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 The new education by work, 
 
 3 1924 031 388 527 
 olin,anx 
 
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 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
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THE NEW EDUCATION 
 
 BY WORK, 
 
 ACCORDING TO FEOEBEL'S METHOD. 
 
 BY 
 
 BEETHA VON M AEENHOLTZ-BUELO W . 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 MRS. HORACE MANN, 
 
 WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF 
 
 PROF 
 
 NOA. 
 
 PHILOTECH NTt) INSTITUTE, 
 
 106 MARKET ST. 
 18 76. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by 
 
 Miss E. P. Peabody, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusette. 
 
EDUCATION BY V/ORK. 
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 The labor question demands solution more and more pressingly, 
 and it is more and more generally recognized tliat this solution is 
 bound up with that of an improved popular education. But, in 
 their present form, education and the public schools do not meet the 
 demands of the time, in respect to industrial qualifications. The 
 chief of these demands is to wake up every workman's conscious- 
 ness upon the aim, the means, and the mode of his particular work ; 
 and upon its conformity to law ; that is, to create in him the 
 knowledge of the rule upon which he works. But this rule, in 
 every case, can be no other than the general one underlying all cre- 
 ativeness and production, and which has till now been hidden in 
 darkness. 
 
 The discovery of a new truth in educational science is needed, — 
 a truth respecting the human being in his essence and development, 
 — which shall find its application in educational art. This new 
 truth is to be found in Froebel's system, — but it is as yet unrecog- 
 
II 
 
 nized by the world, which sees nothing in the Kindergarten but 
 mere child's play ! There is no conception that the Kindergarten 
 is founded upon a new understanding of the human essence. 
 
 The great in the little is always overlooked at first. Each age re- 
 fiises to listen to its own prophetic voices, condemning them before 
 the truth is recognized in them. But that which an age brings 
 forth — what is born in it — is just what it needs for the fulfilment 
 of its own problem ; — if it casts this aside, it avenges itself, if not 
 on the present, at any rate on the next generation. The point is 
 not whether the truth which the prophets have to announce be great 
 or small — ^but that it must take some- form in order to be received 
 and comprehended. Truth is great in every form ! 
 
 Froebel has shared the fate of other prophets, great and small. 
 He was not listened to, — but condemned — when his living voice was 
 crying to his contemporaries, "Come, let us live with our children, 
 that the new generation may be fitted for answering the questions 
 which lie in wait for it ; questions which the passing generation can 
 never solve." 
 
 "And to fit the young generation for answering these questions, 
 Froebel would use child's play ! the heroic deeds of the future must 
 germinate in gardens of children ["exclaims the irony of the present, 
 smiling compassionately at the ardor of the enthusiast. 
 
 But have not all the heroes and benefactors of the world lain in 
 the cradle? Halve not great natures which — horn in millions— ^re 
 unfolded but rarely in each century, first grown to maturity, in this 
 or that direction, through cherishing and educating care f Is it not 
 proved that great men, in most cases, have had especially good 
 mothers 2 
 
 The great question of our time is directed to the principle 
 and method of growth {das Werden). The development of that 
 which has been attained, (das Gewordenen), will teach how to 
 gain farther progress ; how the old can become new while the bud 
 is-ripening to fruit. "How did political institutions originate ?" 
 
Ill 
 
 asks the politioian. The social and national economists ask, "What 
 origin have the manners and customs of nations ? how do they ac- 
 quire their wealth and increase their riches ?" The naturalist and 
 physicist take the microscope, and contemplate the life and strife of 
 nature from the original cell ; investigate the forces which make the 
 blade of grass grow, and set the telegraph in motion. Whoever 
 wishes to find and reveal what helps to progress, in any form, goes 
 back to the origin and beginning of the development of what now 
 exists. Above all things, the being of man should be studied in its 
 germ ; we must go back to the source of his growth if better com- 
 prehension of it is to lead to a better fostering of his development. 
 All great men were once little children: — as the shoot, so the tree; 
 as the child, so the man. 
 
 The great discoveries and inventions recorded in the world's his- 
 tory, have had reference, for the most part, not to that which man is 
 of himself, but to his surroundings, to the gratification of his wants, 
 to the increase of his enjoyments, to the world outside of him : sel- 
 dom to investigation into his own being, or its improvement. 
 Hence, the science of man is the youngest of all the sciences, and' 
 has not yet gone beyond its A, B, C. Physiology has indeed dis- 
 sected and analyzed his body to its finest nerve-fibres ; but psychol- 
 ogy and philosophy have occupied themselves only with the grown 
 man, and they are at a standstill in the region of abstraction, while 
 pedagogy and the school have considered the formation of the intel- 
 lect exclusively. But the science of man begins at his birth ; the 
 CHILD, the germ of the man, is its first object. Whoever under- 
 stands the germ, whoever nurtures it in conformity with its destiny, 
 understands and nurtures the man. Upon that which men are to 
 become, depends the happiness of each one, and the happiness of 
 nations, far more than upon that which they have.attained already. 
 Although, in the field of national economy, science is opening the 
 richest mines, and multiplying material possessions a thousand fold, 
 yet without inward elevation and increased moral worth, the gener- 
 
IV 
 
 al happiness will never be truly promoted ; the golden age of imdis- 
 turbed, peaceful prosperity, /or all, will never appear. 
 
 Therefore we must not shove aside the consideration and study 
 of childhood and youth ; and the Kindergarten must be counted 
 among the acquisitions of the present ; though to expect the uni- 
 versal improvement of the world from this institution alone, would 
 be childish folly. Not upon one truth, one thought, one act, even the 
 greatest, depends the salvation of the world. Each and all must 
 contribute to it. If a new spirit is to arise in the human being 
 himself, then must a new inspiration penetrate the atmosphere oi 
 life in every direction. If a new thought is to ripen new fruits in 
 the field of education, it must not only embrace the first stage ot 
 life, it must take in the whole season of youth and transform all it 
 touches. Only when Froebel's thought lives and thrives in the fam- 
 ily and school, as well as in the Kindergarten, can it create better 
 men by better education. 
 
 The directing spirits of every age have always felt obliged to lay 
 stress upon that which had hithejio been unrecognized, and to make 
 jjrominent in all departments of life the antithesis to the dominant 
 onesidedriess. For the bettering of the educational ideas of his time, 
 Rousseau was obliged to vindicate the rights of the individual as 
 such, and also the ill-understood rights of nature. Fichte had to 
 combat the too infleiible selfregard of degenerate individualism, 
 and therefore made prominent the social side, — education in and 
 for the whole community. Pestalozzi took up the interest of the 
 oppressed, and on the education of those who were quite neglected, 
 laid the foundation of the modem education of the whole people, 
 and opposed object teaching to the prevalent abstract method ol 
 instruction. 
 
 Froebel combines all these momenta, and would equally regard 
 the individual and the social man ; give the family and the life out- 
 side the family, the same educating influence ; and make both ol 
 these factors of human life work upon childhood from the begin- 
 
ning. As the first of Ms assistauts, he called upon the female sex, 
 (that it, as the mother of mankind, may become at last its true ed- 
 ucator), to learn the art and science of the calling which has been 
 peculiarly assigned to it. The renovated and sanctified family is, 
 in his view, the beginning of the renewal of society, because the 
 family is the elementary link of communion in church and state. 
 But how can the family become the fountain of new and original 
 life for a rising generation, tliat is, regenerate a dead society with 
 new and original points of view, and with creative power, unless 
 some new and original Idea shall enkindle it ? 
 
 The present generation is sick with knowing, and can only be 
 made healthy by doing. The powers which, in the youth of the 
 race, contended with the forces of nature, and the monster of sav- 
 agery { Wildnisse), were spent, later, in prize-combats and battles, 
 or in crusades and tournaments : these powers now rest in part on 
 the school-bench, and later fall a prey to Philistinism, or are 
 squandered in the empty delirium of pleasure. Childhood needs a 
 larger scope for the exercise of its powers ; youth, a substitute for 
 the heroic deeds of the pa.st, since unused power, which serves not 
 for good, turns to evil. But youth has other forces than those 
 which the school, that is the literary school, makes demands 
 .upon. Cnly the slow method of individual labor and individual 
 experience can prevent that precocity, which, like a worm, gnaws 
 every bud that germinates in the child's soul, and kills its own 
 thinking, because the communicated thought of the old exhausts the 
 soil like a borer. But the moral power sufiers a still greater injury ; 
 for the mere apprehension of right and wrong never teaches how to 
 do right, or to conquer the passions, and sin is only doubled when 
 it is recognized as such; that is, wrong doing only becomes sin 
 when it is conscious to itself. Rousseau is right when he says 
 " Every too early knowledge plants the germ of some vice." 
 
 The latest pedagogical reformers have all tried to introduce an 
 education for work, or at least to use work as an assistant in educa- 
 
yi 
 
 tion. Pestalozzi, Fellenberg, Fourier, Lancaster, and Owen, etc.,have 
 all declared learning and working intellectual and bodily exer- 
 cises, to be indispensable for childhood and youth, and have in- 
 troduced them into their educational institutions. These insti- 
 tutions and all of those modeled upon them, ( in which field and 
 garden culture, handicrafts of all kinds, and bodily exercises have 
 alternated with instruction), have not by any means yet been esti-' 
 mated in their whole importance; the good accomplished by them 
 has not been sufficiently recognized; otherwise they would have been 
 more widely spread. But there is a ground for them which was un- 
 recognized till Froebel came. In these institutions, bodily and me- 
 chanical labor alternate with instruction, but are not the means ot 
 instruction. Therefore much time is drawn away from instruction, 
 to enable the pupils to gain the necessary mechanical dexterity ; 
 and those pupils who are to prepare themselves for learned depart- 
 ments, higher offices, and public places, are hindered too much to be 
 able to prepare for their examinations, and at the same time satisfy 
 the demands of positive knowledge for their callings. Herein may 
 be a chief reason that, hitherto the industrial schools have been 
 used only for reform houses, contrivances for the improvement 
 of juvenile criminals, and^ only rarely as appendages to literary 
 schools and the higher educational institutions. 
 
 But there are two conditions to be fulfilled, if labor as a factor of 
 education is to find general application to all classes of society. 
 One of these conditions is, to transform work in such a manner 
 that it may be intellectual as well as mechanical discipline, that 
 it may become a part of instruction in the full sense of the word, 
 and consequently unite intellectual and bodily training. The other 
 condition is, that body and mind not only be generally cultivated 
 in the earliest childhood, but that mechanical dexterity should also 
 be partly attained in the first years of life, and attained truly 
 while the child is active— not merely mechanically, but at the same 
 time with his intellectual pc wers ; since at no time less than in ear- 
 
VII 
 
 liest childhood should the bodily and intellectual powers be put in- 
 to activity separately, that being the time when the bodily exist- 
 ence yet predominating, has to make its claims felt, and the soul is 
 developing itself in and with its organs. 
 
 But this problem Froebel has solved by his kindergarten method, 
 in which his gymnastic play exercises all the powers and organs in a 
 natural manner, and the rule applied in playing, {rhythm — the fun- 
 damental law of a;ll activity practised in playing) leads even the 
 young child to free creativCness. 
 
 Thus are workj play,and instruction (self-instruction) welded into 
 one, as preparation for all the demands of later life, and without in 
 any way prejudicing the innocence of the earliest childhood, or its 
 play ; on the contrary offering to the originality of that age the life 
 element befitting it. 
 
 It will perhaps be asked, "How can such contradictions be recon- 
 ciled ?" But they are reconciled in Froebel's method, many a gen- 
 ial thought Solving apparently unsolvable contradictions. 
 
 If Newton discovered the law of gravitation which regulates the 
 motion of heavenly bodies, why may not Froebel have discovered the 
 gravitation law of human motion or activity, that isj of the human 
 spirit? 
 
 A law must be at the toundation of the activity of man, as well 
 as at that of the activity of nature, if they both have one creator. 
 
 The organism of our body moves strictly according to law ; all its 
 functions are subjected to a fundamental law which bears various 
 names. Whether called action and reaction, inspiration and expir- 
 ation, or "law of opposites," is indifferent. 
 
 The implements of work are consciously or unconsciously copied 
 from the organs and limbs of our body, and both are made use of 
 according to the same mechanical rules. 
 
 Because activity, and its necessary organs and implements, are 
 mutually adapted, they must be subjected to the same uniform action 
 of law. And since in every conscious activity, the mind as well as 
 
VIII 
 
 the body is necessary as an organ, so also for the same end in both, 
 the saihe principle must apply, and likewise for human development 
 in general, which proceeds from the activity of all the organs. 
 
 Philosophy has frequently searched for the law of human devel- 
 opment, and has stated it in various formulae, yet has never brought 
 it into practical application where it alone can and must be found — 
 IN EDUCATION ! But education, which consists only in furthering 
 and assisting natural development, will remain without ground or 
 foundation, so long as the laws of the development of its subject are 
 unknown. As the gardener can only cherish his plants eflfectually 
 when he is acquainted with their nature, their kind, and the condi- 
 tions of their prosperity, (that is, with the laws of their develop- 
 ment), so can the care-taker of men, "the kindergartener," only 
 reach her aim, when she knows the nature of her nurslings, and can 
 thereby attend to the freedom of their development into every pecu- 
 liar form. 
 
 That it is necessary to begin every art, every trade, and in short, 
 all kinds of handiwork with the elements of all knowledge, every 
 one knows. But what the elements of every work are — that every 
 one does not know. 
 
 In order to learn to read, one must first learn the A, B, C. To be 
 able to work productively, one must learn the A, B, C of matter, 
 and also the A, B, C of things, since all things are of material na- 
 ture. But this A, B, C of things consists in their common proper- 
 ties, for example; form, color, size, number, sound. Whether we 
 mean artistic or industrial work, it always has to do with form, col- 
 or, dimensions, etc., and the organs must be carefully developed and 
 exercised therefor, if the work is to succeed. Before object teach- 
 ing in the school undertakes this practice, things and their proper- 
 ties must have been perceived by the young denizens of earth — per- 
 ceived as an impression, though not understood. But this impres- 
 sion or merely indefinite perception, does not yet give the A, B, C of 
 
IX 
 
 things clearly and definitely ordered, any more than looking at books 
 teaches the child the ktters. 
 
 Now this A, B, C of things v/hich must unquestionably precede the 
 A, B, C of words, since the sign(the letters) presuppose the concrete 
 to which they refer ; this most original of all perceptions, of all un- 
 derstanding and learning, had never been found before Froebel. 
 'i'hings and their properties are certainly there, they are also per- 
 ceived by every child of sound senses ; but they have not been set in 
 order, so as to be irresistibly impressed, in their original and simplest 
 elements, on the still blank tablet of the child's soul. This discov- 
 ery, and the clothing of it in the form of play, is Froebel's genial 
 thought, and the new and important thing in his- method. 
 
 Only in this way, is it possible that the very young child, by his 
 own labor, that is by self-activity, can himself work out his intel- 
 lectual powers in their entire individuality; and the only proper 
 nourishment, the milk of his earliest development, be administered 
 to the young mind. The materials which this A, B, of the pro- 
 perties of things (of all things) represent, are far more easily to be 
 combined by the as yet unpractised organs of the child, than the 
 letters of words be made intelligible to him. The figures and images 
 combined by himself, express the soul of the child yet hidden from 
 himself, better than words could do it, just as the artist expresses 
 his idea in works of art, rather than in words. 
 
 But the discovery of such a plastic A, B, C is not only the begin- 
 ning ot the knowledge and mastery of the material, it also brings the 
 free methodical management of every work, by means of which 
 the workman arrives at the comprehension of its theory : Labor is to 
 be raised to science,only when it becomes an intellectual product of 
 the individual. The labor question aud the educational question of 
 the present time have become one, and can find their solution only 
 through each other. When the relation of human activity(or work) 
 to the essence of man and to his destiny is fully recognized, when 
 the history of the development of mankind according to its historic- 
 
 II 
 
ally cultivated and psychological signification becomes the law and 
 . standard of education, only then can education truly prepare the 
 human being for his life work. 
 
 But in this sense work will not only become science, it will serve 
 above all as a means of spreading morality, and exalting the dignity 
 of man. The spread of morality requires the conquest of selfish- 
 ness ; requires Love which practises self-sacrifice for the best good of 
 others, and the advantage of the common weal. And this love is 
 only possible through the exaltation of the beautiful, through ideal 
 contemplation. Work done with the consciousness of serving the 
 ' commonweal out of love for fellow-men, in the service of humanity, 
 this alone can givfe moral elevation, as artistic work is able to do in 
 the service of beauty. And in this ideal sense, work is the highest 
 need of our time, when the realistic, industrial, and material tenden- 
 cies are turning the attention of mankind exclusively to the out- 
 ward. Without ideal counterbalance, the rising generation would 
 sink into the abyss of the grossest egotism and materialism. Here, 
 Froebel's educational idea takes in all classes of society, not only 
 workmen in a special sense, but the crude mass of men who are still 
 waiting to be emancipated from the mire of brutality and gross igno- 
 rance. For all are to be fitted to work for all, that is, for the deeds 
 which regenerate life and bring about the solution of the social 
 question ! 
 
 Here, indeed, will another and fully authorized voice be raised, to 
 exalt Religion, the awakening of the religious sense, as the first 
 means of redemption from the evils of the time, only acknowledg- 
 ing Froebel's discovery to be the promoter of material well-being. 
 But to combat this last error, to point out and illustrate one of the 
 principal sides of the new education, (since Froebel never considers 
 an advance of humanity to be attainable, without an advance in the 
 knowledge of the highest, without an approach to the image of 
 God ), to make this side of his system understood, needs a deeper 
 penetration into his leading idea than a treatise like the present 
 
XI 
 
 permits. The understandiug of the religious and christian aspect 
 of the matter, is lirst to be prepared for, through understanding 
 it in its generality. 
 
 The following views claim nothing more than to be a modest at- 
 tempt to throw light on one side of a great thought, and to impart 
 an impulse, so that more capable minds shall investigate the field 
 upon which Froebel added many a seed-corn to the sowing of his 
 predecessors, but which is little known, as yet. 
 
 Men of science, not only pedagogues, but also laborers in the so- 
 cial province, must perceive that without a new, better foundation 
 in humanity itself, there can be improvement on no side. Above 
 all is there need ot more human power and perlormance. Political 
 economy increases its wealth only thereby. Scientific conquest, 
 and state, national, and social institutions do not reach their aim, so 
 long as the heavy, rude mass of gross ignorance bars progress. But 
 whoever would increase the powers of man, must develop the pow- 
 ers of childhood. 
 
 Millions of powers still slumber unawakened, and countless germs 
 wither unnurtured in the child's soul; as yet the fullness of child- 
 hood is not understood, and no one dreams what was lost in himself, 
 in the budding time of his existence. If society has new, higher 
 duties to fulfil towards itself in the present, there is no higher one 
 than this, to nurture the powers of childhood; and no obligation 
 which insight and knowledge, power and capacity impose upon the 
 individual, can weigh more heavily than this, — ^that new elasticity 
 be awakened in the rising generation, to make it capable of creating 
 the new and better organization of society for which we are striv- 
 ing. Freedom in pol'tical, moral, and social relations, rests upon 
 the same divine law that Froebel offers as the norm of education, 
 as the guiding thread to the pupils of his Kindergarten. 
 
 There are yet wanting minds of equal power, which, rethinking 
 Froebel'? thoughts, shall clear up what is obscure and imperfect in 
 his manner of expression, fill up the gaps, and furnish, in an intelli- 
 
XII 
 
 gible manner, the commentaries necessary to every new thought, al- 
 though already thousands bring active zeal to the execution of the 
 work. Among the latter, as everywhere, are a great part of those 
 so-called "practical people," who pounce upon everything new, 
 work at it as a mine of their own discovery, but treat every Idea as 
 a chimera. 
 
 The great share in this work, which comes to women, can only 
 be carried out by the participation of the whole sex, the majority of 
 whom are to be determined only by masculine authority. On that 
 account, may the men who influence their time by thought or deed, 
 not pass by those friends of humanity, who, by fulfilling their duty 
 towards childhood, the inheritor of their pains, devote their love 
 and their work to their brethren, in the field where ripens the seed 
 of the future. 
 
 Froebel charged women to carry out his work ; but women must 
 call upon men for assistance, since every truly human work needs 
 the participation of both sexes. Only by the united work of all, 
 can the moral powers and insight of the rising generation be awak- 
 ened; but this is necessary in order to follow that one of the two 
 streams of time which leads to spirituality and morality, according 
 to the will of the Most High Ruler of the universe, and to with- 
 stand that one which must lead to the abyss of complete material- 
 ization. 
 
 Froebel's great cry to establish educational unions in every com- 
 munity, also to make the people capable of self-help for this earnest 
 business, died away, owing to the indifference of his contemporaries. 
 Would that he might now be heard ! and that the following pages 
 may also open some minds and hearts to that call. 
 
 BERTHA VON MAKENHOLTZ-BUELOW. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 I. RELATIONS OF KINDERGARTEN PLAY TO WORK, 1 
 
 II. PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR INTRODUCING 
 
 KINDEEGARTEWS, ... 27 
 
 III. THE EDUCATION OF THE KINDERGARTENERS IN 
 THE ■WISDOM OF MOTHERS, . . .39 
 
 IV. FROEBEL'S INTERMEDIATE CLASS, . 56 
 
 v. schools for work, . . . .76 
 
 vi. school-garden and youth-garden, . 108 
 
 vii. objections, ..... 150 
 
 translator's appendix. . . .168 
 
EDUCATION BY WORK. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 RELATIONS OF KINDEBQARTEN PLAY TO 'WORK. 
 
 Higher cultivatimi and increased capacity in the laborer, is the begin- 
 ning of the solution of the social question. — schulze-delitzsch. 
 
 True freedom for the people is only possible through true culture 
 of the people. The watchword of our time, "the rights of the peo- 
 ple," involves, also, the watchword, "Education of the people," in 
 order that the power to fulfil duties may correspond to rights. 
 
 The social reform of our time requires a new foundation in no 
 province of life more pressingly than in the education of the work- 
 ing classes ; for nowhere has the revolution in circumstances had a 
 deeper influence ; nowhere are so many new demands made, or 
 such increased claims put forward, as on that class of society whose 
 emancipation constitutes the moat important question of the pres- 
 ent. 
 
 The new standpoint which work — and with it the workman — takes 
 in human society, and will take more and more, imposes absolutely 
 new conditions upon the education of the people. It requires not 
 pierely better, higher school-culture for the improvement of the un- 
 
derstanding in the usual sense : it is important, above all things, 
 that the inventive power, — real productivity, — be awakened in every 
 one as much as possible; for work must be elevated to sci- 
 "^NCE, in order to make the day laborer the intelligent master of the 
 machine, which is the only slave of to-day. A higher degree ot 
 joerfeotion, in almost every kind of work, demands an independent 
 anset; mastery of the material; a freedom of movement in techni- 
 cal practice, which borders upon artistic power ; and these always 
 involve a certain degree of individual creativeness, or intellectual 
 productivity. 
 
 This demand for intellectual cnltare for. the sa^e of work, coincides, 
 in part, with the demand for general intellectual culture ; but is 
 notexacily the same. The most accomplished chemist may, for ex- 
 ample, be unable to apply his science to this or that trade. The 
 special knowledge of the workman must always stand in reference 
 to practice. Nevertheless, his knowledge will be no less a means for 
 his general human culture, than to the learned man are his special 
 sciences, although they do not, of themselves, contain general cul- 
 ture. The working classes need the elements of the sciences, and 
 the knowledge of their results in application. Now, more than ever, 
 the education of the people — or the public school — has to adopt and 
 to nurture the element of work, o/ work as a thfory, for more than 
 ever is it to be education for work, since it is education in general 
 that forms morally good and rational men. Education in general is 
 yet so imperfect because the being of the child has been so little 
 understood. 
 
 Education for work, in a special sense, whijh ought to make a 
 part of every general purpose, does not yet properly exist, at least 
 not such as our age demands. For it cannot surely be called a real 
 education for work, when the children who have left school go to 
 learn this or that calling. If a boy goes into the workshop as an 
 apprentice, the craft to be learned is shown to him mostly as mere 
 mechanical manipulation, wliich he imitates without being able to 
 give an account of i he why or the wherefore. Besides, the majority 
 of the apprentices are treated much more as underlings, or in some 
 cases as servants, than as pupils who are to learn for their own im- 
 provement. It must be acknowledged that the majority of children, 
 particularly the children of the poor, enter the workshop so unpre- 
 pared, that the master workman would be obliged to devote the. 
 
greater part of his time to them, if he would be a teacher in the full 
 sense of the word; and the scholars of the highest standing in gen- 
 eral culture enter the workshops not much better prepared for work 
 than the children of the public schools. To these, indeed, has been 
 given a scientific ground-work for their calling ; they have learnt 
 the theory, but the concurrent practice is wanting, which the ap- 
 prentice in the workshop carries on mechanically, and generally 
 without any theory, that is, uncoi^aciously, like a brute animal. 
 
 Girls also receive in the industrial schools, through their various 
 callings, such as sewing, tailoring, embroidery, dress- making,millin- 
 ery, scarcely any instruction, or, at least, no fundamental, theoretic 
 instruction, and always work rather imitatively than creatively. 
 They also are wanting more or less, in the right preparation for 
 truly understanding the theory of their work, even if they were in- 
 structed in it.* 
 
 To meet the higher demands which the present time makes upon 
 handiwork, and to make it at the same time an intellectual activity, 
 there is only one means : the workman must understand the theory 
 of his work ; he must be able to give an account of the reason and 
 aim of his doing. But for this there must be other than what is 
 called the usual school culture, even if this latter did secure the ne- 
 cessary general cultivation of the senses and the powers of the 
 understanding, which is not always the case. It would, indeed, not 
 be sufficient for a thorough education for work, if the Folks schoolsf 
 were more perfectly organized as literary schools for apprentices, 
 necessary as this is for general culture itself. 
 
 The present demand is that labor shall be intellectualized. That 
 can mean nothing else than to transform it into creativeness — ^to 
 raise it to a species of fine art. The artist finds himself again in his 
 work ; if it be a true work of art, a really individual, original crea- 
 tion, not only his idea, his conception, but also his spiritual individ- 
 uality mirrors itself therein. It is because the artist utters himself 
 in his work, represents his own essence in objective form, that it en- 
 sures him true satisfaction. It is the destiny of man to express his 
 own essence, to impart to the objective representation his own pecu- 
 
 * Miss E. Sohallenfeld, of Berlin, has made a worthy beginning, by introducing 
 a theory of woman's handiwork into the schools. 
 
 t VFe translate the original literally because these Folks schools of Germany 
 do not exactly coriespond to our public schools. 
 
liar nature. Only in individual cases does man represent the Univer- 
 sal. Eaphael and Michael Angelo were surely objective in their 
 works, but every connoisseur distinguishes the individual impress 
 in each of them precisely. 
 
 Any handicraft can ensure similar satisfaction, and similar eleva- 
 tion as art, but only when the workman can give to his work an indi- 
 vidual impress ; when he can impart to it something of the spirit of 
 his own invention. But how much preparation does not the artist 
 need for his calling ! Must he not know thoroughly the material 
 which he works upon ? There can be no painter without the know- 
 ledge of colors ; no sculptor, no architect, without the knowledge of 
 marble, and of the different kinds of stone — of the material in gen- 
 eral ; so no artisan can arrive at mastership without knowledge of 
 his material. Almost all labor demands mastery of the material ; 
 and that requires knowledge of it through experience. 
 
 The highest degree of perfection in the trades, equally with the 
 representative arts, requires, also, a considerable degree of aptitude 
 in technicalities. But every species of technicality needs the devel- 
 opment of particular muscles and nerves, namely those of the hand. 
 A kind of hand-gymnastics is needed. 
 
 Without a sense of form, culture of the eye for symmetry and har- 
 mony, without a knowledge of the relations of magnitude and num- 
 bers, consequently without drawing and mathematics, at least in 
 their elements, the humblest artisan cannot attain to that mastership 
 which approaches artistic power. 
 
 Individual creativeness involves freedom of motion, and this is the 
 result of complete command of the material and thoroughly con- 
 quered technicalities, no less than of full consciousness of the aim 
 and means of the work. It presupposes intellectual comprehension. 
 Xt present, only those attain to real mastership in their calling, who 
 are pre-eminently gifted, or who were so fortunate as not to have 
 been neglected in their education, particularly in their earliest edu- 
 cation. And even these have attained mastership chiefly at the 
 cost of their general culture, because there is not sufficient time nor 
 strength left from the toil of the occupation to give attention to 
 anything else. 
 
 Hence the great mass of the working class stiU remain day labor- 
 ers, beasts of burden, machines, without consciousness of human 
 dignity, and the refinements of humanity. What is to become of 
 
these, How are they to earu their bread, when machinery shall per- 
 form ail their rude and mechanical employments ? : The common 
 saying, "Early practice makes every thing easy, " has not yet been 
 sufficiently estimated. Only when in childhood, and even trom the 
 earliest cliildhood, the capacity for the various branches of labor has 
 been sufficiently cultivated by the practice of work; only when edu- 
 cation tor work shall begin with education in general — only then — 
 will " an increased capacity in the laborer, together with his higher 
 cultivation," be possible; and each one will be able to approach 
 mastersiiip in his calling, without neglecting his general Culture, or 
 being obliged to deprive himself of the legitimate enjoyments ol 
 lite. 
 
 In the present circumstances of the working class, an utter neg- 
 lect ol" the po\vers, both of body and mind, is the order of the 
 day. If unhealthy dwelling and bad food do not hinder the healthy 
 development of the body, yet regular exercises of the limbs in 
 young children are wanting, exercises which are necessary to devel- 
 op the full working power ol the man. In the country, in small 
 towns, natural gymnastics, at least, are practised in the woods and 
 tieius, whicli preserve bodily strength and health. But this is only 
 crude jxiwer, which lails in value for work, in proportion as machin- 
 ery supplies its place. The majority of the children in large cities 
 almost perish bodily. If they are to be protected from the dangers of 
 the streets, nothing is left for them but to sit still in musty apart- 
 ments or cellars, without air or cleanliness, while the poor parents are 
 out at their work ; or they are put into temporary asylums, that, for 
 the most part, are not more airy. It is asserted that in Paris, four 
 generations, at most, can be in some degree, healthy and robust; the 
 succeeding generations become more and more feeble and stunted ; 
 and the greater part of the men of genius, who come from the ranks 
 of the people, were born in the villages or small cities. It is a com- 
 mon saying: "Genius is born in the village, but hatched in Paris." 
 One of the reasons of this phenomonen may possibly be that the 
 want of free nature and contemplation, and of impressions from na- 
 ture, is an impediment to the development of intellectual capacities 
 in large cities. Genius, also, needs quiet and self-contemplation, 
 which the bustle of cities does not favor. If man is to obtain the 
 full use of his bodily powers, and that physical development which 
 is a complete capability for work, educational precautions must be 
 III 
 
taken, as they are not now, or only very disjointedly and insuf- 
 ficiently. Gymnastics will, it is to be hoped, soon be common for 
 the whole people, and then an extraordinary impetus will be given 
 to the working force. But there are precautions to be taken. Be- 
 fore the time of gymnastics proper, there must not be wanting 
 gymnastic exercises for the earliest childhood, which especially 
 needs them. Nature like a careful mother, has provided that the 
 child shall not be able to keep still, for motion of all kinds is his 
 greatest need. An education must always take its direction from 
 nature, whose hints are always right, but have not yet been suffi- 
 ciently understood and considered. 
 
 If we wish to find out what nature teaches concerning the law of 
 human development, we must pay attention to the manifestations of 
 the childhood of mankind ; must observe in what manner spontane- 
 ous development has gone on hitherto. The nature of the individu- 
 al is like that of his species, and the measure for the being and na- 
 ture of each one, is expressed in the being and nature of the race, as 
 recorded in history. 
 
 As nature implanted in the child the instinct to move his limbs in 
 order to secure their growing strong, she also gave him the impulse 
 to gather his first experiences of matter itself by continual touching 
 and investigation of surrounding objects, in order to distinguish hard 
 and soft, brittle and flexible, etc. But here, too, educational assist- 
 ance is needful, that the impulse may reach the end for which na- 
 ture gave it, namely, knowledge of the material. 
 
 Without doubt, nature has bestowed upon the child some talent 
 for some branch of human culture. This talent expresses itself as 
 impulse, which urges to this or that activity. Thus the child has a 
 continual desire to use his hands for all sorts of manipulations, 
 which are to be the preparation for technical skill. Left without 
 guidance, this impulse leads to spoiling and destroying, instead of 
 becoming serviceable to creativeness ; leaves the love of destroying, 
 which gratifies the sense of power in the uncultivated, to grow. 
 
 A systematic exercise of the senses, according to the plan of Pes- 
 talozzi, now forms the basis of every regular school, or, at least, is 
 expected to do so. But the senses wake up long before the school 
 period, and because they have no proper exercise, because every- 
 thing is left to chance, they run riot ; and subsequent discipline of 
 the senses in school cannot entirely make up for this previous neg- 
 
lect, even if the child shall attain it. But in most schools, little, up- 
 on the whole, yet exists, to afford sufficient discipline and culture of 
 the senses, though these are so indispensable to the workman, later. 
 The school, as it is now, however boastingly it may have professed to 
 give the requisite education for work, does not do it ; and however 
 great an advance it has made in modern times, gives only a very 
 general and entirely insufficient preparation for any calling. Before 
 the school period, all the preliminary exercises of the powers 
 have been left to chance, and afterwards those preliminary condi- 
 tions of a true education for work, which should have bound the- 
 ory and practice together, are found wanting. 
 
 As we must begin in every thing at the beginning, in order to 
 work successfully ; so also \h& preparation for work must be begun in 
 earliest childhood. Only so, wiU adequate time and power be gained ; 
 and only so, be conformable to nature. That the child must 
 first learn, in order to be able to perform any work, is a fundamental 
 principle, now understood and applied in a one-sided manner. Why 
 should not a child, according to its powers, work while it learns, 
 work in order to learn ? Certainly, childhood is the time of the de- 
 velopment and unfolding of aU the powers, physical and mental; the 
 spring-time of the human bud, which can yet bear no fruit. To 
 work for the results of work, childhood cannot and must not do, for 
 a child's work should be only a means of development. Who does 
 not revolt at the misuse of the working power of children, which is 
 met with in workshops, manufactories, mines, &c. — misuse which is 
 also often seen in the homes of the poor, where the child of seven or 
 eight years of age is obliged to carry and tend the child of one year, 
 all day long ; or to draw water and carry wood ; or to undertake other 
 taaks far beyond the strength of the childish powers, and which, 
 therefore, must needs check development? 
 
 There is but one right kind of work for children, that which merely 
 promotes the development and culture of their powers and talents ; 
 and in the earliest years there is only one right /arm for this work 
 — PLAY ! Did not the human race begin the career of its develop- 
 ment with worMnf/ f In no case did it do so with learning, in the 
 sense of the school ! Before men had schools and books, they were 
 obliged 10 provide for their nearest wants— shelter, food, clothing. 
 The first knowledge sprang from experiences which were gathered 
 by this work ; viz., by their journeys of discovery in their vicinity. 
 
observations of natural products, investigations into the qualities of 
 Lhings, and occasional discoveries and inventions. As children 
 learn from "Robinson Crusoe,'' work was the beginning of cultiva- 
 tion in our race, its first education, the preliminary school out of 
 which science and' art have sprung. Our present education has 
 surely wandered far from the natural path in which the Divine Ed- 
 ucator l«d the human race in its childhood, else would it also begin 
 now with working, not teaming ; not, indeed, working in the sense 
 of coQstraint, but as a free, natural play of the faculties ! 
 
 All development is a species of work — that is, motion, power of 
 impulse, activity, exertion, all have for result the unfettering of what 
 was bound up, — and is the progress toward the attainment of des- 
 tiny. So everything in the organic world work?, from the real 
 power of growth in the plant, to *hat of the higher animal species 
 which work tor man. This endeavor for development, inherent in 
 every organism, brings about the great work of the developrpent ot 
 the universe ; and is the eternal condition of its growth, and there- 
 fore, also, the condition of human growth. 
 
 But outward conditions must harmonize with inward striving, if 
 the end, the unfolding of the organism, is to be reached. The power 
 of growth in the plant needs suitable warmth, light, water, etc. 
 Animals need proper nourishment, motion, and especially the satis- 
 faction of their natural wants, in order that their vital power and in- 
 stinct may fulfil their aim. Many anjmals, when they build abodes 
 or defend their lives, are obliged to make exertions for this by 
 bloody strife with other animals, or by outwitting their enemies. 
 
 The principle of self-activity is the educational principle in the 
 whole of creation. The only difference is, that activity in the king- 
 doms of unconscious nature always reaches its end surely, without 
 useless trying and experimenting; but in man there must be 
 effort. 
 
 The swallow builds its nest without preliminary'teaching ; the 
 bee builds its cell with mathematical precision ; the spider weaves 
 its net with more regularity than the weaver is abletoweavehis cloth. 
 But the human child is wanting in that sure imtinct which never 
 misses its end ; it must learn everything with painstaking, it must 
 reach its goal, that is, provide for this need of culture, through try- 
 ing and experiment, by slow steps of progress. 
 
 Man has been an apprentice from the beginning of his existence ; 
 
the SHrrounding world, his workshop. This apprenticeship of man- 
 kind, which preceded its present partial mastership, repeats itself, 
 in a certain sense, for each child anew. But it begins with his life, 
 not first with the school, nor with formal instruction. The peda- 
 gogues of our time, especially Pestalozzi, have first busied them- 
 selves with the education that takes place before the school period. 
 Hitherto, the early development of the child was, tor the most part, 
 a terra incognita. 
 
 As little as we can tell how the bud of a plant unfolds itself, can 
 we know what passes in the mysterious workshop of the child's soul, 
 or how the first impressions of the outer world waken the slumber- 
 ing life, and images and representations lay the foundation of think- 
 ing. But we know that all development in nature proceeds accord- 
 ing to law ; that the tree cannot bear fruit first, and then buds ; that 
 .spring must always, without exception, precede summer, etc. That 
 a like uniformity must also be the rule' of all intellectual develop- 
 ment is self-evident, but in what the uniformity consists, what its 
 method is, we hardly know yet. The analysis of the child's soul, 
 begun by Pestalozzi, was continued by Froebel, and an important 
 step forw«ird in this knowledge was taken by the latter. 
 
 But Pestalozzi and Froebel, those two genial thinkers and teachers, 
 agree in this ; that there is but one guide in education, the child's 
 own nature. Pestalozzi, like Froebel, started his educational method 
 from the first manifestations of the child's being, from its natural 
 impulses. Both distinguish the manifestations of the soul from the 
 bodily impulses, and both recognize their reciprocal action and the 
 analogy between them. Both desire, not like Fourier, ;t complete 
 gratification of the childish instincts and natural inclinations, but 
 such a use of them as to give a true discipline to the impulses and 
 senses (Sinne) ; to regulate, as it were, the lower propensities and 
 feelings by an early development of the higher. 
 
 The tendencies of the soul are here purposely called impulses for 
 culture, because the word impulse best expresses the condition of 
 non-development, the unconscious, blind pressure of these tendencies 
 in the beginning of the child's life. 
 
 Pestalozzi and Froebel desired no teaching of the earliest child- 
 hood without impressions of the senses, without observation and 
 demonstration ; no mere word-teacKing. But Froebel thinks these 
 not sufficient, and extends the principle of self-activity, established 
 
10 
 
 by Pestalozzi as a fundamental rule, so that the child may teach itself 
 through actual production. Froebel not only wishes for exercise of 
 the limbs and senses, aa exercise, which Pestalozzi lets follow the 
 mechanical handiwork, but for a result, never merely mechanical, 
 but bringing into concurrent exercise the powers of the soul as well 
 as body. The thought has been expressed that a method might be 
 found to enable the gymnastic exercises of adults to be used lor 
 variouh branches of work, in order to make the time spent in the ex- 
 ercise of the muscles useful. The method invented by Froebel, of 
 letting the children practice, by playing, a complete system of gym- 
 nastics, not only of the limbs and senses, but also of all the mental or- 
 gans, has so far solved that problem, that the great majority of chil- 
 dren's exercises have a result. The playing occupations are produc- 
 tive. However small may be the products of a child's work, they are 
 useful to his development, not merely by the experience gained of 
 the material, — size, form, symmetry, etc. ; they also afford to him, 
 the satisfaction resulting from every creative activity that is useful. 
 They become to him, in miniature, what his artistic work is to the 
 artist, a mirror of his being, a measure of his talents and his power 
 (ioennen), be it well understood, not as reflection, but as immediate 
 impression, like everything which works upon the soul in the period 
 of childish unconsciousness. In the first period of life, things leave 
 upon the child only total impressions, details are impressed upon 
 him only by degrees. In this sense, Froebel's discovery and its 
 further improvement are of incalculable use for childish develop- 
 ment in general, but above all, for the true preparation of the chil- 
 dren of the working classes for their later calling, which is de- 
 manded at the present time. It is the beginning of raising work to 
 the rank of science. 
 
 Although Froebel connects his mode of procedure immediately 
 with the natural tendencies of the child, the present limited know- 
 ledge of the profounder reason of his method has called forth the 
 frequent accusation that it is not conformable to nature, that it takes 
 freedom away from childish play, and brings artificialness into the 
 innocent period of childhood. 
 
 No one doubts that it is quite conformable to nature to select /or 
 t'le child, the food necessary to nourish its body ; but it is doubted 
 that the young being can have already spiritual needs ; that his 
 budding soul also needs food ! Satisfaction of his bodily wants and 
 
11 
 
 amusements by child's play is thought to be very well. The majority 
 hold more than this to be unnecessary, and think that at six years of 
 age will come the school to develop the mind. 
 
 But in nature everything has its regular transition. The fruit does 
 not grow out of the leaves ; a budding and blooming season lies be- 
 tween. Will it be conformable to nature, if, after those first years 
 of the child, which have been played through without any sort of 
 rule, indeed, as is often the case, have been dreamed away, — if, after 
 such entirely capricious action of the child, then suddenly, without 
 any transition, the unpractised powers of the understanding be 
 called upon in earnest to learn ? that is to say, called to an occupa- 
 tion for which the child's soul, throughout its past life time has had 
 no preparation f Because it has long been felt that such a method 
 is not conformable to nature, instructive plays have been invented, 
 play schools have been set up, to furnish assistance to the earliest de- 
 velopment. Something, though very little, has been as yet effected 
 thus, but had not the teachings of life itself, both at home and out- 
 side of it, CO operated, still less would have been effected. But the 
 children of the poor have been without even this preparation. Later- 
 on in the time of youth, it is found quite conformable to nature, if 
 one who is gifted with poetical talent writes poetry ; or one gifted 
 with the talent for painting, paints ; but no one thinks that these 
 talents should be left to cultivate themselves, without instruction. 
 Yet the child brought these powers into the world with him, and 
 their germs have grown up within him by degrees, until the real 
 talent could make itself known. The history of the development of 
 great artists frequently shows how favorable influences from without 
 came to the help of the tendency, so as to develop a great talent. 
 If the child Mozart had grown up entirely without musical environ- 
 ment, surely his genius would have been more or less stunted. Why 
 is it not then conformable to nature when a thinking mind which 
 was investigating these germinal tendencies of the child's soul in 
 their manifestations, shaped the plays of the child into exercises for 
 all these talents ? What can the plays of a child exercise except his 
 own powers ? Plays are his^most natural manifestations. Nature, 
 which gave him the impulse to play, but which does nothing in vain, 
 follows out a purpose always in everything, and even in the smallest 
 things. 
 
 Childish play has the liOFTY aim of the cultivation of 
 
12 
 
 BODYAXUMIMJ; that is ita ''deep meauing," and because the im- 
 pulse of the human being does not, lilce the animal instinct, reach 
 its end without help and support, the need of this support is quite 
 conformnble with human nature; certainly there is need of regulated 
 exercises adapted to the end, — methodical exercises, if a true sup- 
 port is to be gained and the goal of these impulses of the soul is to 
 be reached. 2n ature itself always develops and shapes according to 
 law and rule ; therefore must not the soul be supported in a similar 
 manner methodically ? 
 
 It is the prevalent opinion that method limits the freedom of mo- 
 tion ; but every orderly play rests upon rules, and not only the plays 
 which chiefly make a claim upon the mental activity, such as chess, 
 card-playing, etc., are founded on rules, but also ball playing, and the 
 least of the ordinary child's plays, dancing. It surely does not take 
 away the freedom of motion, because dancing and gymnastics must 
 be learned methodically ; but the more according to rule these are 
 learned, the more freedom of motion is possible in them. And the 
 freer the motion, the greater the enjoyment. In like manner must 
 ■ every handiwork, every art, and every science be taught methodi- 
 cally, if they are to be successful. 
 
 [f the child wishes t(j build a house, and I give him the suitable 
 materials and show him how to reach his desired end, I surely do 
 not limit his freedom ; I only fulfil his own wish, and turther his 
 self-activity. But if a play is to be given by word of comman d like 
 the military drill, or if the child is to receive a continuous support in 
 his playing occupations, one might with reason consider it per- 
 nicious. 
 
 According to Froebel's principle, on the contrary, the independent 
 efforts of the child, his own experimentings, are to he stimulated as 
 much as possible. The instruction given to make the play easier to 
 the child, will make it the more independent, give more opportunity 
 for his own creativeness, his own invention. As the instructions of 
 the master to the apprentice in the workshop, first makes it possible 
 for him to do his work with ease and freedom, so the teacher must 
 give the necessary freedom to the play of the child by his assistance, 
 but only as a playfellow, not as a teacher. If that is done, as in Froe- 
 bel's Kindergarten, daily, for a short time during the play-lesson, yet 
 the greater part of the day remains for those quite independent and 
 
even capricious attempts at play, which are not, by any means, to be 
 taken from the child. 
 
 The impulse for action and work makes the child hammer and 
 knead, scrawl and cut whatever falls into his hands. It is the o£Sce 
 of education to come to the assistance of this natural striving which 
 is the child's own work of development. That could not be done, 
 heretofore, with sufficient success, because the right method was 
 wanting, which would determine what should be the right material, 
 as well as the suitable corresponding instruction for its use, and the 
 natural succession of the playing occupations. 
 
 In order that this legitimate method shall be really suocessftil, it 
 must proceed in the same conformity with law and according to the 
 same rules as nature itself Froebel observed the laws according to 
 which the human' soul proceeds, in order to apply the same laws to 
 the physical activity of the child. To securely establish the yet in- 
 sufficiently known psychology of the child, he was obliged to ground 
 his rules giving educational support, upon the childish play, upon 
 the science of the natural process of the child's soul. 
 
 And that he did this, constitutes the importance of his invention . 
 He used for this purpose everything that Pestalozzi had found before- 
 hand, and broke ground still farther. 
 
