(so far as "History" will give one any glimpse of that), and what
the wisest men, poetical or other, have thought about mankind and
their world: this is what he evidently had the appetite for; appetite
insatiable, which lasted with him to the very end of his days.
Fontenelle, Rollin, Voltaire, all the then French lights, and gradually
others that lay deeper in the firmament:--what suppers of the gods
one may privately have at Ruppin, without expense of wine! Such an
opportunity for reading he had never had before.

In his soldier business he is punctual, assiduous; having an interest to
shine that way. And is, in fact, approvable as a practical officer and
soldier, by the strictest judge then living. Reads on soldiering withal;
studious to know the rationale of it, the ancient and modern methods
of it, the essential from the unessential in it; to understand it
thoroughly,--which he got to do. One already hears of conferences,
correspondences, with the Old Dessauer on this head: "Account of the
Siege of Stralsund," with plans, with didactic commentaries, drawn up by
that gunpowder Sage for behoof of the Crown-Prince, did actually
exist, though I know not what has become of it. Now and afterwards
this Crown-Prince must have been a great military reader. From Caesar's
COMMENTARIES, and earlier, to the Chevalier Folard, and the Marquis
Feuquiere; [_Memoires sur la Guerre_ (specially on the Wars of Louis
XIV., in which Feuquiere had himself shone): a new Book at this time
(Amsterdam, 1731; first COMPLETE edition is, Paris, 1770, 4 vols.
4to); at Ruppin, and afterwards, a chief favorite with Friedrich.]
from Epaminondas at Leuctra to Charles XII. at Pultawa, all manner of
Military Histories, we perceive, are at his finger-ends; and he has
penetrated into the essential heart of each, and learnt what it had to
teach him. Something of this, how much we know not, began at Ruppin; and
it did not end again.

On the whole, Friedrich is prepared to distinguish himself henceforth
by strictly conforming, in all outward particulars possible, to the
paternal will, and becoming the most obedient of sons. Partly from
policy and necessity, partly also from loyalty; for he loves his
rugged Father, and begins to perceive that there is more sense in his
peremptory notions than at first appeared. The young man is himself
rather wild, as we have seen, with plenty of youthful petulance and
longings after forbidden fruit. And then he lives in an