tention to the difference between them, the geometrical qualities are brought forward. It was a wise intention in Froebel in choosing the number eight in the III and IV Gifts, so that the child might be able to overlook the material from which he builds. Children learn particularly in these gifts to develop in themselves the great law of order, which is the condition of everything that lives and moves. The fifth Gift is an extension of the third Gift, proceeding, as all devel opment does, and all Froebel's occupations do, from the simple to the complex, from the easy to the difficult. This gift, like the preceding two, consists of a cube, though larger and containing a greater num ber of parts, 27 cubes, some of them being subdivided again diagonally into half and quarter triangular forms. The forms the child now can build are, of course, of great multiplicity, and look very real. Number can be developed to a great degree. The III and IV Gifts giving halves, quarters, and eighths-we can divide this gift into thirds, ninths, and twenty-sevenths; fractions, multiplication, division, etc., can be taught and demonstrated by each child without difficulty. The symmetrical forms are developed from a given ground-form-a central square and four triangles, which by equal, even changes, always keeping the opposites alike, give the most beautiful form. Geometrical forms and the forms of prisms are by slight changes demonstrated by the child. The sixth Gift is in size like the preceding cube; it is an extension of the fourth Gift, containing 27 oblongs, three of them being divided length wise and six across. This gift allows of course a far greater number of forms, than the IV Gift, and teaches in a simple way geometrical theory; also architectural forms and symmetrical ones can be built from it. Until now the body occupied us. The primary forms of all that is real, form the solid foundation of all abstract ideas to which we shall attain in the further formation of the mind. The more we become acquainted with the universe, so much more correct will be our abstract ideas. In the first gift are already shown a preparation for abstract ideas; when, for example, we use the words, right, left, up, down, etc., these words are only the ideas of the movements of the body. It would be a very imperfect education if we passed straight from material objects to the more abstract studies of reading and writing. Froebel used in his system the so-called "laying-games 99 so to say as a bridge to these. The universal progressive law is also here found in the connection of the tablet with the body, forming so to say the plane, side of the body. The square is given first, being the embodied The isosceles right-angled triangle follows next, Other occupations developed from the plane, are: Paper-folding, paper-cutting, and mat-plaiting. Pa per-folding and paper-cutting rest on geometrical calculations; their ground form is a square piece of paper. used for baskets, or other kind of work. The results of B paper-cutting are pasted on paper, by which the cy and awaken the intelligence and higher undererstanding. The to the harmonious combination of color. The children learn by dictation the simple law of the patterns they get one after another, until they arrive at free invention by which the teacher can judge of the effect of her work. The finished mats belong to the children as the result of their labor. Hand and eye are not only practiced, but will, feeling, and power of thought are animated in a higher degree and developed to greater activity. The sense of industry and perseverance finds a reward in the finished work; restless and excitable children learn to bring their thoughts and acts into a persevering order and grow quiet, whilst sleepy and lazy children grow interested and active. Mat-plaiting is the arithmetic table of the child, for number conditions the pattern. Stick-laying goes a step farther than the tablets; for here the child has only outlines- no body-no plane. The stick is, as it were, the embodied edge of the cube and the boundary of the surface-the tablet. This game especially develops the understanding of the straight linethe basis of drawing. The child lays with the sticks on the table, which is marked with a net of equal one-inch square lines, the different directions, angles, and rudimental geometrical forms, combines these to symmetrical forms, and lays the outline pictures of things he sees around him; also figures and letters can be represented, and the child is taught number with them. The wire rings and half-rings represent the embodied curved line. Other occupations with linear materials are: The interlacing of slats, the long, elastic, flat, and narrow slat being, so to say, the connecting link between plane and line. The slats are connected with each other, like the strips of paper in mat-plaiting-one over, one under, so that they hold and support each other. This occupation leads to many num eral exercises and knowledge of geometrical forms. The connected slats are slats, stronger and shorter than the previous ones, joined by movable links, from two to ten in number. By means of these links the slats may be moved into different forms, either geometrical -so-called forms of perception or knowledge-symmetrical or forms of beauty-or representations of objectsalso called the forms of life or use; these three classes of forms we find in all the gifts and occupations of the Kindergarten. Paper-interlacing consists of long, narrow, three-times doubled paper strips; these are used similarly as the slats for interlacing, being though a more difficult and advanced occupation, as the angles have to be gained by "folding" the strips and then interlacing it. This occupation is closely connected with paper-folding and mat-plaiting. All such forms can be made that we see as decorations of dresses, ceilings, floors, walls, etc. It awakens the inventive faculties, so that imitating is not degraded to mechanical handicraft. In the thread-game the line is even more represented than in stick-laying. The material is a colored thread 25 centimetres long joined in the ends by a knot; this is laid on the wet slate either in circular, square, or trian gular form; a slate-pencil serves for tool. In the easiest manner innumerable forms of all kinds can be represented, which is the principal demand Froebel makes in regard to his means of occupations. This occupation may justly be called drawing with given lines. Drawing follows naturally, which is done on slates or paper covered with a net of equal squares which determines the length and direction of the lines. Froebel's drawing school rests on geometry. In stick-laying we had the embodied line,-in drawing we come another step nearer the abstract. In this linear system of drawing the child occupies himself always in an intellectual manner; it gives to the intelligence by its inventive mode, which forms its basis, the necessary nourishment for his development. For a child to be able to |