The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Volume
IV. (of XXI.), by Thomas Carlyle

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Title: History Of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Volume IV. (of XXI.)
Frederick The Great--Friedrich's Apprenticeship, First Stage--1713-1728

Author: Thomas Carlyle

Posting Date: June 13, 2008 [EBook #2104]
Release Date: March 2000

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. ***

Produced by D.R. Thompson

HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. OF PRUSSIA

FREDERICK THE GREAT

By Thomas Carlyle

BOOK IV. -- FRIEDRICH'S APPRENTICESHIP, FIRST STAGE. - 1713-1728.

CHAPTER I. -- CHILDHOOD: DOUBLE EDUCATIONAL ELEMENT.

Of Friedrich's childhood, there is not, after all our reading, much that
it would interest the English public to hear tell of. Perhaps not much
of knowable that deserves anywhere to be known. Books on it, expressly
handling it, and Books on Friedrich Wilhelm's Court and History, of
which it is always a main element, are not wanting: but they are mainly
of the sad sort which, with pain and difficulty, teach us nothing, Books
done by pedants and tenebrific persons, under the name of men; dwelling
not on things, but, at endless length, on the outer husks of things: of
unparalleled confusion, too;--not so much as an Index granted you; to
the poor half-peck of cinders, hidden in these wagon-loads of ashes,
no sieve allowed! Books tending really to fill the mind with mere
dust-whirlwinds,--if the mind did not straightway blow them out again;
which it does. Of these let us say nothing. Seldom had so curious a
Phenomenon worse treatment from the Dryasdust, species.

Among these Books, touching on Friedrich's childhood, and treating of
his Father's Court, there is hardly above one that we can characterize
as fairly human: the Book written by his little Sister Wilhelmina,
when she grew to size and knowledge of good and evil; [_Memoires de
Frederique Sophie Wilhelmine de Prusse, Margrave de Bareith_ (Brunswick,
Paris et Londres, l8l2), 2 vols. 8vo.]--and this, of what flighty
uncertain nature it is, the world partly knows. A human Book, however,
not a pedant