When our distress had risen to its highest pitch, a new and unexpected prospect suddenly revealed itself.[128] Several very influential friends of ours spoke to the Duke of Meiningen of our work. He summoned Froebel to him, and made inquiries as to his plans for the future. Froebel laid before him a plan for an educational institute,[129] complete in every particular, which we had all worked at in common to draw up, in which not only the ordinary "learned" branches of education but also handicrafts, such as carpentering, weaving, bookbinding, tilling the ground and so on were used as means of culture. During half the school hours studies were to be pursued, and the other half was to be occupied by handiwork of one kind or another. This work was to give opportunities for direct instruction; and above all it was so planned as to excite in the mind of the child a necessity for explanations as well as to gratify his desire for creativeness and for practical usefulness. The awakening of this eager desire for learning and creative activity, was one of the fundamental thoughts of Friedrich Froebel's mind. The object-teaching of Pestalozzi seemed to him not to go far enough; and he was always seeking to regard man not only as a receptive being, but a creative, and especially as a productive one. We never could work out our ideas in Keilhau satisfactorily, because we could not procure efficient technical teaching; and before all things we wanted the pupils themselves. But now by the help of the Duke of Meiningen our keenest hopes seemed on the point of gratification. The working out of the plan spoken of above, led us to many practical constructions in which already lay the elements of the future Kindergarten occupations. These models are now scattered far and wide, and indeed are for the most part lost; but the written plan has been preserved.

The Duke of Meiningen was much pleased with Froebel's explanations of this plan, and with the complete and open-hearted way in which everything was laid before him. A proposition was now made that Froebel should receive the estate of Helba with thirty acres of land, and a yearly subsidy of 1,000 florins.[130] In passing it may be noticed that Froebel was consulted by the duke as to the education of the hereditary prince. Froebel at once said outright that no good would be done for the future ruler if he were not brought up in the society of other boys. The duke came to his opinion, and the prince was actually so taught and brought up.

When Froebel came back from Meiningen[131] the whole community was naturally overjoyed; but their joy did not last very long. A man of high station in Meiningen who was accustomed to exercise a sort of dictatorship in educational matters, as he was the right-hand man of the prince in such things, a man also who had earned an honourable place in literature (of which no one surely would seek to deprive him), feared much lest the elevation of Froebel should injure his own influence. We were therefore, all of a sudden, once again assailed with the meanest and most detestable charges, to which our unfortunate position at Keilhau lent a convenient handle. The duke received secret warnings against us. He began to waver, and in a temporising way sent again to Froebel, proposing that he should first try a provisional establishment of twenty pupils as an experiment. Froebel saw the intention in the duke's mind, and was thrown out of humour at once; for when he suspected mistrust he lost all hope, and immediately cast from his mind what a few hours before had so warmly encouraged him. Therefore Froebel at once broke off all negotiations, and set out for Frankfurt, to discuss the work at Keilhau with his friends; since after so many troubles he had almost begun to lose faith in himself. Here by chance he met the well-known musical composer Schnyder, from Wartensee. He told this gentleman of the events which had just occurred, talked to him of his plans and of our work at Keilhau, and exercised upon him that overpowering influence which is the peculiar property of creative minds. Schnyder saw the value of his efforts, and begged him to set up an educational establishment in his castle on the Wartensee, in Switzerland.[132] Froebel hurriedly seized with joy the hand thus held out to him, and at once set off for Wartensee with his nephew, my brother-in-law Ferdinand.

There Friedrich and Ferdinand Froebel had already been living and working some little time when I was asked by the rest of the community who still remained at Keilhau to go and see for myself exactly how they were getting on in Switzerland. With ten thalers[133] in my pocket, and in possession of one old summer coat, which I wore, and a threadbare frock-coat, which I carried over my arm, I set off on "Shanks's mare"[134] to travel the whole way. If I were to go into details as to what I went through on that journey, I should probably run the risk of being charged with gross exaggeration. Enough, I got to my destination, and when I asked in the neighbourhood about my friends and their doings, I learned from every one that there was nothing further to say against "the heretics," than that they were heretics. A few peasant children from the neighbourhood had found their way to them, but no one came to them from any distance, as had been reckoned upon from the first by Froebel as a source of income. The ill-will of the clergy, which began to show itself immediately the institution was founded, and which became stronger as the footing of our friends grew firmer, was able to gather to itself a following sufficient to check any quick growth of our undertaking. Besides, the basis for such an establishment was not to be found at Wartensee. Schnyder had, indeed, with a generosity never too greatly to be admired and praised, made over to us his castle and all its furniture, his plate, his splendid library,—in short, all that was in or around the castle was fully at our disposition; but he would permit no new buildings or alterations of any sort, and as the rooms assigned to us were in no way suitable for our use, it was evident that his generous support must be regarded as only a temporary and passing assistance. We perceived the evil of our situation in all its keenness, but we saw no way out of the difficulty.

In a most remarkable way there dawned upon us a new prospect at the very moment when we least expected it. We were sitting one day in a tavern near Wartensee, and talking of our struggles with some strangers who happened to be there. Three travellers were much interested in our narrative. They gave themselves out as business people from Willisau,[135] and soon informed us that they had formed the notion of trying to get some assistance for us, and our enterprise for their native town. This they actually did. We received an invitation from twenty associated well-to-do families in Willisau to remove our school there, and more fully to work out our plans amongst them. The association had addressed the cantonal authorities, and a sort of castle was allotted provisionally to us. About forty pupils from the canton at once entered the school, and now we seemed at last to have found what we had so long been seeking. But the priests rose up furiously against us with a really devilish force. We even went in fear of our lives, and were often warned by kind-hearted people to turn back, when we were walking towards secluded spots, or had struck along the outlying paths amongst the mountains. To what abominable means this spirit of bigotry resorted, the following example may serve to show.

In Willisau a church festival is held once a year, in which a communion-wafer is shown, miraculously spotted with blood. The drops of blood were believed by the people to have been evoked from the figure of Jesus by the crime of two gamblers; who, having cursed Jesus, flung their sword at him, whereupon the devil appeared. As "God be with us"[136] seized the villains by the throat, a few drops of blood trickled from Jesus' wounds. To prevent others, therefore, from falling in a like way into the power of the arch-deceiver, a yearly commemorative festival is held at Willisau. The wafer is shown as a warning to devout people, who flock in crowds from all parts of the neighbourhood to join in the procession which closes the ceremony. We felt of course compelled to attend, and as we wished to take our part, we offered to lead the singing. I feared an outbreak, and I earnestly implored my friends to keep quiet under any circumstances, and whatever happened, to give no pretext for any excitement. Our singing was finished, when in the place of the expected preacher, suddenly there appeared a blustering, fanatical Capuchin monk. He exhausted himself in denunciations of this God-forsaken, wicked generation, sketched in glaring colours the pains of hell awaiting the accursed race, and then fell fiercely upon the alarmed Willisauers, upbraiding them, as their worst sin, with the fostering of heretics in their midst, the said "heretics" being manifestly ourselves. Fiercer and fiercer grew his threats, coarser and coarser his insults against us and our well-wishers, more and more horrible his pictures of the flames of hell, into grave danger of which the Willisauers, he said, had fallen by their awful sin. Froebel stood as if benumbed, without moving a muscle, or changing a feature, exactly in face of the Capuchin, in amongst the people; and we others also looked straight before us, immovable. The parents of our pupils, as well as the pupils themselves, and many others, had already fled midway in the monk's Jeremiad. Every one expected the affair to end badly for us; and our friends, outside the church, were taking precautions for our safety, and concerting measures for seizing the monk who was thus inciting the mob to riot. We stood quite still all the time in our places listening patiently to the close of the Capuchin's tirade: "Win, then, for yourselves an everlasting treasure in heaven." shouted he, "bring this misery to an end, and suffer the wretched men to remain no longer amongst you. Hunt the wolves from the land, to the glory of God and the rage of the devil. Then will peace and blessing return, and great joy in heaven with God, and on earth with those who heartily serve Him and His saints. Amen." Hardly had he uttered the last word than he disappeared through a side door and was no more seen. As for us, we passed quietly through the staring and threatening mob. No hand was raised against us at that moment, but danger lay about us on every side, and it was no pleasure to recognise the fact that the sword of Damokles always hung by a hair over our head. Feeling very uneasy at our insecure condition, I was sent, on the part of the rest, to the authorities of the canton, especially to Abbe Girard,[137] and the mayor, Eduard Pfyffer, to beg that they would provide for our safety with all the means in their power. On my way I was recognised by a priest for one of the newly-introduced "heretics" as I rested a moment in an inn. The people there began to talk freely about me, and to cast looks of hatred and contempt at me. At last, the priest waxing bolder and bolder, accused me aloud of abominable heresy. I arose slowly, crossed with a firm step over to the black-frocked one, and asked him, "Do you know, sir, who Jesus Christ was, and do you hold Him in any particular esteem?" Quite nonplussed by my firm and quiet address he stammered out, "Certainly, He is God the Son, and we must all honour Him and believe on Him, if we are to escape everlasting damnation." I continued, "Then perhaps you can tell me whether Christ was a Catholic or a Protestant?"

The black-frock was silenced, the crowd stared, and presently began to applaud. The priest made off, and I was left in peace. My question had answered better than a long speech.

In Eduard Pfyffer I found an estimable sterling man of humane and firm character. He started from the fundamental principle that it was of little use freeing the people from this or that special superstition, but that we should do better by working for the future against sloth of thought and want of independent mental character from the very bottom—namely, by educating our young people. Therefore, he set great store by our undertaking. And when I told him of our downcast spirits and the absolute danger in which we lived at the moment, he replied:—"There is only one way to ensure your safety. You must win over the people. Work on a little longer, and then invite them all from far and near to a public examination. If this test wins over the crowd to your side, then, and only then, are you out of harm's reach." I went home, and we followed this counsel. The examination was held on a lovely day in autumn. A great crowd from several cantons flocked together, and there appeared delegates from the authorities of Zuerich, of Bern, and other cantons. Our contest with the clerical party, which had been commented upon in most of the Swiss journals, had drawn all eyes upon us. We scored a great victory with our examination. The children developed so much enthusiasm, and answered so readily, that all were agreeably surprised, and rewarded us with loud applause. From seven in the morning till seven in the evening lasted this examination, closing with games and gymnastic exercises performed by the whole school. We rejoiced within ourselves; for our undertaking might now be regarded as fairly floated. The institution was spoken of in the great Council of the Canton, and most glowing speeches were delivered in our favour by Herr Pfyffer, Herr Amrhyn, and others. The Council decided that the castle and its outbuildings should be let to us at a very cheap rate, and that the Capuchin who had openly incited to riot against us should be expelled from the canton.

A little time after this examination a deputation from Bern came to invite Froebel to undertake the organisation of an Orphanage at Burgdorf. Froebel suggested that he should not be restricted to teach orphans alone in the new establishment; his request was granted, and he then accepted the invitation.

