History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 10 | Page 8

department; a
recent acquisition, much valued at Reinsberg. As he makes a figure
afterwards, we had better mark him a little.
Jordan's parents were wealthy religious persons, in trade at Berlin; this
Jordan (Charles Etienne, age now thirty-six) was their eldest son. It
seems they had destined him from birth, consulting their own pious

feelings merely, to be a Preacher of the Gospel; the other sons, all of
them reckoned clever too, were brought up to secular employments.
And preach he, this poor Charles Etienne, accordingly did; what best
Gospel he had; in an honest manner, all say,--though never with other
than a kind of reluctance on the part of Nature, forced out of her course.
He had wedded, been clergyman in two successive country places;
when his wife died, leaving him one little daughter, and a heart much
overset by that event. Friends, wealthy Brothers probably, had pushed
him out into the free air, in these circumstances: "Take a Tour; Holland,
England; feel the winds blowing, see the sun shining, as in times past:
it will do you good!"
Jordan, in the course of his Tour, came to composure on several points.
He found that, by frugality, by wise management of some peculium
already his, his little Daughter and he might have quietness at Berlin,
and the necessary food and raiment;--and, on the whole, that he would
altogether cease preaching, and settle down there, among his Books, in
a frugal manner. Which he did;-- and was living so, when the Prince,
searching for that kind of person, got tidings of him. And here he is at
Reinsberg; bustling about, in a brisk, modestly frank and cheerful
manner: well liked by everybody; by his Master very well and ever
better, who grew into real regard, esteem and even friendship for him,
and has much Correspondence, of a freer kind than is common to him,
with little Jordan, so long as they lived together. Jordan's death, ten
years hence, was probably the one considerable pain he had ever given
his neighbors, in this the ultimate section of his life.
I find him described, at Reinsberg, as a small nimble figure, of
Southern-French aspect; black, uncommonly bright eyes; and a general
aspect of adroitness, modesty, sense, sincerity; good prognostics, which
on acquaintance with the man were pleasantly fulfilled.
For the sake of these considerations, I fished out, from the Old- Book
Catalogues and sea of forgetfulness, some of the poor Books he wrote;
especially a Voyage Litteraire, [ Histoire
d'un Voyage Litteraire fait, en MDCCXXXIII., en France, en
Angleterre et en Hollande (2de edition, a La Haye, 1736).]

Journal of that first Sanitary Excursion or Tour he took, to get the
clouds blown from his mind. A LITERARY VOYAGE which awakens
a kind of tragic feeling; being itself dead, and treating of matters which
are all gone dead. So many immortal writers, Dutch chiefly, whom
Jordan is enabled to report as having effloresced, or being soon to
effloresce, in such and such forms, of Books important to be learned:
leafy, blossomy Forest of Literature, waving glorious in the then
sunlight to Jordan;--and it lies all now, to Jordan and us, not withered
only, but abolished; compressed into a film of indiscriminate PEAT.
Consider what that peat is made of, O celebrated or uncelebrated reader,
and take a moral from Jordan's Book! Other merit, except indeed
clearness and commendable brevity, the Voyage Litteraire
or other little Books of Jordan's have not now. A few of his
Letters to Friedrich, which exist, are the only writings with the least life
left in them, and this an accidental life, not momentous to him or us.
Dryasdust informs me, "Abbe Jordan, alone of the Crown-Prince's
cavaliers, sleeps in the Town of Reinsberg, not in the Schloss:" and if I
ask, Why?--there is no answer. Probably his poor little Daughterkin
was beside him there?--
We have to say of Friedrich's Associates, that generally they were of
intelligent type, each of them master of something or other, and capable
of rational discourse upon that at least. Integrity, loyalty of character,
was indispensable; good humor, wit if it could be had, were much in
request. There was no man of shining distinction there; but they were
the best that could be had, and that is saying all. Friedrich cannot be
said, either as Prince or as King, to have been superlatively successful
in his choice of associates. With one single exception, to be noticed
shortly, there is not one of them whom we should now remember
except for Friedrich's sake;--uniformly they are men whom it is now a
weariness to hear of, except in a cursory manner. One man of shining
parts he had, and one only; no man ever of really high