the objector, however, take upon himself to declare that this or that child has not been made stupid even by the very means employed to teach him? The test, however, is a practical one: Can the child play? If he can play, in the sense which I have given to the word, he cannot be stupid. In his play he employs the very faculties which are required for his formal education. "But he is stupid at his books " If this is so, then the logical conclusion is, that the books have made him stupid, and you, the objector, who have misconceived his nature, and acted in direct contradiction to it, are yourself responsible for this. "But he has no memory. He cannot learn what I tell him to learn." No memory! Cannot learn! Let us put that to the test. Ask him about the pleasant holiday a month ago, when he went nutting in the woods. Does he remember nothing about the fresh feel of the morning air, the joyous walk to the wood, the sunshine which streamed about his path, the agreeable companions with whom he chatted on the way, the incidents of the expedition, the climb up the trees, the bagging of the plunder? Are all these matters clean gone out of his mind? "Oh, no, he remembers things like these." Then he has a memory, and a remarkably good one. He remembers because he was interested; and if you wish him to remember your lessons, you must make them interesting. He will certainly learn what he takes an interest in.

I need not deal with other objections. They all resolve themselves into the category of ignorance of the nature of the child. When public opinion shall demand such knowledge from teachers as the essential condition of their taking in hand so delicate and even profound an art as that of training children, all these objections will cease to have any meaning.

My close acquaintance with Fræbel's theory, and especially with his root-idea, is comparatively recent. But when I had studied it as a theory, and witnessed something of its practice, I could not but see at once that I had been throughout an unconscious disciple, as it were, of the eminent teacher. The plan of my own course of lectures on the Science and Art of Education was, in fact, constructed in thought before I had at all grasped the Fröbelian idea; and was, in that sense, independent of it.

The Kindergarten is gradually making its way in England, without the achievement as yet of any eminent success; but in Switzerland, Holland, Italy, and the United States, as well as in Germany, it is rapidly advancing. Wherever the principles of education, as distinguished from its practice, are a matter of study and thought, there it prospers. Wherever, as in England for the most part, the practical alone is considered, and where teaching is thought to be "as easy as lying," any system of education founded on psychological laws must be tardy in its progress.

"The Kindergarten has not only to supply the proper materials and opportunities for the innate mental powers, which, like leaves and blossoms in the bud, press forward and impel the children to activity, with so much the more energy the better they are supplied. It has also to preserve children from the harm of civilization, which furnishes poison as well as food, temptations as well as salvation; and children must be kept from this trial till their mental powers have grown equal to its dangers. Much of the success of the Kindergarten (invisible at the time) is negative, and consists in preventing harm. Its posi tive success, again, is so simple, that it cannot be expected to attract more notice than, for instance, does fresh air, pure water, or the merit of a physician who keeps a family in health."-Karl Froebel.

CRITICAL MOMENTS IN THE LIFE OF FROEBEL, BY BAROP.

"At the end of twenty years," said Barop, when we were talking of the early history of Keilhau, "we were in a very critical position. You know we had little outward means at our command when we began our enterprise. Later, Middendorff offered his paternal inheritance; but the acquisition of the land, and the erection of the necessary buildings, required considerable funds, so that Middendorff's contribution soon vanished like drops of water that fall on a hot stove. My father in law, Christian Ludwig Froebel, stepped in and gave what he could into the hands of his brother, without any conditions; but even his offerings could not hold at bay care and want. My father was a wealthy man, but he was so displeased at my joining the Froebelian circle and settling at Keilhau that he afforded me no support of any kind. Distrust surrounded us on all sides in those first years; both open and secret enmities from far and near tried to embitter our life and check our efforts in the germ. Not the less did the institution bloom out quickly and gloriously, but was brought later to the verge of ruin by the well directed persecutions against the Burschenschaften (an association of students for patriotic pur poses); for the spirit of 1815 was incarnated in the institution, and just that spirit was exposed to the most extreme opposition. It would carry me too far if I were to describe this fully. It seemed to me at that time as if the enemy would really conquer. The number of our pupils (origi nally thirty) had diminished to five or six, and, consequently, the vanishing little revenue increased the burden of debts to a height that made us dizzy. From all sides the creditors rushed in, urged on by the attorneys, who washed their hands in our misery. Froebel vanished through the back door up the mountain when the duns appeared, and it was left to Middendorff to quiet most of them, in a degree which only he can believe possible who has been acquainted with Middendorff's influence over men. On the side of the workmen who had to ask for money, there were touching scenes of resignation, confidence, and magnanimity. A locksmith, for instance, was required by an attorney to bring a suit against the churls,' since nothing was to be got from them and their destruction. The locksmith, enraged, refused to assault our persons, and retorted that he had rather lose his hardly earned money than to doubt our honorable intentions, and that nothing was further from his purpose than to increase our troubles. Ah! and this trouble was hard to bear, for Middendorff was already married, and I was following his example. When I asked my wife for her hand, my father and mother in law asked: 'but you will not remain at Keilhau?' 'Yes,' I replied. The thought for which we are living appears to me important and suited to the times, and I do not doubt that men will be found who will trust us to carry out the idea cor rectly, as we trust the Invisible One.' In fact, in spite of all obstacles, we have never for a moment lost faith in our educational mission, and even the worst dilemma at that time saw no wavering band of men in this valley. 7

