But, like Pestalozzi, Froebel was wholly incapable of financial management, and the institution at Blankendorf had to be closed. He devoted the remainder of his life to lecturing upon his theories in different parts of Germany. He appealed to mothers, and endeavored to instruct them in the duty of training young children. He taught that the mother is the natural teacher of the child, and that it is her duty to fit herself for the sacred responsibility that God has placed upon her. Froebel's greatest discovery was that education comes only through self-activity, though he never clearly formulated his discovery. The Baroness Bertha von Marenholtz-Buelow has published one of the best accounts of his life and work.[154] =The "Education of Man."=--Froebel gives his philosophy of education in his "Education of Man," but his most popular work is "Songs for Mother and Nursery." His chief contribution to the work of educational reform is the kindergarten, an institution that has been ingrafted upon the school systems of many lands, and that is destined to become ever increasingly potent for good. In no country in the world has the kindergarten taken so strong a hold and made so great progress as in America. The purpose of the kindergarten, according to Froebel himself, is, "to take the oversight of children before they are ready for school life; to exert an influence over their whole being in correspondence with its nature; to strengthen their bodily powers; to exercise their senses; to employ the awakening mind; to make them thoughtfully acquainted with the world of nature and of man; to guide their heart and soul in the right direction, and to lead them to the Origin of all life, and to unison with Him." FOOTNOTES: [149] Bowen, "Froebel," p. 11. [150] For a part of this debt Froebel's brother, also a student, was responsible. The amount of the debt was less than twenty-five dollars. [151] The sole recommendation of the commission that might be interpreted as a criticism was that the boys should have their hair cut! See Bowen's "Froebel," p. 26, for the full report of the visiting commission. [152] Rescript from the Prussian Minister of Education, April 7, 1884. [153] "The Student's Froebel," XV. [154] "Handbuch der Froebelischen Erziehungslehre," "Reminiscences of Friedrich Froebel, Child and Child-nature." CHAPTER XL MODERN EDUCATORS (_Continued_) HERBART (1776-1841) =Literature.=--_De Garmo_, Herbart and the Herbartians; _Felkin_, Introduction to Herbart; _Van Liew_, Life of Herbart and Development of his Pedagogical Doctrines; Yearbooks of the Herbart Society; _Lange_, Apperception; _Rein_, Outlines of Pedagogics; also, Encyklopaedisches Handbuch der Paedagogik; _Willmann_, Herbart's paedagogische Schriften.