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INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SERIES 
 
 THE 
 
 EDUCATION OF MAN 
 
 i 
 
 BY 
 
 FRIEDRICH FROEBEL 
 
 V « 
 
 TEAN8LATED FKOM THE GERMAN AND ANNOTATED BT 
 
 W. N. HAILMANN, A. M. 
 
 SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS AT LA PORTE, INDIANA 
 
 NEW YORK 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 1895 
 

 v\' 
 
 COPTKIGHT, 1887 
 
 By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 
 
 J ' ' I c 7 
 
EDITOE'S PEEFACE. 
 
 This work of Froebel admits us into his philosophy, 
 and shows us the fundamental principles upon which he 
 based the kindergarten system. His^reat word is in- 
 ner connectio7i. There must be an inner connection 
 between the pupil's mind and the objects which he 
 studies, and this shall determine what to study. There 
 must be an inner connection in those objects among 
 themselves which determines their succession and the 
 order in which they are to be taken up in the course of 
 instruction. Finally, there is an inner connection with- 
 in the soul that unites the faculties of feeling, percep- 
 tion, phantasy, thought, and volition, and determines 
 the law of their unfolding. Inner connection is in fact 
 the law of development, the principle of evolution, and 
 Froebel is the Educational Keformer who has done more 
 than all the rest to make valid in education what the 
 Germans call the " developing method." 
 
 Unlike Pestalozzi, Froebel was a philosopher. The 
 great word of the former is immediate jperception 
 (anschauen). Pestalozzi struggled to make all educa- 
 tion begin with immediate perception and abide with it 
 for a long period. Because, say his followers, sense- 
 
 258271 
 
Vi EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 perception is the source of all our knowledge. Froebel 
 and his disciples would defend the great educational re- 
 former by saying that by beginning with immediate 
 perception education is sure of arousing the self-activity 
 of the pupil. Froebel's aim is to educate the pupil 
 'through his self-activity. This, we see at once, goes 
 much further than the cultivation of perception. The 
 pupil unfolds his will-power quite as much as his sense- 
 perception, and by this arrives in the surest way at think- 
 ing reason, which is the culmination of self-activity. 
 The child is to begin with what he can easily grasp. 
 That is well. But he must also begin with that which 
 is attractive to him. Tke best of all is to begin with 
 that activity which, while easy and attractive, leads him 
 forward, develops all his powers, and makes him 
 master of himself. 
 
 Froebel goes down into the genesis of objects of 
 study in order to discover the relation of such objects 
 to the nourishment of mind. The chemists and physi- 
 ologists have ascertained the relation of bread and meat 
 to the sustenance of human life. Froebel has investi- 
 gated the relation of the child's activities in play to the 
 growth of his mind. The mind grows by self -revelation. 
 In play the child ascertains what he can do, and dis- 
 covers his possibilities of will and thought by exerting 
 his power spontaneously. In work he follows a task 
 prescribed for him by another, and does not reveal his 
 own proclivities and inclinations, but another's. In 
 play he reveals his owrufiriginal power. But there are 
 two selves in the child — one is peculiar, arbitrary, ca- 
 pricious, different from all others, and hostile to them, 
 and is founded on short-sighted egotism. The other 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. vij 
 
 self is reason, common to all humanity, unselfish and 
 universal, feeding on truth and beauty and holiness. 
 Both of these selves are manifested in play. There is 
 revelation of bad as well as of good. Froebel, accord- 
 ingly, attempts to organize a system of education that 
 will unfold the rational self and chain down the irra- 
 tional. He wishes to cultivate selfhood and repress 
 selfishness. This must be done, if done effectively, by 
 the pupil himself. If he does not chain the demon 
 within him, external constraint will do it, but at the 
 same time place its chains on the human being who has 
 permitted his demon to go loose. Self-conquest is the, 
 only basis of true freedom. 
 
 The insights of Froebel into the unfolding of rational . 
 selfhood have enabled him to organize the method of 
 infant education to which he, in 1840, gave the name 
 of " Kindergarten." In the work here presented to the 
 public, which was published fourteen years before that 
 date, we have a discussion of the essential ideas which 
 moved him in his subsequent experiments to discover 
 the methods and more especially the ajppliances to be 
 employed in early education. 
 
 Pestalozzi uttered the noble sentiment that all should 
 be educated. All children of men are children of the 
 same God, and all are born for an infinite career. This 
 Christian doctrine he construed to mean that all should 
 receive alike a school education, developing the intellect, 
 and giving it possession of the power to master the treas- 
 ures of science — the wisdom of the race. This intellect- 
 ual education it should have, as well as religious and 
 moral education and training in a special industrial call- 
 ing (education in religion, moraUty, and industry had 
 
viii EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 long been conceded). Froebel shares Pestalozzi's en- 
 lightened sentiments, but goes further in the matter of 
 method. H e invent s an efficient means for securing the 
 developmelrt of the child between the ages of three and 
 six years — a period when the child is not yet ready for 
 the conventional studies of the school — a period when 
 he is not mature enough for work, and when there is no 
 temptation on the part of the" parent to employ him at 
 any labor. The child has, by the beginning of his fourth 
 year, begun to outgrow the merely family life, and to 
 look at the outside world with interest. He endeavors 
 to symbolize life as it appears to him by plays and games. 
 The parents are unable to give the child within the 
 house all the education that he needs at this period. He 
 needs association with other children and with teachers 
 from beyond the family circle. Froebel's invention is 
 the happiest educational means for this symbolic epoch 
 of infancy. 
 
 Froebel sees better than other educators tlie true 
 means of educating the feelings, and especially the re- 
 ligious feelings. He reaches those feelings that are the 
 germs of the intellect and will. It must be always borne 
 in mind that clear ideas and useful deeds exist in the 
 heart as undefined sentiments before they are born in 
 the intellect and will. 
 
 Froebel is, in a peculiar sense, a religious teacher. 
 All who read this book on the Education of Man will 
 see that he is not only full of faith in God, but that his 
 intellect is likewise illumined by theology. He sees the 
 worlds of physical nature and human history as firmly 
 established on a divine unity which to him is no ab- 
 straction but a creative might and a living Providence. 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. ix 
 
 God to him is infinite reason. Pestalozzi has the piety 
 of the heart, while Froebel has also the piety of the in- -^ 
 tellect, which sees God as the principle of truth. 
 
 The work before us is divided substantially into two 
 pai*ts : The first deals with general principles and con- 
 siders the development of man during infancy and boy- 
 hood. The second part (beginning with § 60) discusses 
 the chief subjects of instruction, grouping them under 
 (1) religion, (2) natural science and mathematics, (3) 
 language, (4) art. 
 
 Especial attention is called to §§ 68-73, wherein the 
 author deduces the forms of the crystal exhaustively 
 from the nature of force and space, and makes some 
 application of it to botany and human development. 
 This deduction is worthy of the fertile and suggestive 
 mind of Schelling or Oken. In subsequent sections he 
 asserts (to our no small surprise) that even mathematics 
 is the expression of life as such. 
 
 But Parts I and II (§§ 1-44) contain the most im- 
 portant doctrines of the work, and deserve a thorough 
 annual study by every teacher's reading club in the 
 land. A good plan for study is to form small classes of 
 three to eight members, and meet weekly for two hours' 
 discussion of the text, sentence by sentence. The slower 
 one goes over the book, the faster grows his original 
 power of thinking, and his ability to read profound and 
 difficult writings. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest merit of Froebel's system is to 
 be found in the fact that it furnishes a deep philosophy 
 for the teachers. Most pedagogic works furnish only \/ 
 a code of management for the school-room. Froebel 
 gives a view of the world in substantial agreement with 
 
X EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 the spiritual systems of pliilosopby that have prevaile»d 
 in the world. A view of the world is a perpetual stimu- 
 lant to thought— always prompting one to reflect on the 
 immediate fact or event before him, and to discover its 
 relation to the ultimate principle of the universe. It 
 is the only antidote for the constant tendency of the 
 teacher to sink into a dead formalism, the effect of too 
 much iteration and of the practice of adjusting knowl- 
 edge to the needs of the feeble-minded by perpetual ex- 
 planation of what is already simple ad nauseam for the 
 mature intelligence of the teacher. It produces a sort of 
 pedagogical cramp in the soul for which there is no 
 remedy like a philosophical view of the world, unless, 
 perhaps, it be the study of the greatest poets, Shake- 
 speare, Dante, or Homer. It is, I am persuaded, this 
 fact — that Froebel refers his principles to a philosophic 
 view of the world — ^that explains the almost fanatical zeal 
 of his followers, and, what is far more significant, the 
 fact that those who persistently read his works are al- 
 ways growing in insight and in power of higher achieve- 
 ment. 
 
 W. T. Harris. 
 
 CoNOOED, Mass., August, 1887. 
 
TEAKSLATOE'S PEEFAOE. 
 
 " The Education of Man " appeared in 1826, under 
 the title : Die MenscKenerzieliung^ die Erzieliungs- 
 Unterrichts- und LehrJcunst, angestrebt in der allge- 
 meinen deutschen Erziehungsanstalt zu Keilhau, darge- 
 stellt V071 dem Vorsteher derselben^ F. W, A. Froehel. 
 1. Band his zum hegonnenen Knabenalter. Keilhau, 
 1826. Yerlag der Anstalt. Leipzig in Commission 
 hei a F. Doerffling. 497 S.^ 
 
 The very title-page reveals the history of the growth 
 and development of this remarkable book. Similarly 
 we read in the expressive countenance of a mature man 
 or woman the life history of its possessor. 
 
 Froebel established the Educational Institute at 
 Keilhau, a small village of about one hundred inhabit- 
 ants, in 1817. It was not a business enterprise in any 
 sense of the word. Yielding to the entreaties of his 
 widowed sister-in-law, he had given up excellent exter- 
 
 * The Education of Man, the Art of Education, Instruction, 
 and Training, aimed at in the Educational Institute at Keilhau, 
 written by its Principal, F. W. A. Froebel. Volume I ; to the begin- 
 ning of Boyhood. Keilhau, 1826. Published by the Institute. 
 Sold in Commission at Leipzig by C. F. Doerffling. 497 pp. 
 
xii TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE, 
 
 nal prospects in Berlin in order to undertake the educa- 
 tion of her three bojs. To these, two other nephews 
 were added, and Middendorff had brought a younger 
 brother of Langethal, who himseK joined the little band 
 a few months later. Thus the six boys and the three 
 high-souled men — Froebel, Middendorff, and Lange- 
 thal — constituted the nucleus of this remarkable enter- 
 prise, established wholly in the interest of the new 
 educational ideas of Froebel. 
 
 In spite of many difficulties and vicissitudes that 
 would have discouraged less faithful men, however, the 
 institute grew even beyond the dimensions originally 
 planned for it. Froebel had intended to limit it to 
 twenty-four pupils and the three teachers mentioned, 
 but circumstances seemed to render it desirable or neces- 
 sary to admit a greater number of pupils. Possibly 
 this very success aroused the hostility of low-minded 
 men, which led to persecution by the Prussian Govern- 
 ment on political and religious grounds, and the scatter- 
 ing of the three friends ; and would have submerged 
 the institute itself had it not been saved by the tact of 
 Barop, who joined the enterprise in 1823, and assumea 
 its control in 1833. Froebel himself had left it in 
 1831. 
 
 The persecutions on the part of the Prussian Gov- 
 ernment induced the local duke to send Superintendent 
 Zech to inspect the institution. The report of this visit 
 throws so much light upon the character of Froebel's 
 work and aims that I translate its essential portions in 
 this place. He says, among other things : 
 
 " Both days which I passed in the institute, almost 
 as one of its members, as it were, were in every way 
 
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. xiii 
 
 pleasant to me, higlilj interesting, and instructive. 
 Tliey increased and strengthened mj respect for the 
 institute as a whole, as well as for its director, who up- 
 held and maintained it amid the storms of care and 
 w^ant with rare persistence and with the purest and 
 most unselfish zeal. It is most pleasing to feel the in- 
 fluence which goes out from the buoyant, vigorous, 
 free, and yet orderly spirit that pervades this insti- 
 tution, both in the lessons and at other times. 
 
 " I found here what is never seen in actual practical 
 life, a thoroughly and intimately united family of at 
 least sixty members, living in quiet harmony, all show- 
 ing that they gladly perform the duties of their very 
 different positions ; a family held together by the strong 
 ties of mutual confidence, and in which, consequently, 
 every member seeks the interest of the whole, where 
 all things thrive in joy and love, apparently without 
 effort. 
 
 " With great respect and real affection all turn to the 
 principal ; the little five-year-old children hang about 
 his knees, while his friends and assistants hear and 
 honor his advice with the confidence due to his insight 
 and experience, and to his indefatigable zeal in the in- 
 terest of the institution ; and he himself seems to love 
 in brotherliness and friendship his fellow-workers, as 
 the props and pillars of his life-work, which to him is 
 truly a holy work. 
 
 " It is evident that a feeling of such perfect har- 
 mony and unity among the teachers must in every way 
 exert the most salutary influence on the discipline and 
 instruction, and on the pupils themselves. The love 
 and respect in which the latter hold all their teachers is 
 
xiv TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 shown in a degree of attention and obedience that ren- 
 ders needless ahnost all disciplinary severity. During 
 the two days I heard no reproving word from the lips 
 of the teachers, neither in the joyous tumult of inter- 
 mission nor during the time of instruction ; the merri- 
 est confusion with which, after instruction, all sought 
 the play-ground, was free from every indication of ill- 
 breeding, of rude and unmannerly, and, most of all, of 
 immoral conduct. Perfectly free and equal among 
 themselves, reminded of their privileges of rank and 
 birth neither by their attire nor by their names — for 
 each pupil is called only by his Christian name — the 
 pupils, great and small, live in joyousness and serenity, 
 freely intermingling, as if each obeyed only his own 
 law, hke the sons of one father ; and while all seem un- 
 restrained, and use their powers and carry on their plays 
 in freedom, they are under the constant supervision of 
 their teachers, who either observe them or take part in 
 their plays, equally subject with them to the laws of 
 the game. 
 
 "Every latent power is aroused in so large and 
 united a family, and finds a place where it can exert it- 
 self ; every inclination finds an equal or similar inclina- 
 tion, more clearly pronounced than itself, by which it 
 can strengthen, itself ; but no impropriety can thrive, for 
 whoever would commit some excess punishes himself, 
 the others no longer need him, he is simply left out of 
 the circle. ' ,; If he would return, he must learn to adapt 
 himself, he must become a better boy. Thus the boys 
 guide, reprove, punish, educate, cultivate one another 
 unconsciously, by the most varied incitements to activ- 
 ity and by mutual restriction. 
 
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. ^ 
 
 " The agreeable impression of the institution as a 
 whole is increased bj the domestic order which is 
 everywhere manifest, and which alone can give co- 
 herence to so large a family by a punctuality free from 
 all pedantry, and by a cleanliness which is rarely met in 
 so high a degree in educational institutions. 
 
 " This vigorous and free, yet well-ordered, outer life, 
 has its perfect counterpart in the inner life of heart and 
 mind that is here aroused and established. Instruction 
 leads the five-year- old child simply to find himself, to 
 differentiate himself from external things, and to dis- 
 tinguish these among themselves, to know clearly what 
 he sees in his nearest surroundings, and, at the same 
 time, to designate it with the right words, to enjoy his 
 first knowledge as the first contribution toward his 
 future intellectual treasure. Self-activity of the mind 
 is the first law of instruction ; . . . slowly, continuous- 
 ly, and in logical succession it proceeds . . . from the 
 simple to the complex, from the concrete to the ab- 
 stract, so well adapted to the child and his needs, that 
 he learns as eagerly as he plays ; nay, I noticed how the 
 little children, whose lesson had been somewhat delayed 
 by my arrival, came in tears to the principal of the in- 
 stitution and asked ' should they to-day always play and 
 never learn, and were only the big boys to be taught 
 to-day ? ' 
 
 " In the last winter semester the pupils of the high- 
 est grade of the classical course read Horace, Plato, 
 Phaedrus, and Demosthenes, and translated Cornelius 
 Kepos into Greek. On the day of my first visit, when 
 I looked more closely into the elementary instruction, I 
 could not suppress the wish that the instruction might 
 
 2 y 
 
XVI 
 
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 be sucli in all elementary schools. 'Now, when I in- 
 spected the classical instruction, which has been in 
 operation fully only since 1820, I was compelled to ad- 
 mire the progress and the intense thoroughness of the 
 school in this short time ; . . . and I was as thoroughly 
 gratified by the instruction as I was by the discipline. 
 
 " My experience was the same as that of all impar- 
 tial examiners of the institution. Of all strangers who 
 had visited and inspected the institution, and whose 
 opinion I heard, none left without being pleased, and 
 many whom I deem specially competent came away 
 full of enthusiasm, and fully appreciated the high aim 
 of the institution, and the perfectly natural method it 
 follows in order to attain its object as surely and com- 
 pletely as possible. This object is by no means mere 
 knowledge, but the free, self -active development of the 
 mind from within. Nothing is added from without 
 except to enlighten the mind, to strengthen the pupil's 
 power, and to add to his joy by enhancing his con- 
 sciousness of growing power. The principal of the in- 
 stitution beholds with enthusiasm the nobility that 
 adorns the mind and heart of the all-sidedly developed 
 human being ; in the high destiny of such a man he has 
 found the aim of his work, which is to develop the 
 whole man, whose inner being is established between 
 true insight and true religiousness as its poles. Every 
 pupil is to unfold this from his own inner life, and is to 
 become in the serene consciousness of his own power 
 what this power may enable him to become. 
 
 " What the pupils know is not a shapeless mass, but 
 has form and life, and is, if at all possible, immediately 
 applied in life. Each one is, as it were, familiar with 
 
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. XVli 
 
 himself ; there is not a trace of thoughtless repetition 
 of the words of others, nor of vague knowledge among 
 any of the pupils. What tliey express they have in- 
 wardly seen, and is enounced as from inner necessity 
 with clearness and decision. Even the objections of 
 the teachers can not change their opinion until they 
 have clearly seen their error. Whatever they take up 
 they must be able to think ; what they can not think 
 they do not take up. Even dull grammar, with its host 
 of rules, begins to live with them, inasmuch as they are 
 taught to study each language with reference to the 
 history, habits, and character of the respective people. 
 Thus seen, the institution is a gymnasium in the fullest 
 sense, for all that is done becomes mental gymnastics. 
 
 " Happy the children who can be taught here from 
 earliest school-life (six years) ! If all schools could be 
 transformed into such educational institutions, they 
 would send out in a few generations a people intel- 
 lectually stronger, and, in spite of original depravity, 
 purer, nobler." 
 
 I have reproduced this documentary evidence be- 
 cause I desired to show that Froebel was not a dreamer 
 nor an empty enthusiast, but that his " Education of 
 Man," like all his other writings of this and subsequent 
 periods, flowed from the fullness of an earnest, practical 
 life, that struggled in every way to utter itself pro- 
 ductively, creatively, in full, teeming deeds. 
 
 Again, I desired to show once for all that his educa- 
 tional principles and methods, like his practical educa- 
 tional activity, were not confined to the earliest years 
 of childhood, but embraced the entire impressionable 
 period of human life. It is true, the succeeding vol- 
 
xviii TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 limes of the " Education of Man " were never written ; 
 not, however, because they were not clear and complete 
 in Froebel's mind when he gave us his first volume, but 
 rather because he was too much taken up with efforts to 
 live them out practically against untold hindrances. 
 
 The report of Commissioner Zeh averted, indeed, 
 the immediate and forcible dissolution of the Keilhau 
 Institute, but it could not undo the indirect evil effects 
 of the Prussian persecution. By this the little colony 
 was reduced to straits that placed book-publishing and 
 even book- writing beyond the power of its members. 
 It is true, in the very next year after Commissioner 
 Zeh's report (in 1826), the first volume appeared. Yet 
 the institute had not enough popularity left to induce a 
 publisher to assume the risk of the work, although there 
 was still enough substance and faith in the little band 
 to enable it to do this independently. 
 
 Immediately after the publication, however, affairs 
 rapidly grew worse. In 1829 the number of pupils had 
 been reduced from sixty to five, and in 1831 Froebel 
 was driven from his post, although the enterprise was 
 still kept up in the hands of friends. 
 
 The greatness of Froebel's soul appears at no time 
 in a brighter fight than it does in these days of trouble. 
 On the first day of April, 1829, he wrote : " I look u}X)n 
 my work as unique in our time, as necessary for it, and 
 as salutary for all time. In its action and reaction, it 
 will give to mankind all that it needs and seeks in 
 every direction of its tendencies and being. I have no 
 complaint whatever that others should think differently ; 
 I can endure them ; I even can — as I have proved — live 
 with them; but I can not have with them the same 
 
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. xix 
 
 aim, the same purpose in life. However, this is not 
 my fault, but theirs ; I do not cut them off, they do it 
 themselves.'' 
 
 What high and perfect faith speaks from these 
 words ! 'No wonder if his contemporaries, still groping 
 in the darker depths of the valley, failed to see him on 
 his height, and, still more, to appreciate his higher aspi- 
 rations. JS'o wonder if even now many, who have 
 laboriously climbed half way up the eminence, sit down 
 in weariness and despondency, turn their backs upon 
 his light, and gaze longingly down upon the rank weeds 
 that gave* them sustenance below. Poor creatures ! the 
 light that holds blessedness they contemn because of 
 their weakness, and the few imperishable rays that 
 have entered their souls have irretrievably lifted them 
 out of the darkness they cherish. 
 
 It would be a most grateful task to present in this 
 preface a succinct review of Froebel's great plan of 
 education ; to show it in its complete unity and perfect 
 harmony ; to sketch how he receives the almost uncon- 
 scious child from the hands of the Eternal and leads him 
 surely and persistently to eager, conscious unity with the 
 infinite source of life and being — how in earliest child- 
 hood he kindles the religious sense — the sense of com- 
 plete, all-sided, responsible kinship with all created 
 things — and gently fans it into a mighty blaze of uni- 
 versal good-will — ^how skillfully he enables the child to 
 gather golden harvests of knowledge and skill from the 
 burdened fields of experience and life, and again to sow 
 these in an intensely creative life of unwearied, vigor- 
 ous well-doing for the sustenance and uplifting of gen- 
 erations to come — how completely he blends in the 
 
XX TRANSLATOE'S PREFACE. 
 
 bosom of a holy family the interests of the individual, 
 of fellowmen, of mankind, and leads all to an ever- 
 creative worship of an ever-creative God — how he im- 
 parj;s to his pupils a thorough knowledge of the inner 
 connection and oneness of all things, and enables them 
 to control and handle in life and for life all they know of 
 life — how, thus, he "tills them with an eager thirst for ever 
 wider and higher knowledge and with a holy hunger 
 for ever broader and deeper efficiency in whatever 
 practical calling may be theirs — and how, by showing 
 the intrinsic importance and indispensableness of every 
 calling and occupation, he plants in every human being 
 the feeling th^ on his efficiency depends the welfare of 
 the whole, a sense of inner, responsible manhood which 
 is the measure of true worth in every station of life, a 
 practical, real Christianity that holds every human be- 
 ing, as a beloved manifestation of The Man, equally in 
 the bosom of the Father. To the reader, however, who 
 will thoughtfully and reverentially peruse the book, 
 such a review would bring little help, inasmuch as the 
 book shows all these things more clearly and powerfully 
 than such a review could do. 
 
 In 1836, Froebel, in a remarkable essay on " The Ee- 
 newal of Life," pointed to the United States of America 
 as the country best fitted, by virtue of its spirit of free- 
 dom, true Christianity, and pure family life, to receive his 
 educational message and to profit thereby. To a large 
 extent, his prophecy has already been realized. May this 
 translation help to hasten and strengthen its still further 
 and fuller realization ! 
 
 W. N. HAILMANN. 
 
 La Porte, Ind., August^ 1887. 
 
ANALYTICAL INDEX. 
 
 I. Groundwork of the Whole. — § 1. Universal law; unity; 
 God. § 2. Destiny and life-work of man ; education defined. § 'd^ 
 Science of education ; theory and practice. § 4. Value of wisdom ; 
 need of education. § 5. Object of education. § 6. Method of educa- 
 tion ; law of inverse inference ; misunderstandings. § 7. Originally 
 passive character of education. § S^Development needs freedom ; 
 dangers of mandatory education ; proper time for mandatory educa- 
 tion. § 9. Free self-activity, a requirement of the divine origin of 
 man. § 10. Human perfection can serve as a model only in spirit. 
 § 11. Jesus, as an exemplar, calls for free, self-active development. 
 § 12. Faith and insight render the ideal mandatory ; law of opposites 
 in good education ; education itself must obey law and banish des- 
 potism. § 13. Teacher and pupil equally subject to the law of right. 
 § 14. Law of spiritual development. § 15. Man as a child of God ; as 
 a child of humanity. § 16. Humanity developed in successive indi- 
 vidual human beings. § 17. Duty of parents ; destiny of child. § 18. 
 Trinity of relatpns — unity, individuality, diversity. § 19.* Need of 
 early educationc self -activity. § 20. Force, the child's first utter- 
 ance; joy and sorrow ; willfulness; value of small suffering; stage 
 of infancy; need of adjustment of surroundings; the first smile. 
 g 21. Sense of community, as first germ of religious spirit ; the 
 mother's prayer ; value of religious spirit. § 22. Continuity of de- 
 velopment in the child's life. § 23. Cr'eativeness ; productive work ; 
 singleness of purpose ; relentlessness of law ; need of industrial work 
 in education ; temperance. 
 
 II. Man in the Period of Earliest Childhood. — § 24. The 
 child finding his individuality ; agreement between the child's de- 
 
xxii ANALYTICAL INDEX. 
 
 velopment and all development ; dawn of reason ; agreement between 
 the development of the individual and that of the race. § 25. De- 
 velopment of the senses; law of connection of contrasts. § 26. 
 Order of the senses. § 27. Muscular development ; standing ; play- 
 ing with his limbs ; false habits ; need of watchfulness. § 28. Be- 
 ginning of childhood ; language ; the family. § 29. Importance of 
 childhood ; play and speech. § 30. Play ; nature of play ; impor- 
 tance of play ; unity of child and surroundings. § 31. Food of the 
 child ; simplicity necessary ; dangers of over-stimulation ; food only 
 for nourishment. § 32. Clothing of the child. § 33. Object of pa- 
 rental care ; maternal instinct is not sufficient ; sketch of the 
 mother's work ; arousing self -consciousness ; study of surroundings ; 
 arousing self -activity : nursery of the " worldly-wise " mother ; arous- 
 ing the sense of community ; value of rhythmic movements ; spon- 
 taneous association of ideas. § 34. Learning to stand and walk ; 
 collecting material. § 35. Studying the material ; seeking the inner 
 nature; parental indifference crushes development; pernicious in- 
 fluence of our short-sightedness. § 36. First attempts at drawing ; 
 finding the chalk ; first sketches ; linear representation. § 37. Prog- 
 ress of drawing-work; parents need not be artists; need of de- 
 scriptive words ; word and drawing. § 38. Drawing leads to num- 
 ber ; development of number-notions ; need of objects. § 39. Wealth 
 of the child's world. § 40. Helping father and mother; leading 
 the horse ; attending the goslings ; the little gardener ; the forest- 
 er's son ; the blacksmith, etc. ; harshness ; fostering independence ; 
 joy of child-guidance ; development of industry. § 41. Our own 
 dullness. § 42. " Let us live with our children." § 43. Importance 
 of speech; importance of inner unity. § 44. Misunderstandings 
 from nearness of things ; difficulty of self-knowledge ; transition to 
 boyhood. 
 
 III. The Boyhood of Man. — § 45. Boyhood defined; instruc- 
 tion ; school defined. § 46. Objects of the school. § 47. Will de- 
 fined ; starting-point ; development of boyhood rests on childhood. 
 ^ 48. Importance of the family ; the family a type of life. § 49. 
 Transition from play to work; formative instinct; desire to help 
 the parents ; danger of repulsion ; indolence results ; inquisitiveness ; 
 love of difficulties ; climbing ; exploring caves ; the garden ; love of 
 water ; love of plastic material ; building ; sense of proprietorship ; 
 common endeavor; group-work in school; at the brook; garden- 
 ing; trials of strength and skill; sense of power; play-grounds; 
 
ANALYTICAL INDEX. xxiii 
 
 home-industry ; love of the past ; love of tales and stories ; love of 
 song ; symbolism of play. § 50. Actual boy-life very different from 
 this ; causes of difference. § 51. Man essentially good. § 52. Nature 
 and origin of falsehood ; how to overcome evil with good. § 58. In- 
 fluence of common sympathy; faults of ignorance; the boy and 
 the wig ; the boy and the bowl ; the broken window ; the boy and 
 the pigeon ; how boys are made bad ; false conversion ; the boy and 
 the beetle ; ravages of harsh words. § 54. Sins against childhood. 
 § 55. Seeking unity. 
 
 IV. Man as a Scholar or Pupil. — § 56. Aim of the school ; aim 
 of instruction; the schoolmaster; the faith of boyhood; spirit of 
 the school ; inner power of boyhood ; playing with this inner power ; 
 the spirit makes the school. § 57. Need of schools. § 58. What 
 shall schools teach ? § 59. Mind ; nature ; language. 
 
 V. Chief Groups of Subjects of Instruction. — A. Religion 
 and Religious Instruction. — § 60. Religion defined ; religious instruc- 
 tion ; assumption of some degree of religion; difficulty of under- 
 standing original unity } the thinker and the thought ; father and 
 son ; spiritual unity. § 61. Essence of Christianity ; parental and 
 filial relations, the key ; Sonship of Jesus ; Christian religion ; three- 
 fold manifestation of God — unity, individuality, diversity. 
 
 B. Natural Science and Mathematics. — § 63. Nature and relig- 
 ion. § 63. Nature and art ; immortality of the spirit ; nature as 
 God's work; nature a revelation of God. §64. Importance of na- 
 ture-study to boyhood; excursions; loss of sensitiveness. § 65. 
 Nature in inner and outer contemplation. § 66. External view un- 
 connected. § 67. The boy's desire to find unity : character of force ; 
 the source of all things. § 68. Definition of force ; force and mat- 
 ter ; spherical tendency of force. § 69. The sphere ; origin of diver- 
 sity in form and structure. § 70. Crystallization ; the crystal the 
 first result of simply active force. § 71. Analogies between human 
 and crystalline development. § 72. Laws of crystallogenic force ; 
 the cube; the octahedron; the tetrahedron; the "fall" of the oc- 
 tahedron ; forms derived from the cube, etc. ; the rhombohedron 
 and derivative forms ; compound and cumulative forms ; organized 
 material, j^ 73. Living force ; vegetable and animal forms ; binary 
 plants ; quinary relations ; relation of animals to plants ; law of op- 
 position ; law of equipoise. § 74. Man, the first step of spiritual de- 
 velopment ; evil effects of studying nature fragmentarily. § 75. 
 Nature, a living organism ; the sun ; technical terms not essential ; 
 
xxiv ANALYTICAL INDEX. 
 
 technical knowledge not essential ; mission of colleges ; God erery- 
 where; natural objects, a Jacob's ladder; number, as guide; cor- 
 rectness of the boy's instinct ; honest seeking. § 76. Mathematics, 
 the fixed point for nature-study ; mathematics, a Christian science ; 
 mathematics, the expression of life, as such ; all forms proceed from 
 the sphere ; number, form, extent ; mathematics and mind. 
 
 C. Language. — § 77. Relation to religion and nature ; their unity. 
 § 78. Language defined. § 79. Language, a product of the human 
 mind; born in consciousness; its mediatory character ; significance 
 of word-elements ; roots not adventitious ; illustrations of the mean- 
 ing of letters and sounds. §80. Rhythmic law of language; evil 
 effects of its neglect ; elocutionary tricks. § 81. Historical develop- 
 ment of writing; pictorial and symbolic writing; presupposes a 
 rich life ; satisfies an inner want. § 82. Forms of letters not arbi- 
 trary; and S. § 83. Reading naturally follows; value of the 
 alphabet ; the use of letters presupposes knowledge. 
 
 D. Art and Objects of Art. — § 84. Art, the representation of 
 inner life, i^ 85. Its relation to religion, nature, and language ; its 
 materials ; art, a universal talent ; mediatory character of drawing 
 and poetry ; Christian art. 
 
 VI. Connection between School and Family, and the Sub- 
 jects OF Instruction it implies. — A. General Considerations. — 
 § 86. Union of family and school ; mere extraneous knowledge per- 
 nicious ; value of the family ; need of soul-training. § 87. Subjects 
 of study enumerated ; domestic duties and industrial work. 
 
 B. Particular Considerations. — a. Cultivation of Religious 
 Sense. — § 88. Religious instruction, based on sense of community ; 
 spiritual union of father and son ; religious intuition of boyhood ; 
 need of religious experience; errors of dogmatism; contemplation 
 of the tree ; renunciation ; pernicious effect of promising rewards ; 
 consciousness of duty well done. § 89. Memorizing of religious 
 maxims; prayer. 
 
 b. Knowledge and Cultivation of the Body. — § 90. Respect for the 
 body; physiology. 
 
 c. Nature and Surroundings. — § 91. To be studied in natural 
 connection ; from the near to the remote ; method and course illus- 
 trated ; necessary ramifications ; additional illustrations ; natural 
 history ; physics ; sociology ; objections met. 
 
 d. Memorizing Poems. — ^ 92. Memory-gems; song; illustration 
 of singing-lessons. 
 
ANALYTICAL INDEX. XXV 
 
 e. Language- Exercises, based on the Observation of Nature. — 
 § 93. Language-exercises and grammatical exercises con^ pared ; illus- 
 tration of language-exercises ; physics and chemistry ; mathematics ; 
 additional illustrations. 
 
 /. Outward Corporeal Representation. — § 94. Importance of outer 
 representation; superiority of manual over verbal expression; our 
 blindness due to false education ; service of God or man ; building ; 
 tablets ; lines ; character of building-material ; modeling. 
 
 g. Drawing in the Network. — § 95. Formation of network ; square 
 and triangle ; avoid difficulty in work ; size of square ; essentials of 
 the course ; details of the course ; invention ; needs of the school. 
 
 h. Study of Colors and Painting. — § 96. Color and light ; varie- 
 gation; its significance to boyhood; color and form; essentials of 
 color-study ; naming the colors ; painting natural objects ; illustra- 
 tions of lessons. 
 
 i. Plays. — g 97. Three kinds of plays ; they imply inner life and 
 vigor. 
 
 j. Stories and Tales. — § 98. Fondness of boys for stories ; legends 
 and fairy-tales ; love of repetition ; praise of the genuine story-tell- 
 er ; no need of practical applications and moralizing ; connection of 
 stories with experience. 
 
 k. Excursions and Walks. — § 99. In search of oneness of nature 
 and life; mountains and valleys ; living things ; observation. 
 
 I. Arithmetic. — § 100. Formation, reduction, and comparison of 
 numbers ; course of instruction indicated. 
 
 m. Form- Lessons. — § 101. Outlines of work. 
 
 n. Grammatical Exercises. — § 102. They consider the word as 
 material of representation ; words, syllables, sounds ; suggestions. 
 
 0. Writing. — § 103. Suggestions of method. 
 
 p. Reading. — § 104. Suggestions of method. 
 
 VII. Conclusion. — ^ 105. All-sided development the aim ; objec- 
 tions met ; creative freedom. 
 
THE EDUCATION OP MAN. 
 
 GROUNDWORK OF THE WHOLE. 
 
 § 1. In all things there lives and reigns an eternal 
 law. To him whose mind, through disposition and 
 faith, is filled, penetrated, and quickened with the ne- 
 cessity that this can not possibly be otherwise, as well as 
 to him whose clear, calm mental vision beholds the 
 inner in the outer and through the outer, and sees the 
 outer proceeding with logical necessity from the essence 
 of the inner, this law has been and is enounced with 
 equal clearness and distinctness in nature (the external), 
 in the spirit (the internal), and in life which unites the 
 two. This all-controlling law is necessarily based on 
 an all-pervading, energetic, living, self-conscious, and 
 hence eternal Unity. This fact, as well as the Unity 
 itself, is again vividly recognized, either through faith 
 or through insight, with equal clearness and comprehen- 
 siveness ; therefore, a quietly observant human mind, a 
 thoughtful, clear human intellect, has never failed, and 
 will never fail, to recognize this Unity. 
 
 This Unity is God. All things have come from the 
 Divine Unity, from God, and have their origin in the 
 
%'' * '/'' I' ' '! !' ' J''?™' El)UC4TI0N OF MAN. 
 
 Divine Unity, in God alone. God is the sole source of 
 all thiDgs. In all things there lives and reigns the 
 Divine Unity, God. All things live and have their 
 being in and through the Divine Unity, in and through 
 God. All things are only through the divine effluence 
 that lives in them. The divine effluence that lives in 
 each thing is the essence of each thing. 
 
 § 2. It is the destiny and life-work of aU things to 
 unfold their essence, hence their divine being, and, 
 therefore, the Divine Unity itself — to reveal God in 
 their external and transient being. It is the special des- 
 tiny and life-work of man, as an intelligent and rational 
 being, to become fully, vividly, and clearly conscious of 
 his essence, of the divine effluence in him, and, there- 
 fore, of God ; to become fully, vividly, and clearly con- 
 scious of his destiny and life-work ; and to accomplish 
 this, to render it (his essence) active, to reveal it in his 
 own life with self-determination and freedom. 
 I Education coiuisU in leading 7nan^ as a thinking, 
 intelligent heing, growing into self -consciousness, to a 
 pure and unsullied^ conscious and free rejyresentation 
 of the inner law of Divine Unity, and in teaching him 
 ways and means thereto. 
 
 [In his educational work this principle of life-unity was ever 
 uppermost in Froebel's mind. The full, clear, consistent translation 
 of this principle into life, and into the work of education, constitutes 
 the chief characteristic, as well as the chief merit, of his work. 
 Viewed in its light, education becomes a process of unification ; 
 therefore, Froebel frequently called his educational method " devel- 
 oping, or human culture for all-sided unification of life." In his let- 
 ter to the Duke of Meiningen he characterizes his tendency in these 
 words ; " I would educate human beings who with their feet stand 
 rooted in God's earth, in nature, whose heads reach even into heaven 
 and there behold truth, in whose hearts are united both earth and 
 
LIFE-UNITY. 3 
 
 heaven, the varied life of earth and nature, and the glory and peace 
 of heaven, God's earth and God's heaven." Still later he said, in the 
 same vein : " There is no other power but that of the idea ; the iden- 
 tity of the cosmic laws with the laws of our mind must be recognized, 
 all things must be seen as the embodiments of one idea." With ref- 
 erence to the individual human being, this unification of life means 
 to Froebel harmony in feeling, thinking, willing, and doing ; with 
 reference to humanity, it means subordination of self to the common 
 welfare and to the progressive development of mankind ; with refer- 
 ence to nature, it means a thoughtful subordination to her laws of 
 development ; with reference to God, it means perfect faith as Froe- 
 bel finds it realized in Christianity. 
 
 It may not be amiss to point out at the very start the essential 
 agreement between Froebel and Herbert Spencer in this 'fundamental 
 principle of unification. Of course, it will be necessary in this com- 
 parison to keep in mind that Froebel applies the principle to educa- 
 tion in its practical bearings as an interpretation of thought in life, 
 whereas Spencer applies it to philosophy, as the interpretation of life 
 in thought. To Spencer " knowledge of the lowest kind is ununified 
 knowledge; science is partialhj-unified knowledge; philosophy is 
 completely -unified knowledge." In the concluding paragraphs of 
 '• First Principles" he. sets forth the "power of which no limit in 
 time or space can be conceived" as the " inexpugnable consciousness 
 in which religion and philosophy are at one with common sense," 
 and as " likewise that on which all exact science is based." He desig- 
 nates " unification " as the " characteristic of developing thought," 
 just as Froebel finds in it the characteristic of developing life ; and 
 Spencer's faith in the " eventual arrival at unity " in thought is as 
 firm as Froebel's faith in the eventual arrival at unity in life. — 
 Translator.] 
 
 § 3. The knowledge of that eternal law, the insight 
 into its origin, into its essence, into the totality, the con- 
 nection, and intensity of its effects, the knowledge of 
 life in its totality, constitute science^ the science of life / 
 and, referred by the self-conscious, thinking, intelligent 
 being to representation and practice through and in 
 himself, this becomes science of education. 
 
4 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 The system of directions, derived from the knowl- 
 edge and study of that law, to guide thinking, intelli- 
 gent beings in the apprehension of their life-work and 
 in the accomplishment of their destiny, is the theory of 
 education. 
 
 The self-active application of this knowledge in the 
 direct development and cultivation of rational beings 
 toward the attainment of their destiny, is thfi jpractice 
 of education. 
 
 The object of education is the realization of a faith- 
 ful, pure, inviolate, and hence holy life. 
 
 Knowledge and application, consciousness and reali- 
 zation in life, united in the service of a faithful, pure, 
 holy life, constitute the wisdom ojlife^ pure wisdom. 
 
 § 4. To he wise is the highest aim of man^ is the 
 most exalted achievement of h^man seK-determina- 
 tion. 
 
 To educate one's self and others, with consciousness, 
 freedom, and self-determination, is a twofold achieve- 
 ment of wisdom : it hegan with the iirst appearance of 
 man upon the earth ; it was manifest with the first ap- 
 pearance of full self-consciousness in man ; it hegir<s 
 now to proclaim itself as a necessary, universal require- 
 ment of humanity, and to be heard and heeded as such. 
 With this achievement man enters upon the path which 
 alone leads to life ; which surely tends to the fulfillment 
 of the inner, and thereby also to the fulfillment of the 
 outer, requirement of humanity ; which, through a faith- 
 ful, pure, holy life, attains beatitude. ^ 
 
 § 5. By education, then, the divine essence of man 
 should be unfolded, brought out, lifted into conscious- 
 ness, and man himself raised into free, conscious obedi- 
 
AIM OF EDUCATION. 5 
 
 ence to the divine priDciple that lives in him, and to a 
 free representation of this principle in his life. 
 
 Education, in instruction, should lead man to see and 
 know the divine, spiritual, and eternal principle which 
 animates surrounding nature, constitutes the essence of 
 nature, and is permanently manifested in nature ; and, 
 in living reciprocity and united with training, it should 
 express and demonstrate the fact that the same law rules 
 both (the divine principle and nature), as it does nature 
 and man. ^''^^^^- 
 
 JMi^ication^^a^^aj^hole^^^ of instruction and 
 
 training, should bring to man's consciousness, and re^n^er 
 efficient J n h is lifejj :h^ fact that man and joature pro- 
 ceed froia ^od and are cQiLditimiad-J}y_him — that both 
 have their being in God. 
 
 Education should l9kd and guide mam. to clearness 
 concerning himself and in himself j to jpeace with nOr 
 tuTP'^ and to unity with God / hence, it should lift him 
 to a knowledge of himself and of mankind, to a knowl- 
 edge of God and of nature, and to the pure and holy 
 life to which such knowledge leads. 
 
 § 6. In all these requirements, however, education 
 is based on considerations of the innermost. 
 
 The inner essence of things is recognized by the in- 
 nermost spirit (of man) in the outer and through out- 
 ward manifestations. The inner being, the spirit, the 
 divine essence of things and of man, is known by its 
 outward manifestations. In accordance with this, all 
 education, all instruction and training, all life as a free 
 growth, start from the outer manifestations of man and 
 things, and, proceeding from the outer, act upon the 
 inner, and form its judgments concerning the inner. 
 
6 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 JS'evertlieless, education should not draw its inferences 
 concerning the inner from the outer directly, for it lies 
 in the nature of things that always in some relation in- 
 ferences should be drawn inversely. Thus, the diversity 
 and multiplicity in nature do not warrant the inference 
 of multiplicity in the ultimate cause — a multiplicity of 
 gods — nor does the unity of God warrant the inference 
 of finality in nature ; but, in both cases, the inference 
 lies conversely from the diversity in nature to the oneness 
 of its ultimate cause, and from the unity of God to an 
 eternally progressing diversity in natural developments. 
 The failure to apply this truth, or rather the contin- 
 ual sinning against it, the drawing of direct inferences 
 concerning the inner life of childhood and youth from 
 certain external manifestations of life, is the chief cause 
 of antagonism and contention, of the frequent mistakes 
 in life and education. This furnishes constant occasion 
 for innumerable false judgments concerning the motives 
 of the young, for numberless failures in the education of 
 children, fo;r endless misunderstanding between parent 
 and child, for so much needless complaint and unseemly 
 arraignment of children, for so many unreasonable de- 
 mands made upon them. Therefore, this truth, in its 
 application to parents, educators, and teachers, is of 
 such great importance that they should strive to render 
 themselves familiar with its application in its smallest 
 details. This would bring into the relations between 
 parents and children, pupils and educators, teacher and 
 taught, a clearness, a constancy, a serenity which are now 
 sought in vain : for the child that seems good outwardly 
 often is not good inwardly, i. e., does not desire the good 
 spontaneously, or from love, respect, and appreciation ; 
 
PASSIVE EDUCATION. 7 
 
 similarly, the outwardly rough, stubborn, self-willed 
 child that seems outwardly not good, frequently is tilled 
 with the liveliest, most eager, strongest desire for spon- 
 taneous goodness in his actions ; and the apparently in- 
 attentive boy frequently follows a certain fixed line of 
 thought that withholds his attention from all external 
 things. 
 
 § 7. Therefore, education in instruction and train- 
 ing, originally and in its first principles, should neces- 
 sarily be passive^ following (only guarding and pro- 
 tecting), not prescriptive^ categorical^ interfering. 
 
 [This should in no way be interpreted as a pretext for letting 
 the child alone, giving him up wholly to his own so-called self- 
 direction, allowing him possibly to drift into vicious lawlessness in- 
 stead of training him upward into free obedience to law. Froebel, 
 indeed, sees in the child a fresh, tender bud of progressing hu- 
 manity, and it is with reference to the divinity that to him lies in 
 the child thus viewed that he calls for passive following and vigi- 
 lant protection. He would have the educator study the child as a 
 struggling expression of an inner divine law; and it is this he would 
 have us obey and follow, guard and protect, in our educational 
 work. It is evident that this involves constant activity in judicious 
 adjustment of surroundings, so that the child may be free from 
 temptation and from the growth of unhealthy whims and pernicious 
 tendencies ; while, on the other hand, he may be supplied with ample 
 incentives and opportunities to unfold aright. 
 
 Spencer says, with the same thought : " A higher knowledge 
 tends continually to limit our interference with the processes of 
 life. As in medicine, etc., ... so in education, we are finding that 
 success is to be achieved only by rendering our measures subservient 
 to that spontaneous unfolding which all minds go through in their 
 progress to maturity." — Tr.] 
 
 § 8. Indeed, in its very essence, education should 
 have these characteristics; for the undisturbed opera- 
 tion of the Divine Unity is necessarily good — can not be 
 
8 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 otherwise than good. This necessity implies that the 
 r young human being — as it were, still in process of crea- 
 ■ tion — would seek, although still unconsciously, as a 
 product of nature, yet decidedly and surely, that which 
 is in itself best; and, moreover, in a form wholly 
 adapted to his condition, as well as to his disposition, 
 his powers, and means. Thus the duckling hastens to 
 the pond and into the water, while the young chicken 
 scratches the ground, and the young swallow catches 
 its food upon the wing and scarcely ever touches the 
 ground. IS^ow, whatever may be said against the pre- 
 viously enounced law of converse inference, and against 
 this other law of close sequence, as well as against their 
 application to and in education, they will be fully vin- 
 dicated in their simplicity and truth among the genera- 
 tions that trust in them fully and obey them. 
 (/^^ We grant space and time to young plants and ani- 
 mals because we know that, in accordance with the 
 laws that live in them, they will develop properly and 
 grow well ; young animals and plants are given rest, 
 and arbitrary interference with their growth is avoided, 
 because it is known that the opposite practice would 
 disturb their pure unfolding and sound development ; 
 but the young human being is looked upon as a piece 
 of wax, a lump of clay, which man can mold into 
 what he pleases^V' O man, who roamest through garden 
 and field, through meadow and grove, why dost 'thou 
 close thy mind to the silent teaching of nature ? Be- 
 hold even the weed, which, grown up amid hindrances 
 and constraint, scarcely yields an indication of inner 
 law ; behold it in nature, in field or garden, and see 
 how perfectly it conforms to law — what a pure inner 
 
ACTIVE EDUCATlUxV. 9 
 
 life it shows, harmonious in all parts and features : a 
 beautiful sun, a radiant star, it has burst from the earth ! 
 Thus, O parents, could your children, on whom jou force 
 in tender years forms and aims against their nature, 
 and who, therefore, walk with you in morbid and un. 
 natural deformity — thus could your children, too, un- 
 fold in beauty and develop in all-sided harmony ! 
 
 In accordance with the laws of divine influence, 
 and in view of the original soundness and wholeness of 
 man, all arbitrary (active), prescriptive and categorical, 
 interfering education in instruction and training must, 
 of necessity, annihilate, hinder, and destroy. Thus — 
 to take another lesson from nature — the grape-vine 
 must, indeed, be trimmed ; but this trimming as such 
 does not insure wine. On the other hand, the trim- 
 ming, although done with the best intention, may wholly 
 destroy the vine, or at least impair its fertility and pro- v 
 ductiveness, if the gardener fail in his work passively ) 
 and attentively to follow the nature of the plant. In 
 the treatment of the things of nature we very often 
 take the right road, whereas in the treatment of man 
 we go astray ; and yet the forces that act in both pro- 
 ceed from the same source and obey the same law. 
 Hence, from this point of view, too, it is so important 
 that man should consider and observe nature. 
 
 l^ature, it is true, rarely shows us that unmarred 
 original state, especially in man ; but it is for this reason 
 only the more necessary to assume its existence in every 
 human being, until the opposite has been clearly shown ; 
 otherwise that unmarred original state, where it might 
 exist contrary to our expectation, might be easily im- 
 paired. If, however, there is unmistakable proof from 
 
10 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 Lis entire inner and outer bearing that the original 
 wholeness of the human being to be educated has been 
 marred, then directly categorical, mandatory education 
 in its full severity is demanded. 
 
 On the other hand, however, it is not always possi- 
 ble, and often difficult, to prove with certainty that the 
 inner being is marred ; at least, this applies to the 
 point, the source in which the marring originates and 
 whence it derives its tendency. Again, the last essen- 
 tially infallible criterion of this lies only in the human 
 being himself. Hence, from this point of view, too, 
 education in training and in all instruction should be 
 by far more passive and following than categorical and 
 prescriptive ; for, by the full application of the latter 
 mode of education, we should wholly lose the pure, the 
 sure and steady progressive development of mankind — 
 i. e., the free and spontaneous representation of the 
 divine in man, and through the life of man, which, as 
 we have seen, is the ultimate aim and object of all edu- 
 cation, as well as the ultimate destiny of man. 
 
 Therefore, the purely categorical, mandatory, and 
 prescriptive education of man is not in place before 
 '^' the advent of intelligent self-consciousness, of unity in 
 life between God and man, of established harmony and 
 community of life between father and son, disciple and 
 master ; for then only can truth be deduced and known 
 from insight into the essential being of the whole and 
 into the nature of the individual. 
 
 Before any disturbance and marring in the original 
 wholeness of the pupil has been shown and fully de- 
 termined in its origin and tendency, nothing, therefore, 
 is left for us to do but to bring him into relations and 
 
 V 
 
SELF-ACTIVITY. H 
 
 surroundings in all respects adapted to him, reflecting • 
 his conduct as in a mirror, easily and promptly reveal- 
 ing to him its effects and consequences, readily disclosing 
 to him and others his true condition, and affording a 
 minimum of opportunities for iujury from the out- 
 breaks and consequences of his inner failings. 
 
 § 9. The prescriptive, interfering education, indeed, 
 can be justified only on two grounds : either because it 
 teaches the clear, living thought, seK-evident truth, or 
 because it holds up a life whose ideal value has been 
 established in experience. But, where self-evident, liv- 
 ing, absolute truth rules, the eternal principle itself 
 reigns, as it were, and will on this account maintain a 
 passive, following character. For the living thought, the 
 eternal divine principle as such demands and requires 
 free self -activity and self-determination on the part of 
 man, the being created for freedom in the image of God. , 
 
 [Self-activity, in Froebel's sense of the word, implies not merely 
 that the learner shall do all himself, not merely that he will be bene- 
 fitted only by what he himself does : it implies that at all times Jiis 
 whole self shall he active, that the activity should enlist his entire 
 self in all the phases of being. The law of self-activity demands 
 not activity alone, but all-sided activity of the whole being, the 
 whole self. 
 
 There is much difference between the self -activity of Pestalozzl 
 and that of Froebel. The former has reference more to acquisitive 
 or learning processes that fill the memory with little that bears di- 
 rectly on mental expansion ; it is much concerned with long lists of 
 names, verbal facts and formulas, recitation, and with imitation even 
 in reading, writing, singing, and drawing. Froebel's self-activity ap- | 
 plies to the whole being; it would have all that is in the child self- 
 actively growing, simultaneously and continuously. He looks upon 
 the child as an individuality distinctly separated from all other in- 
 dividualities that make up the universe, but^with an all-sided in- 
 stinctive yearning for unification with these, with points eager for 
 
12 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 contact in all directions of being, and his self-activity applies to 
 these outward tendencies, to doing in its widest sense, as much as it 
 does to the inward tendencies, or to seeing in its widest sense. 
 
 Froebel, consequently, lays more stress than Pestalozzi on spon- 
 taneity of action, on the adaptation of all activities to the child's 
 power, and on the full, whole-hearted, sympathetic, active co-opera- 
 tion of the teacher, whom he urges " to live (to learn and do) with 
 the children." 
 
 Froebel's self-activity is necessarily coupled with joy on the 
 part of the child. To him joy is the inward reaction of self-activity. 
 Here, too, he is closely followed by Spencer, who asks that " through- 
 out youth, as in early childhood and maturity, the process (of intel- 
 lectual education) shall be one of self-instruction " ; and " that the 
 mental action induced by this process shall be throughout intrin- 
 sically grateful." 
 
 It is a matter of great regret that Spencer, who seems to be quite 
 familiar with Pestalozzi, was unacquainted with Froebel's work. 
 What a weapon of strength Froebel's thoughts and suggestions 
 would have proved in Spencer's hands ! — TV.] 
 
 § 10. Again, a life wliose ideal value has been per- 
 fectly established in experience never aims to serve as 
 model in its form, but only in its essence, in its spirit. 
 It is the greatest mistake to suppose that spiritual, hu- 
 man perfection can serve as a model in its form. This 
 accounts for the common experience that the taking of 
 such external manifestations of perfection as examples, 
 instead of elevating mankind, checks, nay, represses, its 
 development. 
 
 § 11. Jesus himself, therefore, in his life and in his 
 teachings, constantly opposed the imitation of external 
 perfection. Only spiritual, striving, living perfection 
 is to be held fast as an ideal ; its external manifestation 
 — on the other hand — its form should not be limited. 
 The highest and most perfect life which we, as Chris- 
 tians, behold in Jesus — the highest known to mankind — 
 
y ' MANDATORY IDEAL. 13 
 
 is a life wliicli found the primordial and ultimate reason 
 of its existence clearly and distinctly in its own being ; 
 a life which, in accordance with the eternal law, came 
 from the eternally creating All-Life, self-acting and self- 
 poised. This highest eternally perfect life itself would"" 
 have each human being again become a similar image 
 of the eternal ideal, so that each again might become a 
 similar ideal for himself and others ; it would have each 
 human being develop from within, self-active and free, 
 in accordance with the eternal law. This is, indeed, the 
 problem and the aim of all education in instruction and 
 training ; there can and should be no other. We see, 
 then, that even the eternal ideal is following, passive, in 
 its requirements concerning the form of being. 
 
 § 12. Nevertheless, in its inner essence (and we see 
 this in experience), the living thought, the eternal spirit- 
 ual ideal, ought to be and is categorical and mandatory 
 in its manifestations : and we see it, indeed, sternly 
 mandatory, inexorable, and inflexible, but only when the 
 requirement appears as a pronounced necessity in the 
 essence of the whole, as well as in the nature of the in- 
 dividual, and can be recognized as such in him to whom 
 it is addressed ; only where the ideal speaks as the or- 
 gan of necessity, and, therefore, always relatively. The 
 ideal becomes mandatory only where it supposes that 
 the person addressed enters into the reason of the re- 
 quirement with serene, child-like faith, or with clear, 
 manly insight. It is true, in word or example, the ideal 
 is mandatory in all these cases, but always only with 
 reference to the spirit and inner life, never w^ith refer- 
 ence to outer form. 
 
 In good education, then, in genuine instruction, in\ 
 
14 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. - 
 
 true training, necessity should call forth^ freedom ; law, 
 self-determination ; external compulsion, inner free- 
 will ; external hate, inner love. Where hatred brings 
 forth hatred ; law, dishonesty and crime ; compulsion, 
 slavery ; necessity, servitude ; where oppression de- 
 :.«troys and debases ; where severity and harshness give 
 rise to stubbornness and deceit — all education is abort- 
 ive. In order to avoid the latter and to secure the for- 
 mer, all prescription should be adapted to the pupil's 
 nature and needs, and secure his co-operation. This is 
 the case when all education in instruction and training, in 
 spite of its necessarily categorical character, bears in all 
 details and ramifications the irrefutable and irresistible 
 impress that the one who makes the demand is himself 
 strictly and unavoidably subject to an eternally mhng 
 law, to an unavoidable eternal necessity, and that, there- 
 fore, all despotism is banished. 
 
 § 13. All true education in training and instruction 
 should, therefore, at every moment, in every demand 
 and regulation, be simultaneously double-sided — giving 
 and_jtaking^jinitin£ and dividing, prescribing and fol- 
 lowing, active and passive, positive yet giving scope, 
 firm and yielding; and the pupil should be similarly 
 conditioned: but between the two, between educator 
 and pupil, between request and obedience, there should 
 invisibly rule a third something, to which educator 
 and pupil are equally subject. This third something 
 is the Tight^ the hest^ necessarily conditioned and ex- 
 pressed without arbitrariness in the circumstances. The 
 calm recognition, the clear knowledge, and the serene, 
 I cheerful obedience to the rule of this third something 
 is the particular feature that should be constantly and 
 
CONTROLLING LAW. 15 
 
 clearly manifest in the bearing and conduct of the edu- 
 cator and teacher, and often firmly and sternly empha- 
 sized by him. The child, the pupil, has a very keen 
 feeling, a very clear apprehension, and rarely fails to 
 distinguish, whether what the educator, the teacher, or 
 the father says or requests is personal or arbitrary, or 
 whether it is expressed by him as a general law and ne- 
 cessity. 
 
 § 14. This obedience, this trustful yielding to an 
 unchangeable third principle to which pupil and teacher 
 are equally subject, should appear even in the smallest 
 details of every demand of the educator and teacher. 
 Hence, the general formula of instruction is : Do this 
 and observe what follows in this particular case from 
 thy action^ and to what Jcnowledge it leads thee. Simi- 
 larly, the precept for life in general and for qyqyj one 
 is : Exhibit only thy spiritual essence^ thy life, in the 
 external, and by means of the external in thy actions, 
 and observe the requirements of thy inner being and its 
 nature. 
 
 Jesus himself charges man in and with this precept 
 to acknowledge the divinity of his mission and of his 
 inner life, as well as the truth of his teaching ; and this 
 is, therefore, the precept that opens the way to the 
 knowledge of all life in its origin and nature, as well as 
 of all truth (see § 23). 
 
 This explains and justifies, too, the next require- 
 ment, and indicates, at the same time, the manner of its 
 fulfillment : The educator, the teacher, should make the 
 individual and particular general, the general par- 
 ticular and individual, and elucidate both in life / he 
 should make the external internal, and the internal ex- 
 
IQ THE EDUCATION OF MAK 
 
 ternal, and indicate the necessary unity of hoth ; he 
 should consider the finite in the light of the infinite^ 
 and the infinite in the light of the finite, and harmonize 
 hoth in life / he should see and perceive the divine es- 
 sence in whatever is human, trace the nature of man to 
 God, and seek to exhibit both within one another in life 
 (see § 25). 
 
 This appears from the nature of man the more 
 clearly and definitely, the more distinctly and unmis- 
 takably, the more man studies himself in himself, in the 
 growing human being, and in the history of human de- 
 velopment. 
 
 § 15. Now, the representation of the infinite in the 
 finite, of the eternal in the temporal, of the celestial in 
 the terrestrial, of the divine in and through man, in 
 the life of man by the nursing of his originally divine 
 nature, confronts us unmistakably on every side as the 
 only object, the only aim of all education, in all instruc- 
 tion and training. Therefore man should be viewed 
 from this only true standpoint immediately with his ap- 
 pearance on earth ; nay, as in the case of Mary, imme- 
 diately with his annunciation, and he should be thus 
 heeded and nursed while yet invisible, unborn. 
 
 "With reference to his eternal immortal soul, every 
 human being should be viewed and treated as a mani- 
 festation of the Divine Spirit in human form, as a 
 pledge of the love, the nearness, the grace of God, as a 
 gift of God. Indeed, the early Christians viewed their 
 children in this light, as is shown by the names they 
 gave them. 
 
 Even as a child, every human being should be 
 viewed and treated as a necessary essential member of 
 
MAN'S RELATIVITY. 17 
 
 humanity ; and therefore, as guardians, parents are re- 
 sponsible to God, to the child, and to humanity. 
 
 Similarly, parents should view their child in his ne- 
 cessary connection, in his obvious and living relations 
 to the present, past, and future development of human- 
 ity, in order to bring the education of the child into 
 liarmony with the past, present, and future require- 
 ments of the development of humanity and of the race 
 (see § 24). For man^ as such, gifted with divine, earth- 
 ly, and human attributes, should he viewed and treated 
 as related to God, to nature, and to humanity; as com- 
 prehending within himself U7iity (God), diversity (na- 
 ture), and individuality (humanity), as well as also the 
 present, past, and future (see §§ 18, 61). 
 
 § 16. Man, humanity in man, as an external mani- 
 festation, should, therefore, be looked upon not as per- 
 fectly developed, not as fixed and stationary, but as 
 steadily and progressively growing, in a state of ever- 
 living development, ever ascending from one stage of 
 culture to another toward its aim which partakes of the 
 infinite and eternal. 
 
 It is unspeakably pernicious to look upon the de- 
 velopment of humanity as stationary and completed, 
 and to see in its present phases simply repetitions and 
 greater generalizations of itself. For the child, as well 
 as every successive generation, becomes thereby exclu- 
 sively imitative, an external dead copy — as it were, a 
 cast of the preceding one — and not a living ideal for 
 its stage of development which it had attained in human 
 development considered as a whole, to serve future 
 generations in all time to come. Indeed, each succes- 
 sive generation and each successive individual human 
 
18 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 being, inasmuch as he would understand the past and 
 present, must pass through all preceding phases of hu- 
 man development and culture, and this should not be 
 done in the way of dead imitation or mere copying, but 
 in the way of living, spontaneous self-activity (see § 24). 
 Every human being should represent these phases spon- 
 taneously and freely as a type for himself and others. 
 For in every human being, as a member of humanity 
 and as a child of God, there lies and lives humanity as a 
 whole ; but in each one it is realized and expressed in a 
 wholly particular, peculiar, personal, unique manner ; 
 and it should be exhibited in each individual human 
 being in this wholly peculiar, unique manner, so that 
 the spirit of humanity and of God may be recognized 
 ever more clearly and felt ever more vividly and dis- 
 tinctly in its intinity, eternity, and as comprehending 
 all existing diversity. 
 
 Only this exhaustive, adequate, and comprehensive 
 knowledge of man and of the nature of man, from 
 which diligent search derives spontaneously, as it were, 
 all other knowledge needful in the care and education 
 of man — only this view of man, from the moment of 
 his conception, can enable true, genuine education to 
 thrive, blossom, bear fruit, and ripen. 
 
 [Herbert Spencer, in his " Education," states this less broadly 
 in these words: '-The education of the child must accord both in 
 mode and arrangement with the education of mankind as considered 
 historically ; or, in other words, the genesis of knowledge in the in- 
 dividual must follow the same course as the genesis of knowledge in 
 the race." He attributes the enunciation of this doctrine to M. 
 Comte. Inasmuch as M. Corate published the first volume of his 
 " Positive Philosophy " in 1830, and Froebel issued his " Education 
 of Man " in 1826, the question of priority is easily settled. How- 
 ever, the thought was in the atmosphere of that period, it would 
 
MAN'S DESTINY. 19 
 
 be easy to show traces of it in Pestalozzi, in Richter and Goethe, in 
 Kant and Hegel, and certainly in Herbart ; Froebel himself clearly 
 foreshadows it in writings from the years 1821 and 1822. (See, also, 
 note, § 24.)— Tr.] 
 
 § 17. From tliis all that parents should do before 
 and after the annnn elation follows readily, clearlj, and 
 unmistakably — to be pure ano[ true in word and deed, 
 to be filled and penetrated with the worth and dignity 
 of man, to look upon themselves as the keepers and 
 guardians of a gift of God, to inform themselves con- 
 cerning the mission and destiny of man as well as con- 
 cerning the ways and. means for their fulfillment. Now, 
 the destiny of the child as such is to harmonize in his 
 development and culture the nature of his parents, the 
 fatherly and motherly character, their intellectual and 
 emotional drift, which, indeed, may lie as yet dormant 
 in both of them, as mere tendencies and energies. 
 Thus, too, the destiny of mem as a child of God and of 
 nature is to represent in harmony and unison the 
 spirit of God and of nature, tlie natural and the divine, 
 the terrestrial and the celestial, the finite and the in- 
 finite. Again, the destiny of the child as a member of 
 the family is to unfold and represent the nature of the 
 family, its spiritual tendencies and forces, in their har- 
 mony, all-sidedness, and purity ; and, similarly, it is the 
 destiny and mission of man as a memher of humanity 
 to unfold and represent the nature, the tendencies and i 
 forces, of humanity as a whole. 
 
 § 18. Now, although the nature of the parents and 
 of the family as a whole may still lie concealed in 
 them, unrecognized even in its dimmest foreshado wings, 
 it will be developed and represented most purely and 
 
20 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 perfectly by the children, if each unfolds and repre- 
 sents his own being, as perfectly, purely, and univer- 
 sally as possible ; and, on the other hand, as much as 
 possible in accordance with his own individuality and 
 personality. Thus, too, the spirit of God and of hu- 
 manity — although as yet concealed and unrecognized — 
 is revealed most purely and perfectly by man as a child 
 of God and of humanity as a whole, if he unfolds and 
 represents his own being as much as possible in accord- 
 ance with his individuality and personality. This is 
 done if man develops and perfects himself in that man- 
 ner and according to that law by which all things are 
 developed and perfected, have been developed and per- 
 fected, and which is supreme wherever Creator and 
 creature, God and nature, are found ; if man in his life 
 reveals his being in inner and outer unity ; in individ- 
 uality^ pure and perfect, in all individual outward re- 
 actions ; in diversity so far as all he does and all that 
 proceeds from him has diverse relations. Only and 
 alone in this threefold, yet in itself one and united^ rep- 
 resentation, is the inner being perfectly shown, mani- 
 fested, and revealed. Wherever one phase of this three- 
 fold representation is really lacking, or, indeed, only 
 imperfectly known or understood, we find imperfect, 
 incomplete representation — imperfect, hindering insight. 
 Only in this way each thing is manifested and revealed 
 in its unity, all-sidedly, and in accordance with its nature ; 
 only by the recognition and application of this triune 
 representation of each thing whose nature is to be com- 
 pletely manifested and revealed, can a true knowledge 
 of each thing, a true understanding of its nature, be 
 reached (see §§ 16, 61), 
 
OPERATION OF FORCE. 21 
 
 § 19. Therefore the child should, from the very 
 time of his birth, be viewed in accordance with his na- ^y 
 ture, treated correctly, and given the free, all-sided use ; 
 of his powers. By no means should the use of certain 
 powers and members be enhanced at the expense of 
 others, and these hindered in their development ; the 
 child should neither be partly chained, fettered, nor 
 swathed ; nor, later on, spoiled by too much assistance. 
 The child should learn early how to lind in himself the 
 center and fulcrum of all his powers and members, to 
 seek his support in this, and, resting therein, to move 
 freely and be active, to grasp and hold with his own 
 hands, to stand and walk on his own feet, to find and 
 observe with his own eyes, to use his members symmet- 
 rically and equally. At an early period the child should 
 learn, apply, and practice the most difficult of all arts — 
 to hold fast the center and fulcrum of his life in spite 
 of all digressions, disturbances, and hindrances. 
 
