History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 21 | Page 6

of melody,--soothing and salutary to the altered soul,
revolving many things,--is a popular myth, of pretty and appropriate
character; but a myth only, with no real foundation, though it has some
loose and apparent. [In PREUSS, ii. 46, all the details of it.] No doubt,
Friedrich had his own thoughts on entering Berlin again, after such a
voyage through the deeps; himself, his Country still here, though
solitary and in a world of wild shipwrecks. He was not without piety;
but it did not take the devotional form, and his habits had nothing of the
clerical.
What is perfectly known, and much better worth knowing, is the
instantaneous practical alacrity with which he set about repairing that
immense miscellany of ruin; and the surprising success he had in
dealing with it. His methods, his rapid inventions and procedures, in
this matter, are still memorable to Prussia; and perhaps might with
advantage be better known than they are in some other Countries. To us,
what is all we can do with them here, they will indicate that this is still
the old Friedrich, with his old activities and promptitudes; which
indeed continue unabated, lively in Peace as in War, to the end of his
life and reign.

The speed with which Prussia recovered was extraordinary. Within
little more than a year (June 1st, 1764), the Coin was all in order again;
in 1765, the King had rebuilt, not to mention other things, "in Silesia
8,000 Houses, in Pommern 6,500." [Rodenbeck, ii. 234, 261.] Prussia
has been a meritorious Nation; and, however cut and ruined, is and was
in a healthy state, capable of recovering soon. Prussia has defended
itself against overwhelming odds,--brave Prussia; but the real soul of its
merit was that of having merited such a King to command it. Without
this King, all its valors, disciplines, resources of war, would have
availed Prussia little. No wonder Prussia has still a loyalty to its great
Friedrich, to its Hohenzollern Sovereigns generally. Without these
Hohenzollerns, Prussia had been, what we long ago saw it, the
unluckiest of German Provinces; and could never have had the
pretension to exist as a Nation at all. Without this particular
Hohenzollern, it had been trampled out again, after apparently
succeeding. To have achieved a Friedrich the Second for King over it,
was Prussia's grand merit.
An accidental merit, thinks the reader? No, reader, you may believe me,
it is by no means altogether such. Nay, I rather think, could we look
into the Account-Books of the Recording Angel for a course of
centuries, no part of it is such! There are Nations in which a Friedrich is,
or can be, possible; and again there are Nations in which he is not and
cannot. To be practically reverent of Human Worth to the due extent,
and abhorrent of Human Want of Worth in the like proportion, do you
understand that art at all? I fear, not,--or that you are much forgetting it
again! Human Merit, do you really love it enough, think you;--human
Scoundrelism (brought to the dock for you, and branded as scoundrel),
do you even abhor it enough? Without that reverence and its
corresponding opposite-pole of abhorrence, there is simply no
possibility left. That, my friend, is the outcome and summary of all
virtues in this world, for a man or for a Nation of men. It is the supreme
strength and glory of a Nation;--without which, indeed, all other
strengths, and enormities of bullion and arsenals and warehouses, are
no strength. None, I should say;--and are oftenest even the REVERSE.
Nations who have lost this quality, or who never had it, what Friedrich

can they hope to be possible among them? Age after age they grind
down their Friedrichs contentedly under the hoofs of cattle on their
highways; and even find it an excellent practice, and pride themselves
on Liberty and Equality. Most certain it is, there will no Friedrich come
to rule there; by and by, there will none be born there. Such Nations
cannot have a King to command them; can only have this or the other
scandalous swindling Copper Captain, constitutional Gilt Mountebank,
or other the like unsalutary entity by way of King; and the sins of the
fathers are visited upon the children in a frightful and tragical manner,
little noticed in the Penny Newspapers and Periodical Literatures of this
generation. Oh, my friends--! But there is plain Business waiting us at
hand.

Chapter II.
REPAIRING OF A RUINED PRUSSIA.
That of Friedrich's sitting wrapt in a cloud of reflections
Olympian-Abysmal, in the music-chapel at Charlottenburg, while he
had the Ambrosian Song executed for him there, as the preliminary step,
was a loose myth; but the fact lying under it is abundantly certain. Few
Sons of Adam had more reason