So  far  as  our  pupils  are  concerned,  the  great  and
lasting  benefits  of  the  kindergarten  system  are  not
imaginary.  Nor  do  they  rest  upon  mere  specula-
tion or  a  prioi'i  reasoning.  They  are  real,  sub-
stantial, tangible,  gathered  in  the  field  of  experi-
ence and  confirmed  by  the  test  of  time.  Froebel's
wonderful  methods  have  been  introduced  and  prac-
tised in  our  school  for  the  last  three  years,  and
their  results  have  been  truly  marvellous.  Children
whose  faculties  had  been  weakened  and  enervated
by  unwise  indulgence  or  benumbed  by  the  frost  of
privation,  and  who,  sinking  gradually  into  slug-


gishness  and  feeble-raindedness,  were  averse  even  to
locomotion  and  unable  to  do  anything  elsewhere,
have  made  remarkable  advancement  under  its  in-
fluence. Boys  and  girls  who  seemed  entirely  help-
less and  had  no  command  whatever  of  their  hands,
have  been  roused  to  energy  and  activity  by  its
agency.  Through  the  simple  but  lively  and  at-
tractive occupations  of  sewing,  stick-laying,  weav-
ing, cube  building,  moulding  in  clay  and  the  like,
they  have  acquired  a  great  degree  of  muscular
elasticity  and  manual  dexterity,  which  is  of  infi-
nite assistance  to  them  in  deciphering  the  embossed
print  easily,  in  writing  their  letters  skilfully,  iix
tracing  on  the  maps  with  alacrity,  in  examining
objects  intelligently,  in  stringing  beads  promptly,
in  using  their  needles  deftly,  in  tying  the  strings
of  their  shoes  neatly,  and,  moreover,  in  doing
readily  a  number  of  other  things  which  they  would
have  felt  unable  to  undertake  without  this  ti'aining.
