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 LIBRARY 
 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 'Received 
 
 JAN 4 
 
 1893 . 
 
 iSg 
 
 
 •Jlccessions No. 
 
 l^oS^S 
 
 Class No. 
 
 
|p ii»w. 
 
 Its Nature and Relations; 
 
 AN ELUCIDATION 
 
 OF 
 
 Froebel's Principles of Education. 
 
 BY 
 
 A FKEE RENDERING OF THE GERMAN 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Baroness Marenholtz-Billow. 
 
 Come, let us live for our children !-- 
 Friedrich Frcebel. 
 
 Third Edition. 
 
 E. STEIGER & CO. 
 NEW YORK 
 
 'uhitbrsitt; 
 
N O T I C E 
 
 The publisher of this book is resolved to expend his 
 energies in the interest of Education. He has witnessed with 
 lively catisfaction the progress of education in this country; 
 but whilj appreciating the good that har, been done, he 
 agrees in the opinion of many that the system at work is 
 susceptible of improvement He has embraced the cause of 
 the Kindergarten System, therefore, as best calculated, in his 
 judgment, t;) iiuiugurate a thorough educationjil reform; and 
 he will gladly entertiiin proposals for the publication of other 
 valuable works on the subject, and cheerfully cooperate with 
 School authorities, associations and individuals, whose aim is 
 the amelioration of the existing modes of education. 
 
 Entered according to At of Congress, in the year 1872, by 
 
 £. Stei g er, 
 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washinc^^on. 
 
 E. Steiger, N. Y.. 
 Electrotypcr and Printer. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 Page 
 
 Preface 1 
 
 Chapter I. The New Education 5 
 
 Chapter II. The Child's Being. Its Relation to Nature, 
 
 Man, and God 22 
 
 Chapter III. The Child's Manifestations 37 
 
 Chapter IV. The Child's Education 55 
 
 Chapter V. The Child's Education. (Continued) 72 
 
 Chapter VI. Froebel's "Mother Cosseting Songs" 92 
 
 Chapter Vn. Froebel's "Mother Cosseting Songs". (Cont'd) 114 
 
 Chapter VIII. Fundamental Forms 133 
 
 Chapter IX. Reading 143 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2007 witii funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 littp://www.arcliive.org/details/cliilditsnaturereOOrnarericli 
 
^"^ OF THE ^ 
 
 ^uhivbrsity; 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 This little book appears in answer to many inquiries 
 addressed to mc, ])y letter and personally, conoerning 
 Frcebel's system. When in Berlin, where my daughter 
 pursued her study of the system under the Baroness 
 Marenholtz, I communicated to one of our American 
 friends, a gentleman of high culture, who was greatly 
 interested in the Kindergarten method, our intention 
 of introducing Frcebel's system into America. He 
 heartily approved, but when I suggested that the best 
 way to do this might be to translate or Avrite a book 
 on the subject, he objected: "'No," he said, ''1 would 
 not do that; you know that our people are eminently 
 practical; you must first show them practically what 
 it is, this will excite interest and inquiry, and then 
 people will be ready to read something on the subject. 
 Anything written about it now would fall dead to the 
 ground." 
 
 We have followed this friend's advice. We have 
 exemplified Frcebel's method in a Kindergarten, have 
 trained teachers to spread the system, and, by the 
 aid of an enthusiastic and devoted friend of the cause, 
 Miss E. P. Peabody, who years ago became interested 
 in the subject and has in lectures, conversations, and 
 
^ 
 
 writings given glimpses of Frcebel's ideas, the way 
 lias, we think, been well prepared for the advent of 
 this book. 
 
 Instead of relying entirely npon my own interpreta- 
 tion of Fr(ebel*s ideas as I have gathered them from 
 his works, I have taken my clew from one of his per- 
 sonal friends and disciples, the noble and highly gifted 
 Baroness Marexholtz-Buelow,* and have followed 
 her as closely as I deemed her presentation of the subject 
 adapted to the American mind and mode of thought. 
 
 Frcebel himself was not happy in the expression of 
 his thoughts in writing, and therefore the personal, 
 friendly intercourse which the Baroness had with him, 
 her intuitive understanding of his often hidden mean- 
 ing, make her worksf and teaching of the greatest 
 value. 
 
 A French author, M. Gdyard, wrote to the Baron- 
 ess in 1857 when she was in Paris as follows: 
 
 *' Accept my warmest and most sincere wishes for 
 the propagation of Frcebel's method. He is perhaps 
 the greatest philosopher of our time, and has found in 
 you what all philosophers need, that is: a woman who 
 understands him, who clothes him with flesh and 
 blood, and makes him alive. I think, I believe indeed, 
 that an idea, in order to bear fruit, must have a father 
 
 * The Baroness is now in Florence, Italy, where she was in- 
 vited by the Minister of Public Instruction to introduce Fkcebel's 
 Kindergarten and Normal Schools for training teachers. 
 
 t " Das Kind vnd sein Wesen", of which this book is a free ren- 
 dering, and ''Die Arbeit und die neae Erziehung" , are the most 
 important 
 
and a motJier. Hitherto ideas have liad fathers only. 
 As Frcebel's ideas are so likely to find mothers, they 
 will have an immense success. When the ideas of the 
 future shall have become alive in devoted women, the 
 face of the world will be changed." 
 
 So I confidently send forth this little volume, and 
 trust that mothers anxious to do the best for their 
 little ones, teachers who are truly and earnestly trying 
 to fulfil tiicir mission, philanthropists whose thoughts 
 are busy in devising means to diminish vice and crime 
 and to lift hunmiiity upon a higher plane, philosophers 
 who are searching for the cause of things, clergymen 
 who do not believe in faith without works, ^ in short 
 all intelligent persons, may find some helpful sugges- 
 tions in its pages. It may perhaps be said, there is 
 nothing new in these ideas; — we knew all this long 
 ago. But is not the fact that the truth announced by 
 Fr(EBEL has long been latent in the minds of all, just 
 the evidence we need that it is a truth ? In one sense 
 there is nothing new under the sun; but a great many 
 apples had fallen before Newton discovered the law 
 of gravitation ! A great truth, a great discovery, is 
 not the special property of any one individual, nor is 
 it for any one nation alone; it is for the whole human 
 family and must be of universal application. 
 
 In my anxiety to have Frcebel's principles, those on 
 which he based the Kindergarten, rightly understood, 
 and to have many misapprehensions corrected, I may 
 have unduly hastened the publication of this book, and 
 for any defects in form or expression I ask indulgence. 
 
^ 
 
 Those familiar witli German sliould not fail to read 
 tJie original as well as many other very interesting 
 and instructive books on the subject. May God speed 
 the good cause in spite of all human imperfections ! 
 
 Matilda H. Kriege. 
 Boston, May, 1872. 
 
 Preface to the Second Edition. 
 
 It is highly gratifying to the publisher that a second 
 edition of this book is so soon and suddenly called for. 
 The absence of the author abroad prevents, however, 
 any alterations being made in the new edition, and to 
 meet the demand it is issued therefore as a literal 
 reprint of the first. 
 
 New Yol'.K, Oetobrr 1<ST2. 
 
 '^i 
 
Chapter I. 
 The New Education. 
 
 The process of remodelling society, the reforms that 
 have been going on in the last century, make a reform 
 in education an absolute necessity. 
 
 The life of individuals, as of humanity, is not a 
 chance succession of yesterday, to-day and to-morrow; 
 it is no- blind game that deals out to generations their 
 lot; it is a connected whole whicli is ruled by eternal 
 laws of development even as the microscopic world of 
 the drop of water and the countless solar systems of 
 the universe are ruled. Human society is an organ- 
 ism, and its single parts cannot be affected in isolation. 
 What affects one member of this organism, reacts on 
 every other, and therefore on the whole. Great po- 
 litical revolutions, the remodelling of states, social 
 reforms, as well as important discoveries or inventions, 
 the announcement of new truths, deeper insight, — 
 all produce not only changes within circumscribed 
 limits, but necessitate changes, perhaps improvements, 
 progress in all realms of life. 
 
 How can Education remain unalfected? Has it 
 not to prepare the coming generation for these altered, 
 5 
 
^ 6 — 
 
 improved conditions ? It is evident that it must be 
 progressive too, and the responsibility rests upon it 
 to so train up the young that the activity of each in- 
 dividual of future society may be felt as a blessing and 
 not as a curse. In order suitably to educate the young 
 for a future sphere of usefulness, education must not 
 look at a present order of things merely, but must 
 also consider what higher conditions of society these 
 children may be required to mect^ when they reach 
 maturity, and for which they need training. Educa- 
 tion should not therefore remain stationary, but should 
 be reformed according to the demands of the times. 
 The old landmarks are removed not only in politics, 
 but in science, religion, art, and industry; the limits 
 are extended, the conditions for taking an active part, 
 are heightened: and for every individual, in whatever 
 department of human exertion he may choose his life- 
 work, the requirements are greater and the number 
 of duties increased. 
 
 The idea of general culture is scarcely fifty years 
 old, and yet what a change in its requirements ! The 
 justice of this demand for general culture in all grades 
 of society is becoming more fully recognized. The 
 common schools in their progressive tendency have 
 acknowledged the rightfulness of the claim on the 
 whole, but have they done all that is needful ? With- 
 out underrating the importance of improvements made 
 in public instruction, we may put the pertinent ques- 
 tion: have all the requirements that the present time 
 has a right to make regarding harmonious, human 
 
^ 1 - 
 
 development been fully met ? Have the best of our 
 schools, while imparting a knowledge of what is good, 
 just, noble, beautiful and elevated, sufficient to satisfy 
 the demands of a higher morality, also imparted the 
 power to realize in life that which has been recognized 
 in principle ? Are their pupils fitted to enter upon 
 those moral and social reforms that arc needed to 
 bring about a better state of society ? Alas, facts an- 
 swer in the negative ! Look at the crowded prisons 
 and houses of correction, the numerous hospitals and 
 insane asylums, the increasing number of divorces, 
 the wide spread immorality, the suicides and homi- 
 cides, the immense increase of pauperism, — in spite 
 of labor and commerce freed from former restrictions, 
 and notwithstanding an enormous advance in the 
 most important branches of industry — and then say 
 what the testimony is in regard to education ! Does 
 not irreligion, mocking the highest aspirations of the 
 human soul, itself supported by shallow reasoning and 
 pampering coarse, debasing appetites, increase ? In 
 spite of our many churches, are not fraud and corrup- 
 tion rampant everywhere, and are such the fruits of a 
 true, healthful education commensurate with a high 
 state of culture, the boast of our century? 
 
 Yet all we have said touches only the outside of ex- 
 isting conditions. What misery is revealed, if we look 
 into the hidden folds of society ! Selfishness in its 
 coarsest and most refined forms, meanness of every 
 kind, greed of gain, the barter of principles for money, 
 these are the vices working secretly and claiming to 
 
be virtues. Shams of every sort prevail to such 
 extent that faith in unselfish devotion to principle in 
 good men has almost disappeared, and the best mo- 
 tives of devoted souls are distrusted: they are martyrs 
 doomed to fight against the argument that ' ' this state 
 of things has always been and will be as long as there 
 are men and human passions''. Such an assertion 
 merely shows that people have not intelligently and 
 seriously studied the history of human development; 
 for that history shows clearly the difference between 
 the social condition of civilized nations and barbaric 
 hordes and tribes; it shows too how far our culture is 
 in advance of the primitive condition of our forefathers. 
 The really great minds of all times and all nations 
 agree in the belief that the human race is fitted and 
 destined to attain a much higher degree of perfection, 
 and consequently to a state of greater well-being and 
 happiness. 
 
 But the solution of this problem, the working out of 
 our destiny, is dependent on the harmonious develop- 
 ment of all powers and talents, and on each stage of 
 development it is essential that the degree of intel- 
 ligence attained be balanced by the degree of morality 
 expressed in life and action. To establish the equi- 
 librium between intelligence and moral power as 
 evinced in the outward life, is in a great measure if 
 not solely the task that Education has now to attempt. 
 The school alone is unable to accomplish it, because it 
 takes into account almost exclusively the intellect, and 
 merely imparts knowledge. But this by itself is not 
 
— 9 — 
 
 sufficient to prevent or to keep in subordination sin, 
 crime and meanness. If ignorance may be charged 
 with part of the evil, the greater part of it must be 
 attributed to a lack in the cultivation of the heart and 
 conscience, to want of exercise of the moral faculties, — 
 culture which falls chielly within the province of home, 
 of the family and of society. If it were otherwise, we 
 should not as now find that large numbers of our 
 criminals are intelligent people who have had the ad- 
 vantages of schools. The histcfry of every age shows 
 that a one-sided cultivation of the intellect does not 
 save men from evils of all kinds, and that it even helps 
 them to commit wicked deeds more skilfully. Tlie as- 
 sertion that crime has diminished in the last century, 
 may be true, but it does not appear that morality 
 has gained on the whole. If the number of open, 
 gross outrages on humanity has been less, yet the 
 sum of more private wrongs, of unjust deeds, of 
 fraud, unblushing selfishness and shame, has greatly 
 increased. Human society bears on its crown the 
 flowers of intelligence, while its roots rot in the swamp 
 of materialism. The enlightened spirit of the age 
 struggles up to the heights of culture, but its feet are 
 fettered with the chains of low sensuality. In the 
 midst of a wide spread but too superficial civilization, 
 individuals everywhere are reaching after conditions 
 which alone can secure their welfare and happiness. 
 The gulf between insight and attainment, between 
 aspiration and accomplishment, between the ideal 
 and the reality, grows wider and wider, as the evils of 
 
— 10 — 
 
 society are more clearly recognized. The efforts for 
 improvement are too often failures. Let no one accuse 
 us of painting in too dark colors ! If we would reform 
 society, we must first reveal existing evils and point 
 out their consequences, not, however, ignoring the 
 good that also exists, or failing to acknowledge at the 
 same time the progress already made in certain direc- 
 tions. God is the same in all ages, and His light 
 shines everywhere ! 
 
 One of the evils of the present day we find to be the 
 want of a true education, such as is required for a 
 generation sound neither in body nor soul. This 
 youthful generation is perhaps the least happy in many 
 centuries. Precociousness of intellect, love of criti- 
 cism, of excitement and self-gratification, are not the 
 signs of a healthful, hopeful youth cherishing noble 
 ideals which, realized in manhood, would bring about 
 a purer state of society. 
 
 Only new and better men can create better condi- 
 tions. These men must be the outgrowth of a new 
 and better system of education equal to the demands 
 of our present state of culture. The school must as- 
 sume part of this work, but only a part, by enlarging 
 its sphere, by incorporating fresh life elements. As 
 all the activities of life make use of, or take advantage 
 of, the discoveries in every branch of science, so the 
 school must include the activities of real life, in order 
 to prepare its pupils to combine theory and practice, 
 thinking and doing. It should no longer be merely a 
 place in which to acquii-e learning, it ought no longer 
 
— 11 — 
 
 to teach sciences apart from their application to life, 
 but should prepare the young for the practical every- 
 day work of their existence. Above all it ought to 
 give its pupils opportunity for the exercise of moral 
 powers. For this, free activity is requisite; only a free 
 choice of the true and good gives to our actions the 
 stamp of a higher morality. The study of historical 
 examples, of elevated thoughts, of noble deeds, does 
 not suffice for a truly moral education; we must fur- 
 nish a field of action, in which our youth can exercise 
 themselves in noble and generous deeds. Besides 
 this they need conditions favorable to the acquisitions 
 of good habits as a basis for all virtues. No one can 
 become a. master in any great art by merely commit- 
 ting its theories to memory. Education must furnish 
 more than verbal instruction. The Bible tells us to 
 work and pray; that is, approach in thought, in aspi- 
 ration, to the Most High, and show forth this spirit of 
 communion in deeds. Mere verbal instruction is, of 
 course, easier for teacher and pupil, but therefore 
 hurtful to the latter. He gets used to a mere recep- 
 tion of facts into the memory without thinking or in- 
 vestigating for himself. But healthy, normal develop- 
 ment proceeds differently. The young mind can re- 
 ceive properly only a very limited amount of instruc- 
 tion, can only slowly assimilate and make it its own. 
 It at first only truly receives that which is presented 
 in a tangible, a concrete form. But even in the con- 
 templation of the concrete, of the object, it depends 
 upon the organization of the pupil, whether by his own 
 
— 12 — 
 
 observation he gains a clear mental image which will 
 make a lasting impression and be wrought into a per- 
 ception, or whether the image is vague, the impres- 
 sion transient, and so the perception wanting. 
 
 The 30ung mind feels, moreover, a desire to repro- 
 duce the images and perceptions it has acquired; to 
 embody them in an external, concrete form, in order 
 to make them more definite and clear to itself This 
 strongly defined need of the child's nature, is sup- 
 pressed by mere verbal instruction that comes far too 
 early to load the mind through the memory with a bur- 
 den of facts, weakening and destroying its higher fac- 
 ulties. 
 
 It is of the greatest importance to the well-being and 
 happiness of all men, that each one should occupy that 
 place in society, for which he is, by his organization 
 and peculiar talents, best fitted. It is necessary there- 
 fore to recognize this natural inner bent at an early 
 period, in order to bring outer conditions into harmony 
 with it. In the realms of nature harmony prevails, 
 because everything is in the place for which it is by 
 its peculiar characteristics adapted; it does not strive 
 to be something or somewhere else. What produces 
 harmony in unconscious nature, must also produce har- 
 mony in the world of humanity, if a conscious obedience 
 be rendered to the same law. The only means to secure 
 this obedience and promote this harmony, lie in the 
 recognition, even in childhood, of an inner vocation, 
 for the fulfilment of which Education may then pro- 
 ceed to prepare the child. 
 
— 13 — 
 
 Man will and must seek for happiness. He finds it 
 onl}^ when, in work, in the fulfilment of duty and general 
 usefulness, he gives expression to his inner life. By 
 no other means can he attain true happiness and con- 
 tentment. If the way to this can be made smooth 
 from earliest childhood, if education can guide in the 
 right direction, and impart power to fulfil the individ- 
 ual vocation, thousands of missteps may be saved each 
 one who otherwise will blindly follow natural impulse 
 and seek happiness where it is not to be found. Human 
 passions, which always lead astray, can only be coun- 
 terbalanced by giving the higher aspirations of every 
 human being opportunity for spontaneous expression, 
 by so developing them that under all circumstances 
 they can make their mark. Well-being thus secured 
 through the higher moral powers, through the fulfil- 
 ment of duties, and of a calling which exercises all the 
 personal, ideal life-elements, is a strong safeguard 
 against temptation to seek happiness in low sensual 
 pleasures. Inner and outer harmony of existence 
 will be thus attained, and strength gained to over- 
 come discords in the conditions of the world. 
 
 Every self-conscious man needs a centre, round which 
 his deeds, his desires and aspirations may revolve. 
 The want of such a centre causes discord and unhap- 
 piness. The higher this central point is placed, the 
 easier it is to discover the relations of personal activi- 
 ty to the life of the community. This relation of the 
 individual to the community is implied when we speak 
 of a higher morality, of true, e xalted c ontentment. 
 
 07 THE 
 
 'nHI7BRSIT7: 
 
— 14 — 
 
 For man is not a single, unconnected being, but a link 
 in the interminable chain of mankind, closely bound to 
 those who live with him, to those who lived before 
 him, and to all who shall live after him. 
 
 At present we have only the semblance of such an 
 expansion of individual existence into that of humanity; 
 we have the assent of intellect but not the response of 
 the heart. A semblance can never truly confer bless- 
 ings; truth only can do that. But this want of reality 
 causes universal discontent. If we would secure true 
 happiness, education must from the very outset make 
 its conditions possible. These conditions are supplied, 
 when the natural impulses are gratified in an ideal 
 manner. 
 
 This contentment the child experiences at first 
 through that which is agreeable to him, as in physical 
 sensations; then through the beautiful, in impressions 
 made by external things, and later through that which 
 is good, in the approval of his own conscience. But 
 in order to reach this goal, he must furthermore ac- 
 quu'e good habits and self-activity, which beginning in 
 childish play lead on to moral action. 
 
 For the supply of conditions favorable to such devel- 
 opment, the child is dependent upon the two mighty 
 agents of Education, the family and the school. As 
 yet both fail to give what is required. Education in 
 the family is left to chance, or is dependent on the 
 natural capability and fitness of the parents, the best 
 of whom have no sure guide in their work, and the 
 greater part of whom deal thoughtlessly and arbitrari- 
 
~ 15 — 
 
 ly with their children. The school, on the other hand, 
 offers only the means for intellectual growth, and can- 
 not therefore act directly on the moral faculties. It 
 lacks means for promoting free activity, for calling 
 forth the ideal in productions of beauty, and for ex- 
 ercising the full powers of its pupils, without which 
 neither the moral faculties nor the individual vocation 
 can be developed and strengthened. 
 
 To meet such conditions, a deeper knowledge of the 
 child's nature is needed, a knowledge of its original 
 endowments and capacities, which have at first no 
 definite form, no certain tendency, so that the edu- 
 cator may be enabled to direct them toward the true 
 goal, the good, tlie beautiful and the true. If we can 
 not do this in absolute perfection, still we may demand 
 of Education that it keep this in view as its end, and 
 that every reform in its systems shall regard the im- 
 provement of means for the attainment of this end, 
 this ideal goal. 
 
 If the pedagogues of former times have expressed 
 similar thoughts, and have attempted to realize them, 
 yet the present condition of society proves that the 
 means they employed were not, or are no longer, effec- 
 tive. A new genius was needed to add a fresh element 
 to the old, to carry it still higher, and this genius we 
 find in Friedrich Frcebel, who was the first to dis- 
 cover the means by which harmony is established be- 
 tween receiving and reproducing, learning and prac- 
 tising, knowing and doing, from the first dawn of con- 
 scious life in the child on through all subsequent stages 
 
16 
 
 a 
 
 according to their requirements. Here then we have 
 a beginning of the solution of the great educational 
 problem. Education can now proceed in accordance 
 with nature. Body and soul are to be duly cared for, 
 the one is not to be neglected and suppressed for the 
 sake of the other, but the body, by discipline of the 
 senses and cultivation of the natural impulses, is to be 
 raised to an equality with the mind. If perfect union 
 be not immediately attained, at least a more perfect 
 balance will be established in the duality of human 
 nature, and the two forces in it which we liave been 
 accustomed to regard as antagonistic, will be brought 
 into harmonious action. 
 
 Frcebel does not deny that man has inherent tend- 
 encies and inclinations to evil, but he thinks that it is 
 the province of Education to turn such tendencies into 
 good channels, so that evil may become less and less. 
 Who can determine the degree in which sin and evil 
 may be eradicated by education? But unless it strive 
 for this, education is without a true and. firm basis. 
 
 The belief in salvation from sin through Christ is not 
 here touched, for no one thinks that absolute perfec- 
 tion is to be attained by this mode of education; but 
 a new beginning is needed, so that we may by further 
 development come nearer to the realization of Heaven 
 upon earth, or the Kingdom of Heaven within us. 
 
 This new beginning must be made in the family at 
 the commencement of the child's life, by its natural 
 educator, the mother. The mother must not be guid- 
 ed solely by instinct, for instinct is blind and does not 
 
— n — 
 
 suffice for the guidance of rational beings. She needs 
 to understand all the child's impulses, in order to sat- 
 isfy them and give them the means to develop spon- 
 taneously and rightly. This science, the true science 
 of mothers, Frcebel has put before us. By it the 
 family will be able to exert educational influence, to 
 prepare the soil, and, above all, to develop moral 
 power, a task for which the school alone is not ade- 
 quate. 
 
 No one will deny that education in the early part 
 of a child's life is eminently a woman question; for 
 does not the duty of the early training of the child de- 
 volve upon the mother? And if, for some cause or 
 other, the mother is unable to fulfil her duty, is it not 
 to woman again that she has to intrust the charge? 
 But is every one of that sex, in virtue of being a wo- 
 man, fitted by nature to assume such great responsi- 
 bilities ? or is some previous training required to enable 
 her nobly and conscientiously to fulfil her task, even 
 as a man has to be trained for his avocations in life ? 
 Are the ignorant capable of fulfilling this duty as well 
 as those who have deeply and seriously reflected upon 
 the subject, and have tried to make themselves ac- 
 quainted with all that appertains to the laws of life 
 and health, to the laws of morals and of mind ? Do 
 our girls receive an education that fits them for the 
 holy duties of maternity? Would not even the most 
 
— 18 — 
 
 intellectual mothers, if they were honest, admit that 
 they had made grave mistakes in the education of 
 their children, that they knew very little on the sub- 
 ject when they had the first child? Everybody seems 
 to rely on instinct in this most important matter, ig- 
 norant that there is, or ought to be, a science of edu- 
 cation, with certain laws as fixed as those of every 
 other science where like causes produce like results. 
 Certainly instinct goes a great way in teaching 
 mothers what to do with their offspring, but should 
 rational human beings trust merely to instinct, with 
 which, as we all know, our Creator has not so per- 
 fectly endowed the human race as He has animals? 
 Has He not given us reason instead ? Is it not self- 
 evident then that we should consult reason, and try to 
 acquire knowledge, on a subject of such vast impor- 
 tance, so closely related to the destiny of the race? 
 
