Now,
if the war goes as we all hope and believe it will go,
the question will be settled.
if the war goes as we all hope and believe it will go,
the question will be settled.
Treitschke - 1915 - Confessions of Frederick the Great
At seven began a small concert, in
which Frederick himself used often to perform. Sup-
per followed, but was brief, unless the conversation was
of unusual interest. Otherwise the King went to bed
at about nine o'clock and slept five or six hours. In
later life he gave up suppers, but continued to invite
a few friends for conversation. He then allowed him-
self rather more sleep. In his last years he lost the
power to play his flute, and with it, apparently, the
desire to hear music.
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? 1 8 Introduction
Mr. Reddaway adds that Frederick would not
endure the presence of any woman -- that, strictly
speaking, he had no courtiers, and that his private
secretary, Eichel, whom he worked like a slave,
was never seen by any human being.
Frederick, who wrote a great deal more than
most professional authors, could be really witty,
though much of his wit consisted in drawing atten-
tion to other people's weaknesses -- an easy per-
formance for an absolute monarch, since most men
can do it when they are too drunk to fear the con-
sequences, which may be the origin of the saying
in vino Veritas.
Treitschke gives Frederick a very high rank as
an author, but nothing which Frederick ever wrote
is as readable in a translation as the Confessions
which are given in this volume. The truth is that
eighteenth century writings have to be excellent
before they are readable, because they lack the
human frankness of some other centuries. This
frankness Frederick achieved only in the poorest
of his literary productions, and for this reason
Frederick's fame as an author is dead out of his
own country; he is read only for the light which
he throws upon that cynical, valiant soul which
achieved one of the greatest works in the world --
the creation of Prussia.
A few dates may be useful in following Treitsch-
ke' s life of the great Prussian King, for Treitschke
deals in dicta rather than dates.
Frederick was bom on January 24, 17 12. His
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? X
Introduction 19
mother was a sister of George II. He was eighteen
years old when he tried to flee with Katte to France,
and twenty-eight when his father died in 1740.
He was married in 1733 to Princess EHzabeth of
Brunswick-Bevem, related to the Austrian House.
The Emperor Charles VI, Maria Theresa's father,
died on October 20, 1740, and on December i6th
Frederick entered Silesia with twenty-eight thou-
sand men, with the intention of annexing it. His
victory at MoUwitz, which practically gave him
the coimtry, was fought on April 10, 1741, but
he was not confirmed in it till his victory of
Chotusitz, May 17, 1742, which was followed
on June nth by the Peace of Breslau.
This is called the first Silesian war. In the next
war against Austria, in 1744 (the second Silesian
war), he took Prague, September 16, 1744, but
had to abandon it shortly afterwards. He had
his revenge at his great victories of Hohenfriedberg,
on June 5, 1745, and Sohr, September 30, 1745,
both against the Austrians, and Hennersdorf,
November 23, 1745, against the Austrians and
Saxons combined, while the Prince of Dessau
defeated another Austrian and Saxon army at
Kesselsdorf on December 15th. The second
Silesian war was terminated by the Peace of Dres-
den, signed on Christmas Day, 1745.
On August 29, 1756, Frederick crossed the
Saxon frontier and began the Seven Years' War.
The indecisive battle of Lobositz was fought
between Frederick and the Austrian Marshal
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? 20 Introduction
Browne, and before the end of the year he took
possession of Saxony. On May 6, 1757, he won
the battle of Prague, after enormous losses on both
sides, and blockaded the city; but on June i8th
he lost the great battle of Kollin, and had to raise
the blockade and evacuate Bohemia. On Novem-
ber 5, 1757, he won the great battle of Rossbach,
and a month later another supreme victory at
Leuthen. On the 2 ist, Breslau capitulated to him,
and a week later Liegnitz. But his General,
Lehwaldt, had been defeated by the Russian
General Apraxin at Gross-Jagersdorf on August
30th. In 1758 he marched into Moravia and
besieged Olmiitz, but was compelled to retreat
owing to the capture of a convoy of three or four
thousand wagons by the Austrian General Laudon ;
on August 25th he won the battle of Zomdorf
over the Russians, which ended their campaign,
but on October 14th he was surprised and heavily
defeated by the Austrians at Hochkirch, and on
the same day lost his sister, the Margravine of
Baireuth.
But for the English subsidy of 4,000,000 thalers
Frederick would have been starved out in 1759.
On July 25th his army was defeated by the Rus-
sians at Kay, and on August 12th he saw his army
utterly routed by the combined Austrians and
Russians at Kunersdorf, He lost Dresden by
surrender on September 24th, and on November
23d Finck and his army of 12,000 men laid down
their arms at Maxen.
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? Introduction 21
In the western field things had gone better.
Ferdinand of Brunswick had driven the French
army across the Rhine on June 23, 1758, at
Crefeld, and though the French took Frankfurt
on January 2, 1759, and won a battle at Bergen
on April 13, 1759, they were severely defeated
at Minden, August i, 1759.
On June 23, 1760, a Prussian corps was anni-
hilated at Landeshut and Glatz capitulated on
July 22d. But Frederick won a great victory
over the Austrians under Laudon at Liegnitz on
August 15th, and a hotly contested battle against
the Austrians under Daun at Torgau on Novem-
ber 3d, though Laudon had surprised and captured
the great fortress of Schweidnitz on October ist.
The condition of Prussia at the end of this year
appeared hopeless ; the army had declined to sixty
thousand men, and even more in quality than in
numbers. But on January 5, 1762, the Czarina
Elizabeth of Russia died, and was succeeded by her
nephew, Peter III, the husband of the great
Catherine, who was an idolatrous admirer of
Frederick and at once recalled the Russian army.
Prussia and Russia signed a peace on May 5th,
and an offensive and defensive alliance on June
8th, and Sweden made peace with Prussia at
Hamburg on May 22d.
But in the interval the elder Pitt had been
replaced as Prime Minister of England by the
feeble Bute, who had but one desire -- to terminate
the war as soon as possible, and six months after
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? 22 Introduction
Peter Ill's succession the whole of Russia became
so disgusted with him that on July 9, 1762, he
was deposed by his wife, and a few days later
strangled by her lover, Alexis Orloff. On July
21, 1762, Frederick won a battle over the Aus-
trians at Burkersdorf, and in October captured
Schweidnitz, Before the end of the year a truce
was made which proved to be the end of the Seven
Years' War -- the Peace of Hubertusburg being
signed on February 5, 1763.
Neither Frederick nor the Austrians gained an
inch of territory in the Seven Years' War, but
Austria failed in her object, which was to form a
coalition to crush Frederick, and from this time for-
wards Prussia and Austria were equals and rivals.
It took Frederick twenty-three years, exactly
half his reign, to arrive at this. The other half
was spent almost entirely in peace, though there
was a campaign, and gave Frederick the oppor-
tunity to show his powers of organizing agricul-
tural and commercial enterprises and an economic
system.
