History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 4
by
Thomas Carlyle
Part 2 out of 3
young Landgraf of Hessen-Cassel),--much aided by an English
Envoy,--who made this Peace with Friedrich Wilhelm. A young
English Envoy, called Lord Carteret, was very helpful in this
matter; one of his first feats in the diplomatic world. For which
Peace, [Stockholm, 21st January, 1720: in Mauvillon (i. 380-417)
the Document itself at large.] Friedrich Wilhelm was so thankful,
good pacific armed-man, that happening to have a Daughter born to
him just about that time, he gave the little creature her Swedish
Majesty's name; a new "Ulrique," who grew to proper stature, and
became notable in Sweden, herself, by and by. [Louisa Ulrique,
born 24th July, 1720; Queen of Sweden in time coming.]
Chapter VII.
TRANSIT OF CZAR PETER.
In the Autumn of 1717, Peter the Great, coming home from his
celebrated French journey, paid Friedrich Wilhelm a visit;
and passed four days at Berlin. Of which let us give one glimpse,
if we can with brevity.
Friedrich Wilhelm and the Czar, like in several points, though so
dissimilar in others, had always a certain regard for one another;
and at this time, they had been brought into closer intercourse by
their common peril from Charles XII., ever since that Stralsund
business. The peril was real, especially with a Gortz and Alberoni
putting hand to it; and the alarm, the rumor, and uncertainty were
great in those years. The wounded Lion driven indignant into his
lair, with Plotting Artists now operating upon the rage of the
noble animal: who knows what spring he will next take? George I.
had a fleet cruising in the Baltic Sounds, and again a fleet;--
paying, in that oblique way, for Bremen and Verden; which were
got, otherwise, such a bargain to his Hanover. Czar Peter had
marched an Army into Denmark; united Russians and Danes count
fifty thousand there; for a conjunct invasion, and probable
destruction, of Sweden: but that came to nothing; Charles looking
across upon it too dangerously, "visible in clear weather over
from the Danish side." [1716: Fassmann, p. 171.] So Peter's troops
have gone home again; Denmark too glad to get them away.
Perhaps they would have stayed in Denmark altogether; much liking
the green pastures and convenient situation,--had not Admiral
Norris with his cannon been there! Perhaps? And the Pretender is
coming again, they say? And who knows what is coming?--How Gortz,
in about a year hence was laid hold of, and let go, and then
ultimately tried and beheaded (once his lion Master was disposed
of); [19th March, 1719: see Kohler ( Munzbelustiggungen,
vi. 233-240, xvii. 297-304) for many curious details
of Gortz and his end.] how, Ambassador Cellamare, and the Spanish
part of the Plot, having been discovered in Paris, Cardinal
Alberoni at Madrid was discovered, and the whole mystery laid
bare; all that mad business, of bringing the Pretender into
England, throwing out George I., throwing out the Regent
d'Orleans, and much more,--is now sunk silent enough, not worthy
of reawakening; but it was then a most loud matter; filling the
European Courts, and especially that of Berlin, with rumors and
apprehensions. No wonder Friedrich Wilhelm was grateful for that
Swedish Peace of his, and named his little daughter "Ulrique" in
honor of it. Tumultuous cloud-world of Lapland Witchcraft had
ceased hereby, and daylight had begun: old women (or old
Cardinals) riding through the sky, on broomsticks, to meet Satan,
where now are they? The fact still dimly perceptible is, Europe,
thanks to that pair of Black-Artists, Gortz and Alberoni, not to
mention Law the Finance-Wizard and his French incantations, had
been kept generally, for these three or four years past, in the
state of a Haunted House; riotous Goblins, of unknown dire intent,
walking now in this apartment of it, now in that; no rest anywhere
for the perturbed inhabitants.
As to Friedrich Wilhelm, his plan in 1717, as all along, in this
bewitched state of matters, was: To fortify his Frontier Towns;
Memel, Wesel, to the right and left, especially to fortify
Stettin, his new acquisition;--and to put his Army, and his
Treasury (or Army-CHEST), more and more in order. In that way we
shall better meet whatever goblins there may be, thinks Friedrich
Wilhelm. Count Lottum, hero of the Prussians at Malplaquet, is
doing his scientific uttermost in Stettin and those Frontier
Towns. For the rest, his Majesty, invited by the Czar and France,
has been found willing to make paction with them, as he is with
all pacific neighbors. In fact, the Czar and he had their private
Conference, at Havelberg, last year,--Havelberg, some sixty miles from Berlin, on the road towards Denmark, as Peter was passing
that way;--ample Conference of. five days; [23d-28th November,
1716: Fassmann, p. 172.]--privately agreeing there, about many
points conducive to tranquillity. And it was on that same errand,
though ostensibly to look after Art and the higher forms of
Civilization so called, that Peter had been to France on this
celebrated occasion of 1717. We know he saw much Art withal;
saw Marly, Trianon and the grandeurs and politenesses;--saw, among
other things, "a Medal of himself fall accidentally at his feet;"
polite Medal "just getting struck in the Mint, with a rising sun
on it; and the motto, VIRES ACQUIRIT EUNDO." [Voltaire,
OEuvres Completes (Histoire du Czar Pierre), xxxi.
336.--Kohler in Munzbelustigungen, xvii. 386-392 (this
very MEDAL the subject), gives authentic account, day by day, of
the Czar's visit there.] Ostensibly it was to see CETTE BELLE
FRANCE; but privately withal the Czar wished to make his bargain,
with the Regent d'Orleans, as to these goblins walking in the
Northern and Southern parts, and what was to be done with them.
And the result has been, the Czar, Friedrich Wilhelm and the said
Regent have just concluded an Agreement; [4th August, 1717;
Buchholz, i. 43.] undertaking in general, that the goblins shall
be well watched; that they Three will stand by one another in
watching them. And now the Czar will visit Berlin in passing
homewards again. That is the position of affairs, when he pays
this visit. Peter had been in Berlin more than once before;
but almost always in a succinct rapid condition; never with his
"Court" about him till now. This is his last, and by far his
greatest, appearance in Berlin.
Such a transit, of the Barbaric semi-fabulous Sovereignties, could
not but be wonderful to everybody there. It evidently struck
Wilhelmina's fancy, now in her ninth year, very much. What her
little Brother did in it, or thought of it, I nowhere find hinted;
conclude only that it would remain in his head too, visible
occasionally to the end of his life. Wilhelmina's Narrative, very
loose, dateless or misdated, plainly wrong in various particulars,
has still its value for us: human eyes, even a child's, are worth
something, in comparison to human want-of-eyes, which is too
frequent in History-books and elsewhere!--Czar Peter is now
forty-five, his Czarina Catherine about thirty-one. It was in 1698
that he first passed this way, going towards Saardam and practical
Ship-building: within which twenty years what a spell of work
done! Victory of Pultawa is eight years behind him; [27th June,
1709.] victories in many kinds are behind him: by this time he is
to be reckoned a triumphant Czar; and is certainly the strangest
mixture of heroic virtue and brutish Samoeidic savagery the world
at any time had.
It was Sunday, 19th September, 1717, when the Czar arrived in
Berlin. Being already sated with scenic parades, he had begged to
be spared all ceremony; begged to be lodged in Monbijou, the
Queen's little Garden-Palace with river and trees round it, where
he hoped to be quietest. Monbijou has been set apart accordingly;
the Queen, not in the benignest humor, sweeping all her crystals
and brittle things away; knowing the manners of the Muscovites.
Nor in the way of ceremony was there much: King and Queen drove
out to meet him; rampart-guns gave three big salvos, as the
Czarish Majesty stept forth. "I am glad to see you, my Brother
Friedrich," said Peter, in German, his only intelligible language;
shaking hands with the Brother Majesty, in a cordial human manner.
The Queen he, still more cordially, "would have kissed;" but this
she evaded, in some graceful effective way. As to the Czarina,--
who, for OBSTETRIC and other reasons, of no moment to us, had
stayed in Wesel all the time he was in France,--she followed him
now at two days' distance; not along with him, as Wilhelmina has
it. Wilhelmina says, she kissed the Queen's hand, and again and
again kissed it; begged to present her Ladies,--"about four
hundred so-called Ladies, who were of her Suite."--Surely not so
many as four hundred, you too witty Princess? "Mere German
serving-maids for the most part," says the witty Princess; "Ladies
when there is occasion, then acting aa chambermaids, cooks,
washerwomen, when that is over."
Queen Sophie was averse to salute these creatures; but the Czarina
Catherine making reprisals upon our Margravines, and the King
looking painfully earnest in it, she prevailed upon herself.
Was there ever seen such a travelling tagraggery of a Sovereign
Court before? "Several of these creatures [PRESQUE TOUTES, says
the exaggerative Princess] had, in their arms, a baby in rich
dress; and if you asked, 'Is that yours, then?' they answered,
making salaams in Russian style, 'The Czar did me the honor
( m'a fait l'honneur de me faire cet enfant
italic>)!'"--
Which statement, if we deduct the due 25 per cent, is probably not
mythic, after all. A day or two ago, the Czar had been at
Magdeburg, on his way hither, intent upon inspecting matters
there; and the Official Gentlemen,--President Cocceji (afterwards
a very celebrated man) at the head of them,--waited on the Czar,
to do what was needful. On entering, with the proper Address or
complimentary Harangue, they found his Czarish Majesty "standing
between two Russian Ladies," clearly Ladies of the above sort;
for they stood close by him, one of his arms was round the neck of
each, and his hands amused themselves by taking liberties in that
posture, all the time Cocceji spoke. Nay, even this was as nothing
among the Magdeburg phenomena. Next day, for instance, there
appeared in the audience-chamber a certain Serene high-pacing Duke
of Mecklenburg, with his Duchess;--thrice-unfortunate Duke, of
whom we shall too often hear again; who, after some adventures,
under Charles XII. first of all, and then under the enemies of
Charles, had, about a year ago, after divorcing his first Wife,
married a Niece of Peter's:--Duke and Duchess arrive now, by order
or gracious invitation of their Sovereign Uncle, to accompany him
in those parts; and are announced to an eager Czar, giving
audience to his select Magdeburg public. At sight of which most
desirable Duchess and Brother's Daughter, how Peter started up,
satyr-like, clasping her in his arms, and snatching her into an
inner room, with the door left ajar, and there--It is too
Samoeidic for human speech! and would excel belief, were not the
testimony so strong. [Pollnitz ( Memoiren,
ii. 95) gives Friedrich Wilhelm as voucher, "who used to relate it
as from eye-and-ear witnesses."] A Duke of Mecklenburg, it would
appear, who may count himself the NON-PLUS-ULTRA of husbands in
that epoch;--as among Sovereign Rulers, too, in a small or great
way, he seeks his fellow for ill-luck!
Duke and Duchess accompanied the Czar to Berlin, where Wilhelmina
mentions them, as presentees; part of those "four hundred"
anomalies. They took the Czar home with them to Mecklenburg: where
indeed some Russian Regiments of his, left here on their return
from Denmark, had been very useful in coercing the rebellious
Ritterschaft (KNIGHTAGE, or Landed-Gentry) of this Duke,--till at
length the general outcry, and voice of the Reich itself, had
ordered the said Regiments to get on march again, and take
themselves away. [The LAST of them, "July, 1717; " two months ago.
(Michaelis, ii. 418.)] For all is rebellion, passive rebellion, in
Mecklenburg; taxes being so indispensable; and the Knights so
disinclined; and this Duke a Sovereign,--such as we may construe
from his quarrelling with almost everybody, and his NOT
quarrelling with an Uncle Peter of that kind. [One poor hint, on
his behalf, let us not omit: "WIFE quitted him in 1719, and lived
at Moscow afterwards!" (General Mannstein, Memoirs of
Russia, London, 1770, p. 27 n.)] His troubles as
Sovereign Duke, his flights to Dantzig, oustings, returns,
law-pleadings and foolish confusions, lasted all his life, thirty
years to come; and were bequeathed as a sorrowful legacy to
Posterity and the neighboring Countries. Voltaire says, the Czar
wished to buy his Duchy from him. [Ubi supra, xxxi. 414.]
And truly, for this wretched Duke, it would have been good to sell
it at any price: but there were other words than his to such a
bargain, had it ever been seriously meditated. By this
extraordinary Duchess he becomes Father (real or putative) of a
certain Princess, whom we may hear of; and through her again is
Grandfather of an unfortunate Russian Prince, much bruited about,
as "the murdered Iwan," in subsequent times. With such a Duke
and Duchess let our acquaintance be the MINIMUM of what
necessity compels.
Wilhelmina goes by hearsay hitherto; and, it is to be hoped,
had heard nothing of these Magdeburg-Mecklenburg phenomena;
but after the Czarina's arrival, the little creature saw with her
own eyes:--
"Next day," that is, Wednesday, 22d "the Czar and his Spouse came
to return the Queen's visit; and I saw the Court myself."
