There was a year of lectures at Gottingen after this, and one at the University of Berlin, accompanied by unceasing study and research both in literary and scientific lines; but in the fateful year 1813 this quiet student life was broken in upon, for impelled by strong moral conviction, Froebel joined Baron von Liitzow's famous volunteer corps, formed to harass the French by constant skirmishes and to encourage the smaller German States to rise against Napo leon.
No thirst for glory prompted this action, but a lofty conception of the office of the educator. How could any young man capable of bearing arms, Froebel says, become a teacher of chil dren whose Fatherland he had refused to de fend? how could he in after years incite his pupils to do something noble, something calling for sacrifice and unselfishness, without expos ing himself to their derision and contempt? The reasoning was perfect and he made prac tice follow upon the heels of theory as closely as he had always done since he became master of his fate.
After the Peace of Paris he settled down for a time to a quiet life in the mineralogical museum at the University of Berlin, his duties being the care, arrangement and investigation of crystals. Surrounded thus by the exquisite formations whose development according to law is so perfect, whose obedience to the prompt ings of an inward ideal so complete, he could not but learn from their unconscious ethics to look into the depths of his own nature, and there recognize more clearly the purpose It was intended to work out.
In 1816 he quietly gave up his position, and taking as pupils five of his nephews, three of whom were fatherless, he entered upon his life work, the first step in which was the carrying out of his plan for a °Universal German Educa tional Institute? He was without money, of course, as he had always been and always would be,— his hands were made for giving not for getting; he slept in a barn on a wisp of straw while arranging for his first school at Gries heim; but outward things were so little real to him in comparison with the life of the spirit, that bodily privations seemed scarcely worth considering. The school at Keilhau, to which he soon removed, the institutions later estab lished in Wartensee and Willisau, the orphan age in Burgdorf, all were most successful edu cationally, but, it is hardly necessary to say, were never a source of profit to their head and founder.
Through the 20 years, busy as he was in teaching, in lecturing, in writing, he was constantly shadowed by dissatisfaction with the foundation upon which he was build ing A nebulous idea for the betterment of things was floating before him; but it was not until 1836 that it appeared to his eyes as a °definite truth? This definite truth, the discov ery of his old age, was of course the kinder garten; and from this time until the end, all other work was laid aside, and his entire strength given to the consummate flower of his educational thought.
The first kindergarten was opened in 1837 at Blankenburg (where a memorial school is now conducted), and in 1850 the institution at Marienthal for the training of kinder - gartners was founded, Froebel remaining at its head until his death two years after.
With the exception of that remarkable book 'The Education of Man) (1826), his most im portant literary work was done after 1836; 'Pedagogics of the Kindergarten,' the first great European contribution to the subject of child-study, appearing from 1837 to 1840 in the form of separate essays, and the 'Mutter-und Kose Lieder> (Mother-Play) in 1843. Many of his educational aphorisms and occasional speeches were preserved by his great disciple the Baroness von Marenholtz-Biilow in her 'Reminiscences of and though two most interesting volumes of his correspondence have been published, there remain a number of letters, as well as essays and educational sketches, not yet rendered into English.
Froebel's literary style is often stiff and in volved, its phrases somewhat labored, and its substance exceedingly difficult to translate with spirit and fidelity; yet after all, his mannerisms are of a kind to which one easily becomes accus tomed, and the kernel of his thought when reached is found well worth the trouble of re moving a layer of husk He had always an infinitude of things to say, and they were all things of purpose and of meaning; but in writ ing, as well as in formal speaking, the lan guage to clothe the thought came to him slowly and with difficulty. Yet it appears that in friendly private intercourse he spoke fluently, and one of his students reports that in his classes he was often °overpowering and sub lime, the stream of his words pouring forth like fiery rain?) Froebel's educational creed cannot here be cited at length, but some of its fundamental articles are: The education of the child should begin with its birth, and should be threefold, addressing the mental, spiritual and physical natures.