most learned writer on freemasonry in his day, was born in 1781. at
Eisenberg, in Saxony. From 1801 to 1804 he was a professor at Jena,
afterwards teaching in Dresden, Göttingen, and Munich, at which latter
place he died in 1832.
[86] Lorenz Oken, the famous naturalist and man of science, was born at
Rohlsbach, in Swabia, 1st August, 1779. (His real name was Ockenfuss.)
In 1812 Oken was appointed ordinary professor of natural history at
Jena, and in 1816 he founded his celebrated journal, the _Isis_, devoted
chiefly to science, but also admitting comments on political matters.
The latter having given offence to the Court of Weimar, Oken was called
upon either to resign his professorship or suppress the _Isis_. He
chose the former alternative, sent in his resignation, transferred the
publication of the _Isis_ to Rudolstadt, and remained at Jena as a
private teacher of science. In 1821 he broached in the _Isis_ the idea
of an annual gathering of German _savants_, and it was carried out
successfully at Leipzig in the following year. To Oken, therefore, may
be indirectly ascribed the genesis of the annual scientific gatherings
common on the Continent, as well as of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, which at the outset was avowedly organised after
his model. He died in 1851.
[87] Those acquainted with the classical mythology will forgive us for
noting that Charybdis was, and is, a whirlpool on the Sicilian 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 Thüringer 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 started from the external needs of the poorest people, while
Froebel desired to found the columns supporting human culture upon
theoretically reasoned grounds and upon the natural sciences. A
remarkable difference existed between the characters of the two great
men. Pestalozzi was diffident, acknowledged freely his mistakes, and
sometimes blamed himself for them bitterly; Froebel never thought
himself in the wrong, if anything went amiss always found some external
cause for the failure, and in self-confidence sometimes reached an
extravagant pitch.
[98] Either Froebel or his editor has made a blunder here. Froebel went
to Göttingen in July 1811 (see p. 84), and to Berlin in October 1812
(see p. 89).
[99] At this time, however, the symbols of the inorganic world did not
appeal to Froebel with the same force as those of the organic world. In
a letter to Madame von Holzhausen. 31st March, 1831, he writes: "It is
the highest privilege of natural forms or of natural life that they
contain agreement and perfection within themselves as a whole class,
while differing and filled with imperfection in particular individuals;
for look at the loveliest blooming fruit-tree, the sweetest rose, the
purest lily, and your eye can always detect deficiencies, imperfections,
differences in each one, regarded as a single phenomenon, a separate
bloom; and, further, the same want of perfection appears also in every
single petal: on the other hand, wherever mathematical symmetry and
precise agreement are found, _there is death_".
[100] Not a figure of speech altogether; for Froebel did really decline
a professorship of mineralogy which was offered him at this time, in
order to set forth on his educational career.
[101] That is, putting development into a formula--
Thesis-+-Antithesis
|
Synthesis.
The true synthesis is that springing from the thesis and its opposite,
the antithesis. Another type of the formula is this--
Proposition-+-Counter-proposition
|
Compromise.
Understanding by "Compromise" (_Vermittlung_) that which results from
the union of the two opposites, that which forms part of both and which
links them together. The formula expressed in terms of human life, for
example, is--
Father-+-Mother
|
Child.
Philosophic readers acquainted with Hegel and his school will recognise
a familiar friend in these formulæ.
[102] Froebel travelled from Berlin to Osterode, and took with him both
his brother Christian's sons, Ferdinand and Wilhelm, to Griesheim; there
to educate them together with the three orphans of his brother
Christoph, who had died in 1813, of hospital fever, whilst nursing the
French soldiers. Of the sons of Christian, Ferdinand studied philosophy,
and at his death was director of the Orphanage founded by Froebel in
Burgdorf; Wilhelm, who showed great talent, and was his uncle's
favourite nephew, died early through the consequences of an accident,
just after receiving his "leaving certificate" from the gymnasium of
Rudolstadt.
