History of Friedrich II of Prussia - Frederick the Great Chapter I. - Mansion of Reinsberg.
by Napoleon Bonaparte
On the Crown-Prince's Marriage, three years ago, when the AMT or
Government-District RUPPIN, with its incomings, was assigned to
him for revenue, we heard withal of a residence getting ready.
Hint had fallen from the Prince, that Reinsberg, an old Country-
seat, standing with its Domain round it in that little Territory
of Ruppin, and probably purchasable as was understood, might be
pleasant, were it once his and well put in repair. Which hint the
kind paternal Majesty instantly proceeded to act upon.
He straightway gave orders for the purchase of Reinsberg;
concluded said purchase, on fair terms, after some months'
bargaining; [23d October, 1733, order given,--16th March, 1734,
purchase completed (Preuss, i. 75).]--and set his best Architect,
one Kemeter, to work, in concert with the Crown-Prince, to new-
build and enlarge the decayed Schloss of Reinsberg into such a
Mansion as the young Royal Highness and his Wife would like.
Kemeter has been busy, all this while; a solid, elegant, yet
frugal builder: and now the main body of the Mansion is complete,
or nearly so, the wings and adjuncts going steadily forward;
Mansion so far ready that the Royal Highnesses can take up their
abode in it. Which they do, this Autumn, 1736; and fairly commence
Joint Housekeeping, in a permanent manner. Hitherto it has been
intermittent only: hitherto the Crown-Princess has resided in
their Berlin Mansion, or in her own Country-house at Schonhausen;
Husband not habitually with her, except when on leave of absence
from Ruppin, in Carnival time or for shorter periods. At Ruppin
his life has been rather that of a bachelor, or husband abroad on
business; up to this time. But now at Reinsberg they do kindle the
sacred hearth together; "6th August, 1736," the date of that
important event. They have got their Court about them, dames and
cavaliers more than we expected; they have arranged the furnitures
of their existence here on fit scale, and set up their Lares and
Penates on a thrifty footing. Majesty and Queen come out on a
visit to them next month; [4th September, 1736 (Ib.).]--raising
the sacred hearth into its first considerable blaze, and crowning
the operation in a human manner.
And so there has a new epoch arisen for the Crown-Prince and his
Consort. A new, and much-improved one. It lasted into the fourth
year; rather improving all the way: and only Kingship, which, if a
higher sphere, was a far less pleasant one, put an end to it.
Friedrich's happiest time was this at Reinsberg; the little Four
Years of Hope, Composure, realizable Idealism: an actual snatch of
something like the Idyllic, appointed him in a life-pilgrimage
consisting otherwise of realisms oftenest contradictory enough,
and sometimes of very grim complexion. He is master of his work,
he is adjusted to the practical conditions set him; conditions
once complied with, daily work done, he lives to the Muses, to the
spiritual improvements, to the social enjoyments; and has, though
not without flaws of ill-weather,--from the Tobacco-Parliament
perhaps rather less than formerly, and from the Finance-quarter
perhaps rather more,--a sunny time. His innocent insipidity of a
Wife, too, appears to have been happy. She had the charm of youth,
of good looks; a wholesome perfect loyalty of character withal;
and did not "take to pouting," as was once apprehended of her, but
pleasantly gave and received of what was going. This poor Crown-
Princess, afterwards Queen, has been heard, in her old age,
reverting, in a touching transient way, to the glad days she had
at Reinsberg. Complaint openly was never heard from her, in any
kind of days; but these doubtless were the best of her life.
Reinsberg, we said, is in the AMT Ruppin; naturally under the
Crown- Prince's government at present: the little Town or Village
of Reinsberg stands about, ten miles north of the Town Ruppin;--
not quite a third-part as big as Ruppin is in our time, and much
more pleasantly situated. The country about is of comfortable, not
unpicturesque character; to be distinguished almost as beautiful,
in that region of sand and moor. Lakes abound in it; tilled
fields; heights called "hills;" and wood of fair growth,--one
reads of "beech-avenues" of "high linden-avenues:"--a country
rather of the ornamented sort, before the Prince with his
improvements settled there. Many lakes and lakelets in it, as
usual hereabouts; the loitering waters straggle, all over that
region, into meshes of lakes. Reinsberg itself, Village and
Schloss, stands on the edge of a pleasant Lake, last of a mesh of
such: the SUMMARY, or outfall, of which, already here a good
strong brook or stream, is called the RHEIN, Rhyn or Rein; and
gives name to the little place. We heard of the Rein at Ruppin:
it is there counted as a kind of river; still more, twenty miles
farther down, where it falls into the Havel, on its way to the
Elbe. The waters, I think, are drab-colored, not peat-brown:
and here, at the source, or outfall from that mesh of lakes, where
Reinsberg is, the country seems to be about the best;--sufficient,
in picturesqueness and otherwise, to satisfy a reasonable man.
