bel's plays the mirror is held up to universal
life; that the child in playing them grows into unconscious sympathy
with the natural, the human, the divine; that by "playing at" the life
he longs to understand, he grows at last into a conscious realization
of its mysteries--its truth, its meaning, its dignity, its purpose.

We found that symbolic play leads the child from the symbol to the
truth symbolized.

We discovered that the carefully chosen words of the kindergarten
songs and games suggest thought to the child, the thought suggests
gesture, the melody begets spiritual feeling.

We discussed the relation of body and mind; the effect of bodily
attitudes on feeling and thought, as well as the moulding of the body
by the indwelling mind.

Froebel's playthings are as significant as his plays. If you examine
the materials he offers children in his "gifts and occupations," you
cannot help seeing that they meet the child's natural wants in a truly
wonderful manner, and that used in connection with conversations and
stories and games they address and develop his love of movement and
his love of rhythm; his desire to touch and handle, to play and work
(to be busy), and his curiosity to know; his instincts of construction
and comparison, his fondness for gardening and digging in the earth;
his social impulse, and finally his religious feeling.

Froebel himself says if his educational materials are found useful, it
cannot be because of their exterior, which is as simple as possible,
and contains nothing new; but their worth is to be found exclusively
in their application. If you can work out his principles (or better
ones still when we find better ones) by other means, pray do it if you
prefer; since the object of the kindergartner is not to make Froebel
an _idol_, but an _ideal_. He seems to have found type-forms admirable
for awaking the higher senses of the child, and unlike the usual
scheme of object lessons, they tell a continued story. When the
object-method first burst upon the enraptured sight of the teacher,
this list of subjects appeared in a printed catalogue, showing the
ground of study in a certain school for six months:--

"_Tea, spiders, apple, hippopotamus, cow, cotton, duck, sugar,
rabbits, rice, lighthouse, candle, lead-pencil, pins, tiger, clothing,
silver, butter-making, giraffe, onion, soda_!"

Such reckless heterogeneity as this is impossible with Froebel's
educational materials, for even if the