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diff --git a/35677-h/35677-h.htm b/35677-h/35677-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae093b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/35677-h/35677-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9084 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Education in the Home, the Kindergarten and the Primary School, by Elizabeth P. Peabody. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + text-indent: 1.25em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + img {border: 0;} + .tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + .copyright {text-align: center; font-size: 70%;} + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify;} + + .bbox {border: solid 2px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + .small {font-size: 70%;} + .big {font-size: 110%;} + .heading {font-size: 210%; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;} + .heading2 {font-size: 110%; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;} + .author {font-size: 120%; text-align: center;} + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .chaptertitle {text-align: center; font-size: 110%; font-weight: bold;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold; font-size: 90%;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .unindent {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + .right {text-align: right;} + .poem {margin-left: 30%; text-align: left;} + .poem2 {margin-left: 15%; text-align: left;} + .sig {margin-right: 10%; text-align: right;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align:baseline; + position: relative; + bottom: 0.33em; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + .hang1 {text-indent: -3em; margin-left: 3em;} + .cap:first-letter {float: left; clear: left; margin: -0.2em 0.1em 0; margin-top: 0%; + padding: 0; line-height: .75em; font-size: 300%; text-align: justify;} + .cap {text-align: justify;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Education in The Home, The Kindergarten, +and The Primary School, by Elizabeth P. Peabody + +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: Education in The Home, The Kindergarten, and The Primary School + +Author: Elizabeth P. Peabody + +Release Date: March 25, 2011 [EBook #35677] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDUCATION IN THE HOME *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 376px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="376" height="600" alt="Cover" title="" /> +</div> + + + + + +<h2>LECTURES<br /> + +<span class='small'>IN THE</span><br /> + +TRAINING SCHOOLS<br /> + +<span class='small'>FOR</span><br /> + +Kindergarten Teachers.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>EDUCATION<br /> + +<span class='small'>IN</span><br /> + +THE HOME, THE KINDERGARTEN,<br /> + +<span class='small'>AND</span><br /> + +THE PRIMARY SCHOOL.</h1> + +<div class='author'><span class='small'>BY</span><br /> + +ELIZABETH P. PEABODY.</div> + + +<div class='center'><br /><br /><i>WITH AN INTRODUCTION</i><br /> + +<span class='small'>BY</span><br /> + +<span class='big'>E. ADELAIDE MANNING.</span><br /> + +<br /><br />———<br /> +"Come, let us live <i>with</i> our children."—<span class="smcap">Frœbel.</span><br /> +———<br /><br /><br /><br /> + +<br /> +LONDON:<br /> +<span class='big'>SWAN SONNENSCHEIN, LOWREY & CO.,</span><br /> +PATERNOSTER SQUARE.<br /> +1887.<br /> +</div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> + +<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">Among</span> those who in the last twenty years have helped to +spread a knowledge of the educational principles of Froebel +beyond the limits of his native country, Miss Elizabeth Peabody's +name deserves to be specially remembered. It is +mainly owing to her enthusiastic efforts that the value of the +Kindergarten was early recognised in the United States, and +that its first American promoters were encouraged to maintain, +amid many difficulties, a standard of real efficiency for +the teachers of Froebel's system. Miss Peabody had long +occupied herself, theoretically and practically, with educational +subjects. Not satisfied by merely intellectual methods +of instruction, and impatient of the superficiality which was +too often approved, she made it her great aim to train +character, and, by a simultaneous development of children's +mental capacities and of their moral nature, to prepare them +for the responsible duties of life. It was not surprising that +when Miss Peabody, holding such views of education, came +in contact with the ideas and the work of Froebel, she at +once experienced the delight always attached to the discovery +that the problems exercising our own minds have been successfully +solved by some one who has started from principles +such as ours, and who has cultivated the same ideal. She +found that Froebel had carried into practice that very kind +of training of which she had realized the immense importance, +and that he had placed in a clear light truths which +she had already more dimly perceived. Eager to inform +herself about the new system, Miss Peabody travelled, in +1868, to Europe, on purpose to visit in Germany the Kindergartens +established by Froebel, who was no longer living, +and by his best pupils. On her return to America, she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span> +devoted herself for many years to the introduction and +improvement of Kindergartens and of training institutions, +and to enlightening, by her writings and addresses, mothers +and educators respecting the value and simplicity of Froebel's +methods. Miss Peabody has the satisfaction of witnessing +a good measure of success from her generous exertions, in +the increasing number of advocates of the Kindergarten in +America, in its adoption as a first department of many State +primary schools, and in the numerous private and charity +Kindergartens founded from North to South, and from New +York to San Francisco. Advanced now in years, this warm-hearted +lady is engaged in other lines of philanthropic work, +but she retains, and still manifests, her earnest interest in +the educational progress which she has laboured so actively +to secure.</div> + +<p>Ever since Miss Peabody's zeal was kindled for Froebel's +ideal as to young children's education, her help and criticism +have been sought by the trainers of Kindergarten students in +America, and by all who, with serious purpose, have thus +worked for the movement. Hence she has often delivered +lectures at the opening of the session at Normal Colleges, +and on other occasions when she saw an opportunity of +exercising influence in favour of rational principles of education. +This book, which appeared only lately at Boston, +consists of a few of such lectures. It is now, with Miss +Peabody's consent, published in England, where many +parents and teachers will be glad to profit by the author's +wise and loving study of little children, and her sympathetic +insight into Froebel's methods for their development. During +the last few years various thoughtful writers on education +have drawn attention here to the subject of infant management, +and it is remarkable how widely the principles of +Froebel and Pestalozzi are now recognised and accepted. +But books are still greatly needed which, especially addressed +to those who have charge of children, urge in a convincing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span> +manner how essential it is that the first few years should be +rightly guided, and indicate certain defined educational aims. +I think that Miss Peabody's lectures are likely to prove very +useful in this direction. Though her readers will perhaps +contest some of her psychological deductions, they cannot +fail to be impressed and benefited by the high tone of her +reasoning, by her evidently tender and reverent love of +children, and by her excellent suggestions in regard to their +harmonious development.</p> + +<p>Amongst its other merits, this book tends to correct the +still too prevalent notion, that the Kindergarten is a peculiar—an +almost magical—institution, which provides a sure +remedy for children's imperfections, apart from their home +conditions. Doubtless, in the case of poor neglected little +ones, the contrast between their treatment at the Kindergarten +and their ordinary experience, is necessarily striking +and decided, because the parents are careless and ignorant. +But Froebel's view of the Kindergarten was, that it should +be a supplementary help to the loving and judicious mother, +who, owing to her many household and other duties, might +be unable to give, through the whole day, to her younger +children the regular attention which their awakening faculties +need. It was to be a portion of the home pattern and +web of training, not a patch of a new texture. He saw that +a child requires to have about it, as Miss Peabody says, +"love and thought in practical operation," and this not now +and then, but always. And as the mother may have at times +to transfer her children to the charge of others, he organised +the Kindergarten—a higher nursery, under refined and +motherly influences, for those that have passed out of babyhood. +There, on the same principles as at home, they may +be gently tended for two or three hours of the day, and +developed in body, mind, and character. Froebel's object +also was to provide companionship for these children, adapted +to their age and attainments, which could only be done by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span> +including some from outside the family circle. But again, +he desired to give the opportunity to inexperienced mothers +of observing the patient and resourceful guidance carried +out by even young teachers, who had been trained to study +children, and had learnt how to occupy them suitably. Here +we see another link with the home. Now Miss Peabody +entered so much into Froebel's ideas that she helps to +remove the Kindergarten out of its supposed exceptional +sphere, and to show that the teachers represent temporarily +the mother, doing that which the mother also aims, or ought +to aim, at doing, for the children's good.</p> + +<p>These Lectures are also useful in presenting a high ideal +of Kindergarten teaching. Miss Peabody sees that the work +of educating requires special qualifications in those who +undertake it, and that such as are not fitted for it, had better +take up a different career. At the same time placing, as +always, character above intellect, she considers that most +women, whose religious and moral nature is well cultivated, +and who take pains to develop their mental powers, may +hope for success in devoting themselves to the training of +young children. Her writings are calculated to inspire the +teacher with hearty zest for her labour, and yet with an +abiding feeling that even years of practice leave her far +behind her ever advancing standard. Miss Peabody encourages +no exaggerated estimate of Froebel's thoughts and +methods. She freely recognises that he gained many truths +from fellow-students of children's nature and faculties; but +she claims for him the originality which belongs to those who +with unselfish aims bestow close attention on a subject of +deep human interest. To teachers, therefore, as well as to +all who love children, she says—and with this quotation I +will close my few introductory remarks—"You will not be +wise if you do not look out of Froebel's window."</p> + +<div class='sig'> +E. A. MANNING.<br /> +</div> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="LECTURE_I" id="LECTURE_I"></a>LECTURE I.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>THE KINDERGARTNER.<br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">Whoever</span> proposes to become a kindergartner according +to the idea of Frœbel, must at once dismiss from her mind +the notion that it requires less ability and culture to educate +children of three, than those of ten or fifteen years of age. +It demands more; for, is it not plain that to superintend +and guide accurately the <i>formation</i> of the human understanding +itself, requires a finer ability and a profounder insight +than to listen to recitations from books ever so learned and +scientific? To form the human understanding is a work of +time, demanding a knowledge of the laws of thought, will, +and feeling, in their interaction upon the threshold of consciousness, +which can be acquired only by the study of children +themselves in their every act of life—a study to be +pursued in the spirit that reveals what Jesus Christ <i>meant</i>, +when he said: "He that receiveth a little child in my name, +receiveth <i>me, and Him that sent me</i>;" "Woe unto him +who offends one of these little ones, for their spirits behold +the face of my Father who is in heaven."</div> + +<p>Not till children who have been themselves educated +according to Frœbel's principles, grow up, will there be +found any adult persons who can keep kindergartens without +devoting themselves to a special study of child-nature in the +spirit of devout humility. For we are all suffering the ignorance +and injury inevitable from having begun our own lives +in the confusions of accidental and disorderly impressions, +without having had the clue of reason put into our hands by +that human providence of education, which, to be true, must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> +reflect point by point the Divine Providence, that according +to the revelations of history is educating the whole race, and +which may find hints for its procedure in observing the +spontaneous play of children fresh from the hands of the +Creator.</p> + +<p>The education of children by a genial training of their +spontaneous playful activities to the production of order and +beauty within the humble sphere of childish fancy and affection, +was a fresh idea with Frœbel; but, like every universal +idea, it was not absolutely new in the world. Plato says, in +his great book on <i>Laws</i>:—</p> + +<p>"Play has the mightiest influence on the maintenance and +non-maintenance of laws; and if children's plays are conducted +according to laws and rules, and they always pursue +their amusements in conformity with order, while finding +pleasure therein, it need not be feared that when they are +grown up they will break laws whose objects are more +serious."</p> + +<p>And again, in his <i>Republic</i>, he says:—</p> + +<p>"From their earliest years, the plays of children ought to +be subject to strict laws. For if their plays, and those who +mingle with them, are arbitrary and lawless, how can they +become virtuous men, law-abiding and obedient? On the +contrary, when children are early trained to submit to laws +in their plays, love for these laws enters into their souls +with the music accompanying them, and helps their development."</p> + +<p>You will observe Plato's association of music with the +laws that are to regulate play. Music, with the Greeks, +had indeed a broader meaning than attaches to the word +with us, who confine it to that subtle expression of the sense +of law and harmony which is made in the element of sound, +and addressed to the imagination through the ear. All +knowledge and art inspired by the sacred Nine, they named +<i>music</i>. Singing was no more music than dancing, drawing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> +the harmonizing of colors, plastic art, poetry, and science, +which is nothing less than thinking according to the rhythmic +laws of nature. To learn to commune with the Muses, +daughters of Memory and Jove, who were led by the god +Apollo, symbolizing the moral harmony of the universe, +and expressing the mind of the Father of gods and men, by +oracle, was learning <i>music</i> or how to live divinely; a process +which may commence before children leave the nursery, if +their plays are regulated according to artistic principles.</p> + +<p>It is common to speak of the Greeks, as if they were of +exceptional organization. I think their organization was +only exceptional, because it was more carefully treated in +infancy than ours is apt to be. I do not believe that in +Greece, or anywhere in the world, there were ever more +beautiful little children than there are in America; and the +beauty would not be so transient as it unquestionably is +with us, if truly cultivated persons took our children in hand +from babyhood for the care of their bodies and minds, instead +of leaving this work to the most ignorant class of the +community, such as the general run of the servants who +have the education of them during their earliest infancy. +Even many parents who take care of their own children +do not make it an object to study physiology or psychology, +and seem to think that there is nothing in little children +which requires special study, except indeed at the very first, +when the child is put into the mother's arms more helpless +than the lowest form of animal life (for the very insect is +endowed by nature, as the child is not, with enough absolute +knowledge—we call it instinct—to fulfil its small circle of +relations without help of its parents). It seems mysterious, +at first sight, that the child, whose duty and whose destiny +it is to have dominion over nature, should be endowed least +of all creatures with any absolute knowledge of it. But the +mystery is solved when we consider that the happiness which +is distinctively human, is only to be found in the discovery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +and enjoyment of ever-widening relations to our kind, with +the fulfilment of the duties belonging to them. It is the +absolute helplessness of the human infant which challenges +the maternal instinct to rush to his rescue, lest he should +die at once. And to continue to study his manifestations +of pleasure and discontent with obedient respectfulness, is +the perfection of the maternal nursing. But when the child +has got on so far as to know the simplest uses of its own +body, and especially after it has learned enough words to +express its simplest wants and sensations, even parents +seem to think it can get on by itself, so that children from +about two to five years of age are left to self-education, as +it were; this virtual abandonment being crossed by a capricious +and arbitrary handling of them—mind and body—on +the part of those around them, which is even worse than the +neglect; for when are children more unable, than between +three and five years old, to guide their own thoughts and +action? How would a garden of flowers fare, to be planted, +and then left to grow with so little scientific care taken by +the gardener, as is bestowed upon children between one and +five years old?</p> + +<p>Frœbel, in the very word kindergarten, proclaimed that +gospel for children which holds within it the promise of the +coming of the kingdom, in which God's will is to be done on +earth as it is in heaven—a consummation which we daily +pray for with our lips, but do not do the first thing to bring +about, by educating our children in the way of order, which +is no less earth's than "heaven's first law," and makes +earth heaven so far as it is fulfilled.</p> + +<p>A kindergarten means a guarded company of children, +who are to be treated as a gardener treats his plants; that +is, in the first place, studied to see what they are, and what +conditions they require for the fullest and most beautiful +growth; in the second place, put into or supplied with these +conditions, with as little handling of their individuality as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +possible, but with an unceasing genial and provident care to +remove all obstructions, and favor all the circumstances of +growth. It is because they are living organisms that they +are to be <i>cultivated</i>—not <i>drilled</i> (which is a process only +appropriate to insensate stone).</p> + +<p>I think there is perhaps no better way of making apparent +what this kindergartning is, which makes such an importunate +demand on your consideration, than to tell you +how the idea germinated and grew in the mind of Frœbel +himself; for thus we shall see that it would be unreasonable +to expect that it could be improvised by every teacher; but +that here, as elsewhere in human life, God has sent into the +world a gifted person to guide his fellows, according to the +law enunciated by St. John in the 38th verse of the 4th +chapter of his Gospel.</p> + +<p>We have the materials of this history on Frœbel's own +authority, in an autobiographical letter that he wrote to the +Duke of Meiningen, whose interest in him was excited by +an incident so characteristic of Frœbel, that I will relate it. +Having heard of a cruel and stupid opposition made to the +ardent educator by the unthinking officials of a region where +he was making a martyr of himself, the duke made inquiries, +which resulted in his offering him the situation of head-tutor +to his only son. But Frœbel astonished him with a refusal +of the place, sending the duke word that it would be impossible +to educate, in a perfect manner, a child so isolated by +conventional rank and circumstances that he must inevitably +conceive himself to be intrinsically superior to other children. +The duke was so much struck that a poor man, struggling +with every difficulty, should refuse one of the highest posts +in a royal household, with all its emoluments, from a purely +conscientious scruple of this kind, that his curiosity was +piqued. He sent for Frœbel, and they had a conversation +upon the principles and spirit of a truly human education, +by which Frœbel convinced him that a noble moral development<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +was indispensable to a truly intellectual one, so that +the duke was actually persuaded to send his son as an equal +with other boys to a neighboring school. One day, some +little time after, the boy came home <i>roaring</i>, on account of a +beating he had received from one of his playmates. The +duke, in a transport of rage, asked the name of the offender, +and said that he should be immediately expelled from the +school. Then was Frœbel's advice justified. The young +prince dried his tears, refused to tell the boy's name, and +declared that "the beating was all fair!" It is quite consistent +with these facts, that the duke should ask Frœbel +how his idea grew in his mind. Frœbel's answer is still extant. +I have not been able to get the original text, but I +can give you the substance of it, as it was given to me.</p> + +<p>Friedrich Frœbel was the son of a laborious pastor of +seven villages in Thuringia. He lost his mother before +his remembrance, and fell into the care of hard-worked +domestic servants, with no light upon his infant life except +what came from the love and sympathy of two older brothers, +who cherished him when they were at home from boarding-school. +The parsonage was in the shadow of the church, +and into it no ray of sunshine ever came; and the child was +kept drearily in the house. He tells of seeing workmen +building a part of the church that had become dilapidated, +and how he longed to imitate them; and traces to this desire +of employing the time that hung so heavily on his hands, his +discovery of the building instinct, so universal in childhood, +and which he thought should always have simple materials +afforded it with which to express itself. At last his father +married again, and at first the stepmother petted the young +child of her husband, and awakened in him a hope of a satisfying +love, which he reciprocated with all the energies of +his long-starved heart. But when the merely instinctive +woman had a child of her own, a certain jealousy arose in +her, and she repulsed poor little Friedrich, and "no longer"—as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +he pathetically remarks—"called him <i>thou</i>," (du) which +is an endearing expression in German, but <i>he</i> (er), which +has a rough association. It is plain that the child was endowed +with an immense sensibility to, or more than ordinary +presentiment of the Divine Order of Nature, and with the +extreme tendency to reflection always involved in this gift. +As he was so poorly developed physically, he became in his +joyless early life perhaps morbidly nervous. Disappointed +in his timid efforts to please, all the sweet bells of his +nature were jangled, and he was miserable—he knew not +why. He says he always found himself doing the wrong +thing—the too much, or the too little—and was complained +of to his father, who treated him as a naughty boy. But +sometimes the pastor took him out of his stepmother's +way, to accompany himself in his parochial visits, in +which Frœbel says he seemed continually to be settling +family quarrels. This made on the child's mind an impression +of things that was rather ludicrously expressed, when +he one day asked of his oldest brother, who happened to +come home from boarding-school, why it was that God had +not made people all men, or all women, so that there should +not be so much quarrelling in the world. In order to divert +him from such premature consideration of social questions, +the posed elder brother undertook to teach him botany according +to the sexual system, revealing to him the law of +contrasts conciliated with each other for the production of +harmony and beauty. The child was delighted with what +he was shown; but still his exceptionally moral genius +importunately asked, why may not human differences be +thus harmonized, to produce happiness and goodness? The +presentiment of the great truth which was felt in his heart, +though not yet caught by his mind, was signalized by another +anecdote that he tells of himself. There was a rumor among +the peasants of North Germany (it was about the year 1792) +that the world was coming to an end; but Frœbel declares<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +that he could not make himself feel alarmed. He says he +was sure it could not be true, because the will of God had +not yet been brought about in human life. This extraordinary +reflection of a child of ten years old was preceded, +probably, by a happy change that came over him in consequence +of the visit of his maternal uncle to his father's +house; who, seeing that the child was not happy, invited +him to go home with him to live with his grandmother. His +uncle's house was bright and sunny, and he was received by +his grandmother with joy and tenderness. Immediately the +freedom of the fields was given him, provided only that he +should come home punctually to the meals. He soon became +so healthy and happy, that his uncle put him into a +day school in the neighborhood, to the child's great delight. +The school was opened, the first day he went into it, with +a little sermon of the master's upon the text: "Seek first +the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness, and all other +things shall be added unto you." It must have been a wise +and good discourse, for it left a life-long impression upon +the mind of the little Frœbel. There was a law then, for +human beings as well as for plants; human beings might +consciously realize in happiness and virtue, the harmony and +beauty unconsciously manifested by the vegetable world. For +God was the Ever-present Friend and Lawgiver! He tells +the duke how happy he felt himself in his new circumstances +and opportunities, and blessed with this inspiring faith. +After school, he went out to play with his schoolmates; but, +alas! poor starveling of nature as he was, he found he could +not play with his athletic companions, and had to sit on one +side and look on; and then and there he distinctly came to +a conclusion, which is a first principle of the kindergarten, +that every child should have free exercise of his limbs in +play, in order to get entire command of all the physical +strength and agility they are capable of.</p> + +<p>After a few years of this happy home and school life,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +which he continually reflected upon in contrast with what he +had suffered for so many years, the good grandmother died, +and he was sent back to his stepmother. The question now +came up, whether he should study for the university, where +his brothers had gone; but the stepmother, in the interest +of her younger child, opposed his father's spending the +money, and he went to a farmer to learn practical agriculture. +But he was physically so incompetent to the labor of +a farm life, that it did not pay; and being sent home by the +farmer, he was finally apprenticed to a forester, where he +found genial occupation in wood-lore, and in studying geometry +for the purpose of surveying. Here he became a thorough +and ardent mathematician. But his friend the forester +died, or was removed, which brought this occupation to a +premature close. At that moment, however, a maternal +relation died, and left him a little money, so that he went +to the University of Jena, where he devoted himself principally +to the physical sciences; and by and by we find him +curator of the Mineralogical Museum of Berlin. Here he +made a great impression on the mind of a young lady who +frequented the museum, by the "sermons" that he found +"in stones," for he read them out to her, showing that in +inorganic nature, so called, could be traced not only laws of +decay, that threw into stronger light those laws of life that +he had learned to see in vegetation, but those of crystallization. +Everywhere he read God's revelation of the processes +of life and death, which also make human development and +happiness, or its deterioration and misery.</p> + +<p>The trumpet call of patriotism, to rescue Germany from +French despotism, made by the good Queen Louise of Prussia, +called him from these peaceful studies to partake in the great +national act of delivering his country; and he obeyed it by +volunteering his service. Though his regiment was never +called into battle, he always rejoiced in the effects upon +himself of learning the military drill, as well as in the life-long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +friendships he made in camp. After the war was over, +a legacy received at the death of his uncle Hoffman gave +him the means to enter an architect's office, to which he had +a great attraction. He was boarding at Frankfort-on-the-Main, +where Middendorf and other of his late military +friends were boarding, who had just engaged themselves as +teachers in the city, waiting to perfect this arrangement. +It was a moment when there was a great uprising of education +in Germany, and that system was beginning to germinate, +which has turned out to make Prussia the effective +power in Europe that she has lately proved herself to be; +and whose first principle is, that the primary is the most +important stage of education. In connection with this general +movement, there was about to be established a new +school in Frankfort; and Grüner, its principal, who was one +of the boarders, talked over with Frœbel and the others the +new plan. Whatever Frœbel said was so striking and vital, +that Grüner at last exclaimed: "Plainly this is your vocation! +Give up the architecture, and come in with us, and help to +build men." Strange to say, though Frœbel had all his life +been meditating upon the secret of human education, this +was the first time it occurred to him to make it his own business. +The more he thought of Grüner's suggestion, the +more he liked it; and the issue was, that he took one of the +younger classes in the new school. Immediately afterwards +he wrote to his brother that at last he had found his element—he +"felt like a bird in air, a fish in water." But the +teachers were hampered in their action by the proprietors of +the school; and after a season Grüner said to Frœbel, "You +should lead; not be led. I release you from your engagement. +Set up independently, and carry out your own ideas +unhindered."</p> + +<p>When his purpose of leaving was known, one of the parents +who patronized the school, gave him his two sons to +educate, just as he should think best; and because he now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +heard of Pestalozzi, he took them to Yverdun, where he +remained as pupil with them, for a season. But he was not +quite satisfied with Pestalozzi's methods. He saw there was +a process to be attended to, anterior to the observation of +objects; namely, to employ and discipline the activity of +children yet too young to attend except to what they are +themselves doing. Education was to begin, as he saw, in +doing, and thence proceed to knowing. In returning from +Yverdun, his elder brother, and his younger brother's widow, +offered him their children to add to the two young Frankforters; +and the widow offered, besides, a small house that +she owned in Keilhau, if he would fit it up. He and Middendorf +and another friend united together and accepted this +offer; and, with their own hands repaired the house, living +in the outbuildings meanwhile and subsisting on rations most +carefully economized. They then, for one thing, went to +work on the land, which they taught the children to cultivate, +and deduced their lessons out of the objects into which they +were putting their life and labor. To these six children +three cultivated men devoted themselves; and Frœbel also +wrote to the lady that used to study with him in the Mineralogical +Museum of Berlin, and she took her fortune, and left +her rank, to help the poor schoolmaster in his life work, as +the most devoted of wives.</p> + +<p>Working on the land was not all that they did. They +began with it, because the children of the city had been +rather starved of the gratification of that instinct to work in +the earth, which very soon appears in all children—though, +as Frœbel says, it will die out by being left uncultivated. +He found that his pupils had been already injured by their +artificial city life, and in many ways they had things to +unlearn. It was not a perfectly easy thing to determine how +much liberty to give to individual tendencies that had been +exaggerated by the reactions of disorder, or of an artificial +order. Frœbel thought the educator should give full play<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +to all that is universal in human nature without pampering +human idiosyncrasy, to do which was the vicious point of +Rousseau's system that Frœbel has happily avoided. It was +natural that he should first bring before his pupils the processes +of vegetable growth, because it was in observing them +that he had himself first found the laws of God. But he was +older than any child in the kindergarten when he learned +that lesson. Observation of anything outward is not the +first thing in human development, but exertion of powers +from within, which provokes the reaction of the outward and +makes it known.</p> + +<p>I cannot follow out, in this introductory lecture, all his +studies of the nature of man in these children, and all his +experiments of cultivation. But I hope to do so in those +which follow. The school founded in Keilhau exists to this +day; but Frœbel ever found himself going back till at last +he came to the infant in the mother's arms. Then he went +into the huts of the peasantry to observe the mother's instinctive +ways, reason upon them, purify them of her individual +caprices and selfishness, and eliminate everything +inconsistent with the divine idea and method of procedure, +indicated by the instinct to the intelligence. He did not +confine himself to Keilhau, where Middendorf steadily lived, +though always keeping in relation with it; but went at times +to other places, and once, for a year or two, left all, to go to +the University of Göttingen to study philology. There he +made himself acquainted with Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit, +studying out those laws of mind exemplified in the formation +and decay of languages. For it was the secret of a perfect +development that he sought, and how to keep his pupils at +the height they "were competent to gain." After half a +century of the study of childhood in the living subject, and +elaboration of the means of discipline, he settled in his old +age into the conviction, that the most important period of +human education was before the child was seven years old.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +And his last years were spent in preparing teachers for kindergartens +at Rudolstadt and at Hamburg—which he did by +teaching before them as well as by lecturing to them. Now +it is what he discovered and elaborated, and has left, not in +logical formulas, though he has certainly stated principles in +words and embodied them in songs, but in processes of work +and play, that is to be taught in our training schools. It +took a Newton to discover gravitation and other principles +of nature, but men without genius can comprehend and apply +these principles, which they could not, like him, discover. +So it took a Frœbel's genius to discover the first principles +of education, and his sensibility to apply them without +mistake; but intelligent and heartful young women can learn +them and apply them, if—and only if—they will study +devoutly and faithfully what he has taught; and in doing so +they will find themselves—<i>not</i> becoming artificial, but more +profoundly natural than ever; for the true educational +process is but the mother's instinct and method, clearly +understood in all its bearings, and acted out. To be a +kindergartner is the perfect development of womanliness—a +working with God at the very fountain of artistic and intellectual +power and moral character. It is therefore the +highest finish that can be given to a woman's education, to +be educated for a kindergartner; and it is from the most +advanced classes of high and normal schools, public and +private, that the pupils of our training schools should come, +and from the most refined circles of private life—remembering +that these are not identical with wealthy and fashionable +ones, for in the latter we often find the vulgar and coarse. +The refinement of feeling and thought which is always +attended with gentle and courteous manners is a religious +quality, that not seldom glorifies humble homes whose inmates +escape the sometimes hardening effect of poverty by "seeing +Him who is invisible," while those "the imagination of +whose hearts are evil continually," and even the merely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +frivolous, betray that they have "faculties that they have +never used" though they dwell in palaces.</p> + +<p>Ever since the normal teaching of kindergartners was +begun in America, in 1868, letters have been received from +teachers, already at work in the old routine of primary +instruction, asking for knowledge of the plays and occupations +invented by Frœbel; in order that, by means of +them, they may give such prestige to their infant schools +as the name of kindergarten may. But this superficial, +inappreciative use of Frœbel's processes, is as fatal to his +reform as was <i>judaizing</i> to the primitive Christian Church. +Frœbel's method is a radical change of direction. It changes +the educator's point of view. Instead of looking down upon +the child, the kindergartner must clear her mind of all foregone +arbitrary conclusions, and humbly look up to the +innocent soul, which in its turn sees nothing but the face +of the Father in heaven—(for thus Christ explains children's +being "of the kingdom of heaven"). This is difficult +for her to do, because—not seldom—a shadow has fallen +on the original innocence of the children confided to her +care, from those human beings in relation to them, who +have not done for them what every human being needs +by reason of the essential dependence of individuals upon +their race.</p> + +<p>The child is doubtless an embryo angel; but no less +certainly a possible devil. If the immortal will, impassioned +by the heart, which never rests permanently satisfied +till the mind recognizes God, be puzzled, it may be turned +in a wrong direction by what it meets, and then the manifestation +will be ugly and more or less hateful. Evil is the +inevitable effect of an ignorant, disorderly action of the will; +of its not adopting the laws of order, by which God creates +the universe, and of which the universe is the unconscious +exponent. But knowledge of the laws of order must come +to guide the will, from outside the child's conscious individuality,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +<i>through the human providence of education</i>, in which +the heavenly Father veils His infinite power, in order that +the child may be free to make the choice of good, that shall +lift him from the state, of merely instinctive being, into that +union of Love and Thought, which characterizes a spirit +<i>creative</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, causing effects.</p> + +<p>Perhaps you will say that if human influence must embody +Divine Providence, in order to educate, then children never +will be educated. Well! Except in one instance I admit +that children never have been educated up to the ideal standard. +But the one instance of the perfectly Divine Son of +the perfectly holy Mother; and the partial successes of such +fitful good education as history and tradition report, forbid +us to despair of making human education a worthy image +of Divine Providence. <i>To despair of this</i> is want of the +proper action of human free will,—Faith.</p> + +<p>The first qualification of the true kindergartner, then, is +Faith, which can be based only on the abiding conviction +that God is with us "<i>to will and to do</i>," if we will only have +the courage to take for granted that if <i>we are willing</i>, He +will make of us divine guides to others. That He is calling +them to be so, whoever feels a strong love of children, +sympathy with their life, and sensibility to their beauty, may +have a reasonable assurance; and that such as shall faithfully +qualify themselves for the work will not fail of the +divine help. But observe my proviso. Their love must not +be a passing emotion, grounded on the children's superficial +beauty. It must be a love that involves patience, that can +stand the manifestation of ugly temper, and perverse will, +and never lose sight of the embryo angel that wears for the +moment the devilish mask. In children, evil is actual, but +always superficial and temporary, if the educator does not +become party to it by losing her own temper and idea. Also +she must have resources by means of a cultivated understanding +and imagination, to command the child's imagination +and heart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> + +<p>It may be said that everybody cannot have, at will, imagination +and culture. This is true; but such persons should +not undertake to keep a kindergarten. Let them do something +else; keep shop, cultivate vegetables, work the sewing +machine; even keep those schools for older children, in +which books are the main teachers. There are multitudes +of things to be done; the greatest variety of functions to be +performed in human life. But of all things to do, the cultivation +of human beings at that period of life when they are +utterly at the mercy of those who teach them, is the most +sacred. Why rush into that, impelled by any motive below +the highest?</p> + +<p>On the other hand, I do not wish to produce any artificial +sentimentality on this subject. It is my belief that the +average woman is sufficiently gifted by nature to make a +good kindergartner, if she will give her nature fair play, by +cultivating religious and moral sentiment; and will take +pains to develop her intellect by the study of nature's laws +in at least one department of science—that of vegetable +physiology for instance, the materials of which are everywhere. +One who <i>could not</i> be educated to become a kindergartner, +should never dare to become a mother; for she +would not know even how to choose the assistance necessary +to her for the work that ought to be done for every child by +somebody. While I would discourage, and if possible effectually +frighten every one from professing kindergartning +who is morally disqualified by sordid aims, or by making it +a means to another end than itself, I welcome the young +and ardent to this beautiful womanly work, which, to do +well, requires of them to do the very best thing for their +own intellect and heart, and which, more certainly than anything +else, will give them the secret of Power and Beauty.</p> + +<p>It was my privilege, a year or two since, to pass a week +in one of the schools of the feeble-minded; and I there saw +six women, some of them quite young girls, devoted to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +terrible work of waking up Will and Perception in those +poor prisoners of mal-organization, so many of them frightful +to look upon. They were doing their work under the +strongest sense of humanity and religion. It would have +been impossible to do it at all, as they were doing it, had +they had no other inspiration than the pay they were receiving. +The main reward was in their having some success in +waking up the mind. In their countenances something angelic +was dawning; and this was not my fancy merely, for +I heard the same remark made again and again, by persons +who went there as I did. I do not think one of these women +wished to leave the good work; and if acting on a mind-cherishing +principle was so interesting, and productive of +such reactive effects, in such sad circumstances, how much +more may be expected from working upon children fairly +gifted! The charm of the sadder work was, that, like +kindergartning, it stimulated to profound study of the laws +of mental nature, in order to work reverently among them, +instead of arbitrarily, in defiance or irreverence of them. +To do this made these women feel that they were working +with God; and this made them practical saints. But why +cannot we believe that God is present, and acting with us, +and wooing us to act with Himself, in the joyous paradise +of life, as well as in chambers of disease, and among the +wretched? Is He not the God of the living and joyful, as +well as of the dying and sad? Why is the church-yard only +a grave-yard? Why should it not always be a kindergarten?</p> + +<p>One of the pleasantest observations that I made of the +kindergartens of Germany—and I went to the very best +ones, those kept by the kindergartners whom Frœbel had +trained—was the happy absorption of the teachers in the +children; their sympathy with them; the utter companionship +between them. I never saw a punishment; I never +heard a Don't (or its German equivalent); but when anything +went wrong, there was always a pause, and sometimes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +questions were asked; and all seemed to wait till the inward +guide had been brought out into consciousness (whether the +thing in hand was social action or artistic work). Perhaps +it might be harder work to govern American children. Their +vivacious temperament, their lively energies, need "conscious +law" as a curb, rather than as a spur. But all the +more is it necessary for the American kindergartner to vivify +the invisible guide; she should present order to the mind, +by her genial questioning and conversation over the work in +hand, rather than exert an arbitrary power which might +stimulate the reaction of obstinacy or the subterfuges of +cunning. To <i>govern</i> is not the whole thing. The question +is <i>how</i> we govern; whether we so govern as to make a +cringing slave, a cunning hypocrite, or an intelligent, law-abiding, +self-respecting, <i>willing</i> servant of God. I have +seen a magnetic teacher produce a marvellous obedience, and +apparent order, by his imposing presence and keen satire. +He imagined that he governed by moral power; but as soon +as he was out of the schoolroom, the children were the victims +of their own impulses, to which seemed given a stronger +spring by the enforced repression. There is no order which +is more than skin deep, unless it be the free, glad obedience +of the child to a law, which he perceives to be creative because +it enables him to do something real. Nothing short of +the union of love and thought can produce spiritual power, +<i>i.e.</i>, creativeness. It is only spiritual power that inaugurates +order—the Eternal Beauty may be inaugurated in childhood +and among childish toys.</p> + +<p>There is reason, on their own account, why we want our +pupils, in this art of kindergartning, to be in their disposition +and circumstances above merely pecuniary motive for entering +on the work; and that is, because it will be long before +the work will pay much in money. I need not adduce any +other proof of this than our experience in Boston; where, for +four years, the rarely gifted, thoroughly educated, religiously<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +devoted Alma Kriege poured out her young energies on +classes of less than a score of children; bringing her a pittance +so small that she had to fill up the rest of her hours, +which ought to have been given to recreation and culture, +with other work, in order to pay for rent and necessary +bread. Our rich and cultivated people will not forego a little +more upholstery than is necessary, or a style of dress +that makes the laundry bill—to say nothing of the mantua-maker's +and milliner's—larger than the school bill, in order +to give the required remuneration to the kindergartner for +spending herself on their children in exhausting study and +labor. But the truth is, people do not really believe that +anything better can be done for children than to kill the time +between the mother's arms and the season when they are to +be taught to read; and so this precious interval, when the +habits of thought and affection are forming, is given up to be +filled by chance, risking life-long difficulties for the child.</p> + +<p>Now, what is to reform this state of things? Nothing but +the self-sacrificing work of kindergartners, who, for the sake +of enlightening these benighted parents, will do their work +faithfully, steadily refusing to undertake the care of those +whom their parents will not trust to Frœbel's system. The +refusal will not seldom force the truth on the parents—who, +when they know it, will be glad to know it. I do not say to +any particular person, it is your duty to wear yourself out +and half starve, for the sake of keeping a kindergarten. It +is only you who are sufficiently free from other obligations, to +give yourselves the privilege and luxury of working with +God, on the paradisaical ground of childhood, who should +enter this field. If you can make it your object to study +how to avoid offending those who are beholding the face of +the Father in heaven, by not hindering, but bringing them +to Christ, which means helping them to grow as He did, in +grace as in stature, and in favor with God and man, till like +Him they become redeemers of their brethren from bondage,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +and can help to make earth the kingdom of heaven; then you +may hope, in your day and generation, to initiate kindergartning, +and make the way smooth for those that follow. +When the true thing is initiated, it will pay even in money; +for parents will see that it is invaluable.</p> + +<p>It is twenty-two years since Frœbel died. He had made a +band of kindergartners, and set them at work. They all began +with small pecuniary reward. It was at first a starving +business. In Europe it is more difficult than it is here, to +induce women of culture and position to undertake any work +which is paid for with money. Frœbel's genius had overcome +this prejudice in a few instances. The ladies of one +wealthy family in Hamburg became his pupils, one of whom +introduced it into England, though under some great disadvantages. +The Baroness Marenholtz-Bülow is the most important +person inspired by Frœbel; and the circumstances of +her introduction to him are even picturesque. Being in feeble +health, she went into an obscure village for rest and +retirement; and one day asked the woman with whom she +boarded, if anything interesting was going on among the +villagers. The woman replied that there was "one queer +thing, a natural fool who played about among the children, +who followed him, and were very much taken up with him." +The Baroness hardly heeded this singular assertion; but +some time after, being abroad for exercise, she saw a white-haired +man under a tree, with a group of children around +him; and, thinking this might be the "natural fool," she +drew near, and was soon arrested by what she heard, and +joined the little throng herself. Subsequent interviews with +Frœbel—for it was he—made a new era in her life, and she +corresponded with him closely till his death. She has since +been his chief apostle. After years of earnest work, with +tongue and pen, she succeeded in getting rid of the injunction +against his schools, made by the Prussian Government, +which was jealous of what claimed to be an improvement on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +their world-renowned Reform. Since this injunction was +taken off, she has worked, by means of a normal school +which she helped to found in Berlin, in which she lectured +gratuitously many years, fighting earnestly against just such +deteriorations of the system as have already begun to appear +in this country. Some of the pseudo-kindergartens use the +plays and occupations there, as here, in the most superficial +way. When children work by patterns, or are shown—instead +of being told in words—how to do things, they merely +imitate, with as little accompaniment of intellectual action as +a monkey; and neither the mind nor the character will be +developed, but rather dissipated and weakened. Others, +especially in this country, use the plays in the intervals between +lessons or reading,—which, being taught before the +mind has been regularly developed by success in doing things, +and before the meaning of words has been learned in an adequate +manner, are confused with a chaos of unrelated particulars, +that it will take years of self-education, by and by, to +grow out of; and, in short, only a few vigorous natures fortunately +situated ever surmount the difficulty.</p> + +<p>But the work of the Baroness has not been in vain; and +she writes in a late letter that a government decree has just +been made in Austria, ordering that all the children between +four and six years of age should be sent to kindergartens; +and that every normal school must give kindergarten training, +and every teacher, whether of that or the following +stages of education, must be made acquainted with Frœbel's +principles and practices. This great step is the final result +of the agitation of the subject for the last few years in +Europe, which began in the first Philosophers' Congress at +Prague, in 1867. The dying out of the teachers instructed +by Frœbel himself was manifestly producing a deteriorating +effect in the quality of kindergartners; and his most intelligent +and devoted disciples proposed to the Congress an +effort for the revival of his science and art in its pristine +purity and power.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is most desirable that such falsification and deterioration +do not get ahead in America. But there is impending +danger of it, and it can only be prevented by establishing +and keeping up adequate training-schools, and so informing +public opinion, that it shall not be tolerated in the community +to call by the sacred name of kindergarten anything short of +it. There will necessarily be infant schools of an inferior +quality for a long time, because it will take time to make +common an adequate education in the art of kindergartning; +but let such be <i>called</i> play-schools. <i>Pretenders</i> in this profession +should be frowned upon by all good people, as pretenders +in the clerical profession are. They do more harm +than bad clergymen can, because the subjects of their teaching +are more helpless and undefended, and can do nothing +for themselves.</p> + +<p>The experience I have had in my apostolate in this cause, +has brought me to the conclusion that in America the best +way to proceed is, to induce the public authorities to have +kindergartning taught in the State and city normal schools, +and to open public kindergartens as fast as there are adequate +teachers for them.</p> + +<p>Everything depends on the quality of the first kindergartners +we train—their spiritual, moral and intellectual quality—which +must be such as to operate in two ways: first, to +do for the children the right thing; secondly, to educate the +community to require it done as a general thing. Many +characteristics of America give great encouragement. We +are not dragged back, as they are in Europe, by old customs, +whose roots are intertwined with the heart-strings of inherited +sentiment. Our patriotic hearts fasten themselves +on the great future that our fathers died to inaugurate. We +must justify their ideal of universal equality, by an equal +education, an equal opportunity for development of all our +people. "The spirit that makes all things new," as the +heart of childhood craves, and its hand is eager to enact, is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +"<i>every</i> word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," to +make alive the human heart. Therefore we leave behind us—more +and more—those conventions of the Old World that +have made even the great work of educating rank as inferior +to that which wields the sword of war. Some people +groan at seeing how the growing facilities of getting money, +which our institutions give to every man and woman of +energy, is effacing the old distinctions of rank. But if our +Culture may be made universal, by employing part of this +money in making public education adequate, what ground +will be left for <i>distinction of rank</i>? What pretext for exclusion +will there be, when there are none rude and uncultivated +to be excluded? That any distinction of ranks came among +the children of God is incidental to free agency. Children +know nothing of them—till we profane their golden age of +innocence by revealing them. (Appendix, <a href="#Note_A">Note A</a>.)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LECTURE II.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>THE NURSERY.<br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">It</span> is my object to inspire, if I can, an enthusiasm for educating +children strictly on Frœbel's method, and no other; +and I wish to justify myself by giving reasons for this; for +I know that, at first sight, Americans start back from putting +faith in any leader; immediately exclaiming, that they must +be free to follow the light of their own minds.