Pestalozzi's activities as an educator, and yet there is no
reason to suppose that there has been misrepresentation. In Mr. /Colman's judgment he was "one of the world's greatest benefactors," and yet, as one who knew him well observed, in spite of his grand ideal, which comprehended the whole human race, he did not possess the ability and skill requisite for con- ducting the smallest village school" It is not always possible to determine accurately the causes of his failures. The orphan school 'at Neuhof with which he opened his educational work seems at one time to have prospered. The Berne Agricultural Society sent competent men to examine it, and they reported favourably. It seems to have been ignorance of finance that brought it to an end. Then came the Stanz School episode. Here, too, there was success of a kind; but a friendly observer said " this excellent man has both firmness and gentleness, but unfortunately he often uses both at the wrong time." The experiment was brought to an end by external causes. The building was converted by the French military authorities into a hospital. But the time was not lost. " I felt," wrote Pestalozzi, " that my experiment proved the possibility of founding popular instruction on psychological grounds; of laying pure knowledge, gained by these impressions, at the foundation of instruction." Not words, but things, were the foundation principles of his system. At Burgdorf he fared better; but at Yverdun, in Mr. Holman's words, "he reached the summit of his fame and found the grave of his practical work." How this result came about, and, how, generally, there was so strange a contradiction between the theory and the practice of the man, may be learnt with much profit from this very careful appreciation.
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