 The steps in the development of the child's soul, correspond to 
 the progressive steps of development in the organisms of nature. 
 The senses which exist at first, only as a general feeling, at one, 
 gradually wake up, one after another, and demand gratification 
 severally. Before the childish eye perceives colors, it has per- 
 ceived form ; * it has recognized the size of things before it has con- 
 ceived the relation of number: and so on. Froebel's method of 
 play takes this into account in the choice and succession of its 
 objects. According to it, the simplest things ialways pirecede com- 
 pound objects. For example, with the round form (the ball, the 
 original cell), begins a series of playthings for the child, of regular 
 or normal forms, which proceed logically from the simplesl to the 
 many-sided bodies arising from subdivisions of the material. Di- 
 vided bodies lead to comparison of svr/am and their forms. Plane 
 surfaces are cut into strips to embody the line ; little round bodies 
 
 * We doubt this. A child's flret perception Is of light, bright colors ; and then 
 of form.-^-Tranelator. 
 
 IV 
 
14 
 
 (peas) embody the point. Thus a passage is made from the solid to 
 the point, giving appreciation of the relations of form and size, and 
 preparing for the perception of mathematical abstractions, through 
 impressions-^nothmgfaitheT. ±'estalozzi also expressed the need of 
 getting designedly arranged impressions for the child, because every 
 conception — all thinking — comes from representations of the sur- 
 roundings of the child, taken by impression on the senses. The 
 Kindergarten offers for physical and mental development, therefore, 
 
 1. A seiieK of gymnastic pUi/ys, called ''movement plays," which ex- 
 ercise the limbs and muscles as symmetrically as possible. The 
 greater number of these plays are representations from the life of 
 nature, professional life,' etc., and are accompanied by singing, mak- 
 ing the first musical exercise. 
 
 2. Garden culture, giving the first direction to 'the care of plants 
 in the children's own garden-beds, which serves likewise for bodily 
 strengthening, and for what is so important to child-'ife< the con- 
 templation of nature and its products. 
 
 3. Manifestations in the form of plays, which lead the imagina- 
 tion of the child to the life of reality simultaneously with acquisi- 
 tion of skill through the strengthening and flexibility of the fingers 
 and overcoming bodily heaviness and indolence. (Kealization by 
 Embodiment). 
 
 4. Occupations with different materials, teaching the child how to 
 handle each material and to know its peculiarities, through a reg- 
 ular succession, from the ruder to ever finer kinds of material. (El- 
 ements of Knowledge and Command of Material). 
 
 5i A series of little worlcs executed in play by which children are 
 prepared ' for the technicaUties of the usual handicrafts and arts. 
 The ■ greater 'number of these may be reduced to conditions in con- 
 formity with each other, by the building, folding, pricking, stick- 
 laying, the drawing, pea-work and modelling in clay, all of which 
 Froebel suggests, in order to prepare manifold power of technical 
 execution. , 
 
 6. Religions Songs, which are sung at the beginning and closing 
 of the exercises, short prayers (thanksgivings) arranged to tunes, 
 for which children's dispositions are prepared by pointing to the 
 facts of God's goodness and wisdom, patent in nature and human 
 life, that serve to awaken religious sentiment ; also observations of 
 nature and little stories. (Religious Education is, as with every 
 
15 
 
 proper educator, the chief object and aim of Froebel's method, and 
 needs a special treatise to be given elsewhere). 
 
 7. Linear drawing in the net, by which is added to the above exer- 
 cises in work, a method of advancing every child, who frequents the 
 Kindergarten up to his seventh year, to the point of drawing 
 straight lines and curves correctly, and combining them in newly in- 
 vented forms, following the simple law of symmetrical correspond- 
 ence. This drawing, together with modelling and other occupa- 
 tions, serves to make intelligible the relations of size and number 
 and the elements of mathematics, but only as a series of simple ex- 
 periences and sensuous perceptions, not as conceptions of the mind, 
 and without any formula : for instance by laying inch squares, chil- 
 dren can demonstrate Pythagoras's problem of the equality of the 
 ■square of the hypothenuse to the sum of the squares of the katets, 
 one katet being three inches, the other nine. (Elements of Know- 
 ledge and Original Thinking). 
 
 It may arouse opposition that Froebel's method gives physical 
 symbols for mathematical, relations and conceptions ; but does not 
 every teacher of mathematics do the same thing, when, for the easier 
 comprehension of his scholars, he draws mathematical figures upon 
 the blackboard? The science of mathematics rests partly upon ex- 
 periment, as every other science does. There could be no question 
 of the abstraction of the relations of size and numbers, if these re- 
 lations could not be perceived in bodies. If it is true, that there is 
 nothing in the mind (that is, nothing waked up) which is not first in 
 the aense, then must forms be given to the child, to prepare for math- 
 ematical conceptions. This cannot be done better than by Froebel's 
 method, viz., to let the child make combinatioils, while playjlng with 
 different n(jrmal forms, through which mathematical relations mani- 
 fest themselves. Nothing of the conceptions themselves wilLbe, giv- 
 en thus ; (that would be impossible at that early age), but only, per- 
 ceptions upon which later mpthematical instruction can be based. 
 Distinguished mathematicians* have recognized the great import- 
 ance of Froebel's procedure in this relation. 
 
 As these exercises of Froebel's consist in representations of forms 
 and figures, they are plastic, and develop the mind for forms, for 
 symmetry, and for harmony. The combination of forms, colors, etc. 
 
 • For instance, Buckey de Cubiere in Paris. 
 
16 
 
 exercise the faculty of combining and the taste ; and with this last, 
 the sense of the beautiftil and the creative imagination are continu- 
 ally active. The artistic, the aesthetic, the ideal in gerteral, is aroused, 
 not by ftotttemplation, but quite practically ; the child himself execu- 
 ting and forming, fi-eely. (Elements Of the Practise of Fine Arts.) 
 
 It is surely of the greatest importance for the laborer, that the 
 kingdom of the beautiful be unlocked for him in childhood, and 
 that those chorda of his soul resound, which but too easily grow 
 dumb, through the cares of material life, and the din of the work- 
 shop, unless education has paved the way for a certain artistic cul- 
 ture. 
 
 If labor is to do more than the earning of one's bread, it must 
 satisfy the aesthetic mind, or be done as the ftlliilment of duty to the 
 common weal ; it must reach beyond the merely selfish circle of 
 one's own material welfare. The children of the working classes 
 seldom learn this at their homes. "You must work to earn your 
 bread" is what they hear ; what they grow up with, and, for the ma- 
 jority, is the only spur that urges them to work ! 
 
 By working in common in the Kindergarten, and by regulated 
 work in common, the egotistical action of working for one's self, is 
 not meant. At first the work is for the ple%sure of it, thnt indeed, 
 makes it play ; but what is produced by this work, is/o/ th^ enjoy- 
 ment of others, of comrades, of parents ; or for the good of the in- 
 stitution ; perhaps to increase the collection of its beautifiil works, 
 in order that some of the little productions, like mats, straw-braid- 
 ing, papgr and paste-board Work, may be sold to support it. In or- 
 der that it may keep aloof from lust of gain, that frightful moral 
 matsidy of our time, childhood is never to earn for itself. (Elements 
 of Wdrk for Moral Improvement.) 
 
 To tie great mass of th6 children of the lowest class of people, to 
 whom no family love, no domestic life, and especially no loving 
 companionship is allotted-^such a companionship as the Kindergar- 
 ten oflfers, is the greatest blessing for their whole existence. On 
 however low a step of the social ladder they may stand, they learn, 
 in ' this little community, in which each takes his own place, and 
 where all have their rights and fulfil their duties, how to love ; how 
 to devote themselves to something larger and higher than the indi- 
 vidual ; how to prepare themselves to be law-abiding and duty-do- 
 ing citizens. Only when the sense of belonging t<^ether is awjik. 
 
17 
 
 ened early; can a national spirit, always ready to make sacrifices 
 for the country, develop itself in the younger generation. 
 
 It may always be seen, on occasions when people assemble in mul- 
 titude, that companionship exalts to enthusiasm. The joyfalness of 
 self-sacrifice exalts to' inspiration those who, as mere individuals, act 
 selfishly and feel narrow-hearted. Companionship awakens the in- 
 stinct of the ideal, and elevates each one to the feeling of fellowship. 
 
 Much is yet wanting before our childhood and youth shall be of- 
 fered the full opportunity to practice these virtues of companionship ; 
 to learn to fulfil the duties of citizenship. But it needs a beginning 
 in Order to add a farther unfolding in the later stages of life. To ex- 
 pect to awaken love of country in youth, when childhood is passed 
 in egotistical isolation, perhaps under the influence of parents who, 
 animated by a vulgar avarice, have taught tlieir children to look 
 upon the over-reaching of a neighbor as an allowable thing, is an 
 empty delusion ! The proverb, "He sucked it in with his mother's 
 milk," which indicates the ineffaceableness of first impressions, is 
 here verified. Public spirit arises only out of early participation in 
 the commonweal. It is sadly wanting now to our childhood, in all 
 classes of society ; but the little children of the poor, outside of the 
 Kindergarten, have only the companionship of the streets, which is 
 always taore or less immoral. 
 
 What the tilt-yards are, or will become, for riper youth, as wrest- 
 ling grounds, is necessary for early childhood ; not only necessary as 
 places of exercise for the strengthening of the limbs, ^ut as an arena 
 for the wrestling of the mind, that is for the application of the men- 
 tal powers, and for work as a means of culture. 
 
 Because Froebel's method combines bodily and intellectual labor, 
 working and learning, in the play of the child, it yields the only 
 mode of life fitted for this age ; not merely for learning's soke, nor 
 merely for work's sake, but for the free and glad exercise of all the 
 powers and talents of the human being. 
 
 In after years, by gradual transitions, .working and learning sep- 
 arate themselves from play, till they become independent, each one 
 for itself. And then play will claim its special hours for recre- 
 ation. 
 
 A real fusion of learning, working, and playing, is only possible, 
 when the objects which serve the child in its play, are not ready 
 made, but invite independent mental and bodily action upon them. 
 
18 
 
 Had mankind tound everything in the wond ready made ; had all 
 objects for the gratification of material and Bpiritual wants, been al- 
 ready in eKistence, there would have been no question of the devel- 
 opment and culture of the human race. The necessary -care of. the 
 products of nature, the working up, transformation, and combination 
 of them, first awakened, and then cultivated, tne impulses of human 
 activity. 
 
 So, ready made playthings hinder childish activity, and trajii to 
 laziness and thoughtlessness ; and hence are much more injurious 
 than can be expressed. The impulse to activity then turns to de- 
 stroying the ready made things, and becomes at last a real spirit of 
 destructiveness, 
 
 Also, merely mechanical work, of the children, that which is done 
 without exciting the imaginative faculties, is likewise injurious, be- 
 cause thereby the intellect becomes inactive. 
 
 Froebel's method aims to give nothing but the material of play — 
 nothing ready made. The transforming of this material wherein 
 play and work consist,is done according to law, in a firee, inventive; 
 productive manner. The mind of the adult which has come to con- 
 sciousness of law through experience, here comes in to the aid of the 
 unconscious and blindly-groping activity of the child, in order to 
 save him from wasting himself in errors, and give right direction for 
 culture, to his original strivings. 
 
 The materials used consist of woo(Jen blocks, planes, and little 
 sticks; strips of different colored papers; pasteboard; colored 
 threads ; slates and pencils ; andsheets of paper. The transforming 
 of the materials begins in imitation, * tlien invention begins, by 
 combining parts into a whole, according to one's own fancy. But 
 to invent, — bring forth something new with these materials, a child 
 must have a guiding thread. Ev^ry-work of man consists of parts 
 arranged for the purpose of the whole. This arrangement demands 
 symmetry and harmony in the parts, and requires that they be fitted 
 for each other.- Whether it be the building of a house, the gluing 
 together of a table or chair, the making of a garment, there are always 
 parts to be fitted together, not arbitrarily or capriciously, but accord- 
 ing to definite rules. Hence it is the principle of Froebel's method 
 
 * A copy is not to be given to the child, however, the Kindergartener must dic- 
 tate in words, step by step, the process.— Translator. 
 
19 
 
 to give the child a fundamental rule, according to which he may un- 
 failingly find new combinations. 
 
 What the child grasps most easily are contrasts. He seizes easily 
 the difference oisize when great and small things stand side by side ; 
 readily discriminates colors ; sees position, as above and below, verti- 
 cal and horizontal. Froebel's rule, "make the opposite to the thing 
 given," a child of three years old applies with ease. For example, 
 he places his figures upon a table which is ruled netwise with hori- 
 zontal and perpendicular lines. The teacher marks for him the mid- 
 dle of the table by one of his little inch planes ; the child places a 
 plane four squares above this marked square, and the rule tell» 
 him to place another plane four squares below it. Above and below 
 are to be connected with each other by the aides, that is, the left and 
 right, therefore he places two other planes four squares oflf, one to 
 the right, the other to the left of the middle one ; or, if the figure to 
 be made is a compact one, the opposites may be arranged to toucli 
 by their edges. In drawing, the vertical and horizontal lines arc 
 contrasts in position, and oblique lines form the connection. 
 
 It is quite impossible to indicate, except by ocular demonstration, 
 how inexhaustible are the combinations of forms, through the appli- 
 cation of this simple rule. What the alphabet is for word making, 
 by combining twenty-four letters indefinitely, or what the seven 
 tones of the scale are for harmony, Froebel's law of "the connection 
 of opposites " is for plastic formation. 
 
 Pestalozzi also strove for this A, B, C of power [koemien), but con- 
 fessed it was yet to be discovered. Froebel's discovery gives a key 
 to every artistic work, and therefore may be properly said to be the 
 foundation of a training for work. 
 
 The arrangement of parts into a whole, which every creative work 
 demands, is organizing, whether it be material or intellectual. And 
 this law — the connection of opposites — hitherto considered only in 
 philosophy, is as truly the organizing law of the human mind as it 
 is of material nature. 
 
 All the processes of nature move in opposites, inspiration and ex- 
 piration, contraction and expansion, ascending and descending — all 
 are connections of opposites. In like manner the process of think- 
 ing is to compare things more or less opposite, and connect them by 
 inferences (logic). Pestalozzi declared that the mechanism of 
 things follows the same course as the mechanism of thought, and 
 
20 
 
 Hce versa. The child operates in one or both, according to the law 
 of his own individuality. What he applies (himself) lie learns to 
 understand and comprehend, first by contemplation only, as impres- 
 sion ; but by degrees he becomes eonxAous of what he does, and that 
 is the main point. A.lso, for the working man of the present day, 
 he must become conscious of the how and the why of his doing, not 
 by reflection, but by immediate experience. This distinction must 
 be made. At present, the reflections of the grown-up are given to 
 children much too early. According to Froebel's principle, which 
 pursues the empirical way, the first knowledge of the child will 
 come out of his own experience, and he learns to make his general- 
 izations himself, and to reflect upon things in his own way. Only 
 when a strictly individual apprehension of a thing is gained, can the 
 precepts given by others later be really appropriated, and become 
 flesh and blood. A real conviction, which is proof of a stable frame 
 of mind, has its roots in the first individual experience (of action). 
 
 This is the kernel of FroeheVs method; that a way hag been found to 
 let the individual character of each one unfold itself in full freedom. 
 Froebel says : " Let each one be a free growth out of himself ; let 
 him rise out of himself like the stalk frcm the plant, with eai, 
 flower, and seeds, in the great might of life." When shall we cease 
 to fetter, enslave, or, at least, stamp humanity, nations, and individ- 
 uals? — notbefbre Kindergartens shall be the universal possession of 
 the people 1 
 
 This is the point which has b^en least recognized hitherto. The 
 given rule makes many a one think that Froebel's method is a treats 
 ment hy stencils, as it were ! But for the very reason that Froebel 
 gives a universal law for the guide of his methods, an individual act 
 of the child becomes possible ; that is, a creative act. For instance, 
 just as nature, according to the law of expansion and contraction 
 that rules in the vegetable world, develops the different species of 
 plants ; so can a child produce ever new forms and combinations, by 
 acting according to the law given to him ; namely, ' the connection 
 of opposites.' Every child will apply this law of combination, in 
 order to represent his individual formations in the freest manner. 
 Without this process of law, he would stop short at mere imitation, 
 or owe his formations only to chance. One can be convinced in a 
 genuine Kindergarten, that every child produces, out of the same 
 material, by the application of the same law, manifold things, each 
 
21 
 
 differing from the others. Ami does nut every painter paint differ- 
 ent pictures, with the same colors, according to the same law of mix- 
 ing colors, and of constructing forms ? 
 
 If it be acknowledged that there is no freedom without law. 
 neitjjer in the community, nor in the different workshops of handi- 
 craft and studios of art ; the same thing must hold good, also, for 
 ?Ae rfot>/jr of the child, whose imagination sweeps round rudderless, 
 )/ it ('-< not boviid or feittred by rules which are prindiiles 
 
 Through the indispensable concentration, which all productive 
 labor requires, a certain stability and inward coUectiveuess arises, 
 which not only rules the imagination, but reacts particularly to 
 strengthen the moral powers. Out of this arises the inward satis- 
 faction of true activity ; and in this satisfaction, given to children by 
 Froebel's method, is found the most striking proof tfat it corresponds 
 to ihe nature of the child. 
 
 Audjust as the individual endowment (if the child is manifested 
 by plastic production, ]ieculiarity of character comes out by the 
 action of children in cumpanionship. By their 'occupations' the 
 talent of the future designer, painter, sculptor, architect, poet, musi- 
 cian or niathematiciau, expresses itself. By social work and play in 
 a child-world, which must be the type of the great world, with the 
 traction of character consequent upon this intercourse, the opportu- 
 nity is offered for peculiar traits of character to be brought out, and 
 inHuenced by one another. One must not estimate too slightly, for 
 the future formation of character, these things, as yet so small in 
 themselves. To learn early how to express his mind in some char- 
 acteristic form, how to maintain his individual claims and opinions 
 against his eqaals, and how to take an active part in fitting himself 
 into the midst of a community which has equality of rights and 
 duties, is unquestionably of great importance for tlie cultm-e of indi- 
 vidual character. Home and school cannot offer sufiicient opportu- 
 nity on this account, because in the home the youug child cannot 
 have equal rights with all the other inmates, mostly grown people ; 
 he is in a more passive and subordinate position towards them, sel- 
 dom taking the initiative ; and because, in the school, a merely in- 
 tellectual willing and doing takes place, which sets in action the in- 
 tellectual much more than the moral powt^^rs. It is true that in the 
 school recess there is free action ; but then it is not regulattd. In 
 the Kindergarten, on the other hand, tree action is connected with 
 Y 
 
22 
 
 regulated action, by the distribution of the occupations following the 
 rules of work, etc., as happens also in later life. 
 
 In Kindergarten, the child is not made tame, which is what the 
 education of the majority of children amounts to at present; the 
 natural energy is not repressed, but led toward its normal ain^ and 
 destiny. Our childhood and youth sicken, unquestionably, by the 
 early preponderance of the intellectual powers, and through the 
 want of opportunity for creative activity, which begets will and 
 energy. Who has not felt that our children lead a quite artificial 
 life, contrary to their nature, by which both bodily and moral health 
 is undermined ? There is too early and too much learning, that is, 
 too much for their digestive power ; and undue preponderance of 
 receptivity, deficient productivity, and a want of opportunity to act, 
 — all of which cuts off the possibility of the full, fresh, natural exist- 
 ence which is meet for childhood and youth. 
 
 " There should be a change," says the majority of observers ; but 
 as yet we have not known how to make it. The amount of know- 
 ledge which must be acquired for the required culture and vocation, 
 at some time, can neither be abridged nor dispensed with. To go 
 back to the beginning of the accumulated material of human know- 
 ledge, in order to simplify it, it has been found necessary to seek for 
 the elements of individual departments, in order to separate all that 
 is superfluous. And Froebel, in order to find the points of connec- 
 tion, with which the activity of children must begin, went back to 
 the very origin, the first beginnings of our culture. 
 
 The child, gains knowledge of things, first by his activity, thro'ugh 
 what it can seize with his hands. Things must oe graspable by him, 
 to give him points of connection for his conceptions. If, for exam- 
 ple, a child should only look at the things around him, it would be 
 impossible for him to be convinced of their material, their weight, 
 whether they were hard or soft. This perpetual handling of things, 
 this analyzing and combining again of the parts, which Froebel's 
 method demands, is the child's first work, and involves intellectual 
 as well as bodily activity ; and, because this knowledge of things, 
 by means of the activity of his limbs and senses, is founded in the 
 being of the child, as it was in the being of humanity, it affords last- 
 ing enjoyment. By this first enjoyment of doing, the only right 
 beginning is gained for the conquest of natural indolence, for lifting 
 the weight of yet unspiritualized matter. 
 
23 
 
 In the human soul, all opposites are found united. If this or that 
 impulse is not used and cultivated for good, conformably to its des- 
 tiny, it serves for evil, which is deviation from the destiny assigned 
 by God and nature. If the instinct of activity is not awakened, 
 grati'fied, the instinct of indolence takes its place, that heaviest bar- 
 rier to all development ! 
 
 The earliest work of the child begins, as in the development of 
 the human race itself, with cultivating the instruments of work, 
 training the limbs and senses. Little objects of his own invention, 
 by their symmetry of form, harmony of color, agreement of parts in 
 a whole, awaken his first pleasure in conforming to laws, and thus 
 lure forth from the infant soul the first beams of the beautiful; bo 
 that, as in the history of the human race, the elements of art become 
 the awakeners of the mind. 
 
 The thought that lies at the foundation of Froebel's method of 
 allowing the child, in each of the occupations, to separate the parts, 
 and put them together again as a whole, is that real things may be- 
 come symbols, by means of which he shall perceive reality. 
 
 Already Kousseau had demanded that the first book for the 
 child's mind should be his surroundings. If this is to be so, then 
 must these surroundings correspond to the needs of the mind, and 
 therefore be put in order. Froebel therefore gave the child formb, 
 out of which he is to create, by uniting and transforming them him- 
 self. The results of his composing become symbols of truth. Con- 
 templation and individual production are thus united; the artistic 
 leads to knowing. Schiller, speaking of the development ot the 
 human race, says, " What we have felt here as beauty, will one day, 
 and somewhere, meet us as truth." 
 
 With the blind activity of instinct, as yet unconscious, human cul- 
 ture began, and rose gradually from the crudest to the highest point. 
 Images and symbols of the beautiful, the good, and the true, are 
 needed by children ; just as the Greeks and Eomann, in order to 
 perceive the ideas symbolized by the powers of nature, needed the 
 mythology for their imagination. While the child is creating forms, 
 he perceives their organism ; and so can, at a later stage, seize the 
 fundamental thoughts which produced them. He learns, in short, 
 to perceive the Creator in his creation. 
 
 For easy review of the historical epochs, children in the schools 
 are given images, which represent the chief personages and events. 
 
24 
 
 But images alone do not deeply interest early childhood. Little 
 children easily forget what they -^ee, and more easily still 
 what is said to them ; but they never forget wltat they have made (as 
 also Rousseau incidentaUy remarked). Mankind was obliged to go 
 through a long school of labor, before it arrived at the present de- 
 gree of thejdevelopment of industry and art. Men were obliged to labor 
 in the sweat of their brows ; subduing the rude masses by slave- 
 work on the pyramids of Egypt, where the building master and 
 architect were the same man, even to the highest art in the temples 
 of Greece, in which the majority' of the workmen were artists. The 
 development of the human race has had its course, according to law 
 and the rules of logic, however much it has been interrupted by a 
 thousand deviations. And, by law and successive steps, the individ- 
 ual child is developed. The human educator can do nothing better 
 than to search out the plan of education, according to which the 
 spirit of the universe guides the development of humanity. 
 
 Froebel has taken the development of nature and humanity for 
 his instructor. His starting point is Man, the image of God, is, 
 
 AS SUCH, A CREATIVE BEING ; CONSEQUENTLY THE FIRST PRIN- 
 CIPLE OF EDUCATION IS TO MAKE HIM PRACtlCALLY CREATIVE, 
 ABLE TO CREATE. 
 
 In the history of man, work has been the first means of know- 
 ledge ; at present science has become the means for work. 
 
 And so for children, first work, and then knowledge, is the order 
 of development. Work is the teacher that forms the mind ; sci- 
 ence gives the theory of labor. In this manner, the curse of work is 
 changed into a blessing. Voluntary labor, developing love of labor, 
 gives the laborer his freedom, and is the foundation of his human 
 dignity. 
 
 At a time when the conditions of labor in the civilized world 
 have become new, when the conscious mind must govern in every 
 workman, when the intellectual emancipation of a still immature 
 stratum of society, partly deprived of its rights, is declared, ought 
 it not to belong to the Creator's government of the world, that the 
 discovery should be made that the child can become a consciously- 
 acting workman, while he still plays f Every discovery in the 
 history of civilization occurs when mankind needs it. But many a 
 discovery remains unrecognized, after its application has become a 
 
25 
 
 pressing necessity, to the injury of the general development. May 
 not this be the case with the method of Froebel ? 
 
 Side by side with the brilliant culture of our day, its magnifi- 
 cent, dazzlingly rapid progress of development in the department of 
 industry, who does not see the deep shadow which is daily be- 
 coming deeper? What kind of society must necessarily grow out 
 of the youthful generation, if the greed of gold, the spirit of gain, 
 and the low pursuit of pleasure, which threaten every day, more 
 and more, to destroy all higher aims of life, shall grow up with it, 
 and spread faster and farther? 
 
 When t'le mass of apstarts that will rise out of the uncultivated, 
 through mere industrial success, is doubled, and shall at last become 
 a hundred-fold; and the largest part of the laborers in the spir- 
 itual domain shall sink to the ranks of the proletariat, because the 
 worth of their performances is not acknowledged, while those who 
 have material interests and pleasures, reach the highest estimation ; 
 who can picture to himself the unheard of demoralization that such 
 a society would present ? 
 
 There is but one rein that will hold in check the lower propen- 
 sities of the spiritually undeveloped and rude — it is labor, the bod- 
 ily burden and exertion. Labor, "in the sweat of the brow" is the 
 redeemer. Not anything so demoralizing could have crept into the 
 prisons, as the do-nothing of criminals ! Either heavy, hard labor 
 must be the accompaniment of poverty, or civilizing culture must 
 preserve the masses of the people from excess and demoralization. 
 And since no power can prevent thousands of the uncultivated 
 masses enriching themselves in this age of machinery, and so with- 
 drawing from hard work, we have no choice but to take measures 
 for their culture, and free the coming centuries from the old guilt ol 
 the cultivated towards the uncultivated ! 
 
 Manifold and various as the conditions may be, whose fulfilment 
 is required, in order to conquer poverty, ignorance, and want of 
 morality, so far as is possible, the first condition will always be cor- 
 rect, sound education, by which the human soul shall be directed, 
 from the very beginning of life, to what is noble and lofty. Much 
 as our higher schools, and the instruction of the different people's 
 unions contribute to the acquisition of useful knowledge, a neg- 
 lected childhood is never got over; and therefore, to the souls that 
 
26 
 
 creep in the dust, are never opened the higher regions of spiritual 
 life. 
 
 Let people's Kindergartens, on Froebel's method, be made the 
 common possession, and we shall have laid a firm foundation, on 
 which shall be built a true education of the people ; and then we 
 can fight against coarseness and restlessness, and cherish, on the 
 ground of general material welfare, the love of the beautiful ; and 
 the eye be directed to the heights of intellectual and moral greatness. 
 Pupils cannot enjoy the improved public schools, if they do not en- 
 ter the primary schools better prepared than now. Here the first step 
 needs to be a new beginning, which shall give new conditions to the 
 school, and lead to new results. The discovery of a beginning, in 
 conformity to nature, Froebel arrived at, when he found a new 
 truth in reference to the perceptive power, and the treatment of the 
 human being. 
 
 May his discoveries, which are to serve for the improvement of 
 the MAN, not be esteemed less than those which serve for the im- 
 provement of material well-being ; and may they find their appli- 
 cation in working out the development of the growing race, with 
 all its rich consequences, as long as time lasts. 
 
27 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 PKACTICAL ABRAN'GEMBlSrTS POK INTRODUCING 
 KINDEKGAETENS.* 
 
 Since Burghers' Kindergartens have become in a measure natur- 
 alized, because their usefulness has been at least superficially or par- 
 tially recognized, no great difficulties are met with in establishing 
 them. A thoroughly cultivated kindergarten teacher needs only to 
 rent a locality containing two roomy, apartments, and a little garden 
 room in proportion to the number of children, furnishing them 
 with tables, beaches, and closets, and to provide the necessary ma- 
 terial for the plays (seventy or eighty thalers worth for fifty or sixt^- 
 children), in order to begin her Kindergarten, whose children have 
 been secured by advertisement and subsequent announcement, or by 
 a suTjscription list The founding of the Folks' Kindergartens, 
 those for the children of the day laborers and small traders, meets 
 with far greater difficulties. They ofier to the children of the real 
 working population, and of people of very limited means, a refuge 
 and place of education for the greater part of the day, just as the 
 charitable asylums do. Indeed, the Folks'Kindergartens are only 
 day asylums, in which Froebel's educational method is applied. 
 The pupils can affiird to pay a very little money only, and, if very 
 poor, must be received gratis. Five silver groschen per month is 
 the lowest sum received for a pupil, therefore the greater part of the 
 expense is to be met by the municipality, or by private charity. 
 These expenses are increased by the necessity of furnishing food at 
 
 • Many things in this chapter do not exactly apply to American Kindergartens 
 but the spirit of the remarks can be appropriated by us, Tor they have many 
 advantages over the European kindergartens, since the spirit of our natioaality is 
 the spirit of Froebel.— Translator. 
 
28 
 
 noon to those children whose parents work out of the house, and do 
 not return home to dinner. In this case, the parents pay in propor- 
 tion to their means, as is done likewise in the majority of the asy- 
 lums. The best and easiest thing to do, is to introduce Froebel's 
 method into the asylums, and in this way to change them into Folks' 
 Kindergartens. 
 
 The prejudice against Froebel and his Kindergartens, called forth 
 oy the political partisanship of his time, and the consequent prohibi- 
 tion of them in Prussia, which grew out of it, and lasted some years — 
 (a mistake in every respect)- — has hindered in many ways the intro- 
 duction of Froebel's method, even into asylums. A second hin- 
 drance has arisen out of the fact, that the majority of the immedi- 
 ate conductors of the asylums are opposed to every innovation ; are 
 too old, or, as in most cases, too incapable to be willing or able to 
 learn what is contrary to custom and tradition. Yet here, as every 
 where, exceptions may be found. Already in some of these institu- 
 tions a beginning has been made (I have succeeded in bringing it 
 about in several places abroad, in Belgium, in Holland, in France, 
 etc.), and the ever-increasing conviction that we can nowhere con- 
 tinue entirely in the old ruts, that the demands of the time must be 
 regarded, gives hope that more will soon be gained. The alterna- 
 tive in the instance of the asylum, is to reform or to go down ! 
 
 But the asylum kindergarten must also ofi'er something more than 
 all the occupations of the Burghers' Kindergarten ; for it must' com- 
 pensate for the lack of family education, which the children of the 
 more cultivated classes find at home — or ought to find there ! When 
 the latter pass from three to five hours of the day in the Kindergar- 
 ten, still the greater part of the day is left for the educational influ- 
 ences of home, above all of the mother, to whom Froebel directs his 
 exhortations and instructions almost exclusively ; and without her 
 co-operation his educational idea is impracticable. Only when the 
 mother can understand and apply it, beginning at th* birth of the 
 child, and can plant Froebel's method in the home also, can its 
 fruits ripen completely. The mothers in the laboring classes cannot 
 yet d(j this ; in the first place, because their work does not permit it ; 
 and, secondly, because, in most cases, personal ability lor doing it is 
 wanting. Therefore, besides affording the elements of every kind of 
 work, and the preparation for every art and science, and of moral 
 and religious development, the asylum must add those little domes- 
 
29 
 
 tic exercises for which a good liome offers a thousand opportunities, 
 but which are wanting to the children of the poor who are sent 
 to the Folks' Kindergartens. These domestic exercises please child- 
 ren, who like nothing better than to help their elders. 
 
 Habits of order and cleanliness, those fundamental principles of 
 the earliest education, have not hitherto been regarded of sufficient 
 importance. Their moral effect is not yet duly estimated. The 
 children of the common people rarely find them in their homes to 
 the degree that will suffice for a good example; still less are the 
 parents accustomed to have time enough, even if they have the de- 
 sire, to practice them and instruct their children in them. The Kin- 
 dergarten must compensate for this want ; and, by its associated 
 work, offer the best opportunity for such domestic practices as are 
 suited to the age of the children. (It is obvious that the youngest 
 children,those between two and four years of age, have to be excused 
 from such exercises, as, for example,assisting in the cleaning of court 
 and garden, chamber and furniture, bird cage, etc.). 
 
 An additional reason for these arrangements for domestic work is, 
 that it would fatigue and strain the children, if they should be > 
 required to pass the whole day in the peculiar methodical occupa- 
 tions of the Kindergarten, which, to a certain degree, always engage 
 the intellectual powers. The occupations themselves must also be 
 subjected to some little modification, in so far as future necessity of 
 earning a living must be taken into consideration. For example, 
 plaiting of mats and baskets ; ribbon -weaving on a little weaving 
 stool particularly adapted for this purpose ; clay-modelling ; paper 
 folding and cutting for confectioners and book binders,' — are all 
 useful for earning money. (These may also serve in the Burghers' 
 Kindergartens as a means of earning money to buy materials, and 
 enable the children to express their love for their parents, friends, 
 and benefactors, etc., objectively. The actual earning of money 
 for themselves, must be kept off as long as possible from thia age of 
 childhood, in both cases). 
 
 The objection has already been loudly made, that the children of 
 the poor would be spoilt by the many elegant little occupations of 
 the Kindergarten, so contrary in their nature to the so-called "hard- 
 work" to which they must get accusfcimed sooner or later; and 
 therefore the burden which they have to bear will be made more 
 and more heavy. There have been instances in which the parents 
 VI 
 
80 
 
 of these children have nourished such apprehensions, and on that 
 account have refiised to send them to any Kindergarten ; or have 
 withdrawn them. A poor day-laboring woman, for example, said 
 that her child "had no clothes to wear that were suitable to play in 
 with ihe little ladies ; and the child was ashamed to seem to wish to 
 be of the quality ! perhaps she might learn to be ashamed of her 
 mother !" Also an artisan, who took two of his children out of a 
 Kindergarten, gave, as a reason, that "The child would no longer 
 touch anything at home. When the mother asked her eldest girl 
 to carry the dustpail into the yard, or to wash down the table, she 
 replied that it would soil her clothes ; and if she was expected to go 
 to the baker, or tae well, she said children of the Kindergarten did 
 not have to do such things ! etc.'' The father added that his "girls 
 must earn their bread at some time or other, and must, therefore, 
 learn to work hard ; but if they' were accustomed to playing in such 
 a delicate way, with the children of the quality, they would not be 
 fit for ordinary work, but want to be dressed up fine ; and he could 
 not buy kid gloves for his children, as his boy had just wished him 
 to do for him !" 
 
 These are the utterances of the good sense of the people, which 
 should not be unheeded. But the Kindergarten in question was the 
 Hamburg Burghers' Kindergarten, which only receives poorer chil- 
 dren free of cost, now and then. To found free scholarships in such> 
 is certainly desirable, if they are bestowed with discrimination. But 
 they should be given especially to the children of the so-called mod- 
 est poor, who belong to a higher grade of culture than those of the 
 lowest class, and managed in such a manner, that the dreaded effem- 
 inating process can never take place. 
 
 It is one of the most important questions touching public educa- 
 tion, whether one shall mix or separate the children of the various 
 classes of society? The spirit of liberalism would decide for 
 the mixing, and look upon the separation as an exclusivenest, not 
 conformable to the spirit of the age. A pseudo^democracy which 
 rests not upon inward convictions and a deeper knowledge of 
 relations, which neither apprehends nor understands the ideas 
 of the age, blindly desires the mixing ; and would level all things 
 down, if not up. No thinking man will mistake that, in ref- 
 erence to this matter, we must sail round many a rock. It 
 would be a dangerous favor if we should make the children of the 
 
31 
 
 rude masses, as they now exist, efleminate, or hostile to the irksome 
 work which lies belore them in alter 11 le. Much as Froebel thought 
 of the coming together of the different classes of society, through the 
 coming together of the children in a common education, an one 0/ 
 the objective points of progressive culture ; and while he gave this 
 point of view in his work on education, ynt he recognized too wcil 
 the actual divisions in our present society, to wish to tear down tiie 
 existing barriers at once. He accepted the law of gradation tor his 
 Kindergarten ; and knew very well that he must accept distinctions 
 in the relations of society. In a plan that he made of an education- 
 al institution for the poor, he expresses plainly that he wishes to 
 adapt his methods to the future conditions of his pupils' lives : "Ed- 
 ucation must always have in view," he says, "the practical applica- 
 tion of the thing learned." Froebel wishes to educate for the claims 
 of real life, not for the Utopia of the imagination, but always with 
 the presumption of a continual, progressive development, whose goal 
 is certainly the common brotherhood of man. Are the lower class- 
 es to be brought up to higher culture? This can only be done by 
 degrees, in transition from generation to generation, not sudd enly ; 
 and it is certainly not attainable at a time in which, as now, demor- 
 alization and sham-culture {6'chein-bildung) take each other by the 
 hand, and devastate even the innocence of childhood. 
 
 But even had Froebel recommended an unconditional mixing of the 
 children of all classes, this would be at this moment impracticable, 
 since "the well-to-do and rich" would struggle against it more than 
 "the low and poor;" and those most, who have risen from the lower 
 classes to the upper, whether by industry or otherwise. The rich un- 
 cultivated upstarts, who, in the course of time, amount to legion, 
 are especially wont to shun the companionship of their {loor bretnreu. 
 But on the other hand, the claim ot the cultivated classes is not to be 
 denied, to avoid for their children the companionship of rudeness and 
 vulgarity, which finds expression even intlie earliest cuildliood, be- 
 cause the child imitates what is round about him. Not riches or pov- 
 erty, competence or penury, should separate, but ciie degree 01 cul- 
 ture of the parents. 
 
 But as little as a complete mixing is advisable at the present mo- 
 ment, so little should the complete separation of classes be favored. 
 For certainly it is an undeniable problem for the educators of the 
 present, to e J'ecc a greater union of all classes through the children ; 
 
32 
 
 and, by their manifest equality, to conquer empty prejudices and 
 liaughty exclusiveness. In the Burghers' Kindergarten, this is 
 already done, by the children of all classes being found together, 
 with the exception of the "highest" and the "lowest". For the 
 latter — ^the very destitute — ^the Folks' Kindergarten is destined; and 
 a certain number of friendly families of the highest class can join 
 together, and pay for a kindergarten teacher, a higher salary, on 
 condition of her taking only a limited number of children, who are 
 agreeable to all those who take part in the enterprise. 
 
 That is not an intelligent philanthropy which will allow no differ- 
 ence between the education of the children of the poor and of 
 those of the well-to-do classes. An unsuitable education would be 
 to the former a dangerous gift, and entail upon them the most seri- 
 ous discord between their inclinations and the fulfilment of their 
 duties. 
 
 The Kindergarten, with its means of preparing for ev-ery kind of 
 work, offers to every pecaliar talent the opportunity to come forth, 
 and be ready for all after steps, . according to circumstances. It 
 therefore affords to the lower classes the possibility of developing, 
 in its own direction, every striking gift ; so that the genius born in 
 the hovel (and how often that is its cradle !) may not seek in vain 
 for a fair unfolding ; or fail from the want of means of develop- 
 ment. But should we give to the masses of the commonalty, and 
 to the ungifted, the education of the most highly cultivated classes, 
 there might be no more unhappy beings than learned men, on the 
 joiner's bench, and the artist as a chimney sweeper.* 
 
 In their ideal contemplations, the advocates of the levelling pro- 
 cess forget the practical reality, which, nevertheless, is not to be 
 abrogated by their assumptions. One who has been often in asyl- 
 ums, in short, the present writer, who personally carried Froebel's 
 method into them, with her own hand helping to introduce it, 
 knows how differently the children of the really poor had to be 
 treated from those of the cultivated classes, in order to succeed. 
 The hands and fingers of the former were found for the most part 
 so stiff and awkward, that they often needed more than three time s 
 
 * This remark does not apply in our own beloved country, whone political insti - 
 tutions present no barrier against the rise of any man to the height of social 
 circumstance which his abilities and education would adorn.— Translator. 
 
33 
 
 the period that other children do, to accomplish the flrat beginnings 
 of the occupations. Some of these little savages whom I under- 
 took to teach, were like simpletons. They could not even hold 
 firmly the ball which was put into their hands ; and for weeks they 
 tore up the papers that were to be used for plaiting, and thrust into 
 their mouths the various objects that were given them, ^t first 
 they had to be waked out of a half sleeping condition, which made 
 it impossible to fasten their attention longer than for a few mo- 
 ments. Even when out of doors for the movement plays, they 
 would sit down upon the ground, and then could not be made to get 
 up again ; or, after a short occupation, they would actually fall 
 asleep! These unnatural conditions, on being investigated, were 
 explained by the fact that the children had been usually left shut 
 up all day, by their mothers, who went out to work. Provided with 
 some means of nourishment, but without any means of employment, 
 they almost always had passed the days in sleep. This condition of 
 things occurs more frequently than many might believe. At all 
 events, there prevails a certain intellectual sleepiness, and the 
 greatest rudeness among these children, who need a treatment 
 adapted to their condition. Even if we did not think of their prob- 
 able future circumstances, we would use in their case bodily exer- 
 cises and work in some degree mechanical, more especially than in 
 that of children of the more cultivated classes, who are accustomed 
 to be amused by their attendants. Their great bodily laziness needs 
 more repeated and powerful gymnastics to overcome it, than are 
 necessary for better conditioned children. Even after the first lazi- 
 ness is overcome, it will be found that they will prefer the sitting 
 quiet occupations. And of the more active occupations, they prefer 
 household work. Many times when I asked those who were big 
 enough, whether they would sweep the yard and clean something, or 
 would build, braid, lay sticks, etc., they always preferred the more 
 useful occupation ; and yet I can testify that they liked to learn the 
 more fanciful things more and more the longer they tried them. 
 The sense of beauty could be vivified. * 
 
 In the Ragged Schools in London, the inspector told me that the 
 
 « In the few asylum kindergartens hitherto founded in America, the experience 
 has been different. The children have immediately waked up and responded to 
 the kindergartener's efforts even more than the children of the rich, taken care of 
 by nurses.— Translator. 
 
34 
 
 little ones of the lowest division, always watched the door with im- 
 patience, "for the lady with the sticks" (as they called me, because I 
 showed them how to lay the little staffs) ; and they were first com- 
 pletely happy when the kindergarten occupations began. And was 
 it not natural that to these children, who were from three to six yeai's 
 old, the mere letters, and the numbers of the multiplication table, 
 the catechism and the history of the creation, should please much 
 less than building, plaiting, and laying little stafis, with which they 
 could make figures according to their taste, and through which they 
 were self-active ? It by and by may be realized Low unsuitable, even 
 injurious, are the usual proceedings in the asylums, where spontane- 
 ous nature is ignored; where the children of earliest age are at once 
 obliyed to learn to read, and obliged to pray ! and sutter all the 
 school machinery. But aimless playing, and mere diversion, cannot 
 give them pleasure either. How infinitely better, both for pleasure 
 and ultimate utility, is Froebel's process, by which at once health- 
 ful bodily and mental growth is preserved. To make goodness and 
 duty agreeable to the child, is the great means of moral culture. 
 This the Kindergarten does, because it proceeds according to na- 
 ture's laws. When love for goodness and use is awakened, later in 
 life it will overcome all difficulties, and conquer what is naturally 
 disagreeable. 
 
 A true insight into this reform will vanquish all petty difficulties. 
 The most important point is, that the teachers of both these institu- 
 tions, so far as they are women, (and they never should be men), 
 should l_earn in principle and practice, the kiadergarten method ; or 
 that well-trained kindergarteners shall be by their side, to initiate 
 the play-work. 
 
 To the customary benches provided for children in asylums, should 
 be added tables for the hand occupations. A kind of desk may be 
 used, as in some schools, so made that the support of the forward 
 bench may serve as a table for the hinder one. Still better are 
 single tables, by whose side the benches shall be placed. These last 
 should always be provided with back railings, because young children 
 cannot sit long unsupported at the back, without being strained. The 
 tables should be arranged for only ten or twelve children each, as a 
 greater number can with difficulty be overlooked and guided by one 
 kindergartener. Indeed, the too narrow space for the number of 
 children in the asylums must be enlarged, that place may be found 
 
35 
 
 for the tables. If an enlargement of the place is not feasible, the 
 number of children must be diminished. Need of pure air for the 
 health of the children, requires that similar measures be taken in the 
 majority of such institutions. 
 
 A kind of ventilation which is to be found chiefly in France and 
 Holland, would be of the greatest use in purifying the air. In the 
 school rooms, and other apartments of the asylums, openings with 
 air clappers are placed upon one side, up high, under the roof, and 
 on the opposite side below, just above the floor. By opening the air 
 clappers on both sides, for a few minutes, while the children are out 
 of the room, the air will be purified. There is much yet wanting 
 that is indispensable for health in other directions. The manner in 
 which a great number of school buildings are heated, is not what 
 the rules of health demand ; and many another condition is want- 
 ing that should be mentioned here. 
 
 The number of children should never exceed one hundred. These 
 must be separated into three or four divisions, according to the age, 
 and be placed in as many different rooms; or, perhaps, two divisions 
 in two rooms. The provision for guidance should be, instead of 
 two persons for a hundred children, at least three, that is, the direct- 
 ress, an assistant, and a waiter. Twoa.ssistants would be still better. 
 In the places where there are training schools for kindergarteners, a 
 few assistants might easily be found among the pupils, who should 
 pass some hours daily in the Kindergarten, without other compensa- 
 tion than what they gain by practice under the principal ; or some 
 young ladies of leisure, who wish to make themselves useful, and 
 have the necessary capability, might step in and offer to assist. 
 
