individual thought by the completeness of these
illustrations, but only give a few illustrative facts that strike
his mind, and ask directly : * " What else do you know like
this ? " In most cases, the children find new facts within
the sphere of their experience, and very often some that
would not occur to the teacher. In this way the circle of
their knowledge is made wider and more exact, than^ it
could ever be through catechizing, or at least only by a
hundredfold more skill and trouble.
In all catechising the child is fettered, partly by the limits
of the precise idea about which he is catechized, partly by
the form in which he is catechized, and lastty, but certainly,
by the limits of the teacher's knowledge, and still more by
the teacher's anxious care that he should not be drawn \,
beyond the circle of his knowledge. Friend ! what terrible t'
barriers for the child, that have been wholly removed by my
method.
This done, I try to make the child, who is in many ways
acquainted with objects of the world, still more clear about
the objects so far known to him, by the further use of the
dictionary.
For tliis purpose I divide this great witness of a former
age uTider four headings.
1. Descriptive Geography.
2. History.
3. Physical science. \
4. Natural history.
* This question is repeated in Ed. I.
IO2 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
But to avoid unnecessary repetition of the same word, and
to make the form of teaching as short as possible,!! divide
these principal sections into forty sub-divisions, and show the
children the names of objects in these sub-divisions only.
Then I consider the principal object of my sense-impression,
myself, or rather the whole series of names that indicate
myself in language ; while I bring what the great witness of
the ancients, language, says about men, under the following
heads.
First head : —
What does it say of man, regarded as a mere physical
being, in relation to the animal kingdom ?
Second head : — •
What does it say of him, as striving upwards through the
social state to independence ?
Third head :—
What does it say of him as struggling upwards, through
the forces of his heart, mind, and skill, to a view of himself
and his surroundings higher than the animal's ? 6
I divide these three heads into forty sub-divisions, and
| only bring them before the children in these sub-divisions.*
The first arrangement in these series, in both departments,
about men, as well as material objects, should be simply
alphabetical, without any meaning. They are to be used
simply for making things gradually clear, by putting similar
sense-impressions, and ideas gained by sense-impressions,
together.
When this is done, when the witness of the ancisnts has
been thus used to put all that exists into simple alphabetical
order, the second question arises, —
How does the Art arrange these objects later, after closer
inspection ? Then a new work begins. The same series
* All these attempts were subsequently abandoned as the results of
immature opinions. — P.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 103
of words that the child knows perfectly well up to the
seventieth or eightieth row, merely alphabetically, must now
be shown him anew, in all these sub-divisions, and in all the
classifications by which these subdivisions are further
artificially divided, and he must be enabled to form sequences
for himself, and to arrange them after the following plan.
The different classes, into which the objects are divided,
are put at the head of each column, and indicated by num
bers, abbreviations, or other convenient signs.
In the first reading lesson, the child must thoroughly learn
the different classes of the principal divisions, and then, if
he finds in the series of words the sign of the class to which
it belongs, he is able at the first glance to see to which class
the object belongs, and so, by himself, to change the alpha-
bstical into a scientific nomenclature.
I do not know whether it is necessary to make the matter
clearer by an example ; it seems almost superfluous ; but I
will do it in consequence of the novelty of the form. One of
the sub-divisions of Europe is Germany. Now the children
are first made perfectly familiar with the division of Germany
into 10 circles. Then the towns of Germany are first put
before them, in reading, in alphabetical order ; but afterwards
every town is indicated by the number of the circle to which
it belongs. As soon as they can readily read these towns,
they learn the connection between these numbers and the
sub-divisions of the chief headings, and, in a few hours the
child is able to arrange the whole series of German towns
according to the sub-divisions of the principal headings.
When, for example, he sees the following German towns
with their numbers : —
Aachen, 8. Acken, 10. Aigremont, 8.
Aalen, 3. Adersbach, 11. Ala, 1.
Abenberg, 4. Agler, 1. Allenbach, 5.
Aberthran, 11. Ahrbergen, 10. Allendorf, 5.
IO4 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
Allersperg, 2. Altenburg, 9. Alkerdissen, 8.
Alschaufen, 3. Altensalza, 10. Amberg, 2.
Alsleben, 10. Altkirchen, 8. . Ambras,!.
Altbunzlau, 11. Altona, 10. Amoneburg, 6.
Altena, 8. Altorf, 1. Andernacb, 6,
Altenau, 10. Altranstadt, 9.
Altenberg, 9. Altwasser, 13.
he uses them in the following way.
Aachen is in the Westphalian circle. Abenberg in the
Franconian circle. Acken in the Lower Saxon circle, etc.
So the child is enabled, at the first glance at the number
or sign which belongs to the heading, to determine to what
class every word of this series belongs and, as I said, to turn
the alphabetical into a scientific nomenclature.
And here I find myself on the boundary where my own
work ends, and where the powers of my children should have
reached a point when they should be able in any kind of
knowledge to which their inclination leads them, to use, in
dependently, such helps as already exist ; but which are of
such a nature, that until now, only a privileged few could
use them. So far, and no further do I wish to come. I did
not and do not wish to teach the world art and science ; I
know none. 1 did and do wish to make the learning of the
first beginning-points easy for the common people, who are
forsaken and left to run wild ; to open the doors of art, which
are the doors of manliness, to the poor and woftk of the land ;
and if I can, to set fire to the barrier that keeps the humbler
citizens of Europe, in respect to that individual power
which is the foundation of all true art, far behind the
barbarians of the south and north, because, in the midst of
our vaunted and valued general enlightenment, it shuts out
one man in ten from the social rights of men, from the right
to be educated, or at least from the possibility of using that
right.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 105
May this barrier burn above my grave in blazing flames.
Now indeed I know that I only lay a weak coal in dank
wet straw — but I see a wind, no longer afar off, and it will fan
the coal ; gradually the wet straw round me will be dried,
will become warm, will kindle and burn. Yes, Gessner !
however wet it is now round me, it will burn, it will burn !
But while I see myself so far advanced in the second
special method of teaching language, I find I have not yet
I touched upon the third method, that should lead to the final
end of education — the clearing-up of our ideas.
c. Teaching the child to distinguish clearly by
speech, the connection of objects with each
other, in their varying conditions of number,
time, and proportion ; or rather to make still
clearer the nature, properties, and powers of
all objects that we have already learned to
know by name, and have, to some degree,
made clear by putting together their names
and qualities.
Here the foundations on which real grammar should rest,
appear, and in this way progress will be made towards the
final end of education — the clearing up of ideas.
Here also I prepare the children for the first step by a
very simple but psychological instruction in speech. With
out letting fall a word about forms and rules, let the mother
first repeat before the child simple sentences only, as exer
cises. These should be imitated, as much for the sake of
exercising the organs of speech, as for the sake of the
sentences themselves. We must clearly distinguish between
these two objects — exercise in pronunciation, and learning
words as language ; and practise the first by itself, independ
ently of the second. When the meaning and pronunciation
are understood, the mother should repeat the following kinds
of sentences : —
ioo How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
Father is kind.
The butterfly has gay wings.
The cow eats grass.
The fir has a straight stem.
When the child has said these sentences so often that the
repetition is easy to him, the mother asks : Who is kind ?
What has gay wings? And then backwards: What is
father ? What has the butterfly ? etc.
And then she goes on : —
Who or what are ?
Beasts of prey are flesh-eating.
Stags are light of foot.
The roots are wide-spreading.
Who or what has ? What has he or it ?
The lion has strength.
Man has reason.
The dog has a good nose.
The elephant has a trunk.
Who or ivhat have ? What have they ?
Plants have roots.
Fish have fins.
Birds have wings.
Cattle have horns.
Who wishes ? What docs he wish ?
The hungry man wishes to eat.
The creditor wishes to be paid.
The prisoner wishes to be free.
Who wish ? What do they wish ?
Sensible people wish for what is right.
Foolish people wish for what they fancy.
Children wish to play.
Tired people wish to rest.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 107
Who or what can f What can he or it do ?
The fish can swim.
The bird can fly.
The cat can climb.
The squirrel can jump.
The ox can toss.
The horse can kick.
Who can ? What can they do ?
Tailors can sew.
Donkeys can carry.
Oxen can plough.
Pigs can grunt.
Men can talk.
Dogs can bark.
Lions can roar.
Bears can growl.
Larks can sing.
Who or what must be ? What must they be ?
The draught-ox must be harnessed.
The horse must be ridden.
The ass must be loaded.
The cow must be milked.
The pig must be killed.
The hare must be hunted.
The right must be done.
Laws must be obeyed.
Who or ivhat must do f What must they do ?
Raindrops must fall.
Fettered men must go together.
The vanquished must submit.
Debtors must pay.
Thus I go on through all the declensions and conjugations,
io8 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
connecting this second step immediately with the first, and
particularly dwelling upon the verbs, according to a plan of
which I gave the following examples.
Verb and object simply connected.
Attend to the teacher's words.
Breathe through the lungs.
Fell a tree.
Bind a sheaf, etc.
Then follows the second exercise in putting verbs to
gether.
To tend. I tend the sheep. I attend to the teacher's
words, to my duty and my property ; * I attend to my duty
and my work. I contend against wrong. I do not pretend
to be better than I am. I extend my possessions. I intend
to buy a house. I must superintend those men. So far as a
child pays attention to anything, he is attentive or inat
tentive.
Breathe. • I breathe hard, lightly, quickly, slowly. I
breathe again, if I have lost my breath and recovered it.
I breathe air in. The dying man breathes his last.
Then I go on and repeat these exercises with . gradually
extending additions, and so get to more complicated and
descriptive sentences, e.g.—
I shall.
I shall preserve.
I shall preserve my health in no other way.
After all that I have suffered I shall preserve my health
in no other way.
After all that I suffered in my illness, I shall preserve my
health in no other way,
After all that I suffered in my illness, I shall preserve my
health in no other way than by moderation.
* Literal translation impossible; an illustration is attempted.
L. E. H.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 109
After all that I have suffered in my illness, I shall preserve
my health in no other way than by the greatest moderation.
After all that I have suffered in my illness, I shall preserve
my health in no other way than by the greatest moderation
and regularity.
After all that I suffered in my illness, I shall preserve my
health in no other way than by the greatest moderation and
general regularity.
All these sentences should be separately repeated in all the
persons of the verb, e.g. —
I shall preserve.
Thou shalt preserve.
He shall preserve, etc.
I shall preserve my health.
Thou shalt preserve thy health, etc.
The same sentences should be repeated in other tenses.
I have preserved.
Thou hast preserved, etc.
With these sentences, thus deeply impressed .upon the
children, we take care to choose those that are particularly
instructive, stimulating and suitable to their special case.
With these I give examples of descriptions of real objects,
in order to strengthen and use the power given to the chil
dren by these exercises.
For example —
A bell is a wide, thick, round bowl, open below, usually
hanging free, growing narrower towards the top, rounded
above like an egg, and having in the middle a vertical and
freely hanging clapper, that by a quick movement of the bowl
is knocked from side to side, thus producing a sound we call
ringing.
To walk is to move on step by step.
To stand is to rest upon the legs, with the body uprigh t
or vertical.
1 1 o How Gertrude Teaches 'Her Children.
To lie is to rest on something, with the body in a hori
zontal position.
To sit is to rest on something, in such a position that the
body makes two angles.
To kneel is to rest on the legs when they form an angle at
the knee.
To courtesy is to let the body be lowered by bending the
knee.
To bow is to bend the body forwards from an upright posi
tion.
To climb is to move up or down by clinging with the
hands and feet.
To ride is to be carried sitting upon on animal.
To drive is to be carried in a moving vehicle.
To fall is to be forced to move from above downwards by
one's own weight.7
To dig is to lift earth and turn it over with a spade.
I should like to conclude these exercises in language with
a legacy8 to my pupils, after my death. In this I put
down as they occur to me, significant verbs which, at the
most critical moments of my life, especially attract my
attention to the subjects which they indicate. By this ex
ercise I try to connect these verbs with truths about life,
living knowledge gained by sense-impression, and soul-in
spiring thoughts about all that men do and suffer, e.g. — 9
To breathe. Man ! thy life hangs upon a breath. When
thou snortest like a madman, and swallowest the pure air of
earth like poison into thy lungs — what dost thou but hasten
to make thyself breathless and to deliver from thy snorting
the men annoyed by it.
To improve the soil. In order to improve the soil, the
earth was divided. Thus property arose, the right to which
is only to be found in this purpose, and can never be opposed
to it. But if the State allows to the proprietor or itself, an
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 1 1 1
oppressive power over human nature, in opposition to this
purpose, feelings are developed in the injured masses, the
bad consequences of which can only be averted by a wise
return to the spirit of the original limitations of the purpose,
for the sake of which the earth, freely given by God to man,
was divided by him into special plots.10
To express. Thou art angry because thou canst not always
express thyself as thou wouldst. Do not be angry that thou
art forced, even against thy will, to take time to become
wise.
But it is time I ended this subject
I have dwelt long upon language as a means of gradually
making our ideas clear. It is indeed the first means.
My method of instruction is particularly distinguished in
this : — it makes greater use of language as a means of rais
ing the child from vague sense-impressions to clear ideas,
than has ever been done before. Also it is distinguished
by the principle of excluding all collections of words, pre
supposing actual knowledge of language or grammar, from
the first elementary instruction.
Whoever understands that Nature only leads from clear
ness about the individual to clearness about the whole, will
understand that words must be separately clear to the child,
before they can be made clear to him when joined together.
Whoever understands this, will throw away at once all
previous elementary instruction-books, as such, because they
all presuppose knowledge of language in the child before
they have given it him. Yes, Gressner, it is remarkable,
even the best instruction-book of the past century has for
gotten that the child must learn to talk before we can talk
with him ; this oversight is remarkable, but it is true. Since
I know this, I no longer wonder that we cannot make other
men out of the children than we do ; for we have so far for
gotten the wisdom and goodness of the ancients as to talk to
1 1 2 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
them [of so many and such various things] before they can
talk. Language is an art — it is an infinite art, or rather it is
the sum total of all arts, which our race has reached. It is in
a special sense, a giving-back of all impressions that Nature, as
a whole, has made upon our race. Thus I use it, and try by
the associations of its spoken sounds to bring back to the child
the very same impressions, which these sounds formed and
gave rise to in the human race. The gift of speech is infinite
in itself, and becomes daily greater as it ever grows more
perfect. It gives the child in a short time, what Nature
needed ages, to give to mankind. We say of an ox, what
would he be if he knew his strength ? and I say of man,
what would he be if he [wholly] knew his power of speech
and [wholly] used it ?
The gap is great that has arisen in the maze, which we call
human culture, because we have so far forgotten ourselves
that we have not only done nothing to teach11 humble folk to
talk, but have made the speechless people dream their time
away on abstract ideas, and while we made them learn empty
words by heart, we have taught them to believe that they
could reach real knowledge of things, and truth, in this way.
Verily the Indians could do no more to keep 12 their lowest
classes of people in everlasting idolatry, and in that way, to
breed a degraded race of men as sacrifices to their idols.
You may dispute the fact [that our lowest classes cannot
speak, and are led astray by their apparent ability to speak] ;
I appeal to all clergy, magistrates, to all men who live among
people who are oppressed in the midst of entire neglect, b}7
such a terribly distorted paternal, sham-caref ul method, of
teaching to speak. Let him who lives among such people
come forward and bear witness, if he has not experienced
how troublesome it is to get any idea into the poor creatures.
But every one agrees about this. "Yes, yes,"13 say the
clergy, " it is so ; when they come to us to be taught, they
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. \ \ 3
do not understand what we say, nor we what the}r answer,
and we get on no farther with them until they have learnt the
answers to our questions by heart." So say the magistrates ;
and they are right enough ; it is impossible to make their
.justice comprehensible to these men. When they come out
of a village, town-babblers are amazed at the want of speech
of these people, and say, " We must have them in the house
for years, before they even begin to understand orders given
by word of mouths" Talkative town-folk who have learned
to talk and chatter a bit behind the counter, think the most
clever and sensible of these people, stupid though they may
be, far more stupid than they really are. Good-for-n oughts
of every shade call out, each with his own grimace, " Lucky
for us that it is so, trade would be worse if things were
different."
Friend ! men of business and all kinds of people, who have
much to do with the lower classes in the country, for the
sake of body and soul, express themselves alike on this
subject. I might almost say, the people of rank in our High
Comedy Theatre, speak thus in their boxes and stalls, about
the condition of the people in the pit. They cannot help
speaking so, because the people in the pit are, to a great
degree, neglected in this respect. We cannot hide from our
selves that the lowest Christian people of our continent must
in many places, sink into these depths, because we, in its
/ lower schools, for more than a century, have given to empty
words a weight in the human mind, that not only hindered
• attention to the impressions of nature, but even destroyed -
man's inner susceptibility to these imprsssions. I say again
— while we do this, and degrade the lower class of Europe
into " word and clapper folk," 14 as hardly any people have
been degraded before, we never teach them to talk. It is,
therefore, not surprising, that the Christianity of this cen
tury and this continent looks as it does. On the contrary,
I
1 14 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
it is wonderful that good human nature, in spite of all the
blundering of our " word and clapper " schools, has preserved
so much inward strength as we often meet with in the
lowest classes of the people. But, thank God ! all follies and
all apings find at last a counterpoise in human nature
itself, and cease to be further harmful to our race when
error has reached the highest point that we can bear.
Folly and error carry in every garment the seeds of their
decay and death, truth alone, in every form, bears the seeds
of eternal life in itself.15
The second element from which all human knowledge,
according to the nature of instruction must proceed, is —
FQBM.
The teaching of form is preceded by the consciousness of
the sense-impression of things having form, the artificial re
presentations of which, for the purpose of instruction, must
be derived partly from the nature of the observing powers,
and partly from the definite aim of teaching itself.
All our knowledge arises : —
1. From impressions made by everything that accident
brings into contact with our five senses. This kind
of sense-impression is irregular, confused, and has a
very slow and limited scope.
2. From all that is brought to our senses through the
interposition of the Art, and guidance of our parents
and teachers. This kind of sense-impression is
naturally more or less psychologically arranged,
according to the degree of insight and energy of the
parents and teachers [of each child], and is also more
comprehensive and connected. His progress also,
towards the end and aim of instruction, clear ideas,
is in the same degree more or less rapid and safe.
3. From my will, [based on, and kept alive by the self-
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 115
activity of all my faculties] ; from my strong desire
to obtain notions, knowledge and ability ; and from
spontaneous efforts towards gaining sense-impres
sions. This kind of knowledge gained by sense-im
pression gives intrinsic value to our notions and
brings us nearer to moral self-active education, by
forming in us an independent vitality for the results
of our sense-impressions.
4. From the results of effort, work at one's calling,
and all kinds of activity, the object of which is not
merely sense-impression. This manner of gaining
knowledge connects my sense-impressions with my
conditions and position, and brings the results into
harmony with my efforts towards duty and virtue.
It has, through the necessity of its course, as well
as through its results, the most important influence
on the accuracy, continuity, and harmony of my
insight, as well as on the purpose aimed at— making
ideas clear.
5. Lastly, by analogy. Knowledge gained by sense-
impression teaches me the properties of things that
have not been brought to my sense-impression, by
their likeness to other objects that I have observed.
This mode of observation (Ansch.} changes my
advance in knowledge, which as the result of actual
sense-impression, is only the work of my senses,
into the work of my mind and all its powers;
and I have, therefore, as many kinds of sense-
impression as I have powers of mind. But now
" sense-impression " has a wider meaning than in
common speech. It includes the whole series of
feelings that are inseparable from the very nature
of my mind.16 . .
It is important to learn the difference between these two
1 1 6 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
kinds of sense-impressions, in order to abstract the laws that
are proper to each.
Meanwhile, I return to my path.
From the consciousness of my sense-impression of the form
of things, arises the art of measuring. This, however, rests
immediately upon the art of sense-impression (or obser,-
Wiion\ which must be differentiated from the simple power
of gaining knowledge, as well as from the simple kind of
sense-impression. All divisions for measurement and their
results are derived from these cultivated sense-impressions.
But even this art of sense-impression leads us, through com
parison of objects, beyond the rules of the art of measure
ment, to free imitations of these proportions, that is, to the
art of drawing. Lastly we use the power given by the art
of drawing in the art of writing.
THE ART OF MEASURING
Presupposes an A B C of s^se-im-pression-s (A B C of
Anschauung), that is, it presupposes an art of simplifying
and defining the principles of measurement by exact separa
tion of all inequalities that appear to the observer.
Dear Gressner, I will again call your attention to the em
pirical course that led me to this view of the subject ; and
for this purpose, will add an extract from a passage in my
f Report.17 u Grant the principle," said I, " that sense-im-
/ pression is the foundation of all knowledge, it follows inevit-
\ abty, that accuracy of sense-impression is the foundation of
accurate judgment.
" But it is obvious, that in art education perfect accuracy
of observation must be a result of measuring the object to be
judged [or imitated], or of a power of perceiving proportion,
so far cultivated as to render measurement of the object
superfluous. Thus the capacity of measuring correctly,
ranks, in the art-education of our race, immediately after the
Hozv Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 1 1 7
need of observation (Ansch.}. Drawing is a linear definition
of the form, of which the outline and surface are rightly and
exactly defined, by complete measurement.
a The principle, that the exercise and capacity of measur
ing everything, must precede exercises in drawing, or, at
least keep equal pace with them, is as obvious as it is gene
rally overlooked. The usual course of our art-education is to
begin with inaccurate observation and crooked structures,
then to pull down and build up again crookedly ten times over,
until at last, and late, the feeling of proportion is matured.
Then we come, at last, to that which we should have begun
with, measurement.18 That is our art-course. Yet we are so
many thousand years older than the Egyptians, and Etrus
cans, whose drawings all depend on perfect measurement,
or are at bottom nothing but [simple statements of] such
measurements.
" And now comes the question : — What means have we of
educating the child in this foundation of all art, correct
measurement of all objects that come before his eyes ? Ob
viously by a series of measuring sub-divisions of the square,
which are arranged according to simple, safe, and clear rules,
and include the sum total of all possible sense-impressions.*
" True, the modern artists, in spite of the want of such
measurements, have by long practice in their craft, acquired
methods by which they have attained more or less ability in
placing any object before their eyes and drawing it, as it
really is in nature. It cannot be denied that many of them
attained this power by toilsome and long-continued efforts.
By the most confused sense-impressions, they reached a sense
* Remark for the new edition. This passage is, like many another,
the expression of immature, unformed opinion of the first empirical
inquiry, of an idea of elementary education only mistily conceived as a
whole, and now only so far interesting as it shows the first empirical
course that this idea took in myself and fellow-workers. — PESTALOZZI.
Ii8 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
of proportion, so far cultivated as to render actual measure
ment superfluous. But there were almost as many varieties
of method as men. No one had a name for his own, because
no one knew it clearly ; therefore he could not properly im
part it to his pupils. The pupil also was in the same state
as his teacher, and was obliged, with extreme effort and long
practice, to find out a method of his own, or rather the result
of a method, and to acquire a correct sense of proportion.
And so art stayed in the hands of the few happy ones who
had time and leisure to gain this sense by circuitous ways ;
and therefore no one could look upon it as an ordinary human
business, or claim its cultivation as an ordinary human
right. Yet it is one; at least he cannot be contradicted
who asserts that every man living in a cultivated State,
has a right to learn to read and write. Then, evidently,
the wish to draw and the capacity of measuring, which are
developed naturally and easily in the child (as compared
to the toil with which he is taught reading and writing)
must be restored to him with greater art or more force,
if we would not injure him more than the reading can
ever be worth. But drawing, as a help towards the end
of instruction, making ideas clear, is essentially bound
up with the measurement of forms. When a child is given
an object to draw, he can never use his art as he should,
that is as a means of rising through vague sense-impres
sion to clear ideas in all his education, until he can represent
the proportions of the form, and express himself about them ;
nor can his art have that real value that it might and should
have, were it in harmony with the great purpose of educa
tion."
/ Thus in order to found the art of drawing, we must
subordinate it to the art of measuring, and endeavour to
I organize as definite measuring forms the divisions into
\angles and arcs that come out of the fundamental form of the
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 1 1 9
^square, as well as its rectilinear divisions. This has been
&one, and I think I have organized a series of such measur
ing-forms,19 the use of which makes the learning of all
measurements, and the proportions of all forms easy to
understand, just as the A B C of sounds makes the learning
of language easy.
* This A B C of form (ABC of Anschauung), however, is
an equal division of the square into definite measure-forms,
and requires an exact knowledge of its foundation — the
straight line in a vertical or horizontal position.
These divisions of the square by straight lines produce
certain forms for defining and measuring all angles, as well
as the circle and all arcs. I call the whole the ABC
f Anschauung."
This should be presented to the child in the following
way.
We show him the properties of straight lines, unconnected
and each by itself, under many conditions and in different
arbitrary directions, and make him clearly conscious of the
different appearances, without considering their further
uses. Then we begin to name the straight lines as horizon
tal, vertical, and oblique ; describing the oblique lines first
* I must here remark that the A B C of Anschauung appears to
be the only essential and true method of instruction for the just
appreciation of the forms of things. But until now, this method has
been entirely neglected and ignored, though we have a hundred such
methods for arithmetic and language. Meanwhile, the want of such
a method of instruction about form, is not to be regarded only as a
defect in the structure of human knowledge, but as the defect in the
foundation of all knowledge. It seems to me a defect in knowledge,
at the very point, where language and number should be subordinate
jto. it. My ABC der Anschauung will remedy this deficiency
and secure instruction a basis, on which other methods of instruction
must be built. 1 beg the men of Germany, who feel themselves en
titled to judge, to look upon this point as the foundation of my
method. The value or worthlessness of my attempt rests upon the
Tightness or wrongness of this foundation. — PESTALOZZI.
12O How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
as rising or falling, then as rising or falling to right or left.
Then we name the different parallels as horizontal, vertical,
and oblique parallel lines ; then we name the principal angles
formed by joining these lines, as right, acute, obtuse. In
the same way we teach them to know and name the prototype
of all measure-forms, the square, which arises from joining
together two angles, and its divisions into halves, quarters,
sixths, and so on, then the circle and its variations, in elon
gated forms, and their different parts.
All these definitions should be taught to the children as
results of measuring with the eye, and the measuring-forms
named in this course as square, horizontal, or vertical oblong
(or rectangle) ; the curved lines as circle, semi-circle, quad
rant ; first oval,20 half-oval, quarter-oval, second, third, fourth,
fifth, and so on. They must be led to use these forms as
means of measuring, and to learn the nature of the propor
tions by which they are produced. The first means of
obtaining this end is —
1. To endeavour to make the child know and name the
proportions of these measure-forms.
2. To enable him to apply and use them independently.
The child will be already prepared for this purpose by the
Mother's Book and many objects have been shown him that
are square, round, oval, broad, long, narrow. Soon after the
divisions of the A B C of Anschauung will be cut out in
cardboard and shown him as quarter, half quarter, sixth of
the square, and so on ; and then again as circle, half and
quarter circle, oval, half and quarter oval. In this way a dim
consciousness will be produced beforehand, of the clear idea,
that must hereafter be developed by learning the artistic
appearance and the use of these forms. For this, too, they
are prepared by the Mother's Book, in which the beginnings
of a definite language of the forms, as well as the begin
nings of number, which presupposes measurement, are given.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 12 1
For this purpose they are led through the A B C of An-
schauung, since the methods of this art, language and num
ber, of which they are made dimly conscious by the Mother's
Book, are, in this ABC, made clear for the precise purpose
of measuring; and they are enabled to express themselves
clearly about number and measure in every form.
3. The third means of attaining this end is by drawing
these forms themselves, by which the children (com
bining this with the other two methods) not only
gradually gain clear ideas about every form, but gain
accurate power of working with every form. In
order to attain the first end, we show them also the
proportions of the forms that are recognized in the
first course as horizontal and vertical rectangles, and
described in the second course, as e.g., " the horizontal
rectangle 2 is twice as long as it is high : the ver
tical rectangle 2 is twice as high as it is long," and so
on through all the divisions. Here, too, the oblique
lines of several rectangles must be seen and described
by ratios for the sake of the different directions,
e.g. : horizontal rectangle, 1 x 1|, vertical rectangle,
1 x 2i, 3J, l£. For the same purpose the different
angles of the oblique lines, acute or obtuse, must be
defined as well as the divisions of the circle, and the
ovals arising from dividing the rectangle.
The power of measuring, thus developed in me by the re
cognition of such definite forms, raises my feeble observing
power to an art, subordinated to definite rules, from which
arises that just appreciation of all forms that I call the art
of senseSTpression for qEse^vaSonV^ This is a new art that
should precede the usual, oldfashioned, well-known ideas of
art-culture, and serve as their general and essential founda
tion. By this means, every child, in the simplest way is en
abled to judge rightly and express himself clearly about
^
122 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
every object in nature, according to its external * propor
tions and its relation to others. By this art-guidance he
v is enabled, whenever he looks at a figure, to describe arid
i name, not only the proportion of height to breadth, but the
x proportion of every single deviation of its form from the
.square, in oblique lines and curves, and to apply the names
\ which denote these deviations in our A B C of Anschauung.
The means of attaining this power lie in the art of measur-
Ungj and will be still further developed in the child by
the art of drawing, particularly the art of drawing lines.
He will be brought to a point when he will be so familiar
with the measure-forms, that they will become a kind of in
stinct. After perfecting the preliminary exercises, he need
no longer put them before his eyes as an actual means of
measuring the most complex objects ; but without the help
of [special] measurement, he can represent all their propor
tions, and express himself clearly about them.
We cannot say to what results the developed power may
raise every child, even the weakest. No one shall say it is
a dream. I have led children on these principles, and my
theory is for me entirely the result of my decided ex
perience. Any one may come and see. Certainly my chil
dren are only at the beginning of this guidance, but these
beginnings show, so far, that it needs a peculiar species of
man to stand near my children and not be convinced ; and
this is no less than extraordinary.
THE ART OF DRAWING
Is the power of representing to oneself the sense-impression
made by any object, its outline and the characteristics con
tained within the outline, by means of similar lines, and of
being able to imitate these lines accurately.
This art will become, beyond comparison, easier by the
* Ed. 1, Internal.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 123
new method, because in every way it appears to be only an
easy application of the forms that have not only been ob
served by the child already, but by practice in imitating,
have developed in him a real power of measuring.
This is done in this way. As soon as the child draws the
horizontal line, with which the A B C of Anschauung
begins, readily and correctly, we try to find him, out of the
whole chaos of objects seen and shown, figures whose out
line is only the application of the familiar horizontal line, or
at least only offers an imperceptible deviation from it.
Then we go on to the vertical line, then to the right angle,
and so on. As the child, by easy application of these forms,
becomes stronger, we gradually vary the figures. The re
sults of these measures (which agree with the natural physical
mechanical laws) on the art of drawing are as remarkable
as those of the A B C of Anschauung upon the art of
measuring. While in this way the children bring every
drawing, even the first-beginning drawing, to perfection,
before they proceed farther, a consciousness of the result of
perfected power is developed in them, already, in the first
steps of this art ; and with this consciousness, an effort to
wards perfection and a perseverance towards completion,
are also developed, which the hurly-burly caused by the folly
and disorder of our un psychological men and methods of art-
education, never attempts or can attempt.
The foundation of progress, in children so taught, is not
only in the hand, it is founded on the intrinsic powers of
human nature. The exercise-books of measure-forms then
give the sequence of means by which this effort, used with
psychological art, and within physical -mechanical laws, raises
the child step by step to the point on which we have already
touched, when having the measure-forms actually before him
becomes gradually superfluous, and when of the guiding
lines in art, none remains but art itself.
124 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
THE ART OF WRITING.
Nature herself has subordinated this art to that of draw
ing ; and all methods by which drawing is developed and
brought to perfection in children, must then be naturally and
specially dependent upon the art of measuring.
The art of writing can, as little as drawing, be begun and
pursued without preceding developing exercises in measured
lines, not only because it is a special kind of linear drawing
and suffers no arbitrary deviation from the fixed direction of
its forms, but also, if it is made easy to the child before
drawing, it must necessarily spoil the hand (for drawing),
because it stiffens it in particular directions before the
universal flexibility for all the forms which drawing re
quires, has been sufficiently and firmly established. Still
more should drawing precede writing because it makes the
right forming of the letters incomparably easier, and saves
the great waste of time spent in making crooked [and in
correct] forms again and again. The child enjoys this ad
vantage in his whole education, from the very beginning of
the art, he is made conscious of its power of perfection,
and therefore from the first moment of learning to write, it
creates the will to add nothing inharmonious, incorrect, and
imperfect to the first steps already brought to a certain
degree of accuracy, precision, and perfection.
Writing, like drawing, should be tried first with the slate
pencil on a slate, until the child is old enough to make
letters with a certain degree of accuracy with the pencil, —
an age at which it would be extremely difficult to teach
him to guide a pen.
Again, the use of the pencil before the pen in writing, and
in drawing, is to be recommended, because, in any case,
mistakes can be easily erased from the slate ; while, on the
contrary, one wrong word remaining on paper, often leads
to a whole tribe of still worse mistakes than the first, and
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 125
almost from the beginning of a line or page of writing to the
end, there is a remarkable kind of progression from the mis
taken deviation set up at the beginning of the line or page.
Lastly, I consider it an essential advantage of this method,
that the child rnbs out the perfectly good work also from
the slate. No one can believe how important this is, if he
does not generally know how important it is for the human
race, that man should be educated without conceit, and not
come to set a fictitious value on his own handywork too
soon.
So I divide learning to write into two stages.
1. That in which the child becomes familiar with the
forms of the letters and their combinations, inde
pendently of the use of the pen.
2. That in which his hand is practised in the use of
the proper writing instrument, the pen.
In the first stage I put the letters in exact proportions
before the child, and have prepared a copy-book by which
the child, in harmony with this whole method and its advan
tages, may educate himself almost alone and without further
help, in the power of writing. The advantages of this
writing-book are : —
1. It dwells long enough on the beginning and funda
mental forms of the letters.
2. It gradually joins the parts of the combined forms
of letters to each other, so that the completion of
the more difficult letters is only to be regarded as a
gradual addition of new parts to the already prac
tised beginnings of letters.
3. It exercises the child in combining several letters
from the moment that he is able to copy one cor
rectly, and he rises step by step to the combination
of such words as consist simply of those letters,
which he can copy correctly at that time.
126 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
4. Lastly, it has this advantage, it can be cut up into
single lines, and so laid before the child, that the
lines to be imitated by eye and hand, stand imme
diately over the letters of the copy.