The little Town is very old; but, till the Crown-Prince settled
there, had no peculiar vitality in it. I think there are now some
potteries, glass-manufactories: Friedrich Wilhelm, just while the
Crown-Prince was removing thither, settled a first Glass-work
there; which took good root, and rose to eminence in the crystal,
Bohemian-crystal, white-glass, cut-glass, and other commoner
lines, in the Crown-Prince's time. [ Bescheibung des
Lutschlosses &c. zu Reinsberg (Berlin, 1788);
Author, a "Lieutenant Hennert," thoroughly acquainted with
his subject.]
Reinsberg stands on the east or southeast side of its pretty Lake:
Lake is called "the GRINERICK SEE" (as all those remote Lakes have
their names); Mansion is between the Town and Lake. A Mansion
fronting, we may say, four ways; for it is of quadrangular form,
with a wet moat from the Lake begirdling it, and has a spacious
court for interior: but the principal entrance is from the Town
side; for the rest, the Building is ashlar on all sides, front and
rear. Stands there, handsomely abutting on the Lake with two
Towers, a Tower at each angle, which it has on that lakeward side;
and looks, over Reinsberg, and its steeple rising amid friendly
umbrage which hides the house-tops, towards the rising sun.
Townward there is room for a spacious esplanade; and then for the
stables, outbuildings, well masked; which still farther shut off
the Town. To this day, Reinsberg stands with the air of a solid
respectable Edifice; still massive, rain-tight, though long since
deserted by the Princeships,--by Friedrich nearly sixscore years
ago, and nearly threescore by Prince Henri, Brother of
Friedrich's, who afterwards had it. Last accounts I got were, of
talk there had risen of planting an extensive NORMAL-SCHOOL there;
which promising plan had been laid aside again for the time.
The old Schloss, residence of the Bredows and other feudal people
for a long while, had good solid masonry in it, and around it
orchards, potherb gardens; which Friedrich Wilhelm's Architects
took good care to extend and improve, not to throw away:
the result of their art is what we see, a beautiful Country-House,
what might be called a Country-Palace with all its adjuncts;--and
at a rate of expense which would fill English readers, of this
time, with amazement. Much is admirable to us as we study
Reinsberg, what it had been, what it became, and how it was made;
but nothing more so than the small modicum of money lt cost.
To our wondering thought, it seems as if the shilling, in those
parts, were equal to the guinea in these; and the reason, if we
ask it, is by no means flattering altogether. "Change in the value
of money?" Alas, reader, no; that is not above the fourth part of
the phenomenon. Three-fourths of the phenomenon are change in the
methods of administering money,--difference between managing it
with wisdom and veracity on both sides, and managing it with
unwisdom and mendacity on both sides. Which is very great indeed;
and infinitely sadder than any one, in these times, will believe!
--But we cannot dwell on this consideration. Let the reader take
it with him, as a constant accompaniment in whatever work of
Friedrich Wilhelm's or of Friedrich his Son's, he now or at any
other time may be contemplating. Impious waste, which means
disorder and dishonesty, and loss of much other than money to all,
parties,--disgusting aspect of human creatures, master and
servant, working together as if they were not human,--will be
spared him in those foreign departments; and in an English heart
thoughts will arise, perhaps, of a wholesome tendency, though very
sad, as times are.
It would but weary the reader to describe this Crown-Prince
Mansion; which, by desperate study of our abstruse materials, it
is possible to do with auctioneer minuteness. There are engraved
VIEWS of Reinsberg and its Environs; which used to lie conspicuous
in the portfolios of collectors,---which I have not seen.