 The introduction of the kindergarten method into existing insti- 
 tutions will be made much more easy, if, in the beginning, there is 
 but a small number of children, say twenty at the most. When 
 these shall have learnt some of the plays and occupations, let them 
 be divided around, to help by directing some of the other children. 
 If four of these little teachers are found at one table of twelve chil- 
 dren, it would be easy for the kindergartener to govern and direct 
 them all, through these assistants. Many conductors of asylums, 
 beforethey have made the trial, hold it to be impossible to keep in 
 order a hundred children in their plays and occupations, because 
 they are thinking of the difficulties in the way of keeping them 
 quiet upon their seats, when they have nothing to do. But it is infi- 
 
S6 
 
 nitely easier to keep them in order in the Kindergarten, because their 
 attention is engaged, and they may use their hands, and produce 
 something. In the asylums, hitherto, the children are always made 
 to fold their hands together, or to lock their arms, in order to keep 
 them quiet and attentive. Although nature prompts the child to 
 use his hands, it is thought necessary to forbid all "playing with the 
 hands," because it diverts the attention from the subject to be 
 learned. But whatever is against the nature of the child is injuri- 
 ous, and just in this impulse to use the hands are the best means 
 found to fasten the attention of the child. Froehel has solved this 
 problem entirely, for he never requires a young child to learn any- 
 thing without using its hands. " How beautifully," he says, " the 
 child-nature requires that head and hand work shall be united ; that 
 all learning shall be produced through doing." Thus it is much 
 easier to keep children quiet and attentive by the kindergarten 
 method, than by the usual method practised in asylums. 
 
 As in many of these institutions they have been obliged, for the 
 want of sufficient other occupations for the children, to give them 
 letters, reckoning, beginnings of geography and biblical history, 
 besides the ten commandments and hymns to be learned by heart, 
 all of which is unsuitable to this age of childhood, so recourse must 
 be had to commands which are against the nature of childhood. 
 Who has not seen in these institutions, a great number of the chil- 
 dren fast asleep during the lessons? But even when they let them 
 play in the old-fashioned way, without affording them any guidance 
 with respect to the object of the playing, the aversion to work has 
 grown ; and even more, as it may be farther shown. The length of 
 ^time during which the children are obliged to sit still, is also against 
 all nature. The youngest children, from two to four years old, 
 should not be obliged to sit still a quarter of an hour, nor the oldest 
 an hour, at most. They never do so in Kindergartens. Fresh air 
 and inotion are the most necessary elements of child-life, and these 
 are now measured out to them too sparingly in -asylums, especially 
 in those of great cities. In many of them, even in summer, the 
 children are only in the fresh air two hours out of ten ; of gymnas- 
 tic exercises there is no thought I But no stronger and healthier 
 race of men can be grown than those who have pleasure in working, 
 and love it. 
 
 At present, the hands, the tools by which their bread is to be earned 
 
37 
 
 in future, are scarcely practised at all. Observe how stiff and awk- 
 ward are the hands of these children ! Whence shall come the later 
 aptitude for work ? The little occupation of the hands that is found 
 here and there, consists mostly in lint scraping and in knitting. But 
 these are purely mechanical labors, which cannot give the children 
 delight and satisfaction, because the child-nature wishes to be active 
 also with its iutellectual powers, therefore they cannot awaken the 
 love for work that the kindergarten method does. 
 
 Since the majority of the asylums have yards where the children 
 play, it is not so difficult to obtain a little garden room, where a few- 
 flowers and vegetable beds can be made, and a lew bushes and tretb 
 can be planted. Should so much be unattainable, a few boxes can 
 be placed by the walls of the yard, and filled with eai th, in which 
 the children can train a few plants. 
 
 For children to grow up without any occupation with nature's 
 tools, and without any observation of nature's products and pro- 
 cesses, Froebel holds to be the worst hindrance to sound moral de- 
 velopment. And how shall they find the Creator, if they do not 
 learn to know his works at first hand, and perceive them in the vis- 
 ible world? To make, garden room for the children should be 
 the first care of the directors of asylums. In Paris, where 
 it is much more difficult than in any other great city, to find 
 gardens for this purpose, at the very first attempt which I made with 
 Froebel's method, in the Salle d'Aayle, Sue des Ursulines, No. 10, un- 
 der the protection of the authorities, I bought a piece of garden 
 land which bounded the yard of the institution ; and they saw that 
 Froebel's garden-culture was one of the best means of education. 
 Some persons in the commission, wlio were appointed by the Minis- 
 ter of Instruction to examine the method, declared that with the 
 general spread of Kindergartens, one might be sure to awaken in the 
 lower classes more love for agriculture, which was so much neglected 
 in many districts, because a majority of the country people moved 
 into cities to engage in industrial occupations. I saw on an estate 
 in Touraine that they were obliged to go thirty or forty miles on 
 the railroad for laborers to gather in the harvest; and in spite of 
 the trebled wages, much remained on the field to go to ruin. Surely 
 an early cherished inclination for the cultivation of the land, would 
 suffice to balance that for the industrial occupations, and the easier 
 work of city trades. 
 VII 
 
38 
 
 If they would begin in the asylums with only this one wholesome 
 reform, many difficulties would gradually be conquered, and a com- 
 plete change might be effected by degrees, to meet the demands of 
 the time. 
 
 One of the first conditions which will lead to this end is, that the 
 necessary powers of instruction for the conduct of these institutions 
 shall be cultivated . 
 
 Froebel wishes to employ only the female sex for his Kindergar- 
 tens. Childhood belongs to the mother ; to supply one where she is 
 wanting, a motherly caire must step into the place. The female sex 
 naturally inclines to childhood ; always retains, for the most part, 
 some pleasure in playing and dancing ; therefore young girls find 
 their place in»the Kindergarten. But the asylum equally needs a 
 circumspect and experienced guidance ; hence it would be most ad- 
 vantageous to give to an elderly directress one or two young assist- 
 ants, according to the number of children. For a successful prose- 
 cution of the kindergarten cause, and especially for the children of 
 the poor, it is necessary that model Kindergartens be established, 
 which may serve as models for the reform of asylums. It is the 
 chief want in great cities, that one such institution be created as a 
 sample for all others. Yet the one model institution must be taken 
 only relatively ; for, at present, many conditions might be wanting, 
 to form a perfect model institution according to Froebel ; and all 
 beginnings are apt to be not quite up to the models. 
 
39 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 THE EDUCATION OP THE KINDERGARTENEBS IN THE WISDOM 
 OF MOTHERS. 
 
 One of tilt chief reasons why Froebel's method has been so im- 
 perfectly carried out thus far, has been the very iiiimfficient cultivation 
 of the kindergarteners. The great majority of them (even of Frot- 
 bei's own pupils) have taken up this calling more from external mo- 
 tives than from any inward vocation. The true kindergartener must, 
 to a certain degree, be born to it. She must at least love children, 
 must have a genial disposition, and something of that intuition 
 which sees how to go directly to the child's soul ; and these are in- 
 born qualities. It is true that nature has furnished the whole female 
 sex, taken in general, with this intuition, as an educational instinct ; 
 but it is not only unequally distributed, but often deteriorated and 
 repressed by education and the conditions of life. This instinct, 
 awakened more ur less in every mother, though often, alas! very 
 weak, seems frequently entirely wanting in the maiden. 
 
 Every impulse can be aroused and developed by outward influ- 
 ences; but the present education of girls of all ranks is adapted 
 least to that calling which is the most important for the sex, the call- 
 ing of the future tiwther and educator! 
 
 According to this view, but few who enter as pupils into the 
 schools for kindergarteners are truly adapted to the vocation. The 
 previous schooling and the general development have often left out 
 much that is desirable. In order to learn to understand Froebel's 
 method, especially the theory of it, must be added tu their educa- 
 tional system, rooked at correctly, not only the genial disposition 
 but a cultivated mind, the capacity for thinking clearly, and previ- 
 ous information, in iirder that they may receive witli under.-rsinding- 
 
40 
 
 the theoretic and scientific instruction which these institutions are 
 to impart. The branches of this instruction (as in the "Union for 
 Family and Popular Education," in Berlin), consist of the elements 
 of anthropology, physiology, dietetics, mathematics (that is, the 
 first elements of the theory of forms), something of natural philos- 
 ophy (for the Kindergarten), psychology, pedagogics, the special 
 Froehelian theory of education, singing, and child gymnastics, the 
 movement plays and occupations of the Kindergarten as carried in- 
 to practice : of course everything scientific being quite elementary 
 and popular. Accordingly, the course of the instruction demands 
 a corresponding degree of previous culture in the pupils, who range 
 from the ages of sixteen to thirty. 
 
 The above mentioned requisitions have often raised the objection, 
 that if Froebel's method demands so much culture, ability, and 
 knowledge, its general introduction becomes impossible ; for it is 
 difficult to expect that ladies, with such degrees of culture, will 
 undertake the conduct of an asylum, or the care of young children 
 in families, or a Kindergarten more or less public. 
 
 To these and similar objections, we would reply on one side : 1st. 
 That the prejudice is to be first rooted out, of looking upon the 
 care of children (even without regard to instruction) as a subordi- 
 nate occupation, for which the least capable and well informed are 
 fitted. ■ d. That at last we must arrive at the conviction, that no 
 higher calling can be imagined for the female sex, than the care of 
 children, in every respect; that the sex is called of God to be the ed- 
 ucator of humanity, and therefore the care for all the first steps of 
 the development of body and mind, of which none is unimportant 
 is included. 
 
 It is true, however, that concessions must be made to the present 
 condition of things, the actual reality. In the meantime, modifica- 
 tions in the degrees of culture of the kindergarteners must be 
 granted. Those who would take the charge of Kindergartens for the 
 cultivated classes, or who contemplate officiating in families as veri- 
 table educators and teachers, must be able to answer all the 
 above-mentioned demands. The conductors of asyltans are at pres- 
 ent so badly situated, that it would be difficult to induce the more 
 highly cultivated to undertake the charge ; while the importance of 
 the office requires an able, thorough culture, no less than for other 
 
41 
 
 Kindergartens ; and it is to be wished tliat an insight of this truth 
 might awaken the requisite devotion for it ! 
 
 Besides this, it is the nurses, from the bonne down to the nursery 
 maid, who should each and all, in their way, bring Froebel's meth- 
 od into operation. To the latter it would be an infinite gain, if 
 they would learn to practice merely the plays and occupations of 
 the Kindergarten just as the children learn them. Every young 
 girl is tolerably capable of this practical exercise ; but not at all on 
 that account is to be charged with the important office of taking 
 care of the children, bodily and spiritually, in the absence of moth- 
 ers. There prevails in this respect such incomprehensible blindness, 
 even among the most cultivated, that it can be ascribed only to 
 complete ignorance of child-nature and its due treatment. How 
 many thousand mothers trust their children to the most unculti- 
 vated, indeed, to nearly unknown girls, for hours and days ! Even 
 the chambermaid, in many families, undertakes the charge, who 
 has not even learned how to treat children from habit. This is the 
 reason why the earliest beginning of education is lost, and there- 
 fore the following stages are cramped and hindered. 
 
 Besides the want of educational fitness in the majority of mothers, 
 it is this want of nurses, fitted and capable of their calling, that 
 needs, in the most pressing manner, to be remedied. The means for 
 the remedy are given by Froebel's method. The nursery girls must 
 all be kindergarteners, also — even if with degrees of culture much 
 inferior to the conductors of Kiadergartens. In the free Sunday 
 school of the " Union for Family and Popular Education,'' in Ber- 
 lin, instruction is given to young girls for this purpose. 
 
 It is easy to arrange three grades of instruction in Froebel's meth- 
 od. The first should be for the instructors of Kindergarteners and the 
 governesses of families (as well as for those cultivated women who 
 are preparing themselves for their future duties as mothers, and who 
 would pay regard to the above-mentioned branches of instruction) ; 
 the second for the assistants in Kindergartens and asylums, and the 
 so-called bonnes, or educators who do not give instruction, and who 
 would not have to take part "in the peculiar scientific studies, but 
 should learn thoroughly the theory and practice of Froebel's 
 method ; and the third, for the nursery maids, who, besides the gen- 
 eral instruction, namely, in relation to dietetics, would learn only the 
 practice of the Kindergarten. Even if this practice is not carried 
 
42 
 
 ijut in a complete manner, and without completely understanding 
 the theory upon which it is founded, yet the girls who stiidy it will 
 indubitably be more capable for the calling of nurserymaid than 
 those who do not know it. Besides, Froebel has incorporated his ed- 
 ucational idea into the use of the materials of play in such a man- 
 ner that the child receives the desired impression from things them- 
 -elves, even if the kindergartener who plays with him in the pre- 
 scribed manner, does not herself know how to give an account to 
 herself or him of the why and the wherefore. 
 
 To expect that all the kindergarteners, or even only the most high- 
 ly cultivated, should understand Froebel's philosophic ideas upon 
 the being of the child and of humanity, and the psychological rea- 
 sons of his method in all its depth, might be said to be expecting 
 an impossibility ; not merely because Froebel has written in a ttyle 
 hard to be understood, but chiefly because his anthropological fiewo 
 rest upon a basis that only begins now to be comprehended, and con- 
 tradicti< many received opinions. Besides this, the female sex 
 is as yet too little prepared for the comprehension of philosophic 
 ideas. Hence not every kindergartener can become a trainer. 
 
 For the present, what is possible to be attained is, only to lay the 
 foundation, upon which, later, a fully organized educational system 
 according to Froebel's idea can arise.* 
 
 The first and chief condition for the culture of good kindergarten- 
 ers, who are naturally fitted, or are prepared by study for the call- 
 ing, is, as has been intimated, that sufficient tirtie shall be claimed for 
 their instruction. 
 
 The six months hitherto employed for that purpose are entirely in- 
 safficieid; and it is a great advance, that in the majority ot the exist- 
 ing training institutions (in Hamburg, Dresden, Watzeim, and in the 
 '"Union for Family and Popular Education,"' in Berlin), the term of a 
 year has now been fixed upon. In Gotha, the Grovemment pays for men 
 and women to be instructed in Froebel's method, for which two yearn 
 are required, r'roebel, who only in the last years of his life attained 
 the point uf catablishing in Marienthal an independent institution for 
 the culture of kindergartener:?, could "rarely succeed at that time to 
 get hif pupiJs to remain longer than five months, owing to their warit 
 of pecuniary mean.-. He felt great ~orrow for this, and unceasingly 
 
 * This was written in IS-jb.— E. P. P. 
 
43 
 
 repeated, that one year's time was scarcely enough to learn the theo- 
 ory and practice thoroughly, even with the preparation of general 
 knowledge, but that six months never could be time enough. 
 
 The consequence of this too short time has been, that only a small 
 proportion of his pupils are able, by their own study and subsequent 
 experience and practice, to administer his method adequately, and 
 conduct their Kindergartens with good results ; still less, sinc"e his 
 death, does the cultivation of kindergarteners answer the demands of 
 their calling in six months, as has been many times demonstrated. 
 Nothing has been such a drawback upon the method as these unfit- 
 ted kindergarteners, who neither know how to conduct their Kin- 
 dergartens according to the meaning of Froebel, nor to give an ac- 
 count of the principles of his method. 8© much the more striking- 
 ly do those exceptions stand forth, who know that only a conscien- 
 tious study of the subject can lead to the goal, and have undertaken 
 that study zealously. 
 
 The so very small proportion of useful kindergarteners, who could 
 speak foreign languages, is the reason why many a projected school, 
 even during my activity in foreign lands, could not be established ; 
 or when established insuflSciently, could not continue in existence. 
 
 For the salvation of the female sex and of childhood, wovld that 
 the view could spread, that for unmarried, unemployed, and unpro- 
 vided women, there can be no more beautifiil and gratifying calling 
 than that of devoting their powers to the best good of the rising 
 race ; and through a better education, helping to flirther the gen- 
 eral morality of society ! Very many of those who are bowed down 
 by sad destiny, have found therein consolation and new courage to 
 live ; many who were living without an aim or a pleasure, have 
 drawn from it the most satisfactory activity ; and many who were 
 without means, the necessary support of life. But every woman who 
 chooses this calling, should examine herself to know whether, on 
 account of many outward and not blameworthy reasons, the inner 
 vocation is not wanting ; whether she loves children ; whether she is 
 capable of self-sacrifice and perseverance ; and whether, in her in- 
 fluence on children, she can make a sacrifice to the common good 
 out of a love of humanit}'. If this is the case, then will Froebel's 
 great idea awaken in her a new and better human culture, and 
 that holy fire of enthusiasm, without which nothing great or good is 
 
44 
 
 fulfilled on earth. No living, lasting results can otherwise be 
 attained. 
 
 Besides, the understanding of Froebel's method and its principles, 
 it is no less necessary to have a most complete practical dexterity. 
 The child should never perceive in the teacher any uncertainty, lest 
 he lose his confidence in her power to help him, and become uncer- 
 tain himself. 
 
 After the thorough learning of the occupations, time is always to 
 be taken for a wider and more thorough practical application. 
 Every kindergartener should be for a year, or at least half a year, 
 an assistant in a Kindergarten or in an asylum, before she conducts 
 one herself. For practice during the training, every training school 
 should have a Kindergarten connected with it, in which half the 
 time should be devoted to the practical application of the method. 
 A strict application of the Froebelian method, by the application of 
 the before- mentioned law, " the combination of contrasts," has till 
 now been carried out only at rare intervals. To the uninitiated, the 
 element of the methodical will not be perceivable, or it will be con- 
 sidered a disadvantage. But whoever has penetrated Froebel's 
 thoughts, knows that all free movement in the childish occupations, 
 especially the possibility of individual invention, is reached only by 
 the application of the prescribed rule, derived irom the above men- 
 tioned law. 
 
 In the Kindergartens of insuflBciently prepared kindergarteners, 
 one always sees mere imitation, sometimes no invention by the chil- 
 dren, but such as comes by chance. The figures which the chilcfren 
 represent, the " patterns" they braid, are shown them ; they imitate 
 them mechanically according to direction, instead of combining pat- 
 terns themselves according to the law ; or they are worked too hard, 
 and wearied with the most artistic and difllcult designs of others, 
 in order that they may have beautiful things to show, and that the 
 teachers may shine through the pupils. The stories which are told 
 them are perhaps not suited to the intellect of the childien, or are 
 not told in a manner befitting a child audience ; the younger chil- 
 dren become wearied, because this or that occupation is carried on 
 too long ; or the necessary discipline is wanting, and at the same 
 time the requisite freedom, which belong loyether. Such a Kinder- 
 garten is pot a Froebelian one, but merely an imitation of tlie jiUins 
 and occupations, without the meaning and spirit of the method. 
 
45 
 
 And yet even in these ill-conditioned Kindergartens, more is 
 gained by the pupils than in the common prim ary schools, so well 
 adapted are the kindergarten occupations to meet the claims of the 
 child-nature. 
 
 The more that cultivated women devote themselves to the kinder- 
 garten cause, the sooner will these imperfections vanish, and a cor- 
 rect understanding carry out the master's idea. 
 
 There is another reason wliich, at present, prevents ,the best and 
 most completely educated kindergarteners from being able to show 
 the results of Froebel's method fully. It is that the education in 
 the family, which precedes that of the kindergarten and is contem- 
 porary with it, is not conducted according to Froebel's views ; the 
 motliers hitherto, being no kindergarteners. Much as the kinder- 
 garten may enlarge home education, and to a certain degree improve 
 or compensate for it, this is never entirely possible, except when the 
 guidance at home, which has the influencing of the child two-thirds 
 of the day, is in such a spirit that there shall be co-operation in the 
 treatment ; so that unskillful mothers or fathers, or other home in- 
 mates, shall not ruin the results. Then only will the best results 
 of the Kindergarten be fully reached, and the importance of the 
 method be fill ly understood. 
 
 There are, indeed, many obstacles to be overcome, before the gen- 
 eral conduct of Froebel's method in families will be possible ; before 
 the mothers shall have learned wiiat is necessary to be learned in 
 order that they may be able to educate. Indeed, they ought to learn 
 this before they are married. There are a great many men, and even 
 the most cultivated ones, who do not wish to know anything of it, 
 and who presume that the womanly instinct — the motherlv heart — 
 understands it of itself, and can need no teaching to iind the right way. 
 If tnese men really would try to understand the Kindergarten, they 
 would soon be agreed that its conductors must l-eam how to conduct 
 them aright ; and what reason can be given that the mothers should 
 not have to learn how to occupy and treat children correctly ? If the 
 motherly instinct [as in beasts) were sufiicient even for the bodily 
 care, would one-third of the children die before they are ten years 
 old, and the majority of the rest be weak, sickly, or crippled ? Surely 
 not ! However, many other things co-operate here ; it is certainly 
 saying little to maintain, that one-half of mankind would be 
 stronger bodily, and more healthful, if the physical care and devel- 
 VIII 
 
46 
 
 opment were what they should and could be. And yet how much 
 easier is this bodily care understood than* the spiritual, which has to 
 do with the closed, invisible, inner nature ! Innumerable persons 
 are conscious that they would have been quite different in a moral or 
 intellectual point of view, would have done quite other than they 
 have done, if there had not been so much wanting and so much neg- 
 lected in their education ; and their treatment had not been so per- 
 verse. If a third of mankind is doomed to death in its budding 
 time, perhaps there are two-thirds who lose in intellectual power (a 
 two-thirds loss ofproductive power), because development and cul- 
 tivation are wanting ! But how many are lost, because just the 
 earliest development was not heeded and sustained, cannot be indi- 
 cated precisely ; that it is very important no thinking man will call 
 in question. To the incapability and ignorance of mothers in re- 
 gard to their educational vocation, is it chiefly to be ascribed that sc 
 many talents perish undeveloped or are devoted to evil, and that so 
 many a moral perversion of character occurs which might be 
 avoided. What would therefore be the gain, if mothers could be- 
 come true wardens and awakeners of human powers and talents ! 
 How many more great men would there be, if the great majority of 
 men had " good mothers." 
 
 The truly good mother must be, to a certain degree, the physician 
 of her child; she must understand the dietetics of children in every 
 respect ; she must not, as happens 'to most young mothere, follow 
 blindly the directions of the old, " experienced" nurses and mid- 
 wives. As little as this knowledge is born to the physician, is it 
 with the mother, however much her motherly love would render her 
 capable of clairvoyance. But still more difficult is it to be the phy- 
 sician of the soul ! Whoever is to treat the soul aright, must know 
 it ; but this knowledge is as little inborn. And the less the instinc- 
 tive knowledge of the child-soul, the more necessary is it that know- 
 ledge be ocjuiVerf by the mothers as far as possible. Every mother 
 who is truly a mother, and lives with her children, knows how diffi- 
 cult it is to employ them, to keep ennui away, and not let cheerful- 
 ness, that elixir of childhood, be lost. The always repeated monot- 
 ony of the usual plays and idealess trifling becomes tedious, not only 
 to children, but also to the cultivated mother ; and she is not always, 
 ■md at each moment, physically able to guide the childish plays with 
 joyousness and freshness of spirit; which is, however, necessary if. 
 
47 
 
 the plays are to become truly educational. But how much more 
 would she be disposed for it, with what interest would she fulfill this 
 task, if the plays and occupations contained intellectual iood for 
 herself, if she thereby obtained a surer insight into the souls of her 
 children, and could perceive and take note of their development in 
 all directions. 
 
 All this has hitherto been possible only in so very slight measure, 
 because the external results of the activity of childhood are so pal- 
 try and empty. The discovery of a method was needed, which, as 
 with a magic wand, could find and lay open to the day the treasures 
 of a child's soul. The method of Froebel does this in full ; it makes 
 the child's soul step forth in its little creations ; the eye of the 
 mother can thus follow the gradual transitions of the steps of devel- 
 opment, and can watch the growing power of the mind. To perceive 
 in the young soul and foster and further the sparkling fire of awak- 
 ening genius, the flashes of future intellectual greatness, — what more 
 beautiful task? what richer enjoyment can there be for cultivated 
 and thinking woman? 
 
 Confused noise, ennui, and, in consequence of these, the "naught- 
 iness" in most nurseries, evils which frequ.ently drive away from 
 them fathers and mothers, will certainly give way, if we hand over 
 to the mothers the magic wand which changes the nursery into a 
 paradise, where children are made happy through a free unfolding 
 of their powers, and the parents, by the results of their fostering 
 care. 
 
 This is only to be attained when the mothers themselves shall 
 become kindergarteners ; when they shall study Froebel's theory of 
 education, and learn his practice of it, before they undertake the 
 great duties of the mother. Hitherto this science, so appropriate to 
 mothers, had not been reduced to unity; the child-soul had not yet 
 been unveiled ; and the nourishment fit for it had not been so fully 
 prepared as has been done now by Froebel. If this science has now 
 been found in its elements ; if it is embodied in play; let not the 
 human race bear tlie heavy responsibility of being unwilling to 
 accept and apply the new truth, in which one of the special tasks of 
 the time consists. 
 
 How shall it be brought about? Will it be required that yount; 
 maidens shall all become kindergarteners beiore their marriaue? [\ 
 can be made possible in the simplest manner. Let Froebel's inefhon 
 
48 
 
 be introduced into the upper classes of all girl's schools, theoreti- 
 cally and practically. It may be objected that this would not com- 
 port with the school system, and that there is not time for it. We 
 answer, that if the school system is not satisfactory ; if anything has 
 grown out of use, and does not answer to new claims, then it must 
 be changed. And if there is not sufficient time, some other branches 
 of instruction must be curtailed. What can young women, what can 
 the female sex have more important to learn, than what its most 
 natural and immediate calling requires ? Is it more important to 
 learn the geography of China and Japan, or the names of the Egyp- 
 tian or Persian kings, than to be instructed in the theory of food, 
 the theory of health, especially as regards the care of childhood; or 
 the development of the human soul and its organs ; and how child- 
 hood is to be treated and employed aright? Would that at last all 
 the ballast were thrown overboard, which in the instruction of girls 
 is still more superfluous than in that of boys; all that superficially 
 learned wisdom, which neither fructifies the mind nor expands the 
 heart, and is forgotten as soon as the school doors are closed, and 
 the ball room or the industrial workshop is opened ! After the ele- 
 ments of knowledge are learned in the people's girl-schools, the 
 common branches — ^reading, writing, counting, singing, then that 
 should follow which belongs to the most peculiar vocation of the 
 female sex — the elements of educational knowledge ; that is to say, 
 knowledge of the essence of man ; how it is constituted according to 
 its bodily and intellectual organization ; how it is developed, and by 
 what means this development is fully sustained ; how the child 
 must be taken care of bodily, from the hour of birth ; how bathed 
 and washed, clothed and fed, and in what manner its mental wants 
 express themselves, and how they are to be gratified; the first 
 through play and dandling (according to Froebel's Mother and Cos- 
 set Songs), the last by occupation and work, and teaching through 
 objects. This is the science of mothers, and therefore of all women. 
 — as the mothers of humanity. 
 
 This knowledge, indeed, requires of those who command the 
 means of higher culture, more — -far more^real learning and work- 
 ing, than is now given in day schools, boarding schools, or by pri- 
 vate instruction. If instruction is to be given there in order to ob- 
 tain the ordinary intellectual culture, then a higher grade can be 
 reached through scientific instruction in the theory of body, soul, 
 
49 
 
 and health, in Froebel's theory of education ; which mdrrors nature 
 and human life in reference to the child ; which uses historical in- 
 formation and natural philosophy in the deepest manner, as a text- 
 book for human education ; and apportions to woman a humanistic 
 task, ^n a higher sense than to propagate the species ; a task which 
 makes her the mother in an intellectual sense, that is, the educator 
 of the human race. 
 
 All this is surely better adapted to elevate the soul of woman and 
 to emancipate her from the paltriness of her existence, than the 
 thousand miserable nothings and frivolous interests which still make 
 up the sum of the lives of millions of women. 
 
 The education of girls should take care of the artistic element ; 
 and in a wider and different form than has yet been done. The 
 manifold musical studies that are now pushed to excess, should not 
 be multiplied ; but ws should give to the mind direction to the beau- 
 tiful, on every side, through the whole plan of education connected 
 with practical exercises of all sorts ; and it should be begun earlier 
 in life, in order to find the natural bent. Here the educational ap- 
 plication must serve as a general goal; and the school of practice 
 for the very young, is found in the Kindergarten. The drawing, 
 singing, dancing, gymnastics, especially the modeling of plastic 
 forms, brings out more skill than much embroidery, crocheting, and 
 knitting ; and forms both heart and intellect. There would be no sin 
 in taking some hours from the instruction in handiwork for the kind- 
 ergarten occupations, without,however, putting the former fully aside. 
 
 All branches of the practical work of woman must be exer- 
 cised in childhood more than is yet done ; for instance, housekeep- 
 ing affairs. The girl twelve years old takes much more pleasure in 
 cooking and attending to housekeeping matters, than one of eigh- 
 teen years, therefore the school exercises should be exchanged for 
 them, and the eighteen-year old maiden study scientifically. In the 
 later period of youth, the mind needs a stronger nourishment, the 
 maiden is more open to scientific occupation than in earlier years, 
 and therefore a very necessary counterbalance can thereby be given 
 to the diversions of that age. The fear of "blue stockings'' is now 
 past ; the hollow smattering without deeper foundation, the arro- 
 gance and boastfulness of half-knowledge, the empty prattle about 
 all and everything, is still brought out daily in girls' day schools and 
 boarding schools ; and thereby the peculiar character of woman is 
 
50 
 
 robbed of its highest charm, originality, the stamp of naturalness and 
 individuality. Real, deeper intellectual knowledge does not take 
 away this originality or nuivete, as is often falsely assumed ; th'H is 
 only the result of that learned, studied knowledge which does not 
 waken soul-germs dwelling in the depths, but puts only artificial, 
 scentless flowers in the place of real ones, and can never make 
 known the individual being. 
 
 Women, as well as men, must learn to think tor themselves ; and 
 youth learns to do that best by experience, and the application of 
 what is learned. The nature of woman, far more than that of man, 
 needs to become conscious of what is learned through its positive 
 application ; otherwise it remains, mostly, an empty shadow, which, 
 at last, is wholly driven out from the life of reality. How many 
 thousands of men would not know a hundredth part of what they 
 do know, if they were not urged and forced to it by the necessities 
 of their calling ! Millions of women know so little as they do, be- 
 cause they have no pleasure or joy in treasuring up dead knowl- 
 edge, that never takes living form, never finds its application to a 
 determined end. 
 
 "Mamma, why must I learn Eoman history and literature ? it does 
 not interest me at all," was asked by a girl of fifteen. 
 
 "Because it may be spoken of, if you go into society, and you 
 should know how to take part in the conversation," was the answer 
 of the mother, who thought she was giving her daughter a complete 
 education. 
 
 This little colloquy points out the common perversion of the 
 education of girls, in a certain respect. Many a young girl knows 
 not how to give any other reason for the greater part of what she 
 must learn, than that of shining, or playing a part, in company ; 
 or, at least, that she may not be considered ignorant or uneducated, 
 by other people ! 
 
 But with what other and deeper interest would girls learn, if they 
 knew, in truth, wherefore ; if they could at once use and apply 
 what they learned, even to a certain degree ; and could say to them- 
 selves that they felt the need of learning in order to fulfil their 
 calling ; if it were understood by them, that they would have to 
 apply all they could do and know to the best good of child- 
 hood I 
 
 Important as Froebel's method of instruction, by individual ap- 
 
51 
 
 plication aud experiment, undoubtedly is for boys, habits of in- 
 dependent production are much, more important for girls, because 
 by nature they are much farther removed from everj'thing abstract, 
 and yet far more in need of cultivation for practical ends. 
 
 "Botany with the children in the Kindergarten is delightful,'' 
 exclaimed a girl of thirteen ; "but the botanical lessons at school 
 are tedious to me'' (which meant "if I am myself active in the 
 care of the garden with the children, while I am learning to know 
 about the growth of plants, etc., it gives me much more gratifica- 
 tion than if I learn a mass of botanical names and classificationN 
 which the teacher gives me in mere words.") 
 
 It is with the participation of the heart, while she cherishes and 
 instructs those she loves, or works directly and lovingly upon real 
 beings and objects, that a woman wants to learn. She must iSee 
 what she is effecting, and have the immediate results before her. 
 How far is the present education, with all its extensive branches of 
 instruction, from answering to such demands of the womaiilv 
 nature ! Indeed, not only for the female sex, but also for male 
 youth, dogmatic instruction is carried to the extreme, and in op- 
 position to nature ; and not even since Pestalozzi, has a suitable 
 course of object teaching been found, uniting an adaptation to na- 
 ture with the possibility of obtaining all the knowledge required at 
 the present time. Incontrovertibly, this is only possible when 
 another kind of education, with better preparation, can be given 
 in the earliest childhood. 
 
 Let anyone ask school boys which they prefer, to help work in 
 the field, or at house-building, or at road-making, or to study Latin 
 in school ; or ask school girls whether they prefer to learn geo- 
 graphy at school, or to give their assistance at home in cookino-, 
 washing, ironing, or in gardening ; the answers will not be doubt- 
 ful in either case. But if the development of childhood at home 
 as well as in the Kindergarten, be pursued according to Froebel's 
 method ; if real observatiim of the external world, good culture 
 of- the senses, and clear intuition, with healthy development of 
 limbs, and manual skilfulness of various kinds, as well us habits 
 f)f activity, are attained to a certain degree, before the school pe- 
 riod, then the hoars of study can, without detriment to what is to 
 be learned, be reduced to one-half the time ; the other hall 
 being assigned to th«t productive activity which calls into play the 
 
52 
 
 bodily forces. It cannot be often enough repeated, that the begin- 
 ning is to be made with working, not with learning; both must be 
 united and fused together in the very beginning of education, and 
 this only right way has been made prmcticable by Froeoel, after 
 Pestalozzi had paved the way. He has given the how of this per- 
 formance in its elements ; it has only to be farther developed. 
 
 It is now desired in many quarters, that the instruction of girls 
 shall be exactly like that of boys, with the exception, perhaps, of 
 the ancient languages, and the specialities of science ; and it is 
 intended thereby, that thus the culture of girls should be favor- 
 ably affected. Nothing can be more mistaken. If there are two 
 gexes (and they are born as such, therefore different), they must 
 be educated ditferently, for the fulfilment of their different voca- 
 tions. This does not mean that the girls should not be instructed 
 in the same branches of knowledge as the boys, but that these 
 same sciences should be taught differently, and conformably to the 
 woman's faculties. There is no question that all school books are 
 written, more or less, for boys, in consideration of what is neces- 
 sary to them in their examinations and vocation. Until now, for 
 example, there is no historical book truly adapted to young wo- 
 men. A history of women, such as might answer this end, does 
 not yet exist ; but this would surely be of greater use for girls' 
 schools, than detailed descriptions of the wars of antiquity. Learn- 
 ing by heart the names and dates of dynasties made quite a young 
 girl exclaim, "Ah, I wish there had not been so many kings in the 
 world I" If one would only observe children in their school la- 
 bors, one might see how much of them could be done away with, 
 as superfluous for true culture.. 
 
 This is not the place in which to enter specially into the changes 
 of instruction desirable for girls and female education; let it only 
 be observed that a justly-claimed greater capacity for thinking, and 
 greater clearness of thought, must be striven for in quite another 
 way, than is done by the present mode of instruction ; that it is 
 to be reached only through more self-activity, through incitement to 
 original thinking, and through a diminution of the given material of 
 thought. He who has a notion of what it really means to unfetter the 
 female mind, which is yet Bound and enslaved ; how thereby a new 
 imprint is to be given to the forming of the whole world, through 
 the influence of education, will agree that the subject is one of the 
 
53 
 
 most important questions of modern culture, and cannot be settled 
 by a few bints, but will need several decades, at least, in order to be 
 suflBciently discussed, even in the mere outlines. 
 
 And if anytbing can contribute to tbe intellectual emancipation 
 of tbe female sex, it is the kindergarten method and Froebel's edu- 
 cation. Tbe mathematical foundation of the Kindergarten will 
 make it easier for tbe minds of girls to att ain tbe acutenes-s of logic, 
 which is often denied them, though no one has truly any right to 
 doubt tbe thinking power of the female sex, or to rate it below that of 
 tbe male sex ; for as yet that culture and care has not been bestowed 
 upon tbe female mind, which is necessary for its complete develop- 
 ment. The individual exceptions must be regarded only as such, 
 and are to be ascribed to tlie talents of individuals, ^^itb()ut applica- 
 tion to tbe whole sex. People always iorget that women are also 
 •maukind, and therefore possess all human talents, even it modified 
 by the peculiarities of their sex. To become truly human, consists 
 in conquering the onesideduess ol sex, in order t(. uuiold on all sides 
 the being of man — tbe rational being .' For that end, men have to 
 overcome tbe viug nesses of a onesided manly nature, and women, 
 the weaknesses ul a onesided womanly nature. It is only possible for 
 musculioe and feminiue natures to arrive at full unfolding in theij- 
 respective individualities, when tbe man can first be wholly a man, 
 the woman wholly a woman. Only the two natures united constitute 
 the complete human being. Tbe age of the maturity of either sex is 
 destined to express this essence of man, which is tbe crowning 
 point for both sexes, the relative perfection of their development! 
 
 As soon as men shall have recognized this, they certainly will 
 cease to demand that girls shall be kept in their ignorance, in order 
 to remain nu.!/.' They will comprehend that youthful naivete has 
 another foundation ; and will take care, above all things, that girls 
 do not become white-haired ignorant "gossips!" but that they so 
 much the more strive to develop their thinking power, as tbe organs 
 of women are in this respect less strong than those of men. In the 
 realm of thought, as in all the domains of human performance, tbe 
 two sexes have difiisrent problems, whose solution is equally import- 
 ant and equally necessary to the good of tbe whole. The thinking 
 of women will touch on other sides, find other solutions than that of 
 men ; and their own problems can only be solved by themselves. 
 
 IX 
 
54 
 
 Especially, many performances in the domain of the beautiful, and of 
 art must wait for them. 
 
 In our industrial age, the wind blows certainly toward that side. 
 The necessity of increasing the industrial capacity of women, in or- 
 der thereby to ward off the misery of millions ; also to make possi- 
 ble for them a material independence, without which an intellectual 
 one would be very difficult to attain, — ^busies minds, in the present 
 current of social tendencies, more than the intellectual emancipa- 
 tion of the sex. Schools of commerce and industry are to be pro- 
 vided for girls, resources to be opened for the women of the work- 
 ing classes, which, until now, have been closed to them.* Ail this 
 will serve to smooth the path for admission into the intellectual 
 domain. But it is to be feared that, at first, women, too, will be 
 drawn into the stream of the present gross realism and materialism, 
 of which there are many omens. For example, the women, who, 
 as in Belgium and France, especially in Paris, have possession of 
 the counters in coffee houses, confectionaries, etc., or who carry on, 
 independently, tobacco selling, and similar business, bear a peculiar 
 stamp, which is unquestionably more masculine than feminine. The 
 higher general culture of the sex mus t be unconditionally wrecked 
 upon the onesidedness of such a direction, which puts the material 
 occupation at the summit, if a counterbalance is not opposed to it, 
 which shall give its just place to the imagination and poetry of the 
 female genius. 
 
 The educational mission to which Froebel summons the sex, offers 
 this counterbalance ; for it addresses immediately, that side of the 
 womanly nature which is the very core of its being ; and can alone 
 open its highest and fairest blossom, love — the holiest love,MOTHEB's 
 LOVE. While the child's soul pens itself to the mother, her own 
 soul is unclosed; while a place in humanity is appointed for her, 
 in which she has the highest duties to fulfil to the growing human 
 being, her own dignity wakes up ; and while the theory of educa- 
 tion points her to God, under whose eyes, and according to whose 
 will, she has to exercise the priestly office to the child's soul, her 
 own soul expands and soars to higher regions. Thus the sex is ex- 
 
 • After the first attempts at the projected industrial schools, and similar insti- 
 tutions for the female sex, the public will surely be led to see the necessity of re - 
 cognizing other preparatory conditions, and it will then perceive that theseare to 
 be found in Froebel's method. 
 
65 
 
 alted to be the spiritual mother of mankind, its educator, after hav- 
 ing been for thousands of yeare only the bearer of men. 
 
 This science of mothers opens up to T\omen all the domains of 
 knowledge : those who a«e aofficiently self-dependent to go farther, 
 on this side or that, to claim this as educational duty, will be hin- 
 dered so much the less, if, beforehand, the most perfected capacitx- 
 for the immediate dutie? of the calling is provided for. It will de- 
 pend greatly upon the sex itself, wliether its true emancipation — 
 tliat is to say. its elevation into the sphere which. is pointed out to it 
 by God and nature — is accomplished earlier or later ; and tho^e 
 rights given to it which demand, inevitably, an advanced culture for 
 erery being hitherto kept in nonage. Only through its own higher 
 capacity for its natural and immediate duties will it attain these 
 rights, and, at the same time, the freedom of the domain of intellec- 
 tual culture and work, a domain hitherto closed to it. But this 
 cipacit}- is only to be gained through another and better education. 
 It is the Kindergarten (in its highest sense) which is to help female 
 childhood to this ; and to be, at the same time, for the adult, the 
 place in which the sex shall put in practice, before all things, the 
 part belonging to it, in the development of the human race and the 
 amelioration of social life. The new education must unfetter female 
 genius, in order to create that "eternal womanly," which, according 
 to the poet, " draws heavenward '' Only love can do that ; but the 
 highest love upon earth is the love of humanity I Love of human- 
 ity must become a worship for the female sex in the care of child- 
 hood in the care of the divine spark which lies hidden in the soul of 
 every child. ITik is the c-zV. of our iirnf upon the female sex. 
 
56 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 feoebel's intermediate class.* 
 
 The Kindergarten culture as it is now carried on, does not go all 
 the way between the nursery and the school, but this is necessary,^ if 
 consistency is to be found in education. Education that is conform- 
 able to nature is impossible without strict connection between the 
 treatment of each earlier age and the following stage ; for nature knows 
 no jumps, at least, only apparent ones ! It always prepares for suc- 
 ceeding steps of development by those which have gone before. 
 
 That no previous preparation and no transition take place, if 
 the child, as has hitherto regularly been the case, is transferred from 
 his play table to the foreign world of the school classes, must be evi- 
 dent to every one. The usual playful impulses of children offer no 
 points of connection, or very few, ior instruction, eveu.isf this i8ohj.gct 
 teaching in the fullest sense of the word. All instrueti^a^ requires 
 predominant activity of the understanding, and some degfee of or- 
 iginal thinking, if the acquisition is not to be mere rote-learning, 
 mere cramming of the memory. 
 
 The small number of independent men, who do their own think- 
 ing, and do not merely chew the cud of other people's thoughts, 
 would furnish a bad testimony to the instruction of schools, if other 
 reasons could not be found for that purpose. Various as the natural 
 
 * In America, the kindergarten often comprehends this Intermediate— which we 
 call its advanced class. Bnt it renders the session an hour longer, when the little 
 ones are sent home, or to play (supervised) with the hall, unless there are two 
 teachers and two rooms. But no one is admitted to this advanced class, who 
 has not had the previous discipline of the mere kindergarten- —Trans- 
 lator. 
 
57 
 
 endowment and the capacity of thought may be, every healthy child 
 brings into the world the talent which is to develop him to a cer- 
 tain degree. But original thinking depends upon experience for its 
 starting point, whether it be the knowledge and science of the adult, 
 or the first thinking of the child. 
 
 As long as we leave these first experiences of children to them- 
 selves, that is to say, to chance, and want of clearness of comprehen- 
 sion, so long but a very imperfect foundation can be laid 
 for thinking and for instruction ; and the play time of the 
 earliest years remains without any connection with 
 the schooling of after years. Only when the system of the school, 
 which pursues by its own means a determined end, is brought to 
 bear, to a certain degree, in relation to the preceding treatment of 
 the child; when thereby the earliest impressions and experiences in 
 the world of sense have been seized by the child with clearness and 
 precision — is the first impulse given to comparison and thereby to 
 thinking ; and only then can there be any possibility of such con- 
 nection. Connection always requires similarity and analogy. The 
 want of thought with which the great majority of children dream 
 away childhood, cannot prepare for subsequent thinking. The 
 kindergarten method furnishes the means of sustaining that de- 
 veloping process of early childhood from the first breath of life, 
 and in such a manner that the instinctive efforts of nature itself to 
 that end have the intended result, that is to say, in the first place, 
 the early development of limbs and senses, and by means of these, 
 the first awakening of the soul itself. Upon this beginning depends 
 the farther cultivation of the intellectual life. Therefore Froebel's 
 method makes use, within the first two years, of the little gymnastic 
 exercises of limbs and hands, together with songs, which the mother 
 must make applicable, as is indicated in Froebel's "Mother and 
 Cosset Songs." It makes use of the natural dandling and caressing 
 by mothers, which only ,i mother can carry on with perfect suc- 
 cess ; for her motherly love fears no trouble, and makes her capa- 
 ble of understanding and respecting the manifestations of the hu- 
 man being in the inarticulate expressions of her child, and how to 
 play, so that the developing aim of the childish play can be reach- 
 ed. Such motherly guidance must make use, according to Froebel, 
 of nature and the objects surrounding the child, in order to awaken, 
 to satisfy, and to cultivate the senses. But to cultivate the senses 
 
58 
 
 means to make them capable of taking in tlie things of the external 
 Tcorld clearly and with precision, in order that their images may be 
 reflected in the child's soul, and awaken that power of representa- 
 tion whichis necessary in order that they may reproduce the things 
 in the mind objectively. 
 
 All the objects around a child are not equally adapted to this end 
 The very complicated ones are not at all suited, nor, all at once, 
 even all that are found in every nursery. 
 
 The kindergarten method offers to the mother quite simple bodies, 
 first the very simplest one, the ball, as the form easiest to be appre- 
 hended. As nature lets all her organisms go forth from this orig- 
 inal form (the original cell), which is spherical, so knowledge of 
 form starts most safely and easily from this original form. 
 
 To distinguish one form from another is still difficult for the un- 
 piacticed eye of the child. Education has to facilitate it ; for all 
 education consists only in facilitating and sustaining itself out of 
 the natural development of self-evident knowledge proceeding from 
 itself. This knowledge, or discrimination of form (unconsciously as 
 impression), is only made easy, when a form verj- different from the 
 one first perceived, or quite in contrast with it, stands forth. The 
 cube serves as the contrast to the ball, for it opposes to the one 
 curved surface of the ball, its manifold planes, comers and edges. 
 (The most elementary form in nature, the crystal, is six-sided, or a 
 cube.) When two forms are discriminated, (separated for analysis), 
 or are known as separate objects, they must again find their resem- 
 blance through connecting links, in order that the connection may 
 not be wanting, which is necessary to all perception. Among the 
 connecting links by which all existing contrasts are united, there ia 
 always one that, as the principle link, lies in the middle ; that is, 
 possesses, equally, similarity with both contrasts. The form which 
 connects the contrasts of sphere and cube is the cylinder, uniting 
 two flat faces and the curved one. 
 
 Therefore these objects of the second gift — as materials of play, 
 yield the simplest perception of that law, "The connection of oppo- 
 sites," as means for the discrimination of form. And this law is 
 the law of all knowledge, the law of all mental activity. 
 
