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~>«< i ' 3 Tferimirf ' - - ¦1L-UUIUIUX. ¦
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Critics are not the legislators , but the 5- «^ Ses f « d polic of literature . They do not make laws—they interpre and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review . MR . CAHLYLE'S LIFE ~ OF FREDERICK
THE GREAT . History of Fricdrich the Second , called Frederick the Great . By Thomas Carlyle . Chapman and Hall . Tjtf expectation which has so long- possessed the public mind for the appearance of this book , the Greatness of its hero , the importance of the historic epoch in which he was long the most distinguished actor , equally with the high esteem in which Mr . Carlyle is held as a writer and thinker , render it tice to its merits within the
impossible to do full jus space of one short notice . We believe , tben , that we shall best fulfil our purpose , and shall best succeed in performing what our readers have a right to expect from us , by devoting two articles to the subject , the ' one with the mere preliminary intent of telling what the book is and giving an idea of its contents , the other undertaking the higher office of recording our opinions as to its merits and value .
Mr . Carlylo ' s dislike of the eighteenth century is well known by all who have read him . His sympathies arc only affected by what we may call , to borrow a metaphor from one . of his early contributions to the Edinburgh llecieic , a dynamical age , an epoch of great forces concentrated in few great men . The antipodes of his hatred is a mechanical age , in which changes are worked out by the cogs and wheels of machines , or bodies of men , rather than by the direct blow and instantaneous effort of ' gi ' miuds . But Mi \ Carlyle thinks that he has found in the hero of this book a man in , but
not of , the eighteenth century . Voltaire , lie tells us , he takes as the exponent of its valuable thought , and Frederick as the representative of its only heroic energy . And doubtless in addition to the attractiveness of that great actor upon the historic stage , whose life and genius he has undertaken to narrate and expound , the circumstance of Voltaire being his correspondent , first his friend and then detractor , so that he can thereby * bring upon the stage together his two representative men of the century , ' has been to him an additional inducement to undertake this work .
As might have been fairly expected from Jus previous performances ( and we have aright to measure an author in the maturity of his power , at least , by tlic standard elevated by him in his early writings ) , the whole work bears the mark of the most assiduous labour . You sec at . once that every pamphlet , every despatch , every letter bearing upon the subject , has been studied and mustered . The acts of every performer in the drama have been carefully weighed and reflected upon , every ninn and woman ' s portrait studiously looked upon , the eye of every speaker and actor carefully looked into .
The beginning of the book is consummately avtistio . He presents the figure of Frederick ( lie Great eighty years ago , by 1 his time regarded by Europe as its greatest general and most kingly ruler , pacing about before Sans-Souci ; and then having at once given you a peep of the goal to which he is to lead you through his volumes , lie dexterously prepares your mind for the surprise and zest which must be immediately entertained when yoxi turn over a few pages to learn the circumstances of the birth and training of the " Princckin" whom you havo just seen , with military bearing , and keen and ardent physiognomy , furrowed with the wrinkles of thought and action . Ho sots to his work in earnest , having so successfully gained your car . The opening paragraph to which wo allude , wo lay hoforo our readers , aa a partial corroboration of what wo lmvo said : —
though slightlv stooping figure , whose name among strangers was King Friedrich the Second , or Frederick the Great of Prussia , and at home among the common people , who much loved and esteemed him , was Voter Fritz —Father Fred , —a name of familiarity which had not bred contempt in that instance . He is a King every inch of him , though without the trappings of a King . Presents himself in a Spartan sintf licity of vesture no crown but an old military cocked-hat—generall y old , or trampled and kneaded into absolute softness , it new ;—sceptre but one like Agamemnon ' s , a talking-sick
