This, in the fire of satirical
wit, is what we can transiently call, "giving alms to
a Prussian Excellency;" -- not now excellent, but pen-
sioned and cracked; and the reader perceives, Luiscius
had probably more than one razor, had not one been
enough, when he did the rash act!
wit, is what we can transiently call, "giving alms to
a Prussian Excellency;" -- not now excellent, but pen-
sioned and cracked; and the reader perceives, Luiscius
had probably more than one razor, had not one been
enough, when he did the rash act!
Thomas Carlyle
And the internal conflagration is not quenched,
"far from it; -- and about nine a. m. their Powder-Magazine,
"conflagration reaching it, roared aloft into the air, and killed
"seven thousand of them,"* --
So that Oczakow was taken, sure enough; terms, life
only: and every remaining Turk packs off from it,
* Mannsteln, pp. 151-156.
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? CHAP. Iv. ] news OF THE DAT. 201
July-Dec. 1737.
some "twenty thousand inhabitants young and old" for
one sad item. -- A very blazing semi-absurd event, to
be read of in Prussian military circles, -- where Ge-
neral Keith will be better known one day.
Russian War with the Turk: that means withal,
by old Treaties, aid of thirty thousand men from the
Kaiser to Russia. Kaiser, so ruined lately, how can he
send thirty thousand, and keep them recruited, in such
distant expedition? Kaiser, much meditating, is advised
it will be better to go frankly into the Turk on his
own score, and try for slices of profit from him in this
game. Kaiser declares war against the Turk; and
what is still more interesting to Friedrich Wilhelm and
the Berlin Circles, Seckendorf is named General of it.
Feldzeugmeister now Feldmarschall Seckendorf, envy
may say what it will, he has marched this season into
the Lower-Donau Countries, -- going to besiege Wid-
din, they say, -- at the head of a big Army (on paper,
almost a hundred and fifty thousand, light troops and
heavy) -- virtually Commander-in-Chief; though no-
minally our fine young friend, Franz of Lorraine bears
the title of Commander, whom Seckendorf is to dry-
nurse in the way sometimes practised. Going to be-
siege Widdin, they say. So has the poor Kaiser been
advised. His wise old Eugene is now gone;* I fear
his advisers, -- a youngish Feldzeugmeister, Prince of
Hildburghausen, the chief favourite among them, -- are
none of the wisest. All Protestants, we observe, these
favourite Hildburghauscns, Schmettaus, Seckendorfs of
* Died 30th April 17S<<.
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? 202 AT REINSBERG. [bookx.
July-bee. 1737.
his; and Vienna is an orthodox papal Court; -- and
there is a Hofkriegsrath (Supreme Council of War),
which has ruined many a General, poking too meddle-
somely into his affairs! On the whole, Seckendorf will
have his difficulties. Here is a scene, on the Lower
Donau, different enough from that at Oczakow, not far
from contemporaneous with it. The Austrian Army
is at Kolitz, a march or two beyond Belgrad:
"Kolitz, 2d July 1737. This day, the Army not being on
"march, but allowed to rest itself, Grand Duke Franz went
"into the woods to hunt. Hunting up and down, he lost him-
"self; did not return at evening; and, as the night closed in
"and no Generalissimo visible, the Generalissimo ad Latus
"(such the title they had contrived for Seckendorf) was in
"much alarm. Generalissimo ad Latus ordered out his whole
"force of drummers, trumpeters: To fling themselves, post-
"wise, deeper and deeper into the woods all round; to drum
"there, and blow, in ever-widening circle, in prescribed notes,
"and with all energy, till the Grand Duke were found. Grand
"Duke being found, Seckendorf remonstrated, rebuked; a
"thought too earnestly, some say, his temper being flurried,"
-- voice snuffling somewhat in alt, with lisp to help: -- "so
"that the Grand Duke took offence; flung off in a huff: and
"always looked askance on the Feldmarschall from that
"time;" * -- quitting him altogether before long; and march-
ing with Khevenhiiller, Wallis, Hildburghausen, or any of
the subordinate Generals rather. Probably Widdin will not
go the road of Oczakow, nor the Austrians prosper like the
Russians, this summer.
* Sec Lebensgesckichte des Grafen von Sehmcttau (by his Son; Berlin
1806), i. 27.
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? CHaP. It. ] NEWS OF THE DAY. 203
Jnly-Deo. 1737.
Pbllnitz, in Tobacco-Parliament, and in certain
Berlin circles foolishly agape about this new Feldmar-
schall, maintains always, Seckendorf will come to
nothing; which his Majesty zealously contradicts, --
his Majesty, and some short-sighted private individuals
still favourable to Seckendorf. * Exactly one week
after that singular drum-and-trumpet operation on Duke
Franz, the Last of the Medici dies at Florence;** and
Serene Franz, if he knew it, is Grand Duke of Tuscany,
according to bargain: a matter important to himself
chiefly, and to France, who, for Stanislaus and Lor-
raine's sake, has had to pay him some 200,000/. a-year
during the brief intermediate state.
Of Berg-and-Julich again; and of Luiscius with the One
Razor.
These remote occurrences are of small interest to
his Prussian Majesty, in comparison with the Pfalz
affair, the Cleve-Julich succession, which lies so near
home. His Majesty is uncommonly anxious to have
this matter settled, in peace if possible. Kaiser and
Eeich, with the other Mediating Powers, go on me-
diating; but when will they decide? This year the
old Bishop of Augsburg, one Brother of the older Kur-
Pfalz Karl Philip, dies; nothing now between us and
the event itself, but Karl Philip alone, who is verging
towards eighty: the decision, to be peaceable, ought to
* PBllniti: Hcmoirm, II. 497-499.
** 9th July (Pastes de Louis XV, p. 304).
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? 204 AT REINSBERG. [book X.
July-Dec. 1737.
be speedy! Friedrich Wilhelm, in January last, sent
the expert Degenfeld, once of London, to old Karl Philip; and has him still there, with the most con-
ciliatory offers: "Will leave your Sulzbachs a part,
then; will be content with part, instead of the whole,
which is mine if there be force in sealed parchment;
will do anything for peace! " To which the old Kur-
Pfalz, foolish old creature, is steadily deaf; answers
vaguely, negatively always, in a polite manner; pushing
his Majesty upon extremities painful to think of. "We
hate war; but cannot quite do without justice, your
Serenity," thinks Friedrich Wilhelm: "must it be the
eighty thousand iron ramrods, then? " Obstinate Serenity
continues deaf; and Friedrich Wilhelm's negotiations,
there at Mannheim, over in Holland, and through Hol-
land with England, not to speak of Kaiser and Reich
close at hand, become very intense; vehemently earnest,
about this matter, for the next two years. The details
of which, inexpressibly uninteresting, shall be spared
the reader.