The principal events of the latter half of Freder-
ick's reign were the Partition of Poland, the Bava-
rian Succession War, and the foundation of the
League of Princes. In 1772, Frederick persuaded
Austria and Russia to join him in the first Partition
of Poland. His share was of great value to him,
because until he obtained possession of Prussian
Poland, East Prussia was detached from the rest
of the kingdom.
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? Introduction 23
Maria Theresa was only with great difficulty
persuaded by her ambitious son to come into the
arrangement. She complained that they had
aimed at two incompatible objects at once, "to
act in the Prussian fashion, and at the same time to
preserve the semblance of honesty," to which
Frederick sneeringly repUed : ' ' She is always weep-
ing but always annexing. "
The War of the Bavarian Succession in 1778 led
to very little fighting. The main armies were
unable to attack each other, and when the Czarina
threatened to interfere on the Prussian side,
Austria came to terms and made the Peace of
Teschen, May 13, 1779. A year and a half later
Maria Theresa died, leaving the restless Joseph
without any steadying influence. To counter his
attempts to increase the Imperial authority,
Frederick gradually worked up not only the Pro-
testant Princes of the Empire, but even the Cath-
olic ecclesiastical States, to form the League of
Princes (Furstenbund) , which was signed in the
first instance by Brandenburg, Hanover, and
Saxony only, on July 23, 1785. About a year
afterwards, on August 17, 1786, Frederick died
at the age of seventy -foiir.
This Filrstenhund was a fitting conclusion to his
career, for it coincides approximately with the new
German Empire.
Frederick found Prussia the smallest and weak-
est of the Great Powers, and left her equal to any
of them. That should be his epitaph.
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? 24 Introduction
TREITSCHKE's study of FREDERICK THE GREAT
Treitschke's study of Frederick would be inter-
esting if it were only as a tour de force of character
analysis. I think he overestimates the value of
Frederick's Anti-Machiavel and his Letters on
Patriotism, which are practically dead as far as
the foreign reader is concerned; but in other re-
spects his delineation of Frederick is compara-
tively free from the advocate's partisanship which
depreciates Treitschke's value as an historian.
Whether Treitschke would have treated Freder-
ick so impartially if he had been alive now is
doubtful. To give an instance: a couple of pages
after his magnificent summing-up of Frederick's
greatness, he has a paragraph which is about the
strongest condemnation of the present war which
ever came from a German pen :
The love of peace of the House of HohenzoUern
remained alive even in its greatest war-princes.
Frederick valued power, but only as a means for the
well-being and civilization of the nations; that it
should be an end in itself, that the struggle for power
as such should bestow historic fame, seemed to him
as an insult to the honour of a sovereign. Therefore
he wrote his passionate polemic-treatise against
Machiavelli. Therefore, in his writings, he returned
again and again to the terrible warning of Charles XII
of Sweden. He might have felt secretly that iii his
own breast were working irresistible forces, which
might lead him to similar errors, and was never tired
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? Introduction 25
of portraying the hoUowness of objectless military
fame . . . . Already in his impetuous youth he had
made up his mind about the moral objects of power:
"This State must become strong," he wrote at that
time, "that it may play the lofty rdle of preserving
peace only from love of justice, and not from fear.
But if ever injustice, bias, and vice gain the upper hand
in Prussia, then I wish the House of Brandenburg
a speedy downfall. That says all. "
To show how different from this is the undiluted
Treitschke, one may quote a passage which has
inspired numberless passages in von Bemhardi:
The educational power of war awakened again
in these North-German races above all that rough
pride which once inspirited the invaders of Italy
(Romfahrer) and the conquerors of the Slavs in the
Middle Ages.
And a few sentences later on he talks of the
"descendants of those heroic nations, the Vandals
and the Goths," in the same way as the present
Emperor bade his soldiers emulate the Huns in
an unfortunate speech which has given, through
newspaper-headings, a severe blow to the German
cause in America.
Yet Treitschke, like von Bemhardi, was, when
he was not crusading, very sane and fair. He
writes, for instance: "The alert self-reliance of the
Prussians contrasted strongly with the inoffensive
kindly modesty of the other Germans, " just as the
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? 26 Introduction
war news of to-day often contrasts the Saxons' or
Bavarians' behaviour in Belgium or France with
that of the Prussians. And a Httle lower down
he says: "It was betrayed now in confident brag-
ging, in the thousand satirical anecdotes of Im-
perial stupidity and Prussian Hussar strategisms. "
For which von Hindenburg's name will probably
supply dictionaries with a new word.
Yet you can see in Frederick many signs of the
anticipation of modern Prussian ideas which
make him one of the most interesting figures in
history, as he is one of the greatest figures at the
present time. For in many ways the Prussia of
to-day is the Prussia of Frederick's time come to
life again. It was Frederick who said :
With such soldiers there is no risk : a General who in
other armies would be considered foolhardy, is only
considered with us as doing his duty. [And again he
says :] It seems that Heaven has appointed the King
to make all preparations which wise precautions
before the beginning of a war demand. Who knows,
if Providence has not reserved it for me to make a
glorious use of these war means at some future time,
and to convert them to the realization of the plans for
which the foresight of my fathers intended them?
But I do not agree with Treitschke when he
writes: "It was Frederick's work that . . . a
third tendency should arise, a policy which was
only Prussian, and nothing further: to it Ger-
many's future belonged. " And he writes later
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? Introduction 27
on: "Dohm concluded a clever pamphlet with
these words: 'German and Prussian interests can
never stand in one another's way. ' The discern-
ing mind of the old King was not moved by such
dreams. "
And we know how widely spread the distrust of
Prussia was in Frederick's day, because Goethe,
quoted by Treitschke, tells us that: "Even the
humblest and weakest of the allied States, Weimar
and Dessau, secretly discussed how they could
protect themselves against their Prussian protect-
or's lust of power. "
When Treitschke talks of the moral justification
of the treacherous seizure of Silesia, one is irresist-
ibly reminded of the justification of the present
war by von Bemhardi and others, for the benefi-
cent results likely to happen from the spread of
Prussian Kultur -- the culture which it would be
more reasonable to call the Prussian vulture,
Treitschke damns Frederick's excuses for seizing
Silesia with faint apologies:
He wished to spare Austria, and contented himself
with bringing forward the most important of the
carefully pondered pretensions of his House. Alone,
without vouchsafing one word to the foreign Powers
on the watch, with an overwhelming invading force,
he broke into Silesia. Germany, used to the solemn
reflections and cross-reflections of her Imperial law-
yers, received with astonishment and indignation the
doctrine that the rights of States were only to be
maintained by active power.
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? 28 Introduction
Elsewhere in this book it will be seen how
Frederick excelled himself on this occasion by
ordering Podewils to find excuses because he had
already given orders to his troops. The doctrine
of the active power has been exploited for all it is
worth by von Bernhardi in his Germany and the
Next War.