</div> + +<p>This sounds large and liberal, certainly; and no one sees +the danger of yielding to any individual authority more than +I do; but it is certain that nothing may make us so narrow, +as a bigoted adherence to the rule of following the light of +our own mind condignly. The light of our own individual +mind may be darkness; it must, in any case, be that of a farthing +candle, compared with Eternal Reason, "the light that +lighteth every man that cometh into the world." The question +is, do we distinguish between that greater light and our +own idiosyncrasy, with a becoming and discriminating humility? +I once heard a lady, whose name was Gurley, say +to a witty gentleman, that she believed "in the total depravity +of human nature from the experience of her own +heart." Ah! but that is not quite fair, he replied, "for how +do you know what is human nature and what is Gurleyism?" +Here is tersely suggested the danger of the individualistic +philosophy, which has developed itself into a +new kind of bigotry in these later days, not less denunciatory +in its <i>animus</i> than any other; and which shuts up its +votaries in a dungeon from the light of Universal experience. +I acknowledge the legitimacy of the philosophy of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +individualism, as a protest against the glittering generality +which theological philosophy had become, at the time when +it arose; and as affirmation that God makes every man separately +an eye, and if he would see into the Infinite Over-soul, +he must look with it out of his own window. But this +is only the way to begin to search for truth. If he is not self-intoxicated, +every man soon learns that his window does not +command the whole horizon, that God not only has given a +window to him, but to every other man; that we are all free to +look out of each others' windows, some being higher up in the +tower of the common humanity than our own, commanding +wider views; in fine that it is with <i>all</i> the sons of man that +"wisdom dwells," and they must inter-communicate with +mutual reverence if they would know her well. Frœbel had +not been so wise, had he not, with reverent humility, sought +what God says immediately to mothers and babes. You will +not be wise if you do not look out of Frœbel's window.</p> + +<p>The story I told you, in my last lecture, of the growth of +Frœbel's mind from his boyhood, suggested the fact that the +common motherly instinct, purified of individual passion and +caprice, and, understanding itself as the presence of the Living +God overshadowing her, is the social atmosphere necessary +to be breathed by every child who is to grow in wisdom +and stature, and in favor with God and man.</p> + +<p>Frœbel learned this primal fact or truth, first negatively, +as it were, by lacking it in his own childish experience; and +he verified it positively afterwards, by studying the method +of unsophisticated mothers, at that earliest period of their +children's lives, when, in order to keep them alive merely, +the nurse must take the rule of her nursing from the needs +which her heart divines, aided by the nursling's own expression +of want and content—its tears and smiles.</p> + +<p>Let us then determine first, as he did, the nursery art, +which is preliminary to that of the Kindergarten.</p> + +<p>By the primal miracle (<i>i.e.</i>, wonder working) of nature, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +mother finds in her arms a fellow-being, who has an immeasurable +susceptibility of suffering, and an immeasurable +desire of enjoyment, and an equally immeasurable force intent +on compassing this desire, already in activity, but with +no knowledge at all of the material conditions in which he +is placed, to which he is subject, and by which he is limited +in the exercise of this immense nature.</p> + +<p>As I have said before, every form of animal existence <i>but</i> +the human, is endowed with some absolute knowledge, enabling +it to fulfil its limited sphere of relationship as unerringly +as the magnetized needle turns to the pole, and, even +with more or less of enjoyment; yet with no forethought. +But the knowledge that is to guide the blind will of the human +being, even to escape death in the first hour of its bodily +life, exists substantially outside of its own individuality in +the mother, or whoever supplies the mother's place.</p> + +<p>And throughout the existence of the human being, the +forethought that is to enable him to appreciate his ever +multiplying relations with his own kind, and which grows +wider and sweeter as he fulfils the duties they involve, is +essentially outside of himself as a mere individual; being +found first in those who are in relation with him in the family, +afterwards in social, national, cosmopolitan relationship; +till at last he realizes himself to be in sonship with God, in +whom all humanity, nations, families, individuals, "live and +move and have their being." There is no absolute isolation +or independency possible for a spiritual being. This is a +truth involved in the very meaning of the word spirit, and +revealed to every family on earth, by the ever recurring fact +of the child born into the arms of a love that emparadises +both parties, on which he lives more or less a pensioner +throughout his whole existence, so far as he lives humanly, +finding fullness of life at last in the clear vision and conscious +communion of an Infinite Father, who has been revealing +Himself all along, in the love of parent and child,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +brother and sister, husband and wife, friend, fellow-citizen and +fellow-man. Christ said, that little children see the Father +face to face, but surely not with the eyes of the body or of +the understanding! They see him with the heart. And +is it not true, that we never quite forget the child's vision +in turning our eyes on lower things? for what but remembrance +of our Heavenly Father's face is hope, "that springs +eternal in the human breast?" What but this remembrance +are the ideals of beauty, that haunt the savage and the +sage? the sense of law that gives us our moral dignity, +and in the saddest case, what but this are the pangs of +remorse, in which, as Emerson has sung in his wonderful +sphinx song, "lurks the joy that is sweetest?"</p> + +<p>Frœbel has authority with me, because, in this great faith, +making himself a little child, he received little children in +the name (that is, as germinating forms) of the Divine humanity, +with a simple sincerity, such as few seem to have +done since Jesus claimed little children as the pure elements +of the kingdom he came to establish on earth; and exhorted +that, as they were such, they should be brought to him as +the motherly instinct prompted, and declared that they +were not to be forbidden (that is, hindered as all false education +hinders.)</p> + +<p>As an American then, and more—as a human being, I acknowledge +no authority except the union of love and thought +in practical operation. But whenever I see this union in any +one, to a greater degree than I have it in myself, I bow before +that person, and <i>feel</i> (which is the subtlest kind of knowing) +that I am larger wiser, freer, more effective for good, +by following and obeying him as a master for the time +being.</p> + +<p>Therefore, after the study I have made of Frœbel, and of +the method with little children that he was fifty years discovering +and elaborating into practical processes, whose <i>rationale</i> +and creative influence I perceive; I feel, as it were,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +<i>Divinely authorized</i> to present him to you as an authority +which you can reverently trust; and so be delivered from the +uncertainties of your own narrow and crude notions, inexperienced +and ignorant as you undoubtedly are, however +talented.</p> + +<p>It is quite necessary for me to say, and for you to accept +this now, or our short time together will be wasted. There +is a time for criticism undoubtedly, and nothing is true that +can not make itself good against "honest doubt." But as +Sterne has said, "of all the cants that are canted in this canting +world, though the cant of hypocrisy may be the worst, +the cant of criticism is the most provoking. I would go +fifty miles on foot to kiss the hand of that man, whose generous +heart will give up the reins into his author's hands, +for the time being, and let him lead him where he will." I +am quoting from memory, and may forget the exact words; +but the idea is, that the mood of self-surrendering reverence +is the mood for profitable study, for it is to "become a little +child," which Christ told his disciples was the condition of +any one's becoming the greatest in the kingdom of Divine +Truth.</p> + +<p>Let us begin, then, with reverently considering the new +born child, as Frœbel did; for that is to be "the light of all +our seeing."</p> + +<p>A child is a living soul, from the very first; not a mere +animal force, but a person, open to God on one side by his +heart, which appreciates love, and on the other side to be +opened to nature, by the reaction upon his sensibility of +those beauteous forms of things that are the analysis of +God's creative wisdom; and which, therefore, gives him a +growing understanding, whereby his mere active force shall +be elevated into a rational, productive will. For heart and +will are, at first, blind to outward things and therefore inefficient, +until the understanding shall be developed according +to the order of nature.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p> + +<p>But during this process of its development, adult wisdom +must supply the place of the child's wisdom, which is not, +as yet, grown; that is—an educator must point out the +way, genially, not peremptorily; for in following the educator's +indications, the child must still act in a measure +from himself. As he is irrefragably free, he will not always +obey; he will try other paths—perhaps the contrary one—by +way of testing whether he has life in himself. But unless +he shall go a right way, he will accomplish nothing satisfactory +and reproductive; and it is Frœbel's idea to give him +something to do, within the possible sphere of his affection +and fancy, which shall be an opportunity of his making an +experience of success, that shall stimulate him to desire, +and thereby make him receptive of the guidance of creative +law, which is the only true object for the obedience of a spiritual +being.</p> + +<p>To the new born child, his own body is the whole universe; +and the first impression he gets of it seems to come +from his need of nutriment. But it is the mother, not the +child, that responds to this want, by presenting food to the +organ of taste, and producing a pleasurable impression which +arouses the soul to <i>intend itself</i> into the organ, which is developed +to receive impression more and more perfectly, by +the child's seeking for a repetition of the pleasure. For a +time, whatever uneasiness a child feels, he attempts to remove +by the exercise of this organ, through which he has +gained his first pleasant impression of objective nature. +Therefore is it, that his lips and tongue become his first +means of examining the outward world into which he has +been projected by his Creator.</p> + +<p>The ear seems to be the next organ of which the child becomes +conscious, or through which he receives impressions +of personal pleasure and pain; and here it is noticeable, +that <i>rhythmical</i> sound seems, from the very first, to give most +pleasure; and is wonderfully effective to soothe the nerves,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +and remove uneasiness. All mothers and nurses sing to +babies, as well as rock them, (which is <i>rhythmical</i> motion,) +and this pleasant impression on the ear diverts the child +from intending himself exclusively into the organ of tasting. +He now stretches himself into his ears, whose powers are +developed by gently exercising their function of hearing.</p> + +<p>The child seems to taste and hear, before he begins to see +anything more definite than the difference between light and +darkness. By and by a salient point of light, it may be +the light of a candle, catches and fixes his eye, and gives a +distinct visual impression, which is evidently pleasurable, for +the child's eye follows the light, showing that the soul intends +itself into the organ of sight. Soon after, gay colors +fix its gaze and evidently give pleasure. The eye for color +is developed gradually, like the ear for music, by exercise, +which being pleasurable becomes spontaneous.</p> + +<p>The whole body is the organ of touch; but as the hands +are made convenient for grasping, to which the infant has +an instinctive tendency, and the tips of the fingers are especially +handy for touching, they become, by the intension of +the mind into them, the special organ for examining things +by touch, and getting impressions of qualities obvious to no +other sense. When, as it sometimes happens, by malformation +or maltreatment of them, the eyes fail to perform their +functions, it is wonderful how much more the soul intends +itself into the special organs of touch, developing them to +such a degree, that a cultivated blind person seems almost +to see with the tips of the fingers. This fact proves what +I have been trying to impress on your minds, that the soul +which spontaneously desires and wills enjoyment, takes possession +and becomes conscious of its organs of sensuous +perception, partly by an original impulse, given to it by the +Creator, and partly, (which I want you especially to observe,) +by the genial, sympathetic, intelligent, careful co-working +of the mother and nurse; who, by what we call<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +nursery play, gives a needed help to the child to accomplish +this feat in a healthy and pleasurable manner. And we shall +be better convinced of the virtue of this nursery play, if +we consider the case of the neglected children of the very +poor, so pathetically described by Charles Lamb. See essays +on Popular Fallacies, No. 12.</p> + +<p>Madame Marenholtz-<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Bulow'">Bülow</ins> has happily remarked, in her +preface to Jacob's Manual, <i>Le jardin des Enfans</i>, that "to +develop and train the senses is not to pamper them." The +organs of tasting and smelling do not require so much +exercise by the duplicate action of the mother, as those of +seeing and hearing. The former have for their end to build +up the body; the latter to lead the child's mind out of the +body, to that part of nature which connects him with other +persons. The functions of both are equally worthy; but +those of the latter belong to the child as a social and intellectual +being. It is the mother's office to temper the exercises +of each sense, so that they may limit and balance each +other. And in order to limit those which are building up +the body, so that they shall not absorb the child, the action +of the others must be helped out. "Our bodies feel—where'er +they be—against or with our will;" but to see and +hear all that children can, requires exertion of will and this +is coaxed out by the sympathetic action of others. Yet the +functions of tasting or smelling are not to be banned. The +Creator has made them delightful; and if others do their +proper part, their exercise will never become harmful. To +enjoy tasting and smelling is no less innocent than to enjoy +seeing and hearing. There is no function of mind or body +but may be performed Divinely. Milton shows insight into +this truth by making Raphael sit and eat at table with man +in Paradise; and he says some wonderful things upon the +point, which will bear much study. And have we not in +sacred tradition a symbol, still more venerable, of the +truth, that the fire of spirit burns without consuming, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +may transform the body without leaving visible residue? +There are in Brown's philosophy (which does not penetrate +into <i>all</i> the mysteries of the rational soul and immortal spirit) +some very instructive chapters on the social and moral relations +of the grosser senses, (as taste, smell and touch are +sometimes called.) It is the part of rational education to +understand all these things thoroughly, and adjust the spontaneous +activities by subordinating them to the end of a +harmonious and beneficent social life. The Lord's Supper +may be made to illustrate this general human duty.</p> + +<p>There is doubtless marked difference in the original energy +of life, in different children. Young—but not too young, +happy, healthy, loving parents, have the most vigorous, +lively and harmoniously organized children; but in all cases, +the impulse of life must be met and cherished by the tender, +attractive, inspiring force of motherly love; which with caressing +tone and invoking smile, peers into the infant's eyes, +and importunately calls forth the new person, who, as her +instinctive motherly faith and love assure her, is there; +and whom she yearns to make conscious of himself in self-enjoyment. +The time comes when the little body has become +so far subject to the new soul, that an answering +smile of recognition signalizes the arrival upon the shores of +mortal being of "that light which never was on sea or land," +another immortal intelligence! It is only the smile of the +intelligent human face, that can call forth this smile of the +child in the first instance; but let this glad mutual recognition +of souls take place once, and both parties will seek to +repeat the delight, again and again. Few persons, indeed, +get so chilled by the sufferings and disappointments, and +so hardened by the crimes of human life, but on the sight +of a little child, they are impelled to invoke this answering +smile by making themselves, for the moment, little children +again; seeking and finding that communion with our kind +which is the Alpha and Omega of life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> + +<p>Do not say that I am wandering, fancifully, from the +serious work which we are upon: I am only beginning at +the beginning. We can only understand the child, and what +we are to do for it in the Kindergarten, by understanding +the first stage of its being—the pre-intellectual one in the +nursery. The body is the first garden in which God plants +the human soul, "to dress and to keep it." The loving +mother is the first gardener of the human flower. Good +nursing is the first word of Frœbel's gospel of child-culture.</p> + +<p>The process of taking possession of the organs, that I have +just described, is never performed perfectly unless children +are nursed genially. If bitter and disagreeable things are +presented to the organ of the taste, they are rejected with +the whole force of a will, which is too blind in its ignorance +to find the thing it wants, but vindicates its irrefragable +freedom of choice by uttering cries of fright, pain and +anger, as it shrinks back, instead of throwing itself forward +into nature. If the cruel thing is repeated, the nerves are +paralyzed, or at least rendered morbid, especially when rude +untender handling outrages the sense of touch. When +rough and discordant sounds assail the ear, or too sharply +salient a light, the eye, these organs will be injured, and +may be rendered useless for life. The neglected and maltreated +child is dull of sense, and lifeless, or morbidly +impulsive, possibly savagely cruel and cunning, in sheer +self-defence. The pure element and first condition of perfect +growth, is the joy that responds to the electric touch +of love.</p> + +<p>Underlying and outmeasuring all this delicate development +of the organs of the five senses, is the whole body's +instinct of motion, which is the primal action of will. The +perfectly healthy body of a little child, when it is awake, is +always in motion—more or less intentionally. When asleep, +there is the circulation of the blood, and pulsation of the +solids of the body, corresponding to the act of breathing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +which is involuntary; and any interruption of these produces +disease—their suspension, death. But the motion which +makes the limbs agile, and the whole body elastic, and gradually +to become an obedient servant, is voluntary, intentional, +and can be helped by that sympathetic action of others, +which we call <i>playing with the child</i>. Frœbel's rich suggestions +on this play are contained in his mother's cossetting +songs; and I am glad to tell you that two English +ladies, a poet and a musician, have translated and set to music +this unique book; and that just now it has been published +by Wilkie, Wood & Co., in London. It suggests all kinds +of little gymnastics of the hands, fingers, feet, toes and legs, +for these are the child's first play things; and also the first +symbols of intelligent communication, giving the core and +significance to all languages.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>I think that a baby never <i>begins</i> to play, in the first instance, +but responds to the mother and nurse's play, and +learns thereby its various members and their powers and +uses; and when at last it jumps, runs, walks by itself, which +it cannot begin to do without the help of others, it is prepared +to say <i>I</i>, with a clear sense of individuality.</p> + +<p>In analyzing the process of a child's learning to walk, we +see most clearly the characteristic difference between the +human person and the animals below man in the scale of +relation. The little chicken runs about of itself, as soon +as it is out of the shell; but the human child, even after all +its limbs are grown, and though he has been moving himself +on all fours by means of the floor, and supporting himself +by means of the furniture to which he clings, <i>does not +walk</i>. He will only stand alone, unsupported, when he sees +that there are guarding arms round about him, all ready to +catch him if he should fall. He seems to know instinctively, +that all the force of the earth's gravitation is against +him. He does not know that he may balance it by his personal +power. His body weighs upon his soul like a mountain,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +precisely because he is intelligent of it as an object, +loves it as a means of pleasure, and dreads its power of giving +pain to him. The little darling stands, perhaps between +the knees of his father, whose arms are round about him; +the mother opens her loving arms to receive him, and calls +him to her embrace; the way is short between, and three +steps will be sufficient, but where is the courageous faith to +say to this mountain of a body, "be removed to another +place?" It is not in himself; he cannot produce it any more +than he can take himself up by his own ears. It is in the +mother; for it is she, not he, who has the knowledge of the +yet unexerted power which is flowing into the child from +the Creator. Only by the electric touch of her faith in him +does his faith in himself flash out in answer to her look and +voice of cheer, and he rushes to her arms. It is the doing +of the deed which gives to himself the knowledge of the +power that is in him. He repeats it again and again, seeming +to wish to be more and more certain of his being the +cause of so great effect. Thus cause and effect are discriminated, +and "to him that hath" a sense of individuality, +"shall be given," forevermore, a growing power over the +body, to which no measure can be stated. Even on the +vulgar plane of the professional tumbler, a man's power +over his body seems, sometimes, to be absolute and miraculous. +But the annals of heroism and martyrdom are full +of facts that go to prove to all who consider them profoundly, +that the immaterial soul is sovereign, when, by recognizing +all its relations, it subjects the individual to the +universal, and becomes thereby entirely spiritual, (which is +man reciprocating with God; becoming more and more conscious +forever.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>)</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p> +<p>From what has been said of the soul's taking possession +of the body and its several organs, by exercising the functions +of tasting, hearing, seeing, smelling, touching, grasping, +moving the limbs, and at last taking up the whole body +into itself in the act of walking, we see that it is all done, +even the last, by virtue of the social nature.</p> + +<p>Frœbel took his clue from this fact, a primal one, and +never let it go, and it is of the greatest importance that it +be understood clearly, that conscious individuality, which +gives the sense of free personality, the starting point, as it +were, of intelligent will, is perfectly consistent with and +even dependent on the simultaneous development of the +social principle in all its purity and power.</p> + +<p>We see a sad negative proof of this, in asylums for infants +abandoned by their mothers, or given up by them +through stress of poverty. There is one of these in New +York city, into which are received poor little things in the +first weeks of their existence. Every thing is done for their +bodily comfort which the general human kindness can devise.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +They have clean warm cradles and clothes, good milk, +in short everything but that caressing motherly play, which +goes from the personal heart to the personal heart. That +is one thing general charity cannot supply; it is the personal +gift of God to the mother for her child, and none but she can +be the sufficient medium of it, and therefore, undoubtedly +it is, that almost all new-born children in foundling hospitals +die; or, if they survive, are found to be feeble-minded +or idiotic. They seem to sink into their animal natures, +and belie the legend man written on their brows, showing none +of that beautiful fearlessness and courageous affectionateness +that characterise the heartily welcomed, healthy, well-cared-for +human infant. On the contrary, they show a dreary apathy, +morbid fearfulness, or a belligerent self-defence, anticipative +of other forms of the cruel neglect which has been their +dreary experience.</p> + +<p>Taking a hint from observations of this kind, together +with the bitter experiences of his own childhood, Frœbel +supplied to the mother or nurse some playthings for the +baby, which might continue to improve the various organs +of its body, by making the exercise of their functions a social +delight.</p> + +<p>What is called the first gift, he proposes should be used in +the nursery first. It consists of six soft balls, not too large +to be grasped by a little hand, and the use of which in the +nursery, is suggested by a little first book for mothers, that +has been translated from Jacob's <i>Le jardin des Enfans</i>.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> I +think it is important for the Kindergartner to know what +Frœbel thought could be done for the development of the +infant in the nursery, since if it has not been done there, she +must contrive to remedy the evil in the Kindergarten. You +will bear with me, therefore, if I go quite into the minutiæ<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +of this matter. It will open your eyes to observe delicately, +as Frœbel did.</p> + +<p>He proposed that the red ball should be first presented. +He had observed that a bright light concentrated, as in a +candle, first excited the organ of sight and stimulated its +action. Hence he inferred that a bright color would do the +same, a neutral tint would not be seen at all probably. The +red ball is not quite so salient and exciting as the light of +a candle, but on that account it can be gazed at longer, +without producing a painful re-action. The child will have +a pleasure in grasping it, and will probably carry it to his +lips; but as it is woolen, it will not be especially agreeable +to the delicate organ of taste. It will all the more be +looked at therefore, and give the impression of red. Frœbel +proposes that it shall be called the red ball, in order that +the impression of the word <i>red</i> on the ear, shall blend in +memory with the impression of the color on the eye. As +long as the child seems amused with the red ball, he would +not have another color introduced, because he thought it +took time for the eye to get a clear and strong impression +of one color, and this should be done before it was tried with +a contrasted impression. But by and by the blue ball, as +the greatest contrast, may be given and named; and all the +little plays suggested in the mother's book be repeated with +the blue ball; and then the yellow ball should be given with +its name; and then the three be given together, and the baby +be asked to choose the blue, or red, or yellow one. By attaching +a string to them, and whirling them, or letting the +infant do so, it is surprising how long the child will amuse +itself with these balls, and what pleasure colors alone give, +especially when combined with motion.</p> + +<p>The secondary colors may afterwards be added to the +treasury for the eye, with the same carefulness to secure +completeness and distinctness of impression; and to associate +the color with the word that names it; for language, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +special organ of social communion, should be addressed to +the child from the first, though its complete attainment and +use is the crown of all education.</p> + +<p>Smiles and sounds, proceeding out of the mouth, are the +first languages, and begin to fix the little child's eyes and +attention upon the mouth of the mother, from which issue +the tones that are sweetest to hear, and especially when in +musical cadence. But the child understands the words addressed +to him long before he himself begins to articulate; for +language is no function of the individual, but only of the +consciously social being, yearning to find himself in another.</p> + +<p>There is a reciprocal communication between infants and +adults that precedes the difficult act of articulation. This +we call the natural language, and it is common to all nations, +being mutually intelligible, as is proved by deaf mutes +from remote countries who understand each other at once. +But this natural language has a very narrow scope. It +serves to communicate instinctive wants of body and heart, +but does not serve the fine purposes of intellectual communication, +nor minister any considerable intellectual development. +These signs are very general, while every word in +its origin has represented a particular object in nature. In +analyzing any language, we find that the names given to the +body and its members, and to the actions and facts of life, +without which no human society can exist, are the nucleus +or central words that characterize it, and from which the +whole national rhetoric is derived. Hence there is a value +for the mind in associating the words and action of even +such a little play as "here we go up, up, up, and here we go +down, down, down, and here we go backwards and forwards, +and here we go round, round, round," with other rhymes +and plays of an analogous character that are found wherever +there are mothers and children.</p> + +<p>We have observed that the moment of first accomplishing +the feat of running alone, seemed to be that of the child's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +beginning to realize himself to be a person, but that even, +in this act, he was dependent upon his mother; that his +bodily independence was the gift of her faith in that within +him, which is essentially superior to the body and can command +it as instrumentality. To make it instrumentality +is, more and more, a delight to the child, in which his +mother sympathises; and by this sympathy aids him. All +his plays involve exercise of the power of commanding his +body. As soon as a child can move it from place to place, his +desire to exercise power on nature outside of himself increases, +and he is prompted to measure strength with other children. +If children were mere individuals they would merely quarrel, +as Hobbes says; but being social beings also, they tend to +unite forces and aid one another to compass desired ends. +By so doing, they rise to a greater sense of life, and brotherly +love is evolved. But in the development of the social +life, the more developed and cultivated elder must come in, +to keep both parties steady to some object outside of themselves, +which it takes their union to reach. Children can +be taught to play together, by engaging their powers of imitation, +and addressing their fancy. Every mother knows, +that in the first opening of children's social life, their bodily +energies are stimulated to such a degree, that it is quite as +much as she or one nurse can do, to tend two or three children +together; and by the time they are three years old, the +family nursery becomes too narrow a sphere for them. It +is then that they are to be received into a Kindergarten, +whose very numbers will check the energy of activity a little, +by presenting a greater variety of objects to be contemplated; +and because social action must be orderly and +rhythmical, in order to be agreeable. This, a properly prepared +Kindergartner knows, and by her sympathetic influence +and power over the childish imagination, she will +bring gradually all the laws of the child's being to the conscious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +understanding, beginning with this rhythmical one +at the center.</p> + +<p>The movement plays which Frœbel invented, express, in +dramatic form, some simple fact of nature or some childish +fancy, for which he gives, as accompaniment, a descriptive +song set to a simple melody. The children learn both to recite +and to sing the words of the song, and then the movements +of the play. To them the whole reason for the play seems +to be the delight it gives, the exhilaration of body, the +amusement of mind. But the Kindergartner knows that +it serves higher ends, and that it is at least always a lesson +in order, enabling them to begin to enact upon earth "Heaven's +first law."</p> + +<p>Do not say I am making too solemn a matter of these +movement plays, to the Kindergartner. Unless she remembers +that this very serious aim underlies every play which +she conducts, she will not do justice to the children. Law +or order is one and the same thing with beauty; and play +is hindrance if it is not beautiful. When she insists upon the +children governing themselves, so far as to keep their +proper places in relation to each other; to forbear exerting +undue force, and to seek to give the necessary aid to others +by exerting sufficient force, the beautiful result justifies +her will to the minds of the children, and commands their +ready obedience. She must call forth by <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'addressing it the'">addressing the</ins> +sense of personal responsibility in each child; and this, if +done tenderly and with faith, it is by no means difficult to +do. The reward to the children is instant in the success of +the play, and therefore not thought of as reward of merit. +It is a form of obedience that really elevates the little one +higher in the scale of being as an individual, without danger +of the re-action of pride and self-conceit; for self is swallowed +up in social joy.</p> + +<p>When I was in Germany, I went, as I believe I told you, +to those Kindergartens, which were taught by Frœbel's own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +pupils, and I found that in these the movement plays were +the most prominent feature of the practice. More than one +was played in the course of the three or four hours, and especially +when the session was as much as four hours. It +was done in a very exact though not constrained manner, +and much stress seemed to be laid upon every part. The +singing was not done by three or four, but all the children +were encouraged to sing. Often the little timider ones +were called on to repeat the rhyme alone, without singing +it, and then to sing it alone with the teacher. Thus the +stronger and abler were exercised (as they must be so much +in real life) in waiting, sympathetically, for the weaker. A +great deal of care was also exercised in regard to the form +and character of the play itself. Those of Frœbel's own +suggestion and invention were the preferred ones. They +consisted in imitating, in rather a free and fanciful manner, +the actions of the gentler animals, hares and rabbits, fishes, +bees and birds. There were plays in which children impersonated +animals, evidently for the purpose of awakening +their sympathies and eliciting their kindness towards them. +Many of the labors of human beings, common mechanics, +such as cooperage, the work of the farmer, that of the +miller, trundling the wheelbarrow, sawing wood, &c., were +put into form by simple rhymes. The children sometimes +personated machinery, sometimes great natural movements. +In one instance I saw the solar system performed by a company +of children that had been in the Kindergarten four +years, but none of them were over seven years old. Mere +movement is in itself so delightful and salutary for children +that a very little action of the imitative or fanciful power is +necessary, just to take the rudeness out of bodily exercise +without destroying its exhilaration.</p> + +<p>My Kindergarten Guide, the revised edition of which is +published by E. Steiger, of New York, contains some of +the principal plays, set to Frœbel's own music. I would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +gladly have printed all that Madame Ronge published in +her Guide, which is out of print, but for the expense.</p> + +<p>But it is by no means merely a moral discipline that is +aimed at in the Kindergarten, as you will see when the +bearings upon their habits of thought, of all that the children +do, are pointed out to you, in the various occupations, +which are sedentary sports, though the moral discipline is +the paramount idea, and never must be lost sight of one +moment by the Kindergartner. We mean by moral discipline, +exercising the children to <i>act</i> to the end of making +<i>others</i> happy, rather than of merely enjoying <i>themselves</i>. +If the individual enjoyment is not a social enjoyment, it is +disorderly and vitiating. But the individual is lifted into +the higher order for which he is created, by merely enjoying, +whenever his enjoyment is <i>social</i>. I am of course +speaking of that season of life under seven years of age, +when the mind is yet undeveloped to the comprehension of +humanity as a whole; when the good, the true and the +beautiful are nothing as abstractions, and can only be realized +to their experience and brought within the sphere of +their senses, by being embodied in persons whom they love, +reverence or trust. The words <i>good</i>, <i>beautiful</i>, <i>kind</i>, <i>true</i>, +get their meaning for children by their intercourse with +such persons. Specific knowledge of God cannot be opened +up in them by any words, unless these words have first got +their meaning by being associated with human beings who +bear traces that they can appreciate of His ineffable perfections. +To liken God's love to the mother's love, brings +home a conception of it to children, for <i><ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'her's'">hers</ins></i> they realize every +day.</p> + +<p>The connecting link between the nursery and Kindergarten +is the First Gift of Frœbel's series, being used in both. +The nursery use will have taught the names of the six +colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, and made +it a favorite play thing. It is all the better if the child has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +had no other playthings prepared for him. He has doubtless +used the chairs, footstools, and whatever else he could +lay his hands on, to embody his childish fancies; and it is +to be hoped he has been allowed to play out of doors with +the earth, and has made mud pies to his heart's content—not +tormented with any sense of the—at his age—artificial +duty of keeping his clothes clean. That duty is to be reserved +for the Kindergarten age, and will come duly, by +proper development of the mental powers.</p> + +<p>In the Kindergarten, the ball-plays are to become more skillful, +and the teacher must see that the child learns to throw +the ball so that it may bound back into his own hands; so +that it may bound into the hands of another who is in such +position as to catch its reflex motion. The children must +learn to toss it up and catch it again themselves. When +standing in two rows they can throw it back and forwards +to each other. When standing in a circle, the balls may be +made to circulate with rapidity, passing from hand to hand, +the children singing the accompanying song.</p> + +<p>"Who'll buy my eggs?" is a good play to exercise them +in counting. And all these movement plays with the ball +are admirable for exercising the body, giving it agility, +grace of movement, precision of eye and touch. These +things will accrue all the more surely if it is kept play, and +no constraining sense of duty is called on. As most of +these plays are not solitary, they become the occasion for +children's learning to adjust themselves to each other, and +the teacher must watch that hilarity do not become violence +or rudeness to each other, but furtherance of one another's +fun; and occasionally, in enforcing this harmony, a child must +be removed from the play, and made to stand in a corner +alone, or even outside the room, till the desire of rejoining +his companions shall quicken him to be sufficiently considerate +of them to make pleasant play possible. All children +in playing together learn justice and social graces, more or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +less, because they find that without fair play their sport is +spoilt; but this play must be supervised by the Kindergartner, +in order that there may not be injustice, selfishness +and quarreling. A Kindergartner, who is not a martinet, +and who is herself a good play-fellow, will magnetize the +children, and inspire such general good will that unpleasantness +will be foreclosed in a great measure; but a company +of children are generally of such variety of temperament +and different degrees of bodily strength, have so often come +from such inadequate nursery life, that the regulating +Kindergartner has a good deal to do to prevent discords and +secure their kindness to each other, and the reasonable little +self-sacrifices of common courtesy. But she will find a word +is often enough; the question, Is that right? Would you +like to have any one else do so? It is sometimes necessary +to bring all the play to a full stop, in order to bring the +common conscience to pronounce upon the fairness of what +some one is doing. I would suggest that the question be +asked not of the class, but of the individual culprit, whether +what is being done wrong, is right or wrong? The child, +with the eyes of the class upon him, will generally be eager +to confess and reform, because the moral sense is quite as +strong as self-love, and especially when re-inforced by the +presence of others. It is not worth while to make too much +of little faults, and the first indication of turning to the right +must be accepted; the child is grateful for being believed in +and trusted, and the wrong doing is a superficial thing; the +moral sentiment is the substantial being of the child.</p> + +<p>Of all the materials used in Kindergarten, the colored balls +are most purely <i>playthings</i>; and there are none of the plays +so liable to be riotous as the ball plays. There is the greatest +difficulty in keeping children from being <i>too</i> noisy, and +it is not wise to make too much of a point of it. The ball +seems a thing of life. It is very difficult for them to get +good command of it. It excites them to run after it; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +shouts and laughter are irrepressible. But there are reasonable +limits. The Kindergartner, in conversation before +hand, should make them see that they may get too +noisy, and tire each other, and she will easily induce them +to agree to stop short when she shall ring the bell, and be +willing to stand still while she counts twenty-five, or watches +the second hand of her watch go around a quarter, a half, or +a whole minute, as may be agreed upon. This can be made +a part of the play, and to pause and be perfectly still in this +way, will give them some conception of the length of a minute, +and teach self-command, as well as make a pleasant +variety.</p> + +<p>The ball plays should always be accompanied and alternated, +in the Kindergarten, with conversations upon the +ball, naming the colors, telling which are primary, which +secondary, and illustrating the difference by giving them +pieces of glass of pure carmine, blue and yellow, and letting +them put two upon each other, and hold them towards the +window, and so realize the combinations of the secondary +colors. Ask them, afterwards, to tell what colors make +orange, or purple, or green; and what color connects the +orange and green; or the purple and orange, or the green +and purple.</p> + +<p>One of the other exercises, on the day of using the First +Gift may be sewing with the colored threads on the cards; +and the colors may be arranged so as to illustrate the connections, +&c., just learned. The use of the First Gift need +only be once a week. It will then be a fresh pleasure every +time during the whole of the Kindergarten course, even if +it should last three years. After the children have become +perfectly familiar with the primary and secondary colors, +their combinations and connections, the lessons on colors +may be varied, by telling them that tints of the primary +colors and of the secondary colors, are made by adding +white to them; and shades of them, (which will, of course,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +be darker,) by adding black to them. This may be illustrated +by flowers, as may various combinations of colors. A +very little child, whom it was hard to train even to the hilarious +and gay plays, and whose attention could not easily +be fixed, surprised a teacher one day by his aptitude in detecting +what color had been mixed with red to make a very +glorious pink in a phlox. This child liked to sew, but was very +impatient of putting his needle into any special holes. It +proved to be the pleasure of handling the colored yarns, +and he was always eager to change them and form new combinations. +It may not be irrelevant to say here, in regard +to ball playing, from which I have digressed to colors, that +the ball is the last plaything of men as well as the first with +children.</p> + +<p>The object teaching upon the ball is strictly inexhaustible. +Children learn practically, by means of it, the laws of +motion. Beware of any strictly scientific teaching of these +laws <i>in terms</i>. You may make children familiar with the +phenomena of the laws of incidence and reflection, by simply +telling them that if they strike the ball straight against the +wall opposite, it will bound straight back to them, and then +ask them whether it returns to them when they strike it in +a slanting direction. By and by this knowledge can be +used to give meaning to a scientific expression. It is a first +principle that the object, motion, or action, should precede +the <i>word</i> that names them. This is Frœbel's uniform +method, and the reason is, that when the scientific study +does come, it shall be substantial mental life, and not mere +superficial talk. It is the laws of <i>things</i> that are the laws +of <i>thought</i>; and thought must precede all attempt at logic, +or logic will be deceptive, not reasonable. Most erroneous +speculation has its roots in mistakes about words, which it is +fatal to divorce from what they express of nature, or to use +without taking in their full meaning.</p> + +<p>In the easy mood of mind that attends the lively play of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +childhood, impressions are made clearly; and it should be +the care of the educator to have all the child's notions associated +with significant words, as can only be done by his becoming +their companion in the play, and talking about it, +as children always incline to do. It is half the pleasure of +their play, to represent it in words, as they are playing. In +the nursery, the mothers play with the child, and all her +dealings with it, are expressed in words that are important +lessons in language; and together with language, we give +a lesson in manners, by first trotting a child gently, and then +jouncingly, to the words, "This is the way the gentle folks +go, this is the way the gentle folks go; and this is the way +the country folks go, this is the way the country folks go—bouncing +and jouncing and jumping so." To describe what +they are doing in little rhymes when playing ball, makes it +a mental as well as physical play of faculty, and Frœbel +published a hundred little rhymes, and the music for as +many ball plays.</p> + +<p>It is not an unimportant lesson for children to learn, that +the same things seem different in different circumstances. +The fact that white light is composed of different colored +rays can be illustrated by giving the children prisms to +hold up in the sunshine; and by calling their attention to +the splendid colors of the sky at sunset and sunrise, when +the clouds act as prisms, and to the rainbow. Children of +the Kindergarten age, will be so much engaged with the +beautiful phenomenon, they will not be likely to ask questions +as to how the light is separated by the prism and +clouds; they will rest in the fact. But if, by chance, analytic +reflection has supervened, and they do, then a large +ball on which all the six colors are arranged in lines meridian-wise, +to which a string is attached at one pole, or both poles, +can be given them, and they be told to whirl it very swiftly. +This will present the phenomenon of the merging of the colors +to the eye by motion, so that the ball looks whitish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +from which you can proceed to speak of light as being composed +of multitudinous little balls, of the colors of the rainbow, +in motion, and so looking white.</p> + +<p>If some uncommon little investigator should persist to +ask why things seem to be other than they are, he must be +plainly told, that the reason is in something about his eyes, +which he cannot understand now, but will learn by and by, +when he goes to school and learns <i>optics</i>.</p> + +<p>Children are only to be <i>entertained</i> in the Kindergarten, +with the facts of nature that develop the organs of perception, +but a skillful teacher who reads Tyndall's charming +books and the photographic journals, may bring into the +later years of the Kindergarten period many pretty phenomena +of light and colors, which shall increase the stock +of facts, on which the scientific mind, when it shall be developed, +may work, or which the future painter may make +use of in his art.</p> + +<p>When Allston painted his great picture of Uriel, whose +background was the sun, he thought out carefully the means +of producing the dazzling effect, and drew lines of all the +rainbow colors in their order, side by side, after having put +on his canvass a ground of the three primary colors mixed. +When the picture was first exhibited at Somerset House, +the effect was dazzling, and it was bought at once by Lord +Egremont, in a transport of delight; and for twice the sum +the artist put upon it, that is, six hundred guineas. I do +not know whether time may not have dimmed its brilliancy, +since paint is of the earth, earthy; but to paint the sun +at high noon, and have it a success, even for a short time, +is a great feat; and art, in this instance, took counsel of +science deliberately, according to the artist's confession. +But perfect sensuous impressions of color and its <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'combinanations'">combinations</ins>, +were the basis of both the science and the art.</p> + +<p>This lecture is getting too long, and I will close by saying, +that the First Gift has, for its most important office, to <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'develope'">develop</ins><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +the organ of sight, which grows by seeing. Colors +arouse <i>intentional</i> seeing by the delightful impression they +make. I believe that <i>color-blindness</i>, (which our army examinations +have proved to be as common as <i>want of ear for +music</i>,) may be cured by intentional exercise of the organ +of sight in a systematic way; just as <i>ear for music</i> may be +developed in those who are not born with it. Lowell Mason +proved, by years of experiment in the public schools, that +the musical ear may be formed, in all cases, by beginning +gently with little children, giving graduated exercises, so +agreeable to them as to arouse their will to <i>try to hear</i>, in +order to reproduce.</p> + +<p>That you may receive a sufficiently strong impression of +the fact, that the organs of perception actually grow by exercise +<i>with intention</i>, I will relate to you a fact that came +under my own observation.</p> + +<p>A young friend of mine became a pupil of Mr. Agassiz, +who gave him, among his first exercises, two fish scales to +look at through a very powerful microscope, asking him to +find out and tell all their differences. At first they appeared +exactly alike, but on peering through the microscope, all +the time that he dared to use his eyes, for a month, he found +them full of differences; and he afterwards said, that "it +was the best month's work he ever did, to form <i>the scientific +eye</i> which could detect differences ever after, <i>at a glance</i>," +and proved to him an invaluable talent, and gave him exceptional +authority with scientists.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LECTURE III.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>DISCIPLINE.<br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">Since</span> the kindergartner is to receive the child from the +nursery, and half of the work in the kindergarten is what +ought to have been done in the nursery, I will give another +lecture upon what Frœbel thought the nursery ought to do for +religious nurture; since, if it has not been done in the nursery, +it must be done in the kindergarten.</div> + +<p>We have seen that the soul takes possession of the organs +of sense gradually, by tasting, hearing, seeing, smelling, and +touching that which is agreeable; and that the continuous +exercise of the organs develops them up to a certain though +indefinite limit to finer susceptibility of impression. We +have seen that by exercising the limbs, the soul takes possession +of them in particular and in general. Thus the nursery +plays, improvised instinctively by all mothers, Frœbel +has enlarged, describing in his <i>Mother's Book</i> various duplicate +movements of the limbs, especially of the hands, that, +with the accompanying songs, have for their end, besides +physical health, to make the mind discriminate various parts +of the body and know their several forms and functions. +This is the beginning of human education.</p> + +<p>"Patty-cake" teaches a child that he has hands and fingers; +"This little pig goes to market, this one stays at +home," that he has toes. It is the child's own body that +first furnishes the objects of his attention to be associated +with words. From the beginning it is the instinct of the +maternal nurse to talk to the child, which attracts him to +observe the organs of speech; and this prompts the sympathetic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +use of his own organs. Speech is a function distinctively +human, which, beginning in the nursery, is carried on carefully +in the kindergarten, creating the sphere of the intellectual +life; for words support the operation of thinking.</p> + +<p>From all that I said of the <i>modus operandi</i> of the child's +taking possession of his body in the nursery period, you see +that childish action is involved in the mother's action. It is +<i>her</i> wisdom, such as it may be, which must be the guide of +the child's will, as it is brought gradually out of the blindness +of ignorance; and it is she, not the child, who is responsible +for the perfection of this part of the child's life.</p> + +<p>And is not this, on the whole, the common sense of mankind? +Does any sane person hold a baby, up to three years +old, and often, indeed, much later, responsible for the state +of its temper, or for the rightfulness of its action?</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the child is a moral person all this time, and +it is of the last importance to his subsequent moral life +whether or not his temper has been kept sweet, and his action +according to law, or discordant. Discordant action +must have a bad reactionary effect upon the temper, and +interrupt or retard the growth of the several organs of sense +and of motion. Hence the mother or nurse must not neglect +to use her power wisely as well as gently to prevent these +evils, by duplicate movements that are rhythmic, and calculated +to bring about some end that the child's mind may +easily grasp.