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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2110-h.zip b/2110-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..534ed98 --- /dev/null +++ b/2110-h.zip diff --git a/2110-h/2110-h.htm b/2110-h/2110-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4a4856 --- /dev/null +++ b/2110-h/2110-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5066 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + History of Friedrich II. Of Prussia, Volume X. by Thomas Carlyle + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. +X. (of XXI.), by Thomas Carlyle + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. X. (of XXI.) + Frederick The Great--At Reinsberg--1736-1740 + +Author: Thomas Carlyle + +Release Date: June 13, 2008 [EBook #2110] +Last Updated: November 30, 2012 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. *** + + + + +Produced by D.R. Thompson and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II OF PRUSSIA + </h1> + <h2> + FREDERICK THE GREAT <br /> <br /> By Thomas Carlyle + </h2> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h3> + Volume X. + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <div class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <big><b>BOOK X. — AT REINSBERG. - + 1736-1740.</b></big> </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0001"> <b>Chapter I. + — MANSION OF REINSBERG.</b> </a><br /> + <div class="toc2"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> OF MONSIEUR JORDAN AND THE LITERARY SET. </a><br /> + </div> + <br /> <a href="#link2HCH0002"> <b>Chapter II. — OF VOLTAIRE AND THE + LITERARY CORRESPONDENCES.</b> </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0003"> <b>Chapter + III. — CROWN-PRINCE MAKES A MORNING CALL.</b> </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0004"> <b>Chapter IV. — NEWS OF THE DAY.</b> </a><br /> + <div class="toc2"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> OF BERG AND JULICH AGAIN; AND OF LUISCIUS WITH + THE ONE RAZOR. </a><br /> + </div> + <br /> <a href="#link2HCH0005"> <b>Chapter V. — VISIT AT LOO.</b> + </a><br /> + <div class="toc2"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> CROWN-PRINCE BECOMES A FREEMASON; AND IS + HARANGUED BY MONSIEUR DE BIELFELD. </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> + SECKENDORF GETS LODGED IN GRATZ. </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> THE + EAR OF JENKINS RE-EMERGES. </a><br /> + </div> + <br /> <a href="#link2HCH0006"> <b>Chapter VI. — LAST YEAR OF + REINSBERG; JOURNEY TO PREUSSEN.</b> </a><br /> + <div class="toc2"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> PINE'S HORACE; AND THE ANTI-MACHIAVEL. </a><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> FRIEDRICH IN PREUSSEN AGAIN; AT THE STUD OF + TRAKEHNEN. A TRAGICALLY GREAT EVENT COMING ON. </a><br /> + </div> + <br /> <a href="#link2HCH0007"> <b>Chapter VII. — LAST YEAR OF + REINSBERG: TRANSIT OF BALTIMORE AND OTHER PERSONS AND THINGS.</b> </a><br /> + <div class="toc2"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> BIELFELD, WHAT HE SAW AT REINSBERG AND AROUND. + </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> TURK WAR ENDS; SPANISH WAR BEGINS. A + WEDDING IN PETERSBURG. </a><br /> + </div> + <br /> <a href="#link2HCH0008"> <b>Chapter VIII. — DEATH OF FRIEDRICH + WILHELM.</b> </a><br /> + </div> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a><br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + BOOK X. — AT REINSBERG. - 1736-1740. + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter I. — MANSION OF REINSBERG. + </h2> + <p> + On the Crown-Prince's Marriage, three years ago, when the AMT or + Government-District RUPPIN, with its incomings, was assigned to him for + revenue, we heard withal of a residence getting ready. Hint had fallen + from the Prince, that Reinsberg, an old Country-seat, standing with its + Domain round it in that little Territory of Ruppin, and probably + purchasable as was understood, might be pleasant, were it once his and + well put in repair. Which hint the kind paternal Majesty instantly + proceeded to act upon. He straightway gave orders for the purchase of + Reinsberg; concluded said purchase, on fair terms, after some months' + bargaining; [23d October, 1733, order given,—16th March, 1734, + purchase completed (Preuss, i. 75).]—and set his best Architect, one + Kemeter, to work, in concert with the Crown-Prince, to new-build and + enlarge the decayed Schloss of Reinsberg into such a Mansion as the young + Royal Highness and his Wife would like. + </p> + <p> + Kemeter has been busy, all this while; a solid, elegant, yet frugal + builder: and now the main body of the Mansion is complete, or nearly so, + the wings and adjuncts going steadily forward; Mansion so far ready that + the Royal Highnesses can take up their abode in it. Which they do, this + Autumn, 1736; and fairly commence Joint Housekeeping, in a permanent + manner. Hitherto it has been intermittent only: hitherto the + Crown-Princess has resided in their Berlin Mansion, or in her own + Country-house at Schonhausen; Husband not habitually with her, except when + on leave of absence from Ruppin, in Carnival time or for shorter periods. + At Ruppin his life has been rather that of a bachelor, or husband abroad + on business; up to this time. But now at Reinsberg they do kindle the + sacred hearth together; "6th August, 1736," the date of that important + event. They have got their Court about them, dames and cavaliers more than + we expected; they have arranged the furnitures of their existence here on + fit scale, and set up their Lares and Penates on a thrifty footing. + Majesty and Queen come out on a visit to them next month; [4th September, + 1736 (Ib.).]—raising the sacred hearth into its first considerable + blaze, and crowning the operation in a human manner. + </p> + <p> + And so there has a new epoch arisen for the Crown-Prince and his Consort. + A new, and much-improved one. It lasted into the fourth year; rather + improving all the way: and only Kingship, which, if a higher sphere, was a + far less pleasant one, put an end to it. Friedrich's happiest time was + this at Reinsberg; the little Four Years of Hope, Composure, realizable + Idealism: an actual snatch of something like the Idyllic, appointed him in + a life-pilgrimage consisting otherwise of realisms oftenest contradictory + enough, and sometimes of very grim complexion. He is master of his work, + he is adjusted to the practical conditions set him; conditions once + complied with, daily work done, he lives to the Muses, to the spiritual + improvements, to the social enjoyments; and has, though not without flaws + of ill-weather,—from the Tobacco-Parliament perhaps rather less than + formerly, and from the Finance-quarter perhaps rather more,—a sunny + time. His innocent insipidity of a Wife, too, appears to have been happy. + She had the charm of youth, of good looks; a wholesome perfect loyalty of + character withal; and did not "take to pouting," as was once apprehended + of her, but pleasantly gave and received of what was going. This poor + Crown-Princess, afterwards Queen, has been heard, in her old age, + reverting, in a touching transient way, to the glad days she had at + Reinsberg. Complaint openly was never heard from her, in any kind of days; + but these doubtless were the best of her life. + </p> + <p> + Reinsberg, we said, is in the AMT Ruppin; naturally under the + Crown-Prince's government at present: the little Town or Village of + Reinsberg stands about, ten miles north of the Town Ruppin;—not + quite a third-part as big as Ruppin is in our time, and much more + pleasantly situated. The country about is of comfortable, not + unpicturesque character; to be distinguished almost as beautiful, in that + region of sand and moor. Lakes abound in it; tilled fields; heights called + "hills;" and wood of fair growth,—one reads of "beech-avenues" of + "high linden-avenues:"—a country rather of the ornamented sort, + before the Prince with his improvements settled there. Many lakes and + lakelets in it, as usual hereabouts; the loitering waters straggle, all + over that region, into meshes of lakes. Reinsberg itself, Village and + Schloss, stands on the edge of a pleasant Lake, last of a mesh of such: + the SUMMARY, or outfall, of which, already here a good strong brook or + stream, is called the RHEIN, Rhyn or Rein; and gives name to the little + place. We heard of the Rein at Ruppin: it is there counted as a kind of + river; still more, twenty miles farther down, where it falls into the + Havel, on its way to the Elbe. The waters, I think, are drab-colored, not + peat-brown: and here, at the source, or outfall from that mesh of lakes, + where Reinsberg is, the country seems to be about the best;—sufficient, + in picturesqueness and otherwise, to satisfy a reasonable man. + </p> + <p> + The little Town is very old; but, till the Crown-Prince settled there, had + no peculiar vitality in it. I think there are now some potteries, + glass-manufactories: Friedrich Wilhelm, just while the Crown-Prince was + removing thither, settled a first Glass-work there; which took good root, + and rose to eminence in the crystal, Bohemian-crystal, white-glass, + cut-glass, and other commoner lines, in the Crown-Prince's time. [<i>Bescheibung + des Lutschlosses &c. zu Reinsberg</i> (Berlin, 1788); Author, a + "Lieutenant Hennert," thoroughly acquainted with his subject.] + </p> + <p> + Reinsberg stands on the east or southeast side of its pretty Lake: Lake is + called "the GRINERICK SEE" (as all those remote Lakes have their names); + Mansion is between the Town and Lake. A Mansion fronting, we may say, four + ways; for it is of quadrangular form, with a wet moat from the Lake + begirdling it, and has a spacious court for interior: but the principal + entrance is from the Town side; for the rest, the Building is ashlar on + all sides, front and rear. Stands there, handsomely abutting on the Lake + with two Towers, a Tower at each angle, which it has on that lakeward + side; and looks, over Reinsberg, and its steeple rising amid friendly + umbrage which hides the house-tops, towards the rising sun. Townward there + is room for a spacious esplanade; and then for the stables, outbuildings, + well masked; which still farther shut off the Town. To this day, Reinsberg + stands with the air of a solid respectable Edifice; still massive, + rain-tight, though long since deserted by the Princeships,—by + Friedrich nearly sixscore years ago, and nearly threescore by Prince + Henri, Brother of Friedrich's, who afterwards had it. Last accounts I got + were, of talk there had risen of planting an extensive NORMAL-SCHOOL + there; which promising plan had been laid aside again for the time. + </p> + <p> + The old Schloss, residence of the Bredows and other feudal people for a + long while, had good solid masonry in it, and around it orchards, potherb + gardens; which Friedrich Wilhelm's Architects took good care to extend and + improve, not to throw away: the result of their art is what we see, a + beautiful Country-House, what might be called a Country-Palace with all + its adjuncts;—and at a rate of expense which would fill English + readers, of this time, with amazement. Much is admirable to us as we study + Reinsberg, what it had been, what it became, and how it was made; but + nothing more so than the small modicum of money it cost. To our wondering + thought, it seems as if the shilling, in those parts, were equal to the + guinea in these; and the reason, if we ask it, is by no means flattering + altogether. "Change in the value of money?" Alas, reader, no; that is not + above the fourth part of the phenomenon. Three-fourths of the phenomenon + are change in the methods of administering money,—difference between + managing it with wisdom and veracity on both sides, and managing it with + unwisdom and mendacity on both sides. Which is very great indeed; and + infinitely sadder than any one, in these times, will believe!—But we + cannot dwell on this consideration. Let the reader take it with him, as a + constant accompaniment in whatever work of Friedrich Wilhelm's or of + Friedrich his Son's, he now or at any other time may be contemplating. + Impious waste, which means disorder and dishonesty, and loss of much other + than money to all, parties,—disgusting aspect of human creatures, + master and servant, working together as if they were not human,—will + be spared him in those foreign departments; and in an English heart + thoughts will arise, perhaps, of a wholesome tendency, though very sad, as + times are. + </p> + <p> + It would but weary the reader to describe this Crown-Prince Mansion; + which, by desperate study of our abstruse materials, it is possible to do + with auctioneer minuteness. There are engraved VIEWS of Reinsberg and its + Environs; which used to lie conspicuous in the portfolios of collectors,—-which + I have not seen. [See Hennert, just cited, for the titles of them.] Of the + House itself, engraved Frontages (FACADES), Ground-plans, are more + accessible; and along with them, descriptions which are little + descriptive,—wearisomely detailed, and as it were dark by excess of + light (auctioneer light) thrown on them. The reader sees, in general, a + fine symmetrical Block of Buildings, standing in rectangular shape, in the + above locality;—about two hundred English feet, each, the two longer + sides measure, the Townward and the Lakeward, on their outer front: about + a hundred and thirty, each, the two shorter; or a hundred and fifty, + taking in their Towers just spoken of. The fourth or Lakeward side, + however, which is one of the longer pair, consists mainly of "Colonnade;" + spacious Colonnade "with vases and statues;" catching up the outskirts of + said Towers, and handsomely uniting everything. + </p> + <p> + Beyond doubt, a dignified, substantial pile of stone-work; all of good + proportions. Architecture everywhere of cheerfully serious, solidly + graceful character; all of sterling ashlar; the due RISALITES (projecting + spaces) with their attics and statues atop, the due architraves, cornices + and corbels,—in short the due opulence of ornament being introduced, + and only the due. Genuine sculptors, genuine painters, artists have been + busy; and in fact all the suitable fine arts, and all the necessary solid + ones, have worked together, with a noticeable fidelity, comfortable to the + very beholder to this day. General height is about forty feet; two stories + of ample proportions: the Towers overlooking them are sixty feet in + height. Extent of outer frontage, if you go all round, and omit the + Colonnade, will be five hundred feet and more: this, with the rearward + face, is a thousand feet of room frontage:—fancy the extent of + lodging space. For "all the kitchens and appurtenances are underground;" + the "left front" (which is a new part of the Edifice) rising comfortably + over these. Windows I did not count; but they must go high up into the + Hundreds. No end to lodging space. Way in a detached side-edifice + subsequently built, called Cavalier House, I read of there being, for one + item, "fifty lodging rooms," and for another "a theatre." And if an + English Duke of Trumps were to look at the bills for all that, his + astonishment would be extreme, and perhaps in a degree painful and + salutary to him. + </p> + <p> + In one of these Towers the Crown-Prince has his Library: a beautiful + apartment; nothing wanting to it that the arts could furnish, "ceiling + done by Pesne" with allegorical geniuses and what not,—looks out on + mere sky, mere earth and water in an ornamental state: silent as in + Elysium. It is there we are to fancy the Correspondence written, the + Poetries and literary industries going on. There, or stepping down for a + turn in the open air, or sauntering meditatively under the Colonnade with + its statues and vases (where weather is no object), one commands the Lake, + with its little tufted Islands, "Remus Island" much famed among them, and + "high beech-woods" on the farther side. The Lake is very pretty, all say; + lying between you and the sunset;—with perhaps some other lakelet, + or solitary pool in the wilderness, many miles away, "revealing itself as + a cup of molten gold," at that interesting moment. What the + Book-Collection was, in the interior, I know not except by mere guess. + </p> + <p> + The Crown-Princess's Apartment, too, which remained unaltered at the last + accounts had of it, [From Hennert, namely, in 1778.] is very fine;—take + the anteroom for specimen: "This fine room," some twenty feet height of + ceiling, "has six windows; three of them, in the main front, looking + towards the Town, the other three, towards the Interior Court. The light + from these windows is heightened by mirrors covering all the piers + (SCHAFTE, interspaces of the walls), to an uncommonly splendid pitch; and + shows the painting of the ceiling, which again is by the famous Pesne, to + much perfection. The Artist himself, too, has managed to lay on his colors + there so softly, and with such delicate skill, that the light-beams seem + to prolong themselves in the painted clouds and air, as if it were the + real sky you had overhead." There in that cloud-region "Mars is being + disarmed by the Love-goddesses, and they are sporting with his weapons. He + stretches out his arm towards the Goddess, who looks upon him with fond + glances. Cupids are spreading out a draping." That is Pesne's luxurious + performance in the ceiling.—"Weapon-festoons, in basso-relievo, + gilt, adorn the walls of this room; and two Pictures, also by Pesne, which + represent, in life size, the late King and Queen [our good friends + Friedrich Wilhelm and his Sophie], are worthy of attention. Over each of + the doors, you find in low-relief the Profiles of Hannibal, Pompey, + Scipio, Caesar, introduced as Medallions." + </p> + <p> + All this is very fine; but all this is little to another ceiling, in some + big Saloon elsewhere, Music-saloon, I think: Black Night, making off, with + all her sickly dews, at one end of the ceiling; and at the other end, the + Steeds of Phoebus bursting forth, and the glittering shafts of Day,—with + Cupids, Love-goddesses, War-gods, not omitting Bacchus and his vines, all + getting beautifully awake in consequence. A very fine room indeed;—used + as a Music-saloon, or I know not what,—and the ceiling of it almost + an ideal, say the connoisseurs. + </p> + <p> + Endless gardens, pavilions, grottos, hermitages, orangeries, artificial + ruins, parks and pleasances surround this favored spot and its Schloss; + nothing wanting in it that a Prince's establishment needs,—except + indeed it be hounds, for which this Prince never had the least demand. + </p> + <p> + Except the old Ruppin duties, which imply continual journeyings thither, + distance only a morning's ride; except these, and occasional commissions + from Papa, Friedrich is left master of his time and pursuits in this new + Mansion. There are visits to Potsdam, periodical appearances at Berlin; + some Correspondence to keep the Tobacco-Parliament in tune. But + Friedrich's taste is for the Literatures, Philosophies: a—young + Prince bent seriously to cultivate his mind; to attain some clear + knowledge of this world, so all-important to him. And he does seriously + read, study and reflect a good deal; his main recreations, seemingly, are + Music, and the converse of well-informed, friendly men. In Music we find + him particularly rich. Daily, at a fixed hour of the afternoon, there is + concert held; the reader has seen in what kind of room: and if the Artists + entertained here for that function were enumerated (high names, not yet + forgotten in the Musical world), it would still more astonish readers. I + count them to the number of twenty or nineteen; and mention only that "the + two Brothers Graun" and "the two Brothers Benda" were of the lot; + suppressing four other Fiddlers of eminence, and "a Pianist who is known + to everybody." [Hennert, p. 21.] The Prince has a fine sensibility to + Music: does himself, with thrilling adagios on the flute, join in these + harmonious acts; and, no doubt, if rightly vigilant against the Nonsenses, + gets profit, now and henceforth, from this part of his resources. + </p> + <p> + He has visits, calls to make, on distinguished persons within reach; he + has much Correspondence, of a Literary or Social nature. For instance, + there is Suhm the Saxon Envoy translating <i>Wolf's Philosophy</i> into + French for him; sending it in fascicles; with endless Letters to and from, + upon it,—which were then highly interesting, but are now dead to + every reader. The Crown-Prince has got a Post-Office established at + Reinsberg; leathern functionary of some sort comes lumbering round, + southward, "from the Mecklenburg quarter twice a week, and goes by + Fehrbellin," for the benefit of his Correspondences. Of his calls in the + neighborhood, we mean to show the reader one sample, before long; and only + one. + </p> + <p> + There are Lists given us of the Prince's "Court" at Reinsberg; and one + reads, and again reads, the dreariest unmemorable accounts of them; but + cannot, with all one's industry, attain any definite understanding of what + they were employed in, day after day, at Reinsberg:—still more are + their salaries and maintenance a mystery to us, in that frugal + establishment. There is Wolden for Hofmarschall, our old Custrin friend; + there is Colonel Senning, old Marlborough Colonel with the wooden leg, who + taught Friedrich his drillings and artillery-practices in boyhood, a fine + sagacious old gentleman this latter. There is a M. Jordan, Ex-Preacher, an + ingenious Prussian-Frenchman, still young, who acts as "Reader and + Librarian;" of whom we shall hear a good deal more. "Intendant" is Captain + (Ex-Captain) Knobelsdorf; a very sensible accomplished man, whom we saw + once at Baireuth; who has been to Italy since, and is now returned with + beautiful talents for Architecture: it is he that now undertakes the + completing of Reinsberg, [Hennert, p. 29.] which he will skilfully + accomplish in the course of the next three years. Twenty Musicians on wind + or string; Painters, Antoine Pesne but one of them; Sculptors, Glume and + others of eminence; and Hof-Cavaliers, to we know not what extent:—how + was such a Court kept up, in harmonious free dignity, and no halt in its + finances, or mean pinch of any kind visible? The Prince did get in debt; + but not deep, and it was mainly for the tall recruits he had to purchase. + His money-accounts are by no means fully known to me: but I should + question if his expenditure (such is my guess) ever reached 3,000 pounds a + year; and am obliged to reflect more and more, as the ancient Cato did, + what an admirable revenue frugality is! + </p> + <p> + Many of the Cavaliers, I find, for one thing, were of the Regiment Goltz; + that was one evident economy. "Rittmeister van Chasot," as the Books call + him: readers saw that Chasot flying to Prince Eugene, and know him since + the Siege of Philipsburg. He is not yet Rittmeister, or Captain of Horse, + as he became; but is of the Ruppin Garrison; Hof-Cavalier; "attended + Friedrich on his late Prussian journey;" and is much a favorite, when he + can be spared from Ruppin. Captain Wylich, afterwards a General of mark; + the Lieutenant Buddenbrock who did the parson-charivari at Ruppin, but is + now reformed from those practices: all these are of Goltz. Colonel + Keyserling, not of Goltz, nor in active military duty here, is a friend of + very old standing; was officially named as "Companion" to the Prince, a + long while back; and got into trouble on his account in the disastrous + Ante-Custrin or Flight Epoch: one of the Prince's first acts, when he got + pardoned after Custrin, was to beg for the pardon of this Keyserling; and + now he has him here, and is very fond of him. A Courlander, of good + family, this Keyserling; of good gifts too,—which, it was once + thought, would be practically sublime; for he carried off all manner of + college prizes, and was the Admirable-Crichton of Konigsberg University + and the Graduates there. But in the end they proved to be gifts of the + vocal sort rather: and have led only to what we see. A man, I should + guess, rather of buoyant vivacity than of depth or strength in intellect + or otherwise. Excessively buoyant, ingenious; full of wit, kindly + exuberance; a loyal-hearted, gay-tempered man, and much a favorite in + society as well as with the Prince. If we were to dwell on Reinsberg, + Keyserling would come prominently forward. + </p> + <p> + Major van Stille, ultimately Major-General von Stille, I should also + mention: near twenty years older than the Prince; a wise thoughtful + soldier (went, by permission, to the Siege of Dantzig lately, to improve + himself); a man capable of rugged service, when the time comes. His + military writings were once in considerable esteem with professional men; + and still impress a lay reader with favorable notions towards Stille, as a + man of real worth and sense. [<i>Campagnes du Roi de Prusse;</i>—a + posthumous Book; ANTERIOR to the Seven-Years War.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + OF MONSIEUR JORDAN AND THE LITERARY SET. + </h2> + <p> + There is, of course, a Chaplain in the Establishment: a Reverend "M. + Deschamps;" who preaches to them all,—in French no doubt. Friedrich + never hears Deschamps: Friedrich is always over at Ruppin on Sundays; and + there "himself reads a sermon to the Garrison," as part of the day's + duties. Reads finely, in a melodious feeling manner, says Formey, who can + judge: "even in his old days, he would incidentally," when some Emeritus + Parson, like Formey, chanced to be with him, "roll out choice passages + from Bossuet, from Massillon," in a voice and with a look, which would + have been perfection in the pulpit, thinks Formey. [<i>Souvenirs d'un + Citoyen</i> (2de edition, Paris, 1797), i. 37.] + </p> + <p> + M. Jordan, though he was called "LECTEUR (Reader)," did not read to him, I + can perceive; but took charge of the Books; busied himself honestly to be + useful in all manner of literary or quasi-literary ways. He was, as his + name indicates, from the French-refugee department; a recent acquisition, + much valued at Reinsberg. As he makes a figure afterwards, we had better + mark him a little. + </p> + <p> + Jordan's parents were wealthy religious persons, in trade at Berlin; this + Jordan (Charles Etienne, age now thirty-six) was their eldest son. It + seems they had destined him from birth, consulting their own pious + feelings merely, to be a Preacher of the Gospel; the other sons, all of + them reckoned clever too, were brought up to secular employments. And + preach he, this poor Charles Etienne, accordingly did; what best Gospel he + had; in an honest manner, all say,—though never with other than a + kind of reluctance on the part of Nature, forced out of her course. He had + wedded, been clergyman in two successive country places; when his wife + died, leaving him one little daughter, and a heart much overset by that + event. Friends, wealthy Brothers probably, had pushed him out into the + free air, in these circumstances: "Take a Tour; Holland, England; feel the + winds blowing, see the sun shining, as in times past: it will do you + good!" + </p> + <p> + Jordan, in the course of his Tour, came to composure on several points. He + found that, by frugality, by wise management of some peculium already his, + his little Daughter and he might have quietness at Berlin, and the + necessary food and raiment;—and, on the whole, that he would + altogether cease preaching, and settle down there, among his Books, in a + frugal manner. Which he did;—and was living so, when the Prince, + searching for that kind of person, got tidings of him. And here he is at + Reinsberg; bustling about, in a brisk, modestly frank and cheerful manner: + well liked by everybody; by his Master very well and ever better, who grew + into real regard, esteem and even friendship for him, and has much + Correspondence, of a freer kind than is common to him, with little Jordan, + so long as they lived together. Jordan's death, ten years hence, was + probably the one considerable pain he had ever given his neighbors, in + this the ultimate section of his life. + </p> + <p> + I find him described, at Reinsberg, as a small nimble figure, of + Southern-French aspect; black, uncommonly bright eyes; and a general + aspect of adroitness, modesty, sense, sincerity; good prognostics, which + on acquaintance with the man were pleasantly fulfilled. + </p> + <p> + For the sake of these considerations, I fished out, from the Old-Book + Catalogues and sea of forgetfulness, some of the poor Books he wrote; + especially a <i>Voyage Litteraire,</i> [<i>Histoire d'un Voyage Litteraire + fait, en MDCCXXXIII., en France, en Angleterre et en Hollande</i> (2de + edition, a La Haye, 1736).] Journal of that first Sanitary Excursion or + Tour he took, to get the clouds blown from his mind. A LITERARY VOYAGE + which awakens a kind of tragic feeling; being itself dead, and treating of + matters which are all gone dead. So many immortal writers, Dutch chiefly, + whom Jordan is enabled to report as having effloresced, or being soon to + effloresce, in such and such forms, of Books important to be learned: + leafy, blossomy Forest of Literature, waving glorious in the then sunlight + to Jordan;—and it lies all now, to Jordan and us, not withered only, + but abolished; compressed into a film of indiscriminate PEAT. Consider + what that peat is made of, O celebrated or uncelebrated reader, and take a + moral from Jordan's Book! Other merit, except indeed clearness and + commendable brevity, the <i>Voyage Litteraire</i> or other little Books of + Jordan's have not now. A few of his Letters to Friedrich, which exist, are + the only writings with the least life left in them, and this an accidental + life, not momentous to him or us. Dryasdust informs me, "Abbe Jordan, + alone of the Crown-Prince's cavaliers, sleeps in the Town of Reinsberg, + not in the Schloss:" and if I ask, Why?—there is no answer. Probably + his poor little Daughterkin was beside him there?— + </p> + <p> + We have to say of Friedrich's Associates, that generally they were of + intelligent type, each of them master of something or other, and capable + of rational discourse upon that at least. Integrity, loyalty of character, + was indispensable; good humor, wit if it could be had, were much in + request. There was no man of shining distinction there; but they were the + best that could be had, and that is saying all. Friedrich cannot be said, + either as Prince or as King, to have been superlatively successful in his + choice of associates. With one single exception, to be noticed shortly, + there is not one of them whom we should now remember except for + Friedrich's sake;—uniformly they are men whom it is now a weariness + to hear of, except in a cursory manner. One man of shining parts he had, + and one only; no man ever of really high and great mind. The latter sort + are not so easy to get; rarely producible on the soil of this Earth! Nor + is it certain how Friedrich might have managed with one of this sort, or + he with Friedrich;—though Friedrich unquestionably would have tried, + had the chance offered. For he loved intellect as few men on the throne, + or off it, ever did; and the little he could gather of it round him often + seems to me a fact tragical rather than otherwise. + </p> + <p> + With the outer Berlin social world, acting and reacting, Friedrich has his + connections, which obscurely emerge on us now and then. Literary + Eminences, who are generally of Theological vesture; any follower of + Philosophy, especially if he be of refined manners withal, or known in + fashionable life, is sure to attract him; and gains ample recognition at + Reinsberg or on Town-visits. But the Berlin Theological or Literary world + at that time, still more the Berlin Social, like a sunk extinct object, + continues very dim in those old records; and to say truth, what features + we have of it do not invite to miraculous efforts for farther + acquaintance. Venerable Beausobre, with his <i>History of the Manicheans, + [</i>Histoire critique de Manichee et du Manicheisme:<i> wrote also </i>Remarques + &c. sur le Nouveau Testament,<i> which were once famous; </i>Histoire + de la Reformation;<i> &c. &c. He is Beausobre SENIOR; there were + two Sons (one of them born in second wedlock, after Papa was 70), who were + likewise given to writing.—See Formey, </i>Souvenirs d'un Citoyen + since, in Toland and the Republican Queen's time, as a light of the world. + He is now fourscore, grown white as snow; very serene, polite, with a + smack of French noblesse in him, perhaps a smack of affectation traceable + too. The Crown-Prince, on one of his Berlin visits, wished to see this + Beausobre; got a meeting appointed, in somebody's rooms "in the French + College," and waited for the venerable man. Venerable man entered, loftily + serene as a martyr Preacher of the Word, something of an ancient Seigneur + de Beausobre in him, too; for the rest, soft as sunset, and really with + fine radiances, in a somewhat twisted state, in that good old mind of his. + "What have you been reading lately, M. de Beausobre?" said the Prince, to + begin conversation. "Ah, Monseigneur, I have just risen from reading the + sublimest piece of writing that exists."—"And what?" "The exordium + of St. John's Gospel: <i>In the Beginning was the Word; and the Word was + with God, and the Word was—"</i> Which somewhat took the Prince by + surprise, as Formey reports; though he rallied straightway, and got good + conversation out of the old gentleman. To whom, we perceive, he writes + once or twice, [<i>OEuvres de Frederic,</i> 121-126. Dates are all of + 1737; the last of Beausobre's years.]—a copy of his own verses to + correct, on one occasion,—and is very respectful and considerate. + </p> + <p> + Formey tells us of another French sage, personally known to the Prince + since Boyhood; for he used to be about the Palace, doing something. This + is one La Croze; Professor of, I think, "Philosophy" in the French + College: sublime Monster of Erudition, at that time; forgotten now, I + fear, by everybody. Swag-bellied, short of wind; liable to rages, to + utterances of a coarse nature; a decidedly ugly, monstrous and rather + stupid kind of man. Knew twenty languages, in a coarse inexact way. + Attempted deep kinds of discourse, in the lecture-room and elsewhere; but + usually broke off into endless welters of anecdote, not always of cleanly + nature; and after every two or three words, a desperate sigh, not for + sorrow, but on account of flabbiness and fat. Formey gives a portraiture + of him; not worth copying farther. The same Formey, standing one day + somewhere on the streets of Berlin, was himself, he cannot doubt, SEEN by + the Crown-Prince in passing; "who asked M. Jordan, who that was," and got + answer:—is not that a comfortable fact? Nothing farther came of it;—respectable + Ex-Parson Formey, though ever ready with his pen, being indeed of very + vapid nature, not wanted at Reinsberg, as we can guess. + </p> + <p> + There is M. Achard, too, another Preacher, supreme of his sort, in the + then Berlin circles; to whom or from whom a Letter or two exist. Letters + worthless, if it were not for one dim indication: That, on inquiry, the + Crown-Prince had been consulting this supreme Achard on the difficulties + of Orthodoxy; [<i>OEuvres de Frederic,</i> xvi. pp. 112-117: date, + March-June, 1736.] and had given him texts, or a text, to preach from. + Supreme Achard did not abolish the difficulties for his inquiring Prince,—who + complains respectfully that "his faith is weak," and leaves us dark as to + particulars. This Achard passage is almost the only hint we have of what + might have been an important chapter: Friedrich's Religious History at + Reinsberg. The expression "weak faith" I take to be meant not in mockery, + but in ingenuous regret and solicitude; much painful fermentation, + probably, on the religious question in those Reinsberg years! But the old + "GNADENWAHL" business, the Free-Grace controversy, had taught him to be + cautious as to what he uttered on those points. The fermentation, + therefore, had to go on under cover; what the result of it was, is + notorious enough; though the steps of the process are not in any point + known. + </p> + <p> + Enough now of such details. Outwardly or inwardly, there is no History, or + almost none, to be had of this Reinsberg Period; the extensive records of + it consisting, as usual, mainly of chaotic nugatory matter, opaque to the + mind of readers. There is copious correspondence of the Crown-Prince, with + at least dates to it for most part: but this, which should be the main + resource, proves likewise a poor one; the Crown-Prince's Letters, now or + afterwards, being almost never of a deep or intimate quality; and seldom + turning on events or facts at all, and then not always on facts + interesting, on facts clearly apprehensible to us in that extinct element. + </p> + <p> + The Thing, we know always, IS there; but vision of the Thing is only to be + had faintly, intermittently. Dim inane twilight, with here and there a + transient SPARK falling somewhither in it;—you do at last, by + desperate persistence, get to discern outlines, features:—"The Thing + cannot always have been No-thing," you reflect! Outlines, features:—and + perhaps, after all, those are mostly what the reader wants on this + occasion. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter II. — OF VOLTAIRE AND THE LITERARY CORRESPONDENCES. + </h2> + <p> + One of Friedrich's grand purposes at Reinsberg, to himself privately the + grandest there, which he follows with constant loyalty and ardor, is that + of scaling the heights of the Muses' Hill withal; of attaining mastership, + discipleship, in Art and Philosophy;—or in candor let us call it, + what it truly was, that of enlightening and fortifying himself with clear + knowledge, clear belief, on all sides; and acquiring some spiritual + panoply in which to front the coming practicalities of life. This, he + feels well, will be a noble use of his seclusion in those still places; + and it must be owned, he struggles and endeavors towards this, with great + perseverance, by all the methods in his power, here, or wherever + afterwards he might be. + </p> + <p> + Here at Reinsberg, one of his readiest methods, his pleasantest if not his + usefulest, is that of getting into correspondence with the chief spirits + of his time. Which accordingly he forthwith sets about, after getting into + Reinsberg, and continues, as we shall see, with much assiduity. Rollin, + Fontenelle, and other French lights of the then firmament,—his + Letters to them exist; and could be given in some quantity: but it is + better not. They are intrinsically the common Letters on such occasions: + "O sublime demi-god of literature, how small are princely distinctions to + such a glory as thine; thou who enterest within the veil of the temple, + and issuest with thy face shining!"—To which the response is: "Hm, + think you so, most happy, gracious, illustrious Prince, with every + convenience round you, and such prospects ahead? Well, thank you, at any + rate,—and, as the Irish say, more power to your Honor's Glory!" This + really is nearly all that said Sets of Letters contain; and except perhaps + the Voltaire Set, none of them give symptoms of much capacity to contain + more. + </p> + <p> + Certainly there was no want of Literary Men discernible from Reinsberg at + that time; and the young Prince corresponds with a good many of them; + temporal potentate saluting spiritual, from the distance,—in a way + highly interesting to the then parties, but now without interest, except + of the reflex kind, to any creature. A very cold and empty portion, this, + of the Friedrich Correspondence; standing there to testify what his + admiration was for literary talent, or the great reputation of such; but + in itself uninstructive utterly, and of freezing influence on the now + living mind. Most of those French lights of the then firmament are gone + out. Forgotten altogether; or recognized, like Rollin and others, for + polished dullards, university big-wigs, and long-winded commonplace + persons, deserving nothing but oblivion. To Montesquieu,—not yet + called "Baron de Montesquieu" with ESPRIT DES LOIS, but "M. de Secondat" + with (Anonymous) LETTRES PERSANES, and already known to the world for a + person of sharp audacious eyesight,—it does not appear that + Friedrich addressed any Letter, now or afterwards. No notice of + Montesquieu; nor of some others, the absence of whom is a little + unexpected. Probably it was want of knowledge mainly; for his appetite was + not fastidious at this time. And certainly he did hit the centre of the + mark, and get into the very kernel of French literature, when, in 1736, + hardly yet established in his new quarters, he addressed himself to the + shining figure known to us as "Arouet Junior" long since, and now called + M. DE VOLTAIRE; which latter is still a name notable in Friedrich's + History and that of Mankind. Friedrich's first Letter, challenging + Voltaire to correspondence, dates itself 8th August, 1736; and Voltaire's + Answer—the Reinsberg Household still only in its second month—was + probably the brightest event which had yet befallen there. + </p> + <p> + On various accounts it will behoove us to look a good deal more strictly + into this Voltaire; and, as his relations to Friedrich and to the world + are so multiplex, endeavor to disengage the real likeness of the man from + the circumambient noise and confusion which in his instance continue very + great. "Voltaire was the spiritual complement of Friedrich," says + Sauerteig once: "what little of lasting their poor Century produced lies + mainly in these Two. A very somnambulating Century! But what little it + DID, we must call Friedrich; what little it THOUGHT, Voltaire. Other fruit + we have not from it to speak of, at this day. Voltaire, and what CAN be + faithfully done on the Voltaire Creed; 'Realized Voltairism;'—admit + it, reader, not in a too triumphant humor,—is not that pretty much + the net historical product of the Eighteenth Century? The rest of its + history either pure somnambulism; or a mere Controversy, to the effect, + 'Realized Voltairism? How soon shall it be realized, then? Not at once, + surely!' So that Friedrich and Voltaire are related, not by accident only. + They are, they for want of better, the two Original Men of their Century; + the chief and in a sense the sole products of their Century. They alone + remain to us as still living results from it,—such as they are. And + the rest, truly, OUGHT to depart and vanish (as they are now doing); being + mere ephemera; contemporary eaters, scramblers for provender, talkers of + acceptable hearsay; and related merely to the butteries and wiggeries of + their time, and not related to the Perennialities at all, as these Two + were."—With more of the like sort from Sauerteig. + </p> + <p> + M. de Voltaire, who used to be M. Francois-Marie Arouet, was at this time + about forty, [Born 20th February, 1694; the younger of two sons: Father, + "Francois Arouet, a Notary of the Chatelet, ultimately Treasurer of the + Chamber of Accounts;" Mother, "Marguerite d'Aumart, of a noble family of + Poitou."] and had gone through various fortunes; a man, now and + henceforth, in a high degree conspicuous, and questionable to his + fellow-creatures. Clear knowledge of him ought, at this stage, to be + common; but unexpectedly it is not. What endless writing and biographying + there has been about this man; in which one still reads, with a kind of + lazy satisfaction, due to the subject, and to the French genius in that + department! But the man himself, and his environment and practical + aspects, what the actual physiognomy of his life and of him can have been, + is dark from beginning to ending; and much is left in an ambiguous + undecipherable condition to us. A proper History of Voltaire, in which + should be discoverable, luminous to human creatures, what he was, what + element he lived in, what work he did: this is still a problem for the + genius of France!— + </p> + <p> + His Father's name is known to us; the name of his Father's profession, + too, but not clearly the nature of it; still less his Father's character, + economic circumstances, physiognomy spiritual or social: not the least + possibility granted you of forming an image, however faint, of that + notable man and household, which distinguished itself to all the earth by + producing little Francois into the light of this sun. Of Madame Arouet, + who, or what, or how she was, nothing whatever is known. A human reader, + pestered continually with the Madame-Denises, Abbe-Mignots and enigmatic + nieces and nephews, would have wished to know, at least, what children, + besides Francois, Madame Arouet had: once for all, How many children? Name + them, with year of birth, year of death, according to the + church-registers: they all, at any rate, had that degree of history! No; + even that has not been done. Beneficent correspondents of my own make + answer, after some research, No register of the Arouets anywhere to be + had. The very name VOLTAIRE, if you ask whence came it? there is no + answer, or worse than none.—The fit "History" of this man, which + might be one of the shining Epics of his Century, and the lucid summary + and soul of any HISTORY France then had, but which would require almost a + French demi-god to do it, is still a great way off, if on the road at all! + For present purposes, we select what follows from a well-known hand:— + </p> + <p> + "YOUTH OF VOLTAIRE (1694-1725).—French Biographers have left the + Arouet Household very dark for us; meanwhile we can perceive, or guess, + that it was moderately well in economic respects; that Francois was the + second of the Two Sons; and that old Arouet, a steady, practical and + perhaps rather sharp-tempered old gentleman, of official legal habits and + position, 'Notary of the Chatelet' and something else, had destined him + for the Law Profession; as was natural enough to a son of M. Arouet, who + had himself succeeded well in Law, and could there, best of all, open + roads for a clever second son. Francois accordingly sat 'in chambers,' as + we call it; and his fellow-clerks much loved him,—the most amusing + fellow in the world. Sat in chambers, even became an advocate; but did not + in the least take to advocateship;—took to poetry, and other airy + dangerous courses, speculative, practical; causing family explosions and + rebukes, which were without effect on him. A young fool, bent on sportful + pursuits instead of serious; more and more shuddering at Law. To the + surprise and indignation of M. Arouet Senior. Law, with its wigs and + sheepskins, pointing towards high honors and deep flesh-pots, had no + charms for the young fool; he could not be made to like Law. + </p> + <p> + "Whereupon arose explosions, as we hint; family explosions on the part of + M. Arouet Senior; such that friends had to interfere, and it was uncertain + what would come of it. One judicious friend, 'M. Caumartin,' took the + young fellow home to his house in the country for a time;—and there, + incidentally, brought him acquainted with old gentlemen deep in the + traditions of Henri Quatre and the cognate topics; which much inflamed the + young fellow, and produced big schemes in the head of him. + </p> + <p> + "M. Arouet Senior stood strong for Law; but it was becoming daily more + impossible. Madrigals, dramas (not without actresses), satirical wit, airy + verse, and all manner of adventurous speculation, were what this young man + went upon; and was getting more and more loved for; introduced, even, to + the superior circles, and recognized there as one of the brightest young + fellows ever seen. Which tended, of course, to confirm him in his folly, + and open other outlooks and harbors of refuge than the paternal one. + </p> + <p> + "Such things, strange to M. Arouet Senior, were in vogue then; wicked + Regent d'Orleans having succeeded sublime Louis XIV., and set strange + fashions to the Quality. Not likely to profit this fool Francois, thought + M. Arouet Senior; and was much confirmed in his notion, when a rhymed + Lampoon against the Government having come out (LES J'AI VU, as they call + it ["I have seen (J'AI VU)" this ignominy occur, "I have seen" that other,—to + the amount of a dozen or two;—"and am not yet twenty." Copy of it, + and guess as to authorship, in <i>OEuvres de Voltaire</i>, i. 321.]), and + become the rage, as a clever thing of the kind will, it was imputed to the + brightest young fellow in France, M. Arouet's Son. Who, in fact, was not + the Author; but was not believed on his denial; and saw himself, in spite + of his high connections, ruthlessly lodged in the Bastille in consequence. + 'Let him sit,' thought M. Arouet Senior, 'and come to his senses there!' + He sat for eighteen months (age still little above twenty); but privately + employed his time, not in repentance, or in serious legal studies, but in + writing a Poem on his Henri Quatre. 'Epic Poem,' no less; LA LIGUE, as he + then called it; which it was his hope the whole world would one day fall + in love with;—as it did. Nay, in two years more, he had done a Play, + OEDIPE the renowned name of it; which ran for forty-eight nights' (18th + November, 1718, the first of them); and was enough to turn any head of + such age. Law may be considered hopeless, even by M. Arouet Senior. + </p> + <p> + "Try him in the Diplomatic line; break these bad habits and connections, + thought M. Arouet, at one time; and sent him to the French Ambassador in + Holland,—on good behavior, as it were, and by way of temporary + banishment. But neither did this answer. On the contrary, the young fellow + got into scrapes again; got into amatory intrigues,—young lady + visiting you in men's clothes, young lady's mother inveigling, and I know + not what;—so that the Ambassador was glad to send him home again + unmarried; marked, as it were, 'Glass, with care!' And the young lady's + mother printed his Letters, not the least worth reading:—and the old + M. Arouet seems now to have flung up his head; to have settled some small + allowance on him, with peremptory no hope of more, and said, 'Go your own + way, then, foolish junior: the elder shall be my son.' M. Arouet + disappears at this point, or nearly so, from the history of his son + Francois; and I think must have died in not many years. Poor old M. Arouet + closed his old eyes without the least conception what a prodigious + ever-memorable thing he had done unknowingly, in sending this Francois + into the world, to kindle such universal 'dry dung-heap of a rotten + world,' and set it blazing! Francois, his Father's synonym, came to be + representative of the family, after all; the elder Brother also having + died before long. Except certain confused niece-and-nephew personages, + progeny of the sisters, Francois has no more trouble or solacement from + the paternal household. Francois meanwhile is his Father's synonym, and + signs Arouet Junior, 'Francois Aroue l. j. (LE JEUNE).' + </p> + <p> + "'All of us Princes, then, or Poets!' said he, one night at supper, + looking to right and left: the brightest fellow in the world, well fit to + be Phoebus Apollo of such circles; and great things now ahead of him. + Dissolute Regent d'Orleans, politest, most debauched of men, and very + witty, holds the helm; near him Dubois the Devil's Cardinal, and so many + bright spirits. All the Luciferous Spiritualism there is in France is + lifting anchor, under these auspices, joyfully towards new latitudes and + Isles of the Blest. What may not Francois hope to become? 'Hmph!' answers + M. Arouet Senior, steadily, so long as he lives. Here are one or two + subsequent phases, epochs or turning-points, of the young gentleman's + career. + </p> + <p> + "PHASIS FIRST (1725-1728).—The accomplished Duc de Sulli (Year 1725, + day not recorded), is giving in his hotel a dinner, such as usual; and a + bright witty company is assembled;—the brightest young fellow in + France sure to be there; and with his electric coruscations illuminating + everything, and keeping the table in a roar. To the delight of most; not + to that of a certain splenetic ill-given Duc de Rohan; grandee of high + rank, great haughtiness, and very ill-behavior in the world; who feels + impatient at the notice taken of a mere civic individual, Arouet Junior. + <i> 'Quel est done ce jeune homme qui parle si haut,</i> Who is this young + man that talks so loud, then?' exclaims the proud splenetic Duke. + 'Monseigneur,' flashes the young man back upon him in an electric manner, + 'it is one who does not drag a big name about with him; but who secures + respect for the name he has!' Figure that, in the penetrating grandly + clangorous voice (VOIX SOMBRE ET MAJESTUEUSE), and the momentary flash of + eyes that attended it. Duc de Rohan rose, in a sulphurous frame of mind; + and went his ways. What date? You ask the idle French Biographer in vain;—see + only, after more and more inspection, that the incident is true; and with + labor date it, summer of the Year 1725. Treaty of Utrecht itself, though + all the Newspapers and Own Correspondents were so interested in it, was + perhaps but a foolish matter to date in comparison! + </p> + <p> + "About a week after, M. Arouet Junior was again dining with the Duc de + Sulli, and a fine company as before. A servant whispers him, That somebody + has called, and wants him below. 'Cannot come,' answers Arouet; 'how can + I, so engaged?' Servant returns after a minute or two: 'Pardon, Monsieur; + I am to say, it is to do an act of beneficence that you are wanted below!' + Arouet lays down his knife and fork; descends instantly to see what act it + is. A carriage is in the court, and hackney-coach near it: 'Would Monsieur + have the extreme goodness to come to the door of the carriage, in a case + of necessity?' At the door of the carriage, hands seize the collar of him, + hold him as in a vice; diabolic visage of Duc de Rohan is visible inside, + who utters, looking to the hackney-coach, some "VOILA, Now then!" + Whereupon the hackney-coach opens, gives out three porters, or hired + bullies, with the due implements: scandalous actuality of horsewhipping + descends on the back of poor Arouet, who shrieks and execrates to no + purpose, nobody being near. 'That will do,' says Rohan at last, and the + gallant ducal party drive off; young Arouet, with torn frills and deranged + hair, rushing up stairs again, in such a mood as is easy to fancy. + Everybody is sorry, inconsolable, everybody shocked; nobody volunteers to + help in avenging. 'Monseigneur de Sulli, is not such atrocity done to one + of your guests, an insult to yourself?' asks Arouet. 'Well, yes perhaps, + but'—Monseigneur de Sulli shrugs his shoulders, and proposes + nothing. Arouet withdrew, of course in a most blazing condition, to + consider what he could, on his own strength, do in this conjuncture. + </p> + <p> + "His Biographer Duvernet says, he decided on doing two things: learning + English and the small-sword exercise. [<i>La Vie de Voltaire,</i> par M—(a + Geneve, 1786), pp. 55-57; or pp. 60-63, in his SECOND form of the Book. + The "M—" is an Abbe Duvernet; of no great mark otherwise. He got + into Revolution trouble afterwards, but escaped with his head; and + republished his Book, swollen out somewhat by new "Anecdotes" and + republican bluster, in this second instance; signing himself T. J. D. V—(Paris, + 1797). A vague but not dark or mendacious little Book; with traces of real + EYESIGHT in it,—by one who had personally known Voltaire, or at + least seen and heard him.] He retired to the country for six months, and + perfected himself in these two branches. Being perfect, he challenged Duc + de Rohan in the proper manner; applying ingenious compulsives withal, to + secure acceptance of the challenge. Rohan accepted, not without some + difficulty, and compulsion at the Theatre or otherwise:—accepted, + but withal confessed to his wife. The result was, no measuring of swords + took place; and Rohan only blighted by public opinion, or incapable of + farther blight that way, went at large; a convenient LETTRE DE CACHET + having put Arouet again in the Bastille. Where for six months Arouet + lodged a second time, the innocent not the guilty; making, we can well + suppose, innumerable reflections on the phenomena of human life. + Imprisonment once over, he hastily quitted for England; shaking the dust + of ungrateful France off his feet,—resolved to change his unhappy + name, for one thing. + </p> + <p> + "Smelfungus, denouncing the torpid fatuity of Voltaire's Biographers, says + he never met with one Frenchman, even of the Literary classes, who could + tell him whence this name VOLTAIRE originated. 'A PETITE TERRE, small + family estate,' they said; and sent him hunting through Topographies, far + and wide, to no purpose. Others answered, 'Volterra in Italy, some + connection with Volterra,'—and seemed even to know that this was but + fatuity. 'In ever-talking, ever-printing Paris, is it as in Timbuctoo, + then, which neither prints nor has anything to print?' exclaims poor + Smelfungus! He tells us at last, the name VOLTAIRE is a mere Anagram of + AROUET L. J.—you try it; A.R.O.U.E.T.L.J.=V.O.L.T.A.I.R.E and + perceive at once, with obligations to Smelfungus, that he has settled this + small matter for you, and that you can be silent upon it forever + thenceforth. + </p> + <p> + "The anagram VOLTAIRE, gloomily settled in the Bastille in this manner, + can be reckoned a very famous wide-sounding outer result of the Rohan + impertinence and blackguardism; but it is not worth naming beside the + inner intrinsic result, of banishing Voltaire to England at this point of + his course. England was full of Constitutionality and Freethinking; + Tolands, Collinses, Wollastons, Bolingbrokes, still living; very free + indeed. England, one is astonished to see, has its royal-republican ways + of doing; something Roman in it, from Peerage down to Plebs; strange and + curious to the eye of M. de Voltaire. Sciences flourishing; Newton still + alive, white with fourscore years, the venerable hoary man; Locke's Gospel + of Common Sense in full vogue, or even done into verse, by incomparable + Mr. Pope, for the cultivated upper classes. In science, in religion, in + politics, what a surprising 'liberty' allowed or taken! Never was a freer + turn of thinking. And (what to M. de Voltaire is a pleasant feature) it is + Freethinking with ruffles to its shirt and rings on its fingers;—never + yet, the least, dreaming of the shirtless or SANSCULOTTIC state that lies + ahead for it! That is the palmy condition of English Liberty, when M. de + Voltaire arrives there. + </p> + <p> + "In a man just out of the Bastille on those terms, there is a mind driven + by hard suffering into seriousness, and provoked by indignant comparisons + and remembrances. As if you had elaborately ploughed and pulverized the + mind of this Voltaire to receive with its utmost avidity, and strength of + fertility, whatever seed England may have for it. That was a notable + conjuncture of a man with circumstances. The question, Is this man to grow + up a Court Poet; to do legitimate dramas, lampoons, witty verses, and wild + spiritual and practical magnificences, the like never seen; Princes and + Princesses recognizing him as plainly divine, and keeping him tied by + enchantments to that poor trade as his task in life? is answered in the + negative. No: and it is not quite to decorate and comfort your 'dry + dung-heap' of a world, or the fortunate cocks that scratch on it, that the + man Voltaire is here; but to shoot lightnings into it, and set it ablaze + one day! That was an important alternative; truly of world-importance to + the poor generations that now are; and it was settled, in good part, by + this voyage to England, as one may surmise. Such is sometimes the use of a + dissolute Rohan in this world; for the gods make implements of all manner + of things. + </p> + <p> + "M. de Voltaire (for we now drop the Arouet altogether, and never hear of + it more) came to England—when? Quitted England—when? Sorrow on + all fatuous Biographers, who spend their time not in laying permanent + foundation-stones, but in fencing with the wind!—I at last find + indisputably, it was in 1726 that he came to England: [Got out of the + Bastille, with orders to leave France, "29th April" of that year (<i>OEuvres + de Voltaire,</i> i. 40 n.).] and he himself tells us that he 1728.' Spent, + therefore, some two years there in all,—last year of George I.'s + reign, and first of George II.'s. But mere inanity and darkness visible + reign, in all his Biographies, over this period of his life, which was + above all others worth investigating: seek not to know it; no man has + inquired into it, probably no competent man now ever will. By hints in + certain Letters of the period, we learn that he lodged, or at one time + lodged, in 'Maiden Lane, Covent Garden;' one of those old Houses that yet + stand in Maiden Lane: for which small fact let us be thankful. His own + Letters of the period are dated now and then from 'Wandsworth.' Allusions + there are to Bolingbroke; but the Wandsworth is not Bolingbroke's mansion, + which stood in Battersea; the Wandsworth was one Edward Fawkener's; a man + somewhat admirable to young Voltaire, but extinct now, or nearly so, in + human memory. He had been a Turkey Merchant, it would seem, and + nevertheless was admitted to speak his word in intellectual, even in + political circles; which was wonderful to young Voltaire. This Fawkener, I + think, became Sir Edward Fawkener, and some kind of 'Secretary to the Duke + of Cumberland:'—I judge it to be the same Fawkener; a man highly + unmemorable now, were it not for the young Frenchman he was hospitable to. + Fawkener's and Bolingbroke's are perhaps the only names that turn up in + Voltaire's LETTERS of this English Period: over which generally there + reigns, in the French Biographies, inane darkness, with an intimation, + half involuntary, that it SHOULD have been made luminous, and would if + perfectly easy. + </p> + <p> + "We know, from other sources, that he had acquaintance with many men in + England, with all manner of important men: Notes to Pope in + Voltaire-English, visit of Voltaire to Congreve, Notes even to such as + Lady Sundon in the interior of the Palace, are known of. The brightest + young fellow in the world did not want for introductions to the highest + quarters, in that time of political alliance, and extensive private + acquaintance, between his Country and ours. And all this he was the man to + improve, both in the trivial and the deep sense. His bow to the divine + Princess Caroline and suite, could it fail in graceful reverence or what + else was needed? Dexterous right words in the right places, winged with + ESPRIT so called: that was the man's supreme talent, in which he had no + match, to the last. A most brilliant, swift, far-glancing young man, + disposed to make himself generally agreeable. For the rest, his wonder, we + can see, was kept awake; wonder readily inclining, in his circumstances, + towards admiration. The stereotype figure of the Englishman, always the + same, which turns up in Voltaire's WORKS, is worth noting in this respect. + A rugged surly kind of fellow, much-enduring, not intrinsically bad; + splenetic without complaint, standing oddly inexpugnable in that natural + stoicism of his; taciturn, yet with strange flashes of speech in him now + and then, something which goes beyond laughter and articulate logic, and + is the taciturn elixir of these two, what they call 'humor' in their + dialect: this is pretty much the REVERSE of Voltaire's own self, and + therefore all the welcomer to him; delineated always with a kind of + mockery, but with evident love. What excellences are in England, thought + Voltaire; no Bastille in it, for one thing! Newton's Philosophy + annihilated the vortexes of Descartes for him; Locke's Toleration is very + grand (especially if all is uncertain, and YOU are in the minority); then + Collins, Wollaston and Company,—no vile Jesuits here, strong in + their mendacious mal-odorous stupidity, despicablest yet most dangerous of + creatures, to check freedom of thought! Illustrious Mr. Pope, of the <i>Essay + on Man,</i> surely he is admirable; as are Pericles Bolingbroke, and many + others. Even Bolingbroke's high-lacquered brass is gold to this young + French friend of his.—Through all which admirations and + exaggerations the progress of the young man, toward certain very serious + attainments and achievements, is conceivable enough. + </p> + <p> + "One other man, who ought to be mentioned in the Biographies, I find + Voltaire to have made acquaintance with, in England: a German M. Fabrice, + one of several Brothers called Fabrice or Fabricius,—concerning + whom, how he had been at Bender, and how Voltaire picked CHARLES DOUSE + from the memory of him, there was already mention. The same Fabrice who + held poor George I. in his arms while they drove, galloping, to + Osnabriick, that night, IN EXTREMIS:—not needing mention again. The + following is more to the point. + </p> + <p> + "Voltaire, among his multifarious studies while in England, did not forget + that of economics: his Poem LA LIGUE,—surreptitiously printed, three + years since, under that title (one Desfontaines, a hungry Ex-Jesuit, the + perpetrator), [1723, VIE, par T. J. D. V. (that is, "M—" in the + second form), p. 59.]—he now took in hand for his own benefit; + washed it clean of its blots; christened it HENRIADE, under which name it + is still known over all the world;—and printed it; published it + here, by subscription, in 1726; one of the first things he undertook. Very + splendid subscription; headed by Princess Caroline, and much favored by + the opulent of quality. Which yielded an unknown but very considerable sum + of thousands sterling, and grounded not only the world-renown but the + domestic finance of M. de Voltaire. For the fame of the 'new epic,' as + this HENRIADE was called, soon spread into all lands. And such fame, and + other agencies on his behalf, having opened the way home for Voltaire, he + took this sum of Thousands Sterling along with him; laid it out + judiciously in some city lottery, or profitable scrip then going at Paris, + which at once doubled the amount: after which he invested it in + Corn-trade, Army Clothing, Barbary-trade, Commissariat Bacon-trade, all + manner of well-chosen trades,—being one of the shrewdest financiers + on record;—and never from that day wanted abundance of money, for + one thing. Which he judged to be extremely expedient for a literary man, + especially in times of Jesuit and other tribulation. 'You have only to + watch,' he would say, 'what scrips, public loans, investments in the field + of agio, are offered; if you exert any judgment, it is easy to gain there: + do not the stupidest of mortals gain there, by intensely attending to it?' + </p> + <p> + "Voltaire got almost nothing by his Books, which he generally had to + disavow, and denounce as surreptitious supposititious scandals, when some + sharp-set Book-seller, in whose way he had laid the savory article as + bait, chose to risk his ears for the profit of snatching and publishing + it. Next to nothing by his Books; but by his fine finance-talent + otherwise, he had become possessed of ample moneys. Which were so + cunningly disposed, too, that he had resources in every Country; and no + conceivable combination of confiscating Jesuits and dark fanatic Official + Persons could throw him out of a livelihood, whithersoever he might be + forced to run. A man that looks facts in the face; which is creditable of + him. The vulgar call it avarice and the like, as their way is: but M. de + Voltaire is convinced that effects will follow causes; and that it well + beseems a lonely Ishmaelite, hunting his way through the howling + wildernesses and confused ravenous populations of this world, to have + money in his pocket. He died with a revenue of some 7,000 pounds a year, + probably as good as 20,000 pounds at present; the richest literary man + ever heard of hitherto, as well as the remarkablest in some other + respects. But we have to mark the second phasis of his life [in which + Friedrich now sees him], and how it grew out of this first one. + </p> + <p> + "PHASIS SECOND (1728-1733).—Returning home as if quietly triumphant, + with such a talent in him, and such a sanction put upon it and him by a + neighboring Nation, and by all the world, Voltaire was warmly received, in + his old aristocratic circles, by cultivated France generally; and now in + 1728, in his thirty-second year, might begin to have definite outlooks of + a sufficiently royal kind, in Literature and otherwise. Nor is he slow, + far from it, to advance, to conquer and enjoy. He writes successful + literature, falls in love with women of quality; encourages the indigent + and humble; eclipses, and in case of need tramples down, the too proud. He + elegizes poor Adrienne Lecouvreur, the Actress,—our poor friend the + Comte de Saxe's female friend; who loyally emptied out her whole purse for + him, 30,000 pounds in one sum, that he might try for Courland, and whether + he could fall in love with her of the Swollen Cheek there; which proved + impossible. Elegizes Adrienne, slightly, and even buries her under cloud + of night: ready to protect unfortunate females of merit. Especially + theatrical females; having much to do in the theatre, which we perceive to + be the pulpit or real preaching-place of cultivated France in those years. + All manner of verse, all manner of prose, he dashes off with surprising + speed and grace: showers of light spray for the moment; and always some + current of graver enterprise, <i>Siecle de Louis Quatorze</i> or the like, + going on beneath it. For he is a most diligent, swift, unresting man; and + studies and learns amazingly in such a rackety existence. Victorious + enough in some senses; defeat, in Literature, never visited him. His + Plays, coming thick on the heels of one another, rapid brilliant pieces, + are brilliantly received by the unofficial world; and ought to dethrone + dull Crebillon, and the sleepy potentates of Poetry that now are. Which in + fact is their result with the public; but not yet in the highest courtly + places;—a defect much to be condemned and lamented. + </p> + <p> + "Numerous enemies arise, as is natural, of an envious venomous + description; this is another ever-widening shadow in the sunshine. In fact + we perceive he has, besides the inner obstacles and griefs, two classes of + outward ones: There are Lions on his path and also Dogs. Lions are the + Ex-Bishop of Mirepoix, and certain other dark Holy Fathers, or potent + orthodox Official Persons. These, though Voltaire does not yet declare his + heterodoxy (which, indeed, is but the orthodoxy of the cultivated private + circles), perceive well enough, even by the HENRIADE, and its talk of + 'tolerance,' horror of 'fanaticism' and the like, what this one's 'DOXY + is; and how dangerous he, not a mere mute man of quality, but a talking + spirit with winged words, may be;—and they much annoy and terrify + him, by their roaring in the distance. Which roaring cannot, of course, + convince; and since it is not permitted to kill, can only provoke a + talking spirit into still deeper strains of heterodoxy for his own private + behoof. These are the Lions on his path: beasts conscious to themselves of + good intentions; but manifesting from Voltaire's point of view, it must be + owned, a physiognomy unlovely to a degree. 'Light is superior to darkness, + I should think,' meditates Voltaire; 'power of thought to the want of + power! The ANE DE MIREPOIX (Ass of Mirepoix), [Poor joke of Voltaire's, + continually applied to this Bishop, or Ex-Bishop,—who was thought, + generally, a rather tenebrific man for appointment to the FEUILLE DES + BENEFICES (charge of nominating Bishops, keeping King's conscience, &c.); + and who, in that capacity, signed himself ANC (by no means "ANE," but + "ANCIEN, Whilom") DE MIREPOIX,—to the enragement of Voltaire often + enough.] pretending to use me in this manner, is it other, in the court of + Rhadamanthus, than transcendent Stupidity, with transcendent Insolence + superadded?' Voltaire grows more and more heterodox; and is ripening + towards dangerous utterances, though he, strives to hold in. + </p> + <p> + "The Dogs upon his path, again, are all the disloyal envious persons of + the Writing Class, whom his success has offended; and, more generally, all + the dishonest hungry persons who can gain a morsel by biting him: and + their name is legion. It must be owned, about as ugly a Doggery ('INFAME + CANAILLE' he might well reckon them) as has, before or since, infested the + path of a man. They are not hired and set on, as angry suspicion might + suggest; but they are covertly somewhat patronized by the Mirepoix, or + orthodox Official class. Scandalous Ex-Jesuit Desfontaines, Thersites + Freron,—these are but types of an endless Doggery; whose names and + works should be blotted out; whose one claim to memory is, that the riding + man so often angrily sprang down, and tried horsewhipping them into + silence. A vain attempt. The individual hound flies howling, abjectly + petitioning and promising; but the rest bark all with new comfort, and + even he starts again straightway. It is bad travelling in those woods, + with such Lions and such Dogs. And then the sparsely scattered HUMAN + Creatures (so we may call them in contrast, persons of Quality for most + part) are not always what they should be. The grand mansions you arrive + at, in this waste-howling solitude, prove sometimes essentially + Robber-towers;—and there may be Armida Palaces, and divine-looking + Armidas, where your ultimate fate is still worse. + </p> + <p> + <i>'Que le monde est rempli d'enchanteurs, je ne dis rien + d'enchanteresses!'</i> + </p> + <p> + To think of it, the solitary Ishmaelite journeying, never so well mounted, + through such a wilderness: with lions, dogs, human robbers and Armidas all + about him; himself lonely, friendless under the stars:—one could + pity him withal, though that is not the feeling he solicits; nor gets + hitherto, even at this impartial distance. + </p> + <p> + "One of the beautiful creatures of Quality,—we hope, not an Armida,—who + came athwart Voltaire, in these times, was a Madame du Chatelet; + distinguished from all the others by a love of mathematics and the pure + sciences, were it nothing else. She was still young, under thirty; the + literary man still under forty. With her Husband, to whom she had brought + a child, or couple of children, there was no formal quarrel; but they were + living apart, neither much heeding the other, as was by no means a case + without example at that time; Monsieur soldiering, and philandering about, + in garrison or elsewhere; Madame, in a like humor, doing the best for + herself in the high circles of society, to which he and she belonged. Most + wearisome barren circles to a person of thought, as both she and M. de + Voltaire emphatically admitted to one another, on first making + acquaintance. But is there no help? + </p> + <p> + "Madame had tried the pure sciences and philosophies, in Books: but how + much more charming, when they come to you as a Human Philosopher; + handsome, magnanimous, and the wittiest man in the world! Young Madame was + not regularly beautiful; but she was very piquant, radiant, adventurous; + understood other things than the pure sciences, and could be abundantly + coquettish and engaging. I have known her scuttle off, on an evening, with + a couple of adventurous young wives of Quality, to the remote lodging of + the witty M. de Voltaire, and make his dim evening radiant to him. [One of + Voltaire's Letters.] Then again, in public crowds, I have seen them; + obliged to dismount to the peril of Madame's diamonds, there being a jam + of carriages, and no getting forward for half the day. In short, they are + becoming more and more intimate, to the extremest degree; and, scorning + the world, thank Heaven that they are mutually indispensable. Cannot we + get away from this scurvy wasp's-nest of a Paris, thought they, and live + to ourselves and our books? + </p> + <p> + "Madame was of high quality, one of the Breteuils; but was poor in + comparison, and her Husband the like. An old Chateau of theirs, named + Cirey, stands in a pleasant enough little valley in Champagne; but so + dilapidated, gaunt and vacant, nobody can live in it. Voltaire, who is by + this time a man of ample moneys, furnishes the requisite cash; Madame and + he, in sweet symphony, concert the plans: Cirey is repaired, at least + parts of it are, into a boudoir of the gods, regardless of expense; + nothing ever seen so tasteful, so magnificent; and the two withdraw + thither to study, in peace, what sciences, pure and other, they have a + mind to. They are recognized as lovers, by the Parisian public, with + little audible censure from anybody there,—with none at all from the + easy Husband; who occasionally even visits Cirey, if he be passing that + way; and is content to take matters as he finds them, without looking + below the surface. [See (whosoever is curious) Madame de Grafigny, <i>Vie + Privee de Voltaire et de Madame du Chatelet</i> (Paris, 1820). A six + months of actual Letters written by poor Grafigny, while sheltering at + Cirey, Winter and Spring, 1738-1739; straitened there in various respects,—extremely + ill off for fuel, among other things. Rugged practical Letters, shadowing + out to us, unconsciously oftenest, and like a very mirror, the splendid + and the sordid, the seamy side and the smooth, of Life at Cirey, in her + experience of it. Published, fourscore years after, under the above + title.] For the Ten Commandments are at a singular pass in cultivated + France at this epoch. Such illicit-idyllic form of life has been the form + of Voltaire's since 1733,"—for some three years now, when Friedrich + and we first make acquaintance with him. "It lasted above a dozen years + more: an illicit marriage after its sort, and subject only to the + liabilities of such. Perhaps we may look in upon the Cirey Household, + ourselves, at some future time; and"—This Editor hopes not! + </p> + <p> + "Madame admits that for the first ten years it was, on the whole, sublime; + a perfect Eden on Earth, though stormy now and then. [<i>Lettres Inedites + de Madame la Marquise du Chastelet; auxquelles on a joint une Dissertation</i> + (&c. of hers): Paris, 1806.] After ten years, it began to grow + decidedly dimmer; and in the course of few years more, it became + undeniably evident that M. de Voltaire 'did not love me as formerly:'—in + fact, if Madame could have seen it, M. de Voltaire was growing old, losing + his teeth, and the like; and did not care for anything as formerly! Which + was a dreadful discovery, and gave rise to results by and by. + </p> + <p> + "In this retreat at Cirey, varied with flying visits to Paris, and kept + awake by multifarious Correspondences, the quantity of Literature done by + the two was great and miscellaneous. By Madame, chiefly in the region of + the pure sciences, in Newtonian Dissertations, competitions for Prizes, + and the like: really sound and ingenious Pieces, entirely forgotten long + since. By Voltaire, in serious Tragedies, Histories, in light Sketches and + deep Dissertations:—mockery getting ever wilder with him; the + satirical vein, in prose and verse, amazingly copious, and growing more + and more heterodox, as we can perceive. His troubles from the + ecclesiastical or Lion kind in the Literary forest, still more from the + rabid Doggery in it, are manifold, incessant. And it is pleasantly + notable,—during these first ten years,—with what desperate + intensity, vigilance and fierceness, Madame watches over all his interests + and liabilities and casualties great and small; leaping with her whole + force into M. de Voltaire's scale of the balance, careless of antecedences + and consequences alike; flying, with the spirit of an angry brood-hen, at + the face of mastiffs, in defence of any feather that is M. de Voltaire's. + To which Voltaire replies, as he well may, with eloquent gratitude; with + Verses to the divine Emilie, with Gifts to her, verses and gifts the + prettiest in the world;—and industriously celebrates the divine + Emilie to herself and all third parties. + </p> + <p> + "An ardent, aerial, gracefully predominant, and in the end somewhat + termagant female figure, this divine Emilie. Her temper, radiant rather + than bland, was none of the patientest on occasion; nor was M. de Voltaire + the least of a Job, if you came athwart him the wrong way. I have heard, + their domestic symphony was liable to furious flaws,—let us hope at + great distances apart:—that 'plates' in presence of the lackeys, + actual crockery or metal, have been known to fly from end to end of the + dinner-table; nay they mention 'knives' (though only in the way of + oratorical action); and Voltaire has been heard to exclaim, the sombre and + majestic voice of him risen to a very high pitch: <i>'Ne me regardez tant + de ces yeux hagards et louches,</i> Don't fix those haggard sidelong eyes + on me in that way!'—mere shrillness of pale rage presiding over the + scene. But we hope it was only once in the quarter, or seldomer: after + which the element would be clearer for some time. A lonesome literary man, + who has got a Brood Phoenix to preside over him, and fly at the face of + gods and men for him in that manner, ought to be grateful. + </p> + <p> + "Perhaps we shall one day glance, personally, as it were, into Cirey with + our readers;"—Not with this Editor or his!—"It will turn out + beyond the reader's expectation. Tolerable illicit resting-place, so far + as the illicit can be tolerable, for a lonesome Man of Letters, who goes + into the illicit. Helpfulness, affection, or the flattering image of such, + are by no means wanting: squalls of infirm temper are not more frequent + than in the most licit establishments of a similar sort. Madame, about + this time, has a swift Palfrey, 'ROSSIGNOL (Nightingale)' the name of him; + and gallops fairy-like through the winding valleys; being an ardent rider, + and well-looking on horseback. Voltaire's study is inlaid with—the + Grafigny knows all what:—mere china tiles, gilt sculptures, marble + slabs, and the supreme of taste and expense: study fit for the Phoebus + Apollo of France, so far as Madame could contrive it. Takes coffee with + Madame, in the Gallery, about noon. And his bedroom, I expressly discern, + [<i>Letters of Voltaire.</i>] looks out upon a running brook, the murmur + of which is pleasant to one." + </p> + <p> + Enough, enough. We can perceive what kind of Voltaire it was to whom the + Crown-Prince now addressed himself; and how luminous an object, shining + afar out of the solitudes of Champagne upon the ardent young man, still so + capable of admiration. Model Epic, HENRIADE; model History, CHARLES DOUZE; + sublime Tragedies, CISAR, ALZIRE and others, which readers still know + though with less enthusiasm, are blooming fresh in Friedrich's memory and + heart; such Literature as man never saw before; and in the background + Friedrich has inarticulately a feeling as if, in this man, there were + something grander than all Literatures: a Reform of human Thought itself; + a new "Gospel," good-tidings or God's-Message, by this man;—which + Friedrich does not suspect, as the world with horror does, to be a new + BA'SPEL, or Devil's-Message of bad-tidings! A sublime enough Voltaire; + radiant enough, over at Cirey yonder. To all lands, a visible Phoebus + Apollo, climbing the eastern steeps; with arrows of celestial "new light" + in his quiver; capable of stretching many a big foul Python, belly + uppermost, in its native mud, and ridding the poor world of her Nightmares + and Mud-Serpents in some measure, we may hope!— + </p> + <p> + And so there begins, from this point, a lively Correspondence between + Friedrich and Voltaire; which, with some interruptions of a notable sort, + continued during their mutual Life; and is a conspicuous feature in the + Biographies of both. The world talked much of it, and still talks; and has + now at last got it all collected, and elucidated into a dimly legible form + for studious readers. [Preuss, <i>OEuvres de Frederic,</i> (xxi. xxii. + xxiii., Berlin, 1853); who supersedes the lazy French Editors in this + matter.] It is by no means the diabolically wicked Correspondence it was + thought to be; the reverse, indeed, on both sides;—but it has + unfortunately become a very dull one, to the actual generation of mankind. + Not without intrinsic merit; on the contrary (if you read intensely, and + bring the extinct alive again), it sparkles notably with epistolary grace + and vivacity; and, on any terms, it has still passages of biographical and + other interest: but the substance of it, then so new and shining, has + fallen absolutely commonplace, the property of all the world, since then; + and is now very wearisome to the reader. No doctrine or opinion in it that + you have not heard, with clear belief or clear disbelief, a hundred times, + and could wish rather not to hear again. The common fate of philosophical + originalities in this world. As a Biographical Document, it is worth a + very strict perusal, if you are interested that way in either Friedrich or + Voltaire: finely significant hints and traits, though often almost + evanescent, so slight are they, abound in this Correspondence; frankness, + veracity under graceful forms, being the rule of it, strange to say! As an + illustration of Two memorable Characters, and of their Century; showing on + what terms the sage Plato of the Eighteenth Century and his Tyrant + Dionysius correspond, and what their manners are to one another, it may + long have a kind of interest to mankind: otherwise it has not much left. + </p> + <p> + In Friedrich's History it was, no doubt, an important fact, that there + lived a Voltaire along with him, twenty years his senior. With another + Theory of the Universe than the Voltaire one, how much OTHER had Friedrich + too been! But the Theory called by Voltaire's name was not properly of + Voltaire's creating, but only of his uttering and publishing; it lay ready + for everybody's finding, and could not well have been altogether missed by + such a one as Friedrich. So that perhaps we exaggerate the effects of + Voltaire on him, though undoubtedly they were considerable. Considerable; + but not derived from this express correspondence, which seldom turns on + didactic points at all; derived rather from Voltaire's Printed WORKS, + where they lay derivable to all the world. Certain enough it is, Voltaire + was at this time, and continued all his days, Friedrich's chief Thinker in + the world; unofficially, the chief Preacher, Prophet and Priest of this + Working King;—no better off for a spiritual Trismegistus was poor + Friedrich in the world! On the practical side, Friedrich soon outgrew him,—perhaps + had already outgrown, having far more veracity of character, and an + intellect far better built in the silent parts of it, and trained too by + hard experiences to know shadow from substance;—outgrew him, and + gradually learned to look down upon him, occasionally with much contempt, + in regard to the practical. But in all changes of humor towards Voltaire, + Friedrich, we observe, considers him as plainly supreme in speculative + intellect; and has no doubt but, for thinking and speaking, Nature never + made such another. Which may be taken as a notable feature of Friedrich's + History; and gives rise to passages between Voltaire and him, which will + make much noise in time coming. + </p> + <p> + Here, meanwhile, faithfully presented though in condensed form, is the + starting of the Correspondence; First Letter of it, and first Response. + Two Pieces which were once bright as the summer sunrise on both sides, but + are now fallen very dim; and have much needed condensation, and abridgment + by omission of the unessential,—so lengthy are they, so extinct and + almost dreary to us! Sublime "Wolf" and his "Philosophy," how he was + hunted out of Halle with it, long since; and now shines from Marburg, his + "Philosophy" and he supreme among mankind: this, and other extinct points, + the reader's fancy will endeavor to rekindle in some slight measure:— + </p> + <p> + TO M. DE VOLTAIRE, AT CIREY (from the Crown-Prince). + </p> + <p> + "BERLIN, 8th August, 1736. + </p> + <p> + "MONSIEUR,—Although I have not the satisfaction of knowing you + personally, you are not the less known to me through your Works. They are + treasures of the mind, if I may so express myself; and they reveal to the + reader new beauties at every fresh perusal. I think I have recognized in + them the character of their ingenious Author, who does honor to our age + and to human nature. If ever the dispute on the comparative merits of the + Moderns and the Ancients should be revived, the modern great men will owe + it to you, and to you only, that the scale is turned in their favor. With + the excellent quality of Poet you join innumerable others more or less + related to it. Never did Poet before put Metaphysics into rhythmic + cadence: to you the honor was reserved of doing it first. + </p> + <p> + "This taste for Philosophy manifested in your writings, induces me to send + you a translated Copy of the <i>Accusation and defence of M. Wolf,</i> the + most celebrated Philosopher of our days; who, for having carried light + into the darkest places of Metaphysics, is cruelly accused of irreligion + and atheism. Such is the destiny of great men; their superior genius + exposes them to the poisoned arrows of calumny and envy. I am about + getting a Translation made of the <i>Treatise on God, the Soul, and the + World,"</i>—Translation done by an Excellency Suhm, as has been + hinted,—"from the pen of the same Author. I will send it you when it + is finished; and I am sure that the force of evidence in all his + propositions, and their close geometrical sequence, will strike you. + </p> + <p> + "The kindness and assistance you afford to all who devote themselves to + the Arts and Sciences, makes me hope that you will not exclude me from the + number of those whom you find worthy of your instructions:—it is so + I would call your intercourse by Correspondence of Letters; which cannot + be other than profitable to every thinking being.... + </p> + <p> + ... "beauties without number in your works. Your HENRIADE delights me. The + tragedy of CESAR shows us sustained characters; the sentiments in it are + magnificent and grand, and one feels that Brutus is either a Roman, or + else an Englishman <i>(ou un Romain ou un Anglais).</i> Your ALZIRE, to + the graces of novelty adds... + </p> + <p> + "Monsieur, there is nothing I wish so much as to possess all your + Writings," even those not printed hitherto. "Pray, Monsieur, do + communicate them to me without reserve. If there be amongst your + Manuscripts any that you wish to conceal from the eyes of the public, I + engage to keep them in the profoundest secrecy. I am unluckily aware, that + the faith of Princes is an object of little respect in our days; + nevertheless I hope you will make an exception from the general rule in my + favor. I should think myself richer in the possession of your Works than + in that of all the transient goods of Fortune. These the same chance + grants and takes away: your Works one can make one's own by means of + memory, so that they last us whilst it lasts. Knowing how weak my own + memory is, I am in the highest degree select in what I trust to it. + </p> + <p> + "If Poetry were what it was before your appearance, a strumming of + wearisome idyls, insipid eclogues, tuneful nothings, I should renounce it + forever:" but in your hands it becomes ennobled; a melodious "course of + morals; worthy of the admiration and the study of cultivated minds (DES + HONNETES GENS). You"—in fine, "you inspire the ambition to follow in + your footsteps. But I, how often have I said to myself: 'MALHEUREUX, throw + down a burden which is above thy strength! One cannot imitate Voltaire, + without being Voltaire!' + </p> + <p> + "It is in such moments that I have felt how small are those advantages of + birth, those vapors of grandeur, with which vanity would solace us! They + amount to little, properly to nothing (POUR MIEUX DIRE, RIEN). Nature, + when she pleases, forms a great soul, endowed with faculties that can + advance the Arts and Sciences; and it is the part of Princes to recompense + his noble toils. Ah, would Glory but make use of me to crown your + successes! My only fear would be, lest this Country, little fertile in + laurels, proved unable to furnish enough of them. + </p> + <p> + "If my destiny refuse me the happiness of being able to possess you, may + I, at least, hope one day to see the man whom I have admired so long now + from afar; and to assure you, by word of mouth, that I am,—With all + the esteem and consideration due to those who, following the torch of + truth for guide, consecrate their labors to the Public,—Monsieur, + your affectionate friend, + </p> + <p> + "FREDERIC, P. R. of Prussia." + </p> + <p> + [<i>OEuvres de Frederic,</i> xxi. 6.] + </p> + <p> + By what route or conveyance this Letter went, I cannot say. In general, it + is to be observed, these Friedrich-Voltaire Letters—liable perhaps + to be considered contraband at BOTH ends of their course—do not go + by the Post; but by French-Prussian Ministers, by Hamburg Merchants, and + other safe subterranean channels. Voltaire, with enthusiasm, and no doubt + promptly, answers within three weeks:— + </p> + <p> + TO THE CROWN-PRINCE, AT REINSBERG (from Voltaire). + </p> + <p> + "CIREY, 26th August, 1736. + </p> + <p> + "MONSEIGNEUR,—A man must be void of all feeling who were not + infinitely moved by the Letter which your Royal Highness has deigned to + honor me with. My self-love is only too much flattered by it: but my love + of Mankind, which I have always nourished in my heart, and which, I + venture to say, forms the basis of my character, has given me a very much + purer pleasure,—to see that there is, now in the world, a Prince who + thinks as a man; a PHILOSOPHER Prince, who will make men happy. + </p> + <p> + "Permit me to say, there is not a man on the earth but owes thanks for the + care you take to cultivate by sound philosophy a soul that is born for + command. Good kings there never were except those that had begun by + seeking to instruct themselves; by knowing-good men from bad; by loving + what was true, by detesting persecution and superstition. No Prince, + persisting in such thoughts, but might bring back the golden age into his + Countries! And why do so few Princes seek this glory? You feel it, + Monseigneur, it is because they all think more of their Royalty than of + Mankind. Precisely the reverse is your case:—and, unless, one day, + the tumult of business and the wickedness of men alter so divine a + character, you will be worshipped by your People, and loved by the whole + world. Philosophers, worthy of the name, will flock to your States; + thinkers will crowd round that throne, as the skilfulest artisans do to + the city where their art is in request. The illustrious Queen Christina + quitted her kingdom to go in search of the Arts; reign you, Monseigneur, + and the Arts will come to seek you. + </p> + <p> + "May you only never be disgusted with the Sciences by the quarrels of + their Cultivators! A race of men no better than Courtiers; often enough as + greedy, intriguing, false and cruel as these," and still more ridiculous + in the mischief they do. "And how sad for mankind that the very + Interpreters of Heaven's commandments, the Theologians, I mean, are + sometimes the most dangerous of all! Professed messengers of the Divinity, + yet men sometimes of obscure ideas and pernicious behavior; their soul + blown out with mere darkness; full of gall and pride, in proportion as it + is empty of truths. Every thinking being who is not of their opinion is an + Atheist; and every King who does not favor them will be damned. Dangerous + to the very throne; and yet intrinsically insignificant:" best way is, + leave their big talk and them alone; speedy collapse will follow.... + </p> + <p> + "I cannot sufficiently thank your Royal Highness for the gift of that + little Book about Monsieur Wolf. I respect Metaphysical ideas; rays of + lightning they are in the midst of deep night. More, I think, is not to be + hoped from Metaphysics. It does not seem likely that the First-principles + of things will ever be known. The mice that nestle in some little holes of + an immense Building, know not whether it is eternal, or who the Architect, + or why he built it. Such mice are we; and the Divine Architect who built + the Universe has never, that I know of, told his secret to one of us. If + anybody could pretend to guess correctly, it is M. Wolf." Beautiful in + your Royal Highness to protect such a man. And how beautiful it will be, + to send me his chief Book, as you have the kindness to promise! "The Heir + of a Monarchy, from his palace, attending to the wants of a recluse far + off! Condescend to afford me the pleasure of that Book, Monseigneur.... + </p> + <p> + "What your Royal Highness thinks of poetry is just: verses that do not + teach men new and touching truths, do not deserve to be read." As to my + own poor verses—But, after all, "that HENRIADE is the writing of an + Honest Man: fit, in that sense, that it find grace with a Philosopher + Prince. + </p> + <p> + "I will obey your commands as to sending those unpublished Pieces. You + shall be my public, Monseigneur; your criticisms will be my reward: it is + a price few Sovereigns can pay. I am sure of your secrecy: your virtue and + your intellect must be in proportion. I should indeed consider it a + precious happiness to come and pay my court to your Royal Highness! One + travels to Rome to see paintings and ruins: a Prince such as you is a much + more singular object; worthier of a long journey! But the friendship + [divine Emilie's] which keeps me in this retirement does not permit my + leaving it. No doubt you think with Julian, that great and much + calumniated man, who said, 'Friends should always be preferred to Kings.' + </p> + <p> + "In whatever corner of the world I may end my life, be assured, + Monseigneur, my wishes will continually be for you,—that is to say, + for a whole People's happiness. My heart will rank itself among your + subjects; your glory will ever be dear to me. I shall wish, May you always + be like yourself, and may other Kings be like you!—I am, with + profound respect, your Royal Highness's most humble + </p> + <p> + "VOLTAIRE." + </p> + <p> + [<i>OEuvres de Frederic,</i> xxi. 10.] + </p> + <p> + The Correspondence, once kindled, went on apace; and soon burst forth, + finding nourishment all round, into a shining little household fire, + pleasant to the hands and hearts of both parties. Consent of opinions on + important matters is not wanting; nor is emphasis in declaring the same. + The mutual admiration, which is high,—high and intrinsic on + Friedrich's side; and on Voltaire's, high if in part extrinsic,—by + no means wants for emphasis of statement: superlatives, tempered by the + best art, pass and repass. Friedrich, reading Voltaire's immortal + Manuscripts, confesses with a blush, before long, that he himself is a + poor Apprentice that way. Voltaire, at sight of the Princely Productions, + is full of admiration, of encouragement; does a little in correcting, + solecisms of grammar chiefly; a little, by no means much. But it is a + growing branch of employment; now and henceforth almost the one reality of + function Voltaire can find for himself in this beautiful Correspondence. + For, "Oh what a Crown-Prince, ripening forward to be the delight of human + nature, and realize the dream of sages, Philosophy upon the Throne!" And + on the other side, "Oh what a Phoebus Apollo, mounting the eastern sky, + chasing the Nightmares,—sowing the Earth with Orient pearl, to begin + with!"