 But many will exclaim, "Is the young child to comprehend 
 this philosophical abstraction ?" To assume this, would certainly 
 be the height of imbecility ! The pertinent counter question is, does 
 
59 
 
 vjonnection exist between the perception, as well as the conception 
 consequent upon it, and the thinking power of the human mind, or 
 not? 
 
 Certainly, in the new-born child there is no mention of com- 
 prehension, but of sensuous perception only. Just as far as it re- 
 ceives and is conscious of its bodily needs of nourishment, warmth, 
 etc., its senses are conscious of impressions from the external world. 
 Light affects the ej'cs otherwise than darkness does ; the red color 
 otherwise than the yellow; the tone of an instrument affects the 
 ear otherwise than the howling of the storm ; the sense of touch is 
 differently affected by the cold stone and the warm hand. That 
 these are sensuous perceptions in the earliest age of childhood, and 
 that out of these perceptions spring gradually the first ideas, this 
 no one will deny. 
 
 Unequal as the bodily development and the growth of the child 
 now are, according as it receives the right and suitable nourishment 
 ;ind clothing or not, no less unequal will be the development of the 
 senses, according as these or those impressions affect them. And 
 surely the means chosen for this development with intellect, knowl- 
 edge, and design, will be more conducive to it than those offered by 
 chance. A child left, from birth, with hardly any impressions upon 
 its senses (like Casper Hauser, shut up in a dark cellar) is scarcely 
 developed at all. 
 
 Also, if connection exists between the first perception of the 
 young child and the thinking of the mature man, because the intel- 
 lectual development, like that of the natural organization, proceeds 
 consecutively, — its beginning and its end should be specially con- 
 nected- The nature of the first perception {except in various de- 
 grees of clearness and individual- consciousness), whether vague and 
 indefinite, or clear and definite ; whether in an orderly or a disor- 
 derly manner, etc., must be of great importance to the later think- 
 ing, and of immediate influence upon the first thinking demanded 
 by school instruction. 
 
 If this thinking is to be original thinking, it is to ground itself 
 upon the earliest experiences and sensuous impressions of the child, 
 therefore these experiences and this thinking must correspond with 
 each other, and be in connection with each other. Experiences can 
 only be founded upon the things of the visible world. But these things 
 are only knowable and distinguishable through their qualities. All 
 
60 
 
 things possess the qualities of form, color, size, number, material, 
 sound, weight, taste, smell, etc., only in various degrees and propor- 
 tions. If the child is to become acquainted with these qualities 
 later, it must first receive impressions of them which determine the 
 conceptions of them in his soul. And it is these impressions which 
 Froebel's materials of play are fitted to give, with greater clear- 
 ness and precision than is attainable by accident. And these ma- 
 terials should be used in the very first period of the child's life, 
 when impressions received cling so much the more firmly, the les> 
 power of resistance there is in the unconscious soul. 
 
 To facilitate the first perceptions of things for example, is not 
 only to begin with one object, and that the simplest, but this same 
 object must also serve for recognizing the different qualities. Thus 
 the sphere, in the form of the six balls, serves for the distinction of 
 colors, as well as for the first perception of form. Each of the six 
 balls, made use of for that end, has one of the colors of the rainbow 
 (prism), that is, one of the three primary or three secondary colors. 
 First, the primary colors are shown, one after the other, and then 
 the secondary colors, composed of the three primary' colors, which 
 are mixed, for example, red and blue (opposites) are shown with 
 violet as the connection ; yellow and blue, with green as the con- 
 nection ; red and yellow, with orange as the connection. Thus is a 
 scale of color formed, with which, by singing, is associated the sim- 
 ple chord of sound (primary sound, fifth, and third). All the ball> 
 together form the harmony of colors, which mixed, produce white 
 light. 
 
 When the child has received impressions of all the other general 
 qualities of matter, as well as those of form and color, the elements 
 of things are thereby given him, a plastic alphabet, as it were, in 
 order that he may learn to read the book of concrete things that 
 surrounds him, the first book which children must learn to read. 
 
 There is not room here to display, completely, the means of Froe- 
 bel's method ; according to its theory, the process of thoughi. which 
 carries back the first learning of the child to its earliest impressions, 
 can only be indicated. Froebel did not invent the process of the 
 child's development; he only discovered the way in which the child 
 naturally proceeds, in order himself to proceed from the educational 
 side in a similar manner. The mind of the child, while it is still 
 only instinctive, or standing upon the stage of instinctive life, can- 
 
61 
 
 not be compelled to go this way or that, and ith developuieut lbllo^\^i 
 the traces marked out for it by nature. But this process of nature 
 (natural way) is always logical, and according to reason, ihat is, 
 according to law. He who has discovered it, can also lind the 
 means to proceed in this law-abiding way, in order to support the 
 natural process of culture. For the development of the human be- 
 ing must be supported, even in its first stage, or there can be no 
 such thing as the education of the earliest childhood. The impres- 
 sions of childhood, hft to chance, cannot be called education. The 
 less self-reliant and the weaker the powers of the child yet are, the 
 more these powers need help and support, or education. This A, 
 B, C, of things, for the age before the school age, is more indis- 
 pensable than the later A, B, C, of books. 
 
 No artificiality can take place where one follows the course of na- 
 ture,and begins,Like jiature,with the simplest.in order to proceed in a 
 consecutive manner to the complicated. But that the mind of the 
 child necessarily proceeds thus, and perceives first one thing and 
 then another, not all at once, first the simpler, and then the more 
 complicated,T-an intelligent thinker cannot doubt. And it is not 
 to be forgotten that the great and confused manifoldness of things 
 in the surroundings of the child, is not taken away from him; the 
 objects of the play are to serve only to help him orient himself in 
 his surroundings. This play itself retains the natural character of 
 the unconscious and apparently aimless trifling of thi^ stage of life. 
 The normal forms first looked at, and then handled, in the first 
 period of life, bequeath to the childish conception a succession o 
 forms which are the preparation for a succession of thoughts, be- 
 cause they, like all thinking, were arranged logically, ox according 
 to law. 'The properly and sharply developed senses lead to just 
 observation and comjaarison, and thus the elements of thinking are 
 set in motion; and the Kindergarten has, in its normal form, the 
 foundation upon wnich and with which to prosecute the inductive 
 method. The law or principle of activity, inborn in the childish 
 mind [the connection of opposites) , has been recognized as fi sensuous 
 impression ; and the Kindergarten uses the same to serve as a 
 guide-post to the child in its productive occupations, in the shaping 
 of its forms, and the combining of its figures. 
 
 The difhcully of comprehending the Froebelian method lies chief- 
 ly in this, — that the ground-law of "connection of opposites'' is con- 
 X 
 
62 
 
 ceived as a pMlosopliic abstraction, instead of being first seen in its 
 practical application. To require children to apply a law wbich 
 seems so abstruse, of course seems monstrous. But a few examples 
 may here find place, which may prove that children, coming to it 
 through practical applications, can comprehend it. 
 
 Our muscular system consists of the so-called contracting and ex- 
 tensor muscles, which form a connection of opposites by their func- 
 tions of drawing in and stretching out. The combination in which 
 these appear in the organism is the connection of the opposites. 
 Now when, in the gymnastic exercises, we tell the children to stretch 
 out their arms and then draw them back, cannot they comprehend 
 that they are connecting these opposite flinctions ? This ground- 
 rule of the gymnastic art, can, in its whole extent, be referred back 
 to this same law, which is the law of all organisms. 
 
 And is the law less comprehensible by the child, when he is told 
 to lay the little sticks at equal distances from the middle point of the 
 table (measuring by the squares), above and below, and then on each 
 side, so that those at the sides shall connect those above and below, 
 and make a symmetrical, or, at least, a regular figure ? Or, if he is 
 shown the perpendicular lines as opposites in direction, of which tte 
 oblique line is the connection ? Or, if he is shown that the opposites 
 of shadow and light are connected on the scale of colors, half way 
 between (to make a picturesque effect) ? 
 
 The child must make and follow some rule when he forms and 
 shapes anything the most freely out of its imagination ; for eveiy 
 hand-worker, as well as every artist, follows a rule. But whether 
 there is another rule, equally well fitted to guide the creative power, 
 may be discovered by investigation and experiment. 
 
 Now, when the child has continually, applied this rule of connect- 
 ing opposites, in his doing and producing, will not the same rule 
 dawn upon him, later, as the law of intellectual activity, or think- 
 ing ? Does not thinking always require contrasts, as thesis and 
 antithesis, and their connection by synthe^ ? Can our intellect 
 separate and sompare without contrasts ? or draw the conclusion 
 from the things compared, without connecting or uniting them in 
 thought? 
 
 Now, if the law has shown itself as the regulator of bodily activ- 
 ity, as well as of intellectual activity, then it is seen to be the gen- 
 eral principle of all natural activity, as well as the principle of 
 
68 
 
 universal development, whicli consists in this two-fold activity, and 
 consequently, also, it is the law of all education. 
 
 With the fore-mentioned materials of the earliest play, multiplied 
 consecutively, come the kindergarten occupations (as was more fully 
 explained in the first section of this work). These represent the 
 elements of every kind of labor and art, and the experiments made 
 in the play-work, and, iu the investigation of it, lead to the ele- 
 ments of knowing, that is, of comprehension. Upon this basis a 
 true object teaching (in the school or intermediate class) can at 
 once raise its superstructure ; for habits of right perception, the pu- 
 pil's own observation, have been obtained, by play, the only method 
 of effecting voluntary observation and attention in the first age of 
 childhood. 
 
 Already, although the Kindergarten, as yet, exists incompletely 
 (because the preliminary condition of a first, correct, motherly ed- 
 ucation, as well as a suitable and contemporaneous support in the 
 family, are wanting), it has been recognized repeatedly, that its 
 pupils enter the schools far better prepared and developed than the 
 great majority of other children. One hears, however, the complaint 
 that these children are "more restless, more diflicult to manage, and 
 that they always wUh to play ! 
 
 Before one makes such accusations, and turns against the method, 
 one should examine more closely whether the method justly incurs 
 this blame, or whether the cause is not to be found precisely in 
 the want of its application, iu badly-conducted institutions, 
 where children, instead of learning attention and self-control, ac- 
 quire habits of frivolous occupation and thoughtless imitation, 
 which are the opposite of what the Froebelian method aims at ? 
 
 It needs only an earnest examination of a rightly-conducted 
 Kindergarten, that truly follows the method, to convince one's self 
 that the children who frequent it regularly, and for a sufficiently 
 long time, come into the schools absolutely better prepared and more 
 developed than other children ; not having a smattering knowledge 
 of many things, outwardly learned, but a good development of the 
 senses, anfawakened power of observation, practical skill, an aroused 
 sense of beauty, and all in due relation with the age and natural 
 i-ndowment of the children, who know wholly and correctly the lit- 
 tle they do know. 
 
 The well-cared-for kindergarten pupil ha.^ gained an individual 
 
64 
 
 conception of the things known to him, because the sharp observa- 
 tion, and the grasp of things made by his own hands were the con- 
 ditions of his making them. 
 
 And the foundation of original thmJdng is given by this individ- 
 ual observation. Also, by the many bodily exercises in the open 
 air, the pupil of the Kindergarten is endowed with a better bodily 
 constitution than the majority of city children who grow up without 
 the Kindergarten, in or out of the house. 
 
 Another question is, whether it is not the school which is to blame, 
 \Yhen the free citizen of the little world which has taken into consid- 
 eration the nature and being of the child uppn all sides, cannot feel 
 at home in it? It is not the necessary order and discipline of the 
 school which is oppressive to him. In all the free movements of the 
 Kindergarten, he had been obliged to conform, at certain hours, to a 
 certain order and regular division of time ; and the discipline of 
 limbs, senses, and organs had been made agreeable by regular exer- 
 cises. It is not that he does not wish to learn ; for his curiosity has 
 been awakened, and he has always been learning through play. But 
 he has been learning while he was working, producing, handling 
 concrete materials, which gave him the satisfaction of seeing before 
 him the result of his activity, and rejoicing in it as an artist. The 
 school ought to continue to afford him this illustration ; the majority; 
 alas, do not have a superabundance of it. 
 
 But however much illustrative opportunity for inspection school 
 teaching may afford him. that which is to be inspected b)' him will 
 nothaxe heea produced by himself ; he consequently does not know 
 how it arises, or how it is constructed, nor can he experiment with it, 
 as he has been accustomed to do. All he can have in' the school, 
 therefore, is so much less living than when he could carrj' out his 
 own combinations for this or that little work, according to his own 
 pleasure, while his comrades were producing quite different things, 
 with which he could measure and compare his own work. 
 
 Every kind of instruction will always be more agreeable to him 
 with illustrations than without them. Some wandering of mind will 
 befall him in mental reckoning or grammar, while he is observing 
 the objects of the school room, and drawing their outline in his 
 thoughts. 
 
 It may be said by some, also, that the child's always wishing to oc- 
 cupy himself with outward, bodily thiugs, injures him, and prevent:? 
 
65 
 
 Mm from arriving at real thinking. But what if the time for think- 
 ing without objects with which it constantly wishes to occupy itself, 
 has not yet come to the child of six or seven years ? What if na- 
 ture does not go forward so swiftly as the school supposes? And 
 what if, in this very way, an overburdening of the powers of the un- 
 derstanding begins in the school, forming that dead weight which, 
 increasing with years, hinders original thinking : and especially 
 where the bodily constitution or the intellectual abilities are not 
 strong by nature ? These considerations deserve a closer investiga- 
 tion before the Kindergarten is blindly condemned. That children 
 who are not overstrained in their earliest years, learn later much more 
 easily and double as much, is well known. Consequently the pre- 
 scribed tasks of the Beal Schools, and all else required by the school 
 regulations, would be attainable in the slower way, such as Froebel 
 always advises. 
 
 But there is still another cause wliich may account for the inat- 
 tention or sleepiness of kindergarten children, when they go to 
 school. Accustomed, hitherto, to much garden work and bodily mo- 
 tion in the open air, by which the sitting still is interrupted every 
 hour (every half hour for the younger children), is it to be wondered 
 at, that, after sitting in school several hours, their limbs should be- 
 come stiff, and they should long for motion ; and that the blood 
 should stagnate, and wish to circulate more freely? This is called 
 'restlessness,' 'inattention,' 'sleepiness.' And precisely the most gift- 
 ed, energetic, and most individually-marked children, are those 
 that suffer most by repression of self-activity. 
 
 Will any maintain that it is natural for children of any age, to 
 sit still in school seven hours a day ? And even more than seven 
 hours, if we count in the time for school studies at home ! It is 
 natural for children of all ages to wish to live with all their facul- 
 ties and pulses in activity, that is, to play and enjoy themselves ; to 
 breathe the open air in full draughts ; to use the limbs in running 
 climbing, jumping, swimming, as well as in gymnastic plays ; to 
 commune with nature through flowers and animals ; and to talk to- 
 gether, not only about little stories and fables, but about "other 
 children;" or of foreign lands and men and beasts; or of the peo- 
 ple who have lived before them ; and of God, the creator of all 
 things. But besides this, the hands need to be active, the instru- 
 ments of future work ought to be kept in motion, and therefore 
 
66 
 
 children love to sow seed, to hoe, plait, fold, build, sew, etc. ; and 
 their young souls long to go forth to see something beautiful or use- 
 ful. 
 
 Those good elementary schools that follow Pestalozzi's method, 
 have usually much material for their object teaching. But yet they 
 use only TOorrf-instruction, without allowing experiment through the 
 pupil's own senses, according to their own inclination ; it does not 
 bring out the exhilarating, visible work of children's own powers. 
 The opportunity for the free production of the Kindergarten is want- 
 ing in these schools ; and this often leaves the gifted and awakened 
 minds of the children indolent or unsatisfied.* 
 
 Froebel's Intermediate Class is intended to fill the gap which now 
 exists between the kindergarten and school ; constituting a connec- 
 
 * In a Kindergarten, a teacher who understands the principle, feels immedi- 
 ately, if the children are not interested, that she has made some mistake or omis- 
 sion. She dreads nothing so much as a laclc of attention. As a practical illus- 
 tration of this, I will relate an Incident that actually took place. One day the 
 children in a Kindergarten were told by a young teacher that she would now 
 give them rings. A general exclamation of disapprobation burst forth (not 
 rudely). The question was immediately asked, "Don't you like the rings?" for 
 they had formerly been greeted joyfully. "No! No !" was the reply. "All may 
 hold up their hands who do not like rings." Every hand went up. "Very well," 
 the superintendent said, "we wiU have sticks to-day." She immediately thought 
 she understood the difBoulty. The young teacher had not given good lessons 
 upon the rings. She had directed the children to make things which she design- 
 ed to represent "forms of use," to use the Froebelian expression. But they had 
 not been symmeirical; and when they were finished, the children could not 
 tell what they were meant for, but had to be told. This was not interesting. For- 
 merly, they had been directed to make the "forms of beauty," which were always 
 symmetrical, even if a name could not be found for them ; and when left to their 
 ownfancies, they would make other forms of beauty, which they named them- 
 selves, picture-frames, rose-windows (which some of the directed forms were 
 called), trees, flowers, etc. ; and if they wanted more rings to complete something 
 which theyhaddesigned, they weregiven to them to make out the symmetry. 
 Sometimes they would make "forms of use" themselves, which they could name 
 (though perhaps nobody else could). After one or two lessons, given with a 
 carefulconsideration to pievent disgust, they again "Uked the rings." The first 
 time the rings were given them again, each one was asked to make "something 
 pretty;"thentheteacherselectedoneofthese, and asked the maker of it to di- 
 rect aU the others to make one like it. After they had .sorted their rings of va- 
 rious sizes, ready for action, this was done, and gave great delight. All wanted to 
 be the one to direct," but there was not time, that day, for another. Whenever 
 the interest flags, the teacher may be sure she is in the wrong. How much of 
 this weariness and disgust thf re is in the schools, we all remember '-Translator 
 
67 
 
 tion and transition from one to the other. The children of the kin- 
 dergarten get the mastery of the material for plastic representation, 
 not before their sixth or seventh year. If representing and produc - 
 ing were at once broken off then, and word teaching, with the usual 
 small amount of object teaching substituted, the process of educa- 
 tion would be interrupted. 
 
 The Intermediate class therefore, is to carry on what has been be- 
 gun in the kindergarten, with the same materials, by the same meth- 
 od, — in production, -handiwork and art ; ahd also to develop instruc - 
 tion by words up to the point of teaching proper. For example : in 
 the building exercise, the rough forms of the kindergarten building 
 lead up to regular architectural forms, with their ground plans and 
 mathematical proportions. The sense of the relations of size and 
 number, which has already been exercised in the child will thus eas- 
 ily attain to a clear and conscious perception of them, and prepare 
 the way for mathematical abstractions. 
 
 The architectural forms of beauty, that occur in the various series 
 of the paper cuttings, also prepare for the exercises of the architec- 
 tural schools, where the pupils copy only for the purposes of orna- 
 mentation. That the future architect gains more by the free inven- 
 tion which arises out of these kindergarten occupations,than by mere 
 imitative drawing of the professional school, there can be no reason- 
 able doubt. And the application of the elements of geometry, in 
 all the occupations, lays the foundation for every handicraft. 
 
 Here is an example flom Koehler's plates, under the title of 'Fold- 
 ing Leaf.' 
 
 The children of the intermediate class, have before them the 
 piece of square white paper, that they have known in the kinder- 
 garten, as the "folding leaf." 
 
 In the previous five lessons, the various sides, corners, angles, and 
 lines'of the square, have been examined, named, and defined, by the 
 children's answera to the teacher's well-considered questions. In 
 the sixth lesson, the teacher says : "The measuring of the lower and 
 upper sides, and of the right and left sides on each other, showed that 
 they were equal to each other; it now remains to measure the right 
 side on the upper side, and the left side on the lower. Fold these 
 sides upon each other and see if they are alike ; then lay the corners 
 precisely upon each other, and make a crease across the paper, where 
 it folds. Is this the same form as before? "^How many sides has it? 
 
68 
 
 (Count them and point theui out with your finger). How many cor- 
 ners has this form ? What is a form called which has three sides 
 and three angles ? Are the lines which make this triangle vertical, 
 horizontal, or oblique? (Point to each with your finger as you 
 name it). In what direction does the line made by the crease nin"? 
 Now compare the angles of this triangle with the angles of the 
 square; are they the same? What do you call the angle which has 
 remained unchanged ? How do the other two angles differ from the 
 right angle? (They will answer — 'They are half as large ;' or 'they 
 are smaller and sharper than the right angle;' or 'Two of the right 
 angles were divided into halves, each one making two equal angles.') 
 What are angles smaller than right angles, and so making sharper 
 corners called? (They may say — or be told — acute angles, acute 
 meaning sharp). How many acute angles have we made out of 
 each right angle ? In folding the leaf you have made two large tri- 
 angles ; when you folded the leaf before what did you make ? (They 
 will say two oblongs or two rectangles). Which are the largest; the 
 rectangles or the triangles? (If they answer that they are the same 
 size though different in form, ask them how they know ? If they 
 hesitate or answer wrong, say : When you divided the square into 
 triangles and when you di^dded the square into rectangles you divid- 
 ed it into halves, did you not, both times ? Which then is the 
 larger?) 
 
 Now open the leaf and tell me what angles, and what lines, and 
 what forms you see. Count them, and point at them with your finger. 
 How many right angles have you made into acute angles ? How 
 many acute angles have you made of the two right angles ? "What 
 did you call the lines that made the right angles ? What the lines 
 that made the acute angles ? Draw on your slate a right angle. 
 Now divide it into two acute angles exactly equal to each otlier. 
 
 Going on in this way, the teacher leads the pupils to develop all the 
 geometric properties of the square, rectangle, triangle, rhombus, tra- 
 pezium, etc., and this example shows how the course of instruction 
 in the school is to connect the mathematical exercises with the man- 
 ual exercises. 
 
 This can only be done, when the same method has been applied 
 before, in the play occupations of the Kindergarten. The use of 
 his own hands still fixes the attention of the child, and lessens the 
 strain on the brain, by making abstract thought unnecessaiy ; and 
 
because the oecupation of tlie folding and unfolding makes the 
 process of teaching slower, as well as surer. The age of the Inter- 
 mediate Class is not yet ripe for pure thinking or mathematical ab- 
 straction ; nor does the example just given require any. It is be- 
 cause the same observations are repeated in the different occupa- 
 tions, with many different materials, that more life and change are 
 Ijrought into this branch of instruction, otherwise so difficult for 
 children. It will be granted also, that the teacher's drawing on the 
 blackboard, as a means of demonstration, cannot take the place of 
 the children's representations with their own hands on their slates, 
 which must needs fix their whole attention ; while they may — or 
 they may not — look at the demonstrations of the teacher on the 
 blackboard. 
 
 Th.e Intermediate Class, like all elementary schools, must keep the 
 organs, senses, and intellectual talents in general awake, to unfettei- 
 them for the positive knowledge, not to be imparted now, but to be 
 acquired later, and itf should especially select such means as will 
 not injure by over-exertion the health of mind or body. In this 
 respect our schools sin against a great majority of their pupils. 
 
 The supposition that Froebel's method causes the mathematical 
 laculty to be always predominant, is entirely unjust. The plastic 
 occupations, as such, do not at all admit of this, but require the art- 
 istic element, the sense of the beautiful, to take the lead. The ex- 
 amination and contemplation of the relations of size and number,, 
 which accompany it, occupy tlie senses only at first, and lead, 
 after the thinking power has been developed, through lofiical trans- 
 itions to simultaneous insight. 
 
 From the harmonious development of all the powers and talents, 
 it results, that, accordini;' to the age, one or tlic other takes the pre- 
 cedence ; but from the beginning, willing, feeling, and thinking, 
 are all called into activity. 
 
 • Froebel's method, therefore, takes into consideration llie powers 
 of perception, at the age wlien imagination and obs(T\;ition pre- 
 dominate, and are thereibre chiefly to be attended to. 
 
 Clay modeling, for instance, which is used in the kindergarten 
 proper, to form all small objects of common life, is used in the 
 Intermediate chi.ss. tor making the eieoientary forms of crystals, and 
 for Stereometry ; so that the powers of the intellect may be excited 
 to observe primary forms. To prepare for further cultivation, foj- 
 IX 
 
70 
 
 -culpture, for instance, there are many series of the forms of beauty , 
 which resemble the usual architectural ornaments, — rosettes, capi- 
 tals of pillars, leaves, etc. The future potter, as well as the future 
 architect, may come out of this training. 
 
 Stick-laying has prepared for rectilinear drawing ; and the laying 
 of rings, (whole, half, and quarter rings) for curvilinear drawing. 
 The hand of the child, that is yet too weak to guide the pencil, can, 
 by laying the little staffs, (sometimes fastening them down with 
 gum), easily form outlines of forms, and therefore exercise the eye, 
 and the capacity for observation, in seizing forms and symmetries. 
 
 The Intermediate Class brings this occupation up even to the 
 representation of landscape, (sometimes bending the staffs, which 
 should be of will :>w), and to the composition of the most various 
 objects. 
 
 The counting, and other arithmetical operations, for which the 
 sticks have served in the kindergarten, can be carried on by the 
 Intermediate Class farther into fractions, which can be taught by 
 breaking up the sticks. 
 
 By forming letters with the sticks, and composing them into 
 words, spelling can be aided, and readingjlead on to writing. More 
 appropriate objects for aiding the beginnings of reading, writing 
 and ciphering could hardly be found. 
 
 Paper-folding, a favorite occupation of the kindergarten, also 
 gives exercises in counting and reckoning, and aids drawing ; for it 
 cultivates the eye and hand for every kind of formation especially 
 suggesting forms for the weaving exercises. 
 
 The further development of this occupation, also, in the Interme- 
 diate Class results from what has been begun in the kindergarten, 
 and, at the same time, it can be connected with actual weaving. 
 
 By the exercises mentioned, every kind of preparatory work is se- 
 cured ; drawing, for instance, which is important in all arts and 
 trades. The kindergarten has brought il up to drawing with tlie 
 pencil upon the slate, (and also upon paper). By grooving the 
 slate with vertical and horizontal lines, the net is provided as a 
 guide to linear drawing. Outlines of many recognizable objects 
 have been represented by straight lines forming figures, though the 
 instructions of the kindergarten could go through only the few first 
 series ; and its inventions take a very limited range. But after 
 such exercises, the Intennediate Class may go on into true artistic 
 
71 
 
 representation, wlien there is some endowment of taste to begin 
 with. 
 
 Froebel requires for every cultivated person some readiness in 
 drawing, because it leads to a right comprehension of things ; and 
 a little practice of plastic art enhances the capacity for the enjoy- 
 ment of art; even when any great power of representation is denied, 
 it is a means of culture. A child should have attained some 
 readiness at drawing, before he should begin to learn to read and 
 write ; for the representation of real things shall precede the rep- 
 resentations by arbitrary signs (letters), and the reading of words. 
 The Intermediate Class, therefore, is especially occupied with draw- 
 ing. Paper cutting is immediately connected with drawing, lor the 
 same end. 
 
 Whoever has seen Froebel's linear drawing, will know that here 
 also, mathematical figures, represented by lines in the net, have first 
 the predominance, lead from these (as the skeleton of things) to the 
 forms of beauty, or artistic forms filled out completely. Mankind, 
 from the first, has followed a similar course. The drawings of the 
 Ejjyptians show only straight lines, and, in courses, angles, and math- 
 ematical figures. According to Froebel, there is still another reason, 
 w.iy, in drawing, as in all his means of occupation, together with 
 the formations, by plastic ai-t, of real objects, and such as represent 
 the artistic by symmetry and harmony, the relations of size and 
 number must be especially considered. This reason is, that work- 
 ing and learning are directly fused into each other, in so lar as the 
 powers of perception (which are taken into view by mathematical 
 relations) are especially active in plastic occupations. The intel- 
 lectual powers are also brought into constant activit}', in the com- 
 bining and connecting of parts into a whole, as is required for the 
 invention of forms. 
 
 To connect the first instruction with play and rejiresentation, 
 cannot be reached in any other way. What are commonly called 
 useful plays, do not effect this, or only in a very small degree. 
 
 Froebel lays the chief stress, in regard to the developing eflect of 
 his method, upon the organizing power brought into activity by it, 
 that ever repeated ordering of parts into a whole, according to the 
 often mentioned law of all activity "the connection of opposites." 
 
 Order, series or categories and their connection by the joining ot 
 their parts, these are signs of organic lii'e in nature ; this is perceiv- 
 
72 
 
 ed more and more readily and definitely by the child, when in do- 
 ing his own little works, he has, in order to create a connected 
 whole, observed for himselt those signs. 
 
 Grounding upon the method of nature the dawning perception of 
 the child, as well as his first productions upon the law that domi- 
 nates in nature, will enable the human mind to apprecdate the law 
 of its own activity, and therefore brings the principle of all work 
 to the understanding. If a science of work is to exist, a principle 
 must be at its foundation, through the perception of which alone, 
 it can be formulated as a science. 
 
 In one and the same creation of one and the same creator, there 
 can be only one ground principle, according to which the develop- 
 ment of every organism proceeds ; and, considering that the human 
 mind, in and for itself, cannot discover any thing which is new, any 
 thing else than what the Creator has planted in the mind as an 
 idea ; the works of man cannot be produced on any other principle 
 than that which has created the works of nature, and according to 
 which his own activity, however different the outward form may be, 
 in which this principle expresses itself. 
 
 On the other hand, if productive activity, or work, is to be the means 
 of intellectual development, this, too, can only be possible when hand . 
 and mind are active according to rules ; indeed according to the 
 same fundamental rule, which gradually comes to the consciousness, 
 and is^, consciously applied to a pre-determined end. Either 
 the principle may be perceived and consciously applied as the 
 iiience of work, or it may not, in which case this science is imposs- 
 ible. 
 
 But granting that a science of work is possible and net'cssaiy, 
 the workman can only be brought up to it through the |)ublic 
 Hchools whose preliminary condition is the public kindergarten ; and 
 thould certainly not be deferred to so late a period that his time is 
 entirely claimed by the work of his special calling, and his habits of 
 intellectual perception are already fixed. 
 
 It has been shown that Froebel's Intermediate Class offers, conj- 
 pletely, the preliminary conditions fora practical education for work; 
 not only such as every department of handicraft and art requires, 
 but such as modern society demands for every cultivated man. If 
 t',,c School shall go on to build further on this foundatimi, every one 
 
will thereby be enabled to take up, even in their later years, niome 
 work as a profession, in order to escape poverty. And, among all 
 the conditions which society has to fulfil, in the education of its 
 members, ^what one is more necessary than this, — to make them 
 capable of securing their material existence ? The political econo- 
 my of our time will only find its true foundation, when every sin- 
 gle person of the masses is waked up to the consciousness of his pe- 
 ctliar productive powera, and made capable of using them wisely, 
 for his own benefit and that of society. 
 
 Still farther the Intermediate Class, through the, farther develop- 
 ment of vocal culture .in children, and joining to it instrumental 
 music, must cultivate feeling and religious sentiments. The cultiva- 
 tion of their little garden beds will lead later to horticulture, and 
 prepare for agriculture. 
 
 The bodily exercises of the movement plays lead to gymnastics, 
 swimming, riding, fencing, dancing. To these should be added 
 regular tramps in the country, connecting themselves with botanical 
 and zoological studie.s as well as geographical pursuits, to which 
 knowledge of localities, soils and their products, as well as other 
 similar things will serve. The study of history in the intermediate 
 class, may begin with stories selected from the Bible ; and 
 accounts of striking events from universal history, adapted to 
 interest pupils of that age ; with illustrations by plates. 
 
 The religious element, fostered and nourished from the very be- 
 ginning, in the family, and in the kindergartens, by hymns, songs, 
 tales, prayers, and contemplation of nature as Uod's handiwork will 
 attain, in the Intermediate school. Christian development, by tak- 
 ing up the childhood of Jesus as the ideal, and a judicious use of 
 the New Testament history, and of the martyr age of the Church ; the 
 devotions before and after the occupations becoming more earne.-.t 
 and taking up longer time. 
 
 This side of education, considered by Froebel also as the most im- 
 portant part of school education can only be fully appreciated by a 
 deeper insight into the whole of his system. The genuine kinder- 
 garten, as Froebel designed it, is filled with a religious atmosphere, 
 to such a degree that all and everything leads the feeliugs to God ; 
 consecrates the childish mind, and prepares it for the reception of 
 the genuine injsitive substance of (he Christian religion, instruction 
 
74 
 
 in which is not to be given at this age, for it cannot comprehend 
 dogmas, which consequently will be to it empty words. 
 
 If, by any means, that "trust in God, foanded on a rock," which 
 Froebel points out as the most pressing need of the present genera- 
 tion, is to be reached ; it will be through an education according to 
 his method. For that the education of the present time, and its 
 early religious instruction, is giving ' Trust in God, founded on a 
 Rock,' who will maintain ? How to awaken religious feeling jn 
 childhood, so that good ground may be made ready for religious in- 
 struction later, has, hitherto been little understood. Only some 
 mothers, who form an exception to the rule, have found the right 
 way to lead the childish heart to God and Divine things, from the 
 beginning. Froebel endeavored to learn how to solve this problem, 
 from these exceptional mothers. What these real mothers instinc- 
 tively do, Froebel wants to instruct all mothers to do, by en ibling 
 them to understand, so as to satisfy the needs of the child's soul. 
 
 Nearly all that Froebel would make use of for the mental devel- 
 opment of children, leads them, directly or indirectly, to God; but 
 only in a childish, natural manner. Before this natural way shall 
 be completely and generally understood, this blessing will neces- 
 sarily be shared by a very small number of children 
 
 In the present state of the development of mankind, nothing 
 ought to be left to the mere instinct or feeling, least of all the 
 holiest sanctuary of the child's heart. Therefore it is for mothers 
 to acquire the necessary information. It is demanded of them with 
 the same right as a knowledge of dietetics for their bodies. 
 
 Whether Froebel's method, in this regard, or the kind and man- 
 ner of instruction of other schools and institutions for little children, 
 is the right one for childhood, must be decided by comparing the 
 children of Froebel's Kindergarten, and those in the institutions re- 
 ferred to. Wherever the child's nature, ( Wesen) which is as yet in- 
 capable of hypocrisy, expresses the most devotion and piety, by 
 hymns, prayer, conversation, or devout contemplation of the beau- 
 ties of nature, there must the true method be sought and found. A 
 number of parents and teachers of children have already given their 
 approval to the Kindergarten in this respect. Precisely because oppo- 
 sition has been so loud on areligious pretext, this subject shoud not 
 be superficially treated, and needs a more comprehensive statement 
 than is appropriate to the time and general purpose of this essay. 
 
75 
 
 The more profound treatment" of the religious aspects of Froebel's 
 svstem, must therefore be reserved for another opportunity. 
 
 In Froebel's Intermediate class, religious instruction is still only 
 preparatory, and without dogmatic character ; which is left to the 
 general religious instruction* and to the family. What is more im- 
 portant at that early age, what is of paramount importance at that 
 earliest age of which alone we are treating here, is the general at- 
 mosphere in which the child lives. If this is really religious, as the 
 Kindergarten in Froebel's sense of the word really makes it, the 
 foundation of religious character will be firmly laid in a natural 
 manner. 
 
 As can be plainly seen from what has been said, the Intermediate 
 Class of Froebel already embraces that which is generally taught 
 in primarv schools, but treats it in a different manner, inasmuch as 
 it connects its teaching with the work done by the pupils The 
 elements of the book school and the Industrial school are equally 
 present in it at first, to be separated only at a later age. 
 
 * Corresponding to that of the American Sunday School. 
 
76 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 SCHOOLS FOE WOIIK. 
 
 The Kindergai'ten method does not pretend to creaie industrial 
 schools ; for they have been in existence, in various forms, for nearly 
 a century. They exist, however, apart from the ordinary school, and 
 are not immediately connected with it by similarity of method. The 
 only proper way for remodelling the ordinary school, as the present 
 condition- of labor and laborers daily demand more urgentlj-, coii- 
 .-.ists in the organic connection of both, which can only be effected 
 when the same principle is adhered to in both. It is only because 
 Froebel's method is founded on the principle of bodily and mental 
 activity combined, and its practical application both in work and 
 study can be effected by it, and the required new foundation can 
 be secured for the workschool. 
 
 The great majority of the existing Industrial schools are devoted 
 to specialities ; and are intended for young people of more advanced 
 ages. Such as are the schools for trades and industries ; for agriculture 
 or for apprenticeship to handicrafts, etc. Attempts made by Pesta- 
 lozzi, Fellenberg, Wehrlig, Saltzmann, Winderspin, Lancaster, Owen 
 and others, to employ labor as a means of education for childhood, 
 have been imitated and carried out almost only in the so-called 
 "Houses of Refuge for abandoned children." The models of such 
 institutions are the "two Mettrays,"one in France and the one in the 
 Netherlands; the "Ranche Hoiise" near Hamburg, the institution 
 at Ruyselledein Belgiun, and the agricultural colonies of England, 
 etc. The Pestalozzian Institutions, which have of lute been so 
 much multiplied, have been until now the only industrial .schools 
 which receive also quite young children, also that are not wholly 
 
77' 
 
 abandoned. In all th'^se'ltastitlitiotis, lioweyei'l labor i,s carried pii- 
 nothy— but by this 'side 6{\'n^tniL-t\oii proper';' the, nbur^ of study 
 bding' e6mt)let!6ly aieparatecl 'from' tb'e nours of work, Moreqyer, , 
 work'is here'COnsidei'ed ndt s'6'iiiiicH'dii a 'means of cujture as, a pre- 
 paration' for 'earuing a UVelihtiod ' or 'as 'a means of reformiiia vouua 
 vagaborlds. i , ., 
 
 In Mettr^y/nearToiii's,' iind ailso in jVleitray, in the, Netherl^ids, 
 (founded *bj' the Well-known philanthi-opis't, Sbarmgajr)^ most hours 
 of'the day &te dev'otedto 'Work, cliiefly 'to agriculture, and !|iandi- 
 erfefts; comparatively little time is left for instruetioi( proper, aij,d 
 thtit little merely 'Sufiieientf6i' the cultuife' of the rafi^re, handicrafts-, 
 man, 'but not for'that ofarilan Of reaming, ' a public o'^cer,^pr the^ 
 man of general cultul-fe'" belohgiiig to iiie higher social positions. 
 Fdr th'e very, handicraftsmah and tradesman, 'the present time de- 
 mands knowledge 'superior to ■what 'can be imparted in| ,these insti- 
 tutions ; for these reasons alone, — that tide previous' preparation of 
 the' pupils is deficient and there is hot time ehotigh, even ifwe do 
 not take into account that iii the institutions named, only sucli 
 children are reCeiviBd as are tadrally abandoned.* 
 
 If work is to serve as a^aiekns" of education for childhood i:)roper, 
 until perhapsthet*elfth'year,"it'must not be a mechanical, o.ccu,- 
 pation, in which' the powers of the" mind have no plan ; for this age 
 requires the general development of mind and body. If work is to 
 
 * Whoever liiiows, as I Ao. fr(,)m personal inspection, these institutions, sq. well- 
 intended in themselves, must have' receiverl a'' great 'impression. Not only does 
 (he sight ofthc philanthropic jounclations,:whioh-bear sit cotnlDleiely the imptint 
 of love and devotion, aft'ect the beholder with, emotion, but th«y ex«ite in him ad- 
 mir'ati^on fotthe grand' scale of their, organization. -We receive at, ^tie same time, 
 another agreeable impression. The majority Of the piqiils e.vpress, in their pliys- 
 iognomy,£o much fpa-nlcriess, good nature and cbe'erMlness. it ts evident that no 
 corruption has penetrated, very deep, and tliat-tije institutions, have stioceeded in' 
 aiscoVering and arousing the gqod germ of the soul,, which . 41s is mostily (the case 
 at this early age, is only sleeping. ' ■ . _ ^. 
 
 Or^e of the most eomprehensive and 'iihportaiit foundations possessed fey Ger- 
 manj;. for the unfqrtjinate^ndpiorally corrupted isiundau'btedly; the Institution 
 called into existence, with Incomparable -phil,fi,nthi:opy,..b3'-&ustav Werner, at' 
 Reutlingen, ItiWurtemburg. Whoever would be delighted by.the^ jiossjble good , 
 worJi of man, ought tosee Weriier's Institutlbns^'in^whTch maiiy thousands, both 
 of the growp-up, a,nd young, :iind,their bread, (Ddxaral elevstioii, eflncaition a'lid hap- 
 piness; everyone should.at least lefirp the tonchipg history of their origin.d'owe to 
 my hobJe friend 'Weirner. some mbments never to be forgottgii,, aud. would like; 
 lierciwith, to transmit to hl-m' agrateftil greeting'' 
 
 IIX 
 
78 
 
 lie a universal means of culture, children of all classes of society 
 must be trained to it, and thus receive a preparation for any future 
 position in life. This cannot be attained now by the Industrial 
 Schools as hitherto carried on, nor by the industrial exercises them- 
 ■ielves of special Industrial Schools, because they do not instruct the 
 mind. For the immediate connection with the school for study, ex- 
 acts mental activity during the working hours ; so that it may be 
 in harmony with that of the study hours, wherever no immediate 
 connection exists. Because neither of these things have hitherto been 
 attained, all the repeated attempts to introduce work as a means of 
 education have failed ; yet repeated attempts to remedy this defect 
 have been made during the last hundred years, because it has been 
 plainly seen how unnatural for the age of childhood is the separa- 
 tion of bodily and mental activity, and that the increasing claims of 
 the school on mental exertion endangers more and more the bodily 
 health of children. On the other hand, the needs of poverty urges 
 men to go in search of means for rendering the children of the peo- 
 ple capable of earning their livelihood early. 
 
 ^ That was one of the chief motives which induced Pestalozzi to 
 make the children of his pauper school work. But he saw, at the 
 same time, that work which cultivates manual dexterity, and pre- 
 pares for the ordinary business of practical life, is not sufficient to 
 ■ierve as a universal element of education, and an effective means of 
 moral culture. He too was seeking a universal principle of activity, 
 which might be applied to manual labor also, together with what 
 he called "the principle of everything organic ;" and for the appli- 
 cation of which he sought the A, B, C of power, without finding it. 
 In all the schools where work has been carried on in different direc- 
 tions, there was not a sufficient time for study, and to consume 
 the required amount of material. It was seen that children would 
 have to enter into the school better prepared, even as regards apti- 
 tude for work and the necessary skill, in order to accomplish some- 
 » thing considerable. Even before Froebel, the idea of preparing 
 children, through their plays, was enunciated, and attempts were 
 made to realize it more or less. Thus Fourier, in his system for 
 social reform, sets down work as the principal means of education ; 
 iiid exacts, that the plays of early childhood be made available as 
 .1 preparation ; and chiefly for the purpose of becoming early 
 ;icquainted with, and cultivating the native talents of the children 
 
79 
 
 for special callings. For instance, he exacts that children, in tht 
 first years of their lives, he carried into the different workshops, in 
 order that thus their bias for one or another may be expressed .' 
 The trade chosen by them could thereafter be considered as their 
 peculiar calling, and would at once have to be exercised daily, with 
 diminutive tools, corresponding to their strength I 
 
 But such a proceeding cannot attain the intended end, if for no 
 other reason than that such young children, (who do not under- 
 stand in the least the trades which they are taken to see), would 
 make their choice according to some accidental impression of the 
 material, or the objects made ; and, that consequently their inborn 
 bias could never be manifested. By exercising a mechanical craft- 
 of itself (a difficult thing to be brought about,) they would scarcely 
 attain a little mechanical skill, and the continued practice of the 
 same modes of procedure, in the same trade, would cultivate only a 
 few senses and organs, and leave the rest of the nature undevelojaed. 
 
 Thus the harmonious development of all powers and talents, 
 which Fourier also proposes to attain, is hindered at the very out- 
 set. Their young, and as yet unexercised limbs, are, at any rate, 
 wanting in even the needful muscular power, enabling them to 
 imitate, even with children's tools, the manipulations of the 
 great majority of trades. Still less sufficient would this power be, 
 for enabling them to produce the intended work. During such 
 mechanical exercises, the mental functions would remain completely 
 unawakened, and not even sufficient opportunity would be afforded 
 for obtaining certain experience, by experiments of their own 
 
 To the example mentioned of the want of proper means for ob- 
 taining what is intended, others might be added to the method sug- 
 gested by Fourier. It is not, however, intended here, to condemn 
 other great and genial conceptions of Fourier's system. Many of 
 these conceptions are in harmony with the educational ideas of 
 Froebel, although the two thinkers knew nothing of each other. If 
 the adherents and disciples of Fourier were to take the trouble of 
 becoming acquainted with Froebel's method, they would soon gain 
 the conditions nec*sary for carrying out almost everything that is 
 correct in Fourier's system ; for the proper means are offered in the 
 Kindergarten. 
 
 Thus, for instance, in the Kindergarten, though the trades to be 
 exercised hereafter are not practised as such, yet every limb, every 
 
,80 
 
 sense, every musclg, every ner\^e i^ i#pt ji^fp ,fl.cj;ivity .; and the ffenerol 
 mhnij:>nlationsneces,aB.vjipr, every trijide, are practised. ,The young 
 child cannot fell and saw trees, nor br.eak ^tones for the building of 
 houses ; therefore we give him. lit^tle beams and bricks, lea5[ing them 
 in his hands for free experiments. T^e cannot cut wood and, stones ; 
 but he can cut paper^ leather and,|Oth,er, soft, materials'; he . cannot 
 sculpture in marble, biit he can model in clay. , .He cannot supciess- 
 fully use the plane, gimlet, hammer, and other to,ols (which would 
 be dangerous for him,) but by using the pencil, scissors, the prick- 
 ing needle, etc., he can acquire the needful gpneral skill. 
 
 ' To bring about a satisfactory cultivation of the cbild's abilities, 
 the mere skill of a tradesman will never suffice. Without awaken- 
 ing the sense of beauty, without the elenients of artistic culture, the 
 labor of a child tends to deaden the mind. That aesthetic culture 
 which Fourier means to effect in this respect. by the mere cpntempla- 
 ticn of art, and the listening to music, the kindergarten attains by 
 the pupils own productions. 
 
 By the side of these endeavors to make the children's plays avail- 
 able for future work, and his vocation, another fundamental idea of 
 Froebel's has been anticipated, namely : — the theory, (advocated also 
 by Herbart) that education must proceed in such a way, as to ena- 
 ble childhood to live through in its own manner, the principal 
 epochs of the historical development of mankind ; for this rea- 
 son that the individual has to pass through the same degrees of devel- 
 opment as the race, and that, consequently, the same aids and means 
 of education must be aiforded. 
 
