Froebel's Place in the History of Education.* Froebel is the legitimate successor of Rousseau and Pesta

31, Paternoster Row), contains a large collection of papers on the subject, original and translated. W. T. Harris' Reports give full accounts of the adaptation of the Kindergarten to public education at St. Louis. Kindergartens in Germany are described in Joseph Payne's Visit to German Schools, 1876. Practical guides published in England are E. Wiebe's Paradise of Children, and Miss Lyschinkas's Principles of the Kindergarten (Isbister), 1880. The Autobiography of Froebel has been translated by E. Michaelis and H. K. Moore; also the Mutter-u. Koselieder, by Miss Lord (Rice, 86, Fleet Street). Some of the short papers published, as, e.g., Miss E. A. Manning's Froebel and Infant Training (Stanford, price 6d.), have a value quite out of proportion to their size and price. Miss Gurney has abridged Köhler in English as First Gifts, etc. (Myers), and Goldammer's Praxis has been translated by Wright. Miss Shirreff has lately published The Kindergarten at Home (Hughes). Froebel literature in German has lately increased far beyond my knowledge, even of titles. I have had the following recommended to me:-Zur Frauenfrage and Grundzüge d. Ideen F. Froebels, by Henrietta Breymann (Braunschweig), and Frauenantheil an der Volksbildung, by Amalie Sohr (Perthes, 1883). L. Walter has attempted a complete list of books and periodicals on the subject in his Die Fröbelliteratur. For American books see Steiger's Cyclopædia of Education; and for English, the list published in Report and Calender of the Froebel Society for 1885 (Rice).

* In the preparation of the following paragraphs upon Froebel which are additional and supplementary to the very brief notice by Mr. Quick, the following works have been consulted: Joseph Payne's Lectures on Science and Art of Education; the Lecture on Froebel; see E. L. Kellogg's edition, pages 307 to 336, Payne's (W. H.) Compayré's History of Pedagogy; also Browning's Educational Theories; see the publisher's edition in the "Reading Circle Library" series.

lozzi, although he aims wholly at infant education, while his two predecessors just named occupy a much wider field. According to Browning, Rousseau "stands astride across the whole field of education. Nothing comes after him which is not affected by him.' "With Froebel," says Compayré, "we enter completely into the nineteenth century; he continues the work of Pestalozzi."

Froebel and Pestalozzi. Froebel began to teach in 1805 at Frankfort, and soon after fell in with some of the writings of Pestalozzi and was greatly impressed. With three of his teachers, he spent two years at the Pestalozzian Yverdun, taking part in the work, apprehending and applying the spirit of Pestalozzi. He has declared this experience to be the decisive epoch of his life. Prof. C. W. Bennett has declared the ground principle of the Pestalozzian system to be, "From Intuition to Notion," and with this we may compare Compayré's statement that "upon many points Froebel remained, to the end a faithful disciple of Pestalozzi. Intuition is the fundamental principle of Froebel's method, and we might say that his effort in pedagogy consists chiefly in organizing into a system the sense intuitions which Pestalozzi proposed to the child somewhat at random and without plan."

Froebel's Psychological Basis. Froebel attempted to express and systematize those principles of first education which he thought Pestalozzi himself did not fully comprehend. His fundamental principle is the development of the self-activity of the child by connecting manual labor with every exercise of the intellect. Sully

in his Psychology says that Froebel "has built on solid psychological ground in maintaining (1) That knowledge and activity are closely related; (2) That the child's spontaneous activity is the force that sets the mechanism of the senses in movement; (3) That perception includes the employment not only of the eye but of the hand; 4. That a nice perception of form is only gained in connection with the device of manual reproduction.

The Object of the Kindergarten. This may be stated in Froebel's own words: "To take the oversight of children before they are ready for school life; to exert an influence over their whole being in correspondence with its nature; to strengthen their bodily powers; to exercise their senses; to employ the awakening mind; to make them thoughtfully acquainted with the world of nature and of man; to guide their heart and soul in the right direction, and to lead them to the Origin of all life and to union with Him."

Opinions of Froebel. An account of the principles of Froebel must be sought for elsewhere. The methods of Kindergarten instruction are fully given in the many manuals on this subject. In a lecture delivered before the College of Preceptors in London, in 1874, Joseph Payne took strong ground in favor of the originality and worth of Froebel. He said: " Among the names of the great Reformers of Education there is one which has not yet received that honor which it deserves, and with which I firmly believe the future will invest it. It is that of Frederick Wilhelm August Froebel. It is safe to say that both American and English educational authorities are increasingly inclined to rate the

work of Froebel high. Compayré seems inclined (doubtless with natural French dislike of German mysticism and profundity) to think Froebel overestimated; in France at least, and "more praised than known, more celebrated than studied." He acknowledges, however, Froebel's grand qualities as a teacher. Dr. G. Stanley Hall says, "If Froebel was mystic and enthusiastic, like Delsarte and Jahn, like them he based his system upon careful observation of human nature, and the deepest sympathy with those he worked for."

APPENDIX.

CLASS MATCHES.

(See page 27.)

WITH young classes I have tried the Jesuits' plan of matches, and have found it answer exceedingly well. The top boy and the second pick up sides (in schoolboy phrase), the second boy having first choice. The same sides may be kept till the superiority of one of them is clearly established, when it becomes necessary to pick up again. The matches, if not too frequent, prove an excellent break to the monotony of school-work. A subject well suited for them (as Franklin pointed out) is spelling. The boys are told that on a certain day there will be a match in the spelling of some particular class of words-say words of one syllable, or the preterites of verbs. For the match the sides are

arranged in lines opposite one another; the dux of one side questions the dux of the other, the second boy the second, and so forth. The match may be conducted viva voce, or, better still, by papers previously written. Each boy has to bring on paper a list of the right sort of words. Suppose six is the number required, he will write a column with a few to spare, as some of his words may be disallowed by the umpire, i.e., the master. The master takes the first boy's list, and asks the top boy on the opposite side to spell the words. When he fails, the owner of the list has to correct him, and gets a mark for doing so. Should the owner of the list himself make a mistake, his opponent scores even if he is wrong also. When the master has gone through all the lists in this way, he adds up the marks, and announces which

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