In the second stage, when the child must be led to use
the special writing instrument, the pen, he has already been
exercised in the forms of the letters and their combinations,
and is tolerably perfect. The teacher has then nothing
further to do, but to complete the power of drawing these
forms by the use of the pen, and make it the real art of
writing.
Meanwhile the child, here too, must join on the further
progress to the point up to which he has already practised.
His first writing with the pen is merely his pencil progress
over again, and with the first use of the pen he should begin
with writing the letters just the same size as he drew them
at first, and only gradually be exercised in copying the
ordinary small writing.
All branches of instruction demand essentially psycho
logical analysis of their methods, and the age should be
exactly fixed at which each may, and ought to be, given to
the child. As I work on this principle in all subjects, so in
the art of writing, by always following it, and by using a
slate pencil copy for children from four to five, I have come
to the conclusion, that by this method even a bad teacher, or
a very untrained mother, may be able to teach the children
accurate and beautiful writing, up to a certain point without
being able to do it herself. The essential purpose of my
method here and elsewhere, is to make home instruction
possible again, for people neglected in this respect, and to
raise every mother, whose heart beats for her children, step
by step, till at last she can follow my elementary exercises
by herself, and be able to use them witk her children. To
do, this, she need in every case be but a little step in advance
of the children.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 127
My heart beats high with the hopes to which these views
lead me; but, dear friend, ever since I began to express
any suggestion of the kind, men cry out at me from all
sides, " The mothers of this country will never do it"
And not only men of the people, but even men who teach
the people, men who teach the people Christianity, say scorn-
fulJy to me, " You may run up and down our villages, you
will find no mothers who will do what you ask of them."
[They are quite right. It is so ; but it should not be so ; it
shall not be so. Of a hundred men, who make this objection,
hardly one knows why it is so, and still fewer know how to
make it different.] Meanwhile I can answer these people
with the utmost calmness : " I luitt, ivith the means that are
in my hand, enable heathen mothers in the far north to do
what I want, and if it is really true that Christian mothers
in temperate Europe — that Christian mothers in my father
land cannot be brought so far as I will bring heathen
mothers in the wild north, at any time " — then I would cry
out to these gentlemen who now in this way slander the
people of our fatherland, whom they, and their fathers, have
taught, instructed and guided hitherto : " You should wash
your hands, and say aloud : * We are guiltless of this mon
strous barbarism of the people of temperate Europe. We
are guiltless of this monstrous barbarism of the best
natured, most docile of all European people, the Swiss.'
Say out loud, * We and our fathers have done what we ought
to have done, to remove the unutterable misery of this
barbarism from our country and our fatherland, and to
prevent this unspeakable ruin of the first principles of
morality and Christianity in our country and fatherland.' "
I would answer the men who dare to say " Run up and
down the country, the mothers of the land will not do it or
wish to do it," and say, " You ought to cry out to these
unnatural mothers of our fatherland as Christ once cried to
128 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
Jerusalem, ' Mothers ! mothers ! we would have gathered
you together under the wings of wisdom, humanity, and
Christianity, as a hen gathereth her chickens, but ye would
not? " If they dare do this, I will be silent and believe in
their word and in their experience — and not in the mothers
of the land, not in the heart that God has put into their
breast. But if they dare not do this, I will not believe in
them, but in the mothers of the land, and in the heart that
God has put in their breast. I will declare the wretched
talk, in which they throw away the people of the land as if
they were the produce of a lower order of creation, a slander
against the people, against nature and truth. I go on my
way like a wanderer who hears the wind in a distant wold
but feels it not. I go on my way for all this talk.
Throughout my whole life, I have seen and known all kinds
of such wordy men, wrapped up in systems and theories,
knowing nothing and caring nothing for tjie people • and the
individuals, who to-day slander the people in this way about
this matter of education are more in this state than any others
that I know. Such men think themselves upon a height, and
the people far below -them in the valley ; but they are mis
taken in both ; and are like poor apes, hindered and made
incapable, by the conceit of their miserable, nature, of judg
ing rightly about the pure worth of real animal powers, or
about true human talents. The brilliant polish, which these
wordy men owe to their unnatural way of living, makes them
incapable of understanding that they are mounted on stilts,
and therefore must come down from their miserable wooden
legs, in order to stand as firmly as other folk, upon God's
earth. I pity them. I have heard many of these wretched
wordy men say, with a mixture of nun-like innocence and rab
binical wisdom : " What can be more beautiful for the people
than the Heidelberg Catechism and the Psalter f " — and I
must take humanity into account even here, and recall to mind
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 129
the causes of this error. Yes, friend ! I will excuse them
this error of the human mind, it has always been and will
ever be so. Men are all alike, the scribes and their disciples
were so too. Then I will not open my mouth again against
the verbosity of their social dogmas, against the tinkling
cymbals of their ceremonies, and the loveless and foolish frame
of mind that they must, by their very nature, produce ; but,
with the greatest man who ever declared the cause of truth,
of the people and of love victorious against the errors of the
scribes, I will only say, " Father, forgive them ; for they
know not what they do"
But I return. Learning to write appears to be, thirdly,
a kind of learning to talk. In its nature it is only a
peculiar and special exercise of this art.
As writing, considered as form, appears in my methods, in
connection with measuring and drawing, and in this con
nection, enjoys all the advantages that are produced by the
early development of these faculties, so it appears again as
a special kind of learning to talk in connection with the
very exercises, which have been used from the cradle up
wards, for the development of this power.
The child enjoys just the same advantages that he has
had already in the development of his speech, a faculty that
has been developed and firmly fixed in him by the Mother's
Book, the Spelling and the Reading Book.
A child taught by these methods, knows the spelling and
first reading book almost by heart. He knows the funda
mentals of orthography and language as one great whole,
and when he has practised the forms of the letters, by means
of the slate pencil and the first writing exercises, and is
quite familiar with the individual features of the letters and
their combinations, he needs for his further writing lessons
TIO more special copies. He has the essence of copies in his
head, by his readiness in speech and orthography ; he writes
K
130 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
from his own experience, on the lines of the spelling and
reading books, lists of words by which he confirms his
knowledge of language, and uses his powers of memory and
imagination.
The advantages of these graduated exercises in writing,
connected with those used in learning to talk, are especially
these : —
1. They confirm the grammatical facility that the child
already possesses, and impress its principles indelibly
upon him. It must be so, since, following the direc
tion of the reading book, in which nouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs, etc., are arranged in separate
columns, he is exercised in putting these words into
their places, and so he learns to know at once, to
which column any given word belongs, and to make
for himself rules, which are applicable to these
sequences.
2. In the same way his power of gaining clear ideas
generally is strengthened by speech (still according
to the method); while as a writing-exercise, he can,
with his dictionary, make lists of headings and signs
of sub-divisions and some generalizations, collected by
himself, on the relationships of all things.
3. The means of gaining clear ideas by writing-exer
cises is confirmed, for not only is he exercised by
writing, as by speaking, in putting together nouns,
verbs and adjectives ; but by these exercises he gains
independent power of discovering and adding his own
knowledge or ideas to the many sequences ; the chief
contents of which he has made his own in learning
to talk.
For example, in the writing-exercise, he not only adds
what in the reading book he has learned to call high, and
pointed, but he is taught, and is pleased with the task, to
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 131
think and add what objects, within his own circle of know
ledge, have this form.
I give an example, which shows the children's power of
discovering such illustrations.
I gave them the word three-cornered and they used it, with
the help of a country schoolmaster, on the following examples.
Three-cornered : the triangle ; the plummet ; half a hand
kerchief ; the joiner's rule ; a kind of file ; the bayonet ; the
prism ; the beechnut ; the scraper of an engraver ; the wound
made by a leech ; the sword blade ; buckwheat seed ; the
legs of the compass ; the lower part of the nose ; Grood Henry's
leaf* ; the spinage-leaf ; the ovary of the tulip ; the figure 4 ;
and the ovary of the shepherd's purse.
They found several more three-cornered figures in tables,
and windows with round panes, for which however they
knew no names.
The same thing is done when they add adjectives to
nouns. They add, for example, not only all the adjectives
which they have learned from the reading book, to eel,
carrion, evening, etc., but also those adjectives that their
experience has shown them to be suitable. So, in the
simplest way, by collecting the characteristics of things,
they make themselves acquainted and familiar with the
nature, essence, and properties of all things within their
knowledge. Verbs also are treated in the same way. When,
for example, they wish to explain to observe by adding nouns
and adverbs, they will not only explain it, or support it by
those which they find in the reading book, but will do as
before.
The results of these exercises are far-reaching They en
able the children, from the descriptions learned by heart, e.g.
the bell, to go, to stand, to lie, eye, ear, etc., which are fixed and
general leading-strings for them, to express themselves clearly
* Chenopodium, Bonus Eenricus, Goosefoot.
132 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
about every possible thing, whose form or substance they
know, either by word of mouth, or by writing. But of course
it must be understood, that this result is attained, not by
isolated special writing-exercises, but by connecting these
with the whole series of means, by which the method raises
the pupils gradually to clear ideas.
This must be understood throughout the whole course of
this teaching, when I say that learning to write is perfected
not only as an art, but also as a calling, and that the child,
in this way, may be enabled to express itself in words as
easily and as naturally by this art, as by speech itself.
VIII.
The third elementary means of gaining knowledge is
NUMBER.
Now while sound and form lead us, by several subordinate
methods, to the clear ideas and mental independence, which
we aim at through them, arithmetic is the only means of
instruction which is connected with no subordinate means.
Wherever it applies it appears only as a simple result of that
elementary faculty by which we make ourselves clearly con
scious of the relations of more or less in all seen objects
(Ansch.), and are enabled to represent these ratios with infi
nite accuracy.
Sound and form very often carry seeds of error and decep
tion in themselves — number never. It alone leads to certain
results, and if measurement makes the same claim, it can
only support it by the help of arithmetic and in union with
it. That is, it is sure because it calculates.
Now arithmetic is to be considered the means that aims
most directly at the end of instruction, clear ideas, the most
important of all means. It is obvious therefore, that this
subject should always be pursued with special care and skill.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 133
It is extremely important, that it should be put into such
forms, as will enable us to use all the advantages afforded to
instruction by deep psychology and a comprehensive know
ledge of the immutable laws of the physical mechanism.
I have, therefore, taken especial trouble to make arithmetic
evident to the child's sense-impression, as the clearest result
of these laws. I have not only tried to reduce its elements
to that simplicity in which they appear in actual, natural
sense-impressions, but also to connect, accurately and un
interruptedly, its further steps and all its variations with
this simplicity of the beginning-points. I am convinced
that even the extreme limits of this art can only be means
of true enlightenment (that is a means of gaining clear ideas
and pure insight) in so far, as they develope these in the
human mind, in the same gradation, with which nature herself
goes on from the first beginning-points.
ARITHMETIC
arises entirely from simply putting together and separating
several units. Its basis, as I said, is essentially this. One
and one are two, and one from two leaves one. Any number,
whatever it may be, is only an abbreviation of this natural,
original method of counting. But it is important, that this
consciousness of the origin of relations of numbers, should
not be weakened in the human mind, by the shortening ex
pedients of arithmetic. It should be deeply impressed with
great care on all the ways in which this art is taught, and
all the future steps should be built upon the consciousness,
deeply retained in the human mind, of the real relations of
things, which lie at the bottom of all calculation. If this is
not done, this first means of gaming clear ideas will be de
graded to a plaything of our memory and imagination, and
will be useless for its essential purpose.
It cannot be otherwise. When, for example, we just learn
134 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
by heart " three and four make seven," and then build upon
this seven, as if we really knew that three and four make
seven, we deceive ourselves, for the inner truth of seven is
not in us, for we are not conscious of the meaning behind it,
which alone can make an empty word a truth for us. It is
the same with all branches of human knowledge. Drawing
too, for want of being connected with its basis, measure
ment, loses the inner truth of its being, by which alone it
can be raised to a means of leading us to clear ideas.
In theJMother's Book I begin my efforts to give the chil
dren an impression of the relations of numbers, as actual
changes of more and less; these can be found in the objects
before their eyes. The first tables of this book contain a
series of objects, that give the child a clear sense-impression
of one, two, three, etc., up to ten. Then I let the children
look for those objects, that are represented on these tables
as units, pairs of units, threes of units, and so on. After
wards I let them find these same relations on their fingers,
or with peas, stones or other handy objects, and I renew
the knowledge hundreds and hundreds of times daily. For
as I divide words into syllables and letters on the spell
ing-board, I throw out the question, " How many syllables
has this word ? What is the first, second, third?" and so on.
In this way the beginning of calculation is deeply impressed
upon the children, and they become familiar with its abbrevia
tions, and with numbers, with full consciousness of their inner
truth, before they use them, without the background of sense-
impression before their eyes. Independently of the advan
tage of in this way making calculation the foundation of
clear ideas, it is incredible how easy the art itself may be
made to the child by this firmly based preparation through
sense-impressions. Experience shows that the beginnings
are only difficult because these [necessary] psychological
methods are not so widely used as they should be. There-
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 135
fore I must be somewhat circumstantial in my description of
the methods to be applied here.
Besides the means already indicated, we use after them the
spelling-board also for counting. We put upon it each
tablet as a unit and we begin, when the children are learning
their letters, to make them learn the relations of numbers
also. We take a particular tablet and ask the child, " Are
there many tablets ? " The child answers, u No ; only one."
Then we add another and ask, " One and one — how many? "
the child answers, " One and one are two." Thus we go on,
adding only one at a time; afterwards we add two, three,
and so on.
When the child understands the addition of one and one,
up to ten, perfectly, and can express himself with alsolute
ease, we put the letter-tablets in the same way upon the
board, but alter the questions, and say, " When you have
two tablets how many times one tablet have you." The
child looks, counts, and answers rightly : " If I have two
tablets, I have twice one tablet."
When by exact and often repeated counting of the parts,
he has become clearly conscious how many units are in the
first numbers, we change the question again and say with
a similar arrangement of tablets, "How many times one is-
two ? How many times one is three ? " etc., and then again,
" How many times is one contained in two ? In three ? "
etc. Then when the child is acquainted with the simple
beginnings of addition, multiplication, and division, and is
perfectly familiar with the nature of these forms of reckon
ing through sense - impression, we try to make him ac
quainted and familiar with the beginnings of subtraction, in
the same way, through sense-impression. This is done in
this way. From the ten tablets collected together, we take
away one, and ask : " When you have taken one away from
ten how many are left ? " The child counts, finds nine, and
136 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
answers, " When I take one away from ten, nine are left."
Then we take a second tablet away, and ask, " One less than
nine, how many?" The child counts again, finds eight, and
answers, " One less than nine is eight." So we go on to
the last.
This kind of explanation of arithmetic may now be set
down in writing in the following way in rows.
II! II II etc.
I III III III etc.
I I I I I I I I I etc.
As the counting of each row is finished, the separate
numbers will be taken away in the same way ; as follows : —
If, for example, we add 1 and 2 are 3, and 2 are 5, and 2
are 7, etc., up to 21, then we take two tablets away and say,
" 2 less than 21, how many?" and go on till no more are
left.
The consciousness of many, or few objects, that is pro
duced by laying real, movable, actual things before the
child, is then confirmed in him by counting-tables, by which
he is shown similar sequences of relations, by means of
strokes and dots. These tables, like real objects, will be
used as guides to counting, as the Spelling Book is used
for putting up the words on the spelling-board. When the
child is accustomed to count with real objects, and with the
dots and strokes, put in their place, as far as these tables
(that are founded entirely on sense-impression) go, the know
ledge of the real relations of numbers will be so confirmed
in him, that the short methods by means of ordinary numbers,
without sense-impression, will be incredibly easy to him
because his mental powers have not been dissipated [so
far as arithmetic goes] by confusion, discrepancies, and
guessing. We can say in a special sense that such counting
is an exercise for the reason, and not memory or routine
How Gertruae Teaches Her Children. 137
work. It is the result of the clearest most exact sense-
impression and leads safely to clear ideas about these re
lations.
But as increase and decrease of all objects does not consist
only of more or less units, but also in the division of units
into several parts, a second form of counting arises ; or
rather a path is opened, by which every separate unit may
be the foundation of endless divisions of itself, and endless
divisions of the units contained in it.
As in the first kind of counting, that is of many or few
whole units we have considered the number one as the begin
ning point of all calculation, and as the foundation of the
art of sense-impression and all its changes ; so now in the
second kind of counting, a figure must be found which does
the same for this kind of counting, as the number one does
for the other.
We must find a figure that is infinitely divisible and that
in all its divisions is like itself ; a figure by which a kind of
sense-impression of infinitesimal fractions, either as parts of
a whole, or as independent undivided units, may be given.
This figure must put every relation of a fraction, in relation
to the whole, before the child's eyes as clearly and as exactly,
as, by our method, in simple arithmetic, the number one
is shown in the number three, exactly three times.
There is no possible figure that can do this except the
square.
By this we can put sensibly before the child's eyes, the
proportions of the divisions of the unit or the fraction, in
their progressive sequences, from the common beginning-
point of all notions of more or less, the number one, just as
we showed him the increase or decrease of undivided units.
We have prepared a table of sense-impressions of fractions
that has 11 rows, each consisting of ten squares.1
The squares in the first row are undivided. Those in,
138 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
the second are divided into two equal parts ; those in the
third into three, and so on up to 10.
This table simply divided, is followed by a second table
in which these simple visible divisions go on in the following
order. The squares, which in the first table are divided
into two equal parts, are now divided into 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12,
14, 16, 18, 20 parts ; those in the next row are divided into
3, 6, 9, 12, etc.
As the A B C of Anschauung consists of measuring-
forms, which are founded generally on the ten-fold division
of the square, it is obvious that we can use the common
'.origin of the A B C of Anschauung, the square, as the foun
dation of an A B C of arithmetic ; or rather, that we have
brought the elements of form and number into such harmony,
that our measure-forms can be used as the first foundation
of relations of numbers ; and the first foundations of the
relations of numbers can be used as measure-forms.
So we have reached this : By our method we can teach
children arithmetic, only by using the very same ABC that
at first we used as the A B C of Anschauung in a nar-
' J row sense,2 that is, as the foundation of measure, drawing,
/and writing. ^
The child will be made so fully conscious of the visible
relations of all fractions by the use of these tables, that
exercises in fractional arithmetic, in ordinary numbers,
will be as incredibly easy as arithmetic with undivided
units. Experience shows, that by this method, children
attain readiness in these exercises, three or four years sooner
than is possible without it. By these, as by the former
exercises, the child's mind is preserved from confusion, dis
crepancies, and useless guesses, and here too we can say with
decision : — The calculating power of such children is the
result of the clearest, most exact sense-impression, and leads
by its clearness to truth, and susceptibility to truth.3
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 139
IX.
Friend ! When I now look back and ask myself : What
have I specially done for the very being of education ? I
find I have fixed the highest, supreme principle of instruc
tion in the recognition of sense-impression as the absolute
foundation of all knowledge. Apart from all special teach
ing I have sought tp discover the nature of teaching itself /
and the prot otype,. -fey which Nature herself has determined
the instruction of our race. I find I have reduced all in
struction to three elements ; and have sought for special
methods which should render the results of all instruction
in these three branches absolutely certain.
Lastly, I find I have brought these three elements into
harmony with each, other, and made instruction, in all three
branches, not only harmonious with itself in many ways,
but also with human nature, and have brought it nearer to
the course of Nature in the development of the human race.
But while I did this I found, of necessity, that the in
struction of our country, as it is publicly and generally
conducted for the people, wholly and entirely ignores sense-
impression as the supreme principle of instruction, that
throughout it does not take, sufficient notice of the prototype,
mC*<V*'tt/iV , . . ,. /ns^rwcfyoH ,, . ,*. . ,
act»rcti»g4o which the €LOuea^iefi of our race is determined
by the necessary laws of our nature itself; that it rather
sacrifices the essentials of all teaching to the hurly burly of
isolated teaching of special things and kills the spirit of
truth by dishing up all kinds of broken truths, and extin
guishes the power of self-activity which rests upon it, in
the human race. I found, and it was clear as day, that this
kind of instruction reduces its particular methods neither to
elementary principles nor to elementary forms ; that by the
neglect of sense-impression, as the absolute foundation of all
knowledge, it is unable by any of its unconnected methods to
140 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
attain the end of all instruction,clear ideas, and even to make
those limited results, at 'which it solely aims, absolutely
certain.
* This educational * position in which, at least, ten men
against one are to be found in Europe, as well as the actual
quality of that instruction which they enjoy, appears almost
incredible at the first glance of the subject ; but it is not
only historically correct, it is psychologically inevitable ; it
could not be otherwise. Europe, with its system of popular in
struction, was bound to sink into the error, or rather insanity,
that really underlay it. It rose on the one hand, to a gigantic
height in special arts and sciences, and lost on the other, all
foundations of natural teaching for the whole race. No
country ever rose so high on the one side, nor sank so low on
the other. Like the image of the prophet, it touches the
clouds with its golden head of special arts and sciences ; but
popular instruction, that should be the foundation of this
golden head, is, like the feet of this gigantic image, the most
wretched, most fragile, most good for nothing clay. This
disproportion, ruinous for the human mind, between the
advantages of the upper, and the misery of the lower classeSj
or rather the beginning-point from which this striking
disproportion in the culture of our country dates, is the
invention of the art of printing. The country, in its first
astonishment about this new and boundless influence, this
making of word-knowledge easy, fell into a kind of dizzy,
quack-like trust in the universality of its effects. This was
natural in the first generation after the discovery ; but that
the country, after so many ages, still lives in the same dizzy
* Even the good Lavater, caring for and honouring the positive
condition of the world as nobody else did, knew and confessed this.
He answered the question : What simple elements can be found for
the Art; and particularly for the observation ( Ansch.) of all things ?
He knew none, and it surpassed all belief how groundless the Art
(of education) in Europe was. — PESTALOZZI.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 141
state, and has let it grow to a soul-and-body-destroying
nervous fever, without feeling ill ! Really this could have
happened in no country but ours.
But it needed another influence interwoven of monkish
feudal, Jesuit, and government systems, in order to produce
through this art the result it has had on Europe. With these
surrounding circumstances, it is then really not only com
prehensible how it came to take a positive position together
with our arts and our popular instruction, but it is even clear,
that under given circumstances it could produce no lesser
art, but also no better instruction than it has actually pro
duced. It is quite clear how it was forced to narrow the
five senses of the country, and so to bind particularly, that
instrument of sense-impression, the eye, to the heathen altar
of the new learning, letters and books. I might almost say
it was forced to make this universal instrument of know
ledge a mere letter-eye, and us mere letter-men. The Re
formation [by the weakening of its original spirit and the
necessary resulting deification of dead forms and thoughts]
completed what the art of printing began. Without putting
its heart under the obvious stupidity of a monkish or feudal
world, it has opened its mouth generally only to express
abstract ideas.2 This still more increased the inner atrophy
of the world, making its men letter-beings, and brought it
to such a point, that the errors of this condition cannot be
dissolved by progress in truth, love and faith, but on the
contrary, they can only be strengthened, while they seem to
be dissolved, by the still more dangerous errors of infidelity,
indifference and lawlessness.
As a devastating flood, checked in its career by a fallen
rock, takes a new course and spreads its devastation from
generation to generation, so European popular education,
142 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
having once forsaken the even road of sense-impression,
owing to the influence of these two great events, has taken
generally a baseless, visionary course, increasing its human
devastation year by year, from generation to generation.
Now after ages it has culminated in the general word-
twisting 2 of our knowledge. This has [led to the word-
twisting of infidelity. This profound vice of word and
dream is in no way fitted to raise us to the still wisdom of
faith and love, but on the contrary to lead us to the word-
twisting of sham and superstition and its indifference and
hardness. In any case it is undeniable that this devouring
word and book nature of our culture has] brought us to this
— we cannot any longer remain as we are.
It could not be otherwise. Since we have contrived with
deeply founded art, and still more deeply founded measures
for supporting error, to rob our knowledge and our methods
of instruction of all sense-impression, and ourselves of all
power of gaining sense-impressions, the gilded, giddy pate of
our culture could not possibly stand on any feet but those on
which it does actually stand. Nothing else was possible.
The drifting haphazard methods of our culture could in no
subject attain the final end of public instruction, clear ideas,
and perfect facility in what is essentially necessary for the
people to know and to learn of all these subjects. Even the
best of these methods, the abundant aids for teaching arith
metic, [mathematics,] and grammar must, under these circum
stances, lose power, because, without finding any other founda
tion for all instruction, they have neglected sense-impression.
So these means of instruction, word, number, and form, not
being sufficiently subordinated to the one only foundation of
all knowledge, sense-impression, must necessarily mislead our
generation to elaborate these means of instruction unequally,
superficially, and aimlessly, in the midst of error and decep
tion ; and by this elaboration, weaken our inmost powers,
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 143
rather than strengthen and cultivate them. We become
necessarily degraded to lies and folly, and branded as
miserable, weak, unobservant, wordy babblers, by the very
same powers and the very same organism * with which the
Art, holding the hand of Nature, might raise us up to truth
and wisdom.
Even the knowledge gained by observation, (Ansch.} forced
upon us by our circumstances and our business, in spite of
our folly (because it is impossible for any error in the Art to
snatch this wholly from mankind)— even this kind of know
ledge, being isolated, becomes one-sided, illusory, egotistic
and illiberal. There is no help for it. Under such guidance
we are forced to rebel against whatever is opposed to this
one-sided, illiberal kind of observation (Ansch.\ and to become
insensible to all truth that may be beyond the limited range
of our untrained senses. There is no help for it. We are
forced under these circumstances, to sink ever deeper from
generation to generation into the unnatural conventionality,
the narrow-hearted selfishness, the lawless ambitious vio
lence resulting from it, in which we now are.
Dear Gessner ! thus, and in no other way, can we explain
how, in the past century, during the latter part of which
this delusion rose to its greatest height, we were plunged
into a dreamy, or rather raving condition of baseless, frantic
presumption. This perverted all our ideas of truth and jus
tice. Yielding to the violent agitation of our wild and blind
natural feelings, we sank down and a general overturning
spirit of sansculottism took possession of us all in one way or
another and resulted, as it must needs result, in the inner dis
organization of all pure natural feelings, and of all those
means of helping humanity, which rest upon those feelings.
This led to the disappearance of all humanity from political
systems ; this again to the dissolution of a few political
* Ed. 1. Mechanism.
144 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
systems which had ceased to be human. But unfortunately
this did not work to the advantage of humanity.
This, dear friend, is a sketch of my views on the latest
events. Thus I explain the measures both of Robespierre
and Pitt, the behaviour of the senators and of the people.
And every time I reconsider it I come back to the assertion,
that the deficiencies of European instruction, or rather, the
artificial inversion of all natural principles of instruction,
has brought this part of the world ivhere it is now • and
that there is no remedy for our present and future overturn
in society, morality and religion, except to turn back from
the superficiality, incompleteness, and giddy-headedness of
our popular instruction, and to recognise that sense-impression
is absolutely the foundation of all knowledge; in other
words, all knowledge grows out of sense-impression and
may be traced back to it.
X.
Friend ! sense-impression, considered as the point at which
all instruction begins, must be differentiated from the art of
sense-impression or observation which teaches us the relations
of all forms. Sense-impression, as the common foundation of
all three elements of instruction, must come as long before
the art of sense-impression as it comes before the arts of
reckoning and speaking. If we consider sense-impression
as opposed to the art of sense-impression or observation,
separately and by itself, it is nothing but the presence of the
external object before the senses which rouses a consciousness
of the impression made by it. With it Nature begins all
instruction. The infant enjoys it, the mother gives it him.
But the Art has done nothing here to keep equal pace with
Nature. In vain that most beautiful spectacle, the mother
showing the world to her infant, was presented to its eyes, the
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 145
Art has done nothing, has verily done nothing for the people,
in connection with this spectacle.
Dear Gessner, I will here quote for you the passage that
expressed this feeling about our Art more than a year
ago.1
" From the moment that a mother takes a child upon her
lap, she teaches him. She brings nearer to his senses what
nature has scattered afar off over large areas and in con
fusion, and makes the action of receiving sense-impressions
and the knowledge derived from them, easy, pleasant, and
delightful to him.
" The mother, weak and untrained, follows Nature without
help or guidance, and knows not what she is doing. She
does not intend to teach, she intends only to quiet the child,
to occupy him. But, nevertheless, in her pure simplicity,
she follows the high course of Nature without knowing
what Nature does through her • and Nature does very much
through her. In this way she opens the world to the child.
She makes him ready to use his senses, and prepares for
the early development of his attention and power of
observation.
" Now if this high course of Nature were used, if that were
connected with it which might be connected with it ; if the
helping Art could make it possible to the mother's heart to
go on with what she does instinctively for the infant, wisely
and freely with the growing child ; if, too, the heart [and dis
position] of the father were also used for this purpose ; and
-the helping Art made it possible for him to link, with the
disposition and circumstances of the child, all the activities
he needs, in order by good management of his most impor
tant affairs, to attain inner content with himself throughout
his life, how easy would it be to assist in raising our race
and every individual man in any position whatever, even
amid the difficulties of unfavourable circumstances, and amid
L
146 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
all the evils of unhappy times, and secure him a still, calm,
peaceful life. 0 God ! what would be gained for men. But
we are not yet so far advanced as the Appenzell woman,
who in the first weeks of her child's life, hangs a large, many-
coloured, paper bird over his cradle, and in this way clearly
shows the point at which the Art should begin to bring the
objects of Nature firmly to the child's clear consciousness."
Dear friend ! Whoever has seen how the two and three-
weeks old child stretches hands and feet towards this bird,
and considers how easy it would be for the Art to lay a
foundation for actual sense-impressions of all objects of Art
and Nature in the child by a series of such visible representa
tions, which may then be gradually made more distinct and
extended — Whoever considers all this and then does not
feel how we have wasted our time on Gothic monkish educa
tional rubbish, until it has become hateful to us, — truly cakes
and ale are wasted on him.
To me the Appenzell bird, like the ox to the Egyptians,
is a holy thing, and I have done everything to begin my
instruction at the same point as the Appenzell woman. I
go further. Neither at the first point, nor in the whole
series of means of teaching, do I leave to chance what
Nature, circumstance, or mother-love may present to the sense
of the child before he can speak. I have done all I could to
make it possible, by . omitting accidental characteristics, to
bring the essentials of knowledge gained by sense-impression
to the child's senses before that age, and to make the con
scious impressions he receives, unforgetable.
The first course in the Mother's Book is nothing but an
attempt to raise sense-impression itself to an art, and to
lead the children by all three elementsr!Joi knowledge, form,
number and ivords, to a comprehensive consciousness of all
sense-impressions, the more definite concepts of which will
constitute the foundation of their later knowledge.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 147
This book will not only contain representations of those
objects most necessary for us to know, but also material for a
continuous series of such objects as are fit, at the first sen^d-
impression, to rouse a feeling in the children of their mani
fold relationships and similarities.
In this respect the Spelling Book does the same thing
as the Mother's Book. Simply bringing sounds to the ear
and rousing a consciousness of the impression made through
the hearing, is as much sense-impression for the child as
putting objects before his eye, and rousing a consciousness
of the impression made through the sense of sight. Founded
on this, I have so arranged the Spelling Book that its
first course is nothing but simple sense-impression, that is,
it rests simply on the effort to bring the whole series of
sounds, that must afterwards serve as the foundation of
language, to the child's sense of hearing, and to make the im
pression made by them permanent, at exactly the same age
at which in the Mother's Book I bring before his sense of
siglit the visible objects of the world, the clear perception
of which must be the foundation of his future knowledge.
This same principle, of raising sense-impression to an art,
has a place, too, in our third element of knowledge. Number
in itself, without a foundation of sense-impression, is a
delusive phantom of an idea, that our imagination certainly
holds in a dreamy fashion, but which our reason cannot
grasp firmly as a truth. The child must learn to know rightly
the inner nature of every form in which the relations of
number may appear, before he is in a position to comprehend
one of these forms, as the foundation of a clear conscious
ness of few or many. 2 Therefore in the Mother's Book I
have impressed the first ten numbers on the child's senses
(Ansch.} even at this age in many ways, by fingers, claws,
leaves, dots, and also as triangle, square, octagon, etc.
After I have done this in all three branches, and have
148 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
made sense-impression the absolute foundation of all actual
knowledge, I again raise sense-impression in all three sub
jects to the art of sense-impression (or observation), that is,
a power of considering all objects of sense-impression as
objects for the exercise of my judgment and my (Pert.} skill.
In this way I lead the child, with the first element of
knowledge, form. After I have made him acquainted, in
the Mother's Book, with manifold sense-impressions of the
objects and their names, I lead him to the A B C of the art
of sense-impression (or observation). By this he is put in a
position to give an account of the form of objects, which he
distinguished in the Mother's Book, but did not clearly
know. This book will enable the child to form clear ideas
on the forms of all things by their relation to the square,
and in this way to find a whole series of means within
the compass of subjects of instruction, by which he may rise
from vague sense-impressions to clear ideas.
With regard to the second reTomeKiff ffi^no wledge, Number,
I go on in the same way. After I -have tried by the
Mother's Book to make the child clearly conscious, be
fore he can speak, of the ideas of the first ten numbers, I
try to teach him these expressions for few or many things, by
gradually adding one unit to another, and making him know
the nature of two, and then of three, and so on. And thus
I bring the beginning of all reckoning to the clearest sense-
impression of the child, and at the same time make him un-
forgetably familiar with the expressions which stand for them.
Thus I bring the beginnings of arithmetic in general into se
quences which are nothing but a psychological, certain, and
unbroken march onwards from deeply impressed judgments,
resting on sense-impression, to a little additional new sense-
impression, but mounting only from 1 to 2 and from 2 to 3.
The result of this course, ascertained by experience, is that
when the children have wholly understood the beginning
Hoiv Gertrude Teaches Her Children 149
of any kind of calculation, they are able to go on without
further help.
It is generally to be noticed with respect to this manner
of teaching, that it tends to make the principles of each
subject so evident to the children, that they can complete
every step of their learning, so that in every case they may
be absolutely considered [and used] as teachers of their
younger brothers and sisters, as far as they have gone them
selves.
The most important thing that I have done to simplify and
illustrate number teaching is this : I not only bring the con
sciousness of the truth within all relations of numbers to
the child, by means of sense-impression, but I unite this
truth of sense-impression with the truth of the science of
magnitudes, and have set up the square as the common foun-
datioiTof therart of seense-impression and of arithmetic.