</p> + +<p>It is instinctive with every one, as soon as he begins to +play with a child, whether it be reasonable or not, to talk to +it about its being good or bad, although a little child cannot be +good or bad, but only orderly or disorderly; and there is no +little danger to his moral and spiritual future in anticipating +by our words the workings of his conscience before it has +the conditions for its development. One of these conditions +is such a sense of individuality as enables the child to say +"I," with which it presently combines such perception of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +relationship to others as will say, "I ought,"—a phrase that +occurs in all languages, and means something very different +from "I will." It is of the greatest importance to keep this +distinction in mind, for an imposed or artificial conscience +almost certainly forecloses the natural or inspired conscience,—a +truth largely illustrated by the history both of families +and of nations, from which we learn that periods of corruption +and wild license invariably follow periods of extreme +restraint and asceticism. And all conscientious action and +moral judgment in children also presupposes <i>thinking</i>, which +is a process that does not begin until after much repetition of +impressions, being a reflective act, which associates impressions +with specific things and actions (as the etymology of +the word suggests). Mere reception of impressions is passive; +but to compare impressions of difference or similarity +(which individualizes <i>things</i>) is <i>active</i>. Therefore thinking +and putting thoughts into words includes comparison and +inference, and really <i>produces</i> the human understanding, which +we do not bring into the world with us, as we do our heart +and will. Before there is a possibility of conscience or any +moral judgment properly so called, the child's affections (or +feeling of relation with other persons) must be cultivated by +the mother's genial care, directing mental activity towards +fellow-beings, instead of leaving the heart to turn back and +stagnate upon self. The more impressible a child is, the +more important is the mother's or kindergartner's providential +care of his affections during this irresponsible, pre-intellectual +period of his life.</p> + +<p>I think the most frightfully selfish beings I have ever +known were endowed with great natural sensibility, which +was left to concentrate upon self, because the claims made +by the sensibility of others were not early enough presented +to the imagination of their hearts. By the growth of personal +affections, the individual intensifies the feeling of individuality, +which first comes to him by his having taken such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +possession of his body as enabled him to run alone; and this +growth, whether intentionally directed towards that combination +of his soul and body, which he begins to call himself or +"I," or directed toward others, to whom he clings at first as +part of himself (their embrace of him being necessary to his +comfort), is cherished by the duplicate action of the mother. +She moulds his heart in her heart, as she has moulded his +bodily activity by her care and cheering sympathy, when +helping out the power of his limbs in walking and manipulation. +She half creates the child's generous and devout affections, +if she is herself faithful to their proper objects, starting +him on the way of a brotherly humanity and a filial adoration +of the common Father, long before the understanding has +completely discerned the objects of these human and divine +affections, which must be blended in order to continue vital +and pure. But the moral and religious is the most delicate +region of the child's life, the <i>holy of holies</i>, into which "fools +incontinently rush, though angels fear to tread." She can +only be the mother of the soul as well as of the body of her +child, on condition of being herself rich in love of others and +in piety to God.</p> + +<p>Frœbel suggests this in the introductory poems of <i>Die +Mutter Spiele und Kose Lieder</i>. The first five of these are +the mother's communings with herself upon the emotions that +arise in her heart, as she nurses her baby in her arms, and +realizes that to her and her husband has been sent a living +witness of the "very present God," who is the author of +their being, and has united them by a love that makes that +being a blessing to themselves, which they are bound to extend +beyond themselves. The rhymed introduction of the +several little child-songs that follow are suggestions to her of +the meaning of her instincts, and of the bearing on the +development of the child's heart and mind of the little gymnastics +described. And just as she could not be the educator +of her child into his individual body if she were a paralytic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +herself, so, if she be not affectionate and generous herself, +she cannot educate him into the social body of which he is a +living member; nor unless she loves God herself, can she +inspire him to recognize the Parental Spirit of whom we are +(as heathen poet and Christian apostle alike aver) the veritable +children. "We are the offspring of God," said St. +Paul, quoting from the Greek poet Aratus in the Sermon on +Mars' Hill, which is a model of all reformatory instruction, +whether religious or secular. I think all true instruction, +proceeding from the known to the unknown, is both secular +and religious, on the principle that to those who have the +seed, can be given the increase.</p> + +<p>In the first of these mother-songs of Frœbel, the mother +finds that the baby she holds in her arms, though another +than herself, is in a certain sense one with herself; thus is +unveiled (revealed) to her the Divine Fountain of Being, the +Person of Persons, from whom she and her little one have +severally come; and her feelings of wonder and gratitude +awaken the sense of responsibility to make her child grow +conscious as she is of the common Father,—and thankful +as she is for life in such close relation with herself,—who +is the first form in which God reveals Himself to the child; +for when he first looks away from his body so far as to perceive +that his mother is another than himself, she fills the +whole sphere of his perception!</p> + +<p>Rousseau affirms that every child, if left to its own natural +growth, would think its mother was its creator. And William +Godwin in his <i>Enquirer</i> (or some volume of his +writings) has quite an eloquent paper, setting forth that the +natural religion of a child is to worship its earthly parents. +I have made some observations and had a personal experience +which makes me doubt this, though I do not doubt that +the characteristics of parents nearly always determine the +character of the child's religion. But the question of who is +his own creator does not naturally come up to a child, even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +when he begins to ask who made the things about him. +His own consciousness is of "being increate," and when +brought to know that his body grows old and must die, the +fear that this causes is because he imaginatively associates +his undying self, which is a "presence not to be put by" with +the perishing body. What the soul, by virtue of its inherent +immortality, fears and hates, is loneliness, absolute isolation! +And when we think of the body, which we identify with ourselves +from the moment that we have taken it up and walked +by its instrumentality, as put away alone in the ground, the +undying person that the soul is, shudders, and can only be +comforted by learning to conceive itself wholly detached from +the decay, and housed within the bosom of Him who is the +Alpha and Omega of our life; of Him whom we have learnt +to know with the spirit and understanding also, by the process +of living in human relations. For we know ourselves +as individuals first by means of the body, and we know +ourselves as a component part of the social whole of humanity +by means of genial intercourse with our kindred, it being +revealed to us that we are substantially social, as well as +distinctly individual, by our instinctive horror of separation +from them. Later in life only, there are pleasures of solitude +for those few who by imaginative act make nature +populous with personifications, and consequently the refracting +atmosphere of the Divine Personality. The baby that +finds itself alone cries for and is comforted by the embrace +which restores the sense of union with its mother. Seldom +is a baby in such a wretched state of feeling that a tender +embrace and kiss will not completely comfort it.</p> + +<p>What a proof it is that God is <i>Love</i>, that the very embrace +that symbolizes to the baby's heart the sense of human companionship, +gives its mind that impression of objective +nature which is the first momentum of the human understanding! +The gentle pressure of one sensitive body upon +another produces counter-pressure, a resistance that is positively<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +pleasurable, whereby the impenetrability of matter +becomes a delightful instead of a frightful revelation to the +mind of the Immutable Reality of the loving Creator, as the +complement of our own changeful individuality! It is +the first syllable of that word (or speech of God) made +intelligible by the various qualities and forms of matter, the +Truth which He is forever addressing to man. How gracious +it is, that He should so inextricably mingle the first impression +of matter with that perception of the <i>otherness</i> of +person that makes Love possible! Thus love and the sense +of individuality are correlative creations and twin births. +Later, the sense of individuality becomes a positive self-love +(which in its healthy degree is innocent), and the perception +of <i>otherness of person</i>, with whom it is delightful to be in +free union, becomes the basis of the self-forgetting generosity +of mankind. These opposite principles are at first +mere and perhaps equal sources of satisfaction, having no +moral character whatever. Afterwards, they become respectively +hard selfishness or a weak and base servility, or they +may rise into a majestic self-respect, and that sublimest +love which is to make the human race, as a whole, the <i>image +of God</i>, not only king over material nature, but one with the +perfect Son of Man, also Son of God, who, with a humility and +dignity equally venerable, is able to say, "I and my Father +are One!"</p> + +<p>But you will say that I am getting quite beyond the +nursery.</p> + +<p>In the earlier years, the growth of the religious life is +merely germinal. And as it is involved within the mothers +at the beginning, it must be cherished <i>sympathetically</i> by her +removing all occasion for self-care and self-defence, and +thus prevent the sense of individuality from degenerating +through fear into inordinate self-will and self-love. The +child should be treated with unvarying tenderness and consideration, +without having his senses pampered into morbid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +excess by over-indulgence, but above all things, never wounding +nor frightening his heart, nor repressing the simple and +healthy expression of his feelings and thoughts. For enforced +repression tends to produce ugly temper, baseness, or +subtlety, according to the child's temperament, which is +also in imperfect social harmony, if not absolutely quarrelsome. +It must be her work, therefore, not only to complete +the child's organic education, but to take him, as it were, +into her own affectionate spirit by using the methods which +Frœbel has suggested to the mother for the discipline of her +infants. (I use this word <i>discipline</i> in its true sense of +teaching; not in the sense of <i>punishment</i>. That the word +<i>discipline</i> should ever have come to mean punishment is a +severe commentary on the ideas and modes of education +that have hitherto prevailed in Christendom.)</p> + +<p>The kindergartner, as well as the mother, must be +thoroughly grounded in the faith that God has done His +part in the original endowment of children; and that He is +truly present with her, helping her to remedy the effects of +the mother's shortcomings. She will certainly succeed in her +work if she studies His laws with an earnest purpose to +carry them out, first in the government of herself, and then +in leading the children to self-government. Wordsworth in +his <i>Ode to Duty</i>, sings:—</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"There are who ask not if Thine eye<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Be on them, who, in love and truth,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Where no misgiving is, rely</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Upon the genial sense of youth.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Glad hearts!</i> without reproach or blot,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Who do Thy work, and know it not!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And blest are they who in the main</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">This happy faith still entertain,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Live in the spirit of this creed,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Yet find another strength according to their <i>need</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">May joy be theirs while life shall last,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And <i>Thou</i>, if they should totter, teach them to stand fast."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> + +<p>Little children certainly, of all persons, are oftenest found +in this condition when</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Love is an unerring light,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And joy its own security."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>And that "other strength," which must come by reflection +on and study of the unfolding nature of the child in the felt +presence of the Inspirer of Duty, will certainly be needed by +the kindergartner who will receive children not always from +the hands of natural and faithful mothers, but of uncultured +servant-maids. (It is but justice to the latter to say that +there are occasionally found among the Irish nurses those +who could teach many mothers. The Irish nature is not +altogether bad material for the production of good motherly +nurses; but it must not be left <i>wild</i>; it needs a great deal +of discipline; and I hope the time may come when schools +for the education of children's nurses, such as Frœbel +established in Hamburg, which still exist, may be founded +in all our cities.) Though I think the education of <i>mothers</i> is +still more important and the first thing to aim at, as it would +render nursery maids comparatively unnecessary. It is so short +a period of a mother's life when she <i>has</i> young children, and +the book of nature which these few years open to her <i>is so +rich</i>, that, for her own being's sake as well as for the +children's, it seems to me a terrible loss for her to delegate +her maternal cares to others during the nursery period. On +the other hand, when the age for the kindergarten comes, +the mother needs to be relieved of the increasing care; and +children, in their turn, need other influences than can be had +in a family, especially in families where parents have work +to do outside of their homes. It is, indeed, "a consummation +devoutly to be wished," that the time may come when +labor may be so organized that no mothers may be obliged to +leave their children's souls uncared for in order to get the +wherewithal to sustain their bodies<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>.</p> + +<p>The deepest reason why a child should be taken care of in +its earliest infancy <i>by its mother</i> rather than by a person +comparatively uninterested in its personality, is this, that +<i>only</i> a mother can respect a child's personality sufficiently. +All others regard the child for its manifested qualities; but +with the mother, it is the child itself that she loves, quite +irrespective of any qualities that he manifests. Phenomenally, +a little child is a complex of self-assertion and +generosity (or a desire for union with its kind); a desire or +a feeling of finiteness in strange contrast with that instinct +to "have dominion" which gives vitality to self-assertion. +We call this primal desire for union his heart, and this +primal self-assertion his will. The will expresses itself in +efforts to change its environments, putting what is at rest in +motion, knocking down, tearing up, because it does not yet +know how to put in order, or to change things artistically. +The child acts without external motive,—doing things +merely because it <i>can</i>. Even after a child is old enough to +think and talk, and has done some act for which you see no +reason or motive, when you ask him why he did it, he not +unfrequently will say, "<i>because</i>." I remember when I was +a child of six or seven, that I would give this answer with a +perfect sense of satisfaction that it was <i>an answer</i>; and +when it would sometimes be said, "<i>because</i> is no reason," +or "<i>because</i> is an old woman's reason," I recollect my +feeling of surprise. I seemed to myself to have given the +most substantial reason. The word meant to me a great +deal. And I now think I was truly philosophical in this, for +I affirmed the primal truth, that a self-determining person in +spontaneous action, if only of some instinct, is a first <i>cause</i><a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>—an +<i>absolute cause</i>—to the extent of consciousness. It was +an intuition.</p> + +<p>Now to retain the sense of this causal personality is at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +root of all stability of character, all nobleness of manifestation. +But self-assertion in an ignorant child is more apt +than otherwise to be disorderly, discordant, and perhaps +destructive; it therefore provokes resistance in the unthinking, +but challenges the thoughtful to give guidance. It is of +life-and-death importance to the child whether this force +shall meet mere hard resistance, which shall utterly crush it +or increase it by reaction, or whether it shall meet with a +genial sympathetic guidance to which it will voluntarily and +gladly surrender itself. A mother <i>loves</i> this little ignorant +force of self-will and wants it to have free course. She cannot +help desiring to have her child have its own way. She +does not want it to be opposed by others. She will, as far +as possible, further or humor it, as we say. And when she +finds it necessary to control it, she will try to do it by +awakening the child's affectionateness, and so captivating its +fancy as to make it feel it is doing as it likes, though it be +something different from what it was impelled to do at first; +in short, she inspires him to will the better thing, and so +educates the blind instinct of self-assertion into a harmonizing +and beneficent power, and preserves the child's dignity +and nobleness instead of crushing its personality. We hear +of "breaking the child's will." A child's will should never be +broken, but opened up into harmony with God's will through +a lower harmony with the will of its loving and loved +mother or kindergartner. But a mother will be more sure +than any one else to bring about this result, because she +acts from an impulse of the heart deeper than all thought, +while the kindergartner by thought must cultivate in herself +the impulse.</p> + +<p>There are those who deprecate motherly indulgence as if +it were the greatest evil. Doubtless it will become a great +evil if it be not properly subordinated to the wisdom which +appreciates the divinity of order, or if it is alternated with +capricious severities; in short, if the indulgence proceeds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +from indolence or self-love instead of love of the child. +The indulgence that really comes from the last is a recognition +(unconscious, it may be) of the divine possibilities of +the child,—a spark of the divine creativeness! Of the two +evils, extreme indulgence is not so deadly a mistake as extreme +severity. Indulged children return from afar. The +prodigal of the Gospel story may have been over-indulged, +perhaps, in being allowed to take his portion of goods, and +go off by himself, out of the reach of his father's counsel +and authority, and left to his own uneducated self-will. But +the sinner, when he <i>came to himself</i> (observe that expression), +recognized the self-forgetting, fatherly love in that very +indulgence; and it was the immeasurableness of that love +that revived his self-respect and hope, and saved him; for +the hope was not disappointed. Love giveth, "upbraiding +not."</p> + +<p>The one fatal thing is to wound the child's heart. It is +better to give up the point of controlling its will to righteousness +for the moment, than to do that; and a parent is the +least likely of all persons to wound his child's heart.</p> + +<p>When nothing can be done without wounding, the parent +who trusts his own heart will leave the rebel to the consequences +which God holds in his gracious hands for the final +salvation of every one of his children.</p> + +<p>Besides, to <i>choose</i> to give up one's own will is the only +complete and salutary giving up, enabling the soul to mount +up spiritually like the eagle and renew its strength. There +are families in which the act of disobedience is absolutely +unknown, in earlier or in later life; where there is no +necessity for uttered commands, because expressed wishes +are enough. The most perfect, if not the only real, +obedience I have ever seen, has been that of strong men to +an unexacting, tender mother.</p> + +<p>This is a subject on which I feel very strongly, for it +seems to me that the greatest social disorders that exist in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +the nations among which the "order that reigns in Warsaw"<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> +is foremost, is the consequence of <i>unreasoning obedience</i> to +wills <i>not</i> infinitely wise and good. The worth and duty of +obedience is precisely in ratio with the validity of the command; +and a command is valid only so far as it is inspired by +a disinterested and proper respect for the being who is commanded. +Children should only obey their parents, <i>in the +Lord</i>; and parents should never "provoke their children to +wrath."</p> + +<p>I may be told that the important element of self-assertion +(which gives strength to character) may be weakened by +being always disarmed, and killed by the mother's sympathy; +and that to provoke it into conscious strength, direct +antagonism is necessary. But the best antagonism is that +quiet, inevitable one, that comes from the inexorableness of +material nature which the child must needs feel, the more +disorderly he is, but which he sees is insensate and impersonal; +whose antagonism, therefore, does not grieve his +heart, and disappoint his hope as human oppression does, +making him sad or bitter, but stimulates his mind to conquer +and subdue it, or develops a dignified patience. The +appointed domain for kingly man is not the brotherhood, +but material nature; and gradually he is to learn that +nature's inexorable laws are the expression of a Supreme +Personality as benignant as it is august, who takes up His +human child into Himself, not without his concurring will; +for mankind mounts on the nature which he gradually subdues +into a stepping-stone, by knowledge, and the use of it. +The mother must remember that though the first, she is not +the only instrumentality by which the Divine Providence +works. The time comes when she is compelled to deliver +her cherished darling up to other influences; when the child +bursts out of the nursery, not only self-asserting and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +affectionate, but putting forth energies, and seeking satisfaction +of sensibilities that cannot be met within that narrow +precinct.</p> + +<p>The kindergarten must, then, succeed by complementing +the nursery; and the child begin to take his place in the +company of his equals, to learn his place in their companionship, +and still later to learn wider social relations and their +involved duties. No nursery, therefore, not even a perfect +one, can supersede the necessity of a kindergarten, where +children shall come into cognizance of the moral laws which +are to restrain and guide their self-assertion, and quicken +and enlarge their social affections, leading them to self-denials +for the sake of opportunities for themselves of useful +and creative art, beneficence, and heroism.</p> + +<p>The time for transition from the nursery to the kindergarten +is definitely indicated by two facts. Firstly, Divine +Providence has so arranged general family events that every +mother must give up having the child live, as it were, entirely +within <i>her</i> life, because she has other children to nurse, or +other social duties to do. And, secondly, every child's +growth in bodily strength and conscious individuality makes +him too strong a force of will for so narrow a scope of relation +as is afforded by one family. While hitherto, to be outside +of the single family influence was an evil, it would now +be an evil to confine the child entirely to it, narrowing his +heart and mind, and deforming his character. He needs to +be brought into relation with equals who have other personal +characteristics, other relations with nature and the human +race than his own family. The instinct of the growing child, at +this period, to get out of doors to play with other children, is +unmistakable. To check it vexes or depresses him. In getting +possession, first of his body, and then of his personal +and social consciousness, he has become an object to himself, +and feels himself a power among other powers affecting each +other. But he is still more or less consciously a prisoner (if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +not a slave) of nature, by reason of his ignorance of the +laws of the universe,—<i>that body</i> outside of his own body,—which +he is destined, in alliance with others, to take possession +of, by action <i>upon</i> and <i>within</i> it, giving him knowledge +of it, and enabling him to make it into instrumentality for +the expression and embodiment of great ideas and a noble +will.</p> + +<p>All government worthy of the name begins in self-government, +a free subordination of the individual in order to form +the social whole. Subordination is something higher than +subjection. We subject mere animals; intelligent moral +agents must be subordinated. It is still the mother's part +rather to inspire; the kindergartner's part is to subordinate, +not to check childish, spontaneous talk, though, of course, it +must be regulated so far as not to let the children interrupt +each other <i>impolitely</i>, and to keep it to some main subject. +Some kindergartners begin the session by asking each in turn +what is interesting to him. Mrs. Kraus-Boelte generally +receives each one as he or she comes in. They go to her for +the morning kiss, and have something to say, in which she +expresses due sympathy, and later recurs to and connects +with what others say, and thus produces general conversation. +Mrs. Van Kirk is very happy in her introductory conversations.</p> + +<p>In playing with the gifts, the teacher dictates certain movements +and arrangements, for the purpose of the children's +getting into the habit of listening and quickly catching the +directions given; and the children should be encouraged to +follow <i>her words</i> in what they do, rather than to imitate +each other. In their spontaneous work they often make +a new symmetrical form, which is really beautiful; and then +it is well to call on the child to direct his companions how to +make it; for children delight in the dignity of <i>directing</i>, and +learn to be very precise in the use of all the words expressing +relation of all kinds,—prepositions, adjectives, and adverbs,—<i>precisely</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +as well as nouns and verbs. Language does not +merely transfer the outward inward, but soon begins to +transfer the inward outward. Love, and other sentiments of +the soul, good and bad, are named, as well as sensible objects. +Even the instinctive search after proximate causes leads children +to infer the substantiality of <i>wind</i> and the other invisible +forms of matter; and the spiritual senses inherent in the +"Me," which is the most essential of all substances, verifies +the ideal world to children, as truly as the bodily senses verify +the material world, and even <i>more so</i>; for children live in +God before they <i>exist</i> out of God. The Italian philosopher +Gioberti says that the soul is a <i>spiritual activity</i>; that is, it +sees God as the first act of its life. God says, "<i>Be thou</i>" and +the soul—before it is put into the sleep of nature (the deep +sleep that came upon Adam)—looks back and says, "<i>Thou +art</i>." We have the memory of this primeval vision, and act +in our sense of holiness (wholeness?), right, justice, pure +love from the uncalculating delight of loving, the ideals of +beauty, and the sense of accountability to God and man, +which forever haunt us, sometimes giving us pain, as <i>remorse</i>, +whose sting is in the comparison of our outward manifested +self with our inward sense of "being increate" (as Milton +expresses it). It is this supernatural pre-intellectual <i>soul</i> +which distinguishes man from the animal creation, and is +symbolized by his form, which looks upward to the symbol +of infinity made by the sky, with which the human being +instinctively <i>communes</i>, and towards which the child wants +to fly,—and delights in and loves the birds, beyond all other +forms of animal life, because they <i>can</i> fly. Gioberti goes on, +in his psychology, to say that when the soul, which has +recognized its Divine Source as the first act of its life, is put +to sleep in nature, it is gradually waked up by the individual +forms of nature, which are so many syllables of the Divine +Word that are echoed in human words, which describe matter +and its evolutions; then the understanding begins, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +(which is the point I want you to observe especially at this +moment) the words of even a very young child soon bring to +its understanding spiritual realities. And it is the office of +education to see that the relations of things,—the laws of +order among things,—the adjustment of external cause and +effect, be <i>accurately worded</i>; and especially that the <i>spiritual</i> +consciousness gets a happy symbolization; that is, that the +best words are used to <i>do justice</i> to the Ideas of God and the +sentiments of the heart of man.</p> + +<p>A materialistic educator (or no less a mere dogmatist in +religion, who does not see that the logical formulas and +abstract terms of scientific theology cannot possibly <i>wake up</i> +the primeval vision) may do an all but infinite mischief to +the character and heart, by the words he uses in talking to +children; and the theologian a greater mischief than the +materialist, because the forms and evolutions of matter are, +as I have said, <i>syllables of the Word</i> that was in the beginning +with God and, in a certain sense, <i>God</i>, while the +abstractions of the human mind are the refuse of finite spirit, +infinitely superficial, mere limitations of thought which +become stumbling-blocks to the mind when not used as stepping-stones +to new outlooks, or rather, inlooks. Never +should children be talked to in the language of theological +science, but wholly in imaginative symbolization, and the +symbols should be chosen with great care, and we should be +on our guard against rousing the faculty of abstraction +which is a sleeping danger in the nature, whose premature +development is injurious in strict proportion to ignorance +and sensitiveness. The symbols of the spiritual should be +human because human consciousness involves substance +outside the physical, and, therefore, did the Word which had +not been comprehended in its creation of "everything which +it had made," though "without it nothing was made," take +flesh and dwell among us, in order that we might apprehend +the glory of God and perfection of man with our whole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +nature. That it would do so, was the insight of the Hebrew +genius, whenever by worthy soul-action the law-giver, king, +and whoever entered into "the liberty of prophesying" was +raised to the height of his nature. Now a child is "on its +being's height," "mighty prophet," "seer blest,"</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"On whom those truths do rest<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">That we are toiling all our lives to find,"</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>and therefore a child can supply a substantial meaning to +any name for God adequate to awaken the living echo of +the soul that</div> + +<div class='poem'> +"Cometh from afar<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Trailing clouds of glory from God,"</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>whose voice sent it forth, as Gioberti says, "to suffer and +to be for a season on earth."</div> + +<p>I hope you follow me in my thought, for I think I am +looking into the child, which is the thing that ought to be +done if one undertakes to teach it. That the child really +knows God before God is even named to him is not a speculative +theory with me but a fact of my experience. It is +one of my earliest remembrances, that I was sitting in the +lap of a young lady, whose name and countenance I have +forgotten, who was caressing me, and calling me sweet, +beautiful, darling, etc., when all at once she seized me into a +closer embrace and exclaimed, rather than asked, Who made +you?</p> + +<p>I remember my pleased surprise at the question, that I feel +very sure had never been addressed to my consciousness +before. At once a Face arose to my imagination,—only a +Face and head,—close to me, and looking upon me with the +most benignant smile, in which the kindness rather predominated +over the intelligence; but it looked at me as if meaning, +"Yes, I made you, as you know very well." I was so +thoroughly satisfied, that I replied to the question decisively, +"A man."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p> + +<p>The lady said to another who sat near us, "Only think! +this great girl does not know who made her!"</p> + +<p>I remember I was no less sure of my knowledge, notwithstanding +she said this. Though it was the first time I had +thought God and given the name "man" to the thought, it +seemed not new to me. I had felt God before.</p> + +<p>I <i>was</i> a rather large girl, more than four years old, as I +know from the fact that we were living in a certain house, to +which we went on my fourth birthday. My next recollection +is of going into a room of this house, where my mother +was sitting, working at an embroidery frame that hung +against the wall. I went up to her and said, "Mamma, +Eliza asked me who made me, and I told her a man, and +she said he didn't!" I stated this reply as a grievance and +outrage.</p> + +<p>Since I came to the age of reflection, I have always regretted +the conversation that followed. It was not judicious, +and seems to me a little out of character for my +mother, who was of strong religious sentiment and quick +imagination, and all other conversation on religious subjects +that I remember of hers was very good. She was rather +thrown off her guard by my unexpected theology and lost +her presence of mind. I was her oldest child, and she had +waited to see some enquiry raised before speaking on the +subject. I had seemed more stupid than I was, for I belong +by nature rather to the reflective than perceptive class, and +so had very little language. At this distance of time I cannot, +of course, remember the details of the conversation, but +I came out of it with another image of God in my mind, +conveying not half so much of the truth as did that kind +Face, close up to mine, and seeming to be so wholly occupied +with His creature. The new image was of an old man, +sitting away up on the clouds, dressed in a black silk gown +and cocked hat, the costume of our old Puritan minister. +He was looking down upon the earth, and spying round<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +among the children to see who was doing wrong, in order to +punish offenders by touching them with a long rod he held +in his hand, thus exposing them to everybody's censure. +Of course my mother said no such thing to me, but what she +did say, by subtle associations with the words she used, +gave me this image, which I need not say rather checked +than promoted my spiritual advancement.</p> + +<p>This experience has been of value to me as a teacher +since, for it has effectually saved me from being didactic +and dogmatic in my religious teaching of children. The +Socratic method is the true way of bringing into the definite +conscious thought God's revelation of Himself to the soul. +That image of authority and power to punish did not, I think, +help, but rather puzzled my moral sense of which I was already +conscious. For I remember that I used to muse very much +in my childhood upon the mental phenomenon of feeling +myself to be two persons. I was clearly conscious of an +inward conversation on all occasions of a question of right +and wrong, when a higher and lower law distinctly uttered +themselves. The lower self often prevailed by the argument +that the thing to be done was <i>transient</i>, I would do it +only this <i>once</i>, and never again; and often I thus sinned +against the very present God, which I think I might not +have done so presumptuously, had I associated the thought +of this strange other me with that kind face of Love Divine. +When later in life I did learn that the remonstrating voice +was unquestionably God, because He is the Love that I saw +in my childish vision, the war between self-love and conscience +ceased. But this was not till a great body of death +had been accumulated, which I have never shuffled off +except in moments of hope.</p> + +<p>But to take up the thread of my discourse again. I would +very earnestly say that the Socratic or conversational +method is the only way of bringing into a child's definite +consciousness God's revelation of Himself to souls. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +this requires a mutual understanding of words, and if we are +careful, we may produce this in the kindergarten.</p> + +<p>Frœbel intimates that a general impression of there being +an invisible Friend and Protector may be given by the +baby's seeing the mother in the attitude of devotion, and he +would have recognition of God called forth by her naming +the unseen Father at moments when the child's heart is +overflowing with joy and love, or seeking to know where +some beautiful thing comes from. The child feels already +at such times the presence of the Infinite Cause, the Infinite +Source of joy and goodness, and the name of Heavenly +Father given to this presence will not be an empty vocable. +Using with the name of Father the word "our," with which +the Lord's Prayer begins, suggests that He is the Father of +all alike, and all human beings will thus be united together +with Him in the child's imagination.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>This idea of one personal but comprehensive Being, the +centre of the social organization, is a quickening of the +immortal personality, which has a date in time no less +certainly than the quickening of the body, and is our sense +of identity.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LECTURE IV.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>THE KINDERGARTEN.<br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">In</span> my last lecture I spoke of the ideal nursery; for only +there, hitherto, has the divine method of education ever been +completely carried out, the unquestionable teacher there being +<i>the child</i>, "trailing clouds of glory from God who is our +home"; its sweet content and inspiring smile indicating +when its nurse is treating it aright; while all that is wrong, +whether proceeding from mere ignorance or selfish wilfulness +on the part of the adult, is indicated by its cries of fright +and anger, which it behooves her to heed.</div> + +<p>How is it that, with the spectacle forever before our eyes +of the mother and infant, mutually emparadised in child's +play (that mutually educating communion of trust and love, +by which the child is put into gradual possession of his body, +and joyous consciousness of his individuality),—how is it, I +say, that we find education has lost its <i>ideal</i>, and as soon as +the child leaves the nursery for the schoolroom, an antagonism +has begun, "with its blessedness at strife," and which +leaves us all such scarred and bewildered creatures as we +find ourselves to be, as soon as we come to reflect?</p> + +<p>But I must remember that what we have to speak of +especially is the kindergarten, which follows hard upon the +nursery.</p> + +<p>When the child's growing activities begin to require a larger +social sphere than the nursery,—<i>i.e.</i>, at about three years +old,—it was Frœbel's plan to gather the children of several +families into what he called a "Child Garden," and to extend +the nursery law of <i>cherishing</i> (which is the dealing with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +living organisms that children are), by exercising them for +several hours of every day in rehearsing in plays, in the first +place, all the sweet charities of life. This employs their +physical forces, and makes them experimentally know that +human happiness and goodness are social and generous.</p> + +<p>For the so-called "movement plays" are social exercises, +gently calling out moral sentiments, as well as intellectual +powers. They can only be beautiful and enjoyable when +they give mutual pleasure; and this involves that mutual +reference and kind consideration of each other which leave +no room for selfish feeling or action. Moral education is the +alpha and omega of a kindergarten, but it cannot be given +by precept. To <i>do</i> the will of God,—<i>i.e.</i>, to obey the moral +law,—"doing to others as we would have others do to us," +<i>even in play</i>, is the only way for children to know vitally the +doctrine of moral life.</p> + +<p>Frœbel has suggested a variety of these movement plays, +all of them conceived with the greatest care as to their intellectual +as well as moral effect. They always have a fanciful +aim, within the scope of the child's knowledge and affection, +and to play them begins to develop the understanding also.</p> + +<p>A gentle intellectual exercise, involved in learning by rote, +reciting, and singing the songs that direct the plays, takes +the rudeness out and puts intelligence into that exhilaration +of the animal spirits which healthy children crave, and prevents +it from exhausting the body or disordering the mind; +the joyous association of the children with each other aiding +this effect. In the sedentary plays, which are called "occupations," +and in which the child is genially drawn into producing +symmetrical effects to the eye, by making things (albeit +only little toys) which begin their artistic life, Frœbel has +had equal regard to the moral as to the intellectual influences. +When the child has gone beyond the age in which he is satisfied +with making transient forms and gathering the materials +back into boxes, and desires to make something that will last,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +a legitimate sense of property arises. He feels that what he +has made is <i>his own</i>, for the thought and work which he +knows that he has put into it are his own. Frœbel, therefore, +would have him, before he begins to <i>make</i> anything, pause +and appropriate it intentionally to some object of his love, +reverence, or pity. This will check the otherwise rampant +propensity to hoard, and prevent the passions of avarice, +vanity, and jealousy from making their appearance. In our +common school life, the pride of <i>showing off</i> their powers, +and excelling others, is regularly cultivated in children by +competition, as a stimulus to industry. But this is as unnecessary +as it is deleterious. For disinterested desire to confer +pleasure, and express gratitude and love of others, is found +by experience to be a surer stimulus to industry than the +baser passions, and has the additional value of cultivating +positive sweetness and active benevolence. It is desirable, +and really produces the greatest practical humility, for children +to regard themselves as embryo powers of beneficence, +learning to do the Heavenly Father's business from the beginning, +like the child Jesus. Then may they grow "in favor +with God and men," as they grow "in stature," and all their +knowledge will prove a divine wisdom unto the salvation of +others and themselves. To go into a truly ordered and well +governed child-garden, and see all the little children busy +making things for the Christmas tree, or for birthday and +new year's gifts, for all the friends they know or fancy, we +shall see sufficient proofs that love is the truest quickener of +industry, and love-inspired industry the true sweetener of the +disposition and temper.</p> + +<p>Moreover, such industry is the special desideratum to temper +the spirit of the present age, which is so keen and energetic +that it hurries our young men into pursuits in their +amusements which take on the character of gambling; and +hence gambling in business, gambling in politics, where even +human beings, instead of being regarded as <i>brothers to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +kept</i>, are used as dice, to be recklessly thrown in our game. +The only preventive or cure for this passion for gambling is +industry, and the only industry that is attractive is artistic; +and why should not all industry become artistic, now that +the great cosmic forces are suborned, by our advancing +civilization, as the legitimate slaves of men, to do all the hard +work for men? I have already set forth this view of the +subject in the <i>Plea for Frœbel's Kindergarten as the Primary +Art-School</i>, which I appended to Cardinal Wiseman's +lecture on the relation of the arts of design with the arts of +production (which I published in 1869, under the title of +<i>The Artist and the Artisan Identified,—the Proper Object of +American Education</i>).</p> + +<p>Before I leave these general remarks for more specific explanation +of Frœbel's method of intellectual development, I +would make one more observation. It is in the social and +moral character of the kindergarten that Frœbel has shown +himself so much superior to Rousseau, whose method was to +cultivate individualities exclusively, the teacher pretending +to know no more than the child, but taking his idiosyncrasy +for his only guide in discovery and invention. In the first +place, Rousseau's method has been found an impracticable +one, for it requires a separate teacher for every child; and in +the only instance, perhaps, in which it was ever carried +out with perfect fidelity, that of Maria Edgeworth's eldest +brother (we have in her memoirs of her father all the facts), +the ultimate effect was to make a monstrosity. He was utterly +strange, so odd and unsocial, nobody but his father, who +educated him, could have any practicable relation with him. +He might be said to be conscientiously unsocial, and therefore +immoral; and, though not ungifted, he was an utter +failure in human life. We see similar effects produced measurably, +in all cases where the main object is to cultivate the +individual rather than the universal characteristics of humanity. +Frœbel was tender, and gave freedom to individualities,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +but he took great care not to <i>pamper</i> them. They are the +results of the free-will, irrefragable, and will take care of +themselves sufficiently, if not cruelly snubbed, but tenderly +respected.</p> + +<p>What is to be <i>intentionally</i> cultivated in earliest infancy, +are the <i>general</i> affections and faculties, which relate us to +our kind, insuring <i>common</i> sense and <i>common</i> conscience +with a reasonable self-respect. Therefore, what is done in +the kindergarten is necessary for all children, their idiosyncrasies +being left free to play on the surface and give variety +and piquancy to life, freedom and dignity to the individual.</p> + +<p>All minds seem to be divided into two classes. In one +class, the primal tendency is to observe single objects; and +these are the so-called smart children, interesting the spectator +by their vivacity and precocity. In the other class, +children seem to be dull in sense, unobserving, but dreamy, +as if they had an over-mastering <i>presentiment</i> of that connection +of things which binds them into wholes. It has +been remarked that this latter class turns out the great men,—the +poets, the philosophers, the inventors, high artists, great +statesmen, and law-givers,—while the precocious children +disappoint expectation; probably because they have accumulated +such a chaos of single impressions of disconnected +things, that it quite overwhelms the classifying and generalizing +powers of the intellect. Frœbel's method equally +meets the respective wants of both these classes of minds, +supplying by specific culture the <i>other</i> side of their practical +endowment. By its discipline of production, it gives the +lively and restless ones the wand of the Fairy-Order, in +discovering to them the connections of things, and the conditions +as well as laws of organization; while for those of +the dreamy, poetic, philosophic temperament, it sharpens +the senses to individual things, supplying the definite and +sensuous impressions, and suggesting the corresponding +words that enable them to give an account of their own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +thinking, and illustrate to others the struggling ideal; which, +like conscience and the love of order and rhythm, is perhaps +the yet persistent vision of that Heavenly Father's face, which +Jesus Christ has told us we are created beholding.</p> + +<p>Jesus evidently is quoting a familiar proverb, when he +says "for their angels behold the face of my Father who is +in heaven." Does it not refer to the Persian mythology +current in Judea after the captivity? However neglected and +eclipsed, that primeval vision can never be quite lost. It +persists in the love of order and beauty; in the desire to be +loved <i>infinitely</i>; in hope "that springs eternal in the human +breast"; in the ideals of imagination, that haunt both the +savage and the sage, and, at worst, in <i>remorse</i>, in which, +as Emerson says, "there is a certain <i>sweetness</i>," whether it +be gentle as in what the Quakers call "the reproof of +truth," or felt as the reproachful strivings within us of our +neglected infinite nature.</p> + +<p>This brings me to speak of Frœbel's superiority to Pestalozzi. +The kindergarten is not mainly <i>object-teaching</i>, +though of course a constant object-teaching is <i>involved</i>; all +the materials of their work and all the surroundings of the +children become objects of examination in their individualities +of form, size, number, etc., and in their possible connections +with each other and with the <i>child</i>. If Frœbel +proposes to give the fruits of the tree of <i>life</i>, before he gives +those of the tree of knowledge, it is only that the latter may +prove, <i>not a curse</i>, but a blessing. The world's history and +the present state of civilization in the foremost nations of +the world shows us that knowledge may be <i>a power</i> without +being <i>a good</i> (a snakish subtlety not Divine Wisdom). +It begins to be realized in Europe as well as in America, +that Frœbel's idea of education, in making <i>character</i> the +first thing, and knowledge the <i>hand-maiden</i> of goodness, is +the desideratum of the age, and promise of the millennium.</p> + +<p>I should like to read you some letters of eminent men in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +France, addressed to Frœbel's most earnest disciple and +apostle, the Baroness Marenholtz-Bülow, which I have translated +from the appendix of her <i>Work in Relation to Education</i> +(see Appendix, <a href="#Note_B">Note B</a>).</p> + +<p>In an address to the school committee of Boston in 1868 +I gave the call addressed in 1867 by the Philosophers' +Congress in Prague to the convention of teachers in Berlin, +and the call of the latter to the second convention of this congress +at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1869. The burden of all +these papers is the paramount necessity of religious and moral +education, begun in earliest infancy, in order that the modern +intellectual activity may not land us in licentious vices and +heartless atheism, <i>our nearest dangers</i>. They all accept +Frœbel's method of education by work and experience +(beginning with the work and experience of the child of +three years old) as the first condition of the regeneration of +the human race.</p> + +<p>It is the office of the kindergartner to awaken the intellect, +which the child does not bring into the world, like its heart +and will, full-grown. The infant suffers and enjoys as +keenly, and wills as energetically, at first as ever in its life, +but apparently begins and lives for some time, unconscious +of a world without as a <i>not me</i>. It is purely subjective, <i>i.e.</i>, +feeling its material environment to be a part of itself. As +Emerson says:—</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"The babe, by its mother,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Lies bathed in joy;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Glide its hours uncounted;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">The sun is its toy!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Shines the peace of all being,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Without cloud, in its eyes;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And the sum of the world</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">In soft miniature lies!"</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>Only by intentional help of those around the child can it +grow into individual consciousness of its relations with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +nature in that order which produces the sound intellect. +For the intellect is a growth in time, that carries on the +nursery exercises of the limbs and affections by the movement +plays, and adds those sedentary plays with the series +of gifts, which are symbols of all nature in miniature, that +objective revelation of God to which the receptive mind +answers by thoughts. Thinking is that reaction of the +individual mind upon nature which, when it is put into +words, produces progressively an image of God, which is the +human mind.</p> + +<p>The kindergartner's conversation with the children upon +their playthings is therefore her most important and delicate +work, and one which she cannot do instinctively, but +only if she scientifically understands the child on the one +hand, and nature in some department on the other. It is +impossible in this lecture, perhaps, to demonstrate my meaning. +By following out Frœbel's own method of playing +with the gifts, as suggested in Mrs. Kraus-Boelte's guide or +in <i>The Florence Handbook</i>, the whole process of the formation +of the human understanding by the order of objective +nature will become patent, and enable the kindergartner to +avoid any great mistakes in her guidance of the children's +minds, which guidance should always be tentative, and +respectful, to say the least, of their freedom to will. Then +we shall have not mechanical work, but orderly, creative +work from the children, whose spontaneity is not to be +choked; but when it seems to be going in a wrong direction, +interrogatively guided. Like Ariel, she must do her spiriting +gently, lest she violate the legitimate individuality, and +we have Caliban instead of the germ of Prospero.</p> + +<p>I here pause to display two kinds of work actually done +by children under seven years of age at Frau Marquadt's +kindergarten in Dresden. They enable me to show that +those sedentary plays, with which Frœbel would have +children amused, must needs develop and educate the perceptive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +faculty and understanding in a substantial manner; +for these things were done without patterns, and therefore +from <i>thought</i>,—the thought being sometimes suggested by +the dictation of the child-gardener, requiring of the child only +one single act of reflection. But much of this work was +invented by the children themselves, their wildest fancies +being controlled to produce symmetry, by following the one +rhythmical law of always making an opposite to everything +they do. After showing and explaining the <i>modus operandi</i> +of the work exhibited, I went on to say:—</p> + +<p>I believe nobody disputes, after they see what kindergarten +is, that it is the gospel of salvation for children. +The exercises put them into complete possession, not only +of their limbs, especially the characteristic limb of man, the +hand, just when they are the most flexible, and therefore most +easily trained; and of their organs of sense (by which they +gradually make the universe their instrumentality), but also +of <i>accurate speech</i>, enabling them to express their impressions +of individual things, as well as of what they <i>do</i> with +things and in the order of its doing. Thus they are prepared +for entering upon more abstract subjects, by means of +books and schools of instruction. A child well "gardened" +and exercised in the intelligent use of his mother tongue +enters upon the process of learning to read, for instance, +with all the more advantage from being accustomed to hear +and use language with precision and fluency; and is ready +to learn to cipher all the more quickly, because of the +concrete arithmetic and geometry he has mastered experimentally +with the playthings and in the occupations, all his +habits of delicate observation and nice calculation formed by +the embroidery and other fanciful work giving the basis for +intelligent classifications. Even the few years of experience +of some genuine kindergartens in this country has already +proved this. I can give an instance in detail of the almost +miraculous rapidity with which a class of seven-year-old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +children learned to read in the primer called <i>After Kindergarten—What?