_Of the Agricultural School at Hofwyl, in Switzerland._
(From the Edinburgh Review.)
Mr. de Fellenberg was first known merely as an agriculturist, and
still keeps up his original establishment of husbandry at Buchsie,
an old chateau near Hofwyl; but agriculture was always with him
a secondary object, and subservient to that system of education
to which his thoughts were very early directed. He is a man of an
unusually ardent as well as persevering turn of mind, and conceals a
character of deep and steady enthusiasm, under a very calm exterior
and manners. Although born to patrician rank in his own country, he
early imbibed those political doctrines of which such tremendous
misapplication was so soon to be made in his neighbourhood: and
the disappointment filled his mind with melancholy views of the
moral state and future prospects of mankind. It appeared to him,
that the world was blindly hurrying on to irretrievable ruin; and
that a sounder system of education for the great body of the people,
could alone stop the progress of error and corruption. He has
sometimes mentioned in conversation the particular circumstances,
which finally determined him to the course he has since pursued.
In the year 1798 or 1799, he happened to be at Paris as one of
the commission sent by the provisional government established in
Switzerland after the French invasion; and in that capacity he
had an official conversation with the Director Reubel, at his
country-house near Paris,--in the course of which he laid before
him, in glowing colours, a picture of the miserable state to which
his country was reduced, and which might soon lead to a _Vendean_
war, destructive to both parties. The Director appeared for some
time to listen with profound attention, and Mr. de Fellenberg
ascribed his silence to conviction of the truths he urged, and
something like a feeling of compunction,--when, all at once, the
worthy republican throwing open a window, called aloud to one of his
servants--'_Jacques! apportez moi Finette!_' A little spaniel was
brought accordingly with its litter of young ones in a basket--and
there was no chance of his hearing another word about Switzerland
or liberty! After this rebuff, he gave up the idea of serving his
country as a politician; and, asking for his passport the next day,
made the best of his way home, determined to set about the slow work
of elementary reformation, by a better mode of education, and to
persevere in it for the rest of his life!
It is now upwards of twelve years since Mr. de Fellenberg undertook
to systematize domestic education, and to show on a large scale
how the children of the poor might be best taught, and their labour
at the same time most profitably applied: in short, how the first
twenty years of a poor man's life might be so employed as to provide
for his support and his education. The peasants in his neighbourhood
were at first rather shy of trusting their children for a new
experiment; and being thus obliged to take his pupils where he
could find them, many of the earliest were the sons of vagrants,
and literally picked up on the highways; and this is the case with
one or two of the most distinguished. He had very soon, however,
the good fortune of finding an excellent co-operator in the person
of a young man of the name of Vehrli, the son of a schoolmaster of
Thurgovia, who, coming to Hofwyl in 1809, to see the establishment
and inform himself of the mode of teaching, was so struck with the
plan of the _school of industry_, that he offered his son, then
about 18, as an assistant. This young man devoted himself from that
moment to the undertaking.----Although admitted at first to Mr. de
Fellenberg's table, he soon left it for that of his pupils, with
whom he has ever since lived night and day. Working with them in
the fields, their playfellow in their hours of relaxation,--and,
learning himself what he is to teach as a master, his zeal has not
cooled a moment during a trial of more than ten years' unremitting
exertions, under the guidance of his patron, and assisted now
by four other masters. The number of his pupils has increased
successively to 43: They obey him as well as Mr. de Fellenberg,
entirely from love and a sense of duty:--punishment has been
inflicted only twice since the beginning; and their treatment is
nearly that of children under the paternal roof. They go out every
morning to their work soon after sunrise--having first breakfasted
and received a lesson of about half an hour. They return at noon.
Dinner takes them half an hour,--a lesson of one hour follows; then
to work again till six in the evening. On Sunday, the different
lessons take six hours instead of two; and they have butcher's meat
on that day only. They are divided into three classes, according to
age and strength; an entry is made in a book, every night, of the
number of hours each class has worked, specifying the sort of labour
done, in order that it may be charged to the proper account, each
particular crop having an account opened for it, as well as every
new building, the live stock, the machines, the schools themselves,
&c. &c. In winter, and whenever there is no out-of-doors' work,
the boys plait straw for chairs; make baskets; saw logs with the
cross saw, and split them; thrash and winnow corn, grind colours,
knit stockings, or assist the wheel-wright and other artificers, of
whom there are many employed on the establishment. For all which
different sorts of labour an adequate salary is credited each boy's
class.
