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    but above and beyond all the rest , he endeavoured to act Upon his own qpnception of what domestic education should be . It is his favourite and leading idea , that the beginnings of that union feeling and conviction which , in the more advanced periods of human life , constitute the habitual state of mind of " those who believe to the saving of the soul , " may be traced up to the very earliest period in which any manifestation of consciousness can

    be discerned in the infant ; that the " love and confidence , of which a mother is for a time the first and only object , is analogous in its nature and agency to the state of mind described by the name of faith . ' Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child , shall in nowise enter therein . ' And what , " he asks , " can there be in a little child deserving to be compared with a state of readiness for the Christian faith ? It cannot be an effort of morality , or an attempt at high perfection ; for the infant is

    incapable of any . It cannot be any degree of knowledge or intellectual refinement ; for the infant is a stranger to both : it must be love and confix dence , " &c . P . 156 . Therefore it is that he would above all things begin and pursue education , from the very earliest period , with an especial regard to this first symptom of a spiritual existence . What was it that first called forth the infant ' s smile , that sign of feeling denied to the animal race , and conferred alone on man ? " It was kindness : the manifestation of maternal

    love . " This , then , is the first influence of conduct on the mind and heart of the infant . This fact " is ^ never to be forgotten—it is to be the leading truth in education . " The law of kindness is to be on the mother ' s lips and heart . * But let her strive also , from the very earliest period , to raise the child above that merely animal instinct which draws it to her , only for the supply of its wants . That this is possible , at an almost incredibly early age , who that has compared a good or ill-managed infant but will allow ?

    " Never to neglect the wants of her child when they are real , never to indulge them when they are imaginary ; " how much may be gained by a mother ' s faithful adherence to this rule ! Upon this , of course , depends the degree in which she may hope to secure obedience , not from compliance with authority , but for the sake of the mother . Here begins another feeling , which , afterwards exercised towards a perfect object of love , will impel the soul to a willing and disinterested obedience . Thus it is that a mother is led

    to take the ri ght view of the object for which affection was implanted in her child . First exercised towards herself , it is the germ on which every better feeling must be engrafted . It is the gift of God to her child , which she must endeavour to cultivate , to raise , to transfer to the Giver . " Not that she , of her own power , or with the best intentions , can raise the child ' s heart and mind beyond the sphere of earthly and perishable things . It is not for her to presume that her instructions , or her example , will benefit the child , unless

    ideas confused , when there is a want of perfect acquaintance and mastery of at least one language . The friends of oppression , of darkness , of prejudice , cannot do better , nor have they at any time neglected this point , than to stifle the power and facility of free , manly , and well-practised speaking ; nor can the friends of light and liberty

    do better , and it were desirable that they were more assiduous in the cause , than to procure to every one , the poorest as well as the richest , a facility , if not of elegance , at least of frankness and energy of speech ; a facility which would enable them to collect aud clear up their vague ideas , to embody those which are distinct , and which would awaken a thousand new ones . "—Letters , pp . 138 , l . il ) . " E ae ride e a ' adiie e aempre amante . "

    Untitled Article

    Review . —Pestato&zi on Early Education . 4 /

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1828, page 47, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2556/page/47/