 But on looking around us in human society, we must 
 become aware, if we do not blind ourselves to the 
 fact, that our knowledge on this most important point 
 is very limited and crude. If poor helpless children 
 could make an outcry against all the ill-treatment they 
 receive, could protest against the outrages which they 
 suffer, often at the hands of tender but mistaken 
 parents, the world would be startled ! As it is, they 
 have to bear their misery in silence as long as they 
 are able, and often by shortened lives or ruined health 
 do they pay the penalty of physical ill-treatment. Not 
 so readily is the perversion of their souls, the stunting 
 of their minds, traced back to earliest causes, as is their 
 
— 19 — 
 
 physical condition in later years. Yet it is true that 
 the earliest impressions are the most lasting, and that 
 character is formed,— irrespective of ante-natal influ- 
 ences, which, however, are not to be lightly estimat- 
 ed, — in the first years of a child's life. Should we 
 not then greet with joy those good and wise men whom 
 Providence has sent and illuminated in such an im- 
 portant matter as the education of the human race? 
 Should we not be anxious to learn this new science ? 
 Our own country has liad men who devoted their 
 lives to the cause of education. Let us hear what 
 Horace Mann says about physical deterioration: 'The 
 present generation is suftering incalculably under an 
 ignorance of physical education. The fifteen millions 
 of the United States, at the present day, are by no 
 means the five times three millions of the revolutionary 
 era. Were this degeneracy attributable to Mother 
 Nature, we should compare her to a fraudulent manu- 
 facturer who, having established his name in the mar- 
 ket for the excellence of his fabrics, should avail him- 
 self of his reputation to palm off" subsequent bales or 
 packages with the same stamp, or ear-mark, but of 
 meaner quality. ***** The old hearts of oak are 
 gone; society is suffering under a curvature of the 
 spine, and if the deterioration holds out at its present 
 rate, especially in cities, we shall soon be a bed-ridden 
 people." Further he says on the danger of the Re- 
 public: ^'I do not hesitate to affirm that our republican 
 edifice at this time, — in present fact and truth, — is 
 not sustained by those columns of solid and ever-en- 
 
— 20 — 
 
 during adamant, intelligence and virtue. Its various 
 parts are only just clinging together by that remark- 
 able cohesion, — that mutual bearing and support, 
 which unsound portions of a structure may impart to 
 €ach other, and which, as every mechanic well knows, 
 will, for a time, hold the rotten materials of an edifice 
 together, although not one of its timbers could support 
 its own weight: and unless, therefore, a new substruc- 
 ture can be placed beneath every buttress and angle of 
 this boasted Temple of Liberty, it will soon totter and 
 fall, and bury all indwellers in its ruins/' But of 
 what can this new substructure be formed, save of the 
 children who constitute the coming generation? It is 
 the task of mothei^ to form their characters. 
 
 Pestalozzi has done a great deal to reform educa- 
 tion, and was the first in history who called upon 
 the mothers to aid him in his work; he knew well that 
 education consisted not merely in instruction or, even 
 worse, in mere memorizing of facts. He said, '*I 
 will make education the basis of the common moral 
 character of the people, and will put the education of 
 the people in the hands of the mothers." And so he 
 did, in giving them the Book for Mothers, or ^^How 
 Gertrude teaches her Children.''' If the family is not 
 the holy temple of God, if the mother does not vivify 
 the heart and head of the child, it is in vain to expect 
 a reform in social matters. This was Pestalozzi's 
 belief, and it was also that of Friedrich Frcebel who 
 devoted his whole life to the study of education, and 
 to the practical embodiment of his ideas on the sub- 
 
— 21 — 
 
 ject. His system is based so entirely upon the na- 
 ture of the child and its requirements for develop- 
 ment, that, after it is known and applied, people 
 are struck with wonder that all those means whicli 
 seem so simple and to the purpose, have not long 
 been known and in use. Let us now see what he 
 has to teach us. 
 
— 22 
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 The Child's Being. — Its Relation to Nature, 
 Man, and God. 
 
 The child is born; struggling it enters life; a scream 
 is its first manifestation. Its destiny is activity, it 
 has to conquer the world, in whatever social condi- 
 tions its cradle is placed. A thick veil hangs over its 
 future. The green bud does not disclose what kind 
 of a flower it will develop. Can the mother even guess 
 what destiny is in store for her new-born babe ? Can 
 she tell whether he will become a benefactor of hu- 
 manity or a miserable criminal ? May she contribute 
 something toward the former ? May she prevent the 
 latter? Who will doubt that she can do something 
 in both these directions ? Let us presuppose the nat- 
 ural endowments of a Beethoven, a Washington, a 
 Raphael, a Goethe, and let us place their cradle in a 
 den of misery and vice, — the period of childhood 
 passed without loving care, without guidance, in de- 
 moralizing surroundings, youth passed among drunk- 
 ards, thieves, and murderers, — what natural endow- 
 ments would have become developed ? Almost none. 
 Natural endowment may even be a weapon in the 
 
hands of the wicked. Or, if the cradle of such a fa- 
 vored one by nature be placed in the palace of a rich 
 man, and weak and careless parents bring up the 
 child in luxury and idleness, — will, in such a case, the 
 natural endowments ripen into perfection ? It is doubt- 
 ful if they even show stunted blossoms. But let us sup- 
 pose the contrary. Let a child of but few natural 
 endowments be brought up far from vice and misery, 
 and equally far from enervating luxury and idleness; 
 whose parents fulfil every thing a human being has a 
 right to demand in point of education and develop- 
 ment, — will he in this case become an extraordinary 
 being, a great artist, a great character, marking his 
 place in human society ? Certainly not. A great genius, 
 or a great character, brings his endowments into the 
 world. You cannot expect roses from thistles. Even 
 the best endowed, educated among all the influences 
 the best methods of education can bring to bear, be 
 it Frcebel's method or any other, would he be an ab- 
 solutely perfect human being ? Not so ! The inherent 
 evils of our human nature, the imperfection of sur- 
 rounding circumstances, Avill still be felt. We are in- 
 capable of determining what is due to natural endow- 
 ment, to surroundings, to education given, to self-edu- 
 cation, and to the internal workings of the spirit of 
 God, the Holy Ghost, or the influx of divine life in the 
 regenerated man. But the more we can learn from 
 educational science concerning the being of man, the 
 more we adapt education to its true end, — the more 
 perfectly will the human race develop itself. The 
 
24 
 
 I 
 
 being, the capabilities of humanity, have not 3'et been 
 understood or fully brought out. We have that one 
 type of God-man, Christ, as an ideal, as an example 
 set before us. We know that the human race was 
 once made in the image of God, that God is the author 
 of our being; to return to this God-likeness we believe 
 is our destiny, therefore eternal progression only is 
 able to solve the problem of that destiny. We do not 
 know what may be, in this state of existence, the de- 
 gree of progress and development, of which our race 
 is capable. Frcebel said: ^'Man has not received his 
 soul from man"; and he repeats often in his writings: 
 ''man is the child of nature, the child of man, and the 
 child of God*'; in this threefold character alone can he 
 be understood. By accepting this threefold charac- 
 ter of man's being, he solves the opposite of body and 
 spirit by the connecting link of man. Certain it is, 
 that the child with his first breath enters into a three- 
 fold relation, — to nature, to man. and to God. 
 
 1. As child of nature, man is related to all organ- 
 isms of creation, and even to the inorganic, the earthy 
 p"hrticles of which (in the bones for instance) may be 
 traced in his organism. As a product of the earth, 
 he is not only subject to its laws, but he lives on it, 
 he exists by it, he proceeds from it, and returns to it. 
 The earth is his mother: as a seed it bore the human 
 race in its bosom, like all other seeds of creation. He 
 is surrounded by its atmosphere, out of it his natural 
 life ceases. Climate and soil, food and raiment, mode 
 of life, imprint the stamp of races and people, of which 
 
— 25 - 
 
 the individual man is an ingredient. There is no prod- 
 uct in nature that does not enter into intimate rela- 
 tions with the human being. Everywhere is inter- 
 change of matter between man and nature, and man 
 ending his earthly career leaves to earth his bodily 
 covering, which resolves into earth. By nature men 
 are solidarily connected, each generation with itself, 
 and all generations with each other; for, from the 
 first to the last, the great chemistry of the world has 
 remodelled them, as well as all other natural objects. 
 There is but one law in creation, and it rules the 
 heavenly bodies as well as the worm, the animal, and 
 man; for their originator, their creator, is one and 
 the same — God. And because a spirit, the divine, 
 lives in nature as well as in the soul of man, man is 
 capable of comprehending nature. We have only ar- 
 rived at the symbolism of nature; with bold steps Sci- 
 ence conquers in our day one realm after another. If 
 we place again the young generation, from its cradle, 
 under the mighty influence of God's creation, so that 
 its intuitive language may take hold on its soul and 
 awaken an echo, mankind will soon explore the se- 
 crets which are the key of all life, and the hieroglyph- 
 ics of this symbolism will soon be deciphered by all. 
 
 2. But, as the child of man, the young citizen steps 
 out of the circle of necessity into the realm of freedom, 
 of self-consciousness. The stamp of the natural being 
 is simple, easily recognized, the individual is the re- 
 flection of the species. But, as a human being, the 
 right to an individuality as a personality begins, — a 
 
— 26 — 
 
 personality which, once gained, is not lost, but leads 
 on in the chain of self-conscious beings whose highest 
 link is with God. 
 
 Who may unravel the thousand-threaded web of de- 
 scent ? Who can tell what is due to the race, to the 
 nation, to the family, or to the indiyidual? Do not 
 all the traits of the ancestors live in the descendants, 
 either developed or dormant? No one can wholly 
 sever the chain of which he is a link. Nobody can 
 withdraw from the inheritance of his fathers, whether 
 it consist in features, in motions, or in peculiarities of 
 his soul, in good or bad qualities. It is true that the 
 sins of the fathers Vill be visited upon the children 
 unto tlie fourth generation, but the same is true of 
 virtues; and the free will of each individuality may, 
 by overcoming, decrease the amount of sin and in- 
 crease the amount of virtue. The moral advance of 
 the race consists in this: that each individual may in- 
 crease the talent inherited from a previous genera- 
 tion, and leave it with accumulated interest to the 
 following one. 
 
 Retrogressions, by individuals as well as families 
 and nations, are inevitable in the great school of ex- 
 perience, in which Providence has placed mankind. 
 But to deny progress in the mass, and on the whole, 
 is denying Providence itself, who has placed the long- 
 ing for something better, even in earthly conditions, 
 in the soul of man, and based his whole mental and 
 moral development on it. AVithout accepting the capac- 
 ity for improvement and progression in the individual 
 
— 27 — 
 
 and in the race, education would have no basis. Hu- 
 manity is a whole; it is destined to develop itself as 
 one organism, and to manifest itself as such, by the 
 conscious connection of its links, by the brotherhood 
 of man which all religions teach. Therefore the indi- 
 vidual can only be comprehended as a part of the spe- 
 cies, and the species can only be understood through 
 a knowledge of peculiar individual traits. The more 
 exactly and completely the individual character mani- 
 fests itself, the nearer it will come to the universal 
 development of the human race. Harmony in music 
 is only attained, when each individual instrument ex- 
 presses its peculiar sound perfectly. 
 
 On the connection of single individuals among them- 
 selves, and their relation to past, present, and future 
 generations, rests the shadow of darkness: but with 
 the progress of all science, the science of mankind ad- 
 vances. The time will come, when humanity shall 
 have attained what philosophers of all ages have 
 pointed out as the very essence of Avisdom — self-knowl- 
 edge; when it shall have made practical the precept: 
 '^know thyself" 1 All knowledge must pass from the 
 easier to the more difficult; so the road to man's self- 
 knowledge leads first through all the organisms of na- 
 ture below him. He has to look at himself first through 
 the mirror of natural objects, till he recognizes* him- 
 self in his own mirror as a human being. 
 
 Only in the reflection of his race, in the history of 
 mankind, man sees what he is in his kind, If even now 
 only in fragments. DitTerent as the epochs are, much as 
 
— 28 
 
 I 
 
 nations, or much as individuals, differ from one another, 
 the universal, common traits of humanity are reflected 
 for each one of us from the history of the race. What 
 is it that gives immortality to the dramas of Shake- 
 sp)eare ? It is his delineation of the grand traits of a 
 common humanity in such a characteristic, individual 
 manner. The common traits of humanity are eternally 
 the same, and will be understood at all times, in all 
 forms. 
 
 The human race experienced and experiences, as 
 the individual does, from its birth, the different grades 
 of development: infancy, youth, manhood and the cul- 
 mination of development. And again, in the develop- 
 ment of the life of the individual, the general traits 
 belonging to the development of the race, as we trace 
 it in history, may be seen. 
 
 It is Frcebel's undenied merit to have recognized 
 this fact, and to have found the means to aid in this 
 development from earliest infancy. 
 
 In the instinctive manifestations of the child's being, 
 if not interfered with by artificial drill, there appear 
 traces of the road that humanity has travelled from 
 the beginning of civilization. The instinct of the ani- 
 mal is strong enough at the outset to provide for the 
 means of its existence. The animal races have not 
 changed their functions: the bee fashions its cell, the 
 swallow builds its nest, the fox has its den now as 
 ever before. Man alone, from the first rude life in 
 nature, by toil and exertion, aided by his powerful 
 inventive genius, has forced his way through a thou- 
 
I 
 
 — 29 — 
 
 sand errors and false steps, up to his present height 
 of civilization. The history of culture shows what man 
 is, and what has been attained by him ; the future will 
 show what he can do, and what there may yet be for 
 him to accomplish. But whatever production eman- 
 ates from the human mind, whether it be the ancient 
 rude tools made of stones and roots, or the most in- 
 genious machinery of modern times; whether it be the 
 rude outline and drawing of the shadows of objects, 
 or the wonderful woiks in painting and sculpture; 
 whether it be the uncouth imitations, by the forest 
 savage, of birds and the different sounds in nature, or 
 the grand and sublime symphonies of Beethoven; 
 whether it be the knowledge of the relations of space 
 and size obtained by the first rectangle measured, or 
 through the measurement of the heavenly bodies by 
 modern science. Nature's laws still guide and govern 
 all man's formations, and gauge his endeavors. Man 
 could and can only create after the models of his Cre- 
 ator; they were his patterns, and man's creations are 
 ennobled by the stamp of genius and art. They be- 
 came symbols of truth to him, visible signs of the In- 
 visible, until he was capable of understanding imme- 
 diate revelation. In soft, imperceptible gradations, 
 from the rudest and most simple in sensuous percep- 
 tion to the expression of divine beauty in works of art, 
 and of truth in the Word, God, the sublime Educator, 
 leads His human children. 
 
 In the plays of children of all times, the being of 
 humanity is expressed. As an indistinct remembrance 
 
— 30 — 
 
 and presentiment, the past and future of its life float 
 through the soul of the child, and groping it tries to 
 take hold of the thread, from within and without, 
 which is to guide it through the labyrinth, and help 
 it to accomplish its destiny. 
 
 As the birds build nests, and men first provide them- 
 selves with shelter, so the children of men build houses 
 or caverns in their play. As the cliickens scratch in 
 the earth, and men early in their career on earth be- 
 gin to cultivate the soil, so little children love to dig 
 the ground in their play, and learn in a little garden 
 how to cultivate the soil, to sow and reap. All ma- 
 terial in their hands, if it be onlj' moist sand, serves 
 for plastic formations. Every art will be attempted 
 by the child, whether it be to make forms with chalk 
 or pencil, or to delineate them in sand, whether it be 
 the inarticulate sounds of the babe trying to become 
 rhythmic or to imitate the crowing of the cock, the 
 lowing of the cow or the barking of the dog, until at 
 length real musical sounds proceed from the throats 
 of little children. These early attempts are the first 
 beginnings of development in art. As the first ele- 
 ments of art and industry show themselves in the 
 activity of children, so likewise the germs of science 
 are exhibited in the desire for knowledge. With its al- 
 ways repeated questions, — why ? wherefore ? whence ? 
 the young mind searches for the cause of all things, 
 for truth and its source — God. 
 
 It is an internal necessity that the development of 
 individuals should pass through the same phases as 
 
^ n ^ 
 
 that of all humanity, because their destiny is the same 
 — happiness; or, according to Frqibel, ''joy, peace, 
 and freedom"', are what the individual as well as hu- 
 manity strives for. It can be attained only by full de- 
 velopment of the Avhole of the human being. True 
 education is the principal means to this end, but 
 this means can only become available through 
 a true knowledge of man. It is only by this knowl- 
 edge that the secret of human destiny Avill be made 
 known. 
 
 Each human being is a peculiar thought of God, in 
 tliat which is his spiritual originality. The cliild of 
 God lives in man as only a faint spark when he enters 
 tliis world. The human existence serves to nurse it 
 into a flame. In the beginning, the child of nature 
 predominates as instinctive life: as an impulse that 
 awakens tlic will, which at first is an ungoverned 
 power of nature. Self-preservation is the unconscious 
 aim of all the child's first manifestations. We ought 
 not to blame the child for its so-called selfishness. If 
 an all-wise Providence had not put tliis impulse, so 
 strong and powerful, in the human breast, how could 
 such weak, helpless creatures maintain their existence 
 among innumerable dangers? But education has to 
 modify and moderate this impulse of self-preservation,' 
 and lead the child to practically exercise its capacity 
 to love, and thus guide it out of the narrow circle of 
 its own personality into the character of the child of 
 man, the social being, a link of liumanity. In this 
 sphere feeling predominates, and intellect begins to 
 
— s^ — 
 
 guide the will-power, and show it a liigher aim than 
 individual well-being alone. 
 
 Self-reliance, independence, freedom are the highest 
 expressions of the human being as an individual. How 
 backward would be the development of the world, if 
 it were not for the innate, inborn impulse that actu- 
 ates men to obtain an independent, distinguished po- 
 sition in the world ! Almost all progress is due to the 
 fact that each one wants to be himself the centre of 
 activity; and this desire urges him on to a thousand 
 exertions, to countless inventions, to a continuous 
 change of his position, and, therefore, of all existence. 
 
 3. But as long as man thinks only of himself, even 
 in the widened circle of his family relations, so long 
 the child of God slumbers in him. It only awakens 
 and springs to life, Avhcn love, which at first compris- 
 ed only self and the narrow circle of a few in the 
 generation, drives him forth into the larger communi- 
 ty of the people; then this love becomes strong in him, 
 Avithout self-reference; he devotes himself, even though 
 he sacrifices his own earthly personality, to the service 
 of the whole. Whosoever serves humanity serves 
 God. The words, '^ He that loveth not his brother, 
 how can he love God?" indicate the essence of all re- 
 ligion. Only the child of God, with consciousness of 
 tliis aim, is truly religious. By love, out of our own 
 personality, we come into the love of God, in the higher 
 community which exists beyond this visible world. 
 By each ideal aspiration Ave overstep the boundaries 
 of this temporal, visible life, and enter a world in which 
 
 I 
 
— 33 — 
 
 the mortal becomes immortal. If everywhere in th^ 
 universe an uninterrupted connection exists, by death 
 only a seeming discontinuance can take place. The 
 image of God, which man is destined to become, can- 
 not be confined within the narrow limits of this sphere; 
 man, as such, becomes a citizen of the universe which, 
 in gradual changes, he traverses, and overcomes both 
 space and time. Who will deny that man's destiny is to 
 be in community with God, and at last in unity with Him ? 
 
 Did ever a true human being, a man who merited 
 the name by his own development, go througli his 
 earthly career, without knowing the longing for some- 
 thing higher and better than this world can bestow ? 
 Did he not feel, in a moment of great agitation, 
 whether of joy or of pain, that there was something 
 beyond the limits of this existence ? Is any work of 
 man, even the highest; any action, even the greatest 
 to be conceived, that would not presuppose something 
 higher, something better ? Nowhere are full content- 
 ment and satisfaction in human existence; everywhere 
 presentiment, longing, hope, reaches out beyond it to 
 the ideal of man, — as it once was presented to us in 
 Him who gave his life for his brethren, — toward the 
 spring of all fullness and perfection, toward God. 
 
 He is the child of God, who enters into the higher' 
 freedom, because he has learned to feel the higher 
 love. Only through love is liberty possible; for it 
 overcomes that which is a hinderance to liberty. No 
 laws of restraint are needed for those who would never 
 violate them, and only he who is possessed of perfect 
 
— 34 — 
 
 freedom, can give himself in perfect love. All great 
 benefactors of humanity, all true heroes, all martyrs, 
 all saints, all real artists, all great explorers in truth 
 and science, as well as all humble souls who have lived 
 in childlike trust and piety, have been children of God. 
 In them the divine spark Ilamcs as enthusiasm which 
 cleanses and purifies the human soul, and permits it 
 to be penetrated by the spirit of God. 
 
 It matters little whether you circumscribe or exalt 
 tlie degree of attainable perfection here on earth. 11' 
 progress is once accepted as the eternal law, it must 
 lead to higher aims. There are but two alternatives: 
 either earth is a treadmill in which humanity contin- 
 ually circulates without proceeding farther, or humani- 
 ty is destined to attain even on earth a certain God- 
 appointed goal, whid^n^ji^;^ farther into the great 
 hierarchy of the uni] 
 
 If all believed in ^^WPPJir destiny. iTllTey knew 
 that all, all without exception, according to God's 
 will, had to work to attain this end, how much quicker 
 would it be attained! How much more easily would 
 pain and misery be endured and overcome, were we 
 to keep in view the great end: that for its attainment 
 each experience must be undergone, that each pain 
 must be suffered and its cause removed, before sufferer 
 and worker can finally share in the glory of that at- 
 tainment! This is the true belief, the belief of the 
 glorification of God in mankind, this is the belief that i 
 all religions have to presuppose; it is the essence of 
 Christianity; and one of the reasons why our genera- 
 
 I 
 
— 35 — 
 
 tion has so little religion, is because this faith is want- 
 ing ! So long as it is deemed an Utopian dream to 
 believe in this apotheosis of humanity, so long it will 
 remain unrealized. 
 
 But the victory of the child of God cannot be attain- 
 ed, if the child of nature, or the child of man, is sup- 
 pressed or strangled. The true accord of man's being 
 appears only then, when each chord has its full force 
 and value; when the higher nature elevates the others 
 to equal perfection. 
 
 Education can only fulfil its mission, when it views 
 the human being in this threefold relation, and takes 
 each into due account. Education could not fulfil this 
 mission till now, not only because the child's being was 
 so little understood, but because the means were want- 
 ing to supply the demands of the young soul from the 
 beginning. Frcebel found the key to unlock the child's 
 being, he understood its natural mute language; he 
 found also the means jto give it its first soul nourish- 
 ment, and to treat the child, from its entrance into 
 life, as a reasonable being endowed with a high des- 
 tiny. 
 
 But where shall we find mothers to accept this rich 
 bequest from the educational genius of our time, and 
 to employ it in the right manner ? Let us look into 
 all grades of society and see how many women we can 
 count who are truly mothers and educators. And even 
 the best of these lack the knowledge and means to ac- 
 complish this end. 
 
 The true science of mothers has been founded by 
 
— 36 — 
 
 Fbcebel, to strike at the root of the awful corruption 
 in matters of education, and thereby to prevent intense 
 misery of all kinds. 
 
 With the true recognition of the child's being, the 
 elevation of the female sex is closely connected. The 
 science of mothers introduces woman into a higher 
 knowledge; not the stimulation of dry, intellectual at- 
 tainments, but the development of true feeling, genuine 
 wisdom. With the consciousness, that a divine spark 
 glows in the little being on her lap, enthusiasm will 
 be kindled in her to nurse it, and to educate a true 
 citizen of Heaven. With this consecration of woman 
 as the educator of the human race, everything is con- 
 nected that elevates her to the true dignity of hu- 
 manity. 
 
— 3t — 
 
 Chapter III. 
 The Child's Manifestations. 
 