The third olomcnt of knowledge, speech, considered as an
application of my principles, is capable of the greatest ex
tension.
If knowledge of form and number should precede speech
(and this last must partly arise from the first two), it follows
that the progress of grammar is quicker than that of the art
of sense-impression (observation) and arithmetic. The im
pression made on the senses (Ansch.) by form and number
precedes the art of speech, but the art of sense-impression and
arithmetic come after the art of speech (grammar}. The
great peculiarity and highest characteristic of our nature,
Language, begins in the power of making sounds. It be
comes gradually developed by improving sounds to articulate
words ; and from articulate words to language. Nature
needed ages to raise our race to perfect power of speech, yet
we learn this art, for which Nature needed ages, in a few
months. [In teaching our children to speakl we^^njist thej^
follow exactly the same course that Nature^followed with the
150 Hoiv Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
human race. We dare not do otherwise. And she unques
tionably began with sense-impression. Even the simplest
sound, by which man strove to express the impression that an
object made on him, was an expression of a sense-impression.
The speech of my race was long only a power of mimicry and
of making sounds that imitated the tones of living and life
less nature. From mimicry and sound-making they came to
hieroglyphics and separate wards, and for long they gave
special objects special names. This condition of language is
sublimely described in the first book of Moses, chap, ii.,
verses 19, 20 : " The Lord God brought to Adam all the
beasts of the earth, and all the birds under heaven, that he
might look upon them and name them. And Adam gave
every beast his name."
From this point speech gradually went further. Men first
observed the striking differences in the objects that they
named. Then they came to name properties ; and then to
name the differences in the actions and forces of objects.
Much later the art developed of making single words mean
much, unity, plurality, size, many or few, form and number,
and at last to express clearly all variations and properties of
an object, which were produced by changes of time and place,
by modifying the form and by joining words together.
In all these stages, speech was^a means produced by art.
not onty of representing the actual ^process of making^iae'as
(Intuitionen) clear? Duet^a*ti3orof making impressions unfor-
getdble.
Language-teaching is, then, in its nature, nothing but a
collection of psychological means of expressing impressions
(feelings and thoughts) and of making all their modifications
that would be else fleeting and incommunicable, lasting and
communicable by uniting them to words.
But in consequence of the constant likeness in human
nature, this can only be done through the harmony between Ian-
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 1 5 i
guage-teaching and the original course by which Nature her
self developed our power of speaking to that art which is now
ours. That is, all instruction in language must be founded
on sense-impression. It must make mimicry superfluous
through the art of sense-impression (or observation) and num
ber-teaching . It must supersede imitation of the sounds of
animate and inanimate nature by a series of conventional
sounds. Then it must gradually pass from sound-teaching,
or rather from general exercises of the organs in all human
sounds, to word-teaching, to names, to speech-teaching, to
grammatical declensions, inflections, and composition. But
in this class of gradation the child must maintain the slow
progressive step, which Nature has foreshown in the develop
ment of the grammar of the race.
But now come the questions : How have I held firmly to
this course of Nature in the three stages into which Nature
and experience have divided the development of language, in
respect to sound-teaching, word-teaching, and speech-teach
ing ? How have I brought the forms of my method of
instruction in these subjects into harmony with the aforesaid
stages? 1 have given the highest scope, of which it is
capable, to sound-teaching, by firmly holding and distin
guishing the vowels, as the special roots of all sounds, and
by gradually adding single consonants before and after the
vowels. In this way I have made it possible for the child in
the cradle to become conscious of all these speech-sounds and
their sequences. I have even made it possible to let an inner
sense-impression precede the outer, in the infant, by means
of this instruction, which shows the child arbitrary signs of
sounds. In this way I insure that the impression on the ear
should have the same start of the impression on the eye, that
it has in Nature's teaching of sound. Again, I have made
this subject easier to teach, by arranging the sequences of
sounds in this book, in such a way, that every succeeding
152 How Gertrude TeacJies Her Children.
sound is as like as possible to the preceding, and is only
differentiated from it by the addition of « single letter.
Thus I rise from complete familiarity with syllables, to ivord-
teacliing, to names ; and give the child a word in the first
reading book, in the " word-book," and again in sequences,
which by the greatest possible similarity of form, makes the
further steps of the reading book the easiest play, since this
word has been deeply impressed and made familiar by a con
stant addition of a few new letters to those already known.
Thus many sided sense-impression lies at the base of the
Mother's Book, of its speech-teaching, and of the meaning
of the words which the child has to speak.
The infinite range of knowledge gained by sense-impres
sion, that nature brings to the child's consciousness at the
earliest age is, in this book, psychologically arranged and
concentrated, and the supreme law of Nature, by virtue of
which the near is always more firmly impressed upon the
child than the distant, is connected with the principle, which
is just as important for instruction, of letting the essential
nature of things make a far deeper impression on the chil
dren than their varying properties. In this book, by con
centration and psychological arrangement of objects, the
boundless range of speech, and knowledge gained by sense-
impression, it is made easy to the child to get a general view.
The separate objects of Nature only are countless, their
essential characteristics are not. Therefore, when the objects
are arranged according to these characteristics, it can be
made easy for the child to get a general view.
I subordinate special language-teaching to this principle.
My 3 grammar is only a series of methods for enabling the
child to express himself accurately about all knowledge
gained by sense-impression, and its relations with number
and time. I even use the art of writing, so far as it can be
considered as language-teaching, for this purpose, and have,
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 153
generally, tried to use all the means that Nature and ex
perience have put into my hand, for the clearing up of ideas,
for this same purpose.
The empirical attempts I have contrived have chiefly served
to show me that our monkish instruction, by its neglect of all
psychology, has not only driven us in all subjects from this
final end of instruction, but has even robbed us of those
methods which Nature offers to us, without the help of the
Art for making our ideas clear, and has made the use of these
means impossible for us, by its pernicious effects on our
minds.
Friend ! The annihilation of all real power in our country,
by this unnatural monkish instruction and all the misery
of its unconnected teaching, is incredible. Incredible, also,
is the degree in which all natural means of rising through
sense-impression to true knowledge, and all enticement to
strengthen ourselves for this purpose, has vanished from our
midst; because this unconnected teaching has dazzled, us
with the charm of a language which we speak without having
knowledge founded on sense-impression, of the ideas which
we let fall from our mouths. I repeat: — The mass of our
public schools not only give us nothing, but, on the contrary,
they quench all that in us which humanity has without schools,
that which every savage possesses, to a degree of which -we
can form no conception. This is a truth which is applicable
to no part of the world and no age but ours. A man, who is
instructed with monkish art to this wordy foolishness, is, so
far, less susceptible to truth than a savage, and more unfit
than he to make use of the guidance of Nature, and of what
she does herself to make our ideas clear. These experiences
have convinced . me that the public school-coach throughout
all Europe mu^t_n^t_onl:y_Jbg_driYer' bp.ft.p.r^ if.
_
roundTand put on jguite a new road. I am convinced of this
})y experience, that its fundamental error, the empty speech
154 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
of our age, and our onesided [superficial, thoughtless, sense
less] jabbering must be brought to death and laid in the
grave, before it will be possible, by instruction and language
to bring forth truth and life in our race. Verily this is a
hard saying, and I am inclined to say : " Who can hear it ? "
But I am convinced by experiments that lie at the base of
this statement, that in elementary language-teaching, we
must reject all half measures ; all instruction-books (on this
subject) must be set aside, which are based on the supposi
tion4 that a child can talk before he has learned to talk. All
instruction books, the words of which bear the evidence of a
complete grammar in their terminations, their prefixes, and
their combinations, as well as in the composition of phrases
and sentences, are in this way rendered unfit to develop
clearly in the child's mind a consciousness of the causes and
means, which led to this completion. Therefore I would, if
I had influence, take apparently pitiless measures with these
instruction-books in the school libraries ; or give up the at
tempt to bring language teaching into harmony with the
course of Nature.5
Dear friend ! It is generally known that Nature, in the first
stages of the development of language in the race, wholly and
entirely ignores the complicated and artificial combinations
of the complete grammar ; and the child understands these
combinations as little as the barbarian. Only gradually, by
continuous practice in simple combinations, does he gain the
power of understanding the complicated. Therefore, my ex
ercises in language, from the first, putting aside all science
and all knowledge, that can only be aimed at through com
plete grammar, inquire into the elements of language ; and
give the child the advantages of forming speech, in exactly the
same gradual way in which Nature gave it to the human race.
Dear friend ! Will men misunderstand me here too ?
6 Will there be even a few, who wish with me, that I may
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 155
succeed in checking and putting an end to the mad faith in
words, that from the very nature of the subject, as well as from
their artificial construction and combination, bear the stamp
of incomprehensibility for the child ; and being void of all
sense-impression, by their inner emptiness, work towards the
devastation of the human mind, and lead to faith in empty
noise and sound. May I succeed in making noise and sound
unimportant by language-teaching itself ; and again, give
sense-impression the preponderating influence which is due
to it, by which alone speech may become the true basis of
mental culture and of all real knowledge, and of the power
of judgment resulting from it.
Yes, friend. 7 1 know that for a long, long time there will
be but few who do not misunderstand me, and who recog
nise that dreams, sound and noise are absolutely worthless
foundations for mental culture. ' The causes for this are
many and deep seated. The love of babble is so closely con
nected with respect for what is called good society, and its
pretension to wide general culture, and still more with the
livelihood of many thousands among us, that it must be long,
very long, before the men of our time can take that truth
with love into their hearts, against which they have hardened
themselves so long. But I go on my way and say again :
All science-teaching that is dictated, explained, analysed,
by men, who have not learnt to think and to speak in
accordance with the laws of Nature, all science-teaching
of which the definitions are forced as if by magic into the
minds of children like a Deus ex Machind, or rather are
blown into their ears as by a stage-prompter, so far as it does
this must necessarily sink into a miserable burlesque of
education. For where the primary powers of the human
mind are left asleep, and when words are crammed upon the
sleeping powers, we make dreamers, who dream unnaturally
and inconstantly, in proportion as the words, crammed into
156 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
these miserable gaping creatures, are big and pretentious.
8 Such pupils dream of anything in the world except that they
are asleep and dreaming ; but the wakeful people round them
feel all their presumption ; and those who see most consider
them night wanderers, in the fullest and clearest sense of
the word.
The course of Nature in the development of our race is
unchangeable. There are and can be no two good methods of
instruction in this respect. There is but one — and this is the
one that rests entirely upon the eternal laws of Nature. But
of bad methods there are infinitely many • and the badness of
every one increases, in proportion as it deviates from the
laws of Nature, and decreases in proportion as it approaches
to following these laws. 9 1 well know that this one good
method is neither in my hands nor in any other man's, that
we can only approach it. But its completion, its perfection
must be the aim of him who would found human instruction
upon truth, and thereby content human nature, and satisfy
its natural claims. From this point of view, I declare, I
pursue this method of instruction with all the powers that are
in my hands, I have one rule for judging my own action,
as well as the actions of all those who strive for this end — by
their fruits ye shall know them.10 Human power, mother- wit,
and common sense are to me the only evidence of the inner
worth of any kind of instruction. Any method, that brands
the brow of the learner with the stamp of completely stifled
natural powers, and the want of common sense and mother-
wit, is condemned by me, whatever other advantages it may
have. I do not deny that even such methods may produce good
tailors, shoemakers, tradesmen, and soldiers ; but I do deny
that they can produce a tailor or a tradesman who is a man
in the highest sense of the word. Oh ! if men would only
comprehend that the aim of all instruction is, and can be,
nothing but the development of human nature, by the
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 157
harmonious cultivation of its powers and talents, and the
promotion of manliness of life. Oh, if they would only ask
themselves, at every step in their methods of education and
instruction, — " Does it further this end? " n
. I will now again consider the influence of clear ideas upon
the essential development of humanity. Clear ideas to the
child are only those to u'hich his experience can bring no
more clearness. This principle settles, firstly, the order of
the powers and faculties to be developed, by which the
clearness of all ideas can gradually be arrived at ; secondly,
the order of objects by which exercises in definitions can be
begun and carried on with the children ; lastly, the exact
time at which definitions of any kind contain real truth for
the child.
It is evident that clear ideas must be worked out, or cul
tivated in the child by teaching, before we can take for
granted that he is able to understand the result of such
training — the clear idea, or rather its statement in words.
The way to clear ideas depends on making all objects
clear to the reason in their proper order. This order again
rests on the harmony of all the arts, by which a child is
enabled to express himself clearly about the properties of all
things, particularly about the measure, number, and form of
any object. 12 In this way, and no other, can the child be
led to a comprehensive knowledge of the whole nature of any
object, and become capable of defining it, that is, of stating
its whole nature, with the utmost precision and brevity, in
words. All definitions, that is, all such clear statements in
words, of the nature of any object contain essential truth for
the child, only so far as he has a clear, vivid background
of sense-impression of the object. Where thorough clearness,
in the sense-impression of the object to be defined, is wanting,
he only learns to play with words, to deceive himself and
blindly believe in words, whose sounds convey no idea to
158 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
him, or give him no other thought than that he has just
given out a sound.
HlNC ILL^E LACRYM^E.
In rainy weather toadstools grow fast on every dungheap ;
and in the same way definitions, not founded on sense-im
pression, produce, just as quickly, a fungus- like wisdom,
which dies just as quickly in the sunlight, and which looks
upon the clear sky as poison to it. The baseless, wordy show
of such baseless wisdom produces men, who believe they
have reached the end in all subjects, because their life is a
tiresome babble about this end. They never reach it, never
pursue it, because all their life it has not had that attractive
charm for their observing powers (Ansch.) which is generally
necessary to produce a manly effort. Our generation is full
of such men. They lie sick of a kind of wisdom, that leads
us pro formd to the goal of knowledge, like cripples on the
racecourse, without being able to make this goal their goal,
until their feet are cured. The power of describing generally
precedes definition. I can describe what is quite clear to
me, but I cannot on that account define it. That is, I can
say exactly what its properties are, but not what it is. I
only know the object, the individual. I cannot yet point out
its relations or its kind. Of that which is not clear to me, I
cannot say exactly what its properties are, let alone what it
is. I cannot describe it, much less define it. When a third
person, to whom the matter is clear, puts words into my
mouth, with which he makes it clear to people in his own
condition, it is not on that account clear to me, but it is and
will remain his clear thing, not mine, inasmuch as the words
of another cannot be for me what they are for him — the exact
expression of his own idea, which is to him perfectly clear.
This purpose of leading .men, with psychological art, and
according to the laws of their physical mechanism, to clear
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 159
ideas, and to their expression, definitions, demands a grada
tion of statements about the physical world before definitions.
This gradation proceeds from sense-impressions of separate
objects to their names, from their names to determining their
characteristics, that is the power of describing, and from the
power of describing to the power of specializing, that is, of
defining. Wisdom in guiding sense-impression is obviously
the beginning-point, on which this chain of means for attain
ing clear ideas must depend ; and it is obvious that the final
fruit, the end of all instruction, the clearness of all ideas, de
pends essentially on the complete power of its first germina
tion.
Wherever, in the whole circle of all-working Nature, any
thing is imperfect in the germ, there it has lost the power of
becoming perfect in its complete ripeness. Everything that
is imperfect in the germ will be crippled in its growth, in
the outward development of its parts. This is as true of
the products of your mind, as of the products of your garden.
It is as true of the results of a single idea gained by sense-
impression, as it is certain of the condition of a grown
cabbage.
The most important means of preventing confusion, incon
sequence, and superficiality in human education, rests prin
cipally on care in making the first sense-impression of things
most essential for us to know, as clear, correct, and compre
hensive as possible, when they are first brought before our
senses, for contemplation ( Ansch.}. Even at the infant's cradle
we must begin to take the training of our race out of the
hands of blind, sportive Nature, and put it into the hands of
that better power, which the experience of ages has taught
us to abstract from the eternal laws of our nature.
13 You must generally distinguish between the laws of
Nature and her course, that is, her single workings, and
statements about those workings. In her laws she is eternal
160 Hoiv Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
truth, and for us, the eternal standard of all truth ; but in
her modifications, in which her laws apply to every individual
and to every case, her truth does not satisfy and content our
race. The positive truth of the condition and circumstances
of any individual case claims the same equal right of neces
sity, by virtue of eternal laws, as the common law of human
nature itself. Consequently, the claim of necessity of both
laws must be brought into harmony, if they are to work
satisfactorily on men. Care for this union is essential for
our race. The accidental is, by its existence and its conse
quences, as necessary as the eternal and unchangeable ; but
the accidental must, from its very existence and its inevitable
consequences, be brought into harmony with the eternal and
unchangeable in human nature by means of the freedom of
the human will.
Nature, on whom the inevitable laws of the existence and
consequences of the accidental are based, seems only devoted
to the whole, and is careless of the' individual that she is
affecting externally. On this side she is blind ; and being
blind, she is not the Nature that comes, or can come into
harmony with the seeing, spiritual, moral nature of men.
On the contrary, it is only spiritual and moral nature that is
able to bring itself into harmony with the physical— and that
can, and ought to do so. The laws of our senses, by virtue of
the essential claims of our nature, must be subordinated to
the laws of our moral and spiritual life. Without this sub
ordination it is impossible that the physical part of our
nature can ever influence the actual final result of our educa
tion, the production of manliness. Man will only become
man through his inner and spiritual life, He becomes
through it independent, free, and contented. Mere physical
Nature leads him not hither. She is in her very nature
blind ; her ways are ways of darkness and death. Therefore
the education and training of our race must be taken out of
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 161
the hands of blind sensuous Nature, and the influence of her
darkness and death, and put into the hands of our moral and
spiritual being, and its divine, eternal, inner light and truth.
All, all that you carelessly leave to outer blind Nature
sinks. That is true of lifeless nature as of living. Wher
ever you carelessly leave the earth to Nature, it bears weeds
and thistles. Wherever you leave the education of your race
to her, she goes no further than a confused impression on
the senses, that is not adapted to your power of comprehen
sion, nor to that of your child, in the way that is needed
for the best instruction. In order to lead a child, in the
most certain way, to correct and perfect knowledge of a tree
or plant, it is not the best way, by any means, to turn him,
without care, into a wood or meadow, where trees and
plants of all kinds grow together. Neither trees nor plants
here come before his eyes in such a manner as is calculated
to make him observe their nature and relationships, and to
prepare for a general knowledge of their subject by the first
impression. In order to lead your child by the shortest way
to the end of instruction, clear ideas, you must with great
care, first put those objects before his eyes (in every branch
of learning), which bear the most essential characteristics
of the branch to which this object belongs, visibly and dis
tinctly, and which are therefore fitted to strike the eye with
the essential nature rather than the variable qualities. If
you neglect this, you lead the child, at the very first glance,
to look upon the accidental qualities as essential, and in this
at least to delay the knowledge of truth, and miss the short
est road of rising from misty sense-impressions to clear ideas.
But if this error in your method of instruction is avoided,
if the sequences of subjects in all branches of your instruc
tion are brought to the child's sense-impression so arranged
from the very beginning, that at the very first observation
(Ansch.} the impression of the essential nature of an object
M
1 62 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
begins to overpower the impression of its qualities, the child
learns, from the very first, to subordinate the accidental
properties of an object to its essential nature. He is, un
doubtedly, moving on the safe path, in which his power
develops daily of connecting, in the simplest manner, all acci
dental qualities with his full consciousness of the essential
nature of all objects and their inner truth, and so to read all
Nature as an open book. As a child, left to itself, peeping
into the world without understanding, sinks daily from error
to error, through the confusion of separate scraps of knowledge
which he has found while so groping ; so, on the contrary, a
child who is led on this road from his cradle, rises daily from
truth to truth. All that exists, or at least all that comes
within the range of his experience, unites itself clearly and
comprehensively with the power already existing in him, and
there is no error behind his views. No bias to any kind of
error has been artificially and methodically organized in him,
and the nihil admirari, which has hitherto been considered
the privilege of old age, becomes, thanks to this training, the
portion of innocence and youth. Having arrived. at this, if
he possesses fair average abilities, the child will necessarily
reach the final goal of instruction, clear ideas, — it matters
little for the time being whether these lead him to the conclu
sion that we know nothing, or that we understand everything.
In order to reach this high end, to organize the means and
secure them, and especially to give the first sense-impressions
of objects that breadth and accuracy which they demand, in
order to avoid deficiencies and error at the foundation, and
to build our sequences of methods of gaining knowledge on
truth, I have kept all these objects fully in view in the
Mother's Book. Friend, I have succeeded ; I have so far
confirmed my powers of gaining knowledge through my
senses by this book, that I foresee that children trained by
it, may throw away the book, and in Nature and all that
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 163
surrounds them, find a better guide to my goal than that
which I have given them.
Friend, the book as yet is not ; yet I already see it super
seded by its own action.
Note for New Edition.
The Mother's Book, of which this is a dreamy account, never ex
isted. At that moment I thought it easy to complete it. Its non-
appearance is explained by the erroneous views in which I was then
involved. This suggests a closer examination into the exact degree
of truth I had then attained, with regard to my bold ideals, and the
glaring deficiencies which were caused by immature judgment. It
is now twenty years since these utterances, and yet I am hardly
beginning to be able to give myself a clear account of the views
here expressed. I must ask myself, "How have these twenty years
passed in regard to these ideals ? " and I rejoice to be able to say at
last : However much they appeared to hinder my attempts to develop
the vague ideas I then held, in that same degree they actually
favoured this development, so far as it was attainable by a man of
my character. Time has quenched my hopes, and I no longer stretch
out my hand to pluck the moon from heaven, as a child does in his
nurse's lap.
XI.
Dear Friend ! The statement with which I ended my last
letter is important, and I now repeat more emphatically, the
training for the purpose of instruction which I spoke of just
now, is only adapting the course of nature for that end ; but
there is a higher means possible of attaining it, a completion
of this adapted course of nature, a course of pure reason.
A training of pure reason is possible. It is possible for my
nature to raise all that is uncertain in human sense-impres
sion to the most definite truth. It is possible for my nature
to separate sense-impression itself from the uncertainty of
its origin in mere sensation, and to make it the work of the
higher power of my being, that is of my reason. It is
possible for the ^8rt, thus ennobled by the hand of Nature,
to make the wild man's living power of observation more than
164 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
the mere mechanism of the senses. It is possible to add. to
this living power of observation my power of reason. It is
possible to unite the restoration of this living power of obser
vation with the most sublime study of my race, the study of
absolute infallible truth.
Dear Friend ! If my life has any value, it is that I have
raised the square to be the foundation of a system of teach
ing by sense-impression, that the people never- had before.
Through it I have prepared a series of methods for the
basis of our knowledge such as only existed before for speech
and number, which are means of instruction subordinate to it,
and which had never been worked out for form itself. . In
this way I have brought sense-impression and judgment,
sense-mechanism and the course of pure reason into harmony
with each other ; and while, through this method, I have
put aside the variegated hurly burly of thousands of separate
truths, I have turned instruction back to truth *.
Friend ! For upwards of twenty years I hardly knew to
what the following passage, in the preface of " Leonard and
Gertrude," would lead. " I take no share in all the strife of
men about their opinions, but whatever makes them good,
brave, true and honest, whatever can bring love of Grod and
love of one's neighbour into the heart, and happiness and
blessing into the house, that, I think, is above all strife, and
is put into every heart for us all."
Now the course of my attempts makes me see, that this is
very true of the kind of instruction, the knowledge and intro
duction of which I am striving after ; in this too, I take no
part in all the disputes of men. Purely as a means of develop
ing all our powers and talents, by its very nature, it extends
its influence and its results, not one step beyond that which
is incontestable. Purely as a means of developing our
powers, it is not the teaching of truths, but of truth. It is
* This beginning is omitted in Ed. 2, probably by an oversight.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 165
not a combatant against error, it is the inner development
of moral and mental powers, that are opposed to error. It is
purely a guide to the faculty of recognising truth and error.
The very nature of its effort is only to base the good cultiva
tion of this faculty on psychological grounds, and to supply
all its needs. Friend ! I see both how far this expression
leads, and how far distant I am from it. I recognise only the
tracks of the means, by which it may be possible to reach this
end as a whole. Yet faith in the possibility of reaching this
end lives, undying, in my soul. But how, when, and through
whom my anticipations can or will be fulfilled. I really
know not. There is no presumption in my soul. In all
my efforts, the results of which lead me to these expressions,
I seek only to make easier and more simple the methods of
instructing the lowest classes, in my immediate neighbour
hood, whom I saw to be unhappy, discontented, and danger
ous, in consequence of their wrong training. My heart was
inclined to this effort from my youth up. From my youth
up I have had opportunities, granted to few, of learning the
causes of the moral, mental, and domestic degradation of
the people, and the suffering, deserved or not, intimately
connected with it. You may believe me I have borne some
suffering and some wrongs with the people. I say it to
excuse the apparent boldness of some of my assertions, for
in my inmost soul lies only the ardent desire to help the
people in the sources of their backwardness and the misery
arising from it, not the least presumption, no thought of
being able to do it. I pray you, consider all my apparently
bold expressions in this light. When, for instance, I say
distinctly, the development of all human powers proceeds
from an organism, the action of which is absolutely certain,
I do not say that the laws of this organism are clearly known
by me, nor that I recognise their whole scope. When I say
there is a course of pure reason in instruction, I do not say
1 66 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
I have proved and practised these laws in their full perfec
tion. In the whole account of my doings I have tried far
more to make the truth of my principles clear, than to bring
my very restricted action to the standard of what might
and must come, from the complete development of these
principles, for the human race. I do not know myself ; and
I feel daily more and more how much I do not know.1
Whatever theory and judgment exist in my whole state
ment are absolutely nothing but the result of a limited,
very laborious, and I must add seldom successful, series of
experiments. I ought not and I will not conceal that if a man
who had long ago sunk into weariness, and become a poor
tired creature, who, until his hair turned grey, had been
considered everywhere, absolutely impracticable by practical
men, had not finally succeeded in becoming a schoolmaster,
and if Buss, Krilsi and Tobler had not come with a power
of helping his utter helplessness in all arts and activities
(Fcrt.\ as I never dared to hope, my theories on this subject
would have died within me, like the glow of a burning
mountain that can find no outlet. I should have sunk into
my grave like a dreaming fool, on whom no charitable
judgment would be passed, misunderstood by the good, and
despised by the bad. My only merit, my desire, my inces
sant ever-growing desire for the salvation of the people,
my laborious days, the sacrifice of my life, the murder of my
self would have been given over to the mockery of rogues.
I should not have had a friend, who dared to do justice to
my despised shade. I could not have defended myself ; I could
not have done it. I should have sunk into the grave, angry
with myself and despairing at my own misery and that of
the people. Friend ! sinking thus, I should only have re
tained the miserable power of complaining against my
fate. I should, — I could not have helped it, — I should have
imputed the guilt of my ruin to myself alone. The awful
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 167
ideal of my life would have stood before my eyes, all in
shadow, without any mitigating beam of light.
Friend ! Imagine my feelings, my despair, this ideal of
shadow, and the thought, that in my ruin I should [myself]
have ruined the purpose of my life ; and verily by my own
fault I should have lost it. There is a God who gave it
me again, after I had lost it. I failed over and over again
like a child, even when it seemed that the means thereto
were given into my hands. Ah! I behaved long like nobody
else, and things went with me as with no one else. Not
only did my utter want of developed practical skill and the
entire incompatibility between the scope of my will and the
limits of my power, impede from my childhood the attain
ment of my goal; but each year I became more unfit for
everything that could really help towards its outward
attainment, for that which was essentially necessary for the
outward attainment of my end.
But is it my fault, that the course of a life constantly
crushed, did not let me go on one bit of the way with an
unbroken heart ? Is it my fault, that all signs of interest
on the part of the happy, or at least the not miserable, have
been erased long ago from my soul, as the traces of an island
sunk in the deep ? Is it my fault, that men around me,
around me so long ! have seen nothing in me but a bleeding
creature, crushed and thrown on the wayside, without
consciousness, — in whom the aim of life, like an ear of corn
among thorns, thistles, and marshy reeds, budded up very
slowly, in constant danger of death and suffocation ? Is it
my fault, that the aim of my life now remains like a bare
rock in the flood, from which the wasting waters have
washed away every trace of the beautiful earth that once
covered it ?
Yes, Friend ; it is my fault. I feel it deeply, and bow
myself to the dust, not indeed before the judgment of bad
1 68 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
men, buzzing round me like a disturbed nest of wasps, but
before the ideal of myself, and of the inner worth to which
I might have risen, if in the midst of the everlasting night
of my forlorn life, I had been able to rise above my fate,
and above the horror of days, in which all that cheers and
elevates human nature, vanished ; and all that confuses and
degrades it, pressed round me unceasingly and constantly,
falling with all its weight on the weakness of my heart, that
found no support in my head, against the blows that broke
on it. But it is my fault, friend. All my misfortune is my
own fault. I could have done it ; I ought to have done it ; I
might say I determined to do it. I did determine to raise
myself above my fate — if that can be called a determination
which I did not carry out. This much is true. I have
grown old ; the misery of my days has brought me near my
grave, before the whole shattering of my nerves has com
pletely destroyed my balance, and before the last revolt
within me finally made me throw away myself and my
sympathy with the human race.
Friend ! A woman greater than any man, a woman, who
was only ennobled, never degraded by the misfortunes of a
life, that far outweighed my misery, saw long ago my despair
of myself and answered my distracted words, " It does not
matter" with — " 0 Pestalozzi ! if a man once utters that word
of despair may God help him, he can help himself no more."
I saw the glance of sadness and anxiety in her eyes, as
she spoke the word of warning ; and, friend, if I had no
more guilt in the final disappearance of my better self than
that I could hear this word and forget it again, my guilt
would be greater than that of all men who have never seen
this virtue and never heard this word.
Friend ! Let me now forget my action and my purpose for
a moment, and give myself wholly up to the feeling of sad
ness that overwhelms me, because I still live and am no
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 169
more my self. I have lost all ; I have lost my self. Yet
hast Thou, 0 Lord, preserved the desire of my life in me ;
and hast not destroyed the object of my pains before my
eyes, as Thou hast destroyed the aim of a thousand men who
ruined their own way, before their eyes and mine. Thou
hast preserved the work of my life in the midst of my ruin,
and hast cast an evening glow over my hopeless, dyiog old
age ; the lovely sight outweighs the sorrows of my life.
Lord, I am unworthy of the faith and mercy that Thou hast
shown me. Thou, Thou alone hast pitied the crushed worm.
The bruised reed Thou hast not broken, and the smoking
flax Thou hast not quenched. Till my death Thou hast not
turned Thy eyes away from the offering, which from child
hood I wished to make, and have never been able to make,
to the forsaken in the world !
Note for the New Edition.
I read this letter, written twenty years ago, with heartfelt sorrow.
It expresses my depression and my despair at the course of my life
and the annihilation of my hopes, at the very moment when a new,
living path for my purpose was opened. I cannot say how my heart
beats, and how the impression of feelings long ago subdued, and
raised again, is renewed. The words of self-accusation shake my
soul, as the mitigation of these accusations confuse it. Gladly would
I fall on my knees and pray, as I read this letter again, at a time,
when after twenty years I again see a new, living path opened for
my purpose. Header ! how I should feel encouraged, when after so
many years I stand again at the point at which I stood then. I
must repeat, speaking of my efforts and hopes, that without the
almost miraculous assistance of Providence, without the co-operation
of friends (in whom I recognised almost heroic power) I should un
doubtedly again have come to a state in which my laborious days,
the giving up of my life, and the sacrifice of my family would to
day have been given over to the mockery of a blind crowd !
Reader ! How I gain fresh courage, as after so many years I read
again the passage : " Friend, imagine my heart, my despair, and
this ideal of shadow, and the thought, that in my ruin I had ruined
the aim of my life." Then, reader, imagine how my heart soars up
in thankfulness to God, who has preserved the desire of my life in
me, and has not wholly destroyed the object of my pains before my
eyes.
I/O How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
And yet, reader, if this had been, if I had really sunk into, and
not only been nearly brought to despair, but had been wholly con
quered by it, I should yet bear witness to-day, as in that letter, half
accusing myself of my misfortunes, and sink forbearing, forgiving,
thanking and loving into the grave. Bat, reader, how my heart
beats high when I can say, as twenty years ago, " The Lord hath
helped." How my heart beats as I repeat the words of that letter :
" Thou, O Lord ! hast preserved the desire of my life, and hast not
destroyed the object of my pains before my eyes, as Thou hast de
stroyed the desire of thousands who spoilt their own path, before
their eyes and mine. Thou hast preserved the work of my life in
the midst of my ruin. Thou hast cast an evening glow over my
hopeless old age, and the sight of its beauty compensates for my
sufferings. Lord, I am unworthy of Thy loving kindness and faith
fulness. Thou, Thou alone hast had pity for the crushed worm ;
Thou, Thou alone hast left the bruised reed unbroken, and the
smoking flax unquenched. Thou hast not rejected the sacrifice that
from childhood I would have made for the poor and forsaken in the
land, and have never made."
Header, forgive the repetition of the same words in the same page.
But the ardent desire of my heart will not permit me to oppose this
new feeling of salvation and happiness, that must be expressed and
put down in words, that I wrote twenty years ago. I must use them
to express the feelings of the present hour with the words of to-day.
You will, I know, willingly forgive thjs repetition.
XII.
In my last letter my feelings would not allow me to say
more. I put my pen away, and I did well. What are words
when the heart bows itself in dark despair, or rises in
highest rapture to the clouds ?
Friend, what are words even apart from these heights
and depths !
