thes with strangers whom they might not like. He would not
allow a rash decision. He made them fully understand what they were
undertaking, and put off the settlement of the question. Still, the
pupils said, "Let them come!"

The ravage of the war swept away this institution; but Pestalozzi could
never again be overlooked. His special function was recognized at home
and abroad. His books were translated into many languages; and the
emperors and kings of Europe were eager to apply his wisdom to the
education of their people. He was summoned to Paris to join a
consultation on the interests of Switzerland, ordered by Napoleon. But
he made his escape from Paris at the first possible moment; he did not
want imperial patronage which interfered with his work at home; but he
would have nothing to do with politics. He desired to live with children
and the poor, to open their minds, and make them good and happy.

It seemed as if he had attained his utmost wishes when the town of
Yverdun offered him its castle and grounds for a school, with perfect
freedom as to the management. For a few years the promise of educational
advancement was truly splendid. Some of Pestalozzi's own pupils became
able and devoted assistants; and other young men of the highest
qualifications devoted themselves as apostles of his mission. Here and
there over Europe establishments arose where boys, and sometimes girls,
were trained at once in industry and intellectual progress. Those who
were in the gardens, or the harvest field, or the dairy at one time of
the day, were studying languages, mathematics, or music at other hours.
And where this direct imitation of the Swiss establishments was not
attempted, there was a visible improvement in methods of instruction. We
learned to see that books and education, books and teaching, are not the
same thing. Oral instruction came into use elsewhere than at mothers'
knees; and amid some gross abuses, "the Pestalozzian system" began to
work great good.

There is almost always some dreary chapter in the history of these
representative men. In Pestalozzi's there were several; but the
dreariest of all was the last.

There never was a movement which depended more entirely for success on
the personal qualifications of its agents. We need not look further than
the next street, or the next house, to see how one person differs from
another in the faculty of genuine intercourse with children's minds. The
smallness of the n