etc. basket-making, sailing, the miller game, sawing wood, Other games represent animal life, as in the "pigeon-house," the fishes," "the bees," etc. What delights a child more, or gives more healthy food to its imagination, than letting the limbs imitate life? In the Kindergarten the games hold deservedly a prominent place; they stand for the little ones in lieu of gymnastics, which belong properly to the school. These games are, as before said, so devised, that through one or another of them every limb and muscle of the body is well brought into play, while words, idea, and melody are combined to give them purpose, and elevate them above the merely mechanical and bodily exercise. Time is taught through the games unconsciously; the unpretending courtesies of social intercourse; the sweet traits of a child's nature are unconsciously disclosed; selfishness is forgotten, and the graces of patience and gentleness are cultivated. The songs are cheerful, the action free, but well-bred; gay, but not noisy. The child finds in his fingers, hands, arms, legs, feet, all the implements he needs for playing. The first flexibility of the hands is lost, if not exercised and developed at an early age. The ability and power of the muscles, which, during the first six years, might be early increased, mostly develops incompletely. For young children exists no mental effort, without a simultaneous activity of the hands, producing one thing or another. Froebel combines mental and bodily work. The young child not only wants to play, but it wants productive play, and it demands variety; and for this, means are offered systematically, according to the child's age, strength, and abilities, in Froebel's "Kindergarten Gifts and Occu pations," by means of which the great law is noticed, which rules in the kingdom of form, viz., that from the different composition and arrangement of a few primary forms, all existing forms are made. The object which in the simplest manner includes in itself the general qualities of things, is the ball. In making the ball the first gift of the child, Froebel began at the beginning. He based all his means of play on mathematical foundations, and the ball is the simplest and completest ground form, and the one in which all other forms are contained, also there is perhaps no toy more ancient or more universal. This first gift consists of six soft colored balls, each being of one of the primary and secondary colors. Colors are the productions of light, and help to awaken the mind's light through the pleasure they create. These six balls are introduced to the child in every possible different and individual manner. The ball is the form of movement; it illustrates the general properties of form, color, size, weight, space, and density; it teaches movement and direction, eye and hand are trained, and the child finds the best opportunity in this simple body for observation and comparison. In this first gift lie all the rudimentary possibilities which are gradually and logically developed by the succeeding gifts and occupations; also, the ball-games are meant to develop and exercise the various muscles of the body: the hand is made dextrous, the vision alert; natural laws are discovered to exist, and their reasons investigated. When the impressions of childhood are left to chance, education cannot ensue. The weaker the powers of the child, the more do they require help and support, i. e., education. A plastic alphabet is thus created, by which the book of concrete things that surround us may be read aright, the first book which children must learn to read. Froebel did not invent the process of the child's development, he only discovered and showed the way in which the child naturally proceeds. The second gift consists of a wooden sphere, a cylinder, and a cube. In order to gain clear knowledge, they must not be confused by too many forms, but draw their comparisons from a few primary forms, which form a strong contrast. The contrast with the sphere and cube is one of form. In order to be able to compare properly, a certain likeness should always be apparent. This connection is found in the cylinder. These three bodies, ball, cylinder, and cube, as ground forms or normal forms, allow the qualities of each body, when regarded as a whole, to become known by observation. The individual bodies are followed by the divided bodies. Without dividing the whole and taking it to pieces, a closer observation and more complete knowledge are impossible. The thinking, searching, parting, and dividing processes of the understanding – analyzing — should be preceded by the taking apart, that is, analyzing of the solid bodies. An arbitrary division, however, can never lead to clear representations, for this end a regular methodical division is needed. The division of the third gift (once in every direction) serves this aim, for the form of the parts are the same as that of the whole, and only the relations of size make the difference. Thus the different relations of size and number are apparent, and without these two intuitions a future clear conception — known as an idea could not be gained. In the fourth gift we find the difference of form in the parts and in regard to the whole, and at the same time in the relation of the surfaces. The connection of the fifth gift and sixth gift with the preceding ones consists in the like form of the whole, the cubic form, and in the conformity of the manner of division, i. e., inasmuch as the fifth gift is the third gift doubled, the division being twice in each direction, the sixth gift is the fourth gift doubled. The child always begins by merely heaping up some of the parts, just as nature does in the inorganic world. But clear representations need order, and for this order Froebel's law of connecting opposites offers the simplest guide; besides, the different forms grouped in three series, viz., forms of knowledge (mathematical), forms of beauty (symmetrical), and forms of life (what surrounds us), correspond respectively with the understanding, the heart, and the will of the child. The child gains, therefore, real experiences through these gifts by actually applying, handling, and experimenting with them. The next step, from the solid bodies, toward spiritualizing the material, is the transition to the plane, for which simple mathematical ground forms are given, as laying tablets, the plane, surfaces of the body, as it were. In the preceding gifts the child has dealt with solids, and made of them miniature houses, chairs, sofas, stoops, etc. With the tablets the child can only represent the pictures of these objects. The tablets introduce color as well as form. Form of the threefold kind, as done with the previous gifts, are also with the tablets laid. The shape of the tablets is of two kinds, square and triangular. The triangular tablets are again divided into four kinds of tablets, viz., right-angled isosceles triangles, equilateral triangles, right-angled scalene triangles, and obtuse-angled triangles. New impressions are brought about gradually in the true order of the Kindergarten, and objects and ideas represented to the child are always developed in natural sequence. The connected slat represents the embodied edge as well as part of the plane; be it of a triangle, square, etc., it is the outline form of the plane, and, owing to the breadth of the slat, is still a considerable part of the plane. The ten slats of which it consists are so fastened at the overlapping ends by a rivet, that all ten can be folded up, or unfolded, and shifted into different forms, either geometrical, symmetrical, or representations of objects. One form is always the outgrowth of the previous one, for instance, the rhombus of the square, the rhomboid of the oblong, etc. It is a gift as well for the Kindergarten as for the school. Hand, eye, and mind are equally exercised. The disconnected slat represents the embodied edge of one side of the plane only, though when interlaced with other slats, a surface-like form is represented. These long, flat, narrow, elastic slats form, like the previous, the connecting link betweeen plane and line. Slat-interlacing rests on the same law as weaving. The child's idea of number is greatly improved by playing with these slats; numeration, addition, multiplication, may be practised in a rudimentary way, and children, if well directed, will discover and invent freely and independently. With the growth of the child, the desire to produce, unaided, some lasting result grows and strengthens. If now the child devotes this desire for production to some aimless gratification which yields no |