[I will insert here a note which I find in a Wichard Lange's edition of Middendorff's writings, for if more than justice is done to one man, it is probable that less than justice will be done to another, or to others.]

'In the last years of his life Froebel lived at Marienthal, apart from the family circle of Keilhau, and here founded his training school. Here he had to bear the burden of the housekeeping and other inconveniences, and he determined to marry again, to give his pupils motherly care and sympathy. He married a trusted pupil, who had endeared herself to him, and who had accompanied him to Marienthal from the beginning. He stood at the marriage altar again, then in his seventieth year, for the second time, and sometime before he had said to me that it was in fact 'a living union. The marriage excited bad blood in the beginning among the members of the family, and made a quarrel, which had already arisen, much worse. This difference between him and those (Middendorff excepted) who had worked with him in earlier times, indeed, at his call, had willingly shown themselves capable of the greatest self sacrifice and devo tion, was easily explained. Once for all, Froebel's brother, Christian Lewis, Middendorff, and Barop, had one attribute of character which was wanting in Froebel,- -a stern consciousness in the fulfillment of past obligations. But Froebel turned away from all the obstacles and difficulties that obstructed his activity with an ingenious facility, was often highly unpractical and thoughtless, and did not allow himself to be essentially disturbed by the pressure upon his creditors. If this had not been com pensated by the opposite quality in his fellow-workers, both men and women, he must, in my opinion, have been wrecked very early upon the hard, inflexible rock of reality. But the others held on to him, and desired for the progressing old man that there should be a limit set to the eternal, restless life and striving at various points in Germany and Switzerland, which was not unlike one kind of vagabondage, and something whole and perfected in itself should be done at one point. The care for his own increasing troop of children called for foresight and economy. As he had contempt for every other kind of opposition, so he also had for those which grew up in his family; indeed, in the resentment which opposing difficulties always excited in him, he was fabulously unjust to the persons from whom they sprung. His expressions against his own brother, who was simple human greatness personified, a living magnanimity, and against my mother-in-law, who had stood by him from early youth, were often of so revolting a kind that I could not refrain from opposing him in the most decided manner. Middendorff suffered infinitely on these occasions. He could not blame the actions of his own family, but he tried as faithfully to turn aside the slightest aspersion against the man whose personality, life, and action, fettered him with magic power. They both rest under grassy mounds; the inseparable ones,-Froebel and Middendorff. Diesterweg apostrophized the latter,pia anima, anima candida; never to be-forgotten friend! Great men have great weaknesses; the shady side, belonging to their finite nature, dies with them; but what they have thought, lived, and striven for remains for posterity. Froebel himself often acknowledged with deep

regret that he knew himself to be full of faults and weaknesses. Indeed, he even thought the eternal Spirit had selected so miserable an instrument for the bearer of his idea in order that it might be clearly seen that it is the idea and not the man by which what is lasting and blessed for humanity is offered.

"The institution at Marienthal made its beautiful and sacred progress, and the second wife of Froebel fulfilled her task excellently. Every one who has seen Marienthal, and realized the impulse given there, will have wondered at her judicious and fervent and inspiring life among her pupils, as well as at that attractive power which the Froebelian cause may exert upon the unspoiled womanly feelings. The direct personal influence of Froebel was astonishingly great. He knew how to penetrate to the deepest depths of the souls of his hearers; he could transform and make them young again, root out the taste for external things, and thoroughly banish trifling from the life, and in their place set a deeply-moral, earnest, and enthusiastic striving. When I saw him speaking and working among his pupils the following thought possessed me: One may think this or that upon the activity and efficiency of Froebel, ascribe to this or that correctness, discover in it greater or less influence,-one thing stands fast; he is the apostle of women, the reformer of home education."

