ABSTRACT
How radically the course of Pestalozzi's life had altered since the days at Stans when for several months he had alone looked after the education of a large group of children! It had been a time when he had lived 'as if in a fairy world' and 'in the full realization of my dreams'. 1
Whereas the success he had enjoyed there had been personal and intimate, the success which came to him at Yverdon was the very opposite. Here the eye of publicity scrutinized his every movement, assessed and criticized his every achievement. In Stans success or failure in his enterprises rested alone with him, but here there were others who were ready to appropriate praise to themselves while putting the blame on colleagues. As in Burgdorf, Pestalozzi remained a source of inspiration, a subject for admiration, and yet he was no longer the master of his fate:
I am in my enterprise like a boat lost in the raging seas. The control of my enterprise rests no more in my hands; I am in its power and must let myself be swept along wherever it wishes. So far its course has been smooth and strong, yet I follow it with a trembling heart - it is beyond my strength to resist.2