In the eternal nothingness of the most sublime character
istic of our race, human speech, and then again in its
sublime power, I see the mark of the external limitation
of the shell in which my cramped-up spirit pines. I see
in it the ideal of the lost innocence of my race, but I see in
it also the ideal of the shame which the memory of this lost
holiness always awakens in me, so long as I am not wholly
unworthy. This feeling, so long as I have not sunk in the
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 171
depths, ever revives within me the power of seeking what I
have lost, and of saving myself from ruin. Friend, so Jong
as man is worthy of the sublime characteristic of his race,
speech, so long as he uses it as a powerful means of expres
sion, and for the maintenance of his human superiority,
with a pure desire to ennoble himself and humanize himself
by it, it is a high and holy thing. But when he is no longer
worthy ; when he no longer uses it as a powerful expression
of his human superiority, and with no pure desire to
humanize himself, it will be nothing but a natural inex
haustible source of illusion, the use of which will lead to
the loss of his manliness, 'to effeminacy and brutality. It
will be to him the first and most powerful means of com
pletely ruining his moral and spiritual nature, and the first
source of his domestic misery, civil wrong-doing and wrong
suffering, and the public crime arising from it. Meanwhile
he, most skilfully, makes it into a cloak for all this ruin
and crime. It is incalculable how deeply the depravity of
our language has spread, how deep a hold it has on all the
aspects of the world of our time, how its tone is to be found
in good society, at court, in the law courts, in books, in
comedies, in periodicals, in daily papers, — in short, it is every
where in our midst, with all its dissolute force. It is
notorious that now, more than ever before, it is encouraged
from the cradle ; it is inspired by the school ; it is
strengthened through life ; I might even say, it speaks from
the pulpit and the council-chamber, down to the tavern and
the beershop ; it is heard among us everywhere. All the
sources of human depravity and sensuality find a centre in
it, in which they collect and unite for their common interest,
and become infectious. By this, and this only, can we ex
plain the terrible fact, that the depravity of language grows
with the depravity of men. Through it, the wretched be
come more wretched ; through it the night of error becomes
172 Hoiv Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
still darker ; through it the crimes of the wicked still in
crease. Friend ! the crimes of Europe are still increasing
through idle talk. It is connected with over-civilization,
and its results are influencing the condition of all our
feelings, thoughts, and actions. It is connected with the
far-reaching increase of our slavery. It is intimately con
nected with the equally far-reaching loss of independence,
not only in the common, lower classes of the country, but of
our so-called gentry, notables, and persons of importance ;
and it is also connected with the increasing degeneration
of oar middle class, the recognised first and most essential
support of all true political power, and civil happiness.
The daily increasing list of publications is only an insignifi
cant symptom of this great evil of our time. But the public
and private placards, increasing daily in number and size,
on the corners of our walls, are often more significant indi
cations of this evil than the swollen list of publications.
But in any case we cannot guess to what this chattering
degeneracy will lead a generation, which has already
reached the state of so many countries in our part of the
world, by its weakness, confusion, violence, and inconse
quence.1
But I return to my path. In my experimental inquiries into
the subject, I started from no positive notion of teaching —
I had none — I ask myself simply, " What would you do, if
you wished to produce in a single child, all the knowledge
and ability (Pert. 2) that it needs, in order, by wise care of its
essential concerns, to attain to inward content ?
But I see now that in the whole series of my letters to you,
I have only considered the first portion of the subject, the
training of the child's judgment and knoidedge ; but not
the training of his activities (Pert. 2), so far as these are not
especially activities brought out by instruction [in knowledge
and science]. And yet the activities that a man needs to
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 173
attain inner content by their possession, are not actually
limited to the few subjects that the nature of instruction
forced me to touch upon.
I cannot leave these gaps untouched. Perhaps the most
fearful gift that a fiendish spirit has made to this age is
knowledge without power of doing (Pert.} and insight with
out that power of exertion or of overcomimg that makes it
possible and easy for our life to be in harmony with our
inmost nature.
Man ! needing much and desiring all, thou must, to
satisfy thy wants and wishes, know and think, but for this
thou must also [can and] do. And knowing and doing are so
closely connected, that if one cease the other ceases with it.3
But this harmony between thy life and thy inmost nature
can only be, if the powers of doing (Pert.} (without which
it is impossible to satisfy thy wishes and wants) are culti
vated in thee with just the same art, and raised to the same
degree of perfection, as thy insight into the objects of thy
wants and wishes. The cultivation of these activities rests
then on the same organic4 laws as the cultivation of know
ledge.
The organism 4 of Nature is one and the same in the living
plant, in the animal, whose nature is merely physical, and
in man, whose nature is also physical, but who possesses will.
In the threefold results which Nature is capable of pro
ducing in me, she is always the same. Her laws work
either physically upon my physical nature, in the same
manner as upon animals generally, or secondly, they W9rk
upon me so far as they determine the sensuous basis of my
judgment and will. In this respect they are the sensuous
basis of my opinions, my inclinations, and my resolutions.
Thirdly, they work upon me so far as they make me capable
of that practical skill (Fert.\ the need of which I feel through
my instinct, recognise through my insight, and the learn-
174 How Gertrude Teaches Htr Children.
ing of which I command through my will. But in this
respect also, the Art must take the cultivation of our race out
of the hands of Nature, or rather from her accidental attitude
towards each individual, in order to put it in the hands of
knowledge, power and methods which she has taught us
for ages, to the advantage of the race.
Certainly men never lose the feeling for the necessity of
being cultivated in the activities required in ordinary life,
even in the deepest decadence caused by over-refinement and
artificial training.5 Still less does the individual man lose
this consciousness. " Natural instinct, in all moral, mental,
and practical things, drives him with its whole force into
paths of life, in which this consciousness of need increases
and develops daily. This tends in every way to take his
improvement out of the hands of blind Nature, and out
of the one-sided, over-refined and artificial training of his
senses, in this case intimately connected with the blind
ness of Nature, and put it into the hands of those intelli
gent powers, methods and arts which have been raising our
race for ages. But in every case bodies of men succumb
to the claims of sensuous nature, and its over-refined and
artificial training, far, far more than individuals. This
is true even of governments. They succumb as bodies,
masses or corporations to the claims of our sensuous nature
and its atrophy, far more than individuals, or even the
individual members of the corporations. It is certain, in
matters in which a father would not easily act wrongly
towards his son, or a teacher towards his pupils, a govern
ment may very easily act wrongly towards its people.
It cannot well be otherwise. Human nature acts with far
greater gentleness and purer power on each individual,
than it ever can on masses, corporations, or communi
ties of men, whatever they may be. The first common
instinct of human nature remains, and keeps itself infinitely
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 175
purer and more powerful, in the individual, than in any
corporation or community. Instinct stimulates no body or
community of men as it can and does stimulate the individ
ual. It loses the basis of harmony, from which its influence
on the whole compass of human powers, may and should start
and aspire. It is undeniable, that whatever is holy and divine
in instinct expresses itself in the individual by its harmo
nious influence on all natural powers. This holy and divine
quality in instinct becomes crippled and ineffectual (whatever
form its one-sidedness may take) in every case where it influ
ences any mass or body of men in their collective capacity, and
by this very influence produces in them an esprit dn corps
with its deadening influences. Instinct affects masses of
men of whatever kind with the same deadening force
that every kind of . union among men produces in itself ; and
wherever this is the case, there its influence on truth and
justice, and in consequence, on national enlightenment and
national happiness is inevitably hindered. This distinction,
between the effect of instinct upon individuals, and upon
bodies of men, is of the highest importance and deserves far
more attention than it gets. It throws, when we under
stand it, decided light on many phenomena of human life,
particularly on many actions of governments, which else
would be incomprehensible. It also explains why we must
not expect too much of governments with regard to the care
o«f the individual, of the education of the people, and every
thing on which the common weal depends — things which
can only be accomplished by individuals. No, it is an
eternal truth, easily explained by human nature, and shown
in all the history of the world, that what can be done by
the life and energy of individuals in the state, that is by
the people, cannot be done so well by the government.
We cannot expect it, much less demand it. The only
thing we can ask is that the individual should not
176 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
be allowed to sink down into want of power and will.
Governments ought to try and guard against this want of
power in the individual, in those matters in which he could
accomplish and contribute anything himself to forward the
public good ; and should neglect nothing that every individual
needs for the cultivation of his intelligence, disposition, and
abilities, in order as an individual to be able to do his
part for the public good. But. it grieves me to say that the
governments of our time are not strong and living enough
for the practical skill required for this end. It is undeni
able, that the people of our part of the world do not enjoy
the practical help that each man needs for the cultivation
of his intelligence, disposition, and ability (Pert.}, in order,
on the one hand, by wise care of his own business, to
attain inner self-content, and on the other to facilitate, provide
and secure to the state all that it needs, in order, as a state,
to find help, and assistance in its millions of individuals,
for that which it can only maintain through the good con
dition of the moral, mental and practical powers of these
individuals. 6
HERE IS A GREAT GAP.*
q£f/iV'e«
All sfc*tt (Fert.\ on the possession of which depend all the
powers of knowing and doing, that are required by an educated
* Note Pestalozzi. — Much as I have wished and resolved to leave the
original edition of this work unaltered, and to give free course to the
stream of my opinions and thoughts at that time, I have here sup
pressed a long passage that expressed my feelings about the position
of the people and our country at that time, although the horrible
events of the twenty years, between the first and second edition, have
in many ways confirmed these opinions. I was obliged to suppress
them. I now regard the condition of the people with more sorrow
than zeal ; and my views of remedies for the evils of the time tend
rather to more sorrow than to the eloquence of youthful zeal, the
shrill expressions of which, with whatever reserve of love, truth
and justice, rather extinguish than kindle the holy, eternal, inner
nature of love.
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. \ 77
mind and a noble heart, comes as little of itself as the intel
ligence and knowledge that man needs for it. As the culti
vation of mental powers and faculties pre-supposes a psycho
logically arranged gradation of means, adapted to human
nature, so the cultivation of the faculties which these powers
of doing (Pert.} presuppose, rests on the deep-rooted me
chanism of an A B C of Art / that is on universal laws of
the Art, by following which the children may be educated by
a series of exercises, proceeding gradually from the simplest
to the most complicated. These must result, with physical
certainty, in obtaining for them a daily increasing facility in
all that they need for their education. But this A B C is
anything but found. It is quite natural that we seldom find
anything that nobody looks for. But if we would seek it,
with all the earnestness with which we are wont to seek
any small advantage in the money-market, it would be easy
to find, and when found, would be a great blessing to man
kind. It must start from the simplest manifestations of
physical powers, which contain the foundations of the most
complicated human practical ability 7 (Pert.}. Striking and
carrying, thrusting and throwing, drawing and turning, en
circling and swinging, etc., are extremely simple expressions
of our physical powers. In themselves, essentially different,
they contain, all together and each separately, the founda
tions of all possible actions (Pert.), even the most complicated,
on which human callings depend. Therefore, it is obvious
that the A B C of actions must start altogether from early
psychologically arranged exercises in these actions, all and
each. This A B C of limb exercise must, naturally, be brought
into harmony with the A B C of sense exercises, and with all
the mechanical practice in thinking, and with exercises in
form and number-teaching.
But as we are far behind the Appenzell woman and her
paper bird, in the ABC of Anschauung, so are we far
N
1/8 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
behind the greatest barbarians in the A B C of actions,
(gymnastics) (Fert.\ and their skill in striking and throwing,
thrusting and dragging.
We want a graduated series of exercises, from their
simplest beginning to their highest perfection, that is, to
the utmost delicacy of nerve power, which enables us to per
form with certainty and in a hundred different ways, the
actions of thrusting and parrying, swinging and throwing.
We want, too, actions exercising hand and foot in opposite,
as well as in the same directions'. All these, as far as popu
lar instruction is concerned, are castles in the air. The
ground is clear. We have spelling schools, writing schools,
catechism (Heidelberger) schools only, and we want —
men's schools. 8But these can be of no use to those whose
whole idea is to keep things as they are, to the jobbery, and
injustice, that are so readily maintained by this idea, nor to
the nervous state of the gentry whose interests are involved
in this contemptible state of laissez-faire. [But I almost
forget the point at which I began.]
The mechanism of activities takes the same course as that
of knowledge, and its foundations, with regard to self-educa
tion, are perhaps still more far-reaching. In order to be able,
you must act • in order to knotv, you must, in many cases,
keep passive ; you can only see and hear. Hence, in relation
to your activities, you are not only the centre of their cul
tivation, but in many cases, you determine their ultimate
use — always within the laws of the physical mechanism.
As in the infinite range of lifeless nature, its situation,
needs and relations have determined the special character
istics of every object ; so in the infinite range of living
nature that produces the development of thy faculties, situ
ation, needs and relations determine the sort of power (Pert.)
that you specially need.
^These considerations throw light on the mode of developing
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 179
our activities, and also on the character of the activities
when developed. Every influence, that in the development
of our powers and activities, turns us away from the centre
point, on which rests the personal responsibility of every
thing that man is bound throughout his life to do, to bear, to
attend and provide for, must be regarded as an influence
opposed to wise manly education. Every influence leading
us to apply our powers and activities in a way that turns us
away from this central point, and thus weakens or robs the
activities of the special character, which our duty towards
ourselves requires of us, or puts us out of accord with them,
or in some way or other makes us incapable of serving our
fellow-men or our country, must be regarded as a deviation
from the laws of nature, from the harmony with myself and
my surroundings. Therefore it is a hindrance to my self-
culture, to the training for my calling, and to my sense of
duty. It is a delusive and self-destructive deviation from
the pure and beautiful dependence of my relations in life on
my real character. 10 Every kind of instruction or education,
every kind of life, every use of our trained powers and talents
in life, which bears in itself the seeds of such discord be
tween our education and our actions and the real character
of our being, our relations and our duties, must be guarded
against by every father and mother, who have their children's
life-long peace of mind at heart, since we must seek the
sources of the infinite evil of our baseless sham-enlighten
ment, and the misery of our masquerade revolution, in
errors of this kind; since both find a place alike in the
instruction, and in the life, of our educated and uneducated
people. The necessity of great care for the psychological
manner of developing and cultivating our powers of doing
(Pert.), as well as the psychological training for the
development of our power of knowing, is obvious. This
psychological training for the development of our powers
180 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
of knowing is based on an A B C of Anschauung, and must
lead the child, by this fundamental clue, to the fullest
purity of clear ideas. For the cultivation of the activities,
on which the sense-foundation of our virtue rests, we must
seek for an A B C for developing this power and on
its lines a sense-cultivation, a physical dexterity of those
powers and activities which are needed for the life-duties
of our race,11 which we must recognise as leading strings
in the nursery of virtue, until our senses, ennobled by this
training, need the leading-strings no longer. In 12 this way
a general kind of education, suitable to the human race,
can be developed, for training those practical abilities which
are necessary for the fulfilment of the duties of life. It
goes from complete power of doing to the recognition of
law, just as the education of intelligence goes from com
plete sense-impression to clear ideas, and from these to
their expression in words, to definitions. Therefore it
is, that as definitions before sense-impression lead men
to presumptuous chatter, so word-teachings about virtue
and faith, preceding the realities of living sense-impres
sions, lead men astray to similar confusion about them.
It is undeniable, that the presumption of these confusions, by
virtue of the inner profanity and impurity that lie at the
bottom of all presumption, leads even the virtuous faithful
generally to the common vice of presumption. I believe
also (experience speaks loudly on this view, and it must be
so) that gaps in the early sense-cultivation of virtue have the
same consequences, as gaps in the early sense-cultivation of
knowledge.13
But I see myself at the beginning of a far greater problem
than that which I think I have solved. I see myself at the
beginning of this problem : —
" How can the child, considering the nature of his dis
position, and the changeableness of his circumstances and
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 181
relations, be so trained that whatever is demanded of him in
the course of his life by necessity and duty, may be easy to
him, and may, if possible, become second nature to him? "
I see myself at the beginning of the task of forming in the
child, in its baby clothes, a satisfactory wife, the helpmeet of
her husband, a good and vigorous mother, who fulfils her
duties well. I see myself at the beginning of the task of
making the child, in its baby clothes, the satisfactory husband
of the woman, and a strong father, filling his place well.
What a task, my friend ! To make the spirit of his future
calling a second nature to the son of man. And what a still
higher task to bring the sense-means of facilitating the
virtuous and wise disposition of mind, into the blood and
veins, before the hot desires for sensual pleasures have so
infected blood and veins as to make virtue and wisdom im
possible.
Friend ! This problem is also solved. The same laws of
the physical mechanism that develop in me the sense-
foundations of knowledge, are also the sense-means of
facilitating my virtue. But, dear friend, it is impossible for
me to go into the details of this solution now. I reserve it
for another time.
XIII.
Friend ! As I said, it would have led me too far to enter
into details of the principles and laws upon which the culti
vation of the practical abilities (Pert.) in life depend. But
I will not end my letters without touching on the keystone
of my whole system, namely this question, — How is reli
gious feeling connected with these principles, which I have
accepted as generally true for the development of the human
race?
Here also I seek the solution of my problem in myself,
1 82 Hoiv Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
and I ask : " How is the idea of God germinated in my soul ?
How comes it that I believe in God, that I throw myself in
His arms, and feel blessed when I love Him, trust Him,
thank Him, follow Him ?
I soon see that the feelings of love, trust, gratitude, and
readiness to obey, must be developed in me before I can
apply them to God. I must love men, trust men, thank
men, and obey men before I can aspire to love, thank, trust,
and obey God. For whoso loveth not his brother, whom he
hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen ?
Then I ask myself : How do I come to love, trust, thank,
and obey men ? How come those feelings in my nature on
which human love, human gratitude, human confidence rest,
and those activities by which obedience is formed ? And I
find : "That they have their chief source in the relations that
exist betiveen the baby and his mother.
The mother is forced by the power of animal instinct to
tend her child, feed him, protect and please him. She does
this. She satisfies his wants, she removes anything un
pleasant, she comes to the help of his helplessness. x The
child is cared for, is pleased. The germ of love is developed
in him.
Now put an object that he has never seen before his eyes ;
he is astonished, frightened, he cries. The mother presses
him to her bosom, dandles him, and diverts him. He leaves
off crying, but his eyes are still wet. The object appears
again. The mother takes him into her sheltering arms and
smiles at him again. Now he weeps no more. He returns
his mother's smile with clear unclouded eyes. The germ of
trust is developed in him.
The mother hastens to his cradle at his every need. She
is there at the hour of hunger, she gives him drink in the
hour of thirst. When he hears her step he is quiet, when
he sees her he stretches out his hands. His eye is cast on
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 183
her breast. He is satisfied. Mother, and being satisfied,
are one and the same thought to him. He is grateful.
The germs of love, trust and gratitude soon grow. The
child knows his mother's step ; he smiles at her shadow.
He loves those who are like her ; a creature like his mother
is a good creature to him. He smiles at his mother's face,
at all human faces ; he loves those who are dear to his
mother. Whom his mother embraces, he embraces ; whom his
mother kisses, he kisses too. The germ of human love, of
brotherly love is developed in him.
Obedience in its origin is an activity whose driving-wheel
is opp'osed to the first inclinations of animal nature. Its
cultivation rests on art. *It is not a simple result of pure
' instinct, but it is closely connected with it. Its first stage
is distinctly instinctive. As want precedes love, nourish
ment gratitude, and care trust, so passionate desire precedes
obedience. The child screams before he waits, he is im
patient before he obeys. Patience is developed before
obedience, he only becomes obedient through patience. The
first manifestations (Pert.) of this virtue are simply passive ;
they arise generally from a consciousness of hard necessity.
But this, too,, is first developed on the mother's lap. The
child must wait until she opens her breast to him ; he must
wait until she takes him up. Active obedience develops
much later, and later still, the consciousness that it is good
for him to obey his mother.
The development of the human race begins in a strong
passionate desire for the satisfaction of physical wants. The
mother's breast stills the first storm of physical needs, and
creates love ; soon after fear is developed. The mother's arm
stills fear. These actions produce the union of the feelings
of love and trust, and develop the first germ of gratitude.
Nature is inflexible towards the passionate child. He
beats wood and stone, Nature is inflexible, and the child
184 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
ceases to beat wood and stone. Now the mother is inflexible
towards his irregular desires. He rages and roars — she is
still inflexible. He leaves off crying, he becomes accustomed
to subject his will to hers. The first germs of patience,
the first germs of obedience are developed.
Obedience and love, gratitude and trust united, develop
the first germ of conscience, the first faint shadow of the
feeling that it is not right to rage against the loving mother ;
the first faint shadow of the feeling that the mother is not
in the world altogether for his sake ; the first faint shadow
of a feeling that everything in the world is not altogether
for his sake ; and with it is also germinated the feeling that
he himself is not in the world for his own sake only. The
first shadow of duty and right is in the germ.
These are the first principles of moral self-development,
which are unfolded by the natural relations between mother
and child. But in them lies the whole essence of the natural
germ of that state of mind, which is peculiar to human de
pendence on the Author of our being. That is, the germ of
all feelings of dependence on God, through faith, is in its
essence, the same germ which is produced by the infant's
dependence on its mother. The manner in which these feel
ings develop is one and the same.
In both, the infant hears, believes, follows, but in both, at
this time, it knows not what it believes and what it does.
Meanwhile, at this time, the first grounds of its faith and
actions begin to vanish. Growing independence makes the
child let go his mother's hand. He begins to become con
scious of his own personality, and a secret thought unfolds
itself in his heart, — " / no longer need my mother" She
reads the growing thought in his eyes; she presses her
darling more firmly to her heart, and says, in a voice he
has not yet heard, " Child, there is a God whom thou needest,
who taketh thee in His arms when thou needest me no
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 185
longer, when I can shelter thee no more. There is a God
who prepares joy and happiness for thee when I can no more
give them thee." Then an inexpressible something rises
in the child's heart, a holy feeling, a desire for faith, that
raises him above himself. He rejoices in the name of G-od,
as soon as he hears his mother speak it. The feelings of
love, gratitude and trust that were developed at her bosom,
extend and embrace God as father, God as mother. The
practice (Pert.} of obedience has a wider field. The child,
who believes from this time forwards in the eye of God as
in the eye of his mother, does right now for God's sake, as
he formerly did right for his mother's sake.
Here, in this first attempt of the mother's innocence and
the mother's heart to unite the first feeling of independence
with the newly developed feeling of morality through the
inclination to faith in God, the foundations are disclosed on
which education and instruction must cast their eyes, if they
would aim, with certainty, at ennobling us.
As the first germination of love, gratitude, trust, and
obedience was a simple result of the coincidence of instinc
tive feelings between mother and child, so the further de
velopment of these germinated feelings is a high human art.
But it is an art, the threads of which will be lost in your
hands, if for one moment you lose sight of the origin from
which the web springs. The danger of this loss to the
child is great, and comes early. He lisps his mother's name,
he loves, thanks, trusts and follows. He lisps the name of
God, he loves, thanks, trusts and follows. But the motives
of gratitude, love and trust vanish with the first appearance
of the idea : He needs his mother no more. The world that
now surrounds him appears to him in a new light, and en
tices him with its pleasure, saying, " You are mine noiv."
The child cannot but hear this voice. The instinct of the
infant is quenched in him ; the instinct of growing poivers
1 86 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
takes its place, and the germ of morality, in so far as it
begins in feelings that are proper to the infant, suddenly
withers up, and must wither, if at this moment, no one
attaches to the golden spindle of creation the threads of
his life, that is the first throbbing of the higher feelings of
his moral nature.
Mother, mother ! the world is now beginning to wean your
child from your heart ; and if at this moment no one con
nects his nobler nature with the new revelation of the world
of sense, it is all over. Mother, mother, your child is torn from
your heart. The new world becomes his mother, the netv
world becomes his god, sensual pleasure becomes his god,
self-will becomes his god.
Mother, mother ! he has lost you, he has lost God, he has
lost himself. The touch of love is quenched for him. The
germ of self-respect is dead within him. He is going towards
destruction, striving only after sensual enjoyment.
Mankind, mankind ! Now with this transition when the
feelings of infancy vanish in the first consciousness of the
charm of the world, independent of the mother — now when
the ground, in which the noblest feelings of nature germinate,
begins for the first time to tremble under the child's feet ;
now when the mother begins to be no more what she once
was to her child ; now when the germ of trust in the new
aspect of the world is developed in him, and the charm of
this new manifestation begins to stifle and devour his
trust in his mother, who is no more what she once was to
him, and with it his trust in an unseen and unknown God —
as the wild web of tangled roots of the poisonous plant stifle
and devour the finer web of roots of the noblest plants,—
now, mankind ! Now at this moment of transition between
the feelings of trust in mother and God, and those of trust
in the new aspect of the world and all that therein is, —
now at this parting place, you should use all your art and
Hoiv Gertrude Teaches Her CJiildren. 187
all your power to keep the feelings of love, gratitude, trust
and obedience pure in your child.
God is in these feelings, and the whole power of your
moral life is intrinsically connected with their preservation.
Mankind ! at this time when the physical causes of the
germination of these feelings in the infant cease, your Art
should do everything to bring to hand new methods of stimu
lating them, and to let the attractions of the world only
come before the mind of your growing child in connection
with them.
Now for the first time you cannot trust Nature, but must
do everything to take the reins out of her blind hands and
put them into the hands of principles and powers, in which
the experience of ages has put them. The world that appears
before the child's eyes is not God's first creation, it is a world
spoilt alike for the innocent enjoyment of the senses, and for
the feelings of his inner nature. It is a world full of war
for the means of gratifying selfishness, full of contradiction,
full of violence, presumption, lying and deceit.
Not God's first creation but this world decoys the child to
the giddy dance of the whirlpool of the abyss, whose depths
are the home of lovelessness and moral death. Not God's
creation, but the brute force and art of bringing about its own
ruin, is what this world puts before the child's eyes.
Poor child ! your dwelling-room is your world; but your
father is bound to his workshop, your mother is vexed to-day,
has company to-morrow, and has whims the next day. You
are bored ; you ask questions ; your nurse will not answer.
You want to go out ; you may not. Now you quarrel with
your sister about a toy. — Poor child! what a miserable,
heartless, heart-corrupting thing your world is ! But is it
anything more when you drive about in a gilded carriage
under shady trees ? Your leader deceives your mother. You
suffer less, but you become worse than all sufferers. What
1 88 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
have you gained ? Your world is become a heavier load to
you than any pain.
This world is so rocked to sleep in the ruin of a perverse
and oppressive opposition to the laws of Nature, that it
has no mind for being the means of preserving purity in
the heart of man ; on the contrary, it is as careless, at the
critical moment, of the innocence of our race, as a heartless
second wife of her step-child. A carelessness, that in a hun
dred cases to one, causes and must cause the wreck of the last
means that are left us for ennobling our race. At this time
the child has no counterpoise that can be opposed to the
phenomena of the world, and the one-sided charm of its im
pressions on the senses, and so its conceptions, both through
their one-sidedness and through their vividness, maintain a
. decided preponderance over the impressions of experiences
and feelings which lie at the base of the moral and spiri
tual improvement of our race. Henceforth an infinite and
infinitely living field is opened up for selfish and degraded
passions. On the other hand, the way to that state of mind,
on which the powers of his intelligence and enlightenment
rest, is lost; that path to the narrow gate of morality is
blocked up ; the whole sensuousness of his nature must take
a direction separating the path of reason from that of love,
and the improvement of the mind from the impulse towards
faith in God, a way that more or less makes selfishness the
one driving wheel of all his actions, and thereby determines
the result of his culture to his own destruction.
It is incomprehensible that mankind does not recognise
this universal source of ruin. It is incomprehensible that
it is not the one universal aim of their Art to stop it, and to
subordinate the education of our race to principles which do
not destroy the work of God, the feelings of love, gratitude
and trust already developed in infancy, but which must at
this dangerous time tend specially to care for those means
Hoiv Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 189
of uniting our moral and spiritual improvement implanted
in our nature by Grod Himself, and to bring education and in
struction into harmony, on the one side, with those laws of
the physical mechanism according to which our God raises
us from vague sense-impressions to clear ideas, and on the
other, with those feelings of my inner nature, through the
gradual development of which my mind rises to recognise and
venerate the moral law. It is incomprehensible that man
kind does not begin to bring out a perfect gradation of
methods for developing the mind and feelings, the essential
purpose of which should be, to use the advantages of instruc
tion and its mechanism for the preservation of moral per
fection, to prevent the selfishness of the reason by preserving
the purity of the heart from error and one-sidedness ; and
above all, to subordinate my sense-impressions to my con
victions, my eagerness to my benevolence, and my benevo
lence to my righteous will.
The causes which make this subordination necessary, lie
deep in my nature. As my physical powers increase, their
preponderance, by virtue of the laws of my development,
must vanish, that is, they must be subordinated to a
higher law. But every step of my development must be
completed before it can be subordinated to a higher pur
pose. This subordination of that which is already complete,
to that which is to be completed, requires above all, pure
holding fast to the beginning-points of all knowledge, and
the most exact continuity in gradual progress from these
beginning-points to the final completion. The primary law of
this continuity is this : the first instruction of the child
should never be the business of the head or of the reason • it
should always be the business of the senses, of the heart, of
the mother.
The second law, that follows it, is this : human education
goes on slowly from exercise of the senses to exercise of the
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
judgment. It is for a long time the business of the heart,
before it is the business of the reason. It is for a long time
the business of the woman before it begins to be the busi
ness of the man.
What shall I say more ? — With these words the eternal
laws of nature lead me back to your hand, mother! Mother !
I can keep my innocence, my love, my obedience, the excel
lences of my nobler nature with the new impressions of the
world, all, all at your side only. Mother, mother ! while
you have still a hand, a heart for me, let me not turn away
from you. If no one has taught you to know the world as I
am forced to learn it, then come, we will learn it together, as
you ought, and I must. Mother, mother ! we will not part
from each other at the moment when I run into danger of
being drawn away from you, from Grod, and from myself, by
the new phenomena of the world. Mother, mother ! sanctify
the transition from your heart to this world, by the support
of your heart.
Friend ! I must be silent. My heart is moved, and I see
tears in your eyes. Farewell !
XIV.
Friend ! I go further now and ask myself : What have I
done to work against the evils that affected me throughout
my life, from a religious point of view ? Friend ! If by my
efforts I have in any way succeeded in preparing the road
to the goal at which I have been aiming, that is to take
human education out of the hands of blind Nature, to free
it from the destructive influence of her sensual side, and
the power of the routine of her miserable teaching, and to
put it into the hands of the noblest powers of our nature,
the soul of which is faith and love ; if I can only in some
Blight degree succeed in making the Art of education begin
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 191
in the sanctuary of home, more than it now does, and to put
new life into the religious instinct of our race, from this
tender side ; if I should only have partly succeeded in bring
ing nearer to my contemporaries the withered rootstock of
mental and spiritual education, and an Art of education in har
mony with the noblest powers of heart and mind ; if I have
done this, my life will be blessed, and I shall see my greatest
hopes fulfilled.1
I will dwell a moment longer on this point. The germ,
out of which the feelings that are essential to religion and
morality spring, is the same from which the whole spirit of my
method of teaching arises. It begins entirely in the natural
relation, which exists between the infant and its mother, and
essentially rests on the Art of connecting instruction, from
the cradle upwards, with this natural relation, and building
it with continuous Art upon a state of mind that resembles
our dependence on the Author of our being. When the phy
sical dependence of child on mother begins to vanish, my
method uses all possible means to prevent the germ of the
nobler feelings, that arose from this dependence, from wither
ing away ; and as the physical causes cease, it supplies new
sources of vitality. At the important moment of the first
separation of the feelings of trust in mother and God, and of
reliance on the phenomena of the world, it applies all possible
power and Art, so that the charm of the new phenomena of
the world shall always appear to the child in connection
with the nobler feelings of his nature. It uses all its power
and Art to let these phenomena come before his eyes as God's
first creation, not merely as a world full of lying and deceit.
It limits the one-sided charm of the new phenomena by
stimulating dependence upon mother and God. It limits the
boundless free play of selfishness, to which the destructive
phenomena of the world lead my animal nature, and does
not allow the path of my reason to divide absolutely from
192 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
the path of my heart, nor the improvement of my mind to
separate me absolutely from my impulse of faith in
God.
The whole spirit of my method is not only to renew the
bond between mother and child, with the disappearance of
its physical cause, but to put a methodical series of means,
that is an Art, into her hand by which she can give perma
nence to this relation between her heart and her child, until
the sense-methods of making virtue easy, united with the
sense-methods of acquiring knowledge, may be able, by
exercise, to ripen the independence of the child, in all that
concerns right and duty.
It has made it easy for every mother, whose heart is her
child's, to keep him not only at the critical period from the
danger of being drawn away from God and love, to save his
soul from dreadful withering, and himself from being given
up to unavoidable bewilderment, but also to lead him by the
hand of her love and with pure, supporting, noble feelings
into God's best creation, before his heart is spoilt for the
impressions of innocence, truth and love by all the lying and
deceit of this world.
For the woman who makes my method her own, her child
is jio longer confined] within the miserable and limited
sphere of her own actual knowledge. The Mother's Book
opens to her for her child the world which is God's world.
The purest love opens her mouth for all that the child sees
through her. She has taught him to lisp the name of God
on her bosom, now she shows him the All-loving in the
rising sun, in the rippling brook, in the branches of the
trees, in the splendour of the flower, in the dewdrops. She
shows him the All-present in himself, in the light of his
eyes, in the flexibility of his joints, in the tones of his
voice, in everything she shows him God ; and wher
ever he sees God his heart rises, wherever he sees God
How Gertrude Teaclies Her Children.
in the world lie loves the world. Joy in God's world is
interwoven with joy in God. He includes God, the world,
and his mother in one and the same emotion. The torn
bond is joined together again. He loves his mother more
now than when he lay upon her breast. He stands now a
step higher. He is now raised through the very same
world, by which he would have been bewildered, if he had
not learned to know it through his mother. The mouth that
smiled on him so often from the day of his birth, the voice
that from the day of his birth has so often foretold joy to
him, this voice now teaches him to talk. The hand that
pressed him so often to her heart now shows him pictures,
whose names he has often heard. A new feeling germinates
in his breast. He becomes conscious by words of what he
sees. The first step of the gradation of the union of his
spiritual and moral improvement is open. The mother's
hand opens it, the child learns, knows, and names ; he wishes
to know more, to name more. He forces the mother to
learn with him ; she learns with him, and both mount daily
to knowledge, power and love. Now she attempts with him
the elements and grounds of art, straight and curved lines.
The child soon outsteps her — the joy of both is equal, new
powers develop in his mind, he draws, measures, reckons.
The mother showed him God in the aspect of the world, now
she shows him God in his drawing, measuring, reckoning, in
all his powers. He now sees God in his self-perfection.
The law of perfection is the law of his training. He recog
nises it in the first perfect drawing, in one straight or
curved line — yes, friend, with the first perfect drawing of
a line, with the first perfect pronunciation of a word, the
ftrst idea of the high law: "Be ye also perfect, as your Father
in heaven is perfect " is developed in his breast. And since
my method rests essentially on constant efforts towards the
perfection of single things, it works powerfully and con-
o
IQ4 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
stantly to impress the spirit of this law deeply in the child's
breast from the cradle upwards.
To this first law of your inner perfection, a second is
united, intrinsically interwoven with the first. This is, —
Man is not in the world for his own sake only ; he can only
perfect himself through the perfection of his brethren. My
method seems exactly fitted to make these two laws, united,
second nature to the children, almost before they know right
from left. The child of my method can hardly talk before
he is his brother's teacher, and his mother's helper.
