=Froebel’s Early Life.=--Let us now turn to Froebel, the other great successor of Pestalozzi, and to his development and extension of the master’s principle of ‘natural development.’ Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel (1782-1852) was born in a village of the Thüringian forest. He tells us that this environment started within him a search for the mystic unity that he believed to exist amid the various phenomena of nature, but it is more likely that this attitude was developed through a brief residence (1799-1800) at the University of Jena. The atmosphere about this institution was charged with the idealistic philosophy, the romantic movement, and the evolutionary attitude in science. Froebel could not have escaped the constant discussions upon the philosophy of Fichte and Schelling. He must likewise have fallen under the spell of the Jena romanticists,--the Schlegels, Tieck, and Novalis. The advanced attitude in science at Jena may also have impressed the youth. While much of the science instruction failed to make clear that inner relation and mystic unity for which he sought, he must occasionally have caught glimpses of it in the lectures of professors belonging to the school of _Natur-philosophie_. [Sidenote: Adoption of teaching.] [Sidenote: Study with Pestalozzi.] [Sidenote: Crystallization of law of ‘unity.’] =His Experiences at Frankfort, Yverdon, and Berlin.=--After leaving the university, Froebel was for four years groping for a niche in life. But he eventually (1805) met Anton Grüner, head of a Pestalozzian model school at Frankfort, who persuaded him of his fitness for teaching and gave him a position in the institution. Here he undertook a systematic study of Pestalozzianism, and, through the use of modeling in paper, pasteboard, and wood with his pupils, he came to see the value of motor expression as a means of education. He then withdrew to Yverdon and worked with Pestalozzi himself for two years (1808-1810). There he greatly increased his knowledge of the play and development of children, music, and nature study, which were to play so important a part in his methods. Next, he went to the University of Berlin to study mineralogy with Professor Weiss, and through the work there he finally crystallized his mystic law of ‘unity.’ He became fully “convinced of the demonstrable connection in all cosmic development,” and declared that “thereafter my rocks and crystals served me as a mirror wherein I might discern mankind, and man’s development and history.” [Sidenote: Self-expression through play and practical work.] [Sidenote: _Education of Man._]