The peculiar characteristics of the methods of Pestalozzi, are simplicity and truth simplicity in the mode of inducing the mind to be instructed, to seek for knowledge; and to make the impression on the mind truly, and not ambiguously, nor imperfectly. Whatever is thus inculcated is no longer necessary to be repeated, it becomes an indestructible part of the stock of rational ideas, which fade only with the decay of life.

Connected with these principles of simplicity and truth, are the modes and means by which the business of education, is insensibly prosecuted without restraint, or vexatious force; knowledge is acquired by means which assume the appearance, and carry all the gratifications, of recreation. In a word, the mind is led, without perceiving the delicate film which is proved to be competent to conduct it; the health is preserved by the exercises which enter into the modes of instruction, and the constitution is at the same time strengthened; while the mind is enlarged, and the temper secured in habitual contentedness and cheerfulness.

This general view of the method, does not depend on the authority of books; it is the fruit of observation and experience. The benefits of the system have been tested by thorough experiment.

In the particular branches of instruction, the eye, and ear, and tongue of the pupil are all engaged in a manner adapted to each subject; and the several subjects follow in an unperceived order, adapted each to sustain either some previous study, or to prepare for that which is to come. The usual lessons for children of five or seven years old, are the knowledge of the names of the members and parts of the individual. A book especially adapted to this first class of instruction, and called 'The Mother's Book,' is published; it forms a part of the tuition of the school, because although mothers usually teach their children to know their right hand from their left, and their fingers from their thumbs; yet even this mother-taught knowledge is itself defective; and men grow up in years, frequently, without the knowledge of the proper names of many other parts of their bodies, unless some professional pursuit renders the acquisition indispensable. When mothers shall have obtained the accurate knowledge of the book that bears this title, of course it will no longer be necessary in the school.

Associated but by succession, with the knowledge of the person, is the knowledge of interior forms and objects; those

which present themselves to the sight, which make an impression on that sense, but which require to be analyzed, to render the impression distinct, and discrimination durable. This method is here manifested in all its perfectness and beauty; and the latent sparks of intellect are drawn forth with an effect that produces in the pleasures of an hour, principles of knowledge, which employ the labour and study of years. Erroneous ideas are thus barred out by the prepossessions of intellectual light and truth. Thus, for example, if the objects to be seen, are trees, houses, rocks, or animals, how are those different objects so discriminated from each other as to assign to each its proper name? By a question this is soon brought forth. It is discovered that every object has a form; and another question discovers that all forms have an exterior- line, and that this line compared with the exterior line of another object, is the first sensible difference. It is discovered that houses are composed in their exterior forms of straight lines, generally; that rocks are composed of mixed lines; and that animals, besides being of different forms, have also the principle of life, of which as care is taken to prepare the mind, further notice is to be taken.

These exercises produce new questions on other visible properties of objects; among these colours, and lights, and shades, are touched upon; height, extension, magnitude, grow out of these inquiries; and curiosity leads the teacher to try his hand in describing some object by lines on a slate, or a prepared board; many castles are built in the air, and as speedily demolished; trees are described; and it becomes necessary to discriminate the difference between kinds of trees; for the same kind of lines will not describe the oak and the pine; and to discover other peculiarities affords an occasion for a ramble in the fields, when the first impressions of natural history are made by comparing plants, leaves, barks, branches, &c. The first elements of geology are formed in these unpremeditated walks of sport or innocent pastime insects, and fish, are introduced to the mind by inquiries suited to the state of the little philosopher's knowledge.

But it is after the return from these rambles, that the hand is led to trace the impressions of the mind, and to discern that practice is necessary to the production of lines of any form at will. The fundamental principles of geometry commence their initiatory course at this moment, when it is perceived that lines have proportional lengths in symmetrical bodies, and that it is

necessary to describe in oral language, the length, the direction, inclination, or position of a line. The exercises on the principle of forms are begun by drawing a line of an inch in length, and thence lead to the proportional quantities of all

measures.

In the system or method of Pestalozzi, the declared object of the author is to follow nature invariably. Every operation, therefore, is analytical. Education commences in the arms of the mother, before the child is deprived of the sweet fountain from which its existence is drawn. The first accents of the voice, are the first lessons of speech, the names of the earliest objects of attention, affection, or desire, are the vocabulary lessons; and the course of maternal cares and cautions, lays the foundations of the future mind, its rectitude, its amenity, its good temper, its recreations, and its predilections. For these reasons it is, that the sagacious philosopher considered that 'The Mother's Book' should be the first prepared, and the first studied. This book he intended to become the companion of the nursery, and the agent by which maternal affection should regulate the development of the faculties of her child. He perceived that due attention is not paid to the effect of early impressions-that the received modes of education are at once embarrassed by the variety and incongruity of infant impressions; and that the first appearance of children of either sex at school, is too frequently afflicting and embarrassing to the first teacher that succeeds the parent. This book is therefore calculated to aid and direct the tender mother, or when she has not, through any cause, performed her part well, to aid the successor of the parent to do that which she has not done, or was not capable of doing.