 The most varied attempts have been made to express this idea. 
 Oampe showed, in his Eobinson Crusoe, by the inventions, discover- 
 ies and exertions of a single isolated man, the original artistic en- 
 deavors of the human race, and so created one of the most useful 
 books for children ; and this plan of making children carry out prac- 
 tically themselves, the work of Eobinson, has often been imitated. 
 
 But though it certainly is very useful in many respects, to make 
 children build Robinson's hut, erect his castle, make his nets and 
 rope ladders, and shape his pots and kettles, a general preparaT 
 tion for all kinds of work cannot be attained in this way. Nor does 
 the child in this way live over again the different stages of human 
 culture, though the understanding of the history of human civiliza- 
 tion may be somewhat illustrated by it. Froebel in his Keilhaus, 
 
-81 
 
 did make his pupils act the part of 'Robinson, perhaps more com- 
 pletely than has ever been' done elsewhere.' (If is there that I my- 
 self saw the taking of a coih'pleted' Robfnsonian castle by assault.) 
 But all he intended by this was/to'afford thechild's imagination an 
 opportunity for -exercising itself in the representation of what it had 
 imagined, and enjoying the plea.'iure 'consequent upon representa- 
 tion. Complete preparatroit for human work cannot thus be 
 effected, neither as regards technical skill, nor the mastering of the 
 material, nor the understanding of the theory of work. To repre- 
 sent literally, in a similar manner,"diff'drent historical epochs, would 
 never be anything else than a kind of coinedy ; perhaps not with- 
 out some profit, but certainly without attaining the desired end. 
 The child is, as yet, without any standard which can enable him to 
 understand historical epochs ; and he never lives through them how- 
 ever much he may imitate them. In this object it would perhaps be 
 better to return to historical representations in books with illustra- 
 tions, and introduce only children of maturer age to the history oi 
 mankind. For how is it possible to make children practically /in' 
 through the time of the patriarchs ; or to carry on the crusades ; or 
 act over again the time of the Reformation ? 
 
 According to Froebel's idea, this thought has quite another mean- 
 ing, and must be applied in another manner. 
 
 Doubtless, inborn in every child are those eternal types of human 
 existence, which have been realized by mankind ; they are types 
 which, in the form of family, state, and church, make human' so- 
 ciety what it is, and without which it cannot be conceived, however 
 much their outward manner of expression may have varied and 
 been modified, and will be — still further — in the course of their de- 
 velopment. 
 
 As every acorn contains the conditions of the oak, so every child 
 has within him the conditions of the whole manner of human ex- 
 istence ; with this difierence only, that the capability for furtlicr 
 development goes on increasing with every generation. 
 
 The instincts of the child must consequently be eXjjressed in a 
 manner analagous to that of mankind. Just as the original chil- 
 dren of nature were occupied with their own sustenance and the 
 satisfaction of their bodily and sensuous wants, so the child, at fii-st, 
 feels only its body and its wants. Existence, as yet unconscious and 
 only instinctive, knows only itself, and exacts for itself, as a born 
 
82 
 
 egotist ; and does so, urged on by necessity, in order to be able to 
 maintain itself. Tbe instinct of self-preservation underlies all in- 
 stincts of material want, such as the instincts for shelter, food, clo- 
 thing, etc. Only with the first awakening of higher instincts of the 
 soul, mankind realized first the family relations. The child enters, 
 after the first month of its existence, into family relations, begin- 
 ning with its relation to the mother. Together with the development 
 of the mental powers ensuing thence, appear the highest instincts, 
 — those for the true, the beautiful and the good, which lead on to 
 Science, Art, Morality and Religion. 
 
 From the instincts of self-preservation in material life, during 
 the stage of consciousness or culture, have proceeded agriculture and 
 all that is connected with it, with respect to natural products, in- 
 dustry, trades, commerce and the like. From the instinct of tainily, 
 or sociability, has proceeded the community, the nation, the state, 
 Public Law, and all that underlies moral life ; from the instincts of 
 the beautiful and true. Art and Science ; and from the religious in- 
 stinct — the Church. These instincts, which in their development 
 have brought about the civilization of human society, must be ex- 
 pressed also in the child with his first breath. Consequently, edu- 
 cators must try to understand and afford to him the satisfaction of 
 his tendencies, in order to raise the development of the child from 
 the state of nature to the level of the civilization of his time, bv 
 giving suitable aid. 
 
 The form in which the instincts of the child and his self-activity 
 is first expressed, is play ; hence, the great significance of children'.-, 
 play. 
 
 The life of mere instincts, as such, prevails only during the earli- 
 est period of infancy, which consequently is the most important 
 for education ; because with the first development of instincts, the 
 foundation is laid for whatever ensues. As yet, necessity rule.s and 
 not personal volition ; and only inspirations of nature a> it were 
 are expressed. Therefore, it is the period when, according to Froe- 
 bel's ideas, the educator has the least right to interfere arbitrarily, 
 but must scrupulously follow the indications of nature, wJiich alone 
 points out the right way. 
 
 How far this is normal in the child, or owing to the errors of man- 
 kind before him, not normal but more or los degenerated, is a 
 question which neither is nor mast be discu.-^sed here, ;i.-, is selt- 
 
83 
 
 evident. Froebel, however, does not assume a perfect purity, or un- 
 brokenness of the child's nature, as he has been accused of doing, 
 and as actually was done by Fourier for instance. Just as little 
 as a child comes into the world, absolutely sound in body, so little 
 is he morally sound. Nor can inclinations and powers, as yet com- 
 pletely undeveloped, be called good or bad before they have been 
 expressed in one direction or another. And for the very reascm that, 
 in any circumstances, they prove deficient and lead to error, edu- 
 cation is required from the beginning. Instincts tending inevitably 
 to what is right and good, would not need guidance and educa- 
 tion. 
 
 Those who maintain that in the first years of the child's life, ev- 
 ery thing must be left to nature, that is — to accidental impressions, 
 ought, certainly, in order to be consistent in their view, to urge 
 the opinion that the child brings into the world nothing but good 
 inclinations. It is, however, only too frequently the case, that, con- 
 trary to this opinion, they pre-suppose hereditary sin in the most 
 extreme degree ; which is one more proof, how little, as yet, the 
 nature of man, and especially of the child, is known ; and how 
 much a brighter light is wanted, to light up this dark region, and 
 supply education with a firmer foundation. 
 
 What is wanted is, to raise the psychology of the child's instincts 
 to the rank of a science which does not as yet exist as such. Froe- 
 bel has looked more deeply in this direction than any previous 
 thinker, and he is the only one who has given practical instruc- 
 tion for taking the instincts into account. Because the subject 
 treated of is so little known, the instructions given under the guise 
 of child's play, (for instance, in his Mother's Cossetting Songs, 
 (Mutter und Kose lAeder,) are not understood. There are very 
 many who think it almost nonsensical, to look for a deep cause, or 
 even the germs of future conceptions and ideas in the instinctive 
 utterances of the child I 
 
 Froebel gives few explanations in his writings, and does not even 
 make use of the expression, psychology of tht child's instincts, nor 
 the expression previously mentioned, principle of human activity. 
 But whoever follows up the connection of his ideas, which have, ■ as 
 yet, found complete expression only in his means of play, will see 
 that what is implied in them are at the least the elements of such a 
 Science. 
 
u 
 
 But is it really sp nonsensical to see higher mental instincts indi- 
 cated h^y childish manifestatipps ?, for in?|:ance,i to, suppose, in the, 
 inclination con^mon to all chilcjren, tp put objects which .they can 
 get, hold of to, their lips, the fi|rs,t,^xpf^ps^ip,n oi ,a. d?gij"e,,,fori,know-s 
 ledge? ^ There is no doubt that, a c^esigI^pt nature lies at the Ioub- 
 dation of all manifestation^ pecu'i^r to ,ch|ildhpf.d, .as itsicommooi 
 mark of distinction. |That, in the n^anifestatipn aJJluded tOi we can- 
 not puppose a desire for food is s^en, in the fa,ct that .children are 
 in the habit of, indignantly, rejecting aijythirig which, is offered, 
 them |to ^at, when sometfiing not eatable h,ut whjci they are thus 
 testing, has been taken away, and which they often cry tor. „.,; 
 
 The psychological explanatioij pf this, according, to Froebel, is, 
 that because the alimentary instinct (anc^ consequently the tongue,, 
 which is its organ) is first developed by thp process , id' nutrition, it 
 al^o' serves for the instinctive desire; for knpiyledge.,,. ,,.,n ,,;., .-, 
 
 As the blind man endeavors to know colors by the-sppse of touch, 
 the child naturally tries to taste things and thus to, know, them by 
 the only organ as yet developied. This is p/course donequite with- 
 out conscious intentions; therefore instinctiveiy or intuitively. 
 
 Nor is the assertion much more untenable, .that the. development, 
 of the sense" of taste is the' forerunner of the develo])ment of the 
 sense of the ^ beautiful, because there exists, au analogy between 
 bodily and mental functions, .and, their develppureut. . Nor to many 
 does it seem anything else' but jarbitrary assumption to see the .first . 
 instinctive impulse towards the myestig.ation of .causej ,in the fact 
 that children are in the habit of looking for .the reasoji pf the .mover 
 ment of an object, such as the pendulum of. a. clack, the vane, a, 
 ball swinging, front si, stfing, etc., or to interpret^ the j.py they manifest -^ 
 on seeing a light, pr Mminous phenomenon in,, g;6^ne,r^l^ suc.has, tke^. 
 moon,'or clear water, by saying that this physical . instinct is, the 
 forerunner of the mental instinct, which is.m.auifested later,, as love 
 of clearness, of mental enlightenment, of the ideal, and of every- 
 thine lofty in general. ,...., 
 
 But does anypne.dpjibt fhat minij^and body, in their connection, 
 have a decided influence ba— ^because they depend. upon — ^pne an-, 
 oth^?' And could this be logically iiossible,unlesssome' immediate,.;, 
 analogy could he found between their manifestations ? If man is , 
 to know EimSelf, his innermost nature, he can do so only by un- 
 derstanding the relations between the life of iu.stincts and the liie ,• 
 
85 
 
 of the mind ; between the organs and the mental powers ruling 
 them. Because this has been done hitherto so incompletely, it is no 
 valid reason that it can never be attained more completely. For it 
 is not until quite lately that the bodily functions and organs have 
 become more known, by the development of anatomy into a sci- 
 ence. 
 
 If it be denied that the child's instincts signify anything with re- 
 gard to his mental activity, which is developed later, and its influ- 
 ence upon social life, the manifestations of young animals can no 
 longer be called the preparatory exercise for ttieir later mode of 
 existence ; and yet everyone knows that it is the instinct for building 
 a nest, which causes a young bird, even in the cage, to gather all 
 sorts of things (long before it is time, considering its age); just as 
 the young kitten makes those movements of lying in wait, grasping 
 and jumping at objects, without the presence of a real object, 
 movements which it takes to catch animals suitable for its food, 
 a long time before there is a want of it. 
 
 As the gambols of young animals are a preparatory exercise for 
 the mode of existence of their species, so the plays of children fore- 
 cast that of mankind. There is no doubt about this, — it follows 
 as a law of nature. In the same way, the instinct for shelter causes 
 children to dig hollows in heaps of sand, or to make houses by 
 arranging chairs in a corner of the room, or to make a garden 
 with little sticks, and the like. 
 
 Mankind also, when in a state of nature, dwelt in caverns, or 
 grottoes, before the instinct for shelter brought forth the first huts ; 
 and, when hearth and home had been obtained for the family, and 
 towns had been built, and still later, countries divided among na- 
 tions, did not love of country grow out of the love of hearths and 
 homes, — that love of country, which stakes life in order to protect 
 the land of its birth ? 
 
 Is there no connection between this (likewise animal) instinct, 
 which strives to protect the limits of its own dwelling, and inspires 
 love of property, and that high sentiment which offers up life and 
 property for the country's good ? Is it then nonsense, to see in the 
 first indications of the instinct for shelter manifested by the child , 
 the germ of future patriotism? 
 
 If there is a connection between the manner in which the individ- 
 ual is developed, and the mode of development of mankind as a 
 
 XIII 
 
86 
 
 whole (and is there any doubt of this?) it is to be found in their 
 instincts. The child's longing to model and to shape, is the germ of 
 artistic sense for plastic art, just as the instinct for examining every 
 thing, and investigating what is hidden, leads in its full develop- 
 ment, to knowledge and science. 
 
 To lay hold of these instineU of the child, in order U lift them 
 v-p, from the beginning, out of the lower sphere of the senses, into 
 the higher sphere of the mental ideal world; and whilst satisfying 
 tht instincts, ministering t o the maintenance of the body, to take in- 
 to account those of the soul, — it is in this that consists the secret of 
 Education according to Nature, and consequently the starting-point of 
 all Education. 
 
 The comparison — ^between the child's development, and the ca- 
 reer passed through by mankind — may also be looked at from quite 
 a general point of view ; and thus be taken into account by the ed- 
 ucator. The fact, for instance, that men, in the first stage of their 
 existence, needed great bodily exertion, fighting and wrestling be- 
 ing necessary talents, and that their first works were the result of 
 bodily labor, ought to teach us that our children, too, have the 
 same wants ; and that a great deal of bodily exercise ought to be 
 provided for them. They ought to have naore exercise in gymnas- 
 tics, in riding on horseback, swimming, ploughing and skating, ra- 
 ther than to sit still on school benches. The fact, that mankind in its 
 youth, has collected its first knowledge from the phenomena of 
 nature, and from using its products, should convince us that our 
 children likewise must be led out into nature early in order to gain 
 their first knowledge of life and the world, by original experiments 
 and personal experience ; that they have first to learn by being 
 themselves active, by working, — not by instruction in words, and 
 the study of books. 
 
 And moreover, since it was only after long bodily labor, and ex- 
 perience, during the youth of actual things, that knowledge proper, 
 thought and judgment made their appearance, it must be inferred 
 that we are not to overload our children with abstractions (truths 
 derived — not orignaUy discovered), before they have become acquaint- 
 ed with life in its reality ; that those no older than fourteen or 
 sixteen, ought not to be made to occupy themselves with philoso- 
 phy ; that their power of thought and some wisdom of their own 
 ought first to be allowed to grow, before they subject the higher re- 
 
87 
 
 suits of human thought to their immature criticism. But often 
 they behave like worn-out thinkers, long before they possess even 
 the A, B, C of perception personally, or have learnt how to act in- 
 dependently. 
 
 It is only in a general manner, that Education can make the his- 
 torical epochs available for a rule of action. This is a part of later 
 instruction in history. What is here most essential, is, to see that 
 undeveloped mankind have expressed the first beginnings of civili- 
 zation in works of their hands, and not in letters ; that, consequent- 
 ly, before our children learn letters, which have been invented only 
 thousands of years after the life of civilization had begun, they too 
 should have produced a series of works with their own hands ; and, 
 although they cannot in reality imitate, in their structures, the his- 
 torical series, from the Indian rock structures, the Egyptian pyra- 
 mids, down to the Greek temples ; or pass over from nomadic life 
 to the founding of cities and modern political institutions ; it is, 
 nevertheless, within our reach to give, by Froebel's manner of occu- 
 pation, and the arrangements of his kindergarten, suflicient 
 analogies, by which those works and epochs of development, of hu- 
 man civilization are indicated, and approximately represented. 
 (Compare, for instance, in the building exercises in the Third Gift, 
 the so-called "chair,'' which is not unlike the seat of the statue of 
 Memnon, with the structures of the Sixth Gift, resembling Greek 
 temples ; and a definite series wUl be clearly perceived, in this re- 
 spect, also.) 
 
 Bodily representations, from the crudest and simplest up to the 
 more developed and complex ; then pictures, w'hich become sym- 
 bols ; and only signs at last, for the pictures and objects, which are 
 called letters : such is the natural course suggested by the history 
 ol civilization. Were not the first letters — the hieroglyphs of the 
 Egyptians— also pictures? 
 
 It is only from the manifestations of the child's life of instincts 
 that education can start ; and, only in the manner of the develop- 
 ment of the human race, can it find a guide for both understanding 
 and manipulating these manifestations. Nor does nature afford any 
 other support, or any other criterion for a training for manipula- 
 tion of its products. If we wish to learn how to train a plant, we 
 examine how, and on what conditions, takes place the development 
 of the species to which it belongs. The same course has to be pur- 
 
sued if we wish to train an animal. The mode of existence of its 
 species, sliows what is needed for its nurture. 
 
 But the child's life of instincts not only affords the best guide for 
 fostering his general development, such as is manifested in his spe- 
 cies, i. e. in mankind ; — his personal individual life also, together 
 with every inborn peculiarity, can be completely taken into account 
 only by heeding the instincts manifested. The deficiency among 
 men of what is original — in the highest sense of the word — finds its 
 chief cause in suppressing or impeding — at least in the not aid- 
 ing — ^those first manifestations of life, which spring from the indi- 
 viduality of the child. Though the same instincts are inborn in all 
 without exception, they are differenl in intensity, and of the most 
 varied mixture in each. The peculiarity of every one springs 
 from nothing else than the talents, powers and inclinations predom- 
 inant in the child, and they are clearly manifested by these very in- 
 stincts ; when not aided they are only feebly developed ; when sup- 
 pressed — not at all. 
 
 And this is the point where our present system of education is 
 weakest ; the means being wanting, which call forth early enough 
 the peculiar endowment ; for this can be effected only when the 
 quite young child is enabled to manifest himself in the works of his 
 hands. Since Froebel's method does efiect this, it succeeds in not 
 only not extinguishing, but in calling forth with complete definite- 
 ness, the inborn peculiarities of each individual. 
 
 This new starting point for the education of man, has been found 
 by Froebel, as never before. In how far his predecessors paved 
 the way, cannot here be considered. The majority of inventors gen- 
 erally owe what is best in their inventions, to the attempts and also 
 the unsuccessful experiments of their predecessors. It is always 
 one man who has to take the last step to the goal ; and he is the 
 representative of the result obtained. The important thing is the 
 f»ct and not the person. 
 
 But a fact which affords already in the epoch of the unconscious 
 life of childhood, the means for guiding the instincts of the culture 
 of the human being to its right goal, offers to the educator — the 
 chief lever for moral training. For by leaving a higher, a mental 
 want, unsatisfied, we cause a lower, merely sensuous one to take its 
 place ; and who has not noticed, that children who are allowed to 
 remain without occupation that engages their attention, are always 
 
89 
 
 wanting to eat ; while the young, by artistic exercises and artistic 
 enjoyments are withdrawn from the desire for coarse sensual enjoy- 
 ments ? Either ideal or sensual contentment is the aim ; for it is 
 man's destiny to strive after something. But when it is supposed 
 that the earliest childhood has, as yet, no mental, but only material 
 wants, and the whole endeavor is to satisfy the latter, sensuality 
 easily rules supreme. A healthy development of the senses is con- 
 sequent upon their being disciplined, i. e., upon their being render- 
 ed capable of serving the mind as its org an ; and this prevents sen- 
 suality, i. e., the abuse of the senses for nothing but bodily and 
 material enjoyments. And wherein else consists morality, than in 
 the balance of the wants of the soul with those of the body ; and 
 that self-rule which knows how to maintain this balance ? But self- 
 rule is won only by good habits, the foundation for which must be 
 laid solely in the period of childnood, when the life of instincts pre- 
 dominates. It is almost always the whole business of morality to 
 overcome instincts, which have deviated from the path of their high- 
 er destiny in order to satisfy the baser or animal nature. 
 
 Those organs which are chiefly called into activity, grow strong 
 and predominate. Now if children chiefly satisfy their sense of nutri- 
 tion, this sense is excited to excess, and they are trained to be gluttons. 
 If, on the other hand, the senses are perhaps directed to artistic ac- 
 tivity, artistic inclinations will prevail. Activity then, is the chief 
 means for maintaining the balance of the wants of the body and 
 those of the mind. It is only by the right activity of all organs 
 and senses, in the ratio of their importance, that moral power can 
 grow, and make progress. It is the task of the first Education to 
 stir up such activity and afford to the organs the preparation need- 
 ful for it. 
 
 Froebel's "Mutter und Kose Lieder" give hints to mothers, how 
 already, by the first nursery plays, the child's attention can be di- 
 rected towards many phenomena of nature ; towards different call- 
 ings of men ; and towards the principal motives at work in human 
 existence ; and can combine in them the first bodily activity of the 
 child, in the form of gymnastics of the hand. It is by such exer- 
 cises that the instincts of culture are awakened in the child ; and 
 they grow in strength by continued corresponding occupation, un- 
 til these lead to actual work. 
 
 The first work of mankind has for its aim the satisfaction of 
 
90 
 
 wanta both bodily and mental. The first work of childhood has for 
 its aim the satisfaction of its conscious wants, m^Zay. For those of 
 material reality have been satisfied _/or it, in a state of civilization. 
 But play is work and enjoyment, at the same time ; and only 
 when work affords enjoyment or satisfaction of wants, can it be at- 
 tained as voluntary activity for the human being in a state of na- 
 ture, or in childhood. 
 
 But, that work may be, in the first place, a voluntary activity ; 
 that is, that it be done from inclination and with love, is the first 
 condition, if it is to be of effect, as a means of education, or mora! 
 amelioration in a higher sense. The slave, who is flogged to make 
 him go to his work, will certainly not derive that moral profit from 
 it, which is the share of the artist, who creates his works with the 
 highest mental enjoyment during his labor ; or of the father, who 
 works in the sweat of his brow, from love of his children. 
 
 To make children love activity, and thus love work later, becomes 
 possible only when the instinct of activity is satisfied early, and in 
 the right manner, as their nature demands. And this nature re- 
 fuses to be exerted beyond its strength, or to be set into activity in 
 a one-sided and mechanical manner. It consequently wants to 
 work with the powers of the body and mind at the same time, and 
 wants to see before it a perceptible and tangible result of this 
 activity. 
 
 The child's instinct, when left to itself, cannot attain such a sat- 
 isfactory result as the animal instinct infallibly obtains ; the fox 
 makes its hole, the bee its cell, the swallow its nest, with faultless 
 accuracy, and with mathematical regularity ; as once, so always. 
 And why ? Because the instinct of nature has a law within itself, 
 as its guide, and because the law of nature infallibly attains its 
 aim. 
 
 The child of man, being destined for knowledge, must stray and 
 err in*order to get to consciousness and recognition. It is true, the 
 child's instinct points the way that nature wants to go ; but that 
 instinct becomes more and more dim in the light of growing con- 
 sciousness, and consequently needs conscious guidance, in order to 
 be able actually to reach its goal. Now nothing else can be the right 
 guide of the child's instinct, but that same law which securely 
 guides the instinct of the animals to their goal. And onl}' the 
 adult who has discovered this law of every activity (and develop- 
 
91 
 
 ment), can offer it to the unconscious activity of the child as its 
 guide. The child, moreover, can make use only of that guide, the 
 norm of which lies ready in the inner workshop of his own soul, or 
 in other words, of what is in accordance with his instinctive na- 
 ture. 
 
 Genius also possesses the law of its productive activity through 
 intuition, and acts unconsciously, in accordance with its condi- 
 tions. 
 
 Thus musical genius pays regard in its improvisations, to the laws 
 of harmony, without having studied thorough bass, just as the tones 
 of the nightingale express harmony, and not discord ; for the law 
 of harmony reigns in nature as in the bosom of man. But in order 
 to compose an oratorio, or an opera, even the greatest genius needs 
 the rules established by the laws of music in the form of science, 
 and must therefore have studied harmony. 
 
 If the child's powers are to produce results such as his sense or 
 instinct demand, and to give satisfaction, his unconscious activity 
 must have for its guide the law of all creative power. He contin- 
 tinues, nevertheless, unconscious of this law, as does the improvis- 
 ing musical genius ; because the child acts and works only in ac- 
 cordance with it, without knowing why, without understanding, as 
 such, the laws of harmony that he obeys in his works. 
 
 Some spark of creative genius every new born healthy child 
 brings with him into the world, if it is permissible to call so a pre- 
 dominating talent and productive power, acting in whatever direc- 
 tion, and in whatever degree. For every child possesses as his own 
 peculiar endowment, the talent which is most powerful in him, and 
 the develowment of which may lead to productivity. One gifted 
 with a strong sense of form, or large sense of the beautiful, will 
 build a cathedral as his master-piece : another, similarly endowed 
 in a lesser degree, will model tables, pots, or shoes, in a perfect 
 manner. There dwells in whatever is called man, whether grown 
 up or little, the creative spark ; the image of the creator must needs 
 be born to create. But to discover how much of this creative pow- 
 er of man fuliils its end, and how much of it is lost, would be a 
 problem too great for political economy to solve. Yet what can 
 pol itical economy accomplish without human power ? 
 
 Even the feeblest spark may grow into a flame, if it be sufB- 
 ciently fed ; but childhood is as yet lacking the proper food, because 
 
92 
 
 the educators are without the knowledge of the creative law ; that 
 law according to which both the artist and nature create their mas- 
 terpieces, and according to which the silk worm spins his web. Try 
 and forbid the silk worm to spin, — it goes on spinning ; but not so 
 the child of man, who is hindered in many thousand ways, from 
 spinning out of himself his peculiar endowment. 
 
 "Genius needs no teacher. It breaks through all impediments 
 and creates space for its works in spite of everything !" Such is the 
 general presumption, and the impediment is generally considered 
 only as a spur to activity, and its removal only as. a disadvantage. 
 But will a child, born to be a Beethoven, a Raphael or a Goethe, ac- 
 cording to his endowment, if exposed among the beasts of the forest, 
 or grown up in a dark cavern away from men, manifest his natural 
 endowment Ln works of art ? Surely not. 
 
 " Why is it then that impediments so frequently farther the devel- 
 opment of genius ?" Because energy is roused thereby, and urges on 
 to activity and work. In this way hunger may sometimes become 
 the author of the beautiful and good. At any rate, the most import- 
 ant thing is, that there be enough exertion of the powers to create 
 the work; and, in that case, it is indifferent by what means; but 
 ought not other means than hunger and misery to be rather prefer- 
 red ? Such means as do not consume the strength of the body, as 
 happens in thousands of cases ? 
 
 Who can teU how much genius — at least how much talent — per- 
 ishes and is lost, owing to external impediments of whatever kind ? 
 
 Among these, there is one which in our days is perhaps the chief 
 reason why talents for the beautiful become stunted ; it is that the 
 early surmounting of technicalities is wanting. In order, for|in- 
 stance, to accomplish anything tolerable in music, in our days, such 
 a considerable technical training is required, that the needful aid can 
 be obtained only when energy, opportunity and sufficient time co- 
 incide. 
 
 The biographies of great and important men, of every kind ; of 
 men of genius, as weU as of great moral characters, go to show, 
 in most cases, that they were favored by circumstances and edu- 
 cation, so as to carry out of their peculiar gifts. Very often the 
 good and remarkable mothers have no smaller share in it, than ex- 
 ternal impressions, whether proceeding from nature, art, example 
 anything else. 
 
93 
 
 Just as the plant degenerates to wildness, if it is not trained, so 
 does the human being, whether it be born a genius or not. Genius 
 is certainly always born; it always exists by the grace of God, and 
 bears within itself the productive power peculiar to it. Mere "nat- 
 ural genius," however, has never yet produced anything considera- 
 ble ; and degenerates in most cases into a wildness or dissoluteness, 
 like the plant. Man always needs discipline, but most of all when 
 great and manifold powers, often j arring with one another, are in a 
 ferment; as is the case with the majority of so called natural gen- 
 iuses. By giving the latter, in early childhood, those materials, 
 which their talents, as yet slumbering, require, in order to become 
 manifest ; by affording them instruction for overcoming technical 
 difficulties ; and at the same time, that guidance which is sure to 
 lead the obscure impulse of the child towards its goal, the culture 
 of every talem will surely be accomplished sooner and better, than 
 when left to chance and circumstances. Goethe, growing up among 
 the Hottentots, would not have become Goethe. Without the tales 
 told to him by his mother, he would perhaps not have succeeded so 
 well in telling his own tales to his readers. And if he had been 
 earlier and better instructed in drawing, he would probably have 
 drawn better ; since he was gifted with so much plastic talent, but 
 strove in vain, to reproduce completely with the pencil, the forms 
 definit^y and sharply conceived in his mind. This was proved by 
 his attempts in drawing. 
 
 But the law which is inborn in every creature, and which genius 
 makes use of by its own sovereign power, without ever failing ; 
 which causes the child musician already to strike the correct tones ; 
 and the young painter to find the correct lines and colors, — this law 
 given to childhood as a means of representation, is seized by it in 
 unconscious sympathy as the hand of a well-known friend, so as to 
 overcome, with surprising celerity, the first obstacles. 
 
 That incitement to energy, which is now generally presupposed 
 only in the form of external impediments, is very easily obtained by 
 the emulation of the child's powers, naturally developed in com- 
 munity of work and enjoyment. But this must be done before the 
 young have to battle with ihe demons of passion and the desire of 
 sensual enjoyment, which now exact such innumerable victims 
 from among the best and most gifted. Complete energy of the 
 young powers is developed by proper diet for both body and mind, 
 
 XIV 
 
94 
 
 lUch as is not generally provided either by the comfortable and re- 
 laxing life of the rich, or by the hunger and misery of the poor. 
 In both cases, certainly, an equal number of talents may be kiUed 
 in the bud ; but it can surely not be considered the part of the ed- 
 ucator, to place impediments in the way of the development of in- 
 born talents, for no other purpose than to rouse the power of resis- 
 tance. 
 
 The kindergarten wars with the worst enemies of genius, as well 
 as of morality, by striving to overcome, by early activity, the pupil's 
 inertia and uncouthness of body and mind. Although this inertia 
 is certainly inherent in all matter, and consequently also in man, 
 yet it is nevertheless an error, to presuppose in the child'^ nature, 
 this quality only, without its counterpoise. »The law of gravity 
 (steadiness) is the condition of its opposite, in the form of a law of 
 motion. One or the other prevails in childhood, according to the 
 temperament; whereas, in the majority of healthy children the 
 principle of activity certainly predominates, as regard to both body 
 and mind. 
 
 The mainspring of all development is given to the child by na- 
 ture, in sufficient degree. But, to use it for the right purpose is 
 as yet too little understood. The first condition for this is tu 
 procure to the child, early, the delight of the evenly balanced ac 
 tivity of all his powers and in a manner suitable to him, in the 
 form of play; the second is sufficient repetition of definite exercises 
 of play, so that activity may grow into habit ; and the third is to se- 
 cure, as soon as possible, the satisfaction consequent upon every activi- 
 ty, by some perceptible and lasting result. Strength and skill, habit 
 and satisfaction having been won, (for and by activity), work, at a 
 later time, will be loved for its own sake, procuring enjoyment, and 
 ill many instances becoming "play." And even when work is done, 
 "in the sweat of the brow," when it costs great exertion, it will seldom 
 be repugnant to youthful strength, provided it tends towards a de- 
 sirable end. — 
 
 To create a school for such exercise of the powers, is the task of 
 Education. Whatever else may be needed to rouse man from his 
 inactiTity, fate generally supplies, by struggle and pain and bur- 
 den and care. 
 
 Miether it be nothing but a vain fancy, that genius will, when 
 lert til itself, without the means of education, grow more vigorous. 
 
95 
 
 in order to attain tlie goal placed for it, will be seen, as soon as the 
 kindergarten method shall have been completely established for all. 
 The S'lurce of this fancy may be found, on the one hand, in the 
 oiie-sidedness of the school, which so often crushes with its ram- 
 bling tuition forced upon the pupil, or at least does not awaken 
 his peculiar endowment in the direction of productivity ; and on the 
 other liand, in the experience that sometimes the most insignificant 
 material and the most accidental opportunity, discloses a talent and 
 apparently causes it to reach its goal, by its own power and exertion 
 only. How many great men were there who tended cattle in their 
 childhood, and never went|to school ! And didthey become gi'eat owing 
 to their want of education, or in spite of it; because they had a suffici- 
 ent degree of endowment and energy ? And may it not also be owing 
 to the healthy bodily development, and the strengthening influ- 
 ences of free natuie, together with the absence of every precocity 
 enfeebling and destroying the energy of the mind, that genius was 
 awakened and made strong by them ? 
 
 The number of those is as yet very considerable, who think that 
 it is only mediocrity and deficiency of talent wliich need to be 
 trained, whereas, those endowed with the spark of Prometheus do 
 not require it. They must therefore be contradicted ; for it is quite 
 as much a tullacy that only some few have been endowed with this 
 spark, and cliat all the rest are unfruitful blossoms, and from their 
 very origin are destined to be PliHistlne.i. Although centuries are re- 
 quired to make stars of the first magnitude arise among men, yet 
 every generation brings into the world thousandfold endowment, 
 the greater part of which perishes, without bearing fruit, only be- 
 cause the means of development and culture are wanting. 
 
 Forme li}', when the greater separation of the different classes 
 still pr^-veuted any means of awakening the mind, to force itself, 
 by indirect roads, into the lower strata of society, whereby at pres- 
 ent so much sham culture is produced, the talents given by ^ nature 
 were left asleep for want of development, and only men of higher 
 genius liroke forth from the darkness because they were not want- 
 ing in that Titanic strength by which all impediments and bar- 
 riers are swept away. But, at present, when the light of know- 
 ledge penetrates almost into the darkest corners, though often only 
 in a dirty disfigured form, powers are awakened which, unless 
 they lire tamed by proper culture and employment, generally ex- 
 
96 
 
 plode and carry derangements instead of blessinga into society, like 
 the untamed powers of nature, which are not yet working in the 
 service of man. Since stupidity, which of old was at least honest, 
 mostly comes forward now as the stupidity of the rascal, because it 
 was not removed as much as was possible by culture — that is, mor- 
 al culture — and made use of for what it was just suited, it has be- 
 come an unavoidable necessity, that all existing powers 
 and talents receive the means (Jf serving society according to the 
 degree of culture they can attain ; and though thousands of years 
 may pass, before this is rendered possible, the demand for it will 
 go on making its claim — by thousandfold misfortunes— until it ob- 
 tains satisfaction. 
 
 For every degree of endowment, the means of development — or 
 education — are necessary, but moHt urgently so, where manifold 
 powers are fermenting and taking a direction quite prominent. To 
 keep these in balance, to cultivate — along with the peculiar talent 
 — also the universally human, and to guard against overstepping 
 the paths of law and morality, to which so-called natural geniuS is 
 chiefly exposed, — a much greater art of Education is needed than for 
 mediocrity. The reason why the school, until now, has been so 
 very powerless in its influence on the pupils of highest endowment, 
 whose development is mostly incalculable, and who wish to follow 
 their own paths, is, that it possesses so few means for luring forth 
 and satisfying, in the right manner, their power of productivity 
 This last can be effected only- by that productive work for which the 
 kindergarten offers, in its plays, the preliminary conditions. 
 
 The principal means Froebel's method employs for the purpose 
 of imparting to education in general, as well as to education for 
 work in particular, sufficient motive power for satisfying the de- 
 mands of our time, may perhaps be comprised in the four follow- 
 ing maxims : 
 
 1st. — Education based upon the child's instincts of culture. 
 
 2nd. — Taking into account in the education of the individual the 
 course of the development of mankind. 
 
 3rd — Application of the general principle of lU activity (as the 
 law of the "conciliation of contrasts") in the child's occupa- 
 tions. And, 
 
 4thly.— Education to begin by means of PRODUCTIVE 
 ACTIVITY, at the earliest age. 
 
97 
 
 Here a new foundation is laid, imposing new conditions upon 
 both the school for study and school for work, as they at present 
 exist, so as to remove the one-sidedness of both. 
 
 To remove the one-sidedness of the school for study, by receiving 
 into it productive work, meets as yet, with many difficulties and pre- 
 judices ; one of which is, the supposition that, in a higher degree of 
 theoretical culture, there is already implied the capability of using 
 the knowledge acquired ; and that consequently such work is not 
 needed for children. This view is correct only in so far as one pos- 
 sessed of manifold culture is by- his intelligence able quickly to un- 
 derstand many a process of labor, and rapidly to acquire various 
 modes of skillfiilness ; but tbis cannot make up for the 
 want of practice, early acquired and exercised; andthe most learned 
 will, in such a case, very often be outdone by the least learned. 
 
 But the main tendency of Froebel's method, is not to bring about 
 only in a general way, an early capability for work ;• although the 
 latter must certainly not be considered as one of its unimportant re- 
 sults. Inasmuch as work is to serve children only as a means of 
 culture, it is, in the first place, taken into account only as such. 
 That insight and intelligence should ripen without the developing 
 of the power of activity, is to be prevented by work, and only on 
 this account education has to begin with it as the child's occupation. 
 
 It is the immediate destiny of man on earth to transform the 
 globe upon which he dwells by his creative power ; that is, to make 
 it progress toward its development in all directions, and thus, at the 
 same time, to work out his own way in his individual capacity, as 
 well as in the capacity of the generation in which he lives. Only 
 by self-activity, beginning in early childhood before a foreign stamp 
 can be forced upon him, can his inborn individuality be preserved. 
 What here is meant by work, is just that work which, while pre- 
 serving the child's individuality, develops the truly creative power 
 of the human mind, which has the power of creating in fresh and 
 childlike simplicity, what is originally new in every intellectual 
 sphere, in art and science. The reason why this is at i^resent so 
 much wanting, is, that a previous development of the intellect 
 causes everywhere the predominance of reflection, which represses 
 the world of emotion, and the impulse of the will. 
 
 It is only by creating, that the capability for creating i.s called 
 forth ; the child must consequently begin with it, before passing on 
 
98 
 
 to study proper. Development of all the powers and talents, as 
 nearly uniyersal and as harmonious as possible, is the immediate 
 aim ; the becoming capacitated for work with a view to future earn- 
 ings, must stand in the second rank. Self-activity prepares for 
 original thinking, which is to be cultivated by the school, if it 
 claims to be the place for genuine human culture. The school 
 could have no use hitherto for handiwork, for the very reason that 
 handiwork was purely mechanical. Before there was the possibility 
 of putting into activity the hands and mind of children, at the s.^rae 
 time, the school could not claim work for itself as a means of educa- 
 tion ; and this again is possible only when for both kinds of a<^T- 
 ity, one and the same principle is made available, that is, that hands 
 work according to that rule which the organs of mental activity are 
 also to observe. 
 
 Although, as a matter of course, the execution of what is dictated 
 by the human will, is possible only according to its laws, men have 
 never fully understood the manner of the process ; probably be- 
 cause both kinds of activity are too much manifested as one. No 
 reflection has been bestowed on many a thing, because it is too ap- 
 parent, and, so to say, a matter of course. These are the very things 
 which express the universal law. Thus for instance, it is nothing 
 but the law of connected contrasts, which, when the will tends to- 
 wards a definite spot, causes the feet to rise and fall symmetrically, 
 one after the other, in order to maintain the necessary equipoise. 
 Very many indeed saw an apple fall from a tree before Newton did, 
 without making the discovery of the principle of gravity as he did. 
 This law of gravitation, pervading the universe, or the law of equi- 
 poise is identical with Froebel's law of the "conciliation of con- 
 trasts," for equipoise, exists by that very connection of two contrasts 
 or opposite weights. Wbether this equipoise be the result of the 
 power of attraction and repulsion, or be manifested as harmony in 
 the relations of objects, with regard to size, form, color, etc., is of no 
 importance ; it is always connected contrasts which produce equi- 
 poise and harmony. The hands of man work solely in accordance 
 with the thought and volition of his mind, and never could execute, 
 in the way the mind thinks and wills, unless in this execution, they 
 follow the same rule as does his thought and his volition. Whether 
 the discovery of the reason of this process in man's nature, be 
 thought possible or not, the fact remains, and indisputabh- does the 
 
99 
 
 soiemr of work depend upon our knowledge of this fact. Let the 
 professional scientists investigate, if they like, Froebel's discovery, 
 in order to become convinced that the prin/qjle of human activity, 
 (mental as well as bodily) has been found, and they may then estab- 
 lish the scientific proofe of it. What is here of importance, is, — to 
 point out the fact itseltj which hitherto has oeen completely overlooked, 
 but the discovery of which, surely no one will dare to claim. 
 
 All the works of man, whatever he may produce,are ultimately the 
 works of his mind; and why oi.i;i;at not the exercises of the mind 
 carried on by the scho6Ls, likewise to be able to yield works as the re- 
 sult of the school's activity ? or vice reria, ^vhy should it not be p^is- 
 sible so to arrange all work as t') make itserve as an exercise for the 
 faculties of the mind ? The law of all activity, once recognized in it- 
 fouudation and applied in all direction.s, — gymnastics — will also 
 result in work, and the time spent in them will yield a two-fold 
 gain. 
 
 Those gymnastics which are at present so universally connected with 
 schools, offer, — as yet, much too slight a counterpoise to mental exer- 
 tion, especially in the case of very young children, in whom body 
 and soul are always to be active at the same time. People begin to 
 ^ee that the reason of the maniibld sickliness or debility, showing 
 itself more in childhood and youth, together with the diseases of the 
 brain and nerves which so much prevail with the grown up, must 
 be sought partly in the too great and too early exertion of the men- 
 tal organs of children ; but no remedy has as yet been found for 
 this. The desire to combine education for work with the tuition of 
 the school, so as to bring about an earlier and more efficient activ- 
 ity for earning, especially for the pupils of the Folks' Schools, make 
 it on the other hand, urgent, to take in bodily work. A means for 
 this, as well as the remedy alluded to before, will have been 
 found as soon as the metliod of Froebel's Kindergarten and Interme- 
 diate class — Ls continued into the school. The whole reform of edu- 
 cation, which has at pr^-sent beeji recognized as so urgent, hinges on 
 this amalgamation of study and work ; and the Folks-school will not 
 find the requisite new foundation by any other means. 
 
 In what manner tlie new element is to be gradually incoqtorated 
 with .the present school organization, will be easily found out by 
 |jrofe^>ional men, who are at the same time practical, and when a 
 beginning has been made, practice will taach how to proceed. But 
 
100 
 
 it must not be overlooked, that, at best, only a very slight advant- 
 age can be gained by applying separately Froebel's means of oc- 
 cupation, because they constitute a chain of necessary links depending 
 on each other. A few of these occupations, (for instance, stick -lay- 
 ing) have found their way already into a great many elementary 
 schools, and the teachers who use them are often heard to say, 
 that "It is all very well to make use of this and that thing, but not 
 of all Froebel's occupations ;"a proof, this, of the complete igno- 
 rance of Froebel's educationalldea and Method ; which, however,must 
 be laid chiefly to the charge of the want of explanatory comment- 
 aries. 
 
 Others again are of the opinion, that, to introduce this method in- 
 to the schools, other special inventions are needed, which should 
 add other things to those already given. In this way a beginning 
 was made — by continuing Froebel's serial suggestions for cutting 
 drawing,plaiting,etc., which consists of nothing else than the multipli- 
 cation of the given forms- such as takes place spontaneously in ev- 
 ery kindergarten by individual invention ; and so it was supposed 
 that something new had been added — or it was proclaimed as such . 
 But it is evident that to apply a method already existing, for the 
 development of the results obtained by it, is no new thing. For 
 instance, his manner of cutting, so easy and successful, has been 
 used for other series of the most manifold forms, making models 
 for all possible handicrafts. This is certainly not making a new 
 invention, nay, not even a new application. For, in Froebel's 
 method of inventing, is implied the multiplication of all its products 
 ad infinitum. Every child applies it in his own way, and then mul- 
 tiplies the results. 
 
 But to gain for this method recognition and propagation, it is 
 highly injurious that many of these attempts, without mention of 
 the method, cause nothing but a merely mechanical imitation, thus 
 putting these occupations on a level with those that have be§n long 
 in use. For instance, the cutting «s made use of in a manner, by 
 which every invention, on the part of the children ceases, and often 
 nothing remains but the mere cutting out of given pictures, a thing 
 certainly neither new nor of much importance. 
 
 Froebel's serial suggestions have entei'ed completely into the 
 models existing for art and industry, which are, at any rate, daily 
 more improved and extended. But what these models cannot give 
 
101 
 
 to the pupils, who imitate the copies and patterns, namely the pow- 
 er of invention, the pupils of the kindergarten bring with them, and 
 are therefore enabled to make a quite different use of, and more 
 completely reproduce the patterns customary in the schools of in- 
 dustry and art. Altogether, mere imitation becomes unusually lim- 
 ited by Froebel's method. 
 
 At the present moment,however, when as yet only so small anum- 
 ber of children attend the kindergarten, it is very useful to make 
 Froebel's occupations accessible to family circles by models.* 
 
 Much, of course, has yet to be done in elaborating Froebel's occu- 
 pations for the use of the school, for study proper (of which an 
 example was given in the preceding pages with regard to instruc- 
 tion in elementary mathematics) and such a labor might certainly pro- 
 duce a work of great merit. Nor does this require any new inventions, 
 but only application and development of what has been given. The 
 needful method of instruction and of scientific discipline is pos- 
 sessed by the school ; and the inductive method, which Fioebel also 
 folloVs, has likewise been recognized by i t, as the proper method. 
 As has already been hinted at, the question is here only of the 
 elementary school and the Folks School proper ; and the amalga- 
 mation of study and work for higher stages of development must 
 cease. How and when this amalgamation is to be done, can be deter- 
 mined likewise, by professional men only. But once the beginning 
 made, in the manner suggested, by the preceding stages, practical ap- 
 plication would spontaneously lead to many an arrangement for later 
 stages. When work and study have been separated, school work- 
 shops, such as exist already, or have existed, in the industrial 
 schools alluded to, become a necessity, with the difference of course 
 of transforming mechanical into inventive work. A difference be- 
 tween the high schools and colleges on the one hand, and the Folk's 
 schools on the other, would easily be effected by employing in the 
 former less time for the workshops and other labors, and giving 
 prominence to the studios for art ;*whereas, in the latter, more at- 
 tention would be given to the culture of the soil, and to labor in 
 the workshop. 
 
 * A beginning has teen made of this in various places; among others 
 by the Labor-School of Seigel and Schmidt, in Gotha, and, in a more complete 
 manner, by the elaboration of the occupations for the school by K oehler : and 
 upon the whole, good work has been done in the Thuriugian Union for the de- 
 velopment of the practical sides of the system. 
 
 XV 
 
102 
 
 It must, however, not be forgotten that the preparation commenced 
 according to Froebel's method, already in earliest childhood, has 
 brought about a much smaller expenditure of time both for acquir- 
 ing the necessary 'knowledge, and for practical skill; and that, at 
 any rate, a great deal has been rendered possible by it, which, with- 
 out it, would never have been thought of. 
 