—In which fine duet, it must be said, the Prince is + perceptibly the truer singer; singing within compass, and from the heart; + while the Phoebus shows himself acquainted with art, and warbles in + seductive quavers, now and then beyond the pitch of his voice. We must own + also, Friedrich proves little seducible; shows himself laudably + indifferent to such siren-singing;—perhaps more used to flattery, + and knowing by experience how little meal is to be made of chaff. + Voltaire, in an ungrateful France, naturally plumes himself a good deal on + such recognition by a Foreign Rising Sun; and, of the two, though so many + years the elder, is much more like losing head a little. + </p> + <p> + Elegant gifts are despatched to Cirey; gold-amber trinkets for Madame, + perhaps an amber inkholder for Monsieur: priceless at Cirey as the gifts + of the very gods. By and by, a messenger goes express: the witty Colonel + Keyserling, witty but experienced, whom we once named at Reinsberg; he is + to go and see with his eyes, since his Master cannot. What a messenger + there; ambassador from star to star! Keyserling's report at Reinsberg is + not given; but we have Grafigny's, which is probably the more impartial. + Keyserling's embassy was in the end of next year; [3d November, 1737 (as + we gather from the Correspondence).] and there is plenty of airy writing + about it and him, in these Letters. + </p> + <p> + Friedrich has translated the name KEYSERLING (diminutive of KAISER) into + "Caesarion;"—and I should have said, he plays much upon names and + also upon things, at Reinsberg, in that style; and has a good deal of airy + symbolism, and cloud-work ingeniously painted round the solidities of his + life there. Especially a "Bayard Order," as he calls it: Twelve of his + selectest Friends made into a Chivalry Brotherhood, the names of whom are + all changed, "Caesarion" one of them; with dainty devices, and mimetic + procedures of the due sort. Which are not wholly mummery; but have a spice + of reality, to flavor them to a serious young heart. For the selection was + rigorous, superior merit and behavior a strict condition; and indeed + several of these Bayard Chevaliers proved notable practical Champions in + time coming;—for example Captain Fouquet, of whom we have heard + before, in the dark Custrin days. This is a mentionable feature of the + Reinsberg life, and of the young Prince's character there: pleasant to + know of, from this distance; but not now worth knowing more in detail. + </p> + <p> + The Friedrich-Voltaire Correspondence contains much incense; due whiffs of + it, from Reinsberg side, to the "divine Emilie," Voltaire's quasi + better-half or worse-half; who responds always in her divinest manner to + Reinsberg, eager for more acquaintance there. The Du Chatelets had a + Lawsuit in Brabant; very inveterate, perhaps a hundred years old or more; + with the "House of Honsbrouck:" [<i>Lettres Inedites de Voltaire</i> + (Paris, 1826), p. 9.] this, not to speak of other causes, flights from + French peril and the like, often brought Voltaire and his Dame into those + parts; and gave rise to occasional hopes of meeting with Friedrich; which + could not take effect. In more practical style, Voltaire solicits of him: + "Could not your Royal Highness perhaps graciously speak to some of those + Judicial Big wigs in Brabant, and flap them up a little!" Which Friedrich, + I think, did, by some good means. Happily, by one means or other, Voltaire + got the Lawsuit ended,—1740, we might guess, but the time is not + specified;—and Friedrich had a new claim, had there been need of + new, to be regarded with worship by Madame. [Record of all this, left, + like innumerable other things there, in an intrinsically dark condition, + lies in Voltaire's LETTERS,—not much worth hunting up into clear + daylight, the process being so difficult to a stranger.] But the proposed + meeting with Madame could never take effect; not even when Friedrich's + hands were free. Nay I notice at last, Friedrich had privately determined + it never should—Madame evidently an inconvenient element to him. A + young man not wanting in private power of eyesight; and able to + distinguish chaff from meal! Voltaire and he will meet; meet, and also + part; and there will be passages between them:—and the reader will + again hear of this Correspondence of theirs, where it has a biographical + interest. We are to conceive it, at present, as a principal light of life + to the young heart at Reinsberg; a cheerful new fire, almost an + altar-fire, irradiating the common dusk for him there. + </p> + <p> + Of another Correspondence, beautifully irradiative for the young heart, we + must say almost nothing: the Correspondence with Suhm. Suhm the Saxon + Minister, whom we have occasionally heard of, is an old Friend of the + Crown-Prince's, dear and helpful to him: it is he who is now doing those + <i>Translations of Wolf,</i> of which Voltaire lately saw specimens; + translate at large, for the young man's behoof. The young man, restless to + know the best Philosophy going, had tried reading of Wolf's chief Book; + found it too abstruse, in Wolf's German: wherefore Suhm translates; sends + it to him in limpid French; fascicle by fascicle, with commentaries; young + man doing his best to understand and admire,—gratefully, not too + successfully, we can perceive. That is the staple of the famous SUHM + CORRESPONDENCE; staple which nobody could now bear to be concerned with. + </p> + <p> + Suhm is also helpful in finance difficulties, which are pretty frequent; + works out subventions, loans under a handsome form, from the Czarina's and + other Courts. Which is an operation of the utmost delicacy; perilous, + should it be heard of at Potsdam. Wherefore Suhm and the Prince have a + covert language for it: and affect still to be speaking of "Publishers" + and "new Volumes," when they mean Lenders and Bank-Draughts. All these + loans, I will hope, were accurately paid one day, as that from George II. + was, in "rouleaus of new gold." We need not doubt the wholesome charm and + blessing of so intimate a Correspondence to the Crown-Prince: and indeed + his real love of the amiable Suhm, as Suhm's of him, comes beautifully to + light in these Letters: but otherwise they are not now to be read without + weariness, even dreariness, and have become a biographical reminiscence + merely. + </p> + <p> + Concerning Graf von Manteufel, a third Literary Correspondent, and the + only other considerable one, here, from a German Commentator on this + matter, is a Clipping that will suffice:— + </p> + <p> + "Manteufel was Saxon by birth, long a Minister of August the Strong, but + quarrelled with August, owing to some frail female it is said, and had + withdrawn to Berlin a few years ago. He shines there among the fashionable + philosophical classes; underhand, perhaps does a little in the volunteer + political line withal; being a very busy pushing gentleman. Tall of + stature, 'perfectly handsome at the age of sixty;' [Formey, <i>Souvenirs + d'un Citoyen,</i> i. 39-45.] great partisan of Wolf and the Philosophies, + awake to the Orthodoxies too. Writes flowing elegant French, in a softly + trenchant, somewhat too all-knowing style. High manners traceable in him; + but nothing of the noble loyalty, natural politeness and pious lucency of + Suhm. One of his Letters to Friedrich has this slightly impertinent + passage;—Friedrich, just getting settled in Reinsberg, having + transiently mentioned 'the quantity of fair sex' that had come about him + there:— + </p> + <p> + "'BERLIN, 26th AUGUST, 1736 (to the Crown-Prince).... I am well persuaded + your Royal Highness will regulate all that to perfection, and so manage + that your fair sex will be charmed to find themselves with you at + Reinsberg, and you charmed to have them there. But permit me, your Royal + Highness, to repeat in this place, what I one day took the liberty of + saying here at Berlin: Nothing in the world would better suit the present + interests of your Royal Highness and of us all, than some Heir of your + Royal Highness's making! Perhaps the tranquil convenience with which your + Royal Highness at Reinsberg can now attend to that object, will be of + better effect than all those hasty and transitory visits at Berlin were. + At least I wish it with the best of my heart. I beg pardon, Monseigneur, + for intruding thus into everything which concerns your Royal Highness;'—In + truth, I am a rather impudent busybodyish fellow, with superabundant + dashing manner, speculation, utterance; and shall get myself ordered out + of the Country, by my present correspondent, by and by.—'Being + ever,' with the due enthusiasm, 'MANTEUFEL.' [<i>OEuvres de Frederic,</i> + xxv. 487;—Friedrich's Answer is, Reinsberg, 23d September (Ib. + 489).] + </p> + <p> + "To which Friedrich's Answer is of a kind to put a gag in the foul mouth + of certain extraordinary Pamphleteerings, that were once very copious in + the world; and, in particular, to set at rest the Herr Dr. Zimmermann, and + his poor puddle of calumnies and credulities, got together in that weak + pursuit of physiology under obscene circumstances;— + </p> + <p> + "Which is the one good result I have gathered from the Manteufel + Correspondence," continues our German friend; whom I vote with!—Or + if the English reader never saw those Zimmermann or other dog-like + Pamphleteerings and surmisings, let this Excerpt be mysterious and + superfluous to the thankful English reader. + </p> + <p> + On the whole, we conceive to ourselves the abundant nature of Friedrich's + Correspondence, literary and other; and what kind of event the transit of + that Post functionary "from Fehrbellin northwards," with his leathern + bags, "twice a week," may have been at Reinsberg, in those years. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter III. — CROWN-PRINCE MAKES A MORNING CALL. + </h2> + <p> + Thursday, 25th October, 1736, the Crown-Prince, with Lieutenant + Buddenbrock and an attendant or two, drove over into Mecklenburg, to a + Village and serene Schloss called Mirow, intending a small act of + neighborly civility there; on which perhaps an English reader of our time + will consent to accompany him. It is but some ten or twelve miles off, in + a northerly direction; Reinsberg being close on the frontier there. A + pleasant enough morning's-drive, with the October sun shining on the + silent heaths, on the many-colored woods and you. + </p> + <p> + Mirow is an Apanage for one of the Mecklenburg-Strelitz junior branches: + Mecklenburg-Strelitz being itself a junior compared to the + Mecklenburg-Schwerin of which, and its infatuated Duke, we have heard so + much in times past. Mirow and even Strelitz are not in—a very + shining state,—but indeed, we shall see them, as it were, with eyes. + And the English reader is to note especially those Mirow people, as + perhaps of some small interest to him, if he knew it. The Crown-Prince + reports to papa, in a satirical vein, not ungenially, and with much more + freedom than is usual in those Reinsberg letters of his:— + </p> + <p> + "TO HIS PRUSSIAN MAJESTY (from the Crown-Prince). + </p> + <p> + "REINSBERG, 26th October, 1736. + </p> + <p> + ... "Yesterday I went across to Mirow. To give my Most All-gracious Father + an idea of the place, I cannot liken it to anything higher than + Gross-Kreutz [term of comparison lost upon us; say GARRAT, at a venture, + or the CLACHAN OF ABERFOYLE]: the one house in it, that can be called a + house, is not so good as the Parson's there. I made straight for the + Schloss; which is pretty much like the Garden-house in Bornim: only there + is a rampart round it; and an old Tower, considerably in ruins, serves as + a Gateway to the House. + </p> + <p> + "Coming on the Drawbridge, I perceived an old stocking-knitter disguised + as Grenadier, with his cap, cartridge-box and musket laid to a side, that + they might not hinder him in his knitting-work. As I advanced, he asked, + 'Whence I came, and whitherward I was going?' I answered, that 'I came + from the Post-house, and was going over this Bridge:' whereupon the + Grenadier, quite in a passion, ran to the Tower; where he opened a door, + and called out the Corporal. The Corporal seemed to have hardly been out + of bed; and in his great haste, had not taken time to put on his shoes, + nor quite button his breeches; with much flurry he asked us, 'Where we + were for, and how we came to treat the Sentry in that manner?' Without + answering him at all, we went our way towards the Schloss. + </p> + <p> + "Never in my life should I have taken this for a Schloss, had it not been + that there were two glass lamps fixed at the door-posts, and the figures + of two Cranes standing in front of them, by way of Guards. We made up to + the House; and after knocking almost half an hour to no purpose, there + peered out at last an exceedingly old woman, who looked as if she might + have nursed the Prince of Mirow's father. The poor woman, at sight of + strangers, was so terrified, she slammed the door to in our faces. We + knocked again; and seeing there could nothing be made of it, we went round + to the stables; where a fellow told us, 'The young Prince with his Consort + was gone to Neu-Strelitz, a couple of miles off [ten miles English]; and + the Duchess his Mother, who lives here, had given him, to make the better + figure, all her people along with him; keeping nobody but the old woman to + herself.' + </p> + <p> + "It was still early; so I thought I could not do better than profit by the + opportunity, and have a look at Neu-Strelitz. We took post-horses; and got + thither about noon. Neu-Strelitz is properly a Village; with only one + street in it, where Chamberlains, Office-Clerks, Domestics all lodge, and + where there is an Inn. I cannot better describe it to my Most All-gracious + Father than by that street in Gumbinnen where you go up to the Town-hall,—except + that no house here is whitewashed. The Schloss is fine, and lies on a + lake, with a big garden; pretty much like Reinsberg in situation. + </p> + <p> + "The first question I asked here was for the Prince of Mirow: but they + told me he had just driven off again to a place called Kanow; which is + only a couple of miles English from Mirow, where we had been. Buddenbrock, + who is acquainted with Neu-Strelitz, got me, from a chamberlain, something + to eat; and in the mean while, that Bohme came in, who was Adjutant in my + Most All-gracious Father's Regiment [not of Goltz, but King's presumably]: + Bohme did not know me till I hinted to him who I was. He told me, 'The + Duke of Strelitz was an excellent seamster;'" fit to be Tailor to your + Majesty in a manner, had not Fate been cruel, "'and that he made beautiful + dressing-gowns (CASSAQUINS) with his needle.' This made me curious to see + him: so we had ourselves presented as Foreigners; and it went off so well + that nobody recognized me. I cannot better describe the Duke than by + saying he is like old Stahl [famed old medical man at Berlin, dead last + year, physiognomy not known to actual readers], in a blond Abbe's-periwig. + He is extremely silly (BLODE); his Hofrath Altrock tells him, as it were, + everything he has to say." About fifty, this poor Duke; shrunk into + needlework, for a quiet life, amid such tumults from Schwerin and + elsewhere. + </p> + <p> + "Having taken leave, we drove right off to Kanow; and got thither about + six. It is a mere Village; and the Prince's Pleasure-House (LUSTHAUS) here + is nothing better than an ordinary Hunting-Lodge, such as any + Forest-keeper has. I alighted at the Miller's; and had myself announced" + at the LUSTHAUS, "by his maid: upon which the Major-Domo (HAUS-HOFMEISTER) + came over to the Mill, and complimented me; with whom I proceeded to the + Residenz," that is, back again to Mirow, "where the whole Mirow Family + were assembled. The Mother is a Princess of Schwartzburg, and still the + cleverest of them all," still under sixty; good old Mother, intent that + her poor Son should appear to advantage, when visiting the more opulent + Serenities. "His Aunt also," mother's sister, "was there. The Lady Spouse + is small; a Niece to the Prince of Hildburghausen, who is in the Kaiser's + service: she was in the family-way; but (ABER) seemed otherwise to be a + very good Princess. + </p> + <p> + "The first thing they entertained me with was, the sad misfortune come + upon their best Cook; who, with the cart that was bringing the provisions, + had overset, and broken his arm; so that the provisions had all gone to + nothing. Privately I have had inquiries made; there was not a word of + truth in the story. At last we went to table; and, sure enough, it looked + as if the Cook and his provisions had come to some mishap; for certainly + in the Three Crowns at Potsdam [worst inn, one may guess, in the satirical + vein], there is better eating than here. + </p> + <p> + "At table, there was talk of nothing but of all the German Princes who are + not right in their wits (NICHT RECHT KLUG)," as Mirow himself, your + Majesty knows, is reputed to be!" There was Weimar, [Wilhelmina's + acquaintance; wedded, not without difficulty, to a superfluous Baireuth + Sister-in-law by Wilhelmina (<i> Memoires de Wilhelmina,</i> ii. 185-194): + Grandfather of Goethe's Friend;—is nothing like fairly out of his + wits; only has a flea (as we may say) dancing occasionally in the ear of + him. Perhaps it is so with the rest of these Serenities, here fallen upon + evil tongues?] Gotha, Waldeck, Hoym, and the whole lot of them, brought + upon the carpet:—and after our good Host had got considerably drunk, + we rose,—and he lovingly promised me that 'he and his whole Family + would come and visit Reinsberg.' Come he certainly will; but how I shall + get rid of him, God knows. + </p> + <p> + "I most submissively beg pardon of my Most All-gracious Father for this + long Letter; and"—we will terminate here. [<i>OEuvres de Frederic,</i> + xxvii. part 3d, pp. 104-106.] + </p> + <p> + Dilapidated Mirow and its inmates, portrayed in this satirical way, except + as a view of Serene Highnesses fallen into Sleepy Hollow, excites little + notice in the indolent mind; and that little, rather pleasantly + contemptuous than really profitable. But one fact ought to kindle + momentary interest in English readers: the young foolish Herr, in this + dilapidated place, is no other than our "Old Queen Charlotte's" Father + that is to be,—a kind of Ancestor of ours, though we little guessed + it! English readers will scan him with new curiosity, when he pays that + return visit at Reinsberg. Which he does within the fortnight:— + </p> + <p> + "TO HIS PRUSSIAN MAJESTY (from the Crown-Prince). + </p> + <p> + "REINSBERG, 6th November, 1736. + </p> + <p> + ... "that my Most All-gracious Father has had the graciousness to send us + some Swans. My Wife also has been exceedingly delighted at the fine + Present sent her.... General Praetorius," Danish Envoy, with whose Court + there is some tiff of quarrel, "came hither yesterday to take leave of us; + he seems very unwilling to quit Prussia. + </p> + <p> + "This morning about three o'clock, my people woke me, with word that there + was a Stafette come with Letters,"—from your Majesty or Heaven knows + whom! "I spring up in all haste; and opening the Letter,—find it is + from the Prince of Mirow; who informs me that 'he will be here to-day at + noon.' I have got all things in readiness to receive him, as if he were + the Kaiser in person; and I hope there will be material for some amusement + to my Most All-gracious Father, by next post."—Next post is half a + week hence:— + </p> + <p> + "TO HIS PRUSSIAN MAJESTY (from the Crown-Prince). + </p> + <p> + "REINSBERG, 11th Novemher. + </p> + <p> + ... "The Prince of Mirow's visit was so curious, I must give my Most + All-gracious Father a particular report of it. In my last, I mentioned how + General Praetorius had come to us: he was in the room, when I entered with + the Prince of Mirow; at sight of him Praetorius exclaimed, loud enough to + be heard by everybody, 'VOILA LE PRINCE CAJUCA!' [Nickname out of some + Romance, fallen extinct long since.] Not one of us could help laughing; + and I had my own trouble to turn it so that he did not get angry. + </p> + <p> + "Scarcely was the Prince got in, when they came to tell me, for his worse + luck, that Prince Heinrich," the Ill Margraf, "was come;—who + accordingly trotted him out, in such a way that we thought we should all + have died with laughing. Incessant praises were given him, especially for + his fine clothes, his fine air, and his uncommon agility in dancing. And + indeed I thought the dancing would never end. + </p> + <p> + "In the afternoon, to spoil his fine coat,"—a contrivance of the Ill + Margraf's, I should think,—"we stept out to shoot at target in the + rain: he would not speak of it, but one could observe he was in much + anxiety about the coat. In the evening, he got a glass or two in his head, + and grew extremely merry; said at last, 'He was sorry that, for divers + state-reasons and businesses of moment, he must of necessity return home;'—which, + however, he put off till about two in the morning. I think, next day he + would not remember very much of it. + </p> + <p> + "Prince Heinrich is gone to his Regiment again;" Praetorius too is off;—and + we end with the proper KOW-TOW. [<i>OEuvres de Frederic,</i> xvii. part + 3d, p. 109.] + </p> + <p> + These Strelitzers, we said, are juniors to infatuated Schwerin; and poor + Mirow is again junior to Strelitz: plainly one of the least opulent of + Residences. At present, it is Dowager Apanage (WITTWEN-SITZ) to the Widow + of the late Strelitz of blessed memory: here, with her one Child, a boy + now grown to what manhood we see, has the Serene Dowager lived, these + twenty-eight years past; a Schwartzburg by birth, "the cleverest head + among them all." Twenty-eight years in dilapidated Mirow: so long has that + Tailoring Duke, her eldest STEP-SON (child of a prior wife) been Supreme + Head of Mecklenburg-Strelitz; employed with his needle, or we know not + how,—collapsed plainly into tailoring at this date. There was but + one other Son; this clever Lady's, twenty years junior,—"Prince of + Mirow" whom we now see. Karl Ludwig Friedrich is the name of this one; age + now twenty-eight gone. He, ever since the third month of him, when the + poor Serene Father died ("May, 1703"), has been at Mirow with Mamma; + getting what education there was,—not too successfully, as would + appear. Eight years ago, "in 1726," Mamma sent him off upon his travels; + to Geneva, Italy, France: he looked in upon Vienna, too; got a + Lieutenant-Colonelcy in the Kaiser's Service, but did not like it; soon + gave it up; and returned home to vegetate, perhaps to seek a wife,—having + prospects of succession in Strelitz. For the Serene Half-Brother proves to + have no children: were his tailoring once finished in the world, our + Prince of Mirow is Duke in Chief. On this basis the wedded last year; the + little Wife has already brought him one child, a Daughter; and has (as + Friedrich notices) another under way, if it prosper. No lack of Daughters, + nor of Sons by and by: eight years hence came the little Charlotte,—subsequently + Mother of England: much to her and our astonishment. [Born (at Mirow) 19th + May, 1744; married (London), 8th September, 1761; died, 18th November, + 1818 (Michaelis, ii. 445, 446; Hubner, t. 195; OErtel, pp. 43, 22).] + </p> + <p> + The poor man did not live to be Duke of Strelitz; he died, 1752, in little + Charlotte's eighth year; Tailor Duke SURVIVING him a few months. Little + Charlotte's Brother did then succeed, and lasted till 1794; after whom a + second Brother, father of the now Serene Strelitzes;—who also is + genealogically notable. For from him there came another still more famous + Queen: Louisa of Prussia; beautiful to look upon, as "Aunt Charlotte" was + not, in a high degree; and who showed herself a Heroine in Napoleon's + time, as Aunt Charlotte never was called to do. Both Aunt and Niece were + women of sense, of probity, propriety; fairly beyond the average of + Queens. And as to their early poverty, ridiculous to this gold-nugget + generation, I rather guess it may have done them benefits which the + gold-nugget generation, in its Queens and otherwise, stands far more in + want of than it thinks. + </p> + <p> + But enough of this Prince of Mirow, whom Friedrich has accidentally + unearthed for us. Indeed there is no farther history of him, for or + against. He evidently was not thought to have invented gunpowder, by the + public. And yet who knows but, in his very simplicity, there lay something + far beyond the Ill Margraf to whom he was so quizzable? Poor down-pressed + brother mortal; somnambulating so pacifically in Sleepy Hollow yonder, and + making no complaint! + </p> + <p> + He continued, though soon with less enthusiasm, and in the end very + rarely, a visitor of Friedrich's during this Reinsberg time. Patriotic + English readers may as well take the few remaining vestiges, too, before + quite dismissing him to Sleepy Hollow. Here they are, swept accurately + together, from that Correspondence of Friedrich with Papa:— + </p> + <p> + "REINSBERG, 18th NOVEMBER, 1736.... report most submissively that the + Prince of Mirow has again been here, with his Mother, Wife, Aunt, + Hofdames, Cavaliers and entire Household; so that I thought it was the + Flight out of Egypt [Exodus of the Jews]. I begin to have a fear of those + good people, as they assured me they would have such pleasure in coming + often!" + </p> + <p> + "REINSBERG, 1st FEBRUARY, 1737." Let us give it in the Original too, as a + specimen of German spelling:— + </p> + <p> + <i>"Der Prints von Mihrau ist vohr einigen thagen hier gewessen und haben + wier einige Wasser schwermer in der See ihm zu Ehren gesmissen, seine frau + ist mit eber thoten Printzesin nieder geKomen.—Der General + schulenburg ist heute hier gekommen und wirdt morgen"</i>—That is to + say:— + </p> + <p> + "The Prince of Mirow was here a few days ago; and we let off, in honor of + him, a few water-rockets over the Lake: his Wife has been brought to bed + of a dead Princess. General Schulenburg [with a small s] came hither + to-day; and to-morrow will"... + </p> + <p> + "REINSBERG, 28th MARCH, 1737.... Prince von Mirow was here yesterday; and + tried shooting at the popinjay with us; he cannot see rightly, and shoots + always with help of an opera-glass." + </p> + <p> + "RUPPIN, 20th OCTOBER, 1737. The Prince of Mirow was with us last Friday; + and babbled much in his high way; among other things, white-lied to us, + that the Kaiserinn gave him a certain porcelain snuff-box he was handling; + but on being questioned more tightly, he confessed to me he had bought it + in Vienna." [<i>Briefe an Vater,</i> p. 71 (CARET in <i>OEuvres</i> ); pp. + 85-114.—See Ib. 6th November, 1737, for faint trace of a visit; and + 25th September, 1739, for another still fainter, the last there is.] + </p> + <p> + And so let him somnambulate yonder, till the two Queens, like winged + Psyches, one after the other, manage to emerge from him. + </p> + <p> + Friedrich's Letters to his Father are described by some Prussian Editors + as "very attractive, SEHR ANZIEHENDE BRIEFE;" which, to a Foreign reader, + seems a strange account of them. Letters very hard to understand + completely; and rather insignificant when understood. They turn on Gifts + sent to and sent from, "swans," "hams," with the unspeakable thanks for + them; on recruits of so many inches; on the visitors that have been; they + assure us that "there is no sickness in the regiment," or tell expressly + how much:—wholly small facts; nothing of speculation, and of + ceremonial pipe-clay a great deal. We know already under what nightmare + conditions Friedrich wrote to his Father! The attitude of the + Crown-Prince, sincerely reverent and filial, though obliged to appear + ineffably so, and on the whole struggling under such mountains of + encumbrance, yet loyally maintaining his equilibrium, does at last + acquire, in these Letters, silently a kind of beauty to the best class of + readers. But that is nearly their sole merit. By far the most human of + them, that on the first visit to Mirow, the reader has now seen; and may + thank us much that we show him no more of them. [<i>Friedrich des Grossen + Briefe an seinen Vater</i> (Berlin, 1838)]. Reduced in size, by suitable + omissions; and properly spelt; but with little other elucidation for a + stranger: in <i>OEuvres,</i> xxvii. part 3d, pp, 1-123 (Berlin, 1856). + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter IV. — NEWS OF THE DAY. + </h2> + <p> + While these Mirow visits are about their best, and much else at Reinsberg + is in comfortable progress, Friedrich's first year there just ending, + there come accounts from England of quarrels broken out between the + Britannic Majesty and his Prince of Wales. Discrepancies risen now to a + height; and getting into the very Newspapers;—the Rising Sun too + little under the control of the Setting, in that unquiet Country! + </p> + <p> + Prince Fred of England did not get to the Rhine Campaign, as we saw: he + got some increase of Revenue, a Household of his own; and finally a Wife, + as he had requested: a Sachsen-Gotha Princess; who, peerless Wilhelmma + being unattainable, was welcome to Prince Fred. She is in the family-way, + this summer 1737, a very young lady still; result thought to be due—When? + Result being potential Heir to the British Nation, there ought to have + been good calculation of the time when! But apparently nobody had well + turned his attention that way. Or if Fred and Spouse had, as is + presumable, Fred had given no notice to the Paternal Majesty,—"Let + Paternal Majesty, always so cross to me, look out for himself in that + matter." Certain it is, Fred and Spouse, in the beginning of August, 1737, + are out at Hampton Court; potential Heir due before long, and no + preparation made for it. August 11th in the evening, out at solitary + Hampton Court; the poor young Mother's pains came on; no Chancellor there, + no Archbishop to see the birth,—in fact, hardly the least medical + help, and of political altogether none. Fred, in his flurry, or by + forethought,—instead of dashing off expresses, at a gallop as of + Epsom, to summon the necessary persons and appliances, yoked wheeled + vehicles and rolled off to the old unprovided Palace of St. James's, + London, with his poor Wife in person! Unwarned, unprovided; where + nevertheless she was safely delivered that same night,—safely, as if + by miracle. The crisis might have taken her on the very highway: never was + such an imprudence. Owing, I will believe, to Fred's sudden flurry in the + unprovided moment,—unprovided, by reason of prior desuetudes and + discouragements to speech, on Papa's side. A shade of malice there might + also be. Papa doubts not, it was malice aforethought all of it. "Had the + potential Heir of the British Nation gone to wreck, or been born on the + highway, from my quarrels with this bad Fred, what a scrape had I been + in!" thinks Papa, and is in a towering permanence of wrath ever since; the + very Newspapers and coffee-houses and populaces now all getting vocal with + it. + </p> + <p> + Papa, as it turned out, never more saw the face of Fred. Judicious Mamma, + Queen Caroline, could not help a visit, one visit to the poor young + Mother, so soon as proper: coming out from the visit, Prince Fred + obsequiously escorting her to her carriage, found a crowd of people and + populace, in front of St. James's; and there knelt down on the street, in + his fine silk breeches, careless of the mud, to "beg a Mother's blessing," + and show what a son he was, he for his part, in this sad discrepancy that + had risen! Mamma threw a silent glance on him, containing volumes of mixed + tenor; drove off; and saw no more of Fred, she either. I fear, this + kneeling in the mud tells against Prince Fred; but in truth I do not know, + nor even much care. [Lord Hervey, <i>Memoirs of George the Second,</i> ii. + 362-370, 409.] What a noise in England about nothing at all!—What a + noisy Country, your Prussian Majesty! Foolish "rising sun" not + restrainable there by the setting or shining one; opposition parties + bowling him about among the constellations, like a very mad object!— + </p> + <p> + But in a month or two, there comes worse news out of England; falling + heavy on the heart of Prussian Majesty: news that Queen Caroline herself + is dead. ["Sunday evening, 1st December (20th Nov.), 1737." Ib. pp. + 510-539.] Died as she had lived, with much constancy of mind, with a + graceful modest courage and endurance; sinking quietly under the load of + private miseries long quietly kept hidden, but now become too heavy, and + for which the appointed rest was now here. Little George blubbered a good + deal; fidgeted and flustered a good deal: much put about, poor foolish + little soul. The dying Caroline recommended HIM to Walpole; advised his + Majesty to marry again. <i>"Non, j'aurai des maitresses</i> (No, I'll have + mistresses)!" sobbed his Majesty passionately. <i>"Ah, mon Dieu, cela + n'empeche pas</i>" (that does not an experience of the case). There is + something stoically tragic in the history of Caroline with her flighty + vaporing little King: seldom had foolish husband so wise a wife. "Dead!" + thought Friedrich Wilhelm, looking back through the whirlwinds of life, + into sunny young scenes far enough away: "Dead!"—Walpole continued + to manage the little King; but not for long; England itself rising in + objection. Jenkins's Ear, I understand, is lying in cotton; and there are + mad inflammable strata in that Nation, capable of exploding at a great + rate. + </p> + <p> + From the Eastern regions our Newspapers are very full of events: War with + the Turk going on there; Russia and Austria both doing their best against + the Turk. The Russians had hardly finished their Polish-Election fighting, + when they decided to have a stroke at the Turk,—Turk always an + especial eye-sorrow to them, since that "Treaty of the Pruth," and Czar + Peter's sad rebuff there:—Munnich marched direct out of Poland + through the Ukraine, with his eye on the Crimea and furious business in + that quarter. This is his second Campaign there, this of 1737; and furious + business has not failed. Last year he stormed the Lines of Perecop, tore + open the Crimea; took Azoph, he or Lacy under him; took many things: this + year he had laid his plans for Oczakow;—takes Oczakow,—fiery + event, blazing in all the Newspapers, at Reinsberg and elsewhere. + Concerning which will the reader accept this condensed testimony by an + eye-witness? + </p> + <p> + "OCZAKOW, 13th JULY, 1737. Day before yesterday, Feldmarschall Munnich got + to Oczakow, as he had planned,"—strong Turkish Town in the nook + between the Black Sea and the estuary of the Dnieper;—"with + intention to besiege it. Siege-train, stores of every sort, which he had + set afloat upon the Dnieper in time enough, were to have been ready for + him at Oczakow. But the flotilla had been detained by shallows, by + waterfalls; not a boat was come, nor could anybody say when they were + coming. Meanwhile nothing is to be had here; the very face of the earth + the Turks have burnt: not a blade of grass for cavalry within eight miles, + nor a stick of wood for engineers; not a hole for covert, and the ground + so hard you cannot raise redoubts on it: Munnich perceives he must + attempt, nevertheless. + </p> + <p> + "On his right, by the sea-shore, Munnich finds some remains of gardens, + palisades; scrapes together some vestige of shelter there (five thousand, + or even ten thousand pioneers working desperately all that first night, + 11th July, with only half success); and on the morrow commences firing + with what artillery he has. Much outfired by the Turks inside;—his + enterprise as good as desperate, unless the Dnieper flotilla come soon. + July 12th, all day the firing continues, and all night; Turks extremely + furious: about an hour before daybreak, we notice burning in the interior, + 'Some wooden house kindled by us, town got on fire yonder,'—and, + praise to Heaven, they do not seem to succeed in quenching it again. + Munnich turns out, in various divisions; intent on trying something, had + he the least engineer furniture;—hopes desperately there may be + promise for him in that internal burning still visible. + </p> + <p> + "In the centre of Munnich's line is one General Keith, a deliberate + stalwart Scotch gentleman, whom we shall know better; Munnich himself is + to the right: Could not one try it by scalade; keep the internal burning + free to spread, at any rate? 'Advance within musket-shot, General Keith!' + orders Munnich's Aide-de-Camp cantering up. 'I have been this good while + within it,' answers Keith, pointing to his dead men. Aide-de-Camp canters + up a second time: 'Advance within half musket-shot, General Keith, and + quit any covert you have!' Keith does so; sends, with his respects to + Feldmarschall Munnich, his remonstrance against such a waste of human + life. Aide-de-Camp canters up a third time: 'Feldmarschall Munnich is for + trying a scalade; hopes General Keith will do his best to co-operate!' + 'Forward, then!' answers Keith; advances close to the glacis; finds a wet + ditch twelve feet broad, and has not a stick of engineer furniture. Keith + waits there two hours; his men, under fire all the while, trying this and + that to get across; Munnich's scalade going off ineffectual in like + manner:—till at length Keith's men, and all men, tire of such a + business, and roll back in great confusion out of shot-range. Munnich + gives himself up for lost. And indeed, says Mannstein, had the Turks + sallied out in pursuit at that moment, they might have chased us back to + Russia. But the Turks did not sally. And the internal conflagration is not + quenched, far from it;—and about nine A.M. their Powder-Magazine, + conflagration reaching it, roared aloft into the air, and killed seven + thousand of them," [Mannstein, pp. 151-156.]— + </p> + <p> + So that Oczakow was taken, sure enough; terms, life only: and every + remaining Turk packs off from it, some "twenty thousand inhabitants young + and old" for one sad item.—A very blazing semi-absurd event, to be + read of in Prussian military circles,—where General Keith will be + better known one day. + </p> + <p> + Russian War with the Turk: that means withal, by old Treaties, aid of + thirty thousand men from the Kaiser to Russia. Kaiser, so ruined lately, + how can he send thirty thousand, and keep them recruited, in such distant + expedition? Kaiser, much meditating, is advised it will be better to go + frankly into the Turk on his own score, and try for slices of profit from + him in this game. Kaiser declares war against the Turk; and what is still + more interesting to Friedrich Wilhelm and the Berlin Circles, Seckendorf + is named General of it. Feldzeugmeister now Feldmarschall Seckendorf, envy + may say what it will, he has marched this season into the Lower-Donau + Countries,—going to besiege Widdin, they say,—at the head of a + big Army (on paper, almost a hundred and fifty thousand, light troops and + heavy)—virtually Commander-in-Chief; though nominally our fine young + friend Franz of Lorraine bears the title of Commander, whom Seckendorf is + to dry-nurse in the way sometimes practised. Going to besiege Widdin, they + say. So has the poor Kaiser been advised. His wise old Eugene is now gone; + [Died 30th April, 1736.] I fear his advisers,—a youngish + Feldzeugmeister, Prince of Hildburghausen, the chief favorite among them,—are + none of the wisest. All Protestants, we observe, these favorite + Hildburghausens, Schmettaus, Seckendorfs of his; and Vienna is an orthodox + papal Court;—and there is a Hofkriegsrath (Supreme Council of War), + which has ruined many a General, poking too meddlesomely into his affairs! + On the whole, Seckendorf will have his difficulties. Here is a scene, on + the Lower Donau, different enough from that at Oczakow, not far from + contemporaneous with it. The Austrian Army is at Kolitz, a march or two + beyond Belgrade:— + </p> + <p> + "KOLITZ, 2d JULY, 1737. This day, the Army not being on march, but allowed + to rest itself, Grand Duke Franz went into the woods to hunt. Hunting up + and down, he lost himself; did not return at evening; and, as the night + closed in and no Generalissimo visible, the Generalissimo AD LATUS (such + the title they had contrived for Seckendorf) was in much alarm. + Generalissimo AD LATUS ordered out his whole force of drummers, + trumpeters: To fling themselves, postwise, deeper and deeper into the + woods all round; to drum there, and blow, in ever-widening circle, in + prescribed notes, and with all energy, till the Grand Duke were found. + Grand Duke being found, Seckendorf remonstrated, rebuked; a thought too + earnestly, some say, his temper being flurried,"—voice snuffling + somewhat in alt, with lisp to help:—"so that the Grand Duke took + offence; flung off in a huff: and always looked askance on the + Feldmarschall from that time;" [See <i>Lebensgeschichte des Grafen van + Schmettau</i> (by his Son: Berlin, 1806), i. 27.]—quitting him + altogether before long; and marching with Khevenhuller, Wallis, + Hildburghausen, or any of the subordinate Generals rather. Probably Widdin + will not go the road of Oczakow, nor the Austrians prosper like the + Russians, this summer. + </p> + <p> + Pollnitz, in Tobacco-Parliament, and in certain Berlin circles foolishly + agape about this new Feldmarschall, maintains always, Seckendorf will come + to nothing; which his Majesty zealously contradicts,—his Majesty, + and some short-sighted private individuals still favorable to Seckendorf. + [Pollnitz, <i>Memoiren,</i> ii. 497-502.] Exactly one week after that + singular drum-and-trumpet operation on Duke Franz, the Last of the Medici + dies at Florence; [9th July (<i>Fastes de Louis XV.</i>, p. 304).] and + Serene Franz, if he knew it, is Grand Duke of Tuscany, according to + bargain: a matter important to himself chiefly, and to France, who, for + Stanislaus and Lorraine's sake, has had to pay him some 200,000 pounds a + year during the brief intermediate state. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + OF BERG AND JULICH AGAIN; AND OF LUISCIUS WITH THE ONE RAZOR. + </h2> + <p> + These remote occurrences are of small interest to his Prussian Majesty, in + comparison with the Pfalz affair, the Cleve-Julich succession, which lies + so near home. His Majesty is uncommonly anxious to have this matter + settled, in peace, if possible. Kaiser and Reich, with the other Mediating + Powers, go on mediating; but when will they decide? This year the old + Bishop of Augsburg, one Brother of the older Kur-Pfalz Karl Philip, dies; + nothing now between us and the event itself, but Karl Philip alone, who is + verging towards eighty: the decision, to be peaceable, ought to be speedy! + Friedrich Wilhelm, in January last, sent the expert Degenfeld, once of + London, to old Karl Philip; and has him still there, with the most + conciliatory offers: "Will leave your Sulzbachs a part, then; will be + content with part, instead of the whole, which is mine if there be force + in sealed parchment; will do anything for peace!" To which the old + Kur-Pfalz, foolish old creature, is steadily deaf; answers vaguely, + negatively always, in a polite manner; pushing his Majesty upon + extremities painful to think of. "We hate war; but cannot quite do without + justice, your Serenity," thinks Friedrich Wilhelm: "must it be the eighty + thousand iron ramrods, then?" Obstinate Serenity continues deaf; and + Friedrich Wilhelm's negotiations, there at Mannheim, over in Holland, and + through Holland with England, not to speak of Kaiser and Reich close at + hand, become very intense; vehemently earnest, about this matter, for the + next two years. The details of which, inexpressibly uninteresting, shall + be spared the reader. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_SUMM" id="link2H_SUMM"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Summary is, these Mediating Powers will be of no help to his Majesty; + </h2> + <p> + not even the Dutch will, with whom he is specially in friendship: nay, in + the third year it becomes fatally manifest, the chief Mediating Powers, + Kaiser and France, listening rather to political convenience, than to the + claims of justice, go direct in Kur-Pfalz's favor;—by formal treaty + of their own, ["Versailles, 13th January, 1739" (Olrich, <i>Geschichte der + Schlesischen Kriege,</i> i. 13); Mauvillon, ii 405-446; &c.] France + and the Kaiser settle, "That the Sulzbachers shall, as a preliminary, get + provisional possession, on the now Serenity's decease; and shall continue + undisturbed for two years, till Law decide between his Prussian Majesty + and them." Two years; Law decide;—and we know what are the + NINE-POINTS in a Law-case! This, at last, proved too much for his Majesty. + Majesty's abstruse dubitations, meditations on such treatment by a Kaiser + and others, did then, it appears, gloomily settle into fixed private + purpose of trying it by the iron ramrods, when old Kur-Pfalz should die,—of + marching with eighty thousand men into the Cleve Countries, and SO + welcoming any Sulzbach or other guests that might arrive. Happily old + Kur-Pfalz did not die in his Majesty's time; survived his Majesty several + years: so that the matter fell into other hands,—and was settled + very well, near a century after. + </p> + <p> + Of certain wranglings with the little Town of Herstal,—Prussian Town + (part of the Orange Heritage, once KING PEPIN'S Town, if that were any + matter now) in the Bishop of Liege's neighborhood, Town highly + insignificant otherwise,—we shall say nothing here, as they will + fall to be treated, and be settled, at an after stage. Friedrich Wilhelm + was much grieved by the contumacies of that paltry little Herstal; and by + the Bishop of Liege's high-flown procedures in countenancing them;—especially + in a recruiting ease that had fallen out there, and brought matters to a + head. ["December, 1738," is crisis of the recruiting case (<i>Helden-Geschichte,</i> + ii. 63); "17th February, 1739," Bishop's high-flown appearance in it (ib. + 67); Kaiser's in consequence, "10th April, 1739."] The Kaiser too was + afflictively high in countenancing the Bishop;—-for which both + Kaiser and Bishop got due payment in time. But his Prussian Majesty would + not kindle the world for such a paltriness; and so left it hanging in a + vexatious condition. Such things, it is remarked, weigh heavier on his now + infirm Majesty than they were wont. He is more subject to fits of + hypochondria, to talk of abdicating. "All gone wrong!" he would say, if + any little flaw rose, about recruiting or the like. "One might go and live + at Venice, were one rid of it!" [Forster (place LOST).] And his deep-stung + clangorous growl against the Kaiser's treatment of him bursts out, from + time to time; though he oftenest pities the Kaiser, too; seeing him at + such a pass with his Turk War and otherwise. + </p> + <p> + It was in this Pfalz business that Herr Luiscius, the Prussian Minister in + Holland, got into trouble; of whom there is a light dash of + outline-portraiture by Voltaire, which has made him memorable to readers. + This "fat King of Prussia," says Voltaire, was a dreadfully avaricious + fellow, unbeautiful to a high degree in his proceedings with mankind:— + </p> + <p> + "He had a Minister at the Hague called Luiscius; who certainly of all + Ministers of Crowned Heads was the worst paid. This poor man, to warm + himself, had made some trees be felled in the Garden of Honslardik, which + belonged at that time to the House of Prussia; he thereupon received + despatches from the King, intimating that a year of his salary was + forfeited. Luiscius, in despair, cut his throat with probably the one + razor he had (SEUL RASOIR QU'IL EUT); an old valet came to his assistance, + and unhappily saved his life. In after years, I found his Excellency at + the Hague; and have occasionally given him an alms at the door of the + VIEILLE COUR (Old Court), a Palace belonging to the King of Prussia, where + this poor Ambassador had lived a dozen years. It must be owned, Turkey is + a republic in comparison to the despotism exercised by Friedrich Wilhelm." + [<i>OEuvres de Voltaire (Vie Pricee,</i> or what they now call <i>Memoires</i> + ), ii. 15.] + </p> + <p> + Here truly is a witty sketch; consummately dashed off, as nobody but + Voltaire could; "round as Giotto's O," done at one stroke. Of which the + prose facts are only as follows. Luiscius, Prussian Resident, not + distinguished by salary or otherwise, had, at one stage of these + negotiations, been told, from head-quarters, He might, in casual + extra-official ways, if it seemed furthersome, give their High + Mightinesses the hope, or notion, that his Majesty did not intend actual + war about that Cleve-Julich Succession,—being a pacific Majesty, and + unwilling to involve his neighbors and mankind. Luiscius, instead of + casual hint delicately dropped in some good way, had proceeded by direct + declaration; frank assurance to the High Mightinesses, That there would be + no war. Which had never been quite his Majesty's meaning, and perhaps was + now becoming rather the reverse of it. Disavowal of Luiscius had to ensue + thereupon; who produced defensively his instruction from head-quarters; + but got only rebukes for such heavy-footed clumsy procedure, so unlike + Diplomacy with its shoes of felt;—and, in brief, was turned out of + the Diplomatic function, as unfit for it; and appointed to manage certain + Orange Properties, fragments of the Orange Heritage which his Majesty + still has in those Countries. This misadventure sank heavily on the + spirits of Luiscius, otherwise none of the strongest-minded of men. Nor + did he prosper in managing the Orange Properties: on the contrary, he + again fell into mistakes; got soundly rebuked for injudicious conduct + there,—"cutting trees," planting trees, or whatever it was;—and + this produced such an effect on Luiscius, that he made an attempt on his + own throat, distracted mortal; and was only stopped by somebody rushing + in. "It was not the first time he had tried that feat," says Pollnitz, + "and been prevented; nor was it long till he made a new attempt, which was + again frustrated: and always afterwards his relations kept him close in + view:" Majesty writing comfortable forgiveness to the perturbed creature, + and also "settling a pension on him;" adequate, we can hope, and not + excessive; "which Luiscius continued to receive, at the Hague, so long as + he lived." These are the prose facts; not definitely dated to us, but + perfectly clear otherwise. [Pollnitz, ii. 495, 496;—the "NEW + attempt" seems to have been "June, 1739" (<i> Gentleman's Magazine,</i> in + mense, p. 331).] + </p> + <p> + Voltaire, in his Dutch excursions, did sometimes, in after years, lodge in + that old vacant Palace, called VIEILLE COUR, at the Hague; where he + gracefully celebrates the decayed forsaken state of matters; dusky vast + rooms with dim gilding; forgotten libraries "veiled under the biggest + spider-webs in Europe;" for the rest, an uncommonly quiet place, + convenient for a writing man, besides costing nothing. A son of this + Luiscius, a good young lad, it also appears, was occasionally Voltaire's + amanuensis there; him he did recommend zealously to the new King of + Prussia, who was not deaf on the occasion. This, in the fire of satirical + wit, is what we can transiently call "giving alms to a Prussian + Excellency;"—not now excellent, but pensioned and cracked; and the + reader perceives, Luiscius had probably more than one razor, had not one + been enough, when he did the rash act. Friedrich employed Luiscius Junior, + with no result that we hear of farther; and seems to have thought Luiscius + Senior an absurd fellow, not worth mentioning again: "ran away from the + Cleve Country [probably some mad-house there] above a year ago, I hear; + and what is the matter where such a crack-brain end?" [Voltaire, <i>OEuvres</i> + (Letter to Friedrich, 7th October, 1740), lxxii. 261; and Fredrich's + answer (wrong dated), ib. 265; Preuss, xxii. 33.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter V. — VISIT AT LOO. + </h2> + <p> + The Pfalz question being in such a predicament, and Luiscius diplomatizing + upon it in such heavy-footed manner, his Majesty thinks a journey to + Holland, to visit one's Kinsfolk there, and incidentally speak a word with + the High Mightinesses upon Pfalz, would not be amiss. Such journey is + decided on; Crown-Prince to accompany. Summer of 1738: a short visit, + quite without fuss; to last only three days;—mere sequel to the + Reviews held in those adjacent Cleve Countries; so that the Gazetteers may + take no notice. All which was done accordingly: Crown-Prince's first sight + of Holland; and one of the few reportable points of his Reinsberg life, + and not quite without memorability to him and us. + </p> + <p> + On the 8th of July, 1738, the Review Party got upon the road for Wesel: + all through July, they did their reviewing in those Cleve Countries; and + then struck across for the Palace of Loo in Geldern, where a Prince of + Orange countable kinsman to his Prussian Majesty, and a Princess still + more nearly connected,—English George's Daughter, own niece to his + Prussian Majesty,—are in waiting for this distinguished honor. The + Prince of Orange we have already seen, for a moment once; at the siege of + Philipsburg four years ago, when the sale of Chasot's horses went off so + well. "Nothing like selling horses when your company have dined well," + whispered he to Chasot, at that time; since which date we have heard + nothing of his Highness. + </p> + <p> + He is not a beautiful man; he has a crooked back, and features + conformable; but is of prompt vivacious nature, and does not want for + sense and good-humor. Paternal George, the gossips say, warned his + Princess, when this marriage was talked of, "You will find him very + ill-looking, though!" "And if I found him a baboon—!" answered she; + being so heartily tired of St. James's. And in fact, for anything I have + heard, they do well enough together. She is George II.'s eldest Princess;—next + elder to our poor Amelia, who was once so interesting to us! What the + Crown-Prince now thought of all that, I do not know; but the Books say, + poor Amelia wore the willow, and specially wore the Prince's miniature on + her breast all her days after, which were many. Grew corpulent, somewhat a + huddle in appearance and equipment, "eyelids like upper-LIPS," for one + item: but when life itself fled, the miniature was found in its old place, + resting on the old heart after some sixty years. O Time, O Sons and + Daughters of Time!— + </p> + <p> + His Majesty's reception at Loo was of the kind he liked,—cordial, + honorable, unceremonious; and these were three pleasant days he had. + Pleasant for the Crown-Prince too; as the whole Journey had rather been; + Papa, with covert satisfaction, finding him a wise creature, after all, + and "more serious" than formerly. "Hm, you don't know what things are in + that Fritz!" his Majesty murmured sometimes, in these later years, with a + fine light in his eyes. + </p> + <p> + Loo itself is a beautiful Palace: "Loo, close by the Village Appeldoorn, + is a stately brick edifice, built with architectural regularity; has + finely decorated rooms, beautiful gardens, and round are superb alleys of + oak and linden." [Busching, <i>Erdbeschreibung,</i> viii. 69.] There + saunters pleasantly our Crown-Prince, for these three days;—and one + glad incident I do perceive to have befallen him there: the arrival of a + Letter from Voltaire. Letter much expected, which had followed him from + Wesel; and which he answers here, in this brick Palace, among the superb + avenues and gardens. [<i>OEuvres,</i> xxi. 203, the Letter, "Cirey, June, + 1738;" Ib. 222, the Answer to it, "Loo, 6th August, 1738."] + </p> + <p> + No doubt a glad incident, irradiating, as with a sudden sunburst in gray + weather, the commonplace of things. Here is news worth listening to; news + as from the empyrean! Free interchange of poetries and proses, of heroic + sentiments and opinions, between the Unique of Sages and the Paragon of + Crown-Princes; how charming to both! Literary business, we perceive, is + brisk on both hands; at Cirey the <i>Discours sur l'Homme</i> ("Sixth + DISCOURS" arrives in this packet at Loo, surely a deathless piece of + singing); nor is Reinsberg idle: Reinsberg is copiously doing verse, such + verse! and in prose, very earnestly, an "ANTI-MACHIAVEL;" which soon + afterwards filled all the then world, though it has now fallen so silent + again. And at Paris, as Voltaire announces with a flourish, "M. de + Maupertuis's excellent Book, <i>Figure de la T'erre,</i> is out;" [Paris, + 1738: Maupertuis's "measurement of a degree," in the utmost North, + 1736-1737 (to prove the Earth flattened there). Vivid Narrative; somewhat + gesticulative, but duly brief. The only Book of that great Maupertuis + which is now readable to human nature.] M. de Maupertuis, home from the + Polar regions and from measuring the Earth there; the sublimest miracle in + Paris society at present. Might build, new-build, an ACADEMY OF SCIENCES + at Berlin for your Royal Highness, one day? suggests Voltaire, on this + occasion: and Friedrich, as we shall see, takes the hint. One passage of + the Crown-Prince's Answer is in these terms;—fixing this Loo visit + to its date for us, at any rate:— + </p> + <p> + "LOO IN HOLLAND, 6th AUGUST, 1739.... I write from a place where there + lived once a great man [William III. of England, our Dutch William]; which + is now the Prince of Orange's House. The demon of Ambition sheds its + unhappy poisons over his days. He might be the most fortunate of men; and + he is devoured by chagrins in his beautiful Palace here, in the middle of + his gardens and of a brilliant Court. It is pity in truth; for he is a + Prince with no end of wit (INFINIMENT D'ESPRIT), and has respectable + qualites." Not Stadtholder, unluckily; that is where the shoe pinches; the + Dutch are on the Republican tack, and will not have a Stadtholder at + present. No help for it in one's beautiful gardens and avenues of oak and + linden. + </p> + <p> + "I have talked a great deal about Newton with the Princess,"—about + Newton; never hinted at Amelia; not permissible!—"from Newton we + passed to Leibnitz; and from Leibnitz to the Late Queen of England," + Caroline lately gone, "who, the Prince told me, was of Clarke's sentiment" + on that important theological controversy now dead to mankind.—And + of Jenkins and his Ear did the Princess say nothing? That is now becoming + a high phenomenon in England! But readers must wait a little. + </p> + <p> + Pity that we cannot give these two Letters in full; that no reader, + almost, could be made to understand them, or to care for them when + understood. Such the cruelty of Time upon this Voltaire-Friedrich + Correspondence, and some others; which were once so rosy, sunny, and are + now fallen drearily extinct,—studiable by Editors only! In itself + the Friedrich-Voltaire Correspondence, we can see, was charming; very + blossomy at present: businesses increasing; mutual admiration now risen to + a great height,—admiration sincere on both sides, most so on the + Prince's, and extravagantly expressed on both sides, most so on + Voltaire's. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CROWN-PRINCE BECOMES A FREEMASON; AND IS HARANGUED BY MONSIEUR DE + </h2> + <p> + BIELFELD. + </p> + <p> + His Majesty, we said, had three pleasant days at Loo; discoursing, as with + friends, on public matters, or even on more private matters, in a frank + unconstrained way. He is not to be called "Majesty" on this occasion; but + the fact, at Loo, and by the leading Mightinesses of the Republic, who + come copiously to compliment him there, is well remembered. Talk there + was, with such leading Mightinesses, about the Julich-and-Berg question, + aim of this Journey: earnest enough private talk with some of them: but it + availed nothing; and would not be worth reporting now to any creature, if + we even knew it. In fact, the Journey itself remains mentionable chiefly + by one very trifling circumstance; and then by another, not important + either, which followed out of that. The trifling circumstance is,—That + Friedrich, in the course of this Journey, became a Freemason: and the + unimportant sequel was, That he made acquaintance with one Bielfeld, on + the occasion; who afterwards wrote a Book about him, which was once much + read, though never much worth reading, and is still citable, with + precaution, now and then. [Monsieur le Baron de Bielfeld, <i>Lettres + Familieres et Autres,</i> 1763;—second edition, 2 vols. a Leide, + 1767, is the one we use here.] Trifling circumstance, of Freemasonry, as + we read in Bielfeld and in many Books after him, befell in manner + following. + </p> + <p> + Among the dinner-guests at Loo, one of those three days, was a Prince of + Lippe-Buckeburg,—Prince of small territory, but of great + speculation; whose territory lies on the Weser, leading to Dutch + connections; and whose speculations stretch over all the Universe, in a + high fantastic style:—he was a dinner-guest; and one of the topics + that came up was Freemasonry; a phantasmal kind of object, which had + kindled itself, or rekindled, in those years, in England first of all; and + was now hovering about, a good deal, in Germany and other countries; + pretending to be a new light of Heaven, and not a bog-meteor of + phosphorated hydrogen, conspicuous in the murk of things. Bog-meteor, + foolish putrescent will-o'-wisp, his Majesty promptly defined it to be: + Tom-foolery and KINDERSPIEL, what else? Whereupon ingenious Buckeburg, who + was himself a Mason, man of forty by this time, and had high things in him + of the Quixotic type, ventured on defence; and was so respectful, + eloquent, dexterous, ingenious, he quite captivated, if not his Majesty, + at least the Crown-Prince, who was more enthusiastic for high things. + Crown-Prince, after table, took his Durchlaucht of Buckeburg aside; talked + farther on the subject, expressed his admiration, his conviction,—his + wish to be admitted into such a Hero Fraternity. Nothing could be welcomer + to Durchlaucht. And so, in all privacy, it was made up betweeen them, That + Durchlaucht, summoning as many mystic Brothers out of Hamburg as were + needful, should be in waiting with them, on the Crown-Prince's road + homeward,—say at Brunswick, night before the Fair, where we are to + be,—and there make the Crown-Prince a Mason. [Bielfeld, i. 14-16; + Preuss, i. 111; Preuss, <i>Buch fur Jedermann,</i> i. 41.] + </p> + <p> + This is Bielfeld's account, repeated ever since; substantially correct, + except that the scene was not Loo at all: dinner and dialogue, it now + appears, took place in Durchlaucht's own neighborhood, during the Cleve + Review time; "probably at Minden, 17th July;" and all was settled into + fixed program before Loo came in sight. [<i>OEuvres de Frederic,</i> xvs. + 201: Friedrich's Letter to this Durchlaucht, "Comte de Schaumbourg-Lippe" + he calls him; date, "Moyland, 26th July, 1738: "Moyland, a certain + SCHLOSS, or habitable Mansion, of his Majesty's, few miles to north of + Mors in the Cleve Country; where his Majesty used often to pause;—and + where (what will be much more remarkable to readers) the Crown-Prince and + Voltaire had their first meeting, two years hence.] Bielfeld's report of + the subsequent procedure at Brunswick, as he saw it and was himself part + of it, is liable to no mistakes, at least of the involuntary kind; and + may, for anything we know, be correct in every particular. + </p> + <p> + He says (veiling it under discreet asterisks, which are now decipherable + enough), The Durchlaucht of Lippe-Buckeburg had summoned six Brethren of + the Hamburg Lodge; of whom we mention only a Graf von Kielmannsegge, a + Baron von Oberg, both from Hanover, and Bielfeld himself, a Merchant's + Son, of Hamburg; these, with "Kielmannsegge's Valet to act as Tiler," + Valet being also a Mason, and the rule equality of mankind,—were to + have the honor of initiating the Crown-Prince. They arrived at the Western + Gate of Brunswick on the 11th of August, as prearranged; Prussian Majesty + not yet come, but coming punctually on the morrow. It is Fair-time; all + manner of traders, pedlers, showmen rendezvousing; many neighboring + Nobility too, as was still the habit. "Such a bulk of light luggage?" said + the Custom-house people at the Gate;—but were pacified by slipping + them a ducat. Upon which we drove to "Korn's Hotel" (if anybody now knew + it); and there patiently waited. No great things of a Hotel, says + Bielfeld; but can be put up with;—worst feature is, we discover a + Hanover acquaintance lodging close by, nothing but a wooden partition + between us: How if he should overhear!— + </p> + <p> + Prussian Majesty and suite, under universal cannon-salvos, arrived, Sunday + the 12th; to stay till Wednesday (three days) with his august Son-in-law + and Daughter here. Durchlaucht Lippe presents himself at Court, the rest + of us not; privately settles with the Prince: "Tuesday night, eve of his + Majesty's departure; that shall be the night: at Korn's Hotel, late + enough!" And there, accordingly, on the appointed night, 14th-15th August, + 1738, the light-luggage trunks have yielded their stage-properties; Jachin + and Boaz are set up, and all things are ready; Tiler (Kielmannsegge's + Valet) watching with drawn sword against the profane. As to our Hanover + neighbor, on the other side the partition, says Bielfeld, we waited on + him, this day after dinner, successively paying our respects; successively + pledged him in so many bumpers, he is lying dead drunk hours ago, could + not overhear a cannon-battery, he. And soon after midnight, the + Crown-Prince glides in, a Captain Wartensleben accompanying, who is also a + candidate; and the mysterious rites are accomplished on both of them, on + the Crown-Prince first, without accident, and in the usual way. + </p> + <p> + Bielfeld could not enough admire the demeanor of this Prince, his + clearness, sense, quiet brilliancy; and how he was so "intrepid," and + "possessed himself so gracefully in the most critical instants." Extremely + genial air, and so young, looks younger even than his years: handsome to a + degree, though of short stature. Physiognomy, features, quite charming; + fine auburn hair (BEAU BRUN), a negligent plenty of it; "his large blue + eyes have something at once severe, sweet and gracious." Eligible Mason + indeed. Had better make despatch at present, lest Papa be getting on the + road before him!—Bielfeld delivered a small address, composed + beforehand; with which the Prince seemed to be content. And so, with + masonic grip, they made their adieus for the present; and the Crown-Prince + and Wartensleben were back at their posts, ready for the road along with + his Majesty. + </p> + <p> + His Majesty came on Sunday; goes on Wednesday, home now at a stretch; and, + we hope, has had a good time of it here, these three days. Daughter + Charlotte and her Serene Husband, well with their subjects, well with one + another, are doing well; have already two little Children; a Boy the + elder, of whom we have heard: Boy's name is Karl, age now three; + sprightly, reckoned very clever, by the fond parents;—who has many + things to do in the world, by and by; to attack the French Revolution, and + be blown to pieces by it on the Field of Jena, for final thing! That is + the fate of little Karl, who frolics about here, so sunshiny and ingenuous + at present. + </p> + <p> + Karl's Grandmother, the Serene Dowager Duchess, Friedrich's own + Mother-in-law, his Majesty and Friedrich would also of course see here. + Fine Younger Sons of hers are coming forward; the reigning Duke + beautifully careful about the furtherance of these Cadets of the House. + Here is Prince Ferdinand, for instance; just getting ready for the Grand + Tour; goes in a month hence: [Mauvillon (FILS, son of him whom we cite + otherwise), <i>Geschichte Ferdinands Herzogs von Braunschweig-Luneburg</i> + (Leipzig, 1794), i. 17-25.] a fine eupeptic loyal young fellow; who, in a + twenty years more, will be Chatham's Generalissimo, and fight the French + to some purpose. A Brother of his, the next elder, is now fighting the + Turks for his Kaiser; does not like it at all, under such Seckendorfs and + War-Ministries as there are. Then, elder still, eldest of all the Cadets, + there is Anton Ulrich, over at Petersburg for some years past, with + outlooks high enough: To wed the Mecklenburg Princess there (Daughter of + the unutterable Duke), and be as good as Czar of all the Russias one day. + Little to his profit, poor soul!—These, historically ascertainable, + are the aspects of the Brunswick Court during those three days of Royal + Visit, in Fair-time; and may serve to date the Masonic Transaction for us, + which the Crown-Prince has just accomplished over at Korn's. + </p> + <p> + As for the Transaction itself, there is intrinsically no harm in this + initiation, we will hope: but it behooves to be kept well hidden from + Papa. Papa's good opinion of the Prince has sensibly risen, in the course + of this Journey, "so rational, serious, not dangling about among the women + as formerly;"—and what a shock would this of Korn's Hotel be, should + Papa hear of it! Poor Papa, from officious tale-bearers he hears many + things: is in distress about Voltaire, about Heterodoxies;—and + summoned the Crown-Prince, by express, from Reinsberg, on one occasion + lately, over to Potsdam, "to take the Communion" there, by way of + case-hardening against Voltaire and Heterodoxies! Think of it, human + readers!—We will add the following stray particulars, more or less + illustrative of the Masonic Transaction; and so end that trifling affair. + </p> + <p> + The Captain Wartensleben, fellow-recipient of the mysteries at Brunswick, + is youngest son, by a second marriage, of old Feldmarschall Wartensleben, + now deceased; and is consequently Uncle, Half-Uncle, of poor Lieutenant + Katte, though some years younger than Katte would now have been. Tender + memories hang by Wartensleben, in a silent way! He is Captain in the + Potsdam Giants; somewhat an intimate, and not undeservedly so, of the + Crown-Prince;—succeeds Wolden as Hofmarschall at Reinsberg, not many + months after this; Wolden having died of an apoplectic stroke. Of Bielfeld + comes a Book, slightly citable; from no other of the Brethren, or their + Feat at Kern's, comes (we may say) anything whatever. The Crown-Prince + prosecuted his Masonry, at Reinsberg or elsewhere, occasionally, for a + year or two; but was never ardent in it; and very soon after his + Accession, left off altogether: "Child's-play and IGNIS FATUUS mainly!" A + Royal Lodge was established at Berlin, of which the new King consented to + be patron; but he never once entered the place; and only his Portrait (a + welcomely good one, still to be found there) presided over the mysteries + in that Establishment. Harmless "fire," but too "fatuous;" mere + flame-circles cut in the air, for infants, we know how!— + </p> + <p> + With Lippe-Buckeburg there ensued some Correspondence, high enough on his + Serenity's side; but it soon languished on the Prince's side; and in + private Poetry, within a two years of this Brunswick scene, we find Lippe + used proverbially for a type-specimen of Fools. ["Taciturne, Caton, avec + mes bons parents, Aussi fou que la Lippe met les jeunes gens." <i>OEuvres,</i> + xi. 80 (<i>Discours sur la Faussete,</i> written 1740).] A windy fantastic + individual;—overwhelmed in finance-difficulties too! Lippe continued + writing; but "only Secretaries now answered him" from Berlin. A son of + his, son and successor, something of a Quixote too, but notable in + Artillery-practice and otherwise, will turn up at a future stage. + </p> + <p> + Nor is Bielfeld with his Book a thing of much moment to Friedrich or to + us. Bielfeld too has a light airy vein of talk; loves Voltaire and the + Philosophies in a light way;—knows the arts of Society, especially + the art of flattering; and would fain make himself agreeable to the + Crown-Prince, being anxious to rise in the world. His Father is a Hamburg + Merchant, Hamburg "Sealing-wax Manufacturer," not ill off for money: Son + has been at schools, high schools, under tutors, posture-masters; swashes + about on those terms, with French ESPRIT in his mouth, and lace ruffles at + his wrists; still under thirty; showy enough, sharp enough; considerably a + coxcomb, as is still evident. He did transiently get about Friedrich, as + we shall see; and hoped to have sold his heart to good purpose there;—was, + by and by, employed in slight functions; not found fit for grave ones. In + the course of some years, he got a title of Baron; and sold his heart more + advantageously, to some rich Widow or Fraulein; with whom he retired to + Saxony, and there lived on an Estate he had purchased, a stranger to + Prussia thenceforth. + </p> + <p> + His Book (<i>Lettres Familieres et Autres,</i> all turning on Friedrich), + which came out in 1763, at the height of Friedrich's fame, and was much + read, is still freely cited by Historians as an Authority. But the reading + of a few pages sufficiently intimates that these "Letters" never can have + gone through a terrestrial Post-office; that they are an afterthought, + composed from vague memory and imagination, in that fine Saxon retreat;—a + sorrowful ghost-like "TRAVELS OF ANACHARSIS," instead of living words by + an eye-witness! Not to be cited "freely" at all, but sparingly and under + conditions. They abound in small errors, in misdates, mistakes; small + fictions even, and impossible pretensions:—foolish mortal, to write + down his bit of knowledge in that form! For the man, in spite of his lace + ruffles and gesticulations, has brisk eyesight of a superficial kind: he + COULD have done us this little service (apparently his one mission in the + world, for which Nature gave him bed and board here); and he, the lace + ruffles having gone into his soul, has been tempted into misdoing it!—Bielfeld + and Bielfeld's Book, such as they are, appear to be the one conquest + Friedrich got of Freemasonry; no other result now traceable to us of that + adventure in Korn's Hotel, crowning event of the Journey to Loo. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + SECKENDORF GETS LODGED IN GRATZ. + </h2> + <p> + Feldmarschall Seckendorf, after unheard-of wrestlings with the Turk War, + and the Vienna War-Office (HOFKRIEGSRATH), is sitting, for the last three + weeks,—where thinks the reader?—in the Fortress of Gratz among + the Hills of Styria; a State-Prisoner, not likely to get out soon! + Seckendorf led forth, in 1737, "such an Army, for number, spirit and + equipment," say the Vienna people, "as never marched against the Turk + before;" and it must be owned, his ill success has been unparalleled. The + blame was not altogether his; not chiefly his, except for his rash + undertaking of the thing, on such terms as there were. But the truth is, + that first scene we saw of him,—an Army all gone out trumpeting and + drumming into the woods to FIND its Commander-in-Chief,—was an + emblem of the Campaign in general. Excellent Army; but commanded by nobody + in particular; commanded by a HOFKRIEGSRATH at Vienna, by a Franz Duke of + Tuscany, by Feldmarschall Seckendorf, and by subordinates who were + disobedient to him: which accordingly, almost without help of the Turk and + his disorderly ferocity, rubbed itself to pieces before long. Roamed + about, now hither now thither, with plans laid and then with plans + suddenly altered, Captain being Chaos mainly; in swampy countries, by + overflowing rivers, in hunger, hot weather, forced marches; till it was + marched gradually off its feet; and the clouds of chaotic Turks, who did + finally show face, had a cheap pennyworth of it. Never was such a campaign + seen as this of Seckendorf in 1737, said mankind. Except indeed that the + present one, Campaign of 1738, in those parts, under a different hand, is + still worse; and the Campaign of 1739, under still a different, will be + worst of all!—Kaiser Karl and his Austrians do not prosper in this + Turk War, as the Russians do,—who indeed have got a General equal to + his task: Munnich, a famed master in the art of handling Turks and + War-Ministries: real father of Russian Soldiering, say the Russians still. + [See MANNSTEIN for Munnich's plans with the Turk (methods and devices of + steady Discipline in small numbers VERSUS impetuous Ferocity in great); + and Berenhorst (<i>Betrachtungen uber die Kriegskunst,</i> Leipzig, 1796), + a first-rate Authority, for examples and eulogies of them.] + </p> + <p> + Campaign 1737, with clouds of chaotic Turks now sabring on the skirts of + it, had not yet ended, when Seckendorf was called out of it; on polite + pretexts, home to Vienna; and the command given to another. At the gates + of Vienna, in the last days of October, 1737, an Official Person, waiting + for the Feldmarschall, was sorry to inform him, That he, Feldmarschall + Seckendorf, was under arrest; arrest in his own house, in the KOHLMARKT + (Cabbage-market so called), a captain and twelve musketeers to watch over + him with fixed bayonets there; strictly private, till the HOFKRIEGSRATH + had satisfied themselves in a point or two. "Hmph!" snuffled he; with brow + blushing slate-color, I should think, and gray eyes much alight. And ever + since, for ten months or so, Seckendorf, sealed up in the Cabbage-market, + has been fencing for life with the HOFKRIEGSRATH; who want satisfaction + upon "eighty-six" different "points;" and make no end of chicaning to + one's clear answers. And the Jesuits preach, too: "A Heretic, born enemy + of Christ and his Kaiser; what is the use of questioning!" And the Heathen + rage, and all men gnash their teeth, in this uncomfortable manner. + </p> + <p> + Answering done, there comes no verdict, much less any acquittal; the + captain and twelve musketeers, three of them with fixed bayonets in one's + very bedroom, continue. One evening, 21st July, 1738, glorious news from + the seat of War—not TILL evening, as the Imperial Majesty was out + hunting—enters Vienna; blowing trumpets; shaking flags: "Grand + Victory over the Turks!" so we call some poor skirmish there has been; and + Vienna bursting all into three-times-three, the populace get very high. + Populace rush to the Kohlmarkt: break the Seckendorf windows; intent to + massacre the Seckendorf; had not fresh military come, who were obliged to + fire and kill one or two. "The house captain and his twelve musketeers, of + themselves, did wonders; Seckendorf and all his domestics were in arms:" + "JARNI-BLEU" for the last time!—This is while the Crown-Prince is at + Wesel; sound asleep, most likely; Loo, and the Masonic adventure, perhaps + twinkling prophetically in his dreams. + </p> + <p> + At two next morning, an Official Gentleman informs Seckendorf, That he, + for his part, must awaken, and go to Gratz. And in one hour more (3 A.M.), + the Official Gentleman rolls off with him; drives all day; and delivers + his Prisoner at Gratz:—"Not so much as a room ready there; Prisoner + had to wait an hour in the carriage," till some summary preparation were + made. Wall-neighbors of the poor Feldmarschall, in his Fortress here, were + "a GOLD-COOK (swindling Alchemist), who had gone crazy; and an Irish + Lieutenant, confined thirty-two years for some love-adventure, likewise + pretty crazy; their noises in the night-time much disturbed the + Feldmarschall." [<i>Seckendorfs Leben,</i> ii. 170-277 pp. 27-59.] One + human thing there still is in his lot, the Feldmarschall's old Grafinn. + True old Dame, she, both in the Kohlmarkt and at Gratz, stands by him, + "imprisoned along with him" if it must be so; ministering, comforting, as + only a true Wife can;—and hope has not quite taken wing. + </p> + <p> + Rough old Feldmarschall; now turned of sixty: never made such a Campaign + before, as this of 1737 followed by 1738! There sits he; and will not + trouble us any more during the present Kaiser's lifetime. Friedrich + Wilhelm is amazed at these sudden cantings of Fortune's wheel, and grieves + honestly as for an old friend: even the Crown-Prince finds Seckendorf + punished unjustly; and is almost, sorry for him, after all that has come + and gone. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE EAR OF JENKINS RE-EMERGES. + </h2> + <p> + We must add the following, distilled from the English Newspapers, though + it is now almost four months after date:— + </p> + <p> + "LONDON, 1st APRIL, 1738. In the English House of Commons, much more in + the English Public, there has been furious debating for a fortnight past: + Committee of the whole House, examining witnesses, hearing counsel; + subject, the Termagant of Spain, and her West-Indian procedures;—she, + by her procedures somewhere, is always cutting out work for mankind! How + English and other strangers, fallen-in with in those seas, are treated by + the Spaniards, readers have heard, nay have chanced to see; and it is a + fact painfully known to all nations. Fact which England, for one nation, + can no longer put up with. Walpole and the Official Persons would fain + smooth the matter; but the West-India Interest, the City, all Mercantile + and Navigation Interests are in dead earnest: Committee of the whole + House, 'Presided by Alderman Perry,' has not ears enough to hear the + immensities of evidence offered; slow Public is gradually kindling to some + sense of it. This had gone on for two weeks, when—what shall we say?—the + EAR OF JENKINS re-emerged for the second time; and produced important + effects! + </p> + <p> + "Where Jenkins had been all this while,—steadfastly navigating to + and fro, steadfastly eating tough junk with a wetting of rum; not thinking + too much of past labors, yet privately 'always keeping his lost Ear in + cotton' (with a kind of ursine piety, or other dumb feeling),—no + mortal now knows. But to all mortals it is evident he was home in London + at this time; no doubt a noted member of Wapping society, the + much-enduring Jenkins. And witnesses, probably not one but many, had + mentioned him to this Committee, as a case eminently in point. Committee, + as can still be read in its Rhadamanthine Journals, orders: 'DIE JOVIS, + 16* MARTII 1737-1738, That Captain Robert Jenkins do attend this House + immediately;' and then more specially, '17* MARTII' captious objections + having risen in Official quarters, as we guess,—'That Captain Robert + Jenkins do attend upon Tuesday morning next.' [<i>Commons Journals,</i> + xxiii. (in diebus).] Tuesday next is 21st March,—1st of April, 1738, + by our modern Calendar;—and on that day, not a doubt, Jenkins does + attend; narrates that tremendous passage we already heard of, seven years + ago, in the entrance of the Gulf of Florida; and produces his Ear wrapt in + cotton:—setting all on flame (except the Official persons) at sight + of it." + </p> + <p> + Official persons, as their wont is in the pressure of debate, endeavored + to deny, to insinuate in their vile Newspapers, That Jenkins lost his Ear + nearer home and not for nothing; as one still reads in the History Books. + [Tindal (xx. 372). Coxe, &c.] Sheer calumnies, we now find. Jenkins's + account was doubtless abundantly emphatic; but there is no ground to + question the substantial truth of him and it. And so, after seven years of + unnoticeable burning upon the thick skin of the English Public, the case + of Jenkins accidentally burns through, and sets England bellowing; such a + smart is there of it,—not to be soothed by Official wet-cloths; but + getting worse and worse, for the nineteen months ensuing. And in short—But + we will not anticipate! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter VI. — LAST YEAR OF REINSBERG; JOURNEY TO PREUSSEN. + </h2> + <p> + The Idyllium of Reinsberg—of which, except in the way of sketchy + suggestion, there can no history be given—lasted less than four + years; and is now coming to an end, unexpectedly soon. A pleasant Arcadian + Summer in one's life;—though it has not wanted its occasional + discords, flaws of ill weather in the general sunshine. Papa, always in + uncertain health of late, is getting heavier of foot and of heart under + his heavy burdens; and sometimes falls abstruse enough, liable to + bewilderments from bad people and events: not much worth noticing here. + [See Pollnitz, ii. 509-515; Friedrich's Letter to Wilhelmina ("Berlin, + 20th January, 1739:" in <i>OEuvres,</i> xxvii. part 1st, pp. 60, 61); + &c. &c.] But the Crown-Prince has learned to deal with all this; + all this is of transient nature; and a bright long future seems to lie + ahead at Reinsberg;—brightened especially by the Literary Element; + which, in this year of 1739, is brisker than it had ever been. + Distinguished Visitors, of a literary turn, look in at Reinsberg; the + Voltaire Correspondence is very lively; on Friedrich's part there is + copious production, various enterprise, in the form of prose and verse; + thoughts even of going to press with some of it: in short, the Literary + Interest rises very prominent at Reinsberg in 1739. Biography is apt to + forget the Literature there (having her reasons); but must at last take + some notice of it, among the phenomena of the year. + </p> + <p> + To the young Prince himself, "courting tranquillity," as his door-lintel + intimated, [<i>"Frederico tranquillitatem colenti"</i> (Infra, p. 123).] + and forbidden to be active except within limits, this of Literature was + all along the great light of existence at Reinsberg; the supplement to all + other employments or wants of employment there. To Friedrich himself, in + those old days, a great and supreme interest; while again, to the modern + Biographer of him, it has become dark and vacant; a thing to be shunned, + not sought. So that the fact as it stood with Friedrich differs far from + any description that can be given of the fact. Alas, we have said already, + and the constant truth is, Friedrich's literatures, his distinguished + literary visitors and enterprises, which were once brand-new and + brilliant, have grown old as a garment, and are a sorrow rather than + otherwise to existing mankind! Conscientious readers, who would represent + to themselves the vanished scene at Reinsberg, in this point more + especially, must make an effort. + </p> + <p> + As biographical documents, these Poetries and Proses of the young man give + a very pretty testimony of him; but are not of value otherwise. In fact, + they promise, if we look well into them, That here is probably a practical + faculty and intellect of the highest kind; which again, on the + speculative, especially on the poetical side, will never be considerable, + nor has even tried to be so. This young soul does not deal in meditation + at all, and his tendencies are the reverse of sentimental. Here is no + introspection, morbid or other, no pathos or complaint, no melodious + informing of the public what dreadful emotions you labor under: here, in + rapid prompt form, indicating that it is truth and not fable, are generous + aspirations for the world and yourself, generous pride, disdain of the + ignoble, of the dark, mendacious;—here, in short, is a swift-handed, + valiant, STEEL-bright kind of soul; very likely for a King's, if other + things answer, and not likely for a Poet's. No doubt he could have made + something of Literature too; could have written Books, and left some stamp + of a veracious, more or less victorious intellect, in that strange + province too. But then he must have applied himself to it, as he did to + reigning: done in the cursory style, we see what it has come to. + </p> + <p> + It is certain, Friedrich's reputation suffers, at this day, from his + writing. From his NOT having written nothing, he stands lower with the + world. Which seems hard measure;—though perhaps it is the law of the + case, after all. "Nobody in these days," says my poor Friend, "has the + least notion of the sinful waste there is in talk, whether by pen or + tongue. Better probably that King Friedrich had written no Verses; nay I + know not that David's Psalms did David's Kingship any good!" Which may be + truer than it seems. Fine aspirations, generous convictions, purposes,—they + are thought very fine: but it is good, on various accounts, to keep them + rather silent; strictly unvocal, except on call of real business; so + dangerous are they for becoming conscious of themselves! Most things do + not ripen at all except underground. And it is a sad but sure truth, that + every time you SPEAK of a fine purpose, especially if with eloquence and + to the admiration of by-standers, there is the LESS chance of your ever + making a fact of it in your poor life.—If Reinsberg, and its vacancy + of great employment, was the cause of Friedrich's verse-writing, we will + not praise Reinsberg on that head! But the truth is, Friedrich's verses + came from him with uncommon fluency; and were not a deep matter, but a + shallow one, in any sense. Not much more to him than speaking with a will; + than fantasying on the flute in an animated strain. Ever and anon through + his life, on small hint from without or on great, there was found a + certain leakage of verses, which he was prompt to utter;—and the + case at Reinsberg, or afterwards, is not so serious as we might imagine. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PINE'S HORACE; AND THE ANTI-MACHIAVEL. + </h2> + <p> + In late months Friedrich had conceived one notable project; which demands + a word in this place. Did modern readers ever hear of "John Pine, the + celebrated English Engraver"? John Pine, a man of good scholarship, good + skill with his burin, did "Tapestries of the House of Lords," and other + things of a celebrated nature, famous at home and abroad: but his peculiar + feat, which had commended him at Reinsberg, was an Edition of HORACE: + exquisite old FLACCUS brought to perfection, as it were; all done with + vignettes, classical borderings, symbolic marginal ornaments, in fine + taste and accuracy, the Text itself engraved; all by the exquisite burin + of Pine. ["London, 1737" (<i>Biographie Universelle,</i> xxxiv. 465).] + This Edition had come out last year, famous over the world; and was by and + by, as rumor bore, to be followed by a VIRGIL done in the like exquisite + manner. + </p> + <p> + The Pine HORACE, part of the Pine VIRGIL too, still exist in the libraries + of the curious; and are doubtless known to the proper parties, though much + forgotten by others of us. To Friedrich, scanning the Pine phenomenon with + interest then brand-new, it seemed an admirable tribute to classical + genius; and the idea occurred to him, "Is not there, by Heaven's blessing, + a living genius, classical like those antique Romans, and worthy of a like + tribute?" Friedrich's idea was, That Voltaire being clearly the supreme of + Poets, the HENRIADE, his supreme of Poems, ought to be engraved like + FLACCUS; text and all, with vignettes, tail-pieces, classical borderings + beautifully symbolic and exact; by the exquisite burin of Pine. Which idea + the young hero-worshipper, in spite of his finance-difficulties, had + resolved to realize; and was even now busy with it, since his return from + Loo. "Such beautiful enthusiasm," say some readers; "and in behalf of that + particular demi-god!" Alas, yes; to Friedrich he was the best demi-god + then going; and Friedrich never had any doubt about him. + </p> + <p> + For the rest, this heroic idea could not realize itself; and we are happy + to have nothing more to do with Pine or the HENRIADE. Correspondences were + entered into with Pine, and some pains taken: Pine's high prices were as + nothing; but Pine was busy with his VIRGIL; probably, in fact, had little + stomach for the HENRIADE; "could not for seven years to come enter upon + it:" so that the matter had to die away; and nothing came of it but a + small DISSERTATION, or Introductory Essay, which the Prince had got ready,—which + is still to be found printed in Voltaire's Works [<i>OEuvres, xiii. + 393-402.</i>] and in Friedrich's, if anybody now cared much to read it. + Preuss says it was finished, "the 10th August, 1739;" and that minute fact + in Chronology, with the above tale of Hero-worship hanging to it, will + suffice my readers and me. + </p> + <p> + But there is another literary project on hand, which did take effect;—much + worthy of mention, this year; the whole world having risen into such a + Chorus of TE DEUM at sight of it next year. In this year falls, what at + any rate was a great event to Friedrich, as literary man: the printing of + his first Book,—assiduous writing of it with an eye to print. The + Book is that "celebrated ANTI-MACHIAVEL," ever-praiseworthy Refutation of + Machiavel's PRINCE; concerning which there are such immensities of + Voltaire Correspondence, now become, like the Book itself, inane to all + readers. This was the chosen soul's employment of Friedrich, the flower of + life to him, at Reinsberg, through the yea? 1739. It did not actually get + to press till Spring 1740; nor actually come out till Autumn,—by + which time a great change had occurred in Friedrich's title and + circumstances: but we may as well say here what little is to be said of it + for modern readers. + </p> + <p> + "The Crown-Prince, reading this bad Book of Machiavel's, years ago, had + been struck, as all honest souls, especially governors or apprentices to + governing, must be, if they thought of reading such a thing, with its + badness, its falsity, detestability; and came by degrees, obliquely + fishing out Voltaire's opinion as he went along, on the notion of refuting + Machiavel; and did refute him, the best he could. Set down, namely, his + own earnest contradiction to such ungrounded noxious doctrines; + elaborating the same more and more into clear logical utterance; till it + swelled into a little Volume; which, so excellent was it, so important to + mankind, Voltaire and friends were clear for publishing. Published + accordingly it was; goes through the press next Summer (1740), under + Voltaire's anxious superintendence: [Here, gathered from Friedrich's + Letters to Voltaire, is the Chronology of the little Enterprise:—1738, + MARCH 21, JUNE 17, "Machiavel a baneful man," thinks Friedrich. "Ought to + be refuted by somebody?" thinks he (date not known). 1739, MARCH 22, + Friedrich thinks of doing it himself. Has done it, DECEMBER 4;—"a + Book which ought to be printed," say Voltaire and the literary visitors. + 1740, APRIL 26, Book given up to Voltaire for finished; Book appears, "end + of SEPTEMBER," when a great change had occurred in Friedrich's title and + position.] for the Prince has at length consented; and Voltaire hands the + Manuscript, with mystery yet with hints, to a Dutch Bookseller, one Van + Duren at the Hague, who is eager enough to print such an article. Voltaire + himself—such his magnanimous friendship, especially if one have + Dutch Lawsuits, or business of one's own, in those parts—takes + charge of correcting; lodges himself in the 'Old Court' (Prussian Mansion, + called VIEILLE COUR, at the Hague, where 'Luiscius,' figuratively + speaking, may 'get an alms' from us); and therefrom corrects, alters; + corresponds with the Prince and Van Duren, at a great rate. Keeps + correcting, altering, till Van Duren thinks he is spoiling it for sale;—and + privately determines to preserve the original Manuscript, and have an + edition of that, with only such corrections as seem good to Van Duren. A + treasonous step on this mule of a Bookseller's part, thinks Voltaire; but + mulishly persisted in by the man. Endless correspondence, to right and + left, ensues; intolerably wearisome to every reader. And, in fine, there + came out, in Autumn next,"—the Crown-Prince no longer a Crown-Prince + by that time, but shining conspicuous under Higher Title,—"not one + ANTI-MACHIAVEL only, but a couple or a trio of ANTI-MACHIAVELS; as printed + 'at the Hague;' as reprinted 'at London' or elsewhere; the confused + Bibliography of which has now fallen very insignificant. First there was + the Voltaire text, Authorized Edition, 'end of September, 1740;' then + came, in few weeks, the Van Duren one; then, probably, a third, combining + the two, the variations given as foot-notes:—in short, I know not + how many editions, translations, printings and reprintings; all the world + being much taken up with such a message from the upper regions, and eager + to read it in any form. + </p> + <p> + "As to Friedrich himself, who of course says nothing of the ANTI-MACHIAVEL + in public, he privately, to Voltaire, disowns all these editions; and + intends to give a new one of his own, which shall be the right article; + but never did it, having far other work cut out for him in the months that + came. But how zealous the worlds humor was in that matter, no modern + reader can conceive to himself. In the frightful Compilation called + HELDEN-GESCHICHTE, which we sometimes cite, there are, excerpted from the + then 'Bibliotheques' (NOUVELLE BIBLIOTHEQUE and another; shining + Periodicals of the time, now gone quite dead), two 'reviews' of the + ANTI-MACHIAVEL, which fill modern readers with amazement: such a DOMINE + DIMITTAS chanted over such an article!—These details, in any other + than the Biographical point of view, are now infinitely unimportant." + </p> + <p> + Truly, yes! The Crown-Prince's ANTI-MACHIAVEL, final correct edition (in + two forms, Voltaire's as corrected, and the Prince's own as written), + stands now in clear type; [Preuss, <i>OEuvres de Frederic,</i> viii. + 61-163.] and, after all that jumble of printing and counter-printing, we + can any of us read it in a few hours; but, alas, almost none of us with + the least interest, or, as it were, with any profit whatever. So different + is present tense from past, in all things, especially in things like + these! It is sixscore years since the ANTI-MACHIAVEL appeared. The + spectacle of one who was himself a King (for the mysterious fact was well + known to Van Duren and everybody) stepping forth to say with conviction, + That Kingship was not a thing of attorney mendacity, to be done under the + patronage of Beelzebub, but of human veracity, to be set about under quite + Other patronage; and that, in fact, a King was the "born servant of his + People" (DOMESTIQUE Friedrich once calls it), rather than otherwise: this, + naturally enough, rose upon the then populations, unused to such language, + like the dawn of a new day; and was welcomed with such applauses as are + now incredible, after all that has come and gone! Alas, in these sixscore + years, it has been found so easy to profess and speak, even with + sincerity! The actual Hero-Kings were long used to be silent; and the + Sham-Hero kind grow only the more desperate for us, the more they speak + and profess!—This ANTI-MACHIAVEL of Friedrich's is a clear distinct + Treatise; confutes, or at least heartily contradicts, paragraph by + paragraph, the incredible sophistries of Machiavel. Nay it leaves us, if + we sufficiently force our attention, with the comfortable sense that his + Royal Highness is speaking with conviction, and honestly from the heart, + in the affair: but that is all the conquest we get of it, in these days. + Treatise fallen more extinct to existing mankind it would not be easy to + name. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps indeed mankind is getting weary of the question altogether. + Machiavel himself one now reads only by compulsion. "What is the use of + arguing with anybody that can believe in Machiavel?" asks mankind, or + might well ask; and, except for Editorial purposes, eschews any + ANTI-MACHIAVEL; impatient to be rid of bane and antidote both. Truly the + world has had a pother with this little Nicolo Machiavelli and his + perverse little Book:—pity almost that a Friedrich Wilhelm, taking + his rounds at that point of time, had not had the "refuting" of him; + Friedrich Wilhelm's method would have been briefer than Friedrich's! But + let us hope the thing is now, practically, about completed. And as to the + other question, "Was the Signor Nicolo serious in this perverse little + Book; or did he only do it ironically, with a serious inverse purpose?" we + will leave that to be decided, any time convenient, by people who are much + at leisure in the world!