eans of relief which could
be realized only by a more thorough and judicious education of the
people at large. His first publication, issued while a student at law,
contained his views on this subject. It was an essay on the bearing
which education ought to have upon our respective callings.

It was not for a mind like Pestalozzi's to behold the evils which had
been brought to his notice without deep and painful emotion. This was
experienced to such a degree that he was thrown into a state of morbid
excitement; and, at length, a dangerous illness broke off his ardent
researches. Still his mind was not quieted. His thoughts could not be
prevented from dwelling on the painful subjects to which he had given
his whole soul. Prostrate on the bed of sickness, he continued to
indulge himself in dark musings; and his fancy represented the prospects
of the future, both for society and for himself, in gloomy colors. The
strength of his constitution, however, carried him through the disorder;
and from the moment of his recovery he resolved to follow the leadings
of Providence, and, setting aside all human considerations, to act up to
the full extent of his conceptions, and if possible to put his views to
the test of experience.

He now abandoned all his former studies, committed his papers to the
flames, and believing that the evils into which society was plunged were
mainly owing to a departure from the straight and simple path of nature,
to the school of nature he resolved to go. Accordingly he quitted Zurich
and went to Kirchberg, in the Canton of Bern, where he became an
apprentice to a farmer of the name of Tschiffeli.

After qualifying himself under the direction of Tschiffeli for the
charge of a farm, he purchased a tract of waste land in the neighborhood
of Lensburg, in the Canton of Bern, on which he erected a
dwelling-house, with suitable buildings, and gave it the name of Neuhof.
The work of his hands here was prospered. He soon brought himself into
comfortable circumstances, and saw his prospects as bright and happy as
could be wished. At this time he formed a connection in marriage with
Ann Schulthess, the daughter of one of the wealthiest merchants in
Zurich, a young lady of a refined education and great dignity of
character. This marriage, while it increased the happiness of his
domestic circle, offered him a new sphere of useful exertion, by giving
him an interest in a flourishing cotton manufactory.

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