This mode of education may be very properly denominated physical, for it excludes every thing but what is natural and sensible to the perceptions of the understanding; and permits none of the unmeaning practices to which infant years are accustomed generally, either through the faulty education of parents, the ignorance of nurses, or the customs of society in relation to them.

The teacher is to be governed entirely by the degree of information, or apprehension of the pupil. Classes are formed of the same age, or of nearly the same age, governing the classification more, by capacity than by years. The mother is presumed to have had charge of the child till the commencement of the sixth year; or, incidental causes requiring it, to

seven or eight; but the first classes should not be much short of the first, nor exceed much the latter period.

This method above all things requires sweetness of manners, mildness, and kindness in the teacher; as the regulation of the passions and the deportment, has the greatest influence on human happiness: cheerfulness and good nature must produce corresponding habits, when there are no cases which excite fear, resentment, or severity. Coercion, severe forms or restraints, or painful or disgusting associations, are totally excluded. Truth is the point to which all eyes are turned, whatever may be the subject of conversation, or exercise; whether it relates to animals or inanimate objects, or facts which become subjects of inquiry, of common transactions, or the exercises of investigation for the teacher appears only as an inquirer; and although he, unperceived, gives direction to the inquiry, the skill of the teacher aids and persuades the pupil to examine and develope the truths sought. The teacher is himself possessed of determinate ideas and fixed principles; but as those acquirements are the result of application, it is forbidden him to state principles of an abstract or complex nature, until by a regular progression from facts unknown to facts that are known, the first investigations combined in results developed by examination, the principle is itself unfolded, as a resolved principle.

Truth is in this way identified with physical certainly, and morals are aided by a common reference to sensible things. Morals gain strength by association with the truths of numbers, of geometry, and the peculiar lines which characterize and distinguish forms of sensible things. That one and one make the number two, is a truth, as much as that virtue and sincerity are admired and beloved; and that a circle is round, the properties of angles constantly the same, though every angle that varies from another, is not similar to that which differs. So in assigning names, those of colours, signify different shades or lights, the true name is the signification of the term by which all agree to understand what is denominated green, and blue, or yellow.; and the idea of error, or untruth is also defined, by giving the name of one colour to another, such as calling black by the name of white; which would be as absurd as to say a horse was a cow, or a river a whale; or that a stone was bread. In this way a devotion to truth is indulged, and while it is better defined, the grossness of falsehood is avoided; and its absurdity is a rational idea, is brought in aid of its incompatability with goodness or virtue.

The instructer takes for his guide the four known principles of Locke.

1. That knowledge is derived by sensation.

2. That the exercise of the faculty of thinking, and discriminating between the effects produced by sensation, is called mind.

3. That the action of sensation and mind, is wrought into judgment by comparison, and by the framing of analogies with ideas previously known; that fancy, imagination, reflection, and reasoning, have their sources here.

4. That history, which is the testimony of other persons, constitutes a great portion of our knowledge; and that the sciences are the result of experience, or the bequests of ingenious men to posterity.

Cleanliness in person, wholesome and sufficient food, early evening repose, and rising before dawn, are indispensable regulations of the school. Cleanliness is enforced by exclusion from the class, not by the teacher, but by the vote of the pupils; early evening retirement, by example, and the extinguishment of light, at a stated hour; a pupil in turn calling the roll the early rising is promoted by emulation, in which the teacher is also a competitor.

The first exercise is a gymnastic exercise, regulated by the state of the weather; if fair and clear, it leads to an hour's inspection of natural history: the trees, the shrubs, the flowers, plants of use and beauty, are examined, and compared; the teacher is not seen in teaching; some one or other has a given tree, has noted its bark, its trunk, its branches, its leaves, its fruits; several are compared with each other; their vulgar names are repeated, and their classic names remembered by the teacher, if none of the boys have previously ascertained them; collections of plants are made, and a roll of coarse paper, which some one happens to have in his possession, sets some active mind to work, and calls forth a number of emulators. Others have perceived rocks, or pebbles, or earths; these are examined, and the teacher recollects an interesting account of these things; gives some definitions; and promises to read an account of them; thus geology, mineralogy, and botany, are studied in the book of nature, and ideas are imperceptibly imprinted on the pure tablet of the mind to endure for life. These recreations are varied, mineral curiosities are collected; and, in due time, the analysis of their composition by means of acids, leads to the elementary principles of chemistry: but the