e. Of the four princes who ruled
it from the Thirty Years' War to the day when the "hoary-headed
abbot in the monastery of Sans Souci" closed his weary eyes, each
one, with his virtues and vices, was the natural complement of his
predecessor--Elector Frederick William, the greatest statesman
produced by the school of the Thirty Years' War, the splendor-loving
King Frederick I., the parsimonious despot Frederick William I., and
finally, in the eighteenth century, he in whom were united the talents
and great qualities of almost all his ancestors--the flower of the
family.

Life in the royal palace at Berlin was cheerless in Frederick's
childhood; poorer in love and sunshine than in most citizens'
households at that rude time. It may be doubted whether the king his
father, or the queen, was more to blame for the disorganization of the
family life--in either case through natural defects which grew more
pronounced in the constant friction of the household. The king, an odd
tyrant with a soft heart but a violent temper, tried to compel love
and confidence with a cudgel; he possessed keen insight into human
nature, but was so ignorant that he always ran the risk of becoming
the victim of a scoundrel. Dimly aware of his weakness, he had grown
suspicious and was subject to sudden fits of violence. The queen, in
contrast, was a rather insignificant woman, colder at heart, but with
a strong sense of her princely dignity; with a tendency to intrigue,
without prudence or discretion. Both had the best of intentions, and
took honest pains to bring up their children to a capable and worthy
maturity; but both unintelligently interfered with the sound
development of the childish souls. The mother was so tactless as to
make the children, even at a tender age, the confidants of her
annoyances and intrigues. The undignified parsimony of the king, the
blows which he distributed so freely in his rooms, and the monotonous
daily routine which he forced upon her, were the subject of no end of
complaining, sulking, and ridicule in her apartments. Crown Prince
Frederick grew up, the playmate of his elder sister, into a gentle
child with sparkling eyes and beautiful light hair. He was taught with
exactness what the king desired,--and that was little enough: French,
a certain amount of history, and the necessary accomplishments of a
soldier. Against the will of his father (the great King had never
surmounted the difficulties of the genitive and dat