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diff --git a/16434.txt b/16434.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f9b3a86 --- /dev/null +++ b/16434.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7329 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel, by Friedrich Froebel + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel + +Author: Friedrich Froebel + +Translator: Emilie Michaelis + H. Keatley Moore + +Release Date: August 4, 2005 [EBook #16434] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRIEDRICH FROEBEL *** + + + + +Produced by Rose Koven, Juliet Sutherland, Joel Schlosberg +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +AUTOBIOGRAPHY + +OF + +FRIEDRICH FROEBEL + +TRANSLATED AND ANNOTATED BY + +EMILIE MICHAELIS, + +_Head Mistress of the Croydon Kindergarten and Preparatory School_, + +AND + +H. KEATLEY MOORE, MUS. BAC., B.A., + +_Examiner in Music to the Froebel Society and Vice-Chairman of the Croydon +Kindergarten Company._ + +*"Come, let us live for our children."* + +SYRACUSE, N.Y.: +C.W. BARDEEN, PUBLISHER. +1889. + + + + +German Books on Pedagogy. + + +1. _Comenius. Grosse Unterrichtslehre._ Mit einer Einleitung, "J. +Comenius, sein Leben und Werken," von LINDNER. Price $1.50. + +2. _Helvetius. Von Menschen, seinen Geisteskraften und seiner +Erziehung._ Mit einer Einleitung, "Cl. Adr. Helvetius, 1715-1771. Ein +Zeit- und Lebensbild," von LINDNER. 12mo, pp. 339. Price $1.50. + +3. _Pestalozzi. Wie Gertrud ihre Kinder lehrt._ Mit einer Einleitung, +"J.H. Pestalozzi's Leben, Werke, und Grundsaetze," von RIEDEL. Price +$1.25. + +4. _Niemeyer. Grundsaetze die Erziehung und des Unterrichtes._ Mit einer +Einleitung "Aug. Herm. Niemeyer, sein Leben und Werken," von LINDNER. 2 +vols. Price $3.00. + +5. _Diesterweg. Rhenische Blaetter._ Mit einer Einleitung, "F.A.W. +Diesterweg," von JESSEN. Price $1.25. + +6. _Jacotot. Universal Unterricht._ Mit einer "Darstellung des Lebens +und der Lehre Jacotot's," von GOERING. 12mo, pp. 364. Price $3.75. + +7. _Froebel._ Paedagogische Schriften. Herausgegeben von SEIDEL. 3 vols. +Price $7.00. + +8. _Fichte._ Paedagogisch Schriften und Ideen. Mit "biographischer +Einleitung und gedraengter Darstellung von Fichte's Paedagogik," von +KEFERSTEIN. Price $2.00. + +9. _Martin Luther._ Paedagogische Schrifte. Mit Einleitung von SCHUMANN. +Price $1.50. + +10. _Herder als Paedagog._ Von MORRES. Price 75 cts. + +11. _Geschichte der Paedagogik._ in Biographen, Uebersichten, und Proben +aus paedagogischen Hauptwerken. Von NIEDERGESAESS. Price $2.50. + +11. _Lexikon der Paedagogik._ Von SANDER. Price $3.50. + +For sale by + +*C.W. BARDEEN, Publisher, Syracuse, N.Y.* + + + + +PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. + + +It will be long before we have a biography of Froebel to compare with +DeGuimp's _Pestalozzi_, of which an English translation has just +appeared. Meantime we must content ourselves with two long +autobiographical letters contained in this volume, which, though +incomplete, have yet the peculiar charm that comes from the candid +record of genuine impressions. + +The first of these letters, that to the Duke of Meiningen, has already +appeared in English, in a translation by Miss Lucy Wheelock for +Barnard's _American Journal of Education_, since reprinted in pp. 21-48 +of his _Kindergarten and Child Culture_, (see p. 146), and in a small +volume under the title _Autobiography of Froebel_ (see p. 146). While a +faithful attempt to reproduce the original, this translation struggled +in vain to transform Froebel's rugged and sometimes seemingly incoherent +sentences into adequate and attractive English, so that the long letter +has proved to most English readers formidable and repellant. But in the +original it is one of the most charming productions in literature, +candid and confidential in tone, and detailing those inner gropings for +ideas that became convictions which only an autobiography can reveal. +These qualities are so admirably preserved in the translation by Miss +Emily Michaelis and H. Keatley Moore that it seemed to leave nothing to +be desired. They have not only given a faithful rendering, but they have +impressed upon it the loving touch of faithful disciples. Accordingly I +purchased from the English publishers the American rights to this +translation; and have reproduced not only this letter, but that to the +philosopher Krause, with Barop's "Critical Moments," and the +"Chronological Abstract," all from duplicates of the English plates. + +The rest of the volume appears for the first time. The Bibliography +seemed desirable, and is confined to attainable books likely to be of +value to American teachers. The Index is full, but not fuller than the +fragmentary character of the material seemed to require. The Table of +Contents will also serve to make reference easy to the principal evens +of Froebel's history. + +In the lives of Pestalozzi and of Froebel many resemblances may be +traced. Both were sons of clergymen. Both were half-orphans from their +earliest recollections. Both were unhappy in childhood, were +misunderstood, companionless, awkward, clumsy, ridiculed. Both were as +boys thrown into the almost exclusive society of women, and both +retained to the last strongly feminine characteristics. Both were +throughout life lacking in executive ability; both were financially +improvident. Both were dependent for what they did accomplish upon +friends, and both had the power of inspiring and retaining friendships +that were heroic, Pestalozzi's Kruesi corresponding with Froebel's +Middendorf. Both became teachers only by accident, and after failure in +other professions. Both saw repeated disaster in the schools they +established, and both were to their last days pointed at as visionary +theorists of unsound mind. Both failed to realize their ideas, but both +planted their ideas so deeply in the minds of others that they took +enduring root. Both lacked knowledge of men, but both knew and loved +children, and were happiest when personally and alone they had children +under their charge. Both delighted in nature, and found in solitary +contemplation of flowers and woods and mountains relief from the +disappointments they encountered among their fellows. + +But there were contrasts too. Pestalozzi had no family ties, while +Froebel maintained to the last the closest relations with several +brothers and their households. Pestalozzi married at twenty-three a +woman older than himself, on whom he thereafter relied in all his +troubles. Froebel deferred his marriage till thirty-six and then seems +to have regarded his wife more as an advantage to his school than as a +help-meet to himself. + +Pestalozzi was diffident, and in dress and manner careless to the point +of slovenliness; Froebel was extravagant in his self-confidence, and at +times almost a dandy in attire. Pestalozzi was always honest and candid, +while Froebel was as a boy untruthful. Pestalozzi was touchingly humble, +and eager to ascribe the practical failure of his theories to his +personal inefficiency; Froebel never acknowledged himself in the wrong, +but always attributed failure to external causes. On the other hand, +while Froebel was equable in temperament, Pestalozzi was moody and +impressionable, flying from extreme gaiety to extreme dejection, +slamming the door if displeased with a lesson a teacher was giving, but +coming back to apologize if he met a child who smiled upon him. Under +Rousseau's influence Pestalozzi was inclined to skepticism, and limited +religious teaching in school to the reading of the gospels, and the +practice of Christianity; Froebel was deeply pious, and made it +fundamental that education should be founded plainly and avowedly upon +religion. + +Intellectually the contrast is even stronger. While Froebel had a +university education, Pestalozzi was an eminently ignorant man; his +penmanship was almost illegible, he could not do simple sums in +multiplication, he could not sing, he could not draw, he wore out all +his handkerchiefs gathering pebbles and then never looked at them +afterward. Froebel was not only a reader but a scientific reader, always +seeking first to find out what others had discovered that he might +begin where they left off; Pestalozzi boasted that he had not read a +book in forty years. Naturally, therefore, Pestalozzi was always an +experimenter, profiting by his failures but always failing in his first +attempts, and hitting upon his most characteristic principles by +accident; while Froebel was a theorist, elaborating his ideas mentally +before putting them in practice, and never satisfied till he had +properly located them in his general scheme of philosophy. + +And yet, curiously enough, it is Pestalozzi who was the author. His +"Leonard and Gertrude" was read by every cottage fireside, while +Froebel's writings were intelligible only to his disciples. Pestalozzi +had an exuberant imagination and delightful directness and simplicity of +expression; Froebel's style was labored and obscure, and his doctrines +may be better known through the "Child and Child Nature" of the Baroness +Marenholz von Buelow than through his own "Education of Man." + +The account of Froebel's life given in this volume is supplemented +somewhat by the "Reminiscences" of this same Baroness, who became +acquainted with him in 1849, and was thereafter his most enthusiastic +and successful apostle. Till some adequate biography appears, that +volume and this must be relied upon for information of the man who +shares equally with Pestalozzi the honor of educational reform in this +century. + + C.W. BARDEEN. +Syracuse, June 10, 1889. + + + + +COMMENTS UPON FROEBEL AND HIS WORK. + + +Und als er so, wie Wichard Lange richtig sagt, der Apostel des +weiblichen Gechlechts geworden war, starb er, der geniale, unermuedlich +thaetige, von Liebe getragene Mann.--SCHMIDT, _Geschichte der Paedagogik_, +Coethen, 1862, iv. 282. + +En resume, Rousseau aurait pu etre deconcerte par les inventions +pratiques, un peu subtiles parfois, de l'ingenieux Froebel. Il eut +souri, comme tout le monde, des artifices par lesquels il obligeait +l'enfant a se faire acteur au milieu de ses petits camarades, a imiter +tour a tour le soldat qui monte la garde, le cordonnier qui travaille, +le cheval qui pietine, l'homme fatigue qui se repose. Mais, sur les +principes, il se serait mis aisement d'accord avec l'auteur de +_l'Education de l'homme_, avec un penseur a l'ame tendre et noble, qui +remplacait les livres par les choses, qui a une instruction pedantesque +substituait l'education interieure, qui aux connaissances positives +preferait la chaleur du sentiment, la vie intime et profonde de l'ame, +qui respectait la liberte et la spontaneite de l'enfant, qui enfin +s'efforcait d'ecarter de lui les mauvaises influences et de faire a son +innocence un milieu digne d'elle--COMPAYRE's _Histoire Critique des +Doctrines de l'Education en France depuis le XVIme Siecle_, Paris, 1879, +ii. 125. + +We might say that his effort in pedagogy consists chiefly in organizing +into a system the sense intuitions which Pestalozzi proposed to the +child somewhat at random and without direct plan.--COMPAYRE's _History +of Pedagogy_, Payne's translation, Boston, 1886, p. 449. + +Er war gleich Pestalozzi von den hoechsten Ideen der Zeit getragen und +suchte die Erziehung an diese Ideen anzuknuepfen. So lange die Mutter +nicht nach den Gesetzen der Natur ihr Kind erzieht und bildet und dafuer +nicht ihr Leben einsetst, so lange--davon geht er aus--sind alle +Reformen der Schule auf Sand gebaut. Trotsdem verlegt er einen Theil der +muetterlichen Aufgabe in den Kindergarten, in welchem er die Kinder vor +ihre Schulpflichtigkeit vereinigt wissen will, (1) um auf die haeusliche +Erziehung ergaenzend und verbessernd einzuwirken, (2) um das Kind aus dem +Einzelleben heraus Zum Verkehr mil seinesgleichen zu fuehren, und (3) um +dem weiblichen Geschlechte Gelegenheit zu geben, sich auf seinen +erzieherischen Beruf vorzubereiten.--BOeHM's _Kurzgefasste Geschichte der +Paedagogik_, Nuernberg, 1880, p. 134. + +Le jardin d'enfants est evidemment en opposition avec l'idee +fondamentale de Pestalozzi; car celui-ci avait confie entierement a la +mere et au foyer domestique la tache que Froebel remet, en grande +partie, aux jardins d'enfants et a sa directrice. A l'egard des rapports +de l'education domestique, telle qui elle est a l'heure qu'il est, on +doit reconnaitre que Froebel avait un coup-d'oeil plus juste que +Pestalozzi.--_Histoire d'Education_, FREDERICK DITTES, Redolfi's French +translation, Paris, 1880, p. 258. + +While others have taken to the work of education their own pre-conceived +notions of what that work should be, Froebel stands consistently alone +in seeking in the nature of the child the laws of educational action--in +ascertaining from the child himself how we are to educate him.--JOSEPH +PAYNE, _Lectures on the Science and Art of Education_, Syracuse, 1885, +p. 254. + +Years afterwards, the celebrated Jahn (the "Father Jahn" of the German +gymnastics) told a Berlin student of a queer fellow he had met, who +made all sorts of wonderful things from stones and cobwebs. This queer +fellow was Froebel; and the habit of making out general truths from the +observation of nature, especially from plants and trees, dated from the +solitary rambles in the Forest. + +As the cultivator creates nothing in the trees and plants, so the +educator creates nothing in the children,--he merely superintends the +development of inborn faculties. So far Froebel agrees with Pestalozzi; +but in one respect he was beyond him, and has thus become, according +to Michelet, the greatest of educational reformers. Pestalozzi said +that the faculties were developed by exercise. Froebel added that +the function of education was to develop the faculties by arousing +_voluntary activity_. Action proceeding from inner impulse +(_Selbsthaeligkeit_) was the one thing needful, and here Froebel as +usual refers to God: "God's every thought is a work, a deed." As +God is the Creator, so must man be a creator also. Living acting, +conceiving,--these must form a triple cord within every child of man, +though the sound now of this string, now of that may preponderate, and +then again of two together. + +Pestalozzi held that the child belonged to the family; Fichte on the +other hand, claimed it for society and the State. Froebel, whose mind, +like that of Frederick Maurice, delighted in harmonizing apparent +contradictions, and who taught that "all progress lay through opposites +to their reconciliations," maintained that the child belonged both to +the family and to society, and he would therefore have children spend +some hours of the day in a common life and in well-organized common +employments. These assemblies of children he would not call schools, for +the children in them ought not to be old enough for schooling. So he +invented the term _Kindergarten_, garden of children, and called the +superintendents "children's gardeners."--R.H. QUICK, in _Encyclopaedia +Britannica_, xix edition. + + + + + TABLE OF CONTENTS. + + PAGE + + INTRODUCTORY 1, 2 + + LETTER TO THE DUKE OF MEININGEN 3-101 + + Birth and early life 3, 104 + + Enters the girls' school 9 + + Goes away from home to Stadt-Ihm 15 + + Is apprenticed to a forester 24 + + Returns to his father's house 27 + + Goes to the University of Jena 28, 105 + + Returns home again 35 + + Goes to Bamberg as clerk 33 + + Becomes land-surveyor 39 + + Goes to the Oberfalz as accountant 42 + + Soon after to Mecklenberg 42 + + Gets small inheritance from his uncle 43 + + Goes to Frankfurt 48, 107 + + Becomes teacher in the Model School 31, 109 + + Visits Pestalozzi 52 + + Resigns to become a private tutor 65, 110 + + Takes his three pupils to Yverdon 77 + + Returns to Frankfurt 84 + + Goes to the University of Goettingen 84, 111 + + Goes to Berlin 89, 111 + + Enters the army 91, 111, 120 + + Becomes curator in Berlin 96, 111, 121 + + Enlists in the army again 100, 121 + + SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS BY THE TRANSLATORS 102, 103 + + LETTER TO KRAUSE 104-125 + + Begins at Griesheim his ideal work 113, 121 + + Undertakes education of his nephews 121 + + Moves to Keilhau 122, 127 + + NOTE BY THE TRANSLATORS 126 + + CRITICAL MOMENTS IN THE FROEBEL COMMUNITY 127-137 + + Froebel goes to the Wartensee 131 + + Then to Willisau 132, 136 + + Then to the Orphanage at Burgdorf 135, 136 + + Visits Berlin 137 + + NOTES BY THE TRANSLATORS 138, 139 + + Death of Froebel 138 + + CHRONOLOGICAL ABSTRACT OF FROEBEL'S LIFE AND MOVEMENT 140-144 + + BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FROEBEL 145-152 + + INDEX 153-167 + + + + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +The year 1882 was the centenary of Froebel's birth, and in the present +"plentiful lack" of faithful translations of Froebel's own words we +proposed to the Froebel Society to issue a translation of the "Education +of Man," which we would undertake to make at our own cost, that the +occasion might be marked in a manner worthy of the English branch of the +Kindergarten movement. But various reasons prevented the Society from +accepting our offer, and the lamentable deficiency still continues. We +have therefore endeavoured to make a beginning by the present work, +consisting of Froebel's own words done into English as faithfully as we +know how to render them, and accompanied with any brief explanation of +our own that may be essential to the clear understanding of the passages +given. We have not attempted to rewrite our author, the better to suit +the practical, clear-headed, common-sense English character, but have +preferred simply to present him in an English dress with his national +and personal peculiarities untouched. + +In so doing we are quite aware that we have sacrificed interest, for in +many passages, if not in most, a careful paraphrase of Froebel would be +much more intelligible and pithy to English readers than a true +rendering, since he probably possesses every fault of style except +over-conciseness; but we feel that it is better to let Froebel speak for +himself. + +For the faithfulness of translation we hope our respective nationalities +may have stood us in good stead. We would, however, add that a faithful +translation is not a verbal translation. The translator should rather +strive to write each sentence as the author would have written it in +English. + +Froebel's opinions, character, and work grow so directly out of his +life, that we feel the best of his writing that a student of the +Kindergarten system could begin with is the important autobiographical +"Letter to the Duke of Meiningen," written in the year 1827, but never +completed, and in all probability never sent to the sovereign whose name +it bears. That this is the course Froebel would himself have preferred +will, we think, become quickly apparent to the reader. Besides, in the +boyhood and the earliest experiences of Froebel's life, we find the +sources of his whole educational system. That other children might be +better understood than he was, that other children might have the means +to live the true child-life that was denied to himself, and that by +their powers being directed into the right channels, these children +might become a blessing to themselves and to others, was undoubtedly in +great part the motive which induced Froebel to describe so fully all the +circumstances of his peculiar childhood. We should undoubtedly have a +clearer comprehension of many a great reformer if he had taken the +trouble to write out at length the impressions of his life's dawn, as +Froebel has done. In Froebel's particular case, moreover, it is evident +that although his account of himself is unfinished, we fortunately +possess all that is most important for the understanding of the origin +of the Kindergarten system. After the "Letter to the Duke of Meiningen," +we have placed the shorter account of his life which Froebel included in +a letter to the philosopher Krause. A sketch of Barop's, which varies +the point of view by regarding the whole movement more in its outer +aspect than even Froebel himself is able to do, seemed to us also +desirable to translate; and finally we have added also a carefully +prepared "chronology" extended from Lange's list. Our translation is +made from the edition of Froebel's works published by Dr. Wichard Lange +at Berlin in 1862. + + EMILIE MICHAELIS. + H. KEATLEY MOORE. +THE CROYDON KINDERGARTEN, +_January 1886_. + + + + +AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FROEBEL. + +(A LETTER TO THE DUKE OF MEININGEN.) + + +I was born at Oberweissbach, a village in the Thuringian Forest, in the +small principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, on the 21st April, 1782. +My father was the principal clergyman, or pastor, there.[1] (He died in +1802.) I was early initiated into the conflict of life amidst painful +and narrowing circumstances; and ignorance of child-nature and +insufficient education wrought their influence upon me. Soon after my +birth my mother's health began to fail, and after nursing me nine months +she died. This loss, a hard blow to me, influenced the whole environment +and development of my being: I consider that my mother's death decided +more or less the external circumstances of my whole life. + +The cure of five thousand souls, scattered over six or seven villages, +devolved solely on my father. This work, even to a man so active as my +father, who was very conscientious in the fulfilment of his duty as +minister, was all-absorbing; the more so since the custom of frequent +services still prevailed. Besides all this, my father had undertaken to +superintend the building of a large new church, which drew him more and +more from his home and from his children. + +I was left to the care of the servants; but they, profiting by my +father's absorption in his work, left me, fortunately for me, to my +brothers, who were somewhat older than myself.[2] This, in addition +to a circumstance of my later life, may have been the cause of that +unswerving love for my family, and especially for my brothers, which +has, to the present moment, been of the greatest importance to me in +the conduct of my life. Although my father, for a village pastor, was +unusually well informed--nay, even learned and experienced--and was an +incessantly active man, yet in consequence of this separation from him +during my earliest years I remained a stranger to him throughout my +life; and in this way I was as truly without a father as without a +mother. Amidst such surroundings I reached my fourth year. My father +then married again, and gave me a second mother. My soul must have felt +deeply at this time the want of a mother's love,--of parental love,--for +in this year occurs my first consciousness of self. I remember that I +received my new mother overflowing with feelings of simple and faithful +child-love towards her. These sentiments made me happy, developed my +nature, and strengthened me, because they were kindly received and +reciprocated by her. But this happiness did not endure. Soon my +step-mother rejoiced in the possession of a son of her own;[3] and then +her love was not only withdrawn entirely from me and transferred to her +own child, but I was treated with worse than indifference--by word and +deed, I was made to feel an utter stranger. + +I am obliged here to mention these circumstances, and to describe them +so particularly, because in them I see the first cause of my early +habit of introspection, my tendency to self-examination, and my early +separation from companionship with other men. Soon after the birth of +her own son, when I had scarcely entered my boyhood, my step-mother +ceased to use the sympathetic, heart-uniting "thou" in speaking to me, +and began to address me in the third person, the most estranging of our +forms of speech. And as in this mode of address the third person, "he," +isolates the person addressed, it created a great chasm between my +step-mother and me.[4] At the beginning of my boyhood, I already felt +utterly lonely, and my soul was filled with grief. + +Some coarse-minded people wished to make use of my sentiments and my +mood at this time to set me against my step-mother, but my heart and +mind turned with indignation from these persons, whom I thenceforth +avoided, so far as I was able. Thus I became, at an early age, conscious +of a nobler, purer, inner-life, and laid the foundation of that proper +self-consciousness and moral pride which have accompanied me through +life. Temptations returned from time to time, and each time took a more +dangerous form: not only was I suspected as being capable of unworthy +things, but base conduct was actually charged against me, and this in +such a way as left no doubt of the impropriety of the suspicion and of +the untruthfulness of the accusation. So it came to pass that in the +first years of my boyhood I was perforce led to live to myself and in +myself--and indeed to study my own being and inner consciousness, as +opposed to external circumstances. My inward and my outward life were +at that time, even during play and other occupations, my principal +subjects for reflection and thought. + +A notable influence upon the development and formation of my character +was also exercised by the position of my parents' house. It was closely +surrounded by other buildings, walls, hedges, and fences, and was +further enclosed by an outer courtyard, a paddock, and a kitchen garden. +Beyond these latter I was strictly forbidden to pass. The dwelling had +no other outlook than on to the buildings to right and left, the big +church in front, and at the back the sloping fields stretching up a high +hill. For a long time I remained thus deprived of any distant view: but +above me I saw the sky, clear and bright as we so often find it in the +hill country; and around me I felt the pure fresh breeze stirring. The +impression which that clear sky and that pure air then made on me has +remained ever since present to my mind. My perceptions were in this +manner limited to only the nearest objects. Nature, with the world of +plants and flowers, so far as I was able to see and understand her, +early became an object of observation and reflection to me. I soon +helped my father in his favourite occupation of gardening, and in this +way received many permanent perceptions; but the consciousness of the +real life in nature only came to me further on, and I shall return to +the point hereafter in the course of my narrative. Our domestic life at +this time gave me much opportunity for occupation and reflection. Many +alterations went on in our house; both my parents were exceedingly +active-minded, fond of order, and determined to improve their dwelling +in every possible way. I had to help them according to my capacity, and +soon perceived that I thereby gained strength and experience; while +through this growth of strength and experience my own games and +occupations became of greater value to me. + +But from my life in the open air amongst the objects of nature, and from +the externals of domestic life, I must now turn to the inner aspects of +my home and family. + +My father was a theologian of the old school, who held knowledge and +science in less estimation than faith; but yet he endeavoured to keep +pace with the times. For this purpose he subscribed to the best +periodicals he could obtain, and carefully examined what information +they offered him. This helped not a little to elevate and enlighten the +old-fashioned truly Christian life which reigned in our family. Morning +and evening all its members gathered together, and even on Sunday as +well, although on that day divine service would of course also call upon +us to assemble for common religious worship. Zollikofer, Hermes, +Marezoll, Sturm, and others, turned our thoughts, in those delightful +hours of heavenly meditation, upon our innermost being, and served to +quicken, unfold, and raise up the life of the soul within us. Thus my +life was early brought under the influence of nature, of useful +handiwork, and of religious feelings; or, as I prefer to say, the +primitive and natural inclinations of every human being were even in my +case also tenderly fostered in the germ. I must mention here, with +reference to my ideas regarding the nature of man, to be treated of +later, and as throwing light upon my professional and individual work, +that at this time I used repeatedly, and with deep emotion, to resolve +to try and be a good and brave man. As I have heard since, this firm +inward resolution of mine was in flagrant contrast with my outward life. +I was full of youthful energy and in high spirits, and did not always +know how properly to moderate my vivacity. Through my want of restraint +I got into all kinds of scrapes. Often, in my thoughtlessness, I would +destroy the things I saw around me, in the endeavour to investigate and +understand them. + +My father was prevented by his manifold occupations from himself +instructing me. Besides, he lost all further inclination to teach me, +after the great trouble he found in teaching me to read--an art which +came to me with great difficulty. As soon as I could read, therefore, I +was sent to the public village school. + +The position in which my father stood to the village schoolmasters, that +is to say, to the Cantor,[5] and to the master of the girls' school, and +his judgment of the value of their respective teaching, decided him to +send me to the latter. This choice had a remarkable influence on the +development of my inner nature, on account of the perfect neatness, +quiet, intelligence, and order which reigned in the school; nay, I may +go further, and say the school was exactly suitable for such a child as +I was. In proof of this I will describe my entrance into the school. At +that time church and school generally stood in strict mutual +relationship, and so it was in our case. The school children had their +special places in church; and not only were they obliged to attend +church, but each child had to repeat to the teacher, at a special class +held for the purpose every Monday, some passage of Scripture used by the +minister in his sermon of the day before, as a proof of attention to the +service. From these passages that one which seemed most suitable to +children was then chosen for the little ones to master or to learn by +heart, and for that purpose one of the bigger children had during the +whole week, at certain times each day, to repeat the passage to the +little children, sentence by sentence. The little ones, all standing up, +had then to repeat the text sentence by sentence in like manner, until +it was thoroughly imprinted on their memories. + +I came into school on a Monday. The passage chosen for that week was, +"Seek ye first the kingdom of God." I heard these words every day in the +calm, serious, somewhat sing-song voices of the children, sometimes +repeated by one child, sometimes by the whole number. And the text made +an impression upon me such as none had ever done before and none ever +did after. Indeed, this impression was so vigorous and permanent, that +to this day every word spoken, with the special tone and expression then +given to it, is still vivid in my mind. And yet that is now nearly forty +years ago! Perhaps even then the simple boy's heart felt that these +words would be the foundation and the salvation of his life, bringing to +him that conviction which was to become later on to the working and +striving man a source of unconquerable courage, of unflinching, +ever-ready, and cheerful self-sacrifice. In short, my introduction into +that school was my birth into the higher spiritual life. + +Here I break off my narrative to ask myself whether I dare venture to +pause yet a little longer over this first period of my life. But this +was the time when the buds began to unfold on my tree of life; this was +the time when my heart found its pivot-point, and when first my inner +life awoke. If, then, I succeed in giving an exact description of my +early boyhood, I shall have provided an important aid to the right +understanding of my life and work as a man. For that reason I venture to +dwell at some inordinate length on this part of my life, and the more +willingly since I can pass more quickly over later periods. + +It often suggests itself to me, while thus reviewing and describing my +life, just as it does with teaching and education--namely, that those +things which are by most men thrown aside as common and unimportant are +the very things which are, as I take it, of weightiest import. In my +eyes, it is always a mistake to leave a gap in the rudimentary and +fundamental part of a subject. Still I know one may exhaust the patience +of a reader by touching on every minute detail, before he has been +permitted to glance at the whole picture and to gather its scope and +object. Therefore I beg your Highness[6] to pass over, at all events on +the first reading, anything that may appear too long and too detailed. + +Against standing rules, I was received in the girls' school, on account +of the position of my father as pastor of the district. For the same +reason I was placed, not with the pupils of my own age, but close to the +teacher, which brought me among the elder girls. I joined in their +lessons as far as I could. In two subjects I was quite able to do this. +First, I could read the Bible with them; and, secondly, I had to learn +line by line, instead of the little texts of the younger children +already spoken of, the hymns for the following Sunday's service. Of +these, two especially light up the gloomy lowering dawn of my early +boyhood, like two brilliant stars. They are--"Schwing dich auf, mein +Herz und Geist," and "Es kostet viel ein Christ zu sein."[7] These hymns +were hymns of life to me. I found my own little life expressed therein; +and they took such a hold upon me that often in later years I have found +strength and support in the message which they carried to my soul. My +father's home life was in complete harmony with this discipline of the +school. Although divine service was held twice on Sundays, I was but +very seldom allowed to miss attending each service. I followed my +father's sermons with great attention, partly because I thought I found +in them many allusions to his own position, profession, and life. +Looking back, I consider it of no slight importance that I used to hear +the service from the vestry, because I was there separated from the +congregation, and could the better keep my attention from wandering. + +I have already mentioned that my father belonged to the old orthodox +school of theology; and in consequence the language both of his hymns +and of his sermons was mystical and symbolic--a style of speech which, +in more than one sense, I should call a stone-language, because it +requires an overwhelming power to burst its walls, and free from this +outer shell the life contained within. But what the full strength of +later life seems too weak to attain, is often accomplished by the +living, life-awakening, and life-giving power of some simple, thoughtful +young soul, by some young spirit first unfolding its wings, busily +seeking everywhere for the causes and connections of all things. Even +for such a youth, the treasure is to be gained only after long +examination, inquiry, and reflection. If ever I found that for which I +so longingly sought, then was I filled with exceeding joy. + +The surroundings amidst which I had grown up, especially those in which +my first childhood was passed, had caused my senses to be much and early +exercised. The pleasures of the senses were from the first, therefore, +an object for the closest consideration with me. The results of this +analysing and questioning habit of my early boyhood were perfectly clear +and decisive, and, if not rendered into words, were yet firmly settled +in my mind. I recognised that the transitory pleasures of the senses +were without enduring and satisfying influence on man, and that they +were therefore on no account to be pursued with too great eagerness. +This conviction stamped and determined my whole being, just as my +questioning examination and comparison of the inner with the outer +world, and my study of their inter-connection, is now the basis of my +whole future life. Unceasing self-contemplation, self-analysis, and +self-education have been the fundamental characteristics of my life from +the very first, and have remained so until these latest days. + +To stir up, to animate, to awaken, and to strengthen, the pleasure and +power of the human being to labour uninterruptedly at his own education, +has become and always remained the fundamental principle and aim of my +educational work. + +Great was my joy when I believed I had proved completely to my own +satisfaction that I was not destined to go to hell. The stony, +oppressive dogmas of orthodox theology I very early explained away, +perhaps assisted in this by two circumstances. Firstly, I heard these +expressions used over and over again, from my habit of being present at +the lessons given by my father in our own house, in preparation for +confirmation. I heard them used also in all sorts of ways, so that my +mind almost unconsciously constructed some sort of explanation of them. +Secondly, I was often a mute witness of the strict way in which my +father performed his pastoral duties, and of the frequent scenes between +him and the many people who came to the parsonage to seek advice and +consolation. I was thus again constantly attracted from the outer to the +inner aspects of life. Life, with its inmost motives laid bare, passed +before my eyes, with my father's comments pronounced upon it; and thing +and word, act and symbol were thus perceived by me in their most vivid +relationship. I saw the disjointed, heavy-laden, torn, inharmonious life +of man as it appeared in this community of five thousand souls, before +the watchful eyes of its earnest, severe pastor. Matrimonial and sexual +circumstances especially were often the objects of my father's gravest +condemnation and rebuke. The way in which he spoke about these matters +showed me that they formed one of the most oppressive and difficult +parts of human conduct; and, in my youth and innocence, I felt a deep +pain and sorrow that man alone, among all creatures, should be doomed to +these separations of sex, whereby the right path was made so difficult +for him to find. I felt it a real necessity for the satisfaction of my +heart and mind to reconcile this difficulty, and yet could find no way +to do so. How could I at that age, and in my position? But my eldest +brother, who, like all my elder brothers, lived away from home, came to +stay with us for a time; and one day, when I expressed my delight at +seeing the purple threads of the hazel buds, he made me aware of a +similar sexual difference in plants. Now was my spirit at rest. I +recognised that what had so weighed upon me was an institution spread +over all nature, to which even the silent, beautiful race of flowers was +submitted. From that time humanity and nature, the life of the soul and +the life of the flower, were closely knit together in my mind; and I can +still see my hazel buds, like angels, opening for me the great God's +temple of Nature. + +I now had what I needed: to the Church was added the Nature-Temple; to +the religious Christian life, the life of Nature; to the passionate +discord of human life the tranquil peace of the life of plants. From +that time it was as if I held the clue of Ariadne to guide me through +the labyrinth of life. An intimate communion with Nature for more than +thirty years (although, indeed, often interrupted, sometimes for long +intervals) has taught me that plants, especially trees, are a mirror, or +rather a symbol, of human life in its highest spiritual relations; and I +think one of the grandest and deepest fore-feelings that have ever +emanated from the human soul, is before us when we read, in the Holy +Scriptures, of a tree of knowledge of good and evil. The whole of Nature +teaches us to distinguish good from evil; even the world of crystals and +stones--though not so vividly, calmly, clearly, and manifestly as the +world of plants and flowers. I said my hazel buds gave me the clue of +Ariadne. Many things grew clear to me: for instance, the earliest life +and actions of our first parents in Paradise, and much connected +therewith. + +There are yet three points touching my inner life up to my tenth year, +which, before I resume the narrative of my outer life, I should like to +mention here. + +The folly, superstition, and ignorance of men had dared to assume then, +as they have done lately, that the world would soon come to an end. My +mind, however, remained perfectly tranquil, because I reasoned thus with +myself firmly and definitely:--Mankind will not pass from the world, +nor will the world itself pass away, until the human race has attained +to that degree of perfection of which it is capable on earth. The earth, +Nature in its narrowest sense, will not pass away, moreover, until men +have attained a perfect insight into its essence. This idea has returned +to me during my life in many a varied guise, and I have often been +indebted to its influence for peace, firmness, perseverance, and +courage. + +Towards the end of this epoch, my eldest brother, already spoken of, was +at the university, and studied theology.[8] Philosophic criticism was +then beginning to elucidate certain Church dogmas. It was therefore not +very surprising that father and son often differed in opinion. I +remember that one day they had a violent dispute about religion and +Church matters. My father stormed, and absolutely declined to yield; my +brother, though naturally of a mild disposition, flushed deep-red with +excitement; and he, too, could not abandon what he had recognised as +true. I was present also on this as on many other occasions, an +unobserved witness, and can still see father and son standing face to +face in the conflict of opinion. I almost thought I understood something +of the subject in dispute; I felt as if I must side with my brother, but +there seemed at the same time something in my father's view which +indicated the possibility of a mutual understanding. Already I felt in a +dim way that every illusion has a true side, which often leads men to +cling to it with a desperate firmness. This conviction has become more +and more confirmed in me the longer I have lived; and when at any time I +have heard two men disputing for the truth's sake, I have found that the +truth is usually to be learnt from both sides. Therefore I have never +liked to take sides; a fortunate thing for me.[9] + +Another youthful experience which also had a decided influence in +forming my cast of character, was the following:--There are certain +oft-repeated demands made upon the members of our Established Church; +such as, to enter upon the service of Christ, to show forth Christ in +one's life, to follow Jesus, etc. These injunctions were brought home to +me times without number through the zeal of my father as a teacher of +others and a liver himself of a Christian life. When demands are made on +a child which are in harmony with child nature, he knows no reluctance +in fulfilling them; and as he receives them entirely and unreservedly, +so also he complies with them entirely and unreservedly. That these +demands were so often repeated convinced me of their intense importance; +but I felt at the same time the difficulty, or indeed, as it seemed to +me, the impossibility of fulfilling them. The inherent contradiction +which I seemed to perceive herein threw me into great depression; but at +last I arrived at the blessed conviction that human nature is such that +it is not impossible for man to live the life of Jesus in its purity, +and to show it forth to the world, if he will only take the right way +towards it. + +This thought, which, as often as it comes into my mind, carries me back +even now to the scenes and surroundings of my boyhood, may have been not +improbably amongst the last mental impressions of this period, and it +may fitly close, therefore, the narrative of my mental development at +this age. It became, later, the point whereon my whole life hinged. + +From what I have said of my boyish inner life, it might be assumed that +my outer life was a happy and peaceful one. Such an assumption would, +however, not be correct. It seems as if it had always been my fate to +represent and combine the hardest and sharpest contrasts. My outer life +was really in complete contrast with my inner. I had grown up without a +mother; my physical education had been neglected, and in consequence I +had acquired many a bad habit. I always liked to be doing something or +another, but in my clumsy way I made mistakes as to choice of materials, +of time, and of place, and thus often incurred the severe displeasure of +my parents. I felt this, being of a sensitive disposition, more keenly +and more persistently than my parents; the more so as I felt myself +generally to blame in form rather than in substance, and in my inmost +heart I could see there was a point of view from whence my conduct would +seem, in substance at all events, not altogether wrong, still less +blameworthy. The motives assigned to my actions were not those which +actuated me, so far as I could tell; and the consciousness of being +misjudged made me really what I had been believed to be before, a +thoroughly naughty boy. Out of fear of punishment I hid even the most +harmless actions, and when I was questioned I made untruthful answers. + +In short, I was set down as wicked, and my father, who had not always +time to investigate the justice of the accusations against me, +remembered only the facts as they were represented to him. My neglected +childhood called forth the ridicule of others; when playing with my +step-brother, I was always, according to my mother, the cause of +anything that went wrong. As the mind of my parents turned more and more +away from me, so on my side my life became more and more separated from +theirs; and I was abandoned to the society of people who, if my +disposition had not been so thoroughly healthy, might have injured me +even more than they did. I longed to escape from this unhappy state of +things; and I considered my elder brothers fortunate in being all of +them away from home. Just at this melancholy time came home my eldest +brother. He appeared to me as an angel of deliverance, for he recognised +amidst my many faults my better nature, and protected me against +ill-treatment. He went away again after a short stay; but I felt that my +soul was linked to his, thenceforth, down to its inmost depths; and +indeed, after his death, this love of mine for him turned the whole +course of my life.