thirtieth birthday, and alluding to the postponement of his plan by the
war, he exclaimed, to explain why he had taken up arms:

"How can I train boys whose devotion I claim, unless I have proved by my
own deeds how a man should show devotion to the general welfare?"

These words made a deep impression upon the two friends, and increased
Middendorf's enthusiastic reverence for the older comrade, whose
experiences and ideas had opened a new world to him.

The Peace of Paris, and the enrolment of the Lutzow corps in the line,
brought the trio back to Berlin to civil life.

There also each frequently sought the others, until, in the spring of
1817, Froebel resigned the permanent position in the Bureau of Mineralogy
in order to establish his institute.

Middendorf had been bribed by the saying of his admired friend that he
"had found the unity of life." It gave the young philosopher food for
thought, and, because he felt that he had vainly sought this unity and
was dissatisfied, he hoped to secure it through the society of the man
who had become everything to him His wish was fulfilled, for as an
educator he grew as it were into his own motto, "Lucid, genuine, and true
to life."

Middendorf gave up little when he followed Froebel.

The case was different with Langethal. He had entered as a tutor the
Bendemann household at Charlottenburg, where he found a second home. He
taught with brilliant success children richly gifted in mind and heart,