quick and fair; but later on, through the well-known persecution directed against associations of students, it was brought to the verge of ruin, for the spirit of 1815 was incarnate within it, and it was this spirit which at the time (about 1827) was the object of the extremest irritation.[126] It would carry me too far were I to attempt to give a complete account of these things.  At times it really seemed as if the devil himself must be let loose against us.  The number of our pupils sank to five or six, and as the small receipts dwindled more and more, so did the burden of debt rise higher and higher till it reached a giddy height.  Creditors stormed at us from every side, urged on by lawyers who imbrued their hands in our misery.  Froebel would run out at the back door and escape amongst the hills whenever dunning creditors appeared.  Middendorff, and he alone, generally succeeded in quieting them, a feat which might seem incredible to all but those who have known the fascination of Middendorff’s address.  Sometimes quite moving scenes occurred, full of forbearance, trustfulness, and noble sentiment, on the part of workmen who had come to ask us for their money.  A locksmith, for instance, was strongly advised by his lawyer to “bring an action against the scamps,” from whom no money was to be got, and who were evidently on the point of failure.  The locksmith indignantly repudiated the insult thus levelled against us, and replied shortly that he had rather lose his hard-earned money than hold a doubt as to our honourable conduct, and that nothing was further from his thoughts than to increase our troubles.  Ah! and these troubles were hard to bear, for Middendorff had already married, and I followed his example.  When I proposed for my wife, my future father-in-law and mother-in-law[127] said, “You surely will not remain longer in Keilhau?” I answered, “Yes!  I do intend to remain here.  The idea for which we live seems to me to be in harmony with the spirit of the age, and also of deep importance in itself; and I have no doubt but that men will come to believe in us because of our right understanding of this idea, in the same way that we ourselves believe in the invisible.”  As a matter of fact, none of us have ever swerved one instant from the fullest belief in our educational mission, and the most critical dilemma in the times we have passed through has never revealed one single wavering soul in this little valley.

When our distress had risen to its highest pitch, a new and unexpected prospect suddenly revealed itself.[128] Several very influential friends of ours spoke to the Duke of Meiningen of our work.  He summoned Froebel to him, and made inquiries as to his plans for the future.  Froebel laid before him a plan for an educational institute,[129] complete in every particular, which we had all worked at in common to draw up, in which not only the ordinary “learned” branches of education but also handicrafts, such as carpentering, weaving, bookbinding, tilling the ground