</i> +(<a href="#Note_C">Note C</a>, in Appendix.) All the +time given to "child-gardening" is therefore more than +saved at the next stage, when instruction begins. Other +advantages accruing are incalculable, for the children themselves +have become intelligent and conscientious co-operators +with their elders, instead of passive receivers or antagonists. +When Miss Youmans' <i>First Lessons in Botany</i> (a book +made to teach botany in nature on Prof. Henslow's method) +was introduced into the New York primary schools, with +great expectations of a brilliant success, it was found that +the children did not take hold as expected of this science of +observation. "I see now," said Miss Youmans to me, "the +indispensableness of kindergartens to develop the faculties; +more than half the children are intellectually demoralized by +neglect or injudicious teaching before they are seven years +old." Everything, however, depends upon the single-minded +self-devotion and affectionate character of the +kindergartner, and it is obvious that her education must be +as special as that of a teacher of instrumental and vocal +music; for as little as music can be taught by the ear, or +drawing by the eye, without studying the underlying principles +of harmony and symmetry, can kindergartning be +taught empirically. Its foundation is in both a scientific and +sympathetic study and understanding of the child's perceptive +powers and the material world. Not merely what is to +be taught, as is the case with a university professor, but +the free-willing and deep-feeling beings that are to be +taught must be studied generally and individually above all +things else. Hence, there must be special schools for teaching +child-gardening, or a special department made in the +already existing normal schools.</p> + +<p>The burden of thinking out the steps of procedure in the +schoolroom is too great a one to be laid on the teacher who +has to exercise the general care. It must all be at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +tongue's tip and fingers' ends beforehand. It took Frœbel a +lifetime, with all his genius and wisdom, to discover all the +steps of this order of exercises, in correspondence with the +true evolution of the faculties; but "one man dies, and other +men enter into the fruits of his labors." Besides, it is as +cruel to study the philosophy of education at the expense of +the living children's minds, as it would be to study anatomy +and medicine at the expense of their living bodies. All kindergartners +should observe and practise for awhile under +the direction and criticism of those who are already experts +and adepts; and the latter should be careful that their assistants +try no rash experiments, but at first reverently observe +successful work. It is the highest interest of all teachers to +learn this method, because it develops themselves. It not +only makes the best mothers, but the most perfectly accomplished +women. It is entering into the secret of creation +and redemption, which is the flower and fruit of human +culture.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>When people ask me if kindergartning is not a method +especially adapted to German children, I reply that it seems +to me to encounter as great obstacles in that nationality as +in any other. It is not a <i>national</i> method, but the <i>human</i> +method; and I would remark in this place that it strikes me +as especially desirable for Irish children. The natural predominance +in them of fancy needs the check of accurate +perception, associated with accurate expression; accurate +perception, first, of the individuality of objects, their form, +size, color, direction, their mutual resemblances and contrasts, +and the no less accurate perception of their relations +to each other and to the child. These things can only be made +objects of perception by children's being accustomed to <i>make</i> +things, which employ the activities that otherwise will play<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +at random and divert their attention from the matter in +hand. In my observations of Irish servants, I am struck +with their never seeming to see what is before their eyes, or +to hear what is said to them, on account of the predominance +of their creative faculties. Accurate perception of the things +children play with, and successful manipulation of them to +produce effects, would also help them to moral integrity; for +order moralizes just in proportion as disorder demoralizes. +Successful action cures idle dissipation, while unsuccessful +efforts discourage and paralyze industry. Frœbel wishes the +child to be started at something he can certainly accomplish, +though perhaps not without direction in words. When the +child sees an effect produced by himself, he will repeat it +until he can produce the effect without direction, and, if +asked, will be delighted to show another child how he has +done it. It is a necessary step to put his action into words, +and raises it from mere mechanical into intellectual work; +from Chinese imitation into European and American invention. +By and by, when he has learned a little steadiness of +attention by doing successfully what pleases his fancy, he +will make some motion of his own, and proceed according to +the law of symmetry (whose virtue he has learned) to discover +and make new forms of beauty and use; but he should +still be carefully overlooked, and saved, by timely suggestions, +from making mistakes. These suggestions he will +crave and not resist, <i>if they are not peremptory</i>, but are put +in the form of a question, which seems to respect his power +to choose, which is his <i>personality</i>, the image of God within +him. In proceeding in this way, both teacher and child are +led more and more to realize that there is a mysterious third +Being present, who is neither the teacher nor the child, but +in whom they meet, through whom they communicate, and +who gives the law they both must respect; that there is, in +short, One "in whom they live and move and have their being"; +that is the God who "worketh in them to will and to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +do"; that He enables them to create beauty, not at random, +but with a certain freedom which is not lawlessness. He is +the Creator of the Beauty they do not make, and of the Good +they love, and gives the Laws which they obey, and in obeying +become powers of good and inventors of beauty; for the +laws of order are truly God's thought revealed to their +thought. To be active powers of good and beauty is to be +religious, and also to be free from superstition; to love God +instead of being afraid of Him; to make their lives a reasonable +service, and thus become free from priestcraft and spiritual +tyranny. Inefficiency, still more than ignorance, is the +mother of fetich worship, and reduces man to slavery; and +to be surrounded by natural and artistic beauty does not cultivate +the mind, unless it is already an active power. Reverie +is not thinking. But the mind can only become active +by the electric touch of a sympathetic mind which is already +in motion. It is the destiny of men to become one in that +same sense that the Divine Father and Son are one. God +has made human communion a moral necessity, and does +nothing for man, except by the instrumentality of man. "By +man came death, by man also cometh the resurrection from +the dead." In short, education, that "mysterious communion +of wisdom and innocence," is presupposed in reasonable +religion. I once heard an eloquent man, who was speaking +of education, say, "The Archangel is born upon earth; we +may know him by the many difficulties that he has found and +surmounted, and his consequent power to educate; for <i>education</i> +is the highest function of humanity in earth and heaven, +cementing the links of the chain of love which binds us all to +one another and to God." We are always either educating +or hindering the development of our fellow-creatures; we are +always being uplifted or being dragged down by our fellow-creatures. +Education is always mutual. The child teaches +his parents (as Gœthe has said) what his parents omitted to +teach him. Every child is a new thought of God, whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +individuality is significant and interesting to others, though +it is his own limitation; and to appreciate a child's individuality +is the advantage the teacher gets in exchange for the +general laws which he leads the child to appreciate. It is +this variety of individuals that makes the work of education +fascinating, and takes from it all wearisome monotony. +Those persons who feel that education is wearisome work +have not learned the secret of it. I have never seen a good +kindergartner who was not as fond of the work as a painter +of his painting, a sculptor of his modelling. Teachers who +are not conscious of learning from their pupils, may be pretty +sure they teach them very little.</p> + +<p>It is because kindergartning is this true education, which +is mutual delight to the adult and the child, that I have faith +it will prevail, and its prevalence is my hope for humanity. +By the infinite mercy of God, no human being is hopeless of +redemption into God's perfect image at last; but humanity +will not be redeemed as a whole,—will not become the image +of God, or live the life of God,—until little children are suffered +to go unto Christ while they are yet of the kingdom of +heaven, and are blessed from the first and continually, by +those who shall take them in their arms to bless them. Those +are only perfect kindergartners who are "hidden in Christ," +receiving every child in his name, and humbly learning of +them the secrets of greatness in the kingdom of heaven, +which is to be established on earth. Kindergartning is not +a craft, it is a religion; not an avocation, but a vocation +from on High.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LECTURE V.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>LANGUAGE.<br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">Teaching</span>, which in the common sense of the word is the +suggestion of thoughts by words, is not the kindergartner's +special work, but the <i>a priori</i> process of drawing out into the +individual consciousness of a child those latent powers whose +free activity gives him conscious relations, first, with his +kind; secondly, with material nature, including his own body; +and, thirdly, with God. He is unconsciously in this threefold +relation already, but to become conscious of these relations +severally, in his own growth builds up the human understanding, +which is not born with him like his sensibility and force +of will. The human understanding, a creation in time of the +free will, creates language as the element of a life not +shared with animals; an intellectual life using the symbolism +of nature as a means of intercommunication, and which is +correspondent and bearing a relation to its creator, man, +similar to the relation of the material universe to God, being in +both instances an image, as in a mirror, of what is necessary +and immutable in the self-consciousness, though without entity +itself. Hence, as the material universe expresses the wisdom +of God, human languages express the imperfect wisdom of +man. Language is the element in which the intellectual +nature makes a sphere wherein to live and move and have +its being. What breath is to the material body, making man +alive in nature, language is to the social body, making it +alive in history.</div> + +<p>A word is both spiritual and material, being an articulate +form of the voice which, as Gœthe has happily said, is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +nearest spiritual of our bodily powers, taking significance +from the articulating organs, which are symbolical, like +everything else in material nature, which, as I said +before, is but an image, as reflected in a mirror, without +absolute entity, but bearing witness of an entity progressively +apprehended by the finite spirits of men, who are the +children of the Infinite Spirit inheriting creative power +forevermore.</p> + +<p>The <i>in</i>articulate sound of the voice is the scream of pain +or the shout of joy, mutually intelligible to all human hearts; +and this aerial basis of language continues to be more or less +intelligible to all souls, when modulated as in poetry into +melody and rhythm by emotion and character. The first +human language was, perhaps, music of the deepest character, +of which phase there is historic trace in the spoken +Chinese, which has been perishing for ages on the lips of a +nation whose origin is lost in the depths of antiquity. This +spoken language is monosyllabic, and even the initial consonant +often only a semivowel, while the whole word takes +its significance from the <i>tone</i> of the vowel; thus <i>lu</i> in a low +tone would have one meaning, <span class="smcap">lu</span> in the tone of a musical +third another meaning, and so on as the tone ascends through +the octave. The inception of such a language implies an +original equipoise of a brain not yet despoiled of its first +vigor through moral delinquency which is incident to the +freedom to will of a finite spirit, and consequently the +Chinese language was inevitably lost. It would be interesting +to enquire if those rare individuals among the Chinese +who are expert in the spoken Chinese, are not of finest +musical temperament.</p> + +<p>Not till after thinking had begun could articulation by the +organs of speech begin. Thinking is the free individual act +which associates the mind's activity and the sensibility of the +heart with material things, and must precede the use of words.</p> + +<p>A time comes to every intelligent child when it wonders<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +how words should express thoughts. Victorious analysis has +never yet penetrated the whole mystery of language to the +complete satisfaction of men, though I think philologists and +metaphysicians are on the way to it, and have reached some +fundamental facts. For instance, that <i>in</i>significant sounds +and articulations could not make significant words, and that +vocal sounds (vowels) get their meaning from feeling, while +articulations get theirs from the symbolism of the organs of +speech.</p> + +<p>The organs of speech are, first, the throat,—as the guttural +organ is called in English because through it we take our +food and send forth our voice,—is <i>out of sight</i>, <i>covered up</i>, +<i>hidden</i>, the <i>central</i> point where the voice starts; secondly, the +lips, which are obvious, movable, parallel; thirdly, our teeth, +against which the voice strikes, are hard, stiff, and dead in +comparison with the flexible lips, and the tongue which connects +all together, the voice rolling over it and hardly articulated. +Hence the hard <i>c</i> and <i>g</i>, and the rough aspirate <i>h</i> are +factors in all words signifying the beginning of self-originating +motion (observe <i>go</i> and <i>kick</i>, or <i>cause to go</i>), the causal, +the central, covered, hidden; while the labials, <i>p</i>, <i>b</i>, <i>f</i>, <i>v</i>, are +factors in all words expressing obviously moving phenomena; +and the dentals, <i>d</i>, <i>t</i>, <i>s</i>, <i>z</i>, found in words expressive of stiff, +hard, dead phenomena (the word <i>death</i> is all but identical +with the word <i>teeth</i>); separation and number being expressed +by <i>s</i> and <i>z</i>, which are made by throwing the vocal breath out +between the separated teeth. The liquids <i>r</i> and <i>l</i>, <i>r</i> being +also a factor of words expressing indefinite beginning, (as +<i>original</i>, <i>auroral</i>, <i>arise</i>, etc.) are made by the voice moving +over the tongue more or less energetically, to express movements +whose difference of energy is exemplified in the words +<i>fry</i> and <i>fly</i>, <i>grow</i> and <i>glow</i>, <i>M</i> closes the lips without preventing +the continuous sound of the voice from being heard; and +<i>n</i>, negating limitation by throwing the breath (or voice) out +at the nose, symbolize respectively the positive and negative +aspects of Infinity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p> + +<p>Of course I am giving only a hint in order to define what +I mean when I say significant words are not made out of +insignificant sounds, and that articulated sounds get their +meaning from the symbolism of the organs of speech.</p> + +<p>The historical origin of language is lost in the depths of +antiquity, when the human race was yet in that equipoise of +mind, heart, and self-activity, which in the process of evolution +is only progressively recovered by the free agent, it being the +office of education to restore it.</p> + +<p>The infant (that is, the <i>non-speaking</i> child) in vision of +the Eternal, only gradually becomes aware of the succession +of time. For, as Mr. Emerson sings in his Sphinx song,—</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"The babe by its mother<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Lies bathed in joy,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Glide its hours uncounted</i>."</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>And Wordsworth says of "the little child,—"</div> + +<div class='poem'> +"On whom those truths do rest,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">That we are toiling all our lives to find;"</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +"By the vision splendid<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">The youth is still attended;"</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>and</div> + +<div class='poem'> +"Shades of the prison-house begin to close<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Upon the growing boy,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Yet he beholds the light and whence it flows;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">He sees it in his joy:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">At length the man perceives it die away,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And fade into the light of common day."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>But this fall from the Ideal is not what Calvinistic theology +declares it to be, reprobation either intellectual or spiritual!</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Oh, joy that in our embers<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Is something that doth live,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">That nature yet remembers</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">What was so fugitive."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p> + +<p>True education shall lead out the imprisoned spirit, growingly +conscious of individuality, by means of the symbolism +of the prison-house itself which is that correlation of necessary +forces we call the material universe.</p> + +<p>The material universe, as I have already said, is the symbolization +of everything in God except his creativeness +which is the spiritual essence that he shares with Humanity, +his only-begotten Son. It is the body of God, and human +language is the body of individualized Humanity, whose imperfections +correspond with its various partial developments +and short-comings. And it is ever growing towards perfection +in the form of poetry, bearing witness to the creativeness +(or genius) of man forevermore. As breath is to the +material body, keeping men alive in nature, so language is to +the social body, keeping individuals alive in history and +literature; and as the material universe is symbolical of God's +wisdom, so the echoes of the universe tossed from the lips +of men are symbolic images of the wisdom of man. Language, +in short, being of both natures, spiritual and material, +makes an elemental sphere for the intellectual life, beyond +the material; in short, makes a metaphysical world, in which +the finite and infinite spirits commune with other finite spirits +and with the Infinite One; for by words every minutest shade +of individual consciousness may be communicated from one +finite mind to another, making not only an immortal communion +of men possible, but a communion of God and +Humanity also that shall have no end. Heaven and earth +pass away, but the Word of the Lord endureth forever.</p> + +<p>But I must not be tempted into philosophizing farther upon +language at present, precisely because it takes us into the +deepest mysteries of speculative thought, and our business +with it now is practical, and concerns the nursery and kindergarten +processes of culture.</p> + +<p>Looking at it superficially, speech is an imitative art, and +so far as our experience goes, is always taught by elders to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +the young generation empirically. This teaching of the +mother-tongue in the nursery is an immensely important +thing, because it carries on the development of the understanding +towards the fulness of Reason (which is seeing +particular things in their proportionate relation to the +whole).</p> + +<p>In the whole course of a child's education, nothing is done +which so much involves the totality of his activity as his +learning to talk. For to talk presupposes observation, discrimination, +memory, fancy, understanding. The first three +(observation, discrimination, and memory) are nearly passive +reactions from sensuous impressions. But fancy and understanding +are creative acts of the human spirit, almost defying +analysis. In fancy, the mind acts quite reckless and +even defiant of nature's laws and order. In understanding, +it observes and uses them subjectively. That children delight +in using words to name things in the order of nature, +and to express qualities and relations in connection, making +an echo-picture within of what they see without, is not so +wonderful as the exaltation of delight produced by a story +which is, as it were, triumphant over nature's laws, and +reckless of its order; and the shocks of laughter with which +they catch at a grotesque and impossible combination of +images made in their fancy by means of words. The predominance +of fanciful talk to children which seems to be +instinctive with all peoples, everywhere, is an indication +that fancy is as legitimate an activity as understanding, to +say the least. It seems to me to be an evidence of our being +begotten directly by the creative spirit, sons of a divine +Father, who is the complex of Infinite Love, Infinite Wisdom, +and Infinite Power, of which our human feeling, power of +thinking, and executive ability are the shadow, or rather a +living image.</p> + +<p>Both fancy and understanding are developed in time by +words. We all know how children are waked up and delighted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +by Mother Goose absurdities, and still more by fairy +stories that seem to set at naught the facts and override the +laws of nature. It is a stubborn fact, of which materialistic +positivists afford us no explanation, and which I commend +to the consideration of Mr. Mansell, and whoever else talks +of the limitations of religious thought. And I think it will +be found that children who are talked to by Mother Goose +and fairy-story tellers learn to talk more quickly than others, +and have more vivacity of mind generally, with a power of +entering into the minds of others commensurate with their +sensibility, and justifying the human sympathies which are +often a burden to the unimaginative, who are nevertheless +kind. A great deal of the misunderstanding of others which +causes unnecessary pain and social bitterness, checking generous +furtherance of one another's good purposes, arises from +want of saliency of imagination, preventing us from being +able to put ourselves in another's place. And of course it is +not without the highest reason that the Father of our Spirits +has given fancy the advantage of the first start in our mental +process. That fancy precedes understanding in our psychological +history cannot be denied by any nice observer. I +have known some parents who would not use Mother Goose +or fairy stories with their children, but substituted therefor +amusing experiments in physics,—the metamorphosis of +insects and the classification of plants according to their differences. +Their children became scientific when they grew +up, were fine mathematicians, and were interested in mechanical +inventions and natural history; but took comparatively +little interest in political and moral problems, though not at +all wanting in the social and patriotic affections, which also +characterized their parents, who were themselves brought up +on the imaginative system not well modified by studies of +nature's phenomena, which was probably the reason of their +strong reaction from the imaginative method.</p> + +<p>But I have known as intimately some other parents who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +made predominant, perhaps extreme use of Mother Goose and +fairy literature. Their children much earlier and more completely +got command of all the resources of language, had a +tendency to art, especially literary art, in their own activity, +and were earlier interested in human history, and all varieties +of human experience reflected in the literature of nations; but +perhaps were slower in attaining practical ability for life's +labors. Each direction of education has its advantages and +disadvantages in the religious relation, and I think it is the +better way to mingle them, especially at the early period of +the kindergarten, where the objective point is to cultivate +the understanding, which needs that we should appreciate the +facts and order of external nature as the exponent of God's +wisdom. This will chasten and give substantiality to the +creative action of the human fancy, which is never to be +snubbed, but gently entreated to be reasonable, or we shall +have Caliban instead of Ariel or Prospero, as I have said +before.</p> + +<p>I cannot find out whether Frœbel has anywhere expressed +himself distinctly on this point. There are certainly no +grotesque images and no fairy stories in the mother's prattle +with her children over pictures, and in the out-door walks +which are suggested in the <i>Mütterspiele und Köse-Lieder</i>; +but children are led to recognize the poetical symbolism of +nature, and its invisible and impalpable substances and +forces; the invisible forces of air, heat, and light are used to +lead them out from the world of matter towards the more +substantial spiritual world where the soul meets and communes +with God, the omnipresent Spirit to be apprehended +only by the spirit within us, whose organs are ideas.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>In the kindergarten, as in the nursery, children learn language +by using it empirically. To utilize their love of talking +as they play is what is first to be done by the kindergartner.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +The things seen and done give a clear definition +and precise significance to the words used, which become the +stepping-stones of the mind, by which it mounts up from the +sensuous ground of the understanding into the heaven of +invention and imaginative art, plastic and heroic; and thence +to communion with God. But before children are put to +reading, before proceeding from things through thoughts, and +from spiritual experiences through ideas to their vocal signs, +and from vocal signs to their written or printed representations, +it is wise to consider the signs themselves. I do not +mean to go deeply into etymologies or anything that is +abstract. It is not doing so, for instance, to ask children +what is the difference between the words <i>see</i> and <i>look</i>. (Can +you see without looking? Can you look without seeing?) +It gives precision to the understanding to discriminate what +are often called synonymes, but which seldom mean precisely +the same thing, unless, in our <i>potpourri</i> of a language they +are mere translations, as for instance <i>morsel</i> and <i>bit</i>, respective +derivatives from the Latin <i>morsum</i> and the English <i>bitten</i>. +The little English-speaking child should not be troubled with +the derivation of <i>morsel</i>, but is pleased to be called to notice +that of <i>bit</i>. We must be guided here by Frœbel's rule of +proceeding from the known to the unknown, and not +endeavor to plunge children into the unknown without a +clue.</p> + +<p>That children understand and use figurative language +readily, shows that without going out of their childish world +we can define symbolic expression to some degree, and this +is a means of regulating fancy. But I must take another +opportunity to speak of the method of doing this.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> I can +now only affirm that unless children could signify by words +not merely their impressions of material things and their +correlations, but their feelings and thoughts, it would be +impossible for the religious education to be begun in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +nursery, or to be carried on in the kindergarten, as Frœbel +proposes it shall be.</p> + +<p>It is only by naming to the child his own intuition of +creative being or cause, or rather by leading the child to +name it, that the understanding is started upon the religious +thinking which is necessary to keep pure from superstition +his religious feeling, while his blind sense of God is changing +from an undefined intuition of the heart into a definite +thought of the mind, which change Frœbel would have take +place very early. But this is the most delicate region of +consciousness to enter, and we must take great care that we +do not profane instead of consecrating the process by what +we do and say. Words that are adequate and living names +for the spiritual intuition of a very present God, generate +spiritual thoughts in natural relation with them. And this +reminds me of a circumstance in the mental history of Laura +Bridgeman, illustrative of what I mean.</p> + +<p>This poor child was deprived, when two years old, of her +sight and hearing, and partially of taste and smell, by the +scarlet fever, which left her but one avenue of knowledge +of material things,—the sense of touch. But through that +the practical benevolence of Dr. Howe won a way to her +imprisoned spirit, and opened communication of thought +with her by means of words; and she even learned to read in +the raised type for the blind. The whole story is immensely +interesting and important to any teacher. She had been +taught enough of the properties of matter to be able to work +on and with <i>things</i>, and moral science could be taught her +through her own and others' activity; but how was she to be +taught about God and spiritual things? Dr. Howe reserved +to himself to speak to her of God, forbidding all others to do +so, and watched for his opportunity.</p> + +<p>My sister Sophia went over to the asylum to model Laura's +bust, and one day asked her teacher (who was with her +always) to translate into spoken words the conversation that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +she saw was passing between them by means of the hand +language. Very soon occurred the following:—</p> + +<p><i>Laura.</i> I want to go to walk.</p> + +<p><i>Teacher.</i> You cannot go to-day, because it rains.</p> + +<p><i>Laura.</i> Who makes it rain?</p> + +<p>Instead of making a direct reply, the teacher went on to +explain how moisture exhaled from the earth by the action +of the sun, and was collected in masses which were called +clouds, and when the clouds were so full as to be heavier +than the air, it fell to the earth in drops of rain.</p> + +<p>Laura said, reverently, "God is very full."</p> + +<p>The teacher was startled, and said, "Who told you about +God?"</p> + +<p><i>Laura.</i> No one told me. The Doctor is going to tell me +about him when I know more words. But I think about +God all times.</p> + +<p>The teacher said to my sister, "This is very important," +and went to tell the Doctor, who was a good deal moved, but +found himself at somewhat of a loss. That evening he came to +a little gathering at our house to talk about it. He said that +nearly a year before, if not longer, Laura had come upon the +word <i>God</i> in her reading, and immediately stopped and +asked the meaning of the word. According to his directions, +she was then sent to him, and he was so anxious not to do any +harm, especially not to frighten her with the idea of Infinite +Power (which is the main element of our conception of God, +even eighteen hundred years after Christ's manifestation of +Infinite <i>Love</i>), that he was embarrassed, and said to her that +she did not yet know other words enough to explain the word +<i>God</i>, but when she had learned more words, he would tell her, +and meanwhile he wished she would not ask any one else. +But now he was pondering what was the best way to proceed. +I suggested that perhaps Laura could teach him more than +he could teach her about God, and asked what was the +sentence in which she had found the word. But this he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +never known. It was then suggested that probably the word +had explained itself, for no sentence could possibly contain +the word, not even in an exclamation, that would not suggest +to such a perfectly clear thinking mind as Laura had always +shown, the fact of supreme love or wisdom. The company +present proved this by trying to make sentences. I do not +know what he finally concluded to do or say to Laura. I +think certainly that the true way would have been to +have drawn her out, and according to what she said or +seemed to need, to have shaped whatever teaching he had to +give, taking great care not to negate any of her positive +assertions; for we could not doubt that God was manifesting +himself to the imagination of her heart, if not yet in the +forms of the human understanding.</p> + +<p>If I had known how to use the hand language, I would +have solicited the privilege of going to learn what this hermit +soul could have told me before it was darkened by our +traditional theology, which did not originate in children,—</p> + +<p> +"On whom those truths do rest<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">That we are toiling all our lives to find,"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>but in the minds of old sinners who had lost the original +purity of soul that "sees God." "I think about God all +times!" How interesting it would be to know exactly what +she thought! That it was nothing terrific or painful was +evident from her habitual mood, which was even joyous. So +careful had the Doctor been to educate every bodily and +mental activity, that she had none of that discouragement, +inelasticity, and indolence of mind, which comes of want of +success in childish effort. A genial, educating assistance +was always around her, but careful not to weaken her by doing +anything for her that she could learn to do for herself. +Obstacles, therefore, only stimulated her efforts, and so delightful +was her sense of overcoming them, that, for instance, +she would laugh exultingly when sewing if her thread became<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +knotted, or if in anything she was doing there was +some little difficulty to be surmounted. Her faith in herself +seemed never to have been broken; but she rested on the +fulcrum of Infinite God, in whom she "lives and moves and +has her being."</p> + +<p>The only thing we ought to do in the religious nurture of +childhood is to <i>preserve</i> this faith which comes from the +child's seeing God even more clearly and certainly than it +can see outward things. See to it that you use language so +as more clearly to define and not to blot out the divine vision, +as old Dr. Barnard's cocked hat and black silk gown and seat +in the clouds eclipsed the sweet face with which my Creator +seemed to own me as his child, as I told you in my last +lecture.</p> + +<p>Another mistake that was made in my religious education +was during a visit that I made to a great-aunt when I was +five years old, and was taught to say the Lord's prayer by +the servant who put me to bed. I got the idea that some +unknown evil might happen to me in my sleep if I did not do +this, and was also told that God would be displeased with +me if I thought about anything else when I was saying it. +But I was involuntarily conscious of having my mind full of +images, while the words of the prayer were empty vocables. +In order to prevent the intruding thoughts, I would try to +rush through the words quickly, going back to the beginning +over and over again. But this artificial duty was not associated +with the instruction of my mother, who was in general +very happy in what she said to me about God, dwelling on +his goodness, referring to it everything delightful, making +Sunday a day of quiet but constant enjoyment, letting us +paint, and cut paper, with other little amusements, devoting +herself to making us happy, while the rest of the week she +was busy; for she kept a large school, and Sunday was, as +she often said, her only and blessed day of rest. Long +after, at a time of religious controversy and so-called revival,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +I was immensely aided by hearing my mother say to a +young aunt of mine who affirmed that St. Paul, in saying +that we must pray without ceasing was fanatically unreasonable: +"Yes, if praying meant saying over prayers; but spiritual +prayers mean a devotional attitude of mind towards +God which we can have whatever we are doing."</p> + +<p>This sentence seemed to pour light into a shady place.</p> + +<p>"Don't you <i>say prayers</i>, mama?" I said to her when +aunt was gone.</p> + +<p>"Not when I am alone," she said; "for God sees my +thoughts and feelings, and knows that I love him, and +always want his help."</p> + +<p>My mother had nothing of the martinet about her. She +took it for granted that upon the whole we wanted to do +what was right. She was not apt to give the worst, but the +best interpretation to doubtful phenomena. She believed +that to treat a child with generous confidence invoked generosity +and truthfulness, and what was better than all the rest, +she did not <i>talk down</i> to her children, but rather drew them +up to her own mental and moral level; and interlarded +stories from Spenser's <i>Faerie Queen</i> and the Scriptures with +stories of the kind and noble deeds of real people around us. +(See <a href="#APPENDIX">Appendix</a>.)</p> + +<p>Her religion was moral inspiration to herself and consolation +for all calamity, and always very naturally expressed. +She more than corrected her first mistake and inadequate +talk with me about my Creator, by telling me the story of +the Pilgrim Fathers, when I was yet so very young that my +fancy clothed her words with grotesque images, but on the +whole did better justice to the <i>spirit</i> of the emigration and +the ultimate results it has worked out for the world than +the exact facts that transpired in history. What I gained +from my self-created mythology was that my ancestors knew +themselves to be God's children, whom neither tyrannizing +king nor priest had any right to prevent from going to him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +in prayer first hand, and that in order to do his will as their +consciences understood it, they left home and country and all +the comforts of civilization, and trusted themselves in a frail +vessel to be driven over a stormy ocean by the winds, at +imminent peril from the waves below, which would have +swallowed them up, had not God, who loved them, approved +what they were doing, guided the ship (by a power stronger +than the wind, for it was his love) through the narrow opening +of Plymouth Harbor to the rock where I still seem to see +them streaming along, a procession of fair women in white +robes as <i>sisters</i> (for so I had interpreted the word <i>ancestors</i>, who +strangely enough were all named <i>Ann</i>). I still seem to see +these holy women kneel down in the snow under the trees of +the forest, and thank God for their safety from the perils of +the sea; and then go to work in the sense of his very present +help, and gather sticks to make a fire, and build shelters +from the weather with the branches of the trees. Among +these rude buildings my mother took pains to tell me that +they built a schoolhouse where all the children were to be +taught to read the Bible.</p> + +<p>There is nothing for which I thank my mother and my God +more than for this grand impression of all-inspiring love to +God, and of all-conquering duty to posterity, thus made on +my childish imagination, and its association with the idea of +personal freedom and independent action. It never could +have been made except by one who herself had faith in God, +and believed that he had made all men free to come to him, +and also that the mother was his first appointed mouthpiece. +The fanciful images which were the effect of the shortcomings +of my ignorance did not hide the vital truths which I was as +open to accept then as now; namely, that God is my Father, +the Father of all souls, from whom no one has a right to shut +off another.</p> + +<p>That first schoolhouse, which I fancied that I saw the +"Ann Sisters" building, taught me as no mere words ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +could have done, that it was the most acceptable service to +God to educate all his children to know him and his works. +That first idea of human duty I have never outgrown, but +still believe universal education is the true culture of the +American people, the reasonable service they owe to him +who called them out of the Old World to be a nation of individuals. +There was nothing fatal, therefore, in that first false +notion of God (which I received for a time), though it was +for a time more of an evil to me than it would have been to +a child less subjective, or of more lively perception of things +without. Liveliness of perception brings so many things +before the mind, and so stimulates its volatility, that it +undoubtedly prevents the stereotyping of many a single +impression and fancy that does injustice to spiritual truths; +and false impressions, unless strongly associated with terror +or some other morbid sensibility, do not take hold of a child +so strongly as the images that are consistent with the eternal +laws of mental evolution, such, for instance, as that human +face divine with which I had instantaneously clothed +my intuition of God, and which, notwithstanding its temporary +eclipse, has haunted me all my life.</p> + +<p>It is very encouraging to the educator to know that the +innocent soul of childhood has so much more affinity with +truth than with falsehood, because the best and most careful +educator cannot sequestrate children entirely from false +impressions. But what finds no echo in the spirit passes off, +unless the mind is shocked into passivity by fear or pain. +When the soul is active, it has a certain superiority to passive +impressions, and makes use of them as materials for imaginative +production. It is, therefore, desirable to keep children +employed in gentle activity which has successful results, and +happy in the midst of attractive natural surroundings, by +which God is working with us in the same purpose of +educating the child, allowing us to be his partners, as it were, +in this work, because it educates us. It is not uncommon to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +hear persons say that they would like to begin life all over +again with the knowledge they have gained from their life-experience. +This we can all do if we will in imagination +really <i>live with our children</i>, as Frœbel says, whose motto +explains what Christ meant when he bids us to be converted +and become little children.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LECTURE VI.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>A PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATION.</div> + +<div class='center'><br /><span class="smcap">Part First.</span><br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">I said</span> in my last lecture that had I possessed the power +to talk in Laura Bridgeman's hand, I should have begged +Dr. Howe to let me have some conversation with her after +she said that she "thought about God all times"; not that +I felt that I could teach her, but that I might learn what +God had taught her concerning Himself. It was a wonderful +chance for a most important psychological observation of +the innocent mind of childhood, and would have afforded, +doubtless, a luminous illustration of the truth that the +human soul is also a divine personality justifying the method +initiated by Frœbel of conversing with the children in the +Socratic manner.</div> + +<p>But already in my lifetime I had had an opportunity for +psychological observation, made under circumstances perhaps +still more favorable for getting evidence of the importance +of a very early recognition of the Heavenly Father's +name in the formation in a healthy manner of the human +understanding and the development of the reason, verifying +the declaration which Frœbel has made the corner-stone of +his system; namely, that though a child is the extreme +opposite of God, contrasting as effect to cause, as absolute +want to infinite supply, all these terms are connected—<i>conciliated</i>—into +unity, by Love and Thought, which must recognize +each other, and whose loss of equal companionship is a</p> + +<div class='center'> +"Grief, past all balsam and relief,"<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>as Mr. Emerson has sung.</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have somewhere, very careful memoranda, made at +the time, which I have unfortunately mislaid, but I will +present from present recollection as well as I can the +whole psychological observation, though I am aware that +I shall leave out many little things said and done which +were perhaps not unimportant links in the chain.</p> + +<p>Before I begin, I will observe that I tell it to the class to +show the difference between talking to and conversing with +children, and to illustrate several truths.</p> + +<p>First, There is an innate Idea, not as a thought but as a +feeling, given to every child, of an all-embracing Love +(named by Jesus, Father), one in substance with the deepest +consciousness of self;</p> + +<p>Second, That this Idea becomes a child's personal and +individual perception only when he has a realizable name +for it;</p> + +<p>Third, That such a name is not an empty vocable, a mere +movement of air, but a sign, to which the intuition of his +heart gives vital meaning;</p> + +<p>Fourth, That an adequate name for <span class="smcap">God</span> is the axis of +the intellect, and the revolution of thought around it gives +perfect globular form and solidity to the mind, balancing +the centripetal force of individual self-assertion with the +centripetal force of a Divine Love, comprehending all Being. +Before <span class="smcap">God</span> was named to and by this child of whom I am +about to speak, you will see that he was a dreary little chaos +"without form and void." After he had learned to utter +intelligently the name of a Heavenly Father he was what I +am going to tell you.</p> + +<p>But first I must tell you how I had this opportunity and +privilege of being the first person to name <span class="smcap">God</span> to this child +when he was four and a half years old. He was the son of +a most conscientious mother whose early orphan life had +been saddened with religious terrors. Her earliest recollection, +as she told me, having been the death-bed, and immediately<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +after, the burial of her mother, whom she saw, when she +was too young to comprehend death, shut up in a coffin and +put into the ground; and she remembered how her agonizing +cries at what seemed the frightful cruelty, were peremptorily +hushed, with the declaration of the person taking care of +her, that <span class="smcap">God</span> who made the heavens and the earth willed it +to be so and would punish her if she did not acquiesce. +Little did the thoughtless and heartless person who thus +dealt with the distressed little heart think, how disastrously +she was emasculating the word <span class="smcap">God</span> of good by associating +it with such an image of ruthless power divorced from +tenderness, as she unheedingly did. It was not till long +years after that her imagination was cleared of the frightful +falsehood; and when she came to have a child of her own, +her governing thought was to keep him ignorant of the fact +of death, and the name of <span class="smcap">God</span>, until he should be old +enough to understand them, as she said. She was a +person of deep feeling, upright and benevolent, but her +imagination, probably by reason of this life-long depression, +was of feeble wing, and she was taciturn. In consequence, +her child, though most tenderly cared for as to his body, +was starved in mind and spirit. His face continued to be +an infant's countenance, and he was strangely without that +childish joyousness called animal spirits, and grew more and +more peevish as he grew older; for he was sequestered +to the society of his silent mother, who would not even +be read to in his presence, lest, as she said, some chance +word which he could not understand should excite some +fear.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a hemorrhage of the lungs brought this mother +to death's door. She had been, for a few years before her +marriage, my pupil in my own house, and she used to say +she owed to me all the happy views she had of God and +Heaven, as well as of human life and death, and I was sent +for in this extremity as a mother to a child.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p> + +<p>Since her marriage she had lived in a city distant from me, +and I had seen her but little. Her child was so very timid I +had made no acquaintance with him in transient interviews, +and of me he had no impression but of one little story that +I had told him six months before when I met him at the +house of her husband's parents. This story I had half invented +to explain a picture in the "Story without an end," +that I was showing to him. (See <a href="#APPENDIX">Appendix</a>.)</p> + +<p>When I came to the mother's bedside, she told me it was +best for her to die, because she was utterly baffled in all her +efforts to bring up her child. She went on to describe her +timid methods; she said she feared he was <i>non compos</i>, for +he made no progress. Among many phenomena, she mentioned +that when she gave him playthings, he immediately +broke them to pieces, and when she tried to prevent this, by +endeavoring to make him understand their uses and construction, +he would look drearily into her face and say, rather +than ask, "What for?" He seemed deficient in will, without +impulse, for, though flowers seemed rather to please him, if she +took him into the garden and told him he might gather them, +he would stand still, and helplessly cry; and she had to command +him to do everything, even to play, before he would +attempt it. He acted like an automaton. Moreover, he had +no sensibility, and expressed no affection.</p> + +<p>Just at this point of her dismal story her chamber door +was opened by the nurse, with this great boy in her arms. +He had his mother's beautiful large brow and deep eyes, but +with no speculation in them, and his whole figure was lifeless +and so languid that the arms that had been about the nurse's +neck, slowly lost their curve when she put him down on his +feet. But his look rested on me, who, with an inviting smile +and gesture, held out my hand. Immediately the large eyes +filled with intelligent light, and with a cry of joy he sprang +towards me, climbed up into my lap, clasped his arms round +my neck, nestled upon my bosom, and looking up with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +joyful expression of confidence said, "Story—little boy—drop +of water!" It was, as I have said, about half a year +before, that I had lured him to me as he held off in timidity, +by offering to show him the picture where the child, in the +"Story without an end" is represented beside the brook, +looking at a drop of water hanging from a leaf, "telling +the little boy a story," as I said, to which he had answered +"Story!" and I had gone on and invented a free paraphrase +of the story given in the book, adapted to his infantile +capacity, and when I had finished, he said, "Story again!" +and I repeated it again and again, so imperative was his +"story again!" and now he again said "Story," with a confiding +pressure, as he leaned on me then, gazing at the +picture on the book in my lap, giving me the conviction that +he understood me. It was really, as I found subsequently, +the only rational words that had ever been addressed to the +child's imagination.</p> + +<p>"This does not look like want of sensibility, or <i>mens non +compos</i>," I said to the mother. "I never saw anything like it +before," she said, all tears. The ensuing silence was immediately +broken by the child's imperative repetition of the +word "story!" I was too much affected by the mother's +emotion to remember or invent any story, but it was an early, +warm spring day and the windows were open. The house +stood on a bluff of the Merrimac, within sight of the Rapids; +and the sound of the rushing waters came in upon our silence. +I said, cheerfully, "Do you hear the water running?" to +which he responded with a joyful "yes! what does it run +for?" "Oh, because it is glad," I replied, and again he +responded with a joyful and satisfied "yes," and after a +moment asked, "Where is it running to?" "Oh, into the +ocean, where all the rest of the waters are!" and again an +emphatic "yes" expressed his satisfaction. Perhaps he +remembered that in the story I had told him of a drop +of water it had ended with the drop falling off the leaf, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +running away with its brothers and sisters, and falling into +the ocean, out of which the sun had originally taken it. At +any rate, he not only repeated his yes with the emphasis of +satisfaction, but seemed to be thoughtful. I said, "Do you +ever look out of the window and see the sun shine on the +water, and all the little sparkles of light in the water?" +"Yes," said he, joyfully, "what makes the sun shine on +the water?" "Oh," said I, "it is because the sun loves the +water." "Yes," said he, and began to embrace me in the +most energetic manner.</p> + +<p>It was too much for the poor mother, who absolutely wept +aloud, whether with joy or sorrow she could not tell, as she +afterwards said.</p> + +<p>The sound of her weeping attracted his attention, and he +sat up in my lap and turned his large eyes upon her as she +lay in bed, and then upon me, with a look of concern and +appeal. "See," said I, "poor mother. She is sick and +sorry. She wants me to tell <i>her</i> a story, and won't you get +down and go into the nursery and let me tell dear mother a +story to make her feel better? Then I will come to you and +tell you one."</p> + +<p>With a cheerful "yes" he immediately got down and went +into the nursery, but stopped at the door to say:—</p> + +<p>"When you have told mother a story, won't you come right +in and tell me one?"</p> + +<p>I said to the mother, "You see, my dear friend, that the +child has mind enough, heart enough, and a moral nature. +He can understand and feel sympathy; feels the symbolism +of nature; and can obey a self-denying motive. No fatal +harm has been done after all by your delay, but he needs +now to know he has a Heavenly Father, fully to manifest all +the powers of a human being. You must allow me to give +him that name for the Love he feels within and without."</p> + +<p>"Not quite yet," said she, "not until you come to stay, +because he would ask me questions that I should not know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +how to answer. Children ask such terrible questions. I am +afraid as soon as you name the Invisible <span class="smcap">God</span>, he will be +frightened. Don't you know M. D. was afraid to stay in a +room alone because of the omnipresence of <span class="smcap">God</span>, which seemed +to be an unimaginable horror to her?"</p> + +<p>"I do not wonder," I replied. "Omnipresence of <span class="smcap">God</span>! +What was there in a child's experience to interpret this Latin +abstraction? I think it would have been quite another thing, +considering who her earthly father was, had she been told +that our Heavenly Father was all about her though she could +not see Him with her eyes, but could feel Him giving her love +and joy. I cannot but wonder that anybody around her +should have talked to her in such abstractions."</p> + +<p>"I am so unready in expression," she persisted, "and +can so poorly express my thoughts and feelings, I am sure I +should only do mischief if I should try to answer his questions, +and I am sure he will go on asking them, for his mind +seemed to wake up at once as soon as you began to talk to +him. How different was that 'yes' from the dreary 'what +for?' with which he always received the very best explanations +that I could make of the things he played with. That +'what for?' was not an enquiry of intelligence, but an expression +of utter want of perception, with no interest to hear +a reply. It is best for him that I should die; then I shall ask +his father to give him to you to bring up. Nobody ought to +have children but people of genius!"</p> + +<p>"No, no," said I; "it does not require genius to talk with +children, but only simplicity of heart trusted in. I interested +him and gained a response, not because of genius, for I have +none, but because I believe in him, and in myself, whose +happiness is in loving, and that <span class="smcap">God</span> has created us to love +and commune with one another and Him. You have said +yourself that he seemed to love flowers, though he was +afraid to gather them, and that he loved to hear the street +musicians. Beauty and music touch his sensibility. By<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +saying that the waters run because they are glad, and the +sun shines on and makes things beautiful because he loves +them, I put his own conscious life into the music of waters +and the light of the sun. He recognized the meaning of +gladness and love because he himself felt glad and loving, +which made a pre-existent possibility of recognizing the love +and joy of the Creator that shine in those natural objects, +because they are <span class="smcap">God's</span> own words of love addressed to His +own image, who is capable of love and joy and knowledge +of Him. If we talk to children in instinctive faith, they +understand us. You have not done so because of your early +misfortune that saddened your heart and took away your +instinctive courage. Faith is the proper act of the heart +(courage, you know, is a synonym of heartiness); the heart +goes before the understanding in the process of life. Without +heart one can do no justice to children in talking with +them; with it, we awaken their minds and nurture their souls, +and all our mistakes will be of small account beside the positive +advantage of setting their minds in joyful motion 'amidst +this mighty sum of things forever speaking.'"