Friend ! It is not possible to join the bonds of the feelings
on which true reverence for God rests, more tightly than it
is done by the whole spirit of my method. By it I have pre
served the mother for the child, and procured permanence for
the influence of her heart. By it I have united God's wor
ship with human nature, and secured their preservation by
stimulating those emotions, from which the impulse of faith
is germinated in our hearts. Mother and Creator, mother and
Preserver, become through it, one and the same emotion for
the child. By it the child remains longer his mother's
child • he remains by it longer God's child. The gradual
development of his mind and heart united rests longer on
the pure beginning-points from which their first germs
sprang. The path of his love of man, and his wisdom is
familiarly and sublimely opened. By it I am the father of
the poor, the support of the wretched. As my mother leaves
her healthy children and clings to the sickly, and takes
double care of the wretched because she must, being the
mother, because she stands in God's place to the child, so
must /, if the mother is in God's place to me, and God fills
my heart in the mother's place. A feeling like the mother's
feeling impels me. Man is my brother, my love embraces
the whole race, but I cling to the wretched, I am doubly his
father ; to act like God becomes my nature. I am a child
How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. ~ 195
of God ; I believed in my mother, her heart showed me God.
God is the God of my mother, of my heart and her heart. I
know no other God. The God of my brain is a chimcera.
I know no other God but the God of my heart. By faith in
the God of my heart only I feel a man. The God of my
brain is an idol. I ruin myself by worshipping him. The
God of my heart is my God. I perfect myself in His love.
Mother, mother! you showed me God in your commands,
and I found Him in obedience. Mother, mother! when I
forget God I forget you, and when I love God I am in your
place to your infant. I cling to your wretched ones, and
those who weep, rest in my arms as in their mother's.
Mother, mother ! as I love you so I love God, and duty is
my highest good. Mother ! when I forget you, I forget God,
and the wretched ones no longer rest in my arms ; I am no
longer in God's place to the sufferer. When I forget you I
forget God. Then live I, like the lion, for myself and in
self-confidence use my powers for myself against my own
race. Then is there no sense of fatherhood in my soul, then
no sense of God sanctifies my obedience ; and my apparent
sense of duty is a vain deception.
Mother, mother ! as I love- you, so love I God. Mother
and obedience, God and duty are one and the same to me —
God's will, and the best and noblest, that I can imagine, are
one and the same to me. I live then no more for myself; I
lose myself in my brethren, the children of my God — I live
no more for myself, I live for Him who took me in my
mother's arms, and raised me with a father's hand above the
dust of my mortal coil to His love. And the more I love
Him, the Eternal, the more I honour His commandments, the
more I depend on Him, the more I lose myself and become
His, the more does my nature become divine, the more do I
feel in harmony with my inner nature and with my whole
race. The more I love Him, the more I follow Him, the more
196 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
do I hear on all sides the voice of the Eternal, " Fear not, I
am thy God, I will never forsake thee ; follow My command
ments ; My will is thy salvation." And the more I follow
Him, the more I love Him and thank Him, the more I
trust the Eternal, the more I know Him who is and was
and shall be evermore, the Author of my being, needing me
not.
I have recognised the Eternal in myself. I have seen the
way of the Lord, I have read the laws of the Almighty in
the dust, I have sought out the laws of His love in my
heart — I know in whom I believe. My trust in God becomes
infinite through my self-knowledge, and through the insight
germinated in it, of the laws of the moral world. The idea
of the Infinite is interwoven in my nature with the idea of
the Eternal. ' I hope for eternal life. And the more I love
Him, the Eternal, the more I hope for eternal life. The
more I trust, the more I thank and follow Him. The more
faith in His eternal goodness becomes a truth to me, the
more does my faith in His eternal goodness become a witness
of my immortality.
I am silent again, Friend ! — What are words to express a
certainty that springs from the heart ? What are words on
a subject in which a man, whose head and heart alike
deserve my respect, thus expressed himself : " There is no
perception of God from mere knowledge ; the true God lives
only for faith, for childlike faith."
" What is dim to the wisdom of the wise,
Is clear and simple unto childlike eyes."
Then only the heart knows God, the heart that rising
above care for its own finite being embraces mankind, be it
the whole or a part ?
" This pure human heart requires and creates for its love,
its obedience, its trust, its worship, a personified type of the
Hoiv Gertrude Teaches Her Children. 197
highest, a high, holy will, which exists as the soul of the
whole spiritual world.
"Ask the good man, — Why is duty your highest good?
Why do you believe in God ? If he gives proofs, only the
schools are speaking in him. A more skilful intellect beats
all these proofs down. He trembles a moment, but his heart
cannot deny the Divine ; he comes back to Him, blessing and
loving, as to his mother's bosom.
" Then whence comes the good man's conviction of God ?
Not from the intellect, but from that inexplicable impulse
which cannot be comprehended in any word, or any thought,
the impulse to glorify and immortalize his being in the
higher imperishable being of the whole. — Not me, but the
brethren. — Not the individual — but the race. This is the
unconditional expression of the divine voice within the soul.
In comprehending and following it lies the only nobility of
human nature." 2
APPENDIX.
" THE METHOD, A EEPOET BY PESTALOZZI."*
I AM trying to psychologize the instruction of mankind ; I am
trying to bring it into harmony with the nature of my mind,
with that of my circumstances and my relations to others. I
start from no positive form of teaching, as such, but simply ask
myself : —
" What would you do, if you wished to give a single child all
the knowledge and practical skill he needs, so that by wise care
of his best opportunities, he might reach inner content ? "
I think, to gain this end, the human race needs exactly the
same thing as the single child.
I think, further, the poor man's child needs a greater refine
ment in the methods of instruction than the rich man's child.
* " The Method, a Report by Pestalozzi," published by Niederer, -with
other posthumous works by Pestalozzi, in the Allgemeine Monatschrift fur
Erziehung und Unterricht, edited by J. P. Rossel, Aix-la-Chapelle, 1828.
Vol. ix., pp. 66-80, 161-174. — This work is in the Library of the
Teachers' Guild, London. — These papers were also published separately
under the title of " Pestalozzische Blatter," of which one volume aud part
of another were published. A copy is in the Musee Pedagogue, Paris.
Niederer says, in the Introduction : " The following original treatise,
hitherto unprinted, contains Pestalozzi's report to a Society which had been
formed to support his efforts for education at the time of his return from
Stanz to Burgdorf. It is Pestalozzi's own work, and he has signed the copy,
from which this is taken, with his own hand.
"This precious document takes us back again to Pestalozzi's standpoint
when he created the method. In this his views are fully expressed, and it
contains the germ which developed later into^fche theory of elementary
human education ; but it also contains the e%ors and mistakes which
hindered the progress of his work."
Seyffarth, who republishes it, Vol. 18, says : " It seems that Niederer
made no alteration in this treatise, for he has added notes to the text,
which he did not do when he made alterations." But there is reason
for thinking that it has been touched by Niederer. See
2CO Appendix.
NATURE, indeed, does much for the human race, but we have
strayed away from her path. The poor man is thrust away
from her bosom, and the rich destroy themselves both by rioting
and by lounging on her overflowing breast.
The picture is severe. But ever since I have been able to see
I have seen it so ; and it is from this view that the impulse
arises within me, not merely to plaster over the evils in schools,
which are enervating the people of Europe, but to cure them at
their root.
But this can never be done without subordinating all forms
of instruction to those eternal laws, by which the human mind
is raised from physical impressions on the senses to clear
ideas.
I have tried to simplify the elements of all human knowledge
according to these laws, and to put them into a series of typical
examples that shall result in spreading a wide knowledge of
Nature, general clearness of the most important ideas in the
mind, and vigorous exercises of the chief bodily powers, even
among the lowest classes.
I know what I am undertaking; but neither the difficulties
in the way, nor my own limitations in skill and insight, shall
hinder me from giving my mite for a purpose which Europe
needs so much. And, gentlemen, in laying before you the
results of those labours on which my life has been spent, I beg
of you but one thing. It is this : — Separate those of my asser
tions that may be doubtful from those that are indisputable. I
wish to found my conclusions entirely upon complete convic
tions, or at least upon perfectly recognised premises.
The most essential point from which I start is this : —
Sense impression of Nature is the only true foundation of
human instruction, because it is the only true foundation of
human knowledge.
All that follows is the result of this sense impression, and
the process of abstraction from it. Hence in every case where
this is imperfect, the result also will be neither certain, safe
nor positive ; and in any case, where the sense impression is
inaccurate, deception and error follow.
I start from this point and ask :— " What does Nature herself
do in order to present the world truly to me, so far as it affects
me ? That is, — By what means does she bring the sense im
pressions of the most important things around me, to a per
fection that contents me ? " And I find, — She does this through
my surroundings, my wants, and my relations to others.
Through my surroundings she determines the kinds of sense
Appendix. 201
impressions I receive. Through my wants she stimulates my
activities. Through my relations to others she widens my
observation and raises it to insight and forethought. Through
my surroundings, my wants, my relations to others, she lays
the foundations of my knowledge, my work, and my right-
doing.
And now I ask myself : — " What general method of the Art *
has the experience of ages put into the hands of humanity to
strengthen this influence of Nature in developing intelligence,
energy and virtue in our race?" And I find these methods
are speech, the arts of drawing, writing, reckoning and
measuring.
And when I trace back all these elements of the human Art •
to their origin, I find it in the common basis of our mind, by \
means of which our understanding combines those impressions )
which the senses have received from Nature, and represents '
them as wholes, that is, as concepts.
It is evident from this statement that in any case, where '
systematic training does not keep pace with the actual sense )
impressions of Nature, that the Art by its over-hasty work •>
upon the human mind, becomes a source of physical atrophy, 1
that must inevitably result in one-sidedness, warped judgment,
superficiality and error. Every word, every number, is a
result of the understanding that is generated by ripened sense
impression.
But the gradations by which physical impressions on the .
senses become clear ideas reach the limits of the spontaneous \
working of the intellect, independent of the senses, along a \
course in harmony with the laws of the physical mechanism.
Imitation precedes hieroglyphics ; hieroglyphics precede culti
vated language, just as the individual name precedes the
generic.
Further, it is only through this course, in harmony with the
mechanism of the senses, that culture brings up before me the
sea of confused phenomena (Ansch.} flowing one into another, •
first as definite sense impressions, and from these forms clear •
concepts.
Thus all the Art (of teaching) men is essentially a result of
physico-mechanical laws, the most important of which are the
following : —
1. Bring all things essentially related to each other to that .
connection in your mind which they really have in Nature.
* The Art of Teaching : our Science and Art of Education.
202 Appendix.
/ 2. Subordinate all unessential things to essential, and especi
ally subordinate the impression given by the Art to that given
by Nature and reality.
3. Give to nothing a greater weight in your idea than it has
in relation to your race in Nature.
4. Arrange all objects in the world according to their like-
ness.
5. Strengthen the impressions of important objects by allowing
'them to affect you through different senses.
6. In every subject try to arrange graduated steps of know
ledge, in which every new idea shall be only a small, almost
imperceptible addition to that earlier knowledge which has
been deeply impressed and made unforgetable.
/ 7. Learn to make the simple perfect before going on to the
"complex.
„• 8. Eecognise that as every physical ripening must be the
result of the whole perfect fruit in all its parts, so every just
judgment must be the result of a sense impression, perfect in
all its parts, of the object to be judged. Distrust the appear
ance of precocious ripeness as the apparent ripeness of a worm-
eaten apple. \
9. All physical effects are absolutely necessary ; and this
necessity is the result of the art of Nature, with which she
unites the apparently heterogeneous elements of her material
into one whole for the achievement of her end. The Art, which
imitates her, must try in the same way to raise the results at
which it aims to a physical necessity, while it unites its ele
ments into one whole for the achievement of its end.
10. The richness of its charm and the variety of its free play
cause the results of physical necessity to bear the impress of
freedom and independence. Here, too, the Art must imitate the
course of Nature, and by the richness of its charm and the
variety of its free play, try to make its results bear the impress
of freedom and independence.
11. Above all, learn the first law of the physical mechanism,
the powerful, universal connection between its results and the
proportion of nearness or distance between the object and our
senses. Never forget this physical nearness or distance of all
objects around you has an immense effect in determining your
positive sense impressions, practical ability and even virtue.
But even this law of your nature converges as a whole towards
another. It converges towards the centre of our whole being,
and we ourselves are this centre. Man ! never forget it ! All
that you are, all you wish, all you might be, comes out of
Appendix, 203
yourself. All must have a centre in your phj7sical sense im
pression, and this again is yourself. In all it does, the Art ,
really only adds this to the simple course of Nature. — That
which Nature puts before us, scattered and over a wide area, ,
the Art puts together in narrower bounds and brings nearer to
our five senses, by associations, which facilitate the power of
memory, and strengthen the susceptibility of our senses, and
make it easier for them, by daily practice, to present to us the
objects around us in greater numbers, for a longer time and in
a more precise way.
The mechanism of Nature as a whole is great and simple.'
Man ! imitate it. Imitate this action of great Nature, who out
of the seed of the largest tree produces a scarcely perceptible
shoot, then, just as imperceptibly, daily and hourly by gradual
stages, unfolds first the beginnings of the stem, then the bough,
then the branch, then the extreme twig on which hangs the
perishable leaf.
Consider carefully this action of great Nature, how she tends •
and perfects every single part as it is formed, and joins onj
every new part to the permanent life of the old.
Consider carefully how the bright blossom is unfolded from
the deeply hidden bud. Consider how the bloom of its first
day's splendour is soon lost, while the fruit, at first weak but
perfectly formed, adds something important every day to all
that it is already. So, quietly growing for long months, it hangs
on the twig that nourishes it ; until, fully ripe and perfect in
all its parts, it falls from the tree.
Consider how Mother Nature, with the uprising shoot, also
develops the germ of the root, and buries the noblest part of the
tree deep in the bosom of the earth ; then how she forms the
immovable stem from the very heart of the root, and the boughs
from the very heart of the stem, and the branches from the
very heart of the boughs. How to all, even the weakest, outer
most twig she gives enough, but to none useless, disproportion
ate strength.
The mechanism of physical human nature is essentially sub-,
ject to the same laws by which physical Nature generally,
unfolds her powers. According to these laws all instruction,
should graft the most essential parts of its subject firmly into
the very being of the human mind ; then join on the less essen
tial gradually, but uninterruptedly, to the most essential, and
maintain all the parts of the subject, even to the outermost,
in one living proportionate whole.
I now go further, and ask : — How has Europe applied these
204 - Appendix.
laws of the physical mechanism to all matters of popular edu-
jcation? What has Europe done to bring the elementary means
of human knowledge, that the work of ages has put into our
hands, into harmony with the real nature of the human mind,
and the laws of the physical mechanism? What use has this
generation made of these laws in the organization of its teach
ing institutions, in its speaking, drawing, writing, reading,
reckoning and measuring ?
I see none. In the existing organization of these institutions,
at least so far as they affect the poorer classes, I see no trace of
any regard for the general harmony of the whole and for the
psychological gradations required by these laws.
No, it is notorious ! In the existing methods of popular in
struction these laws are not only ignored, but generally rudely
opposed.
And when I ask again : — What are the unmistakable con
sequences of thus rudely despising these laws ? I cannot
conceal from myself the physical atrophy, one-sidedness, warped
judgment, superficiality, and presumptuous vanity that char
acterize the masses in this generation, are the necessary
consequence of despising these laws, and of the isolated, unpsy-
chological, baseless, unorganized, unconnected teaching, which
' our poor race has received in our lower schools.
i Then the problem I have to solve is this : — How to bring the
elements of every art into harmony with the very nature of my
jmind, by following the psychological mechanical laws by which
my mind rises from physical sense impressions to clear ideas.
Nature has two principal and general means of directing
human activity towards the cultivation of the arts, and these
| should be employed, if not before, at least side by side with any
I particular means. They are singing and the sense of the beau-
1 tiful.
With song the mother lulls her babe to sleep ; but here, as in
everything else, we do not follow the law of Nature. Before
the child is a year old, his mother's song ceases ; by that time
she is, as a rule, no longer a mother to the weaned child. For
him, as for all others, she is only a distracted, over-burdened
woman. Alas ! that it is so. Why has not the Art of ages
taught us to join the nursery lullabies to a series of national
songs, that should rise in the cottages of the people, from the
gentle cradle song to the sublime hymn of praise? But I can-
toot fill this gap. I can only point it out.
It is the same with the sense of the beautiful. All Nature is
full of grand and lovely sights, but Europe has done nothing to
Appendix. 205
awaken in the poor a sense for these beauties, or to arrange them
in such a way as to produce a series of impressions, capable of
developing this sense. The sun rises for us in vain ; in vain"
for us he sets. In vain for us do wood and meadow, mountain
and valley spread forth their innumerable charms. They are
nothing to us.
Here, again, I can do nothing ; but if ever popular education
should cease to be the barbarous absurdity it now is, and put it
self into harmony with the real needs of our nature, this want
will be supplied.
I leave these means of directing the Art generally, and turni
to the forms by which special means of education, speaking,,'
reading, drawing and writing should be taught.
Before the child can utter a sound, a many-sided consciousness
of all physical truths exists already within him, as a starting-
point for the whole round of his experiences. Tor instance, he
feels that the pebble and the tree have different properties,
that wood differs from glass. To make this dim consciousness
clear, speech is necessary. We must give him names for the
various things he knows, as well as for their properties. \
So we connect his speech with his knowledge, and extend his;
knowledge with his speech. This makes the consciousness of!
impressions which have touched his senses clearer to the child.
And the common work of all instruction is to make this con
sciousness clear. This may be done in two ways.
Either we lead the children through knowledge' of names to
that of things, or else through knowledge of things to that of t
names. The second method is mine. I wish always to let sense)
impression precede the word, and definite knowledge the judg
ment. I wish to make words and talk unimportant on the
human mind, and to secure that preponderance due to the
actual impressions of physical objects (Ansch.), that forms such
a remarkable protection against mere noise and empty sound.
From his very first development I wish to lead my child into
the whole circle of Nature surrounding him; I would organize
his learning to talk by a collection of natural products ; I would
teach him early to abstract all physical generalizations from
separate physical facts, and teach him to express them in words ;
and I would everywhere substitute physical generalizations for
those metaphysical generalizations with which we begin the
instruction of our race. Not till after the foundation of human,
knowledge, (sense impressions of Nature,) has been fairly laid and!
secure would I begin the dull, abstract work of studying froml
books.
206
Appendix.
But even my ABC book is only a collection of easy stories by
which every mother is enabled with the sound of the letter to
make her child acquainted with the most important facts of his
physical nature.
Supplement No. 1 contains the letter T of this ABC book.
Before the child knows the forms of the letters by sight, be
fore his organs begin to make articulate sounds, I let the root-
forms of all German syllables be repeated so often and so care
fully before his developing organs, that he learns to imitate
them easily and distinctly. When this is done, I let him see
first single letters, then two or three together, letting him hear
the sound as he looks at them, and when he has fixed the
order in which they are placed in his memory, he pronounces 2,
3, or 4 together like one.
The examples of the series by which this is done are in Sup
plement No. 2. I also depend here on the physical effects of com
pleteness, and have given this stage of sense-impression a fulness
that it has never had before.
Words of one or more syllables are placed letter by letter
on the board. For instance, take the word Soldatenstand. We
first put : —
then 0
L
A
T
E
N
ST
S and ask, How do you say that? Answer, S
SO
SOL
SOLD
SOLDA
SOLDAT
SOLDATE
SOLDATEN
SOLDATENST.
Frequent repetition of building up the same word is absolutely
necessary to make the formation and pronunciation perfectly
fluent to the child.
When the children can form and pronounce the word with
ease, it should be shown them in syllables, and imitated by
them until they feel, themselves, which letters on the board
belong to each syllable. I number the syllables, and ask : What
is the first, the second, and so on ? and out of the order of their
sequence — the sixth, the first, the fourth, and so on? Then, for
the first time, I let them spell it. Changing the letters of a word
to be spelt ; taking one or more of them away, adding others,
and dividing it up into false syllables strengthens the observa-
Appendix. 207
tion of the children, and their increased power enables them to
re-arrange the very hardest words by themselves.
By this method the formation of words becomes evident to
children ; their organs of speech are exercised to pronounce the
hardest words easily ; in a short time they reach an incredible
facility in this business, usually so tiresome ; and from one
word often learn a number of independent words, as in the above
example.
Lastly, we use the separate letters as a basis for beginning
arithmetic, according to a systematic series of number-relation
ships, which is shown in Supplement No. 3.
Regardless of confusion and error, Nature lays her whole
wealth before the eyes of the inexperienced child, and the child
in her great warehouse hears the whole wealth of language be
fore he has an idea of a single word. But sound and tone are
deeply impressed upon him, and the connection in which he
daily hears the words soon gives him a vague sense of what
they mean.
Here, too, I imitate the course of Nature. My first reading
book for the child is the dictionary ; the sum of our ancestors'
testimony about all that exists. Language, as one great whole,
is in this first reading book, that rises through a series of repeti
tions, of imperceptible grammatical additions, to be an ency
clopedic register of facts. No. 4 contains a specimen of this
reading book in its original simplicity. No. 5 contains a speci
men of simple grammatical additions.
No. 6 contains the classification of words according to the
similarity of their meaning.
No. 7 contains exercises in language-teaching, in the use of
verbs and substantives together.
Writing is only a kind of linear drawing applied to certain <
arbitrary forms, and must be subject to the general laws of !
linear drawing. Nature confirms this principle. The child is
able to make the elements 6f linear drawing his own, two years
before he is in a position to guide that delicate instrument, the
pen, well. Therefore I teach the children to draw before think
ing of writing, and by this means they form the letters more
perfectly than they would otherwise do at this age.
The success depends entirely on the very simple principle,
that whoever can divide an angle accurately and draw an arc
round it, has already the foundations for the accurate drawing
of all letters in his hand. The following figure contains the
characteristic lines of the art of writing.*
* Seyffarth omits the last sentence and diagram, he may have good rea-
208
Appendix.
\
\
\
The principle from which I start is this : —
Angles, parallels and arcs comprise the whole art of drawing.
Everything that can possibly be drawn is only a definite appli
cation of these three primary forms. We can imagine a per
fectly simple series arising out of these primary forms, within
which an absolute standard is to be found for all drawing ; and
the sesthetic beauty of all forms can be evolved from the nature
of these primary forms.
No. 9 contains a few drawings, mathematical and aesthetic.
No. 10 contains mathematical definitions of the primary forms
of all the letters.
No. 11 gradated exercises in writing with the slate pencil.
The beginnings of geometry are closely connected with these.
No. 12 contains examples of the way in which I try to
sharpen the child's eyes.
No. 13 contains attempts to make clear to them the principles
of this subject.
Numbers are abstractions from magnitudes, therefore it is
necessary that the elements of geometry should precede the first
principles of arithmetic, or, at least, should be taught at the same
time.
Here, too, I begin with sense impressions, and make the
divisions of numbers by showing first, few or more real things ;
then groups of dots so that the child does not take arbitrary
sons. It is supposed to be Buss's A B C of Anschauung— Form. See Letter
III. Note I. If it really occurs here in the original text, Pestalozzi must
have made it. When this Report was written he had not met Buss. I
cannot yet satisfactorily trace its origin. Biber calls it the alphabet of
form, and uses it to illustrate Buss's account, he says " it was never pub
lished, and soon superseded," p. 205. He evidently did not know Niederer
had published it three years before. Although he had his information
through Krusi and Niederer, we follow Eossel. Seyffarth apparently thinks
that Niederer has added it, and therefore leaves it out.
Appendix. 209
forms as numbers, but can revise and test by the actual dots
the actual relations of numbers.
In No. 14 are a few examples of this method of calculating.
In this way, gentlemen, I try to follow in elementary instruc
tion the mechanical laws by which man rises from sense impres
sion to clear ideas.
All Nature is bound to this course of action. She is bound tov.
rise step by step from the simple beginning.
I follow in her path. If the child knows simple bodies— air,
earth, water, fire— -I show him the effects of these elements on
bodies that he knows, and as he learns the properties of several
simple bodies, I show him the different effects obtained by unit
ing one body to another, and lead him always by the simplest
course of sense impression to the boundaries of the higher
sciences. Everything must be put into forms that make it >
possible and easy for any sensible mother to follow this instruc- )
tion. But I would also wish that my children, taught in this
way, should not let themselves be led astray by the presump
tuous ignorance of schoolmasters.
I maintain that my method will lead them as early as their
seventh year to seek the man, who is master of any branch of
knowledge, and to be able to judge about it independently and
freely.
But we neither know what education is, nor what the child is.
The details of human sense impression from which his know
ledge arisesf are in themselves imperceptible, and left to Nature,
un arranged, they are chaotically confused. But the important
part of this boundless chaos is small in each department, and
when accurately arranged, can easily be surveyed. On the other
hand, the child's power of apprehension when used psychologic
ally is infinite ; but we must in all subjects use the work of our
forefathers, which has not only brought the details of our sense
impressions nearer to our consciousness through language, but
has arranged their infinite details, and has brought them for t
definite purposes into orderly sequence.
It is obvious that we must not neglect the preliminary work of
former ages as if we were apes and never meant to be men.
Here my course rises to the final destmj' of the child ; but I look
on it only within the limits of physical mechanism, the scope of
which I would inquire into and try to follow, and I find myself
once more at Nature's law, that my sense impressions, my efforts,
and my ends are closely connected with the physical nearness
or distance of the objects that determine my will.
It is true that a child, who runs about for an hour, looking
210 Appendix.
for a tree that grows before his door, will never know a tree.
The child, who in his dwelling room finds no stimulant to effort,
will scarcely find any in the wide world ; and he who finds no
stimulus to human love in his mother's eyes may travel the
world through and find no motive for benevolence in human
taars.
The natural man becomes an angel when he avails himself of
the incentives to wisdom and virtue that naturally and closely
surround him. He becomes a devil when he neglects them, and
ranges over all mountains to seek them at a distance. It must
be so. When the objects of the world are removed from my
senses they are, so far, sources of deception and error, and even
of crime. But I say again, this law of the physical mechanism
revolves about a higher one, it revolves about the centre of your
whole being, that is yourself. Self-knowledge, then, is the
centre from which all human instruction must start.
But this has a double nature.
No. 15 shows, (1) how much I try to use the knowledge of my
physical nature as the foundation of human instruction.
(2) How much I try to use the knowledge of my inner
individuality ; the consciousness of my will to further my own
welfare ; and of my duty to be true to my inner light. But in
the sphere of the child's physical experience, there are not
enough motives for standpoints. Therefore, Nature has in
spired him with trust in his mother, and upon this trust
founded willing obedience, within the limits of which the child
has acquired those habits, the possession of which will make
the duties of life easier.
Nourished on his mother's breast, reading love in her every
glance, dependent for each want of his life upon her, obedience
in its first origin is a physical necessity for him, its performance
an easy duty, and its result the source of his pleasure.
Even so is man. He finds in the whirl of existence and in
his material experiences no sufficient motives for subjecting
himself to that alone which the duties of his life require of him.
To fill this gap Nature has implanted in his bosom trust in
God, and upon this trust founded willing obedience, within the
limits of which he daily acquires those habits, the possession of
which alone makes a lasting effort towards inner nobility
possible. He, too, is nourished at the bosom of Nature, and finds
all his joys resting on her lap ; but just as much is he dependent
on stern necessity. Therefore for him obedience to truth and
justice, obedience to the Author of his being, who has no need of
him, is also in its origin a physical necessity of his condition,
Appendix. 2 1 1
its fulfilment an easy duty, and its result the source of all his
Joy-
I, then, lay the keystone of my instruction upon the early I
development of the natural motive to fear G-od ; for though I '
am thoroughly convinced that religion is badly used as an
exercise for the understanding and as a subject of instruction
for children, yet I am equally convinced that as the affair of the j
heart it is a necessity for my nature even at the tenderest age ; '
that as such it cannot too early be awakened, purified or elevated. I
From Moses to Christ all the prophets have tried to connect
this sentiment with the innocence of the childlike mind, and to
develop and nourish it through sense impression of all Nature.
I follow their path. My whole instruction is nothing but a ,
series of illustrations of the wisdom and greatness of my nature |
in so far as it has not been degraded by me.
Through an eye, opened by infinite preparation of the Art, I
show the child the world, and he no longer dreams of God, he
sees Him ; he lives in contemplation (Ansch.} of Him. He prays
to Him.
Supplement No. 16 contains an example of my series of verbs,
from the simple combination of which every process and action
of Nature that specially concerns man is made clear, — what he
does in common with inanimate Nature and what he does in
common with the brute.
I do not think it possible to find illustrations by which the
natural man can be more surely raised to worship God and to
reverence himself and his own worth. It is my inmost wish too,
to found my instruction on this foundation of human tranquility.
For I am convinced that a child brought up without trust in
God is a motherless waif ; and a child out of tune with this j
trust is an unhappy daughter who has lost her mother's heart.
But it is time I ended. Gentlemen, this is the first sketch of .
my principles and method of instruction, and I offer it to your |
free criticism.
PBSTALOZZI.
BURGDORF, June 21th, 1800.
212 Hoiv Gertrude TeacJies Her Children.
NOTES TO PEEFACE AND LETTER I.
(G) Refers to Roger de Guimps' Life of Pestalozzi, Translated by J. Russell, B.A.
(London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1890).
1 l The preface was added to the second edition, Collected Works,
Vol. 5, Cotta, Stuttgart and Tubingen, 1 820.— The first edition (1801)
has no preface. — This gives us Pesfalozzi's views twenty years after
the first publication of the book ; it should therefore be read, as pre
faces often are, after the work itself.
2 Ith, Johannsen, and Niederer.
Ith, J. von, wrote Official Report of the Pestalozzian Institute and the
New Method of Teaching. Bern and Zurich, 1802. This was one of
the first works published on the new method of Burgdorf.
Johannsen published a Criticism of the Pestalozzian Method. Jena
and Leipzig, 1804.
Neiderer, editor of Pestalozzi's collected works, was one of Pesta-
lozzi's principal fellow-workers at Yverdun, and had great influence
over him. His first work, The Pestalozzian Institute and the Public,
with a preface by Pestalozzi, was published at Yverdun in 1811,
PestalozzVs Educational Undertaking in its Relation to the Culture of
the Age, 2 vols., Stuttgart and Tubingen, 1812-13.
3 Gruner, Von Turk, and Chavannes.
Gruner published Letters from Burgdorf about Pestalozzi, his Method
and his Institute. 1804, Ed. 2, 1806, Frankfort.
Von Turk was of a noble family in North Germany. He gave
up a good position in the magistracy of Oldenburg, and went to
Yverdun to study Pestalozzi's work and methods. He was the
author of Contributions to Information about G-erman Elementary
Schools and Letters from Munchen-Buchsee on Pestalozzi and his Edu
cational Method, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1806. .He was appointed Counsellor
of State at Potsdam, and worked zealously for thirty years in propa
gating and applying Pestalozzi's method. (G., p. 252.)
Chavannes, D. A. An Account of the Elementary Method of H.
Pestalozzi, with an account of the works of this celebrated man, his Insti
tute, principles, and fellow-workers. Paris, 1805. Ed. 2, 1809.
4 The letters are not numbered by Pestalozzi, but they are distinctly
divided. See Mr. Quick's copy of Ed. 1, 1801. Teachers' Guild Library,
London. There are fourteen letters, but Seyffarth divides Letter
seven and so makes fifteen. This has caused some little confusion;
212
Notes to Letter /. 213
but there is really no difference in the text. They are addressed to
Heinrich Gessner, publisher, Zurich, son of Solomon Gessner, the
poet. He was a member of the " Patriotic Party," a society of young
men founded 1762, whose object was to improve the condition of the
people.
5 Lavater, Johann Kasper, Zurich, 1741-1802. Died Jan. 2, from
effects of a bullet-wound received on Sept. 22, 1799, when the French
entered Zurich, while he was helping wounded soldiers in the
street. Preacher, philosopher, poet, and prose writer. Best known
to us by his \vork on physiognomy. Member of Patriotic Party ;
warm friend of Pestalozzi. His Views on Eternity, in Letters to J.
G. Zimmermann, were published, Zurich, 1768, 4 vols.
Zimmermann, Johann Georg. Brugg, Canton Aargati, 1728-95.
Physician and philosophical writer. His Observations on Solitude is
well known.
6 Iselin Isaak, author and publisher, Basle, 1728-82, published a
journal entitled EpJiemerides of Humanity. In 1776, Pestalozzi pub
lished in it A Prayer to the Friends and Well-wishers of Mankind for
Kind Support of an Establishment for giving Poor Children Education
and Work in the Country. Iselin warmly supported the appeal.
Pestalozzi's Everting Hour of a Hermit also appaared first in this
journal, May, 1780. Iselin especially directed the attention of the
readers of the Ephemerides to Pestalozzi's efforts, and tried to sup
port him in every way. Pestalozzi always remembered him grate
fully. " In the good hot working days, when apparently I was wasting
my strength, he was the only one upon whom I could lean, covered
as 1 was with dust and sweat, and find refreshment in my pains.
Oh, my friend ! perhaps without you I should have sunk in the depths
and been lost in the mire of my life." (Seek; and G., p. 75, note.)
7 Ed. 1, p. 3, 4, instead of " But I was young," etc., has the follow
ing beginning with the oft-quoted passage, not in Ed. 2. " Long years
I lived surrounded by more than fifty beggar children. In poverty
I shared my bread with them. I lived like a beggar in order to
learn how to make beggars live like men.
u My ideal of their training included work on the farm, in the
factory and the workshop. In all three branches I was full of high and
sure instinct for what is great and important in this plan, and even
now I know of no error in the principles. Yet, on the other hand,
it is quite true that in all three branches I wanted skill to deal with
details, and a mind that could devote itself to trifles. I was not
rich enough, and I was too forsaken, to remedy what was wanting in
me by sufficient collaboration. My plan was wrecked, but I had
learned in the struggle immeasurable truth, and my conviction of
the truth of my plan was never stronger than at the time when it
was ruined. My heart still moved on unshaken towards the same
end. In my own misery I learned to know the misery of the people
and its sources, more arid more ; I knew them as no happier man can
214 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
know them. I suffered," etc. (See G., chap. v. pp. 52-72, for account
of the experiment at Neuhof, which began in the winter of 1774.)
8 "Leonard and Gertrude." The first volume of this work ap
peared 1781, and was a great success. In the form of a story Pesta
lozzi shows how the people in Bonal were reformed by education.
