simplicity of Life forms produced by the
rectangular solids.

4. The sixth gift has no great increase of difficulty, and though new
forms are presented there is little complexity in dictation. The
building needs a somewhat more careful handling, inasmuch as the Life
forms rise to considerable height and need the most exact balance.

The child sees solids whose faces are all either squares or oblongs,
but of different sizes, viz., oblongs of three sizes, squares of two
sizes.

This is the last of the Building Gifts; the child having received
sufficient knowledge to be introduced step by step into the domain of
the abstract, the first step being the planes of the seventh gift.

5. The geometrical forms illustrated in this gift are:--

{ Rectangular parallelopipeds.
Solids. { Square prisms.
{ Cubes.

Planes. { Squares.
{ Oblongs.

6. The brick of the sixth gift is identical with that of the fourth,
therefore it presents the same contrasts and mediations.

In number the different classes of blocks stand to each other as
6:12:18.

We may add that the brick is the foundation form of the gift, and that
we gain the remaining two forms, the square block and pillar, by
dividing it in exactly opposite directions.

* * * * *

Introduction of the Gift.

The sixth gift is so evidently an enlarged and diversified fourth
gift, that it is well to compare it on its introduction with the
fourth, as well as with its immediate predecessor in the series. When
the fourth is placed beside it, and the contents of the two boxes
brought to view, it is evident at once to the child that a higher
round in the ladder of evolution has been reached, and a new and
highly specialized form developed. He is fired at once with creative
activity, and his eager hands so quiver with impatience to investigate
the possibilities of the new blocks that the wise kindergartner does
not detain him long with comparisons, only assuring herself that he
notes the relation of the new gift to the former ones, that he
compares the two new solids to the brick, or unit of measure, and to
each other, and discovers how each has been produced.

Difficulties of the New Gift.

The difficulties of the new gift are very slight, as has been said,
consisting neither in dictation, in mass of material, nor in new
forms, lines, or angles. Equilibrium alone presents novel problems,
but this