e, his institution suffered under his care, and finally met with
total extinction. The great bubble of his plans burst. People awoke to
their mistake, and many of his dupes began to confess that, after all,
the old system of education was the best that had been devised.

But there were men who had lighted their torches at Basedow's flame.
Some who had been temporary inmates of his _Philanthropium_ went to work
with great perseverance to write juvenile books. Though the institution
had tumbled to ruin, and public notice began to be turned from it, the
excitement of the popular mind on the training of youth had been so
intense that the subject could not soon cease to receive attention. For
this reason, the writers of books for children found a large circle to
read them, and become impressed by them. Herder had called attention to
the subject of education in some of his most eloquent periods. He
contended zealously for the development of the young mind. His own words
were, "that it should be the chief aim of the teacher to imbue the child
with living ideas of everything that he sees, says, or enjoys, in order
to give him a proper position in his world, and continue the enjoyment
of it through every day of his life." Jean Paul, in his _Levana, or the
Doctrine of Education_, called attention to the necessity of the
personal training of children by their parents in opposition to the old
stiff method which, instead of quickening, only stupefied the intellect.
Campe and Salzmann had been students in Basedow's _Philanthropium_, and
subsequently each of them commenced a similar institution, but of more
humble pretensions. Yet it was not so much as practical educators as by
their writings, that they were instrumental in effecting a powerful
impression upon the young mind of Germany. Campe's _Children's Library_
had a fascinating influence upon children. It encouraged their literary
taste to the exclusion of religious development. The author advocated
morality, but only that which is taught by the common dictates of
nature. He stoutly rejected the old _Catechism_ of Luther as unfit to be
drilled into a youthful mind, and, unhappily, he found many
sympathizers. His _Robinson the Younger_ was to the Germans what
_Robinson Crusoe_ was, and still is, to the English-speaking world, and
from the time that the children read its wonderful stories they looked
with disgust upon the less exciting histories of the Bible. From 1775 to
1785 it ca