With this, it seemed to me, my mission in Switzerland was at an end, and I began to long to return to Keilhau; my eldest son was now a year old, and I had never yet seen him. Middendorff left his family, and replaced me at Willisau, living there for four years far away from wife and child.[138] At Keilhau I found things had improved, and the numbers had increased most cheeringly. I determined to throw all my strength into the work of raising the mother institution from her slough of debt. I began by a piece of honourable swindling: and borrowed of Peter to pay Paul, covering one debt with another, but at the same time making it appear that we were paying our way. In this fashion our damaged credit was restored, and as the receipts grew happily greater and greater, I began to gain ground. Eventually I was able to send help to the other branches of our community, to increase my help as time went on, and to prepare a place of refuge for them if anything went wrong elsewhere.

In Switzerland our enterprise did not develop as rapidly as we desired, in spite of the sanction of the Council of the Canton. The institution at Willisau gained unlimited confidence there; but the malevolent opposition of the clerical party secretly flourished as before, and succeeded in depriving it of all aid from more distant places. Under these circumstances we could not attain that prosperity which so much activity and self-sacrificing work on the part of our circle must otherwise infallibly have brought.

Ferdinand Froebel and Middendorff remained in Willisau. Froebel and his wife went to Burgdorf, to found and direct the proposed Orphanage.[139] In his capacity as Director, Froebel had to give what was called a Repetitive Course to the teachers. In that Canton, namely, there was an excellent regulation which gave three months' leave to the teachers once in every two years.[140] During this leave they assembled at Burgdorf, mutually communicated their experiences, and enriched their culture with various studies. Froebel had to preside over the debates and to conduct the studies, which were pursued in common. His own observations and the remarks of the teachers brought him anew to the conviction that all school education was as yet without a proper foundation, and, therefore, that until the education of the nursery was reformed nothing solid and worthy could be attained. The necessity of training gifted capable mothers occupied his soul, and the importance of the education of childhood's earliest years became more evident to him than ever. He determined to set forth fully his ideas on education, which the tyranny of a thousand opposing circumstances had always prevented him from working out in their completeness; or at all events to do this as regards the earliest years of man, and then to win over the world of women to the actual accomplishment of his plans. Pestalozzi's "Mothers' Book" (Buch der Muetter) Froebel would replace by a complete theoretical and practical system for the use of women in general. An external circumstance supervened at this point to urge him onwards. His wife grew alarmingly ill, and the physicians prescribed complete absence from the sharp Swiss mountain air. Froebel asked to be permitted to resign his post, that he might retire to Berlin. The Willisau Institution, although outwardly flourishing, was limited more and more narrowly by the bigotry of the priests, and must evidently now be soon given up, since the Government had passed into the hands of the Jesuit party. Langethal and Ferdinand Froebel were nominated Directors of Burgdorf.[141] Middendorff rejoined his family at Keilhau. Later on, Langethal split off from the community and accepted the direction of a girls' school in Bern (that school which, after Langethal, the well-known Froehlich conducted); but Froebel never forgave him this step. Ferdinand Froebel remained, till his sudden and early death, Director of the Orphanage at Burgdorf. A public funeral, such as has never found its equal at Burgdorf, bore witness to the amount of his great labours, and to the general appreciation of their value.

When Friedrich Froebel came back from Berlin, the idea of an institution for the education of little children had fully taken shape in his mind. I took rooms for him in the neighbouring Blankenburg.[142] Long did he rack his brains for a suitable name for his new scheme. Middendorff and I were one day walking to Blankenburg with him over the Steiger Pass. He kept on repeating, "Oh, if I could only think of a suitable name for my youngest born!" Blankenburg lay at our feet, and he walked moodily towards it. Suddenly he stood still as if fettered fast to the spot, and his eyes assumed a wonderful, almost refulgent, brilliancy. Then he shouted to the mountains so that it echoed to the four winds of heaven, "Eureka! I have it! KINDERGARTEN shall be the name of the new Institution!"



Thus wrote Barop in or about the year 1862, after he had seen all his friends pass away, and had himself become prosperous and the recipient of many honours. The University of Jena made him a doctor, and the Prince of Rudolstadt created him his Minister of Education. Froebel slept in Liebenstein, and Middendorff at the foot of the Kirschberg in Keilhau. They sowed and reaped not; and yet to possess the privilege of sowing, was it not equivalent in itself to reaping a very great reward? In any event, it is delightful to remember that Froebel, in the April of 1852, the year in which he died (June 21st), received public honours at the hands of the general congress of teachers held in Gotha. When he appeared that large assembly rose to greet him as one man; and Middendorff, too, who was inseparable from Froebel, so that when one appeared the other was not far off, had before his death (in 1853) the joy of hearing a similar congress at Salzungen declare the system of Froebel to be of world-wide importance, and to merit on that account their especial consideration and their most earnest examination.

A few words on Middendorff, culled from Lange's account, may be serviceable. Middendorff was to Froebel as Aaron was to Moses. Froebel, in truth, was "slow of speech and of a slow tongue" (Exod. iv. 10), and Middendorff was "his spokesman unto the people" (v. 16). It was the latter's clearness and readiness of speech which won adherents for Froebel amongst people who neither knew him nor could understand him. In 1849 Middendorff had immense success in Hamburg; but when Froebel came, later on, to occupy the ground thus conquered beforehand, he had to contend against much opposition, for every one missed the easy eloquence of Middendorff, which had been so convincing. Dr. Wichard Lange came to know Froebel when the latter visited Hamburg in the winter of 1849-50. At this time he spent almost every afternoon and evening with him, and held the post of editor of Froebel's Weekly Journal. Even after this close association with Froebel, he found himself unable thoroughly to go with the schemes for the education of little children, the Kindergarten, and with those for the training of Kindergarten teachers. "Never mind!" said Froebel, out of humour, when Lange told him this; "if you cannot come over to my views now, you will do so in ten years' time; but sooner or later, come you must!" Dr. Lange nobly fulfilled the prophecy, and the edition of Froebel's collected works (Berlin 1862), from which we derive the present text (and much of the notes), was his gift of repentance to appease the wrath of the Manes of his departed friend and master. Nor was he content with this; but by his frequent communications to The Educational Journal (Die Rheinischen Blaetter), originally founded by Diesterweg, and by the Froebelian spirit which he was able to infuse into the large boys'-school which he long conducted at Hamburg, he worked for the "new education" so powerfully and so unweariedly that he must be always thankfully regarded as one of the principal adherents of the great teacher. His connection with the Froebel community was further strengthened by a most happy marriage with the daughter of Middendorff.

[1] Johann Jacob Froebel, father of Friedrich, belonged to the Old Lutheran Protestant Church.

[2] These were four (1) August, who went into business, and died young. (2) Christoph, a clergyman in Griesheim, who died in 1813 of the typhus, which then overspread all central Germany, having broken out in the over-crowded hospitals after the battle of Leipzig; he was the father of Julius, Karl, and Theodor, the wish to benefit whom led their uncle Friedrich to begin his educational work in Griesheim in 1816. (3) Christian Ludwig, first a manufacturer in Osterode, and then associated with Friedrich from 1820 onwards,—born 24th June, 1770, died 9th January, 1851. (4) Traugott, who studied medicine at Jena, became a medical man, and was burgomaster of Stadt-Ilm. Friedrich August Wilhelm himself was born on the 21st April, 1782, and died on the 21st June, 1852. He had no sisters.

[3] Karl Poppo Froebel, who became a teacher, and finally a publisher,—born 1786; died 25th March, 1824: not to be confounded with his nephew, Karl, son of Christoph, now living in Edinburgh.

[4] This needs explanation. In Germany, even by strangers, children are universally addressed in the second person singular, which carries with it a certain caressing sentiment. Grown persons would be addressed (except by members of their own family, or intimate friends) in the third person plural. Thus, if one met a child in the street, one might say, Willst Du mit mir kommen? (Wilt thou come with me?); whereas to a grown person the proper form would be, Wollen Sie mit mir kommen? (Will THEY—meaning, will YOU—come with me?). The mode of speech of which Froebel speaks here is now almost obsolete, and even in his day was only used to a person of markedly inferior position. Our sentence would run in this case, Will Er mit mir kommen? (Will HE—meaning, will YOU, John or Thomas—come with me?), and carries with it a sort of contemptuous superciliousness, as if the person spoken to were beneath the dignity of a direct address. It is evident, therefore, that to a sensitive, self-torturing child like Froebel, being addressed in this manner would cause the keenest pain; since, as he justly says, it has the effect, by the mere form of speech, of isolating the person addressed. Such a one is not to be considered as of our family, or even of our rank in life.

[5] The Cantor would combine the duties of precentor (whence his title), leading the church singing and training the choristers, with those of the schoolmaster of the village boys' school. In large church-schools the Cantor is simply the choir-master. The great Bach was Cantor of the Thomas-Schule, Leipzig.

[6] It will be remembered that this letter is addressed to the Duke of Meiningen.

[7] "Arise, my heart and spirit," and "It costs one much (it is a difficult task) to be a Christian."

[8] Christoph Froebel is here meant. He studied at the University of Jena.

[9] In this case Froebel's usually accurate judgment of his own character seems at fault; his opinions being always most decided, even to the point of sometimes rendering him incapable of fairly appreciating the views of others.

[10] Froebel is alluding to his undertaking the education of his brother Christoph's sons, in November 1816, when he finally decided to devote his life to the cause of education.

[11] At the time Froebel was writing this autobiographical letter (1827), and seeking thereby to enlist the Duke of Meiningen's sympathies in his work, in order to found a fresh institution at Helba, he was undergoing what was almost a persecution at Keilhau. All associations of progressive men were frowned upon as politically dangerous, and Keilhau, amongst the rest, was held in suspicion. Somewhat of this is seen in the interesting account by Barop further on ("Critical Moments at Keilhau").

[12] Herr Hoffmann, a clergyman, representing the State in Church matter for the district of Stadt-Ilm; a post somewhat analogous to that of our archdeacon.

[13] Equal to an English middle-class school.

[14] The Ilm, flowing through Thuringia into the Saale, a tributary of the Elbe. Oberweissbach is upon the Schwarza, also flowing into the Saale. Weimar stands upon the Ilm, Jena upon the Saale.

[15] Superintendents. The ephors of ancient Sparta amongst their duties had that of the superintendence of education, whence the German title.

[16] This story is not now popular, but its nature is sufficiently indicated in the text.

[17] Christoph and Traugott.

[18] In Germany a Forstmann, or forester, if he has studied forest cultivation in a School of Forestry, rises eventually to the position of supervisor of forests (Forst-meister). The forester who does not study remains in the inferior position.

[19] In the German State forests, the timber, when cut down, is frequently not transported by road, but is made to slide down the mountain-sides by timber-shoots into the streams or rivers; it is then made up into rafts, and so floated down to its destination.

[20] Jussieu's natural system of botany may possibly be here alluded to. The celebrated "Genera Plantarum" appeared in 1798, and Froebel was at Jena in 1799. On the other hand, A.J.G. Batsch, Froebel's teacher, professor at the university since 1789, had published in 1787-8 his "Anleitung zur Kentniss und Geschichte der Pflanzen," 2 vols. We have not seen this work. Batsch also published an "Introduction to the Study of Natural History," which reached a second edition in 1805.

[21] In justice to Froebel and his teacher, it must be remembered that the theory of evolution was not as yet formed, and that those who dimly sought after some explanation of the uniformity of the vertebrate plan, which they observed, were but all too likely to be led astray.

