in money. He urged upon the consciences of parents and of rulers, with an energy approaching that of the ancient prophets, the solemn duties which divine Providence had imposed upon them, in committing to their charge the present and future destinies of their fellow-beings. In this way he produced an impulse, which pervaded the continent of Europe, and which, by means of his popular and theoretical works, reached the cottages of the poor and palaces of the great. His institution at Yverdun was crowded with men of every nation, not merely those who were led by the same benevolence which inspired him, but by the agents of kings, and noblemen, and public institutions, who came to make themselves acquainted with his principles, in order to become fellow-laborers in his plans of benevolence.

It is to these companions of his labors, most of whom resided in Germany or Switzerland, that we owe the formation of another school which has been styled the Productive School; and which now predominates in Germany and Switzerland. It might, perhaps, with equal propriety, be termed the Eclectic School; for it aims at embodying all the valuable principles of previous systems without adhering slavishly to the dictates of any master, or the views of any party. It rejects alike the idolatrous homage to the classics, which was paid by the Humanists-the unreasonable prejudices of the Philanthropists against classical and merely literary pursuits-and the undue predilection for the mere expansion of mind to the neglect of positive knowledge and practical application, which characterized too many of the Pestalozzian school.

The leading principle of this system, is that which its name indicates that the child should be regarded not as a mere recipient of the ideas of others, but as an agent capable of collecting, and originating, and producing most of the ideas which are necessary for its education, when presented with the objects or the facts from which they may be derived. While on the one hand they are careful not to reduce the pupil to a mere machine, to be moved by the will of his instructer in an assigned direction, or a mass of passive matter to be formed by him according to his own favorite model, they are equally careful to avoid the extreme into which some of the preceding school have fallen, of leaving him to wander indefinitely in a wrong direction in search of truth, in order to secure to him the merit of discovery. They consider a course of education as divided into two parts-the period of developement and the period of

acquisition. In the first period, which they consider as particularly devoted to developing the faculties and forming the habits of the mind, in order to prepare it as an instrument for future operations, they employ the inductive process chiefly. Time is not here of so much importance, as the habit of investigation and effort, which can only be acquired by meeting and overcoming difficulties. This period, which must be made longer or shorter according to the character of the pupil, or the necessity that his circumstances in life may impose, is succeeded by the period of acquisition, in which the mind is more especially called upon to exercise the powers which have been previously developed and cultivated, in the acquisition of such positive knowledge as may prepare the individual for life and action. The inductive process is still employed as much as possible, not only because it has become for many cases the shortest and most agreeable, but because it is important to maintain the habits it has produced, and invigorate the faculties it has served to develope.

But still it is far less employed than previously, and the pupil is never suffered to waste his time in attempting to create a science for himself, and thus deprived of the benefit of the experience of sages and centuries. On the contrary, they deem his mind capable of being elevated even more rapidly by following the processes of patient investigation, by which the most exalted minds have arrived at results that astonish and delight him, and of thus learning to imitate strides, which seem to him like those of a giant, and to cultivate those habits of untiring attention, which the greatest philosophers have declared to be the principal source of that telescopic glance, that almost unerring power of discrimination, which seems to others so nearly miraculous.

Such is the Productive System, by which the powers of the pupil are called into complete exercise by requiring him to attempt a task unaided, and then assisting him in correcting his own errors or returning from his own wanderings, before he is discouraged by the waste of time and the fruitlessness of his efforts. They distinguish carefully between knowledge and the means of obtaining it. To cultivate the senses and present the objects which they are capable of examining, is to open to the child the sources of knowledge-to place before him a book which is ever open, and in which he may every moment read. This, they maintain, is the first and most obvious part of education, according to the dictates of common sense. It is one

in which nothing but truth is presented to him, and which, by calling his powers into constant exercise, ensures their improve ment, and cultivates a spirit of investigation.

On the other hand, to occupy him with the alphabetical signs by which we describe objects and their qualities before he has learned the things described, seems to be reversing this order of common sense. To employ him almost exclusively in learning letters, the mere signs of those words, which are themselves only signs, by which we convey to others an imperfect idea of what we have seen and heard, leads him to value the sign more than the thing signified. He acquires the habit of using words and phrases which he does not understand, merely to gratify others, or excite their admiration. If encouraged, as he usually is, in this exhibition of his parrot-like powers, he forgets that he should never use words to express anything which he does not know to be true. Is he not in great danger of thus taking the first step to falsehood and deception, or even to that odious feeling in regard to language, that it is merely an instrument for accomplishing our plans, or for plans in others, or even that refinement of a French politician, who defined it to be the great end of language to conceal our thoughts. But especially he is thus led to resort to others for entertainment and instruction instead of looking at the great books of Nature and Providence, which his Maker has placed before him—to seek for the elements of his knowledge in the imperfect exhibitions which words necessarily give and to depend entirely on the opinions and accounts of others, instead of seeing and thinking for himself. It is unnecessary to describe the peculiar importance of this latter circumstance in a government like ours, where all have a voice in public measures, and ought to be accustomed to act from unbiassed and personal examination.

We can best illustrate our meaning by the practical application of these principles.

In teaching mineralogy, for example, instead of presenting a mineral to the pupil, and telling him its name, describing its color, its texture, its hardness, its weight, its component parts, and its uses, he is called upon in the early stage of education to use his own senses, and not to rely indolently upon the account of others, whose eyes are no better than his own. As soon as he learns the names of colors and form, he must describe those of the mineral presented. He is called upon to observe by trial its weight, and to test its hardness, and to compare it in all these

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 Wildenstein, attentively observing, while conversing