Palace Grand-Apartments; Queen advancing a due length, even to the
outer guard-room; giving the Czarina her right hand, and leading
her into her audience-chamber in that distinguished manner:
King and Czar followed close;--and here it was that Wilhelmina's
personal experiences began. "The Czar at once recognized me,
having seen me before, five years ago [March, 1713]. He caught me
in his arms; fell to kissing me, like to flay the skin off my
face. I boxed his ears, sprawled, and struggled with all my
strength; saying I would not allow such familiarities, and that he
was dishonoring me. He laughed greatly at this idea; made peace,
and talked a long time with me. I had got my lesson: I spoke of
his fleet and his conquests;--which charmed him so much, that he
said more than once to the Czarina, 'If he could have a child like
me, he would willingly give one of his Provinces in exchange.'
The Czarina also caressed me a good deal. The Queen [Mamma] and
she placed themselves under the dais, each in an arm-chair" of
proper dignity; "I was at the Queen's side, and the Princesses of
the Blood," Margravines above spoken of, "were opposite to her,"--
all in a standing posture, as is proper.
"The Czarina was a little stumpy body, very brown, and had neither
air nor grace: you needed only look at her, to guess her low
extraction." It is no secret, she had been a kitchen-wench in her
Lithuanian native country; afterwards a female of the kind called
unfortunate, under several figures: however, she saved the Czar
once, by her ready-wit and courage, from a devouring Turkish
Difficulty, and he made her fortunate and a Czarina, to sit under
the dais as now. "With her huddle of clothes, she looked for all
the world like a German Play-actress; her dress, you would have
said, had been bought at a second-hand shop; all was out of
fashion, all was loaded with silver and greasy dirt. The front of
her bodice she had ornamented with jewels in a very singular
pattern: A double-eagle in embroidery, and the plumes of it set
with poor little diamonds, of the smallest possible carat, and
very ill mounted. All along the facing of her gown were Orders and
little things of metal; a dozen Orders, and as many Portraits of
saints, of relics and the like; so that when she walked, it was
with a jingling, as if you heard a mule with bells to its
harness."--Poor little Czarina; shifty nutbrown fellow-creature,
strangely chased about from the bottom to the top of this
world; it is evident she does not succeed at Queen Sophie
Dorothee's Court!--
"The Czar, on the other hand, was very tall, and might be called
handsome," continues Wilhelmina: "his countenance was beautiful,
but had something of savage in it which put you in fear." Partly a
kind of Milton's-Devil physiognomy? The Portraits give it rather
so. Archangel not quite ruined, yet in sadly ruinous condition;
its heroism so bemired,--with a turn for strong drink, too, at
times! A physiognomy to make one reflect." His dress was of sailor
fashion, coat, altogether plain."
"The Czarina, who spoke German very ill herself, and did not
understand well what the Queen said, beckoned to her Fool to come
near,"--a poor female creature, who had once been a Princess
Galitzin, but having got into mischief, had been excused to the
Czar by her high relations as mad, and saved from death or
Siberia, into her present strange harbor of refuge. With her the
Czarina talked in unknown Russ, evidently "laughing much and
loud," till Supper was announced.
"At table," continues Wilhelmina, "the Czar placed himself beside
the Queen. It is understood this Prince was attempted with poison
in his youth, and that something of it had settled on his nerves
ever after. One thing is certain, there took him very often a sort
of convulsion, like Tic or St.-Vitus, which it was beyond his
power to control. That happened at table now. He got into
contortions, gesticulations; and as the knife was in his hand, and
went dancing about within arm's-length of the Queen, it frightened
her, and she motioned several times to rise. The Czar begged her
not to mind, for he would do her no ill; at the same time he took
her by the hand, which he grasped with such violence that the
Queen was forced to shriek out. This set him heartily laughing;
saying she had not bones of so hard a texture as his Catherine's.
Supper done, a grand Ball had been got ready; but the Czar escaped
at once, and walked home by himself to Monbijou, leaving the
others to dance."
Wilhelmina's story of the Cabinet of Antiques; of the Indecent
little Statue there, and of the orders Catherine got to kiss it,
with a "KOPF AB (Head off, if you won't)!" from the bantering
Czar, whom she had to obey,--is not incredible, after what we have
seen. It seems, he begged this bit of Antique Indecency from
Friedrich Wilhelm; who, we may fancy, would give him such an
article with especial readiness. That same day, fourth of the
Visit, Thursday, 23d of the month, the august Party went its ways
again; Friedrich Wilhelm convoying "as far as Potsdam;" Czar and
Suite taking that route towards Mecklenburg, where he still
intends some little pause before proceeding homeward.
Friedrich Wilhelm took farewell; and never saw the Czar again.
It was on this Journey, best part of which is now done, that the
famous Order bore, "Do it for six thousand thalers; won't allow
you one other penny ( nit einen Pfennig gebe mehr dazu
); but give out to the world that it costs me thirty
or forty thousand!" Nay, it is on record that the sum proved
abundant, and even superabundant, near half of it being left as
overplus. [Forster, i. 215.] The hospitalities of Berlin,
Friedrich Wilhelm took upon himself, and he has done them as we
see. You shall defray his Czarish Majesty, to the last Prussian
milestone; punctually, properly, though with thrift!
Peter's, VIATICUM, the Antique Indecency, Friedrich Wilhelm did
not grudge to part with; glad to purchase the Czar's good-will by
coin of that kind. Last year, at Havelberg, he had given the Czar
an entire Cabinet of Amber Articles, belonging to his late Father.
Amber Cabinet, in the lump; and likewise such a Yacht, for shape,
splendor and outfit, as probably Holland never launched before;--
Yacht also belonging to his late Father, and without value to
Friedrich Wilhelm. The old King had got it built in Holland,
regardless of expense,--15,000 pounds, they say, perhaps as good
as 50,000 pounds now; --and it lay at Potsdam: good for what?
Friedrich Wilhelm sent it down the Havel, down the Elbe, silk
sailors and all, towards Hamburg and Petersburg, with a great deal
of pleasure. For the Czar, and peace and good-will with the Czar,
was of essential value to him. Neither, at any rate, is the Czar a
man to take gifts without return. Tall fellows for soldiers:
that is always one prime object with Friedrich Wilhelm;
for already these Potsdam Guards of his are getting ever more
gigantic. Not less an object, though less an ideal or POETIC one
(as we once defined), was this other, to find buyers for the
Manufactures, new and old, which he was so bent on encouraging.
"It is astonishing, what quantities of cloth, of hardware, salt,
and all kinds of manufactured articles the Russians buy from us,"
say the old Books;--"see how our 'Russian Company' flourishes!"
In both these objects, not to speak of peace and good-will in
general, the Czar is our man.
Thus, this very Autumn, there arrive, astonished and astonishing,
no fewer than a hundred and fifty human figures (one half MORE
than were promised), probably from seven to eight feet high;
the tallest the Czar could riddle out from his Dominions: what a
windfall to the Potsdam Guard and its Colonel-King! And all
succeeding Autumns the like, so long as Friedrich Wilhelm lived;
every Autumn, out of Russia a hundred of the tallest mortals
living. Invaluable,--to a "man of genius" mounted on his hobby!
One's "stanza" can be polished at this rate.
In return for these Russian sons of Anak, Friedrich Wilhelm
grudged not to send German smiths, millwrights, drill-sergeants,
cannoneers, engineers; having plenty of them. By whom, as Peter
well calculated, the inert opaque Russian mass might be kindled
into luminosity and vitality; and drilled to know the Art of War,
for one thing. Which followed accordingly. And it is observable,
ever since, that the Russian Art of War has a tincture of GERMAN
in it (solid German, as contradistinguished from unsolid
Revolutionary-French); and hints to us of Friedrich Wilhelm and
the Old Dessauer, to this hour.--EXEANT now the Barbaric
semi-fabulous Sovereignties, till wanted again.
Chapter VIII.
THE CROWN-PRINCE IS PUT TO HIS SCHOOLING.
In his seventh year, young Friedrich was taken out of the hands of
the women; and had Tutors and Sub-Tutors of masculine gender, who
had been nominated for him some time ago, actually set to work
upon their function. These we have already heard of; they came
from Stralsund Siege, all the principal hands.
Duhan de Jandun, the young French gentleman who had escaped from
grammar-lessons to the trenches, he is the practical teacher.
Lieutenant-General Graf Fink von Finkenstein and
Lieutenant-Colonel von Kalkstein, they are Head Tutor
(OBERHOFMEISTER) and Sub-Tutor; military men both, who had been in
many wars besides Stralsund. By these three he was assiduously
educated, subordinate schoolmasters working under them when
needful, in such branches as the paternal judgment would admit;
the paternal object and theirs being to infuse useful knowledge,
reject useless, and wind up the whole into a military finish.
These appointments, made at different precise dates, took effect,
all of them, in the year 1719.
Duhan, independently of his experience in the trenches, appears to
have been an accomplished, ingenious and conscientious man;
who did credit to Friedrich Wilhelm's judgment; and to whom
Friedrich professed himself much indebted in after life.
Their progress in some of the technical branches,
as we shall perceive, was indisputably unsatisfactory. But the
mind of the Boy seems to have been opened by this Duhan,
to a lively, and in some sort genial, perception of things
round him;--of the strange confusedly opulent Universe he
had got into; and of the noble and supreme function which
Intelligence holds there; supreme in Art as in Nature, beyond
all other functions whatsoever. Duhan was now turned of
thirty: a cheerful amiable Frenchman; poor, though of good
birth and acquirements; originally from Champagne. Friedrich loved him very much; always considered him his spiritual
father; and to the end of Duhan's life, twenty years hence,
was eager to do him any good in his power. Anxious always
to repair, for poor Duhan, the great sorrows he came to on his
account, as we shall see.
Of Graf Fink von Finkenstein, who has had military experiences of all kinds and all degrees, from marching as
prisoner into France, "wounded and without his hat," to
fighting at Malplaquet, at Blenheim, even at Steenkirk, as
well as Stralsund; who is now in his sixtieth year, and seems
to have been a gentleman of rather high solemn manners,
and indeed of undeniable perfections,--of this supreme Count
Fink we learn almost nothing farther in the Books, except
that his little Pupil did not dislike him either. The little
Pupil took not unkindly to Fink; welcoming any benignant
human ray, across these lofty gravities of the OBERHOFMEISTER;
went often to his house in Berlin; and made acquaintance with two
young Finks about his own age, whom he found there, and who became
important to him, especially the younger of them, in the course of
the future. [Zedlitz-Neukirch, Preussisches Adels-Lexikon
(Leipzig, l836), ii. 168. Militair-Lexicon,
i. 420.] This Pupil, it may be said, is creditably
known for his attachment to his Teachers and others; an attached
and attaching little Boy. Of Kalkstein, a rational, experienced
and earnest kind of man, though as yet but young, it is certain
also that the little Fritz loved him; and furthermore that the
Great Friedrich was grateful to him, and had a high esteem of his
integrity and sense. "My master, Kalkstein," used to be his
designation of him, when the name chanced to be mentioned in after
times. They continued together, with various passages of mutual
history, for forty years afterwards, till Kalkstein's death.
Kalkstein is at present twenty-eight, the youngest of the three
Tutors; then, and ever after, an altogether downright correct
soldier and man. He is of Preussen, or Prussia Proper, this
Kalkstein;--of the same kindred as that mutinous Kalkstein, whom
we once heard of, who was "rolled in a carpet," and kidnapped out
of Warsaw, in the Great Elector's time. Not a direct descendant of
that beheaded Kalkstein's but, as it were, his NEPHEW so many
times removed. Preussen is now far enough from mutiny; subdued,
with all its Kalksteins, into a respectful silence, not lightly
using the right even of petition, or submissive remonstrance,
which it may still have. Nor, except on the score of parliamentary
eloquence and newspaper copyright, does it appear that Preussen
has suffered by the change.
How these Fink-Kalkstein functionaries proceeded in the great task
they had got,--very great task, had they known what Pupil had
fallen to them,--is not directly recorded for us, with any
sequence or distinctness. We infer only that everything went by
inflexible routiue; not asking at all, WHAT pupil?--nor much,
Whether it would suit any pupil? Duhan, with the tendencies we
have seen in him, who is willing to soften the inflexible when
possible, and to "guide Nature" by a rather loose rein, was
probably a genial element in the otherwise strict affair.
Fritz had one unspeakable advantage, rare among princes and even
among peasants in these ruined ages: that of NOT being taught, or
in general not, by the kind called "Hypocrites, and even
Sincere-Hypocrites,"--fatalest species of the class HYPOCRITE.
We perceive he was lessoned, all along, not by enchanted Phantasms
of that dangerous sort, breathing mendacity of mind,
unconsciously, out of every look; but by real Men, who believed
from the heart outwards, and were daily doing what they taught.
To which unspeakable advantage we add a second, likewise
considerable; That his masters, though rigorous, were not
unlovable to him;--that his affections, at least, were kept alive;
that whatever of seed (or of chaff and hail, as was likelier) fell
on his mind, had SUNSHINE to help in dealing with it. These are
two advantages still achievable, though with difficulty, in our
epoch, by an earnest father in behalf of his poor little son.
And these are, at present, nearly all; with these well achieved,
the earnest father and his son ought to be thankful. Alas, in
matter of education, there are no high-roads at present; or there
are such only as do NOT lead to the goal. Fritz, like the rest of
us, had to struggle his way, Nature and Didactic Art differing
very much from one another; and to do battle, incessant partial
battle, with his schoolmasters for any education he had.