[10] + +The boon was at last vouchsafed me, and that at my greatest need, to +leave my father's house. Had it been otherwise, the flagrant +contradiction between my outer and inner life must necessarily have +developed the evil inclinations which had begun in earnest to fasten +upon me. A new life entirely different from the former now opened before +me. I was ten years and nine months old. But I pause yet another moment +in the contemplation of this period before I pass to its narration. In +order to be clearly understood by your serene Highness, which is very +necessary to me if I am to attain my object, I will compare, with your +permission, my former life with my present. I shall endeavour to show +how I trace the connection of my earlier and my later life; how my +earlier life has proved for me the means of understanding my later; how, +in general, my own individual life has become to me a key to the +universal life, or, in short, to what I call the symbolic life and the +perpetual, conditioned, and unbroken chain of existence. + +Since, throughout the period which I have just described, my inner self, +my life and being, my desires and endeavours, were not discerned by my +parents, so is it with me now with regard to certain German +Governments.[11] And just as my outward life then was imperfect and +incomplete, through which incompleteness my inner life was +misunderstood, so also now the imperfection and incompleteness of my +establishment prevent people from discerning the true nature, the basis, +the source, the aim and purpose, of my desires and endeavours, and from +promoting them, after recognising their value, in a right princely and +patriotic spirit. + +The misapprehension, the oppression under which I suffered in my early +years, prepared me to bear similar evils later on, and especially those +which weigh upon me in the present circumstances of my life. And as I +see my present private and public life and my destiny reflected in a +part of my former life, just so do I read and trace the present +universal life in my former individual life. Moreover, in the same way +as I tried as child or boy to educate myself to be a worthy man +according to those laws which God had implanted, unknown to me, within +my nature, so now do I strive in the same way, according to the same +laws, and by the same method, to educate the children of my country. +That for which I strove as a boy, not yet conscious of any purpose; the +human race now strives for with equal unconsciousness of purpose, but +for all that none the less truly. The race is, however, surrounded by +less favourable circumstances than those which influenced me in my +boyhood. + +Life in its great as well as in its small aspects, in humanity and the +human race as well as in the individual (even though the individual man +often wilfully mars his own existence)--life, in the present, the past, +and the future, has always appeared to me as a great undivided whole, in +which one thing is explained, is justified, is conditioned and urged +forward by the other. + +In order that, if it be possible, there should remain no obscurity +whatever in my actions, thoughts, and life, I shall proceed to consider +them all, down to the very latest event which has happened to me; that +is, the writing-down of this statement of my life for your Highness. My +life experience it is which urges me to do this; not any whim or +caprice. Common worldly wisdom would challenge such a step if it were +known; no one would desire to take it, no one would dare to take it. I +dare it, and I do it, because my childhood has taught me that where for +trust we find distrust, where for union we find division, where for +belief we find doubt, there but sad fruit will come to the harvest, and +a burdensome and narrow life alone can follow. + +I return again to the narrative of the development of my inner and outer +life. + +A new existence now began for me, entirely opposed to that which I had +hitherto led. An uncle on my mother's side came to visit us in this +year; he was a gentle, affectionate man.[12] His appearance among us +made a most agreeable impression upon me. This uncle, being a man of +experience, may have noticed the adverse influences which surrounded me; +for soon after his departure he begged my father by letter to turn me +over to him entirely. My father readily consented, and towards the end +of the year 1792 I went to him. He had early lost both wife and child, +and only his aged mother-in-law lived in his house with him. In my +father's house severity reigned supreme; here, on the contrary, mildness +and kindness held sway. There I encountered mistrust; here I was +trusted. There I was under restraint; here I had liberty. Hitherto I had +hardly ever been with boys of my own age; here I found forty +schoolfellows, for I joined the upper class of the town school.[13] + +The little town of Stadt-Ilm is situated in a somewhat wide valley, and +on the banks of a small limpid stream.[14] My uncle's house had gardens +attached, into which I could go if I liked; but I was also at liberty to +roam all over the neighbourhood, if only I obeyed the strict rule of the +house to return punctually at the time appointed. Here I drank in fresh +life-energy in long draughts; for now the whole place was my playground, +whereas formerly, at home, I had been limited to our own walls. I gained +freedom of soul and strength of body. + +The clergyman who taught us never interfered with our games, played at +certain appointed playgrounds, and always with great fun and spirit. +Deeply humiliating to me were the frequent slights I received in our +play, arising from my being behind boys of my age in bodily strength, +and more especially in agility; and all my dash and daring could not +replace the robust, steady strength, and the confident sureness of aim +which my companions possessed. Happy fellows! they had grown up in +continual exercise of their youthful boyish strength. I felt myself +exceedingly fortunate when I had at length got so far that my +schoolfellows could tolerate me as a companion in their games. But +whatever I accomplished in this respect by practice, by continual effort +of will, and by the natural course of life, I always felt myself +physically deficient in contrast with their uncramped boyish powers. +Setting aside that which I had been robbed of by my previous education, +my new life was vigorous and unfettered by external restraint; and they +tell me I made good use of my opportunity. The world lay open before me, +as far as I could grasp it. It may indeed be because my present life was +as free and unconstrained as my former life had been cramped and +constrained, anyhow the companions of my youth have reminded me of +several incidents of that time which make me think that my good spirits +led me to the borders of wildness and extravagance; although as a boy I +considered my demeanour quieter by far than that of my companions of my +own age. My communion with Nature, silent hitherto, now became freer and +more animated. And as, at the same time, my uncle's house was full of +peace and quiet contemplation, I was able as I grew up to develop that +side of my character also; thus on every side my life became +harmoniously balanced. + +In two places, alike centres of education, I found myself as before +quite at home, even though I was more frequently than ever the victim of +absence of mind--I mean the church and the school. In the latter I +especially enjoyed the hours devoted to religious instruction. As with +my uncle himself, and with his life, so was it also with his sermons; +they were gentle, mild, and full of lovingkindness. I could follow them +quite readily, and in the Monday repetition at school I was able to give +a good account of them. But the religious instruction of our own +school-teacher responded best to my needs; all that I had worked out for +myself was placed by him in a fuller light, and received from him a +higher confirmation. Later in life, when I had grown to manhood, I spoke +with my uncle on the excellence of this teaching, and he made reply that +it was indeed very good, but was too philosophical and abstruse for +those to whom it was addressed; "for thee," continued he, "it may have +been well suited, since thou hadst already received such unusually good +instruction from thy father." Let that be as it may, this teaching +enlightened, animated, and warmed me,--nay, glowed within me till my +heart was completely melted, especially when it touched upon the life, +the work, and the character of Jesus. At this I would burst into tears, +and the longings to lead in future a similar life took definite form, +and wholly filled my soul. When I now hear tales of the ebullitions of +my youthful spirit occurring in that period of my life, I cannot help +thinking that they must have led superficial observers to the erroneous +opinion that the monitions and teachings of religion swept over my +spirit without leaving a trace of their passage. And yet how wrongly +would such observers have judged the true state of my inner life! + +The subjects best taught in the school of Stadt-Ilm were reading, +writing, arithmetic, and religion. Latin was miserably taught, and still +worse learnt. Here, as in so many similar schools, the teaching utterly +lacked the elucidation of first principles. The time spent on Latin was +therefore not wasted upon me, in so far that I learnt from it that such +a method of teaching could bear no fruit among the scholars. Arithmetic +was a very favourite study of mine; and as I also received private +tuition in this subject, my progress was so rapid that I came to equal +my teacher both in theory and practice, although his attainments were by +no means despicable. But how astonished was I when, in my twenty-third +year, I first went to Yverdon, and found I could not solve the questions +there being set to the scholars! This was one of the experiences which +prepossessed me so keenly in favour of Pestalozzi's method of teaching, +and decided me to begin arithmetic myself from the very beginning over +again, according to his system. But more of this later. + +In physical geography we repeated our tasks parrot-wise, speaking much +and knowing nothing; for the teaching on this subject had not the very +least connection with real life, nor had it any actuality for us, +although at the same time we could rightly name our little specks and +patches of colour on the map. I received private tuition in this subject +also. My teacher wished to advance further with me; he took me to +England. I could find no connection between that country and the place +and country in which I dwelt myself, so that of this instruction also I +retained but little. As for actual instruction in German, it was not to +be thought of; but we received directions in letter-writing and in +spelling. I do not know with what study the teaching of spelling was +connected, but I think it was not connected with any; it hovered in the +air. I had lessons, furthermore, in singing and in pianoforte playing, +but without result. I merely mention all this now, in order to be able +to refer to it later on. + +My life the whole time of my stay with my uncle had three aspects: the +religious life developing and building up my moral being; the external +life made up of boyish play, into which I threw my whole energy; and the +life of thought quietly showing itself within my uncle's peaceful home. +To this last influence also I yielded myself with equal earnestness, and +felt no suspicion of the apparent contradiction which my outward life +exhibited to such a mood. Like my school-fellows, I lived without +control; as far as I saw or felt, I was untrammelled; and yet I do not +call to mind that any of us ever committed a seriously culpable action. + +Here I am obliged to mention something which as an educationist I can by +no means pass lightly by. We received instruction from two +schoolmasters: one was pedantic and rigid; the other, more especially +our class-teacher (_conrector_), was large-hearted and free. The first +never had any influence over his class; the second could do whatever he +pleased with us, and if he had but set his mind to it, or perhaps if he +had been aware of his power, he might have done some thoroughly good +sound work with his class. In the little town of Stadt-Ilm were two +ministers, both ephors[15] of the school. My uncle, the principal +minister, was mild, gentle, and kind-hearted, impressive in daily life +as in his sacred office or in the pulpit; the other minister was rigid +even to sternness, frequently scolding and ordering us about. The first +led us with a glance. A word from him, and surely few were so brutish as +to refuse that word admittance to their heart. The long exhortations of +the other went, for the most part, over our heads, leaving no trace +behind. Like my father, my uncle was a true shepherd of his flock; but a +gentle lovingkindness to all mankind reigned in him. My father was moved +by the conviction of the rectitude of his actions; he was earnest and +severe. Both have been dead over twenty years; but how different is the +spirit they have left behind amongst their congregations. Here, they are +glad at being released from so strict a control, and, if I am rightly +informed, unbridled license has sprung up amongst them; there, the +little town raises itself to higher and ever higher prosperity, and all +things are made to serve towards mental culture, as well as towards a +right citizen-like business activity. I permit myself this digression, +because these results were paralleled as a life-experience in my own +life. + +In this manner I lived, up to my confirmation; all but a few weeks, that +is, which I spent at my parents' house during the long holidays. Here, +too, everything seemed to take a gentler turn, and the domestic, thrifty +activity which filled the place, and always struck me anew in my +periodical visits home, wrought upon me with most beneficial effect. The +copper-plate engravings in my father's library were the first things I +sought out, especially those representing scenes in the history of the +world. A table showing our (German) alphabet in its relations with many +others made a surprising impression upon me. It enabled me to recognise +the connection and the derivation of our letters from the old Phoenician +characters. This gave me a dim conception of the inner connection of all +those languages of which, as my brother had studied and was still +studying them, I often heard, and saw in print. Especially the Greek +language lost much of its strangeness in my eyes, now that I could +recognise its characters in the German alphabet. All this, however, had +no immediate consequence in my life; these things, as echoes from my +youth, produced their effect upon me at a later time. + +At this time, too, I read all sorts of boys' books. The story of Samuel +Lawill impressed me most vividly; I, too, longed for such a ring, which +by its warning pressure on my finger could hinder my hand from effecting +unworthy purposes, and I was very angry with the youthful owner of the +ring in the story, who threw it away in irritation because it pressed +him right hard at a moment when he wished to commit a passionate +deed.[16] + +My confirmation, and the preparation for it, all conducted by my uncle, +was over. I had received from it the most impressive and the most +far-reaching influence in my whole life, and all my life-threads found +in it their point of union and repose. I had now to be prepared for some +business calling, and the question was raised, for which? That I should +not study at the university had already been decided long before by the +express determination of my step-mother. For since two of my +brothers[17] had devoted themselves to study, she feared that the +further additional expense would be too heavy a burden upon my father's +means. It may be that this intention had already influenced and limited +my whole course of instruction; and probably only the little narrow +circle of future business aims had been considered; the eye had not +looked upon the boy as a future man. Possibly from this cause I was kept +so little to Latin; it was enough if I learnt, as our mode of expression +ran, to "state a _Casus_" (that is, to decline a noun). From my own +experience it was thus shown to me how eminently injurious it is in +education and in instruction to consider only a certain circle of future +activities or a certain rank in life. The wearisome old-fashioned +education _ad hoc_ (that is, for some one special purpose) has always +left many a noble power of man's nature unawakened. + +A career in our country frequently chosen by the worthiest and most +anxious parents for their sons is that of a post in the Treasury and +Exchequer. Aspirants to such a post have two means of entering and two +starting-points in this career; either they become a clerk to one of the +minor officials in the Treasury or Exchequer, or the personal servant of +one of the highest officials. As my knowledge of writing and figures +seemed to my father satisfactory and sufficient for such a post, and as +he knew well that it might lead, not merely to a life free from +pecuniary cares, but even to wealth and fortune, he chose this career as +mine. But the minor Treasury official who might have found employment +for such a young man, showed various reasons why he could not or would +not as yet receive me as a clerk. There was something in my nature which +revolted against the second mode I have mentioned of entering this +career; something which I never afterwards experienced, but which at the +time absolutely prevented me from choosing such a mode of starting in +my future profession, and that in spite of the most alluring hopes that +were held out to me. My father meant well and honestly by me, but fate +ruled it against him. Strangely enough, it happened that in my later +capacity of schoolmaster, I became the educator and teacher of two of +the nephews of that very man into whose service my father had meant to +have sent me; and I hope to God that I have been of greater service to +that family by filling the heart and brain of these young people with +good and useful notions than if I had brushed the clothes and shoes of +their uncle, and spread his table with savoury dishes. In the latter +case, very likely an externally easy and happy existence might have been +mine, whereas now I wage a constant fight with cares and difficulties. + +Suffice it to say, this career was closed to me; a second was proposed +by my mother, but from this my father delivered me by expressing a +decided disapproval. + +My own desires and inclinations were now at last consulted. I wanted to +be an agriculturist in the full meaning of the word; for I loved +mountain, field, and forest; and I heard also that to learn anything +solid in this occupation one must be well acquainted with geometry and +land-surveying. From what I had learnt of the latter by snatches now and +then, the prospect of knowing more about it delighted me much; and I +cared not whether I began with forestry, with farming, or with geometry +and land-surveying. My father tried to find a position for me; but the +farmers asked too high a premium. Just at this time he became acquainted +with a forester who had also a considerable reputation as land-surveyor +and valuer. They soon came to terms, and I was apprenticed to this man +for two years, to learn forestry, valuing, geometry, and land-surveying. +I was fifteen years and a half old when I became an apprentice to the +forester, on Midsummer Day 1797. + +It was two days' journey from my home to the forester's, for his +district was not in our country. The man often gave me proofs of his +thorough and many-sided knowledge; but he did not understand the art of +conveying his knowledge to others, especially because what he knew he +had acquired only by dint of actual experience.[18] Further, some work +of timber-floating[19] with which he had been entrusted hindered him +from devoting to me the stipulated time necessary for my instruction. + +As soon as I saw this quite clearly, my own activity of mind urged me to +make use of the really excellent books on forestry and geometry which I +found lying to my hand. I also made acquaintance with the doctor of a +little town near by, who studied natural science for his amusement; and +this friend lent me books on botany, through which I learnt also about +other plants than just those of the forest. A great deal of my time +during the absence of the forester (when I was left quite to myself) I +devoted to making a sort of map of the neighbourhood I lived in; but +botany was my special occupation. My life as forester's apprentice was a +four-fold one: firstly, there was the homelier and more practical side +of life; then the life spent with Nature, especially forest-nature; then +also a life of the study, devoted to work at mathematics and languages; +and lastly, the time spent in gaining a knowledge of plants. My chosen +profession and the other circumstances of my position might have brought +me into contact with many kinds of men; but nevertheless my life +remained retired and solitary. My religious church life now changed to a +religious communion with Nature, and in the last half-year I lived +entirely amongst and with my plants, which drew me towards them with +fascination, notwithstanding that as yet I had no sense of the inner +life of the plant world. Collecting and drying specimens of plants was a +work I prosecuted with the greatest care. Altogether this time of my +life was devoted in many various ways to self-education, +self-instruction, and moral advancement. Especially did I love to +indulge my old habit of self-observation and introspection. + +I must mention yet another event of the greatest importance from the +point of view of my inner life. An hour's walk from where I then lived +was a small country town. A company of strolling actors arrived there, +and played in the prince's castle in the town. After I had seen one of +their performances, hardly any of those which followed passed without my +attendance. These performances made a deep and lively impression upon +me, and this the more that I felt as if my soul at last received +nourishment for which it had long hungered. The impressions thus gained +lasted so much the longer, and had so much the greater influence on my +self-culture, in that after each performance my hour's walk home by dark +or in the starlight allowed me to recapitulate what I had heard, and so +to digest the meaning of the play. I remember especially how deeply a +performance of Iffland's _Huntsmen_ moved me, and how it inspired me +with firm moral resolutions, which I imprinted deep in my mind under the +light of the stars. My interest in the play made me seek acquaintance +with the actors, and especially with one of them, an earnest young man +who attracted my attention, and to whom I spoke about his profession. I +congratulated him on being a member of such a company, able to call up +such ennobling sentiments in the human soul; perhaps even expressed a +wish that I could become a member of such a company. Then the honest +fellow described the profession of an actor as a brilliant, deceitful +misery, and confessed to me that he had been only forced by necessity to +adopt this profession, and that he was soon about to abandon it. Once +again I learned by this to divide cause from effect, internal from +external things. My visits to the play brought upon me a most unpleasant +experience, for my father, when I spoke to him without concealment of my +playgoing, reproached me very bitterly for it. He looked upon my conduct +as deserving the highest punishment, which was in absolute contradiction +with my own view; for I placed the benefit I had derived from my +attendance at the play side by side with what I had received by my +attendance at church, and expressed something of the kind to my father. +As often happened in later life, so also on this occasion it was my +eldest brother who was the mediator between my father and myself. + +On Midsummer Day 1799 my apprenticeship came to an end. The forester, +who could now have made my practical knowledge of service to himself, +wished to keep me another year. But I had by this time acquired higher +views; I wished to study mathematics and botany more thoroughly, and I +was not to be kept back from my purpose. When my apprenticeship was over +I left him, and returned to my father's house. + +My master knew well that he had not done his duty towards me, and with +this probably humiliating consciousness before him, and in spite of the +thoroughly satisfactory testimonial that he gave me, he committed a very +mean action against me. He did not know anything about my private study; +for instance, my completely working through some elementary mathematical +books, which I had found myself quite well able to understand. Besides, +he was dissatisfied that I would not stay another year with him. He +therefore sent a letter to my father, in which he complained bitterly of +my conduct, and shifted the blame of my ignorance of my calling entirely +on to my shoulders. This letter actually arrived at home before I did; +and my father sent it on to my eldest brother, who was minister in a +village through which I had to pass on my way home. Soon after I reached +my brother's house he communicated to me the contents of this +inculpatory letter. I cleared myself by exposing the unconscientious +behaviour of my master, and by showing my private work. I then wrote a +reply to my master, clearly refuting all his accusations, and exhibiting +on the other hand his behaviour towards me; and with this I satisfied my +father and my brother. But the latter reproached me for having suffered +wrongdoing so long without complaint. To that I gave the simple answer, +that my father, at the beginning of my apprenticeship, had told me not +to come to him with any complaint, as I should never be listened to, but +should be considered as wrong beforehand. My brother, who knew my +father's severity and his views on such points, was silent. But my +mother saw in one declaration of the forester the confirmation of her +own opinion about me. The forester declared, that if ever anything was +made of me, the same good fortune might be told of the first-comer +without further trouble, and my mother assented heartily to his opinion. + + +Thus disappeared once more the light, the sunshine, which had gladdened +me with its warmth, especially in the more recent part of my life. The +wings of my mind, which had begun to flutter of themselves, were again +bound, and my life once more appeared all cold and harsh before me. Then +it happened that my father had to send some money to my brother +(Traugott), who was studying medicine in Jena. The matter pressed; so, +as I had nothing to do, it was decided that I should be the messenger. + +When I reached Jena I was seized by the stirring intellectual life of +the place, and I longed to remain there a little time. Eight weeks of +the summer half-year's session of 1799 yet remained. My brother wrote to +my father that I could fill that time usefully and profitably in Jena, +and in consequence of this letter I was permitted to stay. I took +lessons in map and plan-drawing, and I devoted all the time I had to the +work. At Michaelmas I went home with my brother, and my step-mother +observed that I could now fairly say I had passed through the +university. But I thought differently; my intelligence and my soul had +been stimulated in many ways, and I expressed my wish to my father to be +allowed to study finance there, thus returning to my previous career. My +father was willing to give his permission if I could tell him how to +find the means. I possessed a very small property inherited from my +mother, but I thought it would be insufficient. However, after having +conferred with my brother, I talked it over with my father. I was still +a minor, and therefore had to ask the consent of my trustee to realise +my property; but as soon as I had obtained this I went as a student to +Jena, in 1799. I was then seventeen years and a half old. + +A testimonial from my father attesting my capacity for the curriculum +procured me matriculation without difficulty. My matriculation +certificate called me a student of philosophy, which seemed very +strange, because I had set before me as the object of my studies +practical knowledge; and as to philosophy, of which I had so often +heard, I had formed a very high idea of it. The word made a great +impression upon my dreamy, easily-excited, and receptive nature. +Although the impression disappeared almost as soon as conceived, it +gave, however, higher and unexpected relations to my studies. + +The lectures I heard were only those which promised to be useful in the +career I had now again embraced. I heard lectures on applied +mathematics, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, mineralogy, botany, natural +history, physics, chemistry, accounts, cultivation of forest trees and +management of forests, architecture, house-building, and land-surveying. +I continued topographical drawing. I heard nothing purely theoretical +except mathematics; and of philosophical teaching and thought I learnt +only so much as the intercourse of university life brought with it; but +it was precisely through this intercourse that I received in various +ways a many-sided intellectual impulse. I usually grasped what had been +taught; the more thoroughly since, through my previous life, I had +become well acquainted with the principal subjects, and already knew +their relation to practical work. + +Some of the lectures were almost easy for me--for instance, those on +mathematics. I have always been able to perceive with ease and pleasure +relations of geometrical figures and of planes; so that it seemed +inexplicable to me that every farmer should not be equally capable of +understanding them. This I had said before to my brother, who tried to +give me an explanation; but I did not yet grasp it. I had expected I +don't know exactly what, but certainly something higher, something +grandiose; very likely I had expected something with more life in it. +The mathematical course, therefore, at first seemed to me unimportant; +but later on I found that I, also, could not follow every detail. +However, I did not think much of this, because I readily understood the +general meaning, and I said to myself that particular cases would not +cause me any mental fatigue if I found it necessary to learn them. + +The lectures of my excellent teacher were not so useful to me as they +might have been, if I could have seen in the course of instruction and +in its progress somewhat more of necessary connection and less of +arbitrary arrangement. This want of necessary connection was the reason +of the immediate dislike I always took to every course of instruction. I +felt it even in pure mathematics, still more was it the case in applied +mathematics, and most of all in experimental physics. Here it seemed to +me as if everything were arranged in arbitrary series, so that from the +very first I found this study a fatigue. The experiments failed to +arrest my attention. I desired and sought after some inner connection +between the phenomena, deduced from and explained by some simple root +principles. But that was the very point withheld from me. Mathematical +demonstrations came like halting messengers; they only became clear to +the mind's eye when the truth to be demonstrated lay before me already +in all its living strength. On the other hand, my attention was riveted +by the study of gravitation, of force, of weight, which were living +things to me, because of their evident relation to actual facts. + +In mechanics (natural philosophy) I could not understand why so many of +the so-called "mechanical powers" were assumed, and why several of them +were not reduced to cases of the inclined plane. + +In mineralogy my previous education had left many gaps unfilled, +especially as regards the powers of observation. I was fond of mineral +specimens, and gave myself much trouble to comprehend their several +properties; but in consequence of my defective preparation I found +insuperable difficulties in my way, and perceived thereby that neglect +is neither quickly nor lightly to be repaired. The most assiduous +practice in observation failed to make my sight so quick and so accurate +as it ought to have been for my purpose. At that time I failed to +apprehend the fact of my deficient quickness of sight; it ought to have +taught me much, but I was not prepared to learn the lesson. + +Chemistry fascinated me. The excellent teacher (Goettling) always +demonstrated the true connection of the phenomena under consideration; +and the theory of chemical affinity took strong hold upon me. + +Note-taking at these lectures was a thing I never thought of doing; for +that which I understood forthwith became a part of me, and that which I +failed to understand seemed to me not worth writing down. I have often +felt sorry for it since. But as regards this point, I have always had +through my whole life the perfectly clear conviction that when I had +mastered a whole subject in its intimate relations I could go back upon, +and then understand, details which at the time of hearing had been +unintelligible to me. + +In botany I had a clear-sighted, kind-hearted teacher (Batsch). His +natural system of botany[20] gave me great satisfaction, although I had +always a painful perception of how much still remained for him to +classify. However, my view of Nature as one whole became by his means +substantially clearer, and my love for the observation of Nature in +detail became more animated. I shall always think of him with gratitude. +He was also my teacher in natural history. Two principles that he +enunciated seized upon me with special force, and seemed to me valid. +The first was the conception of the mutual relationship of all animals, +extending like a network in all directions; and the second was that the +skeleton or bony framework of fishes, birds, and men was one and the +same in plan, and that the skeleton of man should be considered as the +fundamental type which Nature strove to produce even in the lower forms +of creation.[21] I was always highly delighted with his expositions, for +they suggested ideas to me which bore fruit both in my intelligence and +in my emotional nature. Invariably, whenever I grasped the +inter-connection and unity of phenomena, I felt the longings of my +spirit and of my soul were fulfilled. + +I easily understood the other courses I attended, and was able to take a +comprehensive glance over the subjects of which they treated. I had seen +building going on, and had myself assisted in building, in planting, +etc.; here, therefore, I could take notes, and write complete and +satisfactory memoranda of the lectures. + +My stay in Jena had taught me much; by no means so much as it ought to +have taught me, but yet I had won for myself a standpoint, both +subjective and objective. I could already perceive unity in diversity, +the correlation of forces, the interconnection of all living things, +life in matter, and the principles of physics and biology. + +One thing more I have to bring forward from this period. Up till now my +life had met with no sympathetic recognition other than the esteem which +I had enjoyed of the country physician during my apprenticeship--he who +encouraged me to study natural science, and smoothed away for me many a +difficulty. But now such sympathy was destined to offer itself as a +means of education and improvement. For there were in Jena just then two +scientific associations, one for natural history and botany, the other +for mineralogy, as it was then called. Many of the young students, who +had shown living interest and done active work in natural science, were +invited to become members by the President, and this elevating pleasure +was also offered to me. At the moment I certainly possessed few +qualifications for membership; the most I could say was that my faculty +for arranging and classifying might be made of some use in the Natural +History Society, and this, indeed, actually came to pass. Although my +admission to this society had no great effect upon my later life, +because it was dissolved at the death of its founder, and I did not keep +up my acquaintance with the other members afterwards, yet it awakened +that yearning towards higher scientific knowledge which now began to +make itself forcibly felt within me. + +During my residence at the university I lived in a very retired and +economical way; my imperfect education, my disposition, and the state of +my purse alike contributing to this. I seldom appeared at places of +public resort, and in my reserved way I made my brother (Traugott) my +only companion; he was studying medicine in Jena during the first year +of my residence there.[22] The theatre alone, of which I was still +passionately fond, I visited now and then. In the second year of this +first studentship, in spite of my quiet life, I found myself in an +awkward position. It began, indeed, with my entrance into the +university, but did not come to a head till my third half-year. When I +went to the university, my father gave me a bank draft for a small +amount to cover my expenses, not only for the first half-year, but for +the entire residence, I think. My brother, who, as I said, was with me +at Jena for the first year, wished me to lend him part of my allowance, +all of which I did not then require, whereas he was for the moment in +difficulties. He hoped soon to be able to repay me the money. I gladly +gave him the greater part of my little draft; but unfortunately I could +not get the money back, and therefore found myself in greater and +greater difficulties. My position became terribly urgent; my small +allowance had come to an end by the close of the first year, but I could +not bring myself to leave the university, especially now that a yearning +for scientific knowledge had seized me, and I hoped for great things +from my studies. Besides, I thought that my father might be induced to +support me at the university another half-year. + +My father would hear nothing of this so far as he was concerned; and my +trustee would not agree to the conditions offered by my father (to cover +an advance); so I had to pay the penalty of their obstinacy. + +Towards the end of my third half-year the urgency of my difficulties +increased. I owed the keeper of an eating-house (for meals) thirty +thalers, if I am not mistaken. As this man had caused me to be summoned +for payment several times before the Senate of the University, and I had +never been able to pay, and as he had even addressed my father, only to +receive from him a sharp refusal to entertain the matter, I was +threatened with imprisonment in the case of longer default of payment. +And I actually had to submit to this punishment. My step-mother inflamed +the displeasure of my father, and rejoiced at his inflexibility. My +trustee, who still had the disposal of some property of mine, could have +helped me, but did not, because the letter of the law was against any +interference from his side. Each one hoped by the continuance of my +sorry plight to break the stubbornness of the other. I served as +scapegoat to the caprices of the obstinate couple, and languished as +such nine weeks long in the university prison at Jena.[23] At last my +father consented to advance me money on my formally abandoning, before +the university board, all claim on his property in the shape of +inheritance; and so, in the end, I got free. + +In spite of the gloom into which my position as a prisoner plunged me, +the time of my arrest was not utterly barren. My late endeavours towards +scientific knowledge had made me more and more conscious of my need of a +solid foundation in my knowledge of Latin; therefore I now tried to +supply deficiencies to the extent of my ability, and with the help of a +friend. It was extremely hard to me, this working my way through the +dead and fragmentary teaching of an elementary grammar. It always seemed +to me as if the mere outer acquisition of a language could but little +help forward my true inner desire for knowledge, which was deeply in +earnest, and was the result of my own free choice. But wherever the +knowledge of language linked itself to definite external impressions, +and I was able to perceive its connection with facts, as, for instance, +in the scientific nomenclature of botany, I could quickly make myself +master of it. This peculiarity of mind passed by me unnoticed at the +time; I knew and understood too little, nay, indeed, almost nothing of +myself as yet, even as regards the actions of my every-day life. + +A second occupation of this prison period was the preparation of an +exercise (or academical thesis) in geometry, which I undertook that I +might the sooner obtain an independent position in some profession. + +Thirdly, I studied Winckelmann's "Letters on Art." Through them some +germs of higher artistic feeling may have been awakened within me; for I +examined the engravings which the work contains with intense delight. I +could quite perceive the glow of pleasure that they aroused, but at the +time I took little account of this influence, and indeed the feeling +for art altogether was late in developing itself in me. When I now +glance over the earlier and later, the greater and smaller, artistic +emotions which have swayed me, and observe their source and direction, I +see that it was with arts (sculpture as well as music) as it was with +languages--I never succeeded in accomplishing the outward acquisition of +them: yet I now feel vividly that I, too, might have been capable of +something in art had I had an artistic education. + +Further, there came into my hands, during the time of my imprisonment, a +bad translation of an abridgment of the Zendavesta. The discovery [in +these ancient Persian Scriptures] of similar life-truths to our own, and +yet coupled with a quite separate religious standpoint from ours, +aroused my attention, and gave some feeling of universality to my life +and thought; this, however, disappeared as quickly as it had come. + +By the beginning of the summer term in 1801 I was at length set free +from arrest. I at once left Jena and my academical career, and returned +to my father's house. I was just nineteen years old. It was but natural +that I should enter my parents' house with heavy heart, overclouded +soul, and oppressed mind. But spring warmed and awakened all nature once +more, and recalled to life, too, my slumbering desire for better things. + +As yet I had busied myself but little with German literature, and the +names of Schiller, Goethe, Wieland, and the rest I now, for the first +time, began to learn. In this, too, it was with me as in so many other +things; any mental influence that came before me I had either to fully +interweave with my inner life, or else altogether to forego its +acquisition. + +With this peculiarity of temperament, I could master only a rather +restricted amount of mental material. My father's library was once more +ransacked. I found not much that was of any use to me, for it contained +chiefly theological works; but I seized with the greatest enjoyment on a +book which had come out some ten years before in Gotha, a general view +of all the sciences and fine arts in their various ramifications, with a +short sketch of the object of the several sciences and of the literature +of each department. The arrangement was based upon the usual division +of the faculties, but it served to give me a general outlook, long +desired, over the whole of human knowledge, and I was right glad to have +found this "Mappe du monde litteraire"--for that was its title. I +resolved to turn this book to the best advantage I could, and set about +putting my resolution into practice. In order to make a collection of +comprehensive extracts of scientific matters from the several +periodicals received by my father (who shared for that purpose in a +joint subscription with other preachers and educated people), I had +already begun a sort of diary. The form of this journal was +shapeless--everything was put down as it came, one thing after the +other; and thereby the use of it all was rendered very inconvenient. +Now, however, I perceived the value of division according to a settled +plan, and soon hit upon a scheme of procedure. + +I aimed at collecting all that seemed worthy to be known, all that was +necessary for cultured men in general, and for myself in my own calling +in particular; and this rich treasure was to be brought out under +favourable circumstances, or whenever need was, from its storehouse. +Also I desired to acquire a general idea of those subjects which the +craving for knowledge, growing ever more and more sharp within my soul, +was always urging me thoroughly to work through over again. I felt happy +in my work; and I had already been chained to my task for several days, +from early morning till late at night, in my little distant chamber with +its iron-barred windows, when my father suddenly and unexpectedly walked +into the room. He looked over what I had done, and remarked the quantity +of paper used over it, which indeed was not small. Upon this cursory +inspection he held my work for a foolish waste of time and paper; and it +would have been all over with my labour of love for that time, if my +brother (Christoph), who had so often stood as protector by my side, had +not just then been on a visit with us. He had become the minister of a +place which lay a few hours' journey from Oberweissbach, and at this +moment was staying with my parents. My father at once told him of what +he considered my useless, if not indeed injurious occupation; but my +brother saw it differently. I ventured, therefore, to continue, with the +silent permission of my father. And indeed the work proved of actual +service to me, for it brought a certain order, breadth, and firmness +into my ideas which had the most beneficial effect upon me. + +My father now strove to procure me a settled position in my chosen +calling; or at all events to provide some active work which would bring +me into nearer connection with it. And for this purpose a fortunate +opportunity soon offered. Some of my father's relatives had property in +the district of Hildburghausen, managed by a steward. The friendly +footing on which my father stood with these relatives permitted me to +study practical farming under this steward. There I took part in all the +ordinary farming occupations. These, however, did not attract me +greatly, and I ought to have at once discovered what an unsuitable +career I had chosen, if I had but understood my own nature. + +The thing that most painfully occupied my mind at this time was the +absence of cordial understanding between me and my father. At the same +time I could not help esteeming and honouring him. Notwithstanding his +advanced age he was still as strong and as healthy in body as in mind, +penetrating in speech and counsel, vigorous in fulfilment and actual +work, earnest, nay, hard, in address. He had a firm, strong will, and at +the same time was filled with noble, self-sacrificing endeavour. He +never shirked skirmish nor battle in the cause of what he deemed the +better part; he carried his pen into action, as a soldier carries his +sword, for the true, the good, and the right. I saw that my father was +growing old and was drawing near the grave, and it made me sorry to feel +that I was yet a stranger to such a father. I loved him, and felt how +much good resulted from that love; so I took the resolution to write to +my father, and by letter to show him my true nature, so far as I could +understand myself. Long did I revolve this letter in my mind; never did +I feel strength nor courage to write it. Meanwhile a letter called me +back home in November, after I had been some months engaged on the +estate. I was called upon to help my father, now quite weak and almost +bedridden; at all events I could assist him in his correspondence. +Family and other cares and the activities of life absorbed my whole +time. What I meant to have done in my letter now happily became possible +in speech from man to man, in glances from eye to eye. My father was +occupied by cares for my future prospects up till the end. He died in +February 1802. May his enlightened spirit look down full of peace and +blessing upon me as I write; may he now be content with that son who so +loved him! + +I now stood in every respect my own master, and might decide the +direction of my future life for myself, according to the circumstances +which lay around me. With this intention I once more left the paternal +roof at Easter, to undertake the post of clerk in the Office of Woods +and Forests which formed one part of the general administration (divided +into Treasury, Woods and Forests, and Tithe departments) of the as yet +episcopal territory of Bamberg.