=Stanz.=--In the meantime, the French Revolution broke out, and Pestalozzi, influenced by the writings of Rousseau, became an ardent champion of the new order of things. He seems to have acquired considerable political influence, as the Directors of the Government of Switzerland thought it necessary to win him to their cause by giving him a political office. They therefore asked him what office he wanted, and he replied, "I want to be a schoolmaster." Accordingly, when the French had pillaged the inhabitants and burned their homes, Pestalozzi was sent to Stanz,--the only village left in the canton of Nidwalden,--to establish a school.[137] Now for the first time he found himself in the calling for which his whole nature had yearned, for which he was peculiarly suited, and in which he was destined to become famous. At the age of fifty-three Pestalozzi began his work at Stanz. The government gave him an empty convent in which to hold his school, and, before it was ready for occupancy, children flocked to it for admission. The devastation of the land by the French and the consequent lack of the necessities of life among the people increased the difficulties of Pestalozzi's task. His own description of the beginning of his work is full of eloquence. Speaking of the school, he says, "I was among them from morning till evening. Everything tending to benefit body and soul I administered with my own hand. Every assistance, every lesson they received, came from me. My hand was joined to theirs, and my smile accompanied theirs. They seemed out of the world and away from Stanz; they were with me and I with them. We shared food and drink. I had no household, no friends, no servants around me; I had only them. Was their health good, I enjoyed it with them; were they sick, I stood at their side. I slept in their midst. I was the last to go to bed and the first to rise. I prayed with them, and taught them in bed till they fell asleep." How true is the saying that, "He lived with beggars in order that beggars might learn to live like men." Thus living with them, teaching them, inspiring them to be good, devoting his whole thought to their welfare, Pestalozzi, who was described as "either a good-natured fool, or a poor devil, who was compelled, by indigence, to perform the menial office of schoolmaster," began a work that has revolutionized educational method.