A very rough Document, giving Friedrich Wilhelm's regulations on
this subject, from his own hand, has come down to us. Most dull,
embroiled, heavy Document; intricate, gnarled, and, in fine, rough
and stiff as natural bull-headedness helped by Prussian pipe-clay
can make it;--contains some excellent hints, too; and will show us
something of Fritzchen and of Friedrich Wilhelm both at once.
That is to say, always, if it can be read! If by aid of abridging,
elucidating and arranging, we can get the reader engaged to peruse
it patiently;--which seems doubtful. The points insisted on, in a
ponderous but straggling confused manner, by his didactic Majesty,
are chiefly these:--
1. Must impress my Son with a proper love and fear of God, as
the foundation and sole pillar of our temporal and eternal
welfare. No false religions, or sects of Atheist, Arian (ArRian),
Socinian, or whatever name the poisonous things have, which can so
easily corrupt a young mind, are to be even named in his hearing:
on the other hand, a proper abhorrence (ABSCHEU) of Papistry, and
insight into its baselessness and nonsensicality (UNGRUND UND
ABSURDITAT), is to be communicated to him:"--Papistry, which is
false enough, like the others, but impossible to be ignored like
them; mention that, and give him due abhorrence for it. For we are
Protestant to the bone in this country; and cannot stand
ABSURDITAT, least of all hypocritically religious ditto! But the
grand thing will be, "To impress on him the true religion, which
consists essentially in this, That Christ died for all men," and
generally that the Almighty's justice is eternal and omnipresent,
--"which consideration is the only means of keeping a sovereign
person (SOUVERAINE MACHT), or one freed from human penalties, in
the right way."
2. "He is to learn no Latin;" observe that, however it may
surprise you. What has a living German man and King, of the
eighteenth Christian SOECULUM, to do with dead old Heathen Latins,
Romans, and the lingo THEY spoke their fraction of sense and
nonsense in? Frightful, how the young years of the European
Generations have been wasted, for ten centuries back; and the
Thinkers of the world have become mere walking Sacks of
Marine-stores, "GELEHRTEN, Learned," as they call themselves;
and gone LOST to the world, in that manner, as a set of
confiscated Pedants;--babbling about said Heathens, and THEIR
extinct lingo and fraction of sense and nonsense, for the thousand
years last past! Heathen Latins, Romans;--who perhaps were no
great things of Heathen, after all, if well seen into? I have
heard judges say, they were INferior, in real worth and grist, to
German home-growths we have had, if the confiscated Pedants could
have discerned it! At any rate, they are dead, buried deep, these
two thousand years; well out of our way;--and nonsense enough of
our own left, to keep sweeping into corners. Silence about their
lingo and them, to this new Crown-Prince! "Let the Prince learn
French and German," so as to write and speak, "with brevity and
propriety," in these two languages, which may be useful to him in
life. That will suffice for languages,--provided he have anything
effectually rational to say in them. For the rest,
3. "Let him learn Arithmetic, Mathematics, Artillery,--
Economy to the very bottom." And, in short, useful knowledge
generally; useless ditto not at all. "History in particular;--
Ancient History only slightly (NUR UBERHIN);--but the History of
the last hundred and fifty Years to the exactest pitch. The JUS
NATURALE and JUS GENTIUM," by way of hand-lamp to History,
"he must be completely master of; as also of Geography, whatever
is remarkable in each Country. And in Histories, most especially
the History of the house of Brandenburg; where he will find
domestic examples, which are always of more force than foreign.
And along with Prussian History, chiefly that of the Countries
which have been connected with it, as England, Brunswick, Hessen
and the others. And in reading of wise History-books there must
be considerations made ( sollen beym Lesen kluger
Historiarum Betrachtungen gemacht werden ) upon the
causes of the events."--Surely, O King!
4. "With increasing years, you will more and more, to a most
especial degree, go upon Fortification,"--mark you!--"the
Formation of a Camp, and the other War-Sciences; that the Prince
may, from youth upwards, be trained to act as Officer and General,
and to seek all his glory in the soldier profession." This is
whither it must all tend. You, Finkenstein and Kalkstein, "have
both of you, in the highest measure, to make it your care to
infuse into my Son [EINZUPRAGEN, stamp into him] a true love for
the Soldier business, and to impress on him that, as there is
nothing in the world which can bring a Prince renown and honor
like the sword, so he would be a despised creature before all men,
if he did not love it, and seek his sole glory (DIE EINZIGE
GLORIA) therein." [Preuss, i. 11-14 (of date 13th August, 1718).]
Which is an extreme statement of the case; showing how much we
have it at heart.
These are the chief Friedrich-Wilhelm traits; the rest of the
document corresponds in general to what the late Majesty had
written for Friedrich Wilhelm himself on the like occasion.
[Stenzel, iii. 572.] Ruthless contempt of Useless Knowledge;
and passionate insight into the distinction between Useful and
Useless, especially into the worth of Soldiering as a royal
accomplishment, are the chief peculiarities here. In which latter
point too Friedrich Wilhelm, himself the most pacific of men,
unless you pulled the whiskers of him, or broke into his goods
and chattels, knew very well what he was meaning,--much better
than we of the "Peace Society" and "Philanthropic Movement" could
imagine at first sight! It is a thing he, for his part, is very
decided upon.
Already, a year before this time, [1st September, 1717: Preuss,
i. 13.] there had been instituted, for express behoof of little
Fritz, a miniature Soldier Company, above a hundred strong;
which grew afterwards to be near three hundred, and indeed rose to
be a permanent Institution by degrees; called Kompagnie
der Kronprinzlichen Kadetten (Company of Crown-Prince
Cadets). A hundred and ten boys about his own age, sons of noble
families, had been selected from the three Military Schools then
extant, as a kind of tiny regiment for him; where, if he was by no
means commander all at once, he might learn his exercise in
fellowship with others. Czar Peter, it is likely, took a glance of
this tiny regiment just getting into rank and file there;
which would remind the Czar of his own young days. An experienced
Lieutenant-Colonel was appointed to command in chief. A certain
handy and correct young fellow, Rentsel by name, about seventeen,
who already knew his fugling to a hair's-breadth, was
Drill-master; and exencised them all, Fritz especially, with due
strictness; till, in the course of time and of attainments, Fritz
could himself take the head charge. Which he did duly, in a year
or two: a little soldier thenceforth; properly strict, though of
small dimensions; in tight blue bit of coat and cocked-hat:--
miniature image of Papa (it is fondly hoped and expected),
resembling him as a sixpence does a half-crown. In 1721 the
assiduous Papa set up a "little arsenal" for him, "in the Orange
Hall of the Palace:" there let him, with perhaps a chosen comrade
or two, mount batteries, fire exceedingly small brass ordnance,--
his Engineer-Teacher, one Major von Senning, limping about (on
cork leg), and superintending if needful.
Rentzel, it is known, proved an excellent Drill-sergeant;--had
good talents every way, and was a man of probity and sense.
He played beautifully on the flute too, and had a cheerful
conversible turn; which naturally recommended him still farther to
Fritz; and awoke or encouraged, among other faculties, the musical
faculty in the little Boy. Rentzel continued about him, or in
sight of him, through life; advancing gradually, not too fast,
according to real merit and service (Colonel in 1759); and never
did discredit to the choice Friedrich Wilhelm had made of him.
Of Senning, too, Engineer-Major von Senning, who gave Fritz his
lessons in Mathematics, Fortification and the kindred branches,
the like, or better, can be said. He was of graver years; had lost
a leg in the Marlborough Campaigns, poor gentleman; but had
abundant sense, native worth and cheery rational talk, in him:
so that he too could never be parted with by Friedrich, but
was kept on hand to the last, a permanent and variously
serviceable acquisition.
Thus, at least, is the military education of our Crown-Prince
cared for. And we are to fancy the little fellow, from his tenth
year or earlier, going about in miniature soldier figure, for most
part; in strict Spartan-Brandenburg costume, of body as of mind.
Costume little flattering to his own private taste for finery;
yet by no means unwholesome to him, as he came afterwards to know,
In October, 1723, it is on record, when George I. came to visit
his Son-in-law and Daughter at Berlin, his Britannic Majesty,
looking out from his new quarters on the morrow, saw Fritzchen
"drilling his Cadet Company;" a very pretty little phenomenon.
Drilling with clear voice, military sharpness, and the precision
of clock-work on the Esplanade (LUSTGARTEN) there;--and doubtless
the Britannic Majesty gave some grunt of acquiescence, perhaps
even a smile, rare on that square heavy-laden countenance of his.
That is the record: [Forster, i. 215.] and truly it forms for us
by far the liveliest little picture we have got, from those dull
old years of European History. Years already sunk, or sinking,
into lonesome unpeopled Dusk for all men; and fast verging towards
vacant Oblivion and eternal Night;--which (if some few articles
were once saved out of them) is their just and inevitable portion
from afflicted human nature.
Of riding-masters, fencing-masters, swimming-masters; much less of
dancing-masters, music-masters (celebrated Graun, "on the organ,"
with Psalm-tunes), we cannot speak; but the reader may be
satisfied they were all there, good of their kind, and pushing on
at a fair rate. Nor is there lack anywhere of paternal supervision
to our young Apprentice, From an early age, Papa took the
Crown-Prince with him on his annual Reviews. From utmost Memel on
the Russian border, down to Wesel on the French, all Prussia, in
every nook of it, garrison, marching-regiment, board of
management, is rigorously reviewed by Majesty once a year.
There travels little military Fritz, beside the military Majesty,
amid the generals and official persons, in their hardy Spartan
manner; and learns to look into everything like a Rhadamanthine
Argus, and how the eye of the master, more than all other
appliances, fattens the cattle.
On his hunts, too, Papa took him. For Papa was a famous hunter,
when at Wusterhausen in the season:--hot Beagle-chase, hot
Stag-hunt, your chief game deer; huge "Force-Hunt" (PARFORCE-JAGD,
the woods all beaten, and your wild beasts driven into straits and
caudine-forks for you); Boar-hunting (SAUHETZE, "sow-baiting," as
the Germans call it), Partridge-shooting, Fox- and Wolf-hunting;--
on all grand expeditions of such sort, little Fritz shall ride
with Papa and party. Rough furious riding; now on swift steed, now
at places on WURSTWAGEN,--WURSTWAGEN, "Sausage-Car" so called,
most Spartan of vehicles, a mere STUFFED POLE or "sausage" with
wheels to it, on which you sit astride, a dozen or so of you, and
career;--regardless of the summer heat and sandy dust, of the
winter's frost-storms and muddy rain. All this the little
Crown-Prince is bound to do;--but likes it less and less, some of
us are sorry to observe! In fact he could not take to hunting at
all, or find the least of permanent satisfaction in shooting
partridges and baiting sows,--"with such an expenditure of
industry and such damage to the seedfields," he would sometimes
allege in extenuation. In later years he has been known to retire
into some glade of the thickets, and hold a little Flute-Hautbois
Concert with his musical comrades, while the sows were getting
baited. Or he would converse with Mamma and her Ladies, if her
Majesty chanced to be there, in a day for open driving.
Which things by no means increased his favor with Papa, a sworn
hater of "effeminate practices."
He was "nourished on beer-soup," as we said before. Frugality,
activity, exactitude were lessons daily and hourly brought home to
him, in everything he did and saw. His very sleep was stingily
meted out to him: "Too much sleep stupefies a fellow!" Friedrich
Wilhelm was wont to say;--so that the very doctors had to
interfere, in this matter, for little Fritz. Frugal enough, hardy
enough; urged in every way to look with indifference on hardship,
and take a Spartan view of life.
Money-allowance completely his own, he does not seem to have had
till he was seventeen. Exiguous pocket-money, counted in GROSCHEN
(English PENCE, or hardly more), only his Kalkstein and
Finkenstein could grant as they saw good;--about eighteenpence in
the month, to start with, as would appear. The other small
incidental moneys, necessary for his use, were likewise all laid
out under sanction of his Tutors, and accurately entered in
Day-books by them, audited by Friedrich Wilhelm; of which some
specimens remain, and one whole month, September, 1719 (the Boy's
eighth year), has been published. Very singular to contemplate, in
these days of gold-nuggets and irrational man-mountains fattened
by mankind at such a price! The monthly amount appears to have
been some 3 pounds 10 shillings:--and has gone, all but the
eighteenpence of sovereign pocket-money, for small furnishings and
very minute necessary luxuries;--as thus:--
"To putting his Highness's shoes on the last;" for stretching
them to the little feet,--and only one "last," as we perceive.
"To twelve yards of Hairtape,"--HAARBAND, for our little queue,
which becomes visible here. "For drink-money to the Postilions."
"For the Housemaids at Wusterhausen," Don't I pay them myself?
objects the auditing Papa, at that latter kind of items: No more
of that. "For mending the flute, four GROSCHEN [or pence];"
"Two Boxes of Colors, sixteen ditto;" "For a live snipe,
twopence;" "For grinding the hanger [little swordkin];" "To a Boy
whom the dog bit;" and chiefly of all, "To the KLINGBEUTEL,"--
Collection-plate, or bag, at Church,--which comes upon us once,
nay twice, and even thrice a week, eighteenpence each time, and
eats deep into our straitened means. [Preuss, i. 17.]
