of stones, laboriously brought together, could do, in the absence of any such division.

Self-taught men, I say, want the discipline of the school. It is not simply that, in the province of the intellectual, they often find only after long wanderings what they might easily have attained by a direct and beaten path; they want also the ethical discipline, which restrains us from running according to caprice after intellectual enjoyments, and wholesomely compels us to deny ourselves and follow the path indicated to us by the teacher.

Many, it is true, fear that the oracular instinct of the self-taught might suffer from the school. But, if the school is of the right sort, this instinct, if genuine, will be strengthened by it; deep-felt, dreamy, and passive presentiments are transfigured into sound, waking, and active observation.

This self-taught character of Pestalozzi's mind showed itself in his treatment of several branches of instruction. What are his names of towns, which he takes in alphabetical order from the index of a geography book, without possessing any knowledge of the subject; what are the heaps of words transcribed from Scheller's Lexicon : what else are they but the trials of an undisciplined mind, to find out new ways of writing schoolbooks?

But when the self-taught man forsakes the old highways, he finds, in spite of much going astray, many short by-ways, the knowledge of which is welcome to the students of the subject, and induces them to make new experiments themselves. In this manner, Pestalozzi exercised an influence even upon his adversaries.

Generally, Pestalozzi's personal influence on the methods of teaching particular subjects was small; but, on the other hand, he compelled the scholastic world to revise the whole of their task, to reflect on the nature and destiny of man, as also on the proper way of leading him from his youth toward that destiny. And this was done, not in the superficial rationalistic manner of Basedow* and his school, but so profoundly, that even a man like Fichte anticipated very great things from it.

But it is to be lamented, that the actual attempts made by Pesta

Basedow founded an educational institution called the "Philanthropin," at Dessua, in 1774. In this institution, the educational views of Rousseau, as expounded in his "Emile," were exclusively followed, and every effort made to realize them. Rousseau was at that time the pharos of many educationists in Germany and Switzerland, as he was the pharos of the men of the revolution in France. The Philanthropin excited a good deal of attention at the time. The name of the Philanthropin still survives, but it has almost become a term of reproach to signify any shallow educational enterprise. It appears, however, that, together with much that was whimsical and even foolish, the institution presented many honest and unselfish efforts on the part of faithful workers, and produced many wholesome fruits.-Sec Raumer's account of the Philanthropin.

lozzi and his fellow-laborers to set up new methods of teaching various subjects, have met with such especial approbation and imitation. An examination of Pestalozzi's profound principles, and an insight into the contradiction between these principles and his practice, would have conduced much more to the discovery of new methods, really answering to the principles. This is appplicable, for instance, to what I have said upon the exercises in observation, falsely so called. Most of the imitators of the great man have fallen in love with his dark side, the endeavor to mechanise education. When those purely external appliances and artifices which he employed for mechanising education shall have been so modified as to be no longer recognizable, or shall have been entirely laid aside and forgotten-then Pestalozzi's "Leonard and Gertrude," the "Evening Hour of a Hermit," and "How Gertrude teaches her Children," will still live on and exercise an influence, though even these works, like every thing else that is human, are not altogether free from spot or blemish. Profound thoughts, born of a holy love under severe pains, they are thoughts of eternal life, and, like love, shall never cease.

[To the above connected survey of the Life and System of Pestalozzi, by Karl von Raumer, we shall add in subsequent numbers of the Journal

I. Summary of the Educational Principles, Methods and Influence of Pestalozzi, by Dr. Blochmann, Dr. Diesterweg, and other German, French and English Educators.

II. Biographical Sketches of Krüsi, Schmid, Niederer, Tobler, Buss, Ramsauer, and other Associate Teachers and Disciples of Pestalozzi.

III. Extracts from the principal publications of Pestalozzi.

IV. List of Publications relating to Pestalozzi and his Educational system.

V. Influence of Pestalozzi on the Aims, Principles and Methods of Popular Education.]

V. INSTITUTIONS AND INSTRUCTION FOR THE BLIND.

BY L. P. BROCKETT, M. D.

CAUSES AND EXTENT OF BLINDNESS.-Blindness, though congenital in many instances, is less frequently so than deafness. When congenital, its causes are generally analogous to those which induce idiocy, deafness and insanity. Intermarriage of near relatives, scrofula, or other diseases of parents, and intemperance on the part of parents, are very common causes. There are many cases, however, which can not be thus accounted for. Blindness occurring subsequently to birth, is usually the result of prevalent ophthalmia, conjunctivitis, iritis, cataract, amaurosis or gutta serena, small pox, measles, accidents from powder, blows on the eye, &c. Of the diseases enumerated prevalent, ophthalmia and amaurosis are most fatal to sight. The latter, which consists in paralysis of the optic nerve, is very seldom cured. It was the cause of Milton's blindness. The diseases of the eye have of late years received much attention, and eminent men have made their treatment a specialty. Most of our large cities have hospitals or infirmaries devoted to the treatment of these diseases, and Jones, Lawrence, Mackenzie, Hays and others, have published treatises on the subject. The operation for the cure of Strabismus or squinting, which some years ago was very common, is less resorted to at the present day than formerly. The operations for cataract, (couching or depressing and dividing the lens, to remove it from the field of vision,) have resulted in the partial restoration to sight of many blind persons.

