w conditions for the development of the human race; but he
may unhesitatingly be ranked with those famous princes who have saved
their countries in the hour of danger, and have succeeded in
re-establishing order,--with an Alfred, a Charles VII., a Gustavus Vasa.
He followed the path trodden by the German territorial princes of old;
but among them all there was not one who, finding his state reduced to
such a miserable condition, so successfully raised it to independence
and power. He instilled into his subjects a spirit of enterprise,--the
mainspring of a state. He took measures which secured to his country an
increase of power and prosperity. What the world most admired, and
indeed what he himself most valued, was the condition of his army. It
contained at the time of his death one hundred and seventy-five
companies of foot, and seventy-six of cavalry; the artillery had
recently been increased in proportion, and the Elector's attention had
been constantly directed to its improvement. The whole strength of the
army was about twenty-eight thousand men. There was nothing that he
recommended so earnestly to his successor as the preservation of this
instrument of power. By this it was that he had made room for himself
among his neighbors, and had won for the Protestant cause of North
Germany the respect that was its due."[49]

Nor did he neglect that naval arm which has been of so great service to
many countries. Prussia's desire to have a navy has raised many smiles,
and caused much laughter, in this century, as if it were something new;
whereas it is an ancient aspiration, and one which all Prussian
sovereigns and statesmen have experienced for two hundred years, though
not strongly. The Great Czar, who came upon the stage just after the
Great Elector left it, did not long more for a good sea-coast than that
Elector had longed for it. Frederick William could not effect so much as
Peter effected, but he did something toward the creation of a navy for
Prussia. His reluctance in parting with a portion of Pomerania was owing
to his commercial and maritime aspirations. "Of all the princes of the
house of Brandenburg," says Ranke, "he is the only one who ever showed a
strong predilection for maritime life and maritime power. It was the
dream of his youth that he would one day sail along shores obedient to
his will, all the way from Custrin, out by the mouths of the Oder,
across to the coast of Prussia. His sojourn in the Netherl