, and warmed me,--nay, glowed within me till my
heart was completely melted, especially when it touched upon the life,
the work, and the character of Jesus. At this I would burst into tears,
and the longings to lead in future a similar life took definite form,
and wholly filled my soul. When I now hear tales of the ebullitions of
my youthful spirit occurring in that period of my life, I cannot help
thinking that they must have led superficial observers to the erroneous
opinion that the monitions and teachings of religion swept over my
spirit without leaving a trace of their passage. And yet how wrongly
would such observers have judged the true state of my inner life!

The subjects best taught in the school of Stadt-Ilm were reading,
writing, arithmetic, and religion. Latin was miserably taught, and still
worse learnt. Here, as in so many similar schools, the teaching utterly
lacked the elucidation of first principles. The time spent on Latin was
therefore not wasted upon me, in so far that I learnt from it that such
a method of teaching could bear no fruit among the scholars. Arithmetic
was a very favourite study of mine; and as I also received private
tuition in this subject, my progress was so rapid that I came to equal
my teacher both in theory and practice, although his attainments were by
no means despicable. But how astonished was I when, in my twenty-third
year, I first went to Yverdon, and found I could not solve the questions
there being set to the scholars! This was one of the experiences which
prepossessed me so keenly in favour of Pestalozzi's method of teaching,
and decided me to begin arithmetic myself from the very beginning over
again, according to his system. But more of this later.

In physical geography we repeated our tasks parrot-wise, speaking much
and knowing nothing; for the teaching on this subject had not the very
least connection with real life, nor had it any actuality for us,
although at the same time we could rightly name our little specks and
patches of colour on the map. I received private tuition in this subject
also. My teacher wished to advance further with me; he took me to
England. I could find no connection between that country and the place
and country in which I dwelt myself, so that of this instruction also I
retained but little. As for actual instruction in German, it was not to
be thought of; but we received directions in letter-writing and in
spelling. I do not know with what