</p> + +<p>"When you come to stay," was her rejoinder, "you can +say to him what you please, for then you will be here to take +care of his mind and answer his questions."</p> + +<p>This was all I could gain at that moment, and I left her, to +go to the child, who had several times opened the door and +looked at me wistfully, with a silent appeal which was all the +more proof of his quickened intelligence that he did not tease. +His own desire to have a story had interpreted to him his +mother's need.</p> + +<p>I have very little power of inventing a story, and to his +demand for one I responded by taking from the bookshelves +Miss Edgeworth's first story of Frank, and began to read to +him of Frank's making a noise on the table and the conversation +between him and his mother that ensued. But this +did not suit my little one's mood, which was a little exalted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +by his delight at seeing me, and having had his imagination +touched by the beautiful language of nature that I had made +intelligible to him. He pulled the book away, and asked +me to tell him a story "out of your own self," as he said.</p> + +<p>Thus urged, I began: "Once there was a little worm about +as long as the nail of my thumb, and no larger round than a +big darning-needle. This little worm lived in a little house +that he had made for himself in the ground, just big enough +to hold him, when he rolled himself up like a little ball with +his head sticking out. There were no windows nor doors in +his house, but one on top, which was his door to go in at, +and his window to look out of. When he had made this +house he was tired and crawled into it and curled himself up +and went to sleep, and slept all night. In the morning the +sun rose and spread his beams all over the world, and one of +the bright sunbeams shone into the window of the little +worm's house and touched his eyes and waked him, and he +popped up his head and looked out and saw it was very +pleasant in the garden, and he thought he would go out. +He squirmed himself up out of his hole, and because he +had no feet he crept along the garden path. The warm +beams of the sun put their arms all round his cold, little +body and made it warm as could be, and the sunbeam +went into his little mites of eyes, and filled him all full of +light, and the songs of the birds went into his little mites of +ears and filled him all up with music, and the sweet smell of +hundreds of flowers went up that little mite of a nose and +filled him up with their perfumes. And so that little worm +went creeping along as glad as he could be that he was alive.</p> + +<p>"Now in the house that stood in that garden lived a little +boy about four years old; and when the morning came, the +sunbeams had gone into the window of his nursery and +waked him, and he was washed and dressed and had his +breakfast of bread and milk, and then his mama took him +to the door that led down the steps of the piazza into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +garden, and told him he might go down the path and have +a good run to make himself warm. So down he ran. But +now if that little boy should put his strong foot on that dear +little worm, it would break him all to pieces—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he shall not, he must not!" cried the child in a +spasm of distress. "Aunt Lizzie, don't let him break the +dear little worm to pieces!"</p> + +<p>"No indeed," said I, "that little boy would not not do +such a cruel thing for the world! He saw the little worm creeping +along, so glad to be alive, and he ran on the other side of +the path; and the little worm nibbled a little blade of grass, +and drank a little dew for his breakfast, and then he felt +tired, and went creeping back, full of good food, to the little +hole that was his home, and curled himself up like a little +ball and went to sleep."</p> + +<p>"Now tell me that story all over again!" said the child.</p> + +<p>I did so more than once at his entreaty, and always when +I came to the possible catastrophe of crushing the worm, the +same terror seemed to seize him, and he would cry out:—</p> + +<p>"Oh, he must not, he shall not!" and I always tranquillized +him again, and gratified his sense of justice by my +assurance of the little boy's consideration of the little +worm's right to his life and happiness.</p> + +<p>Of course, I told his mother of the effect of this story, and +the evidence it gave of the child's sound moral nature and +innate sense of justice. And I begged her to let me lose no +time in referring to the presence of the Heavenly Father, +that the intuition of his heart might become the possession +of his mind. I said I did not believe that he would ask any +question. He would suppose that I alone knew, for, as I +observed to her, he had never for the whole six months referred +to the little boy with the drop of water, and yet had +vividly remembered the whole story, as his greeting me had +shown, and I had the proof of it, for I had just told it to +him again at his request. I told her if I proved to be mistaken,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +and he should ask her any question she could not +answer to her own satisfaction, she could say she would write +to me and ask me, and I felt sure he would wait. But I told +her I believed what I was thinking of saying to him would +keep his thoughts busy while I was gone (for I was going +only for a week to prepare for a stay with her for an indefinite +time). At last I gained her consent, and the child was +put into my bed, that I might have the conversation the first +thing in the morning.</p> + +<p>When I awoke, I found him awake, close by me, and his +great eyes seemed to devour me.</p> + +<p>"How long you did sleep!" said he; "I have been seeing +you sleep."</p> + +<p>Said I, "What do you see with?"</p> + +<p>"My eyes," he replied, and to the questions, What do you +hear, smell, taste, touch with? he made the appropriate +answers.</p> + +<p>"But what do you <i>love</i> with?" I asked.</p> + +<p>He jumped up upon his knees and crossed his arms on his +breast, paused a moment wonderingly, and then exclaimed, +"With my arms!" and throwing his arms round my neck, +hugged me. I was taken a little aback, but in a moment +said:—</p> + +<p>"Have you a great deal of love?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, a great deal, a great deal!" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Where is it? where do you keep it?" said I.</p> + +<p>He started up again on his knees, again crossed his arms +upon his breast, and said, "Where do I?"</p> + +<p>Placing my hand on his heart, I said, "Is it not in there?"</p> + +<p>His whole expression was affirmative, he looked delighted, +but did not speak.</p> + +<p>"Are you good?" said I.</p> + +<p>"Sometimes," he said.</p> + +<p>"What are you when you are not good?"</p> + +<p>"I cry."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p> + +<p>He had evidently been told it was naughty to cry.</p> + +<p>I said, "Why are you not good all the time?"</p> + +<p>"Why ain't I?" said he, after a moment's pause.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said I, "I think you have not goodness enough to +be good with all the time."</p> + +<p>He looked assent, delighted and earnest. I answered his +unuttered feeling with the question,—</p> + +<p>"Should you like to have goodness enough to be good +with all the time?"</p> + +<p>"How can I?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," said I, "you have a good friend who has a whole +sky full of goodness. He gave you all the goodness and +love you have in there (I touched his breast), and will give +you more and more if you want him to, always and always, +enough to be good with all the time."</p> + +<p>He looked perfectly blest, did not speak, but laid himself +down close by me, took my arm and put it over him, and +said, as he nestled up to me,—</p> + +<p>"Talk to me some more."</p> + +<p>I went on: "Your good friend gives you all your joy to +be glad with, and all your love and goodness. They always +go together. And now listen to me: the next time you are +going to cry (I used his own practical expression instead of +saying the next time you are naughty), stop and think. I +have a good friend who has a whole sky full of goodness +and he will give me goodness enough to be good with all the +time, and I guess you will not cry." He responded only with +huggings and kissings and exclamations of "I love you a +whole sky full," and as I did not want to overdo or say anything +to mar the impression I had made, I took advantage +of a noise I heard, to change the subject, and said:—</p> + +<p>"What is that noise?"</p> + +<p>He jumped out of bed, went to the window, and said:—</p> + +<p>"It is the carpenters making a house," and after a pause, +asked, "Who made all the other houses?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Carpenters," said I; "don't you see they make houses +out of boards?"</p> + +<p>"Who made the boards?"</p> + +<p>"The boards are made out of trees. People cut down +the trees, and then they saw them up into great logs, and +then they split up the logs and smooth them out into pieces +we call boards."</p> + +<p>"Who made the trees?" said he.</p> + +<p>I understood very well where the tyrannizing unity of his +personality was leading his understanding, but did not wish, +just then, to risk giving outward form or connection to his +thought of the Divine Cause, so I said:—</p> + +<p>"The trees grow out of the ground; don't you see old +trees and young trees and little baby trees growing out of +the ground?"</p> + +<p>For this information he did not give me that hearty "<i>yes</i>" +with which he had received my communication of spiritual +facts, but came back to bed again. I persisted, however, +in talking playful nonsense for half an hour, until his nurse +came to take him up to dress him. As soon as she appeared +at the door, he started up on his knees again, crossed his +arms over his breast, and in a loud, joyful voice cried out:—</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Doyle! I have a good friend up in the sky who has +a whole sky full of goodness, and he will give me as much +goodness as I want to be good with <i>all the time</i>," emphasizing +the last three words.</p> + +<p>The nurse, a good-hearted Roman Catholic, who, like +all the servants, had been forbidden to talk to the child about +<span class="smcap">God</span> or any kindred subject, looked at me startled, yet +gratified, and said:—</p> + +<p>"What will his mother say?"</p> + +<p>I replied, "His mother will be very glad; she only wanted +to wait till she thought he could understand. But I have +told him enough for the present; don't talk to him about it; +but if he says anything to you, come and tell me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes," said she, "and I thank <span class="smcap">God</span> you have come to +teach the poor child something."</p> + +<p>I then said to her aside, "His mother is very anxious +lest he be frightened; for she was frightened about <span class="smcap">God</span> and +death when she was a little child, and has suffered from it all +her life long. She has been a double orphan ever since she +can remember."</p> + +<p>I said this to her for several reasons: one was my extreme +desire to see what the one simple truth would do for +the child, and this was the reason I gave <i>good friend</i> for +<span class="smcap">God</span>'s name. Of course, the mother craved to know exactly +what had passed on this important occasion, and was immensely +relieved and gratified at what I told her, and wanted +it all to be written down; and thus it happened that I made +memoranda of this and subsequent conversations, and even +of those held in her presence, for they continued to be no less +interesting than they began.</p> + +<p>Observe these points in the child's speech to the nurse: +he interpolated the words <i>up in the sky</i>. I had given no +place to the good friend, though I had said he had a whole +sky full of goodness and love; and the sky being the glorious +symbol of unboundedness, elevation, purity, and power +to the human imagination, in all nations and times, as is +proved by the earliest idolaters who worshipped the heavens, +and the host of stars, and verifying the more spiritual conceptions +of the Hebrew Psalmist, and of Job, who did not +confound (nor did this child) the sign with the Living <span class="smcap">God</span> +who created it to signify His Being. Another thing: +Observe it was not even as the giver of love and joy, but as +the giver of <i>goodness</i> that the Person of Persons had seized +the imagination of the child so powerfully. It was wonderful +to see that very day, the effect upon his understanding +of this conversation. The night before, when I told him the +story of the little worm, I found his vocabulary so small that +I could give my imagination a very narrow scope. But in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +the course of the day (in which, for the first time in his life) +he talked incessantly, asking innumerable questions about +his <i>good friend</i>, he seemed to have no difficulty in talking. +I am very sorry I have not my written memoranda, because +I should like to tell you everything in order; but I remember +he wanted to know how his <i>good friend</i> "looked." +I replied by asking him, "How does love look?" He +laughed, and said, "Love does not look, but feels." +"Well," said I, "so your good friend does not look, but +feels. Don't you feel him now, putting love and goodness +into you?" He laughed assent, and said, "Where +is he?"</p> + +<p>"Wherever love and goodness are," said I; "in you, in +me, and in mother, in everybody who <i>loves</i>." I was encouraged +to believe he would comprehend this language, +unimaginable and inconceivable as such truth is to the mere +understanding, for I had in my remembrance a conversation +I once overheard between two children, one five and the +other not three years old, at which I had not ceased to wonder +since I heard it. I was sitting drawing with their +mother in a recess of a room that hid us from the children's +sight, when our attention was diverted by hearing the younger +one say:—</p> + +<p>"Can <span class="smcap">God</span> see me now, when I am all wrapped up in this +shawl?"</p> + +<p>The elder one replied very earnestly, "O yes! <span class="smcap">God</span> can +see everybody, everywhere."</p> + +<p>"But I don't see how He can see me when I am all wrapped +up in this shawl. It is dark," persisted the little three-year-old. +There was a pause, when Eliza, in a very anxious voice, +said:—</p> + +<p>"Amelia, can you see mama in your eye?" (She meant +imagination.)</p> + +<p>Amelia replied after a moment, "Yes, I can see mama in +my eye, just how she looks."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well," said Eliza, "I suppose that is the way <span class="smcap">God</span> sees +everything, because He knows everything."</p> + +<p>I cannot conceive a more perfect proof that the soul of a +child is a "sparkle of <span class="smcap">God</span>," and its mind the intuition +of the eternal reason—its image, than was given by +this original illustration of the truth of truths made by a +child of five years old. The mother made an exclamation of +wonder, and said:—</p> + +<p>"I am sure I never could have given so profound an answer +as that," and I continue to think it the most wonderful thing +I ever heard of so young a child's saying, and had I not +heard it myself, I doubt if I could have believed it was said. +But it has given me courage to think that children might have +very early a definite conception of the invisible <span class="smcap">God</span> without +materializing it.</p> + +<p>The omnipresence and invisibility of <span class="smcap">God</span> were mysteries +that attracted my little pupil's mind and taxed it, but did +not distress nor perplex it. Of the reality of <span class="smcap">God</span>'s being, +the intimacy of his own relations with Him, he never seemed +to have a doubt; his delight in the thought of Him was +boundless. At the end of the first day he said a thing which +struck his parents with astonishment. The evening of the +day on which I arrived, his father had made tea for me in the +parlor, and as the child did not want to leave me a moment, +he was set up at the table in his high-chair opposite me, to eat +his bread and milk with us. While the father talked of one +thing and another, the child's eye and mine occasionally met, +and he would immediately make some gesture of lovingness +and an inarticulate sound, ee ee ee! At last his father checked +him with the words "Don't make those silly noises, Foster!" +I interposed, and playfully said:—</p> + +<p>"Now please don't come between me and Foster. I understand +his silly noises and just what he means to say to me. +How can you expect he will talk any sense when you have +never given him any help to think?" The father laughed at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +my "transcendentalism," as he called it. But the second +night, when we were all again in the same relative position, +the demeanor of the child was wholly changed; he sat silently +eating as if wrapped in thought. By and by he said in a +very decided tone, "Some things live, and some things only +keep."</p> + +<p>With a look of astonishment his father exclaimed, "What +an extraordinary generalization!" "The consequence," +said I, "of being talked to as if he were a rational being one +day!"</p> + +<p>The next day I went to Boston for a day or two, to make +arrangements for returning to stay an indefinite time, which +was such a disappointment to the poor little thing that he +screamed in the most passionate manner, so that his mother +could no longer doubt his sensibility or will. He was so +angry with the stage-coachman who took me away, that his +father had great difficulty in persuading him that he was not +a bad man, but, on the contrary, a kind one, whom Aunt +Lizzie had asked to come to take her to the railroad. At +last he somewhat reluctantly agreed that he might be a good +man.</p> + +<p>"But I shall never like him," he said, and left his father, +to go and caress his mother, who was weeping, as he divined, +with the same regret as his own, and he was apparently comforted +by her saying, that she, too, was sorry Aunt Lizzie had +to go away for a little while, but she had promised to come +back in a day or two and stay all summer.</p> + +<p>It turned out as I had surmised, that he had asked no +questions while I was gone, and had said very little except to +wonder that I stayed so long, though I was gone only two days.</p> + +<p>When I came back I had immediate evidence that he had +been thinking while I was gone, and to some purpose. You +remember that on that first morning of our conversation, he +had asked me who made the trees, and I had said, "The trees +grow out of the ground," which did not seem to give him the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +satisfaction that my reference of his emotions, sensibilities, +and thoughts, to an invisible personality had given him. +Now, as soon as the embraces of welcome and expressions +of joy had subsided a little, he burst into the subject which +had so possessed his mind, and with a sort of triumphant air, +as if he was sure of a satisfactory response, he asked:—</p> + +<p>"What did our good friend want the trees to grow out cf +the ground for?"</p> + +<p>I said, "Do you think the trees are pretty? Do you like +to look at them?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think they are beautiful."</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, "I guess that was one reason; you know +he loves us all, and so he likes to please us. Do you like to +please those you love?"</p> + +<p>"Yes!" and a passionate embrace and kiss was the expressive +reply.</p> + +<p>I then went on to call his attention to the fruits that grow +on some of the trees, and which serve us with delicious food, +and the uses of wood to build houses with, etc. This conversation +naturally introduced other kindred subjects of inquiry +as to why our good friend had arranged things so and +so. The tyrannizing instinct of his own mind, of which he +had become conscious through the exercise of it, that my +naming of the Spirit Father had so happily started, had made +objective to him the Unity of all life, and he was sure that +the good friend was at the bottom of everything outward as +well as inward, even trifles; for I one day heard him say, as +he was lying on the floor at play, "Heavenly Father, I wish +you would not let my leg feel so cold." This was later on, +in the winter time, however.</p> + +<p>I cannot sufficiently regret that I have lost my original +memoranda. They were transcribed from notes that his +mother made, who was watching every word said, with the +most intense interest. She always had pencil and paper at +her side, because the danger of hemorrhage caused her to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +avoid speaking. She wrote down with care the very words, +as if they were, as indeed they were, a divine Revelation. +Whatever he accepted or expressed with joy, she felt was +true, knowing as well as she did the past emptiness of his +understanding, and the dreariness of his feeling as an individual. +But I can perhaps remember enough to show you +the method I took, which was truly the very method of conversation +that Frœbel proposes we should have with children, +prompted by the Wisdom of love, which so profoundly respects +its object that it gives it opportunity to be itself by not +obtruding. The reason that we do not get the lesson that +childhood can give us is that we thrust our finite minds +between the child and the Divine, instead of limiting ourselves +to putting the child into the point of view to see for +itself what of course though essentially one, is perhaps of different +aspect to each. I made it a point to be very quiet, +and to exhibit no surprise at his questions or mistakes, but +to lead him by my questions to the answers, and the corrections +of mistakes which must needs arise from one-sidedness. +The entire respect with which I listened to what he said gave +him complete possession of and confidence in his own mind. +One laugh at any incongruity he uttered (as Dr. Seguin +would tell you) would have shut him up perhaps forever. +How often children's thinking is thus nipped in the bud!</p> + +<p>The circumstances in this instance were favorable to real +conversation. In addition to my love of psychological observation +in general, and my love and interest in this child +in particular, was that which I felt in the mother, whose own +childhood had been so shadowed by her human environment +that it had not taught her what only childhood can teach with +its uneclipsed vision of the Father's face, of which Christ +speaks and warns the adult not to offend (or, as the revised +version translates it, <i>cause to stumble</i>). On her account, as +well as on my own and the child's, I was careful not to put +my thoughts into his head, but merely lead him to the standpoint<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +from which he could see the truth for himself. It is +because these conditions made for once an opportunity for a +genuine conversation between intuitive childhood and such +maturity of experience as I had attained, realizing Frœbel's +ideal of the conversation of the kindergarten, that I am +desirous to give it to you as a hint of how you should proceed—though, +of course, you would probably never have so +exceptional an opportunity; because the children that come to +you will generally have minds already misty with half-defined +ideas of <span class="smcap">God</span>, received from the vague, half-defined minds of +the imperfectly educated adults, conveyed to the children +either in that careless or dogmatic manner in which they are +usually talked to, not with.</p> + +<p>Another advantage I had with this child was, that besides +the arrested development arising from his mother's timid plan +with him, he inherited from both parents, and perhaps from +remoter ancestry, an individuality of mind that was not at all +imaginative; which did not, however, exclude him from +spiritual truth, for that is not the work of imagination, but is +discerned by the spiritual sense, being as objective as what +is discerned by the five senses (a transcendental objective, +not a material one). The respectful interest with which I +treated him gave him a happy confidence in his own thought, +which was my opportunity for observing the natural order of +mental development. In short, the conversation we had was +a genuine one as between equals, unless, indeed, he was the +superior in giving to me the divine laws of the spiritual order. +He often surprised me by his next question, and was so disarmed +of all fear by my consideration and tenderness, that he +revealed that which is always the individual's secret, and I +gained as much as he did by the conversations, and certainly +I gained certainty in what was previously only conjecture on +my part. I was sometimes obliged to say I did not know, +and remember his asking me with surprise, "Don't you know +everything?" "Oh, no!" said I. "Only our good friend<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +knows everything and gives us our thoughts all the time. +Doesn't he give new thoughts to you every day?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he gives me a great many new thoughts all the +time," he replied with animation. On another occasion, +when I had become perfectly exhausted in answering his +questions, I said to him:—</p> + +<p>"I am very tired, but I will answer that question, provided +you will not ask me another before dinner."</p> + +<p>As he walked away he said, "Oh, I wish I had asked +another question instead of that!"</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, "what? Perhaps I will answer that one."</p> + +<p>Turning back, he said eagerly, "Will our good friend +answer all my questions when I go into the sky?"</p> + +<p>I said, "Yes, every one; for he knows everything, and +can never be tired."</p> + +<p>The expression of complete satisfaction with which he +went away from me was most expressive.</p> + +<p>You will observe his expression of "when I go into the sky," +and consider it together with the words that he interpolated +saying, "I have a good friend up in the sky," in repeating +to Mrs. Doyle that first morning when I had told him +that his good friend who gave him thoughts, and joy, and +goodness, and love, had a sky full of goodness. The sky is +the natural symbol of the unbounded and infinite and the +essentially spiritual, and the conception of <span class="smcap">God</span> into which +I had led him, and which I named his good friend, pervaded +all space.</p> + +<p>The subsequent questions of how <span class="smcap">God</span> looked, and upon +His whereabouts, and the conversation on this, by identifying +Him with the Love that he felt within himself, had revealed +to him <i>Immortality</i> before he had defined mortality.</p> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">God</span> he felt within him in his conscious Love and +without him in all manifestations of beauty and power, gave +him assurance that he would be sometime wherever <span class="smcap">God</span> was. +I have lost the connection and place in the narrative of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +another conversation I had with him on the omnipresence of +<span class="smcap">God</span>. He often had said his thoughts were in his head, and +his feelings were in his bosom. One day he was sitting in +my lap close to a table, with his feet bare, and I put my +hand under the table and pinched his toe. He said:—</p> + +<p>"What are you pinching my toe for?"</p> + +<p>I said, "How do you know I pinched your toe? you cannot +see what I am doing under the table."</p> + +<p>"I think you pinched my toe, because I felt it."</p> + +<p>"I thought all your thoughts were in your head, and all +your feelings in your bosom, not in your toes."</p> + +<p>"My feelings are all over my body," said he; "and when +you pinched my toe, the feeling ran right into my head and +turned into a thought."</p> + +<p>"So you see," said I, "that you live all over your body +and in any part of it, just as your Heavenly Father lives all +over the world and in everything at once."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said he, "I did not know how that was before."</p> + +<p>The date of this conversation was some weeks, perhaps +months, from the beginning of our intercourse, as I know +from the use of the word <i>Heavenly Father</i>, which came after +a time to take the place of <i>good friend</i>, and it was preceded +by some other conversations. He was always overflowing +with expressions of love to me. When I gave him anything, +he would embrace me, and I would ask, "Which do you love +best, me or the thing given?" (an apple perhaps, or whatever +it might be). He would always say, "You, you." Once he +said, "I love you more than all the apples in the world." +Once when he was kissing my hand, I said, "Which do you +love best, me or my hand?"</p> + +<p>"I love both," he said.</p> + +<p>I persisted, and said, "Supposing my hand was cut off, +would you love me as well?"</p> + +<p>"I should love you a great deal more," said he, energetically; +"for it would hurt you so to have your poor hand cut +off. Would it not hurt you dreadfully?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I suppose it would, but by and by it would get well +and what I want to know is, whether you would love me +as well without my hand as with it?"</p> + +<p>He still declared he should love me more. I then said, +"So you see my hand is not me. It is only one of the +things the Heavenly Father gave me to make things with, +and He gave me my feet to walk with, and eyes to see with; +but my eyes and ears and tongue are not me; and if I +should lose them all, still I would be all of myself, and you +could love me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said he; "but I don't want you to lose any of +those things, for I love them all together."</p> + +<p>My object in these conversations was to see if he would +separate in thought the finite material body from the conscious +soul or <i>himself</i>, as I preferred to say, for to speak of +one's self as a <i>soul</i> makes what is essentially subjective as +objective as we desire to make the body, the use of which +is to reveal to others the feelings and thoughts of the individual +that otherwise the finite apprehension could not seize. +I was endeavoring to prepare him to minister to his mother, +when I could persuade her to let him know the fact of death, +by appreciating and defining that crisis of life as a step +onward into the deep consciousness of immortality, which I +believed would lift her out of the abyss into which her own +consciousness seemed to fall at the utterance of the word, +in spite of all the intellectual views of immortality which she +had for many years cultivated, but which somehow did not +meet her exigency, when she felt herself on the brink of the +separation of body and mind. No intellectual process can +give what the faith of childhood has in its own immortality +of which those who had the care of her infancy had robbed +her.</p> + +<p>It was delightful to see how she enjoyed the child who had +long been a burden to her. She wanted him in her presence +all the time with his playthings, and to hear all our conversation,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +and that I should tell her what we said in the little time +that he could not be with her. She declared that she never +had known what the enjoyment of life was till she had it in +her sympathy with him. All the pleasures of intellect, and +also of personal affections of the happiest kind, were pale +beside the joy of this child—in his communion with <span class="smcap">God</span>, who +was in all his thoughts, and had taken him from his dreariness +and growing peevishness, into that joy of childhood +which Ruskin speaks of as so entirely out of proportion to +the occasions of its expression, and which still had no painful +excitement in it, but was simply a spontaneous outflow, not +only quickening his thoughts but informing his affections +with generosity and gratitude. The self that lost all sense +of boundary, in its joy in the unbounded, spread out to embrace +all about it. He said one thing to me which will, I +think, explain to you what I mean. Of course, I was the +first person on whom the flood of his heart poured itself out, +though he did not stop with me, but also expressed his love to +all with whom he came into near or remote relation. When +saying to me how much he loved me, what a skyful of love +he had for me, I said, "Yes, darling, I know you love me as +much as you can," he replied scornfully, "I love you a great +deal more than I can!" Was not that a wonderful expression +of the immortal essence of his love,—of Love Divine?</p> + +<p>Without its being suggested to him to thank others for +kindnesses, he did so without a single exception. He would +be taken to drive in the carriage with his mother, and standing +at the window, would shout with delight at the things he +saw on the way, and when he got home would often run +back to the gate to say, "Thank you, horsey!" and all his +habits of timidity were forgotten when the street musicians +came by, and he was allowed to take out pennies to them. +Callers at the house, from whom he used to shrink when they +would have spoken to him, were in wonder at his hospitable +welcome and fearless but intelligent interpositions in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +conversation, which they thought indicated precocity instead +of backwardness. The length, breadth, and depth of all the +words Christ let fall in the last part of his life, of which I +had had some insight before, became doubly intelligible to +me. I saw into the beauty and meaning of mankind's being +created in successive generations, and I was thus prepared +to enter into and appreciate Frœbel's ideas and methods, +with which I did not become acquainted till a quarter of a +century later.</p> + +<p>I want you to observe that in what I did there was simply +the spontaneous wisdom of love—love, not fondness, not +desire of reciprocation, but self-forgetting and reverent of +its object. Only this gives the creative method, or is the +essence of creativeness, whether human or divine.</p> + +<p>You remember, in the memoir of Frœbel with which I began +this course of lectures, it was said that he posed his elder +brother with his questionings of <span class="smcap">God</span>'s wisdom in the arrangement +of the social sphere. Unable to answer him, the +instinct of his love led him to divert the child's attention into +a department of nature where apparent discords were seen to +be harmonized for the production of beauty and use, that +the poor little perplexed and bewildered child might enjoy +himself legitimately. He gave him the clue to the labyrinth +and the strength to conquer the Minotaur. He had no +idea of educating, but only of comforting. Thus, unconscious +of any theory of education, he solved the problem +practically, first for the child Frœbel himself, later for mankind +to whom the man Frœbel has revealed it with such +ample illustrations as to make an era in human history that, +as we hope, shall retrieve the past. Childhood understood, +leading in the promised millennium of peace on earth and +good will among men, will make mankind forget the Babel +confusion of its first experimenting, and enter into the +mutual understanding of the Pentecostal miracle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LECTURE VII.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>A PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATION.</div> + +<div class='center'><br /><span class="smcap">Part Second.</span><br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">In</span> our little F.'s case, as it became perfectly plain to his +mother that he conceived clearly of God's embracing unbounded +space as well as time in His Infinite Essence, she +became desirous of knowing how he would receive the fact +of death, so painfully and prematurely forced upon her own +soul,—whether his mind would leap the gulf in which hers +seemed to sink at the utterance of the word.</div> + +<p>But the difficulty for him seemed to be to conceive of +death at all. I tried to approach the subject in such a manner +that he should have the initiative, as it were, in any conversation +upon it. There was a poor old man who occasionally +passed the house in the clothes of a pauper, supporting +his steps with a stick. One day when he did so, F. asked +me, "What makes men old?" and before I had time to +answer, added, "Mary [the name of a former servant] used +to say <i>many days</i>, when I asked her. Do many days make +men old?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I, "just as many days make your clothes and +shoes old. That old man has walked on his poor old legs so +long that they are quite worn out, and he has looked so long +with his eyes that they are dim, and listened so long with +his ears that they have grown dull, and his back has grown +weak, and his whole body is so worn out that it will not do +what his thoughts tell it to do, as your little fresh legs and +eyes and ears and as your whole body does."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span></p> + +<p>He received this intimation quietly, but raised no question +as to the ultimate result; and as often as the old man walked +by, he would ask the same question and receive the same +answer.</p> + +<p>At last I took down from the book-closet Mrs. Trimmer's +story of the robins and read it to him, and he became very +much interested in the little nest and its inhabitants. +After a while, the children in the story had birds of +their own in a cage, which they took care of assiduously, +but at length on one occasion went away and left them for +many days uncared for, so that they died; I read right +on through the page on which it was told that on going +to the cage when they came home, they found the birds lying +on their backs with their beaks wide open, stark dead! I +paused in my reading, and he repeated, "stark dead! what +do those words mean? What was the matter with the birds?" +I laid the book down, and said, "You know that some +things live, and some things only keep." "Yes," said he. +I continued, "You know that living beings feel pain or +pleasure, one or the other, all the time, and that things that +only keep do not feel at all."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said he.</p> + +<p>"Well, things that live and feel—living beings—always +eat and drink; they continue to live by eating and drinking, +and God tells them to eat by making it pleasant for them to +taste things. Now these little birds lived by eating and +drinking, and if they had been free, they would have found +food and drink somewhere in the world; but those children +had shut them up in a cage; and when they were so thoughtless +as to go away and forget the birds that they had undertaken +to take care of, the little birds grew hungry, and you +know it is not pleasant to feel even a little hungry, but they +grew hungrier and hungrier till their poor little bodies were +as full of pain as they could be. Now our Heavenly Father +could not possibly have them suffer so much pain, and so He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +told them to come to Him, and their life went right out of +their bodies, and then their bodies were just like everything +else that only keeps; they could feel no more pain."</p> + +<p>"What a dear, dear, dear Heavenly Father it is!" said +the child; "what nice ways He has about everything!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I, "He has the ways of love."</p> + +<p>He asked no questions at this time, nor made any generalization. +I took up the book, and read on about the children's +burying the bodies of the birds, etc.</p> + +<p>Thus the death of the body was first presented to his +imagination as only a relief from pain of the life that inhabited +it. He was immensely interested, and the subject +became the most common topic of conversation.</p> + +<p>There were some books in the house which had pictures of +hunts, and one was of a stag-hunt, the stag at bay, the dogs +seizing him, the huntsmen firing. These books had been +carefully kept from him. I now took them down, and +showed them to him, interested him in the timid stag running +for its life, and its ingenious devices to elude the dogs by +swimming across streams, and at last when the dogs had +seized it, or the huntsman fired the cruel shot which tore the +breast or side of the poor beast, the final release, God's +call of the life to Himself! At which the child would utter +exclamations of delight: that final escape was <i>the best of all</i>.</p> + +<p>This story was so interesting, it absorbed his attention, +and he did not generalize. But it took its place among the +good deeds of God's love, that when life became too painful +in the body it was taken away to enjoy itself with God.</p> + +<p>His mother, in whose presence were all the conversations, +was intensely interested; but still as he did not think of +human death, she hardly felt that he had conceived the +idea.</p> + +<p>I told him about the metamorphoses of insects, and their +depositing their life in eggs as soon as they were born. +When the old man came by, as he did nearly every day, we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +commented on the wearing out of his body, but he did not +think of death as a relief for him.</p> + +<p>At last one day it happened that stretching out of the +window for some purpose, he nearly lost his balance, and it +was only by my timely seizing him that he escaped falling +out. I said, "F., what if you had fallen out on those +rocks and been broken all to pieces!" He shrieked with +horror, "I don't want to! I don't want to!" "But what +if you had!" said I, calmly. "You came very near it. What +should you have done?" "What could I?" he screamed. +"What could I do, all broken to pieces!" "Why, don't you +think," said I, smiling, "that your Heavenly Father would +have taken you right into His own bosom?"</p> + +<p>A heavenly smile spread over his face and a look of perfect +satisfaction and acquiescence, and he said after a moment's +pause, "I forgot my Heavenly Father. Oh, what a dear, +dear, dear Heavenly Father He is!" Then, after another +moment, he said in a distressed voice, "But must I be broken +all to pieces when I go to the Heavenly Father?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, no!" said I; "but when we are broken all to +pieces, or starved, or are very sick, He takes us; but generally +people grow to be old like the old man, and all their bodies +get worn out, and they get very tired and kind of go to sleep, +and the Heavenly Father takes them, so they do not wake up +again in their old bodies, which are buried as the children +buried the bodies of the robins."</p> + +<p>He expressed himself very happy, and asked a great many +questions, and it seemed as if he had already known of the +fact of death. At all events, he now accepted it as the +common destiny, without any painful feeling, and it seemed +to give new realization to his mother's feeling that her own +was indeed nothing but a morbid feeling, and that normal +nature did not shrink from death. The subsequent questions +were innumerable. I read to him Krummacher's parable of +the caterpillar and butterfly in the garden of Thirza, after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +the death of Abel, as it was paraphrased by Mr. Alcott when +he read it in his school, in which I was assisting him at the +very time that I was called away to the child's mother. And +it was the study I had made of childhood in his school which +had enabled me to pursue with so much confidence the +method I took with the child, though it was in my own childhood +I conceived the plan; and I remember speaking of it to +Dr. Channing in 1824, and how much interested he was in +the idea, though he told me that in his own case he was indebted +to the symbolism of nature, especially the ocean +seen from the beach at Newport, for clearing his mind of the +effects of the teaching and preaching which he had heard. +These grand objects, and later the beauty of some manifestations +he had seen of love giving courage and power to +the weak, kindled his ideal, and gave form and substance to +his consciousness of God.</p> + +<p>For a time there was nothing but delight expressed in the +fact of death, the relief from all suffering, the enlargement +of life and joy and new knowledge of God and His ways. +At last a little incident showed him the shadow which attends +death in this world.</p> + +<p>We often went to call on the family of the physician who +attended his mother. One day when we went, the Doctor, +who was very fond of F., took him into his lap while I was +playing with the baby in his mother's arms. They always +called it "baby." I said to Mrs. D., "Has not baby any +name?" The mother replied, "His name is Edward." +F. looked up at the Doctor with a bright, joyous expression, +and said, "Where is your other Edward?" The Doctor's +face changed instantaneously; he clasped the child close to +him, and said, "Oh, he has gone to his Heavenly Father," +with a burst of grief. F. stretched himself back, looked +into the agitated face, and said with a look of the greatest +concern, "Are you sorry that he has gone to the Heavenly +Father?" "Oh, very, very sorry," said the poor father.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +"Should not you be sorry if he should take away your dear +mother?" and putting the child down, he immediately left +the room. Mrs. D. said, "The Doctor has never got over +the death of that child, and we never name him in his +presence."</p> + +<p>I immediately left the house, and we walked some distance +in silence, and as I found F. did not incline to speak, I said, +"F., did the Doctor look glad when you spoke to him about +his other Edward?" He pressed himself close up to me, and +said eagerly, "No, no! he looked very sorry. What made +him sorry? Did he not like to have his other Edward with +the Heavenly Father?" "Oh, yes! he liked that, but then +he wanted to have him in his own arms. You see he cannot +see him now, and he wants to kiss him." "Yes," said F., +"he hugged me!" I continued: "You see, the Doctor is +very strong and well, and I suppose he will live in his body +a good many years, and he has Mrs. D. and Julia and the +rest, but he wants that other Edward, too, every day of his +life." F. replied sympathizingly, "He was large, and white, +and bright, and when I go into the sky, I shall look all over +to see where he is." I said, after a little while, "Shall you +say anything more to the Doctor about his other Edward?" +"No, indeed!" said he. "I never shall say another word +about him. Do you think I want to make the poor Doctor +sorry?" I told his mother, when I got home, of the whole +affair, and we agreed that it was well he should see the sad +side of death for the survivors.</p> + +<p>It was soon a question with F. how we were to live without +the body, and he asked me. I told him I did not know +exactly how it was to be, but I supposed God would let new +eyes, ears, and whatever limbs we should need, grow out of +us, made of the finest stuff like air, which we could not see +because it was so delicate, or even feel, as we did the air +when it moved, but which souls could use just as they +pleased. He said, "I have seen some pictures of souls that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +had gone out of their bodies, and I did not know before +what they were." Surprised, I asked him how they looked. +He said, "They were nothing but heads with wings."</p> + +<p>The delightful thing was to see the effect of all this earnest +prattle upon the mother; and one day, after I had returned +from a visit to a friend in the town, she told me she had had +a conversation with F. on her own approaching death that +was very satisfactory.</p> + +<p>She said she had his bread and milk put on a little table +opposite her easy-chair, and when he was happily engaged, +she said, "F., I think our Heavenly Father will soon take +me to Himself." He looked up with an expression of great +feeling, and said tenderly: "Do you? Then you will get +rid of that poor, sick body, and your cough;" and he added +presently, "Perhaps he will give you <i>wings</i>!" She said +nothing could be likened to the impression of peace and +sweetness which these simple words made upon her. Soon +after, he said, "But what will be done with your poor old +body?" (She said he spoke as if it was of not much importance.) +She replied, "Your father and Aunt Lizzy will +take it to Cambridge in a carriage, and put it into the ground; +and the grass will grow over the place, and sometimes you +can come to the place; and I guess I shall look out of heaven +and see you." But in a few minutes he began to cry, and +said, "I want to go with you into the sky." She said, "Oh, +you have a nice little body, which gives you a great deal of +pleasure, and you must stay here with poor, dear father! +What would he do when he has no wife any longer, without +his little boy to make him happy, and take care of him when +he grows old?" After a little more of such remonstrance he +said, "Well, I will stay with him!" It was curious that in +talking with me he never referred to this subject of his +mother's approaching death, which evidently had touched +him tenderly, and I did not introduce the subject.</p> + +<p>It was also a curious circumstance, that after this matter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +of death was, as it were, settled satisfactorily, and the mind +of his mother freed from all trouble on the point, <i>the love of +this life</i>, to which she had hitherto been more than indifferent, +sprang up in her with great energy, and she proposed to +break up the house, and go to Florida for cure! Her husband +and I could not share the hope, but we could not but sympathize +in the new joy in life, that she seemed to have received +from her now happy child, with whom she had learnt +<i>to live</i> in the spirit. Things were so arranged that she made +her husband's father's house, about thirty miles distant, the +first goal of her journey. She reached with great fatigue this +first stage, and stopped to rest, and never mentioned Florida +afterwards. She breathed on another year, during which +time I only saw her in weekly visits, having returned to Mr. +Alcott's school in Boston. Her disease was not very painful, +but so lingering that every trace of her former beauty was +lost in the ghastly emaciation.</p> + +<p>There were in the house two little cousins, younger than +F., taken care of exclusively by a very sweet mother, and +this gave him the most desirable social intercourse and play +that took the place of our discourses at the right moment, +and called into action very sweet traits of character. My +weekly visit of a day or two was a great affair to the children. +I told them stories, innumerable variations of <i>The +Story without an End</i>, and of <i>Pilgrim's Progress</i>, modified +to their infant minds. I always repeated the stories in precisely +the same words (which is a great point in telling stories +to children, and impresses them on the memory), and +they became very familiar with the ends of my paragraphs, +and would take them from my lips, and repeat them as a +chorus. Thus when I had got Pilgrim laid away in the upper +chamber of the House Beautiful, whose white draperies I +minutely described, they would all interrupt me, and sing +out, "And the name of that chamber was Peace." So of +the last words of other paragraphs that I purposely made +epigrammatic.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p> + +<p>The substantial character of the child's piety and sense +of immortality, which I have described as bubbling up at the +name <i>Heavenly</i> Father, spoken at the right time, and in the +right way, was exhibited unmistakably in his after life, and +began to express itself at once in his association with his +little cousins, which proved a very timely thing for him, +bringing out his moral character by means of what he constantly +did to make them happy, and keep them good, but +he never said anything to them about the Heavenly Father. +That subject seemed reserved for me.</p> + +<p>It was amusing to see how fatherly he was to the little +one, and he continued this fatherly manner all his after life +to all the children with whom he came in contact, and even +during his childhood it was singularly unmixed with any tyranny +or managing spirit. He would play as they wanted to +with them. He seemed to be drawn to children because he +could so easily understand their innocence, and make them +happy by his companionship, and because he enjoyed <i>them</i>.</p> + +<p>All his subsequent life he exhibited an exquisite sensibility +to beauty, which he continued to accept as the Creator's +<i>smile of consent</i>; the <i>very good</i> pronounced on everything +which He had made. In the last part of his mother's life, +she became so frightfully emaciated, that it was evidently +painful for him to look at her; but he <i>said</i> nothing about it; +and it was sweet to see the delicacy with which he tried to +conceal this pain from <i>her</i>, when he was admitted into the +room to see her, which, at length, came to be only in the +middle of the day, when she was seated in an easy-chair, +with a broad white footstool at her feet. He would come +into the room, looking on the floor, and seat himself on the +footstool, with his back partly turned to her, and, drawing +down her hands, cover them with kisses: he refused, as it +were, to recognize her, under that ghastly mask, which, +however, did not shut off from his <i>remembrance</i>, her former +loveliness; for, as soon as she was really dead, and he began<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +to think of her <i>in heaven</i>, she became his standard of +beauty. During the little more than a year that he continued +under my care, "<i>not</i> so beautiful as my mother," or "<i>as</i> +beautiful as my mother" were words very frequently in his +mouth. As she approached her death, she was so careful +lest he should have any of the <i>shock</i> which her own mother's +death gave to her, that she readily consented that he should +go for the last few days with the other children to stay with +a kind neighbor. He was therefore not present at her death; +neither was I. It was an event greatly longed for by herself, +at last, and its approach, which she knew before any +one else discerned any special change, seemed to gladden +her. Her last breath was peaceful; her last words, "Give +my love to F."</p> + +<p>I told him of the event the morning after the funeral, +from which I returned with his father, in the dusk of the +evening, calling for the child to go home and sleep with me, +which he always was delighted to do. He was put to bed in +the room where his mother had died, and I went in with him, +to explain her absence, if he should notice it. But he was +tired, and so occupied with my presence, he did <i>not</i>,—not +even when he woke in the morning. At last, I said to him, +"Do you see what room we are in?" He rose up and +looked around, and said, "Why, it is my mother's chamber! +Where is my mother?" I paused a moment to see if he +would divine the truth, and then said, "The dear Heavenly +Father has taken her at last!" He fell back on the pillow, +with a single exclamation of <i>not painful wonder</i>, and a countenance +sublime with the mingled expression of awe, love, +and joyful satisfaction. The fact of her absent body +seemed to be a more palpable proof of the truth of her +deathless soul, than even her form and word, which had represented +it to his senses. He was "silent, as we grow when +feeling most," as if he realized that he was in the presence +of the "substance of things hoped for, the evidence of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +things unseen." You may be sure I respected this sacred +silence, which seemed to me to last several minutes, but possibly +it was only <i>one</i>. At last he said gently, "Was the +window open?" I replied, "I don't know; I only know +our Heavenly Father, who is everywhere, you know, took her +to himself. He does not mind about windows, you know." +"<i>No, indeed!</i> I know that very well," he said, with a little +laugh (as if he wondered at his momentary lapse of thought). +Soon he asked, "Did He give her a new body right away?" +"I do not know anything more about that than <i>you</i> do," I +replied; "I only know He will do better things for her than +we can think of." "Do you think," said he, "that she looks +beautiful as she used to?" but, before I could reply, he suddenly +added, "I want to <i>go</i> to my mother. I want to see +her <i>now</i>," and began to cry.</p> + +<p>I kissed him, and began gently to recall the conversation +that she had had with him the day she told him she expected +soon to leave him; and, after a while, he said spontaneously, +as he had done when he talked with her he "would stay with +his father to comfort him for the loss of her." His father told +me afterwards, that when he saw <i>him</i>, he went over the same +ground again, beginning with saying that he wanted to go +to her; but when his father represented to him how solitary +he should be with no wife or son to show their love to him, +F. closed the conversation with the words, "Well, I will stay +with you till I grow up" (as if it was quite within his option +to do so or not).