 Not Frcebel alone, but other thinkers of the present 
 day and of former times, have expressed the thought, 
 that the individual can only develop according to its 
 species, and that this fact should guide us in its edu- 
 cation and treatment. Frcebel founded his Kinder- 
 gartens on this truth. Now let us see whether his 
 means are really adapted to the end. 
 
 What are the principal manifestations cf the child? 
 They are those which are more or less common to all 
 children, and in which the beginnings of the efforts of 
 the human race after culture may be seen. When the 
 child is born, its first manifestation is motion^ motion 
 of its limbs, motion of its interior by screaming: de- 
 velopment can only come by motion. Before the hu- 
 man being can begin to take possession of himself and 
 of the world outside of himself, his bodily powers and 
 organs must be somewhat developed : therefore bodily 
 development is chief in the first years of his life. The 
 child a few months old, lying in its cradle, plays with 
 its Umbs, grasps its tiny feet, kicks, plays with its 
 
— 38 — 
 
 fingers. In this way it learns about its own form. 
 The child's greatest desire, when it is able to walk, is 
 again motion; to run to and fro, — in much the same 
 waj' as a little dog, — to go in all directions, to touch 
 and take hold of everything with the hands, to be al- 
 ways in motion, is characteristic of every healthy 
 child. The more its strength increases, the greater the 
 necessity for exertion of all kinds, that drives the 
 boy, especially, to games of running, climbing, jump- 
 ing, throwing, lifting, which require strength and skill. 
 The child itself, however, has not this end in view, it 
 is merely driven by its impulse, the gratification of 
 which gives it pleasure. What gives pleasure to chil- 
 dren (jenerally and in all timeSj serves always for 
 their development in some icay: therefore physical de- 
 velopment is the unconscious aim of all activity in early 
 childhood. 
 
 Physical exertions and training, chiefly for the sake 
 of procuring the means of sustenance, characterize 
 the life of savages, and Avere the prominent features 
 in that of the uncultivated peoples of former ages. 
 The first authenticated records of history, including 
 the heroic age, show that while the development of 
 physical strength and dexterity was still predominant, 
 heroic action served other than purely material and 
 egotistical purposes; it was often dictated by friendship 
 or love of country. Exertion of strength, conquest of 
 obstacles or foes, are always the greatest pleasures of 
 youth and early manhood. Even in the middle ages, 
 tournaments, duels, and the chase, alternated almost 
 
— 39 — 
 
 like play with the sterner occupation of war. Nothing 
 shows more clearly that physical development was the 
 highest pleasure of the human race, in the period of 
 its childhood, than the mythology of the northern 
 peoples. They believed that the dead divide their 
 life in Valhalla, or their Heaven, between combats 
 and feasts, but with the advantage that wounds re- 
 ceived in combat heal immediately, and those who arc 
 killed are quickly able to sit at the festive board. 
 
 The limbs and organs of the body must be developed 
 to a certain degree, before they can serve as adequate 
 tools for the mind. We sec clearly how Divine Prov- 
 idence always incites each being to do that which 
 serves for its development. The child is not obliged, 
 as man was in his primitive state, to procure its phys- 
 ical sustenance; but it is moved by inner impulse to 
 use its limbs and organs in play, so that they develop. 
 But it is not safe to leave the impulses of human 
 beings to themselves; they are apt to degenerate, and 
 to lead to what we call evil, and so to lead away .from 
 their purpose which is development. Education of a 
 child is furthering its natural manifestations in such a 
 way that nature's aims are attained, always bearing 
 in mind the child's threefold relation. There is so 
 much less demand in our time for great exertion, of 
 strength, so much less effort needed to overcome ex- 
 ternal obstacles, that we have, like the Greeks, to 
 employ gymnastics of various kinds in the physical 
 education of youth, although these are not so general- 
 ly used as they should be. To meet the demands of 
 
 V OP THB*^^ 
 
 UlfI7BRSIT7i 
 
— 40 — 
 
 the impulses of childhood in this respect, very little is 
 done, where Frcebel's Kindergartens are not intro- 
 duced. Gymnastics and games are the fulfilment of 
 the first impulses of childhood toward development. 
 
 After the development of rude force, that of the skill 
 of the hand became foremost as the principal condition 
 for the beginnings of human industry. The word 
 '^handehi", to act, in German is derived from the 
 member chief in action — the hand. In English 'Ho 
 handle" is somewhat equivalent. The great desire in 
 early infancy, — second only to the craving for motion 
 in general, — is to use the hands. The sense of feeling 
 is, — next to that of tasting, which is also a feeling of 
 the tongue, — predominant in the first development of 
 the senses. In the beginning of life all the senses are, 
 as it were, somewhat united. The little effort of which 
 each is capable, necessitates the common action of all. 
 Children, as well as grown persons of little cultivation, 
 naturally wish to touch everything they see; the eye 
 alone does not suffice to give them cognizance of an 
 object. 
 
 In order that the chief instrument for work, the 
 hand, be well prepared, nature prompts the child to 
 use its hands constantly in play. Nothing is more 
 contrary to nature than to forbid a child the use of 
 its hands, 3'et this is always done in schools. That 
 children may pay attention to the subject taught, they 
 are required to fold their hands, or to cross them on 
 the back. But Frcebel has followed the hint of na- 
 ture, has found means to chain the child's attentionj 
 
— 41 ~ 
 
 hy connecting all instruction given with the use of 
 its hands. The hand is the natural sceptre which 
 Providence has given man as king of the earth. With 
 his hands, man procured all defensive weapons pos- 
 sessed naturally by animals but denied to him. 
 Through the work of his hands, he obtained all the 
 tools with which to conquer the forces of nature and 
 matter, and to procure the necessaries and embellish- 
 ments of life. Without the development of skill in the 
 hand, industry and art are impossible. But the won- 
 ders of industry and art are not due solely to the re- 
 markable construction of this member; indeed man's 
 activity is loork in its true sense, only when the mind 
 guides the fingers which merely serve to carry out its 
 plans and combinations. Work, therefore, is no curse, 
 but man's high prerogative. The plays of children 
 are to them like work, serving to develop their limbs, 
 organs and senses. After the first unguided attempts 
 to touch or gras}) things, their main delight is to 
 handle some soft mass, be it earth, sand, or even the 
 mud m the street. One of the first impulses of child- 
 hood is toward plastic forming; but this impulse does 
 not serve the purpose intended, if education does not 
 undertake, as in the Kindergarten, to provide ade- 
 quate material, and direct the moulding, in order to 
 bring the awakened instinct into activity for a definite 
 purpose. 
 
 The first and easiest forming, after modelling in 
 sand and clay, is building. After the child has dug 
 holes in a sand hill, it proceeds to build houses or 
 
— 42 — 
 
 whatever its fancy may suggest, and thus its endeav- 
 ors tend to the creation of an industry on a small 
 scale. The never fading interest of all children in the 
 story of Robinson Crusoe, lies chiefly in the minute 
 description of the efforts made, by a single individual, 
 after culture, a description in which children see their 
 own endeavors reflected as in a mirror. Undoubtedly 
 one of the first attempts of the human race, after 
 caverns in rocks or huts of boughs in the forest were 
 deemed insuflScient, was to build dwellings. But when, 
 by improvement in implements of labor, work ad- 
 vanced from its first rough outlines, the combinations 
 of the mind became more manifold, forms more devel- 
 oped; and a sense of the beautiful awakened in our 
 progenitors, as it also awakens in the child. All things 
 shining and brilliant in color, give gladness and joy 
 to children, as they still do to savages. They strive 
 to produce something beautiful in their works, and, 
 by degrees, aim at harmony and symmetry. Children, 
 therefore, not only instinctively delight in modelling 
 and forming, but they also attempt drawing and col- 
 oring. 
 
 The child sees first the contour of things. Those 
 svho have observed children must have noticed them 
 tracing outlines with their fingers, and attempting to 
 draw chairs, tables, houses, or the contour of their 
 own hands on the slate, straight lines always striking 
 the eye before curves. The same is true of the people 
 who earliest attempted architecture— the Egyptians. 
 Their drawings consist of contours, — ^linear drawings 
 
— 43 — 
 
 without curves or arches, and without perspective, 
 Uke the first attempts of the child. 
 
 Before the child talks, it produces various sounds; 
 and the instinctive perception of its craving for the 
 rhythmic has taught mothers and nurses the number- 
 less cradle-songs and lullabies with which they accom- 
 pany the measured swaying and rocking of babes in 
 their arms. The power to distinguish between sounds 
 is among the earliest manifestations of children (how 
 quickly an infant knows its mother's voice!), and in- 
 struction in singing is a powerful means of education. 
 Savages and children show a natural desire for sing- 
 ing and dancing,— rhythm of sound, and rhythm of 
 motion. 
 
 Even, before a child has attempted any productions 
 in art. we have seen it strongly influenced by nature; 
 animals and flowers have fixed its attention. Infants 
 stretch out their arms in delight, when the hat and 
 cloak are brought preparatory to a walk; they are 
 not only pleased to be in the enlivening fresh air, but 
 made happy by the impressions received from the 
 various forms of natural objects. 
 
 After children have obtained free use of their limbs, 
 we see all that arc not kept from it by parents who 
 fear tlic soiling of hands and clothes, digging in the 
 earth, — in the garden it may be. At first the nearest 
 stick, or a shovel picked up somewhere, serves as a 
 tool, and they throw up the ground, make hills,, and 
 build walls as mere exercise. But, after a little, ob- 
 servation is added to these instinctive manifestations. 
 
— 44 — 
 
 the impulse awakens to cultivate the earth; to use in 
 play the productivity of the soil for self-benefit: so 
 mankind in its early development used it to obtain a 
 fuller supply and better quality of food. May it not 
 be an undefined idea of the limitation of space, that 
 leads the child to fence its little garden-plot with 
 sticks ? The motive that led originally to the cultiva- 
 tion of the soil, was certainly the desire for possession. 
 Without possessions, without property, the individual- 
 ity of man would never have been so fully developed. 
 Property expands personality by giving a man power 
 to work, means to carry out his will; and, at the same 
 time, it enables him to share what is peculiarly his 
 with others, — ^to prepare the soil out of love to his 
 neighbor. 
 
 But for agriculture man would never have forsaken 
 nomadic life, never have founded cities and communi- 
 ties, never have become a nation, never have known 
 love of country. To many it may seem ridiculous to 
 connect the first small possession of a child with love 
 of country, and see in it the very germ of patriotism. 
 Still, in the nature of things, that which is characteris- 
 tic of man's life, in greater or less degree, must have 
 an almost imperceptible beginning as the germinating 
 point for development. The largest tree started from 
 a very small seed; and the greatest deeds of man are 
 but the developed emotions of an infant's soul. The 
 love of one's own fireside, is it not the starting point 
 of the love of one's country ? 
 
 If physical wants first impelled man to cultivate the 
 
— 45 — 
 
 soil, it is evident, in the course of history, that a 
 higher motive was soon added, which tended to elevate 
 his soul. The culture of that which serves merely to 
 supply material needs will awaken affection; whatever 
 man takes care of, whatever he works for, that object 
 he loves. We should regard a child that showed 
 no affection for any plaything or pet, as unnatural and 
 degenerate. The little girl attributes to her doll, or 
 the boy to his toy horse, all the feelings of a living be- 
 ing, and loves it accordingly. From these inanimate 
 things, the affections are ti-ansferred to domestic ani- 
 mals, or to the flowers of the garden. The child who 
 has never owned a little piece of land, never worked 
 it in the sweat of his brow, never taken loving care of 
 plants and animals, will always have a blank in the 
 development of his soul; he Avill never have the per- 
 fect gift of taking care of human beings. All care and 
 nursing demand the overcoming of indolence, and self- 
 abnegation, which can be acquired only by practice. 
 Frcebel suggests that early practical lessons of this 
 kind may be given: let children from their own pocket- 
 money buy food for canary birds, or other pets, and so 
 learn to feel themselves immediately responsible for 
 their care and support. By cultivation of its soil, man 
 established his right to the globe he inhabits; and thp 
 first doctrine, in his code of laws, is that duties and 
 rights should be equal. 
 
 After the child has obtained the use of its limbs and 
 senses; when its activity and observation somewhat 
 awakened have led it into many httle experiences, 
 
— 46 — 
 
 then the impulse to know (sometimes called curiosity) 
 becomes strong: it asks for the cause of things and 
 appearances, incessantly repeating: whence? why? 
 wherefore? The visible world had to furnish mate- 
 rial for its perceptions, before the world of thought 
 was roused from slumber. For the sake of obtaining 
 knowledge, the child makes experiments. It knocks 
 different objects together, throws them down, in- 
 vestigates the density of materials, tastes, tears, 
 destroys, in order to ascertain something about their 
 internal structure, and makes a thousand experiments 
 to become acquainted with the quality and the use of 
 things. This process of observation and investigation, 
 is followed by comparison of things among themselves; 
 comparison leads to perception of size, form, color, 
 number, etc. What child does not measure the length 
 and breadth of different objects, to find out which of 
 the two is larger ? What child does not like to count 
 the things with which it is occupied, and ask the name 
 and use of each? Alas! the answers given to the 
 child thirsting for knowledge, are often empty words 
 little calculated to satisfy it. No mere words, unac- 
 companied with demonstrations, can give replies tiiat 
 will be clear to the childish perception. Object lessons 
 should begin with the first plays, not with the first 
 school. How the child's eyes glisten at the discovery 
 of a shining pebble in the road, a new flower in th« 
 meadow! It experiences a delight similar to that 
 which the philosopher feels in the discovery of what 
 be believes to be a new truth. 
 
— 47 — 
 
 As, in the first awakening of its mind, the child is 
 occupied in finding out how far or how near an object 
 is, or, in other words, with the relations of space, so 
 the knowledge of mankind began with the first ele- 
 ments of mathematics or geometry. The only book 
 open to man in the beginning of his development, was 
 the book of nature; observation and imitation led him 
 from discovery to discovery, each widened the horizon 
 of the mind — increased knowledge. With a knowledge 
 of nature, — at first shallow and superficial as based on 
 mere appearance, — began the intellectual development 
 of mankind. A child's first lessons should likewise be 
 from natural objects. The first abstractions from man's 
 experimental knowledge necessarily led to mathemati- 
 cal conclusions: calculation and conclusion follow com- 
 parison. Things are clearly perceived by the under- 
 standing, only when they are classified according to 
 number and size. 
 
 The child gains its first geographical knowledge 
 from explorations in the playground, the garden or 
 the village; in the same manner, the first geographi- 
 cal notions of mankind were derived from the explora- 
 tion of neighboring countries, and observation of their 
 climate, soil, products, etc. 
 
 With the lives of the Patriarchs, — most interesting 
 to us as Christians, — and those of ancient peoples, 
 history began; its earliest form was oral tradition. 
 What is more interesting to children than stories of 
 what happened in the family before they were in ex- 
 istence ? How unweariedly they listen to the grand- 
 
— 48 — 
 
 mother's tales concerning her own young days, or 
 those of her children. The discovery that she is speak- 
 ing of their father or mother when a little child, gives 
 deepest interest to the narrative. Fr(ebel would 
 have all families preserve records that might serve in 
 this way as a foundation for further historical knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 All the stages of development we have contemplat- 
 ed man could attain only in connection with his fellow 
 man, by social union. The desire for society we see 
 even in animals; it is more predominant in animals of 
 the higher than of the lower order, and is most deeply 
 rooted in the human being; it is the origin and means 
 of all culture. Sohtary confinement is man's worst 
 and most cruel punishment. Yery little can be ac- 
 complished single-handed; only by associated effort 
 does man overcome space and time; by it he presses 
 natural forces into his service, and so becomes more 
 and more the lord of creation. 
 
 The child manifests even in the first months of its 
 life a desire for society; it cries in its cradle if it fan- 
 cies itself alone, and is often quieted by a single word. 
 But it not only craves the society of grown people, it 
 desires to be with its equals in age and development. 
 Look at the beautiful smile, the happy expression of 
 the eyes, when the smallest child sees children of iU 
 own age! One that grows up entirely among older 
 people, will never have the freshness and vivacity 
 which result from a life in community with children; 
 seriousness, sometimes sadness, marks the features of 
 
^ 40 — 
 
 such a one. We have said that social union is the 
 basis of all culture; the play of children among them- 
 selves is especially the basis of all moral culture. 
 Without charity, without the various relations between 
 man and man, morals and culture vanish; the desire 
 for society is at the foundation of Church and State, 
 and of all that makes human life what it is. 
 
 Frcebel thinks, that the first manifestation of relig- 
 ious aspiration, is the child's desire for the society of 
 grown people; it wants somebody tor look up to, and 
 may have an undefined feeling that some common ob- 
 ject unites all, some common interest binds all to- 
 gether. Let several people assemble in the street, 
 children run to join them, and they even submit to 
 great restraint, for the sake of being in the company 
 of men and women. Their desire to go to church, is 
 based upon this feeling, rather than on one of interest 
 in what goes on there, which is beyond the childish 
 comprehension. The reverent acts of others, their 
 elders, affect them. Certainly this is the first unde- 
 fined feeling which animates a child's heart; and con- 
 nected with it is love to its fellows, always preceding 
 love to God. Only through love to mother, father, 
 brethren, is the young soul led to its Heavenly Father. 
 Developed natural aff'ections kindle the sacred flame 
 of religion. Religious feeling or perception, like every 
 other, is, in its beginning, instinctive. 
 
 In the infant watching the motion of a suspended 
 ball, and following with its eyes along the string from 
 the ball to the hand that guides it, Froebel sees a raa- 
 
— 50 — 
 
 nifestation of the mind's impulse to seek and find the 
 cause of all effects. This may seem absurd to those 
 who do not admit a psychological reason for the child's 
 manifestations, but that all conscious manifestations 
 proceed from the unconscious, no thinker will deny. This 
 being admitted, Frcebel's idea is vindicated, that the 
 conception of the mature mind originates in the spon- 
 taneity of the child's soul, which awakened by out- 
 ward appearances, first manifests itself as instinct, or 
 inclination. Hence, he argues, the propriety of begin- 
 ning instruction with the concrete, — the object which 
 the child can comprehend — , and proceeding very 
 gradually to the abstract thought. He says: that 
 passing from the object to the image or picture, from 
 the picture to the sign, from the sign to the idea, the 
 road leads to consciousness or knowledge. Pesta- 
 Lozzi expresses a similar opinion in the words: 'There 
 is nothing in the mind, that has not passed through 
 the senses*'. Trace written language back to its be- 
 ginning. Rude hieroglyphics served at first to convey 
 notions of single objects or events; then a continuous 
 story was given by a series of the same symbols; but 
 not until civihzation was far advanced, did abstract 
 thought find expression in arbitrary signs, or alpha- 
 betical characters. The science of numbers also begins 
 with the numeration of objects; and the wisdom of il- 
 lustrating the text of elementary school books with 
 pictures of things to be named or counted, is apparent. 
 Returning to the process of religious development, we 
 find it to be in nowise exceptional. Man's conceptions 
 
— 61 — 
 
 of a liigher, a supreme Being, were gained originally 
 through impressions received from the natural and 
 visible world, even as the child's are now. Man felt 
 his impotence in the presence of the ever-active, gi- 
 gantic forces of nature, and bowed trembling before 
 their unknown ruler. He found himself, his very ex- 
 istence, dependent on the gifts and benefactions of 
 nature, and when, like a tender mother, she showered 
 bounties upon him, he loved her. Her different as- 
 pects gave him the idea of good and evil deities. He 
 worshipped nature in symbols derived from her own 
 treasury, until becoming more conscious of himself 
 and his being, he humanized, as it were, the soul of 
 nature and worshipped it ideally in his gods. The 
 beautiful statues of Greece represented deities that 
 were believed really to exist, and, transcending the 
 idols of other pagan nations, were often personifica- 
 tions of virtues and abstract qualities of the mind. 
 
 '^Who made all the trees, the flowers, the birds, the 
 little lambs ? Who made me ? Who made father and 
 mother?" the child asks, seeking the first cause with 
 the natural impulse of a thinking being. Like the 
 savage it is terrified by the rolling thunder which 
 rouses a perception of a higher power; spring's balmy 
 breezes fill it with undefined delight; it anticipates the 
 unseen benefactor who is, as yet, represented to it in 
 the visible presence of its parents. It sits on the grass, 
 in summer time, under a blooming tree on which birds 
 sing sweet song&; fragrant flowers fill its lap, the 
 bright sunshine gladdens all things, and a light warm 
 
— 52 — 
 
 breeze floats the blossoms from the tree like pure 
 snow flakes against the child's cheek. A sensation 
 of awe and never before experienced bliss, fills its 
 soul, — it whispers: ''that is God who is passing by'', 
 — and a first revelation of God has entered the soul. 
 Thus, as Frcebel says, with natural religion all relig- 
 ion begins; God in man, God as revealed to us in 
 Christ, must also be recognized, but such recognition 
 can only be after God in nature has been felt. On ac- 
 count of these views, Frcebel has been attacked by 
 the ultra orthodox, and his system denounced as irre- 
 ligious. It must be clear to the unprejudiced, however, 
 that, instead of lacking religion, Frcebel's method 
 aims to make it a vital necessity, and while guarding 
 the child from the abstract teachings of theology, 
 to nurse and healthily develop the divine spark, so 
 ''that bod}^, soul and spirit" may grow harmoniously 
 into the stature of the perfect man. 
 
 We see then that the manifestations of all children 
 are similar; having the same origin, being founded on 
 natural, inborn impulses, they must be like. But 
 nature does nothing in vain, nothing without a pur- 
 pose: all natural impulses must therefore tend to some- 
 thing, and can have no other design than to serve for 
 the development of the individual organism. The 
 child plays, it micst play in order to develop. Its play 
 is its work, destined to awaken its powers and capac- 
 ities, to train them, to strengthen them, so that it 
 may be fitted to accomplish its destiny as a human 
 being — ^to become a child of God. The sum of the act- 
 
— 5a — 
 
 ivities of the human race, — manifested in past and 
 present states of culture, — can likewise only have the 
 purpose to further the development of the human race, 
 as such, by unfolding all its capabilities, and making 
 it what God destined it to be. But as the human 
 race tionsists of single individuals, the end of indi- 
 vidual pxistence must be the same as that of the com- 
 munity of which it is a part; that end is perfection, 
 not absolute buf relative: the perfection of the finite, 
 not of the Infinite. 
 
 No one denies that the individual plant, the indi- 
 vidual animal, develops according to its species. Only 
 because it is known how the species of the plant, or 
 the race of tlic animal develops, is the proper mode 
 of nursing or rearing the individual known. Accord- 
 ing to the modifications of the treatment demanded 
 by nature, according as her laws are complied with or 
 violated, so individual character develops. This is 
 strikingly shown in the case of domestic animals; 
 though of the same race, one is docile, faithful and 
 affectionate, another cross, snappish and obstinate, 
 according to the treatment received. 
 
 We have seen then, first: that the manifestations of 
 each being bear the impress of the species to which it 
 belongs, and that man forms no exception; second: 
 that the instinctive, unpremeditated manifestations, 
 common to all individuals of the same species, serve 
 the end of their development. The savage impelled 
 l)y inner impulse, and influenced by outer attraction, 
 exerts him.self to supply his bodily necessities — to 
 
— 54 — 
 
 maintain existence, and make it comfortable according 
 to his notion of comfort; the child, from like impulse 
 and attraction, plays, and works in play; but both are 
 unconscious that the end served by their exertions, is 
 their development. The history of the culture of the 
 human race, shows us that in the endeavor to satisfy 
 physical wants, to obtain food, raiment, protection 
 from storms and wild beasts, and, later, in the effort 
 to satisfy spiritual desires, in social intercourse, in 
 communication of truth, and in seeking expression for 
 the beautiful, man was led to invent all that is now 
 ours in the departments of industry, art and science. 
 As, in the stage of unconsciousness, man was prepared 
 for the succeeding one of higher development and cul- 
 ture, which, in its turn, led to self-consciousness and 
 a recognition of its destiny, so, in like manner, the 
 playful activity of the child should serve to prepare it 
 for its subsequent conscious personality. This is only 
 attained when the childish groping and attempting 
 are regulated, and when education furnishes the 
 means. To do this is tlie design of Frcebel's Kinder- 
 garten. In it he intended to have children pass through 
 the same stages of development, on a small scale, that 
 have marked the development of the human race, and 
 so gain similar experiences to fit them for fiiture life 
 work, for self-consciousness and a comprehension of 
 the great problem of existence. 
 
