ich I daily entertain (EPROUVE). Life has been given to us
as a benefit: when it ceases to be such"--! "I have nobody left in this
world, to attach me to it, but you. My friends, the relations I loved
most, are in the grave; in short, I have lost, everything. If you take
the resolution which I have taken, we end together our misfortunes and
our unhappiness; and it will be the turn of them who remain in this
world, to provide for the concerns falling to their charge, and to bear
the weight, which has lain on us so long. These, my adorable Sister, are
sad reflections, but suitable to my present condition.

"The day before yesterday I was at Gotha [yes, see above;--and
to-morrow, if I knew it, Seidlitz with pictorial effects will be
there]....

"But, it is time to end this long, dreary Letter; which treats almost of
nothing but my own affairs. I have had some leisure, and have used it
to open on you a heart filled with admiration and gratitude towards
you. Yes, my adorable Sister, if Providence troubled itself about human
affairs, you ought to be the happiest person in the Universe. Your not
being such, confirms me in the sentiments expressed at the end of my
EPITRE. In conclusion, believe that I adore you, and that I would give
my life a thousand times to serve you. These are the sentiments which
will animate me to the last breath of my life; being, my beloved Sister,
ever"--Your--F. [_OEuvres,_ xxvii. i, 303-307.]

WILHELMINA'S ANSWER,--by anticipation, as we said: written "15th
September," while Friedrich was dining at Gotha, in quest of Soubise.

"BAIREUTH, 15th SEPTEMBER, 1757. My dearest Brother, your Letter and the
one you wrote to Voltaire, my dear Brother, have almost killed me. What
fatal resolutions, great God! Ah, my dear Brother, you say you love me;
and you drive a dagger into my heart. Your EPITRE, which I did receive,
made me shed rivers of tears. I am now ashamed of such weakness. My
misfortune would be so great" in the issue there alluded to, "that I
should find worthier resources than tears. Your lot shall be mine: I
will not survive either your misfortunes or those of the House I belong
to. You may calculate that such is my firm resolution.

"But, after this avowal, allow me to entreat you to look back at what
was the pitiable state of your Enemy when you lay before Prag! It is
occur again, when one is least expecting it, Caesar was the slave of
Pirates; and he became the master of the world. A gre