Mr. de Fellenberg indeed observes, that the boys being most of them
only just come to the age of productive labour, it is presumed the
Establishment will not only support itself in future, but repay
past expenses; particularly as certain outfits charged to the first
years will not recur again.--He observes also, that several grown
boys have been suffered to go away, and have been replaced by young
children, to the great injury of the Establishment. It may be added,
that the pupils have been indulged of late with better clothes than
formerly, or than is strictly necessary, as well as a better table;
and that, from attention to their feelings, the cast-off clothes
of the _school of the rich_ are not turned to their use, but given
away to the poor of the neighbourhood, that they may not appear in
the light of dependants on any but their adoptive father and their
own labour. It is undoubtedly a very striking circumstance, that
only one, out of the whole number of boys admitted into this school
since the beginning, has been dismissed as irrecoverably vicious;
all the others have got rid of their former habits;--and, when final
sentence was passed upon the unfortunate boy, the others begged
leave to contribute each one _batz_ towards a present to him, that
he might remember them with kindness.
The labours of the field, their various sports, their lessons, their
choral songs, the necessary rest, fill the whole circle of the
twenty-four hours; and judging from their open, cheerful, contented
countenances, nothing seems wanting to their happiness.--But it is
a great point gained, to have brought young men to the age of 18
or 20, uncontaminated by the general licentiousness which prevails
in the country. When their time is out, and they mix with other
people, they will no doubt marry; but the probability is, they will
be more difficult in their choice than other men of the same rank,
and will shrink from vulgarity and abject poverty. Long habits of
self-restraint, too, will enable them to look out with comparative
patience for a suitable establishment, before they burden themselves
with a family. In short, if the only check of the mild kind to an
excessive increase of population is self-restraint, from motives of
prudence and morality, where may we look for it with better hopes
than among the pupils of Mr. de Fellenberg?
We shall now proceed, however, to lay before our readers a more
detailed account of the internal management of the school of
industry. The lessons are given mostly _viva voce_, and various
questions continually interposed, respecting measures of capacity,
length and weight, and their fractional parts; the cubic contents
of a piece of timber, or a stack of hay; the time necessary to
perform any particular task, under such or such circumstances; the
effects of gravitation; the laws of mechanics; rules of grammar and
different parts of speech, &c. &c. The boys endeavour to find the
solution of arithmetical and mathematical problems without writing,
and at the same time to proceed with the mechanical processes in
which they may happen to be engaged. Aware of the difficulties with
which they are thus made to grapple, as it were, without assistance,
they are the more sensible of the value of those scientific short
cuts, which carry you in the dark indeed, but safely and speedily,
to your journey's end, and the more delighted with their beauty
as well as their use. They acquire the _rationale_ of the thing,
together with the practice; their understandings are exercised,
and their attention kept awake. None of them are ever seen to look
inattentive or tired, although just returned from their day's
labour in the fields. Contrivance, and some degree of difficulty to
overcome, is a necessary condition, it would seem, of our enjoyments.
The pupils are not always questioned, but, in their turn, propose
questions to the masters, and difficulties to be solved, which
they do sometimes with considerable ingenuity.--They draw outlines
of maps, from memory, exhibiting the principal towns, rivers,
and chains of mountains; they draw correctly from nature, and in
perspective, all sorts of machines for agriculture; and are very
fond of trying chymically the different sorts of soil, and have
tables of them very well arranged.
Various gymnastic games are also practised occasionally; but mental
exercises find their place better after hard labour: They do indeed
in the fields full as well as on the benches of the school. For
instance, when the boys are employed in digging trenches to irrigate
a meadow, and while directing the water along artificial ridges,
and round hills, so as to regulate the fall and distribute the
moisture equally, they put each other in mind of what they have
heard about the laws of hydraulics. When they clear a field of the
stones turned up by the plough, and are directed to separate those
which are calcareous, in order to be burned into lime, they know and
practise the different tests by which their nature is ascertained,
and can point out in the horizon, the particular mountains which
have furnished these various fragments.
In order to encourage the attachment to property acquired by our own
industry, the pupils are allowed certain emoluments, such as the
proceeds of the seeds they collect, some part of their gleanings,
and what they raise in a small garden of their own; all which
accumulates, and forms a fund for the time of their going away. No
ambitious views are fostered by this mode of training the poorest
class, beyond that of being good husbandmen. The pupils of the
_school of industry_ are not raised above their station; but their
station, dignified and improved, is raised to them. It has been
remarked before, that men born in the poorest class of society,
constituted as it is at present, especially those who subsist in
part on public charity, find it almost as difficult to get out of
their dependant situation as a Hindoo to leave his cast,--kept
down as they are by a sort of inbred ignorance and improvidence,
and, above all, by their multitude; which is one of the worst
consequences of that improvidence. The higher and middling ranks
scarcely keep up their numbers any where; while multiplication goes
on, unrestrained by any consideration of prudence, precisely among
those who are least able to support a family. The poor may, in the
bitterness of want, exclaim against taxes and ill government, and
certainly not always without reason;--but the worst government is
their own of themselves.