— 55 -- 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 The Child's Education. 
 
 Education is deliverance, deliverance of the fettered 
 forces of body and mind. The inner conditions- for 
 this deliverance every healthy child brings into the 
 world. The outer conditions must be supplied by edu- 
 cation. In spring time, in order that the hard outer 
 coverings of the buds may burst, and the germs of 
 leaves and flowers be set free and expand, air, sun- 
 shine, rain and dew must be allowed them. The inner 
 germinal force bursts the coverings, if outer condi- 
 tions are favorable. In nature, a need always brings 
 its supply, and the processes of nature without arbi- 
 trariness are according to rules and la^vs. In a plant, 
 the flow of the sap, as it regularly ascends and de- 
 scends from roots to crown, and crown to roots, by 
 contraction and expansion, forming knotty and intri- 
 cate points, resembles the circulation of the blood in 
 animal and human organisms, proceeding, as it does, 
 from the heart, returning to the heart, and represent- 
 ing contraction and expansion through the action of 
 the lungs. 
 
 In the diflerent realms of nature, everything obeys 
 
-- 5(5 — 
 
 an eternal, universal law, and development is synon- 
 3'mous with lawfulness; it is progress according to 
 laws, progress from the formless to the formed, from 
 undevelopment to development. Mental and spiritual, 
 as well as bodily development, must proceed accord- 
 ing to law, otherwise education would be impossible. 
 For we call the influence we bring to bear upon the 
 development of the child, to regulate it, to guide it 
 intellectually and morally as well as physically, edu- 
 cation: and how can that which proceeds without or- 
 der or law; that which is arbitrary and incalculable 
 in its manifestations, be regulated and guided ? Must 
 not, therefore, the spiritual, or soul development, fol- 
 low a lawful circuit, similar to the organic circulation, 
 for certainly the organs and the mind which they 
 serve, are in relation as cause and eflect ? Psychology 
 has discovered the laws of the soul's development, as 
 physiology has discovered the laws of the circulation 
 of the blood; but the former has occupied itself chief- 
 ly with the already formed souls of grown persons, 
 that have, by self-determination and deviation from 
 the lawful and normal state, fallen into a certain de- 
 gree of arbitrariness, the abnormal condition that 
 we name evil; for as the violation of physical laws 
 causes disease, so the violation of moral laws causes 
 moral evil or sin. Wrong culture has demoralized 
 man, and the intentions of the Creator concerning 
 him have not been rightly understood. Frcebel said: 
 *' If you wish to study the laws of nature, in plants 
 for instance, you must study the simple, the wild 
 
— 57 — 
 
 plants, commonly called weeds, in preference to cul- 
 tivated ones with all their complications. '• From this 
 we must not infer tliat man should l3e left in his primi- 
 tive, uncultured state, but that the human soul is to 
 be studied in its simplicity. The young human plant, 
 in its instinctive, primitive state, uncalculating, un- 
 spoiled by false culture, presents to the observer who 
 is capable of seeing and understanding them, the 
 laws and the logical processes of development despite 
 individual differences. 
 
 We have seen already that certain manifestations 
 are common to all children, and that thus the species 
 is marked in each individual. Through such common 
 manifestations, we find a basis for the recognition of 
 the laws of childish development, inasmuch as these 
 traits are repeated in each individual, and are there- 
 fore a rule. Frcebel says, there is perfect connection 
 in human life, as there is entire harmony everywhere 
 in nature. Certainly we cannot err in saying that the 
 eternal lawfulness which lives in the universe, must 
 also determine the development of the human soul. 
 The educator whose office it is to carry light or 
 warmth, rain or dew, to the human bud in the right 
 manner, that it may be incited to free itself from bond- 
 age, and by development and expansion of all its 
 slumbering faculties and powers to produce finally the 
 rare blossom of self-consciousness, — such a one must 
 not only know the laws of development, but he must 
 possess and apply the means to attain this result. His 
 mode of education must be a lawful process like that 
 
— 58 — 
 
 of nature; it must be methodical with a correspond- 
 cuce in its outward means. 
 
 It will not be disputed that instruction deserves the 
 name only when it is methodical. Instruction is but a 
 branch of education, and it is evident that the tree 
 must have the same root and ground as the branch. 
 Much as has been done, from antiquity up to our own 
 time, to improve education and instruction; much as 
 has been accomplished even, in adapting methods of 
 instruction to natural development, and in obtaining 
 knowledge by the easiest and best ways, — still the 
 laws of childish intellectual development have hitherto 
 been wrapped in darkness. The magnet unerringly 
 shows the mariner how to guide his ship over the 
 ocean, according to its individual destination, but 1:0 
 such safe guide has been found for the educator, in 
 his work of guiding individual character toward its 
 true end. So long as no firm, unswerving educational 
 method is known, every kind, even the best, seems 
 merely arbitrary, or at hap-hazard. Pestalozzi's 
 principal aim was to find and apply what he called, 
 ''the principle of the organic*', to bring instruction 
 into harmony with nature. Whatever knowledge we 
 have gained hitherto of the mode of childish develop- 
 ment, we owe to him and his predecessors, as well as 
 some of the means of applying their principle. • But 
 for them, Frcebel might not have worked out his 
 method, as their conclusions were his starting point, 
 and their hints and practical endeavors he carried on 
 toward perfection, Perhaps Frcebel's successors may 
 
— 59 — 
 
 further develop his ideas, but another basis than his 
 can scarcely be found, since it is that of nature and 
 truth. He aimed, he says, to find a lawful proceeding, 
 or method of education^ such as educational science 
 had long aimed to find for instruction; and in his sys- 
 tem the two are combined — instruction, having for 
 its chief end intellectual development, and education 
 looking mainly to moral development, or formation of 
 character. The principal requirement for this, is 
 freedom of individual activity, room for the develop- 
 ment of individual characteristics. In our present 
 schools all such activity is repressed; children are 
 made to sit still, and on the playground, where the 
 teacher might observe how the children carried out 
 his moral precepts, they arc generally left entirely 
 without surveillance or guidance. 
 
 But, it is asked, how can there be a law for all ? 
 Does not the diversity in creation rest upon the one- 
 ness of the Creator ? Are not all the heavenly bodies 
 subject to the law of gravitation, and does this hinder 
 individual characteristics? We may accept as certain 
 that each world is different in its organization and 
 productions from every other. So in one forest differ- 
 ent plants and trees grow and thrive under the same 
 general conditions of soil, climate, etc., because each 
 individual appropriates of the outward conditions that 
 which is according to its individuality — always the 
 lawful alone. In the universe, it is only law guiding 
 motion that makes freedom possible, and prevents de- 
 structive conflicts, so in the nursery or kindergarten 
 
— 60 — 
 
 as well as in the State, only by government according 
 to law can freedom be attained, freedom of each by 
 freedom of all. That education should be according 
 to nature, nearly all, at least, of the modern educators, 
 demand as an essential condition, but according to 
 nature is according to law. 
 
 It is lawful and according to nature that the pro- 
 gi'essive development of single individuals, as well as 
 of humanity, needs in each of its stages new conditicns, 
 new means and aids. The glass cover that shielded 
 the germ, can no more cover the full grown tree; a 
 grown up man can wear his little frock no more. The 
 conditions of life, in each epoch of history, in each 
 generation, change, inasmuch as the requirements of 
 each are heightened or raised; therefore the education 
 of our time makes higher and more comprehensive de- 
 mands of US than were made of the generations before 
 us. Our forefathers, living in forests and clad in bear- 
 skins, met the requirements of their time, when tlie}' 
 taught the boy to use bow and lance, to guide a horse 
 in the chase and in war, to know the rights and duties 
 traditionally theirs, and the peculiar ritual of their wor- 
 ship; when they instructed the girl in the virtues of 
 her sex, in cooking, spinning, weaving, and nursing 
 the sick. Such demands did not suffice in the later 
 period of chivalry; but even the culture of the knights 
 and their dames, does not satisfy the requirements 
 of our time, because all the conditions of life have 
 changed. 
 
 With these conditions, the being of man likewise 
 
-- 61 — 
 
 changes, in a measure, bodily, spiritually and mental- 
 ly; not primarily, not in form or shape of his body, 
 not wholly in his propensities, inclinations, passions, 
 or in the processes of thinking, feeling and willing. 
 Man has still the same organization, he enjoys and 
 suffers according to impressions received, he thinks 
 and aspires in a human way. But is there no differ- 
 ence between a barbarian and a cultivated man, not 
 only in outward appearance and manifestations, but 
 in inclinations, aims, thought and will? The bodily 
 formation of the working classes is usually modified in 
 this, that their bone and muscle formation is more 
 prominent, while in those of a more intellectual mode 
 of life the nervous organization is predominant. The 
 structure of the head of a thinker differs greatly from 
 that of a savage or a mere mechanical worker. This 
 difference is transmitted to the children; they not only 
 inherit the physical constitution of their forefathers, 
 but very often they also inherit their mental and moral 
 qualities. The child of a Bushman is horn differently 
 organized from the child of a civilized European, and 
 the child of the nineteenth century is born differently 
 organized from one born in the first century of our 
 time, because the progress of the race will express it- 
 self also in the individual. 
 
 In plants and animals, wo see very clearly the modi- 
 fication produced by culture. The wild carrot, for 
 instance, had to go through twenty generations of 
 cultivation before it became eatable, while, if lefi: to 
 itself, without care or culture for five generations, it 
 
— 62 
 
 A 
 
 relapses into a wild state. Tlic breeder of liorses 
 knows very well that the descendant of a noble race is 
 itself noble, and requii-es greater care and nursing than 
 that of a common breed. And again experience teaches 
 us that it is very difficult to educate the child of coarse, 
 brutal parents for a higher, more cultivated life. The 
 science of mankind has not advanced far enougli to be 
 able to show up and fathom the mighty influence of 
 mental culture on our physical and psychical organism: 
 but it cannot be doubted that the higher the culture of 
 a people is, the better endowed its children will be 
 born. 
 
 With the recognition of this truth, the necessity for 
 a progressive mode of education must l)e admitted; 
 and all those who think that what was formerly con- 
 sidered good and sufficient must he good and sufficient 
 now, are mistaken. But each time aud generation has 
 certainly some good features, and this in a reform is 
 generally lost sight of. If avc must admit that there is 
 a great advance in the modes and appliances for in- 
 structiorij it is equally certain that the preceding gen- 
 eration, so far as education is concerned, was ahead 
 of us. Principles of integrity and morals, force of 
 character, and religious fervor, the foundation of a 
 true education, were far more developed among our 
 forefathers than they are now. The physical culture 
 of the ancient Greeks, their training for the develop- 
 ment of strength, beauty and dexterity, are not known 
 among us. Then it cannot be denied that a one-sided 
 development of one faculty of the mind has prevailed, 
 
— 63 — 
 
 and a senseless, shallow nioniorizing of facts, in almost 
 ail branches of knowledge, is characteristic of our time. 
 Who can close the eyes on those evils that present 
 themselves so glaringly in our generation, and which 
 are the cause of great misery ! A part of the respon- 
 sibility for these results, education has to take upon it- 
 self. We see everywhere knowing without doing, 
 doing without creative power, — thinking, before imag- 
 ination and sentiment, or feelings, have, as the germ 
 and blossom, prepared the way for this fruit. We see 
 understanding without achievement, the conquering 
 of matter and material forces merely to make them 
 serviceable for the gratification of the senses; we find 
 no veneration for the Spirit of God animating the 
 universe, no faith in Divine Providence, but instead of 
 these man's intellect worshipped and considered his 
 highest tribunal. The feeling of childlike trust and de- 
 pendence on our Heavenly Father, is dying out, be- 
 cause its source, spontaneity of feeling, is early dried 
 up; the external, the most unimportant, is made the 
 most important; learning is only taking up what is 
 given, which destroys originality and inherent power. 
 On all sides, we hear a clamor for new rights, without 
 any consideration that there are also duties to per- 
 form. And because it is so, a sense of suffering goes 
 through the world, a painful seeking for never-reached 
 happiness agitates mankind, even amidst sensuous 
 pleasures; and, notwithstanding all the gratification 
 that riches and luxury can give, a painful sense of 
 want and emptiness, a longing for something higher 
 
— 64 — 
 
 and more ideal is, if not consciously felt, still there. 
 We wait for the magic word that shall create a new 
 world, a new generation capable of great deeds, and 
 able to understand the new revelations which God has 
 in store for us. — Who is to speak this word? 
 
 Every radical reform, iu whatever sphere, needs 
 always a new truth, a new, original idea for its founda- 
 tion. But such an idea, iu its generalization, seldom 
 appears entirely new; the pages of history show that 
 it had been proclaimed, in a different form, by think- 
 ers of other ages, and the same idea always recurring 
 may at different epochs have been striving for embodi- 
 ment. If this is the case, then we may be sure that 
 it is a very important truth, whose solution, though 
 often attempted, has not yet been realized. Often 
 only one happy hit is needed to make this long pro- 
 pounded problem a reality *. Whether Frcebel has 
 
 * In a Journal of Athens, Greece, "ITie PoUhistor\ we find: '* M. 
 Betaxt, Professor of Greek literature in Geneva, has had the kind- 
 ness to send us some Journals and Pamphlets about ICindergar- 
 tens lately established. We have examined this method in its 
 principal, leading ideas, and in its particulars, and have found, to 
 our great surprise, the development and realization of what, thou- 
 sands of years ago, our divine Plato considered the main point in 
 the development of man from infancy. In adapting education 
 in the kindergartens to nature, and admitting to them those of 
 the most tender age, no other means than play are resorted to. 
 
— 65 — 
 
 had sucli a happy conception in matters of educa- 
 tion for giving it a new foundation, experience in the 
 application and carrying out of his system must de- 
 monstrate to those who cannot gain this conviction by 
 becoming acquainted with the ideas he embodied in 
 his writings and institutions, — ihey will have to wait 
 
 Plato had the same ideas, as we shall perceive on turning to a 
 paragraph in his "Laws" : *I say that it has been hitherto over- 
 looked in all States that plays have the mightiest influence on the 
 maintenance or non-maintenance of laws, for if those plays are 
 conducted according to laws or rules, and children always pursue 
 their amusements in the same manner and fmd pleasure in it, it 
 is not to be feared that they will break laws, the end of which is 
 more serious. ' In ' 'The Kepublic" Plato again expresses himself 
 in much the same manner. He says : ' From the first years, the 
 plays of children ought to be subject to strict laws, for if those 
 plays, and those who take part in them, are arbitrary and lawless, 
 how can children ever become virtuous men, abiding by and obe- 
 dient to law ? If, on the contrary, children are early trained to 
 submit to law in their plays, the love for those laws enters their 
 souls -vN-ith the music accompanying them, never leaves them, and 
 helps in their davelopment.' In scrutinizing Fk(ebel's method, 
 it is strikingly evident that it is nothing else than a detailed com- 
 mentary on these words of Plato, which have hitherto remained 
 unintelligible, unfathomed and unappreciated. 
 
 It is easily to be seen that, in our time, when so many new 
 schemes of education have been discussed, Fkcebel alone has car- 
 ried out the suggestion that Plato gave in his beautiful language, 
 and made play the basis of his grand educational scheme, play 
 which he has developed organically in all its directions. The 
 anarchy or arbitrariness of play he subjects to laws; he subjects it 
 even to the laws of rhythm, as Plato says, because so many of his 
 plays are accompanied by music," 
 
— 66 — 
 
 to see the results embodied in those children that have 
 been educated according to his principles. 
 
 The most difficult of all difficult things certainly is 
 to give a generally acceptable definition of a new 
 truth, small or gi*eat, that lies so much beyond the 
 common apprehension of people. Therefore it was 
 not easy for Frcebel to make himself understood, and 
 his complaint that he' was not comprehended was justi- 
 fied, for in his time he was only understood by a few. 
 Still he succeeded in impressing all of his immediate 
 disciples with the importance of his ideas, and the 
 sacred mission devolving upon them; and they have 
 succeeded so far that they have disseminated those 
 ideas in all civilized countries. 
 
 Intellectual development likewise proceeds accord- 
 ing to distinct laws; these correspond to the laws that 
 govern the universe, being only heightened for the 
 higher grades of development. We must be able to 
 trace this lawfulness to a fundamental law, different 
 as its modes of expression may be on the higher plane. 
 Frcebel calls it, as many thinkers before him did, the 
 law of contrasts and their connection, or the law of 
 equipoise. There exists nothing to which it is not ap- 
 plicable, for everything that exists is a connected con- 
 trast. One proposition always presupposes a counter 
 position. God pre-supposes the universe, and the uni- 
 verse presupposes God; man connects nature, or rela- 
 tive unconsciousness, with God, or absolute conscious- 
 ness. The interior and exterior of an object are con- 
 trasts which are connected by the object itself and 
 
— 61 — 
 
 made one. Iii nature this law also manifests itself as 
 interchange of matter. All organisms have the proper- 
 ty of secreting or eliminating substances, and, as a 
 contrast, of assimilating, attracting, sucking up what 
 other organisms have thrown off or eliminated. This 
 is a process of giving and taking, which is by assimila- 
 tion connected in the mode peculiar to each substance. 
 This is the interchange, by which the material world 
 is in constant reciprocal intercourse which holds it 
 and, as it were, blends it. 
 
 In the world of intellect, the same law operates in 
 an analogous manner. Intellectual development is 
 also interchange of matter in a spiritual sense. From 
 without, the soul takes in its store of impressions or 
 perceptions through the senses, to work them interior- 
 ly into thoughts and conceptions, in order to manifest 
 them again outwardly as words and actions. Without 
 the society and communion of other men, man would 
 never learn to think or .speak. The process of thought 
 is impossible without comparison; in order to compare, 
 there must be differences; the most distinct differences 
 form relative contrasts which lind a connection in that 
 which has points of resemblance to each. Thinking, 
 therefore, is a connection of contrasts, or opposites, in 
 the mind. This is also the law cf centrifugal and 
 centripetal force, and the processes of inhaling and 
 exhaling, of contraction and expansion, may serve to 
 exemplify the same. 
 
 This long recognized law Frcebel applied to edu- 
 cation, reasoning thus: as this law is active in the 
 
— 68 — 
 
 process of intellectual development in earliest child- 
 hood, in the period of unconsciousness, — that is to 
 say, that as the unaided development of the child 
 must proceed according to this law, — therefore it is 
 the natural, necessar}^ law of the human soul, which 
 education has to take into account, if it aims at pro- 
 ceeding according to nature. 
 
 This is done when the educator in his method ap- 
 plies this law, and induces the child also to apply it 
 in his activity or work. This should be done even from 
 the beginning of childish development, from the period 
 of dawning consciousness, which is the starting point 
 of all that is to come afterward. By doing this, the 
 future more or less conscious proceeding of the human 
 mind will be prepared for, while by a contrary or 
 wrong proceeding it will be hampered instead of aided. 
 For instance: the child receives, through the senses, 
 from its very birth, impressions from without; it feels 
 warmth and cold, perceives light and darkness, learns 
 by and by to distinguish hard things and soft, solids 
 and liquids, near objects and distant objects, etc. All 
 these are pointed contrasts. The senses in their un- 
 developed state arc unable to distinguish between a 
 hard object and one a little less hard, between things 
 near and those a very little farther removed. The 
 greater the contrast in the qualities of things, — not 
 the things themselves,— in that which constitutes their 
 difference, the more easily they are distinguished. 
 Distinguishing is the first condition of comprehension. 
 Is it then not proper that we should present to the 
 
 I 
 
— 69 — 
 
 child the things which occupy its attention, in the form 
 of contrasts, in order to facilitate its perception of 
 them ? To make it cognizant of size, we should pre- 
 sent to it one object of comparatively large size, and 
 another, the same in kind, of a comparatively small 
 size; in order to make it see difference in colors, we 
 should give it tw^o primary colors in strong contrast, 
 etc. In Frcebel's second gift, the sphere, a surface 
 without corners or faces ( planes j, and the cube, with 
 many faces, corners and edges, are connected in the cy- 
 linder which, with its half-round surface of the sphere, 
 and half-plane surface and edges of the cube, is the 
 connection of the two opposites. This gift serves as 
 a good illustration of the law. 
 
 By means of these forms, the child receives, through 
 the sense of sight, impressions, — nothing else; but 
 from impressions arise perception and will, and sub- 
 sequently understanding and thinking; therein lies the 
 importance of first impressions. A child so trained 
 will have clearer perceptions than if left to mere 
 chance development. 
 
 As God, the Creator, has in all his creation con- 
 nected contrasts, or opposites, in order to produce 
 harmony, man also in his works ought to proceed in 
 this way. The musician finds the accord by connect- 
 ing two contrasting sounds by a third; the painter 
 combines the opposites of light and shade by middle 
 tints; the weaver draws the threads of his cloth in 
 perpendicular and horizontal lines. The child in the 
 kindergarten weaves and twists in the same manner; 
 
— 70 — 
 
 it lays one stick perpendicularly, another horizontally, 
 and connects the two by laying a third obliquely. It 
 takes the same stick that was perpendicular, and 
 places it in the position of the horizontal, and so learns 
 that one contrast may be turned into the other, as in 
 planting a tree with the branches downward and the 
 roots upward, the roots become branches and the 
 branches roots. Frcebel calls ^/ii« law, "The oppo- 
 site likes." The child applying this simple law, in 
 thousands of different ways in his plays, is led to 
 create or invent; for to create for man is notiiing else 
 than to produce from that which is given, by means 
 of combination, variety of forms and effects. Without 
 law or method, this is not possible; the proceeding in 
 each work of industry as well as of art, is in its funda- 
 mental traits according to law. 
 
 If the child has always applied this fundamental 
 law in the development of its own mind, in all its little 
 productions, even in play, without knowing anything 
 further about it than that by its simple application it 
 can produce the most manifold forms, shapes, and 
 figures, still much more has in this wise been done to 
 prepare for futui'e studies than could have been at- 
 tained by any other mode. To arrange, to classify, 
 to distribute, without which no true instruction, no 
 clear thinking can be, has become the life element and 
 habit. Clearness or distinctness in feeling, willing 
 and thinking or perceiving, is the only true and sure 
 foundation of all culture. 
 
 Therefore education should be first requii-ed to give 
 
— 71 — 
 
 support, according to natural laws, to the develop- 
 ment of free activity, to take into consideration the out- 
 ward given conditions of each epoch of time, of each 
 peculiarity. In short, the perception and application 
 of the universal laws of spiritual development are re- 
 quired, — spiritual being used in the widest sense ap- 
 plicable to intellect as well as to morals and religion. 
 Nobody will deny that any practical invention, how- 
 ever small, to bring education into conformity with 
 the laws of our being and the demands of our time, is 
 of the greatest importance, and must serve to shorten 
 and accelerate the process of remodelling society. A 
 new time needs new and better human beings; to pro- 
 duce them, education cannot do all still it can do a 
 o-reat deal. 
 
— 72 — 
 
 Chapter V. 
 The Child's Educatioa 
 
 (Ckmtinued.) 
 
 Poor Cliildhood, how many wrongs have been com- 
 mitted against thee ! The grown man has weapons 
 of defence in his encounters with suffering, but help- 
 less childhood is exposed to all the blows of wrong 
 treatment or cold neglect. Even tenderness, misap- 
 plied, does great harm, and may co-exist with the 
 worst neglect. Many mothers fondly caress their 
 children, who do not administer even to their higher 
 spiritual wants, but turn them over to nurses who may 
 possibly be affectionate and faithful, but who are in- 
 competent to feed the souls of their charges. So the 
 poor defenceless child receives many a wound in the 
 very beginning of life. If childhood were more care- 
 fully guarded, how many less despairing and desperate 
 human beings there would be ! Much has been said 
 and written about the importance of first impressions, 
 and yet what terrible negligence with regard to them 
 in this germinal period of the human soul ! How care- 
 fully nature shields her germs, the buds in plants and 
 trees, and how little parents do In this respect 1 
 
A young and tender leaf pierced with the finest needle, 
 bears the mark, all through its existence, as a con- 
 stantly widening and hardening knot in its structure. 
 Many such needle-pricks does the young soul receive 
 in childhood, which in time turn into deformities — 
 bad habits, faults, and vices. Is there a single indi- 
 vidual who has not had to bear, — sometimes a heavy 
 burden, — the consequence of neglect in childhood? 
 In infancy each man has the roots of Ids whole being, 
 and as the root, so the tree. The criminal and the 
 good man, if they could look back through the whole 
 of their lives, would easily trace, the one his bad and 
 the other his good deeds, to the roots resting in early 
 childhood. The cause of moral, as well as of physical 
 diseases, is partly to be found in the inborn disposi- 
 tion, a heritage from parents or ancestors; but it de- 
 pends greatly upon the first nursing and education 
 whether they will be smothered or developed. To a 
 certain degree every faulty disposition can be over- 
 come. 
 
