that I had worked out for myself was placed by him in a fuller light, and received from him a higher confirmation.  Later in life, when I had grown to manhood, I spoke with my uncle on the excellence of this teaching, and he made reply that it was indeed very good, but was too philosophical and abstruse for those to whom it was addressed; “for thee,” continued he, “it may have been well suited, since thou hadst already received such unusually good instruction from thy father.”  Let that be as it may, this teaching enlightened, animated, and warmed me,—­nay, glowed within me till my heart was completely melted, especially when it touched upon the life, the work, and the character of Jesus.  At this I would burst into tears, and the longings to lead in future a similar life took definite form, and wholly filled my soul.  When I now hear tales of the ebullitions of my youthful spirit occurring in that period of my life, I cannot help thinking that they must have led superficial observers to the erroneous opinion that the monitions and teachings of religion swept over my spirit without leaving a trace of their passage.  And yet how wrongly would such observers have judged the true state of my inner life!

The subjects best taught in the school of Stadt-Ilm were reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion.  Latin was miserably taught, and still worse learnt.  Here, as in so many similar schools, the teaching utterly lacked the elucidation of first principles.  The time spent on Latin was therefore not wasted upon me, in so far that I learnt from it that such a method of teaching could bear no fruit among the scholars.  Arithmetic was a very favourite study of mine; and as I also received private tuition in this subject, my progress was so rapid that I came to equal my teacher both in theory and practice, although his attainments were by no means despicable.  But how astonished was I when, in my twenty-third year, I first went to Yverdon, and found I could not solve the questions there being set to the scholars!  This was one of the experiences which prepossessed me so keenly in favour of Pestalozzi’s method of teaching, and decided me to begin arithmetic myself from the very beginning over again, according to his system.  But more of this later.

In physical geography we repeated our tasks parrot-wise, speaking much and knowing nothing; for the teaching on this subject had not the very least connection with real life, nor had it any actuality for us, although at the same time we could rightly name our little specks and patches of colour on the map.  I received private tuition in this subject also.  My teacher wished to advance further with me; he took me to England.  I could find no connection between that country and the place and country in which I dwelt myself, so that of this instruction also I retained but little.  As for actual instruction in German, it was not to be thought of; but we received directions in letter-writing and in spelling.  I do not know with what study the teaching of spelling was connected, but I think it was not connected with any; it hovered in the air.  I had lessons, furthermore, in singing and in pianoforte playing, but without result.  I merely mention all this now, in order to be able to refer to it later on.