Part 3
“The short space of time which we had before us, rendered every moment precious. We divided the day into three parts. The first was from sunrise to eleven o’clock, when we breakfasted. The second from noon to sunset, when we supped. The third from supper till ten or eleven o’clock at night, making in all fourteen or fifteen hours of study in the twenty-four. We devoted much of this time to lessons in reading, which the wretched manner in which they had been taught, their detestable accent, and strange tone of voice, rendered a most necessary, but tiresome duty. The grammar, too, of which not one of them had the least idea, occupied much of our time. People who have been brought up in towns can have no conception of the difficulty which mountaineers and rustics, whose ideas are confined to those objects only to which they have been familiarized, find in learning this branch of science. There is scarcely any way of conveying the meaning of it to them. All the usual terms and definitions, and the means which are commonly employed in schools, are utterly unintelligible here. But the curious and novel devices which must be employed have this advantage,--that they exercise their understanding, and help to form their judgment. Dictation was one of the methods to which I had recourse: without it they would have made no progress in grammar and orthography; but they wrote so miserably, and slowly, that this consumed a great portion of valuable time. Observing that they were ignorant of the signification of a great number of French words, of constant use and recurrence, I made a selection from the vocabulary, and I set them to write down in little copy-books words which were in most frequent use; but the explanations contained in the dictionary were not enough, and I was obliged to rack my brain for new and brief definitions which they could understand, and to make them transcribe these. Arithmetic was another branch of knowledge which required many a weary hour. Geography was considered a matter of recreation after dinner; and they pored over the maps with a feeling of delight and amusement, which was quite new to them. I also busied myself in giving them some notions of the sphere, and of the form and motion of the earth; of the seasons and the climates, and of the heavenly bodies. Everything of this sort was as perfectly novel to them, as it would have been to the islanders of Otaheite; and even the elementary books, which are usually put into the hands of children, were at first as unintelligible as the most abstruse treatises on mathematics. I was consequently forced to use the simplest and plainest modes of demonstration; but these amused and instructed them at the same time. A ball made of the box-tree, with a hole through it, and moving on an axle, and on which I had traced the principal circles; some large potatoes hollowed out; a candle, and sometimes the skulls of my scholars, served for the instruments by which I illustrated the movements of the heavenly bodies, and of the earth itself. Proceeding from one step to another, I pointed out the situation of different countries on the chart of the world, and in separate maps, and took pains to give some slight idea, as we went on, of the characteristics, religion, customs, and history of each nation. These details fixed topics of moment in their recollection. Up to this time I had been astonished by the little interest they took, Christian-minded as they were, in the subject of Christian missions; but, when they began to have some idea of geography, I discovered that their former ignorance of this science, and of the very existence of many foreign nations in distant quarters of the globe, was the cause of such indifference. But as soon as they began to learn who the people are who require to have the Gospel preached to them, and in what part of the globe they dwell, they felt the same concern for the circulation of the Gospel that other Christians entertained. These new acquirements, in fact, enlarged their spirit, made new creatures of them, and seemed to triple their very existence.
“In the end, I advanced so far as to give some lectures in geometry, and this too produced a happy moral development.
“Lessons in music formed part of our evening employment, and those being, like geography, a sort of amusement, they were regularly succeeded by grave and edifying reading, and by such reflections as I took care to suggest for their improvement.”
The unremitting labours of Neff destroyed his health, and he was at length obliged to quit the inclement district in which he had accomplished so much good. He lingered for some time in a state of great debility, and died at Geneva on the 12th April, 1829.
We cannot better conclude this brief and imperfect notice of a truly valuable and delightful book, than by the following observations of its author on the character of the admirable individual whose noble labours he has recommended to the imitation, not only of every Christian minister, but of every one, however humble, who feels a desire to advance his own real happiness and that of his fellow-creatures:--
“It was his anxiety to build up the Christian on a foundation where self dependence, vain-glory, and imaginary merit were to have no place whatever; and yet every act of his ministry proved that he set a just value on knowledge and attainments. It was his labour of love to show, that whenever any addition is made to our stock of knowledge, we not only gain something in the way of enjoyment, but are laying up a store for the improvement of our moral and religious feelings, and of our general habits of industry. The spiritual advancement of his flock was the great end and object of all his toils; but no man ever took a warmer interest in the temporal comforts of those about him, and this he evinced by instructing them in the management of their fields and gardens, in the construction of their cottages, and in employing all his own acquirements in philosophy and science for the amelioration of their condition.... He so condescended to things of low estate, as to become a teacher of a, b, c, not only to ignorant infancy, but to the dull and unpliant capacities of adults. Beginning with the most tiresome rudiments, he proceeded upwards, leading on his scholars methodically, kindly, and patiently, until he had made them proficients in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and could lead them into the pleasanter paths of music, geography, history, and astronomy. His mind was too enlarged to fear that he should be teaching his peasant boys too much. It was his aim to show what a variety of enjoyments may be extracted out of knowledge, and that even the shepherd and the goatherd of the mountain-side will be all the happier and the better for every piece of solid information that he can acquire.”
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Footnote 1:
The High Alps were originally peopled by Christians who fled to these sterile and gloomy mountains and valleys to escape persecution for their religious opinions. They were a hiding-place for centuries.
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STATUE OF MAJOR CARTWRIGHT.
[Illustration: A statue of a man, seated, in short trousers and a long coat or robe]
A statue to the memory of Major Cartwright has lately been erected, by public subscription, in Burton Crescent, where the venerable reformer for many years resided. It is of bronze, and was executed by Mr. Clarke, late of Birmingham.
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Transcriber’s Notes
This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text. New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain. Itemized changes from the original text:
• p. 170: Added closing bracket after subtitle of article “Health and Longevity.” • p. 171: Added hyphen between “of” and “England” in phrase “the North-of-England Medical Journal.” • p. 172: Added hyphen between “foot” and “passengers” in phrase “and also to foot-passengers.” • p. 173: Added comma after phrase “freighted with timber and naval stores.”