The youth of Frederick the Great

Front matter

I

Book 'L4-1 GofiyrigMW.

COPYRIGHT DEPOSm

Author's Preface

Natuke, who lias prepared certain countries and constructed birthplaces for nations, did not foresee Prussia. In fact, there does not exist a geographical Prussia either as a race or region: Germany is the daughter of nature, but Prussia was made by men.

In 1713, a man began to reign at Berlin, who was born a military monomaniac. It pleased this sovereign of eighteen hundred thousand poor subjects to have as strong an army as that of Austria, that is to say, of an empire of more than twenty million people. This passion regulated the thoughts, habits, and life of Frederick William I. As it was a morbid and restricted mania, it was sufficient unto itself, and required no exterior manifestations. The King- Sergeant loved his army as Harpagon his treasure; his eyes deliglited at the sight of his battalions as the miser's hands at the fluent contact of the gold pieces. Harpagon took his gold from the coffer only to contemplate it; when the regiments of Frederick AYilliam left their garrisons it was for display at grand reviews; they returned to them immediately.

VI PREFACE.

This king had, it is true, good reasons for not venturing his military capital in enterprises; besides, he had a religion, the fear of God and the fear of the devil. The desire of gaining a few " shovelfuls of sand " caused him to commit sins of cupi4ity, but his Christian conscience and his scruples as an honest man would have recoiled if an occasion for some bold infamy had presented itself.

This king died in 1740. Another succeeded him, at the same time alike and yet unlike ;^ — alike in methods of governing, in making and saving his gold pieces, in regulating the increase of his army by that of his 'finances, and by his sedulous attention to details ; — unlike in ability for decisive action, in power and genius manifested in action; in contempt for all human and Divine law, and in the serenity of this contempt.

In 1740, a conjunction was formed of a power, — the Prussian army, — of a resolute man to make use of it, — Frederick II. — and of an unforeseen event which opened the way for this power and this man: this opening was the Austrian succession. It determined ihe whole destiny of Prussia.

In place of Frederick William I., who created the power, put a king like Frederick I., an enjoyer of a royal dignity, that was expended in magnificent fetes and ostentatious cerejnonies: you suppress Prussia probably; assuredly you prorogue it. Place, after the King-Sergeant, an honest, mediocre man,

PREFACE. Vll

or, simply, an honest man: Maria Theresa inherits the paternal succession guaranteed by a number of clear and authentic treaties, and Prussia does not rise from third to first in rank. The whole course of history is changed.

Frederick William I. and Frederick II. collaborated equally in forming the character and physiognomy of Prussia. The father was an autocrat by Divine right, a priest as well as a soldier and a king, a man of order and of prayer. He bent the bodies and souls of his subjects; he moulded them, body, and soul, into an attitude, into a uniform. The son was one of the most liberal-minded men that ever existed, a soldier also, but at the same time a man of letters; an autocrat, but a philosopher. Military and intellectual Prussia — the Berlin of barracks and schools, where the university neighbors the arsenal, where the statue of Humboldt faces that of Blticher — emanated from Frederick William, the King-Sergeant, and from Frederick the Great, the King-Philosopher; and barracks, university, arsenal, statues of philosophers and marshals sprang up around and in the shadow of the king's palace.

A singular power, made up of liberty in thought and discipline in action, where the boldest conce[)- tions are given life within line, and remain there.

The principal interest of the history of Frederick's youth, is that it points out to us the struggle of

Vm PREFACE.

contrary elements, the fasion of which was to constitute Prussia, From the time that Frederick reached manhood until the day, when forced into an unwilling marriage, he became master of his own household, — "far from Jupiter and his thunder," — the father and son were in continual strife. They were conscious only of their dissimilarities. Except in rare moments when they caught a glimpse of the justice they owed each to the other, they hated and despised each other. The son desired the death of his father; the father promised a munificent reward to the messencrer who would brinor him news of the death of his son. Xeither knew the value of the other, nor that they worked, each in his own way, the one as necessary as tlie other, to '• decide," as Frederick would say, the uncertainty of the birth of Prussia.

