breeches: A merely superficial thing, not worth bothering about,
in the press of real business!--

That Friedrich's Course of Education did on the whole prosper, in
spite of every drawback, is known to all men. He came out of it a
man of clear and ever-improving intelligence; equipped with
knowledge, true in essentials, if not punctiliously exact, upon
all manner of practical and speculative things, to a degree not
only unexampled among modern Sovereign Princes so called, but such
as to distinguish him even among the studious class. Nay many
"Men-of-Letters" have made a reputation for themselves with but a
fraction of the real knowledge concerning men and things, past and
present, which Friedrich was possessed of. Already at the time
when action came to be demanded of him, he was what we must call a
well-informed and cultivated man; which character he never ceased
to merit more and more; and as for the action, and the actions,--
we shall see whether he was fit for these or not.

One point of supreme importance in his education was all along
made sure of, by the mere presence and presidence of Friedrich
Wilhelm in the business: That there was an inflexible law of
discipline everywhere active in it; that there was a Spartan
rigor, frugality, veracity inculcated upon him. "Economy he is to
study to the bottom;" and not only so, but, in another sense of
the word, he is to practise economy; and does, or else suffers for
not doing it. Economic of his time, first of all: generally every
other noble economy will follow out of that, if a man once
understand and practise that. Here was a truly valuable foundation
laid; and as for the rest, Nature, in spite of shot-rubbish, had
to do what she could in the rest.

But Nature had been very kind to this new child of hers.
And among, the confused hurtful elements of his Schooling, there
was always, as we say, this eminently salutary and most potent
one, of its being, in the gross, APPRENTICESHIP TO FRIEDRICH
WILHELM the Rhadamanthine Spartan King, who hates from his heart
all empty Nonsense, and Unveracity most of all. Which one element,
well aided by docility, by openness and loyalty of mind, on the
Pupil's part, proved at length sufficient to conquer the others;
as it were to burn up all the others, and reduce their sour dark
smoke, abounding everywhere, into flame and illumination mostly.
This radiant swift-paced Son owed much to the surly, irascible,
sure-footed Father that bred him. Friedrich did at length see into
Friedrich Wilhelm, across the abstruse, thunderous, sulphurous
embodiments and accompaniments of the man;--and proved himself,
in all manner of important respects, the filial sequel of
Friedrich Wilhelm. These remarks of a certain Editor are perhaps
worth adding:--

"Friedrich Wilhelm, King of Prussia, did not set up for a
Pestalozzi; and the plan of Education for his Son is open to
manifold objections. Nevertheless, as Schoolmasters go, I much
prefer him to most others we have at present. The wild man had
discerned, with his rugged natural intelligence (not wasted away
in the idle element of speaking and of being spoken to, but kept
wholesomely silent for most part), That human education is not,
and cannot be, a thing of VOCABLES. That it is a thing of earnest
facts; of capabilities developed, of habits established, of
dispositions well dealt with, of tendencies confirmed and
tendencies repressed:--a laborious separating of the character
into two FIRMAMENTS; shutting down the subterranean, well down and
deep; an earth and waters, and what lies under them; then your
everlasting azure sky, and immeasurable depths of aether, hanging
serene overhead. To make of the human soul a Cosmos, so far as
possible, that was Friedrich Wilhelm's dumb notion: not to leave
the human soul a mere Chaos;--how much less a Singing or
eloquently Spouting Chaos, which is ten times worse than a Chaos
left MUTE, confessedly chaotic and not cosmic! To develop the man
into DOING something; and withal into doing it as the Universe and
the Eternal Laws require,--which is but another name for really
doing and not merely seeming to do it:--that was Friedrich
Wilhelm's dumb notion: and it was, I can assure you, very far from
being a foolish one, though there was no Latin in it, and much of
Prussian pipe-clay!"

But the Congress of Cambrai is met, and much else is met and
parted: and the Kaiser's Spectre-Hunt, especially his Duel with
the She-Dragon of Spain, is in full course; and it is time we
were saying something of the Double-Marriage in a directly
narrative way.



END OF BOOK IV,





End of Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 4