 § 20. The child? s first iiUerance is that of force. 
 The operation of force, of the forceful, calls forth coun- 
 ter-force ; hence the first t^rying of the child, his push- 
 ing with his feet against whatever resists them, the 
 holding fast of whatever touches his little hands. 
 
 Soon after, and together with this, there is developed 
 in the child sympathy. Hence his smile^ his enjoy- 
 ment, his delight, his vivacity in comfortable warmth, 
 in clear light, in pure, fresh air. This is the beginning 
 of self-consciousness in its very first germs. 
 
 Thus the first utterances of the child — of human 
 life — are rest and unrest, joy and sorrow, smiles and 
 tears. 
 
 Kest, joy, and smiles indicate whatever in the child's 
 4 
 
22 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 feeling is adapted to the pure, undisturbed development 
 of his nature, of his human nature, to the child's life, 
 to human life in the child. To foster and guard these 
 should be the first concern of all educating influences, 
 of life-development, life-elevation, and life-representa- 
 tion. 
 
 Unrest, sorrow, tears, indicate in their first appear- 
 ance whatever is opposed to the development of the 
 child, of the human being. These, too, should be con- 
 sidered in education ; it should strive and labor to find 
 their cause or causes, and to remove them. 
 
 In the very first — but generally only in the very 
 first — manifestations of fretting, restlessness, and cry- 
 ing, the child is unquestionably wholly free from stub- 
 bornness and willfulness ; but, as soon as the little one 
 feels — we know not how and in what degree — that he 
 is left arbitrarily or from negligence or indolence to 
 whatever may give him discomfort or pain, these faults 
 begin to germinate. 
 
 Whenever this unfortunate feeling has been, as it 
 were, inoculated, willfulness, the first and most hideous 
 of all faults, has been begotten — nay, is born — a fault 
 that threatens to destroy the child and his surroundings, 
 and which can scarcely be banished without injury to 
 some trait of his better nature ; a fault that soon becomes 
 the mother of deceit, of falsehood, defiance, obstinacy, 
 and a host of subsequent sad and hideous faults. 
 
 However, in choosing the right way, too, we may err 
 in the manner and form of proceeding. 
 
 In accordance with the spirit and destiny of hu- 
 manity, man should be trained to learn, by the endurance 
 of small, insignificant sufiering, how to bear heavy suf- 
 
EARLIEST INFANCY. 23 
 
 fering and burdens that threaten destructionj If, then, 
 parents or attendants are firmly and surely convinced 
 that all the fretting, restless child may need at the time 
 has been supplied — that all that is or can be injurious 
 has been removed-Rhey should calmly and quietly 
 leave the fretting, restless, or crying child to himself ;_j 
 calmly give him time to find himself. } For, if the little 
 one has once or repeatedly compelled sympathy and 
 help from others in illusbry suffering or slight discom- 
 fort, parents and attendants have lost much, almost all, 
 and can scarcely retrieve their loss by force ; for the 
 little ones have so keen a sense, so correct a feeling for 
 the weaknesses of attendants, that they would rather 
 put forth their native energy in the easier way of con- 
 trol of others — for. which the weakness of attendants 
 gives them the opportunity — than to exercise and culti- 
 vate it in themselves, in patience, endurance, and ac- 
 tivity. 
 
 At this stage of development the young and grow- 
 ing human being is called Sdugling (suckling), and this 
 he is in the fullest sense of the word ; for sucking m 
 (absorbing) is as yet the almost exclusive activity of the 
 child. Does he not, indeed, suck in (absorb) the con- 
 dition of surrounding human beings ? Therefore, the 
 above-named manifestations — his smiles and frettings — 
 remain as yet wholly within himself, are as yet the di- 
 rect, undifferentiated concomitants of that activity. 
 
 At this stage the human being absorbs and takes in 
 only diversity from without; he s — augt j his whole 
 being is, as it were, only an appropriating Auge.^ For 
 
 * This is a play upon the words saugen (to suck) and Auge (eye), by 
 which Froebel desires to emphasize the statement that, at this stage, the 
 
24: THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 this reason even this first stage of development is of 
 the utmost importance for the present and later life of 
 the human being. It is highly important for man's 
 present and later life that at this stage he absorb noth- 
 ing morbid, low, mean; nothing ambiguous, nothing 
 bad. The looks, the countenances of attendants should, 
 therefore, be pure ; indeed, every phase of the surround- 
 ings should be firm and sure, arousing and stimulating 
 confidence, pure and clear : pure air, clear light, a clean 
 room, however needy it may be in other respects. For, 
 alas! often the whole life of man is not sufficient to 
 efface what he has absorbed in childhood, the impres- 
 dons of early youthy^simply because his whole being, 
 lil^ a large eye, as it were, was opened to them and 
 wholly given up to them. Often the hardest struggles 
 of m2in with himself ,Jind even the later most adverse 
 and oppressive events in his life, have their origin in 
 this stage of development ; for this reason the care of 
 the infant is so important. 
 
 Positive testimony to this can be borne by mothers 
 who have nursed some of their children themselves, 
 have relegated the nursing of others to attendants, and 
 have observed both in later life. Similarly, mothers 
 also know that the first smile of the child marks a very 
 definite epoch in the child's life and development ; that 
 it is the expression, at least, of the first physical finding- 
 of-self (Sich-Selhst-Jindens), and may be much more. 
 For that first smile originates not only in the physical 
 feeling of his individuality, but in a still higher physical 
 feeling of community between mother and child ; then 
 
 almost exclusive activity of the child is to take in hosts of impressions 
 through the senses, of which the e//e is the chief one, — Tr. 
 
ESSENCE OF RELIGION. 25 
 
 with father and brothers and sisters ; and, later, between 
 these and humanity on the one hand and the child on 
 the other. 
 
 § 21. This feeling of community, first uniting the 
 child with mother, father, brothers, and sisters, and rest- 
 ing on a higher spiritual unity, to which, later on, is 
 added the unmistakable discovery that father, mother, 
 brothers, sisters, human beings in general, feel and know 
 themselves to be in community and unity with a higher 
 principle — with humanity, with God — this feeling of 
 community is the very first germ, the very first begin- 
 ning of all true religious spirit, of all genuine yearning 
 for unhindered unification with the Eternal, with God. 
 Genuine and true, living religion, reliable in danger and 
 struggles, in times of oppression and need, in joy and 
 pleasure, must come to man in his infancy; for the 
 Divine Spirit that lives and is manifest in the finite, in 
 man, has an early though dim feeling of its divine ori- 
 gin ; and this vague sentiment, this exceedingly misty 
 feeling, should be fostered, strengthened, nurtured, and, 
 later on, raised into full consciousness, into clear appre- 
 hension. 
 
 It is, therefore, not only a touching sight for the 
 quiet and unseen observer, but productive of eternal 
 blessings for the child, when the mother lays the sleep- 
 ing«infant upon hi& couch with an intensely loving, soul- 
 ful look to their heavenly Father, praying him for 
 fatherly protection and loving care. 
 
 It is not only touching and greatly pleasing, but 
 highly important and full of blessings for the whole 
 present and later life of the child, when the mother, 
 with a look full of joy and gratitude toward the heav- 
 
26 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 enly Father, and thanking him for rest and new vigor, 
 lifts from his couch the awakened child, radiant with 
 joyous smiles ; nay, for the whole time of the related 
 life between child and mother this exerts the happiest 
 influence. Therefore, the true mother is loath to let 
 another put the sleeping cJiild to bed, or to take from it 
 the awakened child. 
 
 The child thus cared for by his mother is well-condi- 
 tioned in a human, earthly, and heavenly point of view. 
 Prayer gives peace ; ^ through God man rests in God, 
 the beginning and end of all created things. 
 
 If father and mother would give to their children, 
 as the choicest portion for life, this never-failing hold, 
 this ever-steady point of support, parent and child must 
 ever be in intimate inner and outer unity, when in 
 prayer — in the silent chamber or in open nature — they 
 feel and acknowledge themselves to be in union with 
 their God and Father. Let no one say, " The children 
 will not understand it," for thereby he deprives them 
 of their greatest good. If only they are not already 
 degenerate, if only they are not already too much 
 estranged from themselves and their parents, they un- 
 derstand it, and will understand it : they understand it 
 not through and in the thought, but through and in the 
 heart. Religious spirit, a fervid life in God and with 
 God, in all conditions and circumstances of life and of 
 the human mind, will hardly, in later years, nse to full 
 vigorous life, if it has not grown up with man from his 
 infancy. On the other hand, a religious spirit thus fos- 
 tered and nursed (from early infancy) will rise supreme 
 
 * Gehet hettet — literally, prayer gives a bed — another of Froebel's plays 
 on ^'ords. — Tr. 
 
CONTINUITY OF GROWTH. 27 
 
 in all storms and dangers of life. This is the fruit of 
 earlier and earliest religious example on the part of the 
 parents, even when the child does not seem to notice it 
 or to understand it. Indeed, this is the case with all 
 living parental example (see § 60). 
 
 § 22. ]N^ot only in regard to the cultivation of the 
 divine and religious elements in jnan, but in his entire 
 cultivation, it is highly important that his development 
 should proceed continuously from one point, and that 
 this contmuous progress be seen and ever guarded. 
 Sharp limits and definite subdivisions within the con- 
 tinuous series of the years of development, withdrawing 
 from attention the permanent continuity, the living con- 
 nection, the inner living essence, are therefore highly 
 pernicious, and even destructive in their influence. 
 Thus, it is highly pernicious to consider the stages of 
 human development — infant, child, boy or girl, youth 
 or maiden, man or woman, old man or matron — as really 
 distinct, and not, as life shows them, as continuous in 
 themselves, in unbroken transitions ; highly pernicious 
 to consider the child or boy as something wholly differ- 
 ent from the youth or man, and as something so distinct 
 that the common foundation {human heing) is seen but 
 vaguely in the idea and word, and scarcely at all con- 
 sidered in life and for life. And yet this is the actual 
 condition of affairs ; for, if we consider common speech 
 and life as it actually is, how wholly distinct do the 
 child and the boy appear ! Especially do the later stages 
 speak of the earlier ones as something quite foreign, 
 wholly different from them ; the boy has ceased to see 
 in himself the child, and fails to see in the child the 
 boy ; the youth no longer sees in himself the boy and 
 
28 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 the child, nor does he see in these the youth — with 
 affected superiority he scorns them ; and, most perni- 
 cious of all, the adult man no longer hnds in himself 
 the infant, the child, the boy, the youth, the earlier 
 stages of development, nor in these the coming adult 
 man, but speaks of the child, the boy, and the youth as 
 of wholly different beings, with wholly different natures 
 and tendencies. 
 
 These definite subdivisions and sharp limitations 
 ► have their origin in the want of early and continuously 
 growing attention to the development and self -observa- 
 tion of his own life. It is possible only to indicate, but 
 not to point out in their full extent, the unspeakable 
 mischief, disturbance, and hindrance in the development 
 and advancement of the human race, arising from these 
 subdivisions and limitations. Suffice it to say that only 
 rare inner force can break through the limits set up 
 around the human being by those who influence him. 
 Even this can be accomplished only by a violent effort 
 that threatens to destroy, or, at least, to check and dis- 
 turb, other phases of development. Therefore, there is 
 throughout life somewhat of violence in the actions of 
 a man who has done this at any stage of his develop- 
 ment. 
 
 How different could this be in every respect, if par- 
 ents were to view and treat the child with reference 
 to all stages of development and age, without breaks 
 and omissions ; if, particularly, they were to consider 
 the fact that the vigorous and complete development 
 and cultivation of each successive stage depends on the 
 vigorous, complete, and characteristic development of 
 each and all preceding stages of life I Parents are espe- 
 
CONTINUITY OF GROWTH. 29 
 
 cially prone to overlook and disregard this. When the 
 human being has reached the age of boyhood, they look 
 upon him as a boy; when he has reached the age of 
 youth or manhood, they take him to be a youth or a 
 man. Yet the boy has not become a boy, nor has the 
 youth, become a youth, by reaching a certain age, but 
 only by having lived through childhood, and, further 
 on, through boyhood, true to the requirements of his 
 mind, his feelings, and his body ; similarly, adult man 
 has not become an adult man by reaching a certain age, 
 but only by faithfully satisfying the reg^uirements of his 
 childhood, boyhood, and youth. Parents and fathers, 
 in other respects quite sensible and efficient, expect not 
 only that the child should begin to show himself a boy 
 or a youth, but, more particularly, that the boy, at least, 
 should show himself a man, that in all his conduct he 
 should be a man, thus jumping the stages of boyhood 
 and youth. To see and respect in the child and boy 
 the germ and promise of the coming youth and man is 
 very diflEerent from considering and treating him as if 
 he were already a man ; very different from asking the 
 child or boy to show himself a youth or man ; to feel, 
 to think, and to conduct himself as a youth or a man. 
 Parents who ask this overlook and forget that they 
 themselves became mature and efficient only in so far 
 as they lived through the various stages in natural suc- 
 cession and in certain relationships which they would 
 have their child to forego (see § 28). 
 
 This disregard of the value of earlier, and particu- 
 larly of the earliest, stages of development with refer- 
 ence to later ones, prepares for the future teacher and 
 educator of the boy difficulties which it will be scarcely 
 
30 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 possible to overcome. In tlie first place, the boy so con- 
 ditioned has also a notion that it is possible for him to 
 do wholly without the instruction and training of the 
 preceding stage of developmeut; in the second place, 
 he is much injured and w^eakened by having placed be- 
 fore himself, at an early period, an extraneous aim for 
 imitation and exertion, such as preparation for a certain 
 calling or sphere of activity. Tlie child^ the hoy, man, 
 \indeed, should know no other endeavor hut to he at every 
 \stage of development wholly what this stage calls for. 
 jThen will each successive stage spring like a new shoot 
 from a healthy bud; and, at each successive stage, he 
 will with the same endeavor again accompHsh the re- 
 quirements of this stage : for only the adequate develop- 
 ment of man at each preceding stage can effect and 
 bring about adequate development at each succeeding 
 later stage. 
 
 § 23. It is especially needful to consider this in the 
 development and cultivation of human activity for the 
 pursuits of practical industry. 
 
 At present the popular notions of work and the pur- 
 suits of practical industry are wholly false, superficial, 
 untenable, oppressive, debasing, devoid of all elements 
 of life. 
 
 God creates and worhs productively in uninter- 
 rupted continuity. Each thought of God is a work, a 
 deed, a product ; and each thought of God continues to 
 work with creative power in endless productive acti^aty 
 to all eternity. Let him w4io has not seen this behold 
 Jesus in his life and works ; let him behold genuine life 
 and work in man ; let him, if he truly lives, behold his 
 own life and work. 
 
CREATIVENESS. 31 
 
 The Spirit of God hovered over chaos, and moved 
 it ; and stones and plants, beasts and man took form 
 and separate being and life. God created man in hiA 
 own image ; therefore^ man should create and hringj 
 forth like God. His spirit, the spirit of man, should\ 
 hover over the shapeless, and move it that it may take 
 shape and form, a distinct being and life of its own. 
 This is the high meaning, the deep significance, the 
 gi-eat pm-pose of work and industry, of productive and 
 creative activity. We become truly godHke in dili- 
 gence and industry, in working and doing, which are 
 accompanied by the clear perception or even by the 
 vaguest feeling that thereby we represent the inner in 
 the outer; that we give body to spirit, and form to 
 thought ; that we render visible the invisible ; that we 
 impart an outward, finite, transient being to life in the 
 spirit. Through this godlikeness we rise more and 
 more to a true knowledge of God, to insight into his^ 
 Spirit ; and thus, inwardly and outwardly, God comes 
 ever nearer to us. Therefore, Jesus so truly says in 
 this connection of the poor, " Theirs is the kingdom of 
 heaven," if they could but see and know it and practice 
 it in diligence and industry, in productive and creative 
 work. Of children, too, is the kingdom of heaven ; 
 for, unchecked by the presumption and conceit of adults, 
 they yield themselves in childlike trust and cheerful- 
 ness to their formative and creative instinct (see § 49). . ^ 
 
 [How deeply Froebel valued the creative activity, and how con- * 
 stantly he studied to keep it from degenerating into destnictive- 
 ness, appears from the account of " a visit to Froebel," by Bormann. 
 He writes, in speaking of the building-games : " Two things seemed 
 to me particularly interesting and significant. Froebel never per- 
 mitted the children to destroy an old form built by them for the 
 
32 THE EDUCATIOX OF MAN. 
 
 sake of building a new one with the same material, but insisted that 
 the new formations should be made (by suitable changes) from the 
 old ones. Thus he avoids haste, and awakens thoughtfulness and 
 patience, and, on the other hand, inspires respect for existing things, 
 and teaches at an early period not to build from the ruins of de- 
 stroyed things, but to build up in an orderly manner from the 
 things that are." — Tr.] 
 
 The debasing illusion that man works, produces, 
 creates only in order to preserve his body, in order to 
 secure food, clothing, and shelter, may have to be en- 
 dured, but should not be diffused and propagated. Pri- 
 .y marily and in truth man works only that his spiritual, 
 X ^ divine essence may assume outward form, and that 
 ■ thus he may be enabled to recognize his own spiritual, 
 divine nature and the innermost being of God. What- 
 ever food, clothing, and shelter he obtains thereby 
 comes to him as an insignificant surplus. Therefore 
 Jesus says, " Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven," i. e., 
 the realization of the divine spirit in your life and 
 through your life, and whatever else your finite life 
 may require will be added unto you. 
 
 Again, Jesus says, "My meat is to do the will oi 
 him who sent me," to work and accomplish whatever 
 God has enjoined me to do and as he has enjoined me 
 to do. 
 
 Thus the lilies of the field — which, in the ordinary 
 human sense, do not toil — are clothed by God more 
 splendidly than Solomon in all his glory. But does 
 not the lily put forth leaves and blossoms ; does it not 
 in its whole outward being reveal the inner being of 
 God? 
 
 The fowls of the air, in a human sense, neither sow 
 nor toil, but do they not in their song, in the building 
 
"THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN." 33 
 
 of their nests, in all their manifold and varied actions, 
 reveal the spirit and life which God has put into them ? 
 And God feeds and keeps them. 
 
 Thus should man learn from the lilies of the field 
 and from the fowls of the air to reveal in his outward 
 work and deeds — however small and trifling, or great 
 and weighty they may be at the time — the spirit that 
 God has breathed into him, as place and time, po- 
 sition or calling in life may require. Then his suste- 
 nance will take care of itself. God will show him a 
 hundred ways ; his intelligence will surely always indi- 
 cate to him within himself or in his surroundings one 
 way or means — and what more does he need ? — to sat- 
 isfy his earthly necessities. And if all about him should 
 fail him, he has left within himself — not only undimin- 
 ished, but, indeed, developed in a higher degree — the 
 divine power of allaying want by patient endurance. 
 
 Now, all spiritual effects as finite manifestations sup- 
 pose a succession of time and events. If, therefore, at 
 any time in his life man has neglected to respect in the 
 use of his powers their divine nature and to exalt them 
 to work, or, at least, to develop them for work, lie will 
 necessarily and unavoidably be overtaken by want in 
 proportion to his neglect. At least, he will not, at 
 some time, reap what he could have reaped, had he, in 
 the use of his powers, in his calling, always respected 
 their divine nature ; for, in accordance with the earthly 
 and universal laws under which we live, the results of 
 that neglected activity would have appeared at some 
 time. Now, if the activity was neglected, how can its 
 results appear ? If, then, at any time such want over- 
 take him, man has no other alternative than to let the 
 
34 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 second side of his spiritual power, renunciation and 
 endurance, come into plaj in order to allay the want, 
 and to labor most diligently in order to avoid all similar 
 want for the future. 
 
 The young, growing human being should, therefore, 
 jbe trained early for outer work, for creative and pro- 
 ductive activity. For this there exists a double reason, 
 an inner and an outer requirement ; and the former, in- 
 asmuch as it includes the latter, is of the greatest im- 
 portance and eternal. The requirement is supported, 
 too, by the nature of man as such (see § 87). 
 
 The activity of the senses and limbs of the infant is 
 the first germ, the first bodily activity, the bud, the 
 first formative impulse; play, building, modeling are the 
 first tender blossoms of youth (see § 30) ; and this is the 
 period when man is to be prepared for future industry, 
 diligence, and productive activity, ffivery child, boy, 
 and youth, whatever his condition or position in life, 
 should devote daily at least one or two hours to some 
 serious activity in the production of some definite ex- 
 ternal piece of work. "Lessons through and by work, 
 through and from \iie,Are by far the most impressive 
 and intelligible, and most continuously and intensely 
 progressive both in themselves and in their effect on the 
 learner. ^Notwithstanding this, children — mankind, in- 
 deed — are at present too much and too variously con- 
 cerned with aimless and purjooseless pursuits, and too 
 little with work. Children and parents consider the 
 activity of actual work so much to their disadvantage, 
 and so unimportant for their future conditions in life, 
 that educational institutions should make it one of their 
 most constant endeavors to dispel this delusion. \\The 
 
RELIGION, INDUSTRY, TEMPERANCE. 35 
 
 domestic and scholastic education of our time leads 
 children to indolence^nd laziness; a vast amount of 
 human power thereby remains undeveloped and is lost. 
 It would be a most wholesome arrangement in schools 
 to establish actual working hours similar to the existing 
 study hours ; and it will surely come to this. By the 
 current practice of using his powers so sparingly and 
 in reference only to outer requirements, man has lost 
 their inner and outer measure, and, therefore, fails 
 adequately to know, appreciate, respect, and faithfully 
 guard them. 
 
 As for religion, so, too, for industry^ early cultivation 
 is highly important. Early work, guided in accordance 
 with its inner meaning, confirms and elevates religion. 
 Religion without industry, without work, is liable to be 
 lost in empty dreams, worthless visions, idle fancies. 
 Similarly, work or industry without religion degrades 
 man into a beast of burden, a machine. Work and re- 
 ligion must be simultaneous ; for God, the Eternal, has 
 been creating from all eternity. Were this fully recog- 
 nized, were men thoroughly impressed with this truth, 
 were they to act and work in conformity to it in life, 
 what a height could mankind soon attain ! 
 
 Yet human power should be developed, cultivated, 
 and manifested, not only in inner repose, as religion and 
 religious spirit ; not only in outward efficiency, as work 
 and industry ; but also — withdrawing upon itself and its 
 own resources — in abstinence, temperance, and frugality. 
 Is it needful to do more than indicate this to a human 
 being not wholly at variance with himself? Where 
 religion^ industry, and temperance, the truly undivided 
 trinity, rule in harmony, in true pristine unity, there, 
 
36 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 indeed, is heaven upon earth— peace, joy, salvation, 
 grace, blessedness. 
 
 Thus is seen in the child man as a whole ; thus the 
 unity of humanity and of man appears in childhood ; 
 thus the whole future activity of man has its germs in 
 the child. And it can not be otherwise. If we would 
 develop man and in him humanity as a whole, we must 
 view him even in the child as a unit and in all his 
 earthly relations. Now, since unity in the finite mani- 
 festations implies diversity, and since all all-sidedness 
 in the finite manifestations impHes a succession in time, 
 the world and life are unfolded for the child and in the 
 child in diversity and succession. Similarly, powers 
 and tendencies, the activities of the senses and limbs, 
 should be developed in the order in which they appear 
 in the child. 
 
 [Froebel's demand for manual training in education has been 
 adopted quite generally. However, the utterances of this need relate 
 largely to industrial considerations. It is claimed that the chiefly 
 literary character of school education does not meet the demands of 
 the world's industrial interests ; that there is a dearth of talent and 
 skill in industrial pursuits, and a consequent excess of applicants for 
 the learned professions and for commercial and clerical work ; that 
 labor is shunned as degrading, instead of being sought as ennobling ; 
 and that consequently pauperism and crime, as the results of enforced 
 idleness, are on the increase. 
 
 There is much force in these claims, and, unquestionably, man- 
 ual training will do much to meet the evils they disclose. Yet the 
 need of manual training as an educational factor lies deeper — in the 
 demand for full, all-sided development in all relations of life. In 
 this sense manual training is as much a need of the professional and 
 literary man, of the merchant and clerk, of the capitalist and land- 
 owner, as it is of the artist and artisan, of the laborer and farmer; 
 as much a need of woman as it is of man : its need rests on the im- 
 manent being of man more than on a transient industrial need. 
 
MANUAL TRAINING. 37 
 
 It has long been conceded that experience, and, primarily, direct 
 personal experience, furnishes the material for human insight and 
 conduct. Until quite lately, however, the school has recognized this 
 fact only in the in-leading processes of intellectual growth, which 
 are now largely based on direct personal contact with things and 
 life. In the out-leading processes of intellectual growth, in the ex- 
 pression of ideas, the school is still satisfied with words and ignores 
 the value of things ; it recognizes, indeed, the debt of gratitude the 
 intellect owes to the reflex influence which comes from efforts to 
 formulate knowledge in words, but neglects the plastic expression of 
 ideas by the hands which hold to their formulation in words the 
 same relation that things hold to symbols in impression. 
 
 Thus, in the study of the cube, the child will probably first see 
 the cube, handle it, use it in his plays, and thus gain many notions 
 concerning its shape. These may be expressed in words, and plas- 
 tically in clay. Both modes of expression will react favorably upon 
 the child's idea of the shape ; but the efforts at plastic representation 
 will be found much more effectual in clearing the idea of inaccura- 
 cies and imperfections. . At every step the child has opportunities to 
 compare the representation of his idea with the idea and with the 
 original, to correct faults and to supply omissions. 
 
 While, therefore, this manual training gives skill for industrial 
 pursuits, and lifts work to a high place in the respect and gratitude 
 of the child, it supplies imperative needs of permanent self-expansion 
 as no other educational agency can do. Of course, this manual train- 
 ing should adapt the material of work to the capacities and needs of 
 the little workers, so that it may yield readily to their limited skill, 
 adapt itself without worry to their aims, and thus secure for manual 
 expression an automatism similar to that of speech. Again, the ex- 
 ternal products of this manual training are more symbolical than 
 practical — the real product lies in the child. In this it passes beyond 
 mere industrial training, whose products are chiefly practical and 
 external. Similarly, this manual training would lead beyond the 
 mere artisanship of industrial training to true creative art. 
 
 With proper guidance this systematic manual training becomes 
 the most powerful agency in securing for the pupil the habit of suc- 
 cess, a calm sense of power, a firm conviction of mastership, which 
 are so essential to fullness of life, and almost indispensable to the 
 success of the school. 
 
 That Froebel, in his recommendations of the school workshop, 
 5 
 
38 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 was guided by these larger views, appears from his announcement of 
 the Volkserziehungsanstalt at Helba, a project which he, unfortu- 
 nately, never realized. This announcement was made in 1829, in the 
 full flush of the hopes kindled in Froebel's breast by the recently 
 won favor of the Duke of Meiningen. In the announcement he writes : 
 *' The institution will be fundamental, inasmuch as in training and 
 instruction it will rest on the foundation from which proceed all 
 genuine knowledge and all genuine practical attainments ; it will 
 rest on life itself and on creative effort, on the union and interde- 
 pendence of doing and thinking, representation and knowledge, art 
 and science. The institution will base its work on the pupil's per- 
 sonal efforts in work and expression, making these, again, the foun- 
 dation of all genuine knowledge and culture. Joined with thought- 
 fulness, these efforts become a direct medium of culture ; joined with 
 reasoning, they become a direct means of instruction, and thus make 
 of work a true subject of instruction." 
 
 Froebel proposed to devote the forenoon to instruction in the 
 current subjects of school study, and the afternoon to work in the 
 field, the garden, the forest, in and around the house. His list of 
 occupations comprised the preparation of wood for the kitchen and 
 the furnace ; the making of simple wooden kitchen utensils ; the 
 weaving and binding of mats for the table and for the floor ; the 
 binding of books and the ruling of slates and practice-paper ; the 
 making of a variety of collections of objects of nature and art, and of 
 suitable boxes for these objects ; the care of the garden, the orchard, 
 the field ; the plaiting of straw mats for the hot-beds, and basket- 
 making ; the care of pigeons, chickens, ducks, etc. ; the preparation 
 of artistic and geometrical forms with paper in folding, cutting, and 
 mounting, pricking, weaving, interlacing, etc. ; the use of paste- 
 board in the making of stars, wheels, boxes, napkin-rings, card- 
 baskets, lamp-shades, etc. ; play with splints, tablets, sticks and peas ; 
 the whittling of boats, windmills, water-wheels, etc. ; the making of 
 chains and baskets from flexible wire ; modeling with clay ; draw- 
 ing and painting ; and many other things. 
 
 Froebel's project failed ; yet much of the seed he had scattered 
 broadcast had fallen on good soil. A stray grain had taken root in 
 distant Finland, where, in 1866, Cygnaeus, an ardent admirer of 
 Froebel, introduced slojd (wood-work) as an obligatory branch of in- 
 struction in the schools of his countiy. The success of Finland 
 aroused Sweden, and brought support to Clausen-Kaas in Denmark. 
 
SCHOOL WORKSHOPS. 39 
 
 In 1875 this man was invited by admirers of Froebel to visit Dresden 
 to bring to them a gospel which Germany is gradually recognizing 
 as the neglected gift of one of her own sons. In the mean while the 
 thought had found an earnest advocate in Dr. Schwab, at Vienna, 
 through whose vigorous agitation Austria-Hungary is dotted all 
 over with school gardens and school workshops ; and in 1882 France 
 decreed that in her common schools " boys and girls shall devote two 
 or three hours per week to instruction in manual work {travaux 
 manuehy 
 
 In the further special directions for carrying out this law in the 
 schools of France, the following points are of interest : Boys from 
 seven to nine years old are to be instructed in manual exercises to 
 develop manual dexterity, in cutting geometrical figures from paste- 
 board, in basket-making, in modeling geometrical figures and simple 
 objects ; boys from nine to eleven years old are to be taught the 
 manufacture of pasteboard articles to be covered with glazed paper, 
 in bending iand plaiting iron wire, in the manufacture of objects 
 from wire and wood (e. g., bird-cages), in the modelfng of architect- 
 ural ornaments, in the use of the commonest tools ; boys from eleven 
 to thirteen years old have practice in drawing and modeling, in the 
 use of tools for working in wood (planes, saws, simple joints, turn- 
 ing-lathes), and in the use of the file and other tools for smoothing 
 metal casts and working in iron. 
 
 In all these cases the educational influence of work as a crea- 
 tive and expressional activity constitutes the chief consideration. 
 They look to the establishment of true school workshops, i. e., work- 
 shops that serve the purposes of the school, which cejiter in the ade- 
 quate development of the physical and psychical powers of a com- 
 plete human being, destined to the mastership of inner and outer life. 
 They differ in this respect from manual training-schools, technical 
 schools, industrial schools of all names, whose specific aim is prepa- 
 ration for efficiency in engineering or industrial pursuits. Of 
 course, in the latter, too, the work will not be without educational 
 influence, but this is a secondary consideration of little moment 
 compared with the specific objects of the schools in question. 
 Schools of this character existed in all the countries named' above 
 long before the introduction of the school workshop as an adjunct 
 of the common school. — Tr.l 
 
II. 
 
 MAN m THE PERIOD OF EARLIEST CHILD- 
 HOOD. 
 
 § 24. Although in itself at all times made up of tlie 
 same objects and of the same organization, the external 
 world comes to the child at first out of its void — as it 
 were, in misty, formless indistinctness, in chaotic confu- 
 sion — even the child and the outer world merge into 
 each other. At an early period there come, too, on the 
 part of the parents, corresponding words which at first 
 separate the child from the outer world, but afterward 
 reunite them. With the help of these words, these 
 objects present themselves, at first singly and rarely, but 
 later in various combinations and more frequently, in 
 their self-contained fixed individuahty. At last man — 
 the child — beholds himself as a definite individual ob- 
 ject, wholly distinct from all others. 
 
 Thus, in the mind of man, in the history of his 
 mental development, in the growth of his consciousness, 
 in the experience of every child from the time of his 
 appearance on earth to the time when he consciously 
 beholds himself in the garden of Eden, in beautiful na- 
 ture spread out before him, there is repeated the history 
 of the creation and development of all things, as the 
 
/ 
 
 MAN IN EARLIEST CHILDHOOD. 41 
 
 holy books relate it. Similarly, in each child there is 
 repeated at a later period the deed which marks the 
 beginning of moral and human emancipation, of the 
 dawn of reason — essentially the same deed that marked, 
 and, inasmuch as the race was destined for freedom, 
 must mark, the moral and human emancipation, the 
 dawn of reason in the race as a whole. 
 
 Every human being who is attentive to his own de- 
 velopment may thus recognize and study in himself the 
 history of the development of the race to the point it 
 may have reached, or to any fixed point. For this pur- 
 pose he should view his own hfe and that of others at 
 all its stages as a continuous whole, developing in ac- 
 cordance with divine laws. Only in this way can man 
 reach an understanding of history, of the history of 
 human development as well as of himself, the history 
 and phenomena, the events of his own development, 
 the history of his own heart, of his own feelings and 
 thoughts ; only in this way can he learn to understand 
 others ; only in tliis way can parents hope to understand 
 their child (see § 16). 
 
 [Of course, this is to be taken in a general sense. Froebel's idea 
 is not that each human being must imitate the various phases of 
 human.development from savagery to present civilization, and labori- 
 ously wade through the grossness, ignorance, and wickedness of past 
 generations to the refinement, culture, and good-will of our day. 
 Froebel's thought is, rather, that the various instincts and tenden- 
 cies of life are developed in each human being in the same general 
 order in which we find them developed in humanity as a whole. 
 This is amply illustrated in the pages of this work, and needs no ad- 
 ditional elucidation. (See also note, § 16.) — Tr.} 
 
 § 25. To make the internal external, and the exter- 
 nal internal, to find the unity for both, this is the gen- 
 
42 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 eral external form in which man's destiny is expressed 
 (see § 14). Therefore, every external object comes to 
 man with the invitation to determine its nature and re- 
 lationships. For this he has his senses, the organs that 
 enable him to meet that invitation. This is exhaustively 
 indicated in the word S-inn (sense), or self -active mter- 
 nalization.* 
 
 Every thing and every being, however, comes to be 
 known only as it is connected with the opposite of its 
 kind, and as its unity, its agreement with this opposite, 
 its equation with reference to this is discovered; and 
 the completeness of this knowledge depends upon the 
 completeness of this connection with the respective 
 opposite, and upon the complete discovery of the con- 
 necting thought or link. 
 
 [The law of the connection of contrasts Froebel designates vari- 
 ously as the law of development and as the law of unification. To 
 Fichte and Hegel this is a law of mere thought ; to Froebel it is 
 more a law of life. In a letter to Krause, written in 1828, he states 
 this quite clearly in these words : " I see the simple course of devel- 
 opment progressing from analysis to synthesis, which appears in 
 pure thought, also in the development of every living thing." When, 
 in 1850, Poesche and Benfey in his presence compared this law 
 with Fichte's law of the idealistic constitution of things, and with 
 Hegel's dialectic method, he said : " It is both of these, and yet has 
 nothing in common with either of them ; it is the law which the 
 contemplation of nature has taught me, and which I offer to chil- 
 dren to guide them in their development." The high place it occu- 
 pied in his life he revealed to Diesterweg in 1849 : " The pantheistic 
 view of life belongs to the past : we see no longer an inseparable 
 One, but a Three. Trinity has become a corner-stone which people 
 had rejected because they did not understand its meaning. To 
 eyes that can see, the trinity of God is manifest in all his works. Do 
 
 * A play on the word Sinn and ^elbsthatige iKS-erUchmachung (sense 
 and self-active internalization). — Tr. 
 
LAW OF CONTRASTS. 
 
 43 
 
 we not everywhere see the Three in contrasts and their connection? 
 And where do we find absolute contrasts, contrasts (opposites) that 
 have not somewhere or somehow a connection ? In action and re- 
 action the contrasts that we see everywhere give rise to the motions 
 in the universe as they do in the smallest organism. This implies 
 for all development a struggle, which, however, sooner or later will 
 find its adjustment; and this adjustment is the connection of con- 
 trasts resulting in harmony among all the parts of the whole." A 
 comparatively concise statement of the principal applications of this 
 law in education will be found in the italicized words near the close 
 of § 14, 
 
 A favorite external illustration of this law Froebel finds in his 
 Second Gift, consisting of the ball, cube, and cylinder. The ball 
 and cube are clear contrasts ; they represent the one and the many 
 (in the faces), rest and motion, straight and curved. They find their 
 connection in the cylinder, which has one curved face on which it 
 moves, and many (two) straight faces on which it rests. In his Ham- 
 burg lectures of 1849 he furnishes the following systematic presenta- 
 tion of all development, in which (— ) designates fixed or constant, 
 and (+) fluid or variable elements, and (±) the connection of the 
 
 two: 
 
 Nature. 
 
 Matter. 
 
 I 
 
 Spirit. 
 
 I 
 
 ± 
 Development. 
 
 Development of macrocosm. 
 
 Development 
 
 of the 
 
 inorganic world. 
 
 I I 
 
 — + 
 
 Absolute Air and 
 
 earthy water 
 
 matter 
 (solid). 
 
 (fluid). 
 
 Chemical com- 
 bination. 
 (Life of the 
 inorganic world.) 
 
 Development 
 
 of the 
 organic world. 
 
 1 
 
 De- 
 veloped 
 earthy- 
 matter. 
 
 I 
 
 + 
 Light 
 and 
 heat. 
 
 I 
 
 ± 
 Growth. 
 
 Development of microcosm. 
 
 Development 
 of the body. 
 
 Development 
 of the mind. 
 
 1 
 
 Impres- 
 sion 
 (action) 
 from the 
 outer 
 world. 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 + 
 Reaction 
 of the 
 organ- 
 ism. 
 
 I 
 
 Impression 
 
 (action) 
 
 of the 
 
 organism 
 
 (experience 
 
 —sensation). 
 
 Reaction 
 of the 
 mind 
 
 (feeling— 
 know- 
 
 ing). 
 
 I 
 
 ± 
 Central life- 
 Self- mobility. 
 
 I 
 
 ± 
 Will— Action- 
 Conduct. 
 
44 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 Mind. 
 
 Development 
 of experience. 
 
 1 I 
 
 I 
 
 ± 
 Percept. 
 
 Development 
 of knowledge. 
 
 Impression Fixing Per- 
 f rom of the cept. 
 
 without, impression. 
 
 Abstrac- 
 tion. 
 
 Concept-idea. 
 
 Development 
 of peace. 
 
 Contem- 
 plation. 
 
 Faith. 
 
 Development 
 of feeling. 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 + — + 
 
 Belief. Peace. Joy. 
 
 ± 
 Freedom. 
 
 In a highly instructive paper on this subject, Dr. Hohlfeld gives 
 the following account of contrasts and their mediation or connec- 
 tion: 
 
 In their quality, the terms of a contrast are either both affirma- 
 tive (contrary), such as man and woman, science and art, God and 
 world, or only one of the terms is affirmative, the other negative 
 (contradictory), such as yes and no, ego and non-ego, good and not- 
 good. The latter exist only in abstraction ; the contradictory con- 
 trast simply comprehends in a convenient fashion the sum of all the 
 contrary contrasts of a given idea. Thus the non-ego comprehends 
 all existence with the exception of the ego. 
 
 In their direction, the terms of a contrast are either rigJit or 
 oblique. Of these the former are either co-ordinate or sub-ordinate. 
 Nature and mind, man and woman, art and science are co-ordinate 
 contrasts. In the contrast of Grod and world, whole and part, body 
 and member, the second term is subordinate to the first. Man and 
 animal, animal and plant, science and a particular art, are oblique 
 contrasts. 
 
 In tiieir modality, contrasts are temporal, eternal, or combine 
 the two. 
 
 The " mediation," or connection, of contrasts is either direct or 
 indirect (true " mediation "), and the former is eitlier more external 
 or more internal. Examples of more external direct contrasts we 
 have in the combination of a horizontal and vertical line into a right 
 angle or a right cross, and in the juxtaposition of blue and red. 
 Examples of more internal contrasts we have in the slanting line 
 which partakes of both the horizontal and vertical direction, in the 
 mixture of blue and red into violet, in the combination of sulphur 
 and mercury into cinnabar. These inner direct connections are ex- 
 cellent "mediating" links between the simple terms of the con- 
 
ORDER OF SEXSES. 45 
 
 trasts. Thus, slanting mediates between horizontal and vertical, 
 violet between blue and red, etc. — Tr.] 
 
 § 26. The objects of the external world present 
 themselves to man in a more or less solid, liquid, or 
 gaseous condition. Accordingly, man finds himself en- 
 dowed with senses that apprehend more or less fully 
 the solid, liquid, or gaseous conditions. 
 
 Again, every object comes to man in a state of pre- 
 dominating rest or motion ; and, accordingly, each of 
 these senses is again distributed between two distinct 
 organs, of which one is fitted more to give a knowledge 
 of objects at rest, and the other to give a knowledge 
 of objects in motion. Thus the sense for the gaseous 
 (aeriform) is distributed between the eye and the ear, 
 the sense for the liquid between the organs of taste and 
 smell, the sense for the solid between the organs of 
 feeling and touch.* 
 
 In accordance with the law of contrasts in the de- 
 velopment of knowledge, the sense of hearing is the 
 first to be developed in the child ; later on, there fol- 
 lows, guided and incited by hearing, the sense of sight. 
 The development of these two senses in the child, then, 
 enables parents and attendants to establish a most inti- 
 mate union between objects and their opposites, words 
 and symbols, connecting them into one, as it were, 
 thus leading the child to see and, later on, to know 
 them. 
 
 [Concerning the order of development of the senses, Froebel's 
 position may require modification. Darwin's child "had his eyes 
 fixed on a candle as early as the ninth day, and up to the forty-fifth 
 
 * The sense of feeling determines the temperature and mere contact 
 presence, that of touch the hardness and smoothness of a body. — Tr. 
 
46 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 day nothing else seemed thus to fix them " ; " on the forty-ninth 
 day his attention was attracted by a bright-colored tassel, as was 
 shown by his eyes becoming fixed and the movements of his arms 
 ceasing." It is true that " during the first fortnight he often started 
 on hearing any sudden sound," and once, when he was sixty-six days 
 old, he was frightened into nervous crying by his father's sneezing ; 
 but these were probably reflex movements, and had little to do with 
 true hearing, for, even when one hundred and twenty-four days old, 
 he found it difficult " to recognize whence a sound proceeded." All 
 this would indicate that, in time of development, sight had the pre- 
 cedence. Mr. Champneys reports that his child had his eyes fixed 
 on a candle when a week old ; not until the fourteenth day did he 
 turn to his mother when she spoke to him, and " even then did not 
 start at sudden noises, however loud, unless accompanied by jerks 
 or vibrations." M. Taine finds the first positive evidence of true 
 hearing at two and a half months, when the child, "hearing her 
 grandmother's voice, turns her head to the side from which it 
 comes." It will be noticed that all these observers find the test for 
 accomplished hearing in the turning of the head (or eyes) toward 
 the point whence the sound proceeded. This seems to imply that 
 the sense of sight is used as the criterion, and must, therefore, have 
 been previously developed. 
 
 Preyer found his child decidedly sensitive to light " long before 
 the lapse of the first day " ; on the second day the eyes were rapidly 
 closed on the approach of a candle ; on the ninth, the head is at the 
 same time energetically averted ; on the tenth day the candle, held 
 at the distance of one metre, is viewed without flinching ; on the 
 eleventh, it is viewed with evidences of pleasure. Color seems to 
 make an impression on the twenty-third day : and after the first 
 month brilliant objects are the signal for exclamations of joy. Con, 
 cerning the sense of hearing, Preyer mentions the difficulty of separ 
 rating the convulsive movements of the eyelids, due to reflex action 
 from other causes, from similar movements due to sound-impres- 
 sions. Not until the first half of the fourth day can he convince 
 himself that his boy has ceased to be deaf : at this time the clapping 
 of hands close to the child causes him suddenly to open his half- 
 closed eyes ; on the same day whistling near his ears stops his cry- 
 ing ; on the eleventh and twelfth day the father's voice has a sooth- 
 ing effect ; on the twenty-fifth day still less doubtful symptoms of 
 sensitiveness to sound are noticed ; in the sixth week he shows for 
 
USE OF LIMBS. 47 
 
 the first time appreciation of musical sound, being soothed by the 
 mother's singing, which he receives with eyes wide open. 
 
 Thus, along the entire line, sight seems to be in advance : the 
 child is decidedly sensitive to light on the first day, but, to sound, 
 not before the fourth day ; color impresses the child on the twenty- 
 third day, and nmsical sound not before the thirty-sixth. Addi- 
 tional proof might be furnished, but this must sufiice here. It 
 seems to indicate clearly enough that Froebel's position concerning 
 these two senses is untenable. 
 
 Later on, however, Preyer shows that to neither of these two 
 senses belongs the first place in the order of development, but that 
 this belongs to the sense of taste, which, even at birth, distinguishes 
 sweet things from bitter, sour, and salt things. Similarly, certain 
 parts of the body, such as the tongue and the lips, are sensitive to 
 contact with external things at birth ; and many observations point 
 to a similar, though less definite, sensitiveness to certain odors. This 
 seems to be in full accord with the biological history of the senses, 
 which shows that they are all differentiations from a general contact 
 sense that pervades the entire mass of the lowest forms of individ- 
 ualized protoplasm. 
 
 When the senses, however, are once established, it seems natural 
 that in their further development sight, hearing, and specialized 
 touch should take the lead. More than the other senses — taste, 
 smell, and the general contact sense — they enable the human being 
 in his efforts to separate self from not-self for the sake of securing 
 control of the latter. And in this further development, too, sight 
 and touch, leading man further from self in insight, will excel hear- 
 ing in relative importance and development. — Tr.'\ 
 
 § 27. With tlie advancing development of tlie 
 senses, there is developed in the child, simultaneously 
 and symmetrically, the use of the body, of the limbs ; 
 and this, too, in a succession determined by their nature 
 and the properties of corporeal objects. 
 
 External objects are themselves near, at rest, and 
 invite rest; or they are in motion, moving away, 
 and invite seizure, grasping, holding fast ; or they 
 are fixed in distant places or spaces, and thus invite 
 
48 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 him who would bring them nearer to move toward 
 them. 
 
 Thus is developed the use of the limbs in sitting 
 and lying, in grasping and holding, in walking and 
 running. 
 
 Standing represents the use of the body and limbs 
 in their most complete totality ; it is the finding of the 
 center of gravity of the body. 
 
 This bodily standing is as significant for this stage 
 as the first smile, the physical finding of self, was for 
 the preceding stage, and as moral and religious equi- 
 poise is for the highest stage of human development. 
 
 At this stage of development the young, growing 
 human being cares for the use of his body, his senses, 
 his limbs, merely for the sake of their use and practice, 
 but not for the sake of the results of this use. He is 
 wholly indifferent to this ; or, rather, he has as yet no 
 idea whatever of this. For this reason the child at this 
 stage begins to jplay with his limbs — his hands, his 
 fingers, his lips, his tongue, his feet, as well as with the 
 expression of his eyes and face (see § 30). 
 
 Now, as has been just indicated, these movements 
 of the face and body are, at first, in no way representa- 
 tions of the internal in the external ; indeed, this is re- 
 served for the next stage of development. Yet these 
 plays, as the first utterances of the child, should be care- 
 fully observed and watched, lest the child contract 
 habitual bodily and, particularly, facial movements that 
 have no inner meaning (e. g., distortions of the eyes and 
 face), thus inducing at an early period a separation be- 
 tween gestures and feelings, between body and mind, 
 between the inner and the outer. This separation, in 
 
BEGINNING OF CHILDHOOD. 49 
 
 its turn, might lead either to hypocrisy or to the forma- 
 tion of habitual movements and manners which refuse 
 obedience to the will and accompany man like a mask 
 through all his life. 
 
 From a very early period, therefore, children should 
 never be left too long to themselves on beds or in 
 cradles without some external object to occupy them. 
 This precaution is needful, too, in order to avoid bodily 
 enervation, which necessarily gives rise to mental enerva- 
 tion and weakness. 
 
 In order to avoid this enervation, the bed of children 
 should from the beginning, from the very first moment, 
 not be too soft. It should consist of pillows of hay, 
 sea-grass, fine straw, chaff, or, possibly, horse-hair, but 
 never of feathers. So, too, the child should be but 
 lightly covered while asleep, securing for it the influ- 
 ence of fresh air. 
 
 In order to avoid leaving the child on its bed men- 
 tally unoccupied while going to sleep, and, still more, 
 just after waking, it is advisable to suspend in a line 
 with the child's natural vision, a swinging cage with a 
 lively bird.* This secures occupation for the senses and 
 the mind, profitable in many directions. 
 
 § 28. As soon as the activity of the senses, of the 
 body and the limbs is developed to such a degree that 
 the child begins self -actively to represent the internal 
 outwardly, the stage of infancy in human development 
 ceases, and the stage of childhood begins. 
 
 * The women of Appenzell, naturally great lovers of liberty, substi- 
 tuted for this an artificial bird cut from bright-colored paper, Froebel 
 himself, at a later period, proposed the substitution of the balls of the first 
 gift.— 2>. 
 
60 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 Up to this stage the inner being of man is still un- 
 organized, nndiiferentiated. 
 
 With language, the expression and representation of 
 the internal begin ; with language, organization, or a 
 differentiation with reference to ends and means, sets in. 
 The inner being is organized, differentiated, and strives 
 to make itself known [Kund thun), to announce itself 
 (ver^i^7i<^igen) externally. The human being strives by 
 his own self -active power to represent his inner being 
 outwardly, in permanent form and with solid material ; 
 and this tendency is expressed fully in the word Kind 
 (child), K-in-d^^ which designates this stage of develop- 
 ment. 
 
 At this stage of childhood — when there become 
 manifest the tendency and endeavor to represent the 
 inner in and through the outer, and to unite the two, to 
 find the unity that connects them — the actual education 
 of man begins, and attention and watchful care are di- 
 rected less to the body and more to the mind. 
 
 But man and his education are, at this stage, wholly 
 intrusted to the mother, the father, the family, who, to- 
 gether with the child, constitute a complete, unbroken 
 unity. For language — the medium of representation — 
 audible speaking is at this stage in no way differentiated 
 from the human being. He does not, as yet, know or 
 view it as having a being of its own. Like his arm, his 
 eye, his tongue, it is one with him, and he is uncon- 
 scious of its existence. 
 
 § 29. However, it is impossible to establish among 
 the various stages of human development and cultiva- 
 
 * A play on the word Kind^ probably referring back to the worda 
 KuHD thun and verKtn<rDi(/en in the same paragraph. — Tr. 
 
IMPORTANCE OF CHILDHOOD. 51 
 
 tion any definite order with reference to their relative 
 degrees of importance, except the necessary order of 
 succession in their appearance in which the earlier is 
 always the more important. In its place and time each 
 stage is equally important. Nevertheless, inasmuch as 
 it contains the development of the first points of con- 
 nection and union with surrounding persons and things, 
 the first approaches toward their interpretation and un- 
 derstanding, toward the comprehension of their inuer 
 being, this stage (of childhood) is of paramount im- 
 portance (see § 22). 
 
 This stage is, indeed, important, for it matters much 
 to the developing human being whether the outer world 
 seem to him noble or ignoble ; low, dead, as a thing 
 made only for the enjoyment of others — to be used, 
 consumed, destroyed, or as having a destiny of its own — 
 high, living, spiritual, animated, and divine ; whether 
 it seem to him pure or impure, ennobling and uplifting, 
 or debasing and oppressive ; whether he see and know 
 things in their true or in false distorted relations. 
 
 /Therefore, the child at this stage should see all 
 things rightly and accurately, and should designate them 
 rightly and accurately, definitely and clearly ; and this 
 applies to things and objects themselves, as well as to 
 their nature and properties. 
 
 He should properly designate the relations of ob- 
 jects in space and time, as well as with one another ; 
 give each its proper name or word, and utter each word 
 in itself clearly and distinctly according to its constitu- 
 ent vocal elements. 
 
 [Mothers and other attendants of children not unfrequently re- 
 tard this unification of language and thought by excessive indul- 
 
52 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 gence in so-called " baby-talk." The child struggles against many 
 difficulties of speech — calls cows, tows; calves, talves; bread, bed ; 
 brown, hown. Fond mothers and attendants find these imperfections 
 of si)eech so very sweet that they imitate them, and are loath to have 
 the children lose these charming defects. In the pernicious indul- 
 gence of their selfish delight they even intensify the faults and in- 
 vent new ones, which they force upon the child. Such inventions 
 are hannies, for hands ; hootsy-iootsies, for feet ; pets, mammas, dinks, 
 and other unmeaning plural for corresponding singular forms. In 
 all such cases it is the mother's clear duty to speak plainly and 
 correctly, in order to aid her child in overcoming the troublesome 
 difficulties of speech involved. She need not on this account address 
 her child any less tenderly, fondly, and soothingly. 
 
 There are, indeed, phases of " baby-talk " that are not open to 
 these objections. These we find in thoughtful efforts to aid the 
 child through judicious adaptation of our efforts to his difficulties. 
 Thus, as soon as the child begins his meaningless monologues, 
 practicing certain sounds, such as tattattatta . . ., appappappapp . . ., 
 dadadada . . ., rrrrrr . . ., the attendants may sometimes carefully 
 join in these exercises. This will probably teach the child to listen 
 to others as well as to himself more attentively, and will hasten the 
 time when he will find himself able to imitate sounds uttered by 
 others. More or less onomatopoetic words may, for a time at least, 
 be received into the legitimate vocabulary of the child. Such words 
 are moo, for cow ; tin-tin, for bell ; tchoo-tchoo, for locomotive, etc. 
 Yet even in these cases the ordinary name should soon be connected 
 regularly with the onomatopoetic name, and at last the latter dropped 
 entirely by the attendants. 
 
 On the other hand, when the child, in his efforts to imitate the 
 language of his surroundings, fails, saying wah-wah, for water ; shoo- 
 mum, for sugar; Tcean, for clean — the only way to help the child is 
 always to speak the correct words clearly and distinctly. Here there 
 should be no yielding, inasmuch as the peculiarities of the child's 
 speech are due wholly to imperfections of hearing or speaking ; and, 
 so far as the child's attendants are concerned, only persistent purity 
 in their model speech can remove these imperfections. Of course, 
 this does not imply that the attendants should use " big words " or 
 complex forms of expression. On the contrary, the forms should 
 be simple and closely adapted to the child's understanding. Thus 
 the words, "Baby — drink"?" "See— dog," "Milk — sweet," accom- 
 
BABY-TALK. 53 
 
 panied by some deliberate, suitable gesture and a sympathetic coun- 
 tenance, will be solidly helpful to the child without loss of endear- 
 ment and mutual joy. On the other hanid, " Does mamma's little 
 darling pet want a drink *? Well, it shall have some. Mamma will 
 give it just all it wants, and more, too," are largely unmeaning chat- 
 ter to the child; only now and then he recognizes a word that 
 arouses in him corresponding thought, as the sea-faring man now 
 and then espies an island in an ocean of water. 
 
 The observations of E. S. Holden and M. W. Humphreys, which 
 are corroborated by the experience of all thoughtful mothers with 
 whom I have conversed on the subject, indicate that children will 
 learn most readily nouns, and then in their order verbs, adjectives, 
 adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, and prepositions. Professor Hol- 
 den found that at the close of the second year two children had 
 acquired the following vocabulary : 
 
 Nouns. Verbs. Adjectives. Adverbs. Miscellaneous. Total. 
 First Child: 285 107 34 39 28 483 
 
 Second Child: 230 90 37 17 25 399 
 
 He excluded from his lists some 500 words which the children could 
 use only in connection with nursery-rhymes they had learned, and 
 many names of pictures concerning which the children's under- 
 standing was doubtful. Humphreys found that a two-year-old girl 
 possessed a vocabulary of 592 nouns, 283 verbs, 114 adjectives, 56 
 adverbs, 35 pronouns, 28 prepositions, 5 conjunctions, and 8 inter- 
 jections. He, too, excluded the words which the child knew only 
 in nursery-rhymes, numerals, the names of the week-days, and many 
 proper names. 
 
 The observations of these men, as well as those of many others, 
 seem to indicate that a normal child, after the lapse of his second 
 year, need no longer be in the trammels of the imperfections of pro- 
 nunciation, of needless suffixes, and of affected reduplications that 
 characterize ordinary so-called "baby-talk." — Tr.] 
 
 Now, since this stage of human development re- 
 quires that the child should learn to designate all things 
 rightly, clearly, and distinctly, it is essentially needful 
 that all things should be brought before him rightly, 
 clearly, and distinctly, so that he may see and know 
 6 
 
54: THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 them rightly, clearly, and distinctly. These things are 
 inseparable and reciprocally dependent (see § 33). 
 
 However, inasmuch as at this stage language is still 
 undifferentiated or one with the speaking human being, 
 names are for the speaking child still one (united) with 
 the things — i. e., he can not as yet separate the name 
 and the thing, as he can not separate matter and spirit, 
 soul and body. To him they are still one and the same. 
 This is seen particularly in the play of children at this 
 time ; how eagerly and (if he can do so) how much the 
 child speaks during his play. 
 
 Play and speech constitute the element in which the 
 child lives. Therefore, the child at this stage imparts 
 to each thing the faculties of life, feeling, and speech. 
 Of everything he imagines that it can hear. Because 
 the child himself begins to represent his inner being 
 outwardly, he imputes the same activity to all about 
 him, to the pebble and chip of wood, to the plant, the 
 flower, and the animal. 
 
 And thus there is developed in the child at this 
 stage his own life, his life with parents and family, his 
 life with a higher invisible spirit, common to both, and 
 particularly his life in and with nature, as if this held 
 life like that which he feels within himself. Indeed, 
 life in and \^ith nature and with the fair, silent things 
 of nature should be fostered at this time by parents and 
 other members of the family as a chief fulcrum of child- 
 life ; and this is accomplished chiefly in play, in the cul- 
 tivation of the child's play, which at flrst is simply 
 natural life. 
 
 § 30. Play. — Play is the highest phase of child- 
 development— of human development at this period; 
 
PLAYS OF CHILDHOOD. 55 
 
 /' 
 
 for it is self -active representation of the inner — repre- 
 sentation of the inner from inner necessity and im- 
 pulse (see § 27). 
 ' ^ Play is the purest, most spiritual activity of man at 
 this stage, and, at the same time, typical of human life 
 as a whole — of the inner hidden natural life in man and 
 all things. -j^It gives, therefore, joy, freedom, content- 
 ment, inner and outer rest, peace with the world. It 
 holds the sources of all that is good. i<A child that 
 plays thoroughly, with self -active determination, perse- 
 veringly until physical fatigue forbids, will surely be a 
 thorough, determined man, capable of self-sacrifice for 
 the promotion of the welfare of himself and others^ Is 
 not the most beautiful expression of child-life at this 
 time a playing child ? — a child wholly absorbed in his 
 play ? — a child that has fallen asleep while so absorbed ? 
 
 As already indicated, play at this time is not trivial, 
 it is highly serious and of deep significance. Cultivate 
 and foster it, O mother ; protect and guard it, O father I 
 To the calm, keen vision of one who truly knows human ^ 
 nature, the spontaneous play of the child discloses the ' 
 future inner life of the man. 
 
 The plays of childhood are the germinal leaves of 1 
 all later life ; for the whole man is developed and shown 
 in these, in fhis tenderest dispositions, in his innermost 
 tendencies. The whole later life of man, even to the 
 moment when he shall leave it again, has its source in 
 the period of childhood — be this later life pure or im- 
 pure, gentle or violent, quiet or impulsive, industrious 
 or indolent, rich or poor in deeds, passed in dull stupor 
 or in keen creativeness, in stupid wonder or intelligent 
 insight, producing or destroying, the bringer of bar- 
 
56 THE EDUCATIOX OF MAN. 
 
 monj or discord, of war or peace. His future relations 
 to father and mother, to the members of the family, to 
 society and mankind, to nature and God — in accordance 
 with the natural and individual disposition and tenden- 
 cies of the child — depend chiefly upon his mode of life 
 at this period ; for the child's life in and with himself, 
 his family, nature, and God, is as yet a unit. Thus, at 
 this age, the child can scarcely tell which is to him 
 dearer — the flowers, or his joy about them, or the joy 
 he gives to the mother when he brings or shows them 
 to her, or the vague presentiment of the dear Giver of 
 them. ^ 
 
 Who can analyze these joys in which this period is 
 so rich ? 
 
 If the child is injured at this period, if the germinal 
 leaves of the future tree of his life are marred at this 
 time, he will only with the greatest difficulty and the 
 utmost effort grow into strong manhood ; he will only 
 with the greatest difficulty escape in his further devel- 
 opment the stunting effects of the injury or the one- 
 sidedness it entails. 
 
 [Much has been said concerning the value and importance of 
 play by educators at all times. Plato thinks that " the plays of 
 children have the mightiest influence on the maintenance or non- 
 maintenance of laws " ; that during the first three years the " soul of 
 the nursling" should be made "cheerful and kind" by keeping 
 away from him " sorrow and fears and pain," and by soothing him 
 with song, the sound of the pipe, and rhythmic movement ; that at 
 /the next period of life, when the children "almost invent "their 
 games, they ought to come together at the temples and play under 
 the supervision of nurses, who are to " take cognizance of their be- 
 havior." He foreshadows Froebel even in the demand for the regu- 
 lation of play by music. " From the first years," he says, " the plays 
 of children ought to be subject to laws ; for, if these plays and those 
 
PLAYS OF CHILDHOOD. 57 
 
 who take part in them are arbitrary and lawless, how can children 
 ever become virtuous men, abiding by and obedient to law ? If, on 
 the contrary, children are trained to submit to laws in their plays, 
 the love for law enters their souls with the music accompanying the 
 games, never leaves them, and helps in their development." Aris- 
 totle, too, believes that children (until they are five years old) " should 
 be taught nothing, not even necessary labor, lest it hinder growth ; 
 but should be accustomed to use so much motion as to avoid an in- 
 dolent habit of body ; and this can be acquired by various means, 
 among others by play, which ought to be neither illiberal nor too 
 laborious nor lazy." Elsewhere he insists on the need of " enter- 
 taining employment " for children, and praises the " rattle of Archy- 
 tas" as a useful contrivance, "keeping children from breaking 
 things about the house." Even Quintilian, while he covets instruc- 
 tion at an early period, and, inasmuch as "they must do some- 
 thing," would have them learn to read "after they are able to 
 speak," yet would labor to render the instruction " an amusement to 
 the child," and does not object to the use of " ivory figures of letters 
 to play with." He looks upon playing as " in itself a mark of ac- 
 tivity of mind," and thinks that " children who play in a slow and 
 spiritless manner will not show any remarkable aptitude for any 
 branch of science." 
 
 Luther severely censures those who " despise the plays of chil- 
 dren," and informs us that " Solomon, who was a judicious school- 
 master, did not prohibit scholars from play at the proper time, as 
 the monks do their pupils, who thus become mere logs and sticks." 
 ..." A young man shut up in this way, and kept apart from men," 
 he says, " is like a young tree which ought to bear fruit, but is planted 
 in a pot." Rabelais has his Pantagruel redeemed from the stultify- 
 ing effects of over-training by placing him in the hands of a wise 
 tutor, who knew how to make his studies amusing, interesting, and 
 profitable, by making them " active " and connecting them with life. 
 Fenelon believes in the efficacy of play. Locke thinks that " all their 
 innocent folly, playing, and child-like actions are to be left perfectly 
 free and unrestrained " ; that " to restrain the natural gayety of that 
 age serves only to spoil the temper both of body and mind " ; that 
 " this gamesome humor which is wisely adapted by Nature to their 
 age and temper should be encouraged to keep up their spirits and 
 improve their health and strength " ; and that " the chief art is to 
 make all that they have to do sport and play." Further on he finds 
 
58 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 that " free liberty permitted them in their recreation will discover 
 their natural tempers, show their inclinations and aptitudes." 
 
 In his " Letters on Esthetic Education," Schiller says : " The 
 plays of children often have very deep meaning, for, to speak plainly 
 and concisely, man plays only where he is a human being in the 
 fullest sense of the word, and he has reached full humanity only 
 where he plays. This proposition, which at present may appear 
 paradoxical, will acquire great and deep significance when we shall 
 learn to refer it to the doubly serious ideas of duty and destiny ; it 
 will then, I am sure, sustain the entire superstructure of aesthetic art 
 and of the yet more difficult art of life." With still keener insight 
 into child-nature, Richter says in his incomparable '" Levana " : " Ac- 
 tivity alone can bring and hold serenity and happiness. Unlike our 
 games, the plays of children are the expressions of serious activity, 
 although in light, airy dress. . . . Play is the first poetical (creative) 
 utterance of man." 
 
 To Froebel, however, belongs the credit of having found the 
 true nature and function of play, and of regulating it in such a way 
 as to lead it gradually and naturally into work, securing for work 
 the same spontaneity and joy, the same freedom and serenity, that 
 characterize the plays of childhood, realizing in all directions of hu- 
 man activity what Prof. Pillans (quoted by Herbert Spencer) asserts 
 concerning school-work, that " where young people are taught as 
 they ought to be, they are quite as happy in school as at play, seldom 
 less delighted, nay, often more, with the well-directed exercise of 
 their mental energies than with that of their muscular powers." In 
 his gifts and occupations he found for the two contrasts of play and 
 work the living connection, making them both utterances of the 
 same one creative activity. In play, it is the exercise of this activity 
 that forms the purpose of the exertion and rewards it with joy un- 
 speakable ; in work, the external product, the outcome of the activity, 
 becomes the purpose and additional reward of the exertion. Froe- 
 bel has shown how both may be combined, how the human being — 
 the child, the boy or girl, the youth or maiden, man or woman — may 
 learn to secure both enjoyments through the same effort, delighting 
 in the activity which leads to a coveted result, however distant and 
 difficult of attainment. 
 