As regards the sons of Christoph, they were the immediate cause of
Froebel's going to Griesheim, for their widowed mother sent for her
brother-in-law to consult him as to their education. Julius, the eldest,
was well prepared in Keilhau for the active life he was afterwards
destined to live. He went from school to Munich, first, to study the
natural sciences; and while yet at the university several publications
from his pen were issued by Cotta. Later on he took an official post in
Weimar, and continued to write from time to time. Meanwhile he completed
his studies in Jena and Berlin under Karl von Ritter, the great
authority on cosmography, and under the distinguished naturalist,
Alexander von Humboldt. In 1833 he became Professor at the Polytechnic
School in Zurich; but his literary avocations eventually drew him to
Dresden. Here he was chosen Deputy to the National Assembly at Frankfurt
in 1848. After the dissolution of that Assembly, Julius Froebel, in
common with many others of the more advanced party, was condemned to
death. He escaped to Switzerland before arrest, and fled to New York. In
after life he was permitted to return to Germany, and eventually he was
appointed Consul at Smyrna.
Karl Froebel, the next son, went to Jena also. He then took a tutorship
in England, and it was at this time (1831) that his pamphlet, "A
Preparation for Euclid," appeared. He returned to the Continent to
become Director of the Public Schools at Zürich. He left Zürich in 1848
for Hamburg, where he founded a Lyceum for Young Ladies. Some years
later, when this had ceased to exist, he went again to England, and
eventually founded an excellent school at Edinburgh with the aid of his
wife; which, indeed, his wife and he still conduct. His daughters show
great talent for music, and one of them was a pupil of the distinguished
pianist, Madame Schumann (widow of the great composer).
[103] Or, as we say, A is A.
[104] A great deal of Froebel's irony might all too truly be still
applied to current educational work.
[105] Empiricism--that is, _a posteriori_ investigations, based on
actual facts and not _a priori_ deductions from theories, or general
laws, did good service before Froebel's time, and will do good service
yet, Froebel notwithstanding. In Froebel's time the limits Kant so truly
set to the human understanding were overstepped on every side; Fichte,
Schelling, and Hegel were teaching, and the latter especially had
an overpowering influence upon all science. Every one constructed a
philosophy of the universe out of his own brain. Krause, the recipient
of this letter, never attained to very great influence, though had he
been in Hegel's chair he might perhaps have wielded Hegel's authority,
and there was for a long time a great likelihood of his appointment.
Meanwhile he reconstructed the university at Göttingen. Even practical
students of Nature, such as Oken, did homage to the general tendency
which had absorbed all the eager spirits of the vanguard of human
advancement, amongst them Froebel himself. We see how firmly set Froebel
was against experience-teaching, _a posteriori_ work, or, as he calls
it, empiricism. The Kantist, Arthur Schopenhauer, was not listened to,
and dwelt apart, devouring his heart in bitter silence; breaking out at
last with the dreary creed of Pessimism.
[106] Froebel is here hardly fair. How should people know much of him as
yet? He had at this time written the following works:--(1) "On the
Universal German Educational Institute of Rudolstadt" (1822); (2)
"Continuation of the Account of the Universal German Educational
Institute at Keilhau" (1823); (3) "Christmas at Keilhau: a Christmas
Gift to the Parents of the Pupils at Keilhau, to the Friends and the
Members of the Institute" (1824); (4) "The Menschen Erziehung," the full
title of which was "The Education of Man: The Art of Education,
Instruction, and Teaching, as attempted to be realised at the Universal
Educational Institute at Keilhau, set forth by the Originator, Founder,
and Principal of the Institute, Friedrich Froebel" (1826), never
completed; (5) _Family Weekly Journal of Education for Self-culture and
the Training of Others_, edited by Friedrich Froebel, Leipzig and
Keilhau. But Froebel, in his unbusiness-like way, published all these
productions privately. They came out of course under every disadvantage,
and could only reach the hands of learned persons, and those to whom
they were really of interest, by the merest chance. Further, Froebel, as
has already abundantly appeared, was but a poor author. His stiff,
turgid style makes his works in many places most difficult to
understand, as the present translators have found to their cost, and he
was therefore practically unreadable to the general public. In his usual
self-absorbed fashion, he did not perceive these deficiencies of his,
nor could he be got to see the folly of private publication. Indeed, on
the contrary, he dreamed of fabulous sums which one day he was to
realise by the sale of his works. It is needless to add that the event
proved very much the reverse. As to criticism, it was particularly the
"able editor" Harnisch who pulled to pieces the "Menschen Erziehung" so
pitilessly on its appearance, and who is probably here referred to.
