are ridiculed or stoned by contemporaries,
and to whom future generations build monuments.'"

"I knew," says Madame Von M., "that I had to do with a true
man--with an original and unfalsified nature. When one of his
pupils called him Mr. Froebel, I remembered having once heard of
a man of that name who wished to educate children by play, and
that it had seemed to me a very perverted view, for I had only
thought of empty play, without any serious purpose."

"Froebel met with violent opposition and ridicule all his life,
and just when at last he thought he had successfully planted his
ideas, there came a sudden death-blow to his hopes, which was
also a death-blow to the good and great man. The Prussian
Government was and is as tyrannical as William the Conqueror,
who made the English people put their lights out at dark, and
suddenly, in August, 1851, the Prussian Government immortalized
itself by passing a decree forbidding the establishment of any
kindergartens within the Prussian dominions. In unguarded
moments, Froebel had used the expression "education for
freedom," in referring to his beloved plans, and that was enough
for Prussia, in the ferment of fear in which she has been ever
since 1848. Kindergartens in Germany have not yet recovered from
this blow, and Froebel himself sunk under it and died. But a
little time before he died, he said: "If 300 years after my
death, my method of education shall be completely established
according to its idea, I shall rejoice in heaven."

"Froebel's life was full of strange vicissitudes and
disappointments. The few friends who understood him, and the
children whom he taught, and who, perhaps, understood him better
than anybody else, reverenced him, and loved him as father,
prophet, and teacher.

"On his seventieth birthday, two months before his death, his
beloved pupils gave him a festival, which is beautiful to read
about. It must have gladdened the pure-hearted old man
immeasurably. Froebel was wakened at sun-rise by the festal song
of the children, and as he stepped out of his chamber to the
lecture-room, he saw that it had been splendidly adorned with
flowers, festoons, and wreaths of all kinds. The day was
celebrated with songs and rejoicing, and gifts were received
from pupils and friends in various parts of the world,