rm yourself. "Mendacity," my friends? How busy have
the Owls been with Friedrich's memory, in different countries of the
world;--perhaps even more than their sad wont is in such cases! For
indeed he was apt to be of swift abrupt procedure, disregardful of
Owleries; and gave scope for misunderstanding in the course of his life.
But a veracious man he was, at all points; not even conscious of
his veracity; but had it in the blood of him; and never looked upon
"mendacity" but from a very great height indeed. He does not, except
where suitable, at least he never should, express his whole meaning; but
you will never find him expressing what is not his meaning. Reticence,
not dissimulation. And as to "finesse,"--do not believe in that either,
in the vulgar or bad sense. Truly you will find his finesse is a very
fine thing; and that it consists, not in deceiving other people, but in
being right himself; in well discerning, for his own behoof, what the
facts before him are; and in steering, which he does steadily, in a most
vigilant, nimble, decisive and intrepid manner, by monition of the
same. No salvation but in the facts. Facts are a kind of divine thing
to Friedrich; much more so than to common men: this is essentially what
Religion I have found in Friedrich. And, let me assure you, it is an
invaluable element in any man's Religion, and highly indispensable,
though so often dispensed with! Readers, especially in our time English
readers, who would gain the least knowledge about Friedrich, in the
extinct Bedlam where his work now lay, have a great many things to
forget, and sad strata of Owl-droppings, ancient and recent, to sweep
away!--

To Friedrich a bargain with Austria, which would be a getting into port,
in comparison to going with the French in that distracted voyage of
theirs, is highly desirable. "Shall I join with the English, in hope
of some tolerable bargain from Austria? Shall I have to join with the
French, in despair of any?" Readers may consider how stringent upon
Friedrich that question now was, and how ticklish to solve. And it must
be solved soon,--under penalty of "being left with no ally at all" (as
Friedrich expresses himself), while the whole world is grouping itself
into armed heaps for and against! If the English would but get me a
bargain--? Friedrich dare not think they will. Nay, scanning these
English incoherences, these contradictions between what they say here
and what they do and say elsewhe