 Preyer, in his work on " The Soul of the Child," after speaking 
 of the pleasurable sensations aroused in his boy on being carried out 
 into the open air, etc., says : " A new kind of pleasurable sensations, 
 
PLAYS OF INFANCY. 69 
 
 with some admixture of intellectual elements, is noticed when the 
 child begins to effect some change of form by his own activity, 
 gradually gaining some knowledge of his own power. Not only the 
 effects of the voice, especially crying and the first consciously made 
 sounds, are concerned in this, but a number of ' plays.' At first it 
 was, in the fifth month, the crumpling of a sheet of paper, which 
 the boy repeated with evident pleasure. From this time on to 
 his third year he found great pleasure in the tearing and rolling 
 up of newspapers. With similar pleasure he engaged in puiling 
 a glove from side to side (until his fourth year), in pulling the hairs 
 of my beard, in ringing a small bell for an insufferably long time. 
 Later he found enjoyment in the movement of his own body, in 
 marching and in purely intellectual plays, packing and unpacking 
 of things, cutting with scissors, turning the leaves of a book, looking 
 at pictures. At last there came imagination, which animates clumsy 
 pieces of wood, changes the leaves of trees into delicious articles of 
 food, etc. 
 
 " On the whole, however, during the first period of their life, 
 children owe many more pleasurable feelings to the removal of con- 
 ditions of discomfort than to the creation of conditions of positive 
 pleasure. The removal of hunger, thirst, wet, cold, tight clothing, 
 gives rise to pleasurable sensations that are stronger than those 
 generated by soft light, moving tassels, tepid baths, singing, and the 
 kindliness of parents, or as strong as these. Not before the fourth 
 month new pleasurable sensations are added by the first successful 
 attempts to take hold." 
 
 He is inclined to look upon the cries, the laughter, and the 
 various movements attending these pleasurable sensations as in- 
 stinctive or reflex in their character for quite a long time. Even 
 the stamping with the foot in the eleventh month, the stiffening 
 of the body as a measure of resistance in the tenth month, he does 
 not consider intentional. About this time, however, a number of 
 plays and experiments seem to indicate the awakening of will. 
 " Thus, in the eleventh month," he writes, " my child would fre- 
 quently beat with a spoon against a paper or some other object held 
 in the other hand, then suddenly exchange the two objects, and 
 move the spoon with the other hand, as if he desired to determine 
 whence the noise proceeded." 
 
 At a still later period, between the fifteenth and twentieth 
 months, the pleasure of the child's plays seems to be due to the " re- 
 
60 THE EDUCATION OF MAK 
 
 production of familiar thought-images attended with pleasurable 
 feelings which have been crystallized out, as it were, mto relative 
 clearness from the great mass of vague perceptions. Most of the 
 plays which the children invent themselves may be reduced to this, 
 even the game of hide-and-seek (in the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 months), and, related to this, the game of ' hunting for ' scraps of 
 paper, pieces of biscuits, buttons, and other favorite things (in the 
 fifteenth month)." 
 
 Much that goes by the name of play, Preyer considers as true 
 experimenting, more particularly with reference to the study of 
 changes produced by the child's own activity. In this connection 
 he mentions the tearing of paper into small bits, continued with re- 
 markable patience even between the forty-fifth and fifty-fifth weeks. 
 For this he finds the explanation in the '• gratification on the part 
 of the child to find himself the cause of so remarkable a change." 
 The same he holds to be true with reference to "the shaking of 
 a bunch of keys ; the opening and closing of a box or purse (thir- 
 teenth month) ; the pulling out, emptying, refilling, and replacing 
 of a table-drawer ; the piling up and scattering of gravel ; turning 
 the leaves of a book (thirteenth to nineteenth month) ; burrowing 
 and working in sand; the arranging of shells, pebbles, buttons 
 (twenty-first month) ; the filling and emptying of bottles, cups, 
 watering-pots (thirty-first to thirty-third month) ; the throwing of 
 stones into the water. The zeal with which these seemingly aimless 
 movements are executed is remarkable. The sense of gratification 
 must be very great, and is probably due to the feeling of his own 
 power, and of being the cause of the various changes." — Tr.] 
 
 § 31. In these years of childhood the child's food is 
 a matter of very great importance, not only at the time 
 — for the child may by its food be made indolent or 
 active, sluggish or mobile, dull or bright, inert or vigor- 
 ous — but, indeed, for his entire future life. For im- 
 pressions, inclinations, appetites which the child may 
 have derived from his food, the turn it may have given 
 to his senses, and even to his life, as a whole, can only 
 with difficulty be set aside even when the age of self- 
 dependence has been reached. They are one with his 
 
FOOD OF CHILDHOOD. 61 
 
 whole physical life, and therefore intimately connected 
 with his spiritual life ; at any rate, with his sensations 
 and feelings. 
 
 Tlierefore, after the mother's milk, the first food of 
 the child should be plain and simple, not more artificial 
 and refined than is absolutely needful, in no way stiju- 
 ulating and exciting through an excess of spices, nor 
 rich, lest it hinder the inner organs in their activity. 
 
 Parents and nurses should ever remember, as under- 
 lying every precept in this direction, the following 
 general principle : that simplicity and frugality in food 
 and in other physical needs during the years of child- 
 hood enhance man's power of attaining happiness and 
 vigor — true creativeness in every respect. 
 
 Who has not noticed in children, over-stimulated by 
 spices and excess in food, appetites of a very low order, 
 from which they can never again be freed — appetites 
 which, even when they seem to have been suppressed, 
 only slumber, and in times of opportunity return with 
 greater power, threatening to rob man of all his dignit}^, 
 and to force him away from his duty ? 
 
 If parents would consider that not only much indi- 
 vidual and personal happiness, but even much domestic 
 happiness and general prosperity, depend on this, how 
 very differently they would act ! 
 
 But here the foolish mother, there the childish fa- 
 ther, is to blame. We see them give their children 
 all kinds of poison, and in every form, coarse and fine. 
 Here it comes in the oppressing quantity which does 
 not allow the body to digest it, which is often given 
 only to drive away the enmd that torments the unoc- 
 cupied child ; again, it comes in over-refinement in 
 
62 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 the preparation of food, bj which the physical side 
 of the child's L'fe is stimulated without tnie spiritual 
 cause, consuming and weakening the body. Here indo- 
 lence and sluggishness are considered as needful rest ; 
 there the child's physical mobility, a symptom of over- 
 stimulation, and independent of true spiritual causes, is 
 greeted as trae increase and development of life. 
 
 It is by far easier than we think to promote and 
 establish the happiness and welfare of mankind. All 
 the means are simple and at hand ; yet we see them not. 
 We see them, perhaps, but do not notice them. In 
 their simplicity, naturalness, availability, and nearness, 
 they seem too insignificant, and we despise them. We 
 seek help from afar, although help is only in and through 
 ourselves. Hence, at a later period, half or all our ac- 
 cumulated wealth can not procure for our children what 
 greater insight and a clearer vision discern as their 
 greatest good. This they now must miss, or can enjoy 
 but partially and scantily. It might have been theirs 
 without effort, as it were, had we in their childhood 
 attended to it but a little more ; indeed, it would have 
 been theirs in full measure had we expended very much 
 less for their physical comfort. 
 
 Would that to each young, newly married couple 
 there could be shown, in all its vividness, only one of 
 the sad experiences and observations in its small and 
 seemingly insignificant beginnings, and in its incalcu- 
 lable consequences, that tend utterly to destroy all the 
 good of later education ! — only one of these sad experi- 
 ences, of which the educator is compelled to make hun- 
 dreds, and whose knowledge can help him but little to 
 counteract the injurious consequences of the respective 
 
CLOTHING OP CHILDHOOD. 63 
 
 faults in the later life of those in whom he observes 
 them ; for who does not know the mighty influence of 
 early impressions ? 
 
 And here it is easy to avoid the wrong and to find 
 the right. Always let the food be simply for nourish- 
 ment — never more, never less. Never should food be 
 taken for its own sake, but only for the sake of promot- 
 ing bodily and mental activity. Still less should the 
 peculiarities of the food, its taste or delicacy, ever be- 
 come an object in themselves, but only a means to make 
 it good, pure, wholesome nourishment ; else, in both 
 cases, the food destroys health. 
 
 Let the food of the child, then, be as simple as the 
 circumstances in which the child lives can aiford ; and 
 let it be given in quantities proportioned to his bodily 
 and mental activity. 
 
 § 32. In order to enable the child at this period to 
 move and play, to develop and grow freely, and without 
 hindrance, his clothing should be free from lacing and 
 pressure of all kinds ; for such clothing would oppress 
 and fetter also the spirit of the child. The clothing of 
 the child, in this as well as in the next period, should 
 not bind the body ; * for it will have on the mind, on 
 the soul, of the child, the same effect it has on the body. 
 Clothes, in form and color and cut, should never become 
 an object in themselves, else they will soon direct the 
 child's attention to his appearance instead of his real 
 being, make him vain and frivolous — dollish — a puppet 
 instead of a human being. Clothing, therefore, is by no 
 means an unimportant concern, either for the child or 
 
 * By tipfht lacing, close-fitting seams, and multiplicity of articles of 
 clothing.— Tr. 
 
64 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 the adult man, as it is desirable for him, even as a Chris- 
 tian, to be able to say, " Without piece and without 
 seam, only a continuous whole, like the garment of 
 Jesus, was also his life and work, and his doctrine." 
 
 § 33. The aim and object of the parental care of the 
 child, in the domestic and family circle, then, is to 
 awaken and develop, to quicken all the powers and 
 natural gifts of the child, to enable all the members and 
 organs of man to fullill the requirements of the child's 
 powers and gifts. 
 
 [Herbert Spencer, who, although ignorant of Froebel's work, 
 has so many points of contact with him, finds the proper function 
 of education in " preparation for complete living," which is the free 
 exercise of all our faculties. There seems to be little fundamental 
 difference, too, between the physiological, psychological, sociological, 
 and ethical limitations of complete living on the part of Spencer, 
 and the life-unity with self, mankind, nature, the universe, and God 
 demanded by Froebel. (Compare § 19.)— Tr.] 
 
 The natural mother does all this instinctively, with- 
 out instruction and direction ; but this is not enough : 
 it is needful that she should do it consciously, as a con- 
 scious being acting upon another being which is growing 
 into consciousness (see § 56), and consciously tending 
 toward the continuous development of the human being, 
 in a certain inner living connection (see § 2). 
 
 [That instinct alone is not sufficient to enable the mother to guide 
 the child aright is amply shown by the many cruel practices to 
 which children are subjected among barbarous tribes, and by the 
 survival of many senseless and even pernicious customs in the imr- 
 series of even the most cultured communities of our day. Consci- 
 entious mothers everywhere point with expressions of deepest regret 
 to the many oversights and neglects of which they were unwittingly 
 guilty, the many misunderstandings and misapplications that blurred 
 their efficiency, the many blunders whose pernicious effects years of 
 
EARLIEST LESSONS. 65 
 
 subsequent toil could not efface. Insight will add a conscious pur- 
 pose to the instinct ; it will arouse the sense of duty in the soul, it 
 will enable the head to help the heart, add wisdom to love, avoid 
 waste, and insure success. — Tr.] 
 
 Bj sketching her work, therefore, I hope to show it 
 to her in its nature, significance, and connection. It is 
 true, the plainest thoughtful mother could do this more 
 fully, more perfectly, and more deeply; but through 
 imperfection man rises to perfection. 1 trust, therefore, 
 that this sketch may awaken faithful and calm, thought- 
 ful and rational parental love, and show us the course 
 of development in childhood in unbroken succession. 
 
 '' Give me your arm." " Where is your hand ? " 
 In such words the mother strives to teach the child to 
 feel the complexity of his body and the diiference be- 
 tween his limbs. 
 
 " Bite your finger." This is an especially well-con- 
 ceived action, which a deep natural feeling has suggested 
 to the thoughtful mother playing with her child. It 
 induces reflection in its earliest phases, by tending to 
 bring to the child's knowledge an object which, although 
 it has an individuality of its own, is yet united with the 
 child. 
 
 Not less important is the mother's pleasantly playful 
 manner of leading the child to a knowledge of the mem- 
 bers which he can not see, the nose, the ears, the tongue, 
 and teeth. The mother gently pulls the nose or ear, as 
 if she meant to separate them from head or face, and, 
 showing to the child the half -concealed end of her finger 
 or thumb, says, " Here I have the ear, the nose," and 
 the child quickly puts his hand to his ear or nose, and 
 smiles with intense joy to find them in their right places. 
 
QQ THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 In this action the mother first arouses and directs in the 
 child a desire to know even what he can not see exter- 
 nally. 
 
 All this tends to lead the child to self-conscionsness, 
 to reflection about himself in the approaching period of 
 boyhood. Thus, a boy ten years old, similarly guided 
 by instinct, believing himself unobserved, soliloquized : 
 " I am not my arm, nor my ear ; all my limbs and organs 
 I can separate from myself, and I still remain myself ; I 
 wonder what I am ; who and what this is which I call 
 myself?" 
 
 In the same spirit, maternal love continues with the 
 child, in order to lead him to use these things. " Show 
 me your tongue." " Show me your tooth." " Bite it 
 with your tooth?' " Slip the foot into the stocking — 
 into the shoe." " There is the foot in the stocking — in 
 the shoe." 
 
 ' Thus maternal in&tinct and love gradually introduce 
 .the child to his little outside world, proceeding from the 
 whole to the part, from the near to the remote. 
 
 Similarly, as she at first sought to bring to the child's 
 notice objects as such, and in their relative positions, she 
 soon directs attention to their attributes and qualities. 
 In this, of course, she first shows tbem in their actions, 
 and only later in their passive conditions. 
 
 She says, " The candle burns," as she cautiously 
 holds the child's finger toward the flame, enabling him 
 to feel the heat without being really burned, and guard- 
 ing him against an unknown danger. Or, she says, 
 " The knife pricks," as she carefully and gently presses 
 the point of the knife against the child's finger. Or, 
 " The soup burns your mouth." 
 
MAN IN EARLIEST CHILDHOOD. (57 
 
 At a later period, as if she would direct tlie child to 
 the permanence of the active quality, or to its cause, the 
 mother says, " The sonp is hot^ it hums you." " The 
 knife is sharp, it pricks, it-Quts ; let it alone." From a 
 knowledge of the effect, the mother leads to the imma- 
 nent lasting cause, sharp j and, later, from a knowledge 
 of the immanent quality to a knowledge of the effect, 
 pricking, cutting, as such, without the direct personal 
 experience of these effects. 
 
 Further on, the mother leads the child iirst to feel 
 his own action, and then to contemplate the action it- 
 self. Thus, the mother delightfully teaching him in 
 all she does and says, requests the child who is to take 
 food, " Open your mouth " ; or, when he is to be 
 washed, "Close your^eyes"; or she teaches the child 
 to find the object of his action. Thus, when she lays 
 the child in his little bed, she says, " Go to sleep " ; or, 
 as she lifts a spoonful of food to his lips, "Eat, my 
 pet." And, in order to direct his attention to the effect 
 of the food upon the nerves of taste and upon the re- 
 lation between the food and the body, she says, " How 
 good that tastes ! " In order to direct his attention to 
 the smell of flowers, the mother imitates the noise of 
 snuffing, and says, "How good that smells! Would 
 you like to smell it ? " Or, on the other hand, she turns 
 with the expression of displeasure her face away from 
 the flower, which she removes from the child. 
 
 Thus, the plainest mother, who with her beloved 
 child withdraws almost bashfully into privacy — lest un- 
 consecrated eyes profane the sanctuary — seeks in the 
 most natural manner to arouse to full activity all his 
 limbs and senses. 
 
68 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 Unfortunately, onr conceit induces us to lose sight 
 of this natural and divine starting-point of all human 
 development; we stand perplexed, having lost begin- 
 ning and end, and therefore the right direction. Hav- 
 ing denied God and nature, we seek counsel from hu- 
 man knowledge and wit. We build houses of cards ; 
 but there is no room in them for the ways of the nat- 
 ural mother, for divine influence ; and the slightest ut- 
 terance of the child, impelled by the joy and instinct of 
 life, throws them down. If they should stand, the 
 child must be, if not bodily, yet intellectually fettered. 
 
 Where has this discussion taken us ? Into the nur- 
 sery of the worldly-wise, of the so-called refined people, 
 who scarcely believe that there are in the child germs 
 which, if they are to thrive, must be developed early ; 
 who know still less that all the child is ever to be and 
 become, lies — however shghtly indicated — in the child, 
 and can be attained only through development from 
 within outward. 
 
 How dead, therefore, does everything seem here; 
 how cold, or, at best, how loud and noisy ! But, is not 
 the mother here ? Alas ! it is not the mother's room, 
 it is only the nursery. 
 
 Away! and let us again go where not only the 
 room of child and mother is one, but where even 
 mother and child are still one; where the mother is 
 loath to give the care of her child to strangers. Let us 
 see and hear how the mother, there, shows to the child 
 objects in their motions : " Hark ! the bird sings ! The 
 dog says, ' bow-wow ! ' " And then, directly from the 
 word to the name, from hearing to sight, " Where is 
 Peep-peep ? Where is Bow-wow ? " The mother even 
 
MAN IN EARLIEST CHILDHOOD. 69 
 
 ventures to lead from the contemplation of the thing 
 and its quaUty in their connection to the contemplation 
 of the quality as distinct from the thing. " The bird 
 flies," she says at first about tlie actual bird that flies. 
 '' See the little bird," she says later, on beholding the 
 flitting, unsteady light-reflection that comes from the 
 moving surface of water or of a mirror. Then, in 
 order to teach the child that this is an incorporeal phe- 
 nomenon which shares with the bird only its mobility, 
 she says, " Catch the little bird," and asks the child to 
 cover the reflection with his hands. 
 
 Again, in order to lead the child to the contempla- 
 tion of the motion alone, the mother says, when she be- 
 holds the pendulum oscillations of some object, " swing- 
 swong," or " To-fro." 
 
 Similarly, she seeks to attract the child's attention 
 to the mutability of things — e. g., showing the lighted 
 candle, " Here is the light " ; taking it away, " All gone, 
 light"; or, "Papa comes," and, "Ey-by, papa." 
 Again, showing the self -mobility of things, "Come, 
 kitty, to my pet," and, " Run, kitty, run." She incites 
 the child to bodily activity — " Hold the flower," " Catch 
 the kitty," or, slowly rolling the ball, "Catch the 
 ball." 
 
 All-embracing mother-love seeks to awaken and to 
 interpret the feeling of community between the child 
 and the father, brother, and sister, which is so impor- 
 tant, when she says, " Love dear papa " ; or as she caress- 
 ingly passes the child's hand over the father's cheek, 
 " Dear, dear papa " ; or, " Love little sister," etc. 
 
 In addition to the sense of community as such, the 
 germ of so much glorious development, the mother's love 
 
70 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 seeks also through movements to lead the child to feel 
 his own inner life. By regular, rhythmic movements — 
 and this is of special importance — she brings this life 
 within the child's conscious control when she dandles 
 him up and down on her hand or arm in rhythmic 
 movements and to rhythmic sounds. 
 
 Thus the genuine, natural mother cautiously follows 
 in all directions the slowly developing, all-sided life in 
 the child. She strengthens it, and thus arouses to ever- 
 greater activity the still more all-sided life within, and 
 develops this. 
 
 Others suppose the child to be empty, wish to inocu- 
 late him w^ith life, make him as empty as they think 
 him to be, and deprive him of life, as it were. Thus, 
 too, there are lost again in word and tone those means 
 of cultivation that lead so simply and naturally to the 
 development of rhythm and obedience to law in all 
 human life-utterances, for their significance is recog- 
 nized by few pei*sons, and by still fewer persons con- 
 sidered and further unfolded in connection with the 
 further development of life in the hirnian being. 
 
 I^J'evertheless, an early, pure development of rhyth- 
 mic movement would prove most wholesome in the 
 succeeding life-periods of the human being. We rob 
 ourselves as educators, and we still more rob the child 
 as pupil by discontinuing so soon the development of 
 rhythmic movements in early education. It would be 
 easier for him to compass the legitimate, proper measure 
 of his life. Much willfulness, impropriety, and coarse- 
 ness would be taken out of his life, his movements, and 
 actions. He would secure more firmness and modera- 
 tion, more harmony ; and, later on, there would be de- 
 
MAN IN EARLIEST CHILDHOOD. 71 
 
 veloped in him a higher appreciation of nature and art, 
 of music and poetry (see § 80). 
 
 Even very small children, in moments of quiet, and 
 'particularly when going to sleep, will hum little strains 
 of songs they have heard ; this, too, has not escaped 
 the attention of the observant, thoughtful mother, and 
 should be heeded and developed even more in the edu- 
 cation of little children as the iirst germ of future 
 growth in melody and song. Undoubtedly this would 
 soon lead in children to a self-activity similar to that 
 attained in speech, and children whose faculty of speech 
 has been thus developed and trained, find, seemingly 
 without effort, the words for new ideas, peculiar associa- 
 tions and relations among newly discovered qualities. 
 
 Thus, a very little girl, brought up in child-like 
 purity by maternal though tfulness, after long and 
 thoughtful examination of the soft and downy leaves of 
 a plant, exclaimed joyfully, " Oh, how woolly ! " The 
 mother could not recollect that she had ever directed 
 the child's attention to such a quality. 
 
 Similarly, the same child, on beholding the two most 
 brilliant planets quite near each other in the clear, 
 starry sky, exclaimed joyfully, " Father and mother 
 stars!" Yet the mother had not the least idea how 
 this association with the stars had been called up in the 
 child's mind. 
 
 § 34. In teaching the child to stand and walk, we 
 should use neither perambulators nor leading-strings. 
 He should stand when he is strong enough to keep his 
 balance freely and independently ; and he should walk 
 when, freely moving forward, he can independently 
 keep his balance. He should not stand before he can 
 
72^ THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 sit erect, draw himself up by some tall object near by, 
 and thus keep his balance without support. He should 
 not walk before he can creep, rise freely, maintain his 
 balance, and proceed by his own effort. At first, when 
 at some distance from his mother, he has raised himself 
 by his own effort, the return to the mother's lap \vill 
 invite him to go forward. Soon, however, the child 
 feels strength in his own feet, rejoices intensely over it, 
 and, for his own pleasure, repeats the new art for its 
 own sake, as formerly he repeated the art of standing. 
 In a short time he begins the practice of the art with- 
 out strain or effort ; he is attracted by the bright, round, 
 smooth pebble, by the gayly-colored, fluttering bit of 
 paper, by the smooth, symmetrical, three- or four-cor- 
 nered piece of board, by the rectangular blocks of 
 wood for building, by the brilliant, quaint leaf, and he 
 tries to get hold of these with the help of the newly 
 acquired use of his hmbs, to bring like things together, 
 and to separate things that are unlike. Look at the 
 child that can scarcely keep himself erect, and that can 
 walk only with greatest care — he sees a twig, a bit of 
 straw ; painfully he secures it, and, like the young bird 
 in spring, carries it to his nest, as it were. 
 
 Behold, again, the child laboriously stooping and 
 slowly going forward on the ground, under the eaves of 
 the roof. The force of the rain has washed out of the 
 sand small, smooth, bright pebbles, and the ever-observ- 
 ing child gathers them as building-stones, as it were, as 
 material for future building. And is he wrong ? Does 
 not the child, in truth, collect material for his future 
 life-building? Like things must here be ranged to- 
 gether, things unlike must be separated. J^ot crude 
 
MAN m EARLIEST CHILDHOOD. ^3 
 
 things, but things wrouglit out of their crudeness, are 
 to be joined together. 
 
 § 35. If the building is to be sound, all the material 
 must be known not only bj its name, but also by its 
 qualities and uses ; and, that the child desires this, is 
 shown in his child-like, quiet, busy activity. We call 
 it childish because we do not understand it, because we 
 have not eyes to see, nor ears to hear, and, still less, 
 feeling to feel with the child ; we are dull, therefore 
 the child's life seems dull to us. We do not know its 
 meaning; how, then, can we interpret it for the child? 
 And yet it is the longing for this interpretation that 
 urges the child to appeal to us. IIow can we impart 
 a language to the things of child-life when they are 
 dumb in us? And yet it is the intense desire for this 
 that urges the child to bring his treasures to us and to 
 lay them in our laps. The child loves all things that 
 enter his small horizon and extend his little world. To 
 him the least thing is a new discovery ; but it must not 
 come dead into the little world, nor lie dead therein, 
 lest it obscure the small horizon and crush the little 
 world. 
 
 Therefore, the child would know himself why he 
 loves this thing ; he would know all its properties, its 
 innermost nature, that he may learn to understand him- 
 self in his attachment. For this reason the child ex- 
 amines the object on all sides ; for this reason he tears 
 and breaks it ; for this reason he puts it in his mouth 
 and bites it. We reprove the child for his naughtiness 
 and foolishness ; and yet he is wiser than we who re- 
 prove him. 
 
 The child would know the inner nature of the thing. 
 
74 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 An innate instinct which, properly appreciated and 
 guided, would seek to find God in all his works, urges 
 him to this. God gave him understanding, reason, lan- 
 guage. Those who lead his life do not, can not gratify 
 this instinct. Where, then, shall the child seek gratifi- 
 cation for this instinct of research, if not from the ob- 
 ject itself ? 
 
 It is true the broken object, too, is dumb ; yet it 
 reveals in its fragments at least either like or unlike 
 parts, as is instanced in the broken stone, the torn 
 flower, and this means an extension of knowledge. Do 
 adults extend their knowledge in a different way ? Is 
 not the inside of the plant pithy, hollow, or woody 'i Is 
 not its cross-section circular, triangular, square, polyg- 
 onal ? Is not the fracture even or uneven, smooth or 
 rough, impervious or porous, splintery or conchoidal, or 
 hackly or fibrous ? Are not the fragments sharp or 
 blunt-edged ? Is it not brittle, or does it not rather 
 yield to the blows without breaking ? 
 
 All this the child does in order that from the diver- 
 sity of outer manifestations of the object its inner na- 
 ture and its relation to him may become revealed to 
 him, that he may know the cause of his liking, his fond- 
 ness of the object ? And do we adults who seek knowl- 
 edge proceed differently ? 
 
 We overlook this in the child's activity, and we do 
 not recognize its value and significance until the teacher 
 does it, and requests our sons to do it. 
 
 Therefore, even the lucid word of the most lucid 
 teacher frequently has no influence upon our sons ; for 
 they are asked to learn now with the teacher what they 
 should have learned in childhood with the help of our 
 
MAN IN EARLIEST CHILDHOOD. 75 
 
 quickening explanations ; what, indeed, childhood meant 
 they should learn almost without effort. 
 
 And yet how little is needed from attendants to aid 
 childhood in this tendency ! It is only needful to desig- 
 nate, to name, to put into words what the child does, 
 sees, and Unds. 
 
 Rich, indeed, is the life of the child ripening into 
 boyhood ; but we see it not. Real is his life, but we 
 feel it not. His life accords with the destiny and mis- 
 sion of humanity, but we know it not. We not only 
 fail to guard, nurse, and develop the inner germ of his 
 life, but we allow it to be stifled and crushed by the 
 weight of his own instincts, or to find vent on some 
 weaker side in unnaturalness. We then see the same 
 phenomenon which, in the plant, we call wild-shoot, or 
 water-shoot, a misdirection of the energies, of the de- 
 sires and instincts in the child (the human plant). 
 
 E^ow, at last, we would fain give another direction 
 to the energies, desires, and instincts of the child grow- 
 ing into boyhood ; but it is too late. For the deep 
 meaning of child-life passing into boyhood we not only 
 failed to appreciate, but we misjudged it ; we not only 
 failed to nurse it, but we misdirected and crushed it. 
 
 § 36. A child has found a pebble. In order to de- 
 termine by experiment its properties, he has rubbed it 
 on a board near by, and has discovered its property of 
 imparting color. It is a fragment of lime, chiy, red- 
 stone, or chalk. 
 
 See how he delights in the newly discovered prop- 
 erty, and how busily he makes use of it! Soon the 
 whole surface of the board is changed. 
 
 At first the boy took delight in the new property. 
 
76 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 then in the changed surface — now red, now white, now 
 black, now brown — but soon he began to find pleasure 
 in the winding, straight, curved, and other forms that 
 appear. These linear phenomena direct his attention 
 to the linear properties of surrounding objects. Now 
 the head becomes a circle, and now the circular line 
 represents the head, the elliptical curve connected with 
 it represents the body ; arms and legs appear as straight 
 or broken lines, and these again represent arms and legs ; 
 the fingers he sees as straight lines meeting in a common 
 point, and lines so connected are, for the busy child, 
 again hands and fingers ; the eyes he sees as dots, and 
 these again represent eyes ; and thus a new world opens 
 within and without. For what man tries to represent 
 or do he begins to understand. 
 
 The perception and representation of linear relations 
 open to the child on the threshold of boyhood a new 
 world in various directions. 'Not only can he represent 
 the outer world in reduced measure, and thus compre- 
 hend it more easily with his eyes ; not only can he re- 
 produce outwardly what lives in his mind as a remi- 
 niscence or new association, but the knowledge of a 
 wholly new invisible world, the world of forces, has its 
 tenderest rootlets right here. 
 
 The ball that is rolling or has been rolled, the stone 
 that has been thrown and falls, the water that was 
 dammed and conducted into many branching ditches — 
 all these have taught the child that the effect of a force, 
 in its individual manifestations, is always in the direc- 
 tion of a line. 
 
 Thus the representation of objects by lines soon 
 leads the child to the perception and representation of 
 
MAN IN EARLIEST CHILDHOOD. Y7 
 
 the direction in which a force acts. " Here flows a 
 brook," and, saying this, the child makes a mark indi- 
 cating the course of a brook. The child has drawn lines 
 signifying to him a tree. " Here grows another branch, 
 and here still another," and as he speaks he draws forth 
 from the tree, as it were, the Hnes indicating the 
 branches. 
 
 Yery significantly the child says, " Here comes a 
 bird flying," and draws in the direction of the supposed 
 flight a winding line. 
 
 Give the child a bit of clialk or the like, and soon 
 a new creation will stand before him and you. Let 
 the father, too, in a few Hnes, sketch a man, a horse. 
 This man of lines, this horse of lines, will give the 
 child more joy than an actual man, an actual horse 
 would do. 
 
 § 37. Mothers and attendants, would you know how 
 to lead the child in this matter ? See and observe the 
 child ; he will teach you what to do. 
 
 Here a child traces a table by passing its fingers 
 along its edges and outlines, as far as he can reach them. 
 Thus the child sketches the object on the object itself, 
 as it were. This is the first, and, for the child, the 
 safest step by which he first becomes aware of the out- 
 lines and forms of objects. In like manner he sketches 
 and studies the chair, the bench, the window. 
 
 Soon, however, the child advances. He draws lines 
 across four-sided boards — the table, the seat of the 
 chair or bench — vaguely anticipating that this is the 
 method for retaining the forms and relations of sur- 
 faces. A little later he draws the form in reduced 
 measure. 
 
78 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 Behold ! here he has sketched the table, the chair, 
 the bench, and many other things, on the table-top.* 
 Do yon not see how he developed and grew spontane- 
 ously to this attainment ? 
 
 Objects which he could move, which he could take 
 in at one glance, he laid on a board or bench or table, 
 and sketched their outline by passing his hand around 
 them. Later on, scissors and boxes, and still later, leaves 
 and twigs, nay, the child's own hand and the shadows 
 of objects, are sketched in this way. 
 
 Many things are gained by these proceedings of the 
 child — more than I can enumerate — a clear conception 
 of forms, the power to represent the forms independ- 
 ently, the Hxing of the forms as such, strengthening and 
 practice of the arm and hand in free representation of 
 these. 
 
 The attentive mother, the thoughtful father, the 
 sympathetic family (witliout any of them having ever 
 drawn, without an artist among them), may lead the 
 child growing into boyhood to draw with tolerable ac- 
 curacy a straight line, a diagonal or diameter, even rect- 
 angular objects in vertical position (e. g., mirrors, win- 
 dows, and many other things), with some degree of 
 resemblance. 
 
 * It was formerly not uncommon to find table- tops made of large slabs 
 of slate-st me. There was such a table in my father's house when I was a 
 boy. I still connect with it many a fruitful memory of earnest studies of 
 form and outline, of delightful trains of fancy, and of vigorous struggles of 
 invention that made the ugliest weather a boon. A small portable black- 
 board is an excellent substitute for such a table. It will accomplish more 
 for the child's understanding of things, and for the vigorous development 
 of a healthy imagination, than the most earnest talks, and the most ideal 
 story-books could do. — Tr. 
 
MAN IN EARLIEST CHILDHOOD. Y9 
 
 It is not only conducive but necessary to tlie devel- 
 opment and strengthening of the child's power and skill 
 that parents should, without being pedantic or too exact- 
 ing, connect the child's actions with suitable language, 
 Co g., " Now I draw a table, a mirror ; now I draw the 
 diagonal of the slate, of the board." 
 
 This enhances the inner and the outer power, in- 
 creases knowledge, awakens the judgment and reflection, 
 which avoids so many blunders, and which, in a natural 
 way^ can not be aroused too soon. For the word and 
 the drawing * are always mutually explanatory and com- 
 plementary ; for neither one is, by itself, exhaustive and 
 sufficient with reference to the object represented. The 
 drawing properly stands between the word and the 
 thing, shares certain qualities with each of them, and is, 
 therefore, so valuable in the development of the child. 
 The true drawing has this in common with the thing, 
 that it seeks to represent it in form and outline ; like 
 the word, however, it never is the thing itself, but only 
 an image of the thing. The word and the drawing are 
 again clearly opposed in their nature : for the drawing 
 is dead, w^iile the word lives ; the drawing is visible, as 
 the word is audible. The word and the drawing, there- 
 fore, belong together inseparably, as light and shadow, 
 night and day, soul and body do. The faculty of draw- 
 ing is, therefore, as much innate in the child, in man, as 
 is the faculty of speech, and demands its development 
 and cultivation as imperatively as the latter ; experience 
 shows this clearly in the child's love for drawing, in the 
 child's instinctive desire for drawing. 
 
 * I translate Zeichen here by drawing^ not symbol, inasmuch as Froe- 
 bel has reference to the drawings just described. — Tr. 
 
80 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 [Drawing offers the child the full connection between the inner 
 and the outer, so far as the eye is concerned. Here outer objects are 
 freed of all the attributes of corporeality ; and yet their images have 
 a visible reality, and vividly recall the absent attributes. Here the 
 child gives visible expression to his ideas. Here he feels the full 
 delight of creating, as it were, whatever his fancy dictates. This 
 accounts for the evident eagerness with which he returns, again and 
 again, to slate and pencil, and for the satisfaction with which he 
 lingers with them. — Tr.] 
 
 § 38. The representation of objects bj and in draw- 
 ing induces and implies clear perception, and this soon 
 leads the child to the ready recognition of the constantly 
 repeated association of certain numbers of similar ob- 
 jects — e. g., two eyes and two arms, five fingers and 
 five toes, the six legs of the beetle and of the fly. Thus 
 the drawing of the object leads to the discovery of num- 
 ber (see §§ 75, 99). The repeated return of one and the 
 same object, leads to counting. The fixed distinctive 
 sum of objects similar in certain respects constitutes 
 the number of these objects. Thus, by a new discovery, 
 by the development and cultivation of the number- fac- 
 ulty in the child, his sphere of knowledge, his world, is 
 again extended ; and an essential need of his inner be- 
 ing, a certain yearning of his spirit, is satisfied by this 
 development. For the child has heretofore viewed his 
 greater or smaller quantities of similar and dissimilar 
 objects with a certain longing, a vague feeling that he 
 still lacks a certain means of knowledge. He was still 
 unable to recognize and to determine the relative quan- 
 tities of these different heaps of things ; but now he 
 knows he has two large and three small pebbles, four 
 white and five yellow flowers, etc. The knowledge of 
 number relations adds very much to the child's life. 
 
MAN IN EARLIEST CHILDHOOD. 81 
 
 The mind of the child requires, however, that the 
 mother and other attendants should, from the very be- 
 ginning and early, develop in the child the number- 
 faculty in accordance with the nature of number, and 
 with the specific laws of human thought. 
 
 If the child is quietly observed, it will be easy to 
 see how he follows spontaneously the road implied by 
 the laws of human thought, proceeding from the visi- 
 ble to the invisible and more abstract. He does this 
 unconsciously, it is true, but surely. At first the child 
 places together similar objects, and obtains thus, e. g., 
 apples, pears, nuts, beans. 
 
 Let, now, the mother or some other attendant add the 
 explanatory word ; in other words, let them join the 
 visible with the audible, thus bringing it nearer the 
 child's insight and knowledge, nearer his inner percep- 
 tion, by naming these objects. 
 
 Who has not observed and had frequent opportuni- 
 ties to see how the child arranges the objects of each 
 kind singly in a row ? Let the mother here again add 
 the explanatory, quickening word, saying, e. g. : 
 Apple, apple, apple, apple, etc. ; all apples. 
 Pear, pear, pear, pear, etc. ; all pears ; 
 or whatever else the child may have placed in the 
 rows — nuts, beans, pebbles, or leaves — of each kind of 
 objects there are always several. Now, in order to 
 enable the child particularly to see this, let the mother 
 speak the words in common with the child, as just in- 
 dicated. 
 
 Later, when the mother has the child to arrange the 
 objects one after the other, let her describe this proceed- 
 ing with the child definitely and clearly, thus : 
 
82 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 One apple, another apple, still another apple ; many 
 apples. 
 
 One pear, another pear, still another pear; many 
 pears. 
 
 And so on with other objects. The quantity of 
 each kind of objects is continually increased by the 
 regular addition of a new object of the same kind. 
 
 Instead of the indefinite words " another," " still an- 
 other," the mother subsequently uses the numerals defi- 
 nitely indicating the increase, counting together with 
 tlie child, thus : 
 
 One apple, two apples, three apples, etc. 
 
 One pear, two pears, three pears, four pears, etc. 
 
 Again, let the mother place several objects of each 
 kind in naturally increasing quantities, in successive sets, 
 and indicate in words what she does, thus : 
 * apple, * pear, 
 
 * * apples, * * pears, 
 
 * * * apples, etc. * ^c * pears, etc. 
 
 Subsequently, again, let mother and child pronounce to- 
 gether. At last let the child do the arranging as well 
 as the speaking, counting alone. 
 
 While here with each number the kind of object 
 was still named, let, subsequently, the numbers only be 
 named and reserve the name of the kind of object for 
 the last number, thus : 
 
 * (one), * * (two), * * * (three), * * * * (four apples) ; 
 
 * (one), * * (two), * * * (three), * * * * (four pears), etc. 
 
 Here the successive groups of objects are considered 
 chiefiy with reference to their numbers, the considera- 
 tion of the kind of object lying in the background. 
 Lastly, the mother names only the numbers in the 
 
MAN m EARLIEST CHILDHOOD. 83 
 
 series, leaving the kind of objects wholly out of consid- 
 eration, thus : 
 
 * (one), * * (two), * * * (three), * * * * (four), ***** (five), etc. 
 
 This is the abstract consideration and perception of 
 groups in their natural succession, the perception of 
 numbers as such. 
 
 In this way a clear and sure knowledge of numbers 
 (at least up to ten) should be developed in the period 
 of childhood. But at no time should the numerals be 
 given to the child as empty, unmeaning sounds and be 
 thus repeated by him; by such a method the child 
 might be led to count two, four, seven, eight, one, 
 five, two, if it were not rescued at last by the native 
 power of the human mind, throwing off all things un- 
 natural. 
 
 For a long time the child should never say the nu- 
 merals, which, in themselves, are empty and meaning- 
 less to him, without the aid of objects which he actually 
 counts. 
 
 In this presentation of the development of number 
 ideas there has been given, at the same time, an illus- 
 tration in what manner and according to what laws the 
 child ascends from the perception of individual things 
 to the more general and the most general conceptions. 
 It is true, in experience, this transition is often quite 
 sudden. 
 
 § 39. What wealth, what abundance and vigor of 
 inner and outer life, do w^e now find in the rightly 
 guided and guarded child toward the close of childhood 
 and entrance into the period of boyhood ! Where will 
 the coming man find an object of thought and feeling, 
 of knowledge and skill, that does not have its tenderest 
 
84: THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 rootlets in tlie years of childliood ? What subject of 
 future instruction and discipline does not germinate in 
 childhood ? 
 
 Language and nature lie open before the child. He 
 begins to apprehend the properties of number, form, 
 magnitude, the knowledge of space, the nature of forces, 
 the effects of substances. Color, rhythm, melodious 
 sound, and shapeliness have impressed him in their ul- 
 timate germs and in their peculiar significance. He has 
 begun to distinguish, with some degree of definiteness, 
 nature and the world of art, and has commenced, with 
 some degree of certainty, to contrast himself with the 
 outer world ; already there has been aroused in him the 
 consciousness of an inner world of his own. JSTeverthe- 
 less, we have as yet not touched nor even considered an 
 important side of child-life, the side of association with 
 father and mother, brother and sister, in their domestic 
 cares, in their professional duties. 
 
 § 40. I look about me : I see the scarcely two-year- 
 old child of a day-laborer leading his horse ; the father 
 has placed the halter in the child's hands. Calmly and 
 deliberately the little fellow walks before the horse, and 
 looks back with steady eye to see if the horse is follow- 
 ing. It is true, the father holds the check-reins in his 
 hand, still the child firmly believes that he leads the 
 horse, that the horse must obey him. For, see, the 
 father stops to speak to an acquaintance, and, of course, 
 the horse stops too ; but the child, thinking the horse 
 willful, pulls the halter with all his might to make it 
 go on. 
 
 My neighbor's son, scarcely three years old, tends 
 his mother's goslings near my garden-hedge. The 
 
MAN IN EARLIEST CHILDHOOD. 85 
 
 space to which he is to confine the lively little creatures 
 in their search for food is small. They escape from the 
 little swain, who may have been busy in other ways, 
 seeking food for his mind. The goslings get into the 
 road, where they are exposed to injury. The mother 
 sees this, and calls out to the child to be careful. The 
 little boy who, by the ever-renewed efforts for freedom 
 on the part of the goslings, probably had been often 
 disturbed in his own pursuits, retorts in his vexation, 
 " Mother, you seem to think it is not hard to tend the 
 goslings." 
 
 Who can indicate the present and future develop- 
 ments which the child reaps from this part of the 
 parent's work, and which he might reap even more 
 abundantly, if parents and attendants heeded the mat- 
 ter and made use of it later on in the Instruction and 
 training of their children ? 
 
 Behold here the little child of the gardener. He is 
 weeding ; the child wishes to help, and he teaches the 
 little fellow to distinguish hemlock from parsley, to 
 observe the differences in the brilliancy and odor of the 
 leaves. 
 
 There the forester's son accompanies his father to 
 the clearing that, at some previous time, they together 
 had sown. Everything looks green. The child sees 
 only young pine-plants ; but the father teaches him to 
 recognize the cypress-spurge and to distinguish it from 
 the pine-plant by its different properties. 
 
 Again, the father takes aim and fires ; he hits the 
 
 mark, and teaches the attentive child that three points 
 
 that lie in the same direction always lie in one and the 
 
 same straight line ; that in order to direct a line — the 
 
 8 
 
86 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 barrel of the rifle — toward a certain point, three points 
 must be laid in this direction, and that, when this has 
 been done, all other points of the gun-barrel lie in the 
 same line and direction. 
 
 In another place the child sees his father striking 
 the hot iron, and is taught bj the father that the heat 
 makes the iron softer ; and, again, as the father tries in 
 vain to push the heated iron rod through an opening 
 through which before it passed so easily, that heat ex- 
 pands the iron. 
 
 [Froebel here continues through three pages to fur- 
 nish similar illustrations from a variety of professions 
 and trades, showing the exhaustless wealth of informa- 
 tion and discipline that may come to the child from this 
 loving intercourse with a kind and thoughtful father 
 in his daily work. — TrJ] 
 
 The child — your child, ye fathers — feels this so in- 
 tensely, so vividly, that he follows you wherever yon 
 are, wherever you go, in whatever you do. Do not 
 harshly repel him ; show no impatience about his ever- 
 recurring questions. Every harshly repelling word 
 crushes a bud or shoot of his tree of life. Do not, how- 
 ever, tell him in words much more than he could find 
 himself without your w^ords. For it is, of course, easier 
 to hear the answer from another, perhaps to only half 
 hear and understand it, than it is to seek and dis- 
 cover it himself. To have found one fourth of the 
 answer by his own effort is of more value and impor- 
 tance to the child than it is to half hear and half under- 
 stand it in the words of another ; for this causes mental 
 indolence. Do not, therefore, always answer your 
 children's questions at once and directly ; but, as soon 
 
MAN IN EARLIEST CHILDHOOD. 87 
 
 as they have gathered sufficient strength and experience^ 
 furnish them with the means to find the answers in the J 
 sphere of their own knowledge. ^ 
 
 Let parents — more particularly fathers (for to their 
 special care and guidance the child ripening into boy- 
 hood is confided)— let fathers contemplate what the 
 fulfillment of their paternal duties in child-guidance 
 yields to them ; let them feel the joys it brings. It is 
 not possible to gain from anything higher joy, higher 
 enjoyment, than we do from the guidance of our chil- 
 dren, from living with and for our children. It is in- 
 conceivable how we can seek and expect to find any- 
 where higher joy, higher enjoyment, fuller gratification 
 of our best desires than we can find in intercourse with 
 our children ; more recreation than we can find in the 
 family circle, where we can create joy for ourselves in 
 so many respects. 
 
 We should be deeply impressed with the truth of 
 these statements could we but see in his plain home- 
 surroundings, in his happy, joyous family, the father 
 who, from his own resources, has created what here has 
 been but partially described. In a few words he sums 
 up his rule of conduct: '^To lead children early to 
 think, this I consider the first and foremost object of 
 child-training." 
 
 To give them early habits of work and industry 
 seemed to him so natural and obvious a course as to need 
 no statement in words. Besides, the child that has 
 been led to think will thereby, at the same time, be 
 led to industry, diligence — to all domestic and civic 
 virtues. 
 
 Those words are a seed from which springs a shady. 
 
88 THE EDUCATION OF MAN, 
 
 evergreen tree of life, full of fragrant blossoms and 
 soundj ripe fruit. May those of us who allow our chil- 
 dren to grow up thoughtless and idle, and therefore 
 dull and dead, hear and heed this ! 
 
 § 41. But — it is hard to say it, yet its truth will ap- 
 pear if, in our intercourse and life with our children, 
 we cast a searching glance upon the condition of our 
 minds and hearts — we are dull, our surroundings are 
 dull to us. With all our knowledge, we are empty for 
 our children. Almost all we say is hollow and empty, 
 without meaning and without life. Only in the few 
 rare cases, when our discourse rests on intercourse 
 with life and nature, we enjoy its life. 
 
 Let us hasten, then ! Let us impart life to ourselves, 
 to our children ; let us through them give meaning to 
 our speech and life to the things about us ! Let us live 
 with them, and let them live wdtli us ; thus shall we 
 obtain through them what we all need. 
 
 Our words, our discourses in social life, are dull, are 
 empty husks, lifeless puppets, worthless chips ; they are 
 devoid of inner life and meaning ; they are evil spirits, 
 for they have neither body nor substance. 
 
 Our surroundings are dead and dull. Objects are 
 matter. They crush, instead of lifting us, for they lack 
 the quickening word that gives them significance and 
 meaning. 
 
 We do not feel the meaning of what we say, for our 
 speech is made up of memorized ideas, based neither 
 on perception nor on productive effort. Therefore, it 
 does not lead to perception, production, life ; it has not 
 proceeded, it does not proceed, from life. 
 
 Our speech is like the book out of which we have 
 
MAN IN EARLIEST CHILDHOOD. 89 
 
 learned it, at third or fourth hand. We do not our- 
 selves see what we say, we can not give outer form to 
 what we say. Therefore, our speech is so empty and 
 meaningless. For this reason, and only for this, our 
 inward and outward life, as well as the life of our chiL 
 dren, is so poor, because our speech is not born from a 
 life, rich inwardly and outwardly, in seeing and doing ; 
 because our speech, our word, is not based on the per- 
 ception of the thing it designates. Therefore, we hear 
 the sound, it is true, but we fail to get the image ; we 
 hear the noise, but see no movement. 
 
 § 42. Fathers, parents, let us see that our children 
 may not suffer from similar deficiencies. What we no 
 longer possess — the all-quickening, creative power of 
 child-life — let it again be translated from their life into 
 ours. 
 
 Let us learn from our children, let us give heed to 
 the gentle admonitions of their life, to the silent de- 
 mands of their minds. 
 
 Let us live with our children : then will the life of 
 our children bring us peace and joy, then shall we begin 
 to grow wise, to be wise. 
 
 [This celebrated saying, " Kommt, lasst uns unsern Kindern le- 
 ben / " is frequently translated, " Come, let us live for our children ! " 
 Unsern Kindern is the dative case, and implies here devotion to, ab- 
 sorption in, harmony ivith, the life of our children. It seems to me 
 that this is more fully expressed by the preposition with. With im- 
 plies that both, we and the children, are equally active ; for seems 
 to place the burden on us, and renders the children passive recipients 
 of our bounty. 
 
 Living with our children means entering fully into their simple 
 ways of seeing and saying, of feeling and thinking, of willing and 
 doing ; it means placing at their service our wider knowledge, our 
 greater strength, patiently helping them, guarding and guiding 
 
90 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 them in their life, in their spontaneous search for light and love ; it 
 means joining them in their simple truthfulness, their childish faith 
 in man, and leading them on the basis of this to a higher and 
 mightier faith in the immutable laws of nature and of God; it 
 means being true with them so that they may reach higher truth ; it 
 means loving with them what they love, so that with our help they 
 may learn to love the highest good. 
 
 Living with our children implies on our part sympathy with 
 childhood, adaptability to children, and knowledge and appreciation 
 of child-nature; it implies genuine interest in all that interests 
 them, to rejoice and grieve with them in the measure of their joy 
 and grief, not merely in the measure of our appreciation of loss or 
 gain, of substance or shadow ; it implies seeing ourselves with the 
 eyes of a child, hearing ourselves with the ears of a child, judging 
 ourselves with the keen intuition of a child. 
 
 Froebel even sees in it the expression of a universal law in its 
 application to the lite of humanity ; it means to him the realization 
 in consciousness of the organic connection of human life in succes- 
 sive generations. " The loving heart," he says elsewhere, " feels it 
 in all things, the eager mind sees it in all things as a cosmic 
 thought ; the heart and the mind find it in the universe of vvhich 
 man himself is only an organic part. Does not the sun proclaim 
 it to the earth and all her creatures, all her children ? Do not the 
 elements — earth, water, air, light, and heat — proclaim it to each 
 other with reference to all earthly things I Do not, again, in each 
 plant all the various parts proclaim this to each other with reference 
 to the seed growing in quiet seclusion? In all nature, wherever 
 there are life and activity, we find this thought : ' Come, let us live 
 with our children' — revealed as a law comprehending all life." — TrJ\ 
 
 § 43. During the period of human development 
 heretofore considered, the objects of the external world 
 were intimately connected with the word, and through 
 the word with the human being. 
 
 This period, therefore, is pre-eminently the period 
 of development of the faculty of speech. Therefore, 
 in all the child did, it was so indispensable that what- 
 ever he did should be clearly and definitely designated 
 
MAN IN EARLIEST CHILDHOOD. 91 
 
 by the word, connected with the word. Every object, 
 every thing became such, as it were, only through the 
 word ; before it had been named, although the child 
 might have seemed to see it with the outer eyes, it had 
 no existence for the child. The name, as it were, created 
 the thing for the child ; hence the name and the thing 
 seemed to be one, like the stem and the marrow, the 
 branch and the twdg. Yet, in spite of this intimate 
 connection of the object with its name, and, through 
 this, with man — and this can not be too clearly noticed 
 and too carefully followed by the educator — every object 
 at this stage of human development is again so entirely 
 distinct from all others, each object and each whole, 
 too, shows in its parts no organic connection. The des- 
 tiny of man and of things, however, tends in a very 
 different direction. Not only should man consider each 
 thing as an undivided whole, but he should also look 
 upon it as organized in its parts for a common pur- 
 pose. He is to view it not only as an independent 
 w^hole, an individual unit, but he should also view 
 it as a member of a relatively greater and higher 
 whole, fulfilling a higher common purpose. Of each 
 thing he is to know not only its external conditions 
 and associations, but its inner relationships, its in- 
 ner unity with what seems to be outw^ardly distinct 
 from it. 
 
 § 44. Yet the totality of what surrounds man as his 
 outer world can not be known by him in its oneness ; 
 he can find it only in the knowledge of the peculiar 
 nature of each thing, the individuality and personality 
 of each object. 
 
 l^ow, man finds it diflacult to recognize a thing — 
 
92 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 the inner nature of a thing — if it is brought too close 
 to him inwardly and outwardly ; and the difficulty is 
 increased in the measure in which it approaches him 
 too closely, inwardly and outwardly. The misunder- 
 standings between parent and child in the family circle 
 furnish frequent and speaking proofs for this. For 
 this reason man finds it so difficult to know himself. 
 On the other hand, external separation often brings 
 about inner unity, inner recognition and appreciation. 
 Thus, alas! man knows many foreign things — foreign 
 objects, other times, other men — better than his home 
 surroundings, his own time, better than himself. If 
 man would know himseK truly, he must represent him- 
 self externally, must place himself over against him- 
 self, as it were. Now, if man in obedience to his des- 
 tiny is truly and thoroughly to know each thing of the 
 surrounding world ; if, with the aid of each thing, he 
 is truly and thoroughly to know himself, the period of 
 childhood which unites man and object must be fol- 
 lowed by a new period opposed to its predecessor in 
 its nature ; a period which separates man and object, 
 which outwardly opposes them to one another, but 
 unites them inwardly ; a period which brings the ob- 
 jects inwardly nearer to man by separating the object 
 from its name, considers the object and the word as 
 separate, distinct, yet uniting things. This period, 
 when language assumes an independent existence, is the 
 One that now follows. 
 
 When he learns to separate the name from the 
 thing, and the thing from its name, the speech from 
 the speaker, and vice versa j when, later on, language 
 itself is externalized and materialized in signs and 
 
MAN IN EARLIEST CHILDHOOD. 93 
 
 writing, and begins to be considered as something 
 actually corporeal, man leaves the period of childhood 
 and enters the jperiod of hoy hood, 
 
 [In an additional paragraph, Froebel indulges in a play on the word 
 KnabCy boy^ seeking to fix the idea that this is the period when man, by his 
 own strength, consciously appropriates the external.— TV.] 
 
III. 
 
 THE BOYHOOD OF MAK 
 
 § 45. As tlie preceding period of human develop- 
 ment, the period of childhood^ was predominantly that 
 of life for the sake merely of living, for making the in- 
 ternal external, so the jperiod of hoyhood is predomi- 
 nantly the period for lea/rning^ for making the external 
 internal. 
 
 On the part of parents and educators the period of 
 infancy demanded chiefly fostering care. During the 
 succeeding period of childhood, which looks upon man 
 predominantly as a unit, and would lead him to nnity, 
 training prevails. The period of boyhood leads man 
 chiefly to the consideration of particular relationships 
 and individual things, in order to enable him later on 
 to discover their inner unity. The inner tendencies 
 and relationships of individual things and conditions are 
 sought and established (see § 56). 
 
 Now, the consideration and treatment of individual 
 and particular things, as such, and in their inner bear- 
 ings and relationships, constitute the essential character 
 and work of instruction ; therefore, hoyhood is the pe- 
 riod in ivhich instruction predominates. 
 
 This instruction is conducted not so much in accord- 
 ance with the nature of man as in accordance with the 
 
THE BOYHOOD OF MAN. 95 
 
 fixed, definite, clear laws that lie in the nature of things, 
 and more particularly the laws to which man and things 
 are equally subject. It is conducted not so much in the 
 method in which the universal, eternal law finds pecul- 
 iar expression in man as rather in the method in which 
 this law finds peculiar expression in each external thing, 
 or simultaneous expression in both man and thing. It 
 is conducted, then, in accordance with fixed and definite 
 conditions lying outside the human being ; and this im- 
 plies knowledge, insight, a conscious and comprehensive 
 survey of the field. 
 
 Such a process constitutes the school in the widest 
 sense of the word. The school, then, leads mafl ,to_j;_ 
 knowledge of external thing s, and of their nature in 
 accordance with tJie particular and general laws that lie 
 in them ; by the presentation of the external, the indi- 
 vidual, the particular, it leads man to a knowledge of 
 the internal, of unity, of the universal. Therefore, on 
 entering the period of boyhood, man becomes at the 
 same time a school-hoy. With this period school begins 
 for him, be it in the home or out of it, and taught by 
 the father, the members of the family, or a teacher. 
 School, then, means here by no means the school-room, 
 nor school-keeping, but the conscious communication of 
 knowledge, for a definite purpose and in definite inner 
 connection (see § 56). 
 
 Y^ % 46. On the other hand, as it has appeared and con- 
 tinues to appear in every aspect, the development and 
 cultivation of man, for the attainment of his destiny 
 and fulfillment of his mission, constitute an unbroken 
 whole, steadily and continuously progressing, gradually 
 ascending. The feeling of community, awakened in the 
 
96 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 infant, becomes in the child impulse, inclination ; these 
 lead to the formation of the disposition and of the heart, 
 and arouse in the boy his intellect and will. 
 
 To give firmness to the will, to quicken it, and to 
 make it pure, strong, and enduring, in a life of jpure 
 humanity, is the chief concern, the main oljject in the 
 \ guidance of the hoy, in instruction amjd the school. 
 j § 47. Will is the mental activity, ever consciously 
 
 proceeding from a definite point in a definite direction 
 toward a definite object, in harmony with the man's 
 nature as a whole. 
 
 This statement contains everything, and indicates all 
 that parent and educator, teacher and school, should be 
 or should give to the boy in example and precept during 
 these years. 
 
 The starting-point of all mental activity in the boy 
 should be energetic and sound ; the source whence it 
 flows, pure, clear, and ever flowing ; the direction, sim- 
 ple, definite ; the object, fixed, clear, living and life- 
 giving, elevating, worthy of the effort, worthy of the 
 destiny and mission of man, worthy of his essential na- 
 ture, and tending to develop it and to give it full ex- 
 pression. 
 
 In order, therefore, to impart true, genuine firmness 
 to the natural will-activity of the boy, all the activities 
 of the boy, his entire will, should proceed from and have 
 reference to the development, cultivation, and represen- 
 tation of the internal. Instruction in example and in 
 words, which later on become precept and example, fur- 
 nishes the means for this. J^either example alone nor 
 words alone will do : not example alone, for it is par- 
 ticular and special, and the word is needed to give to 
 
THE BOYHOOD OF MAN. 97 
 
 particular individual examples universal applicability ; 
 not words alone, for example is needed to interpret and 
 explain the word wliich is general, spiritual, and of 
 many meanings. 
 
 But instruction and example alone and in themselves 
 are not sufficient : they must meet a good, pure heart, 
 and this is an outcome of proper educational influences 
 in childhood. 
 
 Therefore, the cultivation of boyhood rests wholly 
 on that of childhood ; therefore, activity and firmness 
 of the will rest upon activity and firmness of tlie feel- 
 ings and of the heart. Where the latter are lacking, 
 the former will scarcely be attainable. 
 
 § 48. The pure and good heart and the thoughtful 
 and gentle sympathies of the child constitute in them- 
 selves a unity. Hence their utterance is an intense 
 longing to find for the many externally separate things 
 that surround the child an inner necessary unity, such as 
 he feels in himself, a quickening spiritual bond and law 
 —a bond and law by which these things may gain at least 
 the significance of life and significance for life. 
 
 Kow, it is true, for the period of childhood this long- 
 ing is gratified in the complete enjoyment of living 
 play. By this, in the period of childhood, man is placed 
 in the center of all things, and all things are seen only 
 in relation to himself, to his life. Yet above all it is 
 family-life that gratifies this longing fully. Family-life 
 alone secures the development and cultivation of a good 
 heart and of a thoughtful, gentle disposition in their 
 full intensity and vigor, so incomparably important for 
 every period of growth, nay, for the whole life of man 
 (see § 86). 
 
98 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 Now, inasmnoli as that desire for unity is the 
 basis of all geniiinely human development and cul- 
 tivation, and inasmuch as every separating tendency 
 hinders pure human development, man, even in child- 
 hood, refers everything to family-life, beholds every- 
 thing through family-life, as is shown so clearly in 
 childhood. 
 
 For the child, therefore, the life of his own family 
 becomes itself an external thing and a type of life. 
 Parents should consider this fact : that the child in his 
 own life would fain represent this type in the purity, 
 harmony, and efficiency in which he sees it. 
 
 [On the great value of family-life, see also § 86. The family is 
 to Froebel the type of unified human life. In it the triune essence of 
 humanity — light, love, and life — is individualized in father, mother, 
 and child ; light predominating in the father, love in the mother, life 
 in the child. Of these, love is the center and fulcrum, as the mother, 
 too, is at the center and fulcrum of the family. Light may secure 
 individual existence and furnish insight, but love alone can make 
 life worth living, love alone can lead to the suhordination of the whole 
 being to a heart turned upward, taught lovingly and patiently — as 
 mothers teach — to yearn for the Infinite. This is in full agreement 
 with his primary principle of life-unity ; for the emotional element 
 of our being, the heart, is nearest the divinity within us. Head and 
 hand are but the instruments of the heart from which they receive 
 their direction. — 2V.] 
 
 § 49. Now, in the family, the child sees the parents 
 and other members of the family at work, producing, 
 doing something ; the same he notices with adults gen- 
 erally in life and in those active interests with which his 
 family is concerned. Consequently the child, at this 
 stage, would like himself to represent what he sees. He 
 would like to represent — and tries to do so — all he sees 
 his parents and other adults do and represent in work, 
 
THE BOYHOOD OF MAN. 99 
 
 all which he thus sees represented by human power and 
 human skill. ^ 
 
 What formerly the child did onljfor the sake of the ] 
 activity, the boj now does for the sake of the result or ; 
 product of his activity ; the child's instinct of activity 
 has in the boy become ^ forpiative instinct, diTidi this 
 occupies the whole outward life, the outward manifes- 
 tation of boy-life at this period (see § 23). 
 
 How cheerfully and eagerly the boy and the girl at 
 this age begin to share the work of father and mother — 
 not the easy work, indeed, but the difficult work, calling 
 for strength and labor ! 
 
 Be cautious, be careful and thoughtful, at this point, 
 O parents ! You can here at one blow destroy, at least 
 for a long time, the instinct of formative activity in 
 your children, if yOu repel their help as childish, use- 
 less, of little avail, or even as a hindrance. 
 
 Do not let the urgency of your business tempt you 
 to say, " Go away, you only hinder me," or, "I am in a 
 hurry, leave me alone." 
 
 Boys and girls are thus disturbed in their inner ac- 
 tivity; they see themselves shut out from the whole 
 with which they felt themselves so intimately united ; 
 their inner power is aroused, but they see themselves 
 alone, and do not know what to do with the aroused 
 power; nay, it becomes a burden to them, and they 
 become fretful and indolent. 
 
 After a third rebuff of this character, scarcely any 
 child will again propose to help and share the work, 
 lie becomes fretful and dull, even when he sees his 
 parents engaged in work which he might share. Who 
 has not later on heard the parents of such children com- 
 
100 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 plain : " "When tMs boy (or girl) was small and could 
 not help, he busied himself about everything; now 
 that he knows something and is strong enough, he does 
 not want to do anything" ? 
 
 Just so! In accordance with the nature of the 
 spiritual principle working in man, as yet unconscious- 
 ly and unrecognized, the first utterances of the instinct 
 of activity, of the formative instinct, come without any 
 effort on his part, and even against his will, as indeed 
 happens to him even in later life. I^ow, if this inner 
 impulse to formative activity in man, particularly in 
 early youth, is met by an external obstacle, especially 
 by one like the will of parents, which can not be set 
 aside, the inner power itself is weakened, and a fre- 
 quent repetition of this forces it back into complete 
 inactivity. 
 
 When the child has been thus disturbed, he does 
 not consider why his help was permissible at one time 
 and not at another time ; he chooses that which is more 
 agreeable to his physical nature. He abstains from the 
 activity the more readily and willingly, because the will 
 of his parents seems to make it his duty to do so. 
 
 ^ The child becomes indolent — i. e., spirit and life 
 cease to animate his physical being ; the latter becomes 
 a mere body to him, which now he must carry as a bur- 
 den ; whereas, formerly, the sense of power led him to 
 
 . feel his body, not as such, but as the mighty source of 
 the power that filled him. 
 
 Therefore, O parents, if you wish your children 
 eventually to help you, foster in them at an early pe- 
 riod the instinct of activity, and especially the forma- 
 tive instinct of boyhood, even though it should involve 
 
THE BOYHOO);) OF ;>I'AN^ . ; ;, ;,/ ^^iir^J, 
 
 some effort, some sacrifice on your part. It will re- 
 pay a hundred-fold, as does good wheat planted in 
 good soil. 
 
 [Here, as elsewhere, Froebel places himself broadly on the 
 thought that in the order of development, the lower is the neces- 
 sary condition of the higher, and owes its value to the higher. 
 Later on, this will be shown in his presentation of the development 
 of conscious spontaneity from the mere energy as seen in the crys- 
 tal. For the same reason he asks us here to foster this, as yet com- 
 paratively simple instinct, of more or less purposeless activity, which 
 appears almost like a reflex effect of the impressions that crowd in 
 upon the child. He sees in this activity the germ and promise of 
 higher developments, of the highest differentiations of conscious 
 purpose. Similarly, he would lead the child from apparently pur- 
 poseless and frivolous play to the teeming fields of earnest labor ; 
 not by contemning play but by fostering it, and by directing it in 
 its legitimate channels. — Tr.] 
 
 Strengthen and develop this instinct ; give to your 
 child the highest he now needs ; permit him to add his 
 power to your work — specially dear to him because it 
 is yours — so tha^ he may not only gain the consciousness 
 of his power, but learn to appreciate its limitations. 
 
 If in his former activity (in childhood) he imitated 
 phases of domestic life, in his present activity (in boy- 
 hood) he shares the work of the house — lifting, pulling, 
 carrying, digging, splitting. The boy wants to try his 
 strength in everything, so that his body may grow 
 strong, that his strength may increase, and that he may 
 know its measure. The son accompanies his father 
 everywhere — to the field and to the garden, to the shop 
 and to the counting-house, to the forest and to the 
 meadow ; in the care of domestic animals and in the 
 making of small articles of houseliold furniture ; in the 
 splitting, sawing, and the piling up of wood ; in all the 
 
103 J J / c V :{}' .T jiE : lyjuc AjioN of man. 
 
 work his father's trade or calling involves. Question 
 'upon question comes from the lips of the boy thirsting 
 .for knowledge— How? Why? When? What for? Of 
 what?— and every somewhat satisfactory answer opens 
 a new world to the boy. Language comes to him every- 
 where, in its independence, as a mediator.* 
 
 At this age the healthy boy, brought up simply and 
 naturally, never evades an obstacle, a difficulty ; nay, he 
 seeks it, and overcomes it. 
 
 " Let it lie," the vigorous youngster exclaims to his 
 father, who is about to roll a piece of wood out of the 
 boy's way — " let it lie, I can get over it." With diffi- 
 culty, indeed, the boy gets over it the first time ; but he 
 has accomplished the feat by his own strength. Strength 
 and courage have grown in him. He returns, gets over 
 the obstacle a second time, and soon he learns to clear 
 it easily. If activity brought joy to the child, work now 
 gives delight to the boy. Hence, the daring and vent- 
 uresome feats of boyhood ; the explorations of caves 
 and ravines ; the climbing of trees and mountains ; 
 the searching of the heights and depths ; the roaming 
 through fields and forests. 
 
 The most difficult thing seems easy, the most daring 
 thing seems without danger to him, for his promptings 
 come from his innermost heart and will. 
 
