respects with other objects known to him, or with other minerals presented. When he has learned to discriminate with accuracy its peculiar qualities, his curiosity is naturally excited to know what it is called, and it is only after he has made himself acquainted with the thing, that his efforts are rewarded by giving him the name. The ultra Pestalozzian would leave him in the same manner to ascertain its ingredients, and discover its uses. But in view of the importance of the practical application of knowledge, and of the loss of time which it would produce, this is deemed entirely unadvisable. And as soon the pupil is sufficiently advanced, he is taught what are its composition and uses, as facts discovered by others, which are important for him to know, but which he has not time to verify,

In the same manner, in the mathematics, the pupil is first required to unite lines into angles and figures, to observe the number and side of which these figures are composed, to learn the names by which they are distinguished, and to apply these definitions to the description of objects around him, and to questions on practical subjects. Thus, the question may be proposed how to ascertain the dimensions of a triangular piece of land to be given in exchange for a square; or in other words how to convert a square into a triangle of equal dimensions. He would first be directed to divide a square by a diagonal line into two figures, and would be asked what these figures were, and what proportion they bore to each other and to the square. He would immediately discover from the equality of the lines which formed them that they must coincide, and therefore be equal; and that the square was equal to two such triangles. He would then be asked if it were not possible that these two triangles could be united in a single one. His familiarity with drawing figures (previously acquired) would soon lead him to discover that they might easily be converted into a single triangle of the same height, but with double the base or breadth of the square; and that the change proposed must be made in this manner. From this he would very easily be led to infer the general theorem, that a square is equal to a triangle of the same height and double the base; and by retracing his steps, he would be able to furnish a demonstration of this truth without the aid of Euclid.

These illustrations will be sufficient to show the general character of the Productive System. In future articles on the School of Fellenberg and other foreign institutions, we shall have occasion to present it more in detail.

ART. II.-BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF FEllenberg.

We cannot gratify our readers more, we are persuaded, than by prefacing a series of articles on the Institutions of Fellenberg, with a sketch of the life of this celebrated man. His early history is presented in the following extracts of a letter addressed to the editor of this work, which contains valuable hints on education itself, dated Hofwyl, 24th August, 1829.

MY DEAR SIR-In compliance with your request, I now present you an account of those incidents, which memory suggests as the most striking and characteristic of my life.

I was born in 1771. I was, if I mistake not, only four years of age, when playing with a small cart, I was forced by its impulse down a steep declivity, towards a stream of sufficient depth to drown me. At the same time I beheld my mother hastening to my assistance, and endeavoring to arrest the cart. I saw her extended upon the gravelly declivity, still persevering, although covered with blood, in her maternal efforts, without which I should have lost my life. The impression made by this act of devotedness, has never been effaced from my memory or from my heart. I believe it contributed powerfully to direct me in that course of life which I have followed during the last forty years. It was eight years after this event that I saw my mother holding a gazette, in the embrasure of a window, in the castle of Wildenstein, in Argovie, where my father was prefect of the Government of Berne. I saw her weeping bitterly. I ran to entreat her to tell me what occasioned her tears. She at first answered, that she could not tell me, because I should not be able to understand her. Upon my renewed entreaties, she said, that the Americans had lost a battle, and explained to me, in a manner suited to the understanding of a child of my age, the struggle between the English Government and the freemen of North America. The impression which this account, accompanied by my mother's tears, produced upon me, is among the number of those which exerted a preponderating influence on my youthful developement.

It was about this time, that I found myself, then twelve years of age, with an old aunt under a large Linden tree before the Castle of Wilder.stein, attentively observing, while conversing

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with her, what was passing in the yard. We suddenly saw a man, clothed in a singular manner, with a thick beard and long black hair, ascending with rapid steps the avenue to the castle. My aunt, alarmed at this apparition, sought in her pocket for something to give him, to induce him to withdraw. At the same time I saw my father, who, in the meanwhile had left the castle, hastening with great eagerness to embrace him. My aunt was astonished, and I could hardly wait for a convenient moment to ask my father for an explanation of what seemed so enigmatical in the apparition that had excited my curiosity. I learned, after the departure of this man, equally singular in his conversation and appearance, that, notwithstanding his then repulsive aspect, he was highly distinguished for his benevolent temper and devotedness to the best interests of humanity. It was upon this occasion that I heard for the first time the name of Pestalozzi. I had at Wildenstein two tutors, who exerted an influence over me which I shall always remember as a very instructive example. One of them, not having discovered my natural disposition, and not knowing how to impart the instruction which he was to give, tormented and wearied me, and, having driven me to the last extremity, supposed I was under a diabolical influence. This I knew was not the case, although I felt that his suppositions would lead me to open rebellion against this unpleasant Mentor, whose suspicions would have greatly injured me if my parents had not had the good sense to give his place to the excellent Mr Rengger, since then minister of the interior of the Swiss Republic. But the happiness resulting from enjoying his instructions was of short duration; this, however, did not prevent our becoming intimately acquainted. Mr Rengger's treatise upon the calendar, which appeared in 1788, and his Report of my school for the poor, published in 1815, proved to what an extent our views and affections harmonized tagether.