I have related in detail the history of Frederick's youth up to the time of his marriage, which emancipated him.^ I have been induced to do this by reading preceding works upon this subject," but principally through the study of valuable documents, letters and orders of the king, letters of the prince, official or secret correspondence, memoirs, authentic accounts by eye witnesses of the chief events, and official reports of the courts, that were permitted to relate day by day, and, during the most trying moments, hour by hour, the incidents of this strife between father and son.

PREFACE. IX

I have, also, studied from other documents, the phices where the drama was enacted. I imagined I could see it revived in the Palace of Berlin, at the Wusterhauseu, and at tlie foot of the rampart at Custrin.

In the great mass of detail, perhaps I may have erred in some few instances; but my conscience tells me that I have searched for the truth, and I hope I have found it in the essential points, that is to say, in the character of the two principal personaijes, and the motives of their conduct. I have taken great pleasure in my task. At every turn, I met with words, phrases, gestures, actions, that we can hear or see repeated at the present time. I have observed, in passing, that such an order of William II., addressed to the officers of his army, such a speech pronounced by him at Konigsberg, and which excited so muck provocation in Russia, were mere reminiscences of Frederick William, Init there must be left a part for the reader tv> do in tlie work which was written for him.

In seeing revealed the minds and morals of the two sovereigns by a hundred anecdotes, — sovereigns who have made the little Kingdom of Prussia such a great military State, to-day master of Germany and a prevailing power in Europe, — perha[)s, reader, you may wonder if these minds and morals, of which the effects have developed in concentric circles, will rule enlarged Prussia, Germany, and

X PREFACE.

Europe for a long period of time. The first circle formed in the water by a stone that is thrown into it, has the clearness of a relief; the relief diminishes as the circles multiply and enlarge ; at a little distance farther on the water retains its natural tranquillity. In history all power has its limits more or less contracted; the strongest is often of the shortest duration, and the most exposed — when it passes beyond the bounds of its primitive sphere — to the reactions which destroy it.

Eknest Lavisse.

Contents

Preface, ----- v

Bibliography, ----..-. xiii

Chapter I. Childhood

Birth. Grandfather. Accession of the Father, - 1 The Governess; the First Masters; the Preceptor

and the Sub-preceptor, 7

Instruction to the Preceptors, ----- 20

The Germs of Conflict Between Father and Son, 33

Chapter II. The Father Of Frederick The Great

The Ideas and Modes of Government of Frederick

The King's Government, ------ 61

The Creation of Prussian Power, - . - . 67

The Inaction of the King of Prussia, - - 75

The Individuality of Frederick William, - - 95

The Pleasures of Frederick William, - - 101

Acts of Violence, Folly and Despotism, - - 113

Frederick William's Religion, . . . - 120

Chapter III. The Conflict Between Father And Son

First Symptoms and Causes of the Conflict, - - 128

The Mother of Frederick, 135

The Eldest Sister, 142

Mother, Daughter and Son, 116

The Projects of Marriage for Frederick and Wil-

helmina, 151

The King and the Projects of Marriage, - - 158

xi

Xll CONTENTS.

The PkiNCE's Party, ------- 1G2

The Preceptor's Farewell. Forbidden Pleasures, 170

The Autumn of 1728 at Wusterhausen, - - 177

The Resumption op the Marriage Negotiations, - 186

The Mission of Sir Charles Hotham, - - 199

Chapter IV. The Attempt At Escape And The Punishment

The Flight and the Arrest, - - - - - 221

The Examination, --.-... 236

The Justice of the King, . - . . - 272

The Execution of Katte, ------ 277

The Pardon of the Prince, - - - - - 288

Chapter V. The Second Education Of The Crown Prince

The First Six Months in the Chamber of Administration, --------- 304

The Royal Visit, -------- 314

The New Regime of Life, ------ 318

The Marriage of Wilhelmina, - - - - 332

The Crown Prince at the Marriage of His Sister, 346

The Last Days at Custrin, ------ 353

Chapter VI. The Marriage Of Frederick The Great

The Intentions of Austria, ----- 369

The Declaration of the King, ----- 375

The Double Play of the Crown Prince, - - 382

From the Betrothal to the Marriage, - - - 388

The Anglo-Austrian Intrigue, - - . . 400

CHAPTER VII. Conclusion, - 421

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

DOCUMENTS CONSULTED.