 However, it is not alone the desire to try smd use 
 his power that prompts the boy at this age to seek ad- 
 venture high and low, far and wide ; it is particularly 
 the peculiarity and need of his unfolding innermost 
 life, the desire to control the diversity of things, to see 
 
 * As a mediator between him and the outer world, bringing him the 
 knowledge for which he thirsts. — Tr. 
 
THE BOYHOOD OF MAN. 103 
 
 individual things in their connection with a whole, es- 
 pecially to bring near that which is remote, to compre- 
 hend (the outer world) in its extent, its diversity, its 
 integrity; it is the desire to extend his scope step 
 by step. 
 
 To climb a new tree means to the boy the discovery 
 of a new world. The outlook from above shows every- 
 thing so different from the ordinary cramped and dis- 
 torted side-view. How clear and distinct everything lies 
 beneath him ! Could we but recall the feelings that 
 filled our hearts and souls in boyhood, when the narrow 
 limits of our surroundings sank before our extended 
 view, we should not cry out to him : " Come down ; you 
 might fall!" 
 
 Not by walking and standing alone, do we learn to 
 walk and stand. Kot by walking and standing, sitting 
 and crawling, do we learn to keep from falling ; the 
 survey of our surroundings, too, is needed. And how 
 different does the commonest thing look when viewed 
 from above ! 
 
 [More clearly than in any other passage, Froebel here indicates 
 his position with reference to the much-abused maxim, " Learn to do 
 by doing,'' which has sometimes been attributed to him by well-mean- 
 ing but ill-informed persons. Froebel, it is true, would have skill in 
 action imparted by practice ; but he never makes skill as such an 
 object of educational activity, deeming it of value only when it 
 serves insight, which can come only from seeing. He would, indeed, 
 have doing, but always as the expression of thought and feeling, 
 which, again, are based on previous seeing. In this respect Froebel 
 is a more faithful follower of Comenius than those over-zealous per- 
 sons who seem to have caught nothing from the great Moravian 
 teacher than this maxim, " Learn to do by doing." Comenius him- 
 self applies the saying only to the arts of the school — such as writ- 
 ing, speaking (or reading), singing, and ciphering — and treats of it 
 
104 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 in a chapter subordinate to the " Method of the Sciences " which, as 
 he says, need " the eye, the object, and light.' 
 
 This is not vitiated by the fact that " every science is evolved out 
 of its corresponding art." An art is a complex empirical organism, 
 involving the co-operation of more or less extended systems of vari- 
 ously inter-related seeing and doing. The corresponding science 
 grows in the measure in which we learn to see it as a living, ration- 
 ally constituted whole. — Tr.] 
 
 Should it not be our duty and our work to secure 
 for our boy at an early period this elevation of mind 
 and heart ? Shall he not from a lofty standpoint clear 
 his understanding, and expand heart and mind by ex- 
 tending his view into the distance ? 
 
 " But," you object, " the boy will become reckless ; 
 I am never free from anxiety about him." The boy, 
 who from early youth has been led quietly and with 
 reference to the steady development of his power, will 
 never task his strength much more than his previous 
 trials justify. Thus he passes through all these dangers 
 like one led by a good genius ; while another boy, who 
 knows neither his strength nor the difficulty of his task, 
 attempts to do what his little skill and strength do 
 not warrant him to undertake, and thus incurs danger 
 where even the most timid would deem himself safe. 
 
 Indeed, the most really venturesome boys are always 
 those who, without steadily practiced strength, are 
 taken with a sudden fit of power, and, at the same 
 time, are offered an opportunity for its use. They will 
 then, particularly if others observe them, easily get into 
 danger. 
 
 Not less significant and developing is the boy's in- 
 clination to descend into caves and ravines, to ramble in 
 the shady grove and in the dark forest. It is the de- 
 
THE BOYHOOD OF MAN. 105 
 
 sire to seek and find the new, to see and discover the 
 hidden ; the desire to bring to hght and to appropriate 
 that which lies concealed in darkness and shadow. 
 
 From these rambles the boy returns with rich treas- 
 ures of unknown stones and plants, of animals — worms, 
 beetles, spiders, and lizards — that dwell in darkness 
 and concealment. " What is this ? what is its name ? " 
 etc., are the questions to be answered ; and every new 
 word enriches his world, and throws light upon his sur- 
 roundings. Beware of greeting the boy with the excla- 
 mation, '' Fie, throw that down ; that is horrid ! " or 
 " Drop that, it will bite you ! " If the child obeys, he 
 drops and throws away also a considerable portion of 
 his power ; and, when later on you say to him, or when 
 common sense and reason tell him, " See, this is a harm- 
 less creature," he will avert his eyes, and a great amount 
 of knowledge will be lost at the same time. On the 
 other hand, the little boy, scarcely six years old, may 
 tell you about the structure of the beetle and about the 
 peculiar uses it makes of its limbs ; things that hereto- 
 fore had remained unnoticed by you. It may be well 
 to caution him about taking hold of unknown creatures, 
 but not in such a way as to make him timid. 
 
 However, the genuine, vigorous boy at this age is by 
 no means always on the heights or in the depths. The 
 same desire that urges him to seek knowledge and in- 
 sight on the mountains and in the valleys, attracts and 
 holds him also to the plain. Here he makes a little 
 garden under the hedge near the fence of his father's 
 garden ; there he represents the course of the river in 
 his furrow and in his ditch ; there he studies the effects 
 of the fall or pressure of water upon his little water- 
 
106 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 wheel ; here he observes a small piece of wood or a bit 
 of light bark floating on a little pond he has dammed 
 Tip. He is particularly fond of occupying himself with 
 the clear, living, mobile water in which the boy who 
 seeks self-knowledge beholds the image of his soul as in 
 a mirror. For the same reason he is fond of busying 
 himself with plastic substances (sand, clay), which to 
 him are, as it were, a life-element. For he seeks now, 
 impelled by the previously acquired sense of his power, 
 to master the material, to control it. Everything must 
 submit to his formative instinct ; there in the heap of 
 earth he builds a cellar, a cavern, and on it a garden, a 
 bench. 
 
 Boards, branches of trees, laths, and poles are made 
 into a hut, a house ; the deep, fresh snow is fashioned 
 into the walls and ramparts of a fortress ; and the rough 
 stones on the hill are heaped together to make a castle : 
 all this is done in the spirit and tendency of boyhood, 
 in the spirit and tendency of unification and assimila- 
 tion (see § 94). 
 
 There two boys, scarcely seven years old, with 
 their arms around each other, walk across the yard in 
 friendly, intimate consultation ; they are on the way to 
 get tools in order to build in a dark grove, on the hill 
 behind the house, a hut witli a table and bench, an out- 
 look from which their eyes can take in the whole valley 
 at one glance, as a beautifully organized whole. 
 
 This unifying and, at the same time, self-reliant 
 spirit unites all things that come near and seem adapt- 
 ed to its nature, its wants, and inner status — unites 
 stones and human beings in a common purpose, a com- 
 mon endeavor. And thus each one soon forms for him- 
 
THE BOYHOOD OF MAN. 107 
 
 self his own world ; for the feeling of his own power 
 implies and soon demands also the possession of his 
 own space and his oion material belonging exclasive- 
 Ij to him. 
 
 Be his realm, his province, his land, as it were, a 
 corner of the court-yard, of the house, or of the room ; 
 be it the space of a box, of a chest, or of a closet ; be it 
 a grotto, a hut, or a garden — the human being, the boy 
 at this age, needs an external point, if possible, chosen 
 and prepared by himself, to which he refers all his ac- 
 tivity. 
 
 When the room to be filled is extensive, when the 
 realm to be controlled is large, when the whole to be 
 represented or produced is complex, then brotherly 
 union of similar-minded persons is in place. And 
 when similar-minded persons meet in similar endeavor, 
 and their hearts find each other, then either the work 
 already begun is extended, or the work begun by one 
 becomes a common w^ork. 
 
 [In this and the following passages Froebel foreshadows the 
 kindergarten, which he meant to be jpar excellence the social nursery 
 of the child — a place where the children's faculties might be directed 
 without violence into social channels. In the educational practice 
 of home and school this phase of child-nature is almost wholly ig- 
 nored, and not unf requently suppressed as detrimental to the child's 
 individual welfare. To the mother the child is lier child, to the 
 school it is a child. 
 
 Perhaps this is well, so far as the mother is concerned, inasmuch 
 as it is her special province to nurse the earliest germ of individual 
 development which underlies the future social worth of the child, 
 and inasmuch as the home rarely offers suitable conditions to train 
 the child for life in a society of equals. With the school, however, 
 this is different; here all the elements of a society of equals are 
 given, opportunities for common enterprise are so abundant that 
 isolation becomes a matter of great difficulty. Here, then, it would 
 
108 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 be easy to establish an atmosphere of universal good-will; to de- 
 velop and foster habits of sympathy, gratitude, and helpfulness ; 
 to have the pupil grow surely and steadily into ever fuller appre- 
 ciation of the value of social effort to himself, and of his own value 
 to society ; to fill the soul of each one brimful of a generous self- 
 assertion and a rational self-sacrifice that shrink from no duty and 
 yield no right. 
 
 In the kindergarten Froebel has provided an ideal society of 
 equals which the child may enter at the very moment when his social 
 instincts enter consciousness. The school would gain in every phase 
 of its work, could it connect itself organically with the kindergarten 
 and become an institution where the future men and women might 
 learn the arts of co-ordination and subordination, of creative and 
 directive leadership, of intelligent and cheerful helpfulness in the 
 attainment of common purposes. Thus the school would strengthen 
 the pupil's individuality, invigorate it through exercise, lead it to 
 ever greater self -consciousness in practice, elevate his drift and char- 
 acter by giving him a tendency to seek worthy objects for a generous 
 activity, enable him to become a leader in matters in which he has 
 the stuff for leadership, and a contented follower in all affairs in 
 which his powers assign him a humbler station. — Tr.] 
 
 Would you, O parents and educators, see in minia- 
 ture, in a picture, as it were, what I have here indicated, 
 look into this education-room * of eight bojs, seven to 
 eight years old. 
 
 On the large table of the much-used room there 
 stands a chest of building-blocks, in the form of bricks, 
 each side about one sixth of the size of actual bricks, 
 the finest and most variable material that can be offered 
 a boy for purposes of representation. Sand or sawdust, 
 too, have found their way into the room, and fine, green 
 moss has been brought in abundantly from the last walk 
 in the beautiful pine-forest. 
 
 * A word formed in imitation of the word school-room, to indicate 
 the wider scope of the place. — Tr, 
 
THE BOYHOOD OF MAN. 109 
 
 [This is the first foreshadowing of what has since in the kinder- 
 garten been developed into groii^-work. In group- work several chil- 
 dren, or the whole little society, unite their skill and energy in the use 
 of the gifts and occupations for a common purpose. This purpose may 
 lie within the limits of a single gift or occupation, or it may require a 
 variety of these. A few instances will illustrate this : The group- 
 work remains within the limits of a single gift or occupation when 
 the children use the folding papers as paving-stones in building a 
 sidewalk, when they use their third gifts in representing a farm-yard 
 with its buildings and implements, when they combine to build a 
 street railroad with the help of the fourth gift, when two children 
 fold a dwelling-house from a large sheet of cardboard, while the 
 others are busy folding from smaller sheets of paper all kinds of fur- 
 niture — tables, chairs, sofas, beds, writing-desk, picture-frames, look- 
 ing-glasses, etc. 
 
 Here the individuality of each child has full play, and ^yet is ex- 
 ercised in the service of a common purpose, subordinating itself to 
 the claims and needs of the little society with no loss and much 
 gain. This becomes still more evident when a variety of gifts and 
 occupations are brought into play. Here is an instance : In one 
 corner of a suitably prepared " sand-table " a few handfuls of sand 
 are spread to receive yellow folding-papers, cut and rolled so as to 
 represent a wheat-field; behind this a few children build a small 
 village, from the fifth and sixth gifts ; others erect near the center 
 of the table a large mill, with the necessary out-houses ; still others 
 build a road, a brook, a bridge, with suitable material ; a few boys 
 are busy making bags of flour out of clay ; two girls are constructing 
 a wagon out of sticks, peas, and interlacing material. Thus all unite 
 to express what they know about the history of wheat. 
 
 In the primary school it becomes desirable to develop these social 
 tendencies methodically and in harmony with individual develop- 
 ment. This is accomplished with the help of my group-table, first 
 systematically used at La Porte (Indiana). The table is similar to 
 the ordinary kindergarten-table, but in the shape of a square or 
 hexagon, and of a size to accommodate four or six children, one 
 at each side of the table. When the children work at this table 
 with any given material, at respectively equal distances from the 
 center or margin, the work will be strictly symmetrical and definitely 
 related to the sides and angles, diagonals and diameters of the table- 
 top. This symmetrical arrangement serves as a powerful connecting 
 
110 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 link among the individual workers. They soon learn to contribute 
 their material and energy to the execution of social purposes with 
 little or no thought of individual gain, and still less of individual 
 supremacy. — Tr.] 
 
 It is intermission, and eacli one has begun "his own 
 work. There in a corner stands a chapel quite concealed, 
 a cross and an altar indicate the meaning of the struct- 
 ure : it is the creation of a small, quiet boy. There on a 
 chair two boys have united to undertake a considerably 
 greater piece of work : it is a building of several stories, 
 and probably represents a castle, which looks down 
 from the chair as from a mountain into a valley. But 
 what has quietly grown under the hands of that boy at 
 the table ? It is a green hill crowned by an old, ruined 
 castle. The others, in the mean while, have erected a 
 village in the plain below. 
 
 • Now, each one has finished his work ; each one ex- 
 amines it and that of the others. In each one rises the 
 thought and the wish to unite all in a connected whole ; 
 and scarcely has this wish been recognized as a com- 
 mon one, when they establish common roads from the 
 village to the ruin, from this to the castle, and from the 
 castle to the chapel, and between them lie brooks and 
 meadows. 
 
 At another time some had fashioned a landscape 
 from clay, another had constructed from pasteboard a 
 house with doors and windows, and a third had made 
 miniature ships from nut-shells. Each one examines his 
 work : it is good, but it stands alone. He sees his neigh- 
 bor's work : it would gain so much by being united. 
 And immediately the house, as a castle, crowns the hill, 
 and the tiny ship floats on the small artiiicial lake, and, 
 
THE BOYHOOD OF MAN. HI 
 
 to the delight of all, the youngest bi'ings his shepherd 
 and sheep to graze between the mountain and the lake. 
 Now, they all stand and behold with pleasure and satis- 
 faction the work of their own hands. 
 
 Again, what busy tumult among those older boys at 
 the brook down yonder ! They have built canals and 
 sluices, bridges and sea-ports, dams and mills, each one 
 intent only on his own work. Now the water is to be 
 used to carry vessels from the higher to the lower 
 level ; but at each step of progress one trespasses on the 
 limits of another realm, and each one equally claims his 
 right as lord and maker, while he recognizes the claims 
 of the others. What can serve here to mediate ? Only 
 treaties^ and, like states, they bind themselves by strict 
 treaties. Who can point out the varied significance, the 
 varied results of these plays of boys ? Two things, in- 
 deed, are clearly established. They proceed from one 
 and the same spirit of boyhood ; and the playing boys 
 made good pupils, intelligent, and quick to learn, quick 
 to see and to do, diligent and full of zeal, reliable in 
 thought and feeling, efficient and vigorous. Those i 
 who played thus are efficient men, or will become so. 
 
 Particularly helpful at this period of life is the cul- 
 tivation of gardens owned by the boys, and their culti- 
 vation for the sake of the produce. For here man for 
 the first time sees his work bearing fruit in an organic 
 way, determined by logical necessity and law — fruit 
 which, although subject to the inner laws of natural de- 
 velopment, depends in many ways upon his work and 
 upon the character of his work ! 
 
 This work fully completes, in many ways, the boy's 
 life with nature, and satisfies his curiosity concerning 
 
112 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 her workings, his desire to know her — a desire that urges 
 him again and again to give thoughtful and continuous 
 attention and observation to plants and flowers. [Nature, 
 too, seems to favor these promptings and occupations, 
 and to reward them with abundant success ; for a glance 
 upon these gardens of children reveals at once the fact 
 that, if a boy has given his plants only moderate care 
 and attention, they thrive remarkably well; and that 
 the plants and flowers of the boys who attend to them 
 with special care live in sympathy with these boys, 
 as it were, and are particularly healthy and luxuriant. 
 
 V If the boy can not have the care of a httle garden of 
 his own, he should have at least a few plants in boxes 
 or pots, filled not with rare and delicate or double 
 plants, but with common plants that have an abundance 
 of leaves and blossoms, and thrive easily. 
 
 4[^ The child, or boy, who has guarded and cared for 
 another living thing, although it be of a lower order, 
 will be led more easily to guard and foster his own life. ^ 
 At the same time the care of plants will gratify his 
 desire to observe other living things, such as beetles, 
 butterflies, and birds, for these seek the vicinity of 
 plants. 
 
 By no means, however, do all the plays and occupa- 
 tions of boys at this age aim at tlie representation of 
 things ; on the contrary, many are predominantly mere 
 practice and trials of strength, and many aim simply 
 at display of strength. ^Nevertheless, the play of this 
 period always bears a peculiar character, corresponding 
 with its inner life. For, while during the previous pe- 
 riod of childliood the aim of play consisted simply in 
 activity as such, its aim lies now in a definite, consdous 
 
THE BOYHOOD OF MAN. 113 
 
 purpose; it seeks representation as such, or the thing 
 to be represented in tlie activity. This character is 
 developed more and more in the free boyish games as 
 the boys advance in age. This is observable even with 
 all games of physical movement, with games of running, 
 boxing, wrestling, with ball-games, racing, games of 
 hunting, of war, etc. (see § 30). 
 
 It is the sense of sure and reliable power, the sense 
 of its increase, both as an individual and as a member 
 of the group, that fills the boy with all-pervading, ju- 
 bilant joy during these games. It is by no means, how- 
 ever, only the physical power that is fed and strength- 
 ened in these games ; intellectual and moral power, too, 
 is definitely and steadily gained and brought under 
 control. Indeed, a comparison of the relative gains 
 of the mental and of the physical phases would scarce- 
 ly yield the palm to the body. Justice, moderation, 
 self-control, truthfulness, loyalty, brotherly love, and, 
 again, strict impartiality — who, when he approaches a 
 group of boys engaged in such games, could fail to 
 catch the fragrance of these delicious blossomings of the 
 heart and mind, and of a firm will ; not to mention the 
 beautiful, though perhaps less fragrant, blossoms of cour- 
 age, perseverance, resolution, prudence, together with 
 the severe elimination of indolent indulgence ? Who- 
 ever would inhale a fresh, quickening breath of life 
 should visit the play-grounds of such boys. Flowers of 
 still more delicate fragrance bloom, and the spirited, 
 free boy spares them as the spirited horse spares the 
 child that lies in the path of his dashing career. These 
 delicate blossoms, resembling the violet and anemone, 
 are forbearance, consideration, sympathy, and encourage- 
 
114 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 ment for the weaker, younger, and more delicate ; fair- 
 ness to those who are as yet unfamiliar with the game. 
 
 Would that all who, in the education of boys, bare- 
 ly tolerate play-grounds, might consider these things ! 
 There are, indeed, many harsh words and many rude 
 deeds, but the sense of power must needs precede its 
 cultivation. Keen, clear, and penetrating are the boy's 
 eye and sense in the recognition of inner meaning ; keen 
 and decided, therefore, even harsh and severe, is his 
 judgment of those who are his equals, or who claim 
 equality with him in judgment and power. 
 
 Every town should have its own common play- 
 ground for the boys. Glorious results would come from 
 this for the entire community. For at this period 
 games, whenever it is feasible, are common, and thus 
 develop the feeling and desire for community, and the 
 laws and requirements of community. 
 
 The boy tries to see himself in his companions, to 
 feel himself in them, to weigh and measure himself by 
 them, to know and find himself with their help. Thus, 
 the games directly influence and educate the boy for 
 life, awaken and cultivate many civil and moral virtues. 
 
 Yet the seasons and surroundings do not always 
 permit the boy, free from the duties of home and 
 school, to exercise and develop his powers in the open 
 air, and at no time should boys be unoccupied. There- 
 fore other kinds of external occupations and representa- 
 tions of in-door life constitute at this age an essential 
 part of the activity and guidance of boys, and are very 
 important to him. This is particularly the case with 
 so-called mechanical pursuits, such as paper and paste- 
 board work, modeling, etc. (see § 22). 
 
THE BOYHOOD OF MAN. 115 
 
 However, there is in man still another wish — a long- 
 ing, a desire of the soul that can not be gratified by ex- 
 ternal occupations, by external activity. All that exter- 
 nal occupation and activity can give man at this period 
 does not by any means suffice him, does not meet the 
 demands and needs of an education adequate to his 
 nature : the present, however full and rich, can not 
 suffice him. 
 
 The existence of the present teaches him the exist- 
 ence of the past. This, too, which was before he was, 
 he would know. He would know the reason, the past 
 cause of what now is. Indeed, he would that what has 
 remained over from past time should reveal to him the 
 reason of its existence, should tell him of that old time. 
 
 Who fails to remember the keen desire that filled 
 his heart, more particularly in the period of his later 
 years of boyhood, when he beheld old walls and towers, 
 ruins, old buildings, monuments, and columns on the 
 hills and on the road-side — to hear others give accounts 
 of these things, of their time and their causes ? Nay, 
 who has not at such times noticed in himseK a vague, 
 undefinable feeling that at some time these things them- 
 selves could and would give an account of themselves 
 and their time ? 
 
 And who, judging by his experience and knowl- 
 edge, can furnish him these accounts, if not those who 
 lived before he did — his elders ? That these might tell 
 him, is his earnest wish ; and thus there is developed in 
 the boy at this age the desire and craving for tales, for 
 legends, for all kinds of stories, and later on for histori- 
 cal accounts. This craving, especially in its first appear- 
 ance, is very intense ; so much so, that, when others fail 
 
116 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 to gratify it, the boys seek to gratify- it themselves, 
 particularly on days of leisure, and in times when the 
 regular employments of the day are ended. 
 
 Who has not been filled with respect when noticing 
 a group of boys of this age gathered around one whom 
 a good memory and a lively imagination have designated 
 as their story-teller ? How attentively they all listen when 
 his story gratifies their favorite wish and confirms their 
 judgment by its plot and incidents — in short, when it 
 brings before them words and deeds in harmony with 
 their own inner thoughts and feehngs ! 
 
 However, even the present in which the boy lives 
 still contains much that at this period of development 
 he can not interpret, and yet would like to interpret ; 
 much that seems to him dumb, and which he would fain 
 have speak ; much that appears to him dead, and which 
 he longs to see alive and active. 
 
 He wishes that others might furnish him this inter- 
 pretation, and impart a language to the silent objects ; 
 that they might put into clear words the inner Mving 
 connection of all things which his mind vaguely ap- 
 prehends. 
 
 Yet these others frequently are quite unable to grat- 
 ify the boy's wish, and thus there is developed in him 
 the intense desire for fables and fairy-tales which impart 
 language and reason to speechless things — ^the one with- 
 in, and the other beyond the limits of human relations 
 and human, earthly phenomena of life. 
 
 Surely all must have noticed this, if they have given 
 more than superficial attention to the life of boys at 
 this age. Similarly, they must have noticed that — if 
 here, too, the boy's desire is not or can not be gratified 
 
THE BOYHOOD OF MAN. 117 
 
 by his attendants — he will spontaneously hit upon the 
 invention and presentation of fairj-tales and fables, and 
 either work them out in his own mind alone or enter- 
 tain his companions with them. 
 
 [One of the most difficult arts of the kindergartner is the telling 
 of stories ; and it is, perhaps, equally difficult to give detailed direc- 
 tions concerning the practice of this art. Yet there are a few plain 
 requirements which it may be well to mention here. In the first 
 place, the story should be simple in plot and form ; the events and 
 words should be few and marked, and within the child's comprehen- 
 sion. Involved constructions, long words, unmeaning sentimentali- 
 ties, and confusing moralizings should be omitted. 
 
 Again, the plot should be true— i. e., the events should be possible, 
 and should have some logical connection. All that is hideous or 
 vicious should be kept out. Cruel or wanton punishments or acci- 
 dents and ludicrous situations should be avoided: they blunt or 
 pervert the moral sense of the child. The story should take the 
 child into an ideal world of truth and beauty and goodness, where he 
 may always rest from the unpleasant experiences and gather strength 
 from the struggle with their opposites in life. Here he should learn 
 to love truth and beauty and goodness, so that when their opposites 
 do come these may find no points of attraction in the child's soul. 
 The stories, too, should be such that the child may easily imitate 
 them by drawing on his slender stock of experiences, and by enliven- 
 ing these with his ideals of whatever is lovely and good. — Tr.] 
 
 These fairy-tales and stories will then very clearly 
 reveal to the observer what is going on in the innermost 
 mind of the boy, though doubtless the latter may not be 
 himself conscious of it (see § 97). Whatever he feels in 
 his heart, whatever lives in his soul, whatever he can not 
 express in his own words, he would fain have others 
 express. Whatever his mind vaguely apprehends, what- 
 ever fills his heart with joy and pleasure, as the sense of 
 power and the feeling of spring, he would fain express 
 in words; but he feels himself unable to do so. He 
 10 
 
118 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 seeks for words, and, as lie can not jet find them in 
 himself, he rejoices intensely to hear them from others, 
 especially in song. 
 
 How the serene, happy boy of this age rejoices in 
 song ! He feels, as it were, a new, true life in song. 
 It is the sense of growing power that in his wander- 
 ings from the valley to the hill, and from hill to hill, 
 pours forth the joyous song from his throat. 
 
 The intense desire to understand himself holds the 
 boy ; therefore he seeks the clear, pure, living water in 
 lake or brook. In his play he ever returns to this, be- 
 cause in it he sees himself, the image of his soul, and 
 because in and through it he hopes to get a knowledge 
 of his spiritual nature. 
 
 What the water in brook and lake, what the pure air 
 and wide expanse on the mountain-top are to the boy's 
 soul, that, too, play is to him — a mirror of the life-strug- 
 gles that await him ; therefore, in order to gain strength 
 for these, boys and youth seek obstacles, difficulties, and 
 strife in their play. 
 
 The desire to gain a knowledge of the past and of 
 nature attracts the boy again and again to flowers and to 
 old walls and ruined vaults. The desire to express what 
 fills his innermost heart and mind urges him to sing. 
 Thus it is certain that very many of the external phe- 
 nomena, very many things in the boy's conduct and ac- 
 tions, have an inner, spiritual significance ; that they 
 indicate his inner, spiritual life and tendency, and are, 
 therefore, symbolic. 
 
 How salutary would it be for parents and child, 
 for their present and future, if parents believed in this 
 symbolism of childhood and boyhood, if they heeded 
 
THE BOYHOOD OF MAN. 119 
 
 the child's life in reference to this ! It would unite 
 parents and children bj a new living tie ; it would es- 
 tablish a new living connection between their present 
 and their future life. 
 
 § 50. Such is pure boy-Kfe at this period. From this 
 description of inner and outer pure boy-life and child- 
 life, which fortunately for man we still meet occasion- 
 ally — where natural views of education prevail in actual 
 life possibly in greater beauty, richness, and intensity 
 than has been represented — from this description let us 
 cast a glance upon boy-life and child-life as we generally 
 meet it more or less pronounced in actual life. Let us 
 look particularly upon the life of the child and boy in 
 his filial, brotherly, domestic relations, in his activity 
 and work as a pupil and companion. We shall be com- 
 pelled to confess frankly that many things are very dif- 
 ferent: that we meet stubbornness, obstinacy, supine- 
 ness, mental and physical indolence, sensuality, vanity 
 and self-conceit, dogmatism and despotism, an unbroth- 
 erly and unfilial spirit, emptiness and superficiality, aver- 
 sion to work and even to play, disobedience and ungod- 
 liness, etc; 
 
 When we look for the sources of these and many 
 other undeniable shortcomings in the life of children 
 and boys, we are confronted ultimately by a double 
 reason : in the first place, the complete neglect of the 
 development of certain sides of full human life ; sec- 
 ondly, the early faulty tendency — the early faulty and 
 unnatural steps of development and distortion of the 
 originally good human powers and tendencies by arbi- 
 trary and willful interference with the original orderly 
 and logical course of human development. 
 
120 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 § 51. For, surely, the nature of man is in itseK good, 
 and surely there are in man quahties and tendencies in 
 themselves good. Man is by no means naturally bad, 
 nor has he originally bad or evil qualities and tenden- 
 cies ; unless, indeed, we consider as naturally evil, bad, 
 and faulty the Jmite, the material^ the transitory, the 
 physical as such, and the logical consequences of the 
 existence of these phenomena, namely, that man must 
 have the possibility of failure in order to be good and 
 virtuous, that he must be able to make himself a slave 
 in order to be truly free. Yet these things are the neces- 
 sary concomitants of the manifestation of the eternal 
 in the temporal, of unity in diversity, and follow neces- 
 sarily from man's destiny to become a conscious, reason- 
 able, and free being. 
 
 Whoever is to do with self-determination and free- 
 dom that which is divine and eternal, must be at liberty 
 to do that which is earthly and finite. 
 
 Since God wished to reveal himself in the finite, this 
 could be done only with finite and transitory material. 
 
 Whoever, then, considers that which is finite, mate- 
 rial, physical, as in itself bad, thereby expresses con- 
 jtempt for creation, nature, as such — ^nay, he actually 
 jblasphemes God. 
 
 ' Similarly, it is treason to human nature and to man 
 to consider him in his essence as neither good nor badi 
 or evil ; how much more, then, is it treason to considerS 
 him in his nature as essentially bad or evil ! 
 I Man thereby denies God in humanity, for he denies 
 His work, and hence the ways and means of truly 
 knowing God, and thus puts into the world falsehood, 
 the only source of all evil. 
 
THE BOYHOOD OF MAN. 121 
 
 § 52. If there is anytliing absolutely evil, it is this, 
 for it is the origin of all evil. But falsehood has no 
 real existence ; it is already annihilated ; and, as in its 
 very nature it is annihilated, it must also be annihilated 
 m its outward manifestations. For man has been created 
 neither with nor for falsehood, but with and for truth. 
 Again, man does not create falsehood out of himself, 
 out of his own nature ; he can and does create it only 
 because God has created him for truth. Man creates 
 falsehood by failing to recognize this fact for himself, 
 or to lead others to recognize it. Man creates false- 
 hood by hindering the recognition of this fact as pro- 
 ceeding from the pure fount of his being in and 
 through himself. 
 
 Man, as an earthly phenomenon, is destined to have 
 body and soul developed consciously and rationally, with 
 a certain degree of symmetry and harmony. If man 
 could only reach a clear and distinct knowledge of his 
 nature — if, after having attained such knowledge wholly 
 or in part, he were not so paralyzed in strength and will 
 by evil habit and infirmity — he would immediately throw 
 off all shortcomings, and even the manifestation of all 
 evil that is in him and done by him — ^that clings to him, 
 as it were, and hides him like a disguise. All these 
 shortcomings and wrong-doings have their origin merely 
 in the disturbed relations of these two sides of man : 
 his nature, that which he has grown to be ; and his 
 essence, his innermost being. Therefore, a suppressed 
 or perverted good quality — a good tendency, only re- 
 pressed, misunderstood, or misguided — lies originally 
 at the bottom of every shortcoming in man. Hence 
 the only and infallible remedy for counteracting any 
 
122 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 shortcoming and even wickedness is to find the origi- 
 nally good source, the originally good side of the human 
 being that has been repressed, disturbed, or misled into 
 the shortcoming, and then to foster, build up, and prop- 
 erly guide this good side. Thus the shortcoming will 
 at last disappear, although it may involve a hard strug- 
 gle against hahit, hut not against original depravity in 
 man ; and this is accomplished so much the more rapidly 
 and surely because man himseK tends to abandon his 
 shortcomings, for man prefers right to wrong. 
 
 § 53. Thus, selecting one point for illustration, we 
 can not deny that there is at present among children 
 and boys little simplicity, little true gentleness, little 
 mutual forbearance, brotherly patience, little true re- 
 ligious feeling ; but, on the other hand, much egotism, 
 unfriendliness, particularly rudeness, etc. This is clearly 
 -due not merely to the failure of arousing at an early 
 period, and of subsequently cultivating in the child 
 and boy a feeling of common sympathy, but also to 
 the early annihilation of this feeling between parents 
 and children. 
 
 If, then, true brotherly love, true simplicity, trust- 
 ful and truly loving gentleness, friendliness, forbear- 
 ance, and respect for the companion and fellow-man is 
 to prevail again, this can be accomplished only by ad- 
 dressing ourselves to the feeling of common sympathy 
 lingering — however much or little of it there may still 
 be left — in the heart of every human being, and culti- 
 vating it with the greatest care. This would surely 
 soon give back to us what we now miss so painfully in 
 domestic, social, and religious life. 
 
 Another source of many boyish faults lies in precipi- 
 
THE BOYHOOD OP MAN. 123 
 
 tation, carelessness, frivolity, and thoughtlessness. The 
 boy is apt to act in obedience to a possibly praiseworthy 
 impulse that holds captive his mind and body ; but he 
 has not as yet experienced in his life the consequences 
 of gratifying this particular impulse, and it has, indeed, 
 not even occurred to him to consider the consequences 
 of the action (see § 6). 
 
 Thus a boy of by no means evil disposition took real 
 delight in powdering his dear uncle's wig with plaster- 
 of -Paris without any thought of wrong, and still more 
 without considering that the hard grains of stone would 
 necessarily injure the hair of the wig. 
 
 Another boy found in a large tub of water some 
 deep, round bowls of porcelain. He observed accident- 
 ally that these bowls, when dropped upside down on 
 the smooth surface of water, sprang back with an ex- 
 plosive noise. This gave him pleasure ; he frequently 
 tried the experiment, perfectly sure, without doubt, that 
 the bowl could not be broken in the deep, yielding 
 water. He was frequently successful, and, in order to 
 improve the result of the experiment, the bowl w^as 
 dropped from greater and greater heights. At one 
 time the bowl fell so horizontally upon the level water- 
 surface, and from so great a height, that the imprisoned 
 air could not escape in any direction, but was com- 
 pressed so forcibly that it broke the bowl into two al- 
 most equal parts. Perplexed and distressed, the little 
 self-teaching physicist stood before the unexpected re- 
 sult of his play that had delighted him so much. 
 
 Yet boys show a still greater — indeed, almost an in- 
 credible — degree of short-sightedness in obeying their 
 impulses. 
 
124: THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 A boy throws stones for a long time at the small win- 
 dow of a house near by, trjdng very hard to hit it. He 
 has no idea, nor does he realize that, if a stone strikes 
 the window, the latter must necessarily break. At last 
 a stone hits the window, the window breaks, and the 
 amazed boy stands rooted to the spot. 
 
 Again, another boy — by no means malicious, but, 
 on the contrary, very good-natured and fond of pigeons 
 — aimed at his neighbor's beautiful pigeon on the roof, 
 with perfect delight and an intense desire to hit his 
 mark. He did not consider that, if the bullet should 
 hit the mark, the pigeon would be killed, and still less 
 that this pigeon might be the mother of young ones 
 needing her care. He fired, the bullet struck, the pigeon 
 fell, a beautiful pair of pigeons were separated, and a 
 number of unfledged young ones lost the mother who 
 had fed and warmed them. 
 
 It is certainly a very great truth — and failure to 
 appreciate it does daily great harm — that it generally 
 is some other human being, not unfrequently the edu- 
 cator himself, that first makes the child or the boy bad. 
 This is accomplished by attributing evil — or, at least, 
 wrong — motives to all that the child or boy does from 
 ignorance, precipitation, or even from a keen and praise- 
 worthy sense of right or wrong. 
 
 Unfortunately, there still are such men of mischief 
 among educators. To them children and boys are 
 always little malicious, spiteful, lurking sprites, where 
 others see at most a jest carried too far, or the effect of 
 too free an exercise of spirit. 
 
 Such birds of ill omen, especially when they are 
 educators, are the first to bring guilt upon such a child, 
 
THE BOYHOOD OF MAN. 125 
 
 who, tliough not wholly innocent, is yet without guilt; 
 for they give him motives and incentives which were 
 as yet unknown to him; they make his actions bad, 
 though not, at first, his will ; they kill him spiritually, 
 take away his (spiritual) life, and lead him to think 
 that this life does not come to him out of himself 
 and through himself, and that he can not secure it 
 by his own effort. When true (spiritual) life has thus 
 left him, and he can not secure it by his efforts, what 
 does mere knowledge avail him ? what does a powerless 
 wish, devoid of energy, avail him? What they have 
 thus made evil and bad in the belief that not even the 
 child can attain heaven, can carry a heaven in his heart, 
 without first going, to speak mildly, through guilt — 
 this they would have made good again by God, and this 
 they call converting the child. 
 
 They act like the good-natured little boy who says 
 of his fly or beetle that is weak from maltreatment, or 
 has even lost its feet, "• See, how tame ! " 
 
 There still are children and boys who, in spite of 
 great external shortcomings from neglect or ignorance 
 of external relations of life, and in spite of total aban- 
 donment to momentary impulses, nevertheless have an 
 intense inner desire to become good and virtuous. It is 
 true, such boys ultimately also may become intrinsically 
 bad, but only because in their innermost desires they 
 have frequently been not only not understood, but mis- 
 understood. Could they yet be appreciated in good 
 time, they would certainly still become good men. 
 
 Children and boys, indeed, are often punished by 
 parents and adults for faults and misdemeanors which 
 they had perhaps previously learned from these very 
 
126 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 persons. Punisliment, especially punislimeiit by words, 
 very often teaches children, or at least brings to their 
 notice, faults of which they were wholly free. 
 
 § 54. Man, therefore, sins much more against man, 
 against the children, than he does against God. For 
 what can the unworthy action of the naughty child 
 eifect against the dignity of the father whose virtue has 
 been proved and is acknowledged ? On the other hand, 
 how much injury in body and soul may come to a 
 younger child through the words and deeds of a naughty 
 boy ! This, too, indicates the relation of man to man, 
 and of man to God. 
 
 § 55. As already indicated, a deep and significant 
 feeling of anticipation and longing aspiration occupies 
 the boy's mind in all he does during this period. All 
 he does bears a common character, for he seeks the unity 
 that unites all things and beings, he seeks to find him- 
 self in and among all things. 
 
 An indefinable longing urges him to seek the things 
 of nature, the hidden objects, plants and flowers, etc., 
 in nature ; for a constant presentiment assures him that 
 the things which satisfy the longing of the heart can 
 not be found on the surface ; out of the depth and 
 darkness they must be brought forth. 
 
 Educators not only neglect at an early period to 
 nurture this longing, but, unfortunately, they disturb at 
 too early a period even the boy's effort to nourish it from 
 his own resources. For the boy of this age, who has 
 been led naturally, however feebly and unconsciously, 
 seeks, in fact, only the unity that unites all things, the 
 absolute living Unity, the source of all things — God ; 
 not a god made and fashioned by human wi^, bjaj; Him 
 
THE BOYHOOD OF MAN. 127 
 
 who is ever near the heart and mind, near the living 
 spirit, and who, therefore, may be known in spirit and 
 in truth, and who alone can be thus approached. _^ 
 
 In his maturity, the boy is satisfied only when he has / 
 found Him to whom he has been drawn by indefinable 1 
 yearning, because only then will he have found himself . J 
 We have thus reviewed the inner and outer life of the 
 boy in free activity at school age. What, now, makes 
 the school ? 
 
ly. 
 
 MAN AS A SCHOLAE OK PUPIL. 
 
 § 56. The school endeavors to render tlie scholar 
 fnlly conscious of the nature and inner life of things 
 and of himself, to teach him to know tlie inner rela- 
 tions of things to one another, to the human being, to 
 the scholar, and to the living source and conscious unity 
 of all things — to God (see § 45). 
 
 jiThe aim of instruction is to bring the scholar to in- 
 sight into the miity of all things, into the fact that all 
 things have their being and life in God, so that in due 
 time he may be able to act and live in accordance with 
 this insight. Instruction itself offers the ways and 
 means for attaining this aim (see § 45). 
 
 Therefore, the school and instruction place the ex- 
 ternal world and his own self, inasmuch as this forms a 
 part of the external world, before the scholar as some- 
 thing separate, something different from him, something 
 foreign to him. 
 
 Furthermore, the school points out the inner tenden- 
 cies and relations among individual things and objects, 
 and thus rises to ever higher generality and spirituality. 
 Therefore, the boy, when he enters school, leaves the 
 external view of things and enters upon a higher spirit- 
 ual view of them. 
 
MAN AS A SCHOLAR OR PUPIL. 129 
 
 It is this leaving of the outer and superficial view 
 of things on the part of the child, and his entrance upon 
 an inner view leading to knowledge, insight, and con- 
 sciousness, it is this transition of the child from do- 
 mestic order to the higher cosmic order of things that 
 makes the boy a scholar and constitutes the essence of 
 the school. 
 
 It is bj no means the acquisition of a certain num- 
 ber of miscellaneous external facts that constitutes the 
 essential characteristic of the school, but only the living 
 spirit that animates all things and in which all things 
 move. 
 
 Would that all whose business it is to direct and 
 manage schools might carefully consider this ! 
 
 Therefore, the school, as such, implies the presence 
 of an intelligent consciousness which, as it were, hovers 
 over and between the outer world and the scholar, 
 which unites in itself the essence of both, holds the in- 
 ner being of both, mediating between the two, impart- 
 ing to them language and mutual understanding. This 
 consciousness is the master in this art, who is called 
 master also because for most things he is to point out 
 the unity of things.* He is ^(^AooZmaster because it is 
 his business to point out and render clear to himself 
 and others the inner, spiritual nature of things. 
 
 Every school-child anticipates, expects, and requires 
 this of the schoolmaster ; and this anticipation and hope, 
 this faith, is the invisible and efficacious tie between 
 the two. 
 
 * Another of FroebePs strange plays on words that have no connec- 
 tion with each other — this time the words Meister and meist {master and 
 most). — Tr. 
 
130 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 It is probable, too, that this anticipation and hope, 
 this childlike faith of children, enabled former school- 
 masters to be much more efficient in the production of 
 genuine inner life in their children than many school- 
 teachers of our day, who acquaint the children with 
 many things without showing them their necessary 
 inner spiritual unity and connection. 
 
 Do not reply that, even if this higher view of the 
 school is the true one, and if there exists an inner 
 spiritual ideal of it, it could scarcely be shown to have 
 an actual existence — at least, not where a tailor, as 
 schoolmaster, sits enthroned on his working-table, and 
 the children below him recite their a-b, ab, and their 
 " sum total of all instruction," nor where an old wood- 
 cutter in winter, in a dark, sooty room, drives into the 
 heads of children the explanation of the small Lutheran 
 catechism as he would his wedges for wood-splitting — 
 that here certainly spirit, spiritual nature, and life have 
 no place. 
 
 [Froebel's early life fell in the period when country schools 
 were still, in many cases, intrusted to persons who earned their live- 
 lihood chiefly in some other occupation, such as tailoring, shoemak- 
 ing, weaving, etc. Not unfrequently in poorer communities the same 
 man " kept school " m winter, and during the summer worked on 
 farms, or acted as a communal shepherd. One and the same scanty 
 school-book contained " the sum total of all instruction " — the bulk 
 of which was made up of the Lutheran catechism. — Tr.] 
 
 But just here they have a place ; how else could the 
 blind show the way to the lame, and the cripple support 
 the weak on his feet ? It is only the child's anticipa- 
 tion, his faith, his child-like siraphcity, which hopes 
 and trusts that the schoolmaster — simply because he is 
 and is called schoolmaster — can give an inner spiritual 
 
MAN AS A SCHOLAR OR PUPIL. 131 
 
 unity to that which is externally separated, giving life 
 to that which is dead, and meaning to that which lives. 
 
 This expectation alone, be it ever so misty and ob- 
 scure, renders the schoolmaster's work efficient. This 
 anticipation and faith are like the all-quickening air by 
 which the stones, which he may offer his children to eat, 
 are turned into food for them — if not for their head, 
 yet for the heart. It is this anticipation, hope, and 
 yearning, this all-quickening spirit and breath, that even 
 in the dark, sooty room, make the school so dear to the 
 school-boy. 
 
 The spirit, the genuine spirit of the school, like the 
 spirit of Jesus and of God, does not come by external 
 doings. Thus, too, spacious school-rooms, as such, are 
 not sufficient if the good ventilation has taken the place 
 of higher spiritual life. Airy, bright school-rooms are 
 a great, precious boon, worthy the daily gratitude of 
 teacher and pupil ; but alone they are not sufficient. 
 
 Luther's words, " To fast and to deck out the body 
 furnish, indeed, fine external discipline ; but only he 
 is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith and 
 trust," find their application here, too. 
 
 The faith and trust, the hope and anticipation with 
 which the child enters school, accomplish everything; 
 they bring about stupendous results in such schools. 
 For the child enters school with the child-like faith, the 
 silent hope : " Here you will be taught something that 
 you can not learn elsewhere ; here you gain food for 
 mind and spirit, elsewhere you can obtain food only for 
 the body ; here (this is literally the child's living hope 
 and anticipation) you receive food and drink that still 
 the hunger and thirst, elsewhere you are offered food 
 
132 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 and drink that only give occasion for new hunger and 
 thirst." 
 
 With this faith he Hstens, too, to the ordinary words, 
 the ordinary speech from the Hps of the man who is the 
 schoolmaster. 
 
 Even if there is no high spiritual meaning in his 
 words, the child's faith discovers it there ; and the child's 
 high power of spiritual digestion gets food from chips 
 and straw. 
 
 Now, if even the tailor, wood-cutter, or weaver, 
 when he teaches, ceases to be to the child tailor, wood- 
 cutter, or weaver, and becomes schoolmaster, how much 
 more will this be the case where the school-teacher in 
 village or city — be he called organist, chorister, or rector 
 — is truly a schoolmaster ! 
 
 Ask every true school-child, let every one who in 
 village or city has been a true school-child ask himself, 
 with what feeling he approached the school-house, and 
 still more with what feeling he entered it ; how he felt 
 more or less keenly each day as if he had entered into 
 a higher spiritual world. 
 
 How else could it be possible for children to repeat 
 daily, not only for more than a quarter of an hour during 
 a whole week, without tiring but with a feeling of height- 
 ened life, some text from Sunday's sermon — e. g., " Seek 
 ye hrst the kingdom of God " ? How else could the chil- 
 dren sing and memorize hymns abounding in strange 
 figures, such as " How much it costs to follow Christ," 
 or, " Let heart and spirit soar on high," daily, in sec- 
 tions, during a whole week, with true inner edification 
 and a living influence on the life of every scholar ? How 
 else could this be done at an early period of boy-Hfe in 
 
MAN AS A SCHOLAR OR PUPIL. 133 
 
 Bucli a way that in tlie storms of life the youth and the 
 man rest on these things as on a rock ? 
 
 The occasional excessive vivacity of the boys in 
 school does not contradict this. The boy feels less re- 
 straint and moves more freely just because of the in- 
 fluence of the school, because of the heightened inner 
 spiritual power which has been fed by the school. The 
 genuine school-boy should never be dispirited and indo- 
 lent, but full of life and spirit, strong in body and mind. 
 Therefore the truly high-spirited boy who follows hi» 
 natural vivacity full of joy surely never thinks of any 
 injurious effect on outer life. 
 
 It is a great mistake to think that the energetic, 
 animating, uniting (intensive) power of man increases 
 with years and cultivation. The energetic, animating, 
 uniting power decreases ; and the expansive, productive, 
 creative, modifying (extensive) power increases. 
 
 The feeling and consciousness of this extending, 
 creative power in man unfortunately have a tendency 
 to destroy the recognition and appreciation of the for- 
 mer energetic, animating, uniting power. This, with 
 the confounding of the two in their nature and mani- 
 festation, leads us in life, in the management of 
 schools and of the education of children, to great and 
 frequent errors, and robs the life of each one of its 
 true basis. 
 
 We now trust too little to the energetic and uniting 
 power in the child and boy — we respect it too little as 
 a spiritually quickening power. Therefore, too, it has ; 
 too little influence in the later years of boyhood. For 
 the neglect of this inner power causes the inner power 
 itself to vanish. 
 11 
 
134 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 Or we play witli this power wlien it manifests itself 
 in cliildren. Hence we fare with them as with a mag- 
 net which we leave hanging or even lying inactive and 
 without a burden, or with whose magnetic power we 
 play irregularly and regardless of magnetic laws. In 
 both cases the power is diminished or lost ; when, later 
 on, the magnet is to show its power, it is found weak 
 and inefficient. So it is with those children ; when, later 
 on, they are expected to bear some physical or moral 
 burden, they are found wanting. 
 
 Would that, in judging and estimating the inner 
 power of children and boys, we might never forget the 
 words of one of our greatest German writers: that 
 there is a greater advance from the infant to the 
 speaking child than there is from the school-boy to a 
 Newton ! 
 
 Now, if the advance is greater, the power, too, must 
 be greater ; this we should consider. The later extent, 
 diversity, directness, and concentration of man's knowl- 
 edge and insight (their extensiveness) dim and weaken 
 our apprehension of the former unity and mobility (in- 
 tensiveness) of human power. 
 
 It is the spirit alone, then, that makes the school 
 and the school-room ; not the increasing analysis and 
 isolation of what is already isolated — a process that 
 has no Hmits, and supplies ever-new data for further 
 analysis and reduction — but the unification of that which 
 is isolated and separate by attention to the uniting spirit 
 that lives in all isolation and diversity. This it is that 
 makes the school. 
 
 Never forget that the essential husiness of the school 
 is not so muoh to teach and to communicate a variety 
 
MAN AS A SCHOLAR OR PUPIL. 135 
 
 and multiplicity of things as it is to give prominence 
 to the ever-living unity that is in all things, j 
 
 [This is not to be construed as meaning that schooling should be 
 chiefly for " power " or " mental discipline," as is claimed by the ad- 
 vocates of chiefly formal studies. No one could be more opposed 
 than Froebel to the various school practices of " threshing empty 
 straw " for the sake of gaining " threshing power." What he de- 
 mands in the above sentence is the teaching of principles as opposed 
 to the teaching of isolated facts and rules. He is filled with the 
 same thought which Herbert Spencer subsequently expressed as fol- 
 lows: " Between a mind of rules and a mind of principles, there ex- 
 ists a difference, such as that between a confused heap of materials, 
 and the same materials organized into a complete whole, with all its 
 parts bound together." In both eases, it will be seen, material con- 
 tents are implied, and mere formalism is excluded. — Tr.'\ 
 
 Because this is so frequently forgotten and placed 
 in the background disregarded, there are at present so 
 many ^ohool-teachers and so few mliool-masters, so many 
 institutions of learning and so few schools. 
 
 Possibly they do not know, or, at least, they may 
 not have recognized with sufficient clearness and dis- 
 tinctness, what spirit it is that pervaded and even now 
 sometimes pervades genuine schools, what spirit it is 
 that ought to animate schools. Even the genuine, faith- 
 ful schoolmaster, in the simplicity of his vocation, may 
 not have recognized it nor formulated it ; in the faith- 
 ful performance of his work, thoroughly absorbed in 
 his calling, he may not recognize it nor be able to for- 
 mulate it. For this reason, no doubt, it has glided away 
 so rapidly, and continues to vanish. 
 
 Unfortunately, we see here again confirmed what to 
 our sorrow confronts us so often in life : that even the 
 highest and most precious blessing is lost by man, if he 
 does not know what he possesses, if he does not hold it 
 
■[36 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 fast and represent it in his life consciously, freely, and 
 from his own choice (see § 33). The anticipation and 
 hope, the trust and disposition of childliood indeed show 
 the way, but man is to follow it with conscious insight 
 and self-determination, persisting in what he knows to 
 be rio^ht. For man is destined for consciousness, for 
 freedom, and for self-determination. 
 
 § 57. Furthermore, a vivid presentation of the re- 
 quirements of the school shows that the subject in which 
 the boy is to be instructed is also the one about which 
 he should be instructed — else instruction and learning 
 are thoughtless play and without effect upon head and 
 heart, the intellect, and the feelings. 
 
 What has been said will also answer, or, at least, 
 make it easy to answer, the questions : Do we need 
 schools ? Why do we need schools and instruction ? 
 What shall they be, and how shall they be constituted ? 
 
 As spiritual and material beings, we are to become 
 thinking, conscious, intelligent (self-consciously feeling 
 and perceiving), efficient human beings. We should 
 first seek to cultivate our powers, our spirit, as received 
 from God ; to represent the divine in our lives, know- 
 ing that thereby all that is earthly will, too, have its 
 claims satisfied. We are to grow in wisdom and under- 
 standing with God and men, in human and divine things. 
 We should know that we are and ought to be and to live 
 in that which is our Father's. We should know that we 
 in our earthly being and all earthly things are a temple 
 of the living God. We should know that we are to be 
 perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect ; and in ac- 
 cordance with this knowledge we should act and live. 
 To this knowledge the school is to lead us ; for this the 
 
MAN AS A SCHOLAR OR PUPIL. 137 
 
 school and instruction are needed ; in accordance with 
 this aim they should be constituted. 
 
 § 58. What, now, shall the school teach ? In what 
 shall the human being, the boy as scholar, be instructed ? 
 
 Only the consideration of the nature and require- 
 ments of human development at the stage of boyhood 
 will enable us to answer this question. But the knowl- 
 edge of this nature and these requirements can be de- 
 rived only from the observation of the character of man 
 in his boyhood. 
 
 ]N^ow, in accordance with this character, this man- 
 ner of being, in what things is the boy to be in- 
 structed ? 
 
 The life and outward being of man in the beginning 
 of boyhood show him, in the first place, to be animated 
 by a spiritual self of his own ; they show, too, the exist- 
 ence of a vague feeling that this spiritual self has its 
 being and origin in a higher and Supreme Being, and 
 depends on this Being in which, indeed, all things have 
 their being and origin, and on which all things depend. 
 The life and outward being of man in boyhood show 
 the presence of an intense feeling and anticipation of 
 the existence of a living, quickening Spirit, in which 
 and by which all things live, by which all things are 
 invisibly surrounded, as a fish is surrounded by water 
 and man and all creatures by the clear, pure atmosphere. 
 
 In his boyhood, in the beginning of his school-hf e, 
 man seems to feel the power of his spiritual nature, to 
 anticipate vaguely God and the spiritual nature of all 
 things. He shows, at the same time, a desire to attain 
 ever more clearness in that feeling, and to confirm his 
 anticipation. 
 
138 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 Man, in boyhood, approaches the outer world, placed 
 over against him, with the feeling and hope and belief 
 that it, too, is animated and ruled by a spirit, like that 
 which animates and rules him ; and he is filled by an 
 intense, irresistible longing — which returns with every 
 new spring and every new fall, with every new, fresh 
 morning and calm evening, with every peaceful festive 
 day — a longing to know this all-ruling spirit, to make it 
 his own, as it were. 
 
 The outer world confronts man in boyhood in a 
 two-fold chara;3ter — first, as the product of human re- 
 quirements and human power, and, secondly, as the 
 outcome of the requirements of the power that works 
 in nature. 
 
 Between this outer world (the world of form and 
 matter) and the inner world (the world of mind and 
 spirit), language appears — originally united with both, 
 but gradually freeing itself from both, and thereby unit- 
 ing the two. 
 
 § 59. Thus the mind and the outer xoorld (first as 
 nature)^ and language which unites the two, are the 
 poles of boy-life, as they also were the poles of mankind 
 as a whole in the first stage of approaching maturity (as 
 the sacred books show). Through them the school and 
 instruction are to lead the boy to the threefold, yet in 
 itself one, knowledge — to the knowledge of himseK in 
 all his relations, and thus to the knowledge of man as 
 such ; to the knowledge of God, the eternal condition, 
 cause, and source of his being and of the being of all 
 things ; and to the knowledge of nature and the outer 
 world as proceeding from the Eternal Spirit, and de- 
 pending thereon. 
 
MAN AS A SCHOLAR OR PUPIL. 139 
 
 Instruction and the school are to lead man to a life 
 in full harmony with that threefold, yet in itself one, 
 knowledge. By this knowledge they are to lead man 
 from desire to will, from will to firmness of will, and 
 thus in continuous progression to the attainment of his 
 destiny, to the attainment of his earthly perfection. 
 
THE CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF 
 INSTRUCTION. 
 
 A. Religion and Religious Instruction. 
 
 § 60. Religion is the endeavor to raise into clear 
 knowledge the feeling that originally the spiritual self 
 of man is one with God, to realize the unity with God 
 which is founded on this clear knowledge, and to con- 
 tinue to live in this unity with God, serene and strong, 
 in every condition and relation of life. 
 
 Religion is not something fixed, hit an ever-jpro- 
 gressiiig and, for this very reason, ever-jyresent tend- 
 ency. 
 
 \ Religious instruction quickens, confirms, explains 
 the feeling that man's own spiritual self, his soul, his 
 piind and spirit, have their being and origin in God and 
 proceed from God ; it shows that the quaHties and the 
 nature of the soul, of the mind and spirit, have their 
 being in and through God ; it gives an insight into the 
 being and working of God ; it gives an insight into the 
 relation of God to man, as it is clearly -manifested in 
 the mind and life of every one, in life as such, and par- 
 ticularly in the life and development of mankind, as 
 they are preserved and revealed in the sacred books ; it 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 141 
 
 applies this knowledge to life as such, and particularly 
 to and in the life of each one, and to the progressive 
 development of mankind, so that the divine may be 
 represented in the human, and that man may know and 
 do his duty ; it presents and points out the ways and 
 means by which the desire to live in true unity with 
 God may be gratified, and by which this unity, if im- 
 paired, may be restored. 
 
 For this reason religious instruction always as- 
 sumes some degree of religion^ however weak. Relig- 
 ious instruction can bear fruit, can aifect and influ- 
 ence life only in so far as it finds in the mind of 
 man true religion, however indefinite and vague. If it 
 were possible that a human being could be without re- 
 ligion, it would also be impossible to give him religion. 
 
 This should be considered by thoughtless parents 
 who allow their children to grow to school age without 
 giving the slightest care to the religious tendency of 
 the young minds (see § 21). 
 
 Intelligent insight into the nature of religion — sim- 
 ple as it is, founded in the very nature of man, and so 
 in harmony with the nature of man — is nevertheless so 
 rarely pure, because man, who is also material and oc- 
 cupies space, finds it difficult to understand original 
 unity without assuming and premising previous separa- 
 tion, and because in the mind of man the conception of 
 unification is always associated with the conception of 
 union in space or time. But God, the spiritual, eter- 
 nally self-developing, must ever remain an undivided 
 one, simply because he is spiritual ; and, as t/rue origi- 
 nal unity by no means implies, but absolutely excludes^ 
 jprevious separation, so unification neither supposes 
 
142 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 nor requires, but absolutely excludes^ union in space 
 and time. 
 
 Human experience and observation offer by far 
 more proofs than are needed to demonstrate and ex- 
 plain this. For the idea, the thought translated by 
 man into living form in some outward work, was origi- 
 nally in immediate unity with his being, and bears un- 
 mistakably the impress of the personality and individu- 
 ality of the particular human being. This thought in 
 this particular form belongs only to this human being ; 
 and, were it to become conscious of itself in the form 
 given to it, it could return to the totaHty of the thought 
 of the man from whom it proceeds — ^i. e., it would give 
 itself an account of its relation to the totality of thought 
 of this man ; in the consciousness of this relation it 
 might develop and cultivate itself and thus raise itself 
 to an apprehension of the totality of thought of this 
 man ; nay, it might even raise itself at least to a vague 
 apprehension of the fundamental thought of the human 
 being from whom it proceeds. For every human heing 
 has, indeed, hut one thought jpeculiarly am.d predomi- 
 nantly his own, the fundamental thought, as it were, of 
 his whole being, the key-note of his life-symphony, a 
 thought which he simply seeks to express and render 
 clear with the help of a thousand other thoughts, with 
 the help of all he does. Yet, by the representation of 
 that thought, and of all other thoughts in living out- 
 ward form, man has not in any sense been diminished 
 within himseK; and, although this thought now ap- 
 pears only outside of man, yet he will always cheerfully 
 recognize it as his own, and concern himself about its 
 development and cultivation (see § 63)o 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 14,3 
 
 The thinker and the thought — could the latter be- 
 come conscious of itself — must ever be intensely mind- 
 ful of the fact of their original unity; and yet the 
 thought is not the thinker, although essentially one and 
 nnited; such is the relation of the human spirit to 
 God. 
 
 A father has one or many sons. Each one is an in- 
 dependent, self-conscious being. Yet who can fail to 
 see that each son expresses, in a new individuality, the 
 nature of the father ? 
 
 The son, or each one of the sons, even in the most 
 trivial thing and the most decided peculiarity, is again 
 the father, only in a new individuality. Indeed, the 
 sons of the same father, of the same parents, resemble 
 one another in disposition, speech, tone of voice, and 
 movements, so that, with the exception of a small new 
 peculiarity, any one of them may, in many respects, 
 be put in the place of another. Yet none of them 
 is a part of another — each one is whole; not one of 
 them is a particular part of the father. As they are 
 whole and undivided, so, too, the father is still whole 
 and undivided. Could we see human relationships 
 clearly, we should apprehend and recognize the divine. 
 
 Similarly, unification does not imply a material union 
 in time and space. Can not the thinking, feeling man 
 be at one with his friends and beloved ones, and act in 
 unison with them, although lands and seas separate 
 them from him ? Can not and does not man feel him- 
 self to be in spiritual union with human beings of 
 whom he has only heard, whom he has never seen and 
 never will see, and does he not act in unison with 
 them ? Can not man feel himself to be in spiritual 
 
144 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 nnion with human beings who lived and worked thou- 
 sands of years ago, or who may appear upon the earth 
 or elsewhere in space thousands of years later, and can 
 he not act in unison with these ? 
 
 Man spurns what might be to him a guide and a 
 light in his material experiences. Therefore, he is apt 
 to grope also without guide and light in the realms of 
 the purely spiritual, of the divine, which is without time 
 and space. 
 
 It is and remains forever true that, in purely and 
 distinctly human relations, particularly in parental and 
 spiritual human relations, there are mirrored the rela- 
 tions between the divine and the human, between God 
 and man. Those pure relations of man to man reveal 
 to us the relations of God to man and of man to God. 
 
 § 61. If man consciously and clearly recognizes that 
 his spiritual self proceeds from God, that it is born in 
 God and from God, that it is originally one with God, 
 and that consequently he is in a state of continuous de- 
 pendence on God, as well as in a state of continuous and 
 uninterrupted community with God ; if he finds his sal- 
 vation, his peace, his joy, his destiny, his life (which is 
 the genuine and only true life as such), and the source 
 of bis being in this eternally necessary dependence of 
 his self on God, in the clearness of this knowledge, in 
 living and constant obedience to this knowledge in all 
 he does, in a life, indeed, fully unified with this knowl- 
 edge and conviction — he truly, and in the full sense of 
 the words, recognizes in God his Father. If he ac- 
 knowledges himself to he a child of God, and lives in 
 accordance with this, he has the Christian religion, the 
 religion of Jesus. 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 145 
 
 Therefore, a pure earthly, filial relation in thought 
 and action is such as was told of Jesus — " and he was 
 subject unto them " (his parents). 
 
 Therefore, a genuine parental relation in thought 
 and action, honoring and acknowledging the as yet un- 
 revealed and undeveloped divine spirit in the child, is 
 such as was told of Mary : " But Mary kept all these 
 sayings, pondering them in her heart." 
 
 Therefore, pure human, parental, and filial relations 
 are the key, the first condition, of that heavenly, divine, 
 fatherly, and filial relation and life, of a genuine Christian 
 life in thought and action. 
 
 Therefore, the comprehension of the purely spiritual 
 human relations, of the true parental and filial relations, 
 furnishes the only key for the recognition and appre- 
 hension of the relations of God to man and of man to 
 God. 
 
 Only in the measure in which we fully comprehend 
 the purely spiritual, intrinsically human relations, and 
 are faithful to them in life, even in the smallest details, 
 can we attain a full knowledge and conception of the 
 relations between God and man, apprehending them so 
 deeply, vividly, and truly that every yearning of our 
 whole being is thereby gratified, or at least clearly in- 
 terpreted, and is transformed from an ever-ungratified 
 longing into a steadily fruitful aspiration. 
 
 We do not yet know, we do not, indeed, apprehend 
 in the least, that which is so near us, which is one with 
 our life, with ourselves ; we are not even loyal to the 
 verbal knowledge and verbal apprehension of which we 
 boast. This is daily shown by our behavior toward our 
 parents, our children, our education. 
 
146 THE EDUCATION OF MAN, 
 
 We would be children of God, and are not yet chil- 
 dren of our fathers, of our parents. God is to be our 
 Father, and we are so far from being true fathers to our 
 children. "We would have an insight into the divine, 
 and we leave unheeded the human relations that lead to 
 such insight. 
 
 Insight into the relations between God and man, 
 with full comprehension of these relations, blesses even 
 to the thousandth generation through pure parental and 
 filial relations, and a life in accordance with these. 
 
 "We put outward limits to humanity eternally pro- 
 gressing in its development, we inclose it in external 
 bounds, and we imagine that it has already reached 
 these bounds, even in its earthly development. Hu- 
 manity, which lives only in its continuous development 
 and cultivation, seems to us dead and stationary, some- 
 thing to be modeled over again and again in accordance 
 with its present type. We are ignorant of our own 
 /nature and of the nature of humanity, and yet would 
 know God and Jesus. We imagine that we already 
 know our own nature and the nature of humanity, and, 
 [ therefore, fail to know God and Jesus. 
 
 We separate God and man, man and Jesus, and yet 
 would come to God and Jesus. We fail to see that 
 every external separation implies an original inner unity. 
 However clearly and unequivocally this is taught in 
 the word and in the idea of separation, we overlook it 
 wholly. 
 
 The intimate unity of God and Jesus can not be ex- 
 pressed more comprehensively and exhaustively, more 
 truly and adequately, than by the relation of father and 
 son, the highest and most intimate relation that man can 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 14-7 
 
 know and compreliend, but whicli generally is viewed 
 only superficially, and not in its innermost spiritual, per- 
 vasive significance. The child, however, attains true 
 sonship only by developing within himself the father's 
 nature in full consciousness and clear insight, by mak- 
 ing the father's views, the father's nature and aspira- 
 tions, the motives for all his thoughts and actions ; and 
 by esteeming it his chief business, the source of peace 
 and joy in his life, to be in all he does in harmony with 
 his father whose high worth he has recognized. Such 
 is the pure, genuine, and high, yet truly human, relation 
 of the son to his father — the relation of the true, genu- 
 ine son to the true, genuine father. 
 
 The relation of sonship always implies on the part 
 of the son a conscious sharing of the father's views and 
 aspirations — a complete, essential, intrinsic, spiritual ac- 
 cord between the son and father. 
 
 Of course, this relation is and should be established 
 first with the oldest, first-born son. "While all his 
 younger brothers are still children, he is the only, the 
 first-born son. 
 
 Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God — he is the 
 beloved son of God ; for among all human and earth- 
 born, among all heaven-born children, he is the first 
 who in his knowledge and insight, in his thoughts, 
 views, and conduct, was equally filled and animated by 
 his Sonship to God — by God's Fatherhood to him. 
 Therefore, he is the first-born of God, the first-born of 
 all created beings. 
 