_Agricultural labour_ is not the only occupation which can be made
the base of such an education. _Manufactures_, with all their
disadvantages, might answer the purpose, provided the children were
not collected together in vast numbers in the same rooms--provided
they were under the care of intelligent and kind masters and
overseers, and were allowed gardens of their own, and a certain
number of hours each day to work in them, or take exercise in the
open air--all which must abridge necessarily the time allotted to
productive labour, or to learning. One of the great advantages of
husbandry is, that it affords sufficient exercise, and leaves more
time for mental improvement. Such of Vehrli's pupils as have a turn
for any of the trades in demand at Hofwyl--wheelwright, carpenter,
smith, &c. tailor or shoemaker--are allowed to apply to them. These
boys will leave the Institution at the age of one-and-twenty,
understanding agriculture better than any peasants ever did before,
besides being practically acquainted with a trade, and with a share
of learning quite unprecedented among the same class of people; and
yet as hard-working and abstemious as any of them, and with the
best moral habits and principles. It seems impossible to desire or
imagine a better condition of the peasantry.
Public education, Mr. de Fellenberg observes, is too generally a
uniform process, imposed indiscriminately, and by force, upon every
variety of disposition, talents, and character. His object, on the
other hand, is to suit the education to the pupil, and not the
pupil to the education.--A good preceptor should be an experienced
friend, who guides,--not a master who commands, and, above all,
not an irascible master. Punishments and rewards he considers as
equally objectionable: for fear makes slaves, and the love of
distinction unfolds, in the end, most of the bad passions. _Do as
you would be done by_ is, he maintains, the only safe rule of
conduct to inculcate; a lively feeling of right and wrong, goodwill
and kindness to all men, the only sentiments fit to be encouraged.
Emulation, perhaps, is too powerful and universal a stimulant to be
altogether excluded; but it needs more frequently to be repressed
than excited. Such a vigilant and cautious system of training would
be best carried on certainly under the parental roof, in a well
regulated and united family; and therefore he wishes a school to
resemble as nearly as possible such a family, and to be as unlike as
possible to a mere manufactory of learning.
The whole course of studies may be considered as divided into three
periods, of three years each. In the first, they study Greek and the
Grecian History, the knowledge of animals, plants, and minerals.
In the second, Latin, Roman History, and the Geography of the
Roman world. And in the third, Modern Languages and Literature,
Modern History to the last century, and Geography--the Physical
Sciences, and Chymistry. During the whole nine years, they apply to
Mathematics, Drawing, Music, and Gymnastic Exercises.
The geometrical representation of near objects--the house, the
garden, the course of the river, the surrounding country, the
mountains beyond it, taken by approximation in the shape of a
map--is the natural introduction to Geography. When the pupils feel
a curiosity to know more of the world than they can see, maps are
then laid before them, and the globe and its uses are explained.
They are made to delineate correctly, from memory, the shape of
continents and seas; and to place and name the principal chains of
mountains, the course of rivers, the boundaries of states, their
provinces and capitals;--and this leads to an inquiry into the
particular history of each, and their natural productions.
Drawing is early cultivated, from natural objects first, then
by copying, and finally by composing characteristic heads, or
rather endeavouring to imitate the effect of passions on the
human countenance. The execution is generally correct, but hard
and dry--in the style of Perugino certainly, rather than of
Rembrandt. Music likewise is much practised; not however with a
view to execution, but for the sake of the Poetry of music, and its
Piety--as an elevated language, in which certain ideas and feelings
are expressed, which no other human means can reach or convey. The
gymnastic exercises have for their object, health, and the dexterous
use of the bodily faculties; but they never are exhibited in public,
and made an occasion of show and display.
It is the endeavour of the master to encourage his pupils to express
freely, both in writing and conversation, the opinions and feelings
which have been suggested by their reading; and thus to enable them
to rectify their mistakes, either as to facts or inferences; never
dictating to them what they should think, and yet restraining and
directing the flights of a young imagination. The pupils do not
read the history of the last century before their twentieth year,
when judgment is sufficiently matured; and even then, all reference
to the politics of the day is avoided, that they may enter the
world with minds wholly free from party spirit, and able to form
unprejudiced opinions. Common newspapers and political pamphlets are
never seen at Hofwyl.
