Swag-bellied,
short of wind; liable to rages, to utterances of a coarse
nature; a decidedly ugly, monstrous and rather stupid
kind of man.
short of wind; liable to rages, to utterances of a coarse
nature; a decidedly ugly, monstrous and rather stupid
kind of man.
Thomas Carlyle
?
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? 132 AT REIHSBEKG. [book*.
Aug. 1736.
Letters to and from, upon it, -- which were then
highly interesting, but are now dead to every reader.
The Crown-Prince has got a Post-Office established at
Reinsberg; leathern functionary of some sort comes
lumbering round, southward, "from the Mecklenburg
"quarter twice a week, and goes by Fehrbellin," for
the benefit of his Correspondences. Of his calls in the
neighbourhood, we mean to show the reader one sample,
before long; and only one.
There are Lists given us of the Prince's "Court"
at Reinsberg; and one reads, and again reads, the
dreariest unmemorable accounts of them; but cannot,
with all one's industry, attain any definite understand-
ing of what they were employed in, day after day, at
Reinsberg: -- still more are their salaries and main-
tenance a mystery to us, in that frugal establishment
.
There is Wolden for Hofmarschall, our old Ciistrin
friend; there is Colonel Senning, old Marlborough Co-
lonel with the wooden leg, who taught Friedrich his
drillings and artillery-practices in boyhood, a fine
sagacious old gentleman this latter. There is a M.
Jordan, Ex-Preacher, an ingenious Prussian-French-
man, still young, who acts as "Reader and Librarian;"
of whom we shall hear a good deal more. "Intendant"
is Captain (Ex-Captain) Knobelsdorf; a very sensible
accomplished man, whom we saw once at Baireuth;
who has been to Italy since, and is now returned with
beautiful talents for Architecture: it is he that now
undertakes the completing of Reinsberg,* which he
* Hcnnort, p. 29.
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? CHaP. I. J MANSION OF REINSBERG. 133
Aug. 1736.
will skilfully accomplish in the course of the next
three years. Twenty Musicians on wind or string;
Painters, Antoine Pesne but one of them; Sculptors,
Glume and others of eminence; and Hof Cavaliers, to
we know not what extent: -- How was such a Court
kept up, in harmonious free dignity, and no halt in its
finances, or mean pinch of any kind visible? The
Prince did get in debt; but not deep, and it was mainly
for the tall recruits he had to purchase. His money-
accounts are by no means fully known to me: but I
should question if his expenditure (such is my guess)
ever reached 3,0001, a year; and am obliged to reflect
more and more, as the ancient Cato did, what an ad-
mirable revenue frugality is!
Many of the Cavaliers, I find, for one thing, were
of the Regiment Goltz; that was one evident economy.
"Rittmeister von Chasot," as the Books call him:
readers saw that Chasot flying to Prince Eugene, and
know him since the Siege of Philipsburg. He is not
yet Rittmeister, or Captain of Horse, as he became;
but is of the Ruppin Garrison; Hof-Cavalier; "attended
Friedrich on his late Prussian journey;" and is much
a favourite, when he can be spared from Ruppin.
Captain Wylich, afterwards a General of mark; the
Lieutenant Buddenbrock who did the parson-charivari
at Ruppin, but is now reformed from those practices:
all these are of Goltz. Colonel Keyserling, not of
Goltz, nor in active military duty here, is a friend of
very old standing; was officially named as "Com-
panion" to the Prince, a long while back; and got into
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? 134 AT REINSBERG. [BooK X,
aug. 1736.
trouble on his account in the disastrous Ante-Ciistrin or
Flight Epoch: one of the Prince's first acts, when he
got pardoned, after Custrin, was to beg for the pardon
of this Keyserling; and now he has him here, and is
very fond of him. A Courlander, of good family, this
Keyserling; of good gifts too, -- which, it was once
thought, would be practically sublime; for he carried
off all manner of college prizes, and was the Admirable-
Crichton of Konigsberg University and the Graduates
there. But in the end they proved to be gifts of the
vocal sort rather; and have led only to what we see.
A man, I should guess, rather of buoyant vivacity than
of depth or strength in intellect or otherwise. Exces-
sively buoyant, ingenious; full of wit, kindly exuber-
ance; a loyal-hearted gay-tempered man, and much a
favourite in society as well as with the Prince. If we
were to dwell on Reinsberg, Keyserling would come
prominently forward.
Major von Stille, ultimately Major-General von
Stille, I should also mention: near twenty years older
than the Prince; a wise thoughtful soldier (went, by
permission, to the Siege of Dantzig lately, to improve
himself); a man capable of rugged service, when the
time comes. His military writings were once in con-
siderable esteem with professional men; and still im-
press a lay reader with favourable notions towards
Stille, as a man of real worth and sense. *
* Campagnes du Roi de Prion; -- a posthumous Book; anterior to the
Seven-Years War.
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? CHAP. 1. 1 MANSION OF REINSBEKG. 135
Aug. 1736.
Of Monsieur Jordan and the Literary Set.
There is, of course, a Chaplain in the Establish-
ment: a Reverend "M. Deschamps;" who preaches to
them all, in French no doubt. Friedrich never hears
Deschamps: Friedrich is always over at Ruppin on
Sundays; and there "himself reads a Sermon to the
Garrison," as part of the day's duties. Reads finely,
in a melodious feeling manner, says Formey, who can
judge: "even in his old days, he would incidentally,"
when some Emeritus Parson, like Formey, chanced to
be with him, "roll out choice passages from Bossuet,
from Massillon," in a voice and with a look, which
would have been perfection in the pulpit, thinks Formey. *
M. Jordan, though he was called "Lecteur (Reader),"
did not read to him, I can perceive; but took charge of
the Books; busied himself honestly to be useful in all
manner of literary or quasi-literary ways. He was, as
his name indicates, from the French-refugee depart-
ment: a recent acquisition, much valued at Reinsberg.
As he makes a figure afterwards, we had better mark
him a little.
Jordan's parents were wealthy religious persons, in
trade at Berlin; this Jordan (Charles Etienne, age now
thirty-six) was their eldest son. It seems they had
destined him from birth, consulting their own pious
feeling merely, to be a Preacher of the Gospel; the
other sons, all of them reckoned clever too, were brought
* Souvenirs fun CUoyen (2do Edition, Paris, 1797), i. 37.
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? 136
[book X,
AT REINSBERG.