 The oft-repeated saying of Jesus, " Believe in me " 
 — " If ye were to believe in me " — means this : " Could 
 you but feel, know, see, that the highest thing that man, 
 
148 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 as an earth-born creature of God, can see and under- 
 stand — ^liis divine origin and liis constant dependence on 
 God — is expressed with equal clearness and vividness 
 in my life, my thoughts, and aspirations ; could you be 
 brought by my life, my thoughts, my views, my con- 
 duct, my deeds and words, to feel, to know, and to see 
 that every human being should raise himself to this 
 knowledge and insight, and live accordingly — a knowl- 
 edge and insight which can not be designated more ade- 
 quately, purely, and worthily than by the relation of 
 father and son — you, too, would rise to the true life, 
 you would live as truly and eternally as God and I live 
 eternally, you would tlius through me receive eternal 
 life, and I would give you truly eternal Ufe." 
 
 To recognize this, and to apply it in a pure human 
 life, is Christian religion. 
 
 Christian religrion is the eternal conviction of the 
 truth of the teachings of Jesus, and a Urm, persistent 
 conduct in obedience to this conviction ; it is the con- 
 viction that the truth of Christ's teaching confronts 
 every human being, wheresoever he may turn with his 
 spiritual eyes to seek, to test, to examine, to inquire ; 
 that wheresoever he may turn he will be confronted by 
 this one truth, this one spirit ; and that, as man's spirit- 
 ual eye sees and discerns this one divine truth — this 
 one divine spirit everywhere in endless diversity — this 
 spirit would afford him the consolation and support 
 which he needs in representing that truth in a world 
 where the cultivation of the outer sensual eye is still so 
 far in advance of the cultivation of the inner spiritual 
 eye ; where the knowledge and cultivation of the outer 
 man is still so far in advance of the knowledge and cul- 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. I49 
 
 tivation of the inner man. Tims, with the aid of this 
 spirit, he may rise to the highest knowledge, not alone 
 of man, but of all created beings, to a knowledge of the 
 truth that the infinite is revealed in the finite, the eter- 
 nal in the temporal, the celestial in the terrestrial, the 
 living in the dead, the divine in the human. 
 
 The Christian religion, therefore, is the clear insight 
 and conviction, firmly and eternally self-grounded and 
 free from all illusion — and a life and conduct in full 
 harmony and perfect accord with such insight and con- 
 viction — that the manifestation and revelation of the 
 one, eternal, living, self-existent Being — of God — must 
 from its very nature be triune : that God manifests and 
 reveals himseK in his oneness as the Creator, Presei-ver, 
 Ruler, the Father of all things ; that he manifests and 
 reveals himself, has manifested and revealed himself, 
 in and through a man who absorbed his whole being in 
 himseK, in and through an only being of supreme per- 
 fection, who was therefore his Son, his only-begotten 
 and first-born Son ; that in all the diversity of created 
 things, in all things that are and move, in the life and 
 spirit of all things, he has manifested and revealed him- 
 self, and continues without interruption to manifest and 
 reveal himself as the One Life and Spirit, the Spirit of 
 God ; and that he does all this ever as the One Living 
 God. 
 
 Similarly we say, humanly speaking, but with a deep 
 spiritual meaning, and with exhaustive fullness of spir- 
 itual truth : The spirit of the peace, of the order and 
 purity of this family, is shown in every single thing as 
 well as in the whole house. Or, again, with correct and 
 true feeling : The spirit of the father is seen in all the 
 12 
 
150 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 children, and in the whole family. Or, in higli creative 
 truth: The spirit of the artist is manifest in all his 
 works, as well as in each individual one. Or, with cor- 
 rect sense and feeling of truth : It is a living expression 
 of himself. 
 
 The Christian rehgion carries with itself the eternal 
 conviction that it is this knowledge which leads not man 
 alone, but all created beings (i. e., all beings that have 
 come from the unity of God into an individual exist- 
 ence), to a knowledge of their existence, to the fulfill- 
 ment of their mission, to the attainment of their destiny ; 
 and that every individual being — if it would attain its 
 destiny — in necessary and indispensable obedience to its 
 nature, must manifest and reveal itseK in tliis triune way 
 — in and as unity, in and as individuality, in and as 
 manifoldness in ever-continuing diversity (see §§ 15, 18). 
 
 The truth of this conviction is the sole foundation 
 of all insight and knowledge. It is the only test of our 
 conduct. It is the foundation of all religious instruc- 
 tion. The knowledge and application of this truth en- 
 ables us to recognize nature in its true character, as the 
 writing and book of God, as the revelation of God. 
 
 The knowledge of this truth gives a language to 
 things human as well as to things natural, and imparts 
 true significance and true life to all teaching and learn- 
 ing, to all knowing and doing. 
 
 Only through this conviction life becomes in all its 
 phases and manifestations a self-contained whole, a unit. 
 This knowledge and conviction alone render genuine 
 human education truly possible. 
 
 The knowledge of this truth, the insight into its na- 
 ture, brings light and life, and, if need be, consolation 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 151 
 
 find support in all circumstances ; it alone gives a mean- 
 ing and a purpose to life. 
 
 Therefore, Jesus commanded his disciples : " Go ye 
 into all the world and teach all nations " ; purify and 
 lead them to the knowledge of God the Father, of Jesus, 
 the Son of God, and of the Holy Spirit of God, to a life 
 in accordance with this knowledge and insight, and to 
 all insight necessarily proceeding from this. 
 
 Therefore, the truth of the threefold manifestation 
 and revelation of the One God is the corner-stone of the 
 religion which suffices all men in all zones, and which 
 they have felt, however vaguely, and sought, however 
 unconsciously; for it leads man in the spirit and in 
 truth, in insight and life, to God and in God. 
 
 Every human being, as a being proceeding from 
 God, existing through God and living in God, should 
 raise himself to the Christian religion — the religion of 
 Jesus. Therefore, the school should first of all teach 
 the religion of Christ ; therefore, it should first of all, 
 and above all, give instruction in the Christian religion ; 
 everywhere, and in all zones, the school should instruct 
 for and in this religion. 
 
 B. Natural Science and Mathematics. 
 
 % 62. What religion says and expresses, nature says 
 and represents. What the contemplation of God teaches, 
 nature confirms. What is deduced from the contempla- 
 tion of tlie inner, is made manifest by the contemplation 
 of the outer. What religion demands, nature fulfills. 
 For nature, as well as all existing things, is a manifesta- 
 tion, a revelation, of God. The purpose of all existence 
 
152 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 is the revelation of God. All existing things are only 
 through and because of the (divine) essence that is in 
 them (see § 1). 
 
 Everything is of divine nature, of divine origin. 
 Everything is, therefore, relatively a unity, as God is 
 absohite unity. Everything, therefore, inasmuch as it 
 is — though only relatively — a unity, manifests its nature 
 only in and through a triune revelation and representa- 
 tion of itself, and these only in and through continu- 
 ously progressive, hence relatively all-sided development 
 (see § 61). 
 
 This truth is the foundation of all contemplation, 
 knowledge, and comprehension of nature. Without it 
 there can be no true, genuine, productive investigation 
 and knowledge of nature. Without it there can be no 
 true contemplation of nature, leading to insight into the 
 essential being of nature. 
 
 Only the Christian, only the human being with 
 Christian spirit, life, and aspiration, can possibly attain 
 a true understanding and a living knowledge of nature ; 
 only such a one can be a genuine naturalist. True 
 knowledge of nature is attainable by man only in the 
 measure in which he is — consciously or unconsciously, 
 vaguely or distinctly — a Christian, i. e., penetrated with 
 the truth of the one divine power that lives and works 
 in all things ; only in the measure in which he is filled 
 with the one living divine spirit that is in all things and 
 to which he himself is subject, through which all nature 
 has its being, and by which he is enabled to see this one 
 spirit in its essential being and in its unity in the least 
 phenomenon, as wdl as in the sum of all natural phe- 
 nomena. 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. I53 
 
 § 63. The relation of nature to God may be truly 
 and clearly perceived and recognized by man in the 
 study and elucidation of the innermost spiritual relation 
 of a genuine human work of art to the artist. In a sec- 
 ondary degree it may be perceived and recognized in 
 every human work with reference to the human being 
 to whom it owes its origin (see § 61). 
 
 All things that the living spirit creates, produces, 
 and represents must have impressed and implanted in 
 them the nature of this spirit, must bear the imprint of 
 the seal of this spirit in every part of the product. 
 
 Absolutely nothing can appear, nothing visible and 
 sensible can come forth, that does not hold within itself 
 the living spirit j that does not bear upon its surface the 
 imprint of the living spirit of the being by whom it has 
 been produced, and to whom it owes its existence. And 
 this is true of the work of every human being — from 
 the highest artist to the meanest laborer, from the most 
 material to the most spiritual human work, from the 
 most permanent to the most transient human activity — 
 as well as of the works of God which are nature, the 
 creation, and all created things. 
 
 A keen, critical eye can discern in the work of art 
 the artist's powers of thought and feeling, as well as 
 their state of cultivation ; thus, too, the creative spirit of 
 God may be discerned in his works (see § 60). 
 
 We do not pay suflScient attention to this fact 
 in human works, in works of art ; therefore, it is so 
 difficult for us to discern it in nature, in the work 
 of God. 
 
 In the consideration of the human work of art we 
 do not concern ourselves sufficiently with the innermost 
 
154: THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 spiritual relation of the artist to the work ; we judge its 
 origin too mechanically and superficially. We do not 
 consider sufficiently that these works, if they are works 
 of high art, are not meant to be art-masks, but are al- 
 ways representations of the most individual, the most 
 personal inner life of the artist; for this reason the 
 genuine spirit of the art-work and the spirit of nature 
 are equally foreign, equally dead to us. 
 
 Now, as the work of man, of the artist, carries within 
 itseK the sj>irit and character^ the life and essential he- 
 ing^ of this man, and — as we say in human metaphor 
 exhaustively and most significantly — breathes out this 
 spirit and life, and as the human being who produced 
 it, who created it, as it were, out of himself, neverthe- 
 less remains the same undiminished and undivided be- 
 ing, and is even strengthened in his power by this work, 
 thus, too, the spirit and being of God — although the 
 cause and source of all existing things, and although all 
 existing things carry within themselves and breatlie the 
 one spirit of God — remain nevertheless in themselves 
 the one Being, the one Spirit, undiminished and un- 
 divided. 
 
 As in the human work of art there is no material 
 part of the artist's spirit, and as nevertheless the work 
 of art as such carries within itself the whole spirit of its 
 artist in such a way that this spirit lives in this work, is 
 expressed by it and exhaled by it, is even breathed by 
 it into others, where it may live, be developed, and cul- 
 tivated — as the spirit of man is thus related to the work 
 produced by him, so is the spirit of God, so is God, re- 
 lated to nature and to all created things. The spirit of 
 God rests in nature, lives and reigns in nature, is ex- 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 155 
 
 pressed in nature, is communicated by nature, is devel- 
 oped and cultivated in nature — ^yet nature is not the 
 body of God. 
 
 The spirit of the work of art, the spirit to which the 
 work of art owes its existence, is the one and undivided 
 spirit of the artist ; but, having as it were gone forth 
 from the artist, it now lives and works on in the artist's 
 work as an independent spirit, yet at one with the art- 
 ist. Thus, the spirit of God, having gone forth from 
 God, lives and works on in and through nature as an in- 
 dependent spirit, yet at one with God. 
 
 As nature is not the body of God, so, too, God him- 
 self does not dwell in nature as in a house ; but the spirit 
 of God dwells in nature, sustaining, preserving, foster- 
 ing, and developing nature. For does not even the 
 spirit of the artist, though but a human spirit, dwell in 
 his work, sustaining, preserving, fostering, and keeping 
 it ? Does not even the spirit of the artist impart earthly 
 immortality, as it were, to a block of marble, to a per- 
 ishable piece of canvas — nay, even to a winged and fleet- 
 ing word, which passes away at the moment of its birth 
 — indeed, to all his works, be he musician, poet, painter, 
 or sculptor ? Does he not endow his work of art, as he 
 puts it forth into life, with the choicest, most thought- 
 ful care, the tenderest keeping, the high esteem of the 
 most exalted human minds ? 
 
 Who can fail to mark the lofty, mighty spirit of a 
 true human work of art, the presence at once supplicat- 
 ing and commanding that goes forth from a lofty, pure 
 work of art, as it does from the innocent look of a help- 
 less child ? And yet it is but the work of a human 
 spirit ; and this spirit preserves and keeps it, however 
 
166 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 long tlie time and wide the space that separate tlie work 
 from the artist. 
 
 Toward a genuine work of art — though not, indeed, 
 toward a merely mechanical piece of work with w^hich 
 thought had little or nothing to do — the artist feels as 
 does a father who dismisses his son into hfe : he gives 
 him words and thoughts to bless, guard, and keep him. 
 To the true artist it is by no means a matter of indiffer- 
 ence who buys his work, as a good father is by no means 
 indifferent to the character of the companions of his 
 son. Yet, full of trust and confidence, he dismisses his 
 son into the world ; for his own spirit and aspirations 
 rest upon and in his son. Thus, too, the artist's charac- 
 ter lives and breathes wholly in his work, even in its 
 least and smallest parts, in every line, and in the very 
 mode of their connections. This spirit or character, 
 whose lofty nature and aspirations the artist knows in 
 his own being, fills him with the hope that it will keep 
 his work of art, that it will bring his work to human 
 beings who will receive the created spirit in their own 
 lives, and will develop and cultivate it there. 
 
 The work of art is external to man — no material 
 part, not a drop of life-blood, passes from him to his 
 work — and yet man sustains, keeps, and preserves it ; 
 he strives to keep aw^ay from it what may cause it the 
 least injury now and in time to come. Man feels him- 
 self to be one with his work of art ; how much more, 
 then, will God sustain, keep, and preserve his work, 
 which is nature, and keep away from it all injury — for 
 God is God, and man is only man ! 
 
 Yet the artist, in whatever direction, remains ever 
 unalterably and independently the same in himself, 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 157 
 
 though all his works perish ; so, too, God remains un- 
 alterably the same, even though all nature perish. 
 
 Nay, the human work of art, as well as nature, the 
 divine work of God, may externally perish, and yet the 
 spirit expressed, revealed, living and moving in it, will 
 continue to be and to unfold itself evermore. Indeed, 
 it gains thereby true freedom, and, from this very fact, 
 is revealed more clearly and vividly. 
 
 Behold the ruins of perished human art-power ! be 
 they the mighty work of the giant strength of indi- 
 viduals or the colossal product of the omnipotence of 
 the intimate union of many for one purpose which is 
 common to all, and which each one of the workers, 
 on whatever stage of insight, holds and must hold as 
 his purpose — an omnipotence whose existence man- 
 kind have scarcely felt as yet, and in which they still 
 less believe. Those ruins admonish the succeeding 
 weaker generations ; and the generation that begins 
 to become conscious of its essential nature is lifted 
 in confidence and courage by those proofs of vanished, 
 though by no means only outer, human power and 
 greatness. 
 
 Thus the colossal remains of shattered mountains 
 and mountain-chains speak of the greatness of the spirit 
 of God, of the greatness of God ; and even man is en- 
 couraged, and lifts himself up by them, feeling within 
 himself the same spirit and power. Thus the slender 
 ivy climbs up on the mighty rock, and gathers from it 
 strength and food, not only for its life, but also for its 
 upward growth. 
 
 Thus we see everywhere the same living and deep, 
 inner and spiritual, pervading and sustaining relations 
 
158 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 between man and the work of art, and between God and 
 nature. 
 
 When barbarians — ^rough, unfeeling, thoughtless men 
 — destroy the work of art, or even the slightest vestige 
 of a human spirit that has lived and worked on earth, 
 the noble, sensitive human being grieves perhaps even 
 more than he would do if the life of an ordinary living 
 being were destroyed. 
 
 For does not even the work of man imply the inde- 
 pendent development of the spirit and thought it holds ? 
 May not the character expressed in a work of art influ- 
 ence entire generations, elevating or, on the other hand, 
 degrading them ? And yet they are but the works of 
 man that may do this ; what, then, may, will, and must 
 the works of God do ; what must nature, the work of 
 God, be to man ? 
 
 We study to acquaint ourselves with the life and 
 aspirations, etc., of human works ; we study the works 
 of man, and justly so. The undeveloped, maturing hu- 
 jman being should profit by the development of maturer 
 jmen. How much more, then, should we endeavor to 
 I know nature, the work of God, to acquaint ourselves 
 with the objects of nature in their life, their signifi- 
 cance, in their relation to the spirit of God ! 
 
 This is indicated to us, too, in the fact that genuine 
 works of human art, human works that express the pure 
 spirit of man, which is also the spirit of God, are not 
 easily nor always readily accessible for every one, and 
 under all circumstances ; while, on the other hand, man 
 finds himself everywhere surrounded by pure works of 
 God, by works of nature that clearly express the spirit 
 of God. 
 
CHIEF GROUrS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 159 
 
 It is true, we can find and recognize God's spirit 
 through and in the human spirit ; but it is difficult to 
 distinguish in each particular case that which belongs 
 to humanity in general from that which belongs to the 
 particular human being; it is difficult to distinguish 
 which one of the two predominates, and which one, at 
 any particular time, is acting. On the other hand, with 
 pure works of nature, the natural as such preponderates 
 very decidedly, the particular characteristics of the natu- 
 ral object are by far less prominent. Thus the pure 
 spirit of God not only is seen more clearly and dis- 
 tinctly in nature than it is in human life, but in the 
 clear disclosures of God's spirit in nature are seen the 
 nature, dignity, and holiness of man reflected in all 
 their pristine clearness and purity. 
 
 Again, man sees in nature not only general princi- 
 ples — as has been previously indicated — but he beholds 
 therein his aspiration, his destiny, his mission, the ne- 
 cessary conditions, impediments, and phases of their 
 attainment, as in a picture, in unmistakable and living 
 characters, expressing not the notion, but the thing, 
 the relation itself. Following these silent, absolutely 
 reliable, outwardly intelligible, impersonal teachers, 
 man may not only learn from them with certainty the 
 thing to be done at every moment of life, but, acting , 
 accordingly, he will surely satisfy the demands made) 
 upon him. 
 
 / Among all objects of nature, none seem in this re- 
 'spect truer, clearer, more complete, and yet simpler — 
 I because of their calm thoughtful aspect and the clear un- 
 folding of their inner life — than plants, especially trees. 
 They are, therefore, rightly distinguished among nat- 
 
160 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 ural objects as trees of tlie knowledge of good and evil, 
 for they are such in reality ; indeed, they were so con- 
 sidered and named with touching, truthful, and deep 
 significance, on the very iirst appearance of self-con- 
 sciousness in the human race. 
 
 The observation of the development of individual 
 / man and its comparison with the general development 
 of the human race show plainly that, in the develop- 
 ment of the inner life of the individual man, the history 
 of the spiritual development of the race is repeated, 
 and that the race in its totality may be viewed as one 
 human being, in whom there will be found the neces- 
 sary steps in the development of individual man (see 
 §§ 15, 24). Therefore, not only may we learn from the 
 trees, from the life of a tree, the phenomena of indi- 
 vidual human life, but we may lind therein the phenom- 
 ena of the development of the race in their necessary 
 connection. It is true, in their full distinctness, free 
 from all arbitrariness and triviality, this has as yet 
 scarcely been shown, yet the further development and 
 cultivation of the parables of Christ may lead to it 
 (see § GQ). 
 
 A by far wider application might be given to this 
 contemplation of nature here only touched upon, were 
 it not out of place on account of the almost complete 
 ignorance that prevails concerning this subject, and 
 were it not founded on a now very rare mode of obser- 
 vation of external natural phenomena and of the devel- 
 opment of inner life in ourselves. 
 
 If we seek the inner reason for this high symbolic 
 meaning of the different individual phenomena of na- 
 ture, particularly in the phases of development of natu- 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION, Id 
 
 ral objects in relation to the stadia of human develop- 
 ment, we find it in the fact tliat nature and man have 
 their origin in one and the same eternal Being, and that 
 their development takes place in accordance with the 
 same laws, only at different stages. 
 
 Thus the observation of nature and the observation 
 of man, in comparison and in connection wdth the facts 
 and phenomena of the general development of human- 
 ity, are mutually explanatory, and mutually lead to 
 deeper knowledge the one of the other. A clear insight 
 into the causative and creative relation of the human 
 spirit to its external work leads also to a clear insight 
 into the relation of the causative, creative spirit of God 
 to nature ; leads to a knowledge of the manner in which 
 the finite proceeds from the infinite, the material from 
 the spiritual, nature from God. Even man, although 
 externally a finite being, does not always need his arms 
 and hands for the production and outward representa- 
 tion of his work ; more frequently his will, his deter- 
 mining look, the breath of his word, create and bring 
 forth. Even man, although externally finite, can bring 
 forth material for his creations, without having recourse 
 to material existences. 
 
 Whoever wants further proof for this need only pass 
 in review the whole series of developments, conditions, 
 and phenomena, from the least material, innermost 
 thought to the most definitely formed, most material 
 word in writing. 
 
 Thus man may know and understand even the most 
 difficult process, the production of the external and ma- 
 terial from the inner and spiritual ; may know and un- 
 derstand it — not as an idea, but as a fact — in the pro- 
 
162 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 cesses of his own thinking as an effect and consequence 
 of the transformation of his own innermost thought into 
 an external work, an outer something. 
 
 Therefore, as the spirit of the artist is in the work 
 of art, so is the spirit of God in nature. As the work 
 of art hves and moves in accordance wdth its spirit and 
 related to its maker, so nature, born from God, lives and 
 moves in accordance with its spirit, as a work of God, 
 living in and through God, and breathing the spirit of 
 God, related to God, its Maker, and in inner spiritual 
 relation to man. 
 
 As the world of art is the invisibly-visible * revela- 
 tion and expression of the spirit of man, and thus be- 
 comes an invisibly- visible kingdom of the human spirit, 
 so, too, nature is the invisiblj-visible revelation of the 
 spirit of God, and becomes an invisiblj-visible kingdom 
 of God. 
 
 § 64. To feel the presence of this threefold king- 
 dom of God (the visible, the invisible, and the in- 
 visibly-visible), to acknowledge it, and to let it influ- 
 ence life — this alone can give us the peace which we 
 seek within and without, which from the first moment 
 of self-consciousness we are driven to seek and to 
 pursue, even at the expense of our own life, of our 
 external possessions, of our external welfare, whatever 
 its name. 
 
 For this reason alone, man — particularly in boyhood 
 — should become intimate with nature, not so much 
 with reference to the details and the outer forms of her 
 phenomena as with reference to the spirit of God that 
 
 * WnsicMbar-sichthar = iny\s\h\y-y'isih\e, i. e., visible to the mental, 
 to the spiritual eye, though invisible to the physical eye. — Tr. 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 163 
 
 lives in lier and rules over her. Indeed, the boy feels 
 this deeply, and demands it ; for this reason, where love 
 of nature is still unimpaired, nothing, perhaps, unites 
 teachers and pupils so intimately as the thoughtful study 
 of nature, and of the objects of nature. 
 
 Parents and school-teachers should remember this, 
 and the latter should, at least once a week, take a walk 
 with each class — not driving them out like a flock of 
 sheep, nor leading them out like a company of soldiers, 
 but going with them as a father with his sons or aj 
 brother with his brothers, and acquainting them more 
 fully with whatever the season or nature offers them 
 (see § 98). 
 
 The schoolmaster who lives in a village or in the 
 country should not object to this request, by saying, 
 "My school-children are constantly out-doors anyhow, 
 and running about in the fields and forests." They are, 
 indeed, in the fields and forests, but they do not live 
 there ; they do not live in and with nature. 
 
 Not only children and boys, but indeed many adults, 
 fare with nature and her character as ordinary men fare 
 with the air. They live in it, and yet scarcely know it 
 as something distinct, and much less with reference to 
 its essential properties concerning the preservation of 
 his life ; for ordinarily the name air is given merely to 
 the currents of wind or to their temperature.* 
 
 Therefore, these children and boys who spend all 
 their time in the fields and forests see and feel nothing 
 of the beauties of nature, and of their influence on the 
 human heart. They are like the people who have grown 
 
 * This has reference to the German word Luft (air), which is popularly 
 used for Wind (wind).— Tr. 
 
164 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 up in a very beautiful country, and who have no idea of 
 its beauty and its spirit. 
 
 Yet — and this is the essential point — the boy may 
 possibly with his spiritual eye find, see, and apprehend 
 the inner life of surrounding nature ; but he fails to find 
 the same feelings among adults who suppress that ger- 
 minating inner life in its very beginning. 
 
 The boy seeks from adults the confirmation of his 
 inner, spiritual anticipations, and justly so, from an in- 
 tuitive sense of what the elder ought to be, from respect 
 for the elder. If he fails to find it, a double effect fol- 
 lows—loss of respect for the elder, and a recoil of the 
 original inner anticipation. 
 
 Therefore, it is so important that boys and adults 
 should go into the fields and forests together striving to 
 receive into their hearts and minds the life and spirit of 
 nature, which would soon put an end to the idle, use- 
 less, and indolent loafing of so many boys. 
 
 The cruel treatment of insects and other animals in 
 which, particularly, young boys engage good-naturedly 
 and with no evil intention — though this does not apply 
 to cruelty as such — originates in the little boy's desire 
 to obtain an insight into the inner life of the animal, 
 to get at its spirit. But failure to explain or to guide, 
 as well as false interpretation or guidance, or the 
 misunderstanding of this desire, may at a later period 
 develop in such boys hardened intentional cruelty to 
 animals. 
 
 § 65. Such are the character and influence of nature 
 as a whole, such are the character and influence of na- 
 ture as the image and work of God, as the word of God, 
 revealing, communicating, and awakening the spirit of 
 
CUIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 1^5 
 
 God in and by its integrity ; as such, nature presents 
 herself to inner contemplation. 
 
 Quite differently, however, she presents herself to 
 ordinary outer contemplation. To this she appears as a 
 diversity of many different and separate individualities 
 without definite, inner, living connection ; individuali- 
 ties each of which has its own peculiar form, peculiar 
 development, peculiar absolute purpose; without any 
 indication that these externally distinct and separate in- 
 dividualities are organically united members of one great 
 living organism, of one great intrinsically and spiritually 
 coherent whole ; without any indication that nature is 
 such a whole. 
 
 § 66. This external view of nature, based on partic- 
 ular natural phenomena, on particular natural objects 
 seen in their separation, is like the external view of a 
 large tree, or of any complex plant, in which each leaf 
 seems to be strictly separate from the others. Here, 
 too, there seems to be no bridge, no inner connection 
 among the leaves and twigs, nor in the little blossom 
 between the calyx and corolla, and between this and the 
 stamens and pistils. But here, too, when in thoughtful 
 search the spiritual eye seeks and finds the common 
 bond among the nearest particulars, and proceeds from 
 every new-found unity to a higher and the highest unity, 
 it is at last recognized as an external manifestation of an 
 inner law acting deep in the very heart of the plant. 
 
 That external view of nature in her particulars re- 
 sembles the external view of the starry sky, in which 
 only by means of arbitrary lines particular stars are 
 gathered into larger groups, and whose inner connection 
 even the keenest, clearest, and most fully developed 
 13 
 
166 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 spiritual eye can appreliend only in the union of smaller 
 world-groups into ever larger ones. 
 
 In this usual, merely external, view of nature, the 
 particulars of the distinct and separate natural objects 
 appear not so much as the products of one and the same 
 existence, but rather as the products of diiferent active 
 forces. But this can not satisfy, even in boyhood, the 
 mind a,nd spirit of man, in itself one and undivided. 
 
 § 67. Therefore at an early period, even in boy- 
 hood, man seeks unity and union for this externally sep- 
 arate diversity and individuality among objects ; seeks 
 unity and union in a separation which in obedience to a 
 necessary law of inner development presents things out- 
 wardly in apparently confused heaps. His mind is con- 
 tented when he begins to apprehend this unity and 
 union, but only later on, when he has found it, is his 
 spirit fully satislied. 
 
 But a review of the diversities in the particulars 
 of a plant leads to the recognition of deep-laid law dis- 
 cernible only for the spiritual eye. Similarly the pa- 
 tient following of this diversity itself leads to the recog- 
 nition, too, of the external unity among the diversities 
 and individualities of nature ; for, however great the pe- 
 culiarities, diiferences, and degrees of separation among 
 natural objects, the peculiar nature and appearance, the 
 structure and form of each thing, are always found to rest 
 ultimately upon the nature of force^ as the connecting 
 unit from which all individuality and diversity proceed. 
 JS'ow force, from its very nature, is seK-existent, pro- 
 ceeds from itself by its own activity as its own outward 
 manifestation ; therefore, active force is the ultimate 
 cause of all things, of every phenomenon in nature. 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTIOX. 167 
 
 Tlie contemplation of the essence of force— in its 
 manifestations as divine power as well as in its activity 
 in our own minds and life — will enable us, too, to appre- 
 hend and understand nature in her numberless forms 
 and structures, in her living inner affinities and develop- 
 ments, as well as in her external relations and deduc- 
 tions. Man is urged to contemplate the inner essence 
 of force by the desire and hope of finding thereby the 
 outer unity of the particular facts of nature, of the vari- 
 ous forms and shapes of nature. 
 
 [Similarly Herbert Spencer declares force to be the ultimate of 
 ultimates, and looks upon space, time, matter, and motion as " either 
 built up of, or abstracted from, experiences of force." — Tr.] 
 
 § 68. Force, as such, is a spontaneous energy equally 
 active in all directions, proceeding either from absolute 
 unity or from some relative unity, but always from a 
 unity. At the same time, the nature of force necessarily 
 implies the coexistence and simultaneousness of action 
 and reaction. 
 
 Individual and varied existence as such, however, 
 postulates necessarily a second, external condition or 
 form and structure, viz., matter. It shows how all 
 eartlily and natural structure and form are born from 
 matter which is the same everywhere, in every respec^ 
 even in the smallest details of cohesion and constitu- 
 tion, subject to the same laws, and therefore outwardly 
 infinitely mobile in its minutest parts ; and all this be- 
 cause of the everywhere equally diffused indwelling 
 force, because of the external infiuence of the sun and 
 of light and heat, in obedience to the all-pervading great 
 law of nature, according to which the general gives rise 
 to the particular. 
 
168 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 I All individuality and diversity of earthly and nat- 
 f ural objects, as well as all inner contemplation of nature, 
 show that force and matter are in themselves insepa- 
 rably one. 
 
 Matter and spontaneous force proceeding from a 
 point with equal activity in all directions mutually con- 
 dition each other: neither exists without the other, 
 neither can exist without the other ; nay, strictly speak- 
 ing, it is impossible to think one without the other. 
 
 The reason for the infinite mobility of matter in its 
 minutest parts lies in the original spherical tendency of 
 the indwelHng force, in the original tendency of force, 
 spontaneously proceeding from a point, to diffuse equally 
 in all directions. 
 
 § 69. JSTow, since force develops and diffuses itself 
 in all directions equally, freely, and unimpeded, its out- 
 ward manifestation, its material resultant, is a sphere. 
 For this reason the spherical or, in general, the round 
 form is most commonly the fii-st and the last form of 
 things in nature : e. g., the great heavenly bodies, such 
 as the suns, planets, and moons, water and all liquids, 
 the air and all gases, and even the dust. 
 
 In all the diversity and amid the apparently most in- 
 compatible differences of earthly and natural structures, 
 the sphere seems to be the primitive form, the unity 
 from which all earthly and natural forms and structures 
 are derived. Hence, too, the sphere resembles none of 
 the other natural forms, and yet essentially contains the 
 possibility and the law of all of them ; it is, at the same 
 time, formless and the most perfect form. 
 
 Neither point nor line, neither plane nor side, can be 
 discerned on its surface ; yet it is all-pointed and all- 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 169 
 
 sided, contains all the points and all the lines, etc., of 
 all earthly structures and forms, not in their possibility 
 alone, but even in their actuality. 
 
 Therefore, all structures of the living, active, effect- 
 ive objects of nature rest primarily on the law of sphe- 
 ricity, underlying the structure of the sphere ; rest 
 primarily — starting from the conception of the inner 
 essence of force, and viewing them as products of force 
 — on the necessary tendency of force to represent in 
 and through matter the spherical nature of force, the 
 nature of the sphere in all possible forms and structures, 
 varieties, and combinations. For in and with the spon- 
 taneous, spherical action of the force as a natural and 
 earthly phenomenon, and as such united with matter, 
 there is implied at the same time an inward swelling 
 and surging, measuring and weighing tendency — caus- 
 ing differences in the effect and tension of the force in 
 the different directions. 
 
 [How much Proebel was impressed with the significance of the 
 sphere as a symbol of unity of life is shown in the following extract 
 from " Aphorisms," written down in 1821 : *' The spherical is the 
 symbol of diversity in unity and of unity in diversity. The spheri- 
 cal is the representation of diversity developed from the unity on 
 which it depends, as well as the representation of the reference of all 
 diversity to its unity. The spherical is the general and the particu- 
 lar, the universal and the individual, unity and individuality at the 
 same time. It is infinite development, and absolute limitation ; it 
 connects perfection and imperfection. All things unfold their 
 spherical nature perfectly only by representing their nature in their 
 unity — in some individuality, and in some diversity. The law of the 
 spherical is the fundamental law of all true and adequate human 
 culture." — Tr.] 
 
 The differences in the quantity and intensity of the 
 effect of the force in different directions — differences 
 
170 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 whicli in accordance with their nature mnst appear 
 simultaneously in force and in matter — this fixed preva- 
 lence of the effect of the force in certain directions — 
 this fixed, peculiar relation among the different direc- 
 tions of the force — this difference of tension in the dif- 
 ferent directions, and the corresponding and simultane- 
 ous difference in the individualization of matter — must, 
 as a fundamental quality of the mass of matter as a 
 whole, dwell in the same measure in each and every 
 smallest particle of that mass. 
 
 This peculiar relation and inner law of the efiicient 
 force constitute, in every particular case, the essential 
 cause of the form and structure in question. 
 
 The differences of direction and intensity in the 
 action of the forces, these differences of tension and the 
 resulting easy divisibility of matter, these planes and 
 directions of tension, contain the fundamental law of 
 all forms and structures. Their clear conception affords 
 the possibility of seeing them in their nature, relations, 
 and combinations. 
 
 Now, as each thing can manifest itself completely 
 only by representing its being in unity, individuahty, 
 and diversity, or in the indispensable triune way (see § 
 61), the essential nature of force, too, is shown completely 
 and perfectly only in such a triune representation of its 
 being by and in form. This implies, at the same time, 
 two other tendencies of nature : the tendency to repre- 
 sent the particular in the general, and the general in 
 the particular ; and the tendency to make the internal 
 external, the external internal, and to represent the two 
 in unity (to unify the two). 
 
 All individual forms in nature, in all their diversity, 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 171 
 
 have their origin in this triune representation bj means 
 of matter and through form, of force in union with 
 those general tendencies of nature. 
 
 § 70. Furthermore, however, one and the same force 
 acts in one and the same material, either particularizing 
 in many individual phenomena or undivided and in 
 general ; or within the limits of its formative law its ac- 
 tion predominates in the direction of one of the dimen- 
 sions — height, length, or breadth — producing a number 
 of variations of crystalline form, such as the fibrous, the 
 radiate, the granular, the laminate, the foliate, needle- 
 shaped, etc. The former is due to the fact that as 
 many particles of the material as possible in a relatively 
 large mass tend to represent their formative law, but 
 are reciprocally hindered by their very mass in the de- 
 velopment and completion of their crystals. The latter 
 is due to the fact that the representation of the law of 
 formation is greater in certain dimensions than it is in 
 the rest. 
 
 The pure and perfect crystal, which represents even 
 in its outward form the relative intensity in the differ- 
 ent directions of the inner force, is formed when all the 
 individual particles and all the individual points of the 
 active force subject themselves to the higher law of a 
 common requirement and of the integral representation 
 of the law of formation, a higher law which, though it 
 may hamper and fetter individual particles or points, 
 yet yields the greater, perfectly formed product. 
 
 The crystalline is the first phase of earthly forma- 
 tion. Action and reaction and their simultaneousness, 
 which belong to the essential nature of force, give rise 
 to a tendency toward predominance of the force in cer- 
 
172 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 tain directions, and to a reciprocal hindrance and ten-' 
 sion e7en in the minutest parts, and consequently to 
 the most sharply defined relations of tension in the ma- 
 terial in all directions, and thereby to greater or smaller 
 divisibility in these planes and lines of tension. 
 
 Therefore, the first crystals must of necessity have 
 rectilinear outlines ; nay, in the first appearance of the 
 crystalline, there must be evidence of resistance to the 
 common subordination under the fixed law of a definite 
 crystal — resistance to its perfect representation. Simi- 
 larly, crystals in which the force acts unequally in dif- 
 ferent directions must appear earlier than those in which 
 the force acts equally in different directions ; hence the 
 external result will not be an all-sidedly equilateral crys- 
 tal — as would be indicated by the essential nature of the 
 force — but solid forms not in conformity with this all- 
 sided equal activity of the force. Again, the develop- 
 ment of the essential nature of force in its external 
 manifestation of crystallization ascends from the un- 
 equilateral to the simplest equilateral forms ; while, at 
 the same time, the essential nature of the force as such 
 for the purpose of outward representation descends, 
 from unity and all-sidedness, to individuality and one- 
 sidedness. 
 
 If we now seek to recognize and represent this de- 
 scent in the essential nature of the force from unity to 
 individuality, we shall see nature at this stage, both in 
 her inner tendency and her outer manifestations, in all 
 her individuality and one-sidedness, but also in her unity 
 and all-sidedness. 
 
 [Froebel's interest in crystallography was aroused by the lect- 
 ures of Professor Weiss at Berlin in 1812. He saw in it the possi- 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 173 
 
 bility of direct jpvoot of the inner connection of all things. After 
 the campaign of 1813 against Napoleon, he returned at once to this 
 study, and was fortunate enough to secure the position of assistant 
 to Professor Weiss in the Royal Museum of Natural History. He 
 writes concerning this period : " What I had seen in so many ways in 
 the great universe, in the life of men, in the development of human- 
 ity, I saw here again in the smallest crystal. I saw it clearly, that 
 the divine is not only in the greatest, it is also in the most minute 
 things ; in full abundance and power it is even in the least thing. 
 Thus my earths and crystals became to me a mirror of the develop- 
 ment and history of mankind." However, he was much disconcerted 
 by the multiplicity of fundamental forms as taught in this science ; 
 and he busied himself much with efforts to reduce all forms to one — 
 probably the cube. The results of these efforts appear in the follow- 
 ing paragraphs, and, although not accepted by the mineralogical 
 science of the day, stand as a remarkable monument of Froebel's 
 faith in the principle of liie-unity. 
 
 In his letter to the Duke of Meiningen he exclaims, " The world 
 of crystals proclaimed to me, in distinct and unequivocal terms, the 
 laws of human life." His genius, however, urged and forced him 
 away from stones to rrien, and, sacrificing everything, refusing even 
 a professorship of mineralogy, he devoted himself to the work of 
 education. — Tr.] 
 
 § 71. In the entire process of the development of the 
 crystal, as it is found in natural objects, there is a highly 
 remarkable agreement with the development of the hu- 
 man mind and of the human heart. Man, too, in his 
 external manifestation — like the crystal — bearing within 
 himself the living unity, shows at first more one-sided- 
 ness, individuality, and incompleteness, and only at a 
 later period rises to all-sidedness, harmony, and com- 
 pleteness. 
 
 Like all similar facts, this analogy in the develop- 
 ment of nature and of man is very important for the 
 purposes of self-knowledge and of the education of self 
 and others ; it throws light and clearness upon human 
 
174 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 development and education, and gives firmness and snre- 
 ness of action in their various requirements. 
 
 Like the world of the heart and mind, the world of 
 crystals is a glorious, instructive world. What the spir- 
 itual eye there beholds inwardly, it here sees outwardly. 
 
 § 72. Every crystallogenic force that manifests itself 
 in and through formative and externalizing processes 
 proceeds from a center, simultaneously tending in op- 
 posite directions. By its very nature, therefore, it im- 
 poses limits upon itself, is all-sided, radiating, rectilinear, 
 and, hence, necessarily spherical in its operation. 
 
 ]N'ow, such a force, operating without hindrance, 
 will necessarily act bilaterally in any one direction ; 
 and in the totality of all directions there will always be, 
 starting in any direction from the center, sets of three 
 such bilateral directions, perpendicular to one another, 
 in the fullest equilibrium of independence and interde- 
 pendence. 
 
 Again, on account of the limitations lying in the 
 force itself, among all these sets of three bilateral direc- 
 tions, three exclusively predominate and appear wholly 
 distinct from all others. Even the most abstract view 
 of force will lead to this distinction and predominance, 
 because they lie equally in the nature of force and in 
 the law of human mental activity. The result of the 
 predominance of these three bilateral, perpendicular 
 directions, which equally control and determine all other 
 directions, must be a crystal limited by straight lines 
 and planes, revealing in every part the inner nature 
 and action of the force ; it can be only a cube, a regular 
 hexahedron. 
 
 Each of the eight comers shows the perpendicularity 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. I75 
 
 of the three bilateral directions at the center, and thus 
 indicates externally the center of the cube. Similarly 
 the three sets of four parallel edges show each of the 
 inner directions fourfold. The six faces mark in their 
 centers the six terminal points of the three bilateral di- 
 rections, and determine the invisible center of the cube. 
 
 In the cube the tendency of the force toward spheri- 
 cal representation is in a state of highest tension. In- 
 stead of all-sidedness we have particular-sidedness of 
 faces, corners, and edges ; and these few points (corners), 
 lines (edges), and planes (faces), subordinate and control 
 all others. There appears, too, the tendency of the 
 force to represent itself, not only in corporeal space, but 
 also in each of the possible particular phases of space — 
 as a point and in points, as a line and in lines, as a plane 
 and in planes. This, again, necessarily reveals the tend- 
 ency of the force to derive the line and the 'plane from 
 the pointy to represent the point as a line and as a plane^ 
 the line as a point and as a plane^ to contract the line 
 into a point and to expand it into a plane, etc. 
 
 We meet this effect of force, henceforth, at every 
 step of the study of crystal forms ; indeed, the opera 
 tion of crystallogenic force seems to be limited to this, 
 and all crystals seem to owe their characteristics exclu- 
 sively to this tendency. Indeed, this must be so ; it ie 
 the first general manifestation of the great natural law? 
 and tendencies to represent each thing in unity, indi- 
 viduality, and diversity ; to generalize the most particu- 
 lar, and to represent the most general in the most par- 
 ticular ; and, lastly, to make the internal external, the 
 external internal, and to represent both in harmony 
 and union. 
 
176 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 If, at the same time, we keep in mind that man, too, 
 is almost wholly subject to these great laws, that almost 
 all the phenomena and events of his life are based on 
 them, these considerations will reveal to us also the na- 
 ture of man, and teach us how to develop and educate 
 him in accordance with the laws of nature and of his 
 being. 
 
 Let us now pass from the study of the cube to the 
 study and development of the remaining crystal forms. 
 The corners of the cube will tend to become planes, the 
 faces will tend to represent themselves as points ; more 
 especially, the six directions lying about the center and, 
 typically, in the six sides of the cube will tend to be- 
 come externally visible as edges. The result of this is 
 a crystal which has as many faces or sides as the cube 
 has comers, as many comers as the cube has sides, and 
 as many edges as the cube — viz., a regular octahedron. 
 In this form, again, many things that lie invisibly in 
 the interior appear outwardly, either directly or typi- 
 cally visible, but the explanations given in the study of 
 the cube must suffice to indicate how these things may 
 be found. 
 
 The three- times-two perpendicular principal direc- 
 tions (three bilateral directions) appear externally in the 
 cube as three-times-two sides or planes, in the octahedron 
 as three-tiraes-two corners or points : there must be yet 
 another crystal form in which they appear as three- 
 times-two edges or lines. In the cube the six terminal 
 points of the three perpendicular bilateral directions of 
 the force appeared as six sides or jplanes, in the octa- 
 hedron they appeared as corners or points : there must 
 be another solid in which they appear as edges or lines, 
 
CHIEF GKOUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 1Y7 
 
 and this is the regular tetrahedron. Its nature is suffi- 
 ciently determined by comparison with the cube and 
 octahedron, and the interior phases expressed in its 
 external appearance are easily found with the help of 
 the hints given in the study of the cube. 
 
 [This is illustrated in the following figures : Fig. 1 indicates the 
 three pairs of opposite directions (three bilateral directions) in which 
 the force operates, constituting the three axes of the cube (Fig. 2), 
 
 i/ 
 
 KiS. 1 
 
 A 1 
 
 / 
 
 1 1 / 
 
 i >*' i 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 Kis- S 
 
 Fig. 3 
 
 Fig. 4 
 
 the octahedron (Fig. 3), and the tetrahedron (Fig. 4). In Fig. 2 the 
 axes terminate in faces ; in Fig. 3 they terminate in points (corners) ; 
 and in Fig. 4 the terminal points of one axis lie in edges. — Tr.'\ 
 
 Thus the study of the necessary results of the force 
 acting spherically, and manifesting itself in material 
 crystallization, has revealed to us three bodies, bounded 
 by straight lines and planes, of which the cube is the 
 first, and, as it were, the central one, and the tetrahedron 
 and octahedron the two derived bodies. 
 
178 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 If, now, we survey the 
 
 CUBE, OCTAHEDEOIT, AND TETRAHEDRON" 
 
 in theiv natural position, as shown in our deduction, 
 we again behold, in perfect harmony with the course of 
 our study, and as a necessary consequence of the oft- 
 repeated law of nature, that the cuhe rests on a plane, 
 the octahedron on a point, and the tetrahedron on a 
 Ime I and in each of the three solids the axis of devel- 
 opment coincides wholly with one of the three recipro- 
 cally perpendicular principal directions. 
 
 If, then, we consider each of these three solids as 
 wholly independent and fixed, each left to itself, seek- 
 ing a point of rest and support, we find tlie cube 
 always symmetrically and permanently resting on one 
 of its faces, and the axis permanently coinciding with 
 one of its principal directions. On the other hand, 
 the octahedron and tetrahedron will fall. Thereby 
 one of the sides will become ^ its base, and at the 
 same time both solids exhibit a new property quite 
 peculiar to them : the axis, the vertical or median line 
 of the solid, does not coincide with any of the three 
 principal directions, but stands at equal angles between 
 them. 
 
 Now, inasmuch as the nature of the octahedron 
 and tetrahedron lies in the nature of the cube, and inas- 
 much as the forms of the octahedron and tetrahedron 
 are deducible from that of the cube, the property which 
 permits the axis or vertical line to fall at equal angles 
 between the three perpendicular principal directions, 
 must lie already in the cube. Indeed, it is a direct re- 
 sult of the operation of the law of equilibrium ; for the 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 179 
 
 falling of the octaliedron or tetrahedron, by which the 
 axis or vertical line is brought at equal angles between 
 the principal directions, when transferred to the cube, 
 will necessarily cause the latter to rise correspondingly. 
 This will make the cube seem to rest on one of its cor- 
 ners, so that the vertical line or axis passes now from 
 one of these corners through the center to the opposite 
 corner, no longer coinciding with one of the principal 
 directions, but falling at equal angles between them. 
 By this change in the position of the axis, the cube has 
 been wholly changed internally^ and presents exter- 
 nally^ too, a wholly changed appearance, an entirely 
 new form. In its former position the sides seemed 
 grouped in sets of two, and the corners and edges in 
 sets of two or four, everything seemed to be arranged 
 in the order of the even numbers, two and four ; now 
 everything seems grouped in sets of three — three sides, 
 three edges, three comers. 
 
 Instead of the number two^ we have now the num- 
 ber three^ and a wholly new series of crystal forms 
 seems thereby given and determined. However, the 
 study and development of these must be postponed for 
 the further study and development of the crystal forms 
 with three among themselves wholly perpendicular prin- 
 cipal directions. 
 
 In itself and in the crystal forms, force manifests 
 the tendency to expand corners into edges or sides; 
 the tendency to contract edges into corners or to ex- 
 pand them into sides ; the tendency to represent sides 
 as edges and corners ; the tendency to render externally 
 visible inner concealed and invisible as well as outer 
 typical directions, points, lines, and planes ; the tend- 
 
180 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 ency to represent externally in the crystal forms the 
 inner, spherical nature of force on all sides equally 
 energetic ; the tendency to reach again the spherical 
 form in and through these crystal forms. Accordingly, 
 starting from the cube, the octahedron, and the tetrahe- 
 dron, three series of crystal forms are definitely given. 
 These series variously overlap in several directions, but 
 through a limited number of principal forms and a still 
 measurable number of intermediate forms they again 
 approximate sphericity. 
 
 In the formation of all the solids so far considered, 
 there were always three equivalent principal directions, 
 of relatively equal efficiency in determining the form. 
 IS'ow, the natural tendency of force to operate simulta- 
 neously in opposite directions, and the relations of ten- 
 sion necessarily induced thereby in the force as well as 
 in the matter in which the force operates, necessarily 
 lead in the further development of crystal forms to the 
 development of differences among the three relatively 
 wholly equal and equivalent principal directions : The 
 principal direction coinciding with the axis of the crys- 
 tal form will become either greater or smaller than the 
 two others. 
 
 The series of crystal forms resulting from the first of 
 these differences will yield chiefly square prisms and 
 elongated octahedrons ; the series resulting from the 
 second difference will yield chiefly flat, square prisms 
 and flattened octahedrons. (Inasmuch as we are con- 
 cerned here only with the necessary inner relations and 
 eft'ects of force, we necessarily leave out of consideration 
 all differences in the forms of crystals depending on ex- 
 ternal conditions of matter.) The development of these 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 181 
 
 two series of crystal forms proceeds always in forms 
 yielding quadruple crystal forms. 
 
 Again, all three principal directions may differ in 
 length. The forms resulting from this will be chiefly 
 flattened, oblong, four-sided prisms and octahedrons, 
 with three different sections. The development of this 
 series proceeds by twos or multiples of two. Now, the 
 development may proceed in such a way as to retain the 
 equality of corresponding parts, or one part may develop 
 more or less than its mate. The former yields the series 
 just described ; the latter gives series of crystals in 
 which the parts appear grouped in sets of two-and-one 
 or one-and-one. 
 
 The further development of these forms, too, ensues 
 in accordance with the natural law and tendency of force 
 to develop comers into edges and planes, and vice versa^ 
 and thus to represent externally the inner directions in 
 spherical forms. Because of the peculiar fundamental 
 conditions, all the solids resulting from these develop- 
 ments are, too, distinctly peculiar in their appearance 
 and structure. 
 
 We have so far considered the principal conditions 
 for the study and deduction of all crystal forms with 
 three relatively equal principal directions, both in their 
 individual characteristics and in their net-like inter- 
 relationships. We now proceed to study the crystal 
 forms whose structural axis falls symmetrically between 
 the three principal directions, and whose fundamental 
 form is the cube resting on one of its comers. 
 
 The first examination of the cube in this position 
 revealed peculiarities determined by the grouping of its 
 parts in sets of three. To these, further consideration 
 14 
 
182 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 will add tlia following peculiar structural laws and 
 properties : 
 
 In the first place, even a superficial observation of 
 the cube in this position shows the peculiarity that the 
 six limiting planes appear no longer as six regular quad- 
 rilaterals with equal diagonals, but as symmetrical quad- 
 rilaterals with different diagonals, or as rhombs. At 
 the very next step in the development of this series of 
 crystal forms, this merely superficial appearance is con- 
 firmed by the actual external results of inner conditions. 
 Therefore, all the forms of this series limited by six 
 equal planes are always limited by six equal rhombs. 
 The fundamental form of this series of form, then, is 
 the rhombic hexahedron (rhombohedron) ; and the fun- 
 damental laws and limitations lying in the rhombohe- 
 dron are the fundamental laws and limitations of all the 
 following formations. 
 
 The number of crystal forms derived from the 
 rhombohedron is large, almost incalculably large. Yet 
 they radiate right from the fundamental form in several 
 series, each of which is again headed by a principal 
 form determined by the character of the fundamental 
 form: 
 
 1. The three edges at the basal point and the three 
 edges at the vertex, in accordance with the law already 
 mentioned, are developed into faces until they mutually 
 limit one another. The result is a crystal form bounded 
 by twice six faces and twice six equal basal and vertical 
 edges, which unite respectively in the vertex and the 
 basal point — it is the doicble-pointed^ equal-edged dodeca- 
 hedron (double six-sided pyramid). 
 
 2. The lateral edges, in accordance with the inner 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF IXSTRUCTION. 183 
 
 characteristics, form sloping double faces. The result 
 is again a crystal form bounded bj twice six faces, which 
 unite in the vertex and basal point, but have only the 
 alternate edges equal. It is the douhle-^ointed, three- 
 and-three-edged dodecahedron (scalene dodecahedron). 
 
 3. The development of the lateral corners or edges 
 of the rhombohedron or of one or the other dodecahe- 
 drons into faces parallel to the axis, and of the terminal 
 comers into planes (perpendicular to the axis), yields two 
 new crystal forms — two hexagonal prisms with perpen- 
 dicular bases. They differ, however, in their inner na- 
 ture and in their origin, inasmuch as one of the prisms 
 is derived from the lateral edges and the other from the 
 lateral corners of the fundamental solid ; they may be 
 distinguished as the hexagonal prism derived from the 
 edges^ and the hexagonal prism derived from the corners. 
 
 In accordance with this inner connection, the prin- 
 cipal forms are related as foUow^s : 
 
 Rhombohedron. 
 
 I I 
 
 double six-sided pyramid scalene 
 
 (dodecahedron). dodecahedron. 
 
 I I 
 
 hexagonal prism hexagonal prism 
 
 derived from corners. derived from edges. 
 
 In accordance with the repeatedly enounced and 
 applied law of crystal logenic force, and with other 
 necessary conditions, the fundamental and principal 
 forms derived above from the nature of the force give 
 rise in strict progression to all possible forms of the 
 rhombic and hexagonal system with constant approach 
 to sphericity. 
 
184 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 Thus, in the countless numbers of rhombic and 
 hexagonal forms here implied, in connection with the 
 cubic forms indicated above, all simple crystal forms are 
 implied and detemdned. This does not exclude other 
 still simple forms in which — in accordance with certain 
 peculiar conditions in the operation of the crystallogenic 
 force — the various forms may appear with variously 
 modiiied dimensions, relatively greater length or breadth 
 or thickness. On the other hand, by its very tendency 
 toward ever-higher development of crystal forms, the 
 crystallogenic force at last reaches so high a degree of 
 tension, of inner and outer opposition, that at last even 
 the external results show that the tendency to relieve 
 this tension and antithesis has become the chief tend- 
 ency of the force. 
 
 The first and simplest external manifestation of this 
 tendency within the limits of crystallization is seen in 
 the formation of crystals in precisely opposite directions. 
 The result will be (compound) forms in which several 
 simple crystals lying in opposite directions are united 
 externally in a single form, appearing — when the law 
 that unites them can not be unraveled — as capricious 
 accumulations. 
 
 These latter formations give rise to a wholly new se- 
 ries of compound and cumulated crystals which appear 
 to be imitations of higher forms of development, in a 
 variety of clustered, protuberant, or globular forms. In 
 the last-named accumulation, especially, it seems as if 
 the component crystals together succeeded in attaining 
 the original spherical form, which singly they could not 
 reach. Thus, at this stage of crystallization, too, hfe ap- 
 pears as in a picture ; we see, in spite of all the rigid 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 185 
 
 external separation, an inner living connection, the 
 operation of one and the same law, as we see it more 
 and more clearly at each successive stage of the develop- 
 ment of nature. 
 
 Now, all these forms as external manifestations be- 
 long pre-eminently to the world of matter, to the world 
 of simply energetic force. Their external unit is the 
 sphere. They are all distinguished by the peculiarity 
 that their parts are grouped in multiples of two and. 
 three. The operation of the force in directions grouped 
 in multiples of five and seven seems to be wholly ex- 
 cluded, since these numbers appear either only subordi- 
 nately and irregularly, or accidentally and transiently. 
 
 Furthermore, the material conditions of a crystal are 
 the same at all points. There is no necessarily deter- 
 mined or determining permanent center. The center 
 is only relative, and disappears with the related con- 
 ditions. Hence, if the material remains the same, the 
 continued operation of the force can increase only the 
 mass of the crystal. The energetic force, therefore, ap- 
 pears as a simple and not as a complex unity. 
 
 So much for the development and manifestation of 
 crystallogenic force within the limits of crystals. Now, 
 the nature of force, as a self-active principle equally 
 active in all directions, necessarily postulates in the 
 crystal as its external manifestation a perceptible point 
 in which the force has its seat, from which all its ac- 
 tivities proceed, and to which they may be referred. 
 But such a point is not found in solid crystals ; indeed, 
 it is excluded by the rigidity of the crystal, however 
 peremptorily it may be demanded by the nature of the 
 force that forms the crystal. 
 
186 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 Again, the law of crystallization postulates a mate- 
 rial whose crystalline character, whose state of inner 
 tension, renders it impossible to develop a crystal cor- 
 responding with such a point; for the fact that the 
 material is throughout uniform in its constitution ex- 
 cludes the predominance of one or several centers of 
 force. For the same reason the establishment of such a 
 center of force would destroy the crystalline character- 
 of the material. 
 
 Furthermore, force as such — in order to become an 
 independent force — requires in its development a plu- 
 rahty of manifestations and activities within the law of 
 unity and proceeding from unity. 
 
 The nature of force and its tendency toward com- 
 plete development and representation is, therefore, not 
 satisfied with mere many-sidedness in its operation ; its 
 fundamental tendency implies an organized community 
 of forces, each of which operates self -actively, but to- 
 ward a common end lying in unity. 
 
 A force thus organized in itseK implies again a mate- 
 rial similarly organized in itself. Now, material is so 
 organized when, at any point assigned to it by the ac- 
 tivity of the force, it adapts itself with equal readiness 
 to the requirements of the force, be this in the repre- 
 sentation of the general or the particular, of the inner 
 or the outer, on any side or in any direction of the force. 
 
 Organized material obeys with perfect freedom and 
 without friction in eyerj direction. On the other hand, 
 the inner tension of crystalline material excludes this. 
 Therefore, organized force completely destroys all crys- 
 talline shape of the material and organizes it. Only by 
 returning to a perfectly amorphous state, into a state of 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 187 
 
 perfect incolierence and solution, can crystalline material 
 become organized. 
 
 Here, too, we have a manifestation of life, we see 
 the requirements and conditions of highest, most spirit- 
 ual life as in a picture. Therefore, at this stage of the 
 development of nature, it is so very necessary for the 
 education of self and others to know and to understand 
 the essential character of nature. 
 
 § 73. We notice, at the same time, as an intrinsic 
 condition of force, the tendency to exert itself in oppo- 
 site directions. ^N^ow, we may consider force as proceed- 
 ing from a definite demonstrable unity and unfolding a 
 diversity related to that unity. This implies, necessarily, 
 alternation in the opposite tendencies of the force ; and, 
 as it destroys the crystallinity of the material, it destroys 
 at the same time the simultaneity of the opposite tend- 
 encies, and in the state of the material reveals a surg- 
 ing, heaving, swelling of the force. 
 
 In the crystal the opposite tendencies of the force 
 are simultaneous, in perfect equilibrium : hence the 
 rigidity of the crystal. The disturbance of this simul- 
 taneity, with the slightest predominance of one or the 
 other of the involved tendencies of the force, at once de- 
 stroys the rigidity of the crystal, and hence the crystal 
 itself, and renders the material earthy, liquid, or gaseous. 
 
 Now, the highest development of force implies its 
 greatest exercise of freedom, together with the greatest 
 possible simultaneity in opposite directions. It will, 
 therefore, have attained this development at the stage 
 where the pulsations of opposite tendencies alternate 
 most rapidly. This continuity in the pulsations of force, 
 together with the continuity of equilibrium in opposite 
 
188 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 tendencies, we have in life / and the definite demonstra- 
 ble point whence these pulsations proceed, from which 
 all this self-active life is breathed out, is the hearty the 
 heart-^oint 
 
 In perfect accordance with the nature of force, either 
 a great number of points, or only a limited number, or 
 only one, will tend to become heart-points. This is one 
 of the first grounds for the development of distinct liv- 
 ing forms. The force tends more and more to render 
 itself independent of the material, so that the degree 
 of life-expression may no longer depend on the greater 
 or smaller mass of material. In accordance with this 
 fundamental law, all life-forms are grouped from the 
 very beginning in two series. In the first of these, the 
 material predominates ; in the second, life predominates. 
 The former is properly designated as living (vegetable) ; 
 the latter as animate (animal). From this point of 
 view, then, all natural objects may be grouped as follows: 
 
 Simply energetic 
 (crystalline). 
 
 Living Qebencl) Animate ij^ebendig) 
 
 (vegetable). (animal). 
 
 Since life implies the ever-recurring return of the 
 activity to the center of force, or heart-point, and se- 
 cures by this return ever again a new lease of external 
 existence, all living forms will necessarily grow from 
 within outward. 
 
 This necessary inner connection, here and previously" 
 indicated, among crystalline, vegetable, and animal 
 forms, is demonstrated unmistakably also from another 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 189 
 
 point of view and in the general law of nature, accord- 
 ing to wliich the particular implies the general. 
 
 Now, since the previously recognized attributes of 
 force lie necessarily in its nature, they will continue 
 with the continuance of the force, and will be unmis- 
 takably pronounced in the succeeding stages of develop- 
 ment, although in different forms, combinations, or de- 
 grees of intensity. This requirement, lying in the very 
 nature of the force, will necessarily be manifest in every 
 form of the successive stages of development, and is 
 the inner determining cause of each of these forms. 
 "While, therefore, in the crystals, circular and spherical 
 forms seemed to be secondary and, as it were, acci- 
 dental, they now appear to be essential ; with this dif- 
 ference, however, that among the vegetable forms radia- 
 tion and surface expansion predominate, whereas among 
 the animal forms foimdness and sphericity prevail. 
 
 Now, as organized force necessarily implies organ- 
 ized material, both imply an organized form. Hence 
 the vegetable forms in which life still appears subordi- 
 nate to the material will have a more radiate character, 
 approximating the law of crystal forms, but in an en- 
 hanced, organized, living state. Therefore, we see in 
 many plants the expression of the regularity of crystal 
 forms, more particularly in the numerical relations of 
 parts. 
 
 ZaJil (number), as is indicated by many obsolete 
 words and phrases, signifies originally the extremity, 
 the end.* Therefore, the numerical relations in plants 
 are so important, because they indicate, as it were, the 
 
 * ZaM is related to the English words tale^ fell, but not to tail {zagl)^ 
 8s Froebel seems to assume. — Tr. 
 
190 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 ends of the directions of force to which crystal forms, 
 as well as successive higher forms, owe their peculiari- 
 ties. As the binary crystal forms are characterized by 
 great simplicity, so we find a similar simplicity among 
 binary plant-forms, as compared with ternary plant- 
 forms. 
 
 In binary plants this law is clearly manifest in the 
 position of the leaves as well as in the form of the 
 stem, etc. The peculiar numerical relations are also al- 
 ways accompanied by other constant peculiarities ; and 
 each particular numerical expression is constantly at- 
 tended by certain particular inner properties. Thus, 
 nearly all binary plants exhale very strongly aromatic 
 odors, etc. 
 
 The life-forms, however, are by no means satisfied 
 with ever more characteristic representation of the 
 original directions, and the resulting numerical relations 
 that yield crystal forms. By the removal of external 
 tension the inner energy has been raised into life-en- 
 ergy, and higher activities must become manifest in 
 the formations. Therefore, among vegetable as well 
 as among animal life-forms, we observe soon the preva- 
 lence of numerical relations based on the number five, 
 which play in crystals a very subordinate part, and 
 appear only accidentally, as it were, and transiently. 
 
 Since, in all natural objects, the appearance of 
 quinary relations marks very characteristic activities, it 
 comes fraught with remarkable symbolism and signifi- 
 cance. 
 
 In the vegetable kingdom these quinary relations 
 rarely appear in perfect regularity — i. e., with all the 
 units respectively equal or equivalent in position, form. 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 191 
 
 and significance ; and, when they are regular externally, 
 they are so variable that the regularity is perfectly 
 maintained in a few cases only. This proves clearly its 
 origin in the liberated energy of force — in the tendency 
 of force, now lifted into life, to represent each relation 
 independently. 
 
 Inasmuch as the representation of the numbers five 
 and seven in independent and continuous development 
 is excluded from the realm of simply energetic force, 
 and inasmuch as every succeeding development of force- 
 activity must be derived from simply energetic force, 
 it follows that quinary and septenary relations can 
 originate only from a subdivision or contraction of 
 numerical relations lying within the realm of simply 
 energetic force. 
 
 This is actually the fact. Quinary forms appear in 
 the vegetable kingdom either in consequence of the 
 subdivision of one of the principal directions of quater- 
 nary or binary forms, or in consequence of the combi- 
 nation of two principal directions of ternary forms. 
 Kearly all quinary plant-forms show this to be the case. 
 
 It appears, then, that plants, which in their blos- 
 soms show scarcely any variation in the number five, 
 are to be considered as truly quinary; that binary 
 plants, which have the parts of their blossoms in fives, 
 show the five as two, two, and one, inasmuch as this 
 five results from the bisection of one of the four equiva- 
 lent directions. Therefore, two of the parts will always 
 belong together, and one will stand alone. Such plants, 
 then, appear as representations of the law of two and 
 two (binary law), passing into that of two, two, and 
 one, etc. 
 
192 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 In general, the quinary forms and combinations pro- 
 ceeding from the binary law are the most varied, as is 
 shown in plants with alternate leaves. The lost equi- 
 librium between the two twos is regained only with 
 great difficulty. 
 
 It is different with the character of quinary forms 
 appearing in ternary plants. Here it is not a bisection, 
 but the union of two principal directions that yields the 
 five ; and the peace and calmness resulting from this 
 union are manifest in the simplicity of the blossoms, as 
 is seen in the rose, etc. 
 
 The number five, then, appears' in nature and 
 among life-forms as uniting the character of the num- 
 bers two and three; both in bisection and union, it 
 appears as three and two. Hence, as developed under 
 the influence of life-force, it is truly the number of 
 analytic and synthetic life, representing reason, unceas- 
 ing self -development, self -elevation ; for, the higher the 
 stage of development reached by the life-forms, the 
 more persistent is this number. 
 
 Among vegetable forms, almost regular quinary ar- 
 rangements of parts are found in plants that are capable 
 of the greatest cultivation and variation, as is seen in 
 the various fruit-plants that yield pomes and drupes 
 (such as the apple, pear, cherry, etc.), as well as in the 
 tropical fruits. 
 
 The former may be varied indefinitely. The same may 
 be observed in roses, quinary plants derived from ternary 
 relations ; their varieties, too, may be increased indefi- 
 nitely. Similarly, each locality yields its own variety of 
 potatoes, although so many varieties have been developed 
 in the few years of our acquaintance with this plant. 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 193 
 
 Again, the plants in whose flowers the parts appear 
 almost regularly in quinary sets, are most easily propa- 
 gated, improved, and induced to bear double flowers, as 
 is seen in roses, pinks, primroses, and buttercups. 
 
 Thus, wherever the number five appears, there is 
 unmistakable evidence of a higher phase of life, which, 
 through bisection or union of the parts implied by rigid 
 law, calls forth this number. 
 
