Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel | Page 9

can still see my hazel buds, like angels, opening for me
the great God's temple of Nature.
I now had what I needed: to the Church was added the Nature-Temple;
to the religious Christian life, the life of Nature; to the passionate
discord of human life the tranquil peace of the life of plants. From that
time it was as if I held the clue of Ariadne to guide me through the
labyrinth of life. An intimate communion with Nature for more than
thirty years (although, indeed, often interrupted, sometimes for long
intervals) has taught me that plants, especially trees, are a mirror, or
rather a symbol, of human life in its highest spiritual relations; and I
think one of the grandest and deepest fore-feelings that have ever
emanated from the human soul, is before us when we read, in the Holy
Scriptures, of a tree of knowledge of good and evil. The whole of
Nature teaches us to distinguish good from evil; even the world of
crystals and stones--though not so vividly, calmly, clearly, and
manifestly as the world of plants and flowers. I said my hazel buds
gave me the clue of Ariadne. Many things grew clear to me: for
instance, the earliest life and actions of our first parents in Paradise, and
much connected therewith.
There are yet three points touching my inner life up to my tenth year,
which, before I resume the narrative of my outer life, I should like to
mention here.
The folly, superstition, and ignorance of men had dared to assume then,
as they have done lately, that the world would soon come to an end. My
mind, however, remained perfectly tranquil, because I reasoned thus
with myself firmly and definitely:--Mankind will not pass from the
world, nor will the world itself pass away, until the human race has
attained to that degree of perfection of which it is capable on earth. The
earth, Nature in its narrowest sense, will not pass away, moreover, until

men have attained a perfect insight into its essence. This idea has
returned to me during my life in many a varied guise, and I have often
been indebted to its influence for peace, firmness, perseverance, and
courage.
Towards the end of this epoch, my eldest brother, already spoken of,
was at the university, and studied theology.[8] Philosophic criticism
was then beginning to elucidate certain Church dogmas. It was
therefore not very surprising that father and son often differed in
opinion. I remember that one day they had a violent dispute about
religion and Church matters. My father stormed, and absolutely
declined to yield; my brother, though naturally of a mild disposition,
flushed deep-red with excitement; and he, too, could not abandon what
he had recognised as true. I was present also on this as on many other
occasions, an unobserved witness, and can still see father and son
standing face to face in the conflict of opinion. I almost thought I
understood something of the subject in dispute; I felt as if I must side
with my brother, but there seemed at the same time something in my
father's view which indicated the possibility of a mutual understanding.
Already I felt in a dim way that every illusion has a true side, which
often leads men to cling to it with a desperate firmness. This conviction
has become more and more confirmed in me the longer I have lived;
and when at any time I have heard two men disputing for the truth's
sake, I have found that the truth is usually to be learnt from both sides.
Therefore I have never liked to take sides; a fortunate thing for me.[9]
Another youthful experience which also had a decided influence in
forming my cast of character, was the following:--There are certain
oft-repeated demands made upon the members of our Established
Church; such as, to enter upon the service of Christ, to show forth
Christ in one's life, to follow Jesus, etc. These injunctions were brought
home to me times without number through the zeal of my father as a
teacher of others and a liver himself of a Christian life. When demands
are made on a child which are in harmony with child nature, he knows
no reluctance in fulfilling them; and as he receives them entirely and
unreservedly, so also he complies with them entirely and unreservedly.
That these demands were so often repeated convinced me of their

intense importance; but I felt at the same time the difficulty, or indeed,
as it seemed to me, the impossibility of fulfilling them. The inherent
contradiction which I seemed to perceive herein threw me into great
depression; but at last I arrived at the blessed conviction that human
nature is such that it is not impossible for man to