the child, and here we seem to deviate a little from
the famous educational maxim, "Proceed from the known to the unknown,"
and almost to make a leap into the dark. However, we very soon give
the cylinder, and thus connect the opposites. Here he meets a dazzling
quantity of new appearances; the square sides or faces, and the many
edges and corners, all of which must be viewed in comparison with the
sphere. We can give him an experience of the faces of the cube without
conscious analysis, by letting the ball roll against them.

Mediation of Contrasts.

Of course we shall see the underlying idea of the gift to be the
connection of opposites. Not too much can be said of this law, so
all-important and significant in Froebel's system.[26] We should bear
it constantly in mind, and bring it in connection with every new phase
of our work. Froebel cannot be understood clearly unless this deep
principle, which lies at the very root of his system, is appreciated
and comprehended. At the same time it is, when formulated, an abstract
and metaphysical statement, which one cannot grasp at once, but to
which one must grow.

[26] "But each thing is recognized only when it is connected
with the opposite of its kind, and when the union, accord,
similitude with this object are found; and the connection
with the opposite, and the discovery of the uniting, renders
the recognition so much the more complete."--Froebel's
_Education of Man_, page 26.

It may be said that comparatively few kindergartners know its value;
nevertheless knowledge of this kind can never be useless or fruitless
to the person who is forming the mind of the child, and who should be
a perfect mistress of her science and her art.

Value of Contrasts.

These contrasts of the second gift, and all contrasts, arouse the mind
to attention. We can have no judgment without comparison. We should
have no idea of heat or darkness if we had not a conception of cold
and light; the quality of sweetness would have no meaning if its
opposite did not serve to stimulate comparison.

The sphere is sharply contrasted with the cube, so that there may be a
ready perception of the striking qualities of both. The more abrupt
the contrast the more readily noticed and described; for it takes a
more developed eye to discern the difference between a sphere and a
spheroid, for instance, than between a sphere and a cube.

The contrasts of the first gift were contr