Summary is, these Mediating Powers will be of no
help to his Majesty; not even the Dutch will, with
whom he is specially in friendship: nay, in the third
year it becomes fatally manifest, the chief Mediating
Powers, Kaiser and France, listening rather to political
convenience, than to the claims of justice, go direct
in Kur-Pfalz's favour; -- by formal Treaty of their
own,* France and the Kaiser settle, "That the Sulz- * "Veraaillea, 13th January 1739" (Orllch: Geschichte der Schlesischen
Eriege, 1. 13); Maoyillon, il. 405-446; *o.
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? CHaP. IV. ] NEWS OF THE DAY. 205
July-Dec. 1737.
bachers shall, as a preliminary, get provisional posses-
sion, on the now Serenity's decease; and shall continue
undisturbed for two years, till Law decide between his
Prussian Majesty and them. " Two years; Law decide;
-- and we know what are the nine-points in a Law-
case! This, at last, proved too much for his Majesty.
Majesty's abstruse dubitations, meditations on such treat-
ment by a Kaiser and others, did then, it appears,
gloomily settle into fixed private purpose of trying it
by the iron ramrods, when old Kur-Pfalz should die,
-- of marching with eighty thousand men into the
Cleve Countries, and so welcoming any Sulzbach or
other guests that might arrive. Happily old Kur-
Pfalz did not die in his Majesty's time; survived his
Majesty several years: so that the matter fell into
other hands, -- and was settled very well, near a
century after.
Of certain wranglings with the little Town of Her-
stal, -- Prussian Town (part of the Orange Heritage,
once King Pepin's Town, if that were any matter now)
in the Bishop of Liege's neighbourhood, Town highly
insignificant otherwise, -- we shall say nothing here,
as they will fall to be treated, and be settled, at an
after stage. Friedrich Wilhelm was much grieved by
the contumacies of that paltry little Herstal; and by
the Bishop of Liege's highflown procedures in coun-
tenancing them; -- especially in a recruiting case that
had fallen out there, and brought matters to a head. *
* "December 1738" la crisis of the recruiting case (Ilelden-Geschiclite,
ii. 63); "17th February 1739," Bishop's highflown appearance in It (lb. 67);
Kaiser's In consequence, " 10th April 1739. "
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? 206 AT REINSBERG. [booKI,
July-Dec. 1737.
The Kaiser too was afflictively high in countenancing
the Bishop; -- for which both Kaiser and Bishop got
due payment in time. But his Prussian Majesty would
not kindle the world for such a paltriness; and so left
it hanging in a vexatious condition. Such things, it is
remarked, weigh heavier on his now infirm Majesty
than they were wont. He is more subject to fits of
hypochondria, to talk of abdicating. "All gone wrong! "
he would say, if any little flaw rose, about recruiting
or the like. "One might go and live at Venice, were
one rid of it! "* And his deep-stung clangorous growl
against the Kaiser's treatment of him bursts out, from
time to time; though he oftenest pities the Kaiser,
too; seeing him at such a pass with his Turk "War and
otherwise.
It was in this Pfalz business that Herr Luiscius,
the Prussian Minister in Holland, got into trouble; of
whom there is a light dash of outline-portraiture by
Voltaire, which has made him memorable to readers.
This "fat King of Prussia," says Voltaire, was a dread-
fully avaricious fellow, unbeautiful to a high degree in
his proceedings with mankind:
"He had a Minister at the Hague called Luiscius; who
"certainly of all Ministers of Crowned Heads was the worst
"paid. This poor man, to warm himself, had made some trees
"be felled in the Garden of Honslardik, which belonged at
"that time to the House of Prussia; he thereupon received
"despatches from the King, intimating that a year of his
* Forstcr (place lost).
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? CHAP. IV. ] NEWS OF THE DAY. 207
July-Dec. 1737.
"salary was forfeited. Luiscius, in despair, cut his throat
"with probably the one razor he had [seul rasoir qu'ii e&t); an
"old valet came to his assistance, and unhappily saved his
"life. In after years, I found his Excellency at the Hague;
"and have occasionally given him an alms at the door of the
"Vieille Cour (Old Court), a Palace belonging to the King of
"Prussia, where this poor Ambassador had lived a dozen
"years. It must be owned, Turkey is a republic in compari-
"son to the despotism exercised by Friedrich Wilhelm. " *
Here truly is a witty sketch; consummately dashed
off, as nobody but Voltaire could; "round as Giotto's
0," done at one stroke. Of which the prose facts
are only as follows. Luiscius, Prussian Resident, not
distinguished by salary or otherwise, had, at one stage
of these negotiations, been told, from headquarters,
He might, in casual extra-official ways, if it seemed
furthersome, give their High Mightinesses the hope, or
notion, that his Majesty did not intend actual war
about that Cleve-Jtilich Succession, -- being a pacific
Majesty, and unwilling to involve his neighbours and
mankind. Luiscius, instead of casual hint, delicately
dropped in some good way, had proceeded by direct
declaration; frank assurance to the High Mightinesses,
That there would be no war. Which had never been
quite his Majesty's meaning, and perhaps was now
becoming rather the reverse of it . Disavowal of Luis-
cius had to ensue thereupon; who produced defensively his instruction from headquarters; but got only rebukes
* (Euvres rfe Voltaire {Vie Privic, or what they now call Jf^morres),
ii. 15.
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? 208 AT KEINSBERG. [books.
July-Dec. 1737.
for such heavy-footed clumsy procedure, so unlike Di-
plomacy with its shoes of felt; -- and, in hrief, was
turned out of the Diplomatic function, as unfit for it;
and appointed to manage certain Orange Properties,
fragments of the Orange Heritage which his Majesty
still has in those Countries. This misadventure sank
heavily on the spirits of Luiscius, otherwise none of
the strongest-minded of men. Nor did he prosper in
managing the Orange Properties: on the contrary, he
again fell into mistakes; got soundly rebuked for in-
judicious conduct there, -- "cutting trees," planting
trees, or whatever it was; -- and this produced such
an effect on Luiscius, that he made an attempt on his
own throat, distracted mortal; and was only stopped
by somebody rushing in. "It was not the first time
"he had tried that feat," says Pollnitz, "and been
"prevented; nor was it long till he made a new at-
"tempt, which was again frustrated: and always after-
"wards his relations kept him close in view;" Majesty
writing comfortable forgiveness to the perturbed crea-
ture, and also "settling a pension on him;" adequate,
we can hope, and not excessive; "which Luiscius con-
"tinued to receive, at the Hague, so long as he lived. "
These are the prose facts; not definitely dated to us,
but perfectly clear otherwise. *
Voltaire, in his Dutch excursions, did sometimes,
in after years, lodge in that old vacant Palace, called
Vieille Cour, at the Hague; where he gracefully cele-
* Pb'llnitz, ii. 495 , 496; -- the "new attempt" seems to have been,
Jane 1739" (Gentleman's Magazine, in mense, p. 331).
