nergy, vigilance, adroit activity, by an ever-ready insight
and audacity to seize the passing fact by its right handle, he fought
his way well in the world; left Brandenburg a flourishing and greatly
increased Country, and his own name famous enough.

A thick-set stalwart figure; with brisk eyes, and high strong
irregularly Roman nose. Good bronze Statue of him, by Schluter, once a
famed man, still rides on the LANGE-BRUCKE (Long-Bridge) at Berlin; and
his Portrait, in huge frizzled Louis-Quatorze wig, is frequently met
with in German Galleries. Collectors of Dutch Prints, too, know him:
here a gallant, eagle-featured little gentleman, brisk in the smiles of
youth, with plumes, with truncheon, caprioling on his war-charger, view
of tents in the distance;--there a sedate, ponderous, wrinkly old man,
eyes slightly puckered (eyes BUSIER than mouth); a face well-ploughed
by Time, and not found unfruitful; one of the largest, most laborious,
potent faces (in an ocean of circumambient periwig) to be met with
in that Century. [Both Prints are Dutch; the Younger, my copy of the
Younger, has lost the Engraver's Name (Kurfurst's age is twenty-seven);
the Elder is by MASSON, 1633, when Friedrich Wilhelm was sixty-three.]
There are many Histories about him, too; but they are not comfortable to
read. [G. D. Geyler, _Leben und Thaten Friedrich Wihelms des Grossen_
(Frankfort and Leipzig, 1703), folio. Franz Horn, _Das Leben Friedrich
Wilhelms des Grossen_ (Berlin, 1814). Pauli, _Staats-Geschichte,_ Band
v. (Halle, 1764). Pufendorf, _De rebus gestis Friderici Wilhelmi Magni
Electoris Brandenburgensis Commentaria_ (Lips. et Berol. 1733, fol.)] He
also has wanted a sacred Poet; and found only a bewildering Dryasdust.

His Two grand Feats that dwell in the Prussian memory are perhaps none
of his greatest, but were of a kind to strike the imagination. They both
relate to what was the central problem of his life,--the recovery
of Pommern from the Swedes. Exploit First is the famed "Battle
of FEHRBELLIN (Ferry of BellEEN)," fought on the 18th June, 1675.
Fehrbellin is an inconsiderable Town still standing in those peaty
regions, some five-and-thirty miles northwest of Berlin; and had for
ages plied its poor Ferry over the oily-looking, brown, sluggish stream
called Rhin, or Rhein in those parts, without the least notice from
mankind, till this fell out. It is a place of pilgrimage to patriotic
Prussians, ever since Friedrich Wilhelm's explo