PESTALOZZI
PETTY
au moyen dge, 2 vols., 1873) were crowned
by the Academy. His chief work is his
Histoire de Florence (6 vols., 1877-84), but
the work of most interest to Rationalists is
his Les Libertins en France au XVII siecle
(1896). D. Feb., 1901.
PESTALOZZI, Johann Heinrich,
Swiss educator. B. Jan. 12, 1746. Ed. Zurich University. At the university Pestalozzi joined a group of advanced students, and already began to dream of reforming education. He studied theology and law, but, under the influence of Rousseau s ideas, devoted himself to scien tific agriculture. In 1767 he bought a hundred acres and endeavoured to carry out the new ideas. It was in educating his children according to Rousseau s theory that he discovered its defects and invented a system of his own. He converted his house into a school for poor children in 1775 ; but he failed five years afterwards, and applied himself to the general reform of education by books. The first volume of Leonard and Gertrude appeared in 1781. From 1787 to 1797 he was again engaged in agriculture. He was made a citizen of France in 1792. After teaching in various places, he, in 1805, established his famous Institute at Yverdun, and his theories were discussed all over the world. The best account of them is his Wie Gertrud ihre Kinder lehrt (1801). E. Langner, in a careful study of Pestalozzi s views (J. II. Pestalozzi s Anthropologische Anschau- ungen, 1897), shows that he held the same opinion as Rousseau in regard to religion. He was a Deist with an ethical regard for Christianity. He "rejected all sectarian claims," and said : " Christianity is purely
morality National religions, which have
made emblems of State and profession of the Fisherman s Ring and the Cross, these Christianities are not the teaching of Jesus " (Works, 1869-73, vol. x, 194-95). In the course of a Report to Parents on his Yverdun school he says : " We seek the foundations of dogma and of all religious opinion in human nature." D. Feb. 17, 1827. 595
PETRUCCELLI BELLA GATTINA,
Ferdinando, Italian historian. B. 1813.
He took part in the revolutionary move
ment of 1848, and was elected to the
Neapolitan Parliament. At the triumph of
the reactionaries he fled, and his property
was confiscated. He settled in France,
and gave splendid assistance with his pen
to the French Rationalists. He returned
to Naples with the Garibalclians, and was
in 1861 elected to the first Italian Parlia
ment, where he sat on the extreme left,
among the republicans and strong anti-
clericals. His chief work is his piquant
history of Papal elections, Histoire diplo
matique des conclaves (4 vols., 1864-65),
which was bitterly resented at Rome.
" No other Italian, and few Frenchmen,
wrote French as well as he," says Larousse,
In 1871, at the triumph of the moderates,
he was expelled from France, and he ceased
to be a friend of that country.
PETTY, William, first Marquis of Lansdowne, Earl of Shelburne, statesman. B. May 20, 1737. Ed. privately and Oxford (Christ Church). He entered the army, and served in France and Germany. In 1761 he was elected to both the English and Irish Parliaments ; but his father died, and he took his seat in the English House of Lords. In 1763 he was admitted to the Privy Council, and was appointed President of the Board of Trade. Very liberal in his ideas, he sturdily opposed the prosecution of Wilkes and lost the King s favour. In 1764 he entered the Irish House of Lords as the Earl of Shelburne. In 1766 he became Secretary of State for the Southern Department. He supported the Noncon formists in their claim of relief, strongly opposed the American and the Dutch War, and pleaded eloquently for Irish and other reforms. In 1782 he was made Secretary of State for the Home Department, and he continued his attempt to secure reforms. In the same year, 1782, he became Premier; and he made peace with America ; but he was treacherously attacked, and he resigned. Two years later he was created Viscount
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