Aug. 1736.
up to secular employments. And preach he, this poor
Charles Etienne, accordingly did; what best Gospel he
had; in an honest manner, all say, -- though never
with other than a kind of reluctance on the part of
Nature, forced out of her course. He had wedded,
been clergyman in two successive country places; when
his wife died, leaving him one little daughter, and a heart
much overset by that event. Friends, wealthy Brothers
probably, had pushed him out into the free air, in these
circumstances: "Take a Tour; Holland, England; feel
the winds blowing, see the sun shining, as in times
past: it will do you good! "
Jordan, in the course of his Tour, came to com-
posure on several points. He found that, by frugality,
by wise management of some peculium already his, his
little Daughter and he might have quietness at Berlin,
and the necessary food and raiment; -- and, on the
whole, that he would altogether cease preaching, and
settle down there, among his Books, in a frugal manner.
Which he did; -- and was living so, when the Prince,
searching for that kind of person, got tidings of him.
And here he is at Reinsberg; bustling about, in a brisk,
modestly frank and cheerful manner: well liked by
everybody; by his Master very well and ever better,
who grew into real regard, esteem and even friendship
for him, and has much Correspondence, of a freer kind
than is common to him, with little Jordan, so long as
they lived together. Jordan's death, ten years hence,
was probably the one considerable pain he had ever
given his neighbours, in this the ultimate section of his life.
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? CHaP. 1. 1 MANSION OF REINSBERQ. 137
Aug. 1736.
I find him described, at Reinsberg, as a small
nimble figure, of Southern-French aspect; black, un-
commonly bright eyes; and a general aspect of adroit-
ness, modesty, sense, sincerity; good prognostics,
which on acquaintance with the man were pleasantly
fulfilled.
For the sake of these considerations, I fished out,
from the Old-Book Catalogues and sea of forgetfulness,
some of the poor Books he wrote; especially a Voyage
Litte'raire,* Journal of that first Sanitary Excursion or
Tour he took, to get the clouds blown from his mind.
A Literary Voyage which awakens a kind of tragic
feeling; being itself dead, and treating of matters which
are all gone dead. So many immortal writers, Dutch
chiefly, whom Jordan is enabled to report as having
effloresced, or being soon to effloresce, in such and such
forms, of Books important to the learned: leafy, blos-
somy Forest of Literature, waving glorious in the then
sunlight to Jordan; -- and it lies all now, to Jordan
and us, not withered only, but abolished; compressed
into a film of indiscriminate peat. Consider what that
peat is made of, 0 celebrated or uncelebrated reader,
and take a moral from Jordan's Book! Other merit,
except indeed clearness and commendable brevity, the
Voyage Litteraire or other little Books of Jordan's
have not now. A few of his Letters to Friedrich,
which exist, are the only writings with the least life
left in them, and this an accidental life, not momentous
* llistoirc d'un Voyage Litte'raire fait, enMDCcxxxni, en France, en an-
qlelerxe el en Hollande (2do Edition, a La llayc, 1736).
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? 138 AT REINSBEBG. [booKX.
Aug. 1736.
to him or us. Dryasdust informs me, "Abbe" Jordan,
"alone of the Crown-Prince's cavaliers, sleeps in the
"Town of Reinsberg, not in the Schloss:" and if I ask,
Why? -- there is no answer. Probably his poor little
Daughterkin was beside him there? --
We have to say of Friedrich's Associates, that ge-
nerally they were of intelligent type, each of them
master of something or other, and capable of rational
discourse upon that at least. Integrity, loyalty of cha-
racter, was indispensable; good humour, wit if it could
be had, were much in request. There was no man of
shining distinction there; but they were the best that
could be had, and that is saying all. Friedrich cannot
be said, either as Prince or as King, to have been
superlatively successful in his choice of associates. With
one single exception, to be noticed shortly, there is not
one of them whom we should now remember except
for Friedrich's sake; -- uniformly they are men whom
it is now a weariness to hear of, except in a cursory
manner. One man of shining parts he had, and one
only; no man ever of really high and great mind. The
latter sort are not so easy to get; rarely producible on
the soil of this Earth! Nor is it certain how Friedrich
might have managed with one of this sort, or he with
Friedrich; -- though Friedrich unquestionably would
have tried, had the chance offered. For he loved in-
tellect as few men on the throne, or off it, ever did;
and the little he could gather of it round him often
seems to me a fact tragical rather than otherwise.
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? CHAP. I. ] MANSION OF REINSBERG. 139
Aug. 1736.
With the outer Berlin social world, acting and
reacting, Friedrich has his connexions, which obscurely
emerge on us now and then. Literary Eminences, who
are generally of Theological vesture; any follower of
Philosophy, especially if he be of refined manners
withal, or known in fashionable life, is sure to attract
him; and gains ample recognition at Reinsberg or on
Town-visits. But the Berlin Theological or Literary
world at that time, still more the Berlin Social, like a
sunk extinct object, continues very dim in those old
records; and to say truth, what features we have of it
do not invite to miraculous efforts for farther acquaintance.
Venerable Beausobre, with his History of the Manicheans,* and other learned things, -- we heard of him long
since, in Toland and the Republican Queen's time, as
a light of the world. He is now fourscore, grown white
as snow; very serene, polite, with a smack of French
noblesse in him, perhaps a smack of affectation traceable
too. The Crown-Prince, on one of his Berlin visits,
wished to see this Beausobre; got a meeting appointed,
in somebody's rooms "in the French College," and
waited for the venerable man. Venerable man entered,
loftily serene as a martyr Preacher of the Word, some-
thing of an ancient Seigneur de Beausobre in him, too;
for the rest, soft as sunset, and really with fine radiances,
in a somewhat twisted state, in that good old mind of
* ilittoire critiquede Mnniche'e el dn Maniche'isme. ? wrote also Remarque*
<fec. $ur le iVouveau Testament, which were once famous; Histoire de la Re"-
formation; <<fec. Ac. He is Beausobre Senior; there were two Sons (one of
them born in second wedlock, after Papa was 70), who were likewise given
to writing. -- See Formey, Souvenirs d'un Citoyen, 1. 33--39.
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? 140 AT REINSBEEG. [book X.