[22] The text (Lange, Berlin, 1862) says meinen aeltesten Bruder, that is, "of my eldest brother;" but this is quite an error, whether of Froebel or of Herr Lange we cannot at present say. As we have already said in a footnote on p. 3, August was the eldest brother of Friedrich, and Christoph was the eldest then living. Traugott, who was at Jena with Friedrich, was his next older brother, youngest of the first family, except only Friedrich himself. It is Traugott who is meant in this passage.

[23] "In carcer;" that is, in the prison of the university, where in the last resort students who fail to comply with university regulations are confined. The "carcer" still exists in German universities. It has of course nothing to do with the ordinary prison of the town.

[24] The Prince-Bishop of Bamberg shared in the general Napoleonic earthquake. The domain of the bishopric went to Bavaria ultimately, the title alone remaining to the Church.

[25] Shared the fate of the Bamberg possessions, and of many other principalities and small domains at that time existent; namely, absorption under the Napoleonic regime into the neighbouring States. This went to Bavaria; see the text, later on.

[26] Bruno, or the Over-Soul.

[27] "General Intelligencer of the German people."

[28] Upper Palatinate, a province in the north of Bavaria.

[29] Herr Von Dewitz, his employer.

[30] The Paedagogium in Halle answered somewhat to our grammar schools with a mixture of boarders and day-scholars. It was founded by Francke in 1712, after the ideas of the famous Basedow, and was endowed by means of a public subscription.

[31] These were two pamphlets by the famous patriot and poet Ernst Moritz Arndt (1769-1860), published in 1805.

[32] That is, Froebel realised the distinction of the subject-world from the object-world.

[33] That is, he signed Wilhelm Froebel instead of Friedrich Froebel, for a time. It cannot have been for long, however.

[34] The young man mentioned on page 39.

[35] The pretty district bordering the river Ucker, in pleasing contrast with the sandy plains of Brandenburg; it lies at no great distance from Berlin, so that it forms the favourite goal for a short excursion with the people of that arid city.

[36] Whither Luther fled for refuge after the Diet of Worms in 1521; and where, protected by the Elector of Saxony, he lay concealed for a year. During this year he translated the Bible.

[37] Held all over Protestant Germany in 1817.

[38] Our children still in like manner "say their catechism" at afternoon church in old-fashioned country places.

[39] This school, still in existence up to 1865 and later, but now no longer in being, had been founded under Gruner, a pupil of Pestalozzi, to embody and carry out the educational principles of the latter.

[40] There is a smaller town called Frankfurt, on the Oder. "Am Main," or "An der Oder," is, therefore, added to the greater or the smaller Frankfurt respectively, for distinction's sake.

[41] He never does, for this interesting record remains a fragment.

[42] Situate at the head of the lake of Neuchatel, but in the canton of Vaud, in Switzerland.

[43] Austria was not the only country alive to the importance of this new teaching. Prussia and Holland also sent commissioners to study Pestalozzi's system, and so did many other smaller states. The Czar (Alexander I.) sent for Pestalozzi to a personal interview at Basel.

[44] Wandernde Classen. Some of our later English schools have adopted a similar plan.

[45] One of Pestalozzi's teachers, to whom especially was confided the arrangement of the arithmetical studies.

[46] By positive instruction Froebel means learning by heart, or by being told results; as distinguished from actual education or development of the faculties, and the working out of results by pupils for themselves.

[47] This must mean the system invented by Rousseau, a modern development of which is the Cheve system now widely used on the Continent. In England the tonic-sol-fa notation, which uses syllables instead of figures, but which rests fundamentally on the same principles, is much more familiar.

[48] "Geht und schaut, es geht ungehuer (ungeheuer)."

[49] The miserable quarrels between Niederer and Schmid, which so distressed the later years of Pestalozzi, are here referred to.

[50] A Consistorium in Germany is a sort of clerical council or convocation, made up of the whole of the Established clergy of a province, and supervising Church and school matters throughout that province, under the control of the Ministry of Religion and Education. No educator could establish a school or take a post in a school without the approval of this body.

[51] That is, the education of other minds than his own; something beyond mere school-teaching.

[52] Einertabelle; tables or formulas extending to units only; a system embodied to a large extent in Sonnenschein's "ABC of Arithmetic," for teaching just the first elements of the art.

[53] Like other matters, this, too, has been left undone, as far as the present (unfinished) letter is concerned.

[54] Erdkunde.

[55] Recht schreiben.

[56] Recht sprechen.

[57] One of Arndt's pamphlets, then quite new.

[58] 1827.

[59] He would have refused to countenance Froebel's throwing up his engagement.

[60] Georg Friedrich Seller (1733-1807), a Bavarian by birth, became a highly-esteemed clergyman in Coburg. He wrote on religious and moral subjects, and those amongst the list of his works, the most likely to be alluded to by Froebel, are "A Bible for Teachers," "Methods of Religious Teaching for Schools," "Religious Culture for the Young," etc.

[61] Jean Paul Friedrich Richter (1763-1825). No doubt the celebrated "Levana," Richter's educational masterpiece, which was published in this same year, 1807, is here alluded to.

[62] 1808.

[63] This is in 1827. But the expression of his thought remained a difficult matter with Froebel to the end of his life, a drawback to which many of his friends have borne witness; for instance, Madame von Marenholtz-Buelow.

[64] Probably done with the point of a knitting needle, etc. The design is then visible on the other side of the paper in an embossed form.

[65] This account is dated 1827, it is always necessary to remember.

[66] After all, the work was left to Froebel himself to do. These words were written in 1827. The "Menschen Erziehung" of Froebel ("Education of Man"), which appeared the year before, had also touched upon the subject. It was further developed in his "Mutter und Koselieder" ("Mother's Songs and Games"), in which his first wife assisted him. That appeared in 1838. In the same year was also founded the Sonntags-Blatt (Sunday Journal), to which many essays and articles on this subject were contributed by Froebel. The third volume ("Paedagogik") of Dr. Wichard Lange's complete edition of Froebel's works is largely made up of these Sonntags-Blatt articles. The whole Kindergarten system rests mainly on this higher view of children's play.

[67] A report that Froebel drew up for the Princess Regent of Rudolstadt in 1809, giving a voluminous account of the theory and practice pursued at Yverdon (Wichard's "Froebel," vol. i., p. 154).

[68] The castle of Yverdon, an old feudal stronghold, which Pestalozzi had received from the municipality of that town in 1804, to enable him to establish a school and work out his educational system there.

[69] Froebel desired to see in Rudolstadt, or elsewhere in Thuringia (his "native land"), an institution like that of Pestalozzi at Yverdon; and he sought to interest the Princess Regent of Rudolstadt by the full account of Yverdon already mentioned.

[70] This would scarcely seem probable to those who admire and love Pestalozzi. But we must remember that religious teaching appeals so intimately to individual sympathies that it is quite possible that what was of vital service to many others was not of so much use to Froebel, who was, as he frankly admits, out of harmony on many points with his noble-hearted teacher.

[71] That the boys' characters were immersed in an element of strengthening and developing games as the body is immersed in the water of a strengthening bath, seems to be Froebel's idea.

[72] Sanskrit is here probably meant.

[73] Hebrew and Arabic.

[74] The comet of 1811, one of the most brilliant of the present century, was an equal surprise to the most skilled astronomers as to Froebel. Observations of its path have led to a belief that it has a period of 300 years; so that it was possibly seen by our ancestors in 1511, and may be seen by our remote descendants in 2111. The appearance of this comet was synchronous with an unusually fine vintage harvest, and "wine of the great Comet year" was long held in great esteem.

[75] Geognosie.

[76] The Plamann School, an institution of considerable merit. Plamann was a pupil of Pestalozzi. One of the present writers studied crystallography later on with a professor who had been a colleague of Froebel's in this same school, and who himself was also a pupil of Pestalozzi.

[77] Froebel is here symbolically expressing the longing which pervaded all noble spirits at that time for a free and united Germany, for a great Fatherland. The tender mother's love was symbolised by the ties of home (Motherland), but the father's strength and power (Fatherland) was only then to be found in German national life in the one or two large states like Prussia, etc. It needed long years and the termination of this period of preparation by two great wars, those of 1866 and of 1870, to bind the whole people together, and make Germany no longer a "geographical expression" but a mighty nation.

[78] In the beginning of this great contest it was Prussia who declared war against the common enemy and oppressor, Napoleon. The other German powers, for the most part, held aloof.

[79] The Baron von Luetzow formed his famous volunteer corps in March 1813. His instructions were to harass the enemy by constant skirmishes, and to encourage the smaller German states to rise against the tyrant Napoleon. The corps became celebrated for swift, dashing exploits in small bodies. Froebel seems to have been with the main body, and to have seen little of the more active doings of his regiment. Their favourite title was "Luetzow's Wilde Verwegene Schaar" (Luetzow's Wild Bold Troop). Amongst the volunteers were many distinguished men; for instance, the poet Koerner, whose volume of war poetry, much of it written during the campaign, is still a great favourite. One of the poems, "Luetzow's Wilde Jagd" ("Luetzow's Wild Chase"), is of world-wide fame through the musical setting of the great composer Weber. In June 1813 came the armistice of which Froebel presently speaks. During the fresh outbreak of war after the armistice the corps was cut to pieces. It was reorganised, and we find it on the Rhine in December of the same year. It was finally dissolved after Napoleon's abdication and exile to Elba, 20th April, and the peace of Paris 30th May, 1814.

[80] Die Grafschaft Mark. The Mark of Brandenburg (so called as being the mark or frontier against Slavic heathendom in that direction during the dark ages) is the kernel of the Prussian monarchy. It was in the character of Markgraf of Brandenburg, that the Hohenzollern princes were electors of the German Empire; their title as king was due not to Brandenburg, but to the dukedom of Prussia in the far east (once the territory of the Teutonic military order), which was elevated to the rank of an independent kingdom in 1701. The title of the present Emperor of Germany still begins "William, Emperor of Germany, King of Prussia. Markgraf of Brandenburg," etc., etc., showing the importance attached to this most ancient dignity. The Mark of Brandenburg contains Berlin. Middendorff seems to have been then living in the Mark. Froebel cannot have forgotten that by origin Wilhelm Middendorff was a Westphalian.

[81] Of Bauer little further is to be known. He was afterwards professor in the Frederick-William Gymnasium (Grammar School) in Berlin, but has no further connection with Froebel's career. On the other hand, a few words on Langethal and Middendorff seem necessary here. Heinrich Langethal was born in Erfurt, September 3rd, 1792. He joined Froebel at Keilhau in 1817. He was a faithful colleague of Froebel's there, and at Willisau and Burgdorf, but finally left him at the last place, and undertook the management of a girls' school at Bern. He afterwards became a minister in Schleusingen, returning eventually to Keilhau. One of the present writers saw him there in 1871. He was then quite blind, but happy and vigorous, though in his eightieth year. He died in 1883. Wilhelm Middendorff, the closest and truest friend Froebel ever had, without whom, indeed, he could not exist, because each formed the complement of the other's nature, was born at Brechten, near Dortmund, in Westphalia, September 20th, 1793, and died at Keilhau November 27th, 1853, a little over a year after his great master. (Froebel had passed away at Marienthal July 21st, 1852.)

