Education as a Factor in Civilization. 239 



tion of the object-teaching of Comenius, to whose labors 

 he acknowledged himself indebted ; and, though dying 

 overwhelmed with mortifications and disappointments, his 

 name remains immortal among those who love their kind. 



Frcebel continued the work of Pestalozzi, and like him 

 labored less for his own time than for our day. As a 

 child he was dubbed a dunce, and if it be true that " genius 

 is the faculty of acquiring poverty," both he and his great 

 master must be placed high among the gifted ones of 

 earth. Like him, also, Frcebel was dreamy, unpractical, 

 a blundering administrator of affairs. He made many mis- 

 takes before fixing upon his final vocation, and even this 

 proved a failure so far as he personally was concerned. 

 He also, a victim to great griefs, died believing that his 

 life had been lived wholly in vain. 



It is with the Kindergarten method that we associate 

 the name of this savior of little children. To him the 

 child was a plant and the school its nursery. Though 

 much of the seed which he sowed fell in stony places, much 

 also fell on good ground and has brought forth fruit abun- 

 dantly. We feel a natural and profound interest in Frce- 

 bel's frankly expressed opinion that the kindergarten 

 method could reach its fullest development only in Amer- 

 ica, whose national principle is self-government, perfect 

 freedom according to law. 



The pedagogy of our own century proves " how much the 

 years teach that the days never know," and claims the proud 

 distinction of inaugurating the attempt to organize the 

 grand science of psychology, the highest evolution of men- 

 tal and moral philosophy, little at present understood, 

 but alone able to furnish rules and principles upon which 

 intellectual development can proceed. It is now for tlie 

 first time conceded that all education must rest upon this 

 scientific basis, while methods must be rationally combined ; 

 that there is, practically, no limit to this education, or to 

 its value to the individual and the State; that education, 

 properly understood, is preparation for "the life that now is," 

 and that only in such preparation can there be made 

 adequate provision for that which is to come. 



So by degrees, imperceptible to each generation of 

 men who in their brief hour of life and narrow field of 

 labor struggled, blundered, suffered, and despaired, the 

 human intellect has expanded through the slow centuries of 



