220 TABLE OF THE ELEMENTARY BRANCHES. nexion of the different branches of education, we shall sum up the whole in the following table: INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. FIRST ELEMENTARY MEANS, SOUND. SOUNDS, OF Speech,-spelling. WORDS. LANGUAGE. Designation of form and number in objects; (see below.) Designation of all the other properties of objects, classed as objects of Geography. History. Physical Science. Natural History. Determination of the objects, their properties. and different states, according to time and other relations-grammar. SECOND ELEMENTARY MEANS, FORM. The art of measuring--geometry. The art of drawing. The art of writing. THIRD ELEMENTARY MEANS, NUMBER-ARITHMETIC. PRACTICAL EDUCATION,-INDUSTRY. MORAL EDUCATION. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. Not all the branches of instruction, however, which are enumerated in this table, are treated of in Pestalozzi's work; to some of them, indeed, he had paid no farther attention, beyond their insertion, oddly enough, among the "elementary means to be derived from the power of sound." This is the case, for instance, with history, physical science, and natural history; and the short fragment which he has given on geography, we shall insert, as a specimen of the aberrations from good sense to which this great mind was liable, THEIR DEVELOPMENT BY PESTALOZZI. 221 when he endeavoured to "systematize and classify," rather than as a pattern of geographical instruction. On the subject of singing, all that he says is, that the instruction "ought to be conducted upon the general principle of beginning with the simplest elements, and bringing them to perfection in the first instance. This being done, new exercises are to be gradually, but slowly, introduced; above all things, however, a certain stiffness should be avoided, which is calculated to arrest every talent, and to confound every feeling for the beauties of the art." There remain therefore, of specific branches of instruction, the method of which is illustrated in the work before us, only the following: spelling, grammar, (the instruction in words being likewise despatched with a few short remarks,) geometry, drawing, writing, and arithmetic; after which, as stated before, the three heads of practical, moral, and religious education, are separately treated in as many letters at the close of the book; so that, if in the publication of the present volume we contemplated nothing farther than an account of Pestalozzi's personal opinions on these subjects, we might content ourselves with selecting from the body of his work such extracts as would be best calculated to illustrate his mode of proceeding in the different branches mentioned. Our purpose, however, is not only to trace to their first origin, in the mind of Pestalozzi, those principles of education, which we feel ourselves called upon to advocate, but also to furnish parents and teachers, whose mind is alive to the subject, with practical hints, by which they may be enabled to turn those principles to account, for the more efficient discharge of their duty towards the rising generation. With this object in view, it is obvious that we must not confine ourselves to a mere statement of the results which Pestalozzi had obtained thirty years ago, when his mind first began to emerge from the obscurity in which, on that subject, it had been enveloped all his life, but that we owe to our readers whatever additional information it may be in our power to impart. The institution which Pestalozzi had formed about a twelvemonth before the publication of 222 DESIGN OF THE PRESENT VOLUME. "How Gertrude teaches her Little Ones," and which, after its removal to Yverdon, was, by the enthusiastic exertions of himself and his friends, brought into so flourishing a condition, exhibited, as we have stated on a former occasion, a far more perfect development of "the method," than his letters from Burgdorf. It is much to be regretted that the necessity of defence against the calumnious attacks of malevolent critics, and subsequently the unfortunate dissentions which drove Pestalozzi's warmest friends from his side, should have employed the best energies of his house in labours from which posterity will derive no benefit; and that, meanwhile, his establishment should have been permitted to die away, without having supplied the public with a work, embodying in a manner at once practical and comprehensive, the fruits of so much deep research and patient experience. Up to the present moment the same want still exists; and although, after the immediate access which we have had to the best sources of information, and the thought and labour which we have bestowed upon the theoretical, as well as practical part of the subject, it is out of our power to speak of our own competence to the task with that affectation of diffidence, which ill becomes the man whose mind is impressed with a clear and deep conviction of the truth; yet we entertain far too high a sense of the extent of such an undertaking, to imagine that the present volume can be any thing but, at best, a forerunner of what the public stand in need of, viz. a practical guide for truly Pestalozzian instruction in the different branches of education. Trusting then, that this statement of our intention will form more than an apology with our readers for whatever comments and supplements we shall deem it expedient to add, and likewise that Pestalozzi's repeated avowal of the immaturity of the views developed in the work we are analyzing, will secure us from the charge of presumption towards a man, for whose faults it is not necessary to be blind, in order to hold his name in veneration; we shall, in the progress of our labours, point out, in addition to the means detailed by our author, those DEFECTS OF PESTALOZZI'S ARRANGEMENT. 223 which appear to us best calculated for the attainment of the end proposed. In doing so, however, we shall not be able strictly to adhere to Pestalozzi's outline, which labours under this material defect, that it classifies the branches of knowledge according to the five senses and their corresponding bodily organs of action, instead of tracing them to the mental faculties employed in their investigation, or taking the characteristic distinctions of the things to be known, for the groundwork of his arrangement. Thus, for instance, he has brought speech, and written character, under two different heads, because, adhering to the outward fact only, he saw different organs employed, the ear and mouth in the former, the eye and head in the latter case. Had he, however, gone one step farther back, he would have found that both have one and the same mental operation for their basis, and that one and the same mental faculty is the prime mover in both. He would, accordingly have classed them under one and the same head, with no other difference than that between primitive and secondary signs, according to the order in which the mind ushers them forth; as will easily be seen if we trace the origin of both; thus: Speech. Thought.—Sign of thought. Written Character. Thought.-Sign of thought.-Sign of sign of thought: -clearly showing that they both flow from the same source, the only difference being, that the latter is one step farther removed from it than the former, or in other words, one step more external. A similar mistake has caused several distinct sciences to be ranged under the head of language, under which, to be consistent, all the other branches, form and number not excluded, ought to be classed, since they all pass, in the process of instruction, through the medium of language, as much as geography, history, or any other. In deference to the exclusively practical tendency of the present volume, we shall not occupy our space by a statement of the connexion in which we ourselves view the different 224 THE NURSERY METHOD. branches of instruction; but referring those of our readers, who may wish for information, to former publications in which we have fully discussed the subject,* we shall at once proceed to the practical details of the method, taking the subjects discussed by Pestalozzi in the following order: Spelling and Writing, Language, or Grammar, Arithmetic, Geometry, Drawing, Geography, to which we shall add a supplement on the remaining branches of education. We should premise, however, that in accordance with our author, we suppose the instruction detailed under those several heads, to be preceded by a judicious guidance of the infant mind, by a nursery-method, if we may be allowed that term, which shall regulate the treatment of the child from the moment of birth and assume the form of instruction-not lesson-giving as soon as the child begins to have language, that is, to connect the idea of specific objects with certain articulated sounds. The want of such a method was acutely felt by Pestalozzi, who was ever and anon endeavouring to enlist mothers in the service of his cause. With a view to direct their efforts, he wrote the Mother's Manual, a work which, notwithstanding its great defects of execution, deserves, on account of the original conception on which it is founded, far more notice than it has hitherto received. The outline which Pestalozzi has given of it in his preface, embraces ten sections, by him called exercises, of which, however, the first seven only are practically illustrated in the book itself.† • For a general view of the faculties of the mind, their connexion with each other, and their development, see in the Christian Monitor and Family Friend, our first lecture, p. 24-29; and in Christian Education, Lect. III. and Lect. IV. p. 106—131: for a synopsis of the different branches of instruction, in their connexion with each other, see Christian Education, Lect. VI. p. 213–226. Several of these exercises have been given in a more appropriate form, in the Christian Monitor and Family Friend. |