[82] "Ansichten vom Nieder Rhein, Flandern, Holland, England, Frankreich in April, Mai, und Juni 1790" ("Sketches on the Lower Rhine, Flanders," etc.). Johann Georg Forster (1754-1794), the author of this book, accompanied his father, the naturalist, in Captain Cook's journey round the world. He then settled in Warrington (England) in 1767; taught languages, and translated many foreign books into English, etc. He left England in 1777, and served many princes on the Continent as librarian, historiographer, etc., amongst others the Czarina Catherine. He was librarian to the Elector of Mainz when the French Revolution broke out, and was sent as a deputation to Paris by the republicans of that town, who desired union with France. He died at Paris in 1794. His prose is considered classical in Germany, having the lightness of French and the power of English gained through his large knowledge of those literatures.

[83] The Mark of Brandenburg.

[84] It is to be regretted that Froebel has not developed this point more fully. He speaks of "die Betrachtung des Zahlensinnes in horizontaler oder Seiten-Richtung," and one would be glad of further details of this view of number. We think that the full expression of the thought here shadowed out, is to be found in the Kindergarten occupations of mat-weaving, stick-laying, etc., in their arithmetical aspect. Certainly in these occupations, instead of number being built up as with bricks, etc., it is laid along horizontally.

[85] Carl Christian Friedrich Krause, an eminent philosopher, and the most learned writer on freemasonry in his day, was born in 1781. at Eisenberg, in Saxony. From 1801 to 1804 he was a professor at Jena, afterwards teaching in Dresden, Goettingen, and Munich, at which latter place he died in 1832.

[86] Lorenz Oken, the famous naturalist and man of science, was born at Rohlsbach, in Swabia, 1st August, 1779. (His real name was Ockenfuss.) In 1812 Oken was appointed ordinary professor of natural history at Jena, and in 1816 he founded his celebrated journal, the Isis, devoted chiefly to science, but also admitting comments on political matters. The latter having given offence to the Court of Weimar, Oken was called upon either to resign his professorship or suppress the Isis. He chose the former alternative, sent in his resignation, transferred the publication of the Isis to Rudolstadt, and remained at Jena as a private teacher of science. In 1821 he broached in the Isis the idea of an annual gathering of German savants, and it was carried out successfully at Leipzig in the following year. To Oken, therefore, may be indirectly ascribed the genesis of the annual scientific gatherings common on the Continent, as well as of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which at the outset was avowedly organised after his model. He died in 1851.

[87] Those acquainted with the classical mythology will forgive us for noting that Charybdis was, and is, a whirlpool on the Sicilian shore of the Straits of Messina, face to face with some caverns under the rock of Scylla, on the Italian shore, into which the waves rush at high tide with a roar not unlike a dog's bark.

[88] The peculiar dreamy boy, who by his nature was set against much of his work, and therefore seemed but an idle fellow to his schoolmaster, was thought to be less gifted than his brothers, and on that account fitted not so much for study as for simple practical life. In Oberweissbach he was set down as "moonstruck." All this is more fully set forth in the Meiningen letter, and the footnotes to it.

[89] This was the time when he was apprenticed to the forester in Neuhaus, in the Thueringer Wald, and necessarily studied mathematics, nature, and the culture of forest trees. Eyewitnesses have described him as extremely peculiar in all his ways, even to his dress, which was often fantastic. He was fond of mighty boots and great waving feathers in his green hunter's-hat, etc.

[90] i.e., Frankfurt.

[91] Architecture, etc., at this time.

[92] From Mecklenburg to Frankfurt.

[93] i.e., as an architect.

[94] His plan evidently was to use architecture, probably Gothic architecture, as a means of culture and elevation for mankind, and not merely to practise it to gain money.

[95] It was in 1805 that Froebel was appointed by Gruner teacher in the Normal School at Frankfurt.

[96] 1. Teacher in the Model School. 2. Tutor to the sons of Herr von Holzhausen near Frankfurt. 3. A resident at Yverdon with Pestalozzi.

[97] Froebel was driven to Yverdon by the perusal of some of Pestalozzi's works which Gruner had lent him. He stayed with Pestalozzi for a fortnight, and returned with the resolve to study further with the great Swiss reformer at some future time. In 1807, he became tutor to Herr von Holzhausen's somewhat spoilt boys, demanded to have the entire control of them, and for this object their isolation from their family. The grateful parents, with whom Froebel was very warmly intimate, always kept the rooms in which he dwelt with his pupils exactly as they were at that time, in remembrance of his remarkable success with these boys. Madame von Holzhausen had extraordinary influence with Froebel, and he continued in constant correspondence with her. In 1808 Froebel and his pupils went to Yverdon, and remained till 1810. But the philosophic groundwork of Pestalozzi's system failed to satisfy him. Pestalozzi's work started from the external needs of the poorest people, while Froebel desired to found the columns supporting human culture upon theoretically reasoned grounds and upon the natural sciences. A remarkable difference existed between the characters of the two great men. Pestalozzi was diffident, acknowledged freely his mistakes, and sometimes blamed himself for them bitterly; Froebel never thought himself in the wrong, if anything went amiss always found some external cause for the failure, and in self-confidence sometimes reached an extravagant pitch.

[98] Either Froebel or his editor has made a blunder here. Froebel went to Goettingen in July 1811 (see p. 84), and to Berlin in October 1812 (see p. 89).

[99] At this time, however, the symbols of the inorganic world did not appeal to Froebel with the same force as those of the organic world. In a letter to Madame von Holzhausen. 31st March, 1831, he writes: "It is the highest privilege of natural forms or of natural life that they contain agreement and perfection within themselves as a whole class, while differing and filled with imperfection in particular individuals; for look at the loveliest blooming fruit-tree, the sweetest rose, the purest lily, and your eye can always detect deficiencies, imperfections, differences in each one, regarded as a single phenomenon, a separate bloom; and, further, the same want of perfection appears also in every single petal: on the other hand, wherever mathematical symmetry and precise agreement are found, there is death".

[100] Not a figure of speech altogether; for Froebel did really decline a professorship of mineralogy which was offered him at this time, in order to set forth on his educational career.

[101] That is, putting development into a formula—

Thesis-+-Antithesis Synthesis.

The true synthesis is that springing from the thesis and its opposite, the antithesis. Another type of the formula is this—

Proposition-+-Counter-proposition Compromise.

Understanding by "Compromise" (Vermittlung) that which results from the union of the two opposites, that which forms part of both and which links them together. The formula expressed in terms of human life, for example, is—

Father-+-Mother Child.

Philosophic readers acquainted with Hegel and his school will recognise a familiar friend in these formulae.

[102] Froebel travelled from Berlin to Osterode, and took with him both his brother Christian's sons, Ferdinand and Wilhelm, to Griesheim; there to educate them together with the three orphans of his brother Christoph, who had died in 1813, of hospital fever, whilst nursing the French soldiers. Of the sons of Christian, Ferdinand studied philosophy, and at his death was director of the Orphanage founded by Froebel in Burgdorf; Wilhelm, who showed great talent, and was his uncle's favourite nephew, died early through the consequences of an accident, just after receiving his "leaving certificate" from the gymnasium of Rudolstadt.

As regards the sons of Christoph, they were the immediate cause of Froebel's going to Griesheim, for their widowed mother sent for her brother-in-law to consult him as to their education. Julius, the eldest, was well prepared in Keilhau for the active life he was afterwards destined to live. He went from school to Munich, first, to study the natural sciences; and while yet at the university several publications from his pen were issued by Cotta. Later on he took an official post in Weimar, and continued to write from time to time. Meanwhile he completed his studies in Jena and Berlin under Karl von Ritter, the great authority on cosmography, and under the distinguished naturalist, Alexander von Humboldt. In 1833 he became Professor at the Polytechnic School in Zurich; but his literary avocations eventually drew him to Dresden. Here he was chosen Deputy to the National Assembly at Frankfurt in 1848. After the dissolution of that Assembly, Julius Froebel, in common with many others of the more advanced party, was condemned to death. He escaped to Switzerland before arrest, and fled to New York. In after life he was permitted to return to Germany, and eventually he was appointed Consul at Smyrna.

Karl Froebel, the next son, went to Jena also. He then took a tutorship in England, and it was at this time (1831) that his pamphlet, "A Preparation for Euclid," appeared. He returned to the Continent to become Director of the Public Schools at Zuerich. He left Zuerich in 1848 for Hamburg, where he founded a Lyceum for Young Ladies. Some years later, when this had ceased to exist, he went again to England, and eventually founded an excellent school at Edinburgh with the aid of his wife; which, indeed, his wife and he still conduct. His daughters show great talent for music, and one of them was a pupil of the distinguished pianist, Madame Schumann (widow of the great composer).

[103] Or, as we say, A is A.

[104] A great deal of Froebel's irony might all too truly be still applied to current educational work.

[105] Empiricism—that is, a posteriori investigations, based on actual facts and not a priori deductions from theories, or general laws, did good service before Froebel's time, and will do good service yet, Froebel notwithstanding. In Froebel's time the limits Kant so truly set to the human understanding were overstepped on every side; Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel were teaching, and the latter especially had an overpowering influence upon all science. Every one constructed a philosophy of the universe out of his own brain. Krause, the recipient of this letter, never attained to very great influence, though had he been in Hegel's chair he might perhaps have wielded Hegel's authority, and there was for a long time a great likelihood of his appointment. Meanwhile he reconstructed the university at Goettingen. Even practical students of Nature, such as Oken, did homage to the general tendency which had absorbed all the eager spirits of the vanguard of human advancement, amongst them Froebel himself. We see how firmly set Froebel was against experience-teaching, a posteriori work, or, as he calls it, empiricism. The Kantist, Arthur Schopenhauer, was not listened to, and dwelt apart, devouring his heart in bitter silence; breaking out at last with the dreary creed of Pessimism.

[106] Froebel is here hardly fair. How should people know much of him as yet? He had at this time written the following works:—(1) "On the Universal German Educational Institute of Rudolstadt" (1822); (2) "Continuation of the Account of the Universal German Educational Institute at Keilhau" (1823); (3) "Christmas at Keilhau: a Christmas Gift to the Parents of the Pupils at Keilhau, to the Friends and the Members of the Institute" (1824); (4) "The Menschen Erziehung," the full title of which was "The Education of Man: The Art of Education, Instruction, and Teaching, as attempted to be realised at the Universal Educational Institute at Keilhau, set forth by the Originator, Founder, and Principal of the Institute, Friedrich Froebel" (1826), never completed; (5) Family Weekly Journal of Education for Self-culture and the Training of Others, edited by Friedrich Froebel, Leipzig and Keilhau. But Froebel, in his unbusiness-like way, published all these productions privately. They came out of course under every disadvantage, and could only reach the hands of learned persons, and those to whom they were really of interest, by the merest chance. Further, Froebel, as has already abundantly appeared, was but a poor author. His stiff, turgid style makes his works in many places most difficult to understand, as the present translators have found to their cost, and he was therefore practically unreadable to the general public. In his usual self-absorbed fashion, he did not perceive these deficiencies of his, nor could he be got to see the folly of private publication. Indeed, on the contrary, he dreamed of fabulous sums which one day he was to realise by the sale of his works. It is needless to add that the event proved very much the reverse. As to criticism, it was particularly the "able editor" Harnisch who pulled to pieces the "Menschen Erziehung" so pitilessly on its appearance, and who is probably here referred to.