On such terms can a little Fritz be nourished into a Friedrich the
Great; while irrational man-mountains, of the beaverish or
beaverish-vulpine sort, take such a price to fatten them into
monstrosity! The Art-manufacture of your Friedrich can come very
cheap, it would appear, if once Nature have done her part in
regard to him, and there be mere honest will on the part of the
by-standers. Thus Samuel Johnson, too, cost next to nothing in the
way of board and entertainment in this world. And a Robert Burns,
remarkable modern Thor, a Peasant-god of these sunk ages, with a
touch of melodious RUNES in him (since all else lay under ban for
the poor fellow), was raised on frugal oatmeal, at an expense of
perhaps half a crown a week. Nuggets and ducats are divine;
but they are not the most divine. I often wish the Devil had the
lion's share of them,--at once, and not circuitously as now.
It would be an unspeakable advantage to the bewildered sons of
Adam, in this epoch!
But with regard to our little Crown-Prince's intellectual culture,
there is another Document, specially from Papa's hand, which, if
we can redact, adjust and abridge it, as in the former case, may
be worth the reader's notice, and elucidate some things for him.
It is of date, Wusterhausen, 3d September, 1721; little Fritz now
in his tenth year, and out there, with his Duhans and
Finkensteins, while Papa is rusticating for a few weeks.
The essential title is, or might be:--
To Head-Governor van Finkenstein, Sub-Governor von
Kalkstein, Preceptor Jacques Egide Duhan de Jandun, and others
whom it may concern: Regulations for schooling, at Wusterhausen,
3d September, 1721; [Preuss, i. 19.]--in greatly
abridged form.
SUNDAY. "On Sunday he is to rise at 7; and as soon as he has got
his slippers on, shall kneel down at his bedside, and pray to God,
so as all in the room may hear it [that there be no deception or
short measure palmed upon us], in these words: 'Lord God, blessed
Father, I thank thee from my heart that thou hast so graciously
preserved me through this night. Fit me for what thy holy will is;
and grant that I do nothing this day, nor all the days of my life,
which can divide me from thee. For the Lord Jesus my Redeemer's
sake. Amen.' After which the Lord's Prayer. Then rapidly and
vigorously (GESCHWINDE UND HURTIG) wash himself clean, dress and
powder and comb himself [we forget to say, that while they are
combing and queuing him, he breakfasts, with brevity, on tea]:
Prayer, with washing, breakfast and the rest, to be done pointedly
within fifteen minutes [that is, at a quarter past 7].
"This finished, all his Domestics and Duhan shall come in, and do
family worship ( das grosse Gebet zu halten ):
Prayer on their knees, Duhan withal to read a Chapter of the
Bible, and sing some proper Psalm or Hymn [as practised in
well-regulated families]:--It will then be a quarter to 8.
All the Domestics then withdraw again; and Duhan now reads with my
Son the Gospel of the Sunday; expounds it a little, adducing the
main points of Christianity;--questioning from Noltenius's
Catechism [which Fritz knows by heart]:--it will then
be 9 o'clock.
"At 9 he brings my Son down to me; who goes to Church, and dines,
along with me [dinner at the stroke of Noon]: the rest of the day
is then his own [Fritz's and Duhan's]. At half-past 9 in the
evening, he shall come and bid me goodnight. Shall then directly
go to his room; very rapidly (SEHR GESCHWIND) get off his clothes,
wash his hands [get into some tiny dressing-gown or CASSAQUIN, no
doubt]; and so soon as that is done, Duhan makes a prayer on his
knees, and sings a hymn; all the Servants being again there.
Instantly after which, my Son shall get into bed; shall be in bed
at half-past 10;"--and fall asleep how soon, your Majesty? This is
very strict work.
MONDAY. "On Monday, as on all weekdays, he is to be called at 6;
and so soon as called he is to rise; you are to stand to him
(ANHALTEN) that he do not loiter or turn in bed, but briskly and
at once get up; and say his prayers, the same as on Sunday
morning. This done, he shall as rapidly as possible get on his
shoes and spatterdashes; also wash his face and hands, but not
with soap. Farther shall put on his CASSAQUIN [short
dressing-gown], have his hair combed out and queued, but not
powdered. While getting combed and queued, he shall at the same
time take breakfast of tea, so that both jobs go on at once;
and all this shall be ended before half-past 6." Then enter Duhan
and the Domestics, with worship, Bible, Hymn, all as on Sunday;
this is done by 7, and the Servants go again.
"From 7 till 9 Duhan takes him on History; at 9 comes Noltenius
[a sublime Clerical Gentleman from Berlin] with the Christian
Religion, till a quarter to 11. Then Fritz rapidly (GESCHWIND)
washes his face with water, hands with soap-and-water;
clean shirt; powders, and puts on his coat;--about 11 comes to the
King. Stays with the King till 2,"--perhaps promenading a little;
dining always at Noon; after which Majesty is apt to be
slumberous, and light amusements are over.
"Directly at 2, he goes back to his room. Duhan is there, ready;
takes him upon the Maps and Geography, from 2 to 3,--giving
account [gradually!] of all the European Kingdoms; their strength
and weakness; size, riches and poverty of their towns. From 3 to
4, Duhan treats of Morality ( soll die Moral tractiren
). From 4 to 5, Duhan shall write German Letters with
him, and see that he gets a good STYLUM [which he never in the
least did]. About 5, Fritz shall wash his hands, and go to the
King;--ride out; divert himself, in the air and not in his room;
and do what he likes, if it is not against God."
There, then, is a Sunday, and there is one Weekday; which latter
may serve for all the other five:--though they are strictly
specified in the royal monograph, and every hour of them marked
out: How, and at what points of time, besides this of HISTORY, of
MORALITY, and WRITING IN GERMAN, of Maps and GEOGRAPHY with the
strength and weakness of Kingdoms, you are to take up ARITHMETIC
more than once; WRITING OF FRENCH LETTERS, so as to acquire a good
STYLUM: in what nook you may intercalate "a little getting by
heart of something, in order to strengthen the memory;" how
instead of Noltenius, Panzendorf (another sublime Reverend
Gentleman from Berlin, who comes out express) gives the clerical
drill on Tuesday morning;--with which two onslaughts, of an
hour-and-half each, the Clerical Gentlemen seem to withdraw for
the week, and we hear no more of them till Monday and Tuesday come
round again.
On Wednesday we are happy to observe a liberal slice of holiday
come in. At half-past 9, having done his HISTORY, and "got
something by heart to strengthen the memory [very little, it is to
be feared], Fritz shall rapidly dress himself, and come to the
King. And the rest of the day belongs to little Fritz
( gehort vor Fritzchen )." On Saturday, too,
there is some fair chance of half-holiday:--
"SATURDAY, forenoon till half-past 10, come History, Writing and
Ciphering; especially repetition of what was done through the
week, and in MORALITY as well [adds the rapid Majesty], to see
whether he has profited. And General Graf von Finkenstein, with
Colonel von Kalkstein, shall be present during this. If Fritz has
profited, the afternoon shall be his own. If he has not profited,
he shall, from 2 to 6, repeat and learn rightly what he has
forgotten on the past days." And so the laboring week winds itself
up. Here, however, is one general rule which cannot be too much
impressed upon YOU, with which we conclude:--
"In undressing and dressing, you must accustom him to get out of,
and into, his clothes as fast as is humanly possible (
hurtig so viel als menschenmoglich ist ). You will
also look that he learn to put on aud put off his clothes himself,
without help from others; and that he be clean and neat, and not
so dirty ( nicht so schmutzig end italic>)." "Not so
dirty," that is my last word; and here is my sign-manual,
"FRIEDRICH WILHELM." [Preuss, i. 21.]
Chapter IX.
WUSTERHAUSEN.
Wusterhausen, where for the present these operations go on, lies
about twenty English miles southeast of Berlin, as you go towards
Schlesien (Silesia);--on the old Silesian road, in a flat moory
country made of peat and sand;--and is not distinguished for its
beauty at all among royal Hunting-lodges. The Gohrde at Hanover,
for example, what a splendor there in comparison! But it serves
Friedrich Wilhelm's simple purposes: there is game abundant in the
scraggy woodlands, otter-pools, fish-pools, and miry thickets, of
that old "Schenkenland" (belonged all once to the "SCHENKEN
Family," till old King Friedrich bought it for his Prince);
retinue sufficient find nooks for lodgment in the poor old
Schloss so called; and Noltenius and Panzendorf drive out each
once a week, in some light vehicle, to drill Fritz in his
religious exercises.
One Zollner, a Tourist to Silesia, confesses himself rather
pleased to find even Wusterhausen in such a country of sandy
bent-grass, lean cattle, and flat desolate languor.
"Getting to the top of the ridge" (most insignificant "ridge,"
made by hand; Wilhelmina satirically says), Tourist Zollner can
discern with pleasure "a considerable Brook,"--visible, not
audible, smooth Stream, or chain of meres and lakelets, flowing
languidly northward towards Kopenik. Inaudible big Brook or
Stream; which, we perceive, drains a slightly hollowed Tract;
too shallow to be called valley,--of several miles in width, of
several yards in depth;--Tract with wood here and there on it, and
signs of grass and culture, welcome after what you have passed.
On the foreground close to you is the Hamlet of
Konigs-Wusterhausen, with tolerable Lime-tree Avenue leading to
it, and the air of something sylvan from your Hill-top.
Konigs-Wusterhausen was once WENDISH-Westerhausen, and not far off
is DEUTSCH-Wusterhausen, famed, I suppose, by faction-fights in
the Vandalic times: both of them are now KING'S-Wusterhausen
(since the King came thither), to distinguish them from other
Wusterhausens that there are.
Descending, advancing through your Lime-tree Avenue, you come upon
the backs of office-houses, out-houses, stables or the like,--on
your left hand I have guessed,--extending along the Highway.
And in the middle of these you come at last to a kind of Gate or
vaulted passage (ART VON THOR, says Zollner), where, if you have
liberty, you face to the left, and enter. Here, once through into
the free light again, you are in a Court: four-square space, not
without prospect; right side and left side are lodgings for his
Majesty's gentlemen; behind you, well in their view, are stables
and kitchens: in the centre of the place is a Fountain "with hewn
steps and iron railings;" where his simple Majesty has been known
to sit and smoke, on summer evenings. The fourth side of your
square, again, is a palisade; beyond which, over bridge and moat
and intervening apparatus, you perceive, on its trim terraces, the
respectable old Schloss itself. A rectangular mass, not of vast
proportions, with tower in the centre of it (tower for
screw-stair, the general roadway of the House); and looking though
weather-beaten yet weather-tight, and as dignified as it can.
This is Wusterhausen; Friedrich Wilhelm's Hunting-seat from
of old.
A dreadfully crowded place, says Wilhelmina, where you are stuffed
into garrets, and have not room to turn. The terraces are of some
magnitude, trimmed all round with a row of little clipped trees,
one big lime-tree at each corner;--under one of these big
lime-trees, aided by an awning: it is his Majesty's delight to
spread his frugal but substantial dinner, four-and-twenty covers,
at the stroke of 12, and so dine SUB DIO. If rain come on, says
Wilhelmina, you are wet to mid-leg, the ground being hollow in
that place,--and indeed in all weathers your situation every way,
to a vehement young Princess's idea, is rather of the horrible
sort. After dinner, his Majesty sleeps, stretched perhaps on some
wooden settle or garden-chair, for about an hour; regardless of
the flaming heat, under his awning or not; and we poor Princesses
have to wait, praying all the Saints that they would resuscitate
him soon. This is about 2 p.m.; happier Fritz is gone to his
lessons, in the interim.
These four Terraces, this rectangular Schloss with the four big
lindens at the corners, are surrounded by a Moat; black abominable
ditch, Wilhelmina calls it; of the hue of Tartarean Styx, and of a
far worse smell, in fact enough to choke one, in hot days after
dinner, thinks the vehement Princess. Three Bridges cross this
Moat or ditch, from the middle of three several Terraces or sides
of the Schloss; and on the fourth it is impassable. Bridge first,
coming from the palisade and Office-house Court, has not only
human sentries walking at it; but two white Eagles perch near it,
and two black ditto, symbols of the heraldic Prussian Eagle,
screeching about in their littery way; item two black Bears, ugly
as Sin, which are vicious wretches withal, and many times do
passengers a mischief. As perhaps we shall see, on some occasion.
This is Bridge first, leading to the Court and to the outer
Highway; a King's gentleman, going to bed at night, has always to
pass these Bears. Bridge second leads us southward to a common
Mill which is near by; its clacking audible upon the common Stream
of the region, and not unpleasant to his Majesty, among its
meadows fringed with alders, in a country of mere and moor.
Bridge third, directly opposite to Bridge first and its Bears,
leads you to the Garden; whither Mamma, playing tocadille all day
with her women, will not, or will not often enough, let us poor
girls go. [Zollner, Briefe uber Schlesien
(Berlin, 1792), i. 2, 3; Wilhelmina, i. 364, 365.]
