her either esteem or affection, and considering the claim of parental
authority fully satisfied by the external ceremony, obstinately and
perpetually, during the life of his father, refrained from her bed.
The poor princess lived about seven years in the court of Berlin, in a
state which the world has not often seen, a wife without a husband,
married so far as to engage her person to a man who did not desire her
affection, and of whom it was doubtful, whether he thought himself
restrained from the power of repudiation by an act performed under
evident compulsion.

Thus he lived secluded from publick business, in contention with his
father, in alienation from his wife. This state of uneasiness he found
the only means of softening. He diverted his mind from the scenes
about him, by studies and liberal amusements. The studies of princes
seldom produce great effects, for princes draw with meaner mortals the
lot of understanding; and since of many students not more than one can
be hoped to advance far towards perfection, it is scarcely to be
expected that we should find that one a prince; that the desire of
science should overpower in any mind the love of pleasure, when it is
always present, or always within call; that laborious meditation
should be preferred in the days of youth to amusements and festivity;
or that perseverance should press forward in contempt of flattery; and
that he, in whom moderate acquisitions would be extolled as prodigies,
should exact from himself that excellence of which the whole world
conspires to spare him the necessity.

In every great performance, perhaps in every great character, part is
the gift of nature, part the contribution of accident, and part, very
often not the greatest part, the effect of voluntary election, and
regular design. The king of Prussia was undoubtedly born with more
than common abilities; but that he has cultivated them with more than
common diligence, was probably the effect of his peculiar condition,
of that which he then considered as cruelty and misfortune.

In this long interval of unhappiness and obscurity, he acquired skill
in the mathematical sciences, such as is said to have put him on the
level with those who have made them the business of their lives. This
is, probably, to say too much: the acquisitions of kings are always
magnified. His skill in poetry and in the French language has been
loudly praised by Voltaire, a judge without exception, if his honesty