“The present time makes upon the educator the wholly indispensable requirement--to comprehend the earliest activity, the first action of the child.”--_P., p. 16._ To this first action, Froebel devotes a whole paper, “Das erste Kindesthun,” the opening sentence of which contains the words: “As the new-born child, like a ripe grain of corn, bears life within itself which will be developed progressively and spontaneously, though in close connection with life in general, so activity and action are the first manifestations of awakening child-life.”--_P., p. 23._ Writing in 1847, Froebel says that “decision, zeal, and perseverance” must be brought to bear upon his plan, in order that: “(_a_) More careful observation of the child, his relationships and his line of development, may become general amongst us; and thereby “(_b_) A better grounded insight be obtained into the child’s being, mental and physical, and the general collective conditions of his life.… Deeper insight will be gained into the meaning and importance of the child’s actions and outward manifestations.”--_L., p. 248._ This quotation is important as showing that Froebel was deliberately looking for “_a line of development_,” that he might better understand “the child’s being, mental and physical.” Considering that Froebel wrote between 1826 and 1850, the important points on which he may be said to have successfully anticipated modern psychology are, his recognition that the mind is what he calls “a tri-unity” of action, feeling, and thought; his treatment of early mental activity and his definition of will; his conception of the earliest consciousness as an undifferentiated whole; his recognition of the importance of action not only in the realm of perception, but also in that of feeling; and his surprisingly complete account of instinct. Such anticipations are due to the fact that the idea of development then new to the scientific world possessed his very soul. “Humanity, _which lives only in its continuous development_ and cultivation, seems to us dead and stationary, something to be modelled over again and again in accordance with its present type. We are ignorant of our own nature and the nature of humanity.…”--_E., p. 146._ “God neither ingrafts nor inoculates. He _develops_ the most trivial and imperfect things in continuously ascending series and in accordance with eternal self-grounded and self-developing laws. And God-likeness is and ought to be man’s highest aim in thought and deed.”--_E., p. 328._ Justice has already been done to Froebel’s philosophy by Dr. John Angus MacVannel, who says in his closing paragraph: