Page:The "Trial" of Ferrer - A Clerical Judicial Murder (IA 2916970.0001.001.umich.edu).pdf/12

 France, where he remained in Paris during fifteen years. During those fifteen years of voluntary exile, his ideas underwent great modification. He became convinced that a beneficent change could not be brought about by violent revolutions, but had to be the result of education. From that moment on, education became his hobby; he turned his dreams towards a reform of the whole system of education, and little by little lost all the connections with the political movement in Spain, which he had kept up đuring the first period of his exile. To quote his own words:13 "When Zorilla died, I lost all my faith, which was already weakened enough, in the results of a revolu- tion carried through by superficial revolutionists, themselves victims of the same prejudices as the monarchists whom they pretend to unsaddle. From that time on, I applied all my activities to the foundation of a school which, in my humble opinion, could serve as a model for all those which some advanced societies were trying to establish, with the aim of safeguarding the children from the treach- erous teaching of the official schools. Such was the origin of the Modern School." But Ferrer, poor and unknown, could never have put his projects into execution had it not been for a stroke of good fortune. While in Paris he made the acquaintance of a French lady, Mlle. Meunier, to whom he communicated his enthusiasm and who, at her death, left him a piece of property in Paris estimated at $120,000. Ferrer then re- turned to Barcelona, determined to use this money for the sole purpose of putting his educational projects into exe- cution. Although it was donated to him, personally, and without any conditions as to its use, he refused to spend any of it on his children,29 and he himself continued to live very modestly. He even incurred the displeasure of " From s đeclaratlon published In "Fraetidor," a republlcan week- iy of Barcelona, February 8, 1901. 18 With the exception of a small income for his eldest dayrhter who was struggling for a living.