— + </p> + <p> + The printing of the ANTI-MACHIAVEL was not intrinsically momentous in + Friedrich's history; yet it might as well have been dispensed with. He had + here drawn a fine program, and needlessly placarded it for the street + populations: and afterwards there rose, as could not fail on their part, + comparison between program and performance; scornful cry, chiefly from men + of weak judgment, "Is this King an ANTI-Machiavel, then? Pfui!" Of which,—though + Voltaire's voice, too, was heard in it, in angry moments,—we shall + say nothing: the reader, looking for himself, will judge by and by. And + herewith enough of the ANTI-MACHIAVEL. Composition of ANTI-MACHIAVEL and + speculation of the Pine HENRIADE lasted, both of them, all through this + Year 1739, and farther: from these two items, not to mention any other, + readers can figure sufficiently how literary a year it was. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FRIEDRICH IN PREUSSEN AGAIN; AT THE STUD OF TRAKEHNEN. A TRAGICALLY + </h2> + <p> + GREAT EVENT COMING ON. + </p> + <p> + In July this year the Crown-Prince went with Papa on the Prussian + Review-journey. ["Set out, 7th July" (<i>OEuvres,</i> xxvii. part 1st, 67 + n.).] Such attendance on Review-journeys, a mark of his being well with + Papa, is now becoming usual; they are agreeable excursions, and cannot but + be instructive as well. On this occasion, things went beautifully with + him. Out in those grassy Countries, in the bright Summer, once more he had + an unusually fine time;—and two very special pleasures befell him. + First was, a sight of the Emigrants, our Salzburgers and other, in their + flourishing condition, over in Lithuania yonder. Delightful to see how the + waste is blossoming up again; busy men, with their industries, their + steady pious husbandries, making all things green and fruitful: + horse-droves, cattle-herds, waving cornfields;—a very "SCHMALZGRUBE + (Butter-pit)" of those Northern parts, as it is since called. [Busching, + Erdbeschreibung, ii. 1049.] The Crown-Prince's own words on this matter we + will give; they are in a Letter of his to Voltaire, perhaps already known + to some readers;—and we can observe he writes rather copiously from + those localities at present, and in a cheerful humor with everybody. + </p> + <p> + "INSTERBURG, 27th JULY, 1739 (Crown-Prince to Voltaire).... Prussian + Lithuania is a Country a hundred and twenty miles long, by from sixty to + forty broad; ["Miles ENGLISH," we always mean, UNLESS &c.] it was + ravaged by Pestilence at the beginning of this Century; and they say three + hundred thousand people died of disease and famine." Ravaged by Pestilence + and the neglect of King Friedrich I.; till my Father, once his hands were + free, made personal survey of it, and took it up, in earnest. + </p> + <p> + "Since that time," say twenty years ago, "there is no expense that the + King has been afraid of, in order to succeed in his salutary views. He + made, in the first place, regulations full of wisdom; he rebuilt wherever + the Pestilence had desolated: thousands of families, from the ends of + Europe," seventeen thousand Salzburgers for the last item, "were conducted + hither; the Country repeopled itself; trade began to flourish again;—and + now, in these fertile regions, abundance reigns more than it ever did. + </p> + <p> + "There are above half a million of inhabitants in Lithuania; there are + more towns than there ever were, more flocks than formerly, more wealth + and more productiveness than in any other part of Germany. And all this + that I tell you of is due to the King alone: who not only gave the orders, + but superintended the execution of them; it was he that devised the plans, + and himself got them carried to fulfilment; and spared neither care nor + pains, nor immense expenditures, nor promises nor recompenses, to secure + happiness and life to this half-million of thinking beings, who owe to him + alone that they have possessions and felicity in the world. + </p> + <p> + "I hope this detail does not weary you. I depend on your humanity + extending itself to your Lithuanian brethren, as well as to your French, + English, German, or other,—all the more as, to my great + astonishment, I passed through villages where you hear nothing spoken but + French.—I have found something so heroic, in the generous and + laborious way in which the King addressed himself to making this desert + flourish with inhabitants and happy industries and fruits, that it seemed + to me you would feel the same sentiments in learning the circumstances of + such a re-establishment. I daily expect news of you from Enghien" [in + those Dutch-Lawsuit Countries].... The divine Emilie;... the Duke + [D'Aremberg, Austrian Soldier, of convivial turn,—remote Welsh-Uncle + to a certain little Prince de Ligne, now spinning tops in those parts; + [Born 23d May, 1735, this latter little Prince; lasted till 13th December, + 1814 ("DANSE, MAIS IL NE MARCHE PAS").] not otherwise interesting], whom + Apollo contends for against Bacchues.... Adieu. NE M'OUBLIEZ PAS, MON CHER + AMI." [<i>OEuvres,</i> xxi. 304, 305.] + </p> + <p> + This is one pleasant scene, to the Crown-Prince and us, in those grassy + localities. And now we have to mention that, about a fortnight later, at + Konigsberg one day, in reference to a certain Royal Stud or Horse-breeding + Establishment in those same Lithuanian regions, there had a still livelier + satisfaction happened him; satisfaction of a personal and filial nature. + The name of this Royal Stud, inestimable on such ground, is Trakehnen,—lies + south of Tilsit, in an upper valley of the Pregel river;—very + extensive Horse-Establishment, "with seven farms under it," say the Books, + and all "in the most perfect order," they need hardly add, Friedrich + Wilhelm being master of it. Well, the Royal Party was at Konigsberg, so + far on the road homewards again from those outlying parts, when Friedrich + Wilhelm said one day to his Son, quite in a cursory manner, "I give thee + that Stud of Trakehnen; thou must go back and look to it;" which struck + Fritz quite dumb at the moment. + </p> + <p> + For it is worth near upon 2,000 pounds a year (12,000 thalers); a welcome + new item in our impoverished budget; and it is an undeniable sign of + Papa's good-humor with us, which is more precious still. Fritz made his + acknowledgments, eloquent with looks, eloquent with voice, on coming to + himself; and is, in fact, very proud of his gift, and celebrates it to his + Wilhelmina, to Camas and others who have a right to know such a thing. + Grand useful gift; and handed over by Papa grandly, in three business + words, as if it had been a brace of game: "I give it thee, Fritz!" A thing + not to be forgotten. "At bottom, Friedrich Wilhelm was not avaricious" + (not a miser, only a man grandly abhorring waste, as the poor vulgar + cannot do), "not avaricious," says Pollnitz once; "he made munificent + gifts, and never thought of them more." This of Trakehnen,—perhaps + there might be a whiff of coming Fate concerned in it withal: "I shall + soon be dead, not able to give thee anything, poor Fritz!" To the Prince + and us it is very beautiful; a fine effulgence of the inner man of + Friedrich Wilhelm. The Prince returned to Trakehnen, on this glad errand; + settled the business details there; and, after a few days, went home by a + route of his own;—well satisfied with this Prussian-Review journey, + as we may imagine. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + [SEE EARLIER—-Prussian Review-journey (placing of hyphen)] +</pre> + <p> + One sad thing there was, though Friedrich did not yet know how sad, in + this Review-journey: the new fit of illness that overtook his Majesty. + From Pollnitz, who was of the party, we have details on that head. In his + Majesty's last bad illness, five years ago, when all seemed hopeless, it + appears the surgeons had relieved him,—in fact recovered him, + bringing off the bad humors in quantity,—by an incision in the foot + or leg. In the course of the present fatigues, this old wound broke out + again; which of course stood much in the way of his Majesty; and could not + be neglected, as probably the causes of it were. A regimental surgeon, + Pollnitz says, was called in; who, in two days, healed the wound,—and + declared all to be right again; though in fact, as we may judge, it was + dangerously worse than before. "All well here," writes Friedrich; "the + King has been out of order, but is now entirely recovered (TOUT A FAIT + REMIS)." ["Konigsberg, 30th July, 1739," to his Wife (<i>OEuvres,</i> + xxvi. 6).] + </p> + <p> + Much reviewing and heavy business followed at Konigsberg;—gift of + Trakehnen, and departure of the Crown-Prince for Trakehnen, winding it up. + Directly on the heel of which, his Majesty turned homewards, the + Crown-Prince not to meet him till once at Berlin again. Majesty's first + stage was at Pillau, where we have been. At Pillau, or next day at + Dantzig, Pollnitz observed a change in his Majesty's humor, which had been + quite sunshiny all this journey hitherto. At Dantzig Pollnitz first + noticed it; but at every new stage it grew worse, evil accidents occurring + to worsen it; and at Berlin it was worst of all;—and, alas, his poor + Majesty never recovered his sunshine in this world again! Here is + Pollnitz's account of the journey homewards:— + </p> + <p> + "Till now," till Pillau and Dantzig, "his Majesty had been in especially + good humor; but in Dantzig his cheerfulness forsook him;—and it + never came back. He arrived about ten at night in that City [Wednesday, + 12th August, or thereby]; slept there; and was off again next morning at + five. He drove only thirty miles this day; stopped in Lupow [coast road + through Pommern], with Herr von Grumkow [the late Grumkow's Brother], + Kammer President in this Pommern Province. From Lupow he went to a poor + Village near Belgard, EIGHTY miles farther;"—last village on the + great road, Belgard lying to left a little, on a side road;—"and + stayed there overnight. + </p> + <p> + "At Belgard, next morning, he reviewed the Dragoon Regiment von Platen; + and was very ill content with it. And nobody, with the least understanding + of that business, but must own that never did Prussian Regiment manoeuvre + worse. Conscious themselves how bad it was, they lost head, and got into + open confusion. The King did all that was possible to help them into order + again. He withdrew thrice over, to give the Officers time to recover + themselves; but it was all in vain. The King, contrary to wont, restrained + himself amazingly, and would not show his displeasure in public. He got + into his carriage, and drove away with the Furst of Anhalt," Old Dessauer, + "and Von Winterfeld," Captain in the Giant Regiment, "who is now + Major-General von Winterfeld; [Major-General since 1743, of high fame; + fell in fight, 7th September, 1757.] not staying to dine with General von + Platen, as was always his custom with Commandants whom he had reviewed. He + bade Prince Wilhelm and the rest of us stay and dine; he himself drove + away,"—towards the great road again, and some uncertain lodging + there. + </p> + <p> + "We stayed accordingly; and did full justice to the good cheer,"—though + poor Platen would certainly look flustered, one may fancy. "But as the + Prince was anxious to come up with his Majesty again, and knew not where + he would meet him, we had to be very swift with the business. + </p> + <p> + "We found the King with Anhalt and Winterfeld, by and by; sitting in a + village, in front of a barn, and eating a cold pie there, which the Furst + of Anhalt had chanced to have with him; his Majesty, owing to what he had + seen on the parade-ground, was in the utmost ill-humor (HOCHST UBLER + LAUNE). Next day, Saturday, he went a hundred and fifty or two hundred + miles; and arrived in Berlin at ten at night. Not expected there till the + morrow; so that his rooms were locked,—her Majesty being over in + Monbijou, giving her children a Ball;" [Pollnitz, ii. 534-537.]—and + we can fancy what a frame of mind there was! + </p> + <p> + Nobody, not at first even the Doctors, much heeded this new fit of + illness; which went and came: "changed temper," deeper or less deep gloom + of "bad humor," being the main phenomenon to by-standers. But the sad + truth was, his Majesty never did recover his sunshine; from Pillau onwards + he was slowly entering into the shadows of the total Last Eclipse; and his + journeyings and reviewings in this world were all done. Ten months hence, + Pollnitz and others knew better what it had been!— + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter VII. — LAST YEAR OF REINSBERG: TRANSIT OF BALTIMORE AND + OTHER + </h2> + <p> + PERSONS AND THINGS. + </p> + <p> + Friedrich had not been long home again from Trakehnen and Preussen, when + the routine of things at Reinsberg was illuminated by Visitors, of + brilliant and learned quality; some of whom, a certain Signor Algarotti + for one, require passing mention here. Algarotti, who became a permanent + friend or satellite, very luminous to the Prince, and was much about him + in coming years, first shone out upon the scene at this time,—coming + unexpectedly, and from the Eastward as it chanced. + </p> + <p> + On his own score, Algarotti has become a wearisome literary man to modern + readers: one of those half-remembered men; whose books seem to claim a + reading, and do not repay it you when given. Treatises, of a serious + nature, ON THE OPERA; setting forth, in earnest, the potential "moral + uses" of the Opera, and dedicated to Chatham; <i>Neutonianismo per le + Donne</i> (Astronomy for Ladies): the mere Titles of such things are + fatally sufficient to us; and we cannot, without effort, nor with it, + recall the brilliancy of Algarotti and them to his contemporary world. + </p> + <p> + Algarotti was a rich Venetian Merchant's Son, precisely about the + Crown-Prince's age; shone greatly in his studies at Bologna and elsewhere; + had written Poesies (RIME); written especially that <i>Newtonianism for + the Dames</i> (equal to Fontenelle, said Fame, and orthodox Newtonian + withal, not heterodox or Cartesian); and had shone, respected, at Paris, + on the strength of it, for three or four years past: friend of Voltaire in + consequence, of Voltaire and his divine Emilie, and a welcome guest at + Cirey; friend of the cultivated world generally, which was then laboring, + divine Emilie in the van of it, to understand Newton and be orthodox in + this department of things. Algarotti did fine Poesies, too, once and + again; did Classical Scholarships, and much else: everywhere a + clear-headed, methodically distinct, concise kind of man. A high style of + breeding about him, too; had powers of pleasing, and used them: a man + beautifully lucent in society, gentle yet impregnable there; keeping + himself unspotted from the world and its discrepancies,—really with + considerable prudence, first and last. + </p> + <p> + He is somewhat of the Bielfeld type; a Merchant's Son, we observe, like + Bielfeld; but a Venetian Merchant's, not a Hamburg's; and also of better + natural stuff than Bielfeld. Concentrated himself upon his task with more + seriousness, and made a higher thing of it than Bielfeld; though, after + all, it was the same task the two had. Alas, our "Swan of Padua" (so they + sometimes called him) only sailed, paddling grandly, no-whither,—as + the Swan-Goose of the Elbe did, in a less stately manner! One cannot well + bear to read his Books. There is no light upon Friedrich to tempt us; + better light than Bielfeld's there could have been, and much of it: but he + prudently, as well as proudly, forbore such topics. He approaches very + near fertility and geniality in his writings, but never reaches it. + Dilettantism become serious and strenuous, in those departments—Well, + it was beautiful to young Friedrich and the world at that time, though it + is not to us!—Young Algarotti, twenty-seven this year, has been + touring about as a celebrity these four years past, on the strength of his + fine manners and <i>Newtonianism for the Dames.</i> + </p> + <p> + It was under escort of Baltimore, "an English Milord," recommended from + Potsdam itself, that Algarotti came to Reinsberg; the Signor had much to + do with English people now and after. Where Baltimore first picked him up, + I know not: but they have been to Russia together; Baltimore by twelve + years the elder of the two: and now, getting home towards England again, + they call at Reinsberg in the fine Autumn weather;—and considerably + captivate the Crown-Prince, Baltimore playing chief, in that as in other + points. The visit lasted five days: [20th-25th September, 1739 (<i>OEuvres + de Frederic,</i> xiv. p. xiv).] there was copious speech on many things;—discussion + about Printing of the ANTI MACHIAVEL; Algarotti to get it printed in + England, Algarotti to get Pine and his Engraved HENRIADE put under way; + neither of which projects took effect;—readers can conceive what a + charming five days these were. Here, in the Crown-Prince's own words, are + some brief glimmerings which will suffice us:— + </p> + <p> + REINSBERG, 25th SEPT. 1739 (Crown-Prince to Papa).... that "nothing new + has occurred in the Regiment, and we have few sick. Here has the English + Milord, who was at Potsdam, passing through [stayed five days, though we + call it passing, and suppress the Algarotti, Baltimore being indeed + chief]. He is gone towards Hamburg, to take ship for England there. As I + heard that my Most All-gracious Father wished I should show him courtesy, + I have done for him what I could. The Prince of Mirow has also been here,"—our + old Strelitz friend. Of Baltimore nothing more to Papa. But to another + Correspondent, to the good Suhm (who is now at Petersburg, and much in our + intimacy, ready to transact loans for us, translate Wolf, or do what is + wanted), there is this passage next day:— + </p> + <p> + REINSBERG, 26th SEPTEMBER, 1739 (to Suhm). "We have had Milord Baltimore + here, and the young Algarotti; both of them men who, by their + accomplishments, cannot but conciliate the esteem and consideration of all + who see them. We talked much of you [Suhm], of Philosophy, of Science, + Art; in short, of all that can be included in the taste of cultivated + people (HONNETES GENS)." [<i>OEuvres de Frederic,</i> xvi. 378.] And again + to another, about two weeks hence:— + </p> + <p> + REINSBERG, 10th OCTOBER, 1739 (to Voltaire). "We have had Milord Baltimore + and Algarotti here, who are going back to England. This Milord is a very + sensible man (HOMME TRESSENSE); who possesses a great deal of knowledge, + and thinks, like us, that sciences can be no disparagement to nobility, + nor degrade an illustrious rank. I admired the genius of this ANGLAIS, as + one does a fine face through a crape veil. He speaks French very ill, yet + one likes to hear him speak it; and as for his English, he pronounces it + so quick, there is no possibility of following him. He calls a Russian 'a + mechanical animal.' He says 'Petersburg is the eye of Russia, with which + it keeps civilized countries in sight; if you took this eye from it, + Russia would fall again into barbarism, out of which it is just + struggling.' [Ib. xxi. 326, 327.]... Young Algarotti, whom you know, + pleased me beyond measure. He promised that he"—But Baltimore, + promise or not, is the chief figure at present. + </p> + <p> + Evidently an original kind of figure to us, CET ANGLAIS. And indeed there + is already finished a rhymed EPISTLE to Baltimore; <i>Epitre sur la + Liberte</i> (copy goes in that same LETTER, for Voltaire's behoof), which + dates itself likewise October 10th; beginning,—<i>"L'esprit libre, + Milord, qui regne en Angleterre,"</i> which, though it is full of fine + sincere sentiments, about human dignity, papal superstition, Newton, + Locke, and aspirations for progress of culture in Prussia, no reader could + stand at this epoch. + </p> + <p> + What Baltimore said in answer to the EPITRE, we do not know; probably not + much: it does not appear he ever saw or spoke to Friedrich a second time. + Three weeks after, Friedrich writing to Algarotti, has these words: "I + pray you make my friendships to Milord Baltimore, whose character and + manner of thinking I truly esteem. I hope he has, by this time, got my + EPITRE on the English Liberty of Thought." [29th October 1739, To + Algarotti in London (<i>OEuvres,</i> xviii. 5).] And so Baltimore passes + on, silent in History henceforth,—though Friedrich seems to have + remembered him to late times, as a kind of type-figure when England came + into his head. For the sake of this small transit over the sun's disk, I + have made some inquiry about Baltimore; but found very little;—perhaps + enough:— + </p> + <p> + "He was Charles, Sixth Lord Baltimore, it appears; Sixth, and last but + one. First of the Baltimores, we know, was Secretary Calvert (1618-1624), + who colonized Maryland; last of them (1774) was the Son of this Charles; + something of a fool, to judge by the face of him in Portraits, and by some + of his doings in the world. He, that Seventh Baltimore, printed one or two + little Volumes "now of extreme rarity"—(cannot be too rare); and + winded up by standing an ugly Trial at Kingston Assizes (plaintiff an + unfortunate female). After which he retired to Naples, and there ended, + 1774, the last of these Milords. [Walpole (by Park), <i>Catalogue of Royal + and Noble Authors</i> (London, 1806), v. 278.] + </p> + <p> + "He of the Kingston Assizes, we say, was not this Charles; but his Son, + whom let the reader forget. Charles, age forty at this time, had travelled + about the Continent a good deal: once, long ago, we imagined we had got a + glimpse of him (but it was a guess merely) lounging about Luneville and + Lorraine, along with Lyttelton, in the Congress-of-Soissons time? Not long + after that, it is certain enough, he got appointed a Gentleman of the + Bedchamber to Prince Fred; who was a friend of speculative talkers and + cultivated people. In which situation Charles Sixth Baron Baltimore + continued all his days after; and might have risen by means of Fred, as he + was anxious enough to do, had both of them lived; but they both died; + Baltimore first, in 1751, a year before Fred. Bubb Doddington, diligent + laborer in the same Fred vineyard, was much infested by this Baltimore,—who, + drunk or sober (for he occasionally gets into liquor), is always putting + out Bubb, and stands too well with our Royal Master, one secretly fears! + Baltimore's finances, I can guess, were not in too good order; mostly an + Absentee; Irish Estates not managed in the first style, while one is busy + in the Fred vineyard! 'The best and honestest man in the world, with a + good deal of jumbled knowledge,' Walpole calls him once: 'but not capable + of conducting a party.'" [Walpole's <i>Letters to Mann</i> (London, 1843), + ii. 175; 27th January, 1747. See ib. i. 82.] Oh no;—and died, at any + rate, Spring 1751: [<i>Peerage of Ireland</i> (London, 1768), ii. + 172-174.] and we will not mention him farther. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + BIELFELD, WHAT HE SAW AT REINSBERG AND AROUND. + </h2> + <p> + Directly on the rear of these fine visitors, came, by invitation, a pair + of the Korn's-Hotel people; Masonic friends; one of whom was Bielfeld, + whose dainty Installation Speech and ways of procedure had been of promise + to the Prince on that occasion. "Baron von Oberg" was the other:—Hanoverian + Baron: the same who went into the Wars, and was a "General von Oberg" + twenty years hence? The same or another, it does not much concern us. Nor + does the visit much, or at all; except that Bielfeld, being of writing + nature, professes to give ocular account of it. Honest transcript of what + a human creature actually saw at Reinsberg, and in the Berlin environment + at that date, would have had a value to mankind: but Bielfeld has adopted + the fictitious form; and pretty much ruined for us any transcript there + is. Exaggeration, gesticulation, fantastic uncertainty afflict the reader; + and prevent comfortable belief, except where there is other evidence than + Bielfeld's. + </p> + <p> + At Berlin the beautiful straight streets, Linden Avenues (perhaps a better + sample than those of our day), were notable to Bielfeld; bridges, statues + very fine; grand esplanades, and such military drilling and parading as + was never seen. He had dinner-invitations, too, in quantity; likes this + one and that (all in prudent asterisks),—-likes Truchsess von + Waldburg very much, and his strange mode of bachelor housekeeping, and the + way he dines and talks among his fellow-creatures, or sits studious among + his Military Books and Paper-litters. But all is loose far-off sketching, + in the style of <i>Anacharsis the Younger;</i> and makes no solid + impression. + </p> + <p> + Getting to Reinsberg, to the Town, to the Schloss, he crosses the + esplanade, the moat; sees what we know, beautiful square Mansion among its + woods and waters;—and almost nothing that we do not know, except the + way the moat-bridge is lighted: "Bridge furnished," he says, "with seven + Statues representing the seven Planets, each holding in her hand a glass + lamp in the form of a globe;"—which is a pretty object in the + night-time. The House is now finished; Knobelsdorf rejoicing in his + success; Pesne and others giving the last touch to some ceilings of a + sublime nature. On the lintel of the gate is inscribed FREDERICO + TRANQUILLITATEM COLENTI (To Friedrich courting Tranquillity). The gardens, + walks, hermitages, grottos, are very spacious, fine: not yet completed,—perhaps + will never be. A Temple of Bacchus is just now on hand, somewhere in those + labyrinthic woods: "twelve gigantic Satyrs as caryatides, crowned by an + inverted Punch-bowl for dome;" that is the ingenious Knobelsdorf's idea, + pleasant to the mind. Knobelsdorf is of austere aspect; austere, yet + benevolent and full of honest sagacity; the very picture of sound sense, + thinks Bielfeld. M. Jordan is handsome, though of small stature; agreeable + expression of face; eye extremely vivid; brown complexion, bushy eyebrows + as well as beard are black. [Bielfeld (abridged), i. 45.] + </p> + <p> + Or did the reader ever hear of "M. Fredersdorf," Head Valet at this time? + Fredersdorf will become, as it were, Privy-Purse, House-Friend, and + domestic Factotum, and play a great part in coming years. "A tall handsome + man;" much "silent sense, civility, dexterity;" something "magnificently + clever in him," thinks Bielfeld (now, or else twenty years afterwards); + whom we can believe. [Ib. p. 49.] He was a gift from General Schwerin, + this Fredersdorf; once a Private in Schwerin's regiment, at + Frankfurt-on-Oder,—excellent on the flute, for one quality. + Schwerin, who had an eye for men, sent him to Friedrich, in the Custrin + time; hoping he might suit in fluting and otherwise. Which he + conspicuously did. Bielfeld's account, we must candidly say, appears to be + an afterthought; but readers can make their profit of it, all the same. + </p> + <p> + As to the Crown-Prince and Princess, words fail to express their gracious + perfections, their affabilities, polite ingenuities:—Bielfeld's + words do give us some pleasant shadowy conceivability of the + Crown-Princess:— + </p> + <p> + "Tall, and perfect in shape; bust such as a sculptor might copy; + complexion of the finest; features ditto; nose, I confess, smallish and + pointed, but excellent of that kind; hair of the supremest flaxen, + 'shining' like a flood of sunbeams, when the powder is off it. A humane + ingenuous Princess; little negligences in toilet or the like, if such + occur, even these set her off, so ingenuous are they. Speaks little; but + always to the purpose, in a simple, cheerful and wise way. Dances + beautifully; heart (her soubrette assures me) is heavenly;—and + 'perhaps no Princess living has a finer set of diamonds.'" + </p> + <p> + Of the Crown-Princess there is some pleasant shadow traced as on cobweb, + to this effect. But of the Crown-Prince there is no forming the least + conception from what he says:—this is mere cobweb with Nothing + elaborately painted on it. Nor do the portraits of the others attract by + their verisimilitude. Here is Colonel Keyserling, for instance; the witty + Courlander, famous enough in the Friedrich circle; who went on embassy to + Cirey, and much else: he "whirls in with uproar (FRACAS) like Boreas in + the Ballet;" fowling-piece on shoulder, and in his "dressing-gown" withal, + which is still stranger; snatches off Bielfeld, unknown till that moment, + to sit by him while dressing; and there, with much capering, pirouetting, + and indeed almost ground-and-lofty tumbling, for accompaniment, "talks of + Horses, Mathematics, Painting, Architecture, Literature, and the Art of + War," while he dresses. This gentleman was once Colonel in Friedrich + Wilhelm's Army; is now fairly turned of forty, and has been in troubles: + we hope he is not LIKE in the Bielfeld Portrait;—otherwise, how + happy that we never had the honor of knowing him! Indeed, the + Crown-Prince's Household generally, as Bielfeld paints it in flourishes of + panegyric, is but unattractive; barren to the modern on-looker; partly the + Painter's blame, we doubt not. He gives details about their mode of + dining, taking coffee, doing concert;—and describes once an + incidental drinking-bout got up aforethought by the Prince; which is + probably in good part fiction, though not ill done. These fantastic + sketchings, rigorously winnowed into the credible and actual, leave no + great residue in that kind; but what little they do leave is of favorable + and pleasant nature. + </p> + <p> + Bielfeld made a visit privately to Potsdam, too: saw the Giants drill; + made acquaintance with important Captains of theirs (all in ASTERISKS) at + Potsdam; with whom he dined, not in a too credible manner, and even + danced. Among the asterisks, we easily pick out Captain Wartensleben (of + the Korn's-Hotel operation), and Winterfeld, a still more important + Captain, whom we saw dining on cold pie with his Majesty, at a barn-door + in Pommern, not long since. Of the Giants, or their life at Potsdam, + Bielfeld's word is not worth hearing,—worth suppressing rather; his + knowledge being so small, and hung forth in so fantastic a way. This + transient sight he had of his Majesty in person; this, which is worth + something to us,—fact being evidently lodged in it, "After + church-parade," Autumn Sunday afternoon (day uncertain, Bielfeld's date + being fictitious, and even impossible), Majesty drove out to Wusterhausen, + "where the quantities of game surpass all belief;" and Bielfeld had one + glimpse of him:— + </p> + <p> + "I saw his Majesty only, as it were, in passing. If I may judge by his + Portraits, he must have been of a perfect beauty in his young time; but it + must be confessed there is nothing left of it now. His eyes truly are + fine; but the glance of them is terrible: his complexion is composed of + the strongest tints of red, blue, yellow, green,"—not a lovely + complexion at all; "big head; the thick neck sunk between the shoulders; + figure short and heavy (COURTE ET RAMASSEE)." [Bielfeld, p. 35.] + </p> + <p> + "Going out to Wusterhausen," then, that afternoon, "October, 1739." How + his Majesty is crushed down; quite bulged out of shape in that sad way, by + the weight of time and its pressures: his thoughts, too, most likely, of a + heavy-laden and abstruse nature! The old Pfalz Controversy has misgone + with him: Pfalz, and so much else in the world;—the world in whole, + probably enough, near ending to him; the final shadows, sombre, grand and + mournful, closing in upon him! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + TURK WAR ENDS; SPANISH WAR BEGINS. A WEDDING IN PETERSBURG. + </h2> + <p> + Last news come to Potsdam in these days is, The Kaiser has ended his + disastrous Turk War; been obliged to end it; sudden downbreak, and as it + were panic terror, having at last come upon his unfortunate Generals in + those parts. Duke Franz was passionate to be out of such a thing; Franz, + General Neipperg and others; and now, "2d September, 1739," like lodgers + leaping from a burning house, they are out of it. The Turk gets Belgrade + itself, not to mention wide territories farther east,—Belgrade + without shot fired;—nay the Turk was hardly to be kept from hanging + the Imperial Messenger (a General Neipperg, Duke Franz's old Tutor, and + chief Confidant, whom we shall hear more of elsewhere), whose passport was + not quite right on this occasion!—Never was a more disgraceful + Peace. But also never had been worse fighting; planless, changeful, + powerless, melting into futility at every step:—not to be mended by + imprisonments in Gratz, and still harsher treatment of individuals. "Has + all success forsaken me, then, since Eugene died?" said the Kaiser; and + snatched at this Turk Peace; glad to have it, by mediation of France, and + on any terms. + </p> + <p> + Has not this Kaiser lost his outlying properties at a fearful rate? Naples + is gone; Spanish Bourbon sits in our Naples; comparatively little left for + us in Italy. And now the very Turk has beaten us small; insolently fillips + the Imperial nose of us,—threatening to hang our Neipperg, and the + like. Were it not for Anne of Russia, whose big horse-whip falls heavy on + this Turk, he might almost get to Vienna again, for anything we could do! + A Kaiser worthy to be pitied;—whom Friedrich Wilhelm, we perceive, + does honestly pity. A Kaiser much beggared, much disgraced, in late years; + who has played a huge life-game so long, diplomatizing, warring; and, + except the Shadow of Pragmatic Sanction, has nothing to retire upon. + </p> + <p> + The Russians protested, with astonishment, against such Turk Peace on the + Kaiser's part. But there was no help for it. One ally is gone, the Kaiser + has let go this Western skirt of the Turk; and "Thamas Kouli Khan" (called + also Nadir Shah, famed Oriental slasher and slayer of that time) no longer + stands upon the Eastern skirt, but "has entered India," it appears: the + Russians—their cash, too, running low—do themselves make + peace, "about a month after;" restoring Azoph and nearly all their + conquests; putting off the ruin of the Turk till a better time. + </p> + <p> + War is over in the East, then; but another in the West, England against + Spain (Spain and France to help), is about beginning. Readers remember how + Jenkins's Ear re-emerged, Spring gone a year, in a blazing condition? + Here, through SYLVANUS URBAN himself, are two direct glimpses, a + twelve-month nearer hand, which show us how the matter has been proceeding + since:— + </p> + <p> + "LONDON, 19th FEBRUARY, 1739. The City Authorities,"—laying or going + to lay "the foundation of the Mansion-House" (Edifice now very black in + our time), and doing other things of little moment to us, "had a + Masquerade at the Guildhall this night. There was a very splendid + appearance at the Masquerade; but among the many humorous and whimsical + characters, what seemed most to engage attention was a Spaniard, who + called himself 'Knight of the Ear;' as Badge of which Order he wore on his + breast the form of a Star, with its points tinged in blood; and on the + body of it an Ear painted, and in capital letters the word JENKINS + encircling it. Across his shoulder there hung, instead of ribbon, a large + Halter; which he held up to several persons dressed as English Sailors, + who seemed in great terror of him, and falling on their knees suffered him + to rummage their pockets; which done, he would insolently dismiss them + with strokes of his halter. Several of the Sailors had a bloody Ear + hanging down from their heads; and on their hats were these words, EAR FOR + EAR; on others, NO SEARCH OR NO TRADE; with the like sentences." [<i>Gentleman's + Magazine</i> for 1739, p. 103;—our DATES, as always, are N. 8.] The + conflagration evidently going on; not likely to be damped down again, by + ministerial art!— + </p> + <p> + "LONDON, 19th MARCH, 1739." Grand Debate in Parliament, on the late + "Spanish Convention," pretended Bargain of redress lately got from Spain: + Approve the Convention, or Not approve? "A hundred Members were in the + House of Commons before seven, this morning; and four hundred had taken + their seat by ten; which is an unheard-of thing. Prince of Wales," Fred in + person, "was in the gallery till twelve at night, and had his dinner sent + to him. Sir Robert Walpole rose: 'Sir, the great pains that have been + taken to influence all ranks and degrees of men in this Nation—... + But give me leave to'"—apply a wet cloth to Honorable Gentlemen. + Which he does, really with skill and sense. France and the others are so + strong, he urges; England so unprepared; Kaiser at such a pass; 'War like + to be, about the Palatinate Dispute [our friend Friedrich Wilhelm's]: + Where is England to get, allies?'—and hours long of the like sort. A + judicious wet cloth; which proved unavailing. + </p> + <p> + For "William Pitts" (so they spell the great Chatham that is to be) was + eloquent on the other side: "Despairing Merchants," "Voice of England," + and so on. And the world was all in an inflamed state. And Mr. Pulteney + exclaimed: Palatinate? Allies? "We need no allies; the case of Mr. Jenkins + will raise us volunteers everywhere!" And in short,—after eight + months more of haggling, and applying wet cloths,—Walpole, in the + name of England, has to declare War against Spain; ["3d November (23d + October), 1739."] the public humor proving unquenchable on that matter. + War; and no Peace to be, "till our undoubted right," to roadway on the + oceans of this Planet, become permanently manifest to the Spanish Majesty. + </p> + <p> + Such the effect of a small Ear, kept about one in cotton, from ursine + piety or other feelings. Has not Jenkins's Ear re-emerged, with a + vengeance? It has kindled a War: dangerous for kindling other Wars, and + setting the whole world on fire,—as will be too evident in the + sequel! The EAR OF JENKINS is a singular thing. Might have mounted to be a + constellation, like BERENICE'S HAIR, and other small facts become + mythical, had the English People been of poetic turn! Enough of IT, for + the time being.— + </p> + <p> + This Summer, Anton Ulrich, at Petersburg, did wed his Serene Mecklenburg + Princess, Heiress of all the Russias: "July 14th, 1739,"—three + months before that Drive to Wusterhausen, which we saw lately. Little + Anton Ulrich, Cadet of Brunswick; our Friedrich's Brother-in-Law;—a + noticeably small man in comparison to such bulk of destiny, thinks + Friedrich, though the case is not without example! [A Letter of his to + Suhm; touching on Franz of Lorraine and this Anton Ulrich.] + </p> + <p> + "Anton Ulrich is now five-and-twenty," says one of my Notebooks; "a young + gentleman of small stature, shining courage in battle, but somewhat shy + and bashful; who has had his troubles in Petersburg society, till the + trial came,—and will have. Here are the stages of Anton Ulrich's + felicity:— + </p> + <p> + "WINTER, 1732-1733. He was sent for to Petersburg (his Serene Aunt the + German Kaiserinn, and Kaiser Karl's diplomatists, suggesting it there), + with the view of his paying court to the young Mecklenburg Princess, + Heiress of all the Russias, of whom we have often heard. February, 1733, + he arrived on this errand;—not approved of at all by the Mecklenburg + Princess, by Czarina Anne or anybody there: what can be done with such an + uncomfortable little creature? They gave him the Colonelcy of Cuirassiers: + 'Drill there, and endure.' + </p> + <p> + "SPRING, 1737. Much-enduring, diligently drilling, for four years past, he + went this year to the Turk War under Munnich;—much pleased Munnich, + at Oczakow and elsewhere; who reports in the War-Office high things of + him. And on the whole,—the serene Vienna people now again bestirring + themselves, with whom we are in copartnery in this Turk business,—little + Anton Ulrich is encouraged to proceed. Proceeds; formally demands his + Mecklenburg Princess; and, + </p> + <p> + "JULY 14th, 1739, weds her; the happiest little man in all the Russias, + and with the biggest destiny, if it prosper. Next year, too, there came a + son and heir; whom they called Iwan, in honor of his Russian + Great-grandfather. Shall we add the subsequent felicities of Anton Ulrich + here; or wait till another opportunity?" + </p> + <p> + Better wait. This is all, and more than all, his Prussian Majesty, rolling + out of Wusterhausen that afternoon, ever knew of them, or needed to know!— + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter VIII. — DEATH OF FRIEDRICH WILHELM. + </h2> + <p> + At Wusterhausen, this Autumn, there is game as usual, but little or no + hunting for the King. He has to sit drearily within doors, for most part; + listening to the rustle of falling leaves, to dim Winter coming with its + rains and winds. Field-sports are a rumor from without: for him now no + joyous sow-baiting, deer-chasing;—that, like other things, is past. + </p> + <p> + In the beginning of November, he came to Berlin; was worse there, and + again was better;—strove to do the Carnival, as had been customary; + but, in a languid, lamed manner. One night he looked in upon an + evening-party which General Schulenburg was giving: he returned home, + chilled, shivering, could not, all night, be brought to heat again. It was + the last evening-party Friedrich Wilhelm ever went to. [Pollnitz (ii. + 538); who gives no date.] Lieutenant-General Schulenburg: the same who + doomed young Friedrich to death, as President of the Court-Martial; and + then wrote the Three Letters about him which we once looked into: + illuminates himself in this manner in Berlin society,—Carnival + season, 1740, weather fiercely cold. Maypole Schulenburg the lean Aunt, + Ex-Mistress of George I., over in London,—I think she must now be + dead? Or if not dead, why not! Memory, for the tenth time, fails me, of + the humanly unmemorable, whom perhaps even flunkies should forget; and I + will try it no more. The stalwart Lieutenant-General will reappear on us + once, twice at the utmost, and never again. He gave the last evening-party + Friedrich Wilhelm ever went to. + </p> + <p> + Poor Friedrich Wilhelm is in truth very ill; tosses about all day, in and + out of bed,—bed and wheeled-chair drearily alternating; suffers + much;—and again, in Diplomatic circles, the rumors are rife and + sinister. Ever from this chill at Schulenburg's the medicines did him no + good, says Pollnitz: if he rallied, it was the effect of Nature, and only + temporary. He does daily, with punctuality, his Official business; perhaps + the best two hours he has of the four-and-twenty, for the time hangs heavy + on him. His old Generals sit round his bed, talking, smoking, as it was + five years ago; his Feekin and his Children much about him, out and in: + the heavy-laden, weary hours roll round as they can. In general there is a + kind of constant Tabaks-Collegium, old Flans, Camas, Hacke, Pollnitz, + Derschau, and the rest by turns always there; the royal Patient cannot be + left alone, without faces he likes: other Generals, estimable in their + way, have a physiognomy displeasing to the sick man; and will smart for it + if they enter,—"At sight of HIM every pain grows painfuler!"—the + poor King being of poetic temperament, as we often say. Friends are + encouraged to smoke, especially to keep up a stream of talk; if at any + time he fall into a doze and they cease talking, the silence will awaken + him. + </p> + <p> + He is worst off in the night; sleep very bad: and among his sore bodily + pains, ennui falls very heavy to a mind so restless. He can paint, he can + whittle, chisel: at last they even mount him a table, in his bed, with + joiner's tools, mallets, glue-pots, where he makes small carpentry,—the + talk to go on the while;—often at night is the sound of his mallet + audible in the Palace Esplanade; and Berlin townsfolk pause to listen, + with many thoughts of a sympathetic or at least inarticulate character: + "HM, WEH, IHRO MAJESTAT: ACH GOTT, pale Death knocks with impartial foot + at the huts of poor men and the Palaces of Kings!" [Pollnitz, ii. 539.] + Reverend Herr Roloff, whom they call Provost (PROBST, Chief Clergyman) + Roloff, a pious honest man and preacher, he, I could guess, has already + been giving spiritual counsel now and then; later interviews with Roloff + are expressly on record: for it is the King's private thought, ever and + anon borne in upon him, that death itself is in this business. + </p> + <p> + Queen and Children, mostly hoping hitherto, though fearing too, live in + much anxiety and agitation. The Crown-Prince is often over from Reinsberg; + must not come too often, nor even inquire too much: his affectionate + solicitude might be mistaken for solicitude of another kind! It is certain + he is in no haste to be King; to quit the haunts of the Muses, and embark + on Kingship. Certain, too, he loves his Father; shudders at the thought of + losing HIM. And yet again there will gleams intrude of a contrary thought; + which the filial heart disowns, with a kind of horror, "Down, thou impious + thought!"—We perceive he manages in general to push the crisis away + from him; to believe that real danger is still distant. His demeanor, so + far as we can gather from his Letters or other evidence, is amiable, + prudent, natural; altogether that of a human Son in those difficult + circumstances. Poor Papa is heavy-laden: let us help to bear his burdens;—let + us hope the crisis is still far off!— + </p> + <p> + Once, on a favorable evening, probably about the beginning of April, when + he felt as if improving, Friedrich Wilhelm resolved to dress, and hold + Tobacco-Parliament again in a formal manner, Let us look in there, through + the eyes of Pollnitz, who was of it, upon the last Tobacco-Parliament:— + </p> + <p> + "A numerous party; Schwerin, Hacke, Derschau, all the chiefs and + commandants of the Berlin Garrison are there; the old circle full; social + human speech once more, and pipes alight; pleasant to the King. He does + not himself smoke on this occasion; but he is unusually lively in talk; + much enjoys the returning glimpse of old days; and the Tobacco circle was + proceeding through its phases, successful beyond common. All at once the + Crown-Prince steps in; direct from Reinsberg: [12th April, 1740? (<i>OEuvres,</i> + xxvii. part lst, p. 29); Pollnitz is dateless] an unexpected pleasure. At + sight of whom the Tobacco circle, taken on the sudden, simultaneously + started up, and made him a bow. Rule is, in Tobacco-Parliament you do not + rise—for anybody; and they have risen. Which struck the sick heart + in a strange painful way. 'Hm, the Rising Sun?' thinks he; 'Rules broken + through, for the Rising Sun. But I am not dead yet, as you shall know!' + ringing for his servants in great wrath; and had himself rolled out, + regardless of protestations and excuses. 'Hither, you Hacke!' said he. + </p> + <p> + "Hacke followed; but it was only to return on the instant, with the King's + order, 'That you instantly quit the Palace, all of you, and don't come + back!' Solemn respectful message to his Majesty was of no effect, or of + less; they had to go, on those terms; and Pollnitz, making for his + Majesty's apartment next morning as usual, was twitched by a Gens-d'arme, + 'No admittance!' And it was days before the matter would come round again, + under earnest protestations from the one side, and truculent rebukes from + the other." [Pollnitz (abridged), ii. 50.] Figure the Crown-Prince, figure + the poor sick Majesty; and what a time in those localities! + </p> + <p> + With the bright spring weather he seemed to revive; towards the end of + April he resolved for Potsdam, everybody thinking him much better, and the + outer Public reckoning the crisis of the illness over. He himself knew + other. It was on the 27th of the month that he went; he said, "Fare thee + well, then, Berlin; I am to die in Potsdam, then (ICH WERDE IN POTSDAM + STERBEN)!" The May-flowers came late; the weather was changeful, ungenial + for the sick man: this winter of 1740 had been the coldest on record; it + extended itself into the very summer; and brought great distress of every + kind;—of which some oral rumor still survives in all countries. + Friedrich Wilhelm heard complaints of scarcity among the people; + admonitions to open his Corn-granaries (such as he always has in store + against that kind of accident); but he still hesitated and refused; unable + to look into it himself, and fearing deceptions. + </p> + <p> + For the rest, he is struggling between death and life; in general + persuaded that the end is fast hastening on. He sends for Chief Preacher + Roloff out to Potsdam; has some notable dialogues with Roloff, and with + two other Potsdam Clergymen, of which there is record still left us. In + these, as in all his demeanor at this supreme time, we see the big rugged + block of manhood come out very vividly; strong in his simplicity, in his + veracity. Friedrich Wilhelm's wish is to know from Roloff what the chances + are for him in the other world,—which is not less certain than + Potsdam and the giant grenadiers to Friedrich Wilhelm; and where, he + perceives, never half so clearly before, he shall actually peel off his + Kinghood, and stand before God Almighty, no better than a naked beggar. + Roloff's prognostics are not so encouraging as the King had hoped. Surely + this King "never took or coveted what was not his; kept true to his + marriage-vow, in spite of horrible examples everywhere; believed the + Bible, honored the Preachers, went diligently to Church, and tried to do + what he understood God's commandments were?" To all which Roloff, a + courageous pious man, answers with discreet words and shakings of the + head, "Did I behave ill, then; did I ever do injustice?" Roloff mentions + Baron Schlubhut the defalcating Amtmann, hanged at Konigsberg without even + a trial. "He had no trial; but was there any doubt he had justice? A + public thief, confessing he had stolen the taxes he was set to gather; + insolently offering, as if that were all, to repay the money, and saying, + It was not MANIER (good manners) to hang a nobleman!" Roloff shakes his + head, Too violent, your Majesty, and savoring of the tyrannous. The poor + King must repent. + </p> + <p> + "Well,—is there anything more? Out with it, then; better now than + too late!"—Much oppression, forcing men to build in Berlin.—"Oppression? + was it not their benefit, as well as Berlin's and the Country's? I had no + interest in it other. Derschau, you who managed it?" and his Majesty + turned to Derschau. For all the smoking generals and company are still + here; nor will his Majesty consent to dismiss them from the presence and + be alone with Roloff: "What is there to conceal? They are people of honor, + and my friends." Derschau, whose feats in the building way are not unknown + even to us, answers with a hard face, It was all right and orderly; + nothing out of square in his building operations. To which Roloff shakes + his head: "A thing of public notoriety, Herr General."—"I will prove + everything before a Court," answers the Herr General with still harder + face; Roloff still austerely shaking his head. Hm!—And then there is + forgiveness of enemies; your Majesty is bound to forgive all men, or how + can you ask to be forgiven? "Well, I will, I do; you Feekin, write to your + Brother (unforgivablest of beings), after I am dead, that I forgave him, + died in peace with him."—Better her Majesty should write at once, + suggests Roloff.—"No, after I am dead," persists the Son of Nature,—that + will be safer! [Wrote accordingly, "not able to finish without many + tears;" honest sensible Letter (though indifferently spelt), "Berlin, 1st + June, 1740;"—lies now in State-Paper Office: "ROYAL LETTERS, vol. + xciv., Prussia, 1689-1777."] An unwedgeable and gnarled big block of + manhood and simplicity and sincerity; such as we rarely get sight of among + the modern sons of Adam, among the crowned sons nearly never. At parting + he said to Roloff, "You (ER, He) do not spare me; it is right. You do your + duty like an honest Christian man." [<i>Notata ex ore Roloffi</i> ("found + among the Seckendorf Papers," no date but "May 1740"), in Forster, ii. + 154, 155; in a fragmentary state: completed in Pollnitz, ii. 545-549.] + </p> + <p> + Roloff, I perceive, had several Dialogues with the King; and stayed in + Potsdam some days for that object. The above bit of jotting is from the + Seckendorf Papers (probably picked up by Seckendorf Junior), and is dated + only "May." Of the two Potsdam Preachers, one of whom is "Oesfeld, + Chaplain of the Giant Grenadiers," and the other is "Cochius, Calvinist + Hofprediger," each published on his own score some Notes of dialogue and + circumstance; [Cochius the HOFPREDIGER'S (Calvinist Court-Chaplain's) + ACCOUNT of his Interviews (first of them "Friday, 27th May, 1740, about 9 + P.M."); followed by ditto from Oesfeld (Chaplain of the Giants), who + usually accompanied Cochius,—are in Seyfarth, <i>Geschichte + Friedrich des Grossen</i> (Leipzig, 1783-1788), i. (Beylage) 24-40. + Seyfarth was "Regiments-Auditor" in Halle: his Work, solid though stupid, + consists nearly altogether of multifarious BEYLAGEN (Appendices) and + NOTES; which are creditably accurate, and often curious; and, as usual, + have no Index for an unfortunate reader.] which are to the same effect, so + far as they concern us; and exhibit the same rugged Son of Nature, looking + with all his eyesight into the near Eternity, and sinking in a human and + not inhuman manner amid the floods of Time. "Wa, Wa, what great God is + this, that pulls down the strength of the strongest Kings!"— + </p> + <p> + The poor King's state is very restless, fluctuates from day to day; he is + impatient of bed; sleeps very ill; is up whenever possible; rolls about in + his wheeled-chair, and even gets into the air: at one time looking strong, + as if there were still months in him, and anon sunk in fainting weakness, + as if he had few minutes to live. Friedrich at Reinsberg corresponds very + secretly with Dr. Eller; has other friends at Potsdam whose secret news he + very anxiously reads. To the last he cannot bring himself to think it + "serious." [Letter to Eller, 25th May, 1740 (<i>OEuvres</i> ), xvi. 184.] + </p> + <p> + On Thursday, 26th of May, an express from Eller, or the Potsdam friends, + arrives at Reinsberg: He is to come quickly, if he would see his Father + again alive! The step may have danger, too; but Friedrich, a world of + feelings urging him, is on the road next morning before the sun. His + journey may be fancied; the like of it falls to all men. Arriving at last, + turning hastily a corner of the Potsdam Schloss, Friedrich sees some + gathering in the distance: it is his Father in his ROLLWAGEN + (wheeled-chair),—not dying; but out of doors, giving orders about + founding a House, or seeing it done. House for one Philips, a crabbed + Englishman he has; whose tongue is none of the best, not even to Majesty + itself, but whose merits as a Groom, of English and other Horses, are + without parallel in those parts. Without parallel, and deserve a House + before we die. Let us see it set agoing, this blessed Mayday! Of Philips, + who survived deep into Friedrich's time, and uttered rough sayings (in + mixed intelligible dialect) when put upon in his grooming, or otherwise + disturbed, I could obtain no farther account: the man did not care to be + put in History (a very small service to a man); cared to have a house with + trim fittings, and to do his grooming well, the fortunate Philips. + </p> + <p> + At sight of his Son, Friedrich Wilhelm threw out his arms; the Son + kneeling sank upon his breast, and they embraced with tears. My Father, my + Father; My Son, my Son! It was a scene to make all by-standers and even + Philips weep.—Probably the emotion hurt the old King; he had to be + taken in again straightway, his show of strength suddenly gone, and bed + the only place for him. This same Friday he dictated to one of his + Ministers (Boden, who was in close attendance) the Instruction for his + Funeral; a rude characteristic Piece, which perhaps the English reader + knows. Too long and rude for reprinting here. [Copy of it, in Seyfarth + (ubi supra), i. 19-24. Translated in Mauvillon (ii. 432-437); in &c. + &c.] + </p> + <p> + He is to be buried in his uniform, the Potsdam Grenadiers his escort; with + military decorum, three volleys fired (and take care they be well fired, + "NICHT PLACKEREN"), so many cannon-salvos;—and no fuss or flaunting + ceremony: simplicity and decency is what the tenant of that oak coffin + wants, as he always did when owner of wider dominions. The coffin, which + he has ready and beside him in the Palace this good while, is a stout + piece of carpentry, with leather straps and other improvements; he views + it from time to time; solaces his truculent imagination with the look of + it: "I shall sleep right well there," he would say. The image he has of + his Burial, we perceive, is of perfect visuality, equal to what a Defoe + could do in imagining. All is seen, settled to the last minuteness: the + coffin is to be borne out by so and so, at such and such a door; this + detachment is to fall-in here, that there, in the attitude of "cover arms" + (musket inverted under left arm); and the band is to play, with all its + blackamoors, <i>O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden</i> (O Head, all bleeding + wounded); a Dirge his Majesty had liked, who knew music, and had a love + for it, after his sort. Good Son of Nature: a dumb Poet, as I say always; + most dumb, but real; the value of him great, and unknown in these babbling + times. It was on this same Friday night that Cochius was first sent for; + Cochius, and Oesfeld with him, "about nine o'clock." + </p> + <p> + For the next three days (Saturday to Monday) when his cough and many + sufferings would permit him, Friedrich Wilhelm had long private dialogues + with his Son; instructing him, as was evident, in the mysteries of State; + in what knowledge, as to persons and to things, he reckoned might be + usefulest to him. What the lessons were, we know not; the way of taking + them had given pleasure to the old man: he was heard to say, perhaps more + than once, when the Generals were called in, and the dialogue interrupted + for a while: "Am not I happy to have such a Son to leave behind me!" And + the grimly sympathetic Generals testified assent; endeavored to talk a + little, could at least smoke, and look friendly; till the King gathered + strength for continuing his instructions to his Successor. All else was as + if settled with him; this had still remained to do. This once done + (finished, Monday night), why not abdicate altogether; and die disengaged, + be it in a day or in a month, since that is now the one work left? + Friedrich Wilhelm does so purpose. + </p> + <p> + His state, now as all along, was fluctuating, uncertain, restless. He was + heard murmuring prayers; he would say sometimes, "Pray for me; BETET + BETET." And more than once, in deep tone: "Lord, enter not into judgment + with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified!" The + wild Son of Nature, looking into Life and Death, into Judgment and + Eternity, finds that these things are very great. This too is a + characteristic trait: In a certain German Hymn (<i>Why fret or murmur, + then?</i> the title of it), which they often sang to him, or along with + him, as he much loved it, are these words, "Naked I came into the world, + and naked shall I go,"—"No," said he "always with vivacity," at this + passage; "not quite nakid, I shall have my uniform on:" Let us be exact, + since we are at it! After which the singing proceeded again. "The late + Graf Alexander von Wartenberg"—Captain Wartenberg, whom we know, and + whose opportunities—"was wont to relate this." [Busching (in 1786), + <i>Beitrage,</i> iv. 100.] + </p> + <p> + Tuesday, 31st May, "about one in the morning," Cochius was again sent for. + He found the King in very pious mood, but in great distress, and afraid he + might yet have much pain to suffer. Cochius prayed with him; talked + piously. "I can remember nothing," said the King; "I cannot pray, I have + forgotten all my prayers."—"Prayer is not in words, but in the + thought of the heart," said Cochius; and soothed the heavy-laden man as he + could. "Fare you well," said Friedrich Wilhelm, at length; "most likely we + shall not meet again in this world." Whereat Cochius burst into tears, and + withdrew. About four, the King was again out of bed; wished to see his + youngest Boy, who had been ill of measles, but was doing well: "Poor + little Ferdinand, adieu, then, my little child!" This is the Father of + that fine Louis Ferdinand, who was killed at Jena; concerning whom Berlin, + in certain emancipated circles of it, still speaks with regret. He, the + Louis Ferdinand, had fine qualities; but went far a-roving, into + radicalism, into romantic love, into champagne; and was cut down on the + threshold of Jena, desperately fighting,—perhaps happily for him. + </p> + <p> + From little Ferdinand's room Friedrich Wilhelm has himself rolled into + Queen Sophie's. "Feekin, O my Feekin, thou must rise this day, and help me + what thou canst. This day I am going to die; thou wilt be with me this + day!" The good Wife rises: I know not that it was the first time she had + been so called; but it did prove the last. Friedrich Wilhelm has decided, + as the first thing he will do, to abdicate; and all the Official persons + and companions of the sick-room, Pollnitz among them, not long after + sunrise, are called to see it done. Pollnitz, huddling on his clothes, + arrived about five: in a corridor he sees the wheeled-chair and poor sick + King; steps aside to let him pass: "'It is over (DAS IST VOLLBRACHT),' + said the King, looking up to me as he passed: he had on his nightcap, and + a blue mantle thrown round him." He was wheeled into his anteroom; there + let the company assemble; many of them are already there. + </p> + <p> + The royal stables are visible from this room: Friedrich Wilhelm orders the + horses to be ridden out: you old Furst of Anhalt-Dessau my oldest friend, + you Colonel Hacke faithfulest of Adjutant-Generals, take each of you a + horse, the best you can pick out: it is my last gift to you. Dessau, in + silence, with dumb-show of thanks, points to a horse, any horse: "You have + chosen the very worst," said Friedrich Wilhelm: "Take that other, I will + warrant him a good one!" The grim old Dessauer thanks in silence; + speechless grief is on that stern gunpowder face, and he seems even to be + struggling with tears. "Nay, nay, my friend," Friedrich Wilhelm said, + "this is a debt we have all to pay." + </p> + <p> + The Official people, Queen, Friedrich, Minister Boden, Minister Podewils, + and even Pollnitz, being now all present, Friedrich Wilhelm makes his + Declaration, at considerable length; old General Bredow repeating it + aloud, [Pollnitz, ii. 561.] sentence by sentence, the King's own voice + being too weak; so that all may hear: "That he abdicates, gives up wholly, + in favor of his good Son Friedrich; that foreign Ambassadors are to be + informed; that you are all to be true and loyal to my Son as you were to + me"—and what else is needful. To which the judicious Podewils makes + answer, "That there must first be a written Deed of his high Transaction + executed, which shall be straightway set about; the Deed once executed, + signed and sealed,—the high Royal will, in all points, takes + effect." Alas, before Podewils has done speaking, the King is like falling + into a faint; does faint, and is carried to bed: too unlikely any Deed of + Abdication will be needed. + </p> + <p> + Ups and downs there still were; sore fluctuating labor, as the poor King + struggles to his final rest, this morning. He was at the window again, + when the WACHT-PARADE (Grenadiers on Guard) turned out; he saw them make + their evolutions for the last time. [Pauli, viii. 280.] After which, new + relapse, new fluctuation. It was about eleven o'clock, when Cochius was + again sent for. The King lay speechless, seemingly still conscious, in + bed; Cochius prays with fervor, in a loud tone, that the dying King may + hear and join. "Not so loud!" says the King, rallying a little. He had + remembered that it was the season when his servants got their new + liveries; they had been ordered to appear this day in full new costume: "O + vanity! O vanity!" said Friedrich Wilhelm, at sight of the ornamented + plush. "Pray for me, pray for me; my trust is in the Saviour!" he often + said. His pains, his weakness are great; the cordage of a most tough heart + rending itself piece by piece. At one time, he called for a mirror: that + is certain:—rugged wild man, son of Nature to the last. The mirror + was brought; what he said at sight of his face is variously reported: "Not + so worn out as I thought," is Pollnitz's account, and the likeliest;—though + perhaps he said several things, "ugly face," "as good as dead already;" + and continued the inspection for some moments. [Pollnitz, ii. 564; + Wilhelmina, ii. 321.] A grim, strange thing. + </p> + <p> + "Feel mv pulse, Pitsch," said he, noticing the Surgeon of his Giants: + "tell me how long this will last."—"Alas, not long," answered + Pitsch.—"Say not, alas; but how do you (He) know?"—"The pulse + is gone!"—"Impossible," said he, lifting his arm: "how could I move + my fingers so, if the pulse were gone?" Pitsch looked mournfully + steadfast. "Herr Jesu, to thee I live; Herr Jesu, to thee I die; in life + and in death thou art my gain (DU BIST MEIN GEWINN)." These were the last + words Friedrich Wilhelm spoke in this world. He again fell into a faint. + Eller gave a signal to the Crown-Prince to take the Queen away. Scarcely + were they out of the room, when the faint had deepened into death; and + Friedrich Wilhelm, at rest from all his labors, slept with the primeval + sons of Thor. + </p> + <p> + No Baresark of them, nor Odin's self, I think, was a bit of truer human + stuff;—I confess his value to me, in these sad times, is rare and + great. Considering the usual Histrionic, Papin's-Digester, + Truculent-Charlatan and other species of "Kings," alone attainable for the + sunk flunky populations of an Era given up to Mammon and the worship of + its own belly, what would not such a population give for a Friedrich + Wilhelm, to guide it on the road BACK from Orcus a little? "Would give," I + have written; but alas, it ought to have been "SHOULD give." What THEY + "would" give is too mournfully plain to me, in spite of ballot-boxes: a + steady and tremendous truth from the days of Barabbas downwards and + upwards!—Tuesday, 31st May, 1740, between one and two o'clock in the + afternoon, Friedrich Wilhelm died; age fifty-two, coming 15th August next. + Same day, Friedrich his Son was proclaimed at Berlin; quilted heralds, + with sound of trumpet and the like, doing what is customary on such + occasions. + </p> + <p> + On Saturday, 4th June, the King's body is laid out in state; all Potsdam + at liberty to come and see. He lies there, in his regimentals, in his + oaken coffin, on a raised place in the middle of the room; decent mortuary + draperies, lamps, garlands, banderols furnishing the room and him: at his + feet, on a black-velvet TABOURET (stool), are the chivalry emblems, + helmet, gauntlets, spurs; and on similar stools, at the right hand and the + left, lie his military insignia, hat and sash, sword, guidon, and what + else is fit. Around, in silence, sit nine veteran military dignitaries; + Buddenbrock, Waldau, Derschau, Einsiedel, and five others whom we omit to + name. Silent they sit. A grim earnest sight in the shine of the lamplight, + as you pass out of the June sun. Many went, all day; looked once again on + the face that was to vanish. Precisely at ten at night, the coffin-lid is + screwed down: twelve Potsdam Captains take the coffin on their shoulders; + four-and-twenty Corporals with wax torches, four-and-twenty Sergeants with + inverted halberts lowered; certain Generals on order, and very many + following as volunteers; these perform the actual burial,—carry the + body to the Garrison Church, where are clergy waiting, which is but a + small step off; see it lodged, oak coffin and all, in a marble coffin in + the side vault there, which is known to Tourists. [Pauli, viii. 281.] It + is the end of the week, and the actual burial is done,—hastened + forward for reasons we can guess. + </p> + <p> + Filial piety by no means intends to defraud a loved Father of the Spartan + ceremonial contemplated as obsequies by him: very far from it. Filial + piety will conform to that with rigor; only adding what musical and other + splendors are possible, to testify his love still more. And so, almost + three weeks hence, on the 23d of the month, with the aid of Dresden + Artists, of Latin Cantatas and other pomps (not inexcusable, though + somewhat out of keeping), the due Funeral is done, no Corpse but a Wax + Effigy present in it;—and in all points, that of the Potsdam + Grenadiers not forgotten, there was rigorous conformity to the Instruction + left. In all points, even to the extensive funeral dinner, and drinking of + the appointed cask of wine, "the best cask in my cellar." Adieu, O King. + </p> + <p> + The Potsdam Grenadiers fired their three volleys (not "PLACKERING," as I + have reason to believe, but well); got their allowance, dinner-liquor, and + appointed coin of money: it was the last service required of them in this + world. That same night they were dissolved, the whole Four Thousand of + them, at a stroke; and ceased to exist as Potsdam Grenadiers. Colonels, + Captains, all the Officers known to be of merit, were advanced, at least + transferred. Of the common men, a minority, of not inhuman height and of + worth otherwise, were formed into a new Regiment on the common terms: the + stupid splay-footed eight-feet mass were allowed to stalk off whither they + pleased, or vegetate on frugal pensions; Irish Kirkman, and a few others + neither knock-kneed nor without head, were appointed HEYDUCS, that is, + porters to the King's or other Palaces; and did that duty in what was + considered an ornamental manner. + </p> + <p> + Here are still two things capable of being fished up from the sea of + nugatory matter; and meditated on by readers, till the following Books + open. + </p> + <p> + The last breath of Friedrich Wilhelm having fled, Friedrich hurried to a + private room; sat there all in tears; looking back through the gulfs of + the Past, upon such a Father now rapt away forever. Sad all, and soft in + the moonlight of memory,—the lost Loved One all in the right as we + now see, we all in the wrong!—this, it appears, was the Son's fixed + opinion. Seven years hence, here is how Friedrich concludes the HISTORY of + his Father, written with a loyal admiration throughout: "We have left + under silence the domestic chagrins of this great Prince: readers must + have some indulgence for the faults of the Children, in consideration of + the virtues of such a Father." [<i>OEuvres,</i> i. 174 (<i>Memoires de + Brandebourg:</i> finished about 1747).] All in tears he sits at present, + meditating these sad things. + </p> + <p> + In a little while the Old Dessauer, about to leave for Dessau, ventures in + to the Crown-Prince, Crown-Prince no longer; "embraces his knees;" offers, + weeping, his condolence, his congratulation;—hopes withal that his + sons and he will be continued in their old posts, and that he, the Old + Dessauer, "will have the same authority as in the late reign." Friedrich's + eyes, at this last clause, flash out tearless, strangely Olympian. "In + your posts I have no thought of making change: in your posts, yes;—and + as to authority, I know of none there can be but what resides in the King + that is sovereign!" Which, as it were, struck the breath out of the Old + Dessauer; and sent him home with a painful miscellany of feelings, + astonishment not wanting among them. + </p> + <p> + At an after hour, the same night, Friedrich went to Berlin; met by + acclamation enough. He slept there, not without tumult of dreams, one may + fancy; and on awakening next morning, the first sound he heard was that of + the Regiment Glasenap under his windows, swearing fealty to the new King. + He sprang out of bed in a tempest of emotion; bustled distractedly to and + fro, wildly weeping. Pollnitz, who came into the anteroom, found him in + this state, "half-dressed, with dishevelled hair, in tears, and as if + beside himself." "These huzzaings only tell me what I have lost!" said the + new King.—"HE was in great suffering," suggested Pollnitz; "he is + now at rest." "True, he suffered; but he was here with us: and now—!" + [Ranke (ii. 46, 47)], from certain Fragments, still, in manuscript, of + Pollnits's <i>Memoiren.</i> + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, +Vol. X. (of XXI.), by Thomas Carlyle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. *** + +***** This file should be named 2110-h.htm or 2110-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/1/2110/ + +Produced by D.R. Thompson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. X. (of XXI.) + Frederick The Great--At Reinsberg--1736-1740 + +Author: Thomas Carlyle + +Posting Date: June 13, 2008 [EBook #2110] +Release Date: March 2000 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. *** + + + + +Produced by D.R. Thompson + + + + + +HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II OF PRUSSIA + +FREDERICK THE GREAT + +By Thomas Carlyle + +Volume X. + + + + +BOOK X. -- AT REINSBERG. - 1736-1740. + + + + +Chapter I. -- MANSION OF REINSBERG. + +On the Crown-Prince's Marriage, three years ago, when the AMT or +Government-District RUPPIN, with its incomings, was assigned to him for +revenue, we heard withal of a residence getting ready. Hint had fallen +from the Prince, that Reinsberg, an old Country-seat, standing with +its Domain round it in that little Territory of Ruppin, and probably +purchasable as was understood, might be pleasant, were it once his +and well put in repair. Which hint the kind paternal Majesty instantly +proceeded to act upon. He straightway gave orders for the purchase of +Reinsberg; concluded said purchase, on fair terms, after some months' +bargaining; [23d October, 1733, order given,--16th March, 1734, purchase +completed (Preuss, i. 75).]--and set his best Architect, one Kemeter, +to work, in concert with the Crown-Prince, to new-build and enlarge +the decayed Schloss of Reinsberg into such a Mansion as the young Royal +Highness and his Wife would like. + +Kemeter has been busy, all this while; a solid, elegant, yet frugal +builder: and now the main body of the Mansion is complete, or nearly so, +the wings and adjuncts going steadily forward; Mansion so far ready that +the Royal Highnesses can take up their abode in it. Which they do, this +Autumn, 1736; and fairly commence Joint Housekeeping, in a permanent +manner. Hitherto it has been intermittent only: hitherto the +Crown-Princess has resided in their Berlin Mansion, or in her own +Country-house at Schonhausen; Husband not habitually with her, except +when on leave of absence from Ruppin, in Carnival time or for shorter +periods. At Ruppin his life has been rather that of a bachelor, or +husband abroad on business; up to this time. But now at Reinsberg they +do kindle the sacred hearth together; "6th August, 1736," the date of +that important event. They have got their Court about them, dames and +cavaliers more than we expected; they have arranged the furnitures of +their existence here on fit scale, and set up their Lares and Penates +on a thrifty footing. Majesty and Queen come out on a visit to them next +month; [4th September, 1736 (Ib.).]--raising the sacred hearth into its +first considerable blaze, and crowning the operation in a human manner. + +And so there has a new epoch arisen for the Crown-Prince and his +Consort. A new, and much-improved one. It lasted into the fourth year; +rather improving all the way: and only Kingship, which, if a higher +sphere, was a far less pleasant one, put an end to it. Friedrich's +happiest time was this at Reinsberg; the little Four Years of Hope, +Composure, realizable Idealism: an actual snatch of something like the +Idyllic, appointed him in a life-pilgrimage consisting otherwise of +realisms oftenest contradictory enough, and sometimes of very grim +complexion. He is master of his work, he is adjusted to the practical +conditions set him; conditions once complied with, daily work done, +he lives to the Muses, to the spiritual improvements, to the social +enjoyments; and has, though not without flaws of ill-weather,--from +the Tobacco-Parliament perhaps rather less than formerly, and from +the Finance-quarter perhaps rather more,--a sunny time. His innocent +insipidity of a Wife, too, appears to have been happy. She had the +charm of youth, of good looks; a wholesome perfect loyalty of character +withal; and did not "take to pouting," as was once apprehended of +her, but pleasantly gave and received of what was going. This poor +Crown-Princess, afterwards Queen, has been heard, in her old age, +reverting, in a touching transient way, to the glad days she had at +Reinsberg. Complaint openly was never heard from her, in any kind of +days; but these doubtless were the best of her life. + +Reinsberg, we said, is in the AMT Ruppin; naturally under the +Crown-Prince's government at present: the little Town or Village of +Reinsberg stands about, ten miles north of the Town Ruppin;--not quite +a third-part as big as Ruppin is in our time, and much more pleasantly +situated. The country about is of comfortable, not unpicturesque +character; to be distinguished almost as beautiful, in that region +of sand and moor. Lakes abound in it; tilled fields; heights called +"hills;" and wood of fair growth,--one reads of "beech-avenues" of "high +linden-avenues:"--a country rather of the ornamented sort, before the +Prince with his improvements settled there. Many lakes and lakelets in +it, as usual hereabouts; the loitering waters straggle, all over that +region, into meshes of lakes. Reinsberg itself, Village and Schloss, +stands on the edge of a pleasant Lake, last of a mesh of such: the +SUMMARY, or outfall, of which, already here a good strong brook or +stream, is called the RHEIN, Rhyn or Rein; and gives name to the little +place. We heard of the Rein at Ruppin: it is there counted as a kind of +river; still more, twenty miles farther down, where it falls into the +Havel, on its way to the Elbe. The waters, I think, are drab-colored, +not peat-brown: and here, at the source, or outfall from that mesh +of lakes, where Reinsberg is, the country seems to be about the +best;--sufficient, in picturesqueness and otherwise, to satisfy a +reasonable man. + +The little Town is very old; but, till the Crown-Prince settled there, +had no peculiar vitality in it. I think there are now some potteries, +glass-manufactories: Friedrich Wilhelm, just while the Crown-Prince +was removing thither, settled a first Glass-work there; which took +good root, and rose to eminence in the crystal, Bohemian-crystal, +white-glass, cut-glass, and other commoner lines, in the Crown-Prince's +time. [_Bescheibung des Lutschlosses &c. zu Reinsberg_ (Berlin, 1788); +Author, a "Lieutenant Hennert," thoroughly acquainted with his subject.] + +Reinsberg stands on the east or southeast side of its pretty Lake: Lake +is called "the GRINERICK SEE" (as all those remote Lakes have their +names); Mansion is between the Town and Lake. A Mansion fronting, we may +say, four ways; for it is of quadrangular form, with a wet moat from +the Lake begirdling it, and has a spacious court for interior: but the +principal entrance is from the Town side; for the rest, the Building is +ashlar on all sides, front and rear. Stands there, handsomely abutting +on the Lake with two Towers, a Tower at each angle, which it has on that +lakeward side; and looks, over Reinsberg, and its steeple rising amid +friendly umbrage which hides the house-tops, towards the rising sun. +Townward there is room for a spacious esplanade; and then for the +stables, outbuildings, well masked; which still farther shut off the +Town. To this day, Reinsberg stands with the air of a solid respectable +Edifice; still massive, rain-tight, though long since deserted by +the Princeships,--by Friedrich nearly sixscore years ago, and nearly +threescore by Prince Henri, Brother of Friedrich's, who afterwards had +it. Last accounts I got were, of talk there had risen of planting an +extensive NORMAL-SCHOOL there; which promising plan had been laid aside +again for the time. + +The old Schloss, residence of the Bredows and other feudal people for +a long while, had good solid masonry in it, and around it orchards, +potherb gardens; which Friedrich Wilhelm's Architects took good care to +extend and improve, not to throw away: the result of their art is what +we see, a beautiful Country-House, what might be called a Country-Palace +with all its adjuncts;--and at a rate of expense which would fill +English readers, of this time, with amazement. Much is admirable to us +as we study Reinsberg, what it had been, what it became, and how it was +made; but nothing more so than the small modicum of money it cost. To +our wondering thought, it seems as if the shilling, in those parts, were +equal to the guinea in these; and the reason, if we ask it, is by no +means flattering altogether. "Change in the value of money?" Alas, +reader, no; that is not above the fourth part of the phenomenon. +Three-fourths of the phenomenon are change in the methods of +administering money,--difference between managing it with wisdom and +veracity on both sides, and managing it with unwisdom and mendacity on +both sides. Which is very great indeed; and infinitely sadder than +any one, in these times, will believe!--But we cannot dwell on +this consideration. Let the reader take it with him, as a constant +accompaniment in whatever work of Friedrich Wilhelm's or of Friedrich +his Son's, he now or at any other time may be contemplating. Impious +waste, which means disorder and dishonesty, and loss of much other than +money to all, parties,--disgusting aspect of human creatures, master and +servant, working together as if they were not human,--will be spared +him in those foreign departments; and in an English heart thoughts will +arise, perhaps, of a wholesome tendency, though very sad, as times are. + +It would but weary the reader to describe this Crown-Prince Mansion; +which, by desperate study of our abstruse materials, it is possible to +do with auctioneer minuteness. There are engraved VIEWS of Reinsberg +and its Environs; which used to lie conspicuous in the portfolios of +collectors,---which I have not seen. [See Hennert, just cited, for the +titles of them.] Of the House itself, engraved Frontages (FACADES), +Ground-plans, are more accessible; and along with them, descriptions +which are little descriptive,--wearisomely detailed, and as it were dark +by excess of light (auctioneer light) thrown on them. The reader +sees, in general, a fine symmetrical Block of Buildings, standing in +rectangular shape, in the above locality;--about two hundred English +feet, each, the two longer sides measure, the Townward and the Lakeward, +on their outer front: about a hundred and thirty, each, the two shorter; +or a hundred and fifty, taking in their Towers just spoken of. The +fourth or Lakeward side, however, which is one of the longer pair, +consists mainly of "Colonnade;" spacious Colonnade "with vases and +statues;" catching up the outskirts of said Towers, and handsomely +uniting everything. + +Beyond doubt, a dignified, substantial pile of stone-work; all of good +proportions. Architecture everywhere of cheerfully serious, solidly +graceful character; all of sterling ashlar; the due RISALITES +(projecting spaces) with their attics and statues atop, the due +architraves, cornices and corbels,--in short the due opulence of +ornament being introduced, and only the due. Genuine sculptors, genuine +painters, artists have been busy; and in fact all the suitable fine +arts, and all the necessary solid ones, have worked together, with +a noticeable fidelity, comfortable to the very beholder to this day. +General height is about forty feet; two stories of ample proportions: +the Towers overlooking them are sixty feet in height. Extent of outer +frontage, if you go all round, and omit the Colonnade, will be five +hundred feet and more: this, with the rearward face, is a thousand +feet of room frontage:--fancy the extent of lodging space. For "all the +kitchens and appurtenances are underground;" the "left front" (which is +a new part of the Edifice) rising comfortably over these. Windows I did +not count; but they must go high up into the Hundreds. No end to +lodging space. Way in a detached side-edifice subsequently built, called +Cavalier House, I read of there being, for one item, "fifty lodging +rooms," and for another "a theatre." And if an English Duke of Trumps +were to look at the bills for all that, his astonishment would be +extreme, and perhaps in a degree painful and salutary to him. + +In one of these Towers the Crown-Prince has his Library: a beautiful +apartment; nothing wanting to it that the arts could furnish, "ceiling +done by Pesne" with allegorical geniuses and what not,--looks out on +mere sky, mere earth and water in an ornamental state: silent as in +Elysium. It is there we are to fancy the Correspondence written, the +Poetries and literary industries going on. There, or stepping down for +a turn in the open air, or sauntering meditatively under the Colonnade +with its statues and vases (where weather is no object), one commands +the Lake, with its little tufted Islands, "Remus Island" much famed +among them, and "high beech-woods" on the farther side. The Lake is very +pretty, all say; lying between you and the sunset;--with perhaps some +other lakelet, or solitary pool in the wilderness, many miles away, +"revealing itself as a cup of molten gold," at that interesting moment. +What the Book-Collection was, in the interior, I know not except by mere +guess. + +The Crown-Princess's Apartment, too, which remained unaltered at the +last accounts had of it, [From Hennert, namely, in 1778.] is very +fine;--take the anteroom for specimen: "This fine room," some twenty +feet height of ceiling, "has six windows; three of them, in the main +front, looking towards the Town, the other three, towards the Interior +Court. The light from these windows is heightened by mirrors covering +all the piers (SCHAFTE, interspaces of the walls), to an uncommonly +splendid pitch; and shows the painting of the ceiling, which again is +by the famous Pesne, to much perfection. The Artist himself, too, has +managed to lay on his colors there so softly, and with such delicate +skill, that the light-beams seem to prolong themselves in the painted +clouds and air, as if it were the real sky you had overhead." There in +that cloud-region "Mars is being disarmed by the Love-goddesses, and +they are sporting with his weapons. He stretches out his arm towards the +Goddess, who looks upon him with fond glances. Cupids are spreading +out a draping." That is Pesne's luxurious performance in the +ceiling.--"Weapon-festoons, in basso-relievo, gilt, adorn the walls of +this room; and two Pictures, also by Pesne, which represent, in life +size, the late King and Queen [our good friends Friedrich Wilhelm and +his Sophie], are worthy of attention. Over each of the doors, you +find in low-relief the Profiles of Hannibal, Pompey, Scipio, Caesar, +introduced as Medallions." + +All this is very fine; but all this is little to another ceiling, in +some big Saloon elsewhere, Music-saloon, I think: Black Night, making +off, with all her sickly dews, at one end of the ceiling; and at the +other end, the Steeds of Phoebus bursting forth, and the glittering +shafts of Day,--with Cupids, Love-goddesses, War-gods, not omitting +Bacchus and his vines, all getting beautifully awake in consequence. A +very fine room indeed;--used as a Music-saloon, or I know not what,--and +the ceiling of it almost an ideal, say the connoisseurs. + +Endless gardens, pavilions, grottos, hermitages, orangeries, artificial +ruins, parks and pleasances surround this favored spot and its Schloss; +nothing wanting in it that a Prince's establishment needs,--except +indeed it be hounds, for which this Prince never had the least demand. + +Except the old Ruppin duties, which imply continual journeyings thither, +distance only a morning's ride; except these, and occasional commissions +from Papa, Friedrich is left master of his time and pursuits in this new +Mansion. There are visits to Potsdam, periodical appearances at +Berlin; some Correspondence to keep the Tobacco-Parliament in tune. But +Friedrich's taste is for the Literatures, Philosophies: a--young Prince +bent seriously to cultivate his mind; to attain some clear knowledge of +this world, so all-important to him. And he does seriously read, study +and reflect a good deal; his main recreations, seemingly, are Music, +and the converse of well-informed, friendly men. In Music we find him +particularly rich. Daily, at a fixed hour of the afternoon, there is +concert held; the reader has seen in what kind of room: and if the +Artists entertained here for that function were enumerated (high names, +not yet forgotten in the Musical world), it would still more astonish +readers. I count them to the number of twenty or nineteen; and mention +only that "the two Brothers Graun" and "the two Brothers Benda" were of +the lot; suppressing four other Fiddlers of eminence, and "a Pianist +who is known to everybody." [Hennert, p. 21.] The Prince has a fine +sensibility to Music: does himself, with thrilling adagios on the +flute, join in these harmonious acts; and, no doubt, if rightly vigilant +against the Nonsenses, gets profit, now and henceforth, from this part +of his resources. + +He has visits, calls to make, on distinguished persons within reach; he +has much Correspondence, of a Literary or Social nature. For instance, +there is Suhm the Saxon Envoy translating _Wolf's Philosophy_ into +French for him; sending it in fascicles; with endless Letters to and +from, upon it,--which were then highly interesting, but are now dead +to every reader. The Crown-Prince has got a Post-Office established +at Reinsberg; leathern functionary of some sort comes lumbering round, +southward, "from the Mecklenburg quarter twice a week, and goes by +Fehrbellin," for the benefit of his Correspondences. Of his calls in the +neighborhood, we mean to show the reader one sample, before long; and +only one. + +There are Lists given us of the Prince's "Court" at Reinsberg; and one +reads, and again reads, the dreariest unmemorable accounts of them; but +cannot, with all one's industry, attain any definite understanding of +what they were employed in, day after day, at Reinsberg:--still more +are their salaries and maintenance a mystery to us, in that frugal +establishment. There is Wolden for Hofmarschall, our old Custrin friend; +there is Colonel Senning, old Marlborough Colonel with the wooden leg, +who taught Friedrich his drillings and artillery-practices in boyhood, +a fine sagacious old gentleman this latter. There is a M. Jordan, +Ex-Preacher, an ingenious Prussian-Frenchman, still young, who acts +as "Reader and Librarian;" of whom we shall hear a good deal more. +"Intendant" is Captain (Ex-Captain) Knobelsdorf; a very sensible +accomplished man, whom we saw once at Baireuth; who has been to Italy +since, and is now returned with beautiful talents for Architecture: it +is he that now undertakes the completing of Reinsberg, [Hennert, p. +29.] which he will skilfully accomplish in the course of the next three +years. Twenty Musicians on wind or string; Painters, Antoine Pesne but +one of them; Sculptors, Glume and others of eminence; and Hof-Cavaliers, +to we know not what extent:--how was such a Court kept up, in harmonious +free dignity, and no halt in its finances, or mean pinch of any kind +visible? The Prince did get in debt; but not deep, and it was mainly for +the tall recruits he had to purchase. His money-accounts are by no means +fully known to me: but I should question if his expenditure (such is my +guess) ever reached 3,000 pounds a year; and am obliged to reflect more +and more, as the ancient Cato did, what an admirable revenue frugality +is! + +Many of the Cavaliers, I find, for one thing, were of the Regiment +Goltz; that was one evident economy. "Rittmeister van Chasot," as the +Books call him: readers saw that Chasot flying to Prince Eugene, and +know him since the Siege of Philipsburg. He is not yet Rittmeister, +or Captain of Horse, as he became; but is of the Ruppin Garrison; +Hof-Cavalier; "attended Friedrich on his late Prussian journey;" and +is much a favorite, when he can be spared from Ruppin. Captain Wylich, +afterwards a General of mark; the Lieutenant Buddenbrock who did the +parson-charivari at Ruppin, but is now reformed from those practices: +all these are of Goltz. Colonel Keyserling, not of Goltz, nor in active +military duty here, is a friend of very old standing; was officially +named as "Companion" to the Prince, a long while back; and got into +trouble on his account in the disastrous Ante-Custrin or Flight Epoch: +one of the Prince's first acts, when he got pardoned after Custrin, was +to beg for the pardon of this Keyserling; and now he has him here, and +is very fond of him. A Courlander, of good family, this Keyserling; +of good gifts too,--which, it was once thought, would be practically +sublime; for he carried off all manner of college prizes, and was the +Admirable-Crichton of Konigsberg University and the Graduates there. But +in the end they proved to be gifts of the vocal sort rather: and have +led only to what we see. A man, I should guess, rather of buoyant +vivacity than of depth or strength in intellect or otherwise. +Excessively buoyant, ingenious; full of wit, kindly exuberance; a +loyal-hearted, gay-tempered man, and much a favorite in society as well +as with the Prince. If we were to dwell on Reinsberg, Keyserling would +come prominently forward. + +Major van Stille, ultimately Major-General von Stille, I should also +mention: near twenty years older than the Prince; a wise thoughtful +soldier (went, by permission, to the Siege of Dantzig lately, to improve +himself); a man capable of rugged service, when the time comes. His +military writings were once in considerable esteem with professional +men; and still impress a lay reader with favorable notions towards +Stille, as a man of real worth and sense. [_Campagnes du Roi de +Prusse;_--a posthumous Book; ANTERIOR to the Seven-Years War.] + + + + +OF MONSIEUR JORDAN AND THE LITERARY SET. + +There is, of course, a Chaplain in the Establishment: a Reverend "M. +Deschamps;" who preaches to them all,--in French no doubt. Friedrich +never hears Deschamps: Friedrich is always over at Ruppin on Sundays; +and there "himself reads a sermon to the Garrison," as part of the day's +duties. Reads finely, in a melodious feeling manner, says Formey, who +can judge: "even in his old days, he would incidentally," when some +Emeritus Parson, like Formey, chanced to be with him, "roll out choice +passages from Bossuet, from Massillon," in a voice and with a look, +which would have been perfection in the pulpit, thinks Formey. +[_Souvenirs d'un Citoyen_ (2de edition, Paris, 1797), i. 37.] + +M. Jordan, though he was called "LECTEUR (Reader)," did not read to him, +I can perceive; but took charge of the Books; busied himself honestly to +be useful in all manner of literary or quasi-literary ways. He was, +as his name indicates, from the French-refugee department; a recent +acquisition, much valued at Reinsberg. As he makes a figure afterwards, +we had better mark him a little. + +Jordan's parents were wealthy religious persons, in trade at Berlin; +this Jordan (Charles Etienne, age now thirty-six) was their eldest son. +It seems they had destined him from birth, consulting their own pious +feelings merely, to be a Preacher of the Gospel; the other sons, all of +them reckoned clever too, were brought up to secular employments. And +preach he, this poor Charles Etienne, accordingly did; what best Gospel +he had; in an honest manner, all say,--though never with other than a +kind of reluctance on the part of Nature, forced out of her course. He +had wedded, been clergyman in two successive country places; when his +wife died, leaving him one little daughter, and a heart much overset by +that event. Friends, wealthy Brothers probably, had pushed him out into +the free air, in these circumstances: "Take a Tour; Holland, England; +feel the winds blowing, see the sun shining, as in times past: it will +do you good!" + +Jordan, in the course of his Tour, came to composure on several points. +He found that, by frugality, by wise management of some peculium already +his, his little Daughter and he might have quietness at Berlin, and the +necessary food and raiment;--and, on the whole, that he would altogether +cease preaching, and settle down there, among his Books, in a frugal +manner. Which he did;--and was living so, when the Prince, searching for +that kind of person, got tidings of him. And here he is at Reinsberg; +bustling about, in a brisk, modestly frank and cheerful manner: well +liked by everybody; by his Master very well and ever better, who grew +into real regard, esteem and even friendship for him, and has much +Correspondence, of a freer kind than is common to him, with little +Jordan, so long as they lived together. Jordan's death, ten years hence, +was probably the one considerable pain he had ever given his neighbors, +in this the ultimate section of his life. + +I find him described, at Reinsberg, as a small nimble figure, of +Southern-French aspect; black, uncommonly bright eyes; and a general +aspect of adroitness, modesty, sense, sincerity; good prognostics, which +on acquaintance with the man were pleasantly fulfilled. + +For the sake of these considerations, I fished out, from the Old-Book +Catalogues and sea of forgetfulness, some of the poor Books he wrote; +especially a _Voyage Litteraire,_ [_Histoire d'un Voyage Litteraire +fait, en MDCCXXXIII., en France, en Angleterre et en Hollande_ (2de +edition, a La Haye, 1736).] Journal of that first Sanitary Excursion or +Tour he took, to get the clouds blown from his mind. A LITERARY VOYAGE +which awakens a kind of tragic feeling; being itself dead, and treating +of matters which are all gone dead. So many immortal writers, Dutch +chiefly, whom Jordan is enabled to report as having effloresced, or +being soon to effloresce, in such and such forms, of Books important to +be learned: leafy, blossomy Forest of Literature, waving glorious in +the then sunlight to Jordan;--and it lies all now, to Jordan and us, not +withered only, but abolished; compressed into a film of indiscriminate +PEAT. Consider what that peat is made of, O celebrated or uncelebrated +reader, and take a moral from Jordan's Book! Other merit, except indeed +clearness and commendable brevity, the _Voyage Litteraire_ or other +little Books of Jordan's have not now. A few of his Letters to +Friedrich, which exist, are the only writings with the least life +left in them, and this an accidental life, not momentous to him or +us. Dryasdust informs me, "Abbe Jordan, alone of the Crown-Prince's +cavaliers, sleeps in the Town of Reinsberg, not in the Schloss:" and if +I ask, Why?--there is no answer. Probably his poor little Daughterkin +was beside him there?