the great King, who in cool expectation of the hour of
his death, still wrote of suicide in beautifully balanced
periods--both were sons of the same age, in which pathos, which had
not yet found worthy expression in art, luxuriated like climbing
plants about the realities of life. But the King was greater than his
philosophy. In reality he never lost his courage, nor the persistent,
defiant vigor characteristic of the old Germans, nor the secret hope
which a man needs in every difficult task.

And he held out. The forces of his enemies grew weaker, their generals
were worn out, and their armies were scattered. Finally Russia
withdrew from the coalition. This, and the King's last victories,
turned the balance. He had won. He had not only conquered Silesia, but
vindicated its possession for his Prussian kingdom. But while his
people rejoiced, and the loyal citizens of his capital prepared a
festive reception for him, he shunned their merrymaking and withdrew
silent and alone to Sans Souci. He said that he wished to spend his
remaining days in peace, living for his people.

In the first twenty-three years of his reign he had struggled
and fought to maintain his power against the world. Twenty-three
years more he was destined to rule peacefully over his people as
a wise, stern patriarch. He guided his State with the greatest
self-denial, though with insistence on his own ways, striving for
the greatest things, but yet in full control even of the smallest.
Many of his ideas have been left behind by the advance of modern
civilization--they were the result of the experiences of his youth
and early manhood. Thought was to be free; every man to think what he
pleased, but to do his duty as a citizen. He himself subordinated his
comfort and his expenditures to the welfare of the State, meeting the
whole expense of the royal household with some two hundred thousand
thalers; thinking first of the advantage of his people and last of
himself. His subjects, in their turn, he felt should bear cheerfully
whatever duties and burdens he imposed upon them. Every one was to
remain in the station in which birth and education had placed him. The
noblemen were to be landholders and officers; to the citizens belonged
the towns, trade, manufacturing, instruction, and invention; to the
peasant, the land and the menial work. But in his sphere each one was
to be prosperous and happy. Equal, strict, ready justice for every
one; no favors to the hig