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? CHaP. IV. ] NEWS OF THE DAY. 209
July-Dec. 1737.
brates the decayed forsaken state of matters; dusky
vast rooms with dim gilding; forgotten libraries "veiled
under the biggest spiderwebs in Europe:" for the rest,
an uncommonly quiet place, convenient for a writing
man, besides costing nothing. A son of this Luiscius,
a good young lad, it also appears, was occasionally
Voltaire's amanuensis there; him he did recommend
zealously to the new King of Prussia, who was not
deaf on the occasion.
This, in the fire of satirical
wit, is what we can transiently call, "giving alms to
a Prussian Excellency;" -- not now excellent, but pen-
sioned and cracked; and the reader perceives, Luiscius
had probably more than one razor, had not one been
enough, when he did the rash act! Friedrich em-
ployed Luiscius Junior, with no result that we hear of
farther; and seems to have thought Luiscius Senior an
absurd fellow, not worth mentioning again: "ran away
"from the Cleve Country" (probably some madhouse
there) "above a year ago, I hear; and what is the
"matter where such a crackbrain end? "*
* Voltaire, (Euvrcs . (Letter to Friedrich, 7th October 1740), lxxii. 261;
and Friedrich's answer (wrong dated), ib. 265: Preuss, xxii. 33.
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. V.
14
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? 210
[book x. 8th July 1738.
AT BEINSBEKG.
CHAPTER V.
VISIT AT LOO.
The Pfalz question being in such a predicament,
and Luiscius diplomatising upon it in such heavy-footed
manner, his Majesty thinks a Journey to Holland, to
visit one's Kinsfolk there, and incidentally speak a
word with the High Mightinesses upon Pfalz, would
not be amiss. Such journey is decided on; Crown-
Prince to accompany. Summer of 1738: a short visit,
quite without fuss; to last only three days; -- mere
sequel to the Reviews held in those adjacent Cleve
Countries; so that the Gazetteers may take no notice.
All which was done accordingly: Crown-Prince's first
sight of Holland; and one of the few reportable points
of his Reinsberg life, and not quite without memorability
to him and us.
On the 8th of July 1738, the Review Party got
upon the road for Wesel: all through July, they did
their reviewing in those Cleve Countries; and then
struck across for the Palace of Loo in Geldern, where
a Prince of Orange countable kinsman to his Prussian
Majesty, and a Princess still more nearly connected,
-- English George's Daughter, own Niece to his Prus-
sian Majesty, -- are in waiting for this distinguished
honour. The Prince of Orange we have already seen,
for a moment once; at the Siege of Philipsburg four
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? CHaP. V. ] VISIT AT LOO. 211
8th July 1738.
years ago, when the sale of Chasot's horses went
off so well. "Nothing like selling horses when your
company have dined well," whispered he to Chasot,
at that time; since which date we have heard nothing
of his Highness.
He is not a beautiful man; he has a crooked back,
and features conformable; but is of prompt vivacious
nature, and does not want for sense and good-humour.
Paternal George, the gossips say, warned his Princess,
when this marriage was talked of, "You will find
him very ill-looking, though! " "And if I found him
a baboon --! " answered she; being so heartily tired
of St. James's. And in fact, for anything I have
heard, they do well enough together. She is George
n. 's eldest Princess; -- next elder to our poor Amelia,
who was once so interesting to us! What the Crown-
Prince now thought of all that, I do not know; but the Books say, poor Amelia wore the willow, and
specially wore the Prince's miniature on her breast, all
her days after, which were many. Grew corpulent, some-
what a huddle in appearance and equipment, "eyelids
like upper-///><<," for one item: but when life itself fled,
the miniature was found in its old place, resting on the
old heart after some sixty years. 0 Time, 0 Sons
and Daughters of Time! --
His Majesty's reception at Loo was of the kind he
liked, -- cordial, honourable, unceremonious; and these
were three pleasant days he had. Pleasant for the
Crown-Prince too; as the whole Journey had rather
been; Papa, with covert satisfaction, finding him a wise
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? 212 AT REINSBERG. [book X.
8th July 1738.
creature, after all, and "more serious" than formerly.
"Hm, you don't know what things are in that Fritz! "
his Majesty murmured sometimes, in these later years,
with a fine light in his eyes.
Loo itself is a beautiful Palace: "Loo, close by the
"Village Appeldoorn, is a stately brick edifice, built
"with architectural regularity; has finely decorated
"rooms, beautiful gardens, and round are superb alleys
"of oak and linden. "* There saunters pleasantly our
Crown-Prince, for these three days; -- and one glad
incident I do perceive to have befallen him there: the
arrival of a Letter from Voltaire. Letter much expected,
which had followed him from Wesel; and which he
answers here, in this brick Palace, among the superb
avenues and gardens. **
No doubt a glad incident; irradiating, as with a
sudden sunburst in gray weather, the commonplace of
things. Here is news worth listening to; news as from
the empyrean! Free interchange of poetries and proses,
of heroic sentiments and opinions, between the Unique
of Sages and the Paragon of Crown-Princes; how
charming to both! Literary business, we perceive, is
brisk on both hands; at Cirey the Discours sur VHomme
("Sixth Discours" arrives in this packet at Loo, surely
a deathless piece of singing); nor is Reinsberg idle:
Reinsberg is copiously doing verse, such verse! -- and
in prose, very earnestly, an "Anti-Macchiavel;" which
* Biischlng: Erdbeschreibung, Till. 69.
** (Enures, xxl. 203, the Letter, "Cirey, Jane 1738;" lb. 222, the Answer
to it, "Loo, 6th august 1738. "
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? CHaP. V. ] VISIT AT LOO. 213
6th Aug. 1738.
soon afterwards filled all the then world, though it has
now fallen so silent again. And at Paris, as Voltaire
announces with a flourish, "M. de Maupertuis's ex-
cellent Book, Figure de la Terre,* is out;" M. de
Maupertuis, home from the Polar regions and from
measuring the Earth there; the sublimest miracle in
Paris society at present. Might build, new-build, an
Academy of Sciences at Berlin for your Royal Highness,
one day? suggests Voltaire, on this occasion: and Fried- rich, as we shall see, takes the hint. One passage of
the Crown-Prince's Answer is in these terms; -- fixing
this Loo Visit to its date for us, at any rate:
"Loo in Holland, 6th August 1738. * * I write from a place
"where there lived once a great man" (William III. of Eng-
land, our Dutch William); "which is now the Prince of
"Orange's House. The demon of Ambition sheds its unhappy
"poisons over his days. He might be the most fortunate of
"men; and he is devoured by chagrins in his beautiful Palace
"here, in the middle of his gardens and of a brilliant Court.
