and, moreover, had from us all the voluntary gift of affection, nay, of
love. He was, I repeat, every inch a man.

When very young, the conviction that the education of German boys was his
real calling obtained so firm a hold upon his mind that he could not be
dissuaded from giving up the study of the law, in which he had made
considerable progress at Halle, and devoting himself to pedagogy.

His father, a busy lawyer, had threatened him with disinheritance if he
did not relinquish his intention of accepting the by no means brilliant
position of a teacher at Keilhau; but he remained loyal to his choice,
though his father executed his threat and cast him off. After the old
gentleman's death his brothers and sisters voluntarily restored his
portion of the property, but, as he himself told me long after, the
quarrel with one so dear to him saddened his life for years. For the
sake of the "fidelity to one's self" which he required from others he had
lost his father's love, but he had obeyed a resistless inner voice, and
the genuineness of his vocation was to be brilliantly proved.

Success followed his efforts, though he assumed the management of the
Keilhau Institute under the most difficult circumstances.

Beneath its roof he had found in the niece of Friedrich Froebel a beloved
wife, peculiarly suited both to him and to her future position. She was
as little as he was big, but what energy, what tireless activity this
dainty, delicate woman possessed! To each one of us she showed a
mother's sympathy, managed the whole great household down to the smallest
details, and certainly neglected nothing in the care of her own sons and
daughters.