Treitschke is not very convincing upon the
subject of Poland. His complaints of "the Poles'
horrible outrages in the Weichsel district, with
that insolent disregard of the rights of others and
the nationality of others which distinguishes the
Poles above all the nations of Europe," leaves us
cold, when our paper every morning brings news
of fresh devastation in Poland. And the sentence
in which Treitschke complains that: "Others re-
peated credulously what Poland's old confederates,
the French, invented to stigmatize the partitioning
Powers," simply kills Treitschke 's reputation as
an impartial historian. The world of honest men
has never ceased to condemn the Partition of
Poland, and hailed with almost religious delight
Russia's proclamation that the ancient nation of
the Poles should be reconstituted as a practically
autonomous people under the shield of the Lion
of the East, the great protector of Slav nationality.
Any criticism, which Germany might have to make
on the subject, is discounted by the fact that she
at once proceeded to suggest a German parody of
the movement, a highly improved province to
embrace Russian Poland as well as Prussian Po-
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? Introduction 29
land. And any advantages, which may have been
latent in this suggestion, are rendered difficult of
realization by the Belging of Russian Poland.
The question of the Balance of Power, which is
handled so destructively by von Bernhardi, comes
up a good deal in Treitschke's life of Frederick
the Great. I think von Bernhardi was right, but
I arrive at my conclusions from a standpoint which
he would hardly share. The European balance
of power for many years has been like a wooden
garden fence, whose bottom under the soil has
rotted. From time to time -- the last time was
during and after the Balkan War against Turkey
-- Europe has been on the verge of a conflagration
like the present because Austria has resisted any
intelUgent solution of the Balkan question.
Now,
if the war goes as we all hope and believe it will go,
the question will be settled. The Turk, who has
no business in Europe, because he is incapable of
sharing European ideas, will be driven out of
Europe. Russia will have Constantinople, essen-
tial to her as giving her that free entrance to the
Mediterranean which is her right. England will
take the Persian Gulf and make the Euphrates
Valley as prosperous as the Nile Valley, and Egypt
also will be managed in a less anomalous fashion.
Servia wiU have her sea-board on the Adriatic.
Bulgaria, if she is not seduced into sharing the
suicide of Turkey, will have her port on the
iEgean. Greece will get back all the islands in
which the races of ancient Greece, who taught the
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? 30 Introduction
world its civilization, have remained so much
purer than in Athens itself. Rumania will annex
all the Rumanian districts which lie outside of
its present borders, and Italy, if she joins the
Powers of the Triple Entente, will not only get
back the Italian provinces which still remain under
the rule of Austria, but will have a footing on the
Balkan Peninsula, lower down, which will enable
her to fulfil her natural mission of being the channel
of commerce and civilization for all the Balkan
nations.
For many years this has been the natural solu-
tion of the Eastern Question, but Austria has
stood in the way -- Austria, which just as naturally
pictured herself overrunning the Balkan Pen-
insula, and finding her way down to the great
southern port of Salonika. Germany backed up
Austria, in the hope perhaps that Austria, con-
taining so many people of German nationality,
would one day come into the German Empire.
The difficulty was that the Balkan Peninsula was
all in Slav hands or a natural inheritance for the
Slavs. Without conquering Russia, the Austrian
dreams were unrealizable, and rather than allow
the Balkan Slavs to fulfil their mission, Austria
preferred to perpetuate a state of wars and rumours
of wars. Turkey's suicidal entrance into the arena
has rendered a settlement possible.
If Frederick had foreseen this he would doubtless
have left us his warnings on the subject. He was
free enough with his warnings as to the trouble
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? Introduction 31
which might ensue from the restless energy of the
Emperor Joseph the Austrian.
It would not be right for me to conclude this
brief survey of Treitschke's judgment on Frederick
without quoting the intelligent anticipation of the
Dane Bernstorff, writing to Choiseul, one of the
trifling Frenchmen whose employment by Louis
XV rendered Frederick's task so much easier
in his wars with France. "Everything which you
undertake to-day to prevent the rise of an entirely
military Monarchy in the middle of Germany,
whose iron arm will soon crush the minor princes --
is all labour wasted! "
Douglas Sladen.
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? The Confessions of Frederick
the Great
33
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? The Confessions of Frederick
the Great
The spirit of these Confessions and the principles
advocated by Frederick are very closely in line with
the teachings of Treitschke and with the national
policy championed by Bernhardi.
MORNING THE FIRST
ORIGIN OF OUR FAMILY
IN the times of disorder and confusion, amidst
barbarous nations, there was seen to spring up
a new arrangement of sovereignties. The govern-
ors of different countries shook off the yoke of
subjection, and soon became powerful enough to
overawe their masters; they obtained privileges,
or, to come nearer to the truth, it was with the
form of one knee on the ground that they ran
away with the substance. Among those daring
ones, there were several who laid the foundations
of the greatest monarchies; and perhaps, on a
fair calculation, even all the emperors, kings, and
foreign princes at this very time owe their respec-
tive states to them. As for us, we are, most
35
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? 36 The Confessions of
undoubtedly, in that case. I see you blush at this.
I forgive you for once ; but let me advise you never
to play the child so again. Remember, once for
all, that, in matter of kingdoms, he catches them
that can; and that there is no wrong but in the
case of being forced to return them.
The first of our ancestors, who acquired some
rights of sovereignty over the country of which
he was governor, was Tassillon, of Hohenzollern.
The thirteenth of his descendants was Burgrave of
Nuremberg; the twenty-fifth of them was Elector
of Brandenburg, and the thirty-seventh. King of
Prussia. Our family, as well as all the others, has
had its Achilles', its Ciceros, its Nestors, its
drivellers and its drones, its mothers-in-law, and,
without doubt, its women of gallantry. It has
also often aggrandized itself b}^ those kinds of
right, which are only known to princes at once in
luck, and in force enough to exert them; for in
the order of our successions, we see those of con-
veniency, or expectancy, and of protection.
From the time of Tassillon to that of the great
Elector, we did little more than vegetate. We
could, in the empire, reckon fifty princes in no
point inferior to us; and, properly speaking, we
were but one of the branches of the great sconce
or chandelier of the empire. William the Great,
by the splendour of his actions, raised our family
into pre-eminence; and at length, in 1701 (the
date, you see, is not a very ancient one), vanity
placed a crown on the head of my grandfather; and
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? Frederick the Great 37
it is to this epoch that we ought to refer our true
existence, since it put us into a condition of act-
ing on the footing of kings, and of treating, upon
terms of equality, with all the powers of the earth.
Were we to estimate the virtues of our ancestors,
we might easily conclude, that it is not to any
eminence in them that our family owes its aggran-
dizement. The greatest part of our princes
have been rather remarkable for misconduct;
but it was chance and circumstances that have
been of service to us. I would even have you to
observe, that the first diadem that bound our
brows was placed on one of the vainest and lightest
of heads, and that head on a body crooked and
humpbacked.
