Meantime we must content ourselves with two long
autobiographical letters contained in this volume, which, though
incomplete, have yet the peculiar charm that comes from the candid
record of genuine impressions.
The first of these letters, that to the Duke of Meiningen, has already
appeared in English, in a translation by Miss Lucy Wheelock for
Barnard's _American Journal of Education_, since reprinted in pp. 21-48
of his _Kindergarten and Child Culture_, (see p. 146), and in a small
volume under the title _Autobiography of Froebel_ (see p. 146). While a
faithful attempt to reproduce the original, this translation struggled
in vain to transform Froebel's rugged and sometimes seemingly incoherent
sentences into adequate and attractive English, so that the long letter
has proved to most English readers formidable and repellant. But in the
original it is one of the most charming productions in literature,
candid and confidential in tone, and detailing those inner gropings for
ideas that became convictions which only an autobiography can reveal.
These qualities are so admirably preserved in the translation by Miss
Emily Michaelis and H. Keatley Moore that it seemed to leave nothing to
be desired.
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