Political correspondence in the archives of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, documents upon Prussia, years from 1725 to 1733, vols. LXXXIII. to XCVI.

Beitrag zur Lebensgeschichte Friedriehs des Grossen, welcher einen merkwurdigen Briefivechsel iiber den ehemcdigen Aufenthalt des getachten Konigs zu Ciistrin enthdlt, Berlin, 1788.

Brief e Friedrich des Grossen und seiner erlauchter Briider Prinzen August Wilhelm und Heinrich von Preussen cms der Zeit von 1121 bis 1162 an die Gebrilder Friedrich Wilhelm und Friedrich Ludicig, Felix von Borcke, Potsdam. 1881.^

Urknndenbuch zu der Lebensgeschichte Friedrich Wilhelms I., second part of vol. II. of Dr. Friedrich Forster's book, Friedrich Wilhelms I. Konig v. Preussen, 3 vols., Potsdam, 1731-35. The third volume of this work comprises the Nachtrdge Zum ersten Bancle, and the Nachtrdge zum zweiten Bande, in which is found a great number of the documents referred to in this book.

Works of Frederick the Great, 30 vols., Berlin, 1816-1857, vols. XVI. to XXVII.

Urkundenbuch zu der Lebensgeschicte Friedriehs des Grossen, by J. D. E. Preuss, five parts, Berlin, 1832-4. In the supplement to the first part, which is inserted in the second, is found the Briefiveschel Friedriehs des Grossen mit seinem Vater (1730-1734).

Memoirs of Frederica Sophia Wilhelmina, Margravine of Baireuth, 3d edition, Paris.*

XIV BIBLIOGRAPHY.

VoUstdndige ProtocoUe cles Kopenicker Kreigsgerichts uber Kronprinz Friedrichs, Lieutenant von Katte, von Kait, u. s. IV., Berlin, 1861.

AUTHORS CONSULTED.

Bratuscheck, Die Erzieliung Friedrichs des Grossen, Berlin, 1885.

Due DE Broglie, Frederick II., and Maria Theresa, 2 vols., Paris, 1883.

Carlyle, History of Frederick II. of Prussia, 6 vol, London, 1858-65, German translation of Neuberg and Althaus, 6 vol., Berlin, 1858-69.

Cramer, Zur Geschichte Friedrich Wilhelms I. und Friedrichs II., 2d edition, Leipsic, 1833.

Droysen (J. G.), Friedrich Wilhelm, Konig von Preussen, 2 vol., Leipsic, 1869; in the Geschichte der preussisschen Politik, by the same author.

Fassmann, Leben und Thaten des Allerdurchlaiichtigsten und Grossmdchtigsten Konigs von Preussen Friederici-Wilhelmi, Hamburg and Breslau, 1735.

FoRSTER (cited above when mentioning the Urkundenbuch zu der Lehensgeschichte Fr. W. I.)

FoNTANE, the second part of the Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg {das Oderland Barnim-Lebus) 4th edition, Berlin, 1889

KosER, Friedrich der Grosse als Kronprinz, Stuttgart, 1886.

Kramer, Neue Bietrdge zur Geschichte August Herman Francke's, Halle, 1875.

Pierson, Konig Friedrich Wilhelm I. in Den Denkicilrdigkeiten der Markgrdfin von Baireuth, Halle, 1890.

Preuss, Friedrichs des Grossen Jugend und Thronbesteigung, Berlin, 1840. and Friedrich der Grosse mit seinen Verivantden und Freunden, Berlin, 1836.