[See Hennert, just cited, for the titles of them.] Of the House
itself, engraved Frontages (FACADES), Ground-plans, are more
accessible; and along with them, descriptions which are little
descriptive,--wearisomely detailed, and as it were dark by excess
of light (auctioneer light) thrown on them. The reader sees, in
general, a fine symmetrical Block of Buildings, standing in
rectangular shape, in the above locality;--about two hundred
English feet, each, the two longer sides measure, the Townward and
the Lakeward, on their outer front: about a hundred and thirty,
each, the two shorter; or a hundred and fifty, taking in their
Towers just spoken of. The fourth or Lakeward side, however, which
is one of the longer pair, consists mainly of "Colonnade;"
spacious Colonnade "with vases and statues;" catching up the
outskirts of said Towers, and handsomely uniting everything.
Beyond doubt, a dignified, substantial pile of stone-work; all of
good proportions. Architecture everywhere of cheerfully serious,
solidly graceful character; all of sterling ashlar; the due
RISALITES (projecting spaces) with their attics and statues atop,
the due architraves, cornices and corbels,--in short the due
opulence of ornament being introduced, and only the due. Genuine
sculptors, genuine painters, artists have been busy; and in fact
all the suitable fine arts, and all the necessary solid ones, have
worked together, with a noticeable fidelity, comfortable to the
very beholder to this day. General height is about forty feet;
two stories of ample proportions: the Towers overlooking them are
sixty feet in height. Extent of outer frontage, if you go all
round, and omit the Colonnade, will be five hundred feet and more:
this, with the rearward face, is a thousand feet of room
frontage:--fancy the extent of lodging space. For "all the
kitchens and appurtenances are underground;" the "left front"
(which is a new part of the Edifice) rising comfortably over
these. Windows I did not count; but they must go high up into the
Hundreds. No end to lodging space. Way in a detached side-edifice
subsequently built, called Cavalier House, I read of there being,
for one item, "fifty lodging rooms," and for another "a theatre."
And if an English Duke of Trumps were to look at the bills for all
that, his astonishment would be extreme, and perhaps in a degree
painful and salutary to him.
In one of these Towers the Crown-Prince has his Library:
a beautiful apartment; nothing wanting to it that the arts could
furnish, "ceiling done by Pesne" with allegorical geniuses and
what not,--looks out on mere sky, mere earth and water in an
ornamental state: silent as in Elysium. It is there we are to
fancy the Correspondence written, the Poetries and literary
industries going on. There, or stepping down for a turn in the
open air, or sauntering meditatively under the Colonnade with its
statues and vases (where weather is no object), one commands the
Lake, with its little tufted Islands, "Remus Island" much famed
among them, and "high beech-woods" on the farther side. The Lake
is very pretty, all say; lying between you and the sunset;--with
perhaps some other lakelet, or solitary pool in the wilderness,
many miles away, "revealing itself as a cup of molten gold," at
that interesting moment. What the Book-Collection was, in the
interior, I know not except by mere guess.
The Crown-Princess's Apartment, too, which remained unaltered at
the last accounts had of it, [From Hennert, namely, in 1778.] is
very fine;--take the anteroom for specimen: "This fine room," some
twenty feet height of ceiling, "has six windows; three of them, in
the main front, looking towards the Town, the other three, towards
the Interior Court. The light from these windows is heightened by
mirrors covering all the piers (SCHAFTE, interspaces of the
walls), to an uncommonly splendid pitch; and shows the painting of
the ceiling, which again is by the famous Pesne, to much
perfection. The Artist himself, too, has managed to lay on his
colors there so softly, and with such delicate skill, that the
light-beams seem to prolong themselves in the painted clouds and
air, as if it were the real sky you had overhead." There in that
cloud-region "Mars is being disarmed by the Love-goddesses, and
they are sporting with his weapons. He stretches out his arm
towards the Goddess, who looks upon him with fond glances.
Cupids are spreading out a draping." That is Pesne's luxurious
performance in the ceiling.--"Weapon-festoons, in basso-relievo,
gilt, adorn the walls of this room; and two Pictures, also by
Pesne, which represent, in life size, the late King and Queen [our
good friends Friedrich Wilhelm and his Sophie], are worthy of
attention. Over each of the doors, you find in low-relief the
Profiles of Hannibal, Pompey, Scipio, Caesar, introduced
as Medallions."
