



Produced by D.R. Thompson





HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II OF PRUSSIA,  Volume 14

by Thomas Carlyle




BOOK XIV.--THE SURROUNDING EUROPEAN WAR DOES NOT END.--August,
1742-July, 1744.




Chapter I.--FRIEDRICH RESUMES HIS PEACEABLE PURSUITS.

Friedrich's own Peace being made on such terms, his wish and hope was,
that it might soon be followed by a general European one; that, the
live-coal, which had kindled this War, being quenched, the War itself
might go out. Silesia is his; farther interest in the Controversy,
except that it would end itself in some fair manner, he has none.
"Silesia being settled," think many, thinks Friedrich for one, "what
else of real and solid is there to settle?"

The European Public, or benevolent individuals of it everywhere,
indulged also in this hope. "How glorious is my King, the youngest
of the Kings and the grandest!" exclaims Voltaire (in his Letters
to Friedrich, at this time), and re-exclaims, till Friedrich has to
interfere, and politely stop it: "A King who carries in the one hand an
all-conquering sword, but in the other a blessed olive-branch, and
is the Arbiter of Europe for Peace or War!" "Friedrich the THIRD [so
Voltaire calls him, counting ill, or misled by ignorance of German
nomenclature], Friedrich the Third, I mean Friedrich the Great (FREDERIC
LE GRAND)," will do this, and do that;--probably the first emergence of
that epithet in human speech, as yet in a quite private hypothetic way.
[Letters of Voltaire, in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxii. 100, &c.: this
last Letter is of date "July, 1742"--almost contemporary with the "Jauer
Transparency" noticed above.] Opinions about Friedrich's conduct, about
his talents, his moralities, there were many (all wide of the mark): but
this seemed clear, That the weight of such a sword as his, thrown into
either scale, would be decisive; and that he evidently now wished peace.
An unquestionable fact, that latter! Wished it, yes, right heartily; and
also strove to hope,--though with less confidence than the benevolent
outside Public, as knowing the interior of the elements better.

These hopes, how fond they were, we now all know. True, my friends,
the live-coal which kindled this incendiary whirlpool (ONE of the
live-coals, first of them that spread actual flame in these European
parts, and first of them all except Jenkins's Ear) is out, fairly
withdrawn; but the fire, you perceive, rages not the less. The fire will
not quench itself, I doubt, till the bitumen, sulphur and other angry
fuel have run much lower! Austria has fighting men in abundance, England
behind it has guineas; Austria has got injuries, then successes:--there
is in Austria withal a dumb pride, quite equal in pretensions to the
vocal vanity of France, and far more stubborn of humor. The First Nation
of the Universe, rashly hurling its fine-throated hunting-pack, or
Army of the Oriflamme, into Austria,--see what a sort of badgers, and
gloomily indignant bears, it has awakened there! Friedrich had to take
arms again; and an unwelcome task it was to him, and a sore and costly.
We shall be obliged (what is our grand difficulty in this History) to
note, in their order, the series of European occurrences; and, tedious
as the matter now is, keep readers acquainted with the current of that
big War; in which, except Friedrich broad awake, and the Ear of Jenkins
in somnambulancy, there is now next to nothing to interest a human
creature.

It is an error still prevalent in England, though long since exploded
everywhere else, that Friedrich wanted new wars, "new successful
robberies," as our Gazetteers called them; and did wilfully plunge
into this War again, in the hope of again doing a stroke in that kind.
English readers, on consulting the facts a little, will not hesitate to
sweep that notion altogether away. Shadow of basis, except in their own
angry uninformed imaginations, they will find it never had; and that
precisely the reverse is manifest in Friedrich's History. A perfectly
clear-sighted Friedrich; able to discriminate shine from substance;
and gravitating always towards the solid, the actual. That of "GLOIRE,"
which he owns to at starting, we saw how soon it died out, choked in
the dire realities. That of Conquering Hero, in the Macedonia's-madman
style, was at all times far from him, if the reader knew it,--perhaps
never farther from any King who had such allurements to it, such
opportunities for it. This his First Expedition to Silesia--a rushing
out to seize your own stolen horse, while the occasion answered--was a
voluntary one; produced, we may say, by Friedrich's own thought and the
Invisible Powers. But the rest were all purely compulsory,--to defend
the horse he had seized. Clear necessities, and Powers very Visible,
were the origin of all his other Expeditions and Warlike Struggles,
which lasted to the end of his life.

