"From thy hand The worlds were cast; yet every leaflet claims From that same hand its little shining sphere Of starlit dew."
O. W. Holmes.
"The Small, a sphere as perfect as the Great To the soul's absoluteness."
Robert Browning.
1. The first gift consists of six soft woolen balls colored in the six standard colors derived from the spectrum, namely, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.
The balls should be provided with strings for use in the various motions.[1]
2. Froebel chose the ball as the first gift because it is the simplest shape, and the one from which all others may subsequently be derived; the shape most easily grasped by the hand as well as by the mind. It is an object which attracts by its pleasing color, and one which, viewed from all directions, ever makes the same impression.[2]
3. The most important characteristics of the gift are Unity, Activity, Color.
The various colors serve to distinguish these several playmates of the child by special characteristics, and enable him to make his first clear analyses or abstractions, since the color is the only point wherein the objects differ. This contrast in color results in the abstraction of color from form.
4. Since the ball is the most mobile of inanimate shapes, it may be considered as the "opposite equal" of the living organism. The quickness and ease of its motion as well as its elasticity cause the child to regard it as instinct with life, while its softness renders him able to grasp and handle it readily.