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It is, then, in some important respectsmost difficult to establish the system inrich homes with nursery establishmentswhere, unless the mother gives the righttone, the prevailing influence round thechild is a disastrous combination ofluxury and ignorance. It is there thatcaprice is most likely to reign, it isthere that children are supposed oftento need change of air, to be wanted forsome visit, to be so loaded with toysand books and surrounded with slavesto their pleasures, that the simple toysand amusements of the Kinder-Gartenhave less charm; also, I am sorry tosay, it is from such homes that childrencome occasionally to the Kinder-Gartenwith a degree of ill-breeding that speaksof a very low moral tone when at home;children who are not only rebelliousagainst authority, but haughty and in-solent to their companions, and evento their teachers. What education isgoing on in homes where such thingsare possible, and what is to become ofchildren whose mothers are to such adegree ignorant of education ?

With regard to lower social classes,we have already pointed out one advan-tage possessed by the children of thepoor, another is that they areobliged to attend school, and thuswhenever the schools are good they arebrought early under more promisingeducational conditions than those oftheir richer neighbours, unless amongthe latter the mothers are fit for theirtask. The Kinder-Garten will, as Ihave had occasion more than once topoint out, open to them a prospect ofimprovement that is undreamed of now,by adding the cultivation of their facul-ties of mind and sense to the instructionthey now receive. In this class theKinder-Garten will gradually exerciseremarkable influence over family life,for when girls have been educated them-selves in that system, and especially ifthe time should come that I am soanxious to see, when every girl beforeleaving school is made to pass a certaintime as a student-teacher in the Kinder-Garten department, every house in thecountry will receive the seeds of educa-tional principles, the wife of the labourer

no less than the peeress will understandGod’s command to her when He grantsher the joy and privilege of motherhood,she will know that she has yetanother duty to perform for her childbeside the physical care which hadseemed before to be the utmost shecould compass. She will possess littleknowledge or time to do much herself,but she will refrain from doing mischief,and will feel increased confidence inplacing her child in better instructedhands. Again, the instruction given tothe eldest child will fit the mother her-self to do more for the next. Her ownexperience will be supplemented bywhat she has seen the elder gain fromthe greater knowledge and experiencethat have directed his training.

But between the artisan’s or la-bourer’s home, where the temptation isneglect through ignorance, and thewealthy homes where the danger is cor-ruption through luxury and servility,we have to consider the vast middleclass in its innumerable gradations.There we find the most varied forms offamily life, and in all, the admittance ofFrobel’s system would bring improve-ment, while in all some peculiar circum-stances present more or less obstaclesto its admittance.

In many the mother does the wholeor nearly the whole of the house-work,and is more burdened than thelabourer’s wife, because she has to pro-vide for the claims of gentility as wellas for the more positive needs of life.She is too ignorant to care for the train-ing of the Kinder-Garten, and cannotbe troubled to take her children there.In many others the struggle is to havea little money over at the end of theyear, since expense must be met forelder children, or for healthy excursion,&c., so the expense of teaching babieswho might be crawling or toddlingabout the floor for another year or twoseems useless folly. This form of ob-jection is the most general, and invarious degrees it prompts all the discon-tent about school fees, and the too com-mon neglect of girl's education, becauseit can be neglected with apparent impu-nity, while the boys cannot hope for