Pestalozzi : his Life and Work. By Roger do Guimps.
Trans- lated by J. Russell, B.A. (Swan Sonnenschein and Co.)—It would have been better, perhaps, if Mr. Russell had abridged as well as translated. It seems ungracious thus to criticise a good piece of work, but reviewers have a livelier sense of the necessities of the case than authors, or those who introduce authors by translation. It is not the absolute length of a book, as much as the relative length with regard to the available amount of time, that has to be considered. Apart from this, we are glad to have this hook. Much has been written about Pestalozzi, but the work of M. de G-uimps is not a superfluity. As Mr. Quick, in his introduction, remarks, "Pestalozzi taught mainly by action. In him the most interesting thing is his life." His life is, indeed, highly in- structive throughout, instructive both in its successes and its failures. Those, for instance, who are now discussing recent schemes may read with advantage the story of his experiment at Neuhof. There was a "submerged tenth" a hundred years ago in Aargau, and it is profitable to see what Pestalozzi, who was at least as much of a practical philanthropist as of an educational theorist, sought to do with it, and how he fared. In both respects his work was fruitful,—more perhaps in its indirect than its direct effects. He was one of the men who give the first impulse to great movements, and his share in their effects is not to be estimated by this or that detail that may be traced to his origination, but to the general force of his influence and example.
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