CHAPTER X.

Pestalozzi as a Writer-The Swiss Journal-Address to my Fatherland-Figures to my Spelling-book.

As a writer Pestalozzi deserves no less than in other respects to be held in high estimation; for, although it must be admitted that his style is rendered difficult by the vagueness of his expression, and sometimes tedious by repetition, yet there are few whose works, labouring under similar disadvantages, have attained an equal degree of popularity, or been productive of a greater amount of good. His writings will not, it is true, be perused by the idle or the curious; but those who are alive to the importance of the cause which he advocated, and the value of his practical exertions while engaged in its service, will not be deterred by mere defects of form from following the track of so benevolent and enlightened a mind through the intricate and sometimes obscure paths on which he wandered, in the hope of enjoying the full noonday of that light, whose faint glimmers even, kindled in his heart the sacred flame of enthusiastic self-devotion. If we see a man during more than sixty years perseveringly engaged in the pursuit of one great object, and after repeated disappointments gathering each time new strength for renewed exertions, we can neither doubt that his zeal springs from an internal source of truth and love, nor can we be indifferent to the changes which his feelings and ideas must have undergone in the course of so

SIGNS OF THE TIMES,

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arduous a career. We shall not esteem it a light favour to be admitted behind the scenes and to watch in the development of his own mind the gradual victory of truth over innate darkness and imbibed prejudice.

The main topic of Pestalozzi's literary labours was to set forth and illustrate the principles, on the ground of which, he anticipated, rather than pretended himself to realise, not a mere improvement in the system of tuition, but a fundamental reform in the march of human civilization. But while his eye was steadily fixed upon the point in the hea- . vens in which he expected the sunrise of a new era in the education of mankind, he was neither blind nor indifferent to the shades which the purple-tinged morning clouds cast over the earth around him. He was privileged to witness that long succession of gigantic events by which the whole aspect of the civilized world was changed, and which would have astonished and aroused any generation except the selfish and nerveless one to which the signs were given. Pestalozzi shared not the indifference of his contemporaries; almost every stage of the history of his times is marked by some word of warning or advice to his countrymen, who were thoughtless enough to expose the weak vessel of their republic to the furious waves and insidious eddies of the revolution. Among the numerous productions of his pen which have reference to the political position and the moral state of the Swiss at different periods, the most remarkable are his "Swiss Journal," which forms a prologue, and his " Appeal to the purer and nobler Feelings of his Countrymen," which may be considered as an epilogue, to the great drama; while his "Fables," or, as he called them, his "Figures to his Spellingbook," give a painful but true picture of the degradation into which human nature sinks when deriving its light from the fallacies of reason and putting its trust in the violence of brute force. The object of these writings was to draw the attention of the public to those deeper causes of the welfare or ruin of nations which are overlooked or underrated by " the craft" of

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THE SWISS JOURNAL.

politicians, and to point out the existence of a moral order of things, overruling in retributive justice the shortsighted enactments of man.

The Swiss Journal, published in weekly numbers, on a plan similar to that of the Spectator, the Examiner, the Rambler, &c., contains essays, occasionally illustrated by anecdote, on the corruption of servants in great houses; on the temptations which surround females of the lower classes, and on the severity of the law against them, especially in cases of infanticide, contrasted with the impunity of their seducers; on the abuse of the law-forms for defeating the ends of justice; on the want of evenhanded justice between the rich and the poor, the man of connexions and the man without connexions; on the oppression exercised in levying rents and tithes on church property; on the demoralizing effect of the game laws in France before the revolution; on the hypocrisy of liberal sentiments among the privileged classes and their indifference to the real sufferings of the people; on popular education; on domestic economy among the lower classes; on the prevalence of honest principles in the legislative acts of former times, compared to the laxity and the compromising spirit of modern legislation; on the influence of different occupations on the character of the people; on the state of the peasantry and of the manufacturing classes; on the best interests of landed proprietors; on the disadvantages attached` to commercial wealth; on parochial administration; on the corruption of high life; on medical police; on the destructive effects of quackery and superstition; on insanity; on the tendency of the penal laws by the mode of their administration to increase rather than to diminish the sources of crime; on the infamy of police spies and informers; on the organization of prisons; on the moral improvement of criminals; on the defects of charity schools; on the duty of society to secure to every individual the means of gaining an honest livelihood, and on a variety of other topics of a similar description.

ADDRESS TO MY FATHERLAND.