And here, I am aware, my dear nephew, that
I am leaving you in the dark as to our origin. It
has been pretended that that same Coimt of
Hohenzollern was of a great family; but, in truth,
few ever appeared in the world so bare of titles.
However, at the worst, it is indisputable that we
are of an ancient noble extraction: good, good
gentlemen, in short; let us stick to that.
THE SITUATION OF MY KINGDOM
As to this point, I am not so well off as I could
wish. To convince yourself of which, cast your
eyes over the map, and you will see that the great-
est part of my territories is dispersed or divided in
such a manner, that they cannot mutually assist
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? 38 The Confessions of
each other. I have no great rivers that run
through my provinces; some border upon them,
but few intersect them. ^
OF THE SOIL OF MY TERRITORIES
A third at least of my dominions Hes in waste;
another third is in woods, waters, or marshes.
The third, which is cultivated, produces nor wine,
nor olives, nor mulberry- trees. No fruits nor
garden-stuff come to anything, without great care,
and very few to the true point of perfection. I
have only a" few parts in which the wheat and rye
have some reputation.
OF THE MANNERS OF THE INHABITANTS
Under this head I have nothing particular or
decisive to pronounce, because my kingdom is
but a kind of mosaic, made up of various pieces.
All that I can, with any certainty, say, is, that, in
general, my subjects are hardy and brave, uncuri-
ous as to eating, but fond of drinking ; tyrants on
their estates, and slaves in my service; insipid
lovers, and surly husbands ; of a wondrously cold,
phlegmatic turn, which I take to be at the bottom,
rank stupidity; good civilians, little of philo-
sophers, less of poets, and still less of orators;
' The situation, extent, and soil, of the territories of the great
Frederick, have been wonderfully changed of late years; changed
upon his own principles, too, as will appear hereafter. -- Note oj
eighteenth century translator.
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? Frederick the Great 39
affecting a great plainness in their dress, but
imagining themselves dressed in high taste, with
a little bag and a great hat, boots up to their waist,
a little cane, a very short coat, with a very long
waistcoat.
As to the women, they are almost all fat, and
special breeders; they have great gentleness, love
their domestic employment, and are commonly
faithful enough to their husbands. As to the
girls, they enjoy the privileges in fashion; to
which I have so little objection, that I have, in
my memoirs, sought to excuse their weaknesses.
I hold it good policy to give those pretty creatures
all the ease and freedom that may be, to prevent
their learning a horrid practice, by means of which
they might amuse themselves without fear of
consequences, but which would cause a notable
prejudice to the state. Nay, to encourage them
the more to population, I take care in my regi-
ments to give the preference to the fruit of their
amours; and, if the offspring of an officer, I make
him an ensign, and often raise him to higher rank
before his turn.
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? MORNING THE SECOND
ON RELIGION
RELIGION is absolutely necessary in a state.
This is a maxim which it would be madness
to dispute; and a king must know very little of
politics, indeed, that should suffer his subjects to
make a bad use of it ; but then it would not be very
wise in a king to have any religion himself. Mark
well, my dear nephew, what I here say to you;
there is nothing that tyrannizes more over the head
and heart than religion; because it neither agrees
with our passions, nor with those great political
views which a monarch ought to have. The
true religion of a prince is his interest and his
glory. He ought, by his royal station, to be dis-
pensed from having any other. He may, indeed,
preserve outwardly a fair occasional appearance,
for the sake of amusing those who are about him,
or who watch his motions and character.
If he fears God, or, to speak as the priests and
women do, if he fears hell, like Lewis XlVth,^
in his old age, he is apt to become timorous,
childish, and fit for nothing but to be a capuchin.
' And, it might be added, ewis XVI. -- Vide Madame Roland.
-- Footnote of eighteenth century translator.
40
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? Confessions of Frederick the Great 41
If the point is to avail himself of a favourable
moment for seizing a province, ^ an army of devils,
to defend it, present themselves to his imagination;
we are, on that supposition, weak enough to think
it an injustice, and we proportion in our conscience,
the punishment to the crime. Should it be neces-
sary to make a treaty with other powers, if we
remember that we are Christians, we are undone;
all would be over with us ; we should be constantly
bubbles. As to war, it is a trade, in which any the
least scruple would spoil everything, and, indeed,
what man of honour would ever make war, if he
had not the right to make rules that should author-
ize plunder, fire, and carnage?
I do not, however, mean that one should make
a proclamation of impiety and atheism; but it
is right to adapt one's thoughts to the rank one
occupies. All the popes, who had common sense,
have held no principles of religion but what
favoured their aggrandizement. It would be the
silliest thing imaginable, if a prince were to confine
himself to such paltry trifles as were contrived
only for the common people. Besides, the best
way for a prince to keep fanaticism out of his
country is for him to have the most cool indiffer-
ence for reHgion. BeHeve me, dear nephew, that
holy mother of ours has her little caprices, hke any
woman, and is commonly as inconstant. Attach
yourself, then, dear nephew, to true philosophy,
' Alas, unhappy Poland! -- Footnote of eighteenth century
translator.
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? 42 The Confessions of
which is ever consolatory, luminous, courageous,
dispassionate, and inexhaustible as Nature. You
will then soon see, that you will not have, in your
kingdom, any material dispute about religion ; for _
parties are never formed but on the weakness of
princes, or on that of their ministers.
There is one important reflection I would with
you make; it is this: your ancestors have, in
this matter, conducted their operations with the
greatest political dexterity; they introduced a
reformation which gave them the air of apostles
at the same time that it was filling their purse.
Such a revolution was, without doubt, the most
reasonable that could ever happen in such a point
as this: but, since there is now hardly anything
left to be got in that way, and that, in the present
position of things, it would be dangerous to tread
in their footsteps, it is therefore even best to
stick to toleration. Retain well, dear nephew,
the principle I am now to inculcate to you: let
it be your rule of government, that men are to
worship the Divinity in their own way; for, should
you appear in the least neglectful of this in-
dulgence, all would be lost and undone in yoiir
dominions.
Have you a mind to know why my kingdom is
composed of so many sects? I will tell you: in
certain provinces the Calvinists are in possession
of all the offices and posts; in others, the Lutherans
have the same advantage. There are some, where
the Catholics are so predominant, that the king
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? Frederick the Great 43
can only send there one or two Protestant deputies ;
and, of all the ignorant and blind fanatics, I dare
aver to you that the Papists are the most fiery
and the most atrocious. The priests in their
senseless religion are untameable wild beasts,
that preach up a blind submission to their wills,
and exercise a complete despotism. They are
assassins, robbers, violators of faith, and inex-
pressibly ambitious.
Mark but Rome! Observe with what a stupid
effrontery she dares arrogate to herself dominion
over the princes of the earth! As to the Jews,
they are little vagrants, poor devils, that at
bottom are not so black as they are painted.