Aug. 1736.
his. "What have you been reading lately, M. de Beau-
"sobre? " said the Prince, to begin conversation. "Ah,
"Monseigneur, I have just risen from reading the sub-
"limest piece of writing that exists" -- "And what? "
"The exordium of St. John's Gospel: "In the Beginning
"was the Word; and the Word was with God, and the
"Word was--" Which somewhat took the Prince by
surprise, as Formey reports; though he rallied straight-
way, and got good conversation out of the old gentle-
man. To whom, we perceive, he writes once or
twice,* -- a copy of his own verses to correct, on one
occasion, -- and is very respectful and considerate.
Formey tells us of another French sage, personally
known to the Prince since Boyhood; for he used to be
about the Palace, doing something. This is one La
Croze; Professorof, Ithirik, "Philosophy"in the French
College: sublime Monster of Erudition, at that time;
forgotten now, I fear, by everybody.
Swag-bellied,
short of wind; liable to rages, to utterances of a coarse
nature; a decidedly ugly, monstrous and rather stupid
kind of man. Knew twenty languages, in a coarse
inexact way. Attempted deep kinds of discourse, in
the lecture-room and elsewhere; but usually broke off
into endless welters of anecdote, not always of cleanly
nature; and after every two or three words, a desperate
sigh, not for sorrow, but on account of flabbiness and
fat. Formey gives a portraiture of him; not worth co-
pying farther. The same Formey, standing one day
<< (Euvres de Frideric, xvi. 121-126. Dates arc all of 1737; the last of
Beausobre's years.
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? CHaP. I. ] MANSION OF REINSBERG. 141
Aug. 1736.
somewhere on the streets of Berlin, was himself, he
cannot doubt, seen by the Crown-Prince in passing;
"who askedM. Jordan, who that was," and got answer:
-- is not that a comfortable fact? Nothing farther came
of it; -- respectable Ex-Parson Formey, though ever
ready with his pen, being indeed of very vapid nature,
not wanted at Reinsberg, as we can guess.
There isM. Achard, too, another Preacher, supreme
of his sort, in the then Berlin circles; to whom or from
whom a Letter or two exist. Letters worthless, if it
were not for one dim indication: That, on inquiry, the Crown-Prince had been consulting this supreme Achard
on the difficulties of Orthodoxy; * and had given him
texts, or a text, to preach from. Supreme Achard did
not abolish the difficulties for his inquiring Prince, --
who complains respectfully that "his faith is weak,"
and leaves us dark as to particulars. This Achard
passage is almost the only hint we have of what might
have been an important chapter: Friedrich's Religious
History at Reinsberg. The expression "weak faith" I
take to be meant not in mockery, but in ingenuous
regret and solicitude; much painful fermentation, pro-
bably, on the religious question in those Reinsberg
years! But the old "GnadenwahV business, the Free-
Grace controversy, had taught him to be cautious as to
what he uttered on those points. The fermentation,
therefore, had to go on under cover; what the result of
it was, is notorious enough; though the steps of the
process are not in any point known.
? (Eutres de FiidMc, xvi. pp. 112-117: date, March-Juno 1786.
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? 142
[book X.
AT REINSBERG.
Aug. 1736.
Enough now of such details. Outwardly or in-
wardly, there is no History, or almost none, to be had
of this Reinsberg Period; the extensive records of it
consisting, as usual, mainly of chaotic nugatory matter,
opaque to the mind of readers. There is copious Cor-
respondence of the Crown-Prince, with at least dates to
it for most part: but this, which should be the main
resource, proves likewise a poor one; the Crown-Prince's
Letters, now or afterwards, being almost never of a
deep or intimate quality; and seldom turning on events
or facts at all, and then not always on facts interesting,
on facts clearly apprehensible to us in that extinct
element.
The Thing, we know always, is there; but vision
of the Thing is only to be had faintly, intermittently.
Dim inane twilight, with here and there a transient
spark falling somewhither in it; -- you do at last, by
desperate persistence, get to discern outlines, features:
-- "The Thing cannot always have been No-thing,"
you reflect! Outlines, features: -- and perhaps, after
all, those are mostly what the reader wants on this
occasion. '
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? CHAP, n. ] VOLTAIRE AND LITERARY CORRESPONDENCES. 143
Aug. 1736.
CHAPTER H.
OF VOLTAIRE AND THE LITERARY CORRESPONDENCES.
One of Friedrich's grand purposes at Reinsberg, to
himself privately the grandest there, which he follows
with constant loyalty and ardour, is that of scaling the
heights of the Muses' Hill withal; of attaining master-
ship, discipleship, in Art and Philosophy; -- or in
candour let us call it, what it truly was, that of en-
lightening and fortifying himself with clear knowledge,
clear belief, on all sides; and acquiring some spiritual
panoply in which to front the coming practicalities of
life. This, he feels well, will be a noble use of his
seclusion in those still places; and it must be owned,
he struggles and endeavours towards this, with great
perseverance, by all the methods in his power, here,
or wherever afterwards he might be.
Here at Reinsberg, one of his readiest methods, his
pleasantest if not his usefullest, is that of getting into
correspondence with the chief spirits of his time. Which
accordingly he forthwith sets about, after getting into
Reinsberg; and continues, as we shall see, with much
assiduity. Rollin, Fontenelle, and other French lights
of the then firmament, -- his Letters to them exist; and
could be given in some quantity: but it is better not
.
They are instrinsically the common Letters on such
occasions: "0 sublime demigod of literature, how small
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? 144
[book X.
AT REINSBERG.
Aug. 1736.
are princely distinctions to such a glory as thine; thou
who enterest within the veil of the temple, and issuest
with thy face shining! " -- To which the response is:
"Hm, think you so, most happy, gracious, illustrious
Prince, with every convenience round you, and such
prospects ahead? Well, thank you at any rate, --
and, as the Irish say, more power to your Honour's
Glory! " This really is nearly all that said Sets of Let-
ters contain; and except perhaps the Voltaire Set, none
of them give symptoms of much capacity to contain
more.
Certainly there was no want of Literary Men dis-
cernible from Reinsberg at that time; and the young
Prince corresponds with a good many of them: tempo-
ral potentate saluting spiritual, from the distance, --
in a way highly interesting to the then parties, but
now without interest, except of the reflex kind, to any
creature. A very cold and empty portion, this, of the
Friedrich Correspondence; standing there to testify what
his admiration was for literary talent, or the great re-
putation of such; but in itself uninstructive utterly, and
of freezing influence on the now living mind. Most of
those French lights of the then firmament are gone out
.