 When Froebel, in his Educational Institute at Keilhau, first ap- 
 plied his method of work, he, too, made the experience that it was 
 owing to the deficient preparation of his pupils that many measures, 
 which he had recognized as proper, could not take efiect ; and that 
 thus it became impossible to completely carry out his ideas of Ed- 
 ucation. The great expenditure of time, which was required for 
 attaining technical skill, interfered too much with the scientific 
 studies of the pupils, to answer the claims the children's relatives 
 made for their preparation for their future position in life. The 
 culture of the soil, which had been introduced, and the industrial 
 occupations, had therefore to be limited so that scientific instruc- 
 tion might become prominent. 
 
 It is, however, well-known that notwithstanding the impossibility 
 of carrying out immediately and completely Froebel's Idea, men of 
 highest worth, especially with regard to the cultivation of charac- 
 ter, have come out of the institution of Keilhau. 
 
 But his attempts and experiences there became an inducement for 
 Froebel to go in search of a more extensive foundation for his sys- 
 tem of education, by preparing for it in earliest childhood. For he 
 clearly saw, that the want of such preparation was the chief reason 
 of the incompleteness of the results he had striven for. 
 
 To secure success, such means had to be found as could win, al- 
 ready before the time of school attendance, a certain degree of tech- 
 nical skill for the pupils, without stinting their natural and mental 
 development. 
 
 This is not the place for following out Froebel's course of devel- 
 opment, or to enter into details concerning his institution at Keilhau, 
 and its development. In this respect. Dr. Wichari Lange, of Ham- 
 burg, has made many communications. And a detailed account 
 has been promised, which is to describe the social circle of Keil- 
 hau, and everything connected with the development of Froebel's 
 Idea ; an account which is sure to excite the greatest interest, not 
 only among Froebel's adherents, but also far beyond this circle. 
 
103 
 
 The chief object here is to elucidate that side of the subject which 
 concerns the Education for and byioork (with respect to the child's 
 instincts) and, at the same time, to recognize Froebel's invention 
 as tlie principle of human activity, by which the possibility has been 
 won of elevating worli: into a science. It would be difficult to find 
 a formula more significant than this one, whicli has occurred even 
 to me, only after a long continued occupation with Froebel's ideas. 
 His writings contain only circumlocutions which are not intelli- 
 gible to every one. 
 
 In the kindergarten, it has been proved that thin principle is not 
 only right, but also capable of being carried into execution, and 
 thus there is guaranteed the possibility of ■ its further application, 
 which, from the reasons already cited, could, in the first attempts, 
 not be complete. Here, as everywhere, the new and the good could 
 come to maturity only gradually, and had first to pass through man- 
 ifold failures. Even the longest human life is seldom long enough 
 to completely realize an Idea. But as a tree grows from a single 
 seed, so does realization from every right idea. Although Froebel 
 was not permitted to bring his kindergarten method, which he was 
 able to elaborate only when far advanced in age, into complete ap- 
 plication for the school also ; the embodiment of his idea in the ex- 
 isting means of occupation, and the explanation given in his writ- 
 ings, suffices for its future complete elaboration. Nor will the 
 attempts made at Keilhau have been in vain. In Froebel's book. 
 Die Menschen-Erziehung (The Education of Humanity), the way to 
 be pursued is pointedout. The rather unsatisfactory form and style 
 of this book will not prevent its influence on the general transform- 
 ation of the Elementary and Folks' Schools which is already immi- 
 nent. 
 
 The introduction of Froebel's method of work into the schools 
 must, as a matter of course, put an end to the present form of both 
 industrial schools and schools for book study. Even schools for 
 specialities, and Industrial schools for maturer youth, will, in the 
 course of time, be modified by the method that has preceded them. 
 With the exception of those institutions which depend for their 
 maintenance chiefly on the earnings of the pupils, such as Houses 
 of Refuge, pauper schools, and the like, mere mechanical work 
 will, in future, not be used at all or only to a very limited extent. 
 And even in the institutions named, some compensation can be 
 
104 
 
 found for what is gained by mere mechanical occupations, by others 
 which are subservient to education. For instance, artistic works 
 in cardboard, or book-binding, (such as is often done in prisons) 
 may supply the place of many occupations now in use, as, for in- 
 stance, the cleaning of coffee beans and spices for dealers ; or the 
 manufacture of wooden pegs for casks, etc., occupations altogether 
 mechanical and spirit-killing, which daily employ many hours of 
 the pupils of these institutions, and for a mere pittance. 
 
 Such an abuse of the powers of the child resembles the abuse 
 existing in manufactories ; and the same energy ought to be dis- 
 played in battling for the abolition of this kind of capital pun- 
 ishment inflicted on the child's mind, as is shown for the abolition 
 of the capital punishment of criminals ; and this would surely con- 
 tribute to the diminution of the number of crimes. To counteract 
 poverty, no more effective means could well be found than an in- 
 crease of educational institutions for the children of people of small 
 means, and the introduction of Froebel's means of occupation into 
 them. What has to be aimed at is not the immediate power of 
 earning, but the becoming capable of future earning. By this 
 means, an industrial capital is to be won, compared with which 
 the momentary gain obtained by the abuse of the child's powers 
 can certainly not be taken into account ; nor can be slightly esti- 
 mated the capital of bodily strength and health which is obtainable 
 by proper dietetic treatment of these children. Those millions of 
 feeble and crippled men and women who now grow up from the 
 children employed in manufactories, mines, etc., and also in the un- 
 wholesome dwellings of the poor, entail a much greater cost upon 
 the State in poor-houses, prisons, hospitals, etc., than would be the 
 cost of establishing the necessary educational institutions. All 
 modern institutions having for their aim the improvement of the 
 condition of the working population, are for the most part founded 
 on a higher self-dependence — both internal and external — of individ- 
 uals as well as of communities. And what else can procure this 
 self-dependence than an education going along with moral and in- 
 tellectual culture ; a more complete and earlier capability for 
 work ? 
 
 But arrangements have to be made for introducing work not only 
 into the Folks' Schools but into all the schools. If this is of chief 
 importance for the future earnings of the children of the poorer 
 
105 
 
 classes, it is no less important as regards the children of the more 
 affluent, for their full development of body and soul into health, for 
 which work is no less needed. 
 
 Before attending the higher Burgher Schools and gymnasia on the 
 one hand, and on the other hand, the Scientific Schools {Real iSchule), 
 and later, the schools for trades and industries, the pupils of all 
 these schools must in the lower stages of development study while 
 they are working, and worh while they are studying, according to a 
 common method. What has as yet to be completely combined for 
 childhood proper, can be continued in the succeeding stages, where a 
 separation of these two factors of education will, more or less, take 
 place by going on with both, side by side ; in the first place, work in and 
 together with the school ; then school work-shops by the side of school 
 classes ; and, apart from either, culture of the soil and bodily exercises. 
 
 It will surely be possible to overcome the external difficulties 
 which stand in the way of carrying out Froebel's method in the 
 schools, as soon as its necessity shall have been universally ac- 
 knowledged. Some men of authority in matters of education, have 
 long ago come to the conviction, and have especially demanded, 
 that the too great mental exertion of children be done away with by 
 limiting their studies. Here and there, moreover, the first steps have 
 been taken towards introducing work into book schools ; and at- 
 tending as much as was possible to the claims of practical life even 
 in these schools.* 
 
 Of the material difficulties, possibly, one of the most important 
 is to procure such locations as will aflford sufficient space for the 
 school workshops and gardens ; especially in large cities. But since, 
 after the invention of railways, the requisite space has been found 
 for railway stations and the workshops for manufacturing locomo- 
 tives, space will surely be also found for the cultivation of human 
 powers, which, estimated even according to their money value, surely 
 exceed that of the powers of steam. Where gardens cannot be ob- 
 tained, the fields outside the gates of cities might at least serve for 
 the culture of the soil. The Houses of Refuge, as well as the 
 
 * Thus, for instance, in Leipsio. Professer Ziller and Oberlehrer Barth liave 
 foundea an institution called "Neue Schule" (a new school), into which worsing 
 occupations have been introduced for all stages ; and where Froebel's means of 
 occupation are also applied. These two gentlemen belong to the most zealous 
 champions for reforming the school by work. 
 
106 
 
 Pestalozzian institutions, have the use of gardens and fields. In 
 the country, and also in smaller cities, the needful soil is not want- 
 ing ; and there generally, possibly fewer difficulties exist for those 
 attending school to practice the elements of every kind of work. 
 
 The second difficulty — how to get the time requisite for work, 
 without taking too much from scientific study, — is obviated, as has 
 been already mentioned, by the better preparation of the pupils in 
 the kindergarten ; and time is gained by the very method itself which 
 transforms what were originally mere occupations into means of 
 instruction. In this way, it becomes possible for the school for 
 study to master the suitably limited studies in a shorter time, and 
 to give up the remaining time to the workshops. 
 
 But a condition which it is perhaps most difficult to comply with, 
 is, in the first place, how to procure the necessary teachers for the 
 new schools. For the preparation tljat teachers have received 
 hitherto is insufficient. Whoever wishes to teach how to work, must 
 not only himself be able to work, but also understand ihe spirit of 
 the work to be done. Without understanding Froebel's method, 
 without being able to completely execute its different occupations, 
 the teacher cannot carry it out in the proper manner. Neither the 
 theory alone, nor practice alone, is sufficient. Both must be ac- 
 quired perfectly. 
 
 That this is needful will surely soon be entirely proved by the 
 fact, that many schools have already made use of Froebel's means of 
 occupation without knowing his method. To whatever extent work 
 be carried on, even with Froebel's means, productive power, the 
 spirit of invention, — creating proper, will be vainly expected. The 
 letter alone, without the spirit, does not solve the problem. With- 
 out the master's formula, the magical broom will not obey. , Noth- 
 ing can be forced from the child's nature which will obey no other 
 than him who knows the right word. 
 
 Teachers must therefore study the ratmnale and spirit of the 
 method, together with its application, and normal schools must 
 introduce instruction in the method. Here also it is of importance 
 to win over the school authorities, without whom the thing cannot 
 be carried out. Those of them who have already pronounced in 
 favor of a reform, in this sense, and of Froebel's principles (as Die- 
 sterwig, Karl Schmidt, Th. Hoffinan, Wichard Lafige, Professor 
 Ziller, and many besides, without reckoning foreign educators). 
 
107 
 
 will bring others in their train. And the existing necessity of a 
 reform, against which all resistance is in vain, because it is the nec- 
 essary consequence of reforms accomplished, or about to be ac- 
 complished in other spheres of life, will sooner or later conquer ex- 
 isting prejudices and create those conditions needed for its com- 
 plete execution. 
 
 An example worthy of imitation has already been set by Dr. Karl 
 Schmidt, School Counsellor and Director of the Normal School in 
 Gotha, who displays so much noble zeal for the univo'sal reform 
 of schools and education. He has made arrangements that all pri- 
 mary teachers, of both sexes, who seek an appointment from govern- 
 ment, shall be obliged to learn Froebel's method, theoretically and 
 practically.* 
 
 In the Normal school of Gotha, and also in Koehler's Institute, 
 the requisite instruction is given, and teachers have to allow for it 
 tv]o yeirs If this arrangement were to find universal imitation in 
 Germany, in a few years the teachers required for the above men- 
 tioned reform of the schools, would exist, at least for its first begin- 
 nings. 
 
 In regard to the higher institutions, for children of maturer age, 
 the necessary hours of recreation afford still further opportunity tor 
 the practice of the kindergarten plays and occupations in their fur- 
 ther development. 
 
 The play grounds of the young, have, as yet, not received that 
 attention which they deserve, as a far reaching influence on general 
 education, on account of their relation to moral development. 
 
 * By the death of this meritorious and noble man, which has occcurred since the 
 above was written, the cause of the kindergarten lias been deprived of one of its 
 main supports, iu the higher (Educational circles; and the amelioration of educa- 
 tion by deed, word, aud writing, has suffered an irreparable loss, which his 
 numerous friends painfully lament togethei' with ourselves. May his successors, 
 with the earnest conviction and self-sacriilcing devotion of their originator, go on 
 developing his grand plan of reform, which included Froebel's method in its 
 entire execution! 
 
108 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 THE SCHOOL GARDEN AND YOUTH-GARDEN. * 
 
 We have seen that the method of Froebel continues the applica- 
 tion of the kindergarten principle of a genially guided free activity 
 into the work school and the book school. No less does it apply to 
 the hours of recreation, for which there is the greater need, the more 
 strictly children are kept to work and study. Hence ohe school- 
 garten, which Froebel invented, secures bodily and mental health at 
 once. 
 
 Aa the sum of what has to be learned goes on increasing, the 
 hours of recreation for all children and youth have been curtailed ; 
 but by appreciating and applying Froebel's method to the hours of 
 recreation it is possible to increase them without taking from study 
 anything but that limitation which had begun to be recognized as 
 at any rate necessary, for it begins to be granted, that the time for 
 recreation is almost no less important for culture than study and 
 work ; for recreation furthers the process of moral development, and 
 averts its dangers. 
 
 ■'"■Madame Marenholtz in her Reminiscences of Froebel, jnst published, quotes 
 Hiecke as saying, "with a smile, in 1850, "Schoolgartens will be of great use, if only 
 Froebel can find the grounds necessary forthem in the great cities." 
 
 At that time, tiventy-flve years ago, (she continues) the idea seemed almost Uto- 
 pian. But within the last two years, a great number of schoolgartens have been 
 founded ; and through the initiative of the communities, in Austrian Silesia, in 
 Lower Austria, in Maldau, in Tyrol, in St. Polton, in Brunn. Leybaoh, Krtms, 
 and in various villages. To-day we seethe Austrian government supporting in 
 every way the efforts of Dr. E. Schwab in Vienna. The Agricultural Society in 
 ■Vienna, and the Trade Union, carry on the work begun by Dr. Schwab, who is 
 laboring -n'ith unremitting energy, f he Minister of Agriculture has ^iven terri- 
 tory for schoolgKrtens, and asks all the provinces, even Bukowina, to do the same. 
 Dr. Schwab's efforts for founding the school workshops in the youth gartensfind 
 the same sympathy, etc. 
 
109 
 
 What is it, that makes the recollection of childhood so dear to the 
 full grown man ; and surrounds it with a magical nimbus, which 
 casts a light, like sunshine, and breathes the air of spring far into 
 old age ? Is it not the plays of childhood by the garden fence, or the 
 playground of the school, in the village or town ; the merry inter- 
 course with playmates, and the active hours spent in the bosom of 
 the fajnily ? ' Compared with these recollections the school remains 
 in the background or recalls many a sigh of distress, uttered in the 
 days of childhood. "Who has not preserved in his mind more vivid 
 and more lasting images of Christmas, of his mother's and father's 
 birthdays, or of his roamings in open nature, and his plays and rev- 
 eries in courtyard and garden, than of the lesson he received at 
 school, or at home ? 
 
 But if that which leaves behind so deep an impression, that even 
 old age finds pleasure in feeding upon it, and often retains from by- 
 gone life these images alone, in all their freshness of color, it must be 
 of supreme importance, and give the stamp to character. The moral 
 character of man springs from his acting and enjoying, rather than 
 from his knowing ; and even his very knowledge cannot be got from 
 instruction and books alone. A highly cultivated man said in reply 
 to the question, "to what schools he mainly owed his knowledge '?" 
 " I learned most in play hours." Now, since, during these very 
 hours of recreation in the full freedom of youthful intercourse, the 
 moral powers gain strength, and at the same time, since these same 
 hours bring the first dangers for innocence and morality, children or 
 youth ought not to be completely left to themselves, in their play- 
 grounds ; and this part of education ought to be as carefolly consid- 
 ered as the school, and employed to its full extent, as a means of 
 culture. 
 
 Some may perhaps bring forward the same objection to the super- 
 intendence of play grounds, which has often been made to kinder- 
 gartens, viz : that the most complete freedom ought to be given dur- 
 ing play hours ; and that inspection, and every interference on the 
 part of the grown up are hindrances, and imperil the child's 
 guilelessness. 
 
 There is no doubt that freedom and guilelessness are the most 
 necessary elements of a child's joy and freedom, but the question 
 here is, whether care and superintendence may not ward off dangers 
 without being an obstacle to enjoyment? And whether to leave the 
 
 XVI 
 
110 
 
 children to themselves, is really the most suitable means of securing 
 their enjoyment? The child, because still a child, feels the need of 
 guidance, and can very soon see that the beauty of his plays depends 
 upon order. During the so-called 'free hour,' of the kindergarten, 
 the time in which they play under the eyes, but without the intei'- 
 ference of the kindergartener, the children almost always choose for 
 the guide of their plays " the aunty," (the name given to the kinder- 
 gartener in Germany). Boys in their play grounds generally have 
 their leaders ; and grown up young men have them in their gymnas- 
 tic games, at their balls, etc , This desire for order and regularity 
 even in play, goes on increasing with the growing culture, and with 
 the more elevated feeling for decorum and beauty of form. Not even 
 the dances of savages are altogether devoid of some order. The 
 higher the degree of culture, in the families to which the children 
 belong, the more they insist on maintaining order and decency, dur- 
 ing their play : and very many withdraw from the circle of their 
 playmates, as soon as lawlessness and license come in. 
 
 The rough and tuiable, the thumping of each other, the stamping 
 and yelling, and ai confused disorderly noise of children, so often 
 heard not only in the streets and squares of cities, but often enough 
 also, in the play grounds of school children of the better class, and 
 in the court yards of school houses, surely can not be called signs of 
 that freedom which childhood requires, in order to be able to let out 
 its overflowing life ! On the contrary, the freedom of childhood 
 needs to be limited even more than the freedom of the full grown, 
 that it may not degenerate into lawlessness, arbitrariness and 
 license. 
 
 Here too, Goethe's saying is applicable, " only in limitation, does 
 the master show himself; and law alone can give freedom." 
 
 To the great disadvantage of society it has been much too little 
 heeded, how much the lawful order of citizen life depends on the 
 habits imparted to childhood and youth ; and how much, especially, 
 it depends on the impressions of those hours in which freedom of 
 movement and self-determination shall be granted to them. Licence, 
 or lawless arbitrariness during play, prepares for abuse of civil free- 
 dom ; and prevents the education of the people for freer political 
 institutions. 
 
 The problem of moral progress exacts grave consideration of what 
 may serve for the enjoyment of all ages, no less than the most seri- 
 
Ill 
 
 ous afiairs of life; for with pleasures are connected the greatest num- 
 ber of human sins ; and it is not without some cause that that erron- 
 eous opinion has prevailed so extensively, that an entire resignation 
 of all the joys of life is requisite to guard against sin. The subject 
 of lawful pleasure has not been sufficiently studied. 
 
 Man was created with a need for joy, and bliss is his final destiny, 
 but there is a wide gap between the impulse for sensuous pleasure, 
 and the impulse for that joy which is "the divine spark from Ely- 
 sium." (See Schiller's "Ode to Joy.") 
 
 Between these two poles, (mere pleasure of the senses, and noble, 
 elevated joys,) the moral life of man moves to and fro ; and, in that 
 period of his life which is almost exclusively determined by im- 
 pulses, namely, in childhood such a foundation must be laid that — 
 with however much falling and rising, — the divine spark may kin- 
 dle the heart, and the problem of true enjoyment be solved by ele- 
 vation and refinement. 
 
 The important thing is, that joy and pleasure shall be made use of, 
 as much as possible, as a means of education ; in order to counteract 
 the desires of the young for baser enjoyments. The acme of the 
 striving of our times for material enjoyment, would bring a complete 
 moral corruption, such as existed in Greece and Rome, in their last 
 days, if there did not exist at present, a mighty counterpoise, 
 in the great questions concerning intellectual and industrial labour, 
 which are presenting themselves so importunately. 
 
 The more all classes of society are pervaded by intellectual cul- 
 ture, the more necessary does it become to balance labor with enjoy- 
 ment. The coarser the work, the more sensuous the enjoyment that 
 will be sought. By getting rid of mere bodily and mechanical work, 
 and by that augmented intellectual activity and mental culture 
 arising from the leisure men obtain by the use of machinery, there 
 arises the irrepressible demand to elevate and refine the pleasures 
 and enjoyments of even those classes, which stand at the lowest 
 degree of culture. For this purpose, arrangements of every kind are 
 needed ; but, in the first place, such as concern childhood and youth. 
 
 Let whatever is needful for establishing suitable places of recrea- 
 tion for that time of life which stands most in need of enjoyment, 
 be taken from the millions which minister solely to the luxury and 
 material pleasures of the full grown. In this respect, childhood has, 
 as it were, not at all been taken into account ; and this is the reason 
 
112 
 
 that it so often participates in the pleasures — ruinous for them — of 
 the fail grown. Let it not be objected that the freedom from wants, 
 peculiar to children, whose imagination knows how to make the 
 most paltry material suffice for its structures, is their best inherit- 
 ance, which ought to be preserved, and would only be lessened by 
 manifold arrangements. Children, especially in cities, are to the 
 full extent exposed to the baneful influence of luxuries, and to the 
 acquisition of bad habits ; while, at the same time, there is a want of 
 almost eyerything which adds to the virtue of children's freedom 
 from wants, the means for their positive genuine enjoyment. 
 
 For instance, the enjoyment'of open nature is one of the foremost 
 conditions of children's happiness. This enjoyment, however, they 
 do not find in the coffee gardens, and beer gardens, to which such 
 great numbers of them are in the habit of accompanying their par- 
 ents. On the other hand, the majority of children living in the 
 country, who might have the enjoyment of nature to the full extent, 
 are without the guidance necessary for their actual introduction into 
 the wonders of creation, which offer to the child's inind the richest 
 mine, both for enjoyment and for culture. The needful arrange- 
 ments for making nature and culture available in the right manner, 
 and to the full extent, for childhood and youth, are deficient every- 
 where, both in cities and the country. 
 
 In regularly organized family circles, in which both father and 
 mother are able to devote themselves entirely to the education of 
 th^r children — both in consequence of their position in life, which 
 affords time and leisure for it, and of their degree of culture, which 
 does not exclude their capability for it, — it is possible to procure 
 for children the nobler enjoyments of nature and art. The mother 
 walks out with the little ones, while they gather flowers and berries 
 in the meadows and woods, watch the gambols of squirrels and 
 the singing of birds, observe the young birds making their nests, 
 the ants building their structures, the spiders making their webs, 
 and the like. The father makes excursions in the neighborhood 
 with the elder children, ascends mountains, takes them into mills 
 and manufactories, and lets them botanize, make geological investi- 
 gations, and satisfy their childlike desire for knowledge by hearing 
 his explanations of the objects of nature and industrial art. In the 
 evening, tales are told, books read aloud, pictures inspected, per- 
 haps some art practiced, — splaying all the while. 
 
113 
 
 How many such fitmily circles may yet be in the world, and 
 even in cities, who may tell ? But all this seems an idyl of distant 
 times. Even yet, even here, there would be wanting however, an 
 element which the education of our time must claim as a condition, 
 viz., the inter-communion of children of the same age, without 
 which the young citizen of 'future political institutions, the member 
 of a society which will make, the isolation of an individual almost 
 an impossibility, caanot become equal to the demands of 
 life. 
 
 According to Froebel's idea, space for a garden near the school 
 is an essential condition, so that playgrounds with superintendents 
 may be arranged, together with all that is required for the children's 
 plays. That the greatest possible simplicity and freedom from ev- 
 ery luxury, and every mere show, be obtained, is a matter of course. 
 If there is not sufficient room within the cities, these school gardens 
 — at least for pupils beyond the first childhood — may be established 
 also outside the walls, perhaps in connexion with the gymnasia. 
 A covered space for the bad season, and some materials for the 
 play occupations, as in the kindergartens, must not be wanting here 
 either. In summer a large tent is sufficient. 
 
 The free practice of those bodily exercises which are part of the 
 instruction in the schools, is continued here in the form of games, 
 played according to the choice and inclination of the children ; 
 gymnastics in the form of plays, the military drill, games of ball, 
 wrestling and sham fights of every kind, dancing, swimming, and 
 whatever movement games the youthful desire for play has in- 
 vented. The bodily agility acquired in the kindergarten by the 
 gymnastic games which have been practiced in them, furnish to the 
 school garden a rich material for their continuance and extension, 
 both for boys and girls. The care bestowed on their own garden- 
 beds, and on the garden they cultivate in common, will also, partly 
 serve as an amusement. 
 
 The free play of youthful pleasure will not be restrained here by 
 all those considerations, which their presence in public gardens and 
 public walks involves ; superintendence on the part of teachers (and 
 of female teachers for the girls) is to restrain freedom, only in so 
 far as to secure good manners and decorum. The children will often 
 request the teachers without their obtruding themselves, to partici • 
 pate in thair play, provided they know how to gain the love and 
 
114 
 
 confidence of their pupils, and -to be children with children, without 
 losing their dignity. The pupils educated in the kindergartens are 
 accustomed to a superintendence of this kind, and are in no way 
 hampered by it ; and it is altogether and entirely the fault of the 
 grown up, if children do not conduct themselves in their presence, 
 in an unembarrassed manner, and with perfect freedom. But this 
 superintendence may, for a short time, be undertaken by the older and 
 more reliable of the pupils, while the teacher is occupied close by 
 andean give a glance, now and then only, at the playground. 
 
 Many teachers practice gymnastics, or work in the garden, for the 
 sake of their own health, when, after many hours of teaching they 
 are mentally worn out ; and the school garden would afford the best 
 opportunity for this. The requisite increase of the number of 
 teachers for such an arrangement, mi^t be numbered among the 
 necessary improvements of the education which is to be established 
 by the state or the community. 
 
 The strength of the children must have scope for fully venting 
 itself in the school garden, notwithstanding their being superin- 
 tended ; inasmuch as this is required for full development. But it 
 is an error to presume that children prefer that wild disorderly play 
 which occurs in the streets, to orderly play, carried on under guid- 
 ance. The former is nothing but the mark of rudeness and want 
 of capability for organizing games. 
 
 Just let this or that hint be given for the better execution of 
 the game with which they are occupied, and these children will 
 eagerly accept and follow it. They readily take, for instance, a 
 good song suitable to their game, in the place of those — for the 
 most part nonsensical, often even coarse and indecent — words which 
 they are in the habit of yelling as an accompaniment of their 
 games. 
 
 The school garden must not banish the customary games, not 
 even those practiced in the street ; but must accept every thing 
 which has been invented by the play instinct and which one gener- 
 ation of children has bequeathed to another ; but it has to sift out 
 what is coarse and vulgar, in favor, of the aesthetic. 
 
 The real complete comprehension of the hidden meaning and 
 purpose of children's games, should first make of them what they 
 ought to be, according to their nature, — and what an advanced 
 culture ordains also for the world of childhood. Originality does 
 
115 
 
 not consist in a rude form, but in the free manifestation of the 
 child's love of fun ; and their wit, like the wit of the people, may 
 be manifested quite as easily in a refined as in a coarse and vulgar 
 form ; and this form will be altered with every generation. The 
 civilized world of the grown up has exchanged the coarse and 
 primitive dances of savages for dance and song of a more refined 
 form. So too the play of civilized childhood must be freed from 
 its coarseness, and raised to a kmd of art, as Froebel has succeeded 
 in doing in the kindergarten. 
 
 Only by thus idealizing the enjoyments and pleasures of youth, 
 can the way be paved for the elevating and refining the enjoy- 
 ments of the common people ; for it is in youth that those habits 
 and inclinations become fixed, which determine the choice of recre- 
 ations and enjoyments later in life. 
 
 Froebel's method avails itself, on the one hand, of the child's play 
 to exercise his powers and talents for the future work of life, and, 
 on the otber hand, of the strength, skill, and cultivation obtained 
 by it so early, to perfect the play of succeeding years and render 
 it richer in enjoyments. Both these effects are in accordance with the 
 demands of nature. In the earliest childhood, when play is only a 
 manifestation of the joy of existence, it exercises the powers and 
 develops the talents. Later, when instruction exacts exertion of 
 the powers, it becomes recreation in free activity, exempt from ex- 
 ertion. But, in whatever form, it is a preparation for life, just as 
 military drill and manoeuvres are the soldiers' preparation for war. 
 Kind Nature causes pleasure and work to coincide in the child as 
 yef, but insists, at the same time, that not the least mite of strength 
 be unprofltably wasted. When childhood's play instinct is used for 
 its education, therefore we are going to meet nature. 
 
 Play is everything at once; imitation of, and preparation for 
 adult life, manifestation of human nature in general, and, at the 
 same time, of personal peculiarities ; mere joy of existence and 
 exercise of the powers ; purposeless dallying and significant self- 
 revelation of the mind and its talents. It is only by paying full 
 regard to this manifold significance of the child's play, that the 
 ends of nature can be attained, and that it becomes possible, at the 
 same time, to bring about also the refinement of the enjoyments of 
 the full-grown. 
 
 Recreations of a more elevated kind, consist in the enjoyment of 
 
116 
 
 nature and art. The school garden affords, by its flower culture, 
 and the care of animals of every kind, sufficient opportunity fcr pre- 
 paring for the enjoyment of nature, and is supplemented by 
 walks and little journeys. That artistic skill which both 
 boys and girls practice at any rate for their amusement, has been 
 raised by the kindergarten and the Intermediate class, to a degree 
 of artistic production that now will be extended in the workshops 
 and studios. Drawing, painting, cutting paper, building, plaiting of 
 baskets, pasting, turning, and the like, together with other modes of 
 producing objects, usefiil, and at the same time beautiful. Which 
 has been already practiced in the kindergarten, are available in the 
 school garden, especially in winter, during those hours of recreation, 
 in which gymnastic plays and dancing alternate with the sedentary 
 occupations. 
 
 The singing which has been practiced in the kindergarten, has 
 prepared the way for the little singing societies of the school gar- 
 den, in which both boys and girls must take part ; and which may 
 be accompanied with instrumental music. The art of declamation, 
 practiced in the school, will serve here also for playful enjoyment, 
 and be made available for dramatic representations. 
 
 Many parents and educators have a great prejudice against dra- 
 matic representations by children, because they think that they 
 excite vanity and coquetry, especially in girls : but does not every 
 game of children, partake more or less, of the nature of the drama ? 
 Do not children always represent something or other, according to 
 the suggestions of their imagination ? The little girl, in playing 
 with dolls, is now a mother with her child, the little boy is a sol- 
 dier, handicraftsman or foreign guest, as in the society game. The 
 dramatic element is the very element of childhood ; for the child 
 lives in the creations of his fancy. Children, who have been early 
 accustomed to social play, will remain unembarrassed also in the 
 presence of the grown up, during occasional short dramatic repre- 
 sentations. School exhibitions give scope for declamation on the 
 part of children, without their receiving any harm. It all depends 
 on guidance and arrangement to avoid the rocks. The proper choice 
 of the representations is of chief importance for preserving inno- 
 cence, and a child-like spirit ; which are sometimes endangered in 
 theatrical representions of grown up persons. 
 
 For girls, the school garden should supply small cooking stoves. 
 
117 
 
 together with kitchen utensils ; also what is required for washing 
 and ironing, not forgetting brooms and brushes for cleaning, and 
 materials and tools for making dolls' clothes : so that every kind 
 of skill for house-keeping may he practiced during play. And this 
 will be done more completely than has previously been the case in 
 the kindergarten, and possibly also in the family. Without guid- 
 ance previously arranged, all this would only be tomfoolery. 
 
 In order to maintain Froebel's principle of making the family in- 
 fluence prevail every where in the child's life, the guidance in the 
 school garden should be given, not by the appointed teachers only, 
 but, if possible, by the mothers themselves. Many of them will 
 perhaps smile at being called on to repair to the school gardens, in 
 order to play there with their own and other people's children, at 
 cooking, tailoring, dressmaking, for their dolls and the like. But 
 suppose this were asked of them perhaps once a fortnight only ; or 
 at most once a week (and likewise in the kindergarten) ; and that 
 the elder sisters or other young girls were to relieve them ; would it 
 really still be asking toe much of a mother to sacrifice a few tea or 
 coffee parties to playing with her children ? The majority of moth- 
 ers are doing so, at any rate, in their homes. It will perhaps be 
 said that as this is done already by careful mothers at home, it is 
 not worth while for them to go to the school garden to do it ; and 
 that it is even better that it should be done at home, in order to 
 make family life beloved. On no consideration, certainly, must the 
 evenings in the family circle and Sundays and holidays at home be 
 done away with. But who is to give the required guidance when 
 the parents are invited out to dinner or tea parties ; or go to the 
 concert and theatre ? Some who can afford it, keep governesses 
 and tutors, and expect them to superintend the plays as well as the 
 studies. But can they do this when tney themselves are probably 
 needing their own recreations? And how many parents can afford 
 to have these governesses and tutors ? And then the children are 
 left to servants, of whom, at present, scarcely one in a thousand 
 possesses such a degree of moral culture as not to have a down- 
 right injurious influence rather than ability for guidance. 
 
 Will it be said "things of this kind are the business of mothers, 
 and are always attended to if there exists a normal family life :'' or 
 ''it is destroying moral family life to make arrangements for enjoy- 
 ing in a schoolgarden, what ought to be the family hfe." Such 
 XVII 
 
118 
 
 speeches are of no significance, when the thing thus pre-supposed 
 does not exist ; for who does not know that in large cities especially, 
 and for a thousand different reasons, true family life does not exist 
 to such a degree as to be able to do what is demanded for the enjoy- 
 ment of the children ? 
 
 Wherever by exception such family life is the case, school 
 gardens and their guided plays and occupations may be dispensed 
 with ; but wherever this is not the case — ^that is, in most cases, — ^let 
 them be established ; and let there be the attempt to win over a 
 number of mothers and young girls to visit them, (who will thereby 
 prepare themselves for motherly duties). For from forty to sixty 
 children (in divisions such as are made in the kindergarten), it 
 would suffice, if, during two or three hours a day, two of the mothers 
 and two young girls were present. If there were made a club of 
 forty mothers, this would exact a sacrifice of only three hours in 
 the course of three weeks. 
 
 The economy consequent on dispensing with a governess or a 
 superintending servant girl is to be taken into account as a pecuniary 
 gain, on the one hand ; while on the other hand, the gain in apti- 
 tude for domestic and other female labors ought to be considered. 
 For what can be attained in a common garden so regulated, and, 
 with a guidance for such occupations, can never be attained in the 
 single family, — not even with the greatest care. Possibly, also, half 
 the time, and half the expense spent on later instruction in handi- 
 work, and in directions for housekeeping (for the most part now 
 given so scantily and incomplere), might be saved. 
 
 The school- gardens might also be a substitute, for the customary 
 juvenile parties, provided the family celebrations of Christmas, birth- 
 days, etc., are not thereby done away with. A distinction has always 
 to be maintained between celebrations in the narrower family circle, 
 and the youthful pleasures enjoyed in common with school fellows*. 
 
 For the outfit of Froebel's school-garden, some other arrange- 
 ments are yet needed ; as, for instance, objects, from the several 
 kingdoms of nature, as well as works of art and industry ; museums, 
 in short, for the special purpose of satisfying the children's desire for 
 'knowledge. Many school (Leg eooles gratuitea of Belgium) possess 
 
 ■" We oinit iiere two pages of siiggestiOQS concerning the importance of allowing 
 parents free access to kindergartens, schools, school-gartens, etc. There is no ex- 
 clusion of parents ever practiced in America. 
 
119 
 
 such small collections for the purposes of instruction ; hut they are 
 not sufficient for the purposes of the school-garten, which ought to 
 give, hy means of its children's museum, a complete outline not only 
 of the orders and series of the kingdoms of nature, but also of the 
 whole development of the improvements in art and industry. 
 
 Public museums are not suitable for this purpose ; their contents 
 are by far too rich, and cannot be easily surveyed even by the great- 
 est man of learning, much less compassed by the glance of the child. 
 It would be no great loss to these large collections, if they made 
 some contributions to the children's museums, from the numerous 
 duplicates that they possess. All these treasures have been heaped up 
 for purposes of cvllture, which they would in truth serve, in chil- 
 dren's museums ; whereas, at present, the majority of visitors, — 
 mostly travelers — ^gain but very little by their rapid surveys, and the 
 whole usefulness of these museums proves of advantage to a small 
 number only of learned men and students. 
 
 The museums of the schoolgarten should also contain small col - 
 lections of every kind, got up by the children of the kindergartens; 
 including dried plants, collections of stones, coats of arms, coins, 
 etc., and every little investigator might, if he pleased, spend a part 
 of his hours of recreation in contemplating the treasures of the 
 museum. Short explanations in writing might be added also. 
 
 As a matter of course, there must not be wanting a number of 
 casts, drawings, and photographs of the best masterpieces of sculp- 
 ture and painting ; and also some models of architecture, and of the 
 simplest machinery ; likewise a series of different products of manu- 
 factures arranged according to their stages, from the raw material 
 upwards. Objects are furnished also by the little industrial and 
 artistic works made by the children, for the purpose of comparing 
 their own capability with what is to be attained. 
 
 By such arrangements, there would be created a world for child- 
 hood, and its joys ; for the world of the grown up is a dangerous school, 
 and a sorry place of enjoyment ! The time allotted to play would not 
 be filled with empty trifles, but lay a foundation for the ideal struc- 
 tures of after years by awakening the genius for the beautiful and 
 fostering the germs of future original work. 
 
 The little excursions made from the kindergarten into open 
 nature, are, in the school-garden to be extended, during vacation 
 time, (which ought to occur more frequently than now, although for 
 
120 
 
 shorter periods,) to short journeys on foot. Froebel made the pupils 
 of Keilhau, according to their different ages, every summer, take 
 longer or shorter journeys, with their teachers ; whereby the instruc- 
 tion of the school was removed to the woods, fields, mines, manufac- 
 tories, glass works, museums, and artistic collections in towns ; with- 
 out interfering with the acquisition of knowledge; but rather that they 
 may bring what had been studied in the school to lively conscious- 
 ness; as is evident from the descriptions of what has been observed and 
 appropriated, which were given after returning from the journeys. 
 The children, even in the walks taken in the early mornings, into 
 the country surrounding Keilhau, to make collections of natural 
 objects, did not betray signs of either absence of . mind or fatigue, 
 during the succeeding hours of instruction. But on the contrary the 
 most eager attention was manifested. Of this I convinced myself by 
 personal observation. 
 
 The desire for knowledge on the part of children and young peo- 
 ple, is, in the course of nature, most easily aroused and excited, by 
 calling the imagination into play. Images taken in from reality 
 stir up thought, and are the very means for bringing about the 
 proper understanding of the words of instruction. It is yet little 
 heeded, that the mind as well as body, when it takes in food without 
 the sensation of hunger, is burthened, and sickens. 
 
 For their influence on the development or the child's emotional 
 nature, such excursions in the open air, and journeys on foot, com- 
 bined with the instruction required for making them useful, cannot 
 be equalled, least of all can books supply their place. How 
 much opportunity is afforded to the children of cities, for elevat- 
 ing their hearts in beautiful nature ; for procuring perhaps, only 
 now and then, the spectacle of a sunrise or sunset ? But such things 
 have good eflfect only when the right disposition has previously 
 been awakened in the young soul ; and when others feel in common 
 with it. 
 
 Froebel made his kindergarteners in Marienthal entune a song, 
 describing in poetic words the sunrise and sunset, or any other 
 spectacle of nature. The pious mind of Middendorf very often sup- 
 plied for this purpose elevating poetry ; by which he also influenced 
 children, satisfying the feelings of their dawning souls with words 
 that expressed them. 
 
 Pastor Thieme, who so fervently sings of nature and its beauty. 
 
121 
 
 points out in one of his poems, the difference between the walks of 
 ordinary school children, and his own children, who I'oamed in 
 company with himself, through the wilderness of mountain and val- 
 ley.* 
 
 Without Nature, and the enjoyment of it, children cannot be 
 brought up to be whole men, able to act, whatever may be their 
 attainments of science and knowledge. But to this our present 
 schools do not attend. Gymnastics and walking, as both these 
 things are performed at present, do not compensate children for 
 freely moving about in open nature to which the short journeys of 
 the school -garden are intended to lead, in order to form a balance 
 to books lest they kill the heart while enlarging the understand- 
 ing. 
 
 There must remain a gap, which is afterwards filled by mediocrity , 
 in the soul of the child who has stayed away from the ''green 
 school" of nature ; never gathered flowers in the meadow, climbed 
 hills, or sprinkled crumbs for birds ; never freely roamed about in a 
 wood, and collected stones, grasses, and mosses, nor vied with the 
 animals of the wood and field in leaping about ; nor ever stood in 
 awe at a thunderstorm, and the rising of sun and moon. 
 
 Do not almost all the moods of the human soul find their em- 
 blems in Nature ? Every climate forms different men, every sea- 
 son causes different strings to vibrate ; wood and meadow in the 
 glow of morning and evening awaken different feelings ; the starry 
 night on the sea inspires greater thoughts than the same night in 
 the turmoil of streets. The young souls that still possess the full 
 power of taking in impressions, must be brought in contact with 
 the beauty of nature and art, if the old are to remain young ; 
 whereas now, how many of the young are already old ! 
 
 Let us imagine how the merry troop of the school-garten goes 
 out into the country on some holiday. They have started already 
 before sunrise ; the brisk morning wind blows upon, and refreshes the 
 young limbs ; the silence of the night attunes the young hearts to 
 devotion; — silently they wander through fields and dewy meadows 
 which are gay in the movements of spring ; climb some heights, and 
 
 " This poem, which takes the form of a reply to a mother apprehensive for the 
 liealth of her children, is not tranalatahle into English without losing its 
 sftnple charm! ft may be found in Thieme's poems. It begins thus: "Soil er 
 blieb Dir werden wie Kretinen." 
 
122 
 
 from the sky, dipped in fire, see ascend the mighty star of day, the 
 sight of which never loses its exalting effect on any sensitive mind. 
 The teacher says the morning prayer and entunes the song of praise 
 in honor of the Creator, accompanied by the rejoicing of birds. 
 Which of these young souls, quivering with devout emotion, wUl 
 not feel the sacred awe of the near presence of God ? 
 
 What devotion of school or church, what doctrine of the cate- 
 chism can compensate childhood for wholly missing this divine ser- 
 vice ? Nor is it compensation for the cheerful enjoyment of Na- 
 ture, — ^those occasional walks to a coffee garden on Sunday after- 
 ternoons, or outside the gates of the city upon a dusty highway, 
 when even during the contemplation of the phenomena of nature, 
 the encouraging word is generally wanting. That the most beauti- 
 ful descriptions of deaH books are lot a compensation is certain. 
 Only what children have lived through, not what they have read or 
 learned, is of effect on them. 
 And what another gain for life it is, when, after a short rest, our troop 
 of young travellers, all aglow with the sublime spectacle of nature, 
 continue their pilgrimage ; and among the dark shades of the forest 
 receive new impressions, which now awaken a youthful poetic soul ; 
 now open an eye for plastic art, or call out the liiture natural phi- 
 losopher ; while they are all engaged in seeking and collecting bo- 
 tanical treasures, and making geological investigations. 
 
 Then they go into mills and farm yards, observing and studying 
 what can be learned there; inspecting afterwards the implements of 
 agriculture, or some glass works, or a smelting furnace ; descending 
 into mines, examining the soil and the rocks, discovering pre-his- 
 toric graves and druidical stones, antediluvian impressions in slate ; 
 visiting the battle-fields of times gone by ! On another occasion 
 they inspect the busy life of a mercantile city ; go upon the ships in 
 the harbor, sail out into the open sea, the sight of which imprints 
 upon the child's mind the image of infinity. 
 
 All that has here been mentioned must of course be distributed 
 among different journeys ; only a few objects ought to be inspected 
 at once ; and a choice is to be made, in accordance with the ages of 
 the children. 
 
 But whart an immensely rich field of instruction for heart and 
 mind is here opened up, provided there is not wanting the right 
 guidance and instruction ! How much more fruitful is all this than 
 
123 
 
 mere book study; or e^en those travels of young people who belong 
 to rich families, who go all over the world in. company with some 
 pedantic mentor in order too hastily to inspect curiosities everywhere 
 without understanding, and spend the greater part of their time 
 in the theatres, or eating and drinking in the large hotels. 
 
 Possibly some cautious people will shake their heads, and ask, 
 'but where is the money to come from for such an expensive educa- 
 tion of the great majority of children, (requiring journeys, gardens 
 and halls) ? At the present moment, certainly, these expenses cannot 
 be afforded, except by the rich. But a time is sure to come, — (after 
 the perversity of the present mode of education shall have exacted 
 many more victims, and thus have opened many more eyes) — when 
 the municipality or the State, will make provision for enabling 
 all their children to be cultivated into good citizens. 
 
 Almost everything that has been demanded here ; a great deal 
 for instance, of what is already to be found in good 
 educational institutions in the country, is already in exist- 
 ence, scaitered here and there ; and ic cannot, at any rate, be count- 
 ed an impossibility to perfect such institutions in the manner men- 
 tioned here, and to establish them also, as much as is possible, in 
 the neighborhood of I'arge cities, so that the pupils may not be 
 completely separated from their family circles, and may at least be 
 able to spend their Sundays at home. 
 
 To carry out such arrangements for boys would be mucli easier 
 than to do so for girls. For them, no doubt, if not completely 
 equal, still similar provision must be made ; so as to procure for 
 girls such impressions of nature and the life of man, as are needful 
 to their education. It would not be impossible perhaps, by the aid 
 of vehicles, to take them on short journeys, accompanied by their 
 teachers and some of the mothers. 
 
 Besides this, mention must be made of children's festivals, which 
 are to originate in the kindergarten, and take the place of the pres- 
 ent "children's balls and juvenile parties.'' And here, especial care 
 must be taken to keep aloof from all that luxury which is invading 
 society more and more, .in dress, food and drink, with other super- 
 ficialities and showy displays, by which vanity and greed for sensu- 
 ous enjoyment are called into full growth. 
 
 During the fine season, such festivals should always take place in 
 open nature or at least in gardens. The historical anniversaries, or 
 
124 
 
 some church holiday, may often transform into a festival the cus- 
 tomary excursion into the country ; and give occasion for flowers, 
 crowns, holiday dresses, cakes and fruits, music, dancing and games. 
 If the parents and families were to join, these festivals would ac- 
 quire their true consecration ; and they could, at the same time, 
 mingle in an unconstrained manner different classes of society, 
 made one for the time by the common sentiment of parental love 
 and a common country. 
 
 In winter, there would have to be substituted musical and dra- 
 matic representations; or exhibitions of the artistic works of the 
 children ; all to be succeeded by play and dancing. And here the 
 best opportunity would be afforded to parents for testing the capa- 
 bilities their children may have acquired ; and they could do so 
 much more unconstrainedly than by the customary school examina- 
 tions. 
 
