e young
Prince,--though he had better hide his feelings on the subject.

Out at Potsdam, again, life goes very heavy; the winged Psyche much
imprisoned in that pipe-clay element, a prey to vacancy and many tediums
and longings. Daily return the giant drill-duties; and daily, to the
uttermost of rigorous perfection, they must be done:--"This, then, is
the sum of one's existence, this?" Patience, young "man of genius,"
as the Newspapers would now call you; it is indispensably beneficial
nevertheless! To swallow one's disgusts, and do faithfully the ugly
commanded work, taking no council with flesh and blood: know that
"genius," everywhere in Nature, means this first of all; that without
this, it means nothing, generally even less. And be thankful for your
Potsdam grenadiers and their pipe-clay!--

Happily he has his Books about him; his flute: Duhan, too, is here,
still more or less didactic in some branches; always instructive and
companionable, to him. The Crown-Prince reads a great deal; very many
French Books, new and old, he reads; among the new, we need not doubt,
the _Henriade_ of M. Arouet Junior (who now calls himself VOLTAIRE),
which has risen like a star of the first magnitude in these years.
[London, 1723, in surreptitious incomplete state, _La Ligue_ the title;
then at length, London, 1726, as _Henriade,_ in splendid 4to,--by
subscription (King, Prince and Princess of Wales at the top of it),
which yielded 8,000 pounds: see Voltaire, _OEuvres Completes,_ xiii.
408.] An incomparable piece, patronized by Royalty in England; the
delight of all kindred Courts. The light dancing march of this new
"Epic," and the brisk clash of cymbal music audible in it, had, as we
find afterwards, greatly captivated the young man. All is not pipe-clay,
then, and torpid formalism; aloft from the murk of commonplace rise
glancings of a starry splendor, betokening--oh, how much!

Out of Books, rumors and experiences, young imagination is forming to
itself some Picture of the World as it is, as it has been. The curtains
of this strange life-theatre are mounting, mounting,--wondrously as
in the case of all young souls; but with what specialties, moods or
phenomena of light and shadow, to this young soul, is not in any point
recorded for us. The "early Letters to Wilhelmina, which exist in great
numbers," from these we had hoped elucidation: but these the learned
Editor has "wholly withheld as useless," for the present. Let them be