HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. OF PRUSSIA
Page: 5

methods, but march out at last flourishing his miraculous fighting
implement, and leaving their mill and them in quite ruinous
circumstances. As this King Friedrich fairly managed to do.

For he left the world all bankrupt, we may say; fallen into
bottomless abysses of destruction; he still in a paying condition,
and with footing capable to carry his affairs and him. When he
died, in 1786, the enormous Phenomenon since called FRENCH
REVOLUTION was already growling audibly in the depths of the
world; meteoric-electric coruscations heralding it, all round the
horizon. Strange enough to note, one of Friedrich's last visitors
was Gabriel Honore Riquetti, Comte de Mirabeau. These two saw one
another; twice, for half an hour each time. The last of the old
Gods and the first of the modern Titans;--before Pelion leapt on
Ossa; and the foul Earth taking fire at last, its vile mephitic
elements went up in volcanic thunder. This also is one of the
peculiarities of Friedrich, that he is hitherto the last of the
Kings; that he ushers in the French Revolution, and closes an
Epoch of World-History. Finishing off forever the trade of King,
think many; who have grown profoundly dark as to Kingship and him.

The French Revolution may be said to have, for about half a
century, quite submerged Friedrich, abolished him from the
memories of men; and now on coming to light again, he is found
defaced under strange mud-incrustations, and the eyes of mankind
look at him from a singularly changed, what we must call oblique
and perverse point of vision. This is one of the difficulties in
dealing with his History;--especially if you happen to believe
both in the French Revolution and in him; that is to say, both
that Real Kingship is eternally indispensable, and also that the
destruction of Sham Kingship (a frightful process) is occasionally
so. On the breaking-out of that formidable Explosion, and Suicide
of his Century, Friedrich sank into comparative obscurity;
eclipsed amid the ruins of that universal earthquake, the very
dust of which darkened all the air, and made of day a disastrous
midnight. Black midnight, broken only by the blaze of