Pestalozzi Leonard and Gertrude Book

PESTALOZZFS LEONARD AND GERTRUDE TRANSLATED AND ABRIDGED BT EVA CHANNING ,3Di O HHtTfife. GO., PTJBLISHEE8 TRANSLATORS PREFACE.-PESTALOZZIS Leonard and Gertrude was first published m the year 1781, when about one fourth of the whole work appeared. Three more volumes came out in 1783, 1785 and 1787. In 179092 a second edition, revised and condensed by the author, appeared in three volumes. When Pestalozzi collected his works, and had them published by Cotta in Stuttgart 1819-26, he remodelled the first edition, especially the last three volumes, expanding it to such, a degree that the whole work was intended to occupy six volumes. Of these, only the first four appeared, the manuscript o the fifth being lost after the authors death. Seyff arths more modern edition, which fills five volumes, aims to hold fast to what is best in the first edition, without losing sight of the added material in the third, often calling attention in the notes to the divergence of the two. An abridged translation of Leonard and Gertrude is beset with many difficulties, since the different editions vary consid erably from each other, and it is impossible to hold to one oi thorn consistently throughout. In the preparation of the present book the only acceHsible material was the following the cheap Hoclam edition, comprising the first two volumes aone, and fol lowing m the main the original edition the expanded but incomplete Cotta edition the eclectic edition of Seyff arth in five volumes and the latters shortened popular version in one . volume 1874, KANSAS CITY, MO PUBLIC LIBRARY iv TRANSLATORS PREFACE. A more tedious style than Pestalozzis can hardly be imagined. Despite the sound common sense and rare insight into human character everywhere displayed, it is impossible to read half a dozen pages without a disposition to yawn. This circumstance, added to the unwieldy dimensions of the work, may serve as some excuse for the wholesale process of abridgment adopted in the present volume. Owing to this condensation, much of the quaint simplicity of the original has of necessity been sacrificed, although it has been retained to some degree in the dialogues. The scenes with Gertrude and her children have suffered the least mutilation of any in the book, since they are not only among the most charm ing, but also possess the greatest value from an educational point of view. Externally, Leonard and Gertrude occupies a somewhat pe culiar position in literature, since it is neither precisely a story, nor a pedagogical treatise. It might rather be called a realistic picture of Swiss peasant life in the last century, which if not of absorbing interest, yet contains much that is curious and instruc tive concerning old manners and customs. But the moral value of the work is far more than this. The village of Bonnal is intended to typify the world, and in describing the measures taken to reform the corruption and raise the moral standard of this little community, the author expresses his views on some of the greatest social and political questions of all ages. His opinions and theories on educational topics are scattered inci deiatally throughout the book, although they find their fullest expression in Chapters VIII, X, XVI, XVTT, XXIII, XXY, XXXT, XXXIL It is hoped that the present shortened version of Leonard and Gertrude, despite its many imperfections, may secure for this remarkable book of a remarkable man a still wider and more appreciative circle of readers than it has hitherto found INTRODUCTION. THIS homely tale was not written for the modern novel-reader, tt is a story of deep and ardent love, not for an individual, but for the wretched, the weak, and for children. Though he wrote much, the author could tell no tale but this. Its purpose was his earnest inner life, and its details a picture of his own surroundings, as humble and as realistically depicted as anything in Heyse or Auerbach...Read More