</p> + +<p>Very soon after this I took him away with me to Salem, +where he remained in our family for a year or more, I think. +My father's family were living at the corner of an old burial +ground, two sides of the house being bordered by it. The +day we arrived we went directly to my sister Sophia's room, +which looked out upon this burial ground. He was immediately +attracted to the window by the trees, and exclaimed +joyfully, "Oh, Aunt Lizzy, what a beautiful green garden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +this is! What are those things?" (referring to the tomb +stones.) I replied: "That green garden is where people lay +away, underground, the <i>poor old worn-out dead bodies</i> of +their friends, who are with our Father in Heaven, and those +things are called tombstones; they are put there with the +names carved on them of the persons whose bodies are buried +in those spots." He at once seemed greatly interested and +pleased, and became still more so after he had seen some +burials; his emotions of joy at the thought of the enfranchised +spirits entering on their heavenly life, being tempered with +tender sympathy for the bereaved friends in their mourning-robes, +whom he sometimes saw weeping at the earthly parting. +He was always very anxious to know how the buried +ones had died, from what particular sickness or danger they +had escaped; and one day when my sister Mary came back +from a walk, he joyfully told her that he had found out another +way in which souls went to heaven. She, of course, +asked him, "What way?" and he said, "Why, sometimes +ships that go to sea are driven by the wind against some +rocks and broken to pieces, and all the men's bodies are +drowned, and they go to heaven through the water." Another +time, he ran to her in great excitement, and said: "Oh, +Aunt Mary! I saw a little baby's body buried in the green +garden; some carriages came, and there was a hole dug +already, and people got out of the carriages, and one man +had a little box in his arms in which the baby's body was; +and they put some ropes around it, and let it down; and then +they filled up the hole with the dirt, and I saw the little baby +fly up, fly up, fly up!" and he accompanied the words with a +circular gesture of his arm. Whether the subjective conception +was so vivid, that it reproduced itself to his imagination in +an objective form, as the Sistine Madonna is said to have +done to Raphael; or it was what is called "a spiritual manifestation"; +it was evidently a reality to him, and no comment +was made, except that my sister said, "<i>I never saw a +soul fly up</i>."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span></p> + +<p>I should say here that this child was not imaginative, and +we never saw in him the smallest untruthfulness in speech +or act, nor tendency to exaggeration. In this he resembled +both his parents. Afterwards, he became something of a +scientist, and studied medicine for his profession. He was +a good classical scholar in college, and before his early death, +had completed in manuscript the history of one of the +mechanical arts. I think he was not of a visionary temperament. +(See <a href="#Note_E">Appendix E</a>.)</p> + +<p>His life with us in Salem was perfectly delightful. He +had no faults, though a certain pertinacity (which was an +expression of inherited firmness of character) sometimes +required a little disciplinary conversation, nothing more. I +never knew of his being subjected to any punishment, or +requiring any, in all his childhood. He had not the usual +impetuosity of children; perhaps the effect of his early depression +of spirits.</p> + +<p>My sister Mary had a day-school in the house, made up of +children between six and twelve years of age; he was +allowed to have his playthings in the school-room, and loved +to listen to her oral instruction of the children in natural +history and science, especially in the stories that she told or +read to them about human beings, in whom he was always +more interested than in animals. I taught him how to read +by the word method in <i>The Story without an End</i>, a slower +and more laborious way both for him and me than the mixed +method detailed in my <i>Kindergarten Guide</i>, of which I have +lately published a primer under the title of <i>After Kindergarten, +what?</i></p> + +<p>But had I then known of Frœbel's method of employing +childish play, organized by the adult with single aim to intellectual +development, I should not have taught him to read so +early, but something more profitable; I then shared what +Professor Agassiz called "<i>the American insanity</i> of teaching +children to read before they have learned the things signified<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +by words," which he, like Frœbel, believed would produce +habits of mind positively injurious, dropping a veil between +the observer and nature, preventing all freshness of thought, +and destroying the mind's elasticity and <i>originality</i>. But I +had not (at that time) presumed to question the time-honored +tradition, that <i>the beginning of education</i> was <i>learning to read</i>.</p> + +<p>When, later, my studies with a great philologist gave me a +little light upon the subject, and showed me that English had +the misfortune to be written by an inadequate alphabet, +whose result was to confuse the phonography entirely, by +obscuring the original principle of having but one letter for +one sound, and a letter for every different sound, I realized +the positive disadvantage of children's being forced through +a process which baffles all their natural instincts of classification; +and it was then I invented a method of separating +English words into classes, the phonographic ones to be first +made familiar, and the exceptions classified. Yet I could not +be insensible to the unnaturalness of beginning with spending +so much of the time of very young children upon this work +of the <i>imperfect mind of man</i>, as languages are, rather than +on the works of Infinite Wisdom. I was therefore well prepared +to accept Frœbel's method of first sharpening the +senses by examination of things that charm children, and of +developing the understanding by first making things according +to the laws which constitute the mind, and then naming them +in all perceptible relations. First let us form a mind which +can apprehend nature as the standard of truth, before we +undertake to <i>in</i>form it with what embodies the confusions +and errors of men; as, for instance, in a considerable degree +the written English language does. For language stands in +the same relation to man as nature does in relation to God. +The eternal word of Truth makes <i>things</i> before it is made +flesh. The confusion of tongues was the inevitable consequence +of the fall of man out of that communion with God in +which children are born, and our written language is an image<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +of this confusion, especially the English, whose so-called +orthography is the most anomalous of all languages; and the +acquisition, therefore, ought to be postponed, at least until +the understanding is fairly developed by some recognition of +so much of the Word of God as is alive in the things we see +and can handle. The time comes when the children can +understand that exceptions prove the rule, and then those +irregularities and anomalies of English writing may be made +even entertaining lessons to children; because if its laws and +rules are apprehended first, there is something amusing to +them in contradictions of law that so many words seem to be. +It is the pleasure in the grotesque; children enjoy the <i>funny</i>, +as they call it, but it is a different enjoyment from that of +the beautiful, and the latter is the highest element for human +activity. A predominance of the <i>funny</i> even demoralizes +intellectually as well as morally, but it has its own subordinate +place in healthy child life.</p> + +<p>My little friend had a slate and pencil, and immediately +inclined to draw from real objects, but we did not know how +to give him any other help than to guess at what were the +things he was trying to represent. If we could not guess, I +remember he would blush, and go away, saying he would +"<i>fix it a little</i>." I had the instinct that he could only be +effectually encouraged by success, and I would endeavor to +divine what he meant, by looking to see what were the surrounding +objects when I saw him drawing, and would point +out to him with congratulation any part in which he had at +all succeeded, letting the rest go. But without adequate and +legitimate guidance he necessarily became discouraged with +his failures. What children do not succeed in, becomes distasteful +to them, and they turn their attention from what has +disappointed them, and thus their natural tastes die, or are +starved out. As they have no knowledge of materials, nor +judgment in using them, they undertake <i>the impossible</i>, and +being baffled, lose courage to undertake the possible. So<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +young artists accumulate difficulties by their unwise choice of +subjects, not realizing the limitations of their own powers. +It is the part of the educated kindergartner to supply this +want of judgment and analysis until the pupil catches the +secret of gradualism and the law of opposites. Frœbel's +plan of giving the squared slate and paper to ensure straightness +of line in children's drawing is like the leading strings +by which the mother helps the child to develop his limbs for +walking, which cannot be done without his own personal +effort. So Frœbel's plan of having the kindergartner suggest +a symmetrical drawing of lines in opposites, vivifies the +sense of symmetry into a thought, whence springs a plan of +making still another symmetry. For by suggesting opposites, +and then the connecting of them, the child delightedly sees +orderly forms that grow under his hands, and feels that he is +acting from his own individual personality (which <i>he is</i>, +though the thought was suggested by the words of another). +What he <i>does</i> gives him confidence in his own mind, whose +fanciful movement suggests other symmetries; for though +fancy is a spontaneous play of the free will among impressions +passively received, it is amenable to the laws whose +exponents are presented to it by nature's works and human +suggestion.</p> + +<p>F. liked to watch my sister Sophia at her drawing and +painting, but its very perfection discouraged efforts on his +own part. It is bad not to <i>do</i> really at once what we conceive +of ideally. It was only in the moral and religious +sphere that we really lived with him, and he was properly +educated by us. We always answered all his questions +about what we were doing, and how, and why (I wish now I +had asked him more questions).</p> + +<p>My sister Sophia had a rare talent for talking with children, +whose purity and innocence she comprehended by a +sympathetic intuition, and to whose imagination her Christian +faith gave ample scope, for it was hampered by no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +human creeds. We had a circle of acquaintances who +were only too much inclined to pet him, and who, knowing +something of the history of his mind, liked to talk with him. +His mother had been very much beloved by this circle, and I +used to tell him that <i>for her</i> sake, they cared for and attended +to <i>him</i>, which interested him immensely, and perhaps +prevented his considering himself as a person of too much +importance comparatively. He would talk of going to see +his "<span class="smcap">mother's friends</span>." If new persons spoke to him +kindly, he would ask me immediately if they knew and loved +his mother; at all events, the element of personal <span class="smcap">egotism</span> +did not appear, and the affection he at first poured out on +me, now freely flowed out in every direction. I remember +his saying to me, one day, with an accent of great self-gratulation, +"I think I have a great many friends," and in +a moment after added, "my mother was so beautiful!" (as +if that were the reason of it). A young husband and wife +became inmates of our house, and brought a beautiful infant. +This was a perennial fountain of delight to F. The +singular beauty of the little one was a constant subject of +observation. One day he was looking at her, as she lay on +her mother's lap, and presently he burst out, "Oh, Ellen, +your little bright eyes are shining themselves into a <i>sun</i>!" +He was equally delighted with the musical sound of her +crowing. His ear for sounds was fastidiously delicate. +One day my mother was in the garden, looking at some wild +flowers which had been brought to her for transplanting. +As she looked at them she said to F., "Run into the house, +and get my—" He interrupted her eagerly with, "Don't +say that ugly <i>word</i>! I know what you mean," and he ran +into the house, and brought back Bigelow's <i>Plants around +Boston</i> (<i>Bigelow</i> was the ugly word). But let me hasten +from these details, to redeem my promise of telling you how +<i>prayer</i> became a thought of his mind, and his spontaneous +practice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was very early a question of great interest to his +mother, and also to me, whether prayer <i>would</i> become spontaneous +with him; that is, whether he would think of speaking +to God <i>in human words</i>. His intense realization of God's +<i>presence</i> seemed to be a cause of his <i>not</i> doing so, and I +feared to put <span class="smcap">God</span> <i>at a distance</i> by suggesting what, in ordinary +cases, is a means of bringing Him near. If prayer +be defined as a communion of the finite and Infinite, as personal +as that of <i>children</i> with earthly parents, <i>his</i> whole conscious +life was a prayer; for truly God was in all his +thoughts from the day he first accepted Him so joyfully as +the Substance and Giver of <i>goodness and love</i>, which involved +to the natural logic of his innocent mind the corollary +that He was the Giver of everything outward, as well +as inward, which gave him any happiness. I did not dare +to meddle with the natural evolution of thought in so happy +an instance, but watched to learn the true method of life of +the little child, as Christ suggested to his disciples to do. +One day when his grandmother, who was at the house on a +visit, dropped her needle, she called to F., "Come, and look +with <i>your little sharp eyes</i> for my needle." He did so, with +his usual alacrity in service, and soon found it. Then he +ran to me, and said, "When I go into the sky, I shall thank +my good Friend for giving me such sharp eyes." I said, +"What do you wait so long for?" He gave me a glance of +recognition, as it were, and laughed (as if he had been convicted +of saying something silly); but he said no more <i>then</i>. +From that moment, however, he often came to me to say, +"When I go into the sky, I shall thank my Heavenly +Father for giving me" this or that; and I would always +answer him as before, "Why do you <i>wait</i>?" which would +always bring out the same complete expression of satisfaction +on his face, showing that he loved to renew the +occasion for my uniform reply, "Why do you wait <i>till +then</i>?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p> + +<p>On one of these occasions he turned from me, and said +very tenderly, "<i>I thank you, God</i>." One day, after he went +to Salem, he had been suffering from a bad earache, and my +sister had relieved it by putting a little tuft of cotton dipped +in arnica into his ear. Then she asked him to go to the +window and look out into "the green garden," and she took +up a pencil to draw. Very soon he began, "<span class="smcap">God</span>, I thank +you for making this green garden to put away the dead bodies +<i>in</i>. <span class="smcap">God</span>, I thank you for making these beautiful trees grow +out of the ground. <span class="smcap">God</span>, I thank you for making all the +pretty wild flowers grow." He paused between each complete +sentence, and my sister, having a pencil in her hand, +wrote down his words till she had covered a sheet of letter +paper with his thanksgivings; for he went on naming everything +he could think of; and it was quite wonderful to hear +the minuteness of his grateful appreciation of life.</p> + +<p>One sentence was: "I thank you, <span class="smcap">God</span>, for making medicine +to put into my ear when it aches." He also thanked +<span class="smcap">God</span> for his father, and his father's letters to him, for his +mother in heaven, for many friends whom he loved, naming +them. I hope that sometime I shall find my sister's paper, +which I have mislaid with the other memoranda of this interesting +psychological observation. The pauses between the +thanksgivings became longer and longer, and at last, after +one for which he seemed to have searched his inmost mind, +in despair of finding anything else, he closed with, "My +dear <span class="smcap">God</span>, I love you very much."</p> + +<p>You will observe that in all this spontaneous act of devotion, +there was no <i>petition</i>. In the fulness of his happy life, +and, as I think, in the faith that God was giving him everything +needful, and more, he never thought of <i>asking</i> for +anything.</p> + +<p>Temptation to wrong-doing had not yet revealed the need +that the progressing spirit always feels of <i>more</i> goodness and +love, which I had taken care to represent that God gave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +whenever the soul acknowledged to itself its need and aspired +for more of this, its vital substance. For it is my opinion that +prayer should always be for spiritual good only, in order that +our religion should be pure from self-seeking, and generously +self-forgetting in its aspirations for perfection.</p> + +<p>A little while after this incident, my sister was reading to +him, and came to a sentence in which were the words "morning +and evening prayer." He immediately stopped her and +asked her, "What does that mean, that word <i>prayer</i>?" She +said, "Many grown up people, when they wake in the morning, +and find that God has taken care of them in the night when +they could not take care of themselves, and given them a new +day after their good sleep, feel very thankful, and love to tell +God so, just as you did the other day when you thanked God +for so many things; and besides, remembering that there are +a good many things they ought to do, and that He gives <i>the +love and goodness</i>, they like to ask Him beforehand to give +them what they shall need <i>to be good with</i> when the time comes +to want it; and at night, after they have got through the day, +they like to thank Him for all the joys of the day, and they +ask Him to take care of them through the night that is +coming, when they shall be asleep and cannot take care of +themselves; and this loving talk with God is called the morning +and evening prayer." I think she added that when she +was little she used to say, when she was going to bed:—</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Now I lay me down to sleep;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">I pray the Lord my soul to keep;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">If I should die before I wake,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">I pray the Lord my soul to take;"</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>and that was her evening prayer. "I think it is a very good +way," said he, "and I mean to do so this very night when I +go to bed." And it was true that when he went to bed, he +remembered and made a similar thanksgiving to his former +one in kind, and closed with this little verse. And again in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +the morning he began the first thing to thank God for the +new day, etc. Nor did he forget afterwards, night and +morning, to give thanks and utter prayers spontaneously, +and seemed to enjoy it.</div> + +<p>One morning he waked me with his loud singing, and as +soon as I opened my eyes, said to me, "Aunt Lizzy, I am +<i>singing</i> my morning prayer." I said, "There was a wonderful +little shepherd boy once, whose name was David, who +loved God as you do, and who always sang his prayers." +Immediately he wanted to know all about him, and I told +him the story of David in his childhood and up to the time +he was sent for to sing to King Saul; and I ended with saying +that I would read to him some of David's <i>psalms</i> (as +these sung prayers were called); and this I did, and the +eloquence of the sweet singer of Israel seemed to vivify his +idea of the Heavenly Father, and of His connection with the +soul within us all and the world without. Especially I tried +on him the effect of the Psalm beginning, "The heavens are +telling of the glory of God," whose rhythm had charmed my +own childhood, even before I fully comprehended it; and he +liked to hear it, too. Before this, I had read considerably +from the Bible to him, for he had one day said that he wondered +how the world began to be in the first place, and I had +said: "<i>Yes</i>, everybody wonders about that. But there is a +book (pointing to the Bible) where one of the first men told +about how it seemed to him, and I will read it to you." So +I opened the book and began the first chapter of Genesis, +without introductory comment. When I came to the words +"<i>And there was light</i>," he sprang up and shouted, "Directly +when He said 'Let there be light,' there <i>was</i> light <i>directly</i>!"</p> + +<p>I wished Longinus could have heard the confirmation of +his great criticism. Immediately he ran into my father's +study, which was across the entry, and burst out, "Dr. +Peabody, when it was all dark and there was nothing made, +God said, '<i>Let there be light, and there was light</i>' directly!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +directly!" This was not enough; he ran to find my mother +and sister, and again repeated the simply sublime words.</p> + +<p>Then he came back to me to hear the rest, and I finished +the chapter which he wanted me to read to him again and +again, day after day. I read afterwards the parable of +Jotham, which he liked to hear very much. I cannot help +thinking how much more I might have made of that very parable +for his moral culture had I then known of Frœbel's <i>gospel +of work</i>. I can hardly bear to think how stupid I was; the +effect of not having had the kindergarten education myself.</p> + +<p>But he was too soon taken away from my observation, not +without my acquiescence, however; for it was to go to his +father, who, I thought, needed his companionship. And as +it was at a distance that he lived, and, as afterwards my +own life was full of vicissitude for many years, I lost the +run of him entirely. There was a mutual misunderstanding +between his father and me, for several years, from his thinking +I wanted to be free from the care of him, and I thinking +he did not desire my personal influence on him, and we were +both mistaken, as we found out afterwards. When he went +to Harvard College, he came to see me, and the interview +was very interesting. He had a sweet, though it had become +a dim, remembrance of a happy time with us, succeeded, as +he told me, by a <i>lack-love</i> experience of years of a dark, +gloomy time at a boarding-school, to which he was sent when +he was eight years old, because, as he said, his grandmother +thought he ought not to be living with his solitary father +at a hotel. But the boarding-school proved more than a +heart solitude, as the boys were rough and cruel to him in +their unguided play. While he was with me, on the occasion +of this call, it happened that my sister Sophia's children +came into the room where we were. They had a very vivid +idea of him from their mother, she having often spoken of +him to them, and telling them of his joy in learning he had +a Heavenly Father, when he had never thought or been told<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +of it. When I said to them, "This is F.," one of them +said, "Is this F.? I thought he was a little boy," looking at +him wonderingly, surprised to see a grown-up man. I told +him they were well acquainted with his childhood. It +touched him very much, and the conversation that ensued +touching on several things I have told, brought back the +old time more distinctively, and he said he should often +come to recall it by my help, and to learn more of his +mother, whose beautiful face haunted his dreams. But just +afterwards I left Boston for some years, and did not see him +again until after his return from Vienna, where he went +after leaving college, and remained till he had completed his +medical studies. I promised then to show him his mother's +letters to me, written in her girlhood, and to tell him how +much the early experience of his own childhood had ministered +to her a heavenly consolation. But again inexorable +circumstances interfered. He became a practising physician +in Worcester, and I went to Concord to live, and we procrastinated +a promised visit until at last Death mocked our +slow affections. I saw him last wrapped in the flag of his +country, for when the war broke out in 1861, nothing would +do but he must go to it; and he went as one of the surgeons +of the 15th Regiment, which was terribly cut up. For a +year and a half he did an incredible amount of work, for he +would always have his hospital on the field of battle, and the +15th was in a great many battles, and left but few survivors, +most of whom are maimed or halt. He took care of those +wounded ones who could not be taken from the battle-field, +wrote letters for them, and never took a furlough, as every +other officer and surgeon did. In the last letter that he +wrote to his father, he said that this year and a half was in +one sense the happiest time of his life; for it was the only +time when he seemed to be of any use. He was killed at +last, walking up through the main street of Fredericksburg, +Virginia, in the van of the regiment, as was his wont, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +his death was instantaneous. His patriotism and his bravery +were the fruits of his piety. Every year his father and +I met to decorate his grave until his father's death in 1883-4. +He is buried at Mt. Auburn by his mother's side, whose body +was removed from the tomb in the old burial ground of +Cambridge. I have a photograph of him taken at the same +age as his mother when she died,—thirty-one years. It +was the year before he went to the war, a drooping head, +pensive as if marked for early death. But when I saw him +dead, his brow was lifted, his whole countenance had become +grand and heroic, and it was plain that he had found his +ideal vocation. His funeral was celebrated in the city of +Worcester with military honors, the wounded soldiers of his +regiment following the hearse in carriages, and the sidewalks +of the city thronged with the multitude of spectators. A +discourse upon the text, "No man can do more than lay +down his life for his friends," was pronounced over him at +the church, and the beautiful hymn sung, "Nearer my God +to Thee," which seemed to me the most appropriate conceivable, +though he had never been far from Him, after he knew +a name for Him.</p> + +<p>After the funeral his father's relatives and friends gathered +together, and we talked of him. I told my recollections +of his childhood, and all of them expressed the feeling +that the life he had led was in perfect harmony with such +an early acquaintance made with the Heavenly Father.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LECTURE VIII.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>RELIGIOUS NURTURE.<br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">Frœbel</span> speaks of the child as a trinity, meaning a unity +in threefold relation (with God, with man, and with nature), +and says that education, to be perfect, or even healthy, +must help him to be conscious of all these relations <i>at once</i>, +in order to ensure the equipoise of heart and intellect with +his spiritual power (or freedom to will), in which inheres his +just self-respect and natural religion.</div> + +<p>Nature (that is, the material universe, as I have said +before) is God's expression of mathematical and all correlative +laws, the apprehension of which builds up the intellect +of the individual who, through his sense perceptions, on +which he reflects and generalizes, gains <i>knowledge</i> of his +surroundings, beginning with that part of nature which is +within his own skin.</p> + +<p>It was the grand intuition of Oken which has been +splendidly illustrated by Dr. J. Garth Wilkinson in his +<i>Human Body in its Connections with Man</i>, that the human +body is the metropolis of material nature, in which may be +found in <i>vital order</i> all the elements of the material universe +which are, outside of the human body, in a more or less +chaotic state. This development of the individual intellect +needs more or less aid from the human environment, simultaneously +with that nurture of the <i>heart</i> which means man's +conscious relation to man. But though morality, which is +the performance of man's duty to man, is not religion, which +is man's consciousness of relation to God, it leads to it inversely, +because it shows the heart its need of a Father of us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +all, in order to be happy. All three processes, the intellectual, +the moral, and the religious, must go on together, to make +a perfect education, for in proportion as integral education +is wanting in those about the child, his intellect will be +starved, confused, or darkened with error; and immorality +and irreligion will more or less transpire in the individual.</p> + +<p>Frœbel perfectly realized the deficiency of this integral +education to be the cause of all the evil that is the present +experience of mankind, in spite of Church and State and the +optimism which in form of hope "springs eternal in the +human breast" (for the pessimist is the exception, not the +rule among men, the great mass of whom are pursuing some +ideal aim, even though it be a low one, their moral sentiment +having been perverted and their religion having become a +superstitious idolatry either of material forms or of logical +formulas).</p> + +<p>The system of education which Frœbel discovered, or +invented, in consequence of realizing this, is what we are +endeavoring to learn and apply, that we may bring out of +the moral chaos around us the lost equipoise of the threefold +nature in our children, by ourselves plunging into infant +life in imagination and realizing its innocent heart and unfallen +spiritual state, watching it in its own attempts to +understand and use its material surroundings and its human +environment, to the end of guiding it by our own experience +and matured knowledge, from the errors and misfortunes it +inevitably falls into if left to its own ignorant experimenting +unrevised.</p> + +<p>The playthings and means of occupation Frœbel invented +are to develop the intellect, and are a perfect miniature of +nature, and to use them in playing with the child is an art +and a science that the kindergartner must add to her moral +affections and religion, which are also her indispensable +qualifications.</p> + +<p>I wish to say this very emphatically, all the more because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +this part of your education (the art and science that develop +the intellect) is not my part of your training course, but the +moral and religious nurture; and therefore I must leave the +exhaustive analysis of the gifts in their relation to the unfolding +intellect as well as of the "schools of work" (as the +series of embroideries, foldings, drawings, weavings, pea-work, +etc., are called, and which require your study the +whole year) to your accomplished trainers to do justice to.</p> + +<p>But before I turn to my specific department, I would say +that this intellectual part of the training, which it was the +special genius of Frœbel to discover, is of equal importance; +for it is the duty of man to worship God with the <i>mind</i>, as +well as with the <i>heart</i> and <i>might</i>, though that is a part of the +great commandment, which seems to have been systematically +overlooked by many of the churches, if not virtually +denied.</p> + +<p>To worship God <i>with the mind</i> means to develop the intellect; +as to worship Him with the <i>heart</i> keeps pure the moral +sentiments and quickens moral action; and to worship Him +with the <i>might</i> lifts the will, quickened by the heart and enlightened +by the mind into oneness with the Holy Spirit, +more and more forever. And here let me recall to you what +I said of Frœbel's authority in my second lecture, and beware +of deviating from the path he has pointed out (he +was nearly fifty years in inventing his technique); and +be very careful about adding to his <i>Gifts</i> or <i>Schools of Work</i>, +though I would not have you mechanical followers. There +will be legitimate outgrowths of his method. He himself, in +one of his <i>Pedagogies</i>, published after his death by Wichard +Lange, has suggested a "school of drawing" upon <i>the curve</i>, +which Miss Marwedel has developed, leading the child naturally +through vegetable formation; and Mr. Edward A. +Spring, the sculptor, has also suggested and partly carried +some children through animal forms, from the worm to the +"human face divine"; and we hope both these "schools"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +may be published and used. In the musical line, also, in +which Frœbel was personally rather deficient, Mr. Daniel +Bachellor, now of Philadelphia, has suggested a series of +exercises by means of the correspondence of tones and colors, +that makes the children as creative in the discovery of +melodies, as they are of the harmonies of color in their +weaving and painting.</p> + +<p>There is unquestionably danger that the kindergartner +may degenerate into mechanical imitation and rote-work in +this part of her guidance of the children, nevertheless in some +of the charity kindergartens I have seen there was danger +of doing injustice to the technique.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>On this last day of communion with you on the Frœbel +education, I would like to speak with some comprehensiveness +and particularity on the subject of religious nurture. +Mark me, I say religious <i>nurture</i>, not religious teaching. +The religion that integrates human education is not to be +taught. It is the primeval consciousness of filial relation to +<span class="smcap">God</span>, who alone can reveal Himself; for human language has +no adequate expression of <span class="smcap">God</span>, founded as it is on the material +universe, which is the finite opposite of Creative Being. +Every individual child is a momentum of <span class="smcap">God</span>'s creativeness +which the human Providence of education must take as its +<i>datum</i>. Only childhood symbolizes <span class="smcap">God</span> as "the sum of all +being," realizing itself in joy incommensurable. Ruskin has +happily said the joy of childhood is out of all proportion to +the occasions that call forth its expression, and in order to +make <span class="smcap">God</span> the central conscious truth of the child's intellect, +we must give the name father or mother to <span class="smcap">God</span>, which is +intelligible to the heart, and which will identify its filial aspiration +with the parental bounty, as another, yet the same.</p> + +<p>But what I want you to observe is, that language being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +limited in meaning by its origin in material nature, you +should talk about <span class="smcap">God</span> as little as possible, after having +given Him the name that will excite the child's worshipful +aspiration, and limit yourselves carefully to regulating moral +manifestations, leading children to act kindly, generously, +truthfully, in your own assured faith that <span class="smcap">God</span> is present to +inspire the truth, generosity, and loving <i>will</i> that is practically +prayed for with <i>good resolution</i>. (Good resolutions are +the special prayers of faith, as children should be taught expressly.)</p> + +<p>Kindergartners cannot carry out this course quite irrespective +of the theory of human nature declared in their +creeds. But the heart is generally larger than the creed, as +was once strikingly evidenced to me by Louisa Frankenberg, +a dear, devout old German kindergartner, who had learned +the art of kindergartning from Frœbel himself, in the very +beginning of his own experimenting; but she was such a +bigot to the Lutheran Church that she could not theoretically +admit as a Christian any one who did not swear by its dogma +of total depravity. Yet I remember hearing her exclaim, "Oh, +Frœbel's method is so beautiful! because the affectionate +plays and innocent occupations take the children entirely +away from the depravity of their hearts." She said this with +a gush of love and faith that showed how much the unbounded +human heart is beyond being totally eclipsed by shadows cast +by the limited human intellect. It is neither feeling or thinking, +but righteous doing, that gives us victory.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>The child in the first era of his life has no individual consciousness +of separation from <span class="smcap">God</span>, and for a certain time it +is obvious to all observers that this august unconsciousness +even prevents the immediate development of an intellectual +conception of him. The child in its infancy (infant, you remember, +means <i>not speaking</i>) does not see nature as object,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +but feels it also to be himself, and hence he has no language, +for language is the expression of his intellect. Hence the +infant's sublime unconsciousness of danger and absolute fearlessness, +and its impulse to spring upward out of its mother's +arms, the laws of gravity notwithstanding! It stands, as +Wordsworth has sung,—</p> + +<div class='center'> +"Glorious in the might of heaven-born freedom on its being's height,"<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>and only gradually do</div> + +<div class='center'> +"Shades of the prison-house begin to close around the growing boy."<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>For, as the same poet has it in that ode which is as much +inspired as anything in the sacred oracles of the Hebrew or +the Christian:—</div> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own;</span><br /> +Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,<br /> +And even with something of a mother's mind,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">And no unworthy aim,</span><br /> +The homely nurse doth all she can<br /> +To make her foster-child, her innate man,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Forget the glories he hath known</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">And that Imperial Palace whence he came.</span><br /> +<br /> +* * * * *<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hence, in a season of calm weather,</span><br /> +Though inland far we be,<br /> +Our souls have sight of that immortal sea<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Which brought us hither;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Can in a moment travel thither,</span><br /> +And see the children sport upon the shore,<br /> +And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore."<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>The "not unworthy aim" of the "humble nurse" is to give +the child the sense of "having life in himself" as an individual +free agent, so that he may come into intellectual consciousness +of the laws of <span class="smcap">God</span> by going counter to them, +which reveals to him that he is separating from <span class="smcap">God</span> in his +activity. This separation is <i>sin</i>, which is a short word for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +separation, and the first step in the development of individuality, +and therefore pardonable, because it is finite.</div> + +<p>Now the true religious nurture is to keep the child in the +mood of ineffable joy in which he was created, while he is +evolving his sense of individuality and free agency by experimenting +freely, but more or less painfully, so that he shall +not lose sight of the central Sun, to which everything he is +slowly learning through his senses and his reflection is related; +and this must be begun by giving a name to the central Sun +that shall express the character of his inmost consciousness +of joy and love, which is his vision of <span class="smcap">God</span>, and needs to be +recognized as <span class="smcap">God</span> in the understanding.</p> + +<p>In the Old Testament we see that it is the <i>name</i> of the +Lord which is set forth as the only means of escaping that +idolatry which is destructive of progressive spiritual religion. +The name of the Lord, or Ruler, with the Hebrews was +<span class="smcap">Jehovah</span>, a word made up of the three tenses of the substantive +verb <i>to be</i>, "was, is, and shall be," and which +Philo, the Alexandrian Jewish philosopher, translates <span class="smcap">The +Eternal</span>. It was understood by the worshippers to be the +ineffable Creative Reality, so that when they came to the +word in their sacred ritual they did not speak it, but reverently +bowed their heads in a moment's silence, or paraphrased +it, <span class="smcap">The Lord God</span>.</p> + +<p>But Jesus, the bright, consummate flower of the Hebrew +race, used the name Father (<i>my</i> and <i>our</i> Father), which you +may observe was original with him. That word expressed +the whole of his theology. He made no disquisitions on +<span class="smcap">God's</span> being, but simply recognized the vital relation of +mankind to its Creator by this word, which any child who +has come to see that he and his mother are two can +understand and will love.</p> + +<p>Frœbel has proved by his nursery method that the child +shall get <i>this idea</i> and name of <span class="smcap">God</span> from his mother; and +at all events when children come to the kindergarten they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +will generally already have heard some name for <span class="smcap">God</span>, +adequate or inadequate. Now all you have to do—but +that is a great deal, indeed the greatest thing—is not to +cloud the child's intuitive knowledge of <span class="smcap">God</span> by your inadequate +words as was done in the case of M. D., who was +afraid of the omnipresence of <span class="smcap">God</span>, as I mentioned in my +narrative of F. H., and in the case of his unfortunate +mother at her mother's funeral. In the case of little F. +the mistake was not to have given any name before his +sense perceptions had made "a prison house for the growing +boy." But you have seen how the shades were dispelled +by my taking it for granted with him that a Heavenly +Father existed, which he joyfully accepted at once, for I +knew that</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"In the embers was something that did live,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And Nature yet remembers</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">What was so fugitive."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>The naming of <span class="smcap">God</span> in the kindergarten should be in +music, which is the natural language of spirituality (or +aspiration), lifting the soul above the cold level of the +intellect that cognizes the correlations of the natural universe. +Frœbel finds support of his faith in the efficacy +of song, that puts devout expression into the works of +nature, in the historical fact that the civilizing literature +of all nations begins in religious hymns. The different +characteristics and the different destinies of nations are seen +in germ in the national songs, which are in large degree and +sometimes exclusively addressed to <i>the Powers above</i>. The +Li-king of the Chinese, the Rig Veda of the old Aryans, +the Puranas of the Hindus, the Garthas of the Iranians, +the recently discovered early poetry of the Egyptians, and +even the magical formulas of the Babylonians, all express +with more or less exaltation of spirit the primeval intuition +of Supreme Being, and use the particulars of material nature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +as words of <span class="smcap">God</span> pointing to that unity of all life that is the +music of the spheres. Is it not heard in the voice of the +healthy infant, which is the most exquisite music on earth, +and later seen in the pictures made by the imagination +before language that is coined by the human understanding +has introduced prosaic, that is, analytic definitions, and +drawn the human individual away from feeding its heart +on the fruits of the Tree of Life (which are music and +poetry) to the fruits of the tree of knowledge, which are +evil as well as good. The kindergarten exercises should +begin and end with spiritual songs and hymns; indeed, +they should come in any time at the call of the children, +who, it will be found, will oftener call for hymns of praise +than for any other songs.</p> + +<p>The hymns of the kindergarten repertory should be entirely +free from all that is didactic and denominationally +doctrinal. Their object is not to teach any science, whether +intellectual, moral, or theological; but to express childish +joy in existence, or quicken the original childish faith, which +in all ages and nations has expressed itself in music and the +dance. Nor should the singing of hymns in kindergarten +be ever perfunctory or a thing of course. A good kindergartner +begins the day with bringing all the children into +company for preliminary conversation, and asking each in +turn what is in his mind; or the class as a whole may be +asked some general question, perhaps about the weather, +which always has something beneficial that can be brought +to the attention; then they could be asked, "Could you +have made this weather? Who made it? and would you +not like to thank the Heavenly Father for it?" Something +similar to this should precede all the hymns to +rouse their sense of free activity, and prevent routine, +and then they will sing with the heart and understanding +also. I remember going one day into a kindergarten with +Mr. Alcott when such a preliminary conversation was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +going on, which was followed by this song of the +weather, the children making the illustrative gesticulations +with their arms. They began with the weather of the +day, and continued with several varieties, for it is not often +the whole song is sung at one time. The intense delight of +the children when themselves personifying the weather, +poured itself out in the chorus, which they had first learned +to sing with a will,—</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Wonderful, Lord, are all thy works,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wheresoever falling.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">All, their various voices raise;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Speaking forth their Maker's praise</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wheresoever falling."</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>(See Appendix, <a href="#Note_F">Note F</a>.)</div> + +<p>Mr. Alcott, with his eyes full of tears, turned to me, and +said, "This must have an immense influence upon character." +In religious conversation children have the advantage +of us in their as yet uneclipsed original vision of <span class="smcap">God</span>, and +we have an advantage of them in knowledge of outside things +and the adaptation of means to ends. By this knowledge +of ours we can generally guide them to accomplish their +purposes when they are such as will really give them pleasure +and do no harm to any one else. They get our knowledge +by confidingly doing as we direct, and a confidence in +the method which brings about the results they have instinctively +foreseen. We save their minds from getting lost or +bewildered in the chaos of particulars by winning their +attention to the orderly connections of things, and leading +them to realize how they connect little things in order to +make larger things, and how opposites are connected in the +world around about them. To recognize their own little +plans and open their eyes to <span class="smcap">God</span>'s methods and plans; and +because they cause new effects, they realize that all effects +have causes, and in the last analysis realize one personal +cause. They must believe in themselves as a preliminary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +to believing in <span class="smcap">God</span>. Let them with things create order; and +you will have influence with them in proportion to their feeling +that you respect their free will, and divine in a genial +way what they want; and this you can do if you inform yourself +of what is <i>universal</i> in human desire, keeping your eyes +open to what modifications <i>their</i> individuality suggests; and +it is your cognizance of these individualities which makes +your part of the enjoyment. If there are no two leaves +alike, much more are there no two human individuals precisely +alike, and human intercourse is made refreshing by +these various individualities playing over the surface of the +universal race-consciousness. If you respect the individuality +of a child, and let it have fair play, you gain its +confidence. Nothing is so delightful as to feel oneself understood. +It is much more delightful than to be admired. But +to give a child's individuality fair play in a company of +children, you must open children's eyes to one another's +individualities, and you will find that if you suggest their +respecting each other's rights in the plays, there is something +within them that will justify you. The consciousness of +individuality is the correlated opposite to the conscience +of universality. Justice is an intuition. The opposite +poles of a human being are self-assertion or personal consciousness +on the one side, and generosity or <i>race</i> consciousness +on the other.</p> + +<p>We have seen that the maternal instinct, which the kindergartner +is to make her own by cultivating it, cherishes the +indispensable innocent self-assertion (which is only changed +into selfishness by lack of that social cherishing which keeps +generosity wide awake to balance self-assertion). We must +sympathize with the play instincts of the child, so that it may +get knowledge of its body in its parts and its powers of +locomotion, manipulation and speech, giving self-respect to +the consciousness of power, while the simultaneous knowledge +of limitation is prevented from becoming fear by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +experience of the motherly providence, which is the first +comprehensible form of that love which in due time calls +forth ideal worship of the Infinite <span class="smcap">God</span>, if <span class="smcap">God</span> has been +adequately named in natural sympathetic conversation with +an earnest self-persuasion but without sanctimonious affectation. +Unless you have unaffected spontaneity of faith yourselves, +you should not dare to talk about <span class="smcap">God</span> to the child.</p> + +<p>The religious nurture which Frœbel proposes therefore +consists simply in so living with children as to preserve their +primeval joy by tenderly and reverently respecting it, as that +human instinct prompts which is in the highest power in the +mother. Sympathetic tenderness is the first of all means for +moral culture. The child's faith in <span class="smcap">God</span> must be cherished +into self-reliance. There is a self-distrust that is really a +distrust of <span class="smcap">God</span>, and no harm we can do a child is so great +as to lead it to doubt its own spontaneity. The common +religious teacher—even a conscientious mother—sometimes +does this, and so far from nurturing the child's conscious +union with <span class="smcap">God</span>, starts a morbid self-consciousness, the +opposite of religious peace. In order not to make this mistake, +let the mother and kindergartner read and ponder +Frœbel's <i>Mother Love</i> and <i>Cossetting Songs</i>.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>If you ask me what aid the moral culture derives from +the religious nurture, I reply, the name Heavenly Father, +given to the inmost consciousness, keeps the heart happy and +the will self-respecting, by preventing those indefinite fears, +incident to a sense of helplessness, which engenders selfishness. +Hope and Faith are correlatives, and conscious or +necessary means of goodness (which is enacted thereby), not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +agonies of will in the absence of this support. In the majority +of cases moral discouragement is the secret of children's +naughtiness; and, as Dr. Channing used to say, "there is +nothing fatal to child or man but discouragement," which +often exists close beside manifestations of pride and self-will.</p> + +<p>When I kept school, in my earlier life, I became the confidante +of many cases of wrong-doing and conscious wrong +feeling. Sometimes the confidentialness was altogether +spontaneous on the part of the children, and in other cases I +took the initiative, drawing out the confidence, by intervening +on occasion to console and help, especially when I saw +that the sensibility had been wounded, or there was moral +puzzle. And my experience and observation in this line justified +the faith in which I began to keep school; viz., that +children are all <i>but perfectly</i> good, in all cases, and are never +so grateful for anything else, when they find themselves +naughty, as for spiritual and moral help, given as <i>God gives</i>, +"upbraiding not."</p> + +<p>When they are not grateful for moral help, it is the fault +or mistake of the grown-up counsellor. Even in the worst +cases I always took it for granted that nevertheless they loved +goodness better than the naughty self which for the hour had +got the victory over the better self. Spiritual being, whether +finite or infinite, is only to be discerned by aspiring faith. +Yet I do not think it right or wise to suggest to little children +that <i>their</i> wrong-doings, which are more weaknesses than +presumptions, are <i>sins against God</i>. Children can comprehend +their relations to each other, and the violation of each +other's rights to happiness, and can be easily led to sympathize +with the pain or inconvenience of those they make suffer, +which touches their sense of justice and generosity; they +can appreciate wrong and its consequences to their equals +and to themselves in the <i>present life</i>. But <span class="smcap">God</span> is too great +to be injured by them; and to bring <span class="smcap">God</span> to their imagination +as personally angry with them, overwhelms thought, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +annihilates all sense of responsibility, with all self-respect. +Children can comprehend perfectly that wrong-doing, in particular +cases, is an injury to themselves, as well as a harm +to their neighbor; also that they forfeit, for the time being, +their privilege of being, as it were, in partnership with <span class="smcap">God</span> +in making others happy, as well as being companions with +Him in making things grow; and an occasional hint of this, +when they are very happy and successful, is well. But to +suggest that they are forfeiting this privilege of divine companionship +and partnership, is quite painful enough, be this +forfeiture ever so partial. Old sinners are to be disciplined, +perhaps, by that love of <span class="smcap">God</span> which speaks in the thunder, +the earthquake, and fire, breaking through the crust of selfish +habit to awaken attention to the still, small voice of conscience, +in which alone the Lord is <i>in person</i>. But the +naughty child, at his worst, needs only to think of God as +sorry for him, and "waiting to be gracious," like the father +of the prodigal son.</p> + +<p>I can illustrate this by anecdotes of a child to whose +moral life I was obliged to call in the aid of the religious +sentiment, and even of the specific Christian revelation +of pardon for all past wrong repented. It was the case +of a very sensitive child of nine years of age, whose mother +was gifted with the finest imagination and moral instincts, +but was married to a cold, Dombey-like husband, whom she +unfortunately thought superior to herself, whom she idealized, +and endeavored to make her children satisfactory to his worldly +ideal. The result in their characters was more or less disastrous +to each, ending with the suicide of one. This child's +conscience of the duty of satisfying both parents I soon found +to be abnormal; and her sense of her father's contempt for her +intellect, and her mother's painstaking that she should satisfy +him, so worked on her sensibility that it suspended her reasoning +powers; and no matter what it was she failed in, +whether in missing an answer to a question in arithmetic, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +in failure of good temper when tormented, she fell into despair. +I endeavored to show her that a mistake in any school +exercise was no crime, but only made an occasion for her +learning more thoroughly the thing in hand, and to show her +that, unless she had fortitude to bear failures, and courage +and hope to overcome them, I could not help her out of them; +and I never rebuked any naughty manifestation of a moral +character of any one in her presence, but she would burst +into tears, and tell me how much naughtier she was. One +Monday morning I asked my children, as I was wont to do, +if there was anything interesting that they had heard at +church or Sunday-school the day before, when, almost with +a shriek, she cried out, "Oh, don't ask me that." I said +gently, "Come with me into my chamber," which she did, +crying all the while. "Mr. Greenwood preached about the +prayers, and he said we should not look about the church, or +think of anything else, while the service was being read; and +I always do, and I can't help it, because I am so bad." I +took her into my arms, and said, "It is a sure proof that you +are not bad, that you are so distressed at the thought of doing +wrong. Bad people do not care, and so they grow worse +and worse; but your conscience seems to forget the Heavenly +Father, who did not give it to you to discourage you, but to +help you to see what way you must not go, and to remind you +that He is close by to help your good resolution, which is the +prayer of your will."