Such is Wusterhausen, as delineated by a vehement Princess, some
years hence,--who becomes at last intelligible, by study and the
aid of our Silesian Tourist. It is not distinguished among Country
Palaces: but the figure of Friedrich Wilhelm asleep there after
dinner, regardless of the flaming sun (should he sleep too long
and the shadow of his Linden quit him),--this is a sight which no
other Palace in the world can match; this will long render
Wusterhausen memorable to me. His Majesty, early always as the
swallows, hunts, I should suppose, in the morning; dines and
sleeps, we may perceive, till towards three, or later.
His Official business he will not neglect, nor shirk the hours due
to it; towards sunset there may be a walk or ride with Fritz, or
Feekin and the womankind: and always, in the evening, his Majesty
holds TABAGIE, TABAKS-COLLEGIUM (Smoking College, kind of
Tobacco-Parliament, as we might name it), an Institution
punctually attended to by his Majesty, of which we shall by and by
speak more. At Wusterhausen his Majesty holds his Smoking Session
mostly in the open air, oftenest "on the steps of the Great
Fountain" (how arranged, as to seating and canvas-screening,
I cannot say);--smokes there, with his Grumkows, Derschaus,
Anhalt-Dessaus, and select Friends, in various slow talk;
till Night kindle her mild starlights, shake down her dark
curtains over all Countries, and admonish weary mortals that it
is now bedtime.
Not much of the Picturesque in this autumnal life of our little
Boy. But he has employments in abundance; and these make the
permitted open air, under any terms, a delight. He can rove about
with Duhan among the gorse and heath, and their wild summer
tenantry winged and wingless. In the woodlands are wild swine, in
the meres are fishes, otters; the drowsy Hamlets, scattered round,
awaken in an interested manner at the sound of our pony-hoofs and
dogs. Mittenwalde, where are shops, is within riding distance;
we could even stretch to Kopenik, and visit in the big Schloss
there, if Duhan were willing, and the cattle fresh. From some
church-steeple or sand-knoll, it is to be hoped, some blue streak
of the Lausitz Hills may be visible: the Sun and the Moon and the
Heavenly Hosts, these full certainly are visible; and on an Earth
which everywhere produces miracles of all kinds, from the daisy or
heather-bell up to the man, one place is nearly equal to another
for a brisk little Boy.
Fine Palaces, if Wusterhausen be a sorry one, are not wanting to
our young Friend: whatsoever it is in the power of architecture
and upholstery to do for him, may be considered withal as done.
Wusterhausen is but a Hunting-lodge for some few Autumn weeks:
the Berlin Palace and the Potsdam, grand buildings both, few
Palaces in the world surpass them; and there, in one or the other
of these, is our usual residence.--Little Fritz, besides his young
Finkensteins and others of the like, has Cousins, children of his
Grandfather's Half-brothers, who are comrades of his. For the
Great Elector, as we saw, was twice wedded, and had a second set
of sons and daughters: two of the sons had children; certain of
these are about the Crown-Prince's own age, "Cousins" of his
(strictly speaking, Half-cousins of HIS FATHER'S), who are much
about him in his young days,--and more or less afterwards,
according to the worth they proved to have. Margraves and
Margravines of Schwedt,--there are five or six of such young
Cousins. Not to mention the eldest, Friedrich Wilhelm by name, who
is now come to manhood (born 1700);--who wished much in after
years to have had Wilhelmina to wife; but had to put up with a
younger Princess of the House, and ought to have been thankful.
This one has a younger Brother, Heinrich, slightly Fritz's senior,
and much his comrade at one time; of whom we shall transiently
hear again. Of these two the Old Dessauer is Uncle: if both his
Majesty and the Crown-Prince should die, one of these would be
king. A circumstance which Wilhelmina and the Queen have laid well
to heart, and build many wild suspicions upon, in these years!
As that the Old Dessauer, with his gunpowder face, has a plot one
day to assassinate his Majesty,--plot evident as sunlight to
Wilhelmina and Mamma, which providentially came to nothing;--and
other spectral notions of theirs. [Wilhelmina, i. 35, 41.]
The Father of these two Margraves (elder of the two Half-brothers
that have children) died in the time of Old King Friedrich, eight
or nine years ago. Their Mother, the scheming old Margravine,
whom I always fancy to dress in high colors, is still living,--
as Wilhelmina well knows!
Then, by another, the younger of those old Half-brothers, there is
a Karl, a second Friedrich Wilhelm, Cousin Margraves: plenty of
Cousins;--and two young Margravines among them, [Michaelis,
i. 425.] the youngest about Fritz's own age. [NOTE OF THE COUSIN
MARGRAVES.--Great Elector, by his Second Wife, had five Sons, two
of whom left Children;--as follows (so far as they concern us,--
he others omitted):--
1. Son PHILIP'S Children (Mother the Old Dessauer's Sister) are:
Friedrich Wilhelm (1700), who wished much, but in vain, to marry
Wilhelmina. Heinrich Friedrich (1709), a comrade of Fritz's in
youth; sometimes getting into scrapes;--misbehaved, some way, at
the Battle of Molwits (first of Friedrich's Battles), 1741, and
was inexorably CUT by the new King, and continued under a cloud
thenceforth .--This PHILIP ("Philip Wilhelm") died 1711, his
forty-third year; Widow long survived him.
2. Son ALBERT'S Children (Mother a Courland Princess) are:
Karl (1705); lived near Custrin; became a famed captain, in the
Silesian Wars, under his Cousin. Friedrich (1701); fell at
Molwitz, 1741. Friedrich Wilhelm (a Margraf Friedrich Wilhelm
"No. 2,"--NAMESAKE of his now Majesty, it is like); born 1714;
killed at Prag, by a cannon-shot (at King Friedrich's hand,
reconnoitring the place), 1744.--This ALBERT ("Albert Friedrich" )
died suddenly 1731, age fifty-nine.]
No want of Cousins; the Crown-Prince seeing much of them all;
and learning pleasantly their various qualities, which were good
in most, in some not so good, and did not turn out supreme in any
case. But, for the rest, Sister Wilhelmina is his grand
confederate and companion; true in sport and in earnest, in joy
and in sorrow. Their truthful love to one another, now and till
death, is probably the brightest element their life yielded to
either of them.
What might be the date of Fritz's first appearance in the
Roucoulles "Soiree held on Wednesdays," in the Finkenstein or any
other Soiree, as an independent figure, I do not know. But at the
proper time, he does appear there, and with distinction not
extrinsic alone;--talks delightfully in such places; can discuss,
even with French Divines, in a charmingly ingenious manner.
Another of his elderly consorts I must mention: Colonel Camas,
a highly cultivated Frenchman (French altogether by parentage and
breeding, though born on Prussian land), who was Tutor, at one
time, to some of those young Margraves. He has lost an arm,--left
it in those Italian Campaigns, under Anhalt-Dessau and Eugene;--
but by the aid of a cork substitute, dexterously managed, almost
hides the want. A gallant soldier, fit for the diplomacies too;
a man of fine high ways. [ Militair-Lexicon,
i. 308.] And then his Wife--In fact, the Camas House, we perceive,
had from an early time been one of the Crown-Prince's haunts.
Madam Camas is a German Lady; but for genial elegance, for wit and
wisdom and goodness, could not readily be paralleled in France or
elsewhere. Of both these Camases there will be honorable and
important mention by and by; especially of the Lady, whom he
continues to call "Mamma" for fifty years to come, and corresponds
with in a very beautiful and human fashion.
Under these auspices, in such environment, dimly visible to us, at
Wusterhausen and elsewhere, is the remarkable little Crown-Prince
of his century growing up,--prosperously as yet.
Chapter X.
THE HEIDELBERG PROTESTANTS.
Friedrich Wilhelm holds Tabagie nightly; but at Wusterhausen or
wherever he may be, there is no lack of intricate Official Labor,
which, even in the Tabagie, Friedrich Wilhelm does not forget.
At the time he was concocting those Instructions for his little
Prince's Schoolmasters, and smoking meditative under the stars,
with Magdeburg "RITTER-DIENST" and much else of his own to think
of,--there is an extraneous Political Intricacy, making noise
enough in the world, much in his thoughts withal, and no doubt
occasionally murmured of amid the tobacco-clouds. The Business of
the Heidelberg Protestants; which is just coming to a height in
those Autumn months of 1719.
Indeed this Year 1719 was a particularly noisy one for him.
This is the year of the "nephritic colic," which befell at
Brandenburg on some journey of his Majesty's; with alarm of
immediate death; Queen Sophie sent for by express; testament made
in her favor; and intrigues, very black ones, Wilhelmina thinks,
following thereupon. [ Memoires de Bareith,
i. 26-29.] And the "Affair of Clement," on which the old Books are
so profuse, falls likewise, the crisis of it falls, in 1719.
Of Clement the "Hungarian Nobleman," who was a mere Hungarian
Swindler, and Forger of Royal Letters; sowing mere discords, black
suspicions, between Friedrich Wilhelm and the neighboring Courts,
Imperial and Saxon: "Your Majesty to be snapt up, some day, by
hired ruffians, and spirited away, for behoof of those treacherous
Courts:" so that Friedrich Wilhelm fell into a gloom of
melancholy, and for long weeks "never slept but with a pair of
loaded pistols under his pillow:"--of this Clement, an adroit
Phenomenon of the kind, and intensely agitating to Friedrich
Wilhelm;--whom Friedrich Wilhelm had at last to lay hold of, try,
this very year, and ultimately hang, [Had arrived in Berlin, "end
of 1717;" stayed about a year, often privately in the King's
company, poisoning the royal mind; withdrew to the Hague,
suspecting Berlin might soon grow dangerous;--is wiled out of that
Territory into the Prussian, and arrested, by one of Friedrich
Wilhelm's Colonels, "end of 1718;" lies in Spandau, getting tried,
for seventeen months; hanged, with two Accomplices, 18th April,
1720. (See, in succession, Stenzel, iii. 298, 302; Fassmann,
p. 321; Forster, ii. 272, and iii. 320-324.)] amid the rumor and
wonder of mankind:--of him, noisy as he was, and still filling
many pages of the old Books, a hint shall suffice, and we will say
nothing farther. But this of the Heidelberg Protestants, though
also rather an extinct business, has still some claims on us.
This, in justice to the "inarticulate man of genius," and for
other reasons, we must endeavor to resuscitate a little.
OF KUR-PFALZ KARL PHILIP: HOW HE GOT A WIFE LONG SINCE,
AND DID FEATS IN THE WORLD.
There reigns, in these years, at Heidelberg, as Elector Palatine,
a kind-tempered but abrupt and somewhat unreasonable old
gentleman, now verging towards sixty, Karl Philip by name; who has
come athwart the Berlin Court and its affairs more than once;
and will again do so, in a singularly disturbing way. From before
Friedrich Wilhelm's birth, all through Friedrich Wilhelm's life
and farther, this Karl Philip is a stone-of-stumbling there.
His first feat in life was that of running off with a Prussian
Princess from Berlin; the rumor of which was still at its height
when Friedrich Wilhelm, a fortnight after, came into the world,--
the gossips still talking of it, we may fancy, when Friedrich
Wilhelm was first swaddled. An unheard-of thing; the manner of
which was this.
Readers have perhaps forgotten, that old King Friedrich I. once
had a Brother; elder Brother, who died, to the Father's great
sorrow, and made way for Friedrich as Crown-Prince. This Brother
had been married a short time; he left a Widow without children;
a beautiful Lithuanian Princess, born Radzivil, and of great
possessions in her own country: she, in her crapes and close-cap,
remained an ornament to the new Berlin Court for some time;--not
too long. The mourning-year once out, a new marriage came on foot
for the brilliant widow; the Bridegroom, a James Sobieski, eldest
Prince of the famous John, King Sobieski; Prince with fair
outlooks towards Polish Sovereignty, and handy for those
Lithuanian Possessions of hers: altogether an eligible match.
This marriage was on foot, not quite completed; when Karl Philip,
Cadet of the Pfalz, came to Berlin;--a rather idle young man, once
in the clerical way; now gone into the military, with secular
outlooks, his elder Brother, Heir-Apparent of the Pfalz, "having
no children:"--came to Berlin, in the course of visiting, and
roving about. The beautiful Widow-Princess seemed very charming to
Karl Philip; he wooed hard; threw the Princess into great
perplexity. She had given her Yes to James Sobieski; inevitable
wedding-day was coming on with James; and here was Karl Philip
wooing so:--in brief, the result was, she galloped off with Karl
Philip, on the eve of said wedding-day; married Karl Philip (24th
July, 1688); and left Prince James standing there, too much like
Lot's Wife, in the astonished Court of Berlin. [Michaelis,
ii. 93.] Judge if the Berlin. public talked,--unintelligible to
Friedrioh Wilhelm, then safe in swaddling-clothes.
