The three following gifts, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth, are, the flat or laying tablets, stick-laying, and ring-laying. These lead the child who has practiced representation with the building boxes, or through surface and linear forms, to drawing, which stands in relation with the interesting pricking and sewing. When the outlines of the form of life and beauty drawn on the paper are pricked through with the needle so that they show on both sides of the paper, then drawing in colored outline is again represented by sewing with colored threads. Weaving comes in here, which is first practiced with colored paper strips, and later with the most diverse materials, such as straw, bast, leather, ribbon, etc., and intertwining with thin, pliable wooden sticks.

As these occupations lead from the line to the surface, so the paperfolding, which follows, goes back to the solid imitating such things as a boat, hat, star, bird, etc. The hand is trained to skill, and the eye to careful observation, by the cutting by which the smallest piece of paper is changed into a means of entertainment and culture; and still more by the pease-work, in which the pointed ends of fine wooden sticks are stuck into soaked peas, and by this means the forms laid are fixed. When they create little architectural works, the objects represented appear in outline; they are transparent, also, and explain and illustrate perspective, figurative representation. Modeling in wax and clay ranks here as the last and highest step in which self-activity is given the fullest play, as well as the opportunity for the satisfaction of any existing artistic talent.

This close connection, at every step, with life, marks the standpoint from which Froebel wished to consider even the smallest thing in the life of a child. It is not the least excellence of the succession of clay moulding, pease-work, cutting, folding, weaving, building, pasting, pricking, sewing, and similar employments, which pertain to the first exercises in the comprehension of form and in training the eye, and form a necessary stepping-stone to geometry, geography, drawing, and writing, that they mingle in his plays and amusements, in whatever moves and animates childhood; and thereby satisfy the unity of the consciousness.

Movement Plays, and Songs.

The "play-gifts" mentioned form the part of the Kindergarten occupations which Froebel classed under the name of "mental plays." He shows quite a different phase of its workings in the " movement plays." They have, besides the common aim of plays, the object of satisfying the impulse of the child for the movement of its limbs, and also of advancing the bodily development. For a gain in this direction should not only always go hand-in-hand with mental improvement, but in the Kindergarten receives a prominent place.

The Kindergarten must offer fundamentally what most dwellings allow only occasionally from lack of room, and the grown-up inhabitants of them from desire of quiet; what the deplorable lack of free public places given up to the young; what the larger cities, with their foot-passengers, riders, and wagons, make almost impossible to children-an unchecked movement of their limbs, which is to them a necessity almost as pressing as drawing the breath. For, besides the closed room or hall, it must have, where possible, an open place planted with trees-a play-ground.

Here in the fresh air the little ones may live in cheerful activity and motion, and thus bloom merrily like the flowers of a garden. From the numberless dancing and singing plays which are handed down to the child's world from age to age by tradition, and of which every province and every city carefully cherishes special ones as its peculiar property, Froebel has collected the best, improved many of them by stripping off excrescences marring the original, and made them serve the educational aim of the Kindergarten. He has also added to them by his own invention. Through them all the pupils of the Kindergarten are first brought into living intercourse with each other, and share in the beneficent influence which living with his equals exerts on the child. Every movement play furthers the activity of all participants for a common end, which can only be reached when law and order rule. The Kindergartner guiding the play suffers no arbitrariness, no rude forwardness, no quarrelsome disputes, no domineering of the stronger and crowding of the weaker. Every one must do his part, according to his gifts and powers. The timid and those holding back must be encouraged, the forward ones instructed and reminded of their bounds, and all must have their rights. Living in such a well-ordered and conducted community exerts a good influence on the conduct of the children so very quickly that it shows itself in the family sometimes after a few weeks, in greater patience and ready willingness. The fear that a watchful guidance will disturb the happy little ones in their joy is quite unfounded. He misunderstands children who thinks that they prefer to play senselessly and aimlessly. On the contrary, when they are sure that a grown person will enter into their ways with kindness, they will invite such an one to show them an orderly play, or to decide how it must be properly played, or to bring the right order into that already begun.