That recent "Moravian Foray;" the joint-stock principle in War matters;
and the terrible pass a man might reduce himself to, at that
enormous gaming-table of the gods, if he lingered there: think what
considerations these had been for him! So that "his look became
FAROUCHE," in the sight of Valori; and the spectre of Ruin kept him
company, and such hell-dogs were in chase of him;--till Czaslau, when
the dice fell kind again! All this had been didactic on a young docile
man. He was but thirty gone. And if readers mark such docility at those
years, they will find considerable meaning in it. Here are prudence,
moderation, clear discernment; very unusual VERACITY of intellect, as we
define it,--which quality, indeed, is the summary and victorious outcome
of all manner of good qualities, and faithful performances, in a man.
"Given up to strong delusions," in the tragical way many are, Friedrich
was not; and, in practical matters, very seldom indeed "believed a lie."

Certain it is, he now resumes his old Reinsberg Program of Life;
probably with double relish, after such experiences the other way; and
prosecutes it with the old ardor; hoping much that his History will be
of halcyon pacific nature, after all. Would the mad War-whirlpool but
quench itself; dangerous for singeing a near neighbor, who is only just
got out of it! Fain would he be arbiter, and help to quench it; but it
will not quench. For a space of Two Years or more (till August, 1744,
Twenty-six Months in all), Friedrich, busy on his own affairs, with
carefully neutral aspect towards this War, yet with sword ready for
drawing in case of need, looks on with intense vigilance; using his
wisest interference, not too often either, in that sense and in that
only, "Be at Peace; oh, come to Peace!"--and finds that the benevolent
Public and he have been mistaken in their hopes. For the next Two Years,
we say:--for the first Year (or till about August, 1743), with hope
not much abated, and little actual interference needed; for the latter
Twelvemonth, with hope ever more abating; interference, warning, almost
threatening ever more needed, and yet of no avail, as if they had been
idle talking and gesticulation on his part:--till, in August, 1744, he
had to--But the reader shall gradually see it, if by any method we can
show it him, in something of its real sequence; and shall judge of it by
his own light.

Friedrich's Domestic History was not of noisy nature, during this
interval:--and indeed in the bewildered Records given of it, there is
nothing visible, at first, but one wide vortex of simmering inanities;
leading to the desperate conclusion that Friedrich had no domestic
history at all. Which latter is by no means the fact! Your poor Prussian
Dryasdust (without even an Index to help you) being at least authentic,
if you look a long time intensely and on many sides, features do at last
dawn out of those sad vortexes; and you find the old Reinsberg Program
risen to activity again; and all manner of peaceable projects going on.
Friedrich visits the Baths of Aachen (what we call Aix-la-Chapelle);
has the usual Inspections, business activities, recreations, visits
of friends. He opens his Opera-House, this first winter. He enters
on Law-reform, strikes decisively into that grand problem; hoping to
perfect it. What is still more significant, he in private begins writing
his MEMOIRS. And furthermore, gradually determines on having a little
Country House, place of escape from his big Potsdam Palace; and gets
plans drawn for it,--place which became very famous, by the name of
SANS-SOUCI, in times coming. His thoughts are wholly pacific; of Life to
Minerva and the Arts, not to Bellona and the Battles:--and yet he knows
well, this latter too is an inexorable element. About his Army, he is
quietly busy; augmenting, improving it; the staff of life to Prussia and
him.

Silesian Fortress-building, under ugly Walrave, goes on at a
steadily swift rate. Much Silesian settlement goes on; fixing of the
Prussian-Austrian Boundaries without; of the Catholic-Protestant limits
within: rapid, not too rough, remodelling of the Province from Austrian
into Prussian, in the Financial, Administrative and every other
respect:--in all which important operations the success was noiseless,
but is considered to have been perfect, or nearly so. Cannot we,