e home to Berlin in all pomp;--but good came not with her
to anybody there. Not only did she bring the poor old man no children,
which was a fault to be overlooked, considering Sophie Dorothee's
success; but she brought a querulous, weak and self-sufficient female
humor; found his religion heterodox,--he being Calvinist, and perhaps
even lax-Calvinist, she Lutheran as the Prussian Nation is, and strict
to the bone:--heterodox wholly, to the length of no salvation possible;
and times rose on the Berlin Court such as had never been seen
before! "No salvation possible, says my Dearest? Hah! And an innocent
Court-Mask or Dancing Soiree is criminal in the sight of God and of the
Queen? And we are children of wrath wholly, and a frivolous generation;
and the Queen will see us all--!"

The end was, his Majesty, through sad solitary days and nights, repented
bitterly that he had wedded such a She-Dominic; grew quite estranged
from her; the poor She-Dominic giving him due return in her
way,--namely, living altogether in her own apartments, upon orthodoxy,
jealousy and other bad nourishment. Till at length she went quite mad;
and, except the due medical and other attendants, nobody saw her, or
spoke of her, at Berlin. Was this a cheering issue of such an adventure
to the poor old expensive Gentleman? He endeavored to digest in silence
the bitter morsel he had cooked for himself; but reflected often, as an
old King might, What dirt have I eaten!

In this way stands that matter in the Schloss of Berlin, when little
Friedrich, who will one day be called the Great, is born. Habits of the
expensive King, hours of rising, modes of dressing, and so forth, are
to be found in Pollnitz; [Pollnitz, _Memoiren zur Lebens-und
Regierungs-Geschichte der Vier letzten Regenten des Preussischen
Staats_ (Berlin, 1791). A vague, inexact, but not quite uninstructive or
uninteresting Book: Printed also in FRENCH, which was the Original,
same place and time.] but we charitably omit them all. Even from foolish
Pollnitz a good eye will gather, what was above intimated, that this
feeble-backed, heavy-laden old King was of humane and just disposition;
had dignity in his demeanor; had reticence, patience; and, though
hot-tempered like all the Hohenzollerns, that he bore himself like
a perfect gentleman for one thing; and tottered along his high-lying
lonesome road not in an unmanful manner at all. Had not his nerves
been damaged by that fall in infancy, who