</p> + +<p>"But I read in a hymn that <span class="smcap">God</span> sets down everything we +do wrong in a book; and at the judgment day He will read it +all out to the assembled universe. I told a lie once."</p> + +<p>"Did you?" said I, tenderly. "Tell me all about how you +came to." "I cannot," said she, "because then I should +have to tell something bad about somebody else, which I must +not." "How long ago was it?" "It was when we were +living at ——." I saw by this that it was several years before.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p> + +<p>She had a little brother, of whom she was very fond. I +took hold of a locket that she wore about her neck, that contained +the hair of the lady for whom she was named, and the +memory of whose great virtues had been impressed on her +imagination, and said:—</p> + +<p>"What if Edward should take this locket and break it, +and take out the hair and throw it in the fire?" With a great +deal of energy she said:—</p> + +<p>"He never would do such a naughty thing."</p> + +<p>"He might do it without being naughty; he would not know +that you never could get any more of Miss ——'s hair; and +he would do it from innocent curiosity—and what if he should +do it, what would you do?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I should tell him he was a very naughty boy, meddling +with other people's things, and that he had done something +that he could never make up, for there was no more +of that hair."</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, "and I suppose you would say that, very +likely crying, and if he seeing that he had given you such +pain, should begin to cry, and should cry all the rest of the +day, and cry himself to sleep, and when he waked in the +morning should begin to cry again, and should cry all day +for weeks—what would you do?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I should tell him I was sorry to lose my locket, +but I could bear it, and he must forget about it, for he did +not know what a mischief he was doing, and I should take +him out to walk, and amuse him, and do everything to make +him forget it."</p> + +<p>"Why should you do all this?"</p> + +<p>"Because I love him," she said.</p> + +<p>"Do you believe you love him better than <span class="smcap">God</span> loves you?"</p> + +<p>With a look of surprise, she said, "Does <span class="smcap">God</span> love us the +same way we love?"</p> + +<p>"There is but one kind of love," I said, "and I really +think He would like to have you forget that <i>lie</i> you told so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +long ago, without thinking how wrong it was, because you +were thinking of something else, just as Edward was only +thinking he wanted to see what was under the glass of the +locket."</p> + +<p>She looked at me wistfully.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever read about Jesus Christ in the New Testament?" +said I.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I hate to."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because you know everybody says we must be like Him, +and He never did anything wrong, and I cannot be like Him, +for I do wrong of all kinds—beside that <i>lie</i>, and you know +how cross I am."</p> + +<p>"O," said I, "I do not wonder you feel discouraged if +you think that you must be as good as Jesus Christ right +away, to begin with; but Jesus Christ came into the world +to say a word that is the most important word in the New +Testament, and if He had not said it, He would have done +us more harm than good with His perfect example, discouraging +us entirely."</p> + +<p>"What was that word?" she asked, with the most eager +interest.</p> + +<p>"<i>Pardon</i>," said I, "for all past wrong-doing that you are +sorry for."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Miss Peabody, I never thought of the meaning of +that word before."</p> + +<p>"Yes, darling," said I, "and that is the reason of all your +trouble. Now think of it always; and thank <span class="smcap">God</span> that He +sent Jesus to say it. That <i>lie</i> of yours <span class="smcap">God</span> has pardoned +long ago, just as you would have pardoned little Edward. +We all do wrong things when we are children, and learn by +doing them not to do them again. Now from to-day begin +all your life over again. When you miss in your lessons, instead +of crying, just let it go, and ask me to help you try +again. So in making other mistakes, and when you feel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +cross, which comes in your case because you are so easily discouraged,—for +that makes you have dyspepsia,—just forget +it as soon as possible and go and do something pleasant, and +think that <span class="smcap">God</span> loves you, and only lets you do wrong to show +you that you need to be getting wisdom all the time, and +you will grow stronger continually, and the older you grow, +the better you will understand."</p> + +<p>I never knew a moral crisis in any child's life so marked +as this was. She had a very hard path in life to walk and +suffered much, but she never again lost the hope by which +we live, and at length, full of years, joined "the Choir Invisible," +from which commanding standpoint she doubtless +sees the end from the beginning, and how <span class="smcap">God</span>'s redeeming +Providence completes His creation of a free agent. What I +insist upon is, that a child should never be left to doubt, but +should always be helped to feel <i>sure</i> that <span class="smcap">God</span> is loving him +better than he loves himself; is sorry far more than angry +with him when he has done wrong, and therefore it is that He +will not let him succeed in doing wrong, but has so arranged +things that the wrong always gets checked; that <span class="smcap">God</span> is +especially good precisely because He "makes the ways of the +transgressor hard." Never let the Infinite Power appear to +the naughty child's imagination as punishing, but only as +encouraging, inspiring, helping! It is recorded as characteristic +of the highest manifestation of <span class="smcap">God</span> and Educator of +man, who appeared to His most spiritual disciple as the +"Eternal Word made flesh," that He did not "quench the +smoking flax or bruise the broken reed," but distilled upon +humanity—especially in its flowering stage—the gentle +dews of blessing,—taking little children in His arms to bless +them.</p> + +<p>You may ask, But what if a child proves in some instances +incorrigible to the method of love? What shall we do then? +I think it will be sufficient to ask any <i>Christian</i>, What did +Jesus do when the Jews proved insensible and incorrigible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +to his long-suffering, brotherly love, making it the occasion +of their own capital crime? Did he abandon the method of +love when they nailed him to the cross, or even doubt it? +Let us dwell on this a little. Was it not the special trial of +Jesus Christ's human life, the last temptation through which +he was constrained by his apparent failure of accomplishing +the work of redeeming Israel, by leading them of their +own selves to judge and do what is right to cry out, My +God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me? For instead of +their <i>coming to him</i> to get the waters of life he offered, they +had made it the very act of their <i>religion</i> to murder him +as a blasphemer. I ask, Did he, even then, exchange his +method of <i>forbearing love for cursing</i>? Did he not, <i>even then</i>, +hold fast to the principle of brotherliness by commending +his spirit (which was his work) into the hands of the Father, +with the words: "Forgive them, for <i>they know not what they +do</i>"; showing that he felt that this ignorance was infinitely +more pitiable than his own apparently forgotten bodily +agonies? And, in this great <i>humane</i> act of forbearance, and +<i>divine</i> act of faith did he not reveal in its fulness the loving +character of God, whom he had always called <i>Father</i>, and +with whom he proved himself <i>one</i> by this very token, which +converted the Jewish thief and the Roman centurion on the +spot; and which, step by step, is slowly but surely (by +inspiring his disciples with the same spirit and method of +dealing with their fellow-beings) <i>converting the world</i>? The +moment of despair of an immediate spiritual good we are +trying to do, is often the moment of our doing a higher and +greater good.</p> + +<p>As Jesus resigned his own finite will, as the son of David, +which was fixed on bringing the Jewish nation to fulfil its +national mission of "<i>blessing</i> all the families of the earth," +which he understood to be the motive inspiration of Abraham's +emigration from Babylonian civilization into the +wilderness; and as he accepted the will of his Father, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> +seemed to be that the privilege to do this patriotic duty was +not granted to him as he had grown up thinking, <i>the will was +lifted</i>, and he found himself doing <i>more</i>—becoming the +Saviour, not of the <i>nation</i> of the Jews merely, <i>but of all men</i>, +and so sat down on the right hand of <span class="smcap">God</span>. For he proved +himself to the <i>heart of all humanity</i>, <span class="smcap">God</span>'s Son, <i>loving</i>, +not for the sake of men's <i>reciprocation</i> and appreciation of +himself, but for the sake of <i>the salvation</i> of humanity. Therefore +Christ's method is the one for every man and woman on +all planes of activity, however humble. I have heard more +than one mother say, that when they had tried every method +they knew of to influence their child to give up some wrong +object on which the irrefragable free will was bent, and +all tender and violent measures had failed, the <i>irrepressible</i> +tears of their despairing love had most unexpectedly melted +the hardness of self-will at <i>once</i>, and <i>effected the cure</i>. <span class="smcap">Love</span>, +<i>when it is understood</i>, is <i>irresistible</i>. Our sacred oracles teach +us that the origin of evil is in a doubt of <span class="smcap">God</span>'s love. In +Eden it was a suspicion that He had some selfish ends in +forbidding even one thing in a world of free gifts.</p> + +<p>The conquest of evil, on the other hand, they represent, +was in Jesus Christ's trusting <i>God's love</i>, in a lost world, +amidst the physical agonies of his cross, and the moral anguish +of a disappointment of the grandest aim that ever one +born of woman had set to himself for his life-work. In faithfully +trying to do the lesser good just at hand, he developed +the power to <i>save all men from their sins; not merely his own +people</i>.</p> + +<p>To the training class of kindergartners I would say, <i>your</i> +special work is rather to <i>prevent</i>, than to conquer sin, in the +objects of your care; therefore you should, in your own +imagination, associate yourself with <i>God creating</i>, first leading +children to realize that all He has made is <i>very good</i> and +must be kept so, which is giving the religious nurture.</p> + +<p>That great word of Frœbel, <i>man is a creative</i> being, has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +said in the world of education, whether religious, moral, or +intellectual, "Let there be light," and is never to be forgotten +in its uttermost meaning.</p> + +<p>In this truth you will find an infinite resource of hope and +successful energy. You may think that you apprehend and +accept the scope of this pregnant word, because you do not +reject it as a proposition; but partial knowledge is often +deluding, and <i>not doubting</i> is far from <i>efficient conviction</i>, +which a comprehensive and penetrating understanding of a +principle gives. Let me illustrate this illusion of thinking +we comprehend when we do not, by some of Frœbel's gifts.</p> + +<p>Think of the four last gifts of Frœbel in their wholeness +of form, <i>as cubes</i>. When these cubes are uncovered and +you recognize them as eight, or twenty-seven, or thirty-six +wooden, solid, six-sided, eight-cornered, twelve-edged units, +and see the relations of their properties in nature, it may +seem to you as if you exhaustively knew the cube; but you do +not if you have omitted to notice one property inherent in it, +more important because pregnant with more consequences +than any other property,—I mean its <i>divisibility</i> by means +of which its possible transformations are innumerable, every +transformation presenting the symmetry of the original in a +new variety of beauty, so that if you will give to a child one +of these divisible cubes and suggest to him the clue of the +law of connecting contrasts, which is the law of all production, +he will never tire (except physically) of making the +new combinations, and seeking through each and all, that +sense of a <i>whole</i> which was the first impression. It is by +reason of its divisibility, that the cube can be transformed +infinitely. Now you may conceive the nature of man as a +whole, and observe a great many of his attributes, and yet +not see the greatest,—<i>his creativeness</i>, whose consequences +are infinite.</p> + +<p>Educational science has, in fact, generally omitted to do +this in the past, and treated a child according to the attributes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +it recognized; but, because before Frœbel's day man had +not been recognized by the reflective mind as a creative +being, it had not been realized that he can be transformed, +or transform himself as well as his surroundings, infinitely, +ever producing something <i>new</i>, and hence that there may be, +in the lapse of ages, as much variety in human production +as there is in God's workings in the Universe.</p> + +<p>It is, in short, because education has not hitherto conceived +of man as <i>creative</i>, that there has been so much dead +uniformity and lifeless repetition on the plane of humanity; +and that a general characteristic of educational systems +hitherto has been a mechanical running of the human being +into certain fixed moulds, not only irrespective of individual +tendencies, but antagonistic to the universal creative impulse, +which is the profoundest characteristic of man, and which, +not being understood, has, in a great measure, proved only a +source of disorder, and given a bad name with people of +genius to educational art (although it is the highest of all +the high arts), its material, if you will forgive the verbal +ambiguity, being living spirit.</p> + +<p>Richard Wagner has said that "were it not for education, +all men would be geniuses, for they are endowed at birth +with the passionate pursuit of the new, needing only +liberty and opportunity for self-direction."</p> + +<p><i>Liberty and opportunity!</i> There could not be a better +description of Frœbel's principle and method of education.</p> + +<p>To give liberty and opportunity to the creative principle +of the child is just the work you have to do; but observe, +this is not to leave him to the caprices of an uneducated will. +There is neither <i>liberty</i> nor <i>opportunity in that</i>!</p> + +<p>"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," <i>moral</i> as well +as political; and before the child is old enough to appreciate +this, and <i>be vigilant for himself</i>, the educator must do so <i>for +him</i>, genially, but firmly intervening to secure to his mind +that <i>pause before action</i> on the moral, the artistic, and intellectual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +plane, that the Friends recognize to be necessary +before acting on the spiritual plane.</p> + +<p>The ways of caprice are multitudinous,—the way of life +is <i>one</i> for each individual, and is pointed out to the <i>pausing</i> +attentive mind by the Father, who speaks to us, within, forever; +but whose voice can only be heard when listened to +by <i>intention</i>; even on the intellectual plane, we do not let +the will go storming on, without the guidance of law, which +is the voice of the very present Creator heard in the silence +of <i>reflection</i> on perceived facts and truths.</p> + +<p>There is a right and a wrong way of doing everything,—<i>always</i>. +The right way will always produce a thing of use +or of beauty, whose reaction on the mind of the producer +<i>cultivates</i> his mind, or <i>grows the human understanding</i>; +but this right way is only to be discovered in that pause between +impulse and action which is the characteristic discrimination +of man from all other animals, and must be <i>secured +for the child</i> by the care of his educators—even when he is +only playing, or the play will tire instead of exhilarate.</p> + +<p>Hence it is not <i>enough</i>, though it is indispensable, to +guide children's activity while it is still irreflective to spontaneously +make forms of beauty and use with its playthings +and materials of occupation; but after they have made +something, you are to make them stop and look back (not +every time, but often), and <i>go over in thought</i>, and put into +words, what they have done, and lead them to observe all +the properties and relations of the thing that are obvious +to the childish sense; and when you have thus secured an +impression of the means by which order is attained, you +have given an experimental knowledge of there being a spiritual +order; that is, a world of individual laws and a law-giver +independent of human will and meant to lift it into the +divine. Those of you who are <i>Friends</i> will agree with me that +human beings can manifest no <i>spiritual</i> beauty or moral +power, except so far as they listen to the Shepherd of souls<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +in the holy pause of the hours of worship, a voice always suggesting +loving activity. And cannot you see, that no artistic +production, no intellectual work, is possible without listening, +in the pause of reflection for the word of the law of beauty +or use, that the Creator of the intellect gives? and which +makes art and science the worship of <span class="smcap">God</span> <i>with the mind</i>?</p> + +<p>The most important, the crowning work of the kindergartner, +is to secure to the child this moment of reflection +in the midst of his play and work on all planes of life; and +you do so by sympathetically playing with him and gently +guiding his unthinking, impulsive activity, and asking him +what he has done and is <i>going to do</i>, and not letting him do +anything till he seeks to do the symmetrical or, at least, the +useful thing. It is not every movement that will produce the +satisfactory result. It is thus that the child learns that there +is a greater mind than his own, or even than his teacher's +mind, present with him guiding the intellect, for artistic +principles flow into the mind from an Eternal source, <i>no +less</i> than do moral and spiritual principles. In short, the +true method of the intellect is the perpetual <i>gift</i> of a very +present <span class="smcap">God</span>, as much as the true method of the heart and +soul.</p> + +<p>Man, then, in the last analysis, is a creative being; and +the Frœbel education has for its final object, to give him the +dominion over everything in the earth; put all the cosmic +forces into his hands,—as well as to bring him into the +communion of love with his fellows; thus lifting his whole +nature to the height of sitting down with our Elder brother +on the throne, with the Universal Father.</p> + +<p>You should keep this great idea before you, and it will +enable you to <i>use the technique</i> that you have been learning, +with a certain freedom as well as fidelity, guiding these playful +exercises in such an order as you may find agreeable and +salutary for them; and to check caprice, you must insist +that, in these appointed times, they do the appointed things,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +<span class="smcap">or do nothing</span>, for they will generally conclude to do the +thing in hand, rather than <span class="smcap">do nothing</span> while all their companions +are doing their work; and when they are doing nothing, +they will have time for reflection, and to hear the inward +voice of law, with the opportunity voluntarily to accept it. +Thus does <span class="smcap">God</span> give to all his children "to have life in +themselves," and to bring out their whole likeness to Himself, +which proves that they are not his bond slaves,—like +the lower animals,—but <span class="smcap">sons</span>. If there are not in the universe +two leaves that are alike, still less are there two souls +that are alike. But leaves and souls, after all, are alike in +more than they are different. You can provide action for all +the instincts that children have in common, and create a common +consciousness to a certain extent, which is the <i>common +sense</i>; but what is peculiar to each, and makes the independent +individual, is his <i>own secret</i>, and you can only help +<span class="smcap">that</span> to flower and fruitage by giving him the conditions of +free, <i>independent action</i>, opening the inward eye and sharpening +the inward ear for communication with Him who alone +can adequately guide the will to the satisfaction of all the +sensibilities of the heart, and the powers of intellect, and all +the creative energies: but the religious and moral principles I +shall endeavor to <i>define</i> are <i>general</i>, not peculiar to, but inclusive +of, the kindergarten plan of education. To have these +principles clear and disengaged from the accidental associations +of the various denominations of the church, all of which +(and also with many of those outside of any visible church) +<i>unite in that faith in God</i>, and that <i>disinterested love of humanity</i>, +which was historically enacted on earth by Jesus +Christ, and <i>into</i> which every child born on the earth should +be brought before he is old enough to appreciate those <i>intellectual</i> +distinctions which make different <i>creeds</i>; because then +the kindergartner will be able to meet children on the high +plane of life where their <i>angels</i> (does not that mean their +spiritual instincts or ideals?) behold the face of the Father,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +and only then will the kindergartner practically enter into +Frœbel's method of <i>living with the children</i>, and communing +with their innocence.</p> + +<p>I see a great deal of this practical application in the kindergartens +kept by the well-trained kindergartners; and especially +when they are <i>mothers</i>, who unquestionably make the +best kindergartners (other things being equal), because it is +easier for mothers to <i>divine</i> the consciousness of their children. +In the opening hour of the kindergarten, when the +kindergartner interchanges the songs and hymns which the +children choose, or at least agree to, with real free conversation, +in which each child has a chance to tell what is uppermost +in his little mind, the very most important work of +the kindergartner is done. It has been my privilege to listen +to much of this in the kindergartens kept severally by the +mothers, who make the children feel that they are interested +in whatever they say, however apparently trivial is the subject, +and who answer genially, connecting it with something +else, and so organizing the reflective powers of the children, +that everything they think is seen to be a part of the process +of moral, religious, and even intellectual growth.</p> + +<p>The possibility of doing this will prove to any one who has +any heart and imagination that it is no mere poetic phrase, +but a profound spiritual truth, that "Heaven lies about us in +our infancy," that children do "come from <span class="smcap">God</span> who is their +home, trailing clouds of glory," and for a time</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"are still attended</span><br /> +By the vision splendid,"<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>although too often</div> + +<div class='poem'> +"The man beholds it die away,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And fade into the light of common day."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>Of course <i>all</i> the opening conversation need not be on the +moral and religious planes, but some of it should lead into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +explanations of nature and of the common life of this work-day +world, improving dexterity and common sense; but one +can hardly talk with children about anything, in a genuine +way, that does not bring out of them some religious or moral +expression. I think it is in connection with these conversations +to which the children furnish by their spontaneous confidences +the vital points, round which the thoughts of the +whole little company shall revolve, that the teacher can connect +her own story-telling.</p> + +<p>For such genuine conversation the necessary prerequisite +on the part of the teacher is a real faith in children's being +the <i>breath of God</i> in their Essence.</p> + +<p>Then she will not have any <i>will-work</i> of her own, but listen +to hear what the child is attending to, be it nothing but a bit +of string, which, of course, must have a certain length that +can be measured, and with which other things may be measured, +and which is made of material that has passed perhaps +through the hands of many manufacturers, and which in its +elements at least was a growth of nature, all whose works +bear witness to the being of <span class="smcap">God</span>; for <span class="smcap">God</span>'s throne may +be reached from the ground of childish play as certainly and +readily as from many a pulpit and cathedral, if not more so.</p> + +<p>A child whose affection for his companions and for the personages +of a story told by the kindergartner, and who sees +the connection of some little playful or other experience that +he tells as his story for the morning, is <i>engaged in a service +of God</i>, more vitally bearing on his growth in grace than any +mere repetition of prayers. A play bringing out little kindnesses, +sweet courtesies, gentle self-adjustments to his companions, +the asking and giving of forgiveness for little discourtesies +or grave wrong-doings, brings the child nearer <span class="smcap">God</span> +than any spoken words of worship can, the joy attending +such innocent sweetness being the proof of the vital union of +his soul with a very present <span class="smcap">God</span>.</p> + +<p>So the work of the good Samaritan, though he was doubtless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +<i>thinking</i> only of the <i>individual</i> he was comforting, and +not at all of God, was recognized by Christ as a <i>real act of +worship</i>; for it was the fulfilment of the second commandment +<i>like unto the first</i>.</p> + +<p>The time will come, I confidently believe, when all religionists +of whatever denomination will recognize that the +favorite doctrines and formalities which distinguish them +from each other are a mere superficial crust of that true spiritual +life which is to be lived when the grown-up shall all +become as little children, who feel that,</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"In their work and in their play,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">God is with them all the day."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>In speaking of the ceremonies of the Temple worship, +which Moses made symbolical of all the virtues of life, moral +and religious, but which in Paul's day had fallen into such a +<i>mere</i> ritual that this great Apostle said that the <i>Holy Ghost +was not bodily exercise</i>, but a hopeful, faithful <i>charity of +thought</i>, <i>feeling</i>, <i>and deed</i>; and this is what children can be +guided into from the beginning, provided the kindergartner +knows how to converse and play <i>with</i> them instead of talking +to them and coercing them <i>ever so kindly</i> into acting out <i>her</i> +will. The play of childhood is the most genuine and intense +life that is lived, body, heart, and will <i>conspiring</i> entirely; +and it is by respecting the child's <i>will</i> and <i>heart</i> that you +really help instead of <i>hindering</i> this unification of his threefold +nature, which corresponds to the Trinity of the Supreme +Being and prevents <i>that</i> from becoming a bewildering tritheism +in his conception.</p> + +<p>A child cannot be <i>just</i> unless he is <i>loving</i>, nor attain the +freedom of moral dignity unless he asserts himself; and there +is no way to nurture this self-respect except to express respect +to him, by being as courteous to him as you are to any +adult, always asking him to explain himself and his own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> +motives, when he seems to be in the wrong, before you condemn +him.</p> + +<p>I think I have gained some of the deepest insights I have +ever had into <i>Divine Truth</i>, by discovering what was the +motive thought of some child, who did what seemed inexplicable, +till he told me, or I had divined, his secret reason.</p> + +<p>It is not mothers alone who can charm out of children their +secret, as those know who have seen some maiden kindergartners +talk <i>with</i> their pupils in the opening exercises; but +those who are not mothers will always do well to observe +carefully those who are. On the other hand, mothers have +to guard themselves against exaggerating their own children's +natures <i>comparatively</i>. I have known some of the best +mothers in the world <i>do that</i>, so as to be practically of bad +influence over children not their own.</p> + +<p>Mothers who would be and can be the best kindergartners +should therefore none the less study Frœbel's science carefully +and humbly.</p> + +<p><i>All</i> children are alike in having the <i>threefold nature</i>. I +wish I had time to tell of a hundred kindergarten experiences +that have come under my observation, in which the respectful, +genial kindergartner has assisted in some moral development, +whose occasion was very trivial to the superficial +observer.</p> + +<p>Herein lies the importance of prefacing the school with the +kindergarten, that in it all the virtues and Christian graces +can be unconsciously practised on the plane of play, which +is the moral gymnasium of mankind.</p> + +<p>This is the meaning of Solomon's wise saying, "Train +up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he +will not depart from it." But the nature, which is the image +of the Divine Nature, cannot be <i>mechanically</i>, but must be +morally and spiritually, trained; that is, addressed and +treated as free agency.</p> + +<p>The salutation of the Brahmin to his youthful son, no less<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +than to his equal in age, is "to the divinity which is in you +I do homage." This is one of the gleams of light from the +lost Paradise in which man was created, and to which we +hope the kindergarten is to more than restore the race, when +it shall have become the universally applied principle of culture +for human beings. (See Appendix, <a href="#Note_F">Note F</a>.)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>GLIMPSES OF PSYCHOLOGY.</h2> + + +<h3>SPIRITUALITY.</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">We</span> speak of the necessity of studying childhood; we call +children living books of nature, and say that we cannot succeed +in educating them (which is putting them into a harmonious +activity of all their powers), without knowledge, +such as a musical performer has of his instrument, of these +"harps of a thousand strings."</p> + +<p>This fundamental knowledge of children is not chiefly a +discrimination of their individualities; though observation of +these will be made by a consummate kindergartner; it is a +knowledge of what is universal in children, essential to the +constitution of human beings.</p> + +<p>Frœbel never wrote out, in systematic form, the psychology +which underlies and gives the rational ground to all the +details of his method. But there are pregnant sentences in +all his writings, and in his sayings handed down by tradition, +which give such insights, that it can be divined with some +completeness.</p> + +<p>We propose to give such glimpses as occur to us from time +to time—not always in our own words, but as often as we +can in Frœbel's, and also in the words of other thinkers, +whose guesses at this kind of truth light up their writings on +many subjects.</p> + +<p>We must, in the first place, attend to one important fact; +there is, in the experience of childhood, somewhat pre-existent +to all impressions made by the universe, and consequently +to all operations of the understanding—perceiving, comparing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +judging—for these are intentional acts of the pre-existent +soul breathed into his body and bidden to "have +dominion."—<i>Genesis 1.</i></p> + +<p>What is this pre-existent soul, this mysterious depth of +personality?</p> + +<p>Washington Allston, in his posthumous lectures on Art, +has finely said: "Man does not live by science; he feels, +acts, and judges right in a thousand things, without the consciousness +of any rule by which he so feels, acts, and judges. +Happily for him, he has a surer guide than human science in +that <i>unknown power within him</i>, without which he had been +without any knowledge." Again, he speaks of "those intuitive +powers, which are above and beyond both the understanding +and the senses; which, nevertheless, are so far +from precluding knowledge, as, on the contrary, to require—as +their effective condition—the widest intimacy with +things external, without which their very existence must remain +unknown."</p> + +<p>He does not, however, merely assert this pre-existence of +the soul to the understanding, but speaks of the evidence of +it that we all can appreciate. "Suppose," he says, "we +analyze a certain combination of sounds and colors, so as to +ascertain the exact relative qualities of the one, and the collocation +of the other, and then compare them, what possible +resemblance can the understanding perceive between these +sounds and colors? And yet a something within us responds +to both—a <i>similar emotion</i>. And so it is with a +thousand things, nay, with myriads of objects, that have no +other affinity but with that mysterious harmony, which began +with our being, which slept with our infancy, and which their +presence only seems to have awakened. If we cannot go +back to our own childhood, we may see its illustration in +those about us who are now in that unsophisticated state. +Look at them in the fields, among the birds and flowers; +their happy faces speak the harmony within them; the divine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +instrument which these objects have touched, gives them a +joy, which perhaps only childhood, in its first fresh consciousness, +can know, yet what do children <i>understand</i> of the theory +of colors, or musical quantities?"</p> + +<p>That this mysterious power, this feeling soul, is the <i>human</i> +characteristic, is suggested in another paragraph of these +lectures. "What, for instance, can we suppose to be the +effect of the purple haze of a summer sunset on the cows or +sheep, or even on the more delicate inhabitants of the air? +From what we know of their habits, we cannot suppose more +than the mere physical enjoyment of its genial temperature? +But how is it with the man, whom we shall suppose an object +in the same scene, stretched on the same bank with the ruminating +cattle, and basking in the same light that flickers from +the skimming birds? Does he feel nothing more than the +genial warmth?"—Vol. I. p. 84.</p> + +<p>This feeling of beauty, this power which appreciates harmony, +this creative unity, in fine, this æsthetic soul, distinct +from and above the understanding (which certain philosophers +seem to think is all of man, over and above his body), +is not all of the soul,—but the moral and even merely social +sentiment has the same pre-existence. Allston bears witness +to this also. He says: "With respect to Truth and Goodness, +whose pre-existent ideas, being living constituents of an immortal +spirit, need but the slightest breath of some <i>outward +condition</i> of the true and good—a simple problem or a kind +act—to awaken them, as it were, from their unconscious +sleep.... We may venture to assert that no philosopher, +however ingenious, could communicate to a child the abstract +idea of Right, had the child nothing beyond or above the understanding. +He might, indeed, be taught, like inferior +animals,—a dog, for instance,—that if he took certain +forbidden things, he would be punished, and thus do right +through <i>fear</i>. Still he would desire the forbidden thing belonging +to another, nor could he conceive why he should not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +appropriate to himself—and thus allay his appetite—what +was another's, could he do so undetected; nor attain to any +higher notion of Right than that of the strongest. But the +child <i>has</i> something higher than the mere power of apprehending +consequences (external?). The simplest exposition, +whether of right or wrong, is instantly responded to by something +within him, which, thus awakened, becomes to him a +living voice, and the good and the true must thenceforth +answer its call. We do not say that these ideas of Beauty, +Truth, and Goodness will, strictly speaking, always act. +Though indestructible, they may be banished for a time by +the perverted Will, and mockeries of the brain, like the fume-born +phantoms from the witches' cauldron in Macbeth, may +take their places and assume their functions. We have examples +of this in every age, and perhaps in none more startling +than the present. But we mean only that they cannot +be (absolutely?) forgotten; nay, they are but too often recalled +with unwelcome distinctness....</p> + +<p>"From the dim present, then, we would appeal to that +fresher time, ere the young spirit had shrunk from the overbearing +pride of the (vitiated?) understanding, and confidently +ask, if the emotions we then felt from the Beautiful, +the True, and the Good, did not seem, in some way, to refer +to a common origin? And we would also ask, if it was frequent +that the influence from one was singly felt? if it did +not rather bring with it, however remotely, a sense of something—though +widely differing,—yet still akin to it? when +we have basked in the beauty of a summer sunset, was there +nothing in the sky, that spoke to the soul of Truth and Goodness? +And when the opening intellect first received the +truth of the great law of gravitation, and felt itself mounting +through the profound of space, to travel with the planets +in their unerring rounds,—did never then the kindred ideas +of Goodness and Beauty chime in, as it were, with the fabled +music (not fabled to the soul), which led you on as one entranced?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> +And again, when, in the passive quiet of your +moral nature, so predisposed, in youth, to all things genial, +you have looked around on this marvellous, ever-teeming +earth, ever teeming alike for mind and body, and have felt +upon you the flow, as from ten thousand streams of innocent +enjoyment, did you not then almost hear them shout in confluence, +and almost see them gushing upwards, as if they +would prove their <i>unity</i> in one harmonious fountain?"</p> + +<p>It is of the last consequence that the kindergartner should +take into her mind that this æsthetic soul exists in children +as a primary fact; for, unless she believes in it, she will not +respect it, and take advantage of it in what she does for them. +It is to be respected and brought out into the understanding +of children, by means of the beautiful things which she leads +them to do and make, and with which she surrounds them; +for, as Allston says, this consciousness "requires as its effective +condition, the widest intimacy with things external." +When children are continually in squalid surroundings, these +seem at length to strike in and paralyze the spontaneous action +of the æsthetic being, who is pre-existent to consciousness +of the power which compares and judges and makes up +a theory of colors. And, as has been shown, this feeling of +beauty, this power of appreciating harmony and unity, this +æsthetic nature, distinct from and above the understanding, +which some people idly think to be all of man beside his +body, is not all of the soul, for the moral sentiment has the +same pre-existence.</p> + +<p>We have brought together these paragraphs taken from +Allston's lectures on Art, for the consideration of practical +kindergartners, all the more confidently, because they were +not written as theory of education, but were parts of a practical +inquiry after the standard of judgment for pictorial and +plastic artists and the spectator of their works. He sought +to deliver them from the benumbing effect of inadequate +science,—for science must always be inadequate, as Newton<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> +so forcibly expressed, when he defined it "gathering a few +pebbles on the shores of the infinite ocean of truth." The +object of the lecturer was what the kindergartner's first object +should be,—to awaken the self-respect of the eternal +soul within us all, making the life of our individuality—our +personality—which, in its mysterious depth and independent +pre-existence to the finite understanding, is the image +of the Divine Personality, whose spoken word is the material +universe, but clothed in flesh becomes <span class="smcap">man</span>. It is no part +of the kindergartner's duty to give—she can only awaken—the +feelings of harmony, beauty, unity, and conscience. +She is to present the right order of proceeding, in all that +the child shall do, thereby assisting him to form his own +understanding so that his bodily organization may be properly +developed; to let in upon his soul <i>nature</i> in its beauteous +forms and order, and his fellow-creatures, in their legitimate +claims upon him. Then he shall come forth from the +sleep of unconscious infancy, into a progressive consciousness +of all his relations, with the blessings and duties that +belong to them. This forming of the understanding, this +marrying of finite thought to infinite love, is Frœbel's Education; +and cannot be accomplished, unless the kindergartner +clearly sees what God has done for the child absolutely, +and what for an ineffable purpose,—most gracious +to the human race,—He has left to be done by human providence, +whether of the mother or kindergartner, or some +other fellow-creature.</p> + +<p>It makes a heaven-wide difference whether the soul of a +child is regarded as a piece of blank paper to be written upon, +or as a living power, to be quickened by sympathy, to be +educated by truth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>UNDERSTANDING.</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">We</span> have spoken of the evidences of the æsthetic being +found in the mysterious depths of human personality, pre-existent +to the individual understanding (which is a growth +in time); and that, without there were this æsthetic being, +underlying all <i>individual</i> consciousness, there would be no +standard of human virtue or art.</p> + +<p>This æsthetic person has also (previous to the development +of the understanding, which makes the synthesis of +himself and nature) an impulsive force, instinct with the +desire to change his conditions. Man does not appear in the +world merely as sensibility to enjoyment and suffering; but +as veritable force, as well, whose action must produce an +effect either orderly or disorderly.</p> + +<p>The material universe is composed of forces, limiting in a +measure personal force. All material forces are uniform and +necessary and correlative in their action, which is impressed +upon them from without themselves. Man alone is self-active, +and may clash with the other forces to his own pain, +and he will often do so, until by knowledge of them he can +harmonize with them, and make them his own instrumentality +to satisfy his æsthetic nature. We call this self-activity +of man, which is in such vital union with his sensibility, +the human will, and it makes the personal life of every one +to learn this self-activity of his, in its differences from and +relations to all other forces, as he can only do perfectly by +keeping in intellectual and sympathetic social relation with +other æsthetic persons. In every individual case, he finds +himself in these relations with fellow-beings who have more +or less of the knowledge he has not; and some of them have +all the responsibility of his actions until he has begun to +know himself in discrimination from the material universe +and its fixed relations and laws, which serve as a fulcrum +for his own effective action among them. The one central<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> +unity whose æsthetic being and will are inclusive of himself +and fellow-beings as subject, on the one hand, and of the +material universe as object, on the other, is God.</p> + +<p>The absoluteness of man as a force, is no less certain because +he is finite and not omnipotent. God is the omnipotent +maker of the material universe, but man is not absolutely +made; he is a cause, that is, <i>created to make</i>, if we may +credit the ancient prophet, whose hymn of creation is the +most wonderful expression of human genius, unless it be +surpassed by the proem of St. John's Gospel, which is a +correspondent poem, with God for its theme instead of man +and nature.</p> + +<p>It was not till the embryo man had become, in one instance +at least, the fully developed man, that this hymn of the Creator +was possible. God's word (revelation of himself) was +in the world, embodied in the things made from the beginning; +but until it was embodied in a man, free to will, it was +truth in the form of law only (<i>regulative</i>), not yet in the +completer form of love (<i>creative</i>). In short, before St. John +could sing that divine song, he must have seen God in a man, +full of grace and truth, dwelling among men as a fellow-man, +and overflowing with a power at once sympathetic and +causal.</p> + +<p>God created man, male and female (that is, giving and +receiving equally), to be keepers of each other, and to educate +each other. They may tempt and fail each other by +presumption as Eve, and want of self-respect as Adam, are +represented to have done, at the beginning; or may save +and redeem one another, as the cherished son of Mary historically +did in a measure, and is doing forevermore, by inspiring +all who know him, to educate and redeem each other.</p> + +<p>In coming into relation with infant man, to educate him, it +is indispensable to appreciate his freedom of willing, which +is a primeval fact, as much as his susceptibility of suffering +and enjoyment. The educator ought to embody God in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> +measure, and treat the will of the child that is to be educated, +on the same grand system of respecting individual +freedom, as must needs flow from Infinite love. Let him +clothe law in love, and instead of rousing fear of opposition, +awaken the hope of becoming a beauty-creating and man-blessing +power.</p> + +<p>This is the <i>rationale</i> of Frœbel's method of government. +He assumes that the child is—not to be made by education +a sensibility, but—an infinite sensibility already, and to be +vivified into individual consciousness thereof, by the knowledge +of nature to which you are to give him the clue;—not +to be made by your government of him, a power of creating +effects, but already an immeasurable power of creating effects +(that is, causal)—which you are to make him feel responsible +for, by helping him to get experimental knowledge +of the laws that obtain in God's creation.</p> + +<p>For it is knowledge of laws that is the first thing attainable—not +knowledge of objects. A child's senses are the +avenues of the knowledge of objects; his self-activity is the +avenue of the knowledge of laws. He must have experimental +knowledge of laws before he can begin to have +knowledge of objects, because his impulsive activity is the +means of developing his organs of sense, by which he becomes +capable of receiving impressions from objects of +nature; and his own effective action produces the objects +outside of his organs which first command his interested +attention, and rouse his powers of analysis, or by which his +powers of analysis are roused through your educating intervention.</p> + +<p>It is the maternal nursing of body and mind which educates +the free force within to produce transient effects, and +finally objects, agreeable to the sensibility. Even before +the will is educated to causality, it exerts itself, because exertion +is agreeable to human sensibility; but when left uneducated, +the will brings about effects that prove disagreeable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> +ultimately, if not immediately, to the æsthetic being, paralyzing +it more or less, if the organization be feeble; and perverting +it when it is strong; in either case, whether crushing +or exasperating it, producing selfishness, the germ of all +evil.</p> + +<p>Thus evil begins in the social sphere, in the disorderly +action or in the neglect of those who have in charge the +æsthetic free force of the child, compelling it to revolve on +its own axis in a vain endeavor to obtain the satisfaction of +its æsthetic nature, which it ought to obtain through the +generous cherishing action of others' love, carrying it round +the central sun in human companionship. The soul instinctively +expects love, and to do so, and to act out love intentionally, +is its salvation, its eternal life. There is no signature +of immortality so sure as the immeasurable craving for +love on the one hand, and the immeasurable impulse to love +on the other hand, which characterizes man; for the satisfaction +of the craving is no greater joy than the satisfaction +of loving.</p> + +<p>It is because death <i>seems</i> the cessation of relation with our +kind, that it is the king of terrors. When the disease or +decay of the body curtails relations and makes us solitary, +or incapable of enjoying relations, death is not dreaded, but +craved as relief. To whomever it seems the beginning of +wider relations, it is hailed as the revealing angel of God. +Isolation is the horror of horrors. It was one of the primal +intuitions that "it is not good for man to be alone." The +nurse should remember this, and not leave the baby to feel +lonely. Every mother and real nurse knows that when the +baby begins to be uneasy and gives a cry of dissatisfaction,—to +come near with a smile, to make one's presence felt by +a caressing tone, or to take the infant in their arms, will +comfort it, bringing back the joyful sense of life—a word +which signifies active relation;—and, in its highest sense, +spiritual relation. <i>Life</i>, <i>love</i>, and <i>liberty</i> are identical words<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> +in their radical elements. There is no love without liberty, +nor fulness of life without love.</p> + +<p>The liberty of man, or his freedom to will, though it gives +him the power to dash himself against antagonizing law, is +the proof of infinite love to man in the Creator,—a love +which must needs outmeasure all the evil he can do himself +or others; for evil provokes others' love for our victims, and +is self-limited, by reason of the pain it brings, sooner or +later, on him who does it, and the desire for infinite love +which it defines and stimulates.</p> + +<p>Man and nature are the contrasts which God connects and +harmonizes. He presents nature to the mind as immutable +law, but before the understanding is formed to apprehend +law, He emparadises the child in the love of the mother. +In short, the human race embodies love to the soul, before +the universe (which embodies law) is yet apprehended. The +heart that apprehends love, is older than the mind which +apprehends law; and it is because it is so, that man <i>feels +free</i>. When man becomes mere law to man, instead of +love, he feels he is enslaved.</p> + +<p>These are the most practical truths for the kindergartner. +If these propositions are truths (and their evidence is the +explanation they give of the mysteries of sin and redemption, +both of which are unquestionable facts of human history, +according to the testimony of all nations), then let her see to +it, that in her relation with the children of her charge, she +never so presents the law, as to obscure the love, which it is +the primal duty of men to embody and manifest to each +other.</p> + +<p>But, on the other hand, do not keep back the law; for +the law, too, is one expression of the Creator's being. What +is law? It is the order of the beauteous forms of things, +which, when appreciated as God's order, becomes a stepping +stone to his throne. For God proposes to share his throne +with us, if we may trust another primeval intuition of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> +human mind, viz., that God commands man, male and +female, that is, men in equal social relation, to "have +dominion" over all creation, below man.</p> + +<p>The human being not only craves liberty and love instinctively, +but law also; he "feels the weight of chance +desires," and "longs for a repose that ever is the same." +This is the <i>rationale</i> of Frœbel's method in the occupations; +he suggests the child's action, sometimes by interrogation +merely, instead of directing it peremptorily. He asks the +child, when he has done one thing, what is the opposite? +which itself suggests the combination of opposites, that immediately +produces a symmetrical effect. The child enjoys +the symmetry all the more, if he feels as if he personally +produced it. This is the secret of his love of repetition. +He wants to see if by the same means he can again produce +the same effect. He does the thing again and again, till he +feels that he does it all of himself. He does not want you +to help him even with your words (and you never should +help him <i>except</i> with words). If a child acts from a suggestion, +he feels free,—but if he produces the same effect, or a +similar effect, without your suggestion, he has a still more +self-respecting sense of power; and his will becomes more +consciously free the more he chooses to put on the harness +of order.</p> + +<p>The kindergartner will sometimes have a child put under +her care whose will has been exasperated by arbitrary and +capricious treatment, or who has been made to act against +his inclination till he has reacted, out of pure <i>contrariness</i>, +as we say. This contrariness proves that he has been outraged; +perhaps in some instances the effect has been produced +by not feeding his mind with knowledge of law. The +very violence of the evil may show that he is an exceptionally +fine child, with an enormous sense of power that he +does not know what to do with because the proper educational +influence has failed him. In other cases obstinacy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +may be a reaction against the vicious will of another, who, +instead of offering him the bread of law, has presented to +him the stone of his own stumbling. It is indispensable to +give the child law, as well as love; but when you are doubtful +whether you can genially suggest the law,—at all events +express the love; and never substitute for the law your own +will. The law which produces a good or beautiful effect, is +God's will; your will is not creative of the child's will like +God's; its best effect is to stimulate the antagonism of the +child's, when the latter is feeble, which it sometimes is by +reason of physical mal-organization, or by having been +crushed by overbearing management, or vitiated by selfish +caprice.</p> + +<p>I may be told that if Frœbel's education is wholly of a +genial, coaxing character, it fails of being an image of the +Divine Providence, which is an alternation of attractions and +antagonisms, speaking now in the music of nature, and now +in thunders and lightnings, not only cherishing the heart +with love, but stimulating the will with law; and be warned +not to enervate the character, by producing an æsthetic +luxury of sentiment, by which the personal being shall stagnate +in the worst kind of selfishness—the passive kind. +This objection might be pertinent, if the kindergarten were +to be protracted beyond the era to which Frœbel limits it. +Certainly the time comes, when the finite will should be +antagonized, if need be, by the law of universal humanity. +The purest, most loving, most disinterested will known to +human history, recognized that there might be a <i>wiser</i> will, +not to be doubted as still more loving; and said, "Not my +will, but Thine be done,"—"Into Thy hands I commend +my spirit" (my free causal power). But let the kindergartner +remember she is not infinitely wise and good, and +beware of enacting the sovereign judge. There is no doubt +that an exclusively cherishing tenderness should be the law +of the nursery, with no antagonism whatever, because at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +that age it is a wise self-assertion which we wish to develop. +We therefore act <i>for</i> the infant, having secured his acting +<i>with</i> us by our genial encouragement. But this is no argument +for continuing to act for him, when he can act with +consciousness of an individual life. We must not prolong +babyhood into the kindergarten; or, at least, we must begin +to engraft personal consciousness upon it, by <i>playing</i> little +antagonisms merely. And so, it is no argument against the +play of kindergarten that it does mature men. Let the +children play with complete earnestness, but, as Plato says, +"according to laws," and they will all the more likely seek +laws when they come into wider relations.