HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. OF PRUSSIA
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1786] his speakings and his workings came to finis in this World
of Time; and he vanished from all eyes into other worlds, leaving
much inquiry about him in the minds of men;--which, as my readers
and I may feel too well, is yet by no means satisfied. As to his
speech, indeed, though it had the worth just ascribed to it and
more, and though masses of it were deliberately put on paper by
himself, in prose and verse, and continue to be printed and kept
legible, what he spoke has pretty much vanished into the inane;
and except as record or document of what he did, hardly now
concerns mankind. But the things he did were extremely remarkable;
and cannot be forgotten by mankind. Indeed, they bear such fruit
to the present hour as all the Newspapers are obliged to be taking
note of, sometimes to an unpleasant degree. Editors vaguely
account this man the "Creator of the Prussian Monarchy;" which
has since grown so large in the world, and troublesome to the
Editorial mind in this and other countries. He was indeed the
first who, in a highly public manner, notified its creation;
announced to all men that it was, in very deed, created; standing
on its feet there, and would go a great way, on the impulse
it had got from him and others. As it has accordingly done;
and may still keep doing to lengths little dreamt of by the
British Editor in our time; whose prophesyings upon Prussia,
and insights into Prussia, in its past, or present or future,
are truly as yet inconsiderable, in proportion to the noise he
makes with them! The more is the pity for him,--and for myself
too in the Enterprise now on hand.

It is of this Figure, whom we see by the mind's eye in those
Potsdam regions, visible for the last time seventy years ago,
that we are now to treat, in the way of solacing ingenuous human
curiosity. We are to try for some Historical Conception of this
Man and King; some answer to the questions, "What was he, then?
Whence, how? And what did he achieve and suffer in the world?"--
such answer as may prove admissible to ingenuous mankind,
especially such as may correspond to the Fact (which stands there,
abstruse indeed, but actual and unalterable), and so be sure of