lly be told, just mere outlines to give
color and force to the child's building, and connect it with his
experience. If it is an armchair, grandmother may sit in it knitting
the baby's stocking. If it is a well, describe the digging of it, the
lining with stones or brick, the inflowing of the water, the letting
down of the bucket and long chain, the clear, cool water coming up
from the deep, dark hole in the ground on a hot summer's day. These,
of course, are but the merest suggestions which experience may be
trusted to develop.

It is better, perhaps, to give a bit of word-painting to each object
constructed than to wait till the end of the series for the day and
tell a longer story, as the interest is thus more easily sustained.
The children, too, should be encouraged to talk about the forms and
tell little stories concerning them. The form created should never be
destroyed, but transformed into the next in order by a few simple
movements.

SYMMETRICAL FORMS.

"These forms, in spite of their regularity, are called forms of
beauty. The mathematical forms which Froebel designates forms of
knowledge give only the skeleton from which the beautiful form
develops itself.

"Symmetry of the parts which make up these simple figures gives the
impression of beauty to the childish eye. He must have the elements of
the beautiful before he is in a condition to comprehend it in its
whole extent.

"Only what is simple gives light to the child at first. He can only
operate with a small number of materials, therefore Froebel gives only
eight cubes for this object at this time."

Of course these three classes of forms are not to be kept arbitrarily
separate, and the children finish and lay aside one set before
attempting another. There are many cases where the three may be
united, as indeed they are morally speaking in the life of every human
being.

When the distinctions are clear in our own minds, our knowledge and
tact will guide us to introduce the gift properly, and carry it on in
a natural, orderly, and rational manner, not restricting the child's
own productive powers.

If the children have had time to imbibe a love of symmetry and beauty,
and have been trained to observe and delight in them, then this second
class of forms will attract them as much, after a little, as the
first, though more difficult of execution.

Each sequence starts from a definite point, the four outside blocks
revolving round the central fou