-- + +We have to say of Friedrich's Associates, that generally they were of +intelligent type, each of them master of something or other, and +capable of rational discourse upon that at least. Integrity, loyalty of +character, was indispensable; good humor, wit if it could be had, were +much in request. There was no man of shining distinction there; but +they were the best that could be had, and that is saying all. Friedrich +cannot be said, either as Prince or as King, to have been superlatively +successful in his choice of associates. With one single exception, to +be noticed shortly, there is not one of them whom we should now remember +except for Friedrich's sake;--uniformly they are men whom it is now a +weariness to hear of, except in a cursory manner. One man of shining +parts he had, and one only; no man ever of really high and great mind. +The latter sort are not so easy to get; rarely producible on the soil of +this Earth! Nor is it certain how Friedrich might have managed with one +of this sort, or he with Friedrich;--though Friedrich unquestionably +would have tried, had the chance offered. For he loved intellect as few +men on the throne, or off it, ever did; and the little he could gather +of it round him often seems to me a fact tragical rather than otherwise. + +With the outer Berlin social world, acting and reacting, Friedrich has +his connections, which obscurely emerge on us now and then. Literary +Eminences, who are generally of Theological vesture; any follower of +Philosophy, especially if he be of refined manners withal, or known in +fashionable life, is sure to attract him; and gains ample recognition +at Reinsberg or on Town-visits. But the Berlin Theological or Literary +world at that time, still more the Berlin Social, like a sunk extinct +object, continues very dim in those old records; and to say truth, what +features we have of it do not invite to miraculous efforts for farther +acquaintance. Venerable Beausobre, with his _History of the Manicheans, +[_Histoire critique de Manichee et du Manicheisme:_ wrote also +_Remarques &c. sur le Nouveau Testament,_ which were once famous; +_Histoire de la Reformation;_ &c. &c. He is Beausobre SENIOR; there were +two Sons (one of them born in second wedlock, after Papa was 70), who +were likewise given to writing.--See Formey, _Souvenirs d'un Citoyen +since, in Toland and the Republican Queen's time, as a light of the +world. He is now fourscore, grown white as snow; very serene, polite, +with a smack of French noblesse in him, perhaps a smack of affectation +traceable too. The Crown-Prince, on one of his Berlin visits, wished to +see this Beausobre; got a meeting appointed, in somebody's rooms "in +the French College," and waited for the venerable man. Venerable man +entered, loftily serene as a martyr Preacher of the Word, something +of an ancient Seigneur de Beausobre in him, too; for the rest, soft as +sunset, and really with fine radiances, in a somewhat twisted state, +in that good old mind of his. "What have you been reading lately, M. de +Beausobre?" said the Prince, to begin conversation. "Ah, Monseigneur, +I have just risen from reading the sublimest piece of writing that +exists."--"And what?" "The exordium of St. John's Gospel: _In the +Beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God, and the Word was--"_ +Which somewhat took the Prince by surprise, as Formey reports; though he +rallied straightway, and got good conversation out of the old gentleman. +To whom, we perceive, he writes once or twice, [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ +121-126. Dates are all of 1737; the last of Beausobre's years.]--a copy +of his own verses to correct, on one occasion,--and is very respectful +and considerate. + +Formey tells us of another French sage, personally known to the Prince +since Boyhood; for he used to be about the Palace, doing something. +This is one La Croze; Professor of, I think, "Philosophy" in the French +College: sublime Monster of Erudition, at that time; forgotten now, I +fear, by everybody. Swag-bellied, short of wind; liable to rages, to +utterances of a coarse nature; a decidedly ugly, monstrous and rather +stupid kind of man. Knew twenty languages, in a coarse inexact way. +Attempted deep kinds of discourse, in the lecture-room and elsewhere; +but usually broke off into endless welters of anecdote, not always of +cleanly nature; and after every two or three words, a desperate sigh, +not for sorrow, but on account of flabbiness and fat. Formey gives a +portraiture of him; not worth copying farther. The same Formey, standing +one day somewhere on the streets of Berlin, was himself, he cannot +doubt, SEEN by the Crown-Prince in passing; "who asked M. Jordan, who +that was," and got answer:--is not that a comfortable fact? Nothing +farther came of it;--respectable Ex-Parson Formey, though ever +ready with his pen, being indeed of very vapid nature, not wanted at +Reinsberg, as we can guess. + +There is M. Achard, too, another Preacher, supreme of his sort, in the +then Berlin circles; to whom or from whom a Letter or two exist. Letters +worthless, if it were not for one dim indication: That, on inquiry, the +Crown-Prince had been consulting this supreme Achard on the difficulties +of Orthodoxy; [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xvi. pp. 112-117: date, +March-June, 1736.] and had given him texts, or a text, to preach from. +Supreme Achard did not abolish the difficulties for his inquiring +Prince,--who complains respectfully that "his faith is weak," and leaves +us dark as to particulars. This Achard passage is almost the only +hint we have of what might have been an important chapter: Friedrich's +Religious History at Reinsberg. The expression "weak faith" I take to +be meant not in mockery, but in ingenuous regret and solicitude; much +painful fermentation, probably, on the religious question in those +Reinsberg years! But the old "GNADENWAHL" business, the Free-Grace +controversy, had taught him to be cautious as to what he uttered on +those points. The fermentation, therefore, had to go on under cover; +what the result of it was, is notorious enough; though the steps of the +process are not in any point known. + +Enough now of such details. Outwardly or inwardly, there is no History, +or almost none, to be had of this Reinsberg Period; the extensive +records of it consisting, as usual, mainly of chaotic nugatory matter, +opaque to the mind of readers. There is copious correspondence of the +Crown-Prince, with at least dates to it for most part: but this, +which should be the main resource, proves likewise a poor one; the +Crown-Prince's Letters, now or afterwards, being almost never of a deep +or intimate quality; and seldom turning on events or facts at all, and +then not always on facts interesting, on facts clearly apprehensible to +us in that extinct element. + +The Thing, we know always, IS there; but vision of the Thing is only to +be had faintly, intermittently. Dim inane twilight, with here and +there a transient SPARK falling somewhither in it;--you do at last, by +desperate persistence, get to discern outlines, features:--"The Thing +cannot always have been No-thing," you reflect! Outlines, features:--and +perhaps, after all, those are mostly what the reader wants on this +occasion. + + + + +Chapter II. -- OF VOLTAIRE AND THE LITERARY CORRESPONDENCES. + +One of Friedrich's grand purposes at Reinsberg, to himself privately +the grandest there, which he follows with constant loyalty and ardor, +is that of scaling the heights of the Muses' Hill withal; of attaining +mastership, discipleship, in Art and Philosophy;--or in candor let us +call it, what it truly was, that of enlightening and fortifying himself +with clear knowledge, clear belief, on all sides; and acquiring some +spiritual panoply in which to front the coming practicalities of life. +This, he feels well, will be a noble use of his seclusion in those still +places; and it must be owned, he struggles and endeavors towards this, +with great perseverance, by all the methods in his power, here, or +wherever afterwards he might be. + +Here at Reinsberg, one of his readiest methods, his pleasantest if not +his usefulest, is that of getting into correspondence with the chief +spirits of his time. Which accordingly he forthwith sets about, after +getting into Reinsberg, and continues, as we shall see, with much +assiduity. Rollin, Fontenelle, and other French lights of the then +firmament,--his Letters to them exist; and could be given in some +quantity: but it is better not. They are intrinsically the common +Letters on such occasions: "O sublime demi-god of literature, how small +are princely distinctions to such a glory as thine; thou who enterest +within the veil of the temple, and issuest with thy face shining!"--To +which the response is: "Hm, think you so, most happy, gracious, +illustrious Prince, with every convenience round you, and such prospects +ahead? Well, thank you, at any rate,--and, as the Irish say, more power +to your Honor's Glory!" This really is nearly all that said Sets of +Letters contain; and except perhaps the Voltaire Set, none of them give +symptoms of much capacity to contain more. + +Certainly there was no want of Literary Men discernible from Reinsberg +at that time; and the young Prince corresponds with a good many of them; +temporal potentate saluting spiritual, from the distance,--in a way +highly interesting to the then parties, but now without interest, except +of the reflex kind, to any creature. A very cold and empty portion, +this, of the Friedrich Correspondence; standing there to testify what +his admiration was for literary talent, or the great reputation of such; +but in itself uninstructive utterly, and of freezing influence on the +now living mind. Most of those French lights of the then firmament are +gone out. Forgotten altogether; or recognized, like Rollin and others, +for polished dullards, university big-wigs, and long-winded commonplace +persons, deserving nothing but oblivion. To Montesquieu,--not yet called +"Baron de Montesquieu" with ESPRIT DES LOIS, but "M. de Secondat" with +(Anonymous) LETTRES PERSANES, and already known to the world for a +person of sharp audacious eyesight,--it does not appear that Friedrich +addressed any Letter, now or afterwards. No notice of Montesquieu; nor +of some others, the absence of whom is a little unexpected. Probably +it was want of knowledge mainly; for his appetite was not fastidious at +this time. And certainly he did hit the centre of the mark, and get +into the very kernel of French literature, when, in 1736, hardly yet +established in his new quarters, he addressed himself to the shining +figure known to us as "Arouet Junior" long since, and now called M. DE +VOLTAIRE; which latter is still a name notable in Friedrich's History +and that of Mankind. Friedrich's first Letter, challenging Voltaire +to correspondence, dates itself 8th August, 1736; and Voltaire's +Answer--the Reinsberg Household still only in its second month--was +probably the brightest event which had yet befallen there. + +On various accounts it will behoove us to look a good deal more strictly +into this Voltaire; and, as his relations to Friedrich and to the world +are so multiplex, endeavor to disengage the real likeness of the +man from the circumambient noise and confusion which in his instance +continue very great. "Voltaire was the spiritual complement of +Friedrich," says Sauerteig once: "what little of lasting their poor +Century produced lies mainly in these Two. A very somnambulating +Century! But what little it DID, we must call Friedrich; what little it +THOUGHT, Voltaire. Other fruit we have not from it to speak of, at this +day. Voltaire, and what CAN be faithfully done on the Voltaire Creed; +'Realized Voltairism;'--admit it, reader, not in a too triumphant +humor,--is not that pretty much the net historical product of the +Eighteenth Century? The rest of its history either pure somnambulism; or +a mere Controversy, to the effect, 'Realized Voltairism? How soon +shall it be realized, then? Not at once, surely!' So that Friedrich and +Voltaire are related, not by accident only. They are, they for want of +better, the two Original Men of their Century; the chief and in a sense +the sole products of their Century. They alone remain to us as still +living results from it,--such as they are. And the rest, truly, OUGHT +to depart and vanish (as they are now doing); being mere ephemera; +contemporary eaters, scramblers for provender, talkers of acceptable +hearsay; and related merely to the butteries and wiggeries of their +time, and not related to the Perennialities at all, as these Two +were."--With more of the like sort from Sauerteig. + +M. de Voltaire, who used to be M. Francois-Marie Arouet, was at this +time about forty, [Born 20th February, 1694; the younger of two sons: +Father, "Francois Arouet, a Notary of the Chatelet, ultimately Treasurer +of the Chamber of Accounts;" Mother, "Marguerite d'Aumart, of a noble +family of Poitou."] and had gone through various fortunes; a man, now +and henceforth, in a high degree conspicuous, and questionable to his +fellow-creatures. Clear knowledge of him ought, at this stage, to +be common; but unexpectedly it is not. What endless writing and +biographying there has been about this man; in which one still reads, +with a kind of lazy satisfaction, due to the subject, and to the French +genius in that department! But the man himself, and his environment and +practical aspects, what the actual physiognomy of his life and of him +can have been, is dark from beginning to ending; and much is left in an +ambiguous undecipherable condition to us. A proper History of Voltaire, +in which should be discoverable, luminous to human creatures, what he +was, what element he lived in, what work he did: this is still a problem +for the genius of France!-- + +His Father's name is known to us; the name of his Father's profession, +too, but not clearly the nature of it; still less his Father's +character, economic circumstances, physiognomy spiritual or social: not +the least possibility granted you of forming an image, however faint, +of that notable man and household, which distinguished itself to all the +earth by producing little Francois into the light of this sun. Of Madame +Arouet, who, or what, or how she was, nothing whatever is known. A human +reader, pestered continually with the Madame-Denises, Abbe-Mignots and +enigmatic nieces and nephews, would have wished to know, at least, what +children, besides Francois, Madame Arouet had: once for all, How many +children? Name them, with year of birth, year of death, according to the +church-registers: they all, at any rate, had that degree of history! No; +even that has not been done. Beneficent correspondents of my own make +answer, after some research, No register of the Arouets anywhere to +be had. The very name VOLTAIRE, if you ask whence came it? there is no +answer, or worse than none.--The fit "History" of this man, which might +be one of the shining Epics of his Century, and the lucid summary and +soul of any HISTORY France then had, but which would require almost a +French demi-god to do it, is still a great way off, if on the road at +all! For present purposes, we select what follows from a well-known +hand:-- + +"YOUTH OF VOLTAIRE (1694-1725).--French Biographers have left the Arouet +Household very dark for us; meanwhile we can perceive, or guess, that it +was moderately well in economic respects; that Francois was the second +of the Two Sons; and that old Arouet, a steady, practical and perhaps +rather sharp-tempered old gentleman, of official legal habits and +position, 'Notary of the Chatelet' and something else, had destined him +for the Law Profession; as was natural enough to a son of M. Arouet, who +had himself succeeded well in Law, and could there, best of all, open +roads for a clever second son. Francois accordingly sat 'in chambers,' +as we call it; and his fellow-clerks much loved him,--the most amusing +fellow in the world. Sat in chambers, even became an advocate; but did +not in the least take to advocateship;--took to poetry, and other airy +dangerous courses, speculative, practical; causing family explosions +and rebukes, which were without effect on him. A young fool, bent on +sportful pursuits instead of serious; more and more shuddering at Law. +To the surprise and indignation of M. Arouet Senior. Law, with its wigs +and sheepskins, pointing towards high honors and deep flesh-pots, had no +charms for the young fool; he could not be made to like Law. + +"Whereupon arose explosions, as we hint; family explosions on the part +of M. Arouet Senior; such that friends had to interfere, and it was +uncertain what would come of it. One judicious friend, 'M. Caumartin,' +took the young fellow home to his house in the country for a time;--and +there, incidentally, brought him acquainted with old gentlemen deep +in the traditions of Henri Quatre and the cognate topics; which much +inflamed the young fellow, and produced big schemes in the head of him. + +"M. Arouet Senior stood strong for Law; but it was becoming daily more +impossible. Madrigals, dramas (not without actresses), satirical wit, +airy verse, and all manner of adventurous speculation, were what +this young man went upon; and was getting more and more loved for; +introduced, even, to the superior circles, and recognized there as one +of the brightest young fellows ever seen. Which tended, of course, to +confirm him in his folly, and open other outlooks and harbors of refuge +than the paternal one. + +"Such things, strange to M. Arouet Senior, were in vogue then; wicked +Regent d'Orleans having succeeded sublime Louis XIV., and set strange +fashions to the Quality. Not likely to profit this fool Francois, +thought M. Arouet Senior; and was much confirmed in his notion, when a +rhymed Lampoon against the Government having come out (LES J'AI VU, as +they call it ["I have seen (J'AI VU)" this ignominy occur, "I have seen" +that other,--to the amount of a dozen or two;--"and am not yet twenty." +Copy of it, and guess as to authorship, in _OEuvres de Voltaire_, i. +321.]), and become the rage, as a clever thing of the kind will, it was +imputed to the brightest young fellow in France, M. Arouet's Son. Who, +in fact, was not the Author; but was not believed on his denial; and +saw himself, in spite of his high connections, ruthlessly lodged in the +Bastille in consequence. 'Let him sit,' thought M. Arouet Senior, 'and +come to his senses there!' He sat for eighteen months (age still little +above twenty); but privately employed his time, not in repentance, or in +serious legal studies, but in writing a Poem on his Henri Quatre. 'Epic +Poem,' no less; LA LIGUE, as he then called it; which it was his hope +the whole world would one day fall in love with;--as it did. Nay, in two +years more, he had done a Play, OEDIPE the renowned name of it; which +ran for forty-eight nights' (18th November, 1718, the first of them); +and was enough to turn any head of such age. Law may be considered +hopeless, even by M. Arouet Senior. + +"Try him in the Diplomatic line; break these bad habits and connections, +thought M. Arouet, at one time; and sent him to the French Ambassador +in Holland,--on good behavior, as it were, and by way of temporary +banishment. But neither did this answer. On the contrary, the young +fellow got into scrapes again; got into amatory intrigues,--young lady +visiting you in men's clothes, young lady's mother inveigling, and I +know not what;--so that the Ambassador was glad to send him home again +unmarried; marked, as it were, 'Glass, with care!' And the young lady's +mother printed his Letters, not the least worth reading:--and the old M. +Arouet seems now to have flung up his head; to have settled some small +allowance on him, with peremptory no hope of more, and said, 'Go your +own way, then, foolish junior: the elder shall be my son.' M. Arouet +disappears at this point, or nearly so, from the history of his son +Francois; and I think must have died in not many years. Poor old +M. Arouet closed his old eyes without the least conception what a +prodigious ever-memorable thing he had done unknowingly, in sending this +Francois into the world, to kindle such universal 'dry dung-heap of a +rotten world,' and set it blazing! Francois, his Father's synonym, came +to be representative of the family, after all; the elder Brother also +having died before long. Except certain confused niece-and-nephew +personages, progeny of the sisters, Francois has no more trouble or +solacement from the paternal household. Francois meanwhile is his +Father's synonym, and signs Arouet Junior, 'Francois Aroue l. j. (LE +JEUNE).' + +"'All of us Princes, then, or Poets!' said he, one night at supper, +looking to right and left: the brightest fellow in the world, well fit +to be Phoebus Apollo of such circles; and great things now ahead of him. +Dissolute Regent d'Orleans, politest, most debauched of men, and very +witty, holds the helm; near him Dubois the Devil's Cardinal, and so many +bright spirits. All the Luciferous Spiritualism there is in France is +lifting anchor, under these auspices, joyfully towards new latitudes +and Isles of the Blest. What may not Francois hope to become? 'Hmph!' +answers M. Arouet Senior, steadily, so long as he lives. Here are one +or two subsequent phases, epochs or turning-points, of the young +gentleman's career. + +"PHASIS FIRST (1725-1728).--The accomplished Duc de Sulli (Year 1725, +day not recorded), is giving in his hotel a dinner, such as usual; and a +bright witty company is assembled;--the brightest young fellow in +France sure to be there; and with his electric coruscations illuminating +everything, and keeping the table in a roar. To the delight of most; not +to that of a certain splenetic ill-given Duc de Rohan; grandee of high +rank, great haughtiness, and very ill-behavior in the world; who feels +impatient at the notice taken of a mere civic individual, Arouet Junior. +_ 'Quel est done ce jeune homme qui parle si haut,_ Who is this young +man that talks so loud, then?' exclaims the proud splenetic Duke. +'Monseigneur,' flashes the young man back upon him in an electric +manner, 'it is one who does not drag a big name about with him; but who +secures respect for the name he has!' Figure that, in the penetrating +grandly clangorous voice (VOIX SOMBRE ET MAJESTUEUSE), and the momentary +flash of eyes that attended it. Duc de Rohan rose, in a sulphurous +frame of mind; and went his ways. What date? You ask the idle French +Biographer in vain;--see only, after more and more inspection, that +the incident is true; and with labor date it, summer of the Year +1725. Treaty of Utrecht itself, though all the Newspapers and Own +Correspondents were so interested in it, was perhaps but a foolish +matter to date in comparison! + +"About a week after, M. Arouet Junior was again dining with the Duc +de Sulli, and a fine company as before. A servant whispers him, That +somebody has called, and wants him below. 'Cannot come,' answers Arouet; +'how can I, so engaged?' Servant returns after a minute or two: 'Pardon, +Monsieur; I am to say, it is to do an act of beneficence that you are +wanted below!' Arouet lays down his knife and fork; descends instantly +to see what act it is. A carriage is in the court, and hackney-coach +near it: 'Would Monsieur have the extreme goodness to come to the door +of the carriage, in a case of necessity?' At the door of the carriage, +hands seize the collar of him, hold him as in a vice; diabolic visage +of Duc de Rohan is visible inside, who utters, looking to the +hackney-coach, some "VOILA, Now then!" Whereupon the hackney-coach +opens, gives out three porters, or hired bullies, with the due +implements: scandalous actuality of horsewhipping descends on the back +of poor Arouet, who shrieks and execrates to no purpose, nobody being +near. 'That will do,' says Rohan at last, and the gallant ducal party +drive off; young Arouet, with torn frills and deranged hair, rushing up +stairs again, in such a mood as is easy to fancy. Everybody is sorry, +inconsolable, everybody shocked; nobody volunteers to help in avenging. +'Monseigneur de Sulli, is not such atrocity done to one of your +guests, an insult to yourself?' asks Arouet. 'Well, yes perhaps, +but'--Monseigneur de Sulli shrugs his shoulders, and proposes nothing. +Arouet withdrew, of course in a most blazing condition, to consider what +he could, on his own strength, do in this conjuncture. + +"His Biographer Duvernet says, he decided on doing two things: learning +English and the small-sword exercise. [_La Vie de Voltaire,_ par M--(a +Geneve, 1786), pp. 55-57; or pp. 60-63, in his SECOND form of the Book. +The "M--" is an Abbe Duvernet; of no great mark otherwise. He got +into Revolution trouble afterwards, but escaped with his head; and +republished his Book, swollen out somewhat by new "Anecdotes" and +republican bluster, in this second instance; signing himself T. J. D. +V--(Paris, 1797). A vague but not dark or mendacious little Book; +with traces of real EYESIGHT in it,--by one who had personally known +Voltaire, or at least seen and heard him.] He retired to the country for +six months, and perfected himself in these two branches. Being perfect, +he challenged Duc de Rohan in the proper manner; applying ingenious +compulsives withal, to secure acceptance of the challenge. Rohan +accepted, not without some difficulty, and compulsion at the Theatre or +otherwise:--accepted, but withal confessed to his wife. The result was, +no measuring of swords took place; and Rohan only blighted by public +opinion, or incapable of farther blight that way, went at large; a +convenient LETTRE DE CACHET having put Arouet again in the Bastille. +Where for six months Arouet lodged a second time, the innocent not the +guilty; making, we can well suppose, innumerable reflections on the +phenomena of human life. Imprisonment once over, he hastily quitted for +England; shaking the dust of ungrateful France off his feet,--resolved +to change his unhappy name, for one thing. + +"Smelfungus, denouncing the torpid fatuity of Voltaire's Biographers, +says he never met with one Frenchman, even of the Literary classes, who +could tell him whence this name VOLTAIRE originated. 'A PETITE +TERRE, small family estate,' they said; and sent him hunting through +Topographies, far and wide, to no purpose. Others answered, 'Volterra +in Italy, some connection with Volterra,'--and seemed even to know that +this was but fatuity. 'In ever-talking, ever-printing Paris, is it as +in Timbuctoo, then, which neither prints nor has anything to print?' +exclaims poor Smelfungus! He tells us at last, the name VOLTAIRE is +a mere Anagram of AROUET L. J.--you try it; +A.R.O.U.E.T.L.J.=V.O.L.T.A.I.R.E and perceive at once, with obligations +to Smelfungus, that he has settled this small matter for you, and that +you can be silent upon it forever thenceforth. + +"The anagram VOLTAIRE, gloomily settled in the Bastille in this manner, +can be reckoned a very famous wide-sounding outer result of the Rohan +impertinence and blackguardism; but it is not worth naming beside the +inner intrinsic result, of banishing Voltaire to England at this point +of his course. England was full of Constitutionality and Freethinking; +Tolands, Collinses, Wollastons, Bolingbrokes, still living; very free +indeed. England, one is astonished to see, has its royal-republican ways +of doing; something Roman in it, from Peerage down to Plebs; strange and +curious to the eye of M. de Voltaire. Sciences flourishing; Newton still +alive, white with fourscore years, the venerable hoary man; Locke's +Gospel of Common Sense in full vogue, or even done into verse, by +incomparable Mr. Pope, for the cultivated upper classes. In science, +in religion, in politics, what a surprising 'liberty' allowed or taken! +Never was a freer turn of thinking. And (what to M. de Voltaire is a +pleasant feature) it is Freethinking with ruffles to its shirt and rings +on its fingers;--never yet, the least, dreaming of the shirtless or +SANSCULOTTIC state that lies ahead for it! That is the palmy condition +of English Liberty, when M. de Voltaire arrives there. + +"In a man just out of the Bastille on those terms, there is a mind +driven by hard suffering into seriousness, and provoked by indignant +comparisons and remembrances. As if you had elaborately ploughed and +pulverized the mind of this Voltaire to receive with its utmost avidity, +and strength of fertility, whatever seed England may have for it. That +was a notable conjuncture of a man with circumstances. The question, +Is this man to grow up a Court Poet; to do legitimate dramas, lampoons, +witty verses, and wild spiritual and practical magnificences, the like +never seen; Princes and Princesses recognizing him as plainly divine, +and keeping him tied by enchantments to that poor trade as his task in +life? is answered in the negative. No: and it is not quite to decorate +and comfort your 'dry dung-heap' of a world, or the fortunate cocks that +scratch on it, that the man Voltaire is here; but to shoot lightnings +into it, and set it ablaze one day! That was an important alternative; +truly of world-importance to the poor generations that now are; and +it was settled, in good part, by this voyage to England, as one may +surmise. Such is sometimes the use of a dissolute Rohan in this world; +for the gods make implements of all manner of things. + +"M. de Voltaire (for we now drop the Arouet altogether, and never hear +of it more) came to England--when? Quitted England--when? Sorrow on +all fatuous Biographers, who spend their time not in laying permanent +foundation-stones, but in fencing with the wind!--I at last find +indisputably, it was in 1726 that he came to England: [Got out of +the Bastille, with orders to leave France, "29th April" of that year +(_OEuvres de Voltaire,_ i. 40 n.).] and he himself tells us that he +1728.' Spent, therefore, some two years there in all,--last year of +George I.'s reign, and first of George II.'s. But mere inanity and +darkness visible reign, in all his Biographies, over this period of his +life, which was above all others worth investigating: seek not to know +it; no man has inquired into it, probably no competent man now ever +will. By hints in certain Letters of the period, we learn that he +lodged, or at one time lodged, in 'Maiden Lane, Covent Garden;' one of +those old Houses that yet stand in Maiden Lane: for which small fact +let us be thankful. His own Letters of the period are dated now and +then from 'Wandsworth.' Allusions there are to Bolingbroke; but the +Wandsworth is not Bolingbroke's mansion, which stood in Battersea; the +Wandsworth was one Edward Fawkener's; a man somewhat admirable to young +Voltaire, but extinct now, or nearly so, in human memory. He had been a +Turkey Merchant, it would seem, and nevertheless was admitted to speak +his word in intellectual, even in political circles; which was wonderful +to young Voltaire. This Fawkener, I think, became Sir Edward Fawkener, +and some kind of 'Secretary to the Duke of Cumberland:'--I judge it to +be the same Fawkener; a man highly unmemorable now, were it not for the +young Frenchman he was hospitable to. Fawkener's and Bolingbroke's +are perhaps the only names that turn up in Voltaire's LETTERS of +this English Period: over which generally there reigns, in the French +Biographies, inane darkness, with an intimation, half involuntary, that +it SHOULD have been made luminous, and would if perfectly easy. + +"We know, from other sources, that he had acquaintance with many men +in England, with all manner of important men: Notes to Pope in +Voltaire-English, visit of Voltaire to Congreve, Notes even to such as +Lady Sundon in the interior of the Palace, are known of. The brightest +young fellow in the world did not want for introductions to the highest +quarters, in that time of political alliance, and extensive private +acquaintance, between his Country and ours. And all this he was the +man to improve, both in the trivial and the deep sense. His bow to the +divine Princess Caroline and suite, could it fail in graceful reverence +or what else was needed? Dexterous right words in the right places, +winged with ESPRIT so called: that was the man's supreme talent, +in which he had no match, to the last. A most brilliant, swift, +far-glancing young man, disposed to make himself generally agreeable. +For the rest, his wonder, we can see, was kept awake; wonder readily +inclining, in his circumstances, towards admiration. The stereotype +figure of the Englishman, always the same, which turns up in Voltaire's +WORKS, is worth noting in this respect. A rugged surly kind of fellow, +much-enduring, not intrinsically bad; splenetic without complaint, +standing oddly inexpugnable in that natural stoicism of his; taciturn, +yet with strange flashes of speech in him now and then, something which +goes beyond laughter and articulate logic, and is the taciturn elixir of +these two, what they call 'humor' in their dialect: this is pretty much +the REVERSE of Voltaire's own self, and therefore all the welcomer to +him; delineated always with a kind of mockery, but with evident love. +What excellences are in England, thought Voltaire; no Bastille in it, +for one thing! Newton's Philosophy annihilated the vortexes of Descartes +for him; Locke's Toleration is very grand (especially if all is +uncertain, and YOU are in the minority); then Collins, Wollaston and +Company,--no vile Jesuits here, strong in their mendacious mal-odorous +stupidity, despicablest yet most dangerous of creatures, to check +freedom of thought! Illustrious Mr. Pope, of the _Essay on Man,_ surely +he is admirable; as are Pericles Bolingbroke, and many others. Even +Bolingbroke's high-lacquered brass is gold to this young French friend +of his.--Through all which admirations and exaggerations the progress of +the young man, toward certain very serious attainments and achievements, +is conceivable enough. + +"One other man, who ought to be mentioned in the Biographies, I find +Voltaire to have made acquaintance with, in England: a German +M. Fabrice, one of several Brothers called Fabrice or +Fabricius,--concerning whom, how he had been at Bender, and how Voltaire +picked CHARLES DOUSE from the memory of him, there was already mention. +The same Fabrice who held poor George I. in his arms while they drove, +galloping, to Osnabriick, that night, IN EXTREMIS:--not needing mention +again. The following is more to the point. + +"Voltaire, among his multifarious studies while in England, did not +forget that of economics: his Poem LA LIGUE,--surreptitiously printed, +three years since, under that title (one Desfontaines, a hungry +Ex-Jesuit, the perpetrator), [1723, VIE, par T. J. D. V. (that is, "M--" +in the second form), p. 59.]--he now took in hand for his own benefit; +washed it clean of its blots; christened it HENRIADE, under which name +it is still known over all the world;--and printed it; published it +here, by subscription, in 1726; one of the first things he undertook. +Very splendid subscription; headed by Princess Caroline, and much +favored by the opulent of quality. Which yielded an unknown but very +considerable sum of thousands sterling, and grounded not only the +world-renown but the domestic finance of M. de Voltaire. For the fame of +the 'new epic,' as this HENRIADE was called, soon spread into all lands. +And such fame, and other agencies on his behalf, having opened the way +home for Voltaire, he took this sum of Thousands Sterling along with +him; laid it out judiciously in some city lottery, or profitable scrip +then going at Paris, which at once doubled the amount: after which he +invested it in Corn-trade, Army Clothing, Barbary-trade, Commissariat +Bacon-trade, all manner of well-chosen trades,--being one of the +shrewdest financiers on record;--and never from that day wanted +abundance of money, for one thing. Which he judged to be extremely +expedient for a literary man, especially in times of Jesuit and other +tribulation. 'You have only to watch,' he would say, 'what scrips, +public loans, investments in the field of agio, are offered; if you +exert any judgment, it is easy to gain there: do not the stupidest of +mortals gain there, by intensely attending to it?' + +"Voltaire got almost nothing by his Books, which he generally had to +disavow, and denounce as surreptitious supposititious scandals, when +some sharp-set Book-seller, in whose way he had laid the savory +article as bait, chose to risk his ears for the profit of snatching +and publishing it. Next to nothing by his Books; but by his fine +finance-talent otherwise, he had become possessed of ample moneys. Which +were so cunningly disposed, too, that he had resources in every Country; +and no conceivable combination of confiscating Jesuits and dark fanatic +Official Persons could throw him out of a livelihood, whithersoever he +might be forced to run. A man that looks facts in the face; which is +creditable of him. The vulgar call it avarice and the like, as their way +is: but M. de Voltaire is convinced that effects will follow causes; and +that it well beseems a lonely Ishmaelite, hunting his way through the +howling wildernesses and confused ravenous populations of this world, to +have money in his pocket. He died with a revenue of some 7,000 pounds a +year, probably as good as 20,000 pounds at present; the richest literary +man ever heard of hitherto, as well as the remarkablest in some other +respects. But we have to mark the second phasis of his life [in which +Friedrich now sees him], and how it grew out of this first one. + +"PHASIS SECOND (1728-1733).--Returning home as if quietly triumphant, +with such a talent in him, and such a sanction put upon it and him by a +neighboring Nation, and by all the world, Voltaire was warmly received, +in his old aristocratic circles, by cultivated France generally; and +now in 1728, in his thirty-second year, might begin to have definite +outlooks of a sufficiently royal kind, in Literature and otherwise. Nor +is he slow, far from it, to advance, to conquer and enjoy. He writes +successful literature, falls in love with women of quality; encourages +the indigent and humble; eclipses, and in case of need tramples down, +the too proud. He elegizes poor Adrienne Lecouvreur, the Actress,--our +poor friend the Comte de Saxe's female friend; who loyally emptied out +her whole purse for him, 30,000 pounds in one sum, that he might try +for Courland, and whether he could fall in love with her of the Swollen +Cheek there; which proved impossible. Elegizes Adrienne, slightly, and +even buries her under cloud of night: ready to protect unfortunate +females of merit. Especially theatrical females; having much to do in +the theatre, which we perceive to be the pulpit or real preaching-place +of cultivated France in those years. All manner of verse, all manner of +prose, he dashes off with surprising speed and grace: showers of light +spray for the moment; and always some current of graver enterprise, +_Siecle de Louis Quatorze_ or the like, going on beneath it. For he is a +most diligent, swift, unresting man; and studies and learns amazingly in +such a rackety existence. Victorious enough in some senses; defeat, in +Literature, never visited him. His Plays, coming thick on the heels of +one another, rapid brilliant pieces, are brilliantly received by the +unofficial world; and ought to dethrone dull Crebillon, and the sleepy +potentates of Poetry that now are. Which in fact is their result with +the public; but not yet in the highest courtly places;--a defect much to +be condemned and lamented. + +"Numerous enemies arise, as is natural, of an envious venomous +description; this is another ever-widening shadow in the sunshine. In +fact we perceive he has, besides the inner obstacles and griefs, two +classes of outward ones: There are Lions on his path and also Dogs. +Lions are the Ex-Bishop of Mirepoix, and certain other dark Holy +Fathers, or potent orthodox Official Persons. These, though Voltaire +does not yet declare his heterodoxy (which, indeed, is but the orthodoxy +of the cultivated private circles), perceive well enough, even by the +HENRIADE, and its talk of 'tolerance,' horror of 'fanaticism' and the +like, what this one's 'DOXY is; and how dangerous he, not a mere mute +man of quality, but a talking spirit with winged words, may be;--and +they much annoy and terrify him, by their roaring in the distance. Which +roaring cannot, of course, convince; and since it is not permitted to +kill, can only provoke a talking spirit into still deeper strains of +heterodoxy for his own private behoof. These are the Lions on his path: +beasts conscious to themselves of good intentions; but manifesting from +Voltaire's point of view, it must be owned, a physiognomy unlovely to +a degree. 'Light is superior to darkness, I should think,' meditates +Voltaire; 'power of thought to the want of power! The ANE DE MIREPOIX +(Ass of Mirepoix), [Poor joke of Voltaire's, continually applied to this +Bishop, or Ex-Bishop,--who was thought, generally, a rather tenebrific +man for appointment to the FEUILLE DES BENEFICES (charge of nominating +Bishops, keeping King's conscience, &c.); and who, in that capacity, +signed himself ANC (by no means "ANE," but "ANCIEN, Whilom") DE +MIREPOIX,--to the enragement of Voltaire often enough.] pretending to +use me in this manner, is it other, in the court of Rhadamanthus, +than transcendent Stupidity, with transcendent Insolence superadded?' +Voltaire grows more and more heterodox; and is ripening towards +dangerous utterances, though he, strives to hold in. + +"The Dogs upon his path, again, are all the disloyal envious persons of +the Writing Class, whom his success has offended; and, more generally, +all the dishonest hungry persons who can gain a morsel by biting him: +and their name is legion. It must be owned, about as ugly a Doggery +('INFAME CANAILLE' he might well reckon them) as has, before or since, +infested the path of a man. They are not hired and set on, as angry +suspicion might suggest; but they are covertly somewhat patronized +by the Mirepoix, or orthodox Official class. Scandalous Ex-Jesuit +Desfontaines, Thersites Freron,--these are but types of an endless +Doggery; whose names and works should be blotted out; whose one claim to +memory is, that the riding man so often angrily sprang down, and tried +horsewhipping them into silence. A vain attempt. The individual hound +flies howling, abjectly petitioning and promising; but the rest bark +all with new comfort, and even he starts again straightway. It is bad +travelling in those woods, with such Lions and such Dogs. And then the +sparsely scattered HUMAN Creatures (so we may call them in contrast, +persons of Quality for most part) are not always what they should be. +The grand mansions you arrive at, in this waste-howling solitude, prove +sometimes essentially Robber-towers;--and there may be Armida Palaces, +and divine-looking Armidas, where your ultimate fate is still worse. + +_'Que le monde est rempli d'enchanteurs, je ne dis rien +d'enchanteresses!'_ + +To think of it, the solitary Ishmaelite journeying, never so well +mounted, through such a wilderness: with lions, dogs, human robbers and +Armidas all about him; himself lonely, friendless under the stars:--one +could pity him withal, though that is not the feeling he solicits; nor +gets hitherto, even at this impartial distance. + +"One of the beautiful creatures of Quality,--we hope, not an +Armida,--who came athwart Voltaire, in these times, was a Madame du +Chatelet; distinguished from all the others by a love of mathematics +and the pure sciences, were it nothing else. She was still young, under +thirty; the literary man still under forty. With her Husband, to whom +she had brought a child, or couple of children, there was no formal +quarrel; but they were living apart, neither much heeding the other, +as was by no means a case without example at that time; Monsieur +soldiering, and philandering about, in garrison or elsewhere; Madame, in +a like humor, doing the best for herself in the high circles of society, +to which he and she belonged. Most wearisome barren circles to a person +of thought, as both she and M. de Voltaire emphatically admitted to one +another, on first making acquaintance. But is there no help? + +"Madame had tried the pure sciences and philosophies, in Books: but +how much more charming, when they come to you as a Human Philosopher; +handsome, magnanimous, and the wittiest man in the world! Young +Madame was not regularly beautiful; but she was very piquant, radiant, +adventurous; understood other things than the pure sciences, and could +be abundantly coquettish and engaging. I have known her scuttle off, on +an evening, with a couple of adventurous young wives of Quality, to the +remote lodging of the witty M. de Voltaire, and make his dim evening +radiant to him. [One of Voltaire's Letters.] Then again, in public +crowds, I have seen them; obliged to dismount to the peril of Madame's +diamonds, there being a jam of carriages, and no getting forward for +half the day. In short, they are becoming more and more intimate, to the +extremest degree; and, scorning the world, thank Heaven that they are +mutually indispensable. Cannot we get away from this scurvy wasp's-nest +of a Paris, thought they, and live to ourselves and our books? + +"Madame was of high quality, one of the Breteuils; but was poor in +comparison, and her Husband the like. An old Chateau of theirs, named +Cirey, stands in a pleasant enough little valley in Champagne; but so +dilapidated, gaunt and vacant, nobody can live in it. Voltaire, who is +by this time a man of ample moneys, furnishes the requisite cash; Madame +and he, in sweet symphony, concert the plans: Cirey is repaired, +at least parts of it are, into a boudoir of the gods, regardless of +expense; nothing ever seen so tasteful, so magnificent; and the two +withdraw thither to study, in peace, what sciences, pure and other, they +have a mind to. They are recognized as lovers, by the Parisian public, +with little audible censure from anybody there,--with none at all from +the easy Husband; who occasionally even visits Cirey, if he be passing +that way; and is content to take matters as he finds them, without +looking below the surface. [See (whosoever is curious) Madame de +Grafigny, _Vie Privee de Voltaire et de Madame du Chatelet_ (Paris, +1820). A six months of actual Letters written by poor Grafigny, while +sheltering at Cirey, Winter and Spring, 1738-1739; straitened there +in various respects,--extremely ill off for fuel, among other things. +Rugged practical Letters, shadowing out to us, unconsciously oftenest, +and like a very mirror, the splendid and the sordid, the seamy side +and the smooth, of Life at Cirey, in her experience of it. Published, +fourscore years after, under the above title.] For the Ten Commandments +are at a singular pass in cultivated France at this epoch. Such +illicit-idyllic form of life has been the form of Voltaire's since +1733,"--for some three years now, when Friedrich and we first make +acquaintance with him. "It lasted above a dozen years more: an illicit +marriage after its sort, and subject only to the liabilities of such. +Perhaps we may look in upon the Cirey Household, ourselves, at some +future time; and"--This Editor hopes not! + +"Madame admits that for the first ten years it was, on the whole, +sublime; a perfect Eden on Earth, though stormy now and then. [_Lettres +Inedites de Madame la Marquise du Chastelet; auxquelles on a joint une +Dissertation_ (&c. of hers): Paris, 1806.] After ten years, it began to +grow decidedly dimmer; and in the course of few years more, it +became undeniably evident that M. de Voltaire 'did not love me as +formerly:'--in fact, if Madame could have seen it, M. de Voltaire +was growing old, losing his teeth, and the like; and did not care for +anything as formerly! Which was a dreadful discovery, and gave rise to +results by and by. + +"In this retreat at Cirey, varied with flying visits to Paris, and kept +awake by multifarious Correspondences, the quantity of Literature done +by the two was great and miscellaneous. By Madame, chiefly in the region +of the pure sciences, in Newtonian Dissertations, competitions for +Prizes, and the like: really sound and ingenious Pieces, entirely +forgotten long since. By Voltaire, in serious Tragedies, Histories, in +light Sketches and deep Dissertations:--mockery getting ever wilder +with him; the satirical vein, in prose and verse, amazingly copious, and +growing more and more heterodox, as we can perceive. His troubles from +the ecclesiastical or Lion kind in the Literary forest, still more from +the rabid Doggery in it, are manifold, incessant. And it is pleasantly +notable,--during these first ten years,--with what desperate intensity, +vigilance and fierceness, Madame watches over all his interests and +liabilities and casualties great and small; leaping with her whole force +into M. de Voltaire's scale of the balance, careless of antecedences and +consequences alike; flying, with the spirit of an angry brood-hen, +at the face of mastiffs, in defence of any feather that is M. de +Voltaire's. To which Voltaire replies, as he well may, with eloquent +gratitude; with Verses to the divine Emilie, with Gifts to her, verses +and gifts the prettiest in the world;--and industriously celebrates the +divine Emilie to herself and all third parties. + +"An ardent, aerial, gracefully predominant, and in the end somewhat +termagant female figure, this divine Emilie. Her temper, radiant rather +than bland, was none of the patientest on occasion; nor was M. de +Voltaire the least of a Job, if you came athwart him the wrong way. I +have heard, their domestic symphony was liable to furious flaws,--let +us hope at great distances apart:--that 'plates' in presence of the +lackeys, actual crockery or metal, have been known to fly from end to +end of the dinner-table; nay they mention 'knives' (though only in the +way of oratorical action); and Voltaire has been heard to exclaim, the +sombre and majestic voice of him risen to a very high pitch: _'Ne me +regardez tant de ces yeux hagards et louches,_ Don't fix those haggard +sidelong eyes on me in that way!'--mere shrillness of pale rage +presiding over the scene. But we hope it was only once in the quarter, +or seldomer: after which the element would be clearer for some time. A +lonesome literary man, who has got a Brood Phoenix to preside over him, +and fly at the face of gods and men for him in that manner, ought to be +grateful. + +"Perhaps we shall one day glance, personally, as it were, into Cirey +with our readers;"--Not with this Editor or his!--"It will turn out beyond +the reader's expectation. Tolerable illicit resting-place, so far as the +illicit can be tolerable, for a lonesome Man of Letters, who goes into +the illicit. Helpfulness, affection, or the flattering image of such, +are by no means wanting: squalls of infirm temper are not more frequent +than in the most licit establishments of a similar sort. Madame, about +this time, has a swift Palfrey, 'ROSSIGNOL (Nightingale)' the name of +him; and gallops fairy-like through the winding valleys; being an +ardent rider, and well-looking on horseback. Voltaire's study is inlaid +with--the Grafigny knows all what:--mere china tiles, gilt sculptures, +marble slabs, and the supreme of taste and expense: study fit for the +Phoebus Apollo of France, so far as Madame could contrive it. Takes +coffee with Madame, in the Gallery, about noon. And his bedroom, I +expressly discern, [_Letters of Voltaire._] looks out upon a running +brook, the murmur of which is pleasant to one." + +Enough, enough. We can perceive what kind of Voltaire it was to whom the +Crown-Prince now addressed himself; and how luminous an object, shining +afar out of the solitudes of Champagne upon the ardent young man, still +so capable of admiration. Model Epic, HENRIADE; model History, CHARLES +DOUZE; sublime Tragedies, CISAR, ALZIRE and others, which readers still +know though with less enthusiasm, are blooming fresh in Friedrich's +memory and heart; such Literature as man never saw before; and in the +background Friedrich has inarticulately a feeling as if, in this man, +there were something grander than all Literatures: a Reform of human +Thought itself; a new "Gospel," good-tidings or God's-Message, by this +man;--which Friedrich does not suspect, as the world with horror does, +to be a new BA'SPEL, or Devil's-Message of bad-tidings! A sublime enough +Voltaire; radiant enough, over at Cirey yonder. To all lands, a visible +Phoebus Apollo, climbing the eastern steeps; with arrows of celestial +"new light" in his quiver; capable of stretching many a big foul Python, +belly uppermost, in its native mud, and ridding the poor world of her +Nightmares and Mud-Serpents in some measure, we may hope!-- + +And so there begins, from this point, a lively Correspondence between +Friedrich and Voltaire; which, with some interruptions of a notable +sort, continued during their mutual Life; and is a conspicuous feature +in the Biographies of both. The world talked much of it, and still +talks; and has now at last got it all collected, and elucidated into a +dimly legible form for studious readers. [Preuss, _OEuvres de Frederic,_ +(xxi. xxii. xxiii., Berlin, 1853); who supersedes the lazy French +Editors in this matter.] It is by no means the diabolically wicked +Correspondence it was thought to be; the reverse, indeed, on both +sides;--but it has unfortunately become a very dull one, to the actual +generation of mankind. Not without intrinsic merit; on the contrary +(if you read intensely, and bring the extinct alive again), it sparkles +notably with epistolary grace and vivacity; and, on any terms, it has +still passages of biographical and other interest: but the substance +of it, then so new and shining, has fallen absolutely commonplace, the +property of all the world, since then; and is now very wearisome to the +reader. No doctrine or opinion in it that you have not heard, with clear +belief or clear disbelief, a hundred times, and could wish rather not +to hear again. The common fate of philosophical originalities in this +world. As a Biographical Document, it is worth a very strict perusal, +if you are interested that way in either Friedrich or Voltaire: finely +significant hints and traits, though often almost evanescent, so slight +are they, abound in this Correspondence; frankness, veracity under +graceful forms, being the rule of it, strange to say! As an illustration +of Two memorable Characters, and of their Century; showing on what +terms the sage Plato of the Eighteenth Century and his Tyrant Dionysius +correspond, and what their manners are to one another, it may long have +a kind of interest to mankind: otherwise it has not much left. + +In Friedrich's History it was, no doubt, an important fact, that there +lived a Voltaire along with him, twenty years his senior. With another +Theory of the Universe than the Voltaire one, how much OTHER had +Friedrich too been! But the Theory called by Voltaire's name was +not properly of Voltaire's creating, but only of his uttering and +publishing; it lay ready for everybody's finding, and could not well +have been altogether missed by such a one as Friedrich. So that perhaps +we exaggerate the effects of Voltaire on him, though undoubtedly they +were considerable. Considerable; but not derived from this express +correspondence, which seldom turns on didactic points at all; derived +rather from Voltaire's Printed WORKS, where they lay derivable to +all the world. Certain enough it is, Voltaire was at this time, +and continued all his days, Friedrich's chief Thinker in the world; +unofficially, the chief Preacher, Prophet and Priest of this Working +King;--no better off for a spiritual Trismegistus was poor Friedrich in +the world! On the practical side, Friedrich soon outgrew him,--perhaps +had already outgrown, having far more veracity of character, and an +intellect far better built in the silent parts of it, and trained too +by hard experiences to know shadow from substance;--outgrew him, +and gradually learned to look down upon him, occasionally with much +contempt, in regard to the practical. But in all changes of humor +towards Voltaire, Friedrich, we observe, considers him as plainly +supreme in speculative intellect; and has no doubt but, for thinking +and speaking, Nature never made such another. Which may be taken as +a notable feature of Friedrich's History; and gives rise to passages +between Voltaire and him, which will make much noise in time coming. + +Here, meanwhile, faithfully presented though in condensed form, is the +starting of the Correspondence; First Letter of it, and first Response. +Two Pieces which were once bright as the summer sunrise on both sides, +but are now fallen very dim; and have much needed condensation, and +abridgment by omission of the unessential,--so lengthy are they, so +extinct and almost dreary to us! Sublime "Wolf" and his "Philosophy," +how he was hunted out of Halle with it, long since; and now shines from +Marburg, his "Philosophy" and he supreme among mankind: this, and other +extinct points, the reader's fancy will endeavor to rekindle in some +slight measure:-- + +TO M. DE VOLTAIRE, AT CIREY (from the Crown-Prince). + +"BERLIN, 8th August, 1736. + +"MONSIEUR,--Although I have not the satisfaction of knowing you +personally, you are not the less known to me through your Works. They +are treasures of the mind, if I may so express myself; and they reveal +to the reader new beauties at every fresh perusal. I think I have +recognized in them the character of their ingenious Author, who does +honor to our age and to human nature. If ever the dispute on the +comparative merits of the Moderns and the Ancients should be revived, +the modern great men will owe it to you, and to you only, that the scale +is turned in their favor. With the excellent quality of Poet you join +innumerable others more or less related to it. Never did Poet before +put Metaphysics into rhythmic cadence: to you the honor was reserved of +doing it first. + +"This taste for Philosophy manifested in your writings, induces me to +send you a translated Copy of the _Accusation and defence of M. Wolf,_ +the most celebrated Philosopher of our days; who, for having carried +light into the darkest places of Metaphysics, is cruelly accused of +irreligion and atheism. Such is the destiny of great men; their superior +genius exposes them to the poisoned arrows of calumny and envy. I am +about getting a Translation made of the _Treatise on God, the Soul, +and the World,"_--Translation done by an Excellency Suhm, as has been +hinted,--"from the pen of the same Author. I will send it you when it +is finished; and I am sure that the force of evidence in all his +propositions, and their close geometrical sequence, will strike you. + +"The kindness and assistance you afford to all who devote themselves to +the Arts and Sciences, makes me hope that you will not exclude me from +the number of those whom you find worthy of your instructions:--it is so +I would call your intercourse by Correspondence of Letters; which cannot +be other than profitable to every thinking being.... + +... "beauties without number in your works. Your HENRIADE delights me. +The tragedy of CESAR shows us sustained characters; the sentiments in it +are magnificent and grand, and one feels that Brutus is either a Roman, +or else an Englishman _(ou un Romain ou un Anglais)._ Your ALZIRE, to +the graces of novelty adds... + +"Monsieur, there is nothing I wish so much as to possess all your +Writings," even those not printed hitherto. "Pray, Monsieur, do +communicate them to me without reserve. If there be amongst your +Manuscripts any that you wish to conceal from the eyes of the public, +I engage to keep them in the profoundest secrecy. I am unluckily aware, +that the faith of Princes is an object of little respect in our days; +nevertheless I hope you will make an exception from the general rule in +my favor. I should think myself richer in the possession of your Works +than in that of all the transient goods of Fortune. These the same +chance grants and takes away: your Works one can make one's own by means +of memory, so that they last us whilst it lasts. Knowing how weak my own +memory is, I am in the highest degree select in what I trust to it. + +"If Poetry were what it was before your appearance, a strumming of +wearisome idyls, insipid eclogues, tuneful nothings, I should renounce +it forever:" but in your hands it becomes ennobled; a melodious "course +of morals; worthy of the admiration and the study of cultivated minds +(DES HONNETES GENS). You"--in fine, "you inspire the ambition to follow +in your footsteps. But I, how often have I said to myself: 'MALHEUREUX, +throw down a burden which is above thy strength! One cannot imitate +Voltaire, without being Voltaire!' + +"It is in such moments that I have felt how small are those advantages +of birth, those vapors of grandeur, with which vanity would solace us! +They amount to little, properly to nothing (POUR MIEUX DIRE, RIEN). +Nature, when she pleases, forms a great soul, endowed with faculties +that can advance the Arts and Sciences; and it is the part of Princes to +recompense his noble toils. Ah, would Glory but make use of me to crown +your successes! My only fear would be, lest this Country, little fertile +in laurels, proved unable to furnish enough of them. + +"If my destiny refuse me the happiness of being able to possess you, may +I, at least, hope one day to see the man whom I have admired so long now +from afar; and to assure you, by word of mouth, that I am,--With all the +esteem and consideration due to those who, following the torch of +truth for guide, consecrate their labors to the Public,--Monsieur, your +affectionate friend, + +"FREDERIC, P. R. of Prussia." + +[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxi. 6.] + + +By what route or conveyance this Letter went, I cannot say. In general, +it is to be observed, these Friedrich-Voltaire Letters--liable perhaps +to be considered contraband at BOTH ends of their course--do not go by +the Post; but by French-Prussian Ministers, by Hamburg Merchants, and +other safe subterranean channels. Voltaire, with enthusiasm, and no +doubt promptly, answers within three weeks:-- + +TO THE CROWN-PRINCE, AT REINSBERG (from Voltaire). + +"CIREY, 26th August, 1736. + +"MONSEIGNEUR,--A man must be void of all feeling who were not infinitely +moved by the Letter which your Royal Highness has deigned to honor me +with. My self-love is only too much flattered by it: but my love of +Mankind, which I have always nourished in my heart, and which, I venture +to say, forms the basis of my character, has given me a very much purer +pleasure,--to see that there is, now in the world, a Prince who thinks +as a man; a PHILOSOPHER Prince, who will make men happy. + +"Permit me to say, there is not a man on the earth but owes thanks for +the care you take to cultivate by sound philosophy a soul that is born +for command. Good kings there never were except those that had begun by +seeking to instruct themselves; by knowing-good men from bad; by loving +what was true, by detesting persecution and superstition. No Prince, +persisting in such thoughts, but might bring back the golden age into +his Countries! And why do so few Princes seek this glory? You feel it, +Monseigneur, it is because they all think more of their Royalty than of +Mankind. Precisely the reverse is your case:--and, unless, one day, +the tumult of business and the wickedness of men alter so divine a +character, you will be worshipped by your People, and loved by the whole +world. Philosophers, worthy of the name, will flock to your States; +thinkers will crowd round that throne, as the skilfulest artisans do to +the city where their art is in request. The illustrious Queen Christina +quitted her kingdom to go in search of the Arts; reign you, Monseigneur, +and the Arts will come to seek you. + +"May you only never be disgusted with the Sciences by the quarrels of +their Cultivators! A race of men no better than Courtiers; often +enough as greedy, intriguing, false and cruel as these," and still more +ridiculous in the mischief they do. "And how sad for mankind that the +very Interpreters of Heaven's commandments, the Theologians, I mean, +are sometimes the most dangerous of all! Professed messengers of the +Divinity, yet men sometimes of obscure ideas and pernicious behavior; +their soul blown out with mere darkness; full of gall and pride, in +proportion as it is empty of truths. Every thinking being who is not of +their opinion is an Atheist; and every King who does not favor them +will be damned. Dangerous to the very throne; and yet intrinsically +insignificant:" best way is, leave their big talk and them alone; speedy +collapse will follow.... + +"I cannot sufficiently thank your Royal Highness for the gift of that +little Book about Monsieur Wolf. I respect Metaphysical ideas; rays of +lightning they are in the midst of deep night. More, I think, is not +to be hoped from Metaphysics. It does not seem likely that the +First-principles of things will ever be known. The mice that nestle +in some little holes of an immense Building, know not whether it is +eternal, or who the Architect, or why he built it. Such mice are we; and +the Divine Architect who built the Universe has never, that I know +of, told his secret to one of us. If anybody could pretend to guess +correctly, it is M. Wolf." Beautiful in your Royal Highness to protect +such a man. And how beautiful it will be, to send me his chief Book, +as you have the kindness to promise! "The Heir of a Monarchy, from his +palace, attending to the wants of a recluse far off! Condescend to +afford me the pleasure of that Book, Monseigneur.... + +"What your Royal Highness thinks of poetry is just: verses that do not +teach men new and touching truths, do not deserve to be read." As to +my own poor verses--But, after all, "that HENRIADE is the writing of an +Honest Man: fit, in that sense, that it find grace with a Philosopher +Prince. + +"I will obey your commands as to sending those unpublished Pieces. You +shall be my public, Monseigneur; your criticisms will be my reward: +it is a price few Sovereigns can pay. I am sure of your secrecy: +your virtue and your intellect must be in proportion. I should indeed +consider it a precious happiness to come and pay my court to your Royal +Highness! One travels to Rome to see paintings and ruins: a Prince such +as you is a much more singular object; worthier of a long journey! But +the friendship [divine Emilie's] which keeps me in this retirement does +not permit my leaving it. No doubt you think with Julian, that great and +much calumniated man, who said, 'Friends should always be preferred to +Kings.' + +"In whatever corner of the world I may end my life, be assured, +Monseigneur, my wishes will continually be for you,--that is to say, +for a whole People's happiness. My heart will rank itself among your +subjects; your glory will ever be dear to me. I shall wish, May you +always be like yourself, and may other Kings be like you!--I am, with +profound respect, your Royal Highness's most humble + +"VOLTAIRE." + +[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxi. 10.] + + +The Correspondence, once kindled, went on apace; and soon burst forth, +finding nourishment all round, into a shining little household fire, +pleasant to the hands and hearts of both parties. Consent of opinions on +important matters is not wanting; nor is emphasis in declaring the same. +The mutual admiration, which is high,--high and intrinsic on Friedrich's +side; and on Voltaire's, high if in part extrinsic,--by no means wants +for emphasis of statement: superlatives, tempered by the best art, +pass and repass. Friedrich, reading Voltaire's immortal Manuscripts, +confesses with a blush, before long, that he himself is a poor +Apprentice that way. Voltaire, at sight of the Princely Productions, +is full of admiration, of encouragement; does a little in correcting, +solecisms of grammar chiefly; a little, by no means much. But it is a +growing branch of employment; now and henceforth almost the one +reality of function Voltaire can find for himself in this beautiful +Correspondence. For, "Oh what a Crown-Prince, ripening forward to be the +delight of human nature, and realize the dream of sages, Philosophy upon +the Throne!" And on the other side, "Oh what a Phoebus Apollo, mounting +the eastern sky, chasing the Nightmares,--sowing the Earth with Orient +pearl, to begin with!"--In which fine duet, it must be said, the Prince +is perceptibly the truer singer; singing within compass, and from the +heart; while the Phoebus shows himself acquainted with art, and warbles +in seductive quavers, now and then beyond the pitch of his voice. We +must own also, Friedrich proves little seducible; shows himself laudably +indifferent to such siren-singing;--perhaps more used to flattery, and +knowing by experience how little meal is to be made of chaff. Voltaire, +in an ungrateful France, naturally plumes himself a good deal on such +recognition by a Foreign Rising Sun; and, of the two, though so many +years the elder, is much more like losing head a little. + +Elegant gifts are despatched to Cirey; gold-amber trinkets for Madame, +perhaps an amber inkholder for Monsieur: priceless at Cirey as the gifts +of the very gods. By and by, a messenger goes express: the witty Colonel +Keyserling, witty but experienced, whom we once named at Reinsberg; +he is to go and see with his eyes, since his Master cannot. What a +messenger there; ambassador from star to star! Keyserling's report at +Reinsberg is not given; but we have Grafigny's, which is probably the +more impartial. Keyserling's embassy was in the end of next year; [3d +November, 1737 (as we gather from the Correspondence).] and there is +plenty of airy writing about it and him, in these Letters. + +Friedrich has translated the name KEYSERLING (diminutive of KAISER) into +"Caesarion;"--and I should have said, he plays much upon names and also +upon things, at Reinsberg, in that style; and has a good deal of airy +symbolism, and cloud-work ingeniously painted round the solidities of +his life there. Especially a "Bayard Order," as he calls it: Twelve of +his selectest Friends made into a Chivalry Brotherhood, the names of +whom are all changed, "Caesarion" one of them; with dainty devices, and +mimetic procedures of the due sort. Which are not wholly mummery; but +have a spice of reality, to flavor them to a serious young heart. +For the selection was rigorous, superior merit and behavior a strict +condition; and indeed several of these Bayard Chevaliers proved notable +practical Champions in time coming;--for example Captain Fouquet, +of whom we have heard before, in the dark Custrin days. This is a +mentionable feature of the Reinsberg life, and of the young Prince's +character there: pleasant to know of, from this distance; but not now +worth knowing more in detail. + +The Friedrich-Voltaire Correspondence contains much incense; due whiffs +of it, from Reinsberg side, to the "divine Emilie," Voltaire's quasi +better-half or worse-half; who responds always in her divinest manner +to Reinsberg, eager for more acquaintance there. The Du Chatelets had +a Lawsuit in Brabant; very inveterate, perhaps a hundred years old or +more; with the "House of Honsbrouck:" [_Lettres Inedites de Voltaire_ +(Paris, 1826), p. 9.] this, not to speak of other causes, flights from +French peril and the like, often brought Voltaire and his Dame +into those parts; and gave rise to occasional hopes of meeting with +Friedrich; which could not take effect. In more practical style, +Voltaire solicits of him: "Could not your Royal Highness perhaps +graciously speak to some of those Judicial Big wigs in Brabant, and flap +them up a little!" Which Friedrich, I think, did, by some good means. +Happily, by one means or other, Voltaire got the Lawsuit ended,--1740, +we might guess, but the time is not specified;--and Friedrich had a +new claim, had there been need of new, to be regarded with worship by +Madame. [Record of all this, left, like innumerable other things there, +in an intrinsically dark condition, lies in Voltaire's LETTERS,--not +much worth hunting up into clear daylight, the process being so +difficult to a stranger.] But the proposed meeting with Madame could +never take effect; not even when Friedrich's hands were free. Nay +I notice at last, Friedrich had privately determined it never +should--Madame evidently an inconvenient element to him. A young man not +wanting in private power of eyesight; and able to distinguish chaff from +meal! Voltaire and he will meet; meet, and also part; and there will +be passages between them:--and the reader will again hear of this +Correspondence of theirs, where it has a biographical interest. We are +to conceive it, at present, as a principal light of life to the +young heart at Reinsberg; a cheerful new fire, almost an altar-fire, +irradiating the common dusk for him there. + +Of another Correspondence, beautifully irradiative for the young heart, +we must say almost nothing: the Correspondence with Suhm. Suhm the Saxon +Minister, whom we have occasionally heard of, is an old Friend of the +Crown-Prince's, dear and helpful to him: it is he who is now doing those +_Translations of Wolf,_ of which Voltaire lately saw specimens; translate +at large, for the young man's behoof. The young man, restless to know +the best Philosophy going, had tried reading of Wolf's chief Book; found +it too abstruse, in Wolf's German: wherefore Suhm translates; sends it +to him in limpid French; fascicle by fascicle, with commentaries; +young man doing his best to understand and admire,--gratefully, not too +successfully, we can perceive. That is the staple of the famous SUHM +CORRESPONDENCE; staple which nobody could now bear to be concerned with. + +Suhm is also helpful in finance difficulties, which are pretty frequent; +works out subventions, loans under a handsome form, from the Czarina's +and other Courts. Which is an operation of the utmost delicacy; +perilous, should it be heard of at Potsdam. Wherefore Suhm and the +Prince have a covert language for it: and affect still to be speaking +of "Publishers" and "new Volumes," when they mean Lenders and +Bank-Draughts. All these loans, I will hope, were accurately paid one +day, as that from George II. was, in "rouleaus of new gold." We need not +doubt the wholesome charm and blessing of so intimate a Correspondence +to the Crown-Prince: and indeed his real love of the amiable Suhm, +as Suhm's of him, comes beautifully to light in these Letters: +but otherwise they are not now to be read without weariness, even +dreariness, and have become a biographical reminiscence merely. + +Concerning Graf von Manteufel, a third Literary Correspondent, and the +only other considerable one, here, from a German Commentator on this +matter, is a Clipping that will suffice:-- + +"Manteufel was Saxon by birth, long a Minister of August the Strong, but +quarrelled with August, owing to some frail female it is said, and +had withdrawn to Berlin a few years ago. He shines there among the +fashionable philosophical classes; underhand, perhaps does a little +in the volunteer political line withal; being a very busy pushing +gentleman. Tall of stature, 'perfectly handsome at the age of sixty;' +[Formey, _Souvenirs d'un Citoyen,_ i. 39-45.] great partisan of Wolf and +the Philosophies, awake to the Orthodoxies too. Writes flowing elegant +French, in a softly trenchant, somewhat too all-knowing style. High +manners traceable in him; but nothing of the noble loyalty, natural +politeness and pious lucency of Suhm. One of his Letters to Friedrich +has this slightly impertinent passage;--Friedrich, just getting settled +in Reinsberg, having transiently mentioned 'the quantity of fair sex' +that had come about him there:-- + +"'BERLIN, 26th AUGUST, 1736 (to the Crown-Prince).... I am well +persuaded your Royal Highness will regulate all that to perfection, and +so manage that your fair sex will be charmed to find themselves with you +at Reinsberg, and you charmed to have them there. But permit me, your +Royal Highness, to repeat in this place, what I one day took the liberty +of saying here at Berlin: Nothing in the world would better suit the +present interests of your Royal Highness and of us all, than some Heir +of your Royal Highness's making! Perhaps the tranquil convenience with +which your Royal Highness at Reinsberg can now attend to that object, +will be of better effect than all those hasty and transitory visits at +Berlin were. At least I wish it with the best of my heart. I beg pardon, +Monseigneur, for intruding thus into everything which concerns your +Royal Highness;'--In truth, I am a rather impudent busybodyish fellow, +with superabundant dashing manner, speculation, utterance; and shall get +myself ordered out of the Country, by my present correspondent, by and +by.--'Being ever,' with the due enthusiasm, 'MANTEUFEL.' [_OEuvres de +Frederic,_ xxv. 487;--Friedrich's Answer is, Reinsberg, 23d September +(Ib. 489).] + +"To which Friedrich's Answer is of a kind to put a gag in the foul mouth +of certain extraordinary Pamphleteerings, that were once very copious in +the world; and, in particular, to set at rest the Herr Dr. Zimmermann, +and his poor puddle of calumnies and credulities, got together in that +weak pursuit of physiology under obscene circumstances;-- + +"Which is the one good result I have gathered from the Manteufel +Correspondence," continues our German friend; whom I vote with!--Or +if the English reader never saw those Zimmermann or other dog-like +Pamphleteerings and surmisings, let this Excerpt be mysterious and +superfluous to the thankful English reader. + +On the whole, we conceive to ourselves the abundant nature of +Friedrich's Correspondence, literary and other; and what kind of event +the transit of that Post functionary "from Fehrbellin northwards," with +his leathern bags, "twice a week," may have been at Reinsberg, in those +years. + + + + +Chapter III. -- CROWN-PRINCE MAKES A MORNING CALL. + +Thursday, 25th October, 1736, the Crown-Prince, with Lieutenant +Buddenbrock and an attendant or two, drove over into Mecklenburg, to +a Village and serene Schloss called Mirow, intending a small act of +neighborly civility there; on which perhaps an English reader of our +time will consent to accompany him. It is but some ten or twelve miles +off, in a northerly direction; Reinsberg being close on the frontier +there. A pleasant enough morning's-drive, with the October sun shining +on the silent heaths, on the many-colored woods and you. + +Mirow is an Apanage for one of the Mecklenburg-Strelitz junior +branches: Mecklenburg-Strelitz being itself a junior compared to the +Mecklenburg-Schwerin of which, and its infatuated Duke, we have heard so +much in times past. Mirow and even Strelitz are not in--a very shining +state,--but indeed, we shall see them, as it were, with eyes. And the +English reader is to note especially those Mirow people, as perhaps of +some small interest to him, if he knew it. The Crown-Prince reports to +papa, in a satirical vein, not ungenially, and with much more freedom +than is usual in those Reinsberg letters of his:-- + +"TO HIS PRUSSIAN MAJESTY (from the Crown-Prince). + +"REINSBERG, 26th October, 1736. + +... "Yesterday I went across to Mirow. To give my Most All-gracious +Father an idea of the place, I cannot liken it to anything higher than +Gross-Kreutz [term of comparison lost upon us; say GARRAT, at a venture, +or the CLACHAN OF ABERFOYLE]: the one house in it, that can be called +a house, is not so good as the Parson's there. I made straight for the +Schloss; which is pretty much like the Garden-house in Bornim: only +there is a rampart round it; and an old Tower, considerably in ruins, +serves as a Gateway to the House. + +"Coming on the Drawbridge, I perceived an old stocking-knitter disguised +as Grenadier, with his cap, cartridge-box and musket laid to a side, +that they might not hinder him in his knitting-work. As I advanced, he +asked, 'Whence I came, and whitherward I was going?' I answered, that 'I +came from the Post-house, and was going over this Bridge:' whereupon the +Grenadier, quite in a passion, ran to the Tower; where he opened a door, +and called out the Corporal. The Corporal seemed to have hardly been out +of bed; and in his great haste, had not taken time to put on his shoes, +nor quite button his breeches; with much flurry he asked us, 'Where we +were for, and how we came to treat the Sentry in that manner?' Without +answering him at all, we went our way towards the Schloss. + +"Never in my life should I have taken this for a Schloss, had it not +been that there were two glass lamps fixed at the door-posts, and the +figures of two Cranes standing in front of them, by way of Guards. +We made up to the House; and after knocking almost half an hour to no +purpose, there peered out at last an exceedingly old woman, who looked +as if she might have nursed the Prince of Mirow's father. The poor +woman, at sight of strangers, was so terrified, she slammed the door to +in our faces. We knocked again; and seeing there could nothing be made +of it, we went round to the stables; where a fellow told us, 'The young +Prince with his Consort was gone to Neu-Strelitz, a couple of miles off +[ten miles English]; and the Duchess his Mother, who lives here, had +given him, to make the better figure, all her people along with him; +keeping nobody but the old woman to herself.' + +"It was still early; so I thought I could not do better than profit by +the opportunity, and have a look at Neu-Strelitz. We took post-horses; +and got thither about noon. Neu-Strelitz is properly a Village; with +only one street in it, where Chamberlains, Office-Clerks, Domestics all +lodge, and where there is an Inn. I cannot better describe it to my Most +All-gracious Father than by that street in Gumbinnen where you go up to +the Town-hall,--except that no house here is whitewashed. The Schloss is +fine, and lies on a lake, with a big garden; pretty much like Reinsberg +in situation. + +"The first question I asked here was for the Prince of Mirow: but they +told me he had just driven off again to a place called Kanow; which +is only a couple of miles English from Mirow, where we had been. +Buddenbrock, who is acquainted with Neu-Strelitz, got me, from a +chamberlain, something to eat; and in the mean while, that Bohme came +in, who was Adjutant in my Most All-gracious Father's Regiment [not of +Goltz, but King's presumably]: Bohme did not know me till I hinted +to him who I was. He told me, 'The Duke of Strelitz was an excellent +seamster;'" fit to be Tailor to your Majesty in a manner, had not Fate +been cruel, "'and that he made beautiful dressing-gowns (CASSAQUINS) +with his needle.' This made me curious to see him: so we had ourselves +presented as Foreigners; and it went off so well that nobody recognized +me. I cannot better describe the Duke than by saying he is like old +Stahl [famed old medical man at Berlin, dead last year, physiognomy not +known to actual readers], in a blond Abbe's-periwig. He is extremely +silly (BLODE); his Hofrath Altrock tells him, as it were, everything he +has to say." About fifty, this poor Duke; shrunk into needlework, for a +quiet life, amid such tumults from Schwerin and elsewhere. + +"Having taken leave, we drove right off to Kanow; and got thither about +six. It is a mere Village; and the Prince's Pleasure-House (LUSTHAUS) +here is nothing better than an ordinary Hunting-Lodge, such as any +Forest-keeper has. I alighted at the Miller's; and had myself +announced" at the LUSTHAUS, "by his maid: upon which the Major-Domo +(HAUS-HOFMEISTER) came over to the Mill, and complimented me; with whom +I proceeded to the Residenz," that is, back again to Mirow, "where +the whole Mirow Family were assembled. The Mother is a Princess of +Schwartzburg, and still the cleverest of them all," still under sixty; +good old Mother, intent that her poor Son should appear to advantage, +when visiting the more opulent Serenities. "His Aunt also," mother's +sister, "was there. The Lady Spouse is small; a Niece to the Prince +of Hildburghausen, who is in the Kaiser's service: she was in the +family-way; but (ABER) seemed otherwise to be a very good Princess. + +"The first thing they entertained me with was, the sad misfortune +come upon their best Cook; who, with the cart that was bringing the +provisions, had overset, and broken his arm; so that the provisions had +all gone to nothing. Privately I have had inquiries made; there was +not a word of truth in the story. At last we went to table; and, sure +enough, it looked as if the Cook and his provisions had come to some +mishap; for certainly in the Three Crowns at Potsdam [worst inn, one may +guess, in the satirical vein], there is better eating than here. + +"At table, there was talk of nothing but of all the German Princes who +are not right in their wits (NICHT RECHT KLUG)," as Mirow himself, +your Majesty knows, is reputed to be!" There was Weimar, [Wilhelmina's +acquaintance; wedded, not without difficulty, to a superfluous Baireuth +Sister-in-law by Wilhelmina (_ Memoires de Wilhelmina,_ ii. 185-194): +Grandfather of Goethe's Friend;--is nothing like fairly out of his wits; +only has a flea (as we may say) dancing occasionally in the ear of him. +Perhaps it is so with the rest of these Serenities, here fallen upon +evil tongues?] Gotha, Waldeck, Hoym, and the whole lot of them, brought +upon the carpet:--and after our good Host had got considerably drunk, we +rose,--and he lovingly promised me that 'he and his whole Family would +come and visit Reinsberg.' Come he certainly will; but how I shall get +rid of him, God knows. + +"I most submissively beg pardon of my Most All-gracious Father for +this long Letter; and"--we will terminate here. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ +xxvii. part 3d, pp. 104-106.] + +Dilapidated Mirow and its inmates, portrayed in this satirical way, +except as a view of Serene Highnesses fallen into Sleepy Hollow, excites +little notice in the indolent mind; and that little, rather pleasantly +contemptuous than really profitable. But one fact ought to kindle +momentary interest in English readers: the young foolish Herr, in this +dilapidated place, is no other than our "Old Queen Charlotte's" Father +that is to be,--a kind of Ancestor of ours, though we little guessed +it! English readers will scan him with new curiosity, when he pays that +return visit at Reinsberg. Which he does within the fortnight:-- + +"TO HIS PRUSSIAN MAJESTY (from the Crown-Prince). + +"REINSBERG, 6th November, 1736. + +... "that my Most All-gracious Father has had the graciousness to send +us some Swans. My Wife also has been exceedingly delighted at the fine +Present sent her.... General Praetorius," Danish Envoy, with whose Court +there is some tiff of quarrel, "came hither yesterday to take leave of +us; he seems very unwilling to quit Prussia. + +"This morning about three o'clock, my people woke me, with word that +there was a Stafette come with Letters,"--from your Majesty or Heaven +knows whom! "I spring up in all haste; and opening the Letter,--find it +is from the Prince of Mirow; who informs me that 'he will be here to-day +at noon.' I have got all things in readiness to receive him, as if he +were the Kaiser in person; and I hope there will be material for some +amusement to my Most All-gracious Father, by next post."--Next post is +half a week hence:-- + +"TO HIS PRUSSIAN MAJESTY (from the Crown-Prince). + +"REINSBERG, 11th Novemher. + +... "The Prince of Mirow's visit was so curious, I must give my Most +All-gracious Father a particular report of it. In my last, I mentioned +how General Praetorius had come to us: he was in the room, when I +entered with the Prince of Mirow; at sight of him Praetorius exclaimed, +loud enough to be heard by everybody, 'VOILA LE PRINCE CAJUCA!' +[Nickname out of some Romance, fallen extinct long since.] Not one of us +could help laughing; and I had my own trouble to turn it so that he did +not get angry. + +"Scarcely was the Prince got in, when they came to tell me, for his +worse luck, that Prince Heinrich," the Ill Margraf, "was come;--who +accordingly trotted him out, in such a way that we thought we should all +have died with laughing. Incessant praises were given him, especially +for his fine clothes, his fine air, and his uncommon agility in dancing. +And indeed I thought the dancing would never end. + +"In the afternoon, to spoil his fine coat,"--a contrivance of the Ill +Margraf's, I should think,--"we stept out to shoot at target in the +rain: he would not speak of it, but one could observe he was in much +anxiety about the coat. In the evening, he got a glass or two in his +head, and grew extremely merry; said at last, 'He was sorry that, for +divers state-reasons and businesses of moment, he must of necessity +return home;'--which, however, he put off till about two in the morning. +I think, next day he would not remember very much of it. + +"Prince Heinrich is gone to his Regiment again;" Praetorius too is +off;--and we end with the proper KOW-TOW. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xvii. +part 3d, p. 109.] + +These Strelitzers, we said, are juniors to infatuated Schwerin; and poor +Mirow is again junior to Strelitz: plainly one of the least opulent +of Residences. At present, it is Dowager Apanage (WITTWEN-SITZ) to the +Widow of the late Strelitz of blessed memory: here, with her one Child, +a boy now grown to what manhood we see, has the Serene Dowager lived, +these twenty-eight years past; a Schwartzburg by birth, "the cleverest +head among them all." Twenty-eight years in dilapidated Mirow: so long +has that Tailoring Duke, her eldest STEP-SON (child of a prior wife) +been Supreme Head of Mecklenburg-Strelitz; employed with his needle, or +we know not how,--collapsed plainly into tailoring at this date. There +was but one other Son; this clever Lady's, twenty years junior,--"Prince +of Mirow" whom we now see. Karl Ludwig Friedrich is the name of this +one; age now twenty-eight gone. He, ever since the third month of him, +when the poor Serene Father died ("May, 1703"), has been at Mirow with +Mamma; getting what education there was,--not too successfully, as would +appear. Eight years ago, "in 1726," Mamma sent him off upon his +travels; to Geneva, Italy, France: he looked in upon Vienna, too; got a +Lieutenant-Colonelcy in the Kaiser's Service, but did not like it; +soon gave it up; and returned home to vegetate, perhaps to seek a +wife,--having prospects of succession in Strelitz. For the Serene +Half-Brother proves to have no children: were his tailoring once +finished in the world, our Prince of Mirow is Duke in Chief. On this +basis the wedded last year; the little Wife has already brought him one +child, a Daughter; and has (as Friedrich notices) another under way, +if it prosper. No lack of Daughters, nor of Sons by and by: eight years +hence came the little Charlotte,--subsequently Mother of England: much +to her and our astonishment. [Born (at Mirow) 19th May, 1744; married +(London), 8th September, 1761; died, 18th November, 1818 (Michaelis, ii. +445, 446; Hubner, t. 195; OErtel, pp. 43, 22).] + +The poor man did not live to be Duke of Strelitz; he died, 1752, in +little Charlotte's eighth year; Tailor Duke SURVIVING him a few months. +Little Charlotte's Brother did then succeed, and lasted till 1794; after +whom a second Brother, father of the now Serene Strelitzes;--who also +is genealogically notable. For from him there came another still more +famous Queen: Louisa of Prussia; beautiful to look upon, as "Aunt +Charlotte" was not, in a high degree; and who showed herself a Heroine +in Napoleon's time, as Aunt Charlotte never was called to do. Both Aunt +and Niece were women of sense, of probity, propriety; fairly beyond the +average of Queens. And as to their early poverty, ridiculous to this +gold-nugget generation, I rather guess it may have done them benefits +which the gold-nugget generation, in its Queens and otherwise, stands +far more in want of than it thinks. + +But enough of this Prince of Mirow, whom Friedrich has accidentally +unearthed for us. Indeed there is no farther history of him, for or +against. He evidently was not thought to have invented gunpowder, by +the public. And yet who knows but, in his very simplicity, there lay +something far beyond the Ill Margraf to whom he was so quizzable? Poor +down-pressed brother mortal; somnambulating so pacifically in Sleepy +Hollow yonder, and making no complaint! + +He continued, though soon with less enthusiasm, and in the end very +rarely, a visitor of Friedrich's during this Reinsberg time. Patriotic +English readers may as well take the few remaining vestiges, too, before +quite dismissing him to Sleepy Hollow. Here they are, swept accurately +together, from that Correspondence of Friedrich with Papa:-- + +"REINSBERG, 18th NOVEMBER, 1736.... report most submissively that +the Prince of Mirow has again been here, with his Mother, Wife, Aunt, +Hofdames, Cavaliers and entire Household; so that I thought it was the +Flight out of Egypt [Exodus of the Jews]. I begin to have a fear of +those good people, as they assured me they would have such pleasure in +coming often!" + +"REINSBERG, 1st FEBRUARY, 1737." Let us give it in the Original too, as +a specimen of German spelling:-- + +_"Der Prints von Mihrau ist vohr einigen thagen hier gewessen und haben +wier einige Wasser schwermer in der See ihm zu Ehren gesmissen, seine +frau ist mit eber thoten Printzesin nieder geKomen.--Der General +schulenburg ist heute hier gekommen und wirdt morgen"_--That is to say:-- + +"The Prince of Mirow was here a few days ago; and we let off, in honor +of him, a few water-rockets over the Lake: his Wife has been brought to +bed of a dead Princess. General Schulenburg [with a small s] came hither +to-day; and to-morrow will"... + +"REINSBERG, 28th MARCH, 1737.... Prince von Mirow was here yesterday; +and tried shooting at the popinjay with us; he cannot see rightly, and +shoots always with help of an opera-glass." + +"RUPPIN, 20th OCTOBER, 1737. The Prince of Mirow was with us last +Friday; and babbled much in his high way; among other things, white-lied +to us, that the Kaiserinn gave him a certain porcelain snuff-box he was +handling; but on being questioned more tightly, he confessed to me he +had bought it in Vienna." [_Briefe an Vater,_ p. 71 (CARET in _OEuvres_ +); pp. 85-114.--See Ib. 6th November, 1737, for faint trace of a visit; +and 25th September, 1739, for another still fainter, the last there is.] + +And so let him somnambulate yonder, till the two Queens, like winged +Psyches, one after the other, manage to emerge from him. + +Friedrich's Letters to his Father are described by some Prussian Editors +as "very attractive, SEHR ANZIEHENDE BRIEFE;" which, to a Foreign +reader, seems a strange account of them. Letters very hard to understand +completely; and rather insignificant when understood. They turn on Gifts +sent to and sent from, "swans," "hams," with the unspeakable thanks for +them; on recruits of so many inches; on the visitors that have been; +they assure us that "there is no sickness in the regiment," or tell +expressly how much:--wholly small facts; nothing of speculation, and of +ceremonial pipe-clay a great deal. We know already under what +nightmare conditions Friedrich wrote to his Father! The attitude of the +Crown-Prince, sincerely reverent and filial, though obliged to appear +ineffably so, and on the whole struggling under such mountains of +encumbrance, yet loyally maintaining his equilibrium, does at last +acquire, in these Letters, silently a kind of beauty to the best class +of readers. But that is nearly their sole merit. By far the most human +of them, that on the first visit to Mirow, the reader has now seen; +and may thank us much that we show him no more of them. [_Friedrich +des Grossen Briefe an seinen Vater_ (Berlin, 1838)]. Reduced in size, +by suitable omissions; and properly spelt; but with little other +elucidation for a stranger: in _OEuvres,_ xxvii. part 3d, pp, 1-123 +(Berlin, 1856). + + + + +Chapter IV. -- NEWS OF THE DAY. + +While these Mirow visits are about their best, and much else at +Reinsberg is in comfortable progress, Friedrich's first year there just +ending, there come accounts from England of quarrels broken out between +the Britannic Majesty and his Prince of Wales. Discrepancies risen now +to a height; and getting into the very Newspapers;--the Rising Sun too +little under the control of the Setting, in that unquiet Country! + +Prince Fred of England did not get to the Rhine Campaign, as we saw: +he got some increase of Revenue, a Household of his own; and finally +a Wife, as he had requested: a Sachsen-Gotha Princess; who, peerless +Wilhelmma being unattainable, was welcome to Prince Fred. She is in the +family-way, this summer 1737, a very young lady still; result thought to +be due--When? Result being potential Heir to the British Nation, there +ought to have been good calculation of the time when! But apparently +nobody had well turned his attention that way. Or if Fred and Spouse +had, as is presumable, Fred had given no notice to the Paternal +Majesty,--"Let Paternal Majesty, always so cross to me, look out +for himself in that matter." Certain it is, Fred and Spouse, in the +beginning of August, 1737, are out at Hampton Court; potential Heir due +before long, and no preparation made for it. August 11th in the evening, +out at solitary Hampton Court; the poor young Mother's pains came on; no +Chancellor there, no Archbishop to see the birth,--in fact, hardly +the least medical help, and of political altogether none. Fred, in +his flurry, or by forethought,--instead of dashing off expresses, at +a gallop as of Epsom, to summon the necessary persons and appliances, +yoked wheeled vehicles and rolled off to the old unprovided Palace of +St. James's, London, with his poor Wife in person! Unwarned, unprovided; +where nevertheless she was safely delivered that same night,--safely, +as if by miracle. The crisis might have taken her on the very highway: +never was such an imprudence. Owing, I will believe, to Fred's sudden +flurry in the unprovided moment,--unprovided, by reason of prior +desuetudes and discouragements to speech, on Papa's side. A shade of +malice there might also be. Papa doubts not, it was malice aforethought +all of it. "Had the potential Heir of the British Nation gone to wreck, +or been born on the highway, from my quarrels with this bad Fred, what +a scrape had I been in!" thinks Papa, and is in a towering permanence +of wrath ever since; the very Newspapers and coffee-houses and populaces +now all getting vocal with it. + +Papa, as it turned out, never more saw the face of Fred. Judicious +Mamma, Queen Caroline, could not help a visit, one visit to the poor +young Mother, so soon as proper: coming out from the visit, Prince Fred +obsequiously escorting her to her carriage, found a crowd of people and +populace, in front of St. James's; and there knelt down on the street, +in his fine silk breeches, careless of the mud, to "beg a Mother's +blessing," and show what a son he was, he for his part, in this +sad discrepancy that had risen! Mamma threw a silent glance on him, +containing volumes of mixed tenor; drove off; and saw no more of Fred, +she either. I fear, this kneeling in the mud tells against Prince Fred; +but in truth I do not know, nor even much care. [Lord Hervey, _Memoirs +of George the Second,_ ii. 362-370, 409.] What a noise in England about +nothing at all!--What a noisy Country, your Prussian Majesty! Foolish +"rising sun" not restrainable there by the setting or shining one; +opposition parties bowling him about among the constellations, like a +very mad object!-- + +But in a month or two, there comes worse news out of England; falling +heavy on the heart of Prussian Majesty: news that Queen Caroline herself +is dead. ["Sunday evening, 1st December (20th Nov.), 1737." Ib. pp. +510-539.] Died as she had lived, with much constancy of mind, with a +graceful modest courage and endurance; sinking quietly under the load of +private miseries long quietly kept hidden, but now become too heavy, +and for which the appointed rest was now here. Little George blubbered +a good deal; fidgeted and flustered a good deal: much put about, poor +foolish little soul. The dying Caroline recommended HIM to Walpole; +advised his Majesty to marry again. _"Non, j'aurai des maitresses_ (No, +I'll have mistresses)!" sobbed his Majesty passionately. _"Ah, mon Dieu, +cela n'empeche pas_" (that does not an experience of the case). There is +something stoically tragic in the history of Caroline with her flighty +vaporing little King: seldom had foolish husband so wise a wife. "Dead!" +thought Friedrich Wilhelm, looking back through the whirlwinds of life, +into sunny young scenes far enough away: "Dead!"