§ 23. This “formative and creative instinct” which as we must suppose has existed in all children in all nations and in all ages of the world, Froebel was the first to take duly into account for education. Pestalozzi saw the importance of getting children to _think_, and to think about their material surroundings. These the child can observe and search into; and in doing this he may discover what is not at first obvious to sight or touch and may even ascertain relations between the several parts of the same thing or connexions between different things compared together. All these discoveries may be made by the child’s self-activity, but only on one condition, viz.: that the child is interested. But in the search interest soon flags and then observation comes to an end. Besides, even while it lasts in full vigour the activity is mental only; it is concerned with perceiving, taking in; and for development something more is needed; the organism must not only take in, it must also _give out_. And so we find in children a restless eagerness to touch, pull about, and change the condition of things around them. When this activity of theirs, instead of being checked is properly directed, the children are delighted in recognising desirable results which they themselves have brought about; especially those which give expression to what is their own thought. In this way the child “renders the inner outer;” and in thus satisfying his creative instinct he is led to exercise some faculties both of mind and body.