n the best of the new acquaintances
received perhaps his occasional confidence, but never his heartfelt
friendship. The need for stimulating intellectual intercourse
remained, and became even stronger and more imperative, for in this
too he was unique; he never could dispense with cheerful and
confidential companions, with light, almost reckless conversation,
flitting through all shades of human moods, thoughtful or frivolous,
from the greatest questions of the human race down to the little
events of the day. Immediately after his accession he had written to
Voltaire and invited him to his court. He had first met the Frenchman
in 1740 on a journey near Wesel. Soon after, Voltaire had come to
Berlin for a few days, at heavy expense. He had even then impressed
the King as a jester, but Frederick felt nevertheless an infinite
respect for the talent of the man. Voltaire was to him the greatest
poet of all times, the master of ceremonies of Parnassus, where the
King himself was so anxious to play a part. Frederick's desire to have
this man in his train became stronger and stronger. He regarded
himself as his pupil; he wished to have all his verses approved by the
master; among his Brandenburg officials he pined for the wit and
spirit of the elegant Frenchman, and finally, his vanity as a
sovereign was concerned--he wanted to be a prince of the _beaux
esprits_ and philosophers, as he had become a glorious leader of
armies. After the second Silesian war his intimates were mostly
foreigners. After 1750 he had the pleasure of seeing the great
Voltaire also as a member of his court. It was no misfortune that this
unworthy man endured for only a few years his sojourn among the
barbarians.

During these ten years, from 1746 to 1756, Frederick acquired literary
independence, and that importance as a writer which is not yet
sufficiently appreciated in Germany. As to his French poetry, a German
can only judge imperfectly. He was a facile poet, who was easily
master of every mood in metre and rhyme, but from the point of view
of a Frenchman, he never completely overcame in his lyric poetry the
difficulties of a foreign language, however diligently his confidants
revised his work. He even lacked, it seems to us, the uniform
rhetorical spirit, that style which in Voltaire's time was the first
mark of a born poet. The effect of beautiful and noble sentiments, in
splendid phraseology, is spoiled by trivial thoughts and commonplace
expres