that time some slight traces of the unhappy dissensions afterwards to
arise.[49]]

I left Yverdon in mid-October (1805) with a settled resolution to return
thither as soon as possible for a longer stay. As soon as I got back to
Frankfurt, I received my definite appointment from the Consistorium.[50]
The work that awaited me upon my arrival from Switzerland at the Model
School (which was, in fact, properly two schools, one for boys and one
for girls) was a share in the arrangement of an entirely new educational
course and teaching-plan for the whole establishment. The school
contained four or five classes of boys and two or three of girls;
altogether about two hundred children. The staff consisted of four
permanent masters and nine visiting masters.

As I threw myself heartily into the consideration of the necessities and
the present position of the school, and of the instruction given there,
the working out of this plan was left almost wholly in my hands, under
the conditions imposed upon us. The scheme I produced not only succeeded
in winning the approbation of the authorities, but proved itself during
a long period of service beneficial in the highest degree, both to the
institution itself and to its efficiency; notwithstanding that it put
the teachers to some considerable personal inconvenience, as well as
making larger claims upon their time than was usual.

The subjects of instruction which fell to my share were arithmetic,
drawing, physical geography, and German. I generally taught in the
middle classes. In a letter to my brother I spoke of the impression made
upon me by my first lesson to a class of thirty or forty boys ranging
from nine to eleven; it seemed as if I had found something I had never
known, but always longed for, always missed, as if my life had at last