Almost everywhere rebuffed, hated, persecuted;
they pay with tolerable exactness, those who en-
dure them, and take their revenge by bubbling
all the simpletons they can light on.
which Frederick himself used often to perform. Sup-
per followed, but was brief, unless the conversation was
of unusual interest. Otherwise the King went to bed
at about nine o'clock and slept five or six hours. In
later life he gave up suppers, but continued to invite
a few friends for conversation. He then allowed him-
self rather more sleep. In his last years he lost the
power to play his flute, and with it, apparently, the
desire to hear music.
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? 1 8 Introduction
Mr. Reddaway adds that Frederick would not
endure the presence of any woman -- that, strictly
speaking, he had no courtiers, and that his private
secretary, Eichel, whom he worked like a slave,
was never seen by any human being.
Frederick, who wrote a great deal more than
most professional authors, could be really witty,
though much of his wit consisted in drawing atten-
tion to other people's weaknesses -- an easy per-
formance for an absolute monarch, since most men
can do it when they are too drunk to fear the con-
sequences, which may be the origin of the saying
in vino Veritas.
Treitschke gives Frederick a very high rank as
an author, but nothing which Frederick ever wrote
is as readable in a translation as the Confessions
which are given in this volume. The truth is that
eighteenth century writings have to be excellent
before they are readable, because they lack the
human frankness of some other centuries. This
frankness Frederick achieved only in the poorest
of his literary productions, and for this reason
Frederick's fame as an author is dead out of his
own country; he is read only for the light which
he throws upon that cynical, valiant soul which
achieved one of the greatest works in the world --
the creation of Prussia.
A few dates may be useful in following Treitsch-
ke' s life of the great Prussian King, for Treitschke
deals in dicta rather than dates.
Frederick was bom on January 24, 17 12. His
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? X
Introduction 19
mother was a sister of George II. He was eighteen
years old when he tried to flee with Katte to France,
and twenty-eight when his father died in 1740.
He was married in 1733 to Princess EHzabeth of
Brunswick-Bevem, related to the Austrian House.
The Emperor Charles VI, Maria Theresa's father,
died on October 20, 1740, and on December i6th
Frederick entered Silesia with twenty-eight thou-
sand men, with the intention of annexing it. His
victory at MoUwitz, which practically gave him
the coimtry, was fought on April 10, 1741, but
he was not confirmed in it till his victory of
Chotusitz, May 17, 1742, which was followed
on June nth by the Peace of Breslau.
This is called the first Silesian war. In the next
war against Austria, in 1744 (the second Silesian
war), he took Prague, September 16, 1744, but
had to abandon it shortly afterwards. He had
his revenge at his great victories of Hohenfriedberg,
on June 5, 1745, and Sohr, September 30, 1745,
both against the Austrians, and Hennersdorf,
November 23, 1745, against the Austrians and
Saxons combined, while the Prince of Dessau
defeated another Austrian and Saxon army at
Kesselsdorf on December 15th. The second
Silesian war was terminated by the Peace of Dres-
den, signed on Christmas Day, 1745.
On August 29, 1756, Frederick crossed the
Saxon frontier and began the Seven Years' War.
The indecisive battle of Lobositz was fought
between Frederick and the Austrian Marshal
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? 20 Introduction
Browne, and before the end of the year he took
possession of Saxony. On May 6, 1757, he won
the battle of Prague, after enormous losses on both
sides, and blockaded the city; but on June i8th
he lost the great battle of Kollin, and had to raise
the blockade and evacuate Bohemia. On Novem-
ber 5, 1757, he won the great battle of Rossbach,
and a month later another supreme victory at
Leuthen. On the 2 ist, Breslau capitulated to him,
and a week later Liegnitz. But his General,
Lehwaldt, had been defeated by the Russian
General Apraxin at Gross-Jagersdorf on August
30th. In 1758 he marched into Moravia and
besieged Olmiitz, but was compelled to retreat
owing to the capture of a convoy of three or four
thousand wagons by the Austrian General Laudon ;
on August 25th he won the battle of Zomdorf
over the Russians, which ended their campaign,
but on October 14th he was surprised and heavily
defeated by the Austrians at Hochkirch, and on
the same day lost his sister, the Margravine of
Baireuth.
But for the English subsidy of 4,000,000 thalers
Frederick would have been starved out in 1759.
On July 25th his army was defeated by the Rus-
sians at Kay, and on August 12th he saw his army
utterly routed by the combined Austrians and
Russians at Kunersdorf, He lost Dresden by
surrender on September 24th, and on November
23d Finck and his army of 12,000 men laid down
their arms at Maxen.
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? Introduction 21
In the western field things had gone better.
Ferdinand of Brunswick had driven the French
army across the Rhine on June 23, 1758, at
Crefeld, and though the French took Frankfurt
on January 2, 1759, and won a battle at Bergen
on April 13, 1759, they were severely defeated
at Minden, August i, 1759.
On June 23, 1760, a Prussian corps was anni-
hilated at Landeshut and Glatz capitulated on
July 22d. But Frederick won a great victory
over the Austrians under Laudon at Liegnitz on
August 15th, and a hotly contested battle against
the Austrians under Daun at Torgau on Novem-
ber 3d, though Laudon had surprised and captured
the great fortress of Schweidnitz on October ist.
The condition of Prussia at the end of this year
appeared hopeless ; the army had declined to sixty
thousand men, and even more in quality than in
numbers. But on January 5, 1762, the Czarina
Elizabeth of Russia died, and was succeeded by her
nephew, Peter III, the husband of the great
Catherine, who was an idolatrous admirer of
Frederick and at once recalled the Russian army.
Prussia and Russia signed a peace on May 5th,
and an offensive and defensive alliance on June
8th, and Sweden made peace with Prussia at
Hamburg on May 22d.
But in the interval the elder Pitt had been
replaced as Prime Minister of England by the
feeble Bute, who had but one desire -- to terminate
the war as soon as possible, and six months after
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? 22 Introduction
Peter Ill's succession the whole of Russia became
so disgusted with him that on July 9, 1762, he
was deposed by his wife, and a few days later
strangled by her lover, Alexis Orloff. On July
21, 1762, Frederick won a battle over the Aus-
trians at Burkersdorf, and in October captured
Schweidnitz, Before the end of the year a truce
was made which proved to be the end of the Seven
Years' War -- the Peace of Hubertusburg being
signed on February 5, 1763.
Neither Frederick nor the Austrians gained an
inch of territory in the Seven Years' War, but
Austria failed in her object, which was to form a
coalition to crush Frederick, and from this time for-
wards Prussia and Austria were equals and rivals.
It took Frederick twenty-three years, exactly
half his reign, to arrive at this. The other half
was spent almost entirely in peace, though there
was a campaign, and gave Frederick the oppor-
tunity to show his powers of organizing agricul-
tural and commercial enterprises and an economic
system.