Forgotten altogether; or recognised, like Rollin and
others, for polished dullards, university bigwigs, and
longwinded commonplace persons, deserving nothing
but oblivion. To Montesquieu, -- not yet called
"Baron de Montesquieu" with-Esprit desLois, but "M.
de Secondat" with (Anonymous) Lettres Per semes, and
already known to the world for a person of sharp
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? CHAP. II. ] VOLTAIRE AND LITERARY CORRESPONDENCES. 145
Aug. 1736.
audacious eyesight, -- it does not appear that Friedrich
addressed any Letter, now or afterwards. No notice of
Montesquieu; nor of some others, the absence of whom
is a little unexpected. Probably it was want of know-
ledge mainly; for his appetite was not fastidious at this
time. And certainly he did hit the centre of the mark,
and get into the very kernel of French Literature,
when, in 1736, hardly yet established in his new
quarters, he addressed himself to the shining Figure
known to us as "Arouet Junior" long since, and now
called M. de Voltaire; which latter is still a name no-
table in Friedrich's History and that of Mankind.
Friedrich's first Letter, challenging Voltaire to corre-
spondence, dates itself 8th August 1736; and Voltaire's
Answer, -- the Reinsberg Household still only in its
second month, -- was probably the brightest event
which had yet befallen there.
On various accounts it will behove us to look a
good deal more strictly into this Voltaire; and, as his
relations to Friedrich and to the world are so multiplex,
endeavour to disengage the real likeness of the man
from the circumambient noise and confusion, which in
his instance continue very great. "Voltaire was the
"spiritual complement of Friedrich," says Sauerteig
once: "what little of lasting their poor Century pro-
duced lies mainly in these Two. A very somnam-
"bulating Century! But what little it did, we must
"call Friedrich; what little it thought, Voltaire. Other
"fruit we have not from it, to speak of, at this day.
"Voltaire, and what can be faithfully done on the Vol-
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. V. 10
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? 146
[book X
AT REINSBERG.
Aug. 1736.
"taire Creed; 'Realised Voltairism;' -- admit it, reader,
"not in a too triumphant humour, -- is not that pretty
"much the net historical product of the Eighteenth
"Century? The rest of its history either pure somnam-
"bulism; or a mere Controversy, to the effect, 'Realised
"Voltairism? How soon shall it be realised, then?
"Not at once, surely! ' So that Friedrich and Voltaire
"are related, not by accident only. They are, they for
"want of better, the two Original Men of their Century;
"the chief, and in a sense the sole products of their
"Century. They alone remain to us as still living re-
"suits from it, -- such as they are. And the rest,
"truly, ought to depart and vanish (as they are now
"doing); being mere ephemera; contemporary eaters,
"scramblers for provender, talkers of acceptable hear-
"say; and related merely to the butteries and wiggeries
"of their time, and not related to the Perennialities at
"all, as these Two were. " -- With more of the like
sort from Sauerteig.
M. de Voltaire, who used to be M. Francois-Marie
Arouet, was at this time about forty,* and had gone
through various fortunes; a man, now and henceforth,
in a high degree conspicuous, and questionable to his
fellow-creatures. Clear knowledge of him ought, at
this stage, to be common; but unexpectedly it is not
.
What endless writing and biographying there has been
* Born, 20th February 1694; the younger of two sons: Father, "Fran-
cois Arouet, a Notary ofthe Chatelct, ultimately Treasurer of the Chamber
"of Accounts;" Mother, "Marguerite d'aumart, of a noble family of Poitou. "
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? CHaP. n. ] VOLTAIBE AND LITEEARY COBBESPONDBNCES. 147
Aug. 1736.
about this man; in which one still reads, with a kind
of lazy satisfaction, due to the subject, and to the
French genius in that department! But the man him-
self, and his environment and practical aspects, what
the actual physiognomy of his life and of him can have
been, is dark from beginning to ending; and much is
left in an ambiguous undecipherable condition to us.
A proper History of Voltaire, in which should be dis-
coverable, luminous to human creatures, what he was,
what element he lived in, what work he did: this is
still a problem for the genius of France! --
His Father's name is known to us; the name of his
Father's profession, too, but not clearly the nature of
it; still less his Father's character, economic circum-
stances, physiognomy spiritual or social: not the least
possibility granted you of forming an image, however
faint, of that notable man and household, which dis-
tinguished itself to all the earth by producing little
Francois into the light of this sun. Of Madame Arouet,
who, or what, or how she was, nothing whatever is
known. A human reader, pestered continually with the
Madame-Denises, Abbd-Mignots and enigmatic nieces
and nephews, would have wished to know, at least,
what children, besides Francois, Madame Arouet had:
once for all, How many children? Name them, with
year of birth, year of death, according to the church-
registers: they all, at any rate, had that degree of
history! No; even that has not been done. Beneficent
correspondents of my own make answer, after some
research, No register of the Arouets anywhere to be
10*
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? 148 AT REMSBERG. [BooK X.
Aug. 1736.
had. The very name Voltaire, if you ask whence
came it? there is no answer, or worse than none. --
The fit "History" of this man, which might be one of
the shining Epics of his Century, and the lucid sum-
mary and soul of any History France then had, but
which would require almost a French demigod to do it,
is still a great way off, if on the road at all! For pre-
sent purposes, we select what follows from a well-
known hand:
"Youth of Voltaire (1694--1725). -- French Biographers
"have left the Arouet Househould very dark for us; mean-
"while we can perceive, or guess, that it was moderately well
"in economic respects; the Francois was the second of the
"Two Sons; and that old Arouet, a steady, practical and
"perhaps rather sharp-tempered old gentleman, of official
"legal habits and position, 'Notary of the Chatelet' and
"something else, had destined him for the Law Profession; as
"was natural enough to a son of M. Arouet, who had himself
"succeeded well in Law, and could there, best of all, open
"roads for a clever second son. Francois accordingly sat 'in
"chambers,' as we call it; and his fellow-clerks much loved
"him, -- the most amusing fellow in the world. Sat in
"chambers, even became an advocate; but did not in the least
"take to advocateship; -- took to poetry, and other airy
"dangerous courses, speculative, practical; causing family
"explosions and rebukes, which were without effect on him.
"A young fool, bent on sportful pursuits instead of serious;
"more and more shuddering at Law. To the surprise and
"indignation of M. Arouet Senior. Law, with its wigs and
"sheepskins, pointing towards high honours and deep flesh-
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? I
CHaP, n. ] VOLT AIRE AND LITERARY CORRESPONDENCES. 149Aug. 1736.