[24] My district lay amidst unusual and +lovely scenery; my duties were light, and when they were over I was free +to roam in the neighbourhood, now doubly beautiful in the springtime, to +live out my life in freedom, and gain strength for mind and soul. + +Thus once again I lived much out of doors and in companionship with +Nature. My chief was proud of the possession of a considerable library, +of which I made good use; and in this manner many of the publications +then issuing from the press, and treating of matters connected with the +occupation which I had chosen, passed through my hands, as well as those +on other subjects. I was especially attracted by some volumes which +contained aphorisms, thoughts, and observations on conduct, selected +from ancient and modern writers and thinkers. My character grew upon and +entwined itself around these aphorisms, which I could easily glance +over, and as easily retain, and, more than all, which I could weave into +my own life and thoughts, and by which I could examine my conduct. I +made extracts of those which were in closest accord with my inner life, +and bore them always about my person. + +Amidst these surroundings my life contained many elements of growth. +Although my chief, as well as his family, was a strong Roman Catholic, +he chose a (Protestant) private tutor recommended to him by Professor +Carus. This gentleman had many excellent qualities, so that we soon +became great friends. We had also both of us the pleasure of being +acquainted with some highly-cultured people, the families of the +physician, of the minister, and of the schoolmaster in the neighbouring +Protestant village, which was as yet still a fief of the Empire.[25] My +friend the tutor was a young man quite out of the common, with an +actively inquiring mind; especially fond of making plans for +wide-stretching travel, and comprehensive schemes of education. Our +intercourse and our life together were very confidential and open, for +the subjects he cared for were those dear to me; but we were of +diametrically opposite natures. He was a man of scholastic training, and +I had been deficiently educated. He was a youth who had plunged into +strife with the world and society; my thought was how to live in peace +with myself and all men. Besides, our outward lives bore such different +aspects that a truly intimate friendship could not exist between us. +Nevertheless our very contrasts bound us more closely together than we +deemed. + +Practical land surveying at this time chiefly interested me, for it at +once satisfied my love for out-of-doors life, and fully occupied my +intelligence. But the everlasting scribbling which now fell to my share +I could not long endure, in spite of my otherwise pleasant life. + +Early in the spring of 1803 I left my situation and went to Bamberg, +feeling sure that the political changes by which Bamberg had been +transferred to Bavaria, and the general survey of the district which was +therefore in contemplation, would immediately provide me with a sphere +of work suited to my capabilities. My expectations were not falsified. +In pursuance of my plan I introduced myself to the land-surveyors in +Bamberg, and at once received employment from one of them. He had had +considerable surveys in hand, and was still engaged upon them. As I +showed some proficiency in mapping, he entrusted me with the preparation +of the necessary maps which accompanied the surveys. This kept me +employed for some time on work sufficiently remunerative for my needs. + +Of course the question in hand with the new Government was the +appointment of land-surveyors, and those who were resident in the town +were invited to send in maps of Bamberg as specimens of their work. +Through the instruction I had enjoyed in my youth I was not unacquainted +with such work. I therefore took pleasure in drawing a map, which I sent +in. My work was approved, and I received something for it; but being a +stranger, inexperienced, and young, and having hardly taken the best way +towards my purposed aim, I obtained no appointment. + +After I had finished the work I have mentioned the survey of a small +private property was put into my hands to carry out. From this +engagement ensued consequences which were most important for me. I note +only one point here. One of the joint owners of this property was a +young doctor of philosophy, who leaned towards the new school of +Schelling. It could hardly be expected but that we should talk over +things which stirred our mental life, and so it came about that he lent +me Schelling's "Bruno, oder ueber die Welt-seele"[26] to read. What I +read in that book moved me profoundly, and I thought I really understood +it. The friendly young fellow, not much older than myself--we had +already met in Jena,--saw the lively interest I was taking in the book, +and, in fact, I talked it over with him many a time. One day, after we +had been to see an important picture-gallery together, he addressed me +in these words, which from his mouth sounded startlingly strange, and +which at the time seemed to me inexplicable:-- + +"Guard yourself against philosophy; she leads you towards doubt and +darkness. Devote yourself to art, which gives life, peace, and joy." + +It is true I retained the young man's words, but I could not understand +them, for I regarded philosophy as a necessary part of the life of +mankind, and could not grasp the notion that one could be verging +towards darkness and doubt when one calmly investigated the inner life. +Art, on the other hand, lay much further from me than philosophy; for +except a profound enjoyment in works of art (for which I could give no +clear reason), no glimmering of an active aesthetic sense had yet dawned +upon me. This remark of my friend the doctor's called my attention to +myself, however, and to my life and its aim, and made me aware of two +very different and widely separate systems of life. + +My friend, the tutor of the Government official under whom I had served +at Bamberg, had in the meantime left his situation. He told me before +leaving that he had it in his mind to go to Frankfurt, and thence into +France. I saw his departure with regret, little dreaming that life would +in a few years bring us together again, and that he would indirectly +decide my future career. But, as it so often happens in life, parting in +this instance but led up to meeting, and meeting to parting. + +The occurrences I have named had little result upon my outward life, +which for the time ran its peaceful course. I pass over many +circumstances important to the uplifting and development of my character +and my moral life, and come at once to the close of my stay in Bamberg. + +I had now once more earnestly to turn my attention to procuring certain +and settled employment. In truth, as regarded my future, I stood quite +alone. I had no one to lend me a helping hand, so I made up my mind to +go forward, trusting only in God and destiny. I determined to seek for a +situation by means of the _Allgemeine Anzeiger der Deutschen_,[27] a +paper then very much read, and I thought it would be good to send in to +the editor, as a proof of my assertions of competency, an architectural +design, and also a specimen of my work in practical surveying, together +with explanations of both of them. As soon as my plan was fully +conceived I set to work at it. For the architectural sketch I chose a +design of a nobleman's country mansion, with the surrounding +outbuildings. When I had finished it, with very few professional +appliances to help me, it contained a complete working out of all the +various necessary plans, and as a critical test of its accuracy and +suitability to the proposed scale of dimensions, I added a statement of +all the particulars and conditions involved in it. For the +land-surveying I chose a table of measurements compiled from the map I +had previously drawn, which I carried through under certain arbitrary +assumptions. These works, together with my advertisement, I sent in 1803 +to the office of the paper I have mentioned, with the request that the +editor, after reading my testimonials and inspecting my work, would add +a few confirmatory words as to my qualifications. Work and testimonials +alike were to the satisfaction of the editor, and my request for an +editorial comment was granted. I received several offers, each one +containing something tempting about it. It was difficult to make a +choice, but at last I decided to accept a position offered me as private +secretary to the President and Privy-Councillor Von Dewitz, of +Mecklenburg-Strelitz, at this time resident on one of his estates, +Gross-Milchow. + +Amongst the other offers was one from Privy-Councillor Von Voldersdorf, +who was looking out for an accountant for his estates in the +Oberpfalz.[28] This situation did not suit me so well as the other, but +I accepted a proposition to fill up the time till the arrangements for +the other post had been completed, by going down to these estates of +Herr Von Voldersdorf, and bringing into order, according to a certain +specified plan, the heavy accounts of his steward, which were at this +time much in arrear. I set off for the Oberpfalz in the first days of +1804. But I was soon called away to Mecklenburg to the situation at +Gross-Milchow which I had definitively chosen, and in the raw, +frightfully severe winter-time of February I journeyed thither by the +mail-coach. Yet, short as had been my stay in the Oberpfalz, and +continual and uninterrupted as had been my labour in order that I might +get through the work I had undertaken, the time I spent in Bavaria +yielded me much that was instructive. The men, ingenuous, lively young +fellows from Saxony and Prussia, received me very kindly, and the +variety of their different services and their readiness to talk about +them, gave me a good insight into the inner relationship between the +landed aristocracy and their retainers. In recalling these circumstances +I thankfully acknowledge how my ever-tender loving destiny took pains +kindly to prepare me for each vocation next to come. I had never before +had the opportunity to see the mode of keeping accounts used on a great +estate, to say nothing of keeping them myself, and here I had this very +work to do, and that after a plan both ample and clear, in which every +particular, down to the single details, was carefully provided for. This +was of the greatest service to me. Precisely the conduct of such +well-ordered accounts was to be my work later on; therefore, having the +general plan I have referred to firmly established in my mind, and being +well practised in its operation, I set off well prepared for my new +sphere of work. Thanks to this, I was able to satisfy most completely +not only my new employer, but also his lady, who used to examine +everything minutely with severe scrutiny. + +The surroundings of Herr Von Dewitz's estate were uncommonly pretty for +that part of the country. Lakes and hills and the fresh foliage of trees +abounded, and what Nature had perhaps overlooked here and there Art had +made good. My good fortune has always led me amongst pretty natural +scenery. I have ever thankfully enjoyed what Nature has spread before my +eyes, and she has always been in true motherly unity with me. As soon as +I had gained some facility in it my new work became simple, ran its +regular course which was repeated week by week, and gave me time to +think about my own improvement. + +However, my engagement on this estate was, after all, but a short one. +The bent of my life and disposition was already taken. A star had arisen +within my mind which I was impelled to follow. On this account I could +regard my employment at this time only as a sheet anchor, to be let go +as soon as an opportunity offered itself to resume my vocation. This +opportunity was not long in making its appearance. + +My uncle (Hoffmann), who, like my brother, bore me always lovingly in +his thoughts, had lately died. Even on his deathbed he thought of me, +and charged my brother to do all he could to find me some settled +occupation for life, and at any rate to prevent me from leaving the post +I held at the moment before I had some reasonable prospect of a secure +and better engagement elsewhere. Providence willed it otherwise. His +death, through the small inheritance which thereby came to me, gave me +the means of fulfilling the dearest wish of my heart. So wonderfully +does God direct the fate of men. + +I must mention one circumstance before I part for ever in this account +of my life from my gentle, loving second-father. On my journey to +Mecklenburg, when I saw my uncle (at Stadt-Ilm) for the last time, I had +the deep joy of a talk with him, such as a trusting father might hold +with his grown-up son, bound to him by every tie of affection. He freely +pointed out the faults which had shown themselves in my boyhood, and +told me of the anxiety they had at one time caused him, and in this way +he went back to the time when I was taken into his family, and to the +causes of that. "I loved your mother very dearly," said he; "indeed, she +was my favourite out of all my brothers and sisters. In you I seemed to +see my sister once more, and for her love I took charge of you and +bestowed on you that affection which hitherto had been hers alone." And +dear as my own mother had become to me already through the many kind +things I had heard said of her, so that I had even formed a distinct +conception of what she was like, and seemed actually to remember her, +she became even dearer to me after these reminiscences of my uncle than +before, for did I not owe to her this noble and high-minded +second-father? My conversation with my uncle first made clear to me what +in later life I have found repeatedly confirmed--that the sources, +springs or motives of one's present actions often lie far away beyond +the present time, outside the present circumstances, and altogether +disconnected with the persons with whom one is concerned at the moment +then passing. I have also repeatedly observed in the course of my life +that ties are the faster, the more enduring and the truer the more they +spring from higher, universal, and impersonal sources. + +The person who in Mecklenburg stood next above me in position in the +house and in the family was the private tutor, whom I found already +there--a young doctor of philosophy of Goettingen University. We did not +come much into contact on the whole since he as a university graduate +took a far higher stand than I; but through I came into some connection +with the clergymen of the district, and this was of benefit to me. As +for the farmers the bailiffs, etc., their hospitable nature was quite +sufficient of itself to afford me a hearty welcome. Thus I lived in a +way I had for a long time felt I much needed, amidst many-sided +companionable good-fellowship, cheerful and free. Healthy as I was in +body and soul, in head and heart, my thoughts full of brightness and +cheerfulness, it was not long before my mind again felt an eager desire +for higher culture. The young tutor went away, and after his departure +my craving for culture grew keener and keener, for I missed the +intellectual converse I had been able to hold with him. But I was soon +again to receive succour. + +The President,[29] besides the family at home, had two sons at the +Paedagogium in Halle.[30] They came to visit their parents, accompanied +by their special tutor, a gentleman destined to become famous later on +as the renowned scholar, Dr. Wollweide. + +Dr. Wollweide was a mathematician and a physicist, and I found him +freely communicative. He was so kind as to mention and explain to me the +many various problems he had set before himself to work out. This caused +my long slumbering and suppressed love for mathematics as a science, and +for physics, to spring up again, fully awake. For some time past my +tendency had leaned more and more towards architecture, and, indeed, I +had now firmly determined to choose that as my profession, and to study +it henceforth with all earnestness. My intellectual cravings and the +choice of a profession seemed at last to run together, and I felt +continually bright and happy at the thought. I seized the opportunity of +the presence of the scholar whom I have named to learn from him what +were the best books on those subjects which promised to be useful to me, +and my first care was to become possessed of them. Architecture was now +vigorously studied, and other books, too, were not suffered to lie idle. + +The following books took great hold upon me: Proeschke's "Fragments on +Anthropology" (a small unpretending book), Novalis' Works, and Arndt's +"Germany" and "Europe."[31] The first of these at one stroke drew +together, so that I could recognise in them myself as a connected whole, +my outer existence, my inner character, my disposition, and the course +of my life. I for the first time realised myself and my life as a single +entity in contrast to the whole world outside of me.[32] The second book +lay before me the most secret emotions, perceptions, and intentions of +my inmost soul, clear, open, and vivid. If I parted with that book it +seemed as if I had parted with myself; if anything happened to the book +I felt as though it had happened to me, only more deeply and with +greater pain. The third book taught me of man in his broad historical +relations, set before me the general life of my kind as one great whole, +and showed me how I was bound to my own nation, both to my ancestors and +my contemporaries. Yet the service this last book had done me was hardly +recognised at this time; for my thoughts were bent on a definite outward +aim, that of becoming an architect. But I could at all events recognise +the new eager life which had seized me, and to mark this change to +myself, I now began to use as a Christian name the last instead of the +first of my baptismal names.[33] Other circumstances also impelled me to +make this change; and, further, it freed me from the memory of the many +disagreeable impressions of my boyhood which clustered round the name I +was then called. + +The time had come when I could no longer remain satisfied with my +present occupation; and I therefore sent in my resignation. The +immediate outward circumstance which decided me was this. I had kept up +a correspondence with the young man whom I had known as a private tutor +when I held a Government clerkship in Bamberg, and who left his +situation to go to Frankfurt, and then on into France.[34] He had +afterwards lived some time in Frankfurt, occupying himself with +teaching, and now was again a private tutor in a merchant's house in the +Netherlands. I imparted to him my desire to leave my present post, and +to seek a situation with an architect; and asked his opinion whether I +should not be most likely to effect my object at Frankfurt, where so +many streams of diverse life and of men intermingle. And as my friend +was accurately acquainted with the ins and outs of Frankfurt life, I +asked him to give me such indications as he could of the best road to +take towards the fulfilment of my designs. My friend entered heartily +into my project, and wrote to me that he intended himself to spend some +time in Frankfurt again in the early summer; and he suggested that if I +could manage to be there at the same time, a mutual consideration of the +whole matter on the spot would be the best way of going to work. In +consequence of this I at once firmly decided to leave my situation in +the following spring, and to join my friend at Frankfurt. But where was +I to find the money necessary for such a journey? I had required the +whole of my salary up till now to cover my personal expenses and the +settlement of some debts I had run up at Bamberg. + +In this perplexity I wrote again to my eldest brother, who had up till +now understood me so well, and I asked him for assistance. I was at this +time in a peculiar dilemma. On the one hand, I felt very keenly that I +must get out of my present position, while on the other, by my +unchanging changeableness I feared to wear out the indulgence and +patience of my worthy brother. In this strait I just gave him what +seemed to me as I wrote it an exact account of my real state of mind; +telling him that I could only find my life-aim in a continual striving +towards inward perfection. + +My brother's answer arrived. With a joyful tremor and agitation I held +it in my hands. For hours together I carried it about me before I +unsealed it, for days together before I read it; it seemed so improbable +that my brother would feel himself able to help me towards the +accomplishment of the desire of my soul, and I feared to find in that +letter the frustration of my life's endeavour. When, after some days of +vacillation between hope and doubt, I could bear the situation no +longer, and opened the letter, I was not a little astonished that it +began by addressing me at once in terms of the most moving sympathy. As +I read on the contents agitated me deeply. The letter gave me the news +of my beloved uncle's death, and informed me of legacies left by him to +me and my brothers. Thus fate itself, though in a manner so deeply +affecting, provided me with the means for working out my next plan. + +The die was now cast. From this moment onwards my inner life received a +quite new signification and a fresh character, and yet I was unconscious +of all this. I was like a tree which flowers and knows it not. My inward +and outward vocation and endeavour, my true life-destiny and my apparent +life-aim were still, however, in a state of separation, and indeed of +conflict, of which I had not the remotest conception. My resolve held +firm to make architecture my profession; it was purely as a future +architect that I took leave of all my companions. + +At the end of April 1805, with peace in my heart, cheerfulness in my +soul, an eager disposition, and a mind full of energy, I quitted my old +surroundings. The first days of an unusually lovely May (and I might +here again recall what I pointed out above, that my inner and personal +life invariably went familiarly hand in hand with external Nature) I +spent with a friend, as a holiday, in the best sense of the word. This +was a dear friend of mine, who lived on an exceedingly finely-situated +farm in the Uckermark.[35] Art had improved the beauty of the somewhat +simple natural features of the place, in the most cunningly-devised +fashion. In this beautiful, retired, and even solitary spot, I flitted, +as it were, from one flower to another like a very butterfly. I had +always passionately loved Nature in her adornments of colour and of dewy +pearls, and clung to her closely with the gladsomeness of youth. Here I +made the discovery that a landscape which we look upon in sympathetic +mood shines with enhanced brilliancy; or as I put the truth into words +at the time, "The more intimately we attach ourselves to Nature, the +more she glows with beauty and returns us all our affection." This was +the first time my mind had ventured to give expression to a sentiment +which thrilled my soul. Often in later life has this phrase proved +itself a very truth to me. My friend one day begged me to write +something in his album: I did so unwillingly. To write anything borrowed +went against me, for it jarred with the relations existing between me +and the book's owner; and to think of anything original was a task I +felt to be almost beyond my powers. However, after long thinking it over +in the open air, comparing my friend's life and my own in all their +aspects, I decided upon the following phrase:--"To thee may destiny soon +grant a settled home and a loving wife! To me, while she drives me +restless abroad, may she leave but just so much time as to allow me +fairly to discern my relations with my inmost self and with the world." +Then my thoughts grew clear, and I continued, "Thou givest man bread; +let my aim be to give man himself." + +I did not even then fully apprehend the meaning of what I had said and +written, or I could not of course have held so firmly to my architecture +scheme. I knew as yet neither myself nor my real life, neither my goal +nor my life's path thither. And long afterwards, when I had for some +time been engaged upon my true vocation, I was not a little astonished +over the prophetic nature of this album-phrase of mine. + +In later life I have often observed that a man's spirit, when it first +begins to stir within him, utters many a far-away prophetic thought, +which yet, in riper age, attains its realisation, its consummation. +I have especially noticed this recently in bright-minded and active +children; in fact, I have often been quite astounded at the really +deep truths expressed by them in their butterfly life. I seemed to +catch glimpses of a symbolic truth in this; as if indeed the human +soul were even already beginning to shake itself free from its +chrysalis-wrapping, or were bursting off the last fragments of the +eggshell. + +In May 1805, while on my journey, I visited my eldest brother, of whom I +have so often spoken, and shall have yet so often to speak, and found +him in another district, to which he had been appointed minister. He was +as kind and full of affection as ever; and instead of blaming me, spoke +with especial approval of my new plans. He told me of projects which had +allured him in his youth, and still allured, but which he had lacked +the strength of mind to speak of. His father's advice and authority +had overawed him in youth, and now the chain of a settled position in +life held him fast. To follow the inward voice faithfully and without +swerving was the advice he offered me, and he wrote this memorandum +in my album when I left him, as a life motto:--"The task of man is a +struggle towards an end. Do your duty as a man, dear brother, with +firmness and resolution, fight against the difficulties which will +thrust themselves in your path, and be assured you will attain the end." + +Thus cheered by sympathy and approval, I went my way from my brother's, +strengthened and confirmed in my determination. My road lay over the +Wartburg.[36] Luther's life and fame were then not nearly so well +appreciated and so generally understood as now, after the Tercentenary +festival of the Reformation.[37] My early education had not been of the +kind to give me a complete survey of Luther's life and its struggle; I +was hardly thoroughly acquainted indeed with the separate events of it. +Yet I had learnt in some sort to appreciate this fighter for the truth, +by having in my last years at school to read aloud the Augsburg +Confession to the assembled congregation during the afternoon service on +certain specified Sundays, according to an old-fashioned Church +custom.[38] I was filled with a deep sense of reverence as I climbed +"Luther's path," thinking at the same time that Luther had left much +behind still to be done, to be rooted out, or to be built up. + +Shortly before Midsummer Day, as I had arranged with my friend, I +reached Frankfurt. During my many weeks' journey in the lovely +springtime, my thoughts had had time to grow calm and collected. My +friend, too, was true to his word; and we at once set to work together +to prepare a prosperous future for me. The plan of seeking a situation +with an architect was still firmly held to, and circumstances seemed +favourable for its realisation; but my friend at last advised me to +secure a livelihood by giving lessons for a time, until we should find +something more definite than had yet appeared. Every prospect of a +speedy fulfilment of my wishes seemed to offer, and yet in proportion as +my hopes grew more clear, a certain feeling of oppression manifested +itself more and more within me. I soon began seriously to ask myself, +therefore:-- + +"How is this? Canst thou do work in architecture worthy of a man's life? +Canst thou use it to the culture and the ennoblement of mankind?" + +I answered my own question to my satisfaction. Yet I could not conceal +from myself that it would be difficult to follow this profession +conformably with the ideal I had now set before me. Notwithstanding +this, I still remained faithful to my original scheme, and soon began to +study under an architect with a view to fitting myself for my new +profession. + +My friend, unceasingly working towards the accomplishment of my views, +introduced me to a friend of his, Herr Gruner, the headmaster at that +time of the Frankfurt Model School,[39] which had not long been +established. Here I found open-minded young people who met me readily +and ingenuously, and our conversation soon ranged freely over life and +its many-sided aspects. My own life and its object were also brought +forward and talked over. I spoke openly, manifesting myself just as I +was, saying what I knew and what I did not know about myself. + +"Oh," said Gruner, turning to me, "give up architecture; it is not your +vocation at all. Become a teacher. We want a teacher in our own school. +Say you agree, and the place shall be yours." + +My friend was for accepting Gruner's proposal, and I began to hesitate. +Added to this, an external circumstance now came to my knowledge which +hastened my decision. I received the news namely, that the whole of my +testimonials, and particularly those that I had received in Jena, which +were amongst them, had been lost. They had been sent to a gentleman who +took a lively interest in my affairs, and I never found out through what +mischance they were lost. I now read this to mean that Providence itself +had thus broken up the bridge behind me, and cut off all return. I +deliberated no longer, but eagerly and joyfully seized the hand held out +to me, and quickly became a teacher in the Model School of +Frankfurt-on-the-Main.[40] + +The watchword of teaching and of education was at this time the name of +PESTALOZZI. It soon became evident to me that Pestalozzi was to be the +watchword of my life also; for not only Gruner, but also a second +teacher at the school, were pupils of Pestalozzi, and the first-named +had even written a book on his method of teaching. The name had a +magnetic effect upon me, the more so as during my self-development and +self-education it had seemed to me an aspiration--a something perhaps +never to be familiarly known, yet distinct enough, and at all events +inspiriting. And now I recalled how in my early boyhood, in my father's +house, I had got a certain piece of news out of some newspaper or +another, or at least that is how the matter stood in my memory. I +gathered that in Switzerland a man of forty, who lived retired from the +world,--Pestalozzi by name,--had taught himself, alone and unaided, +reading, writing, and arithmetic. Just at that time I was feeling the +slowness and insufficiency of my own development, and this news quieted +me, and filled me with the hope and trust that I, too, might, through my +own endeavour, repair the deficiencies of my bringing-up. As I have +grown older I have also found it consolatory to remark how the culture +of vigorous, capable men has not seldom been acquired remarkably late in +life. And in general I must acknowledge it as part of the groundwork +underlying my life and the evolution of my character, that the +contemplation of the actual existences of real men always wrought upon +my soul, as it were, by a fruitful rain and the genial warmth of +sunshine; while the isolated truths these lives enshrined, the +principles those who lived them had thought out and embodied in some +phrase or another, fell as precious seed-corn, as it were, or as solvent +salt crystals upon my thirsty spirit. And while on this head I cannot +help especially calling to mind how deep and lasting was the impression +made upon me in my last year at school by the accounts in the Holy +Scriptures of the lives of earnestly striving youths and men. I mention +it here, but I shall have to return to the subject later on.[41] + +Now to return to the new life which I had begun. It was only to be +expected that each thing and all things I heard of Pestalozzi seized +powerfully upon me; and this more especially applies to a sketchy +narrative of his life, his aims, and his struggles, which I found in a +literary newspaper, where also was stated Pestalozzi's well-known desire +and endeavour--namely, in some nook or corner of the world, no matter +where, to build up an institution for the education of the poor, after +his own heart. This narrative, especially the last point of it, was to +my heart like oil poured on fire. There and then the resolution was +taken to go and look upon this man who could so think and so endeavour +to act, and to study his life and its work. + +Three days afterwards (it was towards the end of August 1805) I was +already on the road to Yverdon,[42] where Pestalozzi had not long before +established himself. Once arrived there, and having met with the +friendliest reception by Pestalozzi and his teachers, because of my +introductions from Gruner and his colleagues, I was taken, like every +other visitor, to the class-rooms, and there left more or less to my own +devices. I was still very inexperienced, both in the theory and practice +of teaching, relying chiefly in such things upon my memory of my own +school-time, and I was therefore very little fitted for a rigorous +examination into details of method and into the way they were connected +to form a whole system. The latter point, indeed, was neither clearly +thought out, nor was it worked out in practice. What I saw was to me at +once elevating and depressing, arousing and also bewildering. My visit +lasted only a fortnight. I worked away and tried to take in as much as I +could; especially as, to help me in the duties I had undertaken, I felt +impelled to give a faithful account in writing of my views on the whole +system, and the effect it had produced upon me. With this idea I tried +to hold fast in my memory all I heard. Nevertheless I soon felt that +heart and mind would alike come to grief in a man of my disposition if I +were to stay longer with Pestalozzi, much as I desired to do so. At that +time the life there was especially vigorous; internally and externally +it was a living, moving, stirring existence, for Prince Hardenberg, +commissioned by the Austrian Government, had come to examine thoroughly +into Pestalozzi's work.[43] + +The fruits of my short stay with Pestalozzi were as follows:-- + +In the first place, I saw the whole training of a great educational +institution, worked upon a clear and firmly-settled plan of teaching. I +still possess the "teaching-plan" of Pestalozzi's institution in use at +that time. This teaching-plan contains, in my opinion, much that is +excellent, somewhat also that is prejudicial. Excellent, I thought, was +the contrivance of the so-called "exchange classes."[44] In each subject +the instruction was always given through the entire establishment at the +same time. Thus the subjects for teaching were settled for every class, +but the pupils were distributed amongst the various classes according to +their proficiency in the subject in hand, so that the whole body of +pupils was redistributed in quite a distinct division for each subject. +The advantage of this contrivance struck me as so undeniable and so +forcible that I have never since relinquished it in my educational work, +nor could I now bring myself to do so. The prejudicial side of the +teaching-plan, against which I intuitively rebelled, although my own +tendencies on the subject were as yet so vague and dim, lay, in my +opinion, in its incompleteness and its onesidedness. Several subjects of +teaching and education highly important to the all-round harmonious +development of a man seemed to me thrust far too much into the +background, treated in step-motherly fashion, and superficially worked +out. + +The results of the arithmetical teaching astounded me, yet I could not +follow it into its larger applications and wider extent. The mechanical +rules of this branch of instruction seemed to whirl me round and round +as in a whirlpool. The teacher was Kruesi. The teaching, in spite of the +brilliant results within its own circle, and in spite of the sharpness +of the quickened powers of perception and comprehension in the children +by which it attained those results, yet, to my personal taste, had +something too positive in its setting forth, too mechanical in its +reception. And Josias Schmid[45] had already, even at that time, felt +the imperfection of this branch of instruction. He imparted to me the +first ground-principles of his later work on the subject, and his ideas +at once commanded my approval, for I saw they possessed two important +properties, manysidedness and an exhaustive scientific basis. + +The teaching of drawing was also very incomplete, especially in its +first commencement; but drawing from right-angled prisms with equal +sides, in various lengths, which was one of the exercises required at a +later stage, and drawing other mathematical figures by means of which +the comprehension of the forms of actual objects of every-day life might +be facilitated were much more to my mind. Schmid's method of drawing had +not yet appeared. + +In physical geography, the usual school course, with its many-coloured +maps, had been left far behind. Tobler, an active young man, was the +principal teacher in this section. Still, even this branch had far too +much positive instruction[46] for me. Particularly unpleasant to me was +the commencement of the course, which began with an account of the +bottom of the sea, although the pupils could have no conception of +their own as to its nature or dimensions. Nevertheless the teaching +aroused astonishment, and carried one involuntarily along with it +through the impression made by the lightning-quickness of the answers of +the children. + +In natural history I heard only the botany. The principal teacher, who +had also prepared the plan of instruction in this subject for all the +school, was Hopf, like the rest an active young man. The school course +arranged and carried out by him had much that was excellent. In each +separate instance--for example, the shape and position of leaves, +flowers, etc.--he would first obtain all the possible varieties of form +by question and answer between the class and himself, and then he would +select from the results the form which was before them in nature. These +lessons, which were in this way made so attractive, and whose merits +spoke for themselves, showed, however, when it came to practical +application, an unpractical, I had almost said, a self-contradictory +aspect. + +(When, afterwards, in 1808, I visited Yverdon for the second time, I +found to my regret neither Tobler nor Hopf there.) + +With the method used for the German language I could not at all bring +myself into sympathy, although it has been introduced into later school +books elsewhere. Here also the arbitrary and non-productive style of +teaching ran strongly counter to me at every step. + +Singing was taught from figures.[47] Reading was taught from +Pestalozzi's well-known "A.B.C." + +[Memorandum.--All this lay dark within me, its value unrecognised even +by myself. But my intellectual position tended to become more settled by +passing through these experiences. As to my state at the time, I have, +as accurately as may be, described it above, as at once exalted and +depressed, animated and dull. That Pestalozzi himself was carried away +and bewildered by this great intellectual machine of his appears from +the fact that he could never give any definite account of his idea, his +plan, his intention. He always said, "Go and see for yourself" (very +good for him who knew _how_ to look, how to hear, how to perceive); "it +works splendidly!"[48] It was at that time, indeed, surprising and +inexplicable to me that Pestalozzi's loving character did not win every +one's heart as it won mine, and compel the staff of teachers to draw +together into a connected whole, penetrated with life and intellectual +strength in every part. His morning and evening addresses were deeply +touching in their simplicity; and yet I remarked in them even already at +that time some slight traces of the unhappy dissensions afterwards to +arise.[49]] + +I left Yverdon in mid-October (1805) with a settled resolution to return +thither as soon as possible for a longer stay. As soon as I got back to +Frankfurt, I received my definite appointment from the Consistorium.[50] +The work that awaited me upon my arrival from Switzerland at the Model +School (which was, in fact, properly two schools, one for boys and one +for girls) was a share in the arrangement of an entirely new educational +course and teaching-plan for the whole establishment. The school +contained four or five classes of boys and two or three of girls; +altogether about two hundred children. The staff consisted of four +permanent masters and nine visiting masters. + +As I threw myself heartily into the consideration of the necessities and +the present position of the school, and of the instruction given there, +the working out of this plan was left almost wholly in my hands, under +the conditions imposed upon us. The scheme I produced not only succeeded +in winning the approbation of the authorities, but proved itself during +a long period of service beneficial in the highest degree, both to the +institution itself and to its efficiency; notwithstanding that it put +the teachers to some considerable personal inconvenience, as well as +making larger claims upon their time than was usual. + +The subjects of instruction which fell to my share were arithmetic, +drawing, physical geography, and German. I generally taught in the +middle classes. In a letter to my brother I spoke of the impression made +upon me by my first lesson to a class of thirty or forty boys ranging +from nine to eleven; it seemed as if I had found something I had never +known, but always longed for, always missed, as if my life had at last +discovered its native element. I felt as happy as the fish in the water, +the bird in the air. + +But before I pursue this side of the development of my life I must touch +upon another which was far more important to the evolution of my +character as man, as teacher, and as educationist, and which, indeed, +soon absorbed the first within itself. + +Not long after my old friend, to meet with whom I had come to Frankfurt, +had introduced me to Gruner, he went back himself to his work as private +tutor. Afterwards he heard of a family (in Frankfurt) desiring a private +tutor for the sons. Since he could not introduce me personally to this +family he did so by letter, and several weeks before my journey to +Yverdon he had, in fact, written to them about me in very kindly terms. +It was for three sons principally that instruction and education were +required. They came to see me, and after they had gone their personal +peculiarities and their previous teaching and training, with the +results, were fully described to me, and I was then consulted as to +their future education. Now to education as an object[51] I had in truth +never yet given a thought, and the question threw me into great +perplexity. Nevertheless it required an answer, and moreover a precise +answer. + +In the life and circumstances of these lads I discovered frequent +similarities with my own boyhood, which sprang to my memory as I +listened. I could therefore answer the questions which were put to me +out of the development and educational experiences of my own life; and +my reply, torn as it was from actual life, keenly felt and vigorously +expressed, bore upon it the stamp of truth. It was satisfactory to the +parents; and education--development, which hitherto had been subjective +alone for me--that is, as self-development--now took an objective form, +a change which was distinctly painful to me. Long, long it was before I +could bring this business of education into a form expressible by words. +I only knew education, and I could only educate, through direct personal +association. This, then, I cultivated to the best of my power, following +the path whither my vocation and my life now called me. + +To say truth, I had a silent inward reluctance towards private +tutorship. I felt the constant interruptions and the piece-meal nature +of the work inseparable from the conditions of the case, and hence I +suspected that it might want vitality; but the trusting indulgence with +which I was met, and especially the clear, bright, friendly glance which +greeted me from the two younger lads, decided me to undertake to give +the boys lessons for two hours a day, and to share their walks. The +actual teaching was to be in arithmetic and German. The first was soon +arranged. I simply followed Pestalozzi's course. But as to the language +I encountered great difficulties. I began by teaching it from the +regular school-books then used, and indeed still in use. I prepared +myself to the best of my ability for each lesson, and worked up whatever +I felt myself ignorant of in the most careful and diligent way. But the +mode of teaching employed in these books frustrated my efforts. I could +neither get on myself nor get my pupils on with it. So I began to take +for my method Pestalozzi's "Mothers' Book." In this way we went on much +better, but still I was not satisfied; and, indeed, I may say that for a +very long time no system of instruction in German did satisfy me. + +In arithmetic, by using the "Tables of Units"[52] in Pestalozzi's +pamphlet, I arrived at the same results which I had seen in +Switzerland. Very often my pupils had the answer ready when the last +word of the question had scarcely been spoken. Yet I presently found out +some defects in this method of teaching, of which I shall speak later +on.