The movement plays have another more vital center of union in the songs which accompany them. Every play has its song, which arises from it or is related to it, and which is sung sometimes by an individual, sometimes by the chorus. There is hardly anything which so claims the entire spiritual life of children and so irresistibly invites sympathy as singing. No sense lends its perceptions so directly to the heart as that of hearing. No activity is such a direct and almost involuntary expression of inner harmony as singing. Rightly then did Froebel and his friends devote to it an especially careful attention, and direct by it a prominent part in the plays. If, in spite of the many words and melodies given, one cannot repress the remark that neither the practical nor the musical side of the Kindergarten appear to be unfolded in the same degree as the educational, still he must think fairly, and not expect everything from Many a roughness in Froebel's often extemporized verses, which often digress too strongly to the instructive and playful, has been polished already by a tender hand. In our folk-songs there yet lie concealed many grains of gold that should be unearthed and polished.

one man.

Intercourse with Nature.

A third and by no means subordinate direction of the activity of the Kindergarten is devoted to the intercourse of the children with nature.

It is doubly important where circumstances render this intercourse diffi cult, where they embitter to man the feeling of his kinship with nature, and at the same time spoil the life at many points by too much art. Children should not pass by unsympathetically the beauties which nature everywhere offers in rich abundance; their sense and perception of them must be awakened and trained. The care, under judicious guidance, of plants and animals, offers the best means for this. Whatever grows by the child's own care wins his deepest interest. The contemplation furnishes him solid knowledge and increases his sympathy to admiration and love. Therefore, a part of the play-ground should be reserved for a garden, in which every child has his own little bed which he cultivates himself. If in any way a place can be made for some domestic animals, were it only a canary bird, a little dove, a pair of hens, or some gold-fish in a globe, it will furnish a fuller satisfaction to this instinct. If the fields can be reached without danger of too great exertion on the part of the little ones, a walk should be taken at a proper time, which affords numberless opportunities, not only for the observation of nature, but for the entire unfolding of the spiritual life of the child. If such unsought occasions are used with tact they have often a greater influence than the methodical instruction imparted by the best system of teaching.

In the Kindergarten, after a quiet occupation and the general play, there should also be pauses to be devoted to unconstrained oral intercourse between the Kindergartner in charge and the children, and which are filled up most suitably by stories. A little story often does more than a long sermon. But it is difficult to tell a story well, and the art must be practiced. More difficult still is the choice of material which must be adapted to the children's point of view.

There are yet wanting good Guides, and Manuals, with model lessons and exercises; but with the means of occupation and play already spoken of the Kindergarten is in a condition to take hold of the child's life, rousing, animating, and unfolding it in all directions. The few hours of the day which the children spend there will echo in their homes through the richness and vividness of their impressions. The never-resting instinct of activity in healthy children is no longer at loss for an object. The child does not trouble his mother so much; he is more skilful, happier; his bad angel, wearisomeness, is banished.

Improved Domestic Education.

In spite of all this the Kindergarten, according to Froebel's intention, has solved only half of its problem, and stands still before the other half, which consists in this, that it must be carried on by a bettering of the education in the family. This higher aim cannot be considered as reached when only an indirect influence is exerted on the family life through the pupils of the Kindergarten. No, quite the reverse. Froebel created the Kindergarten with the special intention of perfecting by practice in it, united with theoretical cultivation, the education of woman for her vocation, which, as experience teaches, cannot be consid*Our American Kindergartners, and Mothers, who wish to adopt the Froebel Material and Methods into the Nursery, have now an excellent Manual in "The Kindergarten Guide, by Maria Kraus-Boelte and John Kraus," published by E. Steiger, New York.

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ered to have been generally accomplished by simple theory and books for mothers, excellent as these may be in themselves. This aim, however, must not be lost sight of, for important reasons. For since the mother's influence is the first, and therefore the strongest, it follows, of course, that it is of the highest importance that it should be the best. And since it is not so everywhere, should we not use every opportunity to bring it to this ideal? We have lower, middle, and higher girls' schools. Which of these has made a specialty of training young maidens for housewives and teachers of their own children? Not one! nothing to do with it. But this problem still exists. come for the young girls when they must take care of children, wait upon the sick, and look after kitchen and store-room. Is it to be supposed that they learn everything of themselves? The theory of educating little children, for which most young girls receive their only preparation in playing with dolls, must become a regular and essential part of female education, before the "experimenting and educating by hearsay" cease. Nowhere can this be learned better than in the closest connection with the Kindergarten.