? 132 AT REIHSBEKG. [book*.
Aug. 1736.
Letters to and from, upon it, -- which were then
highly interesting, but are now dead to every reader.
The Crown-Prince has got a Post-Office established at
Reinsberg; leathern functionary of some sort comes
lumbering round, southward, "from the Mecklenburg
"quarter twice a week, and goes by Fehrbellin," for
the benefit of his Correspondences. Of his calls in the
neighbourhood, we mean to show the reader one sample,
before long; and only one.
There are Lists given us of the Prince's "Court"
at Reinsberg; and one reads, and again reads, the
dreariest unmemorable accounts of them; but cannot,
with all one's industry, attain any definite understand-
ing of what they were employed in, day after day, at
Reinsberg: -- still more are their salaries and main-
tenance a mystery to us, in that frugal establishment
.
There is Wolden for Hofmarschall, our old Ciistrin
friend; there is Colonel Senning, old Marlborough Co-
lonel with the wooden leg, who taught Friedrich his
drillings and artillery-practices in boyhood, a fine
sagacious old gentleman this latter. There is a M.
Jordan, Ex-Preacher, an ingenious Prussian-French-
man, still young, who acts as "Reader and Librarian;"
of whom we shall hear a good deal more. "Intendant"
is Captain (Ex-Captain) Knobelsdorf; a very sensible
accomplished man, whom we saw once at Baireuth;
who has been to Italy since, and is now returned with
beautiful talents for Architecture: it is he that now
undertakes the completing of Reinsberg,* which he
* Hcnnort, p. 29.
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? CHaP. I. J MANSION OF REINSBERG. 133
Aug. 1736.
will skilfully accomplish in the course of the next
three years. Twenty Musicians on wind or string;
Painters, Antoine Pesne but one of them; Sculptors,
Glume and others of eminence; and Hof Cavaliers, to
we know not what extent: -- How was such a Court
kept up, in harmonious free dignity, and no halt in its
finances, or mean pinch of any kind visible? The
Prince did get in debt; but not deep, and it was mainly
for the tall recruits he had to purchase. His money-
accounts are by no means fully known to me: but I
should question if his expenditure (such is my guess)
ever reached 3,0001, a year; and am obliged to reflect
more and more, as the ancient Cato did, what an ad-
mirable revenue frugality is!
Many of the Cavaliers, I find, for one thing, were
of the Regiment Goltz; that was one evident economy.
"Rittmeister von Chasot," as the Books call him:
readers saw that Chasot flying to Prince Eugene, and
know him since the Siege of Philipsburg. He is not
yet Rittmeister, or Captain of Horse, as he became;
but is of the Ruppin Garrison; Hof-Cavalier; "attended
Friedrich on his late Prussian journey;" and is much
a favourite, when he can be spared from Ruppin.
Captain Wylich, afterwards a General of mark; the
Lieutenant Buddenbrock who did the parson-charivari
at Ruppin, but is now reformed from those practices:
all these are of Goltz. Colonel Keyserling, not of
Goltz, nor in active military duty here, is a friend of
very old standing; was officially named as "Com-
panion" to the Prince, a long while back; and got into
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? 134 AT REINSBERG. [BooK X,
aug. 1736.
trouble on his account in the disastrous Ante-Ciistrin or
Flight Epoch: one of the Prince's first acts, when he
got pardoned, after Custrin, was to beg for the pardon
of this Keyserling; and now he has him here, and is
very fond of him. A Courlander, of good family, this
Keyserling; of good gifts too, -- which, it was once
thought, would be practically sublime; for he carried
off all manner of college prizes, and was the Admirable-
Crichton of Konigsberg University and the Graduates
there. But in the end they proved to be gifts of the
vocal sort rather; and have led only to what we see.
A man, I should guess, rather of buoyant vivacity than
of depth or strength in intellect or otherwise. Exces-
sively buoyant, ingenious; full of wit, kindly exuber-
ance; a loyal-hearted gay-tempered man, and much a
favourite in society as well as with the Prince. If we
were to dwell on Reinsberg, Keyserling would come
prominently forward.
Major von Stille, ultimately Major-General von
Stille, I should also mention: near twenty years older
than the Prince; a wise thoughtful soldier (went, by
permission, to the Siege of Dantzig lately, to improve
himself); a man capable of rugged service, when the
time comes. His military writings were once in con-
siderable esteem with professional men; and still im-
press a lay reader with favourable notions towards
Stille, as a man of real worth and sense. *
* Campagnes du Roi de Prion; -- a posthumous Book; anterior to the
Seven-Years War.
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? CHAP. 1. 1 MANSION OF REINSBEKG. 135
Aug. 1736.
Of Monsieur Jordan and the Literary Set.
There is, of course, a Chaplain in the Establish-
ment: a Reverend "M. Deschamps;" who preaches to
them all, in French no doubt. Friedrich never hears
Deschamps: Friedrich is always over at Ruppin on
Sundays; and there "himself reads a Sermon to the
Garrison," as part of the day's duties. Reads finely,
in a melodious feeling manner, says Formey, who can
judge: "even in his old days, he would incidentally,"
when some Emeritus Parson, like Formey, chanced to
be with him, "roll out choice passages from Bossuet,
from Massillon," in a voice and with a look, which
would have been perfection in the pulpit, thinks Formey. *
M. Jordan, though he was called "Lecteur (Reader),"
did not read to him, I can perceive; but took charge of
the Books; busied himself honestly to be useful in all
manner of literary or quasi-literary ways. He was, as
his name indicates, from the French-refugee depart-
ment: a recent acquisition, much valued at Reinsberg.
As he makes a figure afterwards, we had better mark
him a little.
Jordan's parents were wealthy religious persons, in
trade at Berlin; this Jordan (Charles Etienne, age now
thirty-six) was their eldest son. It seems they had
destined him from birth, consulting their own pious
feeling merely, to be a Preacher of the Gospel; the
other sons, all of them reckoned clever too, were brought
* Souvenirs fun CUoyen (2do Edition, Paris, 1797), i. 37.
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? 136
[book X,
AT REINSBERG.
