History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 11 | Page 4

through them was objected to: "Goose, Madam? You can
take two ducks, then, if you are so sorry for the goose!"--Rash editors
think there is to be a reign of Astraea Redux in Prussia, by means of
this young King; and forget to ask themselves, as the young King must
by no means do, How far Astraea may be possible, for Prussia and
him?
At home, too, there is prophesying enough, vague hope enough, which
for most part goes wide of the mark. This young King, we know, did
prove considerable; but not in the way shaped out for him by the
public;--it was in far other ways! For no public in the least knows, in
such cases: nor does the man himself know, except gradually and if he
strive to learn. As to the public,-- "Doubtless," says a friend of mine,
"doubtless it was the Atlantic Ocean that carried Columbus to America;
lucky for the Atlantic, and for Columbus and us: but the Atlantic did
not quite vote that way from the first; nay ITS votes, I believe, were
very various at different stages of the matter!" This is a truth which
kings and men, not intending to be drift-logs or waste brine obedient to
the Moon, are much called to have in mind withal, from perhaps an
early stage of their voyage.

Friedrich's actual demeanor in these his first weeks, which is still
decipherable if one study well, has in truth a good deal of the brilliant,
of the popular-magnanimous; but manifests strong solid quality withal,
and a head steadier than might have been expected. For the Berlin
world is all in a rather Auroral condition; and Friedrich too is,--the
chains suddenly cut loose, and such hopes opened for the young man.
He has great things ahead; feels in himself great things, and doubtless
exults in the thought of realizing them. Magnanimous enough, popular,
hopeful enough, with Voltaire and the highest of the world looking
on:-- but yet he is wise, too; creditably aware that there are limits, that
this is a bargain, and the terms of it inexorable. We discern with
pleasure the old veracity of character shining through this giddy new
element; that all these fine procedures are at least unaffected, to a
singular degree true, and the product of nature, on his part; and that, in
short, the complete respect for Fact, which used to be a quality of his,
and which is among the highest and also rarest in man, has on no side
deserted him at present.
A trace of airy exuberance, of natural exultancy, not quite repressible,
on the sudden change to freedom and supreme power from what had
gone before: perhaps that also might be legible, if in those opaque
bead-rolls which are called Histories of Friedrich anything human
could with certainty be read! He flies much about from place to place;
now at Potsdam, now at Berlin, at Charlottenburg, Reinsberg; nothing
loath to run whither business calls him, and appear in public: the
gazetteer world, as we noticed, which has been hitherto a most mute
world, breaks out here and there into a kind of husky jubilation over the
great things he is daily doing, and rejoices in the prospect of having a
Philosopher King; which function the young man, only twenty-eight
gone, cannot but wish to fulfil for the gazetteers and the world. He is a
busy man; and walks boldly into his grand enterprise of "making men
happy," to the admiration of Voltaire and an enlightened public far and
near.
Bielfeld speaks of immense concourses of people crowding about
Charlottenburg, to congratulate, to solicit, to &c.; tells us how he
himself had to lodge almost in outhouses, in that royal village of hope,

His emotions at Reinsberg, and everybody's, while Friedrich Wilhelm
lay dying, and all stood like greyhounds on the slip; and with what
arrow-swiftness they shot away when the great news came: all this he
has already described at wearisome length, in his fantastic
semi-fabulous way. [Bielfeld, i. 68-77; ib. 81.]' Friedrich himself
seemed moderately glad to see Bielfeld; received his high-flown
congratulations with a benevolent yet somewhat composed air; and
gave him afterwards, in the course of weeks, an unexpectedly small
appointment: To go to Hanover, under Truchsess von Waldburg, and
announce our Accession. Which is but a simple, mostly formal service;
yet perhaps what Bielfeld is best equal to.
The Britannic Majesty, or at least his Hanover people have been
beforehand with this civility; Baron Munchhausen, no doubt by orders
given for such contingency, had appeared at Berlin with the due
compliment and condolence almost on the first day of the New Reign;
first messenger of all on that errand; Britannic Majesty evidently in a
conciliatory humor,--having his dangerous Spanish War on hand.
Britannic Majesty in