already on the road to Yverdon,[42] where Pestalozzi had not long before
established himself. Once arrived there, and having met with the
friendliest reception by Pestalozzi and his teachers, because of my
introductions from Gruner and his colleagues, I was taken, like every
other visitor, to the class-rooms, and there left more or less to my own
devices. I was still very inexperienced, both in the theory and practice
of teaching, relying chiefly in such things upon my memory of my own
school-time, and I was therefore very little fitted for a rigorous
examination into details of method and into the way they were connected
to form a whole system. The latter point, indeed, was neither clearly
thought out, nor was it worked out in practice. What I saw was to me at
once elevating and depressing, arousing and also bewildering. My visit
lasted only a fortnight. I worked away and tried to take in as much as I
could; especially as, to help me in the duties I had undertaken, I felt
impelled to give a faithful account in writing of my views on the whole
system, and the effect it had produced upon me. With this idea I tried
to hold fast in my memory all I heard. Nevertheless I soon felt that
heart and mind would alike come to grief in a man of my disposition if I
were to stay longer with Pestalozzi, much as I desired to do so. At that
time the life there was especially vigorous; internally and externally
it was a living, moving, stirring existence, for Prince Hardenberg,
commissioned by the Austrian Government, had come to examine thoroughly
into Pestalozzi's work.[43]

The fruits of my short stay with Pestalozzi were as follows:--

In the first place, I saw the whole training of a great educational
institution, worked upon a clear and firmly-settled plan of teaching. I
still possess the "teaching-plan" of Pestalozzi's institution in use at
that time. This teaching-plan contains, in my opinion, much that is