HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. OF PRUSSIA
Page: 52

crowns, or upholstery magnificences of any kind; but had meditated
from of old on the infinitely little; and under these
genuflections, risings, sittings, shiftings, grimacings on all
parts, and the endless droning eloquence of Bishops invoking
Heaven, her ennui, not ill-humored or offensively ostensible,
was heartfelt and transcendent. At one turn of the proceedings,
Bishop This and Chancellor That droning their empty
grandiloquences at discretion, Sophie Charlotte was distinctly
seen to smuggle out her snuff-box, being addicted to that rakish
practice, and fairly solace herself with a delicate little pinch
of snuff. Rasped tobacco, tabac rape, called
by mortals rape or rappee: there is no doubt
about it; and the new King himself noticed her, and hurled back a
look of due fulminancy, which could not help the matter, and was
only lost in air. A memorable little action, and almost symbolic
in the first Prussian Coronation. "Yes, we are Kings, and are got
SO near the stars, not nearer; and you invoke the gods, in that
tremendously long-winded manner; and I--Heavens, I have my snuff-
box by me, at least!" Thou wearied patient Heroine; cognizant of
the infinitely little!--This symbolic pinch of snuff is fragrant
all along in Prussian History. A fragrancy of humble verity in the
middle of all royal or other ostentations; inexorable, quiet
protest against cant, done with such simplicity: Sophie
Charlotte's symbolic pinch of snuff. She was always considered
something of a Republican Queen.

Thus Brandenburg Electorate has become Kingdom of Prussia;
and the Hohenzollerns have put a crown upon their head.
Of Brandenburg, what it was, and what Prussia was; and of the
Hohenzollerns and what they were, and how they rose thither, a few
details, to such as are dark about these matters, cannot well be
dispensed with here.


END OF BOOK I