[107] This passage may serve as a sufficient illustration of Froebel's
metaphysical way of looking at his subject. It is scarcely our habit at
the present day to regard the science of being (ontology) as a science
at all, since it is utterly incapable of verification; but it is not
difficult to trace the important truth really held by Froebel even
through the somewhat perplexing folds of scholastic philosophy in which
he has clothed it.
[108] See the previous footnote, p. 93.
[109] These events and situations are fully set forth in the letter to
the Duke of Meiningen, _ante._
[110] As mineralogist.
[111] Christian Ludwig Froebel.
[112] Christoph.
[113] This younger Langethal afterwards became a Professor in the
University of Jena.
[114] The minister's widow lost her widow's privilege of residence at
Griesheim by the death of her father, and bought a farm at Keilhau.
[115] Froebel told his sister-in-law that he "desired to be a father to
her orphaned children." The widow understood this in quite a special and
peculiar sense, whereof Froebel had not the remotest idea. Later on,
when she came to know that Froebel was engaged to another lady, she made
over to him the Keilhau farm, and herself went to live at Volkstädt.
[116] This young girl, the adopted daughter of the first Madame Froebel,
was named Ernestine Chrispine, and afterwards married Langethal.
Froebel's first wife, Henrietta Wilhelmine Hoffmeister, was born at
Berlin 20th September, 1780, and was therefore thirty-eight at the time
of her marriage. She was a remarkable woman, highly cultured, a pupil of
Schleiermacher and of Fichte. Before her marriage with Froebel she had
been married to an official in the War Office, and had been separated
from him on account of his misconduct. Middendorff and Langethal knew
the family well, and had frequently spoken with Froebel about this lady,
who was admired and respected by both of them. Froebel saw her once in
the mineralogical museum at Berlin, and was wonderfully struck by her,
especially because of the readiness in which she entered into his
educational ideas. When afterwards he desired to marry, he wrote to the
lady and invited her to give up her life to the furtherance of those
ideas with which she had once shown herself to be so deeply penetrated,
and to become his wife. She received his proposal favourably, but her
father, an old War Office official, at first made objections. Eventually
she left her comfortable home to plunge amidst the privations and
hardships of all kinds abundantly connected with educational struggles.
She soon rose to great honour with all the little circle, and was deeply
loved and most tenderly treated by Froebel himself. In her willingness
to make sacrifices and her cheerfulness under privations, she set them
all an example. She died at Blankenburg in May 1839.
[117] The expected dowry was never forthcoming, which made matters
harder.
[118] Christian had already assisted his brother at Griesheim, and
before that, to the utmost of his power. The three daughters were (1)
Albertine, born 29th December, 1801, afterwards married Middendorff; (2)
Emilie, born 11th July, 1804, married Barop, died 18th August, 1860, at
Keilhau; (3) Elise, born 5th January, 1814, married Dr. Siegfried
Schaffner, one of the Keilhau colleagues, later on.
[119] Johannes Arnold Barop, Middendorff's nephew, was born at Dortmund,
29th November, 1802. He afterwards became proprietor and principal of
Keilhau.
[120] March 1828.
[121] This excellent man was drowned in the Saale while bathing, soon
after this letter was written.
[122] He always regarded himself as perfectly tolerant.
[123] Froebel moved from Griesheim to Keilhau in 1817.
[124] In 1820.
[125] It was in 1828 that Barop formally and definitely joined the
Froebel community.
