ralities, there were many (all wide of the mark): but
this seemed clear, That the weight of such a sword as his, thrown into
either scale, would be decisive; and that he evidently now wished peace.
An unquestionable fact, that latter! Wished it, yes, right heartily; and
also strove to hope,--though with less confidence than the benevolent
outside Public, as knowing the interior of the elements better.

These hopes, how fond they were, we now all know. True, my friends,
the live-coal which kindled this incendiary whirlpool (ONE of the
live-coals, first of them that spread actual flame in these European
parts, and first of them all except Jenkins's Ear) is out, fairly
withdrawn; but the fire, you perceive, rages not the less. The fire will
not quench itself, I doubt, till the bitumen, sulphur and other angry
fuel have run much lower! Austria has fighting men in abundance, England
behind it has guineas; Austria has got injuries, then successes:--there
is in Austria withal a dumb pride, quite equal in pretensions to the
vocal vanity of France, and far more stubborn of humor. The First Nation
of the Universe, rashly hurling its fine-throated hunting-pack, or
Army of the Oriflamme, into Austria,--see what a sort of badgers, and
gloomily indignant bears, it has awakened there! Friedrich had to take
arms again; and an unwelcome task it was to him, and a sore and costly.
We shall be obliged (what is our grand difficulty in this History) to
note, in their order, the series of European occurrences; and, tedious
as the matter now is, keep readers acquainted with the current of that
big War; in which, except Friedrich broad awake, and the Ear of Jenkins
in somnambulancy, there is now next to nothing to interest a human
creature.

It is an error still prevalent in England, though long since exploded
everywhere else, that Friedrich wanted new wars, "new successful
robberies," as our Gazetteers called them; and did wilfully plunge
into this War again, in the hope of again doing a stroke in that kind.
English readers, on consulting the facts a little, will not hesitate to
sweep that notion altogether away. Shadow of basis, except in their own
angry uninformed imaginations, they will find it never had; and that
precisely the reverse is manifest in Friedrich's History. A perfectly
clear-sighted Friedrich; able to discriminate shine from substance;
and gravitating always towards the solid, the actual. That of "GLOIRE,"
which he owns to at