This reading
and writing, what is it, after all, but the signs for things and
thoughts? Logically we must first know things, then thoughts, then
their records. The law of human progress is from physical activity to
mental power, from a Hercules to a Shakespeare, and it is as true for
each unit of humanity as it is for the race.
Everything in Froebel's playthings trains the child to quick, accurate
observation. They help children to a fuller vision, they lead them to
see. Did you ever think how many people there are who "having eyes,
see not"?
Ruskin says, "Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but
thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry,
prophecy, religion, all in one."
A gentleman who is trying to write the biography of a great
man complained to me lately, that in consulting a dozen of his
friends--men and women who had known him as preacher, orator,
reformer, and poet--so few of them had anything characteristic and
fine to relate.
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