no cut from the woods , which serves also as a riding-stick ( with which he hits the horse " between the ears , say authors ) ; and for royal robes , a mere soldier s blue coat with red facings , coat likely'to be old , and sure to have a good deal of Spanish snuff on the breast of it . ; rest of the apparel dim , unobtrusive in colour or cut , ending in high over-knee military boots , which may be brushed ( and , I hope , kept soft with an underhand suspicion . of oil ) , but are not permitted to be blackened or varnished ; Day and Martin with their soot-pots forbidden to
approach . In the remaining portions of the proem we have a repetition , in a few sentences , of Mr . Carlyle s views of the eighteenth century , to which we have alluded ; a very fair and reasonable statement of the current English view of Frederick and his position , which view we explicitly learn at once Mr . Carlyle is going to assail ; and a summary of the encouragements and discouragements which the . subject has given in its progress . Then we are introduced to the incidents of Frederick ' birth , and expect the work regularly to commence . But the traveller tarries Ion- ere he fairly beg ins his journey . . To our consists ol
surprise , nearly a whole volume an historical recapitulation , leading us back to the earliest origin , three centuries before the birth ot Christ , of what now constitutes the Prussian people ; and before that we even reach this early starting-point , we are conducted backwards -over a generation or two of Frederick ' s immediate ancestors . . ' v We travel in company with successive Brandenburger Hohenzollerns , through century after century ; now fairly leaping the brt > ad ditch of a dull era or two , again lingering by the way , -where historic interest is more than usual and heroic prowess above the average . Margraves , Electors , Kaisers , in succession rise before us in a rapidly evolving panorama . We breathe for a time the snirit and atmosphere of the early days of Europe s
primeval energy . Gradually the middle ages dawn upon us , only to enable us to discover how thoroughly sui generis Brandenburg was , and how Ion" - it was before it came under the operation of general European influences . We emerge into the light of generally known history , at the era of the Thirty Years' War , which first brought the Electorate prominently forward in the sy stem of European policy , then under formation and being consolidated . Rapidly , with almost pyrotechnic quickness , wo tread with seven-league boots from battle-field to battle-field , listening to the harsh , clanging of trusty swords upon burgher-soldiers' armour ; and thenwith equal celeritytravelling over a half
centre is Papa , now come to be King , and powerfully manifesting himself as such . An abrupt peremptory voung King ; and German to the bone . Along witi whom , companions to him in bis Social hours , and fellow-workers in his business , are a set of very rugged German sons of Nature ; differing much from the French sons of Art . Baron Grumkow , Leopold Prince of Anhalt-Dessau ( not yet called the " Old Dessauer , " being under forty yet ) , General Glasenap , Colonel Derschau , General Flans ; these , and the other nameless generals and officials , are a curious counterpart to the Camases , the Hautcharmoys and Forcades , with their nimble tongues and rapiers ; still more to the Beausobres , Achards , full of ecclesiastical logic , made of Bayle and Calvin kneaded together ; and to the high-frizzled ladies rustling in stifi silk , with the shadow of Versailles and of the Dragonades
alike present to them . Born Hyperboreans these others ; rough as hemp , and stout of fibre as hemp ; native products of the rigorous North . Of whom , after all our reading , we know little . O Heaven , they have had long lines of rugged ancestors , cast in the same rude stalwart mould , and leading their rough , life there , of whom we know absolutely nothing ! Dumb all those preceding busy generations ; and this of Friedrich YFilhelm is grown almost dumb . Grim , semi-articulate Prussian men ; gone all to pipeclay an * moustache for us . Strange blond-complexioned , not unbeautiful Prussian honourable women , in hoops , bro ~ cades , and unintelligible head-gear and hair-towersach Goti , they too are gone ; and their musical talk , in the French or German language , that also is gone ; and . the hollow Eternities have swallowed it , as their wont
is , in a very surprising manner !— . To shed some new light upon the formation ot Frederick ' s character , we travel ten years back , to the time when his father was valorously engaged in the dramatically famous siege of Stralsund - Like a comet , the Czar Peter crosses the horizon —in a chapter—on his way back from his famous foreign travels . Then a chapter , entitled " Crown Prince put to his schooling , " reverts , with obvious and conscientious reluctance , to proceed in the work until the foundation has been thoroughly laid , to his early days again . We learn what histutors did for his literary culture , and what his father ' s captains and drill sergeants did . for his is
