as a
General, and some of the winning qualities of the great King; but he
was only in one respect his successor, that he carried on in the most
dangerous way the too great political daring of his instructor. He
wished to make use of, and at the same time deceive, a foreign power
which was greater and stronger than himself: it was an unequal
struggle, and he, as the weaker party, was soon put aside by France,
and these foreigners possessed themselves of his political legacy, his
fortress and his army.

While love and hate were thus divided in this gloomy period, there
arose among the better portion of the nation a characteristic
patriotism, which the German people, in the midst of their great need
and sufferings, opposed to the egotistic interests of the rulers who
helped to destroy each other. There no longer existed any party to
which a wise man could from his heart wish success. Differences of
faith had diminished, and the soldiers complained, without scruple, of
confession. Then began for the first time a new political system,
called a constitution founded on reason, in opposition to the reckless
selfishness of the rulers. But even this constitutional principle, the
basis of which was the advantage of the whole, as it was then
understood, was still without greatness of conception or any deep moral
purport; and there was no repugnance to the employment of the worst
means in carrying it out. Still it was an advance. Even the peaceful
citizen, after eighteen years of troubles, was obliged to take an
interest in this political system. The character of the ruling powers
and their interests became everywhere a subject of deliberation. Every
one was terrified out of his provincial narrowness of mind, and had
urgent reasons for interesting themselves in the fate of foreign
countries. Thousands of fugitives, the most powerful members of the
community, had scattered themselves over distant provinces, the same
misfortunes had befallen them also. Thus, amidst the horrors of war,
was developed in Germany a feeling of distrust of their rulers, a
longing for a better national condition. It was a great but dearly
bought advance of public opinion; it may be discerned more particularly
in the political literature after the peace of Prague. A specimen of
this tendency is here introduced from a small flying-sheet, which
appeared in 1636 under the title of 'The German Brutus: that is, a
letter thrown before the public.'

"You Swedes