This we do know, the Crown-Prince begins to be noted for his sprightly sense, his love of literature, his ingenuous ways;in the Court or other circles, whatsoever has intelligence attracts him, and is attracted by him. The Roucoulles Soirees,--gone all to dim backram for us, though once so lively in their high periwigs and speculations,--fall on Wednesday. When the Finkenstein or the others fall,--no doubt his Royal Highness knows it. In the TABAKS-COLLEGIUM, there also, driven by duty, he sometimes appears; but, like Seckendorf and some others, he only affects to smoke, and his pipe is mere white clay. Nor is the social element, any more than the narcotic vapor which prevails there, attractive to the young Prince,--though he had better hide his feelings on the subject.
Out at Potsdam, again, life goes very heavy; the winged Psyche much imprisoned in that pipe-clay element, a prey to vacancy and many tediums and longings. Daily return the giant drill-duties;and daily, to the uttermost of rigorous perfection, they must be done:--"This, then, is the sum of one's existence, this?"Patience, young "man of genius," as the Newspapers would now call you; it is indispensably beneficial nevertheless! To swallow one's disgusts, and do faithfully the ugly commanded work, taking no council with flesh and blood: know that "genius," everywhere in Nature, means this first of all; that without this, it means nothing, generally even less. And be thankful for your Potsdam grenadiers and their pipe-clay!--Happily he has his Books about him; his flute: Duhan, too, is here, still more or less didactic in some branches;always instructive and companionable, to him.
The Crown-Prince reads a great deal; very many French Books, new and old, he reads; among the new, we need not doubt, the <italic>
Henriade <end italic> of M. Arouet Junior (who now calls himself VOLTAIRE), which has risen like a star of the first magnitude in these years. [London, 1723, in surreptitious incomplete state, <italic> La Ligue <end italic> the title; then at length, London, 1726, as <italic> Henriade, <end italic> in splendid 4to,--by subscription (King, Prince and Princess of Wales at the top of it), which yielded 8,000 pounds: see Voltaire, <italic> OEuvres Completes, <end italic> xiii. 408.] An incomparable piece, patronized by Royalty in England; the delight of all kindred Courts. The light dancing march of this new "Epic," and the brisk clash of cymbal music audible in it, had, as we find afterwards, greatly captivated the young man. All is not pipe-clay, then, and torpid formalism; aloft from the murk of commonplace rise glancings of a starry splendor, betokening--oh, how much!
Out of Books, rumors and experiences, young imagination is forming to itself some Picture of the World as it is, as it has been.
The curtains of this strange life-theatre are mounting, mounting, --wondrously as in the case of all young souls; but with what specialties, moods or phenomena of light and shadow, to this young soul, is not in any point recorded for us. The "early Letters to Wilhelmina, which exist in great numbers," from these we had hoped elucidation: but these the learned Editor has "wholly withheld as useless," for the present. Let them be carefully preserved, on the chance of somebody's arising to whom they may have uses!--The worst feature of these years is Friedrich Wilhelm's discontent with them. A Crown-Prince sadly out of favor with Papa. This has long been on the growing hand; and these Double-Marriage troubles, not to mention again the new-fangled French tendencies (BLITZFRANZOSEN!), much aggravate the matter, and accelerate its rate of growth. Already the paternal countenance does not shine upon him;flames often; and thunders, to a shocking degree;--and worse days are coming.
Chapter II.
DEATH OF GEORGE I.
Gibraltar still keeps sputtering; ardent ineffectual bombardment from the one side, sulky, heavy blast of response now and then from the other: but the fire does not spread; nor will, we may hope. It is true, Sweden and Denmark have joined the Treaty of Hanover, this spring; and have troops on foot, and money paid them; But George is pacific; Gibraltar is impregnable; let the Spaniards spend their powder there.
As for the Kaiser, he is dreadfully poor; inapt for battle himself. And in the end of this same May, 1727, we hear, his principal ally, Czarina Catherine, has died;--poor brown little woman, Lithuanian housemaid, Russian Autocrat, it is now all one;--dead she, and can do nothing. Probably the Kaiser will sit still? The Kaiser sits still; with eyes bent on Gibraltar, or rolling in graud Imperial inquiry and anxiety round the world;war-outlooks much dimmed for him since the end of May.
Alas, in the end of June, what far other Job's-post is this that reaches Berlin and Queen Sophie? That George I., her royal Father, has suddenly sunk dead! With the Solstice, or Summer pause of the Sun, 21st or 22d June, almost uncertain which, the Majesty of George I. did likewise pause,--in his carriage, on the road to Osnabruck,--never to move more. Whereupon, among the simple People, arose rumors of omens, preternaturalisms, for and against:
How his desperate Megaera of a Wife, in the act of dying, had summoned him (as was presumable), to appear along with her at the Great Judgment-Bar within year and day; and how he has here done it. On the other hand, some would have it noted, How "the nightingales in Herrenhausen Gardens had all ceased singing for the year, that night he died,"--out of loyalty on the part of these little birds, it seemed presumable. [See Kohler, <italic>
Munzbelustigungen, <end italic> x. 88.]