King Sobieski, the Father, famed Deliverer of Vienna, was in high
dudgeon. But Karl Philip apologized, to all lengths; made his
peace at last, giving a Sister of his own to be Wife to the
injured James. This was Karl Philip's first outbreak in life;
and it was not his only one. A man not ill-disposed, all grant;
but evidently of headlong turn, with a tendency to leap fences in
this world. He has since been soldiering about, in a loose way,
governing Innspruck, fighting the Turks. But, lately, his elder
Brother died childless (year 1716); and left him Kurfurst of the
Pfalz. His fair Radzivil is dead long ago; she, and a successor,
or it may be two. Except one Daughter, whom the fair Radzivil left
him, he has no children; and in these times, I think, lives with a
third Wife, of the LEFT-HAND kind.
His scarcity of progeny is not so indifferent to my readers as
they might suppose. This new KUR-PFALZ (Elector-Palatine) Karl
Philip is by genealogy--who, thinks the reader? Pfalz-NEUBURG by
line; own Grandson of that Wolfgang Wilhelm, who got the slap on
the face long since, on account of the Cleve-Julich matter! So it
has come round. The Line of Simmern died out, Winter-King's
Grandson the last of that; and then, as right was, the Line of
Neuburg took the top place, and became Kur-Pfalz. The first of
these was this Karl Philip's Father, son of the Beslapped; an old
man when he succeeded. Karl Philip is the third Kur-Pfalz of the
Neuburg Line; his childless elder Brother (he who collected the
Pictures at Dusseldorf, once notable there) was second of the
Neuburgs. They now, we say, are Electors-Palatine, Head of the
House;--and, we need not add, along with their Electorate and
Neuburg Country, possess the Cleve-Julioh Moiety of Heritage,
about which there was such worrying in time past. Nay the
last Kur-Pfalz resided there, and collected the "Dusseldorf
Gallery," as we have just said; though Karl Philip prefers
Heidelberg hitherto.
To Friedrich Wilhelm the scarcity of progeny is a
thrice-interesting fact. For if this actual Neuburg should leave
no male heir, as is now humanly probable,--the Line of Neuburg too
is out; and then great things ought to follow for our Prussian
House. Then, by the last Bargain, made in 1666, with all
solemnity, between the Great Elector, our Grandfather of famous
memory, and your serene Father the then Pfalz-Neuburg,
subsequently Kur-Pfalz, likewise of famous memory, son of the
Beslapped,--the whole Heritage falls to Prussia, no other Pfalz
Branch having thenceforth the least claim to it. Bargain was
express; signed, sealed, sanctioned, drawn out on the due extent
of sheepskin, which can still be read. Bargain clear enough:
but will this Karl Philip incline to keep it?
That may one day be the interesting question. But that is not the
question of controversy at present: not that, but another;
for Karl Philip, it would seem, is to be a frequent
stone-of-stumbling to the Prussian House. The present question is
of a Protestant-Papist matter; into which Friedrich Wilhelm has
been drawn by his public spirit alone.
KARL PHILIP AND HIS HEIDELBERG PROTESTANTS.
The Pfalz population was, from of old, Protestant-Calvinist;
the Electors-Palatine used to be distinguished for their
forwardness in that matter. So it still is with the Pfalz
population; but with the Electors, now that the House of Simmern
is out, and that of Neuburg in, it is not so. The Neuburgs, ever
since that slap, on the face, have continued Popish; a sore fact
for this Protestant population, when it got them for Sovereigns.
Karl Philip's Father, an old soldier at Vienna, and the elder
Brother, a collector of Pictures at Dusseldorf, did not outwardly
much molest the creed of their subjects. Protestants, and the
remnant of Catholics (remnant naturally rather expanding now that
the Court shone on it), were allowed to live in peace, according
to the Treaty of Westphalia, or nearly so; dividing the churches
and church-revenues equitably between them, as directed there.
But now that Karl Philip is come in, there is no mistaking his
procedures. He has come home to Heidelberg with a retinue of
Jesuits about him; to whom the poor old gentleman, looking before
and after on this troublous world, finds it salutary to give ear.
His nibblings at Protestant rights, his contrivances to slide
Catholics into churches which were not theirs, and the like
foul-play in that matter, had been sorrowful to see, for some time
past. The Elector of Mainz, Chief-Priest of Germany, is busy in
the same bad direction; he and others. Indeed, ever since the
Peace of Ryswick, where Louis XIV. surreptitiously introduced a
certain "Clause," which could never be got rid of again, ["CLAUSE
OF THE FOURTH ARTICLE" is the technical name of it. FOURTH ARTICLE
stipulates that King Louis XIV. shall punctually restore all
manner of towns and places, in the Palatinate &c. (much BURNT,
somewhat BE-JESUITED too, in late Wars, by the said Kihg, during
his occupancy): CLAUSE OF FOURTH ARTICLE (added to it, by a quirk,
"at midnight," say the Books) contains merely these words,
"Religione tamen Catholica Romana, in locis sic
restitutis, in statu quo nunc est remanente:
Roman-Catholic religion to continue as it now is [as WE have made
it to be] in such towns and places."--Which CLAUSE gave rise to
very great but ineffectual lamenting and debating. (Scholl,
Traites de Paix (Par. 1817), i. 433-438;
Buchholz; Spittler, Geschichte Wurtembergs; &c).]
nibbling aggressions of this kind have gone on more and more.
Always too sluggishly resisted by the CORPUS EVANGELICORUM, in the
Diets or otherwise, the "United Protestant Sovereigns" not being
an active "Body" there. And now more sluggishly than ever;--said
CORPUS having August Elector of Saxony, Catholic (Sham-Catholic)
King of Poland, for its Official Head; "August the Physically
Strong," a man highly unconcerned for matters Evangelical! So that
the nibblings go on worse and worse. An offence to all Protestant
Rulers who had any conscience; at length an unbearable on to
Friedrich Wilhelm, who, alone of them all, decided to intervene
effectually, and say, at whatever risk there might be, We will not
stand it!
Karl Philip, after some nibblings, took up the Heidelberg
Catechism (which candidly calls the Mass "idolatrous"), and
ordered said Catechism, an Authorized Book, to cease in his
dominions. Hessen-Cassel, a Protestant neighbor, pleaded,
remonstrated, Friedrich Wilhelm glooming in the rear; but to no
purpose. Our old gentleman, his Priests being very diligent upon
him, decided next to get possession of the HEILIGE-GEIST KIRCHE
(Church of the Holy Ghost, principal Place of Worship at
Heidelberg), and make it his principal Cathedral Church there.
By Treaty of Westphalia, or peaceably otherwise, the Catholics are
already in possession of the Choir: but the whole Church would be
so much better. "Was it not Catholic once?" thought Karl Philip to
himself: "built by our noble Ancestor Kaiser Rupert of the Pfalz,
Rupert KLEMM ["Pincers," so named for his firmness of mind]:--
why should these Heretics have it? I will build them another!"
These thoughts, in 1719, the third year of Karl Philip's rule, had
broken out into open action (29th August, 4th September the
consummation of it) [Mauvillon, i. 340-345.] and precisely in the
ime when Friedrich Wilhelm was penning that first Didactic Morsel
which we read, grave clouds from the Palatinate were beginning to
overshadow the royal mind more or less.
For the poor Heidelberg Consistorium, as they could not undertake
to give up their Church on request of his Serenity,--"How dare we,
or can we?" answered they,--had been driven out by compulsion and
stratagem. Partly strategic was the plan adopted, to avoid
violence; smith's picklocks being employed, and also mason's
crowbars: but the end was, On the 31st of August, 1719,
Consistorium and Congregation found themselves fairly in the
street, and the HEILIGE-GEIST KIRCHE clean gone from them.
Screen of the Choir is torn down; one big Catholic edifice now;
getting decorated into a Court Church, where Serene Highness may
feel his mind comfortable.
The poor Heidelbergers, thus thrown into the street, made
applications, lamentations; but with small prospect of help:
to whom apply with any sure prospect? Remonstrances from
Hessen-Cassel have proved unavailing with his bigoted Serene
Highness. CORPS EVANGELICORUM, so presided over as at present,
what can be had of such a Corpus? Long-winded lucubrations at the
utmost; real action, in such a matter; none. Or will the Kaiser,
his Jesuits advising him, interfere to do us justice? Kur-Mainz
and the rest;--it is everywhere one story. Everywhere unhappy
Protestantism getting bad usage, and ever worse; and no Corpus
Evangelicorum, or appointed Watchdog, doing other than hang its
ears, and look sorry for itself and us!--
The Heidelbergers, however, had applied to Friedrich Wilhelm among
others. Friedrich Wilhelm, who had long looked on these
Anti-Protestant phenomena with increasing anger, found now that
this of the Heidelberg Catechism and HEILIGE-GEIST KIRCHE was
enough to make one's patience run over. Your unruly Catholic bull,
plunging about, and goring men in that mad absurd manner, it will
behoove that somebody take him by the horns, or by the tail, and
teach him manners. Teach him, not by vocal precepts, it is likely,
which would avail nothing on such a brute, but by practical
cudgelling and scourging to the due pitch. Pacific Friedrich
Wilhelm perceived that he himself would have to do that
disagreeable feat:--the growl of him, on coming to such
resolution, must have been consolatory to these poor
Heidelbergers, when they applied!--His plan is very simple, as the
plans of genius are; but a plan leading direct to the end desired,
and probably the only one that would have done so, in the
circumstances. Cudgel in hand, he takes the Catholic bull,--shall
we say, by the horns?--more properly perhaps by the tail;
and teaches him manners.
FRIEDRICH WILHELM'S METHOD;--PROVES REMEDIAL IN HEIDELBERG.
Friedrich Wilhelm's first step, of course, was to remonstrate
pacifically with his Serene Highness on the Heidelberg-Church
affair: from this he probably expected nothing; nor did he get
anything. Getting nothing from this, and the countenance of
external Protestant Powers, especially of George I. and the
Dutch, being promised him in ulterior measures, he directed his
Administrative Officials in Magdeburg, in Minden, in Hamersleben,
where are Catholic Foundations of importance, to assemble the
Catholic Canons, Abbots, chief Priests and all whom it might
concern in these three Places, and to signify to them
as follows:--
"From us, your Protestant Sovereign, you yourselves and all men
will witness, you have hitherto had the best of usage, fair-play,
according to the Laws of the REICH, and even-more. With the
Protestants at Heidelberg, on the part of the Catholic Powers, it
is different. It must cease to be different; it must become the
same. And to make it do so, you are the implement I have.
Sorry for it, but there is no other handy. From this day your
Churches also are closed, your Public Worship ceases, and
furthermore your Revenues cease; and all makes dead halt, and
falls torpid in respect of you. From this day; and so continues,
till the day (may it be soon!) when the Heidelberg Church of the
Holy Ghost is opened again, and right done in that question.
Be it yours to speed such day: it is you that can and will, you
who know those high Catholic regions, inaccessible to your
Protestant Sovereign. Till then you are as dead men; temporarily
fallen dead for a purpose. And herewith God have you in his
keeping!" [Mauvillon, i. 347, 349.]
That was Friedrich Wilhelm's plan; the simplest, but probably the
one effectual plan. Infallible this plan, if you dare stand upon
it; which Friedrich Wilhelm does. He has a formidable Army, ready
for fight; a Treasury or Army-chest in good order. George I.
seconds, according to bargain; shuts the Catholic Church at Zelle
in his Luneburg Country, in like fashion; Dutch, too, and Swiss
will endorse the matter, should it grow too serious. All which,
involving some diplomacy and correspondence, is managed with the
due promptitude, moreover. [Church of Zelle shut up, 4th November;
Minden, 28th November; Monastery of Hamersleben, 3d December, &c.
(Putter, Historische Entwickelung der hautigen
Staatsverfassung des Teutschen Reichs, Gottingen,
1788, ii. 384, 390).] And so certain doors are locked;
and Friedrich Wilhelm's word, unalterable as gravitation, has gone
forth. In this manner is the mad Catholic bull taken by the TAIL:
keep fast hold, and apply your cudgel duly in that attitude, he
will not gore you any more!
The Magdeburg-Hamersleben people shrieked piteously; not to
Friedrich Wilhelm, whom they knew to be deaf on that side of his
head, but to the Kaiser, to the Pope, to the Serenity of
Heidelberg. Serene Highness of Heidelberg was much huffed;
Kaiser dreadfully so, and wrote heavy menacing rebukes. To which
Friedrich Wilhelm listened with a minimum of reply; keeping firm
hold of the tail, in such bellowing of the animal. The end was,
Serene Highness had to comply; within three months, Kaiser, Serene
Highness and the other parties interested, found that there would
be nothing for it but to compose themselves, and do what was just.
April 16th, 1720, the Protestants are reinstated in their
HEILIGE-GEIST KIRCHE; Heidelberg Catechism goes its free course
again, May 16th; and one Baron Reck [Michaelis, ii. 95; Putter,
ii. 384, 390; Buchholz, pp. 61-63.] is appointed Commissioner,
from the CORPUS EVANGELICORUM, to Heidelberg; who continues
rigorously inspecting Church matters there for a considerable
time, much to the grief of Highness and Jesuits, till he can
report that all is as it should be on that head. Karl Philip felt
so disgusted with these results, he removed his Court, that same
year, to Mannheim; quitted Heidelberg; to the discouragement and
visible decay of the place; and, in spite of humble petitions and
remonstrances, never would return; neither he nor those that
followed him would shift from Mannheim again, to this day.