"It is pity in truth; for he is a Prince with no end of wit (in-
"finiment iTesprit), and has respectable qualities. " NotStadt-
holder, unluckily; that is where the shoe pinches; the Dutch
are on the Republican tack, and will not have a Stadtholder
at present. No help for it in one's beautiful gardens and
avenues of oak and linden. *
"I have talked a great deal about Newton with the Prin-
"cess," -- about Newton; never hinted at Amelia; not per-
* Paris, 1738: Maupertuis's "measurement of a degree," in the utmost
North, 1736-7 (to prove the Earth flattened there). Vivid Narrative; some-
what gesticulative, but duly brief. The only Book of that great Maupertuis
which is now readable to human nature.
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? 214 AT KEINSBERG. [b0oKX.
6th Aug. 1738.
missiblel -- "from Newton we passed to Leibnitz; and from
"Leibnitz to the late Queen of England," Caroline lately
gone, "who, the Prince told me, was of Clarke's sentiment"
on that important theological controversy now dead to man-
kind. And of Jenkins and his Ear did the Princess say
nothing? That is now becoming a high phenomenon in Eng-
land! But readers must wait a little.
Pity that we cannot give these two Letters in full;
that no reader, almost, could be made to understand
them, or to care for them when understood. Such the
cruelty of Time upon this Voltaire-Friedrich Corre-
spondence, and some others; which were once so rosy,
sunny, and are now fallen drearily extinct, -- studiable
by Editors only! In itself the Friedrich-Voltaire Cor-
respondence, we can see, was charming; very blossomy
at present: businesses increasing; mutual admiration
now risen to a great height, -- admiration sincere on
both sides, most so on the Prince's, and extravagantly
expressed on both sides, most so on Voltaire's.
Crown-Prince becomes a Freemason; and is harangued
by Monsieur de Bielfeld.
His Majesty, we said, had three pleasant days at
Loo; discoursing, as with friends, on public matters, or
even on more private matters, in a frank unconstrained
way. He is not to be called "Majesty" on this occa-
sion; but the fact, at Loo, and by the leading Mighti-
nesses of the Republic, who come copiously to compli-
ment him there, is well remembered. Talk there was,
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? CHAP, v. ] VISIT AT LOO. 215
6th Aug. 1738. ,
with such leading Mightinesses, about the Jiilich-and-
Berg question, aim of this Journey; earnest enough
private talk with some of them: but it availed nothing;
and would not be worth reporting now to any creature,
if we even knew. In fact, the Journey itself remains
mentionable chiefly by one very trifling circumstance;
and then by another, not important either, which fol-
lowed out of that. The trifling circumstance is, -- That
Friedrich, in the course of this Journey, became a
Freemason: and the unimportant sequel was, That he
made acquaintance with one Bielfeld, on the occasion;
who afterwards wrote a Book about him, which was
once much read, though never much worth reading,
and is still citable, with precaution, now and then. *
Trifling circumstance of Freemasonry, as we read in
Bielfeld and in many Books after him, befel in manner
following.
Among the dinner-guests at Loo, one of those three
days, was a Prince of Lippe-Buckeburg, -- Prince of
small territory, but of great speculation; whose terri-
tory lies on the Weser, leading to Dutch connexions; and
whose speculations stretch over all the Universe, in a
high fantastic style: -- he was a dinner-guest; and one of
the topics that came up was Freemasonry; a phantasmal
kind of object, which had kindled itself, or rekindled, in
those years, in England first of all; and was now hover-
ing about, a good deal, in Germany and other countries;
pretending to be a new light of Heaven, and not a bog-
* Monsieur le Baron de Bielfeld: Lettres Familieres et Autrcs, 1763; --
second edition, 2 vols, a Leide, 17G7, is the one we use here.
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? 216 AT REIKSBERG. [BOOK X.
6th Aug. 1738.
meteor of phosphorated hydrogen, conspicuous in the
murk of things. Bog-meteor, foolish putrescent will-
o'-wisp, his Majesty promptly defined it to be: Tom-
foolery and Kinderspiel, what else? Whereupon in-
genious Biickeburg, who was himself a Mason, man of
forty by this time, and had high things in him of the
Quixotic type, ventured on defence; and was so re-
spectful, eloquent, dextrous, ingenious, he quite capti-
vated, if not his Majesty, at least the Crown-Prince,
who was more enthusiastic for high things. Crown-
Prince, after table, took his Durchlaucht of Biickeburg
aside; talked farther on the subject, expressed his ad-
miration, his conviction, -- his wish to be admitted
into such a Hero Fraternity. Nothing could be wel-
comer to Durchlaucht. And so, in all privacy, it was
made up between them, That Durchlaucht, summoning
as many mystic Brothers out of Hamburg as were need-
ful, should be in waiting with them, on the Crown-
Prince's road homeward, -- say at Brunswick, night
before the Fair, where we are to be, -- and there
make the Crown-Prince a Mason. *
This is Bielfeld's account, repeated ever since; sub-
stantially correct, except that the scene was not Loo
at all: dinner and dialogue, it now appears, took place
in Durchlaucht's own neighbourhood, during the Cleve-
Review time; "probably at Minden, 17th July;" and
all was settled into fixed program before Loo came in
sight. ** Bielfeld's report of the subsequent procedure
* Bielfcld, i. 14-16; Preu98, i. Ill; Preuss, Buch fur Jedermann, i. 41.
(Etivres de Frederic, xvi. 201: Friedrich's Letter to this Durchlaucht,
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? CHaP. V. ] VISIT AT LOO. 217
12th Aug. 1738.
at Brunswick, as he saw it and was himself part of it,
is liable to no mistakes, at least of the involuntary
kind; and may, for anything we know, be correct in
every particular.
He says (veiling it under discreet asterisks, which
are now decipherable enough), The Durchlaucht of
Lippe-Biickeburg had summoned six Brethren of the
Hamburg Lodge; of whom we mention only a Graf
von Kielmannsegge, a Baron von Oberg, both from
Hanover, and Bielfeld himself, a Merchant's Son, of
Hamburg; these, with "Kielmannsegge's Valet to act
as Tiler," Valet being also a Mason, and the rule
equality of mankind, -- were to have the honour of
initiating the Crown-Prince. They arrived at the
Western Gate of Brunswick on the 11th of August, as
prearranged; Prussian Majesty not yet come, but
coming punctually on the morrow. It is Fair-time; all
manner of traders, pedlars, showmen rendezvousing;
many neighbouring Nobility too, as was still the habit.
"Such a bulk of light luggage? " said the Custom-
house people at the Gate; -- but were pacified by
slipping them a ducat. Upon which we drove to
"Korn's H6tel" (if anybody now knew it); and there
patiently waited. No great things of a Hotel, says
Bielfeld; but can be put up with; -- worst feature is,
"Comte de Schaumbourg-Lippe*' he calls him; date, "Moyland, 26th July
1738:" Moyland, a certain Schloss, or habitable Mansion, of his Majesty's,
few miles to north of Mtirs in the Cleve Country; where his Majesty used
often to pause; -- and where (what will be much more remarkable to
readers) the Crown-Prince and Voltaire had their first meeting, two years
hence.