 Almost all, especially young fond mothers, think 
 that tlieir children, resting so softly imbedded in their 
 love, are not to be pitied, that with every rough air 
 all moral evil is likewise excluded. And 3'et how much 
 sorrow proceeds from that too great tenderness in 
 mothers, which lacks wisdom and enervates body and 
 soul I But what young mother, in any sphere of so- 
 ciety, enters upon the maternal relation fully prepared 
 , for her duties and her mission as an educator of her 
 children? Seldom does she possess knowledge so far 
 
£is healthful conditions for their pliysical development 
 are concerned. Or if she knows, is slic willing to take 
 the exclusive care of her child ? and if she employs 
 others, does she always carefully watcli that they do 
 not give anything hurtful to the child, or treat it other- 
 wise than they sliould? Sometimes the seeds of future 
 disease are laid in early childhood. Health is very 
 essential, it gives strength to work and to do good; 
 sickly children are petted and spoiled, and, if they live, 
 are unfit for the various duties of mature life. 
 
 But the moral, or rather immoral, impressions re- 
 ceived in early childhood, are often more pernicious 
 even than physical injuries. The seeming passivity of 
 the young l^eing olten misleads, in regard to its keen 
 susceptibility to impressions from without. It is gen- 
 erally supposed that it is insensible to disorder, un- 
 cleanliness, rudeness, and want of beauty in its sur- 
 roundings, but these first impressions mark the stand- 
 point from which it regards the world. It is said that 
 each of us is the child of his time and of his nation- 
 ality, and in this is expressed the truth that we reflect 
 the impressions cf our immediate and somewhat ex- 
 tended surroundings. In this sense, we may also say, 
 each is the child of his famih*^ his nurse, his nursery, 
 his school, his playmates, for his time and nation are 
 reflected in them. The stamp which body and soul 
 show at a later period, in which the individuality of 
 each consists, is traceable to first impressions that fell 
 like rain or sunshine on the natural, inborn disposi- 
 tion. The boy who is brouojht up in the tumult of war 
 
— 75 - 
 
 and camp-life, will have a different impress from one 
 brought up, in peaceful retirement, among the flowers 
 of the garden. The Spartans and the Athenians lived 
 in the same country, under the same climate, at the 
 same epoch, and yet how differently custom and cul- 
 ture colored the characters of the people. Custom 
 and culture proceed from education, — that which is 
 given and that which is taken. That which is princi- 
 pally given, is merely the ^rsi education which fits the 
 human being to take, at a later period, that which is 
 needed. 
 
 Certainly, few errors breed so much evil, and hin- 
 der the development of the good in humanity so much 
 as that of regarding the chihl, in the first years of its 
 life, merely as a physical being. The great majority 
 of mothers think that at this period the soul is entire- 
 ly unimpressible and without wants. We have even 
 heard mothers call their children little animals. But 
 if the soul manifests itself later, it must have been in 
 existence before, however slumber-like its state, and 
 must have been awakened and strengthened for its 
 manifestations. By what means did it attain such a 
 degree of development? By impressions gradually 
 received from without, by the influence of its surround- 
 ings. Body and soul, or the mind and its organs, are, as 
 it were, in the beginning only one, and seemingly bodi- 
 ly wants express themselves almost exclusively. The 
 organs must gain strength before the soul can use 
 them, but through their development the soul itself 
 grows, and is shaf xi according to the degree of their 
 
— ^6 -^ 
 
 development. Every bodily impression— one on the 
 eye for example — is also a soul impression, and the 
 younger the human being is, and the less power of 
 resistance it has, the stronger is this impression. 
 Children adopt readily the manners, habits and moods 
 of their attendants, because in their undevelopment 
 they have no power of resistance, no judgment; they 
 must appropriate external things to their growth, and 
 the external is yet mightier than tlicy are themselves. 
 Therefore they are generally sweet-tempered, good 
 and contented, or cross, sullen and discontented, ac- 
 cording to the dispositions of those who surround 
 them. It is wrong to suppose that the coarse, ill 
 manners of servants or nurses, are indifferent to a 
 young child. Anger and lying a child learns nearly 
 always from those around it. To eat things forbidden, 
 to nibble or junket, leads often to theft. Many a 
 promising youth has been lost, because his mother 
 carelessly left things that he coveted lying about, 
 while she had not trained him to resist temptation, or 
 to deny himself any gratification. Later in life, he 
 was unable to endure privations, and gratified his de- 
 sires at whatever cost. 
 
 As in a moral point of view, so in an intellectual 
 one, carelessness and thoughtlessness on the part of 
 parents, in the first years of an infant's life, may do a 
 great deal of harm. Much of the mental confusion, 
 the muddle-headedness of our time, may be traced to 
 the overcrowding of little children, one or two years 
 old, with the variety of toy rubbish that is given them. 
 
— 11 — 
 
 How can they ever master it ? How can they gain 
 clear, distinct impressions from such things ? Inner 
 clearness proceeds from outward order. It would be 
 easier for a grown person to take in, at a glance, all 
 the objects in an industrial exhibition, than for a 
 young child to take in and distinguish between all the 
 different objects that are to serve for the acquisition 
 of its knowledge. It may seem ridiculous to speak of 
 the knoiuledge of an infant one year old; but does it 
 not learn about shape, color, material, size, number, 
 in short, about the qualities of things, before it can 
 reason about them ? This it does even in the first 
 year of its life. 
 
 It is not expected that a child six or seven 3'ears 
 old, with all the necessary materials, books, paper, 
 pen and ink, should learn to read and write without 
 assistance; but it is expected that a child up to its 
 third year should become acquainted, without aid or 
 instruction, in a thorough, practical manner, such as 
 is necessary to form clear conceptions, with all the 
 different objects which surround it, and their various 
 qualities. Without the right materials and without 
 help, it learns imperfectly what it ought to learn well 
 at that early age in preparation for school, be it even 
 for a Kindergarten. Some conscientious mothers oc- 
 cupy themselves a great deal with their children, but 
 not knowing or understanding much about the laws 
 of their mental development, they may fall into grave 
 errors, forcing and stimulating the little brains too 
 much, and thus causinxj serious injury. This reflection 
 
— ts — 
 
 induced Frcebel, after he had found and studied 
 those laws of development, to write his book for 
 the instruction of mothers,* and to give lectures to 
 mothers and nurses. 
 
 Through the senses, the young soul receives the first 
 nourishment for the development of the mind. As the 
 nature of the first physical nourishment is of the great- 
 est importance in the development of its physical or- 
 ganism, so the nature of the first soul nourishment 
 which the child receives, is of like importance. The 
 development of the soul depends, in a great measure, 
 not only upon the full development of the limbs, senses, 
 and organs, but upon the means by which they are 
 developed. Not more eagerly does the sucking babe 
 take in the milk, than do its senses, especially those 
 of which the eyes and ears are organs, take in food 
 for the soul. In this period, receptivity predominates. 
 As the bee gathers honey from many flowers, so the 
 soul of the child gathers impressions from many 
 images; these must become perceptions before the first 
 signs of intellectual activity show themselves. Up to 
 this period, the soul's powers work interiorly, unseen, 
 like the seed in the ground before the germ appears; 
 but as this germ perishes, if it is not moistened and 
 nursed, so many soul-endowments perish, if they arc 
 not supplied with nutriment. 
 
 In what then does the first culture of the young 
 
 * It is hoped that this book, "Mutter-, Spiel- und Kose-Lieder" 
 wiU be translated. 
 
- i^ ^ 
 
 soul consist? Is it not in impressions of the beautiful, 
 the true, the good ? These three, beauty, truth, good- 
 ness, are the aim of all culture, and therefore ought 
 also to be the aim of the culture of infancy and youth. 
 Education must begin with the ideal, and thence pro- 
 ceed to the real, if each generation is to realize new 
 ideas. Imagination should be developed before rea- 
 son ; that it is naturally exercised first, we see in the 
 history of the human race. It is very important that 
 adequate food for childish receptivity — reason being 
 undeveloped — should be found. We have hitherto be- 
 lieved that the feelers of the 3'oung soul would find out 
 the necessary nutrition, as theinstinct of animals finds 
 their proper food, and therefore ciiildren have been 
 left to their own resources. As little as a young ani- 
 mal can appease its hunger in a barren desert, can 
 the child's soul satisfy its hunger, if its surroundings 
 contain nothing on which it can feed. But are not the 
 forms, colors, sounds and materials, which might serve 
 as images for the little child's interior world, every- 
 where found in nature and the outer world? They 
 are certainly therein contained, but distributed, not 
 collected; not arranged for the eye that has not yet 
 seen, the ear that has not yet heard anything. They 
 are not existing in the elementary form which the yet 
 untrained senses require. Can the eye of a child, in 
 its first years, see the beauty of a landscape, in its 
 variety of picturesque points, even if it is represented 
 as a painted picture ? Or can the ear of a child have 
 an impression of a symphony of Beethoven, even a 
 
— 80 — 
 
 general impression? It is impossible; for tlie organs 
 have not yet the power to convey such complicated 
 impressions, nor has the soul the power to comprehend 
 them. Too strong, too powerful impressions, either 
 weaken the young senses, or leave the soul entirely 
 unaffected. 
 
 As nature has prepared for the child, in its mother's 
 milk, its fit bodily nourishment, so the mother ought 
 to supply proper soul nourishment. She should col- 
 lect objects to spread out before the senses, so that 
 the soul in its gropings may find what is fit; and be- 
 sides this the mother should remove from the child's 
 presence all those things which may be hurtful to its 
 development and growth. She should adapt the large 
 images of nature and the outer world to a smaller 
 compass; she should disintegrate single objects, select 
 them, clothe them with fancy and imagination, ani- 
 mate them, and make them symbols of beauty, truth 
 and goodness, so that they may be apprehended by 
 the simple capacities of the child. 
 
 It is not easy to find the symbols for the earliest 
 development; it is an art which requires deep knowl- 
 edge, knowledge of physiology and psychology; — how 
 are mothers, all mothers to gain it? The motherly 
 instinct, the motherly love, are certainly magicians, 
 sometimes making even tlie simplest perform wonders, 
 and, without the wonders that love has performed, hu- 
 manity in childhood would have had a still harder 
 struggle t( develop itself than has been the case. How 
 marked i« \lie difference between two children of the 
 
— 81 — 
 
 same age, the one cared lor and caressed by a loving 
 mother, the other brought up amid indifference and 
 dull surroundings ! How many children, in foundhng 
 hospitals, die more for want of soul food than physical 
 care ! Still not every mother is able to find all the 
 child's soul needs, if none of its faculties are to remain 
 dormant, if every one of them is to be developed as 
 much as possible. 
 
 It is the single individual who finds what all need. 
 For all its needs, humanity has had discoverers, in-, 
 ventors, geniuses, Avho have beautified or remodelled 
 human existence, and supplied the demand for knowl- 
 edge in various directions. It was Frcebel's mission 
 to make the needs of childhood understood, to fit hu- 
 manity for a higher step in its development, and to 
 furnish mothers with the symbols by which they can 
 lead the young soul through the labyrinths of its 
 primary stage of existence. His mind selected and ar- 
 ranged the materials, the forms, colors and sounds in 
 elementary simplicity, as they are fitted to enter into 
 the soul life of the child, without disturbing its quiet 
 development as a bud, without awakening the soul 
 rudely or precociously from its slumber, and yet 
 not allowing the glowing spark to be extinguished 
 in the ashes of the materialistic world. He found 
 the true law, by the aid of which the mother's in- 
 stinct may safely and firmly proceed to find what is 
 needed for the soul nourishment of the young human 
 plant. 
 
 What then is needed? Shall we give the young 
 
— 82 — 
 
 soul everything ready made, i)repared and graded, 
 that it may be saved all exertion, and take it in as it 
 does its mothers milk ? Certainly, in the beginning, 
 the child's surroundings should be fitted, ordered and 
 modelled according to its need, even as the cratlle and 
 garments are prepared for the babe. The infant has 
 to take everything before it can give; in a few months 
 it reaches out its tiny hands as if to grasp and take 
 its share of the world. Fr(EDEL thinks that the first 
 gasping of the child, is the earliest sign of awaken- 
 ing intelligence. It desires to take liold of material 
 objects with its hands, till the mind takes hold too, 
 and grasps in its own peculiar way. Only by appro- 
 priation can man come into relation with his world, 
 but appropriation must be accompanied by exertion, 
 since rights entail duties. In the first months of a 
 child's life, self-activity begins, itself a beginning for 
 further exertions; but instead of aiding the child and 
 furthering its efforts, tlie exercise Avhich conveys an 
 impression of space and distance, is denied it in tak- 
 ing away the object which the little hands reach after 
 and crave to experiment with. 
 
 Self- activity is the first princii)le of Frcebel's 
 method. The child, lie says, begins its activity by 
 making wliat is eutward interior, that is, it takes 
 from outward things impressions into its soul, in order 
 to manifest, at a later period, the interior as exterior; 
 or, in other words, having converted the impressions 
 received into perceptions and thoughts, it will mani- 
 fest them outwardly again in its works and actions, 
 
— 83 — 
 
 To take in and live out, are as essential to the child's 
 being as to all mankind. 
 
 Supposing the cliild to have been provided with the 
 right surroundings, from which it has taken impres- 
 sions of the beautiful, the true and the good, how is it 
 to live them out or to show them in its life? How 
 shall self-activity manifest itself? In what form or 
 way shall peculiar individuality be expressed? The 
 child must manifest its inner being according to na- 
 ture, in the form to which childish instinct leads: in 
 play. 
 
 Play ij free activity, the result of well-being and 
 joy. It is joy and happiness to the child to develop 
 itself in a natural way, though in unconsciousness of 
 the purpose, the aim of its activity. Jean Paul says, 
 ''Play is the first poetry of the child", but it embodies 
 also its first deeds. After the first months of passive 
 taking in, the child begins the life of acting, producing 
 — sound for example — and later of remodelling; for to 
 remodel the Avorld, is the task of humanity. 
 
 The child, one year old, that exerts all its strengtii 
 to pound an object on the table, to throw it on the 
 floor again and again; that tries to open a door while 
 on its mother's arm, or to pull open a drawer, uses 
 its powers and feels pleasure in the exercise; it plays, 
 but without aim or end in view, and without showing 
 its peculiar characteristics. Grown older, the child 
 imitates in its play. The little girl, for instance, with 
 her doll repeats what is done with herself, — washes, 
 dresses, undresses and puts it to bed. Or children 
 
— 84 — 
 
 imitate what they see in the kitchen, the workshop, 
 the garden or the street. This faculty of imitation 
 awakens perception in the soul, and leads on to dra- 
 matic personification, thus constantly exercising the 
 thinking faculties. At an early age, imitation is most- 
 ly of a general character, though ditferences of sex 
 soon manifest themselves, girls liking different plays 
 from boys; even temperament shows itself early, at 
 least the phlegmatic and sanguine are easily distin- 
 guished, and many individual traits mark peculiarity 
 of character. But it is only in rare cases that especial- 
 ly favored, highly gifted geniuses in science and art. 
 manifest their peculiar gifts so early in life. All great 
 musicians have not composed sonatas at six years of 
 age, as Mozart did. Love of nature may indicate the 
 ftiture naturalist, or love of numbers the mathemati- 
 cian. But not in doing and acting alone, will a child 
 manifest its peculiar personality; real productivity or 
 creative activity is necessary to bring out individual 
 talents. In the works of its hands we shall find indi- 
 cations of its peculiar vocation. How skilful the little 
 hands of children can be made, we see in the sad spec- 
 tacle of thousands of young beings, in the manifold 
 branches of industry, used like machines, always in 
 one direction. What a burning shame to our social 
 system, what a blight on humanity, is such a desecra- 
 tion of innocent children ! 
 
 The mind of a child can only produce inventively, 
 in the joyousness of play filled with the desire to attain 
 a certain result: the wish to gratify its own love for 
 
— 85 — 
 
 the beautiful, or, from the work of its hands, to make 
 a present to a dear friend, may incite its imagination. 
 For the attainment of such ends, the healthy child 
 shuns no labor, no exertions. Even without a certain 
 end in view, children like to work, to work hard, if it 
 is done like play; it is in their nature, for man was 
 created to work, to be useful. Who has not observed 
 the zest with which children sweep or shovel snow, 
 or do any voluntary work ? 
 
 But the child must become an artist, within the 
 limits of its powers, if the blossom of its peculiar indi- 
 viduality is to develop. For this, common, imitative, 
 aimless playing does not suflSce; for this, it needs 
 guidance, instruction and proper material. How often 
 do the little ones long for, and beg the assistance of 
 grown people in their plays f They feel that they need 
 guidance and counsel. How eagerly do they look 
 round for proper material, by the aid of which they 
 may carry out their ideas I But grown people seldom 
 know how to be true guides; they are either over- 
 bearing and arbitrary, desiring children to act accord- 
 ing to their ideas, or they are without interest and 
 sympathy. They fail to enter into the spirit of the 
 plays, nor do they understand childhood; though every 
 one of them was once a child, it would seem nothing 
 is more easily forgotten ! The material which children 
 generally find in their surroundings, is too crude and 
 clumsy for shaping and moulding. For instance, con- 
 siderable strength and skill are required to whittle 
 wood, and little children can not do it. Ready made 
 
— - 86 — 
 
 playthings leave no room for work, and cease to 
 interest, when their novelty is gone. It has often been 
 remarked, that the childish imagination deliglits in 
 unshapen things more than in those which are proper- 
 ly finished, to which nothing can be added. Often the 
 child of simple taste, unspoiled by luxuiy, prefers a 
 bit of wood, or rag, that to its imagination represents 
 a doll, to a real and beautiful one from a shop. In- 
 creasing luxury, and the present perfection of toys, 
 serve to make children merely idle observers and 
 critics of their playthings; they soon tire of them, and 
 ennui leads them to the only activity left in regard to 
 them — their destruction. Children become surfeited, 
 want continual change and something new; they are 
 dissatisfied with everything, because in all this abun- 
 dance there is nothing to give activity to their powers. 
 The building-blocks and tool-boxes now given to boys, 
 are very well, but instruction in the use of them should 
 also be given. 
 
 Fr(EBEL relates, that when he was a little boy, he 
 l>ecame interested in watching the workmen who were 
 repairing the gothic church of the village. After 
 closely observing what they did, he collected stones, 
 pieces of timber and boards, and began also to build a 
 church; but after trying a great while in vain to pro- 
 duce something satisfactory, he gave up in despair. 
 This fruitless attempt, he thought, gave him his first 
 impression that children ought to have better prepar- 
 ed materials to work with, and some one to tell them 
 how to work, and that then they would certainly do 
 
— 87 — 
 
 better. So his own childish attempts at play, in his 
 father's garden, became the starting point from which 
 he proceeded to find suitable materials and a method 
 of using them, — the occupations and system of the 
 Kindergarten. 
 
 These means of occupation serve, even from the first 
 months, to make the perception of things easier. The 
 simplicity, order and adaptation of the objects present- 
 ed to the child, facilitate its reception of impressions of 
 shape, size, number, color, sound; and by definiteness, 
 succession and connection, distinct images and im- 
 pressions are given, adapted to the awakening com- 
 preliension. They serve to develop the limbs, the 
 senses and all organs, in the plcasantest manner, by 
 self -exertion^ so that the child is enabled to express 
 what is within, to recognize itself in its own works, 
 even as the work of the artist shows forth his mind. 
 The childish instinct of play came to consciousness in 
 Frcebel; he saw (if we may attribute a sort of con- 
 sciousness to nature) the end that nature liad in view, 
 he saw the analogy between these primitive manifesta- 
 tions in the development of childhood and the devel- 
 opment of the human race, 'or humanity; and thus he 
 was able to find adequate means to gratify the impulse 
 for culture, which is inborn, and by which man devel- 
 ops himself and his world. 
 
 It is commonly said that genius always makes its 
 way, that genius will finally triumph. Certainly, Di- 
 vine Providence finds the means by which those chosen 
 to fulfil a great mission, will attain the end ; but who 
 
_ 88 — 
 
 can tell how much sorrow and fruitless struggle, hoM' 
 many tears might have been spared them ! or how 
 much greater their accomplishments might have been, 
 how much more genial their hearts, if the struggle had 
 not been so hard ! How many of those who finally at- 
 tain the palm, are soured and embittered in spirit, or 
 broken in health by early privations? Many think 
 that the development of such genius or character is 
 due to these tears, struggles, and despair. It is true 
 that man owes his greatness always to his own exer- 
 tions, by which he develops natural endowments; but 
 it is of great importance to recognize such endowments 
 in early life, and to take right steps at the outset to 
 attain the ends aimed at. AVe often see genius break 
 through all obstacles, but we doubt whether such ob- 
 stacles are needful. If a person who has a beautiful 
 voice never sings, or is never trained in music, how 
 can he become a great singer? If Humboldt and 
 Thorwaldsen had been imprisoned ia a dark cellar, 
 where neither sight nor sound could have reached 
 them, where their faculties could not have developed, 
 or even if they had been children of very poor parents, 
 their wonderful genius might never have unfolded. 
 Who may count the fettered powers and gifts that 
 drop from the tree of humanity like unripe fruit, be- 
 cause they had no scope for exercise, because the soul 
 was never brought out from its darkness ! It is not 
 probable that the number of geniuses will diminish, if 
 their crown of thorns is changed to a crown of roses, 
 when all their powers find scope for joyous working 
 
— 89 -— 
 
 and striving, and wise guidance makes clearer to tlie 
 child even its true calling, and shows it the shortest 
 way to attain it^ All the overexertions of humanity 
 should be done away with, especially in childhood, for 
 children ought above all things to be happy. They 
 become happy by activity, by developing their dormant 
 powers. Their real wants should be gratified; they 
 should have exercise, and by it instruct themselves, 
 without the deadening constraint of the school. 
 
 The awakening of the creative spirit in children, 
 will free the coming generation from its greediness for 
 pleasure and excitement, which unsettles the morals 
 of our own generation. Activity as play furnishes the 
 elements of all knowledge, and the capacity /or doings 
 so that a connection and unity in culture are brought 
 about. Knowing and doing are separated in our day, 
 theory is apart from practice, which is an evil in mor- 
 als as well as in science. The school ought to receive 
 the child already prepared with the fundamental con- 
 ditions for the acquisition of knowledge: the child 
 should be able to see with its eyes, to hear with its 
 ears, to observe; it should be in a receptive state, 
 having a desire for knowledge, able to distinguish 
 the objects in its surroundings, and able to give 
 expression to its inner world, in forms that are in 
 accordance with its childish ways. The clay model- 
 ling in the Kindergarten is, of course, very imper- 
 fect, compared with the modelling of the sculptor, 
 but it is the child's mode of expressing its simple ideas 
 and conceptions. 
 
— 90 — 
 
 Virtue and morality must be taught by practice, 
 words and precepts arc not suflScient; by exercise only 
 the will gains strength for good and noble actions. 
 There is no better field for children to learn to prac- 
 tise virtue in than is given in the Kindergarten. The 
 restraint is not too great, and the children are among 
 their equals in age, toward whom they will freely act 
 out themselves, as they would not do toward older 
 people. 
 
 No epoch requires doing ^ so much as the present. 
 The achievements of industry in our day, are as 
 colossal as the pyramids of Egypt; but instead of 
 requiring centuries for their accomplishment they re- 
 quire only days, and the external world is remodelled 
 with great rapidity. But how slow is the progress of 
 moral reform compared with this! What power can 
 we employ to rival in its effects the wonders accom- 
 plished ? Is there a higher power than love ? God's love 
 created the world; and what earthly love is mightier 
 than that of the mother? The divine spark of love 
 is purest and strongest, I might even say holiest, in 
 the mother's heart. Ought it not then to be powerful 
 in purifying and elevating human society, in helping 
 it to rise out of the ashes of b3'gone centuries to a new 
 life? 
 