PRUSSIAN MAJESTY HAS DISPLEASED THE KAISER AND THE KING OF POLAND.
Friedrich Wilhelm's praises from the Protestant public were great,
on this occasion. Nor can we, who lie much farther from it in
every sense, refuse him some grin of approval. Act, and manner of
doing the act, are creditably of a piece with Friedrich Wilhelm;
physiognomic of the rugged veracious man. It is one of several
such acts done by him: for it was a duty apt to recur in Germany,
in his day. This duty Friedrich Wilhelm, a solid Protestant after
his sort, and convinced of the "nothingness and nonsensicality
(UNGRUND UND ABSURDITAT) of Papistry," was always honorably prompt
to do. There is an honest bacon-and-greens conscience in the man;
almost the one conscience you can find in any royal man of that
day. Promptly, without tremulous counting of costs, he always
starts up, solid as oak, on the occurrence of such a thing, and
says, "That is unjust; contrary to the Treaty of Westphalia;
you will have to put down that!"--And if words avail not, his plan
is always the same: Clap a similar thumbscrew, pressure equitably
calculated, on the Catholics of Prussia; these can complain to
their Popes and Jesuit Dignitaries: these are under thumbscrew
till the Protestant pressure be removed. Which always did rectify
the matter in a little time. One other of these instances, that of
the Salzburg Protestants, the last such instance, as this of
Heidelberg was the first, will by and by claim notice from us.
It is very observable, how Friedrich Wilhelm, hating quarrels, was
ever ready to turn out for quarrel on such an occasion;
though otherwise conspicuously a King who stayed well at home,
looking after his own affairs; meddling with no neighbor that
would be at peace with him. This properly is Friedrich Wilhelm's
"sphere of political activity" among his contemporaries;
this small quasi-domestic sphere, of forbidding injury to
Protestants. A most small sphere, but then a genuine one: nor did
he seek even this, had it not forced itself upon him. And truly we
might ask, What has become of the other more considerable
"spheres" in that epoch? The supremest loud-trumpeting "political
activities" which then filled the world and its newspapers, what
has the upshot of them universally been? Zero, and oblivion;
no other. While this poor Friedrich-Wilhelm sphere is perhaps
still a countable quantity. Wise is he who stays well at home, and
does the duty he finds lying there!--
Great favor from the Protestant public: but, on the other hand,
his Majesty had given offence in high places. What help for it?
The thing was a point of conscience with him; natural to the surly
Royal Overseer, going his rounds in the world, stick in hand!
However, the Kaiser was altogether gloomy of brow at such
disobedience. A Kaiser unfriendly to Friedrich Wilhelm: witness
that of the RITTER-DIENST (our unreasonable Magdeburg Ritters,
countenanced by him, on such terms, in such style too), and other
offensive instances that could be given. Perhaps the Kaiser will
not always continue gloomy of brow; perhaps the thoughts of the
Imperial breast may alter, on our behalf or his own, one day?--
Nor could King August the Physically Strong be glad to see his
"Director" function virtually superseded, in this triumphant way.
A year or two ago, Friedrich Wilhelm had, with the due cautions
and politic reserves, inquired of the CORPUS EVANGELICORUM,
"If they thought the present Directorship (that of August the
Physically Strong) a good one?" and "Whether he, Friedrich
Wilhelm, ought not perhaps himself to be Director?"--To which,
though the answer was clear as noonday, this poor Corpus had only
mumbled some "QUIETA NON MOVERE," or other wise-foolish saw;
and helplessly shrugged its shoulders. [1717-1719, when August's
KURPRINZ, Heir-Apparent, likewise declared himself Papist, to the
horror and astonishment of poor Saxony, and wedded the late Kaiser
Joseph's Daughter:--not to Father August's horror; who was
steering towards "popularity in Poland," "hereditary Polish
Crown," &c. with the young man. (Buchholz, i. 53-56.)] But King
August himself,--though a jovial social kind of animal, quite
otherwise occupied in the world; busy producing his three hundred
and fifty-four Bastards there, and not careful of Church matters
at all,--had expressed his indignant surprise. And now, it would
seem nevertheless, though the title remains where it was, the
function has fallen to another, who actually does it: a thing to
provoke comparisons in the public.
Clement, the Hungarian forger, vender of false state-secrets, is
well hanged; went to the gallows (18th April, 1720) with much
circumstance, just two days before that Heidelberg Church was got
reopened. But the suspicions sown by Clement cannot quite be
abolished by the hanging of him: Forger indisputably; but who
knows whether he had not something of fact for his? What with
Clement, what with this Heidelberg business, the Court of Berlin
has fallen wrong with Dresden, with Vienna itself, and important
clouds have risen.
There is an absurd Flame of War, blown out by Admiral
Byng; and a new Man of Genius announces himself to the dim
Populations.
The poor Kaiser himself is otherwise in trouble of his own, at
this time. The Spaniards and he have fallen out, in spite of
Utrecht Treaty and Rastadt ditto; the Spaniards have taken Sicily
from him; and precisely in those days while Karl Philip took to
shutting up the HEILIGE-GEIST Church at Heidelberg, there was,
loud enough in all the Newspapers, silent as it now is, a "Siege
of Messina" going on; Imperial and Piedmontese troops doing duty
by land, Admiral Byng still more effectively by sea, for the
purpose of getting Sicily back. Which was achieved by and by,
though at an extremely languid pace. [Byng's Sea-fight, 10th
August, 1718 (Campbell's Lives of the Admirals,
italic> iii. 468); whereupon the Spaniards, who had hardly yet
completed their capture of Messina, are besieged in it;--
29th October, 1719, Messina retaken (this is the "Siege of
Messina"): February, 1720, Peace is clapt up (the chief article,
that Alberoni shall be packed away), and a "Congress of Cambrai"
is to meet, and settle everything.] One of the most tedious
Sieges; one of the paltriest languid Wars (of extreme virulence
and extreme feebleness, neither party having any cash left), and
for an object which could not be excelled in insignificance.
Object highly interesting to Kaiser Karl VI. and Elizabeth Farnese
Termagant Queen of Spain. These two were red, or even were pale,
with interest in it; and to the rest of Adam's Posterity it was
not intrinsically worth an ounce of gunpowder, many tons of that
and of better commodities as they had to spend upon it. True, the
Spanish Navy got well lamed in the business; Spanish Fleet blown
mostly to destruction,--"Roads of Messina, 10th August, 1718," by
the dexterous Byng (a creditable handy figure both in Peace and
War) and his considerable Sea-fight there:--if that was an object
to Spain or mankind, that was accomplished. But the "War," except
that many men were killed in it, and much vain babble was uttered
upon it, ranks otherwise with that of Don Quixote, for conquest of
the enchanted Helmet of Mambrino, which when looked into proved to
be a Barber's Basin.
Congress of Cambrai, and other high Gatherings and convulsive
Doings, which all proved futile, and look almost like Lapland
witchcraft now to us, will have to follow this futility of a War.
It is the first of a long series of enchanted adventures, on which
Kaiser Karl,--duelling with that Spanish Virago, Satan's Invisible
World in the rear of her,--has now embarked, to the woe of
mankind, for the rest of his life. The first of those
terrifico-ludicrous paroxysms of crisis into which he throws the
European Universe; he with his Enchanted Barber's-Basin
enterprises;--as perhaps was fit enough, in an epoch presided over
by the Nightmares. Congress of Cambrai is to follow; and much else
equally spectral. About all which there will be enough to say
anon! For it was a fearful operation, though a ludicrous one, this
of the poor Kaiser; and it tormented not the big Nations only, and
threw an absurd Europe into paroxysm after paroxysm; but it
whirled up, in its wide-weeping skirts, our little Fritz and his
Sister, and almost dashed the lives out of them, as we shall see!
Which last is perhaps the one claim it now has to a cursory
mention from mankind.
Byng's Sea-fight, done with due dexterity of manoeuvring, and then
with due emphasis of broadsiding, decisive of that absurd War, and
almost the one creditable action in it, dates itself 10th August,
1718. And about three months later, on the mimic stage at Paris
there came out a piece, OEDIPE the title of it, [18th November,
1718.] by one Francois Arouet, a young gentleman about twenty-two;
and had such a run as seldom was;--apprising the French
Populations that, to all appearance, a new man of genius had
appeared among them (not intimating what work he would do);
and greatly angering old M. Arouet of the Chamber of Accouuts;
who thereby found his Son as good as cast into the whirlpools, and
a solid Law-career thenceforth impossible for the young fool.--
The name of that "M. Arouet junior" changes itself, some years
hence, into M. DE VOLTAIRE; under which latter designation he will
conspicuously reappear in this Narrative.
And now we will go to our little Crown-Prince again;--ignorant,
he, of all this that is mounting up in the distance, and that it
will envelop him one day.
Chapter XI.
ON THE CROWN-PRINCE'S PROGRESS IN HIS SCHOOLING.
Wilhelmina says, [ Memoires, i. 22.] her
Brother was "slow" in learning: we may presume, she means idle,
volatile, not always prompt in fixing his attention to what did
not interest him. Moreover, he was often weakly in health, as she
herself adds; so that exertion was not recommendable for him.
Herr von Loen (a witty Prussian Official, and famed man-of-letters
once, though forgotten now) testifies expressly that the Boy was
of bright parts, and that he made rapid progress. "The
Crown-Prince manifests in this tender age [his seventh year] an
uncommon capacity; nay we may say, something quite extraordinary
( etwas ganz Ausserordentliches ). He is a
most alert and vivacious Prince; he has fine and sprightly
manners; and shows a certain kindly sociality, and so affectionate
a disposition that all things may be hoped of him. The French Lady
who [under Roucoulles] has had charge of his learning hitherto,
cannot speak of him without enthusiasm. 'C'est un esprit
ange'lique (a little angel),' she is wont to say.
He takes up, and learns, whatever is put before him, with the
greatest facility." [Van Loen, Kleine Schriften,
italic> ii. 27 (as cited in Rodenbeck, No. iv. 479).]
For the rest, that Friedrich Wilhelm's intentions and
Rhadamanthine regulations, in regard to him, were fulfilled in
every point, we will by no means affirm. Rules of such exceeding
preciseness, if grounded here and there only on the SIC-VOLO,
how could they be always kept, except on the surface and to the
eye merely? The good Duhan, diligent to open his pupil's mind, and
give Nature fair-play, had practically found it inexpedient to tie
him too rigorously to the arbitrary formal departments where no
natural curiosity, but only order from without, urges the
ingenious pupil. What maximum strictness in school-drill there can
have been, we may infer from one thing, were there no other:
the ingenious Pupil's mode of SPELLING. Fritz learned to write a
fine, free-flowing, rapid and legible business-hand; "Arithmetic"
too, "Geography," and many other Useful Knowledges that had some
geniality of character, or attractiveness in practice, were among
his acquisitions; much, very much he learned in the course of his
life; but to SPELL, much more to punctuate, and subdue the higher
mysteries of Grammar to himself, was always an unachievable
perfection. He did improve somewhat in after life; but here is the
length to which he had carried that necessary art in the course of
nine years' exertion, under Duhan and the subsidiary preceptors;
it is in the following words and alphabetic letters that he
gratefully bids Duhan farewell,--who surely cannot have been a
very strict drill-sergeant in the arbitrary branches of schooling!
"Mon cher Duhan Je Vous promais (PROMETS) que quand j'aurez
(J'AURAI) mon propre argent en main, je Vous donnerez (DONNERAI)
enuelement (ANNUELLEMENT) 2400 ecu (ECUS) par an, et je vous
aimerais (AIMERAI) toujour encor (TOUJORS ENCORE) un peu plus
q'asteure (QU'A CETTE HEURE) s'il me l'est (M'EST) posible
(POSSIBLE)."
"MY DEAR DUHAN,--I promise to you, that when I shall have my money
in my own hands, I will give you annually 2400 crowns [say 350
pounds] EVERY YEAR; and that I will love you always even a little
more than at present, if that be possible.
"FRIDERIC P.R. [Prince-Royal]."
"POTSDAM, le 20 de juin, 1727." [Preuss, i. 22.]
The Document has otherwise its beauty; but such is the spelling of
it. In fact his Grammar, as he would himself now and then
regretfully discern, in riper years, with some transient attempt
or resolution to remedy or help it, seems to have come mainly by
nature; so likewise his "STYLUS" both in French and German,--
a very fair style, too, in the former dialect:--but as to his
spelling, let him try as he liked, he never came within sight
of perfection.
The things ordered with such rigorous minuteness, if but arbitrary
things, were apt to be neglected; the things forbidden, especially
in the like case, were apt to become doubly tempting. It appears,
the prohibition of Latin gave rise to various attempts, on the
part of Friedrich, to attain that desirable Language.
Secret lessons, not from Duhan, but no doubt with Duhan's
connivance, were from time to time undertaken with this view:
once, it is recorded, the vigilant Friedrich Wilhelm, going his
rounds, came upon Fritz and one of his Preceptors (not Duhan but a
subaltern) actually engaged in this illicit employment.