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?
"far from it; -- and about nine a. m. their Powder-Magazine,
"conflagration reaching it, roared aloft into the air, and killed
"seven thousand of them,"* --
So that Oczakow was taken, sure enough; terms, life
only: and every remaining Turk packs off from it,
* Mannsteln, pp. 151-156.
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? CHAP. Iv. ] news OF THE DAT. 201
July-Dec. 1737.
some "twenty thousand inhabitants young and old" for
one sad item. -- A very blazing semi-absurd event, to
be read of in Prussian military circles, -- where Ge-
neral Keith will be better known one day.
Russian War with the Turk: that means withal,
by old Treaties, aid of thirty thousand men from the
Kaiser to Russia. Kaiser, so ruined lately, how can he
send thirty thousand, and keep them recruited, in such
distant expedition? Kaiser, much meditating, is advised
it will be better to go frankly into the Turk on his
own score, and try for slices of profit from him in this
game. Kaiser declares war against the Turk; and
what is still more interesting to Friedrich Wilhelm and
the Berlin Circles, Seckendorf is named General of it.
Feldzeugmeister now Feldmarschall Seckendorf, envy
may say what it will, he has marched this season into
the Lower-Donau Countries, -- going to besiege Wid-
din, they say, -- at the head of a big Army (on paper,
almost a hundred and fifty thousand, light troops and
heavy) -- virtually Commander-in-Chief; though no-
minally our fine young friend, Franz of Lorraine bears
the title of Commander, whom Seckendorf is to dry-
nurse in the way sometimes practised. Going to be-
siege Widdin, they say. So has the poor Kaiser been
advised. His wise old Eugene is now gone;* I fear
his advisers, -- a youngish Feldzeugmeister, Prince of
Hildburghausen, the chief favourite among them, -- are
none of the wisest. All Protestants, we observe, these
favourite Hildburghauscns, Schmettaus, Seckendorfs of
* Died 30th April 17S<<.
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? 202 AT REINSBERG. [bookx.
July-bee. 1737.
his; and Vienna is an orthodox papal Court; -- and
there is a Hofkriegsrath (Supreme Council of War),
which has ruined many a General, poking too meddle-
somely into his affairs! On the whole, Seckendorf will
have his difficulties. Here is a scene, on the Lower
Donau, different enough from that at Oczakow, not far
from contemporaneous with it. The Austrian Army
is at Kolitz, a march or two beyond Belgrad:
"Kolitz, 2d July 1737. This day, the Army not being on
"march, but allowed to rest itself, Grand Duke Franz went
"into the woods to hunt. Hunting up and down, he lost him-
"self; did not return at evening; and, as the night closed in
"and no Generalissimo visible, the Generalissimo ad Latus
"(such the title they had contrived for Seckendorf) was in
"much alarm. Generalissimo ad Latus ordered out his whole
"force of drummers, trumpeters: To fling themselves, post-
"wise, deeper and deeper into the woods all round; to drum
"there, and blow, in ever-widening circle, in prescribed notes,
"and with all energy, till the Grand Duke were found. Grand
"Duke being found, Seckendorf remonstrated, rebuked; a
"thought too earnestly, some say, his temper being flurried,"
-- voice snuffling somewhat in alt, with lisp to help: -- "so
"that the Grand Duke took offence; flung off in a huff: and
"always looked askance on the Feldmarschall from that
"time;" * -- quitting him altogether before long; and march-
ing with Khevenhiiller, Wallis, Hildburghausen, or any of
the subordinate Generals rather. Probably Widdin will not
go the road of Oczakow, nor the Austrians prosper like the
Russians, this summer.
* Sec Lebensgesckichte des Grafen von Sehmcttau (by his Son; Berlin
1806), i. 27.
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? CHaP. It. ] NEWS OF THE DAY. 203
Jnly-Deo. 1737.
Pbllnitz, in Tobacco-Parliament, and in certain
Berlin circles foolishly agape about this new Feldmar-
schall, maintains always, Seckendorf will come to
nothing; which his Majesty zealously contradicts, --
his Majesty, and some short-sighted private individuals
still favourable to Seckendorf. * Exactly one week
after that singular drum-and-trumpet operation on Duke
Franz, the Last of the Medici dies at Florence;** and
Serene Franz, if he knew it, is Grand Duke of Tuscany,
according to bargain: a matter important to himself
chiefly, and to France, who, for Stanislaus and Lor-
raine's sake, has had to pay him some 200,000/. a-year
during the brief intermediate state.
Of Berg-and-Julich again; and of Luiscius with the One
Razor.
These remote occurrences are of small interest to
his Prussian Majesty, in comparison with the Pfalz
affair, the Cleve-Julich succession, which lies so near
home. His Majesty is uncommonly anxious to have
this matter settled, in peace if possible. Kaiser and
Eeich, with the other Mediating Powers, go on me-
diating; but when will they decide? This year the
old Bishop of Augsburg, one Brother of the older Kur-
Pfalz Karl Philip, dies; nothing now between us and
the event itself, but Karl Philip alone, who is verging
towards eighty: the decision, to be peaceable, ought to
* PBllniti: Hcmoirm, II. 497-499.
** 9th July (Pastes de Louis XV, p. 304).
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? 204 AT REINSBERG. [book X.
July-Dec. 1737.
be speedy! Friedrich Wilhelm, in January last, sent
the expert Degenfeld, once of London, to old Karl Philip; and has him still there, with the most con-
ciliatory offers: "Will leave your Sulzbachs a part,
then; will be content with part, instead of the whole,
which is mine if there be force in sealed parchment;
will do anything for peace! " To which the old Kur-
Pfalz, foolish old creature, is steadily deaf; answers
vaguely, negatively always, in a polite manner; pushing
his Majesty upon extremities painful to think of. "We
hate war; but cannot quite do without justice, your
Serenity," thinks Friedrich Wilhelm: "must it be the
eighty thousand iron ramrods, then? " Obstinate Serenity
continues deaf; and Friedrich Wilhelm's negotiations,
there at Mannheim, over in Holland, and through Hol-
land with England, not to speak of Kaiser and Reich
close at hand, become very intense; vehemently earnest,
about this matter, for the next two years. The details
of which, inexpressibly uninteresting, shall be spared
the reader.
Summary is, these Mediating Powers will be of no
help to his Majesty; not even the Dutch will, with
whom he is specially in friendship: nay, in the third
year it becomes fatally manifest, the chief Mediating
Powers, Kaiser and France, listening rather to political
convenience, than to the claims of justice, go direct
in Kur-Pfalz's favour; -- by formal Treaty of their
own,* France and the Kaiser settle, "That the Sulz- * "Veraaillea, 13th January 1739" (Orllch: Geschichte der Schlesischen
Eriege, 1. 13); Maoyillon, il. 405-446; *o.