 It is not sufficient that saving ideas are announced 
 to the Avorld; devotion, patience and sacrifice are re- 
 quired to carry them out practically. Humanity has, 
 as it were, two elements, the masculine and the fem- 
 inine; hitherto the masculine has predominated, and 
 
— 01 — 
 
 given its stamp luid impress to the world. Dry intel- 
 lectual culture, and matters of fact, have desolated 
 the world and made it barren, only the dew drops of 
 affection can fructify it again. The appeal that sum- 
 mons women to the rescue, that calls out their activity, 
 is heard every Avhcre. A cry of distress comes from 
 helpless innocent childhood; it appeals to the heart of 
 the mother to help to form a new and better genera- 
 tion fit to inhabit and give moral strength to the out- 
 Avardly beautified world. A key has been found to 
 decipher and develop the child's whole being, the al- 
 phabet of which is the book for mothers. Will they 
 avail themselves of it, and will young girls gladly con- 
 secrate themselves to the guidance of childhood, the 
 sacred office to which Fp.cebel calls them? 
 
— 92 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 Froebel's Mother Cosseting Songs. 
 
 This ''Family Book", as he calls it, Frcebel offers 
 to mothers as a guide for the first infantile develop- 
 ment, by means of physical play exercises. The 
 examples given are intended to make clear to the 
 mother's consciousness the aim of all her play Avith 
 her child. No dry, pedantic imitation is desired, but 
 it is hoped that mothers will imbibe the spirit of the 
 book, and carry out, with such modification as may 
 be necessary, its pervading idea. 
 
 For centuries, the mother's instinct, impelled by the 
 desire to amuse her child, has been inventing little 
 plays for the exercise of its limbs, which have, of 
 course, contributed somewhat to their development, 
 but only in an imperfect way, as everything must be 
 that is left to instinct alone. This playing is often 
 nothing but foolish dandling, because mothers or 
 nurses have not the proper end in view, — the develop- 
 ment of the limbs, and the weakening of all the dor- 
 mant faculties of the soul. 
 
 A great man has said: "Let me make the songs of 
 
— 93 — 
 
 a nation, and I' care not who shall make the laws." 
 Perhaps he did not overestimate the influence of song 
 on the hearts of men. How we love our national 
 songs ! In proportion as they are the embodiment of 
 justice, truth antl purity, in that degree Avill they be 
 powerful in awakening like sentiments in the hearts of 
 the people. What then should be the character of the 
 songs given to the little child, as the first means of 
 bringing it into conscious relationship with the world 
 around it? Should they not be of the best, the purest 
 type, and at the same time of greatest simplicity? 
 Should not everything that would give the child bad 
 impressions be excluded ? 
 
 The cradle-songs which have been handed down from 
 one generation to another, through nurses and mothers, 
 are nearly alike in all civilized countries, because they 
 have originated in a maternal instinct which is every- 
 where pretty much the same. Of such traditional Tore 
 Frcebel collected what would serve his purpose, while, 
 for the greater part of his life, he carefully observed 
 the simple habits of mothers among the people, enter- 
 ing peasants' huts, and staying for hours with mothers 
 and their babies. He also collected the quaint old 
 sing-songs and lullabies, but freed them from rude, 
 coarse expressions, and from images ill adapted to 
 childish conception, which made those old melodies 
 extremely nonsensical and often hurtful. 
 
 No mother plays with her child silently; every one 
 speaks or sings while she plays, because human beings 
 need language from the very beginning of their exist- 
 
— 94 — 
 
 ence, as a distinctive cliaracteristic of their spiritual 
 nature. Those who yet recollect, with tender emo- 
 tion, the lullabies Avith which a mother's voice hushed 
 them to sleep, will understand Frcebel who sees in 
 the songs, which accompany the first infantile plays, 
 the means of developing the child's emotional nature. 
 Through musical sounds the heart speaks, and harmo- 
 nies awaken emotions. But the mother is too often 
 ignorant of the great power that she may Avield in this 
 simple element of song; she sings because her heart 
 prompts her to sing; but Frcebel sees in her simple 
 song the greatest educator of the infant's soul. He 
 has given to the mother a volume which cannot be 
 too highly valued, the aim of which is nothing less 
 than the development of the child's threefold nature. 
 I]y the exercises which accompany the songs, physical 
 development is assisted; by the words which always 
 have reference to something nearly related to the 
 child, he is brought into loving sympathy and close 
 relationship with nature and surrounding life, thus 
 developing mind and heart. The mother should always 
 feel that it is her privilege and duty to help the little 
 one to get possession of its powers of body and soul. 
 Soon it must live, think, and feel for itself. The great 
 question for the mother should be: How can I best 
 prepare my child for this independent life of thought 
 and action, how lead it into the right channels ? The 
 mother is to the child the world's interpreter. All to 
 the young being is new, strange and wonderful; and 
 is it not well that it does not at once particularize ? 
 
— 95 — 
 
 Otherwise it v;oukl be bewildered by the infinite varie- 
 ty presented to it. It is the mother's mission to enter 
 into the child's nature, to live its life, to understand 
 its impulses, to feel its needs; to bring her love, her 
 sympathy, her wisdom, to this work of leading the 
 child along the dark path of early life, and to make it 
 acquainted with its relations to nature, to its fellows, 
 and, through these to bring it into a conscious rela- 
 tionship to its Heavenly Father. 
 
 In the first years of life, physical development is fore- 
 most, though the development of the soul proceeds at 
 the same time, for soul and body are so united that the 
 one can only be developed by means of the other. So, 
 according to Frcebel's idea, the mind receives tlic 
 necessary aid to its awakening, through the develop- 
 ment of the senses and limbs. 
 
 Gymnastic exercises for larger children and for 
 youth, are now almost universally regarded as neces- 
 sary, as conducive to physical health. But the moral 
 power of man also needs discipline; with the strength- 
 ening of the muscles the will-power also strengthens, 
 and with grace of body refinement of soul should like- 
 wise be gained. If the young limbs need this varied 
 and systematic exercise for the muscles, after the child 
 can walk, run and jump, how much more do they need it 
 before self-activity begins ? Acrobats and circus-riders 
 take only quite young children to train for their cal- 
 lings. The practice of tying up babies in swaddling- 
 jclothes has long been abandoned; but when the babe 
 lies with unfettered limbs on its mattress, when it moves 
 
— 96 — 
 
 hands and feet and plays with them, it needs more aiil 
 than an older child, in order to attain the development 
 which these instinctive motions indicate and aim at. 
 
 Common gymnastics are designed to exercise and 
 develop every muscle. But such exertion alone would 
 tire the young child too much. Its interest must be 
 awakened in various directions, that it may be happy 
 and joyous. A child will not grow weary of showing 
 its height, while it would be unwilling to stand erect 
 or to stretch out its arms to no purpose. There must 
 be a meaning in all that is done with a child, suited 
 to its comprehension, such as is furnished in Frcebel's 
 play gymnastics. The exercise of the body is in them 
 made also an exercise of all the soul organs, as it 
 were, and the firstplayfulactivity of the child becomes 
 the germinal point and the preparation for future de- 
 velopment in the kindergarten and school, establishing 
 system and connection throughout the whole process 
 of development. 
 
 Frcebel himself says of his book: '' I have embodied 
 in it the most important ideas of my educational sys- 
 tem. It is the starting point for an education accord- 
 ing to nature's laws; it shows how all the germs of 
 human endowment have to be nurtured and assisted 
 to produce a full and healthy development." Our poet 
 Schiller had a glimpse of this when he said in '' Wal- 
 lenstein": *^Deep meaning often lies in childish play." 
 
 The modes of expression in '' The Mother Cosseting 
 Songs'^ have been criticized as uncouth and often un-, 
 intelligible, but the critics have not penetrated deeply 
 
— DT — 
 
 into the contents or the spirit of the book. They may 
 perhaps improve the i'orm, but let them beware of 
 altering the character of childlike naivete and orig- 
 inality, in which the charm of the book consists, and 
 which gives it its value. We must not forget, in judg- 
 ing it, that the mottoes are meant for grown people, 
 and the songs for children. 
 
 Life is exertion of power, and all adequate exertion 
 is joy in existence. The j^oung animal in its playful 
 capers shows this, as well as the child in its expres- 
 sions of gladness when it presses its little feet against 
 an object which resists the pressure, or against the 
 hands of the mother, who should repeat this exercise 
 and several of a similar kind, in order to strengthen 
 the muscles of the back and legs. The most important 
 exercises in Frcebel's book ai-e for the hand, as the 
 most important tool of man. The more man is relieved 
 from hand drudgery in work, by the use of machinery, 
 the more the skill of the hand must be developed, that 
 it may be employed in the constantly advancing works 
 of industry and art. The hands of little children among 
 the poorer classes are mostly stitf and clumsy, still 
 they must serve to gain daily bread . Without early 
 exercise, the elasticity of the hand is lost to a great 
 degree, the muscles do not gain sufficient strength to 
 meet the demands in the higher technics of our day. 
 Complaint of the want of skilled labor is universal. 
 Sculptors and great players on the piano or violin 
 know that, only by constant practice in early child- 
 hood, could they have overcome the technical difficul- 
 
- ()g -- 
 
 ties of their arts. The necessity for making use of 
 early childliood, in order to be prepared to meet the 
 demand f)r men who know and can do, is, on the 
 whole, more and more felt. Education therefore 
 must begin with overcoming matter, in order to pro- 
 duce change in matter, — in industry and art; and 
 further still to spiritualize matter, so that it may be- 
 come embodied thought, as in a creation of art. It 
 not onl3' saves time, but a large amount of tedious 
 drill at a later period, if a certain degree of mechani- 
 cal skill is acquired by means of play in childhood. It 
 is gained almost unconsciously then, and Frcebel's 
 systematic plays not only aim at this physical training, 
 but at the development of mind and soul, thus pre- 
 venting idleness, the worst enemy to morality and 
 childish innocence. If the mind and the hand work 
 together from the outset, there is little chance of the 
 human being becoming a mere mechanical drudge. 
 
 In his book, ^^TJie Mother Cosseting Songs'\ Froebel 
 takes into account, as he does in all his other devices 
 for the education and development of children, the 
 threefold relation into which every human being enters 
 at birth, namely the relation to nature, to man and to 
 God. The surroundings of the child are either prod- 
 ucts of nature or of human culture, and have their 
 final cause in God. The child's relation to these ob- 
 jects should be taught in a manner clear and definite, 
 though connected. 
 
 When the little one is taken out into the open air. 
 it will first notice objects in motion, a flag flapping, 
 
-- 99 — 
 
 or a weathercock turning it may be, and when the 
 child is old enough to understand the words used, such 
 a hand gymnastic as Fr(ebel gives, may be employed 
 to illustrate the effect of the wind which, we say, also 
 moves the trees, the mill, the kite. Let the child, too, 
 seek the wind: it cannot be found, and thus the im- 
 pression of something that acts while hidden — of an 
 unseen force — will be made on the tender mind. 
 
 The Weathereock. 
 
 Exercise for bringing the Muscles of the Hand and 
 
 Arm into Action. * 
 
 * It may be thought strange that instead of a woman's delicate 
 hand a masculine hand is represented in the woodcuts, but they 
 are taken from the original, the model for which was Frcebel's 
 hand. Although Fecebel had no children of his own, his pecu- 
 liar faculty of playing with babies was remarkable, and in his lec- 
 tures to mothers and nurses he always illustrated the play gym- 
 nastics of his Mother Cosseting Songs himself 
 
— 100 — 
 
 Motto for the Mother. 
 If 3'ou wish your child to find 
 A lesson suited to its mind, 
 In all its eyes can see; 
 When the things you show and name, 
 Teach it to imitate the same: 
 The child will learn with glee. 
 
 Song for the Child. 
 Like the cock upon the tower, 
 Turning round in wind and shower. 
 Little children's hands must learn, 
 All in play, to twist and turn. 
 
 Sympathy with all created things should be early 
 awakened. The child should live much in the open 
 air, in the country if possible. It realizes no distance, 
 and the little song about the moon shows how Frcebel 
 would bring the young soul into loving relations with 
 all that exists in nature. 
 
 The Child and the Moon. 
 
 Motto for the Mother. 
 Why do the objects far away. 
 To the child's eye, so close appear ? 
 Why does it ever wish and strive 
 To bring the things of distance near ? 
 
 Mother! canst thou not see in this 
 A meaning deep, a mystic sign, 
 
~ 101 -^ 
 
 stamped on the babe's unsullied Sual, 
 In wisdom, by a hand divine ? 
 
 It tells thee not to break the dream 
 The blessed dream of infancy, — 
 In which the soul unites with all 
 In earth or heaven, in sea or sky. 
 
 It tells thee that the bounds of space 
 Exist not for the infant's soul. 
 All that the senses can perceive, 
 Seems one great and continuous whole. 
 
 And lies there not a truth sublime 
 In these perceptions of the babe; 
 A symbol of the highest law. 
 That the Most High to creatures gave ? 
 
 A symbol of the law of love 1 
 Oh, mother I let that plead to thee 
 To teach thy child in God to find 
 The source of love and unity. 
 
 Then break not suddenly the dream, 
 The blessed dream of infancy; 
 But teach the opening soul in all 
 An everlasting love to see. 
 
 Come child, come, let us look up at the moon 
 Now shining so brightly on high; 
 '' And will you not come down to us, bright moon, 
 From your beautiful home in the sky?" 
 
— 102 — 
 
 ^'Oh yes," says the moon, ''I should like to come, 
 And visit a good little child; 
 But I cannot get out of mj dark blue home, 
 So I send down my beams so mild. 
 
 '''Tis a very long way 'twixt you and me, 
 Though so near I appear to your sight; 
 I am much farther off than I seem to be. 
 But not too far to send down my light. 
 
 ''And though I can never come down to play 
 With the good little children I love, 
 I can often come round, at the close of day, 
 To shine on them all from above. 
 
 ''Then very good friends we can ever remain. 
 Though we live so far off from each other; 
 Be a very good child, and I'll soon come again 
 To shine upon you and your mother.'' 
 
 Song for the Child. 
 ' • Yes, friends we must always be, beautiful moon I 
 And whenever you shine from above, 
 We shall greet you with pleasure; so come again soon, 
 And with love I shall pay ])ack your love." 
 
 The cultivation of the senses is very important, and 
 a very different matter from the gratification of the 
 senses. True, high and noble enjoyment can only be 
 had through their discipline and culture, the sole 
 means of averting low, coarse sensuality so unworthy 
 
— 103 -- 
 
 of man. The sense of taste is the first to develop. 
 The child should not be allowed to devour its food 
 greedily, but be made to distinguish different kinds, 
 as, in a higher sense, the taste is afterwards to 
 be developed and cultivated. While she feeds it, the 
 mother should sing to the child a song indicating the 
 sources of some articles of its food, or allow it to feed 
 animals while it eats, giving a share to the cat, the 
 dog, or the bird. In this woy the child's attention is 
 diverted, and directed to something higlier than mere 
 self-gratification, though care must be taken that the 
 child, easily interested in other things, does not neg- 
 lect its own food. Frcebel gives the ' ' Mowing Song" 
 for use in the early training of the sense of taste. 
 
 Mowing. 
 
 Exercise for the Muscles of the Arm and Shoulder. 
 
 The action of moioing is imitated by the mother 
 taking the child's hands in hers, and swinging them 
 to and fro. 
 
— 104 — 
 
 Motto for the Mother. 
 When the infant's laugh so clear 
 Rings upon the mother's ear, 
 And she swings its arms in play, 
 Let her swing them not in vain; 
 But let the merry infant gain, 
 By something she can do or say. 
 
 Song for the Child. 
 
 ''Peter! quick! go out and mow, 
 
 In the pretty green meadow; 
 
 Then give the grass, so fresh and sweet, 
 
 To the gentle cow to eat. 
 
 Mary! go and milk the cow, 
 
 And make the butter for mc now; 
 
 From the milk is made the butter 
 
 Which I get on bread for supper. 
 
 Happy little child am I; 
 
 I must never, never cry. 
 
 ''Peter, quick! go out and mow, 
 
 In the pretty green meadow; 
 
 And when, this evening, for my supper 
 
 I sit and eat my bread and butter, 
 
 I must thank you, Peter, for the grass. 
 
 And thank the cow, and thank the lass 
 
 Who milks the cow, and makes the butter. 
 
 And for the bread must thank the baker, 
 
 And thank mamma for all, nor let 
 
 My heart a single thank forget." 
 
— 105 
 
 The play of ''Pat-a-cake" is almost everywhere 
 played with little children. 
 
 The sense of smell should also be cultivated, by 
 causing the child to smell different flowers. A little 
 song, illustrative of this, is made into a play in the 
 Kindergarten. 
 
 Love for animals should be early cultivated. Frce- 
 BEL would have a bird in a cage hung near the child 
 to awaken its interest. Children naturally notice and 
 watch animals. The song of the '/ Barnyard Gate " 
 in Frcebel's book, is intended to make the child ac- 
 quainted with the various domestic animals, to teach 
 it their names, and lead it to imitate their voices. 
 
 The Bird s ML 
 
 The hands form the 7iest, the thumbs turned inward 
 represent two eggs. At the ivords ^^Soon wee birdies'', 
 the thumbs rise and flutter. 
 
 In the hedge a birdie dear 
 Builds a nest of straw and hair, 
 Lays two eggs so small and round, 
 Soon wee birdies there are found. 
 
— 106 — 
 
 They call on mother: ''hear, hear, hear, 
 Mother so dear, mother so dear, 
 Oh mother dear, hear, hear, hear!" 
 
 •'Tlie Bird's Nest' is made the means of showing the 
 relations to lather and motlier, and it may also be 
 used to convey to the chikl first ideas of the protect- 
 ing care of the Heavenly Father. '' I have based my 
 education on religion and it must lead to religion," 
 said Frcebel. As \vc make the young child under- 
 stand that young birds wait patiently in the nest for 
 the return of the mother wiio brings them their food. 
 we teach that in like manner it must learn to trust in 
 its Heavenly Fatlier. 
 
 "Tlie Watering Pot", another play, which the child 
 has as a hand gymnastic, will lead it afterward to 
 take pleasure in tending and cultivating its little 
 garden patch in the Kindergarten, w here it will learn 
 that everytliing requires care and nursing; that love 
 must show itself in action, in the performance of 
 duties; that it must manifest itself in overcoming 
 laziness, and must shun no trouble. If the child thus 
 early takes loving care of plants iind animals, it Avill 
 afterward be more ready to sacrifice case and comfort 
 for the sake of dear friends; and so tlie tendency to 
 selfishness will be early counteracted. 
 
 The child's intimate relation to its mother does not 
 cease with its birth, but takes a new phase. Without 
 a mother's love, without a mother's care, entrance 
 
— 107 — 
 
 into life becomes a sad thing; through her the child 
 is introduced into this world, and she is the inter- 
 preter of the world and of humanity, making the 
 young being acquainted with father, brothers, sisters, 
 and friends. With the power to walk, the entire 
 dependence of the child on the mother gradually 
 ceases — only gradually^ for the physical oneness lasts, 
 as it were, even beyond the period of birth. But, in 
 this first stage of life, there must be established a 
 soul-oneness, if, as the physical union and dependence 
 diminish, the spiritual bond, which gives to the mother 
 the greatest educational influence, is to increase. How 
 touching to see the little child, in its first attempts to 
 walk alone, rush back to its mother's arms, as if in 
 dread of separation I If the hearts of the mother and 
 child are united, during their physical oneness and the 
 period of nursing, then the child's physical independ- 
 ence brings about the reverse in the spiritual relation. 
 The consciousness of its mental dependence on tlic 
 mother grows in the child, together with the con- 
 sciousness of bodily independence and the growth ol 
 its personality. 
 
 According to Frcebel, the first manifestation of the 
 relations of love which bind the child to the mother, 
 is its smile. Man alone can smile, and the babe has 
 only this language for the expression of its joy. All 
 relations begin at one point, with one object, and 
 must concentrate there before they can expand. So 
 the mother must become the child's centre around 
 which it moves, till others can approach it; therefore 
 
— 108 - 
 
 n 
 
 no other person should be so much occupied with th-d 
 infant, in order that it may thus learn to concentrate 
 itself. The children of the wealth}', who go from arra 
 to arm, and often see little of the mother, are apt to 
 become fickle and less aftectionate. 
 
 Pestalozzi in his book for Mothers, as well as FrcR' 
 BEL, indicates that when the mother first begins to 
 occupy herself with her cliild, she should play with it:; 
 limbs, and this she does, rightly enough, instinctivel}'. 
 By touching the various parts of its body, and naming 
 them to the child, it first becomes acquainted with its 
 own form. The first and the last knowledge that man 
 acquires, is of himself 
 
 He must know himself boilily before he can know 
 himself mentally. The study of physiology is too much 
 neglected in sch(X)ls. It is a natural instinct that leads 
 children to try t(j learn about their own forms, by 
 playing with their limbs, and the mother's instinct aids 
 them ; but it makco a great dirt*erence whether she does 
 it from mere instinct, or intelligently, keeping, in view, 
 as an end, physical development. 
 
 In the family, tlie mother must lead the child to 
 understand its relations to the father, the relatives, 
 and the inmates of the house. In the first months of 
 its life, the child recognizes no one but its mother. It 
 is only later, and when it has become acquainted with 
 the members of its family, that strangers or little com- 
 panions should approach it. We often see babies cry 
 or look ft-ightened when taken among strangers. We 
 say they are shy, and certainly anything unknown, 
 
— 109 — 
 
 strange, witliout connecting link, frightens a child. If 
 we wish it to develop harmoniously and lovingly, the 
 little heart must not bo crowded, and the circle of 
 relations must not bo extended too far at an early 
 period. It is wrong in strangers and grown persons 
 to kiss and caress a young child against its will; 
 violence is done to it, and its life element is taken 
 away. 
 
 For all these reasons, it is an injury to tlie child, if 
 instead of knowing family relations it is immediately 
 introduced into a large community where no tie is so 
 closely woven. The best public institutions. Orphan 
 Asylums, and the like, cannot wholly replace the 
 family, the atmosphere of life in which God has placed 
 the human plant ; but in the nurseries and infant 
 schools established according to Frcebel's principles, 
 the best is done to give to the poor motherless cliildren 
 motherly care and sympathy, not only in the supply of 
 physical needs, but in satisfying their craving for love, 
 and gratifying their instinct for play. 
 
 Father, mother, and child are necessary, says Fr(E- 
 BEL, to constitute a tvhole human being. The family 
 is the first link in the organism of mankind, the first 
 community. If this first link is imperfectly developed, 
 how can the succeeding ones, he asks, develop per- 
 fectly ? Still, if this circle, which is the basis of moral- 
 ity, did not enlarge, these exclusive family affections 
 would become family egotism, of which the world is full 
 enough. In the isolation and seclusion of the middle 
 ages, this family egotism was, in a measure, a neces- 
 
— no — 
 
 sity. aud so far was justitiable. Might i)re vailed over 
 right, and men were separated by family feuds aud 
 banded together in clans. In the present century 
 our condition and necessities are different. AVe are 
 equal before the law, and family egotism, as it exists 
 vet in aristocracy of birth or Avealth, in the spirit of 
 exclusiveness, umst be rooted out, if love for human- 
 ity is to grow. 
 
 Therefore the young cliild, after it has become per- 
 fectly familiar with the memlx^rs of it^ own family, 
 should enter into a larger connnunity, especiall}^ into 
 one where it will find those of its own age. There is 
 instinctive sympathy among children in the same stag(i 
 of development, as in later jxiriotls of life those who are 
 animated by like feelings and thoughts, or have the same 
 pursuits, are attracted toward each other. In fine 
 weather the Kindergarten is the best gathering place 
 for 3'oung children, even before the second 3'ear. It is 
 far l^etter than public promenades, streets and squares, 
 though the little ones must, of course, always be at- 
 tended by their mothers or nurses, while they observe 
 the amusements and occupations of the older children. 
 
 The famih' relations are also shown to the child, by 
 means of hand plays given in ' * The Mother Cosseting 
 Songs." A branch with many buds will suggest to an 
 older child these relations. In the two largest buds it 
 will see papa and mamma, in others brothers and 
 sisters according to size. The little girl plays father, 
 mother and child with her dolls, as well as her com- 
 panions. These examples show that the family re- 
 
- Ill — 
 
 latioiis are the most natural ones, and those which 
 mostly occupy children. In early childhood, everything 
 must be seen in symbols which give clearer ideas of the 
 objects than the objects themselves. In one of the 
 finger plays, the father, mother and children — including 
 the little one itself — ^are represented, counted, and 
 named. Again, while the mother presses the fingers 
 one after another, she says: ''For the thumb I say 
 one, for the first finger, two, for the middle finger I say 
 three, for the ring finger, four, for the little finger, 
 five ; now we have put them all to sleep ; they sleep 
 soundly and sweetly. Be quiet that none may awaken 
 too early!" 
 