[107] This passage may serve as a sufficient illustration of Froebel's metaphysical way of looking at his subject. It is scarcely our habit at the present day to regard the science of being (ontology) as a science at all, since it is utterly incapable of verification; but it is not difficult to trace the important truth really held by Froebel even through the somewhat perplexing folds of scholastic philosophy in which he has clothed it.

[108] See the previous footnote, p. 93.

[109] These events and situations are fully set forth in the letter to the Duke of Meiningen, ante.

[110] As mineralogist.

[111] Christian Ludwig Froebel.

[112] Christoph.

[113] This younger Langethal afterwards became a Professor in the University of Jena.

[114] The minister's widow lost her widow's privilege of residence at Griesheim by the death of her father, and bought a farm at Keilhau.

[115] Froebel told his sister-in-law that he "desired to be a father to her orphaned children." The widow understood this in quite a special and peculiar sense, whereof Froebel had not the remotest idea. Later on, when she came to know that Froebel was engaged to another lady, she made over to him the Keilhau farm, and herself went to live at Volkstaedt.

[116] This young girl, the adopted daughter of the first Madame Froebel, was named Ernestine Chrispine, and afterwards married Langethal. Froebel's first wife, Henrietta Wilhelmine Hoffmeister, was born at Berlin 20th September, 1780, and was therefore thirty-eight at the time of her marriage. She was a remarkable woman, highly cultured, a pupil of Schleiermacher and of Fichte. Before her marriage with Froebel she had been married to an official in the War Office, and had been separated from him on account of his misconduct. Middendorff and Langethal knew the family well, and had frequently spoken with Froebel about this lady, who was admired and respected by both of them. Froebel saw her once in the mineralogical museum at Berlin, and was wonderfully struck by her, especially because of the readiness in which she entered into his educational ideas. When afterwards he desired to marry, he wrote to the lady and invited her to give up her life to the furtherance of those ideas with which she had once shown herself to be so deeply penetrated, and to become his wife. She received his proposal favourably, but her father, an old War Office official, at first made objections. Eventually she left her comfortable home to plunge amidst the privations and hardships of all kinds abundantly connected with educational struggles. She soon rose to great honour with all the little circle, and was deeply loved and most tenderly treated by Froebel himself. In her willingness to make sacrifices and her cheerfulness under privations, she set them all an example. She died at Blankenburg in May 1839.

[117] The expected dowry was never forthcoming, which made matters harder.

[118] Christian had already assisted his brother at Griesheim, and before that, to the utmost of his power. The three daughters were (1) Albertine, born 29th December, 1801, afterwards married Middendorff; (2) Emilie, born 11th July, 1804, married Barop, died 18th August, 1860, at Keilhau; (3) Elise, born 5th January, 1814, married Dr. Siegfried Schaffner, one of the Keilhau colleagues, later on.

[119] Johannes Arnold Barop, Middendorff's nephew, was born at Dortmund, 29th November, 1802. He afterwards became proprietor and principal of Keilhau.

[120] March 1828.

[121] This excellent man was drowned in the Saale while bathing, soon after this letter was written.

[122] He always regarded himself as perfectly tolerant.

[123] Froebel moved from Griesheim to Keilhau in 1817.

[124] In 1820.

[125] It was in 1828 that Barop formally and definitely joined the Froebel community.

[126] The long turmoil of the Napoleonic wars, the outcome of the French Revolution, ceased in 1815; and the minds of the students and the other youths of the country, set free from this terrible struggle for liberty, turned towards the reformation of their own country. Many associations were formed: perhaps here and there wild talk was indulged in. The Government grew alarmed, and though the students had invariably acted with perfect legality, all their associations were dispersed and forbidden.

[127] Christian Froebel and his wife.

[128] This was 1827-29.

[129] This is the interesting plan of the Public Educational Institution and Orphanage in Helba, with which admirers of Froebel are probably already well acquainted. It is given in full in Lange's "Froebel," vol. i., p. 401.

[130] Say L100.

[131] In 1829.

[132] The Wartensee is a small lake in the canton Luzern, not far from Sempach.

[133] About 30s.

[134] Auf Schuster's Rappen,—i.e., on foot. (This was in 1832.)

[135] A small town not far away, still in the canton Luzern.

[136] This was a familiar name for the devil, till a few years back, in Germany; surprisingly recalling the term "Eumenides" for the Greek Furies, since it originated in a desire to speak of so powerful an enemy in respectful terms, lest he should take offence.

[137] A Swiss educational writer of great power and charm. His school books, "Sur la langue maternelle," are really valuable.

[138] The editors venture to call attention to these little facts as a sample of the extraordinary devotion and sacrifice which Froebel knew how to inspire in his colleagues. This exchange of Barop and Middendorff took place in 1833.

[139] In 1833.

[140] This regulation is still happily in force.

[141] In 1836.

[142] Blankenburg lies on the way from Schwarzburg to Rudolstadt, about two hours' walk away from Keilhau.



CHRONOLOGICAL ABSTRACT OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF FROEBEL, AND THE FROEBEL COMMUNITY.

* * * * *

1770. June 24th.—Birth of Christian Ludwig Froebel.

1780. Sept. 17th.—Birth of Friedrich Froebel's first wife, Henriette Wilhelmine Hoffmeister, at Berlin.

Christian Froebel's wife, Johanna Caroline Muegge, was also born in 1780, on August 28th.

1782. April 21st.—Birth of Friedrich Froebel, at Oberweissbach, Thuringia.

1792. Froebel is sent to Superintendent Hoffman in Stadt Ilm.

Sept. 3rd.—Birth of Heinrich Langethal, at Erfurt.

1793. Sept. 20.—Birth of Wilhelm Middendorff, at Brechten, near Dortmund, in Westphalia.

1797. Froebel is sent to Neuhof in the Thuringian Forest to learn forestry.

1799. Froebel returns home; goes thence as student to Jena.

1801. He leaves Jena (having closed his career there with nine weeks' imprisonment for debt), and soon afterwards begins to study farming with a relative of his father's at Hildburghausen.

Dec. 29th.—Birth of Albertine Froebel (Madame Middendorff), eldest daughter of Christian Froebel.

1802. Death of Froebel's father. Froebel becomes Actuary to the Forestry Department of the Episcopal State of Bamberg.

Nov. 29th.—Birth of Johannes Arnold Barop, at Dortmund, in Westphalia.

1803. Froebel goes to Bamberg, and takes part in the governmental land survey, necessary upon the change of government, Bamberg now passing to Bavaria.

1804. He takes, one after the other, two situations as secretary and accountant of a large country estate, first, that of Herr von Voeldersdorf in Baireuth, afterwards that of Herr von Dewitz in Gross Milchow, Mecklenburg.

July 11th.—Birth of Emilie Froebel (Madame Barop), second daughter of Christian Froebel.

1805. Death of Froebel's maternal uncle, Superintendent Hoffman. Froebel determines to become an architect, and sets out for Frankfurt to study there. Becomes, however, teacher in the Model School at Frankfurt, on Gruner's invitation. Visits Pestalozzi, at Yverdon, for a short time.

1807. He becomes tutor in the family of Herr von Holzhausen in the suburbs of Frankfurt.

1808. He goes to Pestalozzi at Yverdon with his pupils.

1809. He draws up an account of Pestalozzi's work for the Princess of Rudolstadt.

1810. Froebel returns to Frankfurt from Yverdon.

1811. He goes to the University of Goettingen.

1812. He proceeds thence to the University of Berlin.

1813. Froebel, Langethal, and Middendorff enlist in Luetzow's regiment of Chasseurs, a volunteer corps enrolled to take part in the resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Prussia.

1814. Jan. 5th.—Birth of Elise Froebel (Madame Schaffner), Christian's youngest daughter.

After the Peace of Paris (May 30th, 1814) Froebel is appointed assistant in the Mineralogical Museum of the University of Berlin, and takes his post there in August.

1816. Nov. 13th.—Froebel founds his "Universal German Educational Institute" in Griesheim.

1817. Transference of the School to Keilhau. Arrival of Langethal and Middendorff.

1818. First marriage of Froebel.

1820. Christian Froebel arrives at Keilhau with his wife and daughters Froebel writes "To the German people."

1821. Froebel publishes (privately) "Principles, Aims, and Inner Life of the Universal German Educational Institute in Keilhau," and "Aphorisms."

1822. He publishes the pamphlets "On German Education, especially as regards the Universal German Educational Institute at Keilhau," and "On the Universal German Educational Institute at Keilhau."

1823. He publishes "Continuation of the Account of the Educational Institute at Keilhau."

1824. He publishes the pamphlet "Christmas at Keilhau."

1826. Marriages of Langethal and Middendorff. Froebel publishes the "Education of Man" ("Menschen Erziehung"). Later he founds the weekly Family Journal of Education.

1827. Letter to the Duke of Meiningen (translated in this present work), uncompleted, probably never sent to the duke.

1828. Letter to Krause (partly translated in the present work). Barop formally becomes a member of the Educational Community at Keilhau.

1829. Plan for a National Educational Institute in Helba, under the auspices of the Duke of Meiningen, now completed, the whole Keilhau community having worked upon it under Froebel's direction.

1830. Death of Wilhelm Carl, one of the Keilhau community, by drowning in the Saale.

1831. Froebel breaks with the Duke of Meiningen, and gives up the Helba project.

Visit to Frankfurt, and meeting with Schnyder.

Acceptance of Schnyder's offer of his Castle at Wartensee.

Opening of the Institution at Wartensee by Froebel and his nephew Ferdinand.

1832. Barop goes to Wartensee. Transference of the School from Wartensee to Willisau. Froebel pays a short visit to Keilhau.

1833. Froebel brings his wife to Willisau. The Bernese Administration invites him to consider a plan for the foundation of an Orphanage at Burgdorf. He is appointed lecturer for the Repetitive Courses for young teachers held there. Langethal comes from Keilhau to Willisau, Barop returns to Keilhau.

1835. Froebel, his wife, and Langethal undertake the foundation of the Orphanage for Bern, in Burgdorf. Middendorff and Elise Froebel go from Keilhau to Willisau and join Ferdinand Froebel there. Froebel writes "The New Year 1836 demands a Renewal of Life."

1836. Froebel and his wife leave Burgdorf for Berlin. Ferdinand Froebel and Langethal take over the direction of the Orphanage.

1837. Opening of the first Kindergarten in Blankenburg.

1838. Commencement of Froebel's Sunday Journal.

1839. Froebel and Middendorff go to Dresden. Death of Madame Froebel.

1840. Guttenberg Festival (400th anniversary of the invention of printing). Opening of the Universal German Kindergarten at Blankenburg, as a joint-stock company. Froebel and Middendorff in the following years make several journeys from Keilhau to various parts of Germany endeavouring to promote the erection of Kindergartens.

1848. General Congress of Teachers, called by Froebel, at Rudolstadt. Second journey of Froebel to Dresden in the autumn.

1849. Froebel settles at Liebenstein intending to train Kindergarten teachers there. Work at Hamburg, first by Middendorff, then by Froebel.

