practical
application, an unpractical, I had almost said, a self-contradictory
aspect.

(When, afterwards, in 1808, I visited Yverdon for the second time, I
found to my regret neither Tobler nor Hopf there.)

With the method used for the German language I could not at all bring
myself into sympathy, although it has been introduced into later school
books elsewhere. Here also the arbitrary and non-productive style of
teaching ran strongly counter to me at every step.

Singing was taught from figures.[47] Reading was taught from
Pestalozzi's well-known "A.B.C."

[Memorandum.--All this lay dark within me, its value unrecognised even
by myself. But my intellectual position tended to become more settled by
passing through these experiences. As to my state at the time, I have,
as accurately as may be, described it above, as at once exalted and
depressed, animated and dull. That Pestalozzi himself was carried away
and bewildered by this great intellectual machine of his appears from
the fact that he could never give any definite account of his idea, his
plan, his intention. He always said, "Go and see for yourself" (very
good for him who knew _how_ to look, how to hear, how to perceive); "it
works splendidly!"[48] It was at that time, indeed, surprising and
inexplicable to me that Pestalozzi's loving character did not win every
one's heart as it won mine, and compel the staff of teachers to draw
together into a connected whole, penetrated with life and intellectual
strength in every part. His morning and evening addresses were deeply
touching in their simplicity; and yet I remarked in them even already at
that time some slight traces of the unhappy dissensions afterwards to
arise.[49]]

I left Yverdon in mid-October (1805) with a settled resolution to return
thither as soon as possible for a longer stay. As soon as I got back to
Frankfurt, I received my definite appointment from the Consistorium.[50]
The work that awaited me upon my arrival from Switzerland at the Model
School (which was, in fact, properly two schools, one for boys and one
for girls) was a share in the arrangement of an entirely new educational
course and teaching-plan for the whole establishment. The school
contained four or five classes of boys and two or three of girls;
altogether about two hundred children. The staff consisted of four
permanent masters and nine visiting masters.

As I threw myself heartily into the consideration of the necessities