attempts, and hitting upon his most characteristic principles by
accident; while Froebel was a theorist, elaborating his ideas mentally
before putting them in practice, and never satisfied till he had
properly located them in his general scheme of philosophy.

And yet, curiously enough, it is Pestalozzi who was the author. His
"Leonard and Gertrude" was read by every cottage fireside, while
Froebel's writings were intelligible only to his disciples. Pestalozzi
had an exuberant imagination and delightful directness and simplicity of
expression; Froebel's style was labored and obscure, and his doctrines
may be better known through the "Child and Child Nature" of the Baroness
Marenholz von Buelow than through his own "Education of Man."

The account of Froebel's life given in this volume is supplemented
somewhat by the "Reminiscences" of this same Baroness, who became
acquainted with him in 1849, and was thereafter his most enthusiastic
and successful apostle. Till some adequate biography appears, that
volume and this must be relied upon for information of the man who
shares equally with Pestalozzi the honor of educational reform in this
century.

C.W. BARDEEN.
Syracuse, June 10, 1889.




COMMENTS UPON FROEBEL AND HIS WORK.