[53] + +When we were out walking together, I endeavoured to my utmost to +penetrate into the lives of the children, and so to influence them for +good. I lived my own early life over again, but in a happier way, for it +now lay clear and intelligible before me in its special as well as its +general characteristics. + +All my thoughts and work were now directed to the subject of the culture +and education of man. This period of my life became full of zeal, of +active development, of advancing culture, and, in consequence, of +happiness. And my life in the Model School also, with my boys and with +my excellent colleagues, unusually clever men, was very elevating and +encouraging. + +Owing to the position and surroundings of the school buildings, which, +though not apparently extensive as seen from the street, contained a +considerable courtyard and a spacious garden, the scholars enjoyed +perfect freedom of exercise, and could play just as they liked in +courtyard or garden; with the result, moreover, of thereby affording a +most important opportunity to the various teachers of becoming really +intimate with the characters of the boys they taught. And there grew up +out of all this a voluntary resolution on the part of the teachers that +every teacher should take his boys for a walk once a week. Each adopted +the method he liked best; some preferred to occupy the time of the walk +over a permanent subject; others preferred leaving the subject to +chance. I usually occupied my class with botanising; and also as +geographical master, I turned these occasions to profit by leading on my +boys to think for themselves and to apprehend the relations of various +parts of the earth's surface: on these and other perceptions gained in +this way I based my instruction in physiography, making them my point of +departure. + +The town was at once my starting-place and my centre. From it I +extended our observations to the right and to the left, on this side and +on that. I took the river Main as a base line, just as it lay; or I used +the line of hills or the distant mountains. I settled firmly the +direction of the four quarters of the compass. In everything I followed +the leading of Nature herself, and with the data so obtained I worked +out a representation of the place from direct observation, and on a +reduced scale, in some level spot of ground or sandy tract carefully +chosen for the purpose. When my representation (or map) was thoroughly +understood and well impressed on every one's mind, then we reconstructed +it in school on a black board placed horizontally. The map was first +sketched by teachers and pupils between them, and then each pupil had to +do it by himself as an exercise. These representations of the earth's +surface of ours had a round contour, resembling the circular outline of +the visible horizon. + +At the next public examination of the school, I was fortunate enough, +although this first attempt was full of imperfections, to win the +unanimous approval of the parents present; and not only that, but the +especial commendation of my superiors. Every one said, "That is how +physiography[54] should be taught. A boy must first learn all about his +home before he goes further afield." My boys were as well acquainted +with the surroundings of the town as with their own rooms at home; and +gave rapid and striking answers as to all the natural peculiarities of +the neighbourhood. This course was the fountain-head of the teaching +method which I afterwards thoroughly worked out, and which has now been +in use for many years. + +In arithmetic I did not take the lower, but the middle classes; and here +also my teaching received cheering encomiums. + +In drawing I also taught the middle classes. My method in this subject +was to work at the thorough comprehension and the representation of +planes and solids in outline, rising from the simplest forms to complex +combinations. I not only had the gratification of obtaining good +results, which thoroughly satisfied those who tested them, but also of +seeing my pupils work with pleasure, with ardour, and with +individuality. In the girls' school I had to teach orthography[55] in +one of the elementary classes. This lesson, ordinarily standing by +itself, disconnected with anything, I based upon correct +pronunciation.[56] The teaching was imperfect, certainly; but it +nevertheless gained an unmistakable charm for both teacher and pupils; +and, finally, its results were very satisfactory. + +In one of the other classes of the girls' school I taught preparatory +drawing. I took this by combinations of single lines; but the method was +wanting in a logically necessary connection, so that it did not satisfy +me. I cannot remember whether the results of this teaching were brought +to the test or not. + +Such was the outcome of my first attempts as a teacher. The kind +indulgence and approval granted to me, more because of my good +intentions and the fire of my zeal than for my actual performance, +spurred me on to plunge deeper into the inquiry as to the nature of true +teaching. But the whole system of a large school must have its settled +form, with its previously-appointed teaching-course arranged as to times +and subjects; and everything must fit in like a piece of clockwork. My +system, on the other hand, called only for ready senses and awakened +intellect. Set forms could only tolerate this view of education so far +as it served to enliven and quicken them. But I have unfortunately again +and again observed during my career, that even the most active life, if +its activity and its vitality be not properly understood and urged ever +onward, easily stiffens into bony rigidity. Enough, my mind, now fully +awakened, could not suffer these set forms, necessary though they were; +and I felt that I must seek out some position in which my nature could +unfold itself freely according to the needs of the development of my +life and of my mind. + +This longing endeavour of life and mind, which could not submit to the +fetters of external limitations, may have been the more exaggerated at +the time by my becoming acquainted with Arndt's "Fragments on Human +Culture,"[57] which I had purchased. This book satisfied at once my +character, my resolves, and my aspirations; and what hitherto lay +isolated within me was brought into ordered connection through its +pages, while ideas which possessed me without my perceiving them took +definite form and expression as the book brought them to light. Indeed, +I thought then that Arndt's book was the bible of education. + +In those days I spoke of my life and my aims in the following words: "I +desire to educate men whose feet shall stand on God's earth, rooted fast +in Nature, while their head towers up to heaven, and reads its secrets +with steady gaze, whose heart shall embrace both earth and heaven, shall +enjoy the life of earth and nature with all its wealth of forms, and at +the same time shall recognise the purity and peace of heaven, that +unites in its love God's earth with God's heaven." In these phrases I +now see my former life and aims vividly brought before me as in a +picture. + +Little by little a desire gained strength within me to free myself from +my engagement at the Model School, to which I had bound myself as +teacher for at least three years. The headmaster (Gruner), whom I have +already named, was sufficiently a student of men to have perceived that +so excitable a man as I could never work harmoniously in such an +institution as that which he directed; so I was released from my +engagement, under the condition that I should provide a suitable +successor. Fate was propitious to me once more. I found a young private +tutor with whom I had long been in friendly correspondence, and who had +all those qualities which were lacking in me. He was not only thoroughly +proficient in the grammar of his mother tongue (German), but also in the +grammar of the classical tongues; and, if I am not mistaken, in French +also. He had a knowledge of geography far beyond anything I could boast, +was acquainted with history, knew arithmetic, possessed some familiarity +with botany,--much greater, indeed, than I suspected. And what was worth +more than all this, he was full of vigour in mind, heart, and life. +Therefore the school was every way the gainer by my departure, so +greatly the gainer indeed, that from that time no further change has +been necessary. That same teacher still lives and works in that same +post.[58] + +Before I begin a new chapter of my career, there are yet a few things +which need mention. + +To know French was at that time the order of the day, and not to know it +stamped a man at once as of a very low degree of culture. To acquire a +knowledge of French, therefore, became one of my chief aims at the +moment. It was my good fortune to obtain instruction from an unrivalled +teacher of French, M. Perrault, a Frenchman by birth, who still, even +though an old man, diligently worked at the study of his mother tongue, +and who at the same time wrote and spoke German with elegance. I pursued +the study with ardour, taking two lessons a day, because I desired to +reach a certain proficiency by a given time. Slow, however, were my +steps, for I was far from having a sufficient knowledge of my own tongue +whereon to build a bridge that might carry me into French. I never could +properly acquire what I did not fully understand in such a way that it +had a living meaning for me; and so from all the genuine zeal and +considerable cost which I spent over this study I gained by no means a +corresponding result; but I did learn a good deal, much more even than I +then knew how to turn to account. My teacher cast on one side all the +usual grammatical difficulties of French study, he aimed at imparting +the language as a living thing. But I with my ignorance of language +could not completely follow this free method of teaching; and yet, +nevertheless, I felt that the teacher had fully grasped the meaning and +the method of his work, and I always enjoyed the lessons on this +account. He was especially successful in accustoming my ear to the +French pronunciation, always separating and reducing it to its simple +sounds and tones, and never merely saying "this is pronounced like the +German _p_, or _b_, or _ae_, or _oe_," etc. The best thing resulting from +this course of study was the complete exposure of my ignorance of German +grammar. I must do myself the justice to say that I had given myself +extraordinary trouble over the works of the most celebrated German +grammarians, trying to bring life and interconnection or even a logical +consequence into German grammar; but I only confused myself the worse +thereby. One man said one thing, another quite the reverse; and not one +of all of them, as far as I could see, had educed his theories from the +life and nature of the speech itself. I turned away a second time, quite +disheartened, from the German grammarians, and once more took my own +road. But unfortunately the dry forms of grammar had, quite against my +own will, stuck like scales over my eyes, dimming my perceptions; I +could find no means to rid myself of them, and they wrought fatally upon +me now and long afterwards. The more thoroughly I knew them the more +they stiffened and crushed me. + +My departure from the school was now arranged, and I could let my mind +pursue its development free and unshackled. As heretofore, so now also, +my kindly fate came lovingly to my help: I can never speak of it with +sufficient thankfulness. The three lads to whom I had hitherto given +private instruction in arithmetic and language now needed a tutor, as +their former tutor was leaving them. The confidential charge was laid +upon me, because I of all men best knew their nature and its needs, of +seeking out some fit teacher and educator for them from amongst my +acquaintance. As for myself this tutor business lay far from my own +thoughts, and I therefore looked round me in every direction, and with +all earnestness, for some one else. Amongst others I applied to my +eldest brother, telling him my views as to the necessary requirements of +a true educator. + +My brother wrote back very decidedly and simply, that he could not +propose any one to me as a teacher and educator who would fulfil the +requirements I had set forth, and further, he did not think I should +ever be able to find such a person; for if one should be found +possessing ample knowledge and experience of life in its external +aspects, he would be deficient in a vigorous inner life of his own, and +in the power to recognise and foster it in himself and his pupils; and, +on the other hand, another man who might have this power would be +deficient in the first-named (practical) qualities. I reported the +result of my labours. It caused much disappointment, indeed it could not +be otherwise, because the welfare of the children was really sought, in +all love and truth, and the highest and best obtainable at that day was +desired on their behalf. The family did not venture to press the post +upon me personally, knowing my love of freedom and independence. + +So stood matters for several months. At last, moved by my earnest +affection for the lads, and by my care to deserve the confidence with +which their mother had entrusted to my hands the provision for their +education, I endeavoured to look at things from the point of view of +their parents. This brought me at last to the determination to become +myself the educator and teacher of the lads. After a hard struggle with +myself, the hardest and most exhausting I had undergone for a long time, +I made known my decision. It was thankfully received, and understood +quite in the spirit which had actuated me in forming it. + +I communicated my decision to Gruner, with whom I still kept in the +friendliest relation. He looked at me with downright astonishment, and +said, "You will lose all hopes of the position you have so long sought +and waited for." I replied that I should protect myself as to my +position and my relations with others by a very definite written +contract. To which the man of experience retorted, "Certainly, and +everything will be punctually fulfilled, so that you cannot say that any +one condition of all those you stood out so firmly for has failed to be +observed; nevertheless you will find you will lose on all points." So +spake experienced shrewdness, and what had I to set against it? I spoke +of the educational necessities and wants of these children. "Good," said +he, "then you will leave your own educational necessities and your own +wants out of the question?" How it mortified me, that worldly wisdom +should be able to speak thus, and that I was unable to controvert it! We +talked no more about the matter. + +And keen as was the internal conflict over this decision and this +resolve of mine, equally keen was the external contest which I had to +wage in entering on my new post. + +There were, namely, two immutable conditions in our agreement. One was +that I should never be compelled to live in town with my pupils, and +that when I began my duties my pupils should be handed over entirely to +my care, without any restriction; that they should follow me into the +country, and there form a restricted and perfectly isolated circle, and +that when they returned to town life my duties as preceptor should be at +an end. The time for beginning my new career drew nigh. As the +stipulated dwelling for myself and my pupils was not yet ready, I was +expected to take up my abode, for a few days, with my pupils in their +town house. But I felt that it was clear that the least want of firmness +at the outset would endanger my whole educational plan; therefore, I +stood firm, and indeed gained my point, though at the price of being +called headstrong, self-willed, and stubborn. That my assumption of my +post was attended with a sharp contest was a very good and wholesome +discipline for me. It was the fitting inauguration of a position and a +sphere of work which was henceforth to be attended, for me, with +perpetual and never-ending strife. + +But as to this family and all its members, my earnest unbending +maintenance of my resolve had a most wholesome effect upon them, even to +winning in the end their comprehension and approval, though this was +later and long after I had quitted the situation. It was ten or eleven +years afterwards--that is, four or five years after my departure--that +the mother of these lads expressed her entire approval of the adamantine +perseverance I had exhibited in my convictions. + +I entered my new sphere of educational work in July 1807. I was +twenty-five years old, as far as years went, but younger by several +years in regard to the development of my character. I neither felt +myself so old as I was, nor indeed had I any conception or realisation +of my age. I was only conscious of the strength and striving of my life, +the extent of my mental culture, the circumstances of my experience in +the world, and especially of--what shall I call it?--the shiftlessness +and undeveloped state of my culture as far as its helplessness with the +external world was concerned, of my ignorance of life both as to what it +really was, and how it showed in its outer aspect. The state of my +culture was such as only to serve to plunge me into conflict, through +the contradiction and opposition in which I found myself henceforward +with all existing methods; and consequently the whole period of my +tutorial career was one continual contest. + +It was a salutary thing for me that this was my appointed lot from the +very beginning. Now and later on I was therefore able to say to myself +by way of consolation and encouragement: "You knew beforehand just how +it would be." Still, unpleasantness seldom arrives in exactly the manner +expected, and the unexpected is always the hardest to bear. Thus it was +with me in this case; my situation seemed to contain insurmountable +difficulties. I sought the basis for them in imperfect culture; and the +cause of the disconnected nature of the culture I had been able to +attain, lay, so I perceived, in the interruptions which marred my +university career. Educator and teacher, however, I had determined to +become and to remain; and as far as I could know my own feelings and my +own powers, I must and would work out my profession in an independent +free fashion of my own, founded on the view of man and his nature and +relationships which had now begun to dawn upon me. Yet every man finds +it above all things difficult to understand himself, and especially hard +was it in my own case. I began to think that I must look for help +outside myself, and seek to acquire from others the knowledge and +experience I needed. + +And thus there came to me once again the idea of fitting myself by +continuing my university studies to become founder, principal, and +manager of an educational establishment of my own. But the fact was to +be considered that I had turned away from the educational path on which +I had entered. Now, when the imperfection of my training pressed itself +upon me, I not only sought help from Nature as of old, that school +allotted to me by fate, but I turned also for assistance to my +fellow-men who had divided out the whole field of education and teaching +into separate departments of science, and had added to these the +assistance of a rich literature. This need of help so troubled and +oppressed me, and threw my whole nature into such confusion, that I +resolved, as soon as might be, once more to proceed to one of the +universities, and necessarily, therefore, to relinquish as speedily as +possible my occupation as an educator. + +As I always discussed everything important with my brother, I wrote to +him on this occasion as usual, telling him of my plans and of my +resolve. But for this time, at least, my nature was able to work out its +difficulty without his help. I soon came to see that I had failed to +appreciate my position, and had misunderstood myself; and, therefore, +before I had time to get an answer from my brother to my first letter I +wrote to him again, telling him that my university plans had been given +up, and that my fixed resolve now was to remain at my post. He rejoiced +doubly at my decision, because this time he would have been unable to +agree with me.[59] + +No sooner had I firmly come to my decision than I began to apply my +thoughts vigorously to the subjects of education and instruction. The +first thing that absorbed me was the clear conviction that to educate +properly one must share the life of one's pupil. Then came the +questions, "What is elementary education? and of what value are the +educational methods advocated by Pestalozzi? Above all, what is the +purpose of education?" + +In answering the question, "What is the purpose of education?" I relied +at that time upon the following observations: Man lives in a world of +objects, which influence him, and which he desires to influence; +therefore he ought to know these objects in their nature, in their +conditions, and in their relations with each other and with mankind. +Objects have form, measurement, and number. + +By the expression, "the external world," at this time I meant only +Nature; my life was so bound up in natural objects that I altogether +passed by the productions of man's art or manufacture. Therefore for a +long time it was an effort to me to regard man's handiwork, with +Pestalozzi's scholars, Tobler and Hopf, as a proper subject for +elementary culture, and it broadened my inward and outward glance +considerably when I was able to look upon the world of the works of man +as also part of the "external world." In this way I sought, to the +extent of such powers as I consciously possessed at that time, to make +clear the meaning of all things through man, his relations with himself, +and with the external world. + +The most pregnant thought which arose in me at this period was this: All +is unity, all rests in unity, all springs from unity, strives for and +leads up to unity, and returns to unity at last. This striving in unity +and after unity is the cause of the several aspects of human life. But +between my inner vision and my outer perception, presentation, and +action was a great gulf fixed. Therefore it seemed to me that +everything which should or could be required for human education and +instruction must be necessarily conditioned and given, by virtue of the +very nature of the necessary course of his development, in man's own +being, and in the relationships amidst which he is set. A man, it seemed +to me, would be well educated, when he had been trained to care for +these relationships and to acknowledge them, to master them and to +survey them. + +I worked hard, severely hard, during this period, but both the methods +and the aims of education came before me in such an incoherent heap, so +split up into little fragments, and so entirely without any kind of +order, that during several years I did not make much progress towards my +constant purpose of bringing all educational methods into an orderly +sequence and a living unity. As my habitual and therefore characteristic +expression of my desires then ran, I longed to see, to know, and to show +forth, all things in inter-connection. + +For my good fortune, however there came out about that time certain +educational writings by Seller,[60] Jean Paul,[61] and others. They +supported and elevated me, sometimes by their concurrence with my own +views, expressed above, sometimes by the very contrary. + +The Pestalozzian method I knew, it is true, in its main principles, but +not as a living force, satisfying the needs of man. What especially lay +heavy upon me at this time, however, painfully felt by myself though not +apparent to my pupils, was the utter absence of any organised connection +between the subjects of education. Joyful and unfettered work springs +from the conception of all things as one whole, and forms a life and a +lifework in harmony with the constitution of the universe and resting +firmly upon it. + +That this was the true education I soon felt fervently convinced, and so +my first educational work consisted merely in being with my pupils and +influencing them by the power of my life and work; more than this I was +not at all in a position to give. + +Oh, why is it that man knows so ill and prizes so little the blessings +that he possesses for the first time? + +When I now seek to make myself clear as to the proper life and work of +an educator, my notes of that time rise fresh and fair to meet me. I +look back from now into that childhood of my teacher's life, and learn +from it; just as I look back into the childhood of my man's life, and +survey that, and learn from that, too. Why is all childhood and youth so +full of wealth and so unconscious of it, and why does it lose it without +knowing it only to learn what it possessed when it is for ever lost? +Ought this always to be so? Ought it to be so for every child, for every +youth? Will not a time come at last, come perhaps soon, when the +experience, the insight, the knowledge of age, and wisdom herself, shall +build up a defence, a shelter, a protection for the childhood of youth? +Of what use to mankind is the old man's experience and the greybeard's +wisdom when they sink into the grave with their possessors? + +At first my life and my work with my pupils was confined within narrow +limits. It consisted in merely living, lounging, and strolling in the +open air, and going for walks. Although I was disgusted with the methods +of town education, I did not yet venture to convert life amidst Nature +into an educational course. That was taught me by my young pupils +themselves; and as from the circumstances of my own culture I eagerly +fostered to my utmost every budding sense for Nature that showed itself, +there soon developed amongst them a life-encompassing, life-giving, and +life-raising enjoyment of natural objects. In the following year[62] +this way of life was further enhanced by the father giving his sons a +piece of meadowland for a garden, at the cultivation of which we +accordingly worked in common. The greatest delight of my pupils was to +make little presents of the produce of their garden to their parents and +also to me. How their eyes would gleam with pleasure when they were +fortunate enough to be able to accomplish this. Pretty plants and little +shrubs from the fields, the great garden of God, were transplanted by us +to the children's gardens, and there carefully tended. Great was the +joy, especially of the two younger ones, when such a colonist frankly +enrolled himself amongst the citizens of the state. From this time forth +my own childhood no longer seemed wasted. I acknowledged how entirely +different a thing is the cultivation of plants, to one who has watched +them and studied them in all the stages of their own free development, +from what it is to one who has always stood aloof from Nature. + +And here already, living cheerfully and joyfully in the bosom of Nature +with my first pupils, I began to tell myself that the training of +natural life was closely akin to the training of human life. For did not +those gifts of flowers and plants express appreciation and +acknowledgment of the love of parents and teacher? Were they not the +outcome of the characteristic lovingness and the enthusiastic +thankfulness of childhood? A child that of its own accord and of its own +free will seeks out flowers, cares for them, and protects them, so that +in due time he can weave a garland or make a nosegay with them for his +parents or his teacher, can never become a bad child, a wicked man. Such +a child can easily be led towards love, towards thankfulness, towards +recognition of the fatherliness of God, who gives him these gifts and +permits them to grow that he, as a cheerful giver in his turn, may +gladden with them the hearts of his parents. + +That time of conflict contained within it an element of special and +peculiar meaning to myself. It brought before me my past life in its +many various stages of development; and especially the chief events +which had formed and influenced it, with their causes and their effects. +And it always seemed to me of particular importance to go back upon the +very earliest occurrences in my life. But of the actual matters of fact +of my earliest years very few traces now remained; for my mother, who +could have kept them in her memory for me, and from whom I could now +have learnt them, had died even before my life had really awakened. +Amongst the few relics remaining to me was a written address from my +godmother (the so-called Baptismal Letter), which she had sent me +immediately after my baptism, according to the Thuringian custom of the +time, as a sort of portion or dowry for my entrance into life. It had +come into my possession after the death of my father. This letter, of a +simple, Christian, tenderly religious, womanly soul, expressed in plain +and affecting terms the true relation of the young Christian to that to +which by his baptism he had become bound. Through these words the inner +life of both mind and soul, of my boyhood and of my youth, was brought +before me with all its peace and blessedness; and I could not help +seeing how much that I then longed for had since come to pass. My soul, +upon this thought, regained that original inspiriting, enlightening, and +quickening unity of which I stood so much in need. But at the same time +all the resolutions of my boyhood and youth also rushed back upon me, +and made it manifest how much more had yet to happen before they, too, +were accomplished; and with them they brought the memory of those types +and ideals with which the feeble boyish imagination had sought to +strengthen itself. But my life had been far too much an inward and +strictly personal life to have been able, or even to have dared to stand +forth in any outwardly definite form, or to take any fixed relation to +other lives, except in matters of feeling and intelligence. Indeed the +power of manifesting myself properly was a very late accomplishment with +me, and was, in fact, not gained until long after the recommencement of +my present educational work.[63] I cannot now remember, during all the +time of this educational work, that my personal life stood out in any +way from the usual ordinary existence of men; but before I can speak +with certainty upon this point I must procure information as to the +circumstances of my earlier life. This much is clear, that my life at +the time I am speaking of has remained in my memory only in its general +ordinary human aspect. It is true, however, that then, as always in my +later life, it was and ever has been very difficult to me to separate in +thought my inner life from my outer, and to give definite form and +outward expression to the inner life, especially as to religious +matters. + +I dare not deny, that although the definite religious forms of the +Church reached my heart readily both by way of the emotions and by +sincere conviction, and cleansed and quickened me, yet I have always +felt great reluctance to speak of these definite religious forms with +others, particularly with pupils and students. I could never make them +so clear and living to a simple healthy soul as they were to myself. +From this I conclude that the naturally trained child requires no +definite Church forms, because the lovingly-fostered, and therefore +continuously and powerfully-developed human life, as well as the +untroubled child-life also, is and must be in itself a Christian life. I +further conclude that a child to whom the deeper truths of life or of +religion were given in the dogmatic positive forms of Church creeds +would imperatively need when a young man to be surrounded by pure and +manly lives, whereby those rigid creeds might be illuminated and +quickened into life. Otherwise the child runs great danger of casting +away his whole higher life along with the dogmatic religious forms which +he has been unable to assimilate. There, indeed, is the most elevated +faith to be found, where form and life work towards a whole, shed light +upon each other, and go side by side in a sisterly concord, like the +inward life with the outward life, or the special with the universal. + +But I must return from this long digression, and resume the account of +my life and work as an educator. + +Bodily exercises were as yet unknown to me in their educational +capacity. I was acquainted only with jumping over a cord and with +walking on stilts through my own boyish practice therein. As they fell +into no relation with our common life, neither with the pursuits and +thoughts of my pupils nor with my own, we regarded them purely as +childish games. + +What the year brings to a man in the season when Nature lies clear and +open before him, that it does not bring to him in the season when Nature +is more often locked away from his gaze. And as the two seasons bring +diverse gifts, so do they require diverse things in return. In the +latter part of the year, when man is perforce driven more upon himself, +his occupations should take on more narrowly personal characteristics. +Just as the winter's life with nature is more fixed and narrowed, so +also is the winter's life with men; therefore, a boy's life at this time +needs material of some definite fashion, or needs fashionless material +which can be shaped into definite fashion. My pupils soon came to me, +urged by this new necessity. What life requires that life provides, +wherever life is or has been; what youth requires that youth provides, +wherever youth is or has been. And what the later man's life requires +from a man, or from men in general, that also is provided by the boy's +life and the youth's life when these have been genuinely lived through. +The demand of my pupils set me upon the following question: "What did +you do as a boy? What happened to you to satisfy that need of yours for +something to do and to express? By what, at the same period of your +life, was this need most fully met, or what did you then most desire for +this purpose?" Then there came to me a memory from out my earliest +boyhood, which yielded me all I wanted in my emergency. It was the easy +art of impressing figures and forms by properly arranged simple strokes +on smooth paper.[64] I have often made use of this simple art in my +later life, and have never found it fail in its object; and on this +occasion, too, it faithfully served my pupils and me, for our skill, at +first weak both on the part of teacher and pupil, grew rapidly greater +with use. + +From these forms impressed upon paper we rose to making forms out of +paper itself, and then to producing forms in paste-board, and finally in +wood. My later experience has taught me much more as to the best shapes +and materials for the study of forms,[65] of which I shall speak in its +proper place. + +I must, however, permit myself to dwell a little upon this extremely +simple occupation of impressing forms on paper, because at the proper +age it quite absorbs a boy, and completely fills and contents the +demands of his faculties. Why is this? It gives the boy, easily and +spontaneously, and yet at the same time imperceptibly, precise, clear, +and many-sided results due to his own creative power. + +Man is compelled not only to recognise Nature in her manifold forms and +appearances, but also to understand her in the unity of her inner +working, of her effective force. Therefore he himself follows Nature's +methods in the course of his own development and culture, and in his +games he imitates Nature at her work of creation. The earliest natural +formations, the fixed forms of crystals, seem as if driven together by +some secret power external to themselves; and the boy in his first games +gladly imitates these first activities of nature, so that by the one he +may learn to comprehend the other. Does not the boy take pleasure in +building, and what else are the earliest fixed forms of Nature but +built-up forms? However, this indication that a higher meaning underlies +the occupation and games which children choose out for themselves must +for the present suffice. And since these spontaneous activities of +children have not yet been thoroughly thought out from a high point of +view, and have not yet been regarded from what I might almost call their +cosmical and anthropological side, we may from day to day expect some +philosopher to write a comprehensive and important book about them.[66] +From the love, the attention, the continued interest and the +cheerfulness with which these occupations are plied by children other +important considerations also arise, of quite a different character. + +A boy's game necessarily brings him into some wider or fuller +relationship, into relationship with some more elevated group of ideas. +Is he building a house?--he builds it so that he may dwell in it like +grown-up people do, and have just such another cupboard, and so forth, +as they have, and be able to give people things out of it just as they +do. And one must always take care of this: that the child who receives a +present shall not have his nature cramped and stunted thereby; according +to the measure of how much he receives, so much must he be able to give +away. In fact, this is a necessity for a simple-hearted child. Happy is +that little one who understands how to satisfy this need of his nature, +to give by producing various gifts of his own creation! As a perfect +child of humanity, a boy ought to desire to enjoy and to bestow to the +very utmost, for he dimly feels already that he belongs to the whole, to +the universal, to the comprehensive in Nature, and it is as part of this +that he lives; therefore, as such would he accordingly be considered and +so treated. When he has felt this, the most important means of +development available for a human being at this stage has been +discovered. With a well-disposed child at such a time nothing has any +value except as it may serve for a common possession, for a bond of +union between him and his beloved ones. This aspect of the child's +character must be carefully noticed by parents and by teachers, and used +by them as a means of awakening and developing the active and +presentative side of his nature; wherefore none, not even the simplest +gifts from a child, should ever be suffered to be neglected. + +To sketch my first attempt as an educator in one phrase, I sought with +all my powers to give my pupils the best possible instruction, and the +best possible training and culture, but I was unable to fulfil my +intentions, to attain my end, in the position I then occupied, and with +the degree of culture to which I had myself attained. + +As soon as this had become fully evident to me, it occurred to my mind +that nothing else could be so serviceable to me as a sojourn for a time +with Pestalozzi. I expressed my views on this head very decidedly, and +accordingly, in the summer of 1808, it was agreed that I should take my +three pupils with me to Yverdon. + +So it soon afterwards came about I was teacher and scholar, educator and +pupil, all at the same time. + +If I were to attempt to put into one sentence all I expected to find at +Yverdon, I should say it was a vigorous inner life amongst the boys and +youths, quickening, manifesting itself in all kinds of creative +activity, satisfying the manysidedness of man, meeting all his +necessities, and occupying all his powers both mental and bodily. +Pestalozzi, so I imagined, must be the heart, the life-source, the +spiritual guide of this life and work; from his central point he must +watch over the boy's life in all its bearings, see it in all its stages +of development, or at all events sympathise with it and feel with it, +whether as the life of the individual, of the family, of the community, +of the nation, of mankind at large. + +With such expectations I arrived at Yverdon. There was no educational +problem whose resolution I did not firmly expect to find there. That my +soul soon faithfully mirrored the life which there flowed around me, my +report for 1809 sufficiently shows.[67] + +To throw myself completely into the midst, into the very heart, of +Pestalozzi's work, I wished to live in the main buildings of the +institution, that is to say, in the castle itself.[68] We would have +cheerfully shared the lot of the ordinary scholars, but our wish could +not be granted, some outside jealousies standing in the way. However, I +soon found a lodging, in immediate proximity to the institution, so that +we were able to join the pupils at their dinner, their evening meal, and +their supper, and to take part in the whole courses of their +instruction, so far as the subjects chosen by us were concerned; indeed, +to share in their whole life. I soon saw much that was imperfect; but, +notwithstanding, the activity which pressed forth on all sides, the +vigorous effort, the spiritual endeavour of the life around me, which +carried me away with it as it did all other men who came within its +influence, convinced me that here I should presently be able to resolve +all my difficulties. As far as regarded myself personally, I had +nothing more earnest to do for the time than to watch that my pupils +gained the fullest possible profit from this life which was so rich in +vigour for both body and soul. Accordingly we shared all lessons +together; and I made it my special business to reason out with +Pestalozzi each branch of instruction from its first point of connection +with the rest, and thus to study it from its very root. + +The forcible, comprehensive, stimulating life stimulated me too, and +seized upon me with all its comprehensiveness and all its force. It is +true it could not blind me to many imperfections and deficiencies, but +these were retrieved by the general tendency and endeavour of the whole +system; for this, though containing several absolute contradictions, +manifest even at that time, yet vindicated on a general view its inner +connection and hidden unity. The powerful, indefinable, stirring, and +uplifting effect produced by Pestalozzi when he spoke, set one's soul on +fire for a higher, nobler life, although he had not made clear or sure +the exact way towards it, nor indicated the means whereby to attain it. +Thus did the power and manysidedness of the educational effort make up +for deficiency in unity and comprehensiveness; and the love, the warmth, +the stir of the whole, the human kindness and benevolence of it replaced +the want of clearness, depth, thoroughness, extent, perseverance, and +steadiness. In this way each separate branch of education was in such a +condition as to powerfully interest, but never wholly to content the +observer, since it prepared only further division and separation and did +not tend towards unity. + +The want of unity of effort, both as to means and aims, I soon felt; I +recognised it in the inadequacy, the incompleteness, and the unlikeness +of the ways in which the various subjects were taught. Therefore I +endeavoured to gain the greatest possible insight into all, and became a +scholar in all subjects--arithmetic, form, singing, reading, drawing, +language, physical geography, the natural sciences, etc. + +I could see something higher, and I believed in a higher efficiency, a +closer unity of the whole educational system; in truth, I believed I saw +this clearer, though not with greater conviction, than Pestalozzi +himself. I held that land happy, that man fortunate, by whom the means +of true education should be developed and applied, and the wish to see +this benefit conferred upon my country naturally sprang from the love I +bore my native land.[69] The result was the written record of 1809 +already referred to. + +Where there is the germ of disunion, where the whole is split up, even +sometimes into contradictory parts, and where an absolute reconciling +unity is wanting, where what connection there may be is derived rather +from casual outward ties than from inner necessary union, the whole +system must of necessity dig its own grave, and become its own murderer. +Now it was exactly at such a time of supreme crisis that I had the good +or the evil fortune to be at Yverdon. All that was good and all that was +bad, all that was profitable and all that was unprofitable, all that was +strong and all that was weak, all that was empty and all that was full, +all that was selfish and all that was unselfish amongst Pestalozzi and +his friends, was displayed openly before me. + +I happened to be there precisely at the time of the great Commission of +1810. Neither Pestalozzi nor his so-called friends, neither any +individuals nor the whole community, could give me, or would give me, +what I wanted. In the methods laid down by them for teaching boys, for +the thorough education of boys as part of one great human family,--that +is, for their higher instruction,--I failed to find that +comprehensiveness which is alone sufficient to satisfy the human being. +Thus it was with natural history, natural science, German, and language +generally, with history, and above all, with religious instruction. +Pestalozzi's devotional addresses were very vague, and, as experience +showed, were only serviceable to those already in the right way.