ine its state, to find means of fulfilling my vows; but I did not succeed in my aim.* My observations only served to convince me that with women as well as with men, it was necessary to begin with a well conducted education, to produce, in progress of time, that domestic happiness, and that influence upon the public prosperity, towards which all my desire tended. The dangers with which the French revolution threatened my country, induced me in 1795 to visit France. I arrived in Paris after the fall of Robespierre. I often attended, while there, the meetings of the committee of public instruction, and was truly edified by the philanthropic and indefatigable activity of the Abbé Grégoire. I often saw the Abbé Sièyes, and other leaders of public affairs. From the intrigues which I observed, I could foresee the events which caused Switzerland to yield in 1798. I returned to my native country, with the desire of informing my countrymen of the destiny which awaited them, and of finding some means of averting it. With this object, I wrote several articles in the gazettes, and circulated several pamphlets, in which I sought to convince my fellow-citizens that nothing remained for us but to sacrifice upon the altar of our country those exclusive privileges of the patrician order, which had alienated the affection of the Swiss nation, and to regain their confidence by showing a noble zeal for the safety of our country. I found but few friends disposed to listen to me, and I even passed as a revolutionist. But in 1798 my predictions were verified, and the French invaded Switzerland.'

The character of this work renders it proper that we should only state briefly the political events which followed. At the approach of the French troops, sent to overthrow the government of Switzerland, Fellenberg was active in raising and leading on the levy en massé from Lucerne to resist them. But the city of Berne was taken, and the cause lost, before any efficient force could be organized. Fellenberg was proscribed, a price set upon his head, and he was compelled to fly to Germany. At

* In these journeys, which formed one of his principal occupations for ten years, it was Fellenberg's leading object to make himself acquainted with the state of the people, in order to learn how he could be most useful to them. The writer has been struck with observing how much more familiar he was with the men than with the mountains of his country. He generally travelled on foot, with his knapsack on his back, residing in the villages and farmhouses, and mingling in the labor and occupations, and partaking of the rude lodging and fare of the peasants; often extending his journeys to surrounding countries.

this time he designed to come to the United States, and sent some of his funds hither as a resource, in case of the utter ruin of affairs at home. He was, however, soon after recalled to Switzerland, and sent on a mission to Paris to remonstrate against the rapacious and oppressive conduct of the agents of the French Republic. He was instrumental in procuring an order for the recall of one of the most profligate; but the utter disregard of principle and honesty, which pervaded the public men and public measures of the day, disgusted him with the diplomatic career, and he resigned his office. For a short period after his return home, he occupied a public station; but the want of faith and public spirit, which he found in the government in executing measures whose direction had been committed to him, confirmed his disgust for political life, and he resolved to abandon it entirely, until a better day should dawn upon his country. His early disappointments in his examination of society -his investigation of the state of the common people-his intercourse with public men, and the convulsions he had witnessed, had all conspired to impress upon his mind the same conviction, that the only resource for ameliorating the state of his own and other countries, and preventing a repetition of the horrors which he had witnessed, was to be found in early education, and he resolved henceforth to devote himself to this as the object of his life. He was appointed a member of the Council of Education of Berne, but was soon convinced that nothing adequate could be accomplished on this subject through the medium of legislative commissions; and, being possessed of an ample fortune, he resolved to devote this to his great object, and to form on his own estate, and on an independent basis, a model institution, in which it should be proved what education could accomplish for the benefit of humanity.' He married, about this time, a Bernese lady of the patrician family of Tscharner, who has borne him nine children, six of whom, as well as their mother, are devoted coadjutors in his plan of benevolence. In pursuance of this great design, formed,' as he observed, at Paris, in presence of those usurpers who had seized upon his country like a vulture upon its prey,' he purchased the estate called Hofwyl, in the vicinity of Berne, and his subsequent life forms an important page in the records of humanity.

We cannot omit the following testimony to the value of a religious education, contained in the concluding paragraph of this letter, from which we have made extracts. It is the

more remarkable as he preserved this unwavering belief in revelation at a period when Europe was inundated with infidelity. The sincerity and strength of his convictions may be inferred from the efforts he made to convince an unbeliever of his acquaintance, as described in the following extract.

