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diff --git a/35677-0.txt b/35677-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b983c19 --- /dev/null +++ b/35677-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7766 @@ +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: UTF-8 + +*** 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) + + + + + + + + + + + +LECTURES + +IN THE + +TRAINING SCHOOLS + +FOR + +Kindergarten Teachers. + + + + +EDUCATION + +IN + +THE HOME, THE KINDERGARTEN, + +AND + +THE PRIMARY SCHOOL. + +BY + +ELIZABETH P. PEABODY. + + +_WITH AN INTRODUCTION_ + +BY + +E. ADELAIDE MANNING. + + "Come, let us live _with_ our children."--FRŒBEL. + + LONDON: + SWAN SONNENSCHEIN, LOWREY & CO., + PATERNOSTER SQUARE. + 1887. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +AMONG 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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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." + + E. A. MANNING. + + + + +LECTURE I. + +THE KINDERGARTNER. + + +WHOEVER 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 _formation_ 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 _meant_, when he said: "He +that receiveth a little child in my name, receiveth _me, and Him that +sent me_;" "Woe unto him who offends one of these little ones, for their +spirits behold the face of my Father who is in heaven." + +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 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. + +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 _Laws_:-- + +"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." + +And again, in his _Republic_, he says:-- + +"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." + +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 _music_. Singing was no more +music than dancing, drawing, 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 _music_ or how to +live divinely; a process which may commence before children leave the +nursery, if their plays are regulated according to artistic principles. + +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 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? + +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. + +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 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 +_cultivated_--not _drilled_ (which is a process only appropriate to +insensate stone). + +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. + +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 +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 +_roaring_, 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. + +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 he pathetically remarks--"called +him _thou_," (du) which is an endearing expression in German, but _he_ +(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 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. + +After a few years of this happy home and school life, 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. + +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 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." + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. 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--_not_ 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 frivolous, betray that they have "faculties that they +have never used" though they dwell in palaces. + +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 _judaizing_ 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. + +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, _through the human providence of education_, +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 _creative_, _i.e._, causing +effects. + +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. +_To despair of this_ is want of the proper action of human free +will,--Faith. + +The first qualification of the true kindergartner, then, is Faith, which +can be based only on the abiding conviction that God is with us "_to +will and to do_," if we will only have the courage to take for granted +that if _we are willing_, 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. + +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? + +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 +_could not_ 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. + +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 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? + +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 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 _govern_ is not +the whole thing. The question is _how_ we govern; whether we so govern +as to make a cringing slave, a cunning hypocrite, or an intelligent, +law-abiding, self-respecting, _willing_ 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.e._, creativeness. It is only spiritual power that +inaugurates order--the Eternal Beauty may be inaugurated in childhood +and among childish toys. + +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 +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. + +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, 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 _called_ play-schools. _Pretenders_ 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. + +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. + +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 "_every_ 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 _distinction of rank_? 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, Note +A.) + + + + +LECTURE II. + +THE NURSERY. + + +IT 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. + +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 +_animus_ 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 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 +_all_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +Let us then determine first, as he did, the nursery art, which is +preliminary to that of the Kindergarten. + +By the primal miracle (_i.e._, wonder working) of nature, the 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. + +As I have said before, every form of animal existence _but_ 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. + +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, 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?" + +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.) + +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 _feel_ (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. + +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 _rationale_ and creative influence I +perceive; I feel, as it were, _Divinely authorized_ 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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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 _intend itself_ 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. + +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 _rhythmical_ sound seems, from the very +first, to give most pleasure; and is wonderfully effective to soothe the +nerves, and remove uneasiness. All mothers and nurses sing to babies, +as well as rock them, (which is _rhythmical_ 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +Madame Marenholtz-Bülow has happily remarked, in her preface to Jacob's +Manual, _Le jardin des Enfans_, 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 may +transform the body without leaving visible residue? There are in Brown's +philosophy (which does not penetrate into _all_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, 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 _playing with the child_. 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.[1] + +I think that a baby never _begins_ 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_, with a clear sense of individuality. + +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, _does not walk_. 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, 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.[2]) + +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. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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. + +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 _Le +jardin des Enfans_.[3] 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 of this matter. It will open +your eyes to observe delicately, as Frœbel did. + +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 _red_ 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +We have observed that the moment of first accomplishing the feat of +running alone, seemed to be that of the child's 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 +understanding, beginning with this rhythmical one at the center. + +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." + +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 addressing the 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. + +When I was in Germany, I went, as I believe I told you, to those +Kindergartens, which were taught by Frœbel's own 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. + +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 gladly have printed all that Madame Ronge +published in her Guide, which is out of print, but for the expense. + +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 _act_ to the end of making _others_ happy, rather than of +merely enjoying _themselves_. 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 _social_. 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 _good_, _beautiful_, _kind_, _true_, 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 _hers_ they realize every day. + +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 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. + +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. + +"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 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. + +Of all the materials used in Kindergarten, the colored balls are most +purely _playthings_; 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 _too_ 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 +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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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 _in terms_. 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 _word_ 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 _things_ that are the laws of _thought_; 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. + +In the easy mood of mind that attends the lively play of 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. + +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 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. + +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 _optics_. + +Children are only to be _entertained_ 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. + +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 combinations, were the basis of both the +science and the art. + +This lecture is getting too long, and I will close by saying, that the +First Gift has, for its most important office, to develop the organ of +sight, which grows by seeing. Colors arouse _intentional_ seeing by the +delightful impression they make. I believe that _color-blindness_, +(which our army examinations have proved to be as common as _want of ear +for music_,) may be cured by intentional exercise of the organ of sight +in a systematic way; just as _ear for music_ 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 _try to hear_, in order to +reproduce. + +That you may receive a sufficiently strong impression of the fact, that +the organs of perception actually grow by exercise _with intention_, I +will relate to you a fact that came under my own observation. + +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 _the scientific eye_ +which could detect differences ever after, _at a glance_," and proved to +him an invaluable talent, and gave him exceptional authority with +scientists. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] An American translation has been published by Lee & Shepard, Boston. + +[2] 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 _Education of Man_, 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? + +In the June, July and August numbers of the _Kindergarten Messenger_, +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. + +[3] It is sold for ten cents by Hammett, publisher, in Brattle street, +Boston. + + + + +LECTURE III. + +DISCIPLINE. + + +SINCE 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. + +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 _Mother's Book_ 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. + +"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 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. + +From all that I said of the _modus operandi_ 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 _her_ 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. + +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? + +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. + +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 +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 _thinking_, 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 _things_) is _active_. Therefore +thinking and putting thoughts into words includes comparison and +inference, and really _produces_ 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. + +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 +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 _holy of holies_, 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. + +Frœbel suggests this in the introductory poems of _Die Mutter Spiele und +Kose Lieder_. 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 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. + +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! + +Rousseau affirms that every child, if left to its own natural growth, +would think its mother was its creator. And William Godwin in his +_Enquirer_ (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 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. + +What a proof it is that God is _Love_, 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 +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 _otherness_ 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 +_otherness of person_, 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 _image of God_, 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!" + +But you will say that I am getting quite beyond the nursery. + +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 _sympathetically_ 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 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 +_discipline_ in its true sense of teaching; not in the sense of +_punishment_. That the word _discipline_ should ever have come to mean +punishment is a severe commentary on the ideas and modes of education +that have hitherto prevailed in Christendom.) + +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 _Ode to Duty_, sings:-- + + "There are who ask not if Thine eye + Be on them, who, in love and truth, + Where no misgiving is, rely + Upon the genial sense of youth. + _Glad hearts!_ without reproach or blot, + Who do Thy work, and know it not! + And blest are they who in the main + This happy faith still entertain, + Live in the spirit of this creed, + Yet find another strength according to their _need_. + May joy be theirs while life shall last, + And _Thou_, if they should totter, teach them to stand fast." + +Little children certainly, of all persons, are oftenest found in this +condition when + + "Love is an unerring light, + And joy its own security." + +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 _wild_; +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 _mothers_ 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 _has_ young children, and the book of nature which these +few years open to her _is so rich_, 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. + +The deepest reason why a child should be taken care of in its earliest +infancy _by its mother_ rather than by a person comparatively +uninterested in its personality, is this, that _only_ 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 +_can_. 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, "_because_." 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 _an answer_; and when it would +sometimes be said, "_because_ is no reason," or "_because_ 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 _cause_[4]--an _absolute cause_--to +the extent of consciousness. It was an intuition. + +Now to retain the sense of this causal personality is at the 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 _loves_ 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. + +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 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 _came to himself_ (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." + +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. + +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. + +Besides, to _choose_ 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. + +This is a subject on which I feel very strongly, for it seems to me that +the greatest social disorders that exist in the nations among which the +"order that reigns in Warsaw"[5] is foremost, is the consequence of +_unreasoning obedience_ to wills _not_ 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, _in the Lord_; and parents +should never "provoke their children to wrath." + +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 affectionate, +but putting forth energies, and seeking satisfaction of sensibilities +that cannot be met within that narrow precinct. + +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. + +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 _her_ 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 not a slave) of nature, by reason of his ignorance of the +laws of the universe,--_that body_ outside of his own body,--which he is +destined, in alliance with others, to take possession of, by action +_upon_ and _within_ 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. + +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 _impolitely_, 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. + +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 _her words_ 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 _directing_, and learn to be very precise in +the use of all the words expressing relation of all kinds,--prepositions, +adjectives, and adverbs,--_precisely_ 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 _wind_ 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 _more so_; for +children live in God before they _exist_ out of God. The Italian +philosopher Gioberti says that the soul is a _spiritual activity_; that +is, it sees God as the first act of its life. God says, "_Be thou_" and +the soul--before it is put into the sleep of nature (the deep sleep that +came upon Adam)--looks back and says, "_Thou art_." 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 _remorse_, 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 _soul_ 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 _communes_, and towards which the child wants to fly,--and +delights in and loves the birds, beyond all other forms of animal life, +because they _can_ 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 (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 _accurately worded_; and especially that the _spiritual_ +consciousness gets a happy symbolization; that is, that the best words +are used to _do justice_ to the Ideas of God and the sentiments of the +heart of man. + +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 _wake up_ 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, _syllables of the Word_ that was in the beginning with God and, in +a certain sense, _God_, 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 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," + + "On whom those truths do rest + That we are toiling all our lives to find," + +and therefore a child can supply a substantial meaning to any name for +God adequate to awaken the living echo of the soul that + + "Cometh from afar + Trailing clouds of glory from God," + +whose voice sent it forth, as Gioberti says, "to suffer and to be for a +season on earth." + +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? + +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." + +The lady said to another who sat near us, "Only think! this great girl +does not know who made her!" + +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. + +I _was_ 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. + +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 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. + +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 _transient_, I would do it only this _once_, +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. + +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 this requires a mutual understanding of words, +and if we are careful, we may produce this in the kindergarten. + +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.[6] + +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.[7] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] See Hazard's _Man a Creative First Cause_. A book published since +this lecture was first given. + +[5] "Order reigns in Warsaw" was the form of words in which the +subjugation of the Poles to Russians in 1849 was announced in France. + +[6] See Frederic Denison Maurice's book on the Lord's Prayer, published +by Hurd & Houghton. + +[7] See Appendix, note A. + + + + +LECTURE IV. + +THE KINDERGARTEN. + + +IN 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 _the child_, +"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. + +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 +_ideal_, 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? + +But I must remember that what we have to speak of especially is the +kindergarten, which follows hard upon the nursery. + +When the child's growing activities begin to require a larger social +sphere than the nursery,--_i.e._, 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 _cherishing_ +(which is the dealing with 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. + +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 _do_ the will of God,--_i.e._, to obey the moral +law,--"doing to others as we would have others do to us," _even in +play_, is the only way for children to know vitally the doctrine of +moral life. + +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. + +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, a legitimate sense of property arises. He feels that +what he has made is _his own_, 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 _make_ 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 _showing off_ 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. + +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 _brothers to be kept_, +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 _Plea for Frœbel's Kindergarten as the Primary +Art-School_, 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 _The Artist and the Artisan +Identified,--the Proper Object of American Education_). + +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, but he took +great care not to _pamper_ them. They are the results of the free-will, +irrefragable, and will take care of themselves sufficiently, if not +cruelly snubbed, but tenderly respected. + +What is to be _intentionally_ cultivated in earliest infancy, are the +_general_ affections and faculties, which relate us to our kind, +insuring _common_ sense and _common_ 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. + +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 _presentiment_ 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 _other_ 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 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. + +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 +_infinitely_; 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 _remorse_, in which, as Emerson says, "there is a certain +_sweetness_," 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. + +This brings me to speak of Frœbel's superiority to Pestalozzi. The +kindergarten is not mainly _object-teaching_, though of course a +constant object-teaching is _involved_; 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 _child_. If Frœbel +proposes to give the fruits of the tree of _life_, before he gives those +of the tree of knowledge, it is only that the latter may prove, _not a +curse_, 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 _a power_ without being _a good_ (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 _character_ the +first thing, and knowledge the _hand-maiden_ of goodness, is the +desideratum of the age, and promise of the millennium. + +I should like to read you some letters of eminent men in France, +addressed to Frœbel's most earnest disciple and apostle, the Baroness +Marenholtz-Bülow, which I have translated from the appendix of her _Work +in Relation to Education_ (see Appendix, Note B). + +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, _our nearest dangers_. 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. + +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 _not me_. It is +purely subjective, _i.e._, feeling its material environment to be a part +of itself. As Emerson says:-- + + "The babe, by its mother, + Lies bathed in joy; + Glide its hours uncounted; + The sun is its toy! + Shines the peace of all being, + Without cloud, in its eyes; + And the sum of the world + In soft miniature lies!" + +Only by intentional help of those around the child can it grow into +individual consciousness of its relations with 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. + +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 _The Florence Handbook_, +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. + +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 faculty and understanding in a substantial manner; for these +things were done without patterns, and therefore from _thought_,--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 _modus operandi_ of +the work exhibited, I went on to say:-- + +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 _accurate speech_, enabling them to express their +impressions of individual things, as well as of what they _do_ 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 children learned to read in the primer called +_After Kindergarten--What?_ (Note C, 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' _First Lessons in Botany_ (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. + +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 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.[8] + +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 _national_ +method, but the _human_ 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 _make_ +things, which employ the activities that otherwise will play 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, _if they are not peremptory_, but are put in the +form of a question, which seems to respect his power to choose, which is +his _personality_, 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 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 _education_ 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 +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. + +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. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[8] For details of manipulating the gifts and occupations, see _The +Florence Handbook_, published by Milton Bradley; or Mrs. Kraus-Bœlte's +_Manual in Eight Parts_, which is being published by Steiger. + + + + +LECTURE V. + +LANGUAGE. + + +TEACHING, which in the common sense of the word is the suggestion of +thoughts by words, is not the kindergartner's special work, but the _a +priori_ 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. + +A word is both spiritual and material, being an articulate form of the +voice which, as Gœthe has happily said, is the 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. + +The _in_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 _tone_ of the vowel; thus _lu_ in a low tone +would have one meaning, LU 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. + +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. + +A time comes to every intelligent child when it wonders 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 _in_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. + +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 _out of sight_, _covered up_, _hidden_, the _central_ 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 _c_ and _g_, and the rough aspirate _h_ are +factors in all words signifying the beginning of self-originating motion +(observe _go_ and _kick_, or _cause to go_), the causal, the central, +covered, hidden; while the labials, _p_, _b_, _f_, _v_, are factors in +all words expressing obviously moving phenomena; and the dentals, _d_, +_t_, _s_, _z_, found in words expressive of stiff, hard, dead phenomena +(the word _death_ is all but identical with the word _teeth_); +separation and number being expressed by _s_ and _z_, which are made by +throwing the vocal breath out between the separated teeth. The liquids +_r_ and _l_, _r_ being also a factor of words expressing indefinite +beginning, (as _original_, _auroral_, _arise_, 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 _fry_ +and _fly_, _grow_ and _glow_, _M_ closes the lips without preventing the +continuous sound of the voice from being heard; and _n_, negating +limitation by throwing the breath (or voice) out at the nose, symbolize +respectively the positive and negative aspects of Infinity. + +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. + +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. + +The infant (that is, the _non-speaking_ child) in vision of the Eternal, +only gradually becomes aware of the succession of time. For, as Mr. +Emerson sings in his Sphinx song,-- + + "The babe by its mother + Lies bathed in joy, + _Glide its hours uncounted_." + +And Wordsworth says of "the little child,--" + + "On whom those truths do rest, + That we are toiling all our lives to find;" + + "By the vision splendid + The youth is still attended;" + +and + + "Shades of the prison-house begin to close + Upon the growing boy, + Yet he beholds the light and whence it flows; + He sees it in his joy: + At length the man perceives it die away, + And fade into the light of common day." + +But this fall from the Ideal is not what Calvinistic theology declares +it to be, reprobation either intellectual or spiritual! + + "Oh, joy that in our embers + Is something that doth live, + That nature yet remembers + What was so fugitive." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Looking at it superficially, speech is an imitative art, and so far as +our experience goes, is always taught by elders to 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). + +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. + +Both fancy and understanding are developed in time by words. We all know +how children are waked up and delighted 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. + +But I have known as intimately some other parents who 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. + +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 _Mütterspiele und +Köse-Lieder_; 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.[9] + +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. 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 _see_ and _look_. (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 _potpourri_ of a language they +are mere translations, as for instance _morsel_ and _bit_, respective +derivatives from the Latin _morsum_ and the English _bitten_. The little +English-speaking child should not be troubled with the derivation of +_morsel_, but is pleased to be called to notice that of _bit_. 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. + +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.[10] 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 nursery, or to be +carried on in the kindergarten, as Frœbel proposes it shall be. + +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. + +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 _things_, 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. + +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 she saw was passing between them by means +of the hand language. Very soon occurred the following:-- + +_Laura._ I want to go to walk. + +_Teacher._ You cannot go to-day, because it rains. + +_Laura._ Who makes it rain? + +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. + +Laura said, reverently, "God is very full." + +The teacher was startled, and said, "Who told you about God?" + +_Laura._ 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. + +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 _God_ 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 _Love_), that he +was embarrassed, and said to her that she did not yet know other words +enough to explain the word _God_, 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 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. + +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,-- + + "On whom those truths do rest + That we are toiling all our lives to find," + +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 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." + +The only thing we ought to do in the religious nurture of childhood is +to _preserve_ 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. + +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, 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." + +This sentence seemed to pour light into a shady place. + +"Don't you _say prayers_, mama?" I said to her when aunt was gone. + +"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." + +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 _talk down_ to her children, but rather drew them up to her own +mental and moral level; and interlarded stories from Spenser's _Faerie +Queen_ and the Scriptures with stories of the kind and noble deeds of +real people around us. (See Appendix.) + +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 _spirit_ 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 +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 _sisters_ (for so I +had interpreted the word _ancestors_, who strangely enough were all +named _Ann_). 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. + +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. + +That first schoolhouse, which I fancied that I saw the "Ann Sisters" +building, taught me as no mere words ever 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. + +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 +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 _live with our children_, as +Frœbel says, whose motto explains what Christ meant when he bids us to +be converted and become little children. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] _Idea_ is a word I always use in the sense of _insight_, as Plato +uses it, rather than in the sense of _notion_, as Locke uses it. + +[10] See note A in Appendix, and the Record of a School. + + + + +LECTURE VI. + +A PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATION. + +PART FIRST. + + +I SAID 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. + +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--_conciliated_--into unity, by Love and Thought, which +must recognize each other, and whose loss of equal companionship is a + + "Grief, past all balsam and relief," + +as Mr. Emerson has sung. + +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. + +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. + +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; + +Second, That this Idea becomes a child's personal and individual +perception only when he has a realizable name for it; + +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; + +Fourth, That an adequate name for GOD 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 GOD 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. + +But first I must tell you how I had this opportunity and privilege of +being the first person to name GOD 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 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 GOD 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 GOD 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 GOD, 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. + +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. + +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 Appendix.) + +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 _non compos_, 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. + +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 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. + +"This does not look like want of sensibility, or _mens non compos_," 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 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. + +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. + +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 _her_ 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." + +With a cheerful "yes" he immediately got down and went into the nursery, +but stopped at the door to say:-- + +"When you have told mother a story, won't you come right in and tell me +one?" + +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." + +"Not quite yet," said she, "not until you come to stay, because he would +ask me questions that I should not know how to answer. Children ask +such terrible questions. I am afraid as soon as you name the Invisible +GOD, he will be frightened. Don't you know M. D. was afraid to stay in a +room alone because of the omnipresence of GOD, which seemed to be an +unimaginable horror to her?" + +"I do not wonder," I replied. "Omnipresence of GOD! 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." + +"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!" + +"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 GOD 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 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 GOD'S 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.'" + +"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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +"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 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--" + +"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!" + +"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." + +"Now tell me that story all over again!" said the child. + +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:-- + +"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. + +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, 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. + +When I awoke, I found him awake, close by me, and his great eyes seemed +to devour me. + +"How long you did sleep!" said he; "I have been seeing you sleep." + +Said I, "What do you see with?" + +"My eyes," he replied, and to the questions, What do you hear, smell, +taste, touch with? he made the appropriate answers. + +"But what do you _love_ with?" I asked. + +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:-- + +"Have you a great deal of love?" + +"Oh, a great deal, a great deal!" he exclaimed. + +"Where is it? where do you keep it?" said I. + +He started up again on his knees, again crossed his arms upon his +breast, and said, "Where do I?" + +Placing my hand on his heart, I said, "Is it not in there?" + +His whole expression was affirmative, he looked delighted, but did not +speak. + +"Are you good?" said I. + +"Sometimes," he said. + +"What are you when you are not good?" + +"I cry." + +He had evidently been told it was naughty to cry. + +I said, "Why are you not good all the time?" + +"Why ain't I?" said he, after a moment's pause. + +"Oh," said I, "I think you have not goodness enough to be good with all +the time." + +He looked assent, delighted and earnest. I answered his unuttered +feeling with the question,-- + +"Should you like to have goodness enough to be good with all the time?" + +"How can I?" + +"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." + +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,-- + +"Talk to me some more." + +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:-- + +"What is that noise?" + +He jumped out of bed, went to the window, and said:-- + +"It is the carpenters making a house," and after a pause, asked, "Who +made all the other houses?" + +"Carpenters," said I; "don't you see they make houses out of boards?" + +"Who made the boards?" + +"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." + +"Who made the trees?" said he. + +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:-- + +"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?" + +For this information he did not give me that hearty "_yes_" 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:-- + +"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 _all the time_," emphasizing the last three words. + +The nurse, a good-hearted Roman Catholic, who, like all the servants, +had been forbidden to talk to the child about GOD or any kindred +subject, looked at me startled, yet gratified, and said:-- + +"What will his mother say?" + +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." + +"Yes," said she, "and I thank GOD you have come to teach the poor child +something." + +I then said to her aside, "His mother is very anxious lest he be +frightened; for she was frightened about GOD 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." + +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 _good friend_ for GOD'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. + +Observe these points in the child's speech to the nurse: he interpolated +the words _up in the sky_. 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 GOD 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 _goodness_ 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 the +course of the day (in which, for the first time in his life) he talked +incessantly, asking innumerable questions about his _good friend_, 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 _good friend_ "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?" + +"Wherever love and goodness are," said I; "in you, in me, and in mother, +in everybody who _loves_." 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:-- + +"Can GOD see me now, when I am all wrapped up in this shawl?" + +The elder one replied very earnestly, "O yes! GOD can see everybody, +everywhere." + +"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:-- + +"Amelia, can you see mama in your eye?" (She meant imagination.) + +Amelia replied after a moment, "Yes, I can see mama in my eye, just how +she looks." + +"Well," said Eliza, "I suppose that is the way GOD sees everything, +because He knows everything." + +I cannot conceive a more perfect proof that the soul of a child is a +"sparkle of GOD," 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:-- + +"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 GOD without +materializing it. + +The omnipresence and invisibility of GOD were mysteries that attracted +my little pupil's mind and taxed it, but did not distress nor perplex +it. Of the reality of GOD'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:-- + +"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 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." + +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!" + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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 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:-- + +"What did our good friend want the trees to grow out cf the ground for?" + +I said, "Do you think the trees are pretty? Do you like to look at +them?" + +"Yes, I think they are beautiful." + +"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?" + +"Yes!" and a passionate embrace and kiss was the expressive reply. + +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. + +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 +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! + +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, _cause to stumble_). 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 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 GOD, 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. + +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 knows everything +and gives us our thoughts all the time. Doesn't he give new thoughts to +you every day?" + +"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:-- + +"I am very tired, but I will answer that question, provided you will not +ask me another before dinner." + +As he walked away he said, "Oh, I wish I had asked another question +instead of that!" + +"Well," said I, "what? Perhaps I will answer that one." + +Turning back, he said eagerly, "Will our good friend answer all my +questions when I go into the sky?" + +I said, "Yes, every one; for he knows everything, and can never be +tired." + +The expression of complete satisfaction with which he went away from me +was most expressive. + +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 GOD into which I had led him, and which +I named his good friend, pervaded all space. + +The subsequent questions of how GOD 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 _Immortality_ before he had +defined mortality. + +The GOD 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 GOD was. I have lost the connection and place in the +narrative of another conversation I had with him on the omnipresence of +GOD. 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:-- + +"What are you pinching my toe for?" + +I said, "How do you know I pinched your toe? you cannot see what I am +doing under the table." + +"I think you pinched my toe, because I felt it." + +"I thought all your thoughts were in your head, and all your feelings in +your bosom, not in your toes." + +"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." + +"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." + +"Yes," said he, "I did not know how that was before." + +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 +_Heavenly Father_, which came after a time to take the place of _good +friend_, 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?" + +"I love both," he said. + +I persisted, and said, "Supposing my hand was cut off, would you love me +as well?" + +"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?" + +"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?" + +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?" + +"Yes," said he; "but I don't want you to lose any of those things, for I +love them all together." + +My object in these conversations was to see if he would separate in +thought the finite material body from the conscious soul or _himself_, +as I preferred to say, for to speak of one's self as a _soul_ 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. + +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, 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 GOD, 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? + +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 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. + +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. + +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 GOD'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. + + + + +LECTURE VII. + +A PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSERVATION. + +PART SECOND. + + +IN 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. + +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 _many days_, when I asked her. Do +many days make men old?" + +"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." + +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. + +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." + +"Yes," said he. + +"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 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." + +"What a dear, dear, dear Heavenly Father it is!" said the child; "what +nice ways He has about everything!" + +"Yes," said I, "He has the ways of love." + +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. + +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. + +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 _the best of +all_. + +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. + +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. + +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 commented on the wearing out of his +body, but he did not think of death as a relief for him. + +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?" + +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?" + +"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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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. "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." + +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. + +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 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." + +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. + +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 _wings_!" 