Aug. 1736.
up to secular employments. And preach he, this poor
Charles Etienne, accordingly did; what best Gospel he
had; in an honest manner, all say, -- though never
with other than a kind of reluctance on the part of
Nature, forced out of her course. He had wedded,
been clergyman in two successive country places; when
his wife died, leaving him one little daughter, and a heart
much overset by that event. Friends, wealthy Brothers
probably, had pushed him out into the free air, in these
circumstances: "Take a Tour; Holland, England; feel
the winds blowing, see the sun shining, as in times
past: it will do you good! "
Jordan, in the course of his Tour, came to com-
posure on several points. He found that, by frugality,
by wise management of some peculium already his, his
little Daughter and he might have quietness at Berlin,
and the necessary food and raiment; -- and, on the
whole, that he would altogether cease preaching, and
settle down there, among his Books, in a frugal manner.
Which he did; -- and was living so, when the Prince,
searching for that kind of person, got tidings of him.
And here he is at Reinsberg; bustling about, in a brisk,
modestly frank and cheerful manner: well liked by
everybody; by his Master very well and ever better,
who grew into real regard, esteem and even friendship
for him, and has much Correspondence, of a freer kind
than is common to him, with little Jordan, so long as
they lived together. Jordan's death, ten years hence,
was probably the one considerable pain he had ever
given his neighbours, in this the ultimate section of his life.
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? CHaP. 1. 1 MANSION OF REINSBERQ. 137
Aug. 1736.
I find him described, at Reinsberg, as a small
nimble figure, of Southern-French aspect; black, un-
commonly bright eyes; and a general aspect of adroit-
ness, modesty, sense, sincerity; good prognostics,
which on acquaintance with the man were pleasantly
fulfilled.
For the sake of these considerations, I fished out,
from the Old-Book Catalogues and sea of forgetfulness,
some of the poor Books he wrote; especially a Voyage
Litte'raire,* Journal of that first Sanitary Excursion or
Tour he took, to get the clouds blown from his mind.
A Literary Voyage which awakens a kind of tragic
feeling; being itself dead, and treating of matters which
are all gone dead. So many immortal writers, Dutch
chiefly, whom Jordan is enabled to report as having
effloresced, or being soon to effloresce, in such and such
forms, of Books important to the learned: leafy, blos-
somy Forest of Literature, waving glorious in the then
sunlight to Jordan; -- and it lies all now, to Jordan
and us, not withered only, but abolished; compressed
into a film of indiscriminate peat. Consider what that
peat is made of, 0 celebrated or uncelebrated reader,
and take a moral from Jordan's Book! Other merit,
except indeed clearness and commendable brevity, the
Voyage Litteraire or other little Books of Jordan's
have not now. A few of his Letters to Friedrich,
which exist, are the only writings with the least life
left in them, and this an accidental life, not momentous
* llistoirc d'un Voyage Litte'raire fait, enMDCcxxxni, en France, en an-
qlelerxe el en Hollande (2do Edition, a La llayc, 1736).
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? 138 AT REINSBEBG. [booKX.
Aug. 1736.
to him or us. Dryasdust informs me, "Abbe" Jordan,
"alone of the Crown-Prince's cavaliers, sleeps in the
"Town of Reinsberg, not in the Schloss:" and if I ask,
Why? -- there is no answer. Probably his poor little
Daughterkin was beside him there? --
We have to say of Friedrich's Associates, that ge-
nerally they were of intelligent type, each of them
master of something or other, and capable of rational
discourse upon that at least. Integrity, loyalty of cha-
racter, was indispensable; good humour, wit if it could
be had, were much in request. There was no man of
shining distinction there; but they were the best that
could be had, and that is saying all. Friedrich cannot
be said, either as Prince or as King, to have been
superlatively successful in his choice of associates. With
one single exception, to be noticed shortly, there is not
one of them whom we should now remember except
for Friedrich's sake; -- uniformly they are men whom
it is now a weariness to hear of, except in a cursory
manner. One man of shining parts he had, and one
only; no man ever of really high and great mind. The
latter sort are not so easy to get; rarely producible on
the soil of this Earth! Nor is it certain how Friedrich
might have managed with one of this sort, or he with
Friedrich; -- though Friedrich unquestionably would
have tried, had the chance offered. For he loved in-
tellect as few men on the throne, or off it, ever did;
and the little he could gather of it round him often
seems to me a fact tragical rather than otherwise.
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? CHAP. I. ] MANSION OF REINSBERG. 139
Aug. 1736.
With the outer Berlin social world, acting and
reacting, Friedrich has his connexions, which obscurely
emerge on us now and then. Literary Eminences, who
are generally of Theological vesture; any follower of
Philosophy, especially if he be of refined manners
withal, or known in fashionable life, is sure to attract
him; and gains ample recognition at Reinsberg or on
Town-visits. But the Berlin Theological or Literary
world at that time, still more the Berlin Social, like a
sunk extinct object, continues very dim in those old
records; and to say truth, what features we have of it
do not invite to miraculous efforts for farther acquaintance.
Venerable Beausobre, with his History of the Manicheans,* and other learned things, -- we heard of him long
since, in Toland and the Republican Queen's time, as
a light of the world. He is now fourscore, grown white
as snow; very serene, polite, with a smack of French
noblesse in him, perhaps a smack of affectation traceable
too. The Crown-Prince, on one of his Berlin visits,
wished to see this Beausobre; got a meeting appointed,
in somebody's rooms "in the French College," and
waited for the venerable man. Venerable man entered,
loftily serene as a martyr Preacher of the Word, some-
thing of an ancient Seigneur de Beausobre in him, too;
for the rest, soft as sunset, and really with fine radiances,
in a somewhat twisted state, in that good old mind of
* ilittoire critiquede Mnniche'e el dn Maniche'isme. ? wrote also Remarque*
<fec. $ur le iVouveau Testament, which were once famous; Histoire de la Re"-
formation; <<fec. Ac. He is Beausobre Senior; there were two Sons (one of
them born in second wedlock, after Papa was 70), who were likewise given
to writing. -- See Formey, Souvenirs d'un Citoyen, 1. 33--39.
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? 140 AT REINSBEEG. [book X.
Aug. 1736.
his. "What have you been reading lately, M. de Beau-
"sobre? " said the Prince, to begin conversation. "Ah,
"Monseigneur, I have just risen from reading the sub-
"limest piece of writing that exists" -- "And what? "
"The exordium of St. John's Gospel: "In the Beginning
"was the Word; and the Word was with God, and the
"Word was--" Which somewhat took the Prince by
surprise, as Formey reports; though he rallied straight-
way, and got good conversation out of the old gentle-
man. To whom, we perceive, he writes once or
twice,* -- a copy of his own verses to correct, on one
occasion, -- and is very respectful and considerate.
