"We quote Froebel again, in these lines, and
we quote others in which he bids us

   ——Break not suddenly the dream.
    The blessed dream of infancy;
    In which the soul unites with all
    In earth, or heaven, or sea, or sky.

But enough has already been said to show
what he would have done. How would he
do it?

Of course it must be borne in mind,
throughout the following sketch of Froebel's
scheme of infant training, that certain qualities
of mind are necessary to the teacher. Let
nobody suppose that any scheme of education
can attain its end, as a mere scheme, apart
from the qualifications of those persons by
whom it is to be carried out. Very young
children can be trained successfully by no
person who wants hearty liking for them, and
who can take part only with a proud sense of
restraint in their chatter and their play. It is
in truth no condescension to become in spirit
as a child with children, and nobody is fit to
teach the young who holds a different opinion.
Unvarying cheerfulness and kindness, the
refinement that belongs naturally to a pure,
well-constituted woman's mind are
absolutely necessary to the management of one of
Froebel's infant gardens.

Then, again, let it be understood that
Froebel never wished his system of training
to be converted into mere routine, to the
exclusion of all that spontaneous action in
which more than half of every child's
education must consist. It was his
purpose to show the direction in which it was
most useful to proceed, how best to assist the
growth of the mind by following the indications
nature furnishes. Nothing was farther
from his design, in doing that, than the
imposition of a check on any wholesome energies.
Blindman's buff, romps, puzzles, fairy tales,
everything in fact that exercises soundly any
set of the child's faculties, must be admitted
as a part of Froebel's system. The cardinal
point of his doctrine is, — take care that you
do not exercise a part only, of the child's
mind or body; but take thorough pains to see
that you encourage the development of its
whole nature. If pains—and great pains—
be not taken to see that this is done, probably
it is not done. The Infant Gardens are
designed to help in doing it.

The mind of a young child must not be
trained at the expense of its body. Every
muscle ought, if possible, to be brought daily
into action; and, in the case of a child suffered
to obey the laws of nature by free tumbling
and romping, that is done in the best manner
possible. Every mother knows that by
carrying an infant always on the same arm its
growth is liable to be perverted. Every
father knows the child's delight at being
vigorously danced up and down, and much of
this delight arises from the play then given
to its muscles. As the child grows, the most
unaccustomed positions into which it can be
safely twisted are those from which it will
receive the greatest pleasure. That is
because play is thus given to the muscles in a
form they do not often get, and nature,
—always watchful on the child's behalf—
cries, We will have some more of that. It
does us good. As it is with the body, so it
is with the mind, and Froebel's scheme
of infant education is, for both, a system of
gymnastics.

He begins with the new-born infant and
demands that, if possible, it shall not be taken
from its mother. He sets his face strongly
against the custom of committing the child
during the tenderest and most impressible
period of its whole life to the care and
companionship of an ignorant nurse-maid, or of
servants who have not the mother's instinct,
or the knowledge that can tell them how to
behave in its presence. Only the mother
should, if possible, be the child's chief
companion and teacher during at least the first
three years of its life, and she should have
thought it worth while to prepare herself for
the right fulfilment of her duties. Instead of
tambour work, or Arabic, or any other useless
thing that may be taught at girls' schools,
surely it would be a great blessing if young
ladies were to spend some of their time in an
infant garden, that might be attached to
every academy. Let them all learn from
Froebel what are the requirements of a child,
and be prepared for the wise performance of
what is after all to be the most momentous
business of their lives.

The carrying out of this hint is indeed
necessary to the complete and general adoption
of the infant-garden system. Froebel
desired his infants to be taught only by women,
and required that they should be women as
well educated and refined as possible; preferring
amiable unmarried girls. Thus he would
have our maidens spending some part of their
time in playing with little ones, learning to
understand them, teaching them to understand;
our wives he would have busy at home,
making good use of their experience,
developing carefully and thoughtfully the minds
of their children, sole teachers for the first
three years of their life; afterwards, either
helped by throwing them among other children
in an infant garden for two or three
hours every day, or, if there be at home no
lack of little company, having infant gardens
of their own.

Believing that it is natural to address
infants in song, Froebel encouraged nursery
songs, and added to their number. Those
contributed by him to the common stock were
of course contributed for the sake of some use
that he had for each; in the same spirit—
knowing play to be essential to a child—he
invented games; and those added by him to
the common stock are all meant to be used
for direct teaching. It does not in the least
follow, and it was not the case, that he would