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. + +It was also a curious circumstance, that after this matter of death +was, as it were, settled satisfactorily, and the mind of his mother +freed from all trouble on the point, _the love of this life_, 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 _to live_ 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. + +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 _The Story +without an End_, and of _Pilgrim's Progress_, 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. + +The substantial character of the child's piety and sense of immortality, +which I have described as bubbling up at the name _Heavenly_ 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. + +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 _them_. + +All his subsequent life he exhibited an exquisite sensibility to beauty, +which he continued to accept as the Creator's _smile of consent_; the +_very good_ 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 _said_ nothing about +it; and it was sweet to see the delicacy with which he tried to conceal +this pain from _her_, 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 +_remembrance_, her former loveliness; for, as soon as she was really +dead, and he began to think of her _in heaven_, she became his standard +of beauty. During the little more than a year that he continued under my +care, "_not_ so beautiful as my mother," or "_as_ 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 _shock_ 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." + +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 _not_,--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 _not +painful wonder_, 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 things unseen." You may be sure I respected this sacred silence, +which seemed to me to last several minutes, but possibly it was only +_one_. 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." +"_No, indeed!_ 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 _you_ 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 _go_ to my mother. I want to see her _now_," and began to +cry. + +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 _him_, 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). + +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 this is! What +are those things?" (referring to the tomb stones.) I replied: "That +green garden is where people lay away, underground, the _poor old +worn-out dead bodies_ 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 never saw a +soul fly up_." + +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 +Appendix E.) + +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. + +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 _The Story without an End_, a slower and more +laborious way both for him and me than the mixed method detailed in my +_Kindergarten Guide_, of which I have lately published a primer under +the title of _After Kindergarten, what?_ + +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 "_the American +insanity_ of teaching children to read before they have learned the +things signified 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 _originality_. But I had not (at that time) +presumed to question the time-honored tradition, that _the beginning of +education_ was _learning to read_. + +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 _imperfect mind of man_, 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 _in_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 _things_ 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 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 _funny_, 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 _funny_ even +demoralizes intellectually as well as morally, but it has its own +subordinate place in healthy child life. + +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 "_fix it a little_." 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 _the +impossible_, and being baffled, lose courage to undertake the possible. +So 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 _he is_, though the thought was +suggested by the words of another). What he _does_ 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. + +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 +_do_ 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). + +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 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 _for her_ sake, +they cared for and attended to _him_, 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 "MOTHER'S +FRIENDS." 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 EGOTISM 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 _sun_!" 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 _word_! I know what +you mean," and he ran into the house, and brought back Bigelow's _Plants +around Boston_ (_Bigelow_ was the ugly word). But let me hasten from +these details, to redeem my promise of telling you how _prayer_ became a +thought of his mind, and his spontaneous practice. + +It was very early a question of great interest to his mother, and also +to me, whether prayer _would_ become spontaneous with him; that is, +whether he would think of speaking to God _in human words_. His intense +realization of God's _presence_ seemed to be a cause of his _not_ doing +so, and I feared to put GOD _at a distance_ 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 +_children_ with earthly parents, _his_ 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 _goodness and +love_, 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 _your little sharp eyes_ 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 _then_. 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 _wait_?" 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 +_till then_?" + +On one of these occasions he turned from me, and said very tenderly, "_I +thank you, God_." 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, "GOD, I thank you for making this +green garden to put away the dead bodies _in_. GOD, I thank you for +making these beautiful trees grow out of the ground. GOD, 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. + +One sentence was: "I thank you, GOD, for making medicine to put into my +ear when it aches." He also thanked GOD 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 GOD, I love you very much." + +You will observe that in all this spontaneous act of devotion, there was +no _petition_. 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 _asking_ for anything. + +Temptation to wrong-doing had not yet revealed the need that the +progressing spirit always feels of _more_ goodness and love, which I had +taken care to represent that God gave 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. + +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 _prayer_?" 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 _the love and goodness_, they like to ask Him beforehand to +give them what they shall need _to be good with_ 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:-- + + "Now I lay me down to sleep; + I pray the Lord my soul to keep; + If I should die before I wake, + I pray the Lord my soul to take;" + +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 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. + +One morning he waked me with his loud singing, and as soon as I opened +my eyes, said to me, "Aunt Lizzy, I am _singing_ 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 _psalms_ (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: +"_Yes_, 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 "_And there was light_," he sprang up and shouted, "Directly when +He said 'Let there be light,' there _was_ light _directly_!" + +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, '_Let there be light, and there was light_' +directly! directly!" This was not enough; he ran to find my mother and +sister, and again repeated the simply sublime words. + +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 _gospel of +work_. I can hardly bear to think how stupid I was; the effect of not +having had the kindergarten education myself. + +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 +_lack-love_ 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 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 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. + +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. + + + + +LECTURE VIII. + +RELIGIOUS NURTURE. + + +FRŒBEL 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 _at once_, 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. + +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 _knowledge_ of +his surroundings, beginning with that part of nature which is within his +own skin. + +It was the grand intuition of Oken which has been splendidly illustrated +by Dr. J. Garth Wilkinson in his _Human Body in its Connections with +Man_, that the human body is the metropolis of material nature, in which +may be found in _vital order_ 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 _heart_ +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 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. + +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). + +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. + +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. + +I wish to say this very emphatically, all the more because 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. + +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 _mind_, as well as with the _heart_ and _might_, +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. + +To worship God _with the mind_ means to develop the intellect; as to +worship Him with the _heart_ keeps pure the moral sentiments and +quickens moral action; and to worship Him with the _might_ 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 +_Gifts_ or _Schools of Work_, though I would not have you mechanical +followers. There will be legitimate outgrowths of his method. He +himself, in one of his _Pedagogies_, published after his death by +Wichard Lange, has suggested a "school of drawing" upon _the curve_, +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" +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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 _nurture_, not +religious teaching. The religion that integrates human education is not +to be taught. It is the primeval consciousness of filial relation to +GOD, who alone can reveal Himself; for human language has no adequate +expression of GOD, founded as it is on the material universe, which is +the finite opposite of Creative Being. Every individual child is a +momentum of GOD's creativeness which the human Providence of education +must take as its _datum_. Only childhood symbolizes GOD 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 GOD the central +conscious truth of the child's intellect, we must give the name father +or mother to GOD, which is intelligible to the heart, and which will +identify its filial aspiration with the parental bounty, as another, yet +the same. + +But what I want you to observe is, that language being limited in +meaning by its origin in material nature, you should talk about GOD 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 GOD is present to +inspire the truth, generosity, and loving _will_ that is practically +prayed for with _good resolution_. (Good resolutions are the special +prayers of faith, as children should be taught expressly.) + +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.