 Counting is an almost inexhaustible pleasure for 
 little children, as everything is which serves for their 
 development, if it is only given in a way they can 
 understand. It is easy to make them aware of number 
 in the measure of music, the rhythm of poetry, and in 
 various other movements. The little game with the 
 fingers serves also for the very young child as an exer- 
 cise in self-control. Nothing is more difficult for it 
 than to remain perfectly quiet without motion, without 
 sound. You may command silence, without any ap- 
 parent necessity for it, in vain. But here it com- 
 prehends the meaning of the play, and we have seen 
 little children, with a very important air, keep per- 
 fectly quiet, holding the hand still many minutes, with 
 the idea that they must not wake the sleeping children. 
 Of little ones only little things can be demanded. Only 
 in such playftd ways the child gets conceptions, and a 
 
— 112 — 
 
 ^ 
 
 little exertion gradually increased, makes finally the 
 greatest exertion possible. Laziness in children of- 
 ten results from the care which parents take to save 
 them from all exertion, to have everything done for 
 them. 
 
 In another play, the fingers are made into a flower 
 basket, in which the child carries flowers to its father. 
 Thus even the youngest finds means to practically show 
 affection for its father or other friends. 
 
 Fiower Basket. 
 
 Motto for the Mother. 
 
 What the pretty babe requires, 
 To call its feelings into play. 
 
 The mother's tenderness inspires ; 
 The infant owns the parent's sway. 
 
 Song for the Child. 
 Little hands can learn to make 
 A basket in a minute. 
 And mamma can quickly take 
 Some pretty flowers to fill it. 
 The basket is not broad or long, 
 
— 113 — 
 
 But flowers look cheerful there ; 
 We'll give them^ with a little song, 
 To papa, when he comes here. 
 Sweet flowers, you arc for papa ; 
 La, la, la, la ; la, la, la, la. 
 
 Frcebel says : ' ' Human life must appear to the 
 child as a whole, indicating to it its individual destiny." 
 The child must learn to feel itself a link in the gj*eat 
 chain of humanity, and to forget self in doing loving 
 acts for others. It is an essential, leading idea with 
 Frcebel, appearing in his book as everywhere else, 
 that the connection among things, as well as among 
 men, should be made plain to the child's mind. 
 
 There is a tendency in this age to form associations 
 for the accomplishment of certain ends. If family 
 associations could be brouglit about, for the purpose 
 of improving educational science and harmonizing its 
 dilferent methods, they would be of greater benefit to 
 the race than all the combinations for material and 
 industrial purposes alone. For such union the Kinder- 
 garten affords the best opportunity. It begins educa- 
 tion in a community of families related by friendship, 
 where every member has a chance to use his talents 
 for the benefit of the young generation. 
 
— 114 - 
 
 Chapter YII. 
 Froebel's Mother Cosseting Songs. 
 
 Continued. 
 
 There are in the life of adults, as well as iu the life of 
 nations and humanity at large, epochs which exercise 
 a formative influence on it. Something similar takes 
 place in the life of children, and Frcebel points out to 
 mothers that by taking advantage of certain moments 
 the right educational influence is derived. The less 
 the child's consciousness is developed, the stronger will 
 be the moral eflect of those incidents that seem to us 
 trivial. If t lie importance of such events were rightly 
 estimated ; if the impression made by them were not 
 too quickly ctiaced, and so the true effect disturbed, 
 the whole moral development would rest on a firmer 
 basis. Everything, even the smallest incident in the 
 life of the infant, is of importance, because it is the 
 beginning of all that is to follow. For instance, Fr(E- 
 BEL considers the child's first fall as one. of the most 
 important events in its early development, the effect of 
 which should not be disturbed. The child's courage in 
 running, proceeds from ignorance of danger ; it is like 
 virtue which has been neither tried nor tempted. The 
 child falls, and its security of ignorance is at once 
 shaken. Friends who rush to the rescue, lamenting 
 
— 115 — 
 
 over and petting it, are unwise. Even though it 
 should be a little hurt and scream in consequence, it 
 [Should be left to itself long enough to receive a full 
 impression from this first, fi'ight and hurt. Then 
 caution awakes, self-confidence is no more blind, and 
 the necessity for gaining strength and skill is learned 
 by degrees. Nothing renders men more superficial 
 than a quick succession of impressions, of which the 
 one effaces the other without leaving any distinct trace 
 in the soul. The present generation, especially in 
 ^Miigh life", furnish proof of this. Fast reading, fast 
 travelling, the crowding of all kinds of enjoyments, 
 even the higher ones of nature and art; the pressure 
 and hurry of life, more than anything else, make great 
 numbers in our day superficial, empty and v.holly 
 devoid of the spirit of poesy. 
 
 As we can trace all the culture of man back to its 
 starting point in the influences of nature, so we shall 
 find that the awakening of conscience proceeds in a 
 manner analogous to the processes of nature. As 
 clearly as we recognize natural laws, do we see that 
 neglect of or want of conformity to them, is outwardly 
 and visibly expressed in physical disease and suffering. 
 In the moral world, the violation of moral law is ex- 
 pressed inwardly by the voice of conscience, and its 
 outward manifestation we call sin. 
 
 The importance of the first plays of children has not 
 yet been sufficiently recognized. They are a manifesta- 
 tion of the character of the human being in its first 
 appearing, and as such worthy of study, not so nmch 
 
— 116 — 
 
 in theii- form as in the iiidicatioiis which they furnish. 
 Here again those who do not understand the soul of 
 the child, who have forgotten their own childhood, may 
 smile, because we see in those simple plays the germ 
 of the soul-life, the seeds of spmtual development. But 
 if the first plays of the child, its first childish utterances, 
 are not in connection with the last works of mature age, 
 there is no coherence in human life, no consecutive- 
 ness in the development of man's spiritual nature. Only 
 when this connection is fully understood, and education 
 does not sever the thread wliich unites the child with 
 the youth, wUl manhood and old age realize their 
 ideals. Then true men, noble characters, will be de- 
 veloped. Humanity must again be brought into close 
 contact with nature. Natural sciences should be more 
 stutlied with nature herself as the text-book. But that 
 this may be done, we must begin to give to babes the 
 symlx)lisms of nature, which the}' understand better 
 than anything else. As humanity in the early dawn of 
 its life understood the language of natui-e, and heard 
 God's A'oice in it, so the cliild understands nature's 
 language of beauty and poetry: and to give it artificial 
 things instead of natui'al objects, is a cruel wrong. 
 Frcebel says in relation to man's unity wiih nature: 
 ''\Miat God has united man shall not sever." 
 
 A well-known play, pleasing to the yomigest children, 
 is ^^Hide and seek''. The face of the older person, or 
 of the child, is covered with a handkerchief, and when 
 this is withdrawn the child will manifest lively pleasure. 
 Frcebel says of this play : ' ' That which everywhere, 
 
— in — 
 
 among the smallest children, causes a manifestation of 
 joy, a play everywhere played with them, must have a 
 deep significance, — of that you may be sure." Let us 
 see how he interprets it for us. The joy which the 
 child manifests on seeing the mother again after sepa- 
 ration, proceeds from the deepened impression of union 
 with her given by means of the contrast. But if the 
 concealment last too long, or if the mother fail to show 
 her joy at seeing the child again, it may cause disap- 
 pointment, and awaken a liking for concealment in the 
 child, which may lead to lying, or the concealment of 
 the truth. Who can tell how the first germs of evil in 
 children come, and how they are indicated ? The least 
 spark which illuminates the darkness of the first psycho- 
 logical processes in the human soul, is of importanccf 
 and Frcebel has certainly looked deep into the original 
 soul-life of the child. Good and bad are closely con- 
 nected, and as God's Providence often turns bad into 
 good, so education should seek to turn the tendency to 
 evil into a channel for good. At the point where the 
 danger of leading the child to secretiveness comes, help 
 should also come. If the mother make this an occasion 
 for deepening in the chikVs mind the impression of its 
 unity with her, everything is gained. Outer separation 
 gives the sense of inner connection, for everywhere 
 unity is the end, and separation merely the means to 
 bring it to perception. This is Frcebel's explanation 
 of the play, and it agrees with his law of contrasts and 
 their connections, which he applies on the moral plane 
 as well as in his occupations. He never leaves a dis- 
 
— 118 
 
 I 
 
 cord or contrast till it it? resolved into an accord or 
 unity by connection. 
 
 The most essential thing in the child's education, is 
 the establishment of full confidence in the mother (as 
 well as later in the teacher), so that it may not attempt 
 to hide, in case it should commit a fault. But this con- 
 fidence can only be secured by Uving with the child its 
 ^ own life, by placing with it, by entering sympathetically 
 into all things which move its soul, and in rightly under- 
 standing and rightly guiding the manifestations of its 
 first development. Has the first fault been committed ? 
 Loving sympathy with the first interior suflering of the 
 child, as with an evil he has himself brought about, is 
 often more effectual than the severest blame. That this 
 blame must, sooner or later, be expressed, is certain, but 
 it is always better to make the child see the real conse- 
 (juences as the effect of the fault committed. A look, a 
 gesture, be it of gladness or of sorrow, the smallest 
 child will understand. The moment of the first A\Tong- 
 doing is therefore very important, because it is the 
 ix>int at which conscience awakens. That it may 
 listen to this inner voice, it is essential that a child 
 should learn to listen to an out^r voice, to a call, to 
 pay attention to it, if it is addressed to itself. Frce- 
 BEL links this to the play ^'Cuckoo, Cuckoo", in which 
 the child, not seemg the mother, hears her voice and 
 rejoices over it. If a child is taught to listen to and 
 obey its mother's voice leading to what is good and 
 right, it will learn to listen to its own inner voice, nor 
 leave it unheeded. If a mother has secured the child's 
 
— 119 — 
 
 joyful obedience to her voice, because she has never 
 commanded what was contrary to its highest good, and 
 has studied not to require what would be subversive of 
 the child's personality, then she will easily teach it to 
 love and to obey the voice of conscience, or God's voice, 
 that will accompany it through life as a guardian angel; 
 and she will make it see that this is a relation connect- 
 ing man with God. The same relation which exists 
 between the child and the mother, av hen it begins to 
 distinguish its will, its j^ersonality from hers, will after- 
 ward be recognized by the child, as existing between 
 its individual inclinations and the warning voice or 
 judgment of conscience. If there arc love, loving obedi- 
 ence and perfect trust between mother and child, instead 
 of fear of punishment and severity, then true morality 
 and dignity, which do not act from inner or outer con- 
 straint, Avill guide the child; it will love the good for 
 good's sake; it will obey the inner voice from free 
 choice, from love of God. Man may become a morally 
 free agent, or he may be a slave to his own passions, 
 or do the behests of others, from flattery, threats or 
 promises of gain held out, and for each condition the 
 foundations may be laid at this early period of life. The 
 character of a man does not depend upon the number 
 of his failures, but upon the manner in which he rises 
 and makes amends for the faults committed. In our 
 time and in this country where obedience to the 
 authority of a person is not demanded, it is evidently 
 of the greatest importance that education should aim 
 at developing obedience to laia. Parents must early 
 
— 120 — 
 
 show the child, that they too, that teachers and all 
 grown persons, have to obe}^ a superior; that they can 
 not do as they please in violation of the right any more 
 than children can. This should be done to awaken the 
 idea of lawfulness and morahty, an idea which becomes 
 the governing power, when children have outgrown 
 the authority of the parents. 
 
 • All the good and rightful qualities of the child, may 
 be reversed and become faults. Early education has, 
 generally, to deal first with wilfulness or obstinacy. 
 Without self-will character could not be developed. To 
 insist on one's own peculiarities, one's own opinion, 
 one's own will, till overruled by something higher, is 
 right, because upon this is based self-responsibility or 
 that which constitutes man an accountable, fi-ee-willed 
 being. The child's obstinacy is the reverse of this 
 awakened personality. Obstinacy may be aroused by 
 doing something that the child dislikes, or refusing it 
 something that it wants. If what it desires is legiti- 
 mate, something that serves for its sustenance or devel- 
 opment, then the cliild is in the right; but if it is simply 
 unwilling to submit to a reasonable demand of its el- 
 ders, it is wrong and must not be listened to. If a 
 babe screams in its cradle for want of nourishment, or 
 because it requires attention, it should not be left un- 
 heeded a moment. If it is neglected, the tone of its 
 cry changes into that of obstinacy and anger, and the 
 attendants are to blame; but if it screams merely be- 
 cause it is more agreeable to it to be taken up, it should 
 not always be gratified, lest it become wilful and tjTan- 
 
— 1^1 — 
 
 nical toward attendants. Certainly it is reasonable 
 that a child should want what is agreeable, and dislike 
 to be left alone and unoccupied; but it must early learn 
 to submit to conditions; to miss sometimes, for a sea- 
 son, what is most agreeable, and submit to what is less 
 pleasant, for the sake of others. This, however, must 
 not be carried too far or last too long, and necessary 
 attention ought never to be withheld. It is difficult to 
 do always the right thing, but love, the liighest prin- 
 ciple, allied with wisdom, is the safest gui<lc. The child 
 should obey from love which awakens energy for good, 
 not from fear which makes cowardly. From loving 
 obedience springs veneration which leads to the fear of 
 God. 
 
 In education, wrong obedience is often mistaken for 
 right obedience, that is, the child's will is broken instead 
 of turned into the right course; and it is for this reason 
 that so few persons are self-centred, or inwardly free 
 and able to govern themselves. Frcebel's general rules 
 are to leave the child as nmch as possible to itself, with- 
 out commanding or forbidding, and to allow it to gain 
 its own experiences so far as that may be done without 
 injury. It would not be difficult to secure the child's 
 obedience, if the right means were adopted. Children, 
 as well as animals, have instinctive perception of good 
 intentions; a look into the eyes suffices to cause a feel- 
 ing of trust or distrust toward those who have them in 
 charge. The main point is to awaken love, and gain 
 the child's confidence, never asking anything beyond 
 Us strength or capacity. In the beginning, it is better 
 
__ 100 _ 
 
 I 
 
 to avoid, as miicli as possible, requiring wliat is distaste- 
 ful, onl}^ by degrees demanding what involves self-deni- 
 al, what is dilBcult or unpleasant. The foundation of 
 t)bedience, as well as that of all other virtues, is laid in 
 earlij childhood. Some of these virtues are, in the main, 
 only good habits acquired then, and afterward not diffi- 
 cult to retain. FRa:BEL has given excellent advice 
 and hmts to mothers in ^'The Cosseting Songs'', and 
 therefore the^' are InvaKiable aids in moral training. 
 
 In its relations to men, after a knowledge of those 
 most intimately related to it is gained, the child will be 
 letl to observe the life of the various trades and profes- 
 sions. It must become acquainted with the functions 
 of human industry, with tvork in its manifold forms. 
 The little child likes to imitate in play the motions made 
 in planing, sawing, threshing, boring, etc. This imita- 
 tion will lead to more careful observation of those oc- 
 cupations: the different motions employed will impart 
 flexibility to the hand, and, by developing its skill thus 
 early, prepare the child for its own future work in life. 
 Such daily gymnastics may lx» made the basis for a first 
 fulfilment of duties, and will fit the child to perform 
 them. A play calle<l ''The Carpenter', serves to 
 awaken love for house and home. Children love to 
 build houses, if it is only with chairs in the corner of a 
 room, but while love of home is cultivated, exclusive- 
 ness and family egotism should be guarded against. 
 
The Carpenter. 
 
 The house is represented by the position of the Jin- 
 gers; the two thumbs moved as if hammering^ repres- 
 ent two carpenters ivorking on the crossbeam. A 
 little song accompanies tJiis play as well as all other 
 plays. 
 
 In ' ^ The Charcoal Man's Hut", the child is taught the 
 dignity of labor, and that useful work, even though 
 not clean, is honorable. Let it be told how many use- 
 ful things are made by means of charcoal: knives, 
 forks, spoons, nails, etc., and that although the char- 
 coal-man's hands and face are black, his heart may be 
 good and true. 
 
 ''The Markef-Booth " is designed to give an idea of 
 commerce, but the ideal side should be represented; 
 and the child should understand tliat a great deal of 
 labor is required to make all these nice things. It 
 should be made to see that this exchange is one of 
 
— 124 -« 
 
 love, and be led to anticipate with pleasure the time 
 when, grown a man, it may contribute its share of 
 useful labor to the community. If children are taken 
 to fairs, it is not well always to buy presents for them. 
 They should learn to see and admire things without 
 greedily wishing to possess them. 
 
 One powerful means of awakening the ideal side 
 of the human being, is the early cultivation of art; 
 and the blending of art with industry in our time 
 makes it almost a necessity for all grades and classes 
 of society. There is hardly any branch of industry in 
 which drawing is not required. Music is more and 
 more cultivated by all. ''The Finger Piano" is an 
 exercise for the fingers, and accompanied by song 
 cultivates the ear, teaches time, rhythm and lawfulness 
 of motion. Rattles, bunches of keys, all discordant 
 noises, ought to be given up; songs, some pleasant in- 
 strument, the sounds of nature, are best for the young 
 child. One of the gi-eatest singers of our age, Jenny 
 Lind, says, tliat her musical talent first showed itself 
 and began to develop at the age of four years, when 
 she went into the garden or field, and tried to imitate 
 the songs of various birds and the hum of the bee or fly. 
 
 According to Frcebel, drawing is to be one of the 
 first occupations of the child, because in this employ- 
 ment it can most easily produce something. It hkes to 
 follow the contours of objects with its fingers, and in 
 this way gets a more accurate idea of the forms. To 
 facilitate the child's instinctive manifestations in this 
 direction, Frcebel would have the mother spread sand 
 
— 125 — 
 
 on a table, and let the little one draw figures of famil- 
 iar objects upon it, c. g. a window with lengthwise 
 and crosswise marks. In giving the child other than 
 objects themselves, we should choose the image of the 
 thing rather than its sign in letters and written words; 
 therefore linear drawing ought to precede writing. We 
 see in Egyptian art, which may be likened to the draw- 
 ing of children, only outlines of things, — no perspective. 
 But even before a child can hold a pencil, it can lay 
 little sticks— embodied lines — in various forms, for, 
 from the beginning, Frcebel would have self-activity, 
 creative self-activity, cultivated in the child. He often 
 repeats: ^'Let us try to have the child embody all its 
 perceptions in actions, only thus can laziness and iner- 
 tia be overcome, even from the beginning". It has 
 not been known hitherto that even the smallest child 
 ought to be led to do something to satisfy its natural 
 craving for activity, which if disregarded will be turned 
 into inertia. The laying of sticks, or drawing, serves 
 to teach a child much about shape, size and number. 
 It should not be merely receptive, and thus collect an 
 incongruous mass of forms and images which are never 
 used. What it has received interiorly it should express 
 outwardly; this is what the child wishes to do, but the 
 means are often wanting. Observe children standing 
 at a window. How eagerly they watch men and 
 animals passing in the street, or notice the opposite 
 houses I If they happen to have a slate and pencil, 
 they often try to reproduce what they have seen with 
 a few lines; and very lively children will imitate the 
 
— 126 — 
 
 tnotions of passing objects. They rove to play hors6, 
 they get on hands and feet to run like dogs, etc. The 
 wish to imitate is the fii*st incitement to activity, but 
 it should not rest there, it should lead to free activity, 
 to invention. Though it have slate and pencil, the 
 very young child can not reproduce as it would like; 
 it can not yet hold the pencil, it can not yet draw^ 
 it is soon tired of the few marks which it makes at 
 random, because they do not represent what it, wishes; 
 and soon it falls into a habit of vacant staring at 
 things without distinguishing them. 
 
 How very little scope and aid are given to youthful 
 activity! Yet if it is not fostered, it is deadened; 
 idleness becomes a habit which the children at last 
 come to like, while they dread every exertion. It 
 would seem that nothing is thought of but to make the 
 child receive first with eyes and ears, then with the 
 mind, learning and learning but never doing! Fr(E- 
 BEL teaches, on the contrary, that the child should not 
 see, hear or learn anything which it can not, by repro- 
 ducing, make its individual property; and, as we have 
 seen, he furnishes the means for accomplishing this, in 
 early drawing, — the earliest in sand, in stick laying, 
 easier than drawing, and in the modelling in clay, thus 
 preparing the child for artistic productions. 
 
 In his book, ' ' The Education of Mankind'^ Fr(EBEL 
 says: ^'The faculty of drawing is as natural to the 
 child as the faculty of speech, for word and sign are 
 as closely related as soul and body". When in all the 
 departments of the child's knoioing, the application of 
 
— 12? — 
 
 it, the doing, is intimately connected, and every pecul- 
 iarity finds its means of expression; Avhcn the works of 
 little children make them conscious of their own crea- 
 tive power, and disclose their talents and inclinations, 
 then the children of a future day will not, as is now 
 the case, be crammed with dead knowledge, and pre- 
 sume to judge of everything in a critical, precocious 
 manner, without ever producing anything, unable to 
 act with force and power. In what arc called the 
 higher classes of society, the young people now-a-days 
 know a great deal too much or, at least, think they 
 know very much. They can not condescend to do 
 anything, and prefer to produce nothing. In the 
 lower classes again, young people are mere drudges 
 or machines, and thought is unconnected with their 
 work. The true balance between receptivity and 
 productivity has been lost and must be re-established. 
 This may be done by Frcebel's method; by it earlv 
 childhood is instructed through that which it produces 
 and experiences; doing is from the start made the 
 source and the companion of knowing. In a moral 
 point of view too the child is first made to act accord- 
 ing to moral law, before it is taught morality in the 
 form of abstraction or precept. True morality is only 
 evinced in action. 
 
 As we ha^'e found that the human being, following a 
 general law of nature, develops according to its species, 
 and have seen that it bears a threefold relation, — to 
 nature, to man, and to God, — we must now look into 
 Frcebel's ideas concerning the development of the 
 
— 128 — 
 
 1 
 
 religious side of the child's nature, or its relation t-o 
 God. 
 
 The belief in a divine Being, in Goil, is inborn ; it is 
 an intuition, a germ contained in the soul, that ma}^ l)e 
 developed or neglected. As every spiritual develoiv 
 ment, all consciousness, proceeds from undefined per- 
 ceptions and feelings, so the perception of God, or 
 Deit}'. But as no development proceeds without out- 
 ward stimulation, without means adapted to the end, 
 so childhood must have, as humanity had, a revelation, 
 bringing the unconscious groping and longing into 
 consciousness, giving expression to feeling and a defin- 
 ite shape to faith. But how does God manifest Him- 
 self to the young child ? Is this possible in the first 
 year of life? We may say that the childish uncon- 
 sciousness is a resting in God, a union with God. That 
 which is not separated from us is not objective, for we 
 cannot place ourselves in contrast with that which is 
 inseparable from us. Wliile the young child is uncon- 
 scious of self-existence, is not yet a conscious personal- 
 ity, it is one with everything that surrounds it. and 
 is in close relation to it. Therefore Frcebel says: 
 "The child is in u?iity with nature, with man 
 and with God". It lives yet in Paradise, in the time 
 oefore the disruption, — previous to the inner and outer 
 ??eparation, — as mankind did in the beginning. It can 
 /lave no religion, for that implies a striving after unity 
 with God, and no one strives after what he already 
 possesses -, only when something is lost which is seen 
 to be a good, (voes man strive after it. The word, re- 
 
— 129 — 
 
 ligion, expresses the idea of reunion with God: ''God- 
 union" Frcebel calls it. When the child first fails 
 in good, the unconscious union ceases and discord 
 steps in. 
 
 In the visible world the child is in closest union with 
 its mother. The disposition, the tone of mind, or the 
 passing feeling of the mother, is immediately trans- 
 mitted to the child. If she is fi-ightened, the child is 
 also frightened without knowing why. Frcebel con- 
 siders it a difficult problem to know when and how to 
 influence the child, and nurse the divine spark within 
 it. He says: it is like the seed germs in spring, which 
 exist long before they are visible to us; or like the stars 
 which, astronomers tell us, have their places in the 
 heavens long before their ra3's reach our vision. But 
 the time when this religious development in tlie child 
 begins we can not mark exactly. If we begin our 
 nursing too early, it may happen, as with the grain of 
 seed which is exposed too soon to the rays of the sun, 
 or receives too much fructifying moisture — the tender 
 germ will be blighted. But if we come too late, or our 
 eftbrts are too feeble, we may likewise fail. What then 
 is the part of education according to Fr(EBEL? He 
 would have the beginning made cautiously by means 
 of impressions only. A child one or two years of age 
 is magnetically impressed, if it sees its parents engaged 
 in pious devotion. One can not talk to so young a 
 child about God. 
 