 In the school gardens, theatres for children might be erected, 
 which would fulfil the noble duty of the stage better than the pres- 
 ent theatres for the people succeed in doing, to minister to moral 
 improvement at that age which is most easily impressed. The he- 
 roes of history, a few of its great events, noble deeds, poetry, fairy 
 tales, all dramatized in a manner suitable to childhood, would be 
 more effective in awakening ideal perception and noble disposi- 
 tions than the reading of the great majority of juvenile books which 
 are now devoured by the children of the cultivated classes. For 
 these children's novels produce a blase state of mind, long before 
 sufficient maturity and capability has been attained to understand 
 the great master-pieces of literature. 
 
 As the pupils of the kindergarten are, as yet, to read not at all ; 
 those attending school must read only very little ; and, when quite 
 alone, only as an exception. The reading in common, carried on 
 in the school-garten, is to procure the necessary practice in reading ; 
 and the acquaintance with a few masterpieces, suitable to a child's 
 intellect, carefully selected and with great limitation. To Eobinson 
 Crusoe, which will form their chief reading, might be joined fables 
 and fairy tales ; selections from Homer, and Biblical History ; and 
 detached portions of universal history ; some poetry, and a few de- 
 scriptions of travel; but all children's novels must be banished. 
 Dramatic representations, beginning with puppets, might fill the 
 space thus left vacant with greater profit by far. 
 
125 
 
 Childhood must fee as much as possible self-active, even in the 
 hours of recreation ; but solitary reading promotes vague reveries 
 and the inflaming of the imagination, without clear and definite 
 ideas, much more than a wholesome mental activity. Because child- 
 hood is so very much without the means conducive to its natural 
 and wholesom.e joys, it puts out its hand for these unwholesome sub- 
 stitutes. 
 
 Children should stay away from the social life of the grown-up — 
 from their theatres and public gardens. Their festivals, moreover, 
 should recur only at great intervals, perhaps four or iive times a 
 year ; and then must never bring along with them mere amusement, 
 but always be combined with seriousness and elevation. In this 
 manner, the way will truly be prepared for the refinement of the 
 pleasures and amusements of society in all its ranks. 
 
 But festivities are not always needed to bring joy to childhood, 
 though recreation must alway be provided for every day, and per- 
 vade the whole atmosphere of children's life, ministering to serious 
 as well as to mirthful moods at the same time. Nor must the re- 
 ligious element be wanting to them. That must find its place every- 
 where in the life of the child ; in nature and in art, as well as in 
 all the occurrences of daily life ;■ — for joy should always bear the 
 young mind heavenward, and up to the Giver of Joy. 
 
 Although religion and piety are to accompany the whole life of 
 childhood, a proper and formal divine service in the church is 
 thereby not excluded, to substitute for it only a kind of natural 
 worship. That the forms of worship of the grown-up are little suit- 
 ed for childhood, that there is needed a children's service, as has 
 been suggested by various churches is not to be gainsaid. Froebel 
 also shared this view. But he would not recognize as the right 
 thing, what has been attempted here and there in this respect. 
 
 It is not intended at this time to take into consideration re- 
 ligious education as an independent agent. That will be treated of 
 by itself, in the proper place. Let it be observed, however, that 
 beside the daily morning and evening devotions in the school for 
 study and the school for work, prayers, singing, and short times of 
 introspection, as a Sunday service, might easily be arranged in the 
 school garden, which might be similar to that of the church, but it 
 would have to be adapted to the children's comprehension, as re- 
 gards the singing and preaching. This purpose might be secured 
 XVIII 
 
126 
 
 still better by churches and chapels, at times when they are not 
 used for the worship of the grown-up. In the fine season, open na- 
 ture might be chosen for the child's temple, and could not very 
 well scandalize even the strictest church-goer. 
 
 The parents will not always be absent from the children's wor- 
 ship ; and it is their office to nurture children's piety at home. The 
 devotion of the grown-up observed by children, should not be dis- 
 pensed with, for it awakens the child's devotion ; and a child's life 
 without devotion would be as little blest as a man's. But every 
 thing depends, on the proper manner, where so many prejudices 
 still prevail. And the children's worship on Sundays alone, even 
 the best arranged, will not be by any means sufficient for awaken- 
 ing the religious sentiment, unless other, that is, daily, opportuni- 
 ties are used for leading young souls to God. The whole education 
 is to be a religion, according to Froebel ; as its ultimate object is to 
 be "to guide man to his God and Father." And here also, the 
 course of the development of mankind and the revelations made 
 to its successive ages must be considered as the standard. 
 
 It has truly not yet been understood that childhood must first see 
 the visible world surrounding it in the reflection of the Ideal, be- 
 fore it can become capable of rising to the heights of the invisible 
 world and spiritual communion. Before the child's eyes have been 
 opened to the Ideal by loving guidance to the beauties of God's 
 world, neither will the mind's eye acquire sight. And before the 
 bodily eyes have obtained vision, the soul will not wake up, so as 
 to be able to perceive the invisible world; and that faith, which 
 knows the truth, without sight, will remain unborn. The child's soul 
 when aglow with joy, is borne up to its Creator, much more than by 
 all doctrine and all catechising, provided it be the right joy, which 
 always produces love, gratitude, and devotion towards the Giver of 
 it. 
 
 If the soul has been prepared, by the beautiful and noble in feel- 
 ing, for religious truth, its seed will ripen and feed the mind and 
 heart. No greater outrage can be committed upon the receptive 
 soul of the child than the perverse method of supplying tb it words, 
 which are in themselves yet without meaning, when it is only just 
 beginning to extend its antennae to seize those real objects in nature 
 and life, which it can reproduce within itself and which are symbols 
 of what is highest in consciousness. 
 
127 
 
 By Froebel's system, schoolgartens are continued in what he calls 
 youthgartens, in which the exercise of the child's powers is to be 
 exchanged for exertion of the stronger powers of the youth. What 
 once procured beauty for the youth of Greece, by developing the 
 strength and grace of the body, will serve now for raising up a beau- 
 tiful and vigorous race. In gymnasiums, on skating rinks, in the 
 ball rooms, as well as at military drills of recruits, it can be clearly 
 seen, how deficient our present race is, in bodily grace and beauty. 
 What else is to be seen, with slight exceptions, in our gymnastics, 
 drilling, dancing and skating, than clumsy, awkward, stiff, ungrace- 
 ful, or even crippled limbs ? Debility and sickliness, even narrow- 
 ness of heart and limitation of intellect, may only too frequently be 
 recognized in the want of readiness of the limbs for movements of 
 every kind ; and what but a mockery of this want, is the great pro- 
 gress made in science, art and industry in our time, our ostentation 
 of luxury, our splendid houses and dresses, which do not avail to 
 cover the nakedness of our feeble, diseased, deformed bodies ? Can 
 our abundance of sensuous enjoyments supply the place of the miss- 
 ing joys of health? 
 
 Nor are gymnastics alone sufficient to reproduce the health, 
 strength and beauty wanting to our bodies. Gymnastics do not 
 procure health and strength, if they are the chief means of preserving 
 them. It was not the exercise of the body alone, that created the 
 beauty of the Greeks of antiquity ; it was also such men as Phidias 
 and Apelles, who showed the beauty of grace in the forms of their 
 gods, and peopled the imagination with beautiful creations ; and no 
 less is to be attributed to the combats and battles which called out 
 the fiery courage of the soul. For true grace can never be the in- 
 heritance of lifeless souls and gross minds. To obtain health, 
 strength and beauty, the souls of the young must be provided with 
 their gymnastics ; and still other practice is required for the limbs, 
 than mere gymnastics. But it is not to be overlooked, that hereby 
 an effect is produced, — not only on the limbs, but mediately also 
 on the powers of the soul.* 
 
 * The principals of all the American Institutions for the Feeble-minded testify 
 to the all but miraculous effects of the musical gymnastics upon their pupils. 
 "Nothing,' said Dr. Kerler, of Media, to me, "has had such creative effects on 
 the very greatest victims of mal-organization.— Translator." 
 
128 
 
 In the youthgarden those of maturer age, (between the ages of 
 fourteen and twenty — for boys — and twelve and eighteen for girls,) 
 will assemble, after the serious studies and labors of the day. It is 
 intended to add many other bodily exercises of the school garden ; 
 or bring those practiced hitherto to greater perfection. If bodily 
 agility and skill begin already with the first years of life, a limit can 
 scarcely be assigned to what it is possible to attain ; as may be seen 
 in circus riders, ballet dancers, and in all those artistic performances 
 of the limbs, which must be practiced from childhood, to result in 
 successful eflForts. Games of wrestling, fencing, riding, driving char- 
 iots, which, in antiquity, braced the youthful body for war, and fos- 
 tered heroism, may attain the same ends now also ; or at least min- 
 ister to beauty and health. How to obtain time and leisure for this, 
 is one of the questions to be solved by Froeb«'l's method, which pre- 
 pares everything, from the earliest age, and makes thereby more 
 easily attainable, what is possible for every age. 
 
 If the life of childhood is at present artificial, and contrary to 
 nature, the life of youth is not less so. The old seem to be young, 
 by the side of the present generation of the young, who, in their pro- 
 saic dryness, precocity, superficial acquaintance with everything, 
 their feeling of used up and worn out life, are a mockery of all that 
 is proper to the nature of youth ; and they only too often will even 
 curse, and, in their despair, put an end to their existence, instead of 
 embracing it with the fervor of youthful courage. Instead of po- 
 etry and dreams, they have philosophical reflection ; instead of de- 
 votion, faith and enthusiasm for an ideal world, they have a uni- 
 versal smattering and scepticism ; instead of thirst for action, and 
 courage ready to storm a world, they have calculation for politico- 
 economical or mercantile combinations ; and the main purpose of 
 their lives is to become rick. If they are already opulent, the ob- 
 ject of their joys, instead of being deeds of heroism, or idyllic en- 
 thusiasm, are dogs, horses, hunting, Lucullian banquets, childish 
 luxury and voluptuousness in their dwellings and dress. With few 
 exceptions, it is only those who inherit no property whose efibrts are 
 worthy of praise ; only those who have to struggle for the means of 
 existence by hard labor and harsh experience of life ! But both 
 the latter and the former lose the poetry of youthful existence. 
 That small number who are still able to feel youthful enthusi- 
 asm, love, and poetry, grows less and less ; the idyllic times of the 
 
129 
 
 shepherds is found scarcely in distant analogy, even in country life. 
 If we look into the circles of young women, things are not so bad, 
 — but nevertheless mournful. Although here narrower limits ward 
 off the contact with vulgarity more than is the case with young 
 men ; and although poetry and the world of dreams find here still 
 some scope, nevertheless precocity is the rule ; and the reading of 
 novels and the pleasures of vanity, do scarcely less undermine 
 youthful purity and enthusiasm for the beautiful. There is no 
 doubt that a normal life of the young is now the exception in both 
 sexes ; but it is be met with more frequently in the female than in 
 the male sex. 
 
 2. The YouTH-eAHDEsr. 
 
 It is the duty of society to do more for childhood and youth than 
 to furnish schools — even good schools. It must make arrangements 
 to satisfy youth's claim to enjoyment also, while removing as much 
 as possible those dangers which are greater at no period of life than 
 the one when youthful passions first awaken. 
 
 Because the time of youth belongs to beauty, and the manifesta- 
 tion ol beauty is Art, human nature puts forth in this time, both 
 for body and soul, its highest blossom of beauty and feeling ; and 
 the corresponding manifestation of such life and feeling is a want, 
 for the gratification of which, satisfaction can be found only in 
 art. 
 
 The farther the development of mankind progresses, the greater 
 becomes — for every stage of life — ^the desire for the manifestation 
 of the nature, so that one and all may be able to live a conscious 
 life, and mirror themselves in the works of their own powers. If 
 the time of bold heroic deeds, as well as that of idyllic pastoral life 
 is past ; if the youth and the maiden can no longer live a life of 
 dreams in the childlike consciousness of former ages, — then some- 
 thing else must take the place of those things, and a more elevated 
 demand be met with a costlier performance. The vulgar greed of 
 sensual pleasure has everywhere taken the place of ideal endeavor, 
 only because the demand for the last is wanting. And those who, 
 in such an atmosphere, despair of life and themselves even to sui- 
 
130 
 
 cide, are certainly not t>e worst in the ranks of youth. The ideal 
 of their souls escapes very often from the sight of tie humiliation 
 of others as well as of themselves. 
 
 Art adorned and emhellished the youthful life of mankind in 
 Greece and in the Middle Ages. Why should it not therefore adorn 
 and embellish also the youthful life of every generation ? Not every 
 one can be an artist, indeed ; for not every one is born for Art. Art, 
 as a calling, belongs to the chosen ; — but, as an enjoyment, it be- 
 longs to every one deserving the name of man : only he who wants 
 to enjoy it must love it ; and we can love only what we know. Thus 
 every one laying claim to culture should occupy himself with the 
 arts as far as the arts extend. Formerly, there were only a few great 
 in art, which was their calling. At present, everything becomes 
 more general, and so does Art. But this leveling is not the sole 
 reason why there are in our time only a few great artists ; what is 
 wanting is rather that originality of creating, which alone consti- 
 tutes the great artist, is to become capable of true enjoyment of 
 Art demanding a certain degree of activity in it. Both this enjoy- 
 ment and activity are the province of the young. Yet the young 
 are not to be precociously developed and made artists in childhood, 
 or perhaps at all. We do not wish to bring up miraculous chil- 
 dren. What is grown in the hot-house soon withers. Even more 
 matured youth are not necessarily to produce works of art before 
 they are full grown men. Many examples show that when art is 
 pursued as the vocation in life, those who are satisfied with what is 
 not half-finished, never reach maturity. The vocation demands the 
 entire powers of the man ; that culture of mind and experience ot 
 life which cannot yet be the property of youth. But it is their due 
 that the young should exercise and enjoy art as that element of 
 life in which they breathe, and for this purpose, space and means 
 must be provided. All will then obtain that joy in the realm of the 
 beautiful, to which they have a claim ; and talent and genius will 
 find an atmosphere in which they may ripen. Science, for which 
 the young have to labor, and which teaches truth in the abstract, 
 demands Art as its counterpoise in education. Art gives form 
 and beauty to truth, and awakens and feeds the ideal of the young 
 soul ; without Art, there is no capacity possible for truly noble en- 
 joyment, and therefore it must be the first condition of the youth 
 garden ; and in order that Art may be more than a mere pleasure of 
 
131 
 
 the senses, and even a means of moral elevation, the soil must 
 have been prepared for it in childhood. 
 
 Without the kindergarten, which will have exercised the agility 
 of the limbs and opened up the senses; withoijt the school garden, 
 the exercises of which will have trained the awakened sense of 
 beauty to artistic performance, and have led to the conquering of 
 technical difficulties, the exercises of real art could never take 
 place in the youthgarten, whose self-activily (which is alway caasal) 
 prevents the sinking down to a mere tickling of the senses. 
 
 The activity of the organs of the soul, which is inevitable to the 
 individual when he himself is creating, precludes the idle enjoy- 
 ment of the senses. The artist who practices the art peculiar to 
 him or enjoys the works of others, cannot be intellectually idle 
 whilst doing so ; not the senses alone, but feeling and intellect re- 
 ceive impressions and accept only what is genuine, rejecting all that 
 is vulgar and base. 
 
 Those of the young who have practiced art from early childhood 
 in proportion to their native endowment, will quickly distinguish 
 between what is good and bad ; they will not rest satisfied with mere 
 tinkling for the ear or with gaudy show and glitter for the eye ; and 
 they will/eeJ genius, wherever it is, long before they are capable 
 of recognizing it. Those who have themselves penetrated into the 
 mysteries of creation will know how to estimate essence and how to 
 distinguish from what is merely its dress. — But that which has re- 
 vealed to them their own creative power ; which has introduced 
 them into the realm of the beautiful ; the key which has opened to 
 them the gates of nature and art, is the law of activity, — the rule of 
 all creating — ^Froebel's law — " 2%e conciliation of contrasts or the law 
 of harmony ; for ait is harmony." 
 
 It is sometimes said that Beauty acknowledges no rules ; that it 
 consists of feeling and freedom, and knows no law. But freedom 
 is grounded on law; there is no freedom without a reason. It 
 should rather be said that the laws of beauty are not yet known, 
 and have to be discovered by self-activity. The condition of Art 
 is activity of the limbs as well as of the soul ; and thus the law of 
 activity is also its own law. Art has to deal with material, and mate- 
 rial cannot be treated without rules. Law rules in the harmony of 
 sounds, in the harmony of colors, in the symmetry of forms. But as 
 t he beautiful roundness of the body ^eils the skeleton, the manifes- 
 
132 
 
 tation of beauty veils the law. And conscious freedom veils the 
 moral law, to which it is subservient indeed, but is subservient from 
 its own free impulse. So' also Art makes always its own rules, but 
 in a way to procure Ijpauty. 
 
 And childhood, which has been playing while creating; youth, 
 which has been studying and working while creating, and has also 
 enjoyed while creating ; in whom the spring of inward original life 
 has gushed forth with complete freedom, will awaken anew that 
 nerve of genuine Art — Originality ; and open up new paths to those 
 endowed with the genius of the beautiful. 
 
 The life atmosphere of youth is art ; of childhood is nature — a 
 Paradise lost to the grown-up, but still existing for childhood. 
 Childlike simplicity and originality find their counterpart in the 
 formations of all the kingdoms of nature. Childhood can as little 
 do without many colored stones as without the flowers of the plain ; 
 as little without the twittering of birds and the humming of beetles, 
 as without the rushing of waters, — or the blue distance which leads 
 the eye into unmeasured space. Nay, even bodily food may unite 
 ideal charms with those of the senses. The aroma and juice of 
 fruits make the young hearts of children beat — -not with the desire 
 of the senses only, their iouls also have a share in their enjoyment ; 
 and the eye delights no less in the beautiful forms of fruit and 
 ilowers than do the senses of taste and smell, in the fruit itself. 
 Even to the grown-up the fragrance of flowers calls up ideal emo- 
 tions. If these blossoms are one day to yield fragrance to the 
 mind, they must have yielded it in childhood to the senses. 
 
 Every excitement of the senses is intended to loosen the fetters 
 of the child's soul, supply his mind with food, and open the gates 
 that lead to the realm of the beautiful. Where all this is wanting, 
 vulgarity rushes in. Let access be given then to the apples of un- 
 forbidden joys, lest there be incitement to pluck those which are 
 forbidden. Let precocity of knowledge, which being unripe — is a 
 forbidden fruit — be prevented. To call into life the forms of the 
 Imagination, to clothe the real with the garment of the ideal, and to 
 dream — by means of beautiful semblances — the dream , of happiness, 
 which is never completely realized by what is earthly, is the right 
 of the young ; that it is which lifts them up from the low sphere of the 
 senses, into a higher element of life, and better prepares them for 
 
133 
 
 its later troubles than can either the desolate dryness of surround- 
 ing society, or the dead words of moral precept. 
 
 "Let me have semblances until I have grown up ; do not take off 
 my white robe 1" says Goethe's Mignon ; and every child's soul un- 
 consciously sighs for the same, and "wishes to be an angel." But 
 its soul is not heard ; too often rude hands tear away the veil from 
 naked ugly reality and disturb the dream of childhood, so that the 
 youth that follows is no longer able to dream. 
 
 The sensuous excitement of the beautiful has also to awaken the 
 feeling for what is good, before truth is revealed to the mind. The 
 young mind cannot bear naked truth, just as young eyes cannot 
 bear a dazzling bright light ; and when truth does not immediately 
 strike dead, as did the mysterious image of Sais,* it only dazes the 
 eyes of the Spirit. For the higher phenomena of spiritual life, 
 Nature gives similes by her images ; these images, when they have 
 made on it a sufficiently deep impression, are reproduced by the 
 young artistic soul ; and thus it learns how to understand life, and 
 through life the depths of the mind are revealed to it. Truth with- 
 out a garment, sanctifying not suppressing the life of the senses — 
 leads to virtue ; but to separate the life of the spirit from the life of 
 the senses in early youth, leads only to the semblance of virtue. To 
 sham-knowledge is then added sham-morality. 
 
 Semblance of the beautiful by the ideal transformation of life 
 exalts the yonng soul ; but semblance of personal knowledge and 
 skill leads to arrogance and hypocrisy, and kills the thirst for truth. 
 For the soul, the word must first have become flesh if moral doctrine 
 is to find entrance into it. 
 
 Where is there now among the young, the feeling for art or genu- 
 ine sesthetic sentiment ? They make use of the beautiful to criti- 
 cise it with the dry intellect. It is requisite to teem to have cul- 
 ture, — and consequently to criticise. If criticism, in the highest and 
 most extensive sense of the word, constitutes a large part of the 
 greatness of our time ; it becomes for the young of the time a poison 
 which paralyzes, feeling. The genius of a Lessing turns to caricature in 
 such times. The precocious cultivation of their intellect ; their studies 
 and night watches deprive them of the best joys of youth ; and yet their 
 productions are not greater {although they are sooner ready with them) 
 
 * See Schfller'a poem "to Isis." 
 XIX 
 
134 
 
 than in former times, when a youthfal freshness gave vigor for work. 
 Who can observe our present young people without perceiving that 
 they are not happy ? There is no deficiency of talent, — for is not 
 the present generation richer by the inheritance of those gone by ? 
 — ^there is wanting for joyful growth a wholesome atmosphere, — a 
 gradual development in accordance with nature. The fruits are 
 asked for before the time of budding and blossoming is past. 
 
 In dusty dirty reality, in the coal-smoke of engines on the one 
 hand, and the greed for material enjoyment on the other, there is 
 no room for the young to ^tablish their ideal world; a space be- 
 longing to them must be allotted for that. 
 
 It will be asked, "But when they are lost in the dreamy world of 
 their ideals, how are they bye and bye to take up their position in 
 dusty reality, and labor in coal-smoke?" This question would be 
 justified, if to labor in this way could not also be learned in the ideal 
 world. By early work in the kindergarten, in the school workshops, 
 and even in the youth-garden, practical ability and skill become 
 attainable as they never have been before ; whereas idle dreaminess, 
 by which nothing is created and the nerves are unstrung, is exclud- 
 ed. He who is at home in the workshop, bracing limbs and senses 
 by labor, and has spent half the day in mental exertion, will cer- 
 tainly take no harm from seeking recreation in nature and the realm 
 of the beautiful ; nor will he be rendered unfit for the toils of life ; 
 but on the contrary, receive courage and energy for them. 
 
 Froebel's invention of employing the law of activity for the work 
 of childhood, will some day augment the working power of the hu- 
 man race, no less than it is now supplied in so many thousand 
 ways by machinery. What strength and time has been saved from 
 labor is for the enjoyment of life ; while with the prevalent mode of 
 culture, what leisure has been obtained is squandered in coarse and 
 base pursuit of low pleasure ; and it will be so squandered more and 
 more, unless a new generation, with another kind of culture, and 
 other tendencies, are to be taught how to make a better and more 
 profitable use of it. To teach this now is one of the highest duties 
 of Education, and to further it the youth-garden is intended. The 
 human life on a small scale, begun in the kindergarten, must be 
 represented in the youth-garden also, — only on a larger scale. The 
 play of the faculties must find a larger scope in gradual progress, 
 and personal superintendance be more and more replaced by self-en- 
 
135 
 
 acted laws. Eyery age of life lias its peculiar forms which nature knows 
 how to create for itself, in order to be able to give original manifes- 
 tation to its life. Youth set free, creates for itself this peculiar form 
 of the stage of its development, in accordance with the progress of 
 culture. It cannot be supplied with it ready-made from without. 
 
 All that has to be provided are the outward conditions, so that it 
 may be able to act— create — produce — independently. Its task is to 
 create what is new, for it has to improve and augment what has 
 been handed down to it. As a new link of humanity, it bears 
 within itself the formations of the future, and feels the impulse to 
 realize them. Whenever it is prevented from the free use of its 
 faculties, whenever it is not permitted to organize and reform — 
 within due limits, — it sinks into sensuality or plans revolutions. 
 Both ought to be prevented. For this, the right discipline of the 
 life of the senses, and the ennobling of enjoyments are no more in- 
 significant means than serious activity. 
 
 In the youth -garten, not only an arena for the contests of bodily 
 strength and agility has been opened, but the contests of the in- 
 tellectual will find place there no less. 
 
 The space allotted to the school-garden is of course no longer suf- 
 ficient. If we build theatres for the people, for equestrian circuses, 
 for club and concert rooms ; if we lay out public gardens and parks, 
 we shall surely be able to afford the space necessary to build what 
 is needful for the young. 
 
 There exist in academies of science and art, rooms sufficient for 
 the free exercises, representations and exhibitions of the hours of 
 recreation. In localities of the workingmen's unions, of the schools 
 for apprentices in mechanic and in fine art, there is already almost 
 all the room needed, within walls. What is farther needed is a suit- 
 able equipment, but no kind of luxury. 
 
 In the schoolgarten there has been preparation for all that here 
 can contribute to artistic manifestation ; singing, declamation, mu- 
 sical and dramatic performances, the outfit for which should be pro- 
 cured by the young people's own efforts. Contests in the arts of 
 poetry and eloquence, discussions on subjects of science and 
 art ; experiments in natural philosophy ; exhibitions of their own 
 works of every kind, which saust not yet be admitted to public ex- 
 hibitions of art and industry, however much they might deserve it ; 
 moreover, dancing and innocent joking, in an aesthetic dress, will 
 
136 
 
 grow out like a blossom of tie preceding artistic exercises. All this has 
 been already in actual existence as means of recreation ; but it has 
 not been executed by those who enjoy ii themselves ; but on the contrary, 
 received in indolent repose, through the eflForts of others ; as for 
 instance, in our theatres, concerts, lectures, and the like. But it 
 makes a great difference whether noble enjoyments have been eaxn- 
 edhy personal activity, or passively received whereby many enjoy- 
 ments may very easily become dangerous. Activity, in the service 
 of the truly beautiful in itself, prevents the mere intoxication of 
 the senses, in which the greater part of the pleasures of the young 
 at present consist. 
 
 The pupil of the kindergarten and schoolgarten has, however, 
 still other wants ; and wishes to go on organizing his little world in 
 the youth-garden also. That which has been only play for him 
 hitherto, becomes a serious occupation for him in youth. Might 
 there not be some farms for the experiments of the future young far- 
 mers of both sexes? some forest lands for future foresters, some lab- 
 oratories to serve for the free use of the natural philosophers ? All 
 this exists in the special schools, but not as the free property of the 
 young citizens who wish to make the experiments for themselves. 
 But these means could be gradually obtained for the youth-gardens, 
 without excessive expense and exertion. 
 
 The young reformers, organizers and fiery conquerors of worlds, 
 who already, during their childhood and youth, have burnt their 
 fingers in their attempts at bold flights ; who have become acquaint- 
 ed with many impossibilities, and have recognized their own insuf- 
 ficiency, will display insight and foresight in the life of reality ; 
 win. act with sober reflection ; will weigh with one another what 
 they would like with what they are able to do ; and never try 
 to attain Utopias. They will not be novices in life like the chil- 
 dren and young people who have been kept in narrow and strict 
 discipline ; and who bringing with them exaggerated expectations 
 and unbridled desires, without any knowledge of the relations of things, 
 find themselves all of a sudden — in a world unknown to them — re- 
 duced to themselves and to their as yet untried strength, as their 
 only resource. Nor will they any the more, like those old young 
 men, superficially acquainted with every thing, satiated with sensu- 
 al enjoyment, worn out with living long before they have lived at 
 all, despise the life of reality because it has no longer any chance 
 
137 
 
 for them, as has befallen many a blase young man, who entered it 
 too soon. 
 
 The youth-gardens must, as a matter of course, receive the young 
 of both sexes. What modifications are needful for young girls, it is 
 not difficult to see. Only general hints can be given in this re- 
 spect, for both sexes, before the plan has been realized ; before 
 childhood, brought up in accordance with nature, shall have created 
 young people who will break new paths for themselves, and unfold 
 the genius of the coming time as the germ of the formation of their 
 own free world. 
 
 The two sexes, separated in their school instruction, had, in the 
 previous time, beginning with the kindergarten, been united by the 
 festivals ; and they must be united by the festivals of the youth- 
 garden, which, by the participation of parents and teachers, can be 
 extended into family festivals. What a different — ^what a more 
 noble form — the intercourse of the sexes may assume when they 
 shall have grown up with one another in the service of the good 
 and beautiful. 
 
 Those rare examples of youthful friendship between young men 
 and young women, dating from the years of childhood, and which 
 have been faithfully preserved, would surely become more common 
 if a freer intercourse under the eyes of relatives, were allowed dur- 
 ing that time when the passions are yet asleep ; provided they have 
 not been aroused before the time through a perverse education and 
 injurious association. Here, too, activity — and activity for ideal aims 
 — is the best guardian of youth. A common striving for what is 
 exalted and beautiful wards off sensuality. 
 
 It is surely time to think of the means to grant anew its rights to 
 ideal youthful love, which has become, as it were, a fable for the 
 ma,iority of young men. Our present social conditions banish it 
 more and more, and so pave the way for immorality. Consequently 
 there must be a change ; and until we know something better, let us 
 realize what is possible of what has been proposed. Let there be 
 given more freedom of intercourse, for exchange of ideas, in the 
 bosom of the family ; or in noble social communion in the company 
 of parents and teachers ; so that the youth of both sexes may meet, 
 not only in the ball rooms and in the frivolous pleasures of dissipa- 
 tion, but be united also for more serious and more noble enjoyments, 
 either in open nature or in artistic activity. 
 
138 
 
 Few young men will like to exchange the opportunity for such 
 ideal intercourse with young women for the intercourse of vulgarity. 
 They who do so surely have been deprived of the influence of no- 
 ble women. Only through this influence a moral amelioration of 
 social intercourse is possible,— as has never yet been denied. Let 
 there be given to this intercourse the new forms demanded by the 
 present stage of civilization, viz., more freedom and more intellec- 
 tual elements ; the one is rendered possible only by the other. Only 
 with the young, who have not yet quite lost the feeling for the ideal, 
 can a (first) beginning be made. 
 
 Who that has himself wrought out his intellectual culture, and 
 has learned how to lead an intellectual life, has not become weary 
 of the jugglery of the fashionable world; has not longed to get 
 away from this sham intercourse ; from this arena of vanity and ly- 
 ing ; and has not fled from it as soon as circumstances permitted ? 
 The more the number of those is increased who cannot find satis- 
 faction for their demands in social life, the greater is the prospect 
 of seeing new forms of society arise, which can satisfy both heart 
 and mind. But these forms will not be created by the old ; they 
 can only be so by the young, who enter into existence with fresh 
 vigor, and resolve to shape life according to their desires. 
 
 Therefore let there be free scope, so that childhood, when it comes 
 forth from the kindergarten, may discover in their school and youth- 
 gardens new corresponding forms, at least in their starting-points. 
 Just as the fights of animals and tournaments have been replaced by 
 other and more aesthetic amusements, the 'frivolity and insipidity of 
 the modem drawing-rooms may be replaced by better things with- 
 out there being any need for men first to become angels. 
 
 But those two extreme tendencies must be set down as wrong, of 
 which the one does homage tobare sensuality, which would gradu- 
 ally bring mankind back to bestiality ; and the other fancies that it is 
 able to entirely detach earthly man from the life of the senses, and 
 to make him exist as a pure spirit on this earth. 
 
 The present system of education, whether it be managed con- 
 sciously or unconsciously moves to and fro between two extremes, 
 viz., whether it be more advisable to take — as a starting point— man's 
 nature in the child, the child's life of instincts, to comply with his 
 desire for happiness and joy, and to allow the life of the sexes to un- 
 fold itself, by endeavoring to gratify — but also to elevate and refine 
 
139 
 
 it by what is good, beautiful and true, and thereby to counteract — 
 inc'inations towards what is sensual, base and vulgar ; or whether 
 all be better to oppose nature in the child ; to oppress tlie instincts 
 by compulsion and brute force, and to unfold the mind at the ex- 
 pense of a wholesome life of the senses ? 
 
 And to its utmost foundation do the whole moral views of the 
 world move between these extremes ; and without their right com- 
 bination, the question how to find the right road to a higher degree 
 of morality must remain unsolved. 
 
 It can never be right to suppress — or kill — one side of human na- 
 ture for the good of the other. The Stylite saints of the middle ages 
 were grand phenomena that proved the power of man over his 
 body ; but to follow their example, in any form whatsoever, would 
 be to devote mankind to perdition. Such experiences had to be 
 made in the history of the development of mankind ; but having 
 once been made, they are no longer needed ; and the wrong road, 
 having been acknowledged as such, must serve now for finding the 
 right one. 
 
 At the present time, the error of the other extreme has the upper 
 hand. The ascetic spirit of the past, the separation, carried to an 
 extreme, of the two sides of human nature (bodily and spiritual 
 dualism), has called into existence those who have preached of the 
 "emancipation of the flesh,'' and found support in our present ma- 
 terialism ; it would bring about the ruin of all morality, if ever ex- 
 treme tend^cies, thus warring with the essence of man, could car- 
 ry off the victory. 
 
 It is true that the body can be destroyed in part by leaving out 
 of sight its wants, and by a one-sided prevalence of spiritual life; 
 just as the bodily nature, by one-sided gratification of the senses, 
 can destroy the spirit ; but neither of these extremes can ever be- 
 come the rule for an entire generation. 
 
 Hitherto, it has almost always been attempted to combat one ex- 
 treme by the other, without reaching the goal, nay, without aiding 
 moral culture. 
 
 But Froebel says, "that which God has joined together (body and 
 mind), let not man put asunder," and by this he expresses one of 
 the chief maxims of education, harmony ; — the balance between the 
 life of the senses and the life of the spirit must be the goal of all 
 education. And will not this be obtained best by the greatest pos- 
 
140 
 
 sible gratification of both ? And must not the extent to which they 
 are to be considered, be altered according to the different ages and 
 states of development ? Are the same claims to be made on the 
 spiritual nature of the child, which are made on that of the mature 
 man ? This is neither desired nor done by any one consciously 
 or intentionally. But whoever wants to repress the legitimate in- 
 stincts of the child, the prevalence of the child's life of the senses, 
 and thinks that he can bring about forcibly a preponderance of the 
 powers of the mind, is endeavoring irrationally to put asunder what 
 God has joined together. 
 
 A greater moral truth can scarcely be uttered than the following : 
 the right natural gratification of the human instincts aids virtue 
 and that which is good ; while their non -gratification becomes — or 
 at least may become — an inducement to vice and sin. This truth 
 finds at any rate its complete application to the undeveloped moral 
 state of childhood. For the several stages of the child's moral life 
 are, first, predominating bodily life ; then the life of the senses ; 
 then emotional, then moral, and lastly intellectual life. Consequent- 
 ly, the stages of gratification are bodily pleasure ; pleasure of the 
 senses ; pleasure of the soul ; social and moral joy of the soul, joy 
 of the intellect. Recognizing these stages, education must minister 
 to the gratification of the one or the other side of the human being 
 according to the child's age, if it would proceed in a natural way, 
 and according to the intentions of Him who has created nature's 
 wants. 
 
 Now, if there are means Joy which nolane of these stage's of the life 
 of the senses and body, is regarded by itself alone ; but an equal 
 consideration is given to the life of the soul ; so as to prevent the 
 preponderance of what is low, over that which is exalted ; and pre- 
 pare for the dominion of the higher over the lower nature ; such 
 means must undoubtedly further moral elevation. 
 
 Froebel's means of play have this power ; and they accomplish it 
 by exciting the instinct of activity, and in obedience to the law under- 
 lying this instinct, consequently according to nature. 
 
 When this law is once known and rightly applied, the starting- 
 point has been found for leading human nature in childhood into 
 the path of morality, by its own activity. Activity, both within and 
 without, intellectual and bodily, is a condition of all development, 
 of all culture and of all progress. 
 
141 
 
 The fundamental condition of moral life is fuliilment of duty, ef- 
 fort, devotion, conquest of self, power of love and self-sacriflce, all 
 in oue. 
 
 Labor "in the sweat of the brow" was the curse which drove 
 man out from the idle life of enjoyment he had led in Paradise, in- 
 to the desert of an earth to be cultivated. Labor then became the 
 first means of human culture, and labor therefore, as happiness, as 
 joy, is the goal towards which man must incessantly tend. 
 
 Our age, which strives for the elevation of labor by facilitating 
 and intellectualizing it, has partially succeeded in its endeavors, as 
 never before ; and must now also set in motion a new means of 
 moral elevation, by the application of the principle of labor (the 
 law of all activity.). 
 
 Labor in freedom, as joy and pleasure, as play of the limbs and 
 senses considered as ministers of what is beautiful, good and true, 
 — such universal activity of the whole human being for an ideal 
 aim,- -is at one and the same time the elevating and intellectualiz- 
 ing of this being itself ; that is to say — moral elevation. 
 
 That education which is able to provide for the young innocent 
 joy of the senses in the place of low desire ; joy of the spirit in the 
 place of mere joy of the senses, will surely keep them out of the 
 abyss, into which they would be plunged by the doctrine of "the 
 emancipation of the flesh." The kind of joy and pleasure to be 
 found in this abyss of mere sensuality, has been very dramatically 
 exhibited by Goethe, in the song of the topers in Auerbach's cellar. 
 
 The enjoyments of Froebel's youth-garden surely tend to put a 
 stop to such debasement by right means, since they tend to grat- 
 ify the sense of beauty, and to lure forth the pure, 'divine spark 
 of joy,' by the activity of the higher mental powers. 
 
 The moral development of childhood is utterly thwarted by 
 that mistake, which would separate the impressions of the senses 
 from the culture of the soul, and treat nature and mind as ir- 
 reconcileable enemies. 
 
 The iconoclasts did not advance religious feeling in their time 
 by the removal of works of art from their churches ; and worship 
 in spirit and in truth was not gained when the Calvinists took 
 their divine service out of the venerable cathedrals of the middle 
 ages into their whitewashed rooms. Man will always be man, 
 that is,- a being of the senses also ; and the exaltation of his soul, 
 XX 
 
142 
 
 must be aided by outward surroundings and sensuous impressions. 
 
 To preserve the peace of tlie child's soul by considering and 
 gratifying all the demands of the na,;ure, with wide discrimina- 
 nation, is to put ofif and temper the war of the passions. If le- 
 gitimate and elevating enjoyments, and also pleasures by means of 
 the senses, (not mere sensuous gratification, but rather exalted pleas- 
 ure of the senses, by means of their proper culture), are afibrded 
 to the young— their passion for what is beautiful and noble will 
 be kindled, and keep the lower passions in abeyance. Filling up 
 as much as is possible, the gap between the senses and the spirit, 
 raising the former to the level of the latter ; — such are the means 
 that Froebel would see applied by Education. The danger of the 
 greed for enjoyment, and of the intoxication of the senses, is to 
 be removed from the young, by giving them the power of them- 
 selves treating their own pleasures by their own strength, and by means 
 of their own activity. The senses and the soul are to be brought 
 into harmony by making them feel at home in the Temple of Na- 
 ture and in the temple of the ideally Beautiful ; for in both the 
 Spirit of God is to be found. 
 
 If the peace of God is to re-enter the profaned world of man, 
 if childlike simplicity is once more to find a place in it, as the ac- 
 companiment of genuine culture of mind and character, then im- 
 pressions of nature, also natural science, as ethical means of edu- 
 cation, must not be wanting ; and God's world must become the 
 deepest foundation of the union with God, which, in the divine 
 man, rises to the height of the Christian Religion. Art exercised 
 by the pure hands of children, will then learn once more how to 
 fulfil its highest vocation, viz., to quicken the human soul to that 
 beauty which is the truth that leads to God. Genuine beauty is 
 always moral, and moral greatness is the condition of genuine art- 
 istic greatness. 
 
 Pure contemplation of nature and pure practice of art call out 
 true childlike faith, which is to receive the divine doctrine in spirit 
 and in truth. For both Nature and Art, through form, color and 
 sound, speak in symbols, which are the reflected images of truth, 
 before the mere human word can be understood. This is the soil 
 which produces that thinking of nature's growth, which can look 
 down with contempt upon mere learning ; and say to the scholar, in 
 
143 
 
 the words of the countryman, ''True ; you know everything — except 
 one thing, which 1 know — the language spoken by our God." 
 
 Nor let the new education be accused of wishing to bring up 
 its pupils to indulge in sesthetic sentimentality, and to worship the 
 world of the senses, because it keeps in view the serious and moral 
 mission of this world of the senses, which is to become the pedestal 
 of all spiritual elevation and greatness, even in the direction of the 
 knowledge of God. That incessant activity and work which it ex- 
 acts of itself does not admit of any abuse ; — just as, so to say, by 
 friction, sparks can be called forth from very stones. Friction, that 
 is, the activity of the organs, calls out the spiritual light of the fet- 
 tered powers and talents, for a free intellectual flight, which is the 
 highest of all the joys of man. 
 
 "Many have already been the schemes of Education to destroy 
 crime and sin, and create an ideal society !" Such is the scornful 
 cry of many, whenever the power of Education and new remedies 
 are mentioned. 
 
 Although it is not difficult to see that a complete regeneration of 
 mankind cannot be brought about by the realization of all the Ed- 
 ucational schemes in the world, it must nevertheless still be granted 
 that those already tried have contributed to change hordes of sav- 
 ages into a society of decent men. It does not discredit education 
 that the experience of history exhibits a rise and fall of nations and 
 their civilization ; the bhsiness of education is the perfecting of the 
 race in general. 
 
 In this perfection it must believe, , unless education be considered 
 superfluous. The aim of Education can never be anything but ' the 
 highest, although a possibility of its complete— or the degree of its 
 partial — attainment can not be determined. It is, however, an 
 open question whether the limited influence which previous sys- 
 tems of education have had on morality, might not be extended by 
 means which have not hitherto been applied. For an actual or- 
 ganization of the pleasures and enjoyments of the seasons of child- 
 hood and youth, has not as yet been tried ; at least not in the man- 
 ner demanded by Froebel's Ideal of Education. It is certainly 
 worth while to try whether sermons or lectures on morality, menaces 
 and punishment, all the torments of discipline both at school and 
 at home, might not be supplanted by a world for childhood and 
 youth ; organized, as is proposed in the school and youth-gardens, 
 
144 
 
 for giving free play to youthful powers ; — employing as factors of 
 morality pleasure and enjoyment, together with, and by the side of, 
 work and exertion. 
 
 The instinct of activity is a lever, quite as much for enjoyment as 
 for work, provided enjoyment does not consist in being idle. Some 
 of the senses and organs must always be excited in order to procure 
 enjoyment, even though it were only the teeth and jaws during eat- 
 ing and drinking. That merely to be idle is a true enjoyment no- 
 body will maintain. What feeling of pleasure may be caused by 
 idleness has its reason in nothing but in resting some of the tired or- 
 gans and powers ; or it is produced by the reveries and contempla- 
 tions, of whatever kind, which accompany it; mere inaciivity of all 
 the organs is torture rather than pleasure. 
 
 Lest the workingman, when his work is over, may consider idling 
 as the greatest pleasure, which is the rule, there should be culti- 
 vation of such senses and organs as are left inactive by his work ; 
 for enjoyment springs from change of activity or employing other 
 organs ; from entertaining, light not tiresome activity : an edu- 
 cation which, without depriving him of his legitimate enjoyment of 
 better repasts, and his glass of beer, would procure even for the 
 meanest workingman more worthy and more satisfactory pleasures 
 for his leisure hours. And even his coarser enjoyments would re- 
 ceive from it some aesthetic mixture, without taking into account 
 any elevation to ideal regions. 
 
 The most difficult side of the question, of course, is how to make 
 such arrangements that the children of the lowest of the people, 
 who generally grow up away from school like little savages, may 
 not be in any way injured by the habits they would acquire in the 
 school and youth-gardens ; but that even for their leisure hours they 
 shall be supplied with that wholesome, homely fare, which is con- 
 sistent with their later position in life. 
 
 Here also the elemental view of work — as a pleasurable activity, — 
 must be the guiding principle. The best beginning for this is to 
 be found in the right organization of the Folks' kindergarten, and 
 in the intermediate class and work-schools, properly modified to 
 meet the wants of ranks of different degrees of mental culture. The 
 nature of childhood and youth has similar needs in all the different 
 ranks ; a, difference is therefore needed only for the outward form ; 
 
145 
 
 and only so far that the eventual privations of later years may not 
 be rendered more acute by their previous training. 
 
 One side of the improvement of popular education not yet men- 
 tioned and equally important for all classes of society, is that prac- 
 tical training of servants for their calling, which is to be attained 
 by Froebel's method. 
 
 The abolition of this slavery is surely of no less importance for 
 the welfare of society than that of negro-slavery. Surely the so- 
 called 'white slaves' are comparatively no less spoiled of their hu- 
 man dignity than the black slaves ; and have become one of the 
 scourges of modern society, with the prospect of their becoming so 
 more and more. 
 
 Withovit inquiring what has been the influence of the general 
 evils of society, and the revolution of social relations, also, on this 
 class ; and wherein they betray the effect of natural causes, in which 
 all— high and low — have their share of blame, a chief reason of 
 these false relations is, no doubt, to be sought in the deficient 
 training of servants for their calling. This training cannot be given 
 by the school, nor by the parents of these children, who are mostly 
 rude, and themselves incapable and unskilful. Their apprenticeship 
 begins, in most cases, in the houses of their employers. This, of 
 itself, almost implies the impossibility of making up for past ne- 
 glect ; and of their giving satisfaction, even when, as a rare excep- 
 tion, they are distinguished by moral purity. In no direction, per- 
 haps, have false social relations a more disturbing influence on the 
 humane levelling of difference of position than just here. And even 
 with the best intentions on both sides, a satisfactory levelling can 
 scarcely be brought about, beiore universal ediication shall have 
 done its work in the way of preparation. 
 
 The practical assistance which servants may have rendered to 
 their parents at home, and by which, under favorable circumstances 
 they may have received some training, is altogether insufficient for 
 other positions, with greater claims, growing out of the opulence of 
 the more cultivated classes. It would certainly be esteemed as of 
 some considerable value, if servants brought with them, together 
 with general good moral conduct, a corresponding amount of order 
 and cleanliness. 
 
 Now, by a popular education, in Froebel's sense, not only this, 
 but, at the same time, such a degree of development of the limbs 
 
146 
 
 and senses would be attained, as would give them also the proper 
 skill for every kind of work. It is to be taken into account that 
 all the various kinds of work would have been practiced, and that, 
 above all, a certain degree of sound moral and intellectual culture 
 could not but facilitate dignified conduct, and supply a just view of 
 their own position. 
 
 The active intercourse of the children of the different classes, 
 when in the communion of the school and youth-gardens, would 
 not only afford a hundred opportunities for acquiring all that skill 
 and practising the habit of rendering service ; but by such com- 
 muning in the years of childhood, the whole relation of servants to 
 their employers would of itself be transformed and elevated, and 
 what there is of burdensomeness and feeling of oppression -in their 
 position, must needs, for the most part, disappear. What has been 
 practiced voluntarily in playfulness, and consequently performed 
 with perfect ease, has thereby lost its sting, and become lighter by 
 at least half its weight. 
 