 Starting, not from the external features of the num- 
 ber, but rather from the innermost essential condition 
 on which all variations and relations of numbers depend, 
 the following additional considerations force themselves 
 upon our notice : 
 
 The binary crystal forms, essentially simple and mani- 
 festing little variation of energy, resemble the differ- 
 ent species of feelings ; on the other hand, the ternary 
 crystal forms, in their continuous external subdivision 
 into ever-new forms, resemble forms of the understand- 
 ing and of knowledge. As, in the ternary crystals, 
 the structural axis is distinct from each of the three 
 fundamental directions and placed independently at 
 equal angles among them, their development through 
 external subdivision and external union continues almost 
 indefinitely. Therefore, the ternary form can subdivide 
 the most subtile things ; even light must submit to its 
 analytic power, as in calcareous spar and in the three- 
 sided prism — an artificial ternary form. 
 
 Therefore, the falling of the crystal from the bi- 
 nary into the ternary law of development resembles the 
 falling^ or — since the result is the same — the ascent of 
 the mind of man from simple, uniform emotional de- 
 velopment into the development of externally analytic 
 
194 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 and critical reason ; for the ternary law, too, first intro- 
 duces us to the external knowledge of crystal forms as- 
 cending in the scale of development. 
 
 Concerning the peculiar nature and effects of living 
 force, the vegetable world shows the following facts; 
 Throughout the various stages of upward development 
 of the same living force in a plant, each part of the 
 whole seems to possess the whole force only in a different 
 degree of development ; hence it is so frequently possible 
 to produce the whole plant from a single part — from a 
 shoot, a bud, a leaf, a fragment of the root. Hence, 
 too, is derived the distinct fundamental law of vegeta- 
 ble life that each successive stage of development is 
 a higher growth of the preceding one — e. g., the petals 
 are transformed ordinary leaves, the stamens and pistils 
 transformed petals. Each successive formation presents 
 the essential nature of the plant in a more subtile garb, 
 until at last it seems clothed only in a delicate perfume. 
 The inner — having thus become almost wholly external 
 — is taken up by the ovary, and again becomes internal. 
 From the beginning to the time of blossoming, the life 
 of the plant is an upward and outward unfolding ; from 
 this to the time of full maturity of the fruit, it is an 
 exalted withdrawing. 
 
 Plant-forms, then, exhibit the (inner) force not only 
 in multiplied diversity, but also in a state of progres- 
 sive changes. Hence, too, when the (inner) force re- 
 cedes, we notice quite frequently a retrogression of a 
 later to an earlier form of development — e. g., the 
 retrogression of petals to sepals, and of these to ordi- 
 nary leaves ; the retrogression of stamens and pistils to 
 petals, so frequent in roses, poppies, mallows, tulips, 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. I95 
 
 etc. As an instance of progressive transformation, we 
 have the artificial change of the calyx to the corolla, 
 with the aid of favorable position and food — e. g., in 
 the garden primrose. 
 
 We see, then, that the essential nature of the whole 
 plant lies in some peculiar manner in each individual 
 part of the plant. ^N^ow, the first tendency of every 
 thing and of every plant is toward the all-sided repre- 
 sentation of its individuality. This tendency toward 
 sphericity seems to be most fully restrained in the 
 leaves. Therefore, it is frequently noticed, though not 
 in the leaves alone, that after some injury the seemingly 
 unfettered tendency toward spherical representation ap- 
 pears in the accessory formations ; this is seen very 
 beautifully in the rose-gall on inj ured rose-leaves. 
 
 Thus the plant seemingly represents the nature of 
 life-force in external quiescence. Therefore, from this 
 point of view, plants appear as the blossoms of nature ; 
 and as among plants, after the period of blossoming, the 
 essential nature of the plant withdraws inwardly, thus, 
 on the next stage of natural development — the stage of 
 animal life — all external diversity is again gathered up 
 in an inner unity, as it were in a kernel or seed, in 
 spherical forms. Therefore, the lowest animals in their 
 simple, spherical shapes resemble seeds endowed with 
 animal life. 
 
 Thus, inasmuch as the law of the individual part is 
 repeated in the whole, the totality of all nmndane 
 forms, although but a small part of the great universe, 
 is nevertheless, relatively, a great, individual, organized, 
 and organic whole. The animals, too, constitute again 
 a great organic whole, seemingly one living form : this 
 
196 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 is manifest in the great general laws of nature that con- 
 trol the totality and apply distinctly in individual cases. 
 
 Thus, the quinary law, the necessary condition of 
 higher life, one with the appearance of life on earth and 
 inseparable from that life, is expressed with increased 
 vitality in all animals; this is evident in the earliest 
 forms, with the first appearance of animal life, as is 
 shown by the remains of perished ages, and this fun- 
 damental law accompanies animal life in all its varied 
 combinations and differentiations. Even in the human 
 being, in whom life appears lifted into perfect spirit- 
 uality, the number five is an essential attribute of his 
 hand, man's principal member, his principal instrument 
 in formative, creative activity, etc. 
 
 Another great, universally diffused law of nature, 
 particularly well pronounced in the whole animal king- 
 dom, and again representing the animal kingdom as a 
 whole in relative individuality, is the law that makes the 
 external i nternal, and vice versa. Thus we find the 
 first aninials having soft bodies, living in houses almost 
 wholly composed of stone, almost wholly independent 
 of the animals, and only externally inclosing their bod- 
 ies as if they were foreign, separate things. Neverthe- 
 less, the existence of the animals depends on their fixed 
 calcareous dwelling-place. Later on the animals appear 
 detached, free, no longer like plants fixed in one point ; 
 they and their stony coverings are firmly united in 
 growth, the solid covering incloses the body like a 
 solid rind. 
 
 In succeeding (higher) animal forms, the half-gristly, 
 half -stony covering unites more and more fully with 
 the body of the animal, and at last disappears externally. 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 197 
 
 It sinks into the flesh, as it were ; and, in the measure 
 in which it disappears outwardly, it becomes in fish 
 and amphibia an inner cartilaginous skeleton, with re- 
 siduary scales on the surface of the body. 
 
 In the still higher forms, this cartilaginous skeleton 
 is transformed more and more into a solid, bony skele- 
 ton, and the muscular mass, formerly inclosed in a stony 
 covering, now incloses the stony bones. What, in low- 
 er forms, was external is now internal ; what was in- 
 ternal is now, in the perfected animal, external. 
 
 Again, the great law of equilibrium is manifested 
 with special distinctness in the animal world. By this 
 law a relatively determinate quantity of force dwells in 
 each life-form, and a relatively determinate quantity of 
 material is required for each body and for each kind of 
 its organs; consequently, if this material is used pre- 
 dominantly on one side in the formation of the body or 
 of its organs, the development of the body or similar 
 organs on the other side will suffer, and one organ or 
 side will grow at the expense of the other. Thus, in 
 fish, the trunk of the body is developed at the expense 
 of the hmbs. 
 
 The operation of this law appears most clearly if the 
 human form in its symmetrical development is taken as 
 the criterion. If we compare, for instance, the arm and 
 hand of man with the wing of a bird, we see clearly 
 that certain parts or organs are developed at the ex- 
 pense of others. 
 
 § Y4. Thus, the forms of nature in all their diversity, 
 
 in all the stages of their development, result from the 
 
 operation of one and the same force. Primarily this 
 
 force appears as a unity, is clearly and fully pronounced 
 
 15 
 
198 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 in completely individualized life, but is externally re- 
 vealed in universal and all-sided application only in the 
 varied forms of nature, the possibility of whose repre- 
 sentation is implied in the force. Here, too, is con- 
 firmed the great and universal truth that only in triune 
 representation, only in unity, individuality, and diversity 
 can each form of nature completely and perfectly ex- 
 press its inner being. 
 
 We have in this a new confirmation of the law of 
 development of crystals, the passing from special-sided- 
 ness to all-sidedness, from imperfection to perfection — 
 as the law of all development in nature. Man, then, ap- 
 pears as the last and most perfect earthly being, in whom 
 all that is corporeal appears in highest equilibrium and 
 symmetry, and in whom the primordial force is fully 
 spiritualized, so that man feels, understands, and knows 
 his own power. But, while man externally and cor- 
 poreally has attained equilibrium and symmetry of form, 
 there heave and surge in him — viewed as a spiritual be- 
 ing — appetites, desires, passions. As in the world of 
 crystals we noticed the heaving and surging of simple 
 energy, ^nd in the vegetable and animal worlds the 
 heaving and surging of living forces, so here the heav- 
 ing and surging of spiritual forces. 
 
 Therefore, man, with reference to spiritual develop- 
 ment has returned to a first stage, as crystals are in the 
 first stage with reference to the development of life. 
 Therefore, again, a knowledge of the laws of crystal and 
 life forms is so highly important in the education of self 
 and others ; it teaches and guides, gives light and peace. 
 For this reason, the boy — the learning human being — 
 should at an early period be taught to see nature in all 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 199 
 
 her diversity as a unit, as a great living whole, as one 
 thought of God. The integrity of nature as a con- 
 tinuously self-developing whole must be shown him at 
 an early period. Without a knowledge of this unity 
 in the activities and forms of nature, it is impossible 
 to attain or to impart a genuine knowledge of natural 
 history. 
 
 This unity the boy's mind seeks at an early period ; 
 it alone satisfies him (see §45). Go with a genuire boy 
 into open nature, show the diverse natural objects, and he 
 will soon ask you to indicate to him the higher, causal, 
 living unity. While I write this, it is corroborated by 
 constantly recurring questions from boys who have just 
 entered upon this stage of development and who are 
 interested in natural objects. All fragmentary study of 
 nature, so different from the study of individual objects 
 with reference to the unity that embraces all, deprives 
 natural objects and nature of life and impairs the vigor 
 of the human mind. 
 
 § 75. These few hints for the study of nature as a 
 whole must suffice here. They are simply intended to 
 guide the father or teacher in leading the pupil to a 
 knowledge of the universal application of the same law 
 in all the various stages of natural development, to the 
 apprehension of unity in diversity and of nature as a 
 living organism. The inner connection among the ac- 
 tivities and objects of nature has here been indicated 
 only in general and only in one direction (that of form). 
 Similarly, nature must be shown to the pupil as an or- 
 ganized and organic whole in all directions; for the 
 various forces, materials, sounds, colors, etc., have — like 
 the forms — their inner unity, their living inner con- 
 
200 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 nection in and among themselves and with the whole. 
 Indeed, in their perfect development, all depend on the 
 influence of the same great, uniting, causal, natural ob- 
 jects, on the sun, which calls into being and sustains all 
 earthly life. It almost seems as if all earthly things 
 simply revealed the nature of sunlight ; eagerly all turn 
 toward the sun, absorb the sunHght, hang upon his rays 
 as the children hang upon the words and looks of father 
 and mother — of the father who teaches in love, of the 
 mother who sustains and strengthens their development. 
 As the development and improvement of the children 
 are affected by the presence or absence of pure parental 
 love, of perfect parental spirit, so the development and 
 improvement of earthly things — the children of sun and 
 earth, as it were — depend on the presence or absence 
 of sunlight. Thus, earthly things, as a whole, repre- 
 sent externally, visibly, and in manifold diversity the 
 nature of sunlight, which in the sun is seen as a unity ; 
 and the knowledge of one leads to the knowledge of 
 the other. 
 
 Thus, father and son, teacher and pupil, parent and 
 child, walk together in one great living universe. Let 
 not teacher or parent object that he himself is as yet 
 ignorant of this. Not the communication of knowledge 
 already in their possession is the task, but the calling 
 forth of new knowledge. Let them observe, lead their 
 pupils to observe, and render themselves and their pupils 
 conscious of their observations. 
 
 An apprehension of the universality of law in 
 nature, of her unity, does not require special technical 
 terms for the objects or their attributes, but plain and 
 accurate observation and accurate naming of these things 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 201 
 
 in accordance with the character of language and of the 
 thing named. 
 
 In rendering the boy familiar with natural objects 
 we are by no means concerned with the teaching of 
 names nor of preconceived views and opinions, but only 
 with presenting the things themselves with their ob- 
 vious attributes in such a way that the boy may view 
 each object as the definite individual object it reveals 
 itself to be in its form, etc. 
 
 Even the knowledge of a previously given or gener- 
 ally accepted name is unimportant ; only the clear and 
 distinct apprehension and the correct naming of the 
 general and particular attributes are important. We 
 may give the object a wholly provincial name, or — if 
 we have not this — we may give it a name suggested by 
 the moment, or, better still, we may name it by circum- 
 locution, until in some way we find out the generally 
 accepted name. Through such endeavors we shall soon 
 learn the generally accepted name, and thus be enabled 
 to harmonize our knowledge with the general knowl- 
 edge, and to correct and supplement it with the latter. 
 
 Let not the teacher of a country school object that 
 he knows nothing about natural objects, not even their 
 names. Even if he has had the scantiest education, by 
 a diligent observation of nature he may gain a deeper 
 and more thorough, more living, intrinsic, and extrinsic 
 knowledge of natural objects in their diversity and in- 
 dividuality, than he can acquire from ordinary availa- 
 ble books. 
 
 Besides, that so-called higher knowledge rests, ordi- 
 narily, on phenomena and observations within the reach 
 of the plainest man, observations which frequently — if 
 
202 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 he know how to use his ejes — come to him with little 
 or no expense, in greater beauty than the costliest ex- 
 periment could yield them. But to this he must bring 
 himself by continued observation ; to this he must let 
 himself be brought by the boys and youths around him. 
 
 Parents should not be timid, should not object that 
 they know nothing themselves and do not know how to 
 teach their children. If they desire to know something, 
 their ignorance is not tlie greatest evil. Let them imi- 
 tate the child's example ; let them become children with 
 the child, learners with the learner; let them go to 
 father and mother, and with the child be taught by 
 Mother JN^ature and by the fatherly spirit of God in 
 nature. The spirit of God and nature will guide them. 
 
 One of the purposes of the college, indeed, is to 
 open the inner eye for outer and inner truths ; but it 
 were sad for humanity if only those who go to college 
 should learn to see. On the other hand, if parents and 
 teachers teach children at an early period to see and 
 think, colleges would again become what they ought to 
 become, viz., schools for the study of the highest arid 
 most spiritual truths y schools for the representation of 
 these in the life of the students ; schools of wisdom. 
 
 From every point, from every object of nature and 
 life, there is a way to God. Only hold fast the point, 
 and keep steady on the way, gather strength from the 
 conviction that nature must necessarily have not only 
 an external, general cause, but an inner living cause, 
 efficient in the most trivial detail ; that it proceeds from 
 one Being, one Creator, one God, in accordance with 
 the self-evident, necessary law by which the temporal 
 is an expression of the eternal, the corporeal a mani- 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 203 
 
 festation of the spiritual. You can not fail, then, to 
 see the general in the particular, and the particular in 
 the general. 
 
 The things of nature form a more beautiful ladder 
 between heaven and earth than that seen by Jacob ; not 
 a one-sided ladder leading in one direction, but an all- 
 sided one leading in all directions. Not in dreams is it 
 seen ; it is permanent ; it surrounds us on all sides. It is 
 decked with flowers, and angels with children's eyes 
 beckon us toward it ; it is solid, resting on a floor of 
 crystals; the inspired singer, David, praises and glori- 
 fies it. 
 
 Would you have a fixed point, a reliable guide in all 
 this diversity ? It is given you in number (see §§ 38, 99). 
 !N"umber leads you on a reliable path ; for it is deter- 
 mined by the external manifestations of the directions 
 of inner energy. In the most direct way, it reveals the 
 innermost nature of force, if you will but behold it 
 with the keen eye of the boy, with the simple mind 
 and heart of the child. 
 
 Let the boy's eye and mind be your guide, for you 
 may know that a simple natural boy will not be satisfied 
 with half-truths and false notions. Follow his questions 
 thoughtfully — they will teach you and him. For they 
 come from the mind of a child, and surely father and 
 mother can answer a child's questions. 
 
 You object that children and boys ask more than 
 parents and adults can answer. This is true. Either 
 you stand at the limit of earthly things and at the 
 threshold of divine things (if so, say so plainly; the 
 child's or boy's spirit will be satisfied), or you stand 
 at the limit of your knowledge and experience. Do 
 
204 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 not hesitate to say so ; but beware of saying in this 
 case tliat you stand at the Hmit of human knowledge 
 in general — this would dwarf and stunt the human 
 mind. 
 
 In such cases, examine the life within you, compare 
 it with the life around you, lead your pupil to make the 
 same comparison, and you and he will, in due time, find 
 the answer to your question. You will see clearly, with 
 the inner eye, the reliable and unequivocal answer 
 which you seek. Thus you will clearly see God in his 
 works ; your earthly longings will be appeased ; what- 
 ever of peace and good-cheer, whatever of consolation 
 and help you may require in times of need, you will 
 find in your own souls. 
 
 § 76. Man needs a fixed point and a safe guide in 
 the study of the inner connection of all this manifold 
 diversity in nature. What can furnish a more reliable 
 and uniting starting-point in this than that which ap- 
 pears as the source from which all diversity develops 
 itself, the visible expression of all law and obedience to 
 law, viz., mathematics, which, on account of this great 
 exhaustive property, was from the very beginning so 
 named — mathematics — i. e., the science of learning. 
 
 As a phenomenon of both the inner and outer world 
 (of the macrocosm and microcosm), mathematics be- 
 longs equally to man and nature. Mathematics, as pro- 
 ceeding from a priori laws of thought, as the visible 
 expression of thought and its laws, finds the phenom- 
 ena, combinations, and forms logically deduced from 
 these laws, again in the outer world independently es- 
 tablished. 
 
 Similarly, man finds again in himself, in the laws of 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 205 
 
 his thouglit, the same diversity of forms which in na- 
 ture are developed independent of him. Mathematics 
 thus appears as a mediator between man and nature, be- 
 tween the inner and the outer world, between thought 
 and perception. 
 
 This great mission, coexistent with the differentia- 
 tion of inner and outer world, with the law of cause and 
 effect, has secured for mathematics the high rank which 
 it has enjoyed through all ages. Because of this, too, it 
 could be seen in its true character and assigned its true 
 place onlj^ by Christianity. Only the Christian who sees 
 in all things the outgoings of the One Divine Spirit, 
 can possibly appreciate its true character ; for only the 
 Christian can understand the unity of the purely spirit- 
 ual (a priori) forms with the forms of nature. Only 
 he can solve the question whether mathematics has been 
 deduced from natural phenomena, or whether natural 
 objects were formed after laws of human thought, and 
 have an existence only in these laws. For does not the 
 same One Divine Spirit live and work in man and in na- 
 ture ? Are not man and nature the creatures of the 
 sam-e one God ? Must we not, on this account, neces- 
 sarily find unity and harmony and obedience to the 
 same law in the spirit of nature and in the spirit of 
 man, in external forms and forces, and in internal for- 
 mation and thought ? 
 
 Therefore, it is possible to study nature in her forms 
 and organisms, and with the help of the formulated 
 laws of human thought, in mathematics. 
 
 For this reason mathematics mediates, unites, gen- 
 erates knowledge ; it is not dead, self-limited, a certain 
 sum of separate forms and truths found separately and 
 
206 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 accidentally and put on file, but it is a living whole, 
 continually regenerating itself anew, strictly keeping 
 pace in its development with the development of the 
 human mind with reference to unity and diversity, and 
 insight and contemplation ; for it is the visible expres- 
 sion of thought, the expression of obedience to law in 
 the spiritual as such, and therefore in this respect an 
 organism, a product of necessity and freedom. 
 
 Mathematics is, then, neither foreign to actual life 
 nor something deduced from life ; it is the expression 
 of life as such : therefore its nature may be studied in 
 life, and life may be studied with its help. 
 
 Inasmuch as thought and its laws themselves pass 
 from unity to diversity or all-sidedness, and, although 
 apparently starting with a diversity (something exter- 
 nal), yet always refer to some remote or obscure unity 
 (something primarily internal), mathematics, too, passes 
 necessarily from unity to diversity or all-sidedness ; and, 
 although externally and apparently it proceeds from 
 individuality and diversity, yet a necessary inner unity 
 underhes all its deductions. 
 
 All mathematical forms and figures should, there- 
 fore, be viewed as proceeding from the laws lying in 
 the sphere and circle, and referred to these as their 
 unity ; the sphere itself, however, is to be regarded as 
 proceeding from unity with its own self-active energy 
 (see g 68). 
 
 Mathematical forms and figures should not, there- 
 fore, be considered as put together in accordance with 
 external, arbitrary causes, but as the necessary outcome 
 of a self-active, inner force, acting in all directions 
 from a central point. They are not, in the very first 
 
CniEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 207 
 
 instruction, to be considered as separate things, but in 
 their necessary inner connection ; even if we do start 
 with individual and diverse forms and figures, we 
 ^hould always refer them to this ever-present and ever- 
 active unity which may be likened to their soul. 
 
 Mathematics is the expression of the inner cause 
 and of the outer limitations and properties of space. 
 As it originates in unity, it is in itself a unity ; and, as 
 space implies diversity in direction, shape, and exten- 
 sion, it follows that number, form, and magnitude mu- 
 tually imply one another, and are an inseparable three 
 in unity. 
 
 Now, number is the expression of diversity as such, 
 and, indeed, the expression of the inner cause of diver- 
 sity, of tlie directions of energy ; it does not result from 
 dead, external addition, but from living inner laws that 
 lie in the very nature of force. On the other hand, 
 form and magnitude find their explanation only in di- 
 versity. It follows from this that a knowledge of num- 
 ber is first and most essential to a knowledge of the 
 triune whole ; that a knowledge of number is the foun- 
 dation of a knowledge of form and magnitude — of a 
 general knowledge of space. 
 
 Space itself, however, is by no means dead and sta- 
 tionary, but owes its existence to the constant operation 
 of inner absolute energy. And, as space owes its ex- 
 istence to the cause and primordial law of all existing 
 things, it follows that the universal laws of space under- 
 lie all that manifests itself in space and the laws of 
 thought and knowledge themselves. 
 
 Mathematics should be treated more physically and 
 dynamically, as the outcome of nature and energy. 
 
THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 This would make it even more instructive, more profit- 
 able than we even now anticipate, not only in the 
 study of nature, especially in her chemical (material) 
 structure, but also in the study of the nature and opera- 
 tion of the spiritual, of the laws of thought and feel- 
 ing. This is especially true of the study of curves, of 
 the spherical, and the like. 
 
 Education without mathematics (at least without a 
 thorough knowledge of numbers, supplemented by occa- 
 sional instruction in form and magnitude) is, therefore, 
 weak, imperfect patchwork; it interposes insuperable 
 limits to the normal culture and development of man. 
 Unable to free himself from his inner longing for prog- 
 ress, man attempts to leap over these, or, weary of his 
 fruitless endeavors, seeks to suppress the energy of his 
 powers ; for the mind and mathematics are as insepar- 
 able as the soul and religion. 
 
 C. Language. 
 
 % 77.^ What, now, is language^ the third of the fulcra 
 of boy-life and of human life in general, and what re- 
 lation does it hold to the other two ? 
 
 Wherever there is true inner connection, true inner 
 and living reciprocity, there appears a relation similar 
 to that of unity, individuality, and diversity. This ap- 
 plies, too, to religion, nature, and language. In religion, 
 the aspiration of the soul which is directed toward unity 
 in man, prevails and seeks the fruition of its hopes. In 
 the contemplation of nature and mathematics, the aspi- 
 ration of intelligence, which refers to individuality in 
 man, prevails and seeks certainty. In language, the de- 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 209 
 
 mand of reason which refers to diversity and unites all 
 diversity, prevails and seeks satisfaction. Religion is a 
 living in the soul that finds and feels the One in All ; 
 nature studies individualities in nature, in themselves 
 and in their relations to one another and to the whole ; 
 and language represents the unity of all diversity, the 
 inner living connection of all things. These three, 
 therefore, form an inseparable unity, and the one-sided, 
 fragmentary development of one or the other of them 
 necessarily pi oduces one-sidedness and, w^ith this, finally, 
 the annihilation, or at least destruction, of unity in 
 man. 
 
 Religion strives to manifest and does manifest he- 
 ing ; nature strives to manifest and does manifest 
 energy, the cause of its action and this action itself ; 
 language strives to manifest and does manifest life as 
 such and as a whole. 
 
 Eehgion, nature — (Mathematics represents, as it 
 were, the tendency, laws, and causes of nature in man ; 
 mathematics represents nature as, in accordance with 
 her necessary causes, she must lie in the mind of man ; 
 without mathematics man could obtain no knowledge 
 of nature ; with it he can see her more fully and har- 
 moniously than her external phenomena would warrant) 
 — religion, nature (mathematics), and language in all 
 their diverse relations have the same one mission and 
 purpose, to reveal the inner ; to make the internal ex- 
 ternal, the external internal, and to show both the in- 
 ternal and external in their natural, primordial, neces- 
 sary harmony and union. 
 
 Whatever, therefore, is true of one of the three will 
 necessarily be relatively true also of the other two. 
 
210 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 Whatever has been said heretofore of religion and na- 
 ture (with mathematics), if it is only in itself true, must 
 apply to language in the peculiar way determined by 
 the character of language. 
 
 Therefore, unfortunately for humanity as a whole, 
 we are confronted in life, as one of the greatest ob- 
 stacles to the development of the three, by the illusion 
 that each may have an independent existence and reach 
 perfection in its development ; that we may have lan- 
 guage without religion and nature (mathematics), etc. 
 
 But as it was necessary that God, desiring to reveal 
 himself unequivocally in the fullness and integrity of 
 his being, should do so in the triune manner indicated 
 (see § 61) ; so, too, religion, nature (mathematics), and lan- 
 guage constitute an integral unity. A complete knowl- 
 edge and firm confidence in the one necessarily implies 
 complete knowledge and firm confidence in the other ; 
 a true study of the one necessarily implies also the true 
 study of the other. 
 
 Now, since man is destined to know and to see 
 clearly (see § 78), human education requires the knowl- 
 edge and appreciation of religion, nature (mathematics), 
 and language in their intimate living reciprocity and 
 mutual causality. Without the knowledge and appreci- 
 ation of the intimate unity of the three, the school and 
 we ourselves are lost in the fallacies of bottomless, self- 
 producing diversity 
 
 Such is the nature of language and its relation to 
 man and his education. We shall now inquire how 
 language itself manifests and corroborates this in its 
 structure. 
 
 § 78. In general, language is the self-active outward 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 211 
 
 expression of the inner. This is shown in the word 
 sprechen^ s-prechen * — i. e., to break one's self. As the 
 breaking of a thing makes known its inner structure, as 
 the opening (breaking-up) of a bud reveals the inner 
 structure of the blossom, so the speaker self-actively re- 
 veals, expresses what is within him. 
 
 Now, the innermost (soul) of man is constantly mov- 
 ing life^ therefore the attributes and phenomena of life 
 must be revealed in human speech. Hence, perfect 
 human language, as a continuous representative of the 
 innermost soul of man, must manifest itself through the 
 most mobile medium and by the slightest movements ; 
 it necessarily must be audible. 
 
 A man's speech should be, as it were, his self in its 
 integrity, and that it may reveal him all-si dedly and 
 continuously in greatest mobility. It will, then, inas- 
 much as man is a product of nature, reveal also the 
 character of nature as a whole. It will become an 
 image of man's inner and outer world. 
 
 N'ow, the soul of man, like the soul of nature, is 
 law, necessity, spiritual, eternal — the Divine revealing 
 itself in the external and through the external. There- 
 fore, language must reveal this law in and through it- 
 self ; it must be the expression of necessary conformity 
 to law. All the laws of the inner and outer world, col- 
 lectively and singly, must be revealed in language, must 
 lie in language itself. 
 
 * In this case Froebel's play on the word comes nearer to truth. 
 Sprechen^ by the loss of r becomes in Englisli speaJc^ and is traceable to a 
 root which si»nifies to break., to split^i to scatter^ etc. He looks here upon 
 8-prechen as Sich beechen, to hreah one's self which, however, belongs to 
 another root— TV. 
 
212 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 § 79. Language, like matliematics, has two sides ; it 
 belongs both to the inner and to the outer world. 
 
 Language as evolved from man proceeds, therefore^ 
 directly from the human mind ; it is the expression of 
 the human mind, as nature is the expression of the divine 
 mind. 
 
 The question whether language be a simple product 
 of the mind or an imitation of nature is due to the 
 adaptation of language to both views, an adaptation due 
 to the fact that in all things the same Divine Spirit, the 
 same spiritual, divine laws operate ; to the fact that the 
 spirit of nature and that of man are one^ that they have 
 the same source, which is God. 
 
 As language is an expression of man and nature, and 
 therefore of the Spirit of God, it implies, too, a knowl- 
 edge of nature and of man, and therefore a revelation 
 of God. 
 
 Viewed in the light of the study of nature, language 
 is an expression of energy lifted into life ; viewed in the 
 light of the study of man, it is the expression of the 
 human mind Kfted into consciousness. Language, there- 
 fore, must be born as the spirit of man enters conscious- 
 ness, and is inseparably one with this spirit. 
 
 The mediatory character of language implies both 
 physical and mathematical attributes, attributes of life 
 and of motion. Hence, in its ultimate word-elements — 
 in its vowels, semi-vowels, and consonants, and in the 
 letters that represent these — language expresses the 
 fundamental attributes and relations of the natural as 
 well as the operations of the spiritual. 
 
 However imperfect and fragmentary our objective 
 knowledge of language may be, it clearly reveals the 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 213 
 
 inner life that pervades language in its minutest libers, 
 and renders it a complete organism. In spite of this 
 imperfection and fragmentariness of our experiments 
 and knowledge, however, we can not repress the con- 
 viction, corroborated at every step, that in every lan- 
 guage — primarily in our mother-tongue (German) — the 
 sound and letters in their combinations express definite 
 and fixed mathematical, physical, physio-psychical laws, 
 resting on inner necessity ; that the representation of 
 an object, viewed from a certain standpoint, by a word, 
 necessarily demands certain sounds and letters and no 
 others, so that each word is the necessary product of 
 certain word-elements, just as each material chemical 
 product is the result of the combination of certain de- 
 terminate elementary substances. 
 
 In other words, the word-elements in their various 
 combinations represent, as in a picture, the natural ob- 
 jects, the forms of the mind and their relations in ac- 
 cordance with their innermost nature and the personal 
 or national view of them. 
 
 Only a moderate attention to the conformity to law, 
 manifest everywhere in the natural and spiritual, physi- 
 cal and psychical world, forces upon us this conformity 
 to law in the formation of the words of our language. 
 The inner conformity to law and, as it were, the vitality 
 primarily of our German language admit of no doubt 
 in him who is himself animated by its inner life and 
 unity, although little can be definitely said about this, 
 particularly in the dull forms of written language. 
 
 Well might this deter us 'from asserting this con- 
 formity to law in language, but we are here in the pre- 
 dicament of the musical amateur deficient in musical 
 IG 
 
214 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 culture. Although he knows and can say but little con- 
 cerning musical laws, and still less compose anything in 
 accordance wdth these laws, he sees necessity and con. 
 formity to law at every step of a great musical produc- 
 tion in spite of all its apparent freedom. Even one 
 wholly without musical culture who may hear that 
 music is rejoiced by it, although he has not the slightest 
 notion of the law, and can hold fast only the coarse 
 rhythmic phases, at best. 
 
 Similarly we may say of forms, colors, materials, 
 and forces, that w^e are surrounded by their diversity 
 and their various effects on us and others, without any 
 notion or knowledge of their inner unity and conformity 
 to law ; but our inability to know and see them does not 
 alfect the existence of these laws. 
 
 The same is true of our mother-tongue and the 
 more subtle laws of word-structure. It is true of our 
 mother-tongue, because we speak it from the first dawn 
 of self-consciousness. Therefore, it seems to us a mere 
 heap of sounds, or, at best, with reference to its visible 
 mdividual words and roots, a collection of motley stones 
 and beautiful flowers from which we can make bouquets 
 and a variety of jewels. The words, in their first be- 
 ginnings, their so-called roots, seem to be adventitious 
 material not subject to higher causes of production. 
 
 But as an organized musical whole proceeds from 
 elementary sounds, as an organized material whole pro- 
 ceeds from elementary substances, and as shapes pro- 
 ceed from elementary directions of forces, so in lan- 
 guage the words as images of objects and as expressions 
 of ideas are organized wholes proceeding from simpler 
 elements. 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUr^TIOls. 215 
 
 The elements of words (visibly, the letters) are, 
 therefore, by no means without life, forming words by 
 arbitrary or accidental contiguity; but they designate 
 originally and necessarily elementary notions, having 
 mathematical, physical, and psychical phases ; they have 
 a meaning, and in the formation of words they obey 
 necessary laws of co-ordination. Every object, attribute, 
 relation, etc., appears as an organized concept, the prod- 
 uct of certain elementary notions by whose intimate 
 mutual union the word is formed. 
 
 [^Translator's Synojpsis. — Here follow in Froebel's 
 book a number of more or less fanciful illustrations 
 of the operation of this law, all taken from the Ger- 
 man language. Even in the German language, how- 
 ever, the operation of the law is nearly concealed or 
 obliterated by other influences, and complicated by dif- 
 ferences in " points of view " that may have prevailed 
 among different tribes in the formation of different 
 words for different ideas. In the English language 
 these disturbing influeoces are notoriously much great- 
 er, so that it would be difficult to render Froebel's 
 illustrations intelligible to the English reader in all 
 their details. This is particularly true of illustrations 
 in which vowel-sounds are concerned, whose mobility 
 renders them peculiarly sensitive to every influence or 
 change of condition, however minute. 
 
 For these reasons, I content myself with merely in- 
 dicating Froebel's method of illustration, with the help 
 of a few instances in which the Saxon forms of English 
 are sufficiently like the German to render this possible. 
 1 feel that I am the more justified in this as Froebel, 
 too, confines himself to a series of illustrations, and does 
 
216 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 not give a systematic preseotation of tlie whole of this 
 interesting study. 
 
 Collating words such as fresh, Z*^^^? frolic, freaky 
 fruit, friend, fry, and again, flee, flight, flame, flx)at, 
 flow, flood, floor, flesh, fleet, he finds in the first series 
 the expression of spirituality manifested in a diversity 
 of outward activities indicated by the sounds /r, and 
 in the second series the expression of spirituality mani. 
 fested in continuous inner activity indicated by the 
 sounds fl. In both series the sound f would point to 
 the spirituality, r and I being due to its different mani- 
 festations. 
 
 Similarly, the sound of c or ^ in the words crack, 
 climb, creejp, crab, cramp, cry, clear, clad ; corn, kernel, 
 cook, keep, keen, kick, kill, king / knell, knot, knock, 
 know, knight, knoll, etc., gives expression to the opera- 
 tion of self-active force prominent in the ideas covered 
 by these words. 
 
 In general, he arrives at the law that vowels repre- 
 sent the inner, or unity ; consonants (mutes), the outer, 
 or individuality ; and semi-vowels (continuants and 
 sonants), the mediations, or diversity.] 
 
 It is by no means intended here to systematize these 
 laws of language, but simply to insist that the boy's at- 
 tention be directed to them at an early period ; his un- 
 biased observation will soon teach him more than has 
 been indicated. What has been said must, therefore, 
 suffice to direct attention to the mathematical, physi- 
 cal, and psychical attributes of language by which 
 it becomes truly an image of the inner and outer 
 world. 
 
 Of course, these attributes shoidd be studied first in 
 
CniEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 217 
 
 our mother-tongue. However, they are by no means 
 the exclusive property of the German, but are found 
 also in Greek and Latin in a manner peculiar to these 
 languages. Thus, this view of language reveals to us 
 -«even an inner relationship among these languages, show- 
 ing German, Greek, and Latin in the relationship of 
 soul, life, and body. 
 
 In general, our children would reach a by far more 
 thorough insight into language, if in our teaching we 
 were to connect the words more with real ideas of the 
 things and objects designated. Language would then 
 cease to be for us merely a system of sounds and words, 
 and would become a real living organism. Thus, it 
 would lead more to the study of things, to the study of 
 the essential nature of each thing and of the word itself. 
 Thus, our language would again become truly a living 
 language — i. e., bom from life and generating life; 
 whereas now it threatens by merely external study to 
 sink more and more into death. 
 
 [Froebel devoted himself at different times with much zeal to 
 the study of languages, particularly of the French, Latin, and Greek. 
 In 1811 he became deeply interested in the Oriental languages, 
 chiefly on account of their kinship with the German. The tendency 
 to seek a definite absolute meaning in each sound and letter was a 
 characteristic of the philology of his time. Froebel, in his great 
 love of the German language, became deeply involved in this ten- 
 dency. He became an enthusiastic follower of RUckert, who found 
 in eh (pronounced with the long sound of the English a) the root of 
 all languages. E (a) is the root of all vowels, h is the root of all con- 
 sonants. This to him is shown in words like eh {ante, formerly), 
 ewig (eternal), etc. Froebel finds corroboration, too, in the word ehe 
 (matrimony). Later developments of philology have shown the 
 futility of these deductions from a law of inner unity which still 
 awaits formulation. — Tr,'\ 
 
218 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 § 80. Among the different things which, in addition 
 to the things previously considered, language offers for 
 consideration, the law of rhythm claims special attention. 
 This law appears in the different parts of words, as well 
 as in the combinations of words; it proves both the 
 spiritual origin of language and its conformity to nat- 
 ural laws (see § 33). 
 
 The rhythmic law of language, its universal ex- 
 pression of life, belongs to it originally and inseparably 
 as much as life belongs to the things represented in lan- 
 guage. Hence, all primitive language expressions, as 
 representations of active inner and outer life, are neces- 
 sarily rhythmic; and the more so because man in hisl 
 childhood and youth, as well as humanity as a whole inx 
 its childhood and youth, has a more living and keener f 
 perception of the inner life of things. Therefore, for 
 early youth language representation should assume a ; 
 rhythmic form, for this is its first form in the early 
 youth of mankind ; and, in general, man sees the whole 
 in its rhythmic organization and in its connection with 
 man before he sees its particulars in their respective in- 
 dividuality. Thus, a number of considerations point to 
 rhythmic language as necessarily belonging to the early 
 youth of man. The loss of this has deprived him and 
 mankind as a whole of one of the foremost, most primi- 
 tive, and most natural means of elevation. 
 
 If, then, we would restore our children to a true, 
 higher, spiritual, and inner life, we must again awaken 
 in them that inner life of language, of nature-contem- 
 plation, and of feeling. The way to this is so easy. 
 "We only need to let the child live in accordance with 
 its own nature and to remove caref ally whatever might 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 219 
 
 destroy or annihilate this natural life. Instead of this 
 we put an end to budding life with crude, dead, heart- 
 less words, and frighten back into rigid inactivity what- 
 ever of life strives to free itself. 
 
 Thus, we say, " Come, dear child, see the little 
 
 violet. Is it not nice ? Break it off, and put it in some 
 
 water, but take good care of it. It would be a great 
 
 pity if you should lose it." 
 
 How different would be the impression and the 
 effect upon the same child's mind, if we should say 
 more rhythmically : 
 
 Come and see the ' 
 
 — v_y >-> — v^ 
 
 Blossoming violet ; 
 and then give expression to the child's feelings, thus : 
 
 Blossoming violet ! how 
 
 Much I do love thee (you) I 
 
 Let the skeptic who considers this above the capacity 
 of the child listen to children, simply, naturally, and 
 thoughtfully led. He will find how very early in the 
 simplest expressions of feeling and accounts of observa- 
 tions they express themselves unwittingly in more or 
 less rhythmic speech. 
 
 It is true there are few such children; but there 
 
220 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 would be more, were we not ignorantly blunting so 
 many tendencies in our children or starving them into 
 inanition. 
 
 And, nevertheless, we expect our children, who have 
 grown up so barren and empty of feeling, to understand 
 poets and nature at a later period. Then, the drill- 
 master's art — even in our day and with the children of 
 cultured parents — is expected to impart its elocutionary 
 tricks. Behold the poor child, vain or trembling, con- 
 ceited or timid, reciting his piece, and say who is most 
 to be pitied, the child, his teacher, the poem, the poet, or 
 the audience. 
 
 [The instinctive tendency to rhythmic utterance in children is 
 quite manifest in the character of their first words— papa, mama, 
 td-ta, etc. ; and in the delight they find in the rhythmic repetition of 
 seemingly meaningless syllables, which to many is mere senseless 
 jabbering. Preyer has recorded some of these utterances from the 
 
 " monologues " of his infant boy — e. g., eda, didl-dadl, dldoh-dldah ; 
 
 -^v^ — v^ -^v^ -^v^ -^v>» \-> — v^ — ^J — \^ — 
 
 papa, mama, meme, mimi, momo ; e — mama — mamemama — ma — 
 
 -^. _ _^ __ 
 — me — ma — me — ma. Perez records the following: "A little girl, 
 two years and two months old, went on repeating from morning to 
 
 night for a fortnight, toro, toro, toro, rapapi, rapapi, rapapi, a 
 rhythmic monotone which caused her great delight. Another child, 
 nearly three years old, for three months went on repeating these 
 three syllables, articulated in a sonorous voice, tahille', tahille', 
 tahille'r 
 
 I am favored with clear remembrances from the time of my 
 babyhood, and can even now see myself lying in my crib keenly en- 
 joying the rhythmic spell of similar exercises. 
 
 I would here again refer the reader to Spencer. In "First 
 Principles," chapter x, he treats on " The Rhythm of Motion " quite 
 exhaustively. — Tr.] 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 221 
 
 § 81. Eeligion, nature, and language place tlie child, 
 the boj, and the man — developed in accordance with 
 these principles — in the midst of all life. He finds 
 himself unable to hold fast for himself and his memory 
 the great number of facts, not even as such, and much 
 less in their relations to time and place; and one ex- 
 perience seems to displace another. A still richer life 
 is developed in his soul, so rich that the soul, unable to 
 compass its abundance and wealth, overflows with it. 
 This superabundance now meets him again from with- 
 out as an independent, determinate, seemingly second 
 life, and he can and does grasp it in its definiteness. 
 And this is well, for this awakens in him the irresistible 
 impulse and imperative need to snatch from oblivion 
 for himself and others the blossoms and fruits of the 
 rich but passing inner life, and to hold fast by means of 
 external symbols the fleeting external life in shape, 
 place, time, and other circumstances. 
 
 Thus, the art of writing is developed in each indi- 
 vidual human being in the general historical way and in 
 agreement with the general course of development 
 of the human mind (see § 24). Indeed, we find ever 
 again that the same laws which have guided man- 
 kind in its development, hold good, too, in the devel- 
 opment of each individual human being ; and we find 
 at the same time that an externally richer life leads 
 necessarily to jpictorial hieroglyphics, and an intern- 
 ally richer life to conventional letters [alphabetic writ- 
 ing]. 
 
 However, both the pictorial and alphabetic writing 
 imply an exceedingly rich life — only out of this richness 
 writing was bom ; and even now the true desire and 
 
222 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 need of it are thus developed in the child, in each 
 human being. 
 
 Therefore, from this point of view, too, it is im- 
 perative that parents and teachers should be careful to 
 render the inner life of their children as rich as possible, 
 not so much in diversity as in inner significance and ac- 
 tivity. Without this, the art of writing comes without 
 a corresponding inner need, and the mother-tongue be- 
 comes — what it is now for so many in a very high de- 
 gree — extraneous, meaningless, dead. Only if in each 
 particular we choose again the great necessary highway 
 of humanity as a whole, the great and vigorous early 
 life of humanity comes to us again in and through our 
 children ; the enfeebled mental qualities and faculties, 
 the weakened powers of intuition and insight will come 
 back to us in their full vigor (see § 16). 
 
 And why, seeing that every boy endeavors to lead 
 us on this way, should we not earnestly seek it ? Here 
 we see a boy making a sketch of the apple-teee on 
 which he discovered a nest with young birds, there 
 another busy over the picture of the kite he sent up 
 high into the air. Before me a little six-year old child, 
 in self-active endeavor, without external compulsion, 
 draws, in a book kept for this purpose, representations 
 of strange animals he saw the day before in a menagerie. 
 
 Who, having the charge of little children, has not 
 been asked for some paper to write a letter to father or 
 brother? The little boy is urged to this by the in- 
 tensity of his inner life which he would communicate 
 to these. It is not imitation, he has seen no one writing, 
 but he knows how he can gratify his desire. To him 
 his marks, resembling one another quite closely, mean 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 223 
 
 different words which he intended to write to the person 
 addressed ; and we see here a manifestation of the inner 
 desire for symbolic writing, as in the former cases the 
 mner desire for pictorial writing was shown. 
 
 There are, indeed, thoughtful boys endowed with 
 great intuitive power for the spiritual with whom one 
 might develop in the strictly historical manner the 
 want and the invention of pictorial and symbolic writ- 
 ing. It is a well-known fact, too, that larger boys 
 frequently invent their own alphabets. Certainly w^e 
 should always proceed in some such way ; we should 
 here, as in all instruction, start from a certain inner 
 want of the boy. Indeed, to a certain extent such a 
 want is indispensable if the boy is to be taught with 
 profit and success. 
 
 There is in this a source of many of the errors in our 
 schools. We teach our children without having aroused 
 an inner want for the instruction and after repressing 
 everything that was previously in the child. How can 
 such instruction be profitable ? 
 
 § 82. It has been shown that the irresistible impulse 
 of a soul overflowing with superabundance of life in 
 some direction, and the desire to hold fast this wealth 
 gave rise to waiting; this art, therefore, appears as 
 the fruit of thoughtful self-observation. Similarly, the 
 written characters or letters can not have been chosen 
 arbitrarily, and must have some connection with the 
 idea designated and with the growth of this idea. 
 
 Although the laws to which letters owe their origin 
 and development have become obscured, the little that 
 is left of their first rudiments, seems to point unequiv- 
 ocally to an inner connection between the form and 
 
224 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 the meaning — e. g., the letter as symbol in the word 
 for the idea of absolute self -limitation, and the letter 8 
 as symbol in the word for the idea of a return to 
 self.' 
 
 An examination of the original Phoenician and later 
 Roman characters readily reveals in a number of them 
 a definite relation between the form of the letter and 
 the idea it stands for in the word. However, even if 
 the original definite connection between the letter and 
 the meaning of the word could no longer be proved, 
 some such connection should be assumed on the slight- 
 est foundation for the purposes of instruction. Nothing 
 should ever be brought to the notice of the human be- 
 ing in purely arbitrary connection — in a connection that 
 does not admit at least the possibility of discovering a 
 necessary inner reason. The neglect of this makes in- 
 struction in writing, at present, so mechanical, lifeless, 
 and dispiriting. [A sentence relating to the Gothic and 
 Latin styles of type is omitted here]. 
 
 § 83. I shall here add merely the suggestion that in 
 the same way reading again enters into its original and 
 natural relationship to the human being and to the 
 learner. Reading is the necessary outcome of the de- 
 sire to render again audible to himself or others, to re- 
 suscitate, as it were, what has been written down. 
 
 Writing and reading, which necessarily imply a liv- 
 ing knowledge of language to a certain extent, lift man 
 beyond every other known creature and bring him 
 nearer the realization of his destiny. Through the 
 practice of these arts he attains personality. The en- 
 deavor to learn these arts makes the scholar and the 
 school. The possession of the alphabet places the pos- 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 225 
 
 sibilitj of self-consciousness within his reach, for it 
 alone renders true self-knowledge possible, by enabling 
 him to place his own nature objectively before himself, 
 as it were ; it connects him clearly and definitely with 
 the past and future, brings him into universal relation- 
 ship with the nearest things, and gives him certainty 
 concerning the most remote. 
 
 The alphabet thus jplaces man within reach of the 
 highest and f idlest earthly perfection. Writing is the 
 first chief act of free and self active consciousness. 
 
 IS'ow, since reading and writing are of such great 
 importance to man, the boy (when he begins to practice 
 them) should possess a sufficient amount of strength and 
 insight. The possibility of self -consciousness must have 
 been developed in him ; the inner need and desire to 
 know them must have manifested itself clearly and defi- 
 nitely, before he begins to learn these arts. 
 
 If he is to learn these arts in a truly profitable way, 
 the boy must himself already have become something 
 of which he can become self-conscious, instead of labor- 
 ing to become conscious of what he has not yet come 
 to be ; otherwise, all his knowledge will be hollow, dead, 
 empty, extraneous, mechanical. For, if the foundation 
 is dead and mechanical, how could we expect later on 
 to see developed therefrom life-activity and true life, 
 which is the highest prize of all earnest endeavor ; how 
 could man truly attain his destiny, which is life ? 
 
 D. Art and Objects of Art, 
 
 % 84. If what has been said heretofore concerning 
 the objective and central points, or axes, of human 
 
226 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 life is surveyed from a common point of view/lmman 
 aims will present themselves under tliree aspects. There 
 is either a tendency to inward repose and life, or a ten- 
 dency to the study and comprehension of the external, 
 or a tendency to direct representation of the inter- 
 nal. 
 
 The first is the prevailing tendency of religion ; the 
 second, of the contemplation of nature ; the third, of 
 self-development and self-contemplation. 
 
 Similarly, it will be found that mathematics is con- 
 cerned more with the representation of the external in 
 the internal, with the representation of inner conformity 
 to universal law, with the representation of nature in 
 inner (human) terms. For this reason mathematics 
 mediates between nature and man ; it has reference more 
 to the understanding. 
 
 Language is concerned more with the outward rep- 
 resentation of inner perception, has reference more to 
 reason. There is still wanting for the complete repre- 
 sentation of his nature as a whole the representation of 
 inner life as such, of the mind. This representation of 
 the internal, of the inner man as such, is accomplished 
 in art. 
 
 § 85. With one exception all human ideas are rela- 
 tive ; mutual relations connect all ideas, and they are 
 distinct only in their terminal points. 
 
 Therefore, there is in art, too, a side where it 
 touches mathematics, the understanding ; another where 
 it touches the world of language, reason ; a third where 
 — although itself clearly a representation of the inner 
 — it coincides with the representation of nature ; and a 
 fourth where it coincides with religion. 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 227 
 
 Yet all these relationships will have to be disre- 
 garded, when it is considered with reference to the edu- 
 cation of man, in order to lead him to an appreciation 
 of art. Here, art will be considered only in its ultimate 
 unity as the pure representation of the inner. We 
 notice at once that art, or the representation of inner 
 life in art, must be differentiated in accordance with the 
 material it uses. 
 
 ]^ow, the material, as an earthly phenomenon, may 
 be motion as such, but audible in sound, as tones which 
 vanish while being produced ; or it may be visible in 
 lines, surfaces, and colors ; or it may be corporeal, mass- 
 ive. Here, too, as in all actual tilings, there are, how- 
 ever, many transitions and combinations. 
 
 Art, as representation by tones, is music, particu- 
 larly song. Art, as representation by color, is painting. 
 Art, as representation by plastic material, is modeling. 
 The last two are connected by drawing. This, however, 
 may be considered simply as representation by lines, so 
 that painting would appear as representation by sur- 
 faces, and modeling as representation by solids. 
 
 On account of the mediating quality of drawing, it 
 appears very early as a phase in human development, 
 and we noticed that even at an earlier stage children 
 have the desire to draw (see § 36). Even the desire to 
 express ideas by modeling and coloring is frequently 
 found at this earlier stage of childhood, certainly at the 
 very beginning of the stage of boyhood (see § 49). 
 
 This proves clearly that art and appreciation of art 
 constitute a general capacity or talent of man, and should 
 be cared for early, at the latest in boyhood. 
 
 This does not imply that the boy is to devote him- 
 
228 THE EDUCATION OF MAX. 
 
 self chiefly to art and is to become an artist ; but that 
 he should be enabled to understand and appreciate 
 works of art. At the same time, a true scholastic 
 education will be sure to guard him against the error 
 of claiming to be an artist, unless there is in him the 
 true artistic calling. 
 
 A universal and comprehensive plan of human edu- 
 cation must, therefore, necessarily consider at an early 
 period singing, drawing, painting, and modeling ; it will 
 not leave them to an arbitrary, frivolous whimsicalness, 
 but treat them as serious objects of the school. Its in- 
 tention will not be to make each pupil an artist in some 
 one or all of the arts, but to secure to each human be- 
 ing full and all-sided development, to enable him to see 
 man in the universality and all-sided energy of his nature, 
 and, particularly, to enable him to understand and ap- 
 preciate the products of true art. 
 
 Like drawing, but in a different respect, representa- 
 tioQ in rhythmic speech is mediatory. As representa- 
 tion of the ideal world in language, as the condensed 
 representation, as it were, of the ethereal spiritual 
 world of ideas, as the tranquil representation of ab- 
 solute, eternally moving, and moved life, it belongs 
 to art. 
 
 In everything, in life and religion, hence also in art, 
 the ultimate and supreme aim is the clear representation 
 of man as such. In its tendency. Christian art is the 
 highest, for it aims to represent in everything, particu- 
 larly in and through man, the eternally permanent, the 
 divine. Man is the highest object of human art. 
 
 Thus, we have indicated in their totality the object, 
 the aim, and the meaning of human life, as they are re- 
 
CHIEF GROUPS OF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 229 
 
 vealed even in tlie life of the boy as a scholar. It still 
 remains to consider the sequences and connections in 
 the development of successive phases of his nature at 
 the scholastic stage, as well as the character, the order, 
 and form of the instruction by which the school seeks 
 to aid the boy in this development. 
 
 17 
 
YI. 
 
 CONNECTION BETWEEN THE SCHOOL AND 
 THE FAMILY AND THE SUBJECTS OF 
 INSTEUCTION IT IMPLIES. 
 
 A. General Considerations. 
 
 § 86. In the family the child grows up to boyhood 
 and pupilage ; therefore, the school must link itself to 
 the family. The union of the school and of Jife, of 
 domestic and scholastic life, is the first and indispensable 
 requisite of a perfect human education of this period. 
 The union of family and school hfe is the indispensable 
 requisite of the education of this period, jf-meii, indeed, 
 are ever to free themselves from the oppressive burden! 
 and emptiness of merely extraneously communicated! 
 knowledge, heaped up in memory ; if they would ever • 
 rise to the joy and vigor of a knowledge of the inner 
 nature and essence of things, to a living knowledge of 
 things — a knowledge which, like a sound, vigorous 
 tree, like a family or generation full of the joy and 
 consciousness of Kfe, is spontaneously developed from 
 within ; if they would cease at last to play in word and 
 deed with the valueless shadows of things, and to go 
 through life in a mask. 
 
 It would prove a boon to our children and a blessing 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 231 
 
 to coming generations if we could but come to see that 
 we possess a great oppressive load of extraneous and 
 merely external information and culture, that we fool- 
 ishly seek to increase this from day to day, and that we 
 are very poor in inner knowledge, in information evolved 
 from our own soul and grown up with it. 
 
 We should at last cease making a vain display of 
 the thoughts, the knowledge, and even the feelings of 
 others. We should no longer seek the highest glory of 
 our education and of our schools in efforts to garnish 
 the minds of our children with foreign knowledge and 
 skill. 
 
 This is, indeed, an old disease ; for, if we inquire 
 how the German people has obtained the first principles 
 of its present knowledge, we discover unequivocally that 
 those first principles always came from a distance, from 
 foreign parts, or were even forced upon it from without. 
 Therefore, we have not even a generally accepted term 
 in our mother-tongue for these first principles, elements, 
 or rudiments. 
 
 The strong German mind, it is true, digested this 
 foreign acquisition and assimilated it, but it nevertheless 
 continued to wear the character of its extraneous origin. 
 For thousands of years we have worn these fetters.' 
 Shall we, therefore, never begin to plant in our own 
 minds a tree of life and knowledge, and let it germinate 
 and nurse it, that it may unfold in beauty, put out vig- 
 orous and sound blossoms, and ripen delicious fruit, 
 which may fall from the tree in this world and yield a 
 new harvest in the world beyond ? 
 
 Shall we never cease stamping our children like 
 coins and adorning them with foreign inscriptions and 
 
232 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 foreign portraits, instead of enabling them to walk 
 among us as the images of God, as developments of the 
 law and life implanted in them by God and graced with 
 the expression of the divine ? 
 
 Are we afraid that our children might excel us ? 
 What people and what time will be high-minded enough 
 to deny itself for the sake of its children and in the in- 
 terest of a pure humanity ? N^ay, what father and what 
 family will allow its soul to be tilled with this thought, 
 and thus multiply and enhance its inner power mani- 
 fold? 
 
 Only the quiet, secluded sanctuary of the family can 
 give back to us the welfare of mankind. In the foun- 
 dation of every new family, the Heavenly Father, 
 eternally working the welfare of the human race, speaks 
 to man through the heaven he has opened in the heart 
 of its founders. With the foundation of every new 
 family there is issued to mankind and to each individual 
 human being the call to represent humanity in pure de- 
 velopment, to represent man in his ideal purity (see 
 §48). 
 
 It is sufficiently clear, too, that the German mind 
 can no longer be satisfied with the lifeless extraneous 
 knowledge and insight of the time ; that a culture of 
 mere external polish can no longer suffice, if, indeed, 
 we are to become self -centered, worthy children of God. 
 Therefore, we need and seek knowledge and insight 
 that have sprung into vigorous and healthy life in our 
 own minds and grown strong in the sunshine and con- 
 ditions of our own life. 
 
 Or would we ever again cover with rubbish the 
 source of life which God has opened in the heart and 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 233 
 
 mind of every human being ? Would we deprive our 
 children and pupils of the unspeakable joy of finding 
 in their souls the source of everlasting life? Would 
 you, parents and teachers, continue to compel your 
 children to stop up this source of life with valueless 
 waste and to hedge it with thorns ? 
 
 You say : " Only thus can they get along in the 
 world. Children will soon be grown up. Who will 
 then take care of them ? What will thej eat ? Where- 
 with will they be clothed ? " 
 
 Ye fools ! I shall not answer you by saying, " Seek 
 ye first the kingdom of God," etc. ; for in your es- 
 trangement from God and from yourself you could not 
 understand this. But again and again I shall say unto' 
 you, that we are not here concerned with a dull, brood- 
 ing life, empty of knowledge and works (see § 23). 
 
 Mankind is meant to enjoy a degree of knowledge! 
 and insight, of energy and efiiciency of which at present i 
 we have no conception ; for who has fathomed the des- 1 
 tiny of heaven-born mankind ? But these things are to 
 be developed in each individual, growing forth in eachi 
 one in the vigor and might of youth, as newly created! 
 self-productions. 
 
 The boy is to take up his future worl^, which nowT/ 
 has become his calling, not indolently, in sullen gloom, 
 but cheerfully and joyously, trusting God and nature, 
 rejoicing in the manifold prosperity of his work. 
 Peace, harmony, moderation, and all the high civil and 
 human virtues will dwell in his soul and in his house, 
 and he will secure through and in the circle of his 
 activity the contentment for which all strive. 
 
 Neither will he say that his son may take up any 
 
234- THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 business but his own, the most ungrateful of all ; nor 
 will he insist that his son shall take up this business 
 which he himself carries on profitably and with satis- 
 faction to himself. He will see that the smallest busi- 
 ness may be carried on in a great way, that every busi- 
 ness may be ennobled and made worthy of man. He 
 will see that the smallest power, cheerfully and rightly 
 applied to any work, will secure bread, clothing, and 
 shelter, as well as respect ; he will, therefore, feel no 
 anxiety concerning the future welfare of his children, 
 whose soul-development has been his chief care. 
 
 § 87. The various directions of this unified school 
 and family life, of this active educational life, are in- 
 dicated by the degree of development man has attained 
 at this stage, by the inner and outer needs of the boy 
 entering upon this stage of pupilage. They are, of 
 necessity, the following : 
 
 a. The arousing, strengthening, and cultivation of the 
 religious sense ; the sense that brings the soul of man 
 into ever-more living unity with God; the sense that 
 feels and holds fast the unity in all the apparent di- 
 versity of things, and by whose vigor and activity the 
 boy's life and actions are brought into harmony with 
 this unity. • For this purpose we have the memorizing 
 of religious utterances concerning nature, man, and 
 their relation to God, and particularly for prayer ; fur- 
 nishing him a mirror, as it were, in which the boy may 
 see, as in a picture, his feelings, intuitions, and tenden- 
 cies in their original unity with God, and thus become 
 conscious of them and hold them fast in this aspect. 
 
 h. Consideration, knowledge, and cultivation of the 
 body as the servant of the mind and the medium for 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 235 
 
 the representation of its being, to be developed in or- 
 derly graded exercises. 
 
 (?. Observation and study of nature and the external 
 world, proceeding from the nearest surroundings to the 
 more remote. 
 
 d. Memorizing of short poetical representations of 
 nature and life, particularly of short poems that impart 
 life to the objects of nature in the nearest surroundings, 
 and significance to the incidents of home-life, showing 
 them, as in a mirror, in their pure and deep meaning. 
 This is to be done particularly for the purposes of song 
 and in song. 
 
 e. Exercises in language starting with the study of 
 nature and the external world and passing over to the 
 inner world, but always with strict reference to lan- 
 guage as the audible rnedium of representation. 
 
 f. Exercises in systematic outward corporeal repre- 
 sentation, proceeding from the simple to the complex. 
 Here are included representations by means of more or 
 less prepared material (building, paper, card-board, wood- 
 work, etc.), as well as modeling with plastic material. 
 
 g. Exercises in representation with lines on a plane, 
 and in constant, visible relation to the vertical and hori- 
 zontal direction, the media for the apprehension of all 
 external shapes. These directions in their repetitions 
 constitute a net- work of lines, which is to be the outer 
 law for these drawing exercises. 
 
 A. Study of colors in their differences and resem- 
 blances, and representation of these in prescribed out- 
 lines, with special reference to the form of the outline 
 (coloring of outline pictures) or to the color-relations 
 (painting in the square net-work). 
 
236 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 i. Plaj, or representations and exercises of all kinds 
 in free activity. 
 
 j. ]N"arration of stories and legends, fables and fairy- 
 tales, with reference to the incidents of the day, of the 
 seasons, of life, etc. 
 
 All this is interspersed in the ordinary school and 
 family life, with the ordinary occupations of home and 
 school. 
 
 For boys of this age should have some definite 
 domestic duties to perform. They might even receive 
 regular instruction from mechanics or farmers, such as 
 has been frequently given by fathers inspired by vigor- 
 ous and active natural insight. Especially should older 
 boys frequently be set by parents and teachers to doing 
 things independently and alone (i. e., errands), so that 
 they may attain firmness and the art of self-examination 
 in their actions. It is very desirable that such boys 
 should devote daily at le ast one or two hours to some 
 definite external pursuit, some externally produTrtive 
 work. It is surely one of the greatest faults of our cur- 
 rent school arrangements, especially of the so-called 
 Latin and high schools, that the pupils are wholly de- 
 barred from outwardly productive work. It is futile to 
 object that the boy at this age, if he is to reach a cer- 
 tain degree of skill and insight, ought to direct his 
 whole strength to the learning of words, to verbal in- 
 struction, to intellectual culture. On the contrary, 
 genuine experience shows that external, physical, 
 productive activity interspersed in intellectual work 
 strengthens not only the body but in a very marked 
 degree the mind in its various phases of development, 
 so that the mind, after such a refreshing work-bath 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 237 
 
 (I can find no better name), enters upon its intellectual 
 pursuits with new vigor and life (see § 23). 
 
 If we compare the just enumerated subjects of the 
 educational life of home and school, they appear grouped 
 in accordance with the inner needs of boyhood into sub- 
 jects (a) of the more quiet, calm, inner life ; (b) of the 
 more receptive, intro- active life ; (c) of the more express- 
 ive outwardly formative life. They completely meet 
 the needs, therefore, of man in general. 
 
 Furthermore, it will be noticed that they develop, 
 exercise, and cultivate all the senses, all the inner and 
 outer powers of man, and thus meet the requirements 
 of human life in general. 
 
 Lastly, it will be seen that a simple, orderly home 
 and school life can easily meet the requirements of all 
 these subjects, and, consequently, the requirements of 
 human development at this stage. 
 
 Let us now examine these subjects in their par- 
 ticulars. 
 
 B. Particular Consideration of the Different Subjects 
 of Instruction. 
 
 A. AROUSING AND CULTIVATION OF THE RELIGIOUS SENSE. 
 
 § 88. If the child has grown up in unity of life and 
 soul with his parents, this unity will not only be main- 
 tained but strengthened and intensified during the 
 period of boyhood, provided no disturbing and obstruct- 
 ing causes intervene. 
 
 The question here is not of that vague and indefinite 
 unity of feeling which makes one body of two bodies, 
 not uncommon between parents and child, but of that 
 
238 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 living soul-unitj, that clear oneness of mind, which sees 
 life as an unbroken whole in all its operations and phe- 
 nomena. 
 
 This living unity of soul, this clear oneness of mind 
 — which is not a mere external community of life — is 
 the unshakable foundation of genuine religious feeling. 
 For this spiritual unity between parent and child, the 
 inner life, the pure outward representation of inner 
 spiritual life of man is a common concern. What the 
 father and mother because of the hindrances of life 
 could not attain, they seek to accomplish in and through 
 their child — the representation of pure humanity as 
 such. 
 
 Dearly, and often painfully, the father has purchased 
 clear and sure results from his experience in the devel- 
 opment and cultivation of his own innermost life. His 
 loss of strength prevents him from applying these re^ 
 suits in his own life, but he communicates them to his 
 son ; and the son profits by this experience and applies 
 it in his own life with the unbroken and full energy 
 and vigor of his youth. 
 
 Where the life of parent and child has not been an 
 unbroken whole from the earliest beginning, these com- 
 munications have no effect ; apparently the experiences 
 of two different worlds are opposed to each other with 
 different wants and different forces, and the connecting 
 link is missing. Only he who has tried to secure them 
 can appreciate the results of that spiritual unity between 
 parent and child, which is based on the common purpose 
 of cultivating and representing highest and purest 
 humanity. 
 
 Such a spiritual union necessarily implies the obser- 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 239 
 
 vation of individual and common life in their inner 
 cause and purpose, in their inner and living connection. 
 From this the soul of man, even in boyhood, obtains the 
 most unequivocal proofs and conviction that, to speak 
 humanly, God continues uninterruptedly to guide man- 
 kind in its development and cultivation with fatherly 
 protection and care, and follows each individual as an 
 essential member of the whole in all the events of life 
 with fatherly aid and solicitude. 
 
 How could man better express the fact that the 
 events of life, truly seen and understood in their causes, 
 their nature and significance, are always for the best of 
 the individual and of the whole ? Thus, we ever speak 
 of the divine most clearly and comprehensibly for our- 
 selves in human tenns. 
 
 The boy's mind thus steadily grows in clearness and 
 purity, his powers are ever enhanced and increased, his 
 courage and perseverance strengthened by thus finding 
 the confirmations of these truths in his own life and in 
 that of others, in individual and common life, in ex- 
 perience and revelation ; by thus finding the harmony 
 and unity of revelation in scripture, nature, and life ; 
 by thus seeing himself the member of a whole unfold- 
 ing from the small domestic circle into ever wider and 
 higher realms, of a whole whose common purpose he 
 recognizes, amid the most positive evidences of divine 
 guidance and care, in the representation of the spiritual 
 in and by the corporeal, of the divine in and by the 
 human. 
 
 The life of such a family, of such a boy, will neces- 
 sarily be a prayer of Jesus expressed in conduct and in 
 deeds, a living prayer of Jesus ; a rich and efiicient 
 
240 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 Christian life, trusting in God, loving God and man, 
 spontaneously active in childlike obedience to God. 
 Thus, the teachings of Jesus will be interpreted in their 
 own life, and the application of these teachings in life 
 will become possible. 
 
 Religious instruction, resting on such spiritual union 
 between parent and child, stands on firm ground and is 
 rich in blessings. It is fruitful and rich in blessings 
 only in the measure in which fortunate circumstances 
 of life have aroused in the boy at an early period a liv- 
 ing sense, a quick and clear eye for inner spiritual life 
 (see § 21). 
 