[126] The long turmoil of the Napoleonic wars, the outcome of the French
Revolution, ceased in 1815; and the minds of the students and the other
youths of the country, set free from this terrible struggle for liberty,
turned towards the reformation of their own country. Many associations
were formed: perhaps here and there wild talk was indulged in. The
Government grew alarmed, and though the students had invariably acted
with perfect legality, all their associations were dispersed and
forbidden.
[127] Christian Froebel and his wife.
[128] This was 1827-29.
[129] This is the interesting plan of the Public Educational Institution
and Orphanage in Helba, with which admirers of Froebel are probably
already well acquainted. It is given in full in Lange's "Froebel," vol.
i., p. 401.
[130] Say £100.
[131] In 1829.
[132] The Wartensee is a small lake in the canton Luzern, not far from
Sempach.
[133] About 30s.
[134] Auf Schuster's Rappen,--_i.e._, on foot. (This was in 1832.)
[135] A small town not far away, still in the canton Luzern.
[136] This was a familiar name for the devil, till a few years back, in
Germany; surprisingly recalling the term "Eumenides" for the Greek
Furies, since it originated in a desire to speak of so powerful an enemy
in respectful terms, lest he should take offence.
[137] A Swiss educational writer of great power and charm. His school
books, "Sur la langue maternelle," are really valuable.
[138] The editors venture to call attention to these little facts as a
sample of the extraordinary devotion and sacrifice which Froebel knew
how to inspire in his colleagues. This exchange of Barop and Middendorff
took place in 1833.
[139] In 1833.
[140] This regulation is still happily in force.
[141] In 1836.
[142] Blankenburg lies on the way from Schwarzburg to Rudolstadt, about
two hours' walk away from Keilhau.
CHRONOLOGICAL ABSTRACT OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF FROEBEL,
AND THE FROEBEL COMMUNITY.
* * * * *
1770. June 24th.--Birth of Christian Ludwig Froebel.
1780. Sept. 17th.--Birth of Friedrich Froebel's first wife, Henriette
Wilhelmine Hoffmeister, at Berlin.
Christian Froebel's wife, Johanna Caroline Mügge, was also born
in 1780, on August 28th.
1782. April 21st.--_Birth of Friedrich Froebel_, at Oberweissbach,
Thuringia.
1792. Froebel is sent to Superintendent Hoffman in Stadt Ilm.
Sept. 3rd.--Birth of Heinrich Langethal, at Erfurt.
1793. Sept. 20.--Birth of Wilhelm Middendorff, at Brechten, near
Dortmund, in Westphalia.
1797. Froebel is sent to Neuhof in the Thuringian Forest to learn
forestry.
1799. Froebel returns home; goes thence as student to Jena.
1801. He leaves Jena (having closed his career there with nine weeks'
imprisonment for debt), and soon afterwards begins to study
farming with a relative of his father's at Hildburghausen.
Dec. 29th.--Birth of Albertine Froebel (Madame Middendorff),
eldest daughter of Christian Froebel.
1802. Death of Froebel's father. Froebel becomes Actuary to the
Forestry Department of the Episcopal State of Bamberg.
Nov. 29th.--Birth of Johannes Arnold Barop, at Dortmund, in
Westphalia.
1803. Froebel goes to Bamberg, and takes part in the governmental land
survey, necessary upon the change of government, Bamberg now
passing to Bavaria.
1804. He takes, one after the other, two situations as secretary and
accountant of a large country estate, first, that of Herr von
Völdersdorf in Baireuth, afterwards that of Herr von Dewitz in
Gross Milchow, Mecklenburg.
July 11th.--Birth of Emilie Froebel (Madame Barop), second
daughter of Christian Froebel.
1805. Death of Froebel's maternal uncle, Superintendent Hoffman.
Froebel determines to become an architect, and sets out for
Frankfurt to study there. Becomes, however, teacher in the Model
School at Frankfurt, on Gruner's invitation. Visits Pestalozzi,
at Yverdon, for a short time.
1807. He becomes tutor in the family of Herr von Holzhausen in the
suburbs of Frankfurt.
1808. He goes to Pestalozzi at Yverdon with his pupils.
1809. He draws up an account of Pestalozzi's work for the Princess of
Rudolstadt.