All this is very fine; but all this is little to another ceiling,
in some big Saloon elsewhere, Music-saloon, I think: Black Night,
making off, with all her sickly dews, at one end of the ceiling;
and at the other end, the Steeds of Phoebus bursting forth, and
the glittering shafts of Day,--with Cupids, Love-goddesses, War-
gods, not omitting Bacchus and his vines, all getting beautifully
awake in consequence. A very fine room indeed;--used as a Music-
saloon, or I know not what,--and the ceiling of it almost an
ideal, say the connoisseurs.
Endless gardens, pavilions, grottos, hermitages, orangeries,
artificial ruins, parks and pleasances surround this favored spot
and its Schloss; nothing wanting in it that a Prince's
establishment needs,--except indeed it be hounds, for which this
Prince never had the least demand.
Except the old Ruppin duties, which imply continual journeyings
thither, distance only a morning's ride; except these, and
occasional commissions from Papa, Friedrich is left master of his
time and pursuits in this new Mansion. There are visits to
Potsdam, periodical appearances at Berlin; some Correspondence to
keep the Tobacco-Parliament in tune. But Friedrich's taste is for
the Literatures, Philosophies: a--young Prince bent seriously to
cultivate his mind; to attain some clear knowledge of this world,
so all-important to him. And he does seriously read, study and
reflect a good deal; his main recreations, seemingly, are Music,
and the converse of well-informed, friendly men. In Music we find
him particularly rich. Daily, at a fixed hour of the afternoon,
there is concert held; the reader has seen in what kind of room:
and if the Artists entertained here for that function were
enumerated (high names, not yet forgotten in the Musical world),
it would still more astonish readers. I count them to the number
of twenty or nineteen; and mention only that "the two Brothers
Graun" and "the two Brothers Benda" were of the lot; suppressing
four other Fiddlers of eminence, and "a Pianist who is known to
everybody." [Hennert, p. 21.] The Prince has a fine sensibility to
Music: does himself, with thrilling adagios on the flute, join in
these harmonious acts; and, no doubt, if rightly vigilant against
the Nonsenses, gets profit, now and henceforth, from this part of
his resources.
He has visits, calls to make, on distinguished persons within
reach; he has much Correspondence, of a Literary or Social nature.
For instance, there is Suhm the Saxon Envoy translating
Wolf's Philosophy into French for him; sending it in
fascicles; with endless Letters to and from, upon it,--which were
then highly interesting, but are now dead to every reader. The
Crown-Prince has got a Post-Office established at Reinsberg;
leathern functionary of some sort comes lumbering round,
southward, "from the Mecklenburg quarter twice a week, and goes by
Fehrbellin," for the benefit of his Correspondences. Of his calls
in the neighborhood, we mean to show the reader one sample, before
long; and only one.
There are Lists given us of the Prince's "Court" at Reinsberg;
and one reads, and again reads, the dreariest unmemorable accounts
of them; but cannot, with all one's industry, attain any definite
understanding of what they were employed in, day after day, at
Reinsberg:--still more are their salaries and maintenance a
mystery to us, in that frugal establishment. There is Wolden for
Hofmarschall, our old Custrin friend; there is Colonel Senning,
old Marlborough Colonel with the wooden leg, who taught Friedrich
his drillings and artillery-practices in boyhood, a fine sagacious
old gentleman this latter. There is a M. Jordan, Ex-Preacher, an
ingenious Prussian-Frenchman, still young, who acts as "Reader and
Librarian;" of whom we shall hear a good deal more. "Intendant" is
Captain (Ex-Captain) Knobelsdorf; a very sensible accomplished
man, whom we saw once at Baireuth; who has been to Italy since,
and is now returned with beautiful talents for Architecture: it is
he that now undertakes the completing of Reinsberg, [Hennert,
p. 29.] which he will skilfully accomplish in the course of the
next three years. Twenty Musicians on wind or string; Painters,
Antoine Pesne but one of them; Sculptors, Glume and others of
eminence; and Hof-Cavaliers, to we know not what extent:--how was
such a Court kept up, in harmonious free dignity, and no halt in
its finances, or mean pinch of any kind visible? The Prince did
get in debt; but not deep, and it was mainly for the tall recruits
he had to purchase. His money-accounts are by no means fully known
to me: but I should question if his expenditure (such is my guess)
ever reached 3,000 pounds a year; and am obliged to reflect more
and more, as the ancient Cato did, what an admirable revenue
frugality is!