Gertrude, the mother of seven children, wife of Leonard, a mason,
is the educator. But these things are an allegory : Bonal is the world,
and Gertrude the typical mother-educator. Pestalozzi likes to con
nect his work, and Gertrude here is only a name for the ideal mother
who educates, as in his previous work. We forget sometimes, perhaps
Pestalozzi himself forgets, that this work is "a guide to mothers
in educating their children." Few mothers can undertake the entire
education of their children; but the mother is the child's first teacher
and guide ; her natural methods of teaching, prompted by sympathy
and love, are adapted to the little child, and her influence is generally
stronger than any other. " The mother, untrained, follows nature in
pure simplicity without knowing what nature does through her,
and nature does very much through her. She opens the world to the
child, she makes him ready to use his senses, and prepares for de
velopment of attention and observation" (Lett. X.). Two women, both
servants, are said to have been models for Gertrude. Babeli, servant
to Pestalozzi's mother (G. 2-4), and Elizabeth Naef, who found
Neuhof in disorder and worked hard to provide for Pestalozzi and
his family. Of her Pestalozzi said, " She is an image of Gertrude"
(G., pp. 69-70, 79-88).
9 Inquiries into the, Course of Nature in the Development of the Human
Race. This study of the evolution of man was written at Neuhof at
Fichte's suggestion. Published, 1797. Niederer, writing to him early
in 1801, says, " I look upon it as containing a most valuable discovery ;
I may call it indeed the germ of your whole method " (G., pp. 110-112).
10 " Gallimaufry," nonsense, hodge-podge. Winter's Tale, Act iv
sc. 3.
11 " Stanz burnt.— Legrand." Stanz, market town, Canton Unter-
walden, destroyed by French, Sept. 9, 1798. Legrand, Jean Lue,
1755-1838. Belonged, with Iselin and other reformers, to the "Patriotic
Party." Became a member of the Grand Council of Bern, in 1783, and
President of the Swiss Directorate, 1798, but held office for only part
of a year. Became acquainted with Oberlin, the famous pastor of
Ban- de-la-Roche, in 1812. Settled near him in 1814, and devoted the
remaining years of his life wholly to popular education.
12 "Pronouncing sounds," etc. Herbart, as early as May, 1801,
promised his friend Halem, who was planning a literary journal
under the name of Irene, an article on Pestalozzi. The letter accom
panying the article is dated Dec. 24, 1801, and the article appeared
early in 1802.
Herbart met Pestalozzi for the first time at Zurich. " In Zurich
Notes to Letter I. 215
I met neither Lavater nor Hegel, but chance brought me in contact
with the celebrated Pestalozzi." (Letter, Jan. 28, 1798.)
The second time he visited him was at Burgdorf ; but Pestalozzi
says that here " he crowed his ABC daily from morn till night, and
went on in the sam^ empirical way " that he had followed at Stanz.
Herbart says : " I saw him in his schoolroom. A dozen children, from
five to eight years old, were called into school at an unusual hour in
the evening. I feared they would be sulky, and that the experiment
which I had come to see would be a failure. But the children came
with no signs of reluctance ; a lively activity lasted continuously to
the end. The noise of the whole school speaking together — no, not the
noise — it was a pleasant harmony of words, quite intelligible, in
measured time, like a chorus, as powerful, and as firmly united,
and so clearly arising from what had been learned, that I had some
difficulty not to change from a spectator and observer into a learner
and child. I went round among them to hear if any were silent or
speaking carelessly ; I found none. The children's pronunciation did
my ears good, although their teacher has the most incomprehensible
organ in the world, and their tongues cannot be well trained by
their Swiss parents." (Herbart, Pad. Schriften, vol. i. p. 88, 1880.)
13 In June, 1799, the French were driven out of Uri into Unter-
walden by the Austrians, and the orphanage was converted into a
French hospital. On June 8th, 1799, sixty children were sent away,
leaving only twenty. Pestalozzi intended to return, but the Govern
ment was unfavourable, and the orphanage after some time was
closed. (G., 142-146.)
14 The first "Letter from Stanz" was written at Gurnigel, between
June 8 and the end of July, 1799, and was printed in 1807. It will
be found entire in de Guimp's Life, pp. 147-171. It should be com
pared with this account. At that time, he says here, " 1 was not
certain of the foundations of my procedure." His " Account of the
Method " to the Society of Friends of Education, June 27, 1800, is
the first attempt to state his principles. (See "The Method," last
paragraph.)
15 [ ] These brackets include additions made in Ed. 2. All
have not been indicated in this way. Some are very slight, and
others are difficult to separate in a translation. They may be found
in most German editions. Rarely words or passages in Ed. 1. have
been left out of Ed. 2. The most important omission is given in
note 7. The most important additions made are to this passage,
and give us Pestalozzi's views twenty years later, they may be con
sidered as his last words in the book.
When the notes are from Ed. 1, the reference figures are placed
where the cue can be most easily found.
16 " Anschauung " we have usually translated " sense-impression.'1
When another equivalent is used we have indicated it by (Ansch.)
216 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
" Sense-impression " is frequently used by Mr. Sully. " Sense-impres
sions are the alphabet by which we spell out the objects presented to
us." (Teachers Handbook of Psychology, ch. viii., 1886). It was one of
the most suitable words, but we are indebted to Mr. J. Russell for
fixing it. The first draft of the translation of this work was made
before his translation of B,. de Gruimp's Life ofPestalozzi was published,
but he suggested this term, and said he had used it. " Intuition " was
impossible ; instead of conveying it hides Pestalozzi's meaning, and it
has caused much mischief. Mr. F. C. Turner shows in the following
note that "intuition" has not the same meaning for us that " Ans-
chauung " had for Pestalozzi.
" The language of Pestalozzi presents considerable difficulties to the
translator. He tells us (Letter VI.) that he " is incapable of philo
sophic thought." His words do not always express his full meaning,
but that is partly because his thought is still growing and imperfect.
A year earlier he did not really know the foundation of his method,
and his expressions, like his thought, are in some ways still immature,
changing and confused. His sentences are often over- burdened with
qualifications and saving clauses, characteristic of him. Sometimes
he uses words with local meanings differing from their usual signi
fication.
The greatest difficulty, however, is in dealing with that word
which is the keystone of his whole theory, Anschauung. Its mean
ing has grown under his hands, and it connotes for him much more
than it ever did before. It has, and can have, no satisfactory English
equivalent. The early writers and translators used the word " in
tuition," and quite recently Mr. Quick, in the new edition of his
Educational Reformers, has sanctioned its use. It has the advantage
of being etymologically an equivalent of Anschauung, but so have
contemplation and inspection, by which no one would propose to trans
late it. It has, moreover, the fatal objection of connoting a philo
sophical idea and theory, which is far removed from Pestalozzi's
Anschauung. To show this, we give the most authoritative account
we can find of the two words.
ANSCHAUUNG.
Contemplatio, intuitio, experientia.
" Anschauung ist eine sich unmittelbar auf den Gegenstand als
einzelnen sich beziehende Erkenntniss." Anschauung is a know
ledge which is directly obtained from a special object.
" Anschauung ist eine Vorstellung so wie sie unmittelbar von der
Gegenwart des Gegenstandes abhangen wiirde." Anschauung is a
mental image, such as would be produced directly by the presence
of the object. (Kant, Kritik der reinen Vernunft.}
" Ein unmittelbares Bewusstsein heisst Anschauung." A direct
consciousness is called Anschauung.
" Sie sollen es fassen nicht im Denken sondern in lebendiger
Notes to Letter I. 217
Anschauung." You must grasp it not in thought, but in vivid
Anschauung. (Fichte.)
— Grimm's Deutsches Worterbuch.
INTUITION,
1. Mental perception of anything ; immediate knowledge.
" The truth of these propositions we know by a bare, simple in
tuition of the ideas, and such propositions are called self-evident."
2. Knowledge not obtained by deduction of reason, but instantly
accompanying the ideas which are its object.
" All knowledge of causes is deductive, for we know nothing by
simple intuition, but through the mediation of the effects, for the
causality itself is insensible." (Glanville.)
" Discourse then was almost as quick as intuition." (South, Ser
mons.)
" He thes.e single virtues did survey
By intuition in his own large breast." (Dryden.)
— Latham's Johnson's Dictionary.
It is evident that the two words have not the same connotation,
and that the English word " intuition " does not imply the presence
of the object before the senses with the same strictness that An
schauung does in the mouths of Kant and Pestalozzi.
Pestalozzi uses the word — " Anschauung."
1. For the knowledge obtained by the direct contemplation of the
object before the senses — sense-impression.
2. (a) For the mental act by which the above knowledge is obtained
— observation
(b) And for the mental faculties by which it is obtained — the senses.
(c) And again, for objects of the world, about which such knowledge
is gained — seen objects.
Allied to this is the meaning in the following passage : —
" Culture brings up before me the sea of confused phenomena
(Ansch.) flowing one into the other." ( The Method) So also Anschauung-
bucher, picture books, Letter I.
(d) Objects seen possess form, number, colour, light, and shade,
etc. Pestalozzi considers that form is common to all, and so he
frequently uses Anschauung as a synonym for FORM, not for form
alone, but for form plus something else. The nearest equivalent for
ABC der Anschauung is alphabet of form, though the expression
is often used in other and wider senses. As Pestalozzi found draw
ing impossible without measurement, the A B C of Anschauung was
used for measurement also. Therefore A B C of Anschauung meant
form, and a means of measuring form (MEASURE-FORM).
3. For knowledge obtained by contemplation of ideas already in
the mind, which have not necessarily been derived from the obser
vation of external objects. This meaning seems at first to contra
dict the foregoing ; but it is obvious, on reading the passages in
which this meaning occurs, that Pestalozzi regarded the ideas in
218 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
question as possible objects of an internal or subjective observation,
e.g. " knowledge gained by sense-impression teaches me the properties
of things that have not been brought before my senses by their like
ness to other objects that I have observed. This mode of observation,"
etc. (Letter VII.) For this meaning the word intuition can appro
priately be used.
4. Es (der Kind) lebt in seiner Anschauung (d. h. Gottes). " The
child lives in contemplation of God." (The Method.}
The word intuition is used by Pestalozzi, but not as an equivalent
of Anschauung, unless it be for meaning 3. " I lived entirely upon
convictions that were the result of countless, though for the most
part forgotten intuitions " (Letter I.) " Speech was a means . . .
of representing the actual process of making ideas (Intuitionen)
clear." (Letter X.) In both these passages it means something dif
ferent from Anschauung ; it means Anschauungen with the mental
process which combines them into unity of idea superadded."
(F. C. T.) "Intuitive ideas given by nature and art" (p. 36), is
nearer Anschauung.
17 Burgdorf, town in canton Bern. Here he resumed his inter
rupted work towards the end of July, 1799. (G., p. 173 seq.)
18 Gurnigel, a beautifully situated, much frequented bath, f-hour
below the summit of Mt. Gurnigel, 9 rniles west of Thun.
19 Bengger, Stapfer, Schnell, and Dr. Grimm.
Eengger, Albert, 1764-1835, educated as a theologian; became
tutor to Emanuel von Fellenberg, afterwards studied medicine.
After some years abroad he settled in Bern, 1789. Became Minister
of the Interior, 1798.
Stapfer, Phillipe Albert, 1766-1840, Prof essor of Philosophy and
Philology, Bern, Minister of Arts and Sciences. He alone remained
steadfast to Pestalozzi when he left Stanz, and exerted himself to find
a place where he might carry on his experiments. Stapfer wished
to found a Teacher's Institute. Fischer submitted his plans to him,
and Stapfer proposed to the Directorate that they should give up the
castle of Burgdorf to him. In July, 1799, Fischer went to Burgdorf
as superintendent of the schools and institutes that he had just
organized. Stapfer opened a new field of work to Pestalozzi at
Burgdorf ; he sent a report to the Directory, July 23, 1799 ; on the
same day they granted him part of Castle Burgdorf as a dwelling,
and a fixed position as a teacher, with a salary of Livres 160. (Seyf-
f arth, Introduction.} He founded the Society of Friends of Education,
June, 1800 ; in July, 1800, a further grant was made to Pestalozzi
through his efforts, of as much of the Castle of Burgdorf as he
needed, a garden and wood. (G., p. 201.) Sept., 1800, was ambassador
to Paris. At the end of the Republic, 1803, he retired into private
life, and lived in France 37 years.
Schnell, J., Prefect of Burgdorf. He published a pamphlet, perhaps
the first on the subject, giving a complete exposition of Pestalozzi'^
Notes to Letter I. 219
views, about October, 1800. Reprinted in Pestalozzi- Blatter, Zurich,
1888. (G., 174-206.) The first edition of Wie Gertrud closed with an
extract from a letter of Dr. Schriell.
Dr. Grimm, an influential citizen of Burgdorf, and a warm friend
of Pestalozzi.
20 Hintersassen,or Hintersedler, were non-burgesses, who possessed,
besides a house, a garden or a bit of field. They were also small
suburban peasants. Their children attended the school of a worthy
shoemaker, Samuel Dysli, who carried on his trade in his spare
time as well as when with the children. His instruction con
sisted in teaching the children to read in a mechanical, tedious
manner, and in hearing the Heidelberg Catechism. The room be
longed to him, and he worked at his trade in it. His teaching
apparatus consisted of the Spelling and Name Book (Fibel), The
Beginnings of Christian Doctrine (Siegfried), The Heidelberg Catechism,
and the usual Psalter. The school contained seventy-three scholars
of all ages. (G., 175.)
Morf obtains much information about the wretched condition and
entire absence of culture among Swiss teachers in Pestalozzi's time
fromjthe official list of questions which teachers had to answer in
writing, about their personal relations, their former occupations,
their future work, their nomination, etc. One teacher, Meyer of
Schofflesdorf, could not answer the questions because he " could not
write very well." Another, Meyer of Kloten, " in summer, when he
has no school, earns his bread by bricklaying. He used to be a watch
man in the town ; he now works in the garden, and is a rope-maker."
" 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 there 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. One
report says : — ' The vanity of parents makes them wish their chil
dren to appear clever. A child is considered clever if he can shout
the whole catechism without a blunder. If he knows the 119th
Psalm and can rattle off a few chapters of the Bible (never mind the
sense), he is a wonder. To read the Bible through is the highest
point.' " See also Seyffarth, Introduction to " Wie Gertrud," Vol. XL
Schools of this kind were not confined to Switzerland. Possibly
some^ exist still, changed it may be in appearance, but unchanged
in principle. Psalm and catechism are gone, but mere word memory
work remains.
21 "The ' Heidelberg ' was in danger."
The Heidelberg or Palatinate Catechism was compiled and pub
lished by the Heidelberg theologians, Zacharias Ursinus and Kaspar
22O How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
Olevianus in 1553 by command, and with the co-operation of Prince
Elector Friedrich III. of the Palatinate. It was and is the most
popular elementary book of religious instruction in the schools of
the Swiss Evangelical Confession. The little book has a preponderant
doctrinal character, and was therefore not suited for Pestalozzi's
teaching.
22 This was the Spelling and Beading School kept by Miss Marga-
retha Stahli the younger. It was attended by 20-25 boys and girls,
aged 7-8. This must not be confused with the girls' school kept by
Miss Margaretha Stahli the elder.
23 " A B C of Anschauung." We are obliged to use Anschauung
here, so that objects seen, observation, sense-impression, form, measure
ment, "intuition," and the other meanings included in it, may retain
the unity Pestalozzi intended. It was while working out his first
attempts at the A B C of Anschauung that the whole scheme of a
united method appeared. Here Anschauung is used in a wide general
sense ; it soon develops and differentiates. The various meanings will
be noted as they appear.
24 Ed. 1, p. 30. " I shall work none I am not pre-ordained for
this. I will have nothing to do with miracles, real or pretended."
25 Ed. 1, p. 32. " ' Vous voulez mechaniser 1'education.' He hit
the nail on the head, and put the word into my mouth that exactly
described the nature of my purpose." Pestalozzi soon afterwards
found that he had not quite understood Gleyre.
In the second edition the word " mechanical " is sometimes changed
to " organic." He altered this word as his thought and knowledge
became c?ear,as scientific terms are altered with additional knowledge.
u Mechanical " became sometimes " psychological," then " organic."
In " Anschauung " he retains his first word, but various meanings
develop from and are included in it. De Guimp says whenever he
speaks of mechanism he means organism. " That the mind and heart
of man no less than his body develop according to organic laws,
is indeed the fundamental principle of his doctrine " (G., p. 185), but
he uses mechanical sometimes with its own meaning.
ae a rphe Art," frequently refered to hereafter, is distinguished by
a capital from art generally ; it is our " Science and Art of Education,"
which is here first put on a psychological and scientific basis.
27 Ed. 1, p. . " And in all three branches." An interesting little
slip. Pestalozzi anticipates the elements, number, form, and lan
guage, which he describes later ; in Ed. 2 he corrects this.
28 Ed. 1, p. 36. " In order to make those ideas, which are to be
imparted by language, clear to the children beforehand by well-
chosen, well-executed drawings."
Pestalozzi here says drawings, but in the second edition '•''real
things, models and drawings." The paragraph bears evidence of
Notes to Letter 7. 221
revision. Anschauung or pictitre-loooks should precede ABC books
to make ideas clear by means of well-chosen real objects. At first he
showed the children large drawings for them to observe and describe.
This is one of his A B C's of Anschauung. " I made much progress
in what was called the A B C of Anschauung," says Eamsauer.
De Guimps adds this note : "Exercises in which the children made
their own remarks on the object placed before them " (p. 209) our
" object-lesson." At Burgdorf it is an ABC of Anschauung the
foundation of all studies. The observation, thought, and expression
are all the child's; with us the object lesson is isolated, and in this
way, almost obsolete. "We tell what should be seen, thought, and said.
This A B C of Anschauung involves expression by words as " obser
vation " is sometimes used by us. It includes expression by the child
of what it sees and thinks.
One day at Burgdorf when they were looking at a drawing of a
window, a child said, " Could we not learn as well from the window
itself ? " Another time a similar remark was made. " The child is
right," said he, and put the drawings away, and studied from objects,
but he does not exclude drawings.
Some have naturally supposed that as objects are the sources of
ideas and knowledge, objects only should be given for drawing
studies. In Belgium " they reject absolutely the practice of drawing
from prints. . . . As soon as a child can draw lines, he is set to
produce geometrical forms, plane surfaces, and solid bodies." (M.
Couvreur. Conference on Education, "Health Exhib.," Liter., Vol.
XIV., p. 259). But the child's nature should be considered also, and
children prefer to draw from copies, even the usual dead copies, but
copies made with them, by the living teacher or the mother are the
best. Historically, direct imitation of objects comes later. Possibly
drawings may have value as well as objects. If they are useful as
copies for drawing, they may be useful as helps to observation.
29 Ed. 1, p. 37. " And came soon to know the hardest names of the
least known animals in Buffon's Natural History, and to notice and
distinguish clearly points in them as well as in plants and men.
But yet this test was not decisive for the beginning point of instruc
tion. This boy had already three unused years behind him, and I
am convinced," etc.
30 Ed. 1, p. 39. " I cease describing, lest I should come again upon
the picture of the schoolmaster, and the terrible contrast between
their nature, their action, their state, and their misery, and that of
lovely nature. But, friend, tell me," etc.
81 Ed. 1, p. 42. " While I was thus on the track of the first begin
ning points of all instruction for the children who should be educated
by it from the cradle, and all power for the method itself, I took
means with the school children who fell into my hands, not having
been formed by it in direct opposition to my principles," etc.
222 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
32 Pestalozzi came in many ways into opposition with himself ;
he tried to cram in when he ought to have " drawn out." Nature's
method alone is right, he says, and then gives this unnatural parrot-
like repetition of " dull, uncomprehended words or wildest nonsense,
absurdly hard, complicated and entirely incomprehensible." We
must always remember he has only really reached clear ideas about
his principles within this year, and it is not wonderful that he
opposes himself ; the habits and thoughts of his life are not all
reformed and regenerated at once. Possibly, too, something may be
said in favour of such test exercises.
33 Fischer, 1772, 1800, was a pupil of Salzmann, in Schnepfenthal.
Was appointed Secretary of the Science and Art Department by
Stapfer in 1798. In 1799, with Stapfer's consent, he attempted to
organize a course of training for teachers in Castle Burgdorf, but
failed. In 1800 he left Burgdorf, and went back to his post as secre
tary. He died on the 4th of May, 1800.
Fischer's letter was printed in full by Steinmtiller, to whom it was
addressed in his Helvetischer Schulmeisterbiblioihek, vol. i. pp. 216,
seq. St. Gallen, 1801. The first and last two paragraphs, which
were not quoted by Pestalozzi, are given here.
" BURGDORF, Dec. 20th, 1799.
You have a right to expect that I should at least send you some
account of Pestalozzi and his undertakings. I propose soon to pub
lish a much fuller account, and to call the attention of schoolmasters
to his methods. In the meanwhile you will be interested to have a
short expose of the principles of it, and this I send you in the following
few remarks."
By this plan, of which I have drawn up an abstract from experi
ments carried on before my eyes, Pestalozzi is endeavouring to gain
and to maintain the interest of the government and of all school
masters by uncontrovertible results; he hopes, and has reason to
hope, that his experiments in Burgdorf, where they find support and
prosper, will do more to make known the value of what he is doing
than his efforts at Stanz, which were on a very limited scale, and
were crushed by a hundred local and personal obstacles. There he
was over- weighted with work and oppressed by religious and political
animosities, open or concealed. In Burgdorf he is in a more con
genial mental atmosphere ; and as the work is less heterogeneous, he
is more capable of concentrating himself on working out his scheme
on a liberal scale.
Meanwhile, Pestalozzi understands that he is wanting in much
positive knowledge and in practical skill in using his machinery.
The latter defect he makes up for in a great degree by his inde
fatigable experiments, and in this way not only are many parts of
the methods hitherto in use subjected to criticism, but also many forms
Notes to Letter II. 223
and details of methods are found and adapted at once to the new
point of departure.
He hopes by the friendly aid of his helpers and fellow- workers to be
able to fill in the gaps which he has had to leave in his school-books ;
or rather, he will try with their aid to arrange, simplify, and clear
of unimportant matter, the choice, terminology and arrangement of
that which is essential.
It is inspiring to every discoverer who has his heart in his work
that it shall, and can be perfected by the help of strangers, and so
Pestalozzi will rejoice to see his rough casting filed down and polished
up by others."
34 Steinmuller took great interest in Pestalozzi, and applied to
Fischer to learn more of his method of teaching. Fischer answered,
Dec. 6, 1799. On Dec. 31, Steinmuller wrote to thank him, and says,
" Oh, how true it is that the teacher without psychology does his
work as badly as an old woman doctoring." Steinmuller in 1803
criticised Pestalozzi's views and methods in a small pamphlet,
Remarks upon Pestalozzi's Method of Instruction. It is especially
directed against exaggerated praise of the method, and disputes to
some degree the claim of novelty of Pestalozzi's ideas.
Morf publishes a collection of his letters to Fischer taken from the
Swiss Archives at Bern, giving an account of his life.
35 How steadfastly Pestalozzi hoped in mothers, appears clearly in
this passage. In the first edition he wrote, "Before we get to 1803 "
(p. 61). This hope was not fulfilled, and yet in the second edition he
expressed it again, but this time it is " before I am buried."
LETTER IT.
1 Kriisi, Tobler and Buss. Kriisi, 1775 ; 1844, Appenzel.
His career from an errand boy to a fellow-worker with Pesta
lozzi is given in the text. His situation in Gais brought him plenty
of work, and 2£ gulden a week. For self -culture, he zealously
studied the works of Basedow, Salzmann, and others, and tried to
use in school what he learned this way, as well as by his own obser
vations and experiences from nature and life. He was an active,
thoughtful teacher, with a lovable disposition, the effects of which
were soon recognised. At Steinmuller's suggestion he went to
Fischer at Burgdorf, 1799, with the orphans from Gais, and after
Fischer's death he joined Pestalozzi, with whom he worked out the
sense-impression-teaching of word and number (Sprach-und-Rechen-
unterricht). He accompanied him to Mlinchenbuchsee, and also to'
Yverdun. He parted from him with great regret in 1817, and
founded an educational establishment of his own, which soon became
known. In 1822 he undertook the direction of Hans Karl Zell-
weger's school in Trogen. and in 1833 the direction of the Teacher's
224 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
Seminary in Gais. He died there, after successful work, July 25,
1844. Gruner says he was " a man whose unassuming soul and quiet
talent was formed by much experience. He has a gentle disposition,
is calm, indefatigable, active and firm. He knows his pupils and
child-nature generally, and how to treat children." (G., pp. 190-203.)
His son, Hermann Krtisi, taught in England and America, and his
Progressive Course of Inventive Drawing on the Principles of Pestalozzi
was published here by W. F. Ramsey, 1850.
Tobler, Johann, Georg., 1769 ; 1843. From Trogen, in Appenzell,
Ausserhoden, went to Basle, 1792, to be trained for the Church, but
soon gave up theology for teaching. He was a tutor for five years,
and became director of a girls1 school in Basle, 1799. In 1800 his
friend Krtisi introduced him to Pestalozzi, with whom he stayed
seven years. In 1807 he founded an industrial school at Miihlhausen,
that soon numbered 600 scholars ; this was closed in 1811. In 1812
he became master of a private school in Glarus, but left in 1817,
on account of the famine. After again being a tutor for three years
he became director of an educational institute founded by himself;
this he gave to his eldest son in 1831. His last years were spent in
Basle, where he died at the house of his youngest son, who had a
boys' school at Nyon. Tobler helped Pestalozzi in his writing. His
written works consist chiefly of Children's and Popular books.
(Riegel.)
Buss, of Tubingen, tells his own history in the text. Afterwards he
taught drawing in Bern ; Gruner thus describes him. " Buss has
extraordinary talents, particularly for art. He is born to teach by
sense-impression. He has indefatigable zeal, energy and skill. Like
Kriisi he has absolute authority over his pupils, and manages them
well, showing admirable patience in teaching them." (Riegel.)
2 Johann Hiibner, rector, Hamburg, 1688-1731, wrote a Biblical
History, 1714. Twice Two and Fifty Selected Bible Stories. Each story
was followed by " plain questions." These questions were so compiled
that they fitted in with the words of the story, and could only be
answered in the same words. Pestalozzi called this Catechising as
opposed to Socratising. He makes a great distinction between them.
" Catechisms, a mere parrot-like repetition of dull uncomprehended
words." " Socratising real development of thought, mental power and
expression by means of questions." He objected to Fischer's socratis-
ing because it was not prepared for and preceded by sense-impression
or observation of objects, at this time newato him. "Consider no human
judgment ripe that is not clearly the result of complete sense-im
pression of all parts of the object to be judged." (IV.) He would
rather hold back the judgment until the child had really seen with
its own eyes the object about which he should express himself from
all sides and under different conditions. But he believes even now
strongly in _ Socratising. "I found weakness nowhere except in
myself and in the art of using what already exists. I tried to
force in where it is only possible to draw out from within the child
Notes to Letter II 7 225
that which is in him and is only to be developed from what is within
him and cannot be put into him." (Letter I.) Later he is not less
than Fischer its supporter. " All true, all real educative instruction
must be drawn out of the children." (Letter I.)
3 Ed. 1. p. 74. " Afterwards Krtisi tried to combine socratising and
catechising. But this combination by its very nature leads no further
than the squaring of the circle that a wood-cutter," etc.
4 Ed. 1, p. 77. "With time and industry, it is possible to ask
many questions easily about many subjects."
5 Ed. 1, p. 84. " I have said, fearlessly, that it is not opposed to
God or religion to lead up to clear ideas, and endeavour to teach
children to talk before we cram their memories with the affairs of
positive theology and its never- to-be-settled disputes."
6 Ed. 1, p. 88. " All these views, connected with the harmony daily
becoming clearer between my methods of instruction and nature,
fully convinced him that all knowledge lay in the union of these
methods, so that a teacher need only learn how to use them in order to
raise himself and his pupils by their means to all knowledge that
can be aimed at by teaching.
7 Slates. Pestalozzi was led by his limited means to use slates and
slate pencils. This very practical invention made writing, drawing
and arithmetic common subjects of instruction at a time when the
more expensive paper could not have been used. He speaks first
of using slates at Burgdorf. They were of great service, but he never
mentions the invention or application as his own. Tobler's state
ment here is allowed to stand, and is therefore sanctioned by Pestalozzi.
Chalk too was used. "For drawing we were given only slates and red
chalk." (Eamsauer's account ; G., p. 181.)
LETTER III.
1 Ed. 1, p. 107. " Show Wieland the A B C der Anschauung and
ask him if he ever found stronger proofs of powers thrown away."
Wieland, author of Oberon, was friendly to Pestalozzi. His
German Mercury, Dec., 1801, contains the first notice of Wie Gertrud.
It is warmly recommended. In it he says, " Pestalozzi promises
much, but judging from the first fruits lying before us, he is a man
to keep1 his word."
Buss's A B C of Anschauung is an A B C of Form, of linear form.
He gives us in the text its purpose. " Children should read outlines
of forms as they read words, and name the parts, curves and angles,
with letters, so that lines combined in the outline of an object may be
as clearly expressed as words by letters." This he did not reach.
Biber gives a diagram, p. 205, " for the better understanding of what
is said," and says " it was never published, for it* was soon super
seded by more matured labours," but this diagram was published,
1828, by Niederer. It is incorporated in his version of the Report ;
but if it is Buss's A B C, it could not have existed when Pestalozzi
226 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
made that Report of the Method. (For diagram see p. 208, " The
Method") In Letter VII. the ellipse is included, but it is not even
mentioned here. The smaller squares or chequers for measurement
became hereafter an A B C of measure-forms. They are the origin
of the chequers in the Kindergarten, and are now used in our
Board Schools for various purposes of design. Fragments of the
unity he sought and strove for are used for the unconnected teach
ing, that he protested against, and jet they are applied at last to the
hand-training he from first to last earnestly worked to establish.
2 Duke Carl Engen of Wurtemburg founded a military training
at Castle Solitude in 1771—" the Carl's School." In 1775 this was
removed to Stuttgart, enlarged and made into an academy. Schiller
was educated here.
3 Ed. 1, p. 119. " In the weakness and superficiality of the instruc
tion I had received in art. For this reason I failed to grasp its prin
ciples. I threw all my energy into the special department in which
Pestalozzi wanted my help."
4 Ed. 1, p. 126. " How men have language, in order by knowing
the names of objects to be able more easily to distinguish one from
another."
5 Ed. 1, p. 127. "However, I estimated the whole method only
through the medium of a department and its effects upon it. In this
way I came step by step to see and understand its effects upon other
branches. I found now by the clue given by my art-teaching how it
might be possible," etc.
6 Ed. 1, p. 129. " Which alone make the Art difficult to the human
race because they undermine the foundation which it has in man
and lead him away from Nature, who asks nothing of us that is not
easy, if we only seek it in the right way from her hands only."
Bichter says, " We see, even this account of one of Pestalozzi's
fellow- workers is altered in the second edition in one or two places.
Did Pestalozzi do this ? It is doubtful. It is more likely that Jos.
Schmid, who brought out ' the collected works,' made these changes,
for he has been proved to have made arbitrary alterations some
times. Some other changes in the second edition are due to Schmid.
But that Pestalozzi did sometimes make alterations appears from the
preface in which he says that he left the book ' almost unaltered,'
in fact most of the alterations are limited to forms of expression.
In some, however, and particularly in the more important altera
tions, Pestalozzi's'authorship is undoubted, as is evident from their
character."
This note of Eichter's illustrates the way in which the best editors
speak of Schmid, while the latter part neutralizes the beginning,
" most of the alterations are limited to forms of expression." Yes,
they are often so slight that we could not well represent them in
translation. For instance, " villages in Bohemia " become " castles
in Spain" in the second edition ; " dem Auge " becomes " in dem
Auge," etc., etc. Some are evidently corrections. But if the more
Notes to Letter IV. 227
important additions are evidently Pestalozzi's own, the lesser altera
tions and corrections may also be his ; besides the original communi
cation of Buss may have been written under circumstances which
justified these slight alterations by Pestalozzi. No Schmid theory
is needed to explain them.
LETTER IV.
1 Rousseau and Basedow.
Rousseau. Jean Jacques, 1712-1787. The Revolution last century
began a new era. It was not like the Renaissance— a return to
an older civilization, with its art and literature, but a return to
nature. A new faith was growing, and the need was felt for culti
vating the intellect instead of subjugating it to priestly authority.
It was a struggle for liberty of thought, speech, and inquiry.
Rousseau was the man of his time, prepared by special education
and mental condition for it. " It was his work more than that of
any other man that France arose from decay and found irresistible
energy," says Mr. Morley. " For twelve years," he says himself,
" his heart made hot within him by the idea of the future happiness
of the human race and the honour of contributing to it," he wrote
those works which, Mr. Morley says, " gave Europe a new gospel ^"
and a new education. One of these works, perhaps the best, is
Emile, By some means he had the very education himself that
he suggested for " Emile," that of nature. All his life he was outside
the rules of civilization, " an untamed natural man," a vagabond,
Quick says. Here are a few fragments from Emile: —
" Everything is good as it leaves the hands of the Creator, everything
degenerates in the hands of man." are the first words in Emile.
" We do not understand children ; we fix on what concerns men to
not what children can learn. Begin by studying children ; most
assuredly at present you do not understand them. I wish some
judicious hand would give us a work on the art of studying children."
At present we do not know its elements. Let childhood ripen in
children. Their energies overflow ; allow their activities free scope ;
let them run about and make a noise. "The lessons schoolboys
learn of each other in play are a hundred times more useful to them
than those which the master teaches in school." " Exercise the child's
body, senses, and all his faculties. Avoid learning by heart memory
may be exercised on things seen and heard. Nothing but words are
taught, and things not useful ; signs are useless without ideas ;
without observation of things there can be no clear ideas. The child
should not be coerced. If your head always directs the child's, his
own will become useless. The very first thing he takes on trust or
learns from others without being convinced he loses part of his
understanding. My object is not to furnish his mind with know
ledge, but to teach him the method of acquiring it himself. He is
not to know because he is told, but because he has himself com-
228 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
prehended — he should not learn, "but discover. Avoid telling. Things
are themselves the best explanations. The grand thing to be educed
is self-teaching. Progress should be in proportion to strength.
We acquire more clear, certain notions of ourselves than of others
who teach us. Learn without effort. Do not keep a boy poring
over a book ; let him learn a trade, let him work with his hands."
" Nature wills that children should be children before they are men.
