nd anything Friedrich ever
wrote;--though one can do without it too, and invoke Fancy in defect of
Print. The sharpness of Friedrich's tongue we know; and the diligence of
birds of the air. To all her other griefs against the bad man, this has
given the finish in the tender Czarish bosom;--and like an envenomed
drop has set the saponaceous oils (already dosed with alkali, and
well in solution) foaming deliriously over the brim, in never-imagined
deluges of a hatred that is unappeasable;--very costly to Friedrich and
mankind. Rising ever higher, year by year; and now risen, to what height
judge by the following:--

AT PETERSBURG, 14th-15th MAY, 1753, "There was Meeting of the Russian
Senate, with deliberation held for these two days; and for issue this
conclusion come to:--

"That it should be, and hereby is, settled as a fundamental maxim of the
Russia Empire, Not only to oppose any farther aggrandizement of the
King of Prussia, but to seize the first convenient opportunity for
overwhelming (ECRASER), by superior force, the House of Brandenburg
[Hear, hear!], and reducing it to its former state of mediocrity."
[MEMOIRE RAISONNE (in _Gesammelte Nachrichten _), i. 421.] Leg of mutton
to be actually gone into. With what an enthusiasm of "Hear, hear!" from
Bruhl and kindred parties; especially from Bruhl,--who, however, dare
not yet bite, except hypothetically, such his terrors and tremors. Or,
look again (same Senate),

AT PETERSBURG, (OCTOBER, 1755): "To which Fundamental Maxim, articulately
fixed ever since those Maydays of 1753, the august Russian Sanhedrim,
deliberating farther in October, 1755, adds this remarkable extension,

"That it is our resolution to attack the King of Prussia without farther
discussion, whensoever the said King shall attack any Ally of Russia's,
or shall himself be attacked by any of them." Hailed by Bruhl, as
natural, with his liveliest approval. "A glorious Deliberation, that,
indeed!" writes he: "It clears the way of action for Russia's Allies in
this matter; and for us too; though nobody can blame us, if we proceed
with the extremest caution,"--and rather wait till the Bear is nearly
killed. [MEMOIRE RAISONNE (in _Gesammelte Nachrichten_ ), i. 422.]

Many marvels Friedrich had deciphered out of this Weingarten-Menzel
Apocalypse of Satan's Invisible World; and one often fancies Friedrich's
tone of mind, in his intense inspecting of that fateful continent
of darkness, and his labyrinthic