--Walpole continued to +manage the little King; but not for long; England itself rising in +objection. Jenkins's Ear, I understand, is lying in cotton; and there +are mad inflammable strata in that Nation, capable of exploding at a +great rate. + +From the Eastern regions our Newspapers are very full of events: War +with the Turk going on there; Russia and Austria both doing their best +against the Turk. The Russians had hardly finished their Polish-Election +fighting, when they decided to have a stroke at the Turk,--Turk always +an especial eye-sorrow to them, since that "Treaty of the Pruth," and +Czar Peter's sad rebuff there:--Munnich marched direct out of Poland +through the Ukraine, with his eye on the Crimea and furious business +in that quarter. This is his second Campaign there, this of 1737; and +furious business has not failed. Last year he stormed the Lines of +Perecop, tore open the Crimea; took Azoph, he or Lacy under him; +took many things: this year he had laid his plans for Oczakow;--takes +Oczakow,--fiery event, blazing in all the Newspapers, at Reinsberg +and elsewhere. Concerning which will the reader accept this condensed +testimony by an eye-witness? + +"OCZAKOW, 13th JULY, 1737. Day before yesterday, Feldmarschall Munnich +got to Oczakow, as he had planned,"--strong Turkish Town in the nook +between the Black Sea and the estuary of the Dnieper;--"with intention +to besiege it. Siege-train, stores of every sort, which he had set +afloat upon the Dnieper in time enough, were to have been ready for +him at Oczakow. But the flotilla had been detained by shallows, by +waterfalls; not a boat was come, nor could anybody say when they were +coming. Meanwhile nothing is to be had here; the very face of the earth +the Turks have burnt: not a blade of grass for cavalry within eight +miles, nor a stick of wood for engineers; not a hole for covert, and +the ground so hard you cannot raise redoubts on it: Munnich perceives he +must attempt, nevertheless. + +"On his right, by the sea-shore, Munnich finds some remains of gardens, +palisades; scrapes together some vestige of shelter there (five +thousand, or even ten thousand pioneers working desperately all that +first night, 11th July, with only half success); and on the morrow +commences firing with what artillery he has. Much outfired by the +Turks inside;--his enterprise as good as desperate, unless the Dnieper +flotilla come soon. July 12th, all day the firing continues, and all +night; Turks extremely furious: about an hour before daybreak, we notice +burning in the interior, 'Some wooden house kindled by us, town got on +fire yonder,'--and, praise to Heaven, they do not seem to succeed in +quenching it again. Munnich turns out, in various divisions; intent +on trying something, had he the least engineer furniture;--hopes +desperately there may be promise for him in that internal burning still +visible. + +"In the centre of Munnich's line is one General Keith, a deliberate +stalwart Scotch gentleman, whom we shall know better; Munnich himself is +to the right: Could not one try it by scalade; keep the internal burning +free to spread, at any rate? 'Advance within musket-shot, General +Keith!' orders Munnich's Aide-de-Camp cantering up. 'I have been +this good while within it,' answers Keith, pointing to his dead men. +Aide-de-Camp canters up a second time: 'Advance within half musket-shot, +General Keith, and quit any covert you have!' Keith does so; sends, with +his respects to Feldmarschall Munnich, his remonstrance against such +a waste of human life. Aide-de-Camp canters up a third time: +'Feldmarschall Munnich is for trying a scalade; hopes General Keith will +do his best to co-operate!' 'Forward, then!' answers Keith; advances +close to the glacis; finds a wet ditch twelve feet broad, and has not a +stick of engineer furniture. Keith waits there two hours; his men, +under fire all the while, trying this and that to get across; Munnich's +scalade going off ineffectual in like manner:--till at length Keith's +men, and all men, tire of such a business, and roll back in great +confusion out of shot-range. Munnich gives himself up for lost. And +indeed, says Mannstein, had the Turks sallied out in pursuit at that +moment, they might have chased us back to Russia. But the Turks did not +sally. And the internal conflagration is not quenched, far from it;--and +about nine A.M. their Powder-Magazine, conflagration reaching it, roared +aloft into the air, and killed seven thousand of them," [Mannstein, pp. +151-156.]-- + +So that Oczakow was taken, sure enough; terms, life only: and every +remaining Turk packs off from it, some "twenty thousand inhabitants +young and old" for one sad item.--A very blazing semi-absurd event, to +be read of in Prussian military circles,--where General Keith will be +better known one day. + +Russian War with the Turk: that means withal, by old Treaties, aid of +thirty thousand men from the Kaiser to Russia. Kaiser, so ruined lately, +how can he send thirty thousand, and keep them recruited, in such +distant expedition? Kaiser, much meditating, is advised it will be +better to go frankly into the Turk on his own score, and try for slices +of profit from him in this game. Kaiser declares war against the Turk; +and what is still more interesting to Friedrich Wilhelm and the +Berlin Circles, Seckendorf is named General of it. Feldzeugmeister now +Feldmarschall Seckendorf, envy may say what it will, he has marched this +season into the Lower-Donau Countries,--going to besiege Widdin, they +say,--at the head of a big Army (on paper, almost a hundred and fifty +thousand, light troops and heavy)--virtually Commander-in-Chief; though +nominally our fine young friend Franz of Lorraine bears the title +of Commander, whom Seckendorf is to dry-nurse in the way sometimes +practised. Going to besiege Widdin, they say. So has the poor Kaiser +been advised. His wise old Eugene is now gone; [Died 30th April, +1736.] I fear his advisers,--a youngish Feldzeugmeister, Prince of +Hildburghausen, the chief favorite among them,--are none of the wisest. +All Protestants, we observe, these favorite Hildburghausens, Schmettaus, +Seckendorfs of his; and Vienna is an orthodox papal Court;--and there +is a Hofkriegsrath (Supreme Council of War), which has ruined many +a General, poking too meddlesomely into his affairs! On the whole, +Seckendorf will have his difficulties. Here is a scene, on the +Lower Donau, different enough from that at Oczakow, not far from +contemporaneous with it. The Austrian Army is at Kolitz, a march or two +beyond Belgrade:-- + +"KOLITZ, 2d JULY, 1737. This day, the Army not being on march, but +allowed to rest itself, Grand Duke Franz went into the woods to hunt. +Hunting up and down, he lost himself; did not return at evening; and, as +the night closed in and no Generalissimo visible, the Generalissimo AD +LATUS (such the title they had contrived for Seckendorf) was in much +alarm. Generalissimo AD LATUS ordered out his whole force of drummers, +trumpeters: To fling themselves, postwise, deeper and deeper into the +woods all round; to drum there, and blow, in ever-widening circle, in +prescribed notes, and with all energy, till the Grand Duke were found. +Grand Duke being found, Seckendorf remonstrated, rebuked; a thought +too earnestly, some say, his temper being flurried,"--voice snuffling +somewhat in alt, with lisp to help:--"so that the Grand Duke took +offence; flung off in a huff: and always looked askance on the +Feldmarschall from that time;" [See _Lebensgeschichte des Grafen van +Schmettau_ (by his Son: Berlin, 1806), i. 27.]--quitting him altogether +before long; and marching with Khevenhuller, Wallis, Hildburghausen, or +any of the subordinate Generals rather. Probably Widdin will not go +the road of Oczakow, nor the Austrians prosper like the Russians, this +summer. + +Pollnitz, in Tobacco-Parliament, and in certain Berlin circles foolishly +agape about this new Feldmarschall, maintains always, Seckendorf will +come to nothing; which his Majesty zealously contradicts,--his +Majesty, and some short-sighted private individuals still favorable to +Seckendorf. [Pollnitz, _Memoiren,_ ii. 497-502.] Exactly one week after +that singular drum-and-trumpet operation on Duke Franz, the Last of the +Medici dies at Florence; [9th July (_Fastes de Louis XV._, p. 304).] +and Serene Franz, if he knew it, is Grand Duke of Tuscany, according to +bargain: a matter important to himself chiefly, and to France, who, for +Stanislaus and Lorraine's sake, has had to pay him some 200,000 pounds a +year during the brief intermediate state. + + + + +OF BERG AND JULICH AGAIN; AND OF LUISCIUS WITH THE ONE RAZOR. + +These remote occurrences are of small interest to his Prussian Majesty, +in comparison with the Pfalz affair, the Cleve-Julich succession, which +lies so near home. His Majesty is uncommonly anxious to have this +matter settled, in peace, if possible. Kaiser and Reich, with the other +Mediating Powers, go on mediating; but when will they decide? This year +the old Bishop of Augsburg, one Brother of the older Kur-Pfalz Karl +Philip, dies; nothing now between us and the event itself, but Karl +Philip alone, who is verging towards eighty: the decision, to be +peaceable, ought to be speedy! Friedrich Wilhelm, in January last, sent +the expert Degenfeld, once of London, to old Karl Philip; and has +him still there, with the most conciliatory offers: "Will leave your +Sulzbachs a part, then; will be content with part, instead of the whole, +which is mine if there be force in sealed parchment; will do anything +for peace!" To which the old Kur-Pfalz, foolish old creature, is +steadily deaf; answers vaguely, negatively always, in a polite manner; +pushing his Majesty upon extremities painful to think of. "We hate war; +but cannot quite do without justice, your Serenity," thinks Friedrich +Wilhelm: "must it be the eighty thousand iron ramrods, then?" Obstinate +Serenity continues deaf; and Friedrich Wilhelm's negotiations, there +at Mannheim, over in Holland, and through Holland with England, not to +speak of Kaiser and Reich close at hand, become very intense; vehemently +earnest, about this matter, for the next two years. The details of +which, inexpressibly uninteresting, shall be spared the reader. + +Summary is, these Mediating Powers will be of no help to his Majesty; +not even the Dutch will, with whom he is specially in friendship: nay, +in the third year it becomes fatally manifest, the chief Mediating +Powers, Kaiser and France, listening rather to political convenience, +than to the claims of justice, go direct in Kur-Pfalz's favor;--by +formal treaty of their own, ["Versailles, 13th January, 1739" (Olrich, +_Geschichte der Schlesischen Kriege,_ i. 13); Mauvillon, ii 405-446; +&c.] France and the Kaiser settle, "That the Sulzbachers shall, as a +preliminary, get provisional possession, on the now Serenity's decease; +and shall continue undisturbed for two years, till Law decide between +his Prussian Majesty and them." Two years; Law decide;--and we know what +are the NINE-POINTS in a Law-case! This, at last, proved too much +for his Majesty. Majesty's abstruse dubitations, meditations on such +treatment by a Kaiser and others, did then, it appears, gloomily settle +into fixed private purpose of trying it by the iron ramrods, when old +Kur-Pfalz should die,--of marching with eighty thousand men into the +Cleve Countries, and SO welcoming any Sulzbach or other guests that +might arrive. Happily old Kur-Pfalz did not die in his Majesty's time; +survived his Majesty several years: so that the matter fell into other +hands,--and was settled very well, near a century after. + +Of certain wranglings with the little Town of Herstal,--Prussian Town +(part of the Orange Heritage, once KING PEPIN'S Town, if that were +any matter now) in the Bishop of Liege's neighborhood, Town highly +insignificant otherwise,--we shall say nothing here, as they will fall +to be treated, and be settled, at an after stage. Friedrich Wilhelm was +much grieved by the contumacies of that paltry little Herstal; and +by the Bishop of Liege's high-flown procedures in countenancing +them;--especially in a recruiting ease that had fallen out there, +and brought matters to a head. ["December, 1738," is crisis of the +recruiting case (_Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 63); "17th February, 1739," +Bishop's high-flown appearance in it (ib. 67); Kaiser's in consequence, +"10th April, 1739."] The Kaiser too was afflictively high in +countenancing the Bishop;---for which both Kaiser and Bishop got due +payment in time. But his Prussian Majesty would not kindle the world for +such a paltriness; and so left it hanging in a vexatious condition. Such +things, it is remarked, weigh heavier on his now infirm Majesty than +they were wont. He is more subject to fits of hypochondria, to talk of +abdicating. "All gone wrong!" he would say, if any little flaw rose, +about recruiting or the like. "One might go and live at Venice, were one +rid of it!" [Forster (place LOST).] And his deep-stung clangorous growl +against the Kaiser's treatment of him bursts out, from time to time; +though he oftenest pities the Kaiser, too; seeing him at such a pass +with his Turk War and otherwise. + +It was in this Pfalz business that Herr Luiscius, the Prussian +Minister in Holland, got into trouble; of whom there is a light dash +of outline-portraiture by Voltaire, which has made him memorable to +readers. This "fat King of Prussia," says Voltaire, was a dreadfully +avaricious fellow, unbeautiful to a high degree in his proceedings with +mankind:-- + +"He had a Minister at the Hague called Luiscius; who certainly of all +Ministers of Crowned Heads was the worst paid. This poor man, to warm +himself, had made some trees be felled in the Garden of Honslardik, +which belonged at that time to the House of Prussia; he thereupon +received despatches from the King, intimating that a year of his salary +was forfeited. Luiscius, in despair, cut his throat with probably the +one razor he had (SEUL RASOIR QU'IL EUT); an old valet came to his +assistance, and unhappily saved his life. In after years, I found his +Excellency at the Hague; and have occasionally given him an alms at the +door of the VIEILLE COUR (Old Court), a Palace belonging to the King of +Prussia, where this poor Ambassador had lived a dozen years. It must be +owned, Turkey is a republic in comparison to the despotism exercised by +Friedrich Wilhelm." [_OEuvres de Voltaire (Vie Pricee,_ or what they +now call _Memoires_ ), ii. 15.] + +Here truly is a witty sketch; consummately dashed off, as nobody but +Voltaire could; "round as Giotto's O," done at one stroke. Of which +the prose facts are only as follows. Luiscius, Prussian Resident, +not distinguished by salary or otherwise, had, at one stage of these +negotiations, been told, from head-quarters, He might, in casual +extra-official ways, if it seemed furthersome, give their High +Mightinesses the hope, or notion, that his Majesty did not intend actual +war about that Cleve-Julich Succession,--being a pacific Majesty, and +unwilling to involve his neighbors and mankind. Luiscius, instead of +casual hint delicately dropped in some good way, had proceeded by direct +declaration; frank assurance to the High Mightinesses, That there would +be no war. Which had never been quite his Majesty's meaning, and perhaps +was now becoming rather the reverse of it. Disavowal of Luiscius had +to ensue thereupon; who produced defensively his instruction from +head-quarters; but got only rebukes for such heavy-footed clumsy +procedure, so unlike Diplomacy with its shoes of felt;--and, in +brief, was turned out of the Diplomatic function, as unfit for it; and +appointed to manage certain Orange Properties, fragments of the +Orange Heritage which his Majesty still has in those Countries. This +misadventure sank heavily on the spirits of Luiscius, otherwise none of +the strongest-minded of men. Nor did he prosper in managing the Orange +Properties: on the contrary, he again fell into mistakes; got soundly +rebuked for injudicious conduct there,--"cutting trees," planting trees, +or whatever it was;--and this produced such an effect on Luiscius, that +he made an attempt on his own throat, distracted mortal; and was only +stopped by somebody rushing in. "It was not the first time he had tried +that feat," says Pollnitz, "and been prevented; nor was it long till he +made a new attempt, which was again frustrated: and always afterwards +his relations kept him close in view:" Majesty writing comfortable +forgiveness to the perturbed creature, and also "settling a pension +on him;" adequate, we can hope, and not excessive; "which Luiscius +continued to receive, at the Hague, so long as he lived." These are the +prose facts; not definitely dated to us, but perfectly clear otherwise. +[Pollnitz, ii. 495, 496;--the "NEW attempt" seems to have been "June, +1739" (_ Gentleman's Magazine,_ in mense, p. 331).] + +Voltaire, in his Dutch excursions, did sometimes, in after years, lodge +in that old vacant Palace, called VIEILLE COUR, at the Hague; where he +gracefully celebrates the decayed forsaken state of matters; dusky vast +rooms with dim gilding; forgotten libraries "veiled under the biggest +spider-webs in Europe;" for the rest, an uncommonly quiet place, +convenient for a writing man, besides costing nothing. A son of this +Luiscius, a good young lad, it also appears, was occasionally Voltaire's +amanuensis there; him he did recommend zealously to the new King +of Prussia, who was not deaf on the occasion. This, in the fire of +satirical wit, is what we can transiently call "giving alms to a +Prussian Excellency;"--not now excellent, but pensioned and cracked; and +the reader perceives, Luiscius had probably more than one razor, had not +one been enough, when he did the rash act. Friedrich employed Luiscius +Junior, with no result that we hear of farther; and seems to have +thought Luiscius Senior an absurd fellow, not worth mentioning again: +"ran away from the Cleve Country [probably some mad-house there] above a +year ago, I hear; and what is the matter where such a crack-brain end?" +[Voltaire, _OEuvres_ (Letter to Friedrich, 7th October, 1740), lxxii. +261; and Fredrich's answer (wrong dated), ib. 265; Preuss, xxii. 33.] + + + + +Chapter V. -- VISIT AT LOO. + +The Pfalz question being in such a predicament, and Luiscius +diplomatizing upon it in such heavy-footed manner, his Majesty thinks +a journey to Holland, to visit one's Kinsfolk there, and incidentally +speak a word with the High Mightinesses upon Pfalz, would not be amiss. +Such journey is decided on; Crown-Prince to accompany. Summer of 1738: +a short visit, quite without fuss; to last only three days;--mere sequel +to the Reviews held in those adjacent Cleve Countries; so that +the Gazetteers may take no notice. All which was done accordingly: +Crown-Prince's first sight of Holland; and one of the few reportable +points of his Reinsberg life, and not quite without memorability to him +and us. + +On the 8th of July, 1738, the Review Party got upon the road for Wesel: +all through July, they did their reviewing in those Cleve Countries; and +then struck across for the Palace of Loo in Geldern, where a Prince of +Orange countable kinsman to his Prussian Majesty, and a Princess still +more nearly connected,--English George's Daughter, own niece to his +Prussian Majesty,--are in waiting for this distinguished honor. The +Prince of Orange we have already seen, for a moment once; at the siege +of Philipsburg four years ago, when the sale of Chasot's horses went +off so well. "Nothing like selling horses when your company have dined +well," whispered he to Chasot, at that time; since which date we have +heard nothing of his Highness. + +He is not a beautiful man; he has a crooked back, and features +conformable; but is of prompt vivacious nature, and does not want for +sense and good-humor. Paternal George, the gossips say, warned his +Princess, when this marriage was talked of, "You will find him very +ill-looking, though!" "And if I found him a baboon--!" answered she; +being so heartily tired of St. James's. And in fact, for anything I +have heard, they do well enough together. She is George II.'s eldest +Princess;--next elder to our poor Amelia, who was once so interesting +to us! What the Crown-Prince now thought of all that, I do not know; +but the Books say, poor Amelia wore the willow, and specially wore the +Prince's miniature on her breast all her days after, which were many. +Grew corpulent, somewhat a huddle in appearance and equipment, "eyelids +like upper-LIPS," for one item: but when life itself fled, the miniature +was found in its old place, resting on the old heart after some sixty +years. O Time, O Sons and Daughters of Time!-- + +His Majesty's reception at Loo was of the kind he liked,--cordial, +honorable, unceremonious; and these were three pleasant days he had. +Pleasant for the Crown-Prince too; as the whole Journey had rather been; +Papa, with covert satisfaction, finding him a wise creature, after all, +and "more serious" than formerly. "Hm, you don't know what things are in +that Fritz!" his Majesty murmured sometimes, in these later years, with +a fine light in his eyes. + +Loo itself is a beautiful Palace: "Loo, close by the Village Appeldoorn, +is a stately brick edifice, built with architectural regularity; has +finely decorated rooms, beautiful gardens, and round are superb alleys +of oak and linden." [Busching, _Erdbeschreibung,_ viii. 69.] There +saunters pleasantly our Crown-Prince, for these three days;--and one +glad incident I do perceive to have befallen him there: the arrival of a +Letter from Voltaire. Letter much expected, which had followed him from +Wesel; and which he answers here, in this brick Palace, among the superb +avenues and gardens. [_OEuvres,_ xxi. 203, the Letter, "Cirey, June, +1738;" Ib. 222, the Answer to it, "Loo, 6th August, 1738."] + +No doubt a glad incident, irradiating, as with a sudden sunburst in gray +weather, the commonplace of things. Here is news worth listening to; +news as from the empyrean! Free interchange of poetries and proses, +of heroic sentiments and opinions, between the Unique of Sages and the +Paragon of Crown-Princes; how charming to both! Literary business, we +perceive, is brisk on both hands; at Cirey the _Discours sur l'Homme_ +("Sixth DISCOURS" arrives in this packet at Loo, surely a deathless +piece of singing); nor is Reinsberg idle: Reinsberg is copiously doing +verse, such verse! and in prose, very earnestly, an "ANTI-MACHIAVEL;" +which soon afterwards filled all the then world, though it has now +fallen so silent again. And at Paris, as Voltaire announces with a +flourish, "M. de Maupertuis's excellent Book, _Figure de la T'erre,_ +is out;" [Paris, 1738: Maupertuis's "measurement of a degree," in the +utmost North, 1736-1737 (to prove the Earth flattened there). Vivid +Narrative; somewhat gesticulative, but duly brief. The only Book of +that great Maupertuis which is now readable to human nature.] M. de +Maupertuis, home from the Polar regions and from measuring the Earth +there; the sublimest miracle in Paris society at present. Might build, +new-build, an ACADEMY OF SCIENCES at Berlin for your Royal Highness, +one day? suggests Voltaire, on this occasion: and Friedrich, as we shall +see, takes the hint. One passage of the Crown-Prince's Answer is in +these terms;--fixing this Loo visit to its date for us, at any rate:-- + +"LOO IN HOLLAND, 6th AUGUST, 1739.... I write from a place where there +lived once a great man [William III. of England, our Dutch William]; +which is now the Prince of Orange's House. The demon of Ambition sheds +its unhappy poisons over his days. He might be the most fortunate of +men; and he is devoured by chagrins in his beautiful Palace here, in the +middle of his gardens and of a brilliant Court. It is pity in truth; +for he is a Prince with no end of wit (INFINIMENT D'ESPRIT), and has +respectable qualites." Not Stadtholder, unluckily; that is where the +shoe pinches; the Dutch are on the Republican tack, and will not have +a Stadtholder at present. No help for it in one's beautiful gardens and +avenues of oak and linden. + +"I have talked a great deal about Newton with the Princess,"--about +Newton; never hinted at Amelia; not permissible!--"from Newton we passed +to Leibnitz; and from Leibnitz to the Late Queen of England," Caroline +lately gone, "who, the Prince told me, was of Clarke's sentiment" on +that important theological controversy now dead to mankind.--And of +Jenkins and his Ear did the Princess say nothing? That is now becoming a +high phenomenon in England! But readers must wait a little. + +Pity that we cannot give these two Letters in full; that no reader, +almost, could be made to understand them, or to care for them when +understood. Such the cruelty of Time upon this Voltaire-Friedrich +Correspondence, and some others; which were once so rosy, sunny, and are +now fallen drearily extinct,--studiable by Editors only! In itself +the Friedrich-Voltaire Correspondence, we can see, was charming; very +blossomy at present: businesses increasing; mutual admiration now risen +to a great height,--admiration sincere on both sides, most so on +the Prince's, and extravagantly expressed on both sides, most so on +Voltaire's. + + + + +CROWN-PRINCE BECOMES A FREEMASON; AND IS HARANGUED BY MONSIEUR DE +BIELFELD. + +His Majesty, we said, had three pleasant days at Loo; discoursing, as +with friends, on public matters, or even on more private matters, in +a frank unconstrained way. He is not to be called "Majesty" on this +occasion; but the fact, at Loo, and by the leading Mightinesses of +the Republic, who come copiously to compliment him there, is well +remembered. Talk there was, with such leading Mightinesses, about the +Julich-and-Berg question, aim of this Journey: earnest enough private +talk with some of them: but it availed nothing; and would not be worth +reporting now to any creature, if we even knew it. In fact, the Journey +itself remains mentionable chiefly by one very trifling circumstance; +and then by another, not important either, which followed out of that. +The trifling circumstance is,--That Friedrich, in the course of this +Journey, became a Freemason: and the unimportant sequel was, That he +made acquaintance with one Bielfeld, on the occasion; who afterwards +wrote a Book about him, which was once much read, though never much +worth reading, and is still citable, with precaution, now and then. +[Monsieur le Baron de Bielfeld, _Lettres Familieres et Autres,_ +1763;--second edition, 2 vols. a Leide, 1767, is the one we use here.] +Trifling circumstance, of Freemasonry, as we read in Bielfeld and in +many Books after him, befell in manner following. + +Among the dinner-guests at Loo, one of those three days, was a Prince of +Lippe-Buckeburg,--Prince of small territory, but of great speculation; +whose territory lies on the Weser, leading to Dutch connections; and +whose speculations stretch over all the Universe, in a high fantastic +style:--he was a dinner-guest; and one of the topics that came up was +Freemasonry; a phantasmal kind of object, which had kindled itself, or +rekindled, in those years, in England first of all; and was now hovering +about, a good deal, in Germany and other countries; pretending to be +a new light of Heaven, and not a bog-meteor of phosphorated hydrogen, +conspicuous in the murk of things. Bog-meteor, foolish putrescent +will-o'-wisp, his Majesty promptly defined it to be: Tom-foolery and +KINDERSPIEL, what else? Whereupon ingenious Buckeburg, who was himself +a Mason, man of forty by this time, and had high things in him of the +Quixotic type, ventured on defence; and was so respectful, eloquent, +dexterous, ingenious, he quite captivated, if not his Majesty, at +least the Crown-Prince, who was more enthusiastic for high things. +Crown-Prince, after table, took his Durchlaucht of Buckeburg +aside; talked farther on the subject, expressed his admiration, his +conviction,--his wish to be admitted into such a Hero Fraternity. +Nothing could be welcomer to Durchlaucht. And so, in all privacy, it +was made up betweeen them, That Durchlaucht, summoning as many mystic +Brothers out of Hamburg as were needful, should be in waiting with them, +on the Crown-Prince's road homeward,--say at Brunswick, night before +the Fair, where we are to be,--and there make the Crown-Prince a Mason. +[Bielfeld, i. 14-16; Preuss, i. 111; Preuss, _Buch fur Jedermann,_ i. +41.] + +This is Bielfeld's account, repeated ever since; substantially correct, +except that the scene was not Loo at all: dinner and dialogue, it now +appears, took place in Durchlaucht's own neighborhood, during the Cleve +Review time; "probably at Minden, 17th July;" and all was settled into +fixed program before Loo came in sight. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ +xvs. 201: Friedrich's Letter to this Durchlaucht, "Comte de +Schaumbourg-Lippe" he calls him; date, "Moyland, 26th July, 1738: +"Moyland, a certain SCHLOSS, or habitable Mansion, of his Majesty's, +few miles to north of Mors in the Cleve Country; where his Majesty +used often to pause;--and where (what will be much more remarkable to +readers) the Crown-Prince and Voltaire had their first meeting, +two years hence.] Bielfeld's report of the subsequent procedure at +Brunswick, as he saw it and was himself part of it, is liable to no +mistakes, at least of the involuntary kind; and may, for anything we +know, be correct in every particular. + +He says (veiling it under discreet asterisks, which are now decipherable +enough), The Durchlaucht of Lippe-Buckeburg had summoned six Brethren of +the Hamburg Lodge; of whom we mention only a Graf von Kielmannsegge, a +Baron von Oberg, both from Hanover, and Bielfeld himself, a Merchant's +Son, of Hamburg; these, with "Kielmannsegge's Valet to act as Tiler," +Valet being also a Mason, and the rule equality of mankind,--were to +have the honor of initiating the Crown-Prince. They arrived at the +Western Gate of Brunswick on the 11th of August, as prearranged; +Prussian Majesty not yet come, but coming punctually on the morrow. It +is Fair-time; all manner of traders, pedlers, showmen rendezvousing; +many neighboring Nobility too, as was still the habit. "Such a bulk +of light luggage?" said the Custom-house people at the Gate;--but were +pacified by slipping them a ducat. Upon which we drove to "Korn's Hotel" +(if anybody now knew it); and there patiently waited. No great things +of a Hotel, says Bielfeld; but can be put up with;--worst feature is, we +discover a Hanover acquaintance lodging close by, nothing but a wooden +partition between us: How if he should overhear!-- + +Prussian Majesty and suite, under universal cannon-salvos, arrived, +Sunday the 12th; to stay till Wednesday (three days) with his august +Son-in-law and Daughter here. Durchlaucht Lippe presents himself at +Court, the rest of us not; privately settles with the Prince: "Tuesday +night, eve of his Majesty's departure; that shall be the night: at +Korn's Hotel, late enough!" And there, accordingly, on the appointed +night, 14th-15th August, 1738, the light-luggage trunks have yielded +their stage-properties; Jachin and Boaz are set up, and all things are +ready; Tiler (Kielmannsegge's Valet) watching with drawn sword +against the profane. As to our Hanover neighbor, on the other side +the partition, says Bielfeld, we waited on him, this day after dinner, +successively paying our respects; successively pledged him in so +many bumpers, he is lying dead drunk hours ago, could not overhear a +cannon-battery, he. And soon after midnight, the Crown-Prince glides in, +a Captain Wartensleben accompanying, who is also a candidate; and the +mysterious rites are accomplished on both of them, on the Crown-Prince +first, without accident, and in the usual way. + +Bielfeld could not enough admire the demeanor of this Prince, his +clearness, sense, quiet brilliancy; and how he was so "intrepid," +and "possessed himself so gracefully in the most critical instants." +Extremely genial air, and so young, looks younger even than his years: +handsome to a degree, though of short stature. Physiognomy, features, +quite charming; fine auburn hair (BEAU BRUN), a negligent plenty of it; +"his large blue eyes have something at once severe, sweet and gracious." +Eligible Mason indeed. Had better make despatch at present, lest Papa +be getting on the road before him!--Bielfeld delivered a small address, +composed beforehand; with which the Prince seemed to be content. And +so, with masonic grip, they made their adieus for the present; and the +Crown-Prince and Wartensleben were back at their posts, ready for the +road along with his Majesty. + +His Majesty came on Sunday; goes on Wednesday, home now at a stretch; +and, we hope, has had a good time of it here, these three days. Daughter +Charlotte and her Serene Husband, well with their subjects, well with +one another, are doing well; have already two little Children; a Boy +the elder, of whom we have heard: Boy's name is Karl, age now three; +sprightly, reckoned very clever, by the fond parents;--who has many +things to do in the world, by and by; to attack the French Revolution, +and be blown to pieces by it on the Field of Jena, for final thing! +That is the fate of little Karl, who frolics about here, so sunshiny and +ingenuous at present. + +Karl's Grandmother, the Serene Dowager Duchess, Friedrich's own +Mother-in-law, his Majesty and Friedrich would also of course see +here. Fine Younger Sons of hers are coming forward; the reigning Duke +beautifully careful about the furtherance of these Cadets of the House. +Here is Prince Ferdinand, for instance; just getting ready for the Grand +Tour; goes in a month hence: [Mauvillon (FILS, son of him whom we cite +otherwise), _Geschichte Ferdinands Herzogs von Braunschweig-Luneburg_ +(Leipzig, 1794), i. 17-25.] a fine eupeptic loyal young fellow; who, +in a twenty years more, will be Chatham's Generalissimo, and fight +the French to some purpose. A Brother of his, the next elder, is now +fighting the Turks for his Kaiser; does not like it at all, under such +Seckendorfs and War-Ministries as there are. Then, elder still, eldest +of all the Cadets, there is Anton Ulrich, over at Petersburg for some +years past, with outlooks high enough: To wed the Mecklenburg Princess +there (Daughter of the unutterable Duke), and be as good as Czar of +all the Russias one day. Little to his profit, poor soul!--These, +historically ascertainable, are the aspects of the Brunswick Court +during those three days of Royal Visit, in Fair-time; and may serve to +date the Masonic Transaction for us, which the Crown-Prince has just +accomplished over at Korn's. + +As for the Transaction itself, there is intrinsically no harm in this +initiation, we will hope: but it behooves to be kept well hidden from +Papa. Papa's good opinion of the Prince has sensibly risen, in the +course of this Journey, "so rational, serious, not dangling about among +the women as formerly;"--and what a shock would this of Korn's Hotel be, +should Papa hear of it! Poor Papa, from officious tale-bearers he hears +many things: is in distress about Voltaire, about Heterodoxies;--and +summoned the Crown-Prince, by express, from Reinsberg, on one occasion +lately, over to Potsdam, "to take the Communion" there, by way of +case-hardening against Voltaire and Heterodoxies! Think of it, human +readers!--We will add the following stray particulars, more or less +illustrative of the Masonic Transaction; and so end that trifling +affair. + +The Captain Wartensleben, fellow-recipient of the mysteries at +Brunswick, is youngest son, by a second marriage, of old Feldmarschall +Wartensleben, now deceased; and is consequently Uncle, Half-Uncle, of +poor Lieutenant Katte, though some years younger than Katte would now +have been. Tender memories hang by Wartensleben, in a silent way! He +is Captain in the Potsdam Giants; somewhat an intimate, and not +undeservedly so, of the Crown-Prince;--succeeds Wolden as Hofmarschall +at Reinsberg, not many months after this; Wolden having died of an +apoplectic stroke. Of Bielfeld comes a Book, slightly citable; from +no other of the Brethren, or their Feat at Kern's, comes (we may say) +anything whatever. The Crown-Prince prosecuted his Masonry, at Reinsberg +or elsewhere, occasionally, for a year or two; but was never ardent +in it; and very soon after his Accession, left off altogether: +"Child's-play and IGNIS FATUUS mainly!" A Royal Lodge was established at +Berlin, of which the new King consented to be patron; but he never once +entered the place; and only his Portrait (a welcomely good one, still +to be found there) presided over the mysteries in that Establishment. +Harmless "fire," but too "fatuous;" mere flame-circles cut in the air, +for infants, we know how!-- + +With Lippe-Buckeburg there ensued some Correspondence, high enough on +his Serenity's side; but it soon languished on the Prince's side; and +in private Poetry, within a two years of this Brunswick scene, we find +Lippe used proverbially for a type-specimen of Fools. ["Taciturne, +Caton, avec mes bons parents, Aussi fou que la Lippe met les jeunes +gens." _OEuvres,_ xi. 80 (_Discours sur la Faussete,_ written 1740).] +A windy fantastic individual;--overwhelmed in finance-difficulties too! +Lippe continued writing; but "only Secretaries now answered him" from +Berlin. A son of his, son and successor, something of a Quixote too, but +notable in Artillery-practice and otherwise, will turn up at a future +stage. + +Nor is Bielfeld with his Book a thing of much moment to Friedrich or to +us. Bielfeld too has a light airy vein of talk; loves Voltaire and the +Philosophies in a light way;--knows the arts of Society, especially +the art of flattering; and would fain make himself agreeable to the +Crown-Prince, being anxious to rise in the world. His Father is a +Hamburg Merchant, Hamburg "Sealing-wax Manufacturer," not ill off +for money: Son has been at schools, high schools, under tutors, +posture-masters; swashes about on those terms, with French ESPRIT in his +mouth, and lace ruffles at his wrists; still under thirty; showy enough, +sharp enough; considerably a coxcomb, as is still evident. He did +transiently get about Friedrich, as we shall see; and hoped to have sold +his heart to good purpose there;--was, by and by, employed in slight +functions; not found fit for grave ones. In the course of some years, +he got a title of Baron; and sold his heart more advantageously, to some +rich Widow or Fraulein; with whom he retired to Saxony, and there lived +on an Estate he had purchased, a stranger to Prussia thenceforth. + +His Book (_Lettres Familieres et Autres,_ all turning on Friedrich), +which came out in 1763, at the height of Friedrich's fame, and was +much read, is still freely cited by Historians as an Authority. But the +reading of a few pages sufficiently intimates that these "Letters" +never can have gone through a terrestrial Post-office; that they are an +afterthought, composed from vague memory and imagination, in that fine +Saxon retreat;--a sorrowful ghost-like "TRAVELS OF ANACHARSIS," instead +of living words by an eye-witness! Not to be cited "freely" at all, +but sparingly and under conditions. They abound in small errors, +in misdates, mistakes; small fictions even, and impossible +pretensions:--foolish mortal, to write down his bit of knowledge in that +form! For the man, in spite of his lace ruffles and gesticulations, has +brisk eyesight of a superficial kind: he COULD have done us this little +service (apparently his one mission in the world, for which Nature gave +him bed and board here); and he, the lace ruffles having gone into his +soul, has been tempted into misdoing it!--Bielfeld and Bielfeld's +Book, such as they are, appear to be the one conquest Friedrich got of +Freemasonry; no other result now traceable to us of that adventure in +Korn's Hotel, crowning event of the Journey to Loo. + + + + +SECKENDORF GETS LODGED IN GRATZ. + +Feldmarschall Seckendorf, after unheard-of wrestlings with the Turk +War, and the Vienna War-Office (HOFKRIEGSRATH), is sitting, for the last +three weeks,--where thinks the reader?--in the Fortress of Gratz among +the Hills of Styria; a State-Prisoner, not likely to get out soon! +Seckendorf led forth, in 1737, "such an Army, for number, spirit and +equipment," say the Vienna people, "as never marched against the Turk +before;" and it must be owned, his ill success has been unparalleled. +The blame was not altogether his; not chiefly his, except for his rash +undertaking of the thing, on such terms as there were. But the truth +is, that first scene we saw of him,--an Army all gone out trumpeting and +drumming into the woods to FIND its Commander-in-Chief,--was an emblem +of the Campaign in general. Excellent Army; but commanded by nobody in +particular; commanded by a HOFKRIEGSRATH at Vienna, by a Franz Duke +of Tuscany, by Feldmarschall Seckendorf, and by subordinates who were +disobedient to him: which accordingly, almost without help of the Turk +and his disorderly ferocity, rubbed itself to pieces before long. Roamed +about, now hither now thither, with plans laid and then with plans +suddenly altered, Captain being Chaos mainly; in swampy countries, by +overflowing rivers, in hunger, hot weather, forced marches; till it was +marched gradually off its feet; and the clouds of chaotic Turks, who +did finally show face, had a cheap pennyworth of it. Never was such a +campaign seen as this of Seckendorf in 1737, said mankind. Except +indeed that the present one, Campaign of 1738, in those parts, under a +different hand, is still worse; and the Campaign of 1739, under still a +different, will be worst of all!--Kaiser Karl and his Austrians do not +prosper in this Turk War, as the Russians do,--who indeed have got +a General equal to his task: Munnich, a famed master in the art of +handling Turks and War-Ministries: real father of Russian Soldiering, +say the Russians still. [See MANNSTEIN for Munnich's plans with the +Turk (methods and devices of steady Discipline in small numbers VERSUS +impetuous Ferocity in great); and Berenhorst (_Betrachtungen uber die +Kriegskunst,_ Leipzig, 1796), a first-rate Authority, for examples and +eulogies of them.] + +Campaign 1737, with clouds of chaotic Turks now sabring on the skirts of +it, had not yet ended, when Seckendorf was called out of it; on polite +pretexts, home to Vienna; and the command given to another. At the +gates of Vienna, in the last days of October, 1737, an Official Person, +waiting for the Feldmarschall, was sorry to inform him, That he, +Feldmarschall Seckendorf, was under arrest; arrest in his own house, +in the KOHLMARKT (Cabbage-market so called), a captain and twelve +musketeers to watch over him with fixed bayonets there; strictly +private, till the HOFKRIEGSRATH had satisfied themselves in a point +or two. "Hmph!" snuffled he; with brow blushing slate-color, I should +think, and gray eyes much alight. And ever since, for ten months or so, +Seckendorf, sealed up in the Cabbage-market, has been fencing for +life with the HOFKRIEGSRATH; who want satisfaction upon "eighty-six" +different "points;" and make no end of chicaning to one's clear answers. +And the Jesuits preach, too: "A Heretic, born enemy of Christ and his +Kaiser; what is the use of questioning!" And the Heathen rage, and all +men gnash their teeth, in this uncomfortable manner. + +Answering done, there comes no verdict, much less any acquittal; the +captain and twelve musketeers, three of them with fixed bayonets in +one's very bedroom, continue. One evening, 21st July, 1738, glorious +news from the seat of War--not TILL evening, as the Imperial Majesty +was out hunting--enters Vienna; blowing trumpets; shaking flags: "Grand +Victory over the Turks!" so we call some poor skirmish there has been; +and Vienna bursting all into three-times-three, the populace get very +high. Populace rush to the Kohlmarkt: break the Seckendorf windows; +intent to massacre the Seckendorf; had not fresh military come, who were +obliged to fire and kill one or two. "The house captain and his twelve +musketeers, of themselves, did wonders; Seckendorf and all his domestics +were in arms:" "JARNI-BLEU" for the last time!--This is while the +Crown-Prince is at Wesel; sound asleep, most likely; Loo, and the +Masonic adventure, perhaps twinkling prophetically in his dreams. + +At two next morning, an Official Gentleman informs Seckendorf, That +he, for his part, must awaken, and go to Gratz. And in one hour more (3 +A.M.), the Official Gentleman rolls off with him; drives all day; and +delivers his Prisoner at Gratz:--"Not so much as a room ready there; +Prisoner had to wait an hour in the carriage," till some summary +preparation were made. Wall-neighbors of the poor Feldmarschall, in his +Fortress here, were "a GOLD-COOK (swindling Alchemist), who had gone +crazy; and an Irish Lieutenant, confined thirty-two years for some +love-adventure, likewise pretty crazy; their noises in the night-time +much disturbed the Feldmarschall." [_Seckendorfs Leben,_ ii. 170-277 +pp. 27-59.] One human thing there still is in his lot, the +Feldmarschall's old Grafinn. True old Dame, she, both in the Kohlmarkt +and at Gratz, stands by him, "imprisoned along with him" if it must be +so; ministering, comforting, as only a true Wife can;--and hope has not +quite taken wing. + +Rough old Feldmarschall; now turned of sixty: never made such a Campaign +before, as this of 1737 followed by 1738! There sits he; and will not +trouble us any more during the present Kaiser's lifetime. Friedrich +Wilhelm is amazed at these sudden cantings of Fortune's wheel, and +grieves honestly as for an old friend: even the Crown-Prince finds +Seckendorf punished unjustly; and is almost, sorry for him, after all +that has come and gone. + + + + +THE EAR OF JENKINS RE-EMERGES. + +We must add the following, distilled from the English Newspapers, though +it is now almost four months after date:-- + +"LONDON, 1st APRIL, 1738. In the English House of Commons, much more +in the English Public, there has been furious debating for a fortnight +past: Committee of the whole House, examining witnesses, hearing +counsel; subject, the Termagant of Spain, and her West-Indian +procedures;--she, by her procedures somewhere, is always cutting out +work for mankind! How English and other strangers, fallen-in with in +those seas, are treated by the Spaniards, readers have heard, nay have +chanced to see; and it is a fact painfully known to all nations. Fact +which England, for one nation, can no longer put up with. Walpole and +the Official Persons would fain smooth the matter; but the West-India +Interest, the City, all Mercantile and Navigation Interests are in dead +earnest: Committee of the whole House, 'Presided by Alderman Perry,' has +not ears enough to hear the immensities of evidence offered; slow Public +is gradually kindling to some sense of it. This had gone on for two +weeks, when--what shall we say?--the EAR OF JENKINS re-emerged for the +second time; and produced important effects! + +"Where Jenkins had been all this while,--steadfastly navigating to and +fro, steadfastly eating tough junk with a wetting of rum; not thinking +too much of past labors, yet privately 'always keeping his lost Ear in +cotton' (with a kind of ursine piety, or other dumb feeling),--no mortal +now knows. But to all mortals it is evident he was home in London at +this time; no doubt a noted member of Wapping society, the much-enduring +Jenkins. And witnesses, probably not one but many, had mentioned him to +this Committee, as a case eminently in point. Committee, as can still +be read in its Rhadamanthine Journals, orders: 'DIE JOVIS, 16* +MARTII 1737-1738, That Captain Robert Jenkins do attend this House +immediately;' and then more specially, '17* MARTII' captious objections +having risen in Official quarters, as we guess,--'That Captain Robert +Jenkins do attend upon Tuesday morning next.' [_Commons Journals,_ +xxiii. (in diebus).] Tuesday next is 21st March,--1st of April, 1738, by +our modern Calendar;--and on that day, not a doubt, Jenkins does attend; +narrates that tremendous passage we already heard of, seven years ago, +in the entrance of the Gulf of Florida; and produces his Ear wrapt in +cotton:--setting all on flame (except the Official persons) at sight of +it." + +Official persons, as their wont is in the pressure of debate, endeavored +to deny, to insinuate in their vile Newspapers, That Jenkins lost his +Ear nearer home and not for nothing; as one still reads in the History +Books. [Tindal (xx. 372). Coxe, &c.] Sheer calumnies, we now find. +Jenkins's account was doubtless abundantly emphatic; but there is no +ground to question the substantial truth of him and it. And so, after +seven years of unnoticeable burning upon the thick skin of the English +Public, the case of Jenkins accidentally burns through, and sets England +bellowing; such a smart is there of it,--not to be soothed by Official +wet-cloths; but getting worse and worse, for the nineteen months +ensuing. And in short--But we will not anticipate! + + + + +Chapter VI. -- LAST YEAR OF REINSBERG; JOURNEY TO PREUSSEN. + +The Idyllium of Reinsberg--of which, except in the way of sketchy +suggestion, there can no history be given--lasted less than four years; +and is now coming to an end, unexpectedly soon. A pleasant Arcadian +Summer in one's life;--though it has not wanted its occasional discords, +flaws of ill weather in the general sunshine. Papa, always in uncertain +health of late, is getting heavier of foot and of heart under his heavy +burdens; and sometimes falls abstruse enough, liable to bewilderments +from bad people and events: not much worth noticing here. [See Pollnitz, +ii. 509-515; Friedrich's Letter to Wilhelmina ("Berlin, 20th January, +1739:" in _OEuvres,_ xxvii. part 1st, pp. 60, 61); &c. &c.] But the +Crown-Prince has learned to deal with all this; all this is of +transient nature; and a bright long future seems to lie ahead at +Reinsberg;--brightened especially by the Literary Element; which, in +this year of 1739, is brisker than it had ever been. Distinguished +Visitors, of a literary turn, look in at Reinsberg; the Voltaire +Correspondence is very lively; on Friedrich's part there is copious +production, various enterprise, in the form of prose and verse; thoughts +even of going to press with some of it: in short, the Literary Interest +rises very prominent at Reinsberg in 1739. Biography is apt to forget +the Literature there (having her reasons); but must at last take some +notice of it, among the phenomena of the year. + +To the young Prince himself, "courting tranquillity," as his door-lintel +intimated, [_"Frederico tranquillitatem colenti"_ (Infra, p. 123).] +and forbidden to be active except within limits, this of Literature was +all along the great light of existence at Reinsberg; the supplement +to all other employments or wants of employment there. To Friedrich +himself, in those old days, a great and supreme interest; while again, +to the modern Biographer of him, it has become dark and vacant; a thing +to be shunned, not sought. So that the fact as it stood with Friedrich +differs far from any description that can be given of the fact. Alas, we +have said already, and the constant truth is, Friedrich's literatures, +his distinguished literary visitors and enterprises, which were once +brand-new and brilliant, have grown old as a garment, and are a sorrow +rather than otherwise to existing mankind! Conscientious readers, who +would represent to themselves the vanished scene at Reinsberg, in this +point more especially, must make an effort. + +As biographical documents, these Poetries and Proses of the young man +give a very pretty testimony of him; but are not of value otherwise. In +fact, they promise, if we look well into them, That here is probably a +practical faculty and intellect of the highest kind; which again, on +the speculative, especially on the poetical side, will never be +considerable, nor has even tried to be so. This young soul does not deal +in meditation at all, and his tendencies are the reverse of sentimental. +Here is no introspection, morbid or other, no pathos or complaint, +no melodious informing of the public what dreadful emotions you labor +under: here, in rapid prompt form, indicating that it is truth and not +fable, are generous aspirations for the world and yourself, generous +pride, disdain of the ignoble, of the dark, mendacious;--here, in short, +is a swift-handed, valiant, STEEL-bright kind of soul; very likely for a +King's, if other things answer, and not likely for a Poet's. No doubt he +could have made something of Literature too; could have written Books, +and left some stamp of a veracious, more or less victorious intellect, +in that strange province too. But then he must have applied himself to +it, as he did to reigning: done in the cursory style, we see what it has +come to. + +It is certain, Friedrich's reputation suffers, at this day, from his +writing. From his NOT having written nothing, he stands lower with the +world. Which seems hard measure;--though perhaps it is the law of the +case, after all. "Nobody in these days," says my poor Friend, "has the +least notion of the sinful waste there is in talk, whether by pen or +tongue. Better probably that King Friedrich had written no Verses; nay +I know not that David's Psalms did David's Kingship any good!" Which +may be truer than it seems. Fine aspirations, generous convictions, +purposes,--they are thought very fine: but it is good, on various +accounts, to keep them rather silent; strictly unvocal, except on +call of real business; so dangerous are they for becoming conscious of +themselves! Most things do not ripen at all except underground. And it +is a sad but sure truth, that every time you SPEAK of a fine purpose, +especially if with eloquence and to the admiration of by-standers, +there is the LESS chance of your ever making a fact of it in your poor +life.--If Reinsberg, and its vacancy of great employment, was the cause +of Friedrich's verse-writing, we will not praise Reinsberg on that +head! But the truth is, Friedrich's verses came from him with uncommon +fluency; and were not a deep matter, but a shallow one, in any sense. +Not much more to him than speaking with a will; than fantasying on the +flute in an animated strain. Ever and anon through his life, on small +hint from without or on great, there was found a certain leakage of +verses, which he was prompt to utter;--and the case at Reinsberg, or +afterwards, is not so serious as we might imagine. + + + + +PINE'S HORACE; AND THE ANTI-MACHIAVEL. + +In late months Friedrich had conceived one notable project; which +demands a word in this place. Did modern readers ever hear of "John +Pine, the celebrated English Engraver"? John Pine, a man of good +scholarship, good skill with his burin, did "Tapestries of the House +of Lords," and other things of a celebrated nature, famous at home and +abroad: but his peculiar feat, which had commended him at Reinsberg, was +an Edition of HORACE: exquisite old FLACCUS brought to perfection, as it +were; all done with vignettes, classical borderings, symbolic marginal +ornaments, in fine taste and accuracy, the Text itself engraved; all by +the exquisite burin of Pine. ["London, 1737" (_Biographie Universelle,_ +xxxiv. 465).] This Edition had come out last year, famous over the +world; and was by and by, as rumor bore, to be followed by a VIRGIL done +in the like exquisite manner. + +The Pine HORACE, part of the Pine VIRGIL too, still exist in the +libraries of the curious; and are doubtless known to the proper parties, +though much forgotten by others of us. To Friedrich, scanning the Pine +phenomenon with interest then brand-new, it seemed an admirable tribute +to classical genius; and the idea occurred to him, "Is not there, by +Heaven's blessing, a living genius, classical like those antique Romans, +and worthy of a like tribute?" Friedrich's idea was, That Voltaire being +clearly the supreme of Poets, the HENRIADE, his supreme of Poems, ought +to be engraved like FLACCUS; text and all, with vignettes, tail-pieces, +classical borderings beautifully symbolic and exact; by the exquisite +burin of Pine. Which idea the young hero-worshipper, in spite of his +finance-difficulties, had resolved to realize; and was even now busy +with it, since his return from Loo. "Such beautiful enthusiasm," say +some readers; "and in behalf of that particular demi-god!" Alas, yes; to +Friedrich he was the best demi-god then going; and Friedrich never had +any doubt about him. + +For the rest, this heroic idea could not realize itself; and we +are happy to have nothing more to do with Pine or the HENRIADE. +Correspondences were entered into with Pine, and some pains taken: +Pine's high prices were as nothing; but Pine was busy with his VIRGIL; +probably, in fact, had little stomach for the HENRIADE; "could not for +seven years to come enter upon it:" so that the matter had to die away; +and nothing came of it but a small DISSERTATION, or Introductory Essay, +which the Prince had got ready,--which is still to be found printed +in Voltaire's Works [_OEuvres, xiii. 393-402._] and in Friedrich's, if +anybody now cared much to read it. Preuss says it was finished, "the +10th August, 1739;" and that minute fact in Chronology, with the above +tale of Hero-worship hanging to it, will suffice my readers and me. + +But there is another literary project on hand, which did take +effect;--much worthy of mention, this year; the whole world having risen +into such a Chorus of TE DEUM at sight of it next year. In this year +falls, what at any rate was a great event to Friedrich, as literary man: +the printing of his first Book,--assiduous writing of it with an eye to +print. The Book is that "celebrated ANTI-MACHIAVEL," ever-praiseworthy +Refutation of Machiavel's PRINCE; concerning which there are such +immensities of Voltaire Correspondence, now become, like the Book +itself, inane to all readers. This was the chosen soul's employment of +Friedrich, the flower of life to him, at Reinsberg, through the yea? +1739. It did not actually get to press till Spring 1740; nor actually +come out till Autumn,--by which time a great change had occurred in +Friedrich's title and circumstances: but we may as well say here what +little is to be said of it for modern readers. + +"The Crown-Prince, reading this bad Book of Machiavel's, years ago, had +been struck, as all honest souls, especially governors or apprentices +to governing, must be, if they thought of reading such a thing, with +its badness, its falsity, detestability; and came by degrees, obliquely +fishing out Voltaire's opinion as he went along, on the notion of +refuting Machiavel; and did refute him, the best he could. Set down, +namely, his own earnest contradiction to such ungrounded noxious +doctrines; elaborating the same more and more into clear logical +utterance; till it swelled into a little Volume; which, so excellent +was it, so important to mankind, Voltaire and friends were clear for +publishing. Published accordingly it was; goes through the press next +Summer (1740), under Voltaire's anxious superintendence: [Here, gathered +from Friedrich's Letters to Voltaire, is the Chronology of the little +Enterprise:--1738, MARCH 21, JUNE 17, "Machiavel a baneful man," +thinks Friedrich. "Ought to be refuted by somebody?" thinks he (date not +known). 1739, MARCH 22, Friedrich thinks of doing it himself. Has done +it, DECEMBER 4;--"a Book which ought to be printed," say Voltaire and +the literary visitors. 1740, APRIL 26, Book given up to Voltaire for +finished; Book appears, "end of SEPTEMBER," when a great change had +occurred in Friedrich's title and position.] for the Prince has at +length consented; and Voltaire hands the Manuscript, with mystery yet +with hints, to a Dutch Bookseller, one Van Duren at the Hague, who +is eager enough to print such an article. Voltaire himself--such his +magnanimous friendship, especially if one have Dutch Lawsuits, or +business of one's own, in those parts--takes charge of correcting; +lodges himself in the 'Old Court' (Prussian Mansion, called VIEILLE +COUR, at the Hague, where 'Luiscius,' figuratively speaking, may 'get +an alms' from us); and therefrom corrects, alters; corresponds with the +Prince and Van Duren, at a great rate. Keeps correcting, altering, till +Van Duren thinks he is spoiling it for sale;--and privately determines +to preserve the original Manuscript, and have an edition of that, with +only such corrections as seem good to Van Duren. A treasonous step +on this mule of a Bookseller's part, thinks Voltaire; but mulishly +persisted in by the man. Endless correspondence, to right and left, +ensues; intolerably wearisome to every reader. And, in fine, there came +out, in Autumn next,"--the Crown-Prince no longer a Crown-Prince by +that time, but shining conspicuous under Higher Title,--"not one +ANTI-MACHIAVEL only, but a couple or a trio of ANTI-MACHIAVELS; as +printed 'at the Hague;' as reprinted 'at London' or elsewhere; the +confused Bibliography of which has now fallen very insignificant. First +there was the Voltaire text, Authorized Edition, 'end of September, +1740;' then came, in few weeks, the Van Duren one; then, probably, a +third, combining the two, the variations given as foot-notes:--in short, +I know not how many editions, translations, printings and reprintings; +all the world being much taken up with such a message from the upper +regions, and eager to read it in any form. + +"As to Friedrich himself, who of course says nothing of the +ANTI-MACHIAVEL in public, he privately, to Voltaire, disowns all these +editions; and intends to give a new one of his own, which shall be the +right article; but never did it, having far other work cut out for him +in the months that came. But how zealous the worlds humor was in that +matter, no modern reader can conceive to himself. In the frightful +Compilation called HELDEN-GESCHICHTE, which we sometimes cite, there +are, excerpted from the then 'Bibliotheques' (NOUVELLE BIBLIOTHEQUE +and another; shining Periodicals of the time, now gone quite dead), +two 'reviews' of the ANTI-MACHIAVEL, which fill modern readers with +amazement: such a DOMINE DIMITTAS chanted over such an article!--These +details, in any other than the Biographical point of view, are now +infinitely unimportant." + +Truly, yes! The Crown-Prince's ANTI-MACHIAVEL, final correct edition (in +two forms, Voltaire's as corrected, and the Prince's own as written), +stands now in clear type; [Preuss, _OEuvres de Frederic,_ viii. +61-163.] and, after all that jumble of printing and counter-printing, we +can any of us read it in a few hours; but, alas, almost none of us +with the least interest, or, as it were, with any profit whatever. +So different is present tense from past, in all things, especially +in things like these! It is sixscore years since the ANTI-MACHIAVEL +appeared. The spectacle of one who was himself a King (for the +mysterious fact was well known to Van Duren and everybody) stepping +forth to say with conviction, That Kingship was not a thing of attorney +mendacity, to be done under the patronage of Beelzebub, but of human +veracity, to be set about under quite Other patronage; and that, in +fact, a King was the "born servant of his People" (DOMESTIQUE Friedrich +once calls it), rather than otherwise: this, naturally enough, rose upon +the then populations, unused to such language, like the dawn of a new +day; and was welcomed with such applauses as are now incredible, after +all that has come and gone! Alas, in these sixscore years, it has been +found so easy to profess and speak, even with sincerity! The actual +Hero-Kings were long used to be silent; and the Sham-Hero kind grow +only the more desperate for us, the more they speak and profess!--This +ANTI-MACHIAVEL of Friedrich's is a clear distinct Treatise; confutes, +or at least heartily contradicts, paragraph by paragraph, the incredible +sophistries of Machiavel. Nay it leaves us, if we sufficiently force +our attention, with the comfortable sense that his Royal Highness is +speaking with conviction, and honestly from the heart, in the affair: +but that is all the conquest we get of it, in these days. Treatise +fallen more extinct to existing mankind it would not be easy to name. + +Perhaps indeed mankind is getting weary of the question altogether. +Machiavel himself one now reads only by compulsion. "What is the use of +arguing with anybody that can believe in Machiavel?" asks mankind, +or might well ask; and, except for Editorial purposes, eschews any +ANTI-MACHIAVEL; impatient to be rid of bane and antidote both. Truly +the world has had a pother with this little Nicolo Machiavelli and his +perverse little Book:--pity almost that a Friedrich Wilhelm, taking +his rounds at that point of time, had not had the "refuting" of him; +Friedrich Wilhelm's method would have been briefer than Friedrich's! But +let us hope the thing is now, practically, about completed. And as to +the other question, "Was the Signor Nicolo serious in this perverse +little Book; or did he only do it ironically, with a serious inverse +purpose?" we will leave that to be decided, any time convenient, by +people who are much at leisure in the world!-- + +The printing of the ANTI-MACHIAVEL was not intrinsically momentous in +Friedrich's history; yet it might as well have been dispensed with. +He had here drawn a fine program, and needlessly placarded it for the +street populations: and afterwards there rose, as could not fail on +their part, comparison between program and performance; scornful cry, +chiefly from men of weak judgment, "Is this King an ANTI-Machiavel, +then? Pfui!" Of which,--though Voltaire's voice, too, was heard in +it, in angry moments,--we shall say nothing: the reader, looking +for himself, will judge by and by. And herewith enough of the +ANTI-MACHIAVEL. Composition of ANTI-MACHIAVEL and speculation of the +Pine HENRIADE lasted, both of them, all through this Year 1739, and +farther: from these two items, not to mention any other, readers can +figure sufficiently how literary a year it was. + + + + +FRIEDRICH IN PREUSSEN AGAIN; AT THE STUD OF TRAKEHNEN. A TRAGICALLY +GREAT EVENT COMING ON. + +In July this year the Crown-Prince went with Papa on the Prussian +Review-journey. ["Set out, 7th July" (_OEuvres,_ xxvii. part 1st, 67 +n.).] Such attendance on Review-journeys, a mark of his being well with +Papa, is now becoming usual; they are agreeable excursions, and cannot +but be instructive as well. On this occasion, things went beautifully +with him. Out in those grassy Countries, in the bright Summer, once more +he had an unusually fine time;--and two very special pleasures befell +him. First was, a sight of the Emigrants, our Salzburgers and other, in +their flourishing condition, over in Lithuania yonder. Delightful to see +how the waste is blossoming up again; busy men, with their industries, +their steady pious husbandries, making all things green and fruitful: +horse-droves, cattle-herds, waving cornfields;--a very "SCHMALZGRUBE +(Butter-pit)" of those Northern parts, as it is since called. [Busching, +Erdbeschreibung, ii. 1049.] The Crown-Prince's own words on this matter +we will give; they are in a Letter of his to Voltaire, perhaps already +known to some readers;--and we can observe he writes rather copiously +from those localities at present, and in a cheerful humor with +everybody. + +"INSTERBURG, 27th JULY, 1739 (Crown-Prince to Voltaire).... Prussian +Lithuania is a Country a hundred and twenty miles long, by from sixty +to forty broad; ["Miles ENGLISH," we always mean, UNLESS &c.] it was +ravaged by Pestilence at the beginning of this Century; and they say +three hundred thousand people died of disease and famine." Ravaged by +Pestilence and the neglect of King Friedrich I.; till my Father, once +his hands were free, made personal survey of it, and took it up, in +earnest. + +"Since that time," say twenty years ago, "there is no expense that the +King has been afraid of, in order to succeed in his salutary views. +He made, in the first place, regulations full of wisdom; he rebuilt +wherever the Pestilence had desolated: thousands of families, from the +ends of Europe," seventeen thousand Salzburgers for the last item, "were +conducted hither; the Country repeopled itself; trade began to flourish +again;--and now, in these fertile regions, abundance reigns more than it +ever did. + +"There are above half a million of inhabitants in Lithuania; there are +more towns than there ever were, more flocks than formerly, more wealth +and more productiveness than in any other part of Germany. And all +this that I tell you of is due to the King alone: who not only gave the +orders, but superintended the execution of them; it was he that devised +the plans, and himself got them carried to fulfilment; and spared +neither care nor pains, nor immense expenditures, nor promises nor +recompenses, to secure happiness and life to this half-million of +thinking beings, who owe to him alone that they have possessions and +felicity in the world. + +"I hope this detail does not weary you. I depend on your humanity +extending itself to your Lithuanian brethren, as well as to your French, +English, German, or other,--all the more as, to my great astonishment, +I passed through villages where you hear nothing spoken but French.--I +have found something so heroic, in the generous and laborious way in +which the King addressed himself to making this desert flourish with +inhabitants and happy industries and fruits, that it seemed to me you +would feel the same sentiments in learning the circumstances of such +a re-establishment. I daily expect news of you from Enghien" [in those +Dutch-Lawsuit Countries].... The divine Emilie;... the Duke [D'Aremberg, +Austrian Soldier, of convivial turn,--remote Welsh-Uncle to a certain +little Prince de Ligne, now spinning tops in those parts; [Born 23d +May, 1735, this latter little Prince; lasted till 13th December, 1814 +("DANSE, MAIS IL NE MARCHE PAS").] not otherwise interesting], whom +Apollo contends for against Bacchues.... Adieu. NE M'OUBLIEZ PAS, MON +CHER AMI." [_OEuvres,_ xxi. 304, 305.] + +This is one pleasant scene, to the Crown-Prince and us, in those grassy +localities. And now we have to mention that, about a fortnight later, +at Konigsberg one day, in reference to a certain Royal Stud or +Horse-breeding Establishment in those same Lithuanian regions, there had +a still livelier satisfaction happened him; satisfaction of a personal +and filial nature. The name of this Royal Stud, inestimable on such +ground, is Trakehnen,--lies south of Tilsit, in an upper valley of the +Pregel river;--very extensive Horse-Establishment, "with seven farms +under it," say the Books, and all "in the most perfect order," they need +hardly add, Friedrich Wilhelm being master of it. Well, the Royal +Party was at Konigsberg, so far on the road homewards again from those +outlying parts, when Friedrich Wilhelm said one day to his Son, quite in +a cursory manner, "I give thee that Stud of Trakehnen; thou must go back +and look to it;" which struck Fritz quite dumb at the moment. + +For it is worth near upon 2,000 pounds a year (12,000 thalers); a +welcome new item in our impoverished budget; and it is an undeniable +sign of Papa's good-humor with us, which is more precious still. Fritz +made his acknowledgments, eloquent with looks, eloquent with voice, +on coming to himself; and is, in fact, very proud of his gift, and +celebrates it to his Wilhelmina, to Camas and others who have a right to +know such a thing. Grand useful gift; and handed over by Papa grandly, +in three business words, as if it had been a brace of game: "I give it +thee, Fritz!" A thing not to be forgotten. "At bottom, Friedrich Wilhelm +was not avaricious" (not a miser, only a man grandly abhorring waste, +as the poor vulgar cannot do), "not avaricious," says Pollnitz once; +"he made munificent gifts, and never thought of them more." This of +Trakehnen,--perhaps there might be a whiff of coming Fate concerned in +it withal: "I shall soon be dead, not able to give thee anything, poor +Fritz!" To the Prince and us it is very beautiful; a fine effulgence of +the inner man of Friedrich Wilhelm. The Prince returned to Trakehnen, on +this glad errand; settled the business details there; and, after a +few days, went home by a route of his own;--well satisfied with this +Prussian-Review journey, as we may imagine. + + [SEE EARLIER---Prussian Review-journey (placing of hyphen)] + +One sad thing there was, though Friedrich did not yet know how sad, in +this Review-journey: the new fit of illness that overtook his Majesty. +From Pollnitz, who was of the party, we have details on that head. +In his Majesty's last bad illness, five years ago, when all seemed +hopeless, it appears the surgeons had relieved him,--in fact recovered +him, bringing off the bad humors in quantity,--by an incision in the +foot or leg. In the course of the present fatigues, this old wound broke +out again; which of course stood much in the way of his Majesty; and +could not be neglected, as probably the causes of it were. A regimental +surgeon, Pollnitz says, was called in; who, in two days, healed the +wound,--and declared all to be right again; though in fact, as we may +judge, it was dangerously worse than before. "All well here," writes +Friedrich; "the King has been out of order, but is now entirely +recovered (TOUT A FAIT REMIS)." ["Konigsberg, 30th July, 1739," to his +Wife (_OEuvres,_ xxvi. 6).] + +Much reviewing and heavy business followed at Konigsberg;--gift of +Trakehnen, and departure of the Crown-Prince for Trakehnen, winding it +up. Directly on the heel of which, his Majesty turned homewards, the +Crown-Prince not to meet him till once at Berlin again. Majesty's first +stage was at Pillau, where we have been. At Pillau, or next day at +Dantzig, Pollnitz observed a change in his Majesty's humor, which had +been quite sunshiny all this journey hitherto. At Dantzig Pollnitz +first noticed it; but at every new stage it grew worse, evil accidents +occurring to worsen it; and at Berlin it was worst of all;--and, alas, +his poor Majesty never recovered his sunshine in this world again! Here +is Pollnitz's account of the journey homewards:-- + +"Till now," till Pillau and Dantzig, "his Majesty had been in especially +good humor; but in Dantzig his cheerfulness forsook him;--and it never +came back. He arrived about ten at night in that City [Wednesday, 12th +August, or thereby]; slept there; and was off again next morning at +five. He drove only thirty miles this day; stopped in Lupow [coast road +through Pommern], with Herr von Grumkow [the late Grumkow's Brother], +Kammer President in this Pommern Province. From Lupow he went to a poor +Village near Belgard, EIGHTY miles farther;"--last village on the great +road, Belgard lying to left a little, on a side road;--"and stayed there +overnight. + +"At Belgard, next morning, he reviewed the Dragoon Regiment von +Platen; and was very ill content with it. And nobody, with the least +understanding of that business, but must own that never did Prussian +Regiment manoeuvre worse. Conscious themselves how bad it was, they lost +head, and got into open confusion. The King did all that was possible +to help them into order again. He withdrew thrice over, to give the +Officers time to recover themselves; but it was all in vain. The King, +contrary to wont, restrained himself amazingly, and would not show his +displeasure in public. He got into his carriage, and drove away with +the Furst of Anhalt," Old Dessauer, "and Von Winterfeld," Captain in the +Giant Regiment, "who is now Major-General von Winterfeld; [Major-General +since 1743, of high fame; fell in fight, 7th September, 1757.] not +staying to dine with General von Platen, as was always his custom with +Commandants whom he had reviewed. He bade Prince Wilhelm and the rest of +us stay and dine; he himself drove away,"--towards the great road again, +and some uncertain lodging there. + +"We stayed accordingly; and did full justice to the good cheer,"--though +poor Platen would certainly look flustered, one may fancy. "But as the +Prince was anxious to come up with his Majesty again, and knew not where +he would meet him, we had to be very swift with the business. + +"We found the King with Anhalt and Winterfeld, by and by; sitting in +a village, in front of a barn, and eating a cold pie there, which the +Furst of Anhalt had chanced to have with him; his Majesty, owing to what +he had seen on the parade-ground, was in the utmost ill-humor (HOCHST +UBLER LAUNE). Next day, Saturday, he went a hundred and fifty or two +hundred miles; and arrived in Berlin at ten at night. Not expected there +till the morrow; so that his rooms were locked,--her Majesty being over +in Monbijou, giving her children a Ball;" [Pollnitz, ii. 534-537.]--and +we can fancy what a frame of mind there was! + +Nobody, not at first even the Doctors, much heeded this new fit of +illness; which went and came: "changed temper," deeper or less deep +gloom of "bad humor," being the main phenomenon to by-standers. But the +sad truth was, his Majesty never did recover his sunshine; from Pillau +onwards he was slowly entering into the shadows of the total Last +Eclipse; and his journeyings and reviewings in this world were all done. +Ten months hence, Pollnitz and others knew better what it had been!-- + + + + +Chapter VII. -- LAST YEAR OF REINSBERG: TRANSIT OF BALTIMORE AND OTHER +PERSONS AND THINGS. + +Friedrich had not been long home again from Trakehnen and Preussen, +when the routine of things at Reinsberg was illuminated by Visitors, of +brilliant and learned quality; some of whom, a certain Signor Algarotti +for one, require passing mention here. Algarotti, who became a permanent +friend or satellite, very luminous to the Prince, and was much about him +in coming years, first shone out upon the scene at this time,--coming +unexpectedly, and from the Eastward as it chanced. + +On his own score, Algarotti has become a wearisome literary man to +modern readers: one of those half-remembered men; whose books seem to +claim a reading, and do not repay it you when given. Treatises, of a +serious nature, ON THE OPERA; setting forth, in earnest, the potential +"moral uses" of the Opera, and dedicated to Chatham; _Neutonianismo per +le Donne_ (Astronomy for Ladies): the mere Titles of such things are +fatally sufficient to us; and we cannot, without effort, nor with it, +recall the brilliancy of Algarotti and them to his contemporary world. + +Algarotti was a rich Venetian Merchant's Son, precisely about the +Crown-Prince's age; shone greatly in his studies at Bologna and +elsewhere; had written Poesies (RIME); written especially that +_Newtonianism for the Dames_ (equal to Fontenelle, said Fame, and +orthodox Newtonian withal, not heterodox or Cartesian); and had shone, +respected, at Paris, on the strength of it, for three or four years +past: friend of Voltaire in consequence, of Voltaire and his divine +Emilie, and a welcome guest at Cirey; friend of the cultivated world +generally, which was then laboring, divine Emilie in the van of it, +to understand Newton and be orthodox in this department of things. +Algarotti did fine Poesies, too, once and again; did Classical +Scholarships, and much else: everywhere a clear-headed, methodically +distinct, concise kind of man. A high style of breeding about him, +too; had powers of pleasing, and used them: a man beautifully lucent in +society, gentle yet impregnable there; keeping himself unspotted from +the world and its discrepancies,--really with considerable prudence, +first and last. + +He is somewhat of the Bielfeld type; a Merchant's Son, we observe, like +Bielfeld; but a Venetian Merchant's, not a Hamburg's; and also of better +natural stuff than Bielfeld. Concentrated himself upon his task with +more seriousness, and made a higher thing of it than Bielfeld; though, +after all, it was the same task the two had. Alas, our "Swan of +Padua" (so they sometimes called him) only sailed, paddling grandly, +no-whither,--as the Swan-Goose of the Elbe did, in a less stately +manner! One cannot well bear to read his Books. There is no light upon +Friedrich to tempt us; better light than Bielfeld's there could have +been, and much of it: but he prudently, as well as proudly, forbore such +topics. He approaches very near fertility and geniality in his writings, +but never reaches it. Dilettantism become serious and strenuous, in +those departments--Well, it was beautiful to young Friedrich and +the world at that time, though it is not to us!--Young Algarotti, +twenty-seven this year, has been touring about as a celebrity these four +years past, on the strength of his fine manners and _Newtonianism for +the Dames._ + +It was under escort of Baltimore, "an English Milord," recommended from +Potsdam itself, that Algarotti came to Reinsberg; the Signor had much to +do with English people now and after. Where Baltimore first picked him +up, I know not: but they have been to Russia together; Baltimore by +twelve years the elder of the two: and now, getting home towards +England again, they call at Reinsberg in the fine Autumn weather;--and +considerably captivate the Crown-Prince, Baltimore playing chief, +in that as in other points. The visit lasted five days: [20th-25th +September, 1739 (_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xiv. p. xiv).] there was copious +speech on many things;--discussion about Printing of the ANTI MACHIAVEL; +Algarotti to get it printed in England, Algarotti to get Pine and +his Engraved HENRIADE put under way; neither of which projects took +effect;--readers can conceive what a charming five days these were. +Here, in the Crown-Prince's own words, are some brief glimmerings which +will suffice us:-- + +REINSBERG, 25th SEPT. 1739 (Crown-Prince to Papa).... that "nothing new +has occurred in the Regiment, and we have few sick. Here has the English +Milord, who was at Potsdam, passing through [stayed five days, though +we call it passing, and suppress the Algarotti, Baltimore being indeed +chief]. He is gone towards Hamburg, to take ship for England there. As +I heard that my Most All-gracious Father wished I should show him +courtesy, I have done for him what I could. The Prince of Mirow has also +been here,"--our old Strelitz friend. Of Baltimore nothing more to +Papa. But to another Correspondent, to the good Suhm (who is now at +Petersburg, and much in our intimacy, ready to transact loans for us, +translate Wolf, or do what is wanted), there is this passage next day:-- + +REINSBERG, 26th SEPTEMBER, 1739 (to Suhm). "We have had Milord +Baltimore here, and the young Algarotti; both of them men who, by their +accomplishments, cannot but conciliate the esteem and consideration +of all who see them. We talked much of you [Suhm], of Philosophy, of +Science, Art; in short, of all that can be included in the taste of +cultivated people (HONNETES GENS)." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xvi. 378.] +And again to another, about two weeks hence:-- + +REINSBERG, 10th OCTOBER, 1739 (to Voltaire). "We have had Milord +Baltimore and Algarotti here, who are going back to England. This Milord +is a very sensible man (HOMME TRESSENSE); who possesses a great deal of +knowledge, and thinks, like us, that sciences can be no disparagement to +nobility, nor degrade an illustrious rank. I admired the genius of this +ANGLAIS, as one does a fine face through a crape veil. He speaks French +very ill, yet one likes to hear him speak it; and as for his English, +he pronounces it so quick, there is no possibility of following him. He +calls a Russian 'a mechanical animal.' He says 'Petersburg is the eye +of Russia, with which it keeps civilized countries in sight; if you took +this eye from it, Russia would fall again into barbarism, out of which +it is just struggling.' [Ib. xxi. 326, 327.]... Young Algarotti, +whom you know, pleased me beyond measure. He promised that he"--But +Baltimore, promise or not, is the chief figure at present. + +Evidently an original kind of figure to us, CET ANGLAIS. And indeed +there is already finished a rhymed EPISTLE to Baltimore; _Epitre sur la +Liberte_ (copy goes in that same LETTER, for Voltaire's behoof), which +dates itself likewise October 10th; beginning,--_"L'esprit libre, +Milord, qui regne en Angleterre,"_ which, though it is full of fine +sincere sentiments, about human dignity, papal superstition, Newton, +Locke, and aspirations for progress of culture in Prussia, no reader +could stand at this epoch. + +What Baltimore said in answer to the EPITRE, we do not know; probably +not much: it does not appear he ever saw or spoke to Friedrich a second +time. Three weeks after, Friedrich writing to Algarotti, has these +words: "I pray you make my friendships to Milord Baltimore, whose +character and manner of thinking I truly esteem. I hope he has, by this +time, got my EPITRE on the English Liberty of Thought." [29th October +1739, To Algarotti in London (_OEuvres,_ xviii. 5).] And so Baltimore +passes on, silent in History henceforth,--though Friedrich seems to have +remembered him to late times, as a kind of type-figure when England came +into his head. For the sake of this small transit over the sun's disk, I +have made some inquiry about Baltimore; but found very little;--perhaps +enough:-- + +"He was Charles, Sixth Lord Baltimore, it appears; Sixth, and last +but one. First of the Baltimores, we know, was Secretary Calvert +(1618-1624), who colonized Maryland; last of them (1774) was the Son +of this Charles; something of a fool, to judge by the face of him in +Portraits, and by some of his doings in the world. He, that Seventh +Baltimore, printed one or two little Volumes "now of extreme +rarity"--(cannot be too rare); and winded up by standing an ugly Trial +at Kingston Assizes (plaintiff an unfortunate female). After which he +retired to Naples, and there ended, 1774, the last of these Milords. +[Walpole (by Park), _Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors_ (London, +1806), v. 278.] + +"He of the Kingston Assizes, we say, was not this Charles; but his +Son, whom let the reader forget. Charles, age forty at this time, had +travelled about the Continent a good deal: once, long ago, we imagined +we had got a glimpse of him (but it was a guess merely) lounging +about Luneville and Lorraine, along with Lyttelton, in the +Congress-of-Soissons time? Not long after that, it is certain enough, +he got appointed a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Prince Fred; who was a +friend of speculative talkers and cultivated people. In which situation +Charles Sixth Baron Baltimore continued all his days after; and might +have risen by means of Fred, as he was anxious enough to do, had both of +them lived; but they both died; Baltimore first, in 1751, a year before +Fred. Bubb Doddington, diligent laborer in the same Fred vineyard, +was much infested by this Baltimore,--who, drunk or sober (for he +occasionally gets into liquor), is always putting out Bubb, and +stands too well with our Royal Master, one secretly fears! Baltimore's +finances, I can guess, were not in too good order; mostly an Absentee; +Irish Estates not managed in the first style, while one is busy in the +Fred vineyard! 'The best and honestest man in the world, with a good +deal of jumbled knowledge,' Walpole calls him once: 'but not capable of +conducting a party.'" [Walpole's _Letters to Mann_ (London, 1843), ii. +175; 27th January, 1747. See ib. i. 82.] Oh no;--and died, at any rate, +Spring 1751: [_Peerage of Ireland_ (London, 1768), ii. 172-174.] and we +will not mention him farther. + + + + +BIELFELD, WHAT HE SAW AT REINSBERG AND AROUND. + +Directly on the rear of these fine visitors, came, by invitation, a pair +of the Korn's-Hotel people; Masonic friends; one of whom was Bielfeld, +whose dainty Installation Speech and ways of procedure had been of +promise to the Prince on that occasion. "Baron von Oberg" was the +other:--Hanoverian Baron: the same who went into the Wars, and was a +"General von Oberg" twenty years hence? The same or another, it does +not much concern us. Nor does the visit much, or at all; except that +Bielfeld, being of writing nature, professes to give ocular account +of it. Honest transcript of what a human creature actually saw at +Reinsberg, and in the Berlin environment at that date, would have had +a value to mankind: but Bielfeld has adopted the fictitious form; +and pretty much ruined for us any transcript there is. Exaggeration, +gesticulation, fantastic uncertainty afflict the reader; and prevent +comfortable belief, except where there is other evidence than +Bielfeld's. + +At Berlin the beautiful straight streets, Linden Avenues (perhaps a +better sample than those of our day), were notable to Bielfeld; bridges, +statues very fine; grand esplanades, and such military drilling and +parading as was never seen. He had dinner-invitations, too, in quantity; +likes this one and that (all in prudent asterisks),---likes Truchsess +von Waldburg very much, and his strange mode of bachelor housekeeping, +and the way he dines and talks among his fellow-creatures, or sits +studious among his Military Books and Paper-litters. But all is loose +far-off sketching, in the style of _Anacharsis the Younger;_ and makes +no solid impression. + +Getting to Reinsberg, to the Town, to the Schloss, he crosses the +esplanade, the moat; sees what we know, beautiful square Mansion among +its woods and waters;--and almost nothing that we do not know, except +the way the moat-bridge is lighted: "Bridge furnished," he says, "with +seven Statues representing the seven Planets, each holding in her hand +a glass lamp in the form of a globe;"--which is a pretty object in the +night-time. The House is now finished; Knobelsdorf rejoicing in his +success; Pesne and others giving the last touch to some ceilings of +a sublime nature. On the lintel of the gate is inscribed FREDERICO +TRANQUILLITATEM COLENTI (To Friedrich courting Tranquillity). The +gardens, walks, hermitages, grottos, are very spacious, fine: not yet +completed,--perhaps will never be. A Temple of Bacchus is just now on +hand, somewhere in those labyrinthic woods: "twelve gigantic Satyrs as +caryatides, crowned by an inverted Punch-bowl for dome;" that is the +ingenious Knobelsdorf's idea, pleasant to the mind. Knobelsdorf is of +austere aspect; austere, yet benevolent and full of honest sagacity; +the very picture of sound sense, thinks Bielfeld. M. Jordan is handsome, +though of small stature; agreeable expression of face; eye extremely +vivid; brown complexion, bushy eyebrows as well as beard are black. +[Bielfeld (abridged), i. 45.] + +Or did the reader ever hear of "M. Fredersdorf," Head Valet at this +time? Fredersdorf will become, as it were, Privy-Purse, House-Friend, +and domestic Factotum, and play a great part in coming years. "A tall +handsome man;" much "silent sense, civility, dexterity;" something +"magnificently clever in him," thinks Bielfeld (now, or else twenty +years afterwards); whom we can believe. [Ib. p. 49.] He was a gift +from General Schwerin, this Fredersdorf; once a Private in Schwerin's +regiment, at Frankfurt-on-Oder,--excellent on the flute, for one +quality. Schwerin, who had an eye for men, sent him to Friedrich, in the +Custrin time; hoping he might suit in fluting and otherwise. Which he +conspicuously did. Bielfeld's account, we must candidly say, appears +to be an afterthought; but readers can make their profit of it, all the +same. + +As to the Crown-Prince and Princess, words fail to express +their gracious perfections, their affabilities, polite +ingenuities:--Bielfeld's words do give us some pleasant shadowy +conceivability of the Crown-Princess:-- + +"Tall, and perfect in shape; bust such as a sculptor might copy; +complexion of the finest; features ditto; nose, I confess, smallish +and pointed, but excellent of that kind; hair of the supremest flaxen, +'shining' like a flood of sunbeams, when the powder is off it. A humane +ingenuous Princess; little negligences in toilet or the like, if such +occur, even these set her off, so ingenuous are they. Speaks little; +but always to the purpose, in a simple, cheerful and wise way. Dances +beautifully; heart (her soubrette assures me) is heavenly;--and 'perhaps +no Princess living has a finer set of diamonds.'" + +Of the Crown-Princess there is some pleasant shadow traced as on cobweb, +to this effect. But of the Crown-Prince there is no forming the +least conception from what he says:--this is mere cobweb with Nothing +elaborately painted on it. Nor do the portraits of the others attract +by their verisimilitude. Here is Colonel Keyserling, for instance; the +witty Courlander, famous enough in the Friedrich circle; who went on +embassy to Cirey, and much else: he "whirls in with uproar (FRACAS) +like Boreas in the Ballet;" fowling-piece on shoulder, and in his +"dressing-gown" withal, which is still stranger; snatches off Bielfeld, +unknown till that moment, to sit by him while dressing; and there, with +much capering, pirouetting, and indeed almost ground-and-lofty +tumbling, for accompaniment, "talks of Horses, Mathematics, Painting, +Architecture, Literature, and the Art of War," while he dresses. This +gentleman was once Colonel in Friedrich Wilhelm's Army; is now fairly +turned of forty, and has been in troubles: we hope he is not LIKE in the +Bielfeld Portrait;--otherwise, how happy that we never had the honor of +knowing him! Indeed, the Crown-Prince's Household generally, as Bielfeld +paints it in flourishes of panegyric, is but unattractive; barren to +the modern on-looker; partly the Painter's blame, we doubt not. He gives +details about their mode of dining, taking coffee, doing concert;--and +describes once an incidental drinking-bout got up aforethought by the +Prince; which is probably in good part fiction, though not ill done. +These fantastic sketchings, rigorously winnowed into the credible and +actual, leave no great residue in that kind; but what little they do +leave is of favorable and pleasant nature. + +Bielfeld made a visit privately to Potsdam, too: saw the Giants drill; +made acquaintance with important Captains of theirs (all in ASTERISKS) +at Potsdam; with whom he dined, not in a too credible manner, and even +danced. Among the asterisks, we easily pick out Captain Wartensleben +(of the Korn's-Hotel operation), and Winterfeld, a still more important +Captain, whom we saw dining on cold pie with his Majesty, at a barn-door +in Pommern, not long since. Of the Giants, or their life at Potsdam, +Bielfeld's word is not worth hearing,--worth suppressing rather; his +knowledge being so small, and hung forth in so fantastic a way. This +transient sight he had of his Majesty in person; this, which is +worth something to us,--fact being evidently lodged in it, "After +church-parade," Autumn Sunday afternoon (day uncertain, Bielfeld's +date being fictitious, and even impossible), Majesty drove out to +Wusterhausen, "where the quantities of game surpass all belief;" and +Bielfeld had one glimpse of him:-- + +"I saw his Majesty only, as it were, in passing. If I may judge by his +Portraits, he must have been of a perfect beauty in his young time; but +it must be confessed there is nothing left of it now. His eyes truly are +fine; but the glance of them is terrible: his complexion is composed +of the strongest tints of red, blue, yellow, green,"--not a lovely +complexion at all; "big head; the thick neck sunk between the shoulders; +figure short and heavy (COURTE ET RAMASSEE)." [Bielfeld, p. 35.] + +"Going out to Wusterhausen," then, that afternoon, "October, 1739." How +his Majesty is crushed down; quite bulged out of shape in that sad way, +by the weight of time and its pressures: his thoughts, too, most likely, +of a heavy-laden and abstruse nature! The old Pfalz Controversy has +misgone with him: Pfalz, and so much else in the world;--the world in +whole, probably enough, near ending to him; the final shadows, sombre, +grand and mournful, closing in upon him! + + + + +TURK WAR ENDS; SPANISH WAR BEGINS. A WEDDING IN PETERSBURG. + +Last news come to Potsdam in these days is, The Kaiser has ended his +disastrous Turk War; been obliged to end it; sudden downbreak, and as it +were panic terror, having at last come upon his unfortunate Generals in +those parts. Duke Franz was passionate to be out of such a thing; Franz, +General Neipperg and others; and now, "2d September, 1739," like lodgers +leaping from a burning house, they are out of it. The Turk gets Belgrade +itself, not to mention wide territories farther east,--Belgrade without +shot fired;--nay the Turk was hardly to be kept from hanging the +Imperial Messenger (a General Neipperg, Duke Franz's old Tutor, and +chief Confidant, whom we shall hear more of elsewhere), whose passport +was not quite right on this occasion!--Never was a more disgraceful +Peace. But also never had been worse fighting; planless, changeful, +powerless, melting into futility at every step:--not to be mended by +imprisonments in Gratz, and still harsher treatment of individuals. "Has +all success forsaken me, then, since Eugene died?" said the Kaiser; and +snatched at this Turk Peace; glad to have it, by mediation of France, +and on any terms. + +Has not this Kaiser lost his outlying properties at a fearful rate? +Naples is gone; Spanish Bourbon sits in our Naples; comparatively +little left for us in Italy. And now the very Turk has beaten us small; +insolently fillips the Imperial nose of us,--threatening to hang our +Neipperg, and the like. Were it not for Anne of Russia, whose big +horse-whip falls heavy on this Turk, he might almost get to Vienna +again, for anything we could do! A Kaiser worthy to be pitied;--whom +Friedrich Wilhelm, we perceive, does honestly pity. A Kaiser much +beggared, much disgraced, in late years; who has played a huge life-game +so long, diplomatizing, warring; and, except the Shadow of Pragmatic +Sanction, has nothing to retire upon. + +The Russians protested, with astonishment, against such Turk Peace on +the Kaiser's part. But there was no help for it. One ally is gone, the +Kaiser has let go this Western skirt of the Turk; and "Thamas Kouli +Khan" (called also Nadir Shah, famed Oriental slasher and slayer of that +time) no longer stands upon the Eastern skirt, but "has entered India," +it appears: the Russians--their cash, too, running low--do themselves +make peace, "about a month after;" restoring Azoph and nearly all their +conquests; putting off the ruin of the Turk till a better time. + +War is over in the East, then; but another in the West, England against +Spain (Spain and France to help), is about beginning. Readers remember +how Jenkins's Ear re-emerged, Spring gone a year, in a blazing +condition? Here, through SYLVANUS URBAN himself, are two direct +glimpses, a twelve-month nearer hand, which show us how the matter has +been proceeding since:-- + +"LONDON, 19th FEBRUARY, 1739. The City Authorities,"--laying or going to +lay "the foundation of the Mansion-House" (Edifice now very black in our +time), and doing other things of little moment to us, "had a Masquerade +at the Guildhall this night. There was a very splendid appearance at the +Masquerade; but among the many humorous and whimsical characters, what +seemed most to engage attention was a Spaniard, who called himself +'Knight of the Ear;' as Badge of which Order he wore on his breast the +form of a Star, with its points tinged in blood; and on the body of it +an Ear painted, and in capital letters the word JENKINS encircling it. +Across his shoulder there hung, instead of ribbon, a large Halter; which +he held up to several persons dressed as English Sailors, who seemed in +great terror of him, and falling on their knees suffered him to rummage +their pockets; which done, he would insolently dismiss them with strokes +of his halter. Several of the Sailors had a bloody Ear hanging down from +their heads; and on their hats were these words, EAR FOR EAR; on others, +NO SEARCH OR NO TRADE; with the like sentences." [_Gentleman's +Magazine_ for 1739, p. 103;--our DATES, as always, are N. 8.] The +conflagration evidently going on; not likely to be damped down again, by +ministerial art!-- + +"LONDON, 19th MARCH, 1739." Grand Debate in Parliament, on the late +"Spanish Convention," pretended Bargain of redress lately got from +Spain: Approve the Convention, or Not approve? "A hundred Members were +in the House of Commons before seven, this morning; and four hundred had +taken their seat by ten; which is an unheard-of thing. Prince of Wales," +Fred in person, "was in the gallery till twelve at night, and had his +dinner sent to him. Sir Robert Walpole rose: 'Sir, the great pains +that have been taken to influence all ranks and degrees of men in this +Nation--... But give me leave to'"--apply a wet cloth to Honorable +Gentlemen. Which he does, really with skill and sense. France and the +others are so strong, he urges; England so unprepared; Kaiser at such +a pass; 'War like to be, about the Palatinate Dispute [our friend +Friedrich Wilhelm's]: Where is England to get, allies?'