The principal events of the latter half of Freder-
ick's reign were the Partition of Poland, the Bava-
rian Succession War, and the foundation of the
League of Princes. In 1772, Frederick persuaded
Austria and Russia to join him in the first Partition
of Poland. His share was of great value to him,
because until he obtained possession of Prussian
Poland, East Prussia was detached from the rest
of the kingdom.
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? Introduction 23
Maria Theresa was only with great difficulty
persuaded by her ambitious son to come into the
arrangement. She complained that they had
aimed at two incompatible objects at once, "to
act in the Prussian fashion, and at the same time to
preserve the semblance of honesty," to which
Frederick sneeringly repUed : ' ' She is always weep-
ing but always annexing. "
The War of the Bavarian Succession in 1778 led
to very little fighting. The main armies were
unable to attack each other, and when the Czarina
threatened to interfere on the Prussian side,
Austria came to terms and made the Peace of
Teschen, May 13, 1779. A year and a half later
Maria Theresa died, leaving the restless Joseph
without any steadying influence. To counter his
attempts to increase the Imperial authority,
Frederick gradually worked up not only the Pro-
testant Princes of the Empire, but even the Cath-
olic ecclesiastical States, to form the League of
Princes (Furstenbund) , which was signed in the
first instance by Brandenburg, Hanover, and
Saxony only, on July 23, 1785. About a year
afterwards, on August 17, 1786, Frederick died
at the age of seventy -foiir.
This Filrstenhund was a fitting conclusion to his
career, for it coincides approximately with the new
German Empire.
Frederick found Prussia the smallest and weak-
est of the Great Powers, and left her equal to any
of them. That should be his epitaph.
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? 24 Introduction
TREITSCHKE's study of FREDERICK THE GREAT
Treitschke's study of Frederick would be inter-
esting if it were only as a tour de force of character
analysis. I think he overestimates the value of
Frederick's Anti-Machiavel and his Letters on
Patriotism, which are practically dead as far as
the foreign reader is concerned; but in other re-
spects his delineation of Frederick is compara-
tively free from the advocate's partisanship which
depreciates Treitschke's value as an historian.
Whether Treitschke would have treated Freder-
ick so impartially if he had been alive now is
doubtful. To give an instance: a couple of pages
after his magnificent summing-up of Frederick's
greatness, he has a paragraph which is about the
strongest condemnation of the present war which
ever came from a German pen :
The love of peace of the House of HohenzoUern
remained alive even in its greatest war-princes.
Frederick valued power, but only as a means for the
well-being and civilization of the nations; that it
should be an end in itself, that the struggle for power
as such should bestow historic fame, seemed to him
as an insult to the honour of a sovereign. Therefore
he wrote his passionate polemic-treatise against
Machiavelli. Therefore, in his writings, he returned
again and again to the terrible warning of Charles XII
of Sweden. He might have felt secretly that iii his
own breast were working irresistible forces, which
might lead him to similar errors, and was never tired
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? Introduction 25
of portraying the hoUowness of objectless military
fame . . . . Already in his impetuous youth he had
made up his mind about the moral objects of power:
"This State must become strong," he wrote at that
time, "that it may play the lofty rdle of preserving
peace only from love of justice, and not from fear.
But if ever injustice, bias, and vice gain the upper hand
in Prussia, then I wish the House of Brandenburg
a speedy downfall. That says all. "
To show how different from this is the undiluted
Treitschke, one may quote a passage which has
inspired numberless passages in von Bemhardi:
The educational power of war awakened again
in these North-German races above all that rough
pride which once inspirited the invaders of Italy
(Romfahrer) and the conquerors of the Slavs in the
Middle Ages.
And a few sentences later on he talks of the
"descendants of those heroic nations, the Vandals
and the Goths," in the same way as the present
Emperor bade his soldiers emulate the Huns in
an unfortunate speech which has given, through
newspaper-headings, a severe blow to the German
cause in America.
Yet Treitschke, like von Bemhardi, was, when
he was not crusading, very sane and fair. He
writes, for instance: "The alert self-reliance of the
Prussians contrasted strongly with the inoffensive
kindly modesty of the other Germans, " just as the
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? 26 Introduction
war news of to-day often contrasts the Saxons' or
Bavarians' behaviour in Belgium or France with
that of the Prussians. And a Httle lower down
he says: "It was betrayed now in confident brag-
ging, in the thousand satirical anecdotes of Im-
perial stupidity and Prussian Hussar strategisms. "
For which von Hindenburg's name will probably
supply dictionaries with a new word.
Yet you can see in Frederick many signs of the
anticipation of modern Prussian ideas which
make him one of the most interesting figures in
history, as he is one of the greatest figures at the
present time. For in many ways the Prussia of
to-day is the Prussia of Frederick's time come to
life again. It was Frederick who said :
With such soldiers there is no risk : a General who in
other armies would be considered foolhardy, is only
considered with us as doing his duty. [And again he
says :] It seems that Heaven has appointed the King
to make all preparations which wise precautions
before the beginning of a war demand. Who knows,
if Providence has not reserved it for me to make a
glorious use of these war means at some future time,
and to convert them to the realization of the plans for
which the foresight of my fathers intended them?
But I do not agree with Treitschke when he
writes: "It was Frederick's work that . . . a
third tendency should arise, a policy which was
only Prussian, and nothing further: to it Ger-
many's future belonged. " And he writes later
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? Introduction 27
on: "Dohm concluded a clever pamphlet with
these words: 'German and Prussian interests can
never stand in one another's way. ' The discern-
ing mind of the old King was not moved by such
dreams. "
And we know how widely spread the distrust of
Prussia was in Frederick's day, because Goethe,
quoted by Treitschke, tells us that: "Even the
humblest and weakest of the allied States, Weimar
and Dessau, secretly discussed how they could
protect themselves against their Prussian protect-
or's lust of power. "
When Treitschke talks of the moral justification
of the treacherous seizure of Silesia, one is irresist-
ibly reminded of the justification of the present
war by von Bemhardi and others, for the benefi-
cent results likely to happen from the spread of
Prussian Kultur -- the culture which it would be
more reasonable to call the Prussian vulture,
Treitschke damns Frederick's excuses for seizing
Silesia with faint apologies:
He wished to spare Austria, and contented himself
with bringing forward the most important of the
carefully pondered pretensions of his House. Alone,
without vouchsafing one word to the foreign Powers
on the watch, with an overwhelming invading force,
he broke into Silesia. Germany, used to the solemn
reflections and cross-reflections of her Imperial law-
yers, received with astonishment and indignation the
doctrine that the rights of States were only to be
maintained by active power.
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? 28 Introduction
Elsewhere in this book it will be seen how
Frederick excelled himself on this occasion by
ordering Podewils to find excuses because he had
already given orders to his troops. The doctrine
of the active power has been exploited for all it is
worth by von Bernhardi in his Germany and the
Next War.