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? CHaP. IV. ] NEWS OF THE DAY. 205
July-Dec. 1737.
bachers shall, as a preliminary, get provisional posses-
sion, on the now Serenity's decease; and shall continue
undisturbed for two years, till Law decide between his
Prussian Majesty and them. " Two years; Law decide;
-- and we know what are the nine-points in a Law-
case! This, at last, proved too much for his Majesty.
Majesty's abstruse dubitations, meditations on such treat-
ment by a Kaiser and others, did then, it appears,
gloomily settle into fixed private purpose of trying it
by the iron ramrods, when old Kur-Pfalz should die,
-- of marching with eighty thousand men into the
Cleve Countries, and so welcoming any Sulzbach or
other guests that might arrive. Happily old Kur-
Pfalz did not die in his Majesty's time; survived his
Majesty several years: so that the matter fell into
other hands, -- and was settled very well, near a
century after.
Of certain wranglings with the little Town of Her-
stal, -- Prussian Town (part of the Orange Heritage,
once King Pepin's Town, if that were any matter now)
in the Bishop of Liege's neighbourhood, Town highly
insignificant otherwise, -- we shall say nothing here,
as they will fall to be treated, and be settled, at an
after stage. Friedrich Wilhelm was much grieved by
the contumacies of that paltry little Herstal; and by
the Bishop of Liege's highflown procedures in coun-
tenancing them; -- especially in a recruiting case that
had fallen out there, and brought matters to a head. *
* "December 1738" la crisis of the recruiting case (Ilelden-Geschiclite,
ii. 63); "17th February 1739," Bishop's highflown appearance in It (lb. 67);
Kaiser's In consequence, " 10th April 1739. "
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? 206 AT REINSBERG. [booKI,
July-Dec. 1737.
The Kaiser too was afflictively high in countenancing
the Bishop; -- for which both Kaiser and Bishop got
due payment in time. But his Prussian Majesty would
not kindle the world for such a paltriness; and so left
it hanging in a vexatious condition. Such things, it is
remarked, weigh heavier on his now infirm Majesty
than they were wont. He is more subject to fits of
hypochondria, to talk of abdicating. "All gone wrong! "
he would say, if any little flaw rose, about recruiting
or the like. "One might go and live at Venice, were
one rid of it! "* And his deep-stung clangorous growl
against the Kaiser's treatment of him bursts out, from
time to time; though he oftenest pities the Kaiser,
too; seeing him at such a pass with his Turk "War and
otherwise.
It was in this Pfalz business that Herr Luiscius,
the Prussian Minister in Holland, got into trouble; of
whom there is a light dash of outline-portraiture by
Voltaire, which has made him memorable to readers.
This "fat King of Prussia," says Voltaire, was a dread-
fully avaricious fellow, unbeautiful to a high degree in
his proceedings with mankind:
"He had a Minister at the Hague called Luiscius; who
"certainly of all Ministers of Crowned Heads was the worst
"paid. This poor man, to warm himself, had made some trees
"be felled in the Garden of Honslardik, which belonged at
"that time to the House of Prussia; he thereupon received
"despatches from the King, intimating that a year of his
* Forstcr (place lost).
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? CHAP. IV. ] NEWS OF THE DAY. 207
July-Dec. 1737.
"salary was forfeited. Luiscius, in despair, cut his throat
"with probably the one razor he had [seul rasoir qu'ii e&t); an
"old valet came to his assistance, and unhappily saved his
"life. In after years, I found his Excellency at the Hague;
"and have occasionally given him an alms at the door of the
"Vieille Cour (Old Court), a Palace belonging to the King of
"Prussia, where this poor Ambassador had lived a dozen
"years. It must be owned, Turkey is a republic in compari-
"son to the despotism exercised by Friedrich Wilhelm. " *
Here truly is a witty sketch; consummately dashed
off, as nobody but Voltaire could; "round as Giotto's
0," done at one stroke. Of which the prose facts
are only as follows. Luiscius, Prussian Resident, not
distinguished by salary or otherwise, had, at one stage
of these negotiations, been told, from headquarters,
He might, in casual extra-official ways, if it seemed
furthersome, give their High Mightinesses the hope, or
notion, that his Majesty did not intend actual war
about that Cleve-Jtilich Succession, -- being a pacific
Majesty, and unwilling to involve his neighbours and
mankind. Luiscius, instead of casual hint, delicately
dropped in some good way, had proceeded by direct
declaration; frank assurance to the High Mightinesses,
That there would be no war. Which had never been
quite his Majesty's meaning, and perhaps was now
becoming rather the reverse of it . Disavowal of Luis-
cius had to ensue thereupon; who produced defensively his instruction from headquarters; but got only rebukes
* (Euvres rfe Voltaire {Vie Privic, or what they now call Jf^morres),
ii. 15.
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? 208 AT KEINSBERG. [books.
July-Dec. 1737.
for such heavy-footed clumsy procedure, so unlike Di-
plomacy with its shoes of felt; -- and, in hrief, was
turned out of the Diplomatic function, as unfit for it;
and appointed to manage certain Orange Properties,
fragments of the Orange Heritage which his Majesty
still has in those Countries. This misadventure sank
heavily on the spirits of Luiscius, otherwise none of
the strongest-minded of men. Nor did he prosper in
managing the Orange Properties: on the contrary, he
again fell into mistakes; got soundly rebuked for in-
judicious conduct there, -- "cutting trees," planting
trees, or whatever it was; -- and this produced such
an effect on Luiscius, that he made an attempt on his
own throat, distracted mortal; and was only stopped
by somebody rushing in. "It was not the first time
"he had tried that feat," says Pollnitz, "and been
"prevented; nor was it long till he made a new at-
"tempt, which was again frustrated: and always after-
"wards his relations kept him close in view;" Majesty
writing comfortable forgiveness to the perturbed crea-
ture, and also "settling a pension on him;" adequate,
we can hope, and not excessive; "which Luiscius con-
"tinued to receive, at the Hague, so long as he lived. "
These are the prose facts; not definitely dated to us,
but perfectly clear otherwise. *
Voltaire, in his Dutch excursions, did sometimes,
in after years, lodge in that old vacant Palace, called
Vieille Cour, at the Hague; where he gracefully cele-
* Pb'llnitz, ii. 495 , 496; -- the "new attempt" seems to have been,
Jane 1739" (Gentleman's Magazine, in mense, p. 331).