Formey tells us of another French sage, personally
known to the Prince since Boyhood; for he used to be
about the Palace, doing something. This is one La
Croze; Professorof, Ithirik, "Philosophy"in the French
College: sublime Monster of Erudition, at that time;
forgotten now, I fear, by everybody.
Swag-bellied,
short of wind; liable to rages, to utterances of a coarse
nature; a decidedly ugly, monstrous and rather stupid
kind of man. Knew twenty languages, in a coarse
inexact way. Attempted deep kinds of discourse, in
the lecture-room and elsewhere; but usually broke off
into endless welters of anecdote, not always of cleanly
nature; and after every two or three words, a desperate
sigh, not for sorrow, but on account of flabbiness and
fat. Formey gives a portraiture of him; not worth co-
pying farther. The same Formey, standing one day
<< (Euvres de Frideric, xvi. 121-126. Dates arc all of 1737; the last of
Beausobre's years.
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? CHaP. I. ] MANSION OF REINSBERG. 141
Aug. 1736.
somewhere on the streets of Berlin, was himself, he
cannot doubt, seen by the Crown-Prince in passing;
"who askedM. Jordan, who that was," and got answer:
-- is not that a comfortable fact? Nothing farther came
of it; -- respectable Ex-Parson Formey, though ever
ready with his pen, being indeed of very vapid nature,
not wanted at Reinsberg, as we can guess.
There isM. Achard, too, another Preacher, supreme
of his sort, in the then Berlin circles; to whom or from
whom a Letter or two exist. Letters worthless, if it
were not for one dim indication: That, on inquiry, the Crown-Prince had been consulting this supreme Achard
on the difficulties of Orthodoxy; * and had given him
texts, or a text, to preach from. Supreme Achard did
not abolish the difficulties for his inquiring Prince, --
who complains respectfully that "his faith is weak,"
and leaves us dark as to particulars. This Achard
passage is almost the only hint we have of what might
have been an important chapter: Friedrich's Religious
History at Reinsberg. The expression "weak faith" I
take to be meant not in mockery, but in ingenuous
regret and solicitude; much painful fermentation, pro-
bably, on the religious question in those Reinsberg
years! But the old "GnadenwahV business, the Free-
Grace controversy, had taught him to be cautious as to
what he uttered on those points. The fermentation,
therefore, had to go on under cover; what the result of
it was, is notorious enough; though the steps of the
process are not in any point known.
? (Eutres de FiidMc, xvi. pp. 112-117: date, March-Juno 1786.
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? 142
[book X.
AT REINSBERG.
Aug. 1736.
Enough now of such details. Outwardly or in-
wardly, there is no History, or almost none, to be had
of this Reinsberg Period; the extensive records of it
consisting, as usual, mainly of chaotic nugatory matter,
opaque to the mind of readers. There is copious Cor-
respondence of the Crown-Prince, with at least dates to
it for most part: but this, which should be the main
resource, proves likewise a poor one; the Crown-Prince's
Letters, now or afterwards, being almost never of a
deep or intimate quality; and seldom turning on events
or facts at all, and then not always on facts interesting,
on facts clearly apprehensible to us in that extinct
element.
The Thing, we know always, is there; but vision
of the Thing is only to be had faintly, intermittently.
Dim inane twilight, with here and there a transient
spark falling somewhither in it; -- you do at last, by
desperate persistence, get to discern outlines, features:
-- "The Thing cannot always have been No-thing,"
you reflect! Outlines, features: -- and perhaps, after
all, those are mostly what the reader wants on this
occasion. '
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? CHAP, n. ] VOLTAIRE AND LITERARY CORRESPONDENCES. 143
Aug. 1736.
CHAPTER H.
OF VOLTAIRE AND THE LITERARY CORRESPONDENCES.
One of Friedrich's grand purposes at Reinsberg, to
himself privately the grandest there, which he follows
with constant loyalty and ardour, is that of scaling the
heights of the Muses' Hill withal; of attaining master-
ship, discipleship, in Art and Philosophy; -- or in
candour let us call it, what it truly was, that of en-
lightening and fortifying himself with clear knowledge,
clear belief, on all sides; and acquiring some spiritual
panoply in which to front the coming practicalities of
life. This, he feels well, will be a noble use of his
seclusion in those still places; and it must be owned,
he struggles and endeavours towards this, with great
perseverance, by all the methods in his power, here,
or wherever afterwards he might be.
Here at Reinsberg, one of his readiest methods, his
pleasantest if not his usefullest, is that of getting into
correspondence with the chief spirits of his time. Which
accordingly he forthwith sets about, after getting into
Reinsberg; and continues, as we shall see, with much
assiduity. Rollin, Fontenelle, and other French lights
of the then firmament, -- his Letters to them exist; and
could be given in some quantity: but it is better not
.
They are instrinsically the common Letters on such
occasions: "0 sublime demigod of literature, how small
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? 144
[book X.
AT REINSBERG.
Aug. 1736.
are princely distinctions to such a glory as thine; thou
who enterest within the veil of the temple, and issuest
with thy face shining! " -- To which the response is:
"Hm, think you so, most happy, gracious, illustrious
Prince, with every convenience round you, and such
prospects ahead? Well, thank you at any rate, --
and, as the Irish say, more power to your Honour's
Glory! " This really is nearly all that said Sets of Let-
ters contain; and except perhaps the Voltaire Set, none
of them give symptoms of much capacity to contain
more.
Certainly there was no want of Literary Men dis-
cernible from Reinsberg at that time; and the young
Prince corresponds with a good many of them: tempo-
ral potentate saluting spiritual, from the distance, --
in a way highly interesting to the then parties, but
now without interest, except of the reflex kind, to any
creature. A very cold and empty portion, this, of the
Friedrich Correspondence; standing there to testify what
his admiration was for literary talent, or the great re-
putation of such; but in itself uninstructive utterly, and
of freezing influence on the now living mind. Most of
those French lights of the then firmament are gone out
.
