to the measure of how much he receives, so much must he be able to give
away. In fact, this is a necessity for a simple-hearted child. Happy is
that little one who understands how to satisfy this need of his nature,
to give by producing various gifts of his own creation! As a perfect
child of humanity, a boy ought to desire to enjoy and to bestow to the
very utmost, for he dimly feels already that he belongs to the whole, to
the universal, to the comprehensive in Nature, and it is as part of this
that he lives; therefore, as such would he accordingly be considered and
so treated. When he has felt this, the most important means of
development available for a human being at this stage has been
discovered. With a well-disposed child at such a time nothing has any
value except as it may serve for a common possession, for a bond of
union between him and his beloved ones. This aspect of the child's
character must be carefully noticed by parents and by teachers, and used
by them as a means of awakening and developing the active and
presentative side of his nature; wherefore none, not even the simplest
gifts from a child, should ever be suffered to be neglected.

To sketch my first attempt as an educator in one phrase, I sought with
all my powers to give my pupils the best possible instruction, and the
best possible training and culture, but I was unable to fulfil my
intentions, to attain my end, in the position I then occupied, and with
the degree of culture to which I had myself attained.

As soon as this had become fully evident to me, it occurred to my mind
that nothing else could be so serviceable to me as a sojourn for a time
with Pestalozzi. I expressed my views on this head very decidedly, and
accordingly, in the summer of 1808, it was agreed that I should take my
three pupils with me to Yverdon.