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? CHaP. IV. ] NEWS OF THE DAY. 209
July-Dec. 1737.
brates the decayed forsaken state of matters; dusky
vast rooms with dim gilding; forgotten libraries "veiled
under the biggest spiderwebs in Europe:" for the rest,
an uncommonly quiet place, convenient for a writing
man, besides costing nothing. A son of this Luiscius,
a good young lad, it also appears, was occasionally
Voltaire's amanuensis there; him he did recommend
zealously to the new King of Prussia, who was not
deaf on the occasion.
This, in the fire of satirical
wit, is what we can transiently call, "giving alms to
a Prussian Excellency;" -- not now excellent, but pen-
sioned and cracked; and the reader perceives, Luiscius
had probably more than one razor, had not one been
enough, when he did the rash act! Friedrich em-
ployed Luiscius Junior, with no result that we hear of
farther; and seems to have thought Luiscius Senior an
absurd fellow, not worth mentioning again: "ran away
"from the Cleve Country" (probably some madhouse
there) "above a year ago, I hear; and what is the
"matter where such a crackbrain end? "*
* Voltaire, (Euvrcs . (Letter to Friedrich, 7th October 1740), lxxii. 261;
and Friedrich's answer (wrong dated), ib. 265: Preuss, xxii. 33.
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. V.
14
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? 210
[book x. 8th July 1738.
AT BEINSBEKG.
CHAPTER V.
VISIT AT LOO.
The Pfalz question being in such a predicament,
and Luiscius diplomatising upon it in such heavy-footed
manner, his Majesty thinks a Journey to Holland, to
visit one's Kinsfolk there, and incidentally speak a
word with the High Mightinesses upon Pfalz, would
not be amiss. Such journey is decided on; Crown-
Prince to accompany. Summer of 1738: a short visit,
quite without fuss; to last only three days; -- mere
sequel to the Reviews held in those adjacent Cleve
Countries; so that the Gazetteers may take no notice.
All which was done accordingly: Crown-Prince's first
sight of Holland; and one of the few reportable points
of his Reinsberg life, and not quite without memorability
to him and us.
On the 8th of July 1738, the Review Party got
upon the road for Wesel: all through July, they did
their reviewing in those Cleve Countries; and then
struck across for the Palace of Loo in Geldern, where
a Prince of Orange countable kinsman to his Prussian
Majesty, and a Princess still more nearly connected,
-- English George's Daughter, own Niece to his Prus-
sian Majesty, -- are in waiting for this distinguished
honour. The Prince of Orange we have already seen,
for a moment once; at the Siege of Philipsburg four
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? CHaP. V. ] VISIT AT LOO. 211
8th July 1738.
years ago, when the sale of Chasot's horses went
off so well. "Nothing like selling horses when your
company have dined well," whispered he to Chasot,
at that time; since which date we have heard nothing
of his Highness.
He is not a beautiful man; he has a crooked back,
and features conformable; but is of prompt vivacious
nature, and does not want for sense and good-humour.
Paternal George, the gossips say, warned his Princess,
when this marriage was talked of, "You will find
him very ill-looking, though! " "And if I found him
a baboon --! " answered she; being so heartily tired
of St. James's. And in fact, for anything I have
heard, they do well enough together. She is George
n. 's eldest Princess; -- next elder to our poor Amelia,
who was once so interesting to us! What the Crown-
Prince now thought of all that, I do not know; but the Books say, poor Amelia wore the willow, and
specially wore the Prince's miniature on her breast, all
her days after, which were many. Grew corpulent, some-
what a huddle in appearance and equipment, "eyelids
like upper-///><<," for one item: but when life itself fled,
the miniature was found in its old place, resting on the
old heart after some sixty years. 0 Time, 0 Sons
and Daughters of Time! --
His Majesty's reception at Loo was of the kind he
liked, -- cordial, honourable, unceremonious; and these
were three pleasant days he had. Pleasant for the
Crown-Prince too; as the whole Journey had rather
been; Papa, with covert satisfaction, finding him a wise
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? 212 AT REINSBERG. [book X.
8th July 1738.
creature, after all, and "more serious" than formerly.
"Hm, you don't know what things are in that Fritz! "
his Majesty murmured sometimes, in these later years,
with a fine light in his eyes.
Loo itself is a beautiful Palace: "Loo, close by the
"Village Appeldoorn, is a stately brick edifice, built
"with architectural regularity; has finely decorated
"rooms, beautiful gardens, and round are superb alleys
"of oak and linden. "* There saunters pleasantly our
Crown-Prince, for these three days; -- and one glad
incident I do perceive to have befallen him there: the
arrival of a Letter from Voltaire. Letter much expected,
which had followed him from Wesel; and which he
answers here, in this brick Palace, among the superb
avenues and gardens. **
No doubt a glad incident; irradiating, as with a
sudden sunburst in gray weather, the commonplace of
things. Here is news worth listening to; news as from
the empyrean! Free interchange of poetries and proses,
of heroic sentiments and opinions, between the Unique
of Sages and the Paragon of Crown-Princes; how
charming to both! Literary business, we perceive, is
brisk on both hands; at Cirey the Discours sur VHomme
("Sixth Discours" arrives in this packet at Loo, surely
a deathless piece of singing); nor is Reinsberg idle:
Reinsberg is copiously doing verse, such verse! -- and
in prose, very earnestly, an "Anti-Macchiavel;" which
* Biischlng: Erdbeschreibung, Till. 69.
** (Enures, xxl. 203, the Letter, "Cirey, Jane 1738;" lb. 222, the Answer
to it, "Loo, 6th august 1738. "
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? CHaP. V. ] VISIT AT LOO. 213
6th Aug. 1738.
soon afterwards filled all the then world, though it has
now fallen so silent again. And at Paris, as Voltaire
announces with a flourish, "M. de Maupertuis's ex-
cellent Book, Figure de la Terre,* is out;" M. de
Maupertuis, home from the Polar regions and from
measuring the Earth there; the sublimest miracle in
Paris society at present. Might build, new-build, an
Academy of Sciences at Berlin for your Royal Highness,
one day? suggests Voltaire, on this occasion: and Fried- rich, as we shall see, takes the hint. One passage of
the Crown-Prince's Answer is in these terms; -- fixing
this Loo Visit to its date for us, at any rate:
"Loo in Holland, 6th August 1738. * * I write from a place
"where there lived once a great man" (William III. of Eng-
land, our Dutch William); "which is now the Prince of
"Orange's House. The demon of Ambition sheds its unhappy
"poisons over his days. He might be the most fortunate of
"men; and he is devoured by chagrins in his beautiful Palace
"here, in the middle of his gardens and of a brilliant Court.
"It is pity in truth; for he is a Prince with no end of wit (in-
"finiment iTesprit), and has respectable qualities. " NotStadt-
holder, unluckily; that is where the shoe pinches; the Dutch
are on the Republican tack, and will not have a Stadtholder
at present. No help for it in one's beautiful gardens and
avenues of oak and linden. *
"I have talked a great deal about Newton with the Prin-
"cess," -- about Newton; never hinted at Amelia; not per-
* Paris, 1738: Maupertuis's "measurement of a degree," in the utmost
North, 1736-7 (to prove the Earth flattened there). Vivid Narrative; some-
what gesticulative, but duly brief. The only Book of that great Maupertuis
which is now readable to human nature.
