y courage, on seeing, through
the difficulties of the language, the immense intellectual riches
which existed out of France. I learned to read German; I listened
attentively to Goethe and Wieland, who, fortunately for me, spoke
French extremely well. I comprehended the mind and genius of
Schiller, in spite of the difficulty he felt in expressing himself
in a foreign language. The society of the duke and duchess of Weimar
pleased me exceedingly, and I passed three months there, during
which the study of German literature gave all the occupation to my
mind which it requires to prevent me from being devoured by my own
feelings.

CHAPTER 13.

Berlin.--Prince Louis-Ferdinand.

I left Weimar for Berlin, and there I saw that charming queen, since
destined to so many misfortunes. The king received me with great
kindness, and I may say that during the six weeks I remained in that
city, I never heard an individual who did not speak in praise of the
justice of his government. This, however does not prevent me from
thinking it always desirable for a country to possess constitutional
forms, to guarantee to it, by the permanent co-operation of the
nation, the advantages it derives from the virtues of a good king.
Prussia, under the reign of its present monarch, no doubt possessed
the greater part of these advantages; but the public spirit which
misfortune has developed in it did not then exist; the military
regime had prevented public opinion from acquiring strength, and the
absence of a constitution, in which every individual could make
himself known by his merit, had left the state unprovided with men
of talent, capable of defending it. The favor of a king, being
necessarily arbitrary, cannot be sufficient to excite emulation;
circumstances which are peculiar to the interior of courts, may keep
a man of great merit from the helm of affairs, or place there a very
ordinary person. Routine, likewise, is singularly powerful in
countries where the regal power has no one to contradict it; even
the justice of a king leads him to place barriers around him, by
keeping every one in his place; and it was almost without example in
Prussia, to find a man deprived of his civil or military employments
on account of incapacity. What an advantage therefore ought not the
French army to have, composed almost entirely of men born of the
revolution, like the soldiers of Cadmus from the teeth of the
dragon! What an advantage it had over tho