Ranke, Zivolf Bucher preiissischer Geschichte, 5 vols., 2d edition, Leipsic, 1878-79, vols. XXV-XXIX of the Sdmmtliche, Werke.

BIBTJOGRAPHY, XV

Raumer, Preusften von Jalire 1730 bis 1740, Friederichs II. Jugendzeit, to the vol. I. of 3d part, Leipsic. 1839, from the Beitrdge zur neueren Geschichte, aus dem hritischen und franzosischen Reichsar chive.

Waddington (Albert), The Acquisition of the Royal Crown of Prussia by the Hohenzollerns, Paris, 1888.

Weber (Von) Von berliner Hofe unter Konig Friedrich Wilhehu I. in Aus vier, Jahrhunderten, Mittheilungen aus dem Haiu^t'Staats Archive zu Dresden, Neiie Folge, 2 vol. Leipsic, 1861.

THE YOUTH

OF

Chapter I. Childhood Birth The Grandfather Accession Of

THE FATHER.

TpREDERlCK THE GREAT was born in Berlin, -^ January 24, 1712, to Frederick William, Crown Prince of Prussia, and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, during the reign of his grandfather, Frederick, the first Hohenzollern who wore the royal crown. His maternal grandfiather, George, Elector of Hauover,* was the heir of Queen Anne of England, whom he succeeded in 1714.

At the time of Frederick's birth, the Houses of Brandenburg and Hanover were in the enjoyment of great prosperity ; to the one it had come, by the other it was with pleasure anticipated. During the eleven years that he was king, Frederick I. was unwearied in admiring and celebrating his royal dignity. He arose very early in "the morning that he might have a longer time to enjoy the pleasure of being king, and officiated until evening. There was majesty at the council, at table, in the smoking-room ; majesty in the presence of the qeeen. His garments were fastened with buttons of gold and diamonds, and his perukes came from Paris. When he traveled from place to place, it was in great pomp. His journeys by land were long, slow, magnificent processions of coaches. A boat from Holland or a gondola bore him upon the water. He spoke of himself and of the queen, his wife, with circumlocutions of etiquette, enveloping in solemnity his name, as well as his person. He was not a wicked man, on the contrary, he was a good husband, and a good father to his family. ^ He kept a mistress, only to imitate Louis XIV. through a professional point of honor.

The birth of Frederick was welcomed by him with more than usual pleasure, as two of his grandsons had already died at an early age. It was rumored in Berlin that they had been victims of the contingencies of royalty, neither one being able to bear, on his baptismal day, the noise of the cannons and firecrackers, the weight of the silk mantle, the diamond insignia of the Black Eagle, and the golden crown in which he was arrayed. In reality, the poor little things died a very ordinary death from teething. So King Frederick watched with anxiety for the first tooth of little Fritz. This child appeared to him to be born to a glorious destiny, because his birth took place in January, that is to say, in the month of his own coronation, at Konigsburg, eleven years before. He desired that the baj^tism should be celebrated before the end of the "month of coronation," and that his grandson should be called Frederick, "the name of Frederick having always brought good fortune to his House."

January 31st, the child, crown on head, clothed in a robe of silver tissue, studded with diamonds, the train of which was held up by six countesses, Avas carried to the chapel of the palace, under a canopy supported by a princess and two princes. The king, also, under a canopy which was supported at the corners by four chamberlains, its silk pendants held by four knights of the Order of the Black Eagle, awaited him. The godfathers and godmothers represented were the Emperor, Czar Peter, the States-General of Holland, the Canton of Berne and the Elector of Hanover, the Empress Dowager, the Electress and the Electress-mother of Hanover, the Duchess of Brunswick and the Dowager Duchess of Mecklenburg. The States-General sent, among other baj^tismal presents, a gold box, containing a deed of annuity of four thousand florins. All the bells of the city, three salvos of cannon, as well as drums and trumpets, announced to the people of Berlin that the world counted one more Christian. The cortege in procession re-entered the apartments between files of Swiss and a body-guard. ^

Fritz showed a desire to live. His grandfather saw with pleasure how bravely he drew the breast. His teeth came very quickly, six at the end of six months, and without causing him the least inconvenience. "One can see in this," wrote Frederick, "a kind of predestination. May God preserve him to us a long time yet."«

It was the grandfather that God did not preserve a long time to the grandson. Frederick I. died February 27, 1713. The child, who had received at birth the titles of Prince of Prussia and of Orange, became the Crown Prince.