I went a few years after, with my mother, to visit the Castle of Konigsfelden, where the nobility of Austria had conspired against the liberty of Switzerland, under the auspices of Queen Agnes. The historical recollections which this place revived, occupied me attentively. Here, too, I saw contiguous to the Castle of Konigsfelden, a house inhabited by insane persons, who had been generally brought to this state by their bad conduct. The wretched aspect they presented excited my compassion, and my mother, seizing the favorable moment, withdrew with me

into her chamber, and there made me take the most solemn vows, never to lose sight of the unfortunate; but always to assist them by all the means in my power. After I had pronounced these vows, my mother knelt down beside me and offered a fervent prayer, beseeching God to enable me to fulfil with fidelity, the resolution I had formed. I afterwards went to Colmar, to the Institution of the celebrated Pfeffel. I revered him for his goodness; but I soon perceived that a blind man never ought to direct an enterprise of this kind; and while I observed many useful features in this institution, I was struck with many unsuitable things, which should be banished from the sphere of education. Having returned to Berne, my native city, I was at first almost wholly absorbed with the impressions produced by an excellent discourse, delivered by my late father, as president of the Helvetic Society, at its meeting in Olten, upon the necessity of improving our national education. From that time I imbibed a decided taste for those studies which refer to it; but I only found among my young companions at Berne a taste for gaming and dissipation, and when I endeavored to shelter myself from their pursuit, in the most retired part of the paternal mansion, the furniture of my chamber was heaped up in confusion, by way of revenge for my neglect of them.* About this time, my late father, then a Senator of the Republic of Berne, often said to me, while going to the town-house, that he should defend more successfully the interests of his country, in proportion as he was fully persuaded that I should do so in my turn; and when he returned from the Senate, saddened by the insufficiency of his efforts for the public good, he frequently remarked, that his disinterested views on the subject of his country's welfare received but little support from his colleagues, and observed that we must redouble our efforts, if we would hope, one day, to realize our plans. The aspect of this venerable father of his country, so often grieved by his isolated condition, persevering notwithstanding in his painful duty, made an impression, which was only second to the one produced upon my heart by maternal affection, in determining the bent of my future life. I was but sixteen years old, when I entreated my

*At this period, in order to improve his health, which he had impaired by study, he gave up the delicate dishes of his father's table for very simple fare, and employed other means to harden his constitution. He endeavored to render himself independent of artificial wants, and devoted to benevolent purposes, the money wasted by his companions in luxury and amusement.

father to permit me to leave my native city, that I might qualify myself to follow his example in the service of my country. My heroic mother frequently spoke to me of her grandfather, the Dutch Admiral Van Tromp, and narrated his exploits, with the assistance of some trophies found among the family relics, one of which, a present from the King of Denmark, represented upon a box of amber all the battles he had won. I was thus roused to a strong degree of patriotic excitement, and I applied myself to the study of the Greek language, and antiquities, with a learned Hellenist, who had imitated the celebrated Hensterhuis, without acquiring his talents. This man was then settled in a country parish, in the canton of Berne, where he had formed a taste for good living, and for the pleasures of the chase, and attempted to persuade me to accompany him, at the very time when I was most desirous of studying. There I beheld all that was repulsive in the pride of learning, and in the exclusiveness of limited views of civil policy, and I finally left him, and retired to the house of a village pastor, in the canton of Argovie. Here I only found less pretensions to erudition, with a slight increase of philanthropy and elevation of soul, in the family in which I hoped to obtain an asylum favorable to the Muses, and the cultivation of those virtues, of which I stood in great need. I then travelled all over Switzerland in search of them, but I nowhere discovered the beau ideal which filled my heart, and occupied all the faculties of my soul. I pursued my studies for some time at the German Universities, especially the study of law under one of the most distinguished lawyers, Professor Hofacker, of Tubingen. This good man, to whom I communicated my observations upon his public lectures, advised me not to attend them; but to limit myself to his private instructions. He lamented with me the obligation, which the most learned men of Germany felt under, of adapting themselves to the wants of those practitioners who frequent the universities, for the purpose of obtaining the means of earning a subsistence, without perplexing themselves with the learning, which is only obtained by a rational study of the science. My attention was now drawn towards philosophical and political studies. The intensity with which I applied myself to them injured my health, and led me to wish ardently that an occasion would present itself, in which I might devote myself exclusively to some cause closely united with the best interests of humanity. I afterwards travelled again over the different parts of Switzerland, to exam