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compulsory and in some families, it was said, the parents allowed the children to decide for themselves whether they should go to school. But then as now, education did not take place only in school. Bräker was fortunate in having a father who, though the range of his interests was very narrow, could and did read about them, and set an example to his son of thinking about what he read and discussing it with others more learned than himself [autobiography chapter 23].

In the 18th century the better educational institutions were usually the private enterprise of dedicated individuals, and there were two such schools in Bräker's environment. One school in Lichtensteig was run by a pastor from Bern, J.J. Lutz, in his own home. Its curriculum was wide enough to include history, geography and "natural history" - the rudiments of science. Another school, in Wattwil, was run by Bräker's friend Johann Ludwig Ambühl and his father. The younger Ambühl was a man of wide interests and enthusiasms, including mathematics, science and avant-garde literature, good qualifications for a successful teacher. He had been assisting his father in his work since the age of twelve. So, of course, had Bräker, set to do a man's work when barely adolescent, heavy manual work that might well have driven all thoughts of study out of his head from sheer exhaustion.

Missing out on education was chiefly due to the inability of poor parents to do without their children's labour. Bräker himself was desperately calculating his children's earning-power when they were still under school age [autobiography chapter 70]. Judging from what happens in under-developed countries today, girls would have been kept out of school more often than boys, to help with housework and minding younger siblings. They would also have been held back by the attitude that education is unnecessary for girls and will only make them discontented and disobedient. In Bräker's environment this attitude would have been applied to some extent to peasant boys as well, both secular and religious authorities feared revolution by the lower classes.

Religious education, however, would have been approved of, as a means of reconciling poor people to their lot and helping them to live upright lives. In this respect Bräker's family seems to have been somewhat exceptional, helped, perhaps, by exceptionally dedicated pastors. Pastor Simmler says that even his confirmation candidates, in their late teens, knew very little about the Bible, though many of them were very willing to learn. "I often did not know whether to rejoice or weep, when I saw the astonished interest and wonder at all these stories, on the faces of the young people so neglected in this respect". He quotes one parishioner who told him that he enjoyed reading the Old Testament "because there's some fine tales in it, about wars and that". Pastors did not often visit the members of their flock and were not always very welcome when they did; the good relationships between Bräker's father and Pastor Näf, or between Bräker himself and Pastor Imhof, were apparently unusual. Outward observances, such as regular attendance at Sunday services, and everyday family prayers at home, were quite general, but often carried out in a mechanical manner, as Bräker protests in his mini-sermon on the Lord's Prayer [see diary, 1769].

Bräker also protested throughout his life against the persistent misinformation, in the form of superstitious beliefs, which maintained his compatriots in their ignorance. He was particularly exasperated by the belief in portents, that is: that unusual events in the natural world, mostly in the weather, were forecasts of disasters sent by God, so that believers might repent of their sins. Bräker originally held this belief himself, but gradually developed violent objections to it, mainly because it conflicted with his idea of God, whom he came to think of as merciful rather than vengeful. I think he was also influenced here by his lifelong interest in the weather, in which one can easily perceive the beginnings of a scientific outlook, as he speculates about why the weather varies in different places, and how the various influences on it - season, land height and formation and so on - interact. It was also a subject of quarrels between him and his wife, she was a firm believer in portents, and this probably intensified Bräker's vehemence against them.

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