[70] I +spoke of all these things very earnestly and decidedly with Pestalozzi, +and at last I made up my mind, in 1810, to quit Yverdon along with my +pupils. + +But before I continue further here, it is my duty to consider my life +and work from yet another point of view. + +Amongst the various branches of education, the teaching of languages +struck me with especial force as defective, on account of its great +imperfection, its capriciousness and lifelessness. The search for a +satisfactory method for our native language occupied me in preference to +anything else. I proceeded on the following basis:-- + +Language is an image, a representation of our separate (subject) world, +and becomes manifest to the (object) world outside ourselves principally +through combined and ordered sounds. If, therefore, I would image forth +anything correctly, I must know the real nature of the original object. +The theme of our imagery and representation, the outside world, contains +objects, therefore I must have a definite form, a definite succession of +sounds, a definite word to express each object. The objects have +qualities, therefore our language must contain adjectives expressing +these qualities. The qualities of objects are fundamental or relative; +express what they are, what they possess, and what they become. + +Passing now to singing and music, it happened very luckily for me that +just at this time Naegeli and Pfeifer brought out their "Treatise on the +Construction of a Musical Course according to the Principles of +Pestalozzi." Naegeli's knowledge of music generally, and especially of +church music, made a powerful impression upon me, and brought music and +singing before me as a means for human culture; setting the cultivation +of music, and especially of singing, in a higher light than I had ever +conceived possible. Naegeli was very capable in teaching music and +singing, and in representing their function as inspiring aids to pure +human life; and although nearly twenty years have elapsed since I heard +those lessons of his, the fire of the love for music which they kindled +burns yet, active for good, within my breast. And further, I was taught +and convinced by these two super-excellent music teachers, who +instructed my pupils, that purely instrumental music, such as that of +the violin or of the pianoforte, is also in its essence based upon and +derived from vocal music, though developed through the independent +discovery of a few simple sound-producing instruments. Not only have I +never since left the path thus opened to me at its origin, but I have +consistently traced it onwards in all care and love, and continue to +rejoice in the excellent results obtained. This course of +music-teaching, as extended and applied later on, has always enjoyed the +approbation of the thoughtful and experienced amongst music teachers. + +I also studied the boys' play, the whole series of games in the open +air, and learned to recognise their mighty power to awake and to +strengthen the intelligence and the soul as well as the body. In these +games and what was connected with them I detected the mainspring of the +moral strength which animated the pupils and the young people in the +institution. The games, as I am now fervently assured, formed a mental +bath of extraordinary strengthening-power;[71] and although the sense of +the higher symbolic meaning of games had not yet dawned upon me, I was +nevertheless able to perceive in each boy genuinely at play a moral +strength governing both mind and body which won my highest esteem. + +Closely akin to the games in their morally strengthening aspect were the +walks, especially those of the general walking parties, more +particularly when conducted by Pestalozzi himself. These walks were by +no means always meant to be opportunities for drawing close to Nature, +but Nature herself, though unsought, always drew the walkers close to +her. Every contact with her elevates, strengthens, purifies. It is from +this cause that Nature, like noble great-souled men, wins us to her; and +whenever school or teaching duties gave me respite, my life at this time +was always passed amidst natural scenes and in communion with Nature. +From the tops of the high mountains near by I used to rejoice in the +clear and still sunset, in the pine-forests, the glaciers, the mountain +meadows, all bathed in rosy light. Such an evening walk came indeed to +be an almost irresistible necessity to me after each actively-spent day. +As I wandered on the sunlit, far-stretching hills, or along the still +shore of the lake, clear as crystal, smooth as a mirror, or in the shady +groves, under the tall forest trees, my spirit grew full with ideas of +the truly god-like nature and priceless value of a man's soul, and I +gladdened myself with the consideration of mankind as the beloved +children of God. There is no question but that Pestalozzi's general +addresses, especially those delivered in the evening, when he used to +delight in evoking a picture of noble manliness and true love of mankind +and developing it in all its details, very powerfully contributed +towards arousing such an inner life as that just described. + +Yet I did not lose myself in empty fancies; on the contrary, I kept my +practical work constantly before my eyes. From thinking about my dead +parents my thoughts would wander back over the rest of my family, +turning most often to that dear eldest brother of mine, who has now not +been referred to for some time in these pages. He had become the +faithful watchful father of several children. I shared in his unaffected +fatherly cares, and my soul was penetrated with the desire that he might +be able to give his sons such an education as I should feel obliged to +point out to him as being the best. Already, ever since I was at +Frankfurt, I had communicated to him my thoughts on education and +methods of teaching. What now occurred to me out of my new knowledge as +applicable to his case, I extracted, collected together, and classified, +so as to be able to impart it to him for his use at the first +opportunity. + +One thing which greatly contributed to the better consideration and +elucidation of the Pestalozzian mode of teaching was the presence of a +large number of young men sent from various governments as students to +Yverdon. With some of these I was on terms of intimacy, and to the +exchange of ideas which went on amongst us I owe at least as much as to +my own observation. + +On the whole I passed a glorious time at Yverdon, elevated in tone, and +critically decisive for my after life. At its close, however, I felt +more clearly than ever the deficiency of inner unity and +interdependence, as well as of outward comprehensiveness and +thoroughness in the teaching there. + +To obtain the means of a satisfactory judgment upon the best method of +teaching the classical tongues, I took Greek and Latin under a young +German, who was staying there at that time; but I was constructing a +method of my own all the while, by observing all the points which seemed +valuable, as they occurred in actual teaching. But the want of a +satisfactory presentation of the classical tongues as part of the +general means of education and culture of mankind, especially when added +to the want of a consideration of natural history as a comprehensive and +necessary means of education, and above all the uncertain wavering of +the ground-principles on which the whole education and teaching rested +at Yverdon, decided me not only to take my pupils back to their parents' +house, but to abandon altogether my present educational work, in order +to equip myself, by renewed study at some German university, with that +due knowledge of natural science which now seemed to me quite +indispensable for an educator. + +In the year 1810 I returned from Yverdon by Bern, Schaffhausen, and +Stuttgart to Frankfurt. + +I should have prepared to go to the university at once, but found myself +obliged to remain at my post till the July of the following year. The +piece-meal condition of the methods of teaching and of education which +surrounded me hung heavy on my mind, so that I was extremely glad when +at last I was able to shake myself free from my position. + +In the beginning of July 1811 I went to Goettingen. I went up at once, +although it was in the middle of the session, because I felt that I +should require several months to see my way towards harmonising my +inward with my outward life, and reconciling my thoughts with my +actions. And it was in truth several months before I gained peace within +myself, and before I arrived at that unity which was so necessary to me, +between my inward and my outward life, and at the equally necessary +harmony between aim, career, and method. + +Mankind as a whole, as one great unity, had now become my quickening +thought. I kept this conception continually before my mind. I sought +after proofs of it in my little world within, and in the great world +without me; I desired by many a struggle to win it, and then to set it +worthily forth. And thus I was led back to the first appearance of man +upon our earth, to the land which first saw man, and to the first +manifestation of mankind, his speech. + +Linguistic studies, the learning of languages, philology, etc., now +formed the object of my attack. The study of Oriental tongues seemed to +me the central point, the fountain head, whither my search was leading +me; and at once I began upon them with Hebrew and Arabic. I had a dim +idea of opening up a path through them to other Asiatic tongues, +particularly those of India[72] and Persia. I was powerfully stimulated +and attracted by what I had heard about the study of these languages, +then in its early youth--namely, the acknowledgment of a relationship +between Persian and German. Greek also attracted me in quite a special +way on account of its inner fulness, organisation, and regularity. My +whole time and energy were devoted to the two languages I have +named.[73] But I did not get far with Hebrew in spite of my genuine zeal +and my strict way with myself, because between the manner of looking at +a language congenial to my mind and the manner in which the elementary +lesson book presented it to me, lay a vast chasm which I could find no +means to bridge over. In the form in which language was offered to me, I +could find and see no means of making it a living study; and yet, +nevertheless, nothing would have drawn me from my linguistic studies had +I not been assured by educated men that these studies, especially my +work on Indian and Persian tongues, were in reality quite beside the +mark at which I aimed. Hebrew also was abandoned; but, on the other +hand, Greek irresistibly enthralled me, and nearly all my time and +energy were finally given to its study, with the help of the best books. + +I was now free, happy, in good mental and bodily health and vigour, and +I gained peace within myself and without, through hard work, interrupted +only by an indisposition which kept me to my room for a few weeks. After +working all day alone, I used to walk out late in the evening, so that +at least I might receive a greeting from the friendly beams of the +setting sun. To invigorate my spirit as well as my bodily frame I would +walk on till near midnight in the beautiful neighbourhood which +surrounds Goettingen. The glittering starry sky harmonised well with my +thoughts, and a new object which appeared in the heavens at this time, +aroused my wonder in an especial degree. I knew but little of astronomy, +and the expected arrival of a large comet[74] was, therefore, quite +unknown to me; so that I found out the comet for myself, and that was a +source of special attraction. This object absorbed my contemplation in +those silent nights, and the thought of the all-embracing, +wide-spreading sphere of law and order above, developed and shaped +itself in my mind with especial force during my night-wanderings. I +often turned back home that I might note down in their freshness the +results of these musings; and then after a short sleep I rose again to +pursue my studies. + +In this way the last half of the summer session passed quickly away, and +Michaelmas arrived. + +The development of my inner life had meanwhile insensibly drawn me +little by little quite away from the study of languages, and led me +towards the deeper-lying unity of natural objects. My earlier plan +gradually reasserted itself, to study Nature in her first forms and +elements. But the funds which still remained to me were now too small to +permit of the longer residence at the university which that plan +necessitated. As I had nothing at all now to depend upon save my own +unaided powers, I at first thought to gain my object by turning them to +some practical account, such as literary work. I had already begun to +prepare for this, when an unexpected legacy changed my whole position. +Up to now I had had one aunt still living, a sister of my mother's, who +had spent all the best years of her life in my native village, enjoying +excellent health and free from care. By her sudden death I obtained, in +a manner I had little expected, the means of pursuing my much-desired +studies. This occurrence made a very deep impression upon me, because +this lady was the sister of that uncle of mine whose death had enabled +me to travel from Gross Milchow to Frankfurt, and so first set me upon +my career as an educator. And now again the death of a loved one made it +possible for me to attain higher culture in the service of this career. +Both brother and sister had loved with the closest affection my own +mother, dead so far too soon, and this love they had extended to her +children after her. May these two loving and beloved ones who through +their death gave me a higher life and a higher vocation, live for ever +through my work and my career. + +My position was now a very pleasant one, and I felt soothing and +cheering influences such as had not visited me before. + +In the autumn holidays, too, a friendly home was ready to receive me. +Besides the country-clergyman brother, who so often was a power for good +in my life, I had another brother, also older than I, who had been +living more than ten years as a well-established tradesman and citizen +in Osterode, amongst the Harz Mountains; head of a quiet, +self-contained, happy family, and father of some fine children. My +previous life and endeavours as an educator had already brought me into +connection with this circle; for I had not failed whenever I found +anything suitable to my brother's needs to let him know of it, as he was +the conscientious teacher and educator of his own children. It was in +this peaceful, active family-circle of an intellectual tradesman's home +that I passed all the vacation time during which the university +regulations released me from vigorous work. It could not prove otherwise +than that such a visit should be of the greatest service to me in my +general development, and I remember it with thankfulness even yet on +that account. + +I return now to my university life. Physics, chemistry, mineralogy, and +natural history in general, were my principal studies. + +The inner law and order embracing all things, and in itself conditioned +and necessitated, now presented itself to me in such clearness that I +could see nothing either in nature or in life in which it was not made +manifest, although varying greatly according to its several +manifestations, in complexity and in gradation. Just at this time those +great discoveries of the French and English philosophers became +generally known through which the great manifold external world was seen +to form a comprehensive outer unity. And the labours of the German and +Swedish philosophers to express these essentially conditioned +fundamental laws in terms of weight and number, so that they might be +studied and understood in their most exact expression, and in their +mutual interchange and connection, fitted in exactly with my own +longings and endeavours. Natural science and natural researches now +seemed to me, while themselves belonging to a distinct plane of vital +phenomena, the foundation and cornerstones which served to make clear +and definite the laws and the progress of the development, the culture, +and the education of mankind. + +It was but natural that such studies should totally absorb me, occupy my +whole energies, and keep me most busily employed. I studied chemistry +and physics with the greatest possible zeal, but the teaching of the +latter did not satisfy me so thoroughly as that of the former. + +What in the current half-year's term I was regarding rather from a +theoretical standpoint, I intended in the next half-year to study +practically as a factor of actual life: hence I passed to organic +chemistry and geology.[75] Those laws which I was able to observe in +Nature I desired to trace also in the life and proceedings of man, +wherefore I added to my previous studies history, politics, and +political economy. These practical departments of knowledge brought +vividly home to me the great truth that the most valuable wealth a man +can possess lies in a cultivated mind, and in its suitable exercise upon +matters growing out of its own natural conditions. I saw further that +wealth arose quite as much from vigour of production as from saving by +economical use; and that those productions were the most valuable of +all, which were the outcome and representation of lofty ideas or +remarkable thoughts; and finally, that politics itself was in its +essence but a means of uplifting man from the necessities of Nature and +of life to the freedom of the spirit and the will. + +While I received much benefit from the lectures on natural history at +the university, I could not fall in with the views held there as to +fixed forms--crystallography, mineralogy, and natural philosophy. From +what I had heard of the natural history lectures of Professor Weiss in +Berlin, I felt sure that I could acquire a correct view of both these +subjects from him. And also since my means would not allow me to stay +even so long as one entire session more at Goettingen, whilst on the +other hand I might hope at Berlin to earn enough by teaching to maintain +a longer university career there, I came to the conclusion to go to +Berlin at the beginning of the next winter session to study mineralogy, +geology, and crystallography under Weiss, as well as to do some work at +physics and physical laws. + +After a stay of a few weeks with my brother at Osterode, I went to +Berlin in October 1812. + +The lectures for which I had so longed really came up to the needs of my +mind and soul, and awakened in me, more fervent than ever, the certainty +of the demonstrable inner connection of the whole cosmical development +of the universe. I saw also the possibility of man's becoming conscious +of this absolute unity of the universe, as well as of the diversity of +things and appearances which is perpetually unfolding itself within that +unity; and then, when I had made clear to myself, and brought fully home +to my consciousness, the view that the infinitely varied phenomena in +man's life, work, thought, feeling, and position, were all summed up in +the unity of his personal existence, I felt myself able to turn my +thoughts once more to educational problems. + +To make sure of my power to maintain myself at the university, I +undertook some teaching at a private school of good reputation.[76] My +work here, beyond the sufficient support it afforded me during +residence, had no positive effect upon the endeavour of my life, for I +found neither high intelligence, lofty aims, nor unity in the course of +instruction. + +The fateful year 1813 had now begun. All men grasped weapons, and +called on one another to fly to arms to defend the Fatherland. I, too, +had a home, it is true, a birthplace, I might say a Motherland, but I +could not feel that I had a Fatherland.[77] My home sent up no cry to +me; I was no Prussian,[78] and thus it came about that the universal +call to arms (in Berlin) affected me, in my retired life, but little. It +was quite another sentiment which drew me to join the ranks of German +soldiers; my enthusiasm was possibly small, but my determination was +firmly fixed as the rocks themselves. + +This sentiment was the consciousness of a pure German brotherhood, which +I had always honoured in my soul as a lofty and sublime ideal; one which +I earnestly desired might make itself felt in all its fulness and +freedom all over Germany. + +Besides the fidelity with which I clung to my avocation as an educator +also influenced my action in this matter. Even if I could not say truly +that I had a Fatherland, I must yet acknowledge that every boy, that +every child, who might perhaps later on come to be educated by me would +have a Fatherland, that this Fatherland was now requiring defence, and +that the child was not in a position to share in that defence. It did +not seem possible to imagine that a young man capable of bearing arms +could become a teacher of children and boys whose Fatherland he had +refused to defend with his blood and even with his life if need were; +that he who now did not feel ashamed to shrink from blows could exist +without blushing in after years, or could incite his pupils to do +something noble, something calling for sacrifice and for unselfishness, +without exposing himself to their derision and contempt. Such was the +second main reason which influenced me. + +Thirdly, this summons to war seemed to me an expression of the general +need of the men, the land, and the times amidst which I lived, and I +felt that it would be altogether unworthy and unmanly to stand by +without fighting for this general need, and without taking my share in +warding off the general danger. + +Before these convictions all considerations gave way, even that of my +bodily constitution, which was far too weakly for such a life. + +As comrades I selected the Luetzowers; and at Eastertide 1813 I arrived +at Dresden on my road to join the infantry division of Luetzow's corps at +Leipzig.[79] Through the retired nature of my self-concentrated life it +came about naturally that I, although a regularly matriculated student, +had held aloof from the other students, and had gained no settled +acquaintance amongst them; thus, out of all the vigorous comrades whom I +met at Dresden, many of whom were like myself, Berlin students, I did +not find one man I knew. I made but few new friends in the army, and +these few I was fated to encounter on the first day of my entrance into +my new work of soldiering. Our sergeant at the first morning halt after +our march out from Dresden, introduced me to a comrade from Erfurt as a +Thueringer, and therefore a fellow-countryman. This was Langethal; and +casually as our acquaintance thus began, it proved to be a lasting +friendship. Our first day's march was to Meissen, where we halted. We +had enjoyed lovely spring weather during our march, and our repose was +gladdened by a still lovelier evening. I found all the university +students of the corps, driven by a like impulse, collected together in +an open place by the shores of Elbe and near a public restaurant; and +some old Meissen wine soon served us as a bond of union. We sat about +twenty strong in a jolly group at a long table, and began by welcoming +and pledging one another to friendship. It was here that Langethal +introduced me to a university friend of his at Berlin, the young +Middendorff, a divinity student from the Mark.[80] Keeping together in a +merry little society till the middle of the lovely spring night, we +united again next morning in a visit to the splendid cathedral of +Meissen. Thus from the very first did we three join fast in a common +struggle towards and on behalf of the higher life, and even if we have +not always remained in the like close outward bonds of union, we have +from that time to this, now near upon fifteen years, never lost our +comradeship in the inner life and our common endeavour after +self-education. Both Langethal and Middendorff had a third friend, named +Bauer, amongst our comrades of the camp. With him also, as I think, I +made acquaintance as early as at Meissen, but it was more particularly +at Havelberg, later on, that Bauer and I struck up a friendship +together, which has ever since endured. Even when we have not been +together in outward life, we have always remained one in our endeavours +after the highest and best. Bauer closed the narrow circle of my +friends amongst our companions in arms.[81] + +I remained true to my previous way of life and thought in the manner in +which I viewed my new soldier life. My main care was always to educate +myself for the actual calling which at the moment I was following; thus, +amongst the first things I took in hand was an attempt at finding the +inner necessity and connection of the various parts of the drill and the +military services, in which, without any previous acquaintance with +military affairs, I managed, in consequence of my mathematical and +physical knowledge, to succeed very fairly and without any great +difficulty. I was able to protect myself, therefore, against many small +reprimands, which fell tolerably frequently on those who had thought +this or that instruction might be lightly passed over as too trivial to +be attended to. It came about in this way, when we were continually +drilling, after the cessation of the armistice, that the military +exercises we performed gave me genuine pleasure on account of their +regularity, their clearness, and the precision of their execution. In +probing into their nature I could see freedom beneath their recognised +necessity. + +During the long sojourn of our corps in Havelberg previously alluded to, +I strengthened my inner life, so far as the military service permitted, +by spending all the time I could in the open air, in communion with +Nature, to a perception of whose loveliness a perusal of G. Forster's +"Travels in Rhineland" had newly unlocked my senses.[82] + +We friends took all opportunities of meeting one another. By-and-by we +set to work to make this easier by three of us applying to be quartered +together. + +In the rough, frank life of war, men presented themselves to me under +various aspects, and so became a special object of my thoughts as +regards their conduct, and their active work, and most of all as to +their higher vocation. Man and the education of man was the subject +which occupied us long and often in our walks, and in our open-air life +generally. It was particularly these discussions which drew me forcibly +towards Middendorff, the youngest of us. + +I liked well our life of the bivouac, because it made so much of history +clear to me; and taught me, too, through our oft-continued and severely +laborious marches and military manoeuvres, the interchanging mutual +relations of body and spirit. It showed me how little the individual man +belongs to himself in war time; he is but an atom in a great whole, and +as such alone must he be considered. + +Through the chance of our corps being far removed from the actual seat +of war, we lived our soldier life, at least I did, in a sort of dream, +notwithstanding the severe exertions caused by our military manoeuvres, +and we heard of the war only in the same sleepy way. Now and then, at +Leipzig, at Dalenburg, at Bremen, at Berlin, we seemed to wake up; but +soon sank back into feeble dreaminess again. It was particularly +depressing and weakening to me never to be able to grasp our position as +part of the great whole of the campaign, and never to find any +satisfactory explanation of the reason or the aim of our manoeuvres. +That was my case at least; others may have seen better and clearer than +I. + +I gained one clear benefit from the campaign; in the course of the +actual soldier life I became enthusiastic upon the best interests of the +German land and the German people; my efforts tended to become national +in their scope. And in general, so far as my fatigues allowed, I kept +the sense of my future position always before me; even in the little +skirmishes that we had to take part in I was able to gather some +experiences which I saw would be useful to me in my future work. + +Our corps marched through the Mark,[83] and in the latter part of August +through Priegnitz, Mecklenburg, the districts of Bremen and Hamburg, and +Holstein, and in the last days of 1813 we reached the Rhine. The peace +(May 30th, 1814) prevented us from seeing Paris, and we were stationed +in the Netherlands till the breaking up of the corps. At last, in July +1814, every one who did not care to serve longer had permission to +return to his home and to his former calling. Upon my entrance into +a corps of Prussian soldiers I had received, through the influence +of some good friends, the promise of a post under the Prussian +Government--namely, that of assistant at the mineralogical museum of +Berlin, under Weiss. Thither then, as the next place of my destined +work, I turned my steps. I desired also to see the Rhine and the Main, +and my birthplace as well; so I went by Dusseldorf back to Luenen, and +thence by Mainz, Frankfurt, and Rudolstadt to Berlin. + +Thus I had lived through the whole campaign according to my strength, +greater or less, in a steady inner struggle towards unity and harmony +of life, but what of outward significance and worth recollection had +I received from the soldier's life? I left the army and the warlike +career with a total feeling of discontent. My inner yearning for unity +and harmony, for inward peace, was so powerful that it shaped itself +unconsciously into symbolical form and figure. In a ceaseless, +inexplicable, anxious state of longing and unrest, I had passed through +many pretty places and many gardens on my homeward way, without any of +them pleasing me. In this mood I reached F----, and entered a fairly +large and handsomely-stocked flower garden. I gazed at all the vigorous +plants and fresh gay flowers it offered me, but no flower took my fancy. +As I passed all the many varied beauties of the garden in review before +my mind, it fell upon me suddenly that I missed the lily. I asked the +owner of the garden if he had no lilies there, and he quietly replied, +_No_! When I expressed my surprise, I was answered as quietly as before +that hitherto no one had missed the lily. It was thus that I came to +know what I missed and longed for. How could my inner nature have +expressed itself more beautifully in words? "Thou art seeking silent +peacefulness of heart, harmony of life, clear purity of soul, by the +symbol of this silent, pure, simple lily." That garden, in its beautiful +variety, but without a lily, appeared to me as a gay life passed through +and squandered without unity and harmony. Another day I saw many lovely +lilies blooming in the garden of a house in the country. Great was my +joy; but, alas! they were separated from me by a hedge. Later on I +solved this symbol also; and until its solution image and longing +remained stored in my memory. One thing I ought to notice--namely, that +in the place where I was vainly seeking for lilies in the garden a +little boy of three years old came up trustfully and stood by my side. + +I hastened to the scene of my new duties. How variously the different +outward circumstances of my life henceforth affected me as to the life +within, now that this had won for itself once more an assured individual +form, and how my life again resumed its true and highest aspect, I must +pass over here, since to develop these considerations with all their +connections would take me too long. + +In the first days of August 1814 I arrived at Berlin, and at once +received my promised appointment. My duties busied me the greater part +of the day amongst minerals, dumb witnesses to the silent thousand-fold +creative energy of Nature, and I had to see to their arrangement in a +locked, perfectly quiet room. While engaged on this work I continually +proved to be true what had long been a presentiment with me--namely, +that even in these so-called lifeless stones and fragments of rock, torn +from their original bed, there lay germs of transforming, developing +energy and activity. Amidst the diversity of forms around me, I +recognised under all kinds of various modifications one law of +development. + +All the points that in Goettingen I had thought I traced amidst outward +circumstances, confirmatory of the order of the soul's development, came +before me here also, in a hundred and again a hundred phenomena. What I +had recognised in things great or noble, or in the life of man, or in +the ways of God, as serving towards the development of the human race, I +found I could here recognise also in the smallest of these fixed forms +which Nature alone had shaped. I saw clearly, as never yet I had seen +before, that the godlike is not alone in the great; for the godlike is +also in the very small, it appears in all its fulness and power in the +most minute dimensions. And thereafter my rocks and crystals served me +as a mirror wherein I might descry mankind, and man's development and +history. These things began to stir powerfully within me; and what I now +vaguely perceived I was soon to view more definitely, and to be able to +study with thoroughness. + +Geology and crystallography not only opened up for me a higher circle of +knowledge and insight, but also showed me a higher goal for my inquiry, +my speculation, and my endeavour. Nature and man now seemed to me +mutually to explain each other, through all their numberless various +stages of development. Man, as I saw, receives from a knowledge of +natural objects, even because of their immense deep-seated diversity, a +foundation for, and a guidance towards, a knowledge of himself and of +life, and a preparation for the manifestation of that knowledge. What I +thus clearly perceived in the simpler natural objects I soon traced in +the province of living Nature, in plants and growing things, so far as +these came under my observation, and in the animal kingdom as well. + +Soon I became wholly penetrated and absorbed by the thought that it must +be beyond everything else vital to man's culture and development, to the +sure attainment of his destiny and fulfilment of his vocation, to +distinguish these tendencies accurately and sharply not only in their +separate ascending grades, but also throughout the whole career of life. +Moreover, I made a resolution that for some time I would devote myself +to the study of the higher methods of teaching, so as to fit myself as a +teacher in one of the higher centres of education, as, for example, one +of the universities, if that might be. But it was not long before I +found a double deficiency, which quickly discouraged me in this design. +For, firstly, I wanted a fund of specially learned and classical +culture; and next, I was generally deficient in the preparatory studies +necessary for the higher branches of natural science. The amount of +interest in their work shown by university students was, at the same +time, not at all serious enough to attract me to such a career. + +I soon perceived a double truth: first, that a man must be early led +towards the knowledge of nature and insight into her methods--that is, +he must be from the first specially trained with this object in view; +and next, I saw that a man, thus led through all the due stages of a +life-development should in order to be quite sure to accomplish in all +steadiness, clearness, and certainty his aim, his vocation, and his +destiny, be guarded from the very beginning against a crowd of +misconceptions and blunders. Therefore I determined to devote myself +rather to the general subject of the education of man. + +Though the splendid lectures I heard on mineralogy, crystallography, +geology, etc., led me to see the uniformity of Nature in her working, +yet a higher and greater unity lay in my own mind. To give an example, +it was always most unsatisfactory to me to see form developed from a +number of various ground-forms. The object which now lay before my +efforts and my thought was to bring out the higher unity underlying +external form in such a self-evident shape that it should serve as a +type or principle whence all other forms might be derived. But as I held +the laws of form to be fixed, not only for crystals, but also just as +firmly for language, it was more particularly a deep philosophical view +of language which eventually absorbed my thoughts. Again, ideas about +language which I had conceived long ago in Switzerland crowded before my +mind. It seemed to me that the vowels _a_, _o_, _u_, _e_, _i_, _ae_, +_au_, _ei_, resembled, so to speak, force, spirit, the (inner) subject, +whilst the consonants symbolised matter, body, the (outer) object. But +just as in life and in nature all opposites are only relatively opposed, +and within every circle, every sphere, both opposites are found to be +contained, so also in language one perceives within the sphere of +speech-tones the two opposites of subject and object. For example, the +sound _i_ depicts the absolute subject, the centre, and the sound _a_ +the absolute material object; the sound _e_ serves for life as such, for +existence in general; and _o_ for individual life, for an existence +narrowed to itself alone. + +Language, not alone as the material for the expression of thought, but +also as a type or epitome of all forms and manifestations of life, +appeared to me to underlie the universal laws of expression. In order to +learn these laws thoroughly, as exemplified in the teaching of the +classical languages, I now returned again to the study of these latter, +under the guidance of a clever teacher; and I began to strike out the +special path which seemed to me absolutely necessary to be followed in +their acquisition. + +From this time onwards I gave all my thoughts to methods of education, +whereto I was also further incited by some keen critical lectures on the +history of ancient philosophy. These again afforded me a clear +conviction of the soundness of my views of Nature and of the laws of +human development. + +Through my work at the dynamical, chemical, and mathematical aspects of +Nature I came once more upon the consideration of the laws of number, +particularly as manifested through figures; and this led me to a +perfectly fresh general view of the subject--namely, that number should +be regarded as horizontally related.[84] That way of considering the +subject leads one to very simple fundamental conceptions of arithmetic, +which, when applied in practice, prove to be as accurate as they are +clear. The connection of these (dynamical and arithmetical) phenomena +was demonstrably apparent to me; since arithmetic may be considered, +firstly, as the outward expression of the manifestation of force, +secondly (in its relationship to man), as an example of the laws of +human thought. + +On all sides, through nature as well as through history, through life as +well as through science (and as regards the latter through pure science +as well as through the applied branches), I was thus encountered and +appealed to by the unity, the simplicity, and the unalterably necessary +course, of human development and human education. I became impelled by +an irresistible impulse towards the setting forth of that unity and +simplicity, with all the force, both of my pen and of my life, in the +shape of an educational system. I felt that education as well as science +would gain by what I may call a more human, related, affiliated, +connected treatment and consideration of the subjects of education. + +I was led to this conviction on another ground, as follows:--Although my +friends Langethal, Middendorff, and Bauer served with me all through the +war in the same corps, and even in the same battalion, we were a great +deal apart towards the close of the campaign, especially at the time we +were quartered in the Netherlands, so that I, at all events, at the +disbanding of the corps, knew not whither the others had gone. It was, +therefore, an unexpected pleasure when, after a while, I found them all +at Berlin again. My friends pursued their theological studies with +earnestness, and I my natural science; therefore, at first we came +little into contact with one another. + +So passed several months, when suddenly life threw us closer together +again. This came about through the call to arms in 1815. We all enlisted +again together as volunteers. On account of our previous service, and by +royal favour, we were at once promoted to officer's rank, and each one +was appointed to a regiment. However, there was such a throng of +volunteers that it was not necessary for any State officials to be +called upon to leave their posts, or for students to interrupt their +studies, and we therefore received counter-orders commanding us to stay +at home. Middendorff, who felt sure of his speedy departure for the +army, preferred not to take lodgings for the short time of his stay in +Berlin, and as there was room enough in mine for us both, he came and +stayed with me. Yet we still seemed to draw very little closer together +at first, because of the diversity of our pursuits; but soon a bond of +union wove itself again, which was all the stronger on that very +account. Langethal and Middendorff had endeavoured to secure a +sufficiency for their support at the university by taking private +tutorships in families, making such arrangements as that their +university studies should not be interfered with. In the beginning of +their work all seemed simple and easy, but they soon came upon +difficulties both as regards the teaching and the training of the +children entrusted to them. As our former conversations had so often +turned upon these very subjects they now came to me to consult me, +especially about mathematical teaching and arithmetic, and we set apart +two hours a week, in which I gave them instruction on these matters. +From this moment our mutual interchange of thought again became animated +and continuous. + + * * * * * + +Here the autobiography breaks off abruptly. Herr Wichard Lange had some +trouble in deciphering it from Froebel's almost unreadable rough draft, +and here and there he had even to guess at a word or so. Froebel had +intended to present this letter to the Duke of Meiningen at the close of +1827, when the negotiations began to be held about a proposed National +Educational Institution at Helba, to be maintained by the duke, after +the similar proposal made to the Prince of Rudolstadt for Quittelsdorf +earlier in the year had broken down. It is not known whether the present +draft was ever finished, properly corrected, and polished into permanent +form, nor whether it was ever delivered to the duke. It is highly +probable that we have here all that Froebel accomplished towards it. It +may be added that soon after Froebel's repeated plans and drafts for the +Helba Institution had culminated in the final extensive well-known plan +of the spring of 1829, the whole scheme fell through, from the jealousy +of the prince's advisers, who feared Froebel's influence too much to +allow him ever to get a footing amongst them. + +Another fragment of autobiography, going on to a further period of his +life, occurs in a long letter to the philosopher Krause,[85] dated +Keilhau, 24th March, 1828, in reply to an article written by Krause five +years before (1823) in Oken's journal, the well-known _Isis_[86] in +which article Krause had found fault with Froebel's two explanatory +essays on Keilhau, written in 1822, separately published, and appearing +also in the _Isis_, because Keilhau was there put forward as "an +educational institution for all Germany" (Allgemeine Deutsche +Erziehungs-Anstalt), whereas Krause desired it should rather style +itself "a German institution for universal culture" (Deutsche Anstalt +fuer Allgemeine menschliche Bildung). The rapid growth of Keilhau gave +Froebel at the time no leisure for controversy. In 1827 began the cruel +persecutions which eventually compelled him to leave Keilhau. Now +whenever Froebel was under the pressure of outward difficulty, he always +sought for help from within, and from his inward contemplation derived +new courage and new strength to face his troubles. Out of such musings +in the present time of adversity the long-awaited reply to Krause at +length emerged. The disputative part, interesting in itself, does not +here concern us. We pass at once to the brief sketch of his life +contained in later parts of the letter, omitting what is not +autobiographical. The earlier of these passages relate more succinctly +the events of the same period already more fully described in the letter +to the Duke of Meiningen; but we think it better to print the passages +in full, in spite of their being to a great extent a repetition of what +has gone before. Certain differences, however, will be found not +unworthy of notice. + +The Krause letter succeeded the other and more important letter (to the +Duke of Meiningen) by some few months. Its immediate outcome was a warm +friendship between Krause and Froebel; the latter, with Middendorff as +his companion, journeying to Goettingen to make the philosopher's +personal acquaintance, in the autumn of 1828. Long discussions on +education took place at this interesting meeting, as we know from +Leonhardi, Krause's pupil. Krause made Froebel acquainted with the works +of Comenius, amongst other things, and introduced him to the whole +learned society of Goettingen, where he made a great, if a somewhat +peculiar, impression. + + + + +PART OF FROEBEL'S LETTER TO KRAUSE, DATED KEILHAU, 24TH MARCH, 1828. + + +... You have enjoyed, without doubt, unusual good fortune in having +pursued the strict path of culture. You have sailed by Charybdis without +being swallowed up by Scylla.[87] But my lot has been just the reverse. + +As I have already told you in the beginning of this letter, I was very +early impressed with the contradictions of life in word and deed--in +fact, almost as soon as I was conscious of anything, living as a lonely +child in a very narrowed and narrowing circle. A spirit of +contemplation, of simplicity, and of childlike faith; a stern, sometimes +cruel, self-repression; a carefully-fostered inward yearning after +knowledge by causes and effects, together with an open-air life amidst +Nature, especially amidst the world of plants, gradually freed my soul +from the oppression of these contradictions. Thus, in my tenth and +eleventh years, I came to dream of life as a connected whole without +contradictions. Everywhere to find life, harmony, freedom from +contradictions, and so to recognise with a keener and clearer perception +the life-unity after which I dimly groped, was the silent longing of my +heart, the mainspring of my existence. But the way thither through the +usual school course, all made up of separate patches, considering things +merely in their outward aspect, and connected by mere arbitrary +juxtaposition, was too lifeless to attract me; I could not remember +things merely put together without inner connection, and so it came +about that after two of my elder brothers had devoted themselves to +study, and because my third brother showed great capacity for study +also, my own education was narrowed; but so much the more closely did a +loving, guiding providence bind my heart in communion with Nature.[88] + +In silent, trustful association with Nature and my mathematics, I lived +for several years after my confirmation. In the latter part of the time +my duties led me towards the study of natural laws, and thus towards the +perception of the unity so often longed for in soul and spirit, and now +at last gradually becoming clear from amidst the outwardly clashing +phenomena of Nature.