s country had
engaged before he reached middle life, and with all the courage of his
Hohenzollern blood, he yet delighted in peace, and was a most humane
and liberal statesman. That thirst for liberty which is quenchless in
the human breast, and which has had as yet small satisfaction in
Teutonic lands, seemed to find sympathy in this enlightened Prince. At
the age of thirty he became the heir apparent to the Prussian Crown,
when the new king, his father, had reached the age of sixty-four. When
he was forty, and his father was proclaimed Emperor of Germany at the
age of seventy-four, Frederick became heir to the Imperial throne. A
most careful and liberal education, grafted on a genial and wise
character, had fitted him to watch the course of events in which,
according to the course of nature, he might be expected so soon to
take chief part. But the years which made his sire venerable passed,
and still he had no opportunity to shape public affairs. Absolutism
feared his influence and that of his liberal and strong-minded English
wife. The prime of life was his; but his best years were behind and
not before him as at the age of fifty-five he filially and devotedly
filled his own place, the loved and loving son of his Imperial father,
whose trusted representative he was on all courtly occasions, the
model husband and father, the accomplished and interested patron of
art and letters, the polished gentleman, the benevolent and devout
Christian. During his last winter of health (1886-1887) he was often
to be seen among the people. Accompanied by the Crown Princess and
their three unmarried daughters, he walked out and in, along the Unter
den Linden, an interested participator, like any other father of a
family, in the Christmas shopping. On one of the culminating days of
the great Reichstag debate, it was Prince William who was seen in the
Imperial box in the Parliament House, while "Unser Fritz" with wife
and daughters were skaters among the crowds on the ice-ponds of the
Thiergarten. This by no means indicated indifference to great
questions of public concern. None knew better the issue, the times,
and the need. But, standing all his mature life with his foot on the
threshold of a throne, with talents and training fitting him to do
honor to his royal line, to his Fatherland, and to the brotherhood of
kings in all lands and ages, he yet knew that while the father
reigned, it was not for the son to reign. He was to bide his t