Another point Froebel makes in this connection, is that feeling alone can awaken feeling, and that those who complain of want of feeling in their children have probably themselves to blame. Want of good feeling and the prevalence among boys of egotism, unfriendliness, etc., is explained as: “clearly due not merely to the failure of arousing at an early period, and of subsequently cultivating in the child a feeling of common sympathy, but also to the early annihilation of this feeling between parents and children.”--_E., p. 122._ The elders must show sympathy with the child’s thoughts and feelings, they must not rest content with caring for his bodily welfare. If the child fails to find sympathy, for example in connection with his interest in Nature, if he “fails to find the same feelings among adults who suppress his germinating inner life” then, says Froebel: “a double effect follows, loss of respect for the elder and a recoil of the original anticipation.”--_E., p. 164._ “Mothers and Fathers, is it not almost incredible how early the child appears to distinguish inner intellectual and loving gifts from outer bodily ones, or, rather, to be conscious of the heart and mind of the giver to feel the giving spirit? Who does not see this in the effect of a friendly glance, of a sympathizingly spoken word, of a tender care which often affords little more than sympathy and companionship?… It is a remarkable fact that the mere love for the outward person, the mere bodily care, does not satisfy him; indeed, the nobler the child is in his nature the less does he cling to the giving person. Through this consideration we have found and recognized what we sought, namely, that the respect and love--yea, the reverence--of children and youth are gained and secured to parents in proportion to what the latter are doing for the education of the mental life of the children.… If the lively appreciation of what has been done to cultivate his inner world fill the soul of a child, then will true love and gratitude towards parents, respect and veneration for age, germinate in the mind of a child.”--_P., p. 111._ We have spoken in this chapter of what is popularly called the instinct of imitation, and we have seen that Froebel makes much of what he calls the instinct or impulse of activity (Thätigkeitstrieb), or the instinct for employment (Beschäftigungstrieb). It may be well now to consider what, considering the ideas of his day and generation, Froebel could find to say on a subject so important as the instinctive activities of human beings and of other animals, concerning which so much has now been written and which, according to Professor Dewey, Froebel regarded and rightly regarded as the foundation-stones of educational method. CHAPTER VI INSTINCT AND INSTINCTS