ussen will shift for itself; sublime dramaturgy,
which we call his Majesty's Government, costs so much! And Preussen,
mown away by death, lies much of it vacant ever since; which has
completed the Crown-Prince's disgust; and, I believe, did produce some
change of ministry, or other ineffectual expedient, on the old Father's
part. Upon which the Crown-Prince locks up his thoughts again. He has
confused whirlpools, of Court intrigues, ceremonials, and troublesome
fantasticalities, to steer amongst; which he much dislikes, no man more;
having an eye and heart set on the practical only, and being in mind as
in body something of the genus ROBUSTUM, of the genus FEROX withal. He
has been wedded six years; lost two children, as we saw; and now again
he has two living.

His wife, Sophie Dorothee of Hanover, is his cousin as well. She is
brother's-daughter of his Mother, Sophie Charlotte: let the reader
learn to discriminate these two names. Sophie Charlotte, late Queen of
Prussia, was also of Hanover: she probably had sometimes, in her quiet
motherly thought, anticipated this connection for him, while she yet
lived. It is certain Friedrich Wilhelm was carried to Hanover in early
childhood: his Mother,--that Sophie Charlotte, a famed Queen and lady
in her day, Daughter of Electress Sophie, and Sister of the George who
became George I. of England by and by,--took him thither; some time
about the beginning of 1693, his age then five; and left him there on
trial; alleging, and expecting, he might have a better breeding there.
And this, in a Court where Electress Sophie was chief lady, and Elector
Ernst, fit to be called Gentleman Ernst, ["Her Highness (the Electress
Sophie) has the character of the merry debonnaire Princess of Germany;
a lady of extraordinary virtues and accomplishments; mistress of the
Italian, French, High and Low Dutch, and English languages, which she
speaks to perfection. Her husband (Elector Ernst) has the title of the
Gentleman of Germany; a graceful and," &c. &c. W. Carr, _ Remarks of
the Governments of the severall Parts of Germanie, Denmark, Sweedland
_ (Amsterdam, 1688), p. 147. See also _ Ker of Kersland _ (still more
emphatic on this point, _ soepius _)] the politest of men, was chief
lord,--and where Leibnitz, to say nothing of lighter notabilities, was
flourishing,--seemed a reasonable expectation. Nevertheless, it came to
nothing, this articulate purpose of the visit; though perhaps the deeper
silen