the necessary course of his development, in man's own
being, and in the relationships amidst which he is set. A man, it seemed
to me, would be well educated, when he had been trained to care for
these relationships and to acknowledge them, to master them and to
survey them.

I worked hard, severely hard, during this period, but both the methods
and the aims of education came before me in such an incoherent heap, so
split up into little fragments, and so entirely without any kind of
order, that during several years I did not make much progress towards my
constant purpose of bringing all educational methods into an orderly
sequence and a living unity. As my habitual and therefore characteristic
expression of my desires then ran, I longed to see, to know, and to show
forth, all things in inter-connection.

For my good fortune, however there came out about that time certain
educational writings by Seller,[60] Jean Paul,[61] and others. They
supported and elevated me, sometimes by their concurrence with my own
views, expressed above, sometimes by the very contrary.

The Pestalozzian method I knew, it is true, in its main principles, but
not as a living force, satisfying the needs of man. What especially lay
heavy upon me at this time, however, painfully felt by myself though not
apparent to my pupils, was the utter absence of any organised connection
between the subjects of education. Joyful and unfettered work springs
from the conception of all things as one whole, and forms a life and a
lifework in harmony with the constitution of the universe and resting
firmly upon it.

That this was the true education I soon felt fervently convinced, and so
my first educational work consisted merely in being with my pupils and
influencing them by the power of my life and work; more than this I was
not at all in a position to give.

Oh, why is it that man knows so ill and prizes so little the blessings
that he possesses for the first time?

When I now seek to make myself clear as to the proper life and work of
an educator, my notes of that time rise fresh and fair to meet me. I
look back from now into that childhood of my teacher's life, and learn
from it; just as I look back into the childhood of my man's life, and
survey that, and learn from that, too. Why is all childhood and youth so
full of wealth and so unconscious of it, and why does it lose it without
knowing it only to learn what it possessed when it is for ever lost?
Oug