'I have passed over in silence, my dear sir, all that you are already acquainted with; but I cannot forbear mentioning, that I am also under great obligations to my late esteemed parents, for the cultivation of my religious character. They were both very pious, and Christians, in the full extent of the term, in practice as well as in principle and sentiment. In consequence of their instructions in early life, I have never had any doubts upon the subject of religion. The degree of certainty which accompanied it, was so great, that it appeared to me impossible that an unbeliever could withstand the evidence upon which I grounded my religious belief, when eighteen years old. The unbeliever you spoke of, was fortyeight years of age. He declared that when his mother died, he had seen the complete dissolution of human life, and his relations, distinguished for their religious attainments, had renounced all hope of restoring him to a more cheerful and consoling belief. I was not, however, discouraged; and remained six months in his retreat on the shores of the lake of Zurich, in order to convince him of his error; but I failed to enlighten him as completely as he failed to darken my mind. Many other circumstances contributed to throw light upon the subject of religion, and confirm my belief. It appears to me unnecessary to add anything to this account, which must be succinct to fulfil its aim.'

ART. III. -- SKETCHES OF THE FELLENBERG INSTITUTION AT HOFWYL, IN A SERIES OF LETTERS TO A Friend.*

LETTER I.

Hofwyl, August, 1829.

MY DEAR FRIEND-I cannot better introduce you to this celebrated place of education, than by a particular account of the motives and views which actuated its founder.

*This article is republished for the sake of our new subscribers, as well as to correct a few errors connected with it. An equal number of additional pages prevents any loss to others.

Destined by his patrician birth to take part in the government of his native canton towards the end of the last century, you already know that Fellenberg's attention was early excited by the misery and vice which he observed around him; and he resolved to devote himself to the moral and intellectual reformation of his country.

The laboring classes he saw in a state of ignorance, which rendered them habitually indifferent to everything but their animal necessities and enjoyments; yet capable of being excited and misled-equally fitted to become the instruments of licentious anarchy, or the slaves of despotism. He traced the origin of this state of things to the absence of all rational means of intellectual education, the exclusive attention paid to reading and writing as mechanical acquisitions, to the universally indifferent or technical manner in which moral and religious instruction was communicated, and the utter neglect of all efforts to cultivate moral habits, and to bring principles into action. It required but a glance at the higher schools and universities, to see how little was to be expected for the superior classes. A feeble body—a perverted understanding—a false and generally corrupted taste-much ambition, with some qualifications for shining in the world,—these were the common results of the existing course of education; and rarely was it possible to discover any traces of a salutary or ennobling influence on the character and life. No hope could be entertained that the higher classes, who alone possessed the means and the ability, would make any effort to redeem those on whose ignorance they considered their supremacy as reposing. Both high and low, in the view of Fellenberg, seemed destined to sink together. At a later period, the illusive promises of philosophy were proclaimed and broken; and its influence in Switzerland went to inundate it with a flood of new errors and vices.

Fellenberg was convinced that every improvement must commence with the germ of society; that it was only in acting on the rising generation by improving the means of education, that any hope could be cherished of improving its condition. He believed that the efforts made for this purpose must be directed, at the same time, towards the two extremities of the social body; and that it would be in vain to reform those who are destined to labor and obey, without improving the character of those who consume and govern. He believed that no attempt should be made to disturb the order of the European community, by

confounding classes of men whose lot Providence had so widely separated.

While he endeavored to elevate those whose talents rendered them capable of it, to stations in which society could enjoy the utmost benefit from their efforts, he believed that with the mass of the laboring classes, the only rational course was to prepare them for the situation in which Providence had placed them, and to render them happy in it by raising them to their proper rank as rational and moral beings.

It was also of the first importance to establish new relations between the different classes of society. The poor were to be led by a rational and religious education, not only to be content with their own station, but to respect the order which Providence has assigned them; and to see how unworthy of the understanding, as well as the heart that envy and jealousy is, which the lower classes are so ready to indulge towards the more favored. The rich were to be taught to estimate the worth of industry, to feel how dependent they are upon the laboring classes, and to observe and revere the dignity of moral character which is often found among them.

An object of not less importance in the view of Fellenberg, was to correct that unchristian idea of the great world, that to provide for the present and eternal welfare of immortal beings by education, is an occupation beneath the dignity of the more favored classes. It was necessary, therefore, first to create an interest in the object, by showing how much good may be effected, how much happiness produced, and how much real enjoyment secured to him who becomes the instrument of such improvement. Practical demonstration was to be given of the importance of this to the higher classes, in providing them with more skilful overseers, and more honest and obedient servants; and in giving to the state more dutiful and useful subjects.

To attain these ends, no means were more likely to be successful in the view of Fellenberg, than to establish an institution for both classes, in which they should be so separated as to prevent all confusion, and yet so connected that each night observe the other, and that occasion might be given to establish on a christian basis, the character of each, as well as those relations which must afterwards exist in society. To this object,' he observed ten years since, 'I have devoted my life and all that I possess, for twenty years;-to this I still devote them, and am resolved to devote them to my last breath.'