Friedrich himself was wont to relate this anecdote in after 1ife.
[Busching, Beitrage zu der Lebensgeschichte denkwurdiger
Personen, v. 33. Preuss, i. 24.] They had Latin
books, dictionaries, grammars on the table, all the contraband
apparatus; busy with it there, like a pair of coiners taken in the
fact. Among other Books was a copy of the Golden Bull of Kaiser
Karl IV.,-- Aurea Bulla, from the little
golden BULLETS or pellets hung to it,--by which sublime Document,
as perhaps we hinted long ago, certain so-called Fundamental
Constitutions, or at least formalities and solemn practices,
method of election, rule of precedence, and the like, of the Holy
Roman Empire, had at last been settled on a sure footing, by that
busy little Kaiser, some three hundred and fifty years before;
a Document venerable almost next to the Bible in Friedrich
Wilhelm's loyal eyes, "What is this; what are you venturing upon
here?" exclaims Paternal Vigilance, in an astonished dangerous
tone. "Ihro Majestat, ich explicire dem Prinzen Auream
Bullam," exclaimed the trembling pedagogue: "Your
Majesty, I am explaining AUREA BULLA [Golden Bull] to the
Prince!"--"Dog, I will Golden-Bull you!" said his Majesty,
flourishing his rattan, "Ich will dich, Schurke,
be-auream-bullam!" which sent the terrified wretch
off at the top of his speed, and ended the Latin for that time.
[Forster, i. 356.]
Friedrich's Latin could never come to much, under these
impediments. But he retained some smatterings of it in mature
life; and was rather fond of producing his classical scraps,--
often in an altogether mouldy, and indeed hitherto inexplicable
condition. "De gustibus non est disputandus," "Beati
possEdentes," "CompIlle intrare," "BeatUS pauperes spiritus;"
italic> the meaning of these can be guessed: but "Tot
verbas tot spondera," for example,--what can any
commentator make of that? "Festina lente," "Dominus
vobiscum," "Flectamus genua," "Quod bene notandum;"
these phrases too, and some three or four others of the like, have
been riddled from his Writings by diligent men: [Preuss (i. 24)
furnishes the whole stock of them.] "O tempora, O mores!
You see, I don't forget my Latin," writes he once.
The worst fruit of these contraband operations was, that they
involved the Boy in clandestine practices, secret disobediences,
apt to be found out from time to time, and tended to alienate his
Father from him. Of which sad mutual humor we already find traces
in that early Wusterhausen Document: "Not to be so dirty," says
the reproving Father. And the Boy does not take to hunting at all,
likes verses, story-books, flute-playing better; seems to be of
effeminate tendencies, an EFFEMINIRTER KERL; affects French modes,
combs out his hair like a cockatoo, the foolish French fop,
instead of conforming to the Army-regulation, which prescribes
close-cropping and a club!
This latter grievance Friedrich Wilhelm decided, at last, to
abate, and have done with; this, for one. It is an authentic fact,
though not dated,--dating perhaps from about Fritz's fifteenth
year. "Fritz is a QUERPFEIFER UND POET," not a Soldier! would his
indignant Father growl; looking at those foreign effeminate ways
of his. QUERPFEIFE, that is simply "German-flute," "CROSS-PIPE"
(or FIFE of any kind, for we English have thriftily made two
useful words out of the Deutsch root); "Cross-pipe," being held
across the mouth horizontally. Worthless employment, if you are
not born to be of the regimental band! thinks Friedrich Wilhelm.
Fritz is celebrated, too, for his fine foot; a dapper little
fellow, altogether pretty in the eyes of simple female courtiers,
with his blond locks combed out at the temples, with his bright
eyes, sharp wit, and sparkling capricious ways. The cockatoo
locks, these at least we will abate! decides the Paternal mind.
And so, unexpectedly, Friedrich Wilhelm has commanded these bright
locks, as contrary to military fashion, of which Fritz has now
unworthily the honor of being a specimen, to be ruthlessly shorn
away. Inexorable: the HOF-CHIRURGUS (Court-Surgeon, of the nature
of Barber-Surgeon), with scissors and comb, is here; ruthless
Father standing by. Crop him, my jolly Barber; close down to the
accurate standard; soaped club, instead of flowing locks;
we suffer no exceptions in this military department: I stand here
till it is done. Poor Fritz, they say, had tears in his eyes;
but what help in tears? The judicious Chirurgus, however, proved
merciful. The judicious Chirurgus struck in as if nothing loath,
snack, snack; and made a great show of clipping. Friedrich Wilhelm
took a newspaper till the job were done; the judicious Barber,
still making a great show of work, combed back rather than cut off
these Apollo locks; did Fritz accurately into soaped club, to the
cursory eye; but left him capable of shaking out his chevelure
again on occasion,--to the lasting gratitude of Fritz. [Preuss,
i. 16.]
THE NOLTENIUS-AND-PANZENDORF DRILL-EXERCISE.
On the whole, as we said, a youth needs good assimilating power,
if he is to grow in this world! Noltenius aud Panzendorf, for
instance, they were busy "teaching Friedrich religion." Rather a
strange operation this too, if we were to look into it. We will
not look too closely. Another pair of excellent most solemn
drill-sergeants, in clerical black serge; they also are busy
instilling dark doctrines into the bright young Boy, so far as
possible; but do not seem at any time to have made too deep an
impression on him. May we not say that, in matter of religion too,
Friedrich was but ill-bested? Enlightened Edict-of-Nantes
Protestantism, a cross between Bayle and Calvin: that was but
indifferent babe's milk to the little creature. Nor could
Noltenius's Catechism, and ponderous drill-exercise in orthodox
theology, much inspire a clear soul with pieties, and tendencies
to soar Heavenward.
Alas, it is a dreary litter indeed, mere wagon-load on
wagon-load of shot-rubbish, that is heaped round this new human
plant, by Noltenius and Company, among others. A wonder only that
they did not extinguish all Sense of the Highest in the poor young
soul, and leave only a Sense of the Dreariest and Stupidest. But a
healthy human soul can stand a great deal. The healthy soul shakes
off, in an unexpectedly victorious manner, immense masses of dry
rubbish that have been shot upon it by its assiduous pedagogues
and professors. What would become of any of us otherwise! Duhan,
opening the young soul, by such modest gift as Duhan had, to
recognize black from white a little, in this embroiled high
Universe, is probably an exception in some small measure.
But, Duhan excepted, it may be said to have been in spite of most
of his teachers, and their diligent endeavors, that Friedrich did
acquire some human piety; kept the sense of truth alive in his
mind; knew, in whatever words he phrased it, the divine eternal
nature of Duty; and managed, in the muddiest element and most
eclipsed Age ever known, to steer by the heavenly loadstars and
(so we must candidly term it) to FOLLOW God's Law; in some
measure, with or without Noltenius for company. Noltenius's
CATECHISM, or ghostly Drill-manual for Fritz, at least the
Catechism he had plied Wilhelmina with, which no doubt was the
same, is still extant. [Preuss, i. 15;--specimens of it in
Rodenbeck.] A very abstruse Piece; orthodox Lutheran-Calvinist,
all proved from Scripture; giving what account it can of this
unfathomable Universe, to the young mind. To modern Prussians it
by no means shines as the indubitablest Theory of the Universe.
Indignant modern Prussians produce excerpts from it, of an
abstruse nature; and endeavor to deduce therefrom some of
Friedrich's aberrations in matters of religion, which became
notorious enough by and by. Alas, I fear, it would not have
been easy, even for the modern Prussian, to produce a perfect
Catechism for the use of Friedrich; this Universe still continues
a little abstruse!
And there is another deeper thing to be remarked: the notion of
"teaching" religion, in the way of drill-exercise; which is a very
strange notion, though a common one, and not peculiar to Noltenius
and Friedrich Wilhelm. Piety to God, the nobleness that inspires a
human soul to struggle Heavenward, cannot be "taught" by the most
exquisite catechisms,or the most industrious preachings and
drillings. No; alas, no. Only by far other methods,--chiefly by
silent continual Example, silently waiting for the favorable mood
and moment, and aided then by a kind of miracle, well enough named
"the grace of God,"--can that sacred contagion pass from soul into
soul. How much beyond whole Libraries of orthodox Theology is,
sometimes, the mute action, the unconscious look of a father, of a
mother, who HAD in them "Devoutness, pious Nobleness"! In whom the
young soul, not unobservant, though not consciously observing,
came at length to recognize it; to read it, in this irrefragable
manner: a seed planted thenceforth in the centre of his holiest
affections forevermore!
Noltenius wore black serge; kept the corners of his mouth well
down; and had written a Catechism of repute; but I know not that
Noltenius carried much seed of living piety about with him;
much affection from, or for, young Fritz he could not well carry.
On the whole, it is a bad outlook on the religious side;
and except in Apprenticeship to the rugged and as yet repulsive
Honesties of Friedrich Wilhelm, I see no good element in it.
Bayle-Calvin, with Noltenius and Catechisms of repute: there is no
"religion" to be had for a little Fritz out of all that.
Endless Doubt will be provided for him out of all that, probably
disbelief of all that;--and, on the whole, if any form at all, a
very scraggy form of moral existence; from which the Highest shall
be hopelessly absent; and in which anything High, anything not Low
and Lying, will have double merit.
It is indeed amazing what quantities and kinds of extinct ideas
apply for belief, sometimes in a menacing manner, to the poor mind
of man, and poor mind of child, in these days. They come bullying
in upon him, in masses, as if they were quite living ideas;
ideas of a dreadfully indispensable nature, the evident
counterpart, and salutary interpretation, of Facts round him,
which, it is promised the poor young creature, he SHALL recognize
to correspond with them, one day. At which "correspondence," when
the Facts are once well recognized, he has at last to ask himself
with amazement, "Did I ever recognize it, then?" Whereby come
results incalculable; not good results any of them;--some of them
unspeakably bad! The ease of Crown-Prince Friedrich in Berlin is
not singular; all cities and places can still show the like.
And when it will end, is not yet clear. But that it ever should
have begun, will one day be the astonishment. As if the divinest
function of a human being were not even that of believing;
of discriminating, with his God-given intellect, what is from what
is not; and as if the point were, to render that either an
impossible function, or else what we must sorrowfully call a
revolutionary, rebellious and mutinous one. O Noltenius,
O Panzendorf, do for pity's sake take away your Catechetical ware;
and say either nothing to the poor young Boy, or some small thing
he will find to be BEYOND doubt when he can judge of it!
Fever, pestilence, are bad for the body; but Doubt, impious
mutiny, doubly impious hypocrisy, are these nothing for the mind?
Who would go about inculcating Doubt, unless he were far astray
indeed, and much at a loss for employment!
But the sorest fact in Friedrich's schooling, the forest, for the
present, though it ultimately proved perhaps the most beneficent
one, being well dealt with by the young soul, and nobly subdued to
his higher uses, remains still to be set forth. Which will be a
long business, first and last!
Chapter XII.
CROWN-PRINCE FALLS INTO DISFAVOR WITH PAPA.
Those vivacities of young Fritz, his taste for music, finery,
those furtive excursions into the domain of Latin and forbidden
things, were distasteful and incomprehensible to Friedrich
Wilhelm: Where can such things end? They begin in disobedience and
intolerable perversity; they will be the ruin of Prussia and of
Fritz!--Here, in fact, has a great sorrow risen. We perceive the
first small cracks of incurable divisions in the royal household;
the breaking out of fountains of bitterness, which by and by
spread wide enough. A young sprightly, capricions and vivacious
Boy, inclined to self-will, had it been permitted; developing
himself into foreign tastes, into French airs and ways; very ill
seen by the heavy-footed practical Germanic Majesty.
The beginnings of this sad discrepancy are traceable from
Friedrich's sixth or seventh year: "Not so dirty, Boy!" And there
could be no lack of growth in the mutual ill-humor, while the Boy
himself continued growing; enlarging in bulk and in activity of
his own. Plenty of new children come, to divide our regard withal,
and more are coming; five new Princesses, wise little Ulrique the
youngest of them (named of Sweden and the happy Swedish Treaty),
whom we love much for her grave staid ways. Nay, next after
Ulrique comes even a new Prince; August Wilhelm, ten years younger
than Friedrich; and is growing up much more according to the
paternal heart. Pretty children, all of them, more or less;
and towardly, and comfortable to a Father;--and the worst of them
a paragon of beauty, in comparison to perverse, clandestine,
disobedient Fritz, with his French fopperies, flutings, and
cockatoo fashions of hair!--
And so the silent divulsion, silent on Fritz's part, exploding
loud enough now and then on his Father's part, goes steadily on,
splitting ever wider; new offences ever superadding themselves.
Till, at last, the rugged Father has grown to hate the son;
and longs, with sorrowful indignation, that it were possible to
make August Wilhelm Crown-Prince in his stead. This Fritz ought to
fashion himself according to his Father's pattern, a well-meant
honest pattern; and he does not! Alas, your Majesty, it cannot be.
It is the new generation come; which cannot live quite as the old
one did. A perennial controversy in human life; coeval with the
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