Treitschke is not very convincing upon the
subject of Poland. His complaints of "the Poles'
horrible outrages in the Weichsel district, with
that insolent disregard of the rights of others and
the nationality of others which distinguishes the
Poles above all the nations of Europe," leaves us
cold, when our paper every morning brings news
of fresh devastation in Poland. And the sentence
in which Treitschke complains that: "Others re-
peated credulously what Poland's old confederates,
the French, invented to stigmatize the partitioning
Powers," simply kills Treitschke 's reputation as
an impartial historian. The world of honest men
has never ceased to condemn the Partition of
Poland, and hailed with almost religious delight
Russia's proclamation that the ancient nation of
the Poles should be reconstituted as a practically
autonomous people under the shield of the Lion
of the East, the great protector of Slav nationality.
Any criticism, which Germany might have to make
on the subject, is discounted by the fact that she
at once proceeded to suggest a German parody of
the movement, a highly improved province to
embrace Russian Poland as well as Prussian Po-
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? Introduction 29
land. And any advantages, which may have been
latent in this suggestion, are rendered difficult of
realization by the Belging of Russian Poland.
The question of the Balance of Power, which is
handled so destructively by von Bernhardi, comes
up a good deal in Treitschke's life of Frederick
the Great. I think von Bernhardi was right, but
I arrive at my conclusions from a standpoint which
he would hardly share. The European balance
of power for many years has been like a wooden
garden fence, whose bottom under the soil has
rotted. From time to time -- the last time was
during and after the Balkan War against Turkey
-- Europe has been on the verge of a conflagration
like the present because Austria has resisted any
intelUgent solution of the Balkan question.
Now,
if the war goes as we all hope and believe it will go,
the question will be settled. The Turk, who has
no business in Europe, because he is incapable of
sharing European ideas, will be driven out of
Europe. Russia will have Constantinople, essen-
tial to her as giving her that free entrance to the
Mediterranean which is her right. England will
take the Persian Gulf and make the Euphrates
Valley as prosperous as the Nile Valley, and Egypt
also will be managed in a less anomalous fashion.
Servia wiU have her sea-board on the Adriatic.
Bulgaria, if she is not seduced into sharing the
suicide of Turkey, will have her port on the
iEgean. Greece will get back all the islands in
which the races of ancient Greece, who taught the
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? 30 Introduction
world its civilization, have remained so much
purer than in Athens itself. Rumania will annex
all the Rumanian districts which lie outside of
its present borders, and Italy, if she joins the
Powers of the Triple Entente, will not only get
back the Italian provinces which still remain under
the rule of Austria, but will have a footing on the
Balkan Peninsula, lower down, which will enable
her to fulfil her natural mission of being the channel
of commerce and civilization for all the Balkan
nations.
For many years this has been the natural solu-
tion of the Eastern Question, but Austria has
stood in the way -- Austria, which just as naturally
pictured herself overrunning the Balkan Pen-
insula, and finding her way down to the great
southern port of Salonika. Germany backed up
Austria, in the hope perhaps that Austria, con-
taining so many people of German nationality,
would one day come into the German Empire.
The difficulty was that the Balkan Peninsula was
all in Slav hands or a natural inheritance for the
Slavs. Without conquering Russia, the Austrian
dreams were unrealizable, and rather than allow
the Balkan Slavs to fulfil their mission, Austria
preferred to perpetuate a state of wars and rumours
of wars. Turkey's suicidal entrance into the arena
has rendered a settlement possible.
If Frederick had foreseen this he would doubtless
have left us his warnings on the subject. He was
free enough with his warnings as to the trouble
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? Introduction 31
which might ensue from the restless energy of the
Emperor Joseph the Austrian.
It would not be right for me to conclude this
brief survey of Treitschke's judgment on Frederick
without quoting the intelligent anticipation of the
Dane Bernstorff, writing to Choiseul, one of the
trifling Frenchmen whose employment by Louis
XV rendered Frederick's task so much easier
in his wars with France. "Everything which you
undertake to-day to prevent the rise of an entirely
military Monarchy in the middle of Germany,
whose iron arm will soon crush the minor princes --
is all labour wasted! "
Douglas Sladen.
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? The Confessions of Frederick
the Great
33
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? The Confessions of Frederick
the Great
The spirit of these Confessions and the principles
advocated by Frederick are very closely in line with
the teachings of Treitschke and with the national
policy championed by Bernhardi.
MORNING THE FIRST
ORIGIN OF OUR FAMILY
IN the times of disorder and confusion, amidst
barbarous nations, there was seen to spring up
a new arrangement of sovereignties. The govern-
ors of different countries shook off the yoke of
subjection, and soon became powerful enough to
overawe their masters; they obtained privileges,
or, to come nearer to the truth, it was with the
form of one knee on the ground that they ran
away with the substance. Among those daring
ones, there were several who laid the foundations
of the greatest monarchies; and perhaps, on a
fair calculation, even all the emperors, kings, and
foreign princes at this very time owe their respec-
tive states to them. As for us, we are, most
35
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? 36 The Confessions of
undoubtedly, in that case. I see you blush at this.
I forgive you for once ; but let me advise you never
to play the child so again. Remember, once for
all, that, in matter of kingdoms, he catches them
that can; and that there is no wrong but in the
case of being forced to return them.
The first of our ancestors, who acquired some
rights of sovereignty over the country of which
he was governor, was Tassillon, of Hohenzollern.
The thirteenth of his descendants was Burgrave of
Nuremberg; the twenty-fifth of them was Elector
of Brandenburg, and the thirty-seventh. King of
Prussia. Our family, as well as all the others, has
had its Achilles', its Ciceros, its Nestors, its
drivellers and its drones, its mothers-in-law, and,
without doubt, its women of gallantry. It has
also often aggrandized itself b}^ those kinds of
right, which are only known to princes at once in
luck, and in force enough to exert them; for in
the order of our successions, we see those of con-
veniency, or expectancy, and of protection.
From the time of Tassillon to that of the great
Elector, we did little more than vegetate. We
could, in the empire, reckon fifty princes in no
point inferior to us; and, properly speaking, we
were but one of the branches of the great sconce
or chandelier of the empire. William the Great,
by the splendour of his actions, raised our family
into pre-eminence; and at length, in 1701 (the
date, you see, is not a very ancient one), vanity
placed a crown on the head of my grandfather; and
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? Frederick the Great 37
it is to this epoch that we ought to refer our true
existence, since it put us into a condition of act-
ing on the footing of kings, and of treating, upon
terms of equality, with all the powers of the earth.
Were we to estimate the virtues of our ancestors,
we might easily conclude, that it is not to any
eminence in them that our family owes its aggran-
dizement. The greatest part of our princes
have been rather remarkable for misconduct;
but it was chance and circumstances that have
been of service to us. I would even have you to
observe, that the first diadem that bound our
brows was placed on one of the vainest and lightest
of heads, and that head on a body crooked and
humpbacked.