 Xor will (his be all ; but then also their employers will have been 
 engaged in similar work in their youth, performing almost the same 
 services in childish and youthful companionship ; and thus will 
 have obtained a measure for testing the capability of their servants, 
 and determining the time needed for what is done, etc. 
 
 In every position of life all the young ought to be rendering ser- 
 vices, if only for the purpose of exercising their powers, and gather- 
 ing experiences. But only in rare instances are they sufficiently 
 and properly trained in this respect. In their own little world, in 
 which they are at the same time ruling and serving, and in which 
 they serve whilst still playing, all that would be otherwise burden- 
 some, disappears. 
 
 Is it not every child's pride and highest joy "to help, and to ex- 
 ecute what is difficult ?" But how much of the delight in being ac- 
 tive, and of tbe willingness to work is undermined and transformed 
 into laziness by the words which may be heard daily in every nur- 
 sery :"You cannot do it ;" "you do not understand it." Tlie answer 
 "Show me how, so that I can do it," given by almost every child, 
 although not always in so many words, is given in vain, because 
 there is no sympathetic understanding for these young souls, to 
 whom nature points out the way to conquer their place in the world 
 by their own activity, beginning with their first and slightest efforts. 
 
147 
 
 Is it not saddening to think how many powera and talents have 
 remained buried in ourselves for want of proper exercise ; and how 
 our best endeavors and desires were misjudged from childhood up- 
 ward, and the natural language of our young being never under- 
 stood and answered ? 
 
 If every one learns in his youth, how to serve ; he will afterwards 
 understand equally well both how to serve and how to rule, and by 
 this common lot to which nature destines youth, on account of its 
 very inexperience, what there must be of service will lose the feel- 
 ing of oppression and disgrace. The false relations and the suspi- 
 cion of the serving class will in most cases disappear also in the 
 consciousness of their capability, and gradually make way for that 
 humane and brotherly accord for which our time is striving, but 
 can never attain before culture and moral elevation have smoothed 
 the way. 
 
 Moreover, in no way can more scope and opportunity be afforded 
 to the indigent for developing their natural endowments, and mak- 
 ing it early available, than in youth-gardens and school-workshops. 
 It is well known that the great majority of modern artists, especially 
 those engaged in classic art, have proceeded from this indigent 
 working class ; that those artists who come from classes possessed of 
 higher culture, and had, from their youth upward, enjoyed scientific 
 instruction, rarely attained the same skill for mastering their mate- 
 rial and conquering technical diiBoulties, as in former times was 
 possessed by the artisan, who practices both hand and eye in all 
 directions. When manual labor has preceded intellectual culture, 
 it has been found of incalculable advantage, not only as a prepara- 
 tion for the plastic arts, but because it served as a natural foundation 
 for those endowed in other directions. How many distinguished 
 writers and statesmen of our time, began their career with the axe 
 and the trowel ; at the weaver's loom, or behind the plough ! 
 
 Such examples, occurring again and again, ought surely to dirtct 
 attention to the cause of these plienomena, which prove on the one 
 hand, that original thought, springing from nature, must be su])- 
 plied with its first points of support by work and experience in the 
 life of reality, as the spider requires a material point of support foi- 
 its web, which it cannot begin in the air. And, on the other liand, 
 that ari'i'si'tceWo?(')ne»< is more or less suppressed by that too early 
 and one-sided knowledge which takes the place of the cultivati(m 
 
148 
 
 of the senses and limbs, not to mention that school education, as 
 hitherto practiced, stints the freshness and vigor of the blood, and 
 the health in general ; which are such necessary conditions of creat- 
 ing and producing. 
 
 What may not be accomplished, when, to the great amount of 
 originality which undoubtedly exists in the masses, shall be joined 
 early pragtice in productive labor and intellectual activity combined 
 in an education upon Froebel's method? Whereas, now talent and 
 genius become manifest only in the years of youth, they might then 
 show themselves in early childhood ; and thus the workingman's 
 child would have a better chance of attaining a higher degeee of cul- 
 ture. 
 
 The predominance of the element of work in the education of the 
 higher classes of society, and the consequent prevention oi preco- 
 cious knowledge, will serve, on the other hand, to counteract that 
 sickly ambition of our young men, which goes on increasing from day 
 to day, and has banished almost entirely the beautiful carelessness of 
 youth. The strong desire for being worth something, so natural and 
 honorable to youth, and the generous wish to be distinguished 
 among fellow citizens, degenerate into a tendency for an empty seem- 
 ing, unless intellectual power early acquired, shall build on a foun- 
 dation of experience and a practical trial of personal strength. But 
 this desire may find its first healthy gratification in the above-men- 
 tioned companionship of the young ; and, at the same time, in that 
 preparation and exercise which later, through the recognition of its 
 own means and power, will awaken self-respect and hinder that van- 
 ity which is satisfied with mere seeming. If, in the time of youth, life 
 and activity are carried on, in and for companionship ; and, to fur- 
 ther it, egotism is battled with ; the spurs of vanity and ambition 
 will not be needed to produce activity for the common weal. The 
 genuine inspiration of a true philanthropy will unquestionably ac- 
 complish more than the mania of our time that goes along by the 
 side of it, the wish to be considered public spirited, which has become 
 fashionable. 
 
 Nothing stands so much in the way of a right education for gen- 
 uine morality, as to think that modesty and humility will be awak- 
 ened by crushing out all self-respect through the adoption of the the- 
 ory that human nature is Tadically miserable and depraved. Where 
 has there ever been any human greatness manifested, except it were 
 
149 
 
 accompanied by genuine humility ? or what true genius, what works 
 of real worth have been tainted with vanity and egotistical am- 
 bition? By employing the talents and powers, and thus creating 
 the right standard of individual ability, and by setting a high 
 ideal aim to endeavor from early years the surest means of setting 
 bounds to pride and humility have been found ; and to discrimi- 
 nate what we can do from that which we wish to do, brings 
 modesty and humility in a natural way. 
 
 If the discovery of the principle of self-activity and the finding of the 
 means of carrying it out iff practice is of the greatest importance for 
 the amelioration (or even foundation) of Education in general, it 
 is especially so with regard to its moral side, the formation of moral 
 character. 
 
 But it is just on this side that the chief attempts are made to stir 
 up suspicions and enemies to the kindergarten ; which is one more 
 proof how little pains have been taken hitherto to subject Froebel's 
 method to close examination and a thorough investigation. The 
 majority of those who, without being hostile, do not advocate it, 
 confine themselves to repeating the maxim which is certainly irre- 
 futable, that provided the thing be good and right, it will make its 
 way 1 
 
 But people seldom take it into consideration that nothing makes 
 its own way in the world, that no high goal can ever be reached 
 without labor and exertion on the part of brave champions. 
 
 But because the old story is forever repeated ; the benefits and 
 benefactors of the human race, from the greatest to the least, are 
 always received with hostility, accusations and condemnations ; and 
 because everything new, even before it has been tried, is subjected 
 to damaging criticism, a few short observations regarding the prin- 
 cipal objections and prejudices against Froebel's method of Educa- 
 tion will find a place in the following chapter. 
 
 XXI 
 
150 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 OBJECTIONS. 
 
 The greater number of the objections made to Froebel's method 
 have been uttered in such complete ignorance of it that they may 
 be called mere figments of the brain, and in no instance prove true, 
 because, in most cases, they assert deficiency of that for which it 
 provides completely. 
 
 By far the greatest number of those who have brought forward 
 these objections, have judged in a political party spirit, and blindly 
 rejected everything that their opponents praised. Only those who 
 have had opportunity of acquiring some accurate acquaintance 
 with Froebel's principles and practice (at least in the kindergarten), 
 can give a sound opinion. Experience goes to show that such opin- 
 ion is always in favor of the cause, unless it happened to have been 
 led astray by the absurdities of some kindergartener, half, or in- 
 sufficiently trained. 
 
 It is truly comical to those who actually understand the subject, 
 to hear the assertion that the kindergarten inspires its pupils with 
 ultra-democratical views I To believe this possible, in a direct way, 
 in the age previous to school life, is too absurd for serious considera- 
 tion. This strange presumption is no doubt a consequence of a 
 temporary law, by which the introduction of kindergartens was for 
 some time interdicted in Prussia (but nowhere else). 
 
 Political party spirit sufficiently explains why the gymnustict of 
 John* were forbidden at one time as dangerous to the community : 
 
 * Beferenceisheremade totbe mOTement of the German patriot Jahn, In the 
 eaily part of this century, to quicken patriotism by cuitiyating the physical na- 
 ture. See Life of Dr. Charles Follen ; Boston. 1817. 
 
151 
 
 the common intercourse of a great many young men being dreaded 
 when the government had resolved to oppose those demands of the 
 people for greater political freedom which became manifest after 
 the war of Liberation. But the intercourse of quite young children 
 can hardly excite such apprehensions 1 
 
 Only a small number of fanatics presumed that in forbidding 
 gymnastics, it was also intended to oppose the invigorating of the 
 young generation, and the consequent greater independence of the 
 people and their power for defence. 
 
 That the mistake thus made, by which the invigoration of the 
 body that was so much needed, and the consequent moral elevation 
 has been retarded for almost a generation, was recognized years ago, 
 is proved in that now, almost everywhere, measures have been taken 
 for the general introduction of Gymnastics. 
 
 It, therefore, cannot be supposed that the bodily training aimed 
 at by the play exercises of the kindergarten have caused the above 
 suspicion. Those who, in our time, can still believe that the pro- 
 per development of children's powers in all classes of society, is a 
 public injury, and who generally thwart the improvement of popu- 
 lar education, are surely so few in number that they are of no im- 
 portance. 
 
 It is altogether impossible to argue with any one who can now 
 believe that the good of the community can endure, by the side 
 of the existing coarseness, immorality and ignorance of the lower 
 masses ; or with him who is of opinion that the public good is 
 endangered by a better culture — in its proper sense, and that educa- 
 tion can altogether be only the prerogative of some privileged clas- 
 ses. For such are not only blind to the demands of our time, but 
 are also devoid of insight and feeling for human welfare. Still less 
 can they lay claim to Christian sentiments if they fail to recognize 
 as a divine word, all must be helped. They fail to see that 
 God imposes on those possessed of wealth and culture, the obliga- 
 tion to take care of those of their brethren who are without either ; 
 and that this obligation, hitherto so inexcusably neglected, must at 
 last be acknowledged and complied with ; unless all, all, without ex- 
 ception, are to perish under this dereliction of duty. 
 
 Those, however, who perhaps mistake an Education and training 
 which are intended for all, — for such false training as will produce 
 dissatisfaction with personal circumstances, envy of those enjoying 
 
152 
 
 outward advantages, and revolut ionary ideas in general, with re 
 gard to the order of society and the like, may allay their alarms by 
 the consideration that an education which inculcates work from 
 early years, will cause love of work ; because it affords satisfaction 
 to individual creativeness, and thereby ennobles and endears the 
 position chosen. It is an education which puts it into every one's 
 power to establish law, order and organization in his own sphere of 
 business ; and thus causes him to see the necessity of all this for the 
 whole community. At all events such an education is much more 
 adapted to bring up good citizens than revolutionists ; and prevents 
 such false training as creates a wish to abandon their vocation and 
 original circumstances. 
 
 More than this, — as we have repeatedly asserted, — all that tends 
 to destroying is interdicted by Froebel's method ; which exacts from 
 the pupils creation and production only. Whoever has known Froe- 
 bel himself, and has noticed how all manner of destruction and 
 every violent attempt at change and overthrow was hateful to his 
 nature ; how, everywhere, he saw nothing — neither saw nor wanted 
 to foster anything — but development, natural germination, growth 
 and ripening ; can surely never take it into his head to see in him 
 a secret revolutionist ! So far did he go in his aversion to all de- 
 struction, that he could not bear to see even a leaf, much less a 
 flower bud, needlessly broken ; or an insect crushed. Once, on see- 
 ing a twig full of blossoms thoughtlessly broken from a fruit tree, 
 he fell into an actual passion, and exclaimed : "Man must never 
 destroy anything I he has come into the world to transform and to 
 create." 
 
 But certainly those who reject the endeavor to form men morally 
 free, and to train independent character in the young, counteracting 
 every kind of servility, and see in such endeavor, the foundation of 
 ultra-democracy, can never acknowledge Froebel's method of edu- 
 cation ! With such views, an education of the essence of man is 
 no longer compatible ; and nothing is so but his subjugation. 
 
 Whoever does not consider it the highest purpose of mankind to 
 attain moral freedom, and consequently that it is incumbent on all 
 educators to lead, as much as is possible, up to this moral freedom ; 
 has neither an idea of human destiny nor of the true object of edu- 
 cation, and consequently no right to judge of these questions. 
 
 The only proper way to bring up for the State genuinely good , 
 
153 
 
 self-denying citizens, is to render the young capable of self-govern- 
 ment, in the full meaning of that word ; and towards this, as to one 
 of the highest aims of education, Froebel's method is striving. Free- 
 dom by self-government, by voluntary submission to law and social 
 order, is the banner under which Froebel would lead the young 
 generation to greater moral elevation. The sad mistake that an 
 undeveloped, rude mass can be more easily governed than men who 
 are morally and intellectually cultivated, will soon be no longer 
 possible. This once acknowledged as an error, the new method 
 will be universally adopted in spite of party spirit. 
 
 "In that time of the "persecution of demagogues," in which the 
 noble Jahn became a martyr to his cause, an inquiry that was insti- 
 tuted into Froebel's Educational Institute at Keilhau made it evi- 
 dent, that there was not only no reason for any kind of political 
 suspicion, but there was a' warm recognition and advocacy of the 
 system, on the part of the commissioners, in their report to the gov- 
 ernment of Eudolstadt. In recalling this time, Froebel would often 
 say, "If my principles of education were universally applied, there 
 would soon be no longer any demagogues in the world ; and both 
 rulers and ruled would live together in peace and happiness. 
 
 On the other hand, even ultra-conservatives may safely send their 
 children to the kindergarten, without fearing that before they are 
 seven years old, they will be in any way politically biased. Also, 
 they would have to acknowledge as completely unfounded, the suppo- 
 sition, which is connected with this far-fetched accusation, that 
 Froebel's method does away with all authority, and leads therefore 
 to caprices, disobedience and license, instead of to obedience. In what 
 has gone before, it has been sufficiently shown that even from the 
 earliest years, already on the mother's lap, discipKne and obedience 
 can be exercised on a small scale ; and that in the kindergarten; and 
 for aU succeeding years, even during play occupations, acknowledg- 
 ment of law, and subjection to order, are demanded. That personal 
 guidance on the part of parents and teachers, which is here exacted 
 so extensively, would be impossible, without the maintenance of 
 their authority. Can any education be imagined, without educa- 
 tional authority ? The necessary limitation of children's freedom 
 could in no way be better emphasized than by this very method of 
 Froebel. When we treated of the "School and youth-gardens,'' we 
 sufficiently dwelt on the gradual extension of this limitation, as the 
 
154 
 
 pupils go on developing and adding to their experience ; so that 
 nothing more need be said of it now. , 
 
 To this accusation of deficient consideration, of the authority of 
 the grown up, the altogether opposite one has been added, that con- 
 stant guidance of the children's play, — ^methodical occupation dur- 
 ing early childhood, would mar its guilelessness. To wish, on the 
 one hand, to subject childhood to incessant guidance, and, on the 
 other hand, to abandon it to its own caprice, without asserting 
 authority, these were certainly incompatible charges. This point 
 also has been considered in what has gone before ; a manner of 
 occupation, derived from the very nature of the child ; the applica- 
 tion of the law of his own natural activity ; the constant attention 
 paid to the child's instincts ; and the free application of law, on the 
 part of the child during his voluntary play exercises, or in inven 
 tions according to the childish inspiration — all this — ^provided it has 
 been noticed by ocular inspection, and therefore understood — is in 
 such complete contradiction to that supposition, that this objection 
 has now also been met. 
 
 The fact that unintelligent and insufliciently trained kindergar- 
 teners may make a perverse application of Froebel's method ; that 
 they are an impediment to the guilelessness and freedom of the 
 children's play ; that they cause the free application of rule to have 
 the appearance of compulsion ; that they quench the children's 
 invention, by allowing mechanical imitation ; that they cause 
 weariness by excessive and too long continued occupation ; or pro- 
 duce irritability of the nerves, — ^these, and many other abuses are 
 certainly possible, as they have hitherto occurred, and are still 
 occurring. Such perversities in education are, in most cases, caused 
 by the individuals engaged in it, and many of them may be laid to 
 the charge of mothers. , But Froebel's method can never be made 
 responsible for them since it is opposed to these same perversities, 
 in all respects. 
 
 That which accords with the child's nature, which is its immedi- 
 ate manifestation, cannot produce over exertion or nervous irrita- 
 bility, or undue excitement ; or in any manner have a disturbing in- 
 fluence on his free natural development. He who does not see that 
 all such perversities can be counteracted only by finding out the 
 rule or law according to which the development of the child's soul 
 takes place, and by guiding him in accordance with it, cannot have 
 
155 
 
 any correct ideas of either the child's nature or the treatment of 
 that nature ; and it would probably be in vain to try to impart to 
 such a one a right conception ol the matter. 
 
 Only by educating both kindergarteners and mothers, better and 
 more satisfactorily, can all abuse of the method be stopped, and 
 gradually a proper treatment of childhood be brought about. Let 
 the method and its results first be studied before blind judgments are 
 passed and the method rejected. So much must be exacted both 
 here and in the case of all other unjust objections. 
 
 Many years will, of course, pass by before educators will have ar- 
 rived at complete recognition, and consequent execution, by means of 
 study and more general application of the method. It must not be 
 overlooked that, though it is possible, and as yet not unavoidable, to 
 make a wrong use of what Froebel has taught, all abuse and mis- 
 takes in education are greatly reduced by it, and can be much more 
 easily avoided. The fundamental principle of self-activity being 
 constantly applied, the child's nature has freer scope ; arbitrary in- 
 terference on the part of educators is restricted, mistakes are guard- 
 ed against, and a rule of action has been found, which was hither- 
 to almost completely wanting. Owing to this want, there is still 
 more or less arbitrariness, unnatural cramming and stinting of free 
 development ; and people, instead of becoming ali?e to all prevail- 
 ing abuses, meet the new method with criticism and abuse. 
 
 From this tendency to criticism and blind opposition, springs that 
 other objection, "that by Froebel's method, children are alienated 
 from mother and family I" Can downright condemnation be worse 
 than this accusation ? Education of the human being, without the 
 influence of mother and family, ceases to be education in the true 
 meaning of the word. A very slight acquaintance with the meth- 
 od and writings of Froebel will completely dispel such misappre- 
 hension. 
 
 His book, "Mutter and Koselieder," is a sufficient proof that, if 
 ever man has understood the mother's sacred vocation, for the ser- 
 vice of mankind, Froebel was that man. 
 
 Never was anyone more thoroughly convinced of the importance 
 of motherhood and guileleit childhood to humanity. 
 
 During a life of seventy years, it was the object of his most pro- 
 found studies, to understand humanity in its primary essence, and in 
 its prototype ; to inquire into that essence from the outset ; and to 
 
156 
 
 decipher it in the state of the child's unconsciousness, and in the 
 first dawning of its consciousness. The incessant and never weary- 
 ing endeavors and labors of Froebel's long life, had for their object 
 the culture and elevation of women, that half of mankind which is 
 still slighted and mentally neglected. And is a man, who not only 
 had these ideas but did more for their realization, than any other 
 original educator, to be charged with deranging and undermining 
 family life, by taking from women the care and nurture of children ? 
 
 For whom, if not for mothers was meant his favorite motto, 
 " Come let us d^ote ourselves to our children."* To whom does he 
 give his advice, and the material for practical education ? From 
 whom but parents and members of the family, and all others inter- 
 ested in education does he demand the carrying out of his profound 
 idea almost on every page of his writings? Especially in his "Mut- 
 ter and Kose Lieder," — he speaks of the mother, exacting from her 
 the nurture of the new born ; imposing upon her the responsibility of 
 the right education of childhood, in which she is to behold the future 
 of humanity entrusted to her care. And truly what he demands 
 from mothers, is more than any mother, even the best, is at present 
 able to do ; for the proper means for it, which have hitherto been 
 wanting, have been supplied for thp first time by his method. 
 
 How many mothers are there at present, who do all that he de- 
 mands ; nurse their children themselves ; wash, bathe and dress 
 them ; in short, attend to all their bodily wants, bestowing no less 
 care on their minds, even in the first months of their existence ? 
 Mothers who, by playing with and fondling their children, supply 
 them with all that food which the nature of the child requires ? 
 Mothers who know how to continue an education, — begun thus, 
 with the first moment of life, not only during the whole time of 
 childhood, but also during the whole time of youth ? What pa- 
 rents answer to his demand to be in the fullest sense the Educa- 
 tors of their children ? To live and be in intercourse with them 
 in every season of their lives ; incessantly to watch over, if they 
 cannot themselves carry on their instruction ? never to intrust their 
 moral and religious training to others ; to go on sharing their little 
 
 * Professor Noa says this is tlie translation of the German word; but Karl 
 Froebel, in a lecture to the training-school of Manchester England, has said the 
 true rendering is "Come, let us live with our cliildren"— that is, enjoy life to- 
 gether. 
 
157 
 
 sorrows and joys, to adapt their own modes of life to what the edu- 
 cation of their children demands ; to be, in every respect, models 
 for them ; to introduce them, step by step, into life, into their future 
 peculiar spheres of activity, and always to remember to say to them- 
 selves, "These souls have been entrusted to us by God that we may 
 bring to humanity members fitted to contribute their share in build- 
 ing up the kingdom of God on earth ;" — How many parents are will- 
 ing and able to fully come up to such a demand ? 
 
 And, for the very reason that they cannot do so by themselves, be- 
 cause even when capability and circumstances permit it, they still 
 need the aid and support of others, both in and out of the house ; 
 it is the object of Froebel's method of Education to create the right 
 assistance. Kindergarteners are not intended to take the place of 
 mothers, in the sense of superseding them ; their business is to help 
 and supply what is wanting in the family. There is not a mother in 
 the world able to devote herself to her children, and only to them, 
 unceasingly, by day and by night. Every mother, without excep- 
 tion, and in every class of society, employs nurses, servants, gov- 
 ernesses, or makes use of infant schools, when they do not wish to leave 
 their children altogether without superintendence, or abandon them 
 to their ordinary servants. It is therefore of importance to prepare all 
 these assistants for their office of educators ; and to render them capable 
 of it, witliout ever, on that account, making them the mother's sub- 
 stitutes. In short, the mother herself, and along with her all the 
 educational assistants, from the nursery girl up to the governess, 
 must be kindergarteners, — i. e., in other v/oidiSjUnderstandthe r^urture 
 and training of children. 
 
 If Froebel's Ideal of Education were realized in practice, there 
 would not be a girl's school without the participation of mothers ; 
 boarding schools for girls would be only for motherless children; and 
 schools for boys would never separate them altogether from the fam- 
 ily circle. And both fathers and mothers would be prepared for 
 their office as educators by study ; and the soul of not one child, any 
 longer bleed to death, or be hardened under the awkward and coarse 
 treatment of parents. If ever a system of education was founded 
 on Family education, that system is Froebel's. 
 
 That kindergartens are not "merely for the children of the cul- 
 tivated," as has been apprehended, is already proved by this ; that 
 the pupils are retained in them only some hours of the day — (from 
 XXII 
 
158 
 
 three to four hours) — and consequently remain for the greater part 
 of the day under their mother's care. That objection is more fitly 
 to be made to our present 'play-schools,' which relieve "selfish and 
 frivnloua mothers" of their children for the whole day; but it does 
 not apply to the kindergarten, which demands the participation of 
 mothers, even during the few hours which all children must spend 
 walking to it or in any other way in the open air. The great privi- 
 lege of letting young children play in private gardens, under intel- 
 ligent guidance and superintendence, instead of letting them spend 
 a great part of the day on the public walks of cities, under the su- 
 perintendence of girls and nurses who are often thoughtless, or 
 at least unmindful ; this undeniable privilege will, more and more, 
 dispose in favor of kindergartens, even those parents who do not see 
 their other educational advantages. 
 
 Those, however; who wish to limit more narrowly still the inter- 
 course of their children, have but to found "family kindergartens," 
 which can easily be established by the opulent classes. — All that is 
 needed for this is that a few friendly families unite in assembling 
 their children daily, for some hours, in one of their own houses and 
 gardens, or in some locality which they can hire, that their children 
 may be under the guidance of a kindergartener, chosen and paid by 
 themselves. It is then left to the mothers to participate in this 
 guidance, by turns, and thus to learn how to employ their children 
 in a similar way, in the narrower family circle. Intelligent mothers 
 will then very soon see that it is not enough to introduce the meth- 
 od into the family only, (though such introduction is certainly nec- 
 essary) ; because that companionship which even the family kinder- 
 garten ofiers, is there wanting also, even though several brothers 
 and sisters are united. For brothers and sisters are always of difier- 
 ent ages, and cannot make up for the greater number of companions 
 of the same age, whereby alone true companionship can be brought 
 about. 
 
 Not any more suflScient for this purpose are "juvenile parties," 
 which are considered equal to the kindergarten by some mothers. 
 It has been clearly demonstrated what a difierence there is between 
 a companionship for mere pastime and pleasure, and the compan- 
 ionship, in the kindergarten, for occupation and fulfilment of duty ; 
 and also, that our present stage of general culture demands such 
 companionship, from early childhood upwards, so that the more ex- 
 
159 
 
 tended duties of the companionsliip of citizens may be satisfactorily 
 fulfilled^ater. What other opportunity is left the children for ful- 
 filling their little obligations at home, and the general moral influ- 
 ence of the family, concerns other sides of the child's mind, and 
 does not offer such full opportunity for the conquering of selfishness, 
 as can be the case in a wider circle. Moral education demands, in 
 all circumstances, fulfilment of duties, self-government, and the 
 overcoming of self, out of the love of the neighbor ; — whether its 
 pupil be still in its swaddling clothes, or has already arrived at ma- 
 ture and rational thought. The form of duties, the degree of self- 
 conquest and exertion changes with age ; but that which causes vir- 
 tue ; — the ways that lead to virtue, — are at bottom the same for all. 
 Now if the influence of education is at all acknowledged, and if it 
 exists already from the beginning of the child's life, it is a great 
 mistake to leave the earliest childhood to capricious and trifling 
 play, and then all of a sudden, on sending him to school, to exact 
 of ]-Arr Gii(i( s rdc! mora! ifVat, ior which eveiy preparation is want- 
 ing. It has been mentioned, likewise, that it is just the first period 
 of life which Froebel considers the most important, in this re- 
 spect. 
 
 Those mothers who sometimes haughtily refuse to entrust their 
 children to the kindergarten, to other hands than their own, do not 
 in the least foresee how severely their children will perhaps one day 
 have to suffer for it ; if, perchance, they have been obliged to spend 
 their childhood only with the grown up, in isolation, without the 
 merry companionship of playmates, and consequently in a life of 
 weariness. 
 
 But even if, owing to the habit of constant pastime in the society of 
 other children, they have learnt to look upon companionship as noth- 
 ing else but the means of pleasure and amusement. If the former only 
 too easily become timid, hermit-like or misanthropic in character, 
 feeling uncomfortable and even unhappy in social intercourse, and 
 being unfit for successful activity, or in some cases ruined by the 
 prevalence of bad habits and vices, the caller must be numbered 
 among those empty and superficial party-goers, who cannot live 
 without amusement, are incapable of serious thought, and conse- 
 quently of serious work ; and verj- often sink to be the mere para- 
 sites of human society, to which they cannot be of any service. 
 
 These mothers forget, moreover, that there is many an hour when 
 
160 
 
 they cannot superintend their children themselves, and that at any 
 rate, very soon, the school will claim them for some time every 
 day. 
 
 Once more there cannot be any thing more important, with regard 
 to the improvement of moral Education, than companionship of chil- 
 dren for useful ocoupation and fulfilment of duty, even in the form 
 of play, and during guileless mirth, such as is afforded by the kinder- 
 garten in its several stages, without in any way lessening the educa- 
 tional influence of the family circle. 
 
 The educators of the present must not leave out of sight, that the 
 chief transformation of existing society is caused by the necessity of 
 wider association, because the powers of the individual are no 
 longer sufficient for the demands of the time. The fulfilment of 
 citizen duty, and the execution of almost all the works and labors 
 of civilization, be they industrial, artistic or scientific, demand the 
 co-operation of many, and a combination of association of powers of 
 various kinds. The seclusion of individuals, or families, is becom- 
 ing more and more difficult, and is impossible for those who, occu- 
 pying a higher stage of culture, feel the need of serving the common- 
 wealth and consciously employing their powers for the good of man- 
 kind. 
 
 For the attainment of every higher degree of human develop- 
 ment, there is needed a more extended co-operation and union of 
 individuals. The spirit of association, in our time, is, under higher 
 guidance, also to serve progress and general moral elevation. How- 
 ever much this spirit which only as an instinct, urges on the masses, 
 may be abused, for selfish and purely material purposes, its destiny 
 tends to higher aims which must one day be reached. 
 
 Education has the task of guiding the young generation towards 
 these aims, and to preserve it from the wrong direction of this im- 
 pulse, in order that union in the spirit, union for ideal aims, may one 
 day take the place of the present tendencies for more material 
 advantages. To work in this direction, already in the earliest child- 
 hood, is the kindergarten's important destiny. 
 
 It is not in the sense of Fichte (and others who thought as he did, 
 and who demanded education for the state, wishing to do away with 
 all family education) that Froebel wants to attain this object. But, 
 on the contrary, "the renovation of family life," is, in his eyes, the first 
 and indispensable condition. Even Fichte, that great thinker and 
 
161 
 
 philantliropist, would hardly have proposed to take away, in the 
 manner of the Spartans, the children from their mothers' breasts, at 
 least in the lower classes, — if he could have found other means to 
 preserve them from the contagion, caused by the increasing debase- 
 ment of the common people ; and to provide for them a worthy way 
 of their being trained to be good citizens. All he wanted was, to 
 withdraw the young from the corruption of their homes ; but he 
 certainly would never have wished to remove the natural and 
 sound basis of the state, which is solely to be found in the family. 
 
 Such a violent measure Froebel considers to be more than unne- 
 cessary ; and believes that the amelioration of family life, as well as 
 the arousing of public spirit and civil virtue, can be attained by 
 suitable measures. He wants to see honest parents, even of the 
 lowest classes, where they are not utterly incapable, enabled to 
 train their children in the kindergarten, and, according to circum- 
 stances, actively taking part in it, as we have pointed out, when 
 treating of these institutions. He thinks it altogether contrary to 
 nature, that, by having to work for their living, so great a number of 
 mothers are prevented from at least suckling their children them- 
 selves, however incapable they may be of truly educating them ; and 
 he indulged in the hope, that the time would come when every 
 mother would be permitted to fulfill her first motherly duty. But 
 to attain this end, education has no other means but its own ameli- 
 oration. The chief means lor this, is offered by Froebel's method, 
 rendering the female Sex capable of their vocation as educators. 
 All other conditions lie outside of the office of education, and must 
 be fulfilled by the State and Society. 
 
 Froebel's educational ideal is at the same time the ideal of the 
 family, tending to bring about a closer union between children and 
 their parents, and thus rejects whatever may loosen this union ; nor 
 will those parents, who see their children return from the kinder- 
 garten, overflowing with love, and shouting with joy at the mutual 
 meeting ; and who daily make the experience, that the short separ- 
 ation makes both home and the family circle all the dearer t o them, 
 in any way assent to the objection that the kindergarten has a ten- 
 dency to separate them from each other, and to diminish filial love. 
 And have we not, in this, the confirmation of an experience which 
 every one has, more or less, an opportunity to make. Does not an 
 objector a condition become truly dearer to us, when we have to miss 
 
162 
 
 or do without it ? Does not love come to a ftiller consciousness, by a 
 separation from those beloved? The love of children for their 
 mother receives also a higher character when they learn to feel their 
 own personal independence, by a temporary absence from her, and 
 when, no longer a. mere feeling of helplessness, or egotistical habit, 
 are the only and chief motives of filial love. 
 
 Another experience, which is daily confirmed, likewise refutes 
 that altogether untenable assertion that bodily health is harmed by 
 the too great mental excitement ; for proof has often been given, 
 that even delicate and feeble children generally become visibly 
 stronger in a short time ; that a more healthy complexion and in- 
 creased mirthtiilness, bear evidence of heightened well being, which 
 sufiices to contradict all this entirely. For the whole institution of 
 the kindergarten is chiefly designed for healthy bodily development, 
 and iiirigoration. Exercises of the limbs and senses can surely not 
 counteract this. And the mental gymnastics combined with it, 
 harp Ti'- less a share in bodily invigoration, than exercise oi the 
 limbs in the open air. When the soul suffers want, the body also 
 suffers. 
 
 It is not "excitement of the nerves," but invigoration of the nerves, 
 which follows proper, natural occupation, together with mental com- 
 posure; but the right dietetics for the child's soul have not before 
 been discovered ; so that being left to vague and indefinite feel- 
 ings, it could not but be exposed to innumerable errors. It is Froe- 
 bel's method, and that only which gives a sure foundation for these 
 dietetics, by recognizing the application of the natural principle of 
 every kind of activUy of soul and body. 
 
 li few more years of continued experience and irreftitable proof, 
 will successfully conquer this prejudice, as they did that other one, 
 which not only denied the kindergarten to be the best preparation 
 for the school, but even accused it of rendering children unfit for the 
 school. This point was disposed of in the preceding pages, when it 
 was proved that it is only kindergartens not founded on Froebel's sys- 
 tem, which make the pupils mere triflers, instead of preparing them 
 for the earnestness of study in all respects. It is self-evident, that 
 healthy development of the senses, habits of composure, attention 
 and steadiness during the occupations, becoming accustomed to 
 order, and punctuality, all of which are certainly attained in Froe- 
 bel's kindergarten, must be a better preparation for the claims of the 
 
163 
 
 school, than the customary unsystematic and purposeless pastimes of 
 children left entirely to themselves. 
 
 The kindergarten and its method, must not be made responsible, 
 when badly conducted 'play schools,' having no trace of Froebel's 
 method, and justifying that accusation, sometimes take the name of 
 kindergarten. Yet it is a fact, that even kindergartens, which from 
 want of completely trained kindergarteners are imperfectly con- 
 ducted at present, supply the schools with by far better pupils than 
 they have generally had hitherto ! Intelligent educators have 
 already borne witness to this. The reason of this objection, there- 
 fore, is also to be sought in the want of accurate examination and 
 conscientious investigation. 
 
 But the most important accusation, brought against Froebel's 
 education is the most unfounded one, that "it bestows no cart on re- 
 ligious development^' or even that "it contains irreligious prlnoiples." 
 Hitherto, at all events, every impartial visitor of the kindergarten 
 has openly approved of the religious exercises introduced into it ; 
 and many of these visitors have expressed their astonishment that it 
 could be possible to demand anything else, than actually occurs or 
 more, for children between three and seven years old, namely 
 childlike prayers and pious songs, at the beginning and endj of the 
 play hours, the contemplation of nature, with reference to the Crea- 
 tor ; religious tales, including biblical stories, suitable for this age ; 
 some verses, and a constant recognition of the providence of God. 
 
 Froebel's own kindergarten possessed Overbeck's picture of Christ 
 blessing the children, and an image of the Child Jesus ; presenting to 
 children an ideal child to whom all childlike virtues were referred, 
 and identifying the Child Jesus with the "divine friend of children, 
 who called them to him and blessed them." Moreover,the Christmas 
 festival is used in all kindergartens to introduce children into a 
 Christian view of the world . 
 
 The Christian family does nothing else than this before children 
 go to school. Whatever those who wish to overwhelm this age with 
 dogmas, catechism, the ten commandments, and ecclesiastical 
 hymns, may understand, — they certainly do not understand the na- 
 ture of the child, and they are altogether mistaken as to the proper 
 means for religious training. Experience has doomed this mode by 
 showing that what is gained in most cases is the opposite of what 
 has been aimed at. 
 
164 
 
 Sound reason, when not obscured by the present religious pole- 
 mics, can surely see that the pious sense, inherent in the human 
 soul, must first be aroused in the child, before any specific and re- 
 ligious instruction can be considered ; and that, consequently, even 
 the school has nothing to do with what has reference to creeds, ex- 
 cept in a quite general sense ; and, least of all, when children of pa- 
 rents of different denominations are gathered together. If some pa- 
 rents wish to instruct their children in confessions of faith- -before 
 any other instruction has been formally given, or is to be given, it 
 is their own affair. But it is certainly not beneficial to the children. 
 The future will, perhaps to their terror, convince them of the per- 
 versity of such a proceeding. Seed sown in uncultivated and un- 
 prepared soil does not generally come up, or bears bad fruit. But it 
 is sinful fanatically to initiate innocent, peaceful childhood into the 
 polemics of religious parties ; and thus to remove the object of the 
 most sacred love to the darkest abodes of hatred. 
 
 Froebel thinks that teaching children to love God and men by in- 
 spiring them early with aotive love of those about them, is the be- 
 ginning of all religion. Whether he himself belonged to this or 
 that religious sect, or whether his faith was tinged with rationalism 
 or orthodoxy, is here not the question. His writings bear evidence, 
 not only of the most pious and believing mind, of the deepest, holi- 
 est trust in God, but also of a penetration into the Christian view 
 of the universe, rarely to be found. Education without Religion — it 
 is impossible for him to think of ; for with him the highest and last 
 goal of Education is, "to bring the child of man to Ood." / 
 
 But even if it were otherwise, this could take nothing from his 
 great discovery of the law, and its application to Education. The 
 discovery of the principle of human activity and its application for the 
 education of men, retains its importance under all circumstances, 
 however much of error and of what is worthless may go along with 
 it. This principle, and the means for its orderly application, may 
 still be used by those not agreeing with his religious convictions. 
 Religious party spirit alone has called forth this suspicion and con- 
 sequently hostility. But it needs only to look more closely at the 
 practical method, and to recognize its importance for early and com- 
 pletely capacitating for work, in order to adopt it, notwithstanding a 
 rejection of Froebel's religious views. Nobody would reject a dis- 
 covery or invention which may even be only useful, because the in- 
 
165 
 
 ventor did not completely agree with his religious belief. Still less 
 ought an invention to be blindly rejected which promises such im- 
 portant services to moral education as kindergartens render ; as 
 must be evident to every one, ixom whatever point of view he may 
 judge the matter, 
 
 The knowledge— 'that never yet a system of Education has been 
 set up, which so completely offers the means for bringing the child's 
 soul to its Creator from the beginning of life, and for awakening a 
 new genuine religious feeling in the young generation, and spreadr 
 ing more generally a clear consciousness of religion — can become 
 general only when the present religious conflicts will have been 
 brought nearer to their end, and at least unprejudiced judgment will 
 have become easier. At present the attempt to ascertain the pre- 
 cise religious views of Froebel can only bring misunderstanding ; 
 and there is danger of dragging them wrongly into this or that ex- 
 treme of religious view. For this reason we shall here confine 
 ourselves to the hints contained in the preceding pages, as to what 
 Froebel's method does for the religious training of children. These 
 hints naust suffice for completely refuting the above mentioned ac- 
 cusation of his method as irreligious. 
 
 If a complete agreement with the religious convictions of the pa- 
 rents of the pupils were exacted from every teacher and educator, 
 surely only very few teachers would find employment, and only very 
 few parents would find teachers. It must suffice to religious parents 
 that their children's guides have some religion, do not deny God, 
 and acknowledge the chief tenets of their creed ; if they entrust them 
 also with religious instruction. Nor should more be exacted for 
 Froebel's method, for which there is all the less justification, be- 
 cause its business is chiefly with childhood, which belongs, as yet, 
 completely to the world of feeling ; it being unable to understand 
 ftny distinctions of ideas and knowledge. 
 
 Opposition to Froebel's method moves between complete contradic- 
 tions. On the one hand, it is charged that it exacts too much from 
 the child's mind ; and on the other, that it does not supply it with 
 sufficient food. The reason of all this is, that the thing is not known 
 at all, or very superficialy. Another reason is, that fanati- 
 cism blindly presumes that whatever opponents profess and laud, 
 must be evil. 
 
 But that the essence of Froebel's system has been so little acknow- 
 XXIII 
 
166 
 
 ledged as yet, and that even its adherents consider only its surface ; 
 and that at last the whole is reduced to "useful occupations for the 
 earliest childhood," is the fault, on the one hand, of the form, of 
 Froebel's writings, which is not yery popular or attractive ; and on 
 the other, to the deficiency of satisfactory commentaries. As yet, 
 no man of science has taken the trouble to work out the deeper 
 meaning of his writings, so as to shape their essence clearly into 
 truths* 
 
 Froebel himself did not do this, partly on purpose, and partly 
 owing to inability, because his long life was not long enough for 
 working out and shaping the neiv idea in all directions, with all its 
 consequences ; — an idea comprising the essence of man, and giving 
 a new basis to the science of man. Part of what has been publish- 
 ed on Froebel and his method, has certainly done harm by its great 
 superficiality ; viewing it only in the practical application of the 
 method, has banished it as a child's toy to the nursery ; whereby a 
 great impediment has been raised to its consideration m the higher 
 regions of scientific pedagogy. Moreover, a pretended exaggerated 
 enthusiasm lor the mere institution of the kindergarten, makes a 
 profound and serious matter seem ridiculous ; aud thus deters think- 
 ere ; and it is truly ridiculous to have such exaggerated expecta- 
 tions, as long as its essence (the discovery lying at the foundation) 
 was not understood. 
 
 Certainly Froebel was right when he said, "I would rather not 
 have any kindergartens at all, than to have the Idea from which 
 they have sprung set aside, and my plays carried on superficially in 
 tlie nursery and kindergarten, without understanding what they are 
 meant to do. Once truly understood, kindergartens will grow out 
 of the earth like mushrooms, because their necessity will be seen.'' 
 
 At other moments, when the experience of how little he was un- 
 derstood sometimes discouraged him, he would say, on the con- 
 trary that people must create kindergartens, "in order to understand 
 the tree by its fruits ; for my words they do, at any rate, not under- 
 stand, and I shall take my idea with me into my grave." 
 
 * Since tlie first publication of this work, this deficiency has been supplied by 
 Dr. Wlchard Lange's edition of Froebel's (JoUected works ; and many other 
 publications by profound stuaentsof his idea and wori, and the Baroness Maren- 
 holtz's "lUminiscences of Froebel," which Miss Peabody is publishing in the 
 New England Journal of Edacatlon, is a yery important thing. 
 
167 
 
 Both these demands must doubtless be considered. In the first 
 place, his idea of education has to be partially realized by the 
 kindergarten, in order to demonstrate its practicability to the com- 
 mon sense. 
 
 But now, ■when kindergartens are already under way, that sink to 
 mere mechanism and mere imitation ; now that it is thought by 
 many that the mere learning of the plays and occupations in the 
 space of a few months, without any insight into the method as 
 such, is sufficient for becoming an active kindergartener, it is of the 
 utmost necessity to clear up the theory of the matter, and to disclose 
 its deeper foundations, by the psychology of the child's instincts 
 implied in it. 
 
 When this shall have been done, the objections will lose all their 
 justification ; political and religious objections will cease, because 
 the apparent spectre will be seen by daylight, and the reality will 
 compel the acknowledgment of the consideration to which it is en- 
 titled, and which our time needs. 
 
 What individuals can do is, however, not sufficient to carry out 
 the manifold labors required for vanquishing both opponents and 
 unreasonable adherents ; and for bringing about the realization of 
 the new system of education in all its grades and directions. Though 
 it may yet require centuries before the highest ideal of human educa- 
 tion.as it presented itself to Froebel's mind, can be realized, there is 
 at present nothing in the way of laying the underpinning of the tem- 
 ple, provided a sufficient number of able workers will combine for 
 the purpose. 
 
 Finis. 
 
168 
 
 TRANSLATOE'S APPENDIX. 
 
 In the foregoing pages we have given the first seven chapters of the 
 work which has done the most to actualize Froebel's method in Eu- 
 rope, in the hope that it will do the same thing here, where there is 
 a more unobstructed field for the "New Education by Work," its 
 principle being identical with that of "a government of the people, 
 by the people, for the people." 
 
 In tfte original volume is another chapter on the "Educational 
 Unions" that have been formed in Germany for a practical realiza- 
 tion of Froebel's Idea; but this, together with a large number of letters 
 written to theBaronessMarenholtz by distinguished thinkers who form- 
 ed part of the select audiences to which she read, in lectures, the sub- 
 stance of this book, in the year3l856-59, wiU be reserved for another 
 volume, or perhaps be published serially in some of our educational 
 journals, and serve to call and keep up attention to this volume, which 
 is a unit. Among the names of these letter writers are found MOK- 
 liOT, then Cardinal of Tours, later.Archbishop of Paris ; the Abbe 
 MiTRAUD, author of La DSmocracie de la Catholicisme ; Mobbeatj, 
 founder of Les CrSches, and President of La Society Internationale 
 des Charitfe, through whose influence the Baroness lectured in many 
 of les Salles d'Asyle ; the mathematician, Buchet de Cdbiere ; 
 Martin Pachoitd, Protestant Editor of Le Revue pour le ProgrSs , 
 moral et religieuse ; Doubet, of the Comity de patronage des jar- 
 dins d'enfants ; A. Guepier, author of an Encyclopaedia of the phi- 
 losophy of the 19th century ; Mme. Mallet, author of a crowned 
 work on Prisons for Women ; the medical doctors Laverdaitt and 
 Petion ; RiCHE Gardon, Editor of La Science des Mdres ; A0- 
 (JUSTE Comte; EoaAB Quri!<rET; Michelet; La Mabchb, religi- 
 ous socialist ; Jules Ditval ; and other distinguished authors of 
 France, Belgium, Switzerland, England, Germany ; Catholics, Prot- 
 
169 
 
 estants, Jews, Socialists and political economists ; Professors of Uni- 
 versities, Philanthropists, — all one in the cause of a true rounded 
 out Education of Humanity. 
 
 Notwithstanding the variety of political and religious opinion 
 represented by these names, and also \ff the Journals, from which 
 are taken many leading articles upon the work, — we have presented 
 here the — as it were — millennial fact, that in the light of FroebePs 
 profound idea, "the lion lies down with the lamb," and "eats straw 
 with the ox," and "a young child leads them" — (as in the vision of 
 the prophet Isaiah). 
 
 Let us devoutly hail the omen ; taking for our motto, 
 Ora et Labora ! 
 
 M. M. 
 
171 
 
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 XXIV 
 
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