--and hours long +of the like sort. A judicious wet cloth; which proved unavailing. + +For "William Pitts" (so they spell the great Chatham that is to be) was +eloquent on the other side: "Despairing Merchants," "Voice of England," +and so on. And the world was all in an inflamed state. And Mr. Pulteney +exclaimed: Palatinate? Allies? "We need no allies; the case of Mr. +Jenkins will raise us volunteers everywhere!" And in short,--after eight +months more of haggling, and applying wet cloths,--Walpole, in the +name of England, has to declare War against Spain; ["3d November (23d +October), 1739."] the public humor proving unquenchable on that matter. +War; and no Peace to be, "till our undoubted right," to roadway on +the oceans of this Planet, become permanently manifest to the Spanish +Majesty. + +Such the effect of a small Ear, kept about one in cotton, from ursine +piety or other feelings. Has not Jenkins's Ear re-emerged, with a +vengeance? It has kindled a War: dangerous for kindling other Wars, and +setting the whole world on fire,--as will be too evident in the sequel! +The EAR OF JENKINS is a singular thing. Might have mounted to be a +constellation, like BERENICE'S HAIR, and other small facts become +mythical, had the English People been of poetic turn! Enough of IT, for +the time being.-- + +This Summer, Anton Ulrich, at Petersburg, did wed his Serene Mecklenburg +Princess, Heiress of all the Russias: "July 14th, 1739,"--three months +before that Drive to Wusterhausen, which we saw lately. Little +Anton Ulrich, Cadet of Brunswick; our Friedrich's Brother-in-Law;--a +noticeably small man in comparison to such bulk of destiny, thinks +Friedrich, though the case is not without example! [A Letter of his to +Suhm; touching on Franz of Lorraine and this Anton Ulrich.] + +"Anton Ulrich is now five-and-twenty," says one of my Notebooks; +"a young gentleman of small stature, shining courage in battle, but +somewhat shy and bashful; who has had his troubles in Petersburg +society, till the trial came,--and will have. Here are the stages of +Anton Ulrich's felicity:-- + +"WINTER, 1732-1733. He was sent for to Petersburg (his Serene Aunt the +German Kaiserinn, and Kaiser Karl's diplomatists, suggesting it there), +with the view of his paying court to the young Mecklenburg Princess, +Heiress of all the Russias, of whom we have often heard. February, 1733, +he arrived on this errand;--not approved of at all by the Mecklenburg +Princess, by Czarina Anne or anybody there: what can be done with +such an uncomfortable little creature? They gave him the Colonelcy of +Cuirassiers: 'Drill there, and endure.' + +"SPRING, 1737. Much-enduring, diligently drilling, for four years past, +he went this year to the Turk War under Munnich;--much pleased Munnich, +at Oczakow and elsewhere; who reports in the War-Office high things of +him. And on the whole,--the serene Vienna people now again +bestirring themselves, with whom we are in copartnery in this Turk +business,--little Anton Ulrich is encouraged to proceed. Proceeds; +formally demands his Mecklenburg Princess; and, + +"JULY 14th, 1739, weds her; the happiest little man in all the Russias, +and with the biggest destiny, if it prosper. Next year, too, there +came a son and heir; whom they called Iwan, in honor of his Russian +Great-grandfather. Shall we add the subsequent felicities of Anton +Ulrich here; or wait till another opportunity?" + +Better wait. This is all, and more than all, his Prussian Majesty, +rolling out of Wusterhausen that afternoon, ever knew of them, or needed +to know!-- + + + + +Chapter VIII. -- DEATH OF FRIEDRICH WILHELM. + +At Wusterhausen, this Autumn, there is game as usual, but little or +no hunting for the King. He has to sit drearily within doors, for most +part; listening to the rustle of falling leaves, to dim Winter coming +with its rains and winds. Field-sports are a rumor from without: for him +now no joyous sow-baiting, deer-chasing;--that, like other things, is +past. + +In the beginning of November, he came to Berlin; was worse there, and +again was better;--strove to do the Carnival, as had been customary; +but, in a languid, lamed manner. One night he looked in upon an +evening-party which General Schulenburg was giving: he returned home, +chilled, shivering, could not, all night, be brought to heat again. +It was the last evening-party Friedrich Wilhelm ever went to. [Pollnitz +(ii. 538); who gives no date.] Lieutenant-General Schulenburg: the same +who doomed young Friedrich to death, as President of the Court-Martial; +and then wrote the Three Letters about him which we once looked into: +illuminates himself in this manner in Berlin society,--Carnival +season, 1740, weather fiercely cold. Maypole Schulenburg the lean Aunt, +Ex-Mistress of George I., over in London,--I think she must now be dead? +Or if not dead, why not! Memory, for the tenth time, fails me, of the +humanly unmemorable, whom perhaps even flunkies should forget; and I +will try it no more. The stalwart Lieutenant-General will reappear on +us once, twice at the utmost, and never again. He gave the last +evening-party Friedrich Wilhelm ever went to. + +Poor Friedrich Wilhelm is in truth very ill; tosses about all day, in +and out of bed,--bed and wheeled-chair drearily alternating; suffers +much;--and again, in Diplomatic circles, the rumors are rife and +sinister. Ever from this chill at Schulenburg's the medicines did him +no good, says Pollnitz: if he rallied, it was the effect of Nature, and +only temporary. He does daily, with punctuality, his Official business; +perhaps the best two hours he has of the four-and-twenty, for the +time hangs heavy on him. His old Generals sit round his bed, talking, +smoking, as it was five years ago; his Feekin and his Children much +about him, out and in: the heavy-laden, weary hours roll round as they +can. In general there is a kind of constant Tabaks-Collegium, old Flans, +Camas, Hacke, Pollnitz, Derschau, and the rest by turns always there; +the royal Patient cannot be left alone, without faces he likes: other +Generals, estimable in their way, have a physiognomy displeasing to the +sick man; and will smart for it if they enter,--"At sight of HIM every +pain grows painfuler!"--the poor King being of poetic temperament, as +we often say. Friends are encouraged to smoke, especially to keep up +a stream of talk; if at any time he fall into a doze and they cease +talking, the silence will awaken him. + +He is worst off in the night; sleep very bad: and among his sore bodily +pains, ennui falls very heavy to a mind so restless. He can paint, he +can whittle, chisel: at last they even mount him a table, in his +bed, with joiner's tools, mallets, glue-pots, where he makes small +carpentry,--the talk to go on the while;--often at night is the sound of +his mallet audible in the Palace Esplanade; and Berlin townsfolk pause +to listen, with many thoughts of a sympathetic or at least inarticulate +character: "HM, WEH, IHRO MAJESTAT: ACH GOTT, pale Death knocks with +impartial foot at the huts of poor men and the Palaces of Kings!" +[Pollnitz, ii. 539.] Reverend Herr Roloff, whom they call Provost +(PROBST, Chief Clergyman) Roloff, a pious honest man and preacher, he, +I could guess, has already been giving spiritual counsel now and then; +later interviews with Roloff are expressly on record: for it is the +King's private thought, ever and anon borne in upon him, that death +itself is in this business. + +Queen and Children, mostly hoping hitherto, though fearing too, live +in much anxiety and agitation. The Crown-Prince is often over from +Reinsberg; must not come too often, nor even inquire too much: his +affectionate solicitude might be mistaken for solicitude of another +kind! It is certain he is in no haste to be King; to quit the haunts of +the Muses, and embark on Kingship. Certain, too, he loves his Father; +shudders at the thought of losing HIM. And yet again there will gleams +intrude of a contrary thought; which the filial heart disowns, with a +kind of horror, "Down, thou impious thought!"--We perceive he manages in +general to push the crisis away from him; to believe that real danger is +still distant. His demeanor, so far as we can gather from his Letters or +other evidence, is amiable, prudent, natural; altogether that of a human +Son in those difficult circumstances. Poor Papa is heavy-laden: let us +help to bear his burdens;--let us hope the crisis is still far off!-- + +Once, on a favorable evening, probably about the beginning of April, +when he felt as if improving, Friedrich Wilhelm resolved to dress, and +hold Tobacco-Parliament again in a formal manner, Let us look in +there, through the eyes of Pollnitz, who was of it, upon the last +Tobacco-Parliament:-- + +"A numerous party; Schwerin, Hacke, Derschau, all the chiefs and +commandants of the Berlin Garrison are there; the old circle full; +social human speech once more, and pipes alight; pleasant to the King. +He does not himself smoke on this occasion; but he is unusually lively +in talk; much enjoys the returning glimpse of old days; and the Tobacco +circle was proceeding through its phases, successful beyond common. All +at once the Crown-Prince steps in; direct from Reinsberg: [12th April, +1740? (_OEuvres,_ xxvii. part lst, p. 29); Pollnitz is dateless] an +unexpected pleasure. At sight of whom the Tobacco circle, taken on +the sudden, simultaneously started up, and made him a bow. Rule is, in +Tobacco-Parliament you do not rise--for anybody; and they have risen. +Which struck the sick heart in a strange painful way. 'Hm, the Rising +Sun?' thinks he; 'Rules broken through, for the Rising Sun. But I am not +dead yet, as you shall know!' ringing for his servants in great wrath; +and had himself rolled out, regardless of protestations and excuses. +'Hither, you Hacke!' said he. + +"Hacke followed; but it was only to return on the instant, with the +King's order, 'That you instantly quit the Palace, all of you, and don't +come back!' Solemn respectful message to his Majesty was of no effect, +or of less; they had to go, on those terms; and Pollnitz, making for +his Majesty's apartment next morning as usual, was twitched by a +Gens-d'arme, 'No admittance!' And it was days before the matter would +come round again, under earnest protestations from the one side, and +truculent rebukes from the other." [Pollnitz (abridged), ii. 50.] Figure +the Crown-Prince, figure the poor sick Majesty; and what a time in those +localities! + +With the bright spring weather he seemed to revive; towards the end of +April he resolved for Potsdam, everybody thinking him much better, and +the outer Public reckoning the crisis of the illness over. He himself +knew other. It was on the 27th of the month that he went; he said, "Fare +thee well, then, Berlin; I am to die in Potsdam, then (ICH WERDE IN +POTSDAM STERBEN)!" The May-flowers came late; the weather was changeful, +ungenial for the sick man: this winter of 1740 had been the coldest +on record; it extended itself into the very summer; and brought great +distress of every kind;--of which some oral rumor still survives in +all countries. Friedrich Wilhelm heard complaints of scarcity among the +people; admonitions to open his Corn-granaries (such as he always has +in store against that kind of accident); but he still hesitated and +refused; unable to look into it himself, and fearing deceptions. + +For the rest, he is struggling between death and life; in general +persuaded that the end is fast hastening on. He sends for Chief Preacher +Roloff out to Potsdam; has some notable dialogues with Roloff, and with +two other Potsdam Clergymen, of which there is record still left us. +In these, as in all his demeanor at this supreme time, we see the big +rugged block of manhood come out very vividly; strong in his simplicity, +in his veracity. Friedrich Wilhelm's wish is to know from Roloff what +the chances are for him in the other world,--which is not less certain +than Potsdam and the giant grenadiers to Friedrich Wilhelm; and where, +he perceives, never half so clearly before, he shall actually peel off +his Kinghood, and stand before God Almighty, no better than a naked +beggar. Roloff's prognostics are not so encouraging as the King had +hoped. Surely this King "never took or coveted what was not his; kept +true to his marriage-vow, in spite of horrible examples everywhere; +believed the Bible, honored the Preachers, went diligently to Church, +and tried to do what he understood God's commandments were?" To all +which Roloff, a courageous pious man, answers with discreet words and +shakings of the head, "Did I behave ill, then; did I ever do injustice?" +Roloff mentions Baron Schlubhut the defalcating Amtmann, hanged at +Konigsberg without even a trial. "He had no trial; but was there any +doubt he had justice? A public thief, confessing he had stolen the taxes +he was set to gather; insolently offering, as if that were all, to +repay the money, and saying, It was not MANIER (good manners) to hang +a nobleman!" Roloff shakes his head, Too violent, your Majesty, and +savoring of the tyrannous. The poor King must repent. + +"Well,--is there anything more? Out with it, then; better now than too +late!"--Much oppression, forcing men to build in Berlin.--"Oppression? +was it not their benefit, as well as Berlin's and the Country's? I had +no interest in it other. Derschau, you who managed it?" and his Majesty +turned to Derschau. For all the smoking generals and company are still +here; nor will his Majesty consent to dismiss them from the presence +and be alone with Roloff: "What is there to conceal? They are people of +honor, and my friends." Derschau, whose feats in the building way are +not unknown even to us, answers with a hard face, It was all right and +orderly; nothing out of square in his building operations. To which +Roloff shakes his head: "A thing of public notoriety, Herr General."--"I +will prove everything before a Court," answers the Herr General with +still harder face; Roloff still austerely shaking his head. Hm!--And +then there is forgiveness of enemies; your Majesty is bound to forgive +all men, or how can you ask to be forgiven? "Well, I will, I do; you +Feekin, write to your Brother (unforgivablest of beings), after I am +dead, that I forgave him, died in peace with him."--Better her Majesty +should write at once, suggests Roloff.--"No, after I am dead," persists +the Son of Nature,--that will be safer! [Wrote accordingly, "not able to +finish without many tears;" honest sensible Letter (though indifferently +spelt), "Berlin, 1st June, 1740;"--lies now in State-Paper Office: +"ROYAL LETTERS, vol. xciv., Prussia, 1689-1777."] An unwedgeable and +gnarled big block of manhood and simplicity and sincerity; such as we +rarely get sight of among the modern sons of Adam, among the crowned +sons nearly never. At parting he said to Roloff, "You (ER, He) do not +spare me; it is right. You do your duty like an honest Christian man." +[_Notata ex ore Roloffi_ ("found among the Seckendorf Papers," no date +but "May 1740"), in Forster, ii. 154, 155; in a fragmentary state: +completed in Pollnitz, ii. 545-549.] + +Roloff, I perceive, had several Dialogues with the King; and stayed in +Potsdam some days for that object. The above bit of jotting is from +the Seckendorf Papers (probably picked up by Seckendorf Junior), and is +dated only "May." Of the two Potsdam Preachers, one of whom is "Oesfeld, +Chaplain of the Giant Grenadiers," and the other is "Cochius, Calvinist +Hofprediger," each published on his own score some Notes of dialogue and +circumstance; [Cochius the HOFPREDIGER'S (Calvinist Court-Chaplain's) +ACCOUNT of his Interviews (first of them "Friday, 27th May, 1740, about +9 P.M."); followed by ditto from Oesfeld (Chaplain of the Giants), who +usually accompanied Cochius,--are in Seyfarth, _Geschichte Friedrich +des Grossen_ (Leipzig, 1783-1788), i. (Beylage) 24-40. Seyfarth was +"Regiments-Auditor" in Halle: his Work, solid though stupid, consists +nearly altogether of multifarious BEYLAGEN (Appendices) and NOTES; which +are creditably accurate, and often curious; and, as usual, have no Index +for an unfortunate reader.] which are to the same effect, so far as they +concern us; and exhibit the same rugged Son of Nature, looking with +all his eyesight into the near Eternity, and sinking in a human and not +inhuman manner amid the floods of Time. "Wa, Wa, what great God is this, +that pulls down the strength of the strongest Kings!"-- + +The poor King's state is very restless, fluctuates from day to day; he +is impatient of bed; sleeps very ill; is up whenever possible; rolls +about in his wheeled-chair, and even gets into the air: at one time +looking strong, as if there were still months in him, and anon sunk +in fainting weakness, as if he had few minutes to live. Friedrich at +Reinsberg corresponds very secretly with Dr. Eller; has other friends at +Potsdam whose secret news he very anxiously reads. To the last he cannot +bring himself to think it "serious." [Letter to Eller, 25th May, 1740 +(_OEuvres_ ), xvi. 184.] + +On Thursday, 26th of May, an express from Eller, or the Potsdam friends, +arrives at Reinsberg: He is to come quickly, if he would see his Father +again alive! The step may have danger, too; but Friedrich, a world of +feelings urging him, is on the road next morning before the sun. His +journey may be fancied; the like of it falls to all men. Arriving at +last, turning hastily a corner of the Potsdam Schloss, Friedrich sees +some gathering in the distance: it is his Father in his ROLLWAGEN +(wheeled-chair),--not dying; but out of doors, giving orders about +founding a House, or seeing it done. House for one Philips, a crabbed +Englishman he has; whose tongue is none of the best, not even to Majesty +itself, but whose merits as a Groom, of English and other Horses, are +without parallel in those parts. Without parallel, and deserve a +House before we die. Let us see it set agoing, this blessed Mayday! +Of Philips, who survived deep into Friedrich's time, and uttered rough +sayings (in mixed intelligible dialect) when put upon in his grooming, +or otherwise disturbed, I could obtain no farther account: the man did +not care to be put in History (a very small service to a man); cared +to have a house with trim fittings, and to do his grooming well, the +fortunate Philips. + +At sight of his Son, Friedrich Wilhelm threw out his arms; the Son +kneeling sank upon his breast, and they embraced with tears. My Father, +my Father; My Son, my Son! It was a scene to make all by-standers and +even Philips weep.--Probably the emotion hurt the old King; he had to be +taken in again straightway, his show of strength suddenly gone, and +bed the only place for him. This same Friday he dictated to one of his +Ministers (Boden, who was in close attendance) the Instruction for his +Funeral; a rude characteristic Piece, which perhaps the English reader +knows. Too long and rude for reprinting here. [Copy of it, in Seyfarth +(ubi supra), i. 19-24. Translated in Mauvillon (ii. 432-437); in &c. +&c.] + +He is to be buried in his uniform, the Potsdam Grenadiers his escort; +with military decorum, three volleys fired (and take care they be +well fired, "NICHT PLACKEREN"), so many cannon-salvos;--and no fuss or +flaunting ceremony: simplicity and decency is what the tenant of that +oak coffin wants, as he always did when owner of wider dominions. The +coffin, which he has ready and beside him in the Palace this good +while, is a stout piece of carpentry, with leather straps and other +improvements; he views it from time to time; solaces his truculent +imagination with the look of it: "I shall sleep right well there," he +would say. The image he has of his Burial, we perceive, is of perfect +visuality, equal to what a Defoe could do in imagining. All is seen, +settled to the last minuteness: the coffin is to be borne out by so and +so, at such and such a door; this detachment is to fall-in here, that +there, in the attitude of "cover arms" (musket inverted under left arm); +and the band is to play, with all its blackamoors, _O Haupt voll Blut +und Wunden_ (O Head, all bleeding wounded); a Dirge his Majesty had +liked, who knew music, and had a love for it, after his sort. Good Son +of Nature: a dumb Poet, as I say always; most dumb, but real; the value +of him great, and unknown in these babbling times. It was on this same +Friday night that Cochius was first sent for; Cochius, and Oesfeld with +him, "about nine o'clock." + +For the next three days (Saturday to Monday) when his cough and +many sufferings would permit him, Friedrich Wilhelm had long private +dialogues with his Son; instructing him, as was evident, in the +mysteries of State; in what knowledge, as to persons and to things, he +reckoned might be usefulest to him. What the lessons were, we know not; +the way of taking them had given pleasure to the old man: he was heard +to say, perhaps more than once, when the Generals were called in, and +the dialogue interrupted for a while: "Am not I happy to have such a +Son to leave behind me!" And the grimly sympathetic Generals testified +assent; endeavored to talk a little, could at least smoke, and +look friendly; till the King gathered strength for continuing his +instructions to his Successor. All else was as if settled with him; this +had still remained to do. This once done (finished, Monday night), why +not abdicate altogether; and die disengaged, be it in a day or in a +month, since that is now the one work left? Friedrich Wilhelm does so +purpose. + +His state, now as all along, was fluctuating, uncertain, restless. He +was heard murmuring prayers; he would say sometimes, "Pray for me; BETET +BETET." And more than once, in deep tone: "Lord, enter not into judgment +with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified!" +The wild Son of Nature, looking into Life and Death, into Judgment +and Eternity, finds that these things are very great. This too is a +characteristic trait: In a certain German Hymn (_Why fret or murmur, +then?_ the title of it), which they often sang to him, or along with +him, as he much loved it, are these words, "Naked I came into the world, +and naked shall I go,"--"No," said he "always with vivacity," at this +passage; "not quite nakid, I shall have my uniform on:" Let us be exact, +since we are at it! After which the singing proceeded again. "The late +Graf Alexander von Wartenberg"--Captain Wartenberg, whom we know, and +whose opportunities--"was wont to relate this." [Busching (in 1786), +_Beitrage,_ iv. 100.] + +Tuesday, 31st May, "about one in the morning," Cochius was again sent +for. He found the King in very pious mood, but in great distress, and +afraid he might yet have much pain to suffer. Cochius prayed with him; +talked piously. "I can remember nothing," said the King; "I cannot pray, +I have forgotten all my prayers."--"Prayer is not in words, but in the +thought of the heart," said Cochius; and soothed the heavy-laden man +as he could. "Fare you well," said Friedrich Wilhelm, at length; "most +likely we shall not meet again in this world." Whereat Cochius burst +into tears, and withdrew. About four, the King was again out of bed; +wished to see his youngest Boy, who had been ill of measles, but was +doing well: "Poor little Ferdinand, adieu, then, my little child!" This +is the Father of that fine Louis Ferdinand, who was killed at Jena; +concerning whom Berlin, in certain emancipated circles of it, still +speaks with regret. He, the Louis Ferdinand, had fine qualities; but +went far a-roving, into radicalism, into romantic love, into +champagne; and was cut down on the threshold of Jena, desperately +fighting,--perhaps happily for him. + +From little Ferdinand's room Friedrich Wilhelm has himself rolled into +Queen Sophie's. "Feekin, O my Feekin, thou must rise this day, and help +me what thou canst. This day I am going to die; thou wilt be with me +this day!" The good Wife rises: I know not that it was the first time +she had been so called; but it did prove the last. Friedrich Wilhelm +has decided, as the first thing he will do, to abdicate; and all the +Official persons and companions of the sick-room, Pollnitz among them, +not long after sunrise, are called to see it done. Pollnitz, huddling on +his clothes, arrived about five: in a corridor he sees the wheeled-chair +and poor sick King; steps aside to let him pass: "'It is over (DAS IST +VOLLBRACHT),' said the King, looking up to me as he passed: he had on +his nightcap, and a blue mantle thrown round him." He was wheeled into +his anteroom; there let the company assemble; many of them are already +there. + +The royal stables are visible from this room: Friedrich Wilhelm orders +the horses to be ridden out: you old Furst of Anhalt-Dessau my oldest +friend, you Colonel Hacke faithfulest of Adjutant-Generals, take each +of you a horse, the best you can pick out: it is my last gift to you. +Dessau, in silence, with dumb-show of thanks, points to a horse, any +horse: "You have chosen the very worst," said Friedrich Wilhelm: "Take +that other, I will warrant him a good one!" The grim old Dessauer thanks +in silence; speechless grief is on that stern gunpowder face, and he +seems even to be struggling with tears. "Nay, nay, my friend," Friedrich +Wilhelm said, "this is a debt we have all to pay." + +The Official people, Queen, Friedrich, Minister Boden, Minister +Podewils, and even Pollnitz, being now all present, Friedrich Wilhelm +makes his Declaration, at considerable length; old General Bredow +repeating it aloud, [Pollnitz, ii. 561.] sentence by sentence, the +King's own voice being too weak; so that all may hear: "That he +abdicates, gives up wholly, in favor of his good Son Friedrich; that +foreign Ambassadors are to be informed; that you are all to be true and +loyal to my Son as you were to me"--and what else is needful. To which +the judicious Podewils makes answer, "That there must first be a written +Deed of his high Transaction executed, which shall be straightway set +about; the Deed once executed, signed and sealed,--the high Royal will, +in all points, takes effect." Alas, before Podewils has done speaking, +the King is like falling into a faint; does faint, and is carried to +bed: too unlikely any Deed of Abdication will be needed. + +Ups and downs there still were; sore fluctuating labor, as the poor King +struggles to his final rest, this morning. He was at the window again, +when the WACHT-PARADE (Grenadiers on Guard) turned out; he saw them make +their evolutions for the last time. [Pauli, viii. 280.] After which, new +relapse, new fluctuation. It was about eleven o'clock, when Cochius was +again sent for. The King lay speechless, seemingly still conscious, in +bed; Cochius prays with fervor, in a loud tone, that the dying King may +hear and join. "Not so loud!" says the King, rallying a little. He +had remembered that it was the season when his servants got their new +liveries; they had been ordered to appear this day in full new costume: +"O vanity! O vanity!" said Friedrich Wilhelm, at sight of the ornamented +plush. "Pray for me, pray for me; my trust is in the Saviour!" he often +said. His pains, his weakness are great; the cordage of a most tough +heart rending itself piece by piece. At one time, he called for a +mirror: that is certain:--rugged wild man, son of Nature to the last. +The mirror was brought; what he said at sight of his face is variously +reported: "Not so worn out as I thought," is Pollnitz's account, and the +likeliest;--though perhaps he said several things, "ugly face," "as +good as dead already;" and continued the inspection for some moments. +[Pollnitz, ii. 564; Wilhelmina, ii. 321.] A grim, strange thing. + +"Feel mv pulse, Pitsch," said he, noticing the Surgeon of his Giants: +"tell me how long this will last."--"Alas, not long," answered +Pitsch.--"Say not, alas; but how do you (He) know?"--"The pulse is +gone!"--"Impossible," said he, lifting his arm: "how could I move my +fingers so, if the pulse were gone?" Pitsch looked mournfully steadfast. +"Herr Jesu, to thee I live; Herr Jesu, to thee I die; in life and in +death thou art my gain (DU BIST MEIN GEWINN)." These were the last words +Friedrich Wilhelm spoke in this world. He again fell into a faint. Eller +gave a signal to the Crown-Prince to take the Queen away. Scarcely +were they out of the room, when the faint had deepened into death; and +Friedrich Wilhelm, at rest from all his labors, slept with the primeval +sons of Thor. + +No Baresark of them, nor Odin's self, I think, was a bit of truer human +stuff;--I confess his value to me, in these sad times, is rare +and great. Considering the usual Histrionic, Papin's-Digester, +Truculent-Charlatan and other species of "Kings," alone attainable for +the sunk flunky populations of an Era given up to Mammon and the worship +of its own belly, what would not such a population give for a Friedrich +Wilhelm, to guide it on the road BACK from Orcus a little? "Would give," +I have written; but alas, it ought to have been "SHOULD give." What THEY +"would" give is too mournfully plain to me, in spite of ballot-boxes: +a steady and tremendous truth from the days of Barabbas downwards and +upwards!--Tuesday, 31st May, 1740, between one and two o'clock in the +afternoon, Friedrich Wilhelm died; age fifty-two, coming 15th August +next. Same day, Friedrich his Son was proclaimed at Berlin; quilted +heralds, with sound of trumpet and the like, doing what is customary on +such occasions. + +On Saturday, 4th June, the King's body is laid out in state; all Potsdam +at liberty to come and see. He lies there, in his regimentals, in +his oaken coffin, on a raised place in the middle of the room; decent +mortuary draperies, lamps, garlands, banderols furnishing the room and +him: at his feet, on a black-velvet TABOURET (stool), are the chivalry +emblems, helmet, gauntlets, spurs; and on similar stools, at the right +hand and the left, lie his military insignia, hat and sash, sword, +guidon, and what else is fit. Around, in silence, sit nine veteran +military dignitaries; Buddenbrock, Waldau, Derschau, Einsiedel, and five +others whom we omit to name. Silent they sit. A grim earnest sight in +the shine of the lamplight, as you pass out of the June sun. Many went, +all day; looked once again on the face that was to vanish. Precisely at +ten at night, the coffin-lid is screwed down: twelve Potsdam Captains +take the coffin on their shoulders; four-and-twenty Corporals with +wax torches, four-and-twenty Sergeants with inverted halberts lowered; +certain Generals on order, and very many following as volunteers; these +perform the actual burial,--carry the body to the Garrison Church, where +are clergy waiting, which is but a small step off; see it lodged, oak +coffin and all, in a marble coffin in the side vault there, which is +known to Tourists. [Pauli, viii. 281.] It is the end of the week, and +the actual burial is done,--hastened forward for reasons we can guess. + +Filial piety by no means intends to defraud a loved Father of the +Spartan ceremonial contemplated as obsequies by him: very far from it. +Filial piety will conform to that with rigor; only adding what musical +and other splendors are possible, to testify his love still more. And +so, almost three weeks hence, on the 23d of the month, with the aid of +Dresden Artists, of Latin Cantatas and other pomps (not inexcusable, +though somewhat out of keeping), the due Funeral is done, no Corpse +but a Wax Effigy present in it;--and in all points, that of the +Potsdam Grenadiers not forgotten, there was rigorous conformity to the +Instruction left. In all points, even to the extensive funeral dinner, +and drinking of the appointed cask of wine, "the best cask in my +cellar." Adieu, O King. + +The Potsdam Grenadiers fired their three volleys (not "PLACKERING," as +I have reason to believe, but well); got their allowance, dinner-liquor, +and appointed coin of money: it was the last service required of them in +this world. That same night they were dissolved, the whole Four Thousand +of them, at a stroke; and ceased to exist as Potsdam Grenadiers. +Colonels, Captains, all the Officers known to be of merit, were +advanced, at least transferred. Of the common men, a minority, of not +inhuman height and of worth otherwise, were formed into a new Regiment +on the common terms: the stupid splay-footed eight-feet mass were +allowed to stalk off whither they pleased, or vegetate on frugal +pensions; Irish Kirkman, and a few others neither knock-kneed nor +without head, were appointed HEYDUCS, that is, porters to the King's or +other Palaces; and did that duty in what was considered an ornamental +manner. + +Here are still two things capable of being fished up from the sea of +nugatory matter; and meditated on by readers, till the following Books +open. + +The last breath of Friedrich Wilhelm having fled, Friedrich hurried to a +private room; sat there all in tears; looking back through the gulfs of +the Past, upon such a Father now rapt away forever. Sad all, and soft in +the moonlight of memory,--the lost Loved One all in the right as we +now see, we all in the wrong!--this, it appears, was the Son's fixed +opinion. Seven years hence, here is how Friedrich concludes the HISTORY +of his Father, written with a loyal admiration throughout: "We have left +under silence the domestic chagrins of this great Prince: readers must +have some indulgence for the faults of the Children, in consideration +of the virtues of such a Father." [_OEuvres,_ i. 174 (_Memoires de +Brandebourg:_ finished about 1747).] All in tears he sits at present, +meditating these sad things. + +In a little while the Old Dessauer, about to leave for Dessau, ventures +in to the Crown-Prince, Crown-Prince no longer; "embraces his knees;" +offers, weeping, his condolence, his congratulation;--hopes withal that +his sons and he will be continued in their old posts, and that he, +the Old Dessauer, "will have the same authority as in the late reign." +Friedrich's eyes, at this last clause, flash out tearless, strangely +Olympian. "In your posts I have no thought of making change: in your +posts, yes;--and as to authority, I know of none there can be but what +resides in the King that is sovereign!" Which, as it were, struck +the breath out of the Old Dessauer; and sent him home with a painful +miscellany of feelings, astonishment not wanting among them. + +At an after hour, the same night, Friedrich went to Berlin; met by +acclamation enough. He slept there, not without tumult of dreams, one +may fancy; and on awakening next morning, the first sound he heard was +that of the Regiment Glasenap under his windows, swearing fealty to +the new King. He sprang out of bed in a tempest of emotion; bustled +distractedly to and fro, wildly weeping. Pollnitz, who came into the +anteroom, found him in this state, "half-dressed, with dishevelled hair, +in tears, and as if beside himself." "These huzzaings only tell me what +I have lost!" said the new King.--"HE was in great suffering," suggested +Pollnitz; "he is now at rest." "True, he suffered; but he was here with +us: and now--!" [Ranke (ii. 46, 47)], from certain Fragments, still, in +manuscript, of Pollnits's _Memoiren._ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, +Vol. X. (of XXI.), by Thomas Carlyle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. *** + +***** This file should be named 2110.txt or 2110.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/1/2110/ + +Produced by D.R. 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Thompson <drthom@ihug.co.nz> + + + + + +Carlyle's "History of Friedrich II of Prussia" +Book X + + + + +BOOK X. + +AT REINSBERG. + +1736-1740. + + + + +Chapter I. + +MANSION OF REINSBERG. + +On the Crown-Prince's Marriage, three years ago, when the AMT or +Government-District RUPPIN, with its incomings, was assigned to +him for revenue, we heard withal of a residence getting ready. +Hint had fallen from the Prince, that Reinsberg, an old Country- +seat, standing with its Domain round it in that little Territory +of Ruppin, and probably purchasable as was understood, might be +pleasant, were it once his and well put in repair. Which hint the +kind paternal Majesty instantly proceeded to act upon. +He straightway gave orders for the purchase of Reinsberg; +concluded said purchase, on fair terms, after some months' +bargaining; [23d October, 1733, order given,--16th March, 1734, +purchase completed (Preuss, i. 75).]--and set his best Architect, +one Kemeter, to work, in concert with the Crown-Prince, to new- +build and enlarge the decayed Schloss of Reinsberg into such a +Mansion as the young Royal Highness and his Wife would like. + +Kemeter has been busy, all this while; a solid, elegant, yet +frugal builder: and now the main body of the Mansion is complete, +or nearly so, the wings and adjuncts going steadily forward; +Mansion so far ready that the Royal Highnesses can take up their +abode in it. Which they do, this Autumn, 1736; and fairly commence +Joint Housekeeping, in a permanent manner. Hitherto it has been +intermittent only: hitherto the Crown-Princess has resided in +their Berlin Mansion, or in her own Country-house at Schonhausen; +Husband not habitually with her, except when on leave of absence +from Ruppin, in Carnival time or for shorter periods. At Ruppin +his life has been rather that of a bachelor, or husband abroad on +business; up to this time. But now at Reinsberg they do kindle the +sacred hearth together; "6th August, 1736," the date of that +important event. They have got their Court about them, dames and +cavaliers more than we expected; they have arranged the furnitures +of their existence here on fit scale, and set up their Lares and +Penates on a thrifty footing. Majesty and Queen come out on a +visit to them next month; [4th September, 1736 (Ib.).]--raising +the sacred hearth into its first considerable blaze, and crowning +the operation in a human manner. + +And so there has a new epoch arisen for the Crown-Prince and his +Consort. A new, and much-improved one. It lasted into the fourth +year; rather improving all the way: and only Kingship, which, if a +higher sphere, was a far less pleasant one, put an end to it. +Friedrich's happiest time was this at Reinsberg; the little Four +Years of Hope, Composure, realizable Idealism: an actual snatch of +something like the Idyllic, appointed him in a life-pilgrimage +consisting otherwise of realisms oftenest contradictory enough, +and sometimes of very grim complexion. He is master of his work, +he is adjusted to the practical conditions set him; conditions +once complied with, daily work done, he lives to the Muses, to the +spiritual improvements, to the social enjoyments; and has, though +not without flaws of ill-weather,--from the Tobacco-Parliament +perhaps rather less than formerly, and from the Finance-quarter +perhaps rather more,--a sunny time. His innocent insipidity of a +Wife, too, appears to have been happy. She had the charm of youth, +of good looks; a wholesome perfect loyalty of character withal; +and did not "take to pouting," as was once apprehended of her, but +pleasantly gave and received of what was going. This poor Crown- +Princess, afterwards Queen, has been heard, in her old age, +reverting, in a touching transient way, to the glad days she had +at Reinsberg. Complaint openly was never heard from her, in any +kind of days; but these doubtless were the best of her life. + +Reinsberg, we said, is in the AMT Ruppin; naturally under the +Crown- Prince's government at present: the little Town or Village +of Reinsberg stands about, ten miles north of the Town Ruppin;-- +not quite a third-part as big as Ruppin is in our time, and much +more pleasantly situated. The country about is of comfortable, not +unpicturesque character; to be distinguished almost as beautiful, +in that region of sand and moor. Lakes abound in it; tilled +fields; heights called "hills;" and wood of fair growth,--one +reads of "beech-avenues" of "high linden-avenues:"--a country +rather of the ornamented sort, before the Prince with his +improvements settled there. Many lakes and lakelets in it, as +usual hereabouts; the loitering waters straggle, all over that +region, into meshes of lakes. Reinsberg itself, Village and +Schloss, stands on the edge of a pleasant Lake, last of a mesh of +such: the SUMMARY, or outfall, of which, already here a good +strong brook or stream, is called the RHEIN, Rhyn or Rein; and +gives name to the little place. We heard of the Rein at Ruppin: +it is there counted as a kind of river; still more, twenty miles +farther down, where it falls into the Havel, on its way to the +Elbe. The waters, I think, are drab-colored, not peat-brown: +and here, at the source, or outfall from that mesh of lakes, where +Reinsberg is, the country seems to be about the best;--sufficient, +in picturesqueness and otherwise, to satisfy a reasonable man. + +The little Town is very old; but, till the Crown-Prince settled +there, had no peculiar vitality in it. I think there are now some +potteries, glass-manufactories: Friedrich Wilhelm, just while the +Crown-Prince was removing thither, settled a first Glass-work +there; which took good root, and rose to eminence in the crystal, +Bohemian-crystal, white-glass, cut-glass, and other commoner +lines, in the Crown-Prince's time. [<italic> Bescheibung des +Lutschlosses &c. zu Reinsberg <end italic> (Berlin, 1788); +Author, a "Lieutenant Hennert," thoroughly acquainted with +his subject.] + +Reinsberg stands on the east or southeast side of its pretty Lake: +Lake is called "the GRINERICK SEE" (as all those remote Lakes have +their names); Mansion is between the Town and Lake. A Mansion +fronting, we may say, four ways; for it is of quadrangular form, +with a wet moat from the Lake begirdling it, and has a spacious +court for interior: but the principal entrance is from the Town +side; for the rest, the Building is ashlar on all sides, front and +rear. Stands there, handsomely abutting on the Lake with two +Towers, a Tower at each angle, which it has on that lakeward side; +and looks, over Reinsberg, and its steeple rising amid friendly +umbrage which hides the house-tops, towards the rising sun. +Townward there is room for a spacious esplanade; and then for the +stables, outbuildings, well masked; which still farther shut off +the Town. To this day, Reinsberg stands with the air of a solid +respectable Edifice; still massive, rain-tight, though long since +deserted by the Princeships,--by Friedrich nearly sixscore years +ago, and nearly threescore by Prince Henri, Brother of +Friedrich's, who afterwards had it. Last accounts I got were, of +talk there had risen of planting an extensive NORMAL-SCHOOL there; +which promising plan had been laid aside again for the time. + +The old Schloss, residence of the Bredows and other feudal people +for a long while, had good solid masonry in it, and around it +orchards, potherb gardens; which Friedrich Wilhelm's Architects +took good care to extend and improve, not to throw away: +the result of their art is what we see, a beautiful Country-House, +what might be called a Country-Palace with all its adjuncts;--and +at a rate of expense which would fill English readers, of this +time, with amazement. Much is admirable to us as we study +Reinsberg, what it had been, what it became, and how it was made; +but nothing more so than the small modicum of money lt cost. +To our wondering thought, it seems as if the shilling, in those +parts, were equal to the guinea in these; and the reason, if we +ask it, is by no means flattering altogether. "Change in the value +of money?" Alas, reader, no; that is not above the fourth part of +the phenomenon. Three-fourths of the phenomenon are change in the +methods of administering money,--difference between managing it +with wisdom and veracity on both sides, and managing it with +unwisdom and mendacity on both sides. Which is very great indeed; +and infinitely sadder than any one, in these times, will believe! +--But we cannot dwell on this consideration. Let the reader take +it with him, as a constant accompaniment in whatever work of +Friedrich Wilhelm's or of Friedrich his Son's, he now or at any +other time may be contemplating. Impious waste, which means +disorder and dishonesty, and loss of much other than money to all, +parties,--disgusting aspect of human creatures, master and +servant, working together as if they were not human,--will be +spared him in those foreign departments; and in an English heart +thoughts will arise, perhaps, of a wholesome tendency, though very +sad, as times are. + +It would but weary the reader to describe this Crown-Prince +Mansion; which, by desperate study of our abstruse materials, it +is possible to do with auctioneer minuteness. There are engraved +VIEWS of Reinsberg and its Environs; which used to lie conspicuous +in the portfolios of collectors,---which I have not seen. +[See Hennert, just cited, for the titles of them.] Of the House +itself, engraved Frontages (FACADES), Ground-plans, are more +accessible; and along with them, descriptions which are little +descriptive,--wearisomely detailed, and as it were dark by excess +of light (auctioneer light) thrown on them. The reader sees, in +general, a fine symmetrical Block of Buildings, standing in +rectangular shape, in the above locality;--about two hundred +English feet, each, the two longer sides measure, the Townward and +the Lakeward, on their outer front: about a hundred and thirty, +each, the two shorter; or a hundred and fifty, taking in their +Towers just spoken of. The fourth or Lakeward side, however, which +is one of the longer pair, consists mainly of "Colonnade;" +spacious Colonnade "with vases and statues;" catching up the +outskirts of said Towers, and handsomely uniting everything. + +Beyond doubt, a dignified, substantial pile of stone-work; all of +good proportions. Architecture everywhere of cheerfully serious, +solidly graceful character; all of sterling ashlar; the due +RISALITES (projecting spaces) with their attics and statues atop, +the due architraves, cornices and corbels,--in short the due +opulence of ornament being introduced, and only the due. Genuine +sculptors, genuine painters, artists have been busy; and in fact +all the suitable fine arts, and all the necessary solid ones, have +worked together, with a noticeable fidelity, comfortable to the +very beholder to this day. General height is about forty feet; +two stories of ample proportions: the Towers overlooking them are +sixty feet in height. Extent of outer frontage, if you go all +round, and omit the Colonnade, will be five hundred feet and more: +this, with the rearward face, is a thousand feet of room +frontage:--fancy the extent of lodging space. For "all the +kitchens and appurtenances are underground;" the "left front" +(which is a new part of the Edifice) rising comfortably over +these. Windows I did not count; but they must go high up into the +Hundreds. No end to lodging space. Way in a detached side-edifice +subsequently built, called Cavalier House, I read of there being, +for one item, "fifty lodging rooms," and for another "a theatre." +And if an English Duke of Trumps were to look at the bills for all +that, his astonishment would be extreme, and perhaps in a degree +painful and salutary to him. + +In one of these Towers the Crown-Prince has his Library: +a beautiful apartment; nothing wanting to it that the arts could +furnish, "ceiling done by Pesne" with allegorical geniuses and +what not,--looks out on mere sky, mere earth and water in an +ornamental state: silent as in Elysium. It is there we are to +fancy the Correspondence written, the Poetries and literary +industries going on. There, or stepping down for a turn in the +open air, or sauntering meditatively under the Colonnade with its +statues and vases (where weather is no object), one commands the +Lake, with its little tufted Islands, "Remus Island" much famed +among them, and "high beech-woods" on the farther side. The Lake +is very pretty, all say; lying between you and the sunset;--with +perhaps some other lakelet, or solitary pool in the wilderness, +many miles away, "revealing itself as a cup of molten gold," at +that interesting moment. What the Book-Collection was, in the +interior, I know not except by mere guess. + +The Crown-Princess's Apartment, too, which remained unaltered at +the last accounts had of it, [From Hennert, namely, in 1778.] is +very fine;--take the anteroom for specimen: "This fine room," some +twenty feet height of ceiling, "has six windows; three of them, in +the main front, looking towards the Town, the other three, towards +the Interior Court. The light from these windows is heightened by +mirrors covering all the piers (SCHAFTE, interspaces of the +walls), to an uncommonly splendid pitch; and shows the painting of +the ceiling, which again is by the famous Pesne, to much +perfection. The Artist himself, too, has managed to lay on his +colors there so softly, and with such delicate skill, that the +light-beams seem to prolong themselves in the painted clouds and +air, as if it were the real sky you had overhead." There in that +cloud-region "Mars is being disarmed by the Love-goddesses, and +they are sporting with his weapons. He stretches out his arm +towards the Goddess, who looks upon him with fond glances. +Cupids are spreading out a draping." That is Pesne's luxurious +performance in the ceiling.--"Weapon-festoons, in basso-relievo, +gilt, adorn the walls of this room; and two Pictures, also by +Pesne, which represent, in life size, the late King and Queen [our +good friends Friedrich Wilhelm and his Sophie], are worthy of +attention. Over each of the doors, you find in low-relief the +Profiles of Hannibal, Pompey, Scipio, Caesar, introduced +as Medallions." + +All this is very fine; but all this is little to another ceiling, +in some big Saloon elsewhere, Music-saloon, I think: Black Night, +making off, with all her sickly dews, at one end of the ceiling; +and at the other end, the Steeds of Phoebus bursting forth, and +the glittering shafts of Day,--with Cupids, Love-goddesses, War- +gods, not omitting Bacchus and his vines, all getting beautifully +awake in consequence. A very fine room indeed;--used as a Music- +saloon, or I know not what,--and the ceiling of it almost an +ideal, say the connoisseurs. + +Endless gardens, pavilions, grottos, hermitages, orangeries, +artificial ruins, parks and pleasances surround this favored spot +and its Schloss; nothing wanting in it that a Prince's +establishment needs,--except indeed it be hounds, for which this +Prince never had the least demand. + +Except the old Ruppin duties, which imply continual journeyings +thither, distance only a morning's ride; except these, and +occasional commissions from Papa, Friedrich is left master of his +time and pursuits in this new Mansion. There are visits to +Potsdam, periodical appearances at Berlin; some Correspondence to +keep the Tobacco-Parliament in tune. But Friedrich's taste is for +the Literatures, Philosophies: a--young Prince bent seriously to +cultivate his mind; to attain some clear knowledge of this world, +so all-important to him. And he does seriously read, study and +reflect a good deal; his main recreations, seemingly, are Music, +and the converse of well-informed, friendly men. In Music we find +him particularly rich. Daily, at a fixed hour of the afternoon, +there is concert held; the reader has seen in what kind of room: +and if the Artists entertained here for that function were +enumerated (high names, not yet forgotten in the Musical world), +it would still more astonish readers. I count them to the number +of twenty or nineteen; and mention only that "the two Brothers +Graun" and "the two Brothers Benda" were of the lot; suppressing +four other Fiddlers of eminence, and "a Pianist who is known to +everybody." [Hennert, p. 21.] The Prince has a fine sensibility to +Music: does himself, with thrilling adagios on the flute, join in +these harmonious acts; and, no doubt, if rightly vigilant against +the Nonsenses, gets profit, now and henceforth, from this part of +his resources. + +He has visits, calls to make, on distinguished persons within +reach; he has much Correspondence, of a Literary or Social nature. +For instance, there is Suhm the Saxon Envoy translating <italic> +Wolf's Philosophy <end italic> into French for him; sending it in +fascicles; with endless Letters to and from, upon it,--which were +then highly interesting, but are now dead to every reader. The +Crown-Prince has got a Post-Office established at Reinsberg; +leathern functionary of some sort comes lumbering round, +southward, "from the Mecklenburg quarter twice a week, and goes by +Fehrbellin," for the benefit of his Correspondences. Of his calls +in the neighborhood, we mean to show the reader one sample, before +long; and only one. + +There are Lists given us of the Prince's "Court" at Reinsberg; +and one reads, and again reads, the dreariest unmemorable accounts +of them; but cannot, with all one's industry, attain any definite +understanding of what they were employed in, day after day, at +Reinsberg:--still more are their salaries and maintenance a +mystery to us, in that frugal establishment. There is Wolden for +Hofmarschall, our old Custrin friend; there is Colonel Senning, +old Marlborough Colonel with the wooden leg, who taught Friedrich +his drillings and artillery-practices in boyhood, a fine sagacious +old gentleman this latter. There is a M. Jordan, Ex-Preacher, an +ingenious Prussian-Frenchman, still young, who acts as "Reader and +Librarian;" of whom we shall hear a good deal more. "Intendant" is +Captain (Ex-Captain) Knobelsdorf; a very sensible accomplished +man, whom we saw once at Baireuth; who has been to Italy since, +and is now returned with beautiful talents for Architecture: it is +he that now undertakes the completing of Reinsberg, [Hennert, +p. 29.] which he will skilfully accomplish in the course of the +next three years. Twenty Musicians on wind or string; Painters, +Antoine Pesne but one of them; Sculptors, Glume and others of +eminence; and Hof-Cavaliers, to we know not what extent:--how was +such a Court kept up, in harmonious free dignity, and no halt in +its finances, or mean pinch of any kind visible? The Prince did +get in debt; but not deep, and it was mainly for the tall recruits +he had to purchase. His money-accounts are by no means fully known +to me: but I should question if his expenditure (such is my guess) +ever reached 3,000 pounds a year; and am obliged to reflect more +and more, as the ancient Cato did, what an admirable revenue +frugality is! + +Many of the Cavaliers, I find, for one thing, were of the Regiment +Goltz; that was one evident economy. "Rittmeister van Chasot," as +the Books call him: readers saw that Chasot flying to Prince +Eugene, and know him since the Siege of Philipsburg. He is not yet +Rittmeister, or Captain of Horse, as he became; but is of the +Ruppin Garrison; Hof-Cavalier; "attended Friedrich on his late +Prussian journey;" and is much a favorite, when he can be spared +from Ruppin. Captain Wylich, afterwards a General of mark; +the Lieutenant Buddenbrock who did the parson-charivari at Ruppin, +but is now reformed from those practices: all these are of Goltz. +Colonel Keyserling, not of Goltz, nor in active military duty +here, is a friend of very old standing; was officially named as +"Companion" to the Prince, a long while back; and got into +trouble on his account in the disastrous Ante-Custrin or Flight +Epoch: one of the Prince's first acts, when he got pardoned after +Custrin, was to beg for the pardon of this Keyserling; and now he +has him here, and is very fond of him. A Courlander, of good +family, this Keyserling; of good gifts too,--which, it was once +thought, would be practically sublime; for he carried off all +manner of college prizes, and was the Admirable-Crichton of +Konigsberg University and the Graduates there. But in the end they +proved to be gifts of the vocal sort rather: and have led only to +what we see. A man, I should guess, rather of buoyant vivacity +than of depth or strength in intellect or otherwise. +Excessively buoyant, ingenious; full of wit, kindly exuberance; +a loyal-hearted, gay-tempered man, and much a favorite in society +as well as with the Prince. If we were to dwell on Reinsberg, +Keyserling would come prominently forward. + +Major van Stille, ultimately Major-General von Stille, I should +also mention: near twenty years older than the Prince; a wise +thoughtful soldier (went, by permission, to the Siege of Dantzig +lately, to improve himself); a man capable of rugged service, when +the time comes. His military writings were once in considerable +esteem with professional men; and still impress a lay reader with +favorable notions towards Stille, as a man of real worth and +sense. [<italic> Campagnes du Roi de Prusse; <end italic>-- +a posthumous Book; ANTERIOR to the Seven-Years War.] + + +OF MONSIEUR JORDAN AND THE LITERARY SET. + +There is, of course, a Chaplain in the Establishment: a Reverend +"M. Deschamps;" who preaches to them all,--in French no doubt. +Friedrich never hears Deschamps: Friedrich is always over at +Ruppin on Sundays; and there "himself reads a sermon to the +Garrison," as part of the day's duties. Reads finely, in a +melodious feeling manner, says Formey, who can judge: "even in his +old days, he would incidentally," when some Emeritus Parson, like +Formey, chanced to be with him, "roll out choice passages from +Bossuet, from Massillon," in a voice and with a look, which would +have been perfection in the pulpit, thinks Formey. +[<italic> Souvenirs d'un Citoyen <end italic> (2de edition, Paris, +1797), i. 37.] + +M. Jordan, though he was called "LECTEUR (Reader)," did not read +to him, I can perceive; but took charge of the Books; busied +himself honestly to be useful in all manner of literary or quasi- +literary ways. He was, as his name indicates, from the French- +refugee department; a recent acquisition, much valued at +Reinsberg. As he makes a figure afterwards, we had better mark +him a little. + +Jordan's parents were wealthy religious persons, in trade at +Berlin; this Jordan (Charles Etienne, age now thirty-six) was +their eldest son. It seems they had destined him from birth, +consulting their own pious feelings merely, to be a Preacher of +the Gospel; the other sons, all of them reckoned clever too, were +brought up to secular employments. And preach he, this poor +Charles Etienne, accordingly did; what best Gospel he had; in an +honest manner, all say,--though never with other than a kind of +reluctance on the part of Nature, forced out of her course. He had +wedded, been clergyman in two successive country places; when his +wife died, leaving him one little daughter, and a heart much +overset by that event. Friends, wealthy Brothers probably, had +pushed him out into the free air, in these circumstances: "Take a +Tour; Holland, England; feel the winds blowing, see the sun +shining, as in times past: it will do you good!" + +Jordan, in the course of his Tour, came to composure on several +points. He found that, by frugality, by wise management of some +peculium already his, his little Daughter and he might have +quietness at Berlin, and the necessary food and raiment;--and, on +the whole, that he would altogether cease preaching, and settle +down there, among his Books, in a frugal manner. Which he did;-- +and was living so, when the Prince, searching for that kind of +person, got tidings of him. And here he is at Reinsberg; bustling +about, in a brisk, modestly frank and cheerful manner: well liked +by everybody; by his Master very well and ever better, who grew +into real regard, esteem and even friendship for him, and has much +Correspondence, of a freer kind than is common to him, with little +Jordan, so long as they lived together. Jordan's death, ten years +hence, was probably the one considerable pain he had ever given +his neighbors, in this the ultimate section of his life. + +I find him described, at Reinsberg, as a small nimble figure, of +Southern-French aspect; black, uncommonly bright eyes; and a +general aspect of adroitness, modesty, sense, sincerity; +good prognostics, which on acquaintance with the man were +pleasantly fulfilled. + +For the sake of these considerations, I fished out, from the Old- +Book Catalogues and sea of forgetfulness, some of the poor Books +he wrote; especially a <italic> Voyage Litteraire, <end italic> +[<italic> Histoire d'un Voyage Litteraire fait, en MDCCXXXIII., en +France, en Angleterre et en Hollande <end italic> (2de edition, a +La Haye, 1736).] Journal of that first Sanitary Excursion or Tour +he took, to get the clouds blown from his mind. A LITERARY VOYAGE +which awakens a kind of tragic feeling; being itself dead, and +treating of matters which are all gone dead. So many immortal +writers, Dutch chiefly, whom Jordan is enabled to report as having +effloresced, or being soon to effloresce, in such and such forms, +of Books important to be learned: leafy, blossomy Forest of +Literature, waving glorious in the then sunlight to Jordan;--and +it lies all now, to Jordan and us, not withered only, but +abolished; compressed into a film of indiscriminate PEAT. +Consider what that peat is made of, O celebrated or uncelebrated +reader, and take a moral from Jordan's Book! Other merit, except +indeed clearness and commendable brevity, the <italic> Voyage +Litteraire <end italic> or other little Books of Jordan's have not +now. A few of his Letters to Friedrich, which exist, are the only +writings with the least life left in them, and this an accidental +life, not momentous to him or us. Dryasdust informs me, "Abbe +Jordan, alone of the Crown-Prince's cavaliers, sleeps in the Town +of Reinsberg, not in the Schloss:" and if I ask, Why?--there is +no answer. Probably his poor little Daughterkin was beside +him there?-- + +We have to say of Friedrich's Associates, that generally they were +of intelligent type, each of them master of something or other, +and capable of rational discourse upon that at least. Integrity, +loyalty of character, was indispensable; good humor, wit if it +could be had, were much in request. There was no man of shining +distinction there; but they were the best that could be had, and +that is saying all. Friedrich cannot be said, either as Prince or +as King, to have been superlatively successful in his choice of +associates. With one single exception, to be noticed shortly, +there is not one of them whom we should now remember except for +Friedrich's sake;--uniformly they are men whom it is now a +weariness to hear of, except in a cursory manner. One man of +shining parts he had, and one only; no man ever of really high and +great mind. The latter sort are not so easy to get; rarely +producible on the soil of this Earth! Nor is it certain how +Friedrich might have managed with one of this sort, or he with +Friedrich;--though Friedrich unquestionably would have tried, had +the chance offered. For he loved intellect as few men on the +throne, or off it, ever did; and the little he could gather of it +round him often seems to me a fact tragical rather than otherwise. + +With the outer Berlin social world, acting and reacting, Friedrich +has his connections, which obscurely emerge on us now and then. +Literary Eminences, who are generally of Theological vesture; +any follower of Philosophy, especially if he be of refined manners +withal, or known in fashionable life, is sure to attract him; +and gains ample recognition at Reinsberg or on Town-visits. +But the Berlin Theological or Literary world at that time, still +more the Berlin Social, like a sunk extinct object, continues very +dim in those old records; and to say truth, what features we have +of it do not invite to miraculous efforts for farther +acquaintance. Venerable Beausobre, with his <italic> History of +the Manicheans, <end italic> [<italic> Histoire critique de +Manichee et du Manicheisme: <end italic> wrote also <italic> +Remarques &c. sur le Nouveau Testament, <end italic> which were +once famous; <italic> Histoire de la Reformation; <end italic> &c. +&c. He is Beausobre SENIOR; there were two Sons (one of them born +in second wedlock, after Papa was 70), who were likewise given to +writing.--See Formey, <italic> Souvenirs d'un Citoyen, <end +italic> i. 33-39.] and other learned things,--we heard of him long +since, in Toland and the Republican Queen's time, as a light of +the world. He is now fourscore, grown white as snow; very serene, +polite, with a smack of French noblesse in him, perhaps a smack of +affectation traceable too. The Crown-Prince, on one of his Berlin +visits, wished to see this Beausobre; got a meeting appointed, in +somebody's rooms "in the French College," and waited for the +venerable man. Venerable man entered, loftily serene as a martyr +Preacher of the Word, something of an ancient Seigneur de +Beausobre in him, too; for the rest, soft as sunset, and really +with fine radiances, in a somewhat twisted state, in that good old +mind of his. "What have you been reading lately, M. de Beausobre?" +said the Prince, to begin conversation. "Ah, Monseigneur, I have +just risen from reading the sublimest piece of writing that +exists."--"And what?" "The exordium of St. John's Gospel: <italic> +In the Beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God, and the +Word was--" <end italic> Which somewhat took the Prince by +surprise, as Formey reports; though he rallied straightway, and +got good conversation out of the old gentleman. To whom, we +perceive, he writes once or twice, [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, +<end italic> xvi. 121-126. Dates are all of 1737; the last of +Beausobre's years.]--a copy of his own verses to correct, on one +occasion,--and is very respectful and considerate. + +Formey tells us of another French sage, personally known to the +Prince since Boyhood; for he used to be about the Palace, doing +something. This is one La Croze; Professor of, I think, +"Philosophy" in the French College: sublime Monster of Erudition, +at that time; forgotten now, I fear, by everybody. Swag-bellied, +short of wind; liable to rages, to utterances of a coarse nature; +a decidedly ugly, monstrous and rather stupid kind of man. +Knew twenty languages, in a coarse inexact way. Attempted deep +kinds of discourse, in the lecture-room and elsewhere; but usually +broke off into endless welters of anecdote, not always of cleanly +nature; and after every two or three words, a desperate sigh, not +for sorrow, but on account of flabbiness and fat. Formey gives a +portraiture of him; not worth copying farther. The same Formey, +standing one day somewhere on the streets of Berlin, was himself, +he cannot doubt, SEEN by the Crown-Prince in passing; "who asked +M. Jordan, who that was," and got answer:--is not that a +comfortable fact? Nothing farther came of it;--respectable +Ex-Parson Formey, though ever ready with his pen, being indeed of +very vapid nature, not wanted at Reinsberg, as we can guess. + +There is M. Achard, too, another Preacher, supreme of his sort, in +the then Berlin circles; to whom or from whom a Letter or two +exist. Letters worthless, if it were not for one dim indication: +That, on inquiry, the Crown-Prince had been consulting this +supreme Achard on the difficulties of Orthodoxy; [<italic> OEuvres +de Frederic, <end italic> xvi. pp. 112-117: date, March-June, +1736.] and had given him texts, or a text, to preach from. +Supreme Achard did not abolish the difficulties for his inquiring +Prince,--who complains respectfully that "his faith is weak," and +leaves us dark as to particulars. This Achard passage is almost +the only hint we have of what might have been an important +chapter: Friedrich's Religious History at Reinsberg. +The expression "weak faith" I take to be meant not in mockery, but +in ingenuous regret and solicitude; much painful fermentation, +probably, on the religious question in those Reinsberg years! +But the old "GNADENWAHL" business, the Free-Grace controversy, had +taught him to be cautious as to what he uttered on those points. +The fermentation, therefore, had to go on under cover; what the +result of it was, is notorious enough; though the steps of the +process are not in any point known. + +Enough now of such details. Outwardly or inwardly, there is no +History, or almost none, to be had of this Reinsberg Period; +the extensive records of it consisting, as usual, mainly of +chaotic nugatory matter, opaque to the mind of readers. There is +copious correspondence of the Crown-Prince, with at least dates to +it for most part: but this, which should be the main resource, +proves likewise a poor one; the Crown-Prince's Letters, now or +afterwards, being almost never of a deep or intimate quality; +and seldom turning on events or facts at all, and then not always +on facts interesting, on facts clearly apprehensible to us in that +extinct element. + +The Thing, we know always, IS there; but vision of the Thing is +only to be had faintly, intermittently. Dim inane twilight, with +here and there a transient SPARK falling somewhither in it;--you +do at last, by desperate persistence, get to discern outlines, +features:--"The Thing cannot always have been No-thing," you +reflect! Outlines, features:--and perhaps, after all, those are +mostly what the reader wants on this occasion. + + + +Chapter II. + +OF VOLTAIRE AND THE LITERARY CORRESPONDENCES. + +One of Friedrich's grand purposes at Reinsberg, to himself +privately the grandest there, which he follows with constant +loyalty and ardor, is that of scaling the heights of the Muses' +Hill withal; of attaining mastership, discipleship, in Art and +Philosophy;--or in candor let us call it, what it truly was, that +of enlightening and fortifying himself with clear knowledge, clear +belief, on all sides; and acquiring some spiritual panoply in +which to front the coming practicalities of life. This, he feels +well, will be a noble use of his seclusion in those still places; +and it must be owned, he struggles and endeavors towards this, +with great perseverance, by all the methods in his power, here, or +wherever afterwards he might be. + +Here at Reinsberg, one of his readiest methods, his pleasantest if +not his usefulest, is that of getting into correspondence with the +chief spirits of his time. Which accordingly he forthwith sets +about, after getting into Reinsberg, and continues, as we shall +see, with much assiduity. Rollin, Fontenelle, and other French +lights of the then firmament,--his Letters to them exist; +and could be given in some quantity: but it is better not. +They are intrinsically the common Letters on such occasions: +"O sublime demi-god of literature, how small are princely +distinctions to such a glory as thine; thou who enterest within +the veil of the temple, and issuest with thy face shining!"-- +To which the response is: "Hm, think you so, most happy, gracious, +illustrious Prince, with every convenience round you, and such +prospects ahead? Well, thank you, at any rate,--and, as the Irish +say, more power to your Honor's Glory!" This really is nearly all +that said Sets of Letters contain; and except perhaps the Voltaire +Set, none of them give symptoms of much capacity to contain more. + +Certainly there was no want of Literary Men discernible from +Reinsberg at that time; and the young Prince corresponds with a +good many of them; temporal potentate saluting spiritual, from the +distance,--in a way highly interesting to the then parties, but +now without interest, except of the reflex kind, to any creature. +A very cold and empty portion, this, of the Friedrich +Correspondence; standing there to testify what his admiration was +for literary talent, or the great reputation of such; but in +itself uninstructive utterly, and of freezing influence on the now +living mind. Most of those French lights of the then firmament are +gone out. Forgotten altogether; or recognized, like Rollin and +others, for polished dullards, university big-wigs, and long- +winded commonplace persons, deserving nothing but oblivion. +To Montesquieu,--not yet called "Baron de Montesquieu" with ESPRIT +DES LOIS, but "M. de Secondat" with (Anonymous) LETTRES PERSANES, +and already known to the world for a person of sharp audacious +eyesight,--it does not appear that Friedrich addressed any Letter, +now or afterwards. No notice of Montesquieu; nor of some others, +the absence of whom is a little unexpected. Probably it was want +of knowledge mainly; for his appetite was not fastidious at this +time. And certainly he did hit the centre of the mark, and get +into the very kernel of French literature, when, in 1736, hardly +yet established in his new quarters, he addressed himself to the +shining figure known to us as "Arouet Junior" long since, and now +called M. DE VOLTAIRE; which latter is still a name notable in +Friedrich's History and that of Mankind. Friedrich's first Letter, +challenging Voltaire to correspondence, dates itself 8th August, +1736; and Voltaire's Answer--the Reinsberg Household still only in +its second month--was probably the brightest event which had yet +befallen there. + +On various accounts it will behoove us to look a good deal more +strictly into this Voltaire; and, as his relations to Friedrich +and to the world are so multiplex, endeavor to disengage the real +likeness of the man from the circumambient noise and confusion +which in his instance continue very great. "Voltaire was the +spiritual complement of Friedrich," says Sauerteig once: "what +little of lasting their poor Century produced lies mainly in these +Two. A very somnambulating Century! But what little it DID, we +must call Friedrich; what little it THOUGHT, Voltaire. Other fruit +we have not from it to speak of, at this day. Voltaire, and what +CAN be faithfully done on the Voltaire Creed; 'Realized +Voltairism;'--admit it, reader, not in a too triumphant humor,--is +not that pretty much the net historical product of the Eighteenth +Century? The rest of its history either pure somnambulism; or a +mere Controversy, to the effect, 'Realized Voltairism? How soon +shall it be realized, then? Not at once, surely!' So that +Friedrich and Voltaire are related, not by accident only. +They are, they for want of better, the two Original Men of their +Century; the chief and in a sense the sole products of their +Century. They alone remain to us as still living results from it, +--such as they are. And the rest, truly, OUGHT to depart and +vanish (as they are now doing); being mere ephemera; contemporary +eaters, scramblers for provender, talkers of acceptable hearsay; +and related merely to the butteries and wiggeries of their time, +and not related to the Perennialities at all, as these Two were." +--With more of the like sort from Sauerteig. + +M. de Voltaire, who used to be M. Francois-Marie Arouet, was at +this time about forty, [Born 20th February, 1694; the younger of +two sons: Father, "Francois Arouet, a Notary of the Chatelet, +ultimately Treasurer of the Chamber of Accounts;" Mother, +"Marguerite d'Aumart, of a noble family of Poitou."] and had gone +through various fortunes; a man, now and henceforth, in a high +degree conspicuous, and questionable to his fellow-creatures. +Clear knowledge of him ought, at this stage, to be common; +but unexpectedly it is not. What endless writing and biographying +there has been about this man; in which one still reads, with a +kind of lazy satisfaction, due to the subject, and to the French +genius in that department! But the man himself, and his +environment and practical aspects, what the actual physiognomy of +his life and of him can have been, is dark from beginning to +ending; and much is left in an ambiguous undecipherable condition +to us. A proper History of Voltaire, in which should be +discoverable, luminous to human creatures, what he was, what +element he lived in, what work he did: this is still a problem for +the genius of France!-- + +His Father's name is known to us; the name of his Father's +profession, too, but not clearly the nature of it; still less his +Father's character, economic circumstances, physiognomy spiritual +or social: not the least possibility granted you of forming an +image, however faint, of that notable man and household, which +distinguished itself to all the earth by producing little Francois +into the light of this sun. Of Madame Arouet, who, or what, or how +she was, nothing whatever is known. A human reader, pestered +continually with the Madame-Denises, Abbe-Mignots and enigmatic +nieces and nephews, would have wished to know, at least, what +children, besides Francois, Madame Arouet had: once for all, How +many children? Name them, with year of birth, year of death, +according to the church-registers: they all, at any rate, had that +degree of history! No; even that has not been done. Beneficent +correspondents of my own make answer, after some research, No +register of the Arouets anywhere to be had. The very name +VOLTAIRE, if you ask whence came it? there is no answer, or worse +than none.--The fit "History" of this man, which might be one of +the shining Epics of his Century, and the lucid summary and soul +of any HISTORY France then had, but which would require almost a +French demi-god to do it, is still a great way off, if on the road +at all! For present purposes, we select what follows from a well- +known hand:-- + +"YOUTH OF VOLTAIRE (1694-1725).--French Biographers have left the +Arouet Household very dark for us; meanwhile we can perceive, or +guess, that it was moderately well in economic respects; +that Francois was the second of the Two Sons; and that old Arouet, +a steady, practical and perhaps rather sharp-tempered old +gentleman, of official legal habits and position, 'Notary of the +Chatelet' and something else, had destined him for the Law +Profession; as was natural enough to a son of M. Arouet, who had +himself succeeded well in Law, and could there, best of all, open +roads for a clever second son. Francois accordingly sat 'in +chambers,' as we call it; and his fellow-clerks much loved him,-- +the most amusing fellow in the world. Sat in chambers, even became +an advocate; but did not in the least take to advocateship;--took +to poetry, and other airy dangerous courses, speculative, +practical; causing family explosions and rebukes, which were +without effect on him. A young fool, bent on sportful pursuits +instead of serious; more and more shuddering at Law. To the +surprise and indignation of M. Arouet Senior. Law, with its wigs +and sheepskins, pointing towards high honors and deep flesh-pots, +had no charms for the young fool; he could not be made to +like Law. + +"Whereupon arose explosions, as we hint; family explosions on the +part of M. Arouet Senior; such that friends had to interfere, and +it was uncertain what would come of it. One judicious friend, +'M. Caumartin,' took the young fellow home to his house in the +country for a time;--and there, incidentally, brought him +acquainted with old gentlemen deep in the traditions of Henri +Quatre and the cognate topics; which much inflamed the young +fellow, and produced big schemes in the head of him. + +"M. Arouet Senior stood strong for Law; but it was becoming daily +more impossible. Madrigals, dramas (not without actresses), +satirical wit, airy verse, and all manner of adventurous +speculation, were what this young man went upon; and was getting +more and more loved for; introduced, even, to the superior +circles, and recognized there as one of the brightest young +fellows ever seen. Which tended, of course, to confirm him in his +folly, and open other outlooks and harbors of refuge than the +paternal one. + +"Such things, strange to M. Arouet Senior, were in vogue then; +wicked Regent d'Orleans having succeeded sublime Louis XIV., and +set strange fashions to the Quality. Not likely to profit this +fool Francois, thought M. Arouet Senior; and was much confirmed in +his notion, when a rhymed Lampoon against the Government having +come out (LES J'AI VU, as they call it ["I have seen (J'AI VU)" +this ignominy occur, "I have seen" that other,--to the amount of a +dozen or two;--"and am not yet twenty." Copy of it, and guess as +to authorship, in <italic> OEuvres de Voltaire, i. 321.]), and +become the rage, as a clever thing of the kind will, it was +imputed to the brightest young fellow in France, M. Arouet's Son. +Who, in fact, was not the Author; but was not believed on his +denial; and saw himself, in spite of his high connections, +ruthlessly lodged in the Bastille in consequence. 'Let him sit,' +thought M. Arouet Senior, 'and come to his senses there!' He sat +for eighteen months (age still little above twenty); but privately +employed his time, not in repentance, or in serious legal studies, +but in writing a Poem on his Henri Quatre. 'Epic Poem,' no less; +LA LIGUE, as he then called it; which it was his hope the whole +world would one day fall in love with;--as it did. Nay, in two +years more, he had done a Play, OEDIPE the renowned name of it; +which ran for forty-eight nights' (18th November, 1718, the first +of them); and was enough to turn any head of such age. Law may be +considered hopeless, even by M. Arouet Senior. + +"Try him in the Diplomatic line; break these bad habits and +connections, thought M. Arouet, at one time; and sent him to the +French Ambassador in Holland,--on good behavior, as it were, and +by way of temporary banishment. But neither did this answer. +On the contrary, the young fellow got into scrapes again; got into +amatory intrigues,--young lady visiting you in men's clothes, +young lady's mother inveigling, and I know not what;--so that the +Ambassador was glad to send him home again unmarried; marked, as +it were, 'Glass, with care!' And the young lady's mother printed +his Letters, not the least worth reading:--and the old M. Arouet +seems now to have flung up his head; to have settled some small +allowance on him, with peremptory no hope of more, and said, +'Go your own way, then, foolish junior: the elder shall be my +son.' M. Arouet disappears at this point, or nearly so, from the +history of his son Francois; and I think must have died in not +many years. Poor old M. Arouet closed his old eyes without the +least conception what a prodigious ever-memorable thing he had +done unknowingly, in sending this Francois into the world, to +kindle such universal 'dry dung-heap of a rotten world,' and set +it blazing! Francois, his Father's synonym, came to be +representative of the family, after all; the elder Brother also +having died before long. Except certain confused niece-and-nephew +personages, progeny of the sisters, Francois has no more trouble +or solacement from the paternal household. Francois meanwhile is +his Father's synonym, and signs Arouet Junior, 'Francois Aroue +l. j. (LE JEUNE).' + +"'All of us Princes, then, or Poets!' said he, one night at +supper, looking to right and left: the brightest fellow in the +world, well fit to be Phoebus Apollo of such circles; and great +things now ahead of him. Dissolute Regent d'Orleans, politest, +most debauched of men, and very witty, holds the helm; near him +Dubois the Devil's Cardinal, and so many bright spirits. All the +Luciferous Spiritualism there is in France is lifting anchor, +under these auspices, joyfully towards new latitudes and Isles of +the Blest. What may not Francois hope to become? 'Hmph!' answers +M. Arouet Senior, steadily, so long as he lives. Here are one or +two subsequent phases, epochs or turning-points, of the young +gentleman's career. + +"PHASIS FIRST (1725-1728).--The accomplished Duc de Sulli (Year +1725, day not recorded), is giving in his hotel a dinner, such as +usual; and a bright witty company is assembled;--the brightest +young fellow in France sure to be there; and with his electric +coruscations illuminating everything, and keeping the table in a +roar. To the delight of most; not to that of a certain splenetic +ill-given Duc de Rohan; grandee of high rank, great haughtiness, +and very ill-behavior in the world; who feels impatient at the +notice taken of a mere civic individual, Arouet Junior. <italic> +'Quel est done ce jeune homme qui parle si haut, <end italic> Who +is this young man that talks so loud, then?' exclaims the proud +splenetic Duke. 'Monseigneur,' flashes the young man back upon him +in an electric manner, 'it is one who does not drag a big name +about with him; but who secures respect for the name he has!' +Figure that, in the penetrating grandly clangorous voice (VOIX +SOMBRE ET MAJESTUEUSE), and the momentary flash of eyes that +attended it. Duc de Rohan rose, in a sulphurous frame of mind; +and went his ways. What date? You ask the idle French Biographer +in vain;--see only, after more and more inspection, that the +incident is true; and with labor date it, summer of the Year 1725. +Treaty of Utrecht itself, though all the Newspapers and Own +Correspondents were so interested in it, was perhaps but a foolish +matter to date in comparison! + +"About a week after, M. Arouet Junior was again dining with the +Duc de Sulli, and a fine company as before. A servant whispers +him, That somebody has called, and wants him below. 'Cannot come,' +answers Arouet; 'how can I, so engaged?' Servant returns after a +minute or two: 'Pardon, Monsieur; I am to say, it is to do an act +of beneficence that you are wanted below!' Arouet lays down his +knife and fork; descends instantly to see what act it is. +A carriage is in the court, and hackney-coach near it: 'Would +Monsieur have the extreme goodness to come to the door of the +carriage, in a case of necessity?' At the door of the carriage, +hands seize the collar of him, hold him as in a vice; diabolic +visage of Duc de Rohan is visible inside, who utters, looking to +the hackney-coach, some "VOILA, Now then!' Whereupon the hackney- +coach opens, gives out three porters, or hired bullies, with the +due implements: scandalous actuality of horsewhipping descends on +the back of poor Arouet, who shrieks and execrates to no purpose, +nobody being near. 'That will do,' says Rohan at last, and the +gallant ducal party drive off; young Arouet, with torn frills and +deranged hair, rushing up stairs again, in such a mood as is easy +to fancy. Everybody is sorry, inconsolable, everybody shocked; +nobody volunteers to help in avenging. 'Monseigneur de Sulli, is +not such atrocity done to one of your guests, an insult to +yourself?' asks Arouet. 'Well, yes perhaps, but'--Monseigneur de +Sulli shrugs his shoulders, and proposes nothing. Arouet withdrew, +of course in a most blazing condition, to consider what he could, +on his own strength, do in this conjuncture. + +"His Biographer Duvernet says, he decided on doing two things: +learning English and the small-sword exercise. [<italic> La Vie de +Voltaire, <end italic> par M--(a Geneve, 1786), pp. 55-57; or +pp. 60-63, in his SECOND form of the Book. The "M--" is an Abbe +Duvernet; of no great mark otherwise. He got into Revolution +trouble afterwards, but escaped with his head; and republished his +Book, swollen out somewhat by new "Anecdotes" and republican +bluster, in this second instance; signing himself T. J. D. V-- +(Paris, 1797). A vague but not dark or mendacious little Book; +with traces of real EYESIGHT in it,--by one who had personally +known Voltaire, or at least seen and heard him.] He retired to the +country for six months, and perfected himself in these two +branches. Being perfect, he challenged Duc de Rohan in the proper +manner; applying ingenious compulsives withal, to secure +acceptance of the challenge. Rohan accepted, not without some +difficulty, and compulsion at the Theatre or otherwise:--accepted, +but withal confessed to his wife. The result was, no measuring of +swords took place; and Rohan only blighted by public opinion, or +incapable of farther blight that way, went at large; a convenient +LETTRE DE CACHET having put Arouet again in the Bastille. +Where for six months Arouet lodged a second time, the innocent not +the guilty; making, we can well suppose, innumerable reflections +on the phenomena of human life. Imprisonment once over, he hastily +quitted for England; shaking the dust of ungrateful France off his +feet,--resolved to change his unhappy name, for one thing. + +"Smelfungus, denouncing the torpid fatuity of Voltaire's +Biographers, says he never met with one Frenchman, even of the +Literary classes, who could tell him whence this name VOLTAIRE +originated. 'A PETITE TERRE, small family estate,' they said; and +sent him hunting through Topographies, far and wide, to no +purpose. Others answered, 'Volterra in Italy, some connection with +Volterra,'--and seemed even to know that this was but fatuity. +'In ever-talking, ever-printing Paris, is it as in Timbuctoo, +then, which neither prints nor has anything to print?' exclaims +poor Smelfungus! He tells us at last, the name VOLTAIRE is a mere +Anagram of AROUET L. J.--you try it; +A.R.O.U.E.T.L.J.=V.O.L.T.A.I.R.E and perceive at once, with +obligations to Smelfungus, that he has settled this small matter +for you, and that you can be silent upon it forever thenceforth. + +"The anagram VOLTAIRE, gloomily settled in the Bastille in this +manner, can be reckoned a very famous wide-sounding outer result +of the Rohan impertinence and blackguardism; but it is not worth +naming beside the inner intrinsic result, of banishing Voltaire to +England at this point of his course. England was full of +Constitutionality and Freethinking; Tolands, Collinses, +Wollastons, Bolingbrokes, still living; very free indeed. +England, one is astonished to see, has its royal-republican ways +of doing; something Roman in it, from Peerage down to Plebs; +strange and curious to the eye of M. de Voltaire. +Sciences flourishing; Newton still alive, white with fourscore +years, the venerable hoary man; Locke's Gospel of Common Sense in +full vogue, or even done into verse, by incomparable Mr. Pope, for +the cultivated upper classes. In science, in religion, in +politics, what a surprising 'liberty' allowed or taken! Never was +a freer turn of thinking. And (what to M. de Voltaire is a +pleasant feature) it is Freethinking with ruffles to its shirt and +rings on its fingers;--never yet, the least, dreaming of the +shirtless or SANSCULOTTIC state that lies ahead for it! That is +the palmy condition of English Liberty, when M. de Voltaire +arrives there. + +"In a man just out of the Bastille on those terms, there is a mind +driven by hard suffering into seriousness, and provoked by +indignant comparisons and remembrances. As if you had elaborately +ploughed and pulverized the mind of this Voltaire to receive with +its utmost avidity, and strength of fertility, whatever seed +England may have for it. That was a notable conjuncture of a man +with circumstances. The question, Is this man to grow up a Court +Poet; to do legitimate dramas, lampoons, witty verses, and wild +spiritual and practical magnificences, the like never seen; +Princes and Princesses recognizing him as plainly divine, and +keeping him tied by enchantments to that poor trade as his task in +life? is answered in the negative. No: and it is not quite to +decorate and comfort your 'dry dung-heap' of a world, or the +fortunate cocks that scratch on it, that the man Voltaire is here; +but to shoot lightnings into it, and set it ablaze one day! +That was an important alternative; truly of world-importance to +the poor generations that now are; and it was settled, in good +part, by this voyage to England, as one may surmise. Such is +sometimes the use of a dissolute Rohan in this world; for the gods +make implements of all manner of things. + +"M. de Voltaire (for we now drop the Arouet altogether, and never +hear of it more) came to England--when? Quitted England--when? +Sorrow on all fatuous Biographers, who spend their time not in +laying permanent foundation-stones, but in fencing with the wind! +--I at last find indisputably, it was in 1726 that he came to +England: [Got out of the Bastille, with orders to leave France, +"29th April" of that year (<italic> OEuvres de Voltaire, <end +italic> i. 40 n.).] and he himself tells us that he quitted it 'in +1728.' Spent, therefore, some two years there in all,--last year +of George I.'s reign, and first of George II.'s. But mere inanity +and darkness visible reign, in all his Biographies, over this +period of his life, which was above all others worth +investigating: seek not to know it; no man has inquired into it, +probably no competent man now ever will. By hints in certain +Letters of the period, we learn that he lodged, or at one time +lodged, in 'Maiden Lane, Covent Garden;' one of those old Houses +that yet stand in Maiden Lane: for which small fact let us be +thankful. His own Letters of the period are dated now and then +from 'Wandsworth.' Allusions there are to Bolingbroke; but the +Wandsworth is not Bolingbroke's mansion, which stood in Battersea; +the Wandsworth was one Edward Fawkener's; a man somewhat admirable +to young Voltaire, but extinct now, or nearly so, in human memory. +He had been a Turkey Merchant, it would seem, and nevertheless was +admitted to speak his word in intellectual, even in political +circles; which was wonderful to young Voltaire. This Fawkener, +I think, became Sir Edward Fawkener, and some kind of 'Secretary +to the Duke of Cumberland:'--I judge it to be the same Fawkener; +a man highly unmemorable now, were it not for the young Frenchman +he was hospitable to. Fawkener's and Bolingbroke's are perhaps the +only names that turn up in Voltaire's LETTERS of this English +Period: over which generally there reigns, in the French +Biographies, inane darkness, with an intimation, half involuntary, +that it SHOULD have been made luminous, and would if +perfectly easy. + +"We know, from other sources, that he had acquaintance with many +men in England, with all manner of important men: Notes to Pope in +Voltaire-English, visit of Voltaire to Congreve, Notes even to +such as Lady Sundon in the interior of the Palace, are known of. +The brightest young fellow in the world did not want for +introductions to the highest quarters, in that time of political +alliance, and extensive private acquaintance, between his Country +and ours. And all this he was the man to improve, both in the +trivial and the deep sense. His bow to the divine Princess +Caroline and suite, could it fail in graceful reverence or what +else was needed? Dexterous right words in the right places, winged +with ESPRIT so called: that was the man's supreme talent, in which +he had no match, to the last. A most brilliant, swift, far- +glancing young man, disposed to make himself generally agreeable. +For the rest, his wonder, we can see, was kept awake; wonder +readily inclining, in his circumstances, towards admiration. +The stereotype figure of the Englishman, always the same, which +turns up in Voltaire's WORKS, is worth noting in this respect. +A rugged surly kind of fellow, much-enduring, not intrinsically +bad; splenetic without complaint, standing oddly inexpugnable in +that natural stoicism of his; taciturn, yet with strange flashes +of speech in him now and then, something which goes beyond +laughter and articulate logic, and is the taciturn elixir of these +two, what they call 'humor' in their dialect: this is pretty much +the REVERSE of Voltaire's own self, and therefore all the welcomer +to him; delineated always with a kind of mockery, but with evident +love. What excellences are in England, thought Voltaire; +no Bastille in it, for one thing! Newton's Philosophy annihilated +the vortexes of Descartes for him; Locke's Toleration is very +grand (especially if all is uncertain, and YOU are in the +minority); then Collins, Wollaston and Company,--no vile Jesuits +here, strong in their mendacious mal-odorous stupidity, +despicablest yet most dangerous of creatures, to check freedom of +thought! Illustrious Mr. Pope, of the <italic> Essay on Man, <end +italic> surely he is admirable; as are Pericles Bolingbroke, and +many others. Even Bolingbroke's high-lacquered brass is gold to +this young French friend of his.--Through all which admirations +and exaggerations the progress of the young man, toward certain +very serious attainments and achievements, is conceivable enough. + +"One other man, who ought to be mentioned in the Biographies, I +find Voltaire to have made acquaintance with, in England: a German +M. Fabrice, one of several Brothers called Fabrice or Fabricius,-- +concerning whom, how he had been at Bender, and how Voltaire +picked CHARLES DOUSE from the memory of him, there was already +mention. The same Fabrice who held poor George I. in his arms +while they drove, galloping, to Osnabriick, that night, IN +EXTREMIS:--not needing mention again. The following is more to +the point. + +"Voltaire, among his multifarious studies while in England, did +not forget that of economics: his Poem LA LIGUE,--surreptitiously +printed, three years since, under that title (one Desfontaines, a +hungry Ex-Jesuit, the perpetrator), [1723, VIE, par T. J. D. V. +(that is, "M--" in the second form), p. 59.]--he now took in hand +for his own benefit; washed it clean of its blots; christened it +HENRIADE, under which name it is still known over all the world;-- +and printed it; published it here, by subscription, in 1726; +one of the first things he undertook. Very splendid subscription; +headed by Princess Caroline, and much favored by the opulent of +quality. Which yielded an unknown but very considerable sum of +thousands sterling, and grounded not only the world-renown but the +domestic finance of M. de Voltaire. For the fame of the 'new +epic,' as this HENRIADE was called, soon spread into all lands. +And such fame, and other agencies on his behalf, having opened the +way home for Voltaire, he took this sum of Thousands Sterling +along with him; laid it out judiciously in some city lottery, or +profitable scrip then going at Paris, which at once doubled the +amount: after which he invested it in Corn-trade, Army Clothing, +Barbary-trade, Commissariat Bacon-trade, all manner of well-chosen +trades,--being one of the shrewdest financiers on record;--and +never from that day wanted abundance of money, for one thing. +Which he judged to be extremely expedient for a literary man, +especially in times of Jesuit and other tribulation. 'You have +only to watch,' he would say, 'what scrips, public loans, +investments in the field of agio, are offered; if you exert any +judgment, it is easy to gain there: do not the stupidest of +mortals gain there, by intensely attending to it?' + +"Voltaire got almost nothing by his Books, which he generally had +to disavow, and denounce as surreptitious supposititious scandals, +when some sharp-set Book-seller, in whose way he had laid the +savory article as bait, chose to risk his ears for the profit of +snatching and publishing it. Next to nothing by his Books; but by +his fine finance-talent otherwise, he had become possessed of +ample moneys. Which were so cunningly disposed, too, that he had +resources in every Country; and no conceivable combination of +confiscating Jesuits and dark fanatic Official Persons could throw +him out of a livelihood, whithersoever he might be forced to run. +A man that looks facts in the face; which is creditable of him. +The vulgar call it avarice and the like, as their way is: but +M. de Voltaire is convinced that effects will follow causes; +and that it well beseems a lonely Ishmaelite, hunting his way +through the howling wildernesses and confused ravenous populations +of this world, to have money in his pocket. He died with a revenue +of some 7,000 pounds a year, probably as good as 20,000 pounds at +present; the richest literary man ever heard of hitherto, as well +as the remarkablest in some other respects. But we have to mark +the second phasis of his life [in which Friedrich now sees him], +and how it grew out of this first one. + +"PHASIS SECOND (1728-1733).