Many of the Cavaliers, I find, for one thing, were of the Regiment
Goltz; that was one evident economy. "Rittmeister van Chasot," as
the Books call him: readers saw that Chasot flying to Prince
Eugene, and know him since the Siege of Philipsburg. He is not yet
Rittmeister, or Captain of Horse, as he became; but is of the
Ruppin Garrison; Hof-Cavalier; "attended Friedrich on his late
Prussian journey;" and is much a favorite, when he can be spared
from Ruppin. Captain Wylich, afterwards a General of mark;
the Lieutenant Buddenbrock who did the parson-charivari at Ruppin,
but is now reformed from those practices: all these are of Goltz.
Colonel Keyserling, not of Goltz, nor in active military duty
here, is a friend of very old standing; was officially named as
"Companion" to the Prince, a long while back; and got into
trouble on his account in the disastrous Ante-Custrin or Flight
Epoch: one of the Prince's first acts, when he got pardoned after
Custrin, was to beg for the pardon of this Keyserling; and now he
has him here, and is very fond of him. A Courlander, of good
family, this Keyserling; of good gifts too,--which, it was once
thought, would be practically sublime; for he carried off all
manner of college prizes, and was the Admirable-Crichton of
Konigsberg University and the Graduates there. But in the end they
proved to be gifts of the vocal sort rather: and have led only to
what we see. A man, I should guess, rather of buoyant vivacity
than of depth or strength in intellect or otherwise.
Excessively buoyant, ingenious; full of wit, kindly exuberance;
a loyal-hearted, gay-tempered man, and much a favorite in society
as well as with the Prince. If we were to dwell on Reinsberg,
Keyserling would come prominently forward.
Major van Stille, ultimately Major-General von Stille, I should
also mention: near twenty years older than the Prince; a wise
thoughtful soldier (went, by permission, to the Siege of Dantzig
lately, to improve himself); a man capable of rugged service, when
the time comes. His military writings were once in considerable
esteem with professional men; and still impress a lay reader with
favorable notions towards Stille, as a man of real worth and
sense. [ Campagnes du Roi de Prusse; --
a posthumous Book; ANTERIOR to the Seven-Years War.]
OF MONSIEUR JORDAN AND THE LITERARY SET.
There is, of course, a Chaplain in the Establishment: a Reverend
"M. Deschamps;" who preaches to them all,--in French no doubt.
Friedrich never hears Deschamps: Friedrich is always over at
Ruppin on Sundays; and there "himself reads a sermon to the
Garrison," as part of the day's duties. Reads finely, in a
melodious feeling manner, says Formey, who can judge: "even in his
old days, he would incidentally," when some Emeritus Parson, like
Formey, chanced to be with him, "roll out choice passages from
Bossuet, from Massillon," in a voice and with a look, which would
have been perfection in the pulpit, thinks Formey.
[ Souvenirs d'un Citoyen (2de edition, Paris,
1797), i. 37.]
M. Jordan, though he was called "LECTEUR (Reader)," did not read
to him, I can perceive; but took charge of the Books; busied
himself honestly to be useful in all manner of literary or quasi-
literary ways. He was, as his name indicates, from the French-
refugee department; a recent acquisition, much valued at
Reinsberg. As he makes a figure afterwards, we had better mark
him a little.
Jordan's parents were wealthy religious persons, in trade at
Berlin; this Jordan (Charles Etienne, age now thirty-six) was
their eldest son. It seems they had destined him from birth,
consulting their own pious feelings merely, to be a Preacher of
the Gospel; the other sons, all of them reckoned clever too, were
brought up to secular employments. And preach he, this poor
Charles Etienne, accordingly did; what best Gospel he had; in an
honest manner, all say,--though never with other than a kind of
reluctance on the part of Nature, forced out of her course. He had
wedded, been clergyman in two successive country places; when his
wife died, leaving him one little daughter, and a heart much
overset by that event. Friends, wealthy Brothers probably, had
pushed him out into the free air, in these circumstances: "Take a
Tour; Holland, England; feel the winds blowing, see the sun
shining, as in times past: it will do you good!"
