Now it was exactly at such a time of supreme crisis that I had the good
or the evil fortune to be at Yverdon. All that was good and all that was
bad, all that was profitable and all that was unprofitable, all that was
strong and all that was weak, all that was empty and all that was full,
all that was selfish and all that was unselfish amongst Pestalozzi and
his friends, was displayed openly before me.
I happened to be there precisely at the time of the great Commission of
1810. Neither Pestalozzi nor his so-called friends, neither any
individuals nor the whole community, could give me, or would give me,
what I wanted. In the methods laid down by them for teaching boys, for
the thorough education of boys as part of one great human family,--that
is, for their higher instruction,--I failed to find that
comprehensiveness which is alone sufficient to satisfy the human being.
Thus it was with natural history, natural science, German, and language
generally, with history, and above all, with religious instruction.
Pestalozzi's devotional addresses were very vague, and, as experience
showed, were only serviceable to those already in the right way.[70] I
spoke of all these things very earnestly and decidedly with Pestalozzi,
and at last I made up my mind, in 1810, to quit Yverdon along with my
pupils.
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