If we seek to pervert this order, we shall produce forward fruits,
without ripeness or flavour, and though not ripe, soon rotten : we
shall have young savans and old children. Childhood has ways of
seeing, thinking, feeling, peculiar to itself ; nothing is more absurd
than to wish to substitute ours in its place."
These quotations will give some idea of the new Education
founded by Rousseau, and worked out by Pestalozzi, Froebel and
others. Strangely enough, it agrees with the Renaissance in the
place given to the child. We must study the child, learn its nature,
if we would teach it. "We must conquer nature by obeying her."
Employ the child's activity. Let it learn from things, not books ; it
is an observer and a doer. Self -activity helps self-teaching. Know
ledge comes by the action of our mind, not from what it is told.
The real teacher is within. Teach the method of acquiring know
ledge. Exercise faculty, and by so doing develop it. (See Quick's
Educational Reformers, Ed. 1890.)
Basedow, John Bernard (1723-1790), was one of the earliest
to feel Rousseau's influence and to apply his principles. Kant
had said that revolution not reform was wanted in education,
and Basedow attempted it. " Everything according to nature"
is his great principle. Treat children as children. They love
motion and noise, here is a hint from nature. Even in play chil
dren may learn names of things. (Both Rousseau and Basedow
agree with Froebel.) They should be acquainted with the world
through the senses first — should learn from nature. Reduce mere
memory work. Educate the whole being— the body by gymnastics,
the mind by study of things. Coercion is wrong ; children should
be free. Educate the natural desires and direct them, but never
suppress. In 1774 he opened an Institute at Dessau, called the
Philanthropin. At first it was successful but, owing to disputes with
his associates, he withdrew in 1778 to Magdeburg, where he taught
privately till his death, 1790. His method had considerable influence
in Germany. (Raumer, Geschichte der Pddagogik; Quick's Educa
tional Reformers ; Payne's Lectures on the Science and Art of Education.)
2 Ed. 1, p. 134. "But they violently put out the eyes of those
who dare to raise their heads to peep at the splendour of the highest
story."
3 Ed. 1, p. 138. " And, Gessner, my experiments went further :
they have thriven and become ripe fruit."
It is interesting and significant of Pestalozzi 's conception of the
subject to see how the expression is altered in the second edition.
Notes to Letters V.-VI. 229
4 Report. This Report is so important that it is printed as an
appendix. In it Pestalozzi first states his great fundamental principle
of Anschauung. At first he limited his purpose to improving details
in existing schools, and when he left Stanz, he says at the beginning
of his letter that even his old plans for educating the people began
to wither. But this Report marks a new epoch. He is now a
Reformer of Education, not an Improver of Instruction. What he
observed at Stanz had germinated and developed, and the first
printed expression of the method of Burgdorf is this Report. The
next is Wie Gertrud.
5 Ed. 1, p. 145. " This physical nearness or distance determines
all that is positive in your sense-impression, your technical training,
and even in your virtue.
LETTER V.
1 Pestalozzi's frequent use of the word " wesentlich." essential,
is due to scientific and philosophical ideas now no longer held.
From Plato downwards the qualities of objects were divided into
two classes, essential aud accidental. To some extent this corre
sponds to the distinction drawn by Mill between connotativQ and
nonconnotative qualities, i.e. those qualities which help to decide
the classification, and so are implied in the use of tke name, and
those that do not. (F. C. T.)
2 Ed. 1, p. 150. " This mechanism of your nature."
In two places in this paragraph " mechanism " has been altered in
the second edition to "organism."
LETTER VI.
1 Form is one of the key- words in Kant's philosophy. To put
the matter simply, the manner in which we think is determined by
the nature of our minds, and it is impossible for us to think of any
object except as existing in time and space. Time and space, there
fore, are not to us properties of the external world, but the form in
which alone it can be thought. Although Pestalozzi does not use
the word strictly in the Kantian sense, his use of it is coloured
thereby. Following Grimm, we get those meanings that have any
bearing on the use of the word in Wie Gertrud.
1. Outline of figure, shape.
" A just appreciation of all form." (P.)
2. As opposed to matter.
3. The vessel or mould in which a work is made.
5. (Technical.) The frame in which type is set.
(Metaph.) " must be fitted into/brms." (P.)
6. The form of a legal process (rel. to 2).
" Ein Widerspruch in der besten Form." (Kant.)
A. contradiction in the best form.
230 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
8. General for manner.
" Aber in den heitern Regionen
Wo die reinen Formen wohnen
Rauscht des Jammers trtiber Sturm nicht mehr." (Schiller.}
9. Visualization, sense representation of phenomenon.
"The Kingdom of God can be represented in the visible form
of a church."
Pestalozzi's special meanings, which do not exactly correspond to
any of the above, though they follow immediately upon them, are —
(a) Model, type. Urform, prototype.
" The form discloses itself independent like the human race." (P.)
" All instruction is nothing but this ; it is derived from the typical
form of human development." (P.)
" Everything depends on the exact knowledge of this prototype."
(6) Method imposed by the facts of human nature.
" The Art leads us no further than the spirit of that/orm by which
the race is raised from vague sense-impressions to clear ideas." (P.)
" The/orm or rather the different methods of teaching languages."
(P.) F. C. T.
2. The Elements were not reached when The Method was written.
LETTER VII.
1 Sound teaching. His natural means of teaching at Stanz was the
living voice; and here he begins with sounds, not with names, or
forms of letters. The child should be able to repeat the sounds
easily before the forms are put before his eyes. Phonetics he had
not reached. " Always connect a consonant with a vowel, because
it cannot be pronounced alone." "We here see," says Seyffarth,
" the beginning of the method of teaching by sound, instead of the
more difficult method of spelling."
* Spelling Book. "Hints on Teaching Spelling and Beading," pub
lished 1801. Pestalozzi calls this the " Spelling Book." It consists of
syllables and words, from which other words can be made by adding
letters or syllables before or after. " But when Pestalozzi more fully
comprehended the method of spelling, he felt it was deficient and
unnatural, and tried to improve it. He combined sentences about
real objects with the spelling course, exercised the children in spell
ing by ear before he taught them the symbols in writing, and
arranged the letters in groups, which he used by degrees. Movable
letters, pasted on cards, spread through his influence. But he fell
into the error of putting a certain number of letters together in the
most complicated manner, without troubling himself whether the
words thus produced were used in speaking or not ; and by so doing
encouraged the use of sounds without meaning, against which he so
strongly protests. For instance, he put O T I N together in the follow
ing ways: nito, toin, into, onit, toni, tino, tion" (Schindler, Theoretical
and Practical Handbook for First School Teaching. Quoted by Beck}.
Notes to Letter VII. 231
8 Ed. 1. p. 171. " These should be repeated daily by the child who
is learning to spell, in the presence of the child in the cradle, that
the latter may become conscious of these sounds through constant
repetition," etc.
4 Singing. This method was soon applied to singing by Nageli
and Pfeiffer. There is no study in this country where his influence
has been greater, or his method used so effectively as in the teaching
of singing. The Rev. John Curwen, founder of the Tonic Solfa
method, said at a discussion on Pestalozzi at the Education Society,
that he came on purpose to testify how much and how deeply he
was indebted to him ; and Mrs. J. S. Curwen tells me he was always
ready to acknowledge it, and that before he attempted to teach
singing he was familiar with Pestalozzi's method, and used it.
5 The Mother's Book never existed, so Pestalozzi himself says. (Note,
Letter X.) That is, not as he conceived it. One of his elementary
books, published 1803, was called The Mother's Book, or Hints to
Mothers on Teaching their Children to Observe and Talk. But this
book was nearly all of it written by Kriisi, and its fundamental
idea — that of using the human body as the basis for the first lessons
in sense-impression — Krusi owed to Basedow. Parts 1-6 are by
Krtisi ; part 7 and the introduction are by Pestalozzi ; 10 parts were
proposed, but only 7 were published. The separate parts — called
" Exercises" in the book — are: —
1. Observation, and naming the parts of the body ; 2. Their posi
tion ; 3. Their connection ; 4. Which parts are single, double, etc. ;
5. Characteristics of each separate part ; 6. Comparison of parts ;
7. Function.
The three remaining exercises were to have been : —
8. What belongs and is necessary to the care of the body; 9.
Various uses of the special parts— 5 ; 10. Summary and descrip
tion.
Pestalozzi seems to have thought that his fellow- workers under
stood his ideas better, and were more capable of carrying them out
than he was himself. But he saw later they were not, as the note
in Letter X. and the Preface to Ed. 2 shows. "We were too
different," he says. None had had his experience ; none followed so
heartily his way of experiment and observation. This, then, is not
his conception of the Mother's Book ; it is only a part, and an
unsatisfactory part of what he proposed. He often indicates his
notion of it, especially in Letter X. — "The first course in the Mother's
Book is an attempt to raise sense-impression to an art, and to lead
the child by form, number, and speech to a comprehensive con
sciousness of all ssnse-impression, the more definite concepts of
which will constitute the foundation of his later knowledge." ".I
have impressed the first ten numbers on the child's senses," etc.
These quotations show the difference between his conception of the
Mother's Book and the portion published.
This book was attacked and criticised more than any other of his
232 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
elementary "books, and perhaps justly. It was natural to suppose
that the body, so near to the child, would interest it, and attract
its early observation. But to see ourselves as others see us is a late
acquirement ; its own body, as seen externally, the child observes
less than many other things entirely outside it. If we may judge
from its own drawings, its fixed notion is that the eyes are at the top
of the head ; it does not see or feel and is unconscious of the brain
and bone above them. Thousands of children's drawings repeat and
confirm this. I have seen the eyes placed so high that a line,
representing either eyelid or eyelash, had to be put outside the
outline of the head itself. The child conceives of the arm as rounded,
because its smooth action is felt within, not seen without, and the
inner feeling is stronger than sight. Naturally, then, the child does
not accurately observe its own body, as seen from without, very
early.
Here are two criticisms on the book: "The lessons on the body
treat the over-abundant material with almost anatomical exact
ness and completeness. What can the poor mother and children
make of these long sentences, difficult for them to understand, and
impossible to remember? " The right cheek, or jowl, lies beneath
the right eye and the right temple, in front of the right ear on the
right side of the nose, the mouth and the chin." (Ex. 2.) " The ten
fingers of my two hands have twenty-eight joints ; ten at the top,
eight in the middle, and ten below. Twenty-eight phalanges ; ten
at the top, eight in the middle, and ten below ; and twenty-eight
knuckles — ten at the top, eight in the middle, and ten below." (Ex. 4.)
The French journalist, Dussault, ridicules this. " Pestalozzi takes
a world of trouble to teach a child that his nose is in the middle of
his face." But, strangely enough, the child does not know this simple
fact ; and if he did, he could not clearly express it. The child may
be surprised and stimulated to observe more carefully, when it
realises that it does not know it. Further, accurate description of
even the most common and best known objects, is difficult for
children and others. The form or model in the Mother's Book is not
the best for this. But to be obliged to describe accurately demands
careful observation and the right use of words. The idea is not
complete till it can be expressed in some way. We cannot tell if it
is complete, nor can the child or student, until it is expressed.
Pestalozzi's Mother's Book is an attempt to raise sense-impression
to an art. " Hints on teaching children to observe and talk," is
its second title. In the introduction he says: "Mother, you must
learn by the clue given by my method or my book, to choose a few
essential objects out of the ocean of sense-impressions, in which your
helpless child is swimming. This is essentially necessary — and,
mother, never neglects, while using the exercises in observation and
speech, to dwell indefatigably and stedfastly upon each separately,
as well as upon the book as a whole, until the child understands the
object and its parts according to the point of view of every exercise,
Notes to Letter VII. 233
perfectly and accurately, and has learned to express himself not
only clearly, but with absolute fluency."
Here is criticism' of another kind: The Mother's Book "gave a
false impression of his method," says de Guimp. " People did not
sufficiently understand that these series of statements were to result
from the child's own observation and experience ; they only saw in
them a lesson to be learned by heart, mechanically. And thus, not
without some show of reason. Pestalozzi's method has been blamed
for a defect which is precisely the defect it was intended to cure."
(pp. 246, 247.) A book or manual for the teacher, scientific with
out being didactic — one that the uninstructed might use as well as
the instructed, he had not discovered. Possibly, Spencers Intentional
Geometry, or Huxley's Biology are nearer what he sought. If you are
to teach without knowledge —and it is possible— if you are to lead
others to learn as you learn yourself, then real knowledge of the
method is necessary, that is practical knowledge of the "physical
mechanism," or the mental organism, psychology ; and this depends
on actual observation, not on books. He says in '^the Preface, " I
cannot prevent the forms of my method from having the same fate
as all other forms, which inevitably perish in the hands of men
who are neither desirous nor capable of grasping their spirit." To
grasp the spirit is the great difficulty ; it is easier to learn than to
observe how we learn; it is a further difficulty to perceive the
causes which prevent another learning. Until the value of observ
ing the outer is appreciated, observation of the inner may be
disregarded. If these long sentences are to be repeated without
clear sense-impression at first — and the teacher who does not grasp
the method is sure to undervalue, and even ignore this — then the
mere repetition becomes as bacl as the worst parrot-like repetition
Pestalozzi denounces. But if the facts are really clearly impressed
on the senses, it will be well for the child to form its own expression,
for that will indicate the state and growth of its thought. At first,
all there is in objects is not seen ; thought, expression, and observation,
alternate and help each other, as thought and act alternate in ex
periments, and lead finally to complete thought — the imperfect
expression guides the teacher. Pestalozzi has some faith in ^ the
" mechanical," perhaps derived from the allied province of "^activities "
where it is necessary. His children— so Herbart and others testify—
could draw very wonderfully, but they were drawing for hours
daily. Here 'the repetition exercises told; but to repeat mere
formulas of words is quite another thing.
This book probably suggested to Froebel his Mutter und Koselieder.
6 Ed. 1, p. 196. " What does it say of him as a reasonable being
struggling upwards towards inner independence and self-ennoble
ment ? "
7 Ed. 1, p. 212. " To fall is to move downwards without or against
your will."
8 " A legacy:"1 Pestalozzi left a work in MS. called The Natural
234 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
Schoolmaster, written between 1802-1805, which contains several
exercises of the kind referred to. He gave it to Kriisi, who published
it, or a selection from it and other works, under the title of A Fathers
Lessons on the Customary Use of Words, a Legacy from Father Pestalozzi
to His Pupils, 1829. The manuscript, in Pestalozzi's handwriting
throughout, is in Morf's possession. It is printed in Seyffarth's Ed.,
vol. 16. Pestalozzi began this before the Mothers Book was pub
lished. After talking to the child about his physical impressions,
he thought it would be well to talk about his moral impressions,
and he took words for his text. — The "moral lesson" and its
Socratising was as regular with us as the " object lesson," but 1
never hear of it now.
9 Ed. 1, p. 212. " I should try to connect truth, correct sense-
impressions and pure feelings with every word describing human
action or condition."
10 Ed. 1, p. 213. " But if the State allows the proprietor or itself
a power opposed to this purpose, then special actions of the rich
and powerful, springing from this, will rouse, as far as they are felt,
feelings never to be quite extinguished in the human breast, of its
original equal rights in the division of the land ; and if they become
universal, will produce revolutions, so long as men are men. The
evils of this cannot be mitigated or remedied except by turning them
back to the limits of the purpose for the sake of which," etc.
11 Ed, 1, p. 216. " To teach the humble folk to talk, but have made
the speechless people learn isolated, abstract words by heart."
12 Ed. 1, p. 216. " To keep their lowest classes always lowest and
always stupid."
13 Ed. 1, p. 217. " ' Yes ! yes ! ' say the clergy. ' When they come to
us they understand not a word of our teaching.' ' Yes ! yes ! ' say
the magistrates, ' even when they are right it is impossible for them
to make their rights intelligible to man.' The lady complains
loudly and piteously, 'They are hardly a step higher than cattle;
they can be used for no service.' Thick-heads that cannot count
five, find them stupider than themselves, and rogues of many kinds
call out, each with his own gesture : ' Well for us that it is so ; were
they different, we could neither buy so cheap, nor sell so dear at the
market.'
" Friend ! this is the way all the people in the stalls of the Great
European Christian Theatre talk of the people in the gallery, and
they cannot speak in any other way, because, for more than a cen
tury, those in the gallery have been made by them soul-less, as no
Asiatic and heathen people ever were. I once more explain it. The
Christian people of our part of the world have sunk so low because
for more than a century, in our lower schools, empty words have
been given an importance to the human mind that not only over
powered attention to the impressions of nature, but even destroyed the
inner susceptibility to such impressions in men. I say again, while
men did that, and degraded the Christian people of Europe to a people
Notes to Letter VI 7. 235
of words and chatter, as no people have ever yet been degraded,
they never taught them to talk. It is no wonder that the Christianity
of this century and this land looks as it does ; on the contrary, it is
wonderful that good human nature, in spite of all the bungling arts
that are tried in our word and clapper schools, has still preserved so
much inward strength as we always find in the midst of the peo
ple. Yet, praised be God ! The stupidity of all these ape-like arts
finds at last a counterpoise in human nature itself, and ceases to be
harmful to our race when its apeings have reached the highest point
that we can bear. Folly and error," etc.
Karl Biedel's comment on this is worth repetition, even here
where we are so often told that we have got beyond Pestalozzi and
need his method no more : —
" Saldom has all word-teaching, all weakness in school teaching
teen so boldly and frankly criticised as here by Pestalozzi with all
justice and noble wrath. Parents, teachers, teachers' trainers and
school inspectors should never forget for one instant that only^by
instruction founded upon the Pestalozzian principle of sense-im
pression and self-activity that avoids every uncomprehended or
superfluous word can ' word and clapper ' schools be set aside.
This cannot be too often repeated."
14 u Word and clapper folk " ; words and empty phrases ; " sound
ing brass and tinkling cymbals."
15 Seyffarth ends Letter VII. here ; his Letter VIII. begins with
Form.
16 Pestalozzi summarises here his meanings of " Anschauung."
All knowledge arises from —
(1) Impressions made by all that comes accidentally into contact
with the five senses. The objects are in no order, but in natural con
fusion. The action on the mind is limited and slow. There is but
little if any active living interest in the mind. No attention.
(2) Attention. Teachers call attention to .what they consider impor
tant, and so arouse consciousness, and deepen the impression. There
is order in the presentation, and the thought is connected. The Art
of teaching guides the selection, and exercises the thought.
(3) Spontaneous efforts. But what the teacher presents does not
always absorb the whole attention, sometimes not at all. The child
has its own interests. Some knowledge it strongly desires, and
therefore will seek this of its own free will, and throw its whole soul
into the search. The will, stimulated by self -activity of all the facul
ties, prompts to spontaneous efforts. This is a step towards moral
self-activity and independence.
(4) Necessary work. Man must satisfy his wants and wishes, he
must work, he must know and think that he may be able to do. This
is especially considered in Letter XII. To know, Anschauung is
necessary, and knowing and doing are so intimately connected that if
one ceases, the other ceases also. Anschauung and Fertigkeit,
observation and experiment, seeing and doing, impression and
236 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
expression united, lead to clear ideas, generalisations and educa
tion.
(5) Analogy and Subjective observation. The unseen is understood
by its likeness to the seen. We classify and know by analogy.
What we can remember we compare, reason about, judge and
generalize. " The results of sense-impression are changed into the work
of my mind and all my powers.'1'1 This wider meaning includes the
whole psychological sequence.
Pestalozzi's Anschauung covers as much or more than Words worth's
"imagination":
" Which in truth
Is but another name for abstract powers
And clearest insight, amplitude of mind
And Reason in her most exalted mood." — Prelude.
Prof. Ruskin has alwa3Ts insisted on the value of seeing. " The
sight is more important than the drawing." (Elements of Drawing.)
Compare one of his many passages. u How many manner of eyes are
there? You physical-science students should be able to tell us
painters that. We only know in a vague way the external aspect
and expression of eyes. We see, as we try to draw the endlessly
grotesque creatures about us, what infinite variety of instruments
they have ; but you know far better than we do how those instruments
are constructed and directed. You know how some play in their
sockets with independent revolution, — project into near-sightedness
on pyramids of bone, — are brandished at the points of horns, studded
over backs and shoulders, — thrust at the ends of antennae to pioneer
for the head, or pinched up into tubercles at the corners of the lips.
But how do the creatures see out of all these eyes ?
"No business of ours you may think? Pardon me. This is no
Siren's question — this is altogether business of ours, lest, perchance
any of us should see partly in the same manner. Comparative sight
is a far more important question than comparative anatomy. It is no
matter, though we sometimes walk — and it may often be desirable to
climb — like apes ; but suppose we should only see like apes or like
lower creatures ? I can tell you the science of optics is an essential
one to us, for exactly according to these infinitely grotesque direc
tions and multiplications of instrument you have correspondent not
only intellectual but moral faculty in the soul of the creatures.
Literally, if the eye be pure, the body is pure ; but, if the light of the
body be but darkness, how great is that darkness." (The Eagles Nest,
1887, pp. 127-8.)
17 The five paragraphs which follow are not in Niederer's version
of The Report of the Method..
is « Measurement." Compare this with what Prof. Buskin says on
our public schools of art system. " The first error in that system is
the forbidding accuracy of measurement, and enforcing the practice
of guessing the size of objects. . . . the student finishes his in
accurate drawing to the end, and his mind is thus during the whole
Notes to Letter VI II. 237
process of his work accustomed to falseness of every contour. Such
a practice is not to be characterised as merely harmful — it is ruinous."
Laws of Fesole, Preface, pp. vii., viii. Pestalozzi, however, carried
measurement to extremes, until form was lost. The Author of The
Two Paths would net agree to this. One of Pestalozzi's strong
points is, that in teaching the child, we should follow the natural
course of the race. The Laws of Fesole are so called because they are
" founded on principles established by Giotto in Florence, he re
ceiving them from the Attic Greeks through Cimabue, the last of
their disciples.'1 Pestalozzi's principle is admitted here as the foun
dation of teaching art. It is not generally admitted, and is applied
less frequently, perhaps not even in these Laws of Fesole.
19 These measuring-forms are the squares in Buss's A B C of Form,
(The Method. Appendix): "measuring sub-divisions of the square"
are those underlying the general form. The child is to be so familiar
with the measure-forms that they become a kind of instinct. Then
they are needed no longer; without this help he can represent all
proportions and express himself clearly about them. Froebel adopts
these measured squares to get over the difficulty children have of
measuring for invention, but we hear nothing about abandoning
them later.
20 "First oval, half oval," etc. In Letter III. ovals or "elongated
forms of the circle " are not mentioned at all. What he means by
" oval " is not clear, but Herbart explains it. " Pestalozzi also has
taken up the ellipse in the ABC der Anschauung. He calls it
somewhat erroneously the oval" (Herbart, Pad. Schriften, vol. ii.
p. 142). Pestalozzi has not understood or appreciated this form or
its allies, nor its parts. His description " elongated form of the
circle " shows this. He mentions it and leaves it. It seems to me
that the oval is the fundamental form of all living things, and until
some line of graduated curvature, such as the quadrant of the
ellipse, is added to elementary lines, and the ellipse or oval, to our
general forms, an A B C of Form is impossible, useless, injurious.
Pestalozzi's failed partly because he did not see this, as I have tried
to show in a paper on " Neglected Elements in Art Teaching " (Trans.
Teachers Guild, 1887).— I did not know when that was published
that Pestalozzi recognised the ellipse or oval at all. Biber says
nothing about it. The entire absence of satisfactory accounts of
Pestalozzi's work drives us to the original works.
LETTER VIII.
1 Fractions Table. Pestalozzi has three tables, (1) Table of Units,
which is not referred to here, and possibly did not yet exist, con
sisting of twelve rows of twelve rectangular spaces ; in each space of
the first row is one stroke, in each of the second two strokes, and
so on, up to twelve strokes. (2) Table of Simple Fractions, and (3)
238 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
Table of Compound Fractions, as here described. The plate gives
the left hand half of the third table.
2 Pestalozzi's " narrow sense " seems wider than this. He has reduced
form to the square only. He never really saw the value of the oval
and ellipse. He can teach number by these measure-forms, but he
cannot reverse the process and teach form by them, nor by number
nor by words. His " Elements " have not the same foundation as his
^ Anschauung, Psychology, and Prototype." What value there is
in them rests on these principles, not on the harmony which he
endeavours to establish between these elements.
3 Ed. 1, p. 271. " Here too we can say with decision, this reckoning
is an exercise for the reason only, and is in no way a mere work of
memory and no routine-like help to trade. It is the result of the
clearest, most definite sense-impressions, and leads easily, by simple
evidence, to truth.
LETTEE IX.
1 " Educational " here should be " Instructional."
Except in this case we have translated Unterricht by instruction.
It is Pestalozzi's usual term. Erziehung (education) he made the
current term it is now. but it often has not his meaning. Instead
of " drawing out," it frequently means " cramming in."
2 Ed. 1, p. 277. "Because it opened the mouth of the obvious
stupidity of a monkish and feudal world to express abstract ideas,
that the most perfect wisdom of the most intellectual life of our race
can never solve."
3 Zungendrescherei, literally tongue-threshing. Tongue-twisting
or turning sophistry ; twisted words or twisted talk.
This is one of his many characteristic words, not easily translated.
Like Maulbrauchen, Letter I.
LETTEE X.
1 If this passage is from The Method it is not to be found in
the Niederer version. When he referred to the Eeport in Letter I., he
said, " six months ago," here " more than a year ago." But Wie
Oertrud was not published till October, 1801."
In this letter we have said " the art of sense- impression (or observa
tion}" to distinguish it from sense-impression, but Pestalozzi uses
"art of sense-impression" only. "What Pestalozzi meant," says
J. H. Fichte, is "that only can become the pupil's, or even the man's,
true mental possession which he has raised for himself to a perfectly
clear mental picture (Anschauung'}, that is, has thought out and has
reproduced out of himself from his own knowledge through the self-
activity of his mind. It is only then that it becomes one with his
consciousness. It is become evident, real, to him a conviction which
is theoretically and practically at his command at any moment of
aa
ED
PART OF PESTALOZZl's TABLE OF COMPOUND FRACTIONS.
.240 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
his life " (Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift, No. 127, 1869). " This is rt
what Pestalozzi meant by his art of sense-impression," Richter J
(Exkurse Wie Gertrud, p. 187).
2 Ed. 1, 289. "Number also in itself, without a foundatio:
sense-impression is a phantom for our mind. The child must k
its form before he is in a position to consider it as a number-rela
i.e., as the basis of a clear consciousness of few or many."
3 Ed. 1, p. 301. " My grammar is only a series of methods
leading the child by every kind or change of word-combination f
vague sense-impressions to clear ideas."
4 Ed. 1, p. 303. " But I am convinced by experiments, whicl
at the base of this statement, and have come with decision to re
all half measures, and to put aside all text-books for elementary
struction which are based on the supposition," etc.
5 Ed. 1, p. 304. "And since all instruction books which are wri
in the usual grammatical way assume this, I would, had I influe
act quite mercilessly towards school libraries, or at any rate tow;
those elementary books which are meant for the youngest c
dren."
6 Ed. 1, p. 305. " Will there be even a few who wish, with
that I may succeed in checking and putting an end to the mad t.
in empty words that is enervating our generation, by making \>
and sound unimportant to the imagination of men, and in resto:
to sense-impression that preponderance over word and sound in
struction that obviously belongs to it ? "
7 Ed. 1, p. 305. " Yes, friend, there will long be few, very
The babble of our time is so closely connected with the br<
getting, and the ordinary association of tens and hundreds
thousands together, that it must be long, very long, before the :
of our time can take that truth " etc.
8 Ed. 1, p. 306. " Such pupils never dream that they are dre
ing and sleeping ; but all wakeful men round them feel their
sumption, and — if they are kind — look on them as night wander*
etc.
9 Ed. 1, p. 307. " I well know that the one good method is nei
;n my hands nor in any other man's, but with all the power lyin
my hands I try to approach this one true good (method)."
10 Ed. 1, p. 307. " 1 have one rule in judging all others. ' By t
fruits shall ye Jcnoio them? "
11 Ed. 1, p. 308. " Can be nothing but developed faculties and c
ideas. Oh, if starting from this point of view, they would ask th
selves at every step, ' Does it really further this end ? ' '
12 Ed 1, p. 310. " In this way and no other can the child be
to definitions which give him ideas of the thing to be defined,
definitions are only the simplest and purest expression of clear id
but, for the child, definitions contain actual truth only so far as
has a clear, vivid background of sense-impression."
13 Ed. 1, pp. 314-316. " You must distinguish the laws of nal
Notes to Letters XI. -XII. 241
from her course, that is, from special workings and statements about
these workings. In respect to her laws she is eternal truth, and for
us the eternal standard of all truth. But in respect to her course
and the statements about her course she is not satisfactory to the
individual of my race ; she is not all-satisfying truth. Careful of the
whole, she is careless of the single creature and particularly of man,
whose self-dependence she will lessen by no kind of guardianship.
" In this aspect and no other, be it understood that she is careless
and blind, and that she requires that the guidance of our race should
be taken out of her hands. Bat in this respect it is quite true and
urgent for my race. When you leave the earth to nature, she bears
weeds and thistles, and when you leave the training of your race to
her, she carries it on no further than to a confusion of sense-impres
sions, necessary for your first lessons, but now unfit either for your
own power of comprehension or for that of your child. Therefore it
is neither to the forest nor the meadow that the child must go to
learn herbs and trees. Trees and herbs stand not there in the orders
which are most suitable to make the essentials of every relationship
visible (anschaulich) to him, and through this first impression of the
thing itself to prepare him for general knowledge of the subject."
LETTER XL
1 Ed. 1, pp. 322-324. "Now my method gives this passage a kind of
truth which I could not imagine then ; it is now incontestable. In
it I take no share in all the strife of men, I teach through it neither
truth nor error. It spreads its influence not one step beyond what
is undeniable, it touches on no opinion that is disputed among men,
it is not the teacher of truths, it is the teacher of truth ; and combines
the results of physical necessity, at which the mechanism of my Art
is aiming, with the complete certainty of my judgment.
"Friend, there is no presumption in my heart. Throughout my
life I have wished for nothing but the salvation of the people, whom
I love, and whose misery I feel as few feel it, because I have suffered
with them as few have done before. However, when I say there is a
mechanism which results from physical necessity, I do not therefore
say I have developed all its laws ; and when I say there is a rational
course of instruction, it does not follow that I have fully stated this
course. In the whole account of my doings, I have tried far more to
make the security of my principles clear than to set up the very
limited action of my own little individuality as a standard of what
may and must come from the full development of these principles
for the human race. I do not know myself, and I feel daily more
and more how much I do not know."
LETTER XII.
1 Ed. 1, p. 332. _ " I see in it the ideal of the lost innocence of my
race, but I see in it also the ideal of the shame which the memory of
242 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
this lost holiness always awakens in me, so long as I am worthy,
and so long as I am worthy ever revives within me the power of
seeking what I have lost and of saving myself from ruin. Friend,
so long as man is worthy of the sublime characteristic of his race,
speech, so long as he uses it with a pure desire to ennoble himself
through it, it is a high and holy thing. But when he is no longer
worthy, when he uses it with no pure desire to ennoble himself, it
will be to him and for him the first cause of ruin, a wretched pro
moter of much misery, an inexhaustible source of unspeakable
illusion and a lamentable cloak for his crimes. Friend, it is true —
terribly true — the depravity of language grows with the depravity
of man.^ Through it the wretched become more wretched; through
it the night of error becomes still darker ; through it the crimes of
the wicked still increase. Friend, the crimes of Europe are still in
creasing through idle talk. We cannot guess to what this ever-
increasing list of publications will lead a generation whose weak
ness, confusion and violence have already reached the stage we
see."
This passage has been extended but not much altered in the
second edition,
2 After Anschauung, the most difficult word to translate is
FERTIGKEIT, which literally means (1) promptitude or readiness; (2)
readiness and skill in performing some action.
It is not easy to find a satisfactory English equivalent in this
sense. The following quotations given in Grimm, in addition to one
from Wie Gertrud, will make the meaning quite clear. (The English
equivalent in each case is in italics.)
" Da nemlich, es kurz zu sagen, diese E-einigung in nichts anders
beruhet als in der Verwandlung der Leidenschaften in tugendhafte
Fertigkeiten." "As, to put it shortly, this purification consists of
nothing less than the transformation of the passions into habits of
virtuous action." (Lessing.)
" Ihr alle reimt mit gleicher Fertigkeit." " You all rhyme with
equal facility. ," (Gellert.)
" Die Eigenschaften, die Fertigkeiten des Lichts rege zu machen."
" To bring the properties, the capabilities of light into play." (Goethe.)
"Er besitzt eine ausserordentliche Fertigkeit in Geigen." "He
possesses extraordinary skill in fiddling." (F. C. T.)
"Fertigkeiten" we have generally translated "activities." but
several other equivalents are used, e.g. (1) acts, actions ; (2) powers
of doing, skill, practical skill, technical skill ; (3) practical ability,
abilities, faculties, capacities;— e.g. (1) "We are far behind the
greatest barbarians in the A B C of acts or actions (gymnastics} and
their skill in striking and throwing," etc. " These contain the
foundations of all possible actions on which human callings depend."
(2) " The people do not enjoy in regard to culture in skill (technical
education) one scrap of that public and universal help from govern
ment that each man needs. In no way do they enjoy the culture of
Notes to Letter XII. 243
thoss practical abilities" (3) "The abilities (capacities, talents, etc.)
on the possession of which depend all the powers of knowing and
doing (Konneri) that are required of an educated mind and noble
heart, come as little of themselves as intelligence and knowledge."
" Powers of knowing and doing.'1'1 " Can " and " ken " are derived from
the same root as the German konnen and kennen ; the present tense
"can" is the preterite of the obsolete verb meaning know, so that
its real meaning is / have known or learnt, and therefore am able to do.
I ken, therefore / can ; knowledge and skill are inseparable. See
Murray's Dictionary.
This whole series of meanings, as with Anschauung, are connected.
"Knowing and doing are so closely connected that if one ceases
the other ceases with it." Doing has a double function ; by
doing, thought is expressed, and by doing thought is also gained
and made clear. It is Anschauung, by experience, through the
sense of touch or active movement; impression and expression
combine. The whole psychological sequence of Pestalozzi is im
pression, clear idea or knowledge, and expression. Observe, think,
do, and know. One kind of Anschauung, he says, Letter VII. is
obtained " by working at one's calling." He connects observation
and experience.
3 Ed. 1, p. 335. " Thought and action should stand in such close
relation to each other, that, like spring and stream, if one cease the
other ceases with it."