Jordan, in the course of his Tour, came to composure on several
points. He found that, by frugality, by wise management of some
peculium already his, his little Daughter and he might have
quietness at Berlin, and the necessary food and raiment;--and, on
the whole, that he would altogether cease preaching, and settle
down there, among his Books, in a frugal manner. Which he did;--
and was living so, when the Prince, searching for that kind of
person, got tidings of him. And here he is at Reinsberg; bustling
about, in a brisk, modestly frank and cheerful manner: well liked
by everybody; by his Master very well and ever better, who grew
into real regard, esteem and even friendship for him, and has much
Correspondence, of a freer kind than is common to him, with little
Jordan, so long as they lived together. Jordan's death, ten years
hence, was probably the one considerable pain he had ever given
his neighbors, in this the ultimate section of his life.
I find him described, at Reinsberg, as a small nimble figure, of
Southern-French aspect; black, uncommonly bright eyes; and a
general aspect of adroitness, modesty, sense, sincerity;
good prognostics, which on acquaintance with the man were
pleasantly fulfilled.
For the sake of these considerations, I fished out, from the Old-
Book Catalogues and sea of forgetfulness, some of the poor Books
he wrote; especially a Voyage Litteraire,
[ Histoire d'un Voyage Litteraire fait, en MDCCXXXIII., en
France, en Angleterre et en Hollande (2de edition, a
La Haye, 1736).] Journal of that first Sanitary Excursion or Tour
he took, to get the clouds blown from his mind. A LITERARY VOYAGE
which awakens a kind of tragic feeling; being itself dead, and
treating of matters which are all gone dead. So many immortal
writers, Dutch chiefly, whom Jordan is enabled to report as having
effloresced, or being soon to effloresce, in such and such forms,
of Books important to be learned: leafy, blossomy Forest of
Literature, waving glorious in the then sunlight to Jordan;--and
it lies all now, to Jordan and us, not withered only, but
abolished; compressed into a film of indiscriminate PEAT.
Consider what that peat is made of, O celebrated or uncelebrated
reader, and take a moral from Jordan's Book! Other merit, except
indeed clearness and commendable brevity, the Voyage
Litteraire or other little Books of Jordan's have not
now. A few of his Letters to Friedrich, which exist, are the only
writings with the least life left in them, and this an accidental
life, not momentous to him or us. Dryasdust informs me, "Abbe
Jordan, alone of the Crown-Prince's cavaliers, sleeps in the Town
of Reinsberg, not in the Schloss:" and if I ask, Why?--there is
no answer. Probably his poor little Daughterkin was beside
him there?--
We have to say of Friedrich's Associates, that generally they were
of intelligent type, each of them master of something or other,
and capable of rational discourse upon that at least. Integrity,
loyalty of character, was indispensable; good humor, wit if it
could be had, were much in request. There was no man of shining
distinction there; but they were the best that could be had, and
that is saying all. Friedrich cannot be said, either as Prince or
as King, to have been superlatively successful in his choice of
associates. With one single exception, to be noticed shortly,
there is not one of them whom we should now remember except for
Friedrich's sake;--uniformly they are men whom it is now a
weariness to hear of, except in a cursory manner. One man of
shining parts he had, and one only; no man ever of really high and
great mind. The latter sort are not so easy to get; rarely
producible on the soil of this Earth! Nor is it certain how
Friedrich might have managed with one of this sort, or he with
Friedrich;--though Friedrich unquestionably would have tried, had
the chance offered. For he loved intellect as few men on the
throne, or off it, ever did; and the little he could gather of it
round him often seems to me a fact tragical rather than otherwise.
With the outer Berlin social world, acting and reacting, Friedrich
has his connections, which obscurely emerge on us now and then.
Literary Eminences, who are generally of Theological vesture;
any follower of Philosophy, especially if he be of refined manners
withal, or known in fashionable life, is sure to attract him;
and gains ample recognition at Reinsberg or on Town-visits.
But the Berlin Theological or Literary world at that time, still
more the Berlin Social, like a sunk extinct object, continues very
dim in those old records; and to say truth, what features we have
of it do not invite to miraculous efforts for farther
acquaintance. Venerable Beausobre, with his History of
the Manicheans, [ Histoire critique de
Manichee et du Manicheisme: wrote also
Remarques &c. sur le Nouveau Testament, which were
once famous; Histoire de la Reformation; &c.
