harmonious development of mind and body; and upon these young people
their pure spirit of patriotism exerted a vast influence. When we recall
the mighty power which Froebel could exercise at pleasure over his
fellowmen, and especially over children, we shall deem it natural that a
child suddenly transported into this circle could forget its past."

When I entered it, though at that time it was much modified and
established on firm foundations, I met with a similar experience. It was
not only the open air, the forest, the life in Nature which so captivated
new arrivals at Keilhau, but the moral earnestness and the ideal
aspiration which consecrated and ennobled life. Then, too, there was
that "nerve-strengthening" patriotism which pervaded everything, filling
the place of the superficial philanthropy of the Basedow system of
education.

But Froebel's influence was soon to draw, as if by magnetic power, the
man who had formed an alliance with him amid blood and steel, and who was
destined to lend the right solidity to the newly erected structure of the
institute--I mean Heinrich Langethal, the most beloved and influential of
my teachers, who stood beside Froebel's inspiring genius and Middendorf's
lovable warmth of feeling as the character, and at the same time the
fully developed and trained intellect, whose guidance was so necessary to
the institute.

The life of this rare teacher can be followed step by step from the first
years of his childhood in his autobiography and many other documents, but
I can only attempt here to sketch in broad outlines the character of the
man whose influence upon my whole inner life has been, up to the present
hour, a decisive one.