[11] + +The child in the first era of his life has no individual consciousness +of separation from GOD, 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 _not speaking_) does not see nature +as object, 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,-- + + "Glorious in the might of heaven-born freedom on its being's height," + +and only gradually do + + "Shades of the prison-house begin to close around the growing boy." + +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:-- + + "Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own; + Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind, + And even with something of a mother's mind, + And no unworthy aim, + The homely nurse doth all she can + To make her foster-child, her innate man, + Forget the glories he hath known + And that Imperial Palace whence he came. + + * * * * * + + Hence, in a season of calm weather, + Though inland far we be, + Our souls have sight of that immortal sea + Which brought us hither; + Can in a moment travel thither, + And see the children sport upon the shore, + And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore." + +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 GOD by going +counter to them, which reveals to him that he is separating from GOD in +his activity. This separation is _sin_, which is a short word for +separation, and the first step in the development of individuality, and +therefore pardonable, because it is finite. + +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 GOD, and needs to be recognized as GOD in +the understanding. + +In the Old Testament we see that it is the _name_ 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 JEHOVAH, a word made up of the three tenses +of the substantive verb _to be_, "was, is, and shall be," and which +Philo, the Alexandrian Jewish philosopher, translates THE ETERNAL. 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, THE LORD GOD. + +But Jesus, the bright, consummate flower of the Hebrew race, used the +name Father (_my_ and _our_ Father), which you may observe was original +with him. That word expressed the whole of his theology. He made no +disquisitions on GOD'S 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. + +Frœbel has proved by his nursery method that the child shall get _this +idea_ and name of GOD from his mother; and at all events when children +come to the kindergarten they will generally already have heard some +name for GOD, 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 GOD by your inadequate words as was done in the +case of M. D., who was afraid of the omnipresence of GOD, 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 + + "In the embers was something that did live, + And Nature yet remembers + What was so fugitive." + +The naming of GOD 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 _the Powers +above_. 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 as words of GOD 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. + +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 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,-- + + "Wonderful, Lord, are all thy works, + Wheresoever falling. + All, their various voices raise; + Speaking forth their Maker's praise + Wheresoever falling." + +(See Appendix, Note F.) + +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 GOD, 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 GOD'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 to believing in GOD. 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 _universal_ in human desire, keeping your eyes open to what +modifications _their_ 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 _race_ consciousness on +the other. + +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 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 GOD, if GOD +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 GOD to the child. + +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 GOD must be cherished +into self-reliance. There is a self-distrust that is really a distrust +of GOD, 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 GOD, 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 _Mother Love_ and +_Cossetting Songs_.[12] + +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 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. + +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 _but perfectly_ 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 _God +gives_, "upbraiding not." + +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 _their_ wrong-doings, which are more weaknesses than +presumptions, are _sins against God_. 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 _present life_. But GOD is too +great to be injured by them; and to bring GOD to their imagination as +personally angry with them, overwhelms thought, and 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 GOD 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 GOD 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 _in person_. 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. + +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 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." + +"But I read in a hymn that GOD 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." + +"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. + +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:-- + +"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:-- + +"He never would do such a naughty thing." + +"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?" + +"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." + +"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?" + +"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." + +"Why should you do all this?" + +"Because I love him," she said. + +"Do you believe you love him better than GOD loves you?" + +With a look of surprise, she said, "Does GOD love us the same way we +love?" + +"There is but one kind of love," I said, "and I really think He would +like to have you forget that _lie_ you told so 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." + +She looked at me wistfully. + +"Did you ever read about Jesus Christ in the New Testament?" said I. + +"Yes, and I hate to." + +"Why?" + +"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 _lie_, and you know how cross I am." + +"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." + +"What was that word?" she asked, with the most eager interest. + +"_Pardon_," said I, "for all past wrong-doing that you are sorry for." + +"Oh, Miss Peabody, I never thought of the meaning of that word before." + +"Yes, darling," said I, "and that is the reason of all your trouble. Now +think of it always; and thank GOD that He sent Jesus to say it. That +_lie_ of yours GOD 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 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 GOD 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." + +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 GOD'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 _sure_ that GOD 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 GOD 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 GOD 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. + +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 _Christian_, What did Jesus do when the Jews +proved insensible and incorrigible 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 _coming to him_ to get the waters of life he offered, +they had made it the very act of their _religion_ to murder him as a +blasphemer. I ask, Did he, even then, exchange his method of _forbearing +love for cursing_? Did he not, _even then_, 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 _they know not +what they do_"; showing that he felt that this ignorance was infinitely +more pitiable than his own apparently forgotten bodily agonies? And, in +this great _humane_ act of forbearance, and _divine_ act of faith did he +not reveal in its fulness the loving character of God, whom he had +always called _Father_, and with whom he proved himself _one_ 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) _converting the world_? 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. + +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 +"_blessing_ 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 seemed to be that the privilege to do this patriotic duty +was not granted to him as he had grown up thinking, _the will was +lifted_, and he found himself doing _more_--becoming the Saviour, not of +the _nation_ of the Jews merely, _but of all men_, and so sat down on +the right hand of GOD. For he proved himself to the _heart of all +humanity_, GOD's Son, _loving_, not for the sake of men's +_reciprocation_ and appreciation of himself, but for the sake of _the +salvation_ 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 _irrepressible_ tears of their despairing love had most +unexpectedly melted the hardness of self-will at _once_, and _effected +the cure_. LOVE, _when it is understood_, is _irresistible_. Our sacred +oracles teach us that the origin of evil is in a doubt of GOD'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. + +The conquest of evil, on the other hand, they represent, was in Jesus +Christ's trusting _God's love_, 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 _save all men from their sins; not merely his own +people_. + +To the training class of kindergartners I would say, _your_ special work +is rather to _prevent_, than to conquer sin, in the objects of your +care; therefore you should, in your own imagination, associate yourself +with _God creating_, first leading children to realize that all He has +made is _very good_ and must be kept so, which is giving the religious +nurture. + +That great word of Frœbel, _man is a creative_ being, has 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. + +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 _not doubting_ is far from +_efficient conviction_, 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. + +Think of the four last gifts of Frœbel in their wholeness of form, _as +cubes_. 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 _divisibility_ 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 _whole_ 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,--_his creativeness_, whose consequences are infinite. + +Educational science has, in fact, generally omitted to do this in the +past, and treated a child according to the attributes 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 _new_, 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. + +It is, in short, because education has not hitherto conceived of man as +_creative_, 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. + +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." + +_Liberty and opportunity!