The new king, Frederick AVilliam, had manifested from childhood a violent" aversion for ceremonies and luxury. One day, when quite a small child, curled, powdered, clad in a gala costume, he hid himself in a chimney, whence he was pulled out, black as a chimney-sweep. He threw a brocaded night-robe into the fire, soon after it was tried on him. The sight of the big perukes made him furious. Finding some courtiers in his father's antechamber, warming themselves, with their heads thrown back, so as not to scorch their beautiful periwigs, which had cost them 200 thalers, he forced them to throw their wigs into the fire. Another time, they jiicked up at the foot of the staircase a inaitre de la cour whom he had kicked to the ,bottom. He was extremely parsimonious, and kept an exact account of his receipts and expenditures, in a faultless register, on the first page of which he had written: '^Rechnimg iiber meine Ducaten, — Account of my Ducats." "Miser," exclaimed his mother, "and at so tender an age ! " But no remonstrance corrected it. Magnificence gave him nausea, and prodigality fits of rage.

After having received the last sigh of his father, Frederick William left the chamber of death, passed through the crowd of weeping chamberlains, pages and people of the Court, and shut himself up in his own apartments. After deliberating there a short while, he requested the Grand-Marshal, Von Printzen, to bring him the "Court Register." He ran over the list of dignitaries, servitors and pensioners, seized a pen, and made a great mark from top to bottom, saying that he would do away with them all, but wished each one to remain at his post, until after the funeral ceremonies of his father. Printzen came out, saying not a word, but he had so troubled a look upon his face, that one of the courtiers, the best provided with titles and functions. Lieutenant von Tettau, Chamberlain, Chief of the Body-guard, Governor of^ Spandau, Knight of the Black Eagle, stopped him, and took the paper out of his hands. He saw the big mark. "Gentlemen," said he, "the king our good master is dead, and the new king sends us all to the devil." All of the long-peruked crowd were jjresent May 2, 1713, at the obsequies of Frederick I. The son wished to have his father interred, as he had lived, with, great pomp. The ceremonies lasted more than two months. The body remained eight days in state, upon a bed of red velvet, embroidered in pearls, enriched with crowns and golden eagles ; upon his head was the crown ; upon his shoulders, the mantle of purple and ermine; on his chest, the Grand Cordon and Order of the Black Eagle; at right and left the scepter and the sword. The chamber, hung with violet velvet, was illuminated with a profusion of wax candles. On March 4, the body, clothed in cloth of gold, was placed in the coffin, and carried to the palace chapel, which was transformed into a Castruin dohn's. On the second of

May, between lines of regiments — nearly all the Prussian army was there ^ — the funeral cortege proceeded to' the cathedral. Behind Count Dohna, the general who held the standard, the new king advanced, enveloped in a long mantle of mourning, the train of which was carried by the grand equerry, the entire Court following. In the church, transformed into a mausoleum, the white marble statues of the Hohenzollern Electors of Brandenburg were placed around the catafalque, as a guard of honor for the first of their descendants who had attained to the distinction of royalty. Pictures and inscriptions recalled the principal virtues of the deceased.

The solemn service ended, Frederick William himself ordered the salvos. Then he returned to his own apartments. He had given a rare proof of filial piety in j^rolonging the ceremonies two months. It was a great relief to him when he had interred this ceremonial life with his father, and, saw dispersed the grand officials, the chamberlains, the pages, the twenty-six drummers and trumpeters, who announced all the movements of^ the king, the musicians of- the royal chapel, and the hundred Swiss 'guards clothed in silk, velvet and gold. The useless ones, who did not ex-

' change the gold key for the pistol, or pumps for the boots of a cuirassier, went "to the devil." The pearls,

, precious stones and diamonds were sold to pay the debts

of the late king, who was always sadly in need. Then

/Frederick William commenced to live the life of a well-

, to-^o civilian, economical to avarice, ordering his household himself, keeping a strict account with his cook.