[89] + +At last I could no longer resist the craving for knowledge which I felt +within me. I thrust on one side all the ordinary school-learning which I +utterly failed to appropriate in its customary disconnected state (it +was meant only to be learned by rote, and this I never could recognise +as the exclusive condition of a really comprehensive culture of the +human mind), and I went up in the middle of my eighteenth year to the +University of Jena. As I had been for two years past living completely +with Nature and my mathematics, and dependent upon myself alone for any +culture I might have arrived at, I came to the university much like a +simple plant of nature myself. I was at this time peculiarly moved by a +little knowledge I had picked up about the solar system, including +particularly a general conception of Kepler's laws, whereby the laws of +the spheres appealed to me on the one hand as an all-embracing, +world-encircling whole, and on the other as an unlimited +individualisation into separate natural objects. My own culture had been +hitherto left to myself, and so also now I had to select my own studies +and to choose my courses of lectures for myself. It was to be expected +that the lectures of the professors would produce a singular effect +upon me, and so they did. + +I chose as my courses natural history, physics, and mathematics, but I +was little satisfied. I seldom gained what I expected. Everywhere I +sought for a sound method deriving itself from the fundamental principle +lying at the root of the subject in hand, and afterwards summing up all +details into that unity again; everywhere I sought for recognition of +the quickening interconnection of parts, and for the exposition of the +inner all-pervading reign of law. Only a few lectures made some poor +approach to such methods, but I found nothing of the sort in those which +were most important to me, physics and mathematics. Especially repugnant +to me was the piece-meal patchwork offered to us in geometry, always +separating and dividing, never uniting and consolidating. + +I was, however, perfectly fascinated with the mathematical rules of +"combination, permutation, and variation," but unhappily I could not +give much time to their study, which I have regretted ever since. +Otherwise, what I learned from the lectures was too slight for what I +wanted, being, unluckily, altogether foreign to my nature, and more +often a mere getting of rules by heart rather than an unfolding of +principles. The theoretical and philosophical courses on various +subjects did not attract me either, something about them always kept me +at a distance; and from what I heard of them amongst my fellow-students, +I could gather that here, too, all was presented in an arbitrary +fashion, unnaturally divided, cut up, so to speak, into lifeless +morsels; so that it was useless for my inner life to seek for +satisfaction in those regions of study. But as I said above, there were +some of the lectures which fostered my interest in the inner connection +of all vital phenomena, and even helped me to trace it with some +certainty in some few restricted circles. + +But my financial position did not permit me to remain long at the +university; and as my studies were those which fitted the student for +practical professional life, though they were regarded from a higher +point of view by myself in the privacy of my own thoughts, I had to +return to ordinary every-day work, and use them as a means to earn my +living. Yet, though I lived the outward business life to all appearance, +it remained ever foreign to my nature; I carried my own world within +me, and it was that for which I cared and which I cherished. My +observation of life (and especially that of my own life, which I pursued +with the object of self-culture), joined with the love of Nature and +with mathematics to work creatively upon me; and they united to fill my +little mental world with many varied life-forms, and taught me at the +same time to regard my own existence as one member of the great +universal life. My plan of culture was very simple: it was to seek out +the innermost unity connecting the most diverse and widely-separated +phenomena, whether subjective or objective, and whether theoretical or +practical, to learn to see the spiritual side of their activity, to +apprehend their mutual relations as facts and forms of Nature, or to +express them mathematically; and, on the other hand, to contemplate the +natural and mathematical laws as founded in the innermost depths of my +own life as well as in the highest unity of the great whole, that is +indeed to regard them in their unconditioned, uncaused necessity, as +"absolute things-in-themselves." Thus did I continue without ceasing to +systematise, symbolise, idealise, realise and recognise identities and +analogies amongst all facts and phenomena, all problems, expressions, +and formulas which deeply interested me; and in this way life, with all +its varied phenomena and activities, became to me more and more free +from contradictions, more harmonious, simple, and clear, and more +recognisable as a part of the life universal. + +After I had lived for some years the isolated life I have described, +though I was engaged the whole time in ordinary professional pursuits, +all at once there broke upon my soul, in harmony with the seasons of +nature, a springtime such as I had not before experienced; and an +unexpected life and life-aim budded and blossomed in my breast. All my +inner life and life-aims had become narrowed to the circle of +self-culture and self-education. The outer life, my profession, I +carried on as a mere means of subsistence, quite apart from my real +inner self, and my sphere of operation was limited. I was driven +perforce from pillar to post till at last I had arrived where the Main +unites herself with the Rhine.[90] Here there budded and opened to my +soul one lovely bright spring morning, when I was surrounded by Nature +at her loveliest and freshest, this thought, as it were by +inspiration:--That there must exist somewhere some beautifully simple +and certain way of freeing human life from contradiction, or, as I then +spake out my thought in words, some means of restoring to man, himself, +at peace internally; and that to seek out this way should be the +vocation of my life. And yet my life, to all appearance, my studies and +my desires, belonged to my purely external vocation,[91] and to its +external citizenlike relations; and by no means to mankind at large, +either regarded in itself or in its educational needs. Therefore this +idea of mine was in such violent contrast with my actual life that it +utterly surprised me. In fact, and perhaps greatly because of this +contrast, the idea would undoubtedly have been quite forgotten, had not +other circumstances occurred to revive it. On myself and on my life at +the time it seemed to have not the slightest effect, and it soon passed +from my memory. But later on in this same journey,[92] as I climbed down +from the Wartburg, and turned round to look at the castle, there rushed +upon me once more this thought of a higher educational vocation as my +proper life-work; and again, being so far removed from my actual +external life, it only flashed upon me with a momentary effulgence an +instant, and then sank. This, unconsciously to me, and therefore quite +disregarded by me, was the real position of my inner life when I arrived +at the goal of my journey, Frankfurt, from whence my life was so soon to +develop so largely. My energies at the moment were devoted towards +attaining some definite professional position for myself.[93] But in +proportion as I began to examine my profession more closely in its +practical aspect, so did it begin to prove insufficient of itself to +satisfy me as the occupation of my life. Then there came to me the +definite purpose of living and working at my profession rather to use it +as a means to win some high benefit for mankind.[94] + +The restlessness of youth, nay, that chance, rather, which has always +lovingly guided me, threw me unexpectedly into relations with a man +whose knowledge of mankind, and whose penetrating glance into my inner +being turned me at our very first interview from the profession of an +architect to that of a teacher and an educator, two spheres of work +which had, never previously occurred to me, still less had appeared to +me as the future objects of my life.[95] But the very first time I found +myself before thirty or forty boys from nine to eleven years old, for +that was the class allotted to me to teach, I felt thoroughly at home. +In fact, I perceived that I had at last found my long-missed life +element; and as I wrote to my brother at the time, I was as well pleased +as the fish in the water, I was inexpressibly happy. Yet here from the +very first moment (and what a number of sacrifices had to be made, what +a wealth of activity was poured out!) I had to give information, advice, +and decisions on matters which hitherto I had not thought it necessary +seriously to consider, and so also here, in my new position, I soon came +to feel myself isolated, to stand alone. + +I sought counsel where I had so often found it. I looked within myself +and to Nature for help. Here my plan of culture, hitherto followed only +for my own needs, came opportunely to my assistance. When I was +consulted by others, I looked to Nature for the answer, and let Nature, +life, spirit, and law speak for themselves through me; then the answer +was not merely satisfactory. No! its simple, unhesitating confidence and +youthful freshness gladdened and quickened the inquirer. + +This was all well enough when universal human interests were concerned, +but how about matters of instruction? I could, in fact, fairly confess +that in many respects I had no title to call myself a cultured man, for +hitherto all my culture had been fragmentary or imaginative. + +Once again I found myself in conflict with my environment; for I could +not possibly torture my scholars with what I myself had refused to be +tortured with--namely, the learning by heart of disconnected rules. I +was therefore compelled to strike out fresh paths for myself, which +indeed my post rendered a delightful task; because I not only had full +liberty accorded me in this matter, but was even urged onwards in that +direction by my duty, since the institution was a model school for the +higher development of teaching. My past self-culture, self-teaching, and +self-development, and my study of Nature and of life now stood me in +good stead. + +But this letter is not intended to contain the whole history of the +development of my mind; and I will therefore pass quickly forward, just +mentioning that from this time for six years onwards, during which I +thrice completely changed the conditions of my life,[96] I held most +earnestly by this same temper of mind and this same endeavour; and +although I still always lived in isolation as to my personal inner life, +yet I was at many points in full contact with the brisk mental effort +and activity of that stirring time (1805 to 1810), as regards teaching, +philosophy, history, politics, and natural science.[97] + +But the nobler, the more varied, the more animating was the life +surrounding me, and the more I found all without me, as also all within +me, striving and tending towards harmony and unity, by so much the less +could I longer be restrained from seeking out this unity, even should it +be at the sacrifice of all that was dear to me, if need were for that. I +was impelled to seek to develop this unity all bright and living within +my own soul, and to contemplate it in definite, clear, and independent +form, so that finally I might be able to set it forth in my actual life +with sureness and certainty. + +After nine years' interval I visited the university a second time; first +(spring of 1810) at Goettingen, and then a year and a half later (autumn +of 1811) at Berlin.[98] + +I now began to pursue the study of languages. The linguistic treasures +which recent discoveries had brought us from Asia excited my deepest +interest wherever I came into contact with them. + +But in general the means of acquiring languages were too lifeless, too +wanting in connection to be of any use to me; and the effort to work +them out afresh in my own way, soon led me to a renewed study of Nature. +Nature held me henceforth so fast that for years I was chained +uninterruptedly to her study, though truly languages went on as a +side-study during the time. Yet it was not as separate entities that I +considered the phenomena I was working at; rather was it as parts of the +great whole of natural life, and this also I regarded as reposing in one +supreme unity together with all mankind; Nature and man, the two +opposite mutually casting light upon each other and mirroring each +other. + +After the German war of the spring of 1813 had interrupted my studies at +Berlin, and I had made acquaintance with a soldier's life, its need, and +its habits in Luetzow's corps, I returned in 1814 to my studies and to a +scientific public post in Berlin. The care, the arrangement, and in part +the investigation and explanation of crystals were the duties of my +office. Thus I reached at last the central point of my life and +life-aim, where productiveness and law, life, nature, and mathematics +united all of them in the fixed crystalline form, where a world of +symbols offered itself to the inner eye of the mind; for I was +appointed assistant to Weiss at the mineralogical museum of the Berlin +University.[99] + +For a long time it was my endeavour and my dearest wish to devote myself +entirely to an academical career, which then appeared to me as my true +vocation and the only solution of the riddle of my life; but the +opportunities I had of observing the natural history students of that +time, their very slight knowledge of their subject, their deficiency of +perceptive power, their still greater want of the true scientific +spirit, warned me back from this plan. On the other hand, the need of +man for a life worthy of his manhood and of his species pressed upon me +with all the more force, and, therefore, teaching and education again +asserted themselves vigorously as the chief subjects occupying my +thoughts. Consequently I was only able to keep my mind contented with +the duties of my post for two years; and, meanwhile, the stones in my +hand and under my eyes turned to living, speaking forms. The +crystal-world, in symbolic fashion, bare unimpeachable witness to me, +through its brilliant unvarying shapes, of life and of the laws of human +life, and spake to me with silent yet true and readable speech of the +real life of the world of mankind. + +Leaving everything else, sacrificing everything else,[100] I was driven +back upon the education of man, driven also to my refuge in Nature, +wherein as in a mirror I saw reflected the laws of the development of +being, which laws I was now to turn to account for the education of my +race. My task was to educate man in his true humanity, to educate man +in his absolute being, according to the universal laws of all +development.[101] Therefore, leaving Berlin, and laying down my office, +I began late in the autumn of 1816 that educational work which, though +it still takes its impulse from me and exists under my leadership, yet +in its deepest nature is self-sufficient and self-conditioned. + +Although I was not perhaps then capable of putting my convictions into +words, I at once realised this work in my own mind as comprehensive and +world-embracing in its nature, as an everlasting work to be evermore +performed for the benefit of the whole human race; yet I nevertheless +linked it, and for this very reason, to my own personal life; that is, +since I had no children of my own, I took to me my dear nephews whom I +most deeply loved, in order through them and with them to work out +blessings for my home and my native land, for Schwarzburg and Thuringia, +and so for the whole wide Fatherland itself.[102] The eternal +principles of development, as I recognised them within me, would have +it thus and not otherwise. + +Timidly, very timidly, did I venture to call my work by the title of +"German," or "Universal German" education; and, indeed, I struck that +out from one of my manuscripts, although it was precisely the name +required to start with as it expressed the broad nature of my proposed +institution. An appeal to the general public to become thorough _men_ +seemed to me too grandiose, too liable to be misunderstood, as, indeed, +in the event, it only too truly proved; but to become thorough Germans, +so I thought, would seem to them something in earnest, something worth +the striving for, especially after such hard and special trials as had +recently been endured by the German nation. + +With your penetrating judgment you quarrelled with that term "German +education;" but, after all, even the appeal to be made thorough Germans +proved to be too grandiose and liable to be misunderstood. For every one +said "German? Well, I _am_ German, and have been so from my birth, just +as a mushroom is a mushroom;[103] what, then, do I want with education +to teach me to be a thorough German?" What would these worthy people +have said, had I asked them to train themselves to become thorough men? +Now had I planned my educational institute altogether differently, had I +offered to train a special class, body-servants, footmen or housemaids, +shoemakers or tailors, tradesmen or merchants, soldiers or even +noblemen, then should I have gained fame and glory for the great +usefulness and practical nature of my institution, for certain; and +surely all men would have hastened to acknowledge it as an important +matter, and as a thing to be adequately supported by the State. I should +have been held as the right man in the right place by the State and by +the world; and so much the more because as a State-machine I should have +been engaged in cutting out and modelling other State-machines. But I--I +only wanted to train up free, thinking, independent men! Now who wants +to be, or who cares to suffer another to be, a free-thinking, +independent man? If it was folly to talk about educating persons as +Germans, what was it to talk about educating them as men? The education +of Germans was felt to be something extraordinary and farfetched; the +education of men was a mere shadow, a deceitful image, a blind +enthusiasm.[104] + +From this digression I now return, to continue my attempt at making +myself known to you, as far as is possible, in a letter; by which I mean +my real inner self, as manifested in my endeavours and my hopes. + +Permit me, therefore, to go a step nearer towards what lies deepest in +my soul, at least that of it which is communicable to another person. I +have started by stating my position from the side of knowledge, now let +me state it also from another side. My experience, especially that +gained by repeated residences at the university, had taught me beyond a +doubt that the method of education hitherto in use, especially where it +involved learning by rote, and where it looked at subjects simply from +the outside or historically, and considered then capable of +apprehension by mere exercise work, dulled the edge of all high true +attainment, of all real mental insight, of all genuine progress in +scientific culture, of self-contemplation, and thus of all real +knowledge, and of the acquisition of truth through knowledge. I might +almost go further, and say that its tendency was towards rendering all +these worthy objects impossible. + +Therefore, I was firmly convinced, as of course I still am, that the +whole former educational system, even that which had received +improvement, ought to be exactly reversed, and regarded from a +diametrically opposite point of view--namely, that of a system of +development. I answered those who kept asking what it was that I really +did want after all, with this sentence: "I want the exact opposite of +what now serves as educational method and as teaching-system in +general." I was, and am, completely convinced, that after this fashion +alone genuine knowledge and absolute truth, by right the universal +possessions of mankind, shall find once again, not alone single students +here and there, but the vast majority of all our true-hearted young men +and of our professors spreading far and wide the elements of a noble +humanised life. To bring this into a practical scheme I held to be my +highest duty, a duty which I could never evade, and one which I could +never shake off, since a man cannot shake off his own nature. + +Our greatest teachers, even Pestalozzi himself not excepted, seemed to +me too bare, too empirical,[105] and arbitrary, and therefore not +sufficiently scientific in their principles--that is, not sufficiently +led by the laws of our being; they seemed to me in no wise to recognise +the Divine element in science, to feel its worth, and to cherish it. +Therefore I thought and hoped, with the courage and inexperience of +youth, that all scientific and learned men, that the universities, in +one word, would immediately recognise the purport of my efforts, and +would strive with all their might to encourage me by word and deed. + +In this I was egregiously mistaken; nevertheless I am not ashamed of the +error. But few persons raised their voices for me or against me; and, +indeed, your article in the _Isis_ is the single sun-ray which really +generously warmed and enlightened my life and lifework. Enough! the +Universities paid no heed to the simple schoolmaster.[106] As to the +"able editors," they, in their reviews, thought very differently from +me; but why should I trouble myself further with remembering their +performances, which were written simply with the object of degrading me +and my work? They never succeeded in shaking my convictions in the +least. + +I regard the simple course of development, proceeding from analysis to +synthesis, which characterises pure reasoned thought, as also the +natural course of the development of every human being. Such a course of +development, exactly opposite to the path taken by the old-fashioned +methods of education, I now see mankind about to enter upon; nay, it has +been actually entered upon already in a few single cases, though these +cases are almost unknown and therefore unregarded; and with this new +course of development a new period is to begin, a new age for all +mankind, and therefore in the higher inner sense a new world; a world, +perceiving and understanding, perceived and understood; a world of +crystal clearness, creating an altogether new life for science, and +carrying onward therefore the true science, that is, the science of +being, and all that is founded upon this and conditioned by this.[107] + +I may image forth the position of my educational establishment with +regard to the universities, under the figure of family life. + +In a healthily constituted family it is the mother who first cares for, +watches over, and develops the child, teaches him to "read, mark, learn, +and inwardly digest," deriving everything she teaches from its central +unity, and gathering up her teaching into that unity again. + +The father receives his son from the hand and the heart of the mother; +with his soul already full of true active life, of desire for the +knowledge of causes and effects, for the understanding of the whole and +its ramifications; with his mind open to the truth and his eyes to the +light, and with a perpetually nourished yearning for creative activity, +able to observe while building up, and to recognise while taking apart; +such in himself and his surroundings, always active, creative, full of +thought and endeavour, does the father receive his son in his home, to +train and teach him for the wider life outside. Thus should it be with +my educational institute and the universities; as regards the growth and +development of man I only desire to take the place of the silently +working, tenderly cherishing mother. + +The life, the will, the understanding, these three must form the common +chord or triad of the harmony of human life, now one tone, now another, +now two of the three, rising powerfully above the rest. But where these +tones are separate and inharmonious there they work to discord, as we +see but too clearly in daily life:-- + + "Wrestling with life and with death, suspended between them we + hang." + +In whatever family this chord is from the first set sweetly in tune, its +pure concords uniting to form the fundamental harmony of existence, +there all the hobgoblins of ordinary life, which even yet often unite to +annoy us, will be driven far away, there will joy and peace perpetually +inhabit, there will heaven descend to earth and earth rise up to heaven; +to a heaven, moreover, as full of contentment, as responsive to every +yearning of the soul as ever the Church has painted. + +But since all true and earnest life must arise from and return to the +ideal life, to life in itself, so must a school of development, which is +to lead men, by means of their ordinary life, towards that higher life, +be itself a true school of religious training in the most comprehensive +sense of the word. + +Man ought not to be contented with teaching merely directed to satisfy +his needs as a child of earth, but must demand and receive from +education a true foundation, a creative, satisfying preparation for all +the grades of development of nature and the world which mankind +encounters, and for the everlasting here and beyond of each new moment +of existence, for the everlasting rest, the everlasting activity, the +everlasting life in God. + +As, however, it is only as a Christian, be he consciously or +unconsciously so, baptised or unbaptised, taking the Christian name or +rejecting it, that he can think and act after this fashion, you can see +at once the reason why my system of education feels itself to be, and in +fact claims to be, an education after the true spirit, and following the +precepts of Jesus Christ. + +Through love, mutual faith, and a common aim towards acquiring, +manifesting, and acting out knowledge, there has grown up round me a +little company of men bound together by beautiful human bonds, the like +of which you would with difficulty find elsewhere. In your last letter +you desired to have some account of these friends and members of my +household. I will describe them for you. + +But if my account is to be anything more than a lifeless list of names, +and if, though it cannot be the closely-branched tree of life which +actually exists, it is at least to come as near it as a garland or a +nosegay to the tree, you must permit me to go back a little into my past +life; for out of the self-same spirit, whence arose my own endeavours +and which gave its direction to my own life, arose also the circle of +those friends who are now so closely united with me. + +The German war of 1813, in which so much seed-corn was sowed that +perhaps only the smaller part of it has yet sprung up, to say nothing of +blossoming and fruitage, sowed also the seed whence sprang the first +beginnings of our association, and of our harmonious circle. In April +1813 Jahn led me and other Berlin students to meet my future comrades in +arms, Luetzow's "Black Troop;" we went from Berlin to Dresden, and thence +for the most part to Leipzig. On this march Jahn made me acquainted +before we reached Meissen with another Berlin student, Heinrich +Langethal, of Erfurt, as a fellow-countryman of mine; and Langethal +introduced me to his friend and fellow-student in theology, Middendorff, +of Brechten, near Dortmund.[108] + +A wonderfully lovely spring evening spent together by the friendly +shores of Elbe, and a visit to the magnificent Cathedral of Meissen, +brought me nearer to these and other comrades; but it was the pleasant +banks of Havel at Havelberg, the charming situation of the grand +cathedral, the "Rhine Travels" of Georg Forster, a common love for +nature, and above all a common eager yearning for higher culture that +bound us three for ever together.[109] + +The war in all its exhilaration and depression, its privation and +pleasure, its transient and its permanent aspects, flowed on; sometimes +nearer to us, sometimes further away. In August 1814 I was released from +service, and returned to Berlin, there to enter upon the post[110] at +the University Museum, which I have already mentioned. + +Soon after, quite unexpectedly, I ran against my friends again, who had +come back to Berlin to finish their studies. After being somewhat +separated by the nature of our work, they as eagerly studying theology +as I did natural science, our common need and inner aspiration brought +us once more together. They had taken some private teaching, and were +frequently driven to seek my counsel and instruction by the difficulties +of their new position. When the war broke out afresh in 1815, +Middendorff had been living for several months previously with me as +room companion. Thus had life thrown us closely together, so that I +could see each one exactly as he was, in all his individuality, with his +qualities and his deficiencies, with what he could contribute, and what +he would have to receive from others. + +In October 1816 I left my post, and quitted Berlin, without as yet +confiding to any one exactly what outward aim I had in view, simply +saying that I would write and give some account of myself as soon as I +had found what I set out to seek. In November of the same year my dearly +loved brother,[111] the eldest now living, whom I made my confidant so +far as that was possible, and who was at that time a manufacturer at +Osterode in the Harz district, gave me his two sons to educate. They +were his only sons, though not his only children; two boys of six and +eight years old respectively. With these boys I set out for a village on +the Urn called Griesheim, and there I added to my little family, first +two, then a third, that is, altogether three other nephews, the orphan +sons of my late dearest brother,[112] he who had always best sympathised +with me through life. He had been minister at Griesheim, and his widow +still lived there. He had died of hospital fever in 1813, just after the +cessation of the war. I reckon, therefore, the duration of my present +educational work from November 16th, 1816. + +Already I had written from Osterode to Middendorff at Berlin, inviting +him and Langethal to join me and help in working out a system of life +and education worthy of _man_. It was only possible for Middendorff to +reach me by April 1817, and Langethal could not arrive until even the +following September. The latter, however, sent me, by Middendorff, his +brother, a boy of eleven years old;[113] so that I now had six pupils. +In June of the same year (1817) family reasons caused me to move from +Griesheim to this place, Keilhau.[114] Next came other pupils also, with +Langethal's arrival in September. My household was growing fast, and yet +I had no house of my own. In a way only comprehensible to Him Who knows +the workings of the mind, I managed by November to get the school that I +now occupy built as a frame-house, but without being in possession of +the ground it stood on. + +I pass over the space of a year, which was nevertheless so rich in +experiences of trouble and joy, of times when we were cast down, and +other times when we were lifted up, that its description would easily +fill many times the space even of this long letter. In June of the +following year I became in the most remarkable way possessor of the +little farm which I still hold, in Keilhau, and thus for the first time +possessor also of the land upon which the schoolhouse had already been +erected.[115] As yet there were no other buildings there. + +In September 1818 I brought to the household, still further increased, +and now so rich with children and brothers, its _housewife_, in the +person of a lady whom a like love of Nature and of childhood with my +own, and a like high and earnest conception of education, as the +preparation for a life worthy of man, had drawn towards me. She was +accompanied by a young girl whom she had some time before adopted as a +daughter, and who now came with her to assist her in the duties of the +household.[116] + +We had now a severe struggle for existence for the whole time up to +1820. With all our efforts we never could get the school house enlarged; +other still more necessary buildings had to be erected first, under +pressing need for them.[117] In the year 1820, on Ascension Day, my +brother from Osterode, whose two sons were already my pupils, came to +join me with his whole family and all his possessions; urged by his +love for his boys, and a wish to help in the advancement of my life's +purpose. As my brother, beyond the two sons I have mentioned, had three +daughters, my family was increased by five persons through his +arrival.[118] + +The completion of the school-house was now pushed on with zeal; but it +was 1822 before we got it finished. Our life from this point becomes so +complex that it is impossible to do more than just mention what applies +to the Association formed by our still united members. + +In 1823, Middendorff's sister's son Barop, till then a divinity +student in Halle, visited us; and he was so impressed by the whole +work that he was irresistibly driven soon afterwards to join us in our +life-task.[119] Since 1823, with the exception of such breaks as his +work in life demanded, he has been uninterruptedly one of our community, +sharing in our work. At this moment[120] he is in Berlin, serving his +one year with the colours as a volunteer, and devoting what time he has +to spare, to earnest study, especially that of natural science. We hope +to have him back with us next spring. In the autumn of 1825 Langethal +became engaged to my wife's adopted daughter, who had come with her from +Berlin; and Middendorff became engaged to my brother's eldest daughter. +Ascension Day 1826 was the wedding-day for both couples. Heaven blessed +each marriage with a daughter, but took back to itself the little one of +Langethal. + +Still another faithful colleague must I remember here, Herr Carl from +Hildburghausen, who has been since New Year's Day 1825 a member of our +Institute, his particular work being to teach instrumental music and +singing. He lives and works in the true spirit of the Institute, and is +bound up heart and soul with its fortunes.[121] Of other teachers, who +have assisted us in the Institute for greater or less time, I need not +speak; they never properly belonged to our circle. Amongst all the +specially associated members of our little band, not one breach has +occurred since the beginning of our work. I would I could feel that I +had accomplished what I have aimed at in this letter--namely, to make +you acquainted with the inner deep seated common life which really +binds together the members composing our outwardly united association; +although it has only been feasible rather to suggest by implication the +internal mental phenomena of the external bonds of union than properly +to indicate them and to set them clearly forth. + + * * * * * + +This ends the autobiographical part of the Krause letter. Here and +there in the footnotes the present editors, profound admirers of the +great master, have ventured to criticise frankly the inordinate belief +in himself which was at once Froebel's strength, and his weakness. +On the one hand, his noble and truly gigantic efforts were only made +possible by his almost fanatical conviction in his principles and in +his mission. On the other hand, this dogmatic attitude made it very +difficult to work with him, for persons of any independence of mind. +He could scarcely brook discussion, never contradiction. This is most +characteristically shown by a fragment of Froebel's dated 1st April, +1829, as follows:-- + +"I consider my own work and effort as _unique_ in all time, as +_necessary_ in itself, and as the _messenger of reformation_ for all +ages, working forwards and backwards, offering and giving to mankind all +that it needs, and all that it perpetually seeks on every side. I have +no complaint to make if others think otherwise about it; I can bear with +them;[122] I can even, if need be, live with them, and this I have +actually done; but I can share no life-aim with them, they and I have no +_unity_ of purpose in life. It is not I, it is they who are at fault +herein; I do not separate myself from them, they withdraw themselves +from me." + +To get a view of Froebel's work from the practical side, so as to +supplement the account we have received from Froebel himself as to the +origination and development of the principles upon which that work was +based, we have selected a sketch by Barop entitled "Critical Moments in +the Froebel Community;" written for Dr. Lange's edition by Barop (then +the principal and proprietor of Keilhau) about the year 1862. + + + + +CRITICAL MOMENTS IN THE FROEBEL COMMUNITY. + +Under this heading Barop writes as follows:-- + +About 1827 we were in an unusually critical position. You know how +little means we had when we began to create our Institution.[123] +Middendorff had sacrificed his entire inheritance from his father, but +the purchase of the ground and the erection of necessary buildings +called for considerable sums, so that Middendorff's addition to the +capital had disappeared like drops of water falling on a hot stone. +My father-in-law, Christian Ludwig Froebel, had later on come forward +and placed his entire fortune unconditionally in the hands of his +brother,[124] but even this sacrifice was not sufficient to keep away +care and want from the door. My own father was a man of means, but he +was so angry at my joining the Froebel community at Keilhau[125] that he +refused me any assistance whatever. Mistrust surrounded us on all sides +in these early years of our work; open and concealed enmities assailed +us both from near and far, and sought to embitter our lot and to nip our +efforts in the bud. None the less for this, the institution blossomed +quick and fair; but later on, through the well-known persecution +directed against associations of students, it was brought to the verge +of ruin, for the spirit of 1815 was incarnate within it, and it was this +spirit which at the time (about 1827) was the object of the extremest +irritation.[126] It would carry me too far were I to attempt to give a +complete account of these things. At times it really seemed as if the +devil himself must be let loose against us. The number of our pupils +sank to five or six, and as the small receipts dwindled more and more, +so did the burden of debt rise higher and higher till it reached a giddy +height. Creditors stormed at us from every side, urged on by lawyers who +imbrued their hands in our misery. Froebel would run out at the back +door and escape amongst the hills whenever dunning creditors appeared. +Middendorff, and he alone, generally succeeded in quieting them, a +feat which might seem incredible to all but those who have known the +fascination of Middendorff's address. Sometimes quite moving scenes +occurred, full of forbearance, trustfulness, and noble sentiment, on the +part of workmen who had come to ask us for their money. A locksmith, for +instance, was strongly advised by his lawyer to "bring an action against +the scamps," from whom no money was to be got, and who were evidently on +the point of failure. The locksmith indignantly repudiated the insult +thus levelled against us, and replied shortly that he had rather lose +his hard-earned money than hold a doubt as to our honourable conduct, +and that nothing was further from his thoughts than to increase our +troubles. Ah! and these troubles were hard to bear, for Middendorff had +already married, and I followed his example. When I proposed for my +wife, my future father-in-law and mother-in-law[127] said, "You surely +will not remain longer in Keilhau?" I answered, "Yes! I do intend to +remain here. The idea for which we live seems to me to be in harmony +with the spirit of the age, and also of deep importance in itself; and I +have no doubt but that men will come to believe in us because of our +right understanding of this idea, in the same way that we ourselves +believe in the invisible." As a matter of fact, none of us have ever +swerved one instant from the fullest belief in our educational mission, +and the most critical dilemma in the times we have passed through has +never revealed one single wavering soul in this little valley. + +When our distress had risen to its highest pitch, a new and unexpected +prospect suddenly revealed itself.[128] Several very influential friends +of ours spoke to the Duke of Meiningen of our work. He summoned Froebel +to him, and made inquiries as to his plans for the future. Froebel +laid before him a plan for an educational institute,[129] complete in +every particular, which we had all worked at in common to draw up, in +which not only the ordinary "learned" branches of education but also +handicrafts, such as carpentering, weaving, bookbinding, tilling the +ground and so on were used as means of culture. During half the school +hours studies were to be pursued, and the other half was to be occupied +by handiwork of one kind or another. This work was to give opportunities +for direct instruction; and above all it was so planned as to excite in +the mind of the child a necessity for explanations as well as to gratify +his desire for creativeness and for practical usefulness. The awakening +of this eager desire for learning and creative activity, was one of the +fundamental thoughts of Friedrich Froebel's mind. The object-teaching +of Pestalozzi seemed to him not to go far enough; and he was always +seeking to regard man not only as a receptive being, but a creative, and +especially as a productive one. We never could work out our ideas in +Keilhau satisfactorily, because we could not procure efficient technical +teaching; and before all things we wanted the pupils themselves. But now +by the help of the Duke of Meiningen our keenest hopes seemed on the +point of gratification. The working out of the plan spoken of above, led +us to many practical constructions in which already lay the elements of +the future Kindergarten occupations. These models are now scattered far +and wide, and indeed are for the most part lost; but the written plan +has been preserved. + +The Duke of Meiningen was much pleased with Froebel's explanations +of this plan, and with the complete and open-hearted way in which +everything was laid before him. A proposition was now made that Froebel +should receive the estate of Helba with thirty acres of land, and a +yearly subsidy of 1,000 florins.[130] In passing it may be noticed that +Froebel was consulted by the duke as to the education of the hereditary +prince. Froebel at once said outright that no good would be done for the +future ruler if he were not brought up in the society of other boys. The +duke came to his opinion, and the prince was actually so taught and +brought up. + +When Froebel came back from Meiningen[131] the whole community was +naturally overjoyed; but their joy did not last very long. A man of +high station in Meiningen who was accustomed to exercise a sort of +dictatorship in educational matters, as he was the right-hand man of the +prince in such things, a man also who had earned an honourable place in +literature (of which no one surely would seek to deprive him), feared +much lest the elevation of Froebel should injure his own influence. We +were therefore, all of a sudden, once again assailed with the meanest +and most detestable charges, to which our unfortunate position at +Keilhau lent a convenient handle. The duke received secret warnings +against us. He began to waver, and in a temporising way sent again to +Froebel, proposing that he should first try a provisional establishment +of twenty pupils as an experiment. Froebel saw the intention in the +duke's mind, and was thrown out of humour at once; for when he suspected +mistrust he lost all hope, and immediately cast from his mind what a +few hours before had so warmly encouraged him. Therefore Froebel at +once broke off all negotiations, and set out for Frankfurt, to discuss +the work at Keilhau with his friends; since after so many troubles he +had almost begun to lose faith in himself. Here by chance he met the +well-known musical composer Schnyder, from Wartensee. He told this +gentleman of the events which had just occurred, talked to him of +his plans and of our work at Keilhau, and exercised upon him that +overpowering influence which is the peculiar property of creative +minds. Schnyder saw the value of his efforts, and begged him to set +up an educational establishment in his castle on the Wartensee, in +Switzerland.