gements, to be disheartened by any cynical
dissertations on the determination of the world to go wrong and the
impossibility of preventing it.

It is easier, in my opinion, to raise money for, and interest the
general man or woman in, the free kindergarten than in any other
single charity. It is always comparatively easy to convince people of
a truth, but it is much easier to convince them of some truths than of
others. If you wish to found a library, build a hospital, establish a
diet-kitchen, open a bureau for woman's work, you are obliged to argue
more or less; but if you want money for neglected children, you have
generally only to state the case. Everybody agrees in the obvious
propositions, "An ounce of prevention"--"As the twig is bent"--"The
child is father to the man"--"Train up a child"--"A stitch in
time"--"Prevention is better than cure"--"Where the lambs go the
flocks will follow"--"It is easier to form than to reform," and so on
_ad infinitum_--proverbs multiply. The advantages of preventive work
are so palpable that as soon as you broach the matter you ought to
find your case proved and judgment awarded to the plaintiff, before
you open your lips to plead.

The whole matter is crystal clear; for happily, where the protection
of children is concerned, there is not any free-trade side to the
argument. We need the public kindergarten educationally as the
vestibule to our school work. We need it as a philanthropic agent,
leading the child gently into right habits of thought, speech, and
action from the beginning. We need it to help in the absorption and
amalgamation of our foreign element; for the social training, the
opportunity for cooeperation, and the purely republican form of
government in the kindergarten make it of great value in the
development of the citizen-virtues, as well as those of the
individual.

I cannot help thinking that if this side of Froebel's educational idea
were more insisted on throughout our common school system, we should
be making better citizens and no worse scholars.

If we believe in the kindergarten, if we wish it to become a part
of our educational system, we have only to let that belief--that
desire--crystallize into action; but we must not leave it for somebody
else to do.

It is clearly every mother's business and father's
business,--spinsters and bachelors are not exempt, for they know not
in what hour they may be snatched from sweet liberty, and delivered
into sw