1850. Froebel returns to Liebenstein. Through the influence of Madame von Marenholtz-Buelow he receives the neighbouring country seat of Marienthal from the Grand Duke of Weimar for the purposes of his Training College. Foundation of a new Weekly Journal of Education by Froebel, edited by Lange. Marriage of Elise Froebel to Dr. Siegfried Schaffner.

1851. Jan. 9th.—Death of Christian Ludwig Froebel.

July.—Second marriage of Froebel, with Luise Levin. First appearance of the Journal for Friedrich Froebel's Educational Aims.

1852. April.—Froebel is called to join the Educational Congress at Gotha, under the presidency of Theodor Hoffman.

June 21.—Death of Froebel. His educational establishment at Marienthal is removed to Keilhau, under the superintendence of Middendorff. Madame Luise Froebel also assists to train students in the methods of the Kindergarten at Keilhau.

1853. Middendorff enthusiastically received at the Congress at Salzungen, when addressing it on the Froebelian methods.

Nov. 27th.—Death of Middendorff. Madame Luise Froebel, for a time, directs Keilhau.

1854. Madame Luise Froebel goes in the spring to Dresden, to assist Dr. Marquart in his Kindergarten and training establishment for Kindergarten teachers. Madame Marquart had been a pupil of Froebel. Keilhau ceases to be a training school for Kindergarten teachers.

In the autumn Madame Luise Froebel accepts the directorship of the Public Free Kindergarten in Hamburg, and trains students there. (She is still actively employed at Hamburg in the cause of the Kindergarten; 1886.)

First introduction of the Kindergarten system into England by Miss Praetorius, who founds a Kindergarten at Fitzroy Square. Madame von Marenholtz Buelow, who was the support of Froebel's latest years, whose influence with the Grand Duke of Weimar procured him Marienthal, and whose whole leisure and power was devoted to his service, and to the interpretation of his ideas, comes to England to lecture and write in support of the cause of the Kindergarten. Publishes a pamphlet on "Infant Gardens," in English.

Madame Ronge introduces the Kindergarten system at Manchester; and shortly afterwards the Manchester Kindergarten Association is founded.

1859. Miss Eleonore Heerwart (pupil of Middendorff and Madame Luise Froebel), and the Baroness Adele von Portugall (pupil of Madame von Marenholtz-Buelow and of Madame Schrader, the great niece of Froebel), come to England, and are both engaged at Manchester as Kindergarten teachers, but not in the same establishment.

1860. August 18th.—Death of Madame Barop (Emilie Froebel).

1861. The Baroness Bertha Von Marenholtz-Buelow promotes the foundation of the Journal The Education of the Future, and Dr. Carl Schmidt of Coethen undertakes the editorship.

1874. April.—Madame Michaelis comes to England to assist the Kindergarten movement. Is appointed in the summer to lecture to the school-board teachers at Croydon. Founds Croydon Kindergarten, January 1875, with Mrs. Berry.

Nov.—The London School Board appoint Miss Bishop (pupil of Miss Praetorius) as their first lecturer on the Kindergarten System to their teachers of infant schools. About the same time Miss Heerwart (who had left Manchester to found a Kindergarten of her own in Dublin in 1866) is appointed principal of the Kindergarten Training College established at Stockwell by the British and Foreign School Society.

The Froebel Society of London is formed by Miss Doreck, Miss Heerwart, Miss Bishop, Madame Michaelis, Professor Joseph Payne, and Miss Manning; Miss Doreck being the first president. Very soon these were joined by Miss Shireff (president since 1877, when Miss Doreck died), by her sister Mrs. William Grey, by Miss Mary Gurney, and by many other well-known friends of educational progress.

1879. Autumn.—The London Kindergarten Training College is founded by the Froebel Society, but as a separate association (dissolved 1883).

1880. May.—The Croydon Kindergarten Company (Limited), is founded to extend Madame Michaelis's work in teaching and training, Madame Michaelis becoming the Company's head mistress.

1882. Langethal died. Celebration of the Centenary of Froebel's birth by a concert, given at Willis's Rooms, London, on the part of the Froebel Society, to raise funds for a memorial Kindergarten at Blankenburg, by a fund raised at Croydon for the same purpose, and by a soiree and conversazione, presided over by Mr. W. Woodall, M.P., given at the Stockwell Training College by the British and Foreign School Society.

1883. January.—The Bedford Kindergarten Company (Limited) founded, mainly upon the lines of the Croydon Company. First (and present) head mistress, Miss Sim.

Miss Heerwart goes to Blankenburg to found the memorial Kindergarten there.

1884. International Exhibition, South Kensington (Health and Education). A Conference on Education was held in June, the section devoted to Infant Education being largely taken up with an important discussion of Froebel's principles, in which speakers of other nations joined the English authorities in debate.

The British and Foreign Society organised a complete exhibition of Kindergarten work and materials, to which all the chief London Kindergarten establishments (including Croydon) contributed; and most establishments gave lessons in turn, weekly, to classes of children, in order to show publicly the practical application of Kindergarten methods. These lessons were given gratuitously in the rooms devoted to the Kindergarten section of the exhibition. In October this section was closed by a conference of Kindergarten teachers from all England, held in the Lecture Theatre of the Albert Hall.

Autumn.—Dr. Wichard Lange, the biographer of Froebel, and collector of Froebel's works (from whose collection the present translation has been made), and by his numerous articles one of the best friends to the advocacy of Froebel's educational principles, died, under somewhat painful circumstances.



BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FROEBEL.

* * * * *

WALTER, L. Die Froebel-Literatur. 8vo, pp. 198. Dresden. $1.00

* * * * *

GESAMMELTE PAEDAGOGISCHE SCHRIFTEN, hrsg. W. Lange. 8vo, 3 vols. [I. Autobiographie; II. Menschenerziehung; III. Paedagogik des Kindergartens]. Berlin, 1862.

PAEDAGOGISCHE SCHRIFTEN, hrsg. Friedrich Seidel. 12mo, 3 vols. [I. Menschen-Erziehung, pp. 330; II. Kindergarten-Wesen, pp. 463; III. Mutter- und Kose-Lieder, pp. 228]. Wien, 1883. 6.50

MENSCHEN-ERZIEHUNG. Erziehungs-, Unterrichts-, und Lehrkunst. 12mo, pp. 330. Wien, 1883. 2.00

THE EDUCATION OF MAN. Translated by Josephine Jarvis. 12mo, pp. 273. New York, 1885. 1.30

—— The same, translated and annotated by W.N. Hailmann. 12mo, pp. 332. New York, 1887. 1.50

L'EDUCATION DE L'HOMME. Traduit de l'allemand par la baronne de Crombugghe. 12mo, pp. 394. Paris, 1881.

MUTTER- UND KOSE-LIEDER. Dichtung und Bilder zur edlen Pflege des Kindheitlebens. Ein Familien-buch. 12mo, pp. 228. Wien, 1883. 2.00

MOTHER'S SONGS, Games and Stories. Froebel's "Mutter- und Kose-Lieder" rendered in English by Frances and Emily Lord. Containing the whole of the original illustrations, and the music, rearranged for children's voices, with pianoforthe accompaniment. 8vo, pp. 289. London, 1885. 3.00

MOTHER-PLAY, and Nursery Songs. Illustrated by Fifty Engravings. With Notes to Mothers. By Friedrich Froebel. Translated from the German. 4to, pp. 192. Boston, 1878. 2.00

THE MOTHER'S BOOK of Song. Two-part Songs for Little Singers, on the Kindergarten System. The music composed by Lady Baker; edited by G.A. Macfarran. 16mo. New York.

AUTOBIOGRAPHIE. Berlin, 1862.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRIEDRICH FROEBEL. Translated by H. Keatley Moore and Emilie Michaelis. 12mo, pp. 180. Syracuse, 1889. 1.50

[This contains the "Letter to the Duke of Meiningen," never completed, a shorter account of his life in a letter to the philosopher Krause, a sketch of Barop's, and a chronology extended from Lange.]

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FROEBEL. Materials to aid a Comprehension of the Work of the Founder of the Kindergarten. 16mo, pp. 128. New York, 1887. .30

[This contains the "Letter to the Duke of Meiningen," Miss Lucy Wheelock's translation, taken from Barnard's Journal of Education.]

FROEBEL'S EXPLANATION of the Kindergarten System. London, 1886. .20

* * * * *

HAUSCHMANN, A.B. Fr. Froebel: die Entwicklung s. Erziehungs-idee in s. Leben. 8vo, pp. 480. Eisenach, 1874. 2.00

KRIEGE, Matilda H. The Founder of the Kindergarten. A Sketch. 12mo, pp. 29. New York.

[See also MARENHOLZ-BUELOW, in next list below.]

MARENHOLZ-BUELOW, Baroness B. von. Reminiscences of Friedrich Froebel. Translated by Mrs. Horace Mann. With a sketch of the life of Friedrich Froebel, by Emily Shirreff. 12mo, pp. 359. Boston, 1877. 1.50

[See also GOLDAMMER, MARENHOLZ-BUELOW.]

PHELPS, Wm. F. Froebel (Chautauqua Text-Book, No. 15). 32mo, pp. 54. .10

SHIRREFF, Emily. Froebel: a Sketch of his Life, with Letters to his Wife. 12mo. London, 1877. 1.00

[See also MARENHOLZ-BUELOW, above, and SHIRREFF, below.]

* * * * *

BAILEY'S Kindergarten System. Boston. .20

BARNARD, Henry. Papers on Froebel's Kindergarten, with suggestions on principles and methods of Child Culture in different countries. 8vo, pp. 782. Hartford, 1881. 3.50

BEESAU, Amable. The Spirit of Education. Translated by Mrs. E.M. McCarthy. 16mo, pp. 325. Syracuse, 1881. 1.25

BERRY, Ada, and Emily MICHAELIS. Kindergarten Songs and Games. 12mo. London. .75

BUCKLAND, Anna. The Use of Stories in the Kindergarten. 12mo, pp. 17. New York. .20

—— The Happiness of Childhood. 12mo, pp. 21, in one volume with the above. New York. .50

[The two are reprinted in "Essays on the Kindergarten." below.]

CARPENTER, Harvey. The Mother's and Kindergartner's Friend. 12mo. Boston, 1884. 1.00

CHRISTIE, Alice M. See MARENHOLZ-BUELOW, PEREZ, below.

DOUAI, Adolf. The Kindergarten. A manual for the introduction of Froebel's System of Primary Education into Public Schools; and for the use of Mothers and Private Teachers. With 16 plates. 12mo, pp. 136. New York, 1871. 1.00

DUPANLOUP, Monseigneur. The Child. Translated, with the author's permission, by Kate Anderson. 12mo, pp. 267. Dublin, 1875. 1.50

ECKHART, T. Die Arbeit als Erziehungsmittel. 8vo, pp. 23. Wien, 1875.

ESSAYS ON THE KINDERGARTEN: being a selection of Lectures read before the London Froebel Society. 12mo, pp. 149. Syracuse, 1889. 1.00

[See Buckland, Heerwart, Hoggan, Shirreff.]

FELLNER, A. Der Volkskindergarten und die Krippe. 12mo, pp. 130. Wien, 1884.

