YOU, John or Thomas—­come with me?), and carries with it a sort of contemptuous superciliousness, as if the person spoken to were beneath the dignity of a direct address.  It is evident, therefore, that to a sensitive, self-torturing child like Froebel, being addressed in this manner would cause the keenest pain; since, as he justly says, it has the effect, by the mere form of speech, of isolating the person addressed.  Such a one is not to be considered as of our family, or even of our rank in life.

[5] The Cantor would combine the duties of precentor (whence his title), leading the church singing and training the choristers, with those of the schoolmaster of the village boys’ school.  In large church-schools the Cantor is simply the choir-master.  The great Bach was Cantor of the Thomas-Schule, Leipzig.

[6] It will be remembered that this letter is addressed to the Duke of Meiningen.

[7] “Arise, my heart and spirit,” and “It costs one much (it is a difficult task) to be a Christian.”

[8] Christoph Froebel is here meant.  He studied at the University of Jena.

[9] In this case Froebel’s usually accurate judgment of his own character seems at fault; his opinions being always most decided, even to the point of sometimes rendering him incapable of fairly appreciating the views of others.

[10] Froebel is alluding to his undertaking the education of his brother Christoph’s sons, in November 1816, when he finally decided to devote his life to the cause of education.

[11] At the time Froebel was writing this autobiographical letter (1827), and seeking thereby to enlist the Duke of Meiningen’s sympathies in his work, in order to found a fresh institution at Helba, he was undergoing what was almost a persecution at Keilhau.  All associations of progressive men were frowned upon as politically dangerous, and Keilhau, amongst the rest, was held in suspicion.  Somewhat of this is seen in the interesting account by Barop further on ("Critical Moments at Keilhau").

[12] Herr Hoffmann, a clergyman, representing the State in Church matter for the district of Stadt-Ilm; a post somewhat analogous to that of our archdeacon.

[13] Equal to an English middle-class school.

[14] The Ilm, flowing through Thuringia into the Saale, a tributary of the Elbe.  Oberweissbach is upon the Schwarza, also flowing into the Saale.  Weimar stands upon the Ilm, Jena upon the Saale.

[15] Superintendents.  The ephors of ancient Sparta amongst their duties had that of the superintendence of education, whence the German title.

[16] This story is not now popular, but its nature is sufficiently indicated in the text.

[17] Christoph and Traugott.

[18] In Germany a Forstmann, or forester, if he has studied forest cultivation in a School of Forestry, rises eventually to the position of supervisor of forests (Forst-meister).  The forester who does not study remains in the inferior position.