And here, I am aware, my dear nephew, that
I am leaving you in the dark as to our origin. It
has been pretended that that same Coimt of
Hohenzollern was of a great family; but, in truth,
few ever appeared in the world so bare of titles.
However, at the worst, it is indisputable that we
are of an ancient noble extraction: good, good
gentlemen, in short; let us stick to that.
THE SITUATION OF MY KINGDOM
As to this point, I am not so well off as I could
wish. To convince yourself of which, cast your
eyes over the map, and you will see that the great-
est part of my territories is dispersed or divided in
such a manner, that they cannot mutually assist
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? 38 The Confessions of
each other. I have no great rivers that run
through my provinces; some border upon them,
but few intersect them. ^
OF THE SOIL OF MY TERRITORIES
A third at least of my dominions Hes in waste;
another third is in woods, waters, or marshes.
The third, which is cultivated, produces nor wine,
nor olives, nor mulberry- trees. No fruits nor
garden-stuff come to anything, without great care,
and very few to the true point of perfection. I
have only a" few parts in which the wheat and rye
have some reputation.
OF THE MANNERS OF THE INHABITANTS
Under this head I have nothing particular or
decisive to pronounce, because my kingdom is
but a kind of mosaic, made up of various pieces.
All that I can, with any certainty, say, is, that, in
general, my subjects are hardy and brave, uncuri-
ous as to eating, but fond of drinking ; tyrants on
their estates, and slaves in my service; insipid
lovers, and surly husbands ; of a wondrously cold,
phlegmatic turn, which I take to be at the bottom,
rank stupidity; good civilians, little of philo-
sophers, less of poets, and still less of orators;
' The situation, extent, and soil, of the territories of the great
Frederick, have been wonderfully changed of late years; changed
upon his own principles, too, as will appear hereafter. -- Note oj
eighteenth century translator.
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? Frederick the Great 39
affecting a great plainness in their dress, but
imagining themselves dressed in high taste, with
a little bag and a great hat, boots up to their waist,
a little cane, a very short coat, with a very long
waistcoat.
As to the women, they are almost all fat, and
special breeders; they have great gentleness, love
their domestic employment, and are commonly
faithful enough to their husbands. As to the
girls, they enjoy the privileges in fashion; to
which I have so little objection, that I have, in
my memoirs, sought to excuse their weaknesses.
I hold it good policy to give those pretty creatures
all the ease and freedom that may be, to prevent
their learning a horrid practice, by means of which
they might amuse themselves without fear of
consequences, but which would cause a notable
prejudice to the state. Nay, to encourage them
the more to population, I take care in my regi-
ments to give the preference to the fruit of their
amours; and, if the offspring of an officer, I make
him an ensign, and often raise him to higher rank
before his turn.
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? MORNING THE SECOND
ON RELIGION
RELIGION is absolutely necessary in a state.
This is a maxim which it would be madness
to dispute; and a king must know very little of
politics, indeed, that should suffer his subjects to
make a bad use of it ; but then it would not be very
wise in a king to have any religion himself. Mark
well, my dear nephew, what I here say to you;
there is nothing that tyrannizes more over the head
and heart than religion; because it neither agrees
with our passions, nor with those great political
views which a monarch ought to have. The
true religion of a prince is his interest and his
glory. He ought, by his royal station, to be dis-
pensed from having any other. He may, indeed,
preserve outwardly a fair occasional appearance,
for the sake of amusing those who are about him,
or who watch his motions and character.
If he fears God, or, to speak as the priests and
women do, if he fears hell, like Lewis XlVth,^
in his old age, he is apt to become timorous,
childish, and fit for nothing but to be a capuchin.
' And, it might be added, ewis XVI. -- Vide Madame Roland.
-- Footnote of eighteenth century translator.
40
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? Confessions of Frederick the Great 41
If the point is to avail himself of a favourable
moment for seizing a province, ^ an army of devils,
to defend it, present themselves to his imagination;
we are, on that supposition, weak enough to think
it an injustice, and we proportion in our conscience,
the punishment to the crime. Should it be neces-
sary to make a treaty with other powers, if we
remember that we are Christians, we are undone;
all would be over with us ; we should be constantly
bubbles. As to war, it is a trade, in which any the
least scruple would spoil everything, and, indeed,
what man of honour would ever make war, if he
had not the right to make rules that should author-
ize plunder, fire, and carnage?
I do not, however, mean that one should make
a proclamation of impiety and atheism; but it
is right to adapt one's thoughts to the rank one
occupies. All the popes, who had common sense,
have held no principles of religion but what
favoured their aggrandizement. It would be the
silliest thing imaginable, if a prince were to confine
himself to such paltry trifles as were contrived
only for the common people. Besides, the best
way for a prince to keep fanaticism out of his
country is for him to have the most cool indiffer-
ence for reHgion. BeHeve me, dear nephew, that
holy mother of ours has her little caprices, hke any
woman, and is commonly as inconstant. Attach
yourself, then, dear nephew, to true philosophy,
' Alas, unhappy Poland! -- Footnote of eighteenth century
translator.
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? 42 The Confessions of
which is ever consolatory, luminous, courageous,
dispassionate, and inexhaustible as Nature. You
will then soon see, that you will not have, in your
kingdom, any material dispute about religion ; for _
parties are never formed but on the weakness of
princes, or on that of their ministers.
There is one important reflection I would with
you make; it is this: your ancestors have, in
this matter, conducted their operations with the
greatest political dexterity; they introduced a
reformation which gave them the air of apostles
at the same time that it was filling their purse.
Such a revolution was, without doubt, the most
reasonable that could ever happen in such a point
as this: but, since there is now hardly anything
left to be got in that way, and that, in the present
position of things, it would be dangerous to tread
in their footsteps, it is therefore even best to
stick to toleration. Retain well, dear nephew,
the principle I am now to inculcate to you: let
it be your rule of government, that men are to
worship the Divinity in their own way; for, should
you appear in the least neglectful of this in-
dulgence, all would be lost and undone in yoiir
dominions.
Have you a mind to know why my kingdom is
composed of so many sects? I will tell you: in
certain provinces the Calvinists are in possession
of all the offices and posts; in others, the Lutherans
have the same advantage. There are some, where
the Catholics are so predominant, that the king
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? Frederick the Great 43
can only send there one or two Protestant deputies ;
and, of all the ignorant and blind fanatics, I dare
aver to you that the Papists are the most fiery
and the most atrocious. The priests in their
senseless religion are untameable wild beasts,
that preach up a blind submission to their wills,
and exercise a complete despotism. They are
assassins, robbers, violators of faith, and inex-
pressibly ambitious.
Mark but Rome! Observe with what a stupid
effrontery she dares arrogate to herself dominion
over the princes of the earth! As to the Jews,
they are little vagrants, poor devils, that at
bottom are not so black as they are painted.
Almost everywhere rebuffed, hated, persecuted;
they pay with tolerable exactness, those who en-
dure them, and take their revenge by bubbling
all the simpletons they can light on.