4 Ed. 1, p. 336. " Mechanical laws." " The mechanism of nature."
5 Abrichtungsverderben, degeneracy or decadence caused by arti
ficial or circus training ; that is, training possible but not in har
mony with the true nature of the creature trained.
6 This entire passage and the beginning of the next is altered in
the later edition. We give it here as it stands in the first edition,
and also fill up the " great gap " once more.
Ed. 1, p. 324. " The individual man has not lost the consciousness
of these important requirements for his development. His natural
instinct, together with the knowledge he possesses, drives him to this
path. The father does not leave his child wholly to Nature, still less
the master his apprentice, but governments make infinitely more mistakes
than men. No corporation is influenced by instinct, and where in
stinct does not act truth enjoys but half its right.
" It is a fact that no father is guilty towards his son, no master to
wards his apprentice, of that which the government is guilty towards
the people. The people of Europe do not enjoy in regard to their cul
ture in skill (Fertigkeit=tecbxdca,l education) a vestige of that public
and general help from government that each man needs in order by
wise care of his own business to attain inward satisfaction. In no
way do they enjoy the cultivation of their practical, abilities, except
indeed for the purpose of human slaughter ; for military organi
zation devours all that is due to the people or rather what they owe
to themselves. It devours all that is ground out of. the people, all
244 How Gertrude TeacJies Her Children.
that can be ground out of them in an ever-increasing ratio. Their
practical abilities are neglected because the government does not
fulfil the promises which were made in order to grind the people.
But this which the government withholds from them, is of such a
nature that if it were only granted the extortion would become just
and the misery of the people, as a consequence of this justice, would
be changed into contentment and happiness. But now they snatch
the bread from the widow, who is taking it out of her own mouth to
give it to her babe. They snatch it, not intending to use it for the
people, but in order to make their injustice and worthlessness lawful
and legal. In the same spirit, at one time, they snatched bread from
the widow and orphan to make jobbery ecclesiastical and canonical.
The same methods served for both, for the jobbery, spiritual extor
tion, and for the injustice, worldly taxation, both in the name of the
public welfare— the one for the salvation of the soul, the other for
the happiness of the body — both notoriously work against salvation
and against happiness.
" The people of Europe are fatherless and wretched. Most of those
who stand near enough to help them have something else to do than
to think of their welfare. In the stable, and with dogs and cats, you
will be led to believe that many of them are humane, but they are
not humane to the people ; they have no heart for them. They live
on the revenues from land, but in constant forgetfulness of the con
ditions that produce these revenues. They do not realize how the
people are degraded by the ever-increasing extortion and the con
fusion caused % it, nor how practical honesty is constantly decreasing
as well as a want of a sense of responsibility in using public property.
They are responsible for the dreadful increase of physical enerva
tion of men and classes who are de facto, if not de jure, free from
responsibility. They, receiving revenues, wash their dirty hands. It
is this which degrades and perplexes human nature and robs it of
its power of enjoyment and its true humanity. They do not realize
how great the universal pressure of work has become. They do not
realize how the difficulty increases day by day of getting through
the world with religion and honour, and of leaving the children
behind provided for according to their circumstances. Least of all
do they realize the disproportion between that which they grind
from the poor of the land, and that which they leave in his hands
wherewith to earn what they grind from him. But, dear friend,
whither is my holy simplicity leading me ? "
7 Ed. 1, p. 341. '• The culture of the physical faculties, that the
state should assiduously and might easily give to the people, like the
culture for special purposes, depends, like all culture, on a profound
mechanism — on an A B C of the Art ; that is, on general rules of art
by following which the children can be trained by a series of exer
cises, proceeding gradually from the simplest to the most compli
cated. These exercises must certainly result in affording daily
increasing ease in those faculties (Fert) which need improvement.
Notes to Letters XII I -XIV. 245
But this A B C is not found. Of course we seldom find what nobody
seeks. It was so easy to find. It must begin with the simplest ex
pressions of the physical powers, which contain the principles of the
most complicated human practical ability (Pert}."
8 Ed. 1, p. 343. "But these are of no use to the principles of
jobbery and injustice that form the basis of our public revenues, and
are not easily compatible with the distinctly nervous state of the
gentry, who take the biggest slice of the results of the jobbery and
injustice."
9 Ed. 1, p. 345. " These considerations must determine the povyer
of applying our activities. Every influence that in the application
of our powers and faculties turns us away from the centre point."
10 Ed. 1, p. 346. "Every kind of instruction that bears within
itself the seeds of such evil for short-lived men must cause the more
terror to every father and mother who have their children's life
long peace of mind at heart, since we must seek the sources of the
infinite evil of our sham enlightenment and the misery of our masque
rade revolution in errors of this kind, since they have existed for
generations both in the instruction and non-instruction of our people."
11 Ed. 1, p. 347. " And on its lines a sense-preparation for physical
instinct will be laid, which will promote the wisdom and virtue of
our race."
12 Ed. 1, p. 347. " In this way the only form of education suitable
to the human race is developed which can be recognized as a means
of training virtue."
13 Ed. 1, p. 347. " Therefore it is that as definition before sense-
impression makes men presumptuous fools, so explanations about
virtue before the exercise of virtue make them presumptuous villains.
I do not believe I am contradicted by experience. Gaps in the sense-
cultivation of virtue cannot well have other results than gaps in
the sense-cultivation of knowledge."
LETTER XIII.
1 Ed. 1, p. 353. " It is not a simple result of natural instinct, but
yet it follows the same course of development."
LETTER XIV.
1 Ed. 1, p. 370. " Friend, if my method here satisfies a want of my
race, its value surpasses my every hope, and it does."
2 Here the second edition ends. In the first edition a long passage
follows from a letter addressed to Pestalozzi by Dr. Schnell, of Burg-
dorf . We give it here, for it weakens Pestalozzi's masterly conclusion.
Ed. 1, 383-390. " I must add to this passage, that explains exactly
the sanctity of religion, yet another, written by a man whose head
and heart are alike dear to me, describing the external origin. of reli
gion, so far as it is an affair of nations and external human associa
tions. Dr. Schnell of Burgdorf wrote to me a few days since : —
246 How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.
" ' Man reflects much sooner upon that which he sees and handles
than upon those feelings which lie undeveloped in his inmost soul,
and which only now and then glide over the background of his con
sciousness like formless shadows. He must, of necessity, learn to
know the physical world before he can attain to knowledge of the
intellectual world.
'"His reflection will be awakened, as soon as he becomes self-
conscious, by unusual natural phenomena, such as earthquakes,
floods, thunder, etc., and his propensity to try to get to the bottom of
everything leads him to reflect upon the causes of these phenomena
before he knows their nature; but these reflections lead him no
further than to personifications of these causes. It lightens because
Zeus willed it, etc. In this way man refers every kind of pheno
mena to its special author, overseer, or god, who divide the kingdom
of causes among them, at first peaceably, afterwards by force.
" ' But the human mind, according to its nature, ever trying to
reduce multiplicity to unity, did not long find pleasure in poly
theism. Man began to look upon nature as a gang cf under- workers
in the great workshop, and now inquired about the master. As
imagination had led him so far, it now led him further. It showed
him an image representing this master and called it Fate — an idea
expressing neither more nor less than a senseless supreme will, a per
sonified caprice, that can give no reason for its decrees except its
own authority : This is my absolute will and command.
" ' And this is the supreme cause, the one god to which human reason
points ; and when reason finds its goal, imagination must furl her
wings, because she can paint no picture without borrowing colours
from the palette of experience ; for to mix colours different from those
on this palette is beyond her skill.
" ' Man was obliged to stop at -this stage of education, until by con
stant examination and inquiry, he discovered that all the pheno
mena of nature stand in more or less close relationship, and depend
more or less upon each other. He saw one weight sink while another
rose, and began to find order and harmony, where before he saw
nothing but disorder and confusion. From this time forward he no
longer looked upon the changes and phenomena around him as the
play of accident., or as the effect of the capricious decrees of a mighty
being, but as the harmonious action of a machine, moving according
to definite laws, towards a definite, though to him unknown, end. Now
he knew the whole clock as far as — mainspring and dial — the cause
and purpose of movement.
" ' The idea of rule, of law, to which his reason led him through
inquiry, seemed to fit an inner feeling that had often before dis
turbed him, but which he could not express because words were
wanting to him. Now he had made this feeling clear to himself
with the objects of the material world, the symbol led him to the
thing itself, and he ventured to apply what he had found in the
known world, to a visionary unknown world. If he wished to act, or
A u tJwrities. 2 47
acted, he felt every time that a judgment, not to be silenced, would
be spoken of his action in his soul, that would not always agree with
the judgment that his reason pronounced upon the success or failure
of the purpose for which he had acted. He was fully conscious that
this feeling might be powerless to determine him against his will
for or against the perpetration of any action ; but nevertheless it
happened that disobedience to the word of this inner voice awakened
an enemy in his own heart that the friendship of the whole world
could not lay to rest. He applied his newly-found idea of a rule, a
law, to this unknown something, and he saw that this guess had not
deceived him ; for he found the command of this inner voice just as
absolute a command as he had found that law absolute, which directs
the changes of the seasons ; but he found that his desires were not
so absolutely submissive to this command as nature is submissive to
her laws. He said therefore, to himself, —
" ' Nature must obey her laws ; she has no will. But I need not obey
the law in my breast unless I wish. Herein I am my own judge and
so far a nobler being than all nature.
" ' With this knowledge, a new sun rose over a new world for our
race. Man saw himself on the boundary between the physical and
the spiritual world, and found himself a citizen of both — of the one
through his body, of the other through his will. He found that the
laws of these worlds are at bottom one and the same law, because both
command order and harmony; and that their apparent difference only
comes from the difference of the natures through which they com
mand. Natures, gifted with knowledge, ought to obey the law, and
they will wish to obey it, because they must know that it leads them
to peace with themselves — to their own end. But natures not gifted
with knowledge must obey, because they have no purpose of their
own, and if they are not driven, they must stand still. . . . And
now Thy creatures need only raise their eyes from nourishing earth
to the eternal heaven, and they found Thee, known and yet unknown,
to whom no work is discordant. . . . And Thou seest with joy,
author of every law of the physical and the spiritual world, in thin
glance of Thy creature, that this work too is good, because even by
it, he raises himself from the dust of the earth and longs for freedom
and for Thee, and has recognised the purpose of the material world
as a means to Thy end in the moral world,' " etc.
AUTHORITIES.
It has not been possible to give authorities for notes except where
they are quoted entire. We have consulted and are indebted to the
following editions of Pestalozzi's : Wie Qertrud ihre Kinder lehrt, Ed.
1, Gessner, Zurich, 1801. — Pddagogische Billiothek, Albert Richter,
Leipzig, 1880. This is the text we have generally followed. Seyffarth,
PestalozzVs sammtliche Werke, vol. XT. Brandenburg, 1872. — Pddago-
gische Klassiker III., Karl Biedal, Wien, L877.—Ausgewahlte tichriften
248 Supplements to The Method.
beriihmter Padagogen, IV., Dr. K.Aug. Beck, 1887.— Universal Bibliothek,
Leipzig, 991, 992, 40 pf., a small popular edition without notes.
Dr. Darin Comment Gertrude instruit ses infants, Ed. 2, Paris, 1886.
Also the following biographies, etc., Biber, E., Henry Pestalozzi and
his Plan of Education, being an account ofhislife and writings, London,
1831. — E. de Guimps. Pestalozzi, his Life and Work. Translated from
Second Edition by J. Russell, B.A., London, 1890. — Morf, Zur Biogra
phic Heinrich Pestalozzi' s, Winterthur, 1868-1885.— Guillaume, J.,
Pestalozzi, Etude Biographique, Paris, 1890. Pestalozzi Blatter, Zurich,
1878-1892— Herbart, Pad. Schriften, 1880.— J. P. Eossel, Allgemeine
Monatschrift fur Erziehung und Unterricht, Aachen, 1828, etc., etc.
SUPPLEMENTS TO THE METHOD.
The supplements omitted are not necessary, as their character can
be inferred from the book, nor have we given all Pestalozzi's ex
amples.
Supplement No. 2. A collection of words almost alike, which
receive a variety of changes by small additions. These must have
the effect of giving certainty to spelling — a result that could hardly
be so easily gained in any other way. All combinations of letters,
grammatically possible, have been used as series of syllables and words.
Here is an example : —
ein eint eine einen einet einern
be in meint deine deinen meinet beinern
dein neint meine meinen weinet steinern
sein scheinfc seine seinen scheinet kleinern, etc.
The use of these words in language, may at the same time be
learnt in a way pleasant to the children and adapted to their in
telligence.
For instance, ine (ein) is put upon the board as the principal
sound, and while I add to it I say, " What I have bought is? mine
(m-ein). But with a w : " What do we squeeze oat of grapes ? "
TFine (W-ein), etc.
No. 8 is a guide to lessons upon the relations of numbers accord
ing to regulated steps.
The various relations of the numerical system must be brought
home to the sense-impression of the children by means of real objects.
I find the letters on the reading-board the handiest.
At first, I put one letter on the board, and ask, " How many are
there ? " The child says 1. I add another, and ask—
1 and 1 are ? 2
2 „ 1 „ ? 3
3 „ 1 „ ? 4
Only very few are wanted at first, until by very easy exercises the
increased power of the child demands gradually more and different
numbers. Then we take the added letters away one by one, and ask —
Notes to The Method.
249
Then back again.
How much is 1 Itss than 20 ? Ans. 19.
„ 1 „ „ 19? „ 18.
I go on with— What are 1 and 2 ? 3
» » " j> ^ *
» » 5 » 2?
2 less than 99 are ? 97
5
7 etc.
a „ » 97 „
Then 1 and 3 are ?
4
Then 2
5
Then 1
5
Then 2
Then 3
Then 1
I go on further to
2 and 2 are ?
4 „ 2 „ ?
6 „ 2 „ ?
? 95
4
7 up to 100 and back again.
5
8 up to 100 etc.
5
9 up to 100 etc.
6 etc.
7 etc.
6 etc.
How many times 2 make 4 ?
How many times 2 make 6 ?
How many times 2 make 8 ?
And so on up to 100 and then backwards.
2 less than 100 are ? 98. How many times 2 make 98 ?
2 „ „ 98 „ ? 96. How many times 2 make 96?
In the same way I go on —
3 and 3 are ? 6. How many times 3 make 6 ?
4 ,, 4 „ ? 8. How many times 4 make 8? etc.
No. 4. Gold-finch Silver-gilt Almond-tree.
„ mine „ scent.
ware flavour.
mne
dust
fish
plate
oil.
(A selection from many examples.)
No. 8. To make signs is to make something understood by ges
tures without words.
To extend is to make longer.
To stretch is to make longer.
To spread is to make broader.
(All the other examples, " to go," etc., are in Letter VII.)
NOTE TO "THE METHOD."
The Society of Friends of Education was founded by Stapfer, June,
1800, to make Pestalozzi's views better known. A Commission was
appointed from among its members to examine and report. At their
request he gave them " An Account of the Method." They visited his
school and presented their Report at a general meeting of the So
ciety, Oct. 1, 1800.
The " Report or Account of the Method," which Pestalozzi made
for this Society, is the first systematic statement of his views.
250 The Method.
When he left Stanz, he was not sure of his principles. In this
Eeport, " Anschauung " and his great principles first appear ;
but the ABC of Anschauung is not here. That and his Elements
first appear in Wie Gertrud, and the attempts to correlate and unite
them also.
When he wrote this Eeport, he was quite alone. It is entirely his
own work: it givts us the condition of his mind a year after he
left Stanz. The observations made there have germinated and de
veloped : this is their first expression. It comes between the First
Letter from Stanz, and How Gertrude Teaches her Children ; these three
works complete his writings at this important period of his own
development. After this, until we come to the Swan's Song, there is
nothing of equal value, nothing quite free from the influence of
helpers who had never been at Stanz.
The Eeport is quoted several times in Wie Gertrud ; it is the germ
of that work ; to add it here was necessary to complete the work of
this period, and also to show how the idea " germinated " in him.
" It sets forth," says de Guimps, " his doctrine with a clearness and
precision that are hardly to be found in any other of his writings "
(p. 184). He forgets that he has only just said, overleaf, " He was not
yet clear himself as to what his method really was, and could
hardly have given an explanation of it." He was, in fact, seeking a
principle (p. 182). These statements can be reconciled if applied to
1799, but not to 1800. " Unfortunately," says de Guimps, " this
document was never published, and has remained unknown. It is
wanting even in the collection published by Seyffarth at Branden
burg, which is the most complete edition of his works. Niederer,
we believe, incorporated it in his Notes on Pestalozzi, Aix-la-Chapelle,
but this book is no longer to be found."
But de Guimps is mistaken. The first edition of his Life of Pes
talozzi was published in 1874, Seyffarth had reprinted The Method
only the previous year, 1873, while Niederer had published it in
1828 in the Allgemeine Monatschrift fur Erziehung und UnterricJ.t,
with other works of Pestalozzi. These works had also been pub
lished separately, but de Guimps did not know this in 1874, when
his first edition was published ; in Edition 2 he adds an appendix,
but does not correct the text, and his note is not quite accurate.
He says, that Seyffarth (vol. 18) contains some special works here
first published ; among them uThe Method." This is the Eeport
presented by Pestalozzi to the Society of the Friends of Education in
1800, referred to by us in its proper place" (p. 431). Now this
Niederer version of the Method referred to in the appendix is not the
same as that quoted by de Guimps (p. 184). He has not discovered
this. He gives the conclusion of the Eeport, but his last two para
graphs are at the beginning of Niederer's version its second and
third paragraphs. There are other differences. There is evidently
then another copy. This is confirmed by Wie Gertrud: some of
the quotations given there are not to be found in this version of
Notes to The Method. 2 5 r
Niederer's. In Letter VII. there is a long quotation beginning,
" Grant the principle" (p. 116.) This is not in Niederer's version ; so
that, although it is signed by Pestalozzi, is in his own handwriting,,
and is undoubtedly genuine, it is not the version quoted in Wie
Gertrud nor by de Guimps. It may be the first draft. The question
arises, If no account was published, ho w d id de Guimps obtain an ab
stract and quotations for his first edition ? This is answered by
referring to Morf, vol. I. p. 228. Morf has given an abstract and
quotations, and de Guimps has copied them. The one quotation he
gives, which is not in Morf, is taken from Wie Gertrud, Letter IV.
Seyffarth also has not seen that there are two versions of the
" Account of The Method" He saj'S in the Preface to Wie Gertrud,
Pestalozzi made " a Report which was afterwards published by Nie-
derer, 1840, in the Pestaloggische Blatter — unfortunately with Nie
derer's revisions. Morf gives a summary of it." Seyffarth does not
know apparently that Morf's version is entirely different from
Niederer's. It is strange that this first Account of the Method is
not known to Pestalozzi's editor and biographer, and has never been,
so far as we can learn, reprinted.
It seemed probable to us that Pestalozzi's version of The Method
might have been published at the time it was presented. Dr.
Schnell, Prefect of Burgdorf, published a pamphlet in 1800 which
gave a more complete exposition of Pestalozzi's views than the Re
port contained. The Society also appealed publicly for subscriptions.
Possibly the Report was printed and circulated. Mr. Morf evidently
knew, we wrote to him and he replied,
" In answer to your letter of June 23rd, allow me first to remind you
that in dealing with those portions of Pestalozzi's work which he
edited, Niederer left nothing untouched, he gave his own colour to
everything. He lived in the firm belief that he understood Pestalozzi
better than Pestalozzi understood himself. The quotations that I
five, vol. I. p. 228 and seq., are taken from the original document of
line, 1800. It was printed in the newspapers of that date."
At present, we have not been able to get at these newspapers, but
we may suggest to the Editor of Pestalozzi-bldtter that it would be
well to reprint it. The Augsburger Zeitung and Deutscher Merkur
(Wieland Editor) took up his cause.
Mr. Morf does not settle one point of importance. Did the dia
gram of (Buss's) ABC der Anschauung appear in the newspapers?
Seyffarth excludes it, and the sentence preceding it. If this diagram
is really Buss's, it could riot have existed when Pestalozzi wrote the
Report. If it is not in the versions from which Morf copies, it seems
clear that Niederer has not left this untouched. The A B C is pro
bably not Pestalozzi's own production, for Buss says (Lett. III.) he
could not draw, and that for months he could not understand him.
But he gave Buss some lines as a pattern.
INDEX.
A B C of Actions, 178.
A B C of Activities, 180.
A B C of Anschauung : Arith
metic used for, 138 ; Buss', 61,
68, 69, 70; described, 119;
form, 116 ; knowledge based
on, 181 ; measure used for, 120,
121, 123; notes, 217, 220, 225.
ABC of Art, 177.
A B C of Art of Sense- impres
sion, 148.
Anschauung, contemplation, 159 ;
notes, 215, 225 ; observation,
19, 78, 115, 117, 143, 161; ob
serving powers, 158; seeing,
18 ; seen objects, 132 ; senses,
147, 149.
Appenzell, bird, 146. 177.
Arithmetic, art of, 133, 138, 148.
Art teaching usual course, 117.
Art, the, defined, 26; difficult,
72 ; efforts of, 87 ; gradation,
86 ; home education, 190 ;
language, 96 ; laws of, 87 ;
makes men, 76 ; mother and,
146, 192 ; nature and, 29, 70, 76,
77, 89, 143, 144, 145, 153, 187 ;
note, 220; observation and,
163; order of objects directed
by, 102 ; religion and, 191-
197 ; senses and, 114 ; strength
ens impressions, 78, 79 ; un
known, 30.
Art of Anschauung, 116 ; A B C
of, 148 ; counting basis of, 137 ;
note', 238 ; sense - impression
raised to, 147, 149.
Basedow, 72, 227.
Beginning books, 29 ; with the
easy, 53, 104; spelling and
counting, 23; subjects of in
struction, 8.
Beginning points and form of
instruction, 86; hold fast the,
189 ; ignorant men can find,
62 ; important, 17, 48 ; perfec
tion of, 66 ; method seeks, 55.
Book and real knowledge, 29, 73,
141.
Buckles, story of, 65.
Burgdorf, Buss comes to, 66,
Fischer in, 48; note, 218; Tobler
comes to, 55 ; work renewed in,
21, 42.
Catechism, child fettered by,
101; Krusi's, 45, 47; parrot-
like repetition, 32, 46 ; verbal
analysis, 46.
Child follows race, 151.
Child, history of, 25, 26 ; know
ledge before reading, 26 ;
mother and, 145, 182 ; objects
impress, 25 ; talk, must learn
to, 154.
Children, do not drive, 53 ; en
couraged, 101 ; examples given
by, 131 ; felt their power, 17 ;
progress of, 153; reason with
them he will not, 36, 37 ; self
activity of, 17; taught children,
17.
Class teaching, 17, 41.
Clear ideas, aim of instruction,
52, 85, 105, 114, 115; denned,
157 ; drawing a means to, 67,
118 ; language .a means to, 98,
111; sense - impression to, 74,
180; Socratising a means to, 50 ;
252
Index.
253
teacher and children may rise
to, 51 ; writing a means to.
130-132.
Despair, 166, 169.
Development of child, 29 ; deter
mined by circumstances, 178 ;
inner capacity, 50: morality,
182-185.
Dictionary, use of, 58, 207.
Drawing, art of, 123; lines,
squares, curves, 23 ; method of
teaching, 123 ; nature no
lines, 68 ; number and langu
age necessary for, 71 ; out
lines read like words. 68 ;
sense - impressions to clear
ideas, 67 ; subordinate to
measurement, 117 ; writing
later than, 124 ; writing ana
working at same time, 17.
Education, activities, 180 ; aim
of, 156; all true follows nature,
26 ; all true must be drawn
out, 17; gaps in early, 57;
Glayre, " vous voulez mechan-
iser," 25 ; high road neglected,
23 ; ideal, 1, 2, 29, 141, 179, 190 ;
nature not sufficient, 160, 161,
190; progress of, 189 ; revision
of work, 139, 144 : simple
means, 60 ; un psychological,
142, 144; usual course of art, 28.
Elements of instruction, 23, 86.
Elementary means (elements in
text), 90, 95, 114, 132, 139, 140,
144, 147, 148, 204; brought
into harmony, 139; number,
form, and language, 87 ; read
ing, writing, arithmetic, not,
83.
Emotion, 82
Essential, accidental, subordi
nate to, 80, 81, 152, 159, 160-
162, 202 ; note on, 229.
Experiments, indefatigable in
making, 34, 59, 222: hampered,
49 ; little Ludwig, 27 ; method
based on, 2, 5, 6, 166.
Expression/! ifficulty of teachers,
69, 70; helps impression, 70;
language, a means of, 99,
150.
Failure at Neuhof, 10.
Faith in mothers, 39, 60, 97, 127.
128 ; note, 223.
Fertigkeiten, ability, 172, 177,
181 ; Actions, 171 ; activities,
166; gymnastics, 178; mani
festation, 183 ; note on, 242 ;
practice, 185; power, 178;
powers of doing, 173, 177, 179 ;
skill, 173, 176, 177.
Form, elementary means, 114-
132, 148.
Form of instruction, 90, 98.
Form, the (psychological), 84, 85,
86, 89, 96, 97.
Form, first or prototype, 85, 89,
139.
Form, measure and, 116 ; note,
229 ; number and language,
87-89, 146 ; physical generali
zation, 99 ; teaching, 114-132.
Fraction table, 137 ; note, 237.
Generalization, physical, 100,
205; number, language, form,
primary, 99.
Glayre, 25, 220.
Government, function of, 174-
176.
Gradation in instruction, 26,
201, 202.
Grammar, 105, 149, 152.
Grimm, Dr., 19, 218.
Gruner, 1, 212.
Gurnigel, 19, 218.
Heidelberg (the), 21, 22, 50, 128.
219.
Hintersassen, 22, 219.
Hubner, 45, 244.
Ideal educational scheme, 10.
Image of prophet, 140.
Improvements, his purpose
limited to, 27.
Improvements made, horn- leaves,
25 ; large letters, 93 ; slates, 5b.
254
Index.
Inquiries into the Course of Nature,
14, 214.
Instruction, school and home, 32,
60: sound, a means of, 90.
Intuition, 217.
Intuitions, 25, 150.
Intuitive, 36.
Iselins Ephemerides, 9, 213.
Johannsen, 1, 212.
Krusi, life, 42, 43; note, 223;
opinions, 51, 53 ; and Pesta-
lozzi, 49.
Language, aim of, 98 ; denned,
112 ; depravity of, 170-172 ; de
velopment of, 36, 150 ; expres
sion by, 99, 150; ideas made
clear by, 111 ; teaching, founded
on sense-impression, 150-152;
teaching proper, 96-112.
Law, mechanical formulas re
duced to, 74.
Law of nature, accidental based
on, 160 ; based on necessity.
75 ; course must distinguish,
159 ; ignored consequences,
204; instruction based on, 200;
instruction deviating from,
150 ; judgment determined by,
173 ; perfection a, 81, 84, 193 ;
science - teaching, deviating
from, 155 ; Law of organism
unknown, 165.
Laws, physico-mechanical, 24 ;
sources of, 80-82 ; teaching
adapted to, 24; of physical
mechanism, 79, 81, 83, 86, 90,
158,181 ; propositionsreston,80.
Lavater, 9, 140, 213.
Leonard and Gertrude, 7, 8, 12,
66, 164.
Main purpose of life, 11.
Man, the centre of his sense-
impressions, 86, 102.
Masses, affected by over-civiliza
tion, '174-176.
Measure forms, 68, 119, 120, 122.
Measurement, the basis of draw
ing, 117.
Measuring, the art of, 116 ; the
power of, 121, 122.
Mechanical formulas, 75 ; .readi
ness, 37. Note 220.
Mechanism, activities of, 178 ;
laws of physical, 79, 81, 82, 83,
86, 90, 158, 181 ; nature of, 97 ;
note, 220, 229 ; senses of, 164 ;
teaching of, 38.
Method, the, Account or Report
of, 199-211 ; Account or Report
quoted, 76-79; aim, its, 53;
Buss' report of, 70-72 ; experi
ments, basis .of, 59; instruc
tion of, 1, 2, 55 ; parents helped
by, 61 ; prejudice counteracted
by, 52 ; principles of, 34 ; psy
chology, founded on, 63 ; self-
help promoted by, 67 ; supple
ments, 248-251.
Mother, the, Art and, 191 ; child
and, 191-197; education, the
work of, 97, 145, 197; follows
nature, 144, 145 ; moral train
ing by, 181-188, 191-197.
Mother's Book, the, described,
91, 92, 146-148; an introduc
tion to A B C of Anschauung,
148; arithmetic, 148; form,
120; language, 95, 96; num
ber, 134; spelling, 91; illustra
tions on, 91, 100 ; never existed,
163 ; notes on, 91, 163, 231 ;
sense-impression, an art, 146 ;
sense -impression, the basis of,
152.
Mothers, education for, 60; faith
in, 39, 60,127,128; method, a
help to, 60, 191 192.
Name, teaching, 95, 96.
Names, value of, 35, 51.
Nature, The Art based on, 26. 85 ;
forced apart from, 29; must be
in harmony with, 76, 77, 89,
143, 154 ; must follow, 149-155 ;
must supplement, 96, 97, 160-
163, 174, 187 ; nature careful of
the type, not of the individual,
Index.
255
160; claims not isolated, 75;
course of, 76-78; inflexible, 183;
influence depends on proximity,
79, 85, 152 ; influence on man's
development, 31, 60 ; laws of,
78, 173 ; laws (sources of), 80,
81; versus course, 159; mechan
ism of, 76 -78, 203 ; mother
follows, 144-146; no lines in,
69 ; organism of, 173.
Near (the), always more firmly
impressed, 25, 79, 85, 86, 152,
202.
Niederer, 1, 4, 5, 212.
Number, based on sense-impres
sion, 147-149; clear ideas de
pend on, 98, 99, 132 ; form and
elements, 87, 146, 148; note,
240 ; relations should be clear,
133 ; teaching, 132, 149.
Obedience, 183-185.
Observation or art of sense-im
pression, 115-117, 144-148;
bases of judgment, 79 ; of know
ledge, 143; of measurement,
117 ; subjective, note, 236; wild
man's power of, 164.
Organization in teaching, 49 ; of
language teaching, 60.
Organism, laws imperfectly
known, 165; of nature, 143,
173 ; note, 220.
Over civilization, effects of, 174-
176.
Patience, how to train, 183, 184.
Perfection in lowest stage. 17.
Principles uncertain, 16, 23.
Printing, cause of decadence, 140.
Prototype, or first form, 85, 89,
139.
Psychology, method founded on,
97, 199.
Psychological analysis, 126 ; ar
rangement of objects, 114, 152 ;
course experimental, 31; lan
guage teaching, 36, 60, 105;
methods of instruction, 78 ;
methods of training activities,
176 ; origin of methods, 84 ;
progress, 68.
Reading, writing, and arithmetic,
not elements of all art and
knowledge. 84.
Reason, pure, training of, 163.
Religion, training of, 50, 181,
190, 192, 197.
Rengger, 19, 218.
Report of The Method, 199-211 ;
notes. 229, 236, 238; quoted,
75-79.
Rousseau, 72, 227.
Schnell, 21, 218; letter from,
245.
School books, 41;
"Schoolmaster, I will turn," 15.
Schools for men, 178.
Schools unpsychological 28. 97,
153, 221.
Self-activity of children, 17, 31,
114 ; lost, 139 ; of nature, 60 ;
note, 235; parents and teachers,
Self -help, 67, 71. [53.
Seminary, 47, 48.
Sense-impression accidental, 114 ;
arithmetic based on, 133, 138 ;
art based on, 68; Art of, 116.
139, 148, 149 ; Art (the) rests on',
26 ; Art (the) must keep pace
with, 201; background of, 54;
care needed for first, 159 ; com
plex rest on simple, 81 ; defini
tion before, 180 ; development
by, 33 ; ear an organ of, 147,
151 ; emotion and, 81 ; exercises.
51; of form, 114; imperfect
results from imperfect, 200 ;
instruction begins with, 144 ;
instruction founded on, 200 ;
instruction not founded on, 142,
153; judgment the result of,
78, 164 ; knowledge based on,
116, 139, 148 ; knowledge gained
by, 115, 144, 146, 152 ; language
founded on, 151 ; man the
centre of, 83, 86 ; nature begins
with, 150 ; nature teaches by,
2S6
Index.
36, 62, 80; number based on,
' 134, 149, 208; psychological,
114, 209; reason and, 163;
square the foundation of, 149,
164 ; surroundings affect, 200 ;
tables of, 91, 136; vague to
clear ideas, 59, 80, 85, 98, 111,
114, 186, 200, 201.
Serving from below upwards, 24.
Slates, 23, 35, 58, 124, 125, 225.
Socratizing, catechizing and, 45,
46; fashionable, 11, 46; note,
224 ; useless, 56, 57.
Song, 95, 204, 231.
Sounds, pronouncing, 15 ; notes,
214, 230 ; sense-impressions of,
147; teaching, 90-95, 151.
Speak, lowest classes cannot,
112-114, 234.
Spelling Book (the), 90-95, 147, 230.
Spontaneous efforts, 115, 235.
Square (the), A B C of Anschau-
ung, 119, 122; arithmetic
taught by, 137, 138; measur
ing taught by, 117 : notes, 237,
238 ; sense impression founded
on. 149.
Stanz, children, he learns from,
18, 19 ; class teaching, 17 ;
methods, 16 ; notes, 214, 215 ;
principles uncertain, 16, 23 ;
pronouncing sounds, 16 ; rea
sons for leaving, 20; street
gossip, 20, 21 ; summary, 19 ;
work, conditions of, 15.
Stapfer, 19, 218.
Steinmtiller, 34, 233.
Table of fractions, 137, 138, 237,
239.
Tobler, account of, 61, 63; at
Burgdorf, 55 ; Krtisi and Buss,
166.
Virtue, how to train, 180-190.
Wieland, 61, 235.
" What have I done for educa
tion?" 139, 144.
Word, book, 152 ; and clapper-
folk, 113 ; and clapper schools,
114 ; empty, 153-155 ; know
ledge, 140 ; note, 235 ; teaching
95 ; twisting, 142.
Zehender, 19, 20.
Zimmermann, 9, 213.
37<U
P476H
1894
Pestalozzi
COMP. STOfi
teaches her
COMP. sroa.
370.1
P476H
1894
Pestalozzi
How Gertrude teaches her children
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11