Froebel developed this in the first detailed plan which he carried out in this direction. In such a seminary for Kindergartners and nurse-maids, with which also a Kindergarten must be connected, young maidens can, in a year, be so instructed and practically trained in the care of little children, that they learn to avoid grave errors and gain a foundation, from which an independent, wider culture is possible. And can not one in this way, better than in any other, come nearer a satisfactory solution of the vexed "Woman question?" Will not the administration of household affairs and the education of children continue to be the occupation most suited to woman's nature, and, at the same time, the noblest aim of all feminine activity? And will not the unmarried young women find in them reconciliation and contentment in richer measure than any 'emancipation' is able to furnish? There have been already women who were zealously active in this direction, and in the greater cities where the need is the most urgent, glorious results can be shown. It seems to be reserved for these associations of women, with the aid of all the strength active in this direction, to smooth the way for a more comprehensive organization. The seminaries for Kindergartners in Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, Gotha, and other places, all of which are under the direction of private individuals and supported by voluntary contribution, to which the pupils add a small nominal sum for instruction, have for a number of years sent out a good number of well prepared and trained young women of all conditions, who are much in demand as domestic assistants, especially for educating children, and help to a more universal appreciation of a natural method of treating the little ones. It is for the interest of the teacher to advance this work in every way, because the Kindergarten, which does not seek to supply the family education (for this is by all means the best and generally desirable), but only wishes to aid the parents in the care of their children for the period when they do not devote themselves to their education and cannot be represented by teach

ers, which should even teach all parents the proper discharge of their duties as educators, is a preparation for the elementary school.

Much could be said here of the mental helplessness of children who, sent to school in their sixth or seventh year, sometimes bring to the teacher an extraordinarily small number of impressions, scarcely any clear conceptions, and a very limited use of the mother tongue.

The experiences of Froebel in Switzerland are repeated in different degrees almost everywhere, and are not new to the teachers of the lowest elementary classes. But they express the wish to establish an organic connection between the Kindergartens and the school, and previously show at least, theoretically, their possibilities and usefulness.

The "General Union for family education and that of the people,” has repeatedly offered a prize for an essay on this subject, without receiving a satisfactory solution of it according to their ideas. Recently, the prize was adjudged to a paper of Carl Richter, a teacher in Leipsic, the author of the " Pedagogical Library," and of another work 'On ObjectTeaching in Elementary Schools,' of which honorable mention is made.

The hope of a future organic connection between the Kindergarten and the school, as well as the wished-for introduction of Froebel's method into charitable institutions for little children, is not entirely unfounded. There are hardly any serious obstacles, since the Kindergarten in no way anticipates the real school instruction. And as the Gymnasium has recognized it as useful to have scholars properly prepared for its Sexta, by the passing through some elementary classes of the so-called Vorschule or preparatory school, so in the future perhaps it will be considered necessary to add a Kindergarten to every elementary school, which will grow in time to be an excellent bond between the school and home.

So the Kindergarten shows itself on every side as an institution in accordance with the spirit of the age for bettering the education, of which it is the natural foundation, and helping to restore it again in families. In spite of the obstacles arising at first from misunderstanding and from the feeble support of the public, in the course of a year it won for itself an honorable place among the institutions for the education of youth. This was owing to the sound strength of the fundamental idea from which it proceeded, to a need arising from circumstances, and to the continuous exertions of enthusiastic adherents, especially among women. Under their guidance the Kindergarten has quietly accomplished a great work, in giving to thousands of children happy hours whose stimulating influence is felt in the family.

Although it has not yet received the desired recognition, it may be, perhaps, that well-meant but mis-directed zeal has contributed as much to this as the cool reserve of those who scorned it under the form, so little like a school, into which Froebel poured his full heart to nourish the living germ. When it shall be developed more clearly and richly by the unwearied zeal of intelligent and judicious patrons, it will then remain an integral part of our children's education.