ian shore of
the Straits of Messina, face to face with some caverns under the rock of
Scylla, on the Italian shore, into which the waves rush at high tide
with a roar not unlike a dog's bark.

[88] The peculiar dreamy boy, who by his nature was set against much of
his work, and therefore seemed but an idle fellow to his schoolmaster,
was thought to be less gifted than his brothers, and on that account
fitted not so much for study as for simple practical life. In
Oberweissbach he was set down as "moonstruck." All this is more fully
set forth in the Meiningen letter, and the footnotes to it.

[89] This was the time when he was apprenticed to the forester in
Neuhaus, in the Thueringer Wald, and necessarily studied mathematics,
nature, and the culture of forest trees. Eyewitnesses have described him
as extremely peculiar in all his ways, even to his dress, which was
often fantastic. He was fond of mighty boots and great waving feathers
in his green hunter's-hat, etc.

[90] _i.e._, Frankfurt.

[91] Architecture, etc., at this time.

[92] From Mecklenburg to Frankfurt.

[93] _i.e._, as an architect.

[94] His plan evidently was to use architecture, probably Gothic
architecture, as a means of culture and elevation for mankind, and not
merely to practise it to gain money.

[95] It was in 1805 that Froebel was appointed by Gruner teacher in the
Normal School at Frankfurt.

[96] 1. Teacher in the Model School. 2. Tutor to the sons of Herr von
Holzhausen near Frankfurt. 3. A resident at Yverdon with Pestalozzi.

[97] Froebel was driven to Yverdon by the perusal of some of
Pestalozzi's works which Gruner had lent him. He stayed with Pestalozzi
for a fortnight, and returned with the resolve to study further with the
great Swiss reformer at some future time. In 1807, he became tutor to
Herr von Holzhausen's somewhat spoilt boys, demanded to have the entire
control of them, and for this object their isolation from their family.
The grateful parents, with whom Froebel was very warmly intimate, always
kept the rooms in which he dwelt with his pupils exactly as they were at
that time, in remembrance of his remarkable success with these boys.
Madame von Holzhausen had extraordinary influence with Froebel, and he
continued in constant correspondence with her. In 1808 Froebel and his
pupils went to Yverdon, and remained till 1810. But the philosophic
groundwork of Pestalozzi's system failed to satisfy him. Pestalozzi's
work sta