easily handled form element," the kindergartner has every
opportunity to use it so that it may lead the child to comparison and
action, and to develop the slowly dawning sense of difference and
agreement without which she well knows "knowledge has not yet made the
first step." But, if the cube is a form speaking little to the senses
of a child, and requiring description by words spoken to the mind, it
is evident that we should use great care in dealing with the second
gift, lest we run needlessly into abstractions, and strive to give the
child ideas of which he can have no comprehension.

Value of the Brick Form.

The "brick" is a form rich in impressions, for we find that every
position in which it is placed gives the child a new perception, and
the union of these perceptions furnishes him with a complete idea of
the object, and of its possible uses in relation to its form.

Dr. Seguin does not rate it too highly when he says: "What a spring of
effective movements, of perceptions and of ideas in the exercises with
this form, where analogy and difference, incessantly noted by the
touch and the view, challenge the mind to comparison and judgment!"

Dimension.

The fourth gift contains all that the three former gifts showed, and
introduces differences of dimension and equilibrium only hinted at
before. It also, as Froebel says, "throws into relief the perception
of size by showing similarity of size with dissimilarity of dimension
and position."

As to dimension, the child built the Shot-tower with the third gift,
and knew that it was high, the Platform and that it was broad, the
Well and that it was deep, the Wall and saw that it was thick, etc.,
so that he has a conception of height, length, breadth; but in the
fourth gift he is shown these dimensions in a single block. He is thus
led from the known to the unknown.[44] They are united and contrasted
in one object, and therefore emphasized.

[44] "The three principal dimensions of space, which in the
cube only make themselves known as differences of position,
in the fourth gift become more prominent and manifest
themselves as differences of size. These three relations of
size are in the fourth gift as abiding and changeless as the
position of the three principal directions was before and
still is."--Froebel's _Pedagogics_, page 189.

Equilibrium.

As to the law of equilibrium, it is very forcibly brought to the
child's attent