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On the anniversary of the emancipation of Switzerland from the yoke of tyranny in the days of William Tell and Arnold Winkelried, is inserted the following

"ADDRESS TO MY FATHERLAND.

"1782.

"Their armies are annihilated, their castles are broken; the ruins of their bulwarks rolled down into our valleys: the contest is decided.

"Thou art Free!

"Thus spake to Helvetia her guardian angel, on the triumphal day of her liberty.

"But suffer thy people to enjoy this freedom in all the purity in which I now give it to thee, or it will be taken from thee,' added the guardian angel, with menacing countenance, with a frown on his brow, and a cloud over

his eye.

"Helvetia's sons understood the warning of the oracle, and lived for centuries, like brethren, in their mountains and vallies.

"Now and then, it is true, a spark of discord began to glimmer, but the guardian angel extinguished it speedily, for the men of Helvetia lived as brethren, and the children of the great and noble walked hand in hand, and arm in arm, with the children of the peasant, who being free was equally noble, though not of blood. None of the confederates said to another: "Thou art inferior to me.'

"Our people feared God, and loved their rulers; for they were the sons of the guardian angel, the nursing fathers of our liberty.

"Our people were manly and strong, faithful and true, plain spoken and upright, industrious and happy, sober and merciful, and blessings rested upon the mansions of the great and the cottages of the humble.

"The highborn Helvetian was as one of the people, and the common man was high-minded, for both were prosperous and contented.

"Guardian angel of Helvetia, show me once more the sires of thy land. Cause to appear before my eyes the image of the founders of our union and liberty. "I see them; men of high stature, with majestic beards flowing down to their girdles, and mighty swords hanging at their sides; but their countenances friendly and cheerful; their arms scaled with iron, but ever ready for the embrace of pious affection; their hands terrible in the battle, but faithful in promise; they live for those whom they love, and die for those to whom they have sworn.

"I see them, the sires of our Union, assembled in the temple of liberty; the glory of Helvetia's guardian angel shining in the darkness of the sanctuary; the sires of the Union, prostrate on their knees, vowing before God and all the saints, everlasting freedom to their fatherland.

"And a voice resounds through the vaults of the temple

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ADDRESS TO MY FATHERLAND.

"The laws of your cities, the laws of your land, are the guarantees of your liberty! Kneel, ye sires, and swear again!' And the men of Helvetia knelt again, and swore obedience to the laws of their cities, to the laws of their land.

"And their oath re-echoed three times from the vault of the temple, and three times the glory of the angel in the sanctuary shone as the flame of the heavenly sun.

"And the sons of the sires that were in the temple remembered for centuries the miracles of the day when the oath of their Union was sworn.

"And the generous mothers of the land taught for centuries to Helvetia's children the prayer of their sires, which they offered up to God, at the appearance of the angel of freedom in the temple, and the hymn of concord which their sires sung when they embraced each other in the brotherly love of that day.

"Sanctify, O Helvetian, the memory of that day! prostrate thyself in gratitude before the guardian angel who taught our fathers for centuries to grant the blessings of freedom to the people of Helvetia, and to tender the hand of friendship to the meanest citizen, that he might feel himself the beloved and befriended, honoured and protected son of his country.

"Guardian angel of Helvetia! during centuries thou causedst our fathers to respect and to obey the laws of the land, according to the oath of our sires! They required nothing of their country, for they wanted little and were contented with their own.

“Guardian angel of this country! during centuries thou madest our fathers willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of the land, and to found the dignity of their families upon the moderation of private life, considering the public weal as the best guarantee of domestic happiness, and the dissipation of fashion as the ruin of both.

"Guardian angel of this land! during centuries thou causedst the fathers of Helvetia to regard above all the claims of public morality, and to view with contempt the children of wantonness, born for a curse to the world in the palaces of courtiers and favorites.

"During centuries Helvetia flourished under the rule of men, who never said to the people: 'we are your kings!' nor ever polluted the ears of their children, nor the ears of the people in the cities and in the country with the wicked cant of that speech.*

"Peace and concord, happiness and joy, piety and simplicity, courage and faithfulness, justice and love, obedience and wisdom, united men of different ranks in ancient Helvetia into one body.

*This is not directed against royal authority, as by law established, which Pestalozzi duly respected, but against the vain pomp with which some of the Swiss aristocrats of that time mimicked royalty. As a republican, born and bred, he was of course fully impressed with the inferiority of a monarchical government.

B.