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? 214 AT KEINSBERG. [b0oKX.
6th Aug. 1738.
missiblel -- "from Newton we passed to Leibnitz; and from
"Leibnitz to the late Queen of England," Caroline lately
gone, "who, the Prince told me, was of Clarke's sentiment"
on that important theological controversy now dead to man-
kind. And of Jenkins and his Ear did the Princess say
nothing? That is now becoming a high phenomenon in Eng-
land! But readers must wait a little.
Pity that we cannot give these two Letters in full;
that no reader, almost, could be made to understand
them, or to care for them when understood. Such the
cruelty of Time upon this Voltaire-Friedrich Corre-
spondence, and some others; which were once so rosy,
sunny, and are now fallen drearily extinct, -- studiable
by Editors only! In itself the Friedrich-Voltaire Cor-
respondence, we can see, was charming; very blossomy
at present: businesses increasing; mutual admiration
now risen to a great height, -- admiration sincere on
both sides, most so on the Prince's, and extravagantly
expressed on both sides, most so on Voltaire's.
Crown-Prince becomes a Freemason; and is harangued
by Monsieur de Bielfeld.
His Majesty, we said, had three pleasant days at
Loo; discoursing, as with friends, on public matters, or
even on more private matters, in a frank unconstrained
way. He is not to be called "Majesty" on this occa-
sion; but the fact, at Loo, and by the leading Mighti-
nesses of the Republic, who come copiously to compli-
ment him there, is well remembered. Talk there was,
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? CHAP, v. ] VISIT AT LOO. 215
6th Aug. 1738. ,
with such leading Mightinesses, about the Jiilich-and-
Berg question, aim of this Journey; earnest enough
private talk with some of them: but it availed nothing;
and would not be worth reporting now to any creature,
if we even knew. In fact, the Journey itself remains
mentionable chiefly by one very trifling circumstance;
and then by another, not important either, which fol-
lowed out of that. The trifling circumstance is, -- That
Friedrich, in the course of this Journey, became a
Freemason: and the unimportant sequel was, That he
made acquaintance with one Bielfeld, on the occasion;
who afterwards wrote a Book about him, which was
once much read, though never much worth reading,
and is still citable, with precaution, now and then. *
Trifling circumstance of Freemasonry, as we read in
Bielfeld and in many Books after him, befel in manner
following.
Among the dinner-guests at Loo, one of those three
days, was a Prince of Lippe-Buckeburg, -- Prince of
small territory, but of great speculation; whose terri-
tory lies on the Weser, leading to Dutch connexions; and
whose speculations stretch over all the Universe, in a
high fantastic style: -- he was a dinner-guest; and one of
the topics that came up was Freemasonry; a phantasmal
kind of object, which had kindled itself, or rekindled, in
those years, in England first of all; and was now hover-
ing about, a good deal, in Germany and other countries;
pretending to be a new light of Heaven, and not a bog-
* Monsieur le Baron de Bielfeld: Lettres Familieres et Autrcs, 1763; --
second edition, 2 vols, a Leide, 17G7, is the one we use here.
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? 216 AT REIKSBERG. [BOOK X.
6th Aug. 1738.
meteor of phosphorated hydrogen, conspicuous in the
murk of things. Bog-meteor, foolish putrescent will-
o'-wisp, his Majesty promptly defined it to be: Tom-
foolery and Kinderspiel, what else? Whereupon in-
genious Biickeburg, who was himself a Mason, man of
forty by this time, and had high things in him of the
Quixotic type, ventured on defence; and was so re-
spectful, eloquent, dextrous, ingenious, he quite capti-
vated, if not his Majesty, at least the Crown-Prince,
who was more enthusiastic for high things. Crown-
Prince, after table, took his Durchlaucht of Biickeburg
aside; talked farther on the subject, expressed his ad-
miration, his conviction, -- his wish to be admitted
into such a Hero Fraternity. Nothing could be wel-
comer to Durchlaucht. And so, in all privacy, it was
made up between them, That Durchlaucht, summoning
as many mystic Brothers out of Hamburg as were need-
ful, should be in waiting with them, on the Crown-
Prince's road homeward, -- say at Brunswick, night
before the Fair, where we are to be, -- and there
make the Crown-Prince a Mason. *
This is Bielfeld's account, repeated ever since; sub-
stantially correct, except that the scene was not Loo
at all: dinner and dialogue, it now appears, took place
in Durchlaucht's own neighbourhood, during the Cleve-
Review time; "probably at Minden, 17th July;" and
all was settled into fixed program before Loo came in
sight. ** Bielfeld's report of the subsequent procedure
* Bielfcld, i. 14-16; Preu98, i. Ill; Preuss, Buch fur Jedermann, i. 41.
(Etivres de Frederic, xvi. 201: Friedrich's Letter to this Durchlaucht,
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? CHaP. V. ] VISIT AT LOO. 217
12th Aug. 1738.
at Brunswick, as he saw it and was himself part of it,
is liable to no mistakes, at least of the involuntary
kind; and may, for anything we know, be correct in
every particular.
He says (veiling it under discreet asterisks, which
are now decipherable enough), The Durchlaucht of
Lippe-Biickeburg had summoned six Brethren of the
Hamburg Lodge; of whom we mention only a Graf
von Kielmannsegge, a Baron von Oberg, both from
Hanover, and Bielfeld himself, a Merchant's Son, of
Hamburg; these, with "Kielmannsegge's Valet to act
as Tiler," Valet being also a Mason, and the rule
equality of mankind, -- were to have the honour of
initiating the Crown-Prince. They arrived at the
Western Gate of Brunswick on the 11th of August, as
prearranged; Prussian Majesty not yet come, but
coming punctually on the morrow. It is Fair-time; all
manner of traders, pedlars, showmen rendezvousing;
many neighbouring Nobility too, as was still the habit.
"Such a bulk of light luggage? " said the Custom-
house people at the Gate; -- but were pacified by
slipping them a ducat. Upon which we drove to
"Korn's H6tel" (if anybody now knew it); and there
patiently waited. No great things of a Hotel, says
Bielfeld; but can be put up with; -- worst feature is,
"Comte de Schaumbourg-Lippe*' he calls him; date, "Moyland, 26th July
1738:" Moyland, a certain Schloss, or habitable Mansion, of his Majesty's,
few miles to north of Mtirs in the Cleve Country; where his Majesty used
often to pause; -- and where (what will be much more remarkable to
readers) the Crown-Prince and Voltaire had their first meeting, two years
hence.
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?