 There is no danger that any subject of inner spiritual 
 life will prove in its nature too high and unintelligible 
 for the boy's inner spiritual sense ; let him simply re- 
 ceive the facts, his inner power will soon find the inner 
 meaning in forms accessible and intelligible to him. 
 
 We do not give early boyhood enough credit for re- 
 ligious power as well as for mental power generally. 
 For this reason, in later boyhood, life and the soul are so 
 empty, so wholly without experience, and, therefore, so 
 callous and dull with reference to spiritual, ethical, and 
 religious notions. Only a few threads, and these weak, 
 are found there to which to fasten, instruction concern- 
 ing a truly religious life ; nevertheless, so much is asked 
 in this respect of the boy in the succeeding period of 
 youth. 
 
 Children and boys have their attention called at an 
 early period to a great number of external matters, and 
 receive instruction concerning these things which they 
 can not understand, simply because they are extraneous. 
 At the same time, they are left uninstructed concerning 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 241 
 
 SO many inner matters which they might understand, be- 
 cause these matters are within them. Thus, they are 
 early introduced to outer life, and estranged from inner 
 life ; for this reason, the latter is so hollow and dull. 
 
 If the human being is to understand many, par- 
 ticularly religious, truths, we must see to it that he have 
 many experiences in this direction, that even in the 
 more trivial events of his emotional and religious life 
 he become conscious of the course and conditions of his 
 spiritual development. Unless man ascends from the 
 knowledge of the Fatherhood of God in his own life to 
 a knowledge of His Fatherhood in the life of mankind, 
 future religious instruction will be empty and barren in 
 the same inverse ratio. 
 
 Very many religious errors and misinterpretations, 
 many falsities and half-truths would be avoided through 
 early attention to these matters, or through at least un- 
 hindered and undisturbed development of inner spiritual 
 life in harmony with external life and with reference to 
 it. Similarly, we could avoid the misunderstanding of 
 certain prominent sayings of dogmatic religious instruc- 
 tion, which in this one-sided presentation effect in the 
 life of man the exact opposite of what they are in- 
 tended to effect. This is true, for instance, of the say- 
 ing, " The good will be happy," so prominently em- 
 phasized in religious instruction, generally to the great- 
 est detriment for the life, the happiness, the contentment, 
 and the ever-progressive tendency of man. 
 
 The simple boy, still poor in outer experiences, feels 
 and sees his life as an undivided whole ; to him inner 
 and outer good, inner and outer happiness, inner and 
 outer life are still undivided, without any differentia- 
 
242 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 tions or oppositions. Therefore, without any idea that 
 it might be different, the inner pure soul-life is neces- 
 sarily considered also as external ; hence, the inner fruits 
 of goodness are looked upon as identical with the ex- 
 ternal fruits. 
 
 The inner and the outer, the infinite and the finite, 
 however, are two worlds, whose phenomena are neces- 
 sarily and for ever different in form. Therefore, that 
 general saying, if it does not at an early period disturb 
 and weaken the inner peace and power of the boy, will 
 at least fill his mind with false expectations and lead 
 him to wholly false judgments, interpretations, and uses 
 of his experiences— to serious errors in his life. 
 
 Dogmatic religious instruction should rather at an 
 early period establish the truth, showing its application 
 in individual and collective life, and tracing it in all 
 development in nature and mankind, that whoever truly 
 and earnestly, in singleness of purpose and self-sacrifice, 
 seeks the good, the pure representation of humanity, 
 must needs expose himself to a life of external oppres- 
 sion, pain and want, anxiety and care. For this very 
 tendency implies that the inner, spiritual, true life be 
 revealed and become manifest ; and, if this is to be ac- 
 complished, the consequences indicated above are un- 
 avoidable. 
 
 In order to enable the boy to see this vividly, let 
 him compare the requirements, conditions, and phe- 
 nomena of the development of a tree with the require- 
 ments, conditions, and phenomena of the spiritual de- 
 velopment of a human being. He will find that — 
 
 Every phase of development, however beautiful and 
 proper in its place, must vanish and perish, whenever a 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 243 
 
 higher phase is to appear. The sheltering bud-scales 
 must fall when the young branch or the fragrant blos- 
 som is to unfold, however much these tender forms may 
 thereby be exposed to the rough weather of spring. 
 The fragrant blossom must make room for a fruit, at 
 first sour, hard, and homely. The luscious, red-cheeked 
 fruit must decay, that vigorous young plants and trees 
 may sprout forth. 
 
 Thus, the psalms of David, and the hymns of many 
 others who did battle for the lifting up of mankind, 
 for the representation of pure humanity, resemble the 
 fruits of their tree of life which could not appear with- 
 out the sacrifice of many earlier phases of life develop- 
 ment dear to them. 
 
 And do not the verses of those psalms and hymns 
 resemble kernels which, sown in the fertile soil of 
 human souls, bring forth shady trees filled with fragrant 
 blossoms and strength-giving, eternal, immortal fruits? 
 
 Renunciation^ the abandonment of the external for 
 the sake of securing the internal^ is the condition for 
 attaining highest develoj>ment. 
 
 This agrees with the saying, coming from another 
 phase of contemplation : " The dearer the child, the more 
 frequent the rod " ; or, " Whom the Lord loveth he chas- 
 teneth." Every boy whose soul is not wholly estranged 
 from himself will understand this truth. The human 
 being who understands this truth and who is conscious 
 of an honest purpose will not murmur and complain, 
 like a stubborn child, about adverse occurrences in his 
 life, saying : " Why is my lot so sad, so unhappy ? I 
 have done no harm, at least I am not conscious of any 
 evil doing. Others are doing so well, although it is 
 
2M THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 known how wicked thej are, or, at least, that they act 
 only from external points of view, and from transient 
 and weak motives." 
 
 He will rather say to himself : " Just because you 
 seek earnestly and steadily only the highest and best, 
 only the absolute and permanent good, all merely relative 
 and transient good must vanish, to make room for ever 
 higher and more perfect developments and, at last, for 
 abiding fruit." 
 
 No less detrimental to the attainment of human life 
 is the predominance frequently given in religious in- 
 struction to the promise of a reward for good deeds in 
 a future life, if they seem to go unrewarded in this life. 
 Brutal minds who hold sensual pleasure highest are not 
 affected by this ; boys and human beings, generally with 
 a normally good disposition, do not need it. For, if our 
 life is pure, if our actions are right and good, no reward 
 in a future world is needed, even though in this world 
 all may be lacking that seems valuable to the sensual 
 man. 
 
 It argues a low degree of insight into the nature and 
 dignity of man, if the incentive of reward in a future 
 world is needed, in order to insure a conduct worthy of 
 his nature and destiny. If the human being is enabled 
 at an early period to live in accordance with genuine 
 humanity, he can and should at all times appreciate the 
 dignity of his being ; and at all times the consciousness 
 of having lived worthily and in accordance with the re- 
 quirements of his being should be his highest reward, 
 needing no addition of external recompense. 
 
 Does the good child or boy, conscious of having 
 acted in a manner worthy of the father, in his spirit and 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 245 
 
 in obedience to his will, need more than the joy of this 
 consciousness? Does the simple, normal child, con- 
 scious of having done right, think of any additional re- 
 ward, were it only praise ? Should not man be as pure 
 and perfect in his actions toward God as the son is 
 toward his earthly father ? Jesus says : " My meat is to 
 do the will of Him who sent me " — i. e., the conscious- 
 ness of having done the Father's will gives sustenance, 
 meaning, aad joy to my life. He deems the poor al- 
 ready blessed — as they truly are — because their poverty 
 enhances the efficiency of the soul and lifts conduct ac- 
 cordingly. 
 
 We ought to lift and strengthen human nature, but 
 we degrade and weaken it when we seek to lead it to 
 good conduct by means of a bait, even if this bait 
 beckons to a future world, when we use even the most 
 spiritual external incentive for a better life and leave 
 undeveloped the inner self-active forces which in every 
 human being prompt the representation of a pure 
 humanity. 
 
 How very different are all these things if the boy's 
 attention has been directed at an early period to the re- 
 actions of his conduct, not to the external pleasantness 
 of his situation but to his inner condition, to his inner 
 freedom, serenity, and contentment ! Experience rest- 
 ing on this will necessarily arouse more and more man's 
 inner sense, leading to genuine thoughtfulness, the most 
 precious treasure of boyhood and youth. 
 
 Religious instruction should throw light upon such 
 
 experiences, should bring them into clear consciousness, 
 
 should harmonize and unite them, should deduce from 
 
 them the self-evident and axiomatic truths, show their 
 18 
 
246 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 application in all conditions of life in which force, life, 
 and spirit are active, should exhibit their agreement 
 with the truths recognized and uttered by God-inspired 
 men. This true religiousness will become the eternal 
 heritage of man, and gradually of mankind as a whole, 
 and all that is high and holy and has found utterance in 
 humanity will again and again find utterance in man. 
 Thus, the religious development of the individual will 
 be brought more and more into harmony with the re- 
 ligious development of mankind, blessing all, dissipat- 
 ing superstition, doubt, and despotism, and fixing the 
 glorious consciousness that in God we live and have our 
 being. 
 
 § 89. Memorizing of Beligioics Sayings, — It is nat- 
 ural that religious feelings, sentiments, and thoughts 
 should spring up in the mind of man as such, as well as 
 in the mind of the boy not estranged from himself and 
 grown up in spiritual unity with his parents. 
 
 In the beginning these sentiments and feelings will 
 manifest themselves in the mind of man or of the boy 
 only as an effect, as an intuition, a fullness, without 
 word or form, without any adequate expression of what 
 they are, merely as something that uplifts our being and 
 fills the soul. At this juncture it is most beneficial, 
 strengthening, and uplifting for the young human being 
 to receive words — a language for these sentiments and 
 feelings — so that they may not be stifled in themselves, 
 vanish in themselves for lack of expression. 
 
 There need be no fear that the words of others will 
 force upon the child or boy an extraneous feeling. The 
 religious element has the quality of pure air, of bright 
 sunlight, and clear water ; every earthly creature inhales 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 247 
 
 them, and in each it assumes a different form and color, 
 in the life of each it finds a different expression. 
 
 Take any simple religious maxim intelligible to 
 every boy or child through and in his own life, let a 
 number of boys memorize it, and it will produce in the 
 life of each an effect peculiar to his individuality. 
 
 Of course, these words must find a response in the 
 boy's life. The child must not be expected to give life 
 and meaning to the words, but the words must give ex- 
 pression to what is already in the boy's soul and find 
 their meaning in this. 
 
 Thus, a boy, scarcely six years old, asks every even- 
 ing one of his parents taking him to bed: "Please, 
 teach me a prayer." Then, after repeating it, he quietly 
 goes to sleep. One day, he had done something that 
 seemed to indicate that all was not right in his soul. 
 The evening prayer opened with general terms ; in a 
 loud and strong voice he repeated the words as usual. 
 Then a slight turn in the words pointed to the occur- 
 rence of the day, and suddenly his voice became scarcely 
 audible, though, probably, his conscience spoke only the 
 louder. 
 
 Yesterday, he said to me for the first time : " Please, 
 repeat the prayer with me." I inferred that there was 
 something that concerned him very much. I selected 
 the prayer which seemed to me the right one, and he 
 calmly went to sleep. 
 
 Not long ago, the same boy came to me and brought 
 me a picture he had just found ; he was pleased with it, 
 for it was brilliantly painted. At the same moment a 
 boy, about a year and a half older, very lively, and 
 apparently little heeding inner life, came up. " How 
 
248 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 cruel ! " he exclaimed, looking at the picture, which rep- 
 resented an attack of Turks upon Greeks, particularly 
 upon Greek mothers and children. 
 
 I said to the boys that all ought to give thanks to 
 God for a life free from harm and sorrow. " Yes, in- 
 deed," exclaimed the older boy, " as we do in the morn- 
 ing and evening." Yet at no time had an explanatory 
 word been spoken to him. 
 
 Certainly it is neither necessary nor desirable that 
 with younger boys there should be frequent changes in 
 the sayings or utterances memorized for the purpose of 
 giving expression to their inner life. 
 
 B. RESPECT FOR THE BODY, KNOWLEDGE, AND CULTIVATION OF IT. 
 
 § 90. Man respects what he not only knows in its 
 value, its meaning, and uses, but what he can apply and 
 use, the things on whose good qualities he knows the 
 attainment of his work and purpose to depend. 
 
 It does not follow that man, especially in boyhood, 
 knows his body, because it is so near to him, nor that he 
 eati use his limbs because they are one with him. We 
 often hear boys admonished not to be so awkward, and 
 this particularly in walks of life that do not pay regular 
 attention to all-sided bodily activity in childhood and 
 early boyhood. 
 
 We see that men in whom the culture of mind and 
 body have not kept pace with each other, at certain 
 times and under certain circumstances, do not know 
 what to do with their body. Nay, many a one seems 
 to feel his body and his limbs to be a burden to himself. 
 
 The occasional cultivation of the body in domestic 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 249 
 
 occupations may do much to remedy this. But, in 
 almost all cases, this is very subordinate, and generally 
 exercises the body only one-sidedly. Besides, man is to 
 know not only his power but also the means for apply- 
 ing it ; and this can be attained only by means of an all- 
 sided, equal cultivation of the body and its parts as the 
 medium and expression of mental culture. 
 
 This appears already in the simplest cases of instruc- 
 tion, where the use and position of the body and its 
 members are essential, e. g., in writing, drawing, the play- 
 ing of musical instruments, etc. If the pupil has not 
 previously had the benefit of true all-sided cultivation 
 and use of his body and its members, and has made this 
 bis permanent possession, only a mechanical training, 
 equally blunting to teacher and pupil, can secure scanty 
 success ; the continual repetition of admonitions to sit 
 straight, to hold the arm right, etc., drives all life and 
 prosperity from instruction. 
 
 An active, vigorous body, in all conditions and pur- 
 suits of life, a dignified bearing and attitude of the body, 
 can only result from all-sided cultivation of the body, as 
 bearer of the mind. Surely, a great deal of rudeness, 
 ill-mannerliness, and impropriety would disappear from 
 boyhood, and corresponding admonitions would become 
 less frequent, if we gave our boys regular, all-sided 
 bodily training, proceeding from the simple to the com- 
 plex, based on their mental culture, and keeping pace 
 with it. 
 
 The will, as such, does not yet control the body at 
 all times ; therefore, the body should be enabled to obey 
 the mind implicitly at all times, as in the case of a mu- 
 sical performer. Without such cultivation of the body, 
 
250 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 education can never attain its object, which is perfect 
 human culture. Therefore, the body, like the mind, 
 should in this respect pass through a true school, though 
 not in a one-sided manner ; and regular physical exer- 
 cises, proceeding from the simple to the complex, based 
 on the mental development, are a proper subject of in- 
 struction in every school. 
 
 Thus alone is true discipline made possible. True 
 discipline firmly places the boy, in all his actions, on 
 the recognition and feeling of human worth, and on 
 consequent respect for his own nature. This is the 
 positive element of education at this period ; and the 
 more vividly and distinctly the pupil apprehends the 
 nature and dignity of man, and the more clearly and 
 perfectly he sees and understands the necessary require- 
 ments of true humanity, the more positively and strictly 
 the educator should insist upon the fulfillment of these 
 requirements. Nay, if need be, he should not shun to 
 descend from admonition to punishment and severity 
 for the benefit of the pupil ; boyhood is the age of dis- 
 cipline. Only harmony of mental and bodily culture 
 renders true discipline possible. 
 
 Furthermore, after severe mental activity, the body 
 as well as the mind calls for strictly regulated, vigorous 
 bodily activity, and this again reacts on the mind and 
 strengthens it. Only where mental and bodily activity 
 are thus in regular, living, mutual action and reaction, 
 true life is possible. 
 
 But bodily exercises have yet another important 
 side : they lead the human being (here the boy) subse- 
 quently to a vivid knowledge of the inner structure of 
 his body ; for the boy feels with special vividness the 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 251 
 
 inner mutual connection in the activity of his members. 
 These perceptions, aided by only tolerably good sketches 
 of the inner structure of man, must lead to the vivid 
 knowledge of this structure, and induce, at least, a living 
 interest in the care and consideration of the body. 
 
 C. OBSERVATION OF NATURE AND SURROUNDINGS. 
 
 § 91. The things considered under this head for- 
 merly — in the period of childhood — seemed isolated and 
 without inner connection ; now they appear in an or- 
 derly arrangement and in their necessary inner connec- 
 tion, adapted to the development of man at this stage, 
 and in the classifications and subdivisions indicated by 
 the gradual differentiation of particulars from generals. 
 
 The knowledge of every thing, of its purpose and 
 properties, is found most clearly and distinctly in its 
 local conditions and in its relations to surrounding ob- 
 jects. Therefore, the pupil will get the clearest insight 
 into the character of things, of nature and surround- 
 ings, if he sees and studies them in their natural con- 
 nection. 
 
 Again, the boy will, of course, see most clearly and 
 appreciate most fully the conditions and relations of 
 objects that are in closest and most constant connection 
 with him., that owe their being to him, or at least have 
 in their being some reference to him. These are the 
 things of his nearest surroundings — the things of the 
 sitting-room, the house, the garden, the farm, the vil- 
 lage (or city), the meadow, the field, the forest, the 
 plain. The sitting-room, then, furnishes the starting- 
 point for this orderly study of nature and surroundings, 
 
252 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 which thus proceeds from the near and known to the 
 less near and less known, and becomes for the purpose 
 of orderly classification and subdivision a real subject of 
 school instruction. 
 
 The course is as follows. Instruction begins again 
 with the necessary indication of the object. Thus, point- 
 ing to the table, '^ What is this ? " Tlien, pointing to 
 the chair, " What is this ? " etc. Then the question 
 comprehending all, " What do you see in the school- 
 room ? " " The table, the chair, the bench, the window," 
 etc. The teacher writes on a slate the names of the 
 objects which one or several have named, and requests 
 the pupils to repeat the names in chorus. Again the 
 teacher asks : " Are the table and the chair in the same 
 relation to the school-room as the door and the win- 
 dow ? " "Yes— no." " Why yes — why no ? What 
 are the door and the window with regard to the room ? " 
 " They are parts of the room." " Name all the things 
 which you think are parts of the room." " Walls, ceil- 
 ing, floor, etc. — all these are parts of the room." 
 
 "As the door, the window, etc., are parts of the 
 room, so the room is a part of some greater whole." 
 " Yes, of the house." " What other parts has the 
 house ? " " The hall-way, the sitting-room, the bed- 
 room, kitchen, etc., are parts of the house." It is quite 
 desirable, for the training of perception and language, 
 that the pupils should together repeat the answers in 
 proper form. 
 
 "Again, have all houses the same parts as this 
 house ? " " No." " What parts which other houses have 
 not do you find in this house ? What parts do you find 
 in other houses, but not in this house ? What deter- 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 253 
 
 mines the importance of tlie parts and rooms of a 
 house ? " " The use and purpose of the house." " What 
 are the most important parts of a complete dwelling- 
 house ? " 
 
 " Besides the objects that are parts of this room, you 
 named some that are not parts, but which jou see in 
 the room ; name some of them again." " Chairs, tables, 
 flower-pots, books, etc." *' Do chairs, tables, etc., stand 
 in the same relation to the room as flower-pots, books, 
 etc.?" "No." "Why not?" "Chairs, tables, etc., 
 are necessary to the room. Objects that are necessary 
 to a room make up the furniture of the room." " Name 
 all things which you know to belong to the furniture 
 of a room. Has each of the other rooms of the house 
 its particular kinds of furniture ? " " Yes, the kitchen, 
 the bed-room, etc." " What things belong to the kitch- 
 en, the bed-room, etc. ? " " These things are called 
 kitchen-utensils, etc." 
 
 " Are there in the house things that do not belong 
 to a particular room?" "Yes" (naming some). "All 
 things that belong to the house are the house-furniture. 
 Name all things you know as house-furniture." 
 
 " The house has its deflnite parts, or rooms. Now, 
 is the house again a part of a greater whole ? " " Yes ; 
 the homestead (the premises)." "What things are parts 
 of the homestead ? " " The court-yard, the garden, the 
 dwelling-house, the barn, the stable, etc." " The movable 
 objects which belong in the court-yard are the furniture 
 (implements) of the yard. All movable objects that 
 belong in the garden are garden-implements," etc. 
 
 " As the house is a part of the homestead, so is the 
 homestead a part of a greater whole ? " " Yes ; of the 
 
254 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 village." "What things make up the village?" "Houses, 
 barns, gardens, homesteads, churches, schools, etc." 
 "What kinds of houses do you iind ? " " Farm houses, 
 shops, stores, etc." " What belongs in a shop ? What 
 belongs in the church ? What is around the village ? " 
 "The township." "What have you seen in the town- 
 ship ? " " Mountains, valleys, roads, etc." 
 
 From this point the study of the earth's surface 
 (geography) becomes an independent subject of in- 
 struction. 
 
 The study of surroundings has this peculiarity that 
 all the studies of particular things or classes of things 
 branch out from it at certain necessary places, like the 
 buds on the boughs of a tree. This will be seen again 
 and again in a natural and rational course of instruc- 
 tion. In general, the proper place for beginning with 
 a new, distinct subject of instruction, is necessarily 
 and regularly determined like the ramification of sym- 
 metrically organized plants. 
 
 It is tnie that the indications for this, like the be- 
 ginnings of a new bud, are often very indistinct. Fre- 
 quently they manifest themselves only in the mind and 
 soul of the teacher who gives himself up thoughtfully 
 to the requirements and relationships of the subject; 
 or who is so full of the subject that he sees its require- 
 ments intuitively, as it were. If the moment of the 
 natural budding of the new subject of instruction has 
 been missed, every later eilort arbitrarily to introduce 
 the subject lacks life ; and, although the subject may 
 be necessary, it will always seem extraneous, dead, and 
 will continue to behave as such. 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 255 
 
 Every teacher who in true love and fidelity seeks a 
 truly natural and rational instruction must have felt 
 this often and painfully when, in foolish subjection to 
 rule and custom, or in ignorance or dullness, he has 
 missed this moment of new budding. He will labor 
 without success; the connections of his course of in- 
 struction will be like those of a limber-jack; his in- 
 struction will be empty and dull, like the noise of a 
 toy mill. 
 
 Therefore, for the purposes of a living, life-giving, 
 and life-stirring instruction, it is most important to note 
 the moment, the proper place, for the introduction of 
 a new branch of instruction. The distinctive character 
 of a natural and rational life-stirring and developing 
 system of instruction lies in the finding and fixing of 
 this point. For, when it is truly found, the subject of 
 instruction grows independently in accordance with its 
 own living law, and truly teaches the teacher himself. 
 Therefore, the w^hole attention of the teacher must be 
 directed to these budding-points of new branches of 
 instruction. To neglect this will, in its consequences, 
 lead to an unnatural and incoherent course of instruc- 
 tion (see §§ 81, 82). 
 
 After this digression we return to the course to be 
 pursued in the observation of the external world. 
 
 " In the surrounding country you see trees, steeples, 
 rocks, springs, walls, forests, villages, etc. Consider 
 again these and all other things you can see, and tell me 
 if each one is the only thing of its kind, or if several 
 may be classified together as being similar.'' " Several 
 things may be classified together as being similar." 
 
256 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 " Name several objects which you can thus classify to- 
 gether." 
 
 "If you go on comparing these things with each 
 other, do you find an important difference between 
 them?" "Yes; some things grow in nature (natu- 
 rally) ; others are made by men. The former are nat- 
 ural objects, the work of nature ; the latter, artificial 
 objects, the works of man." "Name several natural 
 objects that you know." " Trees, fields, grass, etc." 
 " Name also several artificial objects that you know." 
 " Walls, hedges, roads, etc." " Are fields and meadows 
 purely artificial ? " " Yes — no." " Why ? Are hedges, 
 vineyards, etc., purely artificial 1 " " No." " Why not ? " 
 " Such things we may call natural and artificial objects 
 (works of nature and of man)." " Name several such 
 objects in your surroundings." (To be followed by 
 repetition in concert, as usual.) 
 
 "Name several natural objects in your surround- 
 ings, examine them more closely, compare them with 
 one another, and see if you can find other great differ- 
 ences by which you can classify them — e. g., tree, rock, 
 stone, river, bird, oak, stag, pine-tree, thunder, light- 
 ning, air, etc." " There are differences among them by 
 which they can be classified." "What are they?" 
 "The bird, the stag, etc., are animals; the oak, the 
 pine, etc., are plants ; the stone, air, etc., are minerals ; 
 thunder, lightning, etc., are natural phenomena." " Name 
 all the animals you know ; all the plants, etc." 
 
 Then follow observations of animals with reference 
 to the locality they inhabit ; yielding classes of domes- 
 tic animals, animals of the field, of the woods ; terres- 
 trial, aquatic, amphibious, aerial animals. 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 257 
 
 Similarly, plants are considered and classified as 
 house - plants, hot -house plants, garden - plants, marsh- 
 plants, parasites, etc. ; then follow minerals, though these 
 yield few points for comparison ; and, lastly, the various 
 natural phenomena are arranged as terrestrial, aerial, 
 aquatic, and igneous phenomena. 
 
 Subsequently it is found that, because of the locality 
 they inhabit, natural objects are near or more or less 
 remote with respect to man ; and the question is raised 
 concerning the influence of this nearness or remoteness 
 on their mode of life, their behavior, or their qualities. 
 It is found that the nearer natural objects, exposed to 
 the influence of man, are weaker, more sensitive, need- 
 ing care, more docile, etc. ; indeed, more tame^ and that 
 the remoter objects are more crude, more wild. 
 
 Tame and wild animals are then named. The tame 
 animals may be classified with reference to their uses as 
 beasts of burden, of draught, etc. Wild animals, too, 
 may be considered as useful or noxious. Similarly, 
 plants are studied; and even with minerals this may 
 be done. 
 
 Again, natural objects may be considered with refer- 
 ence to the time of their appearance ; yielding ideas of 
 winter and summer fruit ; spring, summer, and fall 
 fiowers, etc. The swallow is recognized as a summer 
 bird, the lark as a spring bird, etc. 
 
 With reference to time and place combined, we may 
 consider the animals, particularly the birds, learning to 
 distinguish these as migratory and resident birds. 
 
 Of great importance in the consideration of animals 
 is their mode of life, yielding ideas of carnivorous, 
 herbivorous, etc., animals. 
 
258 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 Here follows directly, as a new, distinct branch of 
 instruction, the study of natural history^ first in its 
 more descriptive, then in its anatomical and physiology 
 ical features. Similarly, at an earlier period, the con- 
 sideration of natural phenomena depending on the 
 operation of physical forces pointed io jpJiysics as a new 
 branch of instruction ; this is indicated, too, in the study 
 of minerals. 
 
 The consideration of the animals affecting man most 
 nearly through use and injury furnishes the transition 
 from the general observation of nature to physics and 
 natural history. There follows now the distinction 
 between viviparous and oviparous animals — between the 
 oviparous that hatch their eggs, and those that leave the 
 hatching of their eggs to the sun, etc. 
 
 Physics and natural history, subsequently, are con- 
 cerned primarily with external differences and resem- 
 blances, their conditions and causes, their effects and 
 consequences, and, particularly, with the consequent 
 logical grouping of similar natural objects ; with the 
 study of those external properties in which the inner 
 nature of the object finds its most unequivocal and 
 characteristic external expression. 
 
 In thus ascending from the particular to the general, 
 and then descending again from the general to the par- 
 ticular, in this fluctuation of the instruction — more par- 
 ticularly in the observation of the outer world — the 
 course of instruction resembles life closely ; and it be- 
 comes possible to exhaust the limits of knowledge with 
 reference to each subject for each successive stage of 
 mental development and power. 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 259 
 
 Up to this point natural objects have been studied 
 with reference to all obvious, external characteristics of 
 time, place, mode of life, etc. Now the works of man 
 (artificial objects) are to be subjected to a similar exter- 
 nal scrutiny. 
 
 [The pupil * is requested to enumerate the works of 
 man in the surrounding district (the house, the village, 
 the road, the bridge, the wall, the plow, etc.) ; he finds 
 their differences in origin, material, use, and purpose ; 
 he finds those that give him shelter, those that serve as 
 implements, those that facilitate intercourse, those that 
 give pleasure, and those that are simply the products of 
 human skill and thought. 
 
 He finds the characteristics of villages and cities ; of 
 the different private, industrial, and public buildings of 
 a city ; of workshops, factories, stores, and magazines ; 
 of the different kinds of workshops, etc. He studies 
 each workshop and factory with reference to its particu- 
 lar tools and purposes. 
 
 He distinguishes among the various kinds of stores 
 by their contents: those that keep food-products, 
 sold chiefly by weight ; those that keep artificial pro- 
 ducts (dry-goods), sold chiefly by measures of length, 
 etc. 
 
 The public buildings, too, are distinguished and 
 grouped by their purposes and uses, as educational, de- 
 votional, charitable, etc. 
 
 * The matter included in brackets [ — ] is a full synopsis of the sub- 
 jects presented in quasi-catechetical style, as in the outset of this section. 
 — Tr, 
 
260 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 Subsequently, tlie pupil ascends in his study from 
 the work to the workman, from the product to the pro- 
 ducer, from the effect to the cause, therefore from 
 human works to man (as from the study of nature he 
 ascended to her creator, to God). He finds the names 
 of the workmen in different kinds of w^orkshops (carpen- 
 ters, etc.), and classifies these workmen in accordance 
 with the character of the place in which they work, the 
 material on which they work, and the kind of work 
 they do. 
 
 He then learns to classify the various products of 
 human activity in accordance with certain internal 
 characteristics, such as the material of which they are 
 made (stone, earthenware, wood, etc.), the use to which 
 they are put, etc. 
 
 Similarly the uses of public buildings are considered 
 (of the court-house, the school-house, the church, etc.), 
 as well as the official names of the persons who are oc- 
 cupied in these buildings. Cities are then classified. 
 Other occupations of men (hunters, fishermen, etc.) are 
 cpnsidered. 
 
 At last, questions are asked concerning the common 
 features and the ultimate aim of all human work ; and it 
 is found that all men live together, grouped in a com- 
 mon relationship, that of the family.] 
 
 '' Since * all men live and have lived in families, 
 and since the highest and ultimate aim of all men is 
 the clearest consciousness of and purest representation 
 of their God-given nature, where can all men be most 
 
 * On account of the great importance of the family in Froebel's view 
 of education, I here give his complete catechism of this phase.— Jr. 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 261 
 
 surely and effectively prepared and developed for the 
 attainment of this aim ^ " " In the family." " What 
 are the external conditions of a family, and who are its 
 most important members ? " " Father, mother, chil- 
 dren and servants." " What now must be the condi- 
 tion of a family, if it is to prepare and develop the 
 human being for the attainment of the highest and 
 ultimate purpose of life ? " " They must know this ul- 
 timate purpose and the means for its attainment ; they 
 must be agreed concerning the ways and means to be 
 adopted ; they must aid and support each other in all 
 they do, having only this purpose in view." " If a 
 single family should fulfill these conditions, would it 
 thereby be enabled to attain the purpose of man in and 
 through itself ? " " No." " Why not ? " " Because a 
 single family can not possess all the means for this pur- 
 pose." " How, then, can the ultimate purpose of man 
 be attained more easily and surely ? " " When several 
 families, who appreciate the highest purpose of man and 
 who agree concerning the means for its attainment, 
 unite for the sake of aiding and supporting one an- 
 other in this work." " Only humanity as a whole, 
 as a unit, can fully attain the highest and ultimate pur- 
 pose of human striving, the representation of pure hu- 
 manity." 
 
 Thus the pupil in a great meandering circuit has re- 
 turned to the home from which he started ou his explor- 
 ings of nature and the outer world, has returned to the 
 center of all earthly human endeavor ; but with en- 
 larged and keener powers of observation, although the 
 objects of the outer world have been brought to his 
 notice only in their external phases of being. He has 
 19 
 
262 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 found man in his various relations to the things of the 
 outer world ; he has found himself. 
 
 This subject of instruction, as the first one, has been 
 presented in a detailed and suggestive manner, in order 
 to emphasize how all instruction should start from the 
 pupil and his nearest surroundings, and should again 
 return to him. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say that the last of the 
 above answers neither can nor should be given by the 
 pupil in their completeness and connection, even though 
 he may have grown in years ; but the thoughts which 
 they contain should be awakened in the pupil, and for 
 this he is sufiiciently developed even at a comparatively 
 low stage of judgment. 
 
 Nor is it necessary to say that, because instruction is 
 to be connected wholly with the boy's locality, in par- 
 ticular applications all things are to be excluded that lie 
 beyond his circle of experience. It was the intention 
 merely to show how the study of nature and the outer 
 world, in accordance with a law and development of its 
 own, embraces in one unbroken unity all that nature and 
 the outer world may bring to the notice of the student. 
 Yet these considerations will present themselves, for in- 
 stance, in the study of commerce and of the higher 
 mental activities of man, as well as of all the various 
 pursuits of man ; and the more obscure and the rarer 
 they are, the more is it desirable to hold them fast in 
 order to reach with their aid higher and more remote 
 developments. For who can fail to see that the con- 
 tinual extension of, at least, external culture brings to 
 the notice of the inhabitants of even the most secluded 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 263 
 
 spots ever new things, and that the knowledge and con- 
 trol of more remote and higher relations of life are 
 becoming more and more what they ought to be — a 
 task for mankind as a whole. 
 
 Again, it was not deemed necessary to indicate for 
 the thoughtful reader — and only thoughtful persons 
 ought to teach — the various budding-points for each 
 new branch of instruction : e.g., for physics, in the con- 
 sideration of natural phenomena resulting from the ob- 
 vious activity of inner forces ; and for chemistry, in the 
 consideration of other natural phenomena in which the 
 qualities of material were changed through the influence 
 of certain natural energies, such as light or heat, as in 
 the discoloring of leaves in fall, decay, etc. 
 
 In general, it is best that the teacher should find 
 these points himself ; his knowledge will then be more 
 vivid and his instruction will gain in interest. And 
 why should not every thoughtful teacher find the 
 right way in himself, if only he gives himself up in 
 faithful obedience, and without conceit and distrust, to 
 the guidance of the spirit of his work. In all human 
 beings there lives and acts the one divine spirit; 
 therefore, even the most experienced teacher, when 
 he teaches again even the simplest thing, will learn 
 again — will, teaching, learn again — (at least, this is the 
 experience of the writer to this day). How else could 
 the teacher maintain his energy and courage, which 
 are lost so easily through the hinderances and diffi- 
 culties that arbitrary ignorance and prejudice oppose 
 to his work ? 
 
 Hence, it is well to meet at once the objection that 
 it is foolish to expect a boy — particularly between the 
 
264 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 ages of six and eight, as here indicated — to have this de- 
 tailed knowledge of things which even adults scarcely 
 possess. 
 
 It is not the intention that he should possess it, but 
 it should gradually come to him in the course of the 
 instruction ; and it will surely so come to him, as re- 
 peated experience with the course here indicated has 
 abundantly shown. At the same time, it arouses in the 
 pupil such a keenness of observation that scarcely any- 
 thing of importance in the objects around will escape 
 him, and he will readily find the proofs of the teach- 
 ings of earlier lessons. Thus, the young human being 
 learns at an early period to observe and to think,. Be- 
 sides, boys (human beings) know more than they are 
 clearly conscious of. 
 
 It might yet be objected that such a course leads 
 the boy too soon out of his naturally narrow limits, 
 and might render him proud of his varied knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 Varied knowledge in necessary Iwing connection 
 never makes one proud, but causes man to reflect, and 
 teaches him how little he really knows ; thus he is lifted 
 in his humanity and adorned with that most precious 
 jewel, modesty. 
 
 But it is impossible to meet all the objections that 
 have been or might be made. Therefore, we leave the 
 course to the consideration of the reader, though much 
 might yet be said of its importance. Rightly under- 
 stood and handled, it may be used in the least favored 
 schools ; for it places man at an early period in the cen- 
 ter of all and in inner connection with all that is offered 
 to man for his external study. Thus he is led to reflect, 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 265 
 
 and gains an insight into the character, origin, and pur- 
 pose of all things. This, and the proper use of this, is 
 the ultimate aim of all instruction, whatever its name. 
 
 D. MEMORIZING OF SHORT POETICAL REPRESENTATIONS OF NATURE 
 AND LIFE, PARTICULARLY FOR PURPOSES OF SONG. 
 
 § 92. ]S"ature and life, in their phenomena, speak to 
 man at a very early period ; but they speak in tones so 
 low that the still undeveloped sense of the boy, the 
 still untrained ear of man at this stage of development, 
 while hearing these tones, can not interpret them and 
 translate them into its own language. Yet, soon after 
 the first dawn of the consciousness of self as distinct 
 from the outer world, there are aroused in man the 
 longing to understand life and language of the external 
 world, particularly of nature, and the hope that he will 
 one day receive into himself and make his own the life 
 that confronts him on every side. 
 
 The seasons come and go as regularly as the times of 
 the day : Spring, with its tide of new growth and wealth 
 of blossoms, tills man (even in boyhood) with gladness 
 and new life ; the blood flows faster and the heart beats 
 louder. Autumn, with its falling brilliant and fragrant 
 leaves, fills man (even as boy) with a sense of longing 
 and hope. And rigid but clear and steady winter 
 awakens courage and vigor ; and these feelings of cour- 
 age, vigor, perseverance, and renunciation fill the boy's 
 soul with a sense of freedom and joy. Therefore, the 
 joy with which he greets the first flowers and birds of 
 spring is scarcely as jubilant as that with which he 
 hails the first snowflakes that promise to his vigor and 
 
266 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 courage a smooth, quick road on which to fly to the dis- 
 tant goal.* 
 
 All these things are presentiments of later life — 
 hieroglyphics of a still-life slumbering as yet in the 
 soul ; rightly understood, they are angels that guide 
 man through life. Therefore, man should not lose 
 them ; they should not vanish in empty vapor and mist. 
 
 What, indeed, is there in our life, if childhood and 
 youth were poor and empty, void of vigorous, living 
 forms, of the sense of longing, hope, and faith that lifts 
 life, deprived of the sense and consciousness of our 
 nobler self ? Are not childhood and youth, are not the 
 longings, the hope and faith of childhood and youth, 
 the exhaustless fountains of strength, courage, and per- 
 severance in later life? Do not the words, "The 
 heavens declare the glory of God," etc., and " Blessed 
 is he who fears the Lord," etc., express the funda- 
 mental thought of the psalmist's life, in spite of all 
 his errors ? 
 
 Even though this was not expressed in words in his 
 earliest life, it yet appears from his later life that it 
 moved and lived in him even in his earliest life. And 
 did not the first of these psalms mirror his observation 
 of nature, and the second his observation of life ? 
 
 Was not this, too, the fundamental thought in the 
 life of the Saviour? Witness his sayings: "Consider 
 the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. God 
 clothes and feeds them ; how much more will he care 
 for man, his child, in all the events of Kfe ? " and " I 
 must be about my Father's business ! " Are not both 
 
 * A reference to skating and coasting, the boy's delight in winter. — Tr. 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 267 
 
 of these based upon a thoughtful observation of nature 
 and life ? 
 
 However, not only do nature and life speak to man, 
 but man, too, would express the thoughts and feelings 
 that are awakened in him, and for which he can not 
 find words ; and these should be given him in accord- 
 ance with the requirements of his soul-development. 
 
 The relation between man and man is neither as 
 superficial as some people suppose nor as readily com- 
 municable in its inwardness as others think. It is, in- 
 deed, of deep meaning and high significance ; but its 
 soft chords must be early cared for in the boy, though 
 rather more indirectly and by reflection than directly 
 in argument and precept. The direct precept fetters, 
 hinders, represses ; it drills the child and makes a pup- 
 pet of him. The indirect suggestion — e. g., in the mir- 
 ror of a song without moralizing applications — gives to 
 the soul and will of the boy inner freedom, which is so 
 necessary for his development and growth ; only, here 
 again, the outer and inner life of the boy — and this is 
 the first and indispensable requisite — must be in full 
 accord with it. 
 
 The more rarely and vaguely this may appear in 
 life, the more it should be fostered wherever it is pos- 
 sible to do so. Even instruction that scarcely touches 
 life — even the school, generally quite distinct from life 
 — should foster it. 
 
 Let us enter a school-room — a school-room where 
 instruction in this sense and spirit has just begun. 
 Twelve or more lively boys, six to nine years old, are 
 assembled. They know that to-day again they are to 
 
268 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 have the pleasure of singing under the guidance of their 
 teacher. In proper order thej await the beginning of 
 the instruction, of the lesson, as they call it. The teach- 
 er had been called away in the afternoon ; it is evening. 
 He enters, and greets them repeatedly in song : 
 
 \^~ 
 
 t^ 
 
 Good even 
 
 This song-greeting comes unexpectedly so near their 
 inner life that it fills them with pleasure, joy, and mer- 
 riment. 
 
 Then the teacher says : " Shall I have no answer? " 
 and sings again the same greeting. Most of them an- 
 swer in spoken words, " Good evening " ; some say, 
 " Thanks " ; a few say, in a more singing tone, " Good 
 evening." 
 
 These the teacher now addresses particularly, saying, 
 "Sing the *Good evening' tome." Softly one sings, 
 
 m 
 
 Good even - ing. 
 
 A second one, full of merriment, 
 
 A- 
 
 Good even 
 
 A third, 
 
 ^ 
 
 ing. 
 
 ^^ 
 
 Good even 
 
 mg. 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 
 
 269 
 
 Others whom the teacher addresses sing in about the 
 same tone after him, " Good evening." 
 
 Then he sings to all as the first, second, etc., had 
 answered, and has all to repeat these strains after him. 
 
 He then continues recitatively, as it were : 
 
 I^PE 
 
 I 
 
 Bleak and win - try is tlie sky. 
 
 " Is this true ? " he asks. '' Well, then, let us sing 
 it all together." 
 
 Again he continues : 
 
 e 
 
 -jt=^ 
 
 1 
 
 Winds whis - tie through the tree - tops. 
 
 " Is this, also, true ? Well, then, let us sing this to- 
 gether." Then one who feels and can express the truth 
 of these words most fully, sings it alone. 
 
 Following the feelings awakened by the season, and 
 expressing them in the description of the natural phe- 
 nomena, the instruction proceeds in antiphonic song. 
 
 The instruction is to develop ear and voice simulta- 
 neously ; it is to express the feeling in word and sound. 
 If on the next day the external circumstances are simi- 
 lar to those of to-day, instruction again begins and con- 
 tinues similarly. At last, a lively boy, having sung the 
 same thing again and again, asks : '' May we not soon 
 have a song about the sunshine ? " This question ex- 
 presses the boy's inner wish that the sun might shine 
 again after the long-continued rain and fog and blus- 
 
270 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 tering wind. The teacher, responding to this feeling, 
 sings to the boy : 
 
 w= 
 
 I 
 
 t=^ 
 
 ffi 
 
 E^ 
 
 e 
 
 Sunshine, laughing, sparkling, bright; Sunshine, laugh a- way the night. 
 
 Full of joy, all the boys repeat it together. 
 
 These first lessons have been selected here, because 
 their topic is by no means the most favorable. Bleak, 
 chilly fall-days, a wet and cold evening, do not call 
 forth the inner life. The morning, the spring, a walk 
 on a beautiful spring day, a cozy place on the slope of a 
 hill, etc., would have been better fitted to arouse inner 
 life. However, the boys whose expectation has been 
 stimulated by this instruction surely will welcome only 
 the more joyously the first clear day, revealing tha 
 fields clothed in their dress of snow, or the first clear, 
 serene moonlit and starlit evening. Only the more fer^ 
 vently and feelingly will they sing to the new spring : 
 Welcome to the warm blue sky, 
 Welcome to the blossoms gay. 
 Welcome grass and herbs and leaves. 
 Decking fields and groves for May. 
 or some other suitable spring song. There are many 
 well-known good collections of songs and small poems 
 from which selections may be made by a teacher living 
 in his work and filled with a sense of its worth. If 
 these are not sufficiently simple and impressive in de- 
 scription or representation of particular sentiments or 
 thoughts, an attentive, thoughtful teacher can easily in- 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 271 
 
 terpret the thoughts and feelings of the boys as well as 
 the phases of nature in living, fitting words. 
 
 [Here follow a few quotations of songs referring to 
 a number of varied relationships : songs in which the 
 children view their own life (Oh, how great is our 
 pleasure. When together w^e plaj, When alone without 
 playmates. We are never so gay) ; songs in which indi- 
 vidual life is pictured (Come, little dove, and get your 
 food, The corn in my hand is sweet and good) ; songs 
 that symbolize the life of animals (songs of birds and 
 bees, illustrating affection and industry) ; songs concern- 
 ing the relations of human beings to one another (songs 
 of mother-love, of trades, of helpfulness and sym- 
 pathy) ; etc.] 
 
 We should not forget, however, that this instruction 
 — if, in view of its representing the child's own life, it 
 may be called instruction — should start from the pupil's 
 own life, and proceed from it like a bud or sprout. The 
 boy should have the feeling, the inner life, before he 
 receives the words or melodies. This is the essential 
 difference between the instruction suggested here and 
 that in which children learn mechanically small songs 
 and poems coming wholly from without, neither arous- 
 ing life nor representing it. 
 
 In general, indeed, all that was said concerning the 
 memorizing of religious maxims — particularly at the 
 outset — is true here. 
 
 [Like other material of instruction, songs should not at these 
 early periods be learned for their own sake. They should come as 
 the quasi-spontaneous expression of certain emotional conditions, as 
 language expresses spontaneously certain intellectual states. The 
 teacher should bring the song at the right time as her own way of 
 
2T2 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 expressing delight or some other feeling, should sing it to enliven the 
 game or the work, or after a suitable story. In this way the interest 
 of the majority of the children would be enlisted ; they would get 
 the spirit of the song, and would be able to repeat or use much, pos- 
 sibly all, of it after the very first time. 
 
 Of course, much depends on the character of the song and its 
 adaptation to the child's wants. Much hinderance, too, comes from 
 the excessive use of the piano. This instrument should not be used 
 until the children thoroughly possess the song, so that the instru- 
 ment may accompany them instead of teaching them. Because of 
 the unavoidable inaccuracies of its intervals it is a poor teacher, but 
 by good tempering it may be made a helpful accompanist. 
 
 The words of the song should be neither too puerile, as in " Little 
 Bo Peep," nor beyond the child's comprehension ; the pitch of the 
 melodies should be neither too high nor, particularly, too low. The 
 singing of scales and interval exercises should be relegated to later 
 periods. Even, with the help of colors, these exercises are unsuitable 
 for earlier periods, inasmuch as they give too much prominence to 
 singing as a branch of instruction. — Tr.] 
 
 E. LANGUAGE-EXERCISES, BASED ON THE OBSERVATION OF NATURE 
 AND SURROUNDINGS. 
 
 § 93. The observation of nature and surroundings 
 considers things merely as such with reference to their 
 individual peculiarities and their general, more particu- 
 larly local, relations. Language, as a means of observa- 
 tion, plays a subordinate part in this ; for man observes 
 things and forms ideas concerning them without speak, 
 ing ; but in instruction language comes in as an auxil- 
 iary in order to furnish tests of the extent and accuracy 
 of the pupil's observations. 
 
 Now language-exercises, too, are connected with ob- 
 jects, but they consider objects with reference to their 
 impressions on the senses, and are chiefly concerned 
 with the designations of these things in words. 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 273 
 
 Observation of nature and surroundings is con- 
 cerned with the objects themselves, language-exercises 
 chieflj with their representation m audible speech, and 
 particularly with practice and skill in language as a 
 means of representation, though in intimate connection 
 with the objects themselves. The observation of nature 
 and surroundings asks : " What is ? " Language-exer- 
 cise asks : " How does language designate that which 
 is?" 
 
 "While the observation of nature and surroundings 
 considers only the object as such, language-exercises 
 consider its effect on the senses of man and the proper 
 designation of these impressions by words. This im- 
 plies at once a third field of observation, the observation 
 of language as such and without reference to the object 
 designated, but only as a result of the use of the organs 
 of speech. These are grammatical exercises, and are 
 based directly on the language-exercises. 
 
 Complete preparation for a thorough knowledge of 
 language and thorough skill in its use implies, therefore, 
 three things : First, the observation of the sensuous ob- 
 jects of language — the observation of the outer world ; 
 secondly, the observation of language and objects in 
 connection with one another, passing from the outer to 
 the inner world — exercises in language ; lastly, observa- 
 tion of language as such, without reference to the ob- 
 jects designated — grammatical exercises. 
 
 The course of instruction in the observation of sur- 
 roundings has already been indicated. The course of 
 instruction in language-exercises, based on sense-observa- 
 tion and rising to inner perception, is the following : 
 
274 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 The teacher begins : " We are in a room ; many 
 things are around us; name some of these things?" 
 " Mirror, stove, book-case, etc." " Could we put other 
 things into the room ? " " Yes." " Could we put as 
 many things into the room as we please ? " " ISTo." 
 " Why not ? " " Because there would not be room 
 enough for them." "Why would there not be room 
 enough ? " " Because each thing takes up its own 
 room." "Prove and illustrate that." "My hand can 
 not be where my slate is. Where I write, my neighbor 
 can not write at the same time. Where the stove 
 stands, there is not room at the same time for the book- 
 case." " What is meant, then, by saying that each 
 thing takes up its own room?" "Where one thing is 
 or acts, no other thing can be or act." 
 
 " In what manner and by what means do you per- 
 ceive the presence and actions of things in their 
 places?" "By my hands, ears, eyes, etc." " We call 
 the organs by which we perceive things our eyes, ears, 
 hands, etc., and the activities by which we do this — 
 hearing, seeing, touching, etc. — our senses. We per- 
 ceive things, then, by our senses." " How do we 
 recognize and perceive things? Name the senses by 
 which we recognize and perceive an object and its 
 actions. Can we say of every object that it does some- 
 thing?" "Yes, and no." "Why? !Name of every 
 object around us something it does, and by which you 
 notice it." "The mirror hangs, the sun shines, the 
 scholar sits, etc." 
 
 [Froebel here continues in the same strain to develop 
 successively a number of related ideas, as indicated in 
 the subjoined translator's synopsis : 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 2Y5 
 
 First, tlie fact is brought out that these things are 
 perceived by diiferent senses — some chiefly by sight, 
 others by hearing, etc. Particular attention is then paid 
 to the sense of touch as perceiving that the inkstand 
 stands, the slate lies, etc. ; and it is found that the same 
 things may also be perceived by the sense of sight. 
 Then objects are named which actually stand — the house 
 stands, the pole stands, etc. ; others of which it is said 
 that they stand (still) — the water stands (still), the sun 
 stands (still), etc. Then objects are named that lie^ lean, 
 hang, sit, etc., and others that are said to lie, lean, etc. 
 It is found that all these activities have this in common, 
 that they are only internal and without external motion. 
 States of internal activity with external rest in man are 
 then enumerated — man rests, sleeps, dreams, thinks, etc. ; 
 objects that actually rest, sleep, etc. ; objects that show 
 external and at the same time progressive motion — go, 
 run, flow, fly, etc. ; objects with externally visible mo- 
 tion without progression — heave, swell, boil, ripen, etc. ; 
 objects with external progressive motion communicated 
 to other objects — draw, ride, lift, etc. ; separating activi- 
 ties — cut, break, etc. ; uniting activities — bind, weave, 
 etc. ; formative activities — paint, write, etc. ; activities 
 that can be seen only — shine, sparkle, etc. ; activities 
 that can be felt only — ^hurt, heat, etc. ; that can be heard 
 only ; general activities of nature — storm, rain, etc. ; ob- 
 jects with chiefly inner mental activity — love, hate, etc. ; 
 with reflexive activity — cut one's self, wash one's self, 
 etc. ; activities exclusively belonging to man ; peculiar- 
 ities of such activities. 
 
 It is then found that objects impress the senses not 
 only by activities, but also by certain qualities; it is 
 
276 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 found that the inkstand is round, the pencil long, etc. ; 
 many other actually round things are found; things 
 that are said to be round — round number, round answer, 
 etc, ; the distinction between the roundness of the circle 
 (circular) and that of the sphere (spherical) is made, and 
 objects that have these shapes are named ; from these 
 he proceeds to cylindrical, oval, elhptical, triangular, etc., 
 and all these impressions are united as impressions of 
 form or shajpe. Similarly, broad, narrow, thick, etc., 
 are classed as impressions of size or extent / others as 
 impressions of numler, surface impressions, material 
 impressions (wooden, leaden, etc.), of cohesion (hard, 
 solid, etc.), of light and color, of odor, etc.] 
 
 The observation of surroundings has already shown 
 clearly the budding-points for the development of phys- 
 ics and chemistry as future distinct subjects of instruc- 
 tion (see § 91). Language-exercises, based on the obser- 
 vation of nature and surroundings, in considering the 
 activities and impressions of objects, and their precise 
 and accurate designation by words, must revert to phys- 
 ics and chemistry. They will do this the more directly, 
 the more exhaustively the conditions and causes of those 
 activities and impressions which result from the effects 
 of inner forces and constituent material have been 
 studied and the more suitably they have been designated 
 by language. Surely the physical and chemical sides of 
 nature-study, so important for man, will strike their 
 roots the deeper in the pupil's interest the more this in- 
 struction has been exhaustive of essentials. 
 
 Unquestionably these sides of nature- and language- 
 study receive too little attention in ordinary life ; for 
 this reason, and because they prepare for the study of 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 277 
 
 physics and chemistry, they should be specially consid- 
 ered in this instruction, otherwise the future instruction 
 in those sciences will have no basis ; it will not be a 
 living branch sprouting forth spontaneously from the 
 tree. of human knowledge, but, at best, an ingrafted 
 limb. Surely many whose senses and interest have not 
 been awakened in these directions in boyhood, but who, 
 nevertheless, at a later period took up these sciences, 
 can corroborate this. 
 
 On account of the importance of these studies, to 
 which these lauguage-exercises revert again and again, 
 the subject is treated so much in its details. The boy 
 is thereby placed in the very center of the surrounding 
 external world, inasmuch as he studies things in the 
 most varied relations to one another, to man, and to 
 himself ; thus he finds not only himself, but establishes 
 equilibrium and harmony between his inner mental cult- 
 ure and the outer world of things. 
 
 The study of number, form, and size — or mathe- 
 matics — is a direct outcome of this instruction; the 
 budding-points (see § 91) for these are evident in what 
 has been indicated heretofore. For the knowledge of 
 number, form, and size — if at a later period they are to 
 be effective and fruitful in life — must needs be based on 
 the observation of actual space-relations. 
 
 [Froebel then continues his suggestions concerning 
 the course of language-lessons: "You said formerly, 
 ' The bush is thorny,' etc." They are taught to render 
 the same thoughts in the form : " The bush has thorns, 
 the tree has leaves," etc. Then they name similar rela- 
 tions in which " one thing has the other thing. Man 
 
 has hands, the hands have fingers," etc. ; they name 
 
 20 
 
278 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 things that have a skin, scales, feathers, etc. ; thej are 
 led to say where one thing has the other thing : " The 
 tree has leaves on the branches," etc. ; they name things 
 that are at rest in some way on another thing : " The pict- 
 ure hangs on the wall," etc. ; other relations of position 
 (at, over, under, between, etc.) are named and variously 
 illustrated ; the name-relations of position in which one 
 of the objects is in motion with reference to the other 
 — the teacher comes to school, the bird flies on the tree, 
 etc. ; the two relations are compared — the picture hangs 
 on the wall, the picture is hung on the wall, etc. He 
 concludes the paragraph in the following words :] 
 
 The further presentation of this subject of instruc- 
 tion must here be interrupted for want of space. Let 
 me merely add that, in designating these relations in 
 language, we should proceed from the simple to the 
 complex, and conclude with a comprehensive description 
 or narrative exposition of actual phenomena. 
 
 p. EXERCISE IN SYSTEMATIC OUTWARD CORPOREAL REPRESENTATION, 
 PROCEEDING FROM THE SIMPLE TO THE COMPLEX. 
 
 § 94. Man is developed and cultured toward the 
 fulfillment of his destiny and mission, and is to be valued, 
 even in boyhood, not only by what he receives and ab- 
 sorbs from without, but much more by what he puts 
 out and unfolds from himself. 
 
 Experience and history, too, teach that men truly 
 and effectively promote human welfai*e much more by 
 what they put forth from themselves than by what they 
 may have acquired. Every one knows that those who 
 truly teach, gain steadily in knowledge and insight ; 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 279 
 
 Bimilarly, every one knows, for nature herself teaches 
 this, that the use of a force enhances and intensifies the 
 force. Again, to learn a thing in life and through do- 
 ing is much more developing, cultivating, and strength- 
 ening, than to learn it merely through the verbal com- 
 munication of ideas. Similarly, plastic material rep- 
 resentation in life and through doing, united with 
 thought and speech, is by far more developing and cul- 
 tivating than the merely verbal representation of ideas. 
 Therefore, this subject of instruction necessarily follows 
 the subjects just considered. 
 
 The life of the boy has, indeed, no purpose but that 
 of the outer representation of his self; his life is, in 
 truth, but an external representation of his inner being, 
 of his power, particularly in and through (plastic) ma- 
 terial (see § 23, 49). 
 
 In the forms he fashions he does not see outer forms 
 which he is to take in and understand ; but he sees in 
 them the expression of his spirit, of the laws and ac- 
 tivities of his own mind. For the purpose of teaching 
 and instruction is 
 
 to bring ever more out of man rather than to put 
 more and more vnto him ; for that which can get into 
 man we already know and possess as the property of 
 mankind, and ^iWQYj one, simply because he is g, hu- 
 man being, will unfold and develop it out of himself 
 in accordance with the laws of mankind. On the 
 other hand, what yet is to come out of mankind, 
 what human nature is yet to develop, that we do not 
 yet know, that is not yet the property of mankind ; 
 and, still, human nature, like the spirit of God, is 
 ever unfolding its inner essence. 
 
280 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 However clearly this might and should appear from 
 the observation of our own and all other life, even the 
 best among us, like plants near a calcareous spring, are 
 so encrusted with extraneous prejudices and opinions, 
 that only with greatest effort and self -constraint we give 
 even limited heed to the better view. Let us confess at 
 least that, when, with the best intentions toward our 
 children, we speak of their development and education, 
 we should rather say 67^velopment and education ; that 
 we should not even speak of culture which implies the 
 development of the mind, of the will of man, but rather 
 of stamping and molding, however proudly we may 
 claim to have passed beyond these mind-killing practices. 
 
 Those to whom we intrust our children for educa- 
 tion may, therefore, well be full of anxiety. What 
 shall they do ? 
 
 Jesus, whom we all from innermost conviction con- 
 sider our highest ideal, says : " Suffer the little children 
 to come unto me, and forbid them not : for of such is 
 the kingdom of God." Is not the meaning of this : 
 Forbid them not, for the life given them by their 
 heavenly Father still lives in them in its original whole- 
 ness — its free unfolding is still possible with them. Do 
 we not in this, as in all that Jesus says, recognize the 
 voice of God ? Whom, now, shall the educator obey, 
 God or man ? And whom, if he could do so, shall he 
 deceive, God or man ? 
 
 God he can not deceive, and men he should not de- 
 ceive. Therefore, he should obey God rather than 
 men, and he should say distinctly that he means to obey 
 God rather than men, and do so ; he should rather not 
 educate at all than to educate badly and in wrong direc- 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 281 
 
 tions. For God, and not prejudiced man, gives the true 
 educator his calling ; for only in all-sided, natural, and 
 rational development of himself and his spiritual power 
 man iinds his welfare and the welfare of mankind, and 
 'every other course hinders the true development of 
 mankind. 
 
 But just with respect to natural and rational all- 
 sided development and representation of ourselves in 
 external visible works, in external productive activity, 
 our domestic education is most superficial and unsys- 
 tematic ; therefore, domestic education is particularly in 
 need of schooling — i. e., induction into a natural and 
 rational system of procedure. 
 
 The outer material representation of the spiritual in 
 man must begin with efforts on his part to spiritualize 
 the corporeal about him by giving it life and a spiritual 
 relation and significance. 
 
 This is indicated in the course of development of 
 mankind itself : the corporeal material with which the 
 representation of the spiritual is to begin must present 
 and distinctly declare even in its external form the 
 laws and conditions of inner development — it must be 
 rectangular, cubical, beam-shaped, and brick-shaped. 
 
 The formations made with this material are either 
 external aggregations — constructive — or developments 
 from -wiiYLm— formative. 
 
 Building, aggregation, is first with the child, as it is 
 first in the development of mankind, and in crystalli- 
 zation. 
 
 The importance of the vertical, the horizontal, and 
 the rectangular is the first experience which the boy 
 gathers from his building ; then follow equilibrium and 
 
282 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 symmetry. Thus he ascends from the construction of the 
 simplest wall with or without cement to the more com- 
 plex and even to the invention of every architectural 
 structure lying within the possibilities of the given 
 material. 
 
 Laying or arranging tablets beside one another on a 
 plane has much less charm for the boy than placing or 
 piling them on one another — a clear proof of the ten- 
 dency of the mind for all-sided development, manifested 
 in all his activities. 
 
 The joining of lines seems to come still later. Thus, 
 the course of human development and culture seems to 
 free itself more and more from corporeality, to become 
 more and more spiritualized ; drawing takes the place 
 of the joining of concrete lines or splints ; painting, the 
 place of tablet-work ; true modeling, the corporeal de- 
 velopment from cubical forms, the place of corporeal 
 building. 
 
 In spite of this obvious, living, progressive develop- 
 ment from the external and corporeal to the inner and 
 spiritual, in spite of this continuous progression in the 
 growth of human culture, some nevertheless are in- 
 clined to doubt the utility of these exercises for children. 
 
 And yet even these could not have reached the de- 
 gree of general culture they enjoy, if Providence — rul- 
 ing in secret — had not led them on this very way, either 
 without their knowledge or through their own persever- 
 ance against the opposition of their surroundings. 
 
 Man should, at least mentally, repeat the achieve- 
 ments of mankind, that they may not be to him empty, 
 dead masses, that his judgment of them may not be ex- 
 ternal and spiritless; he should mentally go over the 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 283 
 
 ways of mankind, tliat lie may learn to understand them. 
 IN'evertheless some are inclined to consider these things 
 useless in the boyhood of their children (see § 15). 
 
 Perhaps, however, it is not necessary to go so far ; 
 but you do know that your sons need energy, judgment, 
 perseverance, prudence, etc., and that these things are in- 
 dispensable to them ; and all these things they are sure to 
 get (in the course indicated), and by far more, for idle- 
 ness, ennui, ignorance, brooding, are the most terrible 
 of poisons to growing childhood and boyhood, and their 
 opposites a panacea of mental and physical health, of 
 domestic and civil welfare. 
 
 The course of instruction here, too, determines itself, 
 as it does, indeed, in all cases when we have found the 
 true starting-point, when we have apprehended the sub- 
 ject of instruction and grasped its pui-pose. 
 
 The material for building in the beginning should 
 consist of a number of wooden blocks, whose base is 
 always one square inch and whose length varies from 
 one to twelve inches. If, then, we take twelve pieces 
 of each length, two sets — e. g., the pieces one and eleven, 
 the pieces two and ten inches long, etc. — will always 
 make up a layer an inch thick and covering one square 
 foot of surface ; so that all the pieces, together with a 
 few larger pieces, occupy a space of somewhat more 
 than half a cubic foot. It is best to keep these in a box 
 that has exactly these dimensions ; such a box may be 
 used in many other ways in instruction, as will appear 
 in the progress of the boy's development. 
 
 The material next to this will consist of building- 
 bricks of such dimensions that eight of them will form 
 
284 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 a cube of two inches to the side. In the former set of 
 blocks there was the same number of each kind and 
 length. In this set, the greatest number of blocks — at 
 least live hundred — are of the described brick-shape and 
 size ; in addition there are successively smaller numbers 
 of twice, thrice, to six times the length indicated, as 
 well as some of half the length. 
 
 The first thing the boy should learn is to distinguish, 
 name, and classify the material according to size. Dur- 
 ing the progress of building, too, it should always be 
 carefully arranged according to size. In the next place, 
 all that has been produced should be carefully and ac- 
 curately described by the boy — e. g., I have built a ver- 
 tical wall with vertical ends, a door, and two windows 
 at equal distances ; the bricks are placed alternately, or 
 so that in each upper row each brick rests on and covers 
 the ends of two bricks below. 
 
 Subsequently, a simple building with only one door 
 may be put up ; then, the number of doors and windows 
 is increased ; at last, partitions, another story, etc., are 
 added. 
 
 Similar considerations control the work with tablets, 
 although the forms are more complicated. Still greater 
 diversity is attainable wdth linear splints one half to five 
 inches long, with special reference to writing, drawing, 
 and building. 
 
 Modeling with paper and paste-board has its peculiar 
 progressive course. 
 
 Still more profitable, but only for those who have 
 attained a certain degree of mental power, is the model- 
 ing of plastic soft material in accordance with the laws 
 indicated by the cubical form. However, this, as well 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 285 
 
 as the free modeling of the same material, belongs to a 
 later part of the period of boyhood. 
 
 [In this and the succeeding paragraphs we have the first indica- 
 tions of the sytem of gifts and occupations subsequently developed in 
 Froebel's kindergarten. Even at the date of the publication of 
 " Education of Man," Froebel appreciated the value of simple play- 
 things, but, as the paragraphs here translated show, his ideas on 
 the subject were still crude. Not before 1835, he gained from some 
 children playing ball in a meadow near Burgdorf the inspiration 
 that the hall is the simplest and as such should be made the first 
 plaything of the little child. In 1836 he had reached the first five 
 gifts, and even among these the second gift lacked the cylinder, and 
 the fifth gift consisted of twenty-seven entire cubes. The cylinder 
 was added to the second gift, probably not before 1844, when the 
 idea of the external mediation of contrasts in educational work was 
 first clearly seen and formulated by him. In a weekly journal which 
 Froebel began to publish in 1850, a System of Gifts arid Occupa- 
 tions, similar to the one now used in kindergartens, is described. 
 These are arranged by Hanschmannin thirty-six gifts, by Marenholtz- 
 Biilow in eleven gifts .and eight occupations, with the promise of 
 more for advanced work. A few modifications and additions have 
 been made since Froebel's death. So far as they seem to be in ac- 
 cordance with Froebel's thought, they have been embodied with the 
 Synoptical Table given below. This table gives a concise description 
 of each gift where this appeared desirable ; and, in the first six gifts, 
 a few words are added in brackets, [ ], designating in order the chief 
 external (1) and internal (2) characteristic of the gift, and the essen- 
 tial lesson (3) which the gift, could it speak, is meant to teach the 
 child. 
 
 SYNOPTICAL TABLE OF GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 Gifts. 
 
 A. Bodies (Solids). 
 
 I. [Color (1) ;— Individuality (2) ;— " We are here ! " (3).] Six 
 colored worsted balls, about an inch and a half in diam- 
 eter.— i^iVs^ Gift. 
 IL [Shape (1) ; — Personality (2) ; — " We live ! " (3) .] Wooden 
 ball, cylinder, and cube, one inch and a half in diameter. 
 — Second Gift 
 
286 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 III. [Number (divisibility) (1) ;— Self-activity (2) ;— " Come, play 
 
 with us (3)."] Eight one-inch cubes, forming a two-inch 
 cube (2 X 2 X 2).— Third Gift. 
 
