Delaware inquirer. (Wilmington, Del.) 1859-18??, 1859-09-10

qulVOcally Jonn Bulllsh 10 tne enu-noJ oh'
of us ever caught or thought of catching th'
right information; and, whether the fault
originated merely in want of ear, or that We
could not make the right use of your noses
it is quite certain that all of us had either nC
accent or wrong one. The German was as
bad as the French il was q Swiss, not 0
German, abounding in patois phrases and
provincialisms--in short, most hybrid
affair, to say nothing of its being as much
over-gutteral as the last was subnasal. With
regard to Spanish and Italian, as the English
did not consort with either of these nations,
all they ever acquired of their languages were
such oaths and mauvais mots as parrots pick
up from sailors aboard ship, which they re-
peated with all the innocence of parrots.-
Thus, then, the opportunities offered for the
acquisition of modern languages were plainly
defective; and when it is further considered
that the dead languages remained untaught
may. were literally unknown, EXCEPT to a
small section of the school, for whom kind
Providence had sent valued friend precep-
tor in DR.. M, (whose neat Greek charac-
teIs were stared at as cabilis.icalb by the other
masters of the Pensionat, )-and, finally,
that our very English became at last defiled
and corrupted, by the introduction of vari-
ETY. of foreign idioms, it will be seen that for
any advantage likely to accrne from the poly
glot character of the institution, the Tower OF
Babel would have furnished every whit as
good school for languages as did our tur-
retted chateau. And now, if candor has
compelled this notice of some, it must be ad-
mitted, serious blemishes in the system of old
Pestalozzi, where is the academy without
themi
Whoever hopes a faultless school to see,
Hopes what meier was, nor is, nor is to be.
Meanwhile the Swiss pension was not with
out solid advantages, and might justly claim.
some regard, if not as school for learning,
at least as a moral school its inmates for the
most part spoke truths respected properties
chewed mischief, were neither puppies, nor
bullies, nor tale bearers. There were, OF
course, exceptions to all this, but then they
were exceptions; nor was the number at any
time sufficient to invalidate the general rule
or to corrupt the better principle. Perhaps
ten hours daily attendance in class, a coarse,
spare diet, hardy and somewhat severe train
ing, may be considered by the reader as offer
ing some general propriety of behavior. 1t
may be so but we are by no means to ad-
nit, that the really high moral tone of the
school depended either upon gymnastic exer-
cises or short commons, nor yet arose from
the want of facilities for getting into scrapes,
for here, as elsewhere, where there is Will,
there is ever q way. We believe it to have
originated from another souree-in word,
from the encouragement held out to the study
of natural history, and the eagerness with
which the study was taken up and pursued
by the school in consequence. Though Pes-
talozzi might not succeed in making his disci-
pies scholars, he certainly succeeded in ma
king many among them ndtardtiSts: and OF
the two-let us ask it without ofence-whe-
ther is he the happier lad Ito say nothing OF
the future man) who can fabricate faultless
and immaculate iambics to or
der or he who, already absorbed in scan
ming the wonders of creation, seeks with un-
tagging diligence and zeal to know more and
more of the visible works of the great poet
of NatureH
The pension, during the period of our So
Jour at Yverdun, contained about hundred
and eighty eleves, natives of every European
and Oriental states, whose primitive mode OF
distribution into classes, according to age and
during school hours, was COM
pletely changed in playtime, when the boys,
finding it easier to speak their own tongue
than to acquire new one, divided them
selves into separate groups according to their
nations. The English would occa-
sionally admit German or Prussian to
their corterie; but that was favor seldom
conferred upon any other foreigner for the
Spaniards, who were the least well-conducted
of the whole community, did not deserve it
among them were to be found the litigious,
the mischief-makers, the vuarrellers, and
for, as has been limited, we were not all hon
est-the exceptional thieves. The Italians
we could never make out, nor they us; we
had no sympathy with Pole or Greek; the
Swiss we positively did not like, and the
French Just as positively did not like us so
how could it be otherwseH The ushers, for
the most part trained up in the school, were
an obliging set of men, with little refine
nent, less pretension, and wholly without
learning.
Punishments were rare indeed, fogging
was absolutely prohibited and the setting an
imposition would have been equally against
the qeaius locs, had lesson books existed out
of which to hear it afterwards. A short i'm
prisonment in an unfurnished room-a not
very formidable black hole-with the loss OF
o doutte, now and then, and at very long in
tervals, formed the mild summary of the Pc
nal 'code Pestalozzi."
It was Saturday, and half holiday, when
we arrived at Yverdun, and oh the confusion
of tongues which there prevailed All Bed
lam and Parnassus, let loose to rave together,
could not have come up to that diapason of
discords with which the high corridors were
ringing, as, passing through the throng we
were conducted to the venerable head of the
in his private apartments bey-
ond. In this gallery of mixed portraits
might be seen long-haired, high-cheek-boned
Germans of scantling of French gamins much
better-dressed; some dark-eyed Italians
Greeks in most foreigneering attire here and