Forgotten altogether; or recognised, like Rollin and
others, for polished dullards, university bigwigs, and
longwinded commonplace persons, deserving nothing
but oblivion. To Montesquieu, -- not yet called
"Baron de Montesquieu" with-Esprit desLois, but "M.
de Secondat" with (Anonymous) Lettres Per semes, and
already known to the world for a person of sharp
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? CHAP. II. ] VOLTAIRE AND LITERARY CORRESPONDENCES. 145
Aug. 1736.
audacious eyesight, -- it does not appear that Friedrich
addressed any Letter, now or afterwards. No notice of
Montesquieu; nor of some others, the absence of whom
is a little unexpected. Probably it was want of know-
ledge mainly; for his appetite was not fastidious at this
time. And certainly he did hit the centre of the mark,
and get into the very kernel of French Literature,
when, in 1736, hardly yet established in his new
quarters, he addressed himself to the shining Figure
known to us as "Arouet Junior" long since, and now
called M. de Voltaire; which latter is still a name no-
table in Friedrich's History and that of Mankind.
Friedrich's first Letter, challenging Voltaire to corre-
spondence, dates itself 8th August 1736; and Voltaire's
Answer, -- the Reinsberg Household still only in its
second month, -- was probably the brightest event
which had yet befallen there.
On various accounts it will behove us to look a
good deal more strictly into this Voltaire; and, as his
relations to Friedrich and to the world are so multiplex,
endeavour to disengage the real likeness of the man
from the circumambient noise and confusion, which in
his instance continue very great. "Voltaire was the
"spiritual complement of Friedrich," says Sauerteig
once: "what little of lasting their poor Century pro-
duced lies mainly in these Two. A very somnam-
"bulating Century! But what little it did, we must
"call Friedrich; what little it thought, Voltaire. Other
"fruit we have not from it, to speak of, at this day.
"Voltaire, and what can be faithfully done on the Vol-
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. V. 10
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? 146
[book X
AT REINSBERG.
Aug. 1736.
"taire Creed; 'Realised Voltairism;' -- admit it, reader,
"not in a too triumphant humour, -- is not that pretty
"much the net historical product of the Eighteenth
"Century? The rest of its history either pure somnam-
"bulism; or a mere Controversy, to the effect, 'Realised
"Voltairism? How soon shall it be realised, then?
"Not at once, surely! ' So that Friedrich and Voltaire
"are related, not by accident only. They are, they for
"want of better, the two Original Men of their Century;
"the chief, and in a sense the sole products of their
"Century. They alone remain to us as still living re-
"suits from it, -- such as they are. And the rest,
"truly, ought to depart and vanish (as they are now
"doing); being mere ephemera; contemporary eaters,
"scramblers for provender, talkers of acceptable hear-
"say; and related merely to the butteries and wiggeries
"of their time, and not related to the Perennialities at
"all, as these Two were. " -- With more of the like
sort from Sauerteig.
M. de Voltaire, who used to be M. Francois-Marie
Arouet, was at this time about forty,* and had gone
through various fortunes; a man, now and henceforth,
in a high degree conspicuous, and questionable to his
fellow-creatures. Clear knowledge of him ought, at
this stage, to be common; but unexpectedly it is not
.
What endless writing and biographying there has been
* Born, 20th February 1694; the younger of two sons: Father, "Fran-
cois Arouet, a Notary ofthe Chatelct, ultimately Treasurer of the Chamber
"of Accounts;" Mother, "Marguerite d'aumart, of a noble family of Poitou. "
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? CHaP. n. ] VOLTAIBE AND LITEEARY COBBESPONDBNCES. 147
Aug. 1736.
about this man; in which one still reads, with a kind
of lazy satisfaction, due to the subject, and to the
French genius in that department! But the man him-
self, and his environment and practical aspects, what
the actual physiognomy of his life and of him can have
been, is dark from beginning to ending; and much is
left in an ambiguous undecipherable condition to us.
A proper History of Voltaire, in which should be dis-
coverable, luminous to human creatures, what he was,
what element he lived in, what work he did: this is
still a problem for the genius of France! --
His Father's name is known to us; the name of his
Father's profession, too, but not clearly the nature of
it; still less his Father's character, economic circum-
stances, physiognomy spiritual or social: not the least
possibility granted you of forming an image, however
faint, of that notable man and household, which dis-
tinguished itself to all the earth by producing little
Francois into the light of this sun. Of Madame Arouet,
who, or what, or how she was, nothing whatever is
known. A human reader, pestered continually with the
Madame-Denises, Abbd-Mignots and enigmatic nieces
and nephews, would have wished to know, at least,
what children, besides Francois, Madame Arouet had:
once for all, How many children? Name them, with
year of birth, year of death, according to the church-
registers: they all, at any rate, had that degree of
history! No; even that has not been done. Beneficent
correspondents of my own make answer, after some
research, No register of the Arouets anywhere to be
10*
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? 148 AT REMSBERG. [BooK X.
Aug. 1736.
had. The very name Voltaire, if you ask whence
came it? there is no answer, or worse than none. --
The fit "History" of this man, which might be one of
the shining Epics of his Century, and the lucid sum-
mary and soul of any History France then had, but
which would require almost a French demigod to do it,
is still a great way off, if on the road at all! For pre-
sent purposes, we select what follows from a well-
known hand:
"Youth of Voltaire (1694--1725). -- French Biographers
"have left the Arouet Househould very dark for us; mean-
"while we can perceive, or guess, that it was moderately well
"in economic respects; the Francois was the second of the
"Two Sons; and that old Arouet, a steady, practical and
"perhaps rather sharp-tempered old gentleman, of official
"legal habits and position, 'Notary of the Chatelet' and
"something else, had destined him for the Law Profession; as
"was natural enough to a son of M. Arouet, who had himself
"succeeded well in Law, and could there, best of all, open
"roads for a clever second son. Francois accordingly sat 'in
"chambers,' as we call it; and his fellow-clerks much loved
"him, -- the most amusing fellow in the world. Sat in
"chambers, even became an advocate; but did not in the least
"take to advocateship; -- took to poetry, and other airy
"dangerous courses, speculative, practical; causing family
"explosions and rebukes, which were without effect on him.
"A young fool, bent on sportful pursuits instead of serious;
"more and more shuddering at Law. To the surprise and
"indignation of M. Arouet Senior. Law, with its wigs and
"sheepskins, pointing towards high honours and deep flesh-
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? I
CHaP, n. ] VOLT AIRE AND LITERARY CORRESPONDENCES. 149Aug. 1736.