but he did not , now or afterwards , ever learn to spell . He spells indeed dreadfully ill , at his first appearance on the writing stage , as we shall see by-and-by ; and he continued , to the last , one of the bad spellers of his day A circumstance which I never can fully account for , and will leave to the reader ' s study . In order to show the force of the antithesis , we again append some sentences from the " German element chapter . So that , as we said , there are two elements for young Fritz , and highly diverse ones , [ from both of which he h to draw nourishment , and assimilate what he can . Besides that Edict-of-Nantes French element , and in continual contact and contrast with it , which prevails chiefly in the female quarters of the Palace , there is the native German element for young Fritz , of which the
military bearing . The retracing of our steps so frequent , the transitions by ten or twenty years so instantaneous , that , until we re-read and reconsider , we are singularly apt to lose the exact sequence and the real causal connexion of events , which nevertheless by Mr . Carlyle have been steadfastly regarded . It is a mundane loss when a great man has letfc tho world without , leaving his credible physiognomic portrait behind him . This Mr . Carlyle yell knows ,. and ho has searched the German galleries which contain the portraits of his characters no less assiduously than the archives which contain the records of their acts . It is still better , if you have
, , century , we again land at the point whence we had journeyed backwards . Frederick ' s childhood and training are laid before us under the Carlylesquc appellation of his apprenticeship , ' and the leading idea evolved is , that ho was subjected to two separate and distinct educational influences , tho " French element" and the " Gorman clement ; " tho latter supplying strength and vigour , tho former the culture and polish which Frederick in his after literary aspects and correspondence displayed . From tho division of tho chapter which explains this concomitant duality of training , wo quoto the following as an illustration : —
a succession of portraits of illustrious men , taken at different stages of their livos . Mr . Carlyle ,. with a zest most obvious and sincere , ever and again leaves for a time the thread of his narrative , to tell us descriptively how Frederick looked at oach successive leading step of his life . Thebook contains a series of portraits , and we thereby learn how many of what we found to bo his characteristics at starting , last ont his lifo , and thereby prove thcmsclvos to have boon deep and genuine ; and how many havo been rubbed off by the turmoil and troublo of his course , thereby proving themselves to lmvo been accidental , aim not of that docP'SOatocl clmmotor which is rather burned , in timn rubbed' off by external circumstances , however oogont . From an etu-ly stage ot tho narrative wo make mi oxtvnot ) , in illustration of what wo have said ;—
From this F . dict-of-Nnntos environment , which taught our young Fritz his llrst kwaoiiH of human behaviour—a polite sharp littles Hoy , wo do hope niul understand—ho " learned also to olotho hi » bits of notions , emotions , and garrulous uttornbllitlce , iu tho French dialect . Learned to speak , and likewise , what is more important , to think , in French ; which was otherwise quite domesticated in tho Pnlaco , mid boonme his squoiuI mother-tongue . Not a bad dialect ; yet also none of the best . Very lonn and shallow , if very clear nnd convenient ; Jeaving much in poor FritK liuutlorori , unthought , unpractised , which might otherwise have come into activity in the course of his life . He lonrned to rend vory soon , I presume ;
About fourscoro years ago there used to bo aeon saun . toring on tho torrncos of Sans-Souci , for a short time in tho afternoon , or you might lmvo met him , olaewhero at an earlier hour , riding or driving in a rapid business manner on tho open roiuls or through the scraggy woods « nd avonuoa of tlmt Intricate amphibious Potsdam region , a highly interesting loan little old . man , of nlort
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—¦ LITERATURE , SCIENCE , ART , &o .
~≫«≪ I ' 3 Tferimirf ' - - ¦1l-Uuiuiux. ¦
Citafutt .
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- ^ ' ¦ ¦ ' E B ¦ ¦ - . ¦; ¦ v ; ' . . ¦ . • ; ¦ . .. - ¦ ¦ ¦ ' . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦ ;¦ ¦ ' " . ¦ ' : . " ^ ,, / n o mii . 1 THE 1 APE . 1067
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 9, 1858, page 1067, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2263/page/19/
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