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    the partial ascendancy which views , truly Christian , have as yet obtained We wish to do good , too often because it is good for us to do it ; we believe it advances us in our religious career , sets a good example , and is wellpleasing to the Deity ; and , for these reasons , too many involve themselves in projects for managing and disposing of the characters of numbers of their fellow-creatures , without having weighed the consequences of these their

    p lans . Meantime , the serious question , how far such efforts ate conceived m a spirit of submission to the previous arrangements of the Deity , is apt to be overlooked : and yet , surely , in the work of education no question is so important as this . " Instead of thinking , " says Pestalozzi , " what we can make of a child , our inquiry ought rather to be , what is he made for ?'* — Letters , p * 88 . The influence we obtain over the youthful mind is right only when used

    for the purpose of right ; we are committing positive sin when we misuse our power . There is an outward world of beauty and grandeur , and the senses of the child correspond to the objects presented to it ; but we must not destroy or weaken its powers of perception , or to what purpose will that world be displayed ? There is a revelation of the will of God in the gospel , and understanding in man to comprehend it ; but that understanding

    we must not deprave . There is also a spiritual law , and a spirit is prepared for its reception ; but we must not , by our indulgence of the animal , overpower the nobler part of our natures . There is such a thing as liberty too—true mental liberty , —and it is the birth-right of all ; but "it is in vain to talk of liberty when man is unnerved , or his mind not stored with knowledge , or his judgment neglected , and , above all , when he is left unconscious of his rights and duties as a moral being . "—Letters , p . 88 .

    Education , then , must be based in complete submission to the original arrangements of the great Creator , which we have no power to change or modif y- We may bring to the building our earthly materials , but the ori g inal foundation is laid by the hand of God . One by one , the faculties which now lie hidden , like the future plant in the seed , may disclose themselves , and our care and judicious management may exercise and develope them ; but we can neither change the nature of the spirit , nor its owner , nor

    its destination . The child is not , cannot be , as respects its spiritual nature , oubs , nor have we any right to treat it as such . Every time a parent indulges in the wanton exercise of power , whether by indulgence or severity , every time he allows himself , even jestingly , to strengthen a bad habit in his child , he is violating the rights of a human being , he is acting the worst part of the worst tyrant , by bringing physical strength into the field against intellectual and spiritual improvement .

    It is for his clear perception and manly assertion of the claims of children , because he neither devoted himself to the contemplation of Christianity alone , nor human nature alone , but to the examination of both together , as formed one for another , because there was proportion in his views , and love to God and man at his heart , that Pestalozzi ' s name is held peculiarly dear . Many may have written better ; but the question is , whether many have felt

    and thought so well . The idea generally formed of him is , perhaps , that of a man who discovered new ways of imparting knowledge ; and to some extent this may be true ; but the grand distinction between Pestalozzi and most who have preceded or followed him , appears to lie in the depth and enlargement of his views . While other educators are bringing into the mind mere external knowledge of facts , while some , perhaps , are cultivating one

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    44 Review . —Pestalozzi on Early Education .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1828, page 44, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2556/page/44/