[87] Those acquainted with the classical mythology will forgive us for noting that Charybdis was, and is, a whirlpool on the Sicilian shore of the Straits of Messina, face to face with some caverns under the rock of Scylla, on the Italian shore, into which the waves rush at high tide with a roar not unlike a dog’s bark.

[88] The peculiar dreamy boy, who by his nature was set against much of his work, and therefore seemed but an idle fellow to his schoolmaster, was thought to be less gifted than his brothers, and on that account fitted not so much for study as for simple practical life.  In Oberweissbach he was set down as “moonstruck.”  All this is more fully set forth in the Meiningen letter, and the footnotes to it.

[89] This was the time when he was apprenticed to the forester in Neuhaus, in the Thueringer Wald, and necessarily studied mathematics, nature, and the culture of forest trees.  Eyewitnesses have described him as extremely peculiar in all his ways, even to his dress, which was often fantastic.  He was fond of mighty boots and great waving feathers in his green hunter’s-hat, etc.

[90] i.e., Frankfurt.

[91] Architecture, etc., at this time.

[92] From Mecklenburg to Frankfurt.

[93] i.e., as an architect.

[94] His plan evidently was to use architecture, probably Gothic architecture, as a means of culture and elevation for mankind, and not merely to practise it to gain money.

[95] It was in 1805 that Froebel was appointed by Gruner teacher in the Normal School at Frankfurt.

[96] 1.  Teacher in the Model School. 2.  Tutor to the sons of Herr von Holzhausen near Frankfurt. 3.  A resident at Yverdon with Pestalozzi.

[97] Froebel was driven to Yverdon by the perusal of some of Pestalozzi’s works which Gruner had lent him.  He stayed with Pestalozzi for a fortnight, and returned with the resolve to study further with the great Swiss reformer at some future time.  In 1807, he became tutor to Herr von Holzhausen’s somewhat spoilt boys, demanded to have the entire control of them, and for this object their isolation from their family.  The grateful parents, with whom Froebel was very warmly intimate, always kept the rooms in which he dwelt with his pupils exactly as they were at that time, in remembrance of his remarkable success with these boys.  Madame von Holzhausen had extraordinary influence with Froebel, and he continued in constant correspondence with her.  In 1808 Froebel and his pupils went to Yverdon, and remained till 1810.  But the philosophic groundwork of Pestalozzi’s system failed to satisfy him.  Pestalozzi’s work started from the external needs of the poorest people, while Froebel desired to found the columns supporting human culture upon theoretically reasoned grounds and upon the natural sciences.  A remarkable difference existed between the characters of the two great men.  Pestalozzi was diffident, acknowledged freely his mistakes, and sometimes blamed himself for them bitterly; Froebel never thought himself in the wrong, if anything went amiss always found some external cause for the failure, and in self-confidence sometimes reached an extravagant pitch.