THIS work of Froebel admits us into his philosophy, and shows us the fundamental principles upon which he based the kindergarten system. His great word is in ner connection. There must be an inner connection between the pupil's mind and the objects which he studies, and this shall determine what to study. There must be an inner connection in those objects among themselves which determines their succession and the order in which they are to be taken up in the course of instruction. Finally, there is an inner connection with in the. soul that unites the faculties of feeling, percep tion, phantasy, thought, and volition, and determines the law of their unfolding. Inner connection is in fact the law of development, the principle of evolution, and Froebel is the Educational Reformer who has done more than all the rest to make valid in education what the Germans call the " developing method." Unlike Pestalozzi, Froebel was a philosopher. The great word of the former is immediate perception (anschaueri). Pestalozzi struggled to make all educa tion begin with immediate perception and abide with it for a long period.
Froebel goes down into the genesis of objects of study in order to discover the relation of such objects to the nourishment of mind. The chemists and physi ologists have ascertained the relation of bread and meat to the sustenance of human life. Froebel has investi gated the relation of the child's activities in play to the growth of his mind. The mind grows by self -revelation. In play the child ascertains what he can do, and dis covers his possibilities of will and thought by exerting his power spontaneously. In work he follows a task prescribed for him by another, and does not reveal his own proclivities and inclinations, but another's. In play he reveals his own original power. But there are two selves in the child one is peculiar, arbitrary, ca pricious, different from all others, and hostile to them, and is founded on short-sighted egotism.