_ There could not be a better description of +Frœbel's principle and method of education. + +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 _liberty_ nor +_opportunity in that_! + +"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," _moral_ as well as +political; and before the child is old enough to appreciate this, and +_be vigilant for himself_, the educator must do so _for him_, genially, +but firmly intervening to secure to his mind that _pause before action_ +on the moral, the artistic, and intellectual plane, that the Friends +recognize to be necessary before acting on the spiritual plane. + +The ways of caprice are multitudinous,--the way of life is _one_ for +each individual, and is pointed out to the _pausing_ attentive mind by +the Father, who speaks to us, within, forever; but whose voice can only +be heard when listened to by _intention_; 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 _reflection_ on perceived facts and truths. + +There is a right and a wrong way of doing everything,--_always_. The +right way will always produce a thing of use or of beauty, whose +reaction on the mind of the producer _cultivates_ his mind, or _grows +the human understanding_; 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 _secured for +the child_ by the care of his educators--even when he is only playing, +or the play will tire instead of exhilarate. + +Hence it is not _enough_, 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 _go over in thought_, 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 _Friends_ will agree with me that human beings can manifest +no _spiritual_ beauty or moral power, except so far as they listen to +the Shepherd of souls 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 GOD _with the mind_? + +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 _going to do_, 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, _no +less_ than do moral and spiritual principles. In short, the true method +of the intellect is the perpetual _gift_ of a very present GOD, as much +as the true method of the heart and soul. + +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. + +You should keep this great idea before you, and it will enable you to +_use the technique_ 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, OR DO NOTHING, for they will generally conclude to do the thing +in hand, rather than DO NOTHING 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 GOD 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 SONS. 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 _common +sense_; but what is peculiar to each, and makes the independent +individual, is his _own secret_, and you can only help THAT to flower +and fruitage by giving him the conditions of free, _independent action_, +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 _define_ are _general_, 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) _unite in that faith in God_, and that _disinterested +love of humanity_, which was historically enacted on earth by Jesus +Christ, and _into_ which every child born on the earth should be brought +before he is old enough to appreciate those _intellectual_ distinctions +which make different _creeds_; because then the kindergartner will be +able to meet children on the high plane of life where their _angels_ +(does not that mean their spiritual instincts or ideals?) behold the +face of the Father, and only then will the kindergartner practically +enter into Frœbel's method of _living with the children_, and communing +with their innocence. + +I see a great deal of this practical application in the kindergartens +kept by the well-trained kindergartners; and especially when they are +_mothers_, who unquestionably make the best kindergartners (other things +being equal), because it is easier for mothers to _divine_ 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. + +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 GOD who is their home, trailing clouds of glory," +and for a time + + "are still attended + By the vision splendid," + +although too often + + "The man beholds it die away, + And fade into the light of common day." + +Of course _all_ the opening conversation need not be on the moral and +religious planes, but some of it should lead into 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. + +For such genuine conversation the necessary prerequisite on the part of +the teacher is a real faith in children's being the _breath of God_ in +their Essence. + +Then she will not have any _will-work_ 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 GOD; for GOD'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. + +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 _engaged in a service of God_, 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 GOD 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 GOD. + +So the work of the good Samaritan, though he was doubtless _thinking_ +only of the _individual_ he was comforting, and not at all of God, was +recognized by Christ as a _real act of worship_; for it was the +fulfilment of the second commandment _like unto the first_. + +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, + + "In their work and in their play, + God is with them all the day." + +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 _mere_ ritual that this great Apostle +said that the _Holy Ghost was not bodily exercise_, but a hopeful, +faithful _charity of thought_, _feeling_, _and deed_; and this is what +children can be guided into from the beginning, provided the +kindergartner knows how to converse and play _with_ them instead of +talking to them and coercing them _ever so kindly_ into acting out _her_ +will. The play of childhood is the most genuine and intense life that is +lived, body, heart, and will _conspiring_ entirely; and it is by +respecting the child's _will_ and _heart_ that you really help instead +of _hindering_ this unification of his threefold nature, which +corresponds to the Trinity of the Supreme Being and prevents _that_ from +becoming a bewildering tritheism in his conception. + +A child cannot be _just_ unless he is _loving_, 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 motives, when he seems to be in the wrong, before +you condemn him. + +I think I have gained some of the deepest insights I have ever had into +_Divine Truth_, 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. + +It is not mothers alone who can charm out of children their secret, as +those know who have seen some maiden kindergartners talk _with_ 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 _comparatively_. I have known some of the best +mothers in the world _do that_, so as to be practically of bad influence +over children not their own. + +Mothers who would be and can be the best kindergartners should therefore +none the less study Frœbel's science carefully and humbly. + +_All_ children are alike in having the _threefold nature_. 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. + +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. + +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 +_mechanically_, but must be morally and spiritually, trained; that is, +addressed and treated as free agency. + +The salutation of the Brahmin to his youthful son, no less 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, Note F.) + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] See George Macdonald's _Vicar's Daughter_. + +[12] 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. + + + + +GLIMPSES OF PSYCHOLOGY. + + +SPIRITUALITY. + +WE 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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, judging--for these are +intentional acts of the pre-existent soul breathed into his body and +bidden to "have dominion."--_Genesis 1._ + +What is this pre-existent soul, this mysterious depth of personality? + +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 _unknown power within him_, 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." + +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 _similar +emotion_. 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 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 _understand_ of the theory of colors, or +musical quantities?" + +That this mysterious power, this feeling soul, is the _human_ +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. + +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 _outward condition_ 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 _fear_. Still he would desire the +forbidden thing belonging to another, nor could he conceive why he +should not 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 _has_ +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.... + +"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? 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 _unity_ in one harmonious +fountain?" + +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. + +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 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 MAN. 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 _nature_ 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. + +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. + + +UNDERSTANDING. + +WE 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 _individual_ consciousness, there +would be no standard of human virtue or art. + +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. + +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 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. + +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, +_created to make_, 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. + +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 (_regulative_), not yet in +the completer form of love (_creative_). 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +This is the _rationale_ 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +It is because death _seems_ 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. _Life_, _love_, and _liberty_ are identical words in their +radical elements. There is no love without liberty, nor fulness of life +without love. + +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. + +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 _feels free_. When man becomes mere +law to man, instead of love, he feels he is enslaved. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 _rationale_ 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 _except_ 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. + +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 _contrariness_, 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 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. + +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 _wiser_ 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 that age it is a wise self-assertion which we wish +to develop. We therefore act _for_ the infant, having secured his acting +_with_ 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 +_playing_ 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. + +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 _make believe_ 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. + +The nursery and kindergarten education are the preliminary processes +which foreshadow all the processes of the Divine Providence. Therefore, +even in the nursery we _play_ antagonizing processes. We heighten the +child's enjoyment 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. + +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. + +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 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 _victory_, which distinguishes the +eternal life of Christ from the nirwana of Buddha. + + +MORAL SENTIMENT. + +WE 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 +_Glimpses_. + +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. + +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." + +In Book II. chapter vii. of Campbell's _Philosophy of Rhetoric_, 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. + +On the subject of my second paper of _Glimpses_ the same author has +written two books, one published by D. Appleton, in New York, in 1864, +_The Freedom of the Mind in Willing; or, Every Being that wills, a +Creative First Cause_; and in 1869, Lee & Shepard, Boston, published, as +supplement, _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_.[13] + + +INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM TO WILL. + +IF the spontaneous will of man, and its heart with its latent love, +hope, and sense of beauty and justice, are without date, + + "An eye among the blind, + That deaf and silent reads the eternal deep, + Haunted forever by the eternal mind," + +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, +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 +_thoughts_ 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, I AM. And here education +begins its offices, by helping man to reply THOU ART, which he does by +his legitimate art. But no one man can utter the _thou art_ 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. + +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 _thinking_. Sensuous impressions are the raw material of thoughts, +but discrimination and classification of things according to their +similarities, is the _operation_ of thought. + +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. 