be said, perhaps, with some truth, that Fröbel himself, by laying down a definite plan of training, through his 'gifts,' and by his strongly insisting on its strict observance, countenanced and authorised to a certain extent mechanical action. This, however, is a case in which the 'letter killeth,' while the 'spirit quickeneth;' and I am persuaded that those are very imperfectly acquainted with Fröbel's principles who force their practical application into so narrow a groove; at the same time, I suspect that even Fröbel himself did not firmly grasp the principle, that the child, who is naturally a self-teacher, is to be a self-teacher throughout. The great truth, however, that comes out of Fröbel's researches into the nature of man is, that education consists in an everysided culture of all the human faculties only. What he means by culture is development, not 'telling,' which is too generally the antagonist, not the minister, of culture. There is a sense in which it may be truly said, that we know—that is, consciously knownothing that we are merely told by others.1 What

1 Faraday was accustomed to say that he never received as a fact what others told him, until, by working upon it himself, he had made it his own. It was a fact to him only when it became fact through his own personal experience.

we really know, so as to possess as a part of ourselves. . -of our organic life-comes out of our personal experi

We know, in this sense, have acquired by contact

ence in thought or action. what we have felt, what we with the realities of nature and life; but we do not know, for instance, in this sense, the distance of the sun from the earth, nor Kant's theory of the origin of ideas.

Whatever value may be attached to these remarks, one thing is certain, that in early education we must take as the basis of our operations the phenomena of natural development, the experiences of the children themselves, and on them erect our system of teaching. This is what is meant by Fröbel's great principle, as I construe it, that we must learn, by studying the nature of children, how we are to teach them; just as Bacon taught that we are to learn from nature the laws by which we are ourselves to govern nature. The choicest fruits of Fröbel's ideas will be gathered only

when the teachers of the teachers are profoundly impressed with it themselves, and, above all, impress it upon them. This, at present, is not, so far as I have observed, by any means generally the case.

I left Hamburg deeply impressed with the educational activity everywhere manifested, with its noble institutions for early and advanced instruction, and with the generous public spirit of its authorities.

BERLIN.

N the 30th of August I arrived in Berlin, and on the following Monday commenced

my mission in that city by visiting a private Kindergarten, conducted by Fraülein Sperling, where I found thirty or forty children of from three to seven years of age busily engaged in breakfasting at half-past ten. After their simple repast was over, they commenced 'building' with little wooden cubes and tablets. This I found everywhere a very favourite 'work' of the children, and one in which they generally display much ingenuity. It con

sists in forming with the objects just mentioned seats, sofas, columns with pedestals, crosses, doorways, flights of steps, walls, little houses, etc. (see p. 26). The children never seemed wearied in varying these forms in every possible way. It is an exercise suited in all respects to their powers, and by means of it, as I have elsewhere said, 'play exhibits the characteristics of art, and "conforms" (to

1

use Bacon's words) "the outward show of things to the desires of the mind," and the child learns not merely to imitate, but to create.' In consequence, too, of the exact geometrical conformity of the cubes and tablets (the dimensions of the tablets having always a fixed definite proportion to those of the cubes), notions of precision and symmetry are necessarily acquired. It is remarkable to see with what zest and earnest seriousness the children engage in this systematic building.

The next exercise consists of movement - games, accompanied by singing; and as I nowhere saw these games better carried out than here, I will describe some of them in detail.

1. The Sportsman.-The children forming a large ring with joined hands, and singing a song adapted to the subject, one of them is detached to represent a midge disporting itself in the sunshine. He runs round the circle, throwing his arms about to imitate flying. Another child is then detached to represent a sparrow, who attacks the midge, and swallows it up (a large demand on the imagination, certainly).

1 See Fröbel and the Kindergarten System of Elementary Education, pp. 16, 17.