</p> + +<p>The development of the consciousness of man is serial. +In the nursery we coax the child to exercise the various +muscles by playfully duplicating their action; we make him +<i>make believe</i> walk, impressing his senses, as it were, with the +whole operation as an object. The child first experiences +the pleasure of movement, then desires to move for the sake +of renewing this pleasure; then enjoys your helping him to +do what he has not yet the bodily strength and skill to accomplish; +and finally wills to take up his body and make his +first independent step. This is the first crisis in the history +of his individuality, and every mother knows it is the cheer +of her magnetizing faith that enables him to pass through it. +He then repeats the action intentionally, simply because he +can; enjoying the exertion he makes all the more if, by your +care, he has not begun to walk too soon and experienced the +pain of numerous falls, from want of guardian arms and +supporting hands. Such pains disturb and haunt his fancy, +and dishearten him. Courage and serene joy give strength +and enterprise to activity.</p> + +<p>The nursery and kindergarten education are the preliminary +processes which foreshadow all the processes of the +Divine Providence. Therefore, even in the nursery we <i>play</i> +antagonizing processes. We heighten the child's enjoyment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +by making him conscious of isolation a moment, to restore, +as it were, with a shout, the delightful sense of relation; for +the baby likes to have a handkerchief thrown over his head +unexpectedly, and suddenly withdrawn again and again. So +we sometimes pretend to let him fall, and just when he is +about to cry with alarm, catch him again and kiss him.</p> + +<p>Frœbel in his nursery plays has several of this nature; and +as children grow older they play antagonisms spontaneously, +which are beneficial just so far as they elicit the consciousness +of individual power; but are harmful if, proceeding too +far, they show its limitations painfully, and make the child +feel himself a victim.</p> + +<p>In the kindergarten season various sensibilities are manifest +that have not shown themselves in the nursery, and +which are premonitions of the destined dominion over material +nature, which at first so much dominates the child, and +would destroy his body if you did not intervene with your +loving care. These are to be mothered in the kindergartner's +heart till they become conscious desires, informing +and directing his will, which is encouraged and strengthened—if +it is never superseded by your will—until he shall +begin to realize his personal responsibility. Then, as he +took his body into his own keeping when he began to run +alone, so now he will take his character into his own hands +to educate, and he will do it all the more certainly and energetically, +if he feels you to be an all-helping, all-cherishing, +all-inspiring friend, which you must needs be if you are open +to feel and wise to know God's love to you, in making you +His vicegerent to give glimpses, at least, of the immeasurable +love of God, in giving the inexorable laws of nature, for the +fulcrum of the power that He pours into His children in the +form of will; and which obeys Him just in proportion as it +keeps its freedom to alter and alter and alter, till there is no +longer any evil to be conscious of, and men shall have got +the dominion over nature, which consists in using it for all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> +generous purposes, in a universal mutual understanding with +one another. To be in the progressive attainment of this +high destiny, is the growing happiness of man; a happiness +which must ever have in it that element of <i>victory</i>, which +distinguishes the eternal life of Christ from the nirwana of +Buddha.</p> + + +<h3>MORAL SENTIMENT.</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">We</span> have been asked by one of the students of Frœbel's +art and science, what books we should recommend to help +her to a fuller knowledge of the subjects on which we gave a +few hints in our first and second paper of <i>Glimpses</i>.</p> + +<p>In reply, we would first say, that it is a needed preparation +for any study of books on intellectual and moral philosophy, +to look back on our own moral history and mental +experience, and ask ourselves what was the process of our +moral growth, and the circumstances of the formation of our +opinions; that is, what action of our relatives, guardians, +and companions, had the best—and what the worst—practical +effects upon our characters; what aided and what hindered +us? Every fault in our characters has its history, +having generally originated in the action of others upon us; +sometimes their intentional action, which may have been +merely mistaken, or may have been wilfully selfish and malignant; +and sometimes an influence unconsciously exerted. +On the other hand, much of our life that has blest ourselves +and others, can be referred to spontaneous manifestations of +others, having no special reference to ourselves; generous +sentiments uttered in felicitous words, generous acts recorded +in history, or done in the privacy of domestic life; +great truths bodied forth in imaginative poetry, over which +our young hearts mused till the fire burned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span></p> + +<p>This empirical knowledge of the great nature which we +share, is a living nucleus that will give vital meaning to any +true words with which scientific treatises on the mind are +written; and a power to judge whether the writer is talking +about facts of life, or mere abstractions, out of which have +died all spiritual substance, leaving only "a heap of empty +boxes." In no department of study are we more liable to +take words for things than in this. Abstraction is the source +of all the false philosophy and theology which has distracted +the world. Generalizations are of no aid—but a delusion +and a snare—unless the mental and moral phenomena, from +which they are derived, have been the writer's experiences, +personal or sympathetic. Such experiences are as substantial +as material things, to say the least; and even they do +not do justice to the whole truth, which is—if we may so +express it—the vital experience of God. Hence is the +Living Word to which human abstractions can never do +justice; being, indeed, but the refuse of thought, "a weight +to be laid aside" and forgotten, like a work done, as we +stretch forward to the prize of truth, which is our "high +calling."</p> + +<p>In Book II. chapter vii. of Campbell's <i>Philosophy of Rhetoric</i>, +there is a section headed, "Why is it that nonsense so +often escapes being detected, both by the writer and reader?" +It explains with great perspicuity the uses and abuses of +our faculty of abstraction, which is not a spiritual, but merely +an intellectual faculty. I would commend this essay (and +indeed, for several reasons, the whole book) to a student of +intellectual philosophy. A great deal may be learned upon +this subject, also, from an Essay on Language, printed a +second time with some other papers, by Phillips & Sampson, +Boston, in 1857, and probably still to be found in old bookstores, +if it be not reprinted by its author, R. L. Hazard.</p> + +<p>On the subject of my second paper of <i>Glimpses</i> the +same author has written two books, one published by D.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> +Appleton, in New York, in 1864, <i>The Freedom of the +Mind in Willing; or, Every Being that wills, a Creative First +Cause</i>; and in 1869, Lee & Shepard, Boston, published, as +supplement, <i>Two Letters on Causation and Freedom in Willing, +addressed to John Stuart Mill, with an Appendix on the +Existence of Matter, and our Notions of Infinite Space</i>.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + + +<h3>INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM TO WILL.</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">If</span> the spontaneous will of man, and its heart with its latent +love, hope, and sense of beauty and justice, are without date,</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">"An eye among the blind,</span><br /> +That deaf and silent reads the eternal deep,<br /> +Haunted forever by the eternal mind,"<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>yet there is no doubt that the human understanding, as well +as the body, begins in time, and gradually identifies the individual +for communication with other individuals of its +kind. The beginning of the human understanding is in the +impressions of an environing universe, against which the +sensibility reacts, and by this activity develops the organs +of sense, which are the connection of those two great contrasts,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> +the soul and the outward universe. For perceptions +of sense are the instrumentality by which the will vivifies +the heart, so disposing the particulars of the surrounding +universe as to give the definite form of <i>thoughts</i> to consciousness. +The human being has no absolute knowledge like the +lower animals, who are passive instrumentality of God to +certain finite ends below the plane of spirituality. Created +for the infinite ends of intelligence, and free communion with +one another and God, men need to become conscious of the +whole process of their own being, and do so by a gradual +conversation with God, who is forever saying, by the universe, +which is his speech, <span class="smcap">I am</span>. And here education begins +its offices, by helping man to reply <span class="smcap">Thou art</span>, which he does +by his legitimate art. But no one man can utter the <i>thou art</i> +of humanity adequately. It takes all humanity forever and +ever to do so; and it does not do so but just so far as the +men who compose it are in mutual understanding and communion +with each other. Therefore each child must be +taken by the hand by those already conscious, and led to +realize his own consciousness by learning that of his fellows.</div> + +<p>In the action and reaction of the individual with his special +environment, he comes to distinguish himself from that which +gives him pleasure and pain, and he will be attracted to the +former, and repelled from the latter; and thus come to discriminate +outward things from each other. The observation +and discrimination of the particulars of nature is <i>thinking</i>. +Sensuous impressions are the raw material of thoughts, but +discrimination and classification of things according to their +similarities, is the <i>operation</i> of thought.</p> + +<p>Education has an office in both the accumulation of sensuous +impressions and the operation of thinking. The mother +and nurse of each child must so order the objects about +him, that his organs shall be properly impressed, and not +overtaxed, because only so can they grow to be a good instrumentality +for receiving even more delicate impressions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> +A tender sympathy for the unconscious little one, who is +gradually coming to identify himself, and love,—such as +only a mother can have in the greatest perfection,—are the +special qualifications of the educator at this stage. Such a +knowledge of nature's laws and order, as may enable the +educator to lead the child's activity according to law and +order, can alone help the child to reproduce, on his finite +plane, an image of God's creative action. The educator +who should succeed the nurse is the kindergartner, who, +without lacking the sympathetic affection of the nurse, must +add a knowledge of nature both material and spiritual, so +that she may bring these opposites into their right connection +with each other.</p> + +<p>She will therefore lead the child to <i>produce</i> something that +shall serve as a ground for the operation of thinking. Instead +of letting the blind will spend its energy in wild and +aimless motion, she will present a desirable aim to attain, +which will produce an effect that shall satisfy the heart, and +produce an object that shall engage the attention, and stimulate +to a reproduction of it, until it is thoroughly known, not +only in its natural properties, but in the law of its being, +which was the child's own method of producing the thing.</p> + +<p>The genesis of the understanding, then, is, first, sensuous +impression, which, reproducing itself intentionally, becomes, +secondly, perception; and, thirdly, an adapting of means to +ends, and thereby rising into judgment and knowledge. To +get understanding precedes getting knowledge, which is the +special work of the understanding when it is developed.</p> + +<p>There is another faculty of the individual, besides understanding, +and which is to be discriminated from it—fancy. +Vivid and clear sensuous impressions are the foundation of +fancy, as well as of understanding. But the will, acting +among these impressions in a wild and sovereign way, is +fancy; while the will arranging impressions according to the +order of nature, is understanding. Frœbel has provided for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +the development of the understanding the occupations, as he +calls the regular <i>production</i> of forms, transient and permanent. +Nothing can be produced which satisfies the æsthetic +sense, except by following the laws of creation. To analyze +these productions will give experimental understanding of +those laws. In superintending the occupations, the kindergartner +must, therefore, see that the child does things in the +right order, and gives an account of what he does in the right +words; for words, the first works of human art, have a great +deal to do with the development of the understanding, lifting +man into a sphere above that of the mere animal. After a +thing is made, or an effect produced and named, it must be +made a subject for analysis; and it can easily be made so, +because children's attention is easily conciliated to what they +themselves have done or produced. Putting their own action +into a thing, makes it interesting to them; and they can +make an exhaustive analysis of it, <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'beuause'">because</ins>, in addition to its +appearances, they know the law of its being, which was their +own method, and the cause of its being, which was their own +<i>motive</i>. From analyzing their own works, children can, in +due time, be led to analyze works of nature. And here the +kindergartner has great room for the exercise of judgment, +in the selection of suitable objects.</p> + +<p>Frœbel advised that objects for lessons should be taken +from the vegetable creation; and that children should be +interested in planting seeds and watching growth, becoming +acquainted with its general conditions, observing which are +within the scope of their own powers to provide, and which +are beyond human power; thus leading the understanding +through nature, outward and inward, to God.</p> + +<p>If we see that the work done is artistic, and that the objects +of nature analyzed are beautiful, this culture of the +understanding may refine and elevate the taste, and beautify +the fancy.</p> + +<p>For the fancy is to be carefully cherished by the kindergartner.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +It is not amenable to direct influence perhaps, but +not beyond an indirect influence. The soundness of the +understanding is conducive to a beautiful play of fancy, +which is a peculiarly human faculty; for we have not a particle +of evidence that any animal below man has this kind of +thinking, which delights in transcending the facts of nature +in its creations, and sometimes sets the laws of nature at +defiance. But we must defer to another paper the many +things we have to say in regard to the imagination and its +culture.</p> + + +<h3>CONSCIENCE.</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">We</span> have given a few hints by way of answering the questions +on psychology, which must come up, to be considered +by a kindergartner who is intent on understanding the "harp +of a thousand strings," from which it is her duty to bring +out the music.</p> + +<p>We have found that the human being comes into the world +with an æsthetic nature, which is to be vivified by the presentation +of the beauties of nature and art, in such a way +as to insure reaction of the will in creations of fancy; for +only so can sensibility to beauty be prevented from degenerating +into sensuality. If the fancy remains wholly subjective, +it loses its childish health and leads astray. It should +have objective embodiment in song, dance, and artistic manipulation +of some sort. Now, artistic manipulation of any +kind necessitates the examination of natural elements and +the discovery of the laws of production, which are, of course, +identical with the organic laws of nature that bear witness +to an intelligent Creator.</p> + +<p>To excite the human understanding to appreciate names, +and classify things for <i>use</i> and giving pleasure, it is necessary +to present things to children gradually, first singly, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> +then in simple rhythmical combinations, so that they may +have time to find themselves personally, and not be overwhelmed +with a multitude of impressions. A real lover of +children will quickly find out that they like to take time +"playing with things," as they call it; and that there is a +special pleasure in discovering differences in things; that a +new distinct perception of any relation of things delights the +child, as the discovery of a principle delights the adult mind. +The fanciful plays of the kindergarten, whether sedentary or +moving, cultivate the imagination, the understanding, and +the physical powers in harmony, and more than this, they +cultivate the heart and conscience, because the moving plays +have for their indispensable condition numbers of their equals, +and everything they make is intended for others. The presentation +of persons, as having the same needs and desires +of enjoyment as themselves, proves sufficient to call into +consciousness the heart and conscience, just as immediately +and inevitably as the presentation of nature and art calls +into activity the understanding and imagination.</p> + +<p>Because nature and human kind are so <i>vast</i> that, as a whole +they daunt the young mind, even to the point of checking its +growth, it is necessary that some one, who has had time to +analyze it in some degree, should call attention to points; +and it is the consummate art of education to know what +points to touch, so that the mind shall make out the octave; +for, unless it does so, it will not act to purpose. As +exercise of the limbs is necessary to physical development, +and the act of perceiving, understanding, and fancying, with +actual manipulation of nature, is necessary to intellectual +development; so is kindness and justice acted out, to the +development of the social and moral nature or conscience.</p> + +<p>But there is something else in man than relations to external +nature and fellow-man. This self-determining being, +who moves, perceives, understands, fancies, loves, and feels +moral responsibility to the race in which he finds himself a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> +living member, is only consciously happy when he is magnanimous, +which he can only be, if he feels himself a free +power in the bosom of infinite love; in short, a son of the +Father of all men! "We are the offspring of God" is the +inspiration alike of heathen poet and Christian apostle.</p> + +<p>As the psychological condition of the human love which +is man's social happiness, is that sense of individual want +and imperfection which stimulates the will to seek the mother +and brother; so the psychological condition of the piety +which makes man's beatitude, is the sense of social imperfection, +in respect both to moral purity and happiness, stimulating +the will to seek a Father of all spirits. The more we +love, the more we feel the need of God. But is God nothing +but "an infinite sigh at the bottom of the heart," as Feuerbach, +the holiest of infidels, sadly says? or, as in thinking, +we discover the entity we name I; so in loving, do we not +discover God, or rather does not God reveal Himself to us, +as Essential Substance? Wordsworth declares that</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Serene will be our days and bright,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And happy will our nature be,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">When love is an unerring light,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And joy its own security;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And blest are they, who in the main,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">This faith even now do entertain,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Live in the spirit of this creed,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Yet find <i>another strength</i> according to their need."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>"That other strength" is to be found, as he had already +sung in that same great song, in Duty—"daughter of the +voice of God,"</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">"Victory and Law</span><br /> +When empty terrors overawe;<br /> +From vain temptations doth set free,<br /> +And calms the weary strife of frail humanity!"<br /> +</div> + +<p>Conscience, then, is the soul's witness, first of the relation +of the individual to the human race; and ultimately, of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> +relation of the human race to God; and it must be inspired +with knowledge of the sonship of the human race to the +Universal Father, or human life is bottomless despair. But +with that knowledge which God must give (since man cannot +reach it with his own understanding) he shall be able, +even on the cross, to love the most ignorant brother infinitely; +and infinitely to trust that the Father of all will justify +his spirit in acting accordingly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX"></a>APPENDIX.</h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap"><a name="Note_A" id="Note_A"></a>Note A, to <a href="#LECTURE_I">Lecture I</a>.</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> 1872 the first training school for kindergartners was +founded in England by the Manchester Kindergarten Assoc.</p> + +<p>To the prospectus is subjoined the following statement:—</p> + +<p>The aim of the kindergarten system of training, intended +for young children up to the age of seven, when school-teaching +<i>proper</i> should begin, is to prepare for all subsequent +education. A short examination of the system will show +that it is in idea far superior to any other method of early +training, while experience proves that its pupils acquit themselves +well even under plans most dissimilar. The theory of +the kindergarten is that every exertion of the faculties, +whether of body or mind, will be healthful and pleasurable, +so long as such exertion takes place without compulsion, +without appeal to selfish motives, with no more than necessary +restraint. The experience of parents and teachers may +be appealed to as proving that children enjoy their employments +most, and learn best, when associated in numbers.</p> + +<p>The kindergarten, therefore, gathers children together in +numbers, which vary with class and other circumstances, +and proceeds to exercise, on a plan most carefully reasoned +out, all limbs and muscles of the body by marching, gymnastics, +and regulated games; to practise all the senses, and +tastes that depend directly upon the senses, by drawing, +singing, modelling in clay, and many most beautiful "occupations," +which in addition arouse invention—one of the +highest human faculties. The intellectual powers, being in +a rudimentary condition, are less directly called into action;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +but the faculties of number and form, along with skill of +hand, are so developed that the learning of "the three R's" +becomes incredibly easy. Above all, good feeling is exercised +and evil feeling checked, by happy social life, in which +the tender plants of the kindergarten see that each one's +happiness depends upon all, and that of all on each.</p> + +<p>Sedulous attention is paid to the effect of each employment +upon children of different temperaments. Sanitary conditions +are most carefully observed, and unflagging interest is +secured by frequent changes of occupation.</p> + +<p>Wherever the kindergarten has been fairly tried, its results +have been lively enjoyment by the little pupils of their +"school" hours, and readiness to receive not as drudgery, +but with delight, all opportunities of acquiring knowledge. +This readiness, it is believed, would less often change into +a hatred of lessons, if the subsequent school-teaching did +not too commonly despise those indications of natural taste +and fitness which Frœbel, in his system, has carefully interpreted +and obeyed. The kindergartens for the poor, already +established at Queen Street, Salford, and in the Workpeople's +Hall, Pendleton,—where visitors are at all times most +heartily welcomed,—will convince any one that this system +is able to give a truly humanizing and religious training to +children of the least favored class, gathered in large numbers +even out of very neglected homes. By inspecting +these schools also, intelligent persons will form an idea of +the ingenuity and beauty of the processes by which this +natural and simple training is effected. Thus too will be +understood, that the kindergarten system, which in relation +to its pupils is the simplest and easiest possible because it +travels along, not athwart, their natural tastes, is, as respects +its professors, very far removed indeed from every-day +facility and <i>rule of thumb</i>. It demands in those who aspire +to teach, a sincere love of children and an earnest devotion +to duties which bring much pleasure when well performed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +and it demands besides that they be willing to give up +sufficient time and labor to become thoroughly instructed in +the principles, and sufficiently practised in the use, of a +machinery which, while beautifully simple in idea, is complicated +in detail. A great and increasing demand for +teachers thoroughly trained in this system exists, as well +for families as for kindergarten schools proper, and for +infant schools commonly so called. To supply this demand +is the purpose of the training school.</p> + + +<div class='center'><span class="smcap"><a name="Note_B" id="Note_B"></a>Note B, to <a href="#Page_81">Page 81</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Letter from Michelet to the Baroness Marenholtz von Bülow.</i></div> + +<div class='right'><br /> +<span class="smcap">March 27, 1859.</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>By a stroke of genius Frœbel has found what the wise +men of all times have sought in vain,—the solution of the +problem of human education. And again: Your first +explanation made it clear to me that Frœbel has laid the +necessary basis for a new education for the present and +future. Frœbel looks at human beings in a new light, and +finds the means to develop them according to natural laws, +as heretofore has never been done. I am your most faithful +advocate, and speak constantly with friends and acquaintances +about this great work that you have undertaken. +Several journalists and writers will mention it in their papers. +Dispose of all my power to aid you. The ambassador of +Hayti, Monsieur Ardoin, minister of instruction, is ready +to return to Port au Prince, and wishes to make your +acquaintance. He will come to see you to-morrow. For +the inhabitants of that island, in process of reorganization, +Frœbel's method may do a great deal. I have asked several +persons to aid in this work. Niffner and Dolfus are writing, +at present, a great work on education, and will be happy to +give a place to your cause. I send you a letter for Isodore +Cohen; you must see him. You, personally, can do more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +than all speeches, recommendations, and writings together. +I shall come to you shortly to hear more about Frœbel. I +would like to have a comparison drawn between him and +Pestalozzi. Your written communications interest me highly. +Let me have some German works about Frœbel. I read +German and know how to guess at incomprehensible things. +I would like to know about the continuation of his method +for more advanced years, especially for girls, and await +impatiently the appearance of your manual. The more I +investigate the heads of children of different ages, the more +important Frœbel's method appears to me, as it begins in +early childhood, when the most important changes in the +brain take place. All my sympathies are with your work.</p> + + +<div class='center'><br /><i>Letter from the Abbe Miraud, author of voluminous works, +one of them being "La Democratic et la Catholicisme."</i><br /><br /></div> + +<div class='right'> +<span class="smcap">July, 1858.</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>We have to fulfil a great mission in common. I shall +be most happy to procure for Frœbel's theory, <i>which I +accept fully</i>, a hearing. To appreciate this theory in all its +grandeur, richness, and utility, the shade of pantheism it +seems to contain is no hindrance to me; it seems inseparable +from the German mind. I accept the obligation to work +for the ideas of Frœbel according to my ability, of course +within the limits of orthodox Catholicism, to which I am +devoted from faith and reason. You must certainly go with +me to Rome, that we may work together there. If you +resolve to do so, I will meet you at Orleans. You would +find in Rome a good opportunity for <i>propaganda</i>. My +friends there would aid us, but without your presence nothing +can be done. Italy needs a regeneration by education. +Let us work where the most rapid diffusion is certain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span></p> + + +<div class='center'><br /><i>Mons. A. Guyard, a Parisian author writes:</i><br /><br /></div> + +<div class='right'> +<span class="smcap">June 14, 1857.</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>The more I hear you about Frœbel's method, the more +my interest increases, and the deeper my conviction becomes +that by this means a basis is laid for a new education for +the salvation of humanity. Accept my warmest and most +sincere wishes for the propagation of Frœbel's method. He +is great, perhaps the greatest philosopher of our time, and +has found in you what all philosophers need, that is, a woman +who understands him, who clothes him with flesh and blood, +and makes him alive. I think, I believe, indeed, that an +idea in order to bear fruit, must have a father and a mother. +Hitherto, all ideas have had only fathers. As Frœbel's +ideas are so likely to find mothers, they will have an immense +success. When the ideas of the future have become alive +in devoted women, the face of the world will be changed.</p> + + +<div class='hang1'> +<i>Lamarche of Paris, philanthropist and writer on social and +religious subjects, after listening to the lectures upon Frœbel +given by Madam Marenholtz in Paris, wrote on:</i>—<br /><br /> +</div> + +<div class='right'> +<span class="smcap">Paris</span>, March 4, 1856.<br /> +</div> + +<p>Your last lecture has unmistakably shown that Frœbel's +method, in a religious point of view, surpasses everything +that has hitherto been done in education. And this is the +main point from which a method of education is to be judged +for its aim is to awaken love to God and man—the foundation +upon which Christianity rests. Education has hitherto +done little to awaken this love of man in the young soul, +from which all piety flows. This is the reason we find so +much skepticism and indifference in human society, and +which is the source of most of the existing misery, and of +the want of order and lawfulness. These sad results are +the condemnations of those methods of education that suppress +the human faculties, or force them into wrong channels,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +or arbitrarily superimpose something instead of aiding free +development. It is the sad mistake of our moralists who, +without faith in a Heavenly Father, do not understand +human nature, and replace <i>revealed</i> religion with human +tenets.... Frœbel has found the missing truth, in first +awakening the child's senses and capacities by the simplest +means, and making him feel in nature the loving Creator, +before he taxes his intellect with religious dogmas, which +are beyond the intellect of childhood, and only confuse it. +To lead it through the love of God, the Heavenly Father of +us all, to the love of the neighbor, by acting and doing, is +the natural and simple way which Frœbel has pointed out, +and we shall owe it to him, if before our children are four +or five years old, before they can read books, they learn the +great law of humanity, <i>Love to God and the neighbor</i>.</p> + +<p>Again: Frœbel's discovery, or invention, furnishes the +means to follow the natural order of all development for +human beings, by which alone they will come to the knowledge +of, and at last to union with, their Heavenly Father. +This is the way which Christianity prescribed eighteen hundred +years ago, but into which education has not understood +how to lead us, because it has put statutes instead of actual +experience, and has not let the study of nature, as the work +of God, <i>precede</i> statutes. Frœbel leads education again into +the path intended by <span class="smcap">God</span>, which, in the course of universal +development, will lead to the happiness of the individual, as +well as of the whole of society. In the human being itself +are the rich mines, the development of which our false modes +of education have hitherto made impossible. May mothers +have faith in <span class="smcap">God</span>, the Heavenly Father of their children, +and that he has given them the capacity for good, which +will crush the head of the serpent, and bring the kingdom of +God upon earth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><span class="smcap"><a name="Note_C" id="Note_C"></a>Note C, to <a href="#Page_84">Page 84</a>.</span></h3> + +<p>In the second part of my <i>Guide to Kindergarten and +Moral Training of Infancy</i>, published by E. Steiger, 25 Park +Place, New York, is an account of how I actually first began +to teach to read on this method, that may be of practical aid +to one teaching <i>After Kindergarten—what?</i> The first +kindergartner who tried the method, in the course of the +first half-hour led her children to write on their slates (in +imitation of what she wrote on the blackboard, letter by +letter, giving the power, not the name, of each as she wrote) +words enough to involve the whole alphabet; namely, <i>cars</i>, +<i>go</i>, <i>bells</i>, <i>sing</i>, <i>dizzy</i>, <i>old</i>, <i>hen</i>, <i>fixes</i>, <i>vest</i>, <i>jelly</i>, <i>jars</i>, <i>puss</i>, +<i>kitty</i>. The words were in a column, and after they were +written, the children recognized each word, pronouncing it +right when she pointed to it on the blackboard. But she was +surprised the next day to find they remembered every one, +and they had so clear an idea of the correspondence of the +letters and sounds, that, long before they had finished writing +at her dictation the words of the first vocabulary, they read +at sight any word of it, no matter how many syllables it had. +In fact, at the end of the first week she wrote and asked me +for the groups of exceptions, and, beginning with the smallest +group, which is most exceptional, in a few weeks they could +all read.</p> + +<p>But I would not advise this rapid acquisition of the whole +language in so short a time. It is better to pause on the +meaning of the words,—not asking them to define them by +other words, but asking them to make sentences in which +they put the word, which will show whether or not they understand +its meaning. A great deal more than mere pronunciation +may be taught children while learning to read.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><span class="smcap">Note D, to <a href="#Page_102">Page 102</a>.</span></h3> + +<p>History of Printing, an unfinished manuscript of which he +found in the Antiquarian Library of Worcester.</p> + + +<h3><span class="smcap"><a name="Note_E" id="Note_E"></a>Note E, to <a href="#Page_110">Page 110</a>.</span></h3> + +<p>The story, as I paraphrased it, was this. The drop of +water speaks, "Once I lived with hundreds, and hundreds, +and hundreds of brothers and sisters, in the great ocean. +There we all took hold of hands, and played with each +other; and the winds played with us, and took us up on their +backs, making us into little waves and great waves. But +sometimes, when the winds were not there, we would spread +ourselves out smooth like a looking-glass, and look up into +the sky; and the moon and the stars would look down upon +us, and the ocean would look just like the sky.</p> + +<p>"And we wanted to go up into the sky; and so, when +the sun sent down his sunbeams, and the moon sent down +her moonbeams, and the stars sent down their starbeams, +some of us would jump up on their backs, and ride up into +the sky. But soon they would be tired of us, and shake us +off; and down we fell, and then we would catch hold of +hands, and make ourselves into clouds; and when the clouds +got to be so heavy that the air could not hold them up, we +would let go of hands, and fall down in drops of rain. But +sometimes the clouds would stay up, and sail round; and +one day the cloud that I was in, bumped up against a mountain, +and we all fell out, down into the little holes of the +mountain, and I soon found I was alone in the dark; but I +saw a light a little ways off, and so I ran along and came to +the light, which was outside the mountain. And as I stood +there, I saw a great many of my sisters and brothers standing +at just such holes as I was looking out of; and when we +saw each other, we burst out laughing, and ran to each other, +and took hold of hands, and made a little brook that ran<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +down the sides of the mountain into a meadow full of +flowers; and we ran about the meadow, watering the roots +of all the flowers to make them grow, for we wanted to do +as much good as we could; and then we thought we would +run on, and see if we could not find our old home in the +ocean, where we left hundreds of brothers and sisters; but +as I got rather tired, I thought I would stop and rest awhile +on this flower-leaf. But now I am rested. So good by; I +will jump off, and run home as fast as I can with the rest."</p> + +<p>This story I had to tell over and over again at the time, +which I did in the same words; and now, when I again +repeated it in the same words, he liked to hear it over and +over again, looking at the picture in the book while I told it.</p> + + +<h3><span class="smcap"><a name="Note_F" id="Note_F"></a>Note F, to <a href="#Page_167">Page 167</a>.</span></h3> + +<p>I here insert the version of the Lord's Prayer and the <i>Song +of the Weather</i>, which have been found so effective in the +religious nurture, and which, if used in the simple, unsanctimonious +manner I have so earnestly suggested, will preclude +the necessity of talking to the children in prose. These songs +explain themselves to the child's heart and imagination.</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span class="smcap">Our Father</span>, who in Heaven art,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy name we dearly love;</span><br /> +We'd do thy will with all our heart,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As done in heaven above.</span><br /> +Give us this day our daily bread,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Forgive the wrong we do,</span><br /> +And we'll not mind when treated ill,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That we may be like you.</span><br /> +Help us avoid temptation's snare;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Deliver us from evil ways;</span><br /> +For thine's the kingdom and the power,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All glory and all praise.</span><br /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span></p> + + +<div class='center'><br />SONG OF THE WEATHER.</div> + +<div class='poem'> +<span class="smcap">This</span> is the way the snow comes down,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Softly, softly falling.</span><br /> +God, he giveth his snow like wool,<br /> +Fair, and white, and beautiful.<br /> +This is the way the snow comes down,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Softly, softly falling.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;"><i>Chorus.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +Wonderful, Lord, are all thy works,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wheresoever falling;</span><br /> +All their various voices raise,<br /> +Speaking forth their Maker's praise.<br /> +Wonderful, Lord, are all thy works,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wheresoever falling.</span><br /> +<br /> +This is the way the rain comes down,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Swiftly, swiftly falling;</span><br /> +So he sendeth his welcome rain.<br /> +On the field, and hill, and plain,<br /> +This is the way the rain comes down,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Swiftly, swiftly falling.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">(<i>Repeat the chorus.</i>)</span><br /> +<br /> +This is the way the frost comes down,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Widely, widely falling;</span><br /> +So it spreadeth all through the night,<br /> +Shining, cold, and pure, and bright,<br /> +This is the way the frost comes down,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Widely, widely falling.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(<i>Chorus.</i>)</span><br /> +<br /> +This is the way the hail comes down,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Loudly, loudly falling;</span><br /> +So it flieth beneath the cloud,<br /> +Swift, and strong, and wild, and loud,<br /> +This is the way the hail comes down,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Loudly, loudly falling.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 5em;">(<i>Chorus.</i>)</span><br /> +<br /> +This is the way the cloud comes down,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Darkly, darkly falling;</span><br /> +So it covers the shining blue,<br /> +Till no ray can glisten through,<br /> +This is the way the cloud comes down,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Darkly, darkly falling.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(<i>Chorus.</i>)</span><br /> +<br /> +This is the way sunshine comes down,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sweetly, sweetly falling;</span><br /> +So it chaseth the cloud away,<br /> +So it waketh the lovely day,<br /> +This is the way sunshine comes down,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sweetly, sweetly falling.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">(<i>Chorus.</i>)</span><br /> +<br /> +This is the way rainbow comes round,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Brightly, brightly falling;</span><br /> +So it smileth across the sky,<br /> +Making fair the heavens on high,<br /> +This is the way rainbow comes down,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Brightly, brightly falling.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;"><i>Chorus.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +Wonderful, Lord, are all thy works,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wheresoever falling;</span><br /> +All their various voices raise,<br /> +Speaking forth their Maker's praise.<br /> +Wonderful, Lord, are all thy works,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wheresoever falling.</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>(The appropriate gesture is spreading the arms, and, when +it is the rain or the hail, the children enjoy making the patter +on the table,—gently for the rain, and louder for the hail.)</p> + + +<div class='center small'><br /><br /><br /><br /> +Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.<br /> +</div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></p> +<div class='bbox'> +<div class='center'><span class='small'>THE COMMITTEE OF THE</span><br /> + +<b>Manchester Kindergarten Association</b><br /> + +<span class='small'>Beg to Announce that the</span><br /> + +<span class='big'>TRAINING CLASSES FOR TEACHERS</span><br /> + +<span class='small'>Meet in the <span class="smcap">Afternoon</span> at</span><br /> + +<b>Thorney Abbey, Alexandra Park, Manchester,</b><br /> + +<span class='small'>For <span class="smcap">Theoretical</span> instruction in the following subjects:—</span> +<br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Classes"> +<tr><td align='left'>Drawing</td><td align='right'>J. CLEGG, Esq.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Music</td><td align='right'>MISS WICHERN.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Theory and Application of the Kindergarten System</td><td align='right'>MISS SNELL.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Physiology and Laws of Health</td><td align='right'>MISS CLEGHORN.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Science of Education</td><td align='right'>W. H. HERFORD, Esq., B.A.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Natural History and Physiography</td><td align='right'>F. J. WEBB, Esq.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Elements of Geometry</td><td align='right'>MISS SNELL.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Botany</td><td align='right'>MISS HERFORD.</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class='center'><br /><br />———————<br /><b><span class='small'>Practical Instruction is afforded at the Model Kindergarten in the Forenoon.</span></b><br /> +———————<br /><br /> + +<b>FEES FOR THE ABOVE.</b><br /></div> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Whole Course</span> (per Term of Ten Weeks)</td><td align='right'>5 <span class="smcap">Guineas</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Separate Classes</span> (per term of Ten Hours) </td><td align='right'>2½ <span class="smcap">Guineas</span>.</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class='center'><br /><i>Students are expected to take the whole Course of Two Years; +when withdrawal before the end of the course is necessary a Term's notice +is required.</i><br /> +———————<br /><br /> + +<b>A LIMITED NUMBER OF STUDENTS CAN BE RECEIVED AS BOARDERS BY THE HEAD MISTRESS.</b></div> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Board and lodging"> +<tr><td align='left'>CHARGE FOR BOARD AND LODGING</td><td align='left'> 44 GUINEAS PER ANNUM.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>WEEKLY BOARDERS</td><td align='left'> 33 GUINEAS PER ANNUM.</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class='center'><br /><br /> +<b>Satisfactory References Required.</b> +</div></div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span></p> + +<div class='heading center'>Froebel Society,</div> + +<div class='center'>17, BUCKINGHAM STREET, STRAND.<br /> + + +<br /><br /><b>President:</b><br /> + +<span class="smcap">Miss SHIRREFF.</span><br /> + +<br /> +<br /><b>Vice-Presidents:</b></div> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Vice Presidents"> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Oscar Browning</span>, Esq., M.A.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Rev. Canon <span class="smcap">Daniel</span>, M.A.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">J. G. Fitch</span>, Esq., H.M. <i>Inspector of Training Colleges.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Prof. <span class="smcap">G. Carey Foster</span>, B.A.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Dr. <span class="smcap">J. H. Gladstone</span>, F.R.S.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lady <span class="smcap">Goldsmid</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mrs. <span class="smcap">W. Grey</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Fräulein <span class="smcap">Heerwart</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Prof. <span class="smcap">Meiklejohn</span>, M.A.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Rev. <span class="smcap">R. H. Quick</span>, M.A.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A. Sonnenschein</span>, Esq.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<div class='center'><br /><br /><b>Council:</b></div> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Council"> +<tr><td align='left'>Miss <span class="smcap">M. E. Bailey</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Miss <span class="smcap">Baker</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Miss <span class="smcap">Belcher</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Rev. <span class="smcap">A. Bourne</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Hon. Mrs. <span class="smcap">Buxton</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">E. Cooke</span>, Esq.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Miss <span class="smcap">S. Crombie</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mrs. <span class="smcap">Fielden</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Miss <span class="smcap">Franks</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mrs. <span class="smcap">Green</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mrs. <span class="smcap">Law</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Miss <span class="smcap">E. Lord</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Miss <span class="smcap">Lyschinska</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Miss <span class="smcap">E. A. Manning</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mme. <span class="smcap">Michaelis</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">H. K. Moore</span>, Esq., B.Mus., B.A.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">J. S. Phillpotts</span>, Esq.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Miss <span class="smcap">Kate Phillips</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Mrs. <span class="smcap">Romanes</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Rev. <span class="smcap">T. W. Sharpe</span>, H.M.I.S.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Miss <span class="smcap">Sim</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">F. Storr</span>, Esq., B.A.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Miss <span class="smcap">Kate Thornbury</span>.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Miss <span class="smcap">Ward</span>.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<div class='center'><br /><br /><b>Hon. Treasurer:</b><br /> + + +<span class="smcap">A. R. Price</span>, Esq.<br /> + + + +<br /><br /><b>Hon. Secretary:</b><br /> + + +<span class="smcap">C. G. Montefiore</span>, Esq.<br /> +<br /> + + +<br /><b>Secretary:</b><br /> + + +Miss <span class="smcap">Bayley</span>.<br /> +</div> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p> + +<div class='heading'>The Froebel Society</div> + + +<div class='blockquot'><span class="smcap">Was</span> formed in 1874 for the purpose of promoting co-operation +among those engaged in Kindergarten work, of spreading the +knowledge and practice of the system, and of maintaining a +high standard of efficiency among Kindergarten Teachers.</div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class='heading2'>AN EXAMINATION OF STUDENTS</div> + +<div class='blockquot'>Will be held in London in the month of July, for the Higher +and (this year only) for the Elementary Certificate. In December +next there will be an Examination for the Elementary Certificate +only. + +<p>Under certain conditions the Council are prepared to hold +the Examinations at local centres.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class='heading2'>A Registry for Kindergarten Teachers</div> + +<div class='blockquot'>Has been opened at the Office of the Society. A small fee is +charged to those who apply.</div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class='blockquot'><p>Arrangements have been made by the Council for the +INSPECTION AND REGISTRATION OF KINDERGARTENS +upon certain conditions.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class='heading2'>The Calendar of the Froebel Society, price 1/-,</div> + +<div class='blockquot'>Contains the Syllabus for the Examinations, and the Examination +Papers of 1886.</div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class='blockquot'><p>Further information can be obtained from the Secretary, at +the Office of the Society,</p></div> + +<div class='center'> +<span class="smcap">17, Buckingham Street, Strand.</span><br /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class='blockquot'>The Office is open daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., except +on Thursdays.</div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> An American translation has been published by Lee & Shepard, Boston.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Since this lecture was written and delivered in Boston, I have +received from Europe a French version of the Baroness Crombrugghe's +translation of Frœbel's <i>Education of Man</i>, and find that the +first chapters analyze the first and second stages of development so +much, in the way that I have done, that it gives me, on the one +hand, confidence in myself as a true interpreter of Frœbel, and on +the other, new confidence in Frœbel as a scientific observer and recorder +of what I have been accused of founding on a merely sentimental +knowledge. But scientific knowledge, or that gained by +the exercise of the understanding, and sentimental knowledge, or +what is gained by the intuitions of the heart, must necessarily correspond +if the understanding is sound and the heart has been kept +diligently to the issues of life. Mr. Emerson calls the intellect sensibility, +and there is a fine meaning in this. Is there not analogous +instruction in calling the heart apprehension? What are love, justice, +beauty, &c., but apprehensions of the primal relations established +by God? Can the understanding have sensibility to them, +unless apprehension of them exists from the beginning? +</p><p> +In the June, July and August numbers of the <i>Kindergarten Messenger</i>, +for 1874, will be found translations of the first chapters of +Frœbel's book, above mentioned. I began in February to print the +translation of the introduction, which will be finished in the May +number, and then will follow the first chapter, entitled "The Nursling," +and in the following numbers the subsequent chapters, on +the child's development during the Kindergarten era. This work +of Frœbel's was published at an earlier period of his career than +1840, when he began to devote himself almost entirely to the first +stage of education, which, as he grew older, he felt to be the most +important, because it enfolds the germs of all later developments.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> It is sold for ten cents by Hammett, publisher, in Brattle street, +Boston.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> See Hazard's <i>Man a Creative First Cause</i>. A book published since +this lecture was first given.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> "Order reigns in Warsaw" was the form of words in which the +subjugation of the Poles to Russians in 1849 was announced in France.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> See Frederic Denison Maurice's book on the Lord's Prayer, published +by Hurd & Houghton.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> See Appendix, <a href="#Note_A">note A</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> For details of manipulating the gifts and occupations, see <i>The +Florence Handbook</i>, published by Milton Bradley; or Mrs. Kraus-Bœlte's +<i>Manual in Eight Parts</i>, which is being published by Steiger.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <i>Idea</i> is a word I always use in the sense of <i>insight</i>, as Plato uses it, +rather than in the sense of <i>notion</i>, as Locke uses it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> See <a href="#Note_A">note A</a> in Appendix, and the Record of a School.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> See George Macdonald's <i>Vicar's Daughter</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> This unique book was the text-book Frœbel used in his training-school. +Its profound meaning, and how it points to the divine philosophy +of the instinctive play, that is the first phenomenon of human life +with mother and child, some of you have heard Miss Blow and Miss +Fisher luminously explain in a course of lectures much longer than +mine, and which I hope they may be persuaded to publish in book form.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> In the first of these last two books, Mr. Hazard has made an examination +of Edwards on the Will, and the only satisfactory reply to +his argument for Necessity ever made. Very early in life, the task of +answering Edwards was given him, by the late William E. Channing, +D.D., who read his first edition of <i>Language</i>, and was so much +struck with the metaphysical genius displayed in it, that he sought out +the anonymous author on purpose to make this suggestion. He found +him a clerk in his father's great manufactory, to whose business he +afterwards succeeded, and he was engaged in it until he was an old +man. All his books are a proof that <i>business</i> may be as good a disciplinarian +of the higher intellect as scholastic education, to say the +least.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes</h3> +<p>In the introduction and last two pages which use an ornamental font in the original, Frœbel is presented +without the oe-ligature. This was retained.</p> + +<p>Book uses both "Mütterspiele und Köse-Lieder" and "Die Mutter Spiele und Kose Lieder" for Frœbel's work: +"Mutter- und Kose-Lieder." Also referenced as "<i>Mother Love</i> and <i>Cossetting Songs</i>."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kraus-Boelte is spelled without an oe-ligature except in a single footnote where a ligature was used.</p> + +<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired.</p> + + +<p><a href="#Page_223">Page 223</a>-<a href="#Page_224">224</a>, the word "Chorus" sometimes appeared in parentheses and sometimes did not. This was +retained.</p> + +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Education in The Home, The +Kindergarten, and The Primary School, by Elizabeth P. 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