All things have been revealed in the
doing, and productive activity has enlightened and developed the mind.
First, as to arithmetic. It does not come first, but though you
speak with the tongues of men and angels, and make not mention of
arithmetic, it profiteth you nothing. The First Gift shows one object,
and the children get an idea of one whole; in the Second they receive
three whole objects again, but of different form; in the Third
and Fourth, the regularly divided cube is seen, and all possible
combinations of numbers as far as eight are made. In the Fifth
Gift the child sees three and its multiples; in fractions, halves,
quarters, eighths, thirds, ninths, and twenty-sevenths. With the
Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Gifts the field is practically unlimited.
Second, as to the child's knowledge of form, size, and proportion. His
development has been quite extensive: he knows, not always by name,
but by their characteristics, vertical, horizontal, slanting, and
curved lines; squares, oblongs; equal sided, blunt and sharp angled
triangles; five, six, seven and eight sided figures; spheres,
cylinders, cubes, and prisms.
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