CHILDHOOD.

Thus two months had not elapsed before he had levied two new battalions of grenadiers. ^

THE GOVERNESS THE FIRST MASTERS THE PRECEPTOR

AND THE SUB-PRECEPTOR.

Frederick William wished his sons and daughters to be educated, not as princes and princesses, but as children of simple folk. He intended that. the inheritors of his crown should be otherwise dealt with, than the young king Louis XV. , whose least gesture and act the journals related to the world, and whom the Emperor called "the child of Europe." ^*^ As unassuming as he was, however, the King of Prussia could not refuse to give his son a governess, and at the proper age a preceptor and a tutor.

He had been educated by a French-woman, Madame de Montbail, for whom he always had an affectionate remembrance, perhaps on account of the many bad tricks he had played her. So he wished that Madame de Montbail (she had become Madame de Rocoulle) should educate his children, and he therefore appointed her "governess of the royal prince and princesses." The royal princesses were, at that time, in 1714, Sophia Frederica Wilhelmina, two and a half years older than the prince, and Charlotte Albertina, a year and a half younger. Madame de Rocoulle was. to give the children religious instruction, and teach them to read the Bible. The same year, while the King of Prussia was at the siege of Stralsund, he noticed a young cavalier who seemed pleased to place himself where there was the most danger. The king had this young officer presented, while in a trench, by Count Dohna, who was acquainted with him, for he had confided a part of the education of his" own son to him; Frederick William engaged him to be, at the end of two years, the informator of the prince. This young man called himself Jacques Egide Duhan ; like Madame de Rocoulle, he was French. Installed in his functions, in 1716, he had to " exjilain maps to his pupil, teach him the history of the last hundred years and no more, then the history of the Bible, but, above all, calculation," Finally, when the prince was just attaining his seventh year, the king appointed his old preceptor, General Count Fink von Finkenstein, tutor, and Colonel von Kalkstein sub-tutor, u '

Little did the King of Prussia think that he was doing a grave thing in confiding the education of his son to these two groups of persons, whose ideas were so opposite, the French refugees and the Prussian officers.

Said Frederick the Great later, "It is rare that one takes a tutor from a trench." It is rare, in fact, and very Prussian. Frederick William had as professional masters very grave men ; among them, Frederick Kramer, a learned philologist and jurisconsult, who, one day, becoming offended at a jesting discourse of Father Bouhours upon this theme: "Is it possible for a German to have wit?" replied by a dissertation entitled: "Vindication of the Germanic name against certain Gaul detractors of the Germans, — Vindicim nominis Germanici contra quosdam Germanoruni obtrectatores Gallos.'''' The king, who was not a pedant, and who loved not dissertations, hastened to obtain for the informator of his son, a cavalier. He did not know that this cavalier was a man of more learning than his Kramer.

Jacques Egide Duhan de Jandun^^ was born at Jandun, in Champagne, the year of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Plis father, former secretary of Tnrennc and former Counselor of State, left France in 1687, and went to Berlin, where he became secretary of the Great Elector. He undertook the education of his son himself, and did not send him to the "Gymnase Frangais," then recently opened. He taught him the languages, classical literature, history and rhetoric. The ' paternal lessons were supplemented by thoise of La Croze anc\ De Naude. '

Naude left Metz in 1685, the same day that they closed the last Protestant church in that city. Arriving in Berlin in 1687, he gained a livelihood by giving lessons in mathematics ; after that he gave instruction in mathematics, first, in the College of Joachimsthal, afterward, in the Academy of Arts. But his favorite study was theology, upon which he brought to bear the strength of his mind as a geometrician. He composed two volumes upon evangelical morals.'^

