diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/10frd10.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/10frd10.txt | 4951 |
1 files changed, 4951 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/10frd10.txt b/old/10frd10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5fd9357 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10frd10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4951 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 10 +#16 in our series by Thomas Carlyle +V10 of 21 + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 10 + +by Thomas Carlyle + +March, 2000 [Etext #2110] + + +Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 10 +********This file should be named 10frd10.txt or 10frd10.zip******* + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, 10frd11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 10frd10a.txt + + +Prepared by D.R. Thompson <drthom@ihug.co.nz> + + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any +of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an +up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes +in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has +a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a +look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a +new copy has at least one byte more or less. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-six text +files per month, or 432 more Etexts in 1999 for a total of 2000+ +If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the +total should reach over 200 billion Etexts given away this year. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only ~5% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we +manage to get some real funding; currently our funding is mostly +from Michael Hart's salary at Carnegie-Mellon University, and an +assortment of sporadic gifts; this salary is only good for a few +more years, so we are looking for something to replace it, as we +don't want Project Gutenberg to be so dependent on one person. + +We need your donations more than ever! + + +All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are +tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (CMU = Carnegie- +Mellon University). + +For these and other matters, please mail to: + +Project Gutenberg +P. O. Box 2782 +Champaign, IL 61825 + +When all other email fails. . .try our Executive Director: +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> +hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org +if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if +it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . . + +We would prefer to send you this information by email. + +****** + +To access Project Gutenberg etexts, use any Web browser +to view http://promo.net/pg. This site lists Etexts by +author and by title, and includes information about how +to get involved with Project Gutenberg. You could also +download our past Newsletters, or subscribe here. This +is one of our major sites, please email hart@pobox.com, +for a more complete list of our various sites. + +To go directly to the etext collections, use FTP or any +Web browser to visit a Project Gutenberg mirror (mirror +sites are available on 7 continents; mirrors are listed +at http://promo.net/pg). + +Mac users, do NOT point and click, typing works better. + +Example FTP session: + +ftp sunsite.unc.edu +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg +cd etext90 through etext99 +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99] +GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books] + +*** + +**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor** + +(Three Pages) + + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG- +tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor +Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at +Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project"). Among other +things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- + cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + net profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + + +Prepared by D.R. 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 + |