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. + +She will therefore lead the child to _produce_ 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. + +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. + +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 the +development of the understanding the occupations, as he calls the +regular _production_ 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, because, 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 _motive_. 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. + +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. + +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. + +For the fancy is to be carefully cherished by the kindergartner. 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. + + +CONSCIENCE. + +WE 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. + +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. + +To excite the human understanding to appreciate names, and classify +things for _use_ and giving pleasure, it is necessary to present things +to children gradually, first singly, and 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. + +Because nature and human kind are so _vast_ 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. + +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 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. + +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 + + "Serene will be our days and bright, + And happy will our nature be, + When love is an unerring light, + And joy its own security; + And blest are they, who in the main, + This faith even now do entertain, + Live in the spirit of this creed, + Yet find _another strength_ according to their need." + +"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," + + "Victory and Law + When empty terrors overawe; + From vain temptations doth set free, + And calms the weary strife of frail humanity!" + +Conscience, then, is the soul's witness, first of the relation of the +individual to the human race; and ultimately, of the 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. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[13] 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 _Language_, 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 _business_ may be as good a disciplinarian of the +higher intellect as scholastic education, to say the least. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +NOTE A, TO LECTURE I. + +IN 1872 the first training school for kindergartners was founded in +England by the Manchester Kindergarten Assoc. + +To the prospectus is subjoined the following statement:-- + +The aim of the kindergarten system of training, intended for young +children up to the age of seven, when school-teaching _proper_ 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. + +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; 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. + +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. + +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 _rule of thumb_. 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, 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. + + +NOTE B, TO PAGE 81. + +_Letter from Michelet to the Baroness Marenholtz von Bülow._ + + MARCH 27, 1859. + +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 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. + + +_Letter from the Abbe Miraud, author of voluminous works, one of them +being "La Democratic et la Catholicisme."_ + + JULY, 1858. + +We have to fulfil a great mission in common. I shall be most happy to +procure for Frœbel's theory, _which I accept fully_, 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 _propaganda_. 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. + + +_Mons. A. Guyard, a Parisian author writes:_ + + JUNE 14, 1857. + +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. + + + _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:_-- + + PARIS, March 4, 1856. + +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, 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 _revealed_ 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, +_Love to God and the neighbor_. + +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, _precede_ statutes. +Frœbel leads education again into the path intended by GOD, 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 GOD, +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. + + +NOTE C, TO PAGE 84. + +In the second part of my _Guide to Kindergarten and Moral Training of +Infancy_, 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 _After Kindergarten--what?_ +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, _cars_, _go_, _bells_, _sing_, _dizzy_, _old_, _hen_, +_fixes_, _vest_, _jelly_, _jars_, _puss_, _kitty_. 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. + +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. + + +NOTE D, TO PAGE 102. + +History of Printing, an unfinished manuscript of which he found in the +Antiquarian Library of Worcester. + + +NOTE E, TO PAGE 110. + +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. + +"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 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." + +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. + + +NOTE F, TO PAGE 167. + +I here insert the version of the Lord's Prayer and the _Song of the +Weather_, 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. + + OUR FATHER, who in Heaven art, + Thy name we dearly love; + We'd do thy will with all our heart, + As done in heaven above. + Give us this day our daily bread, + Forgive the wrong we do, + And we'll not mind when treated ill, + That we may be like you. + Help us avoid temptation's snare; + Deliver us from evil ways; + For thine's the kingdom and the power, + All glory and all praise. + + +SONG OF THE WEATHER. + + THIS is the way the snow comes down, + Softly, softly falling. + God, he giveth his snow like wool, + Fair, and white, and beautiful. + This is the way the snow comes down, + Softly, softly falling. + + _Chorus._ + + Wonderful, Lord, are all thy works, + Wheresoever falling; + All their various voices raise, + Speaking forth their Maker's praise. + Wonderful, Lord, are all thy works, + Wheresoever falling. + + This is the way the rain comes down, + Swiftly, swiftly falling; + So he sendeth his welcome rain. + On the field, and hill, and plain, + This is the way the rain comes down, + Swiftly, swiftly falling. + + (_Repeat the chorus._) + + This is the way the frost comes down, + Widely, widely falling; + So it spreadeth all through the night, + Shining, cold, and pure, and bright, + This is the way the frost comes down, + Widely, widely falling. + + (_Chorus._) + + This is the way the hail comes down, + Loudly, loudly falling; + So it flieth beneath the cloud, + Swift, and strong, and wild, and loud, + This is the way the hail comes down, + Loudly, loudly falling. + + (_Chorus._) + + This is the way the cloud comes down, + Darkly, darkly falling; + So it covers the shining blue, + Till no ray can glisten through, + This is the way the cloud comes down, + Darkly, darkly falling. + + (_Chorus._) + + This is the way sunshine comes down, + Sweetly, sweetly falling; + So it chaseth the cloud away, + So it waketh the lovely day, + This is the way sunshine comes down, + Sweetly, sweetly falling. + + (_Chorus._) + + This is the way rainbow comes round, + Brightly, brightly falling; + So it smileth across the sky, + Making fair the heavens on high, + This is the way rainbow comes down, + Brightly, brightly falling. + + _Chorus._ + + Wonderful, Lord, are all thy works, + Wheresoever falling; + All their various voices raise, + Speaking forth their Maker's praise. + Wonderful, Lord, are all thy works, + Wheresoever falling. + +(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.) + + + Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London. + + + + +THE COMMITTEE OF THE + +Manchester Kindergarten Association + +Beg to Announce that the + +TRAINING CLASSES FOR TEACHERS + +Meet in the AFTERNOON at + +Thorney Abbey, Alexandra Park, Manchester, + +For THEORETICAL instruction in the following subjects:-- + + Drawing J. CLEGG, Esq. + Music MISS WICHERN. + Theory and Application of the Kindergarten + System MISS SNELL. + Physiology and Laws of Health MISS CLEGHORN. + Science of Education W. H. HERFORD, Esq., B.A. + Natural History and Physiography F. J. WEBB, Esq. + Elements of Geometry MISS SNELL. + Botany MISS HERFORD. + +=Practical Instruction is afforded at the Model Kindergarten in the +Forenoon.= + +FEES FOR THE ABOVE. + + THE WHOLE COURSE (per Term of Ten Weeks) 5 GUINEAS. + SEPARATE CLASSES (per term of Ten Hours) 2½ GUINEAS. + +_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._ + +A LIMITED NUMBER OF STUDENTS CAN BE RECEIVED AS BOARDERS BY THE HEAD +MISTRESS. + + CHARGE FOR BOARD AND LODGING 44 GUINEAS PER ANNUM. + WEEKLY BOARDERS 33 " " + +=Satisfactory References Required.= + + + + +Froebel Society, + +17, BUCKINGHAM STREET, STRAND. + + +President: + +MISS SHIRREFF. + + +Vice-Presidents: + + OSCAR BROWNING, Esq., M.A. + Rev. Canon DANIEL, M.A. + J. G. FITCH, Esq., H.M. _Inspector of Training Colleges._ + Prof. G. CAREY FOSTER, B.A. + Dr. J. H. GLADSTONE, F.R.S. + Lady GOLDSMID. + Mrs. W. GREY. + Fräulein HEERWART. + Prof. MEIKLEJOHN, M.A. + Rev. R. H. QUICK, M.A. + A. SONNENSCHEIN, Esq. + + +Council: + + Miss M. E. BAILEY. + Miss BAKER. + Miss BELCHER. + Rev. A. BOURNE. + Hon. Mrs. BUXTON. + E. COOKE, Esq. + Miss S. CROMBIE. + Mrs. FIELDEN. + Miss FRANKS. + Mrs. GREEN. + Mrs. LAW. + Miss E. LORD. + Miss LYSCHINSKA. + Miss E. A. MANNING. + Mme. MICHAELIS. + H. K. MOORE, Esq., B.Mus., B.A. + J. S. PHILLPOTTS, Esq. + Miss KATE PHILLIPS. + Mrs. ROMANES. + Rev. T. W. SHARPE, H.M.I.S. + Miss SIM. + F. STORR, Esq., B.A. + Miss KATE THORNBURY. + Miss WARD. + + +Hon. Treasurer: + + A. R. PRICE, Esq. + + +Hon. Secretary: + + C. G. MONTEFIORE, Esq. + + +Secretary: + + Miss BAYLEY. + + + + +The Froebel Society + + +WAS 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. + + * * * * * + +AN EXAMINATION OF STUDENTS + +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. + +Under certain conditions the Council are prepared to hold the +Examinations at local centres. + + * * * * * + +A Registry for Kindergarten Teachers + +Has been opened at the Office of the Society. A small fee is charged to +those who apply. + + * * * * * + +Arrangements have been made by the Council for the INSPECTION AND +REGISTRATION OF KINDERGARTENS upon certain conditions. + + * * * * * + +The Calendar of the Froebel Society, price 1/-, + +Contains the Syllabus for the Examinations, and the Examination Papers +of 1886. + + * * * * * + +Further information can be obtained from the Secretary, at the Office of +the Society, + + 17, BUCKINGHAM STREET, STRAND. + + * * * * * + +The Office is open daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., except on Thursdays. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +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. + +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 " _Mother Love_ and _Cossetting Songs_." + +Mrs. Kraus-Boelte is spelled without an oe-ligature except in a single +footnote where a ligature was used. + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Page 32, "Bulow" changed to "Bülow" (Marenholtz-Bülow has happily +remarked) + +Page 42, word "it" removed from text. Original read: (forth by +addressing it the) + +Page 44, "her's" changed to "hers" (for _hers_ they realize) + +Page 50, "combinanations" changed to "combinations" (color and its +combinations) + +Page 50, "develope" changed to "develop" (office, to develop) + +Page 209, "beuause" changed to "because" (of it, because, in addition) + +Page 223-224, the word "Chorus" sometimes appeared in parentheses and +sometimes did not. This was retained. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Education in The Home, The +Kindergarten, and The Prim, by Elizabeth P. 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