--Returning home as if quietly +triumphant, with such a talent in him, and such a sanction put +upon it and him by a neighboring Nation, and by all the world, +Voltaire was warmly received, in his old aristocratic circles, by +cultivated France generally; and now in 1728, in his thirty-second +year, might begin to have definite outlooks of a sufficiently +royal kind, in Literature and otherwise. Nor is he slow, far from +it, to advance, to conquer and enjoy. He writes successful +literature, falls in love with women of quality; encourages the +indigent and humble; eclipses, and in case of need tramples down, +the too proud. He elegizes poor Adrienne Lecouvreur, the Actress, +--our poor friend the Comte de Saxe's female friend; who loyally +emptied out her whole purse for him, 30,000 pounds in one sum, +that he might try for Courland, and whether he could fall in love +with her of the Swollen Cheek there; which proved impossible. +Elegizes Adrienne, we slty, and even buries her under cloud of +night: ready to protect unfortunate females of merit. Especially +theatrical females; having much to do in the theatre, which we +perceive to be the pulpit or real preaching-place of cultivated +France in those years. All manner of verse, all manner of prose, +he dashes off with surprising speed and grace: showers of light +spray for the moment; and always some current of graver +enterprise, <italic> Siecle de Louis Quatorze <end italic> or the +like, going on beneath it. For he is a most diligent, swift, +unresting man; and studies and learns amazingly in such a rackety +existence. Victorious enough in some senses; defeat, in +Literature, never visited him. His Plays, coming thick on the +heels of one another, rapid brilliant pieces, are brilliantly +received by the unofficial world; and ought to dethrone dull +Crebillon, and the sleepy potentates of Poetry that now are. +Which in fact is their result with the public; but not yet in the +highest courtly places;--a defect much to be condemned +and lamented. + +"Numerous enemies arise, as is natural, of an envious venomous +description; this is another ever-widening shadow in the sunshine. +In fact we perceive he has, besides the inner obstacles and +griefs, two classes of outward ones: There are Lions on his path +and also Dogs. Lions are the Ex-Bishop of Mirepoix, and certain +other dark Holy Fathers, or potent orthodox Official Persons. +These, though Voltaire does not yet declare his heterodoxy (which, +indeed, is but the orthodoxy of the cultivated private circles), +perceive well enough, even by the HENRIADE, and its talk of +'tolerance,' horror of 'fanaticism' and the like, what this one's +'DOXY is; and how dangerous he, not a mere mute man of quality, +but a talking spirit with winged words, may be;--and they much +annoy and terrify him, by their roaring in the distance. +Which roaring cannot, of course, convince; and since it is not +permitted to kill, can only provoke a talking spirit into still +deeper strains of heterodoxy for his own private behoof. These are +the Lions on his path: beasts conscious to themselves of good +intentions; but manifesting from Voltaire's point of view, it must +be owned, a physiognomy unlovely to a degree. (Light is superior +to darkness, I should think,' meditates Voltaire; 'power of +thought to the want of power! The ANE DE MIREPOIX (Ass of +Mirepoix), [Poor joke of Voltaire's, continually applied to this +Bishop, or Ex-Bishop,--who was thought, generally, a rather +tenebrific man for appointment to the FEUILLE DES BENEFICES +(charge of nominating Bishops, keeping King's conscience, &c.); +and who, in that capacity, signed himself ANC (by no means "ANE," +but "ANCIEN, Whilom") DE MIREPOIX,--to the enragement of Voltaire +bften enough.] pretending to use me in this manner, is it other, +in the court of Rhadamanthus, than transcendent Stupidity, with +transcendent Insolence superadded?' Voltaire grows more and more +heterodox; and is ripening towards dangerous utterances, though +he, strives to hold in. + +"The Dogs upon his path, again, are all the disloyal envious +persons of the Writing Class, whom his success has offended; +and, more generally, all the dishonest hungry persons who can gain +a morsel by biting him: and their name is legion. It must be +owned, about as ugly a Doggery ('INFAME CANAILLE' he might well +reckon them) as has, before or since, infested the path of a man. +They are not hired and set on, as angry suspicion might suggest; +but they are covertly somewhat patronized by the Mirepoix, or +orthodox Official class. Scandalous Ex-Jesuit Desfontaines, +Thersites Freron,--these are but types of an endless Doggery; +whose names and works should be blotted out; whose one claim to +memory is, that the riding man so often angrily sprang down, and +tried horsewhipping them into silence. A vain attempt. +The individual hound flies howling, abjectly petitioning and +promising; but the rest bark all with new comfort, and even he +starts again straightway. It is bad travelling in those woods, +with such Lions and such Dogs. And then the sparsely scattered +HUMAN Creatures (so we may call them in contrast, persons of +Quality for most part) are not always what they should be. +The grand mansions you arrive at, in this waste-howling solitude, +prove sometimes essentially Robber-towers;--and there may be +Armida Palaces, and divine-looking Armidas, where your ultimate +fate is still worse. + +<italic> 'Que le monde est rempli d'enchanteurs, je ne dis rien +d'enchanteresses!' <end italic> + +To think of it, the solitary Ishmaelite journeying, never so well +mounted, through such a wilderness: with lions, dogs, human +robbers and Armidas all about him; himself lonely, friendless +under the stars:--one could pity him withal, though that is not +the feeling he solicits; nor gets hitherto, even at this impartial +distance. + +"One of the beautiful creatures of Quality,--we hope, not an +Armida,--who came athwart Voltaire, in these times, was a Madame +du Chatelet; distinguished from all the others by a love of +mathematics and the pure sciences, were it nothing else. She was +still young, under thirty; the literary man still under forty. +With her Husband, to whom she had brought a child, or couple of +children, there was no formal quarrel; but they were living apart, +neither much heeding the other, as was by no means a case without +example at that time; Monsieur soldiering, and philandering about, +in garrison or elsewhere; Madame, in a like humor, doing the best +for herself in the high circles of society, to which he and she +belonged. Most wearisome barren circles to a person of thought, as +both she and M. de Voltaire emphatically admitted to one another, +on first making acquaintance. But is there no help? + +"Madame had tried the pure sciences and philosophies, in Books: +but how much more charming, when they come to you as a Human +Philosopher; handsome, magnanimous, and the wittiest man in the +world! Young Madame was not regularly beautiful; but she was very +piquant, radiant, adventurous; understood other things than the +pure sciences, and could be abundantly coquettish and engaging. +I have known her scuttle off, on an evening, with a couple of +adventurous young wives of Quality, to the remote lodging of the +witty M. de Voltaire, and make his dim evening radiant to him. +[One of Voltaire's Letters.] Then again, in public crowds, I have +seen them; obliged to dismount to the peril of Madame's diamonds, +there being a jam of carriages, and no getting forward for half +the day. In short, they are becoming more and more intimate, to +the extremest degree; and, scorning the world, thank Heaven that +they are mutually indispensable. Cannot we get away from this +scurvy wasp's-nest of a Paris, thought they, and live to ourselves +and our books? + +"Madame was of high quality, one of the Breteuils; but was poor in +comparison, and her Husband the like. An old Chateau of theirs, +named Cirey, stands in a pleasant enough little valley in +Champagne; but so dilapidated, gaunt and vacant, nobody can live +in it. Voltaire, who is by this time a man of ample moneys, +furnishes the requisite cash; Madame and he, in sweet symphony, +concert the plans: Cirey is repaired, at least parts of it are, +into a boudoir of the gods, regardless of expense; nothing ever +seen so tasteful, so magnificent; and the two withdraw thither to +study, in peace, what sciences, pure and other, they have a mind +to. They are recognized as lovers, by the Parisian public, with +little audible censure from anybody there,--with none at all from +the easy Husband; who occasionally even visits Cirey, if he be +passing that way; and is content to take matters as he finds them, +without looking below the surface. [See (whosoever is curious) +Madame de Grafigny, <italic> Vie Privee de Voltaire et de Madame +du Chatelet <end italic> (Paris, 1820). A six months of actual +Letters written by poor Grafigny, while sheltering at Cirey, +Winter and Spring, 1738-1739; straitened there in various +respects,--extremely ill off for fuel, among other things. +Rugged practical Letters, shadowing out to us, unconsciously +oftenest, and like a very mirror, the splendid and the sordid, the +seamy side and the smooth, of Life at Cirey, in her experience of +it. Published, fourscore years after, under the above title.] +For the Ten Commandments are at a singular pass in cultivated +France at this epoch. Such illicit-idyllic form of life has been +the form of Voltaire's since 1733,"--for some three years now, +when Friedrich and we first make acquaintance with him. "It lasted +above a dozen years more: an illicit marriage after its sort, and +subject only to the liabilities of such. Perhaps we may look in +upon the Cirey Household, ourselves, at some future time; and"-- +This Editor hopes not! + +"Madame admits that for the first ten years it was, on the whole, +sublime; a perfect Eden on Earth, though stormy now and then. +[<italic> Lettres Inedites de Madame la Marquise du Chastelet; +auxquelles on a joint une Dissertation <end italic> (&c. of hers): +Paris, 1806.] After ten years, it began to grow decidedly dimmer; +and in the course of few years more, it became undeniably evident +that M. de Voltaire 'did not love me as formerly:'--in fact, if +Madame could have seen it, M. de Voltaire was growing old, losing +his teeth, and the like; and did not care for anything as +formerly! Which was a dreadful discovery, and gave rise to results +by and by. + +"In this retreat at Cirey, varied with flying visits to Paris, and +kept awake by multifarious Correspondences, the quantity of +Literature done by the two was great and miscellaneous. By Madame, +chiefly in the region of the pure sciences, in Newtonian +Dissertations, competitions for Prizes, and the like: really sound +and ingenious Pieces, entirely forgotten long since. By Voltaire, +in serious Tragedies, Histories, in light Sketches and deep +Dissertations:--mockery getting ever wilder with him; the +satirical vein, in prose and verse, amazingly copious, and growing +more and more heterodox, as we can perceive. His troubles from the +ecclesiastical or Lion kind in the Literary forest, still more +from the rabid Doggery in it, are manifold, incessant. And it is +pleasantly notable,--during these first ten years,--with what +desperate intensity, vigilance and fierceness, Madame watches over +all his interests and liabilities and casualties great and small; +leaping with her whole force into M. de Voltaire's scale of the +balance, careless of antecedences and consequences alike; +flying, with the spirit of an angry brood-hen, at the face of +mastiffs, in defence of any feather that is M. de Voltaire's. +To which Voltaire replies, as he well may, with eloquent +gratitude; with Verses to the divine Emilie, with Gifts to her, +verses and gifts the prettiest in the world;--and industriously +celebrates the divine Emilie to herself and all third parties. + +"An ardent, aerial, gracefully predominant, and in the end +somewhat termagant female figure, this divine Emilie. Her temper, +radiant rather than bland, was none of the patientest on occasion; +nor was M. de Voltaire the least of a Job, if you came athwart him +the wrong way. I have heard, their domestic symphony was liable to +furious flaws,--let us hope at great distances apart:--that +'plates' in presence of the lackeys, actual crockery or metal, +have been known to fly from end to end of the dinner-table; +nay they mention 'knives' (though only in the way of oratorical +action); and Voltaire has been heard to exclaim, the sombre and +majestic voice of him risen to a very high pitch: <italic>'Ne me +regardez tant de ces yeux hagards et louches, <end italic> Don't +fix those haggard sidelong eyes on me in that way!'--mere +shrillness of pale rage presiding over the scene. But we hope it +was only once in the quarter, or seldomer: after which the element +would be clearer for some time. A lonesome literary man, who has +got a Brood Phoenix to preside over him, and fly at the face of +gods and men for him in that manner, ought to be grateful. + +"Perhaps we shall one day glance, personally, as it were, into +Cirey with our readers;"--Not with this Editor or his! "It will +turn out beyond the reader's expectation. Tolerable illicit +resting-place, so far as the illicit can be tolerable, for a +lonesome Man of Letters, who goes into the illicit. Helpfulness, +affection, or the flattering image of such, are by no means +wanting: squalls of infirm temper are not more frequent than in +the most licit establishments of a similar sort. Madame, about +this time, has a swift Palfrey, 'ROSSIGNOL (Nightingale)' the name +of him; and gallops fairy-like through the winding valleys; +being an ardent rider, and well-looking on horseback. Voltaire's +study is inlaid with--the Grafigny knows all what:--mere china +tiles, gilt sculptures, marble slabs, and the supreme of taste and +expense: study fit for the Phoebus Apollo of France, so far as +Madame could contrive it. Takes coffee with Madame, in the +Gallery, about noon. And his bedroom, I expressly discern, +[<italic> Letters of Voltaire. <end italic>] looks out upon a +running brook, the murmur of which is pleasant to one." + +Enough, enough. We can perceive what kind of Voltaire it was to +whom the Crown-Prince now addressed himself; and how luminous an +object, shining afar out of the solitudes of Champagne upon the +ardent young man, still so capable of admiration. Model Epic, +HENRIADE; model History, CHARLES DOUZE; sublime Tragedies, CISAR, +ALZIRE and others, which readers still know though with less +enthusiasm, are blooming fresh in Friedrich's memory and heart; +such Literature as man never saw before; and in the background +Friedrich has inarticulately a feeling as if, in this man, there +were something grander than all Literatures: a Reform of human +Thought itself; a new "Gospel," good-tidings or God's-Message, by +this man;--which Friedrich does not suspect, as the world with +horror does, to be a new BA'SPEL, or Devil's-Message of bad- +tidings! A sublime enough Voltaire; radiant enough, over at Cirey +yonder. To all lands, a visible Phoebus Apollo, climbing the +eastern steeps; with arrows of celestial "new light" in his +quiver; capable of stretching many a big foul Python, belly +uppermost, in its native mud, and ridding the poor world of her +Nightmares and Mud-Serpents in some measure, we may hope!-- + +And so there begins, from this point, a lively Correspondence +between Friedrich and Voltaire; which, with some interruptions of +a notable sort, continued during their mutual Life; and is a +conspicuous feature in the Biographies of both. The world talked +much of it, and still talks; and has now at last got it all +collected, and elucidated into a dimly legible form for studious +readers. [Preuss, <italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> (xxi. +xxii. xxiii., Berlin, 1853); who supersedes the lazy French +Editors in this matter.] It is by no means the diabolically wicked +Correspondence it was thought to be; the reverse, indeed, on both +sides;--but it has unfortunately become a very dull one, to the +actual generation of mankind. Not without intrinsic merit; on the +contrary (if you read intensely, and bring the extinct alive +again), it sparkles notably with epistolary grace and vivacity; +and, on any terms, it has still passages of biographical and other +interest: but the substance of it, then so new and shining, has +fallen absolutely commonplace, the property of all the world, +since then; and is now very wearisome to the reader. No doctrine +or opinion in it that you have not heard, with clear belief or +clear disbelief, a hundred times, and could wish rather not to +hear again. The common fate of philosophical originalities in this +world. As a Biographical Document, it is worth a very strict +perusal, if you are interested that way in either Friedrich or +Voltaire: finely significant hints and traits, though often almost +evanescent, so slight are they, abound in this Correspondence; +frankness, veracity under graceful forms, being the rule of it, +strange to say! As an illustration of Two memorable Characters, +and of their Century; showing on what terms the sage Plato of the +Eighteenth Century and his Tyrant Dionysius correspond, and what +their manners are to one another, it may long have a kind of +interest to mankind: otherwise it has not much left. + +In Friedrich's History it was, no doubt, an important fact, that +there lived a Voltaire along with him, twenty years his senior. +With another Theory of the Universe than the Voltaire one, how +much OTHER had Friedrich too been! But the Theory called by +Voltaire's name was not properly of Voltaire's creating, but only +of his uttering and publishing; it lay ready for everybody's +finding, and could not well have been altogether missed by such a +one as Friedrich. So that perhaps we exaggerate the effects of +Voltaire on him, though undoubtedly they were considerable. +Considerable; but not derived from this express correspondence, +which seldom turns on didactic points at all; derived rather from +Voltaire's Printed WORKS, where they lay derivable to all the +world. Certain enough it is, Voltaire was at this time, and +continued all his days, Friedrich's chief Thinker in the world; +unofficially, the chief Preacher, Prophet and Priest of this +Working King;--no better off for a spiritual Trismegistus was poor +Friedrich in the world! On the practical side, Friedrich soon +outgrew him,--perhaps had already outgrown, having far more +veracity of character, and an intellect far better built in the +silent parts of it, and trained too by hard experiences to know +shadow from substance;--outgrew him, and gradually learned to look +down upon him, occasionally with much contempt, in regard to the +practical. But in all changes of humor towards Voltaire, +Friedrich, we observe, considers him as plainly supreme in +speculative intellect; and has no doubt but, for thinking and +speaking, Nature never made such another. Which may be taken as a +notable feature of Friedrich's History; and gives rise to passages +between Voltaire and him, which will make much noise in +time coming. + +Here, meanwhile, faithfully presented though in condensed form, is +the starting of the Correspondence; First Letter of it, and first +Response. Two Pieces which were once bright as the summer sunrise +on both sides, but are now fallen very dim; and have much needed +condensation, and abridgment by omission of the unessential,--so +lengthy are they, so extinct and almost dreary to us! +Sublime "Wolf" and his "Philosophy," how he was hunted out of +Halle with it, long since; and now shines from Marburg, his +"Philosophy" and he supreme among mankind: this, and other extinct +points, the reader's fancy will endeavor to rekindle in some +slight measure:-- + +TO M. DE VOLTAIRE, AT CIREY (from the Crown-Prince). + +"BERLIN, 8th August, 1736. + +"MONSIEUR,--Although I have not the satisfaction of knowing you +personally, you are not the less known to me through your Works. +They are treasures of the mind, if I may so express myself; +and they reveal to the reader new beauties at every fresh perusal. +I think I have recognized in them the character of their ingenious +Author, who does honor to our age and to human nature. If ever the +dispute on the comparative merits of the Moderns and the Ancients +should be revived, the modern great men will owe it to you, and to +you only, that the scale is turned in their favor. With the +excellent quality of Poet you join innumerable others more or less +related to it. Never did Poet before put Metaphysics into rhythmic +cadence: to you the honor was reserved of doing it first. + +"This taste for Philosophy manifested in your writings, induces me +to send you a translated Copy of the <italic> Accusation and +defence of M. Wolf, <end italic> the most celebrated Philosopher +of our days; who, for having carried light into the darkest places +of Metaphysics, is cruelly accused of irreligion and atheism. +Such is the destiny of great men; their superior genius exposes +them to the poisoned arrows of calumny and envy. I am about +getting a Translation made of the <italic> Treatise on God, the +Soul, and the World," <end italic>--Translation done by an +Excellency Suhm, as has been hinted,--"from the pen of the same +Author. I will send it you when it is finished; and I am sure that +the force of evidence in all his propositions, and their close +geometrical sequence, will strike you. + +"The kindness and assistance you afford to all who devote +themselves to the Arts and Sciences, makes me hope that you will +not exclude me from the number of those whom you find worthy of +your instructions:--it is so I would call your intercourse by +Correspondence of Letters; which cannot be other than profitable +to every thinking being. ... + +... "beauties without number in your works. Your HENRIADE delights +me. The tragedy of CESAR shows us sustained characters; +the sentiments in it are magnificent and grand, and one feels that +Brutus is either a Roman, or else an Englishman <italic> (ou un +Romain ou un Anglais). <end italic> Your ALZIRE, to the graces of +novelty adds ... + +"Monsieur, there is nothing I wish so much as to possess all your +Writings," even those not printed hitherto. "Pray, Monsieur, do +communicate them to me without reserve. If there be amongst your +Manuscripts any that you wish to conceal from the eyes of the +public, I engage to keep them in the profoundest secrecy. I am +unluckily aware, that the faith of Princes is an object of little +respect in our days; nevertheless I hope you will make an +exception from the general rule in my favor. I should think myself +richer in the possession of your Works than in that of all the +transient goods of Fortune. These the same chance grants and takes +away: your Works one can make one's own by means of memory, so +that they last us whilst it lasts. Knowing how weak my own memory +is, I am in the highest degree select in what I trust to it. + +"If Poetry were what it was before your appearance, a strumming of +wearisome idyls, insipid eclogues, tuneful nothings, I should +renounce it forever:" but in your hands it becomes ennobled; +a melodious "course of morals; worthy of the admiration and the +study of cultivated minds (DES HONNETES GENS). You"--in fine, "you +inspire the ambition to follow in your footsteps. But I, how often +have I said to myself: 'MALHEUREUX, throw down a burden which is +above thy strength! One cannot imitate Voltaire, without +being Voltaire!' + +"It is in such moments that I have felt how small are those +advantages of birth, those vapors of grandeur, with which vanity +would solace us! They amount to little, properly to nothing (POUR +MIEUX DIRE, RIEN). Nature, when she pleases, forms a great soul, +endowed with faculties that can advance the Arts and Sciences; +and it is the part of Princes to recompense his noble toils. +Ah, would Glory but make use of me to crown your successes! +My only fear would be, lest this Country, little fertile in +laurels, proved unable to furnish enough of them. + +"If my destiny refuse me the happiness of being able to possess +you, may I, at least, hope one day to see the man whom I have +admired so long now from afar; and to assure you, by word of +mouth, that I am,--With all the esteem and consideration due to +those who, following the torch of truth for guide, consecrate +their labors to the Public,--Monsieur, your affectionate friend, + +"FREDERIC, P. R. of Prussia." + +[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxi. 6.] + + +By what route or conveyance this Letter went, I cannot say. +In general, it is to be observed, these Friedrich-Voltaire Letters +--liable perhaps to be considered contraband at BOTH ends of their +course--do not go by the Post; but by French-Prussian Ministers, +by Hamburg Merchants, and other safe subterranean channels. +Voltaire, with enthusiasm, and no doubt promptly, answers within +three weeks:-- + +TO THE CROWN-PRINCE, AT REINSBERG (from Voltaire). + +"CIREY, 26th August, 1736. + +"MONSEIGNEUR,--A man must be void of all feeling who were not +infinitely moved by the Letter which your Royal Highness has +deigned to honor me with. My self-love is only too much flattered +by it: but my love of Mankind, which I have always nourished in my +heart, and which, I venture to say, forms the basis of my +character, has given me a very much purer pleasure,--to see that +there is, now in the world, a Prince who thinks as a man; +a PHILOSOPHER Prince, who will make men happy. + +"Permit me to say, there is not a man on the earth but owes thanks +for the care you take to cultivate by sound philosophy a soul that +is born for command. Good kings there never were except those that +had begun by seeking to instruct themselves; by knowing-good men +from bad; by loving what was true, by detesting persecution and +superstition. No Prince, persisting in such thoughts, but might +bring back the golden age into his Countries! And why do so few +Princes seek this glory? You feel it, Monseigneur, it is because +they all think more of their Royalty than of Mankind. +Precisely the reverse is your case:--and, unless, one day, the +tumult of business and the wickedness of men alter so divine a +character, you will be worshipped by your People, and loved by the +whole world. Philosophers, worthy of the name, will flock to your +States; thinkers will crowd round that throne, as the skilfulest +artisans do to the city where their art is in request. +The illustrious Queen Christina quitted her kingdom to go in +search of the Arts; reign you, Monseigneur, and the Arts will come +to seek you. + +"May you only never be disgusted with the Sciences by the quarrels +of their Cultivators! A race of men no better than Courtiers; +often enough as greedy, intriguing, false and cruel as these," and +still more ridiculous in the mischief they do. "And how sad for +mankind that the very Interpreters of Heaven's commandments, the +Theologians, I mean, are sometimes the most dangerous of all! +Professed messengers of the Divinity, yet men sometimes of obscure +ideas and pernicious behavior; their soul blown out with mere +darkness; full of gall and pride, in proportion as it is empty of +truths. Every thinking being who is not of their opinion is an +Atheist; and every King who does not favor them will be damned. +Dangerous to the very throne; and yet intrinsically +insignificant:" best way is, leave their big talk and them alone; +speedy collapse will follow. ... + +"I cannot sufficiently thank your Royal Highness for the gift of +that little Book about Monsieur Wolf. I respect Metaphysical +ideas; rays of lightning they are in the midst of deep night. +More, I think, is not to be hoped from Metaphysics. It does not +seem likely that the First-principles of things will ever be +known. The mice that nestle in some little holes of an immense +Building, know not whether it is eternal, or who the Architect, or +why he built it. Such mice are we; and the Divine Architect who +built the Universe has never, that I know of, told his secret to +one of us. If anybody could pretend to guess correctly, it is +M. Wolf." Beautiful in your Royal Highness to protect such a man. +And how beautiful it will be, to send me his chief Book, as you +have the kindness to promise! "The Heir of a Monarchy, from his +palace, attending to the wants of a recluse far off! Condescend to +afford me the pleasure of that Book, Monseigneur. ... + +"What your Royal Highness thinks of poetry is just: verses that do +not teach men new and touching truths, do not deserve to be read." +As to my own poor verses--But, after all, "that HENRIADE is the +writing of an Honest Man: fit, in that sense, that it find grace +with a Philosopher Prince. + +"I will obey your commands as to sending those unpublished Pieces. +You shall be my public, Monseigneur; your criticisms will be my +reward: it is a price few Sovereigns can pay. I am sure of your +secrecy: your virtue and your intellect must be in proportion. +I should indeed consider it a precious happiness to come and pay +my court to your Royal Highness! One travels to Rome to see +paintings and ruins: a Prince such as you is a much more singular +object; worthier of a long journey! But the friendship [divine +Emilie's] which keeps me in this retirement does not permit my +leaving it. No doubt you think with Julian, that great and much +calumniated man, who said, 'Friends should always be preferred +to Kings.' + +"In whatever corner of the world I may end my life, be assured, +Monseigneur, my wishes will continually be for you,--that is to +say, for a whole People's happiness. My heart will rank itself +among your subjects; your glory will ever be dear to me. I shall +wish, May you always be like yourself, and may other Kings be like +you!--I am, with profound respect, your Royal Highness's most +humble + +"VOLTAIRE." + +[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxi. 10.] + + +The Correspondence, once kindled, went on apace; and soon burst +forth, finding nourishment all round, into a shining little +household fire, pleasant to the hands and hearts of both parties. +Consent of opinions on important matters is not wanting; nor is +emphasis in declaring the same. The mutual admiration, which is +high,--high and intrinsic on Friedrich's side; and on Voltaire's, +high if in part extrinsic,--by no means wants for emphasis of +statement: superlatives, tempered by the best art, pass and +repass. Friedrich, reading Voltaire's immortal Manuscripts, +confesses with a blush, before long, that he himself is a poor +Apprentice that way. Voltaire, at sight of the Princely +Productions, is full of admiration, of encouragement; does a +little in correcting, solecisms of grammar chiefly; a little, by +no means much. But it is a growing branch of employment; now and +henceforth almost the one reality of function Voltaire can find +for himself in this beautiful Correspondence. For, "Oh what a +Crown-Prince, ripening forward to be the delight of human nature, +and realize the dream of sages, Philosophy upon the Throne!" +And on the other side, "Oh what a Phoebus Apollo, mounting the +eastern sky, chasing the Nightmares,--sowing the Earth with Orient +pearl, to begin with!"--In which fine duet, it must be said, the +Prince is perceptibly the truer singer; singing within compass, +and from the heart; while the Phoebus shows himself acquainted +with art, and warbles in seductive quavers, now and then beyond +the pitch of his voice. We must own also, Friedrich proves little +seducible; shows himself laudably indifferent to such siren- +singing;--perhaps more used to flattery, and knowing by experience +how little meal is to be made of chaff. Voltaire, in an ungrateful +France, naturally plumes himself a good deal on such recognition +by a Foreign Rising Sun; and, of the two, though so many years the +elder, is much more like losing head a little. + +Elegant gifts are despatched to Cirey; gold-amber trinkets for +Madame, perhaps an amber inkholder for Monsieur: priceless at +Cirey as the gifts of the very gods. By and by, a messenger goes +express: the witty Colonel Keyserling, witty but experienced, whom +we once named at Reinsberg; he is to go and see with his eyes, +since his Master cannot. What a messenger there; ambassador from +star to star! Keyserling's report at Reinsberg is not given; +but we have Grafigny's, which is probably the more impartial. +Keyserling's embassy was in the end of next year; [3d November, +1737 (as we gather from the Correspondence).] and there is plenty +of airy writing about it and him, in these Letters. + +Friedrich has translated the name KEYSERLING (diminutive of +KAISER) into "Caesarion;"--and I should have said, he plays much +upon names and also upon things, at Reinsberg, in that style; +and has a good deal of airy symbolism, and cloud-work ingeniously +painted round the solidities of his life there. Especially a +"Bayard Order," as he calls it: Twelve of his selectest Friends +made into a Chivalry Brotherhood, the names of whom are all +changed, "Caesarion" one of them; with dainty devices, and mimetic +procedures of the due sort. Which are not wholly mummery; but have +a spice of reality, to flavor them to a serious young heart. +For the selection was rigorous, superior merit and behavior a +strict condition; and indeed several of these Bayard Chevaliers +proved notable practical Champions in time coming;--for example +Captain Fouquet, of whom we have heard before, in the dark Custrin +days. This is a mentionable feature of the Reinsberg life, and of +the young Prince's character there: pleasant to know of, from this +distance; but not now worth knowing more in detail. + +The Friedrich-Voltaire Correspondence contains much incense; +due whiffs of it, from Reinsberg side, to the "divine Emilie," +Voltaire's quasi better-half or worse-half; who responds always in +her divinest manner to Reinsberg, eager for more acquaintance +there. The Du Chatelets had a Lawsuit in Brabant; very inveterate, +perhaps a hundred years old or more; with the "House of +Honsbrouck:" [<italic> Lettres Inedites de Voltaire <end italic> +(Paris, 1826), p. 9.] this, not to speak of other causes, flights +from French peril and the like, often brought Voltaire and his +Dame into those parts; and gave rise to occasional hopes of +meeting with Friedrich; which could not take effect. In more +practical style, Voltaire solicits of him: "Could not your Royal +Highness perhaps graciously speak to some of those Judicial Big +wigs in Brabant, and flap them up a little!" Which Friedrich, +I think, did, by some good means. Happily, by one means or other, +Voltaire got the Lawsuit ended,--1740, we might guess, but the +time is not specified;--and Friedrich had a new claim, had there +been need of new, to be regarded with worship by Madame. [Record +of all this, left, like innumerable other things there, in an +intrinsically dark condition, lies in Voltaire's LETTERS,--not +much worth hunting up into clear daylight, the process being so +difficult to a stranger.] But the proposed meeting with Madame +could never take effect; not even when Friedrich's hands were +free. Nay I notice at last, Friedrich had privately determined it +never should--Madame evidently an inconvenient element to him. +A young man not wanting in private power of eyesight; and able to +distinguish chaff from meal! Voltaire and he will meet; meet, and +also part; and there will be passages between them:--and the +reader will again hear of this Correspondence of theirs, where it +has a biographical interest. We are to conceive it, at present, as +a principal light of life to the young heart at Reinsberg; +a cheerful new fire, almost an altar-fire, irradiating the common +dusk for him there. + +Of another Correspondence, beautifully irradiative for the young +heart, we must say almost nothing: the Correspondence with Suhm. +Suhm the Saxon Minister, whom we have occasionally heard of, is an +old Friend of the Crown-Prince's, dear and helpful to him: it is +he who is now doing those <italic> Translations of Wolf, <end +italic> of which Voltaire lately saw specimens; translating WOLF +at large, for the young man's behoof. The young man, restless to +know the best Philosophy going, had tried reading of Wolf's chief +Book; found it too abstruse, in Wolf's German: wherefore Suhm +translates; sends it to him in limpid French; fascicle by +fascicle, with commentaries; young man doing his best to +understand and admire,--gratefully, not too successfully, we can +perceive. That is the staple of the famous SUHM CORRESPONDENCE; +staple which nobody could now bear to be concerned with. + +Suhm is also helpful in finance difficulties, which are pretty +frequent; works out subventions, loans under a handsome form, from +the Czarina's and other Courts. Which is an operation of the +utmost delicacy; perilous, should it be heard of at Potsdam. +Wherefore Suhm and the Prince have a covert language for it: +and affect still to be speaking of "Publishers" and "new Volumes," +when they mean Lenders and Bank-Draughts. All these loans, I will +hope, were accurately paid one day, as that from George II. was, +in "rouleaus of new gold." We need not doubt the wholesome charm +and blessing of so intimate a Correspondence to the Crown-Prince: +and indeed his real love of the amiable Suhm, as Suhm's of him, +comes beautifully to light in these Letters: but otherwise they +are not now to be read without weariness, even dreariness, and +have become a biographical reminiscence merely. + +Concerning Graf von Manteufel, a third Literary Correspondent, and +the only other considerable one, here, from a German Commentator +on this matter, is a Clipping that will suffice:-- + +"Manteufel was Saxon by birth, long a Minister of August the +Strong, but quarrelled with August, owing to some frail female it +is said, and had withdrawn to Berlin a few years ago. He shines +there among the fashionable philosophical classes; underhand, +perhaps does a little in the volunteer political line withal; +being a very busy pushing gentleman. Tall of stature, 'perfectly +handsome at the age of sixty;' [Formey, <italic> Souvenirs d'un +Citoyen, <end italic> i. 39-45.] great partisan of Wolf and the +Philosophies, awake to the Orthodoxies too. Writes flowing elegant +French, in a softly trenchant, somewhat too all-knowing style. +High manners traceable in him; but nothing of the noble loyalty, +natural politeness and pious lucency of Suhm. One of his Letters +to Friedrich has this slightly impertinent passage;--Friedrich, +just getting settled in Reinsberg, having transiently mentioned +'the quantity of fair sex' that had come about him there:-- + +"'BERLIN, 26th AUGUST, 1736 (to the Crown-Prince). ... +I am well persuaded your Royal Highness will regulate all that to +perfection, and so manage that your fair sex will be charmed to +find themselves with you at Reinsberg, and you charmed to have +them there. But permit me, your Royal Highness, to repeat in this +place, what I one day took the liberty of saying here at Berlin: +Nothing in the world would better suit the present interests of +your Royal Highness and of us all, than some Heir of your Royal +Highness's making! Perhaps the tranquil convenience with which +your Royal Highness at Reinsberg can now attend to that object, +will be of better effect than all those hasty and transitory +visits at Berlin were. At least I wish it with the best of my +heart. I beg pardon, Monseigneur, for intruding thus into +everything which concerns your Royal Highness;'--In truth, I am a +rather impudent busybodyish fellow, with superabundant dashing +manner, speculation, utterance; and shall get myself ordered out +of the Country, by my present correspondent, by and by.-- +'Being ever,' with the due enthusiasm, 'MANTEUFEL.' +[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxv. 487;--Friedrich's +Answer is, Reinsberg, 23d September (Ib. 489).] + +"To which Friedrich's Answer is of a kind to put a gag in the foul +mouth of certain extraordinary Pamphleteerings, that were once +very copious in the world; and, in particular, to set at rest the +Herr Dr. Zimmermann, and his poor puddle of calumnies and +credulities, got together in that weak pursuit of physiology under +obscene circumstances;-- + +"Which is the one good result I have gathered from the Manteufel +Correspondence," continues our German friend; whom I vote with!-- +Or if the English reader never saw those Zimmermann or other dog- +like Pamphleteerings and surmisings, let this Excerpt be +mysterious and superfluous to the thankful English reader. + +On the whole, we conceive to ourselves the abundant nature of +Friedrich's Correspondence, literary and other; and what kind of +event the transit of that Post functionary "from Fehrbellin +northwards," with his leathern bags, "twice a week," may have been +at Reinsberg, in those years. + + + +Chapter III. + +CROWN-PRINCE MAKES A MORNING CALL. + +Thursday, 25th October, 1736, the Crown-Prince, with Lieutenant +Buddenbrock and an attendant or two, drove over into Mecklenburg, +to a Village and serene Schloss called Mirow, intending a small +act of neighborly civility there; on which perhaps an English +reader of our time will consent to accompany him. It is but some +ten or twelve miles off, in a northerly direction; Reinsberg being +close on the frontier there. A pleasant enough morning's-drive, +with the October sun shining on the silent heaths, on the many- +colored woods and you. + +Mirow is an Apanage for one of the Mecklenburg-Strelitz junior +branches: Mecklenburg-Strelitz being itself a junior compared to +the Mecklenburg-Schwerin of which, and its infatuated Duke, we +have heard so much in times past. Mirow and even Strelitz are not +in--a very shining state,--but indeed, we shall see them, as it +were, with eyes. And the English reader is to note especially +those Mirow people, as perhaps of some small interest to him, if +he knew it. The Crown-Prince reports to papa, in a satirical vein, +not ungenially, and with much more freedom than is usual in those +Reinsberg letters of his:-- + +"TO HIS PRUSSIAN MAJESTY (from the Crown-Prince). + +"REINSBERG, 26th October, 1736. + +... "Yesterday I went across to Mirow. To give my Most All- +gracious Father an idea of the place, I cannot liken it to +anything higher than Gross-Kreutz [term of comparison lost upon +us; say GARRAT, at a venture, or the CLACHAN OF ABERFOYLE]: +the one house in it, that can be called a house, is not so good as +the Parson's there. I made straight for the Schloss; which is +pretty much like the Garden-house in Bornim: only there is a +rampart round it; and an old Tower, considerably in ruins, serves +as a Gateway to the House. + +"Coming on the Drawbridge, I perceived an old stocking-knitter +disguised as Grenadier, with his cap, cartridge-box and musket +laid to a side, that they might not hinder him in his knitting- +work. As I advanced, he asked, 'Whence I came, and whitherward I +was going?' I answered, that 'I came from the Post-house, and was +going over this Bridge:' whereupon the Grenadier, quite in a +passion, ran to the Tower; where he opened a door, and called out +the Corporal. The Corporal seemed to have hardly been out of bed; +and in his great haste, had not taken time to put on his shoes, +nor quite button his breeches; with much flurry he asked us, +'Where we were for, and how we came to treat the Sentry in that +manner?' Without answering him at all, we went our way towards +the Schloss. + +"Never in my life should I have taken this for a Schloss, had it +not been that there were two glass lamps fixed at the door-posts, +and the figures of two Cranes standing in front of them, by way of +Guards. We made up to the House; and after knocking almost half an +hour to no purpose, there peered out at last an exceedingly old +woman, who looked as if she might have nursed the Prince of +Mirow's father. The poor woman, at sight of strangers, was so +terrified, she slammed the door to in our faces. We knocked again; +and seeing there could nothing be made of it, we went round to the +stables; where a fellow told us, 'The young Prince with his +Consort was gone to Neu-Strelitz, a couple of miles off [ten miles +English]; and the Duchess his Mother, who lives here, had given +him, to make the better figure, all her people along with him; +keeping nobody but the old woman to herself.' + +"It was still early; so I thought I could not do better than +profit by the opportunity, and have a look at Neu-Strelitz. +We took post-horses; and got thither about noon. Neu-Strelitz is +properly a Village; with only one street in it, where +Chamberlains, Office-Clerks, Domestics all lodge, and where there +is an Inn. I cannot better describe it to my Most All-gracious +Father than by that street in Gumbinnen where you go up to the +Town-hall,--except that no house here is whitewashed. The Schloss +is fine, and lies on a lake, with a big garden; pretty much like +Reinsberg in situation. + +"The first question I asked here was for the Prince of Mirow: +but they told me he had just driven off again to a place called +Kanow; which is only a couple of miles English from Mirow, where +we had been. Buddenbrock, who is acquainted with Neu-Strelitz, got +me, from a chamberlain, something to eat; and in the mean while, +that Bohme came in, who was Adjutant in my Most All-gracious +Father's Regiment [not of Goltz, but King's presumably]: Bohme did +not know me till I hinted to him who I was. He told me, 'The Duke +of Strelitz was an excellent seamster;'" fit to be Tailor to your +Majesty in a manner, had not Fate been cruel, "'and that he made +beautiful dressing-gowns (CASSAQUINS) with his needle.' This made +me curious to see him: so we had ourselves presented as +Foreigners; and it went off so well that nobody recognized me. +I cannot better describe the Duke than by saying he is like old +Stahl [famed old medical man at Berlin, dead last year, +physiognomy not known to actual readers], in a blond Abbe's- +periwig. He is extremely silly (BLODE); his Hofrath Altrock tells +him, as it were, everything he has to say." About fifty, this poor +Duke; shrunk into needlework, for a quiet life, amid such tumults +from Schwerin and elsewhere. + +"Having taken leave, we drove right off to Kanow; and got thither +about six. It is a mere Village; and the Prince's Pleasure-House +(LUSTHAUS) here is nothing better than an ordinary Hunting-Lodge, +such as any Forest-keeper has. I alighted at the Miller's; and had +myself announced" at the LUSTHAUS," by his maid: upon which the +Major-Domo (HAUS-HOFMEISTER) came over to the Mill, and +complimented me; with whom I proceeded to the Residenz," that is, +back again to Mirow, "where the whole Mirow Family were assembled. +The Mother is a Princess of Schwartzburg, and still the cleverest +of them all," still under sixty; good old Mother, intent that her +poor Son should appear to advantage, when visiting the more +opulent Serenities. "His Aunt also," mother's sister, "was there. +The Lady Spouse is small; a Niece to the Prince of Hildburghausen, +who is in the Kaiser's service: she was in the family-way; +but (ABER) seemed otherwise to be a very good Princess. + +"The first thing they entertained me with was, the sad misfortune +come upon their best Cook; who, with the cart that was bringing +the provisions, had overset, and broken his arm; so that the +provisions had all gone to nothing. Privately I have had inquiries +made; there was not a word of truth in the story. At last we went +to table; and, sure enough, it looked as if the Cook and his +provisions had come to some mishap; for certainly in the Three +Crowns at Potsdam [worst inn, one may guess, in the satirical +vein], there is better eating than here. + +"At table, there was talk of nothing but of all the German Princes +who are not right in their wits (NICHT RECHT KLUG)," as Mirow +himself, your Majesty knows, is reputed to be! "There was Weimar, +[Wilhelmina's acquaintance; wedded, not without difficulty, to a +superfluous Baireuth Sister-in-law by Wilhelmina (<italic> +Memoires de Wilhelmina, <end italic> ii. 185-194): Grandfather of +Goethe's Friend;--is nothing like fairly out of his wits; only has +a flea (as we may say) dancing occasionally in the ear of him. +Perhaps it is so with the rest of these Serenities, here fallen +upon evil tongues?] Gotha, Waldeck, Hoym, and the whole lot of +them, brought upon the carpet:--and after our good Host had got +considerably drunk, we rose,--and he lovingly promised me that 'he +and his whole Family would come and visit Reinsberg.' Come he +certainly will; but how I shall get rid of him, God knows. + +"I most submissively beg pardon of my Most All-gracious Father for +this long Letter; and"--we will terminate here. [<italic> OEuvres +de Frederic, <end italic> xxvii. part 3d, pp. 104-106.] + +Dilapidated Mirow and its inmates, portrayed in this satirical +way, except as a view of Serene Highnesses fallen into Sleepy +Hollow, excites little notice in the indolent mind; and that +little, rather pleasantly contemptuous than really profitable. +But one fact ought to kindle momentary interest in English +readers: the young foolish Herr, in this dilapidated place, is no +other than our "Old Queen Charlotte's" Father that is to be,-- +a kind of Ancestor of ours, though we little guessed it! +English readers will scan him with new curiosity, when he pays +that return visit at Reinsberg. Which he does within +the fortnight:-- + +"TO HIS PRUSSIAN MAJESTY (from the Crown-Prince). + +"REINSBERG, 6th November, 1736. + +... "that my Most All-gracious Father has had the graciousness to +send us some Swans. My Wife also has been exceedingly delighted at +the fine Present sent her. ... General Praetorius," Danish Envoy, +with whose Court there is some tiff of quarrel, "came hither +yesterday to take leave of us; he seems very unwilling to +quit Prussia. + +"This morning about three o'clock, my people woke me, with word +that there was a Stafette come with Letters,"--from your Majesty +or Heaven knows whom! "I spring up in all haste; and opening the +Letter,--find it is from the Prince of Mirow; who informs me that +'he will be here to-day at noon.' I have got all things in +readiness to receive him, as if he were the Kaiser in person; +and I hope there will be material for some amusement to my Most +All-gracious Father, by next post."--Next post is half a week +hence:-- + +"TO HIS PRUSSIAN MAJESTY (from the Crown-Prince). + +"REINSBERG, 11th Novemher. + +... "The Prince of Mirow's visit was so curious, I must give my +Most All-gracious Father a particular report of it. In my last, I +mentioned how General Praetorius had come to us: he was in the +room, when I entered with the Prince of Mirow; at sight of him +Praetorius exclaimed, loud enough to be heard by everybody, 'VOILA +LE PRINCE CAJUCA!' [Nickname out of some Romance, fallen extinct +long since.] Not one of us could help laughing; and I had my own +trouble to turn it so that he did not get angry. + +"Scarcely was the Prince got in, when they came to tell me, for +his worse luck, that Prince Heinrich," the Ill Margraf, "was come; +--who accordingly trotted him out, in such a way that we thought +we should all have died with laughing. Incessant praises were +given him, especially for his fine clothes, his fine air, and his +uncommon agility in dancing. And indeed I thought the dancing +would never end. + +"In the afternoon, to spoil his fine coat,"--a contrivance of the +Ill Margraf's, I should think,--"we stept out to shoot at target +in the rain: he would not speak of it, but one could observe he +was in much anxiety about the coat. In the evening, he got a glass +or two in his head, and grew extremely merry; said at last, 'He +was sorry that, for divers state-reasons and businesses of moment, +he must of necessity return home;'--which, however, he put off +till about two in the morning. I think, next day he would not +remember very much of it. + +"Prince Heinrich is gone to his Regiment again; "Praetorius too is +off;--and we end with the proper KOW-TOW. [<italic> OEuvres de +Frederic, <end italic> xvii. part 3d, p. 109.] + +These Strelitzers, we said, are juniors to infatuated Schwerin; +and poor Mirow is again junior to Strelitz: plainly one of the +least opulent of Residences. At present, it is Dowager Apanage +(WITTWEN-SITZ) to the Widow of the late Strelitz of blessed +memory: here, with her one Child, a boy now grown to what manhood +we see, has the Serene Dowager lived, these twenty-eight years +past; a Schwartzburg by birth, "the cleverest head among them +all." Twenty-eight years in dilapidated Mirow: so long has that +Tailoring Duke, her eldest STEP-SON (child of a prior wife) been +Supreme Head of Mecklenburg-Strelitz; employed with his needle, or +we know not how,--collapsed plainly into tailoring at this date. +There was but one other Son; this clever Lady's, twenty years +junior,--"Prince of Mirow" whom we now see. Karl Ludwig Friedrich +is the name of this one; age now twenty-eight gone. He, ever since +the third month of him, when the poor Serene Father died ("May, +1703"), has been at Mirow with Mamma; getting what education there +was,--not too successfully, as would appear. Eight years ago, "in +1726," Mamma sent him off upon his travels; to Geneva, Italy, +France: he looked in upon Vienna, too; got a Lieutenant-Colonelcy +in the Kaiser's Service, but did not like it; soon gave it up; +and returned home to vegetate, perhaps to seek a wife,--having +prospects of succession in Strelitz. For the Serene Half-Brother +proves to have no children: were his tailoring once finished in +the world, our Prince of Mirow is Duke in Chief. On this basis the +wedded last year; the little Wife has already brought him one +child, a Daughter; and has (as Friedrich notices) another under +way, if it prosper. No lack of Daughters, nor of Sons by and by: +eight years hence came the little Charlotte,--subsequently Mother +of England: much to her and our astonishment. [Born (at Mirow) +19th May, 1744; married (London), 8th September, 1761; died, 18th +November, 1818 (Michaelis, ii. 445, 446; Hubner, t. 195; OErtel, +pp. 43, 22).] + +The poor man did not live to be Duke of Strelitz; he died, 1752, +in little Charlotte's eighth year; Tailor Duke SURVIVING him a few +months. Little Charlotte's Brother did then succeed, and lasted +till 1794; after whom a second Brother, father of the now Serene +Strelitzes;--who also is genealogically notable. For from him +there came another still more famous Queen: Louisa of Prussia; +beautiful to look upon, as "Aunt Charlotte" was not, in a high +degree; and who showed herself a Heroine in Napoleon's time, as +Aunt Charlotte never was called to do. Both Aunt and Niece were +women of sense, of probity, propriety; fairly beyond the average +of Queens. And as to their early poverty, ridiculous to this gold- +nugget generation, I rather guess it may have done them benefits +which the gold-nugget generation, in its Queens and otherwise, +stands far more in want of than it thinks. + +But enough of this Prince of Mirow, whom Friedrich has +accidentally unearthed for us. Indeed there is no farther history +of him, for or against. He evidently was not thought to have +invented gunpowder, by the public. And yet who knows but, in his +very simplicity, there lay something far beyond the Ill Margraf to +whom he was so quizzable? Poor down-pressed brother mortal; +somnambulating so pacifically in Sleepy Hollow yonder, and making +no complaint! + +He continued, though soon with less enthusiasm, and in the end +very rarely, a visitor of Friedrich's during this Reinsberg time. +Patriotic English readers may as well take the few remaining +vestiges, too, before quite dismissiug him to Sleepy Hollow. +Here they are, swept accurately together, from that Correspondence +of Friedrich with Papa:-- + +"REINSBERG, 18th NOVEMBER, 1736. ... report most submissively that +the Prince of Mirow has again been here, with his Mother, Wife, +Aunt, Hofdames, Cavaliers and entire Household; so that I thought +it was the Flight out of Egypt [Exodus of the Jews]. I begin to +have a fear of those good people, as they assured me they would +have such pleasure in coming often!" + +"REINSBERG, 1st FEBRUARY, 1737." Let us give it in the Original +too, as a specimen of German spelling:-- + +<italic> "Der Prints von Mihrau ist vohr einigen thagen hier +gewessen und haben wier einige Wasser schwermer in der See ihm zu +Ehren gesmissen, seine frau ist mit eber thoten Printzesin nieder +geKomen.--Der General schulenburg ist heute hier gekommen und +wirdt morgen"--That is to say:-- + +"The Prince of Mirow was here a few days ago; and we let off, in +honor of him, a few water-rockets over the Lake: his Wife has been +brought to bed of a dead Princess. General Schulenburg [with a +small s] came hither to-day; and to-morrow will" ... + +"REINSBERG, 28th MARCH, 1737. ... Prince von Mirow was here +yesterday; and tried shooting at the popinjay with us; he cannot +see rightly, and shoots always with help of an opera-glass." + +"RUPPIN, 20th OCTOBER, 1737. The Prince of Mirow was with us last +Friday; and babbled much in his high way; among other things, +white-lied to us, that the Kaiserinn gave him a certain porcelain +snuff-box he was handling; but on being questioned more tightly, +he confessed to me he had bought it in Vienna." [<italic> Briefe +an Vater, <end italic> p. 71 (CARET in <italic> OEuvres <end +italic>); pp. 85-114.--See Ib. 6th November, 1737, for faint trace +of a visit; and 25th September, 1739, for another still fainter, +the last there is.] + +And so let him somnambulate yonder, till the two Queens, like +winged Psyches, one after the other, manage to emerge from him. + +Friedrich's Letters to his Father are described by some Prussian +Editors as "very attractive, SEHR ANZIEHENDE BRIEFE;" which, to a +Foreign reader, seems a strange account of them. Letters very hard +to understand completely; and rather insignificant when +understood. They turn on Gifts sent to and sent from, "swans," +"hams," with the unspeakable thanks for them; on recruits of so +many inches; on the visitors that have been; they assure us that +"there is no sickness in the regiment," or tell expressly how +much:--wholly small facts; nothing of speculation, and of +ceremonial pipe-clay a great deal. We know already under what +nightmare conditions Friedrich wrote to his Father! The attitude +of the Crown-Prince, sincerely reverent and filial, though obliged +to appear ineffably so, and on the whole struggling under such +mountains of encumbrance, yet loyally maintaining his equilibrium, +does at last acquire, in these Letters, silently a kind of beauty +to the best class of readers. But that is nearly their sole merit. +By far the most human of them, that on the first visit to Mirow, +the reader has now seen; and may thank us much that we show him no +more of them. [<italic< Friedrich des Grossen Briefe an seinen +Vater <end italic> (Berlin, 1838). Reduced in size, by suitable +omissions; and properly spelt; but with little other elucidation +for a stranger: in <italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xxvii. part 3d, +pp, 1-123 (Berlin, 1856). + + + +Chapter IV. + +NEWS OF THE DAY. + +While these Mirow visits are about their best, and much else at +Reinsberg is in comfortable progress, Friedrich's first year there +just ending, there come accounts from England of quarrels broken +out between the Britannic Majesty and his Prince of Wales. +Discrepancies risen now to a height; and getting into the very +Newspapers;--the Rising Sun too little under the control of the +Setting, in that unquiet Country! + +Prince Fred of England did not get to the Rhine Campaign, as we +saw: he got some increase of Revenue, a Household of his own; +and finally a Wife, as he had requested: a Sachsen-Gotha Princess; +who, peerless Wilhelmma being unattainable, was welcome to Prince +Fred. She is in the family-way, this summer 1737, a very young +lady still; result thought to be due--When? Result being potential +Heir to the British Nation, there ought to have been good +calculation of the time when! But apparently nobody had well +turned his attention that way. Or if Fred and Spouse had, as +is presumable, Fred had given no notice to the Paternal Majesty,-- +"Let Paternal Majesty, always so cross to me, look out for himself +in that matter." Certain it is, Fred and Spouse, in the beginning +of August, 1737, are out at Hampton Court; potential Heir due +before long, and no preparation made for it. August 11th in the +evening, out at solitary Hampton Court; the poor young Mother's +pains came on; no Chancellor there, no Archbishop to see the +birth,--in fact, hardly the least medical help, and of political +altogether none. Fred, in his flurry, or by forethought,--instead +of dashing off expresses, at a gallop as of Epsom, to summon the +necessary persons and appliances, yoked wheeled vehicles and +rolled off to the old unprovided Palace of St. James's, London, +with his poor Wife in person! Unwarned, unprovided; where +nevertheless she was safely delivered that same night,--safely, as +if by miracle. The crisis might have taken her on the very +highway: never was such an imprudence. Owing, I will believe, to +Fred's sudden flurry in the unprovided moment,--unprovided, by +reason of prior desuetudes and discouragements to speech, on +Papa's side. A shade of malice there might also be. Papa doubts +not, it was malice aforethought all of it. "Had the potential Heir +of the British Nation gone to wreck, or been born on the highway, +from my quarrels with this bad Fred, what a scrape had I been in!" +thinks Papa, and is in a towering permanence of wrath ever since; +the very Newspapers and coffee-houses and populaces now all +getting vocal with it. + +Papa, as it turned out, never more saw the face of Fred. +Judicious Mamma, Queen Caroline, could not help a visit, one visit +to the poor young Mother, so soon as proper: coming out from the +visit, Prince Fred obsequiously escorting her to her carriage, +found a crowd of people and populace, in front of St. James's; +and there knelt down on the street, in his fine silk breeches, +careless of the mud, to "beg a Mother's blessing," and show what a +son he was, he for his part, in this sad discrepancy that had +risen! Mamma threw a silent glance on him, containing volumes of +mixed tenor; drove off; and saw no more of Fred, she either. +I fear, this kneeling in the mud tells against Prince Fred; but in +truth I do not know, nor even much care. [Lord Hervey, <italic> +Memoirs of George the Second, <end italic> ii. 362-370, 409.] +What a noise in England about nothing at all!--What a noisy +Country, your Prussian Majesty! Foolish "rising sun" not +restrainable there by the setting or shining one; opposition +parties bowling him about among the constellations, like a very +mad object!-- + +But in a month or two, there comes worse news out of England; +falling heavy on the heart of Prussian Majesty: news that Queen +Caroline herself is dead. ["Sunday evening, 1st December (20th +Nov.), 1737." Ib. pp. 510-539.] Died as she had lived, with much +constancy of mind, with a graceful modest courage and endurance; +sinking quietly under the load of private miseries long quietly +kept hidden, but now become too heavy, and for which the appointed +rest was now here. Little George blubbered a good deal; fidgeted +and flustered a good deal: much put about, poor foolish little +soul. The dying Caroline recommended HIM to Walpole; advised his +Majesty to marry again. <italic> "Non, j'aurai des maitresses <end +italic> (No, I'll have mistresses)!" sobbed his Majesty +passionately. <italic> "Ah, mon Dieu, cela n'empeche pas <end +italic> (that does not hinder)!" answered she, from long +experience of the case. There is something stoically tragic in the +history of Caroline with her flighty vaporing little King: +seldom had foolish husband so wise a wife. "Dead!" thought +Friedrich Wilhelm, looking back through the whirlwinds of life, +into sunny young scenes far enough away: "Dead!"--Walpole +continued to manage the little King; but not for long; England +itself rising in objection. Jenkins's Ear, I understand, is lying +in cotton; and there are mad inflammable strata in that Nation, +capable of exploding at a great rate. + +From the Eastern regions our Newspapers are very full of events: +War with the Turk going on there; Russia and Austria both doing +their best against the Turk. The Russians had hardly finished +their Polish-Election fighting, when they decided to have a stroke +at the Turk,--Turk always an especial eye-sorrow to them, since +that "Treaty of the Pruth," and Czar Peter's sad rebuff there:-- +Munnich marched direct out of Poland through the Ukraine, with his +eye on the Crimea and furious business in that quarter. This is +his second Campaign there, this of 1737; and furious business has +not failed. Last year he stormed the Lines of Perecop, tore open +the Crimea; took Azoph, he or Lacy under him; took many things: +this year he had laid his plans for Oczakow;--takes Oczakow,-- +fiery event, blazing in all the Newspapers, at Reinsberg and +elsewhere. Concerning which will the reader accept this condensed +testimony by an eye-witness? + +"OCZAKOW, 13th JULY, 1737. Day before yesterday, Feldmarschall +Munnich got to Oczakow, as he had planned,"--strong Turkish Town +in the nook between the Black Sea and the estuary of the Dnieper; +--"with intention to besiege it. Siege-train, stores of every +sort, which he had set afloat upon the Dnieper in time enough, +were to have been ready for him at Oczakow. But the flotilla had +been detained by shallows, by waterfalls; not a boat was come, nor +could anybody say when they were coming. Meanwhile nothing is to +be had here; the very face of the earth the Turks have burnt: +not a blade of grass for cavalry within eight miles, nor a stick +of wood for engineers; not a hole for covert, and the ground so +hard you cannot raise redoubts on it: Munnich perceives he must +attempt, nevertheless. + +"On his right, by the sea-shore, Munnich finds some remains of +gardens, palisades; scrapes together some vestige of shelter there +(five thousand, or even ten thousand pioneers working desperately +all that first night, 11th July, with only half success); and on +the morrow commences firing with what artillery he has. +Much outfired by the Turks inside;--his enterprise as good as +desperate, unless the Dnieper flotilla come soon. July 12th, all +day the firing continues, and all night; Turks extremely furious: +about an hour before daybreak, we notice burning in the interior, +'Some wooden house kindled by us, town got on fire yonder,'--and, +praise to Heaven, they do not seem to succeed in quenching it +again. Munnich turns out, in various divisions; intent on trying +something, had he the least engineer furniture;--hopes desperately +there may be promise for him in that internal burning +still visible. + +"In the centre of Munnich's line is one General Keith, a +deliberate stalwart Scotch gentleman, whom we shall know better; +Munnich himself is to the right: Could not one try it by scalade; +keep the internal burning free to spread, at any rate? 'Advance +within musket-shot, General Keith!' orders Munnich's Aide-de-Camp +cantering up. 'I have been this good while within it,' answers +Keith, pointing to his dead men. Aide-de-Camp canters up a second +time: 'Advance within half musket-shot, General Keith, and quit +any covert you have!' Keith does so; sends, with his respects to +Feldmarschall Munnich, his remonstrance against such a waste of +human life. Aide-de-Camp canters up a third time: 'Feldmarschall +Munnich is for trying a scalade; hopes General Keith will do his +best to co-operate!' 'Forward, then!' answers Keith; advances +close to the glacis; finds a wet ditch twelve feet broad, and has +not a stick of engineer furniture. Keith waits there two hours; +his men, under fire all the while, trying this and that to get +across; Munnich's scalade going off ineffectual in like manner:-- +till at length Keith's men, and all men, tire of such a business, +and roll back in great confusion out of shot-range. Munnich gives +himself up for lost. And indeed, says Mannstein, had the Turks +sallied out in pursuit at that moment, they might have chased us +back to Russia. But the Turks did not sally. And the internal +conflagration is not quenched, far from it;--and about nine A.M. +their Powder-Magazine, conflagration reaching it, roared aloft +into the air, and killed seven thousand of them," [Mannstein, +pp. 151-156.]-- + +So that Oczakow was taken, sure enough; terms, life only: +and every remaining Turk packs off from it, some "twenty thousand +inhabitants young and old" for one sad item.--A very blazing semi- +absurd event, to be read of in Prussian military circles,--where +General Keith will be better known one day. + +Russian War with the Turk: that means withal, by old Treaties, aid +of thirty thousand men from the Kaiser to Russia. Kaiser, so +ruined lately, how can he send thirty thousand, and keep them +recruited, in such distant expedition? Kaiser, much meditating, is +advised it will be better to go frankly into the Turk on his own +score, and try for slices of profit from him in this game. +Kaiser declares war against the Turk; and what is still more +interesting to Friedrich Wilhelm and the Berlin Circles, +Seckendorf is named General of it. Feldzeugmeister now +Feldmarschall Seckendorf, envy may say what it will, he has +marched this season into the Lower-Donau Countries,--going to +besiege Widdin, they say,--at the head of a big Army (on paper, +almost a hundred and fifty thousand, light troops and heavy)-- +virtually Commander-in-Chief; though nominally our fine young +friend Franz of Lorraine bears the title of Commander, whom +Seckendorf is to dry-nurse in the way sometimes practised. +Going to besiege Widdin, they say. So has the poor Kaiser been +advised. His wise old Eugene is now gone; [Died 30th April, 1736.] +I fear his advisers,--a youngish Feldzeugmeister, Prince of +Hildburghausen, the chief favorite among them,--are none of the +wisest. All Protestants, we observe, these favorite +Hildburghausens, Schmettaus, Seckendorfs of his; and Vienna is an +orthodox papal Court;--and there is a Hofkriegsrath (Supreme +Council of War), which has ruined many a General, poking too +meddlesomely into his affairs! On the whole, Seckendorf will have +his difficulties. Here is a scene, on the Lower Donau, different +enough from that at Oczakow, not far from contemporaneous with it. +The Austrian Army is at Kolitz, a march or two beyond Belgrade:-- + +"KOLITZ, 2d JULY, 1737. This day, the Army not being on march, but +allowed to rest itself, Grand Duke Franz went into the woods to +hunt. Hunting up and down, he lost himself; did not return at +evening; and, as the night closed in and no Generalissimo visible, +the Generalissimo AD LATUS (such the title they had contrived for +Seckendorf) was in much alarm. Generalissimo AD LATUS ordered out +his whole force of drummers, trumpeters: To fling themselves, +postwise, deeper and deeper into the woods all round; to drum +there, and blow, in ever-widening circle, in prescribed notes, and +with all energy, till the Grand Duke were found. Grand Duke being +found, Seckendorf remonstrated, rebuked; a thought too earnestly, +some say, his temper being flurried,"--voice snuffling somewhat in +alt, with lisp to help:--"so that the Grand Duke took offence; +flung off in a huff: and always looked askance on the +Feldmarschall from that time;" [See <italic> Lebensgeschichte des +Grafen van Schmettau <end italic> (by his Son: Berlin, 1806), +i. 27.]--quitting him altogether before long; and marching with +Khevenhuller, Wallis, Hildburghausen, or any of the subordinate +Generals rather. Probably Widdin will not go the road of Oczakow, +nor the Austrians prosper like the Russians, this summer. + +Pollnitz, in Tobacco-Parliament, and in certain Berlin circles +foolishly agape about this new Feldmarschall, maintains always, +Seckendorf will come to nothing; which his Majesty zealously +contradicts,--his Majesty, and some short-sighted private +individuals still favorable to Seckendorf. [Pollnitz, <italic> +Memoiren, <end italic> ii. 497-502.] Exactly one week after that +singular drum-and-trumpet operation on Duke Franz, the Last of the +Medici dies at Florence; [9th July (<italic> Fastes de Louis XV., +<end italic> p. 304).] and Serene Franz, if he knew it, is Grand +Duke of Tuscany, according to bargain: a matter important to +himself chiefly, and to France, who, for Stanislaus and Lorraine's +sake, has had to pay him some 200,000 pounds a year during the +brief intermediate state. + + +OF BERG AND JULICH AGAIN; AND OF LUISCIUS WITH THE ONE RAZOR. + +These remote occurrences are of small interest to his Prussian +Majesty, in comparison with the Pfalz affair, the Cleve-Julich +succession, which lies so near home. His Majesty is uncommonly +anxious to have this matter settled, in peace, if possible. +Kaiser and Reich, with the other Mediating Powers, go on +mediating; but when will they decide? This year the old Bishop of +Augsburg, one Brother of the older Kur-Pfalz Karl Philip, dies; +nothing now between us and the event itself, but Karl Philip +alone, who is verging towards eighty: the decision, to be +peaceable, ought to be speedy! Friedrich Wilhelm, in January last, +sent the expert Degenfeld, once of London, to old Karl Philip; +and has him still there, with the most conciliatory offers: +"Will leave your Sulzbachs a part, then; will be content with +part, instead of the whole, which is mine if there be force in +sealed parchment; will do anything for peace!" To which the old +Kur-Pfalz, foolish old creature, is steadily deaf; answers +vaguely, negatively always, in a polite manner; pushing his +Majesty upon extremities painful to think of. "We hate war; +but cannot quite do without justice, your Serenity," thinks +Friedrich Wilhelm: "must it be the eighty thousand iron ramrods, +then?" Obstinate Serenity continues deaf; and Friedrich Wilhelm's +negotiations, there at Mannheim, over in Holland, and through +Holland with England, not to speak of Kaiser and Reich close at +hand, become very intense; vehemently earnest, about this matter, +for the next two years. The details of which, inexpressibly +uninteresting, shall be spared the reader. + +Summary is, these Mediating Powers will be of no help to his +Majesty; not even the Dutch will, with whom he is specially in +friendship: nay, in the third year it becomes fatally manifest, +the chief Mediating Powers, Kaiser and France, listening rather to +political convenience, than to the claims of justice, go direct in +Kur-Pfalz's favor;--by formal treaty of their own, ["Versailles, +13th January, 1739" (Olrich, <italic> Geschichte der Schlesischen +Kriege, <end italic> i. 13); Mauvillon, ii 405-446; &c.] France +and the Kaiser settle, "That the Sulzbachers shall, as a +preliminary, get provisional possession, on the now Serenity's +decease; and shall continue undisturbed for two years, till Law +decide between his Prussian Majesty and them." Two years; +Law decide;--and we know what are the NINE-POINTS in a Law-case! +This, at last, proved too much for his Majesty. Majesty's abstruse +dubitations, meditations on such treatment by a Kaiser and others, +did then, it appears, gloomily settle into fixed private purpose +of trying it by the iron ramrods, when old Kur-Pfalz should die,-- +of marching with eighty thousand men into the Cleve Countries, and +SO welcoming any Sulzbach or other guests that might arrive. +Happily old Kur-Pfalz did not die in his Majesty's time; +survived his Majesty several years: so that the matter fell into +other hands,--and was settled very well, near a century after. + +Of certain wranglings with the little Town of Herstal,--Prussian +Town (part of the Orange Heritage, once KING PEPIN'S Town, if that +were any matter now) in the Bishop of Liege's neighborhood, Town +highly insignificant otherwise,--we shall say nothing here, as +they will fall to be treated, and be settled, at an after stage. +Friedrich Wilhelm was much grieved by the contumacies of that +paltry little Herstal; and by the Bishop of Liege's high-flown +procedures in countenancing them;--especially in a recruiting ease +that had fallen out there, and brought matters to a head. +["December, 1738," is crisis of the recruiting case +(<italic> Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> ii. 63); "17th February, +1739," Bishop's high-flown appearance in it (ib. 67); Kaiser's in +consequence, "10th April, 1739."] The Kaiser too was afflictively +high in countenancing the Bishop;---for which both Kaiser and +Bishop got due payment in time. But his Prussian Majesty would not +kindle the world for such a paltriness; and so left it hanging in +a vexatious condition. Such things, it is remarked, weigh heavier +on his now infirm Majesty than they were wont. He is more subject +to fits of hypochondria, to talk of abdicating. "All gone wrong!" +he would say, if any little flaw rose, about recruiting or the +like. "One might go and live at Venice, were one rid of it!" +[Forster (place LOST).] And his deep-stung clangorous growl +against the Kaiser's treatment of him bursts out, from time to +time; though he oftenest pities the Kaiser, too; seeing him at +such a pass with his Turk War and otherwise. + +It was in this Pfalz business that Herr Luiscius, the Prussian +Minister in Holland, got into trouble; of whom there is a light +dash of outline-portraiture by Voltaire, which has made him +memorable to readers. This "fat King of Prussia," says Voltaire, +was a dreadfully avaricious fellow, unbeautiful to a high degree +in his proceedings with mankind:-- + +"He had a Minister at the Hague called Luiscius; who certainly of +all Ministers of Crowned Heads was the worst paid. This poor man, +to warm himself, had made some trees be felled in the Garden of +Honslardik, which belonged at that time to the House of Prussia; +he thereupon received despatches from the King, intimating that a +year of his salary was forfeited. Luiscius, in despair, cut his +throat with probably the one razor he had (SEUL RASOIR QU'IL EUT); +an old valet came to his assistance, and unhappily saved his life. +In after years, I found his Excellency at the Hague; and have +occasionally given him an alms at the door of the VIEILLE COUR +(Old Court), a Palace belonging to the King of Prussia, where this +poor Ambassador had lived a dozen years. It must be owned, Turkey +is a republic in comparison to the despotism exercised by +Friedrich Wilhelm." [<italic> OEuvres de Voltaire (Vie Pricee, +<end italic> or what they now call <italic> Memoires +<end italic> ), ii. 15.] + +Here truly is a witty sketch; consummately dashed off, as nobody +but Voltaire could; "round as Giotto's O," done at one stroke. +Of which the prose facts are only as follows. Luiscius, Prussian +Resident, not distinguished by salary or otherwise, had, at one +stage of these negotiations, been told, from head-quarters, He +might, in casual extra-official ways, if it seemed furthersome, +give their High Mightinesses the hope, or notion, that his Majesty +did not intend actual war about that Cleve-Julich Succession,-- +being a pacific Majesty, and unwilling to involve his neighbors +and mankind. Luiscius, instead of casual hint delicately dropped +in some good way, had proceeded by direct declaration; +frank assurance to the High Mightinesses, That there would be no +war. Which had never been quite his Majesty's meaning, and perhaps +was now becoming rather the reverse of it. Disavowal of Luiscius +had to ensue thereupon; who produced defensively his instruction +from head-quarters; but got only rebukes for such heavy-footed +clumsy procedure, so unlike Diplomacy with its shoes of felt;-- +and, in brief, was turned out of the Diplomatic function, as unfit +for it; and appointed to manage certain Orange Properties, +fragments of the Orange Heritage which his Majesty still has in +those Countries. This misadventure sank heavily on the spirits of +Luiscius, otherwise none of the strongest-minded of men. Nor did +he prosper in managing the Orange Properties: on the contrary, he +again fell into mistakes; got soundly rebuked for injudicious +conduct there,--"cutting trees," planting trees, or whatever it +was;--and this produced such an effect on Luiscius, that he made +an attempt on his own throat, distracted mortal; and was only +stopped by somebody rushing in. "It was not the first time he had +tried that feat," says Pollnitz, "and been prevented; nor was it +long till he made a new attempt, which was again frustrated: +and always afterwards his relations kept him close in view:" +Majesty writing comfortable forgiveness to the perturbed creature, +and also "settling a pension on him;" adequate, we can hope, and +not excessive; "which Luiscius continued to receive, at the Hague, +so long as he lived." These are the prose facts; not definitely +dated to us, but perfectly clear otherwise. [Pollnitz, ii. 495, +496;--the "NEW attempt" seems to have been "June, 1739" (<italic> +Gentleman's Magazine, <end italic> in mense, p. 331).] + +Voltaire, in his Dutch excursions, did sometimes, in after years, +lodge in that old vacant Palace, called VIEILLE COUR, at the +Hague; where he gracefully celebrates the decayed forsaken state +of matters; dusky vast rooms with dim gilding; forgotten libraries +"veiled under the biggest spider-webs in Europe;" for the rest, an +uncommonly quiet place, convenient for a writing man, besides +costing nothing. A son of this Luiscius, a good young lad, it also +appears, was occasionally Voltaire's amanuensis there; him he did +recommend zealously to the new King of Prussia, who was not deaf +on the occasion. This, in the fire of satirical wit, is what we +can transiently call "giving alms to a Prussian Excellency;"-- +not now excellent, but pensioned and cracked; and the reader +perceives, Luiscius had probably more than one razor, had not one +been enough, when he did the rash act. Friedrich employed Luiscius +Junior, with no result that we hear of farther; and seems to have +thought Luiscius Senior an absurd fellow, not worth mentioning +again: "ran away from the Cleve Country [probably some mad-house +there] above a year ago, I hear; and what is the matter where such +a crack-brain end?" [Voltaire, <italic> OEuvres <end italic> +(Letter to Friedrich, 7th October, 1740), lxxii. 261; and +Fredrich's answer (wrong dated), ib. 265; Preuss, xxii. 33.] + + + +Chapter V. + +VISIT AT LOO. + +The Pfalz question being in such a predicament, and Luiscius +diplomatizing upon it in such heavy-footed manner, his Majesty +thinks a journey to Holland, to visit one's Kinsfolk there, and +incidentally speak a word with the High Mightinesses upon Pfalz, +would not be amiss. Such journey is decided on; Crown-Prince to +accompany. Summer of 1738: a short visit, quite without fuss; +to last only three days;--mere sequel to the Reviews held in those +adjacent Cleve Countries; so that the Gazetteers may take no +notice. All which was done accordingly: Crown-Prince's first sight +of Holland; and one of the few reportable points of his Reinsberg +life, and not quite without memorability to him and us. + +On the 8th of July, 1738, the Review Party got upon the road for +Wesel: all through July, they did their reviewing in those Cleve +Countries; and then struck across for the Palace of Loo in +Geldern, where a Prince of Orange countable kinsman to his +Prussian Majesty, and a Princess still more nearly connected,-- +English George's Daughter, own niece to his Prussian Majesty,--are +in waiting for this distinguished honor. The Prince of Orange we +have already seen, for a moment once; at the siege of Philipsburg +four years ago, when the sale of Chasot's horses went off so well. +"Nothing like selling horses when your company have dined well," +whispered he to Chasot, at that time; since which date we have +heard nothing of his Highness. + +He is not a beautiful man; he has a crooked back, and features +conformable; but is of prompt vivacious nature, and does not want +for sense and good-humor. Paternal George, the gossips say, warned +his Princess, when this marriage was talked of, "You will find him +very ill-looking, though!" "And if I found him a baboon--!" +answered she; being so heartily tired of St. James's. And in fact, +for anything I have heard, they do well enough together. She is +George II.'s eldest Princess;--next elder to our poor Amelia, who +was once so interesting to us! What the Crown-Prince now thought +of all that, I do not know; but the Books say, poor Amelia wore +the willow, and specially wore the Prince's miniature on her +breast all her days after, which were many. Grew corpulent, +somewhat a huddle in appearance and equipment, "eyelids like +upper-LIPS," for one item: but when life itself fled, the +miniature was found in its old place, resting on the old heart +after some sixty years. O Time, O Sons and Daughters +of Time!-- + +His Majesty's reception at Loo was of the kind he liked,--cordial, +honorable, unceremonious; and these were three pleasant days he +had. Pleasant for the Crown-Prince too; as the whole Journey had +rather been; Papa, with covert satisfaction, finding him a wise +creature, after all, and "more serious" than formerly. "Hm, you +don't know what things are in that Fritz!" his Majesty murmured +sometimes, in these later years, with a fine light in his eyes. + +Loo itself is a beautiful Palace: "Loo, close by the Village +Appeldoorn, is a stately brick edifice, built with architectural +regularity; has finely decorated rooms, beautiful gardens, and +round are superb alleys of oak and linden." [Busching, <italic> +Erdbeschreibung, <end italic> viii. 69.] There saunters pleasantly +our Crown-Prince, for these three days;--and one glad incident I +do perceive to have befallen him there: the arrival of a Letter +from Voltaire. Letter much expected, which had followed him from +Wesel; and which he answers here, in this brick Palace, among the +superb avenues and gardens. [<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xxi. +203, the Letter, "Cirey, June, 1738;" Ib. 222, the Answer to it, +"Loo, 6th August, 1738."] + +No doubt a glad incident, irradiating, as with a sudden sunburst +in gray weather, the commonplace of things. Here is news worth +listening to; news as from the empyrean! Free interchange of +poetries and proses, of heroic sentiments and opinions, between +the Unique of Sages and the Paragon of Crown-Princes; how charming +to both! Literary business, we perceive, is brisk on both hands; +at Cirey the <italic> Discours sur l'Homme <end italic> ("Sixth +DISCOURS" arrives in this packet at Loo, surely a deathless piece +of singing); nor is Reinsberg idle: Reinsberg is copiously doing +verse, such verse! and in prose, very earnestly, an "ANTI- +MACHIAVEL;" which soon afterwards filled all the then world, +though it has now fallen so silent again. And at Paris, as +Voltaire announces with a flourish, "M. de Maupertuis's excellent +Book, <italic> Figure de la T'erre, <end italic> is out;" [Paris, +1738: Maupertuis's "measurement of a degree," in the utmost North, +1736-1737 (to prove the Earth flattened there). Vivid Narrative; +somewhat gesticulative, but duly brief. The only Book of that +great Maupertuis which is now readable to human nature.] M. de +Maupertuis, home from the Polar regions and from measuring the +Earth there; the sublimest miracle in Paris society at present. +Might build, new-build, an ACADEMY OF SCIENCES at Berlin for your +Royal Highness, one day? suggests Voltaire, on this occasion: +and Friedrich, as we shall see, takes the hint. One passage of the +Crown-Prince's Answer is in these terms;--fixing this Loo visit to +its date for us, at any rate:-- + +"LOO IN HOLLAND, 6th AUGUST, 1739. ... I write from a place where +there lived once a great man [William III. of England, our Dutch +William]; which is now the Prince of Orange's House. The demon of +Ambition sheds its unhappy poisons over his days. He might be the +most fortunate of men; and he is devoured by chagrins in his +beautiful Palace here, in the middle of his gardens and of a +brilliant Court. It is pity in truth; for he is a Prince with no +end of wit (INFINIMENT D'ESPRIT), and has respectable qualites." +Not Stadtholder, unluckily; that is where the shoe pinches; +the Dutch are on the Republican tack, and will not have a +Stadtholder at present. No help for it in one's beautiful gardens +and avenues of oak and linden. + +"I have talked a great deal about Newton with the Princess,"-- +about Newton; never hinted at Amelia; not permissible!--"from +Newton we passed to Leibnitz; and from Leibnitz to the Late Queen +of England," Caroline lately gone, "who, the Prince told me, was +of Clarke's sentiment" on that important theological controversy +now dead to mankind.--And of Jenkins and his Ear did the Princess +say nothing? That is now becoming a high phenomenon in England! +But readers must wait a little. + +Pity that we cannot give these two Letters in full; that no +reader, almost, could be made to understand them, or to care for +them when understood. Such the cruelty of Time upon this Voltaire- +Friedrich Correspondence, and some others; which were once so +rosy, sunny, and are now fallen drearily extinct,--studiable by +Editors only! In itself the Friedrich-Voltaire Correspondence, we +can see, was charming; very blossomy at present: businesses +increasing; mutual admiration now risen to a great height,-- +admiration sincere on both sides, most so on the Prince's, and +extravagantly expressed on both sides, most so on Voltaire's. + + +CROWN-PRINCE BECOMES A FREEMASON; AND IS HARANGUED BY +MONSIEUR DE BIELFELD. + +His Majesty, we said, had three pleasant days at Loo; discoursing, +as with friends, on public matters, or even on more private +matters, in a frank unconstrained way. He is not to be called +"Majesty" on this occasion; but the fact, at Loo, and by the +leading Mightinesses of the Republic, who come copiously to +compliment him there, is well remembered. Talk there was, with +such leading Mightinesses, about the Julich-and-Berg question, aim +of this Journey: earnest enough private talk with some of them: +but it availed nothing; and would not be worth reporting now to +any creature, if we even knew it. In fact, the Journey itself +remains mentionable chiefly by one very trifling circumstance; +and then by another, not important either, which followed out of +that. The trifling circumstance is,--That Friedrich, in the course +of this Journey, became a Freemason: and the unimportant sequel +was, That he made acquaintance with one Bielfeld, on the occasion; +who afterwards wrote a Book about him, which was once much read, +though never much worth reading, and is still citable, with +precaution, now and then. [Monsieur le Baron de Bielfeld, <italic> +Lettres Familieres et Autres, <end italic> 1763;--second edition, +2 vols. a Leide, 1767, is the one we use here.] Trifling +circumstance, of Freemasonry, as we read in Bielfeld and in many +Books after him, befell in manner following. + +Among the dinner-guests at Loo, one of those three days, was a +Prince of Lippe-Buckeburg,--Prince of small territory, but of +great speculation; whose territory lies on the Weser, leading to +Dutch connections; and whose speculations stretch over all the +Universe, in a high fantastic style:--he was a dinner-guest; +and one of the topics that came up was Freemasonry; a phantasmal +kind of object, which had kindled itself, or rekindled, in those +years, in England first of all; and was now hovering about, a good +deal, in Germany and other countries; pretending to be a new light +of Heaven, and not a bog-meteor of phosphorated hydrogen, +conspicuous in the murk of things. Bog-meteor, foolish putrescent +will-o'-wisp, his Majesty promptly defined it to be: Tom-foolery +and KINDERSPIEL, what else? Whereupon ingenious Buckeburg, who was +himself a Mason, man of forty by this time, and had high things in +him of the Quixotic type, ventured on defence; and was so +respectful, eloquent, dexterous, ingenious, he quite captivated, +if not his Majesty, at least the Crown-Prince, who was more +enthusiastic for high things. Crown-Prince, after table, took his +Durchlaucht of Buckeburg aside; talked farther on the subject, +expressed his admiration, his conviction,--his wish to be admitted +into such a Hero Fraternity. Nothing could be welcomer to +Durchlaucht. And so, in all privacy, it was made up betweeen them, +That Durchlaucht, summoning as many mystic Brothers out of Hamburg +as were needful, should be in waiting with them, on the Crown- +Prince's road homeward,--say at Brunswick, night before the Fair, +where we are to be,--and there make the Crown-Prince a Mason. +[Bielfeld, i. 14-16; Preuss, i. 111; Preuss, <italic> Buch fur +Jedermann, <end italic> i. 41.] + +This is Bielfeld's account, repeated ever since; substantially +correct, except that the scene was not Loo at all: dinner and +dialogue, it now appears, took place in Durchlaucht's own +neighborhood, during the Cleve Review time; "probably at Minden, +17th July;" and all was settled into fixed program before Loo came +in sight. [<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xvs. 201: +Friedrich's Letter to this Durchlaucht, "Comte de Schaumbourg- +Lippe" he calls him; date, "Moyland, 26th July, 1738: "Moyland, a +certain SCHLOSS, or habitable Mansion, of his Majesty's, few miles +to north of Mors in the Cleve Country; where his Majesty used +often to pause;--and where (what will be much more remarkable to +readers) the Crown-Prince and Voltaire had their first meeting, +two years hence.] Bielfeld's report of the subsequent procedure at +Brunswick, as he saw it and was himself part of it, is liable to +no mistakes, at least of the involuntary kind; and may, for +anything we know, be correct in every particular. + +He says (veiling it under discreet asterisks, which are now +decipherable enough), The Durchlaucht of Lippe-Buckeburg had +summoned six Brethren of the Hamburg Lodge; of whom we mention +only a Graf von Kielmannsegge, a Baron von Oberg, both from +Hanover, and Bielfeld himself, a Merchant's Son, of Hamburg; +these, with "Kielmannsegge's Valet to act as Tiler," Valet being +also a Mason, and the rule equality of mankind,--were to have the +honor of initiating the Crown-Prince. They arrived at the Western +Gate of Brunswick on the 11th of August, as prearranged; Prussian +Majesty not yet come, but coming punctually on the morrow. It is +Fair-time; all manner of traders, pedlers, showmen rendezvousing; +many neighboring Nobility too, as was still the habit. "Such a +bulk of light luggage?" said the Custom-house people at the Gate; +--but were pacified by slipping them a ducat. Upon which we drove +to "Korn's Hotel" (if anybody now knew it); and there patiently +waited. No great things of a Hotel, says Bielfeld; but can be put +up with;--worst feature is, we discover a Hanover acquaintance +lodging close by, nothing but a wooden partition between us: +How if he should overhear!-- + +Prussian Majesty and suite, under universal cannon-salvos, +arrived, Sunday the 12th; to stay till Wednesday (three days) with +his august Son-in-law and Daughter here. Durchlaucht Lippe +presents himself at Court, the rest of us not; privately settles +with the Prince: "Tuesday night, eve of his Majesty's departure; +that shall be the night: at Korn's Hotel, late enough!" And there, +accordingly, on the appointed night, 14th-15th August, 1738, the +light-luggage trunks have yielded their stage-properties; +Jachin and Boaz are set up, and all things are ready; +Tiler (Kielmannsegge's Valet) watching with drawn sword against +the profane. As to our Hanover neighbor, on the other side the +partition, says Bielfeld, we waited on him, this day after dinner, +successively paying our respects; successively pledged him in so +many bumpers, he is lying dead drunk hours ago, could not overhear +a cannon-battery, he. And soon after midnight, the Crown-Prince +glides in, a Captain Wartensleben accompanying, who is also a +candidate; and the mysterious rites are accomplished on both of +them, on the Crown-Prince first, without accident, and in the +usual way. + +Bielfeld could not enough admire the demeanor of this Prince, his +clearness, sense, quiet brilliancy; and how he was so "intrepid," +and "possessed himself so gracefully in the most critical +instants." Extremely genial air, and so young, looks younger even +than his years: handsome to a degree, though of short stature. +Physiognomy, features, quite charming; fine auburn hair (BEAU +BRUN), a negligent plenty of it; "his large blue eyes have +something at once severe, sweet and gracious." Eligible Mason +indeed. Had better make despatch at present, lest Papa be getting +on the road before him!--Bielfeld delivered a small address, +composed beforehand; with which the Prince seemed to be content. +And so, with masonic grip, they made their adieus for the present; +and the Crown-Prince and Wartensleben were back at their posts, +ready for the road along with his Majesty. + +His Majesty came on Sunday; goes on Wednesday, home now at a +stretch; and, we hope, has had a good time of it here, these three +days. Daughter Charlotte and her Serene Husband, well with their +subjects, well with one another, are doing well; have already two +little Children; a Boy the elder, of whom we have heard: +Boy's name is Karl, age now three; sprightly, reckoned very +clever, by the fond parents;--who has many things to do in the +world, by and by; to attack the French Revolution, and be blown to +pieces by it on the Field of Jena, for final thing! That is the +fate of little Karl, who frolics about here, so sunshiny and +ingenuous at present. + +Karl's Grandmother, the Serene Dowager Duchess, Friedrich's own +Mother-in-law, his Majesty and Friedrich would also of course see +here. Fine Younger Sons of hers are coming forward; the reigning +Duke beautifully careful about the furtherance of these Cadets of +the House. Here is Prince Ferdinand, for instance; just getting +ready for the Grand Tour; goes in a month hence: [Mauvillon (FILS, +son of him whom we cite otherwise), <italic> Geschichte Ferdinands +Herzogs von Braunschweig-Luneburg <end italic> (Leipzig, 1794), +i. 17-25.] a fine eupeptic loyal young fellow; who, in a twenty +years more, will be Chatham's Generalissimo, and fight the French +to some purpose. A Brother of his, the next elder, is now fighting +the Turks for his Kaiser; does not like it at all, under such +Seckendorfs and War-Ministries as there are. Then, elder still, +eldest of all the Cadets, there is Anton Ulrich, over at +Petersburg for some years past, with outlooks high enough: To wed +the Mecklenburg Princess there (Daughter of the unutterable Duke), +and be as good as Czar of all the Russias one day. Little to his +profit, poor soul!--These, historically ascertainable, are the +aspects of the Brunswick Court during those three days of Royal +Visit, in Fair-time; and may serve to date the Masonic Transaction +for us, which the Crown-Prince has just accomplished over +at Korn's. + +As for the Transaction itself, there is intrinsically no harm in +this initiation, we will hope: but it behooves to be kept well +hidden from Papa. Papa's good opinion of the Prince has sensibly +risen, in the course of this Journey, "so rational, serious, not +dangling about among the women as formerly;"--and what a shock +would this of Korn's Hotel be, should Papa hear of it! Poor Papa, +from officious tale-bearers he hears many things: is in distress +about Voltaire, about Heterodoxies;--and summoned the Crown- +Prince, by express, from Reinsberg, on one occasion lately, over +to Potsdam, "to take the Communion" there, by way of case- +hardening against Voltaire and Heterodoxies! Think of it, human +readers!--We will add the following stray particulars, more or +less illustrative of the Masonic Transaction; and so end that +trifling affair. + +The Captain Wartensleben, fellow-recipient of the mysteries at +Brunswick, is youngest son, by a second marriage, of old +Feldmarschall Wartensleben, now deceased; and is consequently +Uncle, Half-Uncle, of poor Lieutenant Katte, though some years +younger than Katte would now have been. Tender memories hang by +Wartensleben, in a silent way! He is Captain in the Potsdam +Giants; somewhat an intimate, and not undeservedly so, of the +Crown-Prince;--succeeds Wolden as Hofmarschall at Reinsberg, +not many months after this; Wolden having died of an apoplectic +stroke. Of Bielfeld comes a Book, slightly citable; from no +other of the Brethren, or their Feat at Kern's, comes (we may +say) anything whatever. The Crown-Prince prosecuted his +Masonry, at Reinsberg or elsewhere, occasionally, for a year or +two; but was never ardent in it; and very soon after his +Accession, left off altogether: "Child's-play and IGNIS FATUUS +mainly!" A Royal Lodge was established at Berlin, of which the +new King consented to be patron; but he never once entered the +place; and only his Portrait (a welcomely good one, still to be +found there) presided over the mysteries in that Establishment. +Harmless "fire," but too "fatuous;" mere flame-circles cut in +the air, for infants, we know how!