The statistics of blindness, in different countries, reveal some singular facts. As we proceed toward the Equator, the proportion of the blind to the entire population increases with great rapidity, and the same is observable in very high latitudes. M. Zeune, the late accomplished director of the Institute for the Blind at Berlin, some years ago prepared a table on the subject, which subsequent observations on the Eastern Continent have very nearly verified. following were the results at which he arrived:

Between 20° and 30° N. L. ratio of blind to inhabit. is 1 to

The

100

Between 50° and 60° N. L. ratio of blind to inhabit. is 1 to 1,400

66

66

66

1 to 1,000

1 to 550

66 60° and 70° 66 (6 70° and 80° The white glittering sand, and the intense heat of the sun, shining always from a clear sky, in Egypt and Northern Africa, causes diseases of the eye, and especially ophthalmia, to be very prevalent in those regions, and similar causes prevail, though to a less extent, in Southern Europe.

Among the densely populated nations of Central Europe, accidents with gunpowder, small pox and other epidemic diseases, are the most frequent causes of destruction of sight. In the temperate regions of the north, the number of the blind is comparatively small; but as we approach the Arctic circle, the glittering snows, the smoky dwellings, the alternation from the brilliant nights of the Arctic summer, to the deep darkness of the Arctic winter, all exert their influence upon the visual organs.

On this side of the Atlantic, however, a different ratio seems to prevail. We have not the means for an accurate comparison except of the latitudes between 30° and 45°; but the proportions are very different from those embodied in M. Zeune's table. The ratio of the blind to the entire population of the United States is 1 to 2,328. The states lying between the parallels of 30° and 35° have 1 to 2,525 inhabitants; between 35° and 40°, 1 to 1,750; between 40° and 45°, 1 to 2,460.

Comparing these statistics with those of most of the countries of Europe, we find a great predominance in favor of the United States.* According to M. Dufau,

Prussia has 1 blind person to 1,401 inhabitants.

In Prussia

of the number are under 15 years of age. In

Sweden only of the whole number.

The number of the blind in France is about 33,000

*It is questionable, however, whether the U. S. Census of 1850, is as complete and reliable

as those of European countries.

In Southern and Central Europe the number of blind males exceed the females; in Northern Europe, on the contrary, the females exceed the males.

INSTRUCTION OF THE BLIND.-Although individuals among the blind have, in all ages, attained to a fair amount of education, yet it does not seem that the idea of making provision for their education, as a class, entered into the minds of either Greek or Roman. They procured a precarious subsistence by begging by the wayside, or at the entrance of the temples; but there was no one who would teach them more honorable means of obtaining a livelihood, or rescue them from the inseparable evils connected with a life of mendicancy. Nor amid the noble and philanthropic reforms introduced by christianity, was there any provision made for the training and instruction of the blind. They begged on as before, though now frequenting the doors of christian churches, instead of heathen temples, and asking alms in the name of Christ instead of Esculapius. There were in each age, however, some, who feeling themselves moved by the impulse of genius, sought for more elevated society, and more ennobling pursuits, than the beggar's position and employment. The first public provision ever made for the blind is believed to have been the founding of the Hospice des Quinze-Vingts at Paris, by Louis IX., better known as St. Louis, in 1260. It was established by the kindhearted monarch for the benefit of his soldiers who, in the campaigns in Egypt, had suffered from ophthalmia. As its name implies, it was intended for fifteen score or three hundred blind persons; though for many years past, the number of inmates has been about 400, including the families of the blind, who are also domiciled within its walls. Its annual income is about $80,000. The allowance to a blind man is $89 per annum; if he is married this is increased to $110; if he has one child, $120; if two, $130.50; and so on, adding $10.50 for each child. Besides these, it has about six hundred pensioners, who do not reside at the hospital, but receive according to their age and circumstances, $20, $30 or $40 per annum, to aid in their support; some of those entitled to a residence in the Hospice, prefer to remain with their families, in other parts of the city; to these a pension of $50 per annum is paid; no instruction is attempted, and the temptations to a life of indolence are such as to render this asylum any thing but a model institution.

A similar, but less extensive institution, was established at Chartres, in the latter part of the thirteenth century; and in 1350, was No. 10-[VOL. IV. No. 1.1-9.