&c. He is Beausobre SENIOR; there were two Sons (one of them born
in second wedlock, after Papa was 70), who were likewise given to
writing.--See Formey, Souvenirs d'un Citoyen,
i. 33-39.] and other learned things,--we heard of him long
since, in Toland and the Republican Queen's time, as a light of
the world. He is now fourscore, grown white as snow; very serene,
polite, with a smack of French noblesse in him, perhaps a smack of
affectation traceable too. The Crown-Prince, on one of his Berlin
visits, wished to see this Beausobre; got a meeting appointed, in
somebody's rooms "in the French College," and waited for the
venerable man. Venerable man entered, loftily serene as a martyr
Preacher of the Word, something of an ancient Seigneur de
Beausobre in him, too; for the rest, soft as sunset, and really
with fine radiances, in a somewhat twisted state, in that good old
mind of his. "What have you been reading lately, M. de Beausobre?"
said the Prince, to begin conversation. "Ah, Monseigneur, I have
just risen from reading the sublimest piece of writing that
exists."--"And what?" "The exordium of St. John's Gospel:
In the Beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God, and the
Word was--" Which somewhat took the Prince by
surprise, as Formey reports; though he rallied straightway, and
got good conversation out of the old gentleman. To whom, we
perceive, he writes once or twice, [ OEuvres de Frederic,
xvi. 121-126. Dates are all of 1737; the last of
Beausobre's years.]--a copy of his own verses to correct, on one
occasion,--and is very respectful and considerate.
Formey tells us of another French sage, personally known to the
Prince since Boyhood; for he used to be about the Palace, doing
something. This is one La Croze; Professor of, I think,
"Philosophy" in the French College: sublime Monster of Erudition,
at that time; forgotten now, I fear, by everybody. Swag-bellied,
short of wind; liable to rages, to utterances of a coarse nature;
a decidedly ugly, monstrous and rather stupid kind of man.
Knew twenty languages, in a coarse inexact way. Attempted deep
kinds of discourse, in the lecture-room and elsewhere; but usually
broke off into endless welters of anecdote, not always of cleanly
nature; and after every two or three words, a desperate sigh, not
for sorrow, but on account of flabbiness and fat. Formey gives a
portraiture of him; not worth copying farther. The same Formey,
standing one day somewhere on the streets of Berlin, was himself,
he cannot doubt, SEEN by the Crown-Prince in passing; "who asked
M. Jordan, who that was," and got answer:--is not that a
comfortable fact? Nothing farther came of it;--respectable
Ex-Parson Formey, though ever ready with his pen, being indeed of
very vapid nature, not wanted at Reinsberg, as we can guess.
There is M. Achard, too, another Preacher, supreme of his sort, in
the then Berlin circles; to whom or from whom a Letter or two
exist. Letters worthless, if it were not for one dim indication:
That, on inquiry, the Crown-Prince had been consulting this
supreme Achard on the difficulties of Orthodoxy; [ OEuvres
de Frederic, xvi. pp. 112-117: date, March-June,
1736.] and had given him texts, or a text, to preach from.
Supreme Achard did not abolish the difficulties for his inquiring
Prince,--who complains respectfully that "his faith is weak," and
leaves us dark as to particulars. This Achard passage is almost
the only hint we have of what might have been an important
chapter: Friedrich's Religious History at Reinsberg.
The expression "weak faith" I take to be meant not in mockery, but
in ingenuous regret and solicitude; much painful fermentation,
probably, on the religious question in those Reinsberg years!
But the old "GNADENWAHL" business, the Free-Grace controversy, had
taught him to be cautious as to what he uttered on those points.
The fermentation, therefore, had to go on under cover; what the
result of it was, is notorious enough; though the steps of the
process are not in any point known.
Enough now of such details. Outwardly or inwardly, there is no
History, or almost none, to be had of this Reinsberg Period;
the extensive records of it consisting, as usual, mainly of
chaotic nugatory matter, opaque to the mind of readers. There is
copious correspondence of the Crown-Prince, with at least dates to
it for most part: but this, which should be the main resource,
proves likewise a poor one; the Crown-Prince's Letters, now or
afterwards, being almost never of a deep or intimate quality;
and seldom turning on events or facts at all, and then not always
on facts interesting, on facts clearly apprehensible to us in that
extinct element.
The Thing, we know always, IS there; but vision of the Thing is
only to be had faintly, intermittently. Dim inane twilight, with
here and there a transient SPARK falling somewhither in it;--you
do at last, by desperate persistence, get to discern outlines,
features:--"The Thing cannot always have been No-thing," you
reflect! Outlines, features:--and perhaps, after all, those are
mostly what the reader wants on this occasion.