La Croze had been a monk in the monastery of St. Germain-des-Pres. In 1693, tormented by conscienti-ous scruples, he fled to Bale and made a profession of Protestantism. Berlin attracted French refugees in great numbers : the nobles Avere assured of finding a place in the army or at the court ; the magistrates, in tlic tribunals; the men of letters, in intellectual offices, where they had but little to fear from native competition. La Croze went then to Berlin, where he was put in charge of the Electoral Library, which became the Royal Library three years afterward. He was himself a library, "a regular storehouse," said Frederick later. His memory was prodigious. One day, before Leibnitz, he recited twelve verses in a dozen different languages, after having heard them but once. No question sui^prised him : he had an answer for everything. Whenever he was asked for information, and referred to a book, he gave the edition and page. In addition to his native language, he spoke fluently, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German. He understood Latin, ancient and modern Greek and Hebrew. He learned the Slavic, Basque and Oriental languages, and among them, in order to please Leibnitz, Chinese. He was not a profound philologist; he had neither the taste nor the time to penetrate into the genius of the languages that he studied, because he was of an inquisitive mind, and learned, simply because he could not refrain from learning everything he saw. He knew, in the same way, philosophy and history.

All his learning manifested itself in his conversation; without cessation, he discoursed, narrated, cited and recited. He told droll stories in the tone of a psalmodist, for this ungarbed monk still showed the cut of his frock. ^* Duhan de Jandun, the father. La Croze, and Naude, were indirectly Frederick's masters, since they educated his master. Moreover, the prince knew La Croze and Naude, as he had often seen and heard them when a child. These three men were autodidacts, and there is no better culture for minds born thoughtful and capable of study, than that which they give to themselves ; for school, with its precise rules and hieratic customs, does not allow enough j^lay to the intellect. It is true that all times are not propitious for the free exercise of personal education. But the eighteenth century offered such admirable facilities for the expansion of free effort! In our day, only the greatest intellects acquire an entire science, master and classify it in the concourse of knowledge : the others, in the throng, dwell painfully upon the detail, which continually increases and multiplies, hiding the science from them, like the trees -that prevent one from seeing the forest. Toilsome lives serve out their time in little corners of the intellectual domain. In the eio-hteenth century this whole domain was exposed to view : it could be surveyed with ease. Inquiry was universal and truly philosophical. The men of that time, — to whom an extensive reading gave, together with great literary, historical, and scientific culture, the illusion of believing that they knew^ everything that could be known, — lived in a continual intellectual fete that the world will never see again.

The childhood of Frederick was thus confided to French people. It is true that they were exiles. The opinions that they brought with them were not those of the majority of their nation, which had, alas I welcomed with T(i Deums the persecution of tliese heretics. Calvinism had marked them with its grave impress, which had frightened and rebuffed a ])e()pU» naturally gay.

A gentler influence was exercised over the soul of Frederick by his governess. She, too, had sacrificed her country for her religion. Widow of M. de Montbail, and still young, she took her family to a foreign country, the day after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, at a time when an exodus was not without peril. This courageous woman had also mind. She spoke her language prettily and knew how to turn a verse well. It seems that she was not afraid of an amusing joke, even if it was a little broad. She knew how to hold a salon, a rare thing in Berlin. ^^ It was at the Court itself, that she found a refuge, near Sophia Charlotte, wife of Frederick I., who so little resembled her husband. The gazettes of the time state that nature lavished upjon this princess charms of both body and mind. Sophia Charlotte was gay and artless, and she had a bewitching way of making game of her solemn husband. The day of his coronation, in all that pomp of pomps, she drew forth her snuffbox and took a pinch of snuff. And yet she was serious, and^ religious, with that charming restlessness of a woman philosopher, abhorring the unknown. Pier religion and her philosophy enlightened each other, but neither the one nor the other, nor the two united, pretended to possess the full light. So her curiosity was never satisfied; unceasingly, she demanded of her friend Leibnitz the why of whys, that he could not answer. She loved the arts, as well as philosophy, and music above all. She had also a taste for poetry.'^