ed slowly."--W. Preyer, _The Mind of the
Child_, page 180.

As to the triangular tablets, it is evident enough they should not be
dealt with until after the child has seen the triangular plane on the
solid forms of the fifth gift. Mr. Hailmann says that a clear idea of
the extension of solids in three dimensions can only come from a
familiarity with the bricks, and again that the abstractions of the
tablet should not be obtruded on the child's notice until he has that
clear idea.

Though the six tablets which surround the cube may be given to the
child at the first exercise, it is better to dictate simple positions
of one or two squares first, and let him use the six in dictation and
many more in invention.

Order of introducing Triangles.

The first triangle given is the right isosceles, showing the angle of
forty-five degrees, and formed by bisecting the square with a diagonal
line. The child should be given a square of paper and scissors and
allowed to discover the new form for himself, letting him experiment
until the desired triangle is obtained. He should then study the new
form, its edges and angles, and then join his two right-angled
triangles into a square, a larger triangle, etc. Then let him observe
how many positions these triangles may assume by moving one round the
other. He will find them acting according to the law of opposites
already familiar to him, and if not comprehended,[64] yet furnishing
him with an infallible criterion for his inventive work.

[64] "With this law I give children a guide for creating, and
because it is the law according to which they, as creatures
of God, have themselves been created, they can easily apply
it. It is born with them."--_Reminiscences of Froebel_, page
73.

The equilateral is then taken up, is compared with the half-square,
and then studied by itself, its three equal sides and angles (each
sixty degrees) being noted as well as the obtuse angles made by all
possible combinations of the equilateral.

Next, as we have said, comes the right-angled scalene triangle, with
its inequality of sides and angles, which must be studied and compared
with the equilateral; and last of all, the obtuse isosceles triangle,
which is dealt with in the same way.

Here, again, it should be noted that the two last forms should always
be discovered by the child in his play with the equilateral, and that
he should cut them himself from paper before he is