History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 1 | Page 5

had contrived to maintain against the world
and its criticisms. As an original man has always to do; much more an
original ruler of men. The world, in fact, had tried hard to put him
down, as it does, unconsciously or, consciously, with all such; and after
the most conscious exertions, and at one time a dead-lift spasm of all its
energies for Seven Years, had not been able. Principalities and powers,
Imperial, Royal, Czarish, Papal, enemies innumerable as the seasand,
had risen against him, only one helper left among the world's Potentates
(and that one only while there should be help rendered in return); and
he led them all such a dance as had astonished mankind and them.
No wonder they thought him worthy of notice. Every original man of
any magnitude is;--nay, in the long-run, who or what else is? But how
much more if your original man was a king over men; whose
movements were polar, and carried from day to day those of the world
along with them. The Samson Agonistes,--were his life passed like that
of Samuel Johnson in dirty garrets, and the produce of it only some bits
of written paper,--the Agonistes, and how he will comport himself in
the Philistine mill; this is always a spectacle of truly epic and tragic
nature. The rather, if your Samson, royal or other, is not yet blinded or
subdued to the wheel; much more if he vanquish his enemies, not by

suicidal methods, but march out at last flourishing his miraculous
fighting implement, and leaving their mill and them in quite ruinous
circumstances. As this King Friedrich fairly managed to do.
For he left the world all bankrupt, we may say; fallen into bottomless
abysses of destruction; he still in a paying condition, and with footing
capable to carry his affairs and him. When he died, in 1786, the
enormous Phenomenon since called FRENCH REVOLUTION was
already growling audibly in the depths of the world; meteoric-electric
coruscations heralding it, all round the horizon. Strange enough to note,
one of Friedrich's last visitors was Gabriel Honore Riquetti, Comte de
Mirabeau. These two saw one another; twice, for half an hour each time.
The last of the old Gods and the first of the modern Titans;--before
Pelion leapt on Ossa; and the foul Earth taking fire at last, its vile
mephitic elements went up in volcanic thunder. This also is one of the
peculiarities of Friedrich, that he is hitherto the last of the Kings; that
he ushers in the French Revolution, and closes an Epoch of
World-History. Finishing off forever the trade of King, think many;
who have grown profoundly dark as to Kingship and him.
The French Revolution may be said to have, for about half a century,
quite submerged Friedrich, abolished him from the memories of men;
and now on coming to light again, he is found defaced under strange
mud-incrustations, and the eyes of mankind look at him from a
singularly changed, what we must call oblique and perverse point of
vision. This is one of the difficulties in dealing with his
History;--especially if you happen to believe both in the French
Revolution and in him; that is to say, both that Real Kingship is
eternally indispensable, and also that the destruction of Sham Kingship
(a frightful process) is occasionally so. On the breaking-out of that
formidable Explosion, and Suicide of his Century, Friedrich sank into
comparative obscurity; eclipsed amid the ruins of that universal
earthquake, the very dust of which darkened all the air, and made of
day a disastrous midnight. Black midnight, broken only by the blaze of
conflagrations;--wherein, to our terrified imaginations, were seen, not
men, French and other, but ghastly portents, stalking wrathful, and
shapes of avenging gods. It must be owned the figure of Napoleon was

titanic; especially to the generation that looked on him, and that waited
shuddering to be devoured by him. In general, in that French
Revolution, all was on a huge scale; if not greater than anything in
human experience, at least more grandiose. All was recorded in
bulletins, too, addressed to the shilling-gallery; and there were fellows
on the stage with such a breadth of sabre, extent of whiskerage,
strength of windpipe, and command of men and gunpowder, as had
never been seen before. How they bellowed, stalked and flourished
about; counterfeiting Jove's thunder to an amazing degree! Terrific
Drawcansir figures, of enormous whiskerage, unlimited command of
gunpowder; not without sufficient ferocity, and even a certain heroism,
stage-heroism, in them; compared with whom, to the shilling-gallery,
and frightened excited theatre at large, it seemed as if there had been no
generals or sovereigns before; as if Friedrich, Gustavus, Cromwell,
William Conqueror and Alexander the Great were not worth speaking
of henceforth.
All this, however, in half