often just; and few
men possess the talent of repartee in greater perfection."

Just about threescore and ten years ago, [A.D. 1856,--17th August, 1786]
his speakings and his workings came to finis in this World of Time; and
he vanished from all eyes into other worlds, leaving much inquiry about
him in the minds of men;--which, as my readers and I may feel too well,
is yet by no means satisfied. As to his speech, indeed, though it had
the worth just ascribed to it and more, and though masses of it were
deliberately put on paper by himself, in prose and verse, and continue
to be printed and kept legible, what he spoke has pretty much vanished
into the inane; and except as record or document of what he did, hardly
now concerns mankind. But the things he did were extremely remarkable;
and cannot be forgotten by mankind. Indeed, they bear such fruit to the
present hour as all the Newspapers are obliged to be taking note of,
sometimes to an unpleasant degree. Editors vaguely account this man the
"Creator of the Prussian Monarchy;" which has since grown so large
in the world, and troublesome to the Editorial mind in this and other
countries. He was indeed the first who, in a highly public manner,
notified its creation; announced to all men that it was, in very deed,
created; standing on its feet there, and would go a great way, on the
impulse it had got from him and others. As it has accordingly done; and
may still keep doing to lengths little dreamt of by the British Editor
in our time; whose prophesyings upon Prussia, and insights into Prussia,
in its past, or present or future, are truly as yet inconsiderable, in
proportion to the noise he makes with them! The more is the pity for
him,--and for myself too in the Enterprise now on hand.

It is of this Figure, whom we see by the mind's eye in those Potsdam
regions, visible for the last time seventy years ago, that we are now to
treat, in the way of solacing ingenuous human curiosity. We are to try
for some Historical Conception of this Man and King; some answer to the
questions, "What was he, then? Whence, how? And what did he achieve and
suffer in the world?"--such answer as may prove admissible to ingenuous
mankind, especially such as may correspond to the Fact (which stands
there, abstruse indeed, but actual and unalterable), and so be sure of
admissibility one day.

An Enterprise which turns out to be, the longer one looks at it, the
more of a formidable, not to say un