FRYE, Alex. E. The Child and Nature, or Geography Teaching with Sand Modelling. 12mo, pp. 216. Hyde Park, 1888. 1.00

GOLDAMMER, H. The Kindergarten. A Handbook of Froebel's Method of Education, Gifts, and Occupations. With Introduction, etc., by Baroness B. von Marenholtz-Buelow. Translated by William Wright. 8vo. Berlin, 1882. 4.00

—— Gymnastische Spiele und Bildungsmittel fuer Kinder von 3-8 Jahren. 8vo, pp. 195. Berlin, 1875.

GURNEY, Mary. See KOEHLER, below.

HAILMANN, W.N. Primary Helps, or Modes of making Froebel's Methods Available in Primary Schools. 2d Ed. 8vo, pp. 58, with 15 full-page illustrations. Syracuse, 1889. 1.00

—— Four Lectures on Early Child Culture. 16mo, pp. 74. Milwaukee. .50

—— Kindergarten Culture in the Family and Kindergarten. A Complete Sketch of Froebel's System of Early Education, adapted to American Institutions. For the use of Mothers and Teachers. 12mo, pp. 119, and 12 plates. Cincinnati, 1873. .75

—— The Kindergarten Messenger and The New Education. Vols. V, VI, [completing the series]. 8vo, 2 vols., pp. 146, 188. Syracuse, 1882, 83. 4.00

—— Primary Methods. A complete and methodical presentation of the use of Kindergarten Material in the work of the Primary School, unfolding a systematic course of Manual Training in connection with Arithmetic, Geometry, Drawing, and other School Studies. 12mo, pp. 166. New York, 1888. 1.00

HAILMANN, E.L. Songs, Games, and Rhymes for the Kindergarten. 12mo. Springfield. 1.75

HEERWART, Eleonore. Music for the Kindergarten. 4to. London, 1877. 1.25

—— Froebel's Mutter- und Kose-lieder. 12mo, pp. 18

[The last is reprinted in "Essays on the Kindergarten," above.]

HOFFMANN, H. Kindergarten Toys, and How to Use Them. Toronto. .20

—— Kindergarten Gifts. New York. .15

HOGGAN, Frances E. On the Physical Education of Girls. 12mo, pp. 24.

[This is reprinted in "Essays on the Kindergarten," above.]

HOPKINS, Louisa P. How Shall My Child be Taught? Practical Pedagogy, or the Science of Teaching. Illustrated, 12mo, pp. 276. Boston, 1887. 1.50

—— Educational Psychology. A Treatise for Parents and Educators. 24mo, pp. 96. Boston, 1886. .50

HUBBARD, Clara. Merry Songs and Games, for the use of the Kindergarten. 4to, pp. 104. St. Louis, 1881. 2.00

HUGHES, James. The Kindergarten: its Place and Purpose. New York. .10

JACOBS, J.F. Manuel pratique des Jardins d'Enfants. 4to. Brussels, 1880.

JOHNSON, Anna. Education by Doing, or Occupations and Busy Work for Primary Classes. 16mo, pp. 109. New York, 1884. .75

KINDERGARTEN and the School, by Four Active Workers. 12mo, pp. 146. Springfield, 1886. 1.00

KOEHLER, A. Die Praxis des Kindergartens. 4to, 3 Vols., with more than 60 Plates. Weimar, 1878.

—— The Same, translated by Mary Gurney. Part I [First Gifts]. 12mo, Ill. London, 1877. 1.25

KRAUS-BOELTE, Maria, and JOHN KRAUS. The Kindergarten Guide, illustrated. Vol. I [The Gifts]. New York, 1880. 2.75

—— The Kindergarten and the Mission of Women. New York. .10

KRIEGE, A.L. Rhymes and Tales for the Kindergarten and Nursery. 12mo, New York. 1.00

LAURIE'S Kindergarten Manual. New York. .50

—— Kindergarten Action Songs and Exercises. London. .15

LYSCHINSKA, Mary. Principles of the Kindergarten. Ill., 4to, London, 1880. 1.80

MANN, Mrs. Horace. See MARENHOLZ-BUELOW, above, and PEABODY, below.

MARENHOLZ-BUELOW, Baroness B. von. The Child and Child-Nature. Translated by Alice M. Christie. 12mo, pp. 186. Syracuse, 1889. 1.00

—— The same, translated as "a free rendering of the German" by Matilda H. Kriege, under the title "The Child, its Nature and Relations; an elucidation of Froebel's Principles of Education." 12mo, pp. 148. New York, 1872. 1.00

—— The School Work-Shop. Translated by Miss Susan E. Blow. 16mo, pp. 27. Syracuse, 1882. .15

—— Hand-work and Head-work: their relation to one another. Translated by Alice M. Christie. 12mo. London, 1883. 1.20

MAUDSLEY, H. Sex in Mind and Education. 16mo, pp. 42. Syracuse, 1882. .15

MEIKLEJOHN, J.M.D. The New Education. 16mo, pp. 35. Syracuse, 1881. .15

MEYER, Bertha. Von der Wiege his zur Schule. 12mo, pp. 180. Berlin, 1877.

—— Aids to Family Government, or From the Cradle to the School, according to Froebel. Translated from the second German Edition. To which has been added an essay on The Rights of Children and The True Principles of Family Government, by Herbert Spencer. 16mo, pp. 208. New York, 1879. 1.50

MOORE, N.A. Kindergartner's Manual of Drawing Exercises for Young Children upon Figures of Plane Geometry. 4to, pp. 16, and 17 Plates. Springfield. .50

MORGENSTEIN, Lina. Das Paradies der Kindheit. Eine ausfuhrliche Anleitung fur Muetter und Erzieherinnen. F. Froebel's Spiel-Beschaeftigungen in Haus und Kindergarten. 2d ed. 8vo, pp. 292. Leipzig, 1878.

MULLEY, Jane, and M.E. TABRAM. Songs and Games for our Little Ones. 12mo. London, 1881. .40

NOA, Henrietta. Plays for the Kindergarten: music by C.J. Richter. 18mo. New York. .30

PAYNE, Joseph. Froebel and the Kindergarten System. 3d ed. London, 1876.

[Now rare, but printed in "Lectures on Education," Syracuse, 1884, $1.00.]

—— A Visit to German Schools. London, 1876.

PEABODY, Elizabeth P. Moral Culture of Infancy, and Kindergarten Guide, with Music for the Plays. By Mrs. Horace Mann, and Elizabeth P. Peabody. 12mo, pp. 216. Boston, 1863. 2.00

—— The Education of the Kindergartner. Pittsburgh, 1872.

—— The Nursery: a Lecture.

—— The Identification of the Artisan and Artist the Proper object of American Education.

—— Froebel's Kindergarten, with a letter from Henry Barnard. 12mo, pp. 16.

—— Lectures in the Training Schools for Kindergartners. 12mo, pp. 226.

[Includes those on "The Education of the Kindergartner" and "The Nursery," named above.]

—— Education in the Home, the Kindergarten, and the Primary School. With an Introduction by E. Adelaide Manning. 12mo, pp. 224. London, 1887. 1.50

[A reprint of the "Lectures in the Training Schools."]

—— and Mary MANN. After Kindergarten, what? A primer of Reading and Writing for the Intermediate Class, and Primary Schools generally. 12mo. New York. .45

PEREZ, Bernard. The First Three Years of Childhood. Edited and translated by Alice M. Christie, with an introduction by James Sully. 12mo, pp. 294. Syracuse, 1889. 1.50

PLAYS AND SONGS, for Kindergarten and Family. Springfield. .50

POLLOCK, Louisa. National Kindergarten Manual. 12mo, pp. 180. Boston, 1889. .75

—— National Kindergarten Songs and Plays. 12mo, pp. 77. Boston. .50

—— Cheerful Echoes: from the National Kindergarten for children from 3 to 10 years of age. 16mo, pp. 76. Boston, 1888. .50

PREYER, W. The Mind of the Child. 12mo, 2 Vols. New York, 1888. 3.00

RICHARDS, B.W. Learning and Health. 16mo, pp. 39. Syracuse, 1882. .15

RICHTER, K. Kindergarten und Schule. Leipzig.

RONGE, Johann and Bertha. A Practical Guide to the English Kindergarten (Children's Garden), for the use of Mothers, Governesses, and Infant Teachers: being an exposition of Froebel's system of Infant Training: accompanied by a variety of Instructive and Amusing Games, Industrial and Gymnastic Exercises, also Numerous Songs set to Music, 11th ed. 4to, pp. 80, and 71 plates. London, 1878. 2.10

SHIRREFF, Emily. Essays and Lectures on the Kindergarten. Principles of Froebel's System, and their bearing on the Higher Education of Women, Schools, Family, and Industrial Life. 12mo, pp. 112. Syracuse, 1889. 1.00

—— Progressive Development according to Froebel's Principles. 12mo, pp. 14.

—— Wasted Forces. 12mo, pp. 17.

—— The Kindergarten in Relation to Schools. 12mo, pp. 18. New York. .30

—— The Kindergarten in Relation to Family Life. 12mo, pp.17. New York. .20

[The last four are given in "Essays on the Kindergarten," above]

—— Home Education and the Kindergarten. 12mo. London, 1884. .75

—— The Kindergarten at Home. 12mo. London, 1884. 1.75

—— Claim of Froebel's System to be called "The New Education." New York, 1882. .10

—— Essays and Lectures in the Kindergarten. New York. .75

SINGLETON, J.E. Occupations and Occupation Games. 12mo, London, 1865. 1.00

STEELE'S Kindergarten Handbook. New York. .60

STEIGER'S Kindergarten Tracts. 24 nos. New York. .10

STRAIGHT, H.H. Aspects of Industrial Education. 8vo, pp. 12. Syracuse, 1883. .15

THOMPSON, Mrs. Elizabeth. Kindergarten Homes, for Orphans and other Destitute Children; a new way to ultimately Dispense with Prisons and Poor-Houses. 12mo, pp. 128. New York, 1882. 1.00

WEBER, A. Die vier ersten Schuljahre in Vorbindung mit e. Kindergarten. 8vo, pp. 70. Gotha. .50

—— Die Geschichte der Volksschulpaedagogik und der Kleinkindererziehung. 12mo, pp. 339. Dresden, 1877.

WIEBE, E. The Paradise of Childhood. A Manual for Instruction in F. Froebel's Educational Principles, and a Practical Guide to Kindergartners. 4to, pp. 78 and 74 plates. Springfield. 2.00

—— The Paradise of Childhood: a manual of instruction and a practical guide to Kindergartners. 4to, 74 plates. London, 1888. 4.00

—— Songs, Music, and Movement Plays. Springfield. 2.25

WIGGINS'S Kindergarten Chimes. Springfield. 1.50

WILTSIE'S Stories for Kindergartens and Primary Schools. Boston. .30

All books of which prices are given may be had of the publisher of this volume.



INDEX.