The study of Mathematics continues during the whole period of
education, to an extent determined entirely by the individual
capacity and disposition of each pupil, who is not hurried on or
retarded for the sake of keeping pace with others. Every problem is
analyzed and explained thoroughly before passing to another. The
interest and attention of those of ordinary abilities, is kept up by
practical applications of the science; and none but those properly
qualified apply to the pure mathematics: In doing so, they are
carefully guarded against the pride of successful calculation, which
is apt to overlook Divine power in the consideration of its own.
At the same time that Mr. de Fellenberg dwells with delight and
confidence on the natural proofs of the existence of the Supreme
Being, he admits fully, and establishes the necessity of a
Revelation to supply the insufficiency of human reason. Socrates
himself, he observes, did not know how to establish the dogma of the
unity of God. His pupils, brought up in purity and simplicity of
heart, under the influence of reason and kindness, are in a great
degree Christians before they are taught Christianity,--and best
prepared, therefore, to understand and receive the Divine doctrine;
but all dogmatic points are reserved for the ministers of their
respective communions, who are to instruct them; and controversial
disputes are unknown and interdicted.
It has been said also that Mr. de Fellenberg's husbandry is ruinous.
This would only add to the wonder of his being able to do what he
does by his own slender means; but, in point of fact, his farm
affords a very considerable profit. We have, upon this point, the
evidence of a gentleman well versed in those matters, Mr. Crud of
Genthod, one of the commissioners appointed by the Swiss Diet to
inquire into the agricultural establishment at Hofwyl, the result of
whose statements is, that the farm (214-1/2 poses, equal to about
172 English acres) has produced _net_ in 4 years from 1810 to 1814,
56,705_l._ Swiss money, and for one year 14,176_l._ which, deducting
interest at 6 per cent. on 14,382_l._ the average value of stock on
the farm, or 843_l._, leaves a clear profit of 13,313_l._, equal to
3_l._ 17s. 6d. Sterling a pose (nearly equal to 4/5ths of an English
acre;)[1] and, valuing the farm at the high price of 750_l._ a
pose, (47_l._ Sterling,) gives something more than 8-1/4 per cent.
interest, net of all charges. The farm is undoubtedly benefited by
the Institution, which affords a ready market for its produce, and
perhaps by the low price at which the labour of Vehrli's boys is
charged: But the farm, on the other hand, affords regular employment
to the boys; and also enables Mr. de Fellenberg to receive his
richer pupils at a lower price than he could otherwise do. Hofwyl,
in short, is a great whole; where 120 or 130 pupils, more than
50 masters and professors, as many servants, and a number of
day-labourers, six or eight families of artificers and tradesmen,
altogether about 300 persons, find a plentiful, and in many respects
a luxurious subsistence, exclusive of education, out of the produce
of 170 acres, and a money income of six or seven thousand pounds,
reduced more than half by salaries, affords a very considerable
surplus to lay out in additional buildings.
[1] The pose is 40,000 square feet of Berne, equal to 32,500 of
Paris, and about 35,000 English feet, that is, equal to about 4/5ths
of an English acre.
Not satisfied with what we had ourselves learned and thought on
this subject, we have been anxious to learn what was thought of
it in the neighbourhood, and by persons not particularly friendly
to the Institution. We have scarcely heard an objection against
the _School of Industry_. The opinion is _universally_ favourable
to it; and though there is more difference of sentiment as to the
_higher school_, the worst we have heard is, that the pupils are
not so advanced in any one science as some young men brought up in
other schools are. It is admitted that they are eminently moral and
amiable in their deportment; that they are very intelligent; and
that their ideas have a wide range. In short, the objection, as it
appears to us, is, that they are likely to become liberal-minded
gentlemen, but not professors. Hofwyl is not a college where
the only object is learning;--still less a monastery, where an
austere and uniform rule prevails;--it is a little world, composed
of different ranks and professions, and where individuality of
character is preserved, and a variety of talents unfolded.
The patricians of Berne have been generally, from the beginning,
unfavourable to the Institution; yet several of them have their sons
in it, and many more are now endeavouring to procure admittance.
We have learned very lately, that a decided and active enemy, many
years first magistrate of the district where Hofwyl is situated,
and lately dead, enjoined expressly in his last-will, that his sons
should, if possible, be educated exclusively at Hofwyl!
_Treatise on Agriculture._