"When our trouble was greatest, new prospcets opened upon us. At the instigation of several influential friends who stood by us, the attention of the Duke of Meiningen was fixed upon us. He became acquainted with Froebel, and asked him about his plans. Froebel laid before him the plan of an educational institution worked out and agreed upon by us in common, in which should be taught not only the usual things, but manual labor, joiner's work, basket work, book-binding, tillage, etc., etc., should be used as means of culture. During half the school-time there was to be study, and during the other half, with the limbs. This work was to give direct material for instruction, and, above all things, excite in the mind of the child the desire for learning and explanation, so as to stimulate and strengthen the mind for invention and practical work. The awakening of this desire, this impulse to learn and to create, was one of the fundamental thoughts of Frederich Froebel. Illustration, in the Pestalozzian sense, was not far reaching and deep-reaching enough, and he endeavored to look upon man radically as a creative, not merely receptive, but chiefly as a productive being. We had not been able to realize the thought at Keilhau, because the means for working out technical instruction were specially wanting to the pupils. But with the help of the Duke of Meiningen the boldest of our hopes seemed likely to be satisfied. The preparation of the above-mentioned plan led to many technical constructions which already contained the elements of the Kindergarten plays. They are mostly lost and destroyed, but the plan has remained. I wil look it up for the use and advantage of the cause, when wanted. Duke of Meiningen was very well satisfied with Froebel's explanations, and particularly with the straightforward and open hearted way in which they were given. There was an agreement by which Froebel was promised for educational purposes the estate at Helba, with thirty acres of land, and an annual grant of 1,000 gulden. It may be incidentally

The

mentioned that the duke consulted Froebel about the education of his heir. Froebel told him frankly that nothing would come out of the future ruler if he was not educated in companionship with others. The duke followed his advice. The prince was taught and disciplined in

common with other boys.

"When Froebel returned from Meiningen, the whole circle was highly pleased, but the joy was not to last long. A prominent man in the Meiningen region, the autocrat, as it were, in educational matters, because he was on that subject the right hand of the prince, -a man who also had his merits in literary respects, and who had not been taken into consultation, was afraid of losing his commanding influence by the springing up of Froebel. We were suddenly again beset with the most degrading and hateful public and secret accusations, to which our precarious position in Keilhau offered welcome, and, alas! more than sufficient plausibility. The duke had secretly a flea put into his ear. He began to waver; turned suddenly upon Froebel, and demanded a proviso of about twenty pupils for an indefinite time. Froebel saw the design of this, and was put ou of tune; for where he scented mistrust he immediately gave up all hope and he dashed out of his mind what had a few hours before filled him with enthusiasm. He broke off all negotiations, and started off to Frank fort on the Main in order to impart to his friends of former times there the results of his action, for he had become perplexed by the many obsta cles. Here he luckily met the well-known musical composer, Schnyder von Wartensee. He told this man of his recent experiences and his plans, and exercised over that artist those clectrifying and inspiring influences peculiar to his creative nature. Schnyder knew how to estimate his efforts, and offered him his castle of Wartensee, in Switzerland, for an educational institution. Froebel eagerly and joyfully grasped the hand which was offered him, and set out for Wartensee with his nephew Ferdinand, my brother in law.

"There Frederich and Ferdinand Froebel resided and worked a long time, when I (B.) was asked by my fellow members of the educational circle to inform myself precisely of the situation of things in Switzerland. With ten dollars in my pocket, and an old summer coat, which I wore, and a threadbare dress-coat, which I carried with me, I trudged off on foot. Should I tell you how I fought my way, I should probably excite in you a suspicion of stark exaggeration. Enough; I arrived, inquired in the surrounding regions about my friends and their activity, and heard that nothing further had been charged to the heretics' than that they were 'heretics. Some peasant children of the neighboring regions had been found; but they did not meet the strangers whom they had judged in the beginning by their outward condition. The agitation of the clergy, which began as soon as the institution could be called such, and which became the greater the more our friends stood firmly on their feet, had its effect, and prevented a quick growth of our enterprise. Besides, the ground for our enterprise was not found at Wartensee. Schnyder had, with a generosity which cannot be too much praised, not only placed his castle at our disposal, but even the inventory of its contents,-his silver plate, his glorious library, in short, everything that was in and about the castle;