 Music enters the human heart, and awakening m- 
 definite longings impresses the soul, therefore Frcebel. 
 
— 130 ~ 
 
 desired the mother to sing souietiiues sacred music to 
 the child, or to play simple melodies upon a melodeon 
 or an organ. 
 
 Next to sound, gesture impresses a young child. 
 The folding of the hands, on going to bed, indicates 
 that they have now nothing more to do, and suggests 
 concentration, imier collection, as the j^lant folds up its 
 leaves at night. At first the motlier will pray for the 
 child, and when it can understand, it should join in 
 the words, but not mechanically; the mother should 
 direct its thoughts to all the good it has received 
 during the day, awaken gratitude toward all those 
 who have contributed to its happiness, and finally to 
 the Giver of all good. In such a frame of mind, the 
 simple words: ^'Dear God, I thank Thee', are a true 
 prayer. If a child has done wrong in the day, how 
 easy to bring the fault to its remembrance, saying 
 that not only its parents but God was grieved, and 
 then lead it to ask His forgiveness, and help to be- 
 come better ! The early teaching of dogmas, Bible 
 history and Bible verses, which it can not comprehend, 
 tends more to weaken and deaden all religious feeling 
 than to awaken it. Only what the child experiences 
 within itself, is full of life. The mind and heart must 
 be ijrepared for religious teaching: more can not be 
 done at this age. 
 
 The history of creation as recorded in Genesis, if told 
 to the child, is far less comprehensible, than the idea 
 of God, the Creator, which comes into its mind, when 
 it is shown examples in nature, and led to observe 
 
— 131 — 
 
 their life and growth. For the gaining of such knowl- 
 edge, a garden, in which the child may plant seeds, 
 is of inestimable value. Things which engage its 
 activity make lasting impressions, and it soon per- 
 ceives that of itself it can make nothing grow. 
 
 That Christianity should become active is the need 
 of our time. Frgebel says: ''Faith comes through 
 love, but love cannot exist without manifesting itself. 
 You can not do heroic deeds in words or by talking of 
 them. You can educate a child to self-activity and to 
 works, and through them to a faith which will not be 
 dead." In the ^^ Mother Cosseting Songs'\ Frcebel 
 wished to give to the child the elements of all culture; 
 and the idea of religion is conveyed in the hand gym- 
 nastic called "The Church Window.*' The fingers 
 are intertwined to represent a gothic arch, and with 
 the accompanying music give the impression of com- 
 munity in worship, etc. Religion requires the giving 
 up of one's self to something higher, the surrender of 
 our own personality and self-will. But wc must love 
 the Being to whom we thus give ourselves. Before 
 the child can love God who is invisible, it nmst love 
 visible men. It first loves God in man, in its parents. 
 All primitive religions required sacrifices, such ofier- 
 ings signifying the giving up of egotism, of personality, 
 without which a consecration to God is not possible. 
 If the child is always accustomed to manifest its love 
 in deeds, when grown up it will not merely talk about 
 Christian love and charity, but really exercise those 
 spiritual graces. 
 
132 
 
 1 
 
 If the child has gained a general idea of God, the 
 Creator, in nature, it must also in man learn of Him as 
 a Person. As humanity needed the manifestation of 
 God in the flesh, as an ideal after which to strive, so 
 childhood needs the ideal found in the Child Chi-ist, a 
 picture of whom, represented either on His mother's 
 knees, or in the Temple, should be hung up in every 
 nursery and every kindergarten. All the good qualities 
 of cliildren may be ascribed to Jesus, and they may be 
 reminded that Christ was always obedient, grateful 
 and loving. In thus connecting the child's inner and 
 outer life with the childhood of Jesus, a complete ideal 
 is furnished, and by linking with it the events of His 
 further life on earth, Christmas as His Bii'thda}', etc., 
 historical knowledge may be given, but mere dogmas 
 should not be taught at this age. Anjthing of which 
 the child can form no conception, confuses its mind and 
 hinders development. It is not wise to take young 
 children to church constantly, before they can under- 
 stand anything of public worship or preaching. Sunday 
 schools are well if conducted in a manner adapted to 
 childish needs. A child can not become religious with- 
 out means and help, any more than it can without 
 them become intellectually wise, but it is essential that 
 the right means be used, the right help given. We 
 should see to it that the coming generation imbibes the 
 true spirit of the Christian religion, so that it may 
 show it forth in a new phase of humanity. 
 
133 — 
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 Fundamental Forms, 
 
 How do we arrive at diversity of colors? By mixing 
 or combining. If we analyze combinations of colors, 
 we receive the three primary ones, red, blue and 
 yellow. All study of colors, every employment of 
 them, must start from this basis. A painter really 
 needs only these three; all others he can produce by 
 combination. A child needs, in addition to these, only 
 the first mixture; the others it will be able to make lor 
 itself, if the rules are given. Explain to it that by 
 mixing red and blue we have purple; that blue and 
 yelloAV make green, yellow and red, orange, and it will 
 go on making combinations according to the law. How 
 is variety of melodies produced ? By combinations of 
 sounds. Analyzing these combinations, we arrive at 
 tlie simple elements of sound. Musical knowledge must 
 begin with these elementary sounds and their names. 
 The combinations follow laws similar to those of color. 
 How is the variety of human features brought about, 
 so that no two men look precisely alike? It is by 
 combinations of the hard and soft parts of the human 
 countenance which vary in size and form. Of the 
 
— 134 — 
 
 iiumber of varieties thus arising wc gain an idea, if 
 we suppose merely thirty differences in each bone 
 composing the face to be possible. For instance, if 
 we allow to the forehead ten different heights, breadths 
 and curves, we shall have about 1,000,000,000,000,000. 
 The letters of the alphabet and their innumerable 
 combinations into words in different languages, furnish 
 another example of this law. 
 
 Now let us ask, how does the untold variety of all 
 natural objects, and of all the productions of human 
 hands, originate ? Arc there any fundamental forms, 
 original models, by the different combinations of which 
 every form that exists has been produced ? If so, can 
 we ])y analysis of such combinations arrive at these 
 elementary forms? Must wc have a knowledge of 
 these, in order to understand natural objects, and in 
 order to produce any kind of form ourselves, even as. 
 in beginning the study of music and painting, we must 
 acquire a knowledge of elementary sounds and colors? 
 Certainly, it cannot be otherwise. The law is universal. 
 What then are these original models for the creative, 
 formative imagination and hand of man ? They are 
 the fundamental, geometrical forms of planes and the 
 sohds proceeding from them. By analysis of these 
 l)lanes in their diversity, we get the point, the line, the 
 angle, — right, acute and blunt, — the triangle, — right, 
 acute, and blunt angled triangles, — the four cornered 
 forms, — the square, rectangle and parallelogram, and 
 so on; according to the number of sides and angles we 
 find the pentagon, hexagon, octagon etc., till we 
 
~ 135 — 
 
 reach the many-sided form, the polygon, and, finally, 
 the circle comprising within itself all corners. Adding 
 the oval, or ellipse, we have all the fundamental forms 
 of the planes, — elements of form analogous to the 
 elementary sounds of music. • 
 
 By variation and combination, the diversities of 
 planes and solids are produced, and these can be easily 
 reduced to their fundamental forms. From the triangle 
 result the prism, the pyramid; from the square, the 
 cube; from the rectangle, the parallelopipedon; from 
 the polygon, the polyhedron; from the oval, the lens. 
 These are the fundamental forms of the solids, the 
 original models for the creative human brain and 
 hand. He who would understand natural forms, or 
 the creations of art, must start with a knowledge of 
 these primary figures. Their existence was demon- 
 strated by Pythagoras, two thousand years before 
 Christ, but their importance in organic and inorganic 
 nature was not recognized and duly estimated before 
 our own time. Linnaeus pointed to crystal forms as 
 a key to the recognition and classification of minerals. 
 Rocks and stones and everything they include, are 
 crystals agglomerated into masses, each crystal having 
 one or another of these fundamental forms. What 
 wonderful harmony and simplicity of idea these struct- 
 ures embody ! It would seem that the all-wise Creator 
 of the world has shown us by example, that a great 
 variety of elements is not necessary to a great result ! 
 But these fundamental forms are likewise the basis in 
 organic nature, and by their various combinations all 
 
— 136 — 
 
 corporeal things exist. The human mind can only 
 reproduce, and the human hand can only imitate 
 what is given in nature. Man therefore works 
 according to and with these fundamental forms. All 
 drawing deals with points, lines, angles, triangles, 
 squares, many - cornered forms and curves. The 
 numberless combinations of these make images which 
 again are but imitations of nature or natural objects. 
 Every branch of industry, of trade or mechanics, uses 
 as a basis these primary plane forms, working from 
 them according to the models of the corresponding 
 solids. Art and trade must build on these forms, as the 
 musician must base his harmonies on the elementary 
 sounds. If man should disregard these simple forms 
 and laws, deeming them unimportant, if he should 
 refuse to study them and their combinations, then the 
 material world would be closed to us, for without these 
 there is nothing to be learned or worth the learning. 
 Yet how little is really known about such forms and 
 laws by those who should know most! 
 
 The mason cannot do without his plummet, or the 
 carpenter without his square, but how many know 
 the meaning, the importance of these necessary tools? 
 How often we hear mechanics say: ''That is all useless 
 theoretical trash I you have to learn 3-our trade prac- 
 tically." Owing to this want of knowledge, work is 
 too often done mechanically and stupidly. Man should 
 no longer pass unheedingly by natural laws and forms, 
 and all these necessary things ought to be taught in 
 schools. 
 
— 13Y ■— 
 
 No subject of knowledge is so near, so essential 
 to man, as a knowledge of nature and her laws. But 
 geometry, the basis of all natural science, should not 
 be taught at the outset as an abstract science', it is 
 not likely thus to awaken interest in many youthful 
 minds. But if it starts from the original, fundament- 
 al forms of nature, and never loses its connection 
 with them; if its single tenets and laws are deduced 
 in organic connection clear to the pupil's conscious- 
 ness, then no thoughtful person, no one who is inter- 
 ested in the contemplation of nature, will pass this 
 fundamental science by with indifference. How great 
 would be the benefit to industry and the life of the na- 
 tion, from such a popular and universal knowledge of 
 geometry and the natural sciences resting upon it, 
 if we could succeed in teaching the coming generation, 
 from earliest childhood, to think over again the grand 
 creation of the universe, to reproduce it, as it were, 
 in their thoughts ! Frcebel conceived the importance 
 of such an effort, and therefore he made the eternal 
 archetypes of nature the playthings of childhood, and 
 the laivs, mutual relations and combinations, which 
 nature employs in her secret workshop, the child's 
 laws and rules of play. 
 
 We see then that the great variety of natural forms 
 surrounding us results from the combination, accord- 
 ing to '^ertain laws, of a comparatively few elementary 
 
— 138 — 
 
 n 
 
 ones. We see further that before we can rightly 
 understand the compounds, we must know something 
 about the simple elements of which they are composed. 
 Xow when a human being awakens from its dream- 
 life, it is confronted with this great variety, and in- 
 stantly begins its efforts to make acquaintance with 
 the world that surrounds it. Its attempts appear to 
 us in the form of play. The child knows nothing, 
 and ought to know nothing, of the seriousness, the 
 hardships of work; but if we leave it entirely unaided 
 in its efforts, do we make its task easier ? Some say, 
 it is best to leave tlie child entirely to itself, to race 
 and tear, romp and play as it pleases, but is it not in 
 a sense unkind and barbarous not to reach out to it a 
 helping hand, as it seeks in its childish way through 
 much difficulty to gain experimental knowledge of 
 things ? We should guard against too great or pro- 
 longed exertion of the young body or mind, keeping 
 from the latter abstract ideas, while we seek by every 
 means to convey correct impressions, and so raise the 
 whole development, placing it upon a more perfect 
 plane. These clear impressions may be received in 
 play, and they will aid the child gradually to attain a 
 true knowledge of objects, in its immediate surround- 
 ings and in nature. 
 
 The first occupation with external things, should 
 begin with the elementary forms and models that we 
 have considered. The simplest of these is the sphere, 
 and it best conveys the idea of unity. Without cor- 
 ners, edges or sides, it demands no distinguishing 
 
— 139 — 
 
 faculty in the child. The simplest of all differences, 
 those of color, are alone presented in it. Hence, to 
 the infant awaking from its slumber, Frcebel gives in 
 succession six worsted balls wrought in the three 
 primary and three secondary colors. The form of the 
 sphere is the most perfect in nature. As the circle 
 may be considered the perfection of i)lanes, inchiding 
 them all, so the sphere is the perfection of solids, in 
 which all others are comprehended. The heavenly 
 bodies are all spheres, our earth is a sphere, producing 
 an infinite variety of forms. With the largest sphere 
 the inorganic world ends, with the minutest, the mi- 
 croscopical cell, the organic world begins. The human 
 organism also begins existence as a cell, and thence 
 arise all the organs. From the sphere the whole or- 
 ganic world proceeds. Look then at the importance 
 of the ball as the first plaything of the child ! It is 
 the simplest of all forms, and therefore best adapted 
 to give first impressions to the tender mind; yet by 
 suggestion it encloses the whole universe even as in 
 the child may be seen the future man. 
 
 The idea of the relation of the ball to other objects, 
 is not to be given at this early stage, for the child can 
 perceive only one thing at a time. But this one thing 
 is here, there, up and down in space, disappears and 
 comes back at intervals in time. First impressions, 
 I do not say perceptions, of space and time so difficult 
 for a child to master, are thus given with its earliest 
 toy. Such are the principal ideas underlying the 
 first gift. 
 
140 — 
 
 1 
 
 The second gift consists of a wooden sphere, cylin- 
 der and cube. Let us look at the significance of each 
 of these objects. The cube is second to the sphere in 
 simplicity of form. Having corners, edges and faces 
 answering to points, lines and squares, it presents 
 greater variety than the sphere, but, like it, shows 
 one and the same form on whichsoever face it may 
 rest. The ball is alike on all sides; the cube shows 
 differences but not in a bewildering degree, only in a 
 way suited to develop the child's faculty of compari- 
 son. The cylinder is the connecting link between the 
 two. The plane of the sphere is the circle; this is 
 seen in the circular faces of the cylinder, and the like- 
 ness to the sphere is also traced in the cylinder's round 
 sides. We have before noticed that the circle includes 
 all forms, therefore in it we have the square which 
 from its simplicity has been adopted as a normal 
 standard of measurement, — the square inch, foot, etc. 
 From the sphere proceeds the form next in simplicity, 
 the cube, likewise a normal measure, — cubic inch, 
 foot, etc. If we suspend the cube and turn it in differ- 
 ent ways, the double cone, the wheel, and the cylinder 
 appear, — the three fundamental forms of mechanics, 
 and their future importance is thus foreshadowed. 
 After giving these impressions, the three objects are 
 used in play; and as impressions with regard to time 
 and space were conveyed by means of the first gift, 
 in this the child gains an idea of sound connected with 
 motion in a hard body; of rest becoming motion as 
 this body is moved. The cube rests and must be 
 
— 141 — 
 
 pushed, it will not roll. The child must see that 
 where the cube is, the ball cannot be, that each object 
 occupies space. In the change of form caused by 
 rotation, he will also distinguish between what is 
 permanent and what is transitory. 
 
 The third gift is a cube divided into eight smaller 
 cubes. This division gives for the first time the im- 
 pression of measure. Out of the oneness of the cube 
 results manifoldness, though the many are like the 
 one in form, and equal among themselves. Hence 
 impressions of resemblance, similarity and difference 
 in their finer distinctions, are made. The practical 
 use of number is also in this gift extended. From 
 the whole come the halves, quarters and eighths. Each 
 little cube is a part of the large whole. By means of 
 this cube, the child is now able to embody or express 
 what is in its mind. In its tliird year, it is so far ad- 
 vanced, that it notices differences in number, shape, 
 and position, — it begins to think. It can also gratify 
 its desire for activity, in making forms of life, or use, 
 forms of beauty, or symmetry, and forms of perception, 
 or knowledge, by the division into halves, quarters, 
 etc., with regard to different directions in space. The 
 forms of perception address themselves to the mind 
 and understanding; the forms of beauty cultivate 
 sentiment and feeling; the forms of life lead to a close 
 observance of objects, and to a knowledge of their 
 j)ractical uses in human society. 
 
 We need only say further that Frcebel's Gifts pass 
 in orderly sequence from the divided solid to the sur- 
 
— 142 — 
 
 face, or plane, which is first presented in the square, 
 and afterwards in the various triangular forms, 
 through a series of tablets. Next the embodied line 
 is given in small staffs of different lengths, and at 
 last the point is indicated by the child in its employ- 
 ment of pricking. Thus passing from the concrete to 
 the verge of the abstract, correct impressions are 
 constantly deepened, and the way prepared for true 
 l)erceptions. Nature furnishes the models and the 
 laws for the natural development of mind. 
 
 As this is not a Kindergarten Manual, we do not 
 enter into all Kindergarten occupations in detail, and 
 even the best guide that could be written would not 
 suffice for the instruction of kindergarten teachers. 
 We wish merely to show, by a glance at the manner 
 in which geometry is made the foundation of knowl- 
 edge, that what is considered only play by a super- 
 ficial observer, has a deep, scientific basis which the 
 teacher must perfectly understand, though the child 
 is not yet conscious of it. The two extreme objections 
 raised by persons unaware of the true import of 
 kindergarten culture, the one that it is mere play, and 
 the other that little children are over stimulated by 
 it, and taught a science so difficult as geometry, thus 
 correct each other. 
 
.43 — 
 
 Chai'teu IX. 
 Reading. 
 
 It may seem superfluous to speak of the time- 
 honored custom of teaching tlie child, first of all, to 
 read, since in the foregoing pages we have shown 
 that such a custom is contrary to the natural order of 
 development. But prejudices arc generally firmly 
 rooted, and unless we clearly state Frcebel's reasons 
 for not wishing to begin the child's education with 
 reading, its exclusion may be considered a mere 
 whim, and its introduction into the kindergarten 
 exercises a harmless practice. 
 
 We have found that orderly development leads from 
 the real object to the image, and from the image to 
 the symbol or sign; and if we look back in history and 
 see how long mankind lived and progressed before 
 book knowledge formed any prominent part of life or 
 education; if we consider the complicated forms that 
 compose the alphabet, it will appear reasonable to 
 argue that the child's eye should first become familiar 
 with simple forms; that its perceptive faculties should 
 be somewhat developed, so that it may be able to 
 compare and distinguish, before the alphabet, in itself 
 wholly uninteresting, is presented to it. 
 
 But people say: ' 'Children like to learn their letters 
 
— 144 — 
 
 at a very early age.* If they do, i.s it not because] 
 parents stimulate, praise and reward them for their 
 efforts to master them? The hungry child will take 
 almost any kind of food that is offered to satisfy its 
 bodily hunger, even the unpalatable if very hungry; 
 and it is only natural that it should take whatever 
 mental nourishment is offered, however unsuitable, if 
 it is starving for want of that which is adapted to its 
 faculties — the case nearly always in the early years 
 of life. 
 
 I can not help a deep feeling of pity for such liap- 
 less children, when a mother tells me with pride that 
 her child four years old already knows his letters ! 
 Poor little creatures ! all their hard striving to obtain 
 knowledge of the various objects that surround them, 
 the many useful things that they truly and honestly 
 learn without help, often in spite of hinderance, in 
 the first years of their lives, — all go for nothing ! 
 They are called stupid and dull if they fail to master 
 those cabalistic signs! Parents are so impatient to 
 have them little grown-up men and women. To be a 
 child and do childish things is considered almost a 
 disgrace, something to be ashamed of, or like a dis- 
 ease to be got rid of as soon as possible. But is the 
 life of grown-up people, into which parents are so 
 anxious to initiate their children, a thing so delightful, 
 so much to be desired, that they should barter all the 
 innocent joys and delights of childhood for it? We 
 think not. 
 
 But, it is urged, there is so much to be learned in 
 
— 145 — 
 
 our day, no time sliould be lost, children must begin 
 very early, else they will not be able to learn all that 
 they ought to know. Is intellectual culture then all 
 that is necessary, or the most important ? Granting, 
 even, that it is, do we lose time, if we postpone reading 
 and writing to the age of seven, as Frgebel proposes, 
 and, instead, send the child from its third year to the 
 kindergarten where books find no place ? Experience 
 teaches that when children so prepared enter the 
 primary school, they soon distance others who have 
 for years sat listless, through weary hours, to the 
 detriment of health, over the printed page. 
 
 Does not American history show us that its so- 
 called self-made men, who have generally learned to 
 read later in life, have been more than others dis- 
 tinguished for executive ability, originality of thought 
 and practical energy? And here we touch upon an- 
 other of Frcebel's reasons for wishing to keep books 
 away from young children: he desired to save thenf 
 from habits of mental indolence induced by feeding 
 upon others' thoughts, without the necessity for self- 
 exertion. In their state of mental receptivity, he 
 saw the danger of overfeeding, of stifling productivity; 
 he wished to make even the very young child a crea- 
 tive agent. 
 
 When the child has reached its seventh year, we 
 would strongly recommend the use of Dr. Leigh's 
 phonic method in teaching it reading, which has been 
 introduced with the best results into the public schools 
 of St. Louis, and into some of the schools in Boston 
 
— 14G — 
 
 and New York. We liave ourselves tested its practi- 
 cal value in an advanced class, and know that children 
 with i)rcvious kindergarten training learn to read in 
 an incredibly short time, requiring only a few minutes 
 of instruction each day. This phonic method, or pro- 
 nouncing orthography, lias, in our opinion, many 
 advantages over former ones, but we cannot here 
 mention all. It serves our present purpose to state 
 that we deem Dr. Leigh's method entirely in harmony 
 with Frcebel's system. It gives for every sound a 
 sign, and children can intelligently compose or build 
 up their own words, or dissect and separate them 
 again into their constituent parts, as they have been 
 used to do with their building-blocks. Their self- 
 activity is thus incited to acquire the knowledge of 
 reading in a far more interesting and rational way 
 than in mere memorizing under the old methods. 
 
 Let us not be understood to advocate letting the 
 child run wild till it is seven years old, on the contrary 
 we deem it important that it should be acquiring 
 habits of concentration and application, not by means 
 of abstractions, but through interesting employments, 
 such as the kindergarten furnishes. The advantages 
 of kindergarten training over the ordinary primary 
 school system are so many, and can be so easily de- 
 duced from what has already been said, that we need 
 not attempt to enumerate them. It will readily be 
 seen, that there is no art, science or industry, which, 
 in its first principles, is not represented in the occupa- 
 tions of the kindergarten. 
 
— 147 -^ 
 
 The children are not merely theoretically prepared 
 for whatever may be their future pursuits in life; but 
 practical doing goes hand in hand with theory. It 
 is evident, that this method can and ought to be car- 
 ried beyond the age of seven; that theory and practice 
 should not be separated in our higher schools; that 
 older pupils should have the advantages of Industrial, 
 Scientific and Art schools (the Boston Institute of 
 Technology is doing an excellent work in one direc- 
 tion), which would enable them to perfect themselves 
 in any special calling for which the kindergarten de- 
 velops an aptitude and lays a foundation. 
 
 Horace Mann's estimate of the spelling-book is seen 
 in the following quotation: -'In Scotland the spelling 
 book is called the 'spell book', and we ought to adopt 
 that appellation here, for, as it is often used with us, 
 it does cast a spell over the faculties of children, which 
 generally they do not break for years, and oftentimes, 
 we believe, never. If any two things on earth should 
 be put together and kept together, one would suppose 
 that it should be the idea of a thing and the name of 
 a thing. The spelling-book, however, is a most art- 
 ful and elaborate contrivance, by which words are 
 separated from their meanings, so that the words can 
 be transferred into the mind of the pupil without per- 
 mitting any glimmer of their meaning to accompany 
 them. A spelling-book is a collection of things with- 
 out the things signified — of words without sense — a 
 dictionary without definitions. It is a place where 
 words are shut up and impounded, so that their sig- 
 
— 148 — 
 
 nification can not gel at them. Yet formerly it waB 
 the almost universal practice — and we fear it is now 
 nearly so — to keep children two or three years in the 
 spelling-book, where the mind's eye is averted from 
 the objects, qualities and relations of things, and fast- 
 ened upon a few marks, of themselves wholly uninter- 
 esting." 
 
 The spelling-book is not yet obsolete, and though 
 we are aware that it has been improved by the addi- 
 tion of definitions for the more difficult words, still the 
 definitions are often as unintelligible to the child as 
 the original words. 
 
 'tj^ivbrsitt; 
 
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UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA UBRARY