History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 14 | Page 4

fine-throated hunting-pack, or Army of the
Oriflamme, into Austria,--see what a sort of badgers, and gloomily
indignant bears, it has awakened there! Friedrich had to take arms again;
and an unwelcome task it was to him, and a sore and costly. We shall
be obliged (what is our grand difficulty in this History) to note, in their
order, the series of European occurrences; and, tedious as the matter
now is, keep readers acquainted with the current of that big War; in
which, except Friedrich broad awake, and the Ear of Jenkins in
somnambulancy, there is now next to nothing to interest a human
creature.
It is an error still prevalent in England, though long since exploded
everywhere else, that Friedrich wanted new wars, "new successful
robberies," as our Gazetteers called them; and did wilfully plunge into
this War again, in the hope of again doing a stroke in that kind. English
readers, on consulting the facts a little, will not hesitate to sweep that
notion altogether away. Shadow of basis, except in their own angry
uninformed imaginations, they will find it never had; and that precisely

the reverse is manifest in Friedrich's History. A perfectly clear-sighted
Friedrich; able to discriminate shine from substance; and gravitating
always towards the solid, the actual. That of "GLOIRE," which he
owns to at starting, we saw how soon it died out, choked in the dire
realities. That of Conquering Hero, in the Macedonia's-madman style,
was at all times far from him, if the reader knew it,--perhaps never
farther from any King who had such allurements to it, such
opportunities for it. This his First Expedition to Silesia--a rushing out to
seize your own stolen horse, while the occasion answered--was a
voluntary one; produced, we may say, by Friedrich's own thought and
the Invisible Powers. But the rest were all purely compulsory,--to
defend the horse he had seized. Clear necessities, and Powers very
Visible, were the origin of all his other Expeditions and Warlike
Struggles, which lasted to the end of his life.
That recent "Moravian Foray;" the joint-stock principle in War matters;
and the terrible pass a man might reduce himself to, at that enormous
gaming-table of the gods, if he lingered there: think what
considerations these had been for him! So that "his look became
FAROUCHE," in the sight of Valori; and the spectre of Ruin kept him
company, and such hell-dogs were in chase of him;--till Czaslau, when
the dice fell kind again! All this had been didactic on a young docile
man. He was but thirty gone. And if readers mark such docility at those
years, they will find considerable meaning in it. Here are prudence,
moderation, clear discernment; very unusual VERACITY of intellect,
as we define it,--which quality, indeed, is the summary and victorious
outcome of all manner of good qualities, and faithful performances, in a
man. "Given up to strong delusions," in the tragical way many are,
Friedrich was not; and, in practical matters, very seldom indeed
"believed a lie."
Certain it is, he now resumes his old Reinsberg Program of Life;
probably with double relish, after such experiences the other way; and
prosecutes it with the old ardor; hoping much that his History will be of
halcyon pacific nature, after all. Would the mad War- whirlpool but
quench itself; dangerous for singeing a near neighbor, who is only just
got out of it! Fain would he be arbiter, and help to quench it; but it will

not quench. For a space of Two Years or more (till August, 1744,
Twenty-six Months in all), Friedrich, busy on his own affairs, with
carefully neutral aspect towards this War, yet with sword ready for
drawing in case of need, looks on with intense vigilance; using his
wisest interference, not too often either, in that sense and in that only,
"Be at Peace; oh, come to Peace!"--and finds that the benevolent Public
and he have been mistaken in their hopes. For the next Two Years, we
say:--for the first Year (or till about August, 1743), with hope not much
abated, and little actual interference needed; for the latter Twelvemonth,
with hope ever more abating; interference, warning, almost threatening
ever more needed, and yet of no avail, as if they had been idle talking
and gesticulation on his part:--till, in August, 1744, he had to--But the
reader shall gradually see it, if by any method we can show it him, in
something of its real sequence; and shall judge of it by his own light.
Friedrich's Domestic History was not of noisy nature, during this
interval:--and indeed in the bewildered Records given of it, there is
nothing visible, at first, but one wide vortex of simmering inanities;
leading to the desperate conclusion that Friedrich had no domestic
history at all. Which latter is by no