e safety lamps they carry in their caps, of the mules that drag the
loads of iron ore to and fro, and--startling fact, at which round eyes
are invariably opened--that some of these mules have their stables
down in the ground below, and never come up where the sun shines and
the flowers bloom. If there is a foundry in the vicinity of the
kindergarten, and we can take the little ones to see the huge
furnaces, the intense fires, the molten iron, and the various
roasting, melting, and moulding processes necessary in refining the
ore, they will gain an ineffaceable idea of the value of the metal in
human labor, and of the endless chain of hands, clasped each in the
other, through which the slender wire rings have passed to reach them.

First Exercises.

In the first dictation exercise several whole circles of the same size
may be given, and their equality shown by laying one on top of the
other. Then we may lay them side by side in actual contact, and the
important fact will be discovered by the children that circles can
touch each other at one point only. Subsequent exercises take up rings
of different sizes, when concentric circles are of course made,
showing one thing completely inclosed in another, and next follow the
half and quarter rings, which the children must be led, as heretofore,
to discover and make for themselves.

With the semicircles, which offer still richer suggestions for
invention than the whole rings, another property of the curved line is
seen. Two blocks, two tablets, two sticks could not touch each other
without forming new angles, nor could they be so placed as to produce
a complete figure. Two semicircles, on the other hand, form no new
angles when they touch, and they may be joined completely and leave no
opening.

In his work with the sticks the child became well versed in handling a
comparatively large amount of material, so that now he can deal
successfully from the first exercise with a fair number of whole,
half, and quarter rings. We must be careful, however, not to give him
too many of these in the beginning, lest he be overwhelmed with the
riches at his command.[75]

[75] "The number of rings should only gradually be augmented.
Satiety destroys every impulse of creation."--Emma Marwedel,
_Childhood's Poetry and Studies_, page 15.

When the Rings should be introduced.

The rings should not be used freely until the child is familiar with
vertical, horizontal, and slan