Aaron to Froebel's Moses 138 Activity at Yverdon 78 Actor, life of an 26 Adventists, doctrine of 12 AEsthetic sense 41 Agriculturalist, life of an 24, 140 Aim of educational work 11 Albums, sentiments in 49, 50 Alexander I. sends for Pestalozzi 54 Amrhyn, Herr 135 Ante-Darwinian theories 31 "Aphorisms" 141 Arabic, study of 85 Architecture as a profession 45, 46, 48, 50, 51, 108, 141 Architectural efforts 41 Arithmetic, teaching of 20, 55, 59, 61, 99, 106 —— philosophy of 100 Arndt, Ernest Moritz 45 —— "Fragments of Culture" 62 Art, study of 34, 40 Art of teaching 24 Astronomy 86, 105 Attire, peculiarities of 105 Augsburg Confession 50 Austria interested in Pestalozzi 54

Bach a Cantor 7 Baireuth 42, 140 Bamberg, life at 38, 47, 140 Barop, Johannes Arnold 2, 16, 124, 138, 140, 141, 142 —— "Critical Moments" 127-137 Batsch, A.J.G. 31 Bauer, Herr 92, 93, 100 Belief in himself 126 Berlin, life at 89, 95, 100, 111, 121, 141, 142 Bern 93 —— Langethal's school at 137 Berry, Mrs. 143, 147 Best friend, Froebel's 93, 94 Bible biographies 53 —— in schools 8 "Bible of Education" 63 Birth of Froebel 3, 4, 140 Bishop, Miss, appointed London lecturer 143 Bivouac life agreeable 94 Blankenburg 137, 142, 144 Boarding-school life 18 Book-keeping 43 Botany, love of 25, 27, 31, 56, 60 Brandenburg, Mark of 92 British and Foreign School Society 143, 144 Brothers of Froebel. [See Froebel, below.] Burgdorf, Orphanage at 93, 135, 136, 137, 142

Cantor 7 Carl, Herr 124, 142 Carus, Professor 38 Characteristics in boyhood 7 Chemistry 30, 87, 88 —— organic 88 Cheve system of singing 56 Child's need of construction 77 Crispine, Ernestine 123 Christian education essential 120 —— family life 7 —— forms 74 "Christmas at Keilhau" 141 Church and school 8, 19 —— attendance 10 Class divisions elastic 54 Classical education 84 —— teaching 99 "Come let us live with them" 69 Comenius 103 Comet of 1811 86 Commission of 1810 80 Companionship 44 Comprehensiveness essential 80 Conditions of tutorship 66 Confinement in boyhood 6 Confirmation 22 Congress of teachers at Rudolstadt 142 —— at Gotha 142 —— at Salzungen 143 Construction essential to a child 77 "Continuation of the account of Keilhau" 141 Contradiction, life freed from 108 Cosmical development 89 Crisis at Yverdon 80 Croydon Kindergarten 143 Crystals a witness of life 112 Crystallography 89, 97 Culture, Froebel's plan of 107 —— his own insufficient 109

Death of Froebel 93, 143 —— of his father 38 —— of his first wife 142 Development, analysis to synthesis 118 —— of being, laws of 112 —— vs. memorizing 116 Devotes himself to study of education 98 Dewitz, Herr von 42, 43, 45, 140 Diary begun 36 Diesterweg 139 Divine worship at home 7, 10 Doreck, Miss 144 Drawing, study of 28, 55, 61, 62 Dresden 91, 142, 143 Duration of the world 13

Earlier and later life compared 16 Early education 3 —— mental struggles 14, 16 Education ad hoc 23 —— aim of 11 —— as an object 58 —— at Jena 28 —— in relationships 70 —— purpose of 69 —— reaches beyond life 119 "Education of Man" 1, 76, 117, 141, 145 Educator and teacher 68 Energy in play 21 —— in rocks 97 England, first kindergarten in 143 Ephors 21 Escape from creditors 128 "Exchange classes" 54 Expression of thought difficult 73 Eyes, deficient power of 30

"Family Journal of Education" 117, 141, 142 Family ties 44, 83 Father of Froebel. [See Froebel, Johann Jacob.] —— and mother 118 Fatherland vs. motherland 90 Fichte 116, 123 Financial difficulties 33, 47, 106, 127, 128 First consciousness of self 9 —— grasp of the word KINDERGARTEN 137 —— idea of a school of his own 68 —— work as a teacher 57 Following Nature in geography 61 Foresight of vocation as a teacher 108 Forestry-apprentice 24 Form-development 98 Form fixed for language 98 Forms, study of 75, 76 Forster, Johann Georg 94 —— "Rhine Travels" 94, 121 Francke's Paedagogium 55 Frankfurt, life at 47, 50, 57, 141, 142 —— Model School 57 French, study of 64 Froebel, temporary change of name 46 —— family —— Johann Jacob, the Father 3, 4, 6, 17, 19, 21, 26, 27, 28, 33, 34, 30, 37, 38, 43, 140 Brothers. —— Augustus 3, 32 —— Christoph 3, 12, 13, 15, 23, 26, 27, 32, 36, 47, 49, 65, 68, 83, 87, 113, 122 —— His widow misunderstands Froebel 122 —— Julius Karl Theodor 3, 4 —— Christian Ludwig 4, 87, 113, 121, 124, 127, 128, 140, 141, 142 —— Traugott 4, 23, 28, 32, 33 —— Karl Poppo 4, 104 Nephews. —— Ferdinand 113, 121, 131, 136, 137, 142 —— Wilhelm 113, 121 —— Julius 114, 122 —— Karl 114, 122 Nieces. —— Albertine [Middendorf] 124, 140 —— Emilie [Barop] 124, 140, 143 —— Elise [Schaffner] 124, 141, 142 —— Luise, Madame 143 Froebel Society 1, 144 Froebel's style as an author 1, 117 Froehlich 137

Games 135 —— a mental bath 82 Gardening 6, 71 Geography, teaching of 60 Geology 88, 97 Geometry 24, 25, 29, 35 German brotherhood 90 —— land and people 95 —— language teaching 56 —— literature 35 "German education" 114 Gifts, first suggestion of 75 Girard, Abbe 134 Girls' school at Oberweissbach 8, 9 Godlike not alone in the great 97 Godmother of Froebel 73 Goethe 35 Gotha, congress of teachers at 142 Goettingen, life at 84, 97, 103, 111, 141 Goettling 30 Government offices 23, 38, 95 Grammar, study of 64 Grammarians at odds 64 Greek, study of 84, 85 Grey, Mrs. William 144 Griesheim 122, 124, 141 Gross-Milchow 42, 140 Gruner, Herr 51, 53, 58, 63, 66, 109, 141 —— book on Pestalozzian methods 52 Gurney, Mary 144, 147, 149 Gymnastic Exercises 135

Halie 45 Hamburg 138, 142, 143 Hardenburg, Prince 54 Harmonious development 55 Harnisch 118 Havelberg 92, 93, 121 Hazel-buds the clue of Ariadne 12 Hebrew, study of 85 Heerwart, Eleonore 143, 144, 147 Hegel 116 —— his formulae adopted 113 Helba, National Institution at 16, 102, 129, 141 Hell, belief in 11, 133 Hermes 7 Higher methods of teaching 98 Hildburghausen 37, 140 History 88 Hoffmann, Herr 17, 21, 43, 44, 140, 141 Hoffman, Thedor 142 Hoffmeister, Henrietta Wilhelmine 123, 140 Holzhausen, Herr von 110, 141 —— Madame von 110, 112 Home of Froebel 6, 22, 27, 28 —— abandoned 15, 35 —— life 21, 22 Hopf 56, 69

Identities and analogies sought out 107 Iffland's "Huntsman" 26 Illusions have a true side 13 Impressions of Pestalozzi 54 Imprisoned for debt 33, 140 Individual life key to the universal 16 Inner meaning of the vowels 99 Inner law and order 87 Instrumental music derived from vocal 82 Introspection a characteristic 4, 11, 25, 46, 49, 56, 72, 103, 104, 109, 115 "Isis" 102, 117 Isolation of Froebel 4, 5, 91, 107

Jahn 120 Jena, life at 28, 105, 138, 140 Jesus Christ, education based on 120 "Journal of Education" 117, 141, 142 "Journal for Froebel's Educational Aims" 142 Joy of teaching 58 Jussieu's Botany 31

Kant 116 Keilhau, life at 16, 102, 103, 117, 135, 141, 143 Kindergarten occupations 129 Knowledge of self through objects 97 Koerner in the "Wilde Schaar" 91 Krause, Carl C.F. 102, 103, 116 —— letter to 2, 103-125, 141 Kruesi 55

Lange, Wichard 102, 138, 144, 145 —— editor of "Family Journal" 138 —— editor of Froebel's Works 3, 32, 138 Langethal, Heinrich 91, 93, 100, 101, 120, 122, 123, 124, 137, 140, 141, 142, 144 Language, philosophy of 81, 99 —— teaching of 59, 64, 81, 84, 85 Latin, study of 20, 23, 34, 84 Legacies 86, 123 Leipzig 91 Leonhardi 103 Lessons from Nature's training 72 Letter to the Duke of Meiningen 2, 3-101, 141 —— to Krause 102-125, 141, 146 "Levana" 70 Liebenstein, life at 142 Life as a connected whole 104 "Life, will, understanding" 118 Lilies, vain search for 96 London Kindergarten College 144 Love of Nature. [See Nature, love of.] Luther, Martin 50 Luetzow, Baron von 91, 141

Manchester Kindergarten Association 143 Mankind as one great unity 84 Manner in teaching 21 Manning, Miss 144 Manual training at Helba 121 Map-drawing 39, 61 "Mappe du Monde Litteraire" 36 Marenholz-Buelow, Baroness von 73, 142, 143, 146, 149 Marienthal 142, 143 Marquart, Dr. 143 —— Madame 143 Master of the girls' school 7 Mathematics 27 Matrimony 11 Mechanical powers, the 30 Mecklenburg 42, 44 Meiningen, Duke of 102, 129, 130 —— Letter to 2, 3-101, 141, 142, 146 Meissen 92, 120 Memorizing of rules vs. development 55, 109, 116 "Menschen Erziehung" 1, 76, 117, 141, 145 Mental struggles 65 Metaphysics 40, 118 Methods of Education 99 Michaelis, Mme. 143, 146, 147 Middendorf, Wilhelm 92, 93, 94, 100, 101, 103, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 127, 128, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143 Mineralogy 30, 87, 89 —— professorship declined 112 Misapprehension of Froebel's motives 16 Model School at Frankfurt 51 "Moonstruck," Froebel so considered 105 Moral influence of the teacher 60, 83 —— pride 5 Mother of Froebel 3, 44, 72 "Mothers' Songs" 76, 145 Mugge, Johanna Caroline 140 "Mutter- and Koselieder" 76, 145 Naegeli 81 —— and Pfeifer's "Musical Course" 81 Name temporarily changed 46 Napoleonic wars 91, 141 —— reaction from 127 Natural history 31, 32, 56, 87 Natural History Society at Jena 32 Nature, communion with 19 —— love of 24, 31, 38, 43, 48, 71, 74, 82, 80, 94, 96, 104, 105, 107 —— as an educator 71 Nature's work vs. man's 69 Nature-Temple 12 Nephews of Froebel. [See Froebel, Ferdinand, etc.] Netherlands, Froebel in the 95 Neuhof 24, 140 Nieces of Froebel. [See Froebel, Albertine, etc.] Niederer 57 Note-taking 30 Novalis's Works 45 Number horizontally related 99

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