 IV. [Extent (1) ; — Obedience (2); — "Study us!" (3).] Eight 
 
 brick-shaped blocks (2 x 1 x ^), forming a two-inch cube. 
 —Fourth Gift. 
 V. [Symmetry (1) ;— Unity (2) ;— " How beautiful ! " (3) .] Twenty- 
 seven one-inch cubes, three bisected and three quadrisected 
 diagonally, forming a three-inch cube ( 3 x 3 x 3). — Fifth 
 Gift. 
 VI. [Proportion (1); — Free obedience (2); — "Be our master!" 
 (3).] Twenty-seven brick-shaped blocks, three bisected 
 longitudinally and six bisected transversely, forming a 
 three-inch cube. — Sixth Gift. 
 
 B. Surfaces. — Wooden i&b\Qts.— Seventh Gift. 
 
 I. Squares (derived from the faces of the second or third gift 
 
 cubes). 
 
 1. Entire squares (one-and-a-half in. square or one-inch 
 square). 
 
 2. Half squares (squares cut diagonally). 
 
 II. Equilateral triangles (length of side, one inch, or one inch 
 and a half). 
 
 1. Entire triangles. 
 
 3. Half triangles (the equilateral triangle is cut in the 
 direction of the altitude, yielding right scalene tri- 
 angles, acute angles of 60° and 30°). 
 
 3. Thirds of triangles (the equilateral triangle is cut 
 from the center to the vertices, yielding obtuse isosceles 
 triangles, angles 30° and 120°). 
 
 C. LmES.— Eighth Gift. 
 
 I. Straight. (Splints of various lengths.) 
 
 II. Circular. (Metal or paper rings of various sizes ; whole cir- 
 
 cles, half circles, and quadrants are used.) 
 
 D. Points. — Beans, lentils, or other seeds, leaves, pebbles, pieces of 
 
 card-board or paper, etc. — Ninth Gift. 
 
 E. Reconstruction. — (By analysis the " system " has descended 
 
 from the solid to the point. This last gift enables the child 
 to reconstruct the surface and solid synthetically from the 
 point. It consists of softened pease or wax pellets and sharp- 
 ened sticks or straws.) — 2'enth Gift, 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 287 
 
 Occnpations. 
 
 A. Solids. (Plastic clay, card-board work, wood-carving, etc.) 
 
 B. Surfaces. (Paper-folding, paper-cutting, parquetry, painting, 
 
 etc.) 
 
 C. Lines. (Interlacing, intertwining, weaving, thread games, em- 
 
 broidery, drawing, etc.) 
 
 D. Points. (Stringing beads, buttons, etft. ; perforating, etc.) 
 
 The distinction between the gifts and occupations, though never 
 clearly formulated by Froebel, is very important. The gifts are in- 
 tended to give the child from time to time new universal aspects of 
 the external world, suited to a child's development. The occupations^ 
 on the other hand, furnish material for practice in certain phases of 
 skill. Anything will do for an occupation, provided it is sufficiently 
 plastic and within the child's powers of control ; but the gift in form 
 and material is determined by the cosmic phase to be brought to the 
 child's apprehension, and by the condition of the child's development 
 at the period for which the gift is intended. Thus, nothing but the 
 First Gift can so effectively arouse in the child's mind the feeling 
 and consciousness of a world of individual things; but there are 
 numberless occupations that will enable the child to become skillful 
 in the manipulation of surfaces. 
 
 The gift gives the child a new cosmos, the occupation fixes the 
 impressions made by the gift. The gift invites only arranging ac- 
 tivities ; the occupation invites also controlling, modifying, trans- 
 forming, creating activities. The gift leads to discovery ; the oc- 
 cupation, to invention. The gift gives insight; the occupation, 
 power. 
 
 The occupations are one-sided ; the gifts, many-sided, universal. 
 The occupations touch only certain phases of being ; the gifts en- 
 list the whole being of the child. 
 
 Froebel has formulated four conditions which true gifts should 
 satisfy : 
 
 1. They should, each in its time, fully represent the child's outer 
 world, his macrocosm. 
 
 2. They should, each in its time, enable the child to give satis- 
 factory expression in play to his inner world, his microcosm. 
 
 3. Each gift should, therefore, in itself represent a complete, 
 orderly whole or unit. 
 
288 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 4. Each gift should contain all the preceding, and foreshadow 
 all the succeeding gifts. 
 
 In short, each gift should, in due time and in the widest sense, 
 aid the child " to make the external internal, the internal external, 
 and to find the unity between the two." — Tr.] 
 
 G. DRAWING IN THE NET-WORK, OR IN ACCORDANCE WITH OUTWARD 
 
 LAW. 
 
 § 95. However little we may appreciate the fact or 
 be able to account for it, the horizontal and vertical 
 directions mediate our apprehension of all forms. We 
 refer, however unconsciously, all forms to these direc- 
 tions. In our imagination we constantly draw these 
 lines across our field of vision ; we see and think accord- 
 ing to these ; and thus there grows in our conscious- 
 ness a net-work of lines keeping pace in clearness and 
 distinctness with our consideration of the forms of 
 things. 
 
 Now form, and whatever may depend on form, 
 reveals in various ways inner spiritual energy. To rec- 
 ognize this inner energy is a part of man's destiny ; for 
 thereby he learns to know himself, his relation to his 
 surroundings, and, consequently, absolute being. It is, 
 therefore, an essential part of human education to teach 
 the human being, not only how to apprehend but also 
 how to represent form ; and, inasmuch as the perpen- 
 dicular relations (of the vertical and horizontal) aid the 
 development of form-consciousness, the external repre- 
 sentation of these relations as a means for the study and 
 representation of form is based on the very nature of 
 man and of the subject of instruction. 
 
 Now, if the representation of the vertical and hori- 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 289 
 
 zontal directions is repeated at regular intervals, the re- 
 sult is a network of equal squares. 
 
 As an auxiliary form, the square very much facili- 
 tates representations in the field of vision, particularly in 
 enlarged and reduced scales. By this fact its use is still 
 further justified. 
 
 The use of the triangle as a help in the study and 
 representation of form is derived, as will be seen in the 
 course of the instruction, from the use of the square. 
 
 In the use of the square, the amount of inclination 
 (of a line) is determined by measurable relations to the 
 sides, but in the use of the triangle it is determined 
 directly by its measurable relation to the perpendicular. 
 Both find their application, and should be practiced in 
 instruction, the latter, however, at a higher stage of de- 
 velopment. 
 
 Another necessary requisite of instruction is not 
 only that the form should be represented with ease, but 
 also that the representation should be easily erased. 
 This is met by the slate and slate-pencil. This, then, 
 implies as the first requisite in this instruction a slate 
 niled in a network of equal squares. 
 
 The size of the squares, too, as will appear in the 
 course of instruction, is by no means indifferent. If 
 the distances between the lines are too small, the repre- 
 sentations will appear trivial ; if the distances are too 
 great, the representations will be too large for the pu- 
 pil's power of simultaneous survey ; the distance of one- 
 fourth inch is the best. 
 
 The first business of this branch of instruction is to 
 exercise the pupil with the help of this ruled slate in the 
 clear representation and, consequently, perception of 
 
290 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 tlie cliief fundamental relations of form and extent. 
 The course of instruction itself is connected with former 
 corporeal perceptions ; where the boy — as was show-- 
 particularly in the previous paragraph — learned to dib- 
 tinguish different lengths. 
 
 Thus, this branch of instruction, too, as will be 
 shown in the course of instruction to be sketched di- 
 rectly, is connected with those previously considered : 
 for, as has been said before, there should be no break 
 anywhere in the instruction, nothing should stand de- 
 tached and isolated ; but, like life itself, all things to- 
 gether, in the living union of cause and effect, should 
 constitute an inwardly connected whole. 
 
 The course of instruction is as follows : 
 In one of the grooved sides of one of the squares 
 the teacher draws a line of the length of this side (one- 
 fourth inch), and says as he draws the line : " I draw a 
 vertical hne." Then he asks the pupil: "What did 
 I do ? " The pupil answers : " You have drawn a 
 vertical line." " Draw now a row of such vertical lines 
 across the slate." When this has been done to the 
 teacher's satisfaction, he continues : " What have you 
 done ? " "I have drawn many vertical lines," the pupil 
 answers. When several pupils are instructed simul- 
 taneously, the teacher, after examining the work of 
 each, may ask them in common : " What have you 
 done?" "We have," etc. 
 
 On account of their varied usefulness, these questions 
 and answers should never be omitted in this branch of 
 instruction ; for man is to translate the representation 
 into word and thought, and interpret word and thought 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 291 
 
 in the representation — this essentially constitutes his 
 humanity. 
 
 [Froebel now continues similarly — drawing and ask- 
 ing questions — with lines of two, three, four, and five 
 times the length of the first, and then goes on :] 
 
 By drawing the lines themselves in the network, the 
 pupil strengthens and liberates his hand, as well as his 
 powers of perception and representation. 
 
 Since, for the purposes of perception and memory, 
 the Goiwparison of dissimilars is more profitable than 
 that of similars, vertical lines of the diflierent lengths are 
 then drawn side by side with the customary comments 
 and exercises. 
 
 The instruction does not here pass beyond the five- 
 fold length, because with the number ^-y^ all subsequent 
 numerical differences are at least indicated. In fact, 
 these differences are indicated already in the numbers 
 one, two, and three, inasmuch as these contain odd, 
 even, square, and cubic numbers ; and nearly all these 
 relations are repeated in the series one to ^yq^ and thus 
 become sufiiciently clear for the purposes of representa- 
 tion. Besides, six is only three doubled or two trebled, 
 and seven in this respect is similar to five ; so that these 
 and all subsequent exercises do not go beyond five. 
 
 In these comparative arrangements of lines, a num- 
 ber of variations may be made to suit the needs particu- 
 larly of weaker pupils. Thus, the lines may have their 
 upper or lower ends lying in the same horizontal line ; 
 in either case, the shortest or the longest line may be 
 drawn first on the right or on the left. Such variations 
 are quite useful, particularly where it is desirable to 
 avoid ennui by presenting the same exercise under 
 
292 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 different forms; yet their use should be left to the 
 teacher. 
 
 {TroMslator' s Synopsis. — In a similar way the hori- 
 zontal lines are worked through. Then vertical and 
 horizontal lines are combined and compared ; for this 
 purpose it is thought best to have the two kinds of lines 
 meet in a point. These combinations may be made in 
 
 different directions, as shown in these figures : | | 
 
 I |. It is suggested that, in order to facilitate com- 
 parison, the longer lines should always include the 
 shorter ones, thus : 
 
 r n 
 
 Subsequently, the vertical and horizontal lines differ 
 in length, one being made two, three, etc., times the 
 length of the other ; or one half, one third, etc., of the 
 other. Considerable stress is laid on this genetic differ- 
 ence : when the shorter line is drawn first, the longer 
 line appears as a multiple of the shorter; when the 
 longer line is drawn first, the shorter appears as a part 
 of the longer. 
 
 These exercises are followed by the drawing of 
 squares and oblongs. In the latter, the distinction be- 
 tween " long " and " high " oblongs is emphasized ; in 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 293 
 
 the former, the horizontal dimension is greater, in the 
 latter, the vertical dimension is greater. 
 
 Then follow exercises in the drawing of diagonals, 
 the chief purpose of which is " the clear perception and 
 accurate representation of the inclination." In the 
 combinations, a number of characteristic terms help 
 these developments. The diagonal of a square has the 
 full slant ; that of an oblong, in which one side is one 
 haK the other, has the half slants etc. Slanting lines 
 that are nearer the horizontal side of the oblong are said 
 to be falling / others that approach more the vertical 
 side are said to be rising. In the exercises, he begins 
 with lines of full slant drawn outward from a common 
 center in all directions, then inward toward a common 
 center; then follow lines of half -slant, etc., and com- 
 binations of these, exercises with the falling slant 
 preceding those with the rising slant. At first the out- 
 lines of the corresponding squares and oblongs may be 
 drawn, but gradually these are omitted. Another im- 
 portant differentiation lies in the radiation of the slant- 
 ing lines from a common center, and their symmetrical 
 grouping around a common center, which is the center 
 of 2^ figure inclosed by the slanting lines.] 
 
 At this point we reach an entirely new stage of 
 drawing, which indicates at the same time a new stage 
 of development in the pupil — the stage of invention^ of 
 the spontaneous representation of linear wholes with the 
 help of all the lines lying within the law of the network. 
 
 Invention is every spontaneous representation of the 
 inner in and by the outer, adapting itself to given ex- 
 ternal conditions, yet obeying an inner necessity easily 
 
 recognized by the pupil himself. 
 21 
 
294 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 The presentation of a course of study for the inven- 
 tion of figures is reserved for the next scholastic stage. 
 Similarly, the presentation of the variously developing 
 influence of this instruction on true human culture must 
 be reserved for the latter part of a presentation of in- 
 struction in drawing as a whole. 
 
 Only he who has used this course of instruction, not 
 only with others but also with himself, can truly appre- 
 ciate its nature and effect. Indeed, this is the case with 
 every kind of instruction which aims deliberately to 
 awaken energy and life and to give skill and dexterity 
 of representation. 
 
 For the purposes of self -development and of the 
 development of others, at least in essentials, these indi- 
 cations will, however, suffice, especially for him who 
 follows the course step by step, applying it to himself, 
 and who thus finds within himself its simple law. 
 
 The use of this instruction would supply one of the 
 greatest wants of our schools in town and country, and 
 should be introduced in them all. Every intelligent 
 person who looks into the matter will clearly see this ; 
 for this instruction addresses itself equally to the senses, 
 and through them to the power of thought, and to ex- 
 ternal manual activity. Thus, it avoids ennui and lack 
 of occupation so pernicious to those from whom the 
 teacher's attention is called away for a time. So much 
 for the school ; but in addition to this it teaches the eye 
 a knowledge of form and symmetry, and trains the hand 
 in representing them ; and these find much to do in all 
 relations and activities of practical life. Indeed, we 
 have heard of late many impressive complaints concern- 
 ing the great disadvantages resulting to our citizens, 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 295 
 
 more particularly to the artisan and farmer, from the 
 lack of development in the perception and representa- 
 tion of form and symmetry. 
 
 H. STUDY OF colors; COLORING OF OUTLINE-PICTURES; PAINTING IN 
 THE NET-WORK. 
 
 § 96. Every one who is not a total stranger to boy- 
 life will concede that children, particularly in early boy- 
 hood, feel the need of a knowledge of colors and of 
 some degree of occupation with pigments. 
 
 This must be so. It is implied even in the general 
 cause of all activity in the child, in the tendency to de- 
 velop and exercise all his powers in all possible particu- 
 lar phases. This is strengthened by a second reason, 
 even weightier, so far as the inner spiritual develop- 
 ment as such is concerned — by the intimate connection 
 between color and light, by the fact that all colors are 
 determined by greater or smaller degrees of light. 
 
 Color and light again are most intimately connected 
 with life-activity, with all that lifts and varies life. 
 Even mere earthly light points to the heavenly light to 
 which it owes its being and existence. 
 
 Thus, the boy seems to notice or feel the high sig- 
 nificance of color (as he did in another respect of form 
 in nature) as an embodiment, as it were, of earthly light, 
 of sunlight, as a visible revelation of its nature. The 
 hope of thus obtaining with the aid of the colors an 
 insight into the nature of earthly light, of sunlight, is 
 possibly the true, innermost, though sub-conscious, 
 motive of the boy in his eager occupation with colors ; 
 indeed, the experience of boys positively corroborates 
 this. 
 
296 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 It is said, indeed, that colors are variegated, and 
 tliat it is this variegation that attracts children and gives 
 them pleasure. 
 
 Yer J well ; but what is variegation of color ? Is it 
 not the effect of one cause (light) in various phases of 
 appearance (colors) ? 
 
 It is by no means external variegation that attracts 
 the boy and gives him pleasure, for the possession of 
 external variegation does not satisfy him, as, indeed, 
 mere quantity never satisfies him ; the pleasure lies in 
 the finding of the inner connection, in the power to 
 spiritualize it. If it were otherwise, the boy would be 
 satisfied when he is surrounded with an abundance, and 
 a variety of things, and we should not so often hear the 
 reproof addressed to him : " What in the world do you 
 still want ; you have this and this and this, and yet you 
 are not satisfied." 
 
 The boy seeks unity of life, expression of life, con- 
 nection of life — life, indeed. Therefore, variegation of 
 color interests the child ; he is looking for unity in 
 diversity, for inner connection. For this reason he 
 likes to see colors in their combinations, in order to find 
 the inner unity that makes them one. 
 
 Yet, in spite of the high significance of this ten- 
 dency in boyhood, we leave its development toward the 
 knowledge and use of colors to merest chance. 
 
 We give the boys, among many other things, also, 
 paints and brushes, as one gives food to beasts, incon- 
 siderately or good-naturedly ; and they throw them 
 about like their other playthings, as the beasts do un- 
 suitable food. 
 
 What, indeed, should they do with them? They 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 297 
 
 do not know how to give them life and unity ; and we 
 do not help them. 
 
 However distinct and different form and color may- 
 be, to the young boy they are undivided, united, like 
 the body and its life. Indeed, the idea of color seems 
 to come to the boy, as it did possibly to mankind gen- 
 erally, through form; and, conversely, the forms are 
 brought out and nearer through colors. Therefore, the 
 notions of color and form should at first be united and 
 undivided. 
 
 Now, since form and color at first appear to the 
 boy as an undivided whole — but mutually enhance and 
 reveal each other — it is necessary in the development of 
 the color-sense in man by means of observation and 
 representation to consider three things : 
 
 1. That the forms should be simple and definite, 
 wholly adequate to the things to be designated and rep- 
 resented. 
 
 2. That the colors be as pure and distinct as possible, 
 and corresponding with those of the object, particularly 
 if it be a natural object. 
 
 3. That the colors should be studied as nearly as 
 possible in their actually natural relations, in their differ- 
 ences and resemblances. 
 
 As the colors themselves should be studied as defi- 
 nitely as possible in their impressions, they should, too, 
 be designated with equal definiteness in language : first, 
 the color as such — e. g., red, green, etc. ; then its inten- 
 sity — e. g., dark, bright, etc. ; then the variety of color ac- 
 cording to kind and mixture. In the last, two phases 
 are noticed : first, a comparison with objects that show 
 the color most frequently — e. g., rose-red {rosenroth\ 
 
298 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 skj-blue, etc. ; secondly, a comparison of colors among 
 themselves — e. g., green-yellow (grun-gelh)^ or, approxi- 
 mately, greenish yellow, etc. 
 
 Generally, all color distinctions should be based on 
 natural objects in which these colors prevail most con- 
 stantly; if they have been understood, they may be 
 transferred to the colors of other objects. 
 
 Colors, whose names are derived from objects, should 
 have been observed frequently in the objects themselves 
 — e. g., violet-blue. 
 
 In the beginning, only a few distinctions are made, 
 but these should be adhered to strictly and constantly. 
 Similarly the boy should receive for use only a few, 
 but clearly defined, colors. The secondary colors should, 
 later, as far as possible, be made by the pupil himself 
 from the primary colors. 
 
 The figures to be painted should, particularly in the 
 beginning, not be too small, and if possible point to 
 natural objects, as indeed all instruction should start 
 from objects in the pupil's surroundings — e. g., leaves, 
 large flowers, wings of butterflies, even birds. The 
 colors of quadrupeds and of fish are too indefinite. 
 
 However, the effort to represent natural objects in 
 their peculiar colors will direct the pupil's attention 
 more and more to their actual colors, as is indicated by 
 questions like these : " How shall I paint the trunk of 
 this tree, this flower," etc. ? 
 
 The more the notions of colors are separated from 
 objects, the more it will become desirable to represent 
 the colors for their own sake, but still in definite forms. 
 
 "When colors come to be viewed wholly independent 
 from form, form steps wholly into the background. The 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 299 
 
 form of representation, for a number of practical rea- 
 sons, is based on the square network. 
 
 The coloring material is best chosen from the vege- 
 table pigments. 
 
 The instruction itself is easily connected with the 
 boy's life ; a hundred opportunities present themselves ; 
 every circle offers its own peculiar starting-points. 
 Properly conducted, the instruction will take root in the 
 children's life, and will itself live. 
 
 I shall write down what I saw and see. The more 
 favorable the circumstances, the better the beginning ; 
 however, circumstances may not be made but only 
 used. 
 
 About a dozen boys of suitable age are gathered 
 around their teacher like sheep around their shepherd. 
 As the shepherd leads his sheep to green pastures, so 
 the teacher is to lead the boys to joyous activity. It is 
 Wednesday afternoon, when there is no ordinary school 
 instruction ; but to-day there is no call for other activity. 
 It is fall, and the desire to paint has often been ex- 
 pressed by each one of these active boys. Perhaps fall 
 invites the boys most urgently to paint, because the 
 colors in nature are most varied and massive in the 
 latter part of fall ; and each one has probably tried in 
 his own way to obey the summons. 
 
 " Come, let us paint," the teacher says. " It is true, 
 you have painted a great deal ; but painting itself and 
 the things you painted did not seem to please you long, 
 for you did not paint in distinct and pure colors. Come, 
 let us see if we can not do better together." *' Now, 
 what shall we paint? What is easy enough for us? 
 
300 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 For we are to leara, and what we paint should be 
 simple, and of one color if pfossible." 
 
 Teacher and pupils decide quickly that it is easiest 
 to paint leaves, flowers, or fruits. Leaves are chosen ; 
 for the beautiful, bright red, yellow, etc., trees, and the 
 gorgeous leaves which in perfect fall days float with a 
 gentle rustle from the branches, and deck the ground 
 with a brilliant carpet, have been keenly noticed by the 
 boys, and often they have bound them in wreaths and 
 brought them home. 
 
 " Here are outlines of leaves " (the teacher had pre- 
 pared them for the purpose) ; " how will you paint them ? " 
 "Green." "Eed." "Yellow." "Brown." "Which 
 leaves will you paint green, red, etc. ? " " Why ? " 
 
 The teacher then distributes the paints, properly 
 prepared. First, the colors are correctly designated. 
 It need, however, scarcely be mentioned that — inasmuch 
 as the representation of the object is the secondary, and 
 the knowledge and treatment of the colors the primary 
 consideration — we can not expect to do more than to 
 give the leaves approximately exact coloring. For the 
 present, even distribution of the color, keeping within 
 the lines, etc., are as yet the most important concerns ; 
 the proper position of the body, in order to insure free 
 movement of arm, hand, and finger, is a matter to be 
 attended to, of course. 
 
 Inasmuch as each pigment requires its own treat- 
 ment, we do not pass from one color to the next until 
 the pupil has attained some proficiency in the use of 
 the former. 
 
 From leaves we proceed to flowers. We choose 
 flowers with large monopetalous corollas of only one or 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 301 
 
 a few very distinct colors — e. g., blue campanulas, yellow- 
 primroses, etc. Simple flowers are preferred to double 
 ones, and they are flrst painted in full front view or 
 full profile. 
 
 We should constantly keep in view conscious efforts 
 to distinguish colors as accurately as possible, to repre- 
 sent them in the greatest possible purity, and to name 
 them as clearly as possible; although at this stage of 
 development these things will still be done quite im- 
 perfectly. The pupil's feelings are awakened, and he 
 aspires to understand the relation of one color to an- 
 other. Thus color is more and more abstracted from 
 form, and may be observed more and more independ- 
 ently. The pupil, too, begins to take more interest in 
 each color, and seeks to enter fully into its character ; 
 for he wants to control it, and feels the inadequacy of 
 his present knowledge and skill. 
 
 This calls for the representation of colors as such, 
 without essential reference to form, in figures derived 
 from the network. 
 
 The first consideration in these exercises is to paint 
 the surfaces evenly and sharply, progressing from 
 smaller to larger surfaces. Therefore, we first paint 
 with each color surfaces of one square, then of two to 
 five squares, either continuous (i. e., in rows touching 
 each other edge to edge) or interrupted (i. e., in rows 
 touching each other comer to comer). By this proced- 
 ure, the pupil becomes thoroughly familiar with the 
 peculiarities and treatment of each color. 
 
 These exercises begin with pure red, blue, and yel- 
 low ; they conclude with the pure secondary colors, pure 
 green, orange, and violet. 
 
302 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 The series begins with red and green, because experi- 
 ence teaches that these two colors are most interesting 
 to boys. 
 
 Similarly, in the subsequent exercises, two, three, 
 and finally all the six colors are used in continuous (edge 
 to edge) or interrupted (corner to corner) series — in two 
 principal arrangements — so that either the long sides of 
 the colored forms or their short sides touch. The order 
 of the colors most fully in accordance with nature at 
 large is now from blue to green, yellow, orange, red, 
 and violet. 
 
 The last phases at this stage of development are four 
 color-groups, similar to the two line-groups in the draw- 
 ing of lines. These are derived in accordance with one 
 law from the thing itself, and present the series of 
 colors in all directions implied by the network with 
 reference to some given center. 
 
 These four color-groups appear again in two sets. 
 Either the various equal- colored rectangles touch one an- 
 other at their long sides, appearing in horizontal or ver- 
 tical position sharply defined, or the various colored 
 series, lying in the direction of the diagonals of the 
 squares, the component squares touching only in the 
 corners, fit into one another (like the teeth of two saws). 
 
 In each of these sets there are two members. In 
 one of these, the various series proceed from a visible 
 center ; in the other, they are arranged around an invisi- 
 ble center, or, rather, inclose it. 
 
 These four groups close the course at this stage. 
 The next stage would comprise — as in the case of the 
 invention of figures in drawing — the free invention of 
 color-groups, the study of colors in their various de- 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 303 
 
 grees of intensity and tint, and the study and repre- 
 sentation of natural forms in the square network. 
 
 However limited the preceding course in this sub- 
 ject, experience proves that it has quite an influence on 
 the scholar. Like song, it lifts man into a nobler moral 
 atmosphere, quickens the color-sense, and enhances in- 
 terest in nature and life. Its further connection with 
 other subjects, as well as with practical life, will be clear 
 to him who appreciates the requisites of these things. 
 
 I. PLAY, OR SPONTANEOUS REPRESENTATIONS AND EXERCISES OF ALL 
 
 KINDS. 
 
 § 97. To the many things said about play, I would 
 add the following : The plays or spontaneous occupa- 
 tions of this period of boyhood differ in three ways. 
 They are either imitations of life and of the phenomena 
 of actual life, or they are spontaneous applications of 
 what has been learned at school, or they are perfectly 
 spontaneous products of the mind, of any description, 
 and with all kinds of material. The last either seek 
 the laws lying in the material of the play, and adapt 
 themselves to these, or they obey laws lying in the 
 thought and feelings of the human being. In every 
 case, however, the normal plays of this period are the 
 pure outcome of vital energy and buoyancy (see § 49). 
 
 The plays of this period, therefore, imply inner life 
 and vigor — an actual external life. Where this- is lack- 
 ing, there can not be true play which, itself full of 
 genuine life, can arouse, feed, and elevate life. 
 
 This explains the remark of a young man who had 
 been zealous and inventive in these plays of boyhood. 
 
304: THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 He said, concerning some bojs that seemed to have lost 
 all zest for such plays : " It is strange to me that these 
 boys can not play ; how vigorously we played at this 
 age ! " 
 
 This shows clearly that even the plays of this age 
 should be under special guidance, and the boy made tit 
 for them — i. e., his life at school and out of it should be 
 rendered so rich that, like a swelling bud, it will burst 
 forth from within for joy and in joy. Joy is the soul 
 of every activity of boyhood at this period. 
 
 The plays themselves are physical plays, either as 
 exercises of strength and dexterity, or a3 the mere ex- 
 pressions of buoyancy of spirits ; sense plays, exercis- 
 ing hearing, sight, etc. ; or intellectual plays, exercising 
 reflection and judgment. 
 
 [In the hands of thoughtful kindergartners, the social game has 
 become a powerful aid in the guidance of social development. The 
 children learn to use the several games as it were like common play- 
 things, with the help of which they may, as a social body, give 
 expression to their collective ideas on matters of social concern. 
 
 The teacher, for this purpose, does not teach the game in a cer- 
 tain fixed way, using the children, as it were, to carry out the inten- 
 tions of the game. Indeed, were she to do this, each child would in 
 an individual way, and without reference to others, learn to play the 
 game as he would a lesson, and then lose active interest in it. She 
 plays the games at first quite simply, sometimes at the table, some- 
 times in the ring, teaching the children how to represent the simplest 
 things she may find in their minds concerning the subject involved. 
 Subsequently she progresses quite gradually, adding from time to 
 time new facts and relations, gained by observation or instruction, 
 frequently modifying the games in order to represent the various 
 facts from new standpoints or In more complex relationships. 
 
 This will induce and encourage the children in due time to 
 bring to bear in their plays the results of their own observations, and 
 to suggest modifications and additions in accordance with their 
 growing knowledge and interest. Thus the game will grow with 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 305 
 
 their growth in social insight and power, and will become an ade- 
 quate expression of their inner development in this direction. — Tr.] 
 
 J. NARRATION OF STORIES AND LEGENDS, FABLES AND FAIRY TALES, ETC. 
 
 § 98. Man understands other things, the life of 
 others, and the effects of other powers only in so far as 
 he understands himself, his own power, and his own 
 life. Therefore, the highest and most important ex- 
 periences of a boy of this age (as well, perhaps, as of 
 man generally) are, the sensation and feeling of his 
 own life in his own breast, his own thinking and will- 
 ing, though they manifest themselves ever so vaguely 
 and almost as a mere instinct. 
 
 But knowledge of a thing can never be attained by 
 comparing it with itself. Therefore, too, the boy can 
 not attain any knowledge of the nature, cause, and 
 effect of the meaning of his own life, by comparing his 
 own transient individual life with itself. He needs 
 for clearness concerning this, comparison with some- 
 thing else and with some one else ; and surely every- 
 body knows that comparisons with somewhat remote 
 objects are more effective than those with very near 
 objects. 
 
 Only the study of the life of others can furnish such 
 points of comparison with the life he himself has ex- 
 perienced. In these the boy, endowed with an active 
 life of his own, can view the latter as in a mirror, and 
 learn to appreciate its value. 
 
 It is the innermost desire and need of a vigorous, 
 genuine boy to understand his own life, to get a knowl- 
 edge of its nature, its origin, and outcome. If he fails 
 in this, the sensation of his own life either crushes him 
 
306 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 or carries him on headlong, without purpose and irre- 
 sistibly. 
 
 This is the chief reason why boys are so fond of 
 stories, legends, and tales ; the more so when these are 
 told as having actually occun-ed at some time, or as 
 lying within the reach of probability for which, how- 
 ever, there are scarcely any limits for a boy. 
 
 The power that has scarcely germinated in the boy's 
 mind is seen by him in the legend or tale, a perfect 
 plant filled with the most delicious blossoms and fruits. 
 The very remoteness of the comparison with his own 
 vague hopes expands heart and soul, strengthens the 
 mind, unfolds life in freedom and power. 
 
 As in color, it is not variegated hues that charm the 
 boy, but their deeper, invisible, spiritual meaning ; so he 
 is attracted to the legend and fairy tale, not by the 
 varied and gay shapes that move about in them, but by 
 their spiritual life, which furnishes him with a measure 
 for his own life and spirit, by the fact that tliey furnish 
 him direct intuitions of free life, of a force sponta- 
 neously active in accordance with its own law. 
 
 The story concerns other men, other circumstances, 
 other times and places, nay, wholly different forms ; yet 
 the hearer seeks his own image, he beholds it, and no 
 one knows that he sees it. 
 
 Are there not many persons who have seen and 
 heard how children at an earlier period asked their 
 mother again and again to tell them the simplest story, 
 which they had heard half a dozen times — e. g., the 
 story of a singing and fluttering bird, building its nest 
 and feeding its young? 
 
 Even boys do the same. "Tell us a story," is the 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 307 
 
 request of a crowd of eager listeners to some companion 
 who has proved his art. " I do not know any more ; 
 I have told you all I know." '^ Well, then, tell us this 
 or that story." " I have told it two or three times." 
 " That makes no difl'erence; tell it again." He obeys; 
 see how eagerly his hearers note every word, as if they 
 had never before beard it. 
 
 It is not the desire for mental indolence that leads 
 the vigorous boy to the telling of stories and makes him 
 a pleased listener. You can see how eager he is, bow a 
 genuine story-teller stirs the inner life of his hearer, to 
 try its strength, as it were. This proves that a higher 
 spiritual life lies in the story, that it is not its gay and 
 changing shapes that attract the boy, that through them 
 mind speaks directly to mind. 
 
 Therefore, ear and heart open to the genuine story- 
 teller, as the blossoms open to the sun of spring and to 
 the vernal rain. Mind breathes mind ; power feels 
 power and absorbs it, as it were. The telling of stories 
 refreshes the mind as a bath refreshes the body ; it gives 
 exercise to the intellect and its powers; it tests the 
 judgment and the feelings. 
 
 Hence, too, genuine, effective story-telling is not 
 easy ; for the story-teller must wholly take into himself 
 the life of which he speaks, must let it live and operate 
 in himself freely. He must reproduce it whole and un- 
 diminished, and yet stand superior to life as it actually is. 
 
 It is this that makes the genuine story-teller. 
 Therefore, only early youth and old age furnish good 
 story-tellers. The mother knows how to tell stories — she 
 who lives only in and with the child, and has no care 
 beyond that of fostering his life. 
 
308 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 The husband and father, fettered bj life, compelled 
 to face the cares and wants of daily life, will rarely be a 
 good story-teller, pleasing to the children, influencing, 
 strengthening, and lifting their lives. 
 
 The brother or sister, only a few years older, both 
 still unacquainted with life in its stem realities, not yet 
 fettered or hardened by it, still standing outside of it, as 
 it were ; the grandfather, with his wide experience, 
 raised superior to life, having rid himself of its hard 
 exterior ; or the old tried servant, whose heart is full of 
 contentment in the consciousness of duty well done — 
 these are the favorites with an audience of boys. 
 
 ITo practical application need be added, no moral 
 brought out ; the related incident of life, in itself, in what- 
 ever form it may appear, in its causes and consequences, 
 makes a deeper impression than any added words could 
 do ; for who can know the needs of the wholly opened 
 soul, of stimulated, wholly self-conscious life. 
 
 We do not tell our children enough stories ; at best, 
 little stories whose heroes are mechanical contrivances, 
 puppets which we have whittled or stuffed ourselves. 
 
 A good story-teller is a precious boon. Blessed is 
 the circle of boys that can enjoy him ; his influence is 
 great and ennobling ; the more so, the less he seems to 
 aim at this. With high esteem and full of respect I 
 greet a genuine story-teller; with intense gratitude I 
 grasp him by the hand. However, better greeting than 
 mine is his lot ; behold the joyful faces, the sparkling 
 eyes, the merry shouts that welcome him; see the 
 blooming circle of delighted boys crowd around him, 
 like a wreath of fresh flowers and branches around the 
 bard of joy and delight. 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 309 
 
 However, boys of this age are benefited by mental 
 activity, especially in connection with physical action. 
 Therefore, the roused and stimulated inner life should 
 at once find an external object on which it can manifest 
 and, as it were, perpetuate itself. 
 
 Therefore, with boys of this age, the hearing of 
 stories should always be connected with some activ- 
 ity for the production of some external work on their 
 part. 
 
 Again the story, in order to be especially effective 
 and impressive, should be connected with the events 
 and occurrences of life. One of the least significant 
 occurrences in the neighbor's life is developed to-day 
 into an event of such importance that it determines not 
 only his inner peace, as well as his external prosperity, 
 but influences also the life of many others. 
 
 Whatever similar experience lies in the scope of 
 the hfe of each individual, or may have happened to 
 his friends, is connected with this event of the day. 
 Behold how the attention of each boy, under the influ- 
 ence of inner excitement, is wholly given to the event 
 in question. Every story seems to him a new conquest, 
 a fresh treasure; and whatever it shows and teaches 
 he adds to his own life for his advancement and in- 
 struction. 
 
 K. SHORT EXCURSIONS AND WALKS. 
 
 § 99. Out-door life, in open nature, is particularly 
 desirable for young people ; it develops, strengthens, 
 elevates, and ennobles. It imparts life and a higher 
 significance to all things. For this reason, short excur- 
 sions and walks are excellent educational means, to be 
 22 
 
310 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 highly esteemed even in the beginning of boy- and 
 school-hfe (see § 64). 
 
 If man is fully to attain his destiny, so far as earthly 
 development will permit this, if he is to become truly 
 an unbroken living unit, he must feel and know him- 
 self to be one, not only with God and humanity, but 
 also with nature. 
 
 The feeling of oneness, in order to become a unit 
 in himself, must be developed early in man. He must 
 feel the connection between the development of nature 
 and of man, between the phenomena of nature and of 
 humanity in their mutual relations — e. g., the differ- 
 ent impressions made on the same human being, by 
 external natural causes and by internal human causes, 
 so that man may appreciate as fully as possible the 
 character and phenomena of nature, and that she 
 may ever more become to him a guide to higher per- 
 fection. 
 
 All shorter and longer excursions and all observa- 
 tions they involve should be made in this spirit of har- 
 mony, unity, and living oneness of all natural phe- 
 nomena, and in the conviction how necessarily, because 
 of the nature of life and force as such, unity comes 
 from multiplicity, simplicity from complexity, that 
 which in its impression is great from the apparently 
 small. 
 
 Therefore, all boys are in such a hurry to get for- 
 ward on their excursions ; they desire quickly to take in 
 a great unit. The search for details is the more interest- 
 ing the more fully a relatively greater unit has been 
 previously grasped, though this need by no means be 
 the greatest possible whole. 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 311 
 
 These excursions should enable the boj to see as a 
 whole the district in which he lives, and to feel that 
 nature herself is a constant whole. 
 
 Without this, excursions would yield no direct 
 spiritual benefit. They would repress instead of quick- 
 ening ; they would waste instead of enriching life. 
 
 Man considers the surrounding atmosphere as a part 
 of himself, and gains bodily health by inhaling the pure 
 air. Similarly he should look upon surrounding nature 
 as a part of himself, and breathe in the Divine Spirit 
 that dwells therein. 
 
 Therefore, the boy should early see the objects of 
 nature in their actual relations and original combina- 
 tions. His excursions are to show him his valley in its 
 whole extent ; he should explore its ramifications ; he 
 should follow his brook or rivulet from its source to its 
 mouth, and study its local peculiarities in their causes ; 
 he should explore the elevated ridges, so that he may 
 see the ranges and spurs of the mountains ; he should 
 climb the highest summits, so that he may know and 
 understand the entire region in its unity. 
 
 Actual inspection should reveal to him the mutual 
 relations of mountain and valley and river in their form 
 and formation. He should see in their native places 
 the products of mountain, valley, and plain, of the earth 
 and of the water ; he should in the higher regions seek 
 the former homes of the stones he found in the fields 
 and river-beds of the lowlands. 
 
 In these excursions the boys should see the animals 
 and plants in their life, as it were ; they should ob- 
 serve them in their natural abodes, some basking in the 
 sun and drinking in light and warmth, others hiding in 
 
312 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 darkness and shade, seeking coolness and moisture. 
 They should seek to determine to what extent the 
 abode and food of living things affect their color and 
 even their form ; how, for instance, the caterpillar, the 
 butterfly, and other insects, in form and color, are con- 
 nected with the plants to which they seem to belong. 
 He should not fail to notice how this external resem- 
 blance serves to protect the animals, and how higher 
 animals almost intentionally make use of such resem- 
 blances ; how, for instance, certain birds build their nests 
 on trees whose color is scarcely to be distinguished from 
 that of the nests ; how, indeed, the color-expression of 
 animals harmonizes with the character of the time of 
 day when they are most active, or with the activity of 
 the sun — e. g., the brilliant colors of butterflies, the dull 
 colors of moths, etc. 
 
 This direct and independent observation of the 
 things themselves, and of their actual living connection 
 in nature, and not the mere explanation of words and 
 ideas which are of no interest to the boy, should awaken 
 in him, vaguely at first but ever more and more clearly, 
 the great thought of the inner, constant, living unity of 
 all things and phenomena in nature. 
 
 In these excursions he should see man, too, in his 
 unity with nature — first, in his daily Kfe, his occupations 
 and callings, later in his social circumstances, his charac- 
 ter, his mode of thought and action, his manners, cus- 
 toms, and language. 
 
 However, this should be left in actual life, as well as 
 in our hints on the subject, to later stages of develop- 
 ment in boyhood and youth. 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 313 
 
 In considering the means of instruction, directly im- 
 plied in man's tendency of development, as well as the 
 method of instruction thereby conditioned, we were con- 
 fronted clearly and distinctly, as necessarily proceeding 
 from the observation of the external world and from 
 language-exercises, by the demands for the study of 
 number, of forms of speaking (grammatical exercises), 
 of writing and of reading; we found, too, indications of 
 the points from which these particular subjects proceed 
 naturally. 
 
 Inasmuch as these subjects of instruction, according 
 to their nature, have to be taken up later than those 
 which we have treated, and not before the subjects 
 on which they depend have been carried to a certain 
 point, their special consideration has been postponed, so 
 that all the others might first be fully presented. 
 
 But the subjects named belong to the second half of 
 the period of boyhood under consideration. Therefore, 
 their special treatment must now be taken up. 
 
 L. ARITHMETIC. 
 
 § 100. The development of number, the abstraction 
 of number ideas from objects, and the growth of skill 
 in counting, at least up to ten or twenty — these things 
 have been clearly presented and often employed in the 
 previous considerations (see §§ 38, Y5). 
 
 This varied use of number soon presents to the 
 pupil the necessity of a more thorough, more compre- 
 hensive and varied knowledge of number, and he wel- 
 comes arithmetic as a special subject of instruction with 
 pleasure as a needed help. 
 
314 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 This is right, l^o new subject of instruction should 
 be brought to the pupil unless he at least feels vaguely 
 that it is based and how it is based on previous work, 
 how it is applied in this, and that it satisfies a men- 
 tal need. 
 
 Number, in its forms of multiplicity and size, reveals 
 to the first glance the property it shares with many 
 things, particularly with things of nature, the property 
 of a double origin — from without by accumulation, and 
 from within by growth or development. 
 
 But, as it shares with objects of nature their mode of 
 origin, so it shares with them also the property of tran- 
 siency, of annihilation ; and this, too, shows itself in 
 two phases, that of destruction from without, and that 
 of dissolution from within. 
 
 Wherever there is a beginning and a ceasing, in- 
 crease and decrease, there is also comparison ; and, of 
 course, again, a merely external and a more internal 
 comparison, a comparison according to an externally 
 visible law, and another according to an internally per- 
 ceptible law. 
 
 Thus arithmetic will have to consider the increase, 
 diminution (annihilation), and comparison of numbers — 
 each according to an outer and an inner law. 
 
 The intimate connection between number and nature 
 and their laws, as just indicated, is so prominent in our 
 time, which is entering so thoroughly into the study of 
 nature, that a natural and rational study and treatment 
 of number forced men even fifteen years ago to accept 
 the terms inorganic and organic formation, diminution 
 and comparison of numbers {vide Joseph Schmid's 
 "Number," 1810). 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 315 
 
 Arithmetic, as well as all instruction, should meet 
 not only the feeling, early aroused in the boyhood of 
 man, that natural laws prevail in many ways in human 
 life, thought, and action, but also the feeling that there 
 is a living and necessary conformity to law in all 
 things ; therefore, it should constantly direct the atten- 
 tion to the laws of number, render them prominent, and 
 enable the pupil to see them clearly. 
 
 The prominence and the vivid and varied percep- 
 tion of numerical laws on the one hand, and practice in 
 the ^ quick comprehension and understanding of nu- 
 merical relations on the other, are both equally impor- 
 tant and should receive equal attention. The pupil at 
 this stage should not only be quick in numbers, but 
 should readily see and understand numerical relations. 
 Therefore, it is most desirable in this as in all similar 
 instruction to secure clear comprehension by means of 
 self -active representation of the quantities ; practice and 
 repeated appKcation ; surveys of the whole subject ; the 
 prominent bringing out and discussion of particular 
 points. 
 
 The course of instruction is indicated in these 
 words, and can be easily prepared. For this reason, and 
 because Joseph Schmid's arithmetical method is quite 
 widely known and followed, I limit myself to only a 
 few hints in the following : 
 
 [^Translator's Synopsis. — Froebel first (1) bases the 
 work on previous knowledge ; for this purpose he sug- 
 gests exercises in counting forward or backward, con- 
 tinuously or with omissions from one to twenty. He 
 next (2) presents the numbers from one to ten as a con- 
 
316 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 tinuous whole. The pupils count from one to ten, 
 making at each number as many vertical lines as the 
 number indicates, in vertical arrangement, thus : 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 ill, etc. 
 This is followed by general exercises, fixing the re- 
 lation between the word and the number. Pointing to 
 the marks they have made, they say, starting with the 
 word or numeral: One is one one, two is two ones, 
 three is three ones, etc. Starting next with the number, 
 they say : One one is one, two ones are two, three ones 
 are three, etc. Considering, at last, the number ab- 
 stractly, they say : One is one, two is two, three is 
 three, etc. 
 
 In the third place (3) are exercises distinguishing the 
 odd and even numbers. Reading through the column, all 
 say : One is neither odd nor even ; two is an even num- 
 ber ; three is an odd number, etc. Froebel adds here 
 by wav of parenthesis : " It is well to direct the pupil's 
 attention here at once to a great far-reaching law of 
 nature and of thought. It is this, that between two 
 relatively diiferent things or ideas there stands always 
 a third, in a sort of balance, seeming to unite the 
 two. Thus, there is here between odd and even num- 
 bers one number (one) which is neither of the two. 
 Similarly, in form, the right angle stands between the 
 acute and obtuse angles ; and in language, the semi- 
 vowels or aspirants between the mutes and vowels. 
 A thoughtful teacher and a pupil taught to think 
 for himself can scarcely help noticing this and other 
 important laws." 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 317 
 
 He then has the pupils to represent with lines all 
 the even numbers from two to ten, again in vertical ar- 
 rangement, and has this learned as the natural order of 
 even numbers in ten. The same is done with the odd 
 numbers. As soon as some pupils have represented the 
 series on their slates, the teacher represents it on the 
 blackboard, and fixes it by pointing to certain numbers, 
 and having the children designate their places in the 
 series, etc. 
 
 This is followed (4) by exercises in addition. In the 
 first exercise, the pupils add I to each number of the 
 first ten (I and I are II), by which they obtain the series 
 from two to eleven ; in the second exercise, they add I to 
 each even number in the first ten, obtaining a series of 
 odd numbers ; in the third exercise I is added to each 
 odd number. Then follow similar exercises with the 
 addition of II, 111, etc., and an exercise in which to 
 each number is added the succeeding number in the 
 series, yielding a table in vertical arrangement : I and 
 II are III, II and IN are Mill, etc., up to nineteen. 
 
 Then follow exercises in the addition of three and 
 more numbers, proceeding in every case deliberately and 
 thoroughly, and not exceeding thirty in the sums ; and 
 at last the consideration of special questions, such as : 
 What is the sum of all numbers from 1 to 10 ? What 
 is the sum of all even numbers between 1 and 10? 
 What is the sum of the first and last numbers in the 
 series 1 to 10 ? Of the second and last but one ? etc. 
 
 In the fifth place (5), he presents exercises for the 
 study of compound numbers. The pupils are taught to 
 look upon each number of the series 1 to 10 as a unit, a 
 whole. Teacher and pupils read their table : One (I) is a 
 
818 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 simple unit, two (II) is a compound unit, etc. Tliej 
 represent a number of twos, threes, etc., on the slate. 
 They make a series of all the twos from one tw^o [1 (2) ] 
 to ten twos [10 (2) ], and read this in a variety of 
 ways — e. g., one two (II) is neither an odd nor an even 
 number of twos; two twos (II II) is an even num- 
 ber of twos ; three twos (II II II) is an odd number of 
 twos, etc. 
 
 Then follow (6) exercises to represent numbers in 
 all possible forms — e. g. : Two as two ones (I I) or as one 
 two (II); three as one three QW), one two and one one 
 (II I), three ones (I I I), etc. Froebel lays stress upon 
 the foreshadowing of an important law, which is, how- 
 ever, merely to guide the teacher at this stage of the 
 work, and whose development with the pupils is left to 
 a subsequent stage. He formulates this law as follows : 
 " Every number always gives twice as many combina- 
 tions (including those differing merely in the arrange- 
 ment of component numbers) as its predecessor in the 
 series; or, the number of combinations of the com- 
 ponent parts of any number is obtained if two (2) is 
 raised to the power indicated by the number in ques- 
 tion less one — e. g. : 4 yields 2*~^ or 2^ = 8 combina- 
 tions." 
 
 Subtraction (7), or the diminution of the number 
 from without, is carried on similarly. 
 
 For multiplication (8), or the development of the 
 number from within, Froebel starts again with the 
 series of numbers from 1 to 10. The pupil is then re- 
 quired to take each number once, or " as often as one 
 has units," obtaining a vertical arrangement like the 
 following : 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 319 
 
 1,1,1 
 II , I , II 
 
 III , I , III etc. 
 
 This is read in a variety of ways, as : 1 1 taken as 
 often as I has units gives II; or, II repeated in the law 
 of I gives II; or, two increased by the law of I gives 1 1 ; 
 or, 1 1 taken I time (once) gives II; or, II I time (once) 
 gives II ; or, II times I is II. In this way, a variety of 
 multiplication tables are made and read, and a number 
 of arithmetical laws developed. 
 
 Similarly (9), the squares of the numbers and their 
 roots are found and fixed ; then (10) all possible com- 
 binations in which a number may be obtained through 
 multiplication are studied — 10 is 10 (1), 1 (10), 2 (5), 
 5 (2) ; this is followed by division (11) and measure- 
 ment, and the comparison of numbers (12 and 13) in 
 accordance with their outer and inner law.] 
 
 M. FORM-LESSONS (GEOMETRY). 
 
 §101. As formerly indicated, the observation of 
 the outer world and language-exercises already led to 
 the consideration and study of form. Yet the objects 
 of the outer world usually exhibit form in such variety 
 and complication, and their forms are so difficult to 
 analyze and define, that the study of form itself always 
 leads to the consideration of objects with simple forms, 
 to objects bounded by simple planes with equal and 
 right angles. 
 
 A knowledge of any form always implies ultimately 
 a knowledge of lines, and forms are examined and 
 detennined through the mediation of straight lines. 
 Therefore, in the study of objects with reference to 
 
320 THE EDUCATION OF MAX. 
 
 their form, curvilinear objects are soon laid aside, and 
 rectilinear objects at first chosen — e. g., curved are the 
 surface of a cylindrical stove, a watch-glass, the rim of 
 an inkstand; plane and straight are the jambs of the 
 doors and windows, the window-sash, the frame of the 
 looking-glass. 
 
 Again, objects as well as their parts and outlines 
 are considered with reference to their position and 
 direction — e. g., the two long and the two short pieces 
 of the window-frame are respectively jparallel / a long 
 and a short piece of the window-frame are respectively 
 ^perjpendicular, etc. 
 
 [^Translator'' s Synopsis, — Similar material for study 
 is afforded by the table-legs and other parts of the table, 
 the sides, floor, and ceiling of the room, etc. The con- 
 sideration of these complex rectilinear objects is fol- 
 lowed by the consideration of simple rectilinear objects 
 — cubes, prisms, pyramids, etc. When, through these 
 exercises, linear outlines have been made clear, the pupil 
 feels the need of studying the linear relations as such. 
 This study begins with the consideration of single lines 
 with reference to their relative directions ; it then pro- 
 ceeds to combinations of lines as to number of points in 
 which they meet, and to their direction with reference 
 to the points of union. This is followed successively 
 by the study of angles, of polygons, and at last of the 
 circle. For lack of room and of cuts, Froebel does not 
 present the details of the course, but promises to do so 
 in the discussion of a later stage of development, a 
 promise that was never realized. He insists, however, 
 that at the present stage attention is to be given to fre- 
 quent representation of figures, and the actual examina- 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 321 
 
 tion of forms, rather than to the formulation of general 
 truths; that complicated relations and complex infer- 
 ences should be avoided ; and that each form-relation 
 should be studied independently, but in as many figures 
 as possible, and in quite simple and familiar combina- 
 tions. In conclusion, he points to the fact that the 
 study of lines of equal inclination leads from form to 
 free-hand drawing.] 
 
 N. GRAMMATICAL EXERCISES. 
 
 § 102. We turn now again to a wholly different 
 side of instruction. The subject of form-instruction is 
 visible, permanent ; the subject of language is audible, 
 transient. Thus the two objects are direct opposites, 
 complementing each other, and therefore belong to- 
 gether. The form represents the object ; language, 
 too, tends to represent and picture the object. 
 
 It was the purpose of the language-exercises to se- 
 cure correct and clear ideas of the things of the outer 
 world, and to have them represented precisely and 
 definitely by language. The grammatical exercises are 
 concerned with language as material of representation, 
 with exercises leading to the knowledge and correct use 
 of this audible material, and with the study and practice 
 of the manner in which man with the aid of his organs 
 of speech seems to create and fonn this material. 
 
 Therefore, grammatical exercises consider the word 
 as such irrespective of the thing it designates ; their 
 purpose is to give the pupil a knowledge of language 
 considered as material. 
 
 This leads necessarily to the formerly indicated con- 
 nection of language, particularly of the original word 
 
322 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 and its parts with the objects and their qualities, to the 
 study of the contrasts and resemblances between lan- 
 guage and object : it leads to etymology as a new sub- 
 ject of instruction. 
 
 {Translator'' 8 Synopsis. — Froebel here maps out the 
 following succession of points for the course of study. 
 The first consideration is the size of the word, which is 
 determined by the number of its syllables / this is fol- 
 lowed by the consideration of vowels, which form the 
 constant element of syllables. The vowels are simple 
 or complex, and the former again are primitive or de- 
 rivative. This leads to the observation of the use of the 
 organs of speech in producing the various vowel-sounds, 
 and shows that the purity and distinctness of the sound 
 depend on the proper position and shape of the cavity 
 of the mouth, etc. Then follows the study of the eon^ 
 sonants, which are first classed as mutes and sonants ; 
 and then grouped as nasals, labials, Unguals, dentals, 
 palatals, gutturals, etc. Lastly, the different degrees of 
 intensity of force required in the production of the 
 various consonants are noted. Thus the pupil gradually 
 finds that clear pronunciation and speech imply the 
 proper use of the organs of speech, and gains conscious 
 control of these.] There is, too, developed in him the 
 feeling of an inner living connection that unites the 
 activities of the mind, of the body, and of nature, for 
 language as a mental product through the activity of the 
 body furnishes him satisfactory representations of his 
 inner and outer worlds. 
 
 [Translator'* s Synopsis. — The next section of this 
 paragraph contains a few suggestions for carrying out 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 323 
 
 this course. Teacher and pupil first speak words of one, 
 then of two syllables, etc., slowly, deliberately separat- 
 ing the syllables, accompanying each syllable with a 
 clap of the hands, and then following up the pronuncia- 
 tion of each word with the number of claps of the hand 
 indicated by the number of syllables — e. g. : 
 
 Teacher or ( says : foot . . . one ) ^ j win-dow . . . one, two ) ^^^ 
 pupil ( claps: (_)...(-)) ] ( ) . . . (-) (-) f 
 
 Froebel attaches importance to the clapping wdth the 
 hands, which makes the audible separation of the word 
 visible in the clapping on the teacher's part, and sensible 
 in the clapping on the pupil's part. 
 
 In order to direct the pupil's attention to the vowels, 
 Froebel would have the teacher and pupil pronounce 
 successively and together monosyllabic words ending in 
 vowel-sounds, and after each word speak the vowel- 
 sound separately — e. g. : me — e, he — e, etc. Then 
 words are found that begin with this sound (eel, each, 
 east, etc.) ; then words that contain the vowels (bead, 
 read, etc.). Subsequently the fact is brought ont that 
 there are no monosyllabic words that do not contain 
 some vowel ; polysyllabic words are similarly examined ; 
 the prevalence of certain vowels in certain syllables is 
 found ; the succession of certain vowels in the same 
 word is observed ; the sonants and mutes are similarly 
 studied, etc. Finally, tables of the various classes and 
 groups of sounds are prepared, and a number of exer- 
 cises are made giving ready control of these tables in 
 the formation of words. 
 
 The next requirement that forces itself upon our 
 attention in this instruction is the art of writing, by 
 
324 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 which the "audible and transient sounds are made 
 visible and permanent."] 
 
 O. WRITING. 
 
 § 103. [Translator's Synopsis. — By this Froebel 
 does not mean penmanship as an art, but merely the 
 skill to write legibly. For the beginning he suggests as 
 most suitable the capital Roman letters, because their 
 forms please children, and because they can be readily 
 made with the help of the horizontal, vertical, and slant- 
 ing lines with which the child is already familiar. 
 
 In the course of instruction he begins with the letter 
 I (sounded E in German), carefully analyzing its form 
 and lines ; then follow JS", M, E, U, O, A, etc. The intro- 
 duction of each new letter is followed by the writing of 
 as many combinations with previous letters as will yield 
 true words. " The most important point is that at every 
 step the pupil should apply the newly learned letter and 
 combine it with formerly learned letters in as many 
 ways as possible." 
 
 From monosyllables he proceeds to polysyllables ; 
 then the children are taught to write words and short 
 sentences by dictation or otherwise. At this point he 
 recommends that all that has been written on the slate 
 should subsequently be copied on paper. This enables 
 the teacher to correct the work; to let pupils whose 
 work has been corrected correct that of others; and 
 leads to considerations of orthography. He concludes 
 the paragraph in the following words : 
 
 When the pupil has reached the skill to represent in 
 this way all the notions and ideas he possesses, and thus 
 
THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY. 325 
 
 to represent his inner life, as it were, the purpose of 
 this branch of instruction is accomplished ; for the cen- 
 ter, the universal fulcrum, the human being has been 
 found, and the possibility of the representation of his 
 innermost soul at this period of development has been 
 secured, as by means of lines in drawing, by means of 
 colors in painting, by means of plastic material in model- 
 ing, so here by means of words — transient in speech 
 and permanent in writing. Thus, every stage of in- 
 struction should in a certain sense form a complete 
 whole, a complete representation of the human mind ; 
 it should render possible the representation of some 
 complete (external) whole with reference to man and in 
 its relation to his mind. 
 
 The fact that the pupil is required to copy on paper 
 the corrected representation of his own thoughts or ob- 
 servations printed by him on his slate soon leads him to 
 see the use and feel the need of a more rapid mode of 
 writing. At this point, the writing in script appears as 
 the new subject of instruction, meeting a want which 
 the pupil himself feels. It is the business of every 
 form of instruction in its respective stage to arouse in 
 the pupil a keen and definite feeling of the need of the 
 next stage. The business of instruction in this suc- 
 ceeding stage is then to meet this need as promptly and 
 as fully as possible according to the requirements of 
 sound mental development. 
 
 In these two simple and important points, current 
 methods of instruction are still quite deficient, as well 
 as in other matters indicated in what has been said. 
 It is the business of pedagogics to reveal these de- 
 fi.ciencies beyond all doubt, and at the same time to 
 23 
 
326 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 indicate a course of instruction which avoids these 
 faults and shows a better way. 
 
 p. READING. 
 
 § 104. {Translator's Synopsis. — Eeading is the con- 
 verse of writing. They are opposites, like giving and 
 taking ; and as taking implies giving, as, strictly speak- 
 ing, one neither should nor can truly take who has not 
 before given, so also in this case reading should follow 
 writing. The course of instruction is implied in the 
 nature of things. In fact, the boy can already read ; 
 the writing of every word was followed by its reading, 
 and in the copying exercises this was specially practiced ; 
 so that reading in the ordinary sense now becomes quite 
 easy, and the task of a year may be accomplished in a 
 few days. 
 
 The first thing to be done is to show the equivalence 
 of the small Eoman letters to the capital letters hereto- 
 fore employed ; and to do this in such a way that the 
 resemblances between the two kinds of letters may be 
 seen even in their details. As a connecting exercise, 
 Froebel recommends that the pupil copy passages from 
 the reader in his usual capital letters, thus comparing 
 the two styles of letters. 
 
 The point to be reached at this stage is correct read- 
 ing in pronunciation and punctuation, so that he may 
 be able to understand the writing of others, and test the 
 thoughts and feelings of others by what he himself has 
 thought and felt. Higher, more expressive reading is 
 relegated to the next stage of development.] 
 
YII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 § 105. Thus we have sketched the growth and de- 
 velopment of man in all their phases and conditions 
 from the first origin of his being and existence to the 
 first years of boyhood. We have, too, surveyed in a 
 general way in their living inner connection, their 
 necessary mutual dependence and natural ramifications, 
 the important means by which man may be and should 
 be developed in this period in accordance with the re- 
 quirements of this period and of his being, if his goal 
 is perfection. 
 
 If we now survey all that has been determined and 
 said so far in this connection, we see that many phases 
 in the life of boyhood have as yet no specific, definite 
 direction. Thus, the work with colors does not in any 
 way mean to develop a future painter, neither is the 
 work in singing intended to train a future musician. 
 These occupations simply have the purpose to secure in 
 the young human being all-sided development and un- 
 folding of his nature ; they furnish in a general way 
 the food so necessary for mental growth ; they are the 
 ether in which his spirit breathes and lives in order to 
 gain strength and scope, inasmuch as the mental tend- 
 
328 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 encies wliich God lias given him, and whicli irresistibly 
 unfold from his mind in all directions, will necessarily 
 appear in great variety, and must be met and fostered 
 in a corresponding variety of ways. 
 
 Therefore, we ought at last to understand that we 
 do great violence to boy-nature when we repress and 
 supplant these normal many-sided mental tendencies in 
 the growing human being ; when, in the belief of do- 
 ing a service to God and man, and of promoting the 
 future earthly prosperity, inner peace, and heavenly 
 salvation of the boy, we cut off one or the other of 
 these tendencies and graft others in their places. 
 
 God neither ingrafts nor inoculates. He develops 
 the most trivial and imperfect things in continuously 
 ascending series and in accordance with eternal self- 
 grounded and self-developing laws. And God-likeness 
 is and ought to be man's highest aim in thought and 
 deed, especially when he stands in the fatherly relation 
 to his children, as God does to man. 
 
 We should consider, at least with reference to the 
 education of our children, that the kingdom of God is 
 the realm of the spiritual, and that consequently the 
 spiritual in man, and therefore in our children, is at 
 least a part of the kingdom of God. For this reason 
 we should give our attention to the universal cultivation 
 of the spiritual in our children, to the pure cultivation 
 of the specifically human, which is the divine in indi- 
 vidual manifestation ; for we may well be convinced 
 that whoever has been cultivated to genuine humanity 
 is also educated for every particular requirement and 
 need in civil and social life. 
 
 Many will say : " This is all very well for earlier 
 
CONCLUSION. 329 
 
 periods, but our sons are too old for this — they are 
 already in the last quarter of boyhood. What can they 
 do with this general and rudimentary instruction? 
 They need something definite, something that bears 
 directly on their future vocation ; for the time is near 
 when they will enter practical life, when they will have 
 to earn their own living or help us in our business." 
 
 It is true, our sons are rather old for what they are 
 still to learn. But why did we not, when they were 
 children and in early boyhood, supply the needs of 
 their minds ? Are the boys now to lose this develop- 
 ment and cultivation for their whole lives? 
 
 We may console ourselves with the illusion that 
 when our boys have reached adult life they will have 
 enough leisure to make up their losses. 
 
 Fools that we are ! Our own soul refutes this, if 
 we will but listen to what it says and study its meaning. 
 Here and there a few things may indeed be retrieved ; 
 but, in general, whatever of human education and devel- 
 opment has been neglected in boyhood will never be 
 retrieved. 
 
 Shall we, men and fathers, and perhaps mothers, too, 
 not at last be frank, and cease to conceal from ourselves 
 the never-healing wounds and the permanently callous 
 places in our disposition, the dark spots left in our souls 
 by the ruthless extirpation of noble and elevating 
 thoughts and feelings in the days of our misguided 
 youth and boyhood ? Shall we never see that noble 
 germs were at that time broken and withered, nay, 
 killed in our souls ? And shall we not heed this for our 
 children's sake ? 
 
 We may fill an important office, we may have an 
 
330 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 extensive professional practice, we may have a lucrative 
 business, we may be expert and energetic, we may pos- 
 sess a higb degree of social refinement ; but can all this 
 keep us, when we are alone, from seeing the flaws and 
 faults of our inner culture ? Can it destroy in us the 
 feeling of incompleteness and imperfection chiefly due 
 to our early education ? 
 
 Therefore, even though our sons have reached the 
 third or fourth stage of boyhood, if we would have 
 them become competent, full men, and if they have not 
 yet learned and unfolded what their age implies, they 
 must necessarily return to the work of childhood and 
 early boyhood, in order that they may yet do what can 
 be done and retrieve what can be retrieved. 
 
 Possibly our sons may thereby finish school-life a 
 year or two later ; but is it not better that they should 
 thereby attain a worthy aim rather than (by a more ex- 
 peditious course) an illusory one? 
 
 We claim to be practical men, and we fail to un- 
 derstand the requirements of genuine, true, practical 
 life. We claim to be business men, and we vaunt our 
 prudence and foresight, yet we do not comprehend 
 the business that concerns us most, and prudence and 
 foresight fail us where they are of so much impor- 
 tance. 
 
 We boast of our wealth of experience of life, and 
 yet where it would yield delicious fruit we seem to 
 possess so little. 
 
 We disdain altogether to examine our own youth 
 from which we might learn so much that would benefit 
 our children. Yet this admonition, too, to turn back 
 and observe our own youth and to keep our soul fresh 
 
CONCLUSION. 331 
 
 and warm in eternal youth, lies in the words of Jesus : 
 " Become as little children." 
 
 Indeed, much that Jesus said to his time and con- 
 temporaries, our inner spirit now says to us and to our 
 time. What was said at the time of Jesus, and more 
 particularly with reference to the beginning of a wholly 
 new view of life, is now again spoken, as it were, to all 
 mankind, and finds its application in all human relations 
 with reference to the endeavors of man to attain a 
 higher stage of human perfection. Thus, we are now 
 told : " If you wiU not fuliill in yourselves and in your 
 children the spiritual requirements of childhood and 
 boyhood, if you will not secure this for yourselves and 
 your children, you will not attain what in the happiest, 
 most blissful periods of your life caused your soul to 
 swell with hope, what your heart yearned for in the 
 noblest hours of your life, what lifts and ever lifted the 
 souls, what tills and ever filled the hearts of the noblest 
 human beings." 
 
 When we concentrate in one point the elevation of 
 culture which the human being has attained by the de- 
 veloping education so far discussed, we find quite defi- 
 nitely the following : The boy has reached the point of 
 divining his independent spiritual self; he feels and 
 knows himself as a spiritual whole. There has been 
 aroused in him the ability to grasp a whole in its unity 
 and in its diversity, as well as the ability to represent 
 outwardly a whole as such and in its necessary parts, to 
 represent in and through outward diversity his own self 
 in the unity and diversity of his being. 
 
 Thus, we find the human being even at the earlier 
 stages of boyhood fitted for the highest and most im- 
 
332 THE EDUCATION OF MAN. 
 
 portant concern of mankind, for the fulfillment of his 
 destiny and mission, which is the representation of the 
 divine nature within him. 
 
 To secure for this ability skill and directness, to 
 lift it into full consciousness, to give it insight and 
 clearness, and to exalt it into a life of creative freedom, 
 is the business of the subsequent life of man in suc- 
 cessive stages of development and cultivation. To dis- 
 cuss ways and means for this, and to introduce these in 
 the practice of life, is the purpose of a continuation of 
 this work and of the author's life. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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