1810. Froebel returns to Frankfurt from Yverdon.
1811. He goes to the University of Göttingen.
1812. He proceeds thence to the University of Berlin.
1813. Froebel, Langethal, and Middendorff enlist in Lützow's regiment
of Chasseurs, a volunteer corps enrolled to take part in the
resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Prussia.
1814. Jan. 5th.--Birth of Elise Froebel (Madame Schaffner), Christian's
youngest daughter.
After the Peace of Paris (May 30th, 1814) Froebel is appointed
assistant in the Mineralogical Museum of the University of
Berlin, and takes his post there in August.
1816. Nov. 13th.--Froebel founds his "Universal German Educational
Institute" in Griesheim.
1817. Transference of the School to Keilhau. Arrival of Langethal and
Middendorff.
1818. First marriage of Froebel.
1820. Christian Froebel arrives at Keilhau with his wife and daughters
Froebel writes "To the German people."
1821. Froebel publishes (privately) "Principles, Aims, and Inner Life
of the Universal German Educational Institute in Keilhau," and
"Aphorisms."
1822. He publishes the pamphlets "On German Education, especially as
regards the Universal German Educational Institute at Keilhau,"
and "On the Universal German Educational Institute at Keilhau."
1823. He publishes "Continuation of the Account of the Educational
Institute at Keilhau."
1824. He publishes the pamphlet "Christmas at Keilhau."
1826. Marriages of Langethal and Middendorff. Froebel publishes the
"Education of Man" ("Menschen Erziehung"). Later he founds the
weekly _Family Journal of Education_.
1827. Letter to the Duke of Meiningen (translated in this present
work), uncompleted, probably never sent to the duke.
1828. Letter to Krause (partly translated in the present work). Barop
formally becomes a member of the Educational Community at
Keilhau.
1829. Plan for a National Educational Institute in Helba, under the
auspices of the Duke of Meiningen, now completed, the whole
Keilhau community having worked upon it under Froebel's
direction.
1830. Death of Wilhelm Carl, one of the Keilhau community, by drowning
in the Saale.
1831. Froebel breaks with the Duke of Meiningen, and gives up the Helba
project.
Visit to Frankfurt, and meeting with Schnyder.
Acceptance of Schnyder's offer of his Castle at Wartensee.
Opening of the Institution at Wartensee by Froebel and his nephew
Ferdinand.
1832. Barop goes to Wartensee. Transference of the School from
Wartensee to Willisau. Froebel pays a short visit to Keilhau.
1833. Froebel brings his wife to Willisau. The Bernese Administration
invites him to consider a plan for the foundation of an Orphanage
at Burgdorf. He is appointed lecturer for the Repetitive Courses
for young teachers held there. Langethal comes from Keilhau to
Willisau, Barop returns to Keilhau.
1835. Froebel, his wife, and Langethal undertake the foundation of the
Orphanage for Bern, in Burgdorf. Middendorff and Elise Froebel go
from Keilhau to Willisau and join Ferdinand Froebel there.
Froebel writes "The New Year 1836 demands a Renewal of Life."
1836. Froebel and his wife leave Burgdorf for Berlin. Ferdinand Froebel
and Langethal take over the direction of the Orphanage.
1837. Opening of the first Kindergarten in Blankenburg.
1838. Commencement of Froebel's _Sunday Journal_.
1839. Froebel and Middendorff go to Dresden. Death of Madame Froebel.
1840. Guttenberg Festival (400th anniversary of the invention of
printing). Opening of the Universal German Kindergarten at
Blankenburg, as a joint-stock company. Froebel and Middendorff in
the following years make several journeys from Keilhau to various
parts of Germany endeavouring to promote the erection of
Kindergartens.
1848. General Congress of Teachers, called by Froebel, at Rudolstadt.
Second journey of Froebel to Dresden in the autumn.
1849. Froebel settles at Liebenstein intending to train Kindergarten
teachers there. Work at Hamburg, first by Middendorff, then by
Froebel.