games and what was connected with them I detected the mainspring of the
moral strength which animated the pupils and the young people in the
institution. The games, as I am now fervently assured, formed a mental
bath of extraordinary strengthening-power;[71] and although the sense of
the higher symbolic meaning of games had not yet dawned upon me, I was
nevertheless able to perceive in each boy genuinely at play a moral
strength governing both mind and body which won my highest esteem.

Closely akin to the games in their morally strengthening aspect were the
walks, especially those of the general walking parties, more
particularly when conducted by Pestalozzi himself. These walks were by
no means always meant to be opportunities for drawing close to Nature,
but Nature herself, though unsought, always drew the walkers close to
her. Every contact with her elevates, strengthens, purifies. It is from
this cause that Nature, like noble great-souled men, wins us to her; and
whenever school or teaching duties gave me respite, my life at this time
was always passed amidst natural scenes and in communion with Nature.
From the tops of the high mountains near by I used to rejoice in the
clear and still sunset, in the pine-forests, the glaciers, the mountain
meadows, all bathed in rosy light. Such an evening walk came indeed to
be an almost irresistible necessity to me after each actively-spent day.
As I wandered on the sunlit, far-stretching hills, or along the still
shore of the lake, clear as crystal, smooth as a mirror, or in the shady
groves, under the tall forest trees, my spirit grew full with ideas of
the truly god-like nature and priceless value of a man's soul, and I
gladdened myself with the consideration of mankind as the beloved
children of God. There is no question but that Pestalozzi's general
addresses, especially those delivered in the evening, when he used to
delight in evoking a picture of noble manliness and true love of mankind
and developing it in all its details, very powerfully contributed