-- + +With Lippe-Buckeburg there ensued some Correspondence, high +enough on his Serenity's side; but it soon languished on the +Prince's side; and in private Poetry, within a two years of +this Brunswick scene, we find Lippe used proverbially for a +type-specimen of Fools. ["Taciturne, Caton, avec mes bons +parents, Aussi fou que la Lippe met les jeunes gens." +<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xi. 80 (<italic> Discours sur la +Faussete, <end italic> written 1740).] A windy fantastic +individual;--overwhelmed in finance-difficulties too! +Lippe continued writing; but "only Secretaries now answered +him" from Berlin. A son of his, son and successor, something of +a Quixote too, but notable in Artillery-practice and otherwise, +will turn up at a future stage. + +Nor is Bielfeld with his Book a thing of much moment to +Friedrich or to us. Bielfeld too has a light airy vein of talk; +loves Voltaire and the Philosophies in a light way;--knows the +arts of Society, especially the art of flattering; and would +fain make himself agreeable to the Crown-Prince, being anxious +to rise in the world. His Father is a Hamburg Merchant, Hamburg +"Sealing-wax Manufacturer," not ill off for money: Son has been +at schools, high schools, under tutors, posture-masters; +swashes about on those terms, with French ESPRIT in his mouth, +and lace ruffles at his wrists; still under thirty; showy +enough, sharp enough; considerably a coxcomb, as is still +evident. He did transiently get about Friedrich, as we shall +see; and hoped to have sold his heart to good purpose there;-- +was, by and by, employed in slight functions; not found fit for +grave ones. In the course of some years, he got a title of +Baron; and sold his heart more advantageously, to some rich +Widow or Fraulein; with whom he retired to Saxony, and there +lived on an Estate he had purchased, a stranger to +Prussia thenceforth. + +His Book (<italic> Lettres Familieres et Autres, <end italic> +all turning on Friedrich), which came out in 1763, at the +height of Friedrich's fame, and was much read, is still freely +cited by Historians as an Authority. But the reading of a few +pages sufficiently intimates that these "Letters" never can +have gone through a terrestrial Post-office; that they are an +afterthought, composed from vague memory and imagination, in +that fine Saxon retreat;--a sorrowful ghost-like "TRAVELS OF +ANACHARSIS," instead of living words by an eye-witness! Not to +be cited "freely" at all, but sparingly and under conditions. +They abound in small errors, in misdates, mistakes; +small fictions even, and impossible pretensions:--foolish +mortal, to write down his bit of knowledge in that form! +For the man, in spite of his lace ruffles and gesticulations, +has brisk eyesight of a superficial kind: he COULD have done us +this little service (apparently his one mission in the world, +for which Nature gave him bed and board here); and he, the lace +ruffles having gone into his soul, has been tempted into +misdoing it!--Bielfeld and Bielfeld's Book, such as they are, +appear to be the one conquest Friedrich got of Freemasonry; +no other result now traceable to us of that adventure in Korn's +Hotel, crowning event of the Journey to Loo. + + +SECKENDORF GETS LODGED IN GRATZ. + +Feldmarschall Seckendorf, after unheard-of wrestlings with the +Turk War, and the Vienna War-Office (HOFKRIEGSRATH), is sitting, +for the last three weeks,--where thinks the reader?--in the +Fortress of Gratz among the Hills of Styria; a State-Prisoner, not +likely to get out soon! Seckendorf led forth, in 1737, "such an +Army, for number, spirit and equipment," say the Vienna people, +"as never marched against the Turk before;" and it must be owned, +his ill success has been unparalleled. The blame was not +altogether his; not chiefly his, except for his rash undertaking +of the thing, on such terms as there were. But the truth is, that +first scene we saw of him,--an Army all gone out trumpeting and +drumming into the woods to FIND its Commander-in-Chief,--was an +emblem of the Campaign in general. Excellent Army; but commanded +by nobody in particular; commanded by a HOFKRIEGSRATH at Vienna, +by a Franz Duke of Tuscany, by Feldmarschall Seckendorf, and by +subordinates who were disobedient to him: which accordingly, +almost without help of the Turk and his disorderly ferocity, +rubbed itself to pieces before long. Roamed about, now hither now +thither, with plans laid and then with plans suddenly altered, +Captain being Chaos mainly; in swampy countries, by overflowing +rivers, in hunger, hot weather, forced marches; till it was +marched gradualIy off its feet; and the clouds of chaotic Turks, +who did finally show face, had a cheap pennyworth of it. Never was +such a campaign seen as this of Seckendorf in 1737, said mankind. +Except indeed that the present one, Campaign of 1738, in those +parts, under a different hand, is still worse; and the Campaign of +1739, under still a different, will be worst of all!--Kaiser Karl +and his Austrians do not prosper in this Turk War, as the Russians +do,--who indeed have got a General equal to his task: Munnich, a +famed master in the art of handling Turks and War-Ministries: +real father of Russian Soldiering, say the Russians still. +[See MANNSTEIN for Munnich's plans with the Turk (methods and +devices of steady Discipline in small numbers VERSUS impetuous +Ferocity in great); and Berenhorst (<italic> Betrachtungen uber +die Kriegskunst, <end italic> Leipzig, 1796), a first-rate +Authority, for examples and eulogies of them.] + +Campaign 1737, with clouds of chaotic Turks now sabring on the +skirts of it, had not yet ended, when Seckendorf was called out of +it; on polite pretexts, home to Vienna; and the command given to +another. At the gates of Vienna, in the last days of October, +1737, an Official Person, waiting for the Feldmarschall, was sorry +to inform him, That he, Feldmarschall Seckendorf, was under +arrest; arrest in his own house, in the KOHLMARKT (Cabbage-market +so called), a captain and twelve musketeers to watch over him with +fixed bayonets there; strictly private, till the HOFKRIEGSRATH had +satisfied themselves in a point or two. "Hmph!" snuffled he; +with brow blushing slate-color, I should think, and gray eyes much +alight. And ever since, for ten months or so, Seckendorf, sealed +up in the Cabbage-market, has been fencing for life with the +HOFKRIEGSRATH; who want satisfaction upon "eighty-six" different +"points;" and make no end of chicaning to one's clear answers. +And the Jesuits preach, too: "A Heretic, born enemy of Christ and +his Kaiser; what is the use of questioning!" And the Heathen rage, +and all men gnash their teeth, in this uncomfortable manner. + +Answering done, there comes no verdict, much less any acquittal; +the captain and twelve musketeers, three of them with fixed +bayonets in one's very bedroom, continue. One evening, 21st July, +1738, glorious news from the seat of War--not TILL evening, as the +Imperial Majesty was out hunting--enters Vienna; blowing trumpets; +shaking flags: "Grand Victory over the Turks!" so we call some +poor skirmish there has been; and Vienna bursting all into three- +times-three, the populace get very high. Populace rush to the +Kohlmarkt: break the Seckendorf windows; intent to massacre the +Seckendorf; had not fresh military come, who were obliged to fire +and kill one or two. "The house captain and his twelve musketeers, +of themselves, did wonders; Seckendorf and all his domestics were +in arms:" "JARNI-BLEU" for the last time!--This is while the +Crown-Prince is at Wesel; sound asleep, most likely; Loo, and the +Masonic adventure, perhaps twinkling prophetically in his dreams. + +At two next morning, an Official Gentleman informs Seckendorf, +That he, for his part, must awaken, and go to Gratz. And in one +hour more (3 A.M.), the Official Gentleman rolls off with him; +drives all day; and delivers his Prisoner at Gratz:--"Not so much +as a room ready there; Prisoner had to wait an hour in the +carriage," till some summary preparation were made. Wall-neighbors +of the poor Feldmarschall, in his Fortress here, were "a GOLD-COOK +(swindling Alchemist), who had gone crazy; and an Irish +Lieutenant, confined thirty-two years for some love-adventure, +likewise pretty crazy; their noises in the night-time much +disturbed the Feldmarschall." [<italic> Seckendorfs Leben, <end +italic> ii. 170-277. See <italic> Schmettau, <end italic> +pp. 27-59.] One human thing there still is in his lot, the +Feldmarschall's old Grafinn. True old Dame, she, both in the +Kohlmarkt and at Gratz, stands by him, "imprisoned along with him" +if it must be so; ministering, comforting, as only a true Wife +can;--and hope has not quite taken wing. + +Rough old Feldmarschall; now turned of sixty: never made such a +Campaign before, as this of 1737 followed by 1738! There sits he; +and will not trouble us any more during the present Kaiser's +lifetime. Friedrich Wilhelm is amazed at these sudden cantings of +Fortune's wheel, and grieves honestly as for an old friend: +even the Crown-Prince finds Seckendorf punished unjustly; and is +almost, sorry for him, after all that has come and gone. + + +THE EAR OF JENKINS RE-EMERGES. + +We must add the following, distilled from the English Newspapers, +though it is now almost four months after date:-- + +"LONDON, 1st APRIL, 1738. In the English House of Commons, much +more in the English Public, there has been furious debating for a +fortnight past: Committee of the whole House, examining witnesses, +hearing counsel; subject, the Termagant of Spain, and her West- +Indian procedures;--she, by her procedures somewhere, is always +cutting out work for mankind! How English and other strangers, +fallen-in with in those seas, are treated by the Spaniards, +readers have heard, nay have chanced to see; and it is a fact +painfully known to all nations. Fact which England, for one +nation, can no longer put up with. Walpole and the Official +Persons would fain smooth the matter; but the West-India Interest, +the City, all Mercantile and Navigation Interests are in dead +earnest: Committee of the whole House, 'Presided by Alderman +Perry,' has not ears enough to hear the immensities of evidence +offered; slow Public is gradually kindling to some sense of it. +This had gone on for two weeks, when--what shall we say?--the +EAR OF JENKINS re-emerged for the second time; and produced +important effects! + +"Where Jenkins had been all this while,--steadfastly navigating to +and fro, steadfastly eating tough junk with a wetting of rum; +not thinking too much of past labors, yet privately 'always +keeping his lost Ear in cotton' (with a kind of ursine piety, or +other dumb feeling),--no mortal now knows. But to all mortals it +is evident he was home in London at this time; no doubt a noted +member of Wapping society, the much-enduring Jenkins. +And witnesses, probably not one but many, had mentioned him to +this Committee, as a case eminently in point. Committee, as can +still be read in its Rhadamanthine Journals, orders: 'DIE JOVIS, +16* MARTII 1737-1738, That Captain Robert Jenkins do attend this +House immediately;' and then more specially, '17* MARTII" captious +objections having risen in Official quarters, as we guess,--'That +Captain Robert Jenkins do attend upon Tuesday morning next.' +[<italic> Commons Journals, <end italic> xxiii. (in diebus).] +Tuesday next is 2lst March,--1st of April, 1738, by our modern +Calendar;--and on that day, not adoubt, Jenkins does attend; +narrates that tremendous passage we already heard of, seven years +ago, in the entrance of the Gulf of Florida; and produces his Ear +wrapt in cotton:--setting all on flame (except the Official +persons) at sight of it." + +Official persons, as their wont is in the pressure of debate, +endeavored to deny, to insinuate in their vile Newspapers, That +Jenkins lost his Ear nearer home and not for nothing; as one still +reads in the History Books. [Tindal (xx. 372). Coxe, &c.] Sheer +calumnies, we now find. Jenkins's account was doubtless abundantly +emphatic; but there is no ground to question the substantial truth +of him and it. And so, after seven years of unnoticeable burning +upon the thick skin of the English Public, the case of Jenkins +accidentally burns through, and sets England bellowing; such a +smart is there of it,--not to be soothed by Official wet-cloths; +but getting worse and worse, for the nineteen months ensuing. +And in short--But we will not anticipate! + + + +Chapter VI. + +LAST YEAR OF REINSBERG; JOURNEY TO PREUSSEN. + +The Idyllium of Reinsberg--of which, except in the way of sketchy +suggestion, there can no history be given--lasted less than four +years; and is now coming to an end, unexpectedly soon. A pleasant +Arcadian Summer in one's life;--though it has not wanted its +occasional discords, flaws of ill weather in the general sunshine. +Papa, always in uncertain health of late, is getting heavier of +foot and of heart under his heavy burdens; and sometimes falls +abstruse enough, liable to bewilderments from bad people and +events: not much worth noticing here. [See Pollnitz, ii. 509-515; +Friedrich's Letter to Wilhelmina ("Berlin, 20th January, 1739:" in +<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xxvii. part 1st, pp. 60, 61); &c. +&c.] But the Crown-Prince has learned to deal with all this; all +this is of transient nature; and a bright long future seems to lie +ahead at Reinsberg;--brightened especially by the Literary +Element; which, in this year of 1739, is brisker than it had ever +been. Distinguished Visitors, of a literary turn, look in at +Reinsberg; the Voltaire Correspondence is very lively; +on Friedrich's part there is copious production, various +enterprise, in the form of prose and verse; thoughts even of going +to press with some of it: in short, the Literary Interest rises +very prominent at Reinsberg in 1739. Biography is apt to forget +the Literature there (having her reasons); but must at last take +some notice of it, among the phenomena of the year. + +To the young Prince himself, "courting tranquillity," as his door- +lintel intimated, [<italic> "Frederico tranquillitatem colenti" +<end italic> (Infra, p. 123).] and forbidden to be active except +within limits, this of Literature was all along the great light of +existence at Reinsberg; the supplement to all other employments +or wants of employment there. To Friedrich himself, in those old +days, a great and supreme interest; while again, to the modern +Biographer of him, it has become dark and vacant; a thing to be +shunned, not sought. So that the fact as it stood with Friedrich +differs far from any description that can be given of the fact. +Alas, we have said already, and the constant truth is, Friedrich's +literatures, his distinguished literary visitors and enterprises, +which were once brand-new and brilliant, have grown old as a +garment, and are a sorrow rather than otherwise to existing +mankind! Conscientious readers, who would represent to themselves +the vanished scene at Reinsberg, in this point more especially, +must make an effort. + +As biographical documents, these Poetries and Proses of the young +man give a very pretty testimony of him; but are not of value +otherwise. In fact, they promise, if we look well into them, That +here is probably a practical faculty and intellect of the highest +kind; which again, on the speculative, especially on the poetical +side, will never be considerable, nor has even tried to be so. +This young soul does not deal in meditation at all, and his +tendencies are the reverse of sentimental. Here is no +introspection, morbid or other, no pathos or complaint, no +melodious informing of the public what dreadful emotions you labor +under: here, in rapid prompt form, indicating that it is truth and +not fable, are generous aspirations for the world and yourself, +generous pride, disdain of the ignoble, of the dark, mendacious;-- +here, in short, is a swift-handed, valiant, STEEL-bright kind of +soul; very likely for a King's, if other things answer, and not +likely for a Poet's. No doubt he could have made something of +Literature too; could have written Books, and left some stamp of a +veracious, more or less victorious intellect, in that strange +province too. But then he must have applied himself to it, as he +did to reigning: done in the cursory style, we see what it has +come to. + +It is certain, Friedrich's reputation suffers, at this day, from +his writing. From his NOT having written nothing, he stands lower +with the world. Which seems hard measure;--though perhaps it is +the law of the case, after all. "Nobody in these days," says my +poor Friend, "has the least notion of the sinful waste there is in +talk, whether by pen or tongue. Better probably that King +Friedrich had written no Verses; nay I know not that David's +Psalms did David's Kingship any good!" Which may be truer than it +seems. Fine aspirations, generous convictions, purposes,--they are +thought very fine: but it is good, on various accounts, to keep +them rather silent; strictly unvocal, except on call of real +business; so dangerous are they for becoming conscious of +themselves! Most things do not ripen at all except underground. +And it is a sad but sure truth, that every time you SPEAK of a +fine purpose, especially if with eloquence and to the admiration +of by-standers, there is the LESS chance of your ever making a +fact of it in your poor life.--If Reinsberg, and its vacancy of +great employment, was the cause of Friedrich's verse-writing, we +will not praise Reinsberg on that head! But the truth is, +Friedrich's verses came from him with uncommon fluency; and were +not a deep matter, but a shallow one, in any sense. Not much more +to him than speaking with a will; than fantasying on the flute in +an animated strain. Ever and anon through his life, on small hint +from without or on great, there was found a certain leakage of +verses, which he was prompt to utter;--and the case at Reinsberg, +or afterwards, is not so serious as we might imagine. + + +PINE'S HORACE; AND THE ANTI-MACHIAVEL. + +In late months Friedrich had conceived one notable project; which +demands a word in this place. Did modern readers ever hear of +"John Pine, the celebrated English Engraver"? John Pine, a man of +good scholarship, good skill with his burin, did "Tapestries of +the House of Lords," and other things of a celebrated nature, +famous at home and abroad: but his peculiar feat, which had +commended him at Reinsberg, was an Edition of HORACE: exquisite +old FLACCUS brought to perfection, as it were; all done with +vignettes, classical borderings, symbolic marginal ornaments, in +fine taste and accuracy, the Text itself engraved; all by the +exquisite burin of Pine. ["London, 1737" (<italic> Biographie +Universelle, <end italic> xxxiv. 465).] This Edition had come out +last year, famous over the world; and was by and by, as rumor +bore, to be followed by a VIRGIL done in the like exquisite +manner. + +The Pine HORACE, part of the Pine VIRGIL too, still exist in the +libraries of the curious; and are doubtless known to the proper +parties, though much forgotten by others of us. To Friedrich, +scanning the Pine phenomenon with interest then brand-new, it +seemed an admirable tribute to classical genius; and the idea +occurred to him, "Is not there, by Heaven's blessing, a living +genius, classical like those antique Romans, and worthy of a like +tribute?" Friedrich's idea was, That Voltaire being clearly the +supreme of Poets, the HENRIADE, his supreme of Poems, ought to be +engraved like FLACCUS; text and all, with vignettes, tail-pieces, +classical borderings beautifully symbolic and exact; by the +exquisite burin of Pine. Which idea the young hero-worshipper, in +spite of his finance-difficulties, had resolved to realize; +and was even now busy with it, since his return from Loo. +"Such beautiful enthusiasm," say some readers; "and in behalf of +that particular demi-god!" Alas, yes; to Friedrich he was the best +demi-god then going; and Friedrich never had any doubt about him. + +For the rest, this heroic idea could not realize itself; and we +are happy to have nothing more to do with Pine or the HENRIADE. +Correspondences were entered into with Pine, aud some pains taken: +Pine's high prices were as nothing; but Pine was busy with his +VIRGIL; probably, in fact, had little stomach for the HENRIADE; +"could not for seven years to come enter upon it:" so that the +matter had to die away; and nothing came of it but a small +DISSERTATION, or Introductory Essay, which the Prince had got +ready,--which is still to be found printed in Voltaire's Works +[<italic> OEuvres, xiii. 393-402.] and in Friedrich's, if anybody +now cared much to read it. Preuss says it was finished, "the 10th +August, 1739;" and that minute fact in Chronology, with the above +tale of Hero-worship hanging to it, will suffice my readers +and me. + +But there is another literary project on hand, which did take +effect;--much worthy of mention, this year; the whole world having +risen into such a Chorus of TE DEUM at sight of it next year. +In this year falls, what at any rate was a great event to +Friedrich, as literary man: the printing of his first Book,-- +assiduous writing of it with an eye to print. The Book is that +"celebrated ANTI-MACHIAVEL," ever-praiseworthy Refutation of +Machiavel's PRINCE; concerning which there are such immensities of +Voltaire Correspondence, now become, like the Book itself, inane +to all readers. This was the chosen soul's employment of +Friedrich, the flower of life to him, at Reinsberg, through the +yea? 1739. It did not actually get to press till Spring 1740; +nor actually come out till Autumn,--by which time a great change +had occurred in Friedrich's title and circumstances: but we may as +well say here what little is to be said of it for modern readers. + +"The Crown-Prince, reading this bad Book of Machiavel's, years +ago, had been struck, as all honest souls, especially governors or +apprentices to governing, must be, if they thought of reading such +a thing, with its badness, its falsity, detestability; and came by +degrees, obliquely fishing out Voltaire's opinion as he went +along, on the notion of refuting Machiavel; and did refute him, +the best he could. Set down, namely, his own earnest contradiction +to such ungrounded noxious doctrines; elaborating the same more +and more into clear logical utterance; till it swelled into a +little Volume; which, so excellent was it, so important to +mankind, Voltaire and friends were clear for publishing. +Published accordingly it was; goes through the press next Summer +(1740), under Voltaire's anxious superintendence: [Here, gathered +from Friedrich's Letters to Voltaire, is the Chronology of the +little Enterprise:-- + 1738, MARCH 21, JUNE 17, "Machiavel a baneful man," thinks +Friedrich. "Ought to be refuted by somebody?" thinks he (date not +known). + 1739, MARCH 22, Friedrich thinks of doing it himself. Has done +it, DECEMBER 4;--"a Book which ought to be printed," say Voltaire +and the literary visitors. + 1740, APRIL 26, Book given up to Voltaire for printing. Printing +finished; Book appears, "end of SEPTEMBER," when a great change +had occurred in Friedrich's title and position.] for the Prince +has at length consented; and Voltaire hands the Manuscript, with +mystery yet with hints, to a Dutch Bookseller, one Van Duren at +the Hague, who is eager enough to print such an article. +Voltaire himself--such his magnanimous friendship, especially if +one have Dutch Lawsuits, or business of one's own, in those parts +--takes charge of correcting; lodges himself in the 'Old Court' +(Prussian Mansion, called VIEILLE COUR, at the Hague, where +'Luiscius,' figuratively speaking, may 'get an alms' from us); +and therefrom corrects, alters; corresponds with the Prince and +Van Duren, at a great rate. Keeps correcting, altering, till Van +Duren thinks he is spoiling it for sale;--and privately determines +to preserve the original Manuscript, and have an edition of that, +with only such corrections as seem good to Van Duren. A treasonous +step on this mule of a Bookseller's part, thinks Voltaire; +but mulishly persisted in by the man. Endless correspondence, to +right and left, ensues; intolerably wearisome to every reader. +And, in fine, there came out, in Autumn next,"--the Crown-Prince +no longer a Crown-Prince by that time, but shining conspicuous +under Higher Title,--"not one ANTI-MACHIAVEL only, but a couple or +a trio of ANTI-MACHIAVELS; as printed 'at the Hague;' as reprinted +'at London' or elsewhere; the confused Bibliography of which has +now fallen very insignificant. First there was the Voltaire text, +Authorized Edition, 'end of September, 1740;' then came, in few +weeks, the Van Duren one; then, probably, a third, combining the +two, the variations given as foot-notes:--in short, I know not how +many editions, translations, printings and reprintings; all the +world being much taken up with such a message from the upper +regions, and eager to read it in any form. + +"As to Friedrich himself, who of course says nothing of the +ANTI-MACHIAVEL in public, he privately, to Voltaire, disowns all +these editions; and intends to give a new one of his own, which +shall be the right article; but never did it, having far other +work cut out for him in the months that came. But how zealous the +worlds humor was in that matter, no modern reader can conceive to +himself. In the frightful Compilation called HELDEN-GESCHICHTE, +which we sometimes cite, there are, excerpted from the then +'Bibliotheques' (NOUVELLE BIBLIOTHEQUE and another; shining +Periodicals of the time, now gone quite dead), two 'reviews' of +the ANTI-MACHIAVEL, which fill modern readers with amazement: +such a DOMINE DIMITTAS chanted over such an article!--These +details, in any other than the Biographical point of view, are now +infinitely unimportant." + +Truly, yes! The Crown-Prince's ANTI-MACHIAVEL, final correct +edition (in two forms, Voltaire's as corrected, and the Prince's +own as written), stands now in clear type; [Preuss, <italic> +OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> viii. 61-163.] and, after all +that jumble of printing and counter-printing, we can any of us +read it in a few hours; but, alas, almost none of us with the +least interest, or, as it were, with any profit whatever. +So different is present tense from past, in all things, especially +in things like these! It is sixscore years since the +ANTI-MACHIAVEL appeared. The spectacle of one who was himself a +King (for the mysterious fact was well known to Van Duren and +everybody) stepping forth to say with conviction, That Kingship +was not a thing of attorney mendacity, to be done under the +patronage of Beelzebub, but of human veracity, to be set about +under quite Other patronage; and that, in fact, a King was the +"born servant of his People" (DOMESTIQUE Friedrich once calls it), +rather than otherwise: this, naturally enough, rose upon the then +populations, unused to such language, like the dawn of a new day; +and was welcomed with such applauses as are now incredible, +after all that has come and gone! Alas, in these sixscore +years, it has been found so easy to profess and speak, even +with sincerity! The actual Hero-Kings were long used to be +silent; and the Sham-Hero kind grow only the more desperate +for us, the more they speak and profess!--This ANTI-MACHIAVEL of +Friedrich's is a clear distinct Treatise; confutes, or at least +heartily contradicts, paragraph by paragraph, the incredible +sophistries of Machiavel. Nay it leaves us, if we sufficiently +force our attention, with the comfortable sense that his Royal +Highness is speaking with conviction, and honestly from the heart, +in the affair: but that is all the conquest we get of it, in these +days. Treatise fallen more extinct to existing mankind it would +not be easy to name. + +Perhaps indeed mankind is getting weary of the question +altogether. Machiavel himself one now reads only by compulsion. +"What is the use of arguing with anybody that can believe in +Machiavel?" asks mankind, or might well ask; and, except for +Editorial purposes, eschews any ANTI-MACHIAVEL; impatient to be +rid of bane and antidote both. Truly the world has had a pother +with this little Nicolo Machiavelli and his perverse little Book: +--pity almost that a Friedrich Wilhelm, taking his rounds at that +point of time, had not had the "refuting" of him; Friedrich +Wilhelm's method would have been briefer than Friedrich's! But let +us hope the thing is now, practically, about completed. And as to +the other question, "Was the Signor Nicolo serious in this +perverse little Book; or did he only do it ironically, with a +serious inverse purpose?" we will leave that to be decided, any +time convenient, by people who are much at leisure in the world!-- + +The printing of the ANTI-MACHIAVEL was not intrinsically momentous +in Friedrich's history; yet it might as well have been dispensed +with. He had here drawn a fine program, and needlessly placarded +it for the street populations: and afterwards there rose, as could +not fail on their part, comparison between program and +performance; scornful cry, chiefly from men of weak judgment, +"Is this King an ANTI-Machiavel, then? Pfui!" Of which,--though +Voltaire's voice, too, was heard in it, in angry moments,--we +shall say nothing: the reader, looking for himself, will judge by +and by. And herewith enough of the ANTI-MACHIAVEL. Composition of +ANTI-MACHIAVEL and speculation of the Pine HENRIADE lasted, both +of them, all through this Year 1739, and farther: from these two +items, not to mention any other, readers can figure sufficiently +how literary a year it was. + + +FRIEDRICH IN PREUSSEN AGAIN; AT THE STUD OF TRAKEHNEN. +A TRAGICALLY GREAT EVENT COMING ON. + +In July this year the Crown-Prince went with Papa on the Prussian +Review-journey. ["Set out, 7th July" (<italic> OEuvres, <end +italic> xxvii. part lst, 67 n.).] Such attendance on Review- +journeys, a mark of his being well with Papa, is now becoming +usual; they are agreeable excursions, and cannot but be +instructive as well. On this occasion, things went beautifully +with him. Out in those grassy Countries, in the bright Summer, +once more he had an unusually fine time;--and two very special +pleasures befell him. First was, a sight of the Emigrants, our +Salzburgers and other, in their flourishing condition, over in +Lithuania yonder. Delightful to see how the waste is blossoming up +again; busy men, with their industries, their steady pious +husbandries, making all things green and fruitful: horse-droves, +cattle-herds, waving cornfields;--a very "SCHMALZGRUBE (Butter- +pit)" of those Northern parts, as it is since called. [Busching, +Erdbeschreibung, ii. 1049.] The Crown-Prince's own words on this +matter we will give; they are in a Letter of his to Voltaire, +perhaps already known to some readers;--and we can observe he +writes rather copiously from those localities at present, and in +a cheerful humor with everybody. + +"INSTERBURG, 27th JULY, 1739 (Crown-Prince to Voltaire). ... +Prussian Lithuania is a Country a hundred and twenty miles long, +by from sixty to forty broad; ["Miles ENGLISH," we always mean, +UNLESS &c.] it was ravaged by Pestilence at the beginning of this +Century; and they say three hundred thousand people died of +disease and famine." Ravaged by Pestilence and the neglect of King +Friedrich I.; till my Father, once his hands were free, made +personal survey of it, and took it up, in earnest. + +"Since that time," say twenty years ago, "there is no expense that +the King has been afraid of, in order to succeed in his salutary +views. He made, in the first place, regulations full of wisdom; +he rebuilt wherever the Pestilence had desolated: thousands of +families, from the ends of Europe," seventeen thousand Salzburgers +for the last item, "were conducted hither; the Country repeopled +itself; trade began to flourish again;--and now, in these fertile +regions, abundance reigns more than it ever did. + +"There are above half a million of inhabitants in Lithuania; +there are more towns than there ever were, more flocks than +formerly, more wealth and more productiveness than in any other +part of Germany. And all this that I tell you of is due to the +King alone: who not only gave the orders, but superintended the +execution of them; it was he that devised the plans, and himself +got them carried to fulfilment; and spared neither care nor pains, +nor immense expenditures, nor promises nor recompenses, to secure +happiness and life to this half-million of thinking beings, who +owe to him alone that they have possessions and felicity in +the world. + +"I hope this detail does not weary you. I depend on your humanity +extending itself to your Lithuanian brethren, as well as to your +French, English, German, or other,--all the more as, to my great +astonishment, I passed through villages where you hear nothing +spoken but French.--I have found something so heroic, in the +generous and laborious way in which the King addressed himself to +making this desert flourish with inhabitants and happy industries +and fruits, that it seemed to me you would feel the same +sentiments in learning the circumstances of such a +re-establishment. +"I daily expect news of you from Enghien [in those Dutch-Lawsuit +Countries]. ... The divine Emilie; ... the Duke [D'Aremberg, +Austrian Soldier, of convivial turn,--remote Welsh-Uncle to a +certain little Prince de Ligne, now spinning tops in those parts; +[Born 23d May, 1735, this latter little Prince; lasted till 13th +December, 1814 ("DANSE, MAIS IL NE MARCHE PAS").] not otherwise +interesting], whom Apollo contends for against Bacchues. ... +Adieu. NE M'OUBLIEZ PAS, MON CHER AMI." [<italic> OEuvres, <end +italic> xxi. 304, 305.] + +This is one pleasant scene, to the Crown-Prince and us, in those +grassy localities. And now we have to mention that, about a +fortnight later, at Konigsberg one day, in reference to a certain +Royal Stud or Horse-breeding Establishment in those same +Lithuanian regions, there had a still livelier satisfaction +happened him; satisfaction of a personal and filial nature. +The name of this Royal Stud, inestimable on such ground, is +Trakehnen,--lies south of Tilsit, in an upper valley of the Pregel +river;--very extensive Horse-Establishment, "with seven farms +under it," say the Books, and all "in the most perfect order," +they need hardly add, Friedrich Wilhelm being master of it. +Well, the Royal Party was at Konigsberg, so far on the road +homewards again from those outlying parts, when Friedrich Wilhelm +said one day to his Son, quite in a cursory manner, "I give thee +that Stud of Trakehnen; thou must go back and look to it;" which +struck Fritz quite dumb at the moment. + +For it is worth near upon 2,000 pounds a year (12,000 thalers); +a welcome new item in our impoverished budget; and it is an +undeniable sign of Papa's good-humor with us, which is more +precious still. Fritz made his acknowledgments, eloquent with +looks, eloquent with voice, on coming to himself; and is, in +fact, very proud of his gift, and celebrates it to his Wilhelmina, +to Camas and others who have a right to know such a thing. +Grand useful gift; and handed over by Papa grandly, in three +business words, as if it had been a brace of game: "I give it +thee, Fritz!" A thing not to be forgotten. "At bottom, Friedrich +Wilhelm was not avaricious" (not a miser, only a man grandly +abhorring waste, as the poor vulgar cannot do), "not avaricious," +says Pollnitz once; "he made munificent gifts, and never thought +of them more." This of Trakehnen,--perhaps there might be a whiff +of coming Fate concerned in it withal: "I shall soon be dead, not +able to give thee anything, poor Fritz!" To the Prince and us it +is very beautiful; a fine effulgence of the inner man of Friedrich +Wilhelm. The Prince returned to Trakehnen, on this glad errand; +settled the business details there; and, after a few days, went +home by a route of his own;--well satisfied with this Prussian- +Review journey, as we may imagine. + + + +++++++SEE EARLIER--- Prussian Review-journey (placing of hyphen) + + + +One sad thing there was, though Friedrich did not yet know how +sad, in this Review-journey: the new fit of illness that overtook +his Majesty. From Pollnitz, who was of the party, we have details +on that head. In his Majesty's last bad illness, five years ago, +when all seemed hopeless, it appears the surgeons had relieved +him,--in fact recovered him, bringing off the bad humors in +quantity,--by an incision in the foot or leg. In the course of the +present fatigues, this old wound broke out again; which of course +stood much in the way of his Majesty; and could not be neglected, +as probably the causes of it were. A regimental surgeon, Pollnitz +says, was called in; who, in two days, healed the wound,--and +declared all to be right again; though in fact, as we may judge, +it was dangerously worse than before. "All well here," writes +Friedrich; "the King has been out of order, but is now entirely +recovered (TOUT A FAIT REMIS)." ["Konigsberg, 30th July, 1739," to +his Wife (<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xxvi. 6).] + +Much reviewing and heavy business followed at Konigsberg;--gift of +Trakehnen, and departure of the Crown-Prince for Trakehnen, +winding it up. Directly on the heel of which, his Majesty turned +homewards, the Crown-Prince not to meet him till once at Berlin +again. Majesty's first stage was at Pillau, where we have been. +At Pillau, or next day at Dantzig, Pollnitz observed a change in +his Majesty's humor, which had been quite sunshiny all this +journey hitherto. At Dantzig Pollnitz first noticed it; but at +every new stage it grew worse, evil accidents occurring to worsen +it; and at Berlin it was worst of all;--and, alas, his poor +Majesty never recovered his sunshine in this world again! Here is +Pollnitz's account of the journey homewards:-- + +"Till now," till Pillau and Dantzig, "his Majesty had been in +especially good humor; but in Dantzig his cheerfulness forsook +him;--and it never came back. He arrived about ten at night in +that City [Wednesday, 12th August, or thereby]; slept there; +and was off again next morning at five. He drove only thirty miles +this day; stopped in Lupow [coast road through Pommern], with Herr +von Grumkow [the late Grumkow's Brother], Kammer President in this +Pommern Province. From Lupow he went to a poor Village near +Belgard, EIGHTY miles farther;"--last village on the great road, +Belgard lying to left a little, on a side road;--"and stayed +there overnight. + +"At Belgard, next morning, he reviewed the Dragoon Regiment von +Platen; and was very ill content with it. And nobody, with the +least understanding of that business, but must own that never did +Prussian Regiment manoeuvre worse. Conscious themselves how bad it +was, they lost head, and got into open confusion. The King did all +that was possible to help them into order again. He withdrew +thrice over, to give the Officers time to recover themselves; +but it was all in vain. The King, contrary to wont, restrained +himself amazingly, and would not show his displeasure in public. +He got into his carriage, and drove away with the Furst of +Anhalt," Old Dessauer, "and Von Winterfeld," Captain in the Giant +Regiment, "who is now Major-General von Winterfeld; [Major-General +since 1743, of high fame; fell in fight, 7th September, 1757.] not +staying to dine with General von Platen, as was always his custom +with Commandants whom he had reviewed. He bade Prince Wilhelm and +the rest of us stay and dine; he himself drove away,"--towards the +great road again, and some uncertain lodging there. + +"We stayed accordingly; and did full justice to the good cheer,"-- +though poor Platen would certainly look flustered, one may fancy. +"But as the Prince was anxious to come up with his Majesty again, +and knew not where he would meet him, we had to be very swift with +the business. + +"We found the King with Anhalt and Winterfeld, by and by; sitting +in a village, in front of a barn, and eating a cold pie there, +which the Furst of Anhalt had chanced to have with him; his +Majesty, owing to what he had seen on the parade-ground, was in +the utmost ill-humor (HOCHST UBLER LAUNE). Next day, Saturday, he +went a hundred and fifty or two hundred miles; and arrived in +Berlin at ten at night. Not expected there till the morrow; so +that his rooms were locked,--her Majesty being over in Monbijou, +giving her children a Ball;" [Pollnitz, ii. 534-537.]--and we can +fancy what a frame of mind there was! + +Nobody, not at first even the Doctors, much heeded this new fit of +illness; which went and came: "changed temper," deeper or less +deep gloom of "bad humor," being the main phenomenon to by- +standers. But the sad truth was, his Majesty never did recover his +sunshine; from Pillau onwards he was slowly entering into the +shadows of the total Last Eclipse; and his journeyings and +reviewings in this world were all done. Ten months hence, Pollnitz +and others knew better what it had been!-- + + + +Chapter VII. + +LAST YEAR OF REINSBERG: TRANSIT OF BALTIMORE AND OTHER PERSONS AND THINGS. + +Friedrich had not been long home again from Trakehnen and +Preussen, when the routine of things at Reinsberg was illuminated +by Visitors, of brilliant and learned quality; some of whom, a +certain Signor Algarotti for one, require passing mention here. +Algarotti, who became a permanent friend or satellite, very +luminous to the Prince, and was much about him in coming years, +first shone out upon the scene at this time,--coming unexpectedly, +and from the Eastward as it chanced. + +On his own score, Algarotti has become a wearisome literary man to +modern readers: one of those half-remembered men; whose books seem +to claim a reading, and do not repay it you when given. Treatises, +of a serious nature, ON THE OPERA; setting forth, in earnest, the +potential "moral uses" of the Opera, and dedicated to Chatham; +<italic> Neutonianismo per le Donne <end italic> (Astronomy for +Ladies): the mere Titles of such things are fatally sufficient to +us; and we cannot, without effort, nor with it, recall the +brilliancy of Algarotti and them to his contemporary world. + +Algarotti was a rich Venetian Merchant's Son, precisely about the +Crown-Prince's age; shone greatly in his studies at Bologna and +elsewhere; had written Poesies (RIME); written especially that +<italic> Newtonianism for the Dames <end italic> (equal to +Fontenelle, said Fame, and orthodox Newtonian withal, not +heterodox or Cartesian); and had shone, respected, at Paris, on +the strength of it, for three or four years past: friend of +Voltaire in consequence, of Voltaire and his divine Emilie, and a +welcome guest at Cirey; friend of the cultivated world generally, +which was then laboring, divine Emilie in the van of it, to +understand Newton and be orthodox in this department of things. +Algarotti did fine Poesies, too, once and again; did Classical +Scholarships, and much else: everywhere a clear-headed, +methodically distinct, concise kind of man. A high style of +breeding about him, too; had powers of pleasing, and used them: +a man beautifully lucent in society, gentle yet impregnable there; +keeping himself unspotted from the world and its discrepancies,-- +really with considerable prudence, first and last. + +He is somewhat of the Bielfeld type; a Merchant's Son, we observe, +like Bielfeld; but a Venetian Merchant's, not a Hamburg's; and +also of better natural stuff than Bielfeld. Concentrated himself +upon his task with more seriousness, and made a higher thing of it +than Bielfeld; though, after all, it was the same task the two +had. Alas, our "Swan of Padua" (so they sometimes called him) only +sailed, paddling grandly, no-whither,--as the Swan-Goose of the +Elbe did, in a less stately manner! One cannot well bear to read +his Books. There is no light upon Friedrich to tempt us; +better light than Bielfeld's there could have been, and much of +it: but he prudently, as well as proudly, forbore such topics. +He approaches very near fertility and geniality in his writings, +but never reaches it. Dilettantism become serious and strenuous, +in those departments--Well, it was beautiful to young Friedrich +and the world at that time, though it is not to us!--Young +Algarotti, twenty-seven this year, has been touring about as a +celebrity these four years past, on the strength of his fine +manners and <italic> Newtonianism for the Dames. <end italic> + +It was under escort of Baltimore, "an English Milord," recommended +from Potsdam itself, that Algarotti came to Reinsberg; the Signor +had much to do with English people now and after. Where Baltimore +first picked him up, I know not: but they have been to Russia +together; Baltimore by twelve years the elder of the two: and now, +getting home towards England again, they call at Reinsberg in the +fine Autumn weather;--and considerably captivate the Crown-Prince, +Baltimore playing chief, in that as in other points. The visit +lasted five days: [20th-25th September, 1739 (<italic> OEuvres de +Frederic, <end italic> xiv. p. xiv).] there was copious speech on +many things;--discussion about Printing of the ANTI MACHIAVEL; +Algarotti to get it printed in England, Algarotti to get Pine and +his Engraved HENRIADE put under way; neither of which projects +took effect;--readers can conceive what a charming five days these +were. Here, in the Crown-Prince's own words, are some brief +glimmerings which will suffice us:-- + +REINSBERG, 25th SEPT. 1739 (Crown-Prince to Papa). ... that +"nothing new has occurred in the Regiment, and we have few sick. +Here has the English Milord, who was at Potsdam, passing through +[stayed five days, though we call it passing, and suppress the +Algarotti, Baltimore being indeed chief]. He is gone towards +Hamburg, to take ship for England there. As I heard that my Most +All-gracious Father wished I should show him courtesy, I have done +for him what I could. The Prince of Mirow has also been here,"-- +our old Strelitz friend. Of Baltimore nothing more to Papa. But to +another Correspondent, to the good Suhm (who is now at Petersburg, +and much in our intimacy, ready to transact loans for us, +translate Wolf, or do what is wanted), there is this passage +next day:-- + +REINSBERG, 26th SEPTEMBER, 1739 (to Suhm). "We have had Milord +Baltimore here, and the young Algarotti; both of them men who, by +their accomplishments, cannot but conciliate the esteem and +consideration of all who see them. We talked much of you [Suhm], +of Philosophy, of Science, Art; in short, of all that can be +included in the taste of cultivated people (HONNETES GENS)." +[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xvi. 378.] And again +to another, about two weeks hence:-- + +REINSBERG, 10th OCTOBER, 1739 (to Voltaire). "We have had Milord +Baltimore and Algarotti here, who are going back to England. +This Milord is a very sensible man (HOMME TRESSENSE); +who possesses a great deal of knowledge, and thinks, like us, that +sciences can be no disparagement to nobility, nor degrade an +illustrious rank. I admired the genius of this ANGLAIS, as one +does a fine face through a crape veil. He speaks French very ill, +yet one likes to hear him speak it; and as for his English, he +pronounces it so quick, there is no possibility of following him. +He calls a Russian 'a mechanical animal.' He says 'Petersburg is +the eye of Russia, with which it keeps civilized countries in +sight; if you took this eye from it, Russia would fall again into +barbarism, out of which it is just struggling.' [Ib. xxi. 326, +327.] ... Young Algarotti, whom you know, pleased me beyond +measure. He promised that he"--But Baltimore, promise or not, is +the chief figure at present. + +Evidently an original kind of figure to us, CET ANGLAIS. +And indeed there is already finished a rhymed EPISTLE to +Baltimore; <italic> Epitre sur la Liberte <end italic> (copy goes +in that same LETTER, for Voltaire's behoof), which dates itself +likewise October 10th; beginning,-- +<italic> "L'esprit libre, Milord, qui regne en Angleterre," +<end italic> +which, though it is full of fine sincere sentiments, about human +dignity, papal superstition, Newton, Locke, and aspirations for +progress of culture in Prussia, no reader could stand at +this epoch. + +What Baltimore said in answer to the EPITRE, we do not know; +probably not much: it does not appear he ever saw or spoke to +Friedrich a second time. Three weeks after, Friedrich writing to +Algarotti, has these words: "I pray you make my friendships to +Milord Baltimore, whose character and manner of thinking I truly +esteem. I hope he has, by this time, got my EPITRE on the English +Liberty of Thought." [29th October 1739, To Algarotti in London +(<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> xviii. 5).] And so Baltimore +passes on, silent in History henceforth,--though Friedrich seems +to have remembered him to late times, as a kind of type-figure +when England came into his head. For the sake of this small +transit over the sun's disk, I have made some inquiry about +Baltimore; but found very little;--perhaps enough:-- + +"He was Charles, Sixth Lord Baltimore, it appears; Sixth, and last +but one. First of the Baltimores, we know, was Secretary Calvert +(1618-1624), who colonized Maryland; last of them (1774) was the +Son of this Charles; something of a fool, to judge by the face of +him in Portraits, and by some of his doings in the world. He, that +Seventh Baltimore, printed one or two little Volumes "now of +extreme rarity"--cannot be too rare); and winded up by standing an +ugly Trial at Kingston Assizes (plaintiff an unfortunate female). +After which he retired to Naples, and there ended, 1774, the last +of these Milords. [Walpole (by Park), <italic> Catalogue of Royal +and Noble Authors <end italic> (London, 1806), v. 278.] + +"He of the Kingston Assizes, we say, was not this Charles; but his +Son, whom let the reader forget. Charles, age forty at this time, +had travelled about the Continent a good deal: once, long ago, we +imagined we had got a glimpse of him (but it was a guess merely) +lounging about Luneville and Lorraine, along with Lyttelton, in +the Congress-of-Soissons time? Not long after that, it is certain +enough, he got appointed a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Prince +Fred; who was a friend of speculative talkers and cultivated +people. In which situation Charles Sixth Baron Baltimore continued +all his days after; and might have risen by means of Fred, as he +was anxious enough to do, had both of them lived; but they both +died; Baltimore first, in 1751, a year before Fred. Bubb +Doddington, diligent laborer in the same Fred vineyard, was much +infested by this Baltimore,--who, drunk or sober (for he +occasionally gets into liquor), is always putting out Bubb, and +stands too well with our Royal Master, one secretly fears! +Baltimore's finances, I can guess, were not in too good order; +mostly an Absentee; Irish Estates not managed in the first style, +while one is busy in the Fred vineyard! 'The best and honestest +man in the world, with a good deal of jumbled knowledge,' Walpole +calls him once: 'but not capable of conducting a party.'" +[Walpole's <italic> Letters to Mann <end italic> (London, 1843), +ii. 175; 27th January, 1747. See ib. i. 82.] Oh no;--and died, at +any rate, Spring 1751: [<italic> Peerage of Ireland <end italic> +(London, 1768), ii. 172-174.] and we will not mention him farther. + + +BIELFELD, WHAT HE SAW AT REINSBERG AND AROUND. + +Directly on the rear of these fine visitors, came, by invitation, +a pair of the Korn's-Hotel people; Masonic friends; one of whom +was Bielfeld, whose dainty Installation Speech and ways of +procedure had been of promise to the Prince on that occasion. +"Baron von Oberg" was the other:--Hanoverian Baron: the same who +went into the Wars, and was a "General von Oberg" twenty years +hence? The same or another, it does not much concern us. Nor does +the visit much, or at all; except that Bielfeld, being of writing +nature, professes to give ocular account of it. Honest transcript +of what a human creature actually saw at Reinsberg, and in the +Berlin environment at that date, would have had a value to +mankind: but Bielfeld has adopted the fictitious form; and pretty +much ruined for us any transcript there is. Exaggeration, +gesticulation, fantastic uncertainty afflict the reader; +and prevent comfortable belief, except where there is other +evidence than Bielfeld's. + +At Berlin the beautiful straight streets, Linden Avenues (perhaps +a better sample than those of our day), were notable to Bielfeld; +bridges, statues very fine; grand esplanades, and such military +drilling and parading as was never seen. He had dinner- +invitations, too, in quantity; likes this one and that (all in +prudent asterisks),---likes Truchsess von Waldburg very much, and +his strange mode of bachelor housekeeping, and the way he dines +and talks among his fellow-creatures, or sits studious among his +Military Books and Paper-litters. But all is loose far-off +sketching, in the style of <italic> Anacharsis the Younger; <end +italic> and makes no solid impression. + +Getting to Reinsberg, to the Town, to the Schloss, he crosses the +esplanade, the moat; sees what we know, beautiful square Mansion +among its woods and waters;--and almost nothing that we do not +know, except the way the moat-bridge is lighted: "Bridge +furnished," he says, "with seven Statues representing the seven +Planets, each holding in her hand a glass lamp in the form of a +globe;"--which is a pretty object in the night-time. The House is +now finished; Knobelsdorf rejoicing in his success; Pesne and +others giving the last touch to some ceilings of a sublime nature. +On the lintel of the gate is inscribed FREDERICO TRANQUILLITATEM +COLENTI (To Friedrich courting Tranquillity). The gardens, walks, +hermitages, grottos, are very spacious, fine: not yet completed,-- +perhaps will never be. A Temple of Bacchus is just now on hand, +somewhere in those labyrinthic woods: "twelve gigantic Satyrs as +caryatides, crowned by an inverted Punch-bowl for dome;" that is +the ingenious Knobelsdorf's idea, pleasant to the mind. +Knobelsdorf is of austere aspect; austere, yet benevolent and full +of honest sagacity; the very picture of sound sense, thinks +Bielfeld. M. Jordan is handsome, though of small stature; +agreeable expression of face; eye extremely vivid; brown +complexion, bushy eyebrows as well as beard are black. [Bielfeld +(abridged), i. 45.] + +Or did the reader ever hear of "M. Fredersdorf," Head Valet at +this time? Fredersdorf will become, as it were, Privy-Purse, +House-Friend, and domestic Factotum, and play a great part in +coming years. "A tall handsome man;" much "silent sense, civility, +dexterity;" something "magnificently clever in him," thinks +Bielfeld (now, or else twenty years afterwards); whom we can +believe. [Ib. p. 49.] He was a gift from General Schwerin, this +Fredersdorf; once a Private in Schwerin's regiment, at Frankfurt- +on-Oder,--excellent on the flute, for one quality. Schwerin, who +had an eye for men, sent him to Friedrich, in the Custrin time; +hoping he might suit in fluting and otherwise. Which he +conspicuously did. Bielfeld's account, we must candidly say, +appears to be an afterthought; but readers can make their profit +of it, all the same. + +As to the Crown-Prince and Princess, words fail to express their +gracious perfections, their affabilities, polite ingenuities:-- +Bielfeld's words do give us some pleasant shadowy conceivability +of the Crown-Princess:-- + +"Tall, and perfect in shape; bust such as a sculptor might copy; +complexion of the finest; features ditto; nose, I confess, +smallish and pointed, but excellent of that kind; hair of the +supremest flaxen, 'shining' like a flood of sunbeams, when the +powder is off it. A humane ingenuous Princess; little negligences +in toilet or the like, if such occur, even these set her off, so +ingenuous are they. Speaks little; but always to the purpose, in a +simple, cheerful and wise way. Dances beautifully; heart (her +soubrette assures me) is heavenly;--and 'perhaps no Princess +living has a finer set of diaonds.'" + +Of the Crown-Princess there is some pleasant shadow traced as on +cobweb, to this effect. But of the Crown-Prince there is no +forming the least conception from what he says:--this is mere +cobweb with Nothing elaborately painted on it. Nor do the +portraits of the others attract by their verisimilitude. Here is +Colonel Keyserling, for instance; the witty Courlander, famous +enough in the Friedrich circle; who went on embassy to Cirey, and +much else: he "whirls in with uproar (FRACAS) like Boreas in the +Ballet;" fowling-piece on shoulder, and in his "dressing-gown" +withal, which is still stranger; snatches off Bielfeld, unknown +till that moment, to sit by him while dressing; and there, with +much capering, pirouetting, and indeed almost ground-and-lofty +tumbling, for accompaniment, "talks of Horses, Mathematics, +Painting, Architecture, Literature, and the Art of War," while he +dresses. This gentleman was once Colonel in Friedrich Wilhelm's +Army; is now fairly turned of forty, and has been in troubles: +we hope he is not LIKE in the Bielfeld Portrait;--otherwise, how +happy that we never had the honor of knowing him! Indeed, the +Crown-Prince's Household generally, as Bielfeld paints it in +flourishes of panegyric, is but unattractive; barren to the modern +on-looker; partly the Painter's blame, we doubt not. He gives +details about their mode of dining, taking coffee, doing concert; +--and describes once an incidental drinking-bout got up +aforethought by the Prince; which is probably in good part +fiction, though not ill done. These fantastic sketchings, +rigorously winnowed into the credible and actual, leave no great +residue in that kind; but what little they do leave is of +favorable and pleasant nature. + +Bielfeld made a visit privately to Potsdam, too: saw the Giants +drill; made acquaintance with important Captains of theirs (all in +ASTERISKS) at Potsdam; with whom he dined, not in a too credible +manner, and even danced. Among the asterisks, we easily pick out +Captain Wartensleben (of the Korn's-Hotel operation), and +Winterfeld, a still more important Captain, whom we saw dining on +cold pie with his Majesty, at a barn-door in Pommern, not long +since. Of the Giants, or their life at Potsdam, Bielfeld's word is +not worth hearing,--worth suppressing rather; his knowledge being +so small, and hung forth in so fantastic a way. This transient +sight he had of his Majesty in person; this, which is worth +something to us,--fact being evidently lodged in it, "After +church-parade," Autumn Sunday afternoon (day uncertain, Bielfeld's +date being fictitious, and even impossible), Majesty drove out to +Wusterhausen, "where the quantities of game surpass all belief;" +and Bielfeld had one glimpse of him:-- + +"I saw his Majesty only, as it were, in passing. If I may judge by +his Portraits, he must have been of a perfect beauty in his young +time; but it must be confessed there is nothing left of it now. +His eyes truly are fine; but the glance of them is terrible: +his complexion is composed of the strongest tints of red, blue, +yellow, green,"--not a lovely complexion at all; "big head; the +thick neck sunk between the shoulders; figure short and heavy +(COURTE ET RAMASSEE)." [Bielfeld, p. 35.] + +"Going out to Wusterhausen," then, that afternoon, "October, +1739." How his Majesty is crushed down; quite bulged out of shape +in that sad way, by the weight of time and its pressures: +his thoughts, too, most likely, of a heavy-laden and abstruse +nature! The old Pfalz Controversy has misgone with him: Pfalz, and +so much else in the world;--the world in whole, probably enough, +near ending to him; the final shadows, sombre, grand and mournful, +closing in upon him! + + +TURK WAR ENDS; SPANISH WAR BEGINS. A WEDDING IN PETERSBURG. + +Last news come to Potsdam in these days is, The Kaiser has ended +his disastrous Turk War; been obliged to end it; sudden downbreak, +and as it were panic terror, having at last come upon his +unfortunate Generals in those parts. Duke Franz was passionate to +be out of such a thing; Franz, General Neipperg and others; +and now, "2d September, 1739," like lodgers leaping from a burning +house, they are out of it. The Turk gets Belgrade itself, not to +mention wide territories farther east,--Belgrade without shot +fired;--nay the Turk was hardly to be kept from hanging the +Imperial Messenger (a General Neipperg, Duke Franz's old Tutor, +and chief Confidant, whom we shall hear more of elsewhere), whose +passport was not quite right on this occasion!--Never was a more +disgraceful Peace. But also never had been worse fighting; +planless, changeful, powerless, melting into futility at every +step:--not to be mended by imprisonments in Gratz, and still +harsher treatment of individuals. "Has all success forsaken me, +then, since Eugene died?" said the Kaiser; and snatched at this +Turk Peace; glad to have it, by mediation of France, and on +any terms. + +Has not this Kaiser lost his outlying properties at a fearful +rate? Naples is gone; Spanish Bourbon sits in our Naples; +comparatively little left for us in Italy. And now the very Turk +has beaten us small; insolently fillips the Imperial nose of us,-- +threatening to hang our Neipperg, and the like. Were it not for +Anne of Russia, whose big horse-whip falls heavy on this Turk, he +might almost get to Vienna again, for anything we could do! +A Kaiser worthy to be pitied;--whom Friedrich Wilhelm, we +perceive, does honestly pity. A Kaiser much beggared, much +disgraced, in late years; who has played a huge life-game so long, +diplomatizing, warring; and, except the Shadow of Pragmatic +Sanction, has nothing to retire upon. + +The Russians protested, with astonishment, against such Turk Peace +on the Kaiser's part. But there was no help for it. One ally is +gone, the Kaiser has let go this Western skirt of the Turk; +and "Thamas Kouli Khan" (called also Nadir Shah, famed Oriental +slasher and slayer of that time) no longer stands upon the Eastern +skirt, but "has entered India," it appears: the Russians--their +cash, too, running low--do themselves make peace, "about a month +after;" restoring Azoph and nearly all their conquests; putting +off the ruin of the Turk till a better time. + +War is over in the East, then; but another in the West, England +against Spain (Spain and France to help), is about beginning. +Readers remember how Jenkins's Ear re-emerged, Spring gone a year, +in a blazing condition? Here, through SYLVANUS URBAN himself, are +two direct glimpses, a twelve-month nearer hand, which show us how +the matter has been proceeding since:-- + +"LONDON, 19th FEBRUARY, 1739. The City Authorities,"--laying or +going to lay "the foundation of the Mansion-House" (Edifice now +very black in our time), and doing other things of little moment +to us, "had a Masquerade at the Guildhall this night. There was a +very splendid appearance at the Masquerade; but among the many +humorous and whimsical characters, what seemed most to engage +attention was a Spaniard, who called himself 'Knight of the Ear;' +as Badge of which Order he wore on his breast the form of a Star, +with its points tinged in blood; and on the body of it an Ear +painted, and in capital letters the word JENKINS encircling it. +Across his shoulder there hung, instead of ribbon, a large Halter; +which he held up to several persons dressed as English Sailors, +who seemed in great terror of him, and falling on their knees +suffered him to rummage their pockets; which done, he would +insolently dismiss them with strokes of his halter. Several of +the Sailors had a bloody Ear hanging down from their heads; and on +their hats were these words, EAR FOR EAR; on others, NO SEARCH OR +NO TRADE; with the like sentences." [<italic> Gentleman's Magazine +<end italic> for 1739, p. 103;--our DATES, as always, are N. 8.] +The conflagration evidently going on; not likely to be damped down +again, by ministerial art!-- + +"LONDON, 19th MARCH, 1739." Grand Debate in Parliament, on the +late "Spanish Convention," pretended Bargain of redress lately got +from Spain: Approve the Convention, or Not approve? "A hundred +Members were in the House of Commons before seven, this morning; +and four hundred had taken their seat by ten; which is an unheard- +of thing. Prince of Wales," Fred in person, "was in the gallery +till twelve at night, and had his dinner sent to him. Sir Robert +Walpole rose: 'Sir, the great pains that have been taken to +influence all ranks and degrees of men in this Nation--... +But give me leave to'"--apply a wet cloth to Honorable Gentlemen. +Which he does, really with skill and sense. France and the others +are so strong, he urges; England so unprepared; Kaiser at such a +pass; 'War like to be, about the Palatinate Dispute [our friend +Friedrich Wilhelm's]: Where is England to get, allies?'--and hours +long of the like sort. A judicious wet cloth; which +proved unavailing. + +For "William Pitts" (so they spell the great Chatham that is to +be) was eloquent on the other side: "Despairing Merchants," "Voice +of England," and so on. And the world was all in an inflamed +state. And Mr. Pulteney exclaimed: Palatinate? Allies? "We need no +allies; the case of Mr. Jenkins will raise us volunteers +everywhere!" And in short,--after eight months more of haggling, +and applying wet cloths,--Walpole, in the name of England, has to +declare War against Spain; ["3d November (23d October), 1739."] +the public humor proving unquenchable on that matter. War; and no +Peace to be, "till our undoubted right," to roadway on the oceans +of this Planet, become permanently manifest to the +Spanish Majesty. + +Such the effect of a small Ear, kept about one in cotton, from +ursine piety or other feelings. Has not Jenkins's Ear re-emerged, +with a vengeance? It has kindled a War: dangerous for kindling +other Wars, and setting the whole world on fire,--as will be too +evident in the sequel! The EAR OF JENKINS is a singular thing. +Might have mounted to be a constellation, like BERENICE'S HAIR, +and other small facts become mythical, had the English People been +of poetic turn! Enough of IT, for the time being.-- + +This Summer, Anton Ulrich, at Petersburg, did wed his Serene +Mecklenburg Princess, Heiress of all the Russias: "July 14th, +1739,"--three months before that Drive to Wusterhausen, which we +saw lately. Little Anton Ulrich, Cadet of Brunswick; +our Friedrich's Brother-in-Law;--a noticeably small man in +comparison to such bulk of destiny, thinks Friedrich, though the +case is not without example! [A Letter of his to Suhm; touching on +Franz of Lorraine and this Anton Ulrich.] + +"Anton Ulrich is now five-and-twenty," says one of my Notebooks; +"a young gentleman of small stature, shining courage in battle, +but somewhat shy and bashful; who has had his troubles in +Petersburg society, till the trial came,--and will have. Here are +the stages of Anton Ulrich's felicity:-- + +"WINTER, 1732-1733. He was sent for to Petersburg (his Serene Aunt +the German Kaiserinn, and Kaiser Karl's diplomatists, suggesting +it there), with the view of his paying court to the young +Mecklenburg Princess, Heiress of all the Russias, of whom we have +often heard. February, 1733, he arrived on this errand;--not +approved of at all by the Mecklenburg Princess, by Czarina Anne or +anybody there: what can be done with such an uncomfortable little +creature? They gave him the Colonelcy of Cuirassiers: 'Drill +there, and endure.' + +"SPRING, 1737. Much-enduring, diligently drilling, for four years +past, he went this year to the Turk War under Munnich;--much +pleased Munnich, at Oczakow and elsewhere; who reports in the War- +Office high things of him. And on the whole,--the serene Vienna +people now again bestirring themselves, with whom we are in +copartnery in this Turk business,--little Anton Ulrich is +encouraged to proceed. Proceeds; formally demands his Mecklenburg +Princess; and, + +"JULY 14th, 1739, weds her; the happiest little man in all the +Russias, and with the biggest destiny, if it prosper. Next year, +too, there came a son and heir; whom they called Iwan, in honor of +his Russian Great-grandfather. Shall we add the subsequent +felicities of Anton Ulrich here; or wait till another +opportunity?" + +Better wait. This is all, and more than all, his Prussian Majesty, +rolling out of Wusterhausen that afternoon, ever knew of them, or +needed to know!-- + + + +Chapter VIII. + +DEATH OF FRIEDRICH WILHELM. + +At Wusterhausen, this Autumn, there is game as usual, but little +or no hunting for the King. He has to sit drearily within doors, +for most part; listening to the rustle of falling leaves, to dim +Winter coming with its rains and winds. Field-sports are a rumor +from without: for him now no joyous sow-baiting, deer-chasing;-- +that, like other things, is past. + +In the beginning of November, he came to Berlin; was worse there, +and again was better;--strove to do the Carnival, as had been +customary; but, in a languid, lamed manner. One night he looked in +upon an evening-party which General Schulenburg was giving: +he returned home, chilled, shivering;, could not, all night, be +brought to heat again. It was the last evening-party Friedrich +Wilhelm ever went to. [Pollnitz (ii. 538); who gives no date.] +Lieutenant-General Schulenburg: the same who doomed young +Friedrich to death, as President of the Court-Martial; +and then wrote the Three Letters about him which we once looked +into: illuminates himself in this manner in Berlin society,-- +Carnival season, 1740, weather fiercely cold. Maypole Schulenburg +the lean Aunt, Ex-Mistress of George I., over in London,--I think +she must now be dead? Or if not dead, why not! Memory, for the +tenth time, fails me, of the humanly unmemorable, whom perhaps +even flunkies should forget; and I will try it no more. +The stalwart Lieutenant-General will reappear on us once, twice at +the utmost, and never again. He gave the last evening-party +Friedrich Wilhelm ever went to. + +Poor Friedrich Wilhelm is in truth very ill; tosses about all day, +in and out of bed,--bed and wheeled-chair drearily alternating; +suffers much;--and again, in Diplomatic circles, the rumors are +rife and sinister. Ever from this chill at Schulenburg's the +medicines did him no good, says Pollnitz: if he rallied, it was +the effect of Nature, and only temporary. He does daily, with +punctuality, his Official business; perhaps the best two hours he +has of the four-and-twenty, for the time hangs heavy on him. His +old Generals sit round his bed, talking, smoking, as it was five +years ago; his Feekin and his Children much about him, out and in: +the heavy-laden, weary hours roll round as they can. In general +there is a kind of constant Tabaks-Collegium, old Flans, Camas, +Hacke, Pollnitz, Derschau, and the rest by turns always there; +the royal Patient cannot be left alone, without faces he likes: +other Generals, estimable in their way, have a physiognomy +displeasing to the sick man; and will smart for it if they enter, +--"At sight of HIM every pain grows painfuler!"--the poor King +being of poetic temperament, as we often say. Friends are +encouraged to smoke, especially to keep up a stream of talk; if at +any time he fall into a doze and they cease talking, the silence +will awaken him. + +He is worst off in the night; sleep very bad: and among his sore +bodily pains, ennui falls very heavy to a mind so restless. He can +paint, he can whittle, chisel: at last they even mount him a +table, in his bed, with joiner's tools, mallets, glue-pots, where +he makes small carpentry,--the talk to go on the while;--often at +night is the sound of his mallet audible in the Palace Esplanade; +and Berlin townsfolk pause to listen, with many thoughts of a +sympathetic or at least inarticulate character: "HM, WEH, IHRO +MAJESTAT: ACH GOTT, pale Death knocks with impartial foot at the +huts of poor men and the Palaces of Kings!" [Pollnitz, ii. 539.] +Reverend Herr Roloff, whom they call Provost (PROBST, Chief +Clergyman) Roloff, a pious honest man and preacher, he, I could +guess, has already been giving spiritual counsel now and then; +later interviews with Roloff are expressly on record: for it is +the King's private thought, ever and anon borne in upon him, that +death itself is in this business. + +Queen and Children, mostly hoping hitherto, though fearing too, +live in much anxiety and agitation. The Crown-Prince is often over +from Reinsberg; must not come too often, nor even inquire too +much: his affectionate solicitude might be mistaken for solicitude +of another kind! It is certain he is in no haste to be King; +to quit the haunts of the Muses, and embark on Kingship. +Certain, too, he loves his Father; shudders at the thought of +losing HIM. And yet again there will gleams intrude of a contrary +thought; which the filial heart disowns, with a kind of horror, +"Down, thou impious thought!"--We perceive he manages in general +to push the crisis away from him; to believe that real danger is +still distant. His demeanor, so far as we can gather from his +Letters or other evidence, is amiable, prudent, natural; +altogether that of a human Son in those difficult circumstances. +Poor Papa is heavy-laden: let us help to bear his burdens;-- +let us hope the crisis is still far off!-- + +Once, on a favorable evening, probably about the beginning of +April, when he felt as if improving, Friedrich Wilhelm resolved to +dress, and hold Tobacco-Parliament again in a formal manner, Let +us look in there, through the eyes of Pollnitz, who was of it, +upon the last Tobacco-Parliament:-- + +"A numerous party; Schwerin, Hacke, Derschau, all the chiefs and +commandants of the Berlin Garrison are there; the old circle full; +social human speech once more, and pipes alight; pleasant to the +King. He does not himself smoke on this occasion; but he is +unusually lively in talk; much enjoys the returning glimpse of old +days; and the Tobacco circle was proceeding through its phases, +successful beyond common. All at once the Crown-Prince steps in; +direct from Reinsberg: [12th April, 1740? (<italic> OEuvres, <end +italic> xxvii. part lst, p. 29); Pollnitz is dateless] an +unexpected pleasure. At sight of whom the Tobacco circle, taken on +the sudden, simultaneously started up, and made him a bow. +Rule is, in Tobacco-Parliament you do not rise--for anybody; +and they have risen. Which struck the sick heart in a strange +painful way. 'Hm, the Rising Sun?' thinks he; 'Rules broken +through, for the Rising Sun. But I am not dead yet, as you shall +know!' ringing for his servants in great wrath; and had himself +rolled out, regardless of protestations and excuses. +'Hither, you Hacke!' said he. + +"Hacke followed; but it was only to return on the instant, with +the King's order, 'That you instantly quit the Palace, all of you, +and don't come back!' Solemn respectful message to his Majesty was +of no effect, or of less; they had to go, on those terms; +and Pollnitz, making for his Majesty's apartment next morning as +usual, was twitched by a Gens-d'arme, 'No admittance!' And it was +days before the matter would come round again, under earnest +protestations from the one side, and truculent rebukes from the +other." [Pollnitz (abridged), ii. 50.] Figure the Crown-Prince, +figure the poor sick Majesty; and what a time in those localities! + +With the bright spring weather he seemed to revive; towards the +end of April he resolved for Potsdam, everybody thinking him much +better, and the outer Public reckoning the crisis of the illness +over. He himself knew other. It was on the 27th of the month that +he went; he said, "Fare thee well, then, Berlin; I am to die in +Potsdam, then (ICH WERDE IN POTSDAM STERBEN)!" The May-flowers +came late; the weather was changeful, ungenial for the sick man: +this winter of 1740 had been the coldest on record; it extended +itself into the very summer; and brought great distress of every +kind;--of which some oral rumor still survives in all countries. +Friedrich Wilhelm heard complaints of scarcity among the people; +admonitions to open his Corn-granaries (such as he always has in +store against that kind of accident); but he still hesitated and +refused; unable to look into it himself, and fearing deceptions. + +For the rest, he is struggling between death and life; in general +persuaded that the end is fast hastening on. He sends for Chief +Preacher Roloff out to Potsdam; has some notable dialogues with +Roloff, and with two other Potsdam Clergymen, of which there is +record still left us. In these, as in all his demeanor at this +supreme time, we see the big rugged block of manhood come out very +vividly; strong in his simplicity, in his veracity. +Friedrich Wilhelm's wish is to know from Roloff what the chances +are for him in the other world,--which is not less certain than +Potsdam and the giant grenadiers to Friedrich Wilhelm; and where, +he perceives, never half so clearly before, he shall actually +peel off his Kinghood, and stand before God Almighty, no better +than a naked beggar. Roloff's prognostics are not so encouraging +as the King had hoped. Surely this King "never took or coveted +what was not his; kept true to his marriage-vow, in spite of +horrible examples everywhere; believed the Bible, honored the +Preachers, went diligently to Church, and tried to do what he +understood God's commandments were?" To all which Roloff, a +courageous pious man, answers with discreet words and shakings of +the head, "Did I behave ill, then; did I ever do injustice?" +Roloff mentions Baron Schlubhut the defalcating Amtmann, hanged at +Konigsberg without even a trial. "He had no trial; but was there +any doubt he had justice? A public thief, confessing he had stolen +the taxes he was set to gather; insolently offering, as if that +were all, to repay the money, and saying, It was not MANIER (good +manners) to hang a nobleman!" Roloff shakes his head, Too violent, +your Majesty, and savoring of the tyrannous. The poor King +must repent. + +"Well,--is there anything more? Out with it, then; better now than +too late!"--Much oppression, forcing men to build in Berlin.-- +"Oppression? was it not their benefit, as well as Berlin's and the +Country's? I had no interest in it other. Derschau, you who +managed it?" and his Majesty turned to Derschau. For all the +smoking generals and company are still here; nor will his Majesty +consent to dismiss them from the presence and be alone with +Roloff: "What is there to conceal? They are people of honor, and +my friends." Derschau, whose feats in the building way are not +unknown even to us, answers with a hard face, It was all right and +orderly; nothing out of square in his building operations. +To which Roloff shakes his head: "A thing of public notoriety, +Herr General."--"I will prove everything before a Court," answers +the Herr General with still harder face; Roloff still austerely +shaking his head. Hm!--And then there is forgiveness of enemies; +your Majesty is bound to forgive all men, or how can you ask to be +forgiven? "Well, I will, I do; you Feekin, write to your Brother +(unforgivablest of beings), after I am dead, that I forgave him, +died in peace with him."--Better her Majesty should write at once, +suggests Roloff.--"No, after I am dead," persists the Son of +Nature,--that will be safer! [Wrote accordingly, "not able to +finish without many tears;" honest sensible Letter (though +indifferently spelt), "Berlin, 1st June, 1740;"--lies now in +State-Paper Office: "ROYAL LETTERS, vol. xciv., Prussia, +1689-1777."] An unwedgeable and gnarled big block of manhood and +simplicity and sincerity; such as we rarely get sight of among the +modern sons of Adam, among the crowned sons nearly never. +At parting he said to Roloff, "You (ER, He) do not spare me; it is +right. You do your duty like an honest Christian man." +[<italic> Notata ex ore Roloffi <end italic> ("found among the +Seckendorf Papers," no date but "May 1740"), in Forster, ii. 154, +155; in a fragmentary state: completed in Pollnitz, ii. 545-549.] + +Roloff, I perceive, had several Dialogues with the King; +and stayed in Potsdam some days for that object. The above bit of +jotting is from the Seckendorf Papers (probably picked up by +Seckendorf Junior), and is dated only "May." Of the two Potsdam +Preachers, one of whom is "Oesfeld, Chaplain of the Giant +Grenadiers," and the other is "Cochius, Calvinist Hofprediger," +each published on his own score some Notes of dialogue and +circumstance; [Cochius the HOFPREDIGER'S (Calvinist Court- +Chaplain's) ACCOUNT of his Interviews (first of them "Friday, 27th +May, 1740, about 9 P.M."); followed by ditto from Oesfeld +(Chaplain of the Giants), who usually accompanied Cochius,--are in +Seyfarth, <italic> Geschichte Friedrich des Grossen <end italic> +(Leipzig, 1783-1788), i. (Beylage) 24-40. Seyfarth was "Regiments- +Auditor" in Halle: his Work, solid though stupid, consists nearly +altogether of multifarious BEYLAGEN (Appendices) and NOTES; +which are creditably accurate, and often curious; and, as usual, +have no Index for an unfortunate reader.] which are to the same +effect, so far as they concern us; and exhibit the same rugged Son +of Nature, looking with all his eyesight into the near Eternity, +and sinking in a human and not inhuman manner amid the floods of +Time. "Wa, Wa, what great God is this, that pulls down the +strength of the strongest Kings!"-- + +The poor King's state is very restless, fluctuates from day to +day; he is impatient of bed; sleeps very ill; is up whenever +possible; rolls about in his wheeled-chair, and even gets into the +air: at one time looking strong, as if there were still months in +him, and anon sunk in fainting weakness, as if he had few minutes +to live. Friedrich at Reinsberg corresponds very secretly with +Dr. Eller; has other friends at Potsdam whose secret news he very +anxiously reads. To the last he cannot bring himself to think it +serious." [Letter to Eller, 25th May, 1740 (<italic> OEuvres <end +italic>), xvi. 184.] + +On Thursday, 26th of May, an express from Eller, or the Potsdam +friends, arrives at Reinsberg: He is to come quickly, if he would +see his Father again alive! The step may have danger, too; but +Friedrich, a world of feelings urging him, is on the road next +morning before the sun. His journey may be fancied; the like of it +falls to all men. Arriving at last, turning hastily a corner of +the Potsdam Schloss, Friedrich sees some gathering in the +distance: it is his Father in his ROLLWAGEN (wheeled-chair),--not +dying; but out of doors, giving orders about founding a House, or +seeing it done. House for one Philips, a crabbed Englishman he +has; whose tongue is none of the best, not even to Majesty itself, +but whose merits as a Groom, of English and other Horses, are +without parallel in those parts. Without parallel, and deserve a +House before we die. Let us see it set agoing, this blessed +Mayday! Of Philips, who survived deep into Friedrich's time, and +uttered rough sayings (in mixed intelligible dialect) when put +upon in his grooming, or otherwise disturbed, I could obtain no +farther account: the man did not care to be put in History (a very +small service to a man); cared to have a house with trim fittings, +and to do his grooming well, the fortunate Philips. + +At sight of his Son, Friedrich Wilhelm threw out his arms; the Son +kneeling sank upon his breast, and they embraced with tears. +My Father, my Father; My Son, my Son! It was a scene to make all +by-standers and even Philips weep.--Probably the emotion hurt the +old King; he had to be taken in again straightway, his show of +strength suddenly gone, and bed the only place for him. This same +Friday he dictated to one of his Ministers (Boden, who was in +close attendance) the Instruction for his Funeral; a rude +characteristic Piece, which perhaps the English reader knows. +Too long and rude for reprinting here. [Copy of it, in Seyfarth +(ubi supra), i. 19-24. Translated in Mauvillon (ii. 432-437); +in &c. &c.] + +He is to be buried in his uniform, the Potsdam Grenadiers his +escort; with military decorum, three volleys fired (and take care +they be well fired, "NICHT PLACKEREN"), so many cannon-salvos;-- +and no fuss or flaunting ceremony: simplicity and decency is what +the tenant of that oak coffin wants, as he always did when owner +of wider dominions. The coffin, which he has ready and beside him +in the Palace this good while, is a stout piece of carpentry, with +leather straps and other improvements; he views it from time to +time; solaces his truculent imagination with the look of it: +"I shall sleep right well there," he would say. The image he has +of his Burial, we perceive, is of perfect visuality, equal to what +a Defoe could do in imagining. All is seen, settled to the last +minuteness: the coffin is to be borne out by so and so, at such +and such a door; this detachment is to fall-in here, that there, +in the attitude of "cover arms" (musket inverted under left arm); +and the band is to play, with all its blackamoors, +<italic> O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden <end italic> (O Head, all +bleeding wounded); a Dirge his Majesty had liked, who knew music, +and had a love for it, after his sort. Good Son of Nature: a dumb +Poet, as I say always; most dumb, but real; the value of him +great, and unknown in these babbling times. It was on this same +Friday night that Cochius was first sent for; Cochius, and Oesfeld +with him, "about nine o'clock." + +For the next three days (Saturday to Monday) when his cough and +many sufferings would permit him, Friedrich Wilhelm had long +private dialogues with his Son; instructing him, as was evident, +in the mysteries of State; in what knowledge, as to persons and to +things, he reckoned might be usefulest to him. What the lessons +were, we know not; the way of taking them had given pleasure to +the old man: he was heard to say, perhaps more than once, when the +Generals were called in, and the dialogue interrupted for a while: +"Am not I happy to have such a Son to leave behind me!" And the +grimly sympathetic Generals testified assent; endeavored to talk a +little, could at least smoke, and look friendly; till the King +gathered strength for continuing his instructions to his +Successor. All else was as if settled with him; this had still +remained to do. This once done (finished, Monday night), why not +abdicate altogether; and die disengaged, be it in a day or in a +month, since that is now the one work left? Friedrich Wilhelm does +so purpose. + +His state, now as all along, was fluctuating, uncertain, restless. +He was heard murmuring prayers; he would say sometimes, "Pray for +me; BETET BETET." And more than once, in deep tone: "Lord, enter +not into judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no man +living be justified!" The wild Son of Nature, looking into Life +and Death, into Judgment and Eternity, finds that these things are +very great. This too is a characteristic trait: In a certain +German Hymn (<italic> Why fret or murmur, then? <end italic> the +title of it), which they often sang to him, or along with him, as +he much loved it, are these words, "Naked I came into the world, +and naked shall I go,"--"No," said he "always with vivacity," at +this passage; "not quite nakid, I shall have my uniform on:" +Let us be exact, since we are at it! After which the singing +proceeded again. "The late Graf Alexander von Wartenberg"--Captain +Wartenberg, whom we know, and whose opportunities--"was wont to +relate this." [Busching (in 1786), <italic> Beitrage, <end italic> +iv. 100.] + +Tuesday, 31st May, "about one in the morning," Cochius was again +sent for. He found the King in very pious mood, but in great +distress, and afraid he might yet have much pain to suffer. +Cochius prayed with him; talked piously. "I can remember nothing," +said the King; "I cannot pray, I have forgotten all my prayers."-- +"Prayer is not in words, but in the thought of the heart," said +Cochius; and soothed the heavy-laden man as he could. "Fare you +well," said Friedrich Wilhelm, at length; "most likely we shall +not meet again in this world." Whereat Cochius burst into tears, +and withdrew. About four, the King was again out of bed; wished to +see his youngest Boy, who had been ill of measles, but was doing +well: "Poor little Ferdinand, adieu, then, my little child!" +This is the Father of that fine Louis Ferdinand, who was killed at +Jena; concerning whom Berlin, in certain emancipated circles of +it, still speaks with regret. He, the Louis Ferdinand, had fine +qualities; but went far a-roving, into radicalism, into romantic +love, into champagne; and was cut down on the threshold of Jena, +desperately fighting,--perhaps happily for him. + +From little Ferdinand's room Friedrich Wilhelm has himself rolled +into Queen Sophie's. "Feekin, O my Feekin, thou must rise this +day, and help me what thou canst. This day I am going to die; +thou wilt be with me this day!" The good Wife rises: I know not +that it was the first time she had been so called; but it did +prove the last. Friedrich Wilhelm has decided, as the first thing +he will do, to abdicate; and all the Official persons and +companions of the sick-room, Pollnitz among them, not long after +sunrise, are called to see it done. Pollnitz, huddling on his +clothes, arrived about five: in a corridor he sees the wheeled- +chair and poor sick King; steps aside to let him pass: "'It is +over (DAS IST VOLLBRACHT),' said the King, looking up to me as he +passed: he had on his nightcap, and a blue mantle thrown round +him." He was wheeled into his anteroom; there let the company +assemble; many of them are already there. + +The royal stables are visible from this room: Friedrich Wilhelm +orders the horses to be ridden out: you old Furst of Anhalt-Dessau +my oldest friend, you Colonel Hacke faithfulest of Adjutant- +Generals, take each of you a horse, the best you can pick out: +it is my last gift to you. Dessau, in silence, with dumb-show of +thanks, points to a horse, any horse: "You have chosen the very +worst," said Friedrich Wilhelm: "Take that other, I will warrant +him a good one!" The grim old Dessauer thanks in silence; +speechless grief is on that stern gunpowder face, and he seems +even to be struggling with tears. "Nay, nay, my friend," Friedrich +Wilhelm said, "this is a debt we have all to pay." + +The Official people, Queen, Friedrich, Minister Boden, Minister +Podewils, and even Pollnitz, being now all present, Friedrich +Wilhelm makes his Declaration, at considerable length; old General +Bredow repeating it aloud, [Pollnitz, ii. 561.] sentence by +sentence, the King's own voice being too weak; so that all may +hear: "That he abdicates, gives up wholly, in favor of his good +Son Friedrich; that foreign Ambassadors are to be informed; +that you are all to be true and loyal to my Son as you were to +me"--and what else is needful. To which the judicious Podewils +makes answer, "That there must first be a written Deed of his high +Transaction executed, which shall be straightway set about; +the Deed once executed, signed and sealed,--the high Royal will, +in all points, takes effect." Alas, before Podewils has done +speaking, the King is like falling into a faint; does faint, and +is carried to bed: too unlikely any Deed of Abdication will +be needed. + +Ups and downs there still were; sore fluctuating labor, as the +poor King struggles to his final rest, this morning. He was at the +window again, when the WACHT-PARADE (Grenadiers on Guard) turned +out; he saw them make their evolutions for the last time. [Pauli, +viii. 280.] After which, new relapse, new fluctuation. It was +about eleven o'clock, when Cochius was again sent for. The King +lay speechless, seemingly still conscious, in bed; Cochius prays +with fervor, in a loud tone, that the dying King may hear and +join. "Not so loud!" says the King, rallying a little. He had +remembered that it was the season when his servants got their new +liveries; they had been ordered to appear this day in full new +costume: "O vanity! O vanity!" said Friedrich Wilhelm, at sight of +the ornamented plush. "Pray for me, pray for me; my trust is in +the Saviour!" he often said. His pains, his weakness are great; +the cordage of a most tough heart rending itself piece by piece. +At one time, he called for a mirror: that is certain:--rugged wild +man, son of Nature to the last. The mirror was brought; what he +said at sight of his face is variously reported: "Not so worn out +as I thought," is Pollnitz's account, and the likeliest;--though +perhaps he said several things, "ugly face," "as good as dead +already;" and continued the inspection for some moments. +[Pollnitz, ii. 564; Wilhelmina, ii. 321.] A grim, strange thing. + +"Feel mv pulse, Pitsch," said he, noticing the Surgeon of his +Giants: "tell me how long this will last."--"Alas, not long," +answered Pitsch.--"Say not, alas; but how do you (He) know?"-- +"The pulse is gone!"--"Impossible," said he, lifting his arm: +"how could I move my fingers so, if the pulse were gone?" +Pitsch looked mournfully steadfast. "Herr Jesu, to thee I live; +Herr Jesu, to thee I die; in life and in death thou art my gain +(DU BIST MEIN GEWINN)." These were the last words Friedrich +Wilhelm spoke in this world. He again fell into a faint. +Eller gave a signal to the Crown-Prince to take the Queen away. +Scarcely were they out of the room, when the faint had deepened +into death; and Friedrich Wilhelm, at rest from all his labors, +slept with the primeval sons of Thor. + +No Baresark of them, nor Odin's self, I think, was a bit of truer +human stuff;--I confess his value to me, in these sad times, is +rare and great. Considering the usual Histrionic, Papin's- +Digester, Truculent-Charlatan and other species of "Kings," alone +attainable for the sunk flunky populations of an Era given up to +Mammon and the worship of its own belly, what would not such a +population give for a Friedrich Wilhelm, to guide it on the road +BACK from Orcus a little? "Would give," I have written; but alas, +it ought to have been "SHOULD give." What THEY "would" give is too +mournfully plain to me, in spite of ballot-boxes: a steady and +tremendous truth from the days of Barabbas downwards and upwards! +--Tuesday, 31st May, 1740, between one and two o'clock in the +afternoon, Friedrich Wilhelm died; age fifty-two, coming 15th +August next. Same day, Friedrich his Son was proclaimed at Berlin; +quilted heralds, with sound of trumpet and the like, doing what is +customary on such occasions. + +On Saturday, 4th June, the King's body is laid out in state; +all Potsdam at liberty to come and see. He lies there, in his +regimentals, in his oaken coffin, on a raised place in the middle +of the room; decent mortuary draperies, lamps, garlands, banderols +furnishing the room and him: at his feet, on a black-velvet +TABOURET (stool), are the chivalry emblems, helmet, gauntlets, +spurs; and on similar stools, at the right hand and the left, lie +his military insignia, hat and sash, sword, guidon, and what else +is fit. Around, in silence, sit nine veteran military dignitaries; +Buddenbrock, Waldau, Derschau, Einsiedel, and five others whom we +omit to name. Silent they sit. A grim earnest sight in the shine +of the lamplight, as you pass out of the June sun. Many went, all +day; looked once again on the face that was to vanish. +Precisely at ten at night, the coffin-lid is screwed down: +twelve Potsdam Captains take the coffin on their shoulders; +four-and-twenty Corporals with wax torches, four-and-twenty +Sergeants with inverted halberts lowered; certain Generals on +order, and very many following as volunteers; these perform the +actual burial,--carry the body to the Garrison Church, where are +clergy waiting, which is but a small step off; see it lodged, oak +coffin and all, in a marble coffin in the side vault there, which +is known to Tourists. [Pauli, viii. 281.] It is the end of the +week, and the actual burial is done,--hastened forward for reasons +we can guess. + +Filial piety by no means intends to defraud a loved Father of the +Spartan ceremonial contemplated as obsequies by him: very far from +it. Filial piety will conform to that with rigor; only adding what +musical and other splendors are possible, to testify his love +still more. And so, almost three weeks hence, on the 23d of the +month, with the aid of Dresden Artists, of Latin Cantatas and +other pomps (not inexcusable, though somewhat out of keeping), the +due Funeral is done, no Corpse but a Wax Effigy present in it;-- +and in all points, that of the Potsdam Grenadiers not forgotten, +there was rigorous conformity to the Instruction left. In all +points, even to the extensive funeral dinner, and drinking of the +appointed cask of wine, "the best cask in my cellar." Adieu, +O King. + +The Potsdam Grenadiers fired their three volleys (not +"PLACKERING," as I have reason to believe, but well); got their +allowance, dinner-liquor, and appointed coin of money: it was the +last service required of them in this world. That same night they +were dissolved, the whole Four Thousand of them, at a stroke; +and ceased to exist as Potsdam Grenadiers. Colonels, Captains, all +the Officers known to be of merit, were advanced, at least +transferred. Of the common men, a minority, of not inhuman height +and of worth otherwise, were formed into a new Regiment on the +common terms: the stupid splay-footed eight-feet mass were allowed +to stalk off whither they pleased, or vegetate on frugal pensions; +Irish Kirkman, and a few others neither knock-kneed nor without +head, were appointed HEYDUCS, that is, porters to the King's or +other Palaces; and did that duty in what was considered an +ornamental manner. + +Here are still two things capable of being fished up from the sea +of nugatory matter; and meditated on by readers, till the +following Books open. + +The last breath of Friedrich Wilhelm having fled, Friedrich +hurried to a private room; sat there all in tears; looking back +through the gulfs of the Past, upon such a Father now rapt away +forever. Sad all, and soft in the moonlight of memory,--the lost +Loved One all in the right as we now see, we all in the wrong!-- +this, it appears, was the Son's fixed opinion. Seven years hence, +here is how Friedrich concludes the HISTORY of his Father, written +with a loyal admiration throughout: "We have left under silence +the domestic chagrins of this great Prince: readers must have some +indulgence for the faults of the Children, in consideration of the +virtues of such a Father." [<italic> OEuvres, <end italic> i. 174 +(<italic> Memoires de Brandebourg: <end italic> finished about +1747).] All in tears he sits at present, meditating these +sad things. + +In a little while the Old Dessauer, about to leave for Dessau, +ventures in to the Crown-Prince, Crown-Prince no longer; +"embraces his knees;" offers, weeping, his condolence, his +congratulation;--hopes withal that his sons and he will be +continued in their old posts, and that he, the Old Dessauer, +"will have the same authority as in the late reign." Friedrich's +eyes, at this last clause, flash out tearless, strangely Olympian. +"In your posts I have no thought of making change: in your posts, +yes;--and as to authority, I know of none there can be but what +resides in the King that is sovereign!" Which, as it were, struck +the breath out of the Old Dessauer; and sent him home with a +painful miscellany of feelings, astonishment not wanting +among them. + +At an after hour, the same night, Friedrich went to Berlin; met by +acclamation enough. He slept there, not without tumult of dreams, +one may fancy; and on awakening next morning, the first sound he +heard was that of the Regiment Glasenap under his windows, +swearing fealty to the new King. He sprang out of bed in a tempest +of emotion; bustled distractedly to and fro, wildly weeping. +Pollnitz, who came into the anteroom, found him in this state, +"half-dressed, with dishevelled hair, in tears, and as if beside +himself." "These huzzaings only tell me what I have lost!" said +the new King.--"HE was in great suffering," suggested Pollnitz; +"he is now at rest." "True, he suffered; but he was here with us: +and now--!" [Ranke (ii. 46, 47), from certain Fragments, still, in +manuscript, of Pollnits's <italic> Memoiren. <end italic> + +END OF BOOK X---- + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 10 + diff --git a/old/10frd10.zip b/old/10frd10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e507473 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10frd10.zip |