[132] Froebel hurriedly seized with joy the hand thus held +out to him, and at once set off for Wartensee with his nephew, my +brother-in-law Ferdinand. + +There Friedrich and Ferdinand Froebel had already been living and +working some little time when I was asked by the rest of the community +who still remained at Keilhau to go and see for myself exactly how they +were getting on in Switzerland. With ten thalers[133] in my pocket, and +in possession of one old summer coat, which I wore, and a threadbare +frock-coat, which I carried over my arm, I set off on "Shanks's +mare"[134] to travel the whole way. If I were to go into details as to +what I went through on that journey, I should probably run the risk of +being charged with gross exaggeration. Enough, I got to my destination, +and when I asked in the neighbourhood about my friends and their doings, +I learned from every one that there was nothing further to say against +"the heretics," than that they were heretics. A few peasant children +from the neighbourhood had found their way to them, but no one came to +them from any distance, as had been reckoned upon from the first by +Froebel as a source of income. The ill-will of the clergy, which began +to show itself immediately the institution was founded, and which became +stronger as the footing of our friends grew firmer, was able to gather +to itself a following sufficient to check any quick growth of our +undertaking. Besides, the basis for such an establishment was not to be +found at Wartensee. Schnyder had, indeed, with a generosity never too +greatly to be admired and praised, made over to us his castle and all +its furniture, his plate, his splendid library,--in short, all that was +in or around the castle was fully at our disposition; but he would +permit no new buildings or alterations of any sort, and as the rooms +assigned to us were in no way suitable for our use, it was evident that +his generous support must be regarded as only a temporary and passing +assistance. We perceived the evil of our situation in all its keenness, +but we saw no way out of the difficulty. + +In a most remarkable way there dawned upon us a new prospect at the very +moment when we least expected it. We were sitting one day in a tavern +near Wartensee, and talking of our struggles with some strangers +who happened to be there. Three travellers were much interested in +our narrative. They gave themselves out as business people from +Willisau,[135] and soon informed us that they had formed the notion of +trying to get some assistance for us, and our enterprise for their +native town. This they actually did. We received an invitation from +twenty associated well-to-do families in Willisau to remove our +school there, and more fully to work out our plans amongst them. The +association had addressed the cantonal authorities, and a sort of castle +was allotted provisionally to us. About forty pupils from the canton at +once entered the school, and now we seemed at last to have found what we +had so long been seeking. But the priests rose up furiously against us +with a really devilish force. We even went in fear of our lives, and +were often warned by kind-hearted people to turn back, when we were +walking towards secluded spots, or had struck along the outlying paths +amongst the mountains. To what abominable means this spirit of bigotry +resorted, the following example may serve to show. + +In Willisau a church festival is held once a year, in which a +communion-wafer is shown, miraculously spotted with blood. The drops of +blood were believed by the people to have been evoked from the figure +of Jesus by the crime of two gamblers; who, having cursed Jesus, flung +their sword at him, whereupon the devil appeared. As "God be with +us"[136] seized the villains by the throat, a few drops of blood +trickled from Jesus' wounds. To prevent others, therefore, from +falling in a like way into the power of the arch-deceiver, a yearly +commemorative festival is held at Willisau. The wafer is shown as a +warning to devout people, who flock in crowds from all parts of the +neighbourhood to join in the procession which closes the ceremony. We +felt of course compelled to attend, and as we wished to take our part, +we offered to lead the singing. I feared an outbreak, and I earnestly +implored my friends to keep quiet under any circumstances, and whatever +happened, to give no pretext for any excitement. Our singing was +finished, when in the place of the expected preacher, suddenly there +appeared a blustering, fanatical Capuchin monk. He exhausted himself in +denunciations of this God-forsaken, wicked generation, sketched in +glaring colours the pains of hell awaiting the accursed race, and then +fell fiercely upon the alarmed Willisauers, upbraiding them, as their +worst sin, with the fostering of heretics in their midst, the said +"heretics" being manifestly ourselves. Fiercer and fiercer grew +his threats, coarser and coarser his insults against us and our +well-wishers, more and more horrible his pictures of the flames of hell, +into grave danger of which the Willisauers, he said, had fallen by their +awful sin. Froebel stood as if benumbed, without moving a muscle, or +changing a feature, exactly in face of the Capuchin, in amongst the +people; and we others also looked straight before us, immovable. The +parents of our pupils, as well as the pupils themselves, and many +others, had already fled midway in the monk's Jeremiad. Every one +expected the affair to end badly for us; and our friends, outside the +church, were taking precautions for our safety, and concerting measures +for seizing the monk who was thus inciting the mob to riot. We stood +quite still all the time in our places listening patiently to the close +of the Capuchin's tirade: "Win, then, for yourselves an everlasting +treasure in heaven." shouted he, "bring this misery to an end, and +suffer the wretched men to remain no longer amongst you. Hunt the wolves +from the land, to the glory of God and the rage of the devil. Then will +peace and blessing return, and great joy in heaven with God, and on +earth with those who heartily serve Him and His saints. Amen." Hardly +had he uttered the last word than he disappeared through a side door +and was no more seen. As for us, we passed quietly through the staring +and threatening mob. No hand was raised against us at that moment, but +danger lay about us on every side, and it was no pleasure to recognise +the fact that the sword of Damokles always hung by a hair over our +head. Feeling very uneasy at our insecure condition, I was sent, on the +part of the rest, to the authorities of the canton, especially to Abbe +Girard,[137] and the mayor, Eduard Pfyffer, to beg that they would +provide for our safety with all the means in their power. On my way I +was recognised by a priest for one of the newly-introduced "heretics" as +I rested a moment in an inn. The people there began to talk freely about +me, and to cast looks of hatred and contempt at me. At last, the priest +waxing bolder and bolder, accused me aloud of abominable heresy. I arose +slowly, crossed with a firm step over to the black-frocked one, and +asked him, "Do you know, sir, who Jesus Christ was, and do you hold Him +in any particular esteem?" Quite nonplussed by my firm and quiet address +he stammered out, "Certainly, He is God the Son, and we must all honour +Him and believe on Him, if we are to escape everlasting damnation." I +continued, "Then perhaps you can tell me whether Christ was a Catholic +or a Protestant?" + +The black-frock was silenced, the crowd stared, and presently began to +applaud. The priest made off, and I was left in peace. My question had +answered better than a long speech. + +In Eduard Pfyffer I found an estimable sterling man of humane and firm +character. He started from the fundamental principle that it was of +little use freeing the people from this or that special superstition, +but that we should do better by working for the future against sloth +of thought and want of independent mental character from the very +bottom--namely, by educating our young people. Therefore, he set +great store by our undertaking. And when I told him of our downcast +spirits and the absolute danger in which we lived at the moment, he +replied:--"There is only one way to ensure your safety. You must win +over the people. Work on a little longer, and then invite them all from +far and near to a public examination. If this test wins over the crowd +to your side, then, and only then, are you out of harm's reach." I went +home, and we followed this counsel. The examination was held on a lovely +day in autumn. A great crowd from several cantons flocked together, and +there appeared delegates from the authorities of Zuerich, of Bern, and +other cantons. Our contest with the clerical party, which had been +commented upon in most of the Swiss journals, had drawn all eyes upon +us. We scored a great victory with our examination. The children +developed so much enthusiasm, and answered so readily, that all were +agreeably surprised, and rewarded us with loud applause. From seven in +the morning till seven in the evening lasted this examination, closing +with games and gymnastic exercises performed by the whole school. We +rejoiced within ourselves; for our undertaking might now be regarded as +fairly floated. The institution was spoken of in the great Council of +the Canton, and most glowing speeches were delivered in our favour by +Herr Pfyffer, Herr Amrhyn, and others. The Council decided that the +castle and its outbuildings should be let to us at a very cheap rate, +and that the Capuchin who had openly incited to riot against us should +be expelled from the canton. + +A little time after this examination a deputation from Bern came +to invite Froebel to undertake the organisation of an Orphanage at +Burgdorf. Froebel suggested that he should not be restricted to teach +orphans alone in the new establishment; his request was granted, and he +then accepted the invitation. + +With this, it seemed to me, my mission in Switzerland was at an end, and +I began to long to return to Keilhau; my eldest son was now a year old, +and I had never yet seen him. Middendorff left his family, and replaced +me at Willisau, living there for four years far away from wife and +child.[138] At Keilhau I found things had improved, and the numbers had +increased most cheeringly. I determined to throw all my strength into +the work of raising the mother institution from her slough of debt. I +began by a piece of honourable swindling: and borrowed of Peter to pay +Paul, covering one debt with another, but at the same time making it +appear that we were paying our way. In this fashion our damaged credit +was restored, and as the receipts grew happily greater and greater, I +began to gain ground. Eventually I was able to send help to the other +branches of our community, to increase my help as time went on, and to +prepare a place of refuge for them if anything went wrong elsewhere. + +In Switzerland our enterprise did not develop as rapidly as we desired, +in spite of the sanction of the Council of the Canton. The institution +at Willisau gained unlimited confidence there; but the malevolent +opposition of the clerical party secretly flourished as before, and +succeeded in depriving it of all aid from more distant places. Under +these circumstances we could not attain that prosperity which so much +activity and self-sacrificing work on the part of our circle must +otherwise infallibly have brought. + +Ferdinand Froebel and Middendorff remained in Willisau. Froebel and his +wife went to Burgdorf, to found and direct the proposed Orphanage.[139] +In his capacity as Director, Froebel had to give what was called a +Repetitive Course to the teachers. In that Canton, namely, there was an +excellent regulation which gave three months' leave to the teachers once +in every two years.[140] During this leave they assembled at Burgdorf, +mutually communicated their experiences, and enriched their culture with +various studies. Froebel had to preside over the debates and to conduct +the studies, which were pursued in common. His own observations and the +remarks of the teachers brought him anew to the conviction that all +school education was as yet without a proper foundation, and, therefore, +that until the education of the nursery was reformed nothing solid and +worthy could be attained. The necessity of training gifted capable +mothers occupied his soul, and the importance of the education of +childhood's earliest years became more evident to him than ever. He +determined to set forth fully his ideas on education, which the tyranny +of a thousand opposing circumstances had always prevented him from +working out in their completeness; or at all events to do this as +regards the earliest years of man, and then to win over the world of +women to the actual accomplishment of his plans. Pestalozzi's "Mothers' +Book" (_Buch der Muetter_) Froebel would replace by a complete +theoretical and practical system for the use of women in general. An +external circumstance supervened at this point to urge him onwards. +His wife grew alarmingly ill, and the physicians prescribed complete +absence from the sharp Swiss mountain air. Froebel asked to be permitted +to resign his post, that he might retire to Berlin. The Willisau +Institution, although outwardly flourishing, was limited more and more +narrowly by the bigotry of the priests, and must evidently now be soon +given up, since the Government had passed into the hands of the Jesuit +party. Langethal and Ferdinand Froebel were nominated Directors of +Burgdorf.[141] Middendorff rejoined his family at Keilhau. Later on, +Langethal split off from the community and accepted the direction +of a girls' school in Bern (that school which, after Langethal, the +well-known Froehlich conducted); but Froebel never forgave him this step. +Ferdinand Froebel remained, till his sudden and early death, Director of +the Orphanage at Burgdorf. A public funeral, such as has never found its +equal at Burgdorf, bore witness to the amount of his great labours, and +to the general appreciation of their value. + +When Friedrich Froebel came back from Berlin, the idea of an institution +for the education of little children had fully taken shape in his mind. +I took rooms for him in the neighbouring Blankenburg.[142] Long did he +rack his brains for a suitable name for his new scheme. Middendorff and +I were one day walking to Blankenburg with him over the Steiger Pass. +He kept on repeating, "Oh, if I could only think of a suitable name for +my youngest born!" Blankenburg lay at our feet, and he walked moodily +towards it. Suddenly he stood still as if fettered fast to the spot, +and his eyes assumed a wonderful, almost refulgent, brilliancy. Then he +shouted to the mountains so that it echoed to the four winds of heaven, +"_Eureka!_ I have it! KINDERGARTEN shall be the name of the new +Institution!" + + + + + +Thus wrote Barop in or about the year 1862, after he had seen all his +friends pass away, and had himself become prosperous and the recipient +of many honours. The University of Jena made him a doctor, and the +Prince of Rudolstadt created him his Minister of Education. Froebel +slept in Liebenstein, and Middendorff at the foot of the Kirschberg in +Keilhau. They sowed and reaped not; and yet to possess the privilege of +sowing, was it not equivalent in itself to reaping a very great reward? +In any event, it is delightful to remember that Froebel, in the April +of 1852, the year in which he died (June 21st), received public honours +at the hands of the general congress of teachers held in Gotha. When +he appeared that large assembly rose to greet him as one man; and +Middendorff, too, who was inseparable from Froebel, so that when one +appeared the other was not far off, had before his death (in 1853) the +joy of hearing a similar congress at Salzungen declare the system of +Froebel to be of world-wide importance, and to merit on that account +their especial consideration and their most earnest examination. + +A few words on Middendorff, culled from Lange's account, may be +serviceable. Middendorff was to Froebel as Aaron was to Moses. Froebel, +in truth, was "slow of speech and of a slow tongue" (Exod. iv. 10), and +Middendorff was "his spokesman unto the people" (v. 16). It was the +latter's clearness and readiness of speech which won adherents for +Froebel amongst people who neither knew him nor could understand him. In +1849 Middendorff had immense success in Hamburg; but when Froebel came, +later on, to occupy the ground thus conquered beforehand, he had to +contend against much opposition, for every one missed the easy eloquence +of Middendorff, which had been so convincing. Dr. Wichard Lange came to +know Froebel when the latter visited Hamburg in the winter of 1849-50. +At this time he spent almost every afternoon and evening with him, and +held the post of editor of Froebel's _Weekly Journal_. Even after this +close association with Froebel, he found himself unable thoroughly +to go with the schemes for the education of little children, the +Kindergarten, and with those for the training of Kindergarten teachers. +"Never mind!" said Froebel, out of humour, when Lange told him this; "if +you cannot come over to my views now, you will do so in ten years' time; +but sooner or later, _come you must_!" Dr. Lange nobly fulfilled the +prophecy, and the edition of Froebel's collected works (Berlin 1862), +from which we derive the present text (and much of the notes), was his +gift of repentance to appease the wrath of the Manes of his departed +friend and master. Nor was he content with this; but by his frequent +communications to _The Educational Journal_ (_Die Rheinischen Blaetter_), +originally founded by Diesterweg, and by the Froebelian spirit which he +was able to infuse into the large boys'-school which he long conducted +at Hamburg, he worked for the "new education" so powerfully and so +unweariedly that he must be always thankfully regarded as one of the +principal adherents of the great teacher. His connection with the +Froebel community was further strengthened by a most happy marriage with +the daughter of Middendorff. + +[1] Johann Jacob Froebel, father of Friedrich, belonged to the Old +Lutheran Protestant Church. + +[2] These were four (1) August, who went into business, and died young. +(2) Christoph, a clergyman in Griesheim, who died in 1813 of the typhus, +which then overspread all central Germany, having broken out in the +over-crowded hospitals after the battle of Leipzig; he was the father of +Julius, Karl, and Theodor, the wish to benefit whom led their uncle +Friedrich to begin his educational work in Griesheim in 1816. (3) +Christian Ludwig, first a manufacturer in Osterode, and then associated +with Friedrich from 1820 onwards,--born 24th June, 1770, died 9th +January, 1851. (4) Traugott, who studied medicine at Jena, became a +medical man, and was burgomaster of Stadt-Ilm. Friedrich August Wilhelm +himself was born on the 21st April, 1782, and died on the 21st June, +1852. He had no sisters. + +[3] Karl Poppo Froebel, who became a teacher, and finally a +publisher,--born 1786; died 25th March, 1824: not to be confounded with +his nephew, Karl, son of Christoph, now living in Edinburgh. + +[4] This needs explanation. In Germany, even by strangers, children are +universally addressed in the second person singular, which carries with +it a certain caressing sentiment. Grown persons would be addressed +(except by members of their own family, or intimate friends) in the +third person plural. Thus, if one met a child in the street, one might +say, _Willst Du mit mir kommen_? (Wilt thou come with me?); whereas to +a grown person the proper form would be, _Wollen Sie mit mir kommen_? +(Will THEY--meaning, will YOU--come with me?). The mode of speech of +which Froebel speaks here is now almost obsolete, and even in his day +was only used to a person of markedly inferior position. Our sentence +would run in this case, _Will Er mit mir kommen_? (Will HE--meaning, +will YOU, John or Thomas--come with me?), and carries with it a sort of +contemptuous superciliousness, as if the person spoken to were beneath +the dignity of a direct address. It is evident, therefore, that to a +sensitive, self-torturing child like Froebel, being addressed in this +manner would cause the keenest pain; since, as he justly says, it has +the effect, by the mere form of speech, of _isolating_ the person +addressed. Such a one is not to be considered as of our family, or even +of our rank in life. + +[5] The Cantor would combine the duties of precentor (whence his title), +leading the church singing and training the choristers, with those of +the schoolmaster of the village boys' school. In large church-schools +the Cantor is simply the choir-master. The great Bach was Cantor of the +Thomas-Schule, Leipzig. + +[6] It will be remembered that this letter is addressed to the Duke of +Meiningen. + +[7] "Arise, my heart and spirit," and "It costs one much (it is a +difficult task) to be a Christian." + +[8] Christoph Froebel is here meant. He studied at the University of +Jena. + +[9] In this case Froebel's usually accurate judgment of his own +character seems at fault; his opinions being always most decided, even +to the point of sometimes rendering him incapable of fairly appreciating +the views of others. + +[10] Froebel is alluding to his undertaking the education of his brother +Christoph's sons, in November 1816, when he finally decided to devote +his life to the cause of education. + +[11] At the time Froebel was writing this autobiographical letter +(1827), and seeking thereby to enlist the Duke of Meiningen's sympathies +in his work, in order to found a fresh institution at Helba, he was +undergoing what was almost a persecution at Keilhau. All associations of +progressive men were frowned upon as politically dangerous, and Keilhau, +amongst the rest, was held in suspicion. Somewhat of this is seen in the +interesting account by Barop further on ("Critical Moments at Keilhau"). + +[12] Herr Hoffmann, a clergyman, representing the State in Church matter +for the district of Stadt-Ilm; a post somewhat analogous to that of our +archdeacon. + +[13] Equal to an English middle-class school. + +[14] The Ilm, flowing through Thuringia into the Saale, a tributary of +the Elbe. Oberweissbach is upon the Schwarza, also flowing into the +Saale. Weimar stands upon the Ilm, Jena upon the Saale. + +[15] Superintendents. The _ephors_ of ancient Sparta amongst their +duties had that of the superintendence of education, whence the German +title. + +[16] This story is not now popular, but its nature is sufficiently +indicated in the text. + +[17] Christoph and Traugott. + +[18] In Germany a _Forstmann_, or forester, if he has studied forest +cultivation in a School of Forestry, rises eventually to the position of +supervisor of forests (_Forst-meister_). The forester who does not study +remains in the inferior position. + +[19] In the German State forests, the timber, when cut down, is +frequently not transported by road, but is made to slide down the +mountain-sides by timber-shoots into the streams or rivers; it is then +made up into rafts, and so floated down to its destination. + +[20] Jussieu's natural system of botany may possibly be here alluded +to. The celebrated "Genera Plantarum" appeared in 1798, and Froebel was +at Jena in 1799. On the other hand, A.J.G. Batsch, Froebel's teacher, +professor at the university since 1789, had published in 1787-8 his +"Anleitung zur Kentniss und Geschichte der Pflanzen," 2 vols. We have +not seen this work. Batsch also published an "Introduction to the Study +of Natural History," which reached a second edition in 1805. + +[21] In justice to Froebel and his teacher, it must be remembered that +the theory of evolution was not as yet formed, and that those who dimly +sought after some explanation of the uniformity of the vertebrate plan, +which they observed, were but all too likely to be led astray. + +[22] The text (Lange, Berlin, 1862) says _meinen aeltesten Bruder_, that +is, "of my eldest brother;" but this is quite an error, whether of +Froebel or of Herr Lange we cannot at present say. As we have already +said in a footnote on p. 3, August was the eldest brother of Friedrich, +and Christoph was the eldest then living. Traugott, who was at Jena with +Friedrich, was his next older brother, youngest of the first family, +except only Friedrich himself. It is Traugott who is meant in this +passage. + +[23] "In carcer;" that is, in the prison of the university, where in the +last resort students who fail to comply with university regulations are +confined. The "carcer" still exists in German universities. It has of +course nothing to do with the ordinary prison of the town. + +[24] The Prince-Bishop of Bamberg shared in the general Napoleonic +earthquake. The domain of the bishopric went to Bavaria ultimately, the +title alone remaining to the Church. + +[25] Shared the fate of the Bamberg possessions, and of many other +principalities and small domains at that time existent; namely, +absorption under the Napoleonic _regime_ into the neighbouring States. +This went to Bavaria; see the text, later on. + +[26] Bruno, or the Over-Soul. + +[27] "General Intelligencer of the German people." + +[28] Upper Palatinate, a province in the north of Bavaria. + +[29] Herr Von Dewitz, his employer. + +[30] The Paedagogium in Halle answered somewhat to our grammar schools +with a mixture of boarders and day-scholars. It was founded by Francke +in 1712, after the ideas of the famous Basedow, and was endowed by means +of a public subscription. + +[31] These were two pamphlets by the famous patriot and poet Ernst +Moritz Arndt (1769-1860), published in 1805. + +[32] That is, Froebel realised the distinction of the subject-world from +the object-world. + +[33] That is, he signed Wilhelm Froebel instead of Friedrich Froebel, +for a time. It cannot have been for long, however. + +[34] The young man mentioned on page 39. + +[35] The pretty district bordering the river Ucker, in pleasing contrast +with the sandy plains of Brandenburg; it lies at no great distance from +Berlin, so that it forms the favourite goal for a short excursion with +the people of that arid city. + +[36] Whither Luther fled for refuge after the Diet of Worms in 1521; and +where, protected by the Elector of Saxony, he lay concealed for a year. +During this year he translated the Bible. + +[37] Held all over Protestant Germany in 1817. + +[38] Our children still in like manner "say their catechism" at +afternoon church in old-fashioned country places. + +[39] This school, still in existence up to 1865 and later, but now no +longer in being, had been founded under Gruner, a pupil of Pestalozzi, +to embody and carry out the educational principles of the latter. + +[40] There is a smaller town called Frankfurt, on the Oder. "Am Main," +or "An der Oder," is, therefore, added to the greater or the smaller +Frankfurt respectively, for distinction's sake. + +[41] He never does, for this interesting record remains a fragment. + +[42] Situate at the head of the lake of Neuchatel, but in the canton of +Vaud, in Switzerland. + +[43] Austria was not the only country alive to the importance of this +new teaching. Prussia and Holland also sent commissioners to study +Pestalozzi's system, and so did many other smaller states. The Czar +(Alexander I.) sent for Pestalozzi to a personal interview at Basel. + +[44] _Wandernde Classen._ Some of our later English schools have adopted +a similar plan. + +[45] One of Pestalozzi's teachers, to whom especially was confided the +arrangement of the arithmetical studies. + +[46] By positive instruction Froebel means learning by heart, or by +being told results; as distinguished from actual education or +development of the faculties, and the working out of results by pupils +for themselves. + +[47] This must mean the system invented by Rousseau, a modern +development of which is the Cheve system now widely used on the +Continent. In England the tonic-sol-fa notation, which uses syllables +instead of figures, but which rests fundamentally on the same +principles, is much more familiar. + +[48] _"Geht und schaut, es geht ungehuer (ungeheuer)."_ + +[49] The miserable quarrels between Niederer and Schmid, which so +distressed the later years of Pestalozzi, are here referred to. + +[50] A Consistorium in Germany is a sort of clerical council or +convocation, made up of the whole of the Established clergy of a +province, and supervising Church and school matters throughout that +province, under the control of the Ministry of Religion and Education. +No educator could establish a school or take a post in a school without +the approval of this body. + +[51] That is, the education of other minds than his own; something +beyond mere school-teaching. + +[52] _Einertabelle_; tables or formulas extending to units only; a +system embodied to a large extent in Sonnenschein's "ABC of Arithmetic," +for teaching just the first elements of the art. + +[53] Like other matters, this, too, has been left undone, as far as the +present (unfinished) letter is concerned. + +[54] _Erdkunde._ + +[55] _Recht schreiben._ + +[56] _Recht sprechen._ + +[57] One of Arndt's pamphlets, then quite new. + +[58] 1827. + +[59] He would have refused to countenance Froebel's throwing up his +engagement. + +[60] Georg Friedrich Seller (1733-1807), a Bavarian by birth, became a +highly-esteemed clergyman in Coburg. He wrote on religious and moral +subjects, and those amongst the list of his works, the most likely to be +alluded to by Froebel, are "A Bible for Teachers," "Methods of Religious +Teaching for Schools," "Religious Culture for the Young," etc. + +[61] Jean Paul Friedrich Richter (1763-1825). No doubt the celebrated +"Levana," Richter's educational masterpiece, which was published in this +same year, 1807, is here alluded to. + +[62] 1808. + +[63] This is in 1827. But the expression of his thought remained a +difficult matter with Froebel to the end of his life, a drawback to +which many of his friends have borne witness; for instance, Madame von +Marenholtz-Buelow. + +[64] Probably done with the point of a knitting needle, etc. The design +is then visible on the other side of the paper in an embossed form. + +[65] This account is dated 1827, it is always necessary to remember. + +[66] After all, the work was left to Froebel himself to do. These words +were written in 1827. The "Menschen Erziehung" of Froebel ("Education +of Man"), which appeared the year before, had also touched upon the +subject. It was further developed in his "Mutter und Koselieder" +("Mother's Songs and Games"), in which his first wife assisted him. That +appeared in 1838. In the same year was also founded the _Sonntags-Blatt_ +(_Sunday Journal_), to which many essays and articles on this subject +were contributed by Froebel. The third volume ("Paedagogik") of Dr. +Wichard Lange's complete edition of Froebel's works is largely made up +of these _Sonntags-Blatt_ articles. The whole Kindergarten system rests +mainly on this higher view of children's play. + +[67] A report that Froebel drew up for the Princess Regent of Rudolstadt +in 1809, giving a voluminous account of the theory and practice pursued +at Yverdon (Wichard's "Froebel," vol. i., p. 154). + +[68] The castle of Yverdon, an old feudal stronghold, which Pestalozzi +had received from the municipality of that town in 1804, to enable him +to establish a school and work out his educational system there. + +[69] Froebel desired to see in Rudolstadt, or elsewhere in Thuringia +(his "native land"), an institution like that of Pestalozzi at Yverdon; +and he sought to interest the Princess Regent of Rudolstadt by the full +account of Yverdon already mentioned. + +[70] This would scarcely seem probable to those who admire and love +Pestalozzi. But we must remember that religious teaching appeals so +intimately to individual sympathies that it is quite possible that what +was of vital service to many others was not of so much use to Froebel, +who was, as he frankly admits, out of harmony on many points with his +noble-hearted teacher. + +[71] That the boys' characters were immersed in an element of +strengthening and developing games as the body is immersed in the water +of a strengthening bath, seems to be Froebel's idea. + +[72] Sanskrit is here probably meant. + +[73] Hebrew and Arabic. + +[74] The comet of 1811, one of the most brilliant of the present +century, was an equal surprise to the most skilled astronomers as to +Froebel. Observations of its path have led to a belief that it has a +period of 300 years; so that it was possibly seen by our ancestors in +1511, and may be seen by our remote descendants in 2111. The appearance +of this comet was synchronous with an unusually fine vintage harvest, +and "wine of the great Comet year" was long held in great esteem. + +[75] _Geognosie._ + +[76] The Plamann School, an institution of considerable merit. Plamann +was a pupil of Pestalozzi. One of the present writers studied +crystallography later on with a professor who had been a colleague of +Froebel's in this same school, and who himself was also a pupil of +Pestalozzi. + +[77] Froebel is here symbolically expressing the longing which pervaded +all noble spirits at that time for a free and united Germany, for a +great Fatherland. The tender mother's love was symbolised by the ties of +home (Motherland), but the father's strength and power (Fatherland) was +only then to be found in German national life in the one or two large +states like Prussia, etc. It needed long years and the termination of +this period of preparation by two great wars, those of 1866 and of 1870, +to bind the whole people together, and make Germany no longer a +"geographical expression" but a mighty nation. + +[78] In the beginning of this great contest it was Prussia who declared +war against the common enemy and oppressor, Napoleon. The other German +powers, for the most part, held aloof. + +[79] The Baron von Luetzow formed his famous volunteer corps in March +1813. His instructions were to harass the enemy by constant skirmishes, +and to encourage the smaller German states to rise against the tyrant +Napoleon. The corps became celebrated for swift, dashing exploits in +small bodies. Froebel seems to have been with the main body, and to have +seen little of the more active doings of his regiment. Their favourite +title was "Luetzow's Wilde Verwegene Schaar" (Luetzow's Wild Bold Troop). +Amongst the volunteers were many distinguished men; for instance, the +poet Koerner, whose volume of war poetry, much of it written during the +campaign, is still a great favourite. One of the poems, "Luetzow's Wilde +Jagd" ("Luetzow's Wild Chase"), is of world-wide fame through the musical +setting of the great composer Weber. In June 1813 came the armistice of +which Froebel presently speaks. During the fresh outbreak of war after +the armistice the corps was cut to pieces. It was reorganised, and we +find it on the Rhine in December of the same year. It was finally +dissolved after Napoleon's abdication and exile to Elba, 20th April, and +the peace of Paris 30th May, 1814. + +[80] _Die Grafschaft Mark._ The Mark of Brandenburg (so called as being +the mark or frontier against Slavic heathendom in that direction during +the dark ages) is the kernel of the Prussian monarchy. It was in the +character of Markgraf of Brandenburg, that the Hohenzollern princes +were electors of the German Empire; their title as king was due not to +Brandenburg, but to the dukedom of Prussia in the far east (once the +territory of the Teutonic military order), which was elevated to the +rank of an independent kingdom in 1701. The title of the present Emperor +of Germany still begins "William, Emperor of Germany, King of Prussia. +Markgraf of Brandenburg," etc., etc., showing the importance attached to +this most ancient dignity. The Mark of Brandenburg contains Berlin. +Middendorff seems to have been then living in the Mark. Froebel cannot +have forgotten that by origin Wilhelm Middendorff was a Westphalian. + +[81] Of Bauer little further is to be known. He was afterwards professor +in the Frederick-William Gymnasium (Grammar School) in Berlin, but has +no further connection with Froebel's career. On the other hand, a +few words on Langethal and Middendorff seem necessary here. Heinrich +Langethal was born in Erfurt, September 3rd, 1792. He joined Froebel at +Keilhau in 1817. He was a faithful colleague of Froebel's there, and +at Willisau and Burgdorf, but finally left him at the last place, and +undertook the management of a girls' school at Bern. He afterwards +became a minister in Schleusingen, returning eventually to Keilhau. One +of the present writers saw him there in 1871. He was then quite blind, +but happy and vigorous, though in his eightieth year. He died in 1883. +Wilhelm Middendorff, the closest and truest friend Froebel ever had, +without whom, indeed, he could not exist, because each formed the +complement of the other's nature, was born at Brechten, near Dortmund, +in Westphalia, September 20th, 1793, and died at Keilhau November 27th, +1853, a little over a year after his great master. (Froebel had passed +away at Marienthal July 21st, 1852.) + +[82] "Ansichten vom Nieder Rhein, Flandern, Holland, England, Frankreich +in April, Mai, und Juni 1790" ("Sketches on the Lower Rhine, Flanders," +etc.). Johann Georg Forster (1754-1794), the author of this book, +accompanied his father, the naturalist, in Captain Cook's journey round +the world. He then settled in Warrington (England) in 1767; taught +languages, and translated many foreign books into English, etc. He left +England in 1777, and served many princes on the Continent as librarian, +historiographer, etc., amongst others the Czarina Catherine. He was +librarian to the Elector of Mainz when the French Revolution broke out, +and was sent as a deputation to Paris by the republicans of that town, +who desired union with France. He died at Paris in 1794. His prose is +considered classical in Germany, having the lightness of French and +the power of English gained through his large knowledge of those +literatures. + +[83] The Mark of Brandenburg. + +[84] It is to be regretted that Froebel has not developed this +point more fully. He speaks of "die Betrachtung des Zahlensinnes in +horizontaler oder Seiten-Richtung," and one would be glad of further +details of this view of number. We think that the full expression +of the thought here shadowed out, is to be found in the Kindergarten +occupations of mat-weaving, stick-laying, etc., in their arithmetical +aspect. Certainly in these occupations, instead of number being built up +as with bricks, etc., it is laid along horizontally. + +[85] Carl Christian Friedrich Krause, an eminent philosopher, and the +most learned writer on freemasonry in his day, was born in 1781. at +Eisenberg, in Saxony. From 1801 to 1804 he was a professor at Jena, +afterwards teaching in Dresden, Goettingen, and Munich, at which latter +place he died in 1832. + +[86] Lorenz Oken, the famous naturalist and man of science, was born at +Rohlsbach, in Swabia, 1st August, 1779. (His real name was Ockenfuss.) +In 1812 Oken was appointed ordinary professor of natural history at +Jena, and in 1816 he founded his celebrated journal, the _Isis_, devoted +chiefly to science, but also admitting comments on political matters. +The latter having given offence to the Court of Weimar, Oken was called +upon either to resign his professorship or suppress the _Isis_. He +chose the former alternative, sent in his resignation, transferred the +publication of the _Isis_ to Rudolstadt, and remained at Jena as a +private teacher of science. In 1821 he broached in the _Isis_ the idea +of an annual gathering of German _savants_, and it was carried out +successfully at Leipzig in the following year. To Oken, therefore, may +be indirectly ascribed the genesis of the annual scientific gatherings +common on the Continent, as well as of the British Association for the +Advancement of Science, which at the outset was avowedly organised after +his model. He died in 1851. + +[87] Those acquainted with the classical mythology will forgive us for +noting that Charybdis was, and is, a whirlpool on the Sicilian shore of +the Straits of Messina, face to face with some caverns under the rock of +Scylla, on the Italian shore, into which the waves rush at high tide +with a roar not unlike a dog's bark. + +[88] The peculiar dreamy boy, who by his nature was set against much of +his work, and therefore seemed but an idle fellow to his schoolmaster, +was thought to be less gifted than his brothers, and on that account +fitted not so much for study as for simple practical life. In +Oberweissbach he was set down as "moonstruck." All this is more fully +set forth in the Meiningen letter, and the footnotes to it. + +[89] This was the time when he was apprenticed to the forester in +Neuhaus, in the Thueringer Wald, and necessarily studied mathematics, +nature, and the culture of forest trees. Eyewitnesses have described him +as extremely peculiar in all his ways, even to his dress, which was +often fantastic. He was fond of mighty boots and great waving feathers +in his green hunter's-hat, etc. + +[90] _i.e._, Frankfurt. + +[91] Architecture, etc., at this time. + +[92] From Mecklenburg to Frankfurt. + +[93] _i.e._, as an architect. + +[94] His plan evidently was to use architecture, probably Gothic +architecture, as a means of culture and elevation for mankind, and not +merely to practise it to gain money. + +[95] It was in 1805 that Froebel was appointed by Gruner teacher in the +Normal School at Frankfurt. + +[96] 1. Teacher in the Model School. 2. Tutor to the sons of Herr von +Holzhausen near Frankfurt. 3. A resident at Yverdon with Pestalozzi. + +[97] Froebel was driven to Yverdon by the perusal of some of +Pestalozzi's works which Gruner had lent him. He stayed with Pestalozzi +for a fortnight, and returned with the resolve to study further with the +great Swiss reformer at some future time. In 1807, he became tutor to +Herr von Holzhausen's somewhat spoilt boys, demanded to have the entire +control of them, and for this object their isolation from their family. +The grateful parents, with whom Froebel was very warmly intimate, always +kept the rooms in which he dwelt with his pupils exactly as they were at +that time, in remembrance of his remarkable success with these boys. +Madame von Holzhausen had extraordinary influence with Froebel, and he +continued in constant correspondence with her. In 1808 Froebel and his +pupils went to Yverdon, and remained till 1810. But the philosophic +groundwork of Pestalozzi's system failed to satisfy him. Pestalozzi's +work started from the external needs of the poorest people, while +Froebel desired to found the columns supporting human culture upon +theoretically reasoned grounds and upon the natural sciences. A +remarkable difference existed between the characters of the two great +men. Pestalozzi was diffident, acknowledged freely his mistakes, and +sometimes blamed himself for them bitterly; Froebel never thought +himself in the wrong, if anything went amiss always found some external +cause for the failure, and in self-confidence sometimes reached an +extravagant pitch. + +[98] Either Froebel or his editor has made a blunder here. Froebel went +to Goettingen in July 1811 (see p. 84), and to Berlin in October 1812 +(see p. 89). + +[99] At this time, however, the symbols of the inorganic world did not +appeal to Froebel with the same force as those of the organic world. In +a letter to Madame von Holzhausen. 31st March, 1831, he writes: "It is +the highest privilege of natural forms or of natural life that they +contain agreement and perfection within themselves as a whole class, +while differing and filled with imperfection in particular individuals; +for look at the loveliest blooming fruit-tree, the sweetest rose, the +purest lily, and your eye can always detect deficiencies, imperfections, +differences in each one, regarded as a single phenomenon, a separate +bloom; and, further, the same want of perfection appears also in every +single petal: on the other hand, wherever mathematical symmetry and +precise agreement are found, _there is death_". + +[100] Not a figure of speech altogether; for Froebel did really decline +a professorship of mineralogy which was offered him at this time, in +order to set forth on his educational career. + +[101] That is, putting development into a formula-- + +Thesis-+-Antithesis + | + Synthesis. + +The true synthesis is that springing from the thesis and its opposite, +the antithesis. Another type of the formula is this-- + +Proposition-+-Counter-proposition + | + Compromise. + +Understanding by "Compromise" (_Vermittlung_) that which results from +the union of the two opposites, that which forms part of both and which +links them together. The formula expressed in terms of human life, for +example, is-- + +Father-+-Mother + | + Child. + +Philosophic readers acquainted with Hegel and his school will recognise +a familiar friend in these formulae. + +[102] Froebel travelled from Berlin to Osterode, and took with him both +his brother Christian's sons, Ferdinand and Wilhelm, to Griesheim; there +to educate them together with the three orphans of his brother +Christoph, who had died in 1813, of hospital fever, whilst nursing the +French soldiers. Of the sons of Christian, Ferdinand studied philosophy, +and at his death was director of the Orphanage founded by Froebel in +Burgdorf; Wilhelm, who showed great talent, and was his uncle's +favourite nephew, died early through the consequences of an accident, +just after receiving his "leaving certificate" from the gymnasium of +Rudolstadt. + +As regards the sons of Christoph, they were the immediate cause of +Froebel's going to Griesheim, for their widowed mother sent for her +brother-in-law to consult him as to their education. Julius, the eldest, +was well prepared in Keilhau for the active life he was afterwards +destined to live. He went from school to Munich, first, to study the +natural sciences; and while yet at the university several publications +from his pen were issued by Cotta. Later on he took an official post in +Weimar, and continued to write from time to time. Meanwhile he completed +his studies in Jena and Berlin under Karl von Ritter, the great +authority on cosmography, and under the distinguished naturalist, +Alexander von Humboldt. In 1833 he became Professor at the Polytechnic +School in Zurich; but his literary avocations eventually drew him to +Dresden. Here he was chosen Deputy to the National Assembly at Frankfurt +in 1848. After the dissolution of that Assembly, Julius Froebel, in +common with many others of the more advanced party, was condemned to +death. He escaped to Switzerland before arrest, and fled to New York. In +after life he was permitted to return to Germany, and eventually he was +appointed Consul at Smyrna. + +Karl Froebel, the next son, went to Jena also. He then took a tutorship +in England, and it was at this time (1831) that his pamphlet, "A +Preparation for Euclid," appeared. He returned to the Continent to +become Director of the Public Schools at Zuerich. He left Zuerich in 1848 +for Hamburg, where he founded a Lyceum for Young Ladies. Some years +later, when this had ceased to exist, he went again to England, and +eventually founded an excellent school at Edinburgh with the aid of his +wife; which, indeed, his wife and he still conduct. His daughters show +great talent for music, and one of them was a pupil of the distinguished +pianist, Madame Schumann (widow of the great composer). + +[103] Or, as we say, A is A. + +[104] A great deal of Froebel's irony might all too truly be still +applied to current educational work. + +[105] Empiricism--that is, _a posteriori_ investigations, based on +actual facts and not _a priori_ deductions from theories, or general +laws, did good service before Froebel's time, and will do good service +yet, Froebel notwithstanding. In Froebel's time the limits Kant so truly +set to the human understanding were overstepped on every side; Fichte, +Schelling, and Hegel were teaching, and the latter especially had +an overpowering influence upon all science. Every one constructed a +philosophy of the universe out of his own brain. Krause, the recipient +of this letter, never attained to very great influence, though had he +been in Hegel's chair he might perhaps have wielded Hegel's authority, +and there was for a long time a great likelihood of his appointment. +Meanwhile he reconstructed the university at Goettingen. Even practical +students of Nature, such as Oken, did homage to the general tendency +which had absorbed all the eager spirits of the vanguard of human +advancement, amongst them Froebel himself. We see how firmly set Froebel +was against experience-teaching, _a posteriori_ work, or, as he calls +it, empiricism. The Kantist, Arthur Schopenhauer, was not listened to, +and dwelt apart, devouring his heart in bitter silence; breaking out at +last with the dreary creed of Pessimism. + +[106] Froebel is here hardly fair. How should people know much of him as +yet? He had at this time written the following works:--(1) "On the +Universal German Educational Institute of Rudolstadt" (1822); (2) +"Continuation of the Account of the Universal German Educational +Institute at Keilhau" (1823); (3) "Christmas at Keilhau: a Christmas +Gift to the Parents of the Pupils at Keilhau, to the Friends and the +Members of the Institute" (1824); (4) "The Menschen Erziehung," the full +title of which was "The Education of Man: The Art of Education, +Instruction, and Teaching, as attempted to be realised at the Universal +Educational Institute at Keilhau, set forth by the Originator, Founder, +and Principal of the Institute, Friedrich Froebel" (1826), never +completed; (5) _Family Weekly Journal of Education for Self-culture and +the Training of Others_, edited by Friedrich Froebel, Leipzig and +Keilhau. But Froebel, in his unbusiness-like way, published all these +productions privately. They came out of course under every disadvantage, +and could only reach the hands of learned persons, and those to whom +they were really of interest, by the merest chance. Further, Froebel, as +has already abundantly appeared, was but a poor author. His stiff, +turgid style makes his works in many places most difficult to +understand, as the present translators have found to their cost, and he +was therefore practically unreadable to the general public. In his usual +self-absorbed fashion, he did not perceive these deficiencies of his, +nor could he be got to see the folly of private publication. Indeed, on +the contrary, he dreamed of fabulous sums which one day he was to +realise by the sale of his works. It is needless to add that the event +proved very much the reverse. As to criticism, it was particularly the +"able editor" Harnisch who pulled to pieces the "Menschen Erziehung" so +pitilessly on its appearance, and who is probably here referred to. + +[107] This passage may serve as a sufficient illustration of Froebel's +metaphysical way of looking at his subject. It is scarcely our habit at +the present day to regard the science of being (ontology) as a science +at all, since it is utterly incapable of verification; but it is not +difficult to trace the important truth really held by Froebel even +through the somewhat perplexing folds of scholastic philosophy in which +he has clothed it. + +[108] See the previous footnote, p. 93. + +[109] These events and situations are fully set forth in the letter to +the Duke of Meiningen, _ante._ + +[110] As mineralogist. + +[111] Christian Ludwig Froebel. + +[112] Christoph. + +[113] This younger Langethal afterwards became a Professor in the +University of Jena. + +[114] The minister's widow lost her widow's privilege of residence at +Griesheim by the death of her father, and bought a farm at Keilhau. + +[115] Froebel told his sister-in-law that he "desired to be a father to +her orphaned children." The widow understood this in quite a special and +peculiar sense, whereof Froebel had not the remotest idea. Later on, +when she came to know that Froebel was engaged to another lady, she made +over to him the Keilhau farm, and herself went to live at Volkstaedt. + +[116] This young girl, the adopted daughter of the first Madame Froebel, +was named Ernestine Chrispine, and afterwards married Langethal. +Froebel's first wife, Henrietta Wilhelmine Hoffmeister, was born at +Berlin 20th September, 1780, and was therefore thirty-eight at the time +of her marriage. She was a remarkable woman, highly cultured, a pupil of +Schleiermacher and of Fichte. Before her marriage with Froebel she had +been married to an official in the War Office, and had been separated +from him on account of his misconduct. Middendorff and Langethal knew +the family well, and had frequently spoken with Froebel about this lady, +who was admired and respected by both of them. Froebel saw her once in +the mineralogical museum at Berlin, and was wonderfully struck by her, +especially because of the readiness in which she entered into his +educational ideas. When afterwards he desired to marry, he wrote to the +lady and invited her to give up her life to the furtherance of those +ideas with which she had once shown herself to be so deeply penetrated, +and to become his wife. She received his proposal favourably, but her +father, an old War Office official, at first made objections. Eventually +she left her comfortable home to plunge amidst the privations and +hardships of all kinds abundantly connected with educational struggles. +She soon rose to great honour with all the little circle, and was deeply +loved and most tenderly treated by Froebel himself. In her willingness +to make sacrifices and her cheerfulness under privations, she set them +all an example. She died at Blankenburg in May 1839. + +[117] The expected dowry was never forthcoming, which made matters +harder. + +[118] Christian had already assisted his brother at Griesheim, and +before that, to the utmost of his power. The three daughters were (1) +Albertine, born 29th December, 1801, afterwards married Middendorff; (2) +Emilie, born 11th July, 1804, married Barop, died 18th August, 1860, at +Keilhau; (3) Elise, born 5th January, 1814, married Dr. Siegfried +Schaffner, one of the Keilhau colleagues, later on. + +[119] Johannes Arnold Barop, Middendorff's nephew, was born at Dortmund, +29th November, 1802. He afterwards became proprietor and principal of +Keilhau. + +[120] March 1828. + +[121] This excellent man was drowned in the Saale while bathing, soon +after this letter was written. + +[122] He always regarded himself as perfectly tolerant. + +[123] Froebel moved from Griesheim to Keilhau in 1817. + +[124] In 1820. + +[125] It was in 1828 that Barop formally and definitely joined the +Froebel community. + +[126] The long turmoil of the Napoleonic wars, the outcome of the French +Revolution, ceased in 1815; and the minds of the students and the other +youths of the country, set free from this terrible struggle for liberty, +turned towards the reformation of their own country. Many associations +were formed: perhaps here and there wild talk was indulged in. The +Government grew alarmed, and though the students had invariably acted +with perfect legality, all their associations were dispersed and +forbidden. + +[127] Christian Froebel and his wife. + +[128] This was 1827-29. + +[129] This is the interesting plan of the Public Educational Institution +and Orphanage in Helba, with which admirers of Froebel are probably +already well acquainted. It is given in full in Lange's "Froebel," vol. +i., p. 401. + +[130] Say L100. + +[131] In 1829. + +[132] The Wartensee is a small lake in the canton Luzern, not far from +Sempach. + +[133] About 30s. + +[134] Auf Schuster's Rappen,--_i.e._, on foot. (This was in 1832.) + +[135] A small town not far away, still in the canton Luzern. + +[136] This was a familiar name for the devil, till a few years back, in +Germany; surprisingly recalling the term "Eumenides" for the Greek +Furies, since it originated in a desire to speak of so powerful an enemy +in respectful terms, lest he should take offence. + +[137] A Swiss educational writer of great power and charm. His school +books, "Sur la langue maternelle," are really valuable. + +[138] The editors venture to call attention to these little facts as a +sample of the extraordinary devotion and sacrifice which Froebel knew +how to inspire in his colleagues. This exchange of Barop and Middendorff +took place in 1833. + +[139] In 1833. + +[140] This regulation is still happily in force. + +[141] In 1836. + +[142] Blankenburg lies on the way from Schwarzburg to Rudolstadt, about +two hours' walk away from Keilhau. + + + + +CHRONOLOGICAL ABSTRACT OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF FROEBEL, +AND THE FROEBEL COMMUNITY. + + + * * * * * + +1770. June 24th.--Birth of Christian Ludwig Froebel. + +1780. Sept. 17th.--Birth of Friedrich Froebel's first wife, Henriette + Wilhelmine Hoffmeister, at Berlin. + + Christian Froebel's wife, Johanna Caroline Muegge, was also born + in 1780, on August 28th. + +1782. April 21st.--_Birth of Friedrich Froebel_, at Oberweissbach, + Thuringia. + +1792. Froebel is sent to Superintendent Hoffman in Stadt Ilm. + + Sept. 3rd.--Birth of Heinrich Langethal, at Erfurt. + +1793. Sept. 20.--Birth of Wilhelm Middendorff, at Brechten, near + Dortmund, in Westphalia. + +1797. Froebel is sent to Neuhof in the Thuringian Forest to learn + forestry. + +1799. Froebel returns home; goes thence as student to Jena. + +1801. He leaves Jena (having closed his career there with nine weeks' + imprisonment for debt), and soon afterwards begins to study + farming with a relative of his father's at Hildburghausen. + + Dec. 29th.--Birth of Albertine Froebel (Madame Middendorff), + eldest daughter of Christian Froebel. + +1802. Death of Froebel's father. Froebel becomes Actuary to the + Forestry Department of the Episcopal State of Bamberg. + + Nov. 29th.--Birth of Johannes Arnold Barop, at Dortmund, in + Westphalia. + +1803. Froebel goes to Bamberg, and takes part in the governmental land + survey, necessary upon the change of government, Bamberg now + passing to Bavaria. + +1804. He takes, one after the other, two situations as secretary and + accountant of a large country estate, first, that of Herr von + Voeldersdorf in Baireuth, afterwards that of Herr von Dewitz in + Gross Milchow, Mecklenburg. + + July 11th.--Birth of Emilie Froebel (Madame Barop), second + daughter of Christian Froebel. + +1805. Death of Froebel's maternal uncle, Superintendent Hoffman. + Froebel determines to become an architect, and sets out for + Frankfurt to study there. Becomes, however, teacher in the Model + School at Frankfurt, on Gruner's invitation. Visits Pestalozzi, + at Yverdon, for a short time. + +1807. He becomes tutor in the family of Herr von Holzhausen in the + suburbs of Frankfurt. + +1808. He goes to Pestalozzi at Yverdon with his pupils. + +1809. He draws up an account of Pestalozzi's work for the Princess of + Rudolstadt. + +1810. Froebel returns to Frankfurt from Yverdon. + +1811. He goes to the University of Goettingen. + +1812. He proceeds thence to the University of Berlin. + +1813. Froebel, Langethal, and Middendorff enlist in Luetzow's regiment + of Chasseurs, a volunteer corps enrolled to take part in the + resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Prussia. + +1814. Jan. 5th.--Birth of Elise Froebel (Madame Schaffner), Christian's + youngest daughter. + + After the Peace of Paris (May 30th, 1814) Froebel is appointed + assistant in the Mineralogical Museum of the University of + Berlin, and takes his post there in August. + +1816. Nov. 13th.--Froebel founds his "Universal German Educational + Institute" in Griesheim. + +1817. Transference of the School to Keilhau. Arrival of Langethal and + Middendorff. + +1818. First marriage of Froebel. + +1820. Christian Froebel arrives at Keilhau with his wife and daughters + Froebel writes "To the German people." + +1821. Froebel publishes (privately) "Principles, Aims, and Inner Life + of the Universal German Educational Institute in Keilhau," and + "Aphorisms." + +1822. He publishes the pamphlets "On German Education, especially as + regards the Universal German Educational Institute at Keilhau," + and "On the Universal German Educational Institute at Keilhau." + +1823. He publishes "Continuation of the Account of the Educational + Institute at Keilhau." + +1824. He publishes the pamphlet "Christmas at Keilhau." + +1826. Marriages of Langethal and Middendorff. Froebel publishes the + "Education of Man" ("Menschen Erziehung"). Later he founds the + weekly _Family Journal of Education_. + +1827. Letter to the Duke of Meiningen (translated in this present + work), uncompleted, probably never sent to the duke. + +1828. Letter to Krause (partly translated in the present work). Barop + formally becomes a member of the Educational Community at + Keilhau. + +1829. Plan for a National Educational Institute in Helba, under the + auspices of the Duke of Meiningen, now completed, the whole + Keilhau community having worked upon it under Froebel's + direction. + +1830. Death of Wilhelm Carl, one of the Keilhau community, by drowning + in the Saale. + +1831. Froebel breaks with the Duke of Meiningen, and gives up the Helba + project. + + Visit to Frankfurt, and meeting with Schnyder. + + Acceptance of Schnyder's offer of his Castle at Wartensee. + + Opening of the Institution at Wartensee by Froebel and his nephew + Ferdinand. + +1832. Barop goes to Wartensee. Transference of the School from + Wartensee to Willisau. Froebel pays a short visit to Keilhau. + +1833. Froebel brings his wife to Willisau. The Bernese Administration + invites him to consider a plan for the foundation of an Orphanage + at Burgdorf. He is appointed lecturer for the Repetitive Courses + for young teachers held there. Langethal comes from Keilhau to + Willisau, Barop returns to Keilhau. + +1835. Froebel, his wife, and Langethal undertake the foundation of the + Orphanage for Bern, in Burgdorf. Middendorff and Elise Froebel go + from Keilhau to Willisau and join Ferdinand Froebel there. + Froebel writes "The New Year 1836 demands a Renewal of Life." + +1836. Froebel and his wife leave Burgdorf for Berlin. Ferdinand Froebel + and Langethal take over the direction of the Orphanage. + +1837. Opening of the first Kindergarten in Blankenburg. + +1838. Commencement of Froebel's _Sunday Journal_. + +1839. Froebel and Middendorff go to Dresden. Death of Madame Froebel. + +1840. Guttenberg Festival (400th anniversary of the invention of + printing). Opening of the Universal German Kindergarten at + Blankenburg, as a joint-stock company. Froebel and Middendorff in + the following years make several journeys from Keilhau to various + parts of Germany endeavouring to promote the erection of + Kindergartens. + +1848. General Congress of Teachers, called by Froebel, at Rudolstadt. + Second journey of Froebel to Dresden in the autumn. + +1849. Froebel settles at Liebenstein intending to train Kindergarten + teachers there. Work at Hamburg, first by Middendorff, then by + Froebel. + +1850. Froebel returns to Liebenstein. Through the influence of Madame + von Marenholtz-Buelow he receives the neighbouring country seat of + Marienthal from the Grand Duke of Weimar for the purposes of his + Training College. Foundation of a new _Weekly Journal of + Education_ by Froebel, edited by Lange. Marriage of Elise Froebel + to Dr. Siegfried Schaffner. + +1851. Jan. 9th.--Death of Christian Ludwig Froebel. + + July.--Second marriage of Froebel, with Luise Levin. First + appearance of the _Journal for Friedrich Froebel's Educational + Aims_. + +1852. April.--Froebel is called to join the Educational Congress at + Gotha, under the presidency of Theodor Hoffman. + + June 21.--_Death of Froebel._ His educational establishment at + Marienthal is removed to Keilhau, under the superintendence of + Middendorff. Madame Luise Froebel also assists to train students + in the methods of the Kindergarten at Keilhau. + +1853. Middendorff enthusiastically received at the Congress at + Salzungen, when addressing it on the Froebelian methods. + + Nov. 27th.--Death of Middendorff. Madame Luise Froebel, for a + time, directs Keilhau. + +1854. Madame Luise Froebel goes in the spring to Dresden, to assist Dr. + Marquart in his Kindergarten and training establishment for + Kindergarten teachers. Madame Marquart had been a pupil of + Froebel. Keilhau ceases to be a training school for Kindergarten + teachers. + + In the autumn Madame Luise Froebel accepts the directorship of + the Public Free Kindergarten in Hamburg, and trains students + there. (She is still actively employed at Hamburg in the cause of + the Kindergarten; 1886.) + + First introduction of the Kindergarten system into England by + Miss Praetorius, who founds a Kindergarten at Fitzroy Square. + Madame von Marenholtz Buelow, who was the support of Froebel's + latest years, whose influence with the Grand Duke of Weimar + procured him Marienthal, and whose whole leisure and power was + devoted to his service, and to the interpretation of his ideas, + comes to England to lecture and write in support of the cause of + the Kindergarten. Publishes a pamphlet on "Infant Gardens," in + English. + + Madame Ronge introduces the Kindergarten system at Manchester; + and shortly afterwards the Manchester Kindergarten Association is + founded. + +1859. Miss Eleonore Heerwart (pupil of Middendorff and Madame Luise + Froebel), and the Baroness Adele von Portugall (pupil of Madame + von Marenholtz-Buelow and of Madame Schrader, the great niece of + Froebel), come to England, and are both engaged at Manchester as + Kindergarten teachers, but not in the same establishment. + +1860. August 18th.--Death of Madame Barop (Emilie Froebel). + +1861. The Baroness Bertha Von Marenholtz-Buelow promotes the foundation + of the Journal _The Education of the Future_, and Dr. Carl + Schmidt of Coethen undertakes the editorship. + +1874. April.--Madame Michaelis comes to England to assist the + Kindergarten movement. Is appointed in the summer to lecture to + the school-board teachers at Croydon. Founds Croydon + Kindergarten, January 1875, with Mrs. Berry. + + Nov.--The London School Board appoint Miss Bishop (pupil of Miss + Praetorius) as their first lecturer on the Kindergarten System to + their teachers of infant schools. About the same time Miss + Heerwart (who had left Manchester to found a Kindergarten of her + own in Dublin in 1866) is appointed principal of the Kindergarten + Training College established at Stockwell by the British and + Foreign School Society. + + The Froebel Society of London is formed by Miss Doreck, Miss + Heerwart, Miss Bishop, Madame Michaelis, Professor Joseph Payne, + and Miss Manning; Miss Doreck being the first president. Very + soon these were joined by Miss Shireff (president since 1877, + when Miss Doreck died), by her sister Mrs. William Grey, by Miss + Mary Gurney, and by many other well-known friends of educational + progress. + +1879. Autumn.--The London Kindergarten Training College is founded by + the Froebel Society, but as a separate association (dissolved + 1883). + +1880. May.--The Croydon Kindergarten Company (Limited), is founded to + extend Madame Michaelis's work in teaching and training, Madame + Michaelis becoming the Company's head mistress. + +1882. Langethal died. Celebration of the Centenary of Froebel's birth + by a concert, given at Willis's Rooms, London, on the part of the + Froebel Society, to raise funds for a memorial Kindergarten at + Blankenburg, by a fund raised at Croydon for the same purpose, + and by a _soiree_ and conversazione, presided over by Mr. W. + Woodall, M.P., given at the Stockwell Training College by the + British and Foreign School Society. + +1883. January.--The Bedford Kindergarten Company (Limited) founded, + mainly upon the lines of the Croydon Company. First (and present) + head mistress, Miss Sim. + + Miss Heerwart goes to Blankenburg to found the memorial + Kindergarten there. + +1884. International Exhibition, South Kensington (Health and + Education). A Conference on Education was held in June, the + section devoted to Infant Education being largely taken up with + an important discussion of Froebel's principles, in which + speakers of other nations joined the English authorities in + debate. + + The British and Foreign Society organised a complete exhibition + of Kindergarten work and materials, to which all the chief London + Kindergarten establishments (including Croydon) contributed; and + most establishments gave lessons in turn, weekly, to classes of + children, in order to show publicly the practical application of + Kindergarten methods. These lessons were given gratuitously in + the rooms devoted to the Kindergarten section of the exhibition. + In October this section was closed by a conference of + Kindergarten teachers from all England, held in the Lecture + Theatre of the Albert Hall. + + Autumn.--Dr. Wichard Lange, the biographer of Froebel, and + collector of Froebel's works (from whose collection the present + translation has been made), and by his numerous articles one of + the best friends to the advocacy of Froebel's educational + principles, died, under somewhat painful circumstances. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FROEBEL. + + + * * * * * + +WALTER, L. Die Froebel-Literatur. 8vo, pp. 198. Dresden. $1.00 + + * * * * * + +GESAMMELTE PAEDAGOGISCHE SCHRIFTEN, hrsg. W. Lange. 8vo, 3 vols. +[I. Autobiographie; II. Menschenerziehung; III. Paedagogik des +Kindergartens]. Berlin, 1862. + +PAEDAGOGISCHE SCHRIFTEN, hrsg. Friedrich Seidel. 12mo, 3 vols. [I. +Menschen-Erziehung, pp. 330; II. Kindergarten-Wesen, pp. 463; III. +Mutter- und Kose-Lieder, pp. 228]. Wien, 1883. 6.50 + +MENSCHEN-ERZIEHUNG. Erziehungs-, Unterrichts-, und Lehrkunst. +12mo, pp. 330. Wien, 1883. 2.00 + +THE EDUCATION OF MAN. Translated by Josephine Jarvis. 12mo, pp. +273. New York, 1885. 1.30 + +---- The same, translated and annotated by W.N. Hailmann. 12mo, +pp. 332. New York, 1887. 1.50 + +L'EDUCATION DE L'HOMME. Traduit de l'allemand par la baronne de +Crombugghe. 12mo, pp. 394. Paris, 1881. + +MUTTER- UND KOSE-LIEDER. Dichtung und Bilder zur edlen Pflege des +Kindheitlebens. Ein Familien-buch. 12mo, pp. 228. Wien, 1883. 2.00 + +MOTHER'S SONGS, Games and Stories. Froebel's "Mutter- und +Kose-Lieder" rendered in English by Frances and Emily Lord. +Containing the whole of the original illustrations, and the music, +rearranged for children's voices, with pianoforthe accompaniment. +8vo, pp. 289. London, 1885. 3.00 + +MOTHER-PLAY, and Nursery Songs. Illustrated by Fifty Engravings. +With Notes to Mothers. By Friedrich Froebel. Translated from the +German. 4to, pp. 192. Boston, 1878. 2.00 + +THE MOTHER'S BOOK of Song. Two-part Songs for Little Singers, on +the Kindergarten System. The music composed by Lady Baker; edited +by G.A. Macfarran. 16mo. New York. + +AUTOBIOGRAPHIE. Berlin, 1862. + +THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRIEDRICH FROEBEL. Translated by H. Keatley +Moore and Emilie Michaelis. 12mo, pp. 180. Syracuse, 1889. 1.50 + +[This contains the "Letter to the Duke of Meiningen," never completed, a +shorter account of his life in a letter to the philosopher Krause, a +sketch of Barop's, and a chronology extended from Lange.] + +AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FROEBEL. Materials to aid a Comprehension of the +Work of the Founder of the Kindergarten. 16mo, pp. 128. New York, +1887. .30 + +[This contains the "Letter to the Duke of Meiningen," Miss Lucy +Wheelock's translation, taken from Barnard's _Journal of Education_.] + +FROEBEL'S EXPLANATION of the Kindergarten System. London, 1886. .20 + + * * * * * + +HAUSCHMANN, A.B. Fr. Froebel: die Entwicklung s. Erziehungs-idee +in s. Leben. 8vo, pp. 480. Eisenach, 1874. 2.00 + +KRIEGE, Matilda H. The Founder of the Kindergarten. A Sketch. +12mo, pp. 29. New York. + +[See also MARENHOLZ-BUELOW, in next list below.] + +MARENHOLZ-BUELOW, Baroness B. von. Reminiscences of Friedrich +Froebel. Translated by Mrs. Horace Mann. With a sketch of the life +of Friedrich Froebel, by Emily Shirreff. 12mo, pp. 359. Boston, +1877. 1.50 + +[See also GOLDAMMER, MARENHOLZ-BUELOW.] + +PHELPS, Wm. F. Froebel (Chautauqua Text-Book, No. 15). 32mo, pp. +54. .10 + +SHIRREFF, Emily. Froebel: a Sketch of his Life, with Letters to +his Wife. 12mo. London, 1877. 1.00 + +[See also MARENHOLZ-BUELOW, above, and SHIRREFF, below.] + + * * * * * + +BAILEY'S Kindergarten System. Boston. .20 + +BARNARD, Henry. Papers on Froebel's Kindergarten, with suggestions +on principles and methods of Child Culture in different countries. +8vo, pp. 782. Hartford, 1881. 3.50 + +BEESAU, Amable. The Spirit of Education. Translated by Mrs. E.M. +McCarthy. 16mo, pp. 325. Syracuse, 1881. 1.25 + +BERRY, Ada, and Emily MICHAELIS. Kindergarten Songs and Games. +12mo. London. .75 + +BUCKLAND, Anna. The Use of Stories in the Kindergarten. 12mo, pp. +17. New York. .20 + +---- The Happiness of Childhood. 12mo, pp. 21, in one volume with +the above. New York. .50 + +[The two are reprinted in "Essays on the Kindergarten." below.] + +CARPENTER, Harvey. The Mother's and Kindergartner's Friend. 12mo. +Boston, 1884. 1.00 + +CHRISTIE, Alice M. See MARENHOLZ-BUELOW, PEREZ, below. + +DOUAI, Adolf. The Kindergarten. A manual for the introduction of +Froebel's System of Primary Education into Public Schools; and for +the use of Mothers and Private Teachers. With 16 plates. 12mo, pp. +136. New York, 1871. 1.00 + +DUPANLOUP, Monseigneur. The Child. Translated, with the author's +permission, by Kate Anderson. 12mo, pp. 267. Dublin, 1875. 1.50 + +ECKHART, T. Die Arbeit als Erziehungsmittel. 8vo, pp. 23. Wien, +1875. + +ESSAYS ON THE KINDERGARTEN: being a selection of Lectures read +before the London Froebel Society. 12mo, pp. 149. Syracuse, 1889. 1.00 + +[See Buckland, Heerwart, Hoggan, Shirreff.] + +FELLNER, A. Der Volkskindergarten und die Krippe. 12mo, pp. 130. +Wien, 1884. + +FRYE, Alex. E. The Child and Nature, or Geography Teaching with +Sand Modelling. 12mo, pp. 216. Hyde Park, 1888. 1.00 + +GOLDAMMER, H. The Kindergarten. A Handbook of Froebel's Method of +Education, Gifts, and Occupations. With Introduction, etc., by +Baroness B. von Marenholtz-Buelow. Translated by William Wright. +8vo. Berlin, 1882. 4.00 + +---- Gymnastische Spiele und Bildungsmittel fuer Kinder von 3-8 +Jahren. 8vo, pp. 195. Berlin, 1875. + +GURNEY, Mary. See KOEHLER, below. + +HAILMANN, W.N. Primary Helps, or Modes of making Froebel's Methods +Available in Primary Schools. 2d Ed. 8vo, pp. 58, with 15 +full-page illustrations. Syracuse, 1889. 1.00 + +---- Four Lectures on Early Child Culture. 16mo, pp. 74. +Milwaukee. .50 + +---- Kindergarten Culture in the Family and Kindergarten. A +Complete Sketch of Froebel's System of Early Education, adapted to +American Institutions. For the use of Mothers and Teachers. 12mo, +pp. 119, and 12 plates. Cincinnati, 1873. .75 + +---- The Kindergarten Messenger and The New Education. Vols. V, +VI, [completing the series]. 8vo, 2 vols., pp. 146, 188. Syracuse, +1882, 83. 4.00 + +---- Primary Methods. A complete and methodical presentation of +the use of Kindergarten Material in the work of the Primary +School, unfolding a systematic course of Manual Training in +connection with Arithmetic, Geometry, Drawing, and other School +Studies. 12mo, pp. 166. New York, 1888. 1.00 + +HAILMANN, E.L. Songs, Games, and Rhymes for the Kindergarten. +12mo. Springfield. 1.75 + +HEERWART, Eleonore. Music for the Kindergarten. 4to. London, 1877. 1.25 + +---- Froebel's Mutter- und Kose-lieder. 12mo, pp. 18 + +[The last is reprinted in "Essays on the Kindergarten," above.] + +HOFFMANN, H. Kindergarten Toys, and How to Use Them. Toronto. .20 + +---- Kindergarten Gifts. New York. .15 + +HOGGAN, Frances E. On the Physical Education of Girls. 12mo, pp. 24. + +[This is reprinted in "Essays on the Kindergarten," above.] + +HOPKINS, Louisa P. How Shall My Child be Taught? Practical +Pedagogy, or the Science of Teaching. Illustrated, 12mo, pp. 276. +Boston, 1887. 1.50 + +---- Educational Psychology. A Treatise for Parents and Educators. +24mo, pp. 96. Boston, 1886. .50 + +HUBBARD, Clara. Merry Songs and Games, for the use of the +Kindergarten. 4to, pp. 104. St. Louis, 1881. 2.00 + +HUGHES, James. The Kindergarten: its Place and Purpose. New York. .10 + +JACOBS, J.F. Manuel pratique des Jardins d'Enfants. 4to. Brussels, +1880. + +JOHNSON, Anna. Education by Doing, or Occupations and Busy Work +for Primary Classes. 16mo, pp. 109. New York, 1884. .75 + +KINDERGARTEN and the School, by Four Active Workers. 12mo, pp. +146. Springfield, 1886. 1.00 + +KOEHLER, A. Die Praxis des Kindergartens. 4to, 3 Vols., with more +than 60 Plates. Weimar, 1878. + +---- The Same, translated by Mary Gurney. Part I [First Gifts]. +12mo, Ill. London, 1877. 1.25 + +KRAUS-BOELTE, Maria, and JOHN KRAUS. The Kindergarten Guide, +illustrated. Vol. I [The Gifts]. New York, 1880. 2.75 + +---- The Kindergarten and the Mission of Women. New York. .10 + +KRIEGE, A.L. Rhymes and Tales for the Kindergarten and Nursery. +12mo, New York. 1.00 + +LAURIE'S Kindergarten Manual. New York. .50 + +---- Kindergarten Action Songs and Exercises. London. .15 + +LYSCHINSKA, Mary. Principles of the Kindergarten. Ill., 4to, +London, 1880. 1.80 + +MANN, Mrs. Horace. See MARENHOLZ-BUELOW, above, and PEABODY, +below. + +MARENHOLZ-BUELOW, Baroness B. von. The Child and Child-Nature. +Translated by Alice M. Christie. 12mo, pp. 186. Syracuse, 1889. 1.00 + +---- The same, translated as "a free rendering of the German" by +Matilda H. Kriege, under the title "The Child, its Nature and +Relations; an elucidation of Froebel's Principles of Education." +12mo, pp. 148. New York, 1872. 1.00 + +---- The School Work-Shop. Translated by Miss Susan E. Blow. 16mo, +pp. 27. Syracuse, 1882. .15 + +---- Hand-work and Head-work: their relation to one another. +Translated by Alice M. Christie. 12mo. London, 1883. 1.20 + +MAUDSLEY, H. Sex in Mind and Education. 16mo, pp. 42. Syracuse, +1882. .15 + +MEIKLEJOHN, J.M.D. The New Education. 16mo, pp. 35. Syracuse, 1881. .15 + +MEYER, Bertha. Von der Wiege his zur Schule. 12mo, pp. 180. +Berlin, 1877. + +---- Aids to Family Government, or From the Cradle to the School, +according to Froebel. Translated from the second German Edition. +To which has been added an essay on The Rights of Children and The +True Principles of Family Government, by Herbert Spencer. 16mo, +pp. 208. New York, 1879. 1.50 + +MOORE, N.A. Kindergartner's Manual of Drawing Exercises for Young +Children upon Figures of Plane Geometry. 4to, pp. 16, and 17 +Plates. Springfield. .50 + +MORGENSTEIN, Lina. Das Paradies der Kindheit. Eine ausfuhrliche +Anleitung fur Muetter und Erzieherinnen. F. Froebel's +Spiel-Beschaeftigungen in Haus und Kindergarten. 2d ed. 8vo, pp. +292. Leipzig, 1878. + +MULLEY, Jane, and M.E. TABRAM. Songs and Games for our Little +Ones. 12mo. London, 1881. .40 + +NOA, Henrietta. Plays for the Kindergarten: music by C.J. Richter. +18mo. New York. .30 + +PAYNE, Joseph. Froebel and the Kindergarten System. 3d ed. London, +1876. + +[Now rare, but printed in "Lectures on Education," Syracuse, 1884, +$1.00.] + +---- A Visit to German Schools. London, 1876. + +PEABODY, Elizabeth P. Moral Culture of Infancy, and Kindergarten +Guide, with Music for the Plays. By Mrs. Horace Mann, and +Elizabeth P. Peabody. 12mo, pp. 216. Boston, 1863. 2.00 + +---- The Education of the Kindergartner. Pittsburgh, 1872. + +---- The Nursery: a Lecture. + +---- The Identification of the Artisan and Artist the Proper +object of American Education. + +---- Froebel's Kindergarten, with a letter from Henry Barnard. +12mo, pp. 16. + +---- Lectures in the Training Schools for Kindergartners. 12mo, +pp. 226. + +[Includes those on "The Education of the Kindergartner" and "The +Nursery," named above.] + +---- Education in the Home, the Kindergarten, and the Primary +School. With an Introduction by E. Adelaide Manning. 12mo, pp. +224. London, 1887. 1.50 + +[A reprint of the "Lectures in the Training Schools."] + +---- and Mary MANN. After Kindergarten, what? A primer of Reading +and Writing for the Intermediate Class, and Primary Schools +generally. 12mo. New York. .45 + +PEREZ, Bernard. The First Three Years of Childhood. Edited and +translated by Alice M. Christie, with an introduction by James +Sully. 12mo, pp. 294. Syracuse, 1889. 1.50 + +PLAYS AND SONGS, for Kindergarten and Family. Springfield. .50 + +POLLOCK, Louisa. National Kindergarten Manual. 12mo, pp. 180. +Boston, 1889. .75 + +---- National Kindergarten Songs and Plays. 12mo, pp. 77. Boston. .50 + +---- Cheerful Echoes: from the National Kindergarten for children +from 3 to 10 years of age. 16mo, pp. 76. Boston, 1888. .50 + +PREYER, W. The Mind of the Child. 12mo, 2 Vols. New York, 1888. 3.00 + +RICHARDS, B.W. Learning and Health. 16mo, pp. 39. Syracuse, 1882. .15 + +RICHTER, K. Kindergarten und Schule. Leipzig. + +RONGE, Johann and Bertha. A Practical Guide to the English +Kindergarten (Children's Garden), for the use of Mothers, +Governesses, and Infant Teachers: being an exposition of Froebel's +system of Infant Training: accompanied by a variety of Instructive +and Amusing Games, Industrial and Gymnastic Exercises, also +Numerous Songs set to Music, 11th ed. 4to, pp. 80, and 71 plates. +London, 1878. 2.10 + +SHIRREFF, Emily. Essays and Lectures on the Kindergarten. +Principles of Froebel's System, and their bearing on the Higher +Education of Women, Schools, Family, and Industrial Life. 12mo, +pp. 112. Syracuse, 1889. 1.00 + +---- Progressive Development according to Froebel's Principles. +12mo, pp. 14. + +---- Wasted Forces. 12mo, pp. 17. + +---- The Kindergarten in Relation to Schools. 12mo, pp. 18. New +York. .30 + +---- The Kindergarten in Relation to Family Life. 12mo, pp.17. New +York. .20 + +[The last four are given in "Essays on the Kindergarten," above] + +---- Home Education and the Kindergarten. 12mo. London, 1884. .75 + +---- The Kindergarten at Home. 12mo. London, 1884. 1.75 + +---- Claim of Froebel's System to be called "The New Education." +New York, 1882. .10 + +---- Essays and Lectures in the Kindergarten. New York. .75 + +SINGLETON, J.E. Occupations and Occupation Games. 12mo, London, +1865. 1.00 + +STEELE'S Kindergarten Handbook. New York. .60 + +STEIGER'S Kindergarten Tracts. 24 nos. New York. .10 + +STRAIGHT, H.H. Aspects of Industrial Education. 8vo, pp. 12. +Syracuse, 1883. .15 + +THOMPSON, Mrs. Elizabeth. Kindergarten Homes, for Orphans and +other Destitute Children; a new way to ultimately Dispense with +Prisons and Poor-Houses. 12mo, pp. 128. New York, 1882. 1.00 + +WEBER, A. Die vier ersten Schuljahre in Vorbindung mit e. +Kindergarten. 8vo, pp. 70. Gotha. .50 + +---- Die Geschichte der Volksschulpaedagogik und der +Kleinkindererziehung. 12mo, pp. 339. Dresden, 1877. + +WIEBE, E. The Paradise of Childhood. A Manual for Instruction in +F. Froebel's Educational Principles, and a Practical Guide to +Kindergartners. 4to, pp. 78 and 74 plates. Springfield. 2.00 + +---- The Paradise of Childhood: a manual of instruction and a +practical guide to Kindergartners. 4to, 74 plates. London, 1888. 4.00 + +---- Songs, Music, and Movement Plays. Springfield. 2.25 + +WIGGINS'S Kindergarten Chimes. Springfield. 1.50 + +WILTSIE'S Stories for Kindergartens and Primary Schools. Boston. .30 + +All books of which prices are given may be had of the publisher of this +volume. + + + + +INDEX. + + +Aaron to Froebel's Moses 138 +Activity at Yverdon 78 +Actor, life of an 26 +Adventists, doctrine of 12 +AEsthetic sense 41 +Agriculturalist, life of an 24, 140 +Aim of educational work 11 +Albums, sentiments in 49, 50 +Alexander I. sends for Pestalozzi 54 +Amrhyn, Herr 135 +Ante-Darwinian theories 31 +"Aphorisms" 141 +Arabic, study of 85 +Architecture as a profession 45, 46, 48, 50, 51, 108, 141 +Architectural efforts 41 +Arithmetic, teaching of 20, 55, 59, 61, 99, 106 +---- philosophy of 100 +Arndt, Ernest Moritz 45 +---- "Fragments of Culture" 62 +Art, study of 34, 40 +Art of teaching 24 +Astronomy 86, 105 +Attire, peculiarities of 105 +Augsburg Confession 50 +Austria interested in Pestalozzi 54 + +Bach a Cantor 7 +Baireuth 42, 140 +Bamberg, life at 38, 47, 140 +Barop, Johannes Arnold 2, 16, 124, 138, 140, 141, 142 +---- "Critical Moments" 127-137 +Batsch, A.J.G. 31 +Bauer, Herr 92, 93, 100 +Belief in himself 126 +Berlin, life at 89, 95, 100, 111, 121, 141, 142 +Bern 93 +---- Langethal's school at 137 +Berry, Mrs. 143, 147 +Best friend, Froebel's 93, 94 +Bible biographies 53 +---- in schools 8 +"Bible of Education" 63 +Birth of Froebel 3, 4, 140 +Bishop, Miss, appointed London lecturer 143 +Bivouac life agreeable 94 +Blankenburg 137, 142, 144 +Boarding-school life 18 +Book-keeping 43 +Botany, love of 25, 27, 31, 56, 60 +Brandenburg, Mark of 92 +British and Foreign School Society 143, 144 +Brothers of Froebel. [See Froebel, below.] +Burgdorf, Orphanage at 93, 135, 136, 137, 142 + +Cantor 7 +Carl, Herr 124, 142 +Carus, Professor 38 +Characteristics in boyhood 7 +Chemistry 30, 87, 88 +---- organic 88 +Cheve system of singing 56 +Child's need of construction 77 +Crispine, Ernestine 123 +Christian education essential 120 +---- family life 7 +---- forms 74 +"Christmas at Keilhau" 141 +Church and school 8, 19 +---- attendance 10 +Class divisions elastic 54 +Classical education 84 +---- teaching 99 +"Come let us live _with_ them" 69 +Comenius 103 +Comet of 1811 86 +Commission of 1810 80 +Companionship 44 +Comprehensiveness essential 80 +Conditions of tutorship 66 +Confinement in boyhood 6 +Confirmation 22 +Congress of teachers at Rudolstadt 142 +---- at Gotha 142 +---- at Salzungen 143 +Construction essential to a child 77 +"Continuation of the account of Keilhau" 141 +Contradiction, life freed from 108 +Cosmical development 89 +Crisis at Yverdon 80 +Croydon Kindergarten 143 +Crystals a witness of life 112 +Crystallography 89, 97 +Culture, Froebel's plan of 107 +---- his own insufficient 109 + +Death of Froebel 93, 143 +---- of his father 38 +---- of his first wife 142 +Development, analysis to synthesis 118 +---- of being, laws of 112 +---- vs. memorizing 116 +Devotes himself to study of education 98 +Dewitz, Herr von 42, 43, 45, 140 +Diary begun 36 +Diesterweg 139 +Divine worship at home 7, 10 +Doreck, Miss 144 +Drawing, study of 28, 55, 61, 62 +Dresden 91, 142, 143 +Duration of the world 13 + +Earlier and later life compared 16 +Early education 3 +---- mental struggles 14, 16 +Education _ad hoc_ 23 +---- aim of 11 +---- as an object 58 +---- at Jena 28 +---- in relationships 70 +---- purpose of 69 +---- reaches beyond life 119 +"Education of Man" 1, 76, 117, 141, 145 +Educator and teacher 68 +Energy in play 21 +---- in rocks 97 +England, first kindergarten in 143 +Ephors 21 +Escape from creditors 128 +"Exchange classes" 54 +Expression of thought difficult 73 +Eyes, deficient power of 30 + +"Family Journal of Education" 117, 141, 142 +Family ties 44, 83 +Father of Froebel. [See Froebel, Johann Jacob.] +---- and mother 118 +Fatherland vs. motherland 90 +Fichte 116, 123 +Financial difficulties 33, 47, 106, 127, 128 +First consciousness of self 9 +---- grasp of the word KINDERGARTEN 137 +---- idea of a school of his own 68 +---- work as a teacher 57 +Following Nature in geography 61 +Foresight of vocation as a teacher 108 +Forestry-apprentice 24 +Form-development 98 +Form fixed for language 98 +Forms, study of 75, 76 +Forster, Johann Georg 94 +---- "Rhine Travels" 94, 121 +Francke's Paedagogium 55 +Frankfurt, life at 47, 50, 57, 141, 142 +---- Model School 57 +French, study of 64 +Froebel, temporary change of name 46 +---- family +---- Johann Jacob, the _Father_ 3, 4, 6, 17, 19, + 21, 26, 27, 28, 33, 34, 30, 37, 38, 43, 140 + _Brothers._ +---- Augustus 3, 32 +---- Christoph 3, 12, + 13, 15, 23, 26, 27, 32, 36, 47, 49, 65, 68, 83, 87, 113, 122 + ---- His widow misunderstands Froebel 122 +---- Julius Karl Theodor 3, 4 +---- Christian Ludwig 4, 87, 113, 121, 124, 127, 128, 140, 141, 142 +---- Traugott 4, 23, 28, 32, 33 +---- Karl Poppo 4, 104 + _Nephews._ +---- Ferdinand 113, 121, 131, 136, 137, 142 +---- Wilhelm 113, 121 +---- Julius 114, 122 +---- Karl 114, 122 + _Nieces._ +---- Albertine [Middendorf] 124, 140 +---- Emilie [Barop] 124, 140, 143 +---- Elise [Schaffner] 124, 141, 142 +---- Luise, Madame 143 +Froebel Society 1, 144 +Froebel's style as an author 1, 117 +Froehlich 137 + +Games 135 +---- a mental bath 82 +Gardening 6, 71 +Geography, teaching of 60 +Geology 88, 97 +Geometry 24, 25, 29, 35 +German brotherhood 90 +---- land and people 95 +---- language teaching 56 +---- literature 35 +"German education" 114 +Gifts, first suggestion of 75 +Girard, Abbe 134 +Girls' school at Oberweissbach 8, 9 +Godlike not alone in the great 97 +Godmother of Froebel 73 +Goethe 35 +Gotha, congress of teachers at 142 +Goettingen, life at 84, 97, 103, 111, 141 +Goettling 30 +Government offices 23, 38, 95 +Grammar, study of 64 +Grammarians at odds 64 +Greek, study of 84, 85 +Grey, Mrs. William 144 +Griesheim 122, 124, 141 +Gross-Milchow 42, 140 +Gruner, Herr 51, 53, 58, 63, 66, 109, 141 +---- book on Pestalozzian methods 52 +Gurney, Mary 144, 147, 149 +Gymnastic Exercises 135 + +Halie 45 +Hamburg 138, 142, 143 +Hardenburg, Prince 54 +Harmonious development 55 +Harnisch 118 +Havelberg 92, 93, 121 +Hazel-buds the clue of Ariadne 12 +Hebrew, study of 85 +Heerwart, Eleonore 143, 144, 147 +Hegel 116 +---- his formulae adopted 113 +Helba, National Institution at 16, 102, 129, 141 +Hell, belief in 11, 133 +Hermes 7 +Higher methods of teaching 98 +Hildburghausen 37, 140 +History 88 +Hoffmann, Herr 17, 21, 43, 44, 140, 141 +Hoffman, Thedor 142 +Hoffmeister, Henrietta Wilhelmine 123, 140 +Holzhausen, Herr von 110, 141 +---- Madame von 110, 112 +Home of Froebel 6, 22, 27, 28 +---- abandoned 15, 35 +---- life 21, 22 +Hopf 56, 69 + +Identities and analogies sought out 107 +Iffland's "Huntsman" 26 +Illusions have a true side 13 +Impressions of Pestalozzi 54 +Imprisoned for debt 33, 140 +Individual life key to the universal 16 +Inner meaning of the vowels 99 +Inner law and order 87 +Instrumental music derived from vocal 82 +Introspection a characteristic 4, + 11, 25, 46, 49, 56, 72, 103, 104, 109, 115 +"Isis" 102, 117 +Isolation of Froebel 4, 5, 91, 107 + +Jahn 120 +Jena, life at 28, 105, 138, 140 +Jesus Christ, education based on 120 +"Journal of Education" 117, 141, 142 +"Journal for Froebel's Educational Aims" 142 +Joy of teaching 58 +Jussieu's Botany 31 + +Kant 116 +Keilhau, life at 16, 102, 103, 117, 135, 141, 143 +Kindergarten occupations 129 +Knowledge of self through objects 97 +Koerner in the "Wilde Schaar" 91 +Krause, Carl C.F. 102, 103, 116 +---- letter to 2, 103-125, 141 +Kruesi 55 + +Lange, Wichard 102, 138, 144, 145 +---- editor of "Family Journal" 138 +---- editor of Froebel's Works 3, 32, 138 +Langethal, Heinrich 91, + 93, 100, 101, 120, 122, 123, 124, 137, 140, 141, 142, 144 +Language, philosophy of 81, 99 +---- teaching of 59, 64, 81, 84, 85 +Latin, study of 20, 23, 34, 84 +Legacies 86, 123 +Leipzig 91 +Leonhardi 103 +Lessons from Nature's training 72 +Letter to the Duke of Meiningen 2, 3-101, 141 +---- to Krause 102-125, 141, 146 +"Levana" 70 +Liebenstein, life at 142 +Life as a connected whole 104 +"Life, will, understanding" 118 +Lilies, vain search for 96 +London Kindergarten College 144 +Love of Nature. [See Nature, love of.] +Luther, Martin 50 +Luetzow, Baron von 91, 141 + +Manchester Kindergarten Association 143 +Mankind as one great unity 84 +Manner in teaching 21 +Manning, Miss 144 +Manual training at Helba 121 +Map-drawing 39, 61 +"Mappe du Monde Litteraire" 36 +Marenholz-Buelow, Baroness von 73, 142, 143, 146, 149 +Marienthal 142, 143 +Marquart, Dr. 143 +---- Madame 143 +Master of the girls' school 7 +Mathematics 27 +Matrimony 11 +Mechanical powers, the 30 +Mecklenburg 42, 44 +Meiningen, Duke of 102, 129, 130 +---- Letter to 2, 3-101, 141, 142, 146 +Meissen 92, 120 +Memorizing of rules vs. development 55, 109, 116 +"Menschen Erziehung" 1, 76, 117, 141, 145 +Mental struggles 65 +Metaphysics 40, 118 +Methods of Education 99 +Michaelis, Mme. 143, 146, 147 +Middendorf, Wilhelm 92, 93, 94, 100, 101, 103, 120, 121, 122, 123, + 124, 127, 128, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143 +Mineralogy 30, 87, 89 +---- professorship declined 112 +Misapprehension of Froebel's motives 16 +Model School at Frankfurt 51 +"Moonstruck," Froebel so considered 105 +Moral influence of the teacher 60, 83 +---- pride 5 +Mother of Froebel 3, 44, 72 +"Mothers' Songs" 76, 145 +Mugge, Johanna Caroline 140 +"Mutter- and Koselieder" 76, 145 +Naegeli 81 +---- and Pfeifer's "Musical Course" 81 +Name temporarily changed 46 +Napoleonic wars 91, 141 +---- reaction from 127 +Natural history 31, 32, 56, 87 +Natural History Society at Jena 32 +Nature, communion with 19 +---- love of 24, 31, 38, 43, 48, 71, 74, 82, 80, 94, 96, 104, 105, 107 +---- as an educator 71 +Nature's work vs. man's 69 +Nature-Temple 12 +Nephews of Froebel. [See Froebel, Ferdinand, etc.] +Netherlands, Froebel in the 95 +Neuhof 24, 140 +Nieces of Froebel. [See Froebel, Albertine, etc.] +Niederer 57 +Note-taking 30 +Novalis's Works 45 +Number horizontally related 99 + +Oberfalz 42 +Oberweissbach 3, 105 +Object-teaching 69 +Oken, Lorenz 102, 116 +---- "Isis" 102 +"On German Education" 141 +"On the Universal German Education at Keilhau" 141 +Oriental tongues, study of 85 +Orphanage at Burgdorf 93, 135, 136, 137, 142 +Orthodox theology 10, 11, 13, 14 +Orthography 62 + +"Paedagogik" 76 +Paedagogium at Halle 45 +Paper, pricking of, suggested 75, 76 +Payne, Joseph 144, 150 +Permutations of numbers 106 +Perrault, M. 64 +Persian language, study of 85 +Personal characteristics of Froebel 13, 14, 15, 63, 67, 104, 111, 126 +---- of Pestalozzi 111 +Pestalozzi 20, 51-54, 57, 59, 69,70, 77-81, 83, 89, 141 +---- aims contrasted with Froebel's 111, 116, 129, 136 +---- "Buch der Matter" 136 +---- "Einertabelle" 59 +---- general addresses 83 +---- school. [See Yverdon.] +Pfyffer, Eduard 81, 134, 135 +Philology, study of 22, 85, 98, 111 +Philosophy, danger of 40 +Physical backwardness 18 +---- constitution 91 +---- education 74 +---- geography 20, 55 +Physics 29, 87, 88, 89 +Physiography 60, 61 +Plamann school 89 +Plans for life-work 23 +Play a subject of study 82 +---- for school boys 60 +---- influence of 76 +Political economy 85 +Politics 88 +Portugall, Baroness Adele von 143 +"Positive instruction" 55 +Praetorious, Miss 143 +Pricking paper suggested 75 +---- philosophy of 76 +"Principles, Aims, and Inner Life" 141 +Private tutorship 59 +Professorship declined 112 +Pronunciation 63, 64 +Prophetic sentiments 49 +Proeschke's "Fragments" 45 +Prussian, Froebel not a 90 +Public school-examination 134 +Purpose of education 69 + +Quittelsdorf 102 + +Reaction from Napoleonic wars 126 +Reading, teaching of 7, 56 +Recognition by others 32 +Relationship, education in 70 +Religious experiences 8, 9, 19, 21, 25, 35, 74 +---- instruction 74, 80, 119 +---- persecution 133 +Repulsion to menial service 23 +"Rhenische Blaetter" 139 +Rhine, Froebel crosses the 95 +Richter, Jean Paul 70 +Rigidity in teaching 62 +Rocks a mirror of mankind 97 +Ronge, Madame 143, 151 +Rousseau's system of singing 56 +Rudolstadt 117, 142 +---- Prince of 102, 138 +---- Princess Regent of 78, 80, 141 + +"Samuel Lawhill" 22 +Sanskrit, study of 85 +Schaffner, Siegfried 124 +Schelling 116 +---- school of 40 +Schiller 35 +Schleiermacher 123 +Schmidt, Carl 143 +Schmidt, Josias 55 +---- quarrels with Niederer 57 +Schnyder 130, 142 +Schopenhauer, Arthur 117 +Schrader, Madame 143 +Schwartzburg-Rudolstadt 3 +Scientific extracts 36 +Scribbling distasteful 36 +Self-consciousness 5, 11 +Self-development becomes objective 59 +Self-discipline 21 +Seiler, George Frederick 70 +Senses exercised 10 +Set forms in teaching 62 +Sex-life in plants 12 +Sexual conditions 11, 12 +Shirreff, Emily 144, 146, 151, 152 +Singing 56, 81 +Skeleton of man as type 31 +Soldier, Froebel as a 91-96, 111, 144 +"Sonntags-Blatt," articles in 76 +Soul-cultivation 7 +---- emerging from chrysalis 49 +Sound method from fundamental principle 106 +Special education 23, 115 +Speech-tones 98 +Spelling, teaching of 20 +Spiritual endeavor at Yverdon. [See Religious experiences.] +---- experiences 19 +Stadt-Ilm 18, 44 +Step-brother of Froebel 15 +Step-mother of Froebel 4, 5, 27, 33 +Stimulation at Yverdon 79 +Stockwell Kindergarten College 143 +"Stone-language" 10 +Sturm 7 +Style of Froebel's writing 1, 117 +Subject vs. object 46 +"Sunday Journal" 142 +Surveying, study of 39, 40, 41 +Symbols to the inner eye 111 + +Taking sides 13 +Teacher in the Plamann School 89 +---- requirements of a 65 +Teachers' institutes at Burgdorf 136 +Teaching suggested 51 +"Teaching-plan" of Pestalozzi 54 +"The Education of the Future" 143 +"The New Education" an antithesis 116 +"The New Year 1836 demands a Renewal of Life" 142 +Theatrical performances 26, 33 +Theological disputations 13 +Third person in address 5 +"Thou," the German 5 +Thuringian forest, the 3 +"To the German People" 141 +Tobler 56, 69 +Translators, aims of the 1 +Trustee of Froebel's property 28, 33 + +Uckermark, the 48 +Uncle of Froebel. [See Hoffman, Herr.] +Unconscious tuition 9 +---- wealth of youth 71 +Unity 69, 70 +---- from clashing phenomena 105 +---- in Nature 98 +---- lacking at Yverdon 79 +---- of natural objects 86 +---- of the universe 89 +"Universal German" education 114, 141 +Universities neglect Froebel 117 + +Vivacity of early impulses 7 +Voldersdorf, Herr von 42, 140 +Von Dewitz 42, 43, 45, 140 +---- Holzhausen, Madame 110, 112, 141 +---- Luetzow, Baron 91, 141 +---- Marenholz-Buelow 73, 142, 143 +---- Portugall, Baroness Adele 143 +---- Voldersdorf 42, 140 +Vowels, inner meaning of 99 +---- vs. consonants 98 + +Walks with pupils 60, 82 +Wartburg, the 50, 108 +Wartensee, the 130, 131, 142 +Was Christ Catholic or Protestant? 134 +Weber's "Wilde Jagd" 91 +Weimar, Grand Duke of 142, 143 +Weiss, Prof. 89, 95 +Wichard's "Froebel" 78 +Wieland 35 +Wife [first] of Froebel 123, 141 +Willisau, school a 93, 135-137, 142 +Winckelmann's "Letters on Art" 34 +Wollweider, Dr. 45 +Works written by Froebel 117, 141, 145, 146 +Yverdon, Pestalozzi's school at 20, 53-57, 77-84, 141 +---- lack of unity, etc 83 +---- wavering of ground principles 84 + +Zendavista 35 +Zollikofer 7 + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel +by Friedrich Froebel + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRIEDRICH FROEBEL